To Be Assanged: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix by Ms Caitlin Johnstone!
(2020-02-28 at 21:56:05 )

To Be Assanged: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix by Ms Caitlin Johnstone!

Assange, verb. Use: To be assanged.
Meaning: when the nationless alliance of elites imprison a dissident by using their power to manipulate vagaries in the laws of their respective nations.
Eg "I have information on war crimes that I should leak but I do not want to be assanged."

Murderous governments who deceive their citizenry are not entitled to any degree of secrecy whatsoever.

A society is only as free as its most troublesome truth-teller.

The large and enthusiastic Julian Assange demonstrations in the United Kingdom have filled me with gratitude and love, but they have also made me ashamed of Australia.

Those crowds dwarf anything I have seen here in Melbourne, and he is our man. The Brits are defending an Australian citizen better than Australia is.

This is what happens when you use the same mass media propaganda that is used everywhere else on a population whose only cultural value is not getting worked up about things.

Wake up, Australia! For f-cks sake, now is the time to start caring about something!

Ever notice how there are no "Do Not Free Assange" rallies?

No "Extradite Assange" activist forums?

That is because the only normal human beings interested in his case want him free. It is the Free Assange crowd versus the "Thinking about that will cause me cognitive dissonance" crowd.

The only grassroots energy regarding Julian Assange is on his side. The entire other side of the debate is (A) governments and their lackeys and (B) the propagandized masses who have been manipulated into staying silent and compliant as the empire works its will.

Sometimes I remember that Julian Assange published leaks on the goddamn Central Intelligence Agency just when it would hurt him the most, right at the height of the smear campaign, just after he had pissed off all the liberals, and my jaw drops all over again. Publish or be damned is right. The balls on that guy.

Some of my friends and family can not even bring themselves to publish "I support Assange" on their Facebook because it might make things a little socially awkward for them for a while.

The contrast is striking.

As Julian Assanges case heats up I am getting more and more Donald Trump supporters in my mentions defending his persecution, because the propaganda against him in Trumpy echo chambers has been effective. It is just like the liberals in 2016, watching them succumb to the narrative one by one.

Debunking smears is all well and good, but the actual Julian Assange case is not about smears, it is about a question: Should journalists be punished for exposing war crimes? Make people answer this question when they are smearing him. Demand they address this central issue.

It is pretty clear that the magistrate at the Julian Assange extradition trial came in with her mind already made up about how she is going to rule.

The prosecution is there to give her an excuse. The burden of proof is on the defense to prove she can not legally do the thing she plans to do.

The prosecutions argument for extradition has largely amounted to "This case has nothing to do with a journalist exposing war crimes. This case is about whether Julian Assange broke the rules that we made to prevent journalists from exposing our war crimes."

Per the Assange extradition argument the Saudis should be allowed to extradite and behead anyone who practices blasphemy.

Yesterday I saw someone justifying the persecution of Julian Assange by arguing that his position as WikiLeaks founder actually makes him a powerful individual, and it is not the first time I have seen his smearers try to spin that angle.

It is a common imperialist tactic: perform mental gymnastics to twist the most powerful empire of all time into the poor widdle victim, and down-power groups as powerful. Now the skinny computer geek is the big bully who picked on the poor defenseless Central Intelligence Agency and Pentagon.

You see these power dynamic reversals everywhere: western-backed "rebels" are the little guys standing up to power, the Palestinians are bullying the poor defenseless IDF, Russia is controlling world affairs despite its relatively small economy, etc.

Humanity is on the back foot, and it should not be.

We should be arguing over how much prison time United States war criminals should be serving and taking the United States military to court for falsely classifying information about war crimes, not playing defense like we are the ones who did wrong.

Arguing that the United States should not only be able to hide war crimes by falsely classifying the evidence, but also that they should be able to punish the people who exposed them, is like saying Jeffrey Dahmer was not only right to murder but that the police who went after him should go to jail.

