 You’ve seen this all before. They run the same script over and over again. You know all the beats. The formula never changes. “Oh no, the people in the targeted nation are being oppressed! They need freedom and democracy!” “Hey, I bet we could use our powerful military to help them get the freedom and democracy! Wouldn’t that be swell?” “Oh gosh, there are some people who don’t think we should use our powerful military to help the people in the targeted nation get freedom and democracy! They must have some sinister, suspicious loyalty to the Evil Regime which rules the targeted nation!” “Look, I get that sometimes in the past we have used our powerful military in ways that were mean and unhelpful, but you need to understand that the Evil Regime is also very, very bad. Two things can be true at the same time, you know!” “Oh no, now the Evil Regime is committing atrocities! You know it’s true because it’s in the news, and the news isn’t allowed to lie! We’ve got to DO something! We can’t just DO NOTHING!”
Don’t fall for it. Don’t fall for the propaganda. Don’t fall for the imperial concern trolling about human rights. Don’t fall for the nuance policing and both-sidesing of the empire’s operatives and useful idiots. Don’t let the empire apologists shout you down and shut you up. Stand your ground. This is exactly what it looks like. You are right, and they are wrong. They’re not doing anything new. They’re using the same old script. Hell, they’re even using a lot of the same actors. This is the same bullshit as always. Once you’ve seen enough Hollywood movies, you get familiar with the formula. Boy meets girl, but he’s got some kind of secret or character flaw that will be discovered by the girl about three-quarters of the way through the film, it will seem as though all is lost, but he wins her back in the end. They churn out variations of this movie year after year, following the same formula every time. This is like that. You’ve seen enough of these to know the formula by now. Trust your gut. Have confidence in your own inner vision. You’ve got this. There’s probably going to be a whole lot of narrative distortion dumped into the information ecosystem in the coming days, but they’re not going to make a sucker out of you. You’re seeing things much too clearly now. ________________ The best way to make sure you see everything I write is to get on my free mailing list. My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece here are some options where you can toss some money into my tip jar if you want to. Click here for links for my social media, books, merch, and audio/video versions of each article. All my work is free to bootleg and use in any way, shape or form; republish it, translate it, use it on merchandise; whatever you want. All works co-authored with my husband Tim Foley. Bitcoin donations: 1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2 Feature image via Adobe Stock. Invite your friends and earn rewardsIf you enjoy Caitlin’s Newsletter, share it with your friends and earn rewards when they subscribe.
|
No comments:
Post a Comment