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Feels Like Truth's avatar

a society that punishes or silences people for using their voice to oppose mass killing not just some abstract injustice, but real, ongoing atrocities affecting real human lives then “freedom” was always just a story we told ourselves. The measure of freedom isn’t how loudly we can cheer when we echo the powerful, it’s how unashamedly we can stand up when we disagree with them, especially when the stakes are life and death. That discomfort you feel when confronting what your government does politically, morally, silently, or in your name isn’t confusion, it’s your conscience. And if silence is easier than speaking truth to power, then we already lost the freedom we thought we had

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Nick Douglas's avatar

Why are people surprised now? Were they hibernating for the past 50+ years? Frank Zappa knew. As did few others. The "west" was always a genocidal, thieving, racist, zionist, and fascist ideology. People in the west just lived in an illusion of "freedom and democracy". Something like matrix. It was all a BIG lie and illusion from the most evil, destructive, supremacist, anti-human system that ever existed - "western civilization" aka "empire of lies".

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Chuck Nasmith's avatar

"The Empire of Lies secures allies like a spider ties up flies" (the the -Kissing The Ring Of POTUS)

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Nana Baakan Agyiriwah's avatar

"The "west" was always a genocidal, thieving, racist, zionist, and fascist ideology."

Well said Nick, and I would add a few hundred years to your 50+ and then take it back further to anywhere among the human societies where Empire building was the driving force.

It's the nature of Empire for the most part.

Western societies got really good at Empire building by creating the "illusion of "freedom and democracy" and then maintained this illusion with divide and conquer strategies. Thus the plebs would fight amongst themselves and never see that the same boot was on their necks.

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Nick Douglas's avatar

Nana I fully agree. 500+ years for sure and their supposed "discovery" of American continents. I only was referring to humans living today and the modern sophisticated methods of lying.

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Nana Baakan Agyiriwah's avatar

Yes, Nick, I get it. Now if we could only get these facts into the history books.

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Joy in HK fiFP's avatar

Many are surprised now, because they believed the lies told to them since earliest childhood. Apparently, it's difficult for some to break free of that massive, intensive, and non-stop propaganda effort, because if it weren't, then the ruling class wouldn't have been spending billions doing it all these years.

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Mary's avatar

There has to eventually be a limit to how many people they can arrest, surely. I mean, the jails are already rather full . Maybe they'll just start gunning protestors down instead? Like Tiannamen square?

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Landru's avatar

Yes the story will get darker. I would never have thought they would do this and then a Genocide Livestreamed. We are all Palestinians.

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Nick Douglas's avatar

There is ABSOLUTELY no parallel between the 1989 Tiananmen square protests and Gaza anti-genocide protests. The western press called Tiananmen square protests "massacres" yet murdering of tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians (20,000 children alone) is israel's "self-defense". The empire of lies has no and never had any credibility or integrity and all what is left is LIES and only LIES of the rotting empire.

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Mary's avatar

I was just surmising that they can't arrest us all. But they could gun us down while protesting. That's the only parallel I was drawing.

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Nick Douglas's avatar

They will gun us down if necessary. All they need is go-ahead command from their supreme leader - Netanyahu.

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gypsy33's avatar

Hi Nick and Mary

I don’t know where y’all reside. BUT any AmeriKKKan who isn’t presently a firearms owner needs to get there right quick before they become unavailable to the public.

I own guns to protect myself from the GOVERNMENT.

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Marci Sudlow's avatar

Never fear; they're busy building new "detention facilities" as we speak.

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Mary's avatar

Seriously?

I hope they're 5 star. It'll be cheaper than rent.

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Patrick Powers's avatar

I read that a facility to hold 10,000 cost 10 billion $. A million apiece. For that price it better be pretty damn luxurious.

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Mary's avatar

Chris, how much community/affordable housing could they have build for that. And people would then put money into the economy instead of being locked up for no reason..it's simply madness

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JennyStokes's avatar

Camps!

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Nina Felshin's avatar

Western propaganda about Tiananmen Square has been convincingly refuted since1989:

https://www.qiaocollective.com/education/tiananmenreadinglist

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Mary's avatar

I know very little about the reasons for the protests, nor do I take a side. I don't know enough about modern-day China to have an opinion on its rights or wrongs, nor is it my business, unless it threatens world peace/climate/ecological collapse (which most 'developed' nations do). I do know that students were killed there, though. That's what I was referring to.

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Feral Finster's avatar

Don't be surprised.

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DEREK HANDS's avatar

Not civilised. It should be mandatory to protest genocide in any civilised society.

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Nick Douglas's avatar

You answered the question. Empire of lies is NOT a civilised society and hence protesting continuing genocide of Palestinians is not allowed.

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Antonio Brownlowe's avatar

How America defines Freedom today, is similar to how Israel's definition and interpretation and meaning of what is a' Ceasefire and what is a 'Genocide' Actually Israel does not seem to have a clue or the meaning of either ,a Ceasefire, or Genocide ,and Americas leaders like TRUMP is losing their own meaning and understanding of Freedom and Democracy .

Both believes the Meaning is' the freedom to Drop Bombs on anyone and everyone you brand and deem as your enemy and Crush them with your overwhelming Military might, or imprison them

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Landru's avatar
5hEdited

We are living in Sci-Fiction. The story is about to become darker it seems. We have no protagonist in the u.s. Do we know who the writer is? We are all Palestinians.

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Crixcyon's avatar

According to the government, you are quite free to do as they say and never question their unbounded authority. In their eyes, that is more than enough freedom for us slaves.

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Patrick Powers's avatar

And you can watch all the porn you want. That and guns is what many care about.

