Which is why, when asked about the genocide in Gaza, Kamala can say, "yeah that sucks but don't you want a lower grocery bill?" and most Democrats feel no shame whatsoever. It's appalling.
I talked to my therapist about this as she told me she voted Kamala. Once I left our session I wondered if she felt any guilt for her vote. I doubt so.
A vote for Kamala is a vote for the corporatized Democratic Establishment. Status Quo. Did regular ole citizens like you and me choose Kamala to be the Democratic candidate for president? No. The corporatized members of the Business Party - a speck to the left called the Democrats - selected Harris. For us to rubber stamp. They selected Biden. For us to rubber stamp. Did the corporatized Democratic Establishment put together an Open Convention to select the presidential nominee? Time factor is not an acceptable excuse. Look clearly at the array of major problems, you know them. Genocide and Climate Catastrophe share the #1 spot. Had we a Democratic Party keenly tuned into the citizens, would we still have these same deeply moral intense problems? What proof do you have that the corporatized Democratic Establishment gives a single hoot about the genocide. The test? Walking their talk. To what extent do they do that? Can you remember a time? The corporatized Democratic Establishment belongs to the AIPAC Super Big Money Club. They know killing banks their portfolios. You don't look a gift horse in the eye...is the old saying.
Good people have blind spots too. The less you know about the true political machinery the more you rely on domestic propaganda, part of which trades in emotional blackmail besides lying. Like if you're a good person you'd vote for Kamala because if you don't then you are bad person because democracy dies and authoritarianism takes its place. Trouble is we don't have a democracy. Had we one, you and I would have had a say -after listening to those throwing their hat in the ring- in an Open Convention and voted for who most represents us. The corporatized Democratic Establishment "anointed" Harris and pushed her on us. Of course she's singing their preferred tune. What evidence in her background tells you she has deep roots (called convictions) for the common person of any colored packaging?
She has told me that I help her open her mind to a different point of view and then talks to her therapist about it. The funny thing is I’m finishing up my masters to become a therapist.
Why would any therapist know anything in particular ? Some priests/rabbis/imams might well do - depending on their relationship with and knowledge of God . I have heard plenty of good sense and rational humility from such .
I don’t blindly trust my therapist as I can discern which information is valuable to me and which is not. In my opinion, I believe I can learn from anyone even if their perspective doesn't allign with my own. In my case, I have learned a lot about how the brain works which helps with understanding my actions that has been impacted by my PTSD from my military service. Also it’s nice that I get to lead the conversation and can openly express my opinions. Don’t worry, I’m not afraid to tell my therapist that I don’t believe in her views, we’ve had multiple healthy and heated discussions where we both came out of with a better understanding of each other. I personally think this is a better dynamic than someone who I aligned with.
Sorry, I can't trust someone who supports someone who's committing genocide. And I'm sure your therapist voted for Harris because she "supports" women🙄 If Harris really supported women or anyone really, she'd stop the genocide. Harris only cares about herself just like Trump.
I think a lot of Americans are misinformed or uninformed not due to any fault of their own. I know this from talking with my therapist as I said before in another comment I have helped her see another point of view that without me as her patient she wouldn’t have seen. I feel like I am helping her open her eyes and curiosity a little bit. But that can be my idealistic view of life. I’m not sure but I believe people can change, I use myself as an example.
In this day and age where information is literally at people's fingertips, there is no excuse for remaining ignorant. Where's your therapist's curiosity? How about their critical thinking skills? Does she have no interest in learning about the history of the Nazi and Zionist collaboration. Also, this isn't a matter of opinion 🙄 Israel should not exist. It's a Western backed colonial settlement. If I could learn about the history of Israel prior to the internet, there's absolutely no excuse for not learning about it now.
I don’t blindly trust my therapist as i can discern which information is valuable to me which is not. In my opinion, I believe I can learn from anyone even if their perspective doesn't allign with my own. In my case, I have learned a lot about how the brain works which helps with understanding my actions that has been impacted by my PTSD from my military service. Also it’s nice that I get to lead the conversation and can openly express my opinions.
I would clarify that to “deviously manipulated humans.” Clear-eyed humans can and have existed. Unfortunately, we live in a time when most of us are subjected to devious manipulation 24/7/365 by what Caitlin rightly describes as “the most sophisticated propaganda machine in human history.” I hope we live to see the end of that machine, and can become more clear-eyed again.
BRICS is coming down the pike Kollibri. If you haven't already, take a listen to anything Prof Jeffrey Sachs (deeply experienced, with a solid moral compass, and very smart) says about BRICS and Putin's handling of the recent BRICS meetings in Russia. I found it most impressive. A refreshing alternative view and practice of inter-nation collaboration. Strikingly candid and on the money about the USA's basic attitude toward other nations. At this very early stage - sets the
USA's superior attitude (condescending) in bas relief.
Contrary to popular belief, stupid humans are less prone to cognitive dissonance than are the intelligent and educated, because the more clever and educated are better at symbol manipulation, and have more to lose as a result of wrongthink.
Agreed. Well said. By clear-eyed, I didn’t mean “intelligent” or “educated.” I meant perceptive people who, because they are able to accept reality for what it is, have no need or desire to rationalize.
I don’t know anyone who never rationalizes (and I certainly still indulge in rationalization myself) but there’s a spectrum, and yeah, “intelligent” and “educated” people tend to be grouped at the wrong end of that spectrum.
