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Whenever I criticize the US empire’s manipulations and aggressions on a nation which disobeys its dictates I always get comments from people saying “You know, Caitlin, two things can be bad at once. You can criticize both.”
They say it like it’s some kind of profound esoteric insight being passed down from on high instead of a generic response I hear from westerners every single day. Like, oh, you mean I can criticize two things instead of just one thing? You just blew my mind. Thanks for baptizing me with your magic wisdom sauce, Gandalf.
Of course it’s possible to criticize both the US and its targets. That’s obvious to anyone with functioning gray matter between their ears. The issue is that westerners, especially westerners who hasten to urge you to be more critical of governments targeted by western imperialism, do not do this.
"I can think the US and China/Cuba/Syria/Venezuela/DPRK/Bolivia are both bad!"
But has it occurred to you that the US tells you that these other countries are evil specifically to distract you from the evil shit the US is doing, making you less likely to fight against it?— Dubula (@killerguerilla) November 17, 2021
Lately this happens most often with China, since that’s where the propaganda brainwashing has been most concentrated lately. I’ll say something about how the US empire is the clear and obvious aggressor in the escalating tensions between the two nations or how Australians are being brainwashed into supporting a war over Taiwan with astonishing forcefulness, and some internet genius will wheelbarrow his gigantic brain into my notifications with the comment “Caitlin it’s possible to criticize both the US and China.”
And if there were enough time in the day for me to respond to all of these galaxy-brained intellectual giants I would tell them something like, “Okay. But you don’t. Or if you do it’s not in proportion to how deserving of criticism they both are.”
The US empire has killed millions and displaced tens of millions in its still-ongoing global “war on terror” since 9/11. It is circling the planet with hundreds of military bases, its sanctions and blockades are starving people to death en masse every single day, and it actively works to destroy any nation whose government disobeys its commands.
Nothing China is doing rises anywhere near this level of evil, either within its own borders or on the world stage. This is evident even if you believe every single claim the western empire has been asserting about the Chinese government’s behavior (which would of course be a very silly thing to do). The only way to make China look remotely comparable to modern US murderousness is to dredge up events which happened decades in the past or speculate about things China might possibly do in the future, none of which is relevant to discussions about what’s happening in real life as it actually presently exists.
These two power structures are not equally worthy of criticism. They are not even comparable. The US and its tight network of allies are indisputably far, far more worthy of criticism than the government of China. But in the western world this reality is not reflected in the criticisms that are voiced; in fact it’s as ass backwards as you could possibly get it. China is criticized far more, and US imperialism is criticized far less.
"Neither Washington nor Beijing!"
*spends 90% of the time criticizing Beijing*
— Maitreya Bhakal (@MaitreyaBhakal) November 14, 2021
People who suffer conniptions over someone’s failure to adequately criticize China or any other empire-targeted nation universally embody this dynamic. They don’t criticize the US empire, or if they do they don’t do so in a way that reflects how worthy of criticism those power structures are. Washington is plainly far, far more worthy of criticism than Beijing, but those who bleat “You can criticize BOTH” are never far more critical of Washington than Beijing. Typically, they are considerably less critical.
It’s because of this extremely wild imbalance that you rarely if ever see me criticizing Beijing or any other empire-targeted government. It’s not because those governments are perfect angels, it’s because western propaganda already has the scales tipped far toward criticism of US-targeted nations when a fair and impartial media would be criticizing the far more destructive US power alliance far more. There’s no reason for me to provide criticisms of a foreign government that people can get by simply switching on the nearest television and waiting a few minutes.
The only reason to find it outrageous that someone doesn’t criticize a US-targeted nation is if you’ve been conditioned to expect such criticisms to be the norm. This conditioning is not an accident; it’s the result of decades of mass-scale media propaganda geared toward manipulating the public into accepting the existence of a globe-spanning empire which murders people by the millions with total impunity.
The correct course of action is not to go along with that conditioning, but to go against it. And, hopefully, open up enough cracks in it to let some light shine through.
