Sleepwalking into a Nuclear Nightmare

At no point is it permissible to question if these nations might be reacting defensively to western aggressions and discuss the possibility of working toward detente, writes Caity Johnstone.

By Caitlin Johnstone
CaitlinJohnstone.com

Every day there’s more propaganda banging the drums of war between nuclear-armed nations a little louder. Western media are churning out reports about Russia preparing to invade Ukraine any minute now and China preparing to invade Taiwan any minute now, saying the response to each is obviously to move a lot of high-powered weaponry to both of those locations. None of them are questioning whether these allegations are true or whether those responses are wise. 

This is so dangerous. This whole two-front nuclear brinkmanship game is so very, very dangerous, and they keep finding ways to make it more dangerous. And hardly anyone notices it, because the news media outlets that people look to to understand the world aren’t telling them it’s dangerous.

The only danger you’re allowed to discuss in mainstream western reporting about Russia and China is their scary aggressive expansionism, like this new Newsweek propaganda piece here. Nowhere are you allowed to question if it’s true, or to even breathe a word about the possibility of detente.

 

It’s official empire doctrine that the borders of Russia and China will necessarily keep expanding unless militantly held in place by The Good Guys. It’s taken as a given that those nations are essentially mindless cancers that can only metastasize to other parts of the body unless aggressively treated. 

At no point is it permissible to ask if perhaps we are heading in a direction that could literally end the world and if that could not be easily avoided by simply working to scale down tensions. At no point is it permissible to question if these nations might be reacting defensively to western aggressions and discuss the possibility of working toward detente.

Australian journalist John Pilger was already sounding alarms about this years ago. This article about the shocking escalations against Russia and China by western powers was written all the way back in 2016, and it’s gotten so much worse than that since then. Yet it’s still taken as a given by Serious News Reporters in the west that Russia and China are these reckless aggressors and the U.S. is responding defensively to their aggressions.

You can tell people who freak out about Russia and China are either acting in bad faith or regurgitating propaganda because they all act like detente is not a thing. They don’t even acknowledge the existence of that concept. Many literally don’t even know the meaning of the word.

At no time does it ever even enter their minds that hey, maybe these nations might be acting defensively to blatantly imbalanced military realities like the one illustrated below, and that the sane thing to do would be to move toward de-escalation.

People think this way because they are programmed to, and they are programmed to think that way because easing off of aggressions rather than escalating them would permit the end of U.S. planetary hegemony and a move into a multipolar world. The empire cannot tolerate such a thing.

It was established after the fall of the Soviet Union that another multipolar world must be avoided at all cost; even if it means imperiling the whole world to maintain supremacy. Easing tensions would mean ceasing to do everything you can to prevent the rise of China as a global superpower. That’s what all the hysterical shrieking about Russia and China has really been about these last few years: manufacturing consent for this aggressive campaign.

If things were permitted to take their natural course, China would rise and the U.S. would officially move into post-primacy and we’d have a proper multipolar world. This has been deemed so undesirable that they’re willing to risk the life of every terrestrial organism to stop it.

There are no checks or balances on this insane agenda. It’s supported by all mainstream parties and all mainstream media outlets. We’re sleepwalking into nuclear war. Nobody’s awake to the danger. Not the public, not the media, and most frighteningly not the empire managers actually driving these agendas.

Caitlin Johnstone is a rogue journalist, poet, and utopia prepper who publishes regularly at Medium.  Her work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, liking her on Facebook, following her antics on Twitter, checking out her podcast on either YoutubesoundcloudApple podcasts or Spotify, following her on Steemit, throwing some money into her tip jar on Patreon or Paypal, purchasing some of her sweet merchandise, buying her books Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative MatrixRogue Nation: Psychonautical Adventures With Caitlin Johnstone and Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers.

This article is from CaitlinJohnstone.com and re-published with permission.

19 comments for “Sleepwalking into a Nuclear Nightmare

  1. John Puma
    December 2, 2021 at 03:21

    RE: “It’s official empire doctrine that … Russia and China are essentially mindless cancers that can only metastasize to other parts of the body unless aggressively treated.”

    The essential character flaw of the empire is its severe psychological projection that it uses to justify mass murder across the globe.

  2. Peter
    December 1, 2021 at 15:00

    The most frightening thing is the fact that this post is so badly needed

    Best regards & thanks

  3. Tedder130
    December 1, 2021 at 13:45

    The US has had a very prosperous, long run with its hegemony–primary evidence being the trillions of dollars worth of T-bills held by foreign governments. This money represents a weird form of tribute that only works while the Imperium holds sway. Imagine if all these countries demanded their due and tried to cash in their ‘savings’ in T-bills. It would mean global financial chaos and an end to the US. So that the hegemon will do anything to keep up its primacy.
    The irony is that if an alternate financial system were put in place, the descent of the US from its high perch could be orderly and relatively painless instead of a disastrous fall.

