The footage out of Gaza is shocking. I thought the ukrainians were bad enough, but the Zionists are worse! This is insanity!
"NATO is the continuation of Nazi Germany" is no longer rhetoric, it is literal, objective fact. Mass ethnic cleansing, total propaganda, dictatorial crackdowns... This is the 1930s all over again.
Being somewhere on the Autism spectrum myself, I've always had a greater affinity for non-human creatures than ever for humanity. The best thing for the earth and other life forms would be for us all to disappear. My late husband and I always viewed our decision not to reproduce as our greatest contribution to Mother Nature and to the life forms who share our planet.
Being a father, and also someone whoonce thought as you do, I would like to counter your decision. You are clearly a highly consciencious person with a heart. You are just the sort of person who should be raising children, to be just as you are. The correct type of humans have the ability to make this world what it should be. But we need the correct people to breed.
You know nothing about me. For starters, my decision is now over 50 years old and I am in my 70s. I had little patience along the way with clueless people telling me blithely that I would change my mind. There are many things one can do with one's life besides adding to the serious malady of over-population, and I chose one of those different paths.
Oh my god, why is everyone so touchy, it was meant as a converation, how are we aver going to solve anything when everyone takes any counter comment so personally. Over population is a myth. the problems of this world are tenfold, but over population and climate are not an issue. People being propagandised to become materialist and to believe the over population and climate BS and all this war and hatred BS are the issues thata need solving. Look, if not having kids was the right thing for you, then fair enough, I just hope you didn't make the decision on the back of lies you took as fact.
Overpopulation is no myth. Only one third of the planet is still left for the rest of wild flora, fauna & fungi, etc., to live & thrive. You clearly think no one but humans has any right to dwell on this planet, therefore we should all keep fucking & breeding & fucking up the rest of creation. Marci, I'm with you. I don't know where I am concerning autism, but I've always said that my greatest achievement has been not to encumber the planet with my progeny.
Rob ,the world is vastly over populated and that is a leading cause of catastrophic climate change which if we don't act soon will destroy the world and all of its children. And incidentally it is bad to feel that you can judge who should and who shouldn't breed.
Jack Lomax: LOL at "the world is vastly over populated." You could put all of Earth's Population in China and the population density would be about 833/square kilometer.
In Gaza today the population density is about 6,100 per square kilometer.
Gaza is like shooting fish in a barrel for the Israelis.
Well....Jack. First, let me say, if you truely are in your 10th decade and been involved in 3 world wars, then I have nothing but respect for you. I am a pacifist and would have been protesting peace alongside you. However, we disagree on overpopulation and climate change. We could argue these points till the cows come home so for the sake of staying on topic lets just agree to disagree on those. I would also like to point out that I wasn't judging who has the right to breed, I was simply saying that if more loving, principled, consciencious people bred instead of deciding not to breed, then this world would stand more chance of sorting itself out. As it currently stands, Humans, the good and bad (however, you wish to categorise) are stuffed, and very few will probably survive past the next 10 years, not because of overpopulation or climate but because too few can see this world for what currently is and what it potentially could be.
Yes, but who in their right mind would bring children into this world today! I too opted out. I grew up without a family and understood the never ending responsibility of having children. God forbid I died like my parents did. You don't wish that lifestyle on any child. People today have children for all the wrong reasons. Often it's to save a marriage or they're lonely and need to be loved or blatant competition with others. Hence these ridiculous names!
Yeah well, if the human race never had kids because times were hard then the human wouldn't have got past 2 fucking people. Children are a blessing, of course they should be borne out of love and not just to save a bloody marriage.
You're absolutely right, its a conspiracy between sharks and bears to wipe us out. I think i'll retract my previus comment. I'm actually quite glad you and Marci chose to avoid reproduction, your kids would have beed brought up to hate themselves more than you hate yourself. That would be a tragedy on the poor little blighters.
I've always said that we human beings can only be justified on the basis that we share quite a lot of our DNA with wonderful animals - dogs, cats - and even trees. Maybe we can regain our humanity by taking their example? Bound to be an improvement.
"The world went insane a long time ago, probably before any of us were born."
The West didn't seem to be doing too badly in its evolution from the end of WWII through at least 1970. If it had continued humanely, before long humans would no longer be a net negative for the rest of the Earth. Granted, invisible seeds were already planted, mainly by and supporting spooks, neocons, and neolibs, with the 21st century bearing the fruit.
".....The West didn't seem to be doing too badly in its evolution from the end of WWII through at least 1970....."
The West = The Colonialists were in fact feeding off of the global south during that time. When OPEC rose and commodity prices rose, that was money going to the global south instead. So "the west" engineered a financial crash.
Look around you, is happening again. Engineered financial crash. To try and empowering the global south and the working class of the colonial/"NATO" countries.
- That is the important phrase. By it, I meant that the trajectory was positive: With an increasingly effective mass media at the time, the *common people* in the West began to accept and address the complaints of the oppressed, at least within their own borders. I neglected to identify at first the common people and the elites, sorry.
"So 'the west' engineered a financial crash."
- Yes, but the *common people* of the West did not -- and a majority would not -- do such a thing *knowingly*, even at that time.
"Look around you, is happening again. Engineered financial crash."
- The *common people* of the West are fighting against such things as well.
Please do not conflate the common people of the West with its elites. There is little to no effective democracy in the West -- only theatre. But, if I am not understanding some of your points, please restate them. Thanks.
How could the trajectory be positive when it fact all that was going on was a huge economic exploitation of the global south by the west, while simultaneously pretending that they were being given “independence”….and then the masses of the west sharing some of the takings of that exploitation by the elite of the west.
The masses of the west never reached any level of consciousness of awareness of their common cause with the global south.
And this is why their gains were illusory and brief. Essentially it was the fruit of a short period of facade building while the west competed with the communist world, and even at that it was still funded by exploitation of the global south.
