Thank you for writing this piece! This is what we've been trying to tell dumb, ignorant people out there that voting doesn't work & that our government & politicians everywhere are corrupt! Especially to liberals/neoliberals!
Thank you for reading, commenting, and more importantly understanding. You inspired a thought though. If government is a myth, then what good is trying to wake people up? Are we hoping they'll make a government? Because won't the billionaires just hijack that one as well? You can't legislate morality, I'm sure you've heard. I guess its worth a shot, before they convert earth into even more of a prison.
Caitlin Johnstone is a Substacker who has written extensively about Propaganda (and War). I think she would tell you that most Americans have been exposed to narratives about their own country that cause them to see their country as uniquely good (which in turn causes them to believe whatever they are told by authority figures "representing" this country) since they were born. What they believe, in response to those narratives, act as blinders as to what happens behind the curtain. If people don't escape from the intellectual prison in their heads, they will be faithful to those narratives to the exclusion of any counter narratives.
Me and Caitlin had some drama back when McCain died of brain cancer. But yeah she's an excellent writer. But when I read her work I can't help but feel a sense of pointlessness. She doesn't cut to the root my gut tells me, more just makes sport of the problems. She's topical. But it's as you say, and I have no better ideas. I do feel like I'm evolving though, bit by bit, maybe I'll find a solution, eventually.
I understand. We are creatures led more by pattern recognition than instinct. We were raised in societies with institutions we were told offer reason, stability, and fairness. A few of us have realized that our institutions have been failing us for longer than we would like to imagine. Nonetheless, we grew up in a system and we are susceptible to looking for solutions in system-like approaches that offer us the benefits of the institutions that failed us. The institutions failed us because human beings fail themselves because they are flawed. I think the path out of that conundrum will be a long and torturous one. Until then, we do what we can to contribute to that conversation and hopefully get more people involved in that conversation.
People rarely change instantly. Often, rather a slow slide, a personal trigger or forced error will get some new synapses firing. The Great Squeezing is meant to distract you from actual thinking, difficult to think when you’re sick tired or hungry about much else
As for people ignoring the ramifications of the DNC's non-existentence, to me it comes down to the loss of self when confronted with ideas that undermine one's core beliefs.
I confronted this myself in the lead up to GWB's Iraq War 2.0. It was obvious to me that this war was based on outright lies, and that it would undermine the US role on the world stage. Yet it was also obvious that it was going to occur regardless.
I marched in DC twice against this war (on thece carrying the Veterans for Peace banner), so I truly believed I had to speak out against it.
So when the war started with another prime-time televised bombing campaign. I was left with no choice to address the dichotomy in my mind. I stayed up all night following every 'what if' scenario to it's logical conclusion.
By morning, I had accepted that none of it was real, that it was all a grand fiction. Everything that I thought I believed in was gone. It actually hurts now just writing about it, but I'm oh so grateful to have had this opportunity to wake up. To grow up, in ways I could have never imagined before.
For humanity to succeed, this is the journey we all must make. Otherwise the defense of self is simply too powerful to overcome.
I deeply appreciate your comment and real effort to fix the world we share. I am sorry it was painful to revisit, and that we still are stuck in this situation.
All I can say is that it’s not gonna last. I genuinely believe we are no more than 9 years out form singularity. To me, 9 is a hedge, it’s probably more like 1-5.
If I don’t have a humanoid full AI helper by 2033, I’ll basically have been forced to completely dump my world view. Either way radical change is coming, be it internal or external, for me at least.
This has been going on for hundreds of years. Political parties are corporations that are not regulated by the government or the public. While they are non-profit, like any other corporation the overriding goal is cash flow. They didn't even pretend to be democratic until about 1970 or so. It's all about money.
Hillary Clinton embezzled the party funds, breaking the rules of said party. The DNC was sued for soliciting funds fraudulently, for not doing with the money what they had told their donors they would do. The judge ruled that the DNC was a right-to-lie organization, that anyone who believed the DNC would follow its own rules was a chump who deserved to lose their money!
Indeed, I covered the dncfraud lawsuit in this post with links to complete transcripts. Same legal reality applies to RNC. I never thought about earlier parties though, good point. As for trump, I called his reelection a while back because the bank would prefer overt money rule. But more specifically as whitney webb has pointed out, the main reason is that he can push through policy that right wingers wouldn't otherwise accept, like biometric border and CBDC. He's always been a bank puppet, they all are, or they don't get hired.
The tariffs and income tax cut will shift even more of the tax burden away from the rich onto the shoulders of his base voters. They're gonna love that.
