Garland argues that Seldowitz, morally repugnant as he is, may be accidentally doing us all a favor as, due to his own arrogance and probably stupidity, and feeling himself backed by the Israeli-Western empire establishment, is showing the true face of the Empire, and why it requires ever increasing amounts of huge lies to maintain its legitimacy. Now that he's basically outed himself Seldowitz is no longer of much use to the empire, so he may be relagated to obscurity—but one never knows in a system built on criminality. In a sense, suggests Garland, Seldowitz resembles Trump, also a figure to be distrusted by the ruling elites, due to his loose canon behaviour and propensity to tell embarrassing truths about the establishment.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR / SOURCE
Garland Nixon is a leading geopolitical analyst, antiwar, anti-imperialist activist, and Bill of Rights defender. Garland is also a former police officer and criminal justice adjunct professor. He received the national "Stand" award from the American Civil Liberties Union (from which he ultimately resigned due to policy differences).
ADDENDUM Jimmy Dore also weighs in on the issue
Obama Advisor’s Insane Racist Tirade Caught On Video MULTIPLE Times!
Give it up for the latest superstar viral sensation — former Obama administration diplomat Stuart Seldowitz, who recently blew up online after multiple videos emerged showing Seldowitz berating an Egyptian-born New York City street vendor over his Muslim beliefs. Seldowitz has since been detained and charged with hate crimes over comments that simply have to be heard to be believed. Jimmy and Americans’ Comedian Kurt Metzger discuss why Seldowitz’s actions merely contribute to anti-semitism.
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Breadtuber "Vaush" happens to be one of the most notorious fake leftists on YouTube. A Beverly Hills dilettante provocateur, undeniably a member of the boutique left , Vaush chiefly collects fans (like Bill Buckley and Ayn Rand once did on US campuses, and, probably still do) among the young, alienated, disoriented males who admire ostensibly ballsy discourse, harbor intellectual conceits, and who are as a rule unable to see through the narcissistic claptrap served by reactionaries posing as "progressives" or as intellectuals trying to serve the national interest. (Incidentally, in many ways, Vaush resembles another "success" in this field, a Jesuit-educated guy that uses the moniker "Destiny").
Judge for yourself
Below a clip from Vaush's Wiki page. Note that, obviously to gain credibility as "left" champions or simply confuse the naive, these characters frequently endorse genuinely popular positions in left circles, such as ending the embargo on Cuba, or US withdrawal from some doomed imperial project such as Afghanistan. However, when it comes to more immediately meaningful positions, such as where you side on the Ukraine War, they invariably side with the Deep State. Thus, their fatuous verborrhea aside, their core contradictions are easy to spot but unfortunately invisible to the politically callow. Probably no genuine leftist would ever support capitalism, the fount of innumerable ills—from grotesque inequality to economic insecurity and endless militarism (not to mention chief progenitor of fascism and imperialism). Such vices never seem to bother libertarians, of course, who thrive in ahistoricism. Vaush is a proud "libertarian socialist", a popular label in some circles that really hides a devious oxymoron, the definition of someone who in reality does not understand, nor wishes to understand, what true socialism is, and who, by choosing such obviously tendentious label, is proclaming to one and all that socialism is inherently tyrannical. (The "tyranny" of socialism is an article of faith among capitalism's adherents). Nor would a true leftist ever recommend a vote for Joe Biden! Biden, the very incarnation—as Hillary is—of duopolist corruption, liberal interventionism, WOKE imperialism and many other crimes.
Stylistically, Vaush and his ilk seem to specialise in facile, superficial scholarship and machine-gun recitation of facts and pseudo facts designed to overwhelm the opponent. Entering the ring with one of these guys is like subjecting yourself to a gratuitous mental mugging. It's an unfortunate fact that bourgeois culture naturally, and I should say abundantly, produces these types. All the CIA and the rest of the imperial goons have to do is cultivate them a bit. Give them some support through their vast network of propaganda assets, and voilá, another influential charismatic faker to the defense of the status quo. —PG
The co-optation of the real left by the fake left, the "breadtubers", the WOKE crowd, etc., is such an important and urgent topic, that I thought I should mention here that Caleb Maupin, a well-known journalist, blogger and Marxist Leninist (founder of the CPI), wrote a whole book on the Breadtuber phenomenon. It is aptly called One of the reviewers filed this fine evaluation which I think sheds more light on this often muddled topic:
In this clearly provocative, yet wildly informative and at times entertaining study of a heavily-publicized section of the American Left, Caleb Maupin reveals the true colors of BreadTube: nothing more than a US-sponsored counter gang filled with wild pessimism, a disturbing advocation for violence against anyone that disagrees with their mindset, and other bizarre mindsets that do not seem out-of-place in a cult; all sprinkled with leftist buzzwords.
