I've know for at least 50 years that the US DoS and DoD are thoroughly corrupt, and even knew there was corruption present in HHH. The past 5 years taught me that the Democratic Party is corrupt beyond salvation as well as that the Republican Party leadership is also corrupt but at least the Party's bylaws leave it open to the will of the people. The past two years have taught me that HHH and all its alphabet agencies are corrupt to the core and that corporate media and in fact most corporations are steeped in corruption. The core of the Western Empire, consisting of the Anglosphere, is far more corrupt than Zimbabwe.
That said, when Caitlin says, "...and everything you were taught about your nation, your government and your world is a lie, that's definitely a possibility worth considering," I have considered such a nihilistic conclusion about "what you were taught" and I reject it completely. In school, I was taught that the US was founded on the Enlightenment belief in the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. and that the Bill of Rights was adopted in order to guarantee that government would not infringe on the individual natural or God-given rights expressed therein. I also learned of countless individual Americans who struggled for over 200 years, against the hypocrisy of moneyed interests, to bring those rights to reality. Some struggled peacefully, like William Lloyd Garrison and Martin Luther King, Jr., some not so peacefully, like John Brown. Garrison narrowly avoided martyrdom; others did not. It's counter-productive to ignore the true principles on which the country was founded or to claim those principles somehow serve "white supremacy" when so many white men in the Union Army fought to end slavery and many of the martyrs of the Civil Rights struggle were white. We must revere our heroes and heroines and the principles for which they struggled and many died. Not all white people are members of an "oppressor class" that controls the narrative, and not all minorities are victims.
It is true that "...we're all being manipulated at mass scale to think, act and vote in a way which benefits a vast power structure that rules over us while hiding its true nature," but that power structure is not controlled by ALL white people, and there are many BIPOC like Barack Obama, Condoleeza Rice, Colin Powell and Susan Rice who are part of that power structure. J. D. Vance is not (yet) a member of that "power structure," nor the millions of "hill billies" and other "poor white trash" who struggle through life as unrecognized victims of prejudice. The claims that equal opportunity and cultural values like hard work, standard English and STEM somehow serve "white supremacy" are merely attempts to destroy the fabric of society so we can "build back better." But what are we planning to build? If it's a society where incompetents are advanced because they are "members of a traditionally marginalized identity" while hard-working, competent people who don't have such victimhood are victimized, we should all oppose that. You can't fight evil with evil methods, and society will not progress by holding back segments of its "best and brightest" regardless of group identity.
We need a revival of basic American values, and I don't care if that sounds "conservative," or in opposition to race or "feminist" hustlers. I've "paid my dues" by treating all people I interact with equally regardless of their majority, minority or sexual identity. My ancestors were not slavers, but were themselves "wage slaves." This country will be destroyed if we persist in disadvantaging hard working, competent members of any identity group because of ASSUMED guilt.
I read most of Caitlin's stuff. I think I remember Big Brother, but a more careful reading was useful. Like Rod Serling, "How to serve man." I've never read anything by C. Wright Mills, but he has popped into my radar frequently in the last few months. Perhaps I'll read The Power Elite. It may be even more relevant today than it was in 1956.
I've know for at least 50 years that the US DoS and DoD are thoroughly corrupt, and even knew there was corruption present in HHH. The past 5 years taught me that the Democratic Party is corrupt beyond salvation as well as that the Republican Party leadership is also corrupt but at least the Party's bylaws leave it open to the will of the people. The past two years have taught me that HHH and all its alphabet agencies are corrupt to the core and that corporate media and in fact most corporations are steeped in corruption. The core of the Western Empire, consisting of the Anglosphere, is far more corrupt than Zimbabwe.
That said, when Caitlin says, "...and everything you were taught about your nation, your government and your world is a lie, that's definitely a possibility worth considering," I have considered such a nihilistic conclusion about "what you were taught" and I reject it completely. In school, I was taught that the US was founded on the Enlightenment belief in the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. and that the Bill of Rights was adopted in order to guarantee that government would not infringe on the individual natural or God-given rights expressed therein. I also learned of countless individual Americans who struggled for over 200 years, against the hypocrisy of moneyed interests, to bring those rights to reality. Some struggled peacefully, like William Lloyd Garrison and Martin Luther King, Jr., some not so peacefully, like John Brown. Garrison narrowly avoided martyrdom; others did not. It's counter-productive to ignore the true principles on which the country was founded or to claim those principles somehow serve "white supremacy" when so many white men in the Union Army fought to end slavery and many of the martyrs of the Civil Rights struggle were white. We must revere our heroes and heroines and the principles for which they struggled and many died. Not all white people are members of an "oppressor class" that controls the narrative, and not all minorities are victims.
It is true that "...we're all being manipulated at mass scale to think, act and vote in a way which benefits a vast power structure that rules over us while hiding its true nature," but that power structure is not controlled by ALL white people, and there are many BIPOC like Barack Obama, Condoleeza Rice, Colin Powell and Susan Rice who are part of that power structure. J. D. Vance is not (yet) a member of that "power structure," nor the millions of "hill billies" and other "poor white trash" who struggle through life as unrecognized victims of prejudice. The claims that equal opportunity and cultural values like hard work, standard English and STEM somehow serve "white supremacy" are merely attempts to destroy the fabric of society so we can "build back better." But what are we planning to build? If it's a society where incompetents are advanced because they are "members of a traditionally marginalized identity" while hard-working, competent people who don't have such victimhood are victimized, we should all oppose that. You can't fight evil with evil methods, and society will not progress by holding back segments of its "best and brightest" regardless of group identity.
We need a revival of basic American values, and I don't care if that sounds "conservative," or in opposition to race or "feminist" hustlers. I've "paid my dues" by treating all people I interact with equally regardless of their majority, minority or sexual identity. My ancestors were not slavers, but were themselves "wage slaves." This country will be destroyed if we persist in disadvantaging hard working, competent members of any identity group because of ASSUMED guilt.
I agree with what you say, a-r, AND I agree with the link behind Caitlin's words that you quoted: https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2022/01/21/consider-the-possibility-that-this-is-already-the-dystopia-you-fear/
I read most of Caitlin's stuff. I think I remember Big Brother, but a more careful reading was useful. Like Rod Serling, "How to serve man." I've never read anything by C. Wright Mills, but he has popped into my radar frequently in the last few months. Perhaps I'll read The Power Elite. It may be even more relevant today than it was in 1956.