Tumgik
#they are trying to silence Palestinians while they mass murder them. do not let that happen.
milfjinart · 7 months
Text
hey just fyi if you’re an Andor fan but aren’t speaking out and taking action in response to the genocide Israel is committing in Palestine, I hope you know you’re a massive unserious hypocrite!
6 notes · View notes
sailorhaumea · 1 month
Text
This is going to be my only contribution to Discourse for the foreseeable future: the fact that I now find myself having to check the Tumblr of people whose fics seem interesting on AO3 to make sure they're not a straight up war crimes denier/conspiracy theorist (any conflict, really, take your pick, but this was mainly prompted by Palestine) is incredibly upsetting and not good for my mental health. And stop trying to fandomize conflict when *real people* are dying. It's fucked up. If your activism doesn't recognize this very important detail it's not helping anyone.
Don't be posting completely monstrous things like "actually hostages are treated well" or "there's no evidence of sexual violence" or "actually all the people killed were killed by Israel" or telling Jews to "go back to Poland". What the fuck is wrong with you? This isn't helping people who are suffering. No one is benefiting from this! And neither is opposing a ceasefire because you think it'd let the IDF win. When people did this on Twitter they were called out by actual Palestinians for it because, again, this is real life, not a game. This isn't two sports teams playing against each other. People are dying every day.
On another note: as someone who saw her Syrian friends talk for years about the Assad regime grinding hundreds of thousands of people into dust, some of them being permanently silenced out of nowhere one day never to say another word because their life was snuffed out by a barrel bomb, if someone tried to make a fucked up "fandom" around the Syrian Revolution, I'd think they were an asshole. Do better. And don't you fucking dare heap praise on groups pretending to care about your cause when they're also still helping Assad kill more people. Fuck off with your praise for the Houthis, or Hezbollah, or the IRGC. I have lost friends to these murderers. Their claims to care about your cause are lies. They only care about human rights violations against Palestinians if they can be used as a prop to distract people from recognizing their own crimes against humanity.
I will not be lectured about how Hezbollah or Assad are friends of Palestinians when they slaughtered countless Palestinian refugees in Yarmouk. When Assad's father Hafez was a Syrian nationalist who openly stated that Palestinians were just Syrians, that there was no Palestinian people.
And please, for the love of G-d, don't fucking boost people like Rania Khalek, or Max Blumenthal, or Ben Norton, who cheerlead these mass murderers from one side of their mouth while pretending to care about civilians if they're Palestinians. If you see someone reposting some sort of Twitter bluecheck, please fucking do a background check, because for years Assadists have used Palestine as a way to do entryism into movements.
That's all I have to say. I left Twitter and made Tumblr my primary social media to get away from having to subject myself to the worst takes imaginable. This is my only return to anything that could be considered political I intend to do on this website. You will see no other posts remotely related to this topic from me. Don't ask me to make more. I've suffered enough damage to my mental health as a Jewish woman the past seven months.
26 notes · View notes
succorcreek · 5 years
Photo
Tumblr media
What is a Strong Women???? GOT knows http://bit.ly/2UX7EzH Well, I'm not a woman. But, I am a feminist and functioned in a heavy face time role with women as a clinical therapist for 35 years. Now, retired, I tend to write about that lots, because: 1. I don't see the plight of women having improved much in that time. In fact, there's an incredible campaign to disse women, patronize them, joke about them. It does come in many forms, that may surprise us all: It shows up still in job pay: women are forced to handle two jobs or suffer in lifestyle, while men relish their entitlements It shows up in our schools and groups, in kids athletics where boys hear the downing of women by the phrase, "Ok, lets get going Girls, or are you soccer players". It shows up when we see what a president does to women (how he directs his wife's thinking and frequently calls women fat, slobs, insane, weak, mental, losers (and plays into our own acceptance of these words as we have no reaction or shock). Indeed, this leads to the acceptance that the PLACE and VOICE of women are discounted, ignored, and often laughed at. Do you sit back and accept that "norm" or see those reactions as "normal" and tend to ignore them? If you do, and you ignore one neighbor, co worker, or EVEN a Feminist dissing comment by a female Fox reporter, then you've allowed it all! (isn't that shocking, women selling out against women**). If you allow it once, yes, once, without