“Let not anyone pacify his conscience by the delusion that he can do no harm if he takes no part, and forms no opinion. Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing. He is not a good man who, without a protest, allows wrong to be committed in his name, and with the means which he helps to supply, because he will not trouble himself to use his mind on the subject.”
Great quote Robski, except for one issue..... i.e., it's bad MEN, and bad Women... right ? This guy forgot one half of humanity..... but He is isn't alone. Even Charles Darwin, who delivered the most accurate description of humankind ever written, wrote about 'The Descent of Man'.... The title just didn't justify his brilliant mind, but then his theories made up for omission, in spades.
I believe that back in those days, when both of them were writing, it was conventional to use the term 'man' to mean 'people'. Much like here in Portugal, where I live, if there is a group of 99 women and 1 man, the masculine plural is used. It's just a linguistic convention. Of course you get evil women - the world is full of 'em!
Gaza exposes the lie that world leaders fought against Nazism and genocide in WW II. That was a war of imperialists and if Germany had not been a threat to British imperialism it would have been allowed (even encouraged) to slaughter all the Jews, LGBTQ, and other others it wished. Capitalism is innately evil and just an early form of Fascism. There is no cure.
Well, a couple of inmates escaped Auschwitz, made it to Switzerland, at great risk to their lives and those around them, and were promptly dismissed in the West as hysterical Jewish propaganda.
This short interview with a little Palestinian girl with no eyelids in her burned face from white phosphorous bombing by Israel is undeniable. She cannot blink. She is alive and explaining. https://twitter.com/ShaykhSulaiman/status/1776867252366610505
You make an excellent point — but I’d only add that this question was decided when we allowed Anthony Fauci, Peter Daszak, etc to develop the Covid bioweapon, unleash it on humanity, kill millions and then entirely get away with the crime. The Covid genocide is the turning point in human history.
“We” in the collective sense of the word; vast majority of Americans sitting at home scared. Did you ever attend a covid protest? In New York City, we barely gathered 500 people to protest Faucism.
Covid protests spread covid. Millions died. People keep dying from it and become permanently I’ll from it. It can effect every organ in the body negatively. Covid protests ignored that it was an airborne virus. Covid protests without masks and mutual respect helped the destruction of public health. Covid protests helped the billionaires force us back to work in unsafe conditions. Covid protests could have been done so differently and actually have helped people stay well and have a decent life. Instead they were a big undisciplined roar and grifting.
I haven’t yet had covid. I’ve travelled across the world twice. Go out regularly and entertain friends and family. I wear a respirator and use hepa filters. I’ve looked after people with covid and one was v ill. A pregnant woman I know went to the marches and sadly had a stillborn baby. Covid attacks the placenta. I do my best to neither catch nor pass on a disease that kills and disables. Why do you spread disease and death?
No one, despite massive testing efforts, has been able to find SARS-CoV-2 in any wild animal, bats or otherwise. It never existed in the natural world, only in the lab.
WHEN did you travel the world twice with your respirator and hepa-filters ??
The "virus" is everywhere, it is sitting on your nose right now and mutating by the trillions every hour in every host to be more and more transmissible and less fatal !!
The rise of stillborn babies, turbo-cancers in the young, sudden-death, cardi- and vascular, fatal adverse effects, etc., etc. are mostly linked to the roll-out of the mRNA-jabs.
The SV40 and RNA-particles, along with many man-made nano-particles as adjuvants in the jabs attack the entire human body, not the placenta only.
Sorry, could not have even got myself to a protest anywhere.
No, I am not American, unknowingly became a Lab Rat from late 1980s in OZ.
brain badly affected etc., and forced to be own Dr and one son and others who were told they had Thyroid illness as Drs did not have a clue. Oh, and Drs asked me where and what I was doing, taking notes-----yet I was the one with chronic illnesses, fatigue you name it.....
February 2020 became volunteer doing deep research 7 days a week 12 hours a day., for natural Health group that is now International - which also forced my brain to start automatically thinking after 20 months of research.
Now letting my fragmented personality and health settle back into ME. and making the occasional "comment". Voluntary help on Thyroid sites and forced to be Dr pharma, researcher etc., for sons and self after doing the traditional medical .....
I travelled in 2022 and January this year. I use a Flo mask for air travel. I have three small portable hepa filters and larger ones at home. I use them for events including a couple of air openings. I use an Aranet CO2 monitor to see how fresh the air is. I take it to appointments and gatherings and people are interested. I suggest you read the literature, listen to people with long covid. Try following Long Covid Kids or Dr Claire Taylor or Putrino Lab. Millions died before any vaccines. You are spreading disease and death by blaming everything on vaccines injury and not informing yourself.
