garfield couch

🇰🇪 🇵🇸 🇨🇩 🇸🇩
mathematician,
white kenyan for decolonization

[Caitlin Johnstone @caitoz]

This tweet is causing a lot of confusion and cognitive dissonance among a particularly annoying type of western progressive.

[Marwa Osman || مروة عثمان @Marwa__Osman]

You know me by now. I could not care less whether someone supports our region's cause of resistance or not. I gave up on the idea of Western goodwill and frankly Western moral sanity, a long time ago, when I watched children burn alive in Gaza. When I watched children in Lebanon torn apart until there was barely anything left to bury after Anerican/Israeli airstrikes. And when I watched children in Minab, Iran, effectively disappear when top-tier weaponry was unleashed against their school.

So no, I did not comment on the open letter attacking Iran. I had no interest in policing anyone's politics or demanding that anyone share mine.

But then I noticed the retractions.

And I have to admit, there was something almost perversely funny about the explanation.

If you are going to remove your name from an unprincipled political letter and explain it away with 'I didn't see the final draft", then you have some explaining to do.

Not because you owe me agreement with Iran. Again, I could not care less what YOU think. But because you owe the public clarity and accountability.

At the very least:

1. State your political position on Iran. What do you actually believe? What do you support, what do you oppose and which specific parts of the letter crossed the line for you?

2. Tell the public who initiated the letter. Who conceived it, who drafted it, who circulated it and who approached the signatories?

3. Show us the version you actually agreed to. What exactly did you think you were putting your name behind?🙂 gotcha🙂

4. Tell us what changed. If the final version was materially different, go ahead and identify the differences. Do not leave the public with a convenient fog of "I didn't see it".

5. Explain the timeline. When did you discover the final wording? When did you decide to withdraw? And why?

6. Own the politics, you ignorant coward, not just the paperwork. Signing a political open letter is not clicking "accept" on some unread terms-and-conditions page. Your name becomes part of its political message the moment it goes public.

And please, spare us the procedural gymnastics. Wallahi it is revolting to read for those of us living/dieing here by bombs paid for by your tax money, when you never dared to pen an open letter about your genocidal regimes, at least asking them not to do it in your name.

If you changed your mind, say you changed your mind.

If you were misled, tell us who misled you.

If you discovered that the letter said something you fundamentally disagreed with, tell us what it was.

If you never approved the final text, tell us who did.

But "I didn't see the final draft" is not an explanation. It is only the opening sentence of one.

As for me? I am not offended that anyone refuses to support the resistance.

After everything I have watched happen to children across Gaza, the West Bank and Iran, and everything I lived through/still living through in Lebanon, Western approval is very far down my list of things I'm waiting for. Actually, it does not even make the list.

What caught my attention was the retreat, because you see, the most interesting part of a political statement is not who signed it, but who suddenly decided they no longer wanted their name attached to it.

What an obituary for the western so-called "anti-imperialist left' lot.

[susan abulhawa | سوزان ابو الهوى @susanabulhawa]

I'm struggling with this open letter, signed by people I admire deeply—individuals who've dedicated their lives to Black liberation and anti-colonial struggles.

But I just can't reconcile my instinctive reaction to the letter with the respect I hold for the signatories. Prominent intellectuals in the imperial core are using their voice at this hour primarily to criticize a government under active bombardment. While I believe that no government is beyond reproach or criticism, I have a lot of questions and cautions about this open letter.

The overall framing of is of two equally opposing sides—two blades of the same scissors. This is a wholly unfair representation of what is in reality a profound asymmetry of power. On one hand, a country that has been subjected to crippling, decades-long economic sanctions, now fighting kinetically an existential anti-imperial struggle; on the other hand is nuclear, AI-powered empire, with its inexhaustible money, munitions, supply lines, coalitions, surveillance, and near total grip on international political, legal, information, and economic infrastructure.

