The people I know/knew who would make a serious face and talk about Iraq or Afghanistan having been 'mistakes' are the same people who told me they were disappointed in me for trying to show them that Ukraine were the ones killing civilians in Mariupol and Donbass. Who cares what they think?
The unspoken assumption is that when our side 'makes mistakes', no one should be held accountable. The fact that no one HAS been held accountable proves the belief - so I hope that Russia finally makes the warmongers take responsibility this time
"The unspoken assumption is that when our side 'makes mistakes', no one should be held accountable." - well that should be voiced out loud and such people should be called on it.
Their insistence on such argumentation proves they claim exceptionalism, supremacy. Just pointing that out and calling them supremacists every single time after that (color of their skin notwithstanding - jingo is jingo) is a great first step.
When they said that past adventures had been mistakes I thought we were friends, so I refrained from calling them imperialists or American exceptionalists. Then after I talked about Ukraine on Facebook, they cut me off and I didn't feel like pressing the point, or engaging with them any more
I don't give a care if anyone thinks it's permissible, I'm opposed to the war in Ukraine.
The United States has not lived one day in peace, it's usually in war with other countries and it's own people. America wouldn't know what to do with herself in a peaceful era.
" . . . you could turn around and start talking about how America’s real government works, about how the empire works, about how power actually moves on the world stage."
But as you drifted among the cretinous brainwashed hordes in the US mainstream, you would quickly realize that not much has changed in the American cultural psyche since Bob Dylan wrote that accusatory lyric 60 years ago: " You don't count the dead when god's on your side."
We should never forget or underestimate the role of religion in the acceptance of war (and, worse, the cause of war). How many Christians, Jews, and Muslims believe it is prophesied in The Book that the end is near, and that the final battle between Gog (the US) and Magog (Russia) is inevitable and imminent. They actually see this battle as something wonderful because it will vindicate their beliefs/faith and signal their own eternal salvation. They want the end to come. The sooner the better. Even our pervasive modern religions—Scientism, Secularism, and Identitarianism—have fallen into exactly the same kinds of religious fervor that have fueled wars throughout history. Inside every Scientist, Secularist, and woke ideologue is exactly the same religious derangement responsible for the crusades, the inquisition, and the burning of witches and heretics. The funny thing is that these modern religious fanatics, just like the religious fanatics of every age, will never recognize that they are the true evil.
You should read John Gray's Black Mass, where discusses the role of secular religions such as Jacobism, Nazis, Revolutionary Communism and how they display the same features as Abraham I religions, minus the metaphysical element.
Materialism is just another ontological category - and does fall under the philosophy of metaphysics. There are still many open (not yet resolved) philosophical/scientific questions regarding the origins of our Universe, the nature of reality itself, along with nature of what makes consciousness possible. Consciousness - also spoken of as the "soul" - "psyche" in most religious/spiritual traditions has been a central part of many religious dogmas - and oddly enough, plays a central role in scientific research today - and happens to be a very controversial subject within the religion of secularism/scientism - given the nature of consciousness has not been resolved scientifically, along with the mind/body problem.
I'm thinking that Consciousness has been here since at least the "Beginning." In other words, there was nowhere from it to evolve from if it was not at least latent in whatever people call "Matter." Do atomic or quantum particles think? Are they "aware"? If we accept the proposition that we are composed of atomic and quantum particles (and waves) then the obvious answer is "Yes."
I suspect consciousness is very fundamental. I'm not yet convinced however that atoms and particles "produce" consciousness - as many people feel convinced, and of course, understandably so given the connection of the brain and consciousness. However, what is interesting is all the brain science so far - have only been able to establish correlations with conscious activity and brain activity. There has been no science (to date) that has demonstrated consciousness is derivable or reducible to molecular/atomic elements. Which makes me suspect the assumption that consciousness must be a product of particles/energy - may be an incorrect assumption. One can think of the long time scientific assumption of locality - that scientists held that nothing could be effected in reality accept by "local" effects. But it has been well established scientifically that non-locality does indeed exist in reality - which is pretty mind boggling if you think about it.
I also have been following now for decades, the scientific work and research in Near-Death studies. I feel these studies, which have now been world wide, and over 65+ prospective/retrospective studies - appear to indicate even when the brain is obviously not active, some type of consciousness appears to continue to perceive and exist - at least for a short period of time once brain function ceases (according to the conclusions of Sam Parnia's own multi-year scientific study of the phenomena). So this also makes me feel that what our consciousness actually may be - and what the brain might be - it is very possible the brain could act like a radio receiving some kind of broadcast and nothing more. No science extant that we have would contradict this idea. But it is of course, still just an idea. I mean, I'm just as afraid of death as anyone else, and fear my total eradication from life - if that is what death implies. I mean, I love life. I love being alive. And yes, it would be very meaningful to believe my life and the life of so many others is not just a dead end road to no where. And science has not yet discovered what consciousness fundamentally is - the door IS still open in my opinion.
I always wondered how the Salem witch trials were justified. The dunking chair determined if you were a witch. If you survived you were a witch and burned at the stake. If you drowned you weren't a witch. Now I just look around at what's happening in the US and it's all clear. Nothing has changed other than it's gotten worse.
Well said. Why I think one needs to dig a bit deeper than religion vs. secularism, and look at the psychological underpinnings causing men to murder other men year after year. I find Carl Jung did some good work in his attempts to understand the inner workings of the psyche.