Well, if I were going to invent a bioweapon, I would prefer a bioweapon that didn't disproportionately attack the weak, the aged, the obese, the immunocompromised.
well, who would the weak, the aged, the obese, the immunocompromised be a burden to and would that entity be our enemy? or would the bioweapon approach in this context still trip over Occam's Razor (btw this is purely speculative thought experiment on my part, I'm not attempting to claim any of it as real)
Alastair Crooke, We stand on the cusp of what might be termed Chaotic War. Not the formula often used by Israel to intimidate adversaries; this is different.
Trita Parsi places Israel’s objective in attacking the Iranian Consulate in Damascus in a different context:
“An important aspect of Israel’s conduct – and Biden’s acquiescence to it – is that Israel is engaged in a deliberate and systematic effort to destroy existing laws and norms around warfare.
Even during wartime, embassies are off-limits [yet] Israel just bombed an Iranian diplomatic compound in Damascus.
Bombing hospitals is a war crime, [yet] Israel has bombed EVERY hospital in Gaza. It has even assassinated doctors and patients inside hospitals.
The ICJ obligated Israel to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza. Israel actively prevents aid from coming in.
Starvation of civilians as a method of warfare is prohibited under international humanitarian law. Israel has deliberately created a famine in Gaza.
Indiscriminate bombings are illegal under international humanitarian law. Biden himself admits that Israel is bombing Gaza indiscriminately”.
The list goes on and on … However, Israel’s breach of Vienna Convention immunity accorded to diplomatic premises – plus the stature of those killed – is highly significant. It is a major signal: Israel wants war – but with U.S. support, of course.
Of course, much like how Israel instigated the wars on Iraq, Syria and Libya, even though Israel did not itself directly participate but let its American dog do the fighting and bleeding for it.
A wise man once said, “as you are, your leaders will be.” Our leaders are a reflection of who we are and vice versa. Gaza has taught us that complacency is not an option. Never was and never will be. We need to fight with our collective conscience and our voices for equity and justice to prevail.
One person’s hurt is everyone’s hurt. One person’s success is everyone’s success. This is not a zero sum game. We can get to win-win if we stop thinking win-lose.
Let’s get the Biden Administration to focus on the criminal charges they so rightly deserve. 18 U.S. Code § 1091 is the statute, that incorporated the Genocide Convention in US criminal law. Members of this administration shouldn't go a single day without having this statute in their faces, up front and center at every protest at every meeting, press conference, briefing, and trips home and abroad. They may feel they are immune now, let's get them considering what is possible when they leave office. They should have visions of prison all the days of their lives. Let us find the way.
There must be an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Pope Francis has said what is needed, now he must do what is needed by going to Gaza and standing for peace, justice and freedom.
Let us also support UNRWA. If our governments won’t act in accordance with humanity, then we will. https://www.unrwausa.org/donate Let us do it to honor Aaron Bushnell, or in memory of Hind Rajab.
Let us call for a No Fly-Zone over Gaza!
These are a few small things we can do. If we can do more, let us do more.
Done. The Pope would do a great service to humanity to look the Jewish Narrative in the eye and call its bluff, without any fear of being called an antisemite. I don't know what the actual ratios are but it seems to me that the vast majority of the people who are labelled as antisemitic are only saying the truth about what Jews are doing, both in Israel and outside Israel.
People can have whatever beliefs they want, but when their beliefs tell them to ignore the rights of others and also do harm then they have crossed the line.
Wow. Thanks for the link to such a competent analysis of Israel, Zionism, and Judaism itself. If justice can prevail in this world, this will be required reading for all Jews. Like you, I would've regarded this straightforward analysis as too harsh, if I had read it several years ago. But facts are facts and we all must face the reality. People go astray, both individuals and groups.
That article heavily leverages "the Jews" (eg in "Collectively, Jews...."), which is deep water for drowning in stereotypes.
I don't buy into that religious argument. It is for sure a factor and is weaponized to bolster the movement, but focusing too strongly on it is a distraction, esp for militant atheists. People are people, there are fundamental aspects of human nature that we see everywhere (ie not just "the Jews") that are the prime movers here, not "the biblical virus". It's a thing, but it's not THE thing. imho
My personal takeaway was understanding observable characteristics of psychopaths and narcissists - they are never wrong, never do wrong and if you criticize them then the only explanation for them is that there must be something wrong with you -- "you are an antisemite!", for example.
Also, the collective unconscious or as the author expresses it, "ancestral subconscious",
is a 'reach' for some people to buy into. For others they can palpably sense it.
It explains so much and I believe it is a mistake to ignore it. One need not be religiously observant to connect with a given collective unconscious. Watch a clip or two from "Triumph of the Will" if you want to observe the collective unconscious in action...warning!, you will feel the hair come up on the back of your own neck!
