See, if we don't censor and punish dissent, then the Bad Guys might win!
/s/
Snark aside, the increasing reliance on overt censorship and naked physical repression in the West can be viewed as one of two things - either as an oligarchy that is increasingly willing to drop the pretense of democracy in favor of open sociopathy, or as a sign of an oligarchy that lacks confidence, a sign of of weakness and not strength.
I would guess the second. While there are people who like authoritarianism for its own sake, I think the usual motivation is the belief that only authoritarian measures can protect the state, its government, and its ruling class, presumable because they are failing. Then the failures of authoritarianism themselves become the excuse for further authoritarianism. It's a vicious circle which in history has usually ended in corruption and collapse. Which does seem to be what is happening.
It might be both. Their attitudes and aims could not be justified in an openly democratic manner so increasing pressures, both physical and psychological, to induce compliance ensures those weaknesses are not challenged.
I dont claim it is flawless or has alll the answers. It doesn’t. But it’s an eye opener and a thought-awakener. Particularly when you start asking questions about why those who say they want to save us from authoritarianism, seem to be themselves increasingly practicing it.
I think they are blatantly not worried about pretense. They no longer give a damn about the mask. Balls to the wall,so whatcha gonna do about it. We are untouchable. No mechanisms rein us in.
I got the Klarenberg treatment 15 years ago for merely taking photographs of hugely polluting oil refineries and chemical plants along the Delaware River and nearby schools and day care centers.
It was followed up 3 days later by a home visit and more interrogation by FBI, Homeland Security, and Hunterdon County NJ Prosecutors Office investigators. USA! USA! USA!
And you were no journalist so your career couldn't suffer. Today's so called journalists know not to step out of bounds if they want to keep being able to pay their mortgages and car loans.
I tried reading your story on nukes cost over runs in the NY times (or Post?) But couldn't access it. A just for fun comment though -
I worked with some people who were working on Seabrook Station in New Hampshire. The valves were all supposed to be X-rayed for defects internally but it was really expensive and time consuming so the mfg. Used one valve and just changed the QC numbers on the I'd tags. They did get caught.
One other -
One of my engineering courses the instructor was head of Avco systems QC. They made the reentry vehicles for ICBM MIRVs. It seems that there was a minor engineering problem and the warheads we're arming themselves in the silos.
Cheers and sorry to hear about your demise. Same here.
I cannot tell whether journalism was your main career or activism of some other kind. But I guess real journalism is akin to activism, and so both will suffer. And they do, increasingly so.
What is “activism”? True journalists do it not for money, but out of a professional zeal - because they believe truthful information and an informed public is central success of our society.
It’s not different than being a kindergarten professional. Or a school teacher. Or a nurse. You dont do it for money, you do it because you have a passion for this work and you believe that doing it well makes a better society.
It’s interesting however, that real journalists are often dismisses as “activists”, simply for having the same passion for their job as do the best teachers, or nurses.
Why? Because when done properly journalism threatens change at the very top - threatens rule of people who manipulate society by hiding truth. Teachers and nurses work more at a grassroots level and are thus leads threatening.
Yep. At least here in the US some people are scratching their heads and wondering why more aren't signing up for military service. I believe a question that will help shed light on the issue and was asked near the end of this article is, what is there worth fighting for?
Well that’s because the latest “western” aka imperialist strategy we are seing now, is that is they insert patsies like Zelensky in charge of countries, and get THEM to go send all of THEIR young men to die for nothing….while Blackstone and co, which own the US govt basically, then swoops in to take over what is left of the country.
Killing two birds with one stone.
Now you understand why Biden has doubled down on imprisoning more of his own people. he doesn’t even need them to fight, and robots are cheaper at work.
For the overwhelming majority it must be rewards that come with the service. It's a career. When one joins any company do they really care about its "value statement"? Maybe a few, and that's also true for the military.
So I'm glad it is still rumor. The Ukraine regime, with NATO support, has already proven itself capable of any evil. Now that the regime is collapsing, though, the evil will know no bounds, and the chaos is commencing. We are probably already beyond that point where a phone call from Biden or Blinken would get Lira freed--or, more likely, we are way past the point where Biden or Blinken give a shit.
