When we look at Mohammad Saeed crawling through the dirt on his leg stumps with the help of a roller skate, we are seeing our own civilization reflected back at us. A genocidal dystopia of complete moral bankruptcy. This is what we have become. This is what we have allowed our rulers to turn us into.
Archiv: Caitlin Johnstone
A Bit About This Strange Little Project Of Mine
Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Caitlin Johnstone): Every so often I like to write out a basic explanation of who I am and what I’m trying to do here. As an entirely reader-funded writer I think it’s important to periodically lay out exactly what I’m about so that any patrons or…
If You Want To Help The World, Focus On Fighting The Empire
(November 23, 2024)
We live in a civilization built of lies and abuse, powered by lies and abuse, and defended using lies and abuse. Even the most kindhearted and well-intentioned among us struggle to bring about positive change, because the very fabric of our society is stacked against truth and kindness.
The West Only Has Pretend Heroes Like Spider-Man And SpongeBob
This is the civilization we live in. A mind-controlled wasteland where everything is fake and stupid. The only path toward fulfillment and inner peace in such a dystopia is to dedicate yourself to tearing it down, brick by plastic brick.
We Really Are The Bad Guys And This Really Is The Evil Empire
It’s like yes asshole, it’s very nice to be living in the imperial core that’s receiving the benefits of mass murder and imperialist extraction, and it’s less nice to live in the countries where the murder and extraction is happening. That’s the entire fucking point here.
It can be nice to live in the western world, but the western world is not nice. Ours is the most savage and thuggish civilization on this planet, and it’s not even close.
The Democratic Party really does look ready to lose yet another easily winnable election by running yet another awful, murderous candidate with awful, murderous policies, and then once again blame their loss on everyone in America who is a better person than they are.
Slaughter In Gaza And Lebanon As War With Iran Approaches
(October 9, 2024)
On Tuesday State Department Spokesman Matthew Miller told the press that the Biden administration no longer supports a ceasefire with Hezbollah, saying “We support Israel’s efforts to degrade Hezbollah’s capability” instead. Two weeks ago CNN reported that the administration has also essentially given up on a ceasefire in Gaza.
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And we haven’t even talked about Iran yet.
Israel Jails US Journalist, Fires On UN Peacekeepers, Bombs Beirut, Kills More Kids, Etc
I used to be able to write individual articles about the individual bad things the US empire is involved in around the world. These days I’m increasingly finding it necessary to cram a bunch of them into a single daily write-up to touch on as many of them as I can.
Never Let Your Government Tell You Who Your Enemies Are
Our real enemies are in Washington and London and Tel Aviv. In Berlin and Paris and Canberra. In secretive government agencies in the state of Virginia, and in imperial propaganda institutions in New York and Hollywood.
The Middle East Is Always At War Because The West Keeps Pushing It That Way
I hate when people say “Bah the middle east has always been at war, it’s just how they are.” No you asshole, it’s been at war because of western interventionism and Israel.
Biden Didn’t “Fail” To Get A Ceasefire; He Never Tried
(September 21, 2024)
He could have ended it with a phone call. The killing continued because he and his handlers wanted it to.
Capitalism Is Driven By Mental Illness
You actually have to be mentally ill to achieve what this profoundly sick society of ours defines as “success”. Your head has to be full of a bunch of fantasies and fictional narratives which have no basis in material reality. You’ve got to have a hole in yourself that cannot be filled with any amount of wealth or power or private jets or private islands. That’s the only thing that can propel you to step on top of all the people you need to step on in order to become obscenely rich.
The West Is A Dystopian Wasteland Of Moral Degeneracy
The moral degeneracy of this civilization looks like living lives of relative comfort built on the backs of workers in the global south whose labor and resources are extracted from their nations at profoundly exploitative rates, while raining military explosives on impoverished populations who dare to disobey the dictates of our government, day after day, year after year, decade after decade, and acting like this is all fine and normal.
Being born into western civilization is like waking up in the middle of a massive lynch mob.
Rainbow Flag Genocide Vs MAGA Hat Genocide
Can’t wait til things calm down in the middle east so I can stop getting accused of being an antisemite and go back to the old wholesome accusations of being a Russian agent.
