BGR Letter Of Intent
Plans, Changes, and a Manifesto
Hello BGR community. This is Pat, the founder and owner of BGR (Black Green Red)
Today marks a new chapter for us. The purpose of this manifesto is to explain to you all what we decided to change, and what the content will look like moving forward. This is also a letter of intent.
Much to my frustration, when I realized it, BGR has been too soft. Such softness certainly has a purpose in left media, but I no longer feel softness as a place in our content.
BGR will begin a transition to more openly radical content.
The purpose of BGR Media
My end goal sounds crazy out loud, and still sounds crazy in my mind, despite the hours of logistical planning that went into it. I want BGR to become a radical replacement for legacy news/political media outlets. I think this goal is urgent and necessary for the leftist movement. I essentially aim to create a CNN that pushes communist propaganda (yes, I said propaganda).
Propaganda isn’t a dirty word.
Bias, after all, is natural. We do not hate CNN and Fox News simply for pushing propaganda that aligns with their bias. We hate the way they pretend to be impartial groups with “journalistic integrity” when they sold that away with their souls long ago.
They make propaganda for the ruling class, BGR makes it for the working class.
We hate legacy media for the specific biases they hold. They push propaganda to shape our biases in a way that punches down on marginalized people, causing us to ignore our material suffering caused by the rich. CNN, Fox, and the remainder of these legacy media groups exist to defend capitalism, Zionism, and whatever the ruling class commands them to.
Media that we rely on for information should not be ruled by rich men, and yet the big ones all are.
BGR will not shy away from its biases. At the end of the day, we are a communist media outlet. We have an agenda to push. The agenda is to make your local community, your state, your country, and the world a more equitable and just place. The agenda is to reject capitalism and consumerism and to build a classless society.
BGR is and will always be a communist media outlet. Despite the Cold War ending several decades before our creation, the Red Scare lives on. Many, even on the leftist side, are afraid of this word. We, however, are not.
When a child has a fear of sleeping in their own room, they don’t sleep next to their parents for the rest of their lives. They overcome the fear with the guidance and actions of their parents. Running from something has never been an actual solution to fear. If the end goal revolves around communism, hiding from the word only reinforces ignorant Red Scare propaganda and maintains the stigma.
Many will say, “Just push for communism without calling it communism”. While the liberation of the working class that we seek includes these ignorant poor Americans, we reject the idea that catering to their ignorance is the right move.
Sure, we’ve witnessed that catering to stupidity is indeed temporarily effective. But it allows the ignorance to thrive unchallenged. Ignorance is poisonous, and movements should aim to educate the masses. Do not grant them comfort zones for empty minds.
Our ideology
While we identify as communists, we hold many differences from other self-proclaimed communists today.
Coalition
We do not hate Democratic Socialists, or any leftist who doesn’t (yet) identify as communist. Obviously, Mamdani, Bernie, and Ocasio-Cortez aren’t communists despite what the unintelligent MAGA crowd claims. But their influence makes movements like ours possible.
Religion
We do not believe that the Marx quote about religion means that communists should be against religion. Religion is by far one of the most effective institutions for organizing. The belief in God can affirm your belief in radical social changes, much like it did for Dr. King.
Class Reductionist Views:
The class war is the only war we should be fighting. This, however, does not mean to ignore the issues of racism, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, islamophobia, xenophobia, and the long list of other bigotries. These problems are indeed made worse by capitalism, but it is ignorant to reduce all of these problems to just “capitalism.”
BGR is an acronym. A simple 3-letter one that encompasses the basics of our ideology.
B for Black - Black Power
The empowerment of black people everywhere is paramount. Black people are treated as second-class citizens in many places across the globe, most notably in the West.
The West has a parasitic relationship with black people, and the West is the parasite.
Chattel slavery, the stealing and destruction of African nations out of envy and greed, viewing them as lesser. We never received reparations for our pain. Such is a luxury only granted to our oppressors. The revolution will not leave black people behind.
BGR rejects the idea of black capitalism as a pathway to freedom.
Many black people look at the likes of black entertainers, black liberal politicians, black athletes, black businessmen, and see them as “proof” that we can “win” capitalism. Let me be abundantly clear: this is liberal propaganda.
Diversity in capitalism is not progress. It’s a distraction and a slap in the face to the diverse members of the working class. I don’t want to see more black billionaires, I want to see NO billionaires when there are millions of black people who don’t have access to basic human needs.
Diversity in fascism, colonialism, and imperialism is not progress. It’s a disgrace.
