We can all do something most days, but sometimes, just to keep going, I have to stop reading the news for at least half a day and I have to read or do something that is completely unrelated to our sick world. We need to support each other during those times too.
Persuading people that they are powerless is the number one task for the oligarchy’s propaganda apparatus. Because if ordinary people believe that they have power then the next thing they will be doing is working out how to use their power effectively. And once this reaches critical mass, the system can be brought to a screeching halt. To bring down the system you don’t need to destroy anything. You only need to briefly stop the system from functioning. Stop the continuous flow of labor, capital and resources—just for a few weeks. Like a shark in the water, if the system stops moving it will die. And the oligarchs know this and they do everything they can to prevent people from understanding this and acting to shut the system down.
Do it this week--Economic Blackout. No shopping on Black Friday or any day past next Tuesday. Stand in solidarity with the General Strike in Italy and elsewhere. The people have the power!
Yes! Having the power is one thing, but knowing how to use it is another.
I.e.,… a general strike sounds good, but is it effective in bringing down the empire? We have been playing Monopoly for quite a while, and They won. We have to beg them to keep playing…. And the music keeps being heard…
You got any better suggestions? If you're already given up and don't want to help out, don't get in the way of those who are still trying to tear down the empire.
Yes, there are other ways, the most important of which is the power of MONEY. Going on strike doesn’t affect the Monopoly winners…
“We have the power” but use it to elect Masters. Trump for example was elected by the electorate. Where were the Masters….. laughing at the electorate. In democracies, people get the leaders they elect…. and deserve…
It is not *nothing* but it does want to be organized. This is why reading theory and discussing it is critical. We have to know what we are demanding and why for a General Strike to be useful rather than a flash in the pan. We need organized groups. We need to learn from the past. We need to educate eachother.
I'm not so sure your hypothesis will work out as you intend it to (i.e. "stopping the continuous flow of labor, capital and resources—just for a few weeks" amounting to "if the system stops it will die").
As an example, look at events from recent history during the Covid lockdowns (on a global level). The U.S. Govt. simply printed more money (and tons of it), AI and automation is taking more jobs, drones are doing deliveries, and so on and so forth.
Even though there were major disruptions in labor, supply chains, trade, travel (eg. airplane flights stoppage and airport shutdowns), etc., things chugged on (though not in a good way for most people).
Unfortunately, Western economies have been subjugated/held-hostage by 'high-levels' of 'personal debts' (2nd or 3rd morgages, student debt, credit card debt, medical debt, auto debt, other personal debts), thus making people DEBT SLAVES. In such an environment of personal precarity and security, the Capitalist class (TPTB, etc.) have too many points of LEVERAGE to apply pressure to 'prevent people from 'disrupting the economy to greater levels than what the Covid lockdowns did'.
I suspect other strategies will be needed (maybe with 'work stoppage' possibly playing a certain part in this).
Ah, the COVID lockdowns were instigated by the oligarchs as an experiment/exercise in global-level population control and programming. This is the exact opposite of what I’m talking about. The system kept functioning on their terms. In contrast, if a large percentage of the population withdrew their labour and purchasing activity, and participated in civil disobedience aimed at strategically squeezing the massive logistical and capital flows necessary to sustain the system, it would set off an avalanche of panic in the financial class. I haven’t just dreamt this up. Look at the writings of Yanis Varoufakis. The system has many weak points that can be exploited by ordinary people and groups if they act in a strategic and co-ordinated manner.
>>"the COVID lockdowns were instigated by the oligarchs as an experiment/exercise in global-level population control and programming."
Nothing of the sort - this is not even a serious argument (unless you are a conspiratorial thinker rather than rational critical thinker). Learning from events is not the same as 'intentionally creating those events to learn' - i.e. lockdowns were a non-scientific (IMO) policy that was haphazardly thought out (based on fear) and implemented disastously.
