JOHNSTONE

CNN has shattered the speed of light in its haste to recruit former representative Adam Kinzinger to its punditry lineup the millisecond he left congress. 

Reading by Tim Foley.

Really growing up means doing the hard, earnest work of extracting all the bullshit that was placed in our minds over the course of our lives by people who were just as immature, traumatized and confused as us. It means really excavating our beliefs about ourselves, about life, and about our world, all the way down to the old subconscious beliefs that are buried so deep inside us that we don't even normally notice them.

This isn't easy. It takes work, it takes dedication, and it takes courage, because truly relinquishing long-held core beliefs is like a kind of death. But unless we've done it we can't really say we have matured as human beings, because we're still existing in more or less the same state we were in when we were children: sponge-like imitators who soaked up whatever was placed in our minds by trusted authorities.

And to make things even harder, it turns out that there's a whole other category of people who've been placing beliefs in our minds, and they're complete strangers. It turns out that powerful people have been pouring massive amounts of wealth and effort into manipulating the way the public thinks, speaks and behaves in order to manufacture consent for agendas and status quo policies which benefit them.

Reading by Tim Foley.

I'm often criticized as being "anti-west", but I am not anti-west, I am pro-west. I am so pro-west that I want our values of peace, freedom, democracy, truth and justice to be real life things that exist in actual western civilization and not just a fiction that is taught to western schoolchildren.

I am so pro-west that I want the west to embody the actual western values it pretends to embody. I am so pro-west that I support the practice of spreading western values to the west. I'm a western cultural imperialist, except I want to do western cultural imperialism to the west. I'm like a conquistador, a western colonialist setting sail to spread the wonders of western civilization to these godless western savages. Except instead of actually just bringing them murder, slavery, theft and disease I really am trying to bring them western civilization.

Reading by Tim Foley.

Do you remember voting for government agencies to insert themselves into the regulation of online speech? I don't remember any such vote. I don't remember any politician campaigning to do this or any part of the public being asked for their permission at all. It sure seems like they appointed that authority to themselves without the permission of the electorate, solely for their own benefit. It's almost like democracy is an illusion and our rulers do whatever they want to us, up to and including restricting the ways we're allowed to communicate with each other, in whatever way benefits them and their agendas.

Reading by Tim Foley.

Love crashes in from all directions,

so peel me off the ground like Wile E Coyote

and blow on my thumb to unflatten me.

Love crashes in like an ACME anvil,

like an ACME exploding rocket,

like an ACME exploding female roadrunner doll,

like an ACME exploding orgy of divine light

erupting from the Great Mother's breasts

and ripping me to shreds leaving nothing but gratitude,

so shake the black soot off from my fur

and clean the coyote-shaped blast marks off the wall behind me.

Love crashes in through my bare feet on the grass

and the wind in my hair,

through the laughter of my children,

through the flying creatures in the air,

through my lover's hands on my flesh,

through the unknowability of the future,

through the ineffability of the present,

through the ecstasy of existence,

through the boundless Heart in which all arises,

so give me a sign which says "YIPE!"

that I may hold before I start falling.

I am in love with everything,

head-over-hormones in love,

gishy, sticky in love,

in love like an idiot,

in love like a gibbering lunatic,

in love like a cartoon,

so fire me out of a cannon

even though I will surely miss my target

so that

for my very short and ill-advised flight

I can look down over it all

and blow kisses

and howl.

____________________

Reading by Tim Foley.

It actually isn't an exaggeration to compare the mainstream worldview to the virtual world depicted in The Matrix. The only difference is that instead of AI keeping us imprisoned, it's psychopathic oligarchs and secretive government agencies, and instead of code, it's narrative.

Reading by Tim Foley.

One of the empire's strongest assets is the widespread assumption that propaganda is something that only happens to other people. Another is the widespread assumption that propaganda only comes from other countries and other political ideologies.

Reading by Tim Foley.

War is over

If you want it

War is over

If you want the health of your people more than global domination,

War is over

If you want everyone's prosperity

more than you want to be richer than others,

War is over

If you want peace more than the illusion of security,

War is over

War is over

If you want to move forward more than you want your team to triumph,

War is over

If you want to get the things you want more than you want the glory,

War is over

If you want things to be right more than you want the story of being wronged,

War is over

War is over

If you want happiness more than you want to win,

War is over

If you want connection more than you want ambitious achievements,

War is over

If you want this moment more than you want your future fantasies (that will always fail to satisfy even if they do come true),

War is over

War is over

If you want to relax and repair more than you want to defend the story of yourself,

War is over

If you want to seek understanding more than you want to win the argument,

War is over

If you want to love more than you want to shield yourself from future grief,

War is over

War is over

If you want your sanity more than your reputation,

War is over

If you want to be loved more than you want to be alone,

War is over

If you want what's in the highest interest

more than you want what's in your self-interest

War is over

If you want to remove the blocks to health more than you want anything else,

War is over

If you want it

Now

Reading by Caitlin Johnstone

You see US empire lackeys gushing all the time about how extraordinarily efficient and cost-effective the proxy war in Ukraine is for furthering US interests against Russia, which is funny because they spend the rest of the time talking about how this invasion was "unprovoked" and rending their garments about how horrible it is. The official imperial position is somehow simultaneously (A) "We hate this war and never wanted it," and (B) "This war benefits us tremendously."

Reading by Tim Foley.

The war in Ukraine is so aggressively marketed and PR-intensive and so interwoven with US corporations we should just call it the McProxy War.

Reading by Tim Foley.