Remember when Americans shook the earth with massive protests demanding an end to the police state and the entire liberal establishment just kept saying “I hear you, I agree with you” and then did absolutely nothing to even reduce police brutality? It’s important to remember such lessons.

People would ask me “Why are you supporting Black Lives Matter Caitlin?? Don’t you see all the corporations and corporate Dems support it? Why would they do that if it didn’t serve them?” This is why they did it. Empty words of support can defuse a situation far easier than open opposition.

Imagine if all the plutocrats, pundits and politicians had just yelled at the BLM protesters and admonished them to stop? It would have only turned people against them with far more aggression, and it would have exposed the fact that they are the enemy. It’s much more effective to say “I hear you, I agree with you” with no intention of taking any real action.

And really this is all institutions like the Democratic Party exist to do: defuse left populism and crush grassroots activism not with opposition, but with empty words of agreement that have no intention of action behind them. They’re just a bottomless pit that tricks people into pouring their energy into it, thereby stopping all leftward movement.

A kid who doesn’t want to clean their room will tell their parents “No! I don’t wanna!” A very clever kid who doesn’t want to clean their room will say “Yes! I’ll get on that right away” and then enjoy hours of peace and relaxation without parental nagging, and without cleaning. It’s the exact same way with the powerful. It’s much more efficacious for them to pretend to be on your side than expose the fact that they’re not. In the end the result is the same: the kid doesn’t clean their room. But they don’t get the kind of pushback they’d get if they said no.

Manipulators are good at manipulation. The people who make their way to the top in a corrupt system are manipulators. You can’t take their words at face value, mustn’t mistake vapid placation for victory. They’ll happily give you a mountain of words in exchange for your real treasure.

They’re so used to manipulating Americans into believing narratives that wildly differ from reality they were like “We’ll tell them $1400 is $2000, they won’t notice.”

The world would be greatly improved if Americans became far more powerful and their government/military/media became far less powerful.

Yemen alone, just by itself, is a sufficient argument for the dismantling of the entire US-centralized power alliance.

To be clear, Yemen isn’t some tragedy that we are passively witnessing. Civilians are being deliberately targeted and starved with the backing of the US, UK, Australia, Canada and France. Our governments are helping to inflict this horror upon innocents. And it may get worse.

A world order which can create something as horrific as the atrocities in Yemen or the unforgivable Iraq invasion is not a world order that will lead the world in a good direction. The facts are in. The US-led world order must end.

“You hate all US politicians Caitlin! You can’t name a single one you like!”

That’s like wanting me to pick a favorite Nazi leader. It’s a system which only elevates assholes who will cooperate with a machine that is fueled by human blood. You just don’t see how ugly it is yet.

Anti-imperialism makes you look like a radical, because it makes you reject even the politicians who are considered “radical” in mainstream discourse since they are all imperialists. In reality there’s nothing radical about opposing the mass slaughter of innocents; it’s just being a normal human being. Basic human sanity is often painted as “radical” because most people have no understanding of how bat shit insane our current world order is.

The surest way to get rich in media is to spread lies which serve the interests of the powerful. The surest way to get labeled a “grifter” is to do literally the exact opposite of this.

It’s not enough to reject mainstream politics, we need to reject mainstream culture as well. The propagandists understand that politics is downstream from culture, so we should too. The culture manufacturers in New York and LA are not your friend; they are an extension of the empire.

We who oppose the empire must reject its manufactured culture with the same disgust with which we reject its political lackeys and news media. We must create our own culture to outshine the manufactured garbage they are shoving down everyone’s throats.

If you want normal people to listen to an idea, you’ve got to make it easy to understand and you’ve got to make it interesting. No normal human being going about their life has any incentive to listen to you unless you do both of these things. The onus isn’t on them, it’s on you.

Telling people to read theory doesn’t work. How narcissistic would you have to be to think you can just tell some stranger to read Marx or Lenin or whatever and they’ll go “Well that complete rando ordered me to invest my scarce time and energy in this so I’d better do it”? No. This is our job.

Whenever I bring this up people say stuff like “It’s not a popularity contest Caitlin”. Yes it fucking is! You want your ideas to be more popular than the shitty, self-destructive, soul-crushing, world-destroying ideas which support the status quo. This won’t happen by itself.

It’s not enough to be right. You can’t save the world just by holding the right beliefs in your obscure corner of the information ecosystem. That’s like believing life will reward you if you’re a nice person on the inside. Share the ideas. Make them simple, make them interesting.

