Going Rogue With Caitlin Johnstone

In a fawning softball 60 Minutes interview released Sunday, Benjamin Netanyahu stressed the importance of winning "the propaganda war" on social media. This comes as Israel moves to quadruple its propaganda budget to $730 million a year. Reading by Tim Foley.

It's not impossible to solve our world's problems, it only looks that way because we've created systems which cause human behavior to be driven by mindless mechanisms of our own making rather than by human interest. Reading by Tim Foley.

Critics have been warning for years that these age restriction laws are being rolled out around the world to erase online anonymity and enable greater surveillance of the entire population, and they are looking more vindicated than ever today. This isn't about protecting children from social media addiction and porn, it's about expanding the western empire's surveillance network. Reading by Tim Foley.

First and foremost the west needs to stop murdering people. Ending western warmongering should take priority over every other societal concern, in the same way your husband being a serial killer would be a more urgent concern than his refusal to wash dishes. Reading by Tim Foley.

I am confident the chatbots aren't conscious in the same way I'm confident the animatronics at Disneyland aren't conscious. I know humans constructed them to mimic the behavior of a sentient person. We know this for a fact. Nobody's pretending otherwise. Reading by Tim Foley.

Caitlin and Tim discuss art, AI, consciousness, propaganda, spiritual awakening and more while Caitlin paints a portrait of Marco "the Gorey Gusano" Rubio. Please leave us your questions, comments and feedback so we can respond to them on the next podcast.

Israel supporters really expect you to be intimidated when they mob your replies yelling at you and calling you names. Like oh no, the people who defend bombing hospitals think I'm bad. Reading by Tim Foley.

I recently watched a Sky News segment on the need to ban pro-Palestine marches which nicely illustrates the way the mass media have been working to manipulate the public into believing these demonstrations are causing antisemitic attacks. Reading by Tim Foley.

Basically every Israel-Palestine debate goes like this: “Israel did X.” “Yeah, because Hamas did Y.” “Yeah, because Israel did Z.” “Yeah but only because the Palestinians keep doing A.” “Okay but that's wouldn't have happened of the Israelis hadn't been doing B.” “But that only happened because the Arabs did C!” But if you bring the debate back far enough in time, eventually you get to the part where the western world forcibly dropped a brand new ethnostate on top of a pre-existing civilization without the permission of — and to the extreme detriment of — the people who were already living there. Reading by Tim Foley.

Laws aimed at pro-Palestine protests should always be looked at as efforts to ban criticism of Israel. That's what we're seeing in the UK as the prime minister encourages the prosecution of anyone who says “globalise the intifada”. Reading by Tim Foley.

Caitlin and Tim discuss the Israeli abduction of Global Sumud Flotilla activists hundreds of miles away from their territorial waters, US war plans for Cuba, Israel's ethnic cleansing plans for Gaza, the billionaire propagandist who owns Politico, motherhood, misogyny, and more. As usual, please leave us your questions, comments and feedback so we can respond to them in the next podcast. Feature image by Brahim Guedich via Wikimedia Commons.

Sure capitalism is driving us toward collapse on multiple fronts while everyone gets sicker, poorer, dumber, crazier, and more miserable, but hey look, McDonald's is bringing back the McRib. Reading by Tim Foley.

In the last few days I've seen three separate instances of generative AI being used to promote propaganda for US-Israeli war agendas which are worth paying attention to. Reading by Tim Foley.

Caitlin and Tim discuss the global consequences the US-Israeli war on Iran is set to have on the weakest members of the poorest countries, the latest Trump assassination attempt, BBC headline shenanigans, and more.

However bad you're imagining it is, it's worse. The handbook, set to be formally launched later this week under the title "Understanding Antisemitism in Australia," explicitly conflates antisemitism and antizionism with statements like "Antisemitism and antizionism are both expressions of hatred towards Jews" and asserting that it is antisemitic to accuse Israel of "apartheid, oppression, racism and genocide." Reading by Tim Foley.

