JOHNSTONE
1,117 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 3 hours ago - ★★★★★ - 99 ratingsReadings of all Caitlin Johnstone's articles, usually by her co-writer Tim Foley.
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Episodes
Of COURSE Greta Met With Zelensky
June 30, 2023 03:13 - 5 minutes - 5.41 MBOf course Greta Thunberg met with Zelensky. Of COURSE she did. That was the only box left to check off in the most PR-intensive proxy war of all time. They got Bono. They got Mark Hamill and Sean Penn. They got appearances at the WEF, the New York Stock Exchange and the Grammys. They just needed Greta. Reading by Tim Foley.
Aging Iraq Invaders Keep Accidentally Saying 'Iraq' Instead Of 'Ukraine'
June 29, 2023 02:44 - 3 minutes - 3.35 MBPresident Biden accidentally referred to Putin's war in "Iraq" when answering questions from the press, a year after former president George W Bush made the same gaffe. Both men played crucial roles in the push to invade Iraq. Reading by Tim Foley.
Liberals Are Tyrannical Imperialists
June 27, 2023 05:14 - 5 minutes - 5.3 MBIn just a few years Democrats flipped from freaking out about Nazis, shrieking that Trump was going to start a nuclear war, and denying US election results to cheering for Nazis, demanding more nuclear brinkmanship, and accusing anyone who denies election results of treason. Reading by Tim Foley.
Australia Keeps Escalating Its Censorship And Propaganda Campaign
June 26, 2023 05:00 - 7 minutes - 6.88 MBThere's a frenzied rush by the Australian political/media class to both propagandise Australians as quickly as possible into supporting preparations for war with China, and to ram through legislation that facilitates the censorship of online speech. Reading by Tim Foley.
The Truth Will Set All Of Us Free
June 23, 2023 12:58 - 5 minutes - 4.69 MB"The truth will set you free" is an aphorism we've all heard so many times it's lost a lot of its meaning and doesn't sound especially profound when we hear it again, but it really does contain the answer to humanity's most difficult problems. A truth-based relationship with reality is the only way to move into peace and harmony, whether you're talking about the inner peace and harmoniousness of an individual or the peace and harmony of our entire species. Reading by Tim Foley.
Elections Are Like A Toy Steering Wheel For Babies
June 23, 2023 02:34 - 5 minutes - 5.34 MBVoting in a western "democracy" is like that bit in the opening intro of The Simpsons when Marge is driving with the baby and the baby has a toy steering wheel. The baby thinks she's driving the car but it's just a fake toy to keep her busy and let her feel like she's participating. Reading by Tim Foley.
15 Questions That Are More Useful Than "What Presidential Candidate Should Americans Vote For?"
June 21, 2023 01:52 - 4 minutes - 3.73 MB1. Why does nothing change no matter who we vote for? 2. Why does US foreign policy always continue along the same trajectory regardless of the president's party or platform? 3. What keeps our voting population split right down the middle into two political factions of equal size, with neither side ever gaining enough of a majority to democratically change society in any meaningful way? 4. Why does the stalemate described in #3 always seem to benefit the rich, the powerful, and the war-hor...
The Levittowns
June 20, 2023 13:01 - 3 minutes - 2.89 MBThey sent the soldiers back after a crazy, stupid world war which was the sequel to another crazy, stupid world war, sent them back with demons in their minds, with twisted corpses in their minds, corpses missing their parts, corpses with their inside parts on the outside, corpses still screaming because they did not yet know that they were corpses, corpses who just moments before were not corpses but trusted friends. Sent them back from the war to live in the Levittowns, giant suburban spra...
Our Systems Reward Dysfunction And Destruction
June 19, 2023 12:26 - 6 minutes - 6.11 MBOur civilization is sick because all its systems ensure that human behavior is driven by profit, and health isn't profitable. Nobody gets rich from everyone staying healthy all the time. The gears of capitalism will still keep turning if its populace is made shallow and dull by bad education and crappy art made for profit. Billionaires aren't made by leaving forests and oceans unmolested, consuming less, mining less, drilling less, using less energy. The economy doesn't soar when the world is...
Thank You For Your Service
June 18, 2023 00:57 - 3 minutes - 3.05 MBThank you for your service. I say this not to the employees of the war machine, who in truth serve nothing besides imperial domination and the profit margins of Raytheon and Lockheed Martin. I say this to the peacemakers. To the truth-tellers. To the defiant ones. To those who’ve shone the light of truth upon the blood-spattered face of the empire against their own interests for the benefit of everyone. To those who’ve stared down the barrel of the most powerful military force ever assemble...