Besides, the 'reasons for the lockdown' are irrelevant to this discussion. The point is - TPTB has adequate means to sustain 'significant SHOCKS' to disruptions to the system (as observed by the authoritarianism, enforement and increases in money supply during the Covid crisis).
>>"Look at the writings of Yanis Varoufakis."
I've read all his books. Maybe you seem to interpret his works differently than I do.
>>"if a large percentage of the population withdrew their labour and purchasing activity..."
The most important assumption about that premise is 'IF'. IF this then that, IF this happens then that follows, etc. That is the ISSUE with such arguments - the probabilities of the 'IF' actually being true.
In propositional logic terms ->
IF 'x' THEN 'y' (or symbolically x -> y)
The question is not about the consequent (y), but about the antecedent (x) being true.
Anyone can make hypothetical 'IF this then that' assertions, but the discussion is about the PROBABILITIES of 'IF' happening, not about 'if x happens then y follows'.
>>"The system has many weak points that can be exploited by ordinary people and groups if they act in a strategic and co-ordinated manner."
I'm not arguing about 'the weak points that can be exploited'. I'm arguing about your assumptions about IF being true (i.e. " if they act in a strategic and co-ordinated manner"). This is pure hypothetical speculation, and not based on emperical evidence.
To summarize, the debate/argument is not about 'y' will happen IF 'x' is true, it is about 'the probability of 'x' being true (where x = ordinary people and groups if they act in a strategic and co-ordinated manner). History has shown that this is rarely the case (except in isolated and small-size, confined contexts and environments). And what we need is LARGE-SCALE, GLOBAL mobilization (which has very different probabilities than small-scale "ordinary people and groups if they act in a strategic and co-ordinated manner").
I agree, X is the question, not Y. The Houthis have done us a great service. They've shown that you don't have to stop the flow of goods. Just an occasional disruption in the most critical trade vectors drives the cost of trade up. Luigi Mangione showed us we dont have to take out every CEO to get them all asking if their personal harms are going to make them the next target, one CEO at a time. We make whack-a-mole significantly harder through well placed assaults on normative.
These efforts cant replace organization and theory, but they are still critical. And organizations often get sabotaged, when loud and public, so our efforts need public and secret efforts to organize, and we need to have such efforts be ready to work with principled actions.
Your NEGATIVE reputation preceeds you, PITA Contrarian (as evidenced by the quality of your comments and the reactions people have to your comments in Chris Hedges' substack and Caitlin's substack). I doubt there is much you can do to salvage it (but keep trying and continue making yourself look worse - more entertainment for other readers)
Intimidation is there game, but unless we can overcome that through strength in numbers we will be forever cowed into submission. And you have to somehow develop a method for detecting and expelling infiltrators.
Stephen, you’re speaking from the muscle memory of movements that almost broke through. The kind that taste revolution’s breath before it disappears into co-optation or fracture.
The truth is, most people don’t disbelieve in change—they disbelieve in coordinated courage. We’ve been atomized, demoralized, and overdosed on simulations of rebellion.
But you’re right. Systems this bloated don’t need to be toppled—they just need to be paused. For even a moment. The shark analogy was perfect.
"Because the cost of silence is paid in blood, in broken minds, in the slow corrosion of democracy.
"In 2025, the United States stands at a crossroads. Political polarization is at a fever pitch. Trust in institutions is battered. Veterans struggle with invisible wounds. Activists and educators fight for truth in classrooms and streets. Journalists risk everything to report what others would rather keep hidden. Government officials and military leaders face impossible choices, haunted by the knowledge that every decision ripples outward, shaping lives and histories. Complicity in genocide, slaughter, murder for profit is staining and infecting all."
I've read, in India, they start training the baby elephant by anchoring its leg to a peg with a chain. The small elephant tugs at it and can't break the chain and eventually stops trying. It grows up to its full size when the chain is no match for it but by then, internalizing past failures, it had stop trying to free itself.
