The Screams Of A Dying Empire: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix
By: Caitlin Johnstone
Tags: Journalism, Syria, War, America, Imperialism

The Screams Of A Dying Empire: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix Caitlin Johnstone May 30·4 min read

Listen to a reading of this article:

❖

Ana Kasparian’s infamous Young Turks tantrum about Aaron Maté was the screams of a dying empire.

Some want to dismantle the imperial slaughter machine and create a harmonious world; others just want the imperial slaughter machine to give them healthcare. These are two entirely different positions. It’s not strange that these factions feud — it would be strange if they didn’t.

US progressives who smear The Grayzone and other anti-imperialist media never have any other equally anti-imperialist media that they promote and uphold as good. This is because they are imperialists.

❖

The only way to do actual foreign policy journalism in the western world is to make a conscious decision to tell the truth without being bullied into accepting any unproven US narrative, no matter how badly they smear you and no matter how hard it is to find work and make a living.

❖

US liberals are orders of magnitude more outraged about a small group of wingnuts making people nervous in the Capitol building for a few hours than they are about the fact that their government is constantly murdering people around the world.

❖

The blame for public distrust in government and media institutions rests solely on those government and media institutions.

❖

Most westerners know that Bush and his allies destroyed Iraq, while hardly any westerners know Obama and his allies destroyed Syria. That right there tells you why we haven’t seen any full-scale US ground invasions lately. America’s solution to the PR crisis caused by the horrific consequences of its military interventionism has been to switch to preferencing sanctions, blockades, and proxy wars where violence is outsourced to other powers so the US doesn’t take the blame.

Syria is a perfect example of this new model of imperialist slaughter. The US power alliance absolutely demolished that country by arming jihadist proxy forces and then sanctioning the hell out of it to keep it from rebuilding, all with the goal of eventually toppling Damascus, but the general public is completely unaware of this.

And make no mistake, good PR is absolutely essential to the operation of the empire. They don’t pour that much energy into manufacturing consent because it’s fun, they do it because they have to. You can’t rule a managed democracy without good perception management.

The need to avoid bad PR fallouts is why Bush-era “Hulk smash” ground invasions are largely a thing of the past. It’s also why the US empire now has a secretary of state who vocally supports the new model of subtler imperialist butchery:

Trump supporters act like it’s something special that their guy “started no new wars”, but the fact that he didn’t has nothing to do with Trump himself; it’s just the new model of imperialist butchery to favor sanctions and proxy conflicts instead, which Trump absolutely did.

❖

Netanyahu’s right-wing thuggishness causing a PR nightmare for Israel is a good example of why the US-centralized power alliance increasingly prefers liberal manipulators to head many of its “democracies”. An Israeli Obama wouldn’t have lost control of the narrative like that.

There’s just not enough public support for wingnuts for them to operate as effective stewards of empire in the western world anymore. That’s why so many oligarchs and imperialists disliked Trump; not because they disagreed with him on any important policies (they didn’t), but because he sucked at perception management.

❖

❖

The US empire only recently started ramping up aggressions against China because while China’s economy is doing well, its military nowhere near rivals the empire’s, and that’s the real currency. If your neighbor has $100 and you have $100 plus a gun, then you actually have $200.

❖

If you’re having trouble interpreting a particular Bible verse, it’s because the correct interpretation is “This is an ancient document authored by confused men whose words have no relevance to my own experience.”

❖

History is one long string of horrific atrocities with the dominant religious institutions of the time either doing nothing or actively participating.

____________________________

My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, following me on Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud or YouTube, or throwing some money into my tip jar on Ko-fi, Patreon or Paypal. If you want to read more you can buy my books. Everyone, racist platforms excluded, has my permission to republish, use or translate any part of this work (or anything else I’ve written) in any way they like free of charge. The best way to get around the internet censors and make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for at my website or on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I’m trying to do with this platform, click here.

Bitcoin donations:1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2