I appreciate what you're doing but I think you miss the mark when you continue describing Trump as an anti-establishment candidate. His interest seems to be in controlling the establishment rather than dismantling it. Your last point that Kamala is part of the establishment and is therefore unable to actually embody these principles suggests to me a major distortion in how you're looking at this; a separation you have drawn between yourself and your in group and this idea of "Establishment", an idea that I'm not convinced is rooted in an effective understanding of how structures emerge from social relationships.
Wonderfully put. It feels to me that Charles's thinking has become warped as a result of social pressures. It's very human for that to happen.
I have to say, it's been sobering to see so many people I respected (like Charles and Russell Brand) effectively become Trump surrogates.
For what it's worth, I'm no fan of Kamala. But why not support an actual non-establishment candidate who will oppose the deep state like Cornel West? Trump is a billionaire who has profited immensely from business as usual and is obsessed with dominance (i.e. "winning"), why does anyone expect him to drain any swamps or overturn the structures of dominance making our world sick? It's patently absurd, and the fact that Charles can't see it tells me his thinking is distorted.
Can West win? Almost certainly not. But who's to say what would happen if there were a genuine movement for a 3rd party candidate instead of all this capitulation to the major parties that I'm seeing.
I am absolutely stymied by the move of such independent thinkers to Trump. I listened to Russell Brand's interview with Tucker Carlson today, trying to get a read, and I heard nothing that explains it. I DO understand his shift towards religion; that "seeking for God" has been in him forever, and he is eloquent on the subject as it pertains to addiction. However, when he talks about things like "reclaiming the sacred Thames River" from corporate influence or "ridding the political system of lobbying, corruption, the influence of money," I see absolutely zero connective tissue with supporting Trump and the party that literally (as David Sirota brilliantly demonstrates in "The Master Plan", and others have elsewhere, and is supremely (pun intended) evidenced in Citizens United) has codified such practices to our collective detriment. Yes, the Dems have their issues; I understand the concern about government overreach. But swinging to Trump literally does not compute. I DO NOT GET IT.
I have been writing a series of essays trying to understand what happened with Charles Eisenstein and Russell Brand -- how the focus on "sovereignty" and bodily autonomy / vaccine paranoia during the pandemic acted as the gateway drug to Right-libertarian ideology and Trump-ism. Here are the 3 articles I have written so far - if anyone emails me ( Daniel.pinchbeck@gmail.com ), I am happy to give them a month free subscription so they can go behind the paywalls: https://danielpinchbeck.substack.com/p/the-turncoats?r=1mhh1
I think Charles forgot to include the most important principle of all for a true anti-establishment pro-humanity candidate and that is TRANSPARENCY - to commit to NOT meet with our ruling class billionaire abusers in private and secrecy, to commit to having all one's meetings (and all other politicians meetings) to being public, open to public scrutiny. This way we could stop once and for all being deceived by the Qanon/MAGA narrative (that presents pro-billionaire mass-murderer trump as an "anti-establishment candidate who came becasue he loves the people and wants to help the little guy fight the deep state"), this way we could all see out in the open what a pro-billionaire pro-empire pro-ruling class pro-Wall St pro-M.I.C pro-war pro-genocide pro-NeoCon Zionist pro-Big Pharma pro-Big Agri pro-Big Food actually is their criminal ConMan trump!!!
Let me say it as clearly as possible for the people at the back: HARRIS IS A RIGHT-WING PRO-BILLIONAIRE REPRESENTATIVE OF THE RULING CLASS ; TRUMP IS A RIGHT-WING PRO-BILLIONAIRE REPRESENTATIVE OF THE RULING CLASS (not to mention that he is also profoundly psychologically-undeveloped, emotionally-stunted, infantile & narcissist with a relational maturity level of a 4 year old, but that's the least of his crimes. Details about mass-murderer Godless trump's crimes against humanity and whose narrow interests he works to promote coming up in a moment).
I love you Charles, but IMHO you are doing a huge disservice to humanity by repeating the Qanon/MAGA mythology and presenting trump as "anti-elite rebel who is here to help the little guy fight the establishment". Nothing could be more farther from the truth, as his ACTUAL actions show (not the Qanon/MAGA narrative surrounding hom and his actions, but his ACTUAL actions). I confess, it is extremely sad to see someone as astute as you being so strongly influenced and taken by your political in-group associations...
Mass-murderer anti-life God-ignorant ConMan Trump was already president once, remember? Need I remind us that he and his Zionist PR team of deceivers already sold us the exact same deceptive Qanon/MAGA narrative they are selling us now (as if he is an anti-elite-rebel man-of-the-people who came to fight the deep state for the little guy), and need i remind us that once elected he promptly spat in the face of all the gullible unintelligent propagandized people who believed him and his Zionist team of deceivers, and proceeded to fill up his administration to the brim with deep-state NeoCon swamp creatures from Goldman Sachs, BlackRock, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Eric Prince's BlackWater merceneries, and the rest of Wall St and the war profiteering industry filled up to the brim every single position in his administration of anti-life deep state billionaire shark predators. In addition, he handed foreign policy over to deep state NeoCon zionist operatives in the form of compulsive-liar CIA director Pompeo, Chabad devotee and Mossad representitive Kushner, ultra-zionist mass-murderer Bolton, NeoCon zionist lunatic ("starve them to death") Abrams etc. etc. Besides them, the State Dept. was literally full of and run by NeoCon israelis during trump's presidency, america's global forigen policy was literally run by israeli supremacists during trump's presidency!!
What on earth makes any of us think that he will act any differently this time? Because the Mossad-created Qanon/MAGA narrative says so? (echoed by large portions of the so-called 'alternative conservative media' ecosystem)
All ConMan trump did during his presidency was transfer trillions to his buddies the ultra-wealthy war profiteers and Big Pharma corporate-capitalists for example in his 5.9 trillion dollar corona giveaway to Big Pharma corporate capitalists and to his ultra-wealthy Wall St billionaire pals, our abusers and predators, and for example in his annual gigantic military spending - spending which SKYROCKETED under trump - to give away trillions and trillions of our money to his anti-life war profiteering buddies); filled his admin to the brim with deep-state swamp creatures, gave tax breaks to the ultra-rich and made sure the most wealthy (the anti-life heart-divorced deep state billionaire abusers who brought him to power) became much wealthier while everyone else stagnated or impoverished; Trump EXPANDED the mass-murdering billionaires' global militarized corporate-capitalist empire (of nearly 900 military bases encircling the entire globe, dozens of warships colonizing every sea on the planet, and at least 13 extra-judicial torture camps where kidnapped human beings are held in captivity for years without trial and tortured by brainwashed conservatives because.."patriotism" and "god" and "jesus" and "christian moral values") with his RECORD HIGH military spending to enrich his war profiteering capitalist billionaire pals; Created a welfare state for billionaires (with his government's coercive force used to lavish his right-wing billionaire scum with public funding, funneling trillions of our money to his backers the conservative war profiteers, who of course privatize the profits and give nothing back to the public that funds them) and crumbs for the rest of us..
As one "small" example for trump's crimes against humanity (out of numerous such examples), trump also initiated, armed and funded (used our money to fund) a coup in Bolivia so that his billionaire pal Elon Musk can steal the world's largest reserves of lithium from Bolivia for his "green"-electric car company (which is at the forefront of the climate capitalists' "4th industrial revolution" and "great reset"). Musk literally sat at the table with trump and pompeo and said "we will coup whoever we want, we're in charge now, deal with it". That is how sure are musk and trump that their propagandized dumb deceived followers will follow them blindly and obediently no matter what crimes they commit against humanity (trump literally bragged that he can shoot someone on the street in broad daylight and his hypnotized deceived conservatives followers will still worship him..)
I hope you are aware Charles that your ideas can (and likely will) be used cynically and deceptively, as feel good slogans (like unity and rise above division) by the most murderous pro-ruling class tribalistic anti-wholism anti-egalitarian hierarchical God-ignorant political manipulators (like trump and his PR team of deceivers) who act in POLAR OPPOSITE ways to the slogans that they'll borrow from you in order to deceive and gain support from the people..
Seems to me that the basic assumption (from which you are writing this piece Charles) would have been true in 2016 when many (propagandized) americans really believed that trump is exceptionally evil and dnc are the benevolent force for good. Hardly anyome belives this anymore but exactly the opposite is the case now, by far most (propagandized) americans now believe the opposite fairytale, that the dnc is the establishmemt force of evil and that trump is an "anti-establishment rebel".
Both these fairytales are profoundly false.
One doesn't have to buy into the stupid CNN/WashPost deceptive propaganda machine (that presents trump as exceptionally and caricaturishly evil) in order to see from his actions that he is actually a common run-of-the-mill murderous american president, by the ruling class for the ruling class, just as pro-billionaire pro-empire and criminal as the ones before and after him. No worse but definitely no better than the life-destroying right-wing american presidents before and after him. BOTH the CNN/NYTimes fairytales AND the Qanon/MAGA failrytales about him are false. His actions clearly show that he's not exceptionally evil nor exceptionally righteous, just a normal anti-life right-wing american president who is here to enrich the ultra-rich, to cement the global control of the american billionaire's militarized empire over the planet and to ensure that our desire for change is hijacked and neutralized and doesn't amount to any real change, which are precisely the things he did as president..
Trump is horrible NOT becasue of what the corporate-capitalist manipulators on CNN/MSNBC/WashPost say about him but precisely because he is like every other pro-billionaire life-destroying mass-murdering right-wing american president (conservative or liberal)
One other small thing, if I may - you seem to have bought into the Qanon/MAGA mythology that trump is "anti-NeoCons", but that doesn't make any sense to say when you acknowledge (as you do) that he is fully wholly and completely in support of the supremacist nazi NeoCons that run the Israeli govt and their genocidal imperialist project of dispossesion and anninilation of the local people, and their imperialist policy of eternal religious division, hostility and war. THE NEOCONS ARE ISRAEL. It makes no sense to acknowledge that trump is fully in support of the genocidal supremacist zionist colonial project and then say he dislikes the NeoCons. Trump's administration was FULL TO THE BRIM with warmongering bloodthirsty zionist NeoCons during his presidency. He literally handed the state Dept. over to NeoCon Israelis. Israelis were literally running his State Dept! He literally made Israelis in charge of american global policy!! And you can be sure that he'll attack Iran and China for them soon after he and his NeoCon Israeli billionaire pals enter the white house. It makes no sense whatsoever to say he is "anti NeoCons". It is a common Qanon/MAGA slogan that has no basis in reality.
Plenty more I wanted to point out regarding trump's crimes against the people and who are the adrenochrome-drinking billionaire abusers that brought him to power before and are doing it again now, but the space for a comment here is finished..
you may be so right in much of what you say...however there is always a place for what the American Indians might call your 'good enemy' - there will be learning and growth however it goes. What I'm appreciating right now is the mix-match/mish-mash/mash-up of all sorts of people - a much needed change away from the black/white, good/bad, evil/virtuous duality which is showing itself so extremely in the world scene. It may seem incongruous but we have no idea what effect the rubbing off of so many different energies may have - it could be combustive, healing, growthful, disastrous - but it is change and it does hold all sorts of potentials. We need breakthrough on every level...change doesn't always look right or nice
- and none of this is intended to disparage anything you say...just another thought to ponder...
This is the writers dilemma. One cannot possibly cover every single large or nuanced issue in every writing. There will always be issues that are left off of the table in relationship to the availability of time and space. It's bothersome not to be able to address it all, but hopefully the reader will take in and simmer with what has been laid on the table. Suggestions to cover future issues is always beneficial.
I wouldn't coin the term 'vaccine paranoia' to describe people's opposition to that particular medical intervention that was pushed on people globally. I think anyone ignorantly accepting this injection pushed so fiercely and aggressively by governments were simply not doing their due diligence and research.
"Evidence-based thinking" in that last article, seriously? The Covid vaccines have indeed caused extreme mortality and morbidity which a multitude of scientists and doctors are speaking out about.
If you understood what is going on with the vaccines, with the bioweapon that was the excuse for the vaccines or with much of what is happening (you know the actual conspiracies), you'd appreciate how nuanced Charles' takes are
I read your latest post and was so grateful. I am not in a position to become a paying subscriber at the moment, but I will continue to read with interest as you try and unpack this. I also read the comments section and LOVE the community of thoughtful people that you're bringing together. I have been wondering about this for quite a while, and have not been able to crack the nut. I have been a fan of Brand's for many years (which is very uncharacteristic of me; I really think he's the only person about whom I've actually and legitimately called myself a "fan," even jokingly), and simply do not see the logic. FWIW, I do sense that there is some truth in the suggestion that it really does have something to do with ego. Not entirely, but it's there. In a culture that celebrates brilliance — and RB is undoubtedly brilliant — that brilliance needs somewhere to go, to see itself reflected and hear itself. It can't just fester in its own broth, it must be applied to something. If the left project starts to become untenable for a variety of reasons, and if the person has done a ton of spiritual work, then maybe there is just enough mental flexibility to do the contortions and make the "free speech" "individual liberty" persona stick, even if it means overlooking the very real ways that the biggest mouthpieces for such ideals, at the moment, drag a Santa's sleigh full of destructive behaviors along with them. It's a clean argument "free speech!" rather than the muddy Democratic vision, full of seemingly unresolvable contradictions.
My entire question, at this point, can be boiled down to: What is the proper role of government? A totally deregulated free-market society gives us self-audited Boeing planes falling out of the sky and rivers on fire. But government overreach, over-regulation is also a real thing. It's a conundrum, that's for sure. I wish I could take comfort in religion and Trump the way they seem to; sounds much easier, frankly.
I can explain it because I am someone who began my political journey at 18 with a vote for Obama. I voted for Hillary in 2016 and was utterly sick when Trump won. I felt sure it was the end of us. I was a religious Democracy Now listener and a card carrying member of a certain kind of progressivism.
What I saw over those years though…I saw the media and the institutions form like voltron and from day one do anything possible to sabotage a presidency that our country voted for, if not all at least enough for him to win. I watched these people, those in power, clinging to power, use phony premises to try to oust him, time and time again. This went on for years. I then watched another election where dirty tactics were used. There were lies about COVID. The absolute apex of shock doctrine type economics, though this time used on us, the citizens of this country. I watched as apparent “incompetence” called into question the election. I have seen Trump compared to Hitler, to Putin, to every fill in the blank despot with really no basis in reality. Even not being a personal fan of Trump and his crassness, I could see we were being manipulated in order to restrict more of our freedoms.
I have watched Americans, not all, but many actually vote for the curtailing of their rights. We can argue about semantics of whether or not Twitter or X is a publisher or a platform or a private company and they can do what they wish, but we all can see the degradation of our freedom to think and speak freely.
At this point a vote for Trump is a vote for the discontinuation of rights abuse violations that likely predate the Patriot Act. Say what you will about Trump, the powers that be clearly do not want him elected and that tells me plenty. He is absolutely not part of the current state of affairs but an outsider. Much has been said on this.
You may not agree but to say you literally cannot see why a “free thinker” would toss their lot in with Trump at this point makes me think you could try a little harder to understand those who would.
We vote this way now because it is our BEST choice to dislodge the borg. I get that a Cornel West or a Jill Stein is more palatable but that route has NEVER worked before. Not once. Why would we risk it all on the chance it would work now?
We vote Trump because the stakes are very high and we may not get another chance. I feel absolutely comforted by the fact that RFK and Tulsi and many other well reasoned people have backed Trump. These are people I have followed for many years, whose courage I admire, who have consistently made the hard choices that alienated themselves from power when they could have done the opposite. I never thought I’d find myself here but here I am.
I'm not sure if this comment was in response to mine - I think the Substack thread-tracking mechanism is really hard to follow - but I appreciated it, regardless. In some ways, I see where you're coming from; the "left" (media, commentariat, politicians, whoever) has overplayed its hand many times. I would often read an article that made him sound like a sociopath (like when he booted a crying baby from a rally, if I'm remembering correctly) and then I'd watch the video to see how it ACTUALLY played out, and sometimes they definitely seemed to diverge.
As I wrote recently, I saw him speak in Nashville. I have had a hard time wrapping my head around the difference between what I sort of expected, based on everything I hear (frothing incoherence) and what I experienced (a guy who knows how to work a room, kinda funny, a little rambling, but definitely not perceptibly insane).
But forget how the left has treated him; he seems to be doing just fine (aside from political violence, which is not the point here). You speak of discontinuing rights abuses, presumably free speech at the top of the list. Is that the main point? I would definitely agree that curtailment of free speech is fundamentally unAmerican, but I believe that freedom can be buttressed with real pressure, that we still have extraordinarily free speech in this country, and that we can fight to preserve it without resorting to accepting eveyrthing else Trump stands for which, as far as I can see, is not much. I mean, even at the Bitcoin conference he was wooing everyone with "Bitcoin this, Bitcoin that" and now he's got his own shitcoin coming out. Really? I'd love to imagine all of the Bitcoiners waking up and fully acknowledging that someone else wrote that speech, that it was just shilling for votes, that he has no fucking clue what Bitcoin is, but I'm not holding my breath. They just want a pro-crypto atmosphere, everything else be damned. I cannot imagine how amazingly relaxing it would be to be a one-issue voter.
What does he stand for that you actually agree with? Is he credibly anti-war? The comment above (while I have not fact-checked, specifically) speaks to the overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
Do you think deregulation and tax breaks will clean up rivers and purify the air? I mean, do you want to get on an airplane whose safety has been verified, essentially, by the boardroom responsible for returning maximum profit to shareholders? Are you cool with the "concept of a plan" stuff for healthcare (to name a few random thoughts that come to mind)?
This is where I feel like I'm banging my head against the wall. Philosophically, I see almost nothing in Trump's positioning that leads to any positive outcomes whatsoever. It's as simple as that. Yes, he's been sort of like a punching bag for the left's deepest fears, in many ways, but in MANY of those ways, he's earned it. He's not threading any needles like RFK. He's just a giant inkblot upon which we project all of our shit. He likes being an inkblot; it works for him. I don't feel bad for him, and I certainly see zero evidence that he's going to "dislodge the borg" (a reference I had to look up, so I have no credibility there).
There are no easy answers to our problems. I think Trump offers a palatable "easy answer" that feels like it's backed up by some distant drumbeat of "natural order comes back into balance when the market takes care of itself" but I think that you have to be a world-class cherrypicker to find evidence to support that. On the other hand, I absolutely agree that the Democratic party has been abysmal in so many ways, stole the election from Bernie, lost the plot with things like defund the police, etc.
It's not just a "lesser of two evils" thing, though: I think one can be called out and shaped with pressure and work and long-term movement building (which we have not, in fact, really seen much of - even though it may have looked like it), and the other is like letting out a bull in a china shop. Sure, the bull in his natural habitat would be doing natural, nature-ey, bullish things; but if your society is modern and complicated — if your civilization has reached the point at which china shops are a thing — then bulls don't work.
I know this sounds argumentative but I really do appreciate your comment. I have been so baffled by all of this that I'm really just working out my thoughts out loud, and I apologize if it's more confrontational than I intended. I welcome your thoughts and push back, and would be happily called out for any errors or blind spots. I really need to figure this shit out.
No your comment is excellent. You have some points for sure!