Didn't know that. Running would've been an instinctive and desperate reaction for them in face of mortal danger, like people jumping out of high risers trying to save themselves from fire. Good for the elephants the chains were not strong enough to hold them, and there was a path to safety. I guess when people feel desperate enough they'll seriously try to break free.
Animals in general and elephants in particular are sensitive to vibrations of the ground. You've got to be impressed that the elephants knew it was vital to get to higher ground. Some people followed the elephants, saving their own lives.
So it's not clear whether the elephants know whether they can break their chains. Maybe they are smart enough to know that breaking the chain will only get them in trouble so why do it.
Good point. Didn't think of the negative reinforcement they may have suffered in past for breaking the chains.
Regarding heightened perception, I've heard another story where goat herds would leave the mountain top before rain or some other climate related event with much better predictability than the locals could tell or even their weather forecast.
Qudsia, your parable carries a charge—because it names a truth more binding than any chain: conditioned helplessness. And yet, even the most deeply entrained nervous system remembers something else when danger sharpens clarity—like those elephants, moving before reason, returning to instinct before language.
But what if we didn’t wait for tsunamis?
What if we recognized that the ground is already trembling?
There’s a moment, just before the chain breaks, when the old memory of being bound meets the cellular memory of freedom. That’s the window. That’s the gate.
“I don’t think they have the guts”. Maybe! but they have the drones, the nuclear arsenals, and the Money. Moreover, they can probably detect who you dreamed of last night. Otherwise, I’m with you, and older.
Oh yea.. forgot! They also have Trump and his band of oligarchs… with chainsaws and Ai…
The folks you are referring to also have families and relatives that would be held hostage if they try that shit.
I still say that they don't have the guts. When their asses are on the line, they will run for their bunkers.
Screw them and their surveillance tech. This is a big country, and there are are millions of us, gun toting, gun using, folks, that once the SHTF, all bets are off, and there is a hell of a difference between fighting for money or fighting for your very existence. The drones will be shot down with extreme prejudice and the operator hunted down and hung.
The pussy fence sitters will either grow a set or die.
There are millions of ex military people that knows how the system works and are fed up with the assholes in DC.
This sentence really strikes a chord with me: "Too many socialists are content to just sit around smugly knowing better than everyone else and having all the correct opinions about things while expressing disdain for everyone who tries to expand awareness or make the world a better place."
I've been banned by comrades from several FB groups, for trying to suggest a different approach. Insane!
I completely empathize with you. I find too much 'rigid' thinking (and sometimes adherence to pedantic ideals rather than practical realities and experimentation) in a number of socialist groups.
The main problem in the U.S. is the unshakable belief of ordinary Americans that the benefits of the "rule of the elite" will trickle down to everyone. They are conditioned to believe that wealth is magically created by the "elite" because the elite knows how to manage capital and it is better to have the crumbs than nothing.
Americans at large fail to understand that that most of the wealth of the "elite" is extracted from the working ppl all over the world, including Americans themselves, and the crumbs they enjoy are only an insignificant percentage of what has been taken.
As a country, the US has been founded on that belief and it runs deeply in the American psyche. Americans are having REALLY hard time realizing they have been exploited like cattle by their own "Elite".
"There is nothing our rulers can do to take these abilities away from us." Actually they are hoping to do so with their stupid plans for changing the genome.
Nevertheless, Caitlin, you sure are on the right track. How about everybody who wants a revolution puts a ribbon, or elastic, or some kind of visible sign, on one of their 10 fingers.
Following on from Caitlin, we need to remind ourselves that another world is possible.
It is not only personal growth but countries, instead of blindsided by capitalism's obsession with growth at any cost have to be self-reliant, sustainable, and aspire to sovereign progress. In a Trumpian world of wars, sanctions, trade wars, and broken supply chains, mostly global south countries should learn that dependence is a vulnerability. Poverty reduction, just distribution, dignity, and confidence in a moral order are essential for change. COP30 - even if the West with their fossil fuel oligarchs were bent on sabotaging it - had the promise of less pollution, more harmony, and the common good, thanks to the voice of first nations people.
