Caitlin Johnstone

There Are No War Heroes, Only War Victims: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix

My new book Poems For Rebels has a bunch of new book distributors for folks who don’t want to go through Amazon. ~ Caitlin ❖ It’s still really, really weird that we don’t all talk about Yemen all the time. It’s like there’s someone in the room being tortured with a blowtorch and we’re all just chatting…

Caitlin Johnstone
, , , , ,

My new book Poems For Rebels has a bunch of new book distributors for folks who don’t want to go through Amazon.

~ Caitlin

❖

It’s still really, really weird that we don’t all talk about Yemen all the time. It’s like there’s someone in the room being tortured with a blowtorch and we’re all just chatting about politics at the dinner table without noticing.

❖

I’m sorry your election results are being disputed as fraudulent, America. Have you tried not having the single worst electoral system in the western world?

❖

“The media do not decide who’s president!”

Uhh, yeah they kinda do. They spent two years sabotaging progressive primary candidates and spent this year manufacturing consent for Biden. They manipulate the thoughts people think about power, and they can install whomever they wish.

❖

Republicans spent years calling a fake Russia narrative that posed no risk of removing Trump a “coup”. Now Democrats are calling a glorified temper tantrum a “coup”. The government that stages the most coups around the world has no idea what they are.

They’re not scaring you about a Trump “coup” because there is any possibility of that ever happening, they’re doing it because it’s their last chance to use Trump to psychologically abuse you for clicks.

❖

Biden is a hollowed out husk of a man whose insides have been entirely filled with corporate logos.

❖

FYI anyone who is already defending Biden and saying you’re being too hard on him will be completely useless for the next four to eight years.

❖

Liberals are gonna hate me so much more than they already do. They’re gonna get sentimental about the old Caitlin.

❖

You can get rid of Trump, but people who say the mass media are crooks and liars will keep getting traction and attention with that message. Because it is true, and people know it is true.

❖

Liberal pundits have loved to promote the narrative that Trump is uniquely cozy with dictators because it lets them both (A) attack him for being insufficiently hawkish toward nations like Russia and North Korea and (B) pretend their favorite presidents haven’t been extremely cozy with dictators.

❖

Liberal punditry assured us that if Trump was elected in 2016 there’d be millions of deportations, Muslims in concentration camps and alt-right militias driving minorities out of the country. Instead we got another shitty Reagan Republican, total amnesia for Bush and Obama’s crimes, and a bunch of psychologically traumatized liberals who just lived through the Holocaust in their minds.

❖

It is literally impossible to say Trump is uniquely evil among presidents without rehabilitating George W Bush. It can’t be done, because nothing Trump did is as bad as an invasion which killed over a million people, destabilized the Middle East and ushered in an unprecedented era of military expansionism which displaced tens of millions of people.

That’s always been the most destructive element of Trump hysteria: not that it’s unfair to Trump, but that it necessarily erases the crimes of his predecessors and of future presidents. It blurs out the criminal nature of the US empire as an institution by making it about one guy.

❖

One party wants to roll back most of the environmental measures. The other party that wants to implement vastly insufficient environmental measures which accomplish nothing but allowing liberals feel like they’re doing something for a few years. These two parties are not meaningfully different from each other on environmental issues.

❖

I want a system where corporations are fined for any litter they produce that winds up on the street or in the ocean. We need to reverse the burden and make it in their financial interest to create packaging and recycling systems that are closed loops.

You could have collectors whose job it is to find trash and tally up the fines. A buck a cup or whatever. It wouldn’t even have to be the government doing it; it could easily be done by the private sector because there is a fiscal motivation for finding trash.

❖

In the old days whole empires were built up around religions and their theocratic institutions, who used their doctrines to shape society in service of the powerful. Nowadays the same thing happens, but the religion is called “capitalism”.

❖

The plutocrat-owned western political/media class has built up a collective doctrine that you cannot simply end overseas wars and bring the troops home, and that anyone who says you can is a lunatic. That’s all it is though: fact-free religious doctrine, espoused on blind faith.

When it comes to large-scale governing and international matters, the mainstream perspective is only mainstream because extremely wealthy people poured vast fortunes into making it mainstream. There’s no collective wisdom or truth in it, it’s just what power wants us to believe about what’s going on.

❖

Leftists: I want socialism, an end to imperialism, and revolutionary change.

Liberals: I want capitalism, endless war, and the status quo. Also I have pink hair.

Rightists: These are the same to me.

❖

As long as the powerful are propagandizing the people, the people aren’t truly operating with free will. Anyone who’s escaped a relationship with a manipulative abuser understands that you’re not really operating with much free agency while you’re being psychologically dominated.

❖

There are no war heroes, only war victims.

________________________________________

Thanks for reading! The best way to get around the internet censors and make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for at  or on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. My work is , so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, liking me on , following my antics on , throwing some money into my tip jar on  or , purchasing some of my , buying my new book Poems For Rebels or my old book . For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I’m trying to do with this platform, . Everyone, racist platforms excluded,  to republish, use or translate any part of this work (or anything else I’ve written) in any way they like free of charge.

Bitcoin donations:1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2

Liked it? Take a second to support Caitlin Johnstone on Patreon!
Become a patron at Patreon!

77 responses to “There Are No War Heroes, Only War Victims: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix”

  1. Frank Thompson Avatar
    Frank Thompson

    An uncle, veteran of D-Day and the Battle of the Bulge once told me he did not believe in “war crimes” because the whole thing is a crime. When they were shelling a French village, they knew were killing French civilians, but the German army was there, so they shelled it. When they shot down a German airplane, the whole anti-aircraft crew cheered, but you also knew there were a real people up there who just died.