Whenever anyone annoys dominant power structures, the political-media class instantly becomes very interested in informing us how horrible that person is.

You see this with anti-establishment candidates, you see it with anti-empire national leaders, you see it with whistleblowers, and you see it with leak publishers.

United States of Americans can not afford a normal healthcare system because it is much too expensive, unlike their current healthcare system which I guess is free.

Hi my name is Snooty McCentrist. I write op-eds telling Berners that Americans would never elect a socialist, which I know for a fact because I spend the rest of my time writing op-eds persuading United States of Americans never to elect a socialist.

The anti-Sanders Russia smears ares not going to get better.

They are going to get crazier and crazier and crazier. And then they are going to get crazier. And then they are going to get even crazier. They will make it as crazy as they need to make it to stop him. And then they will forget all about it.

Russiagaters are exactly as dumb as QAnon cultists. If this hurts your feelings, good.

"Read the Mueller report" is just a noise Russiagaters make to obfuscate the debate because they know hardly anyone has read it. If you had read the Mueller report with a critical mind, you would know it is laden with glaring, self-contradicting plot holes.

Even if nothing else good comes from Bernie Sanders securing the nomination, at the very least it would force the liberal narrative managers who have been posing as adversarial journalists against Donald Trump to expose what they really are.

That alone would be a huge win.

The emotional reactions that mainstream media manipulators are having to Bernie Sanders repeated wins tells you they identify with the ruling establishment which he keeps criticizing.

They themselves feel they are part of that establishment, so they feel like he is attacking them.

The fact that these reporters feel attacked on an emotional level by the Bernie Sanders campaign tells you that they are not journalists, but court stenographers. Their job is to regurgitate lines favorable to the power establishment, and they know it.

Propaganda is the main obstacle preventing the people from using the power of their numbers to effect real change.

If the Bernie Sanders campaign accomplishes nothing else, it is at least forcing the propagandists to expose themselves.

The more mainstream that exposure goes, the better.

This is why I have been paying so much attention to the Bernie Sanders campaign lately.

Not because I am under any delusion that he is perfect or that presidents make real changes, but because the establishment reaction to him can expose the propaganda machine before a mainstream audience.

Democratic Party leaders can not get away with openly saying they want to kill Bernies nomination at the convention because they think he will rock the establishment boat too much.

This has meant that all they are left with is the hilarious argument that the guy who is winning all the primaries definitely can not beat Donald Trump in the general election, but someone who has failed to win any primaries definitely can.

Anyone who does not want the Central Intelligence Agency abolished is either ignorant or a depraved bootlicking sociopath.

Starvation sanctions, like the coronavirus, primarily kill the weakest and most vulnerable segment of their victims. The United States is like if the coronavirus was a country.

The owners of mass media should not be allowed to own stocks in other industries. Their ability to manipulate public perception makes it a form of insider trading.

Language has always been enforced in a way that keeps the working class from rising to power.

That is why so-called "bad words" are always from the vernacular used by the poor.

Anyone who truly wants a peoples revolution will therefore avoid language policing as much as possible.

Everyone I argue with online is basically just saying "Actually it is good for a small group of sociopaths to have all the power and we should definitely give them more."

People talk about the futility of internet debate, but I have found I can learn way more by kicking ideas around with normal human beings online than I can by reading the dry bloviations of some overeducated wanker on Counterpunch or wherever.

In order to understand the narrative matrix, you have got to engage it.

"This Ms Caitlin Johnstone article with its links are here:"

Thanks for reading!!
Everyone has my unconditional permission to republish or use any part of this work (or anything else I have written) in any way they like free of charge.

My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, liking me on Facebook, following my antics on Twitter, throwing some money into my hat on Patreon or Paypal, purchasing some of my "sweet merchandise", buying my new book "Rogue Nation: Psychonautical Adventures With Caitlin Johnstone", or my previous book "Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers". The best way to get around the internet censors and make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for "my website", which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I am trying to do with this platform, "click here".