Genuinely shocked Anderson Cooper let Cornel West go off like this on CNN without trying to cut him off. Holy fuck this is good

I think we are witnessing America as a failed social experiment. What I mean by that is, that the history of black people for over 270 years has been looking at America’s failures. It’s capitalist economy could not generate and deliver in such a way that people could live lives of decency. The nation-state, it’s criminal justice system, it’s legal system could not generate protection of rights and liberties. And now our culture, of course, everything’s so market-driven, everything’s for sale; you can’t deliver the kind of really real nourishment for soul, for meaning, for purpose.

And so when you get this perfect storm of all of these multiple failures, at these different levels of the American empire. And Martin King already told us about that. When I saw those pictures there in Atlanta, you can see Martin right there in Atlanta saying “I told you about militarism, I told you about poverty, I told you about materialism, I told you about racism in all of it’s forms, whatever forms it takes, I told you about xenophobia. And now these chickens are coming home to roost, you’re reaping what you sow.”

And in this instant, you have brother George, where it is so clear, it is a lynching at the highest level, no one can deny it. And I thank God that we have people in the streets. Can you imagine this kind of lynching taking place and people are indifferent? People don’t care? People are callous?…

[rough transcript]