I used to work for an intel Agency. I just had to retire early after 18 years for medical reasons. I can honestly say I am ashamed to have believed the BS that was fed to us. I feel like I was brainwashed almost to justify things that I find myself sickened by now. I went to work there after 9/11. I believed in what I did at first, but things changed. Employees who questioned things suffered in their careers. Literally before I started separating myself from there and reading things on my own, I would hear ‘Glenn Greenwald’ and think ‘Snowden’ who i was led to believe was the devil. Once away from the IC cult, I realize where the truth is, where the bravery is. It’s with journalists like Glenn. Thank you for your courage and bravery taking on the national security apparatus that has played us for too long.
“If you identify as a conservative and continue to believe that your prime enemies are ordinary leftists, or you identify as a leftist and believe your prime enemies are Republican citizens, you will fall perfectly into the trap set for you. Namely, you will ignore your real enemies, the ones who actually wield power at your expense: ruling class elites, who really do not care about “right v. left” and most definitely do not care about “Republican v. Democrat” — as evidenced by the fact that they fund both parties — but instead care only about one thing: stability, or preservation of the prevailing neoliberal order.”
I'm a 54 yr old veteran, Desert Storm veteran. I have served in the federal government for the last 17 yrs. I live and work in DC.
If this does not scare the crap out of you then you are a fool. Just a fool.
The supposed "insurrection" was a joke. 5000 ppl manage to basically walk over or past Capital security. Nobody who was not a protester was hurt. No fires were set. Some of the supposed leaders are known mental patients.
As someone who lives here, I can tell you that if you want to bump off a congress critter or senator it is just not that hard to find them around the capital or the Hart building. Ya do not need to invade the capital building to do it.
To call the reaction to this as being over the top and bizarre is to understate the situation.
Me? I am getting the heck out of here. I retire in 9 yrs and I plan to be living overseas. This country is heading for an ugly and dangerous place. The left is becoming EXACTLY what they accused Trump of TRYING to be, authoritarian control freaks ready to punish, penalize, harass, arrest, monitor and control HALF the population that supported Trump.
I've been planning this move for 3 yrs. Heading to my destination of choice in March to buy a house and then rent it out until I am ready to go. The day I retire I am liquidating everything I own here and then taking every penny I have and going. I may start a business outside the states consulting but it will not be to the US government. NO WAY.
Thing is, I am not the only one that is thinking this and planning it. A good friend, retired Col, retired and moved to Chile with his wife. They probably took about $2 million in savings with them given what they got for their house in Alexandria and that his wife was a lawyer in town. Never mind he still collects his military pension. Another friend just bought property in Costa Rica and she is moving next year and going to run her consulting business remotely from there. My neighbor, an Air Force vet, and his wife, a senior program manager for a federal contractor, are looking at Western Panama. Their last kid moved out last year and they are getting their house ready to sell. Have a good friend in Boston, she and her husband have no kids. THEY are looking at Prague. Same deal. They can consult from there.
I've even told my kids to look at getting out. My daughter has a degree in neurscience and is finishing her JD. She is fluent in Spanish. Told her to look at Spain or Mexico or even Peru. My son, told him the same thing.
I have also told them, that despite coming from a family that has served in the military since the Civil War on one side and one that served from the Civil War through WWII on the other, that NEITHER of them should enlist, not even as a JAG officer. I've put away all the family photos of military pictures including from my own time. Told them I would be ashamed if they did enlist. The military is now just a means of projecting imperial power and the politicians will throw their lives away for the oil companies. Next it will be used to control the population.
Thank you, Glenn. A question: why don't the Democrats talk about the Weather Underground bombing of the Capitol? Oh, right, I can answer that - because Bill Ayers and Susan Rosenberg are now a cozy part of the Obama/Biden circle. Also to refer to a commenter below who's upset about the threat of White Supremacists - please, grow up. Take a driving trip around this country as I have. You aren't going to find enough White Supremacists to overthrow a tractor, not even in Idaho. The threat of Woke Supremacists is much greater.
And this is exactly what the libertarians have been screaming about for almost two decades at this point. Everything we were warning about is happening right in front of our eyes.
Glenn, I owe you an apology. I was one of those people after 9/11 who was willing to give up some of my freedoms if it would keep America safe. You sounded the alarm. You were right and I was wrong. Recently, when you referenced the Claiborne County case I researched it and also read about the 9th Circuit decision on the Nuremberg Files website case. The website published the names and addresses of abortion doctors and later three doctors were murdered. I know personally how horrific and tragic those murders were because two occurred in the city where I lived at the time. Planned Parenthood sued the Nuremberg Files website creators. The 9th Circuit, probably the most liberal court in the country, ruled unanimously it was protected speech with similar reasoning used in the Claiborne case.
