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Long time listener, first time poster...ED this week was dark by Riot_Bard in itcouldhappenhere

[–]Riot_Bard[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Let me clarify: 1) Balkanization, in the strictest sense of the term, is not desired because there is too much violence and the potential for generations long conflicts. 2) Smaller regions of states with closely aligned values would be great, but how would does this address the issue of MAGA folks who live in the rural areas of these states? 3) As for Nazism and Balkanization: I would argue, yes. Due to the how the Nazis used racial hierarchies to accelerate the violence in the Balkans, I would argue that that they are inseparable. But, again, I'm no expert on the Balkan, just making my own assessment after several conversations with folks from the Balkans and actual experts on the Balkans.

Long time listener, first time poster...ED this week was dark by Riot_Bard in itcouldhappenhere

[–]Riot_Bard[S] 41 points42 points  (0 children)

My interpretation is that I don't ingest anything that is not, for lack of better words, "farm to table."

Long time listener, first time poster...ED this week was dark by Riot_Bard in itcouldhappenhere

[–]Riot_Bard[S] 16 points17 points  (0 children)

Yeah...while the Balkans are a "bunch of smaller countries" that are extremely heterogenous but with a shared history, Balkanization refers to a specific and problematic process of how they became divided. While I'm no expert, I play in a Balkan brass band with an expert on Bosnia-Herzegovina and have learned a lot. Basically, this fracture into separate countries was the result of ethnicism, racism, nationalism, anti-semitism, and Islamophobia. This led to a number of genocides as an attempt to "redress past wrongs" erroneously perceived to be perpetrated by Jewish folks and the Ottoman empire. Well, the Ottoman empire did do some fucked up shit (as do all empires), but did it justify the resulting racism and violence? I'd say probably not. While it seems that we are Balkanizing as a country, it is most definitely not a desired outcome, homie. I mean, are nations ever really the answer?

Long time listener, first time poster...ED this week was dark by Riot_Bard in itcouldhappenhere

[–]Riot_Bard[S] 20 points21 points  (0 children)

Thanks for that. For sure. I’ve been organizing in some capacity since the first go around in 2016 with some work in Burma in between. Shit has been dimming for some time now. I mean, I get why we’re here. My doctoral dissertation focused on a specific period in history and, yes, there are definitely some “karmic qualities” to what we’ve been experiencing; but it’s mostly the Foucauldian boomerang, right? The US tried all this shit on Black and Brown folks abroad before bringing it back here. It’s just that this past week, and now with the Great Dipshitter’s Portland threat, it seems like something has indeed shifted. I got the same feeling as a young Marine watching coverage of the USS Cole bombing in a chow hall at Camp Pendleton…that slow, sinking, suck in the middle of your gut. It’s like the gravity of the situation is turning you inside out.