Listen to a reading of this article: ❖ Your efforts to understand the world will fail unless you account for the fact that (A) echo chamber dynamics have a vastly under-appreciated effect on the way we all take in information, and (B) that rich and powerful people are actively trying to manipulate your perception of reality.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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
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.
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?
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?