If you need a moment away from some of this important but dark and serious stuff, there's a strange little cover that should bring you joy. It shouldn't work at all, but it works /really/ well.
This book is a sobering read. But its even worse now. The recent jailing of students who spoke out against the killing in Gaza is having the desired effect The silence around the current Israeli atrocities is deafening.
These people have been #kidnapped. We need to #resist using soft #MAGAt #language and replace it #harsh, #accurate language. The people who control the language control the #narrative.
I wish reporters would ask Mike Johnson questions about the theft of his soul. I wish someone would say, how much of your soul do you give up every time you repeat one of Trumps false and childish catchphrases as if it were intelligent and true?
'Perhaps one of the most jarring moments of the interviews, however, is when D’Antonio asks Trump to reflect on the meaning of life. Trump responds by saying, “No, I don’t want to think about it. I don’t like to analyze myself because I might not like what I see.”'
...
I'm afraid some people have embraced selfishness and hate and are happily going along with this all sh*tshow. They are failing their humanity test, and failing all of humanity in the process.
It's difficult to wrap my head around the fact that people in my life are ok with this. These are people who care about loved ones and have empathy, but the manner in which fascism is taking hold or how their rights, along with the "other" folks are being violated totally escapes them. #brainwashed
I’ve referenced that last sentence at least a dozen times since I first read it. It’s such an apt and deeply depressing insight about polite, liberal American society.
“Some things are complicated. Some things have been complicated.” The manipulation of language enables violence. One of many important insights from Omar El Akkad’s powerful prose.
The vast majority will never care unless and until they are personally harmed. They don't care if others are harmed. Just World Fallacy has them convinced that those people deserved it, but they are Good People™, and therefore the Bad Thing won't happen to them.
This argument is similar to the one Frederick Douglass makes in his autobiography where he states that slavery is also destructive to the slaveholder who loses their own humanity when they own other humans.
Yeah. You don't have to have sympathy for them, but it's important to understand that oppressors are made not born and part of the destruction of a human being that turns someone in to that is self inflicted.
See also: They Thought They Were Free. The shame in a moment like this is not the novelty of it, but rather how often humanity seems to repeat its cruelest moments.
Thank you for the book recommendation. In addition, I believe this would be an excellent gift for my Aunt, so you helped with my Christmas Shopping list too!
It is exactly how I feel. I am being asked to let part of myself die, and I feel like I have to cut it off or else it will drag me down into a pit that consumes the whole of me.
Correct. Self interest is to protect yourself, even if you give up your humanity little by little. It's only later once it's much too late you realize that you gave everything away for nothing in return.
E Pluribus Unum
Universe emanating from singularity
Truth is the meteor triggering the next evolutionary divide
Unity is our heritage and destiny
Don’t listen to the braying fools who, having cratered their own souls, insist we follow them into the dark
Cried many times whilst reading this book. Bitter tears of sorrow and frustration at my own weak efforts to make our political leaders and general public waken up to what is going on, all done with our tacit consent.
Hard disagree.
There are a lot of self interested people in the world. If you say "climate change will kill millions of people, especially the poorest people in the global south" they think "so I'll be OK."
We absolutely need to point out how bad policies are bad for everyone.
I think we do--we just can't expect it will drive everyone to action, because there will always be people who always believe they'll be safe, and are really just fine with other people not being safe.
To be clear, I'm not saying appeal to self interest should be the only argument ever deployed. I'm say, if you are dealing with fascism or climate change "There is no terrible thing coming for you in some distant future" is an entirely unpersuasive lie.
I'm a revolutionary for a lot of reasons. But I think the deepest one is that I refuse to live in a system that demands a slave class.
They can put whatever shit they want on TV or run whatever political campaign they like. They will never make me accept this horror show that they call freedom.
How do I apply/appeal to my congressman? From his media and town hall appearances, I believe this man has a lying in your face/getting away with it kink. When the control is what they are motivated by, getting off on power over others, how do you reason with a soul-level primal motive/perversion?
His mind is not the one you have to change. He's already a lost cause, thriving on his lies. Try to get him to show what he is in front of others. Disillusion his voters using simple truths that resonate with their values -- and where his words and actions wouldn't. Make him look foolish. It's hard!
This would not be an effective strategy. Most of us wouldn't get the reference, and you want to make him look kooky, not you. Art and costume are good, but think about the difference between therapeutic actions that make you feel better and effective actions that get a message across, change minds.
I know. But I do want to solve this mystery of how you engage with someone who enjoys gaslighting. He reminds me of that guy who rubs his semi up on a stranger and then laughs and acts all surprised that they would think it could possibly have been on purpose. He's in the media doing GOP spin a lot.
Going out on a limb and predicting your rep calls himself a 'Christian conservative'. 'Christian conservatives' are the most likely to have rejected the actual teachings of Christ, but throwing a few Bible verses at these hypocrites is what Jesus would tell these Pharisees and money worshippers.
