• Snot FlickermanEnglish
    38·
    5 days ago

    Try minutes later.

    Slavoj Žižek called it like 10 years ago during the Snowden leaks, I believe, that leaks don’t change anything anymore.

    That you can have the evidence out there, and no one cares.

    He was working off the evidence we had about the failures and lies about the Iraq War, and then the lies about illegal spying on US citizens, and in both cases, the evidence coming to light basically changed nothing about how the US government conducts itself in either regard.

    I think he called it early, but was fundamentally correct, having the evidence out there means nothing anymore when the majority of society simply isn’t even paying attention.

    54% of American adults read at below a sixth grade level, and I personally think that has something to do with it.

    • Grapho@lemmy.ml
      4·
      4 days ago

      And you see some of those people here acting like they’re immune to propaganda, that they care when they blatantly disregard sources when presented to them on controversial topics (read: against the US State department line). As principled as they think they are, you talk about anything outside the US or whatever US vassal state they’re from, and it’s back to the chauvinism, but with a pink coat of paint.

      I think Roderic Day had it right when he said this was an issue of westerners consenting to their own misinformation because they don’t want to face that they’re complicit by inaction in the horrible shit their governments have done to the third world for centuries and continue on a daily basis. And Zizek does that shit all the time too, arguing for western chauvinist shit but for “leftist” reasons, like he did in Against the Double Blackmail.

  • davel [he/him]@lemmy.mlEnglish
    20·
    5 days ago

    Michael Parenti, Dirty Truths

    Those who suffer from conspiracy phobia are fond of saying: “Do you actually think there’s a group of people sitting around in a room plotting things?” For some reason that image is assumed to be so patently absurd as to invite only disclaimers. But where else would people of power get together – on park benches or carousels? Indeed, they meet in rooms: corporate boardrooms, Pentagon command rooms, at the Bohemian Grove, in the choice dining rooms at the best restaurants, resorts, hotels, and estates, in the many conference rooms at the White House, the NSA, the CIA, or wherever. And, yes, they consciously plot – though they call it “planning” and “strategizing” – and they do so in great secrecy, often resisting all efforts at public disclosure. No one confabulates and plans more than political and corporate elites and their hired specialists. To make the world safe for those who own it, politically active elements of the owning class have created a national security state that expends billions of dollars and enlists the efforts of vast numbers of people.