“We are led by the least among us – the least intelligent, the least noble, the least visionary. We are led by the least among us and we do not fight back against the dehumanizing values that are handed down as control icons.”
Because so many vote as their parents did, even when they see how dreadful the party they helped vote in is killing all progress and conditions while the uber wealthy get wealthier by the hard work of their workers who, in some cases, are on call 24/7.
People no so long ago would strike for better conditions, conditions that were made for all workers. Now our governments, even the so-called progressive ones, are using police - who are meant to serve the community but now beat and seriously injured people for protesting about the things police are now doing to the people they are meant to protect. This is not progress it's regression, our governments are turning us all into Palestinians, except for the countries where the people have come out in force and on strikes. If the workers don't work, the rich don't make profits. The stakes to stop arms deliveries to israhell means less money for arms manufacturers who are always ready to force wars to keep their money rolling in, but these weapons are being used on civilians not armies - do not forget that.
I don't feel Palestinian because if I were faced with oppressors and criminals, I wouldn't stay for the sake of my attachment to the land or my homeland. I would protect my children, I wouldn't turn them into martyrs, and so I would choose to leave.
And how would you propose to do that, under perpetual targeted bombardment? I think that's a very ignorant and simplistic statement, if I may say so. They are already refugees in their own country and you think they should leave - where to? - even if it's not logistically or legally possible, knowing they would never be allowed back and their country will be taken over by another, razing their entire history...they'll never be able to visit the graves of their family?
What I meant, though - what this saying means - is that if they can get away with it in Palestine they can get away with it anywhere. They'll be coming for you next. But don't worry, you can always just leave.
Marie, you are confirming my diagnosis exactly. You speak of graves, erased history, and memories. You prioritize loyalty to the dead over the survival of the living.
You cannot visit a grave when you are in a casket yourself.
As for logistics, sovereignty does not ask permission from laws or borders. It creates its own exit or dies trying to save the living, but it never remains in the crosshairs for the sake of a geographical setting.
Finally, if 'they come for me next,' I will already be elsewhere. Because unlike those who chain themselves to roots, I know that my only true homeland is my body in motion.
That reminds me of Rousseau who once said “The first person who, having enclosed a piece of land, took it into his head to say, ‘This is mine,’ and found people simple enough to believe him, was the true founder of civil society. How many crimes, wars, murders, horrors, and miseries would have been spared humankind by someone who, uprooting the stakes or filling in the ditch, had cried out to his fellow men: ‘Beware of listening to this false imposter; you are lost if you forget that the fruits of the earth belong to all, and the land itself to no one.’” — Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Thanks for this! I don't believe police were ever meant to protect ordinary citizens, though that is the propaganda. Always meant to protect private property.
It's children leading children. They run on a tankful of childhood indoctrination that lasts a lifetime, feeding it as adults to their own children. This is how the Jewish community learned about Zionism and Israel, particularly from the 1967 Arab/Jew war onward, and then saw the Palestinians as evil people.
Remember, wrongdoers invariably do two things: 1) they accuse their victims of what they do to their victims, and 2) they sabotage/censor any factual/rational discussion about their wrongdoing. Where are these two observations clearer than when we read all over the media what virtually all Jewish political leaders vomit from their mouths? Forget about the small number of noble exceptions. Wake up people to the collective result, as with any evil cult. Spread the good word and fight against (1) and (2) above.
The attacker commits the crime. But the one who remains in the target, knowing the attacker has no limits, validates the mechanism of sacrifice.
On a factual and physical level, the one who pulls the trigger is the one who kills. It is the Israeli army dropping the bombs. In the world of direct causality, the murderer is the one exerting brute force. This is undeniable. But on a structural and ontological level, sacrifice begins where an ideal or an attachment (land, homeland, memory) is placed above biological life.
If a parent knows the deluge is coming and chooses to stay in the name of their roots, they transform their children into 'memorial shields.' The first sacrifice is internal. It is the moment the parent accepts that their child becomes a martyr for a geographical cause.
Genocide happens because Palestinians allow it by not leaving a land they have already lost. The Israelis are criminals, but aren't the Palestinians just as much so? When faced with someone stronger than you, what do you do? Do you cling to your land, or do you leave to protect your children? Many children have died in Palestine because they were, first and foremost, sacrificed by their parents. Why? Because of an excessive attachment to the land, too deeply rooted in memories.
I do not believe sovereignty is found in the soil. I believe sovereignty lies in the capacity to extract oneself from the mirage of memories to choose life, regardless of the geographical cost.
In conclusion, one question remains: Do you prefer the movement of life or the prison of possession?
That is exactly the trap: making people believe that honor is more important than life.
Those who left are intentionally forgotten, because their survival proves that another way out was possible. People prefer to cling to a land or a name, even if it leads to sacrifice.
The Lesser of Two evil ratchet is hard to overcome. I notice in all this the Greens haven't had a bounce all i see if more of the Rights voters going to ON.
convince engineers, doctors, cops (stop being acab's), organizers, small business owners, planners, hell, even the spooks, that they are also workers. everyone needs to learn how things work. daddy is systemic. his current iteration may favor one for now, but in this daddy-selection system this can change on a dime.