Before delving into the book, one must ask: just what in the world is “BreadTube?” Maupin devotes the first chapter in his book defining what BreadTube is and who are the most prominent members of the group. In short, Maupin states that BreadTube is a collection of YouTube personalities with pseudo-leftist rhetoric and near-high quality videomaking that usually devote time into debunking right-wing ideas while disturbingly spending more time attacking actual left-wing personalities such as Maupin himself.
BreadTube Serves Imperialism goes further and states that the ideas that BreadTube offers are not new or revolutionary, but the same tired pessimistic deviant middle-class trends known since the past two centuries, but with a twist: misinforming people interested in left-wing politics and attacking actual socialist and progressive countries across the globe.
Among some of the interesting personalities Maupin attacks is Ian “Vaush” Kochinski, a pampered video game-playing kid from Beverly Hills who twists the words of Marxist intellectuals to fit the US liberal agenda while labelling anyone in the socialist camp (or at the very least, progressive minded or sympathetic to actual and historic socialist countries) as fascists. How such mental gymnastics are conducted in Kochinski’s mind is almost Olympic gold-medal worthy (good luck justifying how Albert Einstein is the same as the people he fled from), and this is not mentioning his citation of US-backed media platforms or Kochinski’s pedophilic behavior.
Another personality that Maupin attacks is Matt “Thought Slime,” a Canadian internet personality who spends most of his time discussing depression and suicide on his YouTube channel while either cyberbullying actual leftists (imitating Kochinski’s tactic of labelling leftists as fascists) or sloppily explaining socialist or other leftist ideas, notably believing that a Leninist political concept called Democratic Centralism is some type of economic planning.
Much time is devoted towards debunking BreadTube lies while at the same time explaining actual socialism, and Maupin [has] clearly done his research. His labelling of BreadTube as a counter gang comes from the term that British officer Frank Kitson used during his time in suppressing an anti-colonial revolt in Kenya. During that operation, Kitson directed the British army to provide support towards Kenyan gangs that spoke the language of the anti-colonial Kenyan fighters, but actually fought against the anti-colonial movement and commit atrocities that can be blamed on the anti-colonial fighters. It was this concept of counter gangs that also steered US policy during the Cold War, where the US provided covert support to alleged leftist movements who do not fight for actual leftist goals, but spend time attacking leftists. The atrocities of the Khmer Rouge come to mind, and it convincingly makes sense to call BreadTube another countergang.
Although Maupin does not flat-out state that BreadTube is some CIA-organization, but the fact that BreadTube is given publicity by mainstream outlets like the New York Times certainly adds fuel to the fire.
As of July 4, 2021, Maupin’s book is number one book on anarchism on Amazon. In my opinion it is probably because of the internet publicity that the book is getting, although it is a well-researched and incredibly informative book. The people of BreadTube certainly have some interesting reactions towards the book, and that is putting it mildly. Kochinski claims that BreadTube Serves Imperialism is all about him, even though Maupin only devotes 3 ½ pages to him. “Thought Slime’s” twitter feed has him on the self-defense, while his fans constantly name-call Maupin (notably the bizarre mispronunciation of Burger King labelled at Maupin, even though “Thought Slime” was the first person to use the mispronunciation). Among many accusations labelled (sic) against the book is the belief that it has no sources or citations. Of course, simply reading the book will show that Maupin does cite his sources and has a vast bibliography backing up his argument (granted, the citation is rather unorthodox from my perspective, a grad student majoring in history, but this is just nitpicking). Looking further into the book’s Amazon page, it seems that actual criticisms of the book are not really actual criticisms. The top critical review of BreadTube Serves Imperialism is nothing more than a rage-induced diatribe from someone who clearly has not read the book (and that is not because the username has a verified purchase label in it). Among the many claims, the reviewer claims that Maupin does not define or understand socialism (he does cite the definition of socialism in the very first paragraph of a section in chapter 2 titled “The Marxist Definition of Socialism”). Another baffling “critique” this particular reviewer makes is that BreadTube Serves Imperialism has no logical consistency; as if one chapter devoting time into what BreadTube is before devoting the next three chapters debunking BreadTube accusations into explaining socialism, communism, fascism, counter gangs, and the mindset of left-wing pessimism is not considered logical consistency.
Maupin has a gift that not many Marxist and socialist theorists have: translating these ideas into an easy and understandable language as well as arguing for socialism with economic data (something that BreadTube suspiciously rejects, (not with one of them foolishly stating “What does life expectancy prove?”). The addition of an appendix detailing his journey into Marxism certainly helps make Maupin a relatable human being who does not display a sense of self-righteousness or a superiority complex. Breadtube Serves Imperialism is a book that is definitely worth reading for anyone who has a genuine interest in socialism or to actually help improve the current state of affairs in a collapsing country like the United States.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS / SOURCE
Citizen journalist, vlogger and geopolitical analyst Nick Cruse is co-founder of the Revolutionary Blackout Network (RBN). Carlos Gallego is a Distinguished English Teaching Pofessor at St. Olaf Colege. Patrice Greanville is TGP's founding editor.
