MLK was slaughtered on this day 47 years ago

[Jackpine Radical]

92. I didn't realize you were a Kiwi. That might be the source of the confusion.

I expect that the whole rest of the world knows more about MLK than the average American does, because the media here, being tools of the Empire, have "airbrushed" his image in a way that the more responsible foreign press does not do.

What I was really addressing was his treatment in the American press, and the consequences thereof in the average American's knowledge base. You obviously have a more complete picture of MLK than is typical of politically disengaged Americans whose knowledge is totally informed by the politically motivated half-truths they have been fed.

My error was in not realizing you were speaking with the assumption that Americans are as well-informed about American politics as New Zealanders are. They are not. MLK is "acceptable" as a civil rights hero, but the mass media never mention his war and labor stances because the Empire frowns on those actions.

True, MLK's work in racial civil rights was much more extensive than what he did in the other areas, but that is only because, with Johnson's signing of the Civil Rights Acts in 1964, he was just turning his major focus on these larger issues when he was killed. Personally, I'm not sure this was a coincidence. Some degree of racial integration was useful to the Empire in order to enlarge the labor force, but anti-war and pro-labor activism were not tolerable, so King had to die, and his activity in these areas extirpated from the national memory.