IMO, the most important purpose of 'free speech' is to confront/challenge power, to confront authority, to keep a check on the power elite, to fight against unjust hierarchical systems, to hold the ruling elite responsible for their words and actions.
When POWER (as in the state) clamps down on the ability of citizens to keep the state accountable to the people, that is FREE SPEECH (and this is also how free speech rights are described in the US Constitution) being violated.
When an empire (or administration) is acutely aware of its downward trajectory and slow demise, it ratchets up its authoritarianism - and with it comes the loss of 'free speech' and many other rights. Unfortunately, this is just the beginning. I see the US Empire (which is currently a semi-fascist state) derailing and dissolving into a full-blown fascist and totalitarian state (UNLESS IT IS STOPPED).
I believe things are too far gone for "peaceful protests" to make the changes that need happening, too far gone for "voting" to get us out of this mess, too far gone for "congress and legislative processes" to stop the slide into authoritarian totalitarianism.
As many have mentioned in this substack before, we need to FOCUS on labor movements, working people, unions, strikes, stopping the "means of production" AS A UNITED CLASS. We need to put stuff like "culture wars", "left-right", etc. on the back burner for a while and ALL COME TOGETHER to STOP THE 1% before it is too late...
The tricky part will be waking up the 98% who haven't figured anything out. Regardless of whether Republican or Democrat they are still fed the same lies and are gullible enough to believe them. For some reason or other they can't see that both "sides" are the 1%.
The good news, I think we have made enormous progress in defeating Genocide Kamala and Genocide Mump Mush+Trump=Mump has defeated himself. As the empire dies workers will unite in larger and larger numbers. Not long ago no one would have predicted burning Teslas : )
The class enemy has gaslighted so many of us ! Its more and more difficult to rise people s awerness about the class struggle that is unfolding. Its urgent to find pedagogic and horizontal ways to bring poeple back to class strugle
True unfortunately. I personaly have found bringing class consciousness into people's awareness quite challenging - especially with many in the middle-class.
Tribalist DIVISION, FEAR & HATRED (of an "evil monstrous scary enemy") is how billionaire ruling elites maintain control over "their own" people, who would otherwise be far more likely to remove the ultra-rich abusive elites from power.
Predatory ruling elites absolutely need to ensure that "their people" fear a boogyman EVIL ENEMY and look to their own "patriotic leaders" as protectors against that enemy.
That is why they use ANY MEANS NECESSARY to ensure that the tribalist-nationalist-religious division, fear, hatred and violence never ends. That is why they and their ptopagandists constantly teach us to fear and hate the "evil enemy of the nation" (who that enemy happens to be can change from generation to generation, but what doesn't change is that they ALWAYS must create an 'evil monstrous scary enemy' for us to fear and hate), while paying lip service as if they want to end conflicts, when IN REALITY the end of national-religious division, hatred and conflict is the thing our billionaire rulers fear the most.
Peace, unity and cooperation between ordinary (non ruling class) people is an EXISTENTIAL THREAT to the billionaire ruling class and they make absolutely sure that it can never happen, make sure to incite as much religious-nationalist division, fear and hatred as possible.
Their elevated position of power over society depends on keeping us in a state of tribalist division, fear, unsafety, hatred and eternal conflict and war!!
They teach us to fear and hate "the enemy" through their narrative managers in their propaganda media (both their corporate mainstream media, or their mainstream "alternative media", which in most cases isn't alternative or independent at all) and through their numeous paid influencers on social media.
For many examples and full details on exactly how the elite oppresors across the planet do that, please see here https://www.pdrboston.org/oppressors-need-bogeyman-enemies (besides the profoundly important main essay, be sure to also follow the links leading out from the essay, for further learning and insight).
PS. The fact that the other faction of the american billionaores' global empire (the right-wing DNC liberal capitalists) are ALSO imperialist scum does NOT make tje conservative faction of the empire (the fake "populist" billionaires) into the solution. That is precisely the trick that is played by the empire managers on americans (either the clueless mainstream liberals or the dumb and deceived MAGA worshippers) and other westerners, to herd us (using the oligarchs' algorithms) into partisan enclosures/echo-chambers, where we are taught to cheer for one or the other wing of the global oligarchy and to view the other half as 'the evil ones'. Very few seem to recognize BOTH halves of the elite, and very few seem to want real freedom from empire and dignity for all humans, but most seem to just want that the empire be under the right management, the management of "our billionaires" (not “their billionaires”), seem to just want the domination of the one wing of the oligarchy that they learnt to identify with.
Of the many fine points made in your comment above, these meant the most to me ->
(1) >>"Peace, unity and cooperation between ordinary (non ruling class) people is an EXISTENTIAL THREAT to the billionaire ruling class and they make absolutely sure that it can never happen, make sure to incite as much religious-nationalist division, fear and hatred as possible."
(2) >>"They teach us to fear and hate "the enemy" through their narrative managers in their propaganda media (both their corporate mainstream media, or their mainstream "alternative media", which in most cases isn't alternative or independent at all) and through their numeous paid influencers on social media."
I also find it worrying how many among the working class swallowed the ruling class' narrative hook, bait and sinker and became their own enemy. Swindle and divide the most numerous class and you're all set to rule...
Recently, a guy who works with my husband was all shocked to hear him talk about unionising. They work a backbreaking factory job, how can anyone defend the position that people shouldn't join a union is beyond me.
They started talking and the coworker eventually landed on "I don't think we should tax the rich, we can't take more money from hard-working people because they're pumping a lot back into society." My anarchist husband said he agreed, the rich shouldn't be taxed if the society was healthy, because neither the rich nor the concept of money would have existed. The coworker flipped at this one 😂
Even stranger is how the ruling class has swallowed the prior working class narrative hook, bait and sinker. Voters earning 100k plus voted for Harris. Voters earning under 50k voted for Trump. The same is true all over the Western world: the elites have become left wing just as the working class has become right wing, as faulty as these labels are.
Where does this leave the class struggle narrative? Particularly for the rich elites. I can see how propaganda would get the working class to adopt the elites' viewpoint, much harder to explain is how the elites have swung to the left.
Missy, have you learned nothing? Please don’t tell us who we hate. I do not hate anyone. I feel sorry for the ignorant. I condemn the behavior of the brutal. I will stand with the oppressed, wherever that takes me.
"[W]e need to FOCUS on labor movements, working people, unions, strikes, stopping the 'means of production' AS A UNITED CLASS. "
Agreed. But it only addresses one part of human nature. If it is allowed to revive essentially unaltered the original Progressive era and Marxists and their follow-ons (as this sentence and the rest of your post sounds), will repeat the same failures that led us full circle from the original Gilded Age to our current one.
The problem here is *complete* dismissal of hierarchy. The inconvenient truth is that *limited* kinds of respect for hierarchy are embedded in human nature, just as are limited kinds of equality, and we need to become far more conscious of which is appropriate in which setting, and how to manage them.
The core problem, really, is not hierarchy, but uncontrolled intelligent psychopathy. That, in fact, is exactly what poisons most hierarchies, just as well as the leadership/vanguard (aka hierarchy, even here) of most populist causes. Until we get a grip on that, we will simply keep repeating the cycles.
There is no most important purpose of free speech, you either support it or you don't. Confronting and challenging power is indeed a great reason, but so is making someone smile on the street. If we let ourselves be divided on legitimate and illegitimate uses of a fundamental right we imperil the right itself.
