Geo-politics is neither capitalist nor communist. It is bare-faced uni-party and totalitarian.
It is cold, dismissive of humanity and utterly determined to clear the decks for a complete restart, as if this world were a computer which needs its cookies cleaned out.
You are communicating with a lady who spent a great deal of time protesting against the Vietnam war in the 60s and against US nukes on British soil in the 80s.
My country doesn't need protection from gung ho yanks, thanks very much. We are all dictated to by the same predator globalists and yanks ain't any more useful against them than a wet week in Bognor.
I'm sure you did protest along with many others and look at the results now. Your government is sold out to the US just like the rest of the self-anointed "civilized" Europe. It's what you call democracy that put those folks at the head to decide for you and put itself in that "privileged" position - under the American eagle's ass.
Actually, the eagle sort of shitting on Europe is rather appropriate. If anything starts there and the US can be spared - I'm willing to bet they'll stay out. They don't give a damn if Europe gets annihilated once more.
That wasn't the intent towards her personally, nor the minority population of the countries groveling before the US.
The majority population of the said countries though maintain they're a beacon of democracy and lick the US' ass as a token of gratitude for protecting them against the totalitarian evils of the world. Yet at the same time they might claim they have sovereignty and demand yanks to behave.
Other way around broski, the Bear is out of the woods and hunting for scraps in the village, only now people see that Russia has nothing to offer and only takes what it can.
The opposite is actually true. Russia has almost everything the world needs; wheat, oil, natural gas, metals (including uranium) and fertilizer. Why do you think the sanctions have backfired? Russia can easily sell it’s resources to other markets and has been doing just that. Meanwhile, energy prices across Europe continue to skyrocket. The neocons have wanted to end the Nord Stream pipeline for quite some time because energy interdependence in Europe threatens U.S. hegemony. Biden actually promised to end it and low and behold... but nobody can quite figure out what happened of course. France is now paying 4x the price for American natural gas. But hey, that’s just the free market at work right? Blame who you want but a peace agreement was almost reached a few months into the war. It sure sounds like some big boys really didn’t want that to happen and quite mysteriously their goals are being achieved.
This guys been lurking around Catlines substack and of course the CXK is here to provoke fights and here for poisoning the well and is a duplicitous character with not an ounce of honesty or intellectual courage or the integrity to value it.
" Geo-politics is the broad topic of politics across national borders, which is a vast subject that can be approached in any manner a geopolitical thinker wishes. CXK
Proceeds to tell people they arer wrong and should not talk about it.
"The worst thing you can do is let someone else be the author of your story. Especially when the kinds of people most keen to do that are those who don't have your best interests at heart. Generally speaking, the people most eager to author your story for you will be the ones least qualified to do so."
Caitlin’s focus on individualism: American Style is on the money. It’s a money protection racket that uses property as the measure of the individual that it champions. It’s an ideology that has the heft of legal dogma in the U.S. Constitution. It, and not globalism, is the source of our inability to achieve democracy. Capitalism that is not governed, not mitigated, not buffered by a strong state committed to social justice is what we have. It’s billionaires, it’s fake government institutions, it’s oligarchy, it’s fascism, it’s cradle-to-grave propaganda, it!’s why America is so partisan and so violent.
Myth: the capitalist philosophical merger of personal and private property is anything but a feeling without the state to enforce it. A strong state, on the contrary, is exactly what generates and imposes capitalist or any other systematic relations such as private property, and what bears witness to corporate "existence". Corporations, as portfolios of private property, CANNOT exist without a state to recognize them, and the stronger the state, the more salient that corporate existence to those inside and outside of it. It is only the "strong state" that enables a corporation (an idea) to impose exclusive conditions on and around the means of production. If it weren't for the state, why wouldn't we simply treat GE's machine shops like an open maker space and put the smack down on anyone who tries to haul the means away?
And think about it, money really doesn't actually exist. It's an agreement - a contract between those who live in a society to trade goods and labor and their free time. And the billionaires of the US have broken that contract by exploiting the good will of the society they participate in, by exploiting and taking (obscenely) far more than they really deserve. While leaving ordinary people to struggle just to have a roof over their head, or receive decent medical care. It doesn't have to be like this at all.
"a strong state committed to social justice", how funny is that! That's like a gun that only shoots bad people, it doesn't exist. And that is the biggest problem with all this philosophy, in order for it to work, people would have to be so good that they wouldn't need a govt. The only way a govt. will work is for everyone to participate and for the political unit to be small enough where everyone knows everyone else to some degree and the leader can be changed by a majority vote any time.
If corporations are going to be with us in any scenario, then any form of democracy can only exist with a mediator between profiteers and the public. It is collusion between the profiteers and the state that makes democracy impossible. It is not inevitable that the state kowtow to corporate dictates. It isn’t a given that corporations assume governance. Bribery and extortion are crimes if little people practice them, but they are “the way of the world” when corporations buy politicians. People don’t need to be saints, but they do need to get off their asses.
Here’s an example of my use of the term. All western “democracies” and most governments across the globe, have healthcare systems that are based on the principle that access to healthcare is a human right that isn’t expected to “pay for itself.” Many of these same governments also view education as a state mandate that isn’t left to the wherewithal of individuals. In America, “access to healthcare” is code for getting every individual insured. The insurance lobby in this instance is a profiteer. It adds nothing to the transaction between doctor and patient but cost. The overall cost of healthcare in America is extremely high when compared to other systems, and this is largely to do with profiteers running the system.