They do this all the time, with everything. They'll falsely claim pro-Palestine protests make them feel unsafe just to get laws passed to shut down the demonstrations. They'll pretend to believe that phrases like "from the river to the sea" and "globalize the intifada" are hateful slogans which encourage antisemitic attacks. They'll regurgitate ridiculous hasbara slogans like "human shields" and "world's most moral army" which they know for a fact are false. They just make whatever noises they need to make to keep the western weapons shipments heading to Tel Aviv. Reading by Tim Foley.

Caitlin and Tim discuss Christian Zionism, Israel, authentic spirituality, and Jesus statues. Options to support our work: https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/about

Former Israeli intelligence officer Ella Kenan was seen at a recent pro-Israel conference saying she runs an online influence operation that works with "communities of over sixty thousand people around the world that make our content viral" to manipulate public discourse and "serve the narrative" of Israel. I've been assured that this never happens and that it's antisemitic to say it does, but okay sure. Let's move on.

These moves were planned years in advance, and would have been rolled out regardless of what impotent meat puppet happened to be wheeled into office in January 2025. You don't get to vote out an empire. Whether or not the US will continue working to dominate the planet will never be on the ballot. Reading by Tim Foley.

Nothing about this dystopia feels natural. We all sense it deep in our marrow. We all know something has gone terribly wrong.

If there were a thousand people living on an island, and one of them began making life miserable for everyone else, there would soon be 999 people living on the island. How strange, then, that a few oligarchs and empire managers get to push around an entire planet full of humans. Reading by Tim Foley.

The most common pro-war talking point about Iran is that they massacred tens of thousands of protesters in January of this year - but what's funny is that they never cite the same number. Because it's a completely fictional story, they can just make up any number they want.

Violence is not always justified, but there is always a reason why it happens. Western pundits, politicians and newscasters will very seldom tell you what those reasons are unless it advances the interests of the western empire. Reading by Tim Foley.

I don't mind admitting that I hope the US and Israel suffer a crushing, devastating defeat in Iran. I hope this war collapses the entire US empire. My only loyalty is to humanity, and being on Team Human in today's world means being against the US empire and against Israel. Reading by Tim Foley.

Everyone hates Israel now, which is as it should be. But we all need to understand that Israel has never acted alone. Reading by Tim Foley.

Have you ever noticed how the same people who accuse Israel's critics of "obsession" with a tiny insignificant country will also fall all over themselves to tell you that Israel is an indispensable ally whose interests are inextricably intertwined with the interests of western civilization? Reading by Tim Foley.

This serves as yet another reminder that the world can have peace or it can have Israel - but it cannot have both. Israel is a genocidal apartheid state whose entire existence is premised upon a strategy of unceasing violence and abuse in the middle east. As long as that state continues to exist in its present iteration, peace will never be attainable. Reading by Tim Foley.

So as things stand right now this certainly looks like a humiliating defeat for the empire. Iran gets a lot of things it didn't have before the war, including tolling the Strait of Hormuz and relief from the US sanctions that have been crushing its economy for years, while the empire gets to resume its shipping for a hefty fee and pretend it just rescued the world from a nuclear Iran. Quite the turnaround from a White House that just last month was saying "There will be no deal with Iran except UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!" Reading by Tim Foley.

At this point if you're in the US military you have a moral obligation to start refusing orders. Desert. Become a conscientious objector. Ideally, get everyone together and launch a full-scale military coup. We're in "Mad King" territory. Someone's gotta do what needs to be done. Reading by Tim Foley.

Ultimately what separates the anti-imperialist left from mainstream liberal "humanitarians" is whether you're in it for humanity or for yourself. Reading by Tim Foley.

The New York Times has printed an article with the headline "A North American Treaty Organization Without America?", apparently having spent the entire Ukraine war completely unaware that NATO stands for North ATLANTIC Treaty Organization. Reading by Tim Foley.

It's so wild how we keep seeing reports that Iran's retaliation caught the US off guard. For all the years I've been paying attention to this issue I've been reading experts and analysts saying if the US attacks Iran, Iran can close the Strait of Hormuz and strike US bases and the energy infrastructure of US allies in the region. Reading by Tim Foley.