  2. jamlidarzos Avatar
    jamlidarzos

    STAY AT HOME & WORK AT HOME FOR USA ►Check it out, and start earning yourself . for more info visit any tab this site Thanks a lot Here……………

  3. jamlidarzo Avatar
    jamlidarzo

    [ USA PEOPLE COME HERE ONLY ]
    Make $6,000-$8,000 A Month Online With No Prior Experience Or Skills Required. Be Your Own Boss And Choose Your Own Work Hours.Thanks A lot
    Start here> →→→→→►  

  4. Third Chimp Avatar
    Third Chimp

    “You can get rid of Trump, but people who say the mass media are crooks and liars will keep getting traction and attention with that message. Because it is true, and people know it is true.”
    With Trump gone, the playing field is cleared of smoke, and the mass media ranks will be exposed. They will quickly try to establish a new straw man to hide behind.

  5. Khatika Avatar
    Khatika

    You are asking the wrong questions, instead of condeming the atrocities in Yemen instead ask why.
    Question- Why is the US and Saudis attacking Yemen.
    Answer – Oil
    Question – Why yemen oil when both are top producers.
    Answer – Both have oil that costs more to extract than market can afford to pay.
    Yemen has easy to reach (cheap) oil
    Solution – is twofold. Slowdown fossil fuel use by Covid lockdowns while making moves to secure last easy to get oil. Venzuela found allies to stop US control, Yemen has none.

  6. Michel Bélisle Avatar
    Michel Bélisle

    “As long as the powerful are propagandizing the people, the people aren’t truly operating with free will.”

    But I miss the old days and their old propaganda when, instead of fearing the virus, we simply had to fear Yasser Arafat, Fidel Castro and a couple of other guys. It seems to me that it was nicer.

    Truly we are living the return of the days of Noah just before the return of Jesus. The decadence is everywhere.

    Keeping my Rosary on hand!

  7. ron campbell Avatar
    ron campbell

    Right now, the entire world sits in waiting for the final declaration of the victor in the 2020 U.S. Presidential race even if they have already officially congratulated Biden. This still technically ongoing electoral process has exposed many truths and confirmed a wide range of suspicions about what is actually going on inside American politics. How “the game is to be played” going further down the road will be determined by who wins or maybe better yet how they win. Let’s break down everything we should have learned from this very unusual voting year during this brief window of uncertainty.
    ~
    Some nations have already congratulated Biden, whereas America’s two “big dog” enemies, Russia and China, and many other disgruntled parties have not. This willingness to congratulate Biden, supporting the legitimacy of the elections as the Mainstream Media reported them is very telling to say the least.
    ~
    This fine article can be read here:
    The Inter-Election Period: A Breakdown of the Strange Moment of U.S. History That We Are in Right Now by Tim Kirby!
    https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2020/11/13/inter-election-period-breakdown-of-strange-moment-of-us-history-that-we-right-now/

  8. NoName Avatar
    NoName

    If you go far enough left or far enough right then you will end up in the same place. The system prolongs itself by making those options appear as unpalatable as possible. The denigration of these deviations from the status quo force all discourse to within boundaries to which the system can conceivably go . Self preservation of the system is its highest good. Tweaking the system to make it better is an illusion of the system, for the system and by the system. Actual change would require a level of sacrifice that few with anything are willing to even consider. And the least painful path is that of degrowth. It’s a far left/right thing.

    The ludicrously nefarious thing is that the propaganda of the Great Reset is all about degrowth in a very real sense. It’s a selective degrowth managed by the same people who brought you this mess. Wonder how that’ll turn out? The manipulators always say, trust us THIS time. Global solutions will always fail because human weakness cannot handle the scale. Devolving towards the local in all things won’t create a perfect world but it will cause more positive outcomes. Perfection is the language of the Machine. You are not a machine and neither are you perfect. Live compassionately as what you are, warts and all.

  9. Bismillah Avatar
    Bismillah

    Seems like the majority don’t mind war as long as the media tells us we’re fighting a necessary battle against dangerous savages. It’s the American way, and we ran out of Indians to kill so we went across the Atlantic. If we had our priorities straight, we would have imposed the 10 commandments on ourselves first before going after everyone else. “Pull the beam out of your own eye, Uncle Sam!”

    Inshallah let’s all go to Yemen with food and medical supplies. Inshallah if I manage to get some money and a visa. But don’t tell Big Brother, he will try to stop me because he is a terrorist psychopath.

  10. Tired and no longer active revolutionary Avatar
    Tired and no longer active revolutionary

    Ignorant and gullible Americans love their country and feel proud of what their military and secret agencies have done to the rest of the world.

    1. Newton Finn Avatar
      Newton Finn

      Americans have understandable reasons to love their country, as do citizens of other countries, reasons akin to loving one’s family despite its dysfunctions. But certainly “what their military and secret agencies have done to the rest of the world” must be seen by Americans for what it is, similar to growing up and seeing that one’s parents had serious issues and had done immense harm.

      1. Khatika Avatar
        Khatika

        I believe the people revered being a Roman Citizen and an official member of the Roman Empire. Today people covet American citizenship to be part of the current empire. I see little difference.

  11. Gregory Herr Avatar
    Gregory Herr

    https://youtu.be/jLXq1XdlIGY
    …
    Remarkable and trenchantly expressed commentary that aligns much to my thinking/feeling. Fiorella shares Caitlin’s emphasis on systems and institutions.

  12. shocker Avatar
    shocker

    ” ‘The media do not decide who’s president!’ ”

    “Uhh, yeah they kinda do. They spent two years sabotaging progressive primary candidates and spent this year manufacturing consent for Biden. They manipulate the thoughts people think about power, and they can install whomever they wish.”