Excellent article . . . depressing and scary but excellent.
I wonder if any of the so-called "liberals" pushing for a domestic "war on terror" akin to the "war on terror" the government waged against Al Qaeda realize that only a decade after launching the first "war" the government was funding and arming Al Qaeda in Syria (when it suited their purposes). Of course all of the police-state powers assumed by the government to prosecute the "war on terror" were maintained (and expanded), even as our purported enemy in this war (Al Qaeda) was acting as one of our proxies. Its almost as if the hysteria created by these "wars" is all about seizing power and stifling freedom and has nothing at all to do with "terror".
There is so much discontent (inside and outside of both parties) with how our kleptocratic oligarchies have managed and mismanaged the country, really since the 70s but especially since the end of the Cold War, that at this stage they can only hold on to their power and privileges not by subtle wealth transfers alone but by taking the new political step of dictatorship--"fascism," by the tacit contemporary usage, but now in the name of "progressivism" or "human rights." The only thing to add to Glenn's outstanding prognosis is that the new tyranny will be exercised in the name of "human rights" even as it abrogates civil rights. It will use corporate Leninism to circumvent the constitution to impose wokeness, not for the purpose of improving people's lives or freedom, but for the sake of amplifying its power and wealth. Leninism is ideology used as a means of control and coercion; corporations, too, may be used as means of ideology; and the two arcs may coincide. Thus our corporate elites are using race (for example) as a means of protecting any challenge to their privilege.
Fantastic piece. Have to say I am finding myself agreeing with you on more and more issues.
I tried to speak with a group of friends who are all left of center in their political views, well educated and upper, upper middle class. Every single one remains so blinded by their rage against the yellow-haired devil, that they are unwilling to see the drift into totalitarian dictatorship occurring right before their eyes. I even conceded that Facebook, Twitter and the like booting Trump off their platform is arguably well within those firms purview, no matter how damaging this move is to their platform. But, and this to me is absolutely a fundamentally different and more ominous set of actions, the clearly coordinated attack on Parler by Apple, Google and Amazon is a direct frontal assault on the 1st Amendment rights of every American citizen. Any academic, journalist, editor, publisher or public interest group (hey ACLU where have you been) who does not rise-up and openly denounce and fight this blatant assault is a complete and utter fraud. As I said before, my forefathers back to the 1700's fought and in several cases died to achieve and guarantee these rights to EVERY AMERICAN CITIZEN. I'll be damned if I am going to remain silent and let them be taken away.
Glenn, you certainly hit the nail on the head with this one, and as one who does not share your political viewpoint, it is profoundly depressing to find myself in almost complete agreement with your frank and honest analysis.
This isn't at its root a left vs. right issue, although the powers-that-be and their media propagandists, in a classic divide and conquer approach, are going to great lengths to portray it as such. In hindsight, it seems to me that the "Republic" began its demise as such as soon as the first indigestible omnibus bill containing the phrase, "The Secretary will, at his discretion..." was passed into law by legislators who had not read it, just as surely as a star that forms the first iron atom within its core begins its inevitable path to self-destruction.
The various bureaucratic entities within the ever-metastasizing Executive Branch, especially the corrupt and secret "intelligence community" with their black budgets, long ago ceased to be accountable to anyone but themselves in any meaningful sense, and no president, Congress or judge has the power, much less the political will, to challenge the status quo and every incentive to refrain from doing so. And the twelve (for now, at least) Nazgul of the Supreme Court have blessed the entire unholy arrangement, effectively setting it in stone using the doctrines of "deference" and stare decisis to rationalize their complicity.
Right now there are 25,000 troops deployed in Washington, DC, to protect the incoming regime from a citizenry it fears during its inaugural "celebration." Maybe it's just me, but I don't see how anyone can, with a straight face, refer to the erstwhile "United" States of America a republic. At best, it is now a progressive oligarchy. And President Trump, with his seemingly inexhaustible supply of idiosyncratic and narcissistic flaws, did at least manage to expose that fact for everyone (except the willfully blind) to see.
Well, I can't be aboard for all this. So now I must face the fact that despite having been a productive citizen and an American patriot my whole life and trying my best for the last twelve years to care for my fellow human beings of all races, ethnicities and creeds as a critical care RN in a large public hospital, that my government now considers me to be a dissident and probably worse. So be it, then. Screw the Empire. Screw the new Caesar. And God bless the sovereign state of Texas and all the citizens of the former republic of the United States of America, and give us the strength and the compassion to face whatever comes next.
