The genocide in Gaza is not an anomaly. It illustrates something fundamental about human nature and is a terrifying harbinger of where the world is headed.
Homocide and Suicide apparently will likely be the evolutionary end of humanity. The genocide in Gaza is the harbinger of things to come for the rest of us. Ignoring the ongoing exponential climate catastrophe is as suicidal as it comes. Too bad we will likely take most flora and fauna along for the ride. Some of us tried to live a life of kindness and compassion and balance with nature, but to what end I ask myself daily now. Regardless, I will hold onto those values until my last dying breath.
Thank you, Mr. Hedges. As always, I'm deeply grateful for your work.
I don't agree with you on this one, though. To say that no one is immune from descending into barbarity doesn't ring true. I think that the vast majority of people on this Earth are kind, decent, and just want to be left alone to raise kids and vegetables in peace. But we have a system, unbridled capitalism, which elevates the most vile and predatory among us to positions of the greatest power. a system which allows the worst of us to flourish.
I don't think he means that no one is immune from descending int barbarity.
He is obviously speaking to a base who do not support descending into barbarity.
But, we can not ignore that our raft is already tipping over that precipice.
The vast majority of the people on this Earth DO want to be left alone to raise kids and vegetables...
as long the situation isn't directly affecting them.
That's what we'd all prefer.
But, we also have to realize that if we can witness a genocide
and nothing anyone has done has been able to stop the constant slaughter,
then,
Good God,
there is nothing to stop it from coming to your community next!
"Search Engine" (someway other than Google), "The Banality of Evil" by Hannah Arendt
If other Countries have been unable or unwilling to start a coalition to fight against total domination before it starts, who is going to fight against it once starts?
Yes man has engaged in barbarous behavior and even as a child I recognized the carnage inflicted on the indigenous population when the white man landed in the Americas. I was able to see that in those old cowboy and Indian movies I watched as a child where the cowboys were always shown as the good guys. I never forgave the US and never saluted the flag by finishing up with liberty and justice for all. Of course history is full of this genocidal carnage, in the present, in the past, and unfortunately it's a reality. Why has Netanyahu been in charge so long? Unfortunately you have a population who have been indoctrinated with hate and loathing for the Palestinian people who are defined as a threat to them, and their treatment has been loathsome which sends the same message. I don't think we descend into barbarity on our own, but are taught. Ever read Working Your Way Toward Whiteness, which covers the ethnic groups that came to the US, Italians, Poles, Jews as being loathsome, less then, and they did have to work hard to get out of the cages the "acceptable" Americans put them in. I could go on and on. Remember our closest living relatives are chimps and as cute as they are, well, they can be bastards.
You should read “Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland” by Christopher Browning. It was also adapted into a documentary on Netflix. Kind, decent, ordinary people are capable of horrendous things given the right conditions and pressures. Not inevitably so, but the latent capability is there.
I also recommend BBC the "Reith Lectures" which will give tremendous insight into trauma, violence and evil. Dr Gwen Adshead is a forensic psychiatrist working in the prison system. This is an excellent four part series you should be able to find online
Chris doesn’t say ‘no one is immune from descending into barbarity’ but rather that collectively it is our fate in the West. That kind individuals such as yourself should attempt to conflate the ‘individual’ and the ‘collective’ in all this is to also serve the interests of the beasts and oppressors by disarming those who might resist them - our only option as Chris points out - with your ‘Hallelujah positivism’ and inactivity. There is a powerful moment in the unforgettable tv series from the 80s; Das Boot, in which the damaged U-boat is sinking and everyone is striving to save the ship. Suddenly a sailor goes down on his knees and starts praying - for salvation. Within a couple of seconds one of his comrades angrily punches him in the face and orders him to join in their efforts to save the ship. Which action in this vignette do you most closely relate to, I wonder?
I once believed that two out of three people were basically decent.
Then I experienced the Madness of 2020. Old "friends" turned on me for daring to question the orthodox narrative. The betrayal felt a lot like some of the descriptions in Chris's book "War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning."
Now I think decent people are more like one out of three. The next third are followers, and the final third is malevolent.
I certainly don't think people in general are inherently bad, and my statement was not meant to convey that, but I will say a great deal of America's bad comes from the indifference of the American people, and no doubt is true for people in most countries. Unfortunately the American press and it's media in general are complicit in providing it's government's agenda and perspective rather then relaying the truth.
There are many moving parts to the USA so when you speak of indifference of the American people I’d like to understand what you mean and base this on? As I recommended, listen to the Reith Lectures which can be accessed on BBC4 radio (search engine is easy to find). And of course there is the famous controversial Milgram experiment which ties in with “Ordinary Men” and explains how orders are followed unquestionably.
Cambodia, the killing fields, Rawanda, East Timor, Nigeria, DRC, Armenia, PRC, Sri Lanka and the list goes on.
Most people, past and present, are really not into politics, and if there is some interest they'll turn to the news channel that will reaffirm their political beliefs. The NY Times once a trusted source of news is no longer a purveyor of truth by anyone who knows anything about world events. However many continue to believe their coverage is top notch and forget things like their support for the Iraq war and the lies they spun that allowed it to happen. What mainstream news outlet is talking about a genocide in Gaza implemented by Israel? None! You reference sources that would get you a blank stare from almost all Americans, including the topics you reference. Remember the American people voted someone into office who had dementia which has progressed over time and quite obviously so, which no one honestly addressed. Now Jay Tapper and another guy writes a book about Biden's mental decline, which Tapper ignored, or attacked as having no validity. Now there is money to be made in acknowledging the truth. I think the neocons really played a big role during his "presidency."