For one thing, it’s not so much that I think Trump the man will dislodge any borgs, it’s more that he is such an interruption to the beltway insider to corporate pipeline. He truly is not one of them. Yes he has money and he’s been in business and he “makes deals” (or whatever) but he is not “one of them” and you can tell by the way he is treated. It’s not so much that I deeply support Trump but I find it striking that a cadre of people I DO trust and support have backed him. I profoundly trust RFKj and his judgment. Likewise for Tulsi Gabbard. Likewise for Bret Weinstein and his wife. It has been helpful for me to actually follow the thought process and shifts of these other people who were also total lifelong democrats.
You would be correct that my number one concern is free speech. I agree that our country is still remarkably free and thank goodness. Much of Europe is finding their leaders unaccountable to them by way of increasingly globalized governing bodies. They don’t have the same protections we do via our constitutional rights. I believe the assessment many before me have made that it was utterly intentional to put the second amendment immediately following the first. I believe it is not just a historical quirk. I think the founders realized we needed a robust and protected way to back up these rights. All to say I think there are MANY within our current regime that would “update” these inconvenient rights the first chance they get. You already have Hillary on TV advocating for criminally charging those who spread information they do not like (I believe she called it propaganda.)
To me Trump is exactly as you say: an ink blot. But I have observed he will change his mind. He will accept counsel. I am heartened by those he is surrounding himself with this go round (mostly).
He appointed the ex CEO of Exxon as Secretary of State. He has promised another tax cut for billionaires and his party will cut Medicare, increased the retirement wage, end all environmental protections and replace the EPA with MAGA and oil stooges. Already 65000 rape victims have been denied abortions including a 10 year old, an 11 year old and a 13 year old. And a mum of a six year old just died because she was denied abortions. And he talks about wanting to fuck his daughter, Ivanka https://www.ibtimes.com/12-times-donald-trump-acted-totally-inappropriately-ivanka-3068093
I am so thrilled to be having this conversation. Thank you so much for your thoughtful reply — not only were you gracious, but you also added a lot to the discussion and gave me much to think about.
I find myself straddling two worlds (or many); basically, my jeans are splitting LOL.
I agree with you that it has been totally illuminating to listen to people like the Weinsteins and others on that circuit (I haven't really paid close attention to Tulsi; maybe I should?). It's hard to listen to those in-depth interviews and not come away with some new insights that are glaringly absent from the broader conversation (I just looked at my list of 1,322 uncatalogued "notes" from such interviews — the day I get around to sorting those will feel like a national holiday — and saw the comment, from Weinstein (oh wait, it was Eric - I don't really know them that well, but have listened to both) that I found compelling enough to take down: "We are mistaking a redistribution of empathy for an expansion of empathy."
Things like that. You just don't get stuff like that in the broader conversation, and it just feels obviously true. I have written about this a bit: empathy, in my view, is like the feeling a parent (or I'll speak for myself) has when they have only one child and wonders how it's possible that there could possibly be enough love for the second child when you're pretty much exploding with love for the first. And then the second child comes, and you're like - oh, wait! it wasn't that the love had to be shared, it was that the quantity of available love simply doubled." Meaning that the way we view resources like empathy - withholding it from some in the name of showering it upon others - makes no sense.
Anyway, that's totally beside the point of our discussion. It's late and I am procrastinating dinner cleanup. I won't get into the weeds of the policy stuff you brought up at the moment, because I still have plenty of questions and can't quite muster the cognitive fortitude, but I didn't want to delay replying and expressing my appreciation for the dialogue. :)
It is a very confusing inversion. What I have noticed in myself is not so much an opening to Trump as an opening to the people who have supported him. The working people, the people of faith, the non-urban, the analog… the left behind. During Covid, it seemed like these were the only folks not snearing at and condemning people who questioned the Covid narrative. (And still are, judging by Mr Pinchbecks comments). I think so many people are just exhausted by the smug certainty of the left, and now see it’s lethality firsthand.
I agree that the left often appears very smug, and this has, in part at least, created the dissident right. But Trump is just a grifter taking advantage of this. Why can't the disaffected band together in solidarity and back an actual alternative, rather than someone who has been as Establishment as it gets since birth?
He's just proved he's not an alternative, by backing Trump. He would have been more alternative by just pulling out and criticising from the sidelines.
I have knocked on probably a thousand doors at this point, if not more, and I agree with you. The people are often lovely and relatable; in a weird way, they are actually more relaxing. I've been trying to put my finger on the problem (as have we all, obviously); just when you think you've landed on it, though, another side of the situation reveals itself and disqualifies the thought.
The whole POV that they're both faces of the neoliberal war machine, however true it may be, makes it easy to throw up one's hands, vote 3rd party, etc. That's not an option; it'll be one of these two. I believe that the Dems can be pressured to change — they will lose if they don't — and that the Republicans have literally zero incentive to change, because their schtick is working.
PS: i just did the math and it's definitely way more than 1,000 doors. I don't know what i was thinking. Just putting that out there even though nobody cares LOL
I'm not so sure it's an opening to Trump - more a way 'in' perhaps for some interesting characters who will undoubtedly topple the old apple cart...we have no idea where or how it might all go - the consciousness of us, the world as a whole will play a big role...
Its bigger than Trump. The Dem side is so corrupt, the other side is where those who understand that are. Liking Trump is not necessary to see that. But TDS clouds our ability to see strategy.
If your argument is Trump is less bad, well, I disagree, but we can disagree reasonably because both candidates are awful if you care about putting an end to the war machine, but Trump might be marginally better in that respect (honestly it's difficult to say and personally I don't believe the military industrial complex actually takes orders from the president in a real sense).
But if you're arguing that Trump might be a good man coming to his senses, I'm sorry, I just don't see that. I don't think it's Trump derangement syndrome either. I've been critical of the Democratic party (from the left) for most of my life. I don't have any special allegiance to them and I see Trump as a symptom of a deeper sickness. But he's certainly not an antidote to corruption. Again, some of these claims are so comical that it's hard to understand how people come to these conclusions.
Can you explain why you don't think a Trump administration would be equally corrupt to a Democrat one? We've seen a Trump administration, and it looked plenty corrupt to me.
It's pure pragmatism and dedication to public service. The DNC aggressively sabotaged RFKjr's campaign -- deploying a staff with war chest budget dedicated to re-writing rules and suing in the states to block ballot access, swiftboat his intelligence, twist his words to keep him on the defensive in the media, and infiltrate his staff to create legal issues. The denial of secret service protection was astoundingly venal, and also prevented him being able to organize large rallies; the campaign had to become more media-centered but he was blocked from mainstream audiences and the debate stage.
He'd campaigned without a day off for 17 months and Dems thought they had him cornered, tied up in kangaroo court in New York while they partied in Chicago. With his campaign sabotaged Kennedy pivoted on a dime to put three core issues in front of voters -- ending the Ukraine war, stopping censorship (which is getting scarier from Dems by the day), and taking on the chronic disease epidemic. He endorsed the Trump campaign as a means to get in the White House. It's Trump who's endorsed Kennedy's policies, not the other way around. A brilliant strategy to form a unity coalition government within the U.S. system. Kennedy will have oversight over staffing as chair of the hiring committee. Better policies will result from hiring better people. It's all going to make Trump look very very good, believe me, he'll be happy to take credit.
This is the very best we could hope for out of the lesser-evil-ism into which we've once again been manipulated. And today Trump was very gracious when acknowledging the phone calls he'd received from Biden and Harris after the second attempt on his life. So there's that. Let's keep going we the people with our messy painful beautiful evolution toward a more direct, self-organizing, localized democracy.
It’s not “difficult to say” that Trump is marginally better regarding peace efforts. He’s absolutely 100% better than the Neoliberal Democrats. The Ukraine war never would have started under his watch, and I am near certain he will negotiate out of it if elected. He also squashed the North Korea nuclear threats when in office, though now with Biden/Kamala in office N.K. has ramped it back up again. I very much don’t like the anti-Russia rhetoric coming from the Dems and mainstream Republicans, it’s dangerous and I worry could lead to nuclear war, which is why I’ll be voting for Trump. The Israel-Palestine conflict is another matter though, as both main candidates back Israel, including RFK. I can understand why someone would vote Stein or West because of that.
He'll give Ukraine to Putin. Appeasement in other words. He and other dictators will get the green light to invade their neighbours. Appeasing Putin brings more conflict, not less. 30s redux. I have friends on the front line defending their home. They want the invader out. They want their sovereignty. They want the 100k kidnapped children back. Trump is also far far worse on Gaza. He wants Netanyahu to "finish the job" and told him to reject a ceasefire because it might benefit the Dems. Trump is no peacenink. He's just pro Putin.
I agree with you about Trump’s position on Gaza, that is concerning. But I don’t agree about Putin and Ukraine, the roots of that conflict go back to 2014 which falls on the deep state.
From what I could see, the bombs continued to drop during the Trump presidency. Whether or not the Ukraine war would have started under his presidency is pure speculation. Again, I'm not saying you're wrong, but I do think it's difficult to say or predict. Trump is not a peaceful person by nature. He thrives on conflict and is obsessed with winning. That makes me question whether he would be any less of a warmonger, and as I implied earlier, it's unclear to what extent the president has power over the military industrial complex. I know that's how it's supposed to work, but it seems highly doubtful to me.
You may be right, but at least he didn’t start any new wars, whereas 2 have started under Biden, and I don’t think that’s a coincidence. The Ukraine war has its roots going back to 2014, when the U.S. ( Victoria Nuland) participated in a coup to overthrow their president.
I think it comes down to triage. We will have no opportunity to arrest any wars if we can no longer speak freely about them. To me it’s about protecting the essentials first, such as our Constitution, and moving from there. He is the only candidate I trust at the moment to not throw us to the global governance wolves at the door. It’s weighing the situation by saying, Trump will have another 4 years and then someone else can fill the role. He just patently is not the Hitler he’s been made out to be. Unsavory, sure. Says things I’d rather her not, site. I don’t think a Trump cabinet would be near as corrupt as the current regime because he doesn’t control all the levers of power. The deep state is not carrying water for him. He is an outsider coming in with a team of people I have followed and respected for many years and whom I trust. I can appreciate you don’t agree but this is why Trump seems the better option rn.
I believe the most important thing Trump can do is stop the globalist take-over of nation states. He is the only candidate capable of doing that. What do you think the mass immigration everywhere is all about? Yuval Harari has said if Trump gets in, their project (Great Reset, Agenda 2030,etc.) is finished.
I think Charles is part of the process of laying out a pathway for a truly different third alternative. It's not going to happen in this election but you will have 4 more years to truly build something different and life changing.
I completely agree with everything you say, I am somewhat astonished that Charles could possibly find such a corrupt fraud and sociopath capable of building the society he craves.
I think you may have misinterpreted what's happening with the Independent movement. It's a different paradigm centered on voters' needs and priorities, not on the candidates' personalities and whims in relation to a party platform (or lack thereof). There's definitely no endorsement of Trump-ism or any other -ism. It's as though the American experiment in democracy is rebooting itself under duress into a self-organizing structure through the collective consciousciousness of humanity's immune system.
Its bigger than Trump. The Dem side is so corrupt, the other side is where those who understand that are. Liking Trump is not necessary to see that. But TDS clouds our ability to see strategy.
You suggest trump sit down with groups of people to listen with curiosity and compassion. May I suggest he start with the Central Park Five, who he terrorized? Or the women he raped/sexually assaulted? The children he separated, how about he sit with them? The Haitian immigrants in Ohio, who he had now put in real danger? Charles, this man had created real and devastating harm. It’s not media-created. It’s not exaggerated or caricatured. Because you personally have not been his target, it seems, you can look beyond these things. But for those he has targeted, they have no such option.
No he will not change. No, he cannot change. And, as another commentator said, he is no outsider, either. Pull the blinders off.
good for him - he deserves it! Charles has given away lots for free over the years...it's time his worth - as a bridger, a peacemaker, a wise man - was recognised...
They're not all terrible people, though. There are candidates with authentic principles like Cornel West who he could support instead. But he must feel an immense pressure to support Trump given the social circles he has embedded himself in.
What makes you think he wasn't serious? I think he understands the low likelihood and he's spoken to the value of his candidacy in terms of getting a perspective out there even if he doesn't win, but that doesn't mean he's not trying to win. But I don't know, maybe you have some information I don't.
Either way, it feels weird for someone that supported a 3rd party candidate with a very low likelihood of winning to reject another 3rd party candidate on grounds of their chances of victory (which applies to Charles as well as RFK).
I think a lot of this comes down to tribal pressures, which Charles should be aware of given his writing about these psychological forces, but seems to lack self-awareness of their influence on him nonetheless. He got a lot of vitriol and shaming from the left for his takes on Covid, and similarly, he got a lot of love from the right (including all sorts of speaking engagements).
Of course that's going to have an impact on his thinking without a huge helping of self-awareness. If Charles did come out in support of West, there would be all sorts of drama from misguided leftists saying West should distance himself from and denounce the bad antivaxx man. It's unfortunate. The left's general take on Covid was also highly influenced by tribal pressures, for what it's worth.
Agreed. Trump is a milignant narcissist. Everything he does and says is driven by his personality disorder making transformation virtually impossible. All the talk of ending wars, corruption, etc., while simultaneously justifying an ongoing depraved genocide is grotesque.
Trump did not terrorize the Central Park 5. He took out a newspaper ad supporting the death penalty IF they were found guilty of an horrific crime that shocked many at the time. I also am not aware of his raping women. Hopefully you do not mean that woman claiming she was raped in a dressing room. Her story is full of holes. There is a problem at the border and children being separated from their parents is unfortunately a risk. Children are often not accompanied by their real parents. Trump is not targeting these people, he is/was trying to solve a problem. He also is not responsible for the plight of the Haitians. That situation needed to be brought to light, as it is a poignant example of what can and is happening in communities. You have demonized Trump, largely based on misrepresentations in the media. This is what Charles cautions against. Trump's rough manner is off- putting to many, but I believe he stands for good.
Do you mean that phony Jean Carrol case? That was outrageous and an excellent example of how the Dems have politicized the courts. That case was well past the statute of limitations and Dems in NY decided to pass a new law (specifically aimed at getting Trump) to allow old cases to be prosecuted. This one is so old, it is ridiculous to have any sense of justice being served. It was simply he said, she said. The jurors were duped. I am outraged that the justice system has been abused in this way.
Can you explain why you are a better judge of that case than the jury of twelve who heard and saw all the evidence? What is the basis for believing you have special insight?
I largely agree. I've intensely disliked Trump since his Apprentice days, but now I"m far more afraid of the Democrats. As for putting Haitians in danger, I don't buy it. More Democrat over dramatization to deflect from their own actions. As for being a "rapist", I'm not so sure about that either. Meanwhile, I've yet to hear even one Democrat express grief over the young girls and woman raped, brutalized and killed by the Democrats illegally allowed into our country in an effort to increase their likely voter pool. Despicable.
He was found guilty of sexual assault by a jury of his peers. He shoved his fingers in a women's vagina uninvited. Just like he boasted he did on the audio we have all heard.
Exactly. Trump is actually trying to tackle Americas problems (the economy, illegal immigration, endless wars) while the Democrats/Uniparty keep adding more.
I’m just calling it like I see it. He’s been consistent with his message the entire time, and is turning out to be correct about a lot of things, but most choose to not believe him based on their current biases.
What do you mean, "they have no such option"? Of course if his victims are as morally bankrupt and lacking in forgiveness as he, they will be incapable of looking beyond what has been done to them to see past the beast within all human beings. All humans are inherently capable of great evil including mass murder and sexual violence; our biology does not differ that much from one to another because we all share the same primate ancestry that has shaped our behaviour.
Joshua Blahyi's victims, although often permanently and grievously injured—including by rape or permanent disablement and disfigurement, such as his former enforcer whose legs he smashed to bits in a rage for 'lying' he did not notice the priest who came in and began his conversion by teaching him a prayer—are often able to forgive him, when after slaying 20,000 people using child soldiers and cannibalism as well as injuring countless more, he came earnestly and often in tears to them to apologise and try to make amends however he could.
"They have no such option," don't kid yourself into thinking forgiveness and reconciliation are impossible, nor that redemption is either for that matter when even the worst warlords can do it, if willing. Evil is a path chosen and kept to that can be wandered off by even the most wicked at any time, and it more often than not brings great relief to the victims—who you do not speak for—to be able to forgive those who have truly made an effort to redeem themselves.
I'm sure it's good for your cognitive dissonance to believe otherwise, but it's simply not true. Of course, the kind of resilience and tough character you find in Africans perhaps can't be expected to be found much among Americans of the present era in stark contrast to the way Americans were two centuries ago, but there is always room for improvement among any people.
I’m sorry to see that you’ve adopted this mindset. I have had much respect for your thought/writing over the years. However, I see that you’ve crossed the line into delusional. I’m sorry to see that and hope you have the opportunity to reset at some point.
my gosh, the hubris and judgement running thru some of these comments is full-on! You don't have to agree with Charles but perhaps apply the principles he is talking about - try stepping into other shoes...try having a conversation/discussion rather than coming from a moral sense of superiority and being right...try seeing Charles for his goodness and looking for the best in others and wanting us all to look at and own our own stuff! I'm no fan of Trump's at all and I am deeply disappointed in RFK's Israel stance (considering everything else he says that I agree with I just cannot fathom the contradiction), however, realistically...there is a chance that the better part of these people will step up when they find themselves in roles they believe in - I've heard each of them speak with passion about certain topics. Synergy 1 + 1 = 3! I think more than anything I see things changing one way or another rather than everyone rolling over and going back to sleep if the same old same old gets back in. It's probably going to be very tricky and disruptive for a while. In the end, 'we the people' are waking up in droves, there are no saviours, we need to go back to local and doing it for ourselves, together. Politicians will come and go but I sense they are going to start losing any power they thought they had after this election (if it even comes to an election - there's every possibility the whole damn thing will implode or not go ahead just because the times do not support anything that is no longer in integrity. There has to be vibrational alignment - the 'energy' is now important, it's no longer just about the physical...consciousness is rising.) I'm excited with the not knowing how the fuck it will go and having trust that we are evolving no matter how it might look right now! Let's face it - NO-ONE KNOWS!!!
Trump started is political career mocking a disabled journalist and hidding an affair. Please, I won't try to understand him. Understanding MAGAs is different and OK. But not Trump.
Look, I'll always hold out a sliver of hope in the possibility of people reclaiming their hearts. Even Trump. At the same time, I think delusional applies here, and I don't see it as coming from a judgmental place. Trump, currently, is a predator and someone seeking power and attention. He's your typical narcissist looking for his narcissistic supply on the grandest level possible. I don't say this to judge the man, I think his narcissism and predation are both ultimately rooted in pain and fear. But we can have compassion for Trump while still being realistic about the man he is now and trying to keep him away from the levers of power. There's no need to support someone so clearly corrupt and troubled when there are authentic voices in the race like West.
