Radical Truth Telling: Our First Line of Defense

Written April 2018

The greatest threat from the Twitler administration is not the ongoing dumpster fire inside the Beltway. It is the inevitable delivery of a major, major shock — a real or staged terrorist attack, a natural disaster, another collapse of the banking system or an incident that provides the excuse for a new war and seduces us into accepting the further expansion of the authoritarian security state.

When the “big one” occurs, it will be very easy to fall under the sway of the barrage of sanctimonious propaganda that will drive the news cycle and engulf us in the same deranged fever that proceeded from the 9/11 response of the Bush administration. We will be told that we must trade away more of our already badly eroded liberties and core institutions, that we must surrender reason itself in exchange for the false sense of security and strength that our leaders will promise us. We cannot allow that to happen.

To more fully understand this threat, I strongly recommend that you either read Naomi Klein’s new book, “No is Not Enough” https://www.noisnotenough.orgor at least listen to or read one of her extensive interviews on the subject. Here’s a good start: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKV9xwvnAHM

The best defense we have against the coming psychic assault is to begin NOW to practice radical truth-telling. We need to exercise our critical thinking, put our wit and wisdom on high alert, resist gas-lighting, relentlessly question authority and challenge the already existing background noise of false premises and sanctimonious platitudes with renewed vigor.

As Voltaire said, “Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.” So here a start on cutting through some of the current absurdities:

John McCain is neither a hero nor a statesman and never was.

The military does not serve us. It serves the global elite.

The police do not protect us. They protect the status quo that benefits the billionaire class.

“They” do not hate us because “freedom.” “They” resent us because we kill them and steal their resources.

There is no such thing as the “invisible hand of the market.” Economic policy is an expression of political and military power, having nothing to do with the laws of nature.

“Free” markets are the opposite of free.

The Republican and Democratic Parties are both parties of the ruling class.

Neoliberalism is a real thing and it is killing the planet.