With what are we going to replace the old forms of crumbling capitalism? It is obvious that the elites want to drag us to some kind of neo-feudalism. The enemy in every case is US imperialism. From protest rallies and pro-Palestinian marches the purpose should be the same - an end to empire and the creation of a new multipolar world rooted in our shared humanity and the equal worth of every nation and people.
The US is pushing for a war against Venezuela and beyond. The US wants to hang onto its hegemony of controlling global resources and its political power. And hanging onto to the ability to dictate terms to the rest of the world. The struggle against US imperialism is a global struggle. Therefore to stand with Venezuela, with China and any other nation resisting subjugation is to stand for solidarity among nations. Every act of resistance is our resistance and a step towards a better world.
"Believing that you are powerless serves no one but the powerful."
This. Don't let anyone ever tell you that you have no power. Take power from them, but never let them take it from you by making you deny your own power. Power Always to the People!
When standing in a crowd of people being lectured at by "An Authority", dissidence becomes empowered when ONE VOICE speaks out, saying "NO!. That is not How it is!"- then others in that same crowd will feel equally empowered because they too are feeling uncomfortable with the Authoritarian Rhetoric.
It takes ONE VOICE to break the hypnosis you describe as "Powerless-ness". The Crowd has become entrained by a mythology of "We're All In This Together!" see :- CV19 rhetorical chant! The crowd, we are told, and s sadly reminded of by you, that they have no control, because they're told "they are STUPID."
They are also told that "they believe they are stupid".
The cliche you use "ORDINARY PEOPLE" some how becomes disempowering to many readers, I suspect. The fear of a Totalitarian Speaker is often reinforced by Security Guards surrounding the place, and any One Voice will be rapidly demolished, violently, as is threatened. You dear reader, Must Be that One Voice! Pain is the beginning of healing. Attack is the best defence, and if your friend is that one voice, then stand together. Not simple, but otherwise don't cry "victim."
The very first step, is realising how unfit for purpose western governments have become. It is absolutely absurd that we have allowed ourselves to be bamboozled by the myth of their competence. Everything that is wrong with the world could have, and should have, been fixed if only enough people had had the will. If real leaders had been brave enough to actually lead. Governments are the world's management, and the state of the world shows how shit that management has been. Parties jockeying to score pathetic points because politicians work for parties, not people. Why strive to end famine and suffering when a nasty, racist, religitard, supremacist regime will pay shekels so you'll enable it openly use famine to inflict genocide? If anyone cares about global warming, or AI, or all the catastrophes that turn people into refugees, there's precious little sign of it. What a god-awful shower of pretend 'good' people. What empty regurgitators of irrelevant ideas. Jabba the Hutt telling blank-eyed minions what to do. Who would ever have believed our most pressing problem would become 'Who will save us from our governments?'
We can all do something most days, but sometimes, just to keep going, I have to stop reading the news for at least half a day and I have to read or do something that is completely unrelated to our sick world. We need to support each other during those times too.
Persuading people that they are powerless is the number one task for the oligarchy’s propaganda apparatus. Because if ordinary people believe that they have power then the next thing they will be doing is working out how to use their power effectively. And once this reaches critical mass, the system can be brought to a screeching halt. To bring down the system you don’t need to destroy anything. You only need to briefly stop the system from functioning. Stop the continuous flow of labor, capital and resources—just for a few weeks. Like a shark in the water, if the system stops moving it will die. And the oligarchs know this and they do everything they can to prevent people from understanding this and acting to shut the system down.
Do it this week--Economic Blackout. No shopping on Black Friday or any day past next Tuesday. Stand in solidarity with the General Strike in Italy and elsewhere. The people have the power!
Great practical reminders of things we can do, thanks CA
Doing it — thanks.
“The people have the power.”
Yes! Having the power is one thing, but knowing how to use it is another.
