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I just figured it out - "No Kings" is sheep-dogging liberals back to the origin of liberalism (lemmygrad.ml)

submitted 2 months ago by freagle@lemmygrad.ml to c/usa@lemmy.ml

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Liberalism started as a philosophy to oppose monarchies. While watching protests, I saw a sign with a John Locke quote on it and it clicked for me.

This whole campaign of No Kings is total philosophical cooptation of the burgeoning revolutionary energy and redirecting it to liberalism. At first I thought the slogan was catchy but stupid - we're not at risk of a king.

But seeing the quote made it click. No Kings is something both American liberals and American conservatives agree on, because they're all philosophical liberals. By focusing the energy of the moment against "kings", it at once directs the energy towards an already solved problem (there are no kings in the USA) and it directs the attention of the energized towards liberal concepts.

That level of sophistication, to me, is additional evidence that this is a dead end movement that we need to break out of or risk being herded into a cul-de-sac.

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[–] davel@lemmy.ml 10 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I have no idea what organizations were involved with this. But yes, it’s basically Hamilton the ~~Musical~~ Protest. Big American patriotism/exceptionalism vibe. In my area, anyway, it also has anti-fascist, pro-immigrant, and, to a much lesser extent, a pro-Palestinian components. I don’t think there’s any direct anti-capitalism/pro-socialism to be seen, nor any direct anti-imperialism. On the contrary, I saw a few Ukrainian flags, and I even saw one Taiwan flag.

[–] PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmy.ml 7 points 2 months ago

"No Kings!" yell lib while waving flag of a country that abolished elections and kidnap people to the volkssturm.

Btw what they say about the UK?

[–] Majestic@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 months ago

I remember Fox News talking heads (that judge guy in particular I think) yelling about Obama "acting like a king!" and that was their kind of attack on him for a bit so it's just a rehash of that in a way.

Why not "no dictators" or "no to fascism"? Or something about civil rights or upholding the constitution. Kind of sus.

[–] chicagohuman@lemm.ee 1 points 2 months ago

What was the quote?