The only way the term can reclaim its original meaning is if its point of reference is switched to that of the proletariat class. Because the working class constantly exhibits behavior that is polite, patient, sophisticated and the definition of pro-social

Instead, such minor dissent will be American literature fulfilling its imperial function, which is to fine-tune imperial power through showing the literary and liberal values of empathy and compassion, and in so doing to be empire’s diplomat."

"Thus the dilemma of contemporary American literature: dissenting against Trump and what he represents but not recognizing that Trump’s imperialism is a more naked version of liberal imperialism is a limited kind of dissent.

Let's not forget that for over a decade b4 Russias intervention right wing Ukrainians & fascists were fighting a civil war funded by the "West" to ethnically cleanse the country of ethnic Russians.
The civil war should never have been supported & fomented by the US in the first place
Let Ukraine go

It makes me wonder how the clandestine life is different now due to mass surveillance. Dealing w/ the mundanity of waiting and hiding is probably still present

But publishing for the revolutionary is maybe less risky & more accessible...but then again the printed text might have had more impact...

9 years of hiding and clandestine activity and for "operating an underground leftist [PFLP!] publishing house in the West Bank".

Stalin was also a wanted criminal forced into clandestine activity by the Tsar in the early 1900s for the exact same activity: publishing/running a printing press

"Rafeedie urged by some of his fellow prisoners, set out to write about his [9 yrs] in hiding. Missing from the body of literature around the Palestinian cause, he thought, were individual accounts of resistance, ones that documented the mundanity of everyday life during such extraordinary pursuits"

Because of this unallignment between public policy preferences and policy outcomes the field of political science has had to do some crazy contortions in the field in order to rationalise US politics from a democratic perspective.

In the US however polls are meaningless, due to: the 2 party system, the electoral college, policy convergence of the 2 parties which are owned and operated by the same capitalists/oligarchs. The 2 parties dont need to acknowledge polls & no representatives are held accountable by a party structure

Spain has a version of multi party proportional representation where voters can threaten to change their vote if their party does not vote the right way.