It is all a part of the same phenomenon. Western governments actively assisting genocide in Gaza; attacks on benefits for the disabled; a deliberate official narrative of Russophobia; rampant Islamophobia boosting the rise of extreme right-wing parties and fuelled by government anti-immigrant rhetoric; an incredible accumulation of wealth by the ultra-rich; rampant erosion of freedoms of speech and expression.
It is not happenstance that all of this is happening at the same time. It represents a radical shift in Western philosophy.
This shift is not simple to trace because anti-intellectualism is an essential part of the new philosophy. Therefore this philosophy does not really have its equivalent of Bertrand Russell or Noam Chomsky, whose careful exposition of societal analysis and ideals, based on a comprehensive understanding of previous philosophical discourse, is being superseded.
If there is a current equivalent we may look at Bernard Henri Levy, whose rejection of collectivism and support of individual rights moved ever rightwards into support of raw capitalism, invasions of Muslim countries and now outspoken support for the genocide in Gaza. If you want to find an embodiment of the shift in Western philosophy, it might be him. But few any longer pay attention to academic intellectuals sitting in their studies. The now-threadbare mantle of “public intellectual” in the West has passed to lightweight figures like Jordan Peterson and populist Islamophobes like Douglas Murray.
Part of this is institutional. In my youth, Bertrand Russell or AJP Taylor were quite likely to turn up giving serious talks on the BBC, and John Pilger was the most celebrated documentary maker in British media. But now left-wing voices are effectively banned from mainstream media, whilst left-wing academics are most unlikely to progress in academia. Academia is itself now entirely run on a corporate model in the UK as throughout all the West.
A young Noam Chomsky would almost certainly be told by the University authorities to stick to linguistics and leave aside the philosophy and politics, or not get tenure. Chomsky was already a renowned linguist in 1967, when he published his breakthrough essay “On the Responsibility of Intellectuals”. Essentially a call for academics to support the protest movement, a young professor who published it today would almost certainly get suspended if not sacked and even, in today’s climate, quite possibly arrested.
The deportations of students from the USA who have broken no law but protested against genocide; the fines there on universities for allowing free speech; the deportations of EU citizens from Germany for speaking out on Palestine; the police raid on the Quaker meeting house in London and the widespread “terrorism” charges against peaceful journalists – these are just examples of a wave of repression sweeping the major Western states.
They are all linked. It is a structural movement in government of the worst kind. It can only be compared to the wave of fascism that swept much of Europe in the 1930s.
The great irony of course is that it is the Western destruction of Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and the Western destabilisation of Syria that led to the massive wave of immigration to Europe that caused the rise of the far right. Over 1.5 million Syrian “refugees” were granted asylum in the EU, because they claimed to be on the anti-Assad side, which the West was supporting. AfD is very much a result of Merkel’s decision to accept 600,000 Syrian refugees in Germany.
Fascinatingly, now their side has “won” and a Western-backed government been installed in Damascus, less than 1% of these refugees have returned to Syria. Despite the official anti-immigrant narratives of almost all Western governments, there seems to be no attempt to suggest that they might return. Indeed, those Western politicians most keen on deporting immigrants are the least likely to suggest that the reliably Zionist anti-Assad Syrians should leave, even though those same politicians portray Syria under al Jolani as a liberal paradise and rush to give it money.
The neo-con immigration narrative in Europe is peculiarly complex and flexible. Effectively immigrants viewed as on the West’s side in its wars (Sunni Syrians, Ukrainians) have an open door.
Mass immigration to Europe is therefore a direct result of imperialist foreign policy, and that plays out in complex ways, with the West’s victims arriving against official disapproval and the West’s clients arriving with official approval.
Equally, the economic dislocation and large rise in inflation which also has strengthened the populist right, is itself exaggerated by Western foreign policy. The proxy war in Ukraine is largely responsible for the step change in Europe’s energy prices, with the destruction of the Nord Stream pipeline a key factor in the major struggles of German manufacturing industry.
Incredibly, for a year the entire Western media and political class tried to enforce the lie that Russia destroyed its own pipeline – just as they claimed Hamas blew up the first of the dozens of hospitals and health centres destroyed by Israel.
We come back to Gaza, as all serious discussion must at present. I cannot come to terms with the fact that the takeover of the political Establishment by Zionist interests – itself a consequence of the massive growth of the comparative wealth of the ultra-rich – is making it possible for the most brutal genocide possible to happen before the eyes of the world, with active support from the Western establishment.
It is not that the people do not want to stop it. It is that there is no mechanism connecting the popular will to the instruments of government. The major parties all support Israel’s genocide in almost all the Western “democracies”.
It has become impossible to deny the intention of Genocide now. Israel has stepped up its killing of children to dozens every day, is openly executing medics and destroying all healthcare facilities, is bombing desalination plants and is blockading all food.
The Zionist narrative on social media has shifted from denial of genocide to justification of genocide.
I simply cannot understand the mainstream tolerance of this Holocaust. I am living in an age where the power structures and social narratives I do not recognise as part of a societal organisation to which I can consent to belong. It is the British Labour Party which is actively supporting genocide whilst targeting the most vulnerable at home for cuts in income. It is the EU which is doing everything possible to promote World War 3 and transforming into a militarily aggressive organisation of Nazi leanings.
Still, it’s not all bad news.
Israel’s genocidal President Isaac Herzog welcomed Ruth Smeeth, Louise Ellman, Christian Wakeford and Margaret Hodge with open arms.
Look at Margaret’s face. She was having the time of her life. Bless her.
Who says genocide has to be depressing? https://t.co/jphoeDu8SV pic.twitter.com/AnX0JhrqtY
— Frank Owen’s Legendary Paintbrush🥀🇵🇸🇱🇧🇾🇪 (@OwenPaintbrush) April 6, 2025
The UK, US and other first world nations are radically cutting overseas aid to provide money for imperialist military aggression. The broadly social democratic consensus of the Western world in my youth involved much dull compromise: but it was infinitely better and more hopeful than this Hell we are creating.
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German policy has its roots in “Holocaust guilt”. The German state of the first half of the 1940s murdered 6 million Jews. The current German state seeks to atone for that crime by helping the Jewish state to a holocaust of Its own. If things continue, will it be a Final Solution of its own -at expense of the Palestinians?
Modern German Democrats like Konrad Adenauer and Willi Brandt must be turning in their graves
Bah, the only thing the Germans truly feel sorry for is losing WW2.
The spectacle of contrition vis-a-vis the Jews, isn’t at all mirrored in relation, to the many other genocides and chattel slavery the Third Reich committed. Or planned to commit.
It’s PR and an international/internal control rod. Nothing more.
I was checking my email earlier and, as such, came across one from Labour Outlook with an article by Diane Abbott entitled ‘Welfare not warfare must be our banner’ (originally posted on CNDs website), in which she says:
This is not a discussion confined to activists and policy wonks. At least two national newspapers have made the link, with one splashing on its front page that the government is creating a warfare state.
So at that point I did a search to see if could find the articles AND the two national newspapers she’s referring to (at a guess, I assume it’s probably the Guardian and the Independent, or perhaps the i), and in the process came across this piece from 1985. I’ve only read the first couple of pages so far, but here’s the title and a clip from it:
War Making and State Making as Organized Crime
Apologists for particular governments and for government in general commonly argue, precisely, that they offer protection from local and external violence. They claim that the prices they charge barely cover the costs of protection. They call people who complain about the price of protection “anarchists,” “subversives,” or both at once. But consider the definition of a racketeer as someone who creates a threat and then charges for its reduction. Governments’ provision of protection, by this standard, often qualifies as racketeering. To the extent that the threats against which a given government protects its citizens are imaginary or are consequences of its own activities, the government has organized a protection racket. Since governments themselves commonly simulate, stimulate, or even fabricate threats of external war and since the repressive and extractive activities of governments often constitute the largest current threats to the livelihoods of their own citizens, many governments operate in essentially the same ways as racketeers.
https://www.bmartin.cc/pubs/19sd/refs/Tilly1985.pdf
Yes, precisely, and that is exactly what the Starmerfuhrer and the establishment and their media chums have been laying on us for much of the past three years… since they and the US et al provoked Russia into invading Ukraine, and progressively ratcheting it up, and are now of course doing all they can – the European element that is – to sabotage a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine.
Anyway, I then thought I’d check out CNDs website, which I don’t think I’ve ever done before (but I could be wrong), and came across the following (relatively short) piece, posted on March 26th entitled ‘Spring Budget is all about war and austerity’:
Whilst the government says the spring budget is about security and renewal, in reality it is about doubling down on failed and dangerous policies of war and austerity. The budget will make the population poorer, particularly the most vulnerable in our society. It will fail to keep us secure, instead dragging us towards greater threats of war and the catastrophic use of nuclear weapons…
https://cnduk.org/spring-budget-is-all-about-war-and-austerity/
I then came onto Craig’s website to find that he’d just posted a new article…
I happened to be on amazon earlier (yesterday) checking out a book someone referred to in an article on Counterpunch, and that in turn led to me coming across a relatively new book about the USS Liberty. I read the original book about the episode about ten years ago, but in coming across the book and, as such, being reminded of the episode, it occured to me that it sums up and encapsulates and exemplfies Israel and the US for what they are, and is incontrovertable proof of how totally evil they are. Yes, WE all know it – ie those of us who follow Craig et al (the truepers), but as with this latest atrocity by Israel, they lie and fabricate so as to try and dupe and deceive the masses, and in this particular instance, given the video footage that’s now come to light, the MSM in the main appear to be going with the absurd response by Israel that the IDF ‘made mistakes’… but, there were Hamas fighters amongst the paramedics and responders, so that justified it, many of the MSM saying in their headline – in respect of the video – that ‘it appears to contradict’ the IDF version of events. Er, no, it *DOES* contradict the IDFs version of events, and there were no Hamas fighters amongst the crews of course, and Israel was lying though it nasty rotten psychopathic sadistic murdering teeth again, and you damn well know it.