"How could the trajectory be positive when it fact all that was going on was a huge economic exploitation of the global south by the west, while simultaneously pretending that they were being given 'independence' ..."
As I said, the positive trajectory started in the Western countries themselves, among the masses. Were you there, and at the time, to understand the Western masses? You know, *we* have "lived experiences", too -- likewise not properly captured by insulated professors at elite universities with their own unstated and disingenuous agendas.
"... and then the masses of the west sharing some of the takings of that exploitation by the elite of the west."
Did they understand this? Who exactly was doing the exploiting (and also, who were the partners in crime, nevertheless benefiting in smaller or greater part within the exploited countries)? Meanwhile did Western masses not need to pay for Western rent and buy Western food and pay for Western goods and everything else in the West with Western money? Please provide some fuller context to who's exploiting who.
"The masses of the west never reached any level of consciousness of awareness of their common cause with the global south."
That evolution continues today. Are you saying today's college-educated youth knows nothing of any exploitation?
"And this is why their gains were illusory and brief."
Obviously, you're not looking at the full picture, nor the process from 1945 until now.
"Essentially it was the fruit of a short period of facade building while the west competed with the communist world ..."
It went in stages, and here we are. The Western masses STILL have to fight off its own elites, something you seem oblivious to.
"... and even at that it was still funded by exploitation of the global south."
Again, who is doing the exploitation? Where are they doing it? Under what knowledge structure? In what economic environments? For *all* parts of the puzzle --- *especially* the ones getting shorted by modern propagandists in universities and mass media.
That’s how Jews/Christians justified letting lepers just rot away with no one to touch or care for them. It’s stupid. Like most things judeo-christian. The abomination is in your mind. You can act on it or dump it but no one else is to blame
The epitome of compassionate, that's you!! Furthermore you are the expert on what Jews and Christians have done or haven't done through time immemorial.....lol.
How many lepers have YOU given compassionate care to, Jeano. Quit pointing fingers at others; what have YOU done to lessen the burden of pain and suffering that the world too often brings down upon itself through selfishness and hatred?
Maybe I used the wrong word? The image in my mind was that of Moloch to whom sacrificial children were passed "through the fire"; he is said to be an "abomination" in I KIngs and elsewhere. Attraction to abominations resembles contagion. Passing children through the fire in order to worship power and domination should not be unfamiliar to anyone in these days.
"The World Is Being Blinded To What's Happening In Gaza".
Just The West . . .
The Banshees scream for War and War they shall have and the moment that may unify the fractious and fractured World Of Islam against The West and their Middle Eastern Proxy. But do not count on it.
_________
It appears that the Army has not engaged in building to building street fighting to avoid the deaths of trapped civilians as the Russian Armed Forces did in Eastern Ukraine and which accounted for a certain degree of losses they sustained. The Air Force appears to have demolished entire apartment blocks which kill everyone but save ground force members. The Prime Minister had earlier advised all civilians in Gaza to leave, thus acknowledging that there were mostly civilians trapped therein and where they remained as there were no means for them to exit. 47% children, as per sources.
The President spoke in generalities to collective punishment, itself a crime. It is pointless to point out what they already know and their intentions are clear enough - clear out all others from The Promised Land by whatever means and for their exclusive selves.
The elimination of these people from The Promised Land by the hand of the ... and ... Classes, by dint of a some two thousand year old biblical injunction, may well have occurred under the cover of that War With Iran, now likely past due. Other means were to be found. Other means have been found.
_________
Major Eurasian States will murmur platitudes and avoid anything more as The West takes itself down their Road to Perdition. Never interrupt the enemy when they are making mistakes.
Of the moral bankruptcy of The West, increasingly the differences between The Western Leadership and Nazi Germany narrow . . .
<"NATO is the continuation of Nazi Germany" is no longer rhetoric, it is literal, objective fact.>
Do yourself a favour by reading some real history, not the bs pumped out by (((Hollywood))) and by extension, the rest of the media. National Socialism is a flawed political/economic theory, just as every other political/economic theory is. However, the entire narrative surrounding what that theory and practice were, is a steaming pile of male bovine excrement, and the Holocaust™ in particular. National Socialism opposed the international banking cartel and its international finance arm(s). NATO is the military arm of the cartel.
<This is the 1930s all over again. >
You mean like the documented ethnic cleansing by Poland (primarily Germans) in their newly acquired country, or do you mean the Bolsheviks through their starvation campaigns?
The world went insane long ago. There is an evil cabal seeking to control the world, but it has nothing to do with "Nazis". You want to know what the "Nazis" thought of a "Jewish homeland"?
Here's an unofficial translation of Mein Kampf: “While the Zionists try to make the rest of the World believe that the national consciousness of the Jew finds its satisfaction in the creation of a Palestinian state, the Jews again slyly dupe the dumb Goyim. It doesn't even enter their heads to build up a Jewish state in Palestine for the purpose of living there; all they want is a central organisation for their international world swindler, endowed with its own sovereign rights and removed from the intervention of other states: a haven for convicted scoundrels and a university for budding crooks.
There are crazies in every race, creed, colour, and religion, and there have been for centuries, but those in control of world affairs use those crazies against each other and us.
The situations in Ukraine and the ME are symptoms of that problem.
From France. Yes we have indeed been shut down from demonstrating for the Palestinians. IF this shutdown carry's on their will be more militancy in the streets. French people don't like being told what to do.
Either way it's the end of Macron.
I feel utterly sick.
Take some time to read the Geneva Convention it's worth it.
Unlike the great US we had wars of religion forever. Catholicism against Protestants. I live in a Town which was once Protestant. Over the River Rhone they were Catholics. Huge Castles on either side of the River. They killed each other in the name of religion....this is why we have separation of church and state!
YOU on the other hand have Evangelists etc setting your agenda,
Book burning/teachers not able to teach real History.
OF course they are..........you have spent your lives in the US. You know nothing about European History. All your lives have been spent following the 'American Dream.' As you went out shopping and NOT voting in the time of 'plenty' you could care less where your cheap products came from. Now you blame China for filling your void.