I note that you began your comment reflexively expressing, as I see it, your fear of being labeled an "antisemite". A definite fear factor that has been ingrained widely through years of education, indoctrination, guilting and repetition. You are not alone.
That slur, "anti-semite", has been used **to enable Genocide** through intimidation and silencing. ***You unintentionally reinforced the power of that slur. **
Definitely the understanding of psychopathy/narcissism can help explain what is happening. However there was no Abrahamic faith or biblical virus involved in the Sri Lankan Tamil genocide, yet much of what is happening in Palestine is indistinguishable from that event. I don't take hardly any stock in the theory that the middle east is torn apart by simply a battle of faiths - it's woefully insufficient, on par with "they hate us for our freedom".
My fear and the reason I began my comment that way is more of actually engaging in antisemitism than the smear of having done so.
"Human nature" is too easy. That's why psychology, sociology, philosophy, and world history complicate things with the "nature versus nurture" question.
"Nurture" includes religion. And all three Abrahamic religions have *nurtured* literally "atrocious" holy warrior ideologies. Confucianism doesn't nurture that. Jainism doesn't either. And neither of these latter two have a single genocidal outbreak in their long histories.
If "human nature" doesn't work for you, I'm open to other terms. Evolutionary competition, whatever. It's something more fundamental than "nurture" and many aspects are not even limited to Homo sapiens. "Nurture" is weaponized to tap into it or, as you similarly described, suppress it,.
Yep, I didn't mention Buddhism because of its Chakravartan tradition (which, to be fair, isn't representative of the major Theravadan and Mahayana branches).
I prefer the term "nurture" over the evolutionary frame - doesn't that tilt things back toward your original "nature" thrust? "Nurture" to me connotes human-intentional "cultivation" of the young. Teach them God chooses people and damns others, and the Chosen are "good," and you're raising a lot of Cains.
That's the thing, this tribal stuff pops up all over, it's emergent regardless of "nurture" - it can be either be suppressed or weaponized by "nurture". So it's more fundamental, natural, evolutionary, whatever. And humans don't have the monopoly on it.
Okay, I take your point. But still, the three Abrahamic "tribes," with their geographic spread, are spilling disproportionately more blood in that weaponization - and doing it for explicitly religious reasons, which was the author's point in the OP you minimized to start all of this.
And it all traces back to a handful of metaphysically atrocious claims in the Bible's Torah. Reduce their cultural sway and it seems plausible you'd reduce that "emergence."
Nobody's denying aggressive instincts exist in individuals, tribes, and non-primates, or that they're "more fundamental, natural, evolutionary." Nature produces malign seeds. Cultures can water them or uproot them.
We've gone far enough. I see your point about nature - it's self-evident, really. Equally so, to me, is the role of genocidal "divinely-revealed" religions that exacerbate it. And that's culture.
Well said. If anything it's being cynically used by others who are not religious - especially the US MIC and many NeoCons with their billionaire sponsored think tanks.
Okay, I just read it. Agree its tone is troubling at times, but was pleased to see him widen his net to include the second of the three families in the Abrahamic "family feud." Lots of good evidence in that article too. Thanks for sharing.
I clicked but haven't yet read the link, because I first want to say I think the "Israel" in the title narrows the problem far too much. I give my wider take here:
Sorry. It's called effective writing. I suggest you make more of an effort to tailor your writing according to what's in the head of the reader, not just what's in your own head. How well you can do that depends on how well you understand the minds of the readers you want to reach. Accommodate them. As a caveat, I read only a little bit of your stuff, and maybe that isn't representative. But I'm not interested in putting more effort into it. Sorry.
That's a little more clear, thanks. "The reader" is a complex concept, as you imply. And you're not wrong that I'm struggling with it. Glenn Greenwald often discusses the tense relation between honest expression of unpopular positions and the "audience capture" of the writer that militates against it. His "audience capture" sounds much like your
"accommodate them."
As far as the rest, you win some readers, you lose others. Cups of tea and all that.
Upon reflection, I'm not aiming at a "general audience." For a six-and-counting-post series on a 4000-year-old literary epic? Lol, that's as niche as it gets.
Vietnam was depopulated by the U.S. military. The war raged for ten years. What has changed since then? Nothing; only it got worse. More wars, more deaths. The U.S. public, mainly the Americans, are like mafia member wives: they know where their beautiful houses, jewelry, and expensive cars come from. But as long as they benefit from it, it's better "not to know" (or ask questions).