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32 responses to “Nobody Who Says “You Can Criticize Washington AND Beijing” Actually Does”
For now we can sleep in peace, but it won’t always be like this. This time it will be a world war not only by name. In the Book of Revelation we read: “Another came out, a fiery-colored horse, and it was granted to the one seated on it to take peace away from the earth so that they should slaughter one another, and he was given a powerful sword.” (6:4) What does this ‘great power sword’ mean? Jesus characterized him in this way: “A frightening things both and extraordinary (related to unusual phenomena) from sky powerful will be.” (Luke 21:11) Some ancient manuscripts contain the words “and frosts”. The Aramaic Peshitta: “and will be great frosts”. We call this today “nuclear winter”. In Mark 13:8 there are also words of Jesus: “and disorders” (in the sense of confusion and chaos). The Aramaic Peshitta: “and confusion” (on the state of public order). There will be also significant tremors along the length and breadth of the regions, food shortages and epidemics as a result of using this weapon. Jesus stated: “All these are but the beginning of the birth pains.” (Matthew 24:8) Jesus also said: “But ye will hear of wars and rumours of wars. See that ye be not disturbed; for all [these things] must take place, but it is not yet the fulfillment [of the sign].” (Matthew 24:6) The global nuclear war, (this will be the fulfillment of the sign of Jesus), will start with an ethnic conflict: “For nation will rise against nation”, like as in 2008 in Georgia. (Matthew 24:7) And there is probably no point in accelerating this war.
Reminds me of the time we had to invade Iraq because some guys from Saudi Arabia destroyed the world trade center.
A consistent pattern is developing here. I decide to comment on something Cait has written. I find it is too good to be just a comment and needs to be worked up into a blog post.
So I have something about being a Panda Hugger. Also not being a ‘neither Peking nor Washington type. Go and see it at https://yaxls.wordpress.com/2021/11/19/im-a-panda-hugger/
If you have something to say about it, why not leave a comment in my own comment box, instead of here? That way, if it is nasty, I can delete it myself.
PS. Happy birthday to me.
I’ll toast you later today when I have my midday beer!
remember when the narrative was “Neither Washington nor Moscow”?
we see how well that strategy worked out
Hit the nail on the head again, Caitlin. Thank you once again for cutting through the perpetual China is so, so horrible nonsense the US media, of course, continually blares!
…..we in the amerikkka’s live in a diffuse spectacle where as china is a concentrated one…..they too have had plenty of time to bullshit their people through their brand of “socialism”…..one point …..we can’t get anything done that remotely resembles anything genuinely humane because of all the bullshit that too much of our brand of”democracy” presents…..china is what it is because there is no open debate…..the designs of the oligarchs/plutocrats in the fake socialist regime are implemented because of that……the amerikkkans are surrounding china with military bases…..china has surrounded africa and eurasia with seaports, airports, and railroads with which to expand their empire……but in amerikkka, the 5G, is coming!.. gimme, god, guns, gold, and glory…the same old bullshit since 1492…….the same old chinese bullshit too, since the days of the great dynasties……another point….cruelty, brutality, and institutionalised inhumanity on the part of all who inhabit this planet is the vortex that has driven us to this point in time……gotta go and get out of the rainfall of shrapnel laden collateral damage……duck and cover…….
1) All those terrible humans destroying the planet are about to be culled by Caitlin’s arch-enemy!!!
OR
2) Caitlin’s arch-enemy is saving the world!!!!
“The U.S. aims to lift Covid vaccine manufacturing to create a billion doses a year”
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/17/us/covid-vaccines-supply.html
At the risk of sounding superfluous to some:
The definition of the word ‘government’ itself, needs to be seriously criticized.
A neoliberal global corporation, such as the US is, has nothing in common with a cooperative notion of the public commons — basic human socio-political needs of all of the people, now undemocratically reigned over worldwide.
Like all corporate entities, it is ruled hierarchically from the top down, by a plutocratic oligarchy, blindly serving only the interests of its shareholders; and we all know who they are!
Not us, the 85% who own none of the shares, and therefore, have no say in the corporations management, despite what some still believe.
