OK, here’s one from the archives for you. It’s a column I wrote way back in 2017, when CounterPunch was still running my columns. I’ve pulled it out of the archives because (a) I think it’s particularly apropos, given the amount of ridiculous official propaganda we are being barraged by at the moment, (b) I am down with a nasty bug, and thus (c) I don’t have the energy to attempt to deceive you into believing that I just came up with this analysis today by rewriting what I wrote back in 2017 but replacing the references to Russiagate with references to Israel’s liquidation of Gaza.
It's all about ownership of the mass-media of misinformation, mass hypnosis via repetition and general mindfuckery.
This ownership pattern began during the First World War, when the most powerful financiers in the U$$A had heavily been responsible for selling massive amounts of munitions to Britain and France. It did not take long for those sales became tied to credit/loans, as the treasuries of those two nations had begun to run dry. No problemo. The Wizards of Wall $treet told the "Allies" that they would keep up the stream of armaments on the basis of "easy credit".
By 1916 the handwriting was on the proverbial wall and the major players were holding a mountain of IOU's. So they took action. Their agents were sent out to the owners of the 25 most influential dailies in the nation (no electronic communications back in that world) and confronted those shareholders and entrepreneurs with offers they could not possibly resist. Upshot was to be expected and the new owners promptly placed their own editors/stenographers in control of the message.
Hatred for the Hun was the core of the message and British propaganda memes of Germans bayonetting Belgian babies became a chorus reverberating right across the fruited plain. It did not take long before a significant proportion of the American public bought the schtick and turned from a preference for neutrality, echoing George Washington's admonition to stay away from foreign wars and gave sufficient votes (with 3 candidates running, as Teddy Roosevelt concocted the Bullmoose Party to steal away President Taft's margin of victory) and handed the presidency to the totally controlled by blackmail, Thomas Woodrow Wilson.
The rest was history. "Wash, rinse and repeat" is today's story as the mass-media Pepsodent smiling presenters barf it out to keep on message the most propaganda-ridden "normies" on the entire planet.
Wilson wanted to go to war as did many in D.C. Propaganda to join the war was so extensive that the Postmasteer General of the U.S was allowed to banish any newspapers that didn't promote the joining the War.
The Great Awakening is bearing fruit all over the land. Awareness is the first step to liberation for the mass of humanity...perhaps reaching its apogee amongst the most propaganda-ridden public since the days of Josef Goebbels.
What we are achieving on this comment section on C.J.'s site is something akin to a cross-pollination of understandings and Real-Eye-Zations.
The more we share our insights, the more we learn from one another.
Might I also add, that after ‘the primary aim of official propaganda is to generate an “official narrative,”’ perhaps a secondary aim is to demoralise those with average intelligence whilst empowering those who are regrettably, deficient.
Just saw a video that showed US officials saying 30-40 times that Nordstream 2 would not happen, would not be allowed to happen, will be stopped (by us), that its completion is in Russia's interest. That was followed by 4-5 minutes of everybody blaming Russia for destroying its vital infrastructure. Then Prof. Sax (Columbia) pointing out the ridiculousness of the official narrative getting kicked off his TV spot.
There is definitely something in the water. I believe the human "cognitive telomere" has shrunk and we no longer have the capacity for rational thought. If you don't believe me look at how the American right has been divided and conquered over the issue you write about today CJ.
Welcome to humanity's final epoch, The Great Darkness.
The technique goes way back. In Sima Qian's Shiji there is the famous account of calling a deer a horse, wherein the traitorous coup members tested the loyalty of the court to their coup by bringing in a deer and calling it a horse and presenting it to the ill-fated second Qin emperor. Those who agreed it was a horse were able to survive the coup.
Once you've grasped the basic form of this trick, you can see it all over. I am often surprised how much effort people will spend proverbially trying to convince others that the deer is a deer when they should realize that the person they are arguing with is aware of that already and simply afraid of the consequences of admitting the truth.
