Dear "Harm Reduction" Liberals - A Leftist's Response

Iran sent an open letter to the American people, and considering the literacy crisis within the United States, and the importance many of us feel of having this read not because we necessarily agree with all things but because it is an important piece of context understanding and International communication, I and my friend Elli, decided to read the entire thing out loud on video for easy consumption. IMPORTANT: I encourage all of you who have a platform, and are interested too, to share redistribute and publish these clips. Treat these as public property, context and credit welcome. I have provided a full clip library of clips I will slowly be releasing on page, both raw and edited for this purpose. This will be on Youtube (linked) and Substack (obviously) and importantly available on podcast form on both. Substack is how you can support work like this! Please subscribe however you canThe timestamps for each chapter are here: 0:00 An Open Letter to the Honorable People of the United States of America3:59 Why Is Iran the Victor?6:28 Concrete Evidence of Iran’s Victory14:07 The Main Factors Underpinning Iran’s Victory14:46 1. The Quran’s Superior Doctrine and Worldview17:09 2. The Iranian Nation’s Faith in and Unity around the Tenets of the Quran20:25 3. The Competent and Righteous Leadership of a Man of God25:00 The Main Cause Responsible for the Defeat of the U.S. and Israel30:41 The Common Pain That Iranians and Americans Share34:59 The Meaning of “Death to America”37:35 A Brief List of America’s Wrongs and Crimes in Its 73-Year History of Meddling in Iran40:56 Domestic Terrorism41:45 Eight Long Years of Devastating War43:36 Economic Sanctions, Psychological Warfare and Support for Terrorist Groups45:21 Birthing ISIS46:55 America’s Continued Hostility and the 12-Day War49:16 Armed Insurgency50:25 The Last War51:21 No Feeling of Hostility toward the American People52:43 The IRGC and Accusations of Terrorism57:35 Why Is the U.S. Government in Decline?58:13 America’s History of Aggression and Violence1:03:02 Empire of Lies1:04:05 The Lie of Iran’s Nuclear Weapons Program1:07:30 The Biggest Lie1:09:34 The Vulgar Elements of Society in Positions of Power1:12:29 Preoccupation with Inessential Matters at the Expense of Society’s Essential Affairs1:22:48 How Can the U.S. Be Saved?1:31:45 How Will This War End?Please listen at your desired speed, and without further ado, here is the letter, of course no credit to myself in writing it LOL: Please share this to those who need to read itIn the Name of God, the All-Merciful, the Ever-MercifulAn Open Letter to the Honorable People of the United States of AmericaIndeed, God does not alter the affairs of a people until they alter their own affairs.—The Holy Qur’an 13:11To the honorable people of the United States of America—the scholars, the students, and the members of the media,We begin this letter by saluting the noble souls of God’s greatest prophets—Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad, may His peace and blessings be upon them all.Seven months ago, the U.S. military, launched a war, in violation of international law, against Iran by attacking an elementary school in Minab, murdering 168 innocent schoolchildren along with their teachers. Simultaneously, they attacked the offices of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Imam Sayyid Ali Khamenei, martyring His Eminence and several members of his family, including his 14-month-old granddaughter.To date, the war has claimed the lives of more than 3600 Iranians, the vast majority of them civilians, including 400 children. Eight universities, three hospitals, and eight schools have been bombed. Yet, despite the unprecedented acts of cruelty and violence suffered by the Iranian nation during this war, the United States and Israel have suffered a crushing defeat, while the Islamic Republic of Iran has achieved a decisive victory.As the first casualty of the endless wars waged by the U.S. government has without exception been the truth, with the American people perpetually receiving the greatest harm as the result of the U.S. government’s campaign of deception, we wish to highlight some of the facts that are being withheld from the American public. After all, it is the American taxpayers who will have to bear the cost of America’s unjust wars, and so they deserve to know the truth.Let’s start by considering a few questions. Why has Iran prevailed in its conflict with the U.S., whose military enjoys an annual budget one hundred times that of Iran’s armed forces and possesses a stockpile of weapons and munitions that dwarfs what is available to the Iranian military by an enormously lopsided ratio?Why do Iranians chant, “Death to America”? Are they hostile to the American people?The U.S. government claims that the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) is a terrorist organization. Is this true?Why have the vast and extensive efforts of the U.S. government over the past nearly five decades to restore its domination over the Iranian people continually failed?Why is the U.S., if the present course continues, rapidly heading toward decline?How will the present war between Iran and the U.S. unfold and end? How can the American people protect themselves from the consequences of their government’s unjust aggression and shield themselves against the worst harms of the impending collapse?These are the questions we wish to consider in this letter. We will be candid and forthright. Should you doubt the honesty in the answers we provide to the foregoing questions, you can make a short trip to any part of Iran you wish—possibly even the Strait of Hormuz—and personally ascertain for yourselves the verity of our assertions.Why Is Iran the Victor?Why has Iran won the war despite having a defense budget only one percent that of the United States? Perhaps, the first reaction you may have to this question is credulity: “On what grounds do you claim that Iran is the victor?” To determine which side has won the war, we need to see which side has achieved its objectives. American and Israeli officials initially stated