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Another insult to genuine democracy: Florida International University Hires Failed Venezuelan Coup Plotter as Visiting Professor at Adam Smith Center For Economic Freedom
The CIA has long had a presence on American college campuses—whether as recruiters or in political science and Russian Studies Departments.
Foreign CIA assets or political leaders or intellectuals receiving funding from the National Endowment For Democracy (NED), which finances propaganda, have been frequently appointed to faculty positions at prestigious universities.
Kanan Makyia, author of an NED-funded study documenting human rights abuses by Saddam Hussein and a cheerleader for the Iraq War, was appointed to the faculty of the political science department at Brandeis University when I was a graduate student there during the buildup to the Iraq War as one example of this.
SCUM IN HIGH PLACES: Kanan Makiya giving a speech at Brandeis University at the Crown Center for Middle East Studies. The Crown Center is funded by the Crown family which was a primary owner in the past of General Dynamics, the leading weapons maker that profited massively from the Iraq War. [Source: brandeis.edu]
[1]
[2]
Juan Guaidó. He even got a standing ovation from the US Congress, under the Trump regime, which plotted openly for a coup and to steal Venezuela's oil. [Source: freedom.fiu.edu]
During the fall semester, Guaidó will conduct eight study group sessions, in addition to mentoring students, conducting research and being part of public conferences and seminars.
He will be paid $40,000, FIU said.
This compensation is a lot more money than FIU adjunct professors get who are far more qualified to teach FIU students than Guaidó as they hold Master’s and in most cases Ph.D. degrees in their fields.
Guaidó’s main specialty is in inciting hate and plotting failed uprisings against Venezuelan socialist leader Nicolás Maduro so perhaps he could give courses on that.
According to Luis Vicente León, Venezuela’s leading pollster, Guaidó spent his career in the most violent faction of Venezuela’s most radical opposition party, positioning himself at the forefront of one destabilization campaign after another.
León wrote that “these radical leaders [referring to Guaidó and his mentor Leopoldo López] have no more than 20 percent in opinion polls.” Guaidó’s party remained isolated because the majority of the population “does not want war.”
Juan Guaidó and Leopoldo López at the barricades. [Source: peru21.pe]
Despite his lack of popular support in Venezuela, with fewer than one in five Venezuelans even knowing who he was at the time, Guaidó was recognized by the Trump administration in 2019 as Venezuela’s president.
Worshipped for a time in Western media in a manner reminiscent of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Guaidó’s stock fell when some of his supporters were captured and killed after launching an amateurish raid into Venezuela from Colombia in an attempt to overthrow Maduro that was dubbed the “stupid Bay of Pigs,” a reference to the failed CIA-backed invasion of Cuba in 1961.
Guaidó has meanwhile advocated for sanctions that led to the deaths of thousands of his own countrymen.
Jimmy Carter meeting with Hugo Chávez in 2012. [Source: foreignpolicy.com]
Venezuela’s late President Hugo Chávez unveils a photograph-like portrait of Venezuela’s independence hero Simón Bolívar on the 229th anniversary of Bolívar’s birth at Miraflores Presidential Palace in Caracas, Venezuela, on Tuesday, July 24, 2012. [Source: trtworld.com]
Launched by Hugo Chávez, a socialist who ruled Venezuela from 1998 until his death in 2013, the Bolivarian revolution had sought to establish Venezuela’s economic independence through national control over the country’s oil, whose revenues were used to develop the economy and uplift the poor.
Throughout much of the 20th century, Venezuela was ruled; by an oligarchy, which monopolized the country’s oil wealth and allowed it to be exploited by U.S. based multinational corporations.
The ample founding (private and public) and proliferation of antidemocratic institutions in the US university system, without any visible challenges from the public, politicians or media, show that America completely lacks a vigorous democracy. Only in a rightwing dictatorship or an oligarchy operating as a "capitalist democracy" can such odious things not only exist but prosper. —Ed
U.S. hostility to Venezuela’s government and support for right-wingers like Guaidó stems from the threat of a good example and fear of the loss of traditional U.S. hegemony in Latin America that dates back to the 19th century.
As a de facto puppet of the U.S, Guaidó advocated for privatizing PDVSA, lowering the corporate tax rate, and defunding social programs that greatly improved the quality of life for Venezuelans, while reintegrating Venezuela with Washington dominated financial institutions.
Creation of U.S. Regime-Change Laboratory
In January 2019, Dan Cohen and Max Blumenthal of The Grayzone Project published an important article titled: “The Making of Juan Guaidó: How the U.S. regime-change laboratory created Venezuela’s coup leader.” It examined Guaidó’s incitement of violent anti-Maduro protests and his deep ties to U.S. intelligence and government agencies.
In 2002, a young Guaidó helped lead anti-government rallies after the Venezuelan government declined to renew the license of Radio Caracas Televisión (RCTV), a privately owned station that played a leading role in the 2002 coup against Hugo Chávez.
