{"id":188807,"date":"2019-05-24T08:22:33","date_gmt":"2019-05-24T08:22:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=188807"},"modified":"2019-05-28T07:33:37","modified_gmt":"2019-05-28T07:33:37","slug":"democracy-vs-the-putin-nazis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=188807","title":{"rendered":"Democracy vs. the Putin-Nazis"},"content":{"rendered":"

CJ Hopkins \u2013 the Unz Review May 23, 2019<\/h1>\n
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Putin demonised as the new Hitler in the Western media. Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n

Back in January 2018, I wrote this piece about The War on Dissent<\/a><\/span>, which, in case you haven\u2019t noticed, is going gangbusters. As predicted, the global capitalist ruling classes have been using every weapon in their arsenal to marginalize, stigmatize, delegitimize, and otherwise eliminate any and all forms of dissent from neoliberal ideology, and in particular from their new official narrative \u2026 \u201cDemocracy versus The Putin-Nazis.\u201d<\/h5>\n
For over two years, the corporate media have been pounding out an endless series of variations on this major theme, namely, that \u201cdemocracy is under attack\u201d by a conspiracy of Russians and neo-Nazis that magically materialized out of the ether during the Summer of 2016. The intelligence agencies, political elites, academia, celebrities, social media personalities, and other organs of the culture industry have been systematically reifying this official narrative through constant repetition. The Western masses have been inundated with innumerable articles, editorials, television news and talk show segments, books, social media posts, and various other forms of messaging whipping up hysteria over \u201cRussians\u201d and \u201cfascists.\u201d At this point, it is no longer just propaganda. It has become the new \u201ctruth.\u201d It has become \u201creality.\u201d<\/h5>\n
Becoming \u201creality\u201d is, of course, the ultimate goal of every ideology. An ideology is just a system of ideas, and is thus fair game for critique and dissent. \u201cReality\u201d is not fair game for dissent. It is not up for debate or challenge, not by \u201cserious,\u201d \u201clegitimate\u201d people. \u201cReality\u201d is simply \u201cthe way it is.\u201d It is axiomatic. It is apothegmatic. It\u2019s not a belief or an interpretation. It is not subject to change or revision. It is the immortal, immutable Word of God \u2026 or whatever deity or deity-like concept the ruling classes and the masses they rule accept as the Final Arbiter of Truth. In our case, this would be Science, or Reason, rather than some supernatural being, but in terms of ideology there isn\u2019t much difference. Every system of belief, regardless of its nature, ultimately depends on political power and power relations to enforce its beliefs, which is to say, to make them \u201creal.\u201d<\/h5>\n
OK, whenever I write about \u201creality\u201d and \u201ctruth,\u201d I get a few rather angry responses from folks who appear to think I\u2019m denying the existence of objective reality. I\u2019m not \u2026 for example, this chair I\u2019m sitting on is absolutely part of objective reality, a physical object that actually exists. The screen you\u2019re probably reading these words on is also part of objective reality. I am not saying there is no reality. What I\u2019m saying is, \u201creality\u201d is a concept, a concept invented and developed by people \u2026 a concept that serves a variety of purposes, some philosophical, some political. It\u2019s the political purposes I\u2019m interested in.<\/h5>\n
Think of \u201creality\u201d as an ideological tool \u2026 a tool in the hands of those with the power to designate what is \u201creal\u201d and what isn\u2019t. Doctors, teachers, politicians, police, scientists, priests, pundits, experts, parents \u2014 these are the enforcers of \u201creality.\u201d The powerless do not get to decide what is \u201creal.\u201d Ask someone suffering from schizophrenia. Or \u2026 I\u2019m sorry, is it bipolar disorder? Or oppositional defiant disorder? I can\u2019t keep all these new disorders psychiatrists keep \u201cdiscovering\u201d straight.<\/h5>\n
Or ask a Palestinian living in Gaza. Or the mother of a Black kid the cops shot for no reason. Ask Julian Assange. Ask the families of all those \u201cenemy combatants\u201d Obama droned. Ask the \u201cconspiracy theorists\u201d on Twitter digitally screaming at anyone who will listen about what is and isn\u2019t \u201cthe truth.\u201d Each of them will give you their version of \u201creality,\u201d and you and I may agree with some of them, and some of their beliefs may be supported with facts, but that will not make what they believe \u201creality.\u201d<\/h5>\n