Please - could you please elaborate /explain this part - "the more clever and educated are better at symbol manipulation, and have more to lose as a result of wrongthink." Giving us a concrete example of this would be clarifyingly helpful.
Maybe, but I think most USA people have never been interested in much outside of their country. I question whether most of them could find Iraq on a map. 6% can't find the USA on a map of the world. I have read that only 15% of Congresspersons have a passport. Sarah Palin was elected governor and nominated for VP without knowing why north and south Korea were separate countries.
That's quite sad and dangerous, considering that these people support/vote for a leader of the most powerful country with such huge influence on the rest of the world. They can't afford to be ignorant on these foreign issues.
All this goes to show that what you need to win in Politics is NOT intelligence or knowledge or morals or education. What you need to WIN IN POLITICS is (1) ability to bullshit (2) ability to act (as in acting/pretending) (3) ability to deliver speeches (written by other people) (4) good/acceptable physical appearance (5) ability to gaslight/con/deceive/manipulate people (6) ability to negotiate (deal-making) (7) ability to project strength (which is mostly fake) (8) questionable & malleable morals (9) others...too many to list...
They don't - which is precisely the point. They don't wont you to think/focus on the Genocide and the Palestine/Israel problem - they want you to shop and consume and spend money and time in activities that make the 1% wealthier (with some leftover crumbs for the others if you're lucky).
Stereotypically, the US views many countries as beneath us as you stated. Africa? Maybe commercials about starving kids, sending them food. There are over a billion people there who live in many countries. Some forced labor in diamond mines among many other things. Occassionally South Africa gets recognition. India is known as an outsourcing of cheap labor, again over a billion people there. India is not an enemy of the state, but outside memes, the country doesn't come up much, as a former colony or imperialist hold of England, it really isn't considered. Ghandi may come to mind from history books. China is considered an enemy of the state but we do so much business with them, it should be a lie...another country with more than a billion people, doing hard labor that really do feel like slaves serving us...North Korea is considered an enemy of the state Kim is regarded as a guy whose hobby involves launching nuclear rockets. Occasionally he is the big bad guy, then he is off the radar. Putin is the biggest villians in the eyes of most in the US. Russia needs no introduction...The Middle Eastern countries outside Saudi Arabia and Israel are basically considered enemies or largely unknown. Mexico is considered...I don't know, like some hot button issue due to immigration. South America is generally ignored save for Brazil and Columbia to most people, some inferences of gangs in South America, but not a place that gets talked about, kind of your point.
Why? It is easier to control people mentally when you limit their world view. Most people in the United States do not pay attention to all the other countries, you know, like the ones you often write about because as you said, the US deliberately limits its discussion on foreign policy...Gaza is an example. All those countries we bomb? Hard to get people's consent if you tell them they are just ordinary people like them living their life.
Yeah, that's one thing about the US news media: the local, smaller news outlets specifically limit coverage of foreign news so that people's worldview and awareness on such issues are in turn quite limited.
And for the main news sources, they only push a particular narrative on foreign issues that align with the neoliberal, warmongering interests of the ruling class.
"Hard to get people's consent if you tell them they are just ordinary people like them living their life."
That's why TikTok is so reviled by the PTB, people are exposed to the idea that children in Africa play just like children in Cleveland, Muslim women aren't really all beaten down domestic slaves, not everyone in Colombia is in a cocaine cartel, grandparents in India dote over their grandchildren just like grandparents in Toronto. That's a scary thing for the narrative control.
It has annoyed me for a long time that what happens in the US affects the rest of the world, but we (as in the rest of the world) have no vote and no say in the matter.
The US world view is summarized in Blinken's "if you are not at the table, you are on the menu".
The whites are at the table, the global south is on the menu, (and on the floor, looking for crumbs).
Although, in the end, the average white is also struggling day to day and worried about paying the debts, affording food and keeping a job. As long as there are 50 types of toothbrushes on the supermarket shelves, McDonalds is open and the kids aren't screaming, why care about the next town, let alone the jungle in the global south?
There needs to be a rise in class consciousness, as well as the realization among citizens of the Global North and South that it's the overall ultra-capitalist system that's screwing them over.
Working-class people need to recognize their shared struggles, feel a sense of solidarity, and support each other however they can in resisting and pushing back against this evil system.
This is true, but it will not happen. The divide is the whites versus the rest of the human races.
The whites are told that their problems stem from the global south, taking away jobs and creating financial problems.
Furthermore, the whites are constantly informed that the global south is the biggest threat to their lives and livelihoods.
The US has a massive propaganda budget and highly professional and effective teams to ensure this narrative is consistent and unabating. Washington has a budget of 1.4 billion dollars for the next few years to create anti-Chinese sentiment across the Whitelands and in other countries. All part of the overall strategy to contain, suppress and generate consent for war against China.
I don't believe that any attempt to counter this will succeed. The whites have control over global social media and the mainstream media. The one exception is TikTok, which seems to be off the radar at the moment as it is used extensively by the US election candidates. After the elections I'm sure it will be back in the firing line.
But there is still the racial hierarchy with the whities dominant. At the elite top, there are very few non-whites. Obama is one, but I suspect he is a closet whitie, as well as a closet gay.
As prescient and wise people have observed. What we do to others inevitably will come home. Consider all the police murders of Black men. Then the fact we have a high prisoner rate compared to like/similar economies. Gaza was the world's largest outdoors concentration camp. Prison.
Frankly, political and corporate influences on mainstream media must be banned. Having independent, objective media is key to a well-informed, aware society.
