Listen to a reading of this article: 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 think that those values were a myth, just ask the indigenous people, treaties broken, people murdered, land taken, freedom denied, no justice, and never the truth. I certainly wish it had been the values you proposed.
Putin fought this war because Ukraine was maximally mobilized to take out Donetsk and Lugansk, had enlarged the army confronting the breakaway republics by 60,000 more troops and begun heavy shelling, softening up. They, of course, ran to Moscow screaming.
Putin did not think it was inevitable. When Putin hands out ultimatums like "Would you rather live or die?" I'm sure he is surprised by the Ukrainian response. Putin flew all the flags in warning, recognizing Donetsk and Lugansk as republics and signing mutual assistance treaties.
Evidence accumulated later indicated that the Russian army had anticipated the AFU by 24 hours. In international law preemption is not aggression. This was a legal action by Russia.
It is a privilege for me to have access to somebody who has a soapbox and continually hammers out a message of clarity, and curious to see how many introduce their long-held biases and acquired doctrines in response. I take this as evidence that hearing is not listening and watching is not seeing.
Hi Caitlin and Tim, many of your insights are in sync with mine. I believe that most, if not all, economic social, political heslth and wrlfare problems currently plaguing Western communities subject to representative governance could be solved by excluding and banning all political donations. I'm not holding my breath in anticipation of a miracle!
“Every time I hear a political speech or I read those of our leaders, I am horrified at having, for years, heard nothing which sounded human. It is always the same words telling the same lies. And the fact that men accept this, that the people’s anger has not destroyed these hollow clowns, strikes me as proof that men attribute no importance to the way they are governed; that they gamble – yes, gamble – with a whole part of their life and their so called ‘vital’ interests.”- Albert Camus (1978). “Notebooks, 1935-1942”, Harcourt...hard to comment this!....
If only western values were real. Peace and democracy sound fantastic. But alas, the reality we live in is called capitalism. It doesn't believe in anything but profit. Profit abhors peace because war is great for business. You can't get ahead with western values. The only good thing about them is their names. It's easy to advertise things with a name such as the "Peacemaker rifle." Yeah, western values exist only in fairy tales and Madison Avenue sales pitches. We'll have to get rid of capitalism forever before we can even attempt to find values close to them.
I’m a very western individual through my broad minded upbringing. I have no idea how this “West” never learned anything about where we have come from to arrive in a New World.
They are a no name culture having pretensions , only worshipping the God of Money and Power till they are sick in the mind.
It’s astonishing how little they know about life outside the power and pomp.
It won’t end well for these clowns and you can be assured the rest of the us in the west won’t be going down with them to a ignoble defeat.
@Mary Wildfire: Maybe it isn't helpful to use "impolite" terms for adversaries, but being a user myself, I can understand it. What has happened and is happening makes politeness seem sacrilegious: polite language was never meant to describe horrendous crimes, inhuman conditions and intent. It was never meant to be used in arguments against mass murder and the ultimate murder: the annihilation of the human race along with every life form. These conditions beggar language as we know it.
There are not such good things as " western values" to support. First at all, values are cultural constructs, and powerful nations are constructed their values as "superior" and want to impose them to the rest of the world, blatantly ignoring other nations own values.
I have a comment and a question, for Caitlin. The comment: it is not helpful to your cause to use phrases like "baby-brained idiot" and "dipshit" to refer to those who disagree with you. It certainly doesn't win over those you're addressing and it detracts from the wisdom in what else you say.
The question: there is a segment here where you allege that the ruling class raises its kids to know they're ruling class and have class solidarity. I wonder where you get this. I'm not disputing it--I don't know any ruling class people--just wondering whether it's based on significant experience, or something you read, or just a surmise.
Hear, Hear...HEAR! I do only wish that CJ had given some attention to the *ultimate* manifestation of Western-ideological/settler-colonial evil: Zionist Israel, that has not only kneed-on-neck the hapless Palestinians but entangled its tribute-paying USA/most of the West in its Apartheidic/satanic claws of domination and control. Zionism took the lessons of prior colonials and adapted them to its psychopathogically-infused agenda of "We are the ultimate victim and don't (we won't let you) forget it"; and "We have the right to defend ourselves."
Can you point us to an interview or article where you outline the development of your worldview?
I got well past half a normal lifespan before I started thinking "Wait a minute - there's a problem with the mainstream belief about our country/system/politics"
Politicians lead us to war are they free people or free thinkers,for sure they seem to be caught in the amber of there networks or pathways that seem to be predictable.great piece of writing envy your talent to what is important.
Fourth bullet point: The elite class has class interests while the people don't: Thorstein Veblen said all of this in The Theory of the Leisure Class. It needs to be read by everyone who sees the power differential for what it is.