The Maginot circular wall analogy captures the ingroup/outgroup manufacturing process brilliantly, CJ. Indeed, the more preposterous the tenets of faith, the more tightly the believers cling to them, bonding more closely in their disdain toward the feckless nonbelievers who are the true root of their suffering, of course.
I thought you would be amused to know I was called an anti-semite and some other unpleasant things for sharing your last article, CJ. Instead of reacting defensively, I pointed out that he was allowing his emotion to cloud his judgment. That made him more emotional, which he astutely admitted. I won’t belabor the details as I’m actually supposed to be sleeping, but the upshot is he apologized for mischaracterizing my views, which astonished me far more than being called an anti-semite, and now the door is open for productive, respectful dialogue. Hats off to him for being willing to admit error and completely change course when recognizing it. When we see and treat each other as humans instead of cardboard pro-/anti-issue believers, there is hope for meaningful connection, after all.
Very well put. If anyone actually believed that "Russia" had these marvelous powers of persuasion bordering on psychic mind control, that Putin could flip an election with over $2,300,000,000 in total ad spend with a measly $100K in FB ads (that were never linked to the Russian government) from a clickbait troll farm, then why didn't Putin bother to spend a few dollars more and elect himself a compliant Congress?
For that matter, why isn't Stoli the best-selling beverage in the land, swilled by every man, woman and child to wash down the Russian caviar eaten for breakfast, lunch and dinner and touted endlessly by brainwashed doctors ("It's got.....'lektrolytes!")
For that matter, if anyone of influence and authority actually believed any of this crap, every product advertiser in the land would be demanding that Russians run their next ad campaign. Anything else would be like showing up to a gunfight, armed with a water pistol.
The liquidation of Gaza and the Palestinian people clears the way for trillions in nat gas to be made, but by whom? I don't think the US after supplying the funding and hardware to Israel to do the dirty work will let them keep the hydrocarbons and sell them, do you? I think that the Neocons will use Israel as a launching pad to attack Iran after sacrificing much of their military in a ground offensive. The US is presently bombing Syrian infrastructure and back under Trump they secured and still hold their oil. Iran's the last Neocon play on the agenda. Talk of a ceasefire - when the present plan in play is to control the world's energy reserves - is not going to be considered by Western powers. We are horrified and sickened being unable to stop the slaughter, and the season turns cold...
The mainstream media news Hasbara is like a piece of chazir being spit out contemptously onto public consciousness, or more likely unconsciousness with total disregard to its lack of veracity.
In fact, the hysterical concocted narrative is considered just fine as long as the lies are told by well-paid passionate thespian commentators.
There's no subtlety needed as in the past when TV channels discreetly hid their national security state handlers. Now the spook cast of characters are brazenly exposed to viewers as intelligence agencies are no longer wasting any effort on being coy to a dumbed down public who doesn't expect to hear opposing points of view about any controversial issue.
That's why FOX and MSNBC commentators are still yelping about 40 beheaded babies similar to the myth about the incubator infants thrown to the floor during the lead up to the Iraq War. Only later to find out it was one of the many lies deployed to justify overthrowing Sadam Hussein, someone the security state installed decades before knowing his propensity for tyranny.
Interesting, how the CIA overthrows all of the regimes they initially installed. It's like a barbaric game of musical chairs.
Nonetheless, hasbara is not meant to be taken seriously as most living in Israel know that the mainstream media news is full of shit. It's only the Americans who eat it all up hoping for a second and third portion of the same.
The effects this junk food has on brain cells is striking, as the corrupt political duopoly can brazenly offer a redux of Creepy Joe and the Orangeman followed by a slew of dubious Independent candidates. That in itself, should tell you how litte the ruling elite think of the proles.
So bizarre—those who’ve abandoned CJ for his honestly and love of humanity.