Not gonna happen. I would be happy with alternative media having equal access. It was that way until 2017 when the gvt. illegally decided to get involved. And break up the media giants. Let's go back to 100 voices.
"A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say: "This is not just." It will look at our alliance with the landed gentry of Latin America and say: "This is not just." The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just. A true revolution of values will lay hands on the world order and say of war: "This way of settling differences is not just." This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into veins of people normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death."
For those who may be unaware, this is a quote from MLK’s “Beyond Vietnam” speech, delivered 4/4/‘67, exactly one year before he was assassinated by the U.S. government (and if you question that assertion, look up the Loyd Jowers trial. A unanimous jury found that the government conspired to kill Dr. King).
The kind of material that Kamala Harris and Lloyd Austin ain’t ever read, while falsely claiming to represent progress for the country and for minorities in it.
Hopefully sooner rather than later. The common people need to look at things from a class-based perspective, recognize that this global capitalist system is evil and the root cause of many of society's problems, and unite to overthrow it.
Once that tipping point of drastic declining standards of living, formation of a police state, growing censorship, has been reached, civil disobedience leading to real revolutionary activity will happen
But even amongst those of us who are distraught by Israel’s psychopathic rampage, probably most of us don’t know much or anything about the catastrophe in Sudan, nor do we talk about it. It’s a microcosm of the larger western world’s selective awareness and concern. That should really bother all of us. I know it bothers me.
"We don’t really think about all the exploitative imperialist extraction of resources and labor that makes our lifestyles possible". I think about the exploitative relationship we in the "western world" have all the time. I live in an area where the exploited are on one side of the road and the exploiters are on the other side. I try to spend as little time on the exploiters side as possible. I don't think I am the only one thinking like this either. I am disgusted by the people who support Israel's "right to self defense" but I have been fortunate to have been surprised by others who are horrified by the silence of our governments about the genocide in Gaza. I have been fortunate to meet many who see this as another time in history when there is silence and twisted thinking around a genocide. Nobody knows what to do other than go to demos, sign petitions and talk to other people about it. We don't have a lot of power to bring about the instant change many of us would like to see.
I too have been surprised by the number of Western citizens, especially in the US and UK who're protesting their government's direct role in this genocide.....given how much their subjected to propaganda and misinformation.
In this period of time, we must use this opportunity to raise further awareness among our respective populations to the urgency of removing these neo-imperialists from power. It's only through people's power can we change this evil system.
Pile into a car with a bunch of your like-minded friends and visit your Senator's office and raise good caine. Do it frequently.Then write letters to the editor. And, pester them into doing Town Halls. Squeaky wheel.Alternatively. Check out Hedges' interview of Kshama Sawant.
Do Not Vote for those Who Support Genocide (w/ Kshama Sawant ...
Kshama Sawant, the socialist and former Seattle City Council member who won the battle for a $15 minimum wage, introduced the Amazon tax and championed ...
That sure is true. There are all those Europeans living in what some people today call "vassal states" of the USA. Then there are Aussies. Not even a wad of spit separates their government from the USA. Japan and Taiwan and South Korea are not exactly "western" but sure do like our military pre-eminence (despite the fact we lose more wars than win them since WW2)(maybe it's really our bombs they love)(or our neoliberal hawks who love their investment portfolios from using or selling bombs, bullets, drones, missiles and F-35 Lightning II's. Then there's the hapless little nations who know better than cross sanction-happy USA.
Not being willing to see what the truth is tells you everything you need to know. Where this is the hardest, I find, is with family, and friends who are like family. Being loving kind with those who seem ignorant is less of a challenge when you realize you would have nobody at all in your life if you spoke truth. Then you have to live with your choices. It feels like hell.
I very much relate to how you feel. I've disowned most of my family and friends (in my mind - without telling them that explicitly - though they may have figured as much). There is still the need to maintain 'some' level of relations - your parents are your parents (you don't have a choice) and your siblings are your siblings (again, no choice). It's tough, challenging, and emotionally draining...
Yes. My point is that sure, I could make them angry, and then I lose family and friends, when the count is already low...in other words, of course I want them to wake up, but I cannot afford to be the one to do it. Also, they are VERY asleep, with no ears to hear. I could feel bad about this, but I choose to keep my tenuous hold on these relationships rather than be completely hated and thoroughly shunned.
We are a captive audience in so many ways. I watch the evening news not for the news but to see what’s being pushed and what’s being left out. Gaza is ignored pretty much and there’s a perfunctory mention of the death toll or latest slaughter but the news quickly switches to some weather report or Trump outrage or something equally vapid. I don’t think Americans really want to know. Anytime I’ve brought up the subject I’ve been told “it’s depressing” or “I don’t like to hear negative stuff.”
I’ve been doing the same, just watching the ‘news’ in appalled fascination ( Australia) its mind boggling and enraging what that feed to us as ‘news’ and everything they leave out ( and it still takes an hour because it’s full of ad breaks)
Accurate except--for the much larger number of even more unacknowledged lives strapped UNDER the slaves strapped under our shoes. All the nonhuman beings in the world, who are dying, displaced by humans and our livestock. Humans now make up about 30% of the mass of mammals and our livestock over 60%--ALL the wild creatures together now total 4 %. Insects are declining at a steady 2% per year. A few more decades of this and we will have done so much damage to ecosystems that we won't survive either. And hardly anybody talks about this crisis, even those who worry about climate change.. This is not an issue that is "more important" than the ignorance and indifference of privileged humans toward the less privileged--it's part of the same phenomenon, the same aggressive, violent culture based on domination. Stepping back before it's too late from global annihilation due to ecological destruction goes hand in hand with removing the blinders that keep us from seeing "the other" as human. But since the most sociopathic among us own and control the communication systems, and these people are literally insane, caring about nothing but getting even richer--it doesn't look good.
