MSM Is Empire Fanfic For Children: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix

Caitlin Johnstone

May 23, 2022

121

Listen to a reading of this article:

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April 2022: Zelensky speaks at the Grammy Awards

May 2022: Zelensky speaks at Cannes Film Festival

June 2022: Zelensky hosts SNL

July 2022: Zelensky stars as himself in an action biopic co-starring The Rock

August 2022: Zelensky releases his own breakfast cereal and clothing line

September 2022: Celebrities are flocking to the new Hollywood pop religion known as Zelenskyyology

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It's often a long, awkward process learning that literally everyone in both mainstream political factions serves the oligarchic empire. For most people you have to get your hopes dashed over and over again by your heroes before learning this lesson, and even then many don't.

It runs counter to everything you're taught in life that nobody in either camp is there to help you. There's a fundamental assumption that someone among them must be decent. But if you watch carefully with enough intellectual honesty you'll see it again and again: there's a line that, for one justification or another, none of them ever end up crossing, and it's the line where they would have to begin providing meaningful opposition to the oligarchic empire.

At first it makes no sense. How can there be no good guys? Not one? Then you realize: it's because you're living in an oligarchic empire which only elevates people who serve its interests, whether it's in politics, government, or media. The "opposition" between mainstream factions is an illusion cooked up by the empire and continually reinforced by its narrative managers.

But you only see this if you're intellectually honest enough to overcome your own cognitive biases. Otherwise you'll keep doing mental gymnastics to justify the bullshit coming from Bernie, AOC, TYT, Tucker Carlson, Trump, MAGA pundits, wherever your biases are located on the map.

And then when you do see it people accuse you of being an angry hater who doesn't have anything positive to say about anyone in politics or media, when really it's got nothing to do with being negative but with your understanding that the machine always protects the machine.

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Caitlin Johnstone ⏳ @caitoz

The more weapons you pour into this war, the further the mission will creep. You'd have to be blind not to see it at this point. It's a bottomless money pit geared not toward stopping an invasion but toppling Moscow and securing US unipolar domination.

Michael Tracey @mtracey

Head of Ukraine military intelligence tells WSJ that their "end-game" now includes driving Russia out of Crimea. You may have noticed the stated goals have gotten more and more maximalist ever since the US made abundantly clear that it's writing them a "blank check" in perpetuity https://t.co/Cu7KzTudid

This proxy war isn't about defending Ukraine, it's about quashing a nation which has consistently resisted absorption into the US-centralized imperial blob. That agenda is best served by keeping this war going as long as possible and making it as gruelling and costly as possible for Moscow. Peace is not on the menu.

Even if Ukraine does somehow achieve total victory in the near term, it wouldn't mean peace, it would mean more war. If Russia is driven out the war will just change shape into a concerted effort to oust Putin and shatter the Russian Federation.

This war could easily have been avoided with a little diplomacy and low-cost, high-reward concessions. The US had good visibility into the Kremlin's plans, so they knew this. They chose not to because they wanted to use this war to hurt Putin.

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A massive percentage of the people who are getting Russia and Ukraine right are going to turn into the worst people in the world once conflict shifts to China. Pretty much only the anti-imperialist left and a specific subset of antiwar libertarians will get both issues entirely correct.

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I get asked if I think the US should do anything if China attacks Taiwan. I tell them I don't think the US should do anything if any nation does anything. The US is the very last nation on earth that should ever do anything about any other nation.

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We don't talk enough about how disturbing it is that Silicon Valley megacorporations have just accepted that it's their job to help the US win a propaganda war against Russia and everyone's just going along with that like it's fine and normal.

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Man: [steals most of everyone's wealth]

Everyone: Hey give that back!

Man: You're all just jealous of my success.

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Caitlin Johnstone ⏳ @caitoz

People ask why I write about the US government instead of my own government. It's because the US is my own government. I just skip the irrelevant middle man.

John Pilger @johnpilger

The prime minister who went on holiday while his country burned has been defeated by the issue of climate action. That's the good news. The bad news is that Australia is America's 51st state and the new Labor foreign minister is itching for a fight with China.

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Can't believe empire managers have the gall to keep babbling about "disinformation" even as they work to extradite a journalist to the United States to defend the empire's right to lie to us about its war crimes.

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I've met some cute kids in my time but nobody's as adorable as people who think Assange can get a fair Espionage Act trial in the United States of America.

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I want to live in this idyllic fantasy world where the US pours weapons into foreign nations because it cares deeply about their freedom and orchestrates the military encirclement of Russia and China because it wants to protect the world from tyranny.

The mainstream news media is empire fanfic for slow kids.

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Your average Ivy League graduate working for a prominent military industrial complex-funded think tank has less insight into what's happening with Russia and China than your average random citizen with internet access and sincere curiosity about those nations.

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People who've escaped abusive relationships with bitchy, vindictive, passive aggressive manipulators have a natural advantage when in comes to deciphering the malevolence of the US empire.

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