that the objectives of their assault on Iran were regime change and partition of Iran. However, after failing to achieve either objective, they started blurting out a changing list of objectives, announcing a new objective with every passing week, and this betrayed the absence of a coherent strategy in prosecuting the war.The U.S. President has expressed thirteen different targets for the war once the failure of the first two objectives was clear: Iran’s unconditional surrender; seizing Kharg Island and taking control of Iran’s oil; a ground invasion and occupation of Iranian territory; the destruction of all industrial infrastructure; the destruction of all energy infrastructure and returning Iran to the Stone Age; the destruction of Iranian civilization; launching Operation Freedom and taking control of the Strait of Hormuz; debilitating Iran’s economy by preventing all exports and imports; destroying Iran’s nuclear industry; destroying Iran’s missile and drone capabilities; annexing the Strait of Hormuz to U.S. territory and imposing a 20 percent toll; destroying Iran’s air defenses and taking control of Iranian airspace; and ending Iran’s support for Islamic resistance groups in the region.The United States and Israel expended thousands of bombs and missiles, striking government and residential buildings, dozens of less-advanced and lower-tier weapons-manufacturing facilities, and a number of decommissioned military installations. Yet, aside from damaging several buildings tied to Iran’s nuclear industry and a limited number of air-defense sites, they failed to achieve any of their declared objectives.Now, nearly seven months into this unjust war, the U.S. military—the largest and costliest military in the history of the world—has scored no wins, and that is all the more humiliating when we consider that it fought the war in collaboration with the Israel… This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit willztalks.substack.com/subscribe

Listen or Watch as a podcast on youtube - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5u4DM5WN78whovrOOU_9pQqJqYGUazgt - OR even better add RSS Feed directly to on Pocket Cast - https://pca.st/9c39a6q7Liberal Zionists have come on the scene responding to the exact same horrors we are seeing right now, but providing odd, limited, and embarrassing responses. So I wanted to respond to a few of them, show exactly what tools they're using, and reveal what this project actually serves: not to undermine the horrors we are seeing, but to allow them to continue.This video has some of our favorite characters, Jack Schlossberg, Cory Booker and, of course, JStreet, so I do hope you enjoy! As always, thank you for watching, and if you would like to support it is greatly appreciated - Substack is where my content will be especially in the case insta or tiktok finally get me ! This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit willztalks.substack.com/subscribe

Long Time, No See - I have been busy studying, so quick thank you to everyone who is still subscribed here, your support is greatly appreciated and my long form content should be increasing for the foreseeable future - starting with this one! (I will of course be continuing my short form grind, as I seem to be unable to stop)Listen or Watch as a podcast on youtube - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5u4DM5WN78whovrOOU_9pQqJqYGUazgt - OR even better add RSS Feed directly to on Pocket Cast - https://pca.st/9c39a6q7As you may have seen, Trump is inciting another Red Scare and Liberals are jumping on the opportunity to punch left as hard and fast as possible. In doing so, they demonstrate very clearly what their political project is - not to undermine the system that produced fascism or even to present a proper opposition to Fascism in our modern day, but act as a bulwark against the one ideology that actually undermines the fascism they claim to oppose: Socialism. And they are terrified by even a vague whispering of that term.,So I wanted to respond to some of the most heinous videos like this I have seen from mainstream accounts, and try to connect some of the dots for the tactics, strategies and arguments they are using, and how they are keeping the disgusting and harmful practice of McCarthyism alive and well. So here, I respond to three separate videos that I think highlight some of the most worrying disgusting and entirely predictable behavior of liberals who are scared shitless at the thought of even the word socialism being mentioned. My content is also in a massive period of experimentation, so please do let me know if you like this style of video, as it is comparably easy for me to make and I enjoy making them - in any case thanks for the support, and I hope you enjoy! This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit willztalks.substack.com/subscribe

The video/audio is better, more thought out and cognizable, I am extremely dyslexic so read at your own expense :) - Listen or Watch as a podcast on youtube - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5u4DM5WN78whovrOOU_9pQqJqYGUazgt - OR even better add RSS Feed directly to on Pocket Cast - https://pca.st/9c39a6q7I recently fell down a rabbit hole of military recruiters, military wives, and military hustlers, and when I say fell I mean more jumped down, because I wanted a closer look into the largest terrorist organization in the world: the US DOD. And in my responses condemning their grooming of children in high schools, normalization of the extreme harm they commit daily, and rewriting of history to glorify war criminals, I kept hearing similar responses, and so this video is a response to those responses. So first I’ll make, though incompletely for lack of time, the pretty clear argument that the US military ought to be hated, and then go into why we should do that hating performatively and openly, firstly in response to these people defending the US military and then the things we gain from doing so.Thanks for reading! This post is public so feel free to share it.Why DO I hate the US military:Because the US military and its proxies have been the most lethal entity the