Yes, and so there is no dissent that holds water because, deep down, we defend it, but this system is based on the family system, and until we see the degree of alienation that reigns there, we will rebel without really reacting.
This system is the perfect mirror of the family structure: if we overturn it, we overturn our own foundation.
There is no choice in elections. All make promises to “make healthcare affordable”, “fight corruption”, etc etc etc. There will be no changes in America until corporate and superpac money is against the law. It’s legalized bribery and the government officials who benefit are the only ones who can change it and they never will.
I no longer believe elections are the tool for change. Not long ago I would challenge what I said with, it's our only tool. General Strike is all we have. Young people are bringing General Strike back into power. Nick Cruz offered that years ago, Revolutionary Blackout Network, the former Fred Hampton Network.
I've always argued big donor money has to go as well as improving the weak oversight and enforcement. I wonder if we can weaponize social media or combine it with an app that essentially acts like a peoples assembly that aggregates voters wants to show they aren't alone and people put up their hands to run as a virtual party candidate.
Very accurate words from Mr. McKenna. Those who lead as are sadly amoral, opportunistic, driven by greed for material gain and incompetent. It is a true travesty that our leaders in many cases do NOT represent the interests of the people they are supposed to serve
Some reading up on 5 Eyes is called for before taking your statement seriously much less reinforcing or trying to defend it. Policy positions substantiated and national political v. realpolitik positions need to be clarified, assessed and circumspectly critiqued.
You might've missed the exact point Caitlin was making here. Canada might look saner now as it has to distance itself from the tangerine troglodyte, but it has been and still is fully complicit in the Empire bloody handiwork!!!
As a citizen of Aotearoa it pains me to see our bi partisan subservience and submissiveness to racist apartheid Israel and imperial co-conspirators. It’s embarrassing and shameful.
That's just insane,if I were that lady's family I'd be suing these motherfuckers back to the Stone Age,and demand their immediate arrest and public conviction.The government itself also deserves to be sued,because they permitted and backed this atrocity against a little old lady.She will likely not ever be functional again,and living with disability for the rest of her life.
Those heathens in israhell are the ones who should be sanctioned,and their entire government and military brought before the international courts and tried for crimes against humanity.I am also sick and tired of these people given free reign and carte blanc to do as they please to the people of all the countries surrounding them.And that giving them any semblance of bad press is the worst godawful thing in the history of EVER.They aren't those biblical"chosen ones",those people have been dead for millenia,and don't exist anymore.(I once read somewhere that the Egyptians from the pyramids,Pharaohs and ancient times are a race that is extinct,and the people there now are a completely different race of people.I assume that would have to now be true of most of those ancient races mentioned in the Bible and other ancient texts.)The current occupants of Israel are European,not Middle Eastern.They are white people,not the Middle East people who have been there way longer.So that bullshit of them being"chosen"is absurd.They should be held as accountable as any other country and it is far past the shelf life of feeling sorry for them.
I know it's unpopular to feel this way,but ask me if I care,it shouldn't be okay to openly commit genocide to another group of people no matter who's doing it to whom.Period.
Just for your information , laws have been passed in Australia that during “major events” ( which could be so designated as and when convenient !) Police are free from any consequences from violently and brutally attacking peaceful protesters .
There are also the contemptible “In House Investigations “ ( Police investigating Police ) where no wrongdoing has EVER been found to have occurred .
Donald J Trump is sueing the American people for $50 billion. How many of the 325 million are taxpayers? Do the math. Plus the fact he is the 1st Billionaire president and in jus 1 year became a multi billionaire via taxpayer and Israel kickbacks of US taxpayer 'AID" to genocidal terrorists.
From this point of view one can also see how the power structure actively weeds out people with too much conscience, compassion, creative intelligence, vision, or sense of responsibility. It builds incentives (even outside those of capitalism) towards sociopathy, greed, avarice, and vacuous personalities. And no surprise, most people who give a shit are outside the structure, or held precariously in the middle rungs, unable to do anything.
I can't help but think outlawing anti-genocide protest and speech is actually intended to indiscriminately suppress the conscientious forces in society whose voices inconvenience the power game being played. It reminds me of this quote from John Ehrlichman, one of Nixon's top advisors, about the War On Drugs:
“We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin. And then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities,”
"We could arrest their leaders. raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”
I absolutely believe leaders are fully in thrall with Israel for myriad reasons, but I also believe criminalizing criticism of Israel is their attempt to consolidate dominance of their class and character over society and force out people who are more awake.
If you look at this whole combine of capitalism, privilege, Empire, Zionism etc as a virus, it's doing what HIV does, attacking the immune system itself so it can proliferate more, and as result letting in even more unchecked infection. Thinking and caring people are the immune system of our civilization, and when they get shut out (or manipulated into irrelevance) things fall apart dramatically and quickly. When a deadly virus has finally triumphed over the immune system and achieved its goal of saturating the body, it is also the moment when the host dies and the party ends.
For that reason we have to take whatever power back we can to genuine human beings and away from the sick empty vessels, sleepwalking in their numb and violent addictions.