I occasionally pay lip service to criticizing Beijing.
I think there ARE of course some nasty things worth being criticized.
As an opponent of the death penalty I find it pretty horrible how many people are executed, for example.
But obviously that too is a point where the US has no leg to stand on.
And a lot of the things that China is criticized for most, aren’t even necessarily bad things (sometimes even absolutely good things).
The only thing that REALLY irks the west and America in particular, is that billionaires don’t own and CV command the Chinese government and that western finance parasites are not allowed to take over and plunder the Chinese economy.
That’s all.
And of course, concerning the general level of evilness, murderessness and being a threat to the survival of life on earth-ness, they don’t even show up on the same map as the US of A.
They wouldn’t, even IF they started to seriously menace their immediate neighbours (which they might or might not do at some future point).
So I definitely criticize Washington 99.99 % of the time.
Besides, the very fact that the US hypocritically claims to oh so good and selfless and democratic make it that much more disgusting.
No doubt the feeling of countless people all around the world, and a threat to the idea of democracy all by itself.
Western media have this idea that democracies (TM) can do no wrong, and even if they commit blatant crimes, it still does not count as being as bad and is less in need of being called out or investigated, than when openly authoritarian systems do similar things.
But they are calculating wrong here, because it it is exactly the opposite.
Openly authoritarian countries are the ones who can easily afford to get their hands dirty, it’s so called democracies that can’t.
The truth is, most of humanity lived under some sort of authoritarianism for almost all of recorded history.
It is democracy that is inherently unstable (as is capitalism).
It is the infrastructure which is stable. Look at the Pyramids. Look at the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Look at the Grand Mosque in Mecca.
God is great.
The poet said: “I am Ozymandias, King of Kings, Look upon My Works, ye MIghty, and Despair. Nothing else remains.”
The poet was wrong. This is the era of the Platonic Philosopher-King.
Read Plato’s Republic.
i can criticise China. China isn’t overthowing Capitalist Democracies and installing China friendly governments.
Yeah, a real shame
The U.S. wholly creates a propaganda maelstrom against China (including threats of nuclear war) within “rules-based” goals. Is it wise for China to prepare for this “rules-based” eventuality? Australia, a lapdog of the U.S., wholly creates a propaganda maelstrom against China (including threats of nuclear war within five years) because of challenges based on “rules-based” goals. Is it wise for China to prepare for this “rules-based” eventuality? In the modern era, war has been declared on country after country through updated measures – worldwide. Is it wise for those countries (and all people living on the planet) to prepare? Quote: “If a government will break the law in an emergency, it will make an emergency in order to break the law.” https://seaclearly.com/2020/11/29/what-is-left-to-be-trusted
You don’t understand the concept of Cassus Belli. Back to the books for you. You should read up on treaties as well. The Laws of War generally. Fascinating topic.
the U.S. treats treaties like toilet paper.
Only because up until now it has been able to. Let’s see them try to continue along those lines. They just ducked and ran from the Holy Land like they always do. They prefer to lob missiles at smaller opponents from a safe distance, reversing the the lesson of David and Goliath, rather than meet in battle as men and equals. Thank God for the Olympics, and the US should field a cricket team like other civilised nations.