    `
    “They” know everything about us. All of our communications are recorded and stored. All of our web browsing habits are recorded and stored. A record of everything we purchase and everywhere we go is recorded and stored. All of our acquaintances are known and stored. They knew who most of us would vote for before we voted.
    `
    They know our hopes and dreams. They know most of us better than we know ourselves.
    `
    With that kind of knowledge, about nearly all of us, it should not be a surprise that they have that kind of power. The power to manipulate us in any way they want. They can steal elections and cause us to ignore genocidal wars and trade policies.
    `
    With that kind of power they are able to disintegrate skyscrapers, create phony pandemics and commit genocide . . ..
    `
    With that kind of power they create division and hate and cause people to blame each other for our problems, instead of those most responsible for causing them.
    `
    People will disagree with this, but boycotts and strikes are the only things that have ever worked.

    1. shocker Avatar
      shocker

      Our lives are recorded, stored and analyzed. They know who influences each of us and who we influence; they know how to manipulate each of us to influence our acquaintances, to influence they’re acquaintances . . ..
      `
      This, along with bribery, blackmail, corruption and the creation of fear in our hearts, give them great power to influence the masses.
      `
      Of course, like anything, it’s not fool proof.
      `
      There are peaceful ways to fight. There will be a tipping point, when enough people wake up, to end this corrupt crime syndicate.
      `
      Love. Peace.

      1. shocker Avatar
        shocker

        Should have said:
        `
        “. . . they know how to manipulate us to influence our acquaintances and how that can be used to influence the acquaintances of our acquaintances . . ..”

  13. ron campbell Avatar
    ron campbell

    Aha, the ” plot thickens ” dear peons!
    ~
    For the first time in the history of the United States an incumbent president is refusing to concede electoral defeat. Ominously, Donald Trump, the sitting president, has this week also packed the Pentagon’s civilian leadership and intel agencies with political loyalists who are described as his “foot-soldiers”.
    The flurry of appointees are former special forces and generals. Here is a profile of the president’s men. One Pentagon insider said of them: “These are the people who go in and do whatever they think is required to achieve his [Trump’s] agenda. They are true soldiers in the war on government, the war on what Trump calls the deep state.”
    The shakeup in the military-intelligence apparatus has stunned observers from its audacity. There is speculation that Trump will next sack the Pentagon’s top general Mark Milley, FBI chief Christopher Wray and CIA director Gina Haspel, to be replaced by “true believers” of his Make America Great Again project.
    There is an edgy feeling that Trump, a maverick megalomaniac, is actually going for it. That is, a coup d’état.
    ~
    But this can’t happen here, or so goes the plaintive refrain. Well, it looks like it is.
    A stunning bold-faced denial of reality this week came from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who told incredulous reporters that there would be a “smooth transition”… to a second Trump administration.
    ~
    This relevant article can be read here:
    Trump Doubles Down on Coup D Etat by Finian Cunningham!
    https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2020/11/12/trump-doubles-down-on-coup-detat/

    1. Lloyd Avatar
      Lloyd

      There is no electoral college defeat or win either one until the true results are certified by the State Legislatures, but I suspect everyone knows that. The media does not get to declare the winner, except as to wishful thinking.

    2. Khatika Avatar
      Khatika

      Stop watching CNN.

    3. JWK Avatar
      JWK

      “For the first time in the history of the United States an incumbent president is refusing to concede electoral defeat.”
      Bull shit, it happened just 20 years ago.
      There is no Constitutional requirement for a popular vote for POTUS at all. NONE! The State legislatures are endowed with sole authority over how electors are chosen. They can use chicken entrails and astrology if the so choose. The only mandate for a popular election is what those legislatures put forth. Even if they do, as all of them have, they can discard the results and choose what electors they please. That is the purpose of the electoral college, to PREVENT democracy. The US is NOT a democracy, and thank God, or whichever divine source. Gang rape is democracy in action, and I want no part of it. I would prefer a somewhat benevolent King, but there are no candidates for that office.

      1. Newton Finn Avatar
        Newton Finn

        Similar to your wish for a benevolent King, Plato wished for a government run by philosophers. Yet we all know that kings may not be (and often aren’t) benevolent, and that philosophers may not be (and often aren’t) wise. What’s left would seem to be anarchy or democracy, so shouldn’t we choose the latter as the ultimate lesser evil? Which is not to say that your description of our current system as more of a “gang rape” than a genuine democracy is not on the money.

  14. Tired and no longer active revolutionary Avatar
    Tired and no longer active revolutionary

    Caitlin, you do well to denounce the evil being perpetrated by the Deep State’s psychopathic agents. Please can you investigate and expose the names and activities of elite reclusive globalists who really control the world and benefit from all this evil and suffering. Please expose their hidden agendas and clandestine operations rather than focusing on their puppet spokesmen and women in politics and MSM.

    1. Caitlin Johnstone Avatar
      Caitlin Johnstone

      I prefer to emphasize systems over individuals because as long as the systems remain in place it doesn’t matter who the individuals in the driver’s seat are. Get rid of the individuals without changing the system and you’ll just get different individuals in their place. Change the system and the individuals automatically lose power. Also it’s hard to really grasp just how toxic the oligarchs are without zooming all the way out and talking about it from a big-picture perspective; if you zoom in and talk about them as individuals it just looks like a bunch of financial ties and you lose the overall perspective on their toxicity. Pointing to the puppets of the oligarchy is just a tool for really concretely showing how oligarchic agendas persist regardless of which puppets are on stage.

