Reminds me of the tv show “The Americans”: when writing a character’s response to finding out her partner was a spy, showrunners discussed the (possibly apocryphal) cases of german wives who, after finding out their husbands were spies, did nosedives out windows, rather than accept the truth that their lives were lies and fabrications.

Deep psychological compartmentalizing- add to that “racism is a hell of a drug”, in the Upton Sinclair sense- western nations built on the moving target of whiteness as imperial justification, cannot fathom they are not the pinnacle of humanity, no matter the amount of liberal “rational enlightenment” and “education” teaches them otherwise. It is unthinkable that others have agency. Goebbel’s statement about believing the lie as long as the material conditions don’t intrude- I don’t think that is going to hold up. There will be plenty of people whose entire lives are destroyed materially, but will cling to a sense of superiority, etc in order to prevent a mental break- otherwise it would unmoor them from everything they’ve ever known.

“Israel” is such a perfect example of this- the entire thing is going up in flames, and lashing out is all that is left because otherwise the “israel” identity is left with NOTHING because that’s all it ever was- empty bullshit settler colonialism perverted religiousity.  No wonder MagaUSians cling to the absurdity that is Trump, and shitlibs cling to “democracy” (trademarked) etc- they can’t bother to interrogate reality because of what it would show them about themselves, about others as humans, and even if they could understand it, they won’t want to- it’s like a trauma bonding dependency. If people buy into the narrative ideology of “equality for all” and fairy tale bs about the US’s founding, they won’t question the material basis for the structure of it- good short piece on that- https://futuredude.substack.com/p/the-founding-fathers-didnt-invent You can’t reform what was outright evil in the first place – it must be replaced with something else.

As Periol said, “Because God”- been that way since the first Columbus landing, raping and pillaging, all written in their journals “because God gifted these girls to me”, etc- it’s been the epstein way since the start. Laith Marouf’s analysis hits on this, the history of europe perverting abrahamic religions into imperial justification and the belief in the “european” versions being superior or more “real” than where they originated from, the arab/middle eastern birth of Christianity as a reform movement of Judaism as the latter moved to Europe, Islam as a reform movement as Christianity became Europe’s imperial tool, and current Shia Islam as a reform/liberation theology in the face of Saudi-coded/western compatible/wahabi Islam. (And wariness of Russia’s return to Russian Orthodoxy as a “true” Christianity.)

Related to the issue of cognitive dissonance- good video here at bettbeat with David Hundeyin and Indi,

https://bettbeat.substack.com/p/is-iran-decolonizing-the-world-a

It isn’t just the western world either- so much of the colonized world is mind f’d, truly believing they are a part of the white imperialist project. Even with so many things falling apart, even with some of the psychological hold breaking via things like the lego videos, etc, so much is still auto-pilot conditioning. The destruction of international solidarity via the cold war and beyond is truly a mind virus legacy. Extend that to the joke about the synthetic/compatible left only supporting causes and revolutions that lose, or it being easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of imperialism and capitalism, that internalized colonization is very much in evidence.

Returning to the Maoist dictum- work with the advanced, convince the middle, isolate the backwards. The old historical, communist left’s adage of organize and educate is still needed. And people to people connection is so important- it’s the curative to divide and conquer- David mentioned this in the bettbeat video about the need to connect with other colonized people, as Indi’s and his history are so similar and that the victims of colonization need realize that they are not alone and stand together. It certainly will need to include the minds of those in the imperial cores as well. Oftentimes I myself dismiss those in the global north/imperial core, which, even if generous, doesn’t even crack 20% of world population, and again, to quote Indi, cannot imagine a world where they alone are NOT the subjects and drivers of history and reality. But – bourgeois culture is the dominant culture- they cover this in the video too- it seeps into the mind throughout one’s life so much that again, it’s auto-pilot to defend it and denigrate and demean oneself. I don’t know that a contrary material reality being forced upon people will actually change things, unless there is a concerted all around effort to organize and educate. That used to be the historical left and communism, but that’s a long road back. And why I feel so much of the BRICS, SCO, “sovereignty” battles likewise will struggle to nothing like the non-aligned movement if they do not come together to form an international bloc- empire suffers no challenges in any form.

This hits on another conversation on the deprogram channel with Diego Ruzzarin, which really cut to this point of religiousity, the current moment, etc- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbH3LTLcg1I

Diego asked one of the foreign secretary or something of the CPC to Latin American or CELAC- at the 1:40m mark-

“I understand China has this no intervention policy but because you come from a basis that every country has a level of sovereignty to make their own choices. So you’re observing from abroad sovereign countries making choices about their concrete material realities, right? So I said, but I don’t think most of these countries have sovereignty. They are more like occupied colonies in different modes and in different levels. So they’re not really freely choosing what to do and who to trade or who to ally with.