"We’re going to have to start thinking about humanity as a whole and stop living the lie that we are not intimately interconnected with the lives on every populated continent."
As well as intimately interconnect with the lives of every living thing on the planet. Westerners have got to crawl out of their shell and see that the entire earth is full of people and animals and plants that ALL deserve to live and thrive. Our selfish ways will be our undoing, and rightly so, one day.
My take on the education and emancipation of American society is that it will happen if and only if material forces converge to make it unavoidable.
America is the most provincial country in the West, and though it has exported movies and sports entertainment, the lives of most Americans are largely comprised of family, church, and, if they are fortunate, the drudgery of repetitive work that pays enough to yield fatigue and docility.
The leaders of the people who live in the states that are designated as enemies have learned a lot while the American public has been comfortable or busy trying to be.
China has diligently put its energies toward national economic success, and in the 30 years that it has achieved great economic development, the USA was high on its own fumes and went from being a weak democratic republic to an oligarchy careening toward fascism, commandeered by Ivy League wunderkinds with degrees in hucksterism.
The big looming question that scares anyone with active brain cells is will the receding empire opt for a nuclear winter before coming to terms with its own mortality. With self interested billionaires making the big decisions, I fear for the human race.
Black Americans are often viewed as an internal third world colony in the U.S.
Certain health disparities between Central Harlem and the rest of New York City can be attributed to 'avoidable causes' such as substandard housing quality, poverty, and law enforcement violence – all of which are issues identified by the American Public Health Association as key social determinants of health. These deaths that can be attributed to avoidable causes are known as "avertable deaths" of "excess mortality'"in public health, or more commonly referred to as "structural racism."
Redlining/lousy housing, overcrowding, food deserts, police killings, Covid, lack of hospitals, high infant mortality rates, Black men disproportionately in prison for jobs for uneducated white men (in Amerikkka prison doctors are usually unlicensed and fired from other facilities), pollution/highways/garbage facilities, there are so many reasons Black people in the U.S. die significantly before whites.
When Bernie was running in 2016 I kept asking people if they knew what his foreign policy was and I was told that it didn’t matter to them because they wanted him to win on his domestic policy. It didn’t matter how many times I told them that unless money for foreign adventures was reined in he wouldn’t get his domestic policies passed.
People won’t see that as long as most of our money goes to wars we will never get anything that helps we the people.
Our infrastructure, schools, ect are broken because the government spends trillions on foreign spending and the dufuses that vote don’t give a damn. Americans deserve the government they get because they are blinded to reality.
It is propaganda, girl, that leads us to continue to believe in the military primacy of the United States and NATO, while Russian hypersonics are 150% faster than American ones; to continue to believe in the economic primacy of the United States, while Chinese GDP exceeds that of America by 20%; to continue to believe in formal Western democracy, which is instead only a dictatorship dominated by those who, through the banking system, control money; to believe in Israel's right to take over the Middle East at any cost; to affirm the myths of competition and consumerism; to not perceive that every day in the world over twenty thousand children die of hunger and/or curable diseases; to exploit mysticisms, ideologies and religious beliefs to maintain power; and so on, clouding consciences that, as we all know, depend on material conditions and not the other way around. But, it cannot and must not last!
Which is why, when asked about the genocide in Gaza, Kamala can say, "yeah that sucks but don't you want a lower grocery bill?" and most Democrats feel no shame whatsoever. It's appalling.
I talked to my therapist about this as she told me she voted Kamala. Once I left our session I wondered if she felt any guilt for her vote. I doubt so.
Humans are masters at rationalizing. Millions of Germans at one time could attest.
We're not so much rational animals as rationalizing animals.
Yes, reasoning (logic, critical thinking, etc.) and rationalizing (emotional satisfaction/acceptance/justification) are different skills.
WE?!?
You're a semiferal animal, so I wasn't including you. :-)
A vote for Kamala is a vote for the corporatized Democratic Establishment. Status Quo. Did regular ole citizens like you and me choose Kamala to be the Democratic candidate for president? No. The corporatized members of the Business Party - a speck to the left called the Democrats - selected Harris. For us to rubber stamp. They selected Biden. For us to rubber stamp. Did the corporatized Democratic Establishment put together an Open Convention to select the presidential nominee? Time factor is not an acceptable excuse. Look clearly at the array of major problems, you know them. Genocide and Climate Catastrophe share the #1 spot. Had we a Democratic Party keenly tuned into the citizens, would we still have these same deeply moral intense problems? What proof do you have that the corporatized Democratic Establishment gives a single hoot about the genocide. The test? Walking their talk. To what extent do they do that? Can you remember a time? The corporatized Democratic Establishment belongs to the AIPAC Super Big Money Club. They know killing banks their portfolios. You don't look a gift horse in the eye...is the old saying.
Good people have blind spots too. The less you know about the true political machinery the more you rely on domestic propaganda, part of which trades in emotional blackmail besides lying. Like if you're a good person you'd vote for Kamala because if you don't then you are bad person because democracy dies and authoritarianism takes its place. Trouble is we don't have a democracy. Had we one, you and I would have had a say -after listening to those throwing their hat in the ring- in an Open Convention and voted for who most represents us. The corporatized Democratic Establishment "anointed" Harris and pushed her on us. Of course she's singing their preferred tune. What evidence in her background tells you she has deep roots (called convictions) for the common person of any colored packaging?
