CJ>>"The empire uses Zionism as one of many tools for enacting its will in the middle east, but if it wasn’t Zionism it would be something else. The violence would play out in different ways under different narratives, but there would still be a continuous violent bludgeoning of disobedient populations in this crucial strategic region which is rich in resources and critical trade routes."
THIS! THIS is what people NEED TO UNDERSTAND thoroughly! It ISN'T Jews, or Judaism (or any religion) that perpetrates such atrocities. It is a minority (the POWER ELITE) that have successfully brainwashed/indoctrinated the masses over ages using ideologies/narratives to do their bidding. And all those that do are THE BIGGEST SUCKERS there ever were (and this includes Zionists and all the people that still haven't realized that CAPITALISM (in any form, especially late stage and neoliberal capitalism) directly leads to such behavior and atrocities through imperialism, neo-colonialism, exploitative and slave labor, debt bondage, etc.)
Colonel (retired) Wilkerson has a very interesting take on the Israel-USA relationship. He asserts the prevailing common view of the USA being the servant of Israel has got it backwards. That it's Israel doing what the USA (CIA and affiliates and fraternity bros) wants it to do. And were there no Israel, the USA would invent it. Col Wilkerson is well worth listening to....often found on Dialogue Works with Nima the truly stellar interviewer. YouTube.com
Yes! But most people wouldn't be able to understand this SIMPLE TRUTH (that it is the US) because most Americans have been brainwashed/indoctrinated into "American Exceptionalism" and that the "Americans are the good guys" narrative. Unfortunately, REAL HISTORY tells us otherwise. America was NEVER been the "Good Guys" (other than some specific instances/exceptions in history).
Once Americans understand the role their nation has played in the destruction of "other people" (including their own, I would say) and the planet (similar to Germans understanding their role in 3 genocides - Namibia, WW2, Gaza - which I feel the Germans have NOT - as seen from their support of Israel), ONLY THEN will they be able to put the pieces together and understand REALITY. Until that happens, they will CONTINUE living in their fictional realities and narratives (one of which is American Exceptionalism).
Great points. I think what keeps the Germans at bay is the old tool of control, GUILT. Of all those who have experienced genocide in their very midst, they have been positioned as the "ones" who allowed it against the "Jews" therefore, how can they show their undying repentance other than supporting almost "whatever" the Jews do?
I agree and his latest interview was superb and stated just that. He’s got it right. Mearsheimer’s view that the tail (Israel) wags the dog (the U.S.) is not right.. it’s the dog (the U.S.) that wags its tail (Israel)..
I'm definitely of two minds about this...the US Congress, State, POTUS et al are Colonial Zionist Israel's collective obedient servant. It's truly an unholy, mutually entangled alliance driven by arrogance, money, greed, power, "we do it because we can".... Add the insane Prime Monster Netanyahu to the unholy mix, and you've got...purest evil afoot.
If Israel does fail the U S it would be a total failure to the world and itself. As Israel shatters Gaza, It has lost all image, respectability, cooperation, and its dependence on Worldwide trade!!
You're right! Maersheimer, even with all his training and research and experience (maybe even because of it) still believes in the "America are the good guys" narrative (and American Exceptionalism) (IMHO). Please correct me if I am wrong on this assumption (as I like listening to Maersheimer's analysis and thoughts).
I’ve come to this conclusion about Mearsheimer as well.. I highly respect him and his views but disagree with him on this one. His book, The Israel Lobby is important scholarship and very valid in its central thesis re the outsized role that the lobby plays in the foreign policy stance of the U.S. but has the cause/effect wrong, I think. I also disagree with his assertion that the U.S. has to prevent China from dominating the South China Sea (& fight China if it tries to dominate America’s neighbourhood) and I’ve had many a debate with his AI bot in that regard..
>>"Israel wields TREMENDOUS political and media power in the US."
Yes - because America not only allowes it to, but encourages it too, and wants it to. It's a sleight of hand - this way, they can blame Israel for everything (including APAIC, Israel lobbies, etc.) thereby deflecting direct BLAME on American politicians, etc. even when EVERYTHING is being done for the sake of the US Empire.
Don't you get it yet that Israel is an important part of the US Empire? Or have you been misled (like millions of others have) into thinking that Israel acts on its own? It's all a show - a fiction - the words, actions, behaviors of all these politicians - the fake anger, fake hyperbole, fake acting, fake empathy, fake sympathy, fake compassion.
The Israel Lobbies are a convenient scapegoat that do IMPORTANT WORK for the US Empire. Until you understand this relationship, you will continue to be confused and misled about your understanding of the US Empire and how it works.
Of course, you don't have to believe anything I say. This is my perspective. I wouldn't be able to make an air-tight legal/evidence-based case to support my conclusions - as I don't have the resources to connect all-the-dots into an air-tight narrative.
Like you said in your comment that "AIPAC, Israel Lobbu money, etc. are ALL tools used by TPTB". YES - exactly! And that is what the US Empire is doing - using all these tools (Israel and Zionism being two more of them) to achieve their goals/ambitions.
Not sure if I agree with Wilkerson or Meirshiemer. I used to think our relationship with IsraHell was parasitic, but I now see that it’s symbiotic, in the most evil way possible.
I’ve thought of this quite a bit as well.. who’s doing the wagging, the dog or the tail? And the argument for both sides seems to make sense.. having said that, if special interest groups being able to influence policy is a feature not a bug in U.S. government and how it works then how can we say that the tail is wagging the dog, implying a bug or an anomaly (you usually fix a bug while a feature is an integral part of the code)? Special interest groups operating legally and freely in the political system is baked into the code (excuse the programming metaphors as that’s my industry). As a result, I still think Mearsheimer is incorrect; the Israel lobby operating within the U.S. government to skew the political decision in its favor is just BAU and no one is taking over the political decision in the U.S.. that’s how it’s supposed to be. It just so happens that the Israelis are especially good at what they do (as is big Pharma, gun lobby, etc) and they’ve built a whole infrastructure of manufacturing consent for their cause over decades (which, is now crumbling, one can also argue..) and even opposition to it is met by inertia as this has become how things are for decades..
Also, the Israel lobby is proficient in how human psychology works (as any good lobby should be) by counting on the fact that people usually move on from even the most heinous crimes as long as you create a narrative that protects you - the average Joe - from any sort of cognitive dissonance in your daily life. They tackle the problem from both the elite (government level) and the grassroots (popular level). In essence, you create a certain narrative (Jews are the timeless victims and somehow superior to others and all Arabs are bad, especially the Palestinian flavor) and once it gets lodged into the collective consciousness anything that challenges it (like a genocide committed by said victims) becomes just a matter of protecting that narrative. The heavy lifting is creating and lodging the myth/narrative into the psyche and that’s what the Israeli lobby has successfully done. They’ve even come up with a twisted logic that Jewishness is an ethnicity and created a censorship machine to protect that (antisemitism laws). Back to Mearsheimer, the Israelis clearly understand both human psychology and U.S. government so have worked quite efficiently to exploit those two so as to pass their agenda. The U.S. government is not being hijacked by Israel or its special interest group.. the Israel lobby is operating with full understanding of that system. It’s the cleverest thing ever done! Also, bear in mind that if the Nazis had militarily won WW2, we would have been justifying the slaughtering of the Jews for the sake of saving humanity (committing a small evil for a greater good). That’s how human psychology collectively works..
"People can't seem to figure out that "The US" or "Israel" or even "Britain" or any other nation state are not actually sovereign when it comes to their finances. Thus their militaries are available to The Owners, along with the other 'agencies' and 'systems' mentioned.
The very rich and mega corporations have all the say in what our "elected" governments do, including genocide, economic sabotage, assassinations, and war." There it is......
It's all the game of Empire and Empire Building. We like to throw the words around like "civilization" vs "barbarism" but most if not all Empires are built on barbarism. The colluding of the leaders and the masses in societies where Empires were/are built require so many moving parts, slights of hand, game changers, revolutionaries, traitors, intrigue and hidden hands and more. My mom always used to say, "There is not honesty among thieves." So they will undermine each other crash and burn, and yet it keeps happening over and over. Makes me wonder if humans are just hard-wired to keep doing this over and over again.
But how do we get through to these suckers who have, through education indoctrination totally lost the ability to think critically? Only a total implosion of their system will start the change but I still think most would gladly follow them through the gates of Hell.
>>"But how do we get through to these suckers who have, through education indoctrination totally lost the ability to think critically?"
I don't know, and I really wish I did...
As for me, I myself WAS one of THOSE SUCKERS for a huge part of my life. What woke up me completely was the COVID fiasco (including the fear mongering, authoritarianism, etc.), though I was partially awake before then.
The handling of the Covid crisis (by Governments all over the world) made me deeply question EVERYTHING I believed and thought I knew. It was a tough period/journey, and still continues today.
Maybe some of these OTHER SUCKERS will experience EVENTS in their lives (like I did) that will cause them to start QUESTIONING things and lead to their WAKING UP.
The state of education (and especially education about critical thinking, media literacy, and financial literacy) is woefully inadequate or outright non-existent (and the power elite want to keep it this way so as not to be able to challenge the status quo and our dystopian systems that work mostly for the 1%).
When they see the sleeping giant starting to wake up, they throw more distractions, scare tactics and deterrents at them. One of the things that I noticed when they used an insidious virus to shut the world down was, it got all the protestors off the streets. Remember the yellow jackets? Remember the other protests going on around the world? There was a mini awakening happening just before the lockdowns. I know these folks stay up late at night figuring out ways to keep the masses on the gravy train, and away from what is truly happening in our world. The Plandemic was a master test of just how manipulatable the masses were. They may wake up for a moment, but the sleeping giant just can't seem to keep its hand off the snooze button.
