Learning from Geopolitical Dirty Tricks

The ruling elite of the western world are in a state of panic.

The USA has lost the war in Iran, and NATO and its proxy, Ukraine, is losing the war against Russia. As many have observed, this is a world war where the western empire is losing to the multipolar world.

The USA and its allies are in debt, running out of weapons, and have lost credibility with people around the world. And the last to notice seem to be the citizens of these countries.

Propaganda, especially when we’ve been steeped in it our entire lives, does this to people. Movies, video games, media outlets, and popular culture demonize some countries and leaders, and portray our countries as heroic bringers of democracy. Hopefully, the genocide in Gaza and what the Epstein files have revealed has us doubting these narratives.

We have to remember that for centuries our western societies have been run by grifters who tell their populations that they’re bringing enlightenment and civilization to the rest of the world, while in reality they’re killing off populations, installing puppet governments, and stealing resources.

And before the internet, they mostly got away with it. Now we hear from the people whose countries have been invaded and get to witness their side of the story.

The western ruling class is the embodiment of the term ‘entitled’, and they control most of our politicians, media and economies. If you want to see how much they care about the welfare of their populations, look around at the many homeless and hungry, the increasing unaffordability of life, and collective western inaction on environmental issues. The money that should be going towards solving our societal problems is being sucked up as profits to the billionaire class.

Now that this class has lost so much, what do they have left? Their call for more war and austerity is shrill and insistent, while they have only disdain for peace and diplomacy. Their filthy underside is being seen by all who are willing to look.

I suspect all that’s left to them is their well worn dirty tricks.

And we need to be on the lookout for those.

Things like lies, slander, buying elections, spying, blackmail, false flags, bribery, and various forms of terrorism are just a few of them.

Recently, the Trump administration tried to bribe its way to success with Iran, and that backfired miserably. A few days ago, there was a false flag where Israel bombed the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and blamed Iran. How much more of this sort of thing will we see?

For centuries, the rich and powerful have had their hands upon the levers, and control almost everything in the western world: politics, media, entertainment, and economics.

But now that they’ve run our economies into the ground, they have their backs against the wall. Yet somehow they consider themselves morally superior to the rest of us.

We have to be honest about the state of western governments. Government for the rich by the rich does not equal democracy. When we consider their support of Israel’s genocide, senseless wars, and what’s revealed through the Epstein files, we see that it’s something much more sinister.

Is money and power so important to these people that they’re willing to risk everything to keep it? This is the existential question. And the conclusions I come to terrify me.

Most of us consider Trump responsible for the war against Iran, but the blame goes deeper than that. Which interests were so eager to have Trump elected, and why? Was it to launch this war with Iran that they’ve wanted for decades? Was it to bring about naked thuggery because that’s all they have left? It’s as though they’ve shown us who they are and then asked us, “What are you going to do about it?”

And why has the USA had two presidents in a row who are so mentally unstable? Why is this a preference to whoever is behind the scenes with their hands on the levers of power?

We have to remember that a very few people make huge sums of money from war, while the rest of us suffer the brutal military and economic consequences.

I’ve been thinking about two situations where there are many dirty tricks that either are being used or where I expect to see them. One is geopolitical, and the other is closer to home, here in Canada.

The first is the illegal war against Iran initiated by the USA and Israel. The other is the recent win of Avi Lewis, who is outspokenly progressive, of the federal NDP (New Democratic Party) leadership.

The way the war against Iran is portrayed through western media makes it look like Iran started it. But the fact is that Iran was attacked unprovoked by the USA and Israel. In that attack, its spiritual leader — who was comparable to the Pope in their culture — was assassinated along with some of his family members, as well as many civilians, including over 165 schoolgirls. And this war crime was committed during peace negotiations.

Iran had been expecting an attack like this for decades and was well prepared for it, with military bases underground, and strategies for defending itself. And it’s winning this war.

Here in Canada, Avi Lewis is brilliant, articulate, caring and proudly socialist. He names the genocide in Gaza for what it is, and advocates for public options for housing, groceries and cell phones. He campaigned on these values openly and won the leadership of the NDP on the first ballot with 57% of the vote. Avi is Jewish, from a tradition that opposes Zionism. All of this goes against the grain of what the powerful of the western world value, and we know the knives will come out. They already did before he was elected party leader.

Here in the west, we can no longer afford to be naive and vulnerable. We need to be prepared to see a lot of dirty tricks by the ruling class in both of these situations, and in others as well.

Those who hold the reins of western power have revealed their true natures. This article by Jonathan Cook describes their mentality. Although this is about British elites, we can see the same kind of thinking in politics all over the western world. Mr. Cook is an excellent writer who you can follow on Substack, but I shared this from Consortium News, a news source I’ve found to be reliable over many years.

I hope someone’s keeping track of all the dirty tricks being used in both cases. They’re too numerous to name, but here’s my short list.

Long Term Propaganda

In the case of Iran, there’s been demonizing propaganda about them for years. But in the west we don’t hear that Iran didn’t start this war. It was Israel and the USA who invaded Iran unprovoked during peace negotiations. For the USA and Israel, this is a war of choice, but for Iran, it’s in an existential struggle.

