Monday 30 April 2018

CHEERING THE ROYAL WEDDING (LIKE AN OBEDIENT CULT MEMBER)




ANOTHER ROYAL WEDDING, sprayed at us from every possible angle. Jammed down our throats. Average citizens blindly applauding and eating it up are, in my opinion, pretty much like a cult. Why? Because generally only in a cult do people readily accept being slaves, and actually applaud and revere the leaders who've persuaded them their being held hostage and/or committing ritual suicide is a desirable state of affairs. At very least, it's arguably a form of Stockholm Syndrome.

The same could be said of Tory voters who lack a property portfolio, a six figure salary, and/or an offshore bank account in the Cayman Islands: they're turkeys applauding Christmas.

I swear the biggest success (and arguable genius) of neo-liberal capitalism, the heir of colonialism, is that in countries like the UK and US, average struggling people actively vote for and support the individuals/groups who've actively taken all the resources from them. If you look at it objectively, it's sheer madness. But quite a feat on their part, no doubt.

Somehow the upper echelons have successfully propagated the idea that only the super-rich and established political classes can, and should, govern. That huge portions of society's wealth should belong to them alone, cordoned off. That 'order' and colonial notions of 'propriety' are a worthy pursuit over and above the common good, decency, or even basic humanity.

Millionaires-in-waiting


Indeed, financially disadvantaged Brits and Americans don't see themselves as 'poor': they see themselves as millionaires-in-waiting: just a promotion, a reality show or lottery win away from being part of the club themselves. It's as if the very existence of super-rich elites who exploit society are a beacon of inspiration for them. That is what they want for themselves and their families: the big mansion house with gates to keep all the little people out. They care far less for the happiness and concerns of wider society, only the aspirations of their OWN elevation. It's every man and woman for himself: that was Thatcher's 'gift' to us.

Millions of people live and die dreaming of wealth and comfort just around the corner, never realising they deserved a bigger piece of the pie any way: just by merit of being born into free societies and wealthy economies. They live and die never realising, if they'd actually stood alongside the 'little people' they were so desperate to avoid identifying with, due to a warped sense of egotism, they may very well have led a happier and more comfortable existence. Instead, they lived as fodder for their 'betters'. In the interim, while millions continue voting for these bastards and continue the dog-eat-dog mentality, demonising socialism and 'freeloader' types (thinking themselves so much 'better'), our society and welfare state is being firebombed. The rights of average people, are being firebombed. Our jobs and industries are disappearing one by one, going online and becoming automated, and soon, certainly in decades ahead, unemployment will spiral out of control. Little people will have nothing left.

A society in which everyone is better off, with more disposable income - especially those at the more vulnerable end of the scale - would make for a much happier nation. A far less angry, hostile, bitter and resentful nation. It would be a better residence for every last one of us. There will always be rich and poor, that is the way of things, but the gap between the two, and the disproportion in volume, has become far too wide. That simply has to be addressed, before it explodes like the ticking time bomb it is. Either society will have to eventually move to a model of Universal Basic Income (UBI) for all, or those of means will have to adopt increasingly hostile and totalitarian methods to keep an ever increasing starving majority at bay. You don't need to be Nostradamus to look down the road and see that isn't going to end well, or that extreme measures will eventually be resorted to. It's an equation that simply has to balance out, one way or another, sooner or later.

Harry Windsor seems a decent enough bloke, and Meghan Markle seems alright too. But I for one cannot celebrate the vaunted wealth/superiority of princes and TV stars; certainly not while growing numbers of homeless people in the UK are veritably rounded up in skips, just to make way for their idyllic day. Not while we sit beneath the boot of a government corrupt to the core, isolating our country and forcing our economy down the toilet. (I almost got through a whole article without mentioning Brexit!) And not while our society and amenities crumble to dust, and Nationalism rises before our very eyes.

Sort all that out: then I'll cheer the bloody royal wedding. Otherwise, I'll view it as the paltry and rather insulting distraction it is.

Monday 16 April 2018

RUSSIA: HOW (SOME) REMAINERS WHO STOOD AGAINST PREJUDICE, NOW EMBRACE IT TO SUIT THEIR CAUSE




I truly despair. Objectivity is dead; people only see what they want to see in news stories - the version that fits their 'team'. As a species, I think we're lost. And maybe, just maybe, this was the final master-stroke and checkmate move the right-wing in Britain and America needed.

I've never ever been intimidated and insulted by Remainers before. On the contrary, I have pages and pages of messages from them thanking me for my efforts; they're the only team I've really 100% identified with since this whole shit-storm began. And for nearly two years I've flown our flag; it's fair to say it was that disastrous referendum that tipped me into writing. I've ranted and raved against it since the day it happened. But now, because I refuse to accept that Russia and Syria are the international bogeymen, that they're guilty of every crime, because I smell a rat the size of Tower Hamlets, and because I know full well the UK and US governments in office at present are as corrupt as any? Well, I'm apparently now a traitor to the Remain cause... and am "dumb", and "naive", and I am Putin's "useful idiot".