“Bernard” Russell?
Sorry had just been writing about Bernard Levy!
I wonder if Bertrand Russell was partly an inspiration for Verity Lambert’s conception of the original Doctor Who played by William Hartnell, only not ever to be part of the Establishment.
I just went out to smoke a roll-up before crashing out, and I recalled something Jonathan Cook said in an article. I went on to his website late yesterday evening to see if he’d posted an article about the video footage that recently came to light. But there was nothing, so I then did a general search and, as such, came across the following article posted today on a website called Evening Report nz. It’s pretty long, and I imagine it must have taken him a couple of days to put it together, the point being that he doesn’t mention the video footage (although I imagine he will be posting an article about it shortly), but he says this in relation to the murder of the paramedics and responders, and the claim by the IDF that there were Hamas fighters among them:
But as news of the atrocity started to appear on social media last week, and the mass grave was unearthed on Sunday, Israel was forced to concoct a cover story.
It claimed the convoy of five ambulances, a fire engine, and a UN vehicle were “advancing suspiciously” towards Israeli soldiers. It also insinuated, without a shred of evidence, that the vehicles had been harbouring Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters.
Once again, we were supposed to accept not only an improbable Israeli claim but an entirely nonsensical one. Why would Hamas fighters choose to become sitting ducks by hiding in the diminishing number of emergency vehicles still operating in Gaza?
Why would they approach an Israeli military position out in the open, where they were easy prey, rather than fighting their enemy from the shadows, like other guerrilla armies — using Gaza’s extensive concrete ruins and their underground tunnels as cover?
If the ambulance crews were killed in the middle of a firefight, why were some victims exhumed with their hands tied? How is it possible that they were all killed in a gun battle when the soldiers could be heard calling for the survivors to be zip-tied?
And if Israel was really the wronged party, why did it seek to hide the bodies and the crushed vehicles under sand?
The graver Israel’s atrocities in Gaza, the quieter the BBC grows
https://eveningreport.nz/2025/04/07/the-graver-israels-atrocities-in-gaza-the-quieter-the-bbc-grows/
I read this on Friday on Jonathan’s substack.
I watched it. It was dashcam footage. I don’t usually look, if I can avoid it, but I looked and I listened. The emergency responder was concerned for the safety and welfare of the people from the burning car. Then the machine guns started. Then he prayed and prayed and prayed. And the fire engine and ambulances were beside the burning car. Then the guy said, sorry mum, I know you didn’t want to me to do this work but I only wanted to help people. Arabic overdubbed in English. Then there was only machine gunfire. And darkness. Source TRT I think.
Bertrand Russell was a posh plonker who when he thought the USSR hadn’t yet got nuclear weapons advocated bombing that country with US nuclear weapons for “peace”. Did the philosopher ever say he’d been wrong to take that line? I know he changed it, but that’s not the question.
Sure he was kicked off Trinity College’s high table back in the day, but he snivelled his way back to it when they asked him back. What a creep. If he couldn’t say smash Trinity College, we’re not talking about someone who was opposed to the ruling class.
Credit to him for opposing WW1 and also for opposing the US effort in Vietnam, but many did. Sorry but it doesn’t make his effort more valuable than anyone else’s just because he was posh.
But look what he did in between WW1 and Vietnam – he supported WW2, in which more people were slaughtered than in WW1 and Vietnam put together.
The Committee of 100 was cool too. Few are aware even today that they sprang George Blake from Wormwood Scrubs. They also directly tried to confront and expose the cull planners of that time. Great work. Practically nobody does that today. Practically nobody has the guts to oppose social media or smartphones – it’s more than bloggers’ blogs are worth.
As for “we want a new Bertrand”, where was this blog when the government imposed limited mass house arrest on practically the entire population? (Complaining about not being allowed enough exposure on Facebook probably.) Did it express any clue as to what was happening? Where does it stand on the developments towards mass chipping and the obvious mega-cull that is waiting? It’s essentially the “conscience of journalism” – haha. Nobody needs any of that. Perhaps 100 years ago or even 60 it might have made some sense.
“where was this blog when the government imposed limited mass house arrest …”
In gaol from August to November 2021. However there were a number of posts from CM related to the pandemic before that and also many people posting comments and new threads in the discussion forums. I imagine CM was busy with his appeals and the prospect of gaol time.
You can go have some fun reading through the thousands of posts/comments 🤣.
This blog banned radical criticism of what the state was doing during the “pandemic”.
Might have been an underling, I dunno.
Brian Red
Are you saying that Bertrand Russell should not have “supported WW2”?
Defence against Nazi violence is not a controversial position here, I hope.
Hope so too.
Beware knee-jerk opposition. Nobody is entirely wrong. School history & Hollywood aren’t always fiction.
“Defence against Nazi violence is not a controversial position here, I hope.”
If you think that WWII was “Defence against Nazi violence”, then you need to read a bit of real history. Nor was it a “War against Fascism”.
Perhaps those who dispute those true positions should occasionally read some non-revisionist WWII history? Gerhard Weinberg is an obvious choice. Non-revisionist stuff strains credulity less and requires fewer feats of intellectual gymnastics. And tends to be more consistent with documents, contemporary accounts and specialized literature. Which tend to be distorted or ignored in the never ending quest to epater les bourgeois with shocking! iconoclastic! revelations! that will make $ for the author, and/or befuddle fellow academics long enough to get tenure. Particularly from writers reputed to be on the Left, the shocking! revelations! of “real history” tend to be warmed over right wing or even German propaganda.
I don’t think there’s going to be mass chipping. Why should they do that, when we obligingly chip ourselves? We all carry a hackable, traceable phone that they can listen in on at any time. We self-report our location, our moods, the books we’re reading, what politics we listen to, who we like, who we hate, where we’re going, what we’re planning. There’s no reason to chip us. What more do they need to know?
“We self-report our location,”
We don’t even need to self-report it, all we have to do is have our ‘phones turned on. At the weekend I was visiting a friend in a town in the West Country. I did not inform anyone apart from my friend that I was there. Last night YouTube thought I might like to view a film of the last days of operation of the long-closed branch line that once served the town. As you say, no chips needed, apart from the one in your ‘phone.
The UK is a Spookocracy.
“A counterintelligence state (sometimes also called intelligence state, securocracy or spookocracy) is a state where the state security services penetrates and permeates all societal institutions, … “
Keir Starmer’s first Chief of Staff, Sue Gray “took a sabbatical from the Civil Service” in the 1980’s to run a Republican bar in Newry, South Armagh.
Starmer’s second Chief of Staff, Morgan McSweeney is being backed by powerful forces presumably not directly aligned to MI5.
McSweeney, a 47 year old with no appreciable employment history beyond being a back room functionary for the Labour Party purchased a £750k, sandstone mansion in Lanarkshire as a postal address in support of his wife’s carpetbagging ambitions. Make no mistake, neither McSweeney or his wife actually live there.
Imogen Walker (McSweeney’s wife) is the MP for Hamilton and Clyde. She was parachuted into the constituency contest by head office having negligible connections to Scotland. Walker was confirmed as the candidate by postal votes, having lost out to a local candidate on in-person voting. The very notion of postal voting being a provision for members of a local Labour Party is preposterous.
Why am I reminded of Peter Mandelson’s £373k, covert loan from Labour MP Geoffrey Robinson? A clear case of mortgage fraud which brought down Mandelson’s Ministerial career in 1998. Mandelson was forced back behind the curtain, which is a lesson McSweeney appears to have absorbed, taking care not to reveal himself to scrutiny in the first place.
The fact that McSweeney won out in a power struggle between himself and Senior MI5 Officer Sue Gray is telling.
Someone is backing McSweeney. I wouldn’t overplay the alleged animus between McSweeney and Blair. If it ain’t the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change that’s bankrolling McSweeney, then who is?
Starmer is a serial marionette of shadowy forces whether domestic or international. As for Starmer’s politics, I can’t detect any. It’s all Corporatism and Managerialism. Power as an end in itself.
I may be wrong but pretty sure Imogen Walker is from Dollar, Clacks.
I couldnt agree more RE Starmer being the serial marionette of shadowy forces.
There appears to be very little personality to the man.
Everything he says appears carefully scripted,he is not the author of these scripts entirely .
“There appears to be very little personality to the man.”
Not only that, but he constantly looks like he has no control over what he says or does, as if he is acting under coercion.
Thanks for the pic Craig. I recognise Russell and Hugh McDiarmid and I feel I should know the guy to the left of Russell but just can’t place him.
Could it have been Rev Michael Scott – linked to Peace News? Good article on history of the Committee of 100 on freedomnews.org.uk
Just came across this Guardian article, posted yesterday, and headlined Israeli military changes account of Gaza paramedics’ killing after video of attack, in which it says the following:
Israeli media briefed by the military have reported that troops had identified at least six of the 15 dead as members of militant groups and killed a Hamas figure named Mohammed Amin Shobaki.