The severity of the imperial onslaught seems to be minimized in the letter. This is perhaps for the sake of brevity, but it should not stand without critique. What the letter describes as "current, indiscriminate waves of US-Israeli military assaults" undersells what's actually happening in the "six months into a war". Unprovoked Tomahawk missiles and B-2 bombers that targeting a an elementary school that killed 180 children and teachers, the country's spiritual leader and his family, more than a third of the country's political, military, and scientific leadership, civilian infrastructure, including water, farmlands, electric grids and power plants, an unarmed navy ship at sea full of young cadets returning from a peacetime maritime exercise in international waters. This after decades of attacks that went unanswered by Iran, including Israel's repeated assassinations of Iranian scientists, assassination of Qasem Soleimani, strikes on Iranians generals in Syria, strike on Iranian consulate in Damascus, assassination of Ismail Haniyeh on Iranian soil; the US shot down civilian aircraft of Iran Air flight 655, killing 290 passengers and crew, including 66 children. There were endless cyber attacks, covert and overt naval sabotage and so much more—all of it without response from Tehran.

The letter does not identify who the prisoners are or why they were arrested. In neglecting to do so, there is no engagement with the very real security threats, proven foreign interference, terrorism, and espionage, which Iranian authorities cite as reasons for some arrests and prosecutions. I have no doubt there are some who've been wrongly imprisoned, but we also know that many of those who were rounded up confessed to working with the Mossad, and recently a group who gruesomely disembowled a young reciter of the Quran are among those who are imprisoned.

There are currently 2 million incarcerated people in the United States, the largest prison population anywhere on earth. It is estimated that 4-6% of them are innocent—that's 80,000-120,000, about two NFL stadiums full of innocent lives behind bars. Setting that percentage against Iran's estimated 15,000 political prisoners, that's roughly 600-900 individuals. They deserve fairness, but to center them in what is perhaps the most existential anti-colonial struggle of our lives feels misguided.

I would also argue that comparing Iran's prisons with Israel's decades-long, systematic, colonial detention of indigenous Palestinians is another form of false equivalence. So is the comparison with America's ICE detentions, separation of families and loss of children in the process (who are most likely trafficked). It is not remotely fair to put a revolutionary government, barely a few decades out from under colonial boots and still under sanctions, in the same "carceral" category as two settler colonial states. One cannot ignore the enormous disparity of political, military, and historical circumstances.

The people held in Iranian jails are overwhelmingly Iranian citizens, prosecuted under the state's own criminal and national security laws, regardless of whether one thinks the laws are unfair. Palestinians held in Israeli administrative detention are non-citizen subjects of a military occupation, detained and re-detained indefinitely under military decrees without charge or trial. People in US detentions are another category—non citizens held under civil immigration laws pending removal proceedings with access to immigration courts, however corrupt they may be. These are three distinct legal relationships—1) a state and it's own citizens; 2) a state and migrants crossing its borders, and; 3) an occupying power and a stateless occupied indigenous population. The letter collapses them all into a single architecture of "carceral states everywhere," creating an analysis that is not supported by the underlying facts. It creates rhetorical equivalence that treats "administrative detention," "political imprisonment," and "immigration detention" as though the political stakes of each were the same, when the questions of sovereignty, citizenship, and self-determination underneath them are not.

The phrase that knocked me off balance was this: "...we reject the false binary of imperialism and hollow anti-imperialism." I note that @agent_of_change addressed this in a recent post, which he identified as the "load-bearing phrase" of the letter. Indeed, it does so much heavy lifting and I'm at a loss why the word "hollow" would have been inserted. It's so clearly deliberate, but why? How can Iran's insistence on sovereignty and dignity be called "hollow," despite the grave and terrible cost to themselves? They could have taken the easy path a long time ago and bowed to empire, like some of their Arab neighbors have done. They've chosen self-possession and loyalty to their ancestors and children instead. That can be called many things, but hollow is not it.

https://t.co/6w2XgYeV4i

[Caitlin Johnstone @caitoz]

This part. Whenever the NATO left demand that a US-targeted government lay down its arms and transform itself into a soft cuddly wuddly liberal democracy, they need to be asked "What do you think would happen if they did that?" We all know what would happen, but make them say it.