I had no idea who CJ Hopkins was until after Dr. Nass mentioned her support a few months ago. I think I held off subscribing due to his profile picture, thinking CJ was just a witty, loudmouth kid, but decided to begin reading his work anyway. Still having not read his profile or having a clue of his age, where he lived, where he was born or understanding his geopolitical views, I immediately became inspired and subscribed, though I wasn’t sure what to expect from him after learning angry Zionists from within the U.S. and Germany began targeting him for his intelligent perspective and “thoughts” over the Scamdemic and masking (twisting it into something else, like Nazisms??), and then the attack by Israeli Zionists because CJ began questioning the wholesale slaughter of Palestinian civilians meanwhile demanding blind loyalty. It’s all So Unreal.
Now I’m not only inspired, but proud to discover CJ really cares for humanity and is unafraid of the World Press Club Satanic choir or their loyal, creepy troll-bots demanding conformity. Personally, I’m not capable of conforming and have so often felt totally alone in this battle, like I’m the last person on earth still human in the movie “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” or “The Thing,” with the exception of a few far removed human independents I still trust and admire.
The monsters controlling the narratives in mainstream media have perfected destroying independent thought, and their punishments for those who deviate from the bloody abnormal-norms are always so very mid-evil extreme. But haven’t they always been this way? Surviving “them” requires individuals to have the skin and temperament of crocodiles without losing their heart & human souls. For those of us who honestly love humanity, they can never destroy all of us as planned, though with militarized nanotechnology brain-bots, 5G networks, CBDC’s…they sure as hell are trying their very best.
I think for two reasons. Smart propaganda is more complicated and need to be consistent with its future "variants". But the main reason is not that. It has to be blatantly dumb. This is principal thing. The very essence of it being blatantly ridiculous and dumb (apart of its visible message) fulfills its main aim - to make its consumers dumb.
its not that its poor. its that it doenst have to be good or nuanced. b/c most people are too ignorant or complacent to know or care. Most people have no power to resist so what are they/we going to do about it. So the rulers are right in our faces with lies and dont care.
Right. I remember seeing "fighters" in ukraine that were holding weapons that even to an untrained eye or someone who hasn't seen a gun in real life were obviously fake cutouts.
Yes, that earlier article explains succinctly how propaganda works. While we are reacting to the putative stupidity of such pronouncements as Russia Gate, the lie itself has already spread across the earth like Mark Twain once warned us about. Then the official story becomes the propaganda story, against the factual "reality." The propaganda story is suddenly a hard pudding of historical fact, served with the sweet cream of media complicity. Thanks for digging that out, CJ. Take care!
I no longer have to shake my head and wonder, "Do they really believe that horseshit?" You've explained it perfectly. Thanks. And now, I better understand Solzhenitzyn's quote, "They know they lie. We know they lie. They know that we know they lie. Yet, they still lie."
Your recent articles have inadvertently attracted individuals with strong anti-Israel sentiments, who express their views using the derogatory term "Zionist." I would like to emphasize that the solutions proposed by some of these Israel-bashers appear fundamentally misguided. I wouldn't be surprised that some of the more radical individuals even entertain a resettlement scheme, such as the one proposed by the Nazis in the 1930s suggesting the relocation of Jews to Madagascar.
Today Netanyahu admitted that avoiding civilian casualties has NOT been "successful." Does that sound like propaganda? I would be the last person to praise someone like Netanyahu whose deal with Pfizer was abhorrent. But why single him out? There's plenty of blame to go around among all the sycophants worldwide.
Acknowledging Israel's potential use of propaganda is fair, but it's crucial to address the actions of Hamas as well. Not mentioning Hamas in your recent articles raises questions. Would the current casualties have occurred without Hamas's attack on October 7th, or are you one of those who dismiss the whole event as a psyop?
The crux of the matter is that Hamas never intended to engage in negotiations. They are unequivocally ruthless, embodying a profound danger (with a capital "D"). Bonhoeffer's theory of stupidity seems applicable here—obviously not as a mere lack of intellect but as somewhat of a moral failure. It's heartening to see courageous individuals calling out what appears to be a dubious attempt on your part to strike what you perceive as a balanced stance on this issue.
