Nothing Adds Up When You do the Alternative Math

Photo Source Dustin and Jennifer Stacey | CC BY 2.0

A disgruntled, off his meds, “lone wolf” gunman walks into a bar. We all know how that story ends: He orders 300 rounds. The actual punchline is that we are all shocked that a hired killer for the US military would bring the slaughter home and murder a dozen or so of his compatriots for no apparent reason. Or rather, for reasons having nothing to do with “geopolitics”. In fact, questions surrounding the wholesale massacre of civilians, infrastructure, even forests and oceans are best left to the “experts” overseeing their destruction. If the logic of that particular irony is lost on you, perhaps you have not yet mastered “alternative math”, which, like “alternative facts”provides falsified outcomes based on lies and delusions.

Funnier still, is how we view military violence as somehow less disturbing than a single ‘crazy’ guy, even when lone gunman and soldier serve the same master, guided by the same imperative: Serve and protect neoliberalism. One killer obeys a direct and explicit order to kill, while the other is driven to homicide, compelled by the murderous dog whistle implicit in every aspect of life under capitalism – from its banking services, healthcare and housing policies (or lack thereof) farms, food production, political parties, infrastructure – all the way down to its dating rituals and coffee chains. The “invisible hand” that guides the market also pulls the…

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