As it is I am totally fed up with the EU for not standing up against Americans.
We all live now in hate and fear. This Israeli conflict has opened a whole 'can of worms.'
As it is we the white people (colonialists) are to blame.
WHY has Israel not been sanctioned? By the UN?
Why is it that Europeans are not allowed to demonstrate against Israel?
Excuse me but I have studied history all of my life and know a great deal about it. Why do you assume that Americans are as stupid and ignorant as their politicians? I find that insulting. You do not know me personally yet you feel you are justified in accusing me of all kinds of nonsensical things that have nothing to do with me. And your assumptions regarding some kind of "we" is equally false. Your worldview is remarkably narrow and parochial.
Really? I lived in the US for 23yrs and my daughter was in school there. She learned no European History let alone World History. As for Geography??????????
JennyStokes: American government schools are crap. I went to Catholic schools back in the 50s and 60s. The nuns and priests beat the knowledge into us but it worked.
JennyStokes: In the USA demonstrations are only allowed for leftists like Antifa and Black Lives Matter. I'm not sure what side they are on in the Gaza prison break/riot situation. I'm waiting for Al Sharpton to give us all a clue.
Gloating over and celebrating vicious violence against civilians doesnt do much in the long run for the Palestinian civilian on the street, does it? It sure doesnt promote "love and understanding," unless I miss my guess.
Anyone who is even slightly grounded in reality should have known that this play to the grandstand by Hamas & co. Is going to lead eventually to world conflagration IOW more violence. Maybe you are fine with that or believe that somehow mass violence and destruction of everything and everyone is going to result in a utopian socialist Global paradise as promised by the WEF/NWO.......INSTEAD it results in a toxic environment of hate in which NO ONE can live.
In the short term, this AKTION on the part of Palestinian activists at the behest of their leaders is going to INEVITABLY RESULT in a huge backlash from Israel severely impacting their whole life. Evil means lead to evil results.
This is NOT going to improve the day to day living experience of the Palestinian people. Has it ever in their entire history?
....Says the one who pontificates about something they demonstrably know nothing about. Have you ever stopped regurgitating propaganda long enough to get out from behind your computer for 5 minutes what to speak of spending any time
in the middle east in the place of your choice to experience REALITY FIRSTHAND? What do you actually KNOW concerning the history of the conflict between the Jews and the Palestinians in the Middle East?
Answer me this, Jeano. How has doing what they've always done brought the Palestinians even one millimeter closer to their goal of erradicating the Jewish State? What has it actually accomplished for them? Tell me, I'll wait.....
Doing what you've always done and expecting different results is the definition of INSANITY. And INSANITY, by definition, BLINDS you to the REALITIES that you are dealing with.
Take a look closely about torture in the USA....against the Geneva Convention. Putting people in Guantanamo because the THINK they caused the twin towers to collapse. Tortured day in and day out.
WHY is it that the US is not part of the International Court in the Hague!
The ones that need to have spent time in Guantanamo for that 9/11. caper JUST FOR STARTERS are Bush Jr, Cheney, Rumsfeld and everyone and anyone who profitted off of, and was in on, that war crime
Answer me this? Not likely. If you don’t know by now what Zionism has done to the Middle East, you never will. And attributing an ignorance to me that I don’t have instead of addressing the charge that you parrot the enabler’s advice to the abused does not bode well for a discussion with you.
JEANO. Your profound lack of critical thinking ability regarding this as demonstrated by your non answer here is why we can't and won't have a discussion. It's way over your head.
You obviously know nothing about this beyond what your handlers are telling you to think. And as a gaslighter, you are a accusing me of being in the same situation as you, a useful idiot.
I'm an immigrant in France, still a US citizen. I try to keep the best of both cultures, which does not always sit well with some French people. Macron likes to teargas people like me when we demonstrate. I'm now too old to go out into the streets, but I'd like to demonstrate with the pro-Palestine people. Does this make me more US or more French?
Paula: I agree. Some immigrants here in California adapt to American culture and some don't. It's a personal decision for immigrants. Some learn English, some don't etc.
If there are no innocent civilians in Gaza, than there surely are none in Israel for repeatedly re-installing Likud, and none in the US for repeatedly electing mediocrities to Congress --regardless of party (actually uniparty) who bellow pro-war propaganda on cue. In truth, it is only the completely powerless, the indigenous yet living close to Nature (very few instances) who are guilt free. The rest of the species Homo is complicit in a state of perpetual internecine war, and perpetual ecocide, narcissistically scraping the crust of the gorgeous blue-green planet, mining for "the good life" in a mass illusion that yields only death. I surrender without answers to explain the stupidity of this supposedly smart species, while wishing I'd been born a beech tree. Non posso ancora spiegare.
Just between you and me, most every religion with gods to worship and a priesthood to enforce it, is full of stupidities and inanities. I agree about plants. Plants have a humility and intelligence that is too subtle for most people to comprehend. Maybe they’ll be the next “supreme species”.
I believe that the citizens of democratic countries are 100 percent responsible for the actions of their governments. We delegate authority, not responsibility.
do we really? when you think about the security state and propaganda that is wielded like a weapon against the citizens? Most people are struggling to keep a roof over their head and food on the table. They are literally not in a position to know what is going on bigger picture because their world takes all their time just to survive - let's keep our awareness of the enormous privilege we have.
"Most people are struggling to keep a roof over their head and food on the table."
But this is exactly why I decided the following, even decades ago when things were far better: I would not occupy my time creating and raising children, nor overly with both work and recreation and acquiring things, when such evil was gaining ground. Is governing too much to ask of citizens? Apparently they think so, as I've since learned that far too many people won't wake up right up until they're starving and physically threatened.
(EDIT: Please read the personal part above in the context of my other comment in the parent thread here re consciousness. I don't mean to imply that all people who find themselves in this level of struggle to be guilty. I was fortunate to see things earlier than most.)