Anti-government rallies in Caracas in 2002 that were part of a coup plot against Hugo Chávez. [Source: nl.pinterest.com]
Berrizbeitia is a former executive director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) who spent more than a decade working in the Venezuelan energy sector, under the old oligarchic regime that was ousted by Chávez.
In 2009, after returning to Venezuela, Guaidó formed a new right-wing political party led by Leopoldo López, a Princeton-educated former mayor of a wealthy district in Caracas who was part of one of the three families that tried to orchestrate a coup against Chávez in 2002 and was sentenced to 13 years in prison for inciting uprisings against Maduro in 2014.
Anti-Milošević protesters in Belgrade in 2000 waving Otpor flag. [Source: wagingnonviolence.org]
The hotel meeting reportedly received the blessing of Otto Reich, a fanatically anti-Castro Cuban exile working in George W. Bush’s Department of State and were financed by three petroleum industry figureheads.
Inside the meetings, leaked emails stated that Guaidó and his fellow activists hatched a plan to overthrow Hugo Chávez by generating chaos through protracted spasms of street violence.
Four years later, Guaidó tweeted a video showing himself clad in a helmet and gas mask surrounded by masked armed elements that engaged in a violent clash with police. This was during the so-called Guarimbas protests that resulted in the death of 126 people, majority of them Chavistas, and mass destruction of public infrastructure.
At one point during the uprising, Guaidó took to the stage with Leopoldo López to urge the crowd to march on the office of the Attorney General.
Guaidó alongside Lopez at February 12, 2014 Guarimba rally. Lopez was later sentenced to 13 years in prison for inciting the violent uprising, though has since been feted by the NED, which described him as a great democrat and “prisoner of conscience.” [Source: thegrayzone.com]
The Proud Boys and other alleged instigators of the January 6 Capitol Riots were given long prison sentences for sedition for far less incendiary provocations (some of the Proud Boys convicted on sedition charges weren’t even in Washington on the day of the January 6 riots).
according to Cohen and Blumenthal, “whitewashed a deadly tactic that had killed; unarmed civilians like Santiago Pedroza and decapitated; a man named Elvis Durán, among many others.”
Family members of Guarimba victims display photos of loved ones that were killed. [Source: venezuelaanalysis.com]
What Will Guaidó Teach Students at FIU
Students taking Guaidó’s seminar at FIU this semester are likely oblivious to the violent past of their new professor, or his fanatical right-wing views or use as a tool of the U.S. regime-change establishment.
Venezuela, however, is not a dictatorship as its government has won popular elections, and Guaidó was not defending democracy when he plotted coups and the destabilization of his own country in alliance with fascistic extremists.
David Webb, a founder of the Tea Party in New York; and c) Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a former congresswoman from Florida who was also an NED Board member and part of the Miami anti-Castro Cuban mafia.
Uribe Vélez and Guaidó’s appointment to prestigious positions reflects the moral corruption of higher education today and its function in supporting U.S. imperialism.
support for a journal funded by the CIA-linked Ford Foundation that promotes misinformation under the guise of combatting it.
All of these cases exemplify the betrayal of the academic mission of institutions whose primary purpose should be to provoke critical thinking among students and to cultivate new ideas for the betterment of society.
The latter becomes impossible when students are being instructed by violent thugs, narco-traffickers, state propagandists and war mongers along with conservative ideologues whose life mission is to expunge the humanistic ideals associated with socialism.
Washington DC is rich in universities serving as "prestige nurseries" for imperialist assets who usually obtain high-falutin' degrees and go on to staff "national security" advisory positions, etc. Georgetown, George Washington U, and places like Princeton, Yale, Columbia, and Harvard are also crawling with this kind of activity.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR / SOURCE
Jeremy Kuzmarov is Managing Editor of CovertAction Magazine. He is the author of four books on U.S. foreign policy, including Obama’s Unending Wars(Clarity Press, 2019) and The Russians Are Coming, Again, with John Marciano (Monthly Review Press, 2018). He can be reached at: jkuzmarov2@gmail.com.
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The views expressed herein are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of The Greanville Post. However, we do think they are important enough to be transmitted to a wider audience.
Since the overpaid corporate media whores will never risk their careers to report the truth, the world must rely on citizen journalists to provide the facts that explain reality. Put this effort to use by becoming an influence multiplier. Repost this material everywhere you can. Send it to your friends and kin. Discuss it with your workmates. Liberation from this infernal and mendacious system is in your hands.
—The Editor
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ALL CAPTIONS AND PULL QUOTES BY THE EDITORS NOT THE AUTHORS
Speaking of politically obtuse celebrities (the vast majority)
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PATRICE GREANVILLE
It's been said that popular culture, mass media, and international news agencies, which control the image of specific countries (and fool their own populations)—ultimately determine a nation’s soft power. A Harvard guy working for the national security state, Joseph Nye, put "soft power" on the political radar about 20 years ago:
Sounds nice and even harmless, compared to the alternative, but, as you know, appearances can be deceiving. In most cases, at least in international politics, soft power is like an adjuvant to "hard power", a form of hydra of seduction grounded in falsehoods that allows for the weaponising of pop culture, including a given society's most admired and loudly proclaimed values—from democracy to human rights, etc. In practice, however, we know from hard experience that in the US the ruling elites never honor what they preach, realpolitk and hypocrisy being their modus operandi. The logical conclusion, then, is that soft power is inherently devious, and that it's rarely benign.