Even someone who sells pillows, Mike Lindell who supports Trump, and believes the election was stolen is being targeted, as are the stores who carry his products. Stores, like Bed Bath and Beyond, Wayfair, etc, are dropping his products due to political pressure from the left. Comply or suffer the consequences. I just called Bed Bath and Beyond and told them I would never enter their store again, and I do like to shop there, if they concede to this political pressure. It puts them in a bad position, since either way they lose, and she did say she got a lot of phone calls that expressed the same opinion as mine. Who do I blame mostly for all this? The "left." "The left" stream media, like CNN, MSNBC, and the mainstream media, as well as those "left wing" sites I use to go to in previous years for truth who unfortunately they didn't maintain their independence during these last four years and were overly compliant with the democrats, and way too often brutal in their attacks on Trump.
“The Dem Party and its media have convinced tens of millions of people that anyone who disagrees with them is evil, a traitor, a Russian asset, a fascist. The Repub Party and its media have convinced tens of millions of people that anyone who disagrees with them is evil, a traitor, a Chinese asset, a communist. Meanwhile, the billionaires and corporations that own both parties, the entirety of the MSM and everything else under the sun are making out like bandits at the expense of everyone else and the planet. Thank you for coming to my TED talk. Cheers!”
Glenn, you have been heroically assailing the apparent ubiquity of groupthink in the american media since the beginning of your career and this piece is emblematic of that. I too am exceptionally concerned about the evolving Thucydidian dialectic between the combined forces of the Neoliberal centrist state (corporate media, academia, upper middle class managerial class, and security state/"military industrial complex") and the "Trump base". I was wondering what you think the role of groupthink is in contemporary culture? One question I have been pondering of recent is how can there be such a uniformity of understanding in interpreting, or evaluating events, such as the "stroming of the Capitol", and in ascribing causes to them? And crucially what can be done to deflate this phenomenon and get people to jump out of these manufactured psychological grooves which are seemingly being spun to benefit the ends of the Neoliberal order?
Please keep writing stories like this, you are needed now more than ever.
I used to work for an intel Agency. I just had to retire early after 18 years for medical reasons. I can honestly say I am ashamed to have believed the BS that was fed to us. I feel like I was brainwashed almost to justify things that I find myself sickened by now. I went to work there after 9/11. I believed in what I did at first, but things changed. Employees who questioned things suffered in their careers. Literally before I started separating myself from there and reading things on my own, I would hear ‘Glenn Greenwald’ and think ‘Snowden’ who i was led to believe was the devil. Once away from the IC cult, I realize where the truth is, where the bravery is. It’s with journalists like Glenn. Thank you for your courage and bravery taking on the national security apparatus that has played us for too long.
Worth repeating
“If you identify as a conservative and continue to believe that your prime enemies are ordinary leftists, or you identify as a leftist and believe your prime enemies are Republican citizens, you will fall perfectly into the trap set for you. Namely, you will ignore your real enemies, the ones who actually wield power at your expense: ruling class elites, who really do not care about “right v. left” and most definitely do not care about “Republican v. Democrat” — as evidenced by the fact that they fund both parties — but instead care only about one thing: stability, or preservation of the prevailing neoliberal order.”
I'm a 54 yr old veteran, Desert Storm veteran. I have served in the federal government for the last 17 yrs. I live and work in DC.
If this does not scare the crap out of you then you are a fool. Just a fool.
The supposed "insurrection" was a joke. 5000 ppl manage to basically walk over or past Capital security. Nobody who was not a protester was hurt. No fires were set. Some of the supposed leaders are known mental patients.
As someone who lives here, I can tell you that if you want to bump off a congress critter or senator it is just not that hard to find them around the capital or the Hart building. Ya do not need to invade the capital building to do it.
To call the reaction to this as being over the top and bizarre is to understate the situation.
Me? I am getting the heck out of here. I retire in 9 yrs and I plan to be living overseas. This country is heading for an ugly and dangerous place. The left is becoming EXACTLY what they accused Trump of TRYING to be, authoritarian control freaks ready to punish, penalize, harass, arrest, monitor and control HALF the population that supported Trump.
I've been planning this move for 3 yrs. Heading to my destination of choice in March to buy a house and then rent it out until I am ready to go. The day I retire I am liquidating everything I own here and then taking every penny I have and going. I may start a business outside the states consulting but it will not be to the US government. NO WAY.
