The Palestinian resistance has issued a truth the world refuses to hear: “It is no longer acceptable for Arab and Islamic countries to make timid statements and condemnations.”
the free people of the world are doing what "they can" not what they "should" be doing. there is a revolutionary difference in both forms of solidarity. and i think it has taking too long for ppl to understand that no mechanism will save Gaza except mass civil insurgency in the imperial core. take the risks everyone romanticise on history. everyone off for this war
Using supreme power to fully aid injustice and behind it incredible wealth directing things for its own benefit. It has happened repeatedly in history and the result is typically revolution, but most Americans will tolerate anything as long as they can have their stuff. This could not be further from the hope that the founders had for the citizenry. The opening for rule by the people has ended as before, with the triumph of the few, but unique now in that the wealthiest of the few are all-in for a tiny foreign country.
People have such a romantic relationship with American history, like the “founders” ever cared about freedom for anyone but themselves. The system isn’t broken—it’s functioning exactly as designed: to protect wealth, uphold white supremacy, and serve empire. This isn’t a fall from grace. It’s the continuation of a genocidal project dressed up in myths of liberty.
The founders were enslavers and rapists—not liberators. They built a system to serve themselves and protect their power, not to uplift the masses. This country didn’t lose its way—it’s walking the exact path they paved with stolen land, stolen bodies, and sanctified violence.
I depart from you on this, the American experiment was something new in the world, a rejection of monarchy and a bid for control by the people, certainly not all the people, but a departure from what had gone before and an attempt to control power by dividing it up among the three branches. The founders were not fools but educated men who knew history. Though it certainly has not worked out in the way it was planned, there were even improvements, more power to the people in direct election of the senate one example. I don't agree that evil men were conniving at the start. It was an opening that now is all but closed.
So Indigenous genocide was just an unfortunate footnote in your “experiment”? A necessary loss for your myth of progress? The founding wasn’t a noble mistake—it was a calculated system of theft, enslavement, and extermination. You don’t get to call it an “opening” when it was built on mass graves, scorched villages, and stolen futures.
Human beings have been attacking and killing each other since the dawn of time. One group spreads at the expense of another through violence, as true of native civilizations as any more modern. Injustice is always with us because we are human.
The United States was the implementation of the new idea that people could rule themselves. Though certainly not all people were included at first, the seed was planted before the American Revolution and it grew. Slavery was ended. Brown vs Board of Education was astounding.
The natives were almost destroyed, but the remainder, unlike with Zionism, were given citizenship and are free and equal with all other US citizens today. To say that US democracy was no improvement at all over what came before is false. No human beings, including you and me, are perfect. The lust for power is always present but the effort to contain it through politics rather than violent overthrow was never even considered for most of the history of humanity. Washington deliberately stepped down after two terms as president. Jefferson was adamant that there be a two term limit to prevent a return to monarchy under a different name. Trump unsurprisingly wants a third term.
It is right to fear what is going on now, wrong to say that what we had was just as bad as anything that preceded it and that the designers of US democracy were simply fiends as bad as any who came before. "We hold these truths to be self-evident..." were not worthless words on a piece of paper, nor is liberty and justice for all idle rhetoric.
You and I are working to see it implemented and I will not denounce those who came up with the phrases that express ideas that so many have worked to implement. These are ideas that Zionism rejects openly as essentially all societies have in the past. Israel is a colony as wrong as any that preceded it and to claim that it is special because it is for Jews is absurd. The cries of antisemitism are ridiculous when the problem is in ethnic supremacy that thinks nothing of destroying the other.
I am with you looking forward in denouncing what exists that we work toward ending, but not in looking backward to condemn the foundation, certainly not free of cracks, that underlies what we are doing.
I need you to understand that what you’re calling an “experiment” was, and still is, a settler colonial project built on the ongoing erasure of Indigenous peoples. You speak of ideals and implementation like the foundation was noble—just flawed. But for those of us whose families carry the aftermath, there is no romance in those origins.
My maternal grandfather was born in Oklahoma, mixed and passing. His father was taken into a residential school. I wasn’t raised in Indigenous community, and that disconnection—that forced severing—is part of the violence too. It’s still happening. Our missing and murdered Indigenous women, the highest death rates by police, the theft and control of tribal lands, the assimilation forced through foster systems, schools, blood quantum policies—none of that ended with paper ideals or speeches.
You say “the natives were almost destroyed, but…”
There is no but.
There’s just a long, bloody silence the country keeps repackaging as progress.
