Getting rid of the draft -- a kind of lefty dream during Vietnam -- turned out to be a huge mistake, uncoupling the military from the will of the people it claims to serve. Huge street protests are just what's called for now. Instead, we've got passive consumers and volunteer killers who are reflexively thanked for their "service," only without the quotation marks.
Who would have ever thought that they could wage endless wars of aggression even without the draft? I guess control of the media served them just as well as the draft did back in the day. Absent gory combat video footage on the six o'clock evening news, they can paint enlistment in the armed forces as something it isn't, and the populace will swallow it.
Helps that for a lot of people, the military is the best job available, not to mention the GI Bill and other bennies that may otherwise not be on offer.
It's also my understanding that illegals can sign up for the military as a fast track to citizenship. We're told to look on military members as heroes; no, those are firefighters and inner-city math teachers. When I look on members of the military, I think to myself, "Oh, so WalMart wasn't hiring that week."
Either that or the offspring of the rich and connected will find medical deferments or stateside deployments securing America's vital interests in defending Miami Beach and keeping it safe for Our Precious Freedoms.
I seriously doubt that we would still be in Afghanistan since 2003 if everyone sent there had to ponder the very personal question that the draft imposes: "Is this foreign adventure worth my life and does it really serve my country?" Doubtless the powers-that-be know this.
True, but when Joe Biden is considered a leftist, what is one suppose to do? Considering the failures of the Justice Democrats, even the term "Progressive" has no meaning when trying to talk about the "real left" (as you call it).
Yes, I joined and promoted after Bernie dropped out, and helped with some networking. Hope they can get over the growing pains. I am one of the original US Greens. I first voted alt for POTUS 1980, for Barry Commoner.
Yes, for the time being, we are buried under this rubble and have to dig our way out. We have decades of this toxic identity politics that will need to be deconstructed and demonetized.
If only the worst sin of American leftists was that they focus exclusively on domestic policy.
Rather, they focus exclusively on the sorts of domestic policies that do nothing to affect the way the pie is sliced.
Whether we hound Freddi out of a job for saying that there are only 26 genders plus genders yet to be discovered and interminable arguments over whether some dead dude meets current standards for politically correct sainthood does not change anything fundamental about who runs things and who is entitled to what and how much.
Who would you qualify as "anyone"? I've run across dozens of articles about McAfee already today. The attacks on Press.TV are also well known to me.
As far as Commander X, why didn't you include Assange in your complaint? Could it be that the list is endless? What about Berta Caceres? Where's your complaint about Snowden? Chelsea anyone? John Kiriakou?
You too are one of those "Leftists", Caitlin names that, "Pay[s] more attention to obscure abstract concepts.".
If it is important enough to you, to highlight specific individual you might have at least provided a link to an article that explains the situation.
BOOM ... mic drop with volume at 11 ... and yes, just as infants don't need us to explain walking and laughing and eating by sitting them in front of a whiteboard with detailed diagrams, awakened awareness is emerging regardless.
I generally have no qualms with Johnstone's writing, including much of this post. But the item I found jarring is the one that goes "How to be an American leftist."
Two things about this quip. First, as an American leftist that believes none of those things, how am I supposed to react? In other words, why toss everyone into one bucket that is only true of a few of them? This is something I find problematic with many of the voices who have migrated to Substack, and why I no longer respect the opinions of two of their most famous alumni, Matt Taibbi and Glenn Greenwald. These kinds of gross generalizations which are so gross as to be inaccurate start to pile up, and become insulting. I have become alienated from their opinions and no longer wish to engage with them. And why would they want to alienate anyone from their supposedly important messages? Particularly a person like me, who has been avid readers of both of their work for the better part of two decades? To sum it up, if they are simply not willing to discriminate with their often severe criticism to the point that it becomes inaccurate, why should I bother with them?