Apparently daring to speak inconvenient details and/or arguing on behalf of a party being accused, is "playing into Putin's and the Brexiter's hands". What a pity so many Remainers are too short-sighted to recognise the right are unmoved in support of their despots, and it's actually the left/centre and Remain camps that have been split by this little bombing. They don't seem to notice they're now coincidentally championing and arguing in favour of Theresa May and Boris Johnson: the leaders who until recently were their adversaries "dragging Britain to ruin". And just before local council elections no less. How very neat.

Not only that, I've even heard Remainers - the group who proudly stood against xenophobia, glibly coming out with comments like "never trust a Russian". Substitute that with 'Muslims', Jews', 'Indians' etc, and anyone else with a clear head might call that racial prejudice.

Becoming that which you despise


In short, Remainers are now mostly being as pig-headed and as absolutist as the Brexiters ever were. We're ignoring common sense, and blindly following any corroborating tit-bit thrown at us by the news... exactly like Brexiters did. The critical analysis skills we formerly demonstrated have flown out the window, and the 'propaganda machines' we continuously called out (like the BBC) are now apparently absolute beacons of journalistic integrity - but only because they're telling us what we want to hear.

We pedantically quote theories like 'Occam's Razor' (eg: the simplest answer is usually the right one), apparently oblivious to the fact that very theory suggests a nation wouldn't do the one and only categorical thing inviting the wrath of the West, reopening a war they'd only just won. As I retorted to one such person, perhaps they need to look up the concept of 'Confirmation Bias', and the idea of 'Cui Bono' as a basis for criminal investigation.

The poisoning? Just as a cute analogy, imagine this was a gun crime, for instance. Assuming Russian guilt because of the agent used, is like assuming a perpetrator's guilt because the gun was registered in their name, but incontrovertibly ignoring the fact there are no gun residues or bullet holes in the right places at the scene of the alleged crime, and the alleged perpetrator lacked an entirely feasible reason to do it. Not smart, or prudent. The initial assumption isn't necessarily wrong, but you have a duty of care to at least consider the alternative.

Not only that, there is clearly confusion surrounding chemical reports and deliberately ambiguous phrasing by the Spiez lab, who Sergei Lavrov quoted. Again, everyone is soooo quick to assume Russia are either f**king stupid, or evil incarnate! Why the hell would Russia say to the world's media "the Spiez lab have said it's not Novachok, it's BZ", if that can be refuted in seconds, and dismissed as nonsense by both the international community and the lab itself?? (As it was, only a day later.) They look either idiots, or categorical liars! Not exactly helping their cause, is it? Yes, they may in fact be just that, but again, you absolutely HAVE to consider the possibility they're being set up to look like chumps.

Not to mention, we the British (eg: Boris Johnson) categorically lied when it suited us too. That's an incontrovertible fact. So at very best, it's one strike a piece.

Convenient Scapegoating


Russian interference in elections? Newsflash. The UK and US didn't vote for Brexit and Trump because of Russian meddling: they did so because they're thick as mince, and fell for the crap our own right wing medias were feeding us. The same right wing medias all the liberals and leftists now demonising Russia are inadvertently supporting. (Another 'coincidence' no doubt.) They didn't need any help from Russia.

In fact, it was (and is) the Russian owned Independent newspaper in Britain that was one of the very few to include pro-Remain viewpoints and assertions, while Murdoch and Dacre etc were (and are) busy talking us off a cliff. How does that one tally up in this absurdly absolutist scenario?

Why in the name of God are people so quick to assume everything is black and white?? That there is only right and wrong, goodies and baddies... that their team alone are morally superior and righteous?? To me, it is the most simplistic and rudimentary mistake one can make when examining such situations. At what point do we acknowledge the lines sometimes become blurry?

I abhor Russia, its politics, and its treatment of dissenters and the LGBT community etc. Truly. But you don't defeat lies with lies. People who've already decided the outcome of an unfolding investigation have no moral authority over those willing to keep an open mind, and hear both sides of an argument. You don't turn your face away from evidence and inconvenient details just because it happens to suit your cause, and those you ally with. You don't switch off common sense and pursuit of truth just because it's to your benefit. You don't risk incorrectly vilifying others, because it helps you out. You don't just assume a group or person is guilty because they've committed other crimes or offences. That is prejudice. And if you do, you are just as corrupt as any you'd claim to oppose. #TruthBomb

At the same time, I just got accused of 'helping Theresa May' myself on a Labour Party forum, for refusing to accept there is ANY evidence at all implicating Russia, or that there's any possibility Russia are anything other than entirely innocent. Having dared to go out on a limb, and getting slagged off from all corners for daring to say something is wrong with this, the other team harangue me too, because I won't categorically say they're unequivocally right either.