Thing is, I am not the only one that is thinking this and planning it. A good friend, retired Col, retired and moved to Chile with his wife. They probably took about $2 million in savings with them given what they got for their house in Alexandria and that his wife was a lawyer in town. Never mind he still collects his military pension. Another friend just bought property in Costa Rica and she is moving next year and going to run her consulting business remotely from there. My neighbor, an Air Force vet, and his wife, a senior program manager for a federal contractor, are looking at Western Panama. Their last kid moved out last year and they are getting their house ready to sell. Have a good friend in Boston, she and her husband have no kids. THEY are looking at Prague. Same deal. They can consult from there.
I've even told my kids to look at getting out. My daughter has a degree in neurscience and is finishing her JD. She is fluent in Spanish. Told her to look at Spain or Mexico or even Peru. My son, told him the same thing.
I have also told them, that despite coming from a family that has served in the military since the Civil War on one side and one that served from the Civil War through WWII on the other, that NEITHER of them should enlist, not even as a JAG officer. I've put away all the family photos of military pictures including from my own time. Told them I would be ashamed if they did enlist. The military is now just a means of projecting imperial power and the politicians will throw their lives away for the oil companies. Next it will be used to control the population.
Thank you, Glenn. A question: why don't the Democrats talk about the Weather Underground bombing of the Capitol? Oh, right, I can answer that - because Bill Ayers and Susan Rosenberg are now a cozy part of the Obama/Biden circle. Also to refer to a commenter below who's upset about the threat of White Supremacists - please, grow up. Take a driving trip around this country as I have. You aren't going to find enough White Supremacists to overthrow a tractor, not even in Idaho. The threat of Woke Supremacists is much greater.
And this is exactly what the libertarians have been screaming about for almost two decades at this point. Everything we were warning about is happening right in front of our eyes.
Glenn, I owe you an apology. I was one of those people after 9/11 who was willing to give up some of my freedoms if it would keep America safe. You sounded the alarm. You were right and I was wrong. Recently, when you referenced the Claiborne County case I researched it and also read about the 9th Circuit decision on the Nuremberg Files website case. The website published the names and addresses of abortion doctors and later three doctors were murdered. I know personally how horrific and tragic those murders were because two occurred in the city where I lived at the time. Planned Parenthood sued the Nuremberg Files website creators. The 9th Circuit, probably the most liberal court in the country, ruled unanimously it was protected speech with similar reasoning used in the Claiborne case.
Excellent article . . . depressing and scary but excellent.
I wonder if any of the so-called "liberals" pushing for a domestic "war on terror" akin to the "war on terror" the government waged against Al Qaeda realize that only a decade after launching the first "war" the government was funding and arming Al Qaeda in Syria (when it suited their purposes). Of course all of the police-state powers assumed by the government to prosecute the "war on terror" were maintained (and expanded), even as our purported enemy in this war (Al Qaeda) was acting as one of our proxies. Its almost as if the hysteria created by these "wars" is all about seizing power and stifling freedom and has nothing at all to do with "terror".
Have you ever heard a scarier phrase than "the same consensual reality"? JHC
This is a beautiful article. Makes me feel hopeful.
I hope people listen and put down the daggers of hate.
Thanks Glenn
Never thought I'd say this, but...
I feel like moving back to Russia would be a smart move in today's fascist climate
There is so much discontent (inside and outside of both parties) with how our kleptocratic oligarchies have managed and mismanaged the country, really since the 70s but especially since the end of the Cold War, that at this stage they can only hold on to their power and privileges not by subtle wealth transfers alone but by taking the new political step of dictatorship--"fascism," by the tacit contemporary usage, but now in the name of "progressivism" or "human rights." The only thing to add to Glenn's outstanding prognosis is that the new tyranny will be exercised in the name of "human rights" even as it abrogates civil rights. It will use corporate Leninism to circumvent the constitution to impose wokeness, not for the purpose of improving people's lives or freedom, but for the sake of amplifying its power and wealth. Leninism is ideology used as a means of control and coercion; corporations, too, may be used as means of ideology; and the two arcs may coincide. Thus our corporate elites are using race (for example) as a means of protecting any challenge to their privilege.
Fantastic piece. Have to say I am finding myself agreeing with you on more and more issues.
