Last evening I viewed a film produced by 7th Chakra Films entitled "1986 The Act". It is outstanding in its professional quality production and it offers documented illustrations for the most horrific crimes ever committed by a ruling class against the rest of society under the system of capitalism. I urge you to order it in one of their formats. If you have budget constraints which prevent you from purchasing it, notify me at goatmeal36@yahoo.com.
- ‘COVID Vaccines’ Could Be Useless at Lowering Death, Give You Symptoms of Mild COVID, and Still Pass Clinical Trials by Dr. Peter Doshi posted on Anti-Empire, but the source is the NY Times. (Note: I am posting this from Anti-Empire because the framing of the article is more relevant than the NY Times--but there is a link to the latter provided in this post.)
- Assaulting Science in the Name of Science: Exploring the Coronavirus Crisis of 2020: A Compilation and Commentary on Online Essays by Prof. Anthony J. Hall from Global Research (based in Canada).
- Protests & Provocateurs: Infiltrators are Disrupting BLM Protests by David Rfosen from CounterPunch. My reaction: Although the article starts out with statements disparaging Trump like all liberal media, it soon describes the infiltration tactics and agent provocateurs that are used by the capitalist class to manipulate protests. It focuses on lessons that have been learned by every generation since the Vietnam War, and must be relearned by current activists at an accelerated pace if the protests are to be effective.
- How Exceptional America Is by Eric Zuesse from Strategic Culture Foundation. My reaction: Zuesse often uses the feudal word "aristocracy" for a ruling class partially in order to be published in liberal-left websites, but mostly because he was indoctrinated by many years of education in the USA to absolutely avoid any writing that is associated with Marxist thought. You see, Marxism is verboten in the USA and throughout most of the the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire. "Marxian" can only be used by professors to indicate that they only have an academic interest in Marxist ideology. This is part of the Empire's indoctrination program to control and prevent thought that does not favor a capitalist system, a system founded on private ownership. Public ownership and control of an economy is blasphemous to this capitalist religion. Still, as a critic of US policies, his writings are valuable to read.
- Eco-socialism and/or De-growth by Michael Löwy from Rise (based in Ireland). (Note: This is a best post.)
How to distinguish the authentic from the artificial, factitious (artificially created) and makeshift needs? The last ones are induced by mental manipulation, i.e. advertisement. The advertising system has invaded all spheres of human life in modern capitalist societies: not only food and clothing, but sports, culture, religion and politics are shaped according to its rules. It has invaded our streets, mail boxes, TV-screens, newspapers, landscapes, in a permanent, aggressive and insidious way, and it decisively contributes to habits of conspicuous and compulsive consumption. Moreover, it wastes an astronomical amount of oil, electricity, labour time, paper, chemicals, and other raw materials - all paid by the consumers - in a branch of “production” which is not only useless, from a human viewpoint, but directly in contradiction with real social needs. While advertisement is an indispensable dimension of the capitalist market economy, it would have no place in a society in transition to socialism, where it would be replaced by information on goods and services provided by consumer associations. The criteria for distinguishing an authentic from an artificial need, is its persistence after the suppression of advertisement (Coca Cola!). Of course, during some years, old habits of consumption would persist, and nobody has the right to tell the people what their needs are. The change in the patterns of consumption is a historical process, as well as an educational challenge.