Listen to a reading of this article:

People on Twitter are currently raging because the account for the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire tweeted a post celebrating the anniversary of the death of John McCain, which is a good opportunity to explain why everyone who dances on McCain’s grave is right and why anyone who admonishes them for doing so is wrong.

The reason it’s good and important to celebrate the deaths of war sluts who facilitated mass military slaughter is because it helps bring clarity and proportionality to the horrors of war. You’re making it clear that John McCain’s victims matter more than his daughter’s feelings.

The fact that celebrating the death of war criminals is met with outrage is itself evidence that it’s something that needs to be done. If the public is so blind to the horrors of war that politeness is seen as a higher priority, those horrors need consciousness brought to them.

If mainstream westerners really understood what war is and what it means, it would never occur to anyone that it’s indecent to celebrate John McCain’s death.

The most important thing for the English-speaking world to understand about China is that it’s none of your fucking business. If you live in the US or one of its imperial member states like Australia or the UK, you should be focused on attacking the criminality of the empire. All this neck-craning and pointing at China’s Covid policies or whatever from people who live inside the US-centralized power structure is like someone making a big deal about hearing his neighbor raise her voice to her children while he himself is busy murdering his own family with an axe.

The belief that western noses belong in Chinese affairs is the product of propaganda. Let China do China. We live under the most powerful empire that has ever existed, which is led by the most tyrannical regime on earth. That is where our focus belongs.

I’m becoming more and more disdainful of people who live directly under the thumb of the US empire and yet spend their time criticizing nations like Russia and China. It’s literally the most pathetic, snivelling, power-serving position anyone can possibly take at this point in history.

Focusing one’s criticisms on the most powerful and destructive government on earth is the sane and normal thing to do. It’s not strange and suspicious that people like me do this, it’s strange and suspicious that more people don’t.

“You never talk about the good things America gives the world!”

Like what? $400 million superhero movies?

Keep supporting US foreign policy, American progressives. They’ll definitely give you healthcare any minute now if you just hate Russia and China a little harder.

Everything that passes for “the left” in the English-speaking world is either controlled opposition, a glorified online hobby group, or both. That’s not all our fault; the empire poured vast amounts of wealth and effort into making that happen. But we need to be real about it.

Democrats rehabilitated George W Bush out of political necessity. If you don’t turn him into a cuddly wuddly old painter who hates the far right and frolics with Ellen DeGeneres, you can’t support Democrats like Joe Biden who backed all of Bush’s most evil actions to the hilt.

The UK could have had Jeremy Corbyn. Instead they’re getting empty refrigerators and frozen homes.

Until a few years ago, “Russian propaganda” meant media created by the Russian government to facilitate the information interests of the Kremlin. Now it just means any media that criticizes the foreign policy of the most powerful empire that has ever existed.

People sometimes tell me I’m a “grifter” who only says what I say for money. Yes, yes everyone knows this is where the real money’s at: promoting an extremely marginalized perspective online while being called a Kremlin/CCP agent all day. Nobody has ever gotten rich promoting mainstream perspectives.

You learn very early on doing political commentary that the easiest way to go viral is to say something that agrees with broadly supported sentiments in one of the two mainstream political factions. Most people succumb to the temptation to do this. The rest get called “grifters”.

___________________

My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, following me on FacebookTwitterSoundcloud or YouTube, buying an issue of my monthly zine, or throwing some money into my tip jar on Ko-fiPatreon or Paypal. If you want to read more you can buy my books. The best way to make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for at my website or on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. Everyone, racist platforms excluded, has my permission to republish, use or translate any part of this work (or anything else I’ve written) in any way they like free of charge. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I’m trying to do with this platform, click here. All works co-authored with my American husband Tim Foley.

Bitcoin donations:1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2

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

37 responses to “Celebrating John McCain’s Death Is Good, Actually: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix”

  1. People. Really?? Don’t you get it yet? There is NO Government. ANYWHERE. It’s all one big lie. ‘They’ all work together. Evident by the latest hoax. Anyone notice that every Country had the exact same ‘plan of action’? Exact. Same. Bit odd isn’t it?

    The NWO has been in place for a LONG time. Now, it’s just going thru the motions of final genocide.

