N. Comley

@Glenn_Diesen It's projection! Historical forces & outcomes are largely driven by our unconscious & subconscious desires & fears which, to avoid having to face & tame, are projected onto Others - their victims, slaves or enemies &, conversely, people's resistance to being thus objectified.

We are told that security in the Middle East requires defeating Iran, security in East Asia requires defeating China, and security in Europe requires defeating Russia. We never discuss security in terms of how to learn to live together by harmonising interests and managing competition. This is by design. This is hegemonic peace, in which security depends on defeating rivals rather than managing a balance of power. Subsequently, security relies solely on deterrence rather than reassurance; diplomacy is dismissed as appeasement; peace agreements are temporary and deceptive; and war is peace. Our rivals do not have legitimate security concerns, as their policies are allegedly always motivated by aggressive, irrational, or expansionist behaviour. We have convinced ourselves that our liberal hegemony is a force for good, and that our opponents oppose our dominance because they reject our benign values of freedom. Discussing the security concerns of adversaries is believed to “legitimise” their policies, which is treasonous. The world is divided into good guys (liberal democracies) and bad guys (autocracies). We should not ask how defeating Russia, as the world's largest nuclear power, is a rational security strategy, or why our governments refuse to even speak with Moscow to discuss the European security architecture and end the war. Our governments have relabelled nuclear deterrence as nuclear blackmail to signal that there can be no more constraints. All empires can become irrational during decline. Leaders take greater risks to avoid decline, legitimacy crises at home must be distracted with enemies abroad, outdated strategies from a bygone era of strength are still embraced, and there is a tendency to double down on narratives of being indispensable, representing universal values, and dismissing all opposition as illegitimate and dangerous. Are we the fanatics?

@tom_watson And why should anyone believe what you say? What credibility for honesty and integrity do you think you possess? Zero!!

He is many things but Keir Starmer is not a liar.

@EuroBriefing Putin's 'military adventures'? Sounds a relatively harmless, fairly descriptive term but I'd urge greater caution about the words we use. I don't think I'd give it that label because I don't think it's accurate or fair. It's ideologically tainted, pejorative.

The craziest thing the West is doing right now is funding its military expansion through debt. This is done in the name of security, but it creates massive security risks in itself, for example if a government under attack would face sudden fiscal constraints because it has no fiscal space available. Putin, by contrast, funds his military adventures mostly from revenues. Russia’s debt-to-GDP ratio is under 20%. If it ever came to a war, Putin’s biggest ally would be the bond market vigilantes. eurointelligence.com

@s_m_marandi Sorry! You've lost my moral & public support until both you and your government stop speaking out of both sides of your mouth at the same time & stop treating your citizens and international supporters as something you can deceive at will & switch on and off like a light switch.

There is an ongoing genocide in Lebanon. The ceasefire in Gaza is fake. Free people across the world must swiftly revive the anti-genocide protests and boycotts that were rapidly gaining momentum last year.

@s_m_marandi Please explain why u are shedding tears for the Lebanese while continuing to be an unofficial spokesman for a Govt that proceeded to 'negotiations' and is maintaining the 'ceasefire' despite originally claiming it would do neither if Lebanon was not included in said ceasefire?

The Zionists are carrying out genocide in Lebanon.

@nxt888 Understandable focus on the prevailing Western image of colonialism, but it's a mirror of the distorted to non-existent understanding of their own domestic societies historical evolution. Taught to despise their ancestors heroic struggles & love their enemies & their successors.

They told their children that Columbus discovered America. They told their children that the frontier was empty. They told their children that slavery ended and then everyone worked together to build a great nation. They told their children that they entered the World Wars reluctantly, purely to defend freedom, and asked for nothing in return. They told their children that the Cold War was a noble struggle of freedom against tyranny and that every intervention in every poor country was part of that struggle. They told their children that their country has sometimes made mistakes but always, in its heart, on the right side. Generation after generation after generation. And then they are confused, genuinely confused, when the people who were on the receiving end of that history have a different account of it. Not a different interpretation. A different account. Because they were there. The children who were told the beautiful story and the people who lived through the actual events are describing different realities. And the children who were told the beautiful story have been trained to believe that their version, the one taught in their schools, the one in their films, the one that makes them feel clean, is the neutral one.