      1. Tired and no longer active revolutionary Avatar
        Tired and no longer active revolutionary

        Yes, puppets come and go but we should also expose the people pulling their strings. I mentioned several times in my comments that replacing puppets and puppeteers does not eliminate evil systems which change appearances but never change the corruption and oppression they perpetrate. The point I often make is that we should rebel against evil people and their systems by disengaging from their systems and becoming independent of benefits they provide us instead of allowing the dazzling show and complexity of issues to mesmerize us into thinking that politics or protest make a difference.

      2. davenitup Avatar
        davenitup

        If more people would accept that almost everything in our consumer society is Rotten (great series on Netflix) and embrace the dissonance…like with meditation…compassionately bring yourself back to the center. We can’t be perfect humans given the way our society is organized, but in aggregate we can have a huge impact if we just acknowledge that responding to every whim is not okay and should be discouraged. It’s incredible that we have access to such comforts, but just because we can doesn’t mean we should. It is evil. Use it sparingly. Too many think we deserve and should strive to be amazing and be surrounded by amazing all the time. It’s poison.

        1. Newton Finn Avatar
          Newton Finn

          Thank you, Davenitup, for sharing a video with much wisdom, a video I, in turn, will share with others. But one problem not addressed (and, obviously, one short video can’t address everything) is that “ordinary life,” at the level we’re living it, turns out to be itself ecocidal. Does the person or group who made this impressive, important video have another which gets into that vexing, daunting issue?

          1. davenitup Avatar
            davenitup

            I’m optimistic about our ability to change things when we act in aggregate, but pessimistic about the masses changing voluntarily. From the beginning our desires have driven us mad and now with mass media etc weaponizing desire…we don’t have a chance…barring some philosopher king. I find solace in trying to reach those honest souls adrift in the madness. There is much comfort in knowing other truth seekers exist and in sharing ways to navigate this insanity and to be happy. Don’t let the bastards get you down. We give power to what we desire. The demand side has immense power…for good and evil.

            1. Newton Finn Avatar
              Newton Finn

              Like what you say. Found Alain De Botton and am getting into him. Seems to be a fascinating guy with a different and useful take on things. Again, thanks for the intro to him via the video.

        2. ML Avatar
          ML

          Davenitup – that was a beautiful video and I hope everyone watches it who sees it. I was told this week that I’d “better get back to work” because now that I’m retired after 34 years of service to humanity as a nurse and NP, that I am seen as “human baggage” and no longer “useful.” This person who told me this suffers from exactly what this video explains. It’s a sick, sick mental attitude and it pervades our sick society. Thank you so much for sharing this video! I will share it with others. Cheers. ML

  15. Roundball Shaman Avatar
    Roundball Shaman

    “They’re not scaring you about a Trump ‘coup’ because there is any possibility of that ever happening, they’re doing it because it’s their last chance to use Trump to psychologically abuse you for clicks.”
    .
    They’ll never be done with Trump. Even when he’s off golfing or jetting around the globe or getting his hair blow-dried after his reign, they’ll still pick on him. That’s what bullies do. They never stop abusing their victims. And in this case, Trump is a victim. They will degrade and humiliate and stomp on him any way they can in the future.
    .
    “In the old days whole empires were built up around religions and their theocratic institutions, who used their doctrines to shape society in service of the powerful. Nowadays the same thing happens, but the religion is called ‘capitalism’.”
    .
    There is no capitalistic system anywhere on the earth. It is rigged crony faux fake-ass distorted capitalism that have perverted beyond all recognition by insiders gaming the system.
    .
    “There are no war heroes, only war victims.”
    .
    Selling this morbid and sordid mythology that being the unthinking killing arm of the State is somehow honorable is one of the biggest damnedable lies of The Empire(s) in All History. Many poor souls who became such arms deeply regret what they got themselves into once they’ve seen it from the inside. The whole degraded process is sad and just about the worst aspect of human social actions and decisions. Except for those who make a fortune off such ventures, however. But in doing so, they have purchased a permanent condo and residency in the deepest reaches of the Very Hot Place.

  16. Thomas Prentice Avatar
    Thomas Prentice

    Getting rid of Trump COULD BE STEP ONE in creating an authentic people’s social antiwar democracy on Turtle Island / El Norte.

    Let’s include Lyndon Johnson/Richard Nixon and Harry Truman/Dwight Eisenhower on the list of war crimes presidents for Vietnam and Korea, not just W. Bush/Cheney.

    Yet I consider Trump to be uniquely wicked and evil, the personification of evil, and although Biden is the WORST candidate I have ever voted for, while not proud of my vote, I am glad my little vote contributed to the decisive repudiation of Trump and Trumpism.

    With Pelosi, Biden, McConnell, Biden, Hoyer and Schumer, the US seems in the mode of weak elderly leadership of the Roman Empire and pre-Gorbachev Soviet Union. Can the workers and professionals of America create a new, authentic democracy like Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Argentina and, increasingly, Cuba and save the human species … or …

    1. Blessthebeasts Avatar
      Blessthebeasts

      Sorry Thomas, it was nowhere near a decisive repudiation of Trump–it was pretty much 50-50. Not too surprising given the choice between syphilis and gonnorhea.