In this piece Caitlin reverts to the "we" framing, as though the filthy evil of today's world is something we all collectively chose. It's true that often, people vote for politicians openly dreaming of wars; buy SUVs as soon as the price of gas goes down; sometimes have too many kids (currently even two is arguably too many). Blaming only oil companies for climate change, or only Biden/Trump/Netanyahu for Gaza, ignores mass complicity. But it's equally wrong to pretend, as so many do, that all this is what humanity is collectively choosing. Most of us have little say--those in power do as they please even against high disapproval, without consequence in the system they've set up.And even to the degree that the masses support destructive policy, much of this can be attributed to mass media support of governmental crimes, and a massive PR effort--together with the reality that humans are herd animals, and most go along with whatever they see those around them appearing to condone. The problem is that there sociopaths among us, they seek and achieve powerful positions, and then they are making the choices that WE sometimes feel bad about. Some societies have overcome this problem but it may be that this requires the society to be very small, a tribe--mostly because a big city allows the anonymity in which a sociopath can hide what s/he is.
"It’s all rotted and corrupted, right down to the core."
My guess is that the world continues to slide into the darkness. And evil. Israel is destroying every international law that was put in place after its ancestors were brutally killed. That’s what makes this so much more evil. That people who experienced the Holocaust could then do it to others. And say it’s because they are animals and not humans that don’t deserve to live. Just like what was said about them.
Israel not only has no right to defend itself. It now has no right to exist.
After bearing witness to this genocide - yes, I no longer feel as you do, Israel does have a right to exist. If any group of people ought to be expelled from that region - it would be a nation comprised of mostly sadists: the Israelis.
The Darkness showed itself to me for the first time in 2020. That’s when I knew we were ultimately headed towards an open air prison planet not unlike Gaza. It will be more aesthetically pleasing but just as dark; just as cold.
But there is hope. For those of you who do not already read Simplicius I urge you to read this one. The future goes thru China and I do not dread it. What has concerned me has been put to ease by this article. In the future there will be no place for the parasitic class. It makes sense and is why we see them panicked now. Unfortunately this is also what makes them extremely dangerous at the moment. Their host (West Civ) is dying it. However the next host is immune to their shit and that is cause for brief celebration.
It's good that some people keep shining the light on this, it becomes potential energy for resistance (a statement that will surely put me on even more watchlists).
Most of my "everything you’ve been told about the world is a lie" deprogramming occurred during the 2008 recession, including the conclusion of losing my religion. The universe is a hard but beautiful place and humans are a product and reflection of it: brutal, careless, but sometimes charitable and loving. Ironically I found that this existential revelation was more motivating to at least small actions than the enthrall of the fantasy (because now there ain't no "God" whose going to lend a hand). So I ended up involved in local things that, while they don't move the needle on the grand scale, they do make the charitable aspects of that grand lie not so much a lie at the local level. Even if the Gaza holocaust desensitizes/radicalizes most of the world further and previous gains against the brutal side of human nature are rolled back, there will always be some that cannot follow that path and form the resistance.
It's not done yet. And yes, life is indeed full of horror - a long history of horror. It's hard to take in, but as the ancient sage Rumi might have said, if all you can do is crawl, then, start crawling. So ... I'm crawling. :(
“Let not anyone pacify his conscience by the delusion that he can do no harm if he takes no part, and forms no opinion. Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing. He is not a good man who, without a protest, allows wrong to be committed in his name, and with the means which he helps to supply, because he will not trouble himself to use his mind on the subject.”
- John Stuart Mill
Nice. That's definitely less played out that this one:
"Now, we must all fear evil men. But, there is another kind of evil which we must fear most … and that is the indifference of good men!"
Excellent!
Great quote Robski, except for one issue..... i.e., it's bad MEN, and bad Women... right ? This guy forgot one half of humanity..... but He is isn't alone. Even Charles Darwin, who delivered the most accurate description of humankind ever written, wrote about 'The Descent of Man'.... The title just didn't justify his brilliant mind, but then his theories made up for omission, in spades.
I believe that back in those days, when both of them were writing, it was conventional to use the term 'man' to mean 'people'. Much like here in Portugal, where I live, if there is a group of 99 women and 1 man, the masculine plural is used. It's just a linguistic convention. Of course you get evil women - the world is full of 'em!
A great, relevant insight from Mill. I draw on a few existentialists to think through the difficulty we are faced with as taxpaying contributors to the destruction of Gaza: https://jeffreynall.substack.com/p/existential-anguish-moral-retching
Gaza exposes the lie that world leaders fought against Nazism and genocide in WW II. That was a war of imperialists and if Germany had not been a threat to British imperialism it would have been allowed (even encouraged) to slaughter all the Jews, LGBTQ, and other others it wished. Capitalism is innately evil and just an early form of Fascism. There is no cure.
