@Pluto's Republic
I read both his full essay and the one to which he linked. My kind of folks totally.

Find myself pondering the loneliness of truth-speaking in my own circles. Old friends just don't seem to have the wherewithal to engage on such a level, but then sometimes you'll get a surprise when they do, or at least some elements of what you're saying.

I've believed for a long time that the catalyst for all of the misunderstanding and obfuscation, and these two essays covered it too, is the relentless propaganda that is lodged in our subconscious.

To understand it, one has to begin first with the American education system. One of the first things we learn as kindergarteners is to place our right hands over out hearts and repeat after our beloved teacher the words, which will become the foundation of a lifelong fealty and which is then the most difficult to extricate, when it becomes all-important to push back against your government and question the narrative they are putting out. That's American Exceptionalism. The propaganda comes hard and fast, when we are young and most malleable. Sometimes It takes a life time to rid one's self of it.

The other is the purposely elusive American Dream. Also sold to us overtly and subtly 24/7, but with much more fervency, barraging us night and day in ads, on websites, in the backs of taxis, on the radio, tv commercials, at the ball parks, at the gas station, etc. This is hardcore capitalist propaganda. Meant to keep you on the treadmill of, if I just get this one more thing I'll be happy. It has us perennially on a treadmill of mortgaging our happiness to a future day when we'll have x, y and z. It has everyone thinking he or she will be the next contestant on the Who Wants To Be The Next American Dream Millionaire™. Short of winning the lottery, one is told that if he or she just keeps her nose to the grindstone and not ruffle any feathers, one will eventually earn the Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous™, which ultimately sets one of the path of seeking more and more Get Rich Quick schemes, glamorized in the MSM as "success." A socialist economy would cure a lot of these ailments. It would restore basic human dignity for the vast majority, who just want to live in peace and not have to worry about being foreclosed upon due to a medical emergency, student debt, mortgage fraud or becoming bankrupt by any combination of this and other predatory capitalist practices. That would bring down crime, poverty, etc.

Internationalism. That's where it's at. That's what the Socialists of yesteryear spoke so eloquently and powerfully about. That's ultimately where we need to be. Nationalism is the poison.

As human beings we Americans are not any different or anymore superior to any other place, although we do explicitly live with privileges that come directly from our government exploiting other nations. The billions of people, however, all share the same common desires. That's what we need to get into sharper focus. The people of the world, not the governments.

#4.1

It is, without doubt, a curse to see so clearly in the US, and you're not alone. Lately, I've collected a few historical quotes on democracy, myself. This one from H. L. Mencken is my current favorite:

As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their hearts desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.

He knew.

The easy theft of this continent from the indigenous people and America's isolation from the rest of the world made the people what they have become, and they made the nation what it has become. Now, they simply accept ridiculous propaganda and misinformation and are tricked again and again into forfeiting their treasure and their rights. They manage to sleep through the bad parts and don't really remember them or dwell on them. In time, a government revisionist narrative and patriotic tunes will come along to make them feel proud.

"Why, of course, the people don't want war. Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship.

Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."

— Hermann Goering — from Gustave Gilbert's Nuremberg Diary (1947)

I share your perspective entirely, although I don't share your notions about another American revolution. Pretty words like Thomas Paine's annoy me: “The duty of a true patriot is to protect his country from its government.” As if that would ever happened in the US.

Americans seem to have little idea of who they are and what they're about. If they did throw a "revolution," I, for one, would not lift a finger to fight over this patch of dirt, isolated between two vast oceans — or any dirt, for that matter. Life is too short to waste on nations and nationalism. There are too many interesting places to live in peace and wonder. I suspect that the people who brought most of us to this continent did so to escape a bad situation. I think they set a good example when they packed up and headed off into the unknown. They surely would leave this place, too, in search of a better future.

I recently ran across a diatribe by an unknown gentleman of uncommon honesty. His essay was guileless and weary and it struck me as a bookend on the American experience. I return to it once in awhile:

Americas don’t want to know that all the wars in their country’s history were fought because of greed. That Hitler would never have become so powerful without US banks financing his war machine, without Ford and other US corporations supplying equipment, and without IBM organizing his ‘work camps’. Arbeit Macht Frei, no? That Roosevelt precipitated the attack on Pearl Harbor, and knew it was coming. That Truman dropped the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, fully understanding that Japan wanted desperately to surrender. Don’t tell them about the sordid history behind the Korean and Vietnam Wars. Don’t tell them that all those millions of innocent rice farmers and thousands of American kids died for Wall Street. Don’t even mention that Oswald had nothing to do with John Kennedy’s execution, nor that Bobby Kennedy, John Kennedy Jr., MLK, Malcom X, and Paul Wellstone were slaughtered because they refused to cooperate fully with the US war machine. Americans don’t want to know that the official government explanation of the attacks of 9-11-01 is perhaps the greatest fairytale since “Alice in Wonderland."

Here in the belly of the beast, among the zombie-fascist, gun-totin’, flag-wavin’ hordes of fellow Americans I spend my days in fearless loathing. Fearless because after living for two-thirds of a century I have little to fear other than a long painful death, being shot full of lead, or a terminal case of disgust. Truth tellers rarely make friends. The messenger risks life and limb or at least a good tongue lashing, including an invitation to leave this great country. God Bless America.

@gulfgal98

in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and now in Syria have I think, had an effect on the traditional conservative mind-set, regarding matters of war and peace. Might it not be possible for the anti-war Left to begin forming some sort of an ad hoc coalition with those "America First" people who are now feeling betrayed by Trump's recent about-face? Cooperation of this kind could be very useful, in order to more effectively counter a thoroughly bi-partisan Establishment that now promotes and finances America's would-be empire builders.

#4.2 of four and a half years with a small local Peace vigil in a small town in western NC, you are correct. Of course, my experience is only anecdotal.

I'd be more than willing to join hands with conservatives, in any efforts to change the course of US foreign policy to something far less ambitious than what it is. IMO a fundamental FP re-orientation is in order, and it's my impression a large proportion of the Deplorables feel the same way.

We talked to a lot of people during the time I spent with the Peace vigil. Many folks who described themselves as conservatives expressed their frustration with the state of constant war. I was surprised at how many people were realizing that many of the problems here in the US are tied to the state of perpetual war. The most common statement I heard, particularly from self described conservatives, was that they wished that money was being spent here in the US where it was so desperately needed.