CARTOON / PENTAGON WITCH HUNT LOOMS: Aaron Bushnell's Self-Immolation Has Triggered Crackdown That Will Not Be Limited To Military

Bushnell’s anarchist and anti-Zionist views are being characterized as ‘extremist’ positions by some calling for an investigation into left-leaning US soldiers.

Cartoon by Mark Taylor / DeMOCKracy.ink

“So anarchism is a left-wing tendency, but there are also right-wing anti-government tendencies. Every single one of these designations comes with a lot of opportunity for the Bureau to pursue both sides of the political aisle.”
— Ken Kleppenstein

By Mel Buer
The Real News Network (4/21/24)

US Airman Aaron Bushnell’s self-immolation in protest of the US support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza has raised questions from some about the politics of soldiers in the US military. Bushnell’s self-avowed anarchist views have become an object of particular scrutiny, raising the possibility of Pentagon surveillance and investigations into left-leaning troops.

Journalist Ken Klippenstein joins The Real News to discuss the political storm brewing in the wake of Bushnell’s act of protest and the ramifications it could have on soldiers and civilians alike.

Klippenstein writes for The Intercept.

21-minute audio and transcript

“What you see is this race to the bottom where unfortunately both political tendencies end up trying to cast or paint their opponents as domestic violent extremists or terrorists. And the segment of the society that benefits from that is the national security state because then they have the political capital to be able to pursue some of these things and expand their authority. And that’s what we’ve seen.”

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MANAGING THE MIND BLOB: The Empire Doesn't Hide Its Worst Deeds, It Just Manipulates How People Think About Them

By Caitlan Johnstone
Caitlin’s Newsletter (3/24/24)

The worst actions of your government happen not in secrecy, but right out in the open under the narrative cover of mass media propaganda. The western empire doesn’t hide its worst deeds, it just manipulates the way people think about them.

Tomorrow we could unearth rock-solid proof that the US government knowingly orchestrated 9/11, and that crime in and of itself still wouldn’t be as bad as what the US government is facilitating in Gaza right now, in plain view of the entire world. And even if such a revelation did occur, the imperial media would probably either ignore it or spin it so that its impact is dulled into impotence.

The empire’s worst atrocities happen in the open because the empire’s worst atrocities involve butchering and starving huge numbers of people, which is impossible to do in secret. They can assassinate a government official here and sign a malignant secret agreement there without needing to do it openly, but murder at mass scale isn’t something you can conceal in the information age.

The US-centralized globe-spanning power structure therefore relies heavily on its historically unprecedented ability to psychologically manipulate global populations when carrying out such atrocities. The empire has invested more heavily in soft power than any empire or government in human history, and the science of modern propaganda has been advancing under this investment at least as rapidly as military technology has been.

That’s why you can have the most damning information imaginable about the people who rule over us sitting right out in the open, and you won’t see anywhere remotely close to the public outrage and backlash you ought to see. The US government can literally back a genocide without hiding any part of it, and the political-media class will simply manipulate public psychology into getting lost in a bunch of hogwash about self-defense and human shields and difficulties delivering food and medical supplies and hey Biden is working hard to do the right thing here and it’s all very complicated and everything bad that happens in Gaza can be blamed on Hamas anyway.

It’s a truly astonishing power that would inspire awe if it wasn’t so evil. Power is controlling what happens, but real power is controlling what people think about what happens.

What our crumbling civilization most needs

Whistleblowers and investigative journalists provide an invaluable service to humanity for which we should all be grateful, but what this civilization needs more than anything right now is not so much new information about what the powerful are doing, but rather the ability to lucidly perceive the information that’s already been made public. We need people clearly seeing what’s already right in front of them, without the lens of distortion and obfuscation that the powerful have placed over their eyes.

Until we find a way to snap a critical mass of people out of the propaganda-induced coma the empire has placed them in, they’ll be able to get away with any evil they need to commit in order to secure their interests and advance their agendas. We can work on this front by doing everything we can to get people looking at the reality of what our rulers are doing at every opportunity, in as creative and interesting a way as we can come up with. The more eyes open to the truth, the more lucid perceivers there will be to help open the eyes of others. …

Read the rest or 4-minute audio

“Until we find a way to snap a critical mass of people out of the propaganda-induced coma the empire has placed them in, they’ll be able to get away with any evil they need to commit in order to secure their interests and advance their agendas. We can work on this front by doing everything we can to get people looking at the reality of what our rulers are doing at every opportunity, in as creative and interesting a way as we can come up with. The more eyes open to the truth, the more lucid perceivers there will be to help open the eyes of others.”