There’s No Good News In The Unfolding Of Armageddon
Every species eventually hits an adaptation-or-extinction juncture at some point, where it must adapt to changing conditions on this planet or vanish into the fossil records. Humanity is arriving at such a juncture today. We’ll either awaken the potential which rests dormant within all of us to become a truly conscious species, or we will go the way of the dinosaur. We have the freedom to go either direction.
Washington’s Israel Policy Is Just Feigning Ignorance Of Israeli Depravity
A war zone is a collapse in law and order where might makes right and whoever has the guns makes the rules. People who normally wouldn’t risk imprisonment for acting out their fantasies of torture and murder have the opportunity during wartime to become one of the people with the guns who make the rules. They have a helpless population at their fingertips to whom they can do anything they like.
War is the worst thing in the world. It’s the most insane thing humans do. So, so much of the trauma and dysfunction of our species are the lingering reverberations from wars which ended decades ago, passed down from generation to generation by soldiers returning home and by civilians who’ve been subjected to unfathomable abuse by those who found themselves free to do anything they want to them.
Do Something Every Day To Help De-Normalize The Abuses Of The Empire
One very important task we can undertake as citizens of the western empire is to help de-normalize the tyranny, murderousness and savagery that the imperial propagandists work to normalize.
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Denormalize poverty.
Denormalize injustice and inequality.
Denormalize the ruined buildings and ruined bodies in Gaza.
Denormalize the nuclear brinkmanship with Russia.
Denormalize the destruction of our biosphere in the ravages of ecocidal capitalism.
Denormalize the surging authoritarianism we’re experiencing as the empire works frantically to stomp out dissent.
Denormalize the war machinery rolling out around the world, and the increasingly militarized police forces in our streets.
Denormalize the psychopathy of the politicians and government officials who cheerfully serve the empire in facilitation of these horrors.
Denormalize the way media and government institutions controlled by the powerful work to manipulate the way we think and perceive every day of our fucking lives for the benefit of the powerful.
Israel Supporters Are Some Of The Worst People In The World
(24.02.2024)
No political faction I have ever interacted with is as immoral and dishonest, or so frequently says things that are so jaw-droppingly disgusting I am sure I must be misinterpreting it at first. I’ve never tangled with a more odious group of people.
Stopping The Slaughter In Gaza Is More Important Than Your Feelings
Your feelings are not more important than Palestinian lives.
Your feelings are not more important than Palestinian displacement.
Your feelings are not even more important than Palestinian feelings.
Your feelings are not important. Stopping the ethnic cleansing and genocide of the people of Gaza is important.
It is a symptom of the cancerousness of western civilization that there are people living their whole lives under the entirely unquestioned assumption that their feelings are so important that it is fine and normal to expect that a limitless number of impoverished foreigners may be killed without any opposition whatsoever in order to promote the interests of their favorite ethnostate, and that anyone who does oppose it is persecuting them.
In This Dystopia, Opposing A Genocide Is Considered Worse Than Committing One
All the frenzied shrieking about pro-Palestine protests at universities these last few days makes it clear that our civilization is so twisted and insane that it sees protesting a genocide as far worse than committing one. Which is about as backwards as any society could possibly be.
Seriously, try to imagine a crazier, more upside-down civilization than one which gets more angry at people protesting genocidal atrocities than it does at people committing them.
What kind of drooling, knuckle-dragging, tapioca-brained moron looks at these photos and believes Gaza is lying about its death toll?
The US Military Was Just Used To Help A Dementia Patient Try To Start WW3
Here is a transcript of what Nancy Pelosi’s brain said:
“In our earliest days at our founding of our country, Benjamin Franklin, our presidency, said, freedom and democracy. Freedom and democracy, one thing, security here. If we don’t have- we can’t have either, if we don’t have both.”
Of course Benjamin Franklin was neither a president of the United States nor a “presidency”, and the quote Nancy’s floundering brain was reaching for was “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” These are not difficult things to remember or articulate for someone with functioning gray matter.
This is right up there with other famous neural malfunctions by the speaker, like her “Bernie loves hearing” gibberish from last year or her bizarre “Good morning, Sunday morning” restart in the middle of an interview a couple of years ago, and it calls to mind a DC pharmacist’s casual remark in 2017 that he had filled prescriptions to treat Alzheimer’s disease for some powerful decision makers on Capitol Hill.