I cannot agree more emphatically that the left/right divide is illusory and designed to divide us, mostly on non-issues which we might not even really disagree on if we talked to each other with compassion. We need to be more open to talking to those we disagree with, and to do so with understanding.
Protests, voting, and the political process all rely on a well-informed citizenry which is jealous of its rights. This is something we do not currently have. More abrasive methods are easily co-opted by state and corporate power and are typically counterproductive.
I'd note that the global 1% is $32,000 per year in income. That's almost everyone in the West, working class or not. The class divide has lost a lot of its meaning. The working class has embraced roughly conservative politics at the same time the wealthy have embraced a virtue signalling style of faux-corporate egalitarianism. Look at a map of the electorates which voted for the Australian Voice to Parliament in the recent referendum for a good demonstration.
There are no easy answers. We need a grassroots, spiritual revolution.
We are rapidly approaching a world where there is no need for human labor at all. Already almost every manufactured good you buy is produced by robotics. Management and design are increasingly AI based. In 10 years the elites will simply shrug their shoulders at strikes, and purchase robotics+AI in response.
Besides, organized labor has unfortunately squandered whatever good will it once had with the working class, through abject corruption. The working classes are no longer on the left. Look at any significant vote in any Western country in the past 5 years and this becomes abundantly clear.
Only about 10% of the US working class are in unions. Of that small amount of the working class which is in a union (who are presumably the most left wing among workers), they split 53/45 Harris/Trump. Trump won voters who earn under 100k, Harris won voters who earn over 100k. Trump even won voters who earn less than 50k: the poors.
We need to move past the left/right false dichotomy. We need a spiritual revolution. There is no substitute for a citizenry which is jealous of its rights, which is suspicious of government and corporate power. This cannot happen overnight, it's going to take a generation to wake up, then another to inculcate these values in the children of the next generation. It will require massive sacrifice, you will need to homeschool your kids, you will need to frequent independent media and stay up to date, you will need to study history intently, you will need to talk to those you disagree with, you will need to sacrifice your finances, your liberty, possibly your sanity. Your friends will ostracize you, call you mad, call the police on you.
You may need to walk to the gallows, and to do so fearlessly with pride. Is this something we are ready for?
You people hate Christians and most morals and you didn't care when dems put Christians and prolifers in prison. I am not a zionist a paloconsertive but if people still believe in gender Jewish shit and abortion i want no part of that in my society
This has NOTHING to do with Christianity. You are on your OWN culture-war crusade it seems.
Like I said before, the 1% will come for you too eventually (regardless of your religion, cultural preferences, skin color, etc.). Your ONLY SOLACE (and hope) lies in uniting WITH the 99% (unless you are part of the 1% - in which case why are you even on substack?)
The fascists hate you as much as they hate me. I don't give a shit about christianity nor do I have to in any country, especially the United States. You worship your way I'll worship mine.
All this bullshit about anti-Semitism when it is islamphobia that is the problem. In the US, there has been one anti-Jewish terrorist attack, by a white supremacist but many attacks on Muslims, including Trump banning them and supporting genocide and ethnic expulsion against them.
As a Jewish gay man, I've experienced many, many cases of bigotry and hate with my own ears and eyes. However, I've never experienced any bigotry because of my Jewish ancestry.
Extremists seem to be trying to gin up their victim status in order to control the narrative. Anti-Semitism seems as common as the UFOs. Everyone is talking; but, examples are rare. The only Semites actually being slaughtered are Palestinian.
J’ignorais que le mot français 'bigotry' était passé dans la 'langue' (plutôt idiome) anglaise...Bigot > Bigoterie, terme désignant une personne qui interprète la religion de manière démesurée et quasi-animale...😄
"On October 27, 2018, a right-wing extremist attacked Tree of Life – Or L'Simcha Congregation[b] synagogue in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The congregation, along with New Light Congregation and Congregation Dor Hadash, which also worshipped in the building, was attacked during Shabbat morning services. The perpetrator killed eleven people and wounded six, in the deadliest attack on a local Jewish community in American history."
The attack on Palestinians has been going on for 100 yrs.......antiSemitism and islamophobia did not arise after Oct 7 but have been going on a long time.
No shit, Sherlock. I’m specifically talking about the ongoing genocide and the fact that nothing has been done to any Jews in the country, since this has started.
Today the ICC/ICG arrested the ex-President of the Philppines. Quite rightly. He 'laid waste' to the Phillipinos and even suggested he would like to kill them himself.
Duertate a criminal backed by...............
He is a brown man!
Don't expect Netanyahu to be arrested........he is considered 'untouchable' because the US is owned by Israel. Is he white??
Yes, I noted that " there has been one anti-Jewish terrorist attack, by a white supremacist ." It was not neo-Nazis, just one white young man with white supremacist ideology.
Oh whatever did not white Europeans are getting replaced and have been discriminated and demonized by the media for freespeach way longer than Jews the ADL SPLC think it's racist for whites to have a program to help the poor white southerners who have been treated like shit by this country and guess what there ancestors didn't even own slaves they were considered the undiserbles and some were slaves themselves.
Go back to Europe then, White Person. If you think you're being discriminated against as a white colonizer in the US, then leave and go home to where your ancestors came from. I'm sure they'd "welcome" you there with open arms. (No, probably not. Nobody wants racists who don't know how to punctuate sentences correctly. And also, you might have to learn a new language if your ancestors weren't British. You might have some trouble with that since you're struggling writing in English.)
Right, that explains. I always say, it stayed in the DNA. But, I agree 💯 with Dale Ruff. Racism is absurd. We are all of the same homo sapiens race. A skincolor is only a detail. What matters in all of us is our brain. So we should not perpetuate racist inventions like white and black. Nobody is white, nor black.
The Puritans in England had a left and right wing. Those who came to America do not fit these definitions: "The Puritans in the Colonies wanted their children to be able to read and interpret the Bible themselves, rather than have to rely on the clergy for interpretation.[39][40][41][42] In 1635, they established the Boston Latin School to educate their sons, the first and oldest formal education institution in the English-speaking New World. They also set up what were called dame schools for their daughters, and in other cases taught their daughters at home how to read. As a result, Puritans were among the most literate societies in the world." Harvard was founded by Puritans, and "Historian Perry Miller wrote that the Puritans "liberated men from the treadmill of indulgences and penances, but cast them on the iron couch of introspection". Wikipedia IN their day, they were breaking away from tradition and so the term right wing hardly fits, imho.
I don't like the use of white for humans. White and Black are racist inventions. Nobody is white, nobody is black. The supremacistes are former Europeans and it's still in the DNA.
Racism is in American history but nothing is inherent in a man-made system. What was made can be unmade: racist terms and racist institutions can be dismantled, "altered or abolished." The system includes the ability to change the system.
No one can replace you if you have knowledge or talents and use them well. Otherwise yes you will lose your job and rightly so. Whiteness means nothing more than blackness or brownness or gayness. Try being gracious and congratulatory when those unlike you excel in life.
White, black, brown are racist inventions. We are all of the same human race (homo sapiens) with different skincolors. What matters in all of us is our brain.
well, I totally agree with you except there is no human race (only plants have races)..so that is another racist invention. We are the human species. What matters most is our ability to see the divisive and evil inventions which have created so much suffering and the will to create a democratic republic, based on the principles of our founding document, equality and consent of the governed.