With a New Year just 6 hours away in my geography, let us hope that 2025 becomes a realisation year for all.
The problem clearly in the world, understood by all, the power elite identified for all to know and the media required to tell it how it REALLY is. Media lies subject to penalties. Large ones.
Not suggesting that we see a major effort as with Mr. Maglione, but those people should get a clear understanding that the world knows who they are, their crimes known to all, the world dislikes every thing they have done and make a clear point that this is the end of such activities, forever.. Their ill-gotten gains to serve the poor.
Then change the rules that have allowed bribery and corruption in elections while at the same time, make a President's role that of a figurehead .....ONLY.
When all this happens, if Biden is still around, charge him with every crime in the book.
We started off, as they say anyways, as clans. Remember planet of the apes? As clans we were more insolated. Then something inside said, let's go out and explore. Shortly after the clan wars started. Humans began to covet what other humans had. Like toddlers in the sandbox, humans were selfish and others greedy. I think we have been retarded in our journey towards being emotionally mature. We are essentially consumers, but we are also on a planet in which we need to consume in order to survive. Consumption becomes avarice that becomes greed and before you know, we are battling over each others stuff.
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
The hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of great moral conflict.
The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.
We will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.
Pity may represent little more than the impersonal concern which prompts the mailing of a check, but true sympathy is the personal concern which demands the giving of one’s soul.
Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.
The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: “If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?” But… the good Samaritan reversed the question: “If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?”
In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.
He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.
History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.
Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.
And one thing people are yet to notice is that in this day and age of the smartphone and internet, one's stance will be clearly seen by future generations including our children and grandchildren (if humanity survives that far) in our online trail of social media et all.. and then they will ask what their parents and elders did in such times and for the evidence online, what the fuck will the silent idiots say then?
"Western civilization... is a profoundly sick dystopia built by genocide and slavery and fueled by human blood."
A perfect definition. Our vampire ways of sucking the life out of our planet and hoarding it to ourselves have created and sustained this genocide in Gaza and all the others. It's time to put a stake in the Western vampire's heart and bury it at the crossroads.
Past time, so we need to start taking apart that metaphor and find out what the stake is, where the heart is, and what the crossroads is. So to speak. We need a profound revolution, a radical revolution, overturning not some government or other ephemeral things, but a dominant culture based on domination--we need to undo mistakes made thousands of years ago, that made war and conquest, enslavement and plunder, acceptable and even heroic. An intimate part of this ehthic is the domination of women and of all the non-human people with whom we share this planet.
We are all enslaved by western civilization. It's an inherent feature of a system that generates inequality as surely as it generates rubbish. And consumes energy and resources, only occasionally attendant to the finite nature of the orb we share, mostly in denial, mostly delusional about the capacity of technology to salvage what it helped create: A more densely intertwined, more sophisticated variant of slavery.
❤ this comment, I totally agree. I remember years ago a good friend of mine said, "We are enslaved by modern convenience." How true it is. Western civilization gives us all the gadgets and we fill our homes with lots of "stuff" we actually don't need or barely use. It doesn't fill the void, though, no matter how much more we get.
The Sephardic Jews were central to the origin of the conquest of the Western Hemisphere, from which Western Imperialism really arose. Research the history of the sugar business that began in southern Iraq using African slaves. Google "Black Iraqis." Follow the spread of slavery-based sugar plantations westward to the continental islands of Cabo Verde, then to Pernambuco in Brasil, then to Surinam, then to Barbados and the entire Carribean. The Sephardic Jews were involved in this at all levels: finance, slave-importation, plantation management, refining, selling sugar. Money propels all action.
But I think Caitlin is trying to get us to see that we all buy into it. In some way or other we are just as complicit. We have to do a deep dive, change how we live in this material world, because this genocide is actually using the tools of Empire that we have right now in our lives. It's a hard cut, but we can at least be more conscientious about what we consume, how we live our lives, stop spending, become more aware of how our way of life supports the Empire. I often wondered what would happen if we would protest in front of one the Military industrial complex's factories that make instruments that kill people. Protest there for the purpose of talking to the workers, not talk to the CEO. I wonder if we could get them to quit their jobs???
Beyond excellent, Caitlin! Resonant.... Global South: arise and shine...faster, please!
I grieve for every last soul -- every last human life -- that has been sacrificed to Colonial Zionism's genocidal lust in Gaza and so many other locations. But you're right: it's the "West's" doing....
The root of evil is self interest which is why not only are Western governments participating but Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, India, and a long list of others do nothing to stop the genocide. A vote in the UN means nothing beyond virtue signaling as even Muslim nations twiddle their thumbs while Palestinian babies freeze to death, journalists are targeted and killed and hospitals blown up.
Self interest rules the day. I saw an interview with Pope Francis who skillfully dodged questions about children dying in Gaza with every platitude you can think of. I’m Catholic and I’m ashamed he hasn’t roundly condemned every Christian who doesn’t speak out and every so-called Christian nation that supports it.
There are more Christian Zionists than Jewish Zionists and the former are more influential than the latter, at least where American politics are concerned. And don’t forget that a great many Jews are not Zionist, or even anti-Zionist.
And no denying that a lot more western non-Jews act in kind. Or maybe even vice versa - Jews do what they do because of the West. The whole point of the Caitlin's post.
To blame society, to blame civilization, to blame "all of us" is in effect to blame none of us. Tens of millions of Americans have denounced the Israeli retaliation to Oct 7 as unjust, and of course, the same is true in Europe, and civilization includes Africa and Asia who bare no blame.
I think Caitlin has lost her way. Having denounced the rare Western leaders who have called out the genocide and a halt to US weapons to Israel, she has nothing more to offer other than blame, and rather than focus that blame on those responsible, I would put Netanyahu and his rightwing regime first and Biden and his regime second, we are just throwing blame everywhere, which is to say no where. I think Caitlin, whom I deeply admire and often quote, has burned out. It is understandable, as she has on a daily basis carried on a brave struggle against the media and the Western powers that support and supply Israel. But blaming this vague abstraction" civilization" and "all of us, including those of us who have rejected the official narrative fro the beginning, for the genocide in Gaza is a useless and pointless gesture, suggesting not a path to remedy the evil but a surrender to a kind of moral nihilism. I know I will get attacked for this opinion, but that is price of not being a cult follower, as some are.
No I have not burned out, you've just been raging for weeks because I criticized your beloved AOC and Bernie Sanders. And now you're babbling about "cult followers" as though you're not one.
Explain why you would "criticize" (you did more than that!) the people calling out the genocide and proposing bills to stop it? Whe you say I am raging and babbling, you are using manipulative rhetoric, indicating a departure from civil and rational discourse. By no means am I a cult follower, as you accuse me HOw dare you? Only a burnt out person would respond to criticism by calling the critic a cult follower. I note you totally ignore the main point I made, which is that you are now attacking those who should be united in opposing genocide. It is not a cult behavior to accurately quote AOC when she calls out Israel for genocide, which you have also ignored, just as you ignore Sanders and the others who have proposed halting weapons to Israel. It is not cult following to support naming and ending the genocide; and if I were a cult follower of you, as some on these pages are, I would not be criticizing you. Nor am a cult follower of those who oppose genocide but a supporter. To me, a person who has followed and admired your courage to speak out for many years, your recent articles are signs of being worn out, which is understandable. I suggest you do some self-reflection and recharge your battery instead of accusing me of ranting and babbling.
Those Americans you say are protesting….keep voting to send butchers to run the Vile House and the keep the packs of jackals housed in the senate and congress. Consistently. Since before we were born.
Yup this. Look at how many Americans voted for genocide.
Both Harris and Trump planned to continue giving Israel all the support it needs and very few people voted for the anti genocide candidates. Stein got less votes this time than last.
And most people in congress have been solidly in Israel’s pocket for decades.
for Heaven's sake! Yes most Americans voted for either the pro-genocide candidate or the other pro-genocide candidate, or didn't vote. I voted for Stein, but knew there was zero chance she could win--the media can see to that. She likely wasn't on the ballot in many states, many people had never heard of her, and I heard whispers this time on the left media that she was a terrible candidate who was running for ego reasons, etc.
You can't blame people for how they vote when the game is rigged and they can only vote for one bad candidate or another bad candidate. And US elections are rigged even in ways not present in other countries--for example I live in a state that is solidly "red" so it didn't matter that I voted for Stein rather than Harris, in terms of the ways Trump will be even worse--under our system, if one more Republican votes in a state than Democrats, they get all the "electoral college" votes of that state. And that number depends on how many people live in that state, for half, but the other half is just equal for all states, some of which have 100 times the population of others. And it happens that most of the states with few people are Republican states. So in effect, voters in Wyoming have a dozen votes each. And gerrymandering is mostly legal, so whichever party has control of the statehouse can draw the district lines in census years (every ten years) to ensure that they will get a majority of seats even if two thirds of the votes are for the other party. The media sees to it that only the Republicrats and Demublicans are meaningful participants.
We can't do it by voting, we should be able to see that by now. Look at what happens after the vote. They appoint their henchmen to run the country. The voter has no say as they appoint their side kicks. We have to vote by changing our actions on a personal level. Change what we do in our own lives. Become more conscientious of how and what we consume. Say no to genocide, by not supporting the war machine through what we consume, where we spend, how we spend, what we hold as value. Politicians will never do that for us. They show us that over and over. We are the ones we are waiting for, we are the change. If we turn away from them, they will lose power over us.
Yes, so why do you say elsewhere that Americans covet what empire brings, and that's why we elect billionaires and millionaires? Our elections are a total fake--we don't have a realistic chance to vote for anyone who prioritizes the 99%, international justice, peace or even universal healthcare. In any case, to talk about what Americans want is a cloudy question. Large majorities want universal healthcare, peace, abortion rights, restrictions on guns--if you ask those questions without a party label. And even beyond that, what we want is affected by the relentless propaganda, not only in the "news" media, but in advertising, covert public relations campaigns, the distortions in social media...and the hardwired element of herd behavior in humans, so that if manipulators can get enough people spouting a certain line, they can get the rest to believe it.
