One of the most common labels people use to describe what I do is some variation of "anti-war journalist" or
"anti-imperialist blogger", and I'm always a tiny bit surprised when I see it. Not because I disagree with it;
opposition to US-centralized warmongering probably constitutes a majority of my content, so it's a reasonable
description. I've just never explicitly had opposing war in mind when doing what I do. It's been the main byproduct of
my journey here, but it's never been my objective.
I got started on this gig making Facebook posts in Bernie Sanders groups after noticing that the US mass media were actively sabotaging his 2016 primary race. My goal at the time was the same
as it is now: to help jailbreak Americans, and thus the rest of the world, from the nearly invisible power structures
which are oppressing us all and driving us toward extinction. When I first started writing about the 2016 presidential
campaign I didn't focus nearly as much on US foreign policy as I do now.
The shift toward emphasis on US-led warmongering wasn't something I planned, it was just the natural consequence of my
staring, day after day, at the puzzle of how to free humanity from its chains. I didn't understand the mechanics of
empire all that well when I started out, so I meticulously studied the behavior of government and media structures and
watched for opportunities to expose glitches in the narrative matrix so I could highlight them for my readers. As I got better at noticing these glitches, I found that the opportunities to
go "Look! See? They're lying to you!" most often presented themselves around the issues of war and imperialism.
This is because it turns out that endless war is an absolutely essential component of the globe-spanning alliance
between oligarchs and government agencies which is sometimes referred to as the "deep state". Exerting more and more
control over world affairs is how the largest power structures on earth continue to expand their power, and this is
impossible to do without using the carrot of US military/economic alliance and the stick of US military/economic
punishment. US economic control isn't hegemonic enough on its own to overcome the influence of growing economic powers
like China, so the threat of military violence is absolutely essential for maintaining the power alliance. It's the glue
that holds the entire empire together.
US Foreign Policy Is A War On Disobedience
"So now you’ve got this weird dynamic where the US is constantly working to make sure that no other countries surpass it
and gain the ability to treat America the way America treats other countries."https://t.co/AVJoxuLOSq
— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) July 6, 2019
So endless war is a 100 percent indispensable element in preserving existing power structures. The US-centralized empire
cannot exist without it. The trouble for the empire, however, is that it can't just come out and tell the public "Yeah
we need to destroy everyone who opposes our resource control agendas and dominance in key geostrategic regions, so we'll
be forcibly eliminating this noncompliant government on Thursday." The public would never go for it, because that's a
plainly sociopathic values system which we are taught since school age that our society evolved beyond many generations
ago. People would lose trust in all government institutions, and revolution would quickly foment as a result.
For this reason, propaganda is necessary. Because America is where the empire has centralized most of its military
firepower and billionaires, Americans are the most propagandized people on earth. There are thousands of people whose
whole entire job is to convince Americans that it is good and desirable to keep trillions of dollars in military
hardware moving around the planet and killing complete strangers who pose no threat to any American.
The challenge for the propagandists is that this is plainly bat shit crazy. It's an assignment that is both absolutely
necessary and extremely difficult. When the entire world order depends on convincing millions of people that something
transparently insane and ridiculous is perfectly sane and rational, you're naturally going to have difficulty smoothing
over all the plot holes in the narratives you're selling. That's why you're always seeing glaring discrepancies in the
narratives used to promote US foreign policy agendas. In retrospect I've pretty much built my career on highlighting
these discrepancies.
The primary role US-led warmongering plays in maintaining existing power structures, which I first started to notice
during the 2016 Democratic primaries, is on even clearer display during the 2020 Democratic primaries. You see
candidates like Bernie Sanders being frowned upon by hardline centrists for promoting domestic policies which would hurt
the profit margins of the oligarchs, but overall he's being treated as a legitimate candidate and receiving reluctant
coverage on mainstream media networks. Then you look at the treatment of a candidate like Tulsi Gabbard, who is
campaigning on a major overhaul of US foreign policy, and she's treated as a raving lunatic and a traitor.
"Challenging domestic policy status quo in Washington can be controversial and subject you to some attacks. But those
who dissent from DC's foreign policy addiction to imperialism, militarism and support for repression are those who are
always most smeared and maligned," Glenn Greenwald tweeted a while back.
Challenging domestic policy status quo in Washington can be controversial and subject you to some attacks. But those who
dissent from DC's foreign policy addiction to imperialism, militarism & support for repression are those who are always most smeared and maligned: https://t.co/JYTJo9vXdq
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) February 14, 2019
You can get away with promoting things like universal healthcare or student debt forgiveness with only moderate pushback
from the establishment, but wanting to scale back the forever war will quickly see you branded a Russian asset or an
antisemite and canceled. The empire won't even tolerate you interfering with their narratives, let alone getting
elected. Your voice will be targeted with an aggressive smear campaign until they make sure that hardly anyone is
listening to what you have to say.
The fact that we're so strictly forbidden from pursuing this line of attack is a clear sign that warmongering is the
weakest point in the empire's armor. It's the most essential component of the oppression machine, and its narratives are
the weakest and most plot hole-riddled. If you're interested in taking down the oligarchic machine which keeps ordinary
people poor, sick and stupid, then attacking war propaganda is the most useful expenditure of energy.
American leftists and progressives have not been great at this; even those who identify as "anti-imperialist" tend to
mostly stay focused on domestic issues. This is perfectly understandable, since Americans are the victims of the
empire's soul-crushing neoliberal exploitation and it is therefore the thing that is staring them in the face most
often.
But the drivers of empire do not fear a push for domestic policy reform nearly as much as they fear a push for foreign
policy reform. They know that the plebs can be kept poor and stupid enough to pose no threat to the oligarchs
controlling all the money (and therefore all the power) by simply manipulating the system and herding everyone into
controlled political opposition groups who will end up telling them "Ohh, sorry, we couldn't get the congressional
votes. Those damn Republicans!" A large public demand to end warmongering would be a much tougher challenge to
manipulate around.
The Forever War Is So Normalized That Opposing It Is “Isolationism”
"Under our current Orwellian doublespeak paradigm where forever war is the new normal, the opposite of war is no longer
peace, but isolationism." #war #peace #TulsiGabbardhttps://t.co/dLbW6O2bRV
— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) June 29, 2019
It's actually the same agenda anyway; the plutocratic class, which is incentivized to keep everyone else poor in a
system wherein money equals power and power is relative, is the driving force behind both neoliberal exploitation and
the forever war, and if you can end either of these things you will end the whole empire. It just happens that
warmongering is the far easier and far more efficacious line of attack.
There are plenty of moral arguments against imperialism, but you don't even need to enter into morality to see that it's
smart to make opposing war your foremost priority. The kingdom of the bastards who are grinding us all down and trying
to make us poorer, sicker and stupider so we can't muster the chutzpah to toss them out on their asses is fed by an
umbilical cord of endless war, and we have the power to cut that cord by opposing war and attacking war propaganda
together.
Change that, and we change everything. Ordinary humans can finally begin to make the world their own, guided not by
sociopathic oligarchs but by an enlightened self-interest which realizes that the only way we can continue to survive is
if we learn to collaborate with each other and with our ecosystem for the common good. This is all I've ever been
pushing toward here. Deep down, it's all any of us want.
__________________________
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