History is a Weapon: The Blog

  • Booster: a keen promoter of a person, organization, or cause

    Booster: a keen promoter of a person, organization, or cause

    Boots Riley has a new movie out and every single person I know will go see it. For those of you visiting from Mars, Boots came out of the amazing Oakland hip hop group the Coup and has directed one excellent movie, Sorry to Both You, and one excellent series, I Am a Virgo. Here’s the trailer to his new movie.

    If you haven’t seen either his previous film or the series, you’re in for a real treat and you should watch them right now. This is a blog entry. We can wait.

    Wasn’t that/they great? Seriously. I worked retail and every junk job under the sun for a while and will recommend Sorry to Bother You at the drop of a hat when I run into myself working junk jobs (i still work, but not retail minimum wage). Small aside: BOOSTeR is may of the same letters at the beginning of BOOTS RilEy. Was it intentional or should we make “I Love Boots Riley” shirts in the same fantastic style as the movie’s logo?

    Anyway, sometimes I watch award ceremonies and think, why isn’t there a History is a Weapon version of the Oscars. Boots Riley would definitely win. my mind immediately went to everyone else who will win, but maybe this should be a series on the blog: Artists who deserve a different kind of recognition for being awesome. Just spitballing ideas here.

    Okay, what else for today’s entry.

    This would be the tweet of yesterday from @AlanRMacLeod:

    The best line I heard this week was “Replacing Greg Bovino with
    Tom Holman is like shitting your pants and replacing your shirt.”     While Walz may be placated by Holman (which is, ahem, “Weird” and “creepy.”) and Klobuchar (America’s dud™) thinks she can run on the nonsense politics of yesteryear when ICE stuck to brutalizing migrants and refugees with impunity, we are in full support of the Minneapolis uprising.

    In this spirit, let us tell no lies and claim no easy victories. Phil A. Neel wrote this sharp essay on the lies you will be told, and you should read the whole thing.

    Five years ago, only a few blocks away from where Renee Good was murdered by the coward Jonathan Ross, a similar murder triggered the largest popular uprising in over a generation. Soon after, we were told a series of lies about this rebellion. We were told that it was a “non-violent social movement,” even as the image of a burning police precinct flickered in the background. We were told that, though there was some violence, it was started by outside agitators, perhaps police, or even white nationalists. Whoever they were, they were not members of “the community” but instead individuals just “looking to cause trouble.” We were told that the plan had always been to prosecute the murder, it was just a coincidence that charges were filed only after almost every major city in this country saw its downtown cores looted and burned. We were told to go home, that it was over. We were told that rioting was just the excuse Trump needed to declare martial law and cancel the upcoming election. We were told that, if elected, Biden would set things right. We were told that the deportations would end and Trump’s policies would be rolled back. The kids would be released from the cages. We were told that we must return to politics as usual — that this was the only way to “get things done.” Altogether, these lies amounted to a single, great untruth: the uprising never occurred and can never occur again. But the spirit of history moves in strange ways. What is dead never quite dies. And we will hear, again and again, the same lies[.]

    Okay, that’s all the time we have for today. Enjoy future Boots Riley art, don’t believe the lies, let’s overthrow this thing. See you tomorrow?

  • The Belly of the Beast: Hollowed Out Edition

    Before I share these two excellent articles, let’s preface. The courts serve the ruling class and the F.B.I. has been an anticommunist tool of the ruling class since its inception with J. Edgar Hoover. This is not being shared as some sort of liberal lament about the loss of our venerable institutions, but rather as important indicators of the state of the current capitalist state.

    The New York Times, our favorite daily hate read, has a fascinating look at the state of the F.B.I. under Trump 2.0. As much as we hate ourselves for recommending reading the Times, you should read “A Year Inside Kash Patel’s F.B.I.”

    Second, the fetishization of the U.S. courts is the progressive Achilles’ heel, but this recounting of what Trump is attempting to do in the courts pairs nicely with the F.B.I. piece.

    ICE is murdering random people in the streets and random people are really beginning to stand up and take notice. Where this heads is anyone’s guess, but everyone should be turning out.

    Lastly, on an entirely different note, the noted Marxist writer, activist, and orator Michael Parenti passed away Saturday. History is a Weapon hosts Chapter one from Against Empire and we recommend Yellow Parenti to everyone. If you’re not familiar with Yellow Parenti, we’ll embed it below. It’s a treat.

    Lastly, today’s Red Letter is Transitional Classes by Marta Hanecker.

    “Let us look at the agrarian petty bourgeoisie or the PEASANTRY in the strict sense.” Yes, do that.

  • We don’t know what we’re doing.

    Let’s start with some humility, as a website, as a left, as comrades.

    History is a Weapon has been going on for over two decades as an amazing anonymous counter-hegemonic space, hosting all kinds of interesting readings, resources, weird and engrossing projects. However, interactivity has never been our strong suit. Maybe that should change.

    We’re going to turn on comments. We’re going to try and post regularly. We’re going to engage.

    We’ve been here so long that we’ve lived through multiple stages of internet history. We were there for the beginning of Friendster, Reddit, Facebook, Twitter, we’ve seen it all. We’re now mired in the slop with the rest of you. We need to build left spaces that are controlled by regular people, not corporations mining dopamine and spreading misinformation. We want to share what is out there, help people find the others, and help the insurgency become the revolution. Same as always.

    Anyway, we do not know what we’re doing, so give us hints and clues. Our email is on the main website, you can find it on the FAQ if you’re not a spam bot. We’re learning wordpress yet again. If you have feedback and suggestions, please feel free to share it with us because at this point, it feels like watching a donkey play chess.

    Help us learn.