confronting and standing, then you've allowed, and then promoted it, because: Your Silence Speaks UP for Your Acceptance of The Idea or Joke Bullies. Your silence makes you one... 10 powerful women moments in Game of Thrones: Women Not Having Balls, but Soul...Not rampant greedy aggression, but powerful even hidden forces..... : https://abcn.ws/2Paoe9Q Carl Jung, great psychoanalyst, and bullied by Sigmund Freud to the point of insanity and suicide, reclaimed his life. He then said that only the Feminine Energy and Very Roles of Women could save a society given to rampant male energy of destruction, entitlement, and personal greed. If he lived today, he would have more social, world and environmental information and would also now pair this with: The plight of women is a metaphor for ALL of society. As women go, so go all other matters. And, only the energy and roles of women can save society and even the world: Women would have equal leadership in all social, government, and business roles.....and bring forward their forces and most importantly, SOULS, and 1. lead people away from the culture of violence, punishment of social outcasts with mass shootings (or taking out anger on innocent adult or school children). 2. find ways to not just stop global warming, but promote healthy environments and expanding greens: every person deserves they're vacations in Nature, and healing cities (there's been several articles out this month on pollution hindering child development, causing teen psychosis due to poor brain development, leading to much more.....whether that is Denver or Mongolia). It's this energy of women that is connected with: The Humanity of All The essential need to protect Mother Earth Are men totally off track? People tell me that every day. But, I think it's that men reject the inside feminine part. It's not a part that acts feminine, it's this mysterious Goddess within role. It's like Yin and Yang: without both parts, each human is just a Half person. There are vast books on this, including older books often ignored now, by Robert Bly. These are short books, an easy read....get one and then pass it on to a male you know..... Robert Bly was a progenitor of the US Men's movement, which eventually became laughed down by rampant male force and joking men. 3. How we function together is changed by the force of women. It becomes cooperation, understanding, and mutual solutions. For instance: a. this force would look not at a Paternalistic, Military Jet, aggression approach of attacking the Palestinians and upping aggression by moving an embassy to Jerusalem: it would look at the plights and needs of humanity....... each person deserves to live, be healthy, AND THRIVE in PEACE. Wow, as I follow world news daily from many resources.....the world is at great tension due to rampant male aggression. In fact, the last 10 years proves that male energy alone doesn't develop, evolve, mature: we've seen some of the worst world genocides in history this decade. So, this becomes a new paradigm for local and distant problems: 1. why are Africans in revolt today? If you follow African news, this is very pan-African.....there are wide spread protests, revolts, mass shootings, and bombings TODAY from top to bottom and East to West Africa! (there are two groups, as I see it, there are the disenfranchised always trying to get to a place to live, but then there are the psychopaths and angry PTSD victims that are ok with the killing of others because they have: psychopaths: have no sense of humanity, remorse, or compassion in their brains the PTSD Victims: have sold out to violence and anger, and the portion of their brain that produces senses of compassion, understanding, remorse, and fairness has been inhibited by their PTSD brain disorder 2. What is the plight in Guatemala that is causing the flood of refugees? It is murder, lack of jobs, lack of food...... Donald Trump cuts off aid of food to Guatemala and Honduras hoping that will punish them and stop the flow. But, the female force asks What is the problem? Then, what answers may fit? 3. Male energy can be this impulsive, vindictive and revengeful role. It's the elephant that never forgets a slight.....while the female force is completely different. The male force is like: a. Donald Trump in teen-age punishment manner is going to send refugees to Sanctuary Cities: punishing American cities will be a first event for a President, who's role is actually supposed to be one of the "shepherd" to cities. b. Trump moves on years of snubs from gays: uses a method from our playbook, listed at http://bit.ly/2VFEIKe to Divide and Conquer all via different methods, like Start Small and then keep under attach. (See the above for male methods of war). This comes from his pandering to South East States far right fundamentalist Christians of how to Divide and Conquer. This is also the methods of the gigantic Koch Brother's foundation of getting legislation passed. Trump moves against gays this week in Transgender Military Restrictions, the first steps in a "campaign" to come, in order for him to shore up