Wow. I wonder if “therapists” have therapists too?
She has told me that I help her open her mind to a different point of view and then talks to her therapist about it. The funny thing is I’m finishing up my masters to become a therapist.
Ha! Wasn’t expecting that…you should send her a bill too :)
Absolutely they do - and ought to if they don't.
Shockingly to me, I recently discovered that those referred to as counsellors where I live DO NOT have to have counselling themselves to certify.
Theyre supposed to, really. But why would their therapists be any more awake in this respect than they are? We're living in The Matrix
Why would any therapist know anything in particular ? Some priests/rabbis/imams might well do - depending on their relationship with and knowledge of God . I have heard plenty of good sense and rational humility from such .
Why does anybody need a therapist. Can't you think for yourselves?
They do!
Yes, they definitely do.
I know that Freudians are required to have therapy.
So sad. And enraging, frankly.
I'd be getting a new therapist.
I don’t blindly trust my therapist as I can discern which information is valuable to me and which is not. In my opinion, I believe I can learn from anyone even if their perspective doesn't allign with my own. In my case, I have learned a lot about how the brain works which helps with understanding my actions that has been impacted by my PTSD from my military service. Also it’s nice that I get to lead the conversation and can openly express my opinions. Don’t worry, I’m not afraid to tell my therapist that I don’t believe in her views, we’ve had multiple healthy and heated discussions where we both came out of with a better understanding of each other. I personally think this is a better dynamic than someone who I aligned with.
Sorry, I can't trust someone who supports someone who's committing genocide. And I'm sure your therapist voted for Harris because she "supports" women🙄 If Harris really supported women or anyone really, she'd stop the genocide. Harris only cares about herself just like Trump.
I think a lot of Americans are misinformed or uninformed not due to any fault of their own. I know this from talking with my therapist as I said before in another comment I have helped her see another point of view that without me as her patient she wouldn’t have seen. I feel like I am helping her open her eyes and curiosity a little bit. But that can be my idealistic view of life. I’m not sure but I believe people can change, I use myself as an example.
In this day and age where information is literally at people's fingertips, there is no excuse for remaining ignorant. Where's your therapist's curiosity? How about their critical thinking skills? Does she have no interest in learning about the history of the Nazi and Zionist collaboration. Also, this isn't a matter of opinion 🙄 Israel should not exist. It's a Western backed colonial settlement. If I could learn about the history of Israel prior to the internet, there's absolutely no excuse for not learning about it now.
Exactly! How is she supporting women when she supports the murder of mothers and their children?
I don’t know. You would have to ask her.
I wouldn't trust a therapist who votes Kamala and who lacks a vision and strategy.
I don’t blindly trust my therapist as i can discern which information is valuable to me which is not. In my opinion, I believe I can learn from anyone even if their perspective doesn't allign with my own. In my case, I have learned a lot about how the brain works which helps with understanding my actions that has been impacted by my PTSD from my military service. Also it’s nice that I get to lead the conversation and can openly express my opinions.
I doubt it too
Humans are masters at rationalizing.
I would clarify that to “deviously manipulated humans.” Clear-eyed humans can and have existed. Unfortunately, we live in a time when most of us are subjected to devious manipulation 24/7/365 by what Caitlin rightly describes as “the most sophisticated propaganda machine in human history.” I hope we live to see the end of that machine, and can become more clear-eyed again.
BRICS is coming down the pike Kollibri. If you haven't already, take a listen to anything Prof Jeffrey Sachs (deeply experienced, with a solid moral compass, and very smart) says about BRICS and Putin's handling of the recent BRICS meetings in Russia. I found it most impressive. A refreshing alternative view and practice of inter-nation collaboration. Strikingly candid and on the money about the USA's basic attitude toward other nations. At this very early stage - sets the
USA's superior attitude (condescending) in bas relief.
Yes, Sachs is great! I’ve watched many interviews with him and always appreciate his takes.
I've been watching as BRICS moves forward. It's going to take some time to get around the SWIFT system.
https://korybko.substack.com/p/did-the-latest-brics-summit-achieve?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=835783&post_id=151015332&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1cc3o&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
Clean Link: https://korybko.substack.com/p/did-the-latest-brics-summit-achieve
Contrary to popular belief, stupid humans are less prone to cognitive dissonance than are the intelligent and educated, because the more clever and educated are better at symbol manipulation, and have more to lose as a result of wrongthink.
Agreed. Well said. By clear-eyed, I didn’t mean “intelligent” or “educated.” I meant perceptive people who, because they are able to accept reality for what it is, have no need or desire to rationalize.
I don’t know anyone who never rationalizes (and I certainly still indulge in rationalization myself) but there’s a spectrum, and yeah, “intelligent” and “educated” people tend to be grouped at the wrong end of that spectrum.
True. Dick Cheney is intelligent and educated, and still a genocidal warmonger.
Perfect example.
I was thinking of people I went to school with, lol, but yes.
Even cats rationalize sometimes.
Please - could you please elaborate /explain this part - "the more clever and educated are better at symbol manipulation, and have more to lose as a result of wrongthink." Giving us a concrete example of this would be clarifyingly helpful.
Look at some of the people who join cults. They're not hillbillies.
