For some time I have been on a quest to find honest liberals. I have challenged liberals (and progressives) to seriously engage material at revcom.us—including the American Crime series—which brings sharply to light the massive and truly horrendous crimes continually committed by the ruling class of this country, over its whole history, and analyzes the nature of the system of capitalism-imperialism that requires such crimes.* So far, the results have been quite disappointing: To my knowledge, few if any liberals or progressives have taken up this challenge—at least not in any serious way. (Of course, I would love to learn about honest liberals and progressives out there who are willing to take up this challenge; but, as far as I know at this point, this is not happening, at least not in anything like the way, and on the scale, that it needs to happen.)
This has got me thinking about the movie Liar Liar, where the main character, played by Jim Carrey, is rendered unable to lie for a certain period. What results is a lot of uncomfortable truths about himself and others, including things he actually knows but has kept hidden (perhaps even from his own conscious thoughts). It would be very interesting to see what would be revealed if the same thing happened to liberals and progressives, and the truth came out regarding what they actually know (and don’t know) about the history and reality of this country and its towering crimes, and what they are deliberately refusing to face up to.
Since, in real life, there is no device that can render liberals and progressives unable to lie (including to themselves), I will once again issue the challenge to them to face up to the real history and nature of this country and the system of capitalism-imperialism that rules in this country, and dominates the world—and the profound implications of this—even though I have learned not to hold my breath waiting for this to happen.
* The challenge to liberals and progressives is contained in several articles by Bob Avakian that are also available at revcom.us, including “In Light of the Urgency Spoken to in ‘Something Terrible, Or Something Truly Emancipating,’ A Renewed Challenge: Searching for an Honest Liberal or Progressive.” [back]