votes from that conservative religious sector. Well, I could go and and need to mostly stop here......you know I can keep going on, typing, adding...... **But, I'd like to address one other matter with Strong Women. THE CURRENT CULTURE EITHER DISSES WOMEN OR PROMOTES WOMEN THAT ACT LIKE THE PSYCHOPATHIC MEN. That is, as a movie recently said, "Woman, you got one big set of balls". When women don't own their power, they can be conned into become this male energy only force. Then, they are decisive, angry, and directive persons, who just like many men these days, is soul-less......a vampire among vampires. I see this lots in Idaho where a women with full balanced male and female forces is not accepted. But, women who act aggressively and with rampant force, get things down, steam rollering all: men and women our legislation, agencies nature, forests, reserves, city parks rights of others needs of the marginalized: blacks, Hispanics, all races, LGTBQ, children, and hey....me, the elderly Muslims, atheists, agnostics, and more Women with Soul and Power, or Women with Balls? Game of Thrones knows: both good and bad female roles are demonstrated. Those with powerful feminine force accomplish, those with big balls male narcissist force....eventually succumb. Now being into rap, I still follow the trends of what they talk about......here, an example of the rights of all, including the forgotten Indigenous: divine feminine, equal rights, feminist, native americans and world indigenous http://bit.ly/2PaoeGS
0 notes
clubofinfo · 6 years
Text
Expert: Wealth maketh many friends; but the poor is separated from his neighbour. — Proverbs 19:4″ James “Mad Dog” Mattis spoke this week, at a pentagon press briefing, saying, among other things, that it was a time for all civilized nations to unite. The use of this trope ‘civilized’ echoes colonial sensibility. It is part of general shifting of meaning in the rhetoric of Empire over the last, say, 80 years. Never mind that the occasion of this speech, as seems increasingly the norm, was based on mostly propaganda. No evidence for a chemical attack was actually provided. Just as the evidence in the Skripal (attempted) murder (sic) is conspicuously lacking. This is a time when war criminals (unprosecuted, of course) can simply count on the utter amnesia of both the public and the quisling western press. So let’s go back and check a few boxes on Mattis. This is the man who oversaw the war crimes of Fallujah and then helped cover them up. One can read about it here… So how is it that Mattis can so confidently count on the silence and complicity of the corporate press? Mattis is no doubt sociopathic. He is a lizard eyed lisping sadist and yet he is fawned over and described as the ‘the most revered Marine in a generation’ by the same prostrate press. The adoration of the military in western media is at an all time high. And entertainment today is laden with the most jingoistic and nativist rhetoric imaginable. Hollywood today produces fiction that is uniform in its opinions and values. Watch this season of Designated Survivor. I know that is asking a lot, but do it anyway. Kiefer Sutherland is one of those actors who in middle age has begun to take on the tight lipped appearance of an aggrieved or constipated Quaker. The show is so stunningly reactionary that one finds some difficulty in arriving at the right words. But it is not an anomaly. Half of network prime time drama is military-based in theme. And today Hollywood staff writers can count on CIA or Pentagon “advisors” taking an active part in the creation of scripts. The blurring of fiction and Imperial fiction, as it were. There are ongoing themes in this Sutherland show about Russian interference in US democracy and most recently a story built around a tiny Asian nation with an insane dictatorial leader who wants nuclear weapons. The depictions of the Asian characters is only slightly less cartoon like than Charlie Chan. And always there are the requisite evil Muslim terrorist. But back to the disturbing figure of Jim Mattis. His call sign is “chaos”. He is reported to be worth in the neighborhood of five million dollars. This is an absurd low ball figure, but whatever. He is a graduate of Central Washington U. and something called the National Defense University. A quick iinternet search reveals this is a special educational institution on the grounds of Fort Leslie in DC and chartered by the Joint Chiefs. One does wonder what a typical class at NDU looks like. As for the “pacification” of Fallujah. Brett Wilkins wrote… According to witnesses and survivors of the assault, Marines indiscriminately killed men, women, children, the elderly and disabled alike. Civilians waving white flags of surrender were cut down by snipers, who also targeted ambulances carrying the wounded and dying to the few functioning clinics not destroyed by US bombs. “I see people carrying a white flag and yelling at us, saying, ‘We are here, just try to save us,’ but we could not save them because whenever we opened the ambulance door, the Americans would shoot at us,” Dr. Salam Ismael, head of Iraq’s young doctors association, told American investigative reporter Aaron Glantz, who covered the battle as an unembedded journalist. “We tried to carry food or water; the snipers shoot the containers of food. No civilizational norms violated there. Nope. Mattis also was the man who had all charges dropped against the soldiers that took part in the rampage at Haditha. Civilians shot point blank, often women and children, and the elderly — in their homes.  