In the US, they are banning books and academic curriculum. The Supreme Court revoked women's rights to control their own body. The Court stripped EPA power to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and wetlands. Immigrants are targeted. Many people are calling for internment camps for homeless people. White Christian Nationalist reject democracy and seek a Christian State. Almost half the States have passed all kinds of crazy laws. I could go on.
I might be attacked for thinking “control their own bodies” is translated from the right to kill your unborn/just born baby. Why are other restrictions on woman’s bodies justified? Prostitution and vaccines were excluded? The contradiction is obvious. Also states are the ones restricting abortion not the Feds. Why is there such a big push to promote baby killing and why not increase the age to 5 years since that’s when they become a real pain in the ass. Rail against the death penalty, support wars where only the enemy is killed, let drug addicts and the mentally I’ll die in the streets, it’s all wrong and calling it anything other than barbaric is newspeak. Just kidding on 5 year olds but not the pain in the ass part.
I left out robbing banks too. Prostitution is a commercial transaction subject to regulation by the State.
You misunderstand the Supreme Court's decision - it eliminated a Constitutional right to an abortion and this made abortion subject to State and Federal legislation and regulation (and majority control). There is no legal difference with respect to federal or state legislation - and feds seek national federal legislation (as do many Republicans)
Vaccines have public health implications that transcend the individual and this are reasonable regulated by the State.
I don't support any current wars or allowing mentally ill to die in the street. So stop the nonsense.
A "baby" is not a baby until born. Of course, many that rail against "baby killing" don't give a rats ass what happens to the baby after it is born.
The Court also stripped EPA powers to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and protect wetlands.
Republicans in Congress and State legislatures seek to dismantle the New Deal's "administrative State" and social welfare programs. The Court will back them.
The Judicial system has long been a target of the wealthy in the US. And has been corrupted as well. The Supreme Court in the US is terribly corrupt. We are at very much the end stage of the 200 year experimental dream of a US representative government.
We ought to fear what will come next. Because the billionaires are not going to give up the obscene amount of wealth and power they have accrued. And people who believe the invisible hand of an unregulated market will give them and their children more "freedom" are deluding themselves. Just the opposite will take place. I fear we will descend into a kind of dystopic corporate fascism. Which is one of the hallmarks of fascism - when private interests dictate and control your governance and society. A society run by CEO's of corporations and billionaires with private police and a private military run by CEO fiat, is not a free society, it is a fascistic society.
By this point only a complete idiot would not recognize what this whole Ukraine thing is all about. Since the majority still cannot be considered clinical idiots it follows they do accept the setup consciously. They are on board.
We already know what this leads to. Just look back at Europe ~100 years ago.
"If western governments need to keep ramping up censorship, propaganda and the persecution of journalists in order to defend western freedom and democracy, is it really freedom and democracy? And, is it worth defending?" Careful you'll be deemed a "Terrorist"! Truth told to the public apparently means you must be what we in the US refer to as a "Domestic Terrorist" but just an outright terrorist in Britain!
Calling states like Australia, the US, Britain and Canada "democracies" is now the supreme irony, and best examples of modern propaganda. Nothing is further from the truth. Only a fool would believe Max Blumenthal would accost anybody, and only a fascist would believe anyone but a fool would. Citizens of these countries should not vote: force the authorities to make that a crime.
Every single morning I hope that I would wake up from this nightmare around us ... how bad it is (I think every single day about this) is shown in the movie 'Don't look up' - it is a wonderful picture of our stupid disgusting society and our deranged helplessness to reach anything beneficial for humankind - what comes next?? I guess this: https://thebulletin.org/2022/10/nowhere-to-hide-how-a-nuclear-war-would-kill-you-and-almost-everyone-else/ - We are certainly worth the Nobel Price for STUPIDITY!!! (Do we even give one thought to poor people and all the innocent creatures around us that have no voice and no choice ...)
I hear you. :( I feel a bit like I lucked out being from the Boomer generation - where I don't have too many years left, so I won't be exposed to much more of this. But it's the Millennials who will really suffer. Because what appears to be coming down the pike is a dystopic, global world order run by obscenely wealthy elites who will strip the planet of every resource imaginable, and exploit human beings wherever their insatiable greed leads them. And if you try to rebel or complain - you will be locked up like Julian Assange, or put on a kill list like Jimmy Dore and friends.