Yes indeed, religion is often the initial brain softener in the acceptance of the war between good and evil. Regardless of the specifics of that evil -- the devil, infidels etc. -- very young brains get opened to welcoming war as a necessary adjunct to some sort of vigilance in defense of "the truth." It seems to persist in the culture regardless of other changes, giving adherents a "spiritual" excuse for an otherwise insane point of view.
My brother said something to me before he ran off and we moved out of our childhood home almost 15 years ago and said that nobody gives a fuck about you. There is a lot evidence to that. There are hordes of homeless people in this city and no sign that any of their families give a fuck about them. People will choose propaganda over the truth than their own own flesh and blood. If course, there's always an exception like my family wouldn't leave me for dead. That's what love looks like to me.
I just mean I wish people would stop saying that people care. It's so stupid and obvious. There will always be people that do some mental gymnastics to make what I'm saying wrong.
It's hard to understand that a few hundred thousand have already died. Among them innocent civilians who did nothing wrong in life other than be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I listened to this because Douglas was speaking freely. I will warn you, this is as real as it gets as well as heartbreaking. Don't listen before needing to sleep. Deeply depressing.
I listen to Douglas as often as I can - although I don't agree with some of his right-wing ideas, his military knowledge and accuracy is about the best you can find right now. It's sad listening to what he's had to say about the Ukrainian conflict these last 2 years, and compare it to the immoral, deep state lies Americans have been fed now - how it is almost 100% in contradiction to the actual reality of the conflict. I find the deep state power in the US as an obscenity upon humanity and upon our American constitution and fundamental human rights. The deep state's power over American Main Stream media is not what democracy is about - there is no accountability for the lies they spread that lead too mass slaughter. Kennedy was right about the CIA.
I know, I have little in common with his close minded thoughts on most topics. Most everyone I work with are from other countries so his thoughts about boarders make me ill.
I will say the only reason I listened to Douglas and Scott Ritter for years was their out loud in the face of hostile mass media thoughts and actions on Iraq and Afghanistan. Every word was fact and now history.
I'm sick of this American dream/idea/concept/etc is/was fundamentally good. Everybody - read the fucking history. The USA has been a gangster swamp from the very beginning. It's been using the underworld "rules" to impose itself on the whole world.
And the outside world proved being the dimwits to take the US at their "word" most of the time. Well, all of the time it seems like.
Too bad Australians can't take a tour of Ukraine to see what happens to countries that become American weapons depots and proxies. How about a tour of Afghanistan to learn how America abandons nations once it's done using them. Maybe groups of Australians could take turns being locked in a room with Nutty Nuland and her war mongering psychopathic neocons for a day. Since none of my suggestions will be seriously considered I guess we'll have to hope that enough Aussies read articles written by writers like Caitlin or John Pilger!
My "extremely bright" architect family member never heard of Victoria Nuland, no clue what went on in the Ukraine in 2014, and believes the "official" gov't narrative concerning both C19 and 9/11....and she's in her 60's as am I
Have you read anything by Dr. Mattias Desmet concerning Mass Formation Psychosis? He explains how the most intelligent people blindly believe the MSM, etc. You can find an interview he had with Tucker Carlson on YT.
Desmet put an interesting gloss on the madness of crowds, but I think what we really have is *class* formation psychosis of the PMC, rooted in a sort of post-ideology of Mainline Protestantism or Deism and drawing on Calvinist hyper-authoritarian characteristics. Catherine Liu's _Virtue Hoarders_ sheds much light on the sociology behind it.
Translation for the rest of us - PMC needs to pay their mortgages and car loans hence they'll support any "mass psychosis" or whatever as long as it helps their careers.
It's amazing how these incompetent (and much worse) fools have those of us who aren't hypnotized questioning everything. In order to retain power they are capable of anything; that scares me.
The Peace movement is dead here in the States. Perfect example: a former "peacenik" in my town has a bumper sticker: "NO WAR" ...he has now added a homemade addition below..."EXCEPT WITH RUSSIA"
Exactly... demonizing the Russian people. Disgusting. Many of us here in the States are demonized for opposing mutilating children's bodies in the name of "trans"
Trans is a woke issue promoted to create division in the peace movement. Calib Maupin just did a CPI video explaining this. These divisions are why Ritter was disinvited from the rage against the war machine protest and why the ANSWER protest failed.
Now watch. I’m going to be pilloried as anti trans.
I have some opinions on sexuality but like George Galloway said in a recent YouTube a children’s book celebrating the antics of a gay grandfather is jut too far.
Yes, and why are they not speaking out about this? Do they not recognize that biological men are competing with biological women? I mean I get it... totally brainwashed to be completely PC at the expense of females...shame on them
So Paula, this is backward thinking, is it not? We were moving in a direction where people could just "be"...I'm thinking, wear whatever clothes you want, sleep with whoever, and then out of the blue, if your female child likes to play with trucks she's probably male? I heard a spokesperson from Boston Children's Hospital actually saying these things. WHERE is this coming from?
It's coming from the patriarchy we women have been struggling with since forever. Males dominating women, now to the point of excluding us from society by substituting themselves for us; & even eliminating us, our physical functions (e.g., mother) & our body parts (e.g., breast) from the vocabulary. Lesbians are "transphobes" for not wanting to hang out or sleep with ersatz "women." Yes, going back to the good old days before the third wave women's movement.
The "peace movement" will get revived rather quickly as soon as the draft gets reinstated and the dead bodies start flowing in from overseas. Simple as that. Nothing to do with superior consciousness or occupying some higher plane.
Precisely why RFK Jr. is living in a state of delusion rather than making the sole focus of his campaign and about corruption and wars!! Instead, he wastes all his time preaching peace.