world has seen in the past 70 years, if not ever. With just retributive attacks for 9/11 having direct deaths of almost 1 million, with indirect deaths bringing the total to almost 5 million. Not a single one of those invasions was justified (insofar as any action of a genocidal empire could be justified) and every single one of them was criminal. With a think tank institute estimating between 7 and 13 million direct deaths in US-supported and -instigated armed conflicts and 6 to 10 million deaths.But these numbers are too big for anyone to fathom, and before people comment, if we use the methodology of the fascist Victims of Communism Foundation this number would be 100 quadrillion (because they’re just straight up making shit up), so no, I don’t want to hear any whataboutisms with communism.And what’s really important is not the number, right, one criminal death is as significant as the other, but that this is the function of the US military: to protect capital abroad through violence and occupation, still occupying a majority of the countries in the world, and the arms of the American state being as expansive as any state apparatus the world has ever seen. This level of control, carnage, and harm should be condemned. This is an exploration not of whether it ought to be but of why this obvious conclusion isn’t taken.And the basic conclusion, to ruin it all, is that Americans identify with the criminals more than their victims, and if you humanize those in the Global South, the primary victims of US imperialism, even vaguely as much as you humanize the people that are doing the violence against them, then this worldview has absolutely no ability to maintain itself. If you use the language to talk about the US military, even domestically, that the US State Department uses to talk about other military apparatuses across the world, then this worldview falls apart. So I want to go into the actual discussions I’ve had and the actual points (that I think boil down to but are not limited to the above point) about why exactly even seeming progressives shiver at the concept of calling a spade a spade and a soldier a war criminal.But the Poverty Draft: “You don’t understand, you have to be nice to them”Whenever I do anti-US military propaganda I inevitably get the well-meaning, or sometimes not well-meaning, response from a “veteran,” military wife, or even self-apologetic current military member that goes something like this: I agree the US military is bad (they might even go so far as to recognize it as a war criminal or a terrorist army) but the people in it are not the thing itself, and in fact many of them are victims of the exact propaganda you’re talking about, so why are you attacking them? Actually, many of them are victims not only of the propaganda but are particularly so because of the targeting of impoverished and lower-class schools to recruit from.There are many responses to this, the most common of which I think tends to be “it doesn’t matter how much you need to feed your children, it never gives you a right to kill other people’s children,” or my favorite, “would you say this about any other terrorist group in the world? Would you say this about the IDF? ISIS? Because Israelis certainly do.” Both of these reassert the American exceptionalism and the extreme nature of American crimes, but I don’t think they hit the problem, which is that the archetypal apologetic military wife could actually say, yeah, I do actually say that, I try and understand everyone, and no, I don’t think it’s a justified move, I just think that attacking them doesn’t help the problem because you should be attacking the system even if what individual military members are doing is wrong.And that is why what I’ve tried to start moving toward is this response: if you really believed that they were victims of propaganda, me attacking the perpetrators of that propaganda would not bother you. I.e., if this argument is coming in good faith to protect people not just currently in the military but all people who might be susceptible to the pro-military propaganda out there, then me undermining it and using social tools that we have like shame and ostracization and exposure to undermine that glorification and cool factor that such recruitment ads often project would not be a concern. In fact, the reasonable response would be “wow, I’m so happy, because if my husband had seen this when he was making the mistake of joining the military maybe he wouldn’t have made that mistake,” or better yet, decentering your “victimized” war criminal in the first place: this may hurt my feelings but if it’s effective in undermining recruitment, that saves lives.This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.The Positive Argument for Being Mean to ThemWhy do I care? What’s the goal? In deeply Israeli-esque arguments, I consistently hear from low-level military recruits or, worse, recruiters whenever I call them out on glorifying the military, that they are just doing their job, just as Israelis glorifying Israel who I confront with the crimes they normalize consistently remind us that the state of Israel will not stop its genocide merely because we comment a Palestinian flag under a post. In Tel Aviv, soldiers in America keep reminding us that they’ll continue doing their jobs even if some random commenters that totally don’t bother them tell them they’re doing war crimes. And actually they tell us in a very Democrat way that if we keep on hating on them they’ll just become worse. And I don’t know about those individuals and that might be true for them, but if you were going to become a war criminal more because of internet comments I think you’re going to become a war criminal anyway, so what exactly is my goal?Well, my goal is to use the exact same levers that the empire is using to recruit people into their org to prevent that recruitment. And if you look at military advertisement, it is very clear that they are not just advertising that you will be able to feed your children, they’re not just advertising that you will be able to feed yourself or go to college. They certainly do mention that, but most important, as was true when Israel is trying to compel people to make aliyah, Rhodesia was trying to compel young white supremacists to join the Rhodesian Bush War, and army recruiters are trying to recruit you to the Navy: they care about looking cool, they care about bringing glory, and most importantly they want you to feel normal. Superior but normal. Whether that looks like feeling successful, or marrying or dating someone hot, or doing what you alrea… This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit willztalks.substack.com/subscribe