I tried to speak with a group of friends who are all left of center in their political views, well educated and upper, upper middle class. Every single one remains so blinded by their rage against the yellow-haired devil, that they are unwilling to see the drift into totalitarian dictatorship occurring right before their eyes. I even conceded that Facebook, Twitter and the like booting Trump off their platform is arguably well within those firms purview, no matter how damaging this move is to their platform. But, and this to me is absolutely a fundamentally different and more ominous set of actions, the clearly coordinated attack on Parler by Apple, Google and Amazon is a direct frontal assault on the 1st Amendment rights of every American citizen. Any academic, journalist, editor, publisher or public interest group (hey ACLU where have you been) who does not rise-up and openly denounce and fight this blatant assault is a complete and utter fraud. As I said before, my forefathers back to the 1700's fought and in several cases died to achieve and guarantee these rights to EVERY AMERICAN CITIZEN. I'll be damned if I am going to remain silent and let them be taken away.
Glenn, you certainly hit the nail on the head with this one, and as one who does not share your political viewpoint, it is profoundly depressing to find myself in almost complete agreement with your frank and honest analysis.
This isn't at its root a left vs. right issue, although the powers-that-be and their media propagandists, in a classic divide and conquer approach, are going to great lengths to portray it as such. In hindsight, it seems to me that the "Republic" began its demise as such as soon as the first indigestible omnibus bill containing the phrase, "The Secretary will, at his discretion..." was passed into law by legislators who had not read it, just as surely as a star that forms the first iron atom within its core begins its inevitable path to self-destruction.
The various bureaucratic entities within the ever-metastasizing Executive Branch, especially the corrupt and secret "intelligence community" with their black budgets, long ago ceased to be accountable to anyone but themselves in any meaningful sense, and no president, Congress or judge has the power, much less the political will, to challenge the status quo and every incentive to refrain from doing so. And the twelve (for now, at least) Nazgul of the Supreme Court have blessed the entire unholy arrangement, effectively setting it in stone using the doctrines of "deference" and stare decisis to rationalize their complicity.
Right now there are 25,000 troops deployed in Washington, DC, to protect the incoming regime from a citizenry it fears during its inaugural "celebration." Maybe it's just me, but I don't see how anyone can, with a straight face, refer to the erstwhile "United" States of America a republic. At best, it is now a progressive oligarchy. And President Trump, with his seemingly inexhaustible supply of idiosyncratic and narcissistic flaws, did at least manage to expose that fact for everyone (except the willfully blind) to see.
Well, I can't be aboard for all this. So now I must face the fact that despite having been a productive citizen and an American patriot my whole life and trying my best for the last twelve years to care for my fellow human beings of all races, ethnicities and creeds as a critical care RN in a large public hospital, that my government now considers me to be a dissident and probably worse. So be it, then. Screw the Empire. Screw the new Caesar. And God bless the sovereign state of Texas and all the citizens of the former republic of the United States of America, and give us the strength and the compassion to face whatever comes next.
Even someone who sells pillows, Mike Lindell who supports Trump, and believes the election was stolen is being targeted, as are the stores who carry his products. Stores, like Bed Bath and Beyond, Wayfair, etc, are dropping his products due to political pressure from the left. Comply or suffer the consequences. I just called Bed Bath and Beyond and told them I would never enter their store again, and I do like to shop there, if they concede to this political pressure. It puts them in a bad position, since either way they lose, and she did say she got a lot of phone calls that expressed the same opinion as mine. Who do I blame mostly for all this? The "left." "The left" stream media, like CNN, MSNBC, and the mainstream media, as well as those "left wing" sites I use to go to in previous years for truth who unfortunately they didn't maintain their independence during these last four years and were overly compliant with the democrats, and way too often brutal in their attacks on Trump.
“The Dem Party and its media have convinced tens of millions of people that anyone who disagrees with them is evil, a traitor, a Russian asset, a fascist. The Repub Party and its media have convinced tens of millions of people that anyone who disagrees with them is evil, a traitor, a Chinese asset, a communist. Meanwhile, the billionaires and corporations that own both parties, the entirety of the MSM and everything else under the sun are making out like bandits at the expense of everyone else and the planet. Thank you for coming to my TED talk. Cheers!”
Glenn, you have been heroically assailing the apparent ubiquity of groupthink in the american media since the beginning of your career and this piece is emblematic of that. I too am exceptionally concerned about the evolving Thucydidian dialectic between the combined forces of the Neoliberal centrist state (corporate media, academia, upper middle class managerial class, and security state/"military industrial complex") and the "Trump base". I was wondering what you think the role of groupthink is in contemporary culture? One question I have been pondering of recent is how can there be such a uniformity of understanding in interpreting, or evaluating events, such as the "stroming of the Capitol", and in ascribing causes to them? And crucially what can be done to deflate this phenomenon and get people to jump out of these manufactured psychological grooves which are seemingly being spun to benefit the ends of the Neoliberal order?
Please keep writing stories like this, you are needed now more than ever.
-Brian