Listen to a reading of this article: They don't just call Democrats "communists" and "Marxists" in order to attack Democrats, they do it to disappear the entire giant expanse of political spectrum that exists to the left of the capitalist imperialist Democratic Party. They
My next door neighbors here in CA are brilliant Chinese immigrants. Per their repeated stories, there truly is no freedom in China, none; even here the long authoritarian arm of the Chinese regime claws at them. That doesn’t unsettle the thesis here that we are far from free ourselves. If we want to spread freedom to the world, the best way to do that is to fix our own myriad shortcomings and set a blinding example.
"The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum...."
Love, they know we hate them. They know we know they’re exploiting us. They know they are criminals.
They don’t care one whit and so long as they have the power and control all the resources, they can link the water hose and force us to kneel. That’s what this recession they’re forcing is all about. They’re wanting to bring us to heel. Bend the knee. Accept them as our Supreme Overlords. That’s it. That’s what all this theatre and posturing are about. And everyone hating them isn’t going to affect any change. Only one thing will, and nobody wants to have that conversation.
All governments and hierarchical organizations like unions, churches, and corporation's are inherently dominated by self serving leadership and prone to corruption. Power corrupts yet those being deceived ignore it as long as they are not directly threatened. Democrats or Republicans are two sides of the same coin both themselves manipulated and deceived by their very own bureaucrats. You couldn’t make this shit up it’s too absurd to be believed and obviously destructive to those instigating the deception as whitenesses by the feeding frenzy when one of their own makes a mistake, attacking like cannibals to devour the heretic. So it’s not believed and the destruction continues.
Free your mind, and the rest will follow...It helps if you are creative and imaginative. There is a reason art, creativity, and imagination are being quashed in the young (and the old).
I enjoy your work. One quibble. From my perspective, new platforms become a “wack-a-mole” problem for the surveillance state, and are therefor a credible tactic for the dissident left. On the other hand, “loud aggressive actions” are unlikely to deter the government, as they already don’t care how it looks, as they have their talking head shills, even in independent media, who run interference and narratives that “justify” their intrusions and muddy the waters in general. This squishy liberal professional class seem all too willing to suspend their state of belief, and ride the authoritarian waves of war mongering, censorship, and the largest upward transfers of wealth in the history of our species.
The left/right continuum of political views has always been a psyop. Anarchism and totalitarianism have nothing in common? Socialism and capitalism are not cousins separated by a mere inch on some controlling entity’s goddamned linear measuring tape. Communism and fascism are not two species of government sharing 98% of the same genes. Democrats and Republicans are not even two sides of the same coin; they are the same side of a one-sided coin in a politically artificial two-dimensional universe. Democrats are not to the left of Republicans. Democrats are Republicans. D = R.
But, for obvious reasons, we humans love our dichotomies: our bodies (and brains) have two sides, our world has night and day, we think in terms of good (God) and evil (devil), we get up and we fall down, and so forth. This left/right psyop isn’t just an invention of the latest propagandist or emperor, it’s the brick and mortar of our materialist cosmic prison cell.
To escape this mind rape, perhaps we can contemplate those things that have no material spatial existence, no left or right, like peace, for example, or love, or beauty. There is, after all, no left or right side of truth.
Some immigrants are dissidents because a country with few if any financial regulations and monstrous disparities in wealth and income is more to their interest. Doesn't mean a thing. Many Westerners like the Chinese style of life, less pressure, better cultural values, almost no crime. In any case it's None of Our Business. If you can convince 40 million US citizens that having no health insurance, and an accident or prolonged sickness is the end of them financially - is not oppression: if you can convince 60 millions more that not having $1000 in an emergency is not oppression: if you can convince 325 million that a serious hit on their standard of living is worth it - if it's in the cause of wrecking Ukraine - then folks, you have the propaganda game working for you: it doesn't get better than that.
"We're told we're freer than other countries so that we won't see how unfree we are. You can't look down your nose at countries like China or North Korea and still clearly see how controlled and homogenized your own country is."