The video/audio is better, more thought out and cognizable, I am extremely dyslexic so read at your own expense :) - Listen or Watch as a podcast on youtube - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5u4DM5WN78whovrOOU_9pQqJqYGUazgt - OR even better add RSS Feed directly to on Pocket Cast - https://pca.st/9c39a6q7Stop asking people if they are America first or Israel first - we don’t want either.I’ve heard this question asked consistently, by likely well-meaning and otherwise aligned people, but we truly have got to stop and this little blurb is my view as to why and what we gain from changing, and what we lose from failing to. Firstly, my basic thesis - anything you say about an IDF soldier, can and should be said about an American soldier. Anything you say about Israeli politics can and should be said about American politics. And anything you say about an Israeli can and should be said about an American (specifically a white American) American nationalism is not better than Zionism, and in the current political context they are almost indistinguishable.If you are ready aligned on that, fantastic, this essay is a set of arguments for that that you might find helpful - if you aren’t sticking around and you might be compelled.This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.What is the phenomenon?In my time in anti-zionist spaces especially online there have become two distinct views: Israel runs America and America runs Israel. I am staunchly and principally on the America runs Israel side, and I think literally everything about reality demonstrates this - From the fact that things like AIPAC are primarily funded by Americans, and American Christian Zionist at that, the fact that people like Henry Kissinger described Israel explicitly as doing Americans bidding and aims, and the fact that even more low-key imperialists like Joe Biden, famously said that if Israel did not exist America would create one.I’m not going to contend substantially with the overwhelming often vacuous and often repackaged anti-Semitic conspiracy theories about Israel controlling America. From my view, having clear eyes and a functioning mind is enough to demonstrate that a small country with an almost entirely imported economy and dependent defense infrastructure is not the one in control of the largest Empire the world has ever seen. Almost every single proof of this supposed assertion is better understood as the simple alignment of Israel’s interest with the oligarch class of America’s interests, which I once again feel called to point out are majority Christian. If you have a serious contention on this, I would love to see an actual fundamental response and one that does not conflate any jew acting ever with Israel acting always. Until then I’m going to move on and presume we are all on the same page on basic material reality.The consequence though of falling into this other camp of not viewing Israel is an expansion of America, but either as a unique unexplained evil or as a unique unexplained evil controlling America, is lots of very compelling viral clips and sound bites that I bet we have all heard such as “ do you believe in America first or Israel first?”, but there are also some obvious ones that I often run into, such as the idea that Israel pulled us into the Iraq War or that Israel alone pulled us into this current war on Iran. so that’s what I’m talking about, and as I flesh it out I hope you can recognize both the communities that engage in it and the particular taste of that ideology.What’s the Danger? Now you may be saying what’s the problem, don’t we want to undermine Israel? even if we think that there’s some fundamental different theoretical explanation for the power relationship between these two entities, why does it matter? Why do you care? Well my friends I have a list for that too.The dangerous threefold: Liberal Co-optation of Anti-Zionism, Fascist co-optation of anti-zionism, and Immediate and Actual Harm.Liberal Co-optation of Anti-ZionismThis is the one that keeps me up at night: Liberal politicians coming out condemning Israel for pulling us into the Iraq War, condemning Israel for pulling us into the conflict with Iran, condemning arms to Israel, and saying that American Military members should have been the ones with those arms. What this does is it satiates the anti-imperial impulses that observations of the extreme Imperial violence that we are seeing out of Israel, but it allows the imperialists themselves to completely reconfigure.Take for example of recent post that I saw out of a progressive candidate who was asking the question “Does South Korea have the right to exist” and idealizing the fact that South Korea pays for its own defense, suggesting that Israel should do the same. This is not Anti-Zionism, this is alter-zionism - instead of directly funding isreal, we should indirectly boost its economy and its industry through free trade agreements and selective sanctions of its competitors like we do for South Korea. We should Aid and abett it in its founding genocide (as we did for South Korea) and then provide continued extreme diplomatic support for them.This is doing what liberals do best, which is take the demands of the populist left, give the least but important concessions that they can give - direct arms sales - and maintain and obscure the system upon which that very violence was predicated. this has the largest chance of demobilizing revolutionary movements, of forcing them to a table where they are not in a seat, but they are on the menu, and creating social norms to shame and limit them at the