As someone else pointed out, Charles' supposed compassion (or disingenuous piety) of Trump is what Buddhists call "idiot's compassion". A pretty speech before the mirror. Genuine compassion would be seeing Trump for the wounded and dangerous man he is and still feeling compassion. Not this fantasy about him changing. It is very self-indulgent and self-regarding
I have been writing a series of essays trying to understand what happened with Charles Eisenstein and Russell Brand, among others -- how the focus on "sovereignty" and bodily autonomy / vaccine paranoia during the pandemic acted as the gateway drug to Right-libertarian ideology and Trump-ism. Here are the 3 articles I have written so far - if anyone emails me ( Daniel.pinchbeck@gmail.com ), I am happy to give them a month free subscription so they can go behind the paywalls: https://danielpinchbeck.substack.com/p/the-turncoats?r=1mhh1
Well this is kinda patronising, esp as it is on Charles's blog - talking about someone rather than to them? I am sure you will have some points to make - I hope they are made with compassion and understanding and not arrogance. I think for a lot of us who were DEEPLY traumatised, cancelled and excluded by the incumbent corrupt govts all around the world over covid/vaccines/having an opinion/being different etc, there is a natural revulsion/grief at the thought of letting those same people back in - so much so that we are willing to give it to almost anyone but them. You say 'how the focus on "sovereignty" and bodily autonomy / vaccine paranoia during the pandemic acted as the gateway drug to Right-libertarian ideology and Trump-ism' - even in your words, paranoia, "sovereignty", you insinuate some craziness, some abnormality, some extremism - maybe for some it is true it tipped them over an edge - but it is NOT paranoid to want to have control over one's body and what goes into it, to want to have one's opinions and personal research/anecdotal evidence respected and listened to - and not everyone who stood up for themselves went to far-right ideologies and extremes, as you might be suggesting. Can you imagine? I'm in NZ and like Australia, Canada, and Austria, things were far worse for us than many other places where you could still act fairly normally - our once-peaceful, inclusive, intelligent, non-violent country suddenly became military-policed with neighbours ENCOURAGED to dob in their friends and family to the police and govt depts! We couldn't get a haircut, go to the grocery store, go outside to the beach or nature, be with friends or family as they died.
We just could not believe that this outrage, this complete authoritarianism was happening. One of the most damaging things that can happen to a human being is to be completely shunned, ignored and thrown out of the tribe, family, community, world! If you weren't one of these you can't possibly know how it was for so many. So there is a LOT of hurt and a desire for anything but THAT to happen again. Forgive us if we don't play into the mainstream's clever handbook of how intelligent, good, well-balanced people should behave. Yet we are here and stronger. I have found Charles to be well-balanced in his opinions - and open to new thoughts. Yes I'm standing up for him because I'm standing up for myself here too. We were grasping at straws to have anyone hear us, include us, respect us...so many people's lives were ruined and we were watching it with horror, a feeling of complete powerlessness! We were demonised at the very least - made to feel like lepers/idiots (who have been proven right on so many counts now) - by our own families who suddenly didn't see the people they knew and loved any more because society/the authorities told them we were bad people! I'm sure you will have observed this in your works...but please don't tar us all with this same brush because again, you patronise us - some of us react more strongly because we have such a sense of moral justice (CE and myself included), a good moral compass that knows what looks like fairness - and we feel for all those who were hurt and are still hurting. We are not thrilled with the choices before us in terms of political candidates - but for many of us we sense that someone like RFK (much as I detest his Israel stance), will not force us to put crap into OUR bodies, or vaccinate our children - he really does actually care about the health of people...can you not see that that is where so many of us come from? If we had better options we would take them. I can feel my charge as I write this but it is still with many of us due to the ongoing censorship and BS that continues to play out. We know what's on the horizon for humanity if something doesn't radically change!
Here's the thing...everyone has bits of good/bad in them - things we like and appreciate, things we don't. I don't see Charles as a Trumpist at all. He is looking for the best, he is putting out possibilities into the field, he is endeavouring to let go of cynicism and encourage open-mindedness and potential. Thank you for reading if you have come this far. I'm sure someone will come in and take apart what I have written - I haven't had time to be clever about it, more nuanced perhaps but I just felt to jump on and respond. May love, kindness and tolerance be visited upon us all in these times of exciting change and evolution...
Thank you so much, Martine! I'm totally there with you. A quote comes to mind, I think from poet Marianne Moore,(I may be wrong) that brings me back from going down the the dark path of blaming and vilifying others, "The weak overcomes its menace. The strong overcomes itself. "
Thanks for writing this Martine, I could have written the same. Talk about a failure of empathy and tendency to project (what I see in Daniel Pinchbeck's comments re 'paranoia' and 'sovereignty')
On Facebook, Daniel mentioned that he avoided getting the MRNA injections . I just checked again to see if I had remembered correctly, and yes, the comment is still there, in the midst of an argument about Putin and RFK Jr. The exact quote is “I avoided the nRNA vaccine so my hippocampus should be fine! Thanks for your concern.” Daniel, can you now remark on what seems like a big contradiction in your logic and the logic of your accusations of paranoia in those who chose bodily sovereignty and suffered for it? I had to leave the city where I’d worked as a musician for over 30 years because of my “avoidance” of these injections, and start all over.
I was in NYC during the lockdown, and still don’t know a single person who died of Covid. I do know three people who died suddenly within the previous year—-a former student of mine, very talented and in his twenties, who died in his sleep; a former colleague of mine who was also much younger than me, who died in unclear circumstances, and an uncle who was about to retire from farming, and died of a heart attack the day after his doctor diagnosed him with heartburn. These are people I knew directly and for many years, but once-removed, that number is far, far higher. I think most people can attest to similar experience in the past few years, making it, along with many troubling statistical studies, something that goes far beyond anecdotal. Evidently you had some similar fears, or you wouldn’t have “avoided” the injection yourself. Yet somehow, those of us who are tuned into the larger political implications of this complete inversion of public health principles, and are searching for ways to bring some sanity back into policy making, in a highly charged and imperfect atmosphere, are dangerous?
But I think I kind of get it, now—-he got “A“ vaccine, therefore, he is still “on the side of science.“
Look, I sympathize with the sentiment of wanting to trust, doctors, experts, agencies, and so on. It’s a tough leap to make, that the preponderance of institutional medical advice can be that consistently and systematically wrong, let alone, dangerous, let alone able to deceive/self-deceive on such a grand level. I read the essay Daniel linked in his comments here, and I actually find myself agreeing with maybe 85%, almost 90% of what he says. For instance, I agree that the dangers of Trump presidency are quite self evident, in that those backing him are aligned with the intent to govern in a technocratic and dystopian fashion. Peter Thiel, etc. I doubt very much that Charles Eisenstein is not aware of that.
Where I step off from Daniel’s way of seeing this is when he calls people like Charles Eisenstein, Glenn Greenwald, Russell, Brand, Matt Taibbi… Turncoats. To call someone a turncoat is quite incendiary. That is war talk. When you do that, you were aligning yourself with the kind of establishment thinking that wants to rid itself of all opposition. Hillary Clinton just did an interview in which she proposed the prosecution of people spreading misiformation information, as she defines it. When you align yourself with that kind of thinking, that kind of intent by calling people “turncoats,” you are actually calling for them to be prosecuted… Imprisoned, punished, etc.
Daniel, with the growing powers of technocratic surveillance and control that you yourself express worry about, calls like this are really no joke.
So anyone who disagrees with you, or with the central version of the truth that you yourself profess to have many problems with, you seem to be almost enthusiastic about having them eliminated as threats. Which is the very definition of the kind of totalitarianism that you are worried about. It’s the kind of bullying that does happen in totalitarian states, that you decry.
I’ll be honest, it’s this kind of divisive thinking that makes me feel quite certain there is no political solution at stage in our history. Charles joined with RFK Junior‘s campaign in the hope that a political solution was still possible, and , it seems to me, although I don’t know him, kept that hope alive. as a matter of principle and practice, trying to keep optimism alive.
But it seems clear to me, from the overt calls for censorship, prosecution, assassination, and hate… And these are sometimes very direct… in Daniel’s comments on Charles previous post. I read him saying that, “Charles deserves hate.”—-that whatever happens after the election, and whoever wins, the main concern for the average person, and for fair minded people trying to go about their lives, whether Democrat, leaning or Republican leaning or somewhere beyond or in between, is going to be figuring out how to deal with the flavor of tyranny or totalitarianism that gets brought in. The other main concern is going to be how to deal with the insane levels of back and forth hate, which will likely lead to ever more violence and social disruption. Add in the potential of war on some pretty scary levels, and Charles‘s message is exactly the elixir we need to be drinking. It’s either that or Kool-Aid mixed up by the systemic manipulation of naturally occurring ideological factions.
The whole rotten corrupt unwieldy system needs to collapse and fall - out of the ashes! There is always chaos before a paradigm shift and that's where I believe we are at....we just have to ride the waves, keep our cool and extend love and tolerance - the tremendous division is exactly what the establishment wants - they're warmongers after all! We must hold the vision of 'the beautiful new world we all believe is possible' (thank you Charles...)
I wanted to be clear that the article I’m referring to in the above post is not the one Daniel links in the comment to which we are replying. I just looked through that and it is full of fallacious assumptions and deep misunderstandings . Atrocitious and insulting.
Also, apologies for grammer mistakes etc in this long diatribe—I narrated it into my ipad and then went back quickly trying to fix things without much time
Question for Daniel should he care to answer, and anyone else who agrees with the gist of what he says:
Should dissenters like Charles have potential criminal charges brought against them for spreading “propaganda” as Hilary proposed in her recent interview with Rachel Maddow?
What are your thoughts on that? I’m trying to get a read on what kind of thing to expect from left wing thought leaders such as him, under a Harris administration, especially if things ramp up on the Russia Ukraine front and the feeble anti-war movement grows in the US in response.
So, the one and done, which was then discontinued. No boosters. Meanwhile, younger family members going to college in various dem-heavy states have had to stay current (meaning get multiple mRNA shots) just in order to attend and get their careers started. And mRNA ptoducts are just getting started—big Pharma wants to use them for practically everything despite people like us, and like Daniel, prudently avoiding them.
The first time I heard Charles speak was at your place in The Bowery. Very interested in your take on what happened here and elsewhere because of the pandemic.
Here’s something that is being reported locally where I live. It seems that someone managed to chemically attack a group of Trump supporters who had been sitting behind him, on one section of the stafe only. A number of them reported severe eye pain that lasted for days and brought them to the emergency room.
Read the comments on the video. The hate and lack of compassion is appalling.
I think it is always helpful to give deep thought to issues such as these, and I always appreciate the provocative ideas you offer.
What I notice about Trump is that he is an abuser: he abuses women, little immigrant children, and handicapped people, among others. In his wake are a multitude of people who have been scarred for life by his actions.
I have been in abusive relationships- I got out as soon as I could, but before that happened, I was counselled on multiple occasions to “cooperate”, “meet them halfway” and “compromise”, and was told I was somehow wrong and less of a person because I wouldn’t do those things. But I never understood how to “compromise” with an abuser. Does compromising mean that I should allow them to abuse me half as much, or for half the time?
America had been in too many relationship with abusers, it is time for us to move out of that cycle.
I agree with you that there is good in everyone. I have seen Adolf Hitler’s early paintings, there is one of a Madonna that is so spiritual and filled with love and light—as an artist and art educator I know beyond any doubt that it could never have been painted by someone without a connection with the essential goodness in his soul, and/or with the Divine. However, when that connection is completely severed by abusive actions, those of us on the receiving end of the abuse have a responsibility to our mental and emotional wellbeing to set appropriate boundaries…not only for ourselves, but for the abuser. It is not any healthier for the abuser to be unclear about these boundaries than it is for the abused.
I have to say that Trump completely lost any remaining bits of my respect the moment he ridiculed a handicapped journalist. That is abuse I wouldn’t let a kindergartner get away with, let alone an adult. That incident showed me everything about his character that I needed to know. I do not see any evidence that Donald Trump has even a remote understanding of what it means to be kind.
If there is dehumanization of Donald Trump, he is the one initiating the dehumanization.
I’m sad to see that Charles has become such a “ true believer” that he wears a pair of blinders. Trump is his own proud propaganda machine. The so-called Deep State is every bit as much Republican as it is Democrat. The Deep State is Corporate Control and to say Trump doesn’t pander to corporations is simply ridiculous.
Thank you for this. I too was in an abusive relationship that took me too long to get out of. When trump was president I felt the same - but this time I was in an abusive relationship with my country. I’m 72. I do not think I could survive four more years. Yes, the DNC is corrupt and owned by the same masters, I don’t understand how people can think trump, who as promised to be a dictator on day 1, and who will unravel the already minuscule and inadequate protections for Earth, children, elders. . . who has promised to put corporate shills in charge of the country, and basically allow corporations to do whatever they want to people and Earth for money . . . is a better alternative? He has literally promised the destruction of the country and Earth! Yet, this is okay? People don’t seem to understand the gravity of what is at stake here. Maybe, because I’m old and I remember people who survived the Nazis (most are dead now), maybe I’m more able to envision the world trump is promising us. And I do not want it! The advantage of going for Harris is we MIGHT get a few more years to turn things around, to create the party, the political movement, and most important begin the transformations necessary to begin healing and restoring Earth for our kids and grandkids, and the species we ALL depend on. There is more at stake this year than just the fate of our country’s politics. Life is at stake. If we can maintain life then we can work to create, to transform, to evolve. If not, this experiment is over.
Susan, we are the same age ;-) .. it sure was a different world back then, wasn't it? Most women in abusive relationships didn't even know the relationship was abusive--it was just a part of the toxic patriarchy that we all took to be "normal"--as they say, a fish doesn't know it is in water! It took us a while to figure all that out... I totally agree with you: "The advantage of going for Harris is we MIGHT get a few more years to turn things around." I became much more excited about Harris after she chose Walz...even though I feel like RBG when she said that all 9 Supremes should be women, LOL--men have tried to run this country for 250 years, and look where we are now! I'm all for giving women a chance at it, I think women can fix most of our worst problems in 20 years...still, I really like Walz, I really like that he's a teacher, and he sure seems to exemplify the kind of "family values" that I think are important. And regardless of actual gender, he does seem to embody the generally accepted "feminine" attributes that I hold dear such as compassion, kindness, cooperation, nurturance, adaptability (more than Kamala imo) ..teachers are typically less inclined to be competitive and hierarchical since their job is to help and assist students, not compete against them. I am looking to Walz to help bring some much needed sanity to our country, in fact, my blue vote is really for him, although I will be very happy to contribute to having the first female president.
This is beautifully and simply put. Trump embodies classic abuser narcissist and feral predator. And it’s formerly abused people who just get it in their bones, and raised my awareness.
From 2017:
“Like family members living in the home of an abuser our sense of what is normal starts to get blunted and deformed under the weight of abuse. The whole country is damaged in a way that won’t soon lift under the best of circumstances.”
It strikes me as odd that the first person CE plants his flag next to and declare that he won’t participate in their ‘othering’ is someone who exemplifies the extreme case of othering, in/out group thinking, zero-sum thinking, predation, projection, etc. certainly much could be said about polarization and taking sides, and certainly many many people demonize Trump and project all manner of fear and evil onto him. And we should discuss that on a psycho-societal-spiritual level. As a student of Thich Nhat Hanh I know it’s not in my best interest to focus hate and projection like that, and I do want to untie the knots of duality and is vs them I carry within me.
AND YET I can do all this while believing my own eyes, recognizing obvious harm when I see it, and not naively (or disingenuously) trusting/hoping that a very damaged 80 year old who has had his cards on the table for decades, and who stands to cause such harm if given power again, will discover in himself compassion that has never been in evidence.
Those of us who yearn for a ‘new story’ that transcends the binary we’ve been offered must be careful not to be gaslit. I’ve looked to Charles in the past as a beacon of sorts pointing a way out of separation. I can’t follow him here, something has gone awry and if you get it, you get it.
“It strikes me as odd that the first person CE plants his flag next to and declare that he won’t participate in their ‘othering’ is someone who exemplifies the extreme case of othering, in/out group thinking, zero-sum thinking, predation, projection, etc.”
Thank you, and thanks for the link...the text you quoted is perfect, and I appreciated this portion too: "Our sense of reality has been warped...We are like a woman who can’t admit her husband is an abuser. ‘I provoked him.’ ‘He’s got stress at work.’ ‘It was just one time.’ ‘He said he was sorry.’ You want to shake someone like this to open their eyes and see the reality of the situation. But living with someone with a damaged psyche has in turn damaged them. It is hard to emerge from." And one of the reasons it is hard to emerge from this is that the sea of toxic patriarchy in which we all live does not assist the abused in any way, it supports the abuser.
Guess what? That video of him making fun of handicapped person was doctored and put together by MSM to make him look bad. It’s fake. He routinely did these weird hand gestures during his 2016 campaign, and the media spliced it together to make him look bad. I don’t have a link handy but I read an article about it a couple years ago that explained it.
That is simply untrue. He cruelly mocks people he perceives as weak. Whether it's women menstruating or ethnic minorities, pilots shot down in Vietnam or dead WW2 vets.
Unfortunately, there seems to be no need to doctor any videos to make Trump look bad. The NY Times responded, : "“We think it's outrageous that [Donald Trump] would ridicule the appearance of one of our reporters." Trump responded in familiar fashion, issuing a series of tweets in which he admonished Kovaleski to "stop using his disability to grandstand". This is covered by snopes here: https://www.snopes.com/news/2016/07/28/donald-trump-criticized-for-mocking-disabled-reporter/
I am really shocked that you have taken up the mantle of Trump. He can’t be any of those things you want him to be. He has had many psychiatric experts describe him as “a malignant narcissist.”
This is the side he shows us all, and I cannot imagine he has a different side. He committed fraud. He is a sexual predator and I am very confused why you think he’s our guy.
These are not trumped up charges either. These are real and there’s not some deep state that’s going after the man. He is immoral and choosing to quote and adore dictators is beyond what any presidential candidate in our country should be doing.
I’am shocked that you have fallen into such a rabbit hole. I’ve been following your thought for decades because it seemed true. Once you grabbed on to RFK, you lost me. In a corrupt World you still need to make the best choice.
I have great respect for the motives of RFK Jr. He has aligned himself with Trump. I believe he is seeking what is best for the country. Having dealt with RFK personally, I think Charles must also see and respect his sincerity. Trump is a bull in a china shop, but I believe he too seeks what is best for the country -- and ultimately the world. I think the alternative is world government and totalitarianism.
Trump is aligned with Fascist dictators who actually support real totalitarianism / dictatorship such as Orban, Putin, etc. The Democrats are not doing this - not seeking to end elections or eliminate abortion rights. How have you people become so confused?
Thank you Daniel for pointing to this very obvious elephant in the room. Yes! How can anyone look past the fact that “Trump is aligned with Fascist dictators who actually support real totalitarianism / dictatorship such as Orban, Putin, etc.”
How? And why?
Trust dissolves when facts like these are omitted to make a point.
They don't read or follow current events (it's low-vibe) so their beliefs about politics are based almost entirely on branding and whatever algorithmic feed they're on.
Yet trump himself has said he will be a “dictator” on day one and there will never be a need for another vote. His constant admiration for Putin and others is showing us who he wants to be.
You are reading into those comments what you want to see. I don't believe real dictators announce their intentions, though in Trump's case, media works hard to push that narrative.