Well, a couple of inmates escaped Auschwitz, made it to Switzerland, at great risk to their lives and those around them, and were promptly dismissed in the West as hysterical Jewish propaganda.
https://time.com/6243718/rudolf-vrba-escaped-auschwitz-to-warn-the-world/
This short interview with a little Palestinian girl with no eyelids in her burned face from white phosphorous bombing by Israel is undeniable. She cannot blink. She is alive and explaining. https://twitter.com/ShaykhSulaiman/status/1776867252366610505
Wow! ..........so hard to view, and needs to be an obligatory image for anyone who ignores wars of any kind.
I cry to even think about it.
The Palestinian women around her support her with their song and their love.
A columnist for the Guardian ?
??
"if you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever"
This wasn't based on nothing...
Human beings ARE having boots stamping on them, metaphorically speaking, and we have yet to see the entire parade.,
Outsourced to a computer near you.
That boot does not encase a human foot but a AI program
You make an excellent point — but I’d only add that this question was decided when we allowed Anthony Fauci, Peter Daszak, etc to develop the Covid bioweapon, unleash it on humanity, kill millions and then entirely get away with the crime. The Covid genocide is the turning point in human history.
"we allowed" ????
“We” in the collective sense of the word; vast majority of Americans sitting at home scared. Did you ever attend a covid protest? In New York City, we barely gathered 500 people to protest Faucism.
Covid protests spread covid. Millions died. People keep dying from it and become permanently I’ll from it. It can effect every organ in the body negatively. Covid protests ignored that it was an airborne virus. Covid protests without masks and mutual respect helped the destruction of public health. Covid protests helped the billionaires force us back to work in unsafe conditions. Covid protests could have been done so differently and actually have helped people stay well and have a decent life. Instead they were a big undisciplined roar and grifting.
Please get back under your personal rock after you put-on your haz-mat-gear.
I haven’t yet had covid. I’ve travelled across the world twice. Go out regularly and entertain friends and family. I wear a respirator and use hepa filters. I’ve looked after people with covid and one was v ill. A pregnant woman I know went to the marches and sadly had a stillborn baby. Covid attacks the placenta. I do my best to neither catch nor pass on a disease that kills and disables. Why do you spread disease and death?
No one, despite massive testing efforts, has been able to find SARS-CoV-2 in any wild animal, bats or otherwise. It never existed in the natural world, only in the lab.
WHEN did you travel the world twice with your respirator and hepa-filters ??
The "virus" is everywhere, it is sitting on your nose right now and mutating by the trillions every hour in every host to be more and more transmissible and less fatal !!
The rise of stillborn babies, turbo-cancers in the young, sudden-death, cardi- and vascular, fatal adverse effects, etc., etc. are mostly linked to the roll-out of the mRNA-jabs.
The SV40 and RNA-particles, along with many man-made nano-particles as adjuvants in the jabs attack the entire human body, not the placenta only.
I NEVER spread disease nor death.
Sorry, could not have even got myself to a protest anywhere.
No, I am not American, unknowingly became a Lab Rat from late 1980s in OZ.
brain badly affected etc., and forced to be own Dr and one son and others who were told they had Thyroid illness as Drs did not have a clue. Oh, and Drs asked me where and what I was doing, taking notes-----yet I was the one with chronic illnesses, fatigue you name it.....
February 2020 became volunteer doing deep research 7 days a week 12 hours a day., for natural Health group that is now International - which also forced my brain to start automatically thinking after 20 months of research.
Now letting my fragmented personality and health settle back into ME. and making the occasional "comment". Voluntary help on Thyroid sites and forced to be Dr pharma, researcher etc., for sons and self after doing the traditional medical .....
I travelled in 2022 and January this year. I use a Flo mask for air travel. I have three small portable hepa filters and larger ones at home. I use them for events including a couple of air openings. I use an Aranet CO2 monitor to see how fresh the air is. I take it to appointments and gatherings and people are interested. I suggest you read the literature, listen to people with long covid. Try following Long Covid Kids or Dr Claire Taylor or Putrino Lab. Millions died before any vaccines. You are spreading disease and death by blaming everything on vaccines injury and not informing yourself.
Well, if I were going to invent a bioweapon, I would prefer a bioweapon that didn't disproportionately attack the weak, the aged, the obese, the immunocompromised.
great point, but it kinda depends what the bioweapon is for - I mean, if you wanted to do a low-key culling....
And what good would that sort of bioweapon do, killing off the people who are most likely to be a burden to one's enemy?
well, who would the weak, the aged, the obese, the immunocompromised be a burden to and would that entity be our enemy? or would the bioweapon approach in this context still trip over Occam's Razor (btw this is purely speculative thought experiment on my part, I'm not attempting to claim any of it as real)
So who are we speculating is responsible?