  4. Robert
    December 1, 2021 at 00:18

    I get it Caitlin. Your comments contain necessary urgency. This zero sum game will kill us all. One may think that we will retreat from the brink like the Cuban missile crises, but I don’t see how that’s possible. I’m reminded of the movie “Fail-safe” which should be required viewing by everyone. In it, a sane discussion is put forward by none other than an Air Force general. This discussion should be re-enacted for our “elected” leaders. Perhaps somehow the message will sink in.

  5. Robert Emmett
    November 30, 2021 at 13:43

    The (disgraced) domino theory has a more open field than ever to run amuck.

    And those among the regressive ruling elite, such as Kissinger & Cheney (and the many more whom they’ve infected with their bitter hatred and sense of superiority), act as if still driven by a venal sense of revenge against those who upset their plans more than a half-century ago. They’ve strived since then to put US GovCorps in position to remake the world in its image, exactly the threat they said the communists posed to justify a domino theory in the first place.

    Those who would wreak global havoc in service to such a theory possibly believe wide-spread catastrophe such as nuclear war could never get out of control on their watch, in thrall as they are to technical mastery of their domains. Don’t make me laugh, shit-for-brains!

    And for those among the public, ready to double down on dominoes (you’re really playing Russian roulette), don’t start to squeal if it begins to topple over in your lifetimes. Nor worry your pretty little heads that it all could fall down on your offspring. At least you showed them commies!

    It’s US vs Themism that’s out-of-control.

  6. Keith McClary
    November 30, 2021 at 11:37

    All you need to know about “Russian aggression”:

    hXXps://www.indy100.com/news/the-history-of-nato-in-europe-in-one-gif-7245581

  7. James Simpson
    November 30, 2021 at 05:06

    UK readers can act by joining the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament at hXXps://cnduk.org/

  8. November 29, 2021 at 21:57

    Helen
    The Book SHADOW by Peter Manos, a physician, has a goal, similar to that of the film The Day After, which raised the consciousness of Americans, including Ronald Reagan, of the medical and ecological horrors of nuclear war by depicting the devastation of a Midwestern city suffering a nuclear attack.
    That film had such a powerful impact that psychologists were deployed throughout the US to help people and their children cope with their emotional disturbances after the viewing, which had attracted a massive national audience
    Shadows makes an impression on the reader because it translates the dry, distant, obfuscatory language used by politicians, aerospace corporations, and the Pentagon itself, into a story about a small group of average people who work to inform their community of the nuclear threat, which is undergirded by the military/aerospace industry’s unremitting, criminal preparation for nuclear war.
    The four hundred fifty missile silos around air force bases in Montana, North Dakota, and Wyoming are sitting ducks for a Russian nuclear attack. How frightening to think of the numerous false alarms caught in time to avert WWIII, not to mention the risks nuclear control officers take by using drugs or cheating on exams, while their commanders remain relatively uninvolved.
    These missileers, each armed with a pistol to shoot the other if he or she shows signs of deviant behavior, sit in the launch control room deep underground ready to enter codes that will end civilization if not all humanity.
    Shadows describes how a seventy-eight-year-old woman tries to alert the community to these dangers, and the backstabbing that she and her colleagues endure – similar to my lifelong experience.
    It should be required reading for every federal and state politician, every Pentagon employee, and those in aerospace weapons corporations.
    Only if people can be jerked from their psychic numbing to face the ghastly reality of the current global nuclear situation, and the dire risk it imposes to all global life, will there be hope. Read my book SLEEPWALKING TO ARMAGEDDON.

    • Em
      November 30, 2021 at 19:46

      This is the latest (9months ago) I could find of you talking, on Youtube, on the subject, in Canada.
      It’s a sickening thought that nuclear Armageddon is not even in public discussion in the U.S.
      I’m guessing there is no longer any forum for you to speak in the democratic U.S.
      Covid-19 chatter and the pharmaceutical industries plunder of the publics coffers presses more heavily on the bamboozled American publics mind than a potential provoked catastrophe with China and/or Russia.

      hXXps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6-47HrCzjs

  9. Lars Insulander
    November 29, 2021 at 20:38

    Follow the money!
    Who profits from these increased tensions?
    Who owns the MSM?
    “What could possibly go wrong?”