I am currently reading this book. If the image on the cover alone doesn’t make you pause, the contents certainly will. A must-read for anyone willing to confront hard truths.
claaa, sabias palabras! de que sirve un declamado compromiso con el mundo cuando no se puede ni resolver las contradicciones mas inmediatas? el mundo es lo q esta al alcance de la propia accion
We are born deep into it. It isn't something we can prevent from happening because in some form or another it has been happening since before we were born. It is truly horrific to wake up to this fact and to realize the best we can hope for is to help stop it. Stop it from getting worse. Stop it all
When the Dem Party first failed the people, back 50 years ago when it was known that neither party honored what the people wanted, but just kept catering, like whores, to the oligarchs $, lying for votes. Then did whatever they were paid to do by the Corporations. That is when this started.
50 years is weird timeframe for this, you mean the nomination of Carter was 'failing the people'? He was perhaps the most populist Dem president, just retconned when there was trouble
And we let them do it. We stood by and watched. We didn't speak clearly, because someone would think it anger, or inappropriate. We just watched. And went about our business.
This is the first time I've heard about this book. Thanks for the recommendation. I just ordered a hard copy from https://bookshop.org and purchased the audio book, too.
Moving and true - where it’s true. One of my principles as an organizer was: “Walk on all the legs you’ve got.” For people with empathy, you don’t need self-interest. If s-i works with those who won’t or can’t feel for “others” I’m ok w/ appealing to it.
It's not self interest in the sense that being in a cult isn't really in one's self interest. Lots of MAGA will die for Trump. I think that's why these appeals to self interest (you might lose your job or SS or Medicare) aren't as foolproof as one might think. The truth is scarier. ...
Absolutely true. Another important organizing principle is that you can’t reach everybody, but you can reach some people. Different approaches work with diff ppl, with some, nothing will work. Don’t waste time, target strategically. If you’re lucky, you’ll reach enough.
If only Americans had the courage to take these words to heart.
You see people actually doing something about their problems in Georgia (the country), Serbia, and Turkey to name a few, so there's no reason why they can't do the same across the pond.
People are doing something. All over the country, people are doing things. Openly and in secret. Constantly calling our officials. Demanding town halls. Demonstrations. Boycotts. That's not getting into the illegal activities.
We are fighting - not enough of us yet, but we are.
It’s an extraordinary book with so many moments like this. Reading it now and I’m awe of Omar El Akkad’s insightful and profound ideas, wrapped in gorgeous writing.
I was one of the people originally enraged by 9/11 because I was living in Queens and working in midtown Manhattan when it happened. I remember watching tower one fall from a bridge. Back then I wanted all Muslims to die. It took several good friends to make me realize my anger was misplaced.
This snippet is so good! Captures why I’ve found it so troubling that people keep citing/memeing the “first they came for” me poem.
I need to read El Akkad’s book.
First, require ICE agents to wear identifying markings, including a personnel number, if not a name. They think they have qualified immunity at this point, but at this point, it's just their opinion.
That is brutally true as prose and rhetoric, but in reality the people who don't respond to the first exhortation (eventually they'll come for you) won't understand the second (by agreeing to work with them you're destroying part of your soul).
Comments
RIP Gangster Boo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqFmqCTR7Bo
#TheGreatLie
#Civilization
#TheMachineSystem
#FossilFuel
#MiningOurMinds
#Indigenous
https://youtu.be/6GgUyZ4F7CU?si=3H1MCnEvi-CeFOCU
#WarCrimes
Sponsored by
#USA
Committed by
#Israel terrorists
Damn.
...
1/2 the country voted for a man afraid of self reflection...
Otherwise people like Trump would be nowhere or, alternatively, everywhere.
https://soundcloud.com/user-830442635/bbriefing_2025_03_18a_omar-el?utm_source=clipboard&utm_campaign=wtshare&utm_medium=widget&utm_content=https%253A%252F%252Fsoundcloud.com%252Fuser-830442635%252Fbbriefing_2025_03_18a_omar-el
Universe emanating from singularity
Truth is the meteor triggering the next evolutionary divide
Unity is our heritage and destiny
Don’t listen to the braying fools who, having cratered their own souls, insist we follow them into the dark
"digga..."
The Great Turning Away as Pink Floyd said.
It is not something that I can do but it DOES affect my emotional state.
There are a lot of self interested people in the world. If you say "climate change will kill millions of people, especially the poorest people in the global south" they think "so I'll be OK."
We absolutely need to point out how bad policies are bad for everyone.
They can put whatever shit they want on TV or run whatever political campaign they like. They will never make me accept this horror show that they call freedom.
Don’t ask questions, just let all of them hear it.
You see people actually doing something about their problems in Georgia (the country), Serbia, and Turkey to name a few, so there's no reason why they can't do the same across the pond.
We are fighting - not enough of us yet, but we are.
Be fascinating to watch the knots people tie themselves into to one day forgive themselves for all this.
https://web.archive.org/web/20241205201431/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2003/05/17/no-political-fallout-for-bush-on-weapons/ba3cebb7-56d5-42b8-86cb-0a4d1ce4c0e6/
your. soul.
Remember who said what and WHEN.
Remember who DID what and when.
Remember their names.
A reckoning is coming.
I need to read El Akkad’s book.
Added to my #thread list
Ordered, still waiting to read
The easy fork is the rougher road.