On your page you’ve posted a video about the Jewish gas chamber hoax. You sound like a neo-nazi fascist ignoramus, if you’re female you’re probably the ridiculous Tradwife of a Proudboy.
I suggest whatever ones viewpoint is pro or con watch the recently released film titled "no other land" that chronicles in real time actual videos of the activities of destroying villages on the West Bank from 2019 to 2023. The film was produced by Palestinian and Israeli coalition members. Israel created new laws that said that the areas where these people lived were now military training areas and it was illegal to live there. Some of the families had been there they said since 1830. They are farmers. they have Olive Groves. they have goats and sheep and chickens and children. It even shows bulldozers destroying a school and a truck pouring cement down a well
For information. The Israelis did not create any new laws for this purpose.
They inherited 'emergency' laws from when the British occupied Palestine and they applied them from the day the state was created.
Many of the ethnically cleansed Palestinian villages and Lands were taken under the pretense of land being needed for military exercises or declared as a closed military zone. Later, most of these areas were handed over for Jewish settlement or other non military use.
These laws were then extended to the territories under Israeli control after the June War of 1967.
There are dozens of supposedly legal methods by which Lands and Property are stolen from Palestinians.
They are 'legal' to the same extent that laws in Nazi Germany confiscating Jewish property were legal.
In the West Bank, creation of nature reserves is a favourite and in East Jerusalem the creation of archaeological Parks is a similar approach. Failure to be able to prove to the satisfaction of israelis that the property in question belongs to you is also used. Traditional rights and practice have no value whatsoever in this approach.
If a Jewish person can prove that they or their ancestors or their companies owned a particular property before 1948 then they can claim it back. The reverse does not apply to Palestinians who were forced out of their homes at the same time.
Hate to break it to you, but most people are like this, blind followers of their cult leaders. "Social safety" is the main psychological driver of human action. Human beings are, largely, lemmings.
My question is “Is Mahmoud Khalil a Young Global Leader or CIA agent playing his part is this attack on free speech violation event?”!
Just because I disagree with the Jewish religion does not make me antisemitic. I have a right to disagree with any religion, president and or speech. People have a right to peacefully protest. Let’s see the proof he is a terrorist and if he is, why is he being deported and not arrested as a threat to societies worldwide?
People have the right to like or dislike whoever they want to. They are also allowed to speak out against them. It’s all a total constitutional violation!
You have to understand for the last 20 years I gave heard the politicians and Supreme Court Justices talk about bills and say Oh it is just a small violation of their constitutional rights! This has been said about gun laws, free speech dislike within in the home and the violations of their anti white narrative saying America is to white, to aiding and abetting illegals, now the famers are too White! This is how the Kill the Boar Kill a farmer song and killings be fan in Africa began. The attack on whites claiming they stole their land. When whites were there since 5 BCE. .
Given the opportunity, sheep form matriarchal flocks led by a mature, intelligent ewe. Contrast that with a superpower led by in an infantile, stupid manbaby.
That's how we are all taught in corrupted Western Christianity of imperialism and colonialism and - to be obedient to your colonial lords line obedience to Jesus, your Lord. Note the subtle brainwashing of believers.
Trump has said that he would throw Americans in prison if they protest against Israel. I’m waiting for him to throw a Jewish American in prison and watch his sycophants stay silent.
That's definitely been happening in Germany and in the UK, maybe elsewhere. And plenty of Jewish people were arrested in NYC in protests, some of which were organized by JVP or Ifnotnow. Zionism will not allow Judaism to impede its project. It will swallow/destroy Judaism entirely.
'This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector'.
Plato
As one of the characteristic marks of a democracy that is decaying into tyranny is that each faction accuses the other of being a threat to democracy and attempts to use the legal system to bring it to heel: “[Citizens] are then accused by their rivals of plotting against the people and being reactionaries and oligarchs, even though in fact they may have no revolutionary intentions… There follow impeachments and trials in which the two parties bring each other to court”
Plato the Republic,
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." --
C. S. Lewis (1898 - 1963)
“When a government is dependent upon bankers for money, they and not the leaders of the government control the situation, since the hand that gives is above the hand that takes… Money has no motherland; financiers are without patriotism and without decency; their sole object is gain.”
PJ, great quotes. I especially love the quote by C.S. Lewis! Have you ever read his essay entitled "The Abolition of Man"? In it, he calls these so-called leaders, "Men without chests."
Without hearts or empathy. His sci-fi trilogy, especially the last of the trilogy entitled:
"That Hideous Strength" is very prophetic of what we observe going on now.
I first read Lewis' Space Trilogy in the late 1970s. "That Hideous Strength" was the one that made a real impression on me, and I have read it about 4 times since. Not quite once a decade, but close.
(And yes, I have read "The Abolition of Man". I am a huge Lewis fan. Oddly enough, we were both born in the same town.)
Glad to hear you have an appreciation for Lewis. I too grew up reading much of his writings, including, of course, his Narnia Chronicles as a child. Have you read "The Great Divorce"? I don't find many people who have read "The Abolition of Man".
"Screwtape Letters" is one of my favorite of his writings. Lewis's important little book entitled "The Problem of Pain" was also helpful to me, as I struggled to understand all the suffering and pain I daily observed going on in the world around me.
Interesting that you were born in the same town as Lewis! I believe he died the same day JFK was assassinated in November of 63' didn't he? Thanks for sharing.
Yes, my parents started me on the Narnia Chronicles, reading "The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe" to us when we were small, and probably "Prince Caspian". I really got into them when I was in high school, and I managed to read "The Screwtape Letters" and "The Four Loves" before I went to college.
I guess it was from about the age of 17 to 24 that I was at my peak as a Lewis reader, reading just about everything he wrote that I could get my hands on, (including "The Great Divorce") - and much of it more than once - but not, strangely enough "The Problem of Pain" or "Miracles". Since then I have re-read some of his works - particularly, as I say "That Hideous Strength", but also "Out of the Silent Planet" and the Narnia Chronicles.
And yes, he died on the same day that JFK was assassinated. Strangely enough, Aldous Huxley died the same day - and Huxley's "Brave New World" is also one of my favorite novels.
Thanks, no I haven't read much of CS Lewis at all. I will look for the trilogy, (I don't do any financial transactions over the internet so unless it is Gutenberg or free I have to look in hard copy) and hope to find it.
Someone below made the point of Trump God Syndrome, something I commented on as Trump Saviour Syndrome some time ago.
He has three problems.
1) he is beholden to the (Jewish) money men
2) he wants to Make America Great Again at the expense of the other 7.7 billion people in the world
3) he watched far too many John Wayne movies and thinks that it is the right way to behave.
He is the very embodiment of the "American"
"The American is marked, in fact, by precisely the habits of mind and act that one would look for in a man insatiably ambitious and yet incurably fearful, to wit, the habits, on the one hand, of unpleasant assertiveness, of somewhat boisterous braggardism, of incessant pushing, and, on the other hand, of conformity, caution and subservience. He is forever talking of his rights as if he stood ready to defend them with his last drop of blood, and forever yielding them up at the first demand. "
George Jean Nathan and H.L. Mencken, The American Credo, 1920
Hi, PJ. Glad you found the Lewis trilogy. He is a master storyteller. I loved the quote by G. Nathan and HL Menchen. It exactly describes the Donald! Mnechen is one of my favorites when it comes to his unflattering quotes concerning politics and politicians.