One of the many advantages manipulators have over sincere people is that sincere people have no idea how very, very much better at manipulation a manipulator is than them, in the same way a chess newbie has no understanding of how many skill levels they are below a chess master.

This is why it’s so important for us to have the humility to know that we can be manipulated, and that we can be manipulated in ways we hadn’t even thought of. Ways we wouldn’t think of in a million years, because we are not that sort of creature.

When you’re in an abusive relationship, leaving seems impossible. After you escape, you look back and see that most of the barriers to leaving which felt so real at the time were illusory mental constructs. Escaping our abusive relationship with our oppressors will be like that.

Freeing ourselves and creating a healthy world is not impossible. There are no solid walls preventing us from leaving the abusive relationship. The door’s not even locked. The only thing holding us in place is mental manipulation via mass media propaganda. It’s all in our head.

Image

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Feature image via Wikimedia Commons.

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74 responses to “The Lesson Of The BLM Protests: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix”

  1. Don’t you dare try to say Radicism is normal. Its because of Radicism we got social justice warriors. Radicial movements like BLM and Fat acceptance is whats wrong with this world. Both movements will end up getting more people killed !

  2. Black Lives Matter has nothing to do with the lives of Blacks.
    BLM is a radical, Marxist revolutionary group, created by admitted Marxists and supported by George Soros and other assorted communists including Susan Rosenerg who was a member of MOVE, responsible for several bombs and assassinations of police. Rosenberg was pardoned by Bill Clinton and allowed to run free even though she is a murderer and dangerous communist.
    This organization is committed to destroying everything in its path, much the same as ANTIFA, another Marxist/communist radical lot, made up by spoiled little narcissists pretending to be involved in something political when in reality they are simply screaming, kicking and destroying everything in their path. They have their own tactics for violence and make no bones about attacking anyone they don’t like. I mean physically attacking.
    Both of these groups are funded and run by the Soros types in the belief they will be able to tear everything down and rebuild anew when in reality it will be just everything is torn down and nothing rebuilt.
    The events of 2020 , the destruction, the looting, the fires and violence that was presented as protest to a gullible and ignorant public, especially liberals, was just that: violent, destructive and out of control. It was violence for the sake of violence. It was destruction for the sake of destruction. Buildings looted and burned. Hundreds of people injured dozens murdered. Over $2 billion in property damage and loss alone that along with the phony lock down orders have nearly destroyed America’s economy
    The only way this is going to stop is for the leaders and supporters of these violent groups are arrested and charged with sedition and treason as well as promoting lawlessness and violence.
    The entire leadership of BLM needs to be arrested. The same goes for ANTIFA.
    Arrest them all and give them a quick and speedy trial then …………

  3. “They’re so used to manipulating Americans into believing narratives that wildly differ from reality they were like ‘We’ll tell them $1400 is $2000, they won’t notice.’”

    I’m still waiting for the $600, so if you could send me the whole $2k at once, that would be great, sir.

  4. I’ll be sending you a bill for the 15 minutes I wasted reading this tripe.

    1. Fifteen minutes? You must read slowly. I’m sending you a bill for the five seconds it took me to read your content-free comment.

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  6. So you say we must become good at marketing our ideas. Marketing is an appeal to peoples baser instincts. It requires undermining logical faculty. Its a no go.

    You give a kid a choice between Bob Dylans Blowin in the Wind and Linkin Parks Break Stuff, you know what they’ll choose. The latter was deliberately marketed to appeal to baser instincts, it is simple and ‘normal’ kids can all relate to simple rage. Cheap shit sells, sex sells, comforting lies sell. Unpleasant truths do not sell. Good ideas that people dont instantly get are usually subtle and complex, and without an understanding of context and some emotional depth they will go right over your head. A good marketeer can always find a simple jingoistic way to slam anything. So you can see you will always lose if you play according to these rules.

    There is no normal person, you use the terms cos your interactions are so depersonalised. The term is usually a polite way of saying basic idiot. I reckon we do need to appeal to peoples higher selves. Obv imploring a stranger to read Marx won’t work, but a quick read of the comments here shows that what you do don’t work either. A bunch of narcissistic morons come here so they can regurgitate your words to sound clever/criticise what you say to feel superior/suck your chode to feel virtuous. I only come here to get a pulse on what people who live on the internet think matters, as apart from the facebook/twitter/marketing blindspots you are as clued up as they get, its a good baseline.

