The State of the Exception - September Update
Added 2022-10-03 13:00:10 +0000 UTCJoined by Dana and Seamus, Aaron gives an update and answers a number of questions from patrons.
Comments
Idk exactly what I said, but I did not mean to say that we need either "to ally with woke imperialists (who often don't know they're advocating imperialism) or join MAGA." Because I don't think we can do either. We should be open-minded about what conditions we could create but that's a different story. fwiw I am opposed to all US imperialists (woke or not) and to MAGA.
Aaron Good
2024-01-17 23:32:34 +0000 UTCHi Aaron, this Q & A was 18 months ago, so I'm not sure if you still feel the same way in terms of your answer re woke imperialism and the fake left. I know I've changed a lot since Sep 2022! Anyways, I wanted to comment on your answer about this - you said something to the effect of Americans having a choice- to ally with woke imperialists (who often don't know they're advocating imperialism) or join MAGA. I don't think it is an either/or. I look at this as, what do you value more- a world without capitalism (and now imperialism) or a world without bigots? I don't want a world with bigots, but I place much much more importance in the economic system that is ruining all of us. A system which makes some people bigots because they're suffering and given the bigot option, while options like socialism are either disguised or promoted in a very narrow corner of politics - those leftists who tell me I should never listen to Jimmy Dore. So I'm in this space as a leftist-socialist (i guess materialist is the label). And i WANT CHANGE. I want this shit to change. I can't sit back and do nothing. So, when you're in the mindset of wanting a societal change, you want to persuade people that change is possible and good. And since you only have so much energy to persuade so many people, you have to choose who you're going to persuade. And on the one hand we have the supposed right wing (who often are not actually right wing, they just hate the establishment). These people are open to conversation. I know you know this. On the other hand, those leftists who scream for trans but don't want to change the social ECONOMIC order- how in God's name am I going to persuade them that the state is their enemy? So I look at this alliance question as absolutely fundamental to mass social change. And I'm going to work with people who won't shut the door in my face because they *think* they know my argument (when they don't because they refuse to listen to opinions that deviate from their own.) It seems at the time of this recording you were really on the edge here. I know too that part of this is your economic status and the need to be careful. Not to imply anything with that, it's just difficult to say certain things. But I want to emphasize there is a growing number of people open to socialist and Communist messaging as our material condition deteriorates.
Rachel Winkel
2024-01-17 22:54:13 +0000 UTCThanks for answering the Q and for the resources, Seamus and Aaron! Appreciate y'all.
Scott Prather
2022-10-14 15:14:51 +0000 UTCYeah, well, the Chomskyite attacks on JFK make it easy to rationalize doing a hatchet job on JFK--if the ~$1M was not sufficient. And yes, it was damaging. You don't pay someone a million bucks to do a hatchet job on someone because you think it won't have an impact, right? :)
Aaron Good
2022-10-07 17:48:37 +0000 UTCAaron, hi. About Hersh's Camelot - do you think he consciously wrote a book that was merely a mouthpiece for the Secret Service and the CIA, knowing a lot of it was false or misleading? Did he know he was using his earned credibility, or bona fides to discredit the JFK research community ? If so, is this merely about the advance (he writes about it in his memoirs and admits to it in an interview) or something else? His book did damage - I remember Matt Taibbi arguing around an interview he did with Oliver Stone that Hersh's book kept him (Taibbi) from seeing more in Dealey Plaza than a lone nut shooter and a Vietnam hawk.
Luc K
2022-10-07 16:54:06 +0000 UTCChapter II below for how we got the flag of the British East India Company and the unnamed freemasonic professor who gave it to us: https://ia801208.us.archive.org/15/items/ourflagorevoluti00camp/ourflagorevoluti00camp.pdf
Jon Croteau
2022-10-06 13:49:21 +0000 UTCThe secret history of the British West India Company aka the United States of America.... https://archive.org/details/pdfy-B9Et0XaYXDBCIFbB/page/n49/mode/2up
Jon Croteau
2022-10-06 01:20:36 +0000 UTCAARON ! In "The Assassination of Fred Hampton" the author makes very clear that everybody on the side of the State had to pay up. Chicago. P.D., Hanrahan's office, The Justice Dep't. AND "The Estate of John Edgar Hoover. - f
surrander 2000
2022-10-05 23:54:49 +0000 UTCI think that somehow the notion must prevail--that the sovereign is a dangerous proposition and somehow a social order needs to be forged that minimizes the potential for empire, despotic authority, etc.
Aaron Good
2022-10-05 15:07:44 +0000 UTCThanks for thinking about the sovereign question. I was kinda babling about individuality, I really was only interested in terms of nations, and bouncing this off the SE lighthouse helped me understand that foggy notion I had when asking. And that is there can only be one sovereign, but would that be uniting humanity or dominating it? It's a pessimistic outlook, but I see a way forward that is just as optimistic, and maybe naive, by making some great leap for humanity through letting go of its power, its weapons and its built in advantages in the world systems. Just my intuition on human nature saying this. Do you think this is a realists' (realist?) view or just naive?
Louis Waweru
2022-10-05 05:27:04 +0000 UTCSeamus mentioned Penny Lernoux (her book about Nugan Hand 'In Banks We Trust' is amazing) and her death I was wondering if there was any more information on her death and Jonathan Kwitney's death?
Himbo Slice
2022-10-04 23:29:00 +0000 UTCWho ever denied that covid is an airborne virus? Some of you will never let this go, will you? The media overhyped it with constant fear porn. It's basically a cold, man. The lockdown "left" has thoroughly alienated the working class. Great job.
Cultus Daemon
2022-10-04 19:46:30 +0000 UTCAnother useful piece: https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2022/10/the-covid-19-guidance-on-cdcs-website-is-a-crime-against-humanity.html
Hordeum
2022-10-04 16:16:04 +0000 UTCThe operation related to COVID has been the business establishment forcing people to go back to work with no protections. Making sick people work to the detriment of their own health and risking exposure of healthy people. Forcing kids and teachers into poorly ventilated classrooms that are just mass super spreader events. Biden saying the pandemic is over and his CDC director, Rochelle Walensky, and COVID czar Ashish Jha doing whatever they can to sweep it under the rug. COVID is an airborne virus and CDC won't even clearly acknowledge it because it would be inconvenient. Biden's OSHA at first proposed workplace safety standards based on ventilation, but then the White House quashed it. Biden is beholden to business interests and is mediocre thinker who is incurious and ill-informed. There's a whole #COVIDisAirborne community on Twitter that feels like it's shouting into the wind. This is covered somewhat here: https://twitter.com/jfeldman_epi/status/1574817180717301761?s=20&t=43Ykj-SfQvXEgnS9bJladQ Also, this is a useful way to think about vaccines and masks: https://www.ianwelsh.net/vaccines-and-masks/
Hordeum
2022-10-04 16:10:33 +0000 UTCAmerica's elites don't care if you tell the truth as long as you tacitly agree with them that there is essentially no alternative. Unless he's changed his position recently, I'm pretty sure Oliver Stone has a negative opinion of China and the legacy of the Soviet Union, and Marxism-Leninism/Communism in general.
Cultus Daemon
2022-10-04 08:14:36 +0000 UTCOf course they’re still in power, Oliver stone isn’t going to topple the deep state. But he has damaged them and their reputation by convincing probably millions of people that they murdered a democratically elected domestic president. If that is not damaging I don’t know what is. If you want to prove a country is “pluralistic and free” I can think of 10 million better and less damaging ways to do so.
Nicholas Kos
2022-10-04 07:57:52 +0000 UTC