This reminds of (ff to 29:16)
https://youtu.be/kaeZLjQVFVU?si=0aSXxXn5DIiKzf7o
Yes, it is. So many supporters are stuck in domestic issues, not recognizing the huge, devastating impact of their country's foreign policies.
This is how successful the propaganda and conditioning has been!
Maybe, but I think most USA people have never been interested in much outside of their country. I question whether most of them could find Iraq on a map. 6% can't find the USA on a map of the world. I have read that only 15% of Congresspersons have a passport. Sarah Palin was elected governor and nominated for VP without knowing why north and south Korea were separate countries.
That's quite sad and dangerous, considering that these people support/vote for a leader of the most powerful country with such huge influence on the rest of the world. They can't afford to be ignorant on these foreign issues.
All this goes to show that what you need to win in Politics is NOT intelligence or knowledge or morals or education. What you need to WIN IN POLITICS is (1) ability to bullshit (2) ability to act (as in acting/pretending) (3) ability to deliver speeches (written by other people) (4) good/acceptable physical appearance (5) ability to gaslight/con/deceive/manipulate people (6) ability to negotiate (deal-making) (7) ability to project strength (which is mostly fake) (8) questionable & malleable morals (9) others...too many to list...
Touché, what more to say!!
I couldn’t quite figure out how cheaper groceries and abortion on demand could be linked to genocide.
They don't - which is precisely the point. They don't wont you to think/focus on the Genocide and the Palestine/Israel problem - they want you to shop and consume and spend money and time in activities that make the 1% wealthier (with some leftover crumbs for the others if you're lucky).
Stereotypically, the US views many countries as beneath us as you stated. Africa? Maybe commercials about starving kids, sending them food. There are over a billion people there who live in many countries. Some forced labor in diamond mines among many other things. Occassionally South Africa gets recognition. India is known as an outsourcing of cheap labor, again over a billion people there. India is not an enemy of the state, but outside memes, the country doesn't come up much, as a former colony or imperialist hold of England, it really isn't considered. Ghandi may come to mind from history books. China is considered an enemy of the state but we do so much business with them, it should be a lie...another country with more than a billion people, doing hard labor that really do feel like slaves serving us...North Korea is considered an enemy of the state Kim is regarded as a guy whose hobby involves launching nuclear rockets. Occasionally he is the big bad guy, then he is off the radar. Putin is the biggest villians in the eyes of most in the US. Russia needs no introduction...The Middle Eastern countries outside Saudi Arabia and Israel are basically considered enemies or largely unknown. Mexico is considered...I don't know, like some hot button issue due to immigration. South America is generally ignored save for Brazil and Columbia to most people, some inferences of gangs in South America, but not a place that gets talked about, kind of your point.
Why? It is easier to control people mentally when you limit their world view. Most people in the United States do not pay attention to all the other countries, you know, like the ones you often write about because as you said, the US deliberately limits its discussion on foreign policy...Gaza is an example. All those countries we bomb? Hard to get people's consent if you tell them they are just ordinary people like them living their life.
Yeah, that's one thing about the US news media: the local, smaller news outlets specifically limit coverage of foreign news so that people's worldview and awareness on such issues are in turn quite limited.
And for the main news sources, they only push a particular narrative on foreign issues that align with the neoliberal, warmongering interests of the ruling class.
"Hard to get people's consent if you tell them they are just ordinary people like them living their life."
That's why TikTok is so reviled by the PTB, people are exposed to the idea that children in Africa play just like children in Cleveland, Muslim women aren't really all beaten down domestic slaves, not everyone in Colombia is in a cocaine cartel, grandparents in India dote over their grandchildren just like grandparents in Toronto. That's a scary thing for the narrative control.
Israel!?!
It has annoyed me for a long time that what happens in the US affects the rest of the world, but we (as in the rest of the world) have no vote and no say in the matter.
The US world view is summarized in Blinken's "if you are not at the table, you are on the menu".
The whites are at the table, the global south is on the menu, (and on the floor, looking for crumbs).
Although, in the end, the average white is also struggling day to day and worried about paying the debts, affording food and keeping a job. As long as there are 50 types of toothbrushes on the supermarket shelves, McDonalds is open and the kids aren't screaming, why care about the next town, let alone the jungle in the global south?
There needs to be a rise in class consciousness, as well as the realization among citizens of the Global North and South that it's the overall ultra-capitalist system that's screwing them over.
Working-class people need to recognize their shared struggles, feel a sense of solidarity, and support each other however they can in resisting and pushing back against this evil system.
This is true, but it will not happen. The divide is the whites versus the rest of the human races.
The whites are told that their problems stem from the global south, taking away jobs and creating financial problems.
Furthermore, the whites are constantly informed that the global south is the biggest threat to their lives and livelihoods.
The US has a massive propaganda budget and highly professional and effective teams to ensure this narrative is consistent and unabating. Washington has a budget of 1.4 billion dollars for the next few years to create anti-Chinese sentiment across the Whitelands and in other countries. All part of the overall strategy to contain, suppress and generate consent for war against China.
I don't believe that any attempt to counter this will succeed. The whites have control over global social media and the mainstream media. The one exception is TikTok, which seems to be off the radar at the moment as it is used extensively by the US election candidates. After the elections I'm sure it will be back in the firing line.
"The whites"? Most Western countries come in all colours and shades these days!
Which level ? McDonald workers, menial job. Well sure, minorities pushed down there.
The leadership and control of money and power are noticeably less diverse.
Yes, they do.
