Trump’s Demented Gaza Threats, And Other Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix
Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley):
❖
In a statement addressed “to the People of Gaza,” President Trump warned on Wednesday that “A beautiful Future awaits, but not if you hold Hostages. If you do, you are DEAD!”
Again, this was explicitly addressed to the entirety of Gaza’s population, not only to Hamas. US presidents kill civilians all the time, but it’s highly unusual for them to explicitly threaten a civilian population with extermination in a statement addressed directly to them; you have to go back to the leaflets President Truman dropped on Japan warning of nuclear annihilation in 1945 to find anything like this.
At the same time, Israel is reportedly preparing a “hell plan” in which it will resume its genocidal onslaught and cut Gaza off from electricity and water if Hamas refuses to accept Israel’s revised terms for the ceasefire deal in the coming days. The plan to cut off water is especially terrifying, as it would lead to mass civilian deaths relatively quickly.
❖
All of Trump supporters’ reasons for supporting Trump are invalidated by his positions on Israel.
“He puts America first” — he puts Israel first.
“He’s making peace” — he’s assisting Israel’s mass murder and tyranny.
“He supports free speech” — but not speech which criticizes Israel.
❖
The current Israel apologist line on the IDF’s siege on Gaza is that Israel isn’t obligated to feed people it’s at war with, which is idiotic in a couple of different ways.
Firstly, saying Israel doesn’t have to feed Gaza is like saying you don’t have to feed the people in a prison or a hospital. Yes you obviously do you psychopath, it’s an area you’ve enclosed and made fully dependent on outside aid.
But also, Israel doesn’t even feed Gaza. They’re currently stopping other people from feeding Gaza, which is like putting security outside of a hospital or prison to make sure nobody can bring in the essential aid you’re not providing.
❖
Sixty-one Palestinian detainees have reportedly died since October 7 because of the cruel treatment they receive at the hands of their captors. Israeli hostages died because Israel was dropping bombs and laying siege on the place where the prisoners were, while Palestinian hostages are dying because Israel tortures, rapes, starves and abuses them. Israel kills Palestinian hostages and Israeli hostages.
❖
People tell me “Caitlin I like what you say about Gaza, but I hate what you say about Ukraine!”
Okay well that’s because you’re only partially awake to the abuses of the western empire. Gaza is much, much easier to understand than Ukraine. You’ve still got a lot of learning to do.
❖
I can understand why some antiwar people backed Trump over Harris; there were arguments to be made that he was the lesser warmonger. What I cannot understand is how anyone who seeks peace can continue defending him now that he’s in office, though. It’s just bootlicking at this point.
Defending Trump by babbling about how bad Kamala Harris was is like defending the US invasion of Iraq by saying “Oh so I guess you wish Hitler had won WWII.” The election is in the past. It was four months ago. It has no relevance to current criticisms of Trump’s actions.
It annoys me how Trumpers will do this in anti-war circles. The other day I criticized the president’s actions in Gaza and got multiple MAGA people in my mentions babbling about Kamala Harris. It’s like, who? I’ve practically forgotten who Harris even is. I’m busy criticizing the actual empire as it actually presently exists. If Harris had won I’d be criticizing her, but she didn’t, so I focus on Trump. That’s what anyone who isn’t a blind partisan bootlicker would do.
They did this throughout Trump’s first term with Hillary Clinton. “Okay sure his Yemen veto was bad but I’d rather have him than Hillary.” Okay, so? Why are you interrupting important criticisms of the powerful to prattle about an irrelevant former Democratic presidential candidate? How could you possibly even think that’s something worth saying?
No matter how bad Kamala Harris or Hillary Clinton were, it doesn’t magically make Trump good. That’s like thinking cancer is good just because heart disease is bad. It’s shitbrained thinking, and it’s become a real pet peeve of mine.
❖
In the west we have the saying “talk is cheap”, but what’s funny is that there’s absolutely nothing in western society that reflects this as our actual position. The politicians who talk the biggest talk are the ones who get into power. The promotions, investments and business loans go to the people who talk the best game. Our whole society is perpetually marinating in propaganda where skillful manipulators use words to influence the way people think, speak, vote, work, spend, and behave at mass scale.
Talk is not cheap in western society. Talk is highly valued and handsomely rewarded. Talk is our most prized product.
Interestingly I have read that in China the exact opposite is the case. Very little value is placed on talk. The politicians who are elevated to prominence are the ones who have proved themselves with accomplishments over the years. Western businessmen sometimes struggle in China because their whole careers they’ve learned that making big deals comes down to talking big talk, but Chinese businesses are only interested in whether you have a solid track record of coming through with the goods. Even between family members and romantic partnerships there’s a lot less emphasis on saying “I love you” and a lot more emphasis on showing your love with deeds, because in China, talk really is cheap.
And funny enough that’s how we’re seeing things play out on the world stage: the west pouring immense amounts of resources into propaganda, cultural domination and soft power influence operations while China quietly surges ahead in more and more fields every year. We’re talking while China is doing.
_______________
My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece here are some options where you can toss some money into my tip jar if you want to. Go here to find video versions of my articles. If you’d prefer to listen to audio of these articles, you can subscribe to them on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud or YouTube. Go here to buy paperback editions of my writings from month to month. All my work is free to bootleg and use in any way, shape or form; republish it, translate it, use it on merchandise; whatever you want. The best way to make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. All works co-authored with my husband Tim Foley.
Bitcoin donations: 1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2