(1) Zionism is a nationalist political movement and the official ideology of the State of Israel; (2) my main focus is on the official propaganda produced by powerful nation-states, supranational governing entities, the corporate media, etc., not relatively powerless groups and organizations; (3) I'm not trying to be "balanced," just honest.
Would the current casualties have occurred without Israeli occupation and settlement in Palestine? If Israel hadn't oppressed, killed and displaced the Palestinian people, and themselves formed Hamas, would the deaths of Oct 7th have happened? Did Israel ever intended to negotiate a 2 nation state?
The Gazans were better off under Israeli occupation. It's only when the Israelis handed Gaza to Hamas that the terror began--not only making Israeli lives miserable but the Palestinians as well. But yes Israeli appeasement of terror groups contributed to the problem. Now the question is whether they will capitulate again or "finish the job."
Yes let's adopt the Nazi plan prior to WW II to remove all the Jews from Palestine and send them to Madagascar. That must be your solution given you are so convinced that 1948 represented an illegitimate resolution of the Palestine question on Britain's part.
Get Well soon CJ and please keep Up your fantastic writing. 👍
It's all about ownership of the mass-media of misinformation, mass hypnosis via repetition and general mindfuckery.
This ownership pattern began during the First World War, when the most powerful financiers in the U$$A had heavily been responsible for selling massive amounts of munitions to Britain and France. It did not take long for those sales became tied to credit/loans, as the treasuries of those two nations had begun to run dry. No problemo. The Wizards of Wall $treet told the "Allies" that they would keep up the stream of armaments on the basis of "easy credit".
By 1916 the handwriting was on the proverbial wall and the major players were holding a mountain of IOU's. So they took action. Their agents were sent out to the owners of the 25 most influential dailies in the nation (no electronic communications back in that world) and confronted those shareholders and entrepreneurs with offers they could not possibly resist. Upshot was to be expected and the new owners promptly placed their own editors/stenographers in control of the message.
Hatred for the Hun was the core of the message and British propaganda memes of Germans bayonetting Belgian babies became a chorus reverberating right across the fruited plain. It did not take long before a significant proportion of the American public bought the schtick and turned from a preference for neutrality, echoing George Washington's admonition to stay away from foreign wars and gave sufficient votes (with 3 candidates running, as Teddy Roosevelt concocted the Bullmoose Party to steal away President Taft's margin of victory) and handed the presidency to the totally controlled by blackmail, Thomas Woodrow Wilson.
The rest was history. "Wash, rinse and repeat" is today's story as the mass-media Pepsodent smiling presenters barf it out to keep on message the most propaganda-ridden "normies" on the entire planet.
Wilson wanted to go to war as did many in D.C. Propaganda to join the war was so extensive that the Postmasteer General of the U.S was allowed to banish any newspapers that didn't promote the joining the War.
The US couldn’t have entered the war without the establishment of the Federal Reserve first
The Great Awakening is bearing fruit all over the land. Awareness is the first step to liberation for the mass of humanity...perhaps reaching its apogee amongst the most propaganda-ridden public since the days of Josef Goebbels.
What we are achieving on this comment section on C.J.'s site is something akin to a cross-pollination of understandings and Real-Eye-Zations.
The more we share our insights, the more we learn from one another.
The CBDC’s are a scary Sword of Damocles hanging over our heads
Thank you.
Might I also add, that after ‘the primary aim of official propaganda is to generate an “official narrative,”’ perhaps a secondary aim is to demoralise those with average intelligence whilst empowering those who are regrettably, deficient.
Wishing you a speedy recovery.
