Archiv: Caitlin Johnstone


22.08.2026 - 16:45 [ Caitlin Johnstone ]

Today In Dystopia: “We Have Cameras Everywhere In That Town”

Reason shared a police body cam video of a cop confidently handing a court summons to a woman for package theft, telling her and her husband that it was “100 percent” certain she was guilty because Flock surveillance had her on camera committing the crime.

“We have cameras everywhere in that town; you can’t get a breath of fresh air in or out without us knowing,” the officer asserts on camera, saying “It is her, it is 100 percent, it is locked in, there is zero doubt; I wouldn’t have come here unless I was 100 percent sure.”

If that wasn’t Orwellian enough for you, Reason reports that the woman was only able to exonerate herself by providing police with “her cellphone tracking data, camera footage from her truck, and video placing her elsewhere at the time of the theft.” In other words, she was only saved from wrongful conviction based on faulty mass surveillance by providing correct information from other forms of mass surveillance.

06.08.2026 - 20:24 [ Caitlin Johnstone ]

“I’m Not Political” Just Means “I Support The Status Quo”

Politics is pervading every aspect of our experience of life on this planet. Our only volition is in what we choose to do about this inescapable reality.

23.05.2026 - 11:37 [ Caitlin Johnstone ]

They’re Not Mad At Ben-Gvir For Being Evil, They’re Mad At Him For Being Honest

(May 21, 2026)

Ben-Gvir’s Twitter account shared a video of the minister taunting activists who were abducted by Israeli forces in international waters earlier this week, captioning it “This is how we accept the supporters of terrorism” in Hebrew and “Welcome to Israel” in English.

The video shows flotilla activists from Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand being shoved, held in stress positions on the ground, and mocked by Ben-Gvir while restrained. This all of course pales in comparison to the abuses endured by Palestinian captives on a daily basis, but it’s the subject of international outcry today because the victims are from the west.

06.04.2026 - 17:24 [ Caitlin Johnstone ]

The Empire Is Losing Its Ability To Hide Its Ugly Nature

Garicano’s entire worldview depends on his ability to avoid recognizing the obvious truth: that the so-called “extreme left” has always been correct, and that the empire he worships has always been evil. It’s just having a harder and harder time masking its true nature, because of the very evils it has tried to conceal.

Everything’s becoming more and more revealed. More and more transparent. What was once done solely by whistleblowers, investigative journalists, activists and dissident media is now being done by the empire itself, because there’s only so long you can hide the truth about something so malignant. An empire that is held together by lies, corruption and endless slaughter was never going to remain unseen. The brutality necessary to dominate the planet had to come out into the light eventually.

“May all be revealed” has been my prayer for our world for many years now. That dearly held wish is now being answered, and the truth is looking every bit as ugly as expected.

May all be revealed. May all that is hidden become seen. In the empire. In our governments. In our culture. In our community. In our interpersonal relationships. In ourselves.

01.10.2025 - 16:40 [ Caitlin Johnstone ]

The Trumpanyahu “Peace” Plan, And Other Notes

The onus is on the party committing genocide to stop committing genocide. The onus is not on the victims of the genocide to sign agreements in the hope of saving themselves from the genocide. This is obvious to anyone who isn’t a psychopath.

(…)

I didn’t come to where I’m at ideologically from reading Lenin or talking to Marxists, I got here because I did a lot of inner work and had some transformative experiences and came out the other side with a deep love for this beautiful planet and for the strange naked ape mutants who people it, and with a yearning to help create a healthy world. I just kinda felt my way through the human experience as the barefoot hippie earth mama that I am, and it carried me to a clear intuitive understanding that the western empire must end and that capitalism cannot carry our species into the future.

28.06.2025 - 04:49 [ Caitlin Johnstone ]

The Fictional Mental Illness That Only Affects Enemies Of The Western Empire

But we are asked to believe that this vicious imperial power structure is the only rational actor on earth, and that those who resist its aggressions are the crazy ones.

And you are told that if you can’t see this, then you’re crazy too. You’re a crackpot. A conspiracy theorist. A paranoid nutball whose voice should be marginalized and whose ideas should be dismissed with a scoff.