Ultimately what separates the anti-imperialist left from mainstream liberal "humanitarians" is whether you're in it for humanity or for yourself. For the liberal, wanting peace and justice is more of an abstraction than a desire to fight the concrete power structures responsible for the lack of peace and justice in our world. If you're a liberal you oppose the idea of children being killed and starved in the abstract, because thinking of yourself as a moral person allows you to feel nice feelings about yourself, but you have no interest in taking a well-defined stand against the empire which routinely kills and starves children via genocides, wars of aggression, and siege warfare. You don't want families living in poverty because it would make you feel like a bad person if you did, but you also don't take a concrete stand against the capitalist system whose very existence depends on the perpetual creation of poverty and scarcity. You kinda-sorta want everyone to have happy and plentiful lives free from fear and tyranny, but you don't want to consider the possibility that your own country is responsible for abusing, terrorizing and exploiting the global south. Because that would make you feel uncomfortable feelings. It's not about wanting to actually help humanity and fix the world's problems, it's about you and your feelings. Those who oppose the capitalist empire are actually interested in bringing health and harmony to our species. They do not shy away from uncomfortable truths about their own government's abuses, the dystopian nature of western civilization, or the way their own creature comforts are built on the backs of workers in impoverished countries. Because for them it's not about feeling nice feelings, it's about creating a better world. The western anti-imperialist has no problem recognizing that their own society is the main villain on the world stage, because they're actually looking at the sources of the abuses and injustices in our world. The liberal "humanitarian" prefers to see evil only in foreign regimes, because being the bad guy doesn't feel nice. The western anti-imperialist recognizes that both mainstream political parties in their country promote the warmongering, militarism, capitalist exploitation and imperialist extraction which sustain the western empire, and they oppose the abuses of both parties whoever happens to be in office. The liberal "humanitarian" only recognizes wrongdoing in one mainstream political faction while proudly supporting and voting for the other, because this allows them to feel like they're helping. The western anti-imperialist accepts that standing on the morally correct side means eating loss after loss and receiving disappointment after disappointment, because the push for revolutionary change is swimming directly against the current imposed on every institution in our society. The liberal "humanitarian" feels nice feelings about their position because their side wins elections half the time, while smugly sneering at those to their left who never get their people into office. The western anti-imperialist will stare unflinching into the carnage from Palestine, Lebanon and Iran, feeling all the anguish and rage from witnessing those atrocities supported by their own nation. The liberal "humanitarian" tries to avoid looking at those things, because their entire worldview is built upon psychologically compartmentalizing away from reality in order to prioritize their own feelings. Basically it's the difference between actually BEING a good person and just wanting to FEEL like you're a good person. The former is hard, while the latter is easy. Which one do you want to be?

@aaronjmate I'd like to know whether the Quakers take any responsibility for this morally questionable individual.

What did Russia do to this poor man?

@AlanRic96729535 @lugaricano I don't think they're able - their ideological loyalties are tied to their social & prof. positions - interdependently. Only time they'll really shift - or appear to - is when & if they jump ship. Welcome, but I never fully trust them - they failed the test when it mattered most

@Comley1Neil @lugaricano Well...OK. I was trying to encourage him to embrace sanity...

Many of us, liberal Europeans, spent decades pushing back against the European extreme left's cartoon version of America ( it's all oil/ imperialism/getting rich at the expense of others) and then one dumb administration walks in and performs the caricature to perfection.

@AlanRic96729535 @lugaricano But he hasn't! He's trying to avoid facing that his personal and professional ideology is both intellectually and morally bankrupt by blaming the current US president and administration.

@lugaricano As an old American, how you couldn’t see what my country, with its history of racism, vicious violence, greed, ignorance, arrogance, religious lunacy, contempt for science, corporate dominance really was—in plain view—is a baffling puzzle. Glad u woke up, though!

@provemewrong411 Imo Putin's restraint is increasingly strange and irrational. What does he think he has to gain anymore by prolonging the Ukraine war? Nothing anymore as far I can see. And re. diplomacy Iran's stance to negotiations seems more rational & dignified than Putin's. What's going on?

I’m not sure why Putin allows this to continue. He has a golden opportunity to level everything in that God-forsaken land while everyone is distracted in Iran, yet he still permits zelensky to create chaos. What kind of strategy is this? How many more ports, factories, and other critical infrastructure sites will be damaged because of Putin’s inability to handle the situation properly?

@InBrokenCountry @kathrynw5 Both sexes do this but my impression it's disproprtionately women.

@kathrynw5 good for you - people are so inconsiderate, esp, men I'm sorry to say.

I finally did it, I picked up the backpack of someone taking up two seats on a standing room only train, handed it to them and said “you can hold this so someone can sit, thank you.” A woman immediately sat. I will absolutely keep doing this

@Harry2671 @kathrynw5 @Louise_katz If they would do it 'happily' then they would have done it already. Don't you know that?

@kathrynw5 @Louise_katz Before you touched someone else’s belongings, Did you ask politely first? I always do and no one ever had an issue, happily moving bag to free up seat, not everything needs to be a confrontation.

@medialens I don't understand what Morgan's suggesting - why should Iran NOT be opposed as much as it wants to 'any American rule over them in any capacity'? Who gave the American's that unquestionable right?

