When I was 5, I played fake war games imagining myself a US soldier in WW II. At 15 JFK's murder made me wonder WTF was going on. At 18, I realized it was all war all the time waged on poor bastards whose lives posed no threat to mine. At 25, I was fully ready for either revolution or emigration. By 45, I was teaching the most radical natural science I could envision -- that Nature was brilliant, humans were idiots, perhaps an evolutionary mistake. At 75, I've fully realized that just my existence as an American has contributed to the most sordidly revolting hypocritical political entity ever imaginable -- the Empire of Deceit, Depravity and Death.
My moment came when at age 16 I read “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee” by Dee Brown.
If I were to appear on the execrable Piers Morgan’s show, when he infamously asked me if I “condemn Hamas”, I would respond with: Do you condemn Sitting Bull? Crazy Horse? Tecumseh? Geronimo? DO YOU?
"Execrable": perhaps you're being a bit hard on poor Piers, gypsy, but not in the context of him -- or anyone -- who hides behind that shield of the necessity to "condemn Hamas". The Native American exemplars are perfect; the longer I live, especially my last period in the SW, the more empathy I have for the plight of the folks on the res, which then raises my hackles at the US govt. liars and their military tools who screwed these basically beautiful people, whose appreciation of the biosphere at a deep level should be bottled and fed to all of us Euro invaders. Condemn those Native chiefs? Hell, celebrate them of course.
Because Piers resembles a Weimar Republic propagandists more so than a National Socialist one. Plus, I wouldn't call Alfred Rosenberg a propagandist and, Julius Streicher's propaganda was overtly crude though at times accurate!
And a blistering adjective, appropriate to scumbags like Morgan or any other a-hole who underplays the extent to which enslaved and aboriginal people have been fecked-over. My prior comment was mostly tongue-in-cheek.
me too - being British, it's when you realise all the people you are supposed to respect are false idols. Our royal family is not actually British. The first world war was a family territorial dispute for which millions died. All the aristocracy's wealth is based on theft. Churchill was a violent racist psychopath. Nelson was a philanderer who routinely got his men killed in pointless failed actions. Wellington was an entitled toff who just happened to be good at organising violence. Our entire empire was founded on butchery and savagery on an industrial scale run by jumped up corporate thugs and warlords. Our navy was based on piracy and pressganged cannon fodder. All the 'terrorists' and 'rebels' we were taught to hate were actually freedom fighters. Once you start seeing these things the entire edifice crumbles, and the true corruption is revealed.
The Mind Shift to see the world from this perspective is extremely disorientating but necessary to be a "normal human" with your own thoughts rather than the jargons they fill our head with from birth
Yep. It's all a myth. Bit hard to swallow, eh? But if we can swallow it then we're realists with a clear view of the world and all the better for it. And maybe able to pass that on here and there: our numbers may swell. Eh?
At every sporting event, I watch the 5 year old brained adults stand, remove hats, place hands to hearts and sing along to the national anthem, clap wildly for the US military veteran (hero/victim). It became clear to me only since the Iraq war that the purpose is propaganda and peer pressure, a well designed religious experience. I mean, everyone else in this huge crowd is proud of our country. is it just me that’s not? Or are they all feeling the same way as I am and just don’t want to get the stink eye from a few ‘patriots’ who frown on those that don’t appreciate living in ‘the best country in the world’. No moments of silence or prayers for the victims of our wars at these events.
The governments did an EXCELLENT job (starting with Edward Bernays) of brainwashing every one of us from toddler onwards - just finishing Patrick Lawrence's book 'Journalists and their Shadows' - tells it all (from the view point of a critical journalist) ...
Don't be so hard on yourself, Vin. Be being a true radical in the deepest meaning, you have affirmed life and liberty. The US government is not a "we" or an "us;" it is a they." Nature needs us to continue on, and I am 7 years your senior! I had a similar path.
I'm just hyperbolic by nature, Jon; made me a better teacher of bioscience -- inject an enthusiasm about how marvelously diverse and clever our immune systems are, for example, and it sets the stage for a student's attitude to evolve from "ho-hum" to " "I'm interested in this rap". I suppose that style bleeds over into my brief diatribes. And thanks for your path as well.
I appreciate your comment here, Vin. I just watched an astounding interview of Naomi Wolf by Alex Jones on the effect of the vax on human reproduction! Totally outclassed Joseph Mengele! Scary. Pfizer knew, yet went ahead.
Yeah, but we humans are also Gaia's Agents of Change on the planet. We have brought a lot of carbon up to where photosynthetic plants can access it, and we have spread a lot of phosphorus around into surface soils that were deficient in it. Phosphorus stays put better than nitrogen does.
We are just a teenage species, going through a phase of discovering and spending our inheritance.
Mom will be fine. Ecosystems adapt to a lot worse than our shenanigans, which just peaked in late 2018 with oil + "liquids" production, and are in terminal decline.
"Interesting times" to be the best human you can be,
Perhaps, but neither you, I, nor anyone else can assess or predict what the ultimate changes/ impacts will be of harboring intra-cytoplasmic nanoplastics. Of course, Mama GAIA will find some adaptive route for the biosphere as a whole, but the question of Homo's role within that adaptation remains a bit worrisome to me (for my younger loved ones; I'll be long gone). In any case, I deeply resent the hubris that plays around with the loaded guns of technology under the assumption that it's technology (not GAIA) that'll "fix" things, a delusion without much experiential basis. But cling to that optimism as a counterweight to my pessimism.