Analogy for the best case scenario: it's like watching video of somebody stuck in a cage and thinking "That poor person, I'm lucky I have more freedom. MY cage has like a whole 'nother 1/2 square foot!"
At the end of the day, it doesn't matter whether China is the more authoritarian and oppressive country or whether the United States is, because they're both authoritarian, and that's unacceptable. Acknowledging that China may not be exactly a utopia shouldn't be taken as a sign I would support another proxy war there over Taiwan, by the way, let alone a hot war or regime change.
People are constantly being told to choose between a turd hotdog and chili diarrhea. And they will happily munch the turd hot dog and tell you that they think someone peed in the chili. And it works both ways. Democrats vs Republicans and Republicans vs. Democrats.
I am always baffled by this. Why willingly eat shit?
Once again, the contents of my deeper thoughts have been articulated to perfection. Are younsure you're not AI that has a neurolink in to my brain that I am not aware of, and that Substack is not just another peice of a holographic representation of the world I create for myself while tucked in to a pod producing energy for the actual matrix. Weird
The problem is how to bring about a different state of things than what we now observe. It is pretty clear from both common reason and history that force does not do the trick. It also seems obvious that metaphorical violence like elections and tax-deductable charity organizations are either support for the existing system or are easily suborned. It is also true (as far as I can see) that our problem is collective and therefore can't be solved through isolated individual virtue. Under present conditions, then, our actions must take place on a small scale and, if possible, almost out of sight. Lead by example, even ambiguous example. Move into the gaps, the interstices. Be harmless as doves and subtle as serpents. There may be other ways -- diversity will confuse the opposition -- but generally this seems to be to be the only way forward.
Let us also collectively imagine the other world which is said to be possible.
Two Parties Of Capitalist Imperialists: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix
My next door neighbors here in CA are brilliant Chinese immigrants. Per their repeated stories, there truly is no freedom in China, none; even here the long authoritarian arm of the Chinese regime claws at them. That doesn’t unsettle the thesis here that we are far from free ourselves. If we want to spread freedom to the world, the best way to do that is to fix our own myriad shortcomings and set a blinding example.
"The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum...."
N. Chomsky
Love, they know we hate them. They know we know they’re exploiting us. They know they are criminals.
They don’t care one whit and so long as they have the power and control all the resources, they can link the water hose and force us to kneel. That’s what this recession they’re forcing is all about. They’re wanting to bring us to heel. Bend the knee. Accept them as our Supreme Overlords. That’s it. That’s what all this theatre and posturing are about. And everyone hating them isn’t going to affect any change. Only one thing will, and nobody wants to have that conversation.
All governments and hierarchical organizations like unions, churches, and corporation's are inherently dominated by self serving leadership and prone to corruption. Power corrupts yet those being deceived ignore it as long as they are not directly threatened. Democrats or Republicans are two sides of the same coin both themselves manipulated and deceived by their very own bureaucrats. You couldn’t make this shit up it’s too absurd to be believed and obviously destructive to those instigating the deception as whitenesses by the feeding frenzy when one of their own makes a mistake, attacking like cannibals to devour the heretic. So it’s not believed and the destruction continues.
I agree 100% there's no other way. People are just frozen powerless, they have to unplug from the imperialist drama and wake up to their power.
Free your mind, and the rest will follow...It helps if you are creative and imaginative. There is a reason art, creativity, and imagination are being quashed in the young (and the old).
I enjoy your work. One quibble. From my perspective, new platforms become a “wack-a-mole” problem for the surveillance state, and are therefor a credible tactic for the dissident left. On the other hand, “loud aggressive actions” are unlikely to deter the government, as they already don’t care how it looks, as they have their talking head shills, even in independent media, who run interference and narratives that “justify” their intrusions and muddy the waters in general. This squishy liberal professional class seem all too willing to suspend their state of belief, and ride the authoritarian waves of war mongering, censorship, and the largest upward transfers of wealth in the history of our species.