I.e.,… a general strike sounds good, but is it effective in bringing down the empire? We have been playing Monopoly for quite a while, and They won. We have to beg them to keep playing…. And the music keeps being heard…
You got any better suggestions? If you're already given up and don't want to help out, don't get in the way of those who are still trying to tear down the empire.
“Suggestions”?
Yes, there are other ways, the most important of which is the power of MONEY. Going on strike doesn’t affect the Monopoly winners…
“We have the power” but use it to elect Masters. Trump for example was elected by the electorate. Where were the Masters….. laughing at the electorate. In democracies, people get the leaders they elect…. and deserve…
It is not *nothing* but it does want to be organized. This is why reading theory and discussing it is critical. We have to know what we are demanding and why for a General Strike to be useful rather than a flash in the pan. We need organized groups. We need to learn from the past. We need to educate eachother.
I'm not so sure your hypothesis will work out as you intend it to (i.e. "stopping the continuous flow of labor, capital and resources—just for a few weeks" amounting to "if the system stops it will die").
As an example, look at events from recent history during the Covid lockdowns (on a global level). The U.S. Govt. simply printed more money (and tons of it), AI and automation is taking more jobs, drones are doing deliveries, and so on and so forth.
Even though there were major disruptions in labor, supply chains, trade, travel (eg. airplane flights stoppage and airport shutdowns), etc., things chugged on (though not in a good way for most people).
Unfortunately, Western economies have been subjugated/held-hostage by 'high-levels' of 'personal debts' (2nd or 3rd morgages, student debt, credit card debt, medical debt, auto debt, other personal debts), thus making people DEBT SLAVES. In such an environment of personal precarity and security, the Capitalist class (TPTB, etc.) have too many points of LEVERAGE to apply pressure to 'prevent people from 'disrupting the economy to greater levels than what the Covid lockdowns did'.
I suspect other strategies will be needed (maybe with 'work stoppage' possibly playing a certain part in this).
Ah, the COVID lockdowns were instigated by the oligarchs as an experiment/exercise in global-level population control and programming. This is the exact opposite of what I’m talking about. The system kept functioning on their terms. In contrast, if a large percentage of the population withdrew their labour and purchasing activity, and participated in civil disobedience aimed at strategically squeezing the massive logistical and capital flows necessary to sustain the system, it would set off an avalanche of panic in the financial class. I haven’t just dreamt this up. Look at the writings of Yanis Varoufakis. The system has many weak points that can be exploited by ordinary people and groups if they act in a strategic and co-ordinated manner.
>>"the COVID lockdowns were instigated by the oligarchs as an experiment/exercise in global-level population control and programming."
Nothing of the sort - this is not even a serious argument (unless you are a conspiratorial thinker rather than rational critical thinker). Learning from events is not the same as 'intentionally creating those events to learn' - i.e. lockdowns were a non-scientific (IMO) policy that was haphazardly thought out (based on fear) and implemented disastously.
Besides, the 'reasons for the lockdown' are irrelevant to this discussion. The point is - TPTB has adequate means to sustain 'significant SHOCKS' to disruptions to the system (as observed by the authoritarianism, enforement and increases in money supply during the Covid crisis).
>>"Look at the writings of Yanis Varoufakis."
I've read all his books. Maybe you seem to interpret his works differently than I do.
>>"if a large percentage of the population withdrew their labour and purchasing activity..."
The most important assumption about that premise is 'IF'. IF this then that, IF this happens then that follows, etc. That is the ISSUE with such arguments - the probabilities of the 'IF' actually being true.
In propositional logic terms ->
IF 'x' THEN 'y' (or symbolically x -> y)
The question is not about the consequent (y), but about the antecedent (x) being true.
Anyone can make hypothetical 'IF this then that' assertions, but the discussion is about the PROBABILITIES of 'IF' happening, not about 'if x happens then y follows'.
>>"The system has many weak points that can be exploited by ordinary people and groups if they act in a strategic and co-ordinated manner."