Yes, tech is not the "fix". We can work towards a further adaptation into our potential adult role as stewards of life on earth, should our species survive to adulthood.
Can't fight hubris head on, but it may be enough to sidestep its charge and out-survive it.
Yup, the Romans were bad, so bad that when the barbarians were at the gate, many roman citizens were thrilled, finally they were to be free. Did the Romans starve or otherwise antagonize a bunch of Venezuelans? Iranians? Chinese?
The Brits were real wankers when they were in charge, but they simply didn't have the technology required to murder as many as the US.
Most US citizens, when the time comes, will welcome the end of this empire because the empire is now turning its forces on us.
For that matter, in the later years of the Western Roman Empire, there was a youth fashion of imitating barbarians (many of whom were Christians of one flavor or another.)
No; I'll try to check it out. We all have a monster living somewhere inside, I think -- the price of extreme self-awareness, perhaps. Poses an interesting question about the animal kingdom, but that's getting into consciousness and brains and today's tendency among neuroscientists is to run like hell from that connection.
Thank you, Caitlin for your clear-eyed analysis. I just got back from the ME and the mood on the street is different than what is experienced in the west. There, the en masse murder of the Palestinians is just another dark chapter that the west has authored against the Arabs and Muslims. It’s not surprising nor is it eye opening.. you don’t have to be a genius there to see it or have access to expert analysis. You just need a functioning brain. The western media seems to be more interested in how Palestine is relevant vis-à-vis the US constitution, campus protests, the rise of antisemitism, etc. nothing that is relevant to the Palestinians or Arabs. As far as they’re concerned, we’re just navel gazing because we’ve nothing better to do..
Stay the course, Caitlin.. millions of you can turn the tide and derail the empire.
When I travelled in the Middle East for my job, sometimes I had a translator (often a dislocated Palestinian for some odd reason) but sometimes I went out on my own. All my personal conversations with the locals were warm and hospitable. Typically they were genuinely curious of the lone American among them. Also interesting that language did not seem to be much of a barrier to getting around. But conversation always eventually came to the question. “Why is America killing our children?” It was always heart stopping and I had no answer. The only way I could respond was on a personal level. “That’s not me.” And we went on from there.
I have the added advantage of being a native speaker of Arabic - and can converse in multiple Arabic dialects - so always get it from the horse’s mouth, so to speak… and you’re right, people there are baffled (if they’re being generous) by how Americans (& people who count themselves as westerners and adherents to western civilisation) can sit comfortably with atrocities committed against other races/populations.. what’s the use of all this progress and higher order thinking if it inevitably leads to Hitlerian acts?!
when Arab friends ask my why my government acts the way it does I have no real answer - I can quote the weight of history from the Crusades, to our first shelling of Yemen in1839, to our greed driven colonial invasions and recent subservience to the US. I can relate the way our educational, parliamentary and social institutions make our leaders the way the are. I can trot out geo-political theories up the wazoo. But, none of it justifies or excuses their heartless, deranged and deeply sick behaviour over Gaza. I am as utterly baffled and mortified as anyone - and mightily ashamed.
Again, Caitlin hits dead center on the mark of truth, for which we can be thankful. Without alternative media, we would have no real news. Beware the wicked witch of censorship is fast being turned onto law, one country after another. My question, year in and year out, is why do bad people win? How can they commit genocide, illegal wars, famine, earth/air destruction, destroy privacy, further depopulation by the wealthy and all the other crimes...and not be stopped cold? It's not complicated.
It's not complicated and boils down to the fact that Evil collaborates and cooperates far more than good does and they have the added advantage of being in charge of the highest form of military weapons in human history
"All it takes for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing"
And so far good men and women have only done something in short bursts at random times when what we need is a sustained combined collaborative effort by All to finally force Evil to heel
Well said, Uaifo! We need to organize better and stay organized and not let the Evil factions come in between us and cause us to splinter. It's what happens all the time--we rise up, demand an end to "war", take some kind of concessions from the Evil Rulers, and then go back to sleep in the comfort of our La-Z-Boy chairs with a beer in our hands. We can't keep being played a fool like this. This time it needs to be REAL, and we stay together as a pack. We need to stick to our plans to make the world a BETTER place, not just a slightly less obnoxious place for the middle class.
But the main issue is the elite have successfully sown divisions amongst the vast population through racial and gender wars, religious divisions, ideological divisions and so on
We sorely lack a Common Glue and more crucially, Trust in and for one another.. You gotta hand it to them, the elite truly have played us all like a fiddle and kept us distracted to the point we no longer trust our neighbours and we forget we laughably outnumber them
Trust needs to be built amongst the general populace before anything of note can be done imo
Let’s try super hard to include OURSELVES in this TIDE-TURNING!! No matter our edge or seeming lack of abilities--this might well be last chance for us all! Let’s see this lifetime and Life-impacting cause as The Community For Peacemaking of Us All !
When I learned to stop responding to my childhood abuser by disassociating (not a recommended coping method) I was told "don't you really think you are someone" because I would be having abuse screamed at me along with the physical bashing but I really did not hear or feel it. Sometimes I wonder if that is what people are doing regarding what it happening in the world right now. Abusers like to be acknowledged, really. But they want us to be intimidated and obedient.