This essay is written from inside the Establishment. It still insists on naming good guys/bad guys...but just does so in a covert way. There is no way Mr Trump is the person for this job...as creating peace and compassion , without all the othering. That you are even trying to make a case for this possibility, shows a great lack of understanding human beings. We are ALL part of the establishment...like it or not. Without trying to "figure out" and control the direction of things, Life has the last word. We cannot "essay" our way out of this one.
Charles, I don't know what your life is like at this moment that would lead you to write something like this, and I truly want to hold you in good faith as a longtime reader. I absolutely resonate with your main points that are necessary for leadership. But you are seriously wasting both your time and ours by suggesting Donald Trump could embody any of them... I hope that sooner than later, you are able to take some time away from the political cycle to re-ground and re-orient.
Charles, the man is a convicted rapist. He is also many other “ists”—racist, seditionist, etc. but that’s enough for me and should be for anyone with a moral compass or spiritual aspirations. You’ve completely lost me with where you’ve gone, and I’m a bit angry but mostly really sad.
I haven't seen a shred of evidence to support any of your accusations. I've thought he's full of shit long before he ran for office, but now find the Democrats and their candidates to be more revolting and culpable of a long list of attitudes and actions I find alarming. At least Trump tends to lie about absurd stuff like the size of crowds. The Democrats lie about far more serious matters. As for where Charles has gone, smh over the judgmental, condescending comments from those who are so certain the only valid perspective it theirs.
what do you find the Democrats lying about that is more serious than making Haitian immigrants into subhumans, making up garbage on a daily basis, while their entire program is to lower taxes on the wealthy while raising taxes and eliminating social services for everyone else?
A billionaire who has been convicted so many times of scam, targeting always the poor and the disenfranchised, convicted of rape, is not anti-establishment. Inherited hundreds of millions, uses golden dishes or whatever... your anti-establishement standards have become very awkwards.
That's adolescent thinking. You're letting yourself be taken in by rebellious impulses, like a marxist in 1917, who in the end helped set up 70 years of dictatorship.
And I can guarantee he won't stoop to read the comments from his audience which is turning on him. But wth, $20kpm makes up for multiple unsubscriptions.
But even most sincere people can get scammed. It happened actually to all indigenous peoples in Latin America. They just see what they want to see, not the reality.
Sadly, people do not do the self-reflection which would allow them to compare Trump and the Establishment without the programmed reverence towards "Authority".
It's FINE when the Establishment start wars that slaughter 600,000 people, but by damn Trump tweets bad things!!
Personally, I would be supporting Stein, but I can understand why so many think Trump is more likely to actually win.
If, in the 2026 Mass Afterlife we might all have moved to very suddenly under another DNC authoritarian dictatorship, people were asked: "So, if you could go back, would you this time choose the "Malignant narcissist", or once again the group of psychopaths planning WW3 who you know KNOW kills everyone you know and love?", how many would make the same choice, and how many think "Gee, actually those mean tweets and grandiose statements were not as bad as holding my grandchild as she dies from radiation-induced cancers! :'( ".
I don't think Trump is ANY kind of saviour, and will almost certainly leave America looking worse with most of his plans - but that's not the issue. The issue is that he is LESS LIKELY TO BLOW THE ENTIRE WORLD UP than his main opponent.
That means a great deal. Even Chomsky agrees - hardly a MAGA fan.
Noam Chomsky does not support Donald Trump. In fact, Chomsky has been a vocal critic of Trump on numerous occasions. He has often criticized Trump's policies, approach to governance, and the overall impact of his presidency on both domestic and global issues. Chomsky, known for his progressive and leftist viewpoints, sees Trump's administration as detrimental to many aspects of society, including democracy, the environment, and international relations.
Yeah I've been a consistent critic as well and I agree with all of Gnumeo's points. The MIC is in absolute full swing w the DNC, transition of neocons complete with the Cheneys. On brink of WW3 as we type
It is hilarious to me that we just read several paragraphs on how Trump could change his mind and transform but that the Cheney would finally say enough with this dangerous fool is a bridge too far.
I miswrote -- Dems already started WW3 with recent moves related to Ukraine. I should have written nuclear annihilation. That is a risk that continues to escalate by the day
Chomsky, like many intelligent people, recognises that it is perfectly possible to despise BOTH major parties. And to see different policies. He certainly will not be "supporting Trump", but I also can't see him supporting the current US regime that has brought us closer to WW3 than the Cuban Missile Crisis... SEVERAL times in just the past 3 years.
And as K'mala is nothing but an empty air-head riding a wave constructed for her - even more than Zelensky!! - there will be a continuation of disasterous and (planetary) suicidal policies.
As I clearly said, Chomsky is not a MAGA fan - but nor is he a Demonrat fan.
I think you have been too close to the inside comrade. Some people have gone too far. Trump cannot be reasoned with anymore than can a jaguar about to eat it’s prey. I appreciate your high and noble view, I also carry these aspirations but when the lion is about to eat your children, you make sure that lion is removed from the narrative. Come on Charles. You and Russel are acting very strangely and in times like these you could benefit from good kin to sit you down and talk some sense into you. We love you. Step away from the seduction. Be at ease.
I have been trying... I have been writing a series of essays trying to understand what happened with Charles Eisenstein and Russell Brand -- how the focus on "sovereignty" and bodily autonomy / vaccine paranoia during the pandemic acted as the gateway drug to Right-libertarian ideology and Trump-ism. Here are the 3 articles I have written so far - if anyone emails me ( Daniel.pinchbeck@gmail.com ), I am happy to give them a month free subscription so they can go behind the paywalls: https://danielpinchbeck.substack.com/p/the-turncoats?r=1mhh1
The real thing you should try to understand is how the fear porn and manipulation of the pandemic led yourself and many like you to support outright corporate/state authoritarianism. While those you mention remained liberal.
Come on, "Vaccine paranoia"? My eyes could not roll any harder.
I like the ideas embedded here. A lot. Bit just don’t get the idea that Trump in not Establishment. That he is a figurehead of the alternative to the deep state. It’s a bit sad isn’t it when someone so misognoist and privileged is posited as the one to save you guys and change your world for the good. Not taking sides just saying from across the oceans.
Trump is Establishment - but not deep state. He is establishment because he is a billionaire who relies upon the state for his wealth, and its legal protections. Trump is NOT going to be promoting worker-ownership, free healthcare, student-loan forgiveness or anything of the sort that could actually help Americans.
At the same time, he is not deep state, the security state apparatus. Who have probably already made attempts on his life, have spied on him and his associates, filed spurious legal obstacles, and work hand-in-glove with the DNC to "Maintain the American Empire".
The sad truth is that there is so little ACTUAL democracy in the USA, it is already an authoritarian dictatorship (In truth it always was), that anyone opposed to the DNCs suicidal warmongering, can only choose the single other 'main party' to realistically have a chance.
"It’s a bit sad isn’t it when someone so misognoist and privileged is posited as the one to save you guys and change your world for the good."
This is all mumbo jumbo - Deep State... Trump amped up the military budget and didn't do anything to "Drain the swamp." Just brought in more swamp things, like the current Supreme Court. This whole enterprise is insane, delusional.
I have been writing a series of essays trying to understand what happened with Charles Eisenstein and Russell Brand -- how the focus on "sovereignty" and bodily autonomy / vaccine paranoia during the pandemic acted as the gateway drug to Right-libertarian ideology and Trump-ism. Here are the 3 articles I have written so far - if anyone emails me ( Daniel.pinchbeck@gmail.com ), I am happy to give them a month free subscription so they can go behind the paywalls: https://danielpinchbeck.substack.com/p/the-turncoats?r=1mhh1
Quite how you go from pointing out that Trump didn't take on the deep state, to then saying the deep state must not then exist, is a leap I can't follow you over.
I'll explain what happened to Eisenstein and Brand - they remained LIBERAL, with the emphasis upon "My Body, My Choice". They also remained LIBERAL, in that they distrust enormous corporate wealth and power, and can see when the state and such corporates come together, it is never in the Public's interests.
So THEY stayed LIBERAL. What happened to YOU?
Where did all that manufactured fear porn make you leave any Liberalism behind?
Perhaps you might find it easier to examine yourself, rather than two completely different people to yourself, and rather than seeing the changes in THEM, observe the changes in yourself.
Until you follow the ancient wisdom of Know Thyself, you are probably going to get more and more confused, and offering temporary access to get more subscribers probably isn't going to help with that self analysis.
“Quite how you go from pointing out that Trump didn't take on the deep state, to then saying the deep state must not then exist, is a leap I can't follow you over.”
In the past, Charles Eisenstein himself has criticized the belief in a “deep state” running things, and associated it with paranoid conspiracy thinking of the sort he claimed to be rising above. If you don’t put Charles on a pedestal, as I don’t, his numerous inconsistencies and self-contradictions stand out clearly.
I would happily support an actual deep delving into the question of whether a deep state exists and what is its nature and constituents, but for Charles it seems to be Schrödinger’s Deep State — it exists and pulls the strings in one essay, and is merely a figment of people’s imaginations in another. It’s all down to Charles’ whims and moods of the moment.
I would appreciate it if Charles’ readership started reading him more carefully, and had a better memory for his various truth claims over time. As somebody who takes seriously what assertions and arguments individual writers put forth, I’ve noticed that Charles’ books and essays contain numerous contradictions, inconsistencies and also some factual mistakes. I think there needs to be a lot less endless “gratitude” (“thank you so much Charles for your infinite wisdom!”) and more careful weighing and considering of his various positions. Because they don’t all cohere with one another.
Of course they don't. I'm quite suspicious of people who claim THEY have It all worked out". Reality simply doesn't work that way, and only the Goddess may have absolute knowledge.
There is also a considerable gap between saying "There is a deep state of powerful individuals who attempt to arrange matters to their liking", and "There is a deep state and those bastards control EVERYTHING Zomgzz!".
One is rational, the other is paranoic thinking.
While "Conspiracy theorisising" is a made-up term to steer the public away from investigating and critiquing topics the elites would prefer to remain uninvestigated and uncritiqued, "Paranoic Thinking" can be very real indeed, and is genuinely worrisome, and not to be promoted.
What's the distinction? Take the old board game 'Illuminati'. Several powerful groups are duking it out. This is "Conspiracy theorising". However being convinced that ONE group has ALL the power, is all powerful, controls EVERYTHING - that is paranoic. It's crossed the border from reality into fantasy, and likely dangerous fantasy at that.
So this for me is not one of his inconsistencies. It is seeing there is a distinction there.
The deep state is there, but it is one among many interest groups, and is not 'all-powerful', and it is certainly not the case that everything that happens is because of this amorphous group.
I agree there's a bit too much "gratitude" often expressed on substack, although it is also sometimes genuinely meant, and also genuinely earned too.
“Of course they don't. I'm quite suspicious of people who claim THEY have It all worked out". Reality simply doesn't work that way, and only the Goddess may have absolute knowledge.”
But that is exactly how Charles comports himself, as if he has everything worked out and any criticism of his views is a failure to understand how superior his comprehension is.
The issue is not the existence of inconsistencies and contradictions in his writing. The issue is his own denial, his own refusal to acknowledge that they are there.
“There is also a considerable gap between saying "There is a deep state of powerful individuals who attempt to arrange matters to their liking", and "There is a deep state and those bastards control EVERYTHING Zomgzz!". One is rational, the other is paranoic thinking.”
Come off it. These are YOUR views — they do not constitute a position that Charles has ever clearly articulated. If he had, you could simply link to the essay or cut and paste the quotes in which he articulates this same lucid position. I’m aware of what he’s written about conspiratorial mindsets in the past, and it doesn’t match up with this. I partly agree with what you’ve written, and if that were all that Charles has said, I wouldn’t have a problem with it. It’s a clear and common sense and straightforward position. But, guess what? What you’ve written here is NOT Charles’ argument.
Before we can examine the question of whether a deep state exists, we need to agree on the meaning of the term. Perhaps the inconsistencies you note are merely the result of the meaning of "deep state" not being entirely clear in Charles' own mind, as it is also not in mine. I've been thinking that the 'deep state' is a term for the complex of intelligence and spook agencies of our country that run on secret budgets and can act with impunity against normal laws. The sense discussed here seems to be a conspiracy of oligarchs and alphabet agencies. Viewed this way, it could very well be a Schrödinger’s cat concept that one could suppose or deny at different moments of one's writing.
There is no deep state. There is only the state, which is plenty deep. If there actually was a "deep state" and Trump was actually against it, he would have been eliminated, neutralized, or compromised long ago.
Of course the Alphabets could 'take out' Trump, although he has his own long-serving security, but they need to have 'plausible deniability' for the hit.
That complicates matters extensively. It takes time and planning to build an asset like Lee Harvey Oswald, and there is always the terrible danger the plot will fail and their hand will be revealed.
And, of course, there is the high likliehood they have already tried, a few months ago.
They're not supermen, despite all the Hollywood hype. Institutionalised incompetent fuckwits sociopaths is considerably more accurate.
And again - Trump is a BILLIONAIRE, and white. Not like some Black Panther the FBI can just assassinate by busting in the door and shooting him dead.
There is DEFINITELY a deep state (Originally a Swedish concept, I believe), of networked, privately-educated sociopaths. People so powerful they can even order the POTUS never to say "Ceasefire in Gaza" - recall that conundrum recently?
Like all such groups, it will be amorphous, some people will be in, and then out, but the existence of 'highly connected networks of the wealthy and powerful' exist in every society. In our modern, overpopulated, industrialised societies, they are organised.
"There is DEFINITELY a deep state (Originally a Swedish concept, I believe), of networked, privately-educated sociopaths."
I am afraid you are confusing the amorphous, ambiguous term "deep state" for the highly theorized concept of capital. As Joel Bakan pointed out two decades ago in The Corporation, the imperatives of capital accumulation embody the ethos of the psychopath.
No - but obviously they entwine in capitalist economies.
The deep state is more concerned with the security of the state, than the oligarchs. As Putin showed, the Russian deep state had few problems with reining in the excesses of the Russian oligarchy - although undoubtedly there was considerable pushback within the Russian deep state against such policies, due to the entwinement.
But these two things CAN be separate, and studied separately.
Att the risk of being argumentative, I wouldn't necessarily agree that capital accumulation "is" psychopathic, but it certainly can be in those who seek to be 'Oligarchs', or who are utterly uncaring as to the damage their greed is causing to the other members of the community or nation. And it has become institutionalised behaviour in the West.
Gnuneo, you certainly have the right to believe in a Deep State running things. There is a legitimate debate to be had here. But Eisenstein is not consistent on this subject. For him it’s like Schrödinger’s Cat, real and powerful in one essay, a figment of the imagination in another, depending on what point he’s trying to make at a particular time.
Don't forget the whale skulls. But give the guy a break. It's just a rich kid's hobby and a rich kid's sense of entitlement that he can do whatever he wants and it will be indulged.
Frankly, having a whale skull shows how much RFK Jr. is deeply anti-establishment. He's just a random guy, like hundred of millions of Americans. It's very important such people can seize the power for protecting the poor.
I appreciate what you're doing but I think you miss the mark when you continue describing Trump as an anti-establishment candidate. His interest seems to be in controlling the establishment rather than dismantling it. Your last point that Kamala is part of the establishment and is therefore unable to actually embody these principles suggests to me a major distortion in how you're looking at this; a separation you have drawn between yourself and your in group and this idea of "Establishment", an idea that I'm not convinced is rooted in an effective understanding of how structures emerge from social relationships.
Wonderfully put. It feels to me that Charles's thinking has become warped as a result of social pressures. It's very human for that to happen.
I have to say, it's been sobering to see so many people I respected (like Charles and Russell Brand) effectively become Trump surrogates.
For what it's worth, I'm no fan of Kamala. But why not support an actual non-establishment candidate who will oppose the deep state like Cornel West? Trump is a billionaire who has profited immensely from business as usual and is obsessed with dominance (i.e. "winning"), why does anyone expect him to drain any swamps or overturn the structures of dominance making our world sick? It's patently absurd, and the fact that Charles can't see it tells me his thinking is distorted.
Can West win? Almost certainly not. But who's to say what would happen if there were a genuine movement for a 3rd party candidate instead of all this capitulation to the major parties that I'm seeing.
I am absolutely stymied by the move of such independent thinkers to Trump. I listened to Russell Brand's interview with Tucker Carlson today, trying to get a read, and I heard nothing that explains it. I DO understand his shift towards religion; that "seeking for God" has been in him forever, and he is eloquent on the subject as it pertains to addiction. However, when he talks about things like "reclaiming the sacred Thames River" from corporate influence or "ridding the political system of lobbying, corruption, the influence of money," I see absolutely zero connective tissue with supporting Trump and the party that literally (as David Sirota brilliantly demonstrates in "The Master Plan", and others have elsewhere, and is supremely (pun intended) evidenced in Citizens United) has codified such practices to our collective detriment. Yes, the Dems have their issues; I understand the concern about government overreach. But swinging to Trump literally does not compute. I DO NOT GET IT.
In terms of 3rd parties, I am fascinated by the discussion of "fusion voting" in Micah Sifry's newsletter today: https://theconnector.substack.com/p/the-third-party-problem-in-2024-and?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=96838&post_id=149015941&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=false&token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoyMDU2Nzk4LCJwb3N0X2lkIjoxNDkwMTU5NDEsImlhdCI6MTcyNjYwNTcyOSwiZXhwIjoxNzI5MTk3NzI5LCJpc3MiOiJwdWItOTY4MzgiLCJzdWIiOiJwb3N0LXJlYWN0aW9uIn0.XTCWEvV6Gg54Cmu9hFrPzqOPtlToIaRlJp7VLhijJWI&r=1831a&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
I have been writing a series of essays trying to understand what happened with Charles Eisenstein and Russell Brand -- how the focus on "sovereignty" and bodily autonomy / vaccine paranoia during the pandemic acted as the gateway drug to Right-libertarian ideology and Trump-ism. Here are the 3 articles I have written so far - if anyone emails me ( Daniel.pinchbeck@gmail.com ), I am happy to give them a month free subscription so they can go behind the paywalls: https://danielpinchbeck.substack.com/p/the-turncoats?r=1mhh1
https://danielpinchbeck.substack.com/p/what-happened-to-russell-brand-and?r=1mhh1
https://danielpinchbeck.substack.com/p/libertarian-fallacies?r=1mhh1
I don't think Charles is Trumpist at all! You are misreading him...
I think Charles forgot to include the most important principle of all for a true anti-establishment pro-humanity candidate and that is TRANSPARENCY - to commit to NOT meet with our ruling class billionaire abusers in private and secrecy, to commit to having all one's meetings (and all other politicians meetings) to being public, open to public scrutiny. This way we could stop once and for all being deceived by the Qanon/MAGA narrative (that presents pro-billionaire mass-murderer trump as an "anti-establishment candidate who came becasue he loves the people and wants to help the little guy fight the deep state"), this way we could all see out in the open what a pro-billionaire pro-empire pro-ruling class pro-Wall St pro-M.I.C pro-war pro-genocide pro-NeoCon Zionist pro-Big Pharma pro-Big Agri pro-Big Food actually is their criminal ConMan trump!!!