least cost to the empire.Fascist co-optation of anti-zionismThis one is slightly more obvious, and thus doesn’t keep me up at night as much ( though likely because I am also privileged to not be a direct target of it… yet) - this is the one we have all seen, Nick Fuentes proclaiming how Israel controls America and is forcing us to do all the bad things we did, from slavery to the Vietnam War to (from his view) a bad side in World War II. We see how he shifts basic populism against American imperialism into specific anti-semitism with a very cohesive yet entirely nonsensical worldview. It provides explanatory ease to people who are seeing the harm and don’t want to be responsible for them, an ease that is simply not present from my worldview where I as a tax paying american do unfortunately get moral obligations to make the world better from the harm my state has caused.There is occasionally though luckily quite quiet a left anti-zionist voice that perks up its head and notices that all of these Nazis say they want to work with us, and in fact quite often beg us to work with them… why are we not taking advantage? We only have to sacrifice our trans comrades and our Jewish comrades and our muslim comrades? Is that too much to ask for the liberation of Palestine? are you being pragmatic, are you being a purist?Now of course I phrased that in a way that it should be obvious what I think of that argument - poor - but it still must be contended with and the obvious answer is that it cost us too much to work with them, because it cost us everything we have. The only Power that leftists have is our solidarity the only Power that leftists have is are clear-eyed worldview, and if we sacrifice that then we simply cease to functionally be leftists, we could be Strasserists, but just as America Firsters ultimately get humbled and be forced to be honest about their imperial aspirations: Nick admitting he supports the imperial invasion of Venezuela, We would be an instrument in a movement that we wouldn’t control but would control us. which leads me to the Third, and final on my non-exhaustive list -Thanks for reading! This post is public so feel free to share it.Real Immediate Harm -Every second we engage in American national… This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit willztalks.substack.com/subscribe

Listen or Watch as a podcast on youtube - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5u4DM5WN78whovrOOU_9pQqJqYGUazgt - OR even better add RSS Feed directly to on Pocket Cast - https://pca.st/9c39a6q7This week I spoke with my friend Lily Eagla, who has just returned from Cuba after participating in the Nuestra América Flotilla which brought critical humanitarian Aid at a time where the United States Empire has placed an illegal brutal blockade on essential trade with Cuba, from oil which has led to blackouts in hospitals to critical medicine to food. While this is a very serious issue, our conversation is quite late educative and informative, and I hope you can find some enjoyment in it and learn something. Lily is an activist based out of Chicago now (!!!) and you can find her on substack Lily Eagla and her instagram at lilyeagla, fantastic content, fantastic politics, fantastic person. 0:00 - Intro, Who is Lily 1:36 - What the Nuestra América Convoy Did 4:47 - Cuba's Government, Healthcare, and the Young Pioneers 8:44 - American Exceptionalism and the Cuba 13:11 - Trump, Empire, and the Leftist Theory of Change 17:16 - Democracy at Home, Genocide Abroad 19:39 - Lily's Conversation with a Cuban Who Wants Regime Change 24:52 - Imperial Contradictions and Siege Economies 28:17 - Diasporas, Right-Wing Global Coalitions, and Palestine 34:24 - Will Cuba Survive Trump? 37:09 - Gen Z, the Death of Liberal Shame, and Why Actual Leftism is the Only Option Left 41:53 - Leftist Coalition-BuildingThis Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Brief editorial note: we talked for about 30 minutes after the end of this episode that were meant to be recorded but did not record, or rather is just me talking to myself so it is complete nonsense that I think I will send out to the paid subscribers so if you would like to deepen a pair of social relationship with me and pretend that you are the other side of that conversation, feel free to hop over to my paid subscription and I'll be releasing that within the next week. In any case thank you so much for listening, I hope you enjoy, and I have a few more interviews and discussions coming out imminently so please do subscribe if you don't already and if you would like to consider becoming a paid subscriber you mainly become just notably cooler. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit willztalks.substack.com/subscribe

The video/audio is better, more thought out and cognizable, I am extremely dyslexic so read at your own expense :) - Listen or Watch as a podcast on youtube - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5u4DM5WN78whovrOOU_9pQqJqYGUazgt - OR even better add RSS Feed directly to on Pocket Cast - https://pca.st/9c39a6q7This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.The one-sided war between Blue MAGA and anyone on the left has once again reached a fever pitch this week, with Hasan daring to say that he does not pledge his vote 2 years in advance to one of the worst candidates the Democrats could ever conceive of, Gavin Newsom. And, lacking the cynical misuse of identity politics Blue MAGA was extremely happy to use to defend Vice President Harris’ record, they have become slightly more honest in the actual arguments they make, so I would like to address those directly before the full mobilization of the multi-billion dollar propaganda machine that is the Democratic Party happens.This is a attempt, but very much still draft, to very quickly set out the leftist approach to liberalism, then set out the argument liberals present and work backwards from that to the leftist theory of change. The goal is not to build on leftist literature on why liberalism is incorrect, I take that as a given. My goal is to at least give a primer for tactical engagement with liberalism, my first round