When I told him I was filing for divorce, my now ex-husband said. literally - "If you divorce me on grounds of physical cruelty, I will kill you". Did that anyway, divorce granted, turned out he was more afraid of people knowing he said that and suffering the consequences if he did it.
I call it "zionarcissism". That's narcissism with a special ingredient of Zionism added to give them an extra push of sadistic violence for getting their way. Explained here:
The US condemns all past wars but never present. As you said many times. Despite the US acknowledging Israeli war crimes and doing nothing about it, demonstrates the true face of the US. Gaza has been under Israeli attack longer than I have been alive. The Issue with Russia and the Ukraine goes back to 2014 at the least. We 'invaded the wrong country' with Iraq...We are creating imaginary enemies. Iran nor China are against the US, it is the US being against them. The amount of Business we do with China, sure they are the bad guy. The way the US treats its own citizens is truly distopian and there is no doubt we live in a society that is inhumane.
Biden is the good guy and Democrats support social welfare of all...It would take a lot of mind altering drugs to believe that. Republicans aren't any better, both parties just exist to divide the populace so the empire managers can do what they want. Why hasn't Biden done anything about Israeli war crimes? It is all part of the plan.
The two legacy parties, Team R and Team D, need each other, they way sports rivals need each other or there is no game, the way Batman doesn’t need Robin. Batman needs The Joker. Take away The Joker and Batman goes from The Dark Knight to being a weird and humorless cosplayer.
The other party serves each legacy party just fine, both to hold their respective coalitions together, and as means of restricting the demands of coalition partners. How many times have Team D shills said “Biden really really wants to [X], but Mean Republicans won’t let him….”? Team R cultists do the same thing.
Take away Team R as a meaningful force, and the coalition of PMC yuppies and various grievance groups that make up Team D would quickly discover that not only do they have little in common, they don’t even like each other all that much and there is no way to divide the spoils that would make everyone happy. Team D plays a similar role with regard to cementing the coalition of Local Gentry and white Evangelicals that make up Team R.
That is a very amazing analogy that gets right to the point. The duality of political ideology. You explained that team D makes up a lot of smaller liberal groups. That's the key points is they like team R are just mainstream superficial perspectives. The teams are so large that they really can't focus on anything(if they were even honest about what they represent) that they become politically ineffective, you can't have broad generalization with the large spectrum of issues. Party platforms are even different from most of their rhetoric because ideology and execution are different things. Ultimately as you point out they are playing roles and to play the role, they need a co-star. That's why neither party will ever truly win, if they do, then the game is over.
I shoulda added that neither Team R nor Team D represents a coherent political philosophy as much as they are each a coalition of disparate interest groups.
The point that if either party succeeds, you only have one party, ironically the party fails(both of them) if they were to have unlimited power because both parties do the exact same things, namely everything that gets passed is done so because that is the agenda. I joked saying I never saw anyone protesting Tiktok, yet the ban is part of a larger totalitarian issue. Obamacare has never been successfully repealed because it is exactly what both parties wanted. The Democrats have made no viable tax increase on the wealthy, but there Trump era tax cut stands, because that's what the empire managers want. No matter how we vote, the outcome doesn't change. Hence Caitin's post about Democrats ignoring voters (Gaza protestors) because we have no say with out votes.
Lastly, the fact that you recognize that neither represent a political philosophy is something few understand. I am glad you put that out there. I didn't make it clear in my post, but needed to be said.
>>"Obamacare has never been successfully repealed because it is exactly what both parties wanted."
AND
>>"The Democrats have made no viable tax increase on the wealthy, but there Trump era tax cut stands, because that's what the empire managers want."
Thank you Marquis for pointing this out. Most people miss this. Most people get so distracted with all the smoke-and-mirrors games being played that they fail to realize that they are in-fact the ones being played (by the elites).
Forgive me for repeating something I have written before:
Democracy, as a practical matter, is basically an exercise in passing the buck, in avoiding responsibility. The technical term for this is a "beard".
Everyone in power claims to answer to and derive their authority from someone else, going ultimately back to "the people" who themselves do not directly exercise power, and who would find it difficult to exercise as a collective action problem, even if they had the formal authority to do so.
What this means is that real power is often in the hands of unelected bureaucrats, who typically don't even want to stand for election because they don't want the voters to know what their programs are, much less to exercise any oversight. Robert Moses is the classic example here.
Even that minimal level of scrutiny is too much for some, and real power is often exercised by people not formally part of any government structure. Corporate lobbyists or Robert Kagan come to mind.
I would argue that this 'plan' has been in the works since the end of WWII, when the 'allies' (Britain and the U.S.) got into an argument with Russia about dividing the spoils of war in post war Germany. When Britain shot themselves with Brexit, the U.S. laughed and said, "See ya, suckers". Now, that attitude of world domination is coming around to haunt them as the U.S. can't afford to keep up the façade. Going broke and being held accountable for it's actions was never part of the 'plan.'
I would agree with you on that. I considered Brexit more of an EU thing, but you are right. Most of our allies in Europe have felt the effects of the pipeline incident and sanctions against Russia. Add Brexit and England is another ally feeling the heat.
