Divide And Brainwash: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix

[caitlinjohnstone.com]

{One of the biggest challenges for a developing anti-imperialist, at least in my experience, is learning to differentiate between those who actually want to end the oligarchic empire and those who just want the empire to act a bit more cosmetically nice than it does. These are two completely different positions, especially because the latter is pure fantasy: you cannot have a globe-dominating unipolar power structure that doesn’t use violent force to maintain that world order. Yet the two groups often wind up moving in overlapping circles.

I’ve never had trouble knowing what my own position is toward the empire, but I’ve often struggled figuring out who shared that position. There was a long unfolding process of going “Ohh, we’re not on the same page at all. You want entirely different things from what I want.”

Most of the sectarian fighting you see on the left splits along those lines: those who want to end the oligarchic empire, and those who want the oligarchic empire to be a bit nicer. These two positions are ultimately irreconcilable, so those factions will never get along.}

That has been my most disheartening discovery since I've been doing this type of arm chair political commentary since 2016, as I then advocated for a Sanders presidency. The waves of being hard hit by notifications of there being so many who fall into this rabbit hole of existence since 2016 is astoundingly difficult to live with.

I was basically in the process of crawling out of my own rabbit hole during that period as it became obvious Sanders was exposing himself as being a fake socialist and tool for the ruling class. If 2016 couldn't manage to be the enlightenment era, what time then can be? Even my dumb ass became fully enlightened to just how indoctrinated our society is into being the largest group of fools on the planet.