attempt at dealing with their arguments in a more cohesive way, and generally an outlet to release our collective frustration with them. I hope you find it useful, I have moved from wanting to arm you with the arguments to deal with your fascist uncle at thanksgiving, to aiming to arm you with arguments to deal with your Blue MAGA cousin. Oh how fun it is for all of us to grow up.0 - What is the Liberal Positionality from a leftist analysisFirst to set out very quickly what the leftist position on liberalism is, many more and better books are written on this.Functionally, liberals act as a pressure valve for working-class sentiment to co-opt revolutionary energy and protect class interests for the cost of class collaboration. Every genuine revolutionary in American history understood this, with the two coming to mind being MLK and Malcom X, both of which had words ranging from disappointment to scorn for the white liberal. You don’t need to take my word for this analysis, please just take theirs.1 - What is the Ask? - My Attempt as The Liberal PositionThe argument as it is articulated to me is often not that Democrats are perfect or even good, the primary and near singular premise is that the policies democrats enact are better writ large and specifically to minority communities than those of the Republicans. This itself can be questioned,considering the blindness of both of them to the harms they both enact upon minority communities internationally, but this is not where the core fundamental disagreement happens, as most leftists, and what I believe to be proper leftist analysis, will conclude that the Democrats do in fact provide better outcomes from a purely immediate policy perspective to those communities. In fact, I think that is often part of the model of electoral “good cop, bad cop” models that leftists promulgate.So where is the disagreement? It is presented as a disagreement about the theory of change. I must be honest and say that I am extremely cynical that that is actually where it is, I do not believe that liberals want the same outcome as leftists even though they both claim to believe in Social and economic progress for those harmed by capitalism. I do not believe that they actually recognize the extreme harm that the Democrats are doing and are engaging tactically in a way to undermine it. I do not believe them that they care as much about International minorities as they do National minorities.Regardless running through the argument as they present it is probably the most productive, and it effectively goes as such: the primary means of changing things in America is educating the masses to vote better (For Democrats). If Democrats have more power in Congress, they will be able to enact policy that makes them more popular, and if progressives become a larger portion of the democratic voter base then the Democratic party will be responsive to its voter base and become more Progressive. The primary form of this Democratic feedback within the party is through primaries, not through defections to non voting or third parties in general elections. Not voting or voting for third party from their view in fact weakens the power of leftists in the party, because it discludes them from the base the democrats are responsive to.So the ask following from this comes with a series of Demands: 1 - vote for blue no matter who, as that is the entry into your opinion mattering. 2 - your effort and rhetoric should be used to demonstrate to moderates, the core people who should be swayed to strengthen democrats in elections, that the difference between “our side” and the “other side” is large (ie trump bad in a unique and totally not Harris way) and thus 3 - not a single moment should be used to recognize the crimes of the Democrats even if we can all agree they exist, because that decreases the perceived difference between the 2 sides, thus demobilizing moderates and risking them moving to the other side for fringe disagreements. That is my genuine attempt, and I think a quite gracious one, to summarize the liberal position on voting. And the disagreement is not so much that that is a tactical way to engage in electoral politics, but that the terms of the debate are wrong, in a fundamental way.2 - Where is the Disagreement?Let’s try and set out some basic premises of this argument that can be tweaked.Firstly I think it presumes that America is a democracy, but it is not, it is a hegemonic oligarchic Empire. Those in Iraq, Palestine and Libya do not get to vote in American elections despite being effectively ruled by the american empire. Both parties are almost entirely funded by billionaire donors to whom they are statistically almost singularly responsive. The system legally and structurally rejects millions of people’s right to vote by Merit of criminalizing them, labeling them as “non-citizens” (a label that ought to be worn with pride, as it relates to a criminal genocidal Empire) or pushing such mass media into their brains that their opinions are not representative of their own in any meaningful moral sense.Secondly, it divorces the material from the ideological. We cannot divorce how people act within an electoral structure from the material interests that influence that electoral structure. That is to say, this strategy completely ignores the billions of dollars that go into a influencing people’s votes, the material interests of one policy over another, and the economy that fuels it all. These types of arguments only recognize billionaires being effected by policies (if we tax the wealthy they will just leave and that will hurt us) and refuse to recognize how billionaires affect policy ( billionaires are threatening to leave if we force them to pay their fair share, that is undemocratic)Third, as a consequence of the second one it focuses merely on the tools presented to it by this hegemonic Empire: civil legal periodic elections, with occasional perfectly legal and non-disruptive protests. All else is criminalized, or otherwise dismissed by the cop that has been forced into their brains. Americans writ large are not only not educated on the large diversity of alternative power structures (starting with casual and disorganized systems social systems, to highly organized and militant groups of resistance, from strikes to community defense to what the Empire might call terroris) but they are militant against learning them, by merit of terms such as… This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit willztalks.substack.com/subscribe