  17. Antisandman Avatar
    Antisandman

    Do not expect anything positive from Biden & Congress on the economy. But the young can dramatically change the economy by not cooperating.
    There are 40 million Americans with student loan debt. Biden & Congressional Democrats know this is an important issue and have promised some relief. DON’T WAIT, STRIKE!!!
    A strike will put pressure quickly on Wall Street. Like in 2008 when the subprime mortgages began to default Wall Street will put pressure on Congress and the Administration. Student loans have been a boon to Wall Street and a nightmare to the real economy and the 40 million debtors. Those loans are the only non Federal Government debt that cannot be discharged in bankruptcy. They are guaranteed by the government which Wall Street thinks protects them so they bundled them & hypothecated and rehypothecated them like subprime mortgages.
    If there is a strike and massive default, there will be a similar collapse on Wall Street even if the government pays off all the loans because they have been bundled and multiplied. So Wall Street will collapse or be bailed out AGAIN. But this time 40 million Americans will be bailed out too and have money, $1.6 trillion, to spend into the real economy.
    Wall Street has most of America by the credit score so there is much fear about defaulting and losing a hard earned credit score. Along with a strike, Congress & the Administration must be forced to eliminate bad credit ratings due to student loan default.
    Delaware Joe is not going to threaten his status with the banks and credit card companies. They are his buddies, but concerted efforts by the people can force politicians to do what they otherwise wouldn’t.
    If you hold a student loan or know someone who does start organizing a strike. Paid off loans are much better than a paltry $1,200 timulus check. Biden is no FDR but even FDR had to be pushed hard by citizen action to do the New Deal. He did it because he had no choice. He said his greatest achievement was saving Capitalism. The beauty of a loan strike is it can be done in lockdown but social media needs to know and then MSM will know.
    STRIKE! STRIKE! HUELGA!

    1. Newton Finn Avatar
      Newton Finn

      Nice to see a constructive suggestion put on the table. What other sorts of strikes might raise the pressure on a pandemic-stressed neoliberal system?

  18. Truth first Avatar
    Truth first

    Hey Caitlin, You and many other keep spelling Crapitalsim incorrectly. Time to get it right.

  19. Comorbidity 2024 Avatar
    Comorbidity 2024

    Can someone explain to me why Caitlin:

    1) worries about war when the climate will kill us by 2100?

    2) can’t understand that her one note act makes her Glow like a BLM tshirt at an Aimish barn raising?

    1. Khatika Avatar
      Khatika

      No different than your mantra on climate change. War is a lot more certain than your baseless computer models. As if lowering CO2 would solve all our problems.

    2. shocker Avatar
      shocker

      In addition to war crimes and genocide, the U.S. military also has the distinction of being the largest polluter on the planet.

    3. Caitlin Johnstone Avatar
      Caitlin Johnstone

      1) I talk about climate collapse all the time (including in the very article you are commenting on).
      2) I talk about nuclear war all the time, which threatens to kill us a hell of a lot sooner than that.

  20. pesfb Avatar
    pesfb

    “It’s still really, really weird that we don’t all talk about Yemen all the time.

    It’s really, really weird that you rarely talk about the rolling genocide of the Palestinians.

    1. jmg Avatar
      jmg

      > Palestinians
      .
      Here you have some articles:
      .
      Posts tagged “Gaza” – Caitlin Johnstone
      https://caitlinjohnstone.com/tag/gaza/

      1. Mary Wildfire Avatar
        Mary Wildfire

        But this just illustrates what’s wrong with her analogy of the person being tortured with a blowtorch while we continue our dinner conversation: there is so MUCH abuse in this room, and our efforts to end it have been so futile. We’re forced to get used to it or go insane. We fight it but why obsess on Yemen, when there is Israel/Palestine, the ongoing crimes in Afghanistan/Iraq/Syria, the mess of Libya, the domination of countries all over the world including Australia, the blocking of progressive treaties on any subject and the ICC, police abuse of blacks and POC here, and the greenlighting of all manner of environmental crime including passively watching while the last days to avert catastrophic climate change slide by? A person has to pick something to work on.

        1. Caitlin Johnstone Avatar
          Caitlin Johnstone

          Yemen is more urgent than any of those things. Yemen is the worst thing that is happening in the world.

          1. Tired and no longer active revolutionary Avatar
            Tired and no longer active revolutionary

            True and there are many sad situations in countries which come close to Yemen.

    2. Caitlin Johnstone Avatar
      Caitlin Johnstone

      I do talk about it, but the persecution of the Palestinians is a fairly mainstream subject that gets covered extensively and competently by people with much larger platforms than my own. It is also far less horrific than what’s happening in Yemen, as bad as it is.

      1. Newton Finn Avatar
        Newton Finn

        And little old me was going to try to defend you. Glad I shut up.

        1. Caitlin Johnstone Avatar
          Caitlin Johnstone

          Okay. I’m right though.

  21. Geneva Andrews Avatar
    Geneva Andrews

    Better World Books sells Johnstone’s books. They donate books and funds to literacy projects. betterworldbooks.com/

  22. jmg Avatar
    jmg

    Caitlin Johnstone wrote:
    > Instead we got another shitty Reagan Republican, total amnesia for Bush and Obama’s crimes . . .
    > It is literally impossible to say Trump is uniquely evil among presidents without rehabilitating George W Bush. It can’t be done, because nothing Trump did is as bad as an invasion which killed over a million people, destabilized the Middle East and ushered in an unprecedented era of military expansionism which displaced tens of millions of people. . . .
    > There are no war heroes, only war victims.
    .
    We can cure our amnesia thanks to true journalists and publishers like Julian Assange:
    .
    The Revelations of WikiLeaks (Series: Iraq, Afghanistan…) — Consortium News
    https://consortiumnews.com/category/wikileaks-series/
    .
    and photojournalists like Pulitzer Prize-nominated Chris Hondros (New York City, 1970 – Libya, 2011):
    .
    Chris Hondros: Samar Hassan, little girl just orphaned by U.S. troops (Tal Afar, Iraq, January 18, 2005)
    https://twitter.com/Cov3raa/status/1326822520926793728
    .
    Hondros (2017) — Full documentary (1h32m)

    1. jmg Avatar
      jmg

      Quick look (1m30s):
      .
      Hondros – Trailer
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFRAHJ-3HY4
      .
      Aftermath:
      .
      Iraqi Child in Acclaimed War Photo Tries to Move On — The New York Times — May 7, 2011
      https://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/07/world/middleeast/07photo.html
      .
      Some photographs (1m3s):
      .
      Behind The Film: Hondros