The President known as Obama, who our community upholds as a standard of black excellence and virtues, deserves to be tried for his transgressions. He set the framework for the fascist actions we are currently witnessing the Trump administration commit.
Obama has bombed the Middle East more than any President in history, destabilized countries, and bent over backwards for the ruling class on multiple occasions. This allegiance and romanticized interpretation of him is because of two things: his charisma, and virtue signaling due to his race.
We stand in solidarity with black people all over the world, except for the evil capitalistic imperialists like Obama. Letting go of your positive feelings about him is the first step.
G for Green - Climate Justice
The climate crisis exists as a harrowing example of why revolution is an urgent cause. Corporations and consumerism are killing our planet. While liberals will push solutions like green versions of capitalism (electric cars, asking corporations to pretty please lower their emissions), we reject these so-called solutions, as they are merely half measures.
BGR believes the solution to the climate crisis relies on drastic action, like the redistribution of land for biodiversity, public transportation restructuring, and massive farming reform. Any effective long-term solution to this crisis requires the dismantling of capitalistic systems.
Conservatives deny the issue exists. They are clearly beyond saving and reason. Liberals, however, are mistaken in thinking that changing their specific consumption habits will yield enough impact to reverse the damage.
When you account for the consumption of the average person, even the average American who consumes more than any other human, you will notice how small of an impact we have when compared to the corporations. Acknowledging the climate crisis as a failure of capitalism is the first step to change. Once you realize it, the powers that be will try to silence you (ie, Greta Thunberg).
R for Red – Revolution
The ending part of the acronym is conveniently the end goal. BGR aims to function as a media arm for the revolution.
We have an “All roads lead to revolution” and a “by any means necessary” approach. We think anything that brings us closer to revolution is valid. The democratic socialists think that socialism can be achieved through liberal democracy. Then we will help them do it. Communists believe that we need class consciousness. Then we will support class education, arming citizens, and being in community with others.
We characterize the revolution in two ways: internal liberation and external liberation.
Internal
In order to change the world, the country, or even your community, you must first change yourself. It’s a realization I myself struggled to grasp at first. Capitalism drains us of the time to take care of ourselves, making it all the more difficult to fight for a wide-scale cause.
You must take care of yourself. The revolution requires physical, mental, and emotional care. Exercise, read, spend time with loved ones, go outside, and be unapologetically yourself. Do everything you can to the best of your ability to liberate yourself first.
External
The revolution will not be won by being chronically online by ourselves in the comfort of our homes. It will take boots on the ground and ass to grass levels of real-life action. Words are a nice start, but everyone needs to get out there. Organize with a local leftist organization, start a book club with some local comrades, do everything you can in the real world, not online.
Solidarity was a key aspect of the BGR ideology when it first started. It is still relevant here. Injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere. While we fight for our liberation in America, we must remain in solidarity with the people in Gaza fighting for theirs as well as their survival. The people in Congo and Sudan, despite the lack of media coverage, deserve our attention as well. All the victims of U.S.-sponsored imperialism for committing the “crime” of democratically electing socialists deserve our advocacy as well.
I gave myself a list of questions that I needed to be able to answer before starting this journey.
Who is BGR for, and who is it not for?
This is for anyone who identifies as a leftist. Whether you’re a democratic socialist, a socialist, a communist, or even someone who doesn't align with a specific label, but views capitalism as the core cause of their material suffering. This is not for anyone else, and we won’t waste time catering to anyone else. If you disagree, feel free to make your own media project.
How will we balance pushing our agenda and telling the truth?
Pushing propaganda and telling the truth are not mutually exclusive. You can do both rather easily. We will present our thoughts and opinions, and we will support them with facts. We won’t pretend to be impartial or even journalists. We are communist political commentators.
Why trust us?
We’ve been transparent about our intent, ideology, and goals. That is a level of integrity that we will maintain as long as BGR exists. Unless you disagree with our ideology, we have not given you and will not give you any reasons to not trust us.
What kind of content will BGR make?
Write short essays and articles on Substack once a week. They will only be about half the length of this manifesto.
Around next week, we will begin rolling out some weekly short-form content. As great as it would be to gain an audience just cranking out writing on Substack, to build a bigger audience, we must capture the attention of people who consume short-form content.
How can you help?
Share our content if you feel comfortable doing so. Share our articles, share our soon-to-be-released other content, and just spread the word with like-minded people. Press the subscribe button. Consider getting a paid subscription here on Substack. Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and all of our other platforms.
What is your vision for redistribution of land for biodiversity?