Listen or Watch as a podcast on youtube - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5u4DM5WN78whovrOOU_9pQqJqYGUazgt - OR even better add RSS Feed directly to on Pocket Cast - https://pca.st/9c39a6q7This week I am back with an interview with Daniel Klein (who you can find on substack or insta), who grew up in a West Bank settlement, and we talk through what that looked like and what deconstructing that looks like, as well as the complex ideological systems that maintain it. We talk through the similarities and differences in how nationalism and religion get incredibly interwoven, and the role of mass media in keeping people in a consistent state of panic to justify fascist ends. We have a really interesting discussion about the relationship between Christian Zionists, Jewish Zionists, and the greater colonial superstructure, as well as the material impact of Israel as a laboratory for the American and Western empires. How technologies that we are seeing used in America right now by ICE , from biometrics to tracking, were tested on Palestinians first. If you are an American interested in undermining the same fascist ideologies that uphold Zionism, this is a really interesting listen or watch!Timeline - 0:00 - Intro, Why American Antizionists Should Care4:13 - His Experience Growing up in a settlement 7:00 - Religious Nationalism In Israel and America 11:35 - The Role of Mass Media in Israel 15:15 - Daniel's path out of Religious Zionism and Why Americans Need to Deconstruct19:24 - Israels Role as A Laboratory for Colonialism24:04 - Is Israel actually diverse? - The Erasure of Diaspora Identities in Israel and US 28:30 - A Lot of Original Zionists Were Atheists - The Relationship between them and Relgious Zionism31:07 - The Relationship between Christian Zionists and Jewish Zionists 34:06 - Deconstructing religion from the outside 36:46 - Where to find Daniel - https://substack.com/@dzyk This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.I'm so thankful to every subscriber who helps make this possible! If you'd like to consider joining, it helps me prioritize work like this that I hope provides value to y'all. Otherwise, please feel free to share, repurpose, or reuse any of my work, the main goal is to get these ideas out there and discussed. I love these types of discussions and I'm so grateful that I'm able to do this type of work. And remember, no matter what, you will always be able to reach me on my own website (still under development) willztalks.com. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit willztalks.substack.com/subscribe

Listen or Watch as a podcast on youtube - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5u4DM5WN78whovrOOU_9pQqJqYGUazgt - OR even better add RSS Feed directly to on Pocket Cast - https://pca.st/9c39a6q7THIS IS BASICALLY A TRANSCRIPT - for all content u should probly watch or listen to the videos, they r better :) This past week, we have been engaged in the strongest case of media narrative warfare we have seen in my life. I just want to, without making a determination on a given story or not, provide how I think about it and then run through examples of media warfare. Everything I’m saying here is addressed specifically to Americans consuming American mediaMost people, because of a truly horrible American education system, do not engage with content in a literate manner. They are not thinking about who is saying it, why they are saying it, who they are responding to, and, in the context of the media ecosystem, who is saying what.So I’m going to first give you an example. I’m going to walk through how I think about responding to the narrative warfare that goes on regarding Iran and regarding Venezuela. Then I’m going to try to demonstrate the superstructure by which I think about this, as a person who has to respond to these kinds of things all the time.Third, I want to explain how I want you to critique me for doing so. Because if we can all be speaking the same language, we can have much more productive conversations. After that, I’ll talk about some other narratives that are going on with ICE, what I think is helpful, what I think is not, how to think about them, and how to talk about them.This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Case Study 1: IranFirst and foremost, let’s start with Iran.This is an ongoing situation where we have to establish some base facts about what we are talking about. As a base fact, what I will take in any conversation is that there are protests going on, undoubtedly, and they are being met with some level of brutality. Many numbers are being thrown out, and it is unequivocal that some people have died. I will not reject that, and I unilaterally condemn all state violence that ends in death across the board.But I want to talk less about what the truth actually is regarding this, because frankly that has been published extensively by more expert people, and more about the truths that are being pushed by the media and how to engage with them.There are three separate narratives being pushed around this. One is that all the protests are CIA and Mossad. Another is that all the protests want regime change or a return to monarchy. Another is that all the protests are purely about women’s rights. None of those are fully true, and yet all of those are partially true.I’m not as interested in how true they are, because frankly we don’t have the data. We don’t know how many of these protests are CIA or Mossad influenced. We don’t yet know the full extent of the brutality. Most Westerners are getting their information through a massive propagandized lens. Before we even get to truth data, we need to start processing the narratives.So how do I engage with this? How do I think about it? How do I talk about it?Do I