Education is a more complex example, but also displays the profiteer mentality. By catering to the right-wing, religious -based claims of family rights, public schools have become last resort options for the public members who send their children to the nearest public schools, while their taxes are allocated to the alternatives that are rewarded and promoted by bought governments. I believe it is still possible for diligent students to get a satisfactory education in a public school, but it is a fish swimming against the current. If the state was strong and resolved in the interest of the public, individuals with money could underwrite their private schools without taxpayer monies, and there would be a higher standard nationally. By championing the causes that undermine the public school systems across the country, the politicians are contributing to the profit-at-all-costs mentality. But there is also another priority at play. I think a poorly educated public is an asset for oligarchs and bent politicians skilled at doublespeak. Propaganda works best on undeveloped minds.
Someone just emailed me that I am a fraud and really want my knee on people's necks- because that, apparently, is what a socialist is: a person who wants to prevent multi-millionaires from having what is rightly, theirs, your money. I'm an anti-multimillionarist. I believe they should at least pay their own way with a progressive tax. I hate freedom. And libertarians are interesting; they believe, apparently that no government can possibly be good government, and if there is no government, except for police and military - we will all be free. The gap will be filled by good-hearted rich people who own everything, roads, bridges, public utilities - the works, but you can trust them to do good by you.
I stopped believing such stories qhwn my permanent molars came through.
I agree that people like Ron Paul are wrong about finding corporations trustworthy while not trusting government, especially with corporate control of government being a big part of the problem.
Still, I'm glad he's anti-war and has called out both the Obama and Trump administrations for their drone strikes. It's better than if he weren't and if he hadn't.
That's about the level of intelligence you would expect of people who throw words like "socialist" around as swear words, without knowing anything about capitalism or socialism.
Caitlin, you must be Reminded that -- You are So Loved 😘
Every adult on this planet has been insidiously propagated by generational familial rituals, cultural beliefs, religious doctrines then enabled by the community and reinforced by institutions.
Based on my life's lessons, in today's paradigm, No One has One's Best Interest at Heart. Sad reality, yet very real.
Many folks are physically, emotionally and psychologically exhausted from working and chasing the next income model. Children and young adults, even within the wealthy, hire nannies, tutors, psychologist to nourish the well being of their own child. These have become a lifestyle norm.
Lesson learned: Heed, Listen to one's Heart Pulse in order to make the right choices for one's wholesome sense of well being. Only one defines within, what is beneficial for one's sustenance.
In the Spirit of this Thanksgiving Week, Wrapping A Warm Blanket around your Wholesome Sense of Well Being, Caitlin, with Gratitude for every theme that you have beautifully written, revealed- exposed the truth underneath the veil of illusions.
Yesterday I saw some dimwits on Twitter saying that, since my country is a NATO founder, we should follow the official narrative about the war - otherwise we'd be aligning with "the enemy". And many other dimwits agreed. I refuse to argue with these people because this would mean I consider them rational. It would be like going to a supermarket to debate with the toys.
That's a good comparison! I like the one from Bill Engvall "You Can't Fix Stupid"! Since they will never get smarter and nothing will change their beliefs.
They are the enemy because they are projecting their feelings onto an imaginary friend and expecting you to care. No need to debate them, just shiv their psyche and block them.
Luckily for me, and I hope for you, too, I agree with you on almost all of your points.
And expecting the other person to agree with your entire worldview reminds me of the time in 2016 when I was calling for Bernie Sanders, and someone who supported Hillary Clinton told me that we should stop "splitting the party" (remember when that was a thing?) and come over to their side. I told him that he and his friends could stop splitting the party any day they liked and come on over to us. He was flummoxed.
Lesser evil voting is still voting for evil. It’s bizarre for such a moralistic society, founded on revolution, to blithely accept a two party binary that undermines any genuine expression of democracy. The ability of American voters to rationalize away their integrity is staggering.
You are correct. I was also thinking about this after writing that. Being overly moral actually makes it more difficult to see past the binary. I guess what I was trying to say was, for a culture so interested in the “good” it seems bizarre to be voting for evil by default.
I completely agree with you about lesser evil voting.
However, in 2016, Bernie wasn't considered a lesser evil, the way he is today. He really brought a lot of fresh air and hope into American politics. All for naught at the DNC National Convention in July, 2016.
Totally. It was very instructive to see how he was demonized by the DNC and the liberal media. Ultimately in 2020 we were told you had to vote for Biden because we had to beat Satan himself, Donald Trump. There was a lot of data that showed Bernie was the stronger candidate but even Noam Chomsky encouraged us to vote for Biden to avoid nuclear and climate catastrophe. He has since had to acknowledge that Biden has brought us to the brink of Armageddon while Satan was the singular mainstream politician speaking about the need for a negotiated peace. In the long run, all the fear mongering is exposed for what it is. The media lies are being exposed as the Hunter Biden laptop becomes central to the Republican House Oversight Committee’s case against Joe Biden. Although my ego enjoys being vindicated it’s still such a waste that people were fooled into turning away from their genuine vote for Bernie Sanders and Sanders caved to the establishment. If he had fought harder in that final debate and refused to endorse Biden we’d likely be in a different political landscape but either he just didn’t have it in him or giving false hope and ripping it away is one of the darker arts of politics. Obama’s “hope and change” in conjunction with DNC corruption gave us the Trump presidency but we’re all programmed to hate the symptom and not the disease.
There is so much of what you've just said that are my thoughts exactly!
The DNC did demonize Bernie. That's why they say that the Democrats would rather lose to a Republican than win with a progressive.
He really made a mistake, if that's what it was, when he caved to Hillary. But I was following the convention very closely, and there was a point, right when Bernie was getting cheated, when he was invited backstage and he came out a few minutes later with a bruise on his left cheekbone, with his hair and clothes all ruffled up. It was then that he turned and endorsed Hillary.