I wasn't referring to that but rather his campaign in general! I apologize for the miscommunication! All his BS about both parties coming together! All they do is play the divisive card for show in order to keep everyone divided! It's a total lost cause and will never happen!!
I'm baffled that war is ever thought of as valid. With the US it's always "needed" and the people go along with it. Iraq gets me the most. That one was the most blatantly fully illegal with absolutely no legitimate reason. They're always at least fake reasons, that one had nothing remotely reasonable. Before they started it I couldn't understand how it was even a question. After and especially now I don't understand why Bush wasn't charged with war crimes and maybe treason. And how that's never even been a question. But I'm completely baffled that Trump was ever taken seriously in the slightest let alone actually became president.
Bush not being charged with war crimes buffers the point the author is making in this post. In other words, it’s a all a big dog n pony show.
I must say I have never felt any humility towards the media until just now. Again the author is correct, on some level they have to know what empty pieces of shit they are deep down inside.
I’m in the US. In a perfect world I would be excited about RFK Jr. However it’s not perfect and Donald Trump is being harangued, quite mercilessly, by TPTB. His sentence has been imposed “Death by a Thousand Cuts.”
I have decided to lend him my energy. Am hoping to turn him into a big fucking grenade. Maybe he will detonate this time or at the very least get TPTB to go crazy and start shooting us in the streets. Unfortunately I have come to the conclusion that this must happen. He has quite a knack for driving them batshit.
For those of you who can’t stand him and question my intentions let me remind you of the cards we are all holding. Like you, I have a hand full of Jack shit, not even going to try and bluff. No amount of love and warm fuzzies is going to melt the soulless monsters behind the scenes. I’m afraid only a taste of fear, brutality, and their own mortality can do that.
The anger from the proles is righteous and deserved. It should not be directed at China or Russia or any other Nation for that matter. The enemy in need of a good smiting is already inside the gates. Maybe Trump fizzles out again at this point no harm no foul. At the very least maybe their masks come off for good.
One of the main themes of Caitlins writing is that it won't make a bit difference who's president. Another futile hope electing someone who should be in prison. Another indication of what the "justice" system is.
The only thing that will wake Americans up will be bombs falling in the US .
It clearly does make a difference who is 'president', look no further than the pathetic clown illegally occupying the office now. He should be executed for sedition, prison my ass. They dropped a big bomb on Maui. I'm sure it won't be the last.
No, it doesn't. Since whatever will get implemented seemingly coming from the "president" will actually come from the deep state. Wrapped in some package as if it came from the "president".
I’m not looking for DT to clean things up. That was my naivety in 2016. I’m looking for Donald Trump to push them over the edge. If you (not you per say) are a person who really believes this is all an act (Donald Trump) then I can’t help you. In fact nobody can if you are correct nobody can help me either.
I refuse to believe it’s that controlled. They hate his guts. I can explain why that it is. It’s because taking him down/out has proven to be much more difficult than they could have ever imagined. The insanity you bear witness to is a reaction to fear. Prior to DT the media and their overlords had a stranglehold on power. They could vanquish any foe with several days of unflattering headlines. Trump (love/hate him) broke that mold in many respects.
This is why TPTB and their media apparatus are on a holy terror. They are trying to smash that style of populism wherever and however they can. DT and his ilk have this power over them I am confident in saying. We need these fuckers to rip off the mask once and for all. No more hiding. THIS is Why I Support Him!
Internal discipline is the real goal of "world wars". By the state's perspective, neither Bush did anything wrong. Quite the opposite of "treason", Bush reproduced the society in which people are rewarded and not punished for high drama.
Some interesting new history on the causes of WWII support your point. Look for the Aaron Good YouTube on the geopolitical economy report and share it.
Americans got slaughtered in Korea and in Vietnam, sent home in tens of thousands of body bags. Against small and weak states like Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya, America still had to invent a cause, after which it needed to round up a gang of whiteys to help them fight. And, for all the self-righteousness they managed to invoke out of Ukraine, America dare not move against Russia. Eighteen months passed and still not a single pair of Yankee boots in the trenches.
Against China, they had the cause of Uighur genocide. Again it dare not make a move, reduced to barking from the curb. In Taiwan. Nancy Pelosi had to sneak in, in the middle of the night, in an unmarked plane. Same way when she left. In 2019, America got some local stooges to torch HK. But today all of them are finished, tearing their hair out in solitary, food delivered through a hole, the keys to their cells thrown away, and we don't even hear a whimper from the US to rescue their dogs.
Now, for this navy dude Karl Thomas. We long for him to turn up on our doorstep. Let's see if he will?We long to watch him stare at death, entrails of his Yankee sailors dangling in his mouth, the head of his captain stuck on a pike, his general's head hung on the highest gate flagpole, the way we like doing in the old days to barbarians after they climbed over the Great Wall. But, we also know that like virtually all American dogs, farting out their big mouths, Thomas is almost certainly good only at barking from the shore.
We Chinese ain't going anywhere. Come Yankee soldier boy, let's see you step ashore, and this includes Taiwan and the Paracel Islands. Your little yada, yada threats impress nobody. Let's see what that navy dude is made of and if he has any bite that's as big as his barking! Or is he just a coward and, therefore, good only at issuing threats from the comfort of a Pinoy brothel room.
Don't be too sure they won't come although the last time (Korea, Vietnam), they'd return home in bits & parts. This time we won't even let them repatriate bodies. We'd feed the parts to the pigs and the street dogs.
