The dog and pony show of hegemonic virtue signaling
The empire and its vassals
The grandiose circus of ideological battles of good and evil, left and right are slowly degrading into a cheap dog and pony show. The awe and wonder of what already was a circus of propaganda and manipulation is turning into cheap button pushing. Transparent lies, tired clichés and ridiculous speculations not to convince but to arouse reactions. To make us take sides and to express strong emotions.
Nothing can trigger it better than a conflict in the Middle-East.
Nothing has more experience doing it than the Main-Stream Media.
The only emotion manipulation can get out of me is anger over being treated like an idiot. Which does not mean that I do not react to them. They are like junk food and TikTok. They are engineered to be tasty and captivating. Still, the reactions, like everything else are on a spectrum.
What prompted me to write this post (apart from the MSM BS) were some private exchanges. Two in particular.
They are very good articulations of two of the main arguments regarding the conflict. The first saying that the conflict is unresolvable due to a number of ideological differences, while the second one saying that there could be a solution, but it is neither feasible nor palatable. We know what should be done to resolve the problem, we just cannot do it. (I am closer to this position than the first.)
Then there is my own, firmly standing behind the Jews, behind their right to have a homeland and my red-line on any issue is the recognition of this right. I cannot take any entity, any claim or grievance that do not recognize this right seriously. Not because I have special considerations for the Jews, but because I take the right of self-determination seriously. I would also support the right of the Kurds to their own country or an independent Quebec. What I could consider a desirable solution should be the subject of another discussion.
Still a partisan position, when the real questions should be:
Why are we unable to find a permanent solution and
What is the real reason behind this particular flare-up of the conflict?
The answer to the first questions is that because nobody really wants it. Not even the Jews.
What the Jews want is security, the kind that is promised to them by the USA and substantiated by billions of dollars in military aid. Compared with the other parties involved, the Israelis are still the most committed to peace, but their distrust of the Muslims is understandable. The very existence of Israel is dependent on US aid and security guaranties. Even if they could manage without it, it’s better not to risk it. What most Jews want is to feel safe, to grow their economy, to trade and to be left alone.
What most Palestinians want is the power to kill the Jews. To drive them into the sea. What they want is to persist, to wait for the moment when they can act. The first step toward peace would be resolving the Palestinian question, which could be done easily, but unlikely to ever happen. Just like with the Canadian natives, not as long as there is money to be made on it. And there is a lot of money. Gaza does not have a viable economy. Actually, none of the Palestinian controlled territories do. Without foreign aid, they could not exist.
Gaza is often described as an open-air prison. A strange concept, considering that they have a border with Egypt. Anybody could leave, just as the Canadian natives could leave their reserves. We just corrupted them into a welfare existence while also keeping their hopes alive that as long as they stay where they are, one day, one glorious day, they may still get the chance to kill the Jews.
But all of this is a constant for the past 100 years! Just as the tribal division it exposes is.
I still do not understand what makes outside observers to stand on either side; what I know is that it is highly emotional and it seems to be hard-wired. It is about victimhood, about rooting for the underdog, about jealousy of success and sympathy for failure; in other words: it is about our own insecurities.
What is most appalling about this flare-up of the conflict is the thinly veiled antisemitism behind it, and the pretense that it is something surprising and unexpected.
As if the rest of the world had nothing to do with it.
As if the billions spent on arming both sides had nothing to do with it.
As if keeping both sides in perpetual dependence had nothing to do with it.
As if the refusal to accept this population as immigrants by other Arab Muslim countries, where they could seamlessly assimilate had nothing to do with it.
As if the desperate need of the USA to divert attention from losing its proxy war in the Ukraine had nothing to do with it.
As if the impending loss of the United States’ global hegemonic position had nothing to do with it.
What is happening today in Gaza/Israel cannot be blamed on the participants alone, but on the entire so-called “Rules Based International order” that kept that open wound festering for close to a century. The conflict was kept alive to serve the interest of Israel’s neighbours, the US and the rest of the West.
The conflict was perpetuated to serve the interest of Western powers ever since the fall of the Ottoman empire.
What is happening today is not an organic development. Quite the contrary. Israel was improving its relations with several countries in the region, most notably Saudi Arabia, which in turn is getting cozier with Russia and even Iran, foreshadowing a massive geopolitical realignment. The US (and the rest of the West) cannot allow this to happen.
This conflict stinks of desperation. The pathetic dog and pony show in the media stinks of desperation. They lie; we know that they lie; they know that we know that they lie and they still lie and will lie because it can still activate our deep-seated tribal attitudes toward the conflict. Just consider this post. It was inspired by two comments, each taking a position. Before I started to say anything, I stated mine, just before trying to show how irrelevant these positions on the actual conflict are.
This conflict is not about Israel and Hamas, just as the one it is trying to replace is not about Ukraine and Russia. The middle-East chess board is about to be turned over with consequences we cannot even fathom. We are living in momentous times. This conflict is the fulcrum of the changes to come.
The more I learn of the background and the details, the more disgusted I become. I want to share with you part of my journey into the rabbit hole. Check out the links below and let me know how deep you were willing to go. Once you go down, it may take you even deeper than it took me.
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Further reading
Elizabeth Nickson of
with conclusions similar to mine, only going deeper into the conspiratorial aspects in:
Obama Inc is Running Out of Brown People to KillThe most detailed analysis you will find in Pepe Escobar’s article:
Iran-Russia Set a Western Trap in PalestineFor a bitterly satirical take, you should look at
The War on Horror (or Whatever)If you wish to get a better understanding of the historical background, you should check out this video with great maps: Why the Middle East’s Borders Guarantee Forever Wars
The best (or at least the most entertaining) book to understand Israel is Tuvia Tenenbom’s
Catch The Jew!: Eye-opening education - You will never look at Israel the same way againFor more on the geopolitical implications, you may want to watch the Duran:
Biden's build up to war w/ Jeffrey Sachs (Live)or any conversations with Douglas McGregor:
Tucker Carlson asks Are We Going to War with Iran?and, of course, if you want the bullshit in its purest form, you can have it from the source:
President Biden addresses the nation on Israel-Hamas war & Ukraine
I could have given you a lot more, but I think this is plenty. Check out at least the maps and Pepe Escobar. He is so good, that he has been banned from mainstream social media
Debunking the Palestine Lie
https://youtu.be/O7ByJb7QQ9U?si=xtGDejH3-j4s4xpY