I'm not arguing about 'the weak points that can be exploited'. I'm arguing about your assumptions about IF being true (i.e. " if they act in a strategic and co-ordinated manner"). This is pure hypothetical speculation, and not based on emperical evidence.
To summarize, the debate/argument is not about 'y' will happen IF 'x' is true, it is about 'the probability of 'x' being true (where x = ordinary people and groups if they act in a strategic and co-ordinated manner). History has shown that this is rarely the case (except in isolated and small-size, confined contexts and environments). And what we need is LARGE-SCALE, GLOBAL mobilization (which has very different probabilities than small-scale "ordinary people and groups if they act in a strategic and co-ordinated manner").
I agree, X is the question, not Y. The Houthis have done us a great service. They've shown that you don't have to stop the flow of goods. Just an occasional disruption in the most critical trade vectors drives the cost of trade up. Luigi Mangione showed us we dont have to take out every CEO to get them all asking if their personal harms are going to make them the next target, one CEO at a time. We make whack-a-mole significantly harder through well placed assaults on normative.
These efforts cant replace organization and theory, but they are still critical. And organizations often get sabotaged, when loud and public, so our efforts need public and secret efforts to organize, and we need to have such efforts be ready to work with principled actions.
I agree with you completely on ALL of the above!
Your NEGATIVE reputation preceeds you, PITA Contrarian (as evidenced by the quality of your comments and the reactions people have to your comments in Chris Hedges' substack and Caitlin's substack). I doubt there is much you can do to salvage it (but keep trying and continue making yourself look worse - more entertainment for other readers)
If that's the best you can come up with then you have much larger issues to worry about...
Yeah, I concede that it cannot be ruled out…
I suggest doing some research on the people you interact with (eg. PITA Contrarian), as evidenced by her comments in Chris Hedges's and Ciatlin's substacks (amongst others). Eg. https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/dont-let-the-empire-gaslight-you/comment/181736828
I don’t know, but that’s just added to the list of opaque and disturbing aspects to this platform…
Intimidation is there game, but unless we can overcome that through strength in numbers we will be forever cowed into submission. And you have to somehow develop a method for detecting and expelling infiltrators.
Stephen, you’re speaking from the muscle memory of movements that almost broke through. The kind that taste revolution’s breath before it disappears into co-optation or fracture.
The truth is, most people don’t disbelieve in change—they disbelieve in coordinated courage. We’ve been atomized, demoralized, and overdosed on simulations of rebellion.
But you’re right. Systems this bloated don’t need to be toppled—they just need to be paused. For even a moment. The shark analogy was perfect.
"Because the cost of silence is paid in blood, in broken minds, in the slow corrosion of democracy.
"In 2025, the United States stands at a crossroads. Political polarization is at a fever pitch. Trust in institutions is battered. Veterans struggle with invisible wounds. Activists and educators fight for truth in classrooms and streets. Journalists risk everything to report what others would rather keep hidden. Government officials and military leaders face impossible choices, haunted by the knowledge that every decision ripples outward, shaping lives and histories. Complicity in genocide, slaughter, murder for profit is staining and infecting all."
https://griobhtha1.substack.com/p/x-rubicon-a-gift-for-the-consciencewhy
Time for the US to change wording of its anthem - "land of the enslaved, and home of the yes men" as a start.
Davina
Can I add.....
Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so sadly we see of freedom's last gleaming;
Those ICE men appointed to keep all in sight
But the people are weak and their freedoms all leaving
With the rocket's red glare, and with genocide there
from a now hated state, all their crimes did we share
With our new flag, the Star of David, respect for us has now diminished
Once the land of the free, now immoral and finished
You can, and you just did 👍
Yes… youare Free…. to work for the Master of your choice.
Not really. You are free to refuse to work for some masters. You don’t always have a choice of which masters will hire you.
Read The Lessons of History
https://www.scribd.com/document/820039979/The-Lessons-of-History-by-Will-and-Ariel-Durant
I've read, in India, they start training the baby elephant by anchoring its leg to a peg with a chain. The small elephant tugs at it and can't break the chain and eventually stops trying. It grows up to its full size when the chain is no match for it but by then, internalizing past failures, it had stop trying to free itself.