The USA's Covert Empire
June 17, 2023 12:51 - 7 minutes - 7.02 MBIn an interview shortly before his death Daniel Ellsberg said the US runs a "covert empire", which is a really good way of putting it. A giant globe-spanning cluster of nations consistently moves in alignment with the dictates of Washington, but they all keep their official flags and their official governments, so it doesn't look like an empire despite functioning as one in every meaningful way. Reading by Tim Foley.
Why Propaganda Works
June 16, 2023 12:41 - 6 minutes - 6.27 MBOur worldview is formed when we are young in the interests of our rulers, and from there cognitive biases take over which protect and reinforce that worldview, typically preserving them in more or less the same form for the rest of our lives. Reading by Tim Foley. Oatmeal comic: https://theoatmeal.com/comics/believe
Our Ongoing March Into Dystopia And Oblivion
June 15, 2023 12:11 - 6 minutes - 5.92 MBWe are marching toward dystopia and oblivion, and we are doing it in ways that have no historical precedent. We're in completely uncharted waters, and things are only getting crazier and crazier. Reading by Tim Foley.
Your Efforts Make A Difference, And We Can Win This Thing
June 14, 2023 11:56 - 8 minutes - 7.42 MBAnything you can do to help make humanity a little more aware of the abusive nature of the systems which drive the problems we now face makes a difference, even if it's a difference as small as making one single person a little bit more aware of one specific aspect of the tyranny we're being subjected to. It doesn't make a huge difference, but it does make a difference. And as long as it makes the slightest bit of difference, it is worth doing, because a lot of slight differences adds up to a...
China Places Country Dangerously Close To US Warship
June 05, 2023 12:55 - 3 minutes - 3.3 MBNow, I know what you’re thinking: what is a Chinese navy vessel doing in the Taiwan Strait, right where US and Canadian warships are peacefully conducting routine navigation exercises? Reading by Tim Foley.
15 Reasons Why Mass Media Employees Act Like Propagandists
June 04, 2023 15:37 - 31 minutes - 28.9 MBIf you watch western news media with a critical eye you eventually notice how their reporting consistently aligns with the interests of the US-centralized empire, in almost the same way you'd expect them to if they were government-run propaganda outlets. The New York Times has reliably supported every war the US has waged. Western mass media focus overwhelmingly on foreign protests against governments the United States dislikes while paying far less attention to widespread protests against U...
Right Wing 'Populism' Is Fake And Stupid
June 03, 2023 12:47 - 7 minutes - 7.16 MBRepublican politicians have found a way to reconcile the fact that scrutinizing the behavior of the US war machine appeals to their base and wins votes with the fact that the Republican Party is built around facilitating war and militarism at every turn. Their solution? Pour mountains of energy into championing the case that the nation's military has gotten too "woke". Because everything in mainstream American politics is geared toward channeling the public's political attention down channel...
The Biggest Problem With The Western Left Is That It Doesn't Exist
June 02, 2023 12:28 - 4 minutes - 4.42 MBThe biggest problem with the western left is that it doesn't exist. To look at leftist discourse you'd think the left's biggest problem is that some leftists have the wrong beliefs about this or that issue, or that the left pays too much or not enough attention to identity politics, or places too much or not enough emphasis on electoral politics, or is too sympathetic toward enemies of the US empire or not sympathetic enough, or that this or that faction gets it all wrong — but it's not. The...
Trump Is Bad Because He's Similar To Other US Presidents, Not Because He's Different
June 02, 2023 03:22 - 4 minutes - 4.27 MBDonald Trump spent four years proving to everyone that he wasn't bad because he was similar to Hitler, he was bad because he was similar to Obama. He wasn't terrible because of the ways he differed from other presidents, but because of the ways he was the same. The tiny smattering of violence that occurred in the US because of Trump was microscopic compared to the death and destruction he inflicted upon the world outside the nation's borders. But the mainstream worldview can't acknowledge th...
Authoritarianism Keeps Surging In Western "Free Democracies"
May 31, 2023 13:53 - 8 minutes - 7.58 MBToday in tyranny we've got three stories on the rapidly increasing authoritarian abuses in western "free democracies": 1. Grayzone reporter detained by British counter-terrorism police for doing journalism. 2. South Australia passes draconian anti-protest law. 3. State Department dismisses questions about Ukrainian imprisonment of US citizen for speech crimes. Reading by Tim Foley.