    You cant help people elevate themselves by treating them like marks. Even if they start espouing your truth, principles that are not hard won are easily dropped. Hence shitlibs.

    Imploring a friend to put more effort in, read a book, become less susceptible to marketing, now that works. I know cos I do it. Giving people shit for being ill informed, online to strangers is a no go but in real life to a friend, nothing works better. Excepting the example you set by walking the walk and talking the talk, which requires getting off your arse and participating in physical reality.

    Marketing and terms like ‘normal people’ are dehumanising. Implying that people are too dumb to get shit and you are a narcissist if you try is as cynical as it gets. I’d say its a symptom of your narcissism gained from being the smartest bird on twitta. Of course they dont get it on twitta, they are on twitta! They’re not even getting paid for pissing their lives away!

    Obviously by my own logic this screed is not going to change anyones minds, its a cathartic process that is only useful as a reflection of myself for myself. Writing what you think can be helpful for personal growth. Publishing your every fleeting thought is self obsessed narcissism. Its a fine line.

    1. Actually, fuck it you’re right. I’m gonna start working on a rewrite of Das Kapital as a comic book

      1. Good ideas have veen watered down to appeal to the masses before. Think V for Vendetta. Result: Anonymous. Great.

        1. What you are essentially saying is, put sugar on your vegetables and your kids will eat em

  7. If a positive alien landed right now,
    He’d be like, “Shit, I owe you a dollar man, the smart one Is drinking beer”.
    The other positive alien would say something like, “Told you man”.

  8. Black Lives Matter was embraced by the establishment because they saw that it had little to no substance and wasn’t a threat. In BLM we had the horrific, pathetic spectacle of the Seinfeld of protests: a movement about nothing. To the extent that their demands were even meaningful, they were repulsive to the general public (‘disband the police’ in fact goes down extremely poorly with most people).

    BLM was co-opted from before it even began, because the vast majority of its proponents are up to their necks in identity politics, and can’t even begin to form an understanding of the actual dynamics and power structures of the real world. They earnestly framed what is in fact a class issue as a racial one. And you can’t effectively fight something if you can’t even correctly identify the enemy.

    “It is a tale
    Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury
    Signifying nothing.”

  9. The only way to escape “an abusive relationship” is to keep acting like you are content while you secretly plan for your independence, and then leave suddenly. This is the practical, effective strategy which the world’s great Liberator and revolutionary leader taught His followers. His brilliant insights and secretive strategy will one day defeat the evil imperialist empire and liberate oppressed laborers and slaves. Success only requires a small proportion of the world’s laborers and slaves, to put His strategy into practice. These will be honest, hard-working, generous, insightful, frugal, and eco-friendly people, who will wake up, understand His strategy and put this into practice. Then the evil empire will implode and collapse. Read more of this here: http://www.wisdompage.com/2013%20Articles/Molyneaux%20essay.pdf

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  11. The death of George Floyed, an ex-robber and porn-star that the Orwellian media transformed into a hero, whether due to the inexcusable actions of Derrick Chauvin (and whoever, if anyone, gave him his marching orders), or to the huge amounts of fentanyl in his system, was a mere spark compare to the inferno of death and destruction those backing said media imposed on countries like Syria, Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen. And it didn’t matter to the mainstream media that their instigation of BLM and Antifa riots was destroying black (and a few white neighborhoods) while raising the murder rates in every city they targeted. BLM has instigated taking of far more black lives than the cops, with all of their failings, ever could. Before all this started, 40 times as many blacks lost their lives to black-on-black crime as did in police encounters; that ratio most likely went up during 2020.

    1. Duu, you are contradicting the narrative with facts… you are bad person. The real problems with black working people are the same as white working people. Neoliberal capitalism. Of course, black people and people of color generally have major legacy issues, from slavery to jim crow, to red lining to the the Obama dispossession of the homes of millions of them to the Biden crime bill throwing hundreds of thousands in jail for petty non crimes. Of course when you’re down, it’s hard to get up but the police are the least of the problem unless, of course, you are a criminal. If you want to read a good book with some serious idea’s on how to improve the lives of BIPOC people, try “Time on two crosses” by Bayard Rustin.

  12. “The world would be greatly improved if Americans became far more powerful and their government/military/media became far less powerful.” I’d sure like to think so, but how does this square with the 74 million who voted for Trump? Were most of these voters merely protesting the entrenched deep state (as they saw it), or did the majority of Trump supporters actually like the asshole? Which could make them assholes themselves.

