JOHNSTONE

There's no getting around talking about this UFO stuff. The fact that it's a story is itself a major story. There's no point in trying to look cool by ignoring it, especially given its potentially huge implications in propaganda narratives and the expansion of the US war machine. Nothing with this much public interest that is also being pushed by the Washington political establishment, by military insiders and by the mass media in cooperation with the Pentagon is likely to go away anytime soon. The narrative needs to be engaged, and engaged critically.

Reading by Tim Foley.

Article with links and sources: https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/eight-thoughts-on-the-ufo-narrative

Links to videos debunking UFO videos:

1. https://youtu.be/VCH7BWGpl5s

2. https://youtu.be/McVqKmUaaok

In a truly free society, there would be no Official Narratives. There wouldn't be any monolithic authority construct deciding what's true and marginalizing, censoring and smearing anyone who said something different. There'd just be raw information and a bunch of humans arguing their opinion, and people would take all that and form their own beliefs, and that would just be accepted and allowed. 

Reading by Tim Foley. Article with links and sources: https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/a-truly-free-society-would-have-no

The idea that a civilization could attain a level of advancement comparable to ours, successfully learn to share resources and collaborate enough to avoid wiping itself out, continue maturing for a very long time, master interstellar, intergalactic, and/or interdimensional travel, create aircraft that can operate in the way people who encounter them describe, and then fly across the universe to go kill a bunch of barely-evolved primates for some reason is just absurd on its face, and even if such a thing could happen it would have happened already.

Reading by Tim Foley. Article with sources and links: https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/drivers-of-the-new-ufo-narrative

This is all US troops have been fighting and dying for since the Berlin Wall came down. Not "freedom", not "democracy", and certainly not the American people. Just continual uncontested domination of this planet at all cost: domination of its resources, its trade routes, its seas, its air, and its humans, no matter how many lives need to risked and snuffed out in order to achieve it. The US has killed millions and displaced tens of millions just since the turn of this century in the reckless pursuit of that goal.

And, as Smedley Butler spelled out 86 years ago in his still-relevant book War is a Racket, US military personnel have been dying for profit. Nothing gets the gears of industry turning like war, and nothing better creates chaotic wild west environments of shock and confusion during which more wealth and power can be grabbed. War profiteers pour immense resources into lobbying, think tanks and campaign donations to manipulate and bribe policy makers into making decisions which promote war and military expansionism, with astounding success. This is all entirely legal.

Reading by Tim Foley. Article with links and sources: https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/us-troops-die-for-world-domination

Ana Kasparian's Young Turks tantrum about Aaron Maté was the screams of a dying empire.

Some want to dismantle the imperial slaughter machine and create a harmonious world; others just want the imperial slaughter machine to give them healthcare. These are two entirely different positions. It's not strange that these factions feud—it would be strange if they didn't.

US progressives who smear The Grayzone and other anti-imperialist media never have any other equally anti-imperialist media that they promote and uphold as good. This is because they are imperialists.

Reading by Tim Foley. Article with links and sources: https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/the-screams-of-a-dying-empire-notes

Supporters of Israeli apartheid and mass murder are losing control of the narrative, which has led to redoubled perception management efforts ranging from the cringey to the iron-fisted. In the former category we're seeing them pen entire articles attacking Seth Rogen for tweeting a fart emoji at virulent Israel apologist Eve Barlow and claiming that putting "fart" in Barlow's name is the same as a literal pogrom. In the latter category they're blowing up entire press offices and arresting Palestinian journalists. This is narrative management at its least subtle.

Reading by Tim Foley. Article with links and sources: https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/israel-narrative-management-is-getting

Everyone around the world should criticize the US empire constantly and without apology. Nobody anywhere ever needs to justify or defend criticizing the most powerful, destructive and influential government on earth. It's always right to criticize America, in any way you choose.

Reading by Tim Foley.

Article: https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2021/05/28/australia-is-a-giant-us-military-base-with-kangaroos-notes-from-the-edge-of-the-narrative-matrix/

If I were an imperial narrative manager trying to help regain control of the Israel narrative, I would employ such validate-and-divert tactics. I would not try to dismiss people's concerns about the oppression and murder of Palestinians, I would validate those concerns. I would get on their side. I would insert myself into the conversation by condemning Israeli apartheid abuses and calling for Palestinian freedom. And then, once I was a part of the conversation, I would begin working to make the conversation about anti-semitism instead.

It wouldn't take much. Just a step back from my Palestine advocacy to say "Oh, hang on, this rise in anti-semitism is very concerning, can we pause and fix this please?" And just like that I've knocked a lot of the momentum off of the movement and taken the conversation in a very different direction that will never reach any kind of resolution.

Reading by Tim Foley.

Article with links and sources: https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/how-to-sabotage-the-pro-palestine

Featured image via Tony Felgueiras, Creative Commons 2.0 https://www.flickr.com/photos/tonyfelgueiras/6988206992/

The status quo of the US empire guarantees that there will always be new offenders to imprison, new extremists to bomb, new justifications for blockades, sanctions and apartheid oppression. Every aspect of it creates traumatized people, whose resultant behavior is then cited to justify the existence of the power structure which caused their trauma in the first place.

Reading by Tim Foley. Article with links and sources: https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/the-us-empire-is-a-self-reinforcing

I've never had anyone from the UK or Israel tell me I can't criticize their government because I don't live there, but Americans say this to me all the time. American exceptionalism is an entirely unique mind virus.

Criticizing the most powerful, destructive, and influential government on the planet should be normal and ubiquitous around the world. It should not be something that stands out as unusual or inappropriate. Yet when Americans see it, that's exactly how it shows up for them.

This is of course because Americans are the most propagandized population on earth, which is due to the fact that the US is the hub of a globe-spanning empire with an unprecedented amount of power riding on its continued operation. Can't have the locals meddling with the machine.

Reading by Tim Foley.