The guys who run the American Ministry of Truth, especially at the CIA and other national security branches, like to think the US has much more soft power than its rivals, in fact, more soft power than the rest of the world combined. They may be right. Taylor Swift, all six stunning feet of her, is instantly recognised in Chile, Vietnam, and Uganda, and so is Beyonce, but no one can name her Italian or French equivalent, assuming there's one. That's soft power you can take to the bank, so to speak, because it is a type of currency, influence currency. These women exemplify immensely well packaged animal appeal.
Soft Power Race China and Russia are trying to catch up in the soft power department as no superpower, by definition an international entity, can be without such assets. History seems to be helping them. Things have been changing pretty fast across the world since Russia began its SMO in Ukraine in February 2022, and matters accelerated even further since Hamas' audacious assault on Israel on Oct. 7 last, an assault that has galvanised the Arab and Moslem world, and put a visible dent on the machinery of narrative control that Western ruling cliques have long taken as their birthright. Right now the damage is only a gash, a bad laceration, but tomorrow, as reality continues to inflict itself on people's consciousness, it could easily become an unstoppable hemorrhage. US mind managers and their accomplices in the collective West, while nervous about these developments, are not yet in a panic mode. Complacency, they say, is the luxury of the powerful.
American imperial soft power is still huge today because it's been around for far longer than its ideological competitors and is rooted in enormous transnational platforms with considerable resources dedicated to the manufacturing of political reality, not to mention a pop culture that has yet to lose its seductiveness to countless immature souls around the world. Anyone doubting this statement need only look at Asia, Japan or South Korea, for example, where the "American look" is regarded as cool. It's undeniable that the success of K-pop, and the BTS group, even in the US and much of Europe, prove a high degree of Americanisation, with the counterfeit band being seen as legit by mass publics. It's clear the BTS boys see no shame in aping the culture of an essentially predatory occupying power. US pop culture's cosmopolitanism has convinced many Asian youths influenced by US/Western esthetics that striking a Western pose is akin to embracing universal values. Incidentally, this is not new. Both Valentino in the 1920s and James Dean in the 1950s created tidal waves of imitators in practically every corner of the globe.
Western imperialism's soft power capability was demonstrated in numerous instances in recent memory, from Russiagate, to the cynical and depraved shootdown of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (for which the Donbass people and Russia were immediately blamed), to the Skripals affair (a sinister British psyop), to the obsessive demonisation of Vladimir Putin and all things Russian, culminating now with the tidal wave of censorship and disinformation engulfing the Ukraine War narrative. But the hybrid war on Russia did not deplete the Anglo alliance's capacity for mischief in other sensitive world areas. China has long been the target of subversion by the West. People forget (or have misclassified) that the "Tiananmen Massacre" was part of a failed US color revolution against the CCP.
The destabilisation effort continues to this day via global and internal propaganda focused on Taiwan, along with highhanded attempts at staining the image of China via human rights smears relating to the treatment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang, and the constant fostering of unrest in Hong Kong, the target of a failed full-on color revolt in 2019. These criminal propaganda acts enabled by US soft power, usually supported by false flags, are fortunately becoming less frequent, and certainly less successful. The strengthening of the strategic Beijing-Moscow axis, the ascendancy of BRICS and other Russo-Chinese sponsored economic platforms, and finally the example of victory by Russia in her war in Ukraine against the collective West—an epochal turning point—have given hope to enslaved nations in the Global South, effectively beginning the process of decoupling them from US hegemony.
Origins of the monster
It's helpful to remember that US soft power arose in an Anglo culture marinated in hyper individualism and its foundation, unquestioned free-market capitalism. The natural dynamics of this system, requiring the cultivation of ever larger markets, organically nurtured the massification of persuasion, something that, again, the US, as the first industrial nation with a unified, single-language market comprising more than 150 million people, was optimally poised to achieve. It's no accident at all that public relations, a dishonorable profession, and marketing (along with its offshoot, advertising), matured quickly in this environment. Indeed, it can be said that Hollywood, radio, and television arose organically in this environment to meet the mass communications needs of a rapidly expanding capitalism.
Hollywood attained industrial might and effective internationalisation way ahead of the scores of national cinemas that emerged in the 20th century. The British, French, Mexicans (yes, Mexicans), the Argentine, Japanese, Swedish, and Italians developed fairly sophisticated film industries, with numerous masterpieces to their credit, but, despite enormously talented performers, writers and directors, failed to conquer a stable place in the global marketplace, mostly as a result of America's far bigger capitalization and the conquest of global distribution networks. The Russia/Soviet film story is one punctuated by impressive accomplishments and high originality in techniques and conceptualisation. It's a fascinating story, but it deserves separate treatment. Just think of Sergei Eisenstein and his haunting images in Battleship Potemkin or the epic Alexander Nevsky. Not for nothing did the editors of Cahiers du Cinema give their highest praise to Eisenstein. His film syntax has been imitated many times but never surpassed.