It was there to be seen. Even 9/11 was obviously a put up job. Michael Parenti was one who saw clearly, so I listened to him. Amy Goodman was so timid she just couldn’t get there. Haven’t listened to her since. People see what they want to see.
Try to live in another person's shoes sometime. Then, of all the people you think are monsters, you'll find 90%+ simply have different interpretations of the world ("the facts") and different values (the vast majority are not sociopathic).
O really? That’s nice for you, you aren’t getting bombed by a majority sociopathic country at this moment. Easy to be understanding when you don’t have skin in the fire.
Redreamer—That’s a privileged statement, trying to say I’m not responsible because someone else doesn’t do things the right way. During the colonial days, when people worked REALLY hard to put food on the table, people—blacksmiths most notably—hired readers to read to them from any printed page they had. They were informed because they choose to be. This generation of yuppy Americans (and most anglo’s) simply don’t want to know.
I wasn't saying people are not 'responsible' but the ecology of information and knowledge is now toxic, misleading and takes time to dig through and there is much deliberate misinformation and people literally do not have TIME to be informed. Time is a complete luxury and i recognize and see it daily how people are struggling to stay abreast of the basics.
That has been going on for at least 40 years—no time no time. Pleeeese. Chasing the almighty dollar and not having time to be informed is a choice. As far as toxic goes—the MSM isn’t toxic? This go round it’s been toxic since Rodney King, reassuring the Middies, that they were right to fear black men.
the people in Gaza right now are not able to be informed of the world's geopolitical nuances and the shit going down in the West - i would say their TIME is taken up trying to 'survive' and that survival is life and death - i see it in other places but less graphic and visible - AGAIN TIME IS PRIVILEGE - it is NOT a choice for a substantial considerable part of the people on this planet.
Legacy media IS part of the security state and obviously the reason people have to dig through the peripheral information sphere to connect with some level of reality.
It is gutless to call someone privileged and then type that SHITE. Grow up and do better. Most people are decent humans - in an impossible surreal situation. A little empathy goes a long way.
have you ever been to a demo where people are opposed to the actions of their government then the people are attacked by the police who protect those in power?
The same thing continues to happen in Canada. In 2001 or so, I saw police goose stepping from one place to another with little lights on their helmets. It looked like something out of a science fiction movie. Also, I was a medic in a clinic at that time and a young girl came in upset because she had dropped her glasses and a police officer had purposely stepped on them. There were so many other incidents that weekend, it would take an essay to list them all. Recently, the police have not been as openly violent as they were in the early 2000's but that could easily change.
Agreed and thank you for your work. Here in Portland, the cops formed alliances with the Proud Boys to help them control the crowds at peaceful protests. Years ago, the fascists realized that the cops would hire them after the military trained them so they removed their tattoos and grew out their hair and now get tax dollars to “kettle” us.
In large part, but certainly not entirely. One cannot be held responsible until one is conscious. After becoming conscious, the 100% rule applies to one's acting on it, in the ways each one can reasonably do. But even if consciousness and action has been maximized (in a well-run society), is it still enough today to counter intelligent sociopaths, acting undemocratically, using unprecedented technology?
Plato abhorred democracy. Thought that states should instead be governed by philosopher kings chosen from classes of high IQ candidates who had undergone extensive training and grooming for twenty or thirty years.
Those who become conscious and grow to present danger to the system are getting rid of.
As long as one is not dangerous one can get as conscious as one wants. Makes no more difference than to remain unconscious. Much more painful for one, though.
The world has gone completely insane.
The footage out of Gaza is shocking. I thought the ukrainians were bad enough, but the Zionists are worse! This is insanity!
"NATO is the continuation of Nazi Germany" is no longer rhetoric, it is literal, objective fact. Mass ethnic cleansing, total propaganda, dictatorial crackdowns... This is the 1930s all over again.
The world went insane a long time ago, probably before any of us were born.
I question whether humans deserve to be the top animal on Earth. Perhaps it's time that dogs (or cats, birds, etc.) rule the planet.
Being somewhere on the Autism spectrum myself, I've always had a greater affinity for non-human creatures than ever for humanity. The best thing for the earth and other life forms would be for us all to disappear. My late husband and I always viewed our decision not to reproduce as our greatest contribution to Mother Nature and to the life forms who share our planet.
Being a father, and also someone whoonce thought as you do, I would like to counter your decision. You are clearly a highly consciencious person with a heart. You are just the sort of person who should be raising children, to be just as you are. The correct type of humans have the ability to make this world what it should be. But we need the correct people to breed.
You know nothing about me. For starters, my decision is now over 50 years old and I am in my 70s. I had little patience along the way with clueless people telling me blithely that I would change my mind. There are many things one can do with one's life besides adding to the serious malady of over-population, and I chose one of those different paths.
Oh my god, why is everyone so touchy, it was meant as a converation, how are we aver going to solve anything when everyone takes any counter comment so personally. Over population is a myth. the problems of this world are tenfold, but over population and climate are not an issue. People being propagandised to become materialist and to believe the over population and climate BS and all this war and hatred BS are the issues thata need solving. Look, if not having kids was the right thing for you, then fair enough, I just hope you didn't make the decision on the back of lies you took as fact.
Overpopulation is no myth. Only one third of the planet is still left for the rest of wild flora, fauna & fungi, etc., to live & thrive. You clearly think no one but humans has any right to dwell on this planet, therefore we should all keep fucking & breeding & fucking up the rest of creation. Marci, I'm with you. I don't know where I am concerning autism, but I've always said that my greatest achievement has been not to encumber the planet with my progeny.
Rob ,the world is vastly over populated and that is a leading cause of catastrophic climate change which if we don't act soon will destroy the world and all of its children. And incidentally it is bad to feel that you can judge who should and who shouldn't breed.
Jack Lomax: LOL at "the world is vastly over populated." You could put all of Earth's Population in China and the population density would be about 833/square kilometer.