"And even beyond that, what we want is affected by the relentless propaganda, not only in the "news" media, but in advertising, covert public relations campaigns, the distortions in social media...and the hardwired element of herd behavior in humans, so that if manipulators can get enough people spouting a certain line, they can get the rest to believe it."
This is exactly what I mean. Those millionaires and billionaires live high off the hog. Because of the way they are living large and the way that living large is presented to the masses as the best way to live, people continue to vote for what they have been indoctrinated to believe is the "best life". Think about it. CEO's make enough money in one year to pay everyone's salary for that year (just a bit of an exaggeration, but not too much), so who doesn't want a piece of that pie. DJT has golden toilets. So, what people will do is vote for these folks if only to say that they are part of their club and can bask in their light at the rallies. But how on God's green Earth, can a billionaire actually relate to the populous? By telling them they were once there, where they are, and that they worked their asses off to get there and so that gives them hope that they too can be rich and famous. Instead of the billionaires sharing their wealth, they hoard it and flaunt it for the masses to covet it. The propaganda never points out the avarice, greed or cut-throat tactics they used to become billionaires. And it never shows the destruction of lives and the environment that happens as a part of their journey to the top. There's a great little storybook, that I advice all parents to read to their children, and even to read it themselves. It's called "Hope for the Flowers" by Trina Paulus, https://www.hopefortheflowers.com/
Yes Klonda56, I would only see the American/European public as blameless if they rise up against their malevolent ruling class; not only out of self-interest but for a better world.
This has been successfully forestalled, so far, by dividing us up into two opposing camps. Also, Americans are in a trance state as a result of constant cellphone use, barely able to distinguish reality.
You fail to accept the collective guilt that the West carries. You have distanced yourself from the majority and decided to shove the blame on the "others", and continue to live in the community.
I'll bet that you never bring up the subject with your neighbours, out of fear they might not talk to you again. So you resort to posting anonymously on social media as an outlet for your guilt.
I am fed up with, "I disagree with what's going on, but the elites are responsible".
Another often heard comment about Russia, or China, or name your other race nation, is, "I like the people, but don't like their leaders". With the implied notion that the West should go a kill the leaders and free the people.
Okay, so...all people living in the US, Canada, the EU, Australia or the UK are guilty of what the empire does because we have not managed to overthrow it--while everyone who lives elsewhere, despite their failure to overthrow THEIR governments, are blameless? Maybe we need less blame and more discussion about HOW we might overthrow the empire. And not by any tawdry, limited, classical revolution in which we substitute one ruling thug for another, but with a REAL change. A world without war, without wealth or hunger, without domination and exploitation, a world where the most thoroughly voiceless and oppressed of all--future generations and nonhuman people--are cared for--I don't think most people can even imagine such a world.
This is not directed to anyone here in the comments, but I noticed something....zionists blame Palestinians for their own murder because they say the people in Gaza should have overthrown Hamas and then everything would be fine. Obviously that's a fallacy, but I guess if the children in Gaza are expected to rise up against the government that was elected years before their birth, which was never allowed to rule or hold any more elections (because of the west), then what's our excuse?!?
Also we in the West lead very cushy lives and are terrified of what people will think of us if we speak out, and the vast majority of us have done way too little to stop this. I am not physically able to lead a revolution, but I know I could do a lot more. I'll try 🇵🇸🔻
It is the blatant hypocrisy and lies of the whites that make me angry.
Own the damn actions of your leaders. Proclaim that your country is committing genocide and that you personally either benefit or don't give a shit.
Accept that if today another 10 children are killed or maimed in Palestine that you don't really care.
You never shed a single tear, utter a word in abhorrence loudly to your neighbours, you never sent a complaint to your representative in parliament that you disagree. You don't damn well care. Those suffering are subhuman, non-whites, living 15,000 kilometers away.
Proclaim that my country is committing genocide--yes it is, the US is as involved as Israel in this, and has plenty of other crimes in its history--and that I personally either benefit or don't give a shit--but wait, I don't see how I benefit and I DO give a shit. I do bitch to the people laughably called "my representatives" and the stuff they reply with enrages me. But what do I DO about it? And the reality is that while the Gaza situation is particularly egregious, awful and undeniable right now--the US is ALWAYS engaging in horrendous crimes, not only on the warfare front but in blocking environmental and arms control treaties, the Rights of the Child, anything progressive. At times I've had fantasies of moving elsewhere, but aside from the practical problems, every country I've imagined moving to then has an election that puts in right-wingers.
So I do the two things I suggest people should do in these pre-collapse days--1) work to get my household and ideally my community to be as self-reliant as possible (we have off-grid solar, heat with wood, I grow half our food: I write a garden column)--both for our own security and because this withdraws support from The Machine--and 2) fight to defeat whatever is the latest stupid destructive project (environmental issues are my top concern)--I live in West Virginia so there is always some fossil fuel scheme, currently a "hydrogen hub" to waste tax dollars subsidizing the fracked gas industry.
It's simultaneously true that everyone bears some responsibility for the environmental crises threatening human survival, and that some people are MUCH more responsible. I think you could say this about injustice situation too--while most people could do more about it than they do, some people have worked hard for a century to normalize warfare and imperialism and exploitation, often in a clandestine fashion (Public Relations).
Why do you think that anyone that disagrees with you is a cult follower?? That is an inherently illogical argument only designed to artificially bolster your position without having to resort to providing actual cogent evidence of why your detractors are wrong..also, damning with faint praise is trying to lend weight to your position. You’re not very successful, I have to say..
Blaming the evil ones, the leaders and the CEOS, believing that they are completely different and separate to us and stirring up violence thoughts against them is part of the propaganda that the powerful assault us with.
They don't want us looking into our own hearts and finding love and peace and non-separation of all beings.
They want them and us, good and evil, anger and hate, violence and guns.
They don't want us accepting our own culpability in genocide, neocolonialism and the environmental and climate crisis- and possibly changing our purchasing behaviour!
They want us blaming someone else, that if we could just get rid of them it'd all be OK. They want us continuing to support the exploitation and extraction of other earthlings and resources.
I am reminded of times in different countries where throngs, thousands of citizens showed up in the streets in such numbers their governments shivered and acquiesced in some significant way. Perhaps someone reading this can provide the specific historical names....I share Caitlin's view up to a point...for American citizenry have been slack in insisting - with their bodies on the pavement in intentional strategic actions - rectifications. (Health care system, obscene participation in Israeli genocide of the Palestinians, drug prices, police violence and racism, mediocre climate action, corrupted Supreme
Court, Empire violence and sanctions, student and medical debt, criminalizing protest and speech, homelessness etc). Heartening are the rising strike actions against the indecent treatment of workers. But - if the psychopathic/sociopathic leaders do harm to us and our fellows, and to democratic institutions, including the US Post Office, then we do collude by our silence and acquiescence in our own relative and/or actual demise. Awareness without responsive, creative action in service to the good and beautiful leads to resentment, learned powerlessness and sense of worthlessness. The recipe for deeper apathy and alienation.
there can be gradations in blame. you know that. those who actually speak out know that. even your cult-leaders know that. afaik, aaron bushnell is among the few who can be considered more or less blameless.
Part of your point is the same as mine above, but I don't think this error means Caitlin has lost her way or burned out. It's just a mistake that needs correcting. She IS right that the atrocities of Israel are part of the ongoing atrocity of colonialism--she just makes the mistake of blaming entire countries rather than their governments and the rich and power (and MEDIA) figures who pull their strings.
You were doing fine until you threw out the cult word. Please reflect and if you are fine with disparaging others as cultists so be it but I think it’s a cheap shot.
Israel is historically rooted in Western antisemitism. How could that ever work?
The British, French, and USA are responsible for setting up the Jews in an untenable situation after WWII. The pattern was set before Israel was officially recognized with the "hand over" of Palestinian homelands to Jewish refugees who were unwelcome in Europe or North America. The Western powers' antisemitic plan was to maintain remote control in the region using Jews as blameable intermediaries (as the ruling elites have used Jews for centuries). That cynical plan barely worked from the start and its failure is now obvious. Doubling down on bad (ineffective and cruel) policy is insanity.
We in the West who inherit the responsibility and continue to benefit (with compound interest) need to step up and end it or go down trying.
What country are you in, if i may ask? From Arabic YouTube (through translation) i get the sense almost everyone in the Arab world is furious over Gaza except for the do-nothing leaders like Sisi, MBS, and King Abdellah, and the people of those countries are furious with theor collaborator leaders, but can't do anything about it. Are educational institutions being bullied there the way Western ones are?
I've been thinking of moving to a Muslim country but the one I have family in also has a do-nothing leader. 🤦♀️
I don’t mind saying that I am in the U.A.E. No commentary about the leadership, though. :) I will say that I’ve had conversations with the lay person. I have heard “I don’t care about the Ps” more than once from a variety of people from the region. That includes people from both the Gulf and the Maghreb.
Wow, I'm sad to hear there are people who don't care. I hoped better for countries closer to Palestine but I know the wealth in UAE complicates things. Are there protests in the streets? Does the government try to silence people?
It’s not wealth. Emiratis comprise only 11% of the population. Much of the rest is comprised of middle class people from 190 countries. I’ve heard these statements from middle class and wealthy, newly-arrived and here-for-generations. Frankly, there is far more resistance occurring in the West!
I am well aware of all of this! Frankly, it’s just not the point. There is LOSING a good fight. Then, there is capitulating before attempting to fight while PRETENDING to support the cause. Conceptually, these are two very very different positions. Empirically, capitulating has not resulted in universal benefit.