You are crazy if you don’t believe what the world’s craziest power structure says about its enemies being crazy.

It is gaslighting on a global scale. It is madness, and that is why this civilization has gone mad.

Let’s hope someone finds a way to protect the world from the insanity of the western empire.

22.06.2025 - 21:20 [ Caitlin Johnstone ]

Tulsi Gabbard Is A Warmongering Asshole

This kind of post-truth society behavior, where one tells people they’re not seeing what’s directly in front of their eyes, is the kind of thing you only expect from Donald Trump and his most obsequious bootlickers. And what we are witnessing here is Tulsi Gabbard getting down on her knees and putting tongue to leather.

22.06.2025 - 18:47 [ Caitlin Johnstone ]

Trump Has Bombed Iran. What Happens Next Is His Fault.

Again, Iran explicitly warned it would attack the US military if the US military did the thing it just did. If and when these retaliatory strikes come, the warmongers will try to argue that this is a valid reason to escalate this war. They will be lying. They chose to make this happen.

Whatever transpires from this point on is the fault of Donald Trump and the unelected thugs he listens to. If US troops are killed, the war sluts in Washington and the Pentagon propagandists in the press will list their names and bandy about their photos and demand that their deaths be avenged with further acts of war — but it will not be Iran’s fault that they died.

It will be Trump’s fault. It will be the fault of everyone whose decisions led up to bombs being dropped on Iranian energy infrastructure, and the fault of everyone who put those soldiers in harm’s way.

None of this needed to happen. Iran was at the negotiating table. The Iran deal was working fine before Trump shredded it to put us on this terrible trajectory. The warmongers artificially manufactured this situation and knowingly inflicted this horror upon our world.

22.06.2025 - 18:40 [ Caitlin Johnstone ]

Israel Supporters Will Be Despised For The Rest of Their Lives

Everyone’s always going to remember what they did. Their grandchildren will be disgusted by them. Their families will carry their shame for generations.

30.05.2025 - 19:13 [ Caitlin Johnstone ]

This Dystopia Would Never Be Accepted Without Extensive Indoctrination

(May 27, 2025)

It takes a lot of education to make us this stupid. Our minds require a whole lot of training to accept this horrific dystopia as the baseline norm. That’s why the empire we live under has the most sophisticated domestic propaganda machine that has ever existed.

In order to have clarity, we need to learn to look with fresh eyes. Uninitiated eyes. Eyes that have not been educated out of their initial healthy impulse to weep at what we are doing and how we are living here. We need to get in touch with that intuition within us which rejects the sickness of our society as though it was meeting it for the very first time.

19.05.2025 - 12:31 [ Caitlin Johnstone ]

Imagine If Gaza Was Jewish And The People Bombing It Were Muslims

In the eyes of the western empire, there are some people who may be murdered with mass military violence, and others who may not be. There are some types of children who can be photographed with their ribcages sticking out because of deliberately inflicted starvation without causing much of a stir, and there are other types of children for whom such photographs would shake the earth.

In the eyes of the western empire, Jews are considered fully human, while Muslims and Arabs are not. A massacre of Jews is a terrible, unforgivable atrocity which cries out to the heavens for limitless vengeance, while Israel’s daily massacres of Palestinians merit nothing more than a footnote.

22.04.2025 - 03:11 [ Caitlin Johnstone ]

The Pope Has Died, And The Palestinian People Have Lost An Important Advocate

I don’t know who the cardinals will pick to replace him, but I do know with absolute certainty that there are transnational intelligence operations in the works to make sure they select a more reliable supporter of Israel.

19.03.2025 - 10:12 [ Caitlin Johnstone ]

The Empire At Its Most Honest

(February 27, 2025)

The most powerful government on earth celebrated the idea of Trump and Netanyahu presiding over orgiastic parties for the obscenely wealthy on a land that has been purged of its indigenous inhabitants following a year and a half of brutal slaughter. Twerking to shitty AI-generated techno music surrounded by golden Trump statues and hundred dollar bills, because you are so happy that you finally found a Final Solution to the Palestinian Problem.