I don't know what hit Noam Chomsky. He seems to have as much dementia as Joe Biden. He has been insisting that we have to vote for the Democrats for the last five or six years, because Trump.
And Trump? My recollection is that Hillary Clinton put him up to running against her. The Wikileaks emails proved it. She seemed to think that he would be so crude that he would stampede voters to vote for her. I believe that Trump was even more surprised than she was when he won. I think that he saw the whole campaign as a giant reality show with him as the star. I don't think that he really considered what he would do if he won.
The Democrats have really gotten their money's worth out of Trump. They're still running with one plank in their platform: "I'm not him." They couldn't do without him.
Dr Gene Sharp, the Harvard professor who wrote From Dictatorship to Democracy, said that fear breeds submission. I don't have enough fingers to count all of the issues that we have been supposed to fear in the last six years: terrorists, the Russians, Covid, Trump, MAGA hats, inflation, school shootings, Iran, and nuclear war. There are more, I'm sure, and I hope you can add them to the list. Besides propaganda, which Caitlin has done such a good job of exposing, this is a very effective tactic to keep us all cowering in our rabbit holes.
Fear is a very real force in our lives. In healthy amounts it manifests as attention on actual problems in the present and future so they can be dealt with. In unhealthy amounts it manifests as anxiety disorders and mob mentality, both of which are extremely destructive. Any political movement that actively promotes fear is suspect, especially when the fear is focused on a particular enemy rather than what can practically be done on a personal and societal level to take responsibility for the situation. Fear coupled with blame is the antithesis of a healthy response in any relationship.
That’s very interesting what you say about Trump because my conspiracy brain (I have a number of modes of thinking that I entertain simultaneously) has been telling me this. Trump was a Democrat for years and just in the midterms we saw the DNC donating millions to MAGA candidates because they saw them as easier to defeat, which may have actually paid off. If the emails do point to such a conspiracy, I wonder if Trump has since left the alliance or if the game has only escalated. The uniparty does seem to be running a “good cop, bad cop” program with a reality TV sideshow. You would think people would see that the media is completely full of shit by now but partisan blindness is a powerful drug.
I’m sure a bruised cheek is the least of what can be done to you by the deep state.
I highly recommend Meltdown by David Sirota on Audible. It very effectively destroys Obama’s saviour myth and shows how his betrayal led to the Trump presidency. It’s a great one for getting through to friends who are hypnotized by the fear narrative. The trick is getting them to listen to it. I have yet to succeed.
I've been voting Libertairian for 50 years while being accused of throwing my vote away. Not necessarilly because I'm a purist but as a hopeful influence to hold the entrenched politicians more in check. Yes the Empire is corrupt, yes it pisses me off and yes people should be paying more attention, but they don't and it's because they are not all capable of anticipating the outcome of their own actions even when it's in their own self interest. Human beings are flawed and the best take advantage of the worst, always have and always will. Regardless of tye of government, union, corporation or church they all rely on concentrating power to leverage the effort of those less capable. Railing about the Empire endlessly is a theme you're stuck on. The overwhelming evidence of corruption and group think will not penetrate the stupid masses who gladly accept their handouts and restrictions. Those who agree most likely can't get even more upset by learning about more corruption at this point. We are on a path to totalitarianism fueled by bureaucratics drunk with power and resentful of their lack of recognition for their vital contribution to all societies accomplishments. Capitalism is a dangerous system to go unchecked and the addition of China's market of 1.5 billion consumers has made them more rich, powerful and more able to buy politicians. The Empire is dying from within while the band plays on.
Sounds like you're voting libertarian for their foreign policy. Not so much unfettered capitalism. You know in Europe, libertarianism is not identified solely with the right. It's civil libertarianism, the rights of individuals, not so much corporations. That's something i would vote for.
Agree with Cait on the US war machine, US hegemony, the Atlantic, and other things. I have yet to see her present a coherent alternative. "Pushing to the left" is not a plan, it is a protest. Need to have a plan for what comes afterwards.
Excellent. I don't mind being called a communist either. Hell, in my not so younger days, I was called a Stalinist. But I've left my "Pol Pot, right man, wrong country" tendencies for kinder pastures. These days I've come to believe that a communist system can only be established by real anarchists.
Please do not confuse Communism and Anarchism. A lot of the people in the insane tribe that rule in the district of criminals today are self proclaimed Trotskyites.
I recommend reading "The Controversy of Zion" by Douglas L. Reed. In it he describes what Communism REALLY is, and it is NOT what we have been taught in our institutions. We were also taught in school that McCarthy was a bad guy. He also knew what Communism really is, and was rightfully scared shitless of it, and we're living in it today.
The media smeared McCarthy since it has been controlled by the same tribe since the creation of "the real state department", the CFR, in 1921.
The final nail in the coffin of the constitutional republic that was the US of A was hammered in 59 years ago to the day (22/11/1963). That's when the insane tribe that had ruled the USSR since the revolution hijacked the country.
On the following day the Zionist League of America was registered as a domestic lobby group as opposed to a foreign agent. Another thing that happened 59 years ago tomorrow was the reversal of Presidential Directive 11110. That's the one that replaced the not-so-federal Federal Reserve System fiat currency with government issued money.
"I'd like to know if you are a young 20s Azov Banderite with freshly bleeding swastika tattoos"
I wonder what the Banderas loving Azov brigade will do when they get their heads out of their asses and realize that they have been doing the bidding of someone they hate. An East European Ashkenazim Khazar by the name of Zelensky.
