PATRICE GREANVILLE—Western publics, especially in the US, are acutely disinformed. Courtesy of their ruling elites, Americans are easily the most brainwashed people in history. The result is a culture in which, besides ignorance and plenty of antisocial values paraded as normal, a thick fog of confusion  permeates every nook and cranny of a person’s consciousness. As in other nations where the ruling cliques have also advanced self-flattering narratives to cement their legitimacy, the official US narcissistic canon has some recognizable features, most of them encapsulated in the alarmingly chauvinist creed defined as American exceptionalism.

KIM PETERSEN—That the CTV reporting is disingenuous is obvious from the moving of the goalposts with the substitution of “persecution” for “genocide.” Clearly persecuting someone, however unpleasant, is absolutely and qualitatively different from killing someone. And since genocide refers to the destruction of an entire population, a rapidly growing population would seem to belie claims of one side committing a genocide. Moreover, what statistic is better to “select” to refute assertions of a genocide being perpetrated? Still, to claim one group is being persecuted requires evidence.

CAITLIN JOHNSTONE—Our job is to wake up the mainstream public. This is very feasible, as trust in the imperial media is at an all-time low while our ability to network and share information is at an all-time high. It does mean we need to stop thinking of ourselves as radicals (we’re not radical, we’re just sane) and push inward from the fringes to the heart of the mainstream public as hard as we can.

This is Michael Parenti’s latest (available) video lecture. Recorded in 2015, when Michael was already in his early 80s. Few intellectuals and left activists can match Parenti for his dazzling ability to educate and mobilize the public, especially the propagandized US masses, still very much in the grip of imperialism’s false narratives. We all owe a huge debt of gratitude to this tireless champion of moral and political advancement.