Let me say it as clearly as possible for the people at the back: HARRIS IS A RIGHT-WING PRO-BILLIONAIRE REPRESENTATIVE OF THE RULING CLASS ; TRUMP IS A RIGHT-WING PRO-BILLIONAIRE REPRESENTATIVE OF THE RULING CLASS (not to mention that he is also profoundly psychologically-undeveloped, emotionally-stunted, infantile & narcissist with a relational maturity level of a 4 year old, but that's the least of his crimes. Details about mass-murderer Godless trump's crimes against humanity and whose narrow interests he works to promote coming up in a moment).
I love you Charles, but IMHO you are doing a huge disservice to humanity by repeating the Qanon/MAGA mythology and presenting trump as "anti-elite rebel who is here to help the little guy fight the establishment". Nothing could be more farther from the truth, as his ACTUAL actions show (not the Qanon/MAGA narrative surrounding hom and his actions, but his ACTUAL actions). I confess, it is extremely sad to see someone as astute as you being so strongly influenced and taken by your political in-group associations...
Mass-murderer anti-life God-ignorant ConMan Trump was already president once, remember? Need I remind us that he and his Zionist PR team of deceivers already sold us the exact same deceptive Qanon/MAGA narrative they are selling us now (as if he is an anti-elite-rebel man-of-the-people who came to fight the deep state for the little guy), and need i remind us that once elected he promptly spat in the face of all the gullible unintelligent propagandized people who believed him and his Zionist team of deceivers, and proceeded to fill up his administration to the brim with deep-state NeoCon swamp creatures from Goldman Sachs, BlackRock, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Eric Prince's BlackWater merceneries, and the rest of Wall St and the war profiteering industry filled up to the brim every single position in his administration of anti-life deep state billionaire shark predators. In addition, he handed foreign policy over to deep state NeoCon zionist operatives in the form of compulsive-liar CIA director Pompeo, Chabad devotee and Mossad representitive Kushner, ultra-zionist mass-murderer Bolton, NeoCon zionist lunatic ("starve them to death") Abrams etc. etc. Besides them, the State Dept. was literally full of and run by NeoCon israelis during trump's presidency, america's global forigen policy was literally run by israeli supremacists during trump's presidency!!
What on earth makes any of us think that he will act any differently this time? Because the Mossad-created Qanon/MAGA narrative says so? (echoed by large portions of the so-called 'alternative conservative media' ecosystem)
All ConMan trump did during his presidency was transfer trillions to his buddies the ultra-wealthy war profiteers and Big Pharma corporate-capitalists for example in his 5.9 trillion dollar corona giveaway to Big Pharma corporate capitalists and to his ultra-wealthy Wall St billionaire pals, our abusers and predators, and for example in his annual gigantic military spending - spending which SKYROCKETED under trump - to give away trillions and trillions of our money to his anti-life war profiteering buddies); filled his admin to the brim with deep-state swamp creatures, gave tax breaks to the ultra-rich and made sure the most wealthy (the anti-life heart-divorced deep state billionaire abusers who brought him to power) became much wealthier while everyone else stagnated or impoverished; Trump EXPANDED the mass-murdering billionaires' global militarized corporate-capitalist empire (of nearly 900 military bases encircling the entire globe, dozens of warships colonizing every sea on the planet, and at least 13 extra-judicial torture camps where kidnapped human beings are held in captivity for years without trial and tortured by brainwashed conservatives because.."patriotism" and "god" and "jesus" and "christian moral values") with his RECORD HIGH military spending to enrich his war profiteering capitalist billionaire pals; Created a welfare state for billionaires (with his government's coercive force used to lavish his right-wing billionaire scum with public funding, funneling trillions of our money to his backers the conservative war profiteers, who of course privatize the profits and give nothing back to the public that funds them) and crumbs for the rest of us..
As one "small" example for trump's crimes against humanity (out of numerous such examples), trump also initiated, armed and funded (used our money to fund) a coup in Bolivia so that his billionaire pal Elon Musk can steal the world's largest reserves of lithium from Bolivia for his "green"-electric car company (which is at the forefront of the climate capitalists' "4th industrial revolution" and "great reset"). Musk literally sat at the table with trump and pompeo and said "we will coup whoever we want, we're in charge now, deal with it". That is how sure are musk and trump that their propagandized dumb deceived followers will follow them blindly and obediently no matter what crimes they commit against humanity (trump literally bragged that he can shoot someone on the street in broad daylight and his hypnotized deceived conservatives followers will still worship him..)
I hope you are aware Charles that your ideas can (and likely will) be used cynically and deceptively, as feel good slogans (like unity and rise above division) by the most murderous pro-ruling class tribalistic anti-wholism anti-egalitarian hierarchical God-ignorant political manipulators (like trump and his PR team of deceivers) who act in POLAR OPPOSITE ways to the slogans that they'll borrow from you in order to deceive and gain support from the people..
Seems to me that the basic assumption (from which you are writing this piece Charles) would have been true in 2016 when many (propagandized) americans really believed that trump is exceptionally evil and dnc are the benevolent force for good. Hardly anyome belives this anymore but exactly the opposite is the case now, by far most (propagandized) americans now believe the opposite fairytale, that the dnc is the establishmemt force of evil and that trump is an "anti-establishment rebel".
Both these fairytales are profoundly false.
One doesn't have to buy into the stupid CNN/WashPost deceptive propaganda machine (that presents trump as exceptionally and caricaturishly evil) in order to see from his actions that he is actually a common run-of-the-mill murderous american president, by the ruling class for the ruling class, just as pro-billionaire pro-empire and criminal as the ones before and after him. No worse but definitely no better than the life-destroying right-wing american presidents before and after him. BOTH the CNN/NYTimes fairytales AND the Qanon/MAGA failrytales about him are false. His actions clearly show that he's not exceptionally evil nor exceptionally righteous, just a normal anti-life right-wing american president who is here to enrich the ultra-rich, to cement the global control of the american billionaire's militarized empire over the planet and to ensure that our desire for change is hijacked and neutralized and doesn't amount to any real change, which are precisely the things he did as president..
Trump is horrible NOT becasue of what the corporate-capitalist manipulators on CNN/MSNBC/WashPost say about him but precisely because he is like every other pro-billionaire life-destroying mass-murdering right-wing american president (conservative or liberal)
Both trumpism and anti-trumpism are fake decoy revolutions. See https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/both-trumpism-and-anti-trumpism-are?
One other small thing, if I may - you seem to have bought into the Qanon/MAGA mythology that trump is "anti-NeoCons", but that doesn't make any sense to say when you acknowledge (as you do) that he is fully wholly and completely in support of the supremacist nazi NeoCons that run the Israeli govt and their genocidal imperialist project of dispossesion and anninilation of the local people, and their imperialist policy of eternal religious division, hostility and war. THE NEOCONS ARE ISRAEL. It makes no sense to acknowledge that trump is fully in support of the genocidal supremacist zionist colonial project and then say he dislikes the NeoCons. Trump's administration was FULL TO THE BRIM with warmongering bloodthirsty zionist NeoCons during his presidency. He literally handed the state Dept. over to NeoCon Israelis. Israelis were literally running his State Dept! He literally made Israelis in charge of american global policy!! And you can be sure that he'll attack Iran and China for them soon after he and his NeoCon Israeli billionaire pals enter the white house. It makes no sense whatsoever to say he is "anti NeoCons". It is a common Qanon/MAGA slogan that has no basis in reality.
Plenty more I wanted to point out regarding trump's crimes against the people and who are the adrenochrome-drinking billionaire abusers that brought him to power before and are doing it again now, but the space for a comment here is finished..
you may be so right in much of what you say...however there is always a place for what the American Indians might call your 'good enemy' - there will be learning and growth however it goes. What I'm appreciating right now is the mix-match/mish-mash/mash-up of all sorts of people - a much needed change away from the black/white, good/bad, evil/virtuous duality which is showing itself so extremely in the world scene. It may seem incongruous but we have no idea what effect the rubbing off of so many different energies may have - it could be combustive, healing, growthful, disastrous - but it is change and it does hold all sorts of potentials. We need breakthrough on every level...change doesn't always look right or nice
- and none of this is intended to disparage anything you say...just another thought to ponder...
This is the writers dilemma. One cannot possibly cover every single large or nuanced issue in every writing. There will always be issues that are left off of the table in relationship to the availability of time and space. It's bothersome not to be able to address it all, but hopefully the reader will take in and simmer with what has been laid on the table. Suggestions to cover future issues is always beneficial.
I wouldn't coin the term 'vaccine paranoia' to describe people's opposition to that particular medical intervention that was pushed on people globally. I think anyone ignorantly accepting this injection pushed so fiercely and aggressively by governments were simply not doing their due diligence and research.
"Evidence-based thinking" in that last article, seriously? The Covid vaccines have indeed caused extreme mortality and morbidity which a multitude of scientists and doctors are speaking out about.
Just from this week how the vaxxed are faring so much worse w Covid wrt cardiac outcomes https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39244425/
Or how about this as something you should have been far more 'paranoid' about - this is a direct route to cancer.
https://t.co/KgTXa3YCqE
If you understood what is going on with the vaccines, with the bioweapon that was the excuse for the vaccines or with much of what is happening (you know the actual conspiracies), you'd appreciate how nuanced Charles' takes are
https://t.co/KgTXa3YCqE
I read your latest post and was so grateful. I am not in a position to become a paying subscriber at the moment, but I will continue to read with interest as you try and unpack this. I also read the comments section and LOVE the community of thoughtful people that you're bringing together. I have been wondering about this for quite a while, and have not been able to crack the nut. I have been a fan of Brand's for many years (which is very uncharacteristic of me; I really think he's the only person about whom I've actually and legitimately called myself a "fan," even jokingly), and simply do not see the logic. FWIW, I do sense that there is some truth in the suggestion that it really does have something to do with ego. Not entirely, but it's there. In a culture that celebrates brilliance — and RB is undoubtedly brilliant — that brilliance needs somewhere to go, to see itself reflected and hear itself. It can't just fester in its own broth, it must be applied to something. If the left project starts to become untenable for a variety of reasons, and if the person has done a ton of spiritual work, then maybe there is just enough mental flexibility to do the contortions and make the "free speech" "individual liberty" persona stick, even if it means overlooking the very real ways that the biggest mouthpieces for such ideals, at the moment, drag a Santa's sleigh full of destructive behaviors along with them. It's a clean argument "free speech!" rather than the muddy Democratic vision, full of seemingly unresolvable contradictions.
My entire question, at this point, can be boiled down to: What is the proper role of government? A totally deregulated free-market society gives us self-audited Boeing planes falling out of the sky and rivers on fire. But government overreach, over-regulation is also a real thing. It's a conundrum, that's for sure. I wish I could take comfort in religion and Trump the way they seem to; sounds much easier, frankly.
I will read asap - curious to hear your thoughts. Thank you!
Such a pathetic cry for readers! How about saying something of interest right here, right now?
I can explain it because I am someone who began my political journey at 18 with a vote for Obama. I voted for Hillary in 2016 and was utterly sick when Trump won. I felt sure it was the end of us. I was a religious Democracy Now listener and a card carrying member of a certain kind of progressivism.
What I saw over those years though…I saw the media and the institutions form like voltron and from day one do anything possible to sabotage a presidency that our country voted for, if not all at least enough for him to win. I watched these people, those in power, clinging to power, use phony premises to try to oust him, time and time again. This went on for years. I then watched another election where dirty tactics were used. There were lies about COVID. The absolute apex of shock doctrine type economics, though this time used on us, the citizens of this country. I watched as apparent “incompetence” called into question the election. I have seen Trump compared to Hitler, to Putin, to every fill in the blank despot with really no basis in reality. Even not being a personal fan of Trump and his crassness, I could see we were being manipulated in order to restrict more of our freedoms.
I have watched Americans, not all, but many actually vote for the curtailing of their rights. We can argue about semantics of whether or not Twitter or X is a publisher or a platform or a private company and they can do what they wish, but we all can see the degradation of our freedom to think and speak freely.
At this point a vote for Trump is a vote for the discontinuation of rights abuse violations that likely predate the Patriot Act. Say what you will about Trump, the powers that be clearly do not want him elected and that tells me plenty. He is absolutely not part of the current state of affairs but an outsider. Much has been said on this.
You may not agree but to say you literally cannot see why a “free thinker” would toss their lot in with Trump at this point makes me think you could try a little harder to understand those who would.
We vote this way now because it is our BEST choice to dislodge the borg. I get that a Cornel West or a Jill Stein is more palatable but that route has NEVER worked before. Not once. Why would we risk it all on the chance it would work now?
We vote Trump because the stakes are very high and we may not get another chance. I feel absolutely comforted by the fact that RFK and Tulsi and many other well reasoned people have backed Trump. These are people I have followed for many years, whose courage I admire, who have consistently made the hard choices that alienated themselves from power when they could have done the opposite. I never thought I’d find myself here but here I am.
Hope that helps.
ditto
I'm not sure if this comment was in response to mine - I think the Substack thread-tracking mechanism is really hard to follow - but I appreciated it, regardless. In some ways, I see where you're coming from; the "left" (media, commentariat, politicians, whoever) has overplayed its hand many times. I would often read an article that made him sound like a sociopath (like when he booted a crying baby from a rally, if I'm remembering correctly) and then I'd watch the video to see how it ACTUALLY played out, and sometimes they definitely seemed to diverge.
As I wrote recently, I saw him speak in Nashville. I have had a hard time wrapping my head around the difference between what I sort of expected, based on everything I hear (frothing incoherence) and what I experienced (a guy who knows how to work a room, kinda funny, a little rambling, but definitely not perceptibly insane).
But forget how the left has treated him; he seems to be doing just fine (aside from political violence, which is not the point here). You speak of discontinuing rights abuses, presumably free speech at the top of the list. Is that the main point? I would definitely agree that curtailment of free speech is fundamentally unAmerican, but I believe that freedom can be buttressed with real pressure, that we still have extraordinarily free speech in this country, and that we can fight to preserve it without resorting to accepting eveyrthing else Trump stands for which, as far as I can see, is not much. I mean, even at the Bitcoin conference he was wooing everyone with "Bitcoin this, Bitcoin that" and now he's got his own shitcoin coming out. Really? I'd love to imagine all of the Bitcoiners waking up and fully acknowledging that someone else wrote that speech, that it was just shilling for votes, that he has no fucking clue what Bitcoin is, but I'm not holding my breath. They just want a pro-crypto atmosphere, everything else be damned. I cannot imagine how amazingly relaxing it would be to be a one-issue voter.
What does he stand for that you actually agree with? Is he credibly anti-war? The comment above (while I have not fact-checked, specifically) speaks to the overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
Do you think deregulation and tax breaks will clean up rivers and purify the air? I mean, do you want to get on an airplane whose safety has been verified, essentially, by the boardroom responsible for returning maximum profit to shareholders? Are you cool with the "concept of a plan" stuff for healthcare (to name a few random thoughts that come to mind)?
This is where I feel like I'm banging my head against the wall. Philosophically, I see almost nothing in Trump's positioning that leads to any positive outcomes whatsoever. It's as simple as that. Yes, he's been sort of like a punching bag for the left's deepest fears, in many ways, but in MANY of those ways, he's earned it. He's not threading any needles like RFK. He's just a giant inkblot upon which we project all of our shit. He likes being an inkblot; it works for him. I don't feel bad for him, and I certainly see zero evidence that he's going to "dislodge the borg" (a reference I had to look up, so I have no credibility there).
There are no easy answers to our problems. I think Trump offers a palatable "easy answer" that feels like it's backed up by some distant drumbeat of "natural order comes back into balance when the market takes care of itself" but I think that you have to be a world-class cherrypicker to find evidence to support that. On the other hand, I absolutely agree that the Democratic party has been abysmal in so many ways, stole the election from Bernie, lost the plot with things like defund the police, etc.
It's not just a "lesser of two evils" thing, though: I think one can be called out and shaped with pressure and work and long-term movement building (which we have not, in fact, really seen much of - even though it may have looked like it), and the other is like letting out a bull in a china shop. Sure, the bull in his natural habitat would be doing natural, nature-ey, bullish things; but if your society is modern and complicated — if your civilization has reached the point at which china shops are a thing — then bulls don't work.
I know this sounds argumentative but I really do appreciate your comment. I have been so baffled by all of this that I'm really just working out my thoughts out loud, and I apologize if it's more confrontational than I intended. I welcome your thoughts and push back, and would be happily called out for any errors or blind spots. I really need to figure this shit out.
No your comment is excellent. You have some points for sure!
For one thing, it’s not so much that I think Trump the man will dislodge any borgs, it’s more that he is such an interruption to the beltway insider to corporate pipeline. He truly is not one of them. Yes he has money and he’s been in business and he “makes deals” (or whatever) but he is not “one of them” and you can tell by the way he is treated. It’s not so much that I deeply support Trump but I find it striking that a cadre of people I DO trust and support have backed him. I profoundly trust RFKj and his judgment. Likewise for Tulsi Gabbard. Likewise for Bret Weinstein and his wife. It has been helpful for me to actually follow the thought process and shifts of these other people who were also total lifelong democrats.
You would be correct that my number one concern is free speech. I agree that our country is still remarkably free and thank goodness. Much of Europe is finding their leaders unaccountable to them by way of increasingly globalized governing bodies. They don’t have the same protections we do via our constitutional rights. I believe the assessment many before me have made that it was utterly intentional to put the second amendment immediately following the first. I believe it is not just a historical quirk. I think the founders realized we needed a robust and protected way to back up these rights. All to say I think there are MANY within our current regime that would “update” these inconvenient rights the first chance they get. You already have Hillary on TV advocating for criminally charging those who spread information they do not like (I believe she called it propaganda.)
To me Trump is exactly as you say: an ink blot. But I have observed he will change his mind. He will accept counsel. I am heartened by those he is surrounding himself with this go round (mostly).
He appointed the ex CEO of Exxon as Secretary of State. He has promised another tax cut for billionaires and his party will cut Medicare, increased the retirement wage, end all environmental protections and replace the EPA with MAGA and oil stooges. Already 65000 rape victims have been denied abortions including a 10 year old, an 11 year old and a 13 year old. And a mum of a six year old just died because she was denied abortions. And he talks about wanting to fuck his daughter, Ivanka https://www.ibtimes.com/12-times-donald-trump-acted-totally-inappropriately-ivanka-3068093
https://www.salon.com/2023/06/28/ex-aide-john-kelly-was-disgusted-as-wondered-what-it-might-be-like-to-have-with-ivanka/
Trump is the most pro corporate and billionaire elite president the US has ever had.
How much do you know about him? It doesn't sound like your perception is informed by his policies
I am so thrilled to be having this conversation. Thank you so much for your thoughtful reply — not only were you gracious, but you also added a lot to the discussion and gave me much to think about.
I find myself straddling two worlds (or many); basically, my jeans are splitting LOL.
I agree with you that it has been totally illuminating to listen to people like the Weinsteins and others on that circuit (I haven't really paid close attention to Tulsi; maybe I should?). It's hard to listen to those in-depth interviews and not come away with some new insights that are glaringly absent from the broader conversation (I just looked at my list of 1,322 uncatalogued "notes" from such interviews — the day I get around to sorting those will feel like a national holiday — and saw the comment, from Weinstein (oh wait, it was Eric - I don't really know them that well, but have listened to both) that I found compelling enough to take down: "We are mistaking a redistribution of empathy for an expansion of empathy."