Does that mean you think Alexandr Solzhenitsyn was an racist ant-semite as well?
"You must understand, the leading Bolsheviks who took over Russia were not Russians. They hated Russians. They hated Christians. Driven by ethnic hatred they tortured and slaughtered millions of Russians without a shred of remorse. It cannot be overstated. Bolshevism created the greatest human slaughter of all time. The fact that most of the world is ignorant and uncaring about this crime is proof that the global media is in the hands of the perpetrator."
- Alexandr Solzhenitsyn -
Besides, East European Khazars aren't Semites like ethnic Palestinians and Samaritans, to name just two.
Why am I not surprised? It really is funny (sort of) that when you criticize the apartheid squatter state and the occupants or the diaspora you are immediately labeled a racist.
Long live Nato and Ukraine, Death to eastern imperialism! Your Nazi overlord will be resolutely destroyed and you will cry lke the little bitch you are.
Wonderful piece! You're so right about those who wish to manipulate you into their own idea of what and who you should be are the least qualified to do so. We must all think for ourselves and create our own selves. I may not "accomplish" much in the eyes of the capitalist, but at least I know who I am and where I'm going. I'm happy with it. #PowerToThePeople
I’m sorry: Should we all be individualists, free-thinkers, anti-collectivists, or should we be union members supporting labor union (I.e. collectivists, group-thinkers)? What a simple error you have made; to make the economic problem a dichotomy; a win/lose matter. All of your confusion when Adam Smith (blessed Be His Name) proved that the FREE market is a win/win situation rather than your sophomoric zero sum viewpoint.
I agree as to the free market being a construct. Utopian, nnaaahhh. Just as all manmade things do, it requires minimal control and oversight. The free market is HUMAN. It is the purist manifestation of the divine human spirit. While allowing, at the same moment, the reality of warts and other “uglies” that need weeding.
Mythologists *prove* nothing, especially those in the neoliberal movement trying to twist "free market" into a positive freedom to be rentiers rather than a negative freedom from rentiers.
I’ll reply, though I despair: ???????? What are these “mythologists” you refer to? What is being proven or disproven? Furthermore: Hell, boy. What are you blathering about? Free markets have shown, throughout the ages, to be the one, the only, way to prosperity. Everything else is so much horse manure.
You're genuflecting toward a midwit 18th century theologist and stage actor. Come on, now.
Those mythologists are the likes of Milton Friedman and the other neoliberals, who twisted Smith's "freedom from rentiers" to "freedom FOR rentiers". Apparently, you fancy yourself among them.
Capitalists steal valor all the time, and your cosmic gift shibboleth is merely one more example of the same. Industrialism made higher living standards happen, and your greatest material uplift stories all happened in Communist countries under Communist rule anyway.
Couple of points: can you steal Valor? And, which is it, industrialism or communism created the “greatest material uplift”?
Now onto the piquant point: you effete, arrogant snob. In other words; an asshole. You’re not fit to lick the sweat off the balls of Milton Friedman. As far as Father of Economics, calling him a midwit?
You’re nothing but a self-important parrot; a communist stooge.
Valor is a property, therefore under capitalism it is alienable and can be stolen. I'm simply pointing out that capitalism CAN'T take credit for the uplifts in China and the USSR because it wasn't in power. Industrialism is a means of organizing production. You can lay any grand ideology across that, or none at all.
Now onto the spicy part: Sacrdness is a mental illness. Grow the fuck up and stop pretending like your imaginary friends love you or even know who you are. They only hang out with you because you wouldn't let them live otherwise. You're nothing but a mental illness with meat; an idealistic little child who thinks the world owes him a daddy for a redo.
Geo-politics is neither capitalist nor communist. It is bare-faced uni-party and totalitarian.
It is cold, dismissive of humanity and utterly determined to clear the decks for a complete restart, as if this world were a computer which needs its cookies cleaned out.
https://francesleader.substack.com/p/the-mother-of-all-false-flag-events
ps
Get that fucking great eagle's arse off my country! 🤣😂
"Get that fucking great eagle's arse off my country!" - looks like your country feels more protected this way.
You are communicating with a lady who spent a great deal of time protesting against the Vietnam war in the 60s and against US nukes on British soil in the 80s.
My country doesn't need protection from gung ho yanks, thanks very much. We are all dictated to by the same predator globalists and yanks ain't any more useful against them than a wet week in Bognor.
I'm sure you did protest along with many others and look at the results now. Your government is sold out to the US just like the rest of the self-anointed "civilized" Europe. It's what you call democracy that put those folks at the head to decide for you and put itself in that "privileged" position - under the American eagle's ass.
Actually, the eagle sort of shitting on Europe is rather appropriate. If anything starts there and the US can be spared - I'm willing to bet they'll stay out. They don't give a damn if Europe gets annihilated once more.
Europe does not have democracy mate. We have demockery and the Black Nobility which rules over all 5-Eyes countries with equal distain.
You need educating....
https://francesleader.substack.com/p/who-rules-the-world
Whenever I mention western democracy it's always adorned with invisible quotes. Always sarcastically.
Democracy is just an open-source church. It's no less totalitarian than any other Puritan moral philosophy.
YOu're such a ass!
You're making it sound like she had something to do with what happened to her country.
That wasn't the intent towards her personally, nor the minority population of the countries groveling before the US.
The majority population of the said countries though maintain they're a beacon of democracy and lick the US' ass as a token of gratitude for protecting them against the totalitarian evils of the world. Yet at the same time they might claim they have sovereignty and demand yanks to behave.