None of the 15 killed has that name and no other bodies are known to have been found at the site. The official declined to provide any evidence or detail of how the identifications were made, saying he did not want to share classified information.
“According to our information, there were terrorists there but this investigation is not over,” he told reporters.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/apr/06/israeli-military-admits-initial-account-of-palestinian-medics-killing-was-mistaken
“According to our information…”. Oh, right, perhaps that was ANOTHER mistake! As for the official declining to provide any evidence or detail of how the identifications were made, well of course he did, because it’s complete and utter bollox. So the scenario goes something like this: Israeli troops see vehicles heading towards them suspiciously with no lights etc (even though they did), and regard them as a threat, and they’re just about to start firing on the vehicles when they suddenly identify at least six of the occupants as members of militant groups, and one as a Hamas figure…
Yeah, sure they did. The reality is that after however many days it was – six/seven days – the UN is notified by the IDF that the area is now safe for them to enter, and being sadistic fascist psychopathic mass murdering scum – and knowing of course that crews would be coming to the area to try and determine what happened to their colleagues – a contingent of IDF soldiers were sent out to wait for them to arrive, and then murder and execute them all (except for one, as it transpired). And the great big gynormous elephant in the room is that the IDF have NOT at any point said that they retrieved and, as such, have the weapons these militants and the ‘Hamas figure’ were carrying and armed with, which they surely would have been of course, and the IDF briefed the media to that effect. I mean the IDF being the IDF, they would more-than-likely lay all the weapons out and take a few pictures of them to provide to the media. But nada. And we all know why of course.
And here’s another article I spotted on the Guardian’s website, posted four days ago:
‘I heard them take their last breath’: survivor recounts Gaza paramedic killings
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/apr/03/i-heard-them-take-their-last-breath-survivor-recounts-gaza-paramedic-killings
Dear Craig, I understand that you, like the rest of the world like to be payed for his work, but please don’t make it a demand and please allow people to read your articles on Substack without forcing them to pay for it.
Journalism should be like medicine, to help people, not to sell them what is their rights to have or to know.
Thx
You can subscribe to substack, then read the articles free here when you get a notification of one, if you wish. They will always be free here.
From above, and CM posts the same after each blog post from him:
“Because some people wish an alternative to PayPal, I have set up new methods of payment including a Patreon account and a Substack account if you wish to subscribe that way. The content will be the same as you get on this blog. Substack has the advantage of overcoming social media suppression by emailing you direct every time I post. You can if you wish subscribe free to Substack and use the email notifications as a trigger to come for this blog and read the articles for free. I am determined to maintain free access for those who cannot afford a subscription.”
Reading comprehension is sometimes useful.
As he states, the posts here and on substack are identical. You just won’t see the comments on substack or be able to post comments there.
Craig, we are living in that Mitchell and Webb sketch…. “Are we the baddies?”
I read Mearsheimer and Walt’s The Israel Lobby nearly 20 years ago now… I could not believe the ‘lock’ they had on the US back then and Western Europe is exactly the same. The UK is almost as bad as the US, look what they did to Corbyn in plain site.
I have been saying it since the start the genocide is providing a lens through which we can see what we have become, or rather made into…
The west has been ‘occupied’ just the same as Palestine and we have collectively been ‘Israelified’. Look around you, the indifference and / or the fear to speak up.
And even if you do where do you do it? Not wingsoverscotland sadly… this place is about it these days where free speech is guaranteed.
Ultimately western politicians live by the post-truth policy. It is like facts does not matter to them anymore, it is an incredibly disturbing development. Western politicians could flatly deny that Israel commit this or that crime because there is no one holding the polticiians to account anyway. The politicians and the journalists have merged into 1 subject that represent the same interest, just like any other dictatorship.
The other day Orban invited Netanyahu to Hungary, not a single word of condemnation by the EU. When Orban flew to Russia last year the criticism was overwhelming even though Russia have commited far less war crimes than Israel, but again, facts do not matter for the western politicians.
When politicians/media keep silent about human atrocities in Gaza, what does that normalization do with people? It makes people more accepting of violence, it make people more brutal and it make sure that even more senseless carnage will be ok and that is what happend in Gaza, starting a bit careful Israel quickly realized that they could do whatever they want, the western politicians/media will not protest. Now we are in a situation where 300 children have been killed past weeks and where aid workers have been slaughtered and there is no reaction.
Another core problem is the horrible social media, since most people have not been to Russia nor Gaza and know no russians, arabs etc westerners base their image on these nations/people from what the media tells them plus the last 20 years there have been a rapid closure on what views that could be expressed on these topics, today it is short, dumbed-down anti-intellectual scaremongering headlines that in turn create a false-consciouness in the western social-media user.
When I browse on social media – especially Twitter/X – I am disturbed how much time people spend there and how ignorant people are, a considerable part of westerners are straight out stupid, it is like westerners have no recollection about historic events that occured just 10 years ago (like Maidan, Minsk Agreements) and also lack basic rational, critical thinking, the culture on social media is incredibly primitive, tribal. It should be banned because nothing good comes out of it.
Another problem is that that the left/socialists/labour/greens have abdicted their role, instead of following their, for lack of a better term, left-wing, policies, these groups seems increasingly keen to mimick the typical right-wing ideology: past weeks Starmer have complained about globalization, boasted about how many immigrants he expelled along with that we have his militarism on Russia and bowing down to Israel – like any other right-wing politician.
Jack, I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that Starmer is in no way on the left, or a socialist, or Labour, for that matter. He’s a right-wing lying fascist Tory, as are many Labour MPs, who make up the majority of Labour MPs. He lied through his teeth so as to win the leadership election and, as such, duped and deceived many left-wing members, and then, one by one, dropped all of his pledges in the following twelve months or so. I have no doubt whatsoever that the establishment had him lined up for the leadership once they and their media chums had finished JC off. The big give-away was that there was no way the establishment’s propaganda machine would have endorsed him if they’d thought he REALLY was gonna see through his Ten Pledges, and they undoubtedly knew that he would drop them after he was elected. The other aspect of it was that by and large, he kept out of the (fake) condemnation and denunciation of Jeremy that many other Labour Party MPs joined in doing (condemn him re the fake A/S black op), precisely so that he could pose as a left-winger in the leadership election when Jeremy eventually lost, and stood down.
“He’s a right-wing lying fascist Tory, as are many Labour MPs,”
I think it’s worse than that. The man is an amoral opportunist and has no principles at all. He will do what ever he is paid to do.
Craig, thank you for this post.
Craig has succinctly described the problem. Metaphorically or not, as suits you, the devil is laughing at us, evil power believes it can act with impunity.
We cannot act with impunity. We are monitored, surveilled and divided, and we lack the instruments of concentrated power. But act we must.
We can’t affect Israel’s economy directly as individuals since most of their exports are not retail items. So why don’t we attack the supporters of Israel, e.g. Germany, by not buying their cars and by boycotting their exports and their chain stores such as Lidl and Aldi?
Vivian, The UK is apparently the most bellicose by far of all the western nations in regards to Russia, the UK populace has also been saturated (and I do mean saturated) with anti russian/putin propaganda in this regard for at 15 years now at least. It really ramped up at one point and has not abated since.
UK military intelligence I read has a very long history in western Ukraine and may have been involved in the original creation of the ‘Bandera movement’ shall we call it and their faux Viking roots etc… it actually sounds very likely to me. MI6 according to Doug Macgregor were providing Zelensky’s personal body guards. ‘We’ run him.
For the life of me I can’t work out why the people behind Starmer have got themselves into this kill or be killed existential clash with a power that will annihilate them (and us). I suspect / speculate they have taken a huge (financial) gamble in Ukraine somehow and the Russian SMO/invasion is causing them to lose their shirts. They just can’t accept defeat even when it is staring them in the face. It is bizarre.
The reason Starmer cut the pensioner heating allowance and disability benefits (and more) is to send the money to Ukraine. Which is exactly what he did. He also made a 100 year pledge to keep doing so, I shit you not. Are the UK media even saying that out loud… what do you think.
It is so bizarre because they gutted the UK’s industrial capacity to go to war over decades and the entire army (fighting and non fighting staff) could currently fit into Old Trafford. Plus we are skint…
Desperate people do desperate things. They seem mad enough to believe that a war economy is the ‘solution’.
@Mac, and what kind of government makes such a 100 year pledge? Not a democratic one, that’s for sure.
Speaking of the British intelligence, on April 6th the Belorussian customs intercepted a load of 580 kg PETN (720 kg in TNT equivalent) coming from Poland. The explosives were hidden in a Mercedes van on transit route to Russia under layers of thermal insulation sheets and plywood boards. You won’t find this in google news, but I wonder, had any Army unit in the UK reported it missing?
I still remember VE day – being with my parents outside the Town Hall with a red, white and blue V on my coat. Then the hopeful feeling in the 1950s that things were certainly better for the working class with offspring like me able to go to University. That now seems like another incarnation. From genocide in my childhood to genocide now. I had expected better.
“From genocide in my childhood to genocide now. I had expected better.”
=======
Arguably, at least for Germany, you HAVE better: lead actor in the first case, best supporting act in the second.