Hard lessons coming for a lot of disconnected/low information types. And I say that with no ego. It's pure luck I am who I am and see what little I see.
People don’t get this because the majority of Americans don’t read newspapers or watch news broadcasts. Public and some private schools don’t teach logic or Civics anymore. The politicians love that. They want to keep us ignorant and believe their soundbites.Sad but true. Excellent article!
To me terms like "state" and "government" are interchangeable but also misleading. As I defined here and elsewhere the whole concept of government amounts to policy we agree to pay for in some way for the good of us all collectively. Decisions made in advance so they can be implemented quickly in the event of an emergency. Government exists by definition to implement the will of the people for the good of the people. Granted they conflict sometimes, but this idea is to make a real effort to better the situation of people at large over the long and short term.
I assert that this is not what the edifice of "government" or "state" we have even attempts to do nominally. In many cases arguments aren't even made for why policy X or Y is good for people or worth the price they are asked to pay in terms of lost freedom or trade off. In many cases it has become overtly dogmatic, and "patriotic" to preserve these systems, where the point of them isn't even a factor.
As to what "comprises" a state, well, that depends what you mean: Today's shot show or the idea in theory? I feel like I've answered both. We definitely do not have the theory. Objectively our will is no longer considered, expressly because we've totally surrendered our ability to menace the bank which owns us.
Exactly what you'd expect of consecutive generations of indoctrination, poisoning, and enslavement.
I can see that logic. The "state" as actuator of "government" policy. I mean, yea obviously we have thugs in boots and the like, but they are in costume. They don't represent us, which means they aren't what they are dressed as. That's why I don't draw a distinction. If the brain is captured the hands are someone elses.
The VAST majority of people saying it are being hyperbolic as proven by their other comments on voting and parties. Even the people saying it act as though they live under a government and act surprised and outraged when parts of it lie to or fail them. Virtually no one really seems to understand the mad max corporatist arbitrary law situation we are in now.
The vast majority are morons, as proven by their votes and comments. They see and understand that the fix is in, but continue to believe that if they just start small and vote for the right dogcatcher, the system can be rebuilt to be what it is "supposed to be" rather than what it always has been.
Nobody wants to be a grungy old nihilist. Nobody wants to be a credulous moron. Almost everyone will need to admit to being a moron to become a nihilist to admit the truth.
Which is why we've adopted almost entirely negative politics: we can't win. But if we work together, we can make one of them lose. So celebrate on inauguration day, then bend back over on the day after.
Maybe all the clumsy sodomy will distract from the winner doing the exact same shit as the loser.
Hence: everyone cheered slipping Obama through past mean old machine Clinton. Surely a black president is a failure of the system, and he will represent US instead of continuing the mindlessly destructive policies of GWB.
NO? How do you make sense of the great black savior producing more misery and wealth like every other president before? Must be all the white people, especially men, holding him back. Let's infiltrate the unelected parts of the government while pretending they don't exist, and force the nation to reckon with woke coming out of every corner of the deep state.
Sounds horrible, but luckily we can be sure that TRUMP is different. He's too out there to be part of this, and have a term in office that is essentially Obama's third term - nothing major changing, same vampires on top behind the scenes. Right?
Quick now, THEY are crushing the last bits of our freedom, making those Everyman luxuries beyond our reach, burying us in drudgery and institutional paranoia. We can't get who we want, but we can keep THEM from...
Voting is just a money changing scheme, it's just another industry. I tried to search how many companies and the like made money off elections and I simply couldn't find a thing. Odd. But, I assume I didn't put in the write combination of search words and I tried quite a few. Elections exist to make money for a shit ton of groups, it's not about governance. I think it's a game the 'parties' play like playing the lottery.
Another thing is people don't want to feel the despair and the hopelessness. I can understand. However, there should be no reason to believe one can vote our way out of the war machine and stealing of our labor.
Right now I think we are missing the war of the Oligarchs that the fake elections coverage is distracting us from. What I suspect is happening now is a power struggle between TechnoFascists and ChristoFascists. Which faction gets the fruits of the populations' labor to spend as they like or what fraction of it they can claim. Hmm, I haven't considered how many factions there may be vying for the taxpayers pennies.
I don't know, I gave up on government some time ago. I just want to make a difference in the teeny ways I can.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6erhhSQZSsU
Thank you for writing this piece! This is what we've been trying to tell dumb, ignorant people out there that voting doesn't work & that our government & politicians everywhere are corrupt! Especially to liberals/neoliberals!