You are talking to an African American that was born in the 1960s to parents and in a community that stood its ground irrespective of the physical, psychological, and capital risks. Capitulating can be rationalized quite easily given the lack of a penchant to stand one’s ground in the interest of what might be a better (albeit more difficult to achieve) outcome.
I am also a professor in West Asia who has heartbreaking conversations with Lebanese, Palestinian, and Syrian 20 year-olds, regularly. What they tell me is that they are more disillusioned by the lack of a local response than they are surprised by western political action.
I agree with you but before specifying Namibia, I suggest that Britain, France, Belgium, the Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese have committed more genocide than Germany. Yes, we have 'THE Holocaust', and yes, it was horrific and unforgivable, but it is also used as a weapon by Israel to justify its own Genocide of Palestinians, and it is worth noting that the number 6 million was first mentioned by a clairvoyant Zionist at the 1897 Berne Conference, also a 'figure' mentioned 200 times in USA newspapers between 1901 and 1942.
Errrr… why are you two leaving out the Disunited States, which perpetrated TWO Holocausts:
One against the Indigenous Native Americans, and one against Africans involuntarily imported for the slave trade.
Those Holocausts, I might add, took place over HUNDREDS of years.
And how “antisemitic “ of me to point out that Jews were heavily involved the in slave trade. Please see the writings of Professor Tony Martin, who was the victim of a vicious smear campaign for teaching this to his students ( Martin, btw, is a descendant of slaves.)
I disagree with Caitlin in two ways. 1) She erroneously frames the responsible people behind the Arab/Jew conflict as either the "Western Imperialists," or "The Jews." The truth is that yes, the Imperialists are involved, and yes, the vast majority of Jewish leaders both inside and outside Israel are orchestrating how the Imperialists participate in the genocide. To deny the role of Judaism (both in Israel and the diaspora) is to deny history. Before Israel's birth, the conflict was called the "Arab/Jew" conflict. Look on Google Ngram for that fact. After Israel, the Jewish leaders convinced the western powers that diaspora Jews disengaged from the conflict and that the conflict is only between Arabs and Israel. This is a lie.
Caitlin's view ignores the fact of the political power expressed by the diaspora. It's called the Jewish Lobby, and it's made up of over 450 Jewish political organizations, over 350 in the US alone. It's funded to billions of dollars by the diaspora Jewish community and Israel. It's an indirect way that Israel violates several US laws coined to prevent foreign influence on our government. Israel has free access to our government via this Jewish Lobby, and a list of those organizations are given below. These are the data and the facts that Caitlin hasn't acknowledged.
Another reason I disagree with Caitlin is because she appears to contradict herself. She's willing to bad mouth the Western Imperialists, the USA, and other groups, as groups that produce a net outcome of bad/evil overt actions, yet she says it's incorrect to regard Judaism as a group that also produces a net outcome of bad overt actions. Both Caitlin and I really mean that it's the leaders of these groups, but of course, we must also regard the followers to have some responsibility in it.
If you take Caitlin's reasons for not including "Judaism" as such a group, you must also not accuse the "Western powers," the "USA," etc. All these groups have different factions, with dissident members, and just because the USA and Judaism for instance have dissidents doesn't mean it's wrong to use those labels to describe a group that does wrong. It's also wrong to accuse a critic of the USA or of Judaism of hating US citizens or Jews. These are POLITICAL discussions, and we want to identify who the true culprits are. If we avoid that identification, no amount of journalism will be of any help to the victims we all want to protect.
Why cannot Caitlin understand that Judaism has an extraordinarily strong political arm? The link above proves it beyond any reasonable doubt. To criticize the USA or Judaism is not the same as hating US citizens or individual Jews. I think many journalists set up a straw man, saying that if you criticize Judaism and both its leaders and followers, you are condemning Jews to pogroms. It doesn't follow. We have laws to protect individual Jews against violence conducted just because there are Jews. We have laws protecting individual US citizens in the same way. These journalists unnecessarily confuse the issue by playing the "antisemitic" card, which has expired. Too many of us know of the power of Jewish leaders in the US government, and their power to indoctrinate the masses. Caitlin expresses such indoctrination. Both the Repug and the Dem political conventions displayed an obvious and disgusting capitulation to Jew Power.
Gypsy, thank you. That helps. The hurricane of propaganda is sometimes too powerful to stand up against. So we need to do the most that we could do, say the truth in the best way it could be said.
Assuming you are referring to my first comment above, No. I constantly check when people acknowledge the links I post. No journalist, Caitlin, Jonathan Cook, Norman Finkelstein, Noam Chomsky, Gideon Levy, Phil Weiss, and many others included have not acknowledged this most important evidence for the Jewish Lobby, and that the so-called "Israel Lobby" is a way for Jewish leaders to be unaccountable. The only noteworthy other journalist I didn't check is Mikal Peled, and I'm curious what he'd say. You're grabbing at straws, avoiding the central issue, which is the identification of Judaism itself as the primary perpetrator of the Conquest of Palestine.
oh, it's about following your specific link and confirming it is the most important evidence. my mistake, i thought you meant that she (and the other authors) didn't acknowledge that there was a jewish lobby.
caitlin's article indeed says the central issue is elsewhere while you seem to argue that removing judaism would stop what's happening in gaza. one might paraphrase like you 'say that our society is perfectly fine and healthy and that none of this would be happening if not for the machiavellian manipulations of a small abrahamic religion', and thus denying 'the reality that the middle east is on fire right now because of everything this perverse civilization is and always has been.' in that way your argument seems more a defense of western civilization. enter paragraph 4.
Martin, thanks for the explanation. But your interpretation of what I'm saying is exaggerated. I'm not denying that there are US politicians that are acting in complicity with the Jewish genocide for their own selfish reasons. Probably some of that has nothing to do with Judaism, but also, some of it IS the result of the Jewish Lobby and its political tentacles. There are complexities here that we could never figure out completely, and such is always the case when trying to understand political outcomes.
I'm saying simply that Jewish leaders in the diaspora have an enormous effect on the behavior of the US in the M.E., and much of that behavior is against US interest in the region. As support, I cite "The Jewish Lobby and US Foreign Policy," 2006, by Mearsheimer and Walt, where they came to the same conclusion and other shocking conclusions after much scholarly deliberation. Of course the Jewish Lobby condemned that report, as you'd expect. Google it.
The ironies here are monumental. Caitlin criticizes entire nations and groups of nations as an evil entity. I understand her point and do not object to it. But she cannot bring herself to criticize a minority with an extremely organized and powerful political arm. The latter is much more tight knit and categorizable than are nations and groups of nations. So why does she paint such a wide swath when criticizing such loose categories as nations and groups of nations and cannot see the tight political organization of Judaism? Her behavior is irrational. It's absurd to say that Judaism plays no political role in US society and government. It's one of the better organized Special Interest Groups, such as the MIC, the fossil fuel industry, the banking industry, and others. And very few of these other groups have damaged American democracy more than Judaism has.
I'm also saying that no journalist of note, to my knowledge, has acknowledged the fact of the US Jewish Lobby. That's because Jewish leaders have cleverly instilled a belief that there's only an Israel Lobby which has nothing to do with Judaism. It's not only absurd, it's one of the biggest lies in the annals of US history. Along with that belief is the acusation of dissenters for being antisemitic, the worst possible crime, even worse than genocide.
If you care to express your own thinking, let me ask you what you think of the list contained in the following link:
imo, caitlin knows, the other authors and journalists that matter know (and are aware of mr mearsheimer's work), the world knows. it is quite open and obvious. anybody that has been paying attention to bibi's visits to congress knows. i think now one should ask oneself why they let it happen.
i think you also use a straw man by stating that the author said 'that judaism plays no political role in us society and government'. you also seem to think there's something like 'american democracy' to be damaged (again a defense of 'western civilization'), and the other interest groups are definitely on par with the jewish lobby regarding damage to humanity. judaism is a religion of which quite some serious scholars say that the zionist project is totally at odds with.
did you compile that list yourself and what is the purpose?
CJ>>"The empire uses Zionism as one of many tools for enacting its will in the middle east, but if it wasn’t Zionism it would be something else. The violence would play out in different ways under different narratives, but there would still be a continuous violent bludgeoning of disobedient populations in this crucial strategic region which is rich in resources and critical trade routes."
THIS! THIS is what people NEED TO UNDERSTAND thoroughly! It ISN'T Jews, or Judaism (or any religion) that perpetrates such atrocities. It is a minority (the POWER ELITE) that have successfully brainwashed/indoctrinated the masses over ages using ideologies/narratives to do their bidding. And all those that do are THE BIGGEST SUCKERS there ever were (and this includes Zionists and all the people that still haven't realized that CAPITALISM (in any form, especially late stage and neoliberal capitalism) directly leads to such behavior and atrocities through imperialism, neo-colonialism, exploitative and slave labor, debt bondage, etc.)
Colonel (retired) Wilkerson has a very interesting take on the Israel-USA relationship. He asserts the prevailing common view of the USA being the servant of Israel has got it backwards. That it's Israel doing what the USA (CIA and affiliates and fraternity bros) wants it to do. And were there no Israel, the USA would invent it. Col Wilkerson is well worth listening to....often found on Dialogue Works with Nima the truly stellar interviewer. YouTube.com
Yes! But most people wouldn't be able to understand this SIMPLE TRUTH (that it is the US) because most Americans have been brainwashed/indoctrinated into "American Exceptionalism" and that the "Americans are the good guys" narrative. Unfortunately, REAL HISTORY tells us otherwise. America was NEVER been the "Good Guys" (other than some specific instances/exceptions in history).
