Ignorance is Strength by Publius Tacitus

This is must see. Not because it reveals anything new about the false narrative pushed by Donald Trump and his enablers (i.e. Mattis, Tillerson, McMaster and Haley)--i.e., that the Government of Syria used a chemical weapon against Islamic rebels last week. Nope. It is must see because it is clever and uses a bit of sophisticated humor to skewer Trump and those in the media who have cheered his lies.

 

 

You would think that after the debacle of our Iraq invasion in 2003 (based on a proven false narrative about hidden WMDs) that the American public and media would be a bit gun shy about embracing a new claim that some guy in the Middle East has done something outrageous with a supposed weapon of mass destruction. You would be wrong. The American public, for the most part, has had an emotional erection. We are aroused, just like Brian Williams, by the sight of cruise missiles ejaculating from the bowels of a US Destroyer, blazing away into the black sky and exploding somewhere. We appear to is a gullible lot with the memory of an Alzheimer's patient and cheer the White House and Pentagon claims that we have destroyed enemy planes and taken out an airfield. Yet, within 24 hours, that airfield is operational and there is no evidence produced of actual destruction. But that does not matter. Most of the public and all of the media are agog at Trump's "show of strength." That made him truly "PRESIDENTIAL." 

Looking back at the events that led to the rise of Adolf Hitler, I had always wondered how a nation as advanced and educated as the Germans of the 20th Century could be so bamboozled into shedding their humanity. Now I know. We are in the process of defiling our own culture and values. Ours is a culture of death that we inflict routinely on others overseas. We need to have an enemy. Without an external enemy we appear to have little confidence that we can remain a "great" country. I am not suggesting that Donald Trump is Adolf Hitler. He's not that smart or cunning. But I am asserting that Trump has discovered a great way to quench his emotional thirst for acceptance and appreciation--drop bombs and talk tough.

Pray for our nation. We are in peril. 

Comments

[tim s]

This post at 9:03 didn't appear correctly. In between both dual quotation marks is supposed to be the "less-than i greater-than"

[FB Ali]

I'm no expert, but, as far as I know, HTML tags operate thus:

To start italics etc type in < > with i within. To end italicized text type at this point /i , inside the brackets.

The same goes for bold or underlined text, except that one uses b or ul within the < >.

For more on all this see: http://tinyurl.com/lnrd7r9

[Ingolf]

Fair enough, but you'll have to respond one more time in order to have the last word.

The US (and its "allies") have indeed expanded but principally by taking on fresh liabilities. As for its (their?) enemies being dead . . . really? Seems to me they're very much alive, and getting stronger by the day.

And its friends, well, my guess is their sense of conviction, unlike that of America's appointed enemies, is definitely not growing stronger.

[optimax]

IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH is a true statement if incomplete. Keeping the masses ignorant allows the elite free reign to enslave them.

The same with WAR IS PEACE. Foreign wars rally the masses around the elite and allow them to squash dissent.

[LeaNder]

Babak, no harm meant. Seriously. What feels like irrationality to me, beyond your Makkadinejad theses, must not necessarily be. It may have to do--I am more intuitive then rigidly empirical around here--with your more emotional side in comments. Usually you seem more controlled by reason in your judgements.

"I have a question for you: 'Why does EU so irrationally hate Iran?'"

I have not the least qualifications to speak for the European part of "Fortress West". Personally I do not hate either Iran or Iranians, people living there or expats over here or elsewhere collectively. I also have a limited amount of influence on European foreign policy, to the extend there ever was a unique foreign policy.

We agreed to disagree on Ahmadinejad, remember? I may have been completely mistaken in my judgement. He felt too much of the Janus face of another ME player from my no doubt limited grasp.

While I would agree, that some things in his UN speech were justified complaints, Iranians no doubt have a lot to complain, the larger semi-coherent narrative irritiated me.

I am aware that not many agreed with me at the time on Mondoweiss. I sure did agree with them concerning a deep dislike of the war drums against Iran, on the other hand.