What astonishes me is that you do see the violence of Zionism. You name it. You denounce the ethnic supremacy behind it. But you can’t seem to recognize that this glorified version of American democracy—this mythology you’re defending—is what Israel is copying. The blueprint was already here.
There’s no glory in settler colonialism. There never was. There’s only survival in spite of it. And many of us are still trying to piece together the parts of us it tried to destroy.
I think you are missing my point - there has never in history been anything like the Bill of Rights. I stand on the street against Zionism as proof that freedom of speech exists. It doesn't exist for all and that is exactly why I am using my freedom to speak for those with none.
I repeat, injustice will always be with us because humans are easily made inhuman with power, but that doesn't mean that progress has not been made. The examples of women and blacks in America cannot be denied even if there is a way to go and perfection has not been achieved. Your view is entirely negative and admits nothing positive when there are so many people who have made positive contributions. You condemn universally. Nothing has been done that cannot be condemned as lacking.
You and I are imperfect human beings like everyone else and we must be very cautious about self-righteousness. What keeps you doing what you do?
This isn’t true. Israel and Zionism is the modern day version of manifest destiny. Zionism is following the exact path that manifest destiny did. There is no valid argument to be made that Gaza is different than what happened to the natives in the Americas. People that try to differentiate, I find are usually antisemitic. They want to hate Jews, more than they care about the Palestinians.
We can only salute and admire, once again, the author's talent, her rigor, the acuity of her gaze, the weight of her words, and the implacable nature of her indictment. However, it must be noted that, despite the awakening of more and more citizens of the world, the filthy beast that governs the system is not ready to surrender and that only a major cataclysm will be able to bring down the Machiavellian mechanism in which we are trapped....
Agreed 💯% and it's also time for substackers to tag Israeli supporters proclaiming: FUCK ISRAEL AND YOUR DISGUSTING SUPREMACIST RELIGION as revealed by "Survivor of Warsaw ghetto and Bergen-Belsen work camp Professor Israel Shahak - in his essay Jewish History Jewish Religion wrote....
"As well as disgusting sexual allegations against Jesus, the HEBREW Talmud states that his punishment in hell is to be immersed in boiling excrement"
https://ifamericansknew.org/cur_sit/shahak.html
Your voice is courageous, Story. Your message is full of truth.
the free people of the world are doing what "they can" not what they "should" be doing. there is a revolutionary difference in both forms of solidarity. and i think it has taking too long for ppl to understand that no mechanism will save Gaza except mass civil insurgency in the imperial core. take the risks everyone romanticise on history. everyone off for this war
Using supreme power to fully aid injustice and behind it incredible wealth directing things for its own benefit. It has happened repeatedly in history and the result is typically revolution, but most Americans will tolerate anything as long as they can have their stuff. This could not be further from the hope that the founders had for the citizenry. The opening for rule by the people has ended as before, with the triumph of the few, but unique now in that the wealthiest of the few are all-in for a tiny foreign country.
People have such a romantic relationship with American history, like the “founders” ever cared about freedom for anyone but themselves. The system isn’t broken—it’s functioning exactly as designed: to protect wealth, uphold white supremacy, and serve empire. This isn’t a fall from grace. It’s the continuation of a genocidal project dressed up in myths of liberty.
The founders were enslavers and rapists—not liberators. They built a system to serve themselves and protect their power, not to uplift the masses. This country didn’t lose its way—it’s walking the exact path they paved with stolen land, stolen bodies, and sanctified violence.
100%
I depart from you on this, the American experiment was something new in the world, a rejection of monarchy and a bid for control by the people, certainly not all the people, but a departure from what had gone before and an attempt to control power by dividing it up among the three branches. The founders were not fools but educated men who knew history. Though it certainly has not worked out in the way it was planned, there were even improvements, more power to the people in direct election of the senate one example. I don't agree that evil men were conniving at the start. It was an opening that now is all but closed.
So Indigenous genocide was just an unfortunate footnote in your “experiment”? A necessary loss for your myth of progress? The founding wasn’t a noble mistake—it was a calculated system of theft, enslavement, and extermination. You don’t get to call it an “opening” when it was built on mass graves, scorched villages, and stolen futures.
Human beings have been attacking and killing each other since the dawn of time. One group spreads at the expense of another through violence, as true of native civilizations as any more modern. Injustice is always with us because we are human.
The United States was the implementation of the new idea that people could rule themselves. Though certainly not all people were included at first, the seed was planted before the American Revolution and it grew. Slavery was ended. Brown vs Board of Education was astounding.