[☀️👀 @zei_squirrel]

Angela Davis, Judith Butler, Jairus Banaji, Ruth Wilson Gilmore and Rashid Khalidi are not complete idiots. They know that the CIA and Mossad, per mainstream reporting, are actively organizing mass terrorist sabotage operations inside Iran, including being behind the January terrorist operation. This is not some arcane hidden "tankie" conspiracy theory, it was literally reported in the New York times and elsewhere. They openly boast about it, and they say that they are still doing it.

So why come out with an article that casts the Iranian state as inherently evil and fascist and authoritarian and in need of destruction, particularly when it is being waged war on by Israel and their own US regime?

Ok, let's say Iran follows your prescriptions, and dismantles its entire coercive state apparatus. It abolishes the IRGC, the prisons, the police forces, all of it is abolished.

What do you think happens after that, you utter fucking depraved pseudo-radical frauds?

What happens after is Syria and Libya on steroids. Unless you are a liar, you know that too.

And of course Iran, like any other state least of all your own with its global genocidal Zionist empire, will never do that because it is not suicidal, and its first and foremost task is to protect the sovereignty of the nation and its people. There is nothing "purported" or "ostensible" or "pretend" about this, as you say in your vile letter: Iran is among the only active anti-imperialist forces in the world today. That's an objective fact, and your pseudo-radical word plays in The Guardian cannot obscure it. We can all see it with our own eyes.

But the sole purpose of your letter, its sole function, isn't to affect any geopolitical realities, it's much more modest and personal than that: it is to act as a certificate to launder yourselves in the Western pundit academic class as the Good Pseudo-Radicals, so you can keep getting lucrative invites to talk at Princeton and Harvard and Yale and sell your pseudo-radical status for cash, which Davis and others have been doing for decades now as they demand you vote for genocidal Zionist Democrats every election cycle. This same crowd always puts out those hectoring letters ahead of an election for this purpose; suddenly "lesser evilism" becomes a moral necessity over immediate abolition when it comes to maintaining their genocidal Zionist empire and its coercive institutions, because they greatly personally benefit from it.

[garfield couch @beanmachine_666]

@JeanGreige I'm curious then whether you think that the American ruling class will stop Israel from crashing the global economy via war with Iran -- something which is clearly not in their interests.

[garfield couch @beanmachine_666]

@DoomScrollingML I put in the hours, I'm glad to be part of this tradition 🫡

[Goblin Moder @mischiefanimals]

robot gore on the timeline it's lit

[Jeremy Loffredo @loffredojeremy]

The main criticism of AOC’s backtracking on her “wokeness” assumes that she is censoring her more radical opinions in order to be accepted by the establishment. I have a much more cynical view of celebrity politicians. I believe she espoused those politics because they were useful to advancing her career. Now that her career requires her to distance herself from those positions, she is doing that instead. The advancement of her career is her ideology. The same way democrats are critizing Israel right now. They can't advance their career otherwise.

[susan abulhawa | سوزان ابو الهوى @susanabulhawa]

features of indigeneity:

1) ancestral connection—actual familial ancestry, in one's direct lineage, that had lived and died (and/or continue to live) in the land. All Palestinians have can prove such familial ties, whether in historic records, cemeteries, or forensic evidence. NOT RELEVANT TO 99% OF JEWISH ISRAELIS

2) cultural relevance—culinary, sartorial, architectural, literary or artistic heritage continuously connected to the land. Palestinian cuisine is similar to surrounding societies and has its own distinct flavors based on local wild herbs and plants; the traditions of their clothing is centuries old and directly tied to the land and topography; all the old homes that exist in that land now were built by Palestinians. In fact, Israeli real estate agents like to advertise "old Arab home" for added value; our folklore, songs, and dance traditions are centuries old and all of them connect to the land. NOT RELEVANT TO 99% OF JEWISH ISRAELIS