Power is what makes \u201creality\u201d \u201creality.\u201d Not facts. Not evidence. Not knowledge. Power.<\/h5>\n
Those in power, or aligned with those in power, or parroting the narratives of those in power, understand this (whether consciously or not). Those without power mostly do not, and thus we continue to \u201cspeak truth to power,\u201d as if those in power gave a shit. They don\u2019t. The powerful are not arguing with us. They are not attempting to win a debate about what is and isn\u2019t \u201ctrue,\u201d or what did or didn\u2019t \u201creally\u201d happen. They are declaring<\/em> what did or didn\u2019t happen. They are telling<\/em> us what is and is not \u201creality,\u201d and demonstrating what happens to those who disagree.<\/h5>\n
The \u201cDemocracy versus The Putin-Nazis\u201d narrative is our new \u201creality,\u201d whether we like it or not. It does not matter one iota that there is zero evidence to support this narrative, other than the claims of intelligence agencies, politicians, the corporate media, and other servants of the ruling classes. The Russians are \u201cattacking democracy\u201d because the ruling classes tell us they are. \u201cFascism is on the march again\u201d because the ruling classes say it is. Anyone who disagrees is a \u201cPutin-sympathizer,\u201d a \u201cPutin-apologist,\u201d or \u201clinked to Russia,\u201d or \u201cfavored by Russia,\u201d or an \u201canti-Semite,\u201d or a \u201cfascist apologist.\u201d<\/h5>\n
Question the official narrative about the Gratuitously Baby Gassing Monster of Syria and you\u2019re an Assad apologist<\/span><\/a>, a Russian bot network<\/a><\/span>, or a plagiarizing Red-Brown infiltrator<\/a><\/span>. Criticize the corporate media for disseminating cheap McCarthyite smears, and you\u2019re a Tulsi-stanning Hindu Nazi-apologist<\/a><\/span>. God help you if you should appear on FOX, in which case you are a Nazi-legitimizer<\/span><\/a>! A cursory check of the Internet today revealed that \u201cfar-right Facebook groups are spreading hate to millions in Europe<\/a><\/span>\u201d by means of some sort of hypnogenic content that just looking at it turns you into a Nazi. Our democracy-loving friends at The Atlantic Council<\/span><\/a> are disappointed by Trump\u2019s refusal to sign the \u201cChristchurch Call,\u201d a multilateral statement encouraging corporations to censor the Internet \u2026 and fascism is fashionable in Italy again<\/span><\/a>!\u201d<\/h5>\n
This post-Orwellian, neo-McCarthyite mass hysteria is not going to stop \u2026 not until the global capitalist ruling classes have suppressed the current \u201cpopulist\u201d insurgency and restored \u201cnormality\u201d<\/span><\/a> throughout the Western world. Until then, it\u2019s going to be pretty much non-stop \u201cDemocracy versus the Putin-Nazis.\u201d<\/h5>\n
So, unless you\u2019re enjoying our new \u201creality,\u201d or are willing to conform to it for some other reason, prepare to be smeared as \u201ca Russia-loving, Putin-apologizing conspiracy theorist,\u201d or a \u201cfascism-enabling, Trump-loving Nazi,\u201d or some other type of insidiously Slavic, white supremacist, mass-murder enthusiast. Things are only going to get uglier as the American election season ramps up. I mean, come on \u2026 you don\u2019t really believe that the global capitalist ruling classes are going to let Trump serve a second term, do you?<\/h5>\n
J. Hopkins is an award-winning American playwright, novelist and political satirist based in Berlin. His plays are published by Bloomsbury Publishing (UK) and Broadway Play Publishing (USA). His debut novel, ZONE 23<\/span><\/a>, is published by Snoggsworthy, Swaine & Cormorant Paperbacks. He can be reached at cjhopkins.com<\/a> or consentfactory.org<\/a>.<\/em><\/h5>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Power is what makes \u201creality\u201d \u201creality.\u201d Those in power, or aligned with those in power understand this (consciously or not). Those without power mostly do not<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":92829,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-188807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-Commentary"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=188807"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188807\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":188812,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188807\/revisions\/188812"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/92829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=188807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=188807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=188807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}