Alastair Crooke, We stand on the cusp of what might be termed Chaotic War. Not the formula often used by Israel to intimidate adversaries; this is different.
https://strategic-culture.su/news/2024/04/08/brutal-chaotic-war-norms-conventions-and-laws-of-conduct-are-being-erased/
Trita Parsi places Israel’s objective in attacking the Iranian Consulate in Damascus in a different context:
“An important aspect of Israel’s conduct – and Biden’s acquiescence to it – is that Israel is engaged in a deliberate and systematic effort to destroy existing laws and norms around warfare.
Even during wartime, embassies are off-limits [yet] Israel just bombed an Iranian diplomatic compound in Damascus.
Bombing hospitals is a war crime, [yet] Israel has bombed EVERY hospital in Gaza. It has even assassinated doctors and patients inside hospitals.
The ICJ obligated Israel to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza. Israel actively prevents aid from coming in.
Starvation of civilians as a method of warfare is prohibited under international humanitarian law. Israel has deliberately created a famine in Gaza.
Indiscriminate bombings are illegal under international humanitarian law. Biden himself admits that Israel is bombing Gaza indiscriminately”.
The list goes on and on … However, Israel’s breach of Vienna Convention immunity accorded to diplomatic premises – plus the stature of those killed – is highly significant. It is a major signal: Israel wants war – but with U.S. support, of course.
Of course, much like how Israel instigated the wars on Iraq, Syria and Libya, even though Israel did not itself directly participate but let its American dog do the fighting and bleeding for it.
Alastair Crooke is a superb analyst
A wise man once said, “as you are, your leaders will be.” Our leaders are a reflection of who we are and vice versa. Gaza has taught us that complacency is not an option. Never was and never will be. We need to fight with our collective conscience and our voices for equity and justice to prevail.
One person’s hurt is everyone’s hurt. One person’s success is everyone’s success. This is not a zero sum game. We can get to win-win if we stop thinking win-lose.
There's a simple bumper sticker tautology that goes "Everyone does better when EVERYONE does better"
Let’s get the Biden Administration to focus on the criminal charges they so rightly deserve. 18 U.S. Code § 1091 is the statute, that incorporated the Genocide Convention in US criminal law. Members of this administration shouldn't go a single day without having this statute in their faces, up front and center at every protest at every meeting, press conference, briefing, and trips home and abroad. They may feel they are immune now, let's get them considering what is possible when they leave office. They should have visions of prison all the days of their lives. Let us find the way.
There must be an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Pope Francis has said what is needed, now he must do what is needed by going to Gaza and standing for peace, justice and freedom.
Please sign the petition and share widely.
https://chng.it/CRQ7qw4Gzn
Code pink
https://www.codepink.org/cnngaza?utm_campaign=12_15_pali_update_alert_3&utm_medium=email&utm_source=codepink
Let us also support UNRWA. If our governments won’t act in accordance with humanity, then we will. https://www.unrwausa.org/donate Let us do it to honor Aaron Bushnell, or in memory of Hind Rajab.
Let us call for a No Fly-Zone over Gaza!
These are a few small things we can do. If we can do more, let us do more.
Done. The Pope would do a great service to humanity to look the Jewish Narrative in the eye and call its bluff, without any fear of being called an antisemite. I don't know what the actual ratios are but it seems to me that the vast majority of the people who are labelled as antisemitic are only saying the truth about what Jews are doing, both in Israel and outside Israel.
When I first read this article back in Oct of 23 I thought it was kind of harsh.
Then we witnessed behavior above and beyond belief piled on by even worse behavior and then worse still.
https://www.unz.com/article/israels-biblical-psychopathy/
People can have whatever beliefs they want, but when their beliefs tell them to ignore the rights of others and also do harm then they have crossed the line.
Wow. Thanks for the link to such a competent analysis of Israel, Zionism, and Judaism itself. If justice can prevail in this world, this will be required reading for all Jews. Like you, I would've regarded this straightforward analysis as too harsh, if I had read it several years ago. But facts are facts and we all must face the reality. People go astray, both individuals and groups.
That article heavily leverages "the Jews" (eg in "Collectively, Jews...."), which is deep water for drowning in stereotypes.
I don't buy into that religious argument. It is for sure a factor and is weaponized to bolster the movement, but focusing too strongly on it is a distraction, esp for militant atheists. People are people, there are fundamental aspects of human nature that we see everywhere (ie not just "the Jews") that are the prime movers here, not "the biblical virus". It's a thing, but it's not THE thing. imho
I understand.
My personal takeaway was understanding observable characteristics of psychopaths and narcissists - they are never wrong, never do wrong and if you criticize them then the only explanation for them is that there must be something wrong with you -- "you are an antisemite!", for example.