And the response was to my surprise was very profound. The response I got was very different from what I wanted because I wanted something like yeah let’s go intervene Star Wars in the global south everywhere bomb Tel Aviv. Yeah.

They were much more like ‘What a country learns in the process of becoming sovereign cannot be avoided. The process of reaching sovereignty it’s not a skippable historical process.’

That is very profound. It’s very Tao. This is very much in line with Confucianism, with Chinese legalism and very much in line with dialectical materialism as well. You know, we cannot be dirty French accelerationists. Historical processes need to happen. You know, you cannot give somebody their freedom. (my note:Malcolm X certainly hammered this time and time again) This, historically, it’s blown back. We’ve done that. We’ve tried that.

Yugo: It’s one of the criticisms we throw at the Soviet Union…

Diego: …It’s like Spinoza used to say, “Why do people fight for their slavery (servitude) like they are fighting for their freedom (salvation)?…And Lacan added “every revolution is fighting to find a new master”…But sovereignty is…about UNsubmission, UNsubordination…What is happening right now…is the only true power is the power of violence…the purely aesthetic decorations of human rights, international law, UN…they’ve shown their true colors as mechanisms to keep the powerful in place.

This is a very interesting historical process beyond the fact that the world is moving towards, according to me, an unstoppable multilateralism because the weakness of the US is showing everywhere.
Important of this geopolitical moment is the crumbling of international political institutions and the absolute lack of legitimacy in democratic processes. The faith in democracy is f’ing gone. The faith in international institutions is gone. The faith in Pax Americana is gone. This is the time for prophets. As philosophers, as critical thinkers, we should be studying religion at the moment. But not as nerdy
theologicians. No, we should be studying prophets and millenialism and end of the world tales because figures like Nick Fuentes and Tucker Carlson, these prominent figures are the leaders of the future because they understand people are so desperate and times are so shady and there’s nothing for us to grasp on to that we will become highly religious again. This is the time for prophecies. (my note- I’d argue this is more that they are part of confusionist/distraction discourse and are astrologist/fortune telling hucksters that prey on the lost for the power it gives them, but the general point about people flailing for leadership stands)

…I don’t really believe in the left- right division. I think this is highly unuseful for the current state of politics worldwide. I think the division has always been capitalism versus communism. I believe left and right is within the liberal spectrum and even left-leaning political models at the
moment they still rely on private property of the means of production and a welfare state which it’s a 80s idea which peaked at the 80s and since the 80s has nothing but bad results everywhere. You have to be either Norway or Finland and have a reservoir of natural resources or a colony in Africa to sustain a welfare state. So left-wing politics for me it’s over since the 80s.

…I do believe that the ghost of Marx is full on back because of the success of China. And I think Maoism has a lot to teach us as a revolutionary historical process that it’s not directly replicable but is
highly educative for the global south because the global south has no other sovereignty example beyond China…So China it’s our example to be studied, not to be replicated I have to be very clear but to be studied …we have to find our way to develop our productive forces to develop our power to withhold and extense violence, develop our nuclear programs and aspire to sovereignty. Only in that sense then we can have national projects, political projects, emancipatory projects,
humanitarian projects…”

That video happened before the Ramadan war too, so I like to think that political islam/Shia as a liberation theology has created some space to maneuver for moral authority and guidance in contrast to the hucksters. I like the idea that Benji from resistanceisfertile has put it- from a psychologist perspective, China is “creating space” outside of the involved parties- creating options for building what comes after right now (Warwick Powell’s writing, again, great resource on much of this). And that the Chinese historical model, it is not directly replicable – another conversation involving Mikey/@karaokecomputer noted how a lot of revolutions fail not just because of imperial disruption, but because there’s no single blueprint and sometimes people are really f’in bad at it or take horrible pathways or inspiration (as the RT piece on the homepage about the maoist disintegration in India shows).