I saw a NY Times piece today announcing that Millennials are shifting to the political right. What it really shows and the Times won't ever say is that the Dems have nothing to offer Millennials, or anyone else in the bottom 80 percentile of wealth. Of course, neither do the Republicans.
Which is an historically predictable pattern. It's how a demagogue comes to power. Usually spells disaster for a society - like it did for Germany in the 1930s - 40s.
It's surprising how little protest we've seen here in the US. The last was Occupy Wallstreet - but really not much since. Although there does seem to be a resurgence in attempting to Unionize - but the militarized police and apparently, the soon coming laws of making any kind of protest or strikes illegal like in Australia - will put the clamp on any Unionizing solidarity efforts. Unless there is outright rebellion and violence, or the police join the Union efforts, but that doesn't often happen until a lot of people have been locked away or died.
What I see in France is encouraging. But look at what Macron is doing. Brutalizing the protestors as much as he can get away with, and the political elites so far are pretty much ignoring the demands of the French people. Macron still in office. The robbery of peoples 2 years of retirement still in effect.
But yes, Americans have been so inundated with propaganda that government itself is evil, and individualism and entrepreneurs and pedophiles like Bill Gates are the "good guys" they seem to just keep going along with the corporate system of daily privatized exploitation of their labor It shows just how powerful the billionaire propaganda is - that Caitlin writes about frequently.
I wanted to mention France but then you did too. We can also recall Netherlands farmers, and maybe a few more.
Those examples are "encouraging" for the rest of the "democratic" and "civilized" world. Yeah, go ahead and do your protesting. We'll deal with it. We know how. You don't matter in the end.
There are miniscule anti-war protests in the US because there isn't a draft and the people are insouciant and self-absorbed. The deep state learned its lesson with the Vietnam War's draft protests and riots, and they didn't want that to happen again, so the army started going all-volunteer in 1972 (I was there). So, most military aged young people don't really care because they won't be drafted. The drafted citizen-soldier put a brake on foreign wars of choice. Ending the draft was the Master Stroke of the Empire.
Agree. The Senator's sons and daughters don't go to war. It would be whole different story if that were the case. If the rich had some kind of human skin in the Imperial game they play.
Well many are feeling the futility of it - especially after occupy Wallstreet. And with today's mass surveillance state - where as soon as you become marked and blacklisted by the FBI and other deep state elements - you then can have other parts of your life completely ruined - like your livelihood, and more recently - as we see in the trucker's protest up in Canada, your bank accounts frozen, etc.
So I think besides the feeling of futility, there must be quite a bit of fear now at what they can do to you. Which is clearly authoritarianism at work.
And yet, if there is going to be any change it all - I believe it's going to have to come from some kind of solidarity among workers and the general population, against the elite scammers at the top. But we've now reached a point where protesting and 'rebelling' even in the US - will be extremely costly.
What may be more likely is some kind of authoritarian demagogue will politically arise, masking himself (or herself) as a populace candidate, who once he/she takes power, will then start purging any opposing political factions - and you will see US resemble a third world country even more, with a constantly unstable government, and covert rebel groups fighting for basic human freedoms.
Romantic fantasies and Les Miz aside, revolutions do not happen when the 99% rise up and overthrow the 1%, because the 1% will do whatever it takes to keep power. To return to the example of France - if the only way French elites could retain their power was through a wholesale massacre of French citizens, they would do it without hesitation.
Revolutions happen when the 1% are divided amongst themselves, and one or more 1% factions start to cast about for allies. Looking at the United States, Team D is the political manifestation of the PMC, while Team R plays a similar role for the Local Gentry. However, both Team D and Team R have junior partners; various minorities in the case of Team D, and white Evangelicals for Team R.
Another great article - Спасибо - Ya well, Gonzalo should have used a little better street sense , since he was in a foreign country and in war but the USG will treat him the same way they treated my Nam brothers that were left behind in the jungle POW camps. Hopefully not but ......
"If western governments need to keep ramping up censorship, propaganda and the persecution of journalists in order to defend western freedom and democracy, is it really freedom and democracy? And, is it worth defending?"
