...and they do so knowing that liberals, centrists, leftists, democrats -- anyone who might be enraged by the nakedly immoral glorification of cruelty -- have either no power to stop it or are unwilling to do anything.

In fact, platforms like Twitter are now arguably dependent not on the amoral Instagram-type social influencer but on far-right posters who produce, distribute, or celebrate images of cruelty against immigrants, refugees, transpersons, the racially diverse...

The fact that even supposedly liberal or centrist power brokers have done little to defend the principles of DEI that emerged after Floyd's death or done little in response to Gaza has shown how abject displays of cruelty carry no consequence. Indeed, the images themselves are now a central product.

But for many, the video seemed to have a quite different effect, because some didn't want to feel shame for what happened. They wanted to celebrate the wonton disregard for the life of individuals they either wanted to oppress or who they didn't wish to see in the public sphere to begin with.

Perhaps its always been this way, but at least in the U.S. there seemed to be a turning point after George Floyd, when the clear, widely distributed video of racialized murder proved what so many already knew about policing and about the nature of enforcement and surveillance.

Worth noting that AOC ran on a campaign of abolishing ICE back in 2018, in response to which both Democrats and Republicans called her crazy. It wasn't farfetched then and now it's even more of a moral and political necessity.

Crucially, Melville incisively represents how American rhetoric on law and legality can be used in the service of empire and oppression, and how it manifests in South American specifically.

In my book, I wrote a chapter on how Melville pre-Civil War novella "Benito Cereno" (1855) critiques America's attachment to slavery through the nation's moral posturing and violent presence in South America.
www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/mon...

I had a great experience working with NFFR from submission to publication. Make sure to follow and check out their past issues for the best in flash fiction.

Different historical situation, but interesting to compare with post-Great Recession and post-COVID politics. Working and middle class confront similar 'unpleasantness of historicity' that defines turn towards Trump. DNC failure to understand this underwrites their rejection of Sanders.

This overemphasizes the military and administrative capacity of European colonies in North America AND under emphasizes the degree to which Indigenous nations were running the show. Misleading notions of primitivism go hand in hand with this misconception.