In Gaza today the population density is about 6,100 per square kilometer.
Gaza is like shooting fish in a barrel for the Israelis.
Well....Jack. First, let me say, if you truely are in your 10th decade and been involved in 3 world wars, then I have nothing but respect for you. I am a pacifist and would have been protesting peace alongside you. However, we disagree on overpopulation and climate change. We could argue these points till the cows come home so for the sake of staying on topic lets just agree to disagree on those. I would also like to point out that I wasn't judging who has the right to breed, I was simply saying that if more loving, principled, consciencious people bred instead of deciding not to breed, then this world would stand more chance of sorting itself out. As it currently stands, Humans, the good and bad (however, you wish to categorise) are stuffed, and very few will probably survive past the next 10 years, not because of overpopulation or climate but because too few can see this world for what currently is and what it potentially could be.
Yes, but who in their right mind would bring children into this world today! I too opted out. I grew up without a family and understood the never ending responsibility of having children. God forbid I died like my parents did. You don't wish that lifestyle on any child. People today have children for all the wrong reasons. Often it's to save a marriage or they're lonely and need to be loved or blatant competition with others. Hence these ridiculous names!
Yeah well, if the human race never had kids because times were hard then the human wouldn't have got past 2 fucking people. Children are a blessing, of course they should be borne out of love and not just to save a bloody marriage.
I find it ironic, there are now so many attacks on humans by animals - SHARKS and BEARS for starters
You're absolutely right, its a conspiracy between sharks and bears to wipe us out. I think i'll retract my previus comment. I'm actually quite glad you and Marci chose to avoid reproduction, your kids would have beed brought up to hate themselves more than you hate yourself. That would be a tragedy on the poor little blighters.
I've always said that we human beings can only be justified on the basis that we share quite a lot of our DNA with wonderful animals - dogs, cats - and even trees. Maybe we can regain our humanity by taking their example? Bound to be an improvement.
"The world went insane a long time ago, probably before any of us were born."
The West didn't seem to be doing too badly in its evolution from the end of WWII through at least 1970. If it had continued humanely, before long humans would no longer be a net negative for the rest of the Earth. Granted, invisible seeds were already planted, mainly by and supporting spooks, neocons, and neolibs, with the 21st century bearing the fruit.
".....The West didn't seem to be doing too badly in its evolution from the end of WWII through at least 1970....."
The West = The Colonialists were in fact feeding off of the global south during that time. When OPEC rose and commodity prices rose, that was money going to the global south instead. So "the west" engineered a financial crash.
Look around you, is happening again. Engineered financial crash. To try and empowering the global south and the working class of the colonial/"NATO" countries.
"in its evolution"
- That is the important phrase. By it, I meant that the trajectory was positive: With an increasingly effective mass media at the time, the *common people* in the West began to accept and address the complaints of the oppressed, at least within their own borders. I neglected to identify at first the common people and the elites, sorry.
"So 'the west' engineered a financial crash."
- Yes, but the *common people* of the West did not -- and a majority would not -- do such a thing *knowingly*, even at that time.
"Look around you, is happening again. Engineered financial crash."
- The *common people* of the West are fighting against such things as well.
Please do not conflate the common people of the West with its elites. There is little to no effective democracy in the West -- only theatre. But, if I am not understanding some of your points, please restate them. Thanks.
I do wish people would stop calling THEY (The Hierarchy Exploiting You) the elite. I find them to be scum without an elite bone in their bodies.
How could the trajectory be positive when it fact all that was going on was a huge economic exploitation of the global south by the west, while simultaneously pretending that they were being given “independence”….and then the masses of the west sharing some of the takings of that exploitation by the elite of the west.
The masses of the west never reached any level of consciousness of awareness of their common cause with the global south.
And this is why their gains were illusory and brief. Essentially it was the fruit of a short period of facade building while the west competed with the communist world, and even at that it was still funded by exploitation of the global south.
"How could the trajectory be positive when it fact all that was going on was a huge economic exploitation of the global south by the west, while simultaneously pretending that they were being given 'independence' ..."
As I said, the positive trajectory started in the Western countries themselves, among the masses. Were you there, and at the time, to understand the Western masses? You know, *we* have "lived experiences", too -- likewise not properly captured by insulated professors at elite universities with their own unstated and disingenuous agendas.
"... and then the masses of the west sharing some of the takings of that exploitation by the elite of the west."
Did they understand this? Who exactly was doing the exploiting (and also, who were the partners in crime, nevertheless benefiting in smaller or greater part within the exploited countries)? Meanwhile did Western masses not need to pay for Western rent and buy Western food and pay for Western goods and everything else in the West with Western money? Please provide some fuller context to who's exploiting who.
"The masses of the west never reached any level of consciousness of awareness of their common cause with the global south."
That evolution continues today. Are you saying today's college-educated youth knows nothing of any exploitation?
"And this is why their gains were illusory and brief."
Obviously, you're not looking at the full picture, nor the process from 1945 until now.
"Essentially it was the fruit of a short period of facade building while the west competed with the communist world ..."
It went in stages, and here we are. The Western masses STILL have to fight off its own elites, something you seem oblivious to.
"... and even at that it was still funded by exploitation of the global south."
Again, who is doing the exploitation? Where are they doing it? Under what knowledge structure? In what economic environments? For *all* parts of the puzzle --- *especially* the ones getting shorted by modern propagandists in universities and mass media.
There is no ‘top animal’ - the fact that we continue to think like this is part of the problem.
Eddie: LOL! Woof! Woof! Meow! Meow! Tweet! Tweet!
Funny you should say this - a while back I read an article that said - the worst race was the human race! It's so true
Have you been reading The Guardian.
The abomination: for instance, passing children through the fire to Moloch.
Everything hidden will be revealed.
Whoever touches the abomination becomes the abomination.