I don’t remember whether it was an evening news clip or a 60 Minutes piece, but my naive 17 year old sensibilities were shocked by footage of Ehrlichman in “prison” sipping a tall cool drink by a tennis court. What a sonofabitch. Excellent point about the suppression of conscientious forces.
“In essence, the article argues that the most profound scandal of the Nixon era was not the Watergate burglary itself, but the previously concealed “criminal insubordination” by the nation’s highest military leaders—a true “deep state” operation that Nixon felt powerless to expose. The story draws a direct line from this historical episode to modern political discourse about the “permanent bureaucracy” or “deep state” undermining a sitting president.”
I read, maybe three decades ago, an article by a Harvard professor (though I wouldn't trust a Harvard professor today, quite the opposite) who proved that powerful, rich people, especially men, because of their elite position, believe they are free to do anything they want (including rape, genocide, war on sovereign countries, resource theft, murder, freezing/confiscation of assets that aren't theirs, and can declare anyone anywhere an enemy and propagandize enough in MSM to make the citizens believe Daddy and his bootlickers that Russia, China, Nicaragua, Iran, Cuba, Venezuela are our enemies though not one has attacked us) and will not be arrested or punished in any way simply because of their exalted status. Odd that thousands of people agree with this weird thinking. Out of the ballpark again, Caitlin.
"We’ve got highly qualified leaders working hard". You repeat it several times and each time
I wanted to laugh harder. Or cry, They're all mediocrities who arrived at or were already bent to the tune of malignant narcissism as compensation. And so they manipulate one another and the world.
Yes, but again, how far back does HISTORY go? Maybe 5000 years? Humanity has been around for approximately 300,000. Before HIStory began we had hisandherandeveryonestory--so the problem is not human nature. It's that we have not figured out how to deal with the sociopaths among us who are adept at using violence to control the rest of us--and more to the point, a sociopathic CULTURE based on domination.
Malignant narcissism is of course sociopathy, so I'm not sure I get your point. If we can't figure out how to keep the clever sociopaths from dominating the "culture", then human nature, whatever that is, is a damned failure. Homo sap is a damned failure.
The rest of the biosphere, functioning quite nicely without us as a CASoS (Complex Adaptive System of Systems ) testifies to our feckless failure to measure up to the standards of the remainder of living systems in our general failure to impose feedback limits upon our cultures. The sociopaths-in-charge are a result. I don't call that a successful species.
First, I was not replying to you but to the post above you--your post went in while I was completing mine. So I was not quibbling with the terms "malignant narcissists" versus "sociopaths." And--plenty of human cultures HAVE imposed limits, and have dealt successfully with the sociopaths within. But none have figured out how to deal with a massive pathological culture with all kinds of technology (originally just metal, now everything from drones to spyware to GMOs) bent on conquest. So maybe the question is whether we WILL come up with a solution before we run ourselves and a good deal else into extinction. I have some hope, based on the likely imminent collapse.
Sorry if I responded to a reply not meant for me; kind of hard to tell when substack plunks it into one's email box. Glad you have some hope. I'm pretty lacking in that area at the moment. The Anthropocene mass extinction has occurred/is occurring before our eyes; amphibian populations notwithstanding, estimates of plant and animal species lost since industrialization number around 1000, mostly because we can't control our greed-driven destruction of habitat. And there are likely extincted species of microorganisms and others we don't know about. Can't help but be saddened by it all.
We are losing insects at the rate of 1 to 2% per year, and have already lost at least half (population numbers, not species). Men are experiencing sperm count drop also of 1 to 2% and are at half what their grandfathers had--and this presumably applies to other species that reproduce sexually as well. These two items alone, aside from all the other threats, suggest that we will see massive ecosystem collapse in a couple of decades if it continues--and the current system is incapable of course correction as long as massive profits are flowing toward the obscenely wealthy. THIS is why I see economic collapse as our best hope! But it's also the one thing that will break their hold on power.
Too many of us still taking authority as truth, and not the other way around. Reversing this is step one in reversing the course we’re on, wrestling back the wheel as you say.
People, generally speaking, do not want the responsibility of democracy. Democracy is hard work. Most of us would rather delegate it. And, to be fair, most people don’t have enough time to play a meaningful role in a democracy, as, at least here in the U.S., they’re living paycheck to paycheck. There’s a reason that many of those who run things inherited wealth. They had more time. As a child, Donald Trump was driven to school in a limousine. His basic needs have always been met by others — the laborers among us. And, as you say, Caitlin, in addition to that, there’s a strong tendency toward authoritarianism running through the population. It’s not limited to an elevation of our political “leaders.” I see it often on social media. If an author, especially if well-known, says something, it must be right. The reader who takes exception must therefore be wrong. John Locke called this an “appeal to authority.” If you agree with the author (or boss) it enhances your status and even your safety. Nonconformity is risky. Critical thinking obviously doesn’t play a large role in this. Having said all that, I agree with you. It’s a good thing you’re right.