Of course, it's in the American nature to be scared shit, so they have to pretend otherwise. They dare not look at death in the face. In their woke culture, they don't even have balls. Who can tell if Karl Thomas is man, woman, mosquito or donkey?
If it's Aussies they sent, it makes for no difference. Same genes, same stock, same dead body, same treatment. Our pigs and dogs don't care for passport nationality difference either; they'll still eat it.
An Anglo-American is an Anglo-American; they have no business to be in Australia and America to begin with. The actual indigenous Aussies are, if not in concentration camps, dead. This is why we think WW3 will be a liberating war, returning all land to the indigenous. And China has both muscle and money -- and our people are both willing and able -- to help other natives because our forefathers have encountered these Anglo scumbags who, for all the goods things they have taken and benefited, still refuse to change their ways after 200, 300 years! BRICS is only the first step forward in this 100-year-long journey. (Recall what Xi told Putin at the doorsteps of the Kremlin in March: changes not seen in a century. What he said is what every one of 1.4 bn Chinese understands and which we had also made clear to Russia: "You don't have to join us in our quest to restore the world. But don't get in our way. Please!")
We are not a 5000 year long unbroken nation, civilization and culture for nothing. And the world's richest for 2,000 years. Why, therefore, should a couple of million American soldiers bother us? We killed many more millions circa 70 BCE to 100 CE, and those days were with arrows and swords. (Within China in the old days, a single battle, same location, was fought between 500,000 and 1.2 million, two sides counted. After which it takes months to sort out the dead, injured and captured. Amid oceans of blood and and mountains of dead, the survivors have to figure out which leg and an arm goes to who.) Today, the memory of those tribes, dead north of the Wall doesn't even exist, let alone their name. Do you know enough Chinese history to name me the name of these groups I'm talking about? Here's a hint: 匈奴. We totally, completely eradicated them from the face of this earth, making sure not even their children survive to come back, all because of the same mistake America makes today: they just won't cease breaking and coming into our land and property, climbing over the Great Wall. Then, as it is today, we offered those groups peace treaties, gold, metals, grain, fabrics, and in particular girls from whose parents, mostly officials, we have to ask for volunteers if they were willing to be given away as brides and concubines. For the nation, for China, for the future wellbeing, for everyone else except you, the parents would plea! For 50 years to circa 70 BCE we did all that. Didn't work. The pain with which our forefathers endured just to keep the peace. Each qingming 清明, we still remember their sacrifices made 2000 years ago!
So back to your claim, Yanks won't come. They are more than likely because, otherwise, they can't even keep America (or Australia), and their bosses know it. Besides, we prefer they come. That way, we don't have to sail 8,000 miles to find Yanks just to feed our pigs and dogs.
We Americans, for the most part, understand that it is the CCP not the Chinese people who are the criminals. Kindly have the same respect for our citizens C Woods. I hope you don't live here in US.
I am a door to door war salesman here to sell you wars. Yes, I understand that the previous wars did not work, but now I have a nice and shiny upgraded war for you, straight from the military industrial complex. In fact, this war is so popular that for a limited time you can have it, for free! Just give your consent in agreeing with these terms and conditions! Soon, your support will help bomb people you don't know in a place you probably don't know much about!
A rhetorical question: "Are we already at war with Russia?"
It seems as if by funding, supplying weapons, providing training and sharing Intel with the Ukrainian's so abundantly, that the answer is obviously, "Yes."
It seems somehow disingenuous of us to not simply go ahead and declare war, get it over with and take full responsibility for our actions.
But no. We are too used to, by now, surreptitiously goading and entrapping 'The Enemy' into 'throwing the first Punch' in order to justify our actions to ourselves, (no matter how transparent the ruse becomes in hindsight...)
Correction: “One day it will be permissible to say in mainstream circles that it was wrong for the US empire to deliberately provoke the war in Ukraine and keep it going as long as possible to bleed U.S. taxpayers of money that may be laundered and cycled back to those who are involved with the U.S. government.”
The people I know/knew who would make a serious face and talk about Iraq or Afghanistan having been 'mistakes' are the same people who told me they were disappointed in me for trying to show them that Ukraine were the ones killing civilians in Mariupol and Donbass. Who cares what they think?
The unspoken assumption is that when our side 'makes mistakes', no one should be held accountable. The fact that no one HAS been held accountable proves the belief - so I hope that Russia finally makes the warmongers take responsibility this time
"The unspoken assumption is that when our side 'makes mistakes', no one should be held accountable." - well that should be voiced out loud and such people should be called on it.
Their insistence on such argumentation proves they claim exceptionalism, supremacy. Just pointing that out and calling them supremacists every single time after that (color of their skin notwithstanding - jingo is jingo) is a great first step.
When they said that past adventures had been mistakes I thought we were friends, so I refrained from calling them imperialists or American exceptionalists. Then after I talked about Ukraine on Facebook, they cut me off and I didn't feel like pressing the point, or engaging with them any more
I don't give a care if anyone thinks it's permissible, I'm opposed to the war in Ukraine.
The United States has not lived one day in peace, it's usually in war with other countries and it's own people. America wouldn't know what to do with herself in a peaceful era.
Flying a Ukraine flag in your yard = "I am utterly incapable of recognizing even the most blatant war propaganda when I see it."
Flying a Ukraine flag in your yard = "I am a loyal and dedicated liar who can be trusted to further your private interests, please hire me"
Exactly - same with the Ukraine sticker on SUV bumper.