That’s how Jews/Christians justified letting lepers just rot away with no one to touch or care for them. It’s stupid. Like most things judeo-christian. The abomination is in your mind. You can act on it or dump it but no one else is to blame
The epitome of compassionate, that's you!! Furthermore you are the expert on what Jews and Christians have done or haven't done through time immemorial.....lol.
How many lepers have YOU given compassionate care to, Jeano. Quit pointing fingers at others; what have YOU done to lessen the burden of pain and suffering that the world too often brings down upon itself through selfishness and hatred?
Maybe I used the wrong word? The image in my mind was that of Moloch to whom sacrificial children were passed "through the fire"; he is said to be an "abomination" in I KIngs and elsewhere. Attraction to abominations resembles contagion. Passing children through the fire in order to worship power and domination should not be unfamiliar to anyone in these days.
NAZIS & JEWS are one COIN!
"The World Is Being Blinded To What's Happening In Gaza".
Just The West . . .
The Banshees scream for War and War they shall have and the moment that may unify the fractious and fractured World Of Islam against The West and their Middle Eastern Proxy. But do not count on it.
_________
It appears that the Army has not engaged in building to building street fighting to avoid the deaths of trapped civilians as the Russian Armed Forces did in Eastern Ukraine and which accounted for a certain degree of losses they sustained. The Air Force appears to have demolished entire apartment blocks which kill everyone but save ground force members. The Prime Minister had earlier advised all civilians in Gaza to leave, thus acknowledging that there were mostly civilians trapped therein and where they remained as there were no means for them to exit. 47% children, as per sources.
The President spoke in generalities to collective punishment, itself a crime. It is pointless to point out what they already know and their intentions are clear enough - clear out all others from The Promised Land by whatever means and for their exclusive selves.
The elimination of these people from The Promised Land by the hand of the ... and ... Classes, by dint of a some two thousand year old biblical injunction, may well have occurred under the cover of that War With Iran, now likely past due. Other means were to be found. Other means have been found.
_________
Major Eurasian States will murmur platitudes and avoid anything more as The West takes itself down their Road to Perdition. Never interrupt the enemy when they are making mistakes.
Of the moral bankruptcy of The West, increasingly the differences between The Western Leadership and Nazi Germany narrow . . .
<"NATO is the continuation of Nazi Germany" is no longer rhetoric, it is literal, objective fact.>
Do yourself a favour by reading some real history, not the bs pumped out by (((Hollywood))) and by extension, the rest of the media. National Socialism is a flawed political/economic theory, just as every other political/economic theory is. However, the entire narrative surrounding what that theory and practice were, is a steaming pile of male bovine excrement, and the Holocaust™ in particular. National Socialism opposed the international banking cartel and its international finance arm(s). NATO is the military arm of the cartel.
<This is the 1930s all over again. >
You mean like the documented ethnic cleansing by Poland (primarily Germans) in their newly acquired country, or do you mean the Bolsheviks through their starvation campaigns?
The world went insane long ago. There is an evil cabal seeking to control the world, but it has nothing to do with "Nazis". You want to know what the "Nazis" thought of a "Jewish homeland"?
Here's an unofficial translation of Mein Kampf: “While the Zionists try to make the rest of the World believe that the national consciousness of the Jew finds its satisfaction in the creation of a Palestinian state, the Jews again slyly dupe the dumb Goyim. It doesn't even enter their heads to build up a Jewish state in Palestine for the purpose of living there; all they want is a central organisation for their international world swindler, endowed with its own sovereign rights and removed from the intervention of other states: a haven for convicted scoundrels and a university for budding crooks.
It is a sign of their rising confidence and sense of security that at a time when one section is still playing the German, French-man, or Englishman, the other with open effrontery comes out as the Jewish race.” https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/342153-while-the-zionists-try-to-make-the-rest-of-the
There are crazies in every race, creed, colour, and religion, and there have been for centuries, but those in control of world affairs use those crazies against each other and us.
The situations in Ukraine and the ME are symptoms of that problem.
Oh, get fucked, you Nazi animal. We lost 27 million wiping people like you off the face of the Earth and clearly that wasn't enough.
Totally agree. I hate the way Substack places comments. This looks like I am agreeing with Nocty. I’m definitely NOT!
From France. Yes we have indeed been shut down from demonstrating for the Palestinians. IF this shutdown carry's on their will be more militancy in the streets. French people don't like being told what to do.
Either way it's the end of Macron.
I feel utterly sick.
Take some time to read the Geneva Convention it's worth it.
Love and understanding.
The sooner the French people get rid of Macron - the better. Peace.
Yes but we have right wing Le Pen to consider!
So you're stuck with Macron. The puppet masters are not dumb.
But yes: liberté, égalité, fraternité. My ass.
This comment shows me you know nothing.
What does egalite mean to you?
Is it supposed to mean different things to different people?
Now, consider your first statement closely. What does it say about you?
NO. It means no religion in politics!
Unlike the great US we had wars of religion forever. Catholicism against Protestants. I live in a Town which was once Protestant. Over the River Rhone they were Catholics. Huge Castles on either side of the River. They killed each other in the name of religion....this is why we have separation of church and state!
YOU on the other hand have Evangelists etc setting your agenda,
Book burning/teachers not able to teach real History.
Laicete is wonderful. NO religion in Politics.
That is very frightening.
Obviously you know nothing about French politics.
I consider Macron a globalist fraud - with a very expensive watch he tries to hide when on TV.
I really think you are crazy. People are dying and filled with hate and you talk about a 'watch?'
Read some books.
I love Charles Dickens - especially his 'A Tales of Two Cities'. I am sitting right now besides 5 bookcases. I spent many years working in a library.
Jenny is from France don't you know.
But there are demonstrations in Paris. The cops are going after them viciously, though.
OF course they are..........you have spent your lives in the US. You know nothing about European History. All your lives have been spent following the 'American Dream.' As you went out shopping and NOT voting in the time of 'plenty' you could care less where your cheap products came from. Now you blame China for filling your void.