  10. rosemerry
    November 29, 2021 at 15:24

    It is easy to observe this if you have any interest and can watch RT or read certain cites like CN. Ukraine is consistently represented in US/UK?European MSM as a viable democratic State which has no way of coping with its wicked neighbor Russia without “our help”. No mention is made of 2010 to 2014 when the pro-West government worked with Russia, then when a “pro-Russian” one was elected, the US overthrew it a nd blamed Russia for taking back Crimea as its only warm water port which NATO wanted for a base. See my bias???

  11. Marie-France Germain
    November 29, 2021 at 14:30

    You live by the sword and you die buying those swords – you can ask the former USSR! However, there are very, very many of us non-Americans who are extremely aware of the danger this black and white American thinking that is going to kill us all, while America never takes any responsibility for creating the chaos that leads to war. One would think America has no mirrors!

  12. robert e williamson jr
    November 29, 2021 at 13:06

    Well said as usual. This is about insanity, total unadulterated insanity.

    There was a time when I would have said that the concerns expressed here were over the top. No longer.

    #1. The United States governments over the top allegiance to Israel is maybe the number one concern by most sane individuals. It simply does not add up to a large majority of Americans. As in, ” it makes no damned sense”. Especially to those of us who understand what this love affair is actually about. Do you hear me you Christian Zionist head cases?

    #2. The Unites States government is far from being a confidence builder. Ever since the JFK murder. Let me count the reasons, 1 Nixon, 2 Ford, 3 Carter, 4 Reagan, 5 Bush Sr., 6 Clinton, 7 Bush (light), 8 Obama and his half baked band of democrats, 9 Trump and his half brained cult of followers, and 10 “Uncle Joe Biden. This bunch should have made every one nervous. Notice the party in power make no damned difference to the bottom line here.

    #3. The lack of the ability of anyone of vision to get themselves elected to be US POTUS.

    #4. The remainder of the worlds populations and governments have had just about all they can take of
    American Exceptionalism. An why would they not.

    #5. Over blown use of technology where it is not needed or required, i.e. surveillance of every member of the human species. And to what end?

    #6. It is way past at time to render aid to a sick planet, without which the whole of humanity is doomed.

    #7. Our two party system is out dated, totally ineffective at selecting quality leadership because that quality of person seldom allows themselves to be bought and paid for.

    #8. The system is so gosh derned corrupt that those who try end up getting themselves into positions that dictate them to be compromised, because the halls of government have become cesspools of greed and perversion. All sure signs that the rich and powerful believe their own bullshit.

    TIME TO BAN ALL NUKES AND THE U.S. NEEDS TO BE THE FIRST TO DO IT.

    You cannot make this stuff up.

    Thanks CN

    • gcw919
      November 29, 2021 at 20:09

      “TIME TO BAN ALL NUKES AND THE U.S. NEEDS TO BE THE FIRST TO DO IT. ”
      Now, that would be a good start. It is simply amazing that as the world stares down climate catastrophe and possible nuclear war (and the two are not unrelated), the geniuses who are always looking for the next great weapons systems are totally clueless. It would take a Herculean effort of leadership and statesmanship to take us in another direction, one that might insure survival of the species.

    • robert e williamson jr
      November 30, 2021 at 21:58

      I have one omission here. LBJ ! I loathed the man and loath his memory, evidently to the point I push him out of my consciousness. No matter!

      Be sure to read Helen Mary Caldicott’s comments above and find that movie and watch if you haven’t seen it. Unless you have a heart and brain of stone you WILL Be TOUCHED by it.

      Then read her book. After all what do you really have to lose by doing so?

      Thanks to Helen and Caitlin for caring so much and to CN for the platform.

  13. Piotr Berman
    November 29, 2021 at 09:03

    “It was established after the fall of the Soviet Union that another multipolar world must be avoided at all cost; even if it means imperiling the whole world to maintain supremacy. Easing tensions would mean ceasing to do everything you can to prevent the rise of China as a global superpower. That’s what all the hysterical shrieking about Russia and China has really been about these last few years: manufacturing consent for this aggressive campaign.”

    Strangely enough, getting better at actual manufacturing (and other types of production) would be more effective (and productive) than manufacturing consent.

    • renate
      November 29, 2021 at 19:01

      China is now where the Bismarck Germany was before the first WW while the UK empire was shrinking and where the USA is now.

      Fareed Zakaria Hosted CHINA’s IRON FIST:

      What about the USA’s IRON FIST?

      • Robert
        December 1, 2021 at 00:36

        Forget about the First World War. They didn’t have nukes. The twisted logic is the same, but the game has changed. In saying what has to be done puts the onus on doing something into the hands of the people who caused the problem in the first place. This is not the job for superman. It’s the job for us all.

        • robert e williamson jr
          December 1, 2021 at 12:16

          Brilliant clarity here in so few words. Great stuff!

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