I’m posting this for a couple reasons. The first is just that shockingly few Americans actually know about what their own country has been doing over the last few decades. It shouldn’t shock you to learn that I don’t think a violent global empire crushing every left-wing movement it can touch is good. I don’t think it’s good for democracy, I don’t think it’s good for freedom, and I definitely don’t think it’s good for dealing with climate change. Ending this horrific pattern authoritarianism and mass murder will not be easy, but without a broader understanding of what’s actually going on, I think it will be impossible. At this point, absent radical change at the imperial core – the United States of America – every effort to put human life and wellbeing ahead of the ruling class’s power will come under assault, even as U.S. citizens suffer and die for lack of the resources being used to murder people in other countries. We will face violent opposition from the government and from the U.S. fascist movement, as every struggle for justice has in the past, but if Americans don’t find a way to reign in their own government, it will continue to fund violence, terror, and right-wing authoritarianism around the world, holding everybody back.
2nd sentence needs another verb.
Oops: 3rd sentence needs a (5th) verb.
Fixed it – thanks!
Did you know that when Trump said that the US should take Syria’s oil, he was (as usual) blurting classified information? The US is, in fact, stealing Syria’s oil. Biden may have put a stop to it but it’s not easy to tell. Neat, huh?
The old joke about the sun never set on the British Empire – it’s because god didn’t trust them in the dark. Now, it’s the US.
That sounded to me like it could just as well have been an anti-vax screed. There was even the suggestion that I do my own research (which I’m not competent to do).
I’m old enough to remember the installation of Pinochet and the Nicaragua Contra business; and the stupid “invasion” of Venezuela is pretty recent; so I imagine that much of the video is correct. Still, it seems to me that “[citation needed]” is in order.
What claims are you having trouble sourcing, Bill? I can probably track down something for you.
Abe, there’s no particular claim in the video that would surprise me. Indeed, I’m an old fart and I remember several of them. I wasn’t commenting about the truth of the video, but rather noting that the general form was much like what I imagine right-wing trolling to be like. (But I pay no attention to Facebook and such, so I could very well be wrong about that.)
I think it’s useful to have these messages being conveyed in a variety of ways by a variety of people. Second Thought’s videos make for good propaganda, in the positive sense of the word. Thus far they’ve been accurate, while also being pithy and well delivered. There are a lot of other people out there covering these issues, and if someone does start digging, they’re actually pretty likely to come up with a wealth of information these days.
Obviously I’m not gonna demand that you like the video or feel more comfortable with it than you do – I’m just saying why I think it was worth posting despite the lack of citations.
And in general I’m willing to dig for sources etc. on claims made in videos I post, so if you do ever want me to back up/fact check something that offer was sincere 🙂