{"id":230504,"date":"2023-03-06T12:00:34","date_gmt":"2023-03-06T12:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=230504"},"modified":"2023-02-28T05:40:39","modified_gmt":"2023-02-28T05:40:39","slug":"the-empire-gives-people-the-illusion-of-fighting-the-power-without-ever-endangering-real-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2023\/03\/the-empire-gives-people-the-illusion-of-fighting-the-power-without-ever-endangering-real-power\/","title":{"rendered":"The Empire Gives People the Illusion of Fighting the Power without Ever Endangering Real Power"},"content":{"rendered":"

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26 Feb 2023 – <\/em>The one-year anniversary of Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine has seen countless emotional news segments and heartstring-plucking articles, wall-to-wall social media posts, and public demonstrations decrying the evils of Vladimir Putin throughout the western world.<\/p>\n

For what\u2019s probably the first \u201canti-war\u201d protest of most of their lives, American liberals gathered at the Lincoln Memorial<\/a> in Washington DC over the weekend to bravely condemn the leader of a foreign government thousands of miles away. There they were joined by empire managers like the virulent warmonger<\/a>\u00a0Samantha Power, who spoke at the rally<\/a>\u00a0opposing Russian warmongering at the capital of the most warlike nation on the planet.<\/p>\n

For the last year, mainstream westerners have been using this war to act out their fantasies of being courageous up-punching anti-imperialists, fighting powerful bloodthirsty tyrants in defense of the needful, all while living directly under the thumb of the most tyrannical regime in the world<\/a>. They mindlessly regurgitate the propaganda of the most powerful empire that has ever existed, parrot the same lines that are already being said all day long by all the most powerful institutions in the western world, all in service of the hegemonic agendas of the largest and most murderous power structure on earth, while pretending to be standing in opposition to the powerful.<\/p>\n

The way the war in Ukraine allows mainstream liberals to play-act as rebellious anti-imperialists is a good illustration of how the empire gives people the illusion of fighting the power without their ever opposing the empire.<\/p>\n

httpv:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=qM-Gptnvq-4<\/p>\n

We saw this same trend take place in the US throughout the Trump administration, where mainstream liberals branded themselves \u201cThe Resistance<\/a>\u201d like they were socialist revolutionaries or insurgents opposing Hitler in Nazi-occupied France. In reality Trump\u2019s presidency had little actual impact on the comforts of their lives, because beneath all the narratives Trump was a fairly normal US president<\/a>\u00a0whose most heinous crimes were all of the customary variety we see in all US presidents \u2014 including his predecessor and his successor. Democrats just spent four years LARPing as brave revolutionaries, and then he left office and the game ended.<\/p>\n

In exactly the same way, Trump\u2019s presidency allowed right wingers to pretend they were part of a movement against the establishment, despite Trump never actually challenging the establishment in any meaningful way.\u00a0They believed he was fighting the Deep State even after\u00a0he imprisoned Assange<\/a>. They believed he was \u201cending the wars\u201d even as he\u00a0ramped up aggressions<\/a>\u00a0against Russia which helped bring us to where we are today<\/a>,\u00a0killed tens of thousands of Venezuelans<\/a>\u00a0with starvation sanctions,\u00a0vetoed attempts to save Yemen<\/a>\u00a0from U.S.-backed genocide, worked to foment civil war in Iran<\/a>\u00a0using\u00a0starvation sanctions<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0CIA ops<\/a>\u00a0with\u00a0the stated goal<\/a>\u00a0of effecting regime change,\u00a0occupied Syrian oil fields<\/a>\u00a0with the goal of preventing Syria\u2019s reconstruction,\u00a0greatly increased<\/a>\u00a0the number of troops in the Middle East and elsewhere, greatly\u00a0increased<\/a>\u00a0the\u00a0number of bombs dropped per day<\/a>\u00a0from the previous administration killing\u00a0record numbers of civilians<\/a>, and\u00a0reduced military accountability<\/a>\u00a0for those airstrikes. They believed he was draining the swamp after\u00a0packing his cabinet<\/a>\u00a0with establishment swamp monsters.<\/p>\n

Trump supporters are just George W Bush supporters LARPing as Ron Paul supporters. They role-play a fight against the empire that is never actually happening anywhere except in their imaginations.<\/p>\n

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Everyone Was Wrong About Trump<\/p>\n

Trump's term has revealed that virtually everyone, all across the political spectrum, has been wrong about him. And it's a testament to the power of echo chambers that they remain just as wrong as they were four years ago.https:\/\/t.co\/k35gZ1n8cd<\/a><\/p>\n

— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) December 23, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n