They're all as bad as each other. Tribalism has taken over.

We really are f**ked.

Saturday 14 April 2018

YOU WICKED, EVIL WOMAN: HOW DARE YOU DO THIS?


Theresa May, looking as happy & relaxed as she's been since she came to office.

You wicked, evil woman. How dare you do this.

The most greedy and corrupt government/Prime Minister in UK history: a government with no majority, propped up by bribery and illegal over-spending, now side-stepping our constitution to act unlawfully, again, and risking WWIII. Hand in hand with the most dangerous and insentient lunatic to occupy the White House, ever.

It didn't even occur to Theresa May to ask the British people and parliament. No, she turned to Donald Trump. (A sentence that if you'd uttered aloud even a couple of years ago, would probably have got you sectioned.)

Democracy is officially dead folks. It ain't even a Plutocracy so much any more, as much as a straight up dictatorship.

God damn you Theresa, and your whole cabal. And God damn every naive, blind fool who believes for a minute that Donald J. Trump and his vassals give the least of shits about kids attacked with chemical weapons. Their allies in Saudi Arabia do just as bad and worse, all the time. You've got their best bud Duterte in the Philippines, openly using police as assassination squads. You've got atrocities like this going on routinely in Africa, and in Yemen, genocides and mass rapes, and the West doesn't so much as blink. They're in Syria for profit and geopolitical manoeuvring, that is all, and they've been planning it for a long time.





Even if you know nothing else of the situation, the proxy wars, or the murky background of the UK funded 'White Helmets' - those angels of mercy who show up every time there's an atrocity with video cameras rolling... the same White Helmets who've literally been filmed rehearsing and staging similar 'attacks'.




Even if you didn't know that academics and anti-war campaigners have literally been warning and predicting exactly this would happen, down to the letter. How exactly does that happen by the way?


 

This one, from academic and former resident of Iraq, Sam Ramidani, is even older... from 2012:





Even if you weren't alive/aware when this happened before with Iraq, almost identically:





Even if you don't know any of the back-story and history, one only needs to look at everything that's happened in the past two years: the UK and US governments unravelling, the catastrophe of Brexit, the constant slew of bullshit from 'MSM' reporting, unrivalled lies and corruption, the much overlooked detail of Trump naming Jerusalem capital of Israel, the antisemitism rubbish, the crackpot stories about assassination attempts that are full of holes and make no pragmatic sense, Tories categorically lying about evidence (no doubt a soon to be forgotten detail), and now convenient chemical weapon attacks that reopen a war Russia and Syria had only recently won.





Or even just the fact official investigators had not even yet got in to Douma to clarify the evidence, and were due to in only a few day's time. And honestly? You'd have to be a straight up idiot to not smell a rat, or question what we're being told. I'm sorry, I don't care who that offends.

How do you distract an entire country, and blind them to all the other crap you're doing and messing up behind the scenes? How do you dilute growing public dissent and discourse? How do you make a populace fearful and in need of 'authoritative' government? You start a war. A political ruse as old as civilisation itself.

Our media manages to convince half the people of this country that Jeremy Corbyn, the most ethical man in UK politics, is a communist spy/traitor/antisemite, a threat to democracy/misogynist/dictator etc. That's a guy who's literally in our faces and on our screens all the time, who everybody knows, who always behaves decently and is 100% reasonable. Yet STILL he is misquoted and demonised to suit right wing agenda - to the point of it being ridiculous. They spin bullshit out of thin air.

Yes, well now imagine how much easier it is to do with a leader half a continent away, in a controlled media environment and war-torn country, who speaks a different language and nobody in Britain knows, when the British people don't get to hear their account of things. It would be a whitewash.

One last interesting aspect to this is, as usual, it will mostly divide the political left and centre. The right: the supporters of May and Trump? They love a war with anyone, and will march blindly behind them into oblivion. But the left and centre is where 'moral outrage' at the alleged behaviour of Bashar al-Assad will split the chamber entirely. It's after all a natural reaction to be appalled by crimes against humanity: exactly the reason western governments know they're the only thing that'll get us behind war. Some on the left and centre will question these events, others will not, or cannot. In other words, the whole thing will also create a clear divide between those who've finally come to realise our mainstream media cannot be trusted, and those who simply can't let go or accept the notion they would lie to us in such a potentially catastrophic manner.

Divide and conquer: rinse, and repeat.

NB: A final side-note, Russia's the only country I've ever been, and worked in, that I really did not like: it felt a very hostile and cold place, and their hatred of westerners was obvious. (And that was back in 2013.) I am no fan of Russia, or Vladimir Putin. But being able and willing to stand up for those you don't like and/or disagree with, acknowledging when they make a fair point, is what distinguishes ACTUAL truth and justice from mere tribalism.

We will be incredibly lucky if this doesn't spiral out of control. I doubt anyone will be talking about Brexit for a while, mind.

#Syria