This is a bit like one of those Trompe-l’oeil pictures where some people see an old woman and others see a young girl, yet we’re all looking at the same portrait. If Jordan Peterson is a lightweight (which is debatable) he’s risen to prominence because more serious people who SHOULD have been defending intellectual cut-and-thrust in the universities have deserted their posts and allowed crybully students of questionable intellect to take the place over and “cancel” everyone they don’t like as a “fascist.” I’m simply staggered that anyone could consider leftist ideology to be an impediment to advancement in the academy. To most of the tax donkeys who have to carry the weight of these socialist madrassas it looks like the beginning of a new Soviet Union, where we can see “approved” voices of the left writing about “equity” from their state-funded dachas while the rest of us are starting at the four walls of our brutalist council flats, owning nothing and wondering about when we get to be happy.
What you’re looking out on, Craig, is not some capitalist monster devouring all before it. It’s the pushback from the bottom up that’s been a long time coming. Once you understand that most of us out here — “we the people”, the ordinary suckers in whose name the left claims to do everything — want, more than anything else, to be left alone, things begin to make more sense. When Jeff Bezos spent half a billion dollars treating himself to a new yacht which necessitated taking down a city bridge to get it out of the shipyard, most of us didn’t actually care. Yeah, we thought it was a waste of money, but so what? Bezos was doing something we all want to do. Not buying stupid boats, but creating space around himself. Same story with Zuckerberg buying up all the houses in his superrich neighbourhood so he can control who lives there. We understand this; property is just another word for liberty. Most of us don’t care about being poor so long as the white saviours just leave us the hell alone to say and think what we want.
What has gone wrong is not capitalism, it’s the creation of a caste of midwits out of redbrick universities, middling to poorly educated, but who insist that they’re intellectuals whom the world needs to take it to the next place. People who go on to colonise what is sometimes known as “the blob” in the UK, or the deep state in the US. People who just “know better” than you and who don’t feel the need to put their programmes before the public for approval. Judges who send people to prison for tweets; police officers who turn up team-handed to arrest Whatsapp posters; prime ministers who feel they can publicly declare that supposed rioters are definitely going to prison before they’ve even been arrested, and all of it driven by the cretinous notion that man lives by bread alone, that all humans are the product of economic forces and that they can be “re-engineered” to fit together like some kind of perfect jigsaw.
Well, we can’t, and what your seeing is the realisation that the sixties dream was actually an absolute nightmare. In essence, Craig, you’re trying to sell yourself the equivalent of the mantra that communism would definitely have worked if Trotsky had got the gig instead of Stalin. No, it wouldn’t, because it was a stupid idea from the get-go. It was NEVER going to work, and neither was the counter-culture. The paradox is that only successful societies can produce the kind of nonsense that we’ve been struggling under for the last sixty years. That’s why the Islamic world didn’t have hippies. Not because of religious oppression; that’s irrelevant. It’s because Islamic society is incapable carrying a passenger class producing nothing and getting in the way of those who ARE contributing. It’s why, historically, it was often legally very difficult for Christian subjects of the Ottoman Sultan to convert to Islam; if they did, who would pay the dhimmi tax?
Here’s my advice to the west, Craig, and to you also — we’ve been doing it all wrong for the last six decades. All those ideals we grew up with over the last few generations? They’re wrong. All that stuff our grandparents lived by? That’s what works. It doesn’t work great, and it never works properly, it just works better than anything anyone from anywhere or any time else has ever tried, including us. Put it back the way it was.
Populism, first known to have been practiced in Athens in the Peloponnesian War, has scarcely changed since when Thucydides described it. It is why Athens lost that war. it is not ” the pushback from the bottom up that’s been a long time coming”, but the exploitation of simplistic themes that will appeal to the non-elites by elite politicians. The only successful case I know of where it has worked, for nearly fifty years, is Iran, where the elite were thrown out with the Shah (and have been moaning ever since), but the religious regime has genuinely worked for the people, much better off today, than they were when the Shah and his upper classes stole everything that wasn’t securely tied down, but at the price of religious symbolism. Trumpism hasn’t worked at all, as we see this very day, with the collapse of the markets, in the style of 1930 and the Smoot-Hawley act.
”where we can see “approved” voices of the left writing about “equity” from their state-funded dachas”
Where are these ‘state-funded dachas’ you speak of?
” while the rest of us are starting at the four walls of our brutalist council flats,”
It’s hard to believe that you have ever lived in any such place at anytime in your entire life.
What a ludicrous litany of vacuous pomposity.
Yes, this nails it. There is more to it, but that would take a book. The world is changing all the time and those who were in clover lagging the system are complaining about others who start putting in their tuppence worth that is not to the academics’/political operatives’/bureaucrats’/taxpayer-supported loudhailers’ liking. Not everyone who has never done a day’s useful productive work realises where they come in or how they will go out. That’s life, and we cannot do without diplomats, bureaucrats and politicians. Academics is another matter. Some do fantastic work, the which they could do outside the Academe, but the majority don’t seem to know what they are there for, unless, of course, they see their life’s work as destroying western society to deliver us into the hands of the other system’s kleptocrats. Anyway, it’s the citizens-voters who are responsible. They’re fine with the way things are. Look at who and what the majority supports. It’s majority rule.
While
has long been true of the British Empire in wide swathes of policy under the Royal Prerogative, this blight does appear to be spreading, and reflected in the language of British and USAmerican administrations. So, Britain’s Allies are not the public’s choice of friends, and USAmerican imperial policy is in no way to be influenced by democratic sentiment and argument: the ‘permanent government’ and ‘deep state’ determine all the most important policies insulated from (actually by) elections, the merest veneer of democratic semblance.
But this is not the real problem. The real problem is governance by human Will, elite or popular, instead of governance for Health. Which is why democracy (which can have all the faults of oligarchy including belligerence and xenophobia) is not the cure for these ills. And genocide in Gaza is part of global ecocide.
#biocracynow
Craig, I agree with most of the items on the list in your second sentence, except for the deliberate narrative of russophobia. After Russian behaviour in Georgia, transnistria and Ukraine, and putin s statements that Ukraine is not a real country, is it not prudent for western countries to rearm? If you seek pace, prepare for war, and all that. It always amazes that people who right about Israel vis a vis Palestine are often wrong about Russia vis a vis Ukraine, And vice versa. What do you think? Also, what do you think are the chances of a referendum in the disputed and occupied areas of Ukraine? Nobody seems very bothered about what the inhabitants of these areas think about what country they want to belong to .
No, nonsense. Putin’s territorial “incursions” have been entirely confined to the former Soviet Union and then very selectively to certain small areas with Russian speaking populations. This is very evidently no threat to the West at all. The theory that because Putin has occupied Lugansk he wants to occupy Arbroath is for imbeciles.
Craig, try to be a bit more civil. Perhaps you are intolerant of people who question your views and you feel insecure?? I expected better of you. I made a legitimate point, and you have no right to label those who question your views as imbeciles who are talking nonsense.
James
Regards Ukraine, Russia/Putin was provoked into invading Ukraine by the West/US. And Russia doesn’t even begin to compare with the US. Came across the following when I did a quick search (I don’t have enough memory banks left to retain such information in my head) – ie an answer to a question someone posted on Quora who asked ‘What countries has the CIA overthrown, not including during wartime?’ :
The CIA didn’t exist until July 26, 1947. Its reason for existence is warfare against whomever the USA considers a threat. The reason the CIA has been used to provide finance, training, armaments and otherwise support terrorist groups, is so the USA government can deny culpability!
The list of insurgencies, coups etc that the CIA has instigated or encouraged is numerous. We only know about the ones where the CIA (USA) failed or were proven culpable. There are many that are suspected but not proven!
Off the top of my head countries where the USA is known to have installed dictatorships are Chile, Argentina, Nicaragua, Venezuela, pick a South American nation, Iran (the reason for the Islamic revolution), Cuba (the reason for the Cuban revolution), Taiwan (when the USA supported Chiang Kai-shek’s dictatorship),, Iraq (Saddam Hussein was supported by the USA until he lost the proxy war with Iran). There are so many. To get a full list do a google! There are heaps of videos on Youtube covering the topic!
The CIA also tampers with elections in other countries, drug smuggling to fund “black operations” (to bypass scrutiny by Congress), and many other nefarious schemes such as assassinations of politicians, union officials & anyone else that might upset the USA government. And worse, on behalf of the USA government, it regularly conducts clandestine activities and subversion in the countries of the USA’s military allies!
And also this wikipedia entry, which lists them all:
United States involvement in regime change
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:United_States_involvement_in_regime_change
And Russia poses absolutely no threat to Britain or Europe or the US etc, unless it was directly threatened, and it’s all complete and utter claptrap fear-mongering.
As to Craig’s question: Is This The World We Created?
It’s the world the psychopaths created, and but for them our reality – and our history (global, that is) – would be completely different. We live in a Pathocracy:
Throughout history, psychopaths, sociopaths, narcissists, and assorted antisocial-personality-disordered individuals have ruled societies.
Psychopaths and sociopaths often exhibit glibness and superficial charm, have a grandiose sense of self-worth, are pathological liars, display extreme narcissism, are deceitful, cunning and manipulative, exhibit a lack of remorse or guilt, show a callous disregard for the feelings of others, have no conscience, lack empathy, and fail to accept responsibility for their actions.
In a competitive world, the people who act immorally, who have no regard for truth, are going to have an advantage over those who play by the rules. The result is that those who achieve positions of power will be the most ruthless, the most sociopathic, the ones without conscience.