The natives were almost destroyed, but the remainder, unlike with Zionism, were given citizenship and are free and equal with all other US citizens today. To say that US democracy was no improvement at all over what came before is false. No human beings, including you and me, are perfect. The lust for power is always present but the effort to contain it through politics rather than violent overthrow was never even considered for most of the history of humanity. Washington deliberately stepped down after two terms as president. Jefferson was adamant that there be a two term limit to prevent a return to monarchy under a different name. Trump unsurprisingly wants a third term.
It is right to fear what is going on now, wrong to say that what we had was just as bad as anything that preceded it and that the designers of US democracy were simply fiends as bad as any who came before. "We hold these truths to be self-evident..." were not worthless words on a piece of paper, nor is liberty and justice for all idle rhetoric.
You and I are working to see it implemented and I will not denounce those who came up with the phrases that express ideas that so many have worked to implement. These are ideas that Zionism rejects openly as essentially all societies have in the past. Israel is a colony as wrong as any that preceded it and to claim that it is special because it is for Jews is absurd. The cries of antisemitism are ridiculous when the problem is in ethnic supremacy that thinks nothing of destroying the other.
I am with you looking forward in denouncing what exists that we work toward ending, but not in looking backward to condemn the foundation, certainly not free of cracks, that underlies what we are doing.
I need you to understand that what you’re calling an “experiment” was, and still is, a settler colonial project built on the ongoing erasure of Indigenous peoples. You speak of ideals and implementation like the foundation was noble—just flawed. But for those of us whose families carry the aftermath, there is no romance in those origins.
My maternal grandfather was born in Oklahoma, mixed and passing. His father was taken into a residential school. I wasn’t raised in Indigenous community, and that disconnection—that forced severing—is part of the violence too. It’s still happening. Our missing and murdered Indigenous women, the highest death rates by police, the theft and control of tribal lands, the assimilation forced through foster systems, schools, blood quantum policies—none of that ended with paper ideals or speeches.
You say “the natives were almost destroyed, but…”
There is no but.
There’s just a long, bloody silence the country keeps repackaging as progress.
What astonishes me is that you do see the violence of Zionism. You name it. You denounce the ethnic supremacy behind it. But you can’t seem to recognize that this glorified version of American democracy—this mythology you’re defending—is what Israel is copying. The blueprint was already here.
There’s no glory in settler colonialism. There never was. There’s only survival in spite of it. And many of us are still trying to piece together the parts of us it tried to destroy.
I think you are missing my point - there has never in history been anything like the Bill of Rights. I stand on the street against Zionism as proof that freedom of speech exists. It doesn't exist for all and that is exactly why I am using my freedom to speak for those with none.
I repeat, injustice will always be with us because humans are easily made inhuman with power, but that doesn't mean that progress has not been made. The examples of women and blacks in America cannot be denied even if there is a way to go and perfection has not been achieved. Your view is entirely negative and admits nothing positive when there are so many people who have made positive contributions. You condemn universally. Nothing has been done that cannot be condemned as lacking.
You and I are imperfect human beings like everyone else and we must be very cautious about self-righteousness. What keeps you doing what you do?
This isn’t true. Israel and Zionism is the modern day version of manifest destiny. Zionism is following the exact path that manifest destiny did. There is no valid argument to be made that Gaza is different than what happened to the natives in the Americas. People that try to differentiate, I find are usually antisemitic. They want to hate Jews, more than they care about the Palestinians.
This is the romanticized version you learn in school. Not at all true, though.
What is "not at all true" about anything that I wrote in my comment, all are facts.
I’ve already told you what I thought about your stance.
We can only salute and admire, once again, the author's talent, her rigor, the acuity of her gaze, the weight of her words, and the implacable nature of her indictment. However, it must be noted that, despite the awakening of more and more citizens of the world, the filthy beast that governs the system is not ready to surrender and that only a major cataclysm will be able to bring down the Machiavellian mechanism in which we are trapped....
Do I have your permission to copy and paste to FB? The words are harsh but needed! Thanks
Agreed 💯% and it's also time for substackers to tag Israeli supporters proclaiming: FUCK ISRAEL AND YOUR DISGUSTING SUPREMACIST RELIGION as revealed by "Survivor of Warsaw ghetto and Bergen-Belsen work camp Professor Israel Shahak - in his essay Jewish History Jewish Religion wrote.... "As well as disgusting sexual allegations against Jesus, the HEBREW Talmud states that his punishment in hell is to be immersed in boiling excrement" https://ifamericansknew.org/cur_sit/shahak.html