Things like that. You just don't get stuff like that in the broader conversation, and it just feels obviously true. I have written about this a bit: empathy, in my view, is like the feeling a parent (or I'll speak for myself) has when they have only one child and wonders how it's possible that there could possibly be enough love for the second child when you're pretty much exploding with love for the first. And then the second child comes, and you're like - oh, wait! it wasn't that the love had to be shared, it was that the quantity of available love simply doubled." Meaning that the way we view resources like empathy - withholding it from some in the name of showering it upon others - makes no sense.
Anyway, that's totally beside the point of our discussion. It's late and I am procrastinating dinner cleanup. I won't get into the weeds of the policy stuff you brought up at the moment, because I still have plenty of questions and can't quite muster the cognitive fortitude, but I didn't want to delay replying and expressing my appreciation for the dialogue. :)
haha I'm laughing reading you and following your back and forth thought processes - I relate! And I am open - this is not a game based on logic...
haha I'm so glad you're following and that it resonates! it is DEFINITELY not a game based on logic. That's so important to bear in mind!
It is a very confusing inversion. What I have noticed in myself is not so much an opening to Trump as an opening to the people who have supported him. The working people, the people of faith, the non-urban, the analog… the left behind. During Covid, it seemed like these were the only folks not snearing at and condemning people who questioned the Covid narrative. (And still are, judging by Mr Pinchbecks comments). I think so many people are just exhausted by the smug certainty of the left, and now see it’s lethality firsthand.
I agree that the left often appears very smug, and this has, in part at least, created the dissident right. But Trump is just a grifter taking advantage of this. Why can't the disaffected band together in solidarity and back an actual alternative, rather than someone who has been as Establishment as it gets since birth?
Someone like RFK? They are.
He's just proved he's not an alternative, by backing Trump. He would have been more alternative by just pulling out and criticising from the sidelines.
Also RFK is literally a Kennedy. That is the heart of the Establishment, like the Bushes.
I have knocked on probably a thousand doors at this point, if not more, and I agree with you. The people are often lovely and relatable; in a weird way, they are actually more relaxing. I've been trying to put my finger on the problem (as have we all, obviously); just when you think you've landed on it, though, another side of the situation reveals itself and disqualifies the thought.
The whole POV that they're both faces of the neoliberal war machine, however true it may be, makes it easy to throw up one's hands, vote 3rd party, etc. That's not an option; it'll be one of these two. I believe that the Dems can be pressured to change — they will lose if they don't — and that the Republicans have literally zero incentive to change, because their schtick is working.
PS: i just did the math and it's definitely way more than 1,000 doors. I don't know what i was thinking. Just putting that out there even though nobody cares LOL
I like and relate to where you are coming from Allison :)
I'm not so sure it's an opening to Trump - more a way 'in' perhaps for some interesting characters who will undoubtedly topple the old apple cart...we have no idea where or how it might all go - the consciousness of us, the world as a whole will play a big role...
Its bigger than Trump. The Dem side is so corrupt, the other side is where those who understand that are. Liking Trump is not necessary to see that. But TDS clouds our ability to see strategy.
If your argument is Trump is less bad, well, I disagree, but we can disagree reasonably because both candidates are awful if you care about putting an end to the war machine, but Trump might be marginally better in that respect (honestly it's difficult to say and personally I don't believe the military industrial complex actually takes orders from the president in a real sense).
But if you're arguing that Trump might be a good man coming to his senses, I'm sorry, I just don't see that. I don't think it's Trump derangement syndrome either. I've been critical of the Democratic party (from the left) for most of my life. I don't have any special allegiance to them and I see Trump as a symptom of a deeper sickness. But he's certainly not an antidote to corruption. Again, some of these claims are so comical that it's hard to understand how people come to these conclusions.
Can you explain why you don't think a Trump administration would be equally corrupt to a Democrat one? We've seen a Trump administration, and it looked plenty corrupt to me.
The democrats, who shriek about "saving democracy" just installed a presidential candidate without a single primary vote.
It's pure pragmatism and dedication to public service. The DNC aggressively sabotaged RFKjr's campaign -- deploying a staff with war chest budget dedicated to re-writing rules and suing in the states to block ballot access, swiftboat his intelligence, twist his words to keep him on the defensive in the media, and infiltrate his staff to create legal issues. The denial of secret service protection was astoundingly venal, and also prevented him being able to organize large rallies; the campaign had to become more media-centered but he was blocked from mainstream audiences and the debate stage.
He'd campaigned without a day off for 17 months and Dems thought they had him cornered, tied up in kangaroo court in New York while they partied in Chicago. With his campaign sabotaged Kennedy pivoted on a dime to put three core issues in front of voters -- ending the Ukraine war, stopping censorship (which is getting scarier from Dems by the day), and taking on the chronic disease epidemic. He endorsed the Trump campaign as a means to get in the White House. It's Trump who's endorsed Kennedy's policies, not the other way around. A brilliant strategy to form a unity coalition government within the U.S. system. Kennedy will have oversight over staffing as chair of the hiring committee. Better policies will result from hiring better people. It's all going to make Trump look very very good, believe me, he'll be happy to take credit.
This is the very best we could hope for out of the lesser-evil-ism into which we've once again been manipulated. And today Trump was very gracious when acknowledging the phone calls he'd received from Biden and Harris after the second attempt on his life. So there's that. Let's keep going we the people with our messy painful beautiful evolution toward a more direct, self-organizing, localized democracy.
Thanks for putting it perfectly.
Thank you Elke : )
It’s not “difficult to say” that Trump is marginally better regarding peace efforts. He’s absolutely 100% better than the Neoliberal Democrats. The Ukraine war never would have started under his watch, and I am near certain he will negotiate out of it if elected. He also squashed the North Korea nuclear threats when in office, though now with Biden/Kamala in office N.K. has ramped it back up again. I very much don’t like the anti-Russia rhetoric coming from the Dems and mainstream Republicans, it’s dangerous and I worry could lead to nuclear war, which is why I’ll be voting for Trump. The Israel-Palestine conflict is another matter though, as both main candidates back Israel, including RFK. I can understand why someone would vote Stein or West because of that.
He'll give Ukraine to Putin. Appeasement in other words. He and other dictators will get the green light to invade their neighbours. Appeasing Putin brings more conflict, not less. 30s redux. I have friends on the front line defending their home. They want the invader out. They want their sovereignty. They want the 100k kidnapped children back. Trump is also far far worse on Gaza. He wants Netanyahu to "finish the job" and told him to reject a ceasefire because it might benefit the Dems. Trump is no peacenink. He's just pro Putin.
I agree with you about Trump’s position on Gaza, that is concerning. But I don’t agree about Putin and Ukraine, the roots of that conflict go back to 2014 which falls on the deep state.
Better that the war in the Ukraine is ended, than for the world to end up in WW3.
From what I could see, the bombs continued to drop during the Trump presidency. Whether or not the Ukraine war would have started under his presidency is pure speculation. Again, I'm not saying you're wrong, but I do think it's difficult to say or predict. Trump is not a peaceful person by nature. He thrives on conflict and is obsessed with winning. That makes me question whether he would be any less of a warmonger, and as I implied earlier, it's unclear to what extent the president has power over the military industrial complex. I know that's how it's supposed to work, but it seems highly doubtful to me.
You may be right, but at least he didn’t start any new wars, whereas 2 have started under Biden, and I don’t think that’s a coincidence. The Ukraine war has its roots going back to 2014, when the U.S. ( Victoria Nuland) participated in a coup to overthrow their president.
Which is why I am pleased that people like RFK and Charles (!) are on the team - who knows what subtle effects are at play...
I think it comes down to triage. We will have no opportunity to arrest any wars if we can no longer speak freely about them. To me it’s about protecting the essentials first, such as our Constitution, and moving from there. He is the only candidate I trust at the moment to not throw us to the global governance wolves at the door. It’s weighing the situation by saying, Trump will have another 4 years and then someone else can fill the role. He just patently is not the Hitler he’s been made out to be. Unsavory, sure. Says things I’d rather her not, site. I don’t think a Trump cabinet would be near as corrupt as the current regime because he doesn’t control all the levers of power. The deep state is not carrying water for him. He is an outsider coming in with a team of people I have followed and respected for many years and whom I trust. I can appreciate you don’t agree but this is why Trump seems the better option rn.
I believe the most important thing Trump can do is stop the globalist take-over of nation states. He is the only candidate capable of doing that. What do you think the mass immigration everywhere is all about? Yuval Harari has said if Trump gets in, their project (Great Reset, Agenda 2030,etc.) is finished.
that's my question, exactly
Agreed. I'm supporting Green Party Jill Stein for these reasons.
She doesn't even know how many Congressmen the country has. Actually, just like Trump. Both are unfit.
Absolutely. @charles any comment?
I think Charles is part of the process of laying out a pathway for a truly different third alternative. It's not going to happen in this election but you will have 4 more years to truly build something different and life changing.
I completely agree with everything you say, I am somewhat astonished that Charles could possibly find such a corrupt fraud and sociopath capable of building the society he craves.
I think you may have misinterpreted what's happening with the Independent movement. It's a different paradigm centered on voters' needs and priorities, not on the candidates' personalities and whims in relation to a party platform (or lack thereof). There's definitely no endorsement of Trump-ism or any other -ism. It's as though the American experiment in democracy is rebooting itself under duress into a self-organizing structure through the collective consciousciousness of humanity's immune system.
Its bigger than Trump. The Dem side is so corrupt, the other side is where those who understand that are. Liking Trump is not necessary to see that. But TDS clouds our ability to see strategy.
49 DAYS TILL ELECTION DAY
Dear Mr. Kennedy,
Back in April of 2023 you told us: "Give me a sword...". We are that sword. We are ready We are here. Where are you??
Your Still Loyal Volunteers
AS POSTED ON SUBSTACK & THE KENNEDY BEACON
You suggest trump sit down with groups of people to listen with curiosity and compassion. May I suggest he start with the Central Park Five, who he terrorized? Or the women he raped/sexually assaulted? The children he separated, how about he sit with them? The Haitian immigrants in Ohio, who he had now put in real danger? Charles, this man had created real and devastating harm. It’s not media-created. It’s not exaggerated or caricatured. Because you personally have not been his target, it seems, you can look beyond these things. But for those he has targeted, they have no such option.
No he will not change. No, he cannot change. And, as another commentator said, he is no outsider, either. Pull the blinders off.
And will K'mala sit down with those prisoners she refused to release because the state needed more slave fire-fighters?
Will Biden sit down with the parents of all the Ukrainians he has caused killed?
Will Biden and Harris sit down and apologise to the Gazans?
YOU "take the blinders off" too.
Trump is an awful human being. So are his DNC opponents.
Curiousity and compassion are alien to ALL of them, not just Trump.
Charles is trying to make the best of a bad situation. It is hardly HIS fault that ALL of the election leaders are horrible people.
Advocating for Trump is not a solution. Are there not other avenues?
Not at this point. We are threatened by a global technocracy. It is immanent.
Stein - obviously.
there are no other avenues which earn Charles $20k per month, no.
good for him - he deserves it! Charles has given away lots for free over the years...it's time his worth - as a bridger, a peacemaker, a wise man - was recognised...
If he was wise he'd be nowhere near Trump.
They're not all terrible people, though. There are candidates with authentic principles like Cornel West who he could support instead. But he must feel an immense pressure to support Trump given the social circles he has embedded himself in.
I like Bro Cornel, but he was never serious about winning the election. I think Jr wants someone serious.
What makes you think he wasn't serious? I think he understands the low likelihood and he's spoken to the value of his candidacy in terms of getting a perspective out there even if he doesn't win, but that doesn't mean he's not trying to win. But I don't know, maybe you have some information I don't.
Either way, it feels weird for someone that supported a 3rd party candidate with a very low likelihood of winning to reject another 3rd party candidate on grounds of their chances of victory (which applies to Charles as well as RFK).
I think a lot of this comes down to tribal pressures, which Charles should be aware of given his writing about these psychological forces, but seems to lack self-awareness of their influence on him nonetheless. He got a lot of vitriol and shaming from the left for his takes on Covid, and similarly, he got a lot of love from the right (including all sorts of speaking engagements).
Of course that's going to have an impact on his thinking without a huge helping of self-awareness. If Charles did come out in support of West, there would be all sorts of drama from misguided leftists saying West should distance himself from and denounce the bad antivaxx man. It's unfortunate. The left's general take on Covid was also highly influenced by tribal pressures, for what it's worth.
I agree with a lot of that, Brian H.
BTW, if you're Frank's son, PLEASE stop cashing in on Dune with that trash Drek pulp writer. ;) :'D
The H doesn't stand for Herbert but it would be funny if it did.
They all should, yes.
whadabout... whadabout... BOTH SIDES!
"Horrible people" dehumanizes anyone so proclaimed. They are all people swept up by the systems as well. Where's our viewing of who they truly are?
Agreed. Trump is a milignant narcissist. Everything he does and says is driven by his personality disorder making transformation virtually impossible. All the talk of ending wars, corruption, etc., while simultaneously justifying an ongoing depraved genocide is grotesque.
Trump did not terrorize the Central Park 5. He took out a newspaper ad supporting the death penalty IF they were found guilty of an horrific crime that shocked many at the time. I also am not aware of his raping women. Hopefully you do not mean that woman claiming she was raped in a dressing room. Her story is full of holes. There is a problem at the border and children being separated from their parents is unfortunately a risk. Children are often not accompanied by their real parents. Trump is not targeting these people, he is/was trying to solve a problem. He also is not responsible for the plight of the Haitians. That situation needed to be brought to light, as it is a poignant example of what can and is happening in communities. You have demonized Trump, largely based on misrepresentations in the media. This is what Charles cautions against. Trump's rough manner is off- putting to many, but I believe he stands for good.
He was found guilty of sexual assault by a jury of his peers
Do you mean that phony Jean Carrol case? That was outrageous and an excellent example of how the Dems have politicized the courts. That case was well past the statute of limitations and Dems in NY decided to pass a new law (specifically aimed at getting Trump) to allow old cases to be prosecuted. This one is so old, it is ridiculous to have any sense of justice being served. It was simply he said, she said. The jurors were duped. I am outraged that the justice system has been abused in this way.
Can you explain why you are a better judge of that case than the jury of twelve who heard and saw all the evidence? What is the basis for believing you have special insight?
I largely agree. I've intensely disliked Trump since his Apprentice days, but now I"m far more afraid of the Democrats. As for putting Haitians in danger, I don't buy it. More Democrat over dramatization to deflect from their own actions. As for being a "rapist", I'm not so sure about that either. Meanwhile, I've yet to hear even one Democrat express grief over the young girls and woman raped, brutalized and killed by the Democrats illegally allowed into our country in an effort to increase their likely voter pool. Despicable.
You’re right. He was never convicted of rape.
He was found guilty of sexual assault by a jury of his peers. He shoved his fingers in a women's vagina uninvited. Just like he boasted he did on the audio we have all heard.
Exactly. Trump is actually trying to tackle Americas problems (the economy, illegal immigration, endless wars) while the Democrats/Uniparty keep adding more.
This rings false to me. He is not trying to solve problems at ALL he is saying he will to get people to vote for him.
I’m just calling it like I see it. He’s been consistent with his message the entire time, and is turning out to be correct about a lot of things, but most choose to not believe him based on their current biases.
What do you mean, "they have no such option"? Of course if his victims are as morally bankrupt and lacking in forgiveness as he, they will be incapable of looking beyond what has been done to them to see past the beast within all human beings. All humans are inherently capable of great evil including mass murder and sexual violence; our biology does not differ that much from one to another because we all share the same primate ancestry that has shaped our behaviour.
Joshua Blahyi's victims, although often permanently and grievously injured—including by rape or permanent disablement and disfigurement, such as his former enforcer whose legs he smashed to bits in a rage for 'lying' he did not notice the priest who came in and began his conversion by teaching him a prayer—are often able to forgive him, when after slaying 20,000 people using child soldiers and cannibalism as well as injuring countless more, he came earnestly and often in tears to them to apologise and try to make amends however he could.
"They have no such option," don't kid yourself into thinking forgiveness and reconciliation are impossible, nor that redemption is either for that matter when even the worst warlords can do it, if willing. Evil is a path chosen and kept to that can be wandered off by even the most wicked at any time, and it more often than not brings great relief to the victims—who you do not speak for—to be able to forgive those who have truly made an effort to redeem themselves.
I'm sure it's good for your cognitive dissonance to believe otherwise, but it's simply not true. Of course, the kind of resilience and tough character you find in Africans perhaps can't be expected to be found much among Americans of the present era in stark contrast to the way Americans were two centuries ago, but there is always room for improvement among any people.
I’m sorry to see that you’ve adopted this mindset. I have had much respect for your thought/writing over the years. However, I see that you’ve crossed the line into delusional. I’m sorry to see that and hope you have the opportunity to reset at some point.
my gosh, the hubris and judgement running thru some of these comments is full-on! You don't have to agree with Charles but perhaps apply the principles he is talking about - try stepping into other shoes...try having a conversation/discussion rather than coming from a moral sense of superiority and being right...try seeing Charles for his goodness and looking for the best in others and wanting us all to look at and own our own stuff! I'm no fan of Trump's at all and I am deeply disappointed in RFK's Israel stance (considering everything else he says that I agree with I just cannot fathom the contradiction), however, realistically...there is a chance that the better part of these people will step up when they find themselves in roles they believe in - I've heard each of them speak with passion about certain topics. Synergy 1 + 1 = 3! I think more than anything I see things changing one way or another rather than everyone rolling over and going back to sleep if the same old same old gets back in. It's probably going to be very tricky and disruptive for a while. In the end, 'we the people' are waking up in droves, there are no saviours, we need to go back to local and doing it for ourselves, together. Politicians will come and go but I sense they are going to start losing any power they thought they had after this election (if it even comes to an election - there's every possibility the whole damn thing will implode or not go ahead just because the times do not support anything that is no longer in integrity. There has to be vibrational alignment - the 'energy' is now important, it's no longer just about the physical...consciousness is rising.) I'm excited with the not knowing how the fuck it will go and having trust that we are evolving no matter how it might look right now! Let's face it - NO-ONE KNOWS!!!
Trump started is political career mocking a disabled journalist and hidding an affair. Please, I won't try to understand him. Understanding MAGAs is different and OK. But not Trump.
Look, I'll always hold out a sliver of hope in the possibility of people reclaiming their hearts. Even Trump. At the same time, I think delusional applies here, and I don't see it as coming from a judgmental place. Trump, currently, is a predator and someone seeking power and attention. He's your typical narcissist looking for his narcissistic supply on the grandest level possible. I don't say this to judge the man, I think his narcissism and predation are both ultimately rooted in pain and fear. But we can have compassion for Trump while still being realistic about the man he is now and trying to keep him away from the levers of power. There's no need to support someone so clearly corrupt and troubled when there are authentic voices in the race like West.