Those with the same Ukraine sticker remind me of the ones blindly supporting the Iraq war in the 2000s.
" . . . you could turn around and start talking about how America’s real government works, about how the empire works, about how power actually moves on the world stage."
But as you drifted among the cretinous brainwashed hordes in the US mainstream, you would quickly realize that not much has changed in the American cultural psyche since Bob Dylan wrote that accusatory lyric 60 years ago: " You don't count the dead when god's on your side."
We should never forget or underestimate the role of religion in the acceptance of war (and, worse, the cause of war). How many Christians, Jews, and Muslims believe it is prophesied in The Book that the end is near, and that the final battle between Gog (the US) and Magog (Russia) is inevitable and imminent. They actually see this battle as something wonderful because it will vindicate their beliefs/faith and signal their own eternal salvation. They want the end to come. The sooner the better. Even our pervasive modern religions—Scientism, Secularism, and Identitarianism—have fallen into exactly the same kinds of religious fervor that have fueled wars throughout history. Inside every Scientist, Secularist, and woke ideologue is exactly the same religious derangement responsible for the crusades, the inquisition, and the burning of witches and heretics. The funny thing is that these modern religious fanatics, just like the religious fanatics of every age, will never recognize that they are the true evil.
You should read John Gray's Black Mass, where discusses the role of secular religions such as Jacobism, Nazis, Revolutionary Communism and how they display the same features as Abraham I religions, minus the metaphysical element.
Materialism is just another ontological category - and does fall under the philosophy of metaphysics. There are still many open (not yet resolved) philosophical/scientific questions regarding the origins of our Universe, the nature of reality itself, along with nature of what makes consciousness possible. Consciousness - also spoken of as the "soul" - "psyche" in most religious/spiritual traditions has been a central part of many religious dogmas - and oddly enough, plays a central role in scientific research today - and happens to be a very controversial subject within the religion of secularism/scientism - given the nature of consciousness has not been resolved scientifically, along with the mind/body problem.
I'm thinking that Consciousness has been here since at least the "Beginning." In other words, there was nowhere from it to evolve from if it was not at least latent in whatever people call "Matter." Do atomic or quantum particles think? Are they "aware"? If we accept the proposition that we are composed of atomic and quantum particles (and waves) then the obvious answer is "Yes."
I suspect consciousness is very fundamental. I'm not yet convinced however that atoms and particles "produce" consciousness - as many people feel convinced, and of course, understandably so given the connection of the brain and consciousness. However, what is interesting is all the brain science so far - have only been able to establish correlations with conscious activity and brain activity. There has been no science (to date) that has demonstrated consciousness is derivable or reducible to molecular/atomic elements. Which makes me suspect the assumption that consciousness must be a product of particles/energy - may be an incorrect assumption. One can think of the long time scientific assumption of locality - that scientists held that nothing could be effected in reality accept by "local" effects. But it has been well established scientifically that non-locality does indeed exist in reality - which is pretty mind boggling if you think about it.
I also have been following now for decades, the scientific work and research in Near-Death studies. I feel these studies, which have now been world wide, and over 65+ prospective/retrospective studies - appear to indicate even when the brain is obviously not active, some type of consciousness appears to continue to perceive and exist - at least for a short period of time once brain function ceases (according to the conclusions of Sam Parnia's own multi-year scientific study of the phenomena). So this also makes me feel that what our consciousness actually may be - and what the brain might be - it is very possible the brain could act like a radio receiving some kind of broadcast and nothing more. No science extant that we have would contradict this idea. But it is of course, still just an idea. I mean, I'm just as afraid of death as anyone else, and fear my total eradication from life - if that is what death implies. I mean, I love life. I love being alive. And yes, it would be very meaningful to believe my life and the life of so many others is not just a dead end road to no where. And science has not yet discovered what consciousness fundamentally is - the door IS still open in my opinion.
I find Bernardo Kastrup a fascinating and interesting voice in this area, including the hard problem of Consciousness. I hope you do also.
I always wondered how the Salem witch trials were justified. The dunking chair determined if you were a witch. If you survived you were a witch and burned at the stake. If you drowned you weren't a witch. Now I just look around at what's happening in the US and it's all clear. Nothing has changed other than it's gotten worse.
Well said. Why I think one needs to dig a bit deeper than religion vs. secularism, and look at the psychological underpinnings causing men to murder other men year after year. I find Carl Jung did some good work in his attempts to understand the inner workings of the psyche.
Every religion bows to the God of Finance. That sounds extremely harsh but......
... but have you ever visited the Sistine Chapel or St. Paul's cathedral in Rome! 0.0
Yes indeed, religion is often the initial brain softener in the acceptance of the war between good and evil. Regardless of the specifics of that evil -- the devil, infidels etc. -- very young brains get opened to welcoming war as a necessary adjunct to some sort of vigilance in defense of "the truth." It seems to persist in the culture regardless of other changes, giving adherents a "spiritual" excuse for an otherwise insane point of view.
My brother said something to me before he ran off and we moved out of our childhood home almost 15 years ago and said that nobody gives a fuck about you. There is a lot evidence to that. There are hordes of homeless people in this city and no sign that any of their families give a fuck about them. People will choose propaganda over the truth than their own own flesh and blood. If course, there's always an exception like my family wouldn't leave me for dead. That's what love looks like to me.
I just mean I wish people would stop saying that people care. It's so stupid and obvious. There will always be people that do some mental gymnastics to make what I'm saying wrong.
And the present Ukraine war is a US war crime of the century !!
,so far. I have a horrible feeling there is far worse to come.