I had to look up Sallust, FF. (One of the many gaps in my education). I recently finished an historical novel about Cicero’s rise to the Roman consulship, “Imperium,” but it didn’t mention Sallust. I think Imperium is the first book in a trilogy, though, so the paths of the two must have crossed later. Very interesting. Human nature doesn’t change.
No they don't. We are watching reality devolving into the Jerry Springer show, on purpose. It is a deliberate demoralizing bonanaza. To solve:
To solve: We first need to build a platform of local strength, self-dependence, and resiliency. Once done, and we have a solid foundation from which to stand, from there we begin working on taking back the higher levels: county, state, federal.
The solution is to get local, get self-dependent, get the common unity back in community by building webs of resilience with your neighbors, get control of your school boards, mayors and sherrif's office, and town councils (the last places we still hold all of the cards), get a garden in your lawn no matter how small, a single tomato plant is better than nothing, get a well (water is your most important resource hands down), get ready, get moving, get doing, and, if so inclined, get God.
It's not just propaganda that has done that. There is nothing in the Western conscience with its rabid worship of the individual that is prepared to move toward collectivism. There is no such history here in the West except for in some suppressed small pockets: native peoples, certain immigrant communities, some black thinkers, and syncretic religious sects. Other than these, there is no history, not spiritually, not politically, and certainly not economically that Westerners can claim. We have an overwhelming mainstream religion of American capitalism and a vanishingly small population of heretical armchair communists. Even if propaganda vanished overnight, chances of a revolutionary transformation of consciousness are slim to none. It's wishful thinking.
Americans used to care about their community and closest neighbors. Now they only care about their immediate family, and many, only themselves. But, the potential is there to reverse that trend
I look at report from around the u.s. , school children are walking out and sitting in protest of many topics all at once, Genocide, ICE, and war. General Strike as force is returning.
I think the Oligarchs are doing that for us. The question is, can they still control the chaos from their bunkers or do the Guillotines find them. 1789 was a good year.
I hear people say, "We need to get rid of Trump", or "They need to get rid of Netanyahu". What for, so that we can have J.D. Vance or Itamar Ben-Gvir? They are just as bad, and arguably much worse. If the US and Israel had elections today, both countries would reelect their current leaders, and probably by large margins. People need to educate themselves and stop electing these monsters.
“We are led by the least among us – the least intelligent, the least noble, the least visionary. We are led by the least among us and we do not fight back against the dehumanizing values that are handed down as control icons.”
— Terence McKenna.
Yes and they keep being voted in by sleep walkers
Because so many vote as their parents did, even when they see how dreadful the party they helped vote in is killing all progress and conditions while the uber wealthy get wealthier by the hard work of their workers who, in some cases, are on call 24/7.
People no so long ago would strike for better conditions, conditions that were made for all workers. Now our governments, even the so-called progressive ones, are using police - who are meant to serve the community but now beat and seriously injured people for protesting about the things police are now doing to the people they are meant to protect. This is not progress it's regression, our governments are turning us all into Palestinians, except for the countries where the people have come out in force and on strikes. If the workers don't work, the rich don't make profits. The stakes to stop arms deliveries to israhell means less money for arms manufacturers who are always ready to force wars to keep their money rolling in, but these weapons are being used on civilians not armies - do not forget that.
'In our thousands, in our millions, we are all Palestinians'
I don't feel Palestinian because if I were faced with oppressors and criminals, I wouldn't stay for the sake of my attachment to the land or my homeland. I would protect my children, I wouldn't turn them into martyrs, and so I would choose to leave.
And how would you propose to do that, under perpetual targeted bombardment? I think that's a very ignorant and simplistic statement, if I may say so. They are already refugees in their own country and you think they should leave - where to? - even if it's not logistically or legally possible, knowing they would never be allowed back and their country will be taken over by another, razing their entire history...they'll never be able to visit the graves of their family?
What I meant, though - what this saying means - is that if they can get away with it in Palestine they can get away with it anywhere. They'll be coming for you next. But don't worry, you can always just leave.
Marie, you are confirming my diagnosis exactly. You speak of graves, erased history, and memories. You prioritize loyalty to the dead over the survival of the living.
You cannot visit a grave when you are in a casket yourself.
As for logistics, sovereignty does not ask permission from laws or borders. It creates its own exit or dies trying to save the living, but it never remains in the crosshairs for the sake of a geographical setting.
Finally, if 'they come for me next,' I will already be elsewhere. Because unlike those who chain themselves to roots, I know that my only true homeland is my body in motion.
That reminds me of Rousseau who once said “The first person who, having enclosed a piece of land, took it into his head to say, ‘This is mine,’ and found people simple enough to believe him, was the true founder of civil society. How many crimes, wars, murders, horrors, and miseries would have been spared humankind by someone who, uprooting the stakes or filling in the ditch, had cried out to his fellow men: ‘Beware of listening to this false imposter; you are lost if you forget that the fruits of the earth belong to all, and the land itself to no one.’” — Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Thanks for this! I don't believe police were ever meant to protect ordinary citizens, though that is the propaganda. Always meant to protect private property.
The private property of the rich. The scanty property of us poor people not so much.