3) continuous habitation of a land over generations—Palestinians have lived in the land for millennia. Israelis like to say that they're "returning after 3000 years". This fairytale claim is absurd, but it does not negate the fact that Palestinians never left. We are the the descendants, according to DNA studies, who lived and were buried in the land during the Canaanite times, and also during the brief reign of Hebrew tribes. NOT RELEVANT TO 99% OF JEWISH ISRAELIS

4) living communion with the land—understanding the flora, fauna, and wildlife and having a symbiotic relationship with them. Palestinians have seasonal foraging traditions and a spiritual relationship with fruiting trees, especially olive trees (which Israelis regularly cut down, uproot, and burn). We were a largely agrarian society that lived off the land, making the entire country self-sustaining and exporting food too. NOT RELEVANT TO 99% OF JEWISH ISRAELIS.

5) Intergenerational knowledge—passing down oral history and survival skills from elders to youth, including botanical knowledge, local lore, traditional medicine, ancient agricultural traditions, artisan skills (like glass blowing, tile-making, stone masonry). NOT RELEVANT TO 99% OF JEWISH ISRAELIS.

6) naming traditions—the naming of places, plants, rivers, villages, and people are never random and always connected to stories forged over thousands of years of habitation. NOT RELEVANT TO 99% OF JEWISH ISRAELIS (many of whom changed their names to sound native).

7) self governance—Using traditional laws and leadership structures. Every Palestinian town had a Mukhtar and a counsel of elders who settled disputes and managed people's affairs. NOT RELEVANT TO 99% OF JEWISH ISRAELIS.

If you just stop and think for a moment, engage critical thinking skills, you will see that the story sold to the world by this European Jewish colonial movement is an absurd, logic-defying fairytale.

[birds' hell @saturnalreturn]

The British prime minister is replaced 24 times per second, creating the illusion of a smoothly flowing image

[susan abulhawa | سوزان ابو الهوى @susanabulhawa]

may you and everyone of you be haunted for the rest of your miserable life for what you did to us. may you never have a moment of peace for the harm you have wrought on earth. foam at the mouth, demon. nothing will save you from your own evil.

[garfield couch @beanmachine_666]

@TrackAIPAC But murdering brown people in Iraq was just fine?

[garfield couch @beanmachine_666]

@BadEmpanado @hasanthehun

[garfield couch @beanmachine_666]

@aaronjmate I think you need to consider the cost of Israel and Mossad outing themselves as pedophile-blackmailers. Releasing compromat on Trump at this point in time would very clearly be a retaliation from Israel.

[Nick Cruse 🥋 @SocialistMMA]

Every single person on the left who supports Ukraine is effectively a Zionist

[Nick Cruse 🥋 @SocialistMMA]

Flashback to when Ro Khanna asked me if I believe the United States ever fights for justice in the world

This is what liberals legit believe. That the military industrial complex fights wars for justice 😂

[garfield couch @beanmachine_666]

@GoyEmpanada @avispartan1 Might be worth posting a sincere answer too, mate

[Glenn Greenwald @ggreenwald]

I've already addressed these warnings from Norman Finkelstein about growing opposition to Israel among numerous leading right-wing figures (which he regards as dangerous and anti-Semitic), but there's one other key point about this video here from his @curaffairs interviw:

Norm claims that the only common ground between the left and this right-wing faction is solely about Gaza (and thus implies that this proves that the anti-Trump Right is anti-Semitic because they only find "empathy" when it involves Israel).

That's just false. The right-wing grievances against Trump from this group go far beyond just Gaza. It includes vehement opposition to his bombing of Yemen, his two attacks on Iran, the invasion of Venezuela, imminent operations for regime-change in Cuba, Trump's reckless rhetorical threats generally, the censorship scheme in the US to protect Israel and far more. For many (Tucker/MTG), it also includes opposition to domestic policies serving mega corporations and hedge funds at the expense of ordinary citizens.

I'll never understand why -- if someone genuinely cares about the issues they claim to care so much about (as I believe Norman does) -- they prefer to remain an impotent minority rather than forming majoritarian *ISSUE-BY-ISSUE* coalitions with other factions in order to actually stop these injustices.