It's hard to understand that a few hundred thousand have already died. Among them innocent civilians who did nothing wrong in life other than be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Maybe life simply is absurd and senseless ...
I listened to this because Douglas was speaking freely. I will warn you, this is as real as it gets as well as heartbreaking. Don't listen before needing to sleep. Deeply depressing.
https://rumble.com/v3aaopg-tucker-carlson-ep.-18-douglas-macgregor.html
I listen to Douglas as often as I can - although I don't agree with some of his right-wing ideas, his military knowledge and accuracy is about the best you can find right now. It's sad listening to what he's had to say about the Ukrainian conflict these last 2 years, and compare it to the immoral, deep state lies Americans have been fed now - how it is almost 100% in contradiction to the actual reality of the conflict. I find the deep state power in the US as an obscenity upon humanity and upon our American constitution and fundamental human rights. The deep state's power over American Main Stream media is not what democracy is about - there is no accountability for the lies they spread that lead too mass slaughter. Kennedy was right about the CIA.
I know, I have little in common with his close minded thoughts on most topics. Most everyone I work with are from other countries so his thoughts about boarders make me ill.
I will say the only reason I listened to Douglas and Scott Ritter for years was their out loud in the face of hostile mass media thoughts and actions on Iraq and Afghanistan. Every word was fact and now history.
I'm sick of this American dream/idea/concept/etc is/was fundamentally good. Everybody - read the fucking history. The USA has been a gangster swamp from the very beginning. It's been using the underworld "rules" to impose itself on the whole world.
And the outside world proved being the dimwits to take the US at their "word" most of the time. Well, all of the time it seems like.
Yeah I'm sick of it too. Not very fond of this country I grew up in anymore. Sad for me.
Too bad Australians can't take a tour of Ukraine to see what happens to countries that become American weapons depots and proxies. How about a tour of Afghanistan to learn how America abandons nations once it's done using them. Maybe groups of Australians could take turns being locked in a room with Nutty Nuland and her war mongering psychopathic neocons for a day. Since none of my suggestions will be seriously considered I guess we'll have to hope that enough Aussies read articles written by writers like Caitlin or John Pilger!
My "extremely bright" architect family member never heard of Victoria Nuland, no clue what went on in the Ukraine in 2014, and believes the "official" gov't narrative concerning both C19 and 9/11....and she's in her 60's as am I
Have you read anything by Dr. Mattias Desmet concerning Mass Formation Psychosis? He explains how the most intelligent people blindly believe the MSM, etc. You can find an interview he had with Tucker Carlson on YT.
Desmet put an interesting gloss on the madness of crowds, but I think what we really have is *class* formation psychosis of the PMC, rooted in a sort of post-ideology of Mainline Protestantism or Deism and drawing on Calvinist hyper-authoritarian characteristics. Catherine Liu's _Virtue Hoarders_ sheds much light on the sociology behind it.
Hyper authoritarian indeed. It is ideology for sure!
Translation for the rest of us - PMC needs to pay their mortgages and car loans hence they'll support any "mass psychosis" or whatever as long as it helps their careers.
That, and the PMC think they're divinely ordained to reform everyone and everything and they're going to make a profession (or 10) out of it.
The stupid ones may think that. The rest is just playing along.
Take a tour of Maui. Same thing. Would not be surprised to find it an inside job. Doesn’t matter though. Same results.
It's amazing how these incompetent (and much worse) fools have those of us who aren't hypnotized questioning everything. In order to retain power they are capable of anything; that scares me.
That is a brilliant idea. They could do that watching non mass media IF they choose to.
Mass Formation Psychosis is just one hurdle we need to clear on the way to educating the public!
The Peace movement is dead here in the States. Perfect example: a former "peacenik" in my town has a bumper sticker: "NO WAR" ...he has now added a homemade addition below..."EXCEPT WITH RUSSIA"
Notice that outrageous bigotry, ethnic slurs, and crude reductionism are all acceptable and applauded, even, as long as they are directed at Russians.
Substitute the word "Jews" for "Russians" and "international Jewry" for "Russia" and read those sentences again.
Sure looks ugly, don't it?
Pure racism !!
Of course it is. What are you going to do about it?
Exactly... demonizing the Russian people. Disgusting. Many of us here in the States are demonized for opposing mutilating children's bodies in the name of "trans"
Trans is a woke issue promoted to create division in the peace movement. Calib Maupin just did a CPI video explaining this. These divisions are why Ritter was disinvited from the rage against the war machine protest and why the ANSWER protest failed.
Now watch. I’m going to be pilloried as anti trans.
I have some opinions on sexuality but like George Galloway said in a recent YouTube a children’s book celebrating the antics of a gay grandfather is jut too far.
Not to mention divisions in the (real, not shitlib AOC/Hillary type) women's movement, women's sports, female academics, etc.
Yes, and why are they not speaking out about this? Do they not recognize that biological men are competing with biological women? I mean I get it... totally brainwashed to be completely PC at the expense of females...shame on them
So Paula, this is backward thinking, is it not? We were moving in a direction where people could just "be"...I'm thinking, wear whatever clothes you want, sleep with whoever, and then out of the blue, if your female child likes to play with trucks she's probably male? I heard a spokesperson from Boston Children's Hospital actually saying these things. WHERE is this coming from?
It's coming from the patriarchy we women have been struggling with since forever. Males dominating women, now to the point of excluding us from society by substituting themselves for us; & even eliminating us, our physical functions (e.g., mother) & our body parts (e.g., breast) from the vocabulary. Lesbians are "transphobes" for not wanting to hang out or sleep with ersatz "women." Yes, going back to the good old days before the third wave women's movement.