Billionaires Are Not Morally Qualified To Shape Human Civilization
Take Bill Gates. He spends a fortune on narrative control ranging from immense contributions to The Guardian to tens of billions of dollars in grants, and he’s committed hundreds of millions of dollars to shady political influence groups as well. He’s been influencing Covid policies around the world, from intervening against the waiving of vaccine patent restrictions to facilitating the worldwide rollout of digital vaccine passports; he’s been giving countless media interviews about Covid-19 and vaccines despite having no medical degree or indeed any qualifications at all apart from a net worth of $136 billion. This is after falsely pledging to give his immense fortune away over a decade ago; his net worth has more than doubled in that time.
US Bombs Syria And Ridiculously Claims Self Defense
The US is just taking it as a given that it has de facto jurisdiction over the nations of Syria, Iraq, and Iran, and that any attempt to interfere in its authority in the region is an unprovoked attack which must be defended against. This is completely backwards and illegitimate. Only through the most perversely warped American supremacist reality tunnels can it look valid to dictate the affairs of sovereign nations on the other side of the planet and respond with violence if anyone in those nations tries to eject them.
Biden’s Iran Policy Is Just Trump’s Iran Policy With A Rainbow Flag Emoji
In a new interview with CBS Evening News, President Biden confirmed that his administration will not be lifting sanctions imposed upon Iran in order to bring Tehran to the negotiating table for the restoration of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal.
Democrats WANT To Lose The Midterms: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix
I’m seeing US progressive/DSA types getting more and more agitated about the sudden increase in hostility toward the Democrats from the left. What did they think was going to happen when the Dems took control of the entire government? You’re the power now, buttercup.
The problem with warning that the $2000 check scandal will lead to losses in the midterms is that Democrats are fine with losing in the midterms. You think they like having to own all their right wing bullshit for themselves? Democrats hate being exposed and vulnerable like this. They much prefer to blame their corporate cronyism, austerity policies and warmongering on an obstructionist Republican congress. They’re happy to lose the midterms. They prefer to lose the midterms.
“The Coming War On China” – Watch John Pilger’s Powerfully Relevant Documentary
(March 23 2020)
“The aim of this film is to break a silence: the United States and China may well be on the road to war, and nuclear war is no longer unthinkable,” Pilger says in his 2016 documentary The Coming War on China, which you can watch free on Youtube here or on Vimeo here.
“In a few years China has become the world’s second-biggest economic power,” Pilger’s introduction continues. “The United States is the world’s biggest military power, with bases and missiles and ships covering every continent and every ocean. China is a threat to this dominance, says Washington. But who is the threat? This film is about shifting power, and great danger.”
Consent-Manufacturing For Patriot Act II Continues
As we discussed previously, Biden has often boasted of being the original author of the Patriot Act years before it was rapidly rolled out amid the fear and blind obsequiousness of the aftermath of 9/11. Now in the aftermath of the Capitol riot we are seeing a push to roll out new authoritarian laws around terrorism, this time taking aim at “domestic terror”, which were also in preparation prior to the event used to manufacture support for them.
In a new article for Washington Monthly titled “It’s Time for a Domestic Terrorism Law“, Bill Scher argues against left-wing critics of the coming laws like Glenn Greenwald and Jacobin‘s Luke Savage saying such “knee-jerk reactions” against potential authoritarian abuses fail to address the growing problem. He opens with the acknowledgement that “Joe Biden’s transition team was already working on a domestic terrorism law before the insurrection,” and then he just keeps on writing as though that’s not weird or suspicious in any way.
Patriot Act 2, Censorship, And Other Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix
“We need to stop fascism so let’s give massive sweeping powers to an elite alliance of unelected authoritarians.”
“Well I’m a leftist and I haven’t been banned on social media.”
That’s because the left is politically impotent in our society. Unless this is just a hobby for you, at some point you should plan on the left becoming a threat to the oligarchs and warmongers. What do you think happens then?
Do you really think if the left actually becomes a threat to the status quo the Neera Tandens and Rachel Maddows aren’t going to suddenly discover a reason why you’re dangerous and need to be censored? The only way to be fine with censorship is to plan on never challenging power.
Maybe it‘s because I‘m Australian but I think the bar for when it‘s okay for a cop to shoot someone, ANYONE, should actually be quite high. Sorry if that freaks you out.