Yes, and especially the Mafia.
"Because so many vote as their parents did"
It's children leading children. They run on a tankful of childhood indoctrination that lasts a lifetime, feeding it as adults to their own children. This is how the Jewish community learned about Zionism and Israel, particularly from the 1967 Arab/Jew war onward, and then saw the Palestinians as evil people.
Remember, wrongdoers invariably do two things: 1) they accuse their victims of what they do to their victims, and 2) they sabotage/censor any factual/rational discussion about their wrongdoing. Where are these two observations clearer than when we read all over the media what virtually all Jewish political leaders vomit from their mouths? Forget about the small number of noble exceptions. Wake up people to the collective result, as with any evil cult. Spread the good word and fight against (1) and (2) above.
The attacker commits the crime. But the one who remains in the target, knowing the attacker has no limits, validates the mechanism of sacrifice.
On a factual and physical level, the one who pulls the trigger is the one who kills. It is the Israeli army dropping the bombs. In the world of direct causality, the murderer is the one exerting brute force. This is undeniable. But on a structural and ontological level, sacrifice begins where an ideal or an attachment (land, homeland, memory) is placed above biological life.
If a parent knows the deluge is coming and chooses to stay in the name of their roots, they transform their children into 'memorial shields.' The first sacrifice is internal. It is the moment the parent accepts that their child becomes a martyr for a geographical cause.
Genocide happens because Palestinians allow it by not leaving a land they have already lost. The Israelis are criminals, but aren't the Palestinians just as much so? When faced with someone stronger than you, what do you do? Do you cling to your land, or do you leave to protect your children? Many children have died in Palestine because they were, first and foremost, sacrificed by their parents. Why? Because of an excessive attachment to the land, too deeply rooted in memories.
I do not believe sovereignty is found in the soil. I believe sovereignty lies in the capacity to extract oneself from the mirage of memories to choose life, regardless of the geographical cost.
In conclusion, one question remains: Do you prefer the movement of life or the prison of possession?
“Genocide happens because Palestinians allow it by not leaving a land they have already lost.”
I’m-a come right out and say it: you’re a motherfucking cunt. How fucking DARE YOU not blame IsraHell for being the ones COMMITTING the genocide?
Who the fuck’s sayin’ that the ILLEGAL state of IsraHell gonna continue to exist? Fuckin bitch, they goin DOWN!
Swear to gods, if we was in the same room together, I’d have a come-apart n punch you in the throat. Keep your motherfucking mouth SHUT!
—-Gypsy, proud Pali-American
How do the Palestinians who left to protect life view those who stayed behind to protect their so-called honor?
1. Not discussed are the palestinians who DID leave the area.
'2. Death before dishonor' as part of a belief system figures here.
This is the question that needs to be asked:
How do the Palestinians who left to protect life view those who stayed behind to protect their so-called honor?
That is exactly the trap: making people believe that honor is more important than life.
Those who left are intentionally forgotten, because their survival proves that another way out was possible. People prefer to cling to a land or a name, even if it leads to sacrifice.
Kent State has returned in larger numbers : (
Do you think others could do better?
The Lesser of Two evil ratchet is hard to overcome. I notice in all this the Greens haven't had a bounce all i see if more of the Rights voters going to ON.
convince engineers, doctors, cops (stop being acab's), organizers, small business owners, planners, hell, even the spooks, that they are also workers. everyone needs to learn how things work. daddy is systemic. his current iteration may favor one for now, but in this daddy-selection system this can change on a dime.
"except for the countries where the people have come out in force and on strikes."
What countries are those please? The only one I know is Nepal.
Spain, Italy shutting down the ports, taking over the streets.
nepal was a color revolution directed by ned and the big tech-lords (i'm sorry).
Yes, and so there is no dissent that holds water because, deep down, we defend it, but this system is based on the family system, and until we see the degree of alienation that reigns there, we will rebel without really reacting.
This system is the perfect mirror of the family structure: if we overturn it, we overturn our own foundation.
There is no choice in elections. All make promises to “make healthcare affordable”, “fight corruption”, etc etc etc. There will be no changes in America until corporate and superpac money is against the law. It’s legalized bribery and the government officials who benefit are the only ones who can change it and they never will.
The Supreme Court took away the people's power to control the elections. They said this was freedom.
I no longer believe elections are the tool for change. Not long ago I would challenge what I said with, it's our only tool. General Strike is all we have. Young people are bringing General Strike back into power. Nick Cruz offered that years ago, Revolutionary Blackout Network, the former Fred Hampton Network.
I've always argued big donor money has to go as well as improving the weak oversight and enforcement. I wonder if we can weaponize social media or combine it with an app that essentially acts like a peoples assembly that aggregates voters wants to show they aren't alone and people put up their hands to run as a virtual party candidate.
Very accurate words from Mr. McKenna. Those who lead as are sadly amoral, opportunistic, driven by greed for material gain and incompetent. It is a true travesty that our leaders in many cases do NOT represent the interests of the people they are supposed to serve
Remember Gurdjieff....Man is a Machine aka Automaton and "asleep" All and Everything
Correct 👍🏻 The same “least among us “ whose expertise extends no further than getting rid of any leadership rival . 🙄
Is it really surprising that England spawned (at least) two degenerate, pirate nations that are now causing all of this?