PATHOCRACY: THE GLOBAL ORDER
https://www.pathocracy.net/
PS I’m not sure about George Soros though. And I should just add that I’ve encountered quite a few over the years personally, and been mind-fucked by them on several occasions. It’s their favourite pastime, as I’ve learnt to my cost, and they just absolutely lurve blowing people’s minds. Literally. And THAT of course – albeit on another level – is exactly what Netanyahu and his fascist buddies – along with Biden and Blinken and Starmer and now Trump and Musk et al have been doing to countless people in Gaza and the West Bank for the past eighteen months or so.
You, James, should be less imbecilic, Craig is correct, Russia has never invaded any country except those it borders with, the Western countries have, that’s a fact, not a view, something that no amount of verbal chicanery or your quoting Putin’s statement can alter.
A deal was made when the USSR fell apart, for a united Germany not an inch east of Elbe for NATO, that deal was broken by the Americans gradually since 1999 when Czechia, Hungary and Poland joined the alliance as the first Soviet Union satellites, the western encircling of Russia got a final boost with Victoria Nuland’s Feb 2014 Kiev’s violent putsch that turned Ukraine into a US colony, if Putin didn’t invade in Feb 2022, the NATO trained and armed Ukrainian military forces would have moved east at some date later, what else were they trained and armed for?
” Russia has never invaded any country except those it borders with, ”
Just like Israel then, so let’s not bother ourselves about them either. Incidentally, where’s the Russian/Afghanistan border? I can’t seem to find it marked on any maps.
It was the Soviet Union which invaded Afghanistan. It did border Afghanistan.
Pears Morgaine
Disingenuous remark. You should have said “Soviet/Afghanistan” border. It was right there on the Amu Darya at the time.
For that matter, where was the US/Afghanistan border? Not very obvious why the US is to be allowed to do things that Russia isn’t.
As I’ve previously said, it would make no difference if NATO had advanced to the Russian border or not. We’d still be having this war now if it hadn’t. We’d just be having it in Germany instead of Ukraine. The problem is Russia. It’s an inherently violent and unstable state that is simultaneously paranoid and messianic. If the west advances, they’re out to get us. If it doesn’t, our destiny is clearly westward expansion. It doesn’t matter if it’s the Czar, the Communists or Putin, it always comes out the same way with Russia. Ask Estonia, Latvia, Finland, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, oh, and Ukraine, of course. It cannot be reasoned with, it can only be contained.
What utter nonsense. There is no evidence whatsoever Russia has any intention to attack Germany.
Baron said ‘Russia”. ” Russia has never invaded any country except those it borders with “.
“Baron said ‘Russia”. ” Russia has never invaded any country except those it borders with “.
Your point being?. Russia doesn’t have a border with Afghanistan, but then Russia has never invaded Afghanistan. The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan and had a border with it. Baron is correct.
“The problem is Russia.”
Do you actually have any evidence to support your case, or is this just a Russophobic fantasy, which ir certainly resembles?
As I’ve previously said, it would make no difference if NATO had advanced to the Russian border or not. We’d still be having this war now if it hadn’t. We’d just be having it in Russia instead of Ukraine. The problem is the US. It’s an inherently violent and unstable state that is simultaneously paranoid and messianic. If anyone resists, they’re out to get us. If they don’t, our destiny is clearly eastward expansion. It doesn’t matter if it’s the Pentagon, the Neocons or the POTUS, it always comes out the same way with the US. Ask Vietnam, Korea, Afghanistan, Cuba, Grenada, Iraq, oh, and Ukraine, of course. It cannot be reasoned with, it can only be contained.
There, fixed it for you.
Bayard: “… it would make no difference if NATO had advanced to the Russian border or not. We’d still be having this war now if it hadn’t. We’d just be having it in Russia instead of Ukraine. ”
Indisputable. I was – days ago – in a small town in Portugal, near a NATO base. Aircraft – Tornados, pairs of fighter jets and the occasional propeller heavy bomber – were taking off on a constant basis.
The idea that we’re not already in an declared war is ludicrous.
I can only imagine the pearl-clutching if Russian forces had been deployed against our attack and invasion of Iraq.
People disagree with me all the time here and it is good. What annoys me is bad faith. It is not really possible in good faith to argue that child losses in Ukraine are on the same scale as Gaza.
Oh, OK then. So it’s a numbers game. Just like the one the supposed bad actors who run modern states play.
”The problem is Russia. It’s an inherently violent and unstable state that is simultaneously paranoid and messianic. If the west advances, they’re out to get us.”
A cursory reading of history would indicate that Russia is correct to fear attack from the west. They are very proud to have seen off Napoleon, Hitler and now Biden/NATO.
”If it doesn’t, our destiny is clearly westward expansion.”
The countries the USSR occupied post WW2 all supplied fascist forces to attack their country. You can call that westward expansion if you wish. I am not aware of Russian boots ever being on the ground within the UK, but there have certainly been British boots on the ground inside what is now the Russian Federation. In fact there have been reports of that in Kursk recently, a hare brained operation allegedly planned by the British military.
You should give up answering some of those posting here, Mr. Murray, they are so hatred infused they will never admit to the truth, take the Athanasius fruitcake portraying Russia as “an inherently violent and unstable state’ which cannot be further from the truth, until the October 1917 Bolshevik revolution Russia has been going for over three centuries without any colonial ambitions whatsoever, plenty of assassinations but the same Romanov dynasty in charge, communism in Russia unlike nazism in Germany was forced upon the Russian unwashed, in Germany the NSDAP came first in the Autumn 1932 elections for the Reichstag, Hitler followed, how stable was that?
The man hasn’t probably read anything on Russia or the Slavonic tribes, if he had, he couldn’t possibly talk the nonsense he does. One of the essential books in view of the Ukrainian war is ‘The Seven Roads to Moscow’ by Lieutenant-Colonel W. G. F. Jackson, a British military man, the book is a must read for the cadets of the United States Military Academy (USMA) at West Point. One wonders if Biden and the other lot he surrounded himself with had read the book before they began the Ukrainian project.
The Russian threat tae Arbroath is decent patter.
Posted on Braveneweurope and not published:
“EU funding: As I have always understood, GST was introduced to fund the then EEC. Not all of that ends up in the EU treasury. In the EU member countries, the total GST collected would be a stupendous amount. Most of that, and income/wealth tax, is frittered away into a vast army of bureaucrats at the nation-state level, all manner of subsidies, and others guises, for partisan political purposes, notably the funding of NGOs and activist groups (some of which have only one or a few members). Some of Yanis’ proposals make sense; say, a one thousand km wide demilitarised zone between the Russian federation, including aligned states, and its neighbours, but to have peace, one must be prepared for war. The European peoples, with some exceptions, are not prepared for war, and therefor will not have peace. People in the West are kidding themselves, We have been at war since the first day of the Lockdowns. Academics and others will have the perfect solutions, but who decides? Few of the peoples in Europe want communism, and they vastly prefer the current kleptocracy over the one in Moscow or Beijing. That much is crystal clear.” One more thought; every day we have to live down the karma we collectively created in the past as well as the resultante of our intent, or lack of. We can’t have a world where nothing happens, but if we want a world where whatever happens is less violent, we have to work at it. Looking at western Europe and the Australasia that I know, the majority are not exercised by world affairs. It is part of our culture let things run down until the crisis is upon us. Years ago I opined that we are re-living the 1930s. Except for a change of heart and waking up to the real world by the majority, there is nothing to be done. With communists dead-set on destroying western civilisation,.. what do they want? Communism a-la Moscow or Beijing? What are they thinking?
It may be prudent to prepare for the possibility of a Russian advance against Western Europe, even though all evidence says it’s highly unlikely. It isn’t prudent if those preparations impose massive costs to deal with such a small risk. It’s especially imprudent to frame those preparations as a bung of 800 billion Euros to the very arms manufacturers whose products have failed to turn the tide in Ukraine. The cheap answer is nuclear deterrence which would only need to be on a small scale. The possibility of half a dozen Hiroshimas would tip any Russian calculation against an attack. If nuclear is ruled out, the militarists need to propose and cost an approach, then convince the rest of us that the expenditure is justified.
”Also, what do you think are the chances of a referendum in the disputed and occupied areas of Ukraine? Nobody seems very bothered about what the inhabitants of these areas think about what country they want to belong to .”
There were elections in the areas you describe although the vote to become absorbed into the RF was unwelcome in the west obviously. Ukraine showed its commitment to democracy by launching rockets at some of the polling stations and threatening those who voted with dire consequences.
“Also, what do you think are the chances of a referendum in the disputed and occupied areas of Ukraine? Nobody seems very bothered about what the inhabitants of these areas think about what country they want to belong to .”
It may have slipped your notice, but all the areas have held referendums which voted overwhelmingly for them to be come part of the Russian Federation, or is it that referendums and elections that return a result the West doesn’t like don’t count?
Dr John Coleman used to write medical columns in the newspapers until he started becoming aware of trends among the powerful who were herding the western nations into uncomfortable conformity. His books are very informed and informative. I would have preferred a different link than to Amazon, but anyway, here it is for just three of his many publications. I believe he now prints to order his latest books. He is indeed very knowledgeable.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/John-Coleman-Conspirators-Hierarchy-Committee/dp/B000VCHK6E
Coleman casts his net a bit wide, and reviews of his books vary from confident to dismissive, since his evidence is questionable at times. Nonetheless his predictions appear to have been borne out by events, regardless of a few red herrings. Conspiracies or networks seem to operate like shoals of fish, without guarantees of success, but with a unifying objective. At this time it is the State of Israel that is the shoal that has integrated its objectives into several others which see advantage in belonging to it.