As it is I am totally fed up with the EU for not standing up against Americans.
We all live now in hate and fear. This Israeli conflict has opened a whole 'can of worms.'
As it is we the white people (colonialists) are to blame.
WHY has Israel not been sanctioned? By the UN?
Why is it that Europeans are not allowed to demonstrate against Israel?
It's obvious to anyone with a brain.
White colonialism has gone too far.
Excuse me but I have studied history all of my life and know a great deal about it. Why do you assume that Americans are as stupid and ignorant as their politicians? I find that insulting. You do not know me personally yet you feel you are justified in accusing me of all kinds of nonsensical things that have nothing to do with me. And your assumptions regarding some kind of "we" is equally false. Your worldview is remarkably narrow and parochial.
Really? I lived in the US for 23yrs and my daughter was in school there. She learned no European History let alone World History. As for Geography??????????
JennyStokes: American government schools are crap. I went to Catholic schools back in the 50s and 60s. The nuns and priests beat the knowledge into us but it worked.
Today, homeschooling is the way to go in the USA.
Demonstrations, so? When will the westerners understand that they are given the ersatz freedom?
The dummies take it for the real thing. Or pretend to since they're ashamed to admit as much.
Yes but it won't stop them.
Got to arrange one in our Town.
JennyStokes: In the USA demonstrations are only allowed for leftists like Antifa and Black Lives Matter. I'm not sure what side they are on in the Gaza prison break/riot situation. I'm waiting for Al Sharpton to give us all a clue.
Gloating over and celebrating vicious violence against civilians doesnt do much in the long run for the Palestinian civilian on the street, does it? It sure doesnt promote "love and understanding," unless I miss my guess.
Anyone who is even slightly grounded in reality should have known that this play to the grandstand by Hamas & co. Is going to lead eventually to world conflagration IOW more violence. Maybe you are fine with that or believe that somehow mass violence and destruction of everything and everyone is going to result in a utopian socialist Global paradise as promised by the WEF/NWO.......INSTEAD it results in a toxic environment of hate in which NO ONE can live.
In the short term, this AKTION on the part of Palestinian activists at the behest of their leaders is going to INEVITABLY RESULT in a huge backlash from Israel severely impacting their whole life. Evil means lead to evil results.
This is NOT going to improve the day to day living experience of the Palestinian people. Has it ever in their entire history?
Anyone who is the
Says the enabler to the abused children—don’t fight back, he’ll just get madder. Shame on you.
....Says the one who pontificates about something they demonstrably know nothing about. Have you ever stopped regurgitating propaganda long enough to get out from behind your computer for 5 minutes what to speak of spending any time
in the middle east in the place of your choice to experience REALITY FIRSTHAND? What do you actually KNOW concerning the history of the conflict between the Jews and the Palestinians in the Middle East?
Answer me this, Jeano. How has doing what they've always done brought the Palestinians even one millimeter closer to their goal of erradicating the Jewish State? What has it actually accomplished for them? Tell me, I'll wait.....
Doing what you've always done and expecting different results is the definition of INSANITY. And INSANITY, by definition, BLINDS you to the REALITIES that you are dealing with.
Take a look closely about torture in the USA....against the Geneva Convention. Putting people in Guantanamo because the THINK they caused the twin towers to collapse. Tortured day in and day out.
WHY is it that the US is not part of the International Court in the Hague!
Look it up.
The ones that need to have spent time in Guantanamo for that 9/11. caper JUST FOR STARTERS are Bush Jr, Cheney, Rumsfeld and everyone and anyone who profitted off of, and was in on, that war crime
But yes, I totally get what you are saying.
Kissinger?
If this is meant for me—I don’t even know what you’re ranting about!
Answer me this? Not likely. If you don’t know by now what Zionism has done to the Middle East, you never will. And attributing an ignorance to me that I don’t have instead of addressing the charge that you parrot the enabler’s advice to the abused does not bode well for a discussion with you.
Jeano. Can you write basic English?
It's probable that I might agree with you.
JennyStokes: Jeano is English challenged.
That is basic english, just a not simple english. And what do I care if you agree with me?
JEANO. Your profound lack of critical thinking ability regarding this as demonstrated by your non answer here is why we can't and won't have a discussion. It's way over your head.
You obviously know nothing about this beyond what your handlers are telling you to think. And as a gaslighter, you are a accusing me of being in the same situation as you, a useful idiot.
JennyStokes: Are the Muslim immigrants becoming more French culturally or are the immigrants keeping the ways of their old cultures?
I'm an immigrant in France, still a US citizen. I try to keep the best of both cultures, which does not always sit well with some French people. Macron likes to teargas people like me when we demonstrate. I'm now too old to go out into the streets, but I'd like to demonstrate with the pro-Palestine people. Does this make me more US or more French?
Paula: That's a good question. I don't know the French well enough to answer it.
It's not really a question of French vs US but the question of immigrants—of whatever culture—adapting or not to the host culture.
Paula: I agree. Some immigrants here in California adapt to American culture and some don't. It's a personal decision for immigrants. Some learn English, some don't etc.
If there are no innocent civilians in Gaza, than there surely are none in Israel for repeatedly re-installing Likud, and none in the US for repeatedly electing mediocrities to Congress --regardless of party (actually uniparty) who bellow pro-war propaganda on cue. In truth, it is only the completely powerless, the indigenous yet living close to Nature (very few instances) who are guilt free. The rest of the species Homo is complicit in a state of perpetual internecine war, and perpetual ecocide, narcissistically scraping the crust of the gorgeous blue-green planet, mining for "the good life" in a mass illusion that yields only death. I surrender without answers to explain the stupidity of this supposedly smart species, while wishing I'd been born a beech tree. Non posso ancora spiegare.
I surrender without answers to explain the stupidity of this supposedly smart species, while wishing I'd been born a beech tree ❣️
I have never understood why the Hindus consider being reborn as a plant to be especially bad karma.
