The Formation of a "parallel polis" in the United States

There are many Americans who think that we're in the middle of the American Cultural Revolution. The left, after all, has fully embraced Herbert Marcuse's philosophy that one should never tolerate that which opposes "Marxist / Progressive" thought. Considering that Marxism was almost completely discredited by the 1970s and that the Soviet Union collapsed in 1990 we can understand why the next generation of Marxists reject any competing ideas.

We've seen the evolution of cancel culture: starting with shouting down speakers on campuses; rioting to prevent guest lecturers and to shut down venues. It's now expanded to corporate deplatforming and the refusal to provide service - something that I think has crossed many ethical and legal lines and could have been easily solved by expanding the 1964 Civil Rights Act to include "creed or political opinion."

In response to this new tech platforms have been created: Gab, Minds, Odysee (among many others); as well as distributed communities and currencies. But to what end ask many? We can't duplicate everything, they say, therefore all these new platforms are little more than band aids. To that I say that we should follow that which worked quite well in the Eastern Block during the 1980s: the development of a Parallel Society.

A Parallel Society is, in effect, the development of an alternative, independent "parallel" set of information networks, education, art, culture and social groups. And, while the rise of the modern surveillance state is something Stalin could only dream of - we're not under an actively repressive state - yet. We still have plenty of opportunity to build up such alternative networks.