  2. John McCain, another venal warmonger in the pockets of the MIC. The ONLY Republican I ever voted for (what a fracking fiasco). What was my premise for voting for this man? Well, he and I were both in Vietnam; however, somehow I avoided the Hanoi Hilton, unlike John. Believe it or not, I actually deluded myself into thinking John might infer the immorality of perpetual war and espouse peace for a change (due to the abuse he suffered at the Hilton). Yeah, right?
    RIP John: I’ll bet your cronies have been crying since you departed: Crocodile tears!
    Look on the bright side, we got out of Vietnam; and this facilitated opportunity for more American war involvement: Grenada, US invasion of Panama, Persian Gulf War, Intervention in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Invasion of Afghanistan, Invasion of Iraq, War in Northwest Pakistan, Somalia and Northwestern Kenya, Operation Ocean Shield (Indian Ocean), Intervention in Libya, Lord’s Resistance Army, US Led Intervention in Iraq, US Led intervention in Syria, Yemeni Civil War, US intervention in Libya (thoughtco.com – 11/4/20 – Martin Kelly)
    Which one is your favorite? Mine has always been Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF); but sadly, the US exported so much freedom and democracy (to Afghanistan), that now…the US is fresh out.

    1. “the US exported so much freedom and democracy (to Afghanistan), that now…the US is fresh out.”
      Thank you for this. I plan to steal the sentiment, though paraprashed.

      1. You are welcome. Take it and run with it.

  3. To reach the other side, you have to cross the middle ground.

  4. I am currently growing further $19k or extra month-to-month from domestic through doing extraordinarily sincere and clean task online from domestic. I actually have obtained specifically $20845 ultimate month from this domestic task.~t100~ be a district of currently this task and start making more money online through observe coaching at the given website…….. http://earnstreet24.blogspot.com

  5. The grifter attack is a good one, it gets under the skin and causes a response. It attempts to cause separation between the content producer and the audience. Hey, I’m working a shit job while this or that person has their feet up. It works in an entrepreneur society where the citizen is on their own. No one can think of Rachel Maddow or Jake Tapper as grifters, it’s impossible, they’re legit. People like Ellen do their jobs and end up with hundreds of millions, it boggled the mind of the serf. Caitlin writes of the psychic pain of standing like a David against the behemoth right wing propaganda monster. I say thank you.

  6. OK, Avengers: Endgame grossed 2.8 billion and rocked, but I’ve gone through your very same thought process about the obscenity of war and come to the very same conclusion that my words couldn’t possibly be as obscene, in fact its obscene to speak of war politely, and I don’t. I don’t say “defense contractors”, I say war pigs. I don’t say “take out”, I say murder. I don’t say “fallen” soldiers, I say dead soldiers. Politeness is for polite things, which war isn’t. Being polite about it creates a fake veneer of acceptability which it does not have.

  7. John McCain is my personal sleep paralysis demon. He hides under my bed with a knife between his teeth. If his arms worked I would be in mortal danger.

    1. My doggo came over and just stared at me until I could stop laughing hysterically at your comment! Bravo, thank you!

  8. I read and support your work and you’re especially effective when you criticize the U.S. empire. But why the constant shilling for China? It seriously undermines your work and makes it suspect. Your frequent unconditional, knee-jerk defense of China makes me wonder if you’re on the payroll of the CCP.
    And then there’s the strange whataboutism. Your essential line is: Because the U.S. empire is bad, one can never, ever criticize China. For anything forever. But that line of argument is silly and not objective. Fact is, one can criticize the U.S. AND be critical of China’s atrocities.
    Please don’t be a hack for China.

    1. You gormless asshole. She never did shill for China. Go read it again.

      1. “China’s atrocities” sounds like right out of a Langley press release with the next line being about the alleged “genocide of the Uyghurs” or the Tiananmen massacre hoax. And where does Southerngirl get these notions? Personal experience or the usual suspects?

        1. China “imprisoning” 25 million Shangai residents for months for a Covid “outbreak”: did you hear about that or is that fake news too according to you?
          The problem is when we all get locked into positions, defending our “tribe”, whatever it may be. It gets old. I used to defend the Democratic Party come what may and I learned my lesson. Never again; and I see the danger in you defending your precious author and saying China does absolutely No Wrong. It gets you a rush, doesn’t it?

