Psychology for human rights
Given the horrific toll of the Iraq War, that disastrous misadventure hardly seems like a good template for combating COVID-19. Yet in key ways, recent pronouncements from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis—whose state is experiencing an overwhelming surge in cases and hospitalizations amid his prohibition on mask requirements—should remind us of the propaganda we once heard …
Continue reading “Rumsfeld Then, DeSantis Now: The Lies That Bind”
First came the new names—Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Rayshard Brooks, and others—all added one by one to the long list of tragic, unjustifiable police killings of Black Americans. Then came the batons, the pepper spray, the tear gas, the flash-grenades, the helicopters, the armored vehicles, and the rubber bullets wielded against nonviolent Black Lives Matter …
Continue reading “Black Lives Matter: Resisting the Propaganda of Status Quo Defenders”
In professional wrestling circles, the Legion of Doom is a name that conjures up the fearsome physiques and painted faces of one of the great tag teams of all time. In the political arena today, the same moniker aptly describes an even more daunting and dangerous duo: the profits-over-people corporate wing of the Democratic …
Continue reading “Beware the Bipartisan Legion of Doom: Corporate Democrats and Trump’s GOP”
Last month I had the opportunity to share some thoughts at a Divest Philly from the War Machine event, hosted by Wooden Shoe Books and sponsored by World Beyond War, Code Pink, Veterans for Peace, and other anti-war groups. Below are my remarks, slightly edited for clarity. My thanks to everyone involved. ******** In late …
Continue reading “Give Peace a Chance: Don’t Believe the War Profiteers”
Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country. — Nazi …
Continue reading “Stoking Fear: We Must Remember How the Iraq War Was Sold”
“Citizens of the democratic societies should undertake a course of intellectual self-defense to protect themselves from manipulation and control, and to lay the basis for more meaningful democracy.” — Noam Chomsky, 1989 (Necessary Illusions: Thought Control in Democratic Societies) My copy of Homer’s The Odyssey, a remnant of high school Latin days, has been …
Continue reading “In a World of Corporate-Backed Politicians, Beware the Sounds of Sirens”
Forewarned Is Forearmed For many, the calendar’s turning is a traditional time for reflecting and for resolving to act with greater decency and compassion in the new year ahead. But if history is any guide, we shouldn’t expect anything of the sort from one highly influential group: those members of the so-called 1% who’ve long …
Continue reading “Get Ready for These Political Mind Games in 2019”
On June 6th I had the opportunity to talk with Egberto Willies about authoritarians, plutocrats, racial justice, and political mind games on his “Politics Done Right” show. You can listen to the half-hour interview HERE.
In late April I had the pleasure of being a guest on Bill Newman’s WHMP Radio Show. Bill and I spent 20 minutes discussing the political mind games that the super-rich and powerful use to advance their selfish agenda while betraying the common good. You can listen to the interview below, beginning at the 5:00-minute …
Continue reading “My Interview about POLITICAL MIND GAMES with Bill Newman of WHMP Radio”
“It was miraculous. It was almost no trick at all, he saw, to turn vice into virtue and slander into truth, impotence into abstinence, arrogance into humility, plunder into philanthropy, thievery into honor, blasphemy into wisdom, brutality into patriotism, and sadism into justice. Anybody could do it; it required no brains at all. It merely …