Decline sets in
As Western imperialism declines, turning more and more fascistoid and incapable of responding to its captive populations' human needs, so do its cultural manifestations, so it should not surprise us to detect a pronounced degeneracy among its media and entertainment elites. Many books, shows, films and even music are now often derivative. More than ever before, risk-averse Wall Street values dominate, forcing Broadway to "play it safe". The New York stage lives now on mediocre nonsense and shameless remakes designed for tourists. Its golden age is long past. It hasn't had a genuine hit with memorable tunes since it peaked in the 1950s-70s. Rodgers and Hammerstein launched the Golden Age with their trailblazing Oklahoma! in 1943. The team followed with other colossal hits like Carousel, South Pacific, and other unique masterpieces. But US culture—clearly desiccated when it comes to the arts— doesn't have today Rodgers and Hammerstein, nor Alan Jay Lerner, Frederick Lowe, Frank Loesser, Meredith Wilson, or Leonard Bernstein. Nor can it produce again geniuses like Cole Porter or Irving Berlin, who rose to fame when the empire was young, almost naively optimistic, and in clear ascendancy. Today, the ruling elites and their hired technicians, with a far longer past studded with ghastly, epochal crimes, are far more somber and cynical. They also face intractable issues with a capitalism that, immersed in the digital age, cannot appease its lethal contradictions with Keynesian cosmetics or quick fixes. This phenomenon is most acute in Britain and the US, which, for a variety of historical and cultural reasons, are naturally drifting toward closer integration, as their own vaunted "democratic cultures" disintegrate. Meantime, as the imperial culture dries up and history comes knocking to present its unavoidable bill, the whole collective West is led by pathetic and utterly corrupt mediocrities that cannot rescue their countries from the penalties of cowardice and vassalage.
Decadent celebrities
Given their clear intellectual and educational mediocrity, most celebrities in the West today hardly deserve the attention they get when strutting around mouthing the talking points urged by the State Dept., MI6, or the liberaloid cultural inquisition. These are the people who militated in the Russiagate, #metoo and cancel culture crusades. Most of them still do. Most of them are happy to participate in highly lucrative vehicles fostering naked escapism and infantilisation. It's an apt comment on the idiotisation of US culture that Disney now reigns supreme and Marvel Comics heroes monopolise the movie landscape.
Why, many ask, are celebrities today such empty heads? My bet is that their political idiocy is largely dictated by class. Many celebrities—especially in the 21st century—are grotesquely rich. Some young actors and entertainers today with laughable—or let's say "thin"—resumes, both in terms of topics and performance history, boast bank accounts ten or even 100 times bigger than what Humphrey Bogart, Gregory Peck, Cary Grant, or Katherine Hepburn, managed to accumulate in their entire lives. Ditto for performers in the music field, where similar excess reigns supreme. And, folks, those are inflation-adjusted dollars. Unsurprisingly, these people, regardless of their family backgrounds, are almost always alarmingly disconnected from reality. They live in self-pampering, self-reinforcing bubbles, veritable subcultural silos that almost proscribe real knowledge of what most of humanity has to face on a daily basis, a fact that makes them political kin to the nation’s predatory political and ruling elites (the former being only the flunkies for the latter). Curiously or inevitably, depending how we look at it, many die young, by self-inflicted drug excess, suicide due to a sense of aimlessness, depression, or imprudence. In general these people don't cast long shadows. And I doubt that, in time, many will be missed. Scratch away the veneers masking their lives, and what is there really to admire? Theirs is a world of privilege defined by indefensible priorities. Just think for a moment the rivers of dollars Joe Biden, a man many of these people follow and defend, sanctimoniously and self-servingly, intends to send to Ukraine, Israel, and even Taiwan (not even a country and in violation of every international law recognised by the UN or the truly civilised world, not to mention US law itself). This is not only an outrage in terms of wasted dollars and cents; it is a criminal and reckless endangerment of the US population, as these monies are earmarked to pursue “wars of choice” cogitated by depraved Neocons to maintain US hegemony, a disgusting, blood-soaked, and wholly immoral goal that concerns no more than 0.001% of the US population, and that push Americans and humanity in general ever closer to a catastrophic nuclear war.
The imposture is so obvious that one hopes some form of redress may soon arrive. For, if nothing else, these perverse, cynical priorities scream lack of real political representation. Get this and get it good: the best democracy in the world is not a democracy at all. We don’t have democracy in America. Probably never did. What we have is a very cynical simulacrum of democracy, a plutocracy walking around in democratic garments delivering the form but not the substance of the real animal.