It is certainly the time of monsters- the question is if we will be able to get beyond this level of increasing insanity, to a more hopeful reality on the other side? Things like China’s Global Governance Initiative, etc are the “creating space” protocols being laid down, Russia and China trying to reform the UN, but the threats are ever looming. Laith has posited the “way out” for the US would be to go in and take the nukes from Israel- one can dream. That leaves the US again as final boss (some silver lining, I believe 1/3rd of the old nukes can’t fly because they rely on vac tube tech and the technicians are all long dead)- I agree with amarynth’s point about needing to completely disable the US and vassals ability to wage war, but that is quite an undertaking and would require the aforementioned missing international solidarity. At the same time, the “work local, think global” mentality is as good a methodology as ever- look forward to seeing what the global call to action site will look like. Though some caution- open activities are important, but as Lenin said – sometimes that can’t be done and things need to go underground. In these times, folks are gonna need to learn the “old ways”- going dark, spycraft, etc, but within new tech contexts. May we survive to the times beyond that.

Dangerous times indeed, though I wonder if it would have gone that far- Chiang Kai-shek knew it was the west who paid his corrupt ass (aka his most accurate nickname “General Cash My Check”), and the complicated and muddled allegiances that were yet to fully formalize into both the Chinese united front and the allies would not be something he would have risked lightly. Chinese head chopping, sure- westerners/whites, especially women, would be a very different matter. All that said, he was also a terrible general, in tactics and leadership and overall general strategy, as history proved, so perhaps she got lucky to get out.

The KMT is stuck- can’t go full on for reunification due to their tortured (as in literally having committed) past with the communists, yet must appeal to the geopolitically blinkered “status quo” crowd, while contending with the slavish insanity of the pro-indie DPP crowd that is concentrated in the cities. The split within the KMT itself is pretty emblematic of the situation- the best times economically in the past 20 years was when cross strait relations were at their best- MaYingJou in power with the KMT, undoing a lot of ChenSuiBian’s DPP idiocy- travel between mainland and taiwan, increased economic ties, etc. Then 2014- not just Ukraine, but HK “umbrella movment” BS, and Taipei’s “Sunflower revolution” where DPP/NED morons/students literally blocked out Taiwan government from passing a bill that was to strengthen economic and people to people ties on a much more official level between mainland and Taiwan.

Since then, Taiwan’s economy has gone backwards, especially with the tarriff wars, and the KMT has been on the back foot, competing for “vibes” with the DPP and TPP (not really a contender, and difficult to form coalition with because of the deliberately structured Taiwan legislature, hence why the DPP got leadership with <40% of the vote). The opposition within the KMT just came back from the US, claiming great US ties and promising to pass the spending bill. Much like Lee in South Korea, Zheng has a difficult line to walk- some of the old guard like Ma YingJou is all in on reunification, but that’s the problem- they all have nothing on the line politically.

Until the KMT takes control of the government, much of this is posturing and angling for leverage- tbd how fully/if Zheng steps into the reunification camp if they attain power. Would it be risking HK/NED 2019, and how would it be handled? Among the most unhinged/stupid people I have ever met in my life, are American Born “Taiwanese” DPP legacy kids- middle aged, and claiming they would join the US army to fight China, and defined his “Taiwanese” ethnic “differences” with Chinese people with that most indisputable and hallowed of the sciences – “Phrenology”. I put nothing past these crazies.

People to people connection is the most important and vital route, even moreso than the economic entanglement. While Rednote is banned already, on the other hand, there is a not insignificant group awakening to the reality- big time Taiwan vloggers like Gym Boss/guanzhang were formally DPP/indie fools, until he himself went to the mainland and he completely flipped (and is now called a CPC bootlicker by the green birds/DPP). There needs to be a deeper connection, or specifically, reconnection- the episode of Taipology between Angelica Oung (former DPP liberal, now reunification supporter) and the insightful Warwick Powell- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nb1lpVmw7B4 It’s about more than the idea of reunification (tongyi), it’s about reunion of family (quanjiatuanju). Until then, it’s signaling and baby steps.

Happy to spread info- getting more info myself on the nature of political islam, the quran dictates on moral violence, etc has been a real informative and inspiring experience- Indi’s “reading resistance” edited works on his site of the resistance leaders is very good, like an FAQ for western dummies. Also always highly recommend the work Mujamma Haraket has done to translate many of those works, and again the piece hosted on sovereignista to dispel the Hamas=Israel BS (which Berletic still clings to vehemently). https://mujammaharaket.substack.com/ He had a great podcast on resistanceisfertile that goes deep into Hamas security apparatus to root out traitors.