You speak my language. I must confess to a degree I was one of those Americans who was not interested in politics until the past 25 years after 9/11 and began to go down the rabbit hole. That the collective “we” have gotten to this point is beyond the pale of comprehension at times. Suffice it to say we (and many others) both find ourselves on substack supporting Chris Hedges newsfeed. It’s become a needle in a haystack because to reaffirm what you have said, the MSM no longer covers the reality of news events on a global scale. I find this hippocricital because we are part of the Globalisation Network in the USA and in fact created much of it. I live in Ireland now for the past 22 years. I have a very different seat in the world of politics that most of my American counterparts do not. I reckon therein lies the “indifference” you speak of. Originally coming from the USA (Boston), I would have expected more, but it’s not so because of how polarised people have become in the political arena. People will only listen to news that supports their own political platform. My husband and I chose not to play armchair politics after the attack by Hamas on 10/7. (After the 2018-2019 Gaza border protests, I began to take more notice of the reality of what was happening in Gaza.)We found news feeds and books (many by Jewish authors) citing the historical aggression against the Palestinians. Many speak of Israel as a nation but this was not so until 1948 in point of fact. We have learned much about the complex history and the Zionist movement that has shaped much of what we are witnessing today. Chris is so knowledgable we can fast forward through a very complex history that I sometimes find difficult to grasp in its entirety.
What I do see happening on the world stage is that countries are finally standing up to Netanyahu and the IDF. Bibi (watch the Bibi Files on YouTube) has done more for antisemitism than any NeoNazi organisation could have effected. And now the tragedy of 2 Jewish Ambassadors shot dead outside a museum in DC. I shudder to what happens next.
Ireland has her own history of centuries old human rights abuses. I digress.
Jay Tapper. I don’t know what to say. How absurd. I’m a medical professional and could see Biden’s decline 2 years before the election. (Yet medical friends of mine protested he was absolutely fine.) That the people were being kept from the truth or lied to is like a version of the Emperors New Clothes. Lay persons could see it and yet Biden’s cabinet in effect lied and installed Harris. The rest is history.
We stand united in our quest for truth and justice.
Hi, Trish, Ireland, nice. As far as Biden's dementia is concerned I was suspicious something was wrong with him when he and Trump had their first get together. Perhaps that's because my mom had Alzheimer's and it started off with subtle hints and of course as the disease progressed it became blatantly obvious, as was his. Their denial just reflected their contempt for the public. I watched 2 of Netanyahu' speeches after the DC Israel Embassy shooting, and both reflect his narcissism, and his willingness to lie, like continuing to claim Hamas beheaded men, raped women and killed babies. Israel has been challenged on these lies, but it means nothing to him. He claimed that Jewish students were telling him on a visit to the US how they are harassed and suffer from profound prejudice, and no doubt a lie. As I said he's a really self serving SOB and is incapable of feeling empathy for the people of Gaza, and I don't know how this ends. America's complicity in this really bothers me, but the lobby and our self serving politicians don't help it a bit. Think about all our Middle Eastern wars, and about who they were meant to serve, as well as Israel's unfinished agenda for creating a perfect ME that will serve them well. I can't find the link now, but Jeffery Sachs had a good sit down with Tucker Carlson which spelled everything out. Well, have a good rest of your day, Fran
The problem is not capitalism (or socialism, etc.). All societies have been violent. (Only *uncontrolled* capitalism, socialism, etc. causes problems.)
The two actual problems I see are (1) intelligent psychopathy, which is the dark side of the Iron Law of Oligarchy, combined with (2) inexorably rising sophistication of technology of all kinds (weaponry, hi-tech, propaganda, biology, etc.; for surveillance, and monetary, psychological, and physical control, etc.)
Psychopathy (and sociopathy) is a problem we (as a society) we barely know how to recognize (these people also exist among at the top of humanitarian orgs, after all), let alone know how to fix. Meanwhile, we are rapidly reaching (or have already reached) a watershed of technology, which, in hands of psychopaths, no rebellion will ever be possible again.
I agree Steve although I understand why Chris Hedges might say that no one is immune from descending into barbarity having seen what he has in such a short span of his career.
We haven’t given up. Earlier this afternoon, I attended march to the White House and other locations, e.g., the headquarters of the ADL, in protest against the genocide in Gaza. I estimate that there were about 100 of us. Most tourists and others along the route appeared indifferent.
I returned from the march to read the response to a comment I had written on an op-ed about Biden’s “legacy,” in which the author opined that his failure to end his campaign for reelection despite growing evidence of cognitive decline is how he would be remembered. I commented that evidence of his cognitive decline would pale against his legacy of genocide. Only three readers out of hundreds agreed with me. Most expressed some level of outrage that his insistence on staying in the race as long as he did cost the Democrats the election. I saw only one other comment that mentioned Gaza.
This is “the MAGA blue cult” about which journalist Jeremy Scahill wrote. These are the well-heeled and “well-read” Democrats. They obviously don’t see themselves as the extremists they are — those who dismiss or defend or even support genocide. I talked to a man at the march who said he had been at the demonstration at Union Station with others protesting Netanyahu’s speech to Congress for which Netanyahu received a standing ovation. The man told me that the protesters were met with naked hatred by Harris supporters, who even threw things at them. This is our “opposition” party.
Where do we go from here? It’s hard not to lose faith, but dangerous to do so.
Thanks for your post. I agree completely about those “MAGA blue cultists” who are just as crazy as their so-called opposition who wear red hats and worship Trump. Both brands of the corporate uni-party only serve their corporate owners and not the citizens. Both parties have led us down the path towards destruction. I haven’t voted for either of them for decades. Voting for either of them is voting for your own destruction to say the least.
I've had similar experiences in commenting on articles and editorials in the Boston Globe, lately on coverage of the extortion by Trump on Harvard. One constant theme I reiterate is that the antisemitism charge against the university is a trope emanating from the Israeli Ministry of Diaspora Affairs (aka Propaganda) handed off to Miriam Adelson to put into effect.
While I am gratified in the "likes" and positive replies I get, I still have to inure myself to the unredeemable stupidity out there, as well as unhinged rants of the Zionists as seen in the replies and "dislikes" I get to factual material I post. Some of the negatives I get are so quick in coming that I am convinced that AIPAC or the ADL (or both) have monitors, perhaps even paid, to keep an eye out for any anti-Israel comments, there's a handful of regulars who respond to my posts.