Like father, like son.
How many crimes does a criminal have to commit before he's eligible to run for the presidency? - Paul Vonharnish - (2/9/2026)
welcome to "democratic west" where freedom and liberty rules the day /s
Somehow Canada and New Zealand managed to stay sane.
The dead natives buried under cities and churches and support for israel's genocide beg to differ.
Hello AnF. Seems all those proud Canadians haven't read any history or watched documentaries concerning the native genocide they're so proud of...
Not really.
Look at how draconian both of their governments were during the covid scamdemic.
And the NZ govt now perpetually kisses the US govt's backside.
Oh yes, that is true. I guess that only leaves New Zealand. And that was because the Maori fought back and actually defeated the British.
Should have obliterated British scum.
They certainly came close.
Don't forget all the Nazis they let in. They gave a standing ovation to a Ukrainian member of the Waffen SS.
Canada, in particular, is fully complicit in the genocide
The First Nations peoples of Canada may disagree with that statement.
Canada? Hum, don't think so. Stripping people of their banking etc.
Huh? Sarcasm?
Exactly! Canada is more bound to the Empire than AU.
well, there's no western nation/state where the people is in control, imo.
Some reading up on 5 Eyes is called for before taking your statement seriously much less reinforcing or trying to defend it. Policy positions substantiated and national political v. realpolitik positions need to be clarified, assessed and circumspectly critiqued.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/an-exclusive-club-the-five-countries-that-dont-spy-on-each-other
https://archive.org/details/For_The_Record_78_Interview_with_Christopher_Simpson
Tio Mitchito
TM
You might've missed the exact point Caitlin was making here. Canada might look saner now as it has to distance itself from the tangerine troglodyte, but it has been and still is fully complicit in the Empire bloody handiwork!!!
So no, you don't get to dodge this one
As a citizen of Aotearoa it pains me to see our bi partisan subservience and submissiveness to racist apartheid Israel and imperial co-conspirators. It’s embarrassing and shameful.
quite some legacy, perfidious albion.
Ignorance about. Critical thinking skills are lacking.
"Australian police beat a 69 year old woman at an anti-genocide protest so badly that they've broken her spine in FOUR places"
WTF? :(
That's just insane,if I were that lady's family I'd be suing these motherfuckers back to the Stone Age,and demand their immediate arrest and public conviction.The government itself also deserves to be sued,because they permitted and backed this atrocity against a little old lady.She will likely not ever be functional again,and living with disability for the rest of her life.
Those heathens in israhell are the ones who should be sanctioned,and their entire government and military brought before the international courts and tried for crimes against humanity.I am also sick and tired of these people given free reign and carte blanc to do as they please to the people of all the countries surrounding them.And that giving them any semblance of bad press is the worst godawful thing in the history of EVER.They aren't those biblical"chosen ones",those people have been dead for millenia,and don't exist anymore.(I once read somewhere that the Egyptians from the pyramids,Pharaohs and ancient times are a race that is extinct,and the people there now are a completely different race of people.I assume that would have to now be true of most of those ancient races mentioned in the Bible and other ancient texts.)The current occupants of Israel are European,not Middle Eastern.They are white people,not the Middle East people who have been there way longer.So that bullshit of them being"chosen"is absurd.They should be held as accountable as any other country and it is far past the shelf life of feeling sorry for them.
I know it's unpopular to feel this way,but ask me if I care,it shouldn't be okay to openly commit genocide to another group of people no matter who's doing it to whom.Period.
that's not an unpopular way to feel among my comrades.
Just for your information , laws have been passed in Australia that during “major events” ( which could be so designated as and when convenient !) Police are free from any consequences from violently and brutally attacking peaceful protesters .
There are also the contemptible “In House Investigations “ ( Police investigating Police ) where no wrongdoing has EVER been found to have occurred .
Donald J Trump is sueing the American people for $50 billion. How many of the 325 million are taxpayers? Do the math. Plus the fact he is the 1st Billionaire president and in jus 1 year became a multi billionaire via taxpayer and Israel kickbacks of US taxpayer 'AID" to genocidal terrorists.
Yes, jamenta, WTF is happening?
If you follow the link on X and read some of the replies you'll spit out your coffee. I had to stop.
I have learned not to read that stuff.
I got drawn in. Then triggered. These people do walk among us, unfortunately.
yes, they have been trained and conditioned for a long time now and have quite a headstart.
There are only 5000 people in the world. They are called Bankers. Everything else is a commodity.
That may have been true decades ago. The Oligarchs no longer need bankers other than as a tool.
I agree. So the only people in the world today are Oligarchs.
The rest of us are still commodities?
I would agree with that description or tools, certainly subhuman to them. : (
As of today in the u.s. 3 people own more wealth then the wealth of 160 million people at the bottom. : (
Maybe you wanted to say there are only 5,000,000 a$$holes in the world. The rest are imperfect humans (sort of people).