Below, two excellent takes on this phenomenon that, in the society of spectacle, carries far more importance than many people realise. The first one by the formidable Caitlin Johnstone, who needs no introduction to our audience. The second by Ramiro Sebastián Fúnez, who created the Unmasking Imperialism channel on YouTube. But before going there, watch for a few minutes a video that sums up the political bankruptcy of Western celebrities in the heart of the Empire. My guess is that Morgan Freeman was recruited and set up by that scoundrel Rob Reiner, a rabid TDS sufferer and Russophobe. A proud Blue Cultist, like many in Hollywood these days. —PG
US actor Morgan Freeman's cameo against Russia draws criticism
The Kremlin says the US actor Morgan Freeman might be suffering from emotional strain after he appeared in a high-profile video accusing Russia of declaring war on the US. The video was produced by a new group called The Committee to Investigate Russia, which aims to inform Americans about alleged Russian attacks on US democracy. However, the video has also drawn criticism from outside the expected official Russian circles. Al Jazeera's Rory Challands reports from Moscow. NOTE: Freeman remains unrepentant. See this video at the bottom of this post.
It's impossible to overstate how much our society is shaped by the fact that those who are given the most influence and the largest platforms will experience our status quo systems as working very nicely and have a vested interest in preserving those systems which benefit them. The media-owning, culture-manufacturing class of the super-wealthy elevates people to wealth and celebrity who look like they will be good protectors of their class interests. Those people will necessarily speak fondly of the status quo political systems which let them be rich. Reading by Tim Foley.
BELOW: THE FULL ARTICLE
Celebrities Protect The Interests Of The Empire: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix
If you say you oppose Russia because you're an anti-imperialist but you don't oppose the US empire for its role in starting and perpetuating this war, then you're a liar. You don't oppose Russia because you're an anti-imperialist, you oppose Russia because you're an imperialist.
The only people who say "Putin can end this war at any time by withdrawing" are those who deny the US empire's aggressions which led to this conflict, which is just a nonsense garbage position based on lies. They don't actually want peace, they just want victory for the empire. The real unbiased position which supports peace is wanting both Russia andthe western empire to begin engaging in diplomacy, de-escalation and detente to end this war. But empire simps will call you treasonously biased if you support anything other than total Russian defeat.
This dopey propaganda-addled notion that the west did nothing wrong and Putin attacked Ukraine solely because he is evil and hates freedom actually prevents peace from happening. If one side only acknowledges the reality of the aggressions of the other side, peace is impossible. If you don't understand how a war was started and perpetuated, then you can't understand how peace can be started and perpetuated. The empire deliberately works to prevent the public from obtaining this understanding, because the empire wants war.
It's not okay for grown adults to act like Putin is just running around invading countries willy nilly because he's a crazed madman. You've got a whole internet of information at your fingertips. Use it.
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It's impossible to overstate how much our society is shaped by the fact that those who are given the most influence and the largest platforms will experience our status quo systems as working very nicely and have a vested interest in preserving those systems which benefit them. The media-owning, culture-manufacturing class of the super-wealthy elevates people to wealth and celebrity who look like they will be good protectors of their class interests. Those people will necessarily speak fondly of the status quo political systems which let them be rich.
This dynamic plays such a massive role in hiding from mainstream attention the ways our status quo systems are exploiting, oppressing and abusing people while killing our biosphere and pushing us toward nuclear annihilation, that it's hard to wrap your mind around how far it goes. The way everyone's thinking about the world is so pervasively informed by perspectives that are favorable to the status quo prevents them from even noticing how bad things are for everyone else. It's widely assumed that if you're struggling in this mess, it's because of your own failures. If any media you turn on depicts people who are doing basically fine and are content with the way things are while you're barely able to keep your head above water, the take-home message is that the problem is with you, not with our systems. That you are what needs to change.
The failings of the status quo are hidden in mainstream culture, and people aren't permitted to consider the possibility that there might be a better way for things to be. People don't know, and they don't know that they don't know. They're kept in the dark about what's possible.
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People are like, "Oh yeah right Caitlin, it's ALWAYS America's fault. You're always blaming the US for every conflict, just because it runs a globe-spanning empire which dominates the planet with violence and coercion and works continuously to keep all the other countries subjugated to it."
They're like, "Right, right, blame EVERYTHING on the violent unipolar planetary hegemon."
It's a lot like saying, "Okay sure we're trapped in a room with a tiger, and sure we keep getting eaten, and yes your leg is missing and you've got a large bite out of your torso, but you can't blame ALL of that on the tiger. It's not fair. Some of it might be Steve's fault. Steve's kind of a jerk."
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People whose opinions are grounded in facts and logic don't need to resort to accusing those who disagree with them of being secret agents working for foreign governments.
Blinken says the Nord Stream bombing "offers tremendous strategic opportunity" and Nuland says it's good and awesome that Nord Stream 2 was destroyed, so obviously the only possible culprit in the Nord Stream bombing is Vladimir Putin. https://t.co/dzCTWZKrfa
Most people on this planet couldn't give a shit who governs Crimea, but one small group insists we risk every life in existence on earth — every bee, every frog, every tree, every child — for their current t-shirt-of-the-week issue. It's so arrogant.