Further, I have had other factual comments actually blocked, the latest being a critique of Harvard adopting the IHRA definition of antisemitism, which has been rightfully criticized for being vague to the point of unusable, conflating antisemitism with criticism of Israel or Zionism, and threatens free speech and academic freedom. Even though I included links to supportive, authoritative sources, this was blocked (fortunately I waited a few hours, resubmitted, and it stuck). But this now makes me suspect that AIPAC/ADL has infiltrated the editorial offices of the Boston Globe. Disturbing, but not anything new I've come to find out, see this eye-popping piece by Adam MacLeod at Mintpress News https://www.mintpressnews.com/revealed-the-israel-lobbyists-writing-americas-news/288575/.
Or given Israel's technological prowess in surveillance and hacking, it could be they're monitoring remotely from Unit 8200 headquarters in Tel Aviv.
If you haven’t already seen it, take a look at a story in the NYT today about “Project Esther,” described as a Heritage Foundation plan “to crush the pro-Palestinian movement. It’s clear that the plan has already been launched against universities and specific groups. Truly terrifying. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/18/us/project-esther-foundation-palestinian.html
Yikes, truly terrifying indeed! Further buttresses my outlook that “Just because I’m paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get us” [Joseph Heller, “Catch-22”]. Thanks for pointing this out, the NYT has long fallen to the bottom of my “go to” list for meaningful journalism, Katie Baker put together a very good piece here*, I’m surprised the embedded Unit 8200 agents at the Times let didn’t quash the project from the very beginning, let alone its printing. It’ll be interesting to see if the Boston Globe picks it up (doubt it) seeing as the assault on Harvard is arguably the most visible manifestation today, not to minimize the “Non-profit organization kill” bill and the “IHRA adoption” bill wending their ways through Congress.
Kinda wish Michael Crichton were still around to write a sequel to “The Andromeda Strain,” only this time “The Zionist Strain,” ‘cept we’re dealing with something far more lethal than a biological virus. That Virginia Coates needs to be quarantined.
*Nonetheless, the piece does contain a couple of Israeli Ministry of Diaspora Affairs hasbara-concocted tropes:
1) “Hamas, a designated terrorist group” – No one bothers to explain that this was a Zionist project unto itself, designed to preclude any reference to Hamas as a nationalist resistance or liberation movement, including its extensive network providing social services to Palestinians.
2) “The A.D.L. counted over 9,000 antisemitic incidents across the United States in 2024, the highest number on record since it began tracking them 46 years ago.” – The ADL not only is notorious for its spurious, methodologically sloppy statistics, but also is connected to and gets funding from Tel Aviv.
Ach, neglected to include that I came across references to Herzl, Jabotinsky, Ben-Gurion & Co. back in the early 1900s listing academia as a key target in their campaign to spread the Zionist narrative. This was more formalized in the “hasbara strategy” developed by Nahum Solokov “to present Israel as a resilient victim.” I wish I could recall the site that contained the exact wording, but this gives an idea behind the overall plan https://www.thecoli.com/threads/the-art-of-deception-how-israel-uses-hasbara-to-whitewash-its-crimes.1010878/.
Yes, and, in many places, the article doesn’t qualify the word, “antisemitism,” with “alleged,” seemingly embracing American Heritage’s overly broad definition of the word in several places. This failure happens a lot in the media, including the NYT of course. I have gone back and forth about whether to drop my subscription.
Yeah, one thing that’s been underscored for me as I underwent my rude awakening to what’s going on in this sordid world, at the horrific cost of at least 186,000 killed in Gaza to bring that knowledge to me, is that journalists by and large are lazy, complacent, cowardly, obsequious, self-satisfied, unimaginative dupes. I’ve thought of canceling my subscriptions to the NYT and the Boston Globe, but haven’t quite reached that point yet, maybe force of habit. Then again, at least with the Globe I have a more local and smaller readership to deal with, I can better keep track of their inanities and respond to them without getting totally lost in the crowd.
Think I picked this up from Caitlin Johnstone, “The word ‘antisemite’ has become so meaningless that now whenever someone uses it you have to ask them, ‘What kind? The Hitler-was-right kind or the stop-bombing-children-hospitals kind?’”
Haven’t had occasion to use it yet, just waiting to zing some hysterical Zionist with it.
Update 5/19 - Well, I've had occasion to use it, the shills for Tel Aviv either completely ignore it (gee, some are able to recognize it's better just to shut up than to continue the harangue?), or inadvertently admit to the latter form in reciting some ready-to-use convoluted rambling from the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs inventory of lies, propaganda, falsehoods, etc.
Ya know, they're so far gone they can't even deal in half-truths!
Just for future reference, if you click on those three dots to the far right of your name, it will bring up a few options, one of which allows you to edit your original post without having to reply to yourself.
Jane Jacobs's last book is called "Dark Age Ahead," published in 2004. She doesn't write about genocide or colonization. Here are some chapter titles:
– Families Rigged to Fail
– Credentialing versus Educating
– Science Abandoned
– Dumbed-Down Taxes
– Self-Policing Subverted
– Unwinding Vicious Spirals
And here's a quote: "How does a culture reveal its concept of the purpose of life? A cultural purpose enables perpetrators and witnesses to regard horrific deeds as righteous."
We call on the newly elected, American Pope Leo XIV to do whatever it takes to save Gaza and stop the bombing, and end the starvation. Let him go to Gaza and stand with the suffering people who are being massacred by Israel and the Western posers. Is there anything more important in today's world than this?
Cheer up! Kullu hagga maktoub. We just have to do our best, and you have been doing it. You've got to count your blessings, and you are blessed with a good character, a finely-tuned conscience, and talent to express yourself. The world is a better place because of you.
Yeah, the folks who beat off to St, Winston Churchill usually gloss over the (entirely intentional) Bengal Famine of 1943-44, after all, it was just brown people.
And that was far from the only one of St. Winaton's crimes.
I once naively thought there'd be a "peace dividend" after the fall of the Berlin Wall in Nov. 1989 (and what, Bush I's war with Iraq was just a year later?).
I also found consolation and inspiration from “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice,” which will have to do one helluva course correction to hold true given Gaza (and Sudan, again).
In some ways we've made progress, e.g., medicine, engineering, the STEM stuff, that is linear. But politically, morally, the stuff that centers upon human nature? That's pretty much immutable, it is what it is, and always will be. It is circular, or oscillates, from Golden Ages to Dark ones. We need to steep our ourselves in the humanities, all the while our higher education is heavily weighted to computer science and AI.