Also, the collective unconscious or as the author expresses it, "ancestral subconscious",
is a 'reach' for some people to buy into. For others they can palpably sense it.
It explains so much and I believe it is a mistake to ignore it. One need not be religiously observant to connect with a given collective unconscious. Watch a clip or two from "Triumph of the Will" if you want to observe the collective unconscious in action...warning!, you will feel the hair come up on the back of your own neck!
I note that you began your comment reflexively expressing, as I see it, your fear of being labeled an "antisemite". A definite fear factor that has been ingrained widely through years of education, indoctrination, guilting and repetition. You are not alone.
That slur, "anti-semite", has been used **to enable Genocide** through intimidation and silencing. ***You unintentionally reinforced the power of that slur. **
Definitely the understanding of psychopathy/narcissism can help explain what is happening. However there was no Abrahamic faith or biblical virus involved in the Sri Lankan Tamil genocide, yet much of what is happening in Palestine is indistinguishable from that event. I don't take hardly any stock in the theory that the middle east is torn apart by simply a battle of faiths - it's woefully insufficient, on par with "they hate us for our freedom".
My fear and the reason I began my comment that way is more of actually engaging in antisemitism than the smear of having done so.
"Human nature" is too easy. That's why psychology, sociology, philosophy, and world history complicate things with the "nature versus nurture" question.
"Nurture" includes religion. And all three Abrahamic religions have *nurtured* literally "atrocious" holy warrior ideologies. Confucianism doesn't nurture that. Jainism doesn't either. And neither of these latter two have a single genocidal outbreak in their long histories.
And yet Sinhala buddhists genocided the Tamils in Sri Lanka: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamil_Genocide#:~:text=Acts%20of%20genocide%20against%20the,land%20grabs%20and%20ethnic%20cleansing.
If "human nature" doesn't work for you, I'm open to other terms. Evolutionary competition, whatever. It's something more fundamental than "nurture" and many aspects are not even limited to Homo sapiens. "Nurture" is weaponized to tap into it or, as you similarly described, suppress it,.
Yep, I didn't mention Buddhism because of its Chakravartan tradition (which, to be fair, isn't representative of the major Theravadan and Mahayana branches).
I prefer the term "nurture" over the evolutionary frame - doesn't that tilt things back toward your original "nature" thrust? "Nurture" to me connotes human-intentional "cultivation" of the young. Teach them God chooses people and damns others, and the Chosen are "good," and you're raising a lot of Cains.
That's the thing, this tribal stuff pops up all over, it's emergent regardless of "nurture" - it can be either be suppressed or weaponized by "nurture". So it's more fundamental, natural, evolutionary, whatever. And humans don't have the monopoly on it.
Okay, I take your point. But still, the three Abrahamic "tribes," with their geographic spread, are spilling disproportionately more blood in that weaponization - and doing it for explicitly religious reasons, which was the author's point in the OP you minimized to start all of this.
And it all traces back to a handful of metaphysically atrocious claims in the Bible's Torah. Reduce their cultural sway and it seems plausible you'd reduce that "emergence."
Nobody's denying aggressive instincts exist in individuals, tribes, and non-primates, or that they're "more fundamental, natural, evolutionary." Nature produces malign seeds. Cultures can water them or uproot them.
We've gone far enough. I see your point about nature - it's self-evident, really. Equally so, to me, is the role of genocidal "divinely-revealed" religions that exacerbate it. And that's culture.
"It's a thing, but it's not THE thing. imho"
Well said. If anything it's being cynically used by others who are not religious - especially the US MIC and many NeoCons with their billionaire sponsored think tanks.
Okay, I just read it. Agree its tone is troubling at times, but was pleased to see him widen his net to include the second of the three families in the Abrahamic "family feud." Lots of good evidence in that article too. Thanks for sharing.
I clicked but haven't yet read the link, because I first want to say I think the "Israel" in the title narrows the problem far too much. I give my wider take here:
https://clayburell.substack.com/p/unsucky-gilgamesh-6-book-3-contd
Clay, if you want to be read by a general audience, I suggest you write with that audience in mind.
Maybe I'm thick, but I'm not clear on your point....
Sorry. It's called effective writing. I suggest you make more of an effort to tailor your writing according to what's in the head of the reader, not just what's in your own head. How well you can do that depends on how well you understand the minds of the readers you want to reach. Accommodate them. As a caveat, I read only a little bit of your stuff, and maybe that isn't representative. But I'm not interested in putting more effort into it. Sorry.
That's a little more clear, thanks. "The reader" is a complex concept, as you imply. And you're not wrong that I'm struggling with it. Glenn Greenwald often discusses the tense relation between honest expression of unpopular positions and the "audience capture" of the writer that militates against it. His "audience capture" sounds much like your
"accommodate them."