          1. what’s the worst thing the us empire is doing now in your opinion?

          2. Why do you care how China and her citizens interact especially with regards to a health issue such as Covid? Time for you to focus on your own country’s issues instead of worry how a blogger feels about such and such country.

    2. She basically saidcthe US should mind their own business using China as an example. Feel free to insert, Syria, Iraq, Russia, etc.

      1. Go back and read several of her articles and you’ll realize she really doesn’t want anyone to criticize China.
        It’s not as simple as the US should mind its own business; it’s basically her general position that no one should point a finger at China which is ridiculous.

        1. i’ve read several of your comments and I realize you hate her for pointing the finger at the US where it belongs. can you give me a “hell, yeah” at John McCain still being as dead as a doornail?

          1. No, I don’t hate her for criticizing the US; it’s well-deserved. And I’ll give you a “hell, yeah” for McCain being dead if it’ll make you happy: I hated his war mongering.
            But the point remains: you can criticize the US and McCain but the position that you can’t criticize China for anything is ridiculous and you don’t want to address that.

            1. no it’s a straw man you manufactured, and the obvious reason is you want to deflect criticism of the most deserving target.

        2. do you think there is a shortage of people criticizing china and why should it be prioritized?

    3. Please don’t be a hack for millennia of documented oral histories of US attrocities on its own turf, not to mention globally. Thanks.

  9. The word “hero” used to mean something worth of mention to be remembered.
    American policies abroad made American soldiers not heroes but terrorists. That is what they really are unknowing the real missions awaiting for them. Same goes for all secret agents which in fact are another kind of terrorists but worse than the dumb soldiers.

    1. I hate that term. Everyone is a hero which means no one is s hero.

  10. Pilot of power – the power of consciousness, takes wing, soaring above the cloud in the fray of the divisive daily rhetoric!E

  11. “I know that my plainness of speech makes them hate me, and what is their hatred but a proof that I am speaking the truth?”
    SOCRATES

    “Socrates: Have you noticed on our journey how often the citizens of this new land remind each other it is a free country?
    Plato: I have, and think it odd they do this.
    Socrates: How so, Plato?
    Plato: It is like reminding a baker he is a baker, or a sculptor he is a
    sculptor.
    Socrates: You mean to say if someone is convinced of their trade, they have no need to be reminded.
    Plato: That is correct.
    Socrates: I agree. If these citizens were convinced of their freedom, they would not need reminders.”

    Bin Laden allegedly quoted the following passage: “If I were president, I could stop terrorist attacks against the United States in a few days.
    Permanently. I would first apologize – very publicly and sincerely – to all the widows and orphans, the impoverished and the tortured, and the many millions of other victims of American imperialism. Then I would announce to every corner of the world that America’s global military interventions have come to an end.”
    The quote is from Blum’s 2004 book Freeing the World to Death: Essays on the American Empire

    “Where terrorists offer injustice, disorder and destruction, the United States and its allies stand for freedom, fairness, equality, hope, and opportunity.”
    John O. Brennan

    Donald Trump 2017 : “The scourge of our planet today is a small group of rogue regimes that violate every principle on which the United Nations is based. They respect neither their own citizens nor the sovereign rights of their countries.”
    referring no doubt to USA, Israel and Saudi Arabia.
    And then he just went crazy “The United States of America has been among the greatest forces for good in the history of the world, and the greatest defenders of sovereignty, security, and prosperity for all.”