The US has the largest defense budget of any country, twice that of its nearest competitor and grows every year. We can't afford it, we are indeed going broke and being held accountable is what happens when you spread yourself too thin for too long. The United States is an authoritarian/totalitarian regime lead by an oligarchy, it is not a democracy or even a Republic...
Why would I criticize the United States? Genocide is wrong, war mongering is wrong. Posturing with China and Russia is fool hardy bravado. Caitlin talked about the nuclear brinksmanship...I think that's justification enough for opposing the US suicidal plan...
And that is exactly what it is, a suicide plan. Like the Japanese during WWII yelling 'Banzai' as they attacked enmasse to try and overwhelm enemy defenses. My podcast airing tomorrow will talk more to that whole notion of the U.S. salesmanship mentality of going for broke and hoping no one will notice.
I've actually spoken to two people recently with low political literacy who each asked me why the US isn't intervening in favor of the Palestinians. It is confusing if you only know the superhero narrative.
If Biden and Trudeau really believe that Jews have a right to displace Palestinians who have lived there for thousands of years then why are they not telling all non-indigenous people in the USA and Canada to back our bags and go back to Europe or wherever our ancestors came from? White people have only been here a few hundred years so surely, according to Zionist reasoning, indigenous peoples have a right to take back the land their Creator gave to them. Same in Australia.
As much as I would love to see that, we all know that the indigenous peoples will not be able to rise up to unseat their conquerors. I think the world would be a better place if they had control of things, instead of the greedy Europeans.
I too was in a horribly abusive relationship. I always been a rebel, but this enhanced this proclivity, thanks to the worthless authorities refusing to intervene.
I love Hamas. I love Hezbollah. I love the Hout’hi. Why? Because they are fighting INJUSTICE.
Justice is something I never got for myself, and I will not tolerate injustice against ANYONE. EVER.
Me the exact same.........usually people who have been abused end up having more empathy than others and I loathe and detest injustice. It has got me into many nasty scrapes but really who cares. I am still here.
Why wouldn't you have a special love for Russia? They saved the world from Nazism and once again are battling it out with, in some ways as evil forces, as you so succinctly described the U.S. No other nation on earth sacrificed as much. They still are fighting for their existence. Yeah, sure we Slavs aren't as enlightened as 'refined' as you Westerners, but we all develop at different rates. And how many times you have to raise yourself out of ashes and start all over.
A lot of politicians are ill-informed too and they believe what they read in mainstream News, and do not read their official information right through and research. They do not dig much deeper and do their homework, relying on the Party "line". This is a common problem in many Parliaments.
Colonizers gonna colonize and back other colonizers.
I keep reminding people that LGBTQ people were killed in the Holocaust.
Disabled people were killed in the Holocaust.
Atheists and other non/wrong Christians were killed in the Holocaust.
None of those other groups were allowed to steal land. The Zionists want you to forget about those other people so they can continue to play the victim card.
When I was 5, I played fake war games imagining myself a US soldier in WW II. At 15 JFK's murder made me wonder WTF was going on. At 18, I realized it was all war all the time waged on poor bastards whose lives posed no threat to mine. At 25, I was fully ready for either revolution or emigration. By 45, I was teaching the most radical natural science I could envision -- that Nature was brilliant, humans were idiots, perhaps an evolutionary mistake. At 75, I've fully realized that just my existence as an American has contributed to the most sordidly revolting hypocritical political entity ever imaginable -- the Empire of Deceit, Depravity and Death.
Hi Vin
My moment came when at age 16 I read “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee” by Dee Brown.
If I were to appear on the execrable Piers Morgan’s show, when he infamously asked me if I “condemn Hamas”, I would respond with: Do you condemn Sitting Bull? Crazy Horse? Tecumseh? Geronimo? DO YOU?
Mine was at 11 watching Chicago cops beat the shit out of anti-war protesters live on TeeVee, while many cheered.
"Execrable": perhaps you're being a bit hard on poor Piers, gypsy, but not in the context of him -- or anyone -- who hides behind that shield of the necessity to "condemn Hamas". The Native American exemplars are perfect; the longer I live, especially my last period in the SW, the more empathy I have for the plight of the folks on the res, which then raises my hackles at the US govt. liars and their military tools who screwed these basically beautiful people, whose appreciation of the biosphere at a deep level should be bottled and fed to all of us Euro invaders. Condemn those Native chiefs? Hell, celebrate them of course.
As they say, "fighting terrorism since 1492!"
I see Piers as a better tailored, slicker version of Alfred Rosenberg or Julius Streicher.
Except that the Empire today isn't in the desperate straits that Germany was in, in 1932.
Interesting analogy.
Stupid analogy!
How, pray tell?
Because Piers resembles a Weimar Republic propagandists more so than a National Socialist one. Plus, I wouldn't call Alfred Rosenberg a propagandist and, Julius Streicher's propaganda was overtly crude though at times accurate!
Execrable is an understatement!
And a blistering adjective, appropriate to scumbags like Morgan or any other a-hole who underplays the extent to which enslaved and aboriginal people have been fecked-over. My prior comment was mostly tongue-in-cheek.
Hi Vin
Oglala Chief Red Cloud to the Amerikkkan government:
You promised us many things, and you kept only one. You promised to take our land, and you took it.