A typical plant harms nobody and makes oxygen and may feed others.
I spent one life as a radish. It was very pleasant. Then I was eaten by a vegan. I still have nightmares.
Know nothing about the religion, i am not religious but i felt the comment kind of spoke to how i feel.
Just between you and me, most every religion with gods to worship and a priesthood to enforce it, is full of stupidities and inanities. I agree about plants. Plants have a humility and intelligence that is too subtle for most people to comprehend. Maybe they’ll be the next “supreme species”.
I recommend Bastet.
😸😹😻. So let it be written, so let it be done.
It's boring.
The squirrels and birds are pretty entertaining, though. Try it sometime.
Agreed.
Feral Finster: You obviously haven't been to the Amazon.
Yes, this was lovely. Thank you Vin and Pat.
Among trees, beech is perhaps my second favorite: I'm a sycamore.
Beech and sugar maple ❣️
I believe that the citizens of democratic countries are 100 percent responsible for the actions of their governments. We delegate authority, not responsibility.
do we really? when you think about the security state and propaganda that is wielded like a weapon against the citizens? Most people are struggling to keep a roof over their head and food on the table. They are literally not in a position to know what is going on bigger picture because their world takes all their time just to survive - let's keep our awareness of the enormous privilege we have.
We should also be aware that the privileges we enjoy are only partially earned. To glorify them is to condone how they were obtained.
Bob McDonald: Spoken like a true Comrade. Your re-education time in camp is over. You've earned your diploma and red star.
Great insight!
"Most people are struggling to keep a roof over their head and food on the table."
But this is exactly why I decided the following, even decades ago when things were far better: I would not occupy my time creating and raising children, nor overly with both work and recreation and acquiring things, when such evil was gaining ground. Is governing too much to ask of citizens? Apparently they think so, as I've since learned that far too many people won't wake up right up until they're starving and physically threatened.
(EDIT: Please read the personal part above in the context of my other comment in the parent thread here re consciousness. I don't mean to imply that all people who find themselves in this level of struggle to be guilty. I was fortunate to see things earlier than most.)
It was there to be seen. Even 9/11 was obviously a put up job. Michael Parenti was one who saw clearly, so I listened to him. Amy Goodman was so timid she just couldn’t get there. Haven’t listened to her since. People see what they want to see.
Try to live in another person's shoes sometime. Then, of all the people you think are monsters, you'll find 90%+ simply have different interpretations of the world ("the facts") and different values (the vast majority are not sociopathic).
O really? That’s nice for you, you aren’t getting bombed by a majority sociopathic country at this moment. Easy to be understanding when you don’t have skin in the fire.
Redreamer—That’s a privileged statement, trying to say I’m not responsible because someone else doesn’t do things the right way. During the colonial days, when people worked REALLY hard to put food on the table, people—blacksmiths most notably—hired readers to read to them from any printed page they had. They were informed because they choose to be. This generation of yuppy Americans (and most anglo’s) simply don’t want to know.
I wasn't saying people are not 'responsible' but the ecology of information and knowledge is now toxic, misleading and takes time to dig through and there is much deliberate misinformation and people literally do not have TIME to be informed. Time is a complete luxury and i recognize and see it daily how people are struggling to stay abreast of the basics.
That has been going on for at least 40 years—no time no time. Pleeeese. Chasing the almighty dollar and not having time to be informed is a choice. As far as toxic goes—the MSM isn’t toxic? This go round it’s been toxic since Rodney King, reassuring the Middies, that they were right to fear black men.
the people in Gaza right now are not able to be informed of the world's geopolitical nuances and the shit going down in the West - i would say their TIME is taken up trying to 'survive' and that survival is life and death - i see it in other places but less graphic and visible - AGAIN TIME IS PRIVILEGE - it is NOT a choice for a substantial considerable part of the people on this planet.
Legacy media IS part of the security state and obviously the reason people have to dig through the peripheral information sphere to connect with some level of reality.
It is gutless to call someone privileged and then type that SHITE. Grow up and do better. Most people are decent humans - in an impossible surreal situation. A little empathy goes a long way.
have you ever been to a demo where people are opposed to the actions of their government then the people are attacked by the police who protect those in power?
Yes. During the VietNam war. Today they look and act like storm troopers.
The same thing continues to happen in Canada. In 2001 or so, I saw police goose stepping from one place to another with little lights on their helmets. It looked like something out of a science fiction movie. Also, I was a medic in a clinic at that time and a young girl came in upset because she had dropped her glasses and a police officer had purposely stepped on them. There were so many other incidents that weekend, it would take an essay to list them all. Recently, the police have not been as openly violent as they were in the early 2000's but that could easily change.
Agreed and thank you for your work. Here in Portland, the cops formed alliances with the Proud Boys to help them control the crowds at peaceful protests. Years ago, the fascists realized that the cops would hire them after the military trained them so they removed their tattoos and grew out their hair and now get tax dollars to “kettle” us.
Yes, the Occupy Movement.
In large part, but certainly not entirely. One cannot be held responsible until one is conscious. After becoming conscious, the 100% rule applies to one's acting on it, in the ways each one can reasonably do. But even if consciousness and action has been maximized (in a well-run society), is it still enough today to counter intelligent sociopaths, acting undemocratically, using unprecedented technology?
Plausible deniability is the glue that holds the whole system together. I like what Plato had to day about democracy.
Would you have a moment to expand on these?
Plato abhorred democracy. Thought that states should instead be governed by philosopher kings chosen from classes of high IQ candidates who had undergone extensive training and grooming for twenty or thirty years.
"philosopher kings chosen from classes of high IQ candidates who had undergone extensive training and grooming for twenty or thirty years"
Funny thing is, that's actually what we've got now. Just that probably you (nor I) got the memo.
Those who become conscious and grow to present danger to the system are getting rid of.
As long as one is not dangerous one can get as conscious as one wants. Makes no more difference than to remain unconscious. Much more painful for one, though.