Agreed on the fetters of people’s origins, very difficult to get past the barriers- some moreso than others (ie the white guy analyst circle like Johnson, Wilkerson et al, who still cling to some imaginary, never-extant “benevolent” US imagery), and others who yet play on it as a charade for populism rather than challenge for any meaningful structural change (Tucker, etc- I view Galloway a bit towards this as well, he constantly chants wanting Tucker to run as president- Carlson’s still a fascist white supremacist racist who chums around with Bannon and only laments US power being curtailed not because it SHOULDN’T, but because it CAN’T- if the US could still do all the horrors and get all the treats, they’d keep on, nothing changes). It certainly affects the well-meaning, seemingly objective analysts like Berletic, who himself has mentioned having been hoodwinked into joining the military and beliefs in the past, but also ironic that he cannot see from outside the lens of white supremacy and paternalism and pessimism. Indi and writers like Gill have pointed out- Iran, the other sovereign states and civilizations, have actual agency, that has taken years, if not centuries to build, and are a corrective to the western lens of history.

In that, I also see hope, insight, and a pathway- perhaps a day comes when those fetters can be truly broken, via a combination of Cabral’s class suicide alongside united front tactics, Mao’s dictum to work with the advanced, convince the middle, and isolate the backwards, alongside the lessons taught by many others who have come before. In trying to broaden my understanding, I’m finding that even my own limited exposure and learning of political Islam/Shiite very connective and furthering that hope. And of all the things I’ve read these past few years, Basil Al-Araj’s 7 points for supporting the resistance, from his posthumous book “I Have Found My Answers” (in Indi’s collection of resistance writings) really has stuck with me- returning to those points, even from a secular view, gives solace and strength, nourishing the spirit on the side of the morally good.

Highly recommend another great podcast by resistance is fertile-

https://resistanceisfertilepodcast.substack.com/p/irans-2nd-round-victory-wbikrum-gill

basically clapping back at all the armchair analysts who are poohpoohing and calling Iran stupid, and feeling disappointed etc in the ceasefire charades (ie Berletic: for all his good analysis of policy papers and western blob, is not in the fight, does not know the inner workings of the axis of resistance, and has a streak of western paternalism evident in his work).

There is little to no attempt to understand political islam, the very clear moral imperatives of it, and how to maintain a united front/strategic retreats/ebbs and flows of actual anti-imperialist war that is happening, and the LONG view timeline of it, and also understanding how many plates to balance are going on that all these analysts have literally no info on. It’s typical western brain that just cannot think differently.

I’m glad people post Indi.ca’s website because he’s one of the few english language writers out there who is actually trying to engage and explain political islam and the relevance of the quran for the western mind during this phase of anti-imperial war.

Highlighting the the 1hr 7min mark by Bikram Gill- the takedown of these armchair clowns AND especially the takedown of Francesca Albanese- she is the typical useless shitlib and for all the highlighting of genocide, she does it WHILE delegitimizing resistance EVERY SINGLE TIME. Fuck off with her. As Hamas says- if you are only with our words and corpses, but not with our rockets, you are not of us.

To paraphrase/post gill’s points at length because they are on point-

“And why are people despairing…Because you don’t trust in the forces fighting the empire. That is it. You do not trust in the forces fighting imperialism, whether that’s in the south of Lebanon, in the Shia, putting everything on the line, living displaced in horrific conditions that we’ve seen for the past month. You do not trust in that force. Neither do you trust in the Islamic Republic as a world historical revolutionary force whose revolution continues. Just like the Chinese revolution, with all its contradictions, continues to be in motion, the people’s revolution in China, the Islamic revolution continues to be in motion.

“But what I want to say on this point, though, is I think ultimately the Albanese or these anarchists, why they end up targeting, you know, why they end up directing their libidinal energies or the energies of their body towards the Islamic Republic is because they cannot direct it towards the ruling classes. It’s because there’s an incapacity and inability to turn around and look at themselves. That’s not possible. So instead, you end up aligning with them, saying, okay, well, you know, U.S. imperialism sucks, but you know what we can really change?  We can smash the Syrian state, and then we can free the Syrian people. That gives you an achievable objective because you don’t ever think you can take down the state in which you live, right?

“And I think like Albanese in particular, I think this is a very key point. She’s getting offered Nobel. People want her to win the Nobel Prize. She’s getting honorary doctorates. As she continues to reinforce the criminalization of the Islamic Republic. Why is that so significant? Because on this question…there is a relationship between law and force. And she appeals to international law again and again.  She keeps bringing us back to international law. And she misses two very key points, right? That the United States does not operate by breaking the law, but by suspending the law. It does not appeal to law. It does not appeal to law. The imperialists do not appeal to law. They’re not seeking…to say oh whoops did we break international law we didn’t mean to, they’re saying law doesn’t apply here…and here’s the contradiction the paradox of our times and this is everything at stake in this formulation this is why it matters – So the Islamic revolution has a military industrial sovereign force. That’s what triggers the suspension of law.