Just look at this comment from Piers Morgan: Iran is 'an ideological country fueled by religion that is pathologically opposed to any American rule over them in any capacity'. 'Pathologically opposed'? Consider this tiny glimpse of the history: In 1953, US-supplied armoured cars took to the streets of Iran deposing the democratically elected nationalist Mohammad Mosaddegh and replacing him with the Shah. According to then CIA agent Richard Cottam, ‘…that mob that came into north Teheran and was decisive in the overthrow was a mercenary mob. It had no ideology. That mob was paid for by American dollars and the amount of money that was used has to have been very large’. (Quoted, Mark Curtis, ‘The Ambiguities of Power’, Zed Books, 1995, p.93) As in Iraq 2003, Libya 2011 and Venezuela 2026, the motive was oil. The BBC made vague mention of ‘human rights abuses’ under the Shah. In fact, according to Amnesty International, Iran had the ‘highest rate of death penalties in the world, no valid system of civilian courts and a history of torture’, which was ‘beyond belief’, in a society in which ‘the entire population was subjected to a constant, all-pervasive terror’. (Martin Ennals, Secretary General of Amnesty International, cited in an Amnesty Publication, Matchbox, Autumn 1976) medialens.substack.com/p/operation-ep…

@CraigMurrayOrg Doesn't make sense! If 1 agrees with C's statement 'entirely' 1 must take account not only of the words but how they'll be interpreted. Privately he might have meant 'targeted' by Zionists (tho' I doubt it!) but way it's heard gives credence, again, to false accusations & smears

It is possible to agree with this entirely, and for it still to be a false flag attack on Hatzola.

@Hoang_HQ Sadly this is fake. If one checks the photos and videos carefully the dogs are not exactly the same in all instances. Someone's playing with people. People that do this might sometimes be well motivated but if it's false the effect will corrode rather than be positive.

In China’s Jilin province, seven neighboring dogs stolen for sale at a dog meat market escaped from a transport truck — and their journey home has captured attention online. Reports say the dogs stayed together during the escape, with an injured German Shepherd protected by the group, while a corgi appeared to guide them. Over two days, they traveled around 17 km across roads and fields before eventually making it back to their owners. A real-life escape story — with a touch of movie-like moments.

@Teresa_Peckham @bbc5live You would never see Mélenchon doing what they have and that's why, apparently I hear, La France Insoumise is beginning to make some significant gains.

@Teresa_Peckham @bbc5live Indeed! Their weakness and cowardice which is their downfall.

FFS a whole hour of British Jews on @bbc5live talking about how upset they are at empty ambulances being set alight. It’s just started and if I can bear to listen I’ll see if Israeli war crimes get any mention at all.

@earthsky1525 @caitoz Imo it gave religious sanction & legitimacy rather than a 'greenlight' per se - as if the Church could have prevented it. But still, I agree, it was a seminal moment in the corruption of a fount of Western civilisation. Were the Church Christian it would have signalled opposition

@caitoz I commend you for coming to this conclusion. I suggest you think of the root cause; which imo is the Western Christianity supremacy manifested in the papal bull of 1453; gave the green light for everything you describe. Secularism & humanism then moved it in truly demonic ways.

The only worthwhile “western culture” in modern times is culture which rejects and opposes the dystopian nature of western civilization and the abuses of the western empire. Western civilization is what’s bombing Iran. It’s what’s strangling Cuba. It’s what’s torching Lebanon. It’s what’s exterminating Palestine. It’s what stole Venezuela. It’s what’s plundering the labor and resources of the global south. It’s what’s keeping the systems in place which are killing our ecosystem and driving us closer to nuclear armageddon. There is no sane and truthful position to have toward all this but vehement rejection. Westerners — particularly white westerners in nations with colonialist histories like the United States and Australia — often struggle to find their cultural moorings. It can be difficult to find an authentic position from which to express art and take your stand as a personality when you feel culturally rootless and historically ungrounded. It causes a kind of dissonance with our lives that can haunt us until we die. The best way to resolve this dissonance is to take your stand in opposition to the perverse society into which you were born. Express from the standpoint of resistance to this horrifying nightmare civilization that is fueled by human blood. We live in a sick and intensely mind-controlled dystopia where everything is fake and stupid. Mainstream culture is a nonstop celebration of the vapid and inane. The movies glorify cops and soldiers. The music exalts capitalism, consumerism, egotism and frivolity. The products are made by wage slaves and the fuel is obtained by war. The food is designed to reap profits rather than to nourish. The news media is designed to propagandize rather than to inform. It’s a disgusting civilization, to be honest. The more you learn about it, the more repulsive it becomes. How could anyone relate to the human experience from inside this hellscape in a truth-based way, except by opposition? The only way to participate in “western culture” is to help create a new kind of culture which stands squarely in opposition to it. As Terence McKenna once said, “We have to create culture. Don’t watch TV. Don’t read magazines. Don’t even listen to NPR. Create your own roadshow… Reclaim your mind and get it out of the hands of the cultural engineers who want to turn you into a half-baked moron consuming all this trash that’s being manufactured out of the bones of a dying world.” The only way to create culture with sincerity in this dystopia is by forcefully rejecting its fraudulence and abusiveness, and embracing revolution and resistance. To do anything else is to give tacit approval to the horrific nature of this civilization, and it will always ring a bit hollow and dissonant, because it is ignoring the elephant in the room. The elephant in the room is the unacceptable depravity and deceit that’s going on all around us. So if you want to make art, make revolutionary art. If you want to express yourself, express your defiance of the western empire. Oppose the wars. Oppose the militarism. Oppose the imperialism, the ecocide, the injustice, the tyranny. That’s the only way to be authentic in an inauthentic society.