I hope this belongs here, since it’s not a news article.
I live in Europe and I’ve mostly been the guy people listened to when they admitted to not feeling well informed on international conflict situations like the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and US/NATO’s more secretive and subversive conflicts/coups and backroom deals with autoritarian regimes around the world, all in the name of democracy and freedom.
Can’t help it, I’m curious, I like reading books and I think connecting the dots is rewarding for my ADHD. The NATO connections to post WWII-nazis, GLADIO and other stay-behind groups, the CIA ties - it was all thrilling and interesting, but unfortunately part of our reality. During the Wikileaks days even the people most critical of my assessments came and admitted that they were wrong and that they now understood they had been duped. And now, they said, “we know better”. They all went back to reading the very news that consistently lied to them.
There still was a semi-reliable left/left-centrist press in Europe that you could point the few normies allergic to “not verified by authority” reporting to, mostly written by a few journalists who didn’t bend as much to pressure of falling in line with drumming for the democracy exporting business.
What happened? Of course the big media companies always always bent to the will of the warmongering establishment but there were always some sane voices doing somewhat decent investigative journalism targetting the common narratives, even if just to be able to deflect criticism by pointing to their work. How did they get rid of almost every sane voice? Did the mostly senior editors just die off/retire?
Today I am surrounded by people telling me obvious lies with a blind conviction of almost religious zealotry that can often be debunked with 2 minutes of research in spite of the downfall of major SEO and “24/7 breaking news repitition” infested search engines.
I always knew that most people wouldn’t spend the time on research to get an understanding of how this world functions and that Western democracy and liberty are basically strawmen that can be weaponized against anyone who stands in the way of Western interests. But I also always knew that I could rely on some people being receptive of well sourced information. My convincing of some people of course didn’t put a dent anywhere but you at least felt like it was still possible to reach people and breakt through the programming.
Even the people calling themselves antifascists are now ignoring the obvious neo Nazi-ties of Ukrainian Banderites while chanting OUN slogans. People are openly calling for censorship of the Internet in the name of “safety” and if you equate “fact checks” by the very people opposed to investigative journalism with the obvious risks of centralized Ministries of Truth being erected in front of our eyes, they vehemently disagree and demand that “freezepeach” must come to an end.
I’ve never been this worried about the world I’m living in. The US and Western elites are hellbent on provoking a war with every nation that’s no longer willing to bend to their unipolar world order, with Europeans taking the brute of it, whether it be economically or, should the war escalate, even on future frontlines.
Is there any serious opposition left? How do you cope with the reality we’re headed for? I’ve never been an optimist but I managed to keep my pessimism in check, until now.
The US hasn’t actually engaged Russia/China directly in combat…
I guess I meant that US/NATO resources are being embarrassed in the proxy war in Ukraine, which demonstrates serious opposition.
I’ve been talking to real people today, who apparently can use a keyboard, who believe that Ukraine is winning. There’s a lot of them around.
Well in the UK the pseudo-left media (I.E. the guardian, the independent etc) we’re all very-pro war during the initial phase of the invasion. We had to get saddam, get osama, and get justice done. Whenever the establishment needed broad popular support, every media conglomerate would answer the call.
Right now what you’re seeing is the slow-decrepit death of the neo-liberal imperialism. They bang their head against china and russia since that’s all they know, they’re very wealth, influence and power is at stake here, but they’ll never seriously fight head on. There was never a serious opposition to the establishment, maybe the manufactured opposition such as the conservatives vs the liberals. But there was never a media outlet which actually challenged the state critically. This is the reason why so many media conglomerates are pooling their collective voice into 1 thing, win in ukraine, win against russia/china, and win against the “radicals”.
Ease your mind by just thinking of this, you finally see how western liberal democracies work, you’re no longer in a stable period under neo-liberalism, a crisis of bloated magnitude is present within the western world order . The elites are scared of everything right now, foreign bourgeoisie and proletariat countries working their way to ditch western imperialism, rising worker’s consciousness, and the implosion of capitalism is literally around the corner.
Things are bad, they’re going to be worse. People will take the bait and chew the propaganda, but its a tired, rustic trick. No matter how much lies, pandering, myths, or delusions, people are realising their security and safety and now being eroded. You cannot change reality to your wishes, that’s how I cope with this. As much was the western elites wish they’re god, they cannot keep using this same trick, not when the reality you’re presenting is the exact opposite of actual reality. Think the propaganda disillusionment as a bubble, no matter how much shit you pile in there, it will burst. And people will see what capitalism really is.
I can finally for the first time in my life, see the end of capitalism/imperialism, for me there’s no more net, they’ve eroded it with their greed, and are stuck in a quagmire. Who knows? Maybe the first revolution since the cold war might happen in the west? Its a big possibility. But keep your hopes up, things are changing, just hope these changes will lead to a bright future.
The culture wars are extremely useful to distract people into meaningless nonsense that will change nothing.
I avoid using that term. It has nothing really to do with ‘culture’, it’s just hateful people getting mad.
Not only have the indoctrination techniques become more sophisticated, but their pervasiveness is hard to resist for even normally sceptical people. Your average “lizard people are controlling us” conspiracy theorist will still believe everything they’re told about China. It’s all been scientifically honed to be as maximally effective as possible. They have it down to a fine art. Even intelligent, well-meaning liberals will believe previously credible outlets like the Guardian, ( who’ve published this today for example).
It’s become difficult to not sound like you’re a conspiracy nutter, rather than them, because they have the mainstream news on their side. Asking them to confront the possibility that there’s a massive real conspiracy going on is asking a lot, we have to admit.
One way to cope is to just accept the worst. We are probably heading towards a nuclear war. The US will not accept a world where they are not the supremacists they believe themselves to be.
The only marginal success I’ve had in that area is to explicitly outline the difference between “conspiracy” and “conspiracy theories” and spend more time educating people on what makes conspiracy theories lack weight and evidence than I do on actually educating them about the socialist side of things. The only real way to do it is to basically give people a crash course in critical thinking and media literacy, both of which take a lot of time. That’s the biggest hurdle. It takes no effort to believe this nonsense, and a ton of effort to educate people out of it. It’s a massive uphill battle.
Mostly weed and the rare few leftist friends
Ignore the news unless it’s local and actually affects you. As a person, you will have no ability to change the way things are going for the most part. Organize with trusted comrades and prepare for the worst. Get into the ‘Red Prepper’ movement. Read old non-fiction books, concentrate on self-improvement and fitness. Remember the dialectical method and apply that to your outlook.
