Fake revolutions everywhere you look

By Caitlin Johnstone

Fake revolutions everywhere you look. This billionaire Pentagon contractor is babbling about being “the resistance” using a meme that Palestine supporters have been using about the Palestinian resistance, while he backs Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

This happens all the time these days: people who are inextricably intertwined with establishment power structures posturing as brave revolutionaries leading a resistance against the very establishment they themselves are a part of. Elon Musk is no more a part of any “resistance” than Joe Biden or Bill Gates, but his sycophantic fanboys will mindlessly gobble this garbage up like popcorn chicken.

They serve up fake revolutions to stop you from waging a real one. Here, fall in line with this plutocratic genocide supporter, he’s leading the resistance. Here, fall in line with this oligarch-backed presidential candidate, he’s waging a populist war against the Deep State to Make America Great Again.

Don’t like right wingers? No problem! Join progressive Democrats like Bernie Sanders and AOC who’ll support the same establishment interests as Elon Musk and Donald Trump, but they’ll do so while paying lip service to social justice and equality to make you feel nice inside.

More of an independent? Support RFK Jr who has pledged “unconditional support” to the state of Israel but is totally gonna end the wars and fight corruption!

The more discontented the populace grows with status quo politics, the more you’ll see the empire which benefits from status quo politics serving up fake revolutions for people to throw their political energy into so that nothing ever changes. They don’t just control both parties, they control the top political factions which claim to oppose the establishment in both parties. They don’t just control the opposition, they control the opposition to the controlled opposition.

They’re able to pull off this scam because most people don’t lucidly understand the difference between fact and narrative. Human psychology tends to be so intimately wrapped around mental stories that it’s often hard to differentiate between someone who’s telling a story about being an enemy of the establishment and someone who’s actually working against the interests of establishment power.

The trick is to ignore the words and watch the actions. Is someone being elevated to prominence by the very establishment they claim to oppose? If they are, they’re not its enemy. Are they taking meaningful concrete actions which go against the planet-dominating interests of the US-centralized empire we live under? If they’re not, then they’re not part of any meaningful “resistance”. Are they playing to either side of the two-party scam, both sides of which are complete tools of imperial control? If they are, then they’re not an enemy of the powerful. Are they constantly feeding into partisan feuding and divisive culture war wedge issues which threaten the powerful in no meaningful way? If they are, then the powerful are cool with them.

Don’t let these pricks draw you in. Focus your political energy on opposing the actual mechanisms which hold the actual power structure in place: War. Militarism. Propaganda. Oligarchy. Exploitation. Tyranny. Ecocide. Government secrecy. Help get people focused on the raw nuts and bolts of the imperial machine instead of the empty diversionary narrative fluff they’re being encouraged to focus on.

If we can get enough people ignoring the sideshow distractions and focusing on the actual machine that is the real source of their discontent, we stand a real chance at dismantling this thing. Letting the revolutionary zeitgeist get bogged down in fake revolutions waged by fake resistance fighters will keep us chasing shadows until these pricks get us all killed.