Also it’s the old “ believe me or your lying eyes “ which allows doublethink to exist
Just saw a video that showed US officials saying 30-40 times that Nordstream 2 would not happen, would not be allowed to happen, will be stopped (by us), that its completion is in Russia's interest. That was followed by 4-5 minutes of everybody blaming Russia for destroying its vital infrastructure. Then Prof. Sax (Columbia) pointing out the ridiculousness of the official narrative getting kicked off his TV spot.
There is definitely something in the water. I believe the human "cognitive telomere" has shrunk and we no longer have the capacity for rational thought. If you don't believe me look at how the American right has been divided and conquered over the issue you write about today CJ.
Welcome to humanity's final epoch, The Great Darkness.
The technique goes way back. In Sima Qian's Shiji there is the famous account of calling a deer a horse, wherein the traitorous coup members tested the loyalty of the court to their coup by bringing in a deer and calling it a horse and presenting it to the ill-fated second Qin emperor. Those who agreed it was a horse were able to survive the coup.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhao_Gao#Calling_a_deer_a_horse
Once you've grasped the basic form of this trick, you can see it all over. I am often surprised how much effort people will spend proverbially trying to convince others that the deer is a deer when they should realize that the person they are arguing with is aware of that already and simply afraid of the consequences of admitting the truth.
Yes, quite clearly the essence of this article.
Like the Emperor has no clothes. A child can see through this nonsense.
A valuable comment.
The Maginot circular wall analogy captures the ingroup/outgroup manufacturing process brilliantly, CJ. Indeed, the more preposterous the tenets of faith, the more tightly the believers cling to them, bonding more closely in their disdain toward the feckless nonbelievers who are the true root of their suffering, of course.
I thought you would be amused to know I was called an anti-semite and some other unpleasant things for sharing your last article, CJ. Instead of reacting defensively, I pointed out that he was allowing his emotion to cloud his judgment. That made him more emotional, which he astutely admitted. I won’t belabor the details as I’m actually supposed to be sleeping, but the upshot is he apologized for mischaracterizing my views, which astonished me far more than being called an anti-semite, and now the door is open for productive, respectful dialogue. Hats off to him for being willing to admit error and completely change course when recognizing it. When we see and treat each other as humans instead of cardboard pro-/anti-issue believers, there is hope for meaningful connection, after all.
Very well put. If anyone actually believed that "Russia" had these marvelous powers of persuasion bordering on psychic mind control, that Putin could flip an election with over $2,300,000,000 in total ad spend with a measly $100K in FB ads (that were never linked to the Russian government) from a clickbait troll farm, then why didn't Putin bother to spend a few dollars more and elect himself a compliant Congress?
For that matter, why isn't Stoli the best-selling beverage in the land, swilled by every man, woman and child to wash down the Russian caviar eaten for breakfast, lunch and dinner and touted endlessly by brainwashed doctors ("It's got.....'lektrolytes!")
For that matter, if anyone of influence and authority actually believed any of this crap, every product advertiser in the land would be demanding that Russians run their next ad campaign. Anything else would be like showing up to a gunfight, armed with a water pistol.
Great piece. Man, Russiagate was ridiculous. It seemed to set the stage for the epitome of gaslighting and propaganda during covid.
Huxley in 1958 wrote "brave new world revisited" a follow up non fiction essay to his novel Brave new world.
Read chapter 4 " propaganda in democracy"
how spot on was it?
https://www.huxley.net/bnw-revisited.pdf
Thanks so much for this link - just started chapter 2 and it's blowing my mind!
Glad u like it.
i had the same reaction when I first encountered it.
Have u ever read rothbard?
Try this
https://mises.org/library/anatomy-state
And this:
Egalitarianism and the elites
https://cdn.mises.org/rae8_2_3_2.pdf
Thank you for sharing. I've read the orignial, but not the revisisted version...