Once Americans understand the role their nation has played in the destruction of "other people" (including their own, I would say) and the planet (similar to Germans understanding their role in 3 genocides - Namibia, WW2, Gaza - which I feel the Germans have NOT - as seen from their support of Israel), ONLY THEN will they be able to put the pieces together and understand REALITY. Until that happens, they will CONTINUE living in their fictional realities and narratives (one of which is American Exceptionalism).
Nailed it!
Great points. I think what keeps the Germans at bay is the old tool of control, GUILT. Of all those who have experienced genocide in their very midst, they have been positioned as the "ones" who allowed it against the "Jews" therefore, how can they show their undying repentance other than supporting almost "whatever" the Jews do?
I agree and his latest interview was superb and stated just that. He’s got it right. Mearsheimer’s view that the tail (Israel) wags the dog (the U.S.) is not right.. it’s the dog (the U.S.) that wags its tail (Israel)..
I'm definitely of two minds about this...the US Congress, State, POTUS et al are Colonial Zionist Israel's collective obedient servant. It's truly an unholy, mutually entangled alliance driven by arrogance, money, greed, power, "we do it because we can".... Add the insane Prime Monster Netanyahu to the unholy mix, and you've got...purest evil afoot.
If Israel does fail the U S it would be a total failure to the world and itself. As Israel shatters Gaza, It has lost all image, respectability, cooperation, and its dependence on Worldwide trade!!
And the banker owns the dog
Wow, someone should make a meme of this statement. It says it all for sure.
You're right! Maersheimer, even with all his training and research and experience (maybe even because of it) still believes in the "America are the good guys" narrative (and American Exceptionalism) (IMHO). Please correct me if I am wrong on this assumption (as I like listening to Maersheimer's analysis and thoughts).
I’ve come to this conclusion about Mearsheimer as well.. I highly respect him and his views but disagree with him on this one. His book, The Israel Lobby is important scholarship and very valid in its central thesis re the outsized role that the lobby plays in the foreign policy stance of the U.S. but has the cause/effect wrong, I think. I also disagree with his assertion that the U.S. has to prevent China from dominating the South China Sea (& fight China if it tries to dominate America’s neighbourhood) and I’ve had many a debate with his AI bot in that regard..
Yes, I agree with you on ALL points. I hope more people start understanding these points too.
>>"Israel wields TREMENDOUS political and media power in the US."
Yes - because America not only allowes it to, but encourages it too, and wants it to. It's a sleight of hand - this way, they can blame Israel for everything (including APAIC, Israel lobbies, etc.) thereby deflecting direct BLAME on American politicians, etc. even when EVERYTHING is being done for the sake of the US Empire.
Don't you get it yet that Israel is an important part of the US Empire? Or have you been misled (like millions of others have) into thinking that Israel acts on its own? It's all a show - a fiction - the words, actions, behaviors of all these politicians - the fake anger, fake hyperbole, fake acting, fake empathy, fake sympathy, fake compassion.
The Israel Lobbies are a convenient scapegoat that do IMPORTANT WORK for the US Empire. Until you understand this relationship, you will continue to be confused and misled about your understanding of the US Empire and how it works.
Of course, you don't have to believe anything I say. This is my perspective. I wouldn't be able to make an air-tight legal/evidence-based case to support my conclusions - as I don't have the resources to connect all-the-dots into an air-tight narrative.
Like you said in your comment that "AIPAC, Israel Lobbu money, etc. are ALL tools used by TPTB". YES - exactly! And that is what the US Empire is doing - using all these tools (Israel and Zionism being two more of them) to achieve their goals/ambitions.
He’s almost an apologist in sheep’s clothing on his analyses of the coflict
Hi Diana
Not sure if I agree with Wilkerson or Meirshiemer. I used to think our relationship with IsraHell was parasitic, but I now see that it’s symbiotic, in the most evil way possible.
I’ve thought of this quite a bit as well.. who’s doing the wagging, the dog or the tail? And the argument for both sides seems to make sense.. having said that, if special interest groups being able to influence policy is a feature not a bug in U.S. government and how it works then how can we say that the tail is wagging the dog, implying a bug or an anomaly (you usually fix a bug while a feature is an integral part of the code)? Special interest groups operating legally and freely in the political system is baked into the code (excuse the programming metaphors as that’s my industry). As a result, I still think Mearsheimer is incorrect; the Israel lobby operating within the U.S. government to skew the political decision in its favor is just BAU and no one is taking over the political decision in the U.S.. that’s how it’s supposed to be. It just so happens that the Israelis are especially good at what they do (as is big Pharma, gun lobby, etc) and they’ve built a whole infrastructure of manufacturing consent for their cause over decades (which, is now crumbling, one can also argue..) and even opposition to it is met by inertia as this has become how things are for decades..
Also, the Israel lobby is proficient in how human psychology works (as any good lobby should be) by counting on the fact that people usually move on from even the most heinous crimes as long as you create a narrative that protects you - the average Joe - from any sort of cognitive dissonance in your daily life. They tackle the problem from both the elite (government level) and the grassroots (popular level). In essence, you create a certain narrative (Jews are the timeless victims and somehow superior to others and all Arabs are bad, especially the Palestinian flavor) and once it gets lodged into the collective consciousness anything that challenges it (like a genocide committed by said victims) becomes just a matter of protecting that narrative. The heavy lifting is creating and lodging the myth/narrative into the psyche and that’s what the Israeli lobby has successfully done. They’ve even come up with a twisted logic that Jewishness is an ethnicity and created a censorship machine to protect that (antisemitism laws). Back to Mearsheimer, the Israelis clearly understand both human psychology and U.S. government so have worked quite efficiently to exploit those two so as to pass their agenda. The U.S. government is not being hijacked by Israel or its special interest group.. the Israel lobby is operating with full understanding of that system. It’s the cleverest thing ever done! Also, bear in mind that if the Nazis had militarily won WW2, we would have been justifying the slaughtering of the Jews for the sake of saving humanity (committing a small evil for a greater good). That’s how human psychology collectively works..
"People can't seem to figure out that "The US" or "Israel" or even "Britain" or any other nation state are not actually sovereign when it comes to their finances. Thus their militaries are available to The Owners, along with the other 'agencies' and 'systems' mentioned.
The very rich and mega corporations have all the say in what our "elected" governments do, including genocide, economic sabotage, assassinations, and war." There it is......
Yes, as to your last few statements, US must tow the line or lose big financially if it concedes in any way
Isreal owns America
Agree, Artist.
It ain’t Buddhists committing the genocide in Gaza, and seizing portions of Lebanon and Syria.
It's all the game of Empire and Empire Building. We like to throw the words around like "civilization" vs "barbarism" but most if not all Empires are built on barbarism. The colluding of the leaders and the masses in societies where Empires were/are built require so many moving parts, slights of hand, game changers, revolutionaries, traitors, intrigue and hidden hands and more. My mom always used to say, "There is not honesty among thieves." So they will undermine each other crash and burn, and yet it keeps happening over and over. Makes me wonder if humans are just hard-wired to keep doing this over and over again.
But how do we get through to these suckers who have, through education indoctrination totally lost the ability to think critically? Only a total implosion of their system will start the change but I still think most would gladly follow them through the gates of Hell.
>>"But how do we get through to these suckers who have, through education indoctrination totally lost the ability to think critically?"
I don't know, and I really wish I did...
As for me, I myself WAS one of THOSE SUCKERS for a huge part of my life. What woke up me completely was the COVID fiasco (including the fear mongering, authoritarianism, etc.), though I was partially awake before then.
The handling of the Covid crisis (by Governments all over the world) made me deeply question EVERYTHING I believed and thought I knew. It was a tough period/journey, and still continues today.
Maybe some of these OTHER SUCKERS will experience EVENTS in their lives (like I did) that will cause them to start QUESTIONING things and lead to their WAKING UP.
The state of education (and especially education about critical thinking, media literacy, and financial literacy) is woefully inadequate or outright non-existent (and the power elite want to keep it this way so as not to be able to challenge the status quo and our dystopian systems that work mostly for the 1%).
When they see the sleeping giant starting to wake up, they throw more distractions, scare tactics and deterrents at them. One of the things that I noticed when they used an insidious virus to shut the world down was, it got all the protestors off the streets. Remember the yellow jackets? Remember the other protests going on around the world? There was a mini awakening happening just before the lockdowns. I know these folks stay up late at night figuring out ways to keep the masses on the gravy train, and away from what is truly happening in our world. The Plandemic was a master test of just how manipulatable the masses were. They may wake up for a moment, but the sleeping giant just can't seem to keep its hand off the snooze button.
An excellent summary from CJ and CC.
With a New Year just 6 hours away in my geography, let us hope that 2025 becomes a realisation year for all.
The problem clearly in the world, understood by all, the power elite identified for all to know and the media required to tell it how it REALLY is. Media lies subject to penalties. Large ones.
Not suggesting that we see a major effort as with Mr. Maglione, but those people should get a clear understanding that the world knows who they are, their crimes known to all, the world dislikes every thing they have done and make a clear point that this is the end of such activities, forever.. Their ill-gotten gains to serve the poor.
Then change the rules that have allowed bribery and corruption in elections while at the same time, make a President's role that of a figurehead .....ONLY.
When all this happens, if Biden is still around, charge him with every crime in the book.
"This is what we have become." - should be "this is what we have always been".
We started off, as they say anyways, as clans. Remember planet of the apes? As clans we were more insolated. Then something inside said, let's go out and explore. Shortly after the clan wars started. Humans began to covet what other humans had. Like toddlers in the sandbox, humans were selfish and others greedy. I think we have been retarded in our journey towards being emotionally mature. We are essentially consumers, but we are also on a planet in which we need to consume in order to survive. Consumption becomes avarice that becomes greed and before you know, we are battling over each others stuff.
i'd say it's the choices we made.