  23. JWK Avatar
    JWK

    “The religion is called “capitalism”.
    Cut it out Caitlin, and the rest of you too. All economies are capitalist, It’s just a question of who controls the capital. Those who create it, or those who steal it. What we suffer is the “religion” of Fascism or Socialism, which are quite close to the same thing. The thieves are controlling the capital, and are not in the least concerned with the welfare of people other than themselves. In a free market the creator of capital controls it, and the only way for them to create it is by offering a service or product that people need and/or want at a price they are willing to pay. In other words, by serving people. The very instant any control over that process is put in place, extortion, bribery, and various other abusive behavior ensues. For example, without the armed robbery of the US citizen, exactly how would they finance their military adventures? Exactly why would anyone creating capital by serving their fellows engage in a net loss enterprise like war? Why would they contaminate the planet to the detriment of those they intend to serve? Especially if there were real journalists instead of the propaganda units who pretend to be, but are in fact agents of the thieves. They would suffer exposure, and a loss of their capital. The price of their product or service would become too high. The free market was created by God, there is no flaw in it. It has existed as long as language. Flaws are abundant in any other economic form, all of which require CONTROL by some armed gang.

    1. Pat Avatar
      Pat

      So what is your drug of choice?

      1. JWK Avatar
        JWK

        Truth.

    2. Khatika Avatar
      Khatika

      Correct. This economic system, call it what you wish, has raised the living standard of people higher than it has ever been. However, it has also decimated the planet ecologically, destroyed the social fabric of society and loosed unending war and oporession on the people. So the question is do we really need all this stuff at such a high cost.

      1. JWK Avatar
        JWK

        This economic system is not a free market. It’s a corporate oligarchy, controlled by the bank cartel. It rose on the back of free market principles which did indeed raise the standard of living for most, but it bears no resemblance.

    3. Tired and no longer active revolutionary Avatar
      Tired and no longer active revolutionary

      The only way to get rich (except winning the jackpot) is by exploiting other less intelligent, less educated and gullible people especially those not part of super-wealthy families who exploit the working class, send soldiers to rob other countries and pass on their spoilt to their rich extended families.

      1. JWK Avatar
        JWK

        Quite true, under the current corporate oligarchy. In a free market one only need to effectively serve others. I’ll give you an example. I have no love for the man because he became a corporate oligarch, but in what was then somewhat of a free market, Carnegie saved the whale, by creating the tank railroad car to ship petroleum oil. Reducing the cost so it was more affordable than whale oil. Petroleum itself vastly improved lives, being a much cleaner, more efficient local energy source than coal and wood, and beasts of burden. That’s how real progress works, not by attempting to force one’s preferred progress at gunpoint. That’s the very method the corporate oligarchs use.

  24. Stephen Morrell Avatar
    Stephen Morrell

    If the oppressed or subjugated peoples are fighting a war of liberation against the ruling class, imperialists or fascists (eg, the NLF against the French and US occupiers of Vietnam, the Soviet Red Army against the Nazis and the Chinese fighting the Japanese imperialists in WWII, the Republicans against Franco in Spain, or the Houthis against the Saudis today — the list is far longer of course), then one has a side. Consequently, if acts of bravery help achieve victory of the oppressed, then of course those warriors are war heroes and deserve every accolade. It’s simply trite liberal rubbish to claim there are only war ‘victims’ and no war heroes.
    .
    One example of a war hero was Lyudmila Pavlichenko (monikered ‘Lady Death’ by US journalists), a famous Soviet sniper who assassinated 309 Nazis in WWII. The count would have been far higher if she weren’t seriously wounded in 1942. Lyudmila Pavlichenko remains the greatest female sniper of all time and was made a Hero of the Soviet Union. Woodie Guthrie dedicated a song to her, called Miss Pavlichenko (see this: https://www.rbth.com/history/326983-5-soviet-superheroes-in-ww-2).
    .
    So yes, Virginia, while everyone in a war might be a ‘victim’, there also are those who are victims before they’re forced out of desperation to embark on a war of liberation. When they become the victors and no longer victims, they’ve achieved something truly worthwhile. Those who committed exceptional acts of heroism to hasten victory of the oppressed in a just war deserve all praise and every award, while those whining liberals who dismiss these heroes simply as ‘victims’ deserve nothing but contempt.
    .
    Any leftist who wants “socialism, an end to imperialism, and revolutionary change”, but doesn’t understand or won’t contemplate or permit that civil war will be part and parcel of such change had better disabuse themselves of such a myth. If they’re not rounded up and shot by the forces of counterrevolution, they’ll otherwise end their days as an impediment to ‘revolutionary change’, denouncing everyone as ‘victims’ of civil war and its contending forces as “These are all the same to me”.

    1. Tired and no longer active revolutionary Avatar
      Tired and no longer active revolutionary

      Stephen, are obedient Nazi snipers who are ordered by their paymasters to shoot Russian soldiers also war heroes?

      1. Stephen Morrell Avatar
        Stephen Morrell

        Not at all. If you have a side in a war, the opposition aren’t heroes but the enemy that must be defeated and never to be glorified in any way. All of us reds take a side in WWII: for the USSR against the Nazi invasion, and for the Chinese Red Army against the Japanese invaders and then against the KMT of Chiang Kai-shek.
        .
        If you take no side in all wars on principal and in all cases (and of course there are plenty where one should never take a side, eg, WWI), then you’re no different from the right winger saying “These are all the same to me”. Using the figleaf of pacifism doesn’t help.