Here's one I particularly like: "No professional politician is actually in favor of public economy. It is his implacable enemy, and he knows it. All professional politicians are dedicated wholeheartedly to waste and corruption. They are the enemies of every decent man." Happy reading.
Mencken made an even more accurate prediction, that I applied to Trump 1 and Biden :
H.L. Mencken predicted almost a century ago:
“All the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre — the man who can most adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum. The Presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.” (Have you ever read a transcript of Trump speeches?)
-
I don't know if there is any way back.
Heinlein predicted the way back as Nehemiah Scudder in his story "If this goes on"
Written in 1941 : "The First Prophet was Nehemiah Scudder, a backwoods preacher turned President (elected in 2012), then dictator (no elections were held in 2016 or later)."
Hi, PJ. Again, Menchen nails it perfectly--"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more, the inner soul of the people."
Over the past eighty years or so, we have slowly and steadily lost our ability to reason and converse intelligibly. I believe one of the main reasons for this decline is the massive propaganda campaigns we have been inundated with through mass media, telling us what and how we should observe the world around us. All of it lies mixed with partial truths. Over the years, we have embraced many false paradigms as absolute truths.
I haven't read any transcripts of Trump's speeches, but one only has to listen to his unscripted conversations to realize he cannot complete a full sentence, and has the vocabulary of an unread eighth-grader. Reading someone else's speeches from a teleprompter has been the norm for the sitting president for quite a few years, hasn't it?
I believe the only way back, is for the citizenry of this country to wake up to the fact that no man or group of men is going to lead us into the promised land. One cannot vote in a utopia. But that does take a thinking populace that refuses to embrace the false paradigm that government is somehow a necessary evil to bring order and stability to a subservient population. I become more and more an anarchist as I grow older. I mean anarchist in the true sense of that word: no one ruling over me. So much more to be said here.
Thanks for sharing the good quotes, PJ. Make it a good morning, and keep speaking "truth to power". I am encouraged as I observe many good people seeing through the evil and deception we are inundated with daily.
"But that does take a thinking populace that refuses to embrace the false paradigm ..." in other words the USA is fucked and the only way out is though a 'dead-cat' bounce and a long period of 'cave man level' society.
It can't happen on its' own and I actually see a "Prophet/dictator" running the West for a prolonged period.
(The Anti-Christ?)
How about this for a prophecy :
“Through Russia comes the hope of the world. Not in respect to what is sometimes termed Communism or Bolshevism — no! But freedom — freedom! That each man will live for his fellow man. The principle has been born there. It will take years for it to be crystallised; yet out of Russia comes again the hope of the world.” ~
Edgar Cayce circa 1935
They have laughed at him for 90 years, but they are not laughing now.
I have always been an anarchist, the secret is not to let them know.
“If you support killing innocent men, women and children …. You’re not welcome here” (abbreviated Trump post) So, Donnie — when does your flight leave? Because you sure as hell support all those innocent deaths.
The Zionists are on triple, high red alert because a legal resident criticized them. Miriam Adleson’s water boy instantly sprung into action and attacked the Constitution he swore to uphold less than two months ago. His focus is on foreign students for now but it’s only to bide his time before American citizens are targeted.
The hypocrisy of J D Vance lecturing European officials about freedom of speech while America walks the same treacherous path is increasingly evident. While it was a welcomed reprimand for those who would endorse knocks on the door and arrests for those who stated their thoughts and opinions in person or on social media (but not welcomed obviously by those officials); we then see repression of free speech celebrated here in America. How can these juxtapositions be tolerated?
This occurs because of the special carve-out Israel enjoys. Trump will defend free speech concerning everything except this; or will he? There may arise other exercises of free speech he considers egregious. Who decides what is off-limits? To allow this is to negate the entire conceit that the First Amendment is still the law of the land. We see it is not. The knocks on the door are here.
Wren, If I remember right J D Vance was only lecturing Europe about freedom of speech only as applied to the extreme right. He like Musk wanted the fascists given full freedom to spread their hate.
I’ve been saying for a long time that people with Trump is God syndrome are no better than those with Trump derangement syndrome. It seems somewhere along the way people have lost the ability to see truth and speak it to power.
IMO, the most important purpose of 'free speech' is to confront/challenge power, to confront authority, to keep a check on the power elite, to fight against unjust hierarchical systems, to hold the ruling elite responsible for their words and actions.
When POWER (as in the state) clamps down on the ability of citizens to keep the state accountable to the people, that is FREE SPEECH (and this is also how free speech rights are described in the US Constitution) being violated.
When an empire (or administration) is acutely aware of its downward trajectory and slow demise, it ratchets up its authoritarianism - and with it comes the loss of 'free speech' and many other rights. Unfortunately, this is just the beginning. I see the US Empire (which is currently a semi-fascist state) derailing and dissolving into a full-blown fascist and totalitarian state (UNLESS IT IS STOPPED).
I believe things are too far gone for "peaceful protests" to make the changes that need happening, too far gone for "voting" to get us out of this mess, too far gone for "congress and legislative processes" to stop the slide into authoritarian totalitarianism.
As many have mentioned in this substack before, we need to FOCUS on labor movements, working people, unions, strikes, stopping the "means of production" AS A UNITED CLASS. We need to put stuff like "culture wars", "left-right", etc. on the back burner for a while and ALL COME TOGETHER to STOP THE 1% before it is too late...
The tricky part will be waking up the 98% who haven't figured anything out. Regardless of whether Republican or Democrat they are still fed the same lies and are gullible enough to believe them. For some reason or other they can't see that both "sides" are the 1%.
The good news, I think we have made enormous progress in defeating Genocide Kamala and Genocide Mump Mush+Trump=Mump has defeated himself. As the empire dies workers will unite in larger and larger numbers. Not long ago no one would have predicted burning Teslas : )
Hi Chang Chokaski
The class enemy has gaslighted so many of us ! Its more and more difficult to rise people s awerness about the class struggle that is unfolding. Its urgent to find pedagogic and horizontal ways to bring poeple back to class strugle
True unfortunately. I personaly have found bringing class consciousness into people's awareness quite challenging - especially with many in the middle-class.
Tribalist DIVISION, FEAR & HATRED (of an "evil monstrous scary enemy") is how billionaire ruling elites maintain control over "their own" people, who would otherwise be far more likely to remove the ultra-rich abusive elites from power.
Predatory ruling elites absolutely need to ensure that "their people" fear a boogyman EVIL ENEMY and look to their own "patriotic leaders" as protectors against that enemy.
That is why they use ANY MEANS NECESSARY to ensure that the tribalist-nationalist-religious division, fear, hatred and violence never ends. That is why they and their ptopagandists constantly teach us to fear and hate the "evil enemy of the nation" (who that enemy happens to be can change from generation to generation, but what doesn't change is that they ALWAYS must create an 'evil monstrous scary enemy' for us to fear and hate), while paying lip service as if they want to end conflicts, when IN REALITY the end of national-religious division, hatred and conflict is the thing our billionaire rulers fear the most.
Peace, unity and cooperation between ordinary (non ruling class) people is an EXISTENTIAL THREAT to the billionaire ruling class and they make absolutely sure that it can never happen, make sure to incite as much religious-nationalist division, fear and hatred as possible.
Their elevated position of power over society depends on keeping us in a state of tribalist division, fear, unsafety, hatred and eternal conflict and war!!