What's the difference? Aren't we the choices we make?
idk, maybe, i'm not a 'free-will'-er either, but 'what we have always been' kinda sounds like 'you're born this way and that's it'.
Everyone reads into something what they will. Also a choice.
From MLKJr:
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
The hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of great moral conflict.
The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.
We will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.
Pity may represent little more than the impersonal concern which prompts the mailing of a check, but true sympathy is the personal concern which demands the giving of one’s soul.
Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.
The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: “If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?” But… the good Samaritan reversed the question: “If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?”
In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.
He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.
History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.
Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.
Thank you - that was a wonderful and impactful speech by MLK Jr.
And one thing people are yet to notice is that in this day and age of the smartphone and internet, one's stance will be clearly seen by future generations including our children and grandchildren (if humanity survives that far) in our online trail of social media et all.. and then they will ask what their parents and elders did in such times and for the evidence online, what the fuck will the silent idiots say then?
"Western civilization... is a profoundly sick dystopia built by genocide and slavery and fueled by human blood."
A perfect definition. Our vampire ways of sucking the life out of our planet and hoarding it to ourselves have created and sustained this genocide in Gaza and all the others. It's time to put a stake in the Western vampire's heart and bury it at the crossroads.
Past time, so we need to start taking apart that metaphor and find out what the stake is, where the heart is, and what the crossroads is. So to speak. We need a profound revolution, a radical revolution, overturning not some government or other ephemeral things, but a dominant culture based on domination--we need to undo mistakes made thousands of years ago, that made war and conquest, enslavement and plunder, acceptable and even heroic. An intimate part of this ehthic is the domination of women and of all the non-human people with whom we share this planet.
We are all enslaved by western civilization. It's an inherent feature of a system that generates inequality as surely as it generates rubbish. And consumes energy and resources, only occasionally attendant to the finite nature of the orb we share, mostly in denial, mostly delusional about the capacity of technology to salvage what it helped create: A more densely intertwined, more sophisticated variant of slavery.
❤ this comment, I totally agree. I remember years ago a good friend of mine said, "We are enslaved by modern convenience." How true it is. Western civilization gives us all the gadgets and we fill our homes with lots of "stuff" we actually don't need or barely use. It doesn't fill the void, though, no matter how much more we get.
And I'd say particularly the western ruling class. Many of us are appalled and doing all we can to stop this, and are being silenced in various ways.
But, no, it's not Jews. It's imperialism, and all those who impose or buy into it.
The Sephardic Jews were central to the origin of the conquest of the Western Hemisphere, from which Western Imperialism really arose. Research the history of the sugar business that began in southern Iraq using African slaves. Google "Black Iraqis." Follow the spread of slavery-based sugar plantations westward to the continental islands of Cabo Verde, then to Pernambuco in Brasil, then to Surinam, then to Barbados and the entire Carribean. The Sephardic Jews were involved in this at all levels: finance, slave-importation, plantation management, refining, selling sugar. Money propels all action.
But I think Caitlin is trying to get us to see that we all buy into it. In some way or other we are just as complicit. We have to do a deep dive, change how we live in this material world, because this genocide is actually using the tools of Empire that we have right now in our lives. It's a hard cut, but we can at least be more conscientious about what we consume, how we live our lives, stop spending, become more aware of how our way of life supports the Empire. I often wondered what would happen if we would protest in front of one the Military industrial complex's factories that make instruments that kill people. Protest there for the purpose of talking to the workers, not talk to the CEO. I wonder if we could get them to quit their jobs???
Beyond excellent, Caitlin! Resonant.... Global South: arise and shine...faster, please!
I grieve for every last soul -- every last human life -- that has been sacrificed to Colonial Zionism's genocidal lust in Gaza and so many other locations. But you're right: it's the "West's" doing....
The root of evil is self interest which is why not only are Western governments participating but Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, India, and a long list of others do nothing to stop the genocide. A vote in the UN means nothing beyond virtue signaling as even Muslim nations twiddle their thumbs while Palestinian babies freeze to death, journalists are targeted and killed and hospitals blown up.
Self interest rules the day. I saw an interview with Pope Francis who skillfully dodged questions about children dying in Gaza with every platitude you can think of. I’m Catholic and I’m ashamed he hasn’t roundly condemned every Christian who doesn’t speak out and every so-called Christian nation that supports it.
It will hit the West like a ton of BRICs.
There is no denying that a lot of Jews are silent even acquiesce of the atrocities perpetrated by the Zionists.
There are more Christian Zionists than Jewish Zionists and the former are more influential than the latter, at least where American politics are concerned. And don’t forget that a great many Jews are not Zionist, or even anti-Zionist.
The whole Christian Zionist movement is a heavily Jewish creation. They don't have anything that compares to AIPAC.
https://open.substack.com/pub/littoria/p/americas-church-the-invention-of?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=3cnxxu
Not true. Look at Christians United for Israel.
And no denying that a lot more western non-Jews act in kind. Or maybe even vice versa - Jews do what they do because of the West. The whole point of the Caitlin's post.
This is the world we live in: one in which money is more valuable than human life, or any form of life for that matter.
To blame society, to blame civilization, to blame "all of us" is in effect to blame none of us. Tens of millions of Americans have denounced the Israeli retaliation to Oct 7 as unjust, and of course, the same is true in Europe, and civilization includes Africa and Asia who bare no blame.
I think Caitlin has lost her way. Having denounced the rare Western leaders who have called out the genocide and a halt to US weapons to Israel, she has nothing more to offer other than blame, and rather than focus that blame on those responsible, I would put Netanyahu and his rightwing regime first and Biden and his regime second, we are just throwing blame everywhere, which is to say no where. I think Caitlin, whom I deeply admire and often quote, has burned out. It is understandable, as she has on a daily basis carried on a brave struggle against the media and the Western powers that support and supply Israel. But blaming this vague abstraction" civilization" and "all of us, including those of us who have rejected the official narrative fro the beginning, for the genocide in Gaza is a useless and pointless gesture, suggesting not a path to remedy the evil but a surrender to a kind of moral nihilism. I know I will get attacked for this opinion, but that is price of not being a cult follower, as some are.
No I have not burned out, you've just been raging for weeks because I criticized your beloved AOC and Bernie Sanders. And now you're babbling about "cult followers" as though you're not one.
Sanders is a sell out
Explain why you would "criticize" (you did more than that!) the people calling out the genocide and proposing bills to stop it? Whe you say I am raging and babbling, you are using manipulative rhetoric, indicating a departure from civil and rational discourse. By no means am I a cult follower, as you accuse me HOw dare you? Only a burnt out person would respond to criticism by calling the critic a cult follower. I note you totally ignore the main point I made, which is that you are now attacking those who should be united in opposing genocide. It is not a cult behavior to accurately quote AOC when she calls out Israel for genocide, which you have also ignored, just as you ignore Sanders and the others who have proposed halting weapons to Israel. It is not cult following to support naming and ending the genocide; and if I were a cult follower of you, as some on these pages are, I would not be criticizing you. Nor am a cult follower of those who oppose genocide but a supporter. To me, a person who has followed and admired your courage to speak out for many years, your recent articles are signs of being worn out, which is understandable. I suggest you do some self-reflection and recharge your battery instead of accusing me of ranting and babbling.
Those Americans you say are protesting….keep voting to send butchers to run the Vile House and the keep the packs of jackals housed in the senate and congress. Consistently. Since before we were born.
Yup this. Look at how many Americans voted for genocide.
Both Harris and Trump planned to continue giving Israel all the support it needs and very few people voted for the anti genocide candidates. Stein got less votes this time than last.
And most people in congress have been solidly in Israel’s pocket for decades.
I voted for Jill Stein
As did I, Larry.
It boggles my mind that silly, stupid Amerikkkans don’t realize that we had alternative choices.
for Heaven's sake! Yes most Americans voted for either the pro-genocide candidate or the other pro-genocide candidate, or didn't vote. I voted for Stein, but knew there was zero chance she could win--the media can see to that. She likely wasn't on the ballot in many states, many people had never heard of her, and I heard whispers this time on the left media that she was a terrible candidate who was running for ego reasons, etc.
You can't blame people for how they vote when the game is rigged and they can only vote for one bad candidate or another bad candidate. And US elections are rigged even in ways not present in other countries--for example I live in a state that is solidly "red" so it didn't matter that I voted for Stein rather than Harris, in terms of the ways Trump will be even worse--under our system, if one more Republican votes in a state than Democrats, they get all the "electoral college" votes of that state. And that number depends on how many people live in that state, for half, but the other half is just equal for all states, some of which have 100 times the population of others. And it happens that most of the states with few people are Republican states. So in effect, voters in Wyoming have a dozen votes each. And gerrymandering is mostly legal, so whichever party has control of the statehouse can draw the district lines in census years (every ten years) to ensure that they will get a majority of seats even if two thirds of the votes are for the other party. The media sees to it that only the Republicrats and Demublicans are meaningful participants.
Actually the Green Party was on the ballot in the vast majority of US states.
We can't do it by voting, we should be able to see that by now. Look at what happens after the vote. They appoint their henchmen to run the country. The voter has no say as they appoint their side kicks. We have to vote by changing our actions on a personal level. Change what we do in our own lives. Become more conscientious of how and what we consume. Say no to genocide, by not supporting the war machine through what we consume, where we spend, how we spend, what we hold as value. Politicians will never do that for us. They show us that over and over. We are the ones we are waiting for, we are the change. If we turn away from them, they will lose power over us.
