The Establishment's Israel Problem

Who gets to eat this turd burger?

The red vs. blue theatre that we refer to as ‘‘Liberal Democracy’’ in the Anglo-sphere functions according to a pre-determined set of stories each of the colour-coded camps has been allotted. In Britain, the system ensures that nobody gets what they actually want, but they do get stories to keep them invested. For example, the left wants more socialism, but Labour gives them Public/Private Partnerships and corporatocracy. The right wants social conservatism and minimal immigration, but they get ‘‘woke’’ and the highest immigration in history. What matters instead is the collective narrative that ‘‘codes’’ one party or the other as at least partially representing their ideals.

The Neoliberal consensus that forms the center ground has more uses for leftist ideology than it does for social conservatism for the simple reason that it seeks to abolish barriers to growing its own power and profit margins. The left’s notions of Man as an infinitely malleable lump of clay to be pounded and squeezed into an infinite variety of identities sit well with models of infinitely growing capital investments and consumer bases. Until recently, hyper-capitalism was still somehow coded as being of the right in many a leftist mind, and many more on the right actively defended neoliberalism as a matter of individualist principle and being in opposition to socialism.

The right got to own corporate dominance because it is coded with a Randian, individualist bootstrap-pulling ethos, and the left gets to play at being idealistic utopians dreaming of fully automated techno-communism.

The Neocon hijacking of the right, as well as the military also being coded as right-wing, meant that in the 2000s, the right inhabited the frame of blood-thirsty warmongers, and the left occupied the space of peace-loving doves. The Russia/Ukraine war confused the situation; the left came out as hawks in regards to Putin and the right as peaceniks or realists. Primarily, this was because Vladimir Putin is seen as a social conservative taking a stand against ‘‘woke’’ Globalism. From the leftist perspective, Ukraine was combatting a reactionary Fascist dictator on behalf of the ‘‘Free West’’ and ‘‘liberal values’’.

All of which brings us to the sticky question of the Israeli bloodbath in Gaza.