By Peter Montague

[This is an expurgated version of this essay; the unexpurgated version is available at http://www.timidrethink.org.]

After the Civil War ended in 1865, white people conducted a public campaign of intimidation ­– torturing and murdering thousands of people in public (73% of them Black), a practice called lynching.

Lynching was so common that we still have no accurate count of those public murders. According to the Jim Crow Encyclopedia, 4,760 people were lynched between 1882 and 1930. A recent report from the Equal Justice Initiative in Birmingham, Ala. has documented an additional 2,000 lynchings between 1865 and 1877…

By Peter Montague

After the Civil War ended in 1865, white people conducted a public campaign of intimidation ­– torturing and murdering thousands of people in public (73% of them Black), a practice called lynching.

Lynching was so common that we still have no accurate count of those public murders. According to the Jim Crow Encyclopedia, 4,760 people were lynched between 1882 and 1930. A recent report from the Equal Justice Initiative has documented an additional 2,000 lynchings between 1865 and 1877, bringing the known total to 6,760 victims, an average of two public murders each week for those 60…

By Peter Montague

After the Civil War ended in 1865, white people conducted a public campaign of intimidation ­– torturing and murdering thousands of people in public (73% of them Black), a practice called lynching.

Lynching was so common that we still have no accurate count of those public murders. According to the Jim Crow Encyclopedia, 4,760 people were lynched between 1882 and 1930. A recent report from the Equal Justice Initiative has documented an additional 2,000 lynchings between 1865 and 1877, bringing the known total to 6,760 victims, an average of two public murders each week for those 60…

By Peter Montague

After the Civil War ended in 1865, white people conducted a public campaign of intimidation ­– torturing and murdering thousands of people in public (73% of them Black), a practice called lynching.

Lynching was so common that we still have no accurate count of those public murders. According to the Jim Crow Encyclopedia, 4,760 people were lynched between 1882 and 1930. A recent report from the Equal Justice Initiative has documented an additional 2,000 lynchings between 1865 and 1877, bringing the known total to 6,760 victims, an average of two public murders each week for those 60…

By Peter Montague

In the U.S., a philosophy called “neoliberalism” began to dominate economic and political thinking when Ronald Reagan became president, in 1981. As Robert Kuttner puts it, “The basic argument of neoliberalism can fit on a bumper sticker. Markets work; governments don’t.”

Neoliberalism vs. Progressivism

Neoliberals and progressives disagree on the role of government in society. Progressives want government to do for “the people” what people cannot do for themselves individually. For example, progressives (aka liberals) believe everyone deserves health insurance; therefore, progressives want government to help make that happen. In contrast, neoliberals assume that the universal need…

By Peter Montague

Neoliberalism is an economic and political philosophy that has dominated the U.S. since 1980 when Ronald Reagan won the presidency. In addition to being a set of policies, neoliberalism is an ideology that allows the super-rich to justify why they deserve to be super-rich.

Neoliberalism says the “free market” (unrestricted competition, without government oversight) produces a world in which everyone gets what they deserve. If you’re poor, it’s your own fault, not the result of luck or circumstance.

Since 1980, neoliberalism has served the super-rich very well, but for at least half of us, it has been…

By Peter Montague

The riotous assault on the U.S. Capitol Building Jan. 6, 2021 came from the bottom of society (though generously supported from the top). Insurrection from the bottom will not succeed. However, an even more serious threat to democracy is unfolding at the top. Its success hangs in the balance.

In the U.S., an emerging “grandiose system, of social, economic, and political management” has the power, and the intention, to eliminate majority rule, to end democracy.

This story is laid out in a 7000-word essay, “The Silenced Majority,” by the British-Indian writer Rana Dasgupta in Harper’s magazine (Dec…

By Peter Montague

Who are the Trump-supporting democracy-hating insurrectionists who swarmed the Capitol building in Washington, D.C. on January 6, 2021? Bottom line: They are the screwed.

Babies are not born racists or Nazis or misogynists or religious fanatics. Yes, a few are born sociopaths or suffer from severe narcissism and cannot help themselves, but mainly we should recall the song “Carefully Taught,” from the play South Pacific (1949):

You’ve got to be taught To hate And fear You’ve got to be taught From year To year It’s got to Be drummed in your dear little ear You’ve got to…