Resist the Koch brothers: Buying Chevron gas and Georgia Pacific paper helps them subvert our democracy.

The Koch Brothers and Koch Industries cannot treat American citizens as they do and still expect us to support their products. Please share this message widely. Much of their wealth comes from activities on a level that consumers cannot directly deal with, but if we can begin affecting their bottom line, they might start changing their minds.

Koch Industry Gasoline:

Chevron
Union
Union 76
Conoco

Koch Industry/Georgia-Pacific Products:

Angel Soft toilet paper
Brawny paper towels
Dixie plates, bowls, napkins and cups

Georgia-Pacific paper products & envelopes
Mardi Gras napkins and towels
Quilted Northern toilet paper
Soft ‘n Gentle toilet paper
Sparkle napkins
Vanity Fair napkins
Zee napkins

Textiles

Stainmaster carpet

Lycra fiber,

DO NOT VOTE for any candidate who has accepted donations from KochPAC.

I think back to the 1950s, to the corporate propaganda that American Communists wanted to overthrow our system of government. Well, the reality, as should now be obvious, is that it is the superrich and the corporations they control that have tried and continue to try to destroy democracy, to leave only a shell for public display, to leave the American people powerless against greed.

I had the curious experience, having been raised by a father who was career military intelligence, of going to high school with “red-diaper babies” who proceeded to raise my consciousness. I have considered myself a socialist ever since. Classic socialism is merely the belief that a country should be governed for the benefit of all its people, not for the benefit of any minority. In that sense, The United States was founded as a socialist nation, as I argued in some past blogs. Further, the First Amendment, in forbidding establishment of any religion or church whose members would have rights beyond those of other citizens, made us a Pagan nation from its inception. The rich who want to subvert any meaningful democracy do overlap with the wingnuts who want to revert us into a theocracy.

My friendship with many Socialists and Communists over the years has shown me that their subculture make sense only as a type of secular religion, partly because of its overlap with Jewish socialists, who constitute the left wing of Judaism in America. This is a documentable fact. Sociologists have a scale to measure the degree of racial prejudice among various kinds of people. There are, as far as I know, only two groups that score an absolute zero on that scale: Muslims and American Communists. I remember the delightful day when I met Pete Seeger’s black son-in-law, who was working on the Clearwater in the marina at Dobbs Ferry. Pete’s wife was Japanese. I also remember the day when we sang Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land” during Mass in the Oakland cathedral, where we hoped for someone like Pope Francis.

So few people understand that it was and continues to be the Communists and other Socialists who have been the true patriots, who have struggled against the selfishness and greed of the rich. One of our continuing problems has been that Socialists rarely have enough money or leisure to persist in their resistance, whereas the rich have no problem in pursuing their goals over generations. Another is that many ordinary citizens, conditioned to believe the lies of mendacious preachers and politicians, have been brainwashed into trusting the minions of the rich and thus into voting for candidates who work for the very people who exploit the public. Look at the system. Political donations are bribery; call it what it is. The company that is poisoning us with dangerous food controls the government agencies that are supposed to and are failing to protect us.

I do understand why Biblical literalists, Creationists, and other fundamentalists believe as they do, and they have every right to—within their own churches, but when their beliefs lead them into actions that damage other citizens, a line must be drawn. I have had students in class discussions insist that “God didn’t make Adam and Steve,” and I have said that when their belief causes denial of equal rights to gay people, then something is wrong with how they understand the Bible. (And then I have later had to convince a Dean that I was not preaching in the classroom.)

Most of such students’ misunderstand results from mistranslation of Hebrew and Greek terms as “homosexual” when such terms actually meant “male prostitute.” Apparently being gay is genetically based and is not a choice, whereas prostituting oneself in any way, such as by working for the corporations of the greedy rich, certainly is.

I welcome intelligent feedback on this argument, but not other kinds, especially ones that ignore the definition of socialism given above. Also, as a gnostic, I am free to participate in any religion I choose to. This is assuming that this furschlugginer Disqus system even allows me to see any comments.