They teach us to fear and hate "the enemy" through their narrative managers in their propaganda media (both their corporate mainstream media, or their mainstream "alternative media", which in most cases isn't alternative or independent at all) and through their numeous paid influencers on social media.
For many examples and full details on exactly how the elite oppresors across the planet do that, please see here https://www.pdrboston.org/oppressors-need-bogeyman-enemies (besides the profoundly important main essay, be sure to also follow the links leading out from the essay, for further learning and insight).
PS. The fact that the other faction of the american billionaores' global empire (the right-wing DNC liberal capitalists) are ALSO imperialist scum does NOT make tje conservative faction of the empire (the fake "populist" billionaires) into the solution. That is precisely the trick that is played by the empire managers on americans (either the clueless mainstream liberals or the dumb and deceived MAGA worshippers) and other westerners, to herd us (using the oligarchs' algorithms) into partisan enclosures/echo-chambers, where we are taught to cheer for one or the other wing of the global oligarchy and to view the other half as 'the evil ones'. Very few seem to recognize BOTH halves of the elite, and very few seem to want real freedom from empire and dignity for all humans, but most seem to just want that the empire be under the right management, the management of "our billionaires" (not “their billionaires”), seem to just want the domination of the one wing of the oligarchy that they learnt to identify with.
👏👏 Well said "United For Oligarchy"
Of the many fine points made in your comment above, these meant the most to me ->
(1) >>"Peace, unity and cooperation between ordinary (non ruling class) people is an EXISTENTIAL THREAT to the billionaire ruling class and they make absolutely sure that it can never happen, make sure to incite as much religious-nationalist division, fear and hatred as possible."
(2) >>"They teach us to fear and hate "the enemy" through their narrative managers in their propaganda media (both their corporate mainstream media, or their mainstream "alternative media", which in most cases isn't alternative or independent at all) and through their numeous paid influencers on social media."
Thank you!!
I also find it worrying how many among the working class swallowed the ruling class' narrative hook, bait and sinker and became their own enemy. Swindle and divide the most numerous class and you're all set to rule...
Recently, a guy who works with my husband was all shocked to hear him talk about unionising. They work a backbreaking factory job, how can anyone defend the position that people shouldn't join a union is beyond me.
They started talking and the coworker eventually landed on "I don't think we should tax the rich, we can't take more money from hard-working people because they're pumping a lot back into society." My anarchist husband said he agreed, the rich shouldn't be taxed if the society was healthy, because neither the rich nor the concept of money would have existed. The coworker flipped at this one 😂
Even stranger is how the ruling class has swallowed the prior working class narrative hook, bait and sinker. Voters earning 100k plus voted for Harris. Voters earning under 50k voted for Trump. The same is true all over the Western world: the elites have become left wing just as the working class has become right wing, as faulty as these labels are.
Where does this leave the class struggle narrative? Particularly for the rich elites. I can see how propaganda would get the working class to adopt the elites' viewpoint, much harder to explain is how the elites have swung to the left.
How come Substack doesn’t have a Don’tLike button?
I hand out cards with Workers Strike Back websites info Printed in English and in Spanish. Urge them to check it out.
Missy, have you learned nothing? Please don’t tell us who we hate. I do not hate anyone. I feel sorry for the ignorant. I condemn the behavior of the brutal. I will stand with the oppressed, wherever that takes me.
WHY are people ignorant in the USA?
The 'shining light' of consumerism got to them. NO decent education about History/Culture in the world.
It is of paramount importance to understand why the US people took NO notice of what was going on in their Govt?
Happy people/shop till you drop.
Did you really believe that the American Dream would last?
I have never been afraid to speak my mind, and I never will be.
Always saw what a shit show my country is, was apathetic for years in my younger days. I am not any longer.
Never believed in the American dream.
From where do you hail jenny?
Everywhere and nowhere.. 4 countries later I consider myself 'non alligned.'
Kilgore. YOU have NO idea whether I have been fighting or not!
Neither do you know what my life has been like..............neither do you know what colour I am which should be meaningless!
It is true.
You are preaching to the choir. I have been anti consumer my entire life.
......and did you speak up?
Read The Racket, by Matt Kennard if you need more proof what a hideous organization USAID is.
Of course, not many listen.
I don't think this is true.
Exactly! Imitating Republicans to defeat Republicans just provides irony, not solutions.
I agree. This is what needs to happen. Well said.
Don’t give up. Reach out to as many as you can.
Hi Chang
“Bring out the guns and ammo
Because there’s something in the air
We got to get together sooner or later
Because the Revolution’s here”
—-Thunderclap Newman
Hi Gypsy (my dear friend). I think you know damned well that the Americans will NEVER start a Revolution until the suffering gets worse?
Mump is bringing on pain like what has not been felt in the u.s. since the late 1920s. Can you smell the burning Tesla : )
Yes, and it stinks!
Good to see you Landru, been wondering where ya been!
That’s what I’m waiting for, dear Jenny!
When Social Security bites the dust, every senior in the country will be looting and setting cop cars on fire 😉
Hmmmmm.
Jenny, I was kinda-sorta kidding about rioting, though it might come to that.
But rise up we would, and WILL because of Trump decimating our Constitution.
Lovely Gypsy. Trump is but a 'catalyst' for all that went before. The point is: what were the USA people doing BEFORE Trump came into power?
100% agree
"[W]e need to FOCUS on labor movements, working people, unions, strikes, stopping the 'means of production' AS A UNITED CLASS. "
Agreed. But it only addresses one part of human nature. If it is allowed to revive essentially unaltered the original Progressive era and Marxists and their follow-ons (as this sentence and the rest of your post sounds), will repeat the same failures that led us full circle from the original Gilded Age to our current one.
The problem here is *complete* dismissal of hierarchy. The inconvenient truth is that *limited* kinds of respect for hierarchy are embedded in human nature, just as are limited kinds of equality, and we need to become far more conscious of which is appropriate in which setting, and how to manage them.
The core problem, really, is not hierarchy, but uncontrolled intelligent psychopathy. That, in fact, is exactly what poisons most hierarchies, just as well as the leadership/vanguard (aka hierarchy, even here) of most populist causes. Until we get a grip on that, we will simply keep repeating the cycles.
I give them extra cards to share with others.
There is no most important purpose of free speech, you either support it or you don't. Confronting and challenging power is indeed a great reason, but so is making someone smile on the street. If we let ourselves be divided on legitimate and illegitimate uses of a fundamental right we imperil the right itself.
I cannot agree more emphatically that the left/right divide is illusory and designed to divide us, mostly on non-issues which we might not even really disagree on if we talked to each other with compassion. We need to be more open to talking to those we disagree with, and to do so with understanding.
Protests, voting, and the political process all rely on a well-informed citizenry which is jealous of its rights. This is something we do not currently have. More abrasive methods are easily co-opted by state and corporate power and are typically counterproductive.
I'd note that the global 1% is $32,000 per year in income. That's almost everyone in the West, working class or not. The class divide has lost a lot of its meaning. The working class has embraced roughly conservative politics at the same time the wealthy have embraced a virtue signalling style of faux-corporate egalitarianism. Look at a map of the electorates which voted for the Australian Voice to Parliament in the recent referendum for a good demonstration.
There are no easy answers. We need a grassroots, spiritual revolution.
We are rapidly approaching a world where there is no need for human labor at all. Already almost every manufactured good you buy is produced by robotics. Management and design are increasingly AI based. In 10 years the elites will simply shrug their shoulders at strikes, and purchase robotics+AI in response.