    1. You don’t have to “like” the asshole you’re voting for. I would imagine that most of the Trump voters thought he would make their lives better. Just like Obama/Biden/Bush/Clinton voters. Doesn’t make them assholes. Just suckers.

      1. You have a point, but Trump epitomized the narcissistic bully personality, vulgar and venal to the core. Anyone not similarly “equipped” would have seen that in a heartbeat. Yet it seems that so many voted for him not purely out of self-interest but because they liked him, which I translate as wanting to be like him. If there are millions upon millions upon millions of Americans with that character (or lack thereof), do we really want them becoming much more powerful in the sense of running things for the country? That remains my question to Caitlin and the readers of her blog. Let me add one: Has America reached the point where only an enlightened elite can possibly save it?

        1. You’re making a lot of assumptions about people who voted for Trump. I happen to know people who voted for Trump who are not vulgar and venal at all, just fed up with Democratic hypocrisy. I’d say they were very naive but that’s true of just about anyone who votes! I hope your question about an enlightened elite saving us was a joke !

          1. Never said all Trump voters, just many of the 74 million. Lot’s of evidence out there IMHO that he was not only supported but adored by a large slice of the electorate. As for the question, it’s as serious as it is troubling. Goes back all the way to Plato’s philosopher-kings. Thus I’m looking for serious answers to it in light of what appears to be the current composition of the American voting public.

        2. “them” ???
          How about “us” ???
          no. to your “enlightened elite”

      2. Bingo! There’s a fool born every day and two on Sunday. P T Barnum, a first class huckster but at least, he gave you entertainment for your$$. Professional wrestling does the same but according to Matt Taiibi’s book, “Hate incorporated”; it’s the same business model as the media and I agree with him. They have a whole country at each other’s throats for fun and profit.

    2. The former! Anyone would have done, too bad it wasn’t Bernie although the establishment would have been after him even worse than trump. See what happened to Jeremy Corbin. Now, Labor has a leader who is literally a knight of the realm and a member of the trilateral commission. Even Tony war criminal Blair was not that bad.

  13. Caitlin please elaborate on your point “It’s not enough to reject mainstream politics, we need to reject mainstream culture as well… We must create our own culture to outshine the manufactured garbage they are shoving down everyone’s throats.” I think you’re on to something here. Would love to see suggestions, possibilities, in a future post.

  14. At past/at present: Iraq/Iran:
    Rice: “But we don’t want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud..”
    Blinken: “Iran will be weeks away from building a nuclear bomb.”

    1. In veiled threat to Tehran, defense minister visits IDF’s long-range attack HQ – Times of Israel, 31 January – https://www.timesofisrael.com/defense-minister-visits-idfs-long-range-attack-hq-in-veiled-threat-to-tehran/
      Following army chief’s announcement of fresh plans to strike Iran, Gantz meets with Depths Corps, which is responsible for operations far from Israel’s borders
      The visit came days after Kohavi said in a speech that he had ordered the military to draw up fresh plans for conducting a strike against Iran in order to prevent the Islamic Republic from obtaining a nuclear weapon. The army chief also criticized US President Joe Biden’s intention of returning to the Iran nuclear deal if Tehran resumes compliance with the agreement, saying such a move would be “bad” and “not the right thing to do.”

  15. Comorbidity 2024 Avatar
    Comorbidity 2024

    The online left is silent when placed under house arrest for the “common good” by her government.

    The online left is apocalyptic when Mr Assange is placed under house arrest for the “common good” by her government.

    The online left is silent on Big Tech allowing her to collect a comfortable income.

    The online left is apocalyptic on Big Tech collecting a comfortable income for Big Tech.

    The online left is silent when oligarchs force untested virus juice into the arms of the elderly and pregnant.

    The online left is apocalyptic when oligarchs force CO2 into polar bears.

    The online left is silent on Lenin’s mass murders.

    Republicans are Nazis.

    1. Carolyn L Zaremba Avatar
      Carolyn L Zaremba

      You are totally ignorant about Lenin and the Russian Revolution. You continue to hold the belief that the Revolution was a crime. It was NOT a crime. The Tsar was the criminal. Just as today capitalism is the crime, NOT socialism. And the only “online left” there is is the World Socialist Web Site.