The naked truth
Does he condemn Nat Turner, who killed the kindly slaveowners who fed him, put a roof over his head and gave him a job?
Does he condemn the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising?
Just a detail FF, but some would question whether working as a slave should be considered a “job”.
Sera, I believe that Feral was being facetious.
Oops. I’m bright red.
You're kidding !!!🤣🤣🤣🤣
Or John Brown, Feral?
A good example.
One of the best posts I’ve ever read! Thanks
This comment was for Gypsy 33
Thank you Jala!
That would be a perfect response!
Thank you Leon 🙂
That would be a perfect response!
Oh, very good, very good indeed. Bravo!! 👏👏👏👏🇵🇸
me too - being British, it's when you realise all the people you are supposed to respect are false idols. Our royal family is not actually British. The first world war was a family territorial dispute for which millions died. All the aristocracy's wealth is based on theft. Churchill was a violent racist psychopath. Nelson was a philanderer who routinely got his men killed in pointless failed actions. Wellington was an entitled toff who just happened to be good at organising violence. Our entire empire was founded on butchery and savagery on an industrial scale run by jumped up corporate thugs and warlords. Our navy was based on piracy and pressganged cannon fodder. All the 'terrorists' and 'rebels' we were taught to hate were actually freedom fighters. Once you start seeing these things the entire edifice crumbles, and the true corruption is revealed.
The Mind Shift to see the world from this perspective is extremely disorientating but necessary to be a "normal human" with your own thoughts rather than the jargons they fill our head with from birth
If it makes you feel better, it ain't just the British. An awful lot of the leaders now styled "the Great" were glorified sociopaths.
Yep. It's all a myth. Bit hard to swallow, eh? But if we can swallow it then we're realists with a clear view of the world and all the better for it. And maybe able to pass that on here and there: our numbers may swell. Eh?
Thank you so much for exposing the spot-on conclusions of severe fits of cognitive bias !!
Btw: in the US, you would currently been considered a "domestic terrorist" ...
But fortunately, the cognitive bias is spreading at warp-speed on a global scale ...🤞🤞🤞
Well said Chris Leeds!
At every sporting event, I watch the 5 year old brained adults stand, remove hats, place hands to hearts and sing along to the national anthem, clap wildly for the US military veteran (hero/victim). It became clear to me only since the Iraq war that the purpose is propaganda and peer pressure, a well designed religious experience. I mean, everyone else in this huge crowd is proud of our country. is it just me that’s not? Or are they all feeling the same way as I am and just don’t want to get the stink eye from a few ‘patriots’ who frown on those that don’t appreciate living in ‘the best country in the world’. No moments of silence or prayers for the victims of our wars at these events.
The governments did an EXCELLENT job (starting with Edward Bernays) of brainwashing every one of us from toddler onwards - just finishing Patrick Lawrence's book 'Journalists and their Shadows' - tells it all (from the view point of a critical journalist) ...
I'm a couple years behind you but echo your journey completely.
Don't be so hard on yourself, Vin. Be being a true radical in the deepest meaning, you have affirmed life and liberty. The US government is not a "we" or an "us;" it is a they." Nature needs us to continue on, and I am 7 years your senior! I had a similar path.
I'm just hyperbolic by nature, Jon; made me a better teacher of bioscience -- inject an enthusiasm about how marvelously diverse and clever our immune systems are, for example, and it sets the stage for a student's attitude to evolve from "ho-hum" to " "I'm interested in this rap". I suppose that style bleeds over into my brief diatribes. And thanks for your path as well.
I appreciate your comment here, Vin. I just watched an astounding interview of Naomi Wolf by Alex Jones on the effect of the vax on human reproduction! Totally outclassed Joseph Mengele! Scary. Pfizer knew, yet went ahead.
Yeah, but we humans are also Gaia's Agents of Change on the planet. We have brought a lot of carbon up to where photosynthetic plants can access it, and we have spread a lot of phosphorus around into surface soils that were deficient in it. Phosphorus stays put better than nitrogen does.
We are just a teenage species, going through a phase of discovering and spending our inheritance.
Mom will be fine. Ecosystems adapt to a lot worse than our shenanigans, which just peaked in late 2018 with oil + "liquids" production, and are in terminal decline.
"Interesting times" to be the best human you can be,
:-D
Perhaps, but neither you, I, nor anyone else can assess or predict what the ultimate changes/ impacts will be of harboring intra-cytoplasmic nanoplastics. Of course, Mama GAIA will find some adaptive route for the biosphere as a whole, but the question of Homo's role within that adaptation remains a bit worrisome to me (for my younger loved ones; I'll be long gone). In any case, I deeply resent the hubris that plays around with the loaded guns of technology under the assumption that it's technology (not GAIA) that'll "fix" things, a delusion without much experiential basis. But cling to that optimism as a counterweight to my pessimism.
Yes, tech is not the "fix". We can work towards a further adaptation into our potential adult role as stewards of life on earth, should our species survive to adulthood.
Can't fight hubris head on, but it may be enough to sidestep its charge and out-survive it.
"I had to travel, fore I got wise..." - Memphis Minnie
Memphis Minnie. Mama could pluck that guitar like crazy and that low alto blues voice was convincing when she told you "ain't gonna do good".