As someone else pointed out, Charles' supposed compassion (or disingenuous piety) of Trump is what Buddhists call "idiot's compassion". A pretty speech before the mirror. Genuine compassion would be seeing Trump for the wounded and dangerous man he is and still feeling compassion. Not this fantasy about him changing. It is very self-indulgent and self-regarding
I have been writing a series of essays trying to understand what happened with Charles Eisenstein and Russell Brand, among others -- how the focus on "sovereignty" and bodily autonomy / vaccine paranoia during the pandemic acted as the gateway drug to Right-libertarian ideology and Trump-ism. Here are the 3 articles I have written so far - if anyone emails me ( Daniel.pinchbeck@gmail.com ), I am happy to give them a month free subscription so they can go behind the paywalls: https://danielpinchbeck.substack.com/p/the-turncoats?r=1mhh1
https://danielpinchbeck.substack.com/p/what-happened-to-russell-brand-and?r=1mhh1
https://danielpinchbeck.substack.com/p/libertarian-fallacies?r=1mhh1
Well this is kinda patronising, esp as it is on Charles's blog - talking about someone rather than to them? I am sure you will have some points to make - I hope they are made with compassion and understanding and not arrogance. I think for a lot of us who were DEEPLY traumatised, cancelled and excluded by the incumbent corrupt govts all around the world over covid/vaccines/having an opinion/being different etc, there is a natural revulsion/grief at the thought of letting those same people back in - so much so that we are willing to give it to almost anyone but them. You say 'how the focus on "sovereignty" and bodily autonomy / vaccine paranoia during the pandemic acted as the gateway drug to Right-libertarian ideology and Trump-ism' - even in your words, paranoia, "sovereignty", you insinuate some craziness, some abnormality, some extremism - maybe for some it is true it tipped them over an edge - but it is NOT paranoid to want to have control over one's body and what goes into it, to want to have one's opinions and personal research/anecdotal evidence respected and listened to - and not everyone who stood up for themselves went to far-right ideologies and extremes, as you might be suggesting. Can you imagine? I'm in NZ and like Australia, Canada, and Austria, things were far worse for us than many other places where you could still act fairly normally - our once-peaceful, inclusive, intelligent, non-violent country suddenly became military-policed with neighbours ENCOURAGED to dob in their friends and family to the police and govt depts! We couldn't get a haircut, go to the grocery store, go outside to the beach or nature, be with friends or family as they died.
We just could not believe that this outrage, this complete authoritarianism was happening. One of the most damaging things that can happen to a human being is to be completely shunned, ignored and thrown out of the tribe, family, community, world! If you weren't one of these you can't possibly know how it was for so many. So there is a LOT of hurt and a desire for anything but THAT to happen again. Forgive us if we don't play into the mainstream's clever handbook of how intelligent, good, well-balanced people should behave. Yet we are here and stronger. I have found Charles to be well-balanced in his opinions - and open to new thoughts. Yes I'm standing up for him because I'm standing up for myself here too. We were grasping at straws to have anyone hear us, include us, respect us...so many people's lives were ruined and we were watching it with horror, a feeling of complete powerlessness! We were demonised at the very least - made to feel like lepers/idiots (who have been proven right on so many counts now) - by our own families who suddenly didn't see the people they knew and loved any more because society/the authorities told them we were bad people! I'm sure you will have observed this in your works...but please don't tar us all with this same brush because again, you patronise us - some of us react more strongly because we have such a sense of moral justice (CE and myself included), a good moral compass that knows what looks like fairness - and we feel for all those who were hurt and are still hurting. We are not thrilled with the choices before us in terms of political candidates - but for many of us we sense that someone like RFK (much as I detest his Israel stance), will not force us to put crap into OUR bodies, or vaccinate our children - he really does actually care about the health of people...can you not see that that is where so many of us come from? If we had better options we would take them. I can feel my charge as I write this but it is still with many of us due to the ongoing censorship and BS that continues to play out. We know what's on the horizon for humanity if something doesn't radically change!
Here's the thing...everyone has bits of good/bad in them - things we like and appreciate, things we don't. I don't see Charles as a Trumpist at all. He is looking for the best, he is putting out possibilities into the field, he is endeavouring to let go of cynicism and encourage open-mindedness and potential. Thank you for reading if you have come this far. I'm sure someone will come in and take apart what I have written - I haven't had time to be clever about it, more nuanced perhaps but I just felt to jump on and respond. May love, kindness and tolerance be visited upon us all in these times of exciting change and evolution...
I wouldn’t take apart anything you said. I’m with you 100%.
Thank you so much, Martine! I'm totally there with you. A quote comes to mind, I think from poet Marianne Moore,(I may be wrong) that brings me back from going down the the dark path of blaming and vilifying others, "The weak overcomes its menace. The strong overcomes itself. "
Thanks for writing this Martine, I could have written the same. Talk about a failure of empathy and tendency to project (what I see in Daniel Pinchbeck's comments re 'paranoia' and 'sovereignty')
On Facebook, Daniel mentioned that he avoided getting the MRNA injections . I just checked again to see if I had remembered correctly, and yes, the comment is still there, in the midst of an argument about Putin and RFK Jr. The exact quote is “I avoided the nRNA vaccine so my hippocampus should be fine! Thanks for your concern.” Daniel, can you now remark on what seems like a big contradiction in your logic and the logic of your accusations of paranoia in those who chose bodily sovereignty and suffered for it? I had to leave the city where I’d worked as a musician for over 30 years because of my “avoidance” of these injections, and start all over.
I was in NYC during the lockdown, and still don’t know a single person who died of Covid. I do know three people who died suddenly within the previous year—-a former student of mine, very talented and in his twenties, who died in his sleep; a former colleague of mine who was also much younger than me, who died in unclear circumstances, and an uncle who was about to retire from farming, and died of a heart attack the day after his doctor diagnosed him with heartburn. These are people I knew directly and for many years, but once-removed, that number is far, far higher. I think most people can attest to similar experience in the past few years, making it, along with many troubling statistical studies, something that goes far beyond anecdotal. Evidently you had some similar fears, or you wouldn’t have “avoided” the injection yourself. Yet somehow, those of us who are tuned into the larger political implications of this complete inversion of public health principles, and are searching for ways to bring some sanity back into policy making, in a highly charged and imperfect atmosphere, are dangerous?
Please comment.
He got the Johnson vaccination IIRC. That's not an MRNA one.
But I think I kind of get it, now—-he got “A“ vaccine, therefore, he is still “on the side of science.“
Look, I sympathize with the sentiment of wanting to trust, doctors, experts, agencies, and so on. It’s a tough leap to make, that the preponderance of institutional medical advice can be that consistently and systematically wrong, let alone, dangerous, let alone able to deceive/self-deceive on such a grand level. I read the essay Daniel linked in his comments here, and I actually find myself agreeing with maybe 85%, almost 90% of what he says. For instance, I agree that the dangers of Trump presidency are quite self evident, in that those backing him are aligned with the intent to govern in a technocratic and dystopian fashion. Peter Thiel, etc. I doubt very much that Charles Eisenstein is not aware of that.
Where I step off from Daniel’s way of seeing this is when he calls people like Charles Eisenstein, Glenn Greenwald, Russell, Brand, Matt Taibbi… Turncoats. To call someone a turncoat is quite incendiary. That is war talk. When you do that, you were aligning yourself with the kind of establishment thinking that wants to rid itself of all opposition. Hillary Clinton just did an interview in which she proposed the prosecution of people spreading misiformation information, as she defines it. When you align yourself with that kind of thinking, that kind of intent by calling people “turncoats,” you are actually calling for them to be prosecuted… Imprisoned, punished, etc.
Daniel, with the growing powers of technocratic surveillance and control that you yourself express worry about, calls like this are really no joke.
So anyone who disagrees with you, or with the central version of the truth that you yourself profess to have many problems with, you seem to be almost enthusiastic about having them eliminated as threats. Which is the very definition of the kind of totalitarianism that you are worried about. It’s the kind of bullying that does happen in totalitarian states, that you decry.
I’ll be honest, it’s this kind of divisive thinking that makes me feel quite certain there is no political solution at stage in our history. Charles joined with RFK Junior‘s campaign in the hope that a political solution was still possible, and , it seems to me, although I don’t know him, kept that hope alive. as a matter of principle and practice, trying to keep optimism alive.
But it seems clear to me, from the overt calls for censorship, prosecution, assassination, and hate… And these are sometimes very direct… in Daniel’s comments on Charles previous post. I read him saying that, “Charles deserves hate.”—-that whatever happens after the election, and whoever wins, the main concern for the average person, and for fair minded people trying to go about their lives, whether Democrat, leaning or Republican leaning or somewhere beyond or in between, is going to be figuring out how to deal with the flavor of tyranny or totalitarianism that gets brought in. The other main concern is going to be how to deal with the insane levels of back and forth hate, which will likely lead to ever more violence and social disruption. Add in the potential of war on some pretty scary levels, and Charles‘s message is exactly the elixir we need to be drinking. It’s either that or Kool-Aid mixed up by the systemic manipulation of naturally occurring ideological factions.
The whole rotten corrupt unwieldy system needs to collapse and fall - out of the ashes! There is always chaos before a paradigm shift and that's where I believe we are at....we just have to ride the waves, keep our cool and extend love and tolerance - the tremendous division is exactly what the establishment wants - they're warmongers after all! We must hold the vision of 'the beautiful new world we all believe is possible' (thank you Charles...)
I wanted to be clear that the article I’m referring to in the above post is not the one Daniel links in the comment to which we are replying. I just looked through that and it is full of fallacious assumptions and deep misunderstandings . Atrocitious and insulting.
Also, apologies for grammer mistakes etc in this long diatribe—I narrated it into my ipad and then went back quickly trying to fix things without much time
Question for Daniel should he care to answer, and anyone else who agrees with the gist of what he says:
Should dissenters like Charles have potential criminal charges brought against them for spreading “propaganda” as Hilary proposed in her recent interview with Rachel Maddow?
What are your thoughts on that? I’m trying to get a read on what kind of thing to expect from left wing thought leaders such as him, under a Harris administration, especially if things ramp up on the Russia Ukraine front and the feeble anti-war movement grows in the US in response.
So, the one and done, which was then discontinued. No boosters. Meanwhile, younger family members going to college in various dem-heavy states have had to stay current (meaning get multiple mRNA shots) just in order to attend and get their careers started. And mRNA ptoducts are just getting started—big Pharma wants to use them for practically everything despite people like us, and like Daniel, prudently avoiding them.
same in NZ - it's beyond disgusting
Thank you for this. I'm with you as well.
Thank you Daniel. I appreciate you helping us make sense of the weirdness. It was you who got Charles into the spotlight to begin with.
Thank you. Reading your blog was helpful. Ive felt bewildered by much and your writing made sense.
The first time I heard Charles speak was at your place in The Bowery. Very interested in your take on what happened here and elsewhere because of the pandemic.
Here’s something that is being reported locally where I live. It seems that someone managed to chemically attack a group of Trump supporters who had been sitting behind him, on one section of the stafe only. A number of them reported severe eye pain that lasted for days and brought them to the emergency room.
Read the comments on the video. The hate and lack of compassion is appalling.
https://youtu.be/pIenZ2nqss0?si=YxAV63Ai16viTafj
I think it is always helpful to give deep thought to issues such as these, and I always appreciate the provocative ideas you offer.
What I notice about Trump is that he is an abuser: he abuses women, little immigrant children, and handicapped people, among others. In his wake are a multitude of people who have been scarred for life by his actions.
I have been in abusive relationships- I got out as soon as I could, but before that happened, I was counselled on multiple occasions to “cooperate”, “meet them halfway” and “compromise”, and was told I was somehow wrong and less of a person because I wouldn’t do those things. But I never understood how to “compromise” with an abuser. Does compromising mean that I should allow them to abuse me half as much, or for half the time?
America had been in too many relationship with abusers, it is time for us to move out of that cycle.
I agree with you that there is good in everyone. I have seen Adolf Hitler’s early paintings, there is one of a Madonna that is so spiritual and filled with love and light—as an artist and art educator I know beyond any doubt that it could never have been painted by someone without a connection with the essential goodness in his soul, and/or with the Divine. However, when that connection is completely severed by abusive actions, those of us on the receiving end of the abuse have a responsibility to our mental and emotional wellbeing to set appropriate boundaries…not only for ourselves, but for the abuser. It is not any healthier for the abuser to be unclear about these boundaries than it is for the abused.
I have to say that Trump completely lost any remaining bits of my respect the moment he ridiculed a handicapped journalist. That is abuse I wouldn’t let a kindergartner get away with, let alone an adult. That incident showed me everything about his character that I needed to know. I do not see any evidence that Donald Trump has even a remote understanding of what it means to be kind.
If there is dehumanization of Donald Trump, he is the one initiating the dehumanization.
Me too, Meryl. The handicapped man was it for me. And thank you for sharing your story; I can really feel the emotion behind your voice ❤️
Thanks, Keri! xo
this is so obvious, yet Charles doesn't seem to get it.
I’m sad to see that Charles has become such a “ true believer” that he wears a pair of blinders. Trump is his own proud propaganda machine. The so-called Deep State is every bit as much Republican as it is Democrat. The Deep State is Corporate Control and to say Trump doesn’t pander to corporations is simply ridiculous.
utterly ridiculous.
Thank you for this. I too was in an abusive relationship that took me too long to get out of. When trump was president I felt the same - but this time I was in an abusive relationship with my country. I’m 72. I do not think I could survive four more years. Yes, the DNC is corrupt and owned by the same masters, I don’t understand how people can think trump, who as promised to be a dictator on day 1, and who will unravel the already minuscule and inadequate protections for Earth, children, elders. . . who has promised to put corporate shills in charge of the country, and basically allow corporations to do whatever they want to people and Earth for money . . . is a better alternative? He has literally promised the destruction of the country and Earth! Yet, this is okay? People don’t seem to understand the gravity of what is at stake here. Maybe, because I’m old and I remember people who survived the Nazis (most are dead now), maybe I’m more able to envision the world trump is promising us. And I do not want it! The advantage of going for Harris is we MIGHT get a few more years to turn things around, to create the party, the political movement, and most important begin the transformations necessary to begin healing and restoring Earth for our kids and grandkids, and the species we ALL depend on. There is more at stake this year than just the fate of our country’s politics. Life is at stake. If we can maintain life then we can work to create, to transform, to evolve. If not, this experiment is over.
yes exactly
Susan, we are the same age ;-) .. it sure was a different world back then, wasn't it? Most women in abusive relationships didn't even know the relationship was abusive--it was just a part of the toxic patriarchy that we all took to be "normal"--as they say, a fish doesn't know it is in water! It took us a while to figure all that out... I totally agree with you: "The advantage of going for Harris is we MIGHT get a few more years to turn things around." I became much more excited about Harris after she chose Walz...even though I feel like RBG when she said that all 9 Supremes should be women, LOL--men have tried to run this country for 250 years, and look where we are now! I'm all for giving women a chance at it, I think women can fix most of our worst problems in 20 years...still, I really like Walz, I really like that he's a teacher, and he sure seems to exemplify the kind of "family values" that I think are important. And regardless of actual gender, he does seem to embody the generally accepted "feminine" attributes that I hold dear such as compassion, kindness, cooperation, nurturance, adaptability (more than Kamala imo) ..teachers are typically less inclined to be competitive and hierarchical since their job is to help and assist students, not compete against them. I am looking to Walz to help bring some much needed sanity to our country, in fact, my blue vote is really for him, although I will be very happy to contribute to having the first female president.
This is beautifully and simply put. Trump embodies classic abuser narcissist and feral predator. And it’s formerly abused people who just get it in their bones, and raised my awareness.
From 2017:
“Like family members living in the home of an abuser our sense of what is normal starts to get blunted and deformed under the weight of abuse. The whole country is damaged in a way that won’t soon lift under the best of circumstances.”
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/in-the-abusers-house-3
It strikes me as odd that the first person CE plants his flag next to and declare that he won’t participate in their ‘othering’ is someone who exemplifies the extreme case of othering, in/out group thinking, zero-sum thinking, predation, projection, etc. certainly much could be said about polarization and taking sides, and certainly many many people demonize Trump and project all manner of fear and evil onto him. And we should discuss that on a psycho-societal-spiritual level. As a student of Thich Nhat Hanh I know it’s not in my best interest to focus hate and projection like that, and I do want to untie the knots of duality and is vs them I carry within me.
AND YET I can do all this while believing my own eyes, recognizing obvious harm when I see it, and not naively (or disingenuously) trusting/hoping that a very damaged 80 year old who has had his cards on the table for decades, and who stands to cause such harm if given power again, will discover in himself compassion that has never been in evidence.
Those of us who yearn for a ‘new story’ that transcends the binary we’ve been offered must be careful not to be gaslit. I’ve looked to Charles in the past as a beacon of sorts pointing a way out of separation. I can’t follow him here, something has gone awry and if you get it, you get it.
“It strikes me as odd that the first person CE plants his flag next to and declare that he won’t participate in their ‘othering’ is someone who exemplifies the extreme case of othering, in/out group thinking, zero-sum thinking, predation, projection, etc.”
-EXACTLY.
Thank you, and thanks for the link...the text you quoted is perfect, and I appreciated this portion too: "Our sense of reality has been warped...We are like a woman who can’t admit her husband is an abuser. ‘I provoked him.’ ‘He’s got stress at work.’ ‘It was just one time.’ ‘He said he was sorry.’ You want to shake someone like this to open their eyes and see the reality of the situation. But living with someone with a damaged psyche has in turn damaged them. It is hard to emerge from." And one of the reasons it is hard to emerge from this is that the sea of toxic patriarchy in which we all live does not assist the abused in any way, it supports the abuser.
Guess what? That video of him making fun of handicapped person was doctored and put together by MSM to make him look bad. It’s fake. He routinely did these weird hand gestures during his 2016 campaign, and the media spliced it together to make him look bad. I don’t have a link handy but I read an article about it a couple years ago that explained it.
That is simply untrue. He cruelly mocks people he perceives as weak. Whether it's women menstruating or ethnic minorities, pilots shot down in Vietnam or dead WW2 vets.
Unfortunately, there seems to be no need to doctor any videos to make Trump look bad. The NY Times responded, : "“We think it's outrageous that [Donald Trump] would ridicule the appearance of one of our reporters." Trump responded in familiar fashion, issuing a series of tweets in which he admonished Kovaleski to "stop using his disability to grandstand". This is covered by snopes here: https://www.snopes.com/news/2016/07/28/donald-trump-criticized-for-mocking-disabled-reporter/
Yikes. I cannot fathom what shadow anyone must exist under to believe that mockery was fake. Please, step out into the sun.
I am really shocked that you have taken up the mantle of Trump. He can’t be any of those things you want him to be. He has had many psychiatric experts describe him as “a malignant narcissist.”
This is the side he shows us all, and I cannot imagine he has a different side. He committed fraud. He is a sexual predator and I am very confused why you think he’s our guy.
These are not trumped up charges either. These are real and there’s not some deep state that’s going after the man. He is immoral and choosing to quote and adore dictators is beyond what any presidential candidate in our country should be doing.
I’am shocked that you have fallen into such a rabbit hole. I’ve been following your thought for decades because it seemed true. Once you grabbed on to RFK, you lost me. In a corrupt World you still need to make the best choice.
I have great respect for the motives of RFK Jr. He has aligned himself with Trump. I believe he is seeking what is best for the country. Having dealt with RFK personally, I think Charles must also see and respect his sincerity. Trump is a bull in a china shop, but I believe he too seeks what is best for the country -- and ultimately the world. I think the alternative is world government and totalitarianism.