Callsign “Chaos”. Gary Kohls, MD, writing at Veterans Today…. Several of the PEOTUS’ cabinet appointees are high-ranking “lifer” military officers who have an innate disdain for democratic values (as would be expected for anybody whose career has been lived in the bubble of a hierarchical culture whose main junk values are 1) shoot first/ask questions later and 2) the use of dominative power over “enemies” via military violence. Kohls was primarily writing about Jim Mattis. But honestly, even a cursory examination of ANY four star General will yield similar biographical facts and similar personality disorders. You don’t rise through military ranks without a core ruthlessness, and an innate sadism. After the bombing of a wedding party in the Iraq desert, Mattis is quoted as saying… Ten miles from the Syrian border and 80 miles from the nearest city and a wedding party? Don’t be naïve. Plus they had 30 males of military age with them. How many people go to the middle of the desert to have a wedding party? The rank Orientalism of this comment, the arrogant indifference to the history and culture of Islam, to the Arab world in general, is also the hallmark of the successful military commander. Kill em all and let God sort it out. Of course, at the time of his nomination the NY Times published an op ed whose headline identified Mattis as a “pontential force for restraint”. That crazy old paper of record. And Mattis is routinely described as an intellectual, a ‘warrior monk’, and yet he doesn’t know anything of nomadic desert societies and culture. He didn’t even consider there might be a cultural gap here, or consider he might need to check alternative readings of the Muslim world, ones not provided for by that steller education at National Defense U. Mattis is not an intellectual, not even by the standards of that warped sub phylum of humanity that is the military. The media coverage of Syria, in the UK and US, is blatantly biased and pro intervention. The fact that FOX news reactionary Tucker Carlson is the sanest voice in mainstream media is very telling. Carlson hasn’t “woke”…. he just saw a niche demographic that might boost his ratings. Still…he was, in fact, correct. Danny Haiphong wrote… Tucker Carlson understands that he must appeal primarily to Republican voters weary of US interventions they see as products of Democratic Party-led wars even if establishment Republicans are no less hawkish than Democrats. Meanwhile, Goodman and her funders have subtly aligned with the Democrats as the new leaders of the War Party. War is the only tool at the disposal of imperialism, and there isn’t a single voice in Washington or the “liberal” media unwilling to use it. Under these conditions, infantile leftists and faux socialists in the Democratic Party camp have felt compelled to choose a side in the imperial madhouse. They claim that Democrats are “Presidential” while Putin and Assad are villains of humanity. No criticism is thrown at the Democratic Party, which sent a delegation led by Nancy Pelosi to Israel just days prior to the planned gun down of Palestinian resistance forces in Gaza. It doesn’t seem to matter how many Syrians or Palestinians are killed by the forces of imperialism when the so-called left is under the swoon of the CIA. So-called US leftists have caught anti-Putin fever at the expense of all other political questions. This includes the murder of Black people by the police in the US. Barely any attention was paid in the US to the murders of Stephon Clark and Saheed Vassell over the last few weeks. Only community members and the usual left organizations made any noise about these state-sanctioned murders. The same goes for Israel’s wonton massacre of participants in Gaza’s Great March for Return. In the absence of a mass movement, people in the US and West are becoming mere onlookers in a changing a world. This last few months has revealed as never before both the callous cruelty of the ruling class in the U.S. and UK, but also the degrading of education … for lack of a better description. At the UN, British envoy Karen Pierce, mistakenly thought Karl Marx was a Russian. In a prank phone call Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN, thought there was a country called Binimo. And Trump himself noted something or other about an imaginary African country called Nambia. Boris Johnson began an extemporaneous recitation of a Kipling poem (Road to Mandalay) in a temple in Myanmar. And then was told it was inappropriate by an aid, trying to save him further embarrassment, and STILL Johnson didn’t understand. All of these examples are