here's another of mine i've been working on for some time. and sometimes they come out better than others, and i suspect this is one of those cases. comments will let me know if i'm wrong;

George Orwell, 1984: “The two aims of the Party are to conquer the whole surface of the earth and to extinguish once and for all the possibility of independent thought.”

Believing we’re best prevents Americans from adopting things that have worked elsewhere. For example, there’s no healthcare debate in which some politician doesn’t declare that the “American healthcare system is the greatest in the world” which is only correct if you add “…for the pharmaceutical industry” or “…for incredibly wealthy people” or some similar qualifier.

If you believe that some supernatural being is favoring America over all other countries, you might think it’s OK that it’s the only industrialized nation without mandatory paid maternity leave. After all, if God wanted American women to get some paid time off after giving birth, HE would say something. How God can be for and against something at the same time?

America is tops when it comes to spending money on shooting folks during traffic stops or blowing up Afghan wedding parties from drones. America is number 1 in: Prison Population, Obesity, Child Abuse Deaths, TV viewing time, Teen Pregnancy Rate, Prescription Drug Use, Citizens Killed by police, Debt, Crime, military spending, interfering in the affairs of other countries, Immoral and evil laws.

Encouraging people to only look at the positives, reinforces their belief in American superiority, while discouraging attending to the many things that require improvement. Only a thin line separates good old-fashioned patriotism from chauvinistic nationalism. There’s no better way to get Americans to rally around the flag than attacking somebody.

Collective responsibility is a fascist concept.

I don’t support the neo-lib or neo-con political establishment in America. The neo-lib control of ‘our free press’ and cunning manipulation of identity politics, seeks to portray the neo-liberal establishment as the heroes of decent values against Trump. The idea that any establishment embodies decent values is usually untrue.

Democraps push for identity politics simultaneously neglected developing a program concerning pressing economic issues. Democraps worry about being insulted by Halloween costumes or sports team names, while millions around the country are asking: What about bringing jobs/corporations back from China? Rethuglicans continue to work for the downtrodden wealthy and increased possession of the world. Democrats promote alleged Russian interference in elections as their main argument in defense of the hildabeest who allegedly lost to Trump as a result of the influence of external forces. This of course ignores how horrible she is which is why she lost: not phantom Russians.

America has a range of ‘acceptable’ opinions that must be held by respectable people. “Respectable” means that the subject is acceptable by polite society; a strong precondition on the ability to influence the mainstream. Ideas aren’t promoted if not ‘official’.

Who is in this group of “respectable people” who set the limits of acceptable thought? The mainstream media, the permanent government bureaucracy, a.k.a. the Deep State, who make and execute policy, along with universities that educate ‘respectable people’, the ‘thinking’ class, into the prevailing dogmas of the day, and finally the think tanks/foundations that pay professional ‘experts’ to sell their ideas.

An acceptable opinion allows the subject to be integrated with polite society. Respectability is a strong requirement to have open influence, of political control, demonizing anyone who departs from the consensus of respectable thought, and especially if they express their heresies in public. The trouble with political control and politicization of speech and thought in general, is that it significantly damages the ability of ‘consumers’ to think clearly.

If the truth happens to fall outside of polite consensus, then ‘our’ ruling elite and their society will run into situations they simply can’t handle.

The thinking class in America holds ideas that aren’t necessarily truthful and even self-destructive because they’re insecure and need to insist on being right about their guiding dogmas at all costs. Much of the behavior coming from the thinking class amounts to saying: ‘we’re the good people on the side of what’s right’. So many individuals are making a living at trafficking in, supporting, or executing policy based on these dogmas that they don’t dare depart from the permissible, provided ideas to keep their status and incomes.

Every so often we’re told how it’s necessary to invade some small country that isn’t doing as the Empire demands and we start building bases that grow and somehow never leave the independent country we’ve invaded. This grows until we lose our soldiers defending the base we’ve decided we’re allowed to impose on the invaded citizens, who we proclaim terrorists since they oppose our presence. What would you do if a foreign country started building a base down the road from your house? What do you think our response should be when the target country demands we leave?

The self-congratulatory mumble you hear nightly on the ‘news’: We’re doing a great job here, folks, of investigating what needs to be investigated and reporting what needs to be reported, etc. Count on us for “real news”. We’re ‘your’ trustworthy news source, even though we’re all owned by six corporations/billionaires with political agendas.  Then they tell us about how the Russians control their media as if it ain’t the same here. It’s come to the point where you can surf among the various ‘news’ sites and see the same story told the same way at the same time. But you would have little suspicion of this from the large page-one headlines in ‘our free press’, displaying its obsession with the ‘burning issue’ of whether President Putin/Hitler would confess to the sin of “interference” in the 2016 election and promise to repent. Anyone who questions this established conventional wisdom is certainly crazy and out of step we’re told.

The larger danger is how the ‘accepted’ American ‘news’ outlets have adopted a consistently propagandistic approach toward everything relating to Russia. This pattern traces back to the earliest days of Putin’s presidency in 2000 when he began to rein in the American-prescribed “shock therapy” which had sold off Russia’s assets to well-connected insiders, making billions of dollars for the West-favored “oligarchs” even as the process threw millions of average Russian into poverty. In virtually every instance, ‘our free press’ insisted on the most extreme anti-Russian propaganda line and accused people who questioned this Official Narrative of disseminating Russian propaganda or being a “Russian stooge”. There’s no tolerance for skepticism about whatever the State Department or the Washington think tanks say.

We’re told, without any evidence, there’s no doubt that Russia “invaded” Ukraine; “seized” Crimea; “meddled” in American and European elections. All these groupthinks should be investigated and not treated as undeniable truths. Seeing only one side to a story is what ‘our free press’ does. The major media acts as if only one side deserves any respect and dissenting views must be ridiculed and condemned.  ‘Approved’ versions of complex situations become conventional wisdom, which then can’t be significantly reconsidered regardless of future revelations.

It’s great irony that America, protected by two oceans while also benefitting from the world’s largest economy and most powerful military, persists in viewing itself as a victim, helpless and surrounded by enemies. The nature of the threats, Russia and China are best described as adversaries or competitors rather than enemies as they have compelling interests to avoid war, even if the Empire is doing its best to start one. Neither has anything to gain and much to lose by escalating a minor conflict into something that might well start WWIII. International terrorism is an ersatz threat that has been exaggerated through the media fearmongering to such an extent that it appears much more dangerous than it is. More Americans are killed by falling furniture than by terrorists in a year but terrorism has a particular potency due to its unpredictability and the fear that it creates.

Playing tough to the international audience has unfortunately become part of the American Exceptionalism DNA.

The Empire is moving seemingly relentlessly towards war with a country that creates no actual threat, unless it’s attacked, in support of a country that very much is part of the threat : Israel, would prefer to see Americans die in a war against Iran rather that sacrificing its own.

Serious thinking should be required in ‘our’ government about how America’s armed interventions all over the world have made many people hate us enough to strap on a suicide vest and go for it. Saudi financing and the Empire’s inclination to make war creates a deep well of hatred is the principal element in the rise of global terrorism.

Everyone’s for peace between wars which is like being a vegetarian between meals. When we schoolkids first heard about ‘good Germans’, who didn’t know what was happening we knew we’d never be like that, as we watched the ‘news’ and now we see how wrong we were. America projects its illusions on the world. Democracy exists to the extent you participate in the decisions about your life.