I totally disagree with Laura here, but not for the usual reasons.

So far I have actually seen very little “canceling America” going on in the present uprising. Unlike Berkeley or Charlottesville, which were low-grade sports riots carried out by rookie-league middle-class gangs, the present uprising is a genuine fourth-generation insurgency, albeit one of very low intensity.

But it’s “anti-American” character is doubtful. I haven’t seen much anti-Americanism thus far. I’ve seen plenty of anti-Confederatism, celebrating the death of a state that died 155 years ago. Today, Confederate nostalgia is a regional fetish (like Cajun food) that only deep red zone inhabitants have any remaining interest in. I’ve seen plenty of anti-Spanish Empirism but the Spanish Empire was expelled from the Western hemisphere in the 19th century, with its final defeat coming at the hands of the nascent American Empire in the Spanish-American War. I’ve seen plenty of anti-Red Tribism, anti-Trumpism, and, perhaps on the margins, actual anti-WASPism. But not much anti-Americanism.

Of course, there have been honorable and principled exceptions. Primarily, these have come from actual lumpen proletarians that have engaged in moderately radical actions like expropriating the neo-feudal properties of modern-day usurers, sweatshops, and plantations like Bank of America, McDonald’s, Target, and Amazon. Others have admirably attacked the headquarters of the King’s knights (“police precincts”) or the star chamber (“courthouses”).

Modern America is not Robert E. Lee or Christopher Columbus, or even George Washington or Abraham Lincoln. And really not even Eisenhower, JFK, or Reagan. Modern America is the neo-feudal institutions described above, Bill Gates, George Soros, Oprah, the Kardashians, Beyonce and Jay-Z, Ellen Degeneres, Sheldon Adelson, the Kochs, Gamestop, etc. Only the most militant of the lumpen proletarian class seems to recognize this (or at least they’re the only ones who act like they do).

But even these actions have been co-opted by the usurers, plantation and sweatshop owners, feudal lords, aristocrats, nobility, and most of the clerisy (except maybe Laura and Tucker Carlson). The King himself seems a little annoyed, or at least he pretends to be, but his royal ministers don’t seem to be particularly bothered.

Largely, the insurrection seems to be an exaggerated sports riot by the militant wing of the Blue Tribe (with the exceptions noted above). This is demonstrated by the fact that virtually the entire spectrum of the state and ruling class has barely responded to the uprising, from local mayors to the Deep State. Contrary to what many probably believe, there has been virtually no repression of the insurgents so far. Occasional rubber bullets, an occasional whiff of tear gas, or occasional rioting local cops (who are probably acting in disobedience to orders).

If the power elite really felt threatened by the uprising, the temporary autonomous zone in Seattle would be taken out by a phosphorous bomb (see Yemen, which actually threatens the interests of the Saudi and Emirati provinces of the empire). If protestors were really a threat to ruling class interests, they would simply be mowed down by the dozens or hundreds by the police or National Guard (see Mexico City in 1968 or Acapulco in 2015, to name two of an infinite number of examples). If the state were threatened by Black Lives Matter or Antifa, those involved in these groups would simply disappear in unmarked vehicles in the middle of the night never to be seen or heard from again. If the oligarchs were really threatened by the looters, the looters would be shot on sight, and their bodies left to rot on the street.

This is what real fascist/Nazi/Stalinist/Maoist/Baathist/Islamist repression looks like.

The insurgency that has emerged thus far demonstrates the following limitations: 1) its very reformist character (“Tax Amazon! Social Workers Cops!”; 2) the extraordinary ease with which it is being co-opted by the state, ruling class, managerial class, and middle-class interests; 3) its propensity to devolve into rookie league inter-tribal warfare (for example, in my neighborhood both Confederate monuments and a synagogue have been vandalized, and in Minneapolis, both a Native American center and Columbus statues have been torched or vandalized); and 4) its obvious inability to withstand actual repression (if there really was any-see the comments above).

The Democrats are hardly “canceling America.” The Democrats, and not a few Republicans, are merely bringing engaging in moderate kowtowing to the militant wing of the Blue Tribe, in order to ensure that it remains under the American umbrella.