Yes, so why do you say elsewhere that Americans covet what empire brings, and that's why we elect billionaires and millionaires? Our elections are a total fake--we don't have a realistic chance to vote for anyone who prioritizes the 99%, international justice, peace or even universal healthcare. In any case, to talk about what Americans want is a cloudy question. Large majorities want universal healthcare, peace, abortion rights, restrictions on guns--if you ask those questions without a party label. And even beyond that, what we want is affected by the relentless propaganda, not only in the "news" media, but in advertising, covert public relations campaigns, the distortions in social media...and the hardwired element of herd behavior in humans, so that if manipulators can get enough people spouting a certain line, they can get the rest to believe it.
"And even beyond that, what we want is affected by the relentless propaganda, not only in the "news" media, but in advertising, covert public relations campaigns, the distortions in social media...and the hardwired element of herd behavior in humans, so that if manipulators can get enough people spouting a certain line, they can get the rest to believe it."
This is exactly what I mean. Those millionaires and billionaires live high off the hog. Because of the way they are living large and the way that living large is presented to the masses as the best way to live, people continue to vote for what they have been indoctrinated to believe is the "best life". Think about it. CEO's make enough money in one year to pay everyone's salary for that year (just a bit of an exaggeration, but not too much), so who doesn't want a piece of that pie. DJT has golden toilets. So, what people will do is vote for these folks if only to say that they are part of their club and can bask in their light at the rallies. But how on God's green Earth, can a billionaire actually relate to the populous? By telling them they were once there, where they are, and that they worked their asses off to get there and so that gives them hope that they too can be rich and famous. Instead of the billionaires sharing their wealth, they hoard it and flaunt it for the masses to covet it. The propaganda never points out the avarice, greed or cut-throat tactics they used to become billionaires. And it never shows the destruction of lives and the environment that happens as a part of their journey to the top. There's a great little storybook, that I advice all parents to read to their children, and even to read it themselves. It's called "Hope for the Flowers" by Trina Paulus, https://www.hopefortheflowers.com/
Yes Klonda56, I would only see the American/European public as blameless if they rise up against their malevolent ruling class; not only out of self-interest but for a better world.
This has been successfully forestalled, so far, by dividing us up into two opposing camps. Also, Americans are in a trance state as a result of constant cellphone use, barely able to distinguish reality.
😂😂😎😎🙈🙈🙉🙊
You are part of the problem.
You fail to accept the collective guilt that the West carries. You have distanced yourself from the majority and decided to shove the blame on the "others", and continue to live in the community.
I'll bet that you never bring up the subject with your neighbours, out of fear they might not talk to you again. So you resort to posting anonymously on social media as an outlet for your guilt.
I am fed up with, "I disagree with what's going on, but the elites are responsible".
Another often heard comment about Russia, or China, or name your other race nation, is, "I like the people, but don't like their leaders". With the implied notion that the West should go a kill the leaders and free the people.
Because we're white and know what's best.
Okay, so...all people living in the US, Canada, the EU, Australia or the UK are guilty of what the empire does because we have not managed to overthrow it--while everyone who lives elsewhere, despite their failure to overthrow THEIR governments, are blameless? Maybe we need less blame and more discussion about HOW we might overthrow the empire. And not by any tawdry, limited, classical revolution in which we substitute one ruling thug for another, but with a REAL change. A world without war, without wealth or hunger, without domination and exploitation, a world where the most thoroughly voiceless and oppressed of all--future generations and nonhuman people--are cared for--I don't think most people can even imagine such a world.
This is not directed to anyone here in the comments, but I noticed something....zionists blame Palestinians for their own murder because they say the people in Gaza should have overthrown Hamas and then everything would be fine. Obviously that's a fallacy, but I guess if the children in Gaza are expected to rise up against the government that was elected years before their birth, which was never allowed to rule or hold any more elections (because of the west), then what's our excuse?!?
Also we in the West lead very cushy lives and are terrified of what people will think of us if we speak out, and the vast majority of us have done way too little to stop this. I am not physically able to lead a revolution, but I know I could do a lot more. I'll try 🇵🇸🔻
It is the blatant hypocrisy and lies of the whites that make me angry.
Own the damn actions of your leaders. Proclaim that your country is committing genocide and that you personally either benefit or don't give a shit.
Accept that if today another 10 children are killed or maimed in Palestine that you don't really care.
You never shed a single tear, utter a word in abhorrence loudly to your neighbours, you never sent a complaint to your representative in parliament that you disagree. You don't damn well care. Those suffering are subhuman, non-whites, living 15,000 kilometers away.
Proclaim that my country is committing genocide--yes it is, the US is as involved as Israel in this, and has plenty of other crimes in its history--and that I personally either benefit or don't give a shit--but wait, I don't see how I benefit and I DO give a shit. I do bitch to the people laughably called "my representatives" and the stuff they reply with enrages me. But what do I DO about it? And the reality is that while the Gaza situation is particularly egregious, awful and undeniable right now--the US is ALWAYS engaging in horrendous crimes, not only on the warfare front but in blocking environmental and arms control treaties, the Rights of the Child, anything progressive. At times I've had fantasies of moving elsewhere, but aside from the practical problems, every country I've imagined moving to then has an election that puts in right-wingers.
So I do the two things I suggest people should do in these pre-collapse days--1) work to get my household and ideally my community to be as self-reliant as possible (we have off-grid solar, heat with wood, I grow half our food: I write a garden column)--both for our own security and because this withdraws support from The Machine--and 2) fight to defeat whatever is the latest stupid destructive project (environmental issues are my top concern)--I live in West Virginia so there is always some fossil fuel scheme, currently a "hydrogen hub" to waste tax dollars subsidizing the fracked gas industry.
It's simultaneously true that everyone bears some responsibility for the environmental crises threatening human survival, and that some people are MUCH more responsible. I think you could say this about injustice situation too--while most people could do more about it than they do, some people have worked hard for a century to normalize warfare and imperialism and exploitation, often in a clandestine fashion (Public Relations).
Why do you think that anyone that disagrees with you is a cult follower?? That is an inherently illogical argument only designed to artificially bolster your position without having to resort to providing actual cogent evidence of why your detractors are wrong..also, damning with faint praise is trying to lend weight to your position. You’re not very successful, I have to say..
The reactions to this post are very interesting.
Blaming the evil ones, the leaders and the CEOS, believing that they are completely different and separate to us and stirring up violence thoughts against them is part of the propaganda that the powerful assault us with.
They don't want us looking into our own hearts and finding love and peace and non-separation of all beings.
They want them and us, good and evil, anger and hate, violence and guns.
They don't want us accepting our own culpability in genocide, neocolonialism and the environmental and climate crisis- and possibly changing our purchasing behaviour!
They want us blaming someone else, that if we could just get rid of them it'd all be OK. They want us continuing to support the exploitation and extraction of other earthlings and resources.
I am reminded of times in different countries where throngs, thousands of citizens showed up in the streets in such numbers their governments shivered and acquiesced in some significant way. Perhaps someone reading this can provide the specific historical names....I share Caitlin's view up to a point...for American citizenry have been slack in insisting - with their bodies on the pavement in intentional strategic actions - rectifications. (Health care system, obscene participation in Israeli genocide of the Palestinians, drug prices, police violence and racism, mediocre climate action, corrupted Supreme
Court, Empire violence and sanctions, student and medical debt, criminalizing protest and speech, homelessness etc). Heartening are the rising strike actions against the indecent treatment of workers. But - if the psychopathic/sociopathic leaders do harm to us and our fellows, and to democratic institutions, including the US Post Office, then we do collude by our silence and acquiescence in our own relative and/or actual demise. Awareness without responsive, creative action in service to the good and beautiful leads to resentment, learned powerlessness and sense of worthlessness. The recipe for deeper apathy and alienation.
there can be gradations in blame. you know that. those who actually speak out know that. even your cult-leaders know that. afaik, aaron bushnell is among the few who can be considered more or less blameless.
Part of your point is the same as mine above, but I don't think this error means Caitlin has lost her way or burned out. It's just a mistake that needs correcting. She IS right that the atrocities of Israel are part of the ongoing atrocity of colonialism--she just makes the mistake of blaming entire countries rather than their governments and the rich and power (and MEDIA) figures who pull their strings.
You were doing fine until you threw out the cult word. Please reflect and if you are fine with disparaging others as cultists so be it but I think it’s a cheap shot.
Dale. Well put. Made a post also but not nearly as eloquent as yours. Am not a“cult” follower ever.
🤣 because you know her personally. For sure.
Israel is historically rooted in Western antisemitism. How could that ever work?
The British, French, and USA are responsible for setting up the Jews in an untenable situation after WWII. The pattern was set before Israel was officially recognized with the "hand over" of Palestinian homelands to Jewish refugees who were unwelcome in Europe or North America. The Western powers' antisemitic plan was to maintain remote control in the region using Jews as blameable intermediaries (as the ruling elites have used Jews for centuries). That cynical plan barely worked from the start and its failure is now obvious. Doubling down on bad (ineffective and cruel) policy is insanity.
We in the West who inherit the responsibility and continue to benefit (with compound interest) need to step up and end it or go down trying.
True! But, so does the Arab world (which I live in), which has done nothing!!! What’s being done isn’t even discussed here!
The Arab world craves American carrot and fears American stick.
Ansarallah's leaders have no western accounts to freeze, no assets to seize, no shiny western toys to take away, and consequently, no fucks to give.
For was it not of old written that "freedom's just another word for 'nothing left to lose'"?
Probably not, not because of any inherent nobility, but for the same reason that the Syrian government was persona non grata to the West.
What country are you in, if i may ask? From Arabic YouTube (through translation) i get the sense almost everyone in the Arab world is furious over Gaza except for the do-nothing leaders like Sisi, MBS, and King Abdellah, and the people of those countries are furious with theor collaborator leaders, but can't do anything about it. Are educational institutions being bullied there the way Western ones are?