The "peace movement" will get revived rather quickly as soon as the draft gets reinstated and the dead bodies start flowing in from overseas. Simple as that. Nothing to do with superior consciousness or occupying some higher plane.
Precisely why RFK Jr. is living in a state of delusion rather than making the sole focus of his campaign and about corruption and wars!! Instead, he wastes all his time preaching peace.
How is being 100% supporting Israel--peace?
I wasn't referring to that but rather his campaign in general! I apologize for the miscommunication! All his BS about both parties coming together! All they do is play the divisive card for show in order to keep everyone divided! It's a total lost cause and will never happen!!
This is a confusing comment -- please try again since you can edit your comments... ;-))
Please see above addendum
I'm baffled that war is ever thought of as valid. With the US it's always "needed" and the people go along with it. Iraq gets me the most. That one was the most blatantly fully illegal with absolutely no legitimate reason. They're always at least fake reasons, that one had nothing remotely reasonable. Before they started it I couldn't understand how it was even a question. After and especially now I don't understand why Bush wasn't charged with war crimes and maybe treason. And how that's never even been a question. But I'm completely baffled that Trump was ever taken seriously in the slightest let alone actually became president.
Bush not being charged with war crimes buffers the point the author is making in this post. In other words, it’s a all a big dog n pony show.
I must say I have never felt any humility towards the media until just now. Again the author is correct, on some level they have to know what empty pieces of shit they are deep down inside.
I’m in the US. In a perfect world I would be excited about RFK Jr. However it’s not perfect and Donald Trump is being harangued, quite mercilessly, by TPTB. His sentence has been imposed “Death by a Thousand Cuts.”
I have decided to lend him my energy. Am hoping to turn him into a big fucking grenade. Maybe he will detonate this time or at the very least get TPTB to go crazy and start shooting us in the streets. Unfortunately I have come to the conclusion that this must happen. He has quite a knack for driving them batshit.
For those of you who can’t stand him and question my intentions let me remind you of the cards we are all holding. Like you, I have a hand full of Jack shit, not even going to try and bluff. No amount of love and warm fuzzies is going to melt the soulless monsters behind the scenes. I’m afraid only a taste of fear, brutality, and their own mortality can do that.
The anger from the proles is righteous and deserved. It should not be directed at China or Russia or any other Nation for that matter. The enemy in need of a good smiting is already inside the gates. Maybe Trump fizzles out again at this point no harm no foul. At the very least maybe their masks come off for good.
Hey…..I’m a pragmatist 😉
One of the main themes of Caitlins writing is that it won't make a bit difference who's president. Another futile hope electing someone who should be in prison. Another indication of what the "justice" system is.
The only thing that will wake Americans up will be bombs falling in the US .
It clearly does make a difference who is 'president', look no further than the pathetic clown illegally occupying the office now. He should be executed for sedition, prison my ass. They dropped a big bomb on Maui. I'm sure it won't be the last.
No, it doesn't. Since whatever will get implemented seemingly coming from the "president" will actually come from the deep state. Wrapped in some package as if it came from the "president".
The US president - my ass.
That is true so it does matter. I still believe DJT is not tied to DS.
I’m not looking for DT to clean things up. That was my naivety in 2016. I’m looking for Donald Trump to push them over the edge. If you (not you per say) are a person who really believes this is all an act (Donald Trump) then I can’t help you. In fact nobody can if you are correct nobody can help me either.
I refuse to believe it’s that controlled. They hate his guts. I can explain why that it is. It’s because taking him down/out has proven to be much more difficult than they could have ever imagined. The insanity you bear witness to is a reaction to fear. Prior to DT the media and their overlords had a stranglehold on power. They could vanquish any foe with several days of unflattering headlines. Trump (love/hate him) broke that mold in many respects.
This is why TPTB and their media apparatus are on a holy terror. They are trying to smash that style of populism wherever and however they can. DT and his ilk have this power over them I am confident in saying. We need these fuckers to rip off the mask once and for all. No more hiding. THIS is Why I Support Him!
Internal discipline is the real goal of "world wars". By the state's perspective, neither Bush did anything wrong. Quite the opposite of "treason", Bush reproduced the society in which people are rewarded and not punished for high drama.
The narrative and media!!!
Some interesting new history on the causes of WWII support your point. Look for the Aaron Good YouTube on the geopolitical economy report and share it.
Americans got slaughtered in Korea and in Vietnam, sent home in tens of thousands of body bags. Against small and weak states like Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya, America still had to invent a cause, after which it needed to round up a gang of whiteys to help them fight. And, for all the self-righteousness they managed to invoke out of Ukraine, America dare not move against Russia. Eighteen months passed and still not a single pair of Yankee boots in the trenches.
Against China, they had the cause of Uighur genocide. Again it dare not make a move, reduced to barking from the curb. In Taiwan. Nancy Pelosi had to sneak in, in the middle of the night, in an unmarked plane. Same way when she left. In 2019, America got some local stooges to torch HK. But today all of them are finished, tearing their hair out in solitary, food delivered through a hole, the keys to their cells thrown away, and we don't even hear a whimper from the US to rescue their dogs.
Now, for this navy dude Karl Thomas. We long for him to turn up on our doorstep. Let's see if he will?We long to watch him stare at death, entrails of his Yankee sailors dangling in his mouth, the head of his captain stuck on a pike, his general's head hung on the highest gate flagpole, the way we like doing in the old days to barbarians after they climbed over the Great Wall. But, we also know that like virtually all American dogs, farting out their big mouths, Thomas is almost certainly good only at barking from the shore.