Thank you for reading, commenting, and more importantly understanding. You inspired a thought though. If government is a myth, then what good is trying to wake people up? Are we hoping they'll make a government? Because won't the billionaires just hijack that one as well? You can't legislate morality, I'm sure you've heard. I guess its worth a shot, before they convert earth into even more of a prison.
Caitlin Johnstone is a Substacker who has written extensively about Propaganda (and War). I think she would tell you that most Americans have been exposed to narratives about their own country that cause them to see their country as uniquely good (which in turn causes them to believe whatever they are told by authority figures "representing" this country) since they were born. What they believe, in response to those narratives, act as blinders as to what happens behind the curtain. If people don't escape from the intellectual prison in their heads, they will be faithful to those narratives to the exclusion of any counter narratives.
Me and Caitlin had some drama back when McCain died of brain cancer. But yeah she's an excellent writer. But when I read her work I can't help but feel a sense of pointlessness. She doesn't cut to the root my gut tells me, more just makes sport of the problems. She's topical. But it's as you say, and I have no better ideas. I do feel like I'm evolving though, bit by bit, maybe I'll find a solution, eventually.
I understand. We are creatures led more by pattern recognition than instinct. We were raised in societies with institutions we were told offer reason, stability, and fairness. A few of us have realized that our institutions have been failing us for longer than we would like to imagine. Nonetheless, we grew up in a system and we are susceptible to looking for solutions in system-like approaches that offer us the benefits of the institutions that failed us. The institutions failed us because human beings fail themselves because they are flawed. I think the path out of that conundrum will be a long and torturous one. Until then, we do what we can to contribute to that conversation and hopefully get more people involved in that conversation.
Well said. You should consider writing. I think you have the mind for it.
People rarely change instantly. Often, rather a slow slide, a personal trigger or forced error will get some new synapses firing. The Great Squeezing is meant to distract you from actual thinking, difficult to think when you’re sick tired or hungry about much else
Indeed.
As for people ignoring the ramifications of the DNC's non-existentence, to me it comes down to the loss of self when confronted with ideas that undermine one's core beliefs.
I confronted this myself in the lead up to GWB's Iraq War 2.0. It was obvious to me that this war was based on outright lies, and that it would undermine the US role on the world stage. Yet it was also obvious that it was going to occur regardless.
I marched in DC twice against this war (on thece carrying the Veterans for Peace banner), so I truly believed I had to speak out against it.
So when the war started with another prime-time televised bombing campaign. I was left with no choice to address the dichotomy in my mind. I stayed up all night following every 'what if' scenario to it's logical conclusion.
By morning, I had accepted that none of it was real, that it was all a grand fiction. Everything that I thought I believed in was gone. It actually hurts now just writing about it, but I'm oh so grateful to have had this opportunity to wake up. To grow up, in ways I could have never imagined before.
For humanity to succeed, this is the journey we all must make. Otherwise the defense of self is simply too powerful to overcome.
I deeply appreciate your comment and real effort to fix the world we share. I am sorry it was painful to revisit, and that we still are stuck in this situation.
All I can say is that it’s not gonna last. I genuinely believe we are no more than 9 years out form singularity. To me, 9 is a hedge, it’s probably more like 1-5.
If I don’t have a humanoid full AI helper by 2033, I’ll basically have been forced to completely dump my world view. Either way radical change is coming, be it internal or external, for me at least.
Do we have a state? If so, what comprises it?
This has been going on for hundreds of years. Political parties are corporations that are not regulated by the government or the public. While they are non-profit, like any other corporation the overriding goal is cash flow. They didn't even pretend to be democratic until about 1970 or so. It's all about money.
Hillary Clinton embezzled the party funds, breaking the rules of said party. The DNC was sued for soliciting funds fraudulently, for not doing with the money what they had told their donors they would do. The judge ruled that the DNC was a right-to-lie organization, that anyone who believed the DNC would follow its own rules was a chump who deserved to lose their money!
I'll give the RNC credit, they allowed their voters to select Trump. I thought this would be sabotaged but it wasn't. However I think his term will mean big noise, small change. Read all about it at https://science1arts2and3politics.substack.com/p/usa-politics-new-years-predictions
Indeed, I covered the dncfraud lawsuit in this post with links to complete transcripts. Same legal reality applies to RNC. I never thought about earlier parties though, good point. As for trump, I called his reelection a while back because the bank would prefer overt money rule. But more specifically as whitney webb has pointed out, the main reason is that he can push through policy that right wingers wouldn't otherwise accept, like biometric border and CBDC. He's always been a bank puppet, they all are, or they don't get hired.