Yanks are victims of their own hubris.... they are not capable of protecting anyone, not even themselves.
Yes, the nukes in European countries don’t protect them. If anything they make them a target and now European economies are being destroyed.
Not everybody posting here is in the US.
The eagle is firmly on Europe and many Europeans are waking up to that fact. I think you missed the point.
I'm writing from the US, and the graphic would be just as accurate if the eagle was on top of us.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go shovel the sh*t out of my yard...again.
Other way around broski, the Bear is out of the woods and hunting for scraps in the village, only now people see that Russia has nothing to offer and only takes what it can.
The opposite is actually true. Russia has almost everything the world needs; wheat, oil, natural gas, metals (including uranium) and fertilizer. Why do you think the sanctions have backfired? Russia can easily sell it’s resources to other markets and has been doing just that. Meanwhile, energy prices across Europe continue to skyrocket. The neocons have wanted to end the Nord Stream pipeline for quite some time because energy interdependence in Europe threatens U.S. hegemony. Biden actually promised to end it and low and behold... but nobody can quite figure out what happened of course. France is now paying 4x the price for American natural gas. But hey, that’s just the free market at work right? Blame who you want but a peace agreement was almost reached a few months into the war. It sure sounds like some big boys really didn’t want that to happen and quite mysteriously their goals are being achieved.
Put down the Hollywood Jim Jones fruit punch you are drunk on its Russian xenophobic Putin bogeyman syndrome.
ARe picking a fight with an ally to show off your political correctness??
This guys been lurking around Catlines substack and of course the CXK is here to provoke fights and here for poisoning the well and is a duplicitous character with not an ounce of honesty or intellectual courage or the integrity to value it.
Smart people are quite often the worst. Give me a slow conservative any day than a smartass shitlib.
"Anything can happen. You can even get a full glass of beer at a cocktail lounge."
Where's this from, you bookworm you?
? that's your permanent state of being ...confusion of duplicity,, depending on your agenda...feining ignorance is also a tactic
" Geo-politics is the broad topic of politics across national borders, which is a vast subject that can be approached in any manner a geopolitical thinker wishes. CXK
Proceeds to tell people they arer wrong and should not talk about it.
"t's none of the things you list"
this guys hypocracy goes to 11
He's kind of a know-it-all so don't be surprised he catches the "goes to 11" bit.
I am in Europe. Please don't tell me that you believe Substack is exclusively and exceptionally American!
Geo-political views from Europe are as I describe in my article. I can see from your comment that you have not read it.
That's our CXK. He knows-it-all.
lol - squirm worm. You fucked up and can't admit it.
He's covering his ass but it's too big.
And we're telling you exactly how much we value your property and your petty attempts at domination.
It is 4.27 here in the UK and I can keep whatever timetable I choose. You yanks think you can dictate to me what time I sleep? Get lost.
Which bit of 'get lost' was beyond your single digit IQ?
"The worst thing you can do is let someone else be the author of your story. Especially when the kinds of people most keen to do that are those who don't have your best interests at heart. Generally speaking, the people most eager to author your story for you will be the ones least qualified to do so."
Whew. Good stuff!
Caitlin’s focus on individualism: American Style is on the money. It’s a money protection racket that uses property as the measure of the individual that it champions. It’s an ideology that has the heft of legal dogma in the U.S. Constitution. It, and not globalism, is the source of our inability to achieve democracy. Capitalism that is not governed, not mitigated, not buffered by a strong state committed to social justice is what we have. It’s billionaires, it’s fake government institutions, it’s oligarchy, it’s fascism, it’s cradle-to-grave propaganda, it!’s why America is so partisan and so violent.
Myth: the capitalist philosophical merger of personal and private property is anything but a feeling without the state to enforce it. A strong state, on the contrary, is exactly what generates and imposes capitalist or any other systematic relations such as private property, and what bears witness to corporate "existence". Corporations, as portfolios of private property, CANNOT exist without a state to recognize them, and the stronger the state, the more salient that corporate existence to those inside and outside of it. It is only the "strong state" that enables a corporation (an idea) to impose exclusive conditions on and around the means of production. If it weren't for the state, why wouldn't we simply treat GE's machine shops like an open maker space and put the smack down on anyone who tries to haul the means away?
And think about it, money really doesn't actually exist. It's an agreement - a contract between those who live in a society to trade goods and labor and their free time. And the billionaires of the US have broken that contract by exploiting the good will of the society they participate in, by exploiting and taking (obscenely) far more than they really deserve. While leaving ordinary people to struggle just to have a roof over their head, or receive decent medical care. It doesn't have to be like this at all.
Well lets make America great again then!
"a strong state committed to social justice", how funny is that! That's like a gun that only shoots bad people, it doesn't exist. And that is the biggest problem with all this philosophy, in order for it to work, people would have to be so good that they wouldn't need a govt. The only way a govt. will work is for everyone to participate and for the political unit to be small enough where everyone knows everyone else to some degree and the leader can be changed by a majority vote any time.
If corporations are going to be with us in any scenario, then any form of democracy can only exist with a mediator between profiteers and the public. It is collusion between the profiteers and the state that makes democracy impossible. It is not inevitable that the state kowtow to corporate dictates. It isn’t a given that corporations assume governance. Bribery and extortion are crimes if little people practice them, but they are “the way of the world” when corporations buy politicians. People don’t need to be saints, but they do need to get off their asses.
Can you define "profiteer"?