But there is still the racial hierarchy with the whities dominant. At the elite top, there are very few non-whites. Obama is one, but I suspect he is a closet whitie, as well as a closet gay.
Exactly. That’s revolutionary thinking I would say!!!
As prescient and wise people have observed. What we do to others inevitably will come home. Consider all the police murders of Black men. Then the fact we have a high prisoner rate compared to like/similar economies. Gaza was the world's largest outdoors concentration camp. Prison.
Gaza is now the world's biggest extermination cage, and now boasts the highest human death rate per square meter /day on the planet.
Essentially the Palestinians are living on death row, except the Israelis don't provide food, power and sanitation.
Consider the gradual but consistent degradation of free speech, equal rights, social equality , etc. delivered by our government
So much is airbrushed out of mainstream awareness.I think BRICS may change that.
Frankly, political and corporate influences on mainstream media must be banned. Having independent, objective media is key to a well-informed, aware society.
Wishful thinking
Not gonna happen. I would be happy with alternative media having equal access. It was that way until 2017 when the gvt. illegally decided to get involved. And break up the media giants. Let's go back to 100 voices.
"A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say: "This is not just." It will look at our alliance with the landed gentry of Latin America and say: "This is not just." The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just. A true revolution of values will lay hands on the world order and say of war: "This way of settling differences is not just." This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into veins of people normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death."
For those who may be unaware, this is a quote from MLK’s “Beyond Vietnam” speech, delivered 4/4/‘67, exactly one year before he was assassinated by the U.S. government (and if you question that assertion, look up the Loyd Jowers trial. A unanimous jury found that the government conspired to kill Dr. King).
The kind of material that Kamala Harris and Lloyd Austin ain’t ever read, while falsely claiming to represent progress for the country and for minorities in it.
Hopefully sooner rather than later. The common people need to look at things from a class-based perspective, recognize that this global capitalist system is evil and the root cause of many of society's problems, and unite to overthrow it.
Once that tipping point of drastic declining standards of living, formation of a police state, growing censorship, has been reached, civil disobedience leading to real revolutionary activity will happen
But even amongst those of us who are distraught by Israel’s psychopathic rampage, probably most of us don’t know much or anything about the catastrophe in Sudan, nor do we talk about it. It’s a microcosm of the larger western world’s selective awareness and concern. That should really bother all of us. I know it bothers me.
"We don’t really think about all the exploitative imperialist extraction of resources and labor that makes our lifestyles possible". I think about the exploitative relationship we in the "western world" have all the time. I live in an area where the exploited are on one side of the road and the exploiters are on the other side. I try to spend as little time on the exploiters side as possible. I don't think I am the only one thinking like this either. I am disgusted by the people who support Israel's "right to self defense" but I have been fortunate to have been surprised by others who are horrified by the silence of our governments about the genocide in Gaza. I have been fortunate to meet many who see this as another time in history when there is silence and twisted thinking around a genocide. Nobody knows what to do other than go to demos, sign petitions and talk to other people about it. We don't have a lot of power to bring about the instant change many of us would like to see.
I too have been surprised by the number of Western citizens, especially in the US and UK who're protesting their government's direct role in this genocide.....given how much their subjected to propaganda and misinformation.
In this period of time, we must use this opportunity to raise further awareness among our respective populations to the urgency of removing these neo-imperialists from power. It's only through people's power can we change this evil system.
Pile into a car with a bunch of your like-minded friends and visit your Senator's office and raise good caine. Do it frequently.Then write letters to the editor. And, pester them into doing Town Halls. Squeaky wheel.Alternatively. Check out Hedges' interview of Kshama Sawant.
Do Not Vote for those Who Support Genocide (w/ Kshama Sawant ...
The Chris Hedges Report
https://chrishedges.substack.com › do-not-vote-for-thos...
Kshama Sawant, the socialist and former Seattle City Council member who won the battle for a $15 minimum wage, introduced the Amazon tax and championed ...
not everyone in the western world lives in the US
That sure is true. There are all those Europeans living in what some people today call "vassal states" of the USA. Then there are Aussies. Not even a wad of spit separates their government from the USA. Japan and Taiwan and South Korea are not exactly "western" but sure do like our military pre-eminence (despite the fact we lose more wars than win them since WW2)(maybe it's really our bombs they love)(or our neoliberal hawks who love their investment portfolios from using or selling bombs, bullets, drones, missiles and F-35 Lightning II's. Then there's the hapless little nations who know better than cross sanction-happy USA.
Effective change, by it nature, takes patience and time. Spread the word among friends, and others that change in effect, will be revolutionary
Not being willing to see what the truth is tells you everything you need to know. Where this is the hardest, I find, is with family, and friends who are like family. Being loving kind with those who seem ignorant is less of a challenge when you realize you would have nobody at all in your life if you spoke truth. Then you have to live with your choices. It feels like hell.
I very much relate to how you feel. I've disowned most of my family and friends (in my mind - without telling them that explicitly - though they may have figured as much). There is still the need to maintain 'some' level of relations - your parents are your parents (you don't have a choice) and your siblings are your siblings (again, no choice). It's tough, challenging, and emotionally draining...
Everything you say I hear very clearly.
Truer words are appropriately spoken here. Until a critical point of desperation and anger are reached in society, nothing really will happen
Yes. My point is that sure, I could make them angry, and then I lose family and friends, when the count is already low...in other words, of course I want them to wake up, but I cannot afford to be the one to do it. Also, they are VERY asleep, with no ears to hear. I could feel bad about this, but I choose to keep my tenuous hold on these relationships rather than be completely hated and thoroughly shunned.
