The Status Quo Is The Real ‘Existential Threat’: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix

War is mass murder. Speaking out against it is more important than people’s emotional comfort. It’s worth disrupting family dinners over. It’s worth jeopardizing friendships over. History won’t look kindly on those who chose silent complicity over anti-imperialism.

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I still regularly stop and gawk at the fact that a US imperial ally is committing the world’s worst mass atrocity in Yemen with America’s help and it occupies almost zero public attention. Once you really grasp the significance of this fact, it’s impossible to shake.

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A news outlet which does not constantly inform its audience of all their government’s misdeeds around the world is not a news outlet.

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If you think the MSM is pathetic in the Trump era, wait until they stop all critical coverage of government altogether and just spend all day talking about how classy Kamala Harris looks in her latest outfit.

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Wanting a US presidential candidate who did not actively facilitate the Iraq invasion is not some unreasonable pedantic quibble, it’s the absolute bare minimum standard for running the most powerful military in the history of civilization.

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“Oh, but most people on Capitol Hill supported the Iraq war.”

Yeah, they shouldn’t be president either. They shouldn’t even be working in politics. They shouldn’t be able to find gainful employment anywhere more influential than working a cash register. How is this not obvious?

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“We’re going to force Biden to make progressive change!”

No you’re not. You’re not going to make Biden do anything. As soon as Trump’s gone all mass media criticisms of the US president will end, and all the opposition among rank-and-file liberals will go with it. You do not have the numbers. Vote however you want, but don’t be delusional.

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Trump is not an existential threat, the status quo is an existential threat. Trump is just the ugly face at the status quo’s front desk. Believing you can solve the existential threat by firing Trump is like believing you can fix a corrupt corporation by firing its secretary.

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Your car is knocked off a bridge and into a river. Two guys swim up to you. One tells you to fuck off and drown, the other says he’ll get you out of your car in slow increments by the year 2060. Do you keep looking to them for help, or do you look for other ways to free yourself?

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The ecosystem is dying because it is vastly more profitable to destroy the ecosystem than to preserve it. Capitalism offers no solutions for this, only exacerbation. We’re not going to consume our way out of this. That’s why hardcore capitalists just pretend it’s not happening.

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Saying “It’s not capitalism that’s the problem, it’s corporatism!” is the same as saying “It’s not smoking that’s my problem, it’s the emphysema!”

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Covid is being used to funnel wealth and power to a plutocratic class that always exploits any opportunity to shore up wealth and power, and it will continue to. Capitalism will continue to become more corrupt and unjust until people force its end. It’s not a bug, it’s a feature.

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“That dictator kills his own people!” said the empire that constantly kills its own people.

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The agenda to smash China back to the stone age has been planned for many years and will be rolled out regardless of who wins the US election. The idiotic notion that there’s something populist or anti-establishment about opposing China will get harder and harder to defend.

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“You think Russia is perfect and only the US ever does anything wrong.”

No, I’ve just learned better than to accept unproven claims by US government agencies on blind faith like a fucking moron.

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The left is so very, very, very, very far from attaining its goals in our society that bickering over what specific brand of leftism would work better is like arguing over how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.

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My special hatred for US imperialism really got going when I escaped from an abusive relationship which operated in very much the same way: creating the nice-guy illusion of freedom and equality while covertly using manipulation to exploit, oppress, and choke the life out of me.

A dumb abuser dominates like a standard tyrannical dictatorship. A smart abuser dominates like the US empire: using manipulation to make it look fair, like the victim chose it for themselves, while crushing and carving pieces off of them to shape things to the abuser’s will.

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It’s meaningless and hypocritical to decry the insanity of our society if you don’t live a life that is dedicated to healing away your own personal portion of that collective insanity.

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The illusion is that happiness is something separate from yourself that you have to put a lot of work into chasing and obtaining. The reality is that happiness has always been here and your whole life you’ve been pouring massive amounts of work into keeping it unnoticed.

https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/the-status-quo-is-the-real-existential-threat-notes-from-the-edge-of-the-narrative-matrix-7b9d6195f821