not mere gaffes, amusing mistakes, but rather a general indifference to the cultures of the world, in fact, an indifference to the world beyond their own small corner of it. Indifferent and hostile. Remember when George Bush, now in full rehabilitation mode by his media handlers, mocked Karla Faye Tucker, on death row, who was begging for her life. That is exactly the cruelty one sees across the board in the leaders of the West today. One wonders does Mattis or Bush or Bolton think the use of Agent Orange transgressed civilizational norms? Did Hiroshima? What strikes me most acutely, these last few months, is the extraordinary cultural chauvinism of the U.S., or rather mostly of white U.S., as well as an institutionalized orientalism. Most White Americans, as a general statement, think they are better than the rest of the world. And most Americans have scant knowledge about the rest of the world. So the belief in cultural (and moral) superiority is based on what? The answer is not simple, but as a general sort of response, this trust in “our” superiority is built on violence. On an ability to be effectively violent. Most British, too, think they are superior to those ‘wogs’ south of their emerald isle. But since the setting of the sun on Empire, ‘officially’, the British hold to both a sense of superiority and a deep panic inducing sense of inferiority — at least to their American cousins. They are still better than those fucking cheese eating frogs or the krauts or whoever, but they accept that the U.S. is the sort of heavyweight champ of the moment. Meanwhile, the tragic and criminal fire at Grenfell Towers in London elicited a public discourse that perfectly reflected the class inequality of the UK, but also reflected, again, the colonialist mentality of the ruling party and their constituency. Stephen Brenner wrote of the fire and the government response to it.. There is Sir Martin Moore-Bick,** the former High Court Judge, who has been appointed by May to head a board of inquiry. Fears of a protracted inquiry producing an anodyne report were aroused when Moore-Bick went out of his way to declare that the scope of the investigation would be severely limited to determining the immediate cause of the fire and why it spread so rapidly. Answers to both questions already are known. The Sir Inquisitor-to-be has given the game away in adding that “I do not expect everyone to be pleased by the conclusion of the inquiry” – yet to begin. Moore-Bick’s unprompted utterance shows just how pervasive is the Americanization of British political culture. Unnecessary, embarrassing ejaculations like this have become impulsive – defying the dictates of prudent restraint. No one is confused as to who the “everyone” he has in mind refers to. An impression reinforced by the denial of the residents’ right to ask questions in person as to the scope and form of the inquiry. The only open question is the exact tint that the whitewash will take (stitch-up in British dialect). The first testimony will not be heard until mid-September when panel members, as yet unnamed, get back from their holidays. Graham Peebles adds… Grenfell Tower forms part of the Lancaster Road West Estate in Notting Hill Gate. An area that, like many other parts of the capital, has been subjected to a gentrification assault accompanied by systematic social cleansing that goes back decades and has intensified over the last 10 –15 years. In addition, the Grenfell affair demonstrates that the United States is not alone in its tolerance for actions that should be a national disgrace but are slighted by a political class incapable of feeling shame. The callous, off-hand treatment given the Grenfell victims is reminiscent of how colonial administrators dealt with expendable natives. If a proper criminal process were undertaken, a reasonable verdict would be Involuntary Manslaughter. But that is exactly it. The colonial template is one etched in acid in the collective imagination of the West. At least the English speaking West. Expendable natives…which is what Jim Mattis sees everywhere that he dumps depleted Unranium and Willy Pete. It is what Madelaine Albright saw in Iraq or Hillary Clinton in Libya or Barack Obama in Sudan, Yemen, and…well… four or five other countries. It is what most U.S. police departments see in neighborhoods ravaged by poverty. As in those old Tarzan films, when the sound of drums is heard, the pith helmeted white man notes…”the natives are restless tonight”. When one discusses Syria, the most acute topic this week, remember that for Mad Dog and Boss Trump, or for the loopy John Bolton, these are just natives in need of pacification. Giving money to ISIS or Daesh, or whoever, as a cynical expression of colonial real politik, is nothing out of the ordinary. It is what the UK and US have done for a long while. It’s Ramar of Jungle handing out beads to the *natives*. Domestically, take the example of Flint, Michigan. At the drinking water. When the unelected state appointed emergency manager switched from the Detroit River to the Flint River to supply water to