Besides, organized labor has unfortunately squandered whatever good will it once had with the working class, through abject corruption. The working classes are no longer on the left. Look at any significant vote in any Western country in the past 5 years and this becomes abundantly clear.
Only about 10% of the US working class are in unions. Of that small amount of the working class which is in a union (who are presumably the most left wing among workers), they split 53/45 Harris/Trump. Trump won voters who earn under 100k, Harris won voters who earn over 100k. Trump even won voters who earn less than 50k: the poors.
We need to move past the left/right false dichotomy. We need a spiritual revolution. There is no substitute for a citizenry which is jealous of its rights, which is suspicious of government and corporate power. This cannot happen overnight, it's going to take a generation to wake up, then another to inculcate these values in the children of the next generation. It will require massive sacrifice, you will need to homeschool your kids, you will need to frequent independent media and stay up to date, you will need to study history intently, you will need to talk to those you disagree with, you will need to sacrifice your finances, your liberty, possibly your sanity. Your friends will ostracize you, call you mad, call the police on you.
You may need to walk to the gallows, and to do so fearlessly with pride. Is this something we are ready for?
Could not be said better my Brother.
You people hate Christians and most morals and you didn't care when dems put Christians and prolifers in prison. I am not a zionist a paloconsertive but if people still believe in gender Jewish shit and abortion i want no part of that in my society
???
This has NOTHING to do with Christianity. You are on your OWN culture-war crusade it seems.
Like I said before, the 1% will come for you too eventually (regardless of your religion, cultural preferences, skin color, etc.). Your ONLY SOLACE (and hope) lies in uniting WITH the 99% (unless you are part of the 1% - in which case why are you even on substack?)
Wow, what was that drive by ha. Just when you think ............
The fascists hate you as much as they hate me. I don't give a shit about christianity nor do I have to in any country, especially the United States. You worship your way I'll worship mine.
I don’t give a shit about Christianity. Or Judaism. Or Hinduism. Or…..
All religion is bullshit. Worship a god or gods because some HUMAN said to.
Nature is the only real truth.
And you know what people did when dems were in charge?
That’s a broad brush you’re painting with.
Morals! Am I right in thinking you don't respect the right of women to what they want with their bodies?
All this bullshit about anti-Semitism when it is islamphobia that is the problem. In the US, there has been one anti-Jewish terrorist attack, by a white supremacist but many attacks on Muslims, including Trump banning them and supporting genocide and ethnic expulsion against them.
As a Jewish gay man, I've experienced many, many cases of bigotry and hate with my own ears and eyes. However, I've never experienced any bigotry because of my Jewish ancestry.
Extremists seem to be trying to gin up their victim status in order to control the narrative. Anti-Semitism seems as common as the UFOs. Everyone is talking; but, examples are rare. The only Semites actually being slaughtered are Palestinian.
J’ignorais que le mot français 'bigotry' était passé dans la 'langue' (plutôt idiome) anglaise...Bigot > Bigoterie, terme désignant une personne qui interprète la religion de manière démesurée et quasi-animale...😄
Thank you for that clarification.
In Australia, well... make sense of this if you can:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/3/10/mob-faked-attack-on-australian-synagogue-police
When was the anti-Jewish attack?
"On October 27, 2018, a right-wing extremist attacked Tree of Life – Or L'Simcha Congregation[b] synagogue in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The congregation, along with New Light Congregation and Congregation Dor Hadash, which also worshipped in the building, was attacked during Shabbat morning services. The perpetrator killed eleven people and wounded six, in the deadliest attack on a local Jewish community in American history."
Oh, you’re talking about something that happened before the genocide.
This was also done by white, neo Nazis.
The attack on Palestinians has been going on for 100 yrs.......antiSemitism and islamophobia did not arise after Oct 7 but have been going on a long time.
No shit, Sherlock. I’m specifically talking about the ongoing genocide and the fact that nothing has been done to any Jews in the country, since this has started.
Today the ICC/ICG arrested the ex-President of the Philppines. Quite rightly. He 'laid waste' to the Phillipinos and even suggested he would like to kill them himself.
Duertate a criminal backed by...............
He is a brown man!
Don't expect Netanyahu to be arrested........he is considered 'untouchable' because the US is owned by Israel. Is he white??
Oh, sorry I could not read your mind, Columbo. And if you have the facts, why did you ask me?
Yes, I noted that " there has been one anti-Jewish terrorist attack, by a white supremacist ." It was not neo-Nazis, just one white young man with white supremacist ideology.
What were the identity, nationality and religion of the "right-wing extremist"?
Evangelical/Zionists.
White racist......young American dude.....product of rightwing propaganda and hate speech.
Oh whatever did not white Europeans are getting replaced and have been discriminated and demonized by the media for freespeach way longer than Jews the ADL SPLC think it's racist for whites to have a program to help the poor white southerners who have been treated like shit by this country and guess what there ancestors didn't even own slaves they were considered the undiserbles and some were slaves themselves.
Go back to Europe then, White Person. If you think you're being discriminated against as a white colonizer in the US, then leave and go home to where your ancestors came from. I'm sure they'd "welcome" you there with open arms. (No, probably not. Nobody wants racists who don't know how to punctuate sentences correctly. And also, you might have to learn a new language if your ancestors weren't British. You might have some trouble with that since you're struggling writing in English.)
MOST of the USA need to learn some History.
The Puritans (obnoxious right wing savages) came to the USA.
Puritans are still in your blood.
Right, that explains. I always say, it stayed in the DNA. But, I agree 💯 with Dale Ruff. Racism is absurd. We are all of the same homo sapiens race. A skincolor is only a detail. What matters in all of us is our brain. So we should not perpetuate racist inventions like white and black. Nobody is white, nor black.
The Puritans in England had a left and right wing. Those who came to America do not fit these definitions: "The Puritans in the Colonies wanted their children to be able to read and interpret the Bible themselves, rather than have to rely on the clergy for interpretation.[39][40][41][42] In 1635, they established the Boston Latin School to educate their sons, the first and oldest formal education institution in the English-speaking New World. They also set up what were called dame schools for their daughters, and in other cases taught their daughters at home how to read. As a result, Puritans were among the most literate societies in the world." Harvard was founded by Puritans, and "Historian Perry Miller wrote that the Puritans "liberated men from the treadmill of indulgences and penances, but cast them on the iron couch of introspection". Wikipedia IN their day, they were breaking away from tradition and so the term right wing hardly fits, imho.
I don't like the use of white for humans. White and Black are racist inventions. Nobody is white, nobody is black. The supremacistes are former Europeans and it's still in the DNA.
You may not like it but it is inherent in your system.
Brown/black are bad!
Racism is in American history but nothing is inherent in a man-made system. What was made can be unmade: racist terms and racist institutions can be dismantled, "altered or abolished." The system includes the ability to change the system.
TRC, 😂😂😂
total racist bullshit. Replacement theory is neo-Nazi bullshit.
No one can replace you if you have knowledge or talents and use them well. Otherwise yes you will lose your job and rightly so. Whiteness means nothing more than blackness or brownness or gayness. Try being gracious and congratulatory when those unlike you excel in life.
