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Not only does it not help, it actually makes it worse for them. Any help from Westerners for these movements only reinforces narratives -- by the Chinese or Iranian authorities, for example -- that protesters or dissidents are tools of American interference. And the result is a tightening of the screws, and less freedom. Hong Kong is a perfect case. Western solidarity only makes things worse. As a Hong Konger, I beg you -- please, please, do NOT give me solidarity!!!

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Caitlin,

You're one of the few people that I can tolerate reading anymore. You're among the few that aren't reactive, but are proactive, and can see what's occurring and going to occur, unlike most everyone else that "finally figure things out" after they become blatantly transparent.

I'm incredibly saddened by the lack of people desiring to learn more about how best to preserve our/their future liberty, who seem to have plenty of time to spend on mindless immoral amusements in the entertainment arena, at the expense of the former.

I've grown weary of attempting to educate them. They claim to want to know and understand, but if you cannot explain the equivalent of decades of learning and volumes of info into a handful of Twitter/Instagram/etc. sound and media bites, they're attention span vaporizes.

Meanwhile, they walk into their homes, and on goes the TV on "news" channels. It's gotten to the point where I get mad when I see this shit called "news" on anywhere, and that people actually believe what a bunch of people reading off of telescripts are re-reading to them. For starters, what, they can't go read it for themselves, the all but literally have to have their thoughts spoon-fed to them.

Anyway, sorry about the rant, but you're among the very few people that I can even tolerate reading anymore.

- Long time reader and partner in exposing the truth

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"the international left must formulate a way to effectively express solidarity" with protesters in Iran, and Shock Doctrine author Naomi Klein was recently making the same case regarding Chinese protesters as well."

Naomi Klein - who currently is well paid by "The Intercept" - that rag that forced Glenn Greenwald out because he refused to be silent with the Biden laptop story.

I smell something rancid.

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Dec 20, 2022·edited Dec 20, 2022

Ain't it funny how only those protesters in countries that the United States doesn't like deserve support. Just like "world leaders" affected touching sympathy for the suffering people of Libya before the bombs started to fall.

But the Gilets Jaunes, to give one example, are ignored.

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Support of minority grievances in countries targeted by Western governments is a Trojan horse ploy popularly supported by pious ignorance and delusions of moral superiority. It was infamously used in Iraq to save people from the depredations of Saddam Hussein - by killing a million of them - men, women, children, the elderly, disabled. Hussein had installed excellent education and public health programs, all free. He had been brought up by a single mother, had respect and empathy for women. He used poison gas against the Kurds, provided for the purpose by the West. He did regrettably kill as well, all the communists. But since when is that considered a crime in the West? I could mention dozens of far worse Western leaders whose terrible crimes are entirely forgotten by Wednesday. They wear, like high priests it would seem, invisible, sin-dissolving vestments.

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Thank you. For god's sake, thank you.

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"Is the claim that if people voice expressions of "solidarity" with their voices and on the internet and feel feelings of solidarity in their feely bits, something good will happen? What is the good thing that will happen?" Indeed, this is my question for any online "action" involving people in countries thousands of miles away. As noted in the article, there are exceptions like boycotting Israel to help protect Palestinians - a well established practice with years of proof of effectiveness and clear resistance from the status quo (ask Ben & Jerry, or hell, ask Jeremy Corbyn). But no-risk amplification of some vaguely understood overseas "movement" is just virtue signaling.

(Honestly, so is most protesting, but I'm not supposed to say that...)

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I think you should cover the story of big ag taking over Ukrainian farmland

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Orwell showed solidarity for socialists in Spain by going to Spain and actually doing something. This was before twitter. Now he could just #FrancoSucks and get the same result (fuck all) but without all the hassle with unfamiliar money.

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You can’t do it by aping the narrative. I think you can thread the needle, but not without mentioning the imperial dynamic.

I’m fine with women in Iran protesting for more rights. I’m fine with Hong Kongers protesting for their heritage of British-style rights. I’m not fine with my country getting involved, and if you actually care about those people and the success of their protests, you shouldn’t be either.

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Brilliant! You got right to the heart of the matter:

"If you live inside of the empire, then you need to be responsible with your relationship with its propaganda. Otherwise you're just a garden variety imperialist with a cutesy story about yourself."

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And, in surely the oddest of twists, the western media just always happens to be around to breathlessly cover the *protests* against the government the US has decided must go. Except, of course, in the US. Where the media only covers for the government, and any opposition to anything is considered not worthy of reporting on. So strange.