Bernie was asking a Senate Committee a series of questions yesterday, and asking the panel to express their views as to whether each of the things was anti Semitic. Views varied, some said yes, others said No. Bernie was clear that holding a critical opinion of the actions of Israel is not anti Semitic. But, he asked, was Protest anti Semitic? The Rabbi said it was, regardless of whether Jewish people took part in the Protest, because he said that criticism of Israel translated into hatred of Jews and made him feel afraid.
His last question related to cartoons of the Koch billionaires as puppeteers controlling leaders of governments around the world. He introduced it as a Jewish trope about Jewish bankers. Most agreed it was anti Semitic because it was a trope, however one of them suggested that it was only anti Semitic because Koch was Jewish and it wouldn’t be if he wasn’t, if the cartoon was actually relevant to the actions of an identified individual.
So this is the dilemma.
This is an old propaganda trick, authored, IMO by the late Charles Krauthammer, that since Israel is fighting for its survival, any criticism of Israel equals calls for its destruction and is, therefore, anti-Semitic.
Well, I see a little more nuance I think. Although I didn’t live then, I find it hard to agree that the 1960s were any better. The eastern half of Europe had nothing even getting close to free speech. The western half was going through a Franco hell in Spain, shortly to be overshadowed by the Basque uprising, the Irish civil war and then by the Balkan war in the south. The US was relentlessly bombing Vietnamese civilians while China just concluded the annexation of Tibet and started a slow extermination of the Tibetans who today effectively ceased to exist as a separate ethnic group, let alone a nation. The Nakba also happened at that time.
Yes, there were academics in the West who were able to spread progressive ideas. There were others who were thrown in prisons for being gay or opposing conscription. It was not all roses and sunshine these days, honestly.
Most disgusting for me is that the youth of the 1960s, who then protested the Vietnam war and social inequalities, are the ones who are running countries and corporations nowadays.
As much as the genocide in Gaza is revolting, it’s neither the first nor the last genocide in the world’s history. Obviously. I’d be keen to understand their causes and mechanisms, which my gut feeling says may have more to do with a strong national/ethnic identity, competition for resources, and the innate fear of “the other”, common to the entire human species. It may be overly simplistic to blame genocide on politicians alone.
I mean, politicians mostly strive to respond to social expectations in order to be popular; they are usually too weak to influence what the society expects. The recent rise of the extreme right is not something planned by the mainstream parties; they actively try to prevent it by adopting right-wing narratives themselves, but without policies to ensue. Statistic shows that immigration peaked under the Tories in the UK, and under PiS in Poland, yet these parties are commonly perceived as anti-immigrant, correct? Starmer’s Labour only adopts a left-wing narrative, yet the policies it enacts have nothing to do with progressiveness; it’s only an trick to prevent the real progressives to form a left-wing party. If you or me were running a political party that suddenly had to compete for the same electorate, we’d probably do the same.
Politics is disgusting, and it was the same in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and today. QED.
One could think what one wanted and say what one thought in the 60s, Kacper, Baron arrived in the UK in the 60s, the country was poorer but more homogenous, it matters for a country, today we are restricted in what we can say even if it often is self-censoring, we are not a united country either but a number of separate tribes that happen to live in the same country.
I suppose Jordan Peterson is ultimately lightweight, pandering to various perceived powers, whether that be Jesus or Jung. But it seems he has at least tried to read widely in sciences from evolution to neuro to personality psychology (‘big five’ etc). Potentially heavy points could be rescued from his biased interpretations.
For example, for decades we’ve heard American-style crude biomedical marketing about Serotonin or Dopamine dysfunctions. Which misrepresents the neurotransmitter roles, disregards the actual neuronal networks. They’ve backtracked on that quite a lot now, but it’s part of the culture. An evolutionary perspective puts it in a different light. A finer social light actually.
1/2
As a piece of evidence for the demise of intellectual culture see my new post in the Israel thread in the Forum:
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/forums/topic/israel-the-crucible-of-evil/page/3/#post-103618
It is a machine-translation of Omri Boehm´s planned then cancelled speech for the commemoration of the liberation of the Buchenwald concentration camp 80 years ago. It was sabotaged by the Israeli government.
Imagine that this speech was the reason for Jens-Christian Wagner of the Buchenwald memorial society to back out and disinvite Boehm.
As a contrast watch this 10 min. piece between John Mearsheimer and Glenn Greenwald.
Everthing Boehm refuses to address is in there. And Mearsheimer is not a B. Russell:
“Prof. John Mearsheimer: Why Israel’s Destruction of Gaza is “A Genocide””
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uypAZMwzJ9U
Of course the cancelled speech was intended for a very specific purpose. But the underlying affirmatively imperialist logic behind it reveals those very sore points which Craig hints at.
After all the failure of intellectuals is not a failure that we saw coming because the intellectuals would have been incarcerated. Quite to the contrary.
In fact the destruction of intellectual discourse approaches us in the vestments of culture, weighed views, seemingly sensible verdicts and a superficial handling of what is now regarded as part and parcel of standard criticism of the neoliberal order.
But it is this very incompetence of a Boehm-like and wide-spread, poor analysis that has enabled progressive societies as the German left liberal movement to fail in ways that technically resemble the failure of the 1930s.
There are reasons for this, e.g.:
1) Substantial parts of Western societies have grown so wealthy that the necessity of withstanding ruling elites in their rampage has become secondary or even detrimental because former are part of latter.
2) demise of labour unions
3) rise of anti-social culture via social-media
4) the demise of Marxist analyisis and education – Marxist in its true sense as a tool to understand and fight capitaliism from below
5) The economic rise of the Global South – the former colonies are now resisting their former masters
6) concentration of capital which leads to the demise of independent mass media
7) concentration of capital which curtails the space for individual resistance threatened by the financial pitfalls of possible trials and professional ruin
“6) concentration of capital which leads to the demise of independent mass media
7) concentration of capital which curtails the space for individual resistance threatened by the financial pitfalls of possible trials and professional ruin”
That makes it sound as if the problem is the concentration of capital, whereas the problem is not the capital, but the people who hold it and the use they put it to. Rich people tend to become rich through being unscrupulous and greedy. The riches don’t make them like that. It’s a problem of morality, not of economics.
1. There was never “independent” mass media. If you are “mass”, then someone has to pay the cost, because masses love to consume much more than to pay.
2. Concentration of capital hasn’t significantly changed over the last millennium or so. More than 90% of resources keep being controlled by a small fraction of the population. The Soviet Revolution was one attempt of changing it and offering everyone equal income, but it didn’t work out: it turned out that human creativity, entrepreneurship, and the sense of responsibility are driven by financial incentives much more than Communism foresaw.
I’m not defending the concentration of capital – a vision of equally well-off people is always tempting, but I find bitching about it quite pointless: either something can be done about it or let’s just live with it. The haves obviously have more means to protect their interests than the have nots, but I doubt they are morally different than the poor. Give money to a poor and then see how they will act towards others. We saw it first-hand when the Soviet Revolution executed the riches, and the society, economy, culture, etc., were now to be managed by “noble workers and farm labourers”. Nah, their morality wasn’t shining.
The whole concept of a “poor and noble” vs “rich and heinous” is more of a folk perception than a psychological fact.
The one thing that does not get said enough about Alex Salmond, that also unconsciously attracted a lot of people to the independence movement, was that when he was leader there was an implicit ‘moral’ foreign policy.
It was that moral backbone which made Salmond a target much more than his stance on Scottish Independence.
Knowing what we know now… How much ‘USAID’ money went against the 2014 referendum? Before and after? I’ll bet an utter shitload.
The thing was rigged folks. It is obvious. It was not just us, it was everyone.
And that is just the tip of the shitberg. We are against a tsunami of money. They don’t abide by any rules.
Thank you Mac for pinpointing the crux of the concerns. Morality used to be simple and unquestionable. Do as you would be done by, or be done by as you did. International law could agree this as an immutable distinction between good and evil. The erosion of Church and community has played a part in eroding the moral principles, and the concept of tribalism has been imported without clear integrative values. The notion that some people make the rules and others break them has been open to democratic scrutiny for the whole of the last century. The internet has brought that scrutiny into ever widening circles, and yet identifying how the currents of ideas, how the systems themselves, are generated is a multipolar exercise.
That morality which underpins peace agreements, trade and manufacturing, and the transfer of money, is complex and has to be robust enough to weather attempts to evade controls wherever immoral individuals attain enough power to skew the dynamic.
The freedom of the West has been a remarkable achievement, held together by government by consent. It is that moral underpinning to our consent which has been weakened by the complicit weakness or greed of our leaders who we seek to hold to account and when we find ourselves facing something bigger and less answerable instead, then this is our difficulty.
“It is that moral underpinning to our consent which has been weakened by the complicit weakness or greed of our leaders who we seek to hold to account ”
It is not just our leaders, it is everywhere. We all live in an society where moral standards have been degraded and that is where the root of the problem lies. It’s easy, but wrong to pin the blame on a group in society and say that if we just got rid of that group (usually the rich, the 1%, the elite etc.) our problems would be a good way to being resolved, but it can’t be done. There are good and bad people in all walks of society and removing a group throws out the good with the bad, meanwhile there are plenty of the bad in the ones left waiting to take their place at the top of the heap. Ultimately, we are in a worse place because we thought we didn’t have to do anything to maintain the status quo when we were in a better place. Now we are left with the choice of doing nothing and letting things get slowly worse, or pushing back hard and making things get much worse much more quickly with a chance of them then getting better. Unsurprisingly people tend to opt for the former.