Propaganda Restricts Speech More Than Censorship Does
May 30, 2023 14:14 - 7 minutes - 7.06 MBThe biggest impediment to free speech is people's belief that they have it. Not censorship. Not refusal to platform critical voices. Not the war on journalism. It's the fact that most people are propagandized into saying what the powerful want them to say, and don't know it. Reading by Tim Foley.
You Can't Vote Your Way Out Of A Mess You Never Voted Yourself Into
May 29, 2023 11:18 - 6 minutes - 5.53 MBThe truth of the matter is that you can't vote your way out of a mess you never voted your way into in the first place. You never voted for any of this. You never voted for your government to circle the planet with hundreds of military bases and continuously work to destroy any government which disobeys it. You never voted for your government to imperil the world with rapidly escalating brinkmanship against nuclear-armed nations. You never voted to base your entire civilization on the pur...
Most Propaganda Looks Nothing Like This
May 28, 2023 11:47 - 12 minutes - 11.4 MBThe most common articles of propaganda — and by far the most consequential — are not the glaring, memorable instances that live in infamy among the critically minded. They're the mundane messages, distortions and lies-by-omission that people are fed day in and day out to normalize the status quo and lay the foundation for more propaganda to be administered in the future. Reading by Tim Foley.
Everything's Getting Way More Dangerous And Way More Stupid
May 27, 2023 02:10 - 5 minutes - 4.83 MBThere are no adults behind the wheel of the vehicle that's driving us toward World War Three. We're on a bus that's being driven straight toward a cliff, and it's being driven by infants. If we survive this it will not be because of the experienced leadership of western governments, but completely in spite of it. Reading by Tim Foley.
60 Minutes Australia Keeps Churning Out War-With-China Propaganda
May 25, 2023 03:21 - 7 minutes - 7.25 MB60 Minutes Australia has been playing a leading role in saturating Australian airwaves with consent-manufacturing messaging in support of militarising to participate in a US war against China. A segment they ran a year ago is titled "Prepare for Armageddon: China's warning to the world," and features an image of Xi Jinping overlaid with war planes and explosions and captioned "POKING THE PANDA". Another from a year ago is titled "War with China: Are we closer than we think?" Another from ten ...
Escaping The Prison Of Mainstream Culture
May 24, 2023 02:34 - 4 minutes - 4.38 MBMany people turn to conservatism and religion because they perceive — correctly — that mainstream culture is a fraudulent sham bereft of meaning and authentic values. Their solutions are misguided, but their reasons arise from a perception of a very real problem. It isn't actually necessary to turn to religion or conservatism to find depth, meaning and groundedness; depth, meaning and groundedness are always abundantly accessible. But nothing about western culture makes this obvious, especi...
Biden Okays F-16s For Ukraine, US Weapons To Attack Crimea
May 22, 2023 10:25 - 6 minutes - 6.14 MBThe Biden administration has signed off on both F-16s for Ukraine and attacks on Crimea using US-made weapons. Both of these moves have drawn dire warnings from nuclear-armed Russia, and both would have been unthinkable a year ago. Reading by Tim Foley.
Marching To The Beat Of The Imperial Machine
May 21, 2023 02:28 - 5 minutes - 5.21 MBIt works like this: - As many people as possible are herded into two mainstream political factions who pretend to oppose each other while in reality working together to advance the interests of the powerful. - Those who can't be herded into the two mainstream factions are herded toward fake "populist" factions, who then herd them into the mainstream factions. - Those who can't be herded into either category are marginalized into invisibility. By the time you get down to that bottom tier, ...
Western News Media Exist To Administer Propaganda
May 20, 2023 03:42 - 10 minutes - 9.85 MBThe single most overlooked and under-appreciated aspect of our society is the way domestic propaganda is used to shape the way mainstream westerners perceive and think about their world. Typically the only time you'll ever hear the word "propaganda" mentioned in mainstream discourse is in reference to things other countries do to their own citizenry or as part of foreign influence operations, despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of the times we've encountered propaganda in our day...
Ideological Echo Chambers Are Making Us All Stupid
May 13, 2023 23:58 - 5 minutes - 5.04 MBHaving an ideologically diverse audience has really opened me up to how politically cloistered everyone's used to being these days. People are always expressing surprise at the fact that they agree with me on some things yet disagree with me on others, either positively like "Wow we're not on the same page economically but I love a lot of what you say", or negatively like "OMG how can someone be so right about war and authoritarianism but SO WRONG about capitalism??" This wouldn't stand out ...