The second thing is why is this description only about leftists? I've spent my whole adult life (and them some) struggling against US imperialism and all of our foreign interventions. That's right about 35 years. And you know who I've been struggling against that whole time, who has always showed up to fight back against my efforts? Conservatives. So now, all of the sudden, this crowd shows up around Taibbi and Greenwald, but also a few other corners of the internet (not Johnstone too??), and all of the sudden criticizing conservatives suddenly becomes out of bounds. Why is that? Are all conservatives suddenly anti-empire or something? No, clearly that isn't true. I would wonder if any really are, particularly since so many in these crowds have characterized Trump as anti-empire, which makes me laugh because one wonders what your average Venezuelan would say about that, or hell -- an average Iranian. It's not even deluded, it's a ridiculously bad lie.
So yes, many people purportedly on the left in the US have lost their minds and gone to the dark side. But not all of us by any means, and I don't see what is gained by lumping all of us into one bucket. Isn't there more to lose?
I start my day with coffee, Greenwald, and Caitlin, with a few more additives, none of which involve cream and sugar. To my point: You said you no longer respect Greenwald. I'm curious as to why.
Well, I hesitate to crawl through Greenwald's posts to find examples over a message board post, but I tried to outline why I've given up ion him above. So often I find things that I think myself a target of Greenwald's criticism, which in turn gets lumped in with many more things he criticizes that I absolutely do not think. And that has happened so many times I started thinking he was simply wrong, and finally gave up on him.
Thanks. I find Greenwald's bullshit detector generally aligned with my own and struggle to remember a time when it didn't, although l know it's happened. He seems right on so many issues: the crappy Biden Administration, Israel, Silicon Valley/DNC censorship, crappy NYT reporting. The list goes on...
I understand and agree with much of what he says, and have since he started writing at Salon. I don't begrudge anyone taking that position. We are just living in weird times, just like that old Gramsci quote: "the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear." Somewhere in there is why I find myself at loggerhead with him, but entirely understand if you do not.
It's fine, but I feel like I would have gotten a more straightforward answer if I'd asked you why you don't like chocolate ice cream. This is the place for a LOL; it's too narrow to talk further.
Johnstone's description of Leftists is hyperbole, but it is completely right on.
Your statement that, "all of the sudden criticizing conservatives suddenly becomes out of bounds." indicates that you are one of those who, "Pay more attention to obscure abstract concepts [Left vs. Right] than nonstop mass murder." Taibbi's podcast, "Useless Idiots" has a segment "Republicans Suck", so it isn't as if he's abandoned criticizing the "Right".
It should be blazingly clear to everyone that the use of "Left" and "Right" to describe American Political Philosophies has become completely outdated and useless. (unless the terms are as well defined as "The Political Compass" does -- making it clear that there are very, very few American Politicians who are "Leftists".)
The "Squad" claims to be "Left" (although they use the term "Progressive" which has also been hijacked by the Oligarchy establishment), but carries out the will of the Oligarchy while gaslighting us. Why would you want to call yourself a Leftist and be considered yet another traitor to the cause? Are you one of the very few who believes in the Lesser of Two Evils?
Don't give me a line about how I don't know what a "Leftist" is. The MSM tells me everyday that Joe Biden is "Left". You need to let it go and realize you've lost that word to describe your politics.
What makes "left vs. right" an "abstract concept? It is the particulars that have been shaping politics in the West since the 18th Century. You can say that it is "outdated and useless," but I see absolutely no evidence for that.
You've totally missed the point haven't you because you ignore my "Unless". Again, another one stuck arguing details rather than grasping the bigger picture failing to recognize that there is no "Left" in American Politics.
Maybe I have missed your point, I guess we are coming from entirely different perspectives. I don't mean any disrespect, but you've failed to convinced me of what you say, "there is no left."
It is a question of how the MSM frames the choice for the elections. It has nothing at all to do with what might normally be considered "left" vs "right".
Don't you find yourself discussing American Politics with folks who believe there is such a huge difference between Biden and Trump when there is actually very little difference?
Remember this discussion started with Caitlin's definition of an American Leftist and people taking offense to that description -- which is absolutely perfect in the context of American Politics.