1. To justify why we can't have nice things. Healthcare? Infrastructure? Education? We don't have time for that now, don't you know we gotta fight Saddam/Milosevic/Bin Laden/Saddam again/Ghadaffi/Assad/ISIS/Putin/Hamas/Houthis/ad nauseam.
2. To give the rubes a cause to rally around, rather than ask awkward euestions.
3. To unify political factions around a common enemy, justify the division of spoils and explain why we can't have nirvana right at the moment, we'd really like to but the Scary Enemy is stopping us and don't you know we gotta focus on this fight, right now!
4. To justify crackdowns on civil liberties. You and your namby-pamby Bill of Rights, you hate our freedom! What, are you on the side of the fascists/communists/Islamicists/Russians/ ad nauseam?
Ain’t it da trooth. Must go back to the Paleolithic Era at least. A more recent iteration I think goes back to 1950 with NSC-68 by Paul Nitze at the behest of Dean Acheson, one of the so-called “Wise Men” responsible for post-WWII US foreign policy (personally I think this group, as well as Nitze, although accorded much stature among foreign policy types, were borderline paranoids at least, as well as capitalistic ideologues).
In any event, this paved the way to the engorging Cold War military buildup beginning with the gigantic Convair B-36 “Peacemaker” (gotta love the sobriquet) intercontinental bomber and all the rest leading up to Eisenhower’s military-industrial-(congressional) complex warning, on up to Trump’s $1+ trillion “defense” budget, over half the discretionary federal budget. Impact on health care? Take two laser-guided bombs and call me in the morning. The other fallouts you have fittingly mentioned as well.
As the aphorism goes, “History doesn't repeat, but it often rhymes,” so here we go, a latter Sparta (where is it today?), absent the one heroic stand at Thermopylae.
The human race will not be around as long as the dinosaurs. It will extinguish itself through its own destructive activity probably sooner rather than later. This will be to the benefit of the earth and its innocent creatures.The extinction of the human race will not be noticed and the universe will continue on its onward path that it has been on during the previous billions of years when there were no members of our species in existence. Humans have a major case of hubris when in fact they are practically nothing in the context of the universe.
A conclusion I reached, recently, myself. The subject of imperialist genocide should be part of regular history studies from Middle School on. Real history, not nationalistic propaganda. I agree with the view that colonialism is a cruel system. However, I have recently come to believe that such genocides are part of human nature. It is merely in the present moment that European hegemony commits most of these atrocities. This will change within a few decades and we will see their repetition by whichever entity rules the globe then. It's shocking and dismaying how very little it takes to launch the next genocide, wherever it may occur. War and genocide are the expression of our savage, murderous species. Though it is customary for the oppressed group to think of themselves as morally "good" or superior, once this group takes power, they show themselves to be as vicious and genocidal as the former hegemons. Until the human species learns that empathy, collaboration, cooperation and not force support us best, no improvement is possible. And I no longer believe that enough of us are genetically programmed to accept and apply positive solutions.
Something I have observed repeatedly is that while most individuals consider themselves ethical, when they must make a choice between serving self interest or being generous to another they almost always throw their fellow under the bus. What continues to shock me is how low that bar is, sometimes only an inconvenience to themself is grounds for inflicting true suffering on another. And so, I reluctantly agree with you while holding to the view that acts of generosity are still worth participating in.
Students and faculty at Stanford University announce they are joining the nationwide campus hunger strike movement to protest attacks on academic freedom and complicity in the Gaza genocide.
If ever there was a moment that demands civil disobedience, it is the hour of genocide.
An urgent ask from Stanford SJP is to sign and circulate the Drop the Charges petition https://actionnetwork.org/forms/supportstanford12?source=direct_link& which demands that the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office drop the felony charges brought against twelve Stanford University students and alumni following their participation in a protest advocating for Stanford’s divestment from corporations implicated in the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
"Between 1490 and 1890, European colonization, including acts of genocide, was responsible for killing as many as 100 million indigenous people, according to the historian David E. Stannard."
So tell us some more about the importance of Muh Democracy.
In the brilliant film, Richard Burton’s “Becket” brings a new implement to his King—a fork. Henry says: “Knowing my Barons, the first thing they’ll do is stab each other with it.
The first powered flight of a primitive aircraft was in 1903. It took barely eight years before planes were used to drop bombs.
We are now on the shore of a whole new ocean of trouble, called AI. And, of course, the first thing people do is figure out ways to kill each other with it. For the Israelis, killing is the one thing they’re good at, and the first AI weapons are already being used against their captive victims in Gaza.
I mention this just in case anyone out there wasn’t feeling rotten enough already. And I think it can never be too early to prepare against new forms of evil.
What Gaza is shouting loudly to the world is that governments that fail to sanction Israel are deeply corrupted by Zionist money, and need to be removed. There is a lot of public anger everywhere in the world about this. Unlike the German holocaust, this one is being facilitated by Western governments everywhere. BRICS+ is our only hope for a better world.
I think that BRICS might change things, possibly for the better.
But as far as hopes for a better world, I think that it still remains just that, a hope.
Power corrupts, but it also takes different forms, some more just than other.
Hopefully an order - of some political/economic basis, (ultimately, it doesn't matter) might come about and be a more benevolent and just. It can go any number of ways.
But I agree, almost certainly, a change will come.
Homocide and Suicide apparently will likely be the evolutionary end of humanity. The genocide in Gaza is the harbinger of things to come for the rest of us. Ignoring the ongoing exponential climate catastrophe is as suicidal as it comes. Too bad we will likely take most flora and fauna along for the ride. Some of us tried to live a life of kindness and compassion and balance with nature, but to what end I ask myself daily now. Regardless, I will hold onto those values until my last dying breath.
Indeed a VERY sad truth and thank you for pointing out that WE humans are the menace to all living creatures on this beautiful planet!
Thank you, Mr. Hedges. As always, I'm deeply grateful for your work.
I don't agree with you on this one, though. To say that no one is immune from descending into barbarity doesn't ring true. I think that the vast majority of people on this Earth are kind, decent, and just want to be left alone to raise kids and vegetables in peace. But we have a system, unbridled capitalism, which elevates the most vile and predatory among us to positions of the greatest power. a system which allows the worst of us to flourish.