You Don't Have To Choose Between Happiness And Being Informed
May 12, 2023 12:17 - 6 minutes - 6.27 MBSo of course people who see this express despair. When you first punch through the lies and start to gain an understanding of what's really going on, it can be really unpleasant at first. It feels like what it probably felt like to be a lucid thinker back in much less enlightened times when civilization was dominated by religion and superstition. Lonely. Depressing. As Terence McKenna said, "The cost of sanity in this society is a certain level of alienation." But it gets better. Or at least...
This Civilization Is Mentally Ill
May 10, 2023 13:03 - 7 minutes - 7.09 MBThis civilization is so mentally ill that you'll get treated like a gibbering lunatic for expressing the most sane and rational opinions anyone can possibly express. Something as basic as "The world's most powerful government should stop ramping up nuclear brinkmanship on multiple fronts" will get you treated like a kook, when really it's so obvious and common sense it shouldn't even need to be said. That's how crazy mass-scale brainwashing has made everyone. Reading by Tim Foley.
Headless Hounds
May 09, 2023 11:37 - 2 minutes - 2.19 MBHeadless hounds from Boston Dynamics. Headless hounds from Raytheon. Headless hounds in our nightmares huddled shivering under US flags beneath a night sky whose stars were replaced by satellites and drones. Headless hounds dashing voicelessly past buzzsigns flashing BUY BUY BUY and buzzscreens shouting FEAR FEAR FEAR, past the harmless homeless and overdosing angels, past the skyscraper soul siphons and sane street schizophrenics, past roadkill dreamguides and the freeway beasts who feed on...
Look With Both Eyes
May 08, 2023 02:25 - 7 minutes - 6.64 MBThe best way to live a life based in truth, and the best way to be of use to the world, is to expand consciousness both inwardly and outwardly. Deeply investigate your own consciousness, divest yourself of the misperceptions and erroneous assumptions around thought, perceiving and selfhood which are driving your behavior, and discover your true nature. Also, learn everything you can about what's going on in the world, how people are being subjected to needless suffering by abusive systems, ho...
Balls To The Wall
May 07, 2023 02:14 - 2 minutes - 2.32 MBWe go balls to the wall, laughing and screaming in nightclubs with AI-generated twisted grins, dance music pounding our ears so we can't hear our thoughts, alcohol soaking our organs so we can't feel our feelings, stomping down with all our might that small voice which calls out to us from beneath the pile of corporate logos and dead birds that we keep in the space where our soul used to be. Then out, out into the world vaping and smoking, running down the sidewalk jumping over homeless peop...
The Kremlin Did Not Kill Itself
May 06, 2023 02:12 - 7 minutes - 6.96 MBI say we arm Russia against Russia. If it's bombing its own government buildings, its own pipelines, its own captured power plants, then it's the best proxy force against Russia we've got. Send the Russians tanks and F-16s immediately. Russia's fighting Russia over there so we don't have to fight Russia over here. Reading by Tim Foley.
Multiple US Officials Confronted About US Assange Hypocrisy On World Press Freedom Day
May 04, 2023 10:41 - 9 minutes - 8.41 MBWednesday was World Press Freedom Day, and it saw US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, and Deputy State Department Spokesman Vedant Patel confronted about the glaring hypocrisy of the Biden administration's persecution of Julian Assange for the crime of good journalism. Reading by Tim Foley.
Bono Is Doing Illustrations For The Atlantic Now, Because Everything's Fake And Stupid
May 03, 2023 11:44 - 7 minutes - 6.61 MBThis is what dystopia looks like. Like a bunch of thought-controlled automatons mindlessly marching toward ecocide and omnicide to a beat played out by screens who tell them every day and in every way that there is no higher purpose than this. Like military industrial complex-funded feminist rock operas about drone operators and Cookie Monster helping Samantha Power psychologically colonize Iraqi children. Like Bono coming home from singing a heartfelt number about the assassination of Martin...
It's Good When Idols Get Knocked Off Pedestals
May 02, 2023 12:21 - 7 minutes - 6.89 MBI think it's probably a good thing when our idols get knocked off the pedestals we put them on. Chomsky. Bernie. The Dalai Lama. It's not healthy to elevate others to a lofty status above ourselves instead of seeing them as normal human beings who are as capable of error as anyone else. Reading by Tim Foley.
The Single Dumbest Thing The Empire Asks Us To Believe
May 01, 2023 12:08 - 4 minutes - 3.68 MBThe single dumbest thing the US-centralized empire asks us to believe is that the military encirclement of its top two geopolitical rivals is a defensive action, rather than an act of extreme aggression. Reading by Tim Foley.
