yeah, I didn’t read it all the way through – I thought you’d already covered the same tactics and I still love the glosario, but I like that more people are identifying and laying out the patterns.

And I think that the parallels are good for people just getting into this stuff to see.

I actually have a book idea on this one, for kids. I think the place we need to attack these myths that find their way into every damn disney movie and much of our heads is on the youth level.

FOX news is using that idea, sure. Because most people earning a working wage don’t end up on their own in bunches in the street with GOP talking points about Tax And Spend and defending millionaires unless they think that ladder is available to them. And yet, I wonder if they are feeling the organizing love…cuz that would be an interesting paradox.

And I agree. When we defend our privilege as a knee jerk reaction, it tends to look and sound the same no matter who is doing it nor what privilege is being defended. And of course it is harmful because it is simply a way to continue the power differentials as long as possible…

At the heart of this strategy, which gets played out at every level of society, is an individualized approach to success. The example of Horatio Alger and the notion of “pulling oneself up by the bootstraps” still lives. Daily news reports do not show successful organizing efforts; in fact, the media minimize even undeniably successful ones as was the case with the reporting of the 1988 Gay and Lesbian March on Washington. The media reported the march to have 200,000 in attendance when it was announced by Jesse Jackson from the stage that police and march organizers were reporting over 500,000 there. Instead of reporting group efforts, the media concentrates on “human interest” stories, following the lead of people such as Ronald Reagan who give accounts of individuals who beat the odds and succeed. They become “models” for others in their circumstances to follow. But what good are models when closed systems do not permit general success?

Given the recent Bizarro World switch in which Faux News is suddenly Of The People (rise up, teabaggers of the world! you have nothing to lose but…) I wonder…well, What It All Means, Dear. Anything?

I mean clearly the right’s pulling this shit in the way they are because even they couldn’t miss that organization on a large scale -actually kind of worked- for Obama at least, which they had trouble wrapping their heads around.

But…huh.

I mean, there’s something funny and sort of ironic buried in there, neh?

I think that the historical context for oppressing any given group is definitely unique and its own thing, and I think that you can’t just say that racism = sexism = homophobia = ableism, but the way privileged people defend their privilege and the status quo (that is, institutionalized oppression against any group) is always virtually identical in tactics, if not all specifics.

And the effects on oppressed people can still be harmful or lethal.