White, black, brown are racist inventions. We are all of the same human race (homo sapiens) with different skincolors. What matters in all of us is our brain.
well, I totally agree with you except there is no human race (only plants have races)..so that is another racist invention. We are the human species. What matters most is our ability to see the divisive and evil inventions which have created so much suffering and the will to create a democratic republic, based on the principles of our founding document, equality and consent of the governed.
holy smokes - all the hallmarks of the stereotype emblazoned in this comment
On your page you’ve posted a video about the Jewish gas chamber hoax. You sound like a neo-nazi fascist ignoramus, if you’re female you’re probably the ridiculous Tradwife of a Proudboy.
U am just sick of white Christians getting discriminated
I suggest whatever ones viewpoint is pro or con watch the recently released film titled "no other land" that chronicles in real time actual videos of the activities of destroying villages on the West Bank from 2019 to 2023. The film was produced by Palestinian and Israeli coalition members. Israel created new laws that said that the areas where these people lived were now military training areas and it was illegal to live there. Some of the families had been there they said since 1830. They are farmers. they have Olive Groves. they have goats and sheep and chickens and children. It even shows bulldozers destroying a school and a truck pouring cement down a well
To remove a water source.
A great film, truly a "must-see."
For information. The Israelis did not create any new laws for this purpose.
They inherited 'emergency' laws from when the British occupied Palestine and they applied them from the day the state was created.
Many of the ethnically cleansed Palestinian villages and Lands were taken under the pretense of land being needed for military exercises or declared as a closed military zone. Later, most of these areas were handed over for Jewish settlement or other non military use.
These laws were then extended to the territories under Israeli control after the June War of 1967.
There are dozens of supposedly legal methods by which Lands and Property are stolen from Palestinians.
They are 'legal' to the same extent that laws in Nazi Germany confiscating Jewish property were legal.
In the West Bank, creation of nature reserves is a favourite and in East Jerusalem the creation of archaeological Parks is a similar approach. Failure to be able to prove to the satisfaction of israelis that the property in question belongs to you is also used. Traditional rights and practice have no value whatsoever in this approach.
If a Jewish person can prove that they or their ancestors or their companies owned a particular property before 1948 then they can claim it back. The reverse does not apply to Palestinians who were forced out of their homes at the same time.
Here we go down the slippery slope. First for Israel and last with us all in prison, chips in our brain, obedient slaves to our overlords.
Fuck these tyrannical monsters.
"October 7th was like the Holocaust"
❖
In that October 7th was betrayal and treachery
on the part of Netanyahu.
❖
Israel long stated it's desire to ethnically cleanse all
of Palestine. Long, long, long before October 7th.
❖
Israel not only wanted the pretext for Genocide - October 7th -
it Let October 7th Happen On Purpose,
More than that, Israel Made October 7th Happen On Purpose.
❖
That is like the Holocaust.
❖
Zionists were treacherous and betrayed their own during the Holocaust.
They tricked hundreds of thousands onto the trains to Auschwitz.
Zionists were the trusted leaders in their community.
❖
After the war Israel protected these perpetrators. The Supreme Court of Israel
ruled that the betrayal was alright to do!
❖
[The above is Incredible history, but true!!]
❖
If the citizens of Israel came to the full realization of what Netanyahu
had done in the lead up to October 7th
would you be surprised if these citizens concluded that Netanyahu
"did it for the good of the nation"?
❖
---
It is worth mentioning that like today Zionists threatened and intimidated
into silence those Jews that tried to warn other Jews not to get onto
the Holocaust trains.
Today Zionists do all they can to intimidate and silence those that
dare speak of Genocide.
https://healthimpactnews.com/2025/israeli-media-reveals-that-hamas-is-actually-funded-by-israel-and-of-course-israel-is-funded-by-the-u-s/
Hate to break it to you, but most people are like this, blind followers of their cult leaders. "Social safety" is the main psychological driver of human action. Human beings are, largely, lemmings.
My question is “Is Mahmoud Khalil a Young Global Leader or CIA agent playing his part is this attack on free speech violation event?”!
Just because I disagree with the Jewish religion does not make me antisemitic. I have a right to disagree with any religion, president and or speech. People have a right to peacefully protest. Let’s see the proof he is a terrorist and if he is, why is he being deported and not arrested as a threat to societies worldwide?
Chipping away at the constitution.
People have the right to like or dislike whoever they want to. They are also allowed to speak out against them. It’s all a total constitutional violation!
Chipping away? Like saying Mt. St. Helen's volcano was a fireworks display.
You have to understand for the last 20 years I gave heard the politicians and Supreme Court Justices talk about bills and say Oh it is just a small violation of their constitutional rights! This has been said about gun laws, free speech dislike within in the home and the violations of their anti white narrative saying America is to white, to aiding and abetting illegals, now the famers are too White! This is how the Kill the Boar Kill a farmer song and killings be fan in Africa began. The attack on whites claiming they stole their land. When whites were there since 5 BCE. .
This
No words. How can anyone support this?
Can we please drop the sheep from "mindless sheep" ? Why insult sheep so?
Americans have been happily completely mindless since at least Reagan.
Exactly. No sheep that I know are genocide supporters.
Hi John
My neighbor has sheep and they are sweet and gentle. Let’s use the term “ignorant, clueless fucking human beings” instead.
"Ignorant, clueless human beings" would, indeed, be an appropriate term.
(I live surrounded by sheep as well, and in just a few weeks, there will be plenty of lambs running around. And they are really sweet and gentle!)
Nothing cuter than baby lambs and goats frolicking!
Given the opportunity, sheep form matriarchal flocks led by a mature, intelligent ewe. Contrast that with a superpower led by in an infantile, stupid manbaby.
Rosalind, I LOVE IT!
🥰
That's how we are all taught in corrupted Western Christianity of imperialism and colonialism and - to be obedient to your colonial lords line obedience to Jesus, your Lord. Note the subtle brainwashing of believers.
You are being very unfair to real sheep, Caitlin.
Next he will be revoking the citizenship of people, born in the US or not, and sending them to Guantanamo if he has no place to deport them to.
Trump has said that he would throw Americans in prison if they protest against Israel. I’m waiting for him to throw a Jewish American in prison and watch his sycophants stay silent.
That's definitely been happening in Germany and in the UK, maybe elsewhere. And plenty of Jewish people were arrested in NYC in protests, some of which were organized by JVP or Ifnotnow. Zionism will not allow Judaism to impede its project. It will swallow/destroy Judaism entirely.
I’ll pack a bag. Fuck Israel.
Heh…I’ll write you letters if you let me know where you end up .
Yes - but isn't Guantanamo already full of 'illegal' Mexicans? ! Wasn't that where he said he was sending them?
'This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector'.
Plato
As one of the characteristic marks of a democracy that is decaying into tyranny is that each faction accuses the other of being a threat to democracy and attempts to use the legal system to bring it to heel: “[Citizens] are then accused by their rivals of plotting against the people and being reactionaries and oligarchs, even though in fact they may have no revolutionary intentions… There follow impeachments and trials in which the two parties bring each other to court”
Plato the Republic,
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." --
C. S. Lewis (1898 - 1963)
“When a government is dependent upon bankers for money, they and not the leaders of the government control the situation, since the hand that gives is above the hand that takes… Money has no motherland; financiers are without patriotism and without decency; their sole object is gain.”
Napoleon Bonaparte, 1769-1821
PJ, great quotes. I especially love the quote by C.S. Lewis! Have you ever read his essay entitled "The Abolition of Man"? In it, he calls these so-called leaders, "Men without chests."
Without hearts or empathy. His sci-fi trilogy, especially the last of the trilogy entitled:
"That Hideous Strength" is very prophetic of what we observe going on now.