Trump is aligned with Fascist dictators who actually support real totalitarianism / dictatorship such as Orban, Putin, etc. The Democrats are not doing this - not seeking to end elections or eliminate abortion rights. How have you people become so confused?
Thank you Daniel for pointing to this very obvious elephant in the room. Yes! How can anyone look past the fact that “Trump is aligned with Fascist dictators who actually support real totalitarianism / dictatorship such as Orban, Putin, etc.”
How? And why?
Trust dissolves when facts like these are omitted to make a point.
People are confused because they are being mislead by the corporate media.Many still believe what they read in newspapers or see in news broadcasts. Looks like you are one of them. And, yes, Dems are thwarting Democracy. https://elizabethnickson.substack.com/p/the-2024-cheat-and-whats-being-done
They have also politicized the justice system.
They don't read or follow current events (it's low-vibe) so their beliefs about politics are based almost entirely on branding and whatever algorithmic feed they're on.
I think the same could be said about anyone voting for Biden or Kamala.
no it can't, sorry. Don't make false equivalencies.
Yet trump himself has said he will be a “dictator” on day one and there will never be a need for another vote. His constant admiration for Putin and others is showing us who he wants to be.
You are reading into those comments what you want to see. I don't believe real dictators announce their intentions, though in Trump's case, media works hard to push that narrative.
This essay is written from inside the Establishment. It still insists on naming good guys/bad guys...but just does so in a covert way. There is no way Mr Trump is the person for this job...as creating peace and compassion , without all the othering. That you are even trying to make a case for this possibility, shows a great lack of understanding human beings. We are ALL part of the establishment...like it or not. Without trying to "figure out" and control the direction of things, Life has the last word. We cannot "essay" our way out of this one.
Charles, I don't know what your life is like at this moment that would lead you to write something like this, and I truly want to hold you in good faith as a longtime reader. I absolutely resonate with your main points that are necessary for leadership. But you are seriously wasting both your time and ours by suggesting Donald Trump could embody any of them... I hope that sooner than later, you are able to take some time away from the political cycle to re-ground and re-orient.
He did say he didn't expect that Trump would. Only that he thought any leader should.
Charles, the man is a convicted rapist. He is also many other “ists”—racist, seditionist, etc. but that’s enough for me and should be for anyone with a moral compass or spiritual aspirations. You’ve completely lost me with where you’ve gone, and I’m a bit angry but mostly really sad.
I haven't seen a shred of evidence to support any of your accusations. I've thought he's full of shit long before he ran for office, but now find the Democrats and their candidates to be more revolting and culpable of a long list of attitudes and actions I find alarming. At least Trump tends to lie about absurd stuff like the size of crowds. The Democrats lie about far more serious matters. As for where Charles has gone, smh over the judgmental, condescending comments from those who are so certain the only valid perspective it theirs.
what do you find the Democrats lying about that is more serious than making Haitian immigrants into subhumans, making up garbage on a daily basis, while their entire program is to lower taxes on the wealthy while raising taxes and eliminating social services for everyone else?
He has never been convicted of rape.
A jury of his peers found him guilty of aggressively shoving his fingers in a woman's vagina against her will.
A billionaire who has been convicted so many times of scam, targeting always the poor and the disenfranchised, convicted of rape, is not anti-establishment. Inherited hundreds of millions, uses golden dishes or whatever... your anti-establishement standards have become very awkwards.
That's adolescent thinking. You're letting yourself be taken in by rebellious impulses, like a marxist in 1917, who in the end helped set up 70 years of dictatorship.
it is a disaster that he has come to this.
And I can guarantee he won't stoop to read the comments from his audience which is turning on him. But wth, $20kpm makes up for multiple unsubscriptions.
Sorry to see where you've ended up, Charles.
He wanted to go beyond good and evil. He just became a nihilist, he took the wrong path.
Nihilism would be more palatable. This is somewhere between hypocritical and sanctimonious.
I think Charles is a sincere person. I really do.
But even most sincere people can get scammed. It happened actually to all indigenous peoples in Latin America. They just see what they want to see, not the reality.
He's scamming himself in order to get a fat paycheck
patronising
Sadly, people do not do the self-reflection which would allow them to compare Trump and the Establishment without the programmed reverence towards "Authority".
It's FINE when the Establishment start wars that slaughter 600,000 people, but by damn Trump tweets bad things!!
Personally, I would be supporting Stein, but I can understand why so many think Trump is more likely to actually win.
If, in the 2026 Mass Afterlife we might all have moved to very suddenly under another DNC authoritarian dictatorship, people were asked: "So, if you could go back, would you this time choose the "Malignant narcissist", or once again the group of psychopaths planning WW3 who you know KNOW kills everyone you know and love?", how many would make the same choice, and how many think "Gee, actually those mean tweets and grandiose statements were not as bad as holding my grandchild as she dies from radiation-induced cancers! :'( ".
I don't think Trump is ANY kind of saviour, and will almost certainly leave America looking worse with most of his plans - but that's not the issue. The issue is that he is LESS LIKELY TO BLOW THE ENTIRE WORLD UP than his main opponent.
That means a great deal. Even Chomsky agrees - hardly a MAGA fan.
Sorry, had to do a reality check on that one.
Noam Chomsky does not support Donald Trump. In fact, Chomsky has been a vocal critic of Trump on numerous occasions. He has often criticized Trump's policies, approach to governance, and the overall impact of his presidency on both domestic and global issues. Chomsky, known for his progressive and leftist viewpoints, sees Trump's administration as detrimental to many aspects of society, including democracy, the environment, and international relations.
Yeah I've been a consistent critic as well and I agree with all of Gnumeo's points. The MIC is in absolute full swing w the DNC, transition of neocons complete with the Cheneys. On brink of WW3 as we type
It is hilarious to me that we just read several paragraphs on how Trump could change his mind and transform but that the Cheney would finally say enough with this dangerous fool is a bridge too far.
Ah, the old “They’re going to start WW3” line. For how many election cycles have we heard someone say that about their opponents?
I miswrote -- Dems already started WW3 with recent moves related to Ukraine. I should have written nuclear annihilation. That is a risk that continues to escalate by the day
Thanks for speaking up. You beat me and I'm sure many others to it. Chomsky is a vanishing breath of fresh air.
Chomsky was a big fan of the vaccines and government forced intervention- he’s lost his way.
He's old, directly in the covid killing group, and was terrified. So...
That doesn't change at all the brilliance of the decades of his previous work.
I was disappointed with him too over the covid fear porn reaction, but it IS understandable with a tad of compassion.
Kinda seems like you're othering Chomsky.
Thanks for posting what I was just about to post. He lost me over all that as did all leftists and others who promoted the same.
I just tapped my good friend Chat GPT for that one!
Uh-oh the AI is taking over!
🤣
I DID NOT say "Chomsky supports Trump". What I said was "The issue is that he is LESS LIKELY TO BLOW THE ENTIRE WORLD UP than his main opponent.
That means a great deal. Even Chomsky agrees - hardly a MAGA fan."
https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/06/28/not-a-justification-but-a-provocation-chomsky-on-the-root-causes-of-the-russia-ukraine-war/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVesAq7eQyk
Chomsky, like many intelligent people, recognises that it is perfectly possible to despise BOTH major parties. And to see different policies. He certainly will not be "supporting Trump", but I also can't see him supporting the current US regime that has brought us closer to WW3 than the Cuban Missile Crisis... SEVERAL times in just the past 3 years.
And as K'mala is nothing but an empty air-head riding a wave constructed for her - even more than Zelensky!! - there will be a continuation of disasterous and (planetary) suicidal policies.
As I clearly said, Chomsky is not a MAGA fan - but nor is he a Demonrat fan.
as we all should
Yup, that’s my take as well. All my life voting “the lesser of 2 evils” meant Democrats. But now it’s the reverse.
Thank you for your wisdom and for believing in a more conscious society 🙏 may we each do our part to embody peace consciousness. As within, so without
I think you have been too close to the inside comrade. Some people have gone too far. Trump cannot be reasoned with anymore than can a jaguar about to eat it’s prey. I appreciate your high and noble view, I also carry these aspirations but when the lion is about to eat your children, you make sure that lion is removed from the narrative. Come on Charles. You and Russel are acting very strangely and in times like these you could benefit from good kin to sit you down and talk some sense into you. We love you. Step away from the seduction. Be at ease.
I have been trying... I have been writing a series of essays trying to understand what happened with Charles Eisenstein and Russell Brand -- how the focus on "sovereignty" and bodily autonomy / vaccine paranoia during the pandemic acted as the gateway drug to Right-libertarian ideology and Trump-ism. Here are the 3 articles I have written so far - if anyone emails me ( Daniel.pinchbeck@gmail.com ), I am happy to give them a month free subscription so they can go behind the paywalls: https://danielpinchbeck.substack.com/p/the-turncoats?r=1mhh1
https://danielpinchbeck.substack.com/p/what-happened-to-russell-brand-and?r=1mhh1
https://danielpinchbeck.substack.com/p/libertarian-fallacies?r=1mhh1
The real thing you should try to understand is how the fear porn and manipulation of the pandemic led yourself and many like you to support outright corporate/state authoritarianism. While those you mention remained liberal.
Come on, "Vaccine paranoia"? My eyes could not roll any harder.
I like the ideas embedded here. A lot. Bit just don’t get the idea that Trump in not Establishment. That he is a figurehead of the alternative to the deep state. It’s a bit sad isn’t it when someone so misognoist and privileged is posited as the one to save you guys and change your world for the good. Not taking sides just saying from across the oceans.
Trump is Establishment - but not deep state. He is establishment because he is a billionaire who relies upon the state for his wealth, and its legal protections. Trump is NOT going to be promoting worker-ownership, free healthcare, student-loan forgiveness or anything of the sort that could actually help Americans.
At the same time, he is not deep state, the security state apparatus. Who have probably already made attempts on his life, have spied on him and his associates, filed spurious legal obstacles, and work hand-in-glove with the DNC to "Maintain the American Empire".
The sad truth is that there is so little ACTUAL democracy in the USA, it is already an authoritarian dictatorship (In truth it always was), that anyone opposed to the DNCs suicidal warmongering, can only choose the single other 'main party' to realistically have a chance.
"It’s a bit sad isn’t it when someone so misognoist and privileged is posited as the one to save you guys and change your world for the good."
Yes.
This is all mumbo jumbo - Deep State... Trump amped up the military budget and didn't do anything to "Drain the swamp." Just brought in more swamp things, like the current Supreme Court. This whole enterprise is insane, delusional.
I have been writing a series of essays trying to understand what happened with Charles Eisenstein and Russell Brand -- how the focus on "sovereignty" and bodily autonomy / vaccine paranoia during the pandemic acted as the gateway drug to Right-libertarian ideology and Trump-ism. Here are the 3 articles I have written so far - if anyone emails me ( Daniel.pinchbeck@gmail.com ), I am happy to give them a month free subscription so they can go behind the paywalls: https://danielpinchbeck.substack.com/p/the-turncoats?r=1mhh1
https://danielpinchbeck.substack.com/p/what-happened-to-russell-brand-and?r=1mhh1
https://danielpinchbeck.substack.com/p/libertarian-fallacies?r=1mhh1
"This is all mumbo jumbo... insane, delusional."
Quite how you go from pointing out that Trump didn't take on the deep state, to then saying the deep state must not then exist, is a leap I can't follow you over.
I'll explain what happened to Eisenstein and Brand - they remained LIBERAL, with the emphasis upon "My Body, My Choice". They also remained LIBERAL, in that they distrust enormous corporate wealth and power, and can see when the state and such corporates come together, it is never in the Public's interests.
So THEY stayed LIBERAL. What happened to YOU?
Where did all that manufactured fear porn make you leave any Liberalism behind?
Perhaps you might find it easier to examine yourself, rather than two completely different people to yourself, and rather than seeing the changes in THEM, observe the changes in yourself.
Until you follow the ancient wisdom of Know Thyself, you are probably going to get more and more confused, and offering temporary access to get more subscribers probably isn't going to help with that self analysis.
“Quite how you go from pointing out that Trump didn't take on the deep state, to then saying the deep state must not then exist, is a leap I can't follow you over.”
In the past, Charles Eisenstein himself has criticized the belief in a “deep state” running things, and associated it with paranoid conspiracy thinking of the sort he claimed to be rising above. If you don’t put Charles on a pedestal, as I don’t, his numerous inconsistencies and self-contradictions stand out clearly.
I would happily support an actual deep delving into the question of whether a deep state exists and what is its nature and constituents, but for Charles it seems to be Schrödinger’s Deep State — it exists and pulls the strings in one essay, and is merely a figment of people’s imaginations in another. It’s all down to Charles’ whims and moods of the moment.
I would appreciate it if Charles’ readership started reading him more carefully, and had a better memory for his various truth claims over time. As somebody who takes seriously what assertions and arguments individual writers put forth, I’ve noticed that Charles’ books and essays contain numerous contradictions, inconsistencies and also some factual mistakes. I think there needs to be a lot less endless “gratitude” (“thank you so much Charles for your infinite wisdom!”) and more careful weighing and considering of his various positions. Because they don’t all cohere with one another.
Of course they don't. I'm quite suspicious of people who claim THEY have It all worked out". Reality simply doesn't work that way, and only the Goddess may have absolute knowledge.
There is also a considerable gap between saying "There is a deep state of powerful individuals who attempt to arrange matters to their liking", and "There is a deep state and those bastards control EVERYTHING Zomgzz!".
One is rational, the other is paranoic thinking.
While "Conspiracy theorisising" is a made-up term to steer the public away from investigating and critiquing topics the elites would prefer to remain uninvestigated and uncritiqued, "Paranoic Thinking" can be very real indeed, and is genuinely worrisome, and not to be promoted.
What's the distinction? Take the old board game 'Illuminati'. Several powerful groups are duking it out. This is "Conspiracy theorising". However being convinced that ONE group has ALL the power, is all powerful, controls EVERYTHING - that is paranoic. It's crossed the border from reality into fantasy, and likely dangerous fantasy at that.
So this for me is not one of his inconsistencies. It is seeing there is a distinction there.
The deep state is there, but it is one among many interest groups, and is not 'all-powerful', and it is certainly not the case that everything that happens is because of this amorphous group.
I agree there's a bit too much "gratitude" often expressed on substack, although it is also sometimes genuinely meant, and also genuinely earned too.
“Of course they don't. I'm quite suspicious of people who claim THEY have It all worked out". Reality simply doesn't work that way, and only the Goddess may have absolute knowledge.”
But that is exactly how Charles comports himself, as if he has everything worked out and any criticism of his views is a failure to understand how superior his comprehension is.
The issue is not the existence of inconsistencies and contradictions in his writing. The issue is his own denial, his own refusal to acknowledge that they are there.
“There is also a considerable gap between saying "There is a deep state of powerful individuals who attempt to arrange matters to their liking", and "There is a deep state and those bastards control EVERYTHING Zomgzz!". One is rational, the other is paranoic thinking.”
Come off it. These are YOUR views — they do not constitute a position that Charles has ever clearly articulated. If he had, you could simply link to the essay or cut and paste the quotes in which he articulates this same lucid position. I’m aware of what he’s written about conspiratorial mindsets in the past, and it doesn’t match up with this. I partly agree with what you’ve written, and if that were all that Charles has said, I wouldn’t have a problem with it. It’s a clear and common sense and straightforward position. But, guess what? What you’ve written here is NOT Charles’ argument.
Before we can examine the question of whether a deep state exists, we need to agree on the meaning of the term. Perhaps the inconsistencies you note are merely the result of the meaning of "deep state" not being entirely clear in Charles' own mind, as it is also not in mine. I've been thinking that the 'deep state' is a term for the complex of intelligence and spook agencies of our country that run on secret budgets and can act with impunity against normal laws. The sense discussed here seems to be a conspiracy of oligarchs and alphabet agencies. Viewed this way, it could very well be a Schrödinger’s cat concept that one could suppose or deny at different moments of one's writing.
I’ll have a look. I just don’t get American politics :/
There is no deep state. There is only the state, which is plenty deep. If there actually was a "deep state" and Trump was actually against it, he would have been eliminated, neutralized, or compromised long ago.
Naked power causes the collapse of legitimacy.
Of course the Alphabets could 'take out' Trump, although he has his own long-serving security, but they need to have 'plausible deniability' for the hit.
That complicates matters extensively. It takes time and planning to build an asset like Lee Harvey Oswald, and there is always the terrible danger the plot will fail and their hand will be revealed.
And, of course, there is the high likliehood they have already tried, a few months ago.
They're not supermen, despite all the Hollywood hype. Institutionalised incompetent fuckwits sociopaths is considerably more accurate.
And again - Trump is a BILLIONAIRE, and white. Not like some Black Panther the FBI can just assassinate by busting in the door and shooting him dead.
There is DEFINITELY a deep state (Originally a Swedish concept, I believe), of networked, privately-educated sociopaths. People so powerful they can even order the POTUS never to say "Ceasefire in Gaza" - recall that conundrum recently?
Like all such groups, it will be amorphous, some people will be in, and then out, but the existence of 'highly connected networks of the wealthy and powerful' exist in every society. In our modern, overpopulated, industrialised societies, they are organised.
"There is DEFINITELY a deep state (Originally a Swedish concept, I believe), of networked, privately-educated sociopaths."
I am afraid you are confusing the amorphous, ambiguous term "deep state" for the highly theorized concept of capital. As Joel Bakan pointed out two decades ago in The Corporation, the imperatives of capital accumulation embody the ethos of the psychopath.
No - but obviously they entwine in capitalist economies.
The deep state is more concerned with the security of the state, than the oligarchs. As Putin showed, the Russian deep state had few problems with reining in the excesses of the Russian oligarchy - although undoubtedly there was considerable pushback within the Russian deep state against such policies, due to the entwinement.
But these two things CAN be separate, and studied separately.
Att the risk of being argumentative, I wouldn't necessarily agree that capital accumulation "is" psychopathic, but it certainly can be in those who seek to be 'Oligarchs', or who are utterly uncaring as to the damage their greed is causing to the other members of the community or nation. And it has become institutionalised behaviour in the West.
Gnuneo, you certainly have the right to believe in a Deep State running things. There is a legitimate debate to be had here. But Eisenstein is not consistent on this subject. For him it’s like Schrödinger’s Cat, real and powerful in one essay, a figment of the imagination in another, depending on what point he’s trying to make at a particular time.
"Trump is Establishment - but not deep state." Mmmmmhmmm
If RFK Jr has his ear I pray he shares this essay. Vitally important on many levels.
He's busy finding dead bears to put them on bicycles. And "changing his mind" last minute.
Did you read RFK's wonderful speech explaining his decision? It is very moving.
Don't forget the whale skulls. But give the guy a break. It's just a rich kid's hobby and a rich kid's sense of entitlement that he can do whatever he wants and it will be indulged.
Frankly, having a whale skull shows how much RFK Jr. is deeply anti-establishment. He's just a random guy, like hundred of millions of Americans. It's very important such people can seize the power for protecting the poor.
He didn't change his mind. He forgot, cuz, ya know, the worm ate his brain.
He doesn't have his ear. Anymore than the King of Rohan has Saruman's ear.