No, I understand the differences are basically cosmetic. I just don't think anyone that would take offense is a leftist, and also don't think politics ends at the doors of the halls of power.
Iran, China, India, Pakistan, and Russia are all jostling to boost their influence in Afghanistan after the U.S. withdrawal, launching quiet diplomatic power plays aimed at both the Afghan government and the Taliban.
As for LSD, I know more people who found Jesus because of that stuff. Here is a fun story about the LSD guru Leary, sent by the CIA!
After he returned to the United States in 1973 it is said that he was assigned to solitary confinement next to a “hole mate” who quoted the bible in a booming voice. This “Born Again Christian” was none other than Charles Manson. Leary left his “Turn on , tune in, drop out” campaign behind in prison, he became a self- styled prophet of “Life Extension” and “Space Exploration,” “Cyronics” and finally “Cyberspace.” All these, he said in turn with great enthusiasm, were where it was at! He had been arrested by G. Gordon Liddy in 1965 at the Deitrich estate in Millbrook, N.Y. He was photographed with a big smile going into the Duchess County jail. Almost twenty years later he was debating Liddy on the college lecture circuit (receiving a minimum of $2,500 per appearance) still wearing that same smile.
Getting rid of the draft -- a kind of lefty dream during Vietnam -- turned out to be a huge mistake, uncoupling the military from the will of the people it claims to serve. Huge street protests are just what's called for now. Instead, we've got passive consumers and volunteer killers who are reflexively thanked for their "service," only without the quotation marks.
Who would have ever thought that they could wage endless wars of aggression even without the draft? I guess control of the media served them just as well as the draft did back in the day. Absent gory combat video footage on the six o'clock evening news, they can paint enlistment in the armed forces as something it isn't, and the populace will swallow it.
Helps that for a lot of people, the military is the best job available, not to mention the GI Bill and other bennies that may otherwise not be on offer.
It's also my understanding that illegals can sign up for the military as a fast track to citizenship. We're told to look on military members as heroes; no, those are firefighters and inner-city math teachers. When I look on members of the military, I think to myself, "Oh, so WalMart wasn't hiring that week."
I know foreigners who enlisted because it is a fast track to citizenship.
That's funny, I thought Vietnam proved that the military and "the will of the people" were already uncoupled.
Either that or the offspring of the rich and connected will find medical deferments or stateside deployments securing America's vital interests in defending Miami Beach and keeping it safe for Our Precious Freedoms.
I seriously doubt that we would still be in Afghanistan since 2003 if everyone sent there had to ponder the very personal question that the draft imposes: "Is this foreign adventure worth my life and does it really serve my country?" Doubtless the powers-that-be know this.
There is a real left, it just got buried for some time in favor of Neoliberal identity polititics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX0bnXbwqQw
True, but when Joe Biden is considered a leftist, what is one suppose to do? Considering the failures of the Justice Democrats, even the term "Progressive" has no meaning when trying to talk about the "real left" (as you call it).
A new party will have to emerge, but I am not so sure we are yet enlightened enough to create an effective one here.
Are you a member?
https://peoplesparty.org
I also had some affiliation with Tom Hayden's CAMPAIGN FOR ECONOMIC DEMOCRACY early on. I dabbled a lot.
Yes, I joined and promoted after Bernie dropped out, and helped with some networking. Hope they can get over the growing pains. I am one of the original US Greens. I first voted alt for POTUS 1980, for Barry Commoner.
Yes, for the time being, we are buried under this rubble and have to dig our way out. We have decades of this toxic identity politics that will need to be deconstructed and demonetized.
If only the worst sin of American leftists was that they focus exclusively on domestic policy.
Rather, they focus exclusively on the sorts of domestic policies that do nothing to affect the way the pie is sliced.
Whether we hound Freddi out of a job for saying that there are only 26 genders plus genders yet to be discovered and interminable arguments over whether some dead dude meets current standards for politically correct sainthood does not change anything fundamental about who runs things and who is entitled to what and how much.