  16. Earth shattering protests….not. A few hundred people at a time in large cities getting their photo op. Earth shattering protests are in the EU and India right now. They are suppressed by the media and not mentioned by you. Again a nice safe subject. Now that the election is over they have faded into the woodwork either by intention or lack of media coverage. Try talking about the soul crushing Covid lockdown protests in the EU instead.

  17. https://www.johndayblog.com/2021/02/allegiance-to-cancer.html
    “You can’t talk about hope if you can’t see reality.
    Reality’s pretty bleak, but that’s the starting point.”
    Chris Hedges
    American Psychosis, short video. Thanks Jeremy
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14MGbEYQZ2Y&feature=youtu.be

    ​ ​Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell on Monday issued a tacit rebuke of controversial Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, slamming the Georgia Republican’s “loony lies and conspiracy theories” as a “cancer” for the party.
    ​ ​”Loony lies and conspiracy theories are cancer for the Republican Party and our country,” McConnell said in a statement. “Somebody who’s suggested that perhaps no airplane hit the Pentagon on 9/11, that horrifying school shootings were pre-staged, and that the Clintons crashed JFK Jr.’s airplane is not living in reality. This has nothing to do with the challenges facing American families or the robust debates on substance that can strengthen our party.”​ ​ (Or maybe that’s exactly what it has to do with, Mitch.)
    https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/01/politics/mcconnell-marjorie-taylor-greene-cancer-republican-party/index.html

    ​ ​In 2006 Loose Change, a 70 minute 9/11 Truth documentary was the most watched download ever on YouTube.
    Now you can see a 1 minute trailer and a lot of articles about how it dangerously-misinformed a generation (who believe things like a high-penetration cruise missile hit the Pentagon where the Office of Naval Intelligence was investigating the missing trillions of dollars that Rumsfeld had just mentioned, and that WTC-7 fell into its own footprint in free-fall time, from fires in some wastebaskets, er, from controlled-demolition, and so on).​ I still recommend it. Mitch McConnel does not recommend it. It’s “cancer”.​

    1. Looney lies! What would you call the invisible man in the sky story? If you believe the right man in the sky story, you get to live forever in paradise; what would you call that? Personally, I call it believing in a socially acceptable absurdities story.

  18. I want to comment on the part about sincere people having no idea of the levels and expertise of manipulators, which you compared to a chess newbie having no idea how much beyond them a chess master is. I haven’t been in an abusive relationship, but as an environmental activist I have seen this as such: people I’m allied with DO get it that “who controls the narrative controls the world” and so they craft op-eds, film clips, etc.; sometimes they get grants so they can put something significant out there. But typically a little group gets together and argues out the narrative among themselves, going with whatever sounds effective to this small group of activists. Our enemies have a harder task: to persuade the public that a polluting petrochemical complex lining the Ohio River would be a good thing, to use the current battle as an example. But they don’t get together and throw out the talking points that sound good to a few of them; no, with the advantage of copious and steady funding, they hire PR agencies, with experts who do focus groups and polling, who do research and use their own expertise in past campaigns to find the wording and imagery that actually affects the intended audience in the desired way. And of course, with environmental struggles and many others, the enemy long ago discovered (with tobacco I think) that you don’t need to persuade the public that, for example, tobacco is harmless–all you have to do is muddy the waters, confuse the public so they aren’t sure, so it’s “well she said this but he said that” and the public will remain passive and you can go on with BAU. Although as you point out it can be even more effective to persuade the public that something should be done, yes, and it HAS been done, or will be done…by the time they realize nothing has changed, they’re demobilized. Although I will point out that on the BLM issue, there is another key tactic–the Right/Republicans/rightwing corporate media has a different narrative, in which nothing needed to be done and the demonstrations were “riots” with all kinds of looting and violence–as you can see from some comments here. No doubt they have some footage that has been used repeatedly on rightwing media to make this point–it could come from actual instances, could come from provocateurs working with the camera, could even come from unrelated event in the past. Doesn’t matter, it tells these people what they want to believe so it’s effective. Keeping the American public divided, living in separate universes with differing facts, has been so effective I imagine it’s being rolled out elsewhere. It makes for a lot of ugliness and difficulty getting anything done, but that doesn’t affect the ruling class so why should they care?

    1. Thanks Mary, Yes, divide-and-rule is what is going on with pushing the polarization of protests, such as with agents provocateur on camera for both BLM/Antifa and MAGA protests. That polarization of personality types keeps us divided and controlled by our owners. They don’t have to negotiate with us.

