“Don’t hate your enemies. It clouds your judgment.” – Michael Corleone
Yesterday Jams O’Donnell, virtual friend and valued contributor to this site, said wishful thinking is preferable to doom-laden defeatism. I say we who oppose the blood-soaked US empire and its expendable proxies – in Ukraine or Israel, Taiwan or Philippines – can afford neither. Hard as it is on the emotions, and in the fog of war on our ability to assemble and decipher fragmented intel while wanting desperately to know what we cannot know, we strive to see things as they are.
Not only does wishful thinking cloud our judgment. It has a way of flipping us, in the face of setback, into a tailspin of despair. I know that dialectic well. Likely you do too.
That said, moments of emotional satisfaction are few and far between for we who see the US empire for the death cult it truly is. We need uplifts no less than the next guy. Cue for Kernow Damo. He does not overstate the successes of a proud people reviled, pitilessly sanctioned and now plunged into a mortal fight with a serial criminal weaponised literally and metaphorically by a bigger serial criminal. Neither does he make light of the enormity of what is unfolding. Yet his 12:43 short brought a savage joy to my rebel heart.
The segment 08:08 to 10:25, where Iranian Professor Marendi responds magnificently to a Sky News interviewer oblivious to how known realities make nonsense of the simplistic narratives on which her career depends, is priceless. Like Kernow, I could watch it again and again.
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Normally I prefer to read stuff, as it’s much quicker, but that is a great video, especially the interview. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if all interviews were like that one. Of course, we’d never see many interviews then.
I too prefer to read, Jams, though there’s so much invaluable stuff coming by podcast that I now devote several hours a day to watching it. All else being equal, I choose short over long. Kernow Damo, though I don’t altogether share his perspective, scores high on that metric.
At the other end of the spectrum, Alexander Mercouris is too fond of the sound of his voice, but also too well informed to ignore. To their credit, he and Duran sidekick Alex Christofouro have started to put out shorter and snapper – 10-20 minute – offerings.
In any case, my preference for short is not an absolute but cost/benefit. I’ll still watch an hour or longer when it’s Brian Berletic, or one of the longer discussions with any number of pundits – Alastair Crooke, say – who’ve earned the right to my prolonged attention.