I've been thinking of moving to a Muslim country but the one I have family in also has a do-nothing leader. 🤦♀️
I don’t mind saying that I am in the U.A.E. No commentary about the leadership, though. :) I will say that I’ve had conversations with the lay person. I have heard “I don’t care about the Ps” more than once from a variety of people from the region. That includes people from both the Gulf and the Maghreb.
Wow, I'm sad to hear there are people who don't care. I hoped better for countries closer to Palestine but I know the wealth in UAE complicates things. Are there protests in the streets? Does the government try to silence people?
It’s not wealth. Emiratis comprise only 11% of the population. Much of the rest is comprised of middle class people from 190 countries. I’ve heard these statements from middle class and wealthy, newly-arrived and here-for-generations. Frankly, there is far more resistance occurring in the West!
I am well aware of all of this! Frankly, it’s just not the point. There is LOSING a good fight. Then, there is capitulating before attempting to fight while PRETENDING to support the cause. Conceptually, these are two very very different positions. Empirically, capitulating has not resulted in universal benefit.
You are talking to an African American that was born in the 1960s to parents and in a community that stood its ground irrespective of the physical, psychological, and capital risks. Capitulating can be rationalized quite easily given the lack of a penchant to stand one’s ground in the interest of what might be a better (albeit more difficult to achieve) outcome.
I am also a professor in West Asia who has heartbreaking conversations with Lebanese, Palestinian, and Syrian 20 year-olds, regularly. What they tell me is that they are more disillusioned by the lack of a local response than they are surprised by western political action.
I agree with you but before specifying Namibia, I suggest that Britain, France, Belgium, the Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese have committed more genocide than Germany. Yes, we have 'THE Holocaust', and yes, it was horrific and unforgivable, but it is also used as a weapon by Israel to justify its own Genocide of Palestinians, and it is worth noting that the number 6 million was first mentioned by a clairvoyant Zionist at the 1897 Berne Conference, also a 'figure' mentioned 200 times in USA newspapers between 1901 and 1942.
>>"I suggest that Britain, France, Belgium, the Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese have committed more genocide"
Yes, I agree!
Errrr… why are you two leaving out the Disunited States, which perpetrated TWO Holocausts:
One against the Indigenous Native Americans, and one against Africans involuntarily imported for the slave trade.
Those Holocausts, I might add, took place over HUNDREDS of years.
And how “antisemitic “ of me to point out that Jews were heavily involved the in slave trade. Please see the writings of Professor Tony Martin, who was the victim of a vicious smear campaign for teaching this to his students ( Martin, btw, is a descendant of slaves.)
>>"Errrr… why are you two leaving out the Disunited States,"
Because the "Disunited States" is in a category all its own - more ruthless and evil than any other Western Empire (IMHO).
I disagree with Caitlin in two ways. 1) She erroneously frames the responsible people behind the Arab/Jew conflict as either the "Western Imperialists," or "The Jews." The truth is that yes, the Imperialists are involved, and yes, the vast majority of Jewish leaders both inside and outside Israel are orchestrating how the Imperialists participate in the genocide. To deny the role of Judaism (both in Israel and the diaspora) is to deny history. Before Israel's birth, the conflict was called the "Arab/Jew" conflict. Look on Google Ngram for that fact. After Israel, the Jewish leaders convinced the western powers that diaspora Jews disengaged from the conflict and that the conflict is only between Arabs and Israel. This is a lie.
Caitlin's view ignores the fact of the political power expressed by the diaspora. It's called the Jewish Lobby, and it's made up of over 450 Jewish political organizations, over 350 in the US alone. It's funded to billions of dollars by the diaspora Jewish community and Israel. It's an indirect way that Israel violates several US laws coined to prevent foreign influence on our government. Israel has free access to our government via this Jewish Lobby, and a list of those organizations are given below. These are the data and the facts that Caitlin hasn't acknowledged.
https://iwasathought.substack.com/p/the-jewish-lobby
Another reason I disagree with Caitlin is because she appears to contradict herself. She's willing to bad mouth the Western Imperialists, the USA, and other groups, as groups that produce a net outcome of bad/evil overt actions, yet she says it's incorrect to regard Judaism as a group that also produces a net outcome of bad overt actions. Both Caitlin and I really mean that it's the leaders of these groups, but of course, we must also regard the followers to have some responsibility in it.
If you take Caitlin's reasons for not including "Judaism" as such a group, you must also not accuse the "Western powers," the "USA," etc. All these groups have different factions, with dissident members, and just because the USA and Judaism for instance have dissidents doesn't mean it's wrong to use those labels to describe a group that does wrong. It's also wrong to accuse a critic of the USA or of Judaism of hating US citizens or Jews. These are POLITICAL discussions, and we want to identify who the true culprits are. If we avoid that identification, no amount of journalism will be of any help to the victims we all want to protect.
Why cannot Caitlin understand that Judaism has an extraordinarily strong political arm? The link above proves it beyond any reasonable doubt. To criticize the USA or Judaism is not the same as hating US citizens or individual Jews. I think many journalists set up a straw man, saying that if you criticize Judaism and both its leaders and followers, you are condemning Jews to pogroms. It doesn't follow. We have laws to protect individual Jews against violence conducted just because there are Jews. We have laws protecting individual US citizens in the same way. These journalists unnecessarily confuse the issue by playing the "antisemitic" card, which has expired. Too many of us know of the power of Jewish leaders in the US government, and their power to indoctrinate the masses. Caitlin expresses such indoctrination. Both the Repug and the Dem political conventions displayed an obvious and disgusting capitulation to Jew Power.
i think caitlin is specifically blaming you. the rabbit hole is so deep, obvious and easy to find, makes one wonder ...
Well said, Jim.
Gypsy, thank you. That helps. The hurricane of propaganda is sometimes too powerful to stand up against. So we need to do the most that we could do, say the truth in the best way it could be said.
in order to justify your last sentence, you'd have to search all the articles she wrote.
Assuming you are referring to my first comment above, No. I constantly check when people acknowledge the links I post. No journalist, Caitlin, Jonathan Cook, Norman Finkelstein, Noam Chomsky, Gideon Levy, Phil Weiss, and many others included have not acknowledged this most important evidence for the Jewish Lobby, and that the so-called "Israel Lobby" is a way for Jewish leaders to be unaccountable. The only noteworthy other journalist I didn't check is Mikal Peled, and I'm curious what he'd say. You're grabbing at straws, avoiding the central issue, which is the identification of Judaism itself as the primary perpetrator of the Conquest of Palestine.
oh, it's about following your specific link and confirming it is the most important evidence. my mistake, i thought you meant that she (and the other authors) didn't acknowledge that there was a jewish lobby.
caitlin's article indeed says the central issue is elsewhere while you seem to argue that removing judaism would stop what's happening in gaza. one might paraphrase like you 'say that our society is perfectly fine and healthy and that none of this would be happening if not for the machiavellian manipulations of a small abrahamic religion', and thus denying 'the reality that the middle east is on fire right now because of everything this perverse civilization is and always has been.' in that way your argument seems more a defense of western civilization. enter paragraph 4.
Martin, thanks for the explanation. But your interpretation of what I'm saying is exaggerated. I'm not denying that there are US politicians that are acting in complicity with the Jewish genocide for their own selfish reasons. Probably some of that has nothing to do with Judaism, but also, some of it IS the result of the Jewish Lobby and its political tentacles. There are complexities here that we could never figure out completely, and such is always the case when trying to understand political outcomes.
I'm saying simply that Jewish leaders in the diaspora have an enormous effect on the behavior of the US in the M.E., and much of that behavior is against US interest in the region. As support, I cite "The Jewish Lobby and US Foreign Policy," 2006, by Mearsheimer and Walt, where they came to the same conclusion and other shocking conclusions after much scholarly deliberation. Of course the Jewish Lobby condemned that report, as you'd expect. Google it.
The ironies here are monumental. Caitlin criticizes entire nations and groups of nations as an evil entity. I understand her point and do not object to it. But she cannot bring herself to criticize a minority with an extremely organized and powerful political arm. The latter is much more tight knit and categorizable than are nations and groups of nations. So why does she paint such a wide swath when criticizing such loose categories as nations and groups of nations and cannot see the tight political organization of Judaism? Her behavior is irrational. It's absurd to say that Judaism plays no political role in US society and government. It's one of the better organized Special Interest Groups, such as the MIC, the fossil fuel industry, the banking industry, and others. And very few of these other groups have damaged American democracy more than Judaism has.
I'm also saying that no journalist of note, to my knowledge, has acknowledged the fact of the US Jewish Lobby. That's because Jewish leaders have cleverly instilled a belief that there's only an Israel Lobby which has nothing to do with Judaism. It's not only absurd, it's one of the biggest lies in the annals of US history. Along with that belief is the acusation of dissenters for being antisemitic, the worst possible crime, even worse than genocide.
If you care to express your own thinking, let me ask you what you think of the list contained in the following link:
https://iwasathought.substack.com/p/the-jewish-lobby
imo, caitlin knows, the other authors and journalists that matter know (and are aware of mr mearsheimer's work), the world knows. it is quite open and obvious. anybody that has been paying attention to bibi's visits to congress knows. i think now one should ask oneself why they let it happen.
i think you also use a straw man by stating that the author said 'that judaism plays no political role in us society and government'. you also seem to think there's something like 'american democracy' to be damaged (again a defense of 'western civilization'), and the other interest groups are definitely on par with the jewish lobby regarding damage to humanity. judaism is a religion of which quite some serious scholars say that the zionist project is totally at odds with.
did you compile that list yourself and what is the purpose?
Martin, you said, "did you compile that list yourself and what is the purpose?
Yes I did. What significance do you find in this list? What does it say to you? What conclusions do you draw when seeing this list?