It's one thing to draw a line and say "The world must never let anyone cross this point, even if it means risking nuclear armageddon." It's quite another to make that line something as trivial as the question of who governs Crimea. It's not legitimate to risk all life over that. This is especially true because the US empire provoked this war and because even the Crimeans themselves prefer to be Russian. But even if none of that was the case, it still wouldn't be legitimate for the US empire to risk the lives of people in Africa or South America by backing an offensive on Crimea.
The correct response to anyone who supports this is "Who the fuck do you think you are? Who the fuck are you to risk the life of every human and non-human life on this planet over an issue only a tiny fraction of the world cares one whit about?"
All these armchair warriors saying "We need to be brave and take a stand!" are willing to gamble billions of lives who do not consent to being gambled over a war they're not even fighting in. All while refusing to deeply contemplate what nuclear war would entail. They're the worst kind of cowards.
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I just want the rapidly rising threat of nuclear war to be treated, reported on, and discussed like the supremely important issue that it is. It's the single most important matter in the world and it just gets casually mentioned here and there like it's just another issue.
It's actually a huge problem that nobody wants to talk about the single most important issue in the world and everyone acts like you're a crazy hysterical idiot for pointing out the very real ways we're moving closer to that very real possibility. I've been writing about the growing risk of nuclear war for years and people have been calling me a delusional lunatic and a Putin puppet the entire time, meanwhile we've demonstrably and indisputably been seeing massive steps toward that outcome and it's still being dismissed.
Even if you believe that all this nuclear brinkmanship is justified and good, you still need to fully acknowledge the reality of the risk and the unfathomable horrors that it would unleash upon our world. And you need to do it with all the respect and solemnity the subject deserves.
Caitlin Johnstone is a well known cultural and political commentator. She's simply brilliant in this case, so our deepest thanks for focusing on the issue. BTW, here's one comment she received that we think deserves special note:
People who are against Russia in this Ukraine/US/ EU conflict are either totally ignorant of the situation, or hopelessly brainwashed. They are working against their own best interests as well, more ignorance compounded by stupidity, and are against the only side with a rational and just position, as pitiful and regrettable as is the plight of all Ukrainians, at the hands of EU/US machinations. And this brainwashed/ignorant element are pitted against a superpower, to boot, that is determined not to suffer the terrible harm and losses unjustly inflicted on it during WW II. There are no salient facts or conclusions other than these.
The preceding presentation on this subject is followed by an equally powerful and eloquent video produced by a young radical activist and intellectual, Honduran Ramiro Sebastián Fúnez, who created the Unmasking Imperialism channel on YouTube ( we hope he seeded his material elsewhere, too, for Google is, as I'm sure he knows, a capricious but ultimately reliable agent for imperialist censorship, known for deleting the work of invaluable activists and content creators in a matter of seconds, and with no appeal).
Celebrities Shill for Empire | Unmasking Imperialism Ep. 105
"We're at War with Russia!" STILL SHILLING FOR RUSSIAGATE
Cynically Unrepentant— Freeman defends 'War with Russia' video Associated Press Dec 5, 2017 Morgan Freeman stands behind his participation in a recent video sponsored by U.S. organization the Committee to Investigate Russia, which claims the U.S. is "at war" with Russia over its alleged interference in the 2016 presidential election. (Dec. 5)
The views expressed herein are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of The Greanville Post. However, we do think they are important enough to be transmitted to a wider audience.
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The Holodomor: A Ukrainian Fascist Lie
Please make sure these dispatches reach as many readers as possible. Share with kin, friends and workmates and ask them to do likewise.
Exposing the myth of the Holodomor, an alleged Soviet famine in Ukraine from 1932 to 1933. During today's episode, we debunk claims that Stalin and the Soviet Union purposefully starved millions of Ukrainians. We shed light on the role of Ukrainian Nazi collaborators in spreading the mythology of the Holodomor. We also discuss how fraudulent historical events like the Holodomor influence imperialist propaganda today. Today's guest is Dr. Grover Furr, an author and professor of Medieval English literature at Montclair State University. Dr. Furr has published numerous books debunking imperialist lies about Stalin and the Soviet Union. These include "Blood Lies: The Evidence that Every Accusation against Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union in Timothy Snyder's Bloodlands Is False," "Leon Trotsky's Collaboration with Germany and Japan," and "The Murder of Sergei Kirov: History, Scholarship and the Anti-Stalin Paradigm," among other books.
Read Dr. Furr's works: https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/
Unmasking Imperialism exposes imperialist propaganda in mainstream media. Hosted by Ramiro Sebastián Fúnez.
Ramiro Sebastián Fúnez is a Honduran-American political journalist and activist earning his master's degree in politics at New York University.
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The views expressed herein are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of The Greanville Post. However, we do think they are important enough to be transmitted to a wider audience.
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