It's not the only system.
I don't think he means that no one is immune from descending int barbarity.
He is obviously speaking to a base who do not support descending into barbarity.
But, we can not ignore that our raft is already tipping over that precipice.
The vast majority of the people on this Earth DO want to be left alone to raise kids and vegetables...
as long the situation isn't directly affecting them.
That's what we'd all prefer.
But, we also have to realize that if we can witness a genocide
and nothing anyone has done has been able to stop the constant slaughter,
then,
Good God,
there is nothing to stop it from coming to your community next!
"Search Engine" (someway other than Google), "The Banality of Evil" by Hannah Arendt
If other Countries have been unable or unwilling to start a coalition to fight against total domination before it starts, who is going to fight against it once starts?
Yes man has engaged in barbarous behavior and even as a child I recognized the carnage inflicted on the indigenous population when the white man landed in the Americas. I was able to see that in those old cowboy and Indian movies I watched as a child where the cowboys were always shown as the good guys. I never forgave the US and never saluted the flag by finishing up with liberty and justice for all. Of course history is full of this genocidal carnage, in the present, in the past, and unfortunately it's a reality. Why has Netanyahu been in charge so long? Unfortunately you have a population who have been indoctrinated with hate and loathing for the Palestinian people who are defined as a threat to them, and their treatment has been loathsome which sends the same message. I don't think we descend into barbarity on our own, but are taught. Ever read Working Your Way Toward Whiteness, which covers the ethnic groups that came to the US, Italians, Poles, Jews as being loathsome, less then, and they did have to work hard to get out of the cages the "acceptable" Americans put them in. I could go on and on. Remember our closest living relatives are chimps and as cute as they are, well, they can be bastards.
You should read “Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland” by Christopher Browning. It was also adapted into a documentary on Netflix. Kind, decent, ordinary people are capable of horrendous things given the right conditions and pressures. Not inevitably so, but the latent capability is there.
I also recommend BBC the "Reith Lectures" which will give tremendous insight into trauma, violence and evil. Dr Gwen Adshead is a forensic psychiatrist working in the prison system. This is an excellent four part series you should be able to find online
Chris doesn’t say ‘no one is immune from descending into barbarity’ but rather that collectively it is our fate in the West. That kind individuals such as yourself should attempt to conflate the ‘individual’ and the ‘collective’ in all this is to also serve the interests of the beasts and oppressors by disarming those who might resist them - our only option as Chris points out - with your ‘Hallelujah positivism’ and inactivity. There is a powerful moment in the unforgettable tv series from the 80s; Das Boot, in which the damaged U-boat is sinking and everyone is striving to save the ship. Suddenly a sailor goes down on his knees and starts praying - for salvation. Within a couple of seconds one of his comrades angrily punches him in the face and orders him to join in their efforts to save the ship. Which action in this vignette do you most closely relate to, I wonder?
I once believed that two out of three people were basically decent.
Then I experienced the Madness of 2020. Old "friends" turned on me for daring to question the orthodox narrative. The betrayal felt a lot like some of the descriptions in Chris's book "War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning."
Now I think decent people are more like one out of three. The next third are followers, and the final third is malevolent.
I guess I've gotten cynical in my old age.
Thank you—-well said.
I certainly don't think people in general are inherently bad, and my statement was not meant to convey that, but I will say a great deal of America's bad comes from the indifference of the American people, and no doubt is true for people in most countries. Unfortunately the American press and it's media in general are complicit in providing it's government's agenda and perspective rather then relaying the truth.
Hi Fran,
There are many moving parts to the USA so when you speak of indifference of the American people I’d like to understand what you mean and base this on? As I recommended, listen to the Reith Lectures which can be accessed on BBC4 radio (search engine is easy to find). And of course there is the famous controversial Milgram experiment which ties in with “Ordinary Men” and explains how orders are followed unquestionably.
Cambodia, the killing fields, Rawanda, East Timor, Nigeria, DRC, Armenia, PRC, Sri Lanka and the list goes on.
Most people, past and present, are really not into politics, and if there is some interest they'll turn to the news channel that will reaffirm their political beliefs. The NY Times once a trusted source of news is no longer a purveyor of truth by anyone who knows anything about world events. However many continue to believe their coverage is top notch and forget things like their support for the Iraq war and the lies they spun that allowed it to happen. What mainstream news outlet is talking about a genocide in Gaza implemented by Israel? None! You reference sources that would get you a blank stare from almost all Americans, including the topics you reference. Remember the American people voted someone into office who had dementia which has progressed over time and quite obviously so, which no one honestly addressed. Now Jay Tapper and another guy writes a book about Biden's mental decline, which Tapper ignored, or attacked as having no validity. Now there is money to be made in acknowledging the truth. I think the neocons really played a big role during his "presidency."
Fran,
You speak my language. I must confess to a degree I was one of those Americans who was not interested in politics until the past 25 years after 9/11 and began to go down the rabbit hole. That the collective “we” have gotten to this point is beyond the pale of comprehension at times. Suffice it to say we (and many others) both find ourselves on substack supporting Chris Hedges newsfeed. It’s become a needle in a haystack because to reaffirm what you have said, the MSM no longer covers the reality of news events on a global scale. I find this hippocricital because we are part of the Globalisation Network in the USA and in fact created much of it. I live in Ireland now for the past 22 years. I have a very different seat in the world of politics that most of my American counterparts do not. I reckon therein lies the “indifference” you speak of. Originally coming from the USA (Boston), I would have expected more, but it’s not so because of how polarised people have become in the political arena. People will only listen to news that supports their own political platform. My husband and I chose not to play armchair politics after the attack by Hamas on 10/7. (After the 2018-2019 Gaza border protests, I began to take more notice of the reality of what was happening in Gaza.)We found news feeds and books (many by Jewish authors) citing the historical aggression against the Palestinians. Many speak of Israel as a nation but this was not so until 1948 in point of fact. We have learned much about the complex history and the Zionist movement that has shaped much of what we are witnessing today. Chris is so knowledgable we can fast forward through a very complex history that I sometimes find difficult to grasp in its entirety.
