totally. that’s where i am at. trying to make the narrative of “look, this is a western european political project to maintain a settler-colonial presence in the middle east. we’re backing one outsider ethnic group and letting it run wild on the indigenous peoples, in an effort to prevent any sort of pan-regional multi-ethnic project from emerging and challenging the western hegemony. the religious conflict is the tactic, the beachhead is the strategy” is way too complicated and looks morally repugnant. so instead, it’s been decades of fomenting the most unhinged religious zealotry among evangelicals. that is always america’s move: find the religious wackos, wind them up, and set them loose. because they will heel turn against any socialist/communist formation at the blink of an eye.

so after 50 years of arming some religious nuts and winding up others, the boiler is full of fuel and the pressure release valve has snapped off. the stage is set for both political parties to tear themselves apart over this shit. in the lead up to the iraq war, the pressure against anti-war protests and to deplatform them was near universal. empire didn’t need threats and laws from lawmakers to be silenced. this one, it’s like this constant stream of explicit threats (like the BDS bans, the slander against DSA) and obvious lies (hamas rocketed their own hospital, trust us) from the mouths of newsreaders.

like they are pulling all the levers to manufacture consent but struggling to get traction, meanwhile the right-wingers can’t figure out if they’re supposed to be pro-israel, anti-semites, or wait until JFK jr. reappears and tells them what to do.