        1. Tired and no longer active revolutionary Avatar
          Tired and no longer active revolutionary

          Wars and violent strategies enrich super-wealthy owners of banks which sponsor and instigate wars and revolutions. Yeshua, whose name means Liberator in Hebrew, explained how we can contribute to the downfall of this corrupt and oppressive so-called “civilization” by indirectly precipitating enough wars and violence to accelerate the implosion of this evil empire. He instructed His followers to withdraw financial and social support from every person, government and institution which cooperates in crimes against humanity, but we don’t do that because that is too challenging. Even critical analysts, journalists, dissidents, protesters and looter continue to enjoy the benefits of remaining part of the establishment and complicit in their crimes. Yeshua explained everything in detail but for 1700 years the Roman Catholic Church twisted and corrupted His lectures and brilliant revolutionary strategies through translation errors and/or massive censoring of relevant ancient records.

  25. Fair dinkum Avatar
    Fair dinkum

    Lots of ‘heroes’ on sporting fields around the world.
    Or so they keep telling us.
    The word hero has been eviscerated by the corporate media.
    There have been a few soldiers who refused to kill or even pick up a gun.
    That surely counts as heroic Caitlin.
    Of course they were victims too.

  26. jimmy gulag Avatar
    jimmy gulag

    Dichos. they call these in Spain. means, “saids.” Or sayings. wonder how many of these will be said to daughters by moms ss, or by teachers to sleepy-eyed students…wondering how the hell we ever did escape from this monstrous scam.
    it’s like all the james bonds died off in bed with some mystery model while
    the rich ate the poor who had to eat their cars, homes, kids, love, heart, soul just to get to watch themselves die off.
    Goldfinger wins the last book. Dr. No runs the Senate….fade to sunset… over Davos.

  27. ron campbell Avatar
    ron campbell

    At least 60,000 veterans died by suicide between 2008 and 2017.
    ~
    On average, 6,000 veterans kill themselves every year, and the numbers are on the rise.
    ~
    The plight of veterans today-and their treatment at the hands of the United States government-remains the United States of Americas badge of shame.
    ~
    So here is a suggestion: if you really want to do something to show your respect and appreciation for the nations veterans, why not skip the parades and the flag-waving and instead go exercise your rights-the freedoms that those veterans swore to protect-by pushing back against the governments tyranny.
    ~
    It is time the rest of the nation did its part to safeguard the freedoms we too often take for granted.
    ~
    Freedom is not free.
    ~
    This fine article can be read here:
    End the Governments War on Americas Military Veterans By John W. Whitehead!
    https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/john_whiteheads_commentary/end_the_governments_war_on_americas_military_veterans

  28. Celeste Avatar
    Celeste

    I am happy with the media choices we have available in America. I don’t feel as strongly as the author does about media here.

    I would suggest some travels less wealthy regions and conversations with others in third world countries and then and only then tell us what you think about our media here in America

    I used to be even more cynical than the author about many aspects of American life, ways, and institutions. That was before I had the opportunity to learn so much more about the world first-hand. After learning about how hard people have it in some other places it became very difficult for me to view American ways as harshly as did I once upon a time

    1. John Knox Avatar
      John Knox

      I have. Your full of it.

      1. Celeste Avatar
        Celeste

        Surely you have traveled to countries that are considered as violators of human rights and spent time with locals. Like where exactly? North Korea? Venezuela,? Mexico? Phillipine’s? Please tell us which country regarded as violating human rights you have spent significant amounts of time

        Because it doesn’t take much more than average intelligence to find criticism about the US media apparatus while completely ignoring actual human rights violators

        Potatos, my friend

        1. John Knox Avatar
          John Knox

          The USA, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Canada, Mexico, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and a few more- all countries I’ve spent time in and talked to the locals, all countries that have violated human rights. Oh, and I’m not your friend, troll.

    2. Newton Finn Avatar
      Newton Finn

      I’ve only traveled in other “developed” countries, Celeste, so I lack your experience with what Trump (in)famously called shithole countries. But I have lived in the U.S. for over 70 years, and can say unequivocally that things were much better for average people, even for “the least of these,” when I was child and young adult, with the devolution beginning to happen in or around the 1980s. Still, it’s likely that today’s average American, even a desperately poor American, has it better than their counterparts in some if not all of those shithole countries. That said for what it’s worth, what about American impact on the larger world? Do you deny the accuracy of Caitlin’s descriptions of the mayhem this country has caused and continues to cause abroad? And to return in closing to the subject of the American media, can you imagine a mainstream news anchor of today doing what Walter Cronkite did some 50 years ago and come out on TV against the continuation of a major American war? I’m interested in your answers because I was intrigued by your comment.

    3. Tired and no longer active revolutionary Avatar
      Tired and no longer active revolutionary

      Only ignorant gullible American love the USA and feel proud of what your military and secret agencies have done to the rest of the world.

      1. Tired and no longer active revolutionary Avatar
        Tired and no longer active revolutionary

        Sorry, Not talking to you Newton. This was meant to address Celeste

        1. Newton Finn Avatar
          Newton Finn

          No problem, TANLAR. I do this all the time.