You're Not Deficient, You're Just Ruled By Assholes
April 30, 2023 03:43 - 6 minutes - 5.82 MBSome people wonder why mental health conditions are so bad, while I marvel at the fact that they're not much worse. It's actually amazing anyone's functioning at all in a civilization that's ruled by exploiters and abusers who dominate the world using mass-scale psychological manipulation. It's a testament to human resilience that anyone is sane. When everyone's mind is always being pummeled with messaging that you're deficient if you can't thrive under our oppressive systems, that you're fla...
Reminder: The Media Once Bashed Trump For Transgressing The One-China Policy The US Now Spits On
April 29, 2023 03:45 - 6 minutes - 6 MBThe US has been increasingly treating Taiwan like a sovereign nation with whom diplomatic relationships and alliances can be formed, in violation of its longstanding One-China policy that has kept the peace for decades. And I just think it's worth noting that the western media who've lately been condoning these moves became outraged at Donald Trump just a few years ago for doing the same thing to a far lesser degree. Reading by Tim Foley.
Australia Pays Washington Swamp Monsters For War Advice
April 27, 2023 04:22 - 6 minutes - 5.58 MBAustralia has been paying insiders of the US war machine for consultation on how to run the nation's military, a massive conflict of interest given that Washington has been grooming Australia for a role in its war agendas against China. Reading by Tim Foley.
US Presidential Elections Are Children's Entertainment
April 26, 2023 03:17 - 4 minutes - 4.12 MBNo I will not be supporting any US presidential candidate. Not because I don't think Australians have any business involving themselves in US political affairs (we absolutely do), but because the elections are fake and the next president will with absolute certainty be another corrupt imperialist monster. I won't be picking any favorites in the next WWE event either. Reading by Tim Foley.
New Defence Review Further Enslaves Australia To US War Agendas
April 25, 2023 04:26 - 6 minutes - 6.31 MBSo to recap, Australia's foreign policy is being shaped "for decades to come" by an "independent" strategic review that (A) was authored by someone who is compromised by US funding, (B) is being implemented in part by an American former military official, (C) calls for greater and greater cooperation with the United States across the board, and (D) focuses primarily on targeting a nation that just so happens to be the number one geopolitical rival of the United States. Reading by Tim Foley.
The Empire Of Hypocrisy
April 23, 2023 02:47 - 4 minutes - 4 MBThe US is raging about Russia jailing a Wall Street Journal reporter on espionage charges, while the US is: - Jailing Julian Assange for doing good journalism. - Threatening to imprison Matt Taibbi. - Charging African People's Socialist Party members with "propaganda" crimes. Reading by Tim Foley.
Today In Empire: War Machine-Funded War Games, Facebook Censors Hersh, And More
April 21, 2023 15:10 - 11 minutes - 10.9 MBThere's a lot happening in the life of the empire, so we're doing another multi-story article to wrap it all up. Today we're discussing four stories: 1. Facebook is censoring multiple articles by Seymour Hersh. 2. Weapons industry-funded think tank helps Congress discover that Taiwan needs way more weapons. 3. The New York Times really, really doesn't like RFK Jr. 4. Twitter drops its "state-affiliated media" and "government-funded media" labels. Reading by Tim Foley.
Tech Would Be Fine If We Weren't Ruled By Monsters
April 20, 2023 11:07 - 6 minutes - 6.33 MBSo many emerging technologies would be cause for celebration if our rulers weren't so damn evil and our systems weren't so damn oppressive. In a healthy society we'd be celebrating automation and AI giving us more and more abundance and free time; instead we're terrified of police robots and technocratic dystopia. The knitting of neurology and technology would have incredible implications if we didn't know sociopathic intelligence agencies would immediately insert themselves into the use of ...
Biden DOJ Indicts Four Americans For "Weaponized" Free Speech
April 19, 2023 12:44 - 6 minutes - 6.05 MBThe Biden administration's Department of Justice has just charged four members of the African People's Socialist Party (APSP) for conspiring to act as agents of Russia by using speech and political action in ways the DOJ says "weaponized" the First Amendment rights of Americans. Reading by Tim Foley.
Free Those Who Expose Government Misdeeds, Jail Those Who Try To Conceal Them
April 18, 2023 10:34 - 6 minutes - 5.7 MBPeople shouldn't be punished for revealing the secrets of the government, governments should be punished for keeping secrets from the people. Reading by Tim Foley.