These have been my questions over and over again. If we can't even answer the question, "Will you do anything to get Lira released?" then you're certainly not upholding Americans' First Amendment right of free speech, and you're definitely an uncaring bastard who doesn't give a flying f*** about Americans' safety abroad. If you have to grill an investigative journalist for five hours and take his devices in order to feel better about your fascist state, then you're not a "democracy" by any means. So, no, it's not about "freedom and democracy," and no, it's not worth defending whatever the hell it is.
Let's hit the streets in South Australia and take our $50K AUS fine and 3 months jail terms and let the fascists in charge know where they can shove their so-called "freedom and democracy." It's time for a revolution. High time.
See, if we don't censor and punish dissent, then the Bad Guys might win!
/s/
Snark aside, the increasing reliance on overt censorship and naked physical repression in the West can be viewed as one of two things - either as an oligarchy that is increasingly willing to drop the pretense of democracy in favor of open sociopathy, or as a sign of an oligarchy that lacks confidence, a sign of of weakness and not strength.
A society founded on lies fears truth.
It's called Fascism
(Oligarchy losing confidence)
I would guess the second. While there are people who like authoritarianism for its own sake, I think the usual motivation is the belief that only authoritarian measures can protect the state, its government, and its ruling class, presumable because they are failing. Then the failures of authoritarianism themselves become the excuse for further authoritarianism. It's a vicious circle which in history has usually ended in corruption and collapse. Which does seem to be what is happening.
It might be both. Their attitudes and aims could not be justified in an openly democratic manner so increasing pressures, both physical and psychological, to induce compliance ensures those weaknesses are not challenged.
You may find this interesting, though a long read, on your way to making sense of what is actually going on:
“State of Exception” by Giorgio Agamben
https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/S/bo3534874.html
I dont claim it is flawless or has alll the answers. It doesn’t. But it’s an eye opener and a thought-awakener. Particularly when you start asking questions about why those who say they want to save us from authoritarianism, seem to be themselves increasingly practicing it.
Carl Schmitt is very useful in understanding the present situation.
I think they are blatantly not worried about pretense. They no longer give a damn about the mask. Balls to the wall,so whatcha gonna do about it. We are untouchable. No mechanisms rein us in.
I got the Klarenberg treatment 15 years ago for merely taking photographs of hugely polluting oil refineries and chemical plants along the Delaware River and nearby schools and day care centers.
It was followed up 3 days later by a home visit and more interrogation by FBI, Homeland Security, and Hunterdon County NJ Prosecutors Office investigators. USA! USA! USA!
And you were no journalist so your career couldn't suffer. Today's so called journalists know not to step out of bounds if they want to keep being able to pay their mortgages and car loans.
Actually, at the time, I wrote a column at NJ's largest newspaper, the Newark Star Ledger, see:
https://www.nj.com/staff/bwolfe/posts.html
My career not only suffered, I was repeatedly stopped and harassed by police likely because I was placed on a domestic terror watch list.
As the head of a non-profit, I was later defunded by Foundations .
After being forced out of State government as a whistleblower, there was no possibility of employment in my field.
I can guarantee you that Mr. Klarenberg has not paid remotely the price I have.
I tried reading your story on nukes cost over runs in the NY times (or Post?) But couldn't access it. A just for fun comment though -
I worked with some people who were working on Seabrook Station in New Hampshire. The valves were all supposed to be X-rayed for defects internally but it was really expensive and time consuming so the mfg. Used one valve and just changed the QC numbers on the I'd tags. They did get caught.
One other -
One of my engineering courses the instructor was head of Avco systems QC. They made the reentry vehicles for ICBM MIRVs. It seems that there was a minor engineering problem and the warheads we're arming themselves in the silos.
Cheers and sorry to hear about your demise. Same here.
I cannot tell whether journalism was your main career or activism of some other kind. But I guess real journalism is akin to activism, and so both will suffer. And they do, increasingly so.
What is “activism”? True journalists do it not for money, but out of a professional zeal - because they believe truthful information and an informed public is central success of our society.
It’s not different than being a kindergarten professional. Or a school teacher. Or a nurse. You dont do it for money, you do it because you have a passion for this work and you believe that doing it well makes a better society.
It’s interesting however, that real journalists are often dismisses as “activists”, simply for having the same passion for their job as do the best teachers, or nurses.
