The Real Death Threat
On the evening of July 3, at Mount Rushmore. Beneath the granite faces of four presidents, Trump declared communism a 'mortal threat.' 'You can be loyal to Karl Marx or to America, you can be a communist or a patriot, but not both.' He said the Communist Party 'consists of illegal immigrants, criminals, and all those who don't want to work.' It was a dichotomy reminiscent of Senator Joe McCarthy's hearings in the 1950s. The backdrop was the recent electoral advances of democratic socialist candidates backed by Mayor Zoran Mamdani in New York and the primary victory of Melat Kiros in Colorado. The real electoral advance of the left, and the Empire's reflexive reaction.
That same afternoon, the Great American State Fair on the Washington National Mall was closed. Due to the heat wave. Temperatures exceeded 100°F, and organizers evacuated all visitors early in the afternoon. The National Park Service delayed the opening of the National Mall viewing area on July 4 until 5 PM 'to reduce exposure to extreme heat.' The Philadelphia parade had already been canceled, and Amtrak's Northeast Corridor was suspended due to concerns about track deformation. The heat index was 46°C. At the very time Trump called communism a 'mortal threat,' the real death threat was burning the skin of Americans.
This contrast is not mere irony. It is a dialectical truth. The communism that Trump points to as a 'mortal threat' is not a byproduct of 250 years of capital accumulation. But the 250 years of capitalism that he praises created this heat wave. The wealth accumulated by burning fossil fuels, the empire built on that wealth, the empire's carbon emissions heated the atmosphere, and the heated atmosphere now physically makes it impossible to celebrate the empire's birthday. The real death threat is not an ideology but carbon dioxide molecules. Last week in France, a thousand people died because of those molecules. They will die in America too. Even if the festival is canceled, death is not canceled.
The political function of Trump's speech is clear. Faced with the real electoral advance of the left, the ruling class of the empire summons the most primitive anti-communist ideology. The dichotomy of 'Marx or America' is not analysis but threat. Mayor Mamdani's housing policy, the democratic socialist candidates' healthcare guarantees—these are not 'communism' but mere social democratic reform demands. Yet the empire does not tolerate even such reforms. Why? Because if the logic of reform is carried through, structural contradictions that cannot be resolved by reform are revealed. The fact that leaving cooling to the market means some people die, and therefore cooling must be a public good—one more step from here leads to the conclusion of public ownership of all means of social reproduction. The empire fears that one step.
The summer on the Korean Peninsula has just begun. Today's Mount Rushmore speech is not simply domestic US politics. The same anti-communist ideology is the adhesive of the ROK-US alliance, and the same ideology justifies the division of the two Koreas. When Trump shouts 'communism is death,' he is not only targeting Pyongyang. He is targeting all those in Seoul who advocate for anti-monopoly, peace treaties, and the withdrawal of US troops from Korea. His 'mortal threat' includes all those who advocate anti-monopoly, peace, and the withdrawal of US troops from Korea. Let us know. When the empire calls a certain argument a mortal threat, it is a sign that the argument is becoming a real threat.
That same afternoon, the Great American State Fair on the Washington National Mall was closed. Due to the heat wave. Temperatures exceeded 100°F, and organizers evacuated all visitors early in the afternoon. The National Park Service delayed the opening of the National Mall viewing area on July 4 until 5 PM 'to reduce exposure to extreme heat.' The Philadelphia parade had already been canceled, and Amtrak's Northeast Corridor was suspended due to concerns about track deformation. The heat index was 46°C. At the very time Trump called communism a 'mortal threat,' the real death threat was burning the skin of Americans.
This contrast is not mere irony. It is a dialectical truth. The communism that Trump points to as a 'mortal threat' is not a byproduct of 250 years of capital accumulation. But the 250 years of capitalism that he praises created this heat wave. The wealth accumulated by burning fossil fuels, the empire built on that wealth, the empire's carbon emissions heated the atmosphere, and the heated atmosphere now physically makes it impossible to celebrate the empire's birthday. The real death threat is not an ideology but carbon dioxide molecules. Last week in France, a thousand people died because of those molecules. They will die in America too. Even if the festival is canceled, death is not canceled.
The political function of Trump's speech is clear. Faced with the real electoral advance of the left, the ruling class of the empire summons the most primitive anti-communist ideology. The dichotomy of 'Marx or America' is not analysis but threat. Mayor Mamdani's housing policy, the democratic socialist candidates' healthcare guarantees—these are not 'communism' but mere social democratic reform demands. Yet the empire does not tolerate even such reforms. Why? Because if the logic of reform is carried through, structural contradictions that cannot be resolved by reform are revealed. The fact that leaving cooling to the market means some people die, and therefore cooling must be a public good—one more step from here leads to the conclusion of public ownership of all means of social reproduction. The empire fears that one step.
The summer on the Korean Peninsula has just begun. Today's Mount Rushmore speech is not simply domestic US politics. The same anti-communist ideology is the adhesive of the ROK-US alliance, and the same ideology justifies the division of the two Koreas. When Trump shouts 'communism is death,' he is not only targeting Pyongyang. He is targeting all those in Seoul who advocate for anti-monopoly, peace treaties, and the withdrawal of US troops from Korea. His 'mortal threat' includes all those who advocate anti-monopoly, peace, and the withdrawal of US troops from Korea. Let us know. When the empire calls a certain argument a mortal threat, it is a sign that the argument is becoming a real threat.