Here’s an example of my use of the term. All western “democracies” and most governments across the globe, have healthcare systems that are based on the principle that access to healthcare is a human right that isn’t expected to “pay for itself.” Many of these same governments also view education as a state mandate that isn’t left to the wherewithal of individuals. In America, “access to healthcare” is code for getting every individual insured. The insurance lobby in this instance is a profiteer. It adds nothing to the transaction between doctor and patient but cost. The overall cost of healthcare in America is extremely high when compared to other systems, and this is largely to do with profiteers running the system.
Education is a more complex example, but also displays the profiteer mentality. By catering to the right-wing, religious -based claims of family rights, public schools have become last resort options for the public members who send their children to the nearest public schools, while their taxes are allocated to the alternatives that are rewarded and promoted by bought governments. I believe it is still possible for diligent students to get a satisfactory education in a public school, but it is a fish swimming against the current. If the state was strong and resolved in the interest of the public, individuals with money could underwrite their private schools without taxpayer monies, and there would be a higher standard nationally. By championing the causes that undermine the public school systems across the country, the politicians are contributing to the profit-at-all-costs mentality. But there is also another priority at play. I think a poorly educated public is an asset for oligarchs and bent politicians skilled at doublespeak. Propaganda works best on undeveloped minds.
Someone just emailed me that I am a fraud and really want my knee on people's necks- because that, apparently, is what a socialist is: a person who wants to prevent multi-millionaires from having what is rightly, theirs, your money. I'm an anti-multimillionarist. I believe they should at least pay their own way with a progressive tax. I hate freedom. And libertarians are interesting; they believe, apparently that no government can possibly be good government, and if there is no government, except for police and military - we will all be free. The gap will be filled by good-hearted rich people who own everything, roads, bridges, public utilities - the works, but you can trust them to do good by you.
I stopped believing such stories qhwn my permanent molars came through.
Many Libertarians are like members of a cult.
I agree that people like Ron Paul are wrong about finding corporations trustworthy while not trusting government, especially with corporate control of government being a big part of the problem.
Still, I'm glad he's anti-war and has called out both the Obama and Trump administrations for their drone strikes. It's better than if he weren't and if he hadn't.
That's about the level of intelligence you would expect of people who throw words like "socialist" around as swear words, without knowing anything about capitalism or socialism.
I know eh.. multimillionaires are terrible.. billionaires on the other hand....
Caitlin, you must be Reminded that -- You are So Loved 😘
Every adult on this planet has been insidiously propagated by generational familial rituals, cultural beliefs, religious doctrines then enabled by the community and reinforced by institutions.
Based on my life's lessons, in today's paradigm, No One has One's Best Interest at Heart. Sad reality, yet very real.
Many folks are physically, emotionally and psychologically exhausted from working and chasing the next income model. Children and young adults, even within the wealthy, hire nannies, tutors, psychologist to nourish the well being of their own child. These have become a lifestyle norm.
Lesson learned: Heed, Listen to one's Heart Pulse in order to make the right choices for one's wholesome sense of well being. Only one defines within, what is beneficial for one's sustenance.
In the Spirit of this Thanksgiving Week, Wrapping A Warm Blanket around your Wholesome Sense of Well Being, Caitlin, with Gratitude for every theme that you have beautifully written, revealed- exposed the truth underneath the veil of illusions.
Yesterday I saw some dimwits on Twitter saying that, since my country is a NATO founder, we should follow the official narrative about the war - otherwise we'd be aligning with "the enemy". And many other dimwits agreed. I refuse to argue with these people because this would mean I consider them rational. It would be like going to a supermarket to debate with the toys.
That's a good comparison! I like the one from Bill Engvall "You Can't Fix Stupid"! Since they will never get smarter and nothing will change their beliefs.
They could get smarter if for some reason mainstream media went down... that's where they get their stupid from.
They are the enemy because they are projecting their feelings onto an imaginary friend and expecting you to care. No need to debate them, just shiv their psyche and block them.
I like to read what they say, for the same reason I like trash horror movies.
Luckily for me, and I hope for you, too, I agree with you on almost all of your points.
And expecting the other person to agree with your entire worldview reminds me of the time in 2016 when I was calling for Bernie Sanders, and someone who supported Hillary Clinton told me that we should stop "splitting the party" (remember when that was a thing?) and come over to their side. I told him that he and his friends could stop splitting the party any day they liked and come on over to us. He was flummoxed.
Lesser evil voting is still voting for evil. It’s bizarre for such a moralistic society, founded on revolution, to blithely accept a two party binary that undermines any genuine expression of democracy. The ability of American voters to rationalize away their integrity is staggering.
It's normal that a moralistic society needs evil, as a point of contrast against which to demonstrate its self-righteousness. Values are like that.
You are correct. I was also thinking about this after writing that. Being overly moral actually makes it more difficult to see past the binary. I guess what I was trying to say was, for a culture so interested in the “good” it seems bizarre to be voting for evil by default.
I completely agree with you about lesser evil voting.
However, in 2016, Bernie wasn't considered a lesser evil, the way he is today. He really brought a lot of fresh air and hope into American politics. All for naught at the DNC National Convention in July, 2016.
Totally. It was very instructive to see how he was demonized by the DNC and the liberal media. Ultimately in 2020 we were told you had to vote for Biden because we had to beat Satan himself, Donald Trump. There was a lot of data that showed Bernie was the stronger candidate but even Noam Chomsky encouraged us to vote for Biden to avoid nuclear and climate catastrophe. He has since had to acknowledge that Biden has brought us to the brink of Armageddon while Satan was the singular mainstream politician speaking about the need for a negotiated peace. In the long run, all the fear mongering is exposed for what it is. The media lies are being exposed as the Hunter Biden laptop becomes central to the Republican House Oversight Committee’s case against Joe Biden. Although my ego enjoys being vindicated it’s still such a waste that people were fooled into turning away from their genuine vote for Bernie Sanders and Sanders caved to the establishment. If he had fought harder in that final debate and refused to endorse Biden we’d likely be in a different political landscape but either he just didn’t have it in him or giving false hope and ripping it away is one of the darker arts of politics. Obama’s “hope and change” in conjunction with DNC corruption gave us the Trump presidency but we’re all programmed to hate the symptom and not the disease.