the residents of Flint, the result was a spike in all diseases of insanitation. Everyone knew this was going to happen. The General Motors plant had stopped using Flint River water because it was corrosive to the auto parts they were manufacturing. But poor black kids, who cares. The U.S. has a long history of such stuff, from Love Canal, New York, to the chemical dump in the Elk River in West Virginia. You will notice a theme here. It is class. You don’t find ash spills like what happened near the Emery River in Tennessee occurring in Mill Valley or Scarsdale or Bel Air. Inflicting suffering on the poor is perfectly acceptable to the ruling class. To them, privilege is a sign of superiority. And the less deserving are only there to serve. The problem with the current wave of propaganda from western sources is that very little, if any, evidence is given. The term ‘very likely’ is much in vogue, probably because it leaves such a huge ‘walk it back’ escape route. Except there is less and less effort to even bother. In one sense the solidification of class power came out of neoliberal policies in the 1970s. The top 1% (really, the top half of one percent) increased their wealth dramatically, with the same occurring in the UK. Clinton pushed these principles even further and then Bush and Blair further still. We are now living the dream of the Washington Consensus economists. And it worth noting the founding statement of Hayak’s Mt. Pelerin Society, in 1947. For Hayak was the godfather of neoliberalism and Milton Freidman his heir. The central values of civilization are in danger. Over large stretches of the earth’s surface the essential conditions of human dignity and freedom have already disappeared. There is that word again. Of course, this was really only justification for the 1% to expand the reach of Western capital. To exploit labor and extract resources. And when recalcitrant countries did not submit quickly enough, the CIA was always available (ask Iran, or Chile, or Angola. The latter more of a symbolic lesson for those uppity nations even thinking about not following orders. It also marked open U.S. cooperation with apartheid South Africa. And in opposition to the troops Castro sent to assist the MPLA opposition to the ruthless US supported Jonas Savimbi). This restoration of ruling class power, though, was and is always looking over its shoulder. For the reality is that such profound inequality means life becomes unsustainable, even for the top 0.1% is repressed. And such repression takes effort. And that effort is giving birth to the madness one sees today. From Grenfell Tower to Flint Michigan, to Gaza or Libya or Syria — the principles driving the violence are the same. And it matters not if the urbane and articulate Obama is President, or if the troglodyte Trump, if it is Blair or May, for they are only reciting from a small financial Catechism of financial laws, and these laws are breaking down in the face of environmental degradation and an inequality so extreme that its almost impervious to calculation. They are only the voice of their class. This idea of civilized man has come to be an almost code-word for class hierarchy. The violence against Palestinians is simply inseparable from the violence that killed Stephon Clark. The violence that makes children sick in Michigan is the same one that causes oil spills or disasters such as the Lac-Mégantic train crash near Quebec, Canada. And, it is the same bigoted smug confidence of bourgeoise identity political thinking. The one that demands Islam rid itself of veils, or that ridicules ANY thinking or practice divergent from Western norms. You cannot expect the system to produce change if the system is based on punishing change. The status quo must be protected. For the ownership class world poverty is mostly the fault of the poor. The admission that neoliberalism has failed in terms of its announced goals has forced its proponents to a tactical retreat—defending the broad thrust of the neoliberal policy agenda under cover of “reform.” The result is an augmented Washington Consensus that blames client states and not international institutions or transnational capital for the failures of neoliberalism. It is the poor who are expected to make still further adjustments along neoliberal lines. From this point of view, what comes after neoliberalism must be more neoliberalism. — William K. Tabb, “After Neoliberalism“, Monthly Review, June 1, 2003. This idea of civilizational norms is connected to a deeply rooted assumption about the virtue of Democracy. Israel is described as Democratic but Cuba is not, for example. The reality, of course, is that the CIA and US ruling class spend most of their energy in deterring democracy (to quote Chomsky). Any real discussion of democracy needs to be extended beyond the undemocratic nature of the global economic institutions to a larger discussion of democracy, one that goes beyond whether votes are counted fairly, opposition candidates allowed to participate on an equal basis, and the voices of ordinary people heard by their elected