The real MLK was a radical.

@amerpie Many young people are so angry at the excesses of capitalism that they want to tear the whole thing down. But somehow they fail to appreciate that the right-wing politicians tearing things down are agents of capitalism.

@amerpie I hate this holiday because the hypocrisy is palpable. While alive the government did their level best to literally and figuratively destroy this man. And now that he's dead, they've co-opted and watered down his messages to a kindergarten-level "we should all get along" thing.

@Ultraverified @amerpie In an indecent, uncaring, and thoughtless society, that is radical.

@ahltorp @amerpie What we do have confirmation of is that the FBI sent him a threatening letter demanding that he kill himself or else they would release evidence of his affair (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FBI%E2%80%93King_letter).

The Trump Regime released thousands of files related to his assassination (as part of the "flood the zone" strategy to distract from everything else), but as far as I know, there's nothing that explicitly admits they were responsible for his assassination, beyond that they saw him as a dangerous adversary. (https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/trump-administration-releases-fbi-records-on-mlk-jr-despite-his-familys-opposition)

I just firmly believe they were responsible, whether directly or by proxy, like you say.

@squirrel @amerpie back in those days, to criticize or even question capitalism made you by default a Communist. Which is one excuse Hoover had to hound Dr. King. Furthermore, many centrist whites called King "uppity". I was born in 1950 so I speak from lived experience.

@humourmetom @amerpie
If you step back further you realize that the communist elites and the capitalist elites are identical apart from their costumes and fairy tales they speak out loud.

The only way out of the lies os to realize both systems must coexist for durable peace. Either "ism" one on its own can only end in tears.

@amerpie https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/mlk-capitalism-flow/

@amerpie Wait, what is so radical about it? Sounds to me like pure common-sense.

@amerpie Can someone recommend a good biography of Dr. King that provides info like this? Something that goes beyond the useless, superficial education I got about him in grade school?

@Ultraverified @violetmadder @amerpie being, and staying, kind as well as loving in a society built on aggression is, by its very definition, a radical act in and of itself.

@squirrel @amerpie naive is assuming the problems with the current system can be solved any other way

@amerpie Last year a local church had a whole seminar about the radical king (election year, people came).
This year our locl community radio weft.org is doin' a thing top of next hour 4:00 CST for several hours of the stuff that doesn't get out there enough.
Now, aren't there also copyright issues w/ much of what was said and written?

@amerpie it’s not wrong.

@capngloval @amerpie describing capitalism as "not perfect" is kind of burying the lede. It is an awful system, designed by wicked people to accumulate power while simultaneously getting the have-nots to blame themselves for their failure to be one of the haves and crabs-in-a-barreling each other.

Capitalism is perfect, in the same way that a xenomorph is perfect. Unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality.

@amerpie Wait until MAGA finds out Jesus Christ was an early socialist, sharing bread & wine, feeding the poor & healing the sick without demanding monetary payment or recurring donations for legal defense funds not even existing!

Donnie may be able to walk on Trump wine — after he dropped a bottle onto the floor.
But he'll never be able to walk on water.
And he's not above the law & won't ever be!

@amerpie not a radical. just an OG christian.

@ChrisUplus @Ultraverified @amerpie

Exactly!

And while we're at it: "radix" from the Latin, root. The term "radical" refers to the fundamental origin of a thing, and came into heavier political use in the 18th century with people talking about suffrage and the abolition of slavery, calling for "radical reform" as in meaningful and dramatic change at the roots of an issue. In the wake of the upheaval of the 60s and 70s it was shortened to "rad" as a slang expression for something exciting and positive.

The concept itself is neutral, but conservatives are the ones who will tend to automatically view its connotations as bad and scary because they don't like change and don't want anybody rocking the boat. To them it is basically interchangeable with "extremist".

Dr. King was definitely out to rock the boat. A radical in the best way-- who was reviled, feared, hated, persecuted, murdered... and then the system did its best to sanitize and co-opt his legacy. We named some streets after him, yay civil rights, he won look racism is over everything is fixed okay everybody now go sit back down and shut up.

Nothing short of radical change can save us now, with the whole planet sprinting towards catastrophe for profit.

@fbinin @amerpie gdp is growing pretty fast but the incomes aren’t. Growth is only for the rich, the common man in India still lives without proper access to things.

@amerpie YAY!!! Rare historical figure that was accually a good person o_O

@jlou @amerpie why would you though? say you could have something like the nordic model, instead? still capitalism, but with quite a bit of equality.