What I do see happening on the world stage is that countries are finally standing up to Netanyahu and the IDF. Bibi (watch the Bibi Files on YouTube) has done more for antisemitism than any NeoNazi organisation could have effected. And now the tragedy of 2 Jewish Ambassadors shot dead outside a museum in DC. I shudder to what happens next.
Ireland has her own history of centuries old human rights abuses. I digress.
Jay Tapper. I don’t know what to say. How absurd. I’m a medical professional and could see Biden’s decline 2 years before the election. (Yet medical friends of mine protested he was absolutely fine.) That the people were being kept from the truth or lied to is like a version of the Emperors New Clothes. Lay persons could see it and yet Biden’s cabinet in effect lied and installed Harris. The rest is history.
We stand united in our quest for truth and justice.
I wish you well.
Hi, Trish, Ireland, nice. As far as Biden's dementia is concerned I was suspicious something was wrong with him when he and Trump had their first get together. Perhaps that's because my mom had Alzheimer's and it started off with subtle hints and of course as the disease progressed it became blatantly obvious, as was his. Their denial just reflected their contempt for the public. I watched 2 of Netanyahu' speeches after the DC Israel Embassy shooting, and both reflect his narcissism, and his willingness to lie, like continuing to claim Hamas beheaded men, raped women and killed babies. Israel has been challenged on these lies, but it means nothing to him. He claimed that Jewish students were telling him on a visit to the US how they are harassed and suffer from profound prejudice, and no doubt a lie. As I said he's a really self serving SOB and is incapable of feeling empathy for the people of Gaza, and I don't know how this ends. America's complicity in this really bothers me, but the lobby and our self serving politicians don't help it a bit. Think about all our Middle Eastern wars, and about who they were meant to serve, as well as Israel's unfinished agenda for creating a perfect ME that will serve them well. I can't find the link now, but Jeffery Sachs had a good sit down with Tucker Carlson which spelled everything out. Well, have a good rest of your day, Fran
The problem is not capitalism (or socialism, etc.). All societies have been violent. (Only *uncontrolled* capitalism, socialism, etc. causes problems.)
The two actual problems I see are (1) intelligent psychopathy, which is the dark side of the Iron Law of Oligarchy, combined with (2) inexorably rising sophistication of technology of all kinds (weaponry, hi-tech, propaganda, biology, etc.; for surveillance, and monetary, psychological, and physical control, etc.)
Psychopathy (and sociopathy) is a problem we (as a society) we barely know how to recognize (these people also exist among at the top of humanitarian orgs, after all), let alone know how to fix. Meanwhile, we are rapidly reaching (or have already reached) a watershed of technology, which, in hands of psychopaths, no rebellion will ever be possible again.
Remember Dinero as the Plummer in movie "Brazil"?
The end if your comment illustrates Orwellian type dystopian societies. We have entered the Twilight Zone!
I agree Steve although I understand why Chris Hedges might say that no one is immune from descending into barbarity having seen what he has in such a short span of his career.
At a Nakba Day demo and march today in Toronto, I saw man holding a sign that said PALESTINE IS THE ROCK ON WHICH THE WEST WILL BREAK ITSELF
We haven’t given up. Earlier this afternoon, I attended march to the White House and other locations, e.g., the headquarters of the ADL, in protest against the genocide in Gaza. I estimate that there were about 100 of us. Most tourists and others along the route appeared indifferent.
I returned from the march to read the response to a comment I had written on an op-ed about Biden’s “legacy,” in which the author opined that his failure to end his campaign for reelection despite growing evidence of cognitive decline is how he would be remembered. I commented that evidence of his cognitive decline would pale against his legacy of genocide. Only three readers out of hundreds agreed with me. Most expressed some level of outrage that his insistence on staying in the race as long as he did cost the Democrats the election. I saw only one other comment that mentioned Gaza.
This is “the MAGA blue cult” about which journalist Jeremy Scahill wrote. These are the well-heeled and “well-read” Democrats. They obviously don’t see themselves as the extremists they are — those who dismiss or defend or even support genocide. I talked to a man at the march who said he had been at the demonstration at Union Station with others protesting Netanyahu’s speech to Congress for which Netanyahu received a standing ovation. The man told me that the protesters were met with naked hatred by Harris supporters, who even threw things at them. This is our “opposition” party.
Where do we go from here? It’s hard not to lose faith, but dangerous to do so.
Thanks for your post. I agree completely about those “MAGA blue cultists” who are just as crazy as their so-called opposition who wear red hats and worship Trump. Both brands of the corporate uni-party only serve their corporate owners and not the citizens. Both parties have led us down the path towards destruction. I haven’t voted for either of them for decades. Voting for either of them is voting for your own destruction to say the least.
I've had similar experiences in commenting on articles and editorials in the Boston Globe, lately on coverage of the extortion by Trump on Harvard. One constant theme I reiterate is that the antisemitism charge against the university is a trope emanating from the Israeli Ministry of Diaspora Affairs (aka Propaganda) handed off to Miriam Adelson to put into effect.
While I am gratified in the "likes" and positive replies I get, I still have to inure myself to the unredeemable stupidity out there, as well as unhinged rants of the Zionists as seen in the replies and "dislikes" I get to factual material I post. Some of the negatives I get are so quick in coming that I am convinced that AIPAC or the ADL (or both) have monitors, perhaps even paid, to keep an eye out for any anti-Israel comments, there's a handful of regulars who respond to my posts.
Further, I have had other factual comments actually blocked, the latest being a critique of Harvard adopting the IHRA definition of antisemitism, which has been rightfully criticized for being vague to the point of unusable, conflating antisemitism with criticism of Israel or Zionism, and threatens free speech and academic freedom. Even though I included links to supportive, authoritative sources, this was blocked (fortunately I waited a few hours, resubmitted, and it stuck). But this now makes me suspect that AIPAC/ADL has infiltrated the editorial offices of the Boston Globe. Disturbing, but not anything new I've come to find out, see this eye-popping piece by Adam MacLeod at Mintpress News https://www.mintpressnews.com/revealed-the-israel-lobbyists-writing-americas-news/288575/.