2/2
While I agree that with Russell, Chomsky, Said and many more also lesser known but not less important voices have mostly vanished we do still have enough wisdom but its figures have been banned from the centre stage.
And eventually in regards of Germany: This country never was a stalwart example for progressive views on Israel in the first place.
Best example is the shocking incompetence of a Jürgen Habermas who denied the Gaza genocide.
Habermas in a highly snobistic environment of post-war FRG was often described as a limelight among peers. But so was Hans-Magnus Enzensberger who in 1991 became widely famous for calling Saddam Hussein the new Hitler.
So Germany has a petty tradition of vastly overrated “political intellectuals”. Those who would have deserved such praise never would have come near. Or would have rejected the label.
Or take famed sociologist Eva Illouz who was member of the Commission to devise the Antisemitism definition and has naturally been regarded as a saint. She now has been denied the Israel Culture Award.
But throughout 2023/24 she was denying that IDF was lying about Hamas 24/7 and in her capacity propagated those very lies such as the ones about mass rapes and the above mentioned Hamas blowing up its own hospitals.
Or German historian on colonialism and widely seen as an authority, Jürgen Zimmerer, who a few days after the first ICJ ruling more than a year ago was capable of giving an interview about Gaza not mentioning either the ICJ or the genocide but instead address AfD and the Holocaust.
The same person who has been argueing in favour of countries like Namibia. Of course until he had to confront Namibians on Gaza.
Then – suddenly – the sympathy ended.
And in his behaviour he only perpetuated a lack of understanding and an unconscious racism and suprematistic notion nested deep within German intellectual culture since its formative years before and after WWI. when it was made into a formidable tool of German imperialist propaganda.
p.s. I am not sure how Chomsky would see this now:
He has always used the failure of Weimar as a warning example since the then – as he saw it – foremost Western culture – could turn into a genocidal war machine.
Looking closely at the habits and incredible arrogance among the representatives of this culture I have come to think Chomsky has missed to see this very grave flaw that was part of the design from the onset.
well said. to add insult to injury T’s tariffs will lead to serious trade wars that do nothing to solve any problems.
NB typo: “…responsible for the step change in Europe’s energy…” << step = steep
—
[ Mod: It’s not a typo, mary-lou. The expression “step change” (defined here) is roughly 40 times more common in published works than “steep change” (see the NGrams comparison chart). ]
As a (now retired) electrical engineer, step functions and responses were part of my university education. It’s where an input to a system abruptly changes from one value to another and how the system will respond. So I think Craig is right about this. In the systems we studied, the response could be calculated and any arbitrary input could be broken down to a series of infinitesimal steps and the responses added together. In the wider world, I’ve gained a feeling for step responses even where they can’t be calculated and always predicted that the step function of Brexit would provoke an economic response that deteriorates most rapidly around 2026/2027. Hold on to your hats.
Paraphrasing here but, we live in world where the only reason some people stand tall is because the terrain surrounding them is flat.
I think it is Marx who said it – could be wrong.
Meritocracy – how’s that particular experiment going?
The Hidden Hand of The market – another one.
Capitalism may not be perfect but it’s better than the other alternatives – we are about to find out.
The purveyors of the givens have been to University ( not Redbricks) and they laud and defend a system
that ( despite having been to University) they know little about – other than it pays their bills – gets them Ermine
or a stint on GB news etc yet, they are clever enough to work out that he who pays the piper calls the tune.
Trump is a millionaire at least but he surely is smart enough to know that even he works for other people richer
and smarter than him.
It’s layers of people down the Pyramid of Power.
The Multi Billionaires are the epitome of More Money Than Sense.
I don’t think they are Evil just un- imaginative considering they know in a capitalist world
that lots of money can do lots of things.
Like get clean water to t people – educate feed and clothe people as well as house them etc etc.
Instead they buy a yacht – go into space (why?) which suggests not the world of the adult just the
world of a child with lots of money entertaining him or herself.
As a Leftie I don’t believe in Philanthropic capitalism and Bill Gates donating money is not the solution
to the ills of the world.
I would personally posit Socialism as long as it had the word International in its title.
This is where the University educated defender of capitalism have a role.
It is their job to keep the electorate divided – patriotic and not to view politics in terms of classes.
If they can do that their reward is to keep their highly paid salaries and payments rolling in until
(and sometimes beyond ) the day they die.
Wars ( Trade or the terrible kind ) are not visitations they have historic roots economically and
geographically.
This is what is being played out in front of our very eyes right now.
It is the greed of some of the rich and not necessarily the billionaires that has led countries down
these frightening paths of both types of war.
It is the Meritocracies job to sell the patriotism – to sew divisions internally and externally and to
cloak the class struggle in mystery.
Whether the ‘ masses ‘ wake up to the deception is a matter of predicting the future.
I am not Old Moore with his Almanac – all I can see before me is a dis- illusioned electorate in the
whole of The West who’s leaders take little or no notice of the electorate and plough on regardless.
The West looks like moving to the far right looking for answers.
The thing is – is: If the right doesn’t have any answers where do the electorate go then?
It is not inevitable that the more poorer countries become that they automatically move to the left.
It looks like Socialism will have to be imported rather than the Western Left export it to other countries.
Maybe, if the Western electorate take the view that the US is no longer a friend ( it never was and never will
be) and then join the BRICS there is a possibility of survival at least.
But, the Meritocracy have to agree to that or just sit and hope that Samson Trump doesn’t pull down the whole
capitalist Temple in his effort to re-asset US rule over the world.
There’s nothing much wrong with the wealth creation in today’s version of capitalism, Mr. Mark, what stinks is the distribution of the wealth, unless that’s addressed the West is likely to suffer a convulsion as big if not bigger than anything we’ve been through in the recent past.
The gap between the super rich and the super poor couldn’t be any bigger, if Amazon’s Bezos were to convert everything he owns into cash and live until he was 80 he could spend seventeen million bucks each day, contrast that with the 120,000 deaths on the streets of American cities from drugs overdose.
“I would personally posit Socialism as long as it had the word International in its title.”
The problem with Socialism (as opposed to socialism) is it posits a magic sieve that can be passed through the population, separating the bad guys from the good guys and allowing the good guys to regulate the bad guys into virtuous ways. Not only does such a sieve not exist, which means that just as many bad guys end up amongst the regulators as amongst the regulated, but you cannot legislate or regulate society into a better form.
In Britain, people mostly don’t vote “for” a party. Under FPTP, a vote “for” a party other than the big 2 is usually a wasted vote, so people vote against the party they hate more.
Whichever party gets elected then ignores its manifesto “pledges” and does whatever its paymasters want.
At the EU level, there isn’t even any pretence of democracy. No ordinary citizen outside Germany ever voted for Ursula von der Leyen (for that matter, even in Germany not that many citizens ever voted for her – certainly nowhere near a majority of voters).
The people in EU countries voted for their governments and then their governments voted for von der Leyen. It’s simply a two-stage process of democracy. anyway she is not president of Europe, but chief of the civil service. she is a disaster for Europe.
A “civil service” that *initiates* legislation?
Pull the other one!
As to Craig’s question: Is This The World We Created?
It’s the world the psychopaths created, and but for them our reality – and our history (global, that is) – would be completely different. We live in a Pathocracy:
Throughout history, psychopaths, sociopaths, narcissists, and assorted antisocial-personality-disordered individuals have ruled societies.
Psychopaths and sociopaths often exhibit glibness and superficial charm, have a grandiose sense of self-worth, are pathological liars, display extreme narcissism, are deceitful, cunning and manipulative, exhibit a lack of remorse or guilt, show a callous disregard for the feelings of others, have no conscience, lack empathy, and fail to accept responsibility for their actions.
In a competitive world, the people who act immorally, who have no regard for truth, are going to have an advantage over those who play by the rules. The result is that those who achieve positions of power will be the most ruthless, the most sociopathic, the ones without conscience.
PATHOCRACY: THE GLOBAL ORDER
https://www.pathocracy.net/
PS I’m not sure about George Soros though. And I should just add that I’ve encountered quite a few over the years personally, and been mind-fucked by them on several occasions. It’s their favourite pastime, as I’ve learnt to my cost, and they just absolutely lurve blowing people’s minds. Literally. And THAT of course – albeit on another level – is exactly what Netanyahu and his fascist buddies – along with Biden and Blinken and Starmer and now Trump and Musk et al – have been doing to countless people in Gaza and the West Bank for the past eighteen months or so.
I just went on to the Guardian’s website to check something out (which I’ll explain shortly), and came across the following article, posted yesterday (the 7th) afternoon:
Israeli strike on hospital camp used by Gaza journalists kills 10 people
Dozens seriously injured as fire engulfs tents used by Palestinian journalists in hospital complex in Khan Younis
An Israeli airstrike on a tent camp within a hospital complex in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis has killed 10 people, including a journalist, while seriously injuring dozens more after their encampment caught fire.
Images and video from the courtyard of Nasser hospital in Khan Younis showed people desperately attempting to extinguish the fires as it burned through a row of tents. One video showed people screaming as a bystander attempted to move a burning piece of furniture, while a journalist, later identified as Ahmed Mansour of the news outlet Palestine Today, sat upright engulfed by the blaze.
