LIES & PROPAGANDA

GARLAND NIXON—The discussion centers on the dynamics between the United States, Israel, Iran, and their regional and global allies, including China, Russia, Syria, and North Korea. Joti Brar explains how the imperialist powers, driven by economic desperation, particularly seek control over Iran’s oil and the strategic Strait of Hormuz, but face significant resistance from a coalition of anti-imperialist states that employ asymmetric warfare and long-term strategy rather than direct military projection. The conversation delves into the historical roots of Iran’s missile program, highlighting Syrian and North Korean support in the 1980s, and how this cooperation reflects a broader anti-imperialist alliance quietly operating worldwide.

This video is an insightful conversation with VJ Prashad, director of the Tricontinental Institute for Social Research, discussing China’s unique socialist development, its global role, and lessons for the Global South. Prashad emphasizes that China is still in the process of building socialism, highlighting that socialism is a complex, protracted endeavor rather than a binary state. Although China has capitalists, they do not form a capitalist class with political control, due to the Communist Party’s central role. He refutes the notion that China’s modern infrastructure and wealth disqualify it from being socialist, arguing that the elimination of poverty and social security are better indicators of socialism than skyscrapers or capitalist-style urbanization.

G. GALLOWAY—The discussion with Professor Seyed Muhammad Marandi centers on the tense geopolitical situation involving Israel, Iran, and their regional dynamics, with a focus on recent developments and potential future scenarios. Professor Mandi expresses deep skepticism about Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s stated intentions for peace with Iran, suggesting that Netanyahu’s public declarations often mask opposite intentions, potentially involving military aggression either directly against Iran or indirectly through attacks on Lebanon. The professor highlights the complicity or silence of Western governments and media in the Israeli military strikes on Lebanon, emphasizing Iran’s increasing preparedness for retaliation and defense amid escalating hostilities.

The conversation also touches on the fragile state of ceasefire or peace agreements in the region, noting that no formal ceasefire exists between Iran and Israel, only temporary halts in hostilities under external pressure.

ERIC ZUESSE—The Rabbis pretend — as does Israel’s Government — that this genocide against what had previously been 2.1 million Gazans, is a response to the 7 October 2023 event, in which, as Wikipedia reports, “In total, 1,195 people were killed:[35][e].” That would be a ratio of nearly two thousand to one. During Hitler’s regime, such high ratios, and such wantonness, in revenge, were viewed as being acceptable, but anyone who nowadays supports it is considered to be downright evil. When the thousand-plus signing rabbis opened by basically doing that (assuming that the October 7th event is what drives this genocide), they implicitly gave credit to some of the most vicious lies by the Israeli Government and its supporters. At the very outset, they thereby greatly weakened their case against that Government.

OLIVER BOYD-BARRETT—But, there are two big problems. One is the hundreds of years of Western anti-Russian and anti-Chinese propaganda in support of a Western ideology of Western imperial and neo-imperial entitlement. The vast majority of Western citizens fail to benefit from this, yet most are thoroughly, perhaps irrevocably brainwashed by it. And they are brainwashed, secondly, by what some analysts have rightly described as the US “superweapon,” namely a compliant, corporate mainstream media system that does not see it in its business interest to interrupt or in any serious way challenge the long reign of Washington’s neocon supremacists.