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Liberals are catalysts to catastrophe, again

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wednesday

On September 17, the late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel was suspended after remarks he made about the death of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk. Days later, he was reinstated following liberal upheaval.

In his first appearance back on air, Kimmel read US President Donald Trump’s post on Truth Social: “I can’t believe ABC fake news gave Jimmy Kimmel his job back.”

Without missing a beat, Kimmel responded, “You can’t believe they gave me my job back. I can’t believe we gave you your job back!”

While the liberal crowd roared approvingly, I wanted to ask, “Why not, Jimmy?” I can believe it.

Kimmel is back on air, and the American liberal establishment has heaved a collective sigh of relief. Not because liberals and their Democratic Party have learned from the incident and used it as an opportunity to galvanise meaningful opposition to Trump’s authoritarian surge, but precisely the opposite – because it allows them to go back to their blissful slumber, ignore reality, cling to cognitive dissonance, denial, ahistorical wishful thinking, and the complicity that is integral to white privilege within a white supremacist order.

The reality is that liberals do not see Trump and his supporters as a substantial threat. They consider him a fleeting deviation, believing the pendulum will ultimately swing back to the reliable liberal system.

In fact, liberals do not even substantially disagree with the core of Trump’s policies. After all, both right-wing and liberal elites are loyal servants of empire, the latter just give it a veneer of humanitarianism.

Both support policies that sustain the oppression of poor and marginalised people: the corporatisation of healthcare and education, labour exploitation, mass incarceration, militarised policing, censorship, corruption through corporate donations, and extractivism and militarism abroad. The liberals have put their spin on........

© Al Jazeera