The left/right continuum of political views has always been a psyop. Anarchism and totalitarianism have nothing in common? Socialism and capitalism are not cousins separated by a mere inch on some controlling entity’s goddamned linear measuring tape. Communism and fascism are not two species of government sharing 98% of the same genes. Democrats and Republicans are not even two sides of the same coin; they are the same side of a one-sided coin in a politically artificial two-dimensional universe. Democrats are not to the left of Republicans. Democrats are Republicans. D = R.
But, for obvious reasons, we humans love our dichotomies: our bodies (and brains) have two sides, our world has night and day, we think in terms of good (God) and evil (devil), we get up and we fall down, and so forth. This left/right psyop isn’t just an invention of the latest propagandist or emperor, it’s the brick and mortar of our materialist cosmic prison cell.
To escape this mind rape, perhaps we can contemplate those things that have no material spatial existence, no left or right, like peace, for example, or love, or beauty. There is, after all, no left or right side of truth.
"The illusion of freedom is precisely where the reality of our imprisonment hides."
Exactly. There are none so blind as those who believe the shadows have substance and the walls of their blue-painted cage are the sky.
Some immigrants are dissidents because a country with few if any financial regulations and monstrous disparities in wealth and income is more to their interest. Doesn't mean a thing. Many Westerners like the Chinese style of life, less pressure, better cultural values, almost no crime. In any case it's None of Our Business. If you can convince 40 million US citizens that having no health insurance, and an accident or prolonged sickness is the end of them financially - is not oppression: if you can convince 60 millions more that not having $1000 in an emergency is not oppression: if you can convince 325 million that a serious hit on their standard of living is worth it - if it's in the cause of wrecking Ukraine - then folks, you have the propaganda game working for you: it doesn't get better than that.
"We're told we're freer than other countries so that we won't see how unfree we are. You can't look down your nose at countries like China or North Korea and still clearly see how controlled and homogenized your own country is."
Analogy for the best case scenario: it's like watching video of somebody stuck in a cage and thinking "That poor person, I'm lucky I have more freedom. MY cage has like a whole 'nother 1/2 square foot!"
At the end of the day, it doesn't matter whether China is the more authoritarian and oppressive country or whether the United States is, because they're both authoritarian, and that's unacceptable. Acknowledging that China may not be exactly a utopia shouldn't be taken as a sign I would support another proxy war there over Taiwan, by the way, let alone a hot war or regime change.
Dear Caitlin -- can you send me a link or something where you explain your use of word "matrix" - as in narrative matrix? I don't understand it
Many thanks in advance
People are constantly being told to choose between a turd hotdog and chili diarrhea. And they will happily munch the turd hot dog and tell you that they think someone peed in the chili. And it works both ways. Democrats vs Republicans and Republicans vs. Democrats.
I am always baffled by this. Why willingly eat shit?
Once again, the contents of my deeper thoughts have been articulated to perfection. Are younsure you're not AI that has a neurolink in to my brain that I am not aware of, and that Substack is not just another peice of a holographic representation of the world I create for myself while tucked in to a pod producing energy for the actual matrix. Weird
"It's possible to saturate a civilization so thoroughly with propaganda that"
the appearance of a new cold virus can be used to excuse a dozen quantum leaps in the enslavement and degradation of the world's population.
The problem is how to bring about a different state of things than what we now observe. It is pretty clear from both common reason and history that force does not do the trick. It also seems obvious that metaphorical violence like elections and tax-deductable charity organizations are either support for the existing system or are easily suborned. It is also true (as far as I can see) that our problem is collective and therefore can't be solved through isolated individual virtue. Under present conditions, then, our actions must take place on a small scale and, if possible, almost out of sight. Lead by example, even ambiguous example. Move into the gaps, the interstices. Be harmless as doves and subtle as serpents. There may be other ways -- diversity will confuse the opposition -- but generally this seems to be to be the only way forward.
Let us also collectively imagine the other world which is said to be possible.