It doesn’t get any more American than this, and it doesn’t get any more Israeli. This soulless, artless, conscienceless expression of egotistic masturbation lubricated with the blood of dead children is the empire at its most honest.

23.01.2025 - 20:42 [ Caitlin Johnstone ]

Bat Shit Insane Religious Fanaticism Is A Requirement For US Empire Managers

The world is ruled by religious fanatics with nukes. If a normal person says they’re the second coming of Jesus Christ they get medicated and institutionalized. If you make equally insane religious claims on the Senate floor, they let you run an empire.

14.01.2025 - 19:09 [ Caitlin Johnstone ]

31 Surefire Ways To Make Me Lose Interest In Your Thoughts About The World

There are signs I look for to show me whether someone is not worth the time and energy it would take to interact with them, which allows me to use that time and energy more productively. Here they are in no particular order.

Easiest ways to make me lose all interest in everything you have to say: …

11.01.2025 - 20:10 [ Caitlin Johnstone ]

There Is No Need To Wait For Revolution Or Paradise

You’re not at the bus stop, you’re on the bus. Get to work, angel.

02.01.2025 - 19:32 [ Caitlin Johnstone ]

Awakening From Empire Propaganda Starts With One Small Act Of Heresy

And it just takes one. One well-placed spotlight on one obvious plot hole is all it takes to get someone pulling on a thread that will eventually unravel the whole matrix of delusion for them. And once they’re awake, they can join us in helping to wake up the others.

So make a vocation of being a serial blasphemer. Get people asking the inconvenient questions, and spark as many small acts of heresy as you can. People are only going to awaken from the imperial narrative matrix one pair of eyelids at a time, and we each have the opportunity to spend some time every day trying to help open them.

01.01.2025 - 20:29 [ Caitlin Johnstone ]

Happy New Year. Our Society Is Every Bit As Diseased As You Suspect It Is.

The public is becoming more and more restless and agitated because they can sense that something’s wrong but can’t say what it is, like a dementia patient with a urinary tract infection. This agitation is erupting in ways which range from the crazy to the very lucid, from hate crimes and racist movements to mass protests against genocide and an expanding awareness that a better world is possible.

Our job at this point in history is to try to steer this growing restlessness toward health and clarity. To help people understand where the real bad guys are, to highlight the manipulations and abusive systems at play here, to assure everyone that their growing sense that something is very wrong is absolutely correct, and to help them see exactly what’s causing it.

27.12.2024 - 19:08 [ Caitlin Johnstone ]

Israel Is Killing Civilians In Gaza On Purpose, And It’s Not Even Debatable

There’s nothing wrong with being politically homeless at this point in history. Humanity as a whole is still wildly confused and dysfunctional in this particular slice of spacetime, and even the very best political factions are dominated by highly neurotic people who take no responsibility for their psychological state and internal clarity. If you’ve found a political party or faction you trust then that’s great, but if you haven’t then it is perfectly fine to stand as an individual while throwing your support behind worthy causes and movements on a case-by-case basis as they emerge without permanently hitching yourself to anyone else’s wagon.

We’ve still got a long way to go in maturing as a species, and it might be a while before a unified political faction arises that you can trust to consistently move in the highest interest.

15.12.2024 - 12:00 [ Caitlin Johnstone ]

Meditations On A Six Year-Old Amputee Crawling Through Gaza With The Help Of A Roller Skate

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.

11.12.2024 - 19:10 [ 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


30.11.2024 - 05:05 [ Caitlin Johnstone ]

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.

31.10.2024 - 19:10 [ Caitlin Johhnstone ]

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.

21.10.2024 - 21:22 [ Caitlin Johnstone ]

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.

16.10.2024 - 00:05 [ Caitlin Johnstone ]

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.

(…)

And we haven’t even talked about Iran yet.

11.10.2024 - 23:21 [ Caitlin Johnstone ]

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.

06.10.2024 - 22:00 [ Caitlin Johnstone ]

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.

04.10.2024 - 19:16 [ Caitlin Johnstone ]

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.