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Highly recommend anyone concerned about this issue read this link about Psiphon being used in Iran: https://kitklarenberg.substack.com/p/beware-psiphon-cia-tool-fueling-global

They are offering this app for free download on Smartphones in Iran to circumvent the Iranian government's ability to shut off the Internet. The problem is this is an app that collects very granular and personal information in real time for the CIA. Talk about a Trojan Horse. If you're Iranian and you want to criticize present-day Iran as being misogynistic, you will get all the coverage (or publication) you want in the U.S. (From personal experience I highly doubt the majority of Iranian men really care about women's freedom of movement.) But if you want to really explore the issues politically and talk about not what Iranians DON'T want but what they DO want, you will be shut off. It happened a few days ago very dramatically in a story on NPR. Such obvious censorship of the Iranian street and clearly part of NPR's policy to censor THOSE voices. The Arab Spring was not born solely of frustration on the street; it was a CIA-conceived action to destabilize Israel's enemies. And it worked. The same thing with the "civil war" in Syria. Also on the Israeli "to do" list and clearly stated as such before the main part of the destruction of Iraq was done.

There is one benefit to Westerners demonstrating on the streets in support of rebellions in the East and that is purely psychological. It gives one a short-lived warm and fuzzy feeling of not being alone, not being entirely ignored. But it also taints these movements by association with criticisms of being CIA-sponsored movements (which they predominantly are). Iranians would be wise to remember the central lesson of the 1978 Revolution. If you do not have something strong and competent and native to your country to fill the inevitable political vacuum caused by a revolution, act with care. Khomeini never would have succeeded if the left in Iran had stronger options for replacing the Shah and if they had more support amongst the undereducated rural poor. The CIA uses these vacuums to their own advantage and well-meaning Westerners haven't a clue what's really happening on the ground.

As Kit Klarenberg points out, mainstream press is not talking about Psiphon at all. No need to point out why, I should hope. Psiphon is the worm in the apple. Apple lovers, beware.

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Dec 20, 2022·edited Dec 20, 2022

I completely agree with this and other critiques of any and all support for US sponsored so-called "protest movements". I also believe there is a way to be fully anti-imperialist and fully anti-capitalist at the same time. It's about maintaining a laser-like focus on calling out US covert operations while at the same time acknowledging that class struggles (the domination by the haves over the have-nots) exist everywhere and have been and continue to be highjacked by the US-NATO Empire.

The creation of front movements is an old strategy involving infiltration, subversion, and represents a classic form of black psyops. Coopting authentic demands for change was the main path to power for both the National Fascist Party and the National Socialist German Workers' Party. The secular left in Iran was decisively wiped out in the aftermath of the Mullah revolt of 1979. In keeping with its imperialist agenda, the US government sided with the Mullahs over the arguably much larger secular left. And in keeping with its strategy of back-stabbing betrayals, the US government is seeking another regime change of the very regime it sided with when it realized that the dictator it installed in 1953 had provoked a massive backlash. In the imperial playbook absolutely every actor is expendable as a matter of design.

Does this mean an authentic secular left has never been able to resurface in any way, shape, or form? Does this mean any and all mention of an authentic secular left is tantamount to being a victim and a tool of imperialist subversion? Perhaps we can do better by relentlessly exposing US covert operations, especially US sponsored and organized front movements, while also identifying historically authentic demands for change? Is it always true that the enemy of your enemy is always your friend? Imperialist covert operations require us to be vigilant of the entire gamut of consequences of our analysis.

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Great article Caitlin. I’ve been thinking about the weird relationship between protests, foreign interference and censorship. Places like China and Russia are criticized for their censorship and crackdowns on protest but the context for that is undeniable foreign interference and propaganda campaigns stirring up trouble for those governments. I won’t go as far as justifying the actions of these countries but based on the censorship that goes on in the United States over mostly contrived evidence of similar interference you certainly could. It’s a sort of doubled up double standard.

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We've gotten to a point where sticks and stones can't hurt us, but words are the most dangerous things around.

Americans have been indoctrinated to battle one another online via tweets, other hashtags, etc., all the typical nonsense, but try to actually get someone to sit down to defend their "tweets," "hashtags," etc., and well, good luck. They don't have time for that. Some drama sitcom, romcom, or other shit on the TOOOB/Lobotomy-Box requires 20 hours of their attention per week. They don't have time to actually think beyond the superficial, much less go and get real, not contrived phony bullshit info, to educate themselves.

They certainly can't see through the charade that Tucker Carlson's every bit as involved via the Operation Mockingbird MO as Cooper Anderson is. But they've got their "team" to root for, so that's what they do.

As was stated by Hawkeye in one episode of MASH, "War, the world's greatest spectator sport." e.g.

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