MSM Already Using Capitol Hill Riot To Call For More Internet Censorship
We will likely see many more such articles in the coming days, arguing for increased regulation of internet communication to prevent future incidents like today.
Secret, Invisible Evidence Of Russian Hacking Is Not Actually Evidence
Imagine if I really was claiming that the Chinese government is arming Antifa ninja warriors to kill patriotic Americans in the coming Biden Wars. How crazy would you have to be to believe what I was saying without my providing hard, verifiable evidence for my claims?
Now imagine further that this is something I’ve made false claims about many times in the past. If every few years I make a new claim about some naughty government arming Antifa super soldiers in a great communist uprising, which turns out later to have been bogus.
The Revolutionary Struggle Is A Fight Between Movement And Inertia
(16.12.2020)
The pandemic and a Democrat-controlled House presents a once-in-a-century opportunity to shove hard toward getting Americans the same healthcare rights afforded to everyone else in every major country on earth and forcing all House Democrats who oppose it to expose themselves to their constituents instead of passing the blame to the Republicans. With things getting more and more desperate, waiting for the next once-in-a-century opportunity to even begin pushing is a ridiculous proposition.
In An Insane World, Revolution Is The Moderate Position
Simply advocating sanity over insanity gets you shoved out of sight and out of mind by the narrative managers responsible for preserving a world order that is stark raving insane from top to bottom. If you oppose the systems exploited by the ruling power establishment which murders, exploits and oppresses people at home and abroad all day every day while destroying the very ecosystem we depend on for survival, then you are branded a lunatic and your wrongthink quarantined so as not to infect the mainstream herd.
This dynamic is made possible by the fact that the powerful are constantly pouring their wealth and influence into manufacturing the collective delusion that madness is sanity and sickness is health.
Surprise! America Is Getting Another Psycho For Secretary Of State
The State Department was meant to be the counterpart to the War Department, focusing on diplomacy and peace. What ended up happening as the US government morphed into a globe-spanning empire dependent on endless violence and aggression is that the State Department wound up focusing more and more on manufacturing interventionist narratives on the world stage to gin up international support for starvation sanctions, proxy wars and war coalitions.
So in practice the US ended up with two war departments: the DoD and the State Department. Which is why you’ve seen the nation’s Secretaries of State becoming more and more jingoistic and psychopathic, to the point where some sort of antisocial personality disorder is almost a job requirement for the position.
• 0% oppose war • 0% oppose oligarchy • 0% oppose sociopathic intelligence agencies • 0% oppose internet censorship • 0% oppose the drug war • 0% oppose the police state • 0% oppose mass surveillance • 0% oppose the prison-industrial complex • 0% oppose Israeli apartheid
Viral Fake Footage Of “Chinese” Atrocities Shows The Power Of Narrative Spin
The only sane response to a situation that is swamped with propaganda and disinformation is to hold tight to skepticism and agnosticism until presented with hard proof. Get comfortable with not knowing, and don’t forget that the power structures presenting you with these narratives have lied to you in the past.
Stay skeptical. Stay critical. Demand hard, verifiable proof about any claim about any US-targeted nation, and if it isn’t given to you, don’t swallow it. This is how you keep your head clear of the propaganda.
Once you realize that corporate power is America‘s real government, it becomes clear that corporate media is state media. It‘s just a tyrannical regime brainwashing its populace with propaganda, brutalizing protesters, and attacking anyone in the world who disobeys its dictates.
Don’t. Side. With. The. Powerful.
I’ve been thinking about it because it’s such an accurate reflection of how subservience to power actually manifests in our world. You talk about abusive power structures in our world, from police brutality to corporate predation to imperialist military interventionism, and many people are receptive. But you always wind up standing across from some freaky empire zombie saying “Well, what did you expect?”
It really is like a zombie infection, like a virus of the mind which spreads through propaganda and toxic ideologies and leads people to support the abuse of the disempowered by the powerful.
So It Turns Out ‘Overpopulation’ Was Always A Stupid Patriarchal Myth
The mass media have been discussing these findings with shock and alarm, because such information is likely to be new and surprising to anyone who has never gone through the all-consuming herculean effort of motherhood. To anyone who has, the idea that most women would choose to have two or fewer children if given the resources, information and freedom to do so is just self-evident common sense.