"May all be revealed" has been my prayer for our world for many years now. That dearly held wish is now being answered, and the truth is looking every bit as ugly as expected. Reading by Tim Foley.

It doesn't matter what else you do with your life if you stand on the side of a man-made murder machine which is fueled by the blood of the innocent. Reading by Tim Foley.

The law doesn't exist to protect ordinary people from the most malignant members of our society, the law exists to protect the most malignant members of society from ordinary people. Reading by Tim Foley.

Meanwhile, in real life, people are being mercilessly butchered in Iran, Lebanon and Palestine by Israel and its allies. The uglier it gets, the more aggressive the concern-trolling about "antisemitism" becomes. Reading by Tim Foley.

The US needs to help Israel harm people or else the people who are mad about being harmed might harm Israelis. It's circular reasoning all the way through. Reading by Tim Foley.

I get so tired of all this American hand-wringing about "boots on the ground". It's a symptom of a wildly sick dystopia that these people are fine with raining military explosives on a densely populated city but draw the line at putting American troops in the line of fire. Reading by Tim Foley.

As soon as you accept that Israel must exist as a "Jewish state" no matter what, you are accepting that there will never be peace in the middle east. Because Israel cannot exist as it is without nonstop violence. Reading by Tim Foley.

The problem is US presidents, not kings. The problem is the US empire, not Trump. The United States needs drastic, revolutionary change, not daytime protests designed to be as inoffensive as possible. Reading by Tim Foley.

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. Reading by Tim Foley.

I will never, ever express sympathy for Israelis. Ever. Under any circumstances. To do so would be irresponsible, because Israel always weaponizes sympathy and then uses that weapon to commit mass atrocities. If the world gives Israel sympathy for civilians injured by an Iranian airstrike over the weekend in a war Israel started, by Friday they'll be using that sympathy to justify nuking Tehran. Reading by Tim Foley.

These assholes really thought they could commit a genocide in full view of the entire world for years and then expect everyone cheer for them to win. Reading by Tim Foley.

Trump's former national security advisor John Bolton has a tweet that's got me absolutely fuming right now. "In 2018–2019, I made the case for regime change in Iran as often as I could. Voices in Trump's orbit often cited Iran's capacity to close the Strait of Hormuz as a reason against regime change. Trump has been fully aware this is a possibility, and yet did not prepare," Bolton posted. Can you believe this shit? Dude's like "Hey, Trump should have known this war would be hard because people tried to warn him not to listen to me!" Reading by Tim Foley.

Westerners are about to start paying a lot more attention to the war in Iran as massive US-Israeli escalations point to a coming energy crisis set to impact the whole world. Reading by Tim Foley.

This is what it looks like when you give Zionists everything they want. This is Zionism put into practice. The wars. The massacres. The bombed-out schools and hospitals. The millions of displaced individuals. The invasion of Lebanon The explosions carpeting Tehran. The hollowed-out moonscape of Gaza. The horrific pogroms in the West Bank. Reading by Tim Foley.

My enemies are not in Iran. My enemies are in Washington and Tel Aviv. In London and Canberra. My enemies are the western oligarchs and empire managers who are poisoning my society and making everything awful while slaughtering human beings with the help of my tax dollars. Reading by Tim Foley.

It's so obnoxious how genocide apologists like Greenblatt make a living actively telling everyone that Jews and Judaism are inseparable from the acts of the Israeli government, but whenever there's an extremist attack by someone who doesn't distinguish between western Jews and the state of Israel it gets blamed on the pro-Palestine left. Reading by Tim Foley.

Remember all the hasbarists and empire apologists who said it was a misfired Iranian missile that hit the school. Remember how aggressively and uniformly they all pushed this lie, including the president of the United States. Then understand that they're going to keep lying like this throughout the entire war. Reading by Tim Foley.

"You grew up wanting so bad to be Luke Skywalker, but you realize that you were basically a Stormtrooper.” ~ Daniel Crimmins

Don't lean out the window of the Empire of Perpetual Bloodlust to wag your finger at empire-targeted countries in the global south. It's obnoxious. Reading by Tim Foley.