There is so much of what you've just said that are my thoughts exactly!
The DNC did demonize Bernie. That's why they say that the Democrats would rather lose to a Republican than win with a progressive.
He really made a mistake, if that's what it was, when he caved to Hillary. But I was following the convention very closely, and there was a point, right when Bernie was getting cheated, when he was invited backstage and he came out a few minutes later with a bruise on his left cheekbone, with his hair and clothes all ruffled up. It was then that he turned and endorsed Hillary.
I don't know what hit Noam Chomsky. He seems to have as much dementia as Joe Biden. He has been insisting that we have to vote for the Democrats for the last five or six years, because Trump.
And Trump? My recollection is that Hillary Clinton put him up to running against her. The Wikileaks emails proved it. She seemed to think that he would be so crude that he would stampede voters to vote for her. I believe that Trump was even more surprised than she was when he won. I think that he saw the whole campaign as a giant reality show with him as the star. I don't think that he really considered what he would do if he won.
The Democrats have really gotten their money's worth out of Trump. They're still running with one plank in their platform: "I'm not him." They couldn't do without him.
Dr Gene Sharp, the Harvard professor who wrote From Dictatorship to Democracy, said that fear breeds submission. I don't have enough fingers to count all of the issues that we have been supposed to fear in the last six years: terrorists, the Russians, Covid, Trump, MAGA hats, inflation, school shootings, Iran, and nuclear war. There are more, I'm sure, and I hope you can add them to the list. Besides propaganda, which Caitlin has done such a good job of exposing, this is a very effective tactic to keep us all cowering in our rabbit holes.
Fear is a very real force in our lives. In healthy amounts it manifests as attention on actual problems in the present and future so they can be dealt with. In unhealthy amounts it manifests as anxiety disorders and mob mentality, both of which are extremely destructive. Any political movement that actively promotes fear is suspect, especially when the fear is focused on a particular enemy rather than what can practically be done on a personal and societal level to take responsibility for the situation. Fear coupled with blame is the antithesis of a healthy response in any relationship.
That’s very interesting what you say about Trump because my conspiracy brain (I have a number of modes of thinking that I entertain simultaneously) has been telling me this. Trump was a Democrat for years and just in the midterms we saw the DNC donating millions to MAGA candidates because they saw them as easier to defeat, which may have actually paid off. If the emails do point to such a conspiracy, I wonder if Trump has since left the alliance or if the game has only escalated. The uniparty does seem to be running a “good cop, bad cop” program with a reality TV sideshow. You would think people would see that the media is completely full of shit by now but partisan blindness is a powerful drug.
I’m sure a bruised cheek is the least of what can be done to you by the deep state.
I highly recommend Meltdown by David Sirota on Audible. It very effectively destroys Obama’s saviour myth and shows how his betrayal led to the Trump presidency. It’s a great one for getting through to friends who are hypnotized by the fear narrative. The trick is getting them to listen to it. I have yet to succeed.
Yes, it may be useful to remember before being to hard on individuals that the empire uses heavy handed tactics.
I've been voting Libertairian for 50 years while being accused of throwing my vote away. Not necessarilly because I'm a purist but as a hopeful influence to hold the entrenched politicians more in check. Yes the Empire is corrupt, yes it pisses me off and yes people should be paying more attention, but they don't and it's because they are not all capable of anticipating the outcome of their own actions even when it's in their own self interest. Human beings are flawed and the best take advantage of the worst, always have and always will. Regardless of tye of government, union, corporation or church they all rely on concentrating power to leverage the effort of those less capable. Railing about the Empire endlessly is a theme you're stuck on. The overwhelming evidence of corruption and group think will not penetrate the stupid masses who gladly accept their handouts and restrictions. Those who agree most likely can't get even more upset by learning about more corruption at this point. We are on a path to totalitarianism fueled by bureaucratics drunk with power and resentful of their lack of recognition for their vital contribution to all societies accomplishments. Capitalism is a dangerous system to go unchecked and the addition of China's market of 1.5 billion consumers has made them more rich, powerful and more able to buy politicians. The Empire is dying from within while the band plays on.
How do you figure that "the best take advantage of the worst"? I think it's the other way around.
Sounds like you're voting libertarian for their foreign policy. Not so much unfettered capitalism. You know in Europe, libertarianism is not identified solely with the right. It's civil libertarianism, the rights of individuals, not so much corporations. That's something i would vote for.
Agree with Cait on the US war machine, US hegemony, the Atlantic, and other things. I have yet to see her present a coherent alternative. "Pushing to the left" is not a plan, it is a protest. Need to have a plan for what comes afterwards.
All the self-flattering PMC say this because they know how to hijack a plan.
The list of quotes at the end of your article reminds me of John Carpenter’s THEY LIVE!
Lets add:
“Consume”
“Conform”
“Do not question authority”
“Buy”
‘Submit”
‘Watch TV”
“No independent thought”
“No imagination”
“Money is your god”
“Marry and reproduce”
“Stay asleep”
‘
Work, make money, have family, buy shit, work....