As far as the rest, you win some readers, you lose others. Cups of tea and all that.
Upon reflection, I'm not aiming at a "general audience." For a six-and-counting-post series on a 4000-year-old literary epic? Lol, that's as niche as it gets.
Our rulers have no intention of asking us any such thing. Rather, they will tell us our opinion.
Vietnam was depopulated by the U.S. military. The war raged for ten years. What has changed since then? Nothing; only it got worse. More wars, more deaths. The U.S. public, mainly the Americans, are like mafia member wives: they know where their beautiful houses, jewelry, and expensive cars come from. But as long as they benefit from it, it's better "not to know" (or ask questions).
In this piece Caitlin reverts to the "we" framing, as though the filthy evil of today's world is something we all collectively chose. It's true that often, people vote for politicians openly dreaming of wars; buy SUVs as soon as the price of gas goes down; sometimes have too many kids (currently even two is arguably too many). Blaming only oil companies for climate change, or only Biden/Trump/Netanyahu for Gaza, ignores mass complicity. But it's equally wrong to pretend, as so many do, that all this is what humanity is collectively choosing. Most of us have little say--those in power do as they please even against high disapproval, without consequence in the system they've set up.And even to the degree that the masses support destructive policy, much of this can be attributed to mass media support of governmental crimes, and a massive PR effort--together with the reality that humans are herd animals, and most go along with whatever they see those around them appearing to condone. The problem is that there sociopaths among us, they seek and achieve powerful positions, and then they are making the choices that WE sometimes feel bad about. Some societies have overcome this problem but it may be that this requires the society to be very small, a tribe--mostly because a big city allows the anonymity in which a sociopath can hide what s/he is.
Yes you chose it.
When you stop fuelling the myth of the west, it will die. Not before that.
Excuse me, hwo am I "fueling the myth of the west"?
It a concept of white supremacy that exists purely as an identity of exploitation. If you keep identifying with it, you’re fuelling it.
"It’s all rotted and corrupted, right down to the core."
My guess is that the world continues to slide into the darkness. And evil. Israel is destroying every international law that was put in place after its ancestors were brutally killed. That’s what makes this so much more evil. That people who experienced the Holocaust could then do it to others. And say it’s because they are animals and not humans that don’t deserve to live. Just like what was said about them.
Israel not only has no right to defend itself. It now has no right to exist.
After bearing witness to this genocide - yes, I no longer feel as you do, Israel does have a right to exist. If any group of people ought to be expelled from that region - it would be a nation comprised of mostly sadists: the Israelis.
The Darkness showed itself to me for the first time in 2020. That’s when I knew we were ultimately headed towards an open air prison planet not unlike Gaza. It will be more aesthetically pleasing but just as dark; just as cold.
But there is hope. For those of you who do not already read Simplicius I urge you to read this one. The future goes thru China and I do not dread it. What has concerned me has been put to ease by this article. In the future there will be no place for the parasitic class. It makes sense and is why we see them panicked now. Unfortunately this is also what makes them extremely dangerous at the moment. Their host (West Civ) is dying it. However the next host is immune to their shit and that is cause for brief celebration.
https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/yellen-dispatched-to-beg-china-for
That article's definition for overcapacity alone was worth the click
It's good that some people keep shining the light on this, it becomes potential energy for resistance (a statement that will surely put me on even more watchlists).
Most of my "everything you’ve been told about the world is a lie" deprogramming occurred during the 2008 recession, including the conclusion of losing my religion. The universe is a hard but beautiful place and humans are a product and reflection of it: brutal, careless, but sometimes charitable and loving. Ironically I found that this existential revelation was more motivating to at least small actions than the enthrall of the fantasy (because now there ain't no "God" whose going to lend a hand). So I ended up involved in local things that, while they don't move the needle on the grand scale, they do make the charitable aspects of that grand lie not so much a lie at the local level. Even if the Gaza holocaust desensitizes/radicalizes most of the world further and previous gains against the brutal side of human nature are rolled back, there will always be some that cannot follow that path and form the resistance.
Since all International Laws seem to be broken in the name of Israel and Ukraine how do we go forward?
Nobody trusts Governments of the West, the lies have been going on for years and years and millions still believe them.
As Israel kills off the rest of the Palestinians in Rafa the building will start and an artificial country will get bigger and stronger.
I see NO hope.
It's not done yet. And yes, life is indeed full of horror - a long history of horror. It's hard to take in, but as the ancient sage Rumi might have said, if all you can do is crawl, then, start crawling. So ... I'm crawling. :(
I don't think I can crawl.....just am stupefied.
So am I.