Who would you qualify as "anyone"? I've run across dozens of articles about McAfee already today. The attacks on Press.TV are also well known to me.
As far as Commander X, why didn't you include Assange in your complaint? Could it be that the list is endless? What about Berta Caceres? Where's your complaint about Snowden? Chelsea anyone? John Kiriakou?
You too are one of those "Leftists", Caitlin names that, "Pay[s] more attention to obscure abstract concepts.".
If it is important enough to you, to highlight specific individual you might have at least provided a link to an article that explains the situation.
Here's Bloomberg's version on Commander X: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-06-14/fugitive-hacking-suspect-from-anonymous-group-nabbed-in-mexico
I specially chose to present the Oligarchy's view. A more anti-establishment perspective can be easily found.
BOOM ... mic drop with volume at 11 ... and yes, just as infants don't need us to explain walking and laughing and eating by sitting them in front of a whiteboard with detailed diagrams, awakened awareness is emerging regardless.
I generally have no qualms with Johnstone's writing, including much of this post. But the item I found jarring is the one that goes "How to be an American leftist."
Two things about this quip. First, as an American leftist that believes none of those things, how am I supposed to react? In other words, why toss everyone into one bucket that is only true of a few of them? This is something I find problematic with many of the voices who have migrated to Substack, and why I no longer respect the opinions of two of their most famous alumni, Matt Taibbi and Glenn Greenwald. These kinds of gross generalizations which are so gross as to be inaccurate start to pile up, and become insulting. I have become alienated from their opinions and no longer wish to engage with them. And why would they want to alienate anyone from their supposedly important messages? Particularly a person like me, who has been avid readers of both of their work for the better part of two decades? To sum it up, if they are simply not willing to discriminate with their often severe criticism to the point that it becomes inaccurate, why should I bother with them?
The second thing is why is this description only about leftists? I've spent my whole adult life (and them some) struggling against US imperialism and all of our foreign interventions. That's right about 35 years. And you know who I've been struggling against that whole time, who has always showed up to fight back against my efforts? Conservatives. So now, all of the sudden, this crowd shows up around Taibbi and Greenwald, but also a few other corners of the internet (not Johnstone too??), and all of the sudden criticizing conservatives suddenly becomes out of bounds. Why is that? Are all conservatives suddenly anti-empire or something? No, clearly that isn't true. I would wonder if any really are, particularly since so many in these crowds have characterized Trump as anti-empire, which makes me laugh because one wonders what your average Venezuelan would say about that, or hell -- an average Iranian. It's not even deluded, it's a ridiculously bad lie.
So yes, many people purportedly on the left in the US have lost their minds and gone to the dark side. But not all of us by any means, and I don't see what is gained by lumping all of us into one bucket. Isn't there more to lose?
I start my day with coffee, Greenwald, and Caitlin, with a few more additives, none of which involve cream and sugar. To my point: You said you no longer respect Greenwald. I'm curious as to why.
Well, I hesitate to crawl through Greenwald's posts to find examples over a message board post, but I tried to outline why I've given up ion him above. So often I find things that I think myself a target of Greenwald's criticism, which in turn gets lumped in with many more things he criticizes that I absolutely do not think. And that has happened so many times I started thinking he was simply wrong, and finally gave up on him.
Thanks. I find Greenwald's bullshit detector generally aligned with my own and struggle to remember a time when it didn't, although l know it's happened. He seems right on so many issues: the crappy Biden Administration, Israel, Silicon Valley/DNC censorship, crappy NYT reporting. The list goes on...
I understand and agree with much of what he says, and have since he started writing at Salon. I don't begrudge anyone taking that position. We are just living in weird times, just like that old Gramsci quote: "the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear." Somewhere in there is why I find myself at loggerhead with him, but entirely understand if you do not.
It's fine, but I feel like I would have gotten a more straightforward answer if I'd asked you why you don't like chocolate ice cream. This is the place for a LOL; it's too narrow to talk further.