Excellent. I don't mind being called a communist either. Hell, in my not so younger days, I was called a Stalinist. But I've left my "Pol Pot, right man, wrong country" tendencies for kinder pastures. These days I've come to believe that a communist system can only be established by real anarchists.
Of course any system has to have anarchism at some level. But aren't the anarchists the first to be purged?
Please do not confuse Communism and Anarchism. A lot of the people in the insane tribe that rule in the district of criminals today are self proclaimed Trotskyites.
I recommend reading "The Controversy of Zion" by Douglas L. Reed. In it he describes what Communism REALLY is, and it is NOT what we have been taught in our institutions. We were also taught in school that McCarthy was a bad guy. He also knew what Communism really is, and was rightfully scared shitless of it, and we're living in it today.
The media smeared McCarthy since it has been controlled by the same tribe since the creation of "the real state department", the CFR, in 1921.
The final nail in the coffin of the constitutional republic that was the US of A was hammered in 59 years ago to the day (22/11/1963). That's when the insane tribe that had ruled the USSR since the revolution hijacked the country.
On the following day the Zionist League of America was registered as a domestic lobby group as opposed to a foreign agent. Another thing that happened 59 years ago tomorrow was the reversal of Presidential Directive 11110. That's the one that replaced the not-so-federal Federal Reserve System fiat currency with government issued money.
No, that's just the lying (Puritan) middle class making up myths because they're too mentally ill to deal with reality.
"I'd like to know if you are a young 20s Azov Banderite with freshly bleeding swastika tattoos"
I wonder what the Banderas loving Azov brigade will do when they get their heads out of their asses and realize that they have been doing the bidding of someone they hate. An East European Ashkenazim Khazar by the name of Zelensky.
Does that mean you think Alexandr Solzhenitsyn was an racist ant-semite as well?
"You must understand, the leading Bolsheviks who took over Russia were not Russians. They hated Russians. They hated Christians. Driven by ethnic hatred they tortured and slaughtered millions of Russians without a shred of remorse. It cannot be overstated. Bolshevism created the greatest human slaughter of all time. The fact that most of the world is ignorant and uncaring about this crime is proof that the global media is in the hands of the perpetrator."
- Alexandr Solzhenitsyn -
Besides, East European Khazars aren't Semites like ethnic Palestinians and Samaritans, to name just two.
Why am I not surprised? It really is funny (sort of) that when you criticize the apartheid squatter state and the occupants or the diaspora you are immediately labeled a racist.
What in my comment is not true?
....., and the answer to your question: Neither.
great writing.
More about Ukraine’s Nazi government and Nazi state:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5SdsYqeAuY
Long live Nato and Ukraine, Death to eastern imperialism! Your Nazi overlord will be resolutely destroyed and you will cry lke the little bitch you are.
Stand with Russia !! It fights for all of us against the rise of the “left” fascism in the US and against Nazi-dominated US puppet regime in Ukraine.
Wonderful piece! You're so right about those who wish to manipulate you into their own idea of what and who you should be are the least qualified to do so. We must all think for ourselves and create our own selves. I may not "accomplish" much in the eyes of the capitalist, but at least I know who I am and where I'm going. I'm happy with it. #PowerToThePeople
I’m sorry: Should we all be individualists, free-thinkers, anti-collectivists, or should we be union members supporting labor union (I.e. collectivists, group-thinkers)? What a simple error you have made; to make the economic problem a dichotomy; a win/lose matter. All of your confusion when Adam Smith (blessed Be His Name) proved that the FREE market is a win/win situation rather than your sophomoric zero sum viewpoint.
A "free market" is a utopian construct. There has never been any such thing. Even barter was subject to communal standards.
I agree as to the free market being a construct. Utopian, nnaaahhh. Just as all manmade things do, it requires minimal control and oversight. The free market is HUMAN. It is the purist manifestation of the divine human spirit. While allowing, at the same moment, the reality of warts and other “uglies” that need weeding.
Mythologists *prove* nothing, especially those in the neoliberal movement trying to twist "free market" into a positive freedom to be rentiers rather than a negative freedom from rentiers.
I’ll reply, though I despair: ???????? What are these “mythologists” you refer to? What is being proven or disproven? Furthermore: Hell, boy. What are you blathering about? Free markets have shown, throughout the ages, to be the one, the only, way to prosperity. Everything else is so much horse manure.
You're genuflecting toward a midwit 18th century theologist and stage actor. Come on, now.
Those mythologists are the likes of Milton Friedman and the other neoliberals, who twisted Smith's "freedom from rentiers" to "freedom FOR rentiers". Apparently, you fancy yourself among them.
Capitalists steal valor all the time, and your cosmic gift shibboleth is merely one more example of the same. Industrialism made higher living standards happen, and your greatest material uplift stories all happened in Communist countries under Communist rule anyway.
Couple of points: can you steal Valor? And, which is it, industrialism or communism created the “greatest material uplift”?
Now onto the piquant point: you effete, arrogant snob. In other words; an asshole. You’re not fit to lick the sweat off the balls of Milton Friedman. As far as Father of Economics, calling him a midwit?
You’re nothing but a self-important parrot; a communist stooge.
Valor is a property, therefore under capitalism it is alienable and can be stolen. I'm simply pointing out that capitalism CAN'T take credit for the uplifts in China and the USSR because it wasn't in power. Industrialism is a means of organizing production. You can lay any grand ideology across that, or none at all.
Now onto the spicy part: Sacrdness is a mental illness. Grow the fuck up and stop pretending like your imaginary friends love you or even know who you are. They only hang out with you because you wouldn't let them live otherwise. You're nothing but a mental illness with meat; an idealistic little child who thinks the world owes him a daddy for a redo.