      1. Carolyn L Zaremba Avatar
        Carolyn L Zaremba

        Divide and rule is the 1619 Project, BLM, MeToo and other movements that turn workers against each other. Identity politics is the biggest divide and rule scam out there. Marxists do not subscribe to these splintering systems. We demand social equality for all.

        1. Duu, the Pharoah used it 5 Millenia ago, nothing has changed, people believe stories.

    2. Its easy. Most people today are incredibly ignorant.

    3. Yes Mary, Big Business often employs intelligent, secret agents as imposters, to infiltrate the groups and organization of genuine, concerned, well-meaning environmentalists to confuse, divide and paralyze them.

    4. Being a truth seeker\teller is a lonely business. We are a manifestation of empathy and conscience. We are outsiders advocating for the many against the powers that be (TPTB). And we are constantly disappointed by both sides. It’s a cruel irony that we often have more in common intellectually with TPTB because we see the game being played. TPTB hold that the many deserve their fate and, unfortunately, experience shows it is often hard to argue against that position. Other truth seeker\tellers are our only friends…and they are rare. Seeing the game board allows us to prepare accordingly, but it’s not an obligation to die on the cross.

  19. One of, if not the very first actions of the Bolsheviks after their successful revolution and civil war, was disposing of communist revolutionaries. Once in power they had no need of them, and in fact were threatened by any revolutionary faction. There is nothing new under the sun. As long as your faction is beneficial to the states seizure of power, they will applaud you. As soon as it isn’t, they will dispose of you. Which is one of many reasons there is no such thing as good government, never has been, and never will be. Government has never been anything but a collection of psychopaths and sociopaths gaining and holding power with gangs of goons with guns, spears, or swords, except for very brief accidental instances.

    1. Carolyn L Zaremba Avatar
      Carolyn L Zaremba

      Wrong. It was Josef Stalin who got rid of all the genuine revolutionaries. Stalinism destroyed the Revolution. Leon Trotsky called Stalin “The gravedigger of the revolution” and he was quite correct. Your pessimistic and ignorant comment does nothing to advance social equality or the lives of the working class.

      1. Not that I’d call them marxists, but Democratic Kampuchea was pretty quick about getting rid of revolutionaries, as well as the nascent proletariat of railway and rubber workers.
        Ibn Saud founded Saudi Arabia with the help of the Muslim Brotherhood, or Ikhwan. He then massacred them.

        1. Hitler did the same to the SA, nothing changes.

  20. It dawns upon me that all those National Guard troops are actually serving as hostages since no one who deems themselves true patriots would actually want to attack or inflict harm on U.S. service members who are held in the highest esteem by all true patriots. So those deemed thieving pirate miscreants surround themselves with beloved hostages of the same blood of those they really fear? People will figure this out soon enough, then what?

  21. There is nothing, whatsoever, redeeming within the BLM non-grassroots, leftist (Marxist) agenda. To elude so, is false (and ridiculous).

    Your “Socialism” has your head completely hornswoggled.

    1. Get off the dope! BLM is not “Marxist”

      1. I wish it were.

        1. Carolyn L Zaremba Avatar
          Carolyn L Zaremba

          So do I. But divide and rule is a capitalist idea to divide the working class and always was.

      2. I commented with a NY Post link showing where the founder of BLM admits her training as a Marxist. However, and I am not surprised, that post was not allowed to go thru.

        Isn’t that convenient? Allow the echo chamber to lie outright and then stop the truth.

        I have watched her on video saying it, but it might be the “dope”, right?

        If this is actually allowed to post, why don’t you simply search the point, instead of calling me a dopehead. But something tells me that my information is verboten here. Enjoy the circle jerk.

        You people are dangerously ignorant.

        1. One marxist in a movement that was largely spontaneous doesn’t make the entire movement marxist.

          1. She’s not the only one who has admitted it.

            Quick. Put your head BACK in the sand.

            1. Marxism is something you admit to? McCarthy redux?

              1. What does it mean when a well known fact about BLM founders admitting they are “trained Marxists” on video and posted everywhere on media for you to read and understand causes you so much consternation? How can anyone who permeates these comments sections be so ignorant? Why would you need to deflect from these facts?

                Ulterior motives.

                Truth not among them.