leaders. Democracy needs finally to be discussed in relation to class rule in capitalist societies. — William T. Kabb, “After Neoliberalism“, Monthly Review, June 1, 2003. As Samir Amin pointed out, the “international community” (the G7 plus that bastion of democracy, Saudi Arabia) is utterly unconcerned with the opinions of 85% of the world’s population. So, both on a political/economic level, and on a cultural level, the Imperialist U.S. sees it as an innate right to decide the policies of the global south. It is anti democratic. The ruling class sees the right to enforce inequality as something of a Natural law. The anti Russian propaganda was born when Putin refused to sign off on the Nazi putsch in Ukraine. The US/Japan/NATO alliance is one that demands both economic submission and increasingly a cultural submission as well. And any rejection of this means a military forced submission. Democracy has come to be a shorthand for submission to neo-liberal economic policy dictated by Washington. Freedom is what happens after *we* destroy your country. That Mattis or May or various other servants of Empire can talk of civilzational norms with a straight face is actually pretty remarkable. The list of crimes is so extensive that one barely knows where to begin. We could ask about Gary Webb and cocaine and the CIA. Or about the School of the Americas, or My Lai or the siege at Waco. Or….but I feel this stuff really should be well known by now. I am more concerned in a sense with the small cultural appropriations and the gestures of an Orientalist sensibility that I see almost daily in western media. And the growing anti-semitism which one finds even on the left. And the seemingly intractable racism of white America. I just stop having the ability to keep track of it all. How can the white bourgeoisie demand adherence to their values with such tenacity? Do they really see themselves as somehow representative of some ideal? Tolerance means only adherence to their worldview. To their values. It is this nattering about ecological issues while never questioning the US military machine. But these refrains seem to stick in the collective consciousness of the west…”gas your own people” is one. As if gassing someone else were less objectionable. It is a media universe of entrenched meaningless slogans. It always reminds me of the outcry about steroid abuse. Maybe ask why big Pharma manufacture so many steroids. The medical uses for which are very limited. But no, it is easier to punish this or that athlete who in their desperation is looking for an edge, a way to reach that economic pinnacle so few reach. But question Eli Lilly? Never. The ruling class has always made money, always been ruthless, but again, the 1970s marked the solidification of systematic plunder, a cohesive and seamless river of money upwards. And enforced by the CIA. One should not forget that the CIA was founded by rich white ruling class scions of banking and finance. Allan Dullus, straight out of Wall Street, William Simon, Richard Mellon Scaife, Frank Shakespeare, and Bill Donovan. I mean the CIA calls itself “the Company”…bit of a tip off, that. If one struggles to grasp foreign policy decisions, always look at US business interests in the region. Remember these are ruthless people (MK ULTRA, Operation Mockingbird, etc). And the media was always part of this. The Graham family of Washington Post fame were directly linked to the CIA. William Paley, Henry Luce, Arthur Hays Sulzberger, and hundreds other are all intimate with the CIA. And it is no different now. It was the Clinton cartel that spent inordinate energy and time infiltrating Hollywood. The result is House of Cards, Homeland, Designated Survivor, and all the countless rest. Uniformity of message. Uniformity of values. I do wonder at times the role of Evangelical Christianity as it runs smack into the Catholic stake-outs in the corridors of power. Perhaps they cooperate, I don’t know. Religion is second to money, anyway. And then there is the role of Israel, that anti democratic neo colonial apartheid state in the Middle East. The ascension of the settler fanatic mirrors the ascension of Dominionists in the current US government. Fanatical zealots. Intolerant and profoundly ignorant of most things outside of their narrow set of concerns. And again, anti democratic. Israel serves the U.S. ruling class, not the other way round. There is no global Jewish plot as I keep reading in social media. The feeding of this bit of classic antisemitism is probably sourced by Israel itself. Nothing serves their PR better than spikes in antisemitism. But Israel is, for sure, more powerful than ever before. More influential. There is, best case scenario, a new Cold War in place. Worst case scenario, well, doesn’t matter. The real danger is the generalized ignorance now on display. Ruthless and sadistic one can predict, but irrational zealotry and stupidity…that is harder to deal with. And this is for certain the Age of Stupid. As for civilization, I’m coming to think we might well do fine without it. http://clubof.info/
0 notes