The “Villain” of the Day
Originally published on Oct 20 2019 in my Facebook post.
I am always disturbed by how easily people believe whatever the media tells them about whatever current war is being waged.
I'm also disturbed by how easily people believe the media stories about whoever is the "villain" of the day, while brushing away any nuance or complication that doesn't agree with their story.
Assad. Erdogan. Trump. Saddam. Gaddafi. Bush.
If you're going to talk about how the Turks committed the Armenian genocide, you better also talk about how the Kurds committed that genocide with the Turks.
Yes. That's right. The Kurds committed genocide alongside the Turks against the Armenians. Not so simple to talk about now, is it?
Please study history and don't immediately swallow whatever is the "story" of the day.
History is much more complicated and also more simple than that. War is always about money and resources.
The Kurdish territory that is being fought over right now has oil. Genocide is being committed for oil.
That means that the Fossil Fuel Empire is the villain. White Supremacist Empire is the villain.
Patriarchy is the villain.
Greed is the villain.
What I'm saying is that I'm disturbed by how simplistic and deliberately one-sided the media stories are about this.
Syria has been in a civil war for 8 years. Does anyone is this movement understand exactly what is happening there? We've been seeing refugees fleeing from Syria for years now. Horrific stories of slaughter and genocide. Where have most of those refugees gone to? And everyone just quietly believes whatever simple story the media tells them about it. Just like they believed it about Iraq. Just like they believed it about Libya. Just like they believed about Mexico. And Honduras. And Venezuela. And on and on.
Whenever we are fed stories like this, we are force-fed justifications for US troops to be in these places. Since when does the presence of US troops in other countries work out for those people? I'm shocked at how easily people are falling into this trap. Since when are cops good? Since when are US soldiers good cops? I'm disturbed by this analysis.