                1. Just querying the word admit. Is marxism a crime?

  22. Martin Wendelboe Avatar
    Martin Wendelboe

    Thank you so much Caitlin,

    Keep writing !!! Maybe one day I will have the courage to stand up, come forward and speak up myself, risking the final safe ground I have in the mist of my family, my marriage and among my friends, knowing that all that keeps me from doing it is in my head…

    May I ask… Who is there to support you, or do you find the strength solely within all by yourself?

    1. Honest and incisive question, Martin. Without trying to define that “support” which Caitlin and others have found, each in their own way, the need for it is obvious not only for the individual but for all humankind. I believe it starts with desire, perhaps need. I always loved this observation of William James: “The question of having moral beliefs at all or not having them is decided by our will. Are our moral preferences true or false, or are they only odd biological phenomena, making things good or bad for us, but in themselves indifferent? How can your pure intellect decide? If your heart does not want a world of moral reality, your head will assuredly never make you believe in one. Mephistophelian scepticism, indeed, will satisfy the head’s play-instincts much better than any rigorous idealism can.”

  23. “You hate all US politicians Caitlin! You can’t name a single one you like!” “That’s like wanting me to pick a favorite Nazi leader. It’s a system which only elevates assholes who will cooperate with a machine that is fueled by human blood.” Well said, Caitlin! In the beginning, BLM protest has been very legitimate, but when the terror organization ANTIFA entered the fray, it got even more criminal. The vandalism, wanton destruction, rampage were the norm till election day. It’s known that billionaires supported them financially, and the Democratic Party did its best to give rhetorically support, and the mainstream media cheered on the rioters, calling them “mostly peaceful” (CNN, MSNBC). The problem, indeed, is the 24/7 brainwashing by the mainstream media.

    1. I like Tulsi Gabbard, Ron Paul, Cynthia McKinney and Dennis Kucinich.
      What do those good-politicians have in common?

  24. I like the picture at the end.
    One way of training big Shire and Clydesdale farm horses to accept restraint goes like this.
    When they’re young, tie them to a big, sturdy wooden post in a barn. Lead their mother round and round it, and they’ll follow. As they follow, the rope gets effectively shorter. Then lead their mother away. The foal discovers it can’t follow. It remembers the lesson, and accepts such restraint in the future – even when it’s huge and could easily take whoever’s holding it wherever it wants.
    Some parallels with us and our rulers?

  25. Yes, Ms Johnstone, they lie, they cheat, they manipulate, they deceive, they never tell the truth except by mistake. We should never listen to what the owners and the masters say; we should only pay attention to what they are actually doing to us and this planet. If one looks long enough at these depraved parasites one should eventually get disgusted enough to do something.

  26. Look at all the puppeteers in the world they’re all manipulators and who complains about the muffets?

  27. Klaus von Berlin Avatar
    Klaus von Berlin

    Political parties were established in European public live partly under the the influence of British practice.The mere fact that exist today is not in itself a sufficient reason for us to preserve them.The only legitimate reason for us to preserve them.The only legitimate reason for preserving anything is it goodness.The evils of political parties are all to evident; therefore,the problem that should be examined is this; do they contain enough good to compensate for their evils and make their preservation desirable.It would be far more relevant,however,to ask; do they do the slightest bit of good?Are they not pure,or nearly pure evil?If they are evil, it is clear that in fact and in practice, they can only generate further evil This is an article of faith:A GOOD TREE CAN NEVER BEAR BAD FRUIT, NOR A ROTTEN TREE BEAUTIFULL FRUIT .Now nearly everywhere instead of thinking, one merely takes sides;for or against.Such a choice replaces the activity of the mind This is an intellectual leprosy is spreading through the land, contaminating al forms of thinking;it is doubtful whether it can be cured without first starting with abolition of all political parties.

  28. Verizon terminated my account before i authorized cancellation. Comcast Xfinity transferred my Verizon landline phone # to Xfinity,who installed a coaxial cable connection separate from Verizon’s phone jack cable connection – but were unable to connect service because access to lock box connected to telephone pole line is unavailable. Property mngmt. & Comcast deny owning lock-box or keys for. In single story units 140-145 my neighbors next door & 2 doors down all have Comcast Xfinity internet/WiFi/cable.SAT.01/30/2021 Verizon kept me on hold for 2 hours with MUZAK interspersed with message “Your call isimportant to us. All representatives are busy with other cusomers. We are sorry for the delay. Thank you for your patience.” Talk about George Orwell’s 1961 DOUBLESPEAK hypocrisy?