From this point of view one can also see how the power structure actively weeds out people with too much conscience, compassion, creative intelligence, vision, or sense of responsibility. It builds incentives (even outside those of capitalism) towards sociopathy, greed, avarice, and vacuous personalities. And no surprise, most people who give a shit are outside the structure, or held precariously in the middle rungs, unable to do anything.
I can't help but think outlawing anti-genocide protest and speech is actually intended to indiscriminately suppress the conscientious forces in society whose voices inconvenience the power game being played. It reminds me of this quote from John Ehrlichman, one of Nixon's top advisors, about the War On Drugs:
“We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin. And then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities,”
"We could arrest their leaders. raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”
I absolutely believe leaders are fully in thrall with Israel for myriad reasons, but I also believe criminalizing criticism of Israel is their attempt to consolidate dominance of their class and character over society and force out people who are more awake.
If you look at this whole combine of capitalism, privilege, Empire, Zionism etc as a virus, it's doing what HIV does, attacking the immune system itself so it can proliferate more, and as result letting in even more unchecked infection. Thinking and caring people are the immune system of our civilization, and when they get shut out (or manipulated into irrelevance) things fall apart dramatically and quickly. When a deadly virus has finally triumphed over the immune system and achieved its goal of saturating the body, it is also the moment when the host dies and the party ends.
For that reason we have to take whatever power back we can to genuine human beings and away from the sick empty vessels, sleepwalking in their numb and violent addictions.
I don’t remember whether it was an evening news clip or a 60 Minutes piece, but my naive 17 year old sensibilities were shocked by footage of Ehrlichman in “prison” sipping a tall cool drink by a tennis court. What a sonofabitch. Excellent point about the suppression of conscientious forces.
Love the bit about HIV..I might steal that, if I may.
Turns out Nixon and his aides had another “can of worms” they deemed needed kept shut:
https://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2026/02/did-you-think-it-cant-happen-here-revelations-of-jt-chiefs-of-staff-spy-operation-against-white-house/
~~~
“In essence, the article argues that the most profound scandal of the Nixon era was not the Watergate burglary itself, but the previously concealed “criminal insubordination” by the nation’s highest military leaders—a true “deep state” operation that Nixon felt powerless to expose. The story draws a direct line from this historical episode to modern political discourse about the “permanent bureaucracy” or “deep state” undermining a sitting president.”
I read, maybe three decades ago, an article by a Harvard professor (though I wouldn't trust a Harvard professor today, quite the opposite) who proved that powerful, rich people, especially men, because of their elite position, believe they are free to do anything they want (including rape, genocide, war on sovereign countries, resource theft, murder, freezing/confiscation of assets that aren't theirs, and can declare anyone anywhere an enemy and propagandize enough in MSM to make the citizens believe Daddy and his bootlickers that Russia, China, Nicaragua, Iran, Cuba, Venezuela are our enemies though not one has attacked us) and will not be arrested or punished in any way simply because of their exalted status. Odd that thousands of people agree with this weird thinking. Out of the ballpark again, Caitlin.
Seems accurate to me. Not that I approve or anything.
I'm disappointed in the human race. If you read history, this is the normal state of affairs.
To excel is to be greedy, power hungry, ruthless and willing to do whatever to get ahead. A psychopathic mentality. These are our supposed leaders.
"We’ve got highly qualified leaders working hard". You repeat it several times and each time
I wanted to laugh harder. Or cry, They're all mediocrities who arrived at or were already bent to the tune of malignant narcissism as compensation. And so they manipulate one another and the world.
Morons on my team. We are all Strother Martin now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCbq46sb0sI
Yes, but again, how far back does HISTORY go? Maybe 5000 years? Humanity has been around for approximately 300,000. Before HIStory began we had hisandherandeveryonestory--so the problem is not human nature. It's that we have not figured out how to deal with the sociopaths among us who are adept at using violence to control the rest of us--and more to the point, a sociopathic CULTURE based on domination.
Malignant narcissism is of course sociopathy, so I'm not sure I get your point. If we can't figure out how to keep the clever sociopaths from dominating the "culture", then human nature, whatever that is, is a damned failure. Homo sap is a damned failure.
The rest of the biosphere, functioning quite nicely without us as a CASoS (Complex Adaptive System of Systems ) testifies to our feckless failure to measure up to the standards of the remainder of living systems in our general failure to impose feedback limits upon our cultures. The sociopaths-in-charge are a result. I don't call that a successful species.
First, I was not replying to you but to the post above you--your post went in while I was completing mine. So I was not quibbling with the terms "malignant narcissists" versus "sociopaths." And--plenty of human cultures HAVE imposed limits, and have dealt successfully with the sociopaths within. But none have figured out how to deal with a massive pathological culture with all kinds of technology (originally just metal, now everything from drones to spyware to GMOs) bent on conquest. So maybe the question is whether we WILL come up with a solution before we run ourselves and a good deal else into extinction. I have some hope, based on the likely imminent collapse.