The tariffs and income tax cut will shift even more of the tax burden away from the rich onto the shoulders of his base voters. They're gonna love that.
Hard lessons coming for a lot of disconnected/low information types. And I say that with no ego. It's pure luck I am who I am and see what little I see.
People don’t get this because the majority of Americans don’t read newspapers or watch news broadcasts. Public and some private schools don’t teach logic or Civics anymore. The politicians love that. They want to keep us ignorant and believe their soundbites.Sad but true. Excellent article!
To me terms like "state" and "government" are interchangeable but also misleading. As I defined here and elsewhere the whole concept of government amounts to policy we agree to pay for in some way for the good of us all collectively. Decisions made in advance so they can be implemented quickly in the event of an emergency. Government exists by definition to implement the will of the people for the good of the people. Granted they conflict sometimes, but this idea is to make a real effort to better the situation of people at large over the long and short term.
I assert that this is not what the edifice of "government" or "state" we have even attempts to do nominally. In many cases arguments aren't even made for why policy X or Y is good for people or worth the price they are asked to pay in terms of lost freedom or trade off. In many cases it has become overtly dogmatic, and "patriotic" to preserve these systems, where the point of them isn't even a factor.
As to what "comprises" a state, well, that depends what you mean: Today's shot show or the idea in theory? I feel like I've answered both. We definitely do not have the theory. Objectively our will is no longer considered, expressly because we've totally surrendered our ability to menace the bank which owns us.
Exactly what you'd expect of consecutive generations of indoctrination, poisoning, and enslavement.
I disagree, but only because the state is whatever manages the system of exploitation. Apparently our state no longer needs a government.
I can see that logic. The "state" as actuator of "government" policy. I mean, yea obviously we have thugs in boots and the like, but they are in costume. They don't represent us, which means they aren't what they are dressed as. That's why I don't draw a distinction. If the brain is captured the hands are someone elses.
See also: https://innomen.substack.com/p/the-x-administration
You're certainly not the first to recognize that the system is all fake.
The VAST majority of people saying it are being hyperbolic as proven by their other comments on voting and parties. Even the people saying it act as though they live under a government and act surprised and outraged when parts of it lie to or fail them. Virtually no one really seems to understand the mad max corporatist arbitrary law situation we are in now.
The vast majority are morons, as proven by their votes and comments. They see and understand that the fix is in, but continue to believe that if they just start small and vote for the right dogcatcher, the system can be rebuilt to be what it is "supposed to be" rather than what it always has been.
Nobody wants to be a grungy old nihilist. Nobody wants to be a credulous moron. Almost everyone will need to admit to being a moron to become a nihilist to admit the truth.
Which is why we've adopted almost entirely negative politics: we can't win. But if we work together, we can make one of them lose. So celebrate on inauguration day, then bend back over on the day after.
Maybe all the clumsy sodomy will distract from the winner doing the exact same shit as the loser.
Hence: everyone cheered slipping Obama through past mean old machine Clinton. Surely a black president is a failure of the system, and he will represent US instead of continuing the mindlessly destructive policies of GWB.
NO? How do you make sense of the great black savior producing more misery and wealth like every other president before? Must be all the white people, especially men, holding him back. Let's infiltrate the unelected parts of the government while pretending they don't exist, and force the nation to reckon with woke coming out of every corner of the deep state.
Sounds horrible, but luckily we can be sure that TRUMP is different. He's too out there to be part of this, and have a term in office that is essentially Obama's third term - nothing major changing, same vampires on top behind the scenes. Right?
Quick now, THEY are crushing the last bits of our freedom, making those Everyman luxuries beyond our reach, burying us in drudgery and institutional paranoia. We can't get who we want, but we can keep THEM from...
Voting is just a money changing scheme, it's just another industry. I tried to search how many companies and the like made money off elections and I simply couldn't find a thing. Odd. But, I assume I didn't put in the write combination of search words and I tried quite a few. Elections exist to make money for a shit ton of groups, it's not about governance. I think it's a game the 'parties' play like playing the lottery.
Another thing is people don't want to feel the despair and the hopelessness. I can understand. However, there should be no reason to believe one can vote our way out of the war machine and stealing of our labor.
Right now I think we are missing the war of the Oligarchs that the fake elections coverage is distracting us from. What I suspect is happening now is a power struggle between TechnoFascists and ChristoFascists. Which faction gets the fruits of the populations' labor to spend as they like or what fraction of it they can claim. Hmm, I haven't considered how many factions there may be vying for the taxpayers pennies.
I don't know, I gave up on government some time ago. I just want to make a difference in the teeny ways I can.