Why? Because when done properly journalism threatens change at the very top - threatens rule of people who manipulate society by hiding truth. Teachers and nurses work more at a grassroots level and are thus leads threatening.
How very sad. Well you are appreciated and the time will come when you are recognized. I dearly wish it to be soon.
Gotta love when the Epoch Times (ran by a literal anti-China cult) is doing a better job than American news media in pressing for answers lmao
The public can't be trusted with truth, as they aren't likely to take kindly to the liars it exposes.
Yep. At least here in the US some people are scratching their heads and wondering why more aren't signing up for military service. I believe a question that will help shed light on the issue and was asked near the end of this article is, what is there worth fighting for?
Well that’s because the latest “western” aka imperialist strategy we are seing now, is that is they insert patsies like Zelensky in charge of countries, and get THEM to go send all of THEIR young men to die for nothing….while Blackstone and co, which own the US govt basically, then swoops in to take over what is left of the country.
Killing two birds with one stone.
Now you understand why Biden has doubled down on imprisoning more of his own people. he doesn’t even need them to fight, and robots are cheaper at work.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/01/how-president-biden-launched-a-new-prison-boom.html
https://www.thedailybeast.com/joe-biden-hasnt-kept-his-promise-to-reduce-the-prison-population
Unfortunately most people find the military as an option due to economic pressure. And the massive propaganda we get glorifying the US armed forces.
Yeah I had some friends and family urge me to consider the reserves after I left active but at that time I was already disillusioned with it all.
For the overwhelming majority it must be rewards that come with the service. It's a career. When one joins any company do they really care about its "value statement"? Maybe a few, and that's also true for the military.
I'm glad to see The Juice Media is still up and running. I watched them years ago, but the site seemed to go silent.
The Aussies are in deep shit, and have been for years.
Gonzalo Lira will possibly join Julian Assange in Belmarsh for speaking too much truth.
Talk from whom? Mind sharing your source?
So I'm glad it is still rumor. The Ukraine regime, with NATO support, has already proven itself capable of any evil. Now that the regime is collapsing, though, the evil will know no bounds, and the chaos is commencing. We are probably already beyond that point where a phone call from Biden or Blinken would get Lira freed--or, more likely, we are way past the point where Biden or Blinken give a shit.
Caitlin - this crap isn't happening in a vacuum:
In the US, they are banning books and academic curriculum. The Supreme Court revoked women's rights to control their own body. The Court stripped EPA power to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and wetlands. Immigrants are targeted. Many people are calling for internment camps for homeless people. White Christian Nationalist reject democracy and seek a Christian State. Almost half the States have passed all kinds of crazy laws. I could go on.
It's called Fascism. Use the word.
I might be attacked for thinking “control their own bodies” is translated from the right to kill your unborn/just born baby. Why are other restrictions on woman’s bodies justified? Prostitution and vaccines were excluded? The contradiction is obvious. Also states are the ones restricting abortion not the Feds. Why is there such a big push to promote baby killing and why not increase the age to 5 years since that’s when they become a real pain in the ass. Rail against the death penalty, support wars where only the enemy is killed, let drug addicts and the mentally I’ll die in the streets, it’s all wrong and calling it anything other than barbaric is newspeak. Just kidding on 5 year olds but not the pain in the ass part.
I left out robbing banks too. Prostitution is a commercial transaction subject to regulation by the State.
You misunderstand the Supreme Court's decision - it eliminated a Constitutional right to an abortion and this made abortion subject to State and Federal legislation and regulation (and majority control). There is no legal difference with respect to federal or state legislation - and feds seek national federal legislation (as do many Republicans)
Vaccines have public health implications that transcend the individual and this are reasonable regulated by the State.
I don't support any current wars or allowing mentally ill to die in the street. So stop the nonsense.
A "baby" is not a baby until born. Of course, many that rail against "baby killing" don't give a rats ass what happens to the baby after it is born.
If you are referring to the covid 'vaccines' you couldn't be more wrong.
The Court also stripped EPA powers to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and protect wetlands.
Republicans in Congress and State legislatures seek to dismantle the New Deal's "administrative State" and social welfare programs. The Court will back them.