Sorry if I responded to a reply not meant for me; kind of hard to tell when substack plunks it into one's email box. Glad you have some hope. I'm pretty lacking in that area at the moment. The Anthropocene mass extinction has occurred/is occurring before our eyes; amphibian populations notwithstanding, estimates of plant and animal species lost since industrialization number around 1000, mostly because we can't control our greed-driven destruction of habitat. And there are likely extincted species of microorganisms and others we don't know about. Can't help but be saddened by it all.
We are losing insects at the rate of 1 to 2% per year, and have already lost at least half (population numbers, not species). Men are experiencing sperm count drop also of 1 to 2% and are at half what their grandfathers had--and this presumably applies to other species that reproduce sexually as well. These two items alone, aside from all the other threats, suggest that we will see massive ecosystem collapse in a couple of decades if it continues--and the current system is incapable of course correction as long as massive profits are flowing toward the obscenely wealthy. THIS is why I see economic collapse as our best hope! But it's also the one thing that will break their hold on power.
I hope you're prescient.
Too many of us still taking authority as truth, and not the other way around. Reversing this is step one in reversing the course we’re on, wrestling back the wheel as you say.
People, generally speaking, do not want the responsibility of democracy. Democracy is hard work. Most of us would rather delegate it. And, to be fair, most people don’t have enough time to play a meaningful role in a democracy, as, at least here in the U.S., they’re living paycheck to paycheck. There’s a reason that many of those who run things inherited wealth. They had more time. As a child, Donald Trump was driven to school in a limousine. His basic needs have always been met by others — the laborers among us. And, as you say, Caitlin, in addition to that, there’s a strong tendency toward authoritarianism running through the population. It’s not limited to an elevation of our political “leaders.” I see it often on social media. If an author, especially if well-known, says something, it must be right. The reader who takes exception must therefore be wrong. John Locke called this an “appeal to authority.” If you agree with the author (or boss) it enhances your status and even your safety. Nonconformity is risky. Critical thinking obviously doesn’t play a large role in this. Having said all that, I agree with you. It’s a good thing you’re right.
Sallust taught us that, while humans say they want liberty, what they really want are kinder masters.
Perfectly put
I had to look up Sallust, FF. (One of the many gaps in my education). I recently finished an historical novel about Cicero’s rise to the Roman consulship, “Imperium,” but it didn’t mention Sallust. I think Imperium is the first book in a trilogy, though, so the paths of the two must have crossed later. Very interesting. Human nature doesn’t change.
No they don't. We are watching reality devolving into the Jerry Springer show, on purpose. It is a deliberate demoralizing bonanaza. To solve:
To solve: We first need to build a platform of local strength, self-dependence, and resiliency. Once done, and we have a solid foundation from which to stand, from there we begin working on taking back the higher levels: county, state, federal.
The solution is to get local, get self-dependent, get the common unity back in community by building webs of resilience with your neighbors, get control of your school boards, mayors and sherrif's office, and town councils (the last places we still hold all of the cards), get a garden in your lawn no matter how small, a single tomato plant is better than nothing, get a well (water is your most important resource hands down), get ready, get moving, get doing, and, if so inclined, get God.
Propaganda has succeeded in preventing this. Everyone seems to only care about themselves or their ‘tribe’ which was formed by that propaganda.
It's not just propaganda that has done that. There is nothing in the Western conscience with its rabid worship of the individual that is prepared to move toward collectivism. There is no such history here in the West except for in some suppressed small pockets: native peoples, certain immigrant communities, some black thinkers, and syncretic religious sects. Other than these, there is no history, not spiritually, not politically, and certainly not economically that Westerners can claim. We have an overwhelming mainstream religion of American capitalism and a vanishingly small population of heretical armchair communists. Even if propaganda vanished overnight, chances of a revolutionary transformation of consciousness are slim to none. It's wishful thinking.
Americans used to care about their community and closest neighbors. Now they only care about their immediate family, and many, only themselves. But, the potential is there to reverse that trend
And America's history is full of fascism, even while its neighbors cared for one another.
I look at report from around the u.s. , school children are walking out and sitting in protest of many topics all at once, Genocide, ICE, and war. General Strike as force is returning.
I think you are using that platform now.
Why would they want to fix our problems? The status quo suits the rulers just fine.
We need to figure out how to dismantle this system and come up with something much, much better. And we should take a look at what BRICS is doing.
I think the Oligarchs are doing that for us. The question is, can they still control the chaos from their bunkers or do the Guillotines find them. 1789 was a good year.
I hear people say, "We need to get rid of Trump", or "They need to get rid of Netanyahu". What for, so that we can have J.D. Vance or Itamar Ben-Gvir? They are just as bad, and arguably much worse. If the US and Israel had elections today, both countries would reelect their current leaders, and probably by large margins. People need to educate themselves and stop electing these monsters.
Our rulers are drunk with power and they are driving under the influence. “Friends don’t let friends drive drunk” applies to them as well.
And same people don't ask to be driven by drunk drivers. And yet they can't seem to find any sober ones.
*sane* not same
w t f that woman beaten to broken spine. This is sick. The point is fear.
Another spot-on assessment of where we are now - a precarious place. Thank you CJ. for this brilliant piece.