The Neutral, The Liberal and The White Moderate: lifestyle preservation by any means necessary

On By ©️K.T. 2025In anthropocene, anti-fascism, anti-zionism, Capitalism, Climate Collapse, Colonization, ecocide, economics, Free Palestine, Gaza, Genocide, Liberation, nationalism, Nazism, Palestine, patriotism, Politics, Resistance, Revolution, Sixth Mass Extinction, threshold, Xenophobia, Zionism

“Do not associate with the neutrals, because they will betray you someday, because they are too cowardly [and comfortable] to take a stand.”

they will betray

with their

portfolio and corporate profit-taking,

dependence on and loyalty to government, organizations, institutions and electoral politics,

cultural appropriation, displacement, dispossession, exploitation, and gentrification of the historically and contemporaneously oppressed

greenhouse gas & carbon footprint privilege and exceptionalism,

ecocide by appetite, consumerism, and growth/development — physical, geographical and technological,

ultimate loyalty to the State and its forces for maintenance and protection — of their own wealth and property, and of private and corporate property, and of The System at the expense of People’s liberation and abolition movements

and finally,

by their neutrality to

particular

fascism and genocide.

“I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season." Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.

- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,
 
excerpted from “Letter from the Birmingham Jail”

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