"...the most sordidly revolting hypocritical political entity ever imaginable -- the Empire of Deceit, Depravity and Death."
You were around during the Roman Empire? Or maybe the Mongol? Or the British? Or Aztec? Or ... Plus ca change.
Yup, the Romans were bad, so bad that when the barbarians were at the gate, many roman citizens were thrilled, finally they were to be free. Did the Romans starve or otherwise antagonize a bunch of Venezuelans? Iranians? Chinese?
The Brits were real wankers when they were in charge, but they simply didn't have the technology required to murder as many as the US.
Most US citizens, when the time comes, will welcome the end of this empire because the empire is now turning its forces on us.
For that matter, in the later years of the Western Roman Empire, there was a youth fashion of imitating barbarians (many of whom were Christians of one flavor or another.)
In Italiano:
piu cose cambiano piu che rimanano lostesso.
Always reminds me of the Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil". "Stood around St. Petersburg when I saw it was the time for a change" etc.
Very true. One would hope that people had learned something!
Have you seen/read Station 11? I always remember the quote, 'What if to the monsters, we're the monsters?'
No; I'll try to check it out. We all have a monster living somewhere inside, I think -- the price of extreme self-awareness, perhaps. Poses an interesting question about the animal kingdom, but that's getting into consciousness and brains and today's tendency among neuroscientists is to run like hell from that connection.
You have a huge advantage over most people: your Awareness!
Vin, l’m only 63 but I have arrived at the same place
I share your mental anguish.
At 19, I emigrated, perhaps to the wrong country, where I had my epiphany.
I only hope that some of my ideas resonate with my children and grandchildren.
Good Luck!
Thank you, Caitlin for your clear-eyed analysis. I just got back from the ME and the mood on the street is different than what is experienced in the west. There, the en masse murder of the Palestinians is just another dark chapter that the west has authored against the Arabs and Muslims. It’s not surprising nor is it eye opening.. you don’t have to be a genius there to see it or have access to expert analysis. You just need a functioning brain. The western media seems to be more interested in how Palestine is relevant vis-à-vis the US constitution, campus protests, the rise of antisemitism, etc. nothing that is relevant to the Palestinians or Arabs. As far as they’re concerned, we’re just navel gazing because we’ve nothing better to do..
Stay the course, Caitlin.. millions of you can turn the tide and derail the empire.
When I travelled in the Middle East for my job, sometimes I had a translator (often a dislocated Palestinian for some odd reason) but sometimes I went out on my own. All my personal conversations with the locals were warm and hospitable. Typically they were genuinely curious of the lone American among them. Also interesting that language did not seem to be much of a barrier to getting around. But conversation always eventually came to the question. “Why is America killing our children?” It was always heart stopping and I had no answer. The only way I could respond was on a personal level. “That’s not me.” And we went on from there.
I have the added advantage of being a native speaker of Arabic - and can converse in multiple Arabic dialects - so always get it from the horse’s mouth, so to speak… and you’re right, people there are baffled (if they’re being generous) by how Americans (& people who count themselves as westerners and adherents to western civilisation) can sit comfortably with atrocities committed against other races/populations.. what’s the use of all this progress and higher order thinking if it inevitably leads to Hitlerian acts?!
when Arab friends ask my why my government acts the way it does I have no real answer - I can quote the weight of history from the Crusades, to our first shelling of Yemen in1839, to our greed driven colonial invasions and recent subservience to the US. I can relate the way our educational, parliamentary and social institutions make our leaders the way the are. I can trot out geo-political theories up the wazoo. But, none of it justifies or excuses their heartless, deranged and deeply sick behaviour over Gaza. I am as utterly baffled and mortified as anyone - and mightily ashamed.
Again, Caitlin hits dead center on the mark of truth, for which we can be thankful. Without alternative media, we would have no real news. Beware the wicked witch of censorship is fast being turned onto law, one country after another. My question, year in and year out, is why do bad people win? How can they commit genocide, illegal wars, famine, earth/air destruction, destroy privacy, further depopulation by the wealthy and all the other crimes...and not be stopped cold? It's not complicated.
It's not complicated and boils down to the fact that Evil collaborates and cooperates far more than good does and they have the added advantage of being in charge of the highest form of military weapons in human history
"All it takes for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing"
And so far good men and women have only done something in short bursts at random times when what we need is a sustained combined collaborative effort by All to finally force Evil to heel
Well said, Uaifo! We need to organize better and stay organized and not let the Evil factions come in between us and cause us to splinter. It's what happens all the time--we rise up, demand an end to "war", take some kind of concessions from the Evil Rulers, and then go back to sleep in the comfort of our La-Z-Boy chairs with a beer in our hands. We can't keep being played a fool like this. This time it needs to be REAL, and we stay together as a pack. We need to stick to our plans to make the world a BETTER place, not just a slightly less obnoxious place for the middle class.
I agree with you a 💯
But the main issue is the elite have successfully sown divisions amongst the vast population through racial and gender wars, religious divisions, ideological divisions and so on
We sorely lack a Common Glue and more crucially, Trust in and for one another.. You gotta hand it to them, the elite truly have played us all like a fiddle and kept us distracted to the point we no longer trust our neighbours and we forget we laughably outnumber them
Trust needs to be built amongst the general populace before anything of note can be done imo
I would argue that it’s not higher order thinking at all.
