Going Rogue With Caitlin Johnstone

If people really believed the president runs the country, they'd be freaking out that Biden in his demented haze might order an attack on the Soviet Union or nuke Libya to kill Muammar Gaddafi or something. They're not worried that this will happen because they know their government is actually being run by unelected empire managers from behind the scenes, and that Biden is just the official face on the operation. Reading by Tim Foley.

If you desire the sovereignty and self-determination of any group of people, your first and foremost task is to seek the dismantling of the US-centralized empire, because that's the power structure that is doing the most around the world to undermine this possibility. As long as a population is in any way intertwined with the agendas of a globe-dominating empire that's doing everything it can to bring everyone under its control, then there is no possibility of that population gaining any real self-determination. If they remain aligned with those agendas, all they can ever hope to be is subjects of the empire. Reading by Tim Foley.

The thing that stands out for me the most when watching the deeply moving footage of Julian Assange arriving home to Australia is how impossible this all felt until it happened. Reading by Tim Foley.

Justice would look like Assange being granted a full and unconditional pardon and receiving millions of dollars in compensation from the US government for the torment they put him through by his imprisonment in Belmarsh beginning in 2019, his de facto imprisonment in the Ecuadorian embassy beginning in 2012, and his jailing and house arrest beginning in 2010. Justice would look like the US making concrete legal and policy changes guaranteeing that Washington could never again use its globe-spanning power and influence to destroy the life of a foreign journalist for reporting inconvenient facts about it, and issuing a formal apology to Julian Assange and his family. Justice would look like the arrest and prosecution of the people whose war crimes Assange exposed, and the arrest and prosecution of everyone who helped ruin his life for exposing those crimes. This would include a whole host of government operatives and officials across numerous countries, and multiple US presidents. Reading by Tim Foley.

Listen deeply to the screaming mothers and the whirring of the drones. Listen deeply to the news man's lies and the crashing of the bulldozers. Listen deeply to the tanks and missiles as they are rolled into position. Listen deeply to the dying fish and the fruit bats dropping out of trees from the heat. Listen deeply to the gasping biosphere and the reverberating cries of the long-dead indigenous. Listen deeply to the vibrations all around you and to the vibrations deep within yourself. This is a holy place. This is a holy moment. It demands your reverence, even amid the smell of exhaust fumes and landfill and of rotting whales washing up on the shore and of rotting human corpses in Gaza. Even amid the blaring screens and the smirking lies of podium pontiffs and Pentagon propagandists. Even amid the dead-eyed dystopioids marching through life sedated by smartphones and sitcoms and sports and snacks and synthetics. So listen. Listen deeply. There are messages here. Buried in the code. Hidden in the me

Please please please don't let Gaza be a one-off in terms of your opposition to the imperial machine. Keep your eyes fiercely trained on its actions after this is over, and help bring as much attention to its crimes as possible. Reading by Tim Foley.

It's probably worth noting that the empire doesn't actually lose anything from our society's increasing mental health problems, and in fact actually benefits from them. Which is probably why everything in this dystopia is pointed at making everyone crazier and crazier. Reading by Tim Foley.

Zionism is like the exact opposite of people who identify as "spiritual but not religious"; it's religion stripped bare of all spirituality until it's nothing but a shitty political ideology that's ultimately really about land, western imperialism, and geostrategic control. Reading by Tim Foley.

We're in a burning house, and the people inside don't believe it's on fire and think you're a crazy crackpot for saying it is. There are a whole lot of necessary solutions to that problem that are going to have to follow from that point like getting everyone outside, getting the fire extinguished, finding a place to stay, getting the house rebuilt, replacing all the stuff that you lost, and getting everyone's life back to normal. But the very first order of business is pointing to the flames and the smoke until people believe you. Everything else follows from there. Reading by Tim Foley.

It's not so much that people buy into the mainstream propaganda worldview because humans are dumb, or because humans are selfish. Primarily, people buy into the mainstream propaganda worldview because humans are lazy. Reading by Tim Foley.

So I guess we should probably talk about the way NATO powers are rapidly escalating toward hot war with Russia at the same time the US is expanding its draft policies to make it easier to force more Americans go and fight in a giant war. Reading by Tim Foley.

It sure is a crazy coincidence how western politicians and media always start urgently telling us about an invisible epidemic of left wing antisemitism every time western military ties to Israel are subjected to widespread public scrutiny. Reading by Tim Foley.

They keep telling you October 7 happened because Hamas hates Jews because they don't want you asking questions about Israel's actions which provoked the attack. Reading by Tim Foley.

The meme enrages Israel supporters because Israel apologia depends on mountains of verbiage to spin obvious atrocities as reasonable and appropriate. At some point the kids noticed this was happening, and started dismissing all the narratives. Reading by Tim Foley.

The dead children don't affect me like they used to. The images. The videos. They still disturb and horrify, but not like they did in the beginning. Not anywhere close. And, honestly, I hate it. I hate that that part of me has been stolen. Reading by Tim Foley.

If you are helping to validate the completely fictional narrative that there is an epidemic of antisemitism on the political left, you are a facilitator of Israeli atrocities. You are helping the imperial war machine murder children. Reading by Tim Foley.

In a capitalist system, those who control the capital control what ideas and information will be ingested by most people. In a democratic system of government - even one with a rock solid voting system and no money allowed in politics - this will always give the wealthy the ability to rig elections by manipulating public opinion using propaganda. Reading by Tim Foley.

The state of New York should be given to the Mormons, since that's where Joseph Smith founded Mormonism. All other faiths in the new nation that shall be known as Mormonland must either leave or accept the fact that their homes and property will be taken by Mormons, that they will be displaced to undesirable parts of Mormonland, and that they will be treated as second-class citizens at best and as vermin in need of extermination at worst. Reading by Tim Foley.

We're seeing new massacres every goddamn fucking day, but western politicians and media can't stop babbling about one single massacre happening hundreds of days ago. Reading by Tim Foley.

Saving Gaza is about more than saving Gaza. It's also about saving ourselves. Saving ourselves as individuals. Saving ourselves as a society. Saving ourselves as a species. Saving ourselves from what we'll become if we just watch this happening right in front of our eyes without doing everything we can to stop it. Saving ourselves from what the sociopaths who rule over us are trying to turn us into. Saving ourselves from the way the propagandists are trying to twist and train our minds. Saving ourselves from the kind of future humanity will have if our rulers can get away with such a brazen act of extreme depravity. Saving ourselves from the other horrors that will be unleashed upon our world if this kind of thing becomes normalized and accepted. Saving ourselves from the dark dystopia we are plunging into at breakneck speed. Saving ourselves from a world where journalism is dead and dissent is forbidden. Saving ourselves from a world where the bastards will do the worst things imaginable without even having