a reply to:
JAGStorm
Martin Luther King has, like Winston Churchill and George Orwell, become a blank screen on which many people project their own beliefs.
First, MLK was not like the talking heads civil rights leaders on TV and the internet. He was not as militant as some but he was militant. The idea
that he'd be disgusted at BLM and the like is ridiculous.
Second, that liberalism quote needs some context. MLK disliked liberalism because he was a socialist. Not a Marxist, Leninist, Maoist or a follower
of any rigid political ideology but he was a socialist.
On the distribution of wealth: “Call it democracy, or call it democratic socialism, but there must be a better distribution of wealth within this
country for all of God’s children.”
On poverty and capitalism: “And one day we must ask the question, Why are there forty million poor people in America? … When you ask that
question, you begin to question the capitalistic economy."
On privilege: “Privileged classes do not give up their privileges voluntarily.”
For every TV friendly "I have a dream", there's a "When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than
people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered."
Like many radicals, from the Tea Party to Alan Moore's V, he has been co-opted by TPB, had the rough edges smoothed off and been repackaged as a soft
alternative.
This discussion is like so many discussions here about fascism, 1984 and Marxism, built on soundbites instead of historical facts, often with the same
waves of memes and themes.
Remember, those who cannot learn from history are condemned to repeat it.