Allegedly.. the otherwise rational western mind.
Let’s try super hard to include OURSELVES in this TIDE-TURNING!! No matter our edge or seeming lack of abilities--this might well be last chance for us all! Let’s see this lifetime and Life-impacting cause as The Community For Peacemaking of Us All !
The analogy to abuse is dead accurate. And the abuser really gets mad when the victim starts to get wise.
When I learned to stop responding to my childhood abuser by disassociating (not a recommended coping method) I was told "don't you really think you are someone" because I would be having abuse screamed at me along with the physical bashing but I really did not hear or feel it. Sometimes I wonder if that is what people are doing regarding what it happening in the world right now. Abusers like to be acknowledged, really. But they want us to be intimidated and obedient.
When I told him I was filing for divorce, my now ex-husband said. literally - "If you divorce me on grounds of physical cruelty, I will kill you". Did that anyway, divorce granted, turned out he was more afraid of people knowing he said that and suffering the consequences if he did it.
Thanks Feral.
Bassem Youssef put it best: "Israel is narcissistic personality disorder manifested as a state".
Collective narcissism is more common that individual narcissism, and more damaging to the world. Both have gone up in frequency in recent decades.
I call it "zionarcissism". That's narcissism with a special ingredient of Zionism added to give them an extra push of sadistic violence for getting their way. Explained here:
https://therevolutioncontinues.substack.com/p/the-grift-of-eternal-victimhood
HaHa! Well said.
Do we not also need admit same analogy of our own US state!
The US condemns all past wars but never present. As you said many times. Despite the US acknowledging Israeli war crimes and doing nothing about it, demonstrates the true face of the US. Gaza has been under Israeli attack longer than I have been alive. The Issue with Russia and the Ukraine goes back to 2014 at the least. We 'invaded the wrong country' with Iraq...We are creating imaginary enemies. Iran nor China are against the US, it is the US being against them. The amount of Business we do with China, sure they are the bad guy. The way the US treats its own citizens is truly distopian and there is no doubt we live in a society that is inhumane.
Biden is the good guy and Democrats support social welfare of all...It would take a lot of mind altering drugs to believe that. Republicans aren't any better, both parties just exist to divide the populace so the empire managers can do what they want. Why hasn't Biden done anything about Israeli war crimes? It is all part of the plan.
The two legacy parties, Team R and Team D, need each other, they way sports rivals need each other or there is no game, the way Batman doesn’t need Robin. Batman needs The Joker. Take away The Joker and Batman goes from The Dark Knight to being a weird and humorless cosplayer.
The other party serves each legacy party just fine, both to hold their respective coalitions together, and as means of restricting the demands of coalition partners. How many times have Team D shills said “Biden really really wants to [X], but Mean Republicans won’t let him….”? Team R cultists do the same thing.
Take away Team R as a meaningful force, and the coalition of PMC yuppies and various grievance groups that make up Team D would quickly discover that not only do they have little in common, they don’t even like each other all that much and there is no way to divide the spoils that would make everyone happy. Team D plays a similar role with regard to cementing the coalition of Local Gentry and white Evangelicals that make up Team R.
That is a very amazing analogy that gets right to the point. The duality of political ideology. You explained that team D makes up a lot of smaller liberal groups. That's the key points is they like team R are just mainstream superficial perspectives. The teams are so large that they really can't focus on anything(if they were even honest about what they represent) that they become politically ineffective, you can't have broad generalization with the large spectrum of issues. Party platforms are even different from most of their rhetoric because ideology and execution are different things. Ultimately as you point out they are playing roles and to play the role, they need a co-star. That's why neither party will ever truly win, if they do, then the game is over.
I shoulda added that neither Team R nor Team D represents a coherent political philosophy as much as they are each a coalition of disparate interest groups.
The point that if either party succeeds, you only have one party, ironically the party fails(both of them) if they were to have unlimited power because both parties do the exact same things, namely everything that gets passed is done so because that is the agenda. I joked saying I never saw anyone protesting Tiktok, yet the ban is part of a larger totalitarian issue. Obamacare has never been successfully repealed because it is exactly what both parties wanted. The Democrats have made no viable tax increase on the wealthy, but there Trump era tax cut stands, because that's what the empire managers want. No matter how we vote, the outcome doesn't change. Hence Caitin's post about Democrats ignoring voters (Gaza protestors) because we have no say with out votes.
Lastly, the fact that you recognize that neither represent a political philosophy is something few understand. I am glad you put that out there. I didn't make it clear in my post, but needed to be said.
>>"Obamacare has never been successfully repealed because it is exactly what both parties wanted."
AND
>>"The Democrats have made no viable tax increase on the wealthy, but there Trump era tax cut stands, because that's what the empire managers want."
Thank you Marquis for pointing this out. Most people miss this. Most people get so distracted with all the smoke-and-mirrors games being played that they fail to realize that they are in-fact the ones being played (by the elites).
Forgive me for repeating something I have written before:
Democracy, as a practical matter, is basically an exercise in passing the buck, in avoiding responsibility. The technical term for this is a "beard".
Everyone in power claims to answer to and derive their authority from someone else, going ultimately back to "the people" who themselves do not directly exercise power, and who would find it difficult to exercise as a collective action problem, even if they had the formal authority to do so.