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Jo Waller's avatar

Yeah, we get it. Our societies are not free- we were not allowed to opposed the 'covid' measures or disobey them although there was no evidence for them. Our societies are controlled by US based interests in pharma, fossil fuels, animal ag, finance, media and arms.

Is there anyone who hasn't got this yet?

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Henri Mellett's avatar

Can't we just go and beat the crap out of all those pompous toffee nosed sadistic toffs misleading the west? Just had to say it. They represent the billionaire diversion into a cul de sac, not humanity. Didn't that hippie beetle with the round glasses make a tune about " imagine theres no billionaire", or have i got it wrong?

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Jo Waller's avatar

You can do whatever you like! x

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Mary Wildfire's avatar

I'm gonna say it again: this isn't just about Gaza/Palestine/Israel. The "Western" power structure would not be so ferociously opposed if "globalize the intifada" actually meant "kill the Jews." The real threat is the EXPOSURE of the ugly reality behind the mask of The Free World, Liberal Democracy, yadda yadda, which the Gaza situation has been so radiantly providing--when the NATO alliance are all insisting that arming a genocide is the right thing to do and their citizens can SEE the horrific reality every fracking day...it's hard to stay asleep. And once more and more people wake up, they're likely to question much more than that one thing, horrible as it is. Like, why is my government doing nothing real about climate change? Why the FRACK are we pouring money into NEW nuclear weapons? Why do the media, including so many supposedly opposing ones, speak in lockstep on so many issues, even using the same words? Why are the major parties and the nedia pushing the rapid expansion of data centers for AI, despite AI, despite all the harms caused by both AI and data centers? Why, once I look into independent media, do I see so many stories about miscarriages of justice, about pollution causing disasters which taxpayers are expected to pick up the tab for? Why are rich countries all turning toward blocking entry by immigrants? Could it be that the division of the people of my country into two opposing camps, so convenient for the rich and powerful, is no accident? A world in which the world steps in to rescue the Palestinians is a world in which we step in to rescue ecosystems, endangered species, future generations, the poor. Can you imagine people all over the world uniting to overthrow the power structure and put humanity's resources toward solving problems, healing ecosystems, ensuring that everyone has enough (which means no longer can some have too much) and we terminate war? Perhaps the ruling class can, and it's the stuff of their nightmares. Globalize the intifada!

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Chuck Nasmith's avatar

Nvidia has announced it is going to build a new plant on Occupied land by 2027. Globalize the Intifada.

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Mary Wildfire's avatar

you mean in Palestine?

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Chuck Nasmith's avatar

Yes. One State Palestine !

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Harry Ziboo's avatar

Well, all you Aussies, Welcome to Fascist America as the 51st. state. I wish I could help you get your country back, but I can't even seem to be effective about getting the U.S.A. back to even a little semblance of what it (Actually never really was). So, good luck!

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Diana van Eyk's avatar

"If the right to free speech does not include the right to oppose an active genocide using strong and unmitigated language, then there is no freedom of speech."

We need to understand this. Gaza is the tip of the spear that is tearing off the clothes of the Emperor, which is the Empire that controls and profits from this genocide.

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Nick Douglas's avatar

Gaza is the tip of the spear and western support of israel's genocides will be its doom and the huge turning point. Trump, Biden, Obama, Merz, Macron, Starmer, Ursula VDL, Kaja, and many other western war criminals are just symptoms of the utter sickness of the rotting empire. And yes, we are all Palestinians now.

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Diana van Eyk's avatar

Agreed, Nick. Well put.

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Walter's avatar

Every time I watch Netanyahu speak, I'm amazed at how he projects sincerity and conviction for the lies he speaks. Are people entranced by him? He seems to be like a viper which hypnotizes its prey. Are those politicians who do his bidding willingly wicked or are they helpless to stand their ground as they are nudged one compromise, one faintly justified violation at a time toward becoming his mindless drones?

I think Netanyahu revealed a truth when he named the Palestinians as Amalekites, by overtly practicing narcissistic projection: it is the jews who are functionally, spiritually Amalekites. It is jews who are preying on the weak and killing children and destroying food supplies. Jews fit the pattern and so must be the ones who God opposes generation to generation. When does the world wake up?

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Chuck Nasmith's avatar

Tear down the Zionist Terrorist Wall brick by brick. One State Palestine. Fuck the IDF terrorists, and ban them from your country unless they prove they have not committed War Crimes.

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Chuck Nasmith's avatar

I support Palestine Action.

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JRSmith's avatar

No country in the West is free. We're all under the control of degenerate oligarchs and Zionist Jew filth. Those of us who speak out, complain--even to resist on merely the level of thought--are under constant surveillance and marked for extermination. Unless, or until matters decay to the point of popular armed insurrection, there's nothing we can do.

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Jim S's avatar

Thank You Caitlin

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Chuck Nasmith's avatar

& Mr. T !

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Nana Baakan Agyiriwah's avatar

The only people who "believed" that we lived in a free society are the ones who were never silenced. Those who were silenced while living in a so-called free society know full well that the platitudes about freedom, justice and liberty for all, was a big fat lie. Those people knew about the Just-us system.

It seems, that now the rest of society is beginning to see, feel and protest about what the disenfranchised in these so-called "free" societies have been screaming about since forever.

Shut up or put up is nothing new. It's just finding its way into the mainstream and now the "rest" of those in these so-called "free" societies can see, feel and protest about what the marginalized knew the whole time.

To quote Malcolm X, "The chickens have come home to roost."

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Ohio Barbarian's avatar

Your government is weak. If enough Australians simply refuse to comply, and if enough of you take to the streets, then your government will be more afraid of you Australians than of Netanyahu, and they will take the path of least resistance.

Why do you think they finally recognized the Palestinian State in the first place?

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