We Chinese ain't going anywhere. Come Yankee soldier boy, let's see you step ashore, and this includes Taiwan and the Paracel Islands. Your little yada, yada threats impress nobody. Let's see what that navy dude is made of and if he has any bite that's as big as his barking! Or is he just a coward and, therefore, good only at issuing threats from the comfort of a Pinoy brothel room.
The Yankees won't come. They'll use some dimwits Ukraine style. Right now Aussies are lining up it seems.
Well, @letsrock may be in line too. Who the fuck knows his number though.
Don't be too sure they won't come although the last time (Korea, Vietnam), they'd return home in bits & parts. This time we won't even let them repatriate bodies. We'd feed the parts to the pigs and the street dogs.
Of course, it's in the American nature to be scared shit, so they have to pretend otherwise. They dare not look at death in the face. In their woke culture, they don't even have balls. Who can tell if Karl Thomas is man, woman, mosquito or donkey?
If it's Aussies they sent, it makes for no difference. Same genes, same stock, same dead body, same treatment. Our pigs and dogs don't care for passport nationality difference either; they'll still eat it.
An Anglo-American is an Anglo-American; they have no business to be in Australia and America to begin with. The actual indigenous Aussies are, if not in concentration camps, dead. This is why we think WW3 will be a liberating war, returning all land to the indigenous. And China has both muscle and money -- and our people are both willing and able -- to help other natives because our forefathers have encountered these Anglo scumbags who, for all the goods things they have taken and benefited, still refuse to change their ways after 200, 300 years! BRICS is only the first step forward in this 100-year-long journey. (Recall what Xi told Putin at the doorsteps of the Kremlin in March: changes not seen in a century. What he said is what every one of 1.4 bn Chinese understands and which we had also made clear to Russia: "You don't have to join us in our quest to restore the world. But don't get in our way. Please!")
We are not a 5000 year long unbroken nation, civilization and culture for nothing. And the world's richest for 2,000 years. Why, therefore, should a couple of million American soldiers bother us? We killed many more millions circa 70 BCE to 100 CE, and those days were with arrows and swords. (Within China in the old days, a single battle, same location, was fought between 500,000 and 1.2 million, two sides counted. After which it takes months to sort out the dead, injured and captured. Amid oceans of blood and and mountains of dead, the survivors have to figure out which leg and an arm goes to who.) Today, the memory of those tribes, dead north of the Wall doesn't even exist, let alone their name. Do you know enough Chinese history to name me the name of these groups I'm talking about? Here's a hint: 匈奴. We totally, completely eradicated them from the face of this earth, making sure not even their children survive to come back, all because of the same mistake America makes today: they just won't cease breaking and coming into our land and property, climbing over the Great Wall. Then, as it is today, we offered those groups peace treaties, gold, metals, grain, fabrics, and in particular girls from whose parents, mostly officials, we have to ask for volunteers if they were willing to be given away as brides and concubines. For the nation, for China, for the future wellbeing, for everyone else except you, the parents would plea! For 50 years to circa 70 BCE we did all that. Didn't work. The pain with which our forefathers endured just to keep the peace. Each qingming 清明, we still remember their sacrifices made 2000 years ago!
So back to your claim, Yanks won't come. They are more than likely because, otherwise, they can't even keep America (or Australia), and their bosses know it. Besides, we prefer they come. That way, we don't have to sail 8,000 miles to find Yanks just to feed our pigs and dogs.
We Americans, for the most part, understand that it is the CCP not the Chinese people who are the criminals. Kindly have the same respect for our citizens C Woods. I hope you don't live here in US.
The CPC is not the criminal. Don’t fall for that nonsense.
But that’s not what hannity and levin are saying!
"You Americans" - indeed. The Exceptional Ones.
Poor reading comprehension skills. "We Americans" as opposed to our so called government. Trolls gonna troll.
I am a door to door war salesman here to sell you wars. Yes, I understand that the previous wars did not work, but now I have a nice and shiny upgraded war for you, straight from the military industrial complex. In fact, this war is so popular that for a limited time you can have it, for free! Just give your consent in agreeing with these terms and conditions! Soon, your support will help bomb people you don't know in a place you probably don't know much about!
A rhetorical question: "Are we already at war with Russia?"
It seems as if by funding, supplying weapons, providing training and sharing Intel with the Ukrainian's so abundantly, that the answer is obviously, "Yes."
It seems somehow disingenuous of us to not simply go ahead and declare war, get it over with and take full responsibility for our actions.
But no. We are too used to, by now, surreptitiously goading and entrapping 'The Enemy' into 'throwing the first Punch' in order to justify our actions to ourselves, (no matter how transparent the ruse becomes in hindsight...)
It's the Lutheran way.
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/anxiousbench/2023/06/martin-luther-and-shiny-happy-people-reflections-on-parenting-god-and-reformations/
Correction: “One day it will be permissible to say in mainstream circles that it was wrong for the US empire to deliberately provoke the war in Ukraine and keep it going as long as possible to bleed U.S. taxpayers of money that may be laundered and cycled back to those who are involved with the U.S. government.”
"This time it's different!" - empire simp
The language of the Economist tweet is most instructive, framing the discussion in terms of heroic struggle and not aggression and evil empire.
Bless you!
~3 min. song, worth the listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esPPcVWnGcg
Thanks, great song!