I first read Lewis' Space Trilogy in the late 1970s. "That Hideous Strength" was the one that made a real impression on me, and I have read it about 4 times since. Not quite once a decade, but close.
(And yes, I have read "The Abolition of Man". I am a huge Lewis fan. Oddly enough, we were both born in the same town.)
Hi, John.
Glad to hear you have an appreciation for Lewis. I too grew up reading much of his writings, including, of course, his Narnia Chronicles as a child. Have you read "The Great Divorce"? I don't find many people who have read "The Abolition of Man".
"Screwtape Letters" is one of my favorite of his writings. Lewis's important little book entitled "The Problem of Pain" was also helpful to me, as I struggled to understand all the suffering and pain I daily observed going on in the world around me.
Interesting that you were born in the same town as Lewis! I believe he died the same day JFK was assassinated in November of 63' didn't he? Thanks for sharing.
Hi Eric,
Yes, my parents started me on the Narnia Chronicles, reading "The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe" to us when we were small, and probably "Prince Caspian". I really got into them when I was in high school, and I managed to read "The Screwtape Letters" and "The Four Loves" before I went to college.
I guess it was from about the age of 17 to 24 that I was at my peak as a Lewis reader, reading just about everything he wrote that I could get my hands on, (including "The Great Divorce") - and much of it more than once - but not, strangely enough "The Problem of Pain" or "Miracles". Since then I have re-read some of his works - particularly, as I say "That Hideous Strength", but also "Out of the Silent Planet" and the Narnia Chronicles.
And yes, he died on the same day that JFK was assassinated. Strangely enough, Aldous Huxley died the same day - and Huxley's "Brave New World" is also one of my favorite novels.
Thanks, no I haven't read much of CS Lewis at all. I will look for the trilogy, (I don't do any financial transactions over the internet so unless it is Gutenberg or free I have to look in hard copy) and hope to find it.
Someone below made the point of Trump God Syndrome, something I commented on as Trump Saviour Syndrome some time ago.
He has three problems.
1) he is beholden to the (Jewish) money men
2) he wants to Make America Great Again at the expense of the other 7.7 billion people in the world
3) he watched far too many John Wayne movies and thinks that it is the right way to behave.
He is the very embodiment of the "American"
"The American is marked, in fact, by precisely the habits of mind and act that one would look for in a man insatiably ambitious and yet incurably fearful, to wit, the habits, on the one hand, of unpleasant assertiveness, of somewhat boisterous braggardism, of incessant pushing, and, on the other hand, of conformity, caution and subservience. He is forever talking of his rights as if he stood ready to defend them with his last drop of blood, and forever yielding them up at the first demand. "
George Jean Nathan and H.L. Mencken, The American Credo, 1920
Thanks I found the trilogy at Gutenberg Canada
Look forward to reading them
Hi, PJ. Glad you found the Lewis trilogy. He is a master storyteller. I loved the quote by G. Nathan and HL Menchen. It exactly describes the Donald! Mnechen is one of my favorites when it comes to his unflattering quotes concerning politics and politicians.
Here's one I particularly like: "No professional politician is actually in favor of public economy. It is his implacable enemy, and he knows it. All professional politicians are dedicated wholeheartedly to waste and corruption. They are the enemies of every decent man." Happy reading.
Mencken made an even more accurate prediction, that I applied to Trump 1 and Biden :
H.L. Mencken predicted almost a century ago:
“All the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre — the man who can most adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum. The Presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.” (Have you ever read a transcript of Trump speeches?)
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I don't know if there is any way back.
Heinlein predicted the way back as Nehemiah Scudder in his story "If this goes on"
Written in 1941 : "The First Prophet was Nehemiah Scudder, a backwoods preacher turned President (elected in 2012), then dictator (no elections were held in 2016 or later)."
So he is out by a few yews but ......
Hi, PJ. Again, Menchen nails it perfectly--"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more, the inner soul of the people."
Over the past eighty years or so, we have slowly and steadily lost our ability to reason and converse intelligibly. I believe one of the main reasons for this decline is the massive propaganda campaigns we have been inundated with through mass media, telling us what and how we should observe the world around us. All of it lies mixed with partial truths. Over the years, we have embraced many false paradigms as absolute truths.
I haven't read any transcripts of Trump's speeches, but one only has to listen to his unscripted conversations to realize he cannot complete a full sentence, and has the vocabulary of an unread eighth-grader. Reading someone else's speeches from a teleprompter has been the norm for the sitting president for quite a few years, hasn't it?
I believe the only way back, is for the citizenry of this country to wake up to the fact that no man or group of men is going to lead us into the promised land. One cannot vote in a utopia. But that does take a thinking populace that refuses to embrace the false paradigm that government is somehow a necessary evil to bring order and stability to a subservient population. I become more and more an anarchist as I grow older. I mean anarchist in the true sense of that word: no one ruling over me. So much more to be said here.
Thanks for sharing the good quotes, PJ. Make it a good morning, and keep speaking "truth to power". I am encouraged as I observe many good people seeing through the evil and deception we are inundated with daily.
"But that does take a thinking populace that refuses to embrace the false paradigm ..." in other words the USA is fucked and the only way out is though a 'dead-cat' bounce and a long period of 'cave man level' society.
It can't happen on its' own and I actually see a "Prophet/dictator" running the West for a prolonged period.
(The Anti-Christ?)
How about this for a prophecy :
“Through Russia comes the hope of the world. Not in respect to what is sometimes termed Communism or Bolshevism — no! But freedom — freedom! That each man will live for his fellow man. The principle has been born there. It will take years for it to be crystallised; yet out of Russia comes again the hope of the world.” ~
Edgar Cayce circa 1935
They have laughed at him for 90 years, but they are not laughing now.
I have always been an anarchist, the secret is not to let them know.
“If you support killing innocent men, women and children …. You’re not welcome here” (abbreviated Trump post) So, Donnie — when does your flight leave? Because you sure as hell support all those innocent deaths.
The Zionists are on triple, high red alert because a legal resident criticized them. Miriam Adleson’s water boy instantly sprung into action and attacked the Constitution he swore to uphold less than two months ago. His focus is on foreign students for now but it’s only to bide his time before American citizens are targeted.
Yes SW, remember.....
" First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist.......... "
The hypocrisy of J D Vance lecturing European officials about freedom of speech while America walks the same treacherous path is increasingly evident. While it was a welcomed reprimand for those who would endorse knocks on the door and arrests for those who stated their thoughts and opinions in person or on social media (but not welcomed obviously by those officials); we then see repression of free speech celebrated here in America. How can these juxtapositions be tolerated?
This occurs because of the special carve-out Israel enjoys. Trump will defend free speech concerning everything except this; or will he? There may arise other exercises of free speech he considers egregious. Who decides what is off-limits? To allow this is to negate the entire conceit that the First Amendment is still the law of the land. We see it is not. The knocks on the door are here.
Wren, If I remember right J D Vance was only lecturing Europe about freedom of speech only as applied to the extreme right. He like Musk wanted the fascists given full freedom to spread their hate.
I knew before the election that the Rs would defend Red speech only.
Good job, Caitlin. I agree with every word. Thanks for this.
I’ve been saying for a long time that people with Trump is God syndrome are no better than those with Trump derangement syndrome. It seems somewhere along the way people have lost the ability to see truth and speak it to power.