talk singularly about the openly, publicly, and consistently reported brutality of the IRGC? Do I come out in full-throated support of the IRGC because that is the only way to prevent American intervention, painting them as perfect? Or do I highlight American and Israeli influence in the protests? Or do I highlight the evils of the monarchy, American sanctions, and intervention that are being underreported?Those are the options. If you’ve watched my content, you know what I did. I chose the last one.Thanks for reading! This post is public so feel free to share it.How to Choose to Between the Narratives? Why won’t I spend all my time focusing on the most immediate humanitarian concern, the IRGC harming people right now? Well, what is my job? Is my job to report everything that’s happening? No. I’m not a journalist. I’m a political commentator trying to fill in the gaps of mainstream media.Do I think the brutality of the IRGC is underreported? No. I think the New York Times is reporting it, if not more than is actually happening, then at least exactly as much as is happening. Do I think the Washington Post, Reuters, and most American media are doing this in good faith? No. I think they are doing it in bad faith.Every second I contribute to talking about how horrible and evil the IRGC is, I’m not educating my audience. Most people have already heard that. I’m repeating propaganda and contributing to the bad-faith aims of American media, which are clearly oriented toward American intervention.You can levy genuine humanitarian critiques, but if it’s not done with an understanding of why and how American media is pushing this narrative, you will continue to contribute to its aims.Should I come out in full-throated support of the IRGC? No. Obviously not. Iran is not a communist state, but it is also not a peripheral state in the American empire. It is a state under constant pressure and war. I do not support all actions of the IRGC, and I’m not going to lie about that.Should I highlight American and Israeli influence in the protests? Maybe. It’s certainly in their interest. But that also risks undermining real moral concerns against the Iranian state, and we don’t yet have sufficient information. We won’t have it for decades, because that’s how CIA and Mossad documentation works.So what can we do with sufficient certainty while avoiding the risk of supporting American intervention while also not undermining genuine humanitarian concerns?What I do is anti-intervention propaganda. Even if you accept the mainstream narrative that the IRGC is brutal, don’t accept what the media is not saying. Don’t accept that the monarch is the natural next choice. Don’t accept the erasure of the Shah’s brutality, of American-backed regime change, of sanctions, and of intervention.That’s the point. You don’t need to undermine the truth value of the propaganda. You need to undermine its aim.There’s a reason they’re doing it. And whenever I’m in a conversation and I’m filling in that second part, I get yelled at for not repeating the first part. But if they are not repeating the second part, and I’m the only one saying the whole thing, I’m not contributing to balance. I’m contributing to imbalance.So that’s how I think about it. Fill in that second half. And it’s just not true the second half is, no, the Iranian regime is perfect. It’s just not true that, none of these protests are grassroots. But it is true that, number one, historically we know these movements have been infiltrated by Mossad and the CIA. Number two, it is true that the monarch is leveraging the shah,The current one who got an opinion piece written in the New York Times by him is trying to leverage these to push monarchism, which is not popular amongst the Iranian people. And number three, it is being pushed by the American regime to support regime change and installation of a worse regime.“Listen To Iranians“ - Which? When? Where? I also get the response, which is fair and should be taken seriously, that we should listen to Iranians. Yes, you should listen to Iranians. The issue, of course, with that, is that there are Iranians like Nina Farnea, who are engaged in incredible decolonial and anti-colonial analysis. Some support the Shah. Some support the IRGC. Some say this is all Mossad.It’s the same thing that was used in “Listen to Venezuelans”. Yes, you should listen to Iranians, but because of a massive blackout and because of a multi-billion dollar propaganda machine in the American Empire, all of those things, every single Iranian voice, is being filtered, valued, and contextualized by the imperial interests. And if we fail to leverage our narrative in response to that context, we’re not doing good. We’re … This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit willztalks.substack.com/subscribe

Podcast link : https://willztalks.substack.com/podcastRSS Link : https://overcast.fm/p5406943-ZBSMYb Youtube Link : https://www.youtube.com/@Willztalks/videosThis week I am joined in conversation with a photojournalist, activist and generally cool guy to talk about his upcoming work and current kickstarter (which just needs its final pushes!!) for a photo memoir art book collaboration between Daniel Efram (him) and Nicole Blackman. We talk about his work in NYC, interactions and insights from Zohran, and the role art has to play in the movement as well other insights and quips from the work that is to be done. If you are interested in this type of work, give it a listen, this is different than my other stuff (partially because I needed a break from a truly intense week), but hopefully you find something in it valuable! And its a nice break from just hearing my voice :) If you are interested more in his work: Please go Support his Kickstarter if you can - https://bit.ly/FalseFlagsKickstarterIf you want to see more on his work - https://www.danielefram.comI’ll be back this week with more analysis and content, but I really enjoyed this conversation and I hope you do too, if you don’t let me know if the comments and that will boost engagement :) This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit willztalks.substack.com/subscribe