But when the 2004 tsunami came the Thai elephants broke their chains and ran to higher ground.
Didn't know that. Running would've been an instinctive and desperate reaction for them in face of mortal danger, like people jumping out of high risers trying to save themselves from fire. Good for the elephants the chains were not strong enough to hold them, and there was a path to safety. I guess when people feel desperate enough they'll seriously try to break free.
Animals in general and elephants in particular are sensitive to vibrations of the ground. You've got to be impressed that the elephants knew it was vital to get to higher ground. Some people followed the elephants, saving their own lives.
So it's not clear whether the elephants know whether they can break their chains. Maybe they are smart enough to know that breaking the chain will only get them in trouble so why do it.
Good point. Didn't think of the negative reinforcement they may have suffered in past for breaking the chains.
Regarding heightened perception, I've heard another story where goat herds would leave the mountain top before rain or some other climate related event with much better predictability than the locals could tell or even their weather forecast.
Qudsia, your parable carries a charge—because it names a truth more binding than any chain: conditioned helplessness. And yet, even the most deeply entrained nervous system remembers something else when danger sharpens clarity—like those elephants, moving before reason, returning to instinct before language.
But what if we didn’t wait for tsunamis?
What if we recognized that the ground is already trembling?
There’s a moment, just before the chain breaks, when the old memory of being bound meets the cellular memory of freedom. That’s the window. That’s the gate.
The vast majority of muricans are chicken shits. If we all just gave the government the middle finger, they couldn't do jack shit about it.
Not so fast Dacoelec.. They will chop off your fingers until you have none left..
Bring it. I'm 69 YO and I have enough guns and ammo to make it very interesting for them.
I don't think they have the guts.
“I don’t think they have the guts”. Maybe! but they have the drones, the nuclear arsenals, and the Money. Moreover, they can probably detect who you dreamed of last night. Otherwise, I’m with you, and older.
Oh yea.. forgot! They also have Trump and his band of oligarchs… with chainsaws and Ai…
The folks you are referring to also have families and relatives that would be held hostage if they try that shit.
I still say that they don't have the guts. When their asses are on the line, they will run for their bunkers.
Screw them and their surveillance tech. This is a big country, and there are are millions of us, gun toting, gun using, folks, that once the SHTF, all bets are off, and there is a hell of a difference between fighting for money or fighting for your very existence. The drones will be shot down with extreme prejudice and the operator hunted down and hung.
The pussy fence sitters will either grow a set or die.
There are millions of ex military people that knows how the system works and are fed up with the assholes in DC.
Cheers.
The “government” can’t do that. Some government agents may be ordered to do that.
Be prepared to face such agents if they appear before you or your neighbors.
Thank You Caitlin
We need to own our personal power to heal ourselves and make change, especially in a time like this.
Thank you. Sending you & yours unconditional love.
This sentence really strikes a chord with me: "Too many socialists are content to just sit around smugly knowing better than everyone else and having all the correct opinions about things while expressing disdain for everyone who tries to expand awareness or make the world a better place."
I've been banned by comrades from several FB groups, for trying to suggest a different approach. Insane!
I completely empathize with you. I find too much 'rigid' thinking (and sometimes adherence to pedantic ideals rather than practical realities and experimentation) in a number of socialist groups.
The like was given to the comment, not the commenter.
How do I know that you are real? Think about it... if you are able to.
The main problem in the U.S. is the unshakable belief of ordinary Americans that the benefits of the "rule of the elite" will trickle down to everyone. They are conditioned to believe that wealth is magically created by the "elite" because the elite knows how to manage capital and it is better to have the crumbs than nothing.