The “revisited” is not a novel its a non fiction essay, a commentary by huxley about the state of the world in 1958
The liquidation of Gaza and the Palestinian people clears the way for trillions in nat gas to be made, but by whom? I don't think the US after supplying the funding and hardware to Israel to do the dirty work will let them keep the hydrocarbons and sell them, do you? I think that the Neocons will use Israel as a launching pad to attack Iran after sacrificing much of their military in a ground offensive. The US is presently bombing Syrian infrastructure and back under Trump they secured and still hold their oil. Iran's the last Neocon play on the agenda. Talk of a ceasefire - when the present plan in play is to control the world's energy reserves - is not going to be considered by Western powers. We are horrified and sickened being unable to stop the slaughter, and the season turns cold...
The mainstream media news Hasbara is like a piece of chazir being spit out contemptously onto public consciousness, or more likely unconsciousness with total disregard to its lack of veracity.
In fact, the hysterical concocted narrative is considered just fine as long as the lies are told by well-paid passionate thespian commentators.
There's no subtlety needed as in the past when TV channels discreetly hid their national security state handlers. Now the spook cast of characters are brazenly exposed to viewers as intelligence agencies are no longer wasting any effort on being coy to a dumbed down public who doesn't expect to hear opposing points of view about any controversial issue.
That's why FOX and MSNBC commentators are still yelping about 40 beheaded babies similar to the myth about the incubator infants thrown to the floor during the lead up to the Iraq War. Only later to find out it was one of the many lies deployed to justify overthrowing Sadam Hussein, someone the security state installed decades before knowing his propensity for tyranny.
Interesting, how the CIA overthrows all of the regimes they initially installed. It's like a barbaric game of musical chairs.
Nonetheless, hasbara is not meant to be taken seriously as most living in Israel know that the mainstream media news is full of shit. It's only the Americans who eat it all up hoping for a second and third portion of the same.
The effects this junk food has on brain cells is striking, as the corrupt political duopoly can brazenly offer a redux of Creepy Joe and the Orangeman followed by a slew of dubious Independent candidates. That in itself, should tell you how litte the ruling elite think of the proles.
Proles..... proletariates? quite:)
So bizarre—those who’ve abandoned CJ for his honestly and love of humanity.
I had no idea who CJ Hopkins was until after Dr. Nass mentioned her support a few months ago. I think I held off subscribing due to his profile picture, thinking CJ was just a witty, loudmouth kid, but decided to begin reading his work anyway. Still having not read his profile or having a clue of his age, where he lived, where he was born or understanding his geopolitical views, I immediately became inspired and subscribed, though I wasn’t sure what to expect from him after learning angry Zionists from within the U.S. and Germany began targeting him for his intelligent perspective and “thoughts” over the Scamdemic and masking (twisting it into something else, like Nazisms??), and then the attack by Israeli Zionists because CJ began questioning the wholesale slaughter of Palestinian civilians meanwhile demanding blind loyalty. It’s all So Unreal.
Now I’m not only inspired, but proud to discover CJ really cares for humanity and is unafraid of the World Press Club Satanic choir or their loyal, creepy troll-bots demanding conformity. Personally, I’m not capable of conforming and have so often felt totally alone in this battle, like I’m the last person on earth still human in the movie “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” or “The Thing,” with the exception of a few far removed human independents I still trust and admire.
The monsters controlling the narratives in mainstream media have perfected destroying independent thought, and their punishments for those who deviate from the bloody abnormal-norms are always so very mid-evil extreme. But haven’t they always been this way? Surviving “them” requires individuals to have the skin and temperament of crocodiles without losing their heart & human souls. For those of us who honestly love humanity, they can never destroy all of us as planned, though with militarized nanotechnology brain-bots, 5G networks, CBDC’s…they sure as hell are trying their very best.
I wonder why the quality of their propaganda is so poor these days.
It's easy to make deep fakes, and yet they create garbage.
It's easy to shoot a video with fake Hamas shooting kids, and all we got were stupid clips.
They're either too dumb or everything is contracted out to PR agencies that suck.
