Like Shooting Fish in a Barrel
They're just Insulting our Intelligence Now
Americans: healthcare please
US government: Sorry did you say billions of dollars for ethnic cleansing in the middle east?
Americans: no, healthcare
US government: Alright, you drive a hard bargain but here’s billions of dollars for ethnic cleansing in the middle east.
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Here’s a tip: the side that keeps having to come up with justifications and explanations for why it’s fine and normal for them to be killing thousands of children and perpetrating ethnic cleansing is probably not the side that’s in the right.
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I used to think it was bad for Israel to be massacring children by the thousands and bombing hospitals and shooting quadriplegics and children in hospital beds, but then Israel’s president waved an Arabic translation of Mein Kampf in front of a camera so now I think it’s good.
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If Israel’s position were based on truth and morality it wouldn’t be churning out a nonstop deluge of obvious lies.
No one believes anything Israel says anymore. You either know Israel lies constantly or you know it but pretend you don’t.
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You know how narcissists will do the most fucked up shit and if anyone calls them out they act all wounded and victimized like “Oh, what, I’m the bad guy now??” That’s Israel and its supporters.
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Anyone who criticizes US-sponsored military violence gets accused of supporting the other side by supporters of that military violence. If you opposed the Iraq invasion you were a Saddam supporter, if you criticized US proxy warfare in Ukraine you were a Putin lover, etc. The argument is that criticizing the actions of the world’s most powerful war machine means you support the side opposing that war machine, and because you’re a treasonous monster who supports the other side that means your criticisms should not be listened to.
This happens with literally every single high-profile act of US interventionism. Literally every single one, without a single, solitary exception. What this means in effect is that all criticism of the world’s most powerful war machine is considered unacceptable and gets stomped down. Those who are calling you a Hamas lover and a terrorist sympathizer today are telling you that nobody should ever criticize any US-sponsored act of military aggression, because they’re using the exact same tactic that is literally always used to stomp out all US-sponsored acts of military aggression.
What they are really saying when they call you a Hamas supporter is, “Shut up. Be silent. Never criticize US warmongering. Never criticize the most consequential actions of the most powerful and destructive government on this planet, under any circumstances. Shut up. Be silent. Obey.”
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It’s not okay for grown adults to believe Israel is “liberating” the people of Gaza.
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The correct response to learning that Hamas has significant support in Gaza is not “Oh well exterminate everyone in Gaza then,” it’s “Wow, how hellish must Israel have made life in Gaza for that to be the case?”
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It’s true that a Republican president would be as bad as Biden on Israel-Palestine, but the correct response to that isn’t “Oh well I’ll vote Democrat then,” it’s “If we’re not allowed to vote on whether our government murders children that means the entire system needs to go.”
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Here we go again with these civilization changing campaigns -- Covid, Ukraine and now, Israel
The drill is the same each time:
First, there is "news" about an exotic problem.
ex·ot·ic
/iɡˈzädik/
adjective
originating in or characteristic of a distant foreign country.
"exotic birds"
A new virus is loose in Asia. Part of the old Soviet Union invades another part of the old Soviet Union. The Palestinians are picking on Israel, again.
Second, the exotic problem is loudly and pompously asserted as a "threat" to America and its people.
The news is full of lurid stories of innocent people getting killed or worse. Pundits, celebrities, and politicians make impassioned pleas for the citizenry to grasp the horror of this exotic problem while the government and the corporate hierarchy swing into action to address the exotic problem.
Third, the same people and institutions attack the personalities of anyone who questions or criticizes the legitimacy of any aspect of the efforts to counter those "threats."
Instead of defending either the factuality or the wisdom of their own campaign, they employ cheap sophistry to discredit any criticism or dissent from their crusades to Save Lives, to Save Democracy, and to save The Jewish People.
Welcome to the future.
Comments
Caitlin Spricht Amerikanisch!
Anyone here on Twatster? It would be such a shame if someone tried disseminating a #MilitaryFragility hashtag....
In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.
Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!
She has a good point there
The convolutions the media will promote to deflect contrary opinion
are insulting to intelligence.
We trust too much
I don't think they're insulting our intelligence. Maybe it's the propaganda. It's too entertaining. In the end they just cultivate our ignorance. We want a lot of things, for ourselves, our kids, for those harmed by bad circumstances. Our only remedy seems to be to show up to vote. In primaries, where if someone like Bernie changes the discourse, the "establishment" (same as 40 years ago) co opts the argument to get elected, only to discard it when in power. Or like Obama, propagandize health care into shoddy inadequate insurance.
We have all these great critics like Johnstone pointing out the same faults and crimes, over and over, in great detail. What is the answer? Elections don't work. There is an unstated reality of how things really work, an underlying current that drives our country. It's exploitation overlaid with the myth of democracy. That's the basis of our country today.
As for Israel and the Palestinians, in the end there will be a cruel, angry version of our own Native American reservation system justified by Never Again Version 2, and the world will move on.
Hopelessness
is no more accurate than hope. Just a different way to look at the always uncertain future, based on pessimism rather than optimism. There is very little to base hope on, so we default to hopelessness -- rather than just assuming the worst, we guarantee it.
Folks in hell are hoping for ice water -- why the heck not?
How do we take control of our future? To be determined. . . .
I cried when I wrote this song. Sue me if I play too long.
I know
I apologize for being a ton of bricks. The last time I was hopeful was when Bernie ran the first time. After metooing his message, the next time he ran they were prepared and neutered him. All branches of government, judicial, executive and congressional are not working in our interests. I am frustrated with the journalist and critical thinkers, not for their content or deep research, but that it rarely leads to change and is swamped by the next outrage or scandal. That, and how normalized and numb we've become to it. It feels like it's the American citizens that should form a union to negotiate with the government for us.
“News leaders call for end of objective journalism”
Have academia, media owners and management, and most working journalists all gone insane or become fascists or Leninists? From February, more germane than ever:
“Objectivity has got to go”: news leaders call for the end of objective journalism
what is the object of subjective
discourse when all news is streamlined
to promote only one viewpoint?
I think they might not know what the word means...
...Perhaps they're (however stupidly) conflating it with "indifference", since that is certainly how pretenders have abused the word.
Otherwise, though, they're no different from (at best) fundies who insist on blaming Charles Darwin for the Holocaust.
Alternatively, of course, they may just be the true contemporary manifestation of what I call the Rattlesnake's Head (as opposed to Nazis, KKK, and other evildoers of yesteryear, who are now no more than the Rattlesnake's Tail - a helpful warning we should be grateful to have, but to no avail if we fail to recognize it in the fresh-faced Head that, of course, fails utterly to recognize itself in its tail).
In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.
Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!