His colleague Helmi al-Faqawi was killed in the strike, while at least nine other journalists were among the wounded. Mansour received treatment for severe burns while the photographer Hassan Aslih was reportedly in a stable condition after suffering a head injury and cuts to his right hand…
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and the Shin Bet security agency said the airstrike on the hospital grounds was targeting Aslih, whom they accused of being a member of Hamas. In a statement, the IDF accused Aslih of taking part in Hamas’s attack on a string of Israeli towns and kibbutzim on 7 October 2023, when 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken hostage.
He took part in the attack by uploading “footage of looting, arson and murder to social media”, the IDF said. Aslih has documented the impact of Israeli attacks on Gaza by uploading photos and video to his Instagram page, followed by 571,000 people…
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/apr/07/israeli-airstrike-on-camp-within-hospital-complex-in-gaza-kills-people
As to the reason I went on the Guardian’s website: I watched BBC News at ten last night, and about half way through they did a piece about the murdered paramedics and responders, and the presenter (in the studio) said blah blah blah, and then the last thing she said before handing over to Jeremy Bowen in Jerusalem (or wherever) was ‘….. the IDF account of what happened which was untrue’. And her saying that led me to assume that the IDF/Israel have now come clean and admitted that their version of the episode was untrue – ie was a lie – and had done so because they knew that what they had initially said – shortly after the video footage emerged and was being reported by much of the MSM – sounded totally preposterous – ie that the soldiers involved made “mistakes”. And I was checking out the Guardian’s website to see if they had posted an article to that effect. But they haven’t, and the weird thing is that despite the presenter saying what she said, Bowen finished HIS report by referring to the soldiers ‘mistakes’.
Anyway, I just happened to come across this NBC News article from November 2023 when I did a search re >idf account is untrue<, which is interesting:
Information missteps have led to questions about Israel’s credibility
Israel has released several pieces of incorrect or disputed information, leading to weakened credibility and online ridicule.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/information-missteps-led-questions-israels-credibility-rcna125723
I think we can be pretty certain that most of the MSM in the UK didn't report on these matters.
As to Craig’s question: Is This The World We Created?
Craig’s question can be read in 2 ways: (1) Is THIS the world we created? Or (2) Is this the world WE created?
The 2nd one is easy: If “we” did not create this world, then who else could do it?
The 1st one is more complicated and translates into “Do I [Craig Murray] have the right understanding of what the Hell our world is turning into?”
And I am inclined to say “Mr Murray, you are too optimistic.”
I am just now watching season 2 of the Paramount secret agent/CIA action series “Lioness.”
The main protagonist is a hardened female officer and leader of a special ops team. But also the mother of two daughters.
When the older daughter asks the mother why she is putting her life on the line we witness following dialogue:
MOTHER: “My grandfather moved to Rhode Island from the Dominican Republic when he was just a boy. He turned 17 on December 7th 1941.”
PAUSE
“You know what day that is.”
DAUGHTER whispers: “Pearl Harbour”.
MOTHER nods: “He enlisted in the Army 3 days later. My father would ask him, why he would risk his life for a nation he barely knew. And my grandfather just would say: I had just learned to speak English. I was not about to just learn German or Japanese.”
Exchange of looks between MOTHER and DAUGHTER. DAUGHTER suddenly giggles.
MOTHER very stern: “That´s not funny.”
DAUGHTER stops smiling, quietly: “I know.”
MOTHER: “Why do I do it? So YOU don´t have to learn Chinese or Russian.”
Hollywood´s indoctrinative power over the entire Western society since the early 1980s especially cannot be unerestimated.
None of the intellectuals who stand for the concept of “intellectuals” grew up in that era. They came to age BEFORE.
The modern day entertainment industry infused everyone with its jingoist, manipulatively one-sided and childish worldview and turned it into the largest and most successful propaganda operation in the history of mankind.
That has severe repercussions on the kind of intellectual output for generations to come.
The Pentagon knows darn well why keep Hollywood so close.
p.s. Tom Secker´s documentary on the relationship between Hollywood and the Pentagon. The scale surprised even me:
“Theaters of War” (2022)
https://www.spyculture.com/
“MOTHER: “Why do I do it? So YOU don´t have to learn Chinese or Russian.”
The irony is that, if this was set in Russia or China, the daughter would probably already speak English.
The real irony is that nobody asks why those Russians who happened to live outside Russia at the break up of USSR are forced to learn Ukrainian, Estonian, Lithuanian and other languages that are completely useless since neither scientific or technical matherials nor great literature is/was ever written in such.
i disagree with your statement about Douglas Murray and Jordan Peterson being intellectuals, The later, on the out break of Gaza conflict posted the infamous give them Hell Netanyahu tweet ,and Murray couldn’t wait to get photographed in Yaya Sinwar`s chair ,where Yaya was killed just days before. I would describe both as vile examples of humanity.
How can you be described or considered an intellectual and at the same time a cheerleader for this Zionist senseless slaughter?
Alastair Crooke,the ex M16/diplomat “interviewed on the Judge Napolitano show has repeatedly suggested that Bezalel Smotrich has been calling for many years for a very big war or incedent against the Palestinians to present to the Zionist Terrorists an opportunity for a `solution once and for all’ It surprises me that this has not been explored more by our favourable alt media sources.
A certain part of me still believes that the start of the conflict was engineered or to use the Chomsky phrase ,Manufactured consent.
You appear to have very peculiarly misunderstood what I said about Murray and Peterson
`The now-threadbare mantle of “public intellectual” in the West has passed to lightweight figures like Jordan Peterson and populist Islamophobes like Douglas Murray.’
You describe them as public intellectuals albeit `lightweight.
Why am i misunderstood peculiarly ?
Compared to the genuine intelligent and compasionate people you quote beforehand ?
Mabee it was my phrasing, i will try again .
I disagree with Jordan Peterson and Douglas Murray being classed as even lightweight intellectuals,both are clearly racist.
Can you give example of Peterson being racist? He seems to be critical of group identity assumptions, though that also means he dislikes concepts like institutional racism. He deconstructs the terms white and black, as colour is more similar than that on a spectrum.
I happened to speak with a youngish ‘black’ professional Londoner a while ago who said he would ask himself, what would jordan peterson do? And said Peterson isn’t racist. Though he himself made a questionable comment about other ‘black’ people.
I would describe Petersons `give em hell Netanyahu` comment as racist ,
This was a tweet he made at the start of the Gaza conflict
discriminating against individuals or groups based on their race or ethnicity,in this case Palestinians.
Alan Bolger – do you have an impairment of some kind with understanding the written word? Craig wrote: “The now-threadbare mantle of “public intellectual” in the West has passed to lightweight figures like Jordan Peterson and populist Islamophobes like Douglas Murray.”
Why do you think he put the term “public intellectual” in scare quotes? His point is that it’s a label (or “mantle”) that other people attach to them, even though it has become almost devoid of meaning (“now-threadbare”) due to the dearth of genuinely sage candidates (such as Bertrand Russell). Both Peterson and Murray portray themselves as insightful intellectuals and both are highly vocal in the mainstream media. They have a fervent fanbase (see the video on Rumble – DOUGLAS MURRAY and JORDAN PETERSON: When Brilliant MINDS MERGE). Yet each is operating outside their core domain of expertise and they don’t garner much respect from academics specialising in the topics they venture into.
You retorted: “i disagree with your statement about Douglas Murray and Jordan Peterson being intellectuals, [… valid criticisms …] How can you be described or considered an intellectual and at the same time a cheerleader for this Zionist senseless slaughter?”
Craig referred to Jordan P as a “lightweight figure” and called Douglas M “a populist Islamophobe”. Those are not terms of endearment, Alan. It’s not clear why you failed to comprehend that Craig is denigrating JP and DM as undeserving of the label “public intellectual”. (Possibly it’s cos you froth at the mouth at any mention of their names?)
In fact, Craig once wrote: “[…] is very much an auto-didact in politics. There are aspects of his eclectic beliefs, including for example a fondness for the work of Douglas Murray, which are pretty well the opposite of my own beliefs”. What inference can we draw from that about Craig’s opinion of Douglas Murray?
Your inference was a blatant misunderstanding – indeed a very peculiar one, given the clearly cynical tone of the remark that set you off. If you think Craig would endorse a populist Islamophobe then you have little acquaintance with his actual political views (which are well represented on this very website – maybe you should poke around to rectify such strangely skewed assumptions).
Surely we don’t need to write SparkNotes for every article, in case they’re absurdly misinterpreted by pettifogging pedants?
Understood .Thank you .
Yes i do foam at the mouth at the thought of them .
This hell is the evolution over time of what happened in your youth. Did any aliens interfere and broke off that timeline for another? Not as far as I’m told. So the past has created the present, as it always does. And the present will create the future. It’s up to us to find the way to make the will of the billions our material reality, and not the will of the few. There is zero logical explanation for this reality, so what is the solution?
Solution: Not to be found on this or any site, other than your own in-sight. Let me give you some clues, if allowed. There is no end of learning, but to progress you need to fashion yourself a sound moral base as you go. Study widely, patiently and persistently. Everything is connected.Think about the implications. Nothing(ness) matters. One word has many meanings. As words are strung along by people, meanings, interpretations and inferences multiply exponentially. Whatever is behind all the personal and political stuff, it’s impersonal cause and effect. We are now arrived in a period of total totalisation politics. Nothing is sacred, all else is (un)fair game. Ideology is a killer of logic, reason, in-tuition and wisdom.