Agree with you. Your relationships are valuable to you . You can’t change the imposed political stands or biases of your friends.
We are a captive audience in so many ways. I watch the evening news not for the news but to see what’s being pushed and what’s being left out. Gaza is ignored pretty much and there’s a perfunctory mention of the death toll or latest slaughter but the news quickly switches to some weather report or Trump outrage or something equally vapid. I don’t think Americans really want to know. Anytime I’ve brought up the subject I’ve been told “it’s depressing” or “I don’t like to hear negative stuff.”
I’ve been doing the same, just watching the ‘news’ in appalled fascination ( Australia) its mind boggling and enraging what that feed to us as ‘news’ and everything they leave out ( and it still takes an hour because it’s full of ad breaks)
Agree - SBS is better than ABC or the appalling 7, 9 and 10 - despite the ad breaks. The real news is what they leave out ……
So true- the real news is what they leave out- yes!
Accurate except--for the much larger number of even more unacknowledged lives strapped UNDER the slaves strapped under our shoes. All the nonhuman beings in the world, who are dying, displaced by humans and our livestock. Humans now make up about 30% of the mass of mammals and our livestock over 60%--ALL the wild creatures together now total 4 %. Insects are declining at a steady 2% per year. A few more decades of this and we will have done so much damage to ecosystems that we won't survive either. And hardly anybody talks about this crisis, even those who worry about climate change.. This is not an issue that is "more important" than the ignorance and indifference of privileged humans toward the less privileged--it's part of the same phenomenon, the same aggressive, violent culture based on domination. Stepping back before it's too late from global annihilation due to ecological destruction goes hand in hand with removing the blinders that keep us from seeing "the other" as human. But since the most sociopathic among us own and control the communication systems, and these people are literally insane, caring about nothing but getting even richer--it doesn't look good.
Good chance I'll die around then. It might be kind of cool to go out in a global apocalypse. Dramatic!
"We’re going to have to start thinking about humanity as a whole and stop living the lie that we are not intimately interconnected with the lives on every populated continent."
As well as intimately interconnect with the lives of every living thing on the planet. Westerners have got to crawl out of their shell and see that the entire earth is full of people and animals and plants that ALL deserve to live and thrive. Our selfish ways will be our undoing, and rightly so, one day.
My take on the education and emancipation of American society is that it will happen if and only if material forces converge to make it unavoidable.
America is the most provincial country in the West, and though it has exported movies and sports entertainment, the lives of most Americans are largely comprised of family, church, and, if they are fortunate, the drudgery of repetitive work that pays enough to yield fatigue and docility.
The leaders of the people who live in the states that are designated as enemies have learned a lot while the American public has been comfortable or busy trying to be.
China has diligently put its energies toward national economic success, and in the 30 years that it has achieved great economic development, the USA was high on its own fumes and went from being a weak democratic republic to an oligarchy careening toward fascism, commandeered by Ivy League wunderkinds with degrees in hucksterism.
The big looming question that scares anyone with active brain cells is will the receding empire opt for a nuclear winter before coming to terms with its own mortality. With self interested billionaires making the big decisions, I fear for the human race.
Black Americans are often viewed as an internal third world colony in the U.S.
Certain health disparities between Central Harlem and the rest of New York City can be attributed to 'avoidable causes' such as substandard housing quality, poverty, and law enforcement violence – all of which are issues identified by the American Public Health Association as key social determinants of health. These deaths that can be attributed to avoidable causes are known as "avertable deaths" of "excess mortality'"in public health, or more commonly referred to as "structural racism."
Redlining/lousy housing, overcrowding, food deserts, police killings, Covid, lack of hospitals, high infant mortality rates, Black men disproportionately in prison for jobs for uneducated white men (in Amerikkka prison doctors are usually unlicensed and fired from other facilities), pollution/highways/garbage facilities, there are so many reasons Black people in the U.S. die significantly before whites.
I know race is not the main determinant of health and life expectancy in the UK but it is in the U.S. (https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/13te521/life_expectancy_of_raceethnicity_in_the_uk/),
Entrenched systemic racism!!
When Bernie was running in 2016 I kept asking people if they knew what his foreign policy was and I was told that it didn’t matter to them because they wanted him to win on his domestic policy. It didn’t matter how many times I told them that unless money for foreign adventures was reined in he wouldn’t get his domestic policies passed.
People won’t see that as long as most of our money goes to wars we will never get anything that helps we the people.
Our infrastructure, schools, ect are broken because the government spends trillions on foreign spending and the dufuses that vote don’t give a damn. Americans deserve the government they get because they are blinded to reality.
But the map doesn't include ISRAEL!!!
It is propaganda, girl, that leads us to continue to believe in the military primacy of the United States and NATO, while Russian hypersonics are 150% faster than American ones; to continue to believe in the economic primacy of the United States, while Chinese GDP exceeds that of America by 20%; to continue to believe in formal Western democracy, which is instead only a dictatorship dominated by those who, through the banking system, control money; to believe in Israel's right to take over the Middle East at any cost; to affirm the myths of competition and consumerism; to not perceive that every day in the world over twenty thousand children die of hunger and/or curable diseases; to exploit mysticisms, ideologies and religious beliefs to maintain power; and so on, clouding consciences that, as we all know, depend on material conditions and not the other way around. But, it cannot and must not last!