Americans at large fail to understand that that most of the wealth of the "elite" is extracted from the working ppl all over the world, including Americans themselves, and the crumbs they enjoy are only an insignificant percentage of what has been taken.
youtu.be/0V71NSM3A1A?t=110
As a country, the US has been founded on that belief and it runs deeply in the American psyche. Americans are having REALLY hard time realizing they have been exploited like cattle by their own "Elite".
"There is nothing our rulers can do to take these abilities away from us." Actually they are hoping to do so with their stupid plans for changing the genome.
Nevertheless, Caitlin, you sure are on the right track. How about everybody who wants a revolution puts a ribbon, or elastic, or some kind of visible sign, on one of their 10 fingers.
Good idea.
When enough people refuse to comply, the system will die.
Following on from Caitlin, we need to remind ourselves that another world is possible.
It is not only personal growth but countries, instead of blindsided by capitalism's obsession with growth at any cost have to be self-reliant, sustainable, and aspire to sovereign progress. In a Trumpian world of wars, sanctions, trade wars, and broken supply chains, mostly global south countries should learn that dependence is a vulnerability. Poverty reduction, just distribution, dignity, and confidence in a moral order are essential for change. COP30 - even if the West with their fossil fuel oligarchs were bent on sabotaging it - had the promise of less pollution, more harmony, and the common good, thanks to the voice of first nations people.
With what are we going to replace the old forms of crumbling capitalism? It is obvious that the elites want to drag us to some kind of neo-feudalism. The enemy in every case is US imperialism. From protest rallies and pro-Palestinian marches the purpose should be the same - an end to empire and the creation of a new multipolar world rooted in our shared humanity and the equal worth of every nation and people.
The US is pushing for a war against Venezuela and beyond. The US wants to hang onto its hegemony of controlling global resources and its political power. And hanging onto to the ability to dictate terms to the rest of the world. The struggle against US imperialism is a global struggle. Therefore to stand with Venezuela, with China and any other nation resisting subjugation is to stand for solidarity among nations. Every act of resistance is our resistance and a step towards a better world.
"Believing that you are powerless serves no one but the powerful."
This. Don't let anyone ever tell you that you have no power. Take power from them, but never let them take it from you by making you deny your own power. Power Always to the People!
When standing in a crowd of people being lectured at by "An Authority", dissidence becomes empowered when ONE VOICE speaks out, saying "NO!. That is not How it is!"- then others in that same crowd will feel equally empowered because they too are feeling uncomfortable with the Authoritarian Rhetoric.
It takes ONE VOICE to break the hypnosis you describe as "Powerless-ness". The Crowd has become entrained by a mythology of "We're All In This Together!" see :- CV19 rhetorical chant! The crowd, we are told, and s sadly reminded of by you, that they have no control, because they're told "they are STUPID."
They are also told that "they believe they are stupid".
The cliche you use "ORDINARY PEOPLE" some how becomes disempowering to many readers, I suspect. The fear of a Totalitarian Speaker is often reinforced by Security Guards surrounding the place, and any One Voice will be rapidly demolished, violently, as is threatened. You dear reader, Must Be that One Voice! Pain is the beginning of healing. Attack is the best defence, and if your friend is that one voice, then stand together. Not simple, but otherwise don't cry "victim."
The very first step, is realising how unfit for purpose western governments have become. It is absolutely absurd that we have allowed ourselves to be bamboozled by the myth of their competence. Everything that is wrong with the world could have, and should have, been fixed if only enough people had had the will. If real leaders had been brave enough to actually lead. Governments are the world's management, and the state of the world shows how shit that management has been. Parties jockeying to score pathetic points because politicians work for parties, not people. Why strive to end famine and suffering when a nasty, racist, religitard, supremacist regime will pay shekels so you'll enable it openly use famine to inflict genocide? If anyone cares about global warming, or AI, or all the catastrophes that turn people into refugees, there's precious little sign of it. What a god-awful shower of pretend 'good' people. What empty regurgitators of irrelevant ideas. Jabba the Hutt telling blank-eyed minions what to do. Who would ever have believed our most pressing problem would become 'Who will save us from our governments?'