    1. I hope John Brennan doesn’t go out at night because any normal cop will think he looks like a serial killer and arrest him to prevent another crime that night :o)

  12. I personally celebrate every year the death of Eisenhower for what he did as US president implementing CIA on South America and ruining forever the possibility for any country there to have some level of independence from Washington in order to decide what it is the best for Latin American people. Also I celebrate the death of Lindon Johnson, Nixon, Ford, George H Bush for all atrocities perpetrated in Africa, Asia, Middle East and again South America. For the last 80 years they established a permanent alliance with local elites to make their countries to be vassal states in perpetuity. It is deeply interconnected with the evangelical movement who reinforces such policies, mormons, rotary-interact club, freemasons, unions, women’s league, local media outlets.
    I didn’t know about this practice made by the New Hampshire libertarian party. It is not a big deal and it should be reinforced by all those who oppose about the way the White House, Congress and corporations in America deal with the American policies at home and abroad. We have learned through history about worst practices made by people who really hated some leaders who ruined countries by simply taking out each one of them from the grave and hanging the dead body in front of governmental buildings. I would not go this far but considering the damage they perpetrated to hundreds of millions it is fair.
    I wonder if Bill Clinton, George W Bush, Obama, Tony Blair and many others involved deeply in war crimes and for all misery now just popping up in our lives are not worried about being described as monsters in history books instead of delusional puppets who almost got away from what they did.

    1. I think they’re thoroughly convinced they’re the good guys (TM) and that they made the world a better place by killing all those barbaric unpeople in remote villages who will eat their children if you’re not careful. Otherwise they wouldn’t qualify as murderous psychopaths.

  13. Truer words have never been spoken!
    They could also celebrate the death of McCain’s father, also called John (and not McAdam as might seem logical), an admiral who took part in the cover up of the USS Liberty’s deliberate and tragic betrayal by Lyndon Johnson in 1967.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SgmE2tZQGM
    Doesn’t seem to be much sense of honor in “Hanoi Rose’s” fambly.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tkBiFZBix0
    However, this kind of guys immediately get financial support because they’re blackmailable, like Brandon with the illegal drugs exploits of his cherished offspring hanging over his head like a sword of Damocles while federal cannabis arrests have jumped 25% under his presidency.

    1. “Deliberate” is a good word to use in connection with just about everything that deliberate sonofabitch LBJ ever did.

  14. https://fair.org/home/john-mccain-human-rights-ukrainian-nazi-photo-washington-post/
    ~
    https://consortiumnews.com/2014/08/16/the-hushed-up-hitler-factor-in-ukraine/
    ~
    https://consortiumnews.com/2018/09/04/john-mccain-the-view-from-the-middle-east/
    ~
    https://consortiumnews.com/2018/08/27/the-other-side-of-john-mccain/
    “McCain did not simply thunder for every major intervention of the post-Cold War era from the Senate floor, while pushing for sanctions and assorted campaigns of subterfuge on the side. He was uniquely ruthless when it came to advancing imperial goals, barnstorming from one conflict zone to another to personally recruit far-right fanatics as American proxies.
    In Libya and Syria, he cultivated affiliates of Al Qaeda as allies, and in Ukraine, McCain courted actual, sig-heiling neo-Nazis.
    While McCain’s Senate office functioned as a clubhouse for arms industry lobbyists and neocon operatives, his fascistic allies waged a campaign of human devastation that will continue until long after the flowers dry up on his grave.”

  15. God damn peace grifter, how dare you take the side of humanity when bullets bombs & banks are where it’s at.
    Don’t you know there are patriots in every nation bristling with weapons trying to save democracy from outraged homemakers struggling to pay their overpriced roof over their heads & put food on the table. You need to get a job in a munitions factory to support the genocide of useless eaters.
    “Extremism in the pursuit of liberty is no vice” Thomas Jefferson. ( Probably a white supremicist with slaves)
    Lol

  16. Magnificent post! You’re so right! Good riddance to bad rubbish! We can dance on McCain’s grave even if he or any others of his revolting ilk are buried at sea. Just jump on a boat & trip the light fantastic! A happy international day in the calendar would be great to dedicate to dancing on warmongers graves!

  17. Kenneth C Locke Avatar
    Kenneth C Locke

    Caitlin, this is why I used to donate to your Patreon account, and this is why (despite my current financial woes) I’m going to start donating again! You always say what needs to be said!! I agree with you 1000 fucking percent. The only good war whore is a dead war whore.

    1. I am currently making at least an extra $29,000 a month from home by doing extraordinarily honest and clean online work from home. t52) Currently be a district of this task and make more money online by accompanying trainings
      on a specific website…….. http://justwork7.blogspot.com/

Trending