The Judicial system has long been a target of the wealthy in the US. And has been corrupted as well. The Supreme Court in the US is terribly corrupt. We are at very much the end stage of the 200 year experimental dream of a US representative government.
We ought to fear what will come next. Because the billionaires are not going to give up the obscene amount of wealth and power they have accrued. And people who believe the invisible hand of an unregulated market will give them and their children more "freedom" are deluding themselves. Just the opposite will take place. I fear we will descend into a kind of dystopic corporate fascism. Which is one of the hallmarks of fascism - when private interests dictate and control your governance and society. A society run by CEO's of corporations and billionaires with private police and a private military run by CEO fiat, is not a free society, it is a fascistic society.
Note how the Ukraine cult rejoices at the detention of Gonazalo Lira and now Klarenberg.
Their actions show plainly what they really think of freedom of speech and the press.
By this point only a complete idiot would not recognize what this whole Ukraine thing is all about. Since the majority still cannot be considered clinical idiots it follows they do accept the setup consciously. They are on board.
We already know what this leads to. Just look back at Europe ~100 years ago.
Fascism is as fascism does.
It's why I give the middle finger & the side eye to all idiots who defend & support Ukraine & Zelensky.
"If western governments need to keep ramping up censorship, propaganda and the persecution of journalists in order to defend western freedom and democracy, is it really freedom and democracy? And, is it worth defending?" Careful you'll be deemed a "Terrorist"! Truth told to the public apparently means you must be what we in the US refer to as a "Domestic Terrorist" but just an outright terrorist in Britain!
Calling states like Australia, the US, Britain and Canada "democracies" is now the supreme irony, and best examples of modern propaganda. Nothing is further from the truth. Only a fool would believe Max Blumenthal would accost anybody, and only a fascist would believe anyone but a fool would. Citizens of these countries should not vote: force the authorities to make that a crime.
In Australia voting has long been required by law.
Every single morning I hope that I would wake up from this nightmare around us ... how bad it is (I think every single day about this) is shown in the movie 'Don't look up' - it is a wonderful picture of our stupid disgusting society and our deranged helplessness to reach anything beneficial for humankind - what comes next?? I guess this: https://thebulletin.org/2022/10/nowhere-to-hide-how-a-nuclear-war-would-kill-you-and-almost-everyone-else/ - We are certainly worth the Nobel Price for STUPIDITY!!! (Do we even give one thought to poor people and all the innocent creatures around us that have no voice and no choice ...)
I hear you. :( I feel a bit like I lucked out being from the Boomer generation - where I don't have too many years left, so I won't be exposed to much more of this. But it's the Millennials who will really suffer. Because what appears to be coming down the pike is a dystopic, global world order run by obscenely wealthy elites who will strip the planet of every resource imaginable, and exploit human beings wherever their insatiable greed leads them. And if you try to rebel or complain - you will be locked up like Julian Assange, or put on a kill list like Jimmy Dore and friends.
I saw a NY Times piece today announcing that Millennials are shifting to the political right. What it really shows and the Times won't ever say is that the Dems have nothing to offer Millennials, or anyone else in the bottom 80 percentile of wealth. Of course, neither do the Republicans.
Which is an historically predictable pattern. It's how a demagogue comes to power. Usually spells disaster for a society - like it did for Germany in the 1930s - 40s.
The thing is that generation seems ready and is welcoming such treatment. In fact, they might be pitying the elders' concerns.
It's surprising how little protest we've seen here in the US. The last was Occupy Wallstreet - but really not much since. Although there does seem to be a resurgence in attempting to Unionize - but the militarized police and apparently, the soon coming laws of making any kind of protest or strikes illegal like in Australia - will put the clamp on any Unionizing solidarity efforts. Unless there is outright rebellion and violence, or the police join the Union efforts, but that doesn't often happen until a lot of people have been locked away or died.
What I see in France is encouraging. But look at what Macron is doing. Brutalizing the protestors as much as he can get away with, and the political elites so far are pretty much ignoring the demands of the French people. Macron still in office. The robbery of peoples 2 years of retirement still in effect.
But yes, Americans have been so inundated with propaganda that government itself is evil, and individualism and entrepreneurs and pedophiles like Bill Gates are the "good guys" they seem to just keep going along with the corporate system of daily privatized exploitation of their labor It shows just how powerful the billionaire propaganda is - that Caitlin writes about frequently.