Johnstone's description of Leftists is hyperbole, but it is completely right on.
Your statement that, "all of the sudden criticizing conservatives suddenly becomes out of bounds." indicates that you are one of those who, "Pay more attention to obscure abstract concepts [Left vs. Right] than nonstop mass murder." Taibbi's podcast, "Useless Idiots" has a segment "Republicans Suck", so it isn't as if he's abandoned criticizing the "Right".
It should be blazingly clear to everyone that the use of "Left" and "Right" to describe American Political Philosophies has become completely outdated and useless. (unless the terms are as well defined as "The Political Compass" does -- making it clear that there are very, very few American Politicians who are "Leftists".)
The "Squad" claims to be "Left" (although they use the term "Progressive" which has also been hijacked by the Oligarchy establishment), but carries out the will of the Oligarchy while gaslighting us. Why would you want to call yourself a Leftist and be considered yet another traitor to the cause? Are you one of the very few who believes in the Lesser of Two Evils?
Don't give me a line about how I don't know what a "Leftist" is. The MSM tells me everyday that Joe Biden is "Left". You need to let it go and realize you've lost that word to describe your politics.
What makes "left vs. right" an "abstract concept? It is the particulars that have been shaping politics in the West since the 18th Century. You can say that it is "outdated and useless," but I see absolutely no evidence for that.
You've totally missed the point haven't you because you ignore my "Unless". Again, another one stuck arguing details rather than grasping the bigger picture failing to recognize that there is no "Left" in American Politics.
Maybe I have missed your point, I guess we are coming from entirely different perspectives. I don't mean any disrespect, but you've failed to convinced me of what you say, "there is no left."
Again, you left out the salient point, "In American Politics".
Checkout politicalcompass.org and remember that Biden is a "leftist".
It is a question of how the MSM frames the choice for the elections. It has nothing at all to do with what might normally be considered "left" vs "right".
Don't you find yourself discussing American Politics with folks who believe there is such a huge difference between Biden and Trump when there is actually very little difference?
Remember this discussion started with Caitlin's definition of an American Leftist and people taking offense to that description -- which is absolutely perfect in the context of American Politics.
No, I understand the differences are basically cosmetic. I just don't think anyone that would take offense is a leftist, and also don't think politics ends at the doors of the halls of power.
I'm defending Taibbi, Greenwald and Johnstone and you accuse me of being "wedded to the MSM"?
Why is it that only your opinion counts and you have the right to accuse anyone of not repeating your catechism verbatim of having noodles for brains?
Thanks for that. I often feel like a lonely voice in the wilderness!
Iran, China, India, Pakistan, and Russia are all jostling to boost their influence in Afghanistan after the U.S. withdrawal, launching quiet diplomatic power plays aimed at both the Afghan government and the Taliban.
As for LSD, I know more people who found Jesus because of that stuff. Here is a fun story about the LSD guru Leary, sent by the CIA!
After he returned to the United States in 1973 it is said that he was assigned to solitary confinement next to a “hole mate” who quoted the bible in a booming voice. This “Born Again Christian” was none other than Charles Manson. Leary left his “Turn on , tune in, drop out” campaign behind in prison, he became a self- styled prophet of “Life Extension” and “Space Exploration,” “Cyronics” and finally “Cyberspace.” All these, he said in turn with great enthusiasm, were where it was at! He had been arrested by G. Gordon Liddy in 1965 at the Deitrich estate in Millbrook, N.Y. He was photographed with a big smile going into the Duchess County jail. Almost twenty years later he was debating Liddy on the college lecture circuit (receiving a minimum of $2,500 per appearance) still wearing that same smile.
https://constantinereport.com/timothy-leary-and-the-cia/?fbclid=IwAR0RE_G-OyQnanlDV8XZMCND5mgNPh2Hb9-sCLiMN1MWim_8_yooOW0If9Q
Anyone here know the story of RAWA?