“That’s why from Mark Carney to Keir Starmer to all of them, they will allow for the suspension. None of them say we’re doing this to enforce law. What they’re saying is Iran poses an existential threat. To what? What Iran actually, the paradox, the contradiction here is Iran is actually the lone force that can enforce law. So the suspension of law is triggered to contain the one force that can actually implement a real law. The Islamic Republic can enforce a law – to punish the genocidal, the violation of genocide, it’s Ansar Allah that can do that. So if Francesca Albanese wants to appeal to a Hague group while criminalizing the Islamic Republic, that is not simply denying the relationship between law and force. It’s running back to imperialist force and begging them to enforce whatever it is you want from the Hague group. Because you can say there’s some vague concept that they’re appealing to of the global self, but it is Iran alone that is putting that into practice, right? So I would agree… that there should be some hesitancy or some caution, some self-criticism before one jumps to reproducing this illegitimization or critique or a rushed rejection of the resistance.

“And I’ve mentioned this on that program earlier when I was on last week, right? But the conversation I had with Ali Qadri, what we’re seeing is a disarming. Now there’s the arm-to-arm disarmament, but there’s a disarming as well. In an overcoming of a fear of death. But if we were to look epistemologically at the resistance, we can see the clue there. It’s when Ghassan Khanafani says, to be human is to sacrifice. Who amongst us living in these societies has developed that capability to really be human if it means to sacrifice?

“And an insistence that we will make the worlds of each other through sacrifice, by standing with one another, whether that’s linking arms around those nuclear plants, or it’s the way in which the Iranians are saying right now, we did not win this war on our own, we won it with the Lebanese as well, with the other members of the axis of resistance, sacrificing for one another. That’s a very different qualitative basis of sovereignty than what we have here. We live in settler colonial qualitative forms of sovereignty that are built on cowardice and fear and a competition that everything can get taken away from us because we don’t rely on one another. So that is why we cannot properly appreciate what is happening elsewhere. But again, the Palestinians, the Iranians, the Lebanese, they’ve opened a door to us that perhaps we didn’t deserve, but it’s open. The question is, will we walk through it?”

And facts on the ground are that we are not going back to Oct 6th, or Feb 27th, ever again.

Benji goes on to rag on the shit that is Albanese- she has given an interview with a fkin genocidal settler, saying she wants Iran taken down for the “Tens of thousands” of “protesters” killed by the “regime”. Again, fuck off with her shitlib puppet mouthpiece. As Benji says- yes, she deserves the Nobel Prize, she’s right along with Machado: different face of the same imperialist regime, the shitlib, armchair handwringers, the compatible left who only support when the resistance is losing or the bodies are long dead.

And as Benji continues, these armchair talkers are not in the fight- so you can only contribute by either nourishing the resistance spirit or shitting on it, inflate the epstein empire’s ego or puncture it. Again, returning to martyr Basil Al-araj’s statements on 7 points of resistance- let us be a solid structure against empire.

For real, the lego videos are BANGERS, like host a block party, blast it out on the speakers level bangers. Imagine if they played these on things like a Chinese megamall public square 3d screen, the agitprop influence that would have- like the modern version of those WW2 newsreels- better than going to theaters at all =D

Thanks again to Periol for these daily updates, informative and inspiring, literally my first stop in the morning =)

Is this verified by official MOFA Russian and Chinese sources? As interesting and game changing that would be- the “source” is a “parody” account =(

Ugh- it’s like the spider-man finger pointing meme- Medhi the brown-faced PR for shitlibs, Jiang the fake “chinese academic”. Both loathsome shitheels pandering and fighting for the same audience share in the same system, fronting as if they are “real” alternative to anything, rather than just controlled opposition at different stages.

I want to boost this as a remedy to the clown- Warwick Powell, who actually does work and have roots in China that he regularly accesses and doesn’t talk shit on, and interview here actually makes good analysis and conclusions based on solid material evidence and history, not “trust me bro” secret handshake bs. His TIO talks series on youtube, his substack, and his interviews in general are always interesting and informative, if a bit academically dense.

And he also did a great interview with Angelica Oung (former separatist who finally got her mind right, she also did the subbing for the CCTV AI cartoon!) about Taiwan and the idea of reunification- it’s not just about politics, but the idea of being about 团聚/tuanju- family reuniting and making it whole again. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nb1lpVmw7B4