Or given Israel's technological prowess in surveillance and hacking, it could be they're monitoring remotely from Unit 8200 headquarters in Tel Aviv.
Yes, hard not to lose faith.
If you haven’t already seen it, take a look at a story in the NYT today about “Project Esther,” described as a Heritage Foundation plan “to crush the pro-Palestinian movement. It’s clear that the plan has already been launched against universities and specific groups. Truly terrifying. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/18/us/project-esther-foundation-palestinian.html
Nancy -
Yikes, truly terrifying indeed! Further buttresses my outlook that “Just because I’m paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get us” [Joseph Heller, “Catch-22”]. Thanks for pointing this out, the NYT has long fallen to the bottom of my “go to” list for meaningful journalism, Katie Baker put together a very good piece here*, I’m surprised the embedded Unit 8200 agents at the Times let didn’t quash the project from the very beginning, let alone its printing. It’ll be interesting to see if the Boston Globe picks it up (doubt it) seeing as the assault on Harvard is arguably the most visible manifestation today, not to minimize the “Non-profit organization kill” bill and the “IHRA adoption” bill wending their ways through Congress.
Kinda wish Michael Crichton were still around to write a sequel to “The Andromeda Strain,” only this time “The Zionist Strain,” ‘cept we’re dealing with something far more lethal than a biological virus. That Virginia Coates needs to be quarantined.
*Nonetheless, the piece does contain a couple of Israeli Ministry of Diaspora Affairs hasbara-concocted tropes:
1) “Hamas, a designated terrorist group” – No one bothers to explain that this was a Zionist project unto itself, designed to preclude any reference to Hamas as a nationalist resistance or liberation movement, including its extensive network providing social services to Palestinians.
2) “The A.D.L. counted over 9,000 antisemitic incidents across the United States in 2024, the highest number on record since it began tracking them 46 years ago.” – The ADL not only is notorious for its spurious, methodologically sloppy statistics, but also is connected to and gets funding from Tel Aviv.
Ach, neglected to include that I came across references to Herzl, Jabotinsky, Ben-Gurion & Co. back in the early 1900s listing academia as a key target in their campaign to spread the Zionist narrative. This was more formalized in the “hasbara strategy” developed by Nahum Solokov “to present Israel as a resilient victim.” I wish I could recall the site that contained the exact wording, but this gives an idea behind the overall plan https://www.thecoli.com/threads/the-art-of-deception-how-israel-uses-hasbara-to-whitewash-its-crimes.1010878/.
Yes, and, in many places, the article doesn’t qualify the word, “antisemitism,” with “alleged,” seemingly embracing American Heritage’s overly broad definition of the word in several places. This failure happens a lot in the media, including the NYT of course. I have gone back and forth about whether to drop my subscription.
Yeah, one thing that’s been underscored for me as I underwent my rude awakening to what’s going on in this sordid world, at the horrific cost of at least 186,000 killed in Gaza to bring that knowledge to me, is that journalists by and large are lazy, complacent, cowardly, obsequious, self-satisfied, unimaginative dupes. I’ve thought of canceling my subscriptions to the NYT and the Boston Globe, but haven’t quite reached that point yet, maybe force of habit. Then again, at least with the Globe I have a more local and smaller readership to deal with, I can better keep track of their inanities and respond to them without getting totally lost in the crowd.
Think I picked this up from Caitlin Johnstone, “The word ‘antisemite’ has become so meaningless that now whenever someone uses it you have to ask them, ‘What kind? The Hitler-was-right kind or the stop-bombing-children-hospitals kind?’”
Haven’t had occasion to use it yet, just waiting to zing some hysterical Zionist with it.
Update 5/19 - Well, I've had occasion to use it, the shills for Tel Aviv either completely ignore it (gee, some are able to recognize it's better just to shut up than to continue the harangue?), or inadvertently admit to the latter form in reciting some ready-to-use convoluted rambling from the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs inventory of lies, propaganda, falsehoods, etc.
Ya know, they're so far gone they can't even deal in half-truths!
I neglected to say that the op-ed to which I referred was in the NYT.
Just for future reference, if you click on those three dots to the far right of your name, it will bring up a few options, one of which allows you to edit your original post without having to reply to yourself.
Thanks!
Jane Jacobs's last book is called "Dark Age Ahead," published in 2004. She doesn't write about genocide or colonization. Here are some chapter titles:
– Families Rigged to Fail
– Credentialing versus Educating
– Science Abandoned
– Dumbed-Down Taxes
– Self-Policing Subverted
– Unwinding Vicious Spirals
And here's a quote: "How does a culture reveal its concept of the purpose of life? A cultural purpose enables perpetrators and witnesses to regard horrific deeds as righteous."
Jane Jacobs was quite a good one and that book was prescient.
We call on the newly elected, American Pope Leo XIV to do whatever it takes to save Gaza and stop the bombing, and end the starvation. Let him go to Gaza and stand with the suffering people who are being massacred by Israel and the Western posers. Is there anything more important in today's world than this?
https://chng.it/gkvBfY44rq
Please sign the petition and share widely.
Cheer up! Kullu hagga maktoub. We just have to do our best, and you have been doing it. You've got to count your blessings, and you are blessed with a good character, a finely-tuned conscience, and talent to express yourself. The world is a better place because of you.
the brits continued their starvation and wealth extraction plan on their Indian land holdings even as the nazis were committing their genocide
Yeah, the folks who beat off to St, Winston Churchill usually gloss over the (entirely intentional) Bengal Famine of 1943-44, after all, it was just brown people.
And that was far from the only one of St. Winaton's crimes.
The Brits also starved the Irish, possibly the Whitest People On Earth, even if only literally.
We are going backwards to the future--- the digital dark ages
I once naively thought there'd be a "peace dividend" after the fall of the Berlin Wall in Nov. 1989 (and what, Bush I's war with Iraq was just a year later?).
I also found consolation and inspiration from “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice,” which will have to do one helluva course correction to hold true given Gaza (and Sudan, again).