Truer words have never been spoken. I feel exactly the same and it can be explained by Newton’s third law: there is an equal and opposite reaction for every action – which is also the basics of Taoism and Buddhism. Whenever one sees the scales tipped on one side by some dirty finger, they can’t help trying to restore the balance if they have any moral integrity. It’s true in all the power struggles between a stronger and a weaker side (or one with an inherently positive exposure front and center and one with a negative one behind their back) and it is of course all the more complicated if we deal with other ethnicities, like the Arabs or the Chinese. Then all sorts of morally condemned basic instincts like racism and xenophobia get a free pass by putting on the masks of freedom and democracy crusaders. People are not even aware of it most of the time since those basic instincts dwell in their subconscious. Whenever I read in the far-right media (coz you’ve got to read everything if you want to know what everybody thinks) endless rants about the “bloodthirsty murderers of the Chinese Communist Party”, I think “a century ago, these guys would have said ‘chinks’ and lynched them.” I personally had a guide, during one of my visits to China, whose father had been tortured and shot by the Red Guards at the height of the Cultural Revolution (66-76). We had a long talk about it one idle afternoon in a café in a little village (that only had about 10,000 inhabitants :o) of the Yunnan province. He was very fatalistic. I asked him if he hated his father’s murderers. He said no, that’s life, the show must go on. Resentment only weighs you down and if you want to set about vengeance, you’d better dig two graves. Newton’s third law again. Only the Western far-right media retain an all-encompassing grudge about that period fifty years later. Why? Because it’s just an excuse for racism and xenophobia to which all existential irrational fears get aggregated. It’s the bogeyman that feeds the national paranoia, aka in this case the good old “yellow peril” that’s handily replaced bin Laden, who himself had replaced the Russians of the Red scare – hence their easy come back at the first opportunity even though they’re not “red” anymore – who had in turn replaced the Jerries, the Injuns, the Huns and… all the way up the road the snake of the Garden of Eden. And it’s further manipulated by the propaganda to try and make the brass ring in the MIC’s coffers, rendering it difficult to know which really is the hen and which the egg. The funniest part of course is that in any comparison between “us” and “them”, “us” always compares the best of “us” with the worst of “them” and triumphantly exclaims “See?”
A shot of Ginseng Liquor for you, my friend. Jing Dao. Up your kilt! Schlantze! Buy this man a drink, because he can fucken think!
For he’s a bit of a nutter, for he’s a bit of a fluffer, for he’s a mother-f*cker…. and so say all of us!!@!
You get to sew a Caduceus on your camo gear in the Global Rangers, which our sniper mate will train. You can come to Australia and train in the Blue Mountains with the Mountain Thunder Commando School, and if you make the cut you can visit Coffs Harbour for training with the Bushrangers.
Well done.
An unpleasant truism; that USAWONDERLAND is an outlaw,criminal state that routinely and contemptuously violates not only international law but domestically undermines every aspect of its own private citizens legal rights.You cant see that about china.
Klaus old son its a bit more complicated than that. Have you heard of diplomacy?
But you’re forgetting Caitlin:
They don’t look like us.
They don’t speak like us.
They don’t eat like us.
They don’t have the same values as us.
They live ‘over there’
They don’t have the Stars and Stripes in their front yard.
They don’t have our great, all conquering history.
They don’t have a Hollywood.
They _ _ _ _ hang on, this could go on forever.
So they MUST be the enemy.
Until the aliens arrive anyway.
When I went to Melbourne High, a 1200 strong selective-entry Military School in Melbourne in 1992 it was 90% Caucasian. Now it is 90% SE Asian. Do the sums Johnny. All wearing Australian uniforms. All with multiple degrees. Most can shoot and march and sing their school anthem:
Strong as its pillars, the school stands behind us
Standing for duty, and for right.
Dan Wong my mate is in London with MacBank, same age as me, on $13 mill a year. I won’t embarrass myself by telling you how much I can draw down from Australian Government, but you don’t have a calculator big enough.
Enough dick swinging, where is the sniper guy.
Oh, and by the way, I am talking about RESERVISTS
John Murray all that rambo talk is as obsolete as horses on the battlefield. You have never been in a fight in your life.
ha ha that’s what you think
Once called by others Third Campism but originating in Social Democracy’s internationalism and anti-militarism has always been the policy of the World Socialist Movement, even in such “popular” conclicts
It has always criticised all sides.
No, silly, she is talking about the opening of her third eye. She was all in a funk with bedbugs and Dictator Dan looming over her and she laid down for 20 minutes and meditated and then jumped up all full of beans again.
More of an Anal Retentive Andrews, than a Dictator Dan.
He doesn’t fart, doesn’t eat beans. He could restore trust by letting one rip in public after drinking a VB stubby. Australian psychology is simple really.
Leonard Cohen said it best: “there is a crack, a crack in everything, that’s where the light shines in.”