    1. Jerry, sorry to hear about your landline woes, but you do not understand the process. When you authorized Comcast to transfer your phone from Verizon, that initiates the cancellation order on the Verizon side. The catch 22 in this is that Verizon is no longer required to install copper landlines and they have not maintained the copper infrastructure for close to 20 years. If Comcast can’t fulfill the order for whatever reason, you can have the landline number transferred back to Verizon, but it will probably not be using the same copper pair that previously provided the service. Hope that helps. -Bob

  29. Every single measure you can take to fix society is cordoned off by taboos. Any direction you can move results in a criminal charge: You hate women. You’re racist. You’re anti-Semitic. You’re nativist. You’re fascist. You’re a fundamentalist. 
    The conservative movement believes they can appease the thought police by working really hard to prove they are none of these things, not realizing that the purpose of the words is to corral them away from any action that would threaten the order. 
    The only way out is through. This doesn’t mean to start ‘actually’ hating women, being a fascist, etc. Rather, our answer to charges of thoughtcrime has to be, “so what?” instead of the usual lining up the circular firing squad and going on witch-hunts. 
    If you want to see a larger example of this, look at the Trump admin. Perpetually charged with being an “authoritarian,” a “racist,” a “fascist,” too many conservative leaders were deeply concerned with convincing the left to stop calling them mean names. 
    Trump was just one guy, and despite 95% support from right-leaning voters, institutional leadership ‘could not’ unite behind him and fight because the Words of Power paralyzed them. 
    There was a segment of the alt-right back in 2015-2016 that talked about the need to reject the left’s moral authority. Cville aborted that, and the movement got subsumed by Actualfa. It’s a discussion we need to get back to. 
    For example, what kind of pro-family policy can you implement that won’t be met with charges of “sexism” and “homophobia?” There is none. And you wonder why conservatives talk only of “tax cuts!” 
    The “right” is defined almost entirely in terms of marginal tax rates because it’s the only “safe” topic, the only thing we can do that the left *kind of* doesn’t like where a Word of Power can’t shut us down. (“You hate the poor!” scares us off spending cuts, though.) 
    We need to turn our focus onto pro-social policy, message discipline, and expelling anyone from leadership who is easily defeated by a Word of Power. 
    Seriously. Anyone who apologizes after being hit with a Word of Power needs to be out of leadership. He’s too weak to be in charge. Trump ‘never’ apologized. We need more guys like that. 
    At least we can start calling the left “slaves to corporate power,” because, um, they are. 
    Anyway, as long as we accept the left’s framing that we’re not allowed to act unless it’s in a way they accept as non-racist/sexist/homophobic/etc…we will stay paralyzed. Been like this for decades. 
    What you have to realize is they call you Words of Power to stop you from acting. There’s no set of circumstances where they stop deploying them except submission to their plans for society.

  30. Regarding the $1400/$2000 discrepancy – when the last relief bill was passed in December, the Dems wanted a $2000 direct payment. The Repubs would only go for $600. Now the Dems want to give people the rest of the $2000, which is the $1400 that wasn’t approved in December. No one is telling us $1400 is $2000; we already got $600 of it. And yes, of course it’s inadequate either way.

    1. They said “$2000 checks”. They said it over and over and over again. After the $600 checks had already gone out. They deliberately deceived people.
      https://twitter.com/demswatchdog/status/1356282041889861632

      1. Actually a good many of the $600 checks still have not gone out. I’m with Bobbi on this one.

        1. You people have got to be kidding me. The Dems said $2000 checks, not if you haven’t got the $600 we’ll give you $2000, and if you have you’ll get $1400. The Dem argument is ludicrous. This shit is like angles dancing on the head of a pin…………………

    2. Neither of which are significant when compared to the corporate disbursement. They’re just a bribe to get us to ignore what’s actually going on. What wealth remains among the 99.9% is being extracted and handed to the 0.1%, while the “free market” which doesn’t exist is given the blame for any failure. Corporate censorship is excused because corporations deeply in bed with the state pretend to be “private” businesses. They’re no more private businesses than the Military Industrial Complex is. There is not a single act you can imagine that is so evil the Psychopaths In Charge will not engage in it if they determine it serves their interest, and they think they might get away with it, and they spend a lot of their time and your energy (taxes) creating new and improved methods of getting away with it.

    3. Really? You actually believe that?

      Hey, I have an email from a Nigerian prince, would you like me to forward it to you?

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