I think that those values were a myth, just ask the indigenous people, treaties broken, people murdered, land taken, freedom denied, no justice, and never the truth. I certainly wish it had been the values you proposed.
Well said
Putin fought this war because Ukraine was maximally mobilized to take out Donetsk and Lugansk, had enlarged the army confronting the breakaway republics by 60,000 more troops and begun heavy shelling, softening up. They, of course, ran to Moscow screaming.
Putin did not think it was inevitable. When Putin hands out ultimatums like "Would you rather live or die?" I'm sure he is surprised by the Ukrainian response. Putin flew all the flags in warning, recognizing Donetsk and Lugansk as republics and signing mutual assistance treaties.
Evidence accumulated later indicated that the Russian army had anticipated the AFU by 24 hours. In international law preemption is not aggression. This was a legal action by Russia.
It is a privilege for me to have access to somebody who has a soapbox and continually hammers out a message of clarity, and curious to see how many introduce their long-held biases and acquired doctrines in response. I take this as evidence that hearing is not listening and watching is not seeing.
Hi Caitlin and Tim, many of your insights are in sync with mine. I believe that most, if not all, economic social, political heslth and wrlfare problems currently plaguing Western communities subject to representative governance could be solved by excluding and banning all political donations. I'm not holding my breath in anticipation of a miracle!
“Every time I hear a political speech or I read those of our leaders, I am horrified at having, for years, heard nothing which sounded human. It is always the same words telling the same lies. And the fact that men accept this, that the people’s anger has not destroyed these hollow clowns, strikes me as proof that men attribute no importance to the way they are governed; that they gamble – yes, gamble – with a whole part of their life and their so called ‘vital’ interests.”- Albert Camus (1978). “Notebooks, 1935-1942”, Harcourt...hard to comment this!....
If only western values were real. Peace and democracy sound fantastic. But alas, the reality we live in is called capitalism. It doesn't believe in anything but profit. Profit abhors peace because war is great for business. You can't get ahead with western values. The only good thing about them is their names. It's easy to advertise things with a name such as the "Peacemaker rifle." Yeah, western values exist only in fairy tales and Madison Avenue sales pitches. We'll have to get rid of capitalism forever before we can even attempt to find values close to them.
I’m a very western individual through my broad minded upbringing. I have no idea how this “West” never learned anything about where we have come from to arrive in a New World.
They are a no name culture having pretensions , only worshipping the God of Money and Power till they are sick in the mind.
It’s astonishing how little they know about life outside the power and pomp.
It won’t end well for these clowns and you can be assured the rest of the us in the west won’t be going down with them to a ignoble defeat.
@Mary Wildfire: Maybe it isn't helpful to use "impolite" terms for adversaries, but being a user myself, I can understand it. What has happened and is happening makes politeness seem sacrilegious: polite language was never meant to describe horrendous crimes, inhuman conditions and intent. It was never meant to be used in arguments against mass murder and the ultimate murder: the annihilation of the human race along with every life form. These conditions beggar language as we know it.
There are not such good things as " western values" to support. First at all, values are cultural constructs, and powerful nations are constructed their values as "superior" and want to impose them to the rest of the world, blatantly ignoring other nations own values.
I have a comment and a question, for Caitlin. The comment: it is not helpful to your cause to use phrases like "baby-brained idiot" and "dipshit" to refer to those who disagree with you. It certainly doesn't win over those you're addressing and it detracts from the wisdom in what else you say.
The question: there is a segment here where you allege that the ruling class raises its kids to know they're ruling class and have class solidarity. I wonder where you get this. I'm not disputing it--I don't know any ruling class people--just wondering whether it's based on significant experience, or something you read, or just a surmise.
Yes
Hear, Hear...HEAR! I do only wish that CJ had given some attention to the *ultimate* manifestation of Western-ideological/settler-colonial evil: Zionist Israel, that has not only kneed-on-neck the hapless Palestinians but entangled its tribute-paying USA/most of the West in its Apartheidic/satanic claws of domination and control. Zionism took the lessons of prior colonials and adapted them to its psychopathogically-infused agenda of "We are the ultimate victim and don't (we won't let you) forget it"; and "We have the right to defend ourselves."
Can you point us to an interview or article where you outline the development of your worldview?
I got well past half a normal lifespan before I started thinking "Wait a minute - there's a problem with the mainstream belief about our country/system/politics"
Politicians lead us to war are they free people or free thinkers,for sure they seem to be caught in the amber of there networks or pathways that seem to be predictable.great piece of writing envy your talent to what is important.
Fourth bullet point: The elite class has class interests while the people don't: Thorstein Veblen said all of this in The Theory of the Leisure Class. It needs to be read by everyone who sees the power differential for what it is.