Socialism is similarly misrepresented, as is the nobility of the very rich. Come on! Take a look at what the Epstein files reveal, and see if you ca tell me with a straight face how wonderful these people are.

Spying

Here’s a fascinating clip about how people who worked for the United Nations were spying on behalf of Israel, with Katie Halper interviewing international human rights lawyer Craig Mokhiber. Spies, often referred to as moles, infiltrate government agencies like the United Nations, activist groups, and all kinds of organizations. They work their sinister magic getting information, causing discord, and generally compromising these organizations so that they become less effective.

Outright lies and misrepresentations

Taking control of the narrative is of critical importance to those who run things, and the powerful of the west aren’t wasting time. So many news stories and histories have been and are currently being altered to paint a flattering picture of the ruling class.

Withholding important information

Recently, there was an international conference to discuss the need for peace in Ankara, Turkeye. I only heard about it because of the above translation of an Italian article. This would be of interest to so many.

Deliberately rewriting history

Right now, Israel is trying to erase the history of Palestine by bulldozing historic landmarks.

And so many histories are presented in a way that makes the western empire look good. Check out this short video about Winston Churchill. And this article by Kit Klattenberg describes Ukraine’s attempt to rewrite history. This short talk by Professor Marandi tells how the so-called Board of Peace gave the false impression that the genocide in Gaza had ended, reducing the amount of global outrage against it. Kahlil Greene does a great job of unpacking history as its been applied to black people.

Disguised proxy wars

I see both Ukraine and Israel as western proxies. This is a global war for western hegemony being fought on different fronts. Iran, China and Russia are collaborating and strategizing together, ultimately the western empire is losing.

False flags

The previously mentioned bombing of the UAE by Israel but blamed on Iran is just one example of a false flag. There have been many others in the past, and I fear there will be other, bigger ones in the future in this political climate.

Law applied unequally

Mark Carney’s famous speech was in some ways quite disgusting. It was supposed to be sort of profound and cute at the same time, but was an admission that international law has always been applied unequally, depending on whether or not the country involved was aligned with the west. The speech that was such a splash in Davos wasn’t quite so popular with some Asian commentators I listen to. One interpreted it as “We whiteys have to stick together” and another just referred to it as Carney’s stupid speech.

My geopolitical pipe dreams

The empire has its hands on the levers of power and information. How do we create some counter levers?

I wonder how we can help each other cut through all this BS and get a more accurate picture of what’s actually going on. Here are some of my pipe dreams of fun, educational things we can do to get ourselves up to speed.

I wish I had the time, energy and expertise to create some of these. So if you find any of them useful, please feel free to steal them. Consider this post as my permission.

• Empire Dirty Tricks Bingo, or just BS Bingo for short, where we have cards with squares containing words like lies, slander, buying elections, false flags, coups, proxies, blackmail, bribery, propaganda, assassinations, rewriting history, etc. As we identify these tactics in real time, and we try to get a row for a Bingo! It could help to focus our attention using an anti-empire lens.

• Out a Mole — A ‘mole’ refers to a spy in an organization. There are a lot of great sites that expose who they are, and we need to pay attention to them, understand how they work and who they are.

• For the USA, a presidential candidate, who would speak up honestly about the issues, thereby forcing what’s important into the open. Someone like, say, Garland Nixon. It could even just be a spoof, bringing attention to important issues that aren’t being addressed.

• Plain language explainer of various geopolitical situations, since so much of what is presented as new is complex, boring and off putting, as well as misleading. A trusted site that explained situations honestly would be very useful.

• Weekly educational videos about popular misconceptions that are harming us.

• Name that ruse could be a current misrepresentation of a situation by omission, skewed logic, or any other framing that misleads us.

• Hidden connections where we reveal connections between things the western elite would rather we keep separate: war/environmental devastation, military expenditure/austerity, Ukraine/Israel, Strait of Hormuz closure/rising gas prices…that sort of thing.

• How we’re being divided could help us put relationships first, when what we need is solidarity in order to change the world. Almost all of us want peace, a healthy planet and a decent standard of living, but our differences are being weaponized to keep us apart. Here are just a few ways we’re being divided: by gender, generation, race, religion, sexual orientation — what else? These are just the tip of the iceberg.

I keep wondering how we get up to speed quickly enough to make the changes we need in order to change the direction of our geopolitical and societal situations. Things have been happening so quickly, and many of us are reeling. But we need to cut through the fog of war and all the other misinformation we’re being bombarded with.

Those who hold power in the western world have shown us who they are. What are we going to do about it? This seems to be their challenge to the rest of us. The’ve thrown down the gauntlet. Will we collectively rise to the challenge?

I’d love to hear your ideas.

Stay safe, everyone.

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I love the BDS campaign and the effect it’s having on Israel’s economy.

Here’s an excellent list of products from Israel: https://boycott.thewitness.news/categories

Here are some factsheets about Israel: https://www.cjpme.org/factsheets

And here’s where you can support Palestine by buying a kufiya: https://www.kufiya.org/

Here are some tips for hard times that might come in handy.

And you can find links to news sources I trust here and here.

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