10 Comments
Mar 8Liked by Emanuel Pastreich

Very interesting, all of this! I suspect a lot of these aloof attitudes come from fear? And so, then sliding into a sort of 'I am the man in the middle' is a kind of a compromise? It is however helping to keep the Status Quo in place. And that is not good at all. And so, the few people most outspoken and brave end up in jail or worse.

Expand full comment
author

Well this is hard. What if the climate catastrophists are criminals but there is a real climate catastrophe?

Expand full comment

Excellent article(!) about another disturbing topic. A+ as always.

Expand full comment

Yes, fear keeps people in line. Emanuel, I am sure that at some level Boyle looked at you and said "there but for the grace of god go I." Telling the political truth is subject to a glass ceiling, or is it a wall? Choose your metaphor. Speaking explicitly to the nature of power and the problem it creates in society for nature and people is taboo. You characterize very well how Hedges stops his discourse at the edge of the unspeakable topic of the violence that is done by the power elite, in secret and under cover, of the mainstream media. In the political truth movement, we do need to be aware and acknowledge the parameters for speech, and find ways to get the message out. Maybe the best we can hope for is to post on the comments section of the work of Boyle and Hedges.

Expand full comment
author

In fact Francis Boyle tried in his way, as did Bruce Cummings of University of Chicago, to help me. But the bottom line was that no hint of the truth could be told to anyone. This was true for Assange as well. He could tell about certain crimes of the US in Iraq, but the vast majority of crimes remained untouched. For me, at this point, if 115 journalists in Gaza are willing to give their lives for the sake of truth, what are we afraid of?

Expand full comment

Well said Emanuel, that is a major problem, yes I agree it is fear that keeps them in line. I am inspired to write an attack on Hedges. So many refuse to talk about the money system.

Expand full comment
author

you might want to watch that Hedges interview about private equity

Expand full comment

I am interested by your mention of Douglas Valentine as a gatekeeper (my word and interpretation of your description). What state crimes do you think that he is carefully not looking at? I interacted with him briefly on twitter about the ruling class's Covid war on humanity, which he seems or pretends not to realize. Is the Covid crime one of the state crimes that you are thinking of?

Expand full comment
author

Sanjoy, I could have written a whole article about my interactions with Mr. Valentine. Let it suffice to say that he is the truth teller about terrible CIA crimes--except those that he supports. In those cases he is silent as the tomb.

Expand full comment

The Convid war on humanity is then a great example of such a CIA crime (of one that Valentine supports). For who else but the CIA, as muscle for the ruling class, has the experience and reach to stage such a sophisticated and worldwide crime?

Expand full comment