We Live In A Nightmare

We Live In A Nightmare

Jan. 4, 2025

THE U.S. EMPIRE - FOLLOW THE MONEY

Caitlin Johnstone

Awakening from the propaganda matrix is like being a conservative: you’re frequently disgusted with society and where it appears to be headed. But unlike a conservative, you’re disgusted by actual problems instead of imaginary nonsense.

Also unlike a conservative, your problem is not with relatively new societal developments like recent immigration waves and LGBTQ acceptance; your problem is with abusive dynamics which have been plaguing civilization for centuries. Capitalism. Imperialism. Militarism. Settler-colonialism. Genocide. Plutocracy. Exploitation. Consumerism.

Many rightists warn urgently that our society is on the verge of plunging into a nightmarish authoritarian dystopia, but if you’re truly unplugged from the indoctrination of the empire you understand that the dystopia is already here, and has been for a long time. The overwhelming majority of the people in our society are already thinking, speaking, working, shopping, spending, voting and behaving pretty much exactly how the ruling class wants them to. If they put microchips in our brains which allowed them to fully control our minds, they’d have us moving around in more or less the same way we’ve been moving for generations. We are seeing increases in authoritarianism as our rulers tighten their grip on power, but those measures are being rolled out to keep the current system in place, not to create a new one. They’re not changing anything about the prison, they’re just installing better locks on the doors.

Until you’ve fully liberated yourself from the indoctrination of the mainstream imperial worldview, you don’t truly understand that this is dystopia. You don’t understand how nightmarish it is to live in a society where everyone is marching to the relentless drumbeat of profit and domination. You think it’s fine and normal for people to go their whole lives with their entire identities wrapped around their careers and the goals that they have accomplished within them. You don’t notice anything amiss with the way human lives are being psychologically shaped by propaganda and advertising to make them identify primarily as workers and consumers, and for them to be imprisoned or made homeless if they can’t or won’t be hammered into those shapes.

Reading by Tim Foley

Article with supporting links: https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2025/01/05/we-live-in-a-nightmare

Original: https://youtu.be/R5X2RiyJS2k

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I write about the end of illusions. 100% reader-funded writer. All works co-authored with my American husband Tim Foley.

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