The US Empire Is An Abusive Narcissist: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix

Sunday, 21 February 2021, 4:23 pm
Opinion: Caitlin Johnstone

Americans: healthcare please

Government: Sorry did you say a new military base in northeastern Syria?

Americans: no, healthcare

Government: Alright you drive a hard bargain but here's a new military base in northeastern Syria.

Sorry we're not going to be able to do the $2000 checks thing, or the cancelling student debt thing, or the $15 minimum wage thing. Would you accept payment in the form of social media "dunking" on Senate Republicans instead?

Biden is so endearingly befuddled in his old age it's easy to forget how many children he's killed.

Electing a new US president doesn't change the movie, it just changes the soundtrack.

Abusive narcissists are just as motivated to acquire allies as they are to acquire victims. They're often well-liked in the circles they move in, because the clever ones work hard on manipulating the way they are publicly perceived. This is also the case with the US empire.

Things that should be done in response to the Capitol riot:

• Charge the people who broke laws under those laws

Things that shouldn't be done in response to the Capitol riot:

• Making new domestic terrorism laws
• Continuing the military occupation of DC
• Censoring the internet

It's self-evident that Silicon Valley oligarchs conspiring to censor conspiracy theories will not eliminate conspiracy theories; the only thing that can end conspiracy theorizing is for the government to become transparent and cease conspiring.

So naturally we're going with the censorship via Silicon Valley oligarchs thing.

It's hilarious how the government which continually rains bombs on other countries has a list of "designated terrorist organizations" which it solemnly adds and removes names from based on which groups it likes and doesn't like in a given moment.

To design a secure prison, you'd want good locks, high walls, a lot of guards and tons of surveillance.

To make it even more secure, you'd keep all of the above while also tricking the prisoners into thinking they are free.

Anyway, that's the history of western civilization.

One of the most consequential collective delusions circulating in our society is the belief that our society is free. Our society is exactly free enough to create the illusion that we have freedom; from that line onwards it's just totalitarianism veiled in propaganda.

They don't need to kill or silence socialists and anti-imperialists, they just need to keep us from gaining a critical mass and going mainstream. As long as they can prevent that, it actually serves their interests to have a few of us around creating the illusion of freedom.

The Republican Party is the vehicle for rightward movement. The Democratic Party is the obstacle to all leftward movement. If the Democratic Party weren't deliberately thwarting all leftward movement, the entire world would look very, very different.

The problem with informing liberals that NED is a CIA cutout is that liberals think the CIA is good.

At a time of great need the US government is letting its citizens freeze, go broke, get evicted, and die of preventable illnesses, so obviously it's of paramount importance right now for Americans to rise up with one voice and direct their righteous anger at China.

I'm developing a special disdain for people who mindlessly regurgitate US anti-China narratives, especially people who are normally skeptical of US government claims. There's just no excuse for this nonsense. The geostrategic agendas are so obvious, and the facts are so readily available for anyone intellectually honest enough to look.

"Caitlin, China's completely different from all those countries the US empire has lied about before. This one's real!"

No you airhead, you've just been consuming western propaganda about China for a much longer period of time. That's the one and only difference.

People regurgitating State Department anti-China lines seem to think of themselves as these unique little snowflakes who are totally different from those who've supported every other US imperialist agenda, when they're exactly the same in every way. Literally every single possible way. They'll be like "I opposed the Iraq invasion, but China is different." No, you were just right then and now you're wrong. You saw one thing clearly and now you're seeing another thing unclearly. The propaganda gun missed your head with Iraq, then scored a bullseye with China.

"So you're saying the CCP are the good guys??"

Hollywood has conditioned you to look for "good guys" and "bad guys" in every conflict. Your impulse to assess whether a nation on the other side of the world which poses no threat to you is "good" or "bad" is itself the result of propaganda.

Lovers who are both (A) fascinated by each other and (B) dedicated to continual self-discovery can keep falling in love endlessly, because they'll keep discovering new things about themselves for the other to love, and the other will keep uncovering new things in them to love. We are all bottomless, so as long as the discovery continues the honeymoon never needs to end. You're both intensely curious about each other, so you're both leaned into each other trying to discover new things to love. The adventure never ends, and it remains exhilarating.

Thanks for reading! The best way to get around the internet censors and make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for at my website or on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, liking me on Facebook, following my antics on Twitter, or throwing some money into my tip jar on Patreon or Paypal. If you want to read more you can buy my new book Poems For Rebels (you can also download a PDF for five bucks) or my old book Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I’m trying to do with this platform, click here. Everyone, racist platforms excluded, has my permission to republish, use or translate any part of this work (or anything else I’ve written) in any way they like free of charge.

© Scoop Media

Caitlin Johnstone

Rogue journalist

Caitlin Johnstone is a 100 percent crowdfunded rogue journalist, bogan socialist, anarcho-psychonaut, guerilla poet and utopia prepper living in Australia with her American husband and two kids. She writes about politics, economics, media, feminism and the nature of consciousness. She is the author of the illustrated poetry book "Woke: A Field Guide For Utopia Preppers."

Contact Caitlin Johnstone

• Twitter - @caitoz
• Facebook