  29. ron campbell Avatar
    ron campbell

    I would even suggest that we will never really find out who won, because who won depends on a large number of local laws and regulations and because it will probably never be possible to separate the fake votes from the legal ones.
    Finally, neither side will ever gracefully admit to having lost the contest. So now the country will enter a profound crisis.
    That is the bad news.
    ~
    But there is also very good news.
    First, it has now become clear to the entire planet that the US “democracy” is anything but: the USA is an oligarchic plutocracy, plagued with a myriad of antiquated laws and corrupt to the bone. The special “trick” of this US oligarchic plutocracy is that is masquerades as an ochlocracy: there is *pretend* mob rule which serves as the microscopically small fig leaf hiding the real nature of the regime.
    Second, while the Dems did their best to hide this, and they still are, it is now becoming evident that the sheer magnitude of the fraud made it impossible to conceal it. Now if we think of how the AngloZionist Empire has handled equally non-believable nonsense (9/11, Syrian gas attacks, Skripal, Navalnii, etc.) we know what they are going to do next: double down, which will reassure the brainwashed zombies, but will even further infuriate those still capable of critical thought.
    Third, the behavior of the US media in this entire operation is so obviously disgraceful that nobody will ever take them seriously again (at least amongst the thinking people, the zombies glued to the Idiot Tube are beyond any rational arguments anyway). This is particularly important in regards to FoxNews who has shown that it was a pseudo-conservative propaganda outlet which, in reality, is completely committed to the political agenda of Rupert Murdoch and his family.
    ~
    This fine article can be read here:
    The Deep State vs the deep country By The Saker!
    http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/55851.htm

    1. Celeste Avatar
      Celeste

      Your lack of history knowledge is what I’d like to address. You view US media as recently becoming committed to a political agenda, be it murdoch, or whomever really. You state also, that fox news shows itself to be pseudo prop outlet.

      It’s only for a brief moment in time that news was delivered unwashed and straight. Media snapped to attention quickly and was straight, then most as quickly snapped back into being same as it was before, which was for one side or the other side. Or really maybe proper to say for one family or the other family.

      Don’t think for a minute it is symptomatic of today’s politicking. For even in the 1700s, 1800s and early 1900s the media were bent to reflect the views of the coffers. Just because there was a brief moment in the later 1900s when people thought the news should.be straight and GOT the news straight doesn’t necessarily mean that what has become of it today is some new thing or radical trick

      To think otherwise would be a delusional
      foray into generational self-importance..or maybe just a general lack of history knowledge. Out

  30. John Day Avatar
    John Day

    Where are we in the progress of history?
    https://www.johndayblog.com/2020/11/travelers-where-are-we-in-progress-of.html
    We are into the terminal decline of fossil energy and the economy of exponential growth which it has fed. We were fed returns on our Ponzi scheme investments, but that has to end abruptly soon. Look where the 2020 red line would fall on this archaic 1972 computer projection of global human economy and environment: http://ecoglobe.ch/sustain/e/ltg.htm

    I wrote this up 3 years ago on the blog.
    https://www.johndayblog.com/2017/09/worse-than-i-think.html

    At this juncture of human history, as we proceed, we are about to step into a massive rupture in continuity. Wealth, property and livelihood will, inescapably be redefined, and people often fight to the death for what-is-rightfully-theirs in these epochs. The last time in my life that the will of the American people seemed to matter was in the rejection of the Vietnam war, and some of the aftermath of that in the years of taking down Nixon and demoting the CIA in the Church hearings. The deep state had to lie low, briefly under a center right president with softer hair, Jimmy Carter. Then the deep state was resurgent under Bush-Reagan, and the American people were just carried along for the ride.
    The ride approaches the cliff of falling energy resources, falling tribute from the empire, and the collapse of the monetary/financial Ponzi scheme, which holds our retirement accounts.
    The means-of-production which provide our groceries, electricity, gas, communications networks, and financial transactions depend on the Ponzi scheme. Disruptions will cascade in unpredictable ways, as points of failure are imposed within the system to shield powerful interests from losses, while imposing them on the weak (us).are not
    When complex systems collapse, they collapse to the highest level of complexity that resource flows will support, or a little lower than that.
    Upper layers of hierarchy are not sustainable, since they need to be fed by lower layers with excess production. That creates the elite power struggle to impose-losses on rival elite factions first, before letting the production economy fail. Bombing Iraq, Syria, Libya, and blockading Venezuela and Iran have done that. The big win was the imposition of losses upon the USSR in the 1980s, when oil prices plummeted, to cause it’s collapse. (The corpse-feeding-frenzy was interrupted by an unknown apparatchik installed into power after Yeltsin-the-drunk, though.)
    Essentially NOBODY in America has lived through a collapse, and those who have are either very old (Kissinger, Soros), Russian, Chinese or Vietnamese. They are America’s brain trust, and I don’t trust the first 2.
    It’s usually a bad sign when power elites really try hard to convince pawns like us of the righteousness of their causes.
    It usually means a bloodbath is coming, and we are the ones who bleed, die and lose our livelihoods and property
    We know that vegetable gardens are a big help to people trying to survive a collapse. Bicycles can do a lot when you have no gasoline, but really, it’s the riders that have to be able to do it. Even bad roads can be ridden. Being a productive human in a community makes you worth keeping in the community. Some communities will have enough productivity and support to persist. Others, especially if they depend on outside flows of wealth and supplies, will fragment. Mostly fragment peacefully… Some power players may decide to feed upon your community.
    Then what? It’s best if you do not depend on things they can easily take, for your existence. They will take wheat, corn and beans. They will not typically take root crops like sweet potatoes. Just sayin’, You can look this up, too. Yes have dried beans and rice and salt and cooking oin and onions and garlic and cheese and canned tomatoes. Know that guys with guns can and will take them, though…

    1. Khatika Avatar
      Khatika

      You paint a bleak picture that no one wants to think about or even consider. But you are correct, the great population reset is coming. I personally believe a true pandemic will be unleashed upon us in 2022. Not this fake practice Covid pandemic which is just a practice run for the truly deadly so called mutation, which will ravage the world.

  31. Jupiter Avatar
    Jupiter

    https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/11/11/fuck-veterans-day-a-vets-lament/

Leave a Reply to davenitup Cancel reply

Trending