I wanted to mention France but then you did too. We can also recall Netherlands farmers, and maybe a few more.
Those examples are "encouraging" for the rest of the "democratic" and "civilized" world. Yeah, go ahead and do your protesting. We'll deal with it. We know how. You don't matter in the end.
There are miniscule anti-war protests in the US because there isn't a draft and the people are insouciant and self-absorbed. The deep state learned its lesson with the Vietnam War's draft protests and riots, and they didn't want that to happen again, so the army started going all-volunteer in 1972 (I was there). So, most military aged young people don't really care because they won't be drafted. The drafted citizen-soldier put a brake on foreign wars of choice. Ending the draft was the Master Stroke of the Empire.
Agree. The Senator's sons and daughters don't go to war. It would be whole different story if that were the case. If the rich had some kind of human skin in the Imperial game they play.
The reason that there have been few protests is that the populace has learned that protesting is at best futile.
As long as the French police and army will still obey orders and shoot when ordered to do so, Macron can sleep like a baby.
Well many are feeling the futility of it - especially after occupy Wallstreet. And with today's mass surveillance state - where as soon as you become marked and blacklisted by the FBI and other deep state elements - you then can have other parts of your life completely ruined - like your livelihood, and more recently - as we see in the trucker's protest up in Canada, your bank accounts frozen, etc.
So I think besides the feeling of futility, there must be quite a bit of fear now at what they can do to you. Which is clearly authoritarianism at work.
And yet, if there is going to be any change it all - I believe it's going to have to come from some kind of solidarity among workers and the general population, against the elite scammers at the top. But we've now reached a point where protesting and 'rebelling' even in the US - will be extremely costly.
What may be more likely is some kind of authoritarian demagogue will politically arise, masking himself (or herself) as a populace candidate, who once he/she takes power, will then start purging any opposing political factions - and you will see US resemble a third world country even more, with a constantly unstable government, and covert rebel groups fighting for basic human freedoms.
Romantic fantasies and Les Miz aside, revolutions do not happen when the 99% rise up and overthrow the 1%, because the 1% will do whatever it takes to keep power. To return to the example of France - if the only way French elites could retain their power was through a wholesale massacre of French citizens, they would do it without hesitation.
Revolutions happen when the 1% are divided amongst themselves, and one or more 1% factions start to cast about for allies. Looking at the United States, Team D is the political manifestation of the PMC, while Team R plays a similar role for the Local Gentry. However, both Team D and Team R have junior partners; various minorities in the case of Team D, and white Evangelicals for Team R.
Absolutely, same here!
"Defending freedom and democracy" in American Newspeak simply means imposing totalitarianism.
Another great article - Спасибо - Ya well, Gonzalo should have used a little better street sense , since he was in a foreign country and in war but the USG will treat him the same way they treated my Nam brothers that were left behind in the jungle POW camps. Hopefully not but ......
Loved the Video !
"Authoritarianism" with the fusion of govt and corporate power = fascism.
"If western governments need to keep ramping up censorship, propaganda and the persecution of journalists in order to defend western freedom and democracy, is it really freedom and democracy? And, is it worth defending?"
These have been my questions over and over again. If we can't even answer the question, "Will you do anything to get Lira released?" then you're certainly not upholding Americans' First Amendment right of free speech, and you're definitely an uncaring bastard who doesn't give a flying f*** about Americans' safety abroad. If you have to grill an investigative journalist for five hours and take his devices in order to feel better about your fascist state, then you're not a "democracy" by any means. So, no, it's not about "freedom and democracy," and no, it's not worth defending whatever the hell it is.
Let's hit the streets in South Australia and take our $50K AUS fine and 3 months jail terms and let the fascists in charge know where they can shove their so-called "freedom and democracy." It's time for a revolution. High time.
Nice. So sometimes the citizens - they are still citizens? -have to make a choice between the Devil and Beleezebub?
No. We can write in Satan or Lucifer. See how many choices we have?
I'm jumping to conclusions- again.
Not at all. You just forgot the write in choices. Just remember that Lucifer is "The bringer of light" and you're all set.