Black Lives Matter Protests

George Floyd's brutal murder was a spark. The Black Lives Matter protests are largely a response to centuries of entrenched racism, colonialism and imperialism. I urge anyone commenting on these protests to maintain perspective.

Unfortunately, I have come across a lot of vicious responses to the UK protests. Personally, I prefer to direct my anger and passion at genuinely harmful movements, such as the global corporate oligarchy that is literally destroying life on Earth. Another thing I am far more angry at than "over the top protesters" is the legacy of racism, colonialism and slavery that US and UK empires represent.

When you see ordinary working people viciously condemning the Black Lives Matter protests, this demonstrates the efficiency of imperialist propaganda. If ordinary people were adequately informed about our colonial and imperialist histories, and the ways in which such imperialism continues to this day, then I'm sure their anger would be far more appropriately placed. But unfortunately, our corporate tyrants don't want a well-informed citizenry. They want a misinformed, angry citizenry that blames the world's problems on each other. A lot of time and money is spent, with the help of mainstream media, fabricating fantasy problems for everyone to get angry about, instead of drawing peoples attention to actual problems.

Divide and conquer is a highly effective method of control, used by oligarchies. Thus, in the UK, you will often find working people aggressively blaming immigrants, protesters or "benefit scroungers" for the world's problems, instead of the corporate rulers who are destroying life on Earth. The genuinely significant problems of the world are therefore deflected and no one ends up even discussing them. Corrupted power is very good at concealing itself.

Even though liberal and social media will show mostly positive views on the protests, I feel there are still far too many people who think negatively about them. A lot of these people, in my generalising view, will be those who voted Conservative in UK's 2019 General Election. There is a huge sector of the UK population who believe that progressive protest movements, such as Extinction Rebellion and Black Lives Matter, are worth viciously condemning. There is also a huge sector of the population who see the Conservatives as a serious political choice.

I despair sometimes. I often hear people say "don't worry the tide is turning" or "more people are waking up to the realities of injustice and oppression". But these sentiments are not remotely reflected in electoral voting. Millions upon millions of British people still see the Conservatives as a viable political party, which I find staggering and, frankly, shameful. I sometimes wonder whether our societies need to get a lot worse before they get better.

The UK, as well as the US and other countries, does not teach history accurately. History is framed by these countries to support ongoing, despicable power structures. What does this mean? The obscenely rich rulers of the world, who make or influence all of the important decisions, do not want people to wake up to the realities of Western imperialism and colonialism. History is twisted to serve the interests of powerful people. This inhibits any honest, critical discussion about our societies and how to improve to them.

The most important thing progressives can do is counter false narratives with truth. Truth and knowledge are our most powerful weapons. But I guess the problem becomes, when most large media outlets are owned by corporate rulers, how do we disseminate truth to the wider population?