In some ways we've made progress, e.g., medicine, engineering, the STEM stuff, that is linear. But politically, morally, the stuff that centers upon human nature? That's pretty much immutable, it is what it is, and always will be. It is circular, or oscillates, from Golden Ages to Dark ones. We need to steep our ourselves in the humanities, all the while our higher education is heavily weighted to computer science and AI.
Backwards to the future indeed.
A Scary Enemy is always a necessity.
1. To justify why we can't have nice things. Healthcare? Infrastructure? Education? We don't have time for that now, don't you know we gotta fight Saddam/Milosevic/Bin Laden/Saddam again/Ghadaffi/Assad/ISIS/Putin/Hamas/Houthis/ad nauseam.
2. To give the rubes a cause to rally around, rather than ask awkward euestions.
3. To unify political factions around a common enemy, justify the division of spoils and explain why we can't have nirvana right at the moment, we'd really like to but the Scary Enemy is stopping us and don't you know we gotta focus on this fight, right now!
4. To justify crackdowns on civil liberties. You and your namby-pamby Bill of Rights, you hate our freedom! What, are you on the side of the fascists/communists/Islamicists/Russians/ ad nauseam?
“A Scary Enemy is always a necessity.”
Ain’t it da trooth. Must go back to the Paleolithic Era at least. A more recent iteration I think goes back to 1950 with NSC-68 by Paul Nitze at the behest of Dean Acheson, one of the so-called “Wise Men” responsible for post-WWII US foreign policy (personally I think this group, as well as Nitze, although accorded much stature among foreign policy types, were borderline paranoids at least, as well as capitalistic ideologues).
In any event, this paved the way to the engorging Cold War military buildup beginning with the gigantic Convair B-36 “Peacemaker” (gotta love the sobriquet) intercontinental bomber and all the rest leading up to Eisenhower’s military-industrial-(congressional) complex warning, on up to Trump’s $1+ trillion “defense” budget, over half the discretionary federal budget. Impact on health care? Take two laser-guided bombs and call me in the morning. The other fallouts you have fittingly mentioned as well.
As the aphorism goes, “History doesn't repeat, but it often rhymes,” so here we go, a latter Sparta (where is it today?), absent the one heroic stand at Thermopylae.
The human race will not be around as long as the dinosaurs. It will extinguish itself through its own destructive activity probably sooner rather than later. This will be to the benefit of the earth and its innocent creatures.The extinction of the human race will not be noticed and the universe will continue on its onward path that it has been on during the previous billions of years when there were no members of our species in existence. Humans have a major case of hubris when in fact they are practically nothing in the context of the universe.
A conclusion I reached, recently, myself. The subject of imperialist genocide should be part of regular history studies from Middle School on. Real history, not nationalistic propaganda. I agree with the view that colonialism is a cruel system. However, I have recently come to believe that such genocides are part of human nature. It is merely in the present moment that European hegemony commits most of these atrocities. This will change within a few decades and we will see their repetition by whichever entity rules the globe then. It's shocking and dismaying how very little it takes to launch the next genocide, wherever it may occur. War and genocide are the expression of our savage, murderous species. Though it is customary for the oppressed group to think of themselves as morally "good" or superior, once this group takes power, they show themselves to be as vicious and genocidal as the former hegemons. Until the human species learns that empathy, collaboration, cooperation and not force support us best, no improvement is possible. And I no longer believe that enough of us are genetically programmed to accept and apply positive solutions.
What a dark, hopeless world we are creating.
Something I have observed repeatedly is that while most individuals consider themselves ethical, when they must make a choice between serving self interest or being generous to another they almost always throw their fellow under the bus. What continues to shock me is how low that bar is, sometimes only an inconvenience to themself is grounds for inflicting true suffering on another. And so, I reluctantly agree with you while holding to the view that acts of generosity are still worth participating in.
Indeed, there are many candles in the darkness. We can still choose to be one of them.
Thank you.
Hunger Strike!
Students and faculty at Stanford University announce they are joining the nationwide campus hunger strike movement to protest attacks on academic freedom and complicity in the Gaza genocide.
If ever there was a moment that demands civil disobedience, it is the hour of genocide.
You can read more about this moral stance here:
https://mondoweiss.net/2025/05/hunger-is-our-weapon-against-injustice/?ml_recipient=154375676232730169&ml_link=154375611833386238&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=2025-05-14&utm_campaign=Daily+Headlines+RSS+Automation
An urgent ask from Stanford SJP is to sign and circulate the Drop the Charges petition https://actionnetwork.org/forms/supportstanford12?source=direct_link& which demands that the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office drop the felony charges brought against twelve Stanford University students and alumni following their participation in a protest advocating for Stanford’s divestment from corporations implicated in the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
We are the monsters and we deserve what we get.
We are not all monsters, but we will get what's coming anyway - it will not be pretty - it's already pretty ugly.
"Between 1490 and 1890, European colonization, including acts of genocide, was responsible for killing as many as 100 million indigenous people, according to the historian David E. Stannard."
So tell us some more about the importance of Muh Democracy.
In the brilliant film, Richard Burton’s “Becket” brings a new implement to his King—a fork. Henry says: “Knowing my Barons, the first thing they’ll do is stab each other with it.
The first powered flight of a primitive aircraft was in 1903. It took barely eight years before planes were used to drop bombs.
We are now on the shore of a whole new ocean of trouble, called AI. And, of course, the first thing people do is figure out ways to kill each other with it. For the Israelis, killing is the one thing they’re good at, and the first AI weapons are already being used against their captive victims in Gaza.
I mention this just in case anyone out there wasn’t feeling rotten enough already. And I think it can never be too early to prepare against new forms of evil.
What Gaza is shouting loudly to the world is that governments that fail to sanction Israel are deeply corrupted by Zionist money, and need to be removed. There is a lot of public anger everywhere in the world about this. Unlike the German holocaust, this one is being facilitated by Western governments everywhere. BRICS+ is our only hope for a better world.
I think that BRICS might change things, possibly for the better.
But as far as hopes for a better world, I think that it still remains just that, a hope.
Power corrupts, but it also takes different forms, some more just than other.
Hopefully an order - of some political/economic basis, (ultimately, it doesn't matter) might come about and be a more benevolent and just. It can go any number of ways.
But I agree, almost certainly, a change will come.