What this means is that real power is often in the hands of unelected bureaucrats, who typically don't even want to stand for election because they don't want the voters to know what their programs are, much less to exercise any oversight. Robert Moses is the classic example here.
Even that minimal level of scrutiny is too much for some, and real power is often exercised by people not formally part of any government structure. Corporate lobbyists or Robert Kagan come to mind.
Well said Feral Finster! So true.
I would argue that this 'plan' has been in the works since the end of WWII, when the 'allies' (Britain and the U.S.) got into an argument with Russia about dividing the spoils of war in post war Germany. When Britain shot themselves with Brexit, the U.S. laughed and said, "See ya, suckers". Now, that attitude of world domination is coming around to haunt them as the U.S. can't afford to keep up the façade. Going broke and being held accountable for it's actions was never part of the 'plan.'
I would agree with you on that. I considered Brexit more of an EU thing, but you are right. Most of our allies in Europe have felt the effects of the pipeline incident and sanctions against Russia. Add Brexit and England is another ally feeling the heat.
The US has the largest defense budget of any country, twice that of its nearest competitor and grows every year. We can't afford it, we are indeed going broke and being held accountable is what happens when you spread yourself too thin for too long. The United States is an authoritarian/totalitarian regime lead by an oligarchy, it is not a democracy or even a Republic...
Why would I criticize the United States? Genocide is wrong, war mongering is wrong. Posturing with China and Russia is fool hardy bravado. Caitlin talked about the nuclear brinksmanship...I think that's justification enough for opposing the US suicidal plan...
And that is exactly what it is, a suicide plan. Like the Japanese during WWII yelling 'Banzai' as they attacked enmasse to try and overwhelm enemy defenses. My podcast airing tomorrow will talk more to that whole notion of the U.S. salesmanship mentality of going for broke and hoping no one will notice.
I've actually spoken to two people recently with low political literacy who each asked me why the US isn't intervening in favor of the Palestinians. It is confusing if you only know the superhero narrative.
If Biden and Trudeau really believe that Jews have a right to displace Palestinians who have lived there for thousands of years then why are they not telling all non-indigenous people in the USA and Canada to back our bags and go back to Europe or wherever our ancestors came from? White people have only been here a few hundred years so surely, according to Zionist reasoning, indigenous peoples have a right to take back the land their Creator gave to them. Same in Australia.
As much as I would love to see that, we all know that the indigenous peoples will not be able to rise up to unseat their conquerors. I think the world would be a better place if they had control of things, instead of the greedy Europeans.
I'm sure the British, French or what have you will welcome them, the ejecta, with open arms. Well, to be sure, arms, anyway.
Hi Caitlin
I too was in a horribly abusive relationship. I always been a rebel, but this enhanced this proclivity, thanks to the worthless authorities refusing to intervene.
I love Hamas. I love Hezbollah. I love the Hout’hi. Why? Because they are fighting INJUSTICE.
Justice is something I never got for myself, and I will not tolerate injustice against ANYONE. EVER.
Btw, I love Russia, China and Iran as well.
Me the exact same.........usually people who have been abused end up having more empathy than others and I loathe and detest injustice. It has got me into many nasty scrapes but really who cares. I am still here.
hugs and xxx's
Jenny, I believe we were separated at birth 🥰
Maybe but we chose different men and ended up the same!
😂
Based
I criticize the US and its catamites because of what they do.
FF - had to look up the definition of catamite.
FF and BW- the opening line of Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess
"It was the afternoon of my eighty-first birthday, and I was in bed with my catamite when Ali announced that the archbishop had come to see me."
Hope it didn't bring up any bad memories.
Why wouldn't you have a special love for Russia? They saved the world from Nazism and once again are battling it out with, in some ways as evil forces, as you so succinctly described the U.S. No other nation on earth sacrificed as much. They still are fighting for their existence. Yeah, sure we Slavs aren't as enlightened as 'refined' as you Westerners, but we all develop at different rates. And how many times you have to raise yourself out of ashes and start all over.
What I don’t like is the rampant homophobia and transphobia.
By which you must mean the laws banning propaganda of these perversions. Use the correct language. And don't bring up fiction of their persecution.
And American Jews aren't related to anyone in Israel from any years ago; they are descended from European converts.
*Palestine.
WARNING FOR YOUNG PEOPLE: If You Are Thinking Of Joining The US Military, BEWARE!
https://mark192.substack.com/p/warning-for-young-people-if-you-are
"Some white guy in New York who happens to share a religion with people who lived in Palestine a few millennia ago cannot make the same claim."
New Yorkers can be oddballs at times, not to mention, they pay a helluva lot of rent for really small spaces.
If I may quote Jimmy Dore- "We are the world's terrorists!"
A lot of politicians are ill-informed too and they believe what they read in mainstream News, and do not read their official information right through and research. They do not dig much deeper and do their homework, relying on the Party "line". This is a common problem in many Parliaments.
They also do not know what questions to ask-
Do they even ask questions.....I thought they knew everything!
Colonizers gonna colonize and back other colonizers.
I keep reminding people that LGBTQ people were killed in the Holocaust.
Disabled people were killed in the Holocaust.
Atheists and other non/wrong Christians were killed in the Holocaust.
None of those other groups were allowed to steal land. The Zionists want you to forget about those other people so they can continue to play the victim card.