NASA must employ the same low quality PR crowd
I think for two reasons. Smart propaganda is more complicated and need to be consistent with its future "variants". But the main reason is not that. It has to be blatantly dumb. This is principal thing. The very essence of it being blatantly ridiculous and dumb (apart of its visible message) fulfills its main aim - to make its consumers dumb.
its not that its poor. its that it doenst have to be good or nuanced. b/c most people are too ignorant or complacent to know or care. Most people have no power to resist so what are they/we going to do about it. So the rulers are right in our faces with lies and dont care.
Right. I remember seeing "fighters" in ukraine that were holding weapons that even to an untrained eye or someone who hasn't seen a gun in real life were obviously fake cutouts.
Yes, that earlier article explains succinctly how propaganda works. While we are reacting to the putative stupidity of such pronouncements as Russia Gate, the lie itself has already spread across the earth like Mark Twain once warned us about. Then the official story becomes the propaganda story, against the factual "reality." The propaganda story is suddenly a hard pudding of historical fact, served with the sweet cream of media complicity. Thanks for digging that out, CJ. Take care!
I no longer have to shake my head and wonder, "Do they really believe that horseshit?" You've explained it perfectly. Thanks. And now, I better understand Solzhenitzyn's quote, "They know they lie. We know they lie. They know that we know they lie. Yet, they still lie."
Your recent articles have inadvertently attracted individuals with strong anti-Israel sentiments, who express their views using the derogatory term "Zionist." I would like to emphasize that the solutions proposed by some of these Israel-bashers appear fundamentally misguided. I wouldn't be surprised that some of the more radical individuals even entertain a resettlement scheme, such as the one proposed by the Nazis in the 1930s suggesting the relocation of Jews to Madagascar.
Today Netanyahu admitted that avoiding civilian casualties has NOT been "successful." Does that sound like propaganda? I would be the last person to praise someone like Netanyahu whose deal with Pfizer was abhorrent. But why single him out? There's plenty of blame to go around among all the sycophants worldwide.
Acknowledging Israel's potential use of propaganda is fair, but it's crucial to address the actions of Hamas as well. Not mentioning Hamas in your recent articles raises questions. Would the current casualties have occurred without Hamas's attack on October 7th, or are you one of those who dismiss the whole event as a psyop?
The crux of the matter is that Hamas never intended to engage in negotiations. They are unequivocally ruthless, embodying a profound danger (with a capital "D"). Bonhoeffer's theory of stupidity seems applicable here—obviously not as a mere lack of intellect but as somewhat of a moral failure. It's heartening to see courageous individuals calling out what appears to be a dubious attempt on your part to strike what you perceive as a balanced stance on this issue.
(1) Zionism is a nationalist political movement and the official ideology of the State of Israel; (2) my main focus is on the official propaganda produced by powerful nation-states, supranational governing entities, the corporate media, etc., not relatively powerless groups and organizations; (3) I'm not trying to be "balanced," just honest.
You consider Hamas powerless?
Would the current casualties have occurred without Israeli occupation and settlement in Palestine? If Israel hadn't oppressed, killed and displaced the Palestinian people, and themselves formed Hamas, would the deaths of Oct 7th have happened? Did Israel ever intended to negotiate a 2 nation state?
The Gazans were better off under Israeli occupation. It's only when the Israelis handed Gaza to Hamas that the terror began--not only making Israeli lives miserable but the Palestinians as well. But yes Israeli appeasement of terror groups contributed to the problem. Now the question is whether they will capitulate again or "finish the job."
The Black South Africans were probably better off under Apartheid too, until that pesky Mandela came along.
This is why hate speech shouldn't be banned. Let them reveal themselves.
Why do you want to start at Oct 7th? Why not 1948? You mean the question is whether they will enable humanity to survive or finish the genocide.
Yes let's adopt the Nazi plan prior to WW II to remove all the Jews from Palestine and send them to Madagascar. That must be your solution given you are so convinced that 1948 represented an illegitimate resolution of the Palestine question on Britain's part.
OMG
Great article!!