Guest Post by Caitlin Johnstone
I have been saying all year that the 8chan phenomenon known as “QAnon” is bogus, and as time has gone on the evidence has become overwhelming that it is an establishment psyop designed to herd the populist right into accepting the narratives and agendas of the establishment orthodoxy. Whether they’re claiming that every capitulation the Trump administration makes to longstanding neoconservative agendas is actually brilliant 4-D chess strategy, or saying that Julian Assange isn’t really trapped in the Ecuadorian embassy, QAnon enthusiasts are constantly regurgitating talking points which just so happen to fit in very conveniently with the interests of America’s defense and intelligence agencies.
A recent “Q drop” (a fancy name for an anonymous user posting text onto a popular internet troll message board with zero accountability) makes this more abundantly clear than ever, with text reading as follows:
Free Iran!!!
Fight
Fight
Fight
Regime change.
People have the power.
We stand with you.
Q
Once you’re cheering for a longtime neoconservative agenda to be accomplished in one of George W Bush’s “Axis of Evil” countries, you are cheering for the establishment. Or, to put it more clearly to Q followers, you are cheering for the deep state.
So now you have conspiracy-minded populist right wingers being manipulated into supporting the same standard Bush administration globalist agendas that Alex Jones built his career on attacking. The support for regime change interventionism in Iran isn’t limited to the QAnon crowd, having now gone fully mainstream throughout Trump’s base, and I’d like to address a few of the arguments here that they have been bringing to me:
“Iran is nowhere near the same thing as Iraq, Libya or Syria!”
Please go look at a globe and think a little harder about your position here. Iran is a target for regime change for the exact same reasons its neighbors Iraq and Syria have been; it occupies and extremely strategically significant location in an oil-rich region that the US-centralized empire wants full control of. Thinking this one is different because its government isn’t secular is the product of many years of Islamophobic propaganda; the plutocrats and their allied intelligence and defense agencies don’t care what religion sits on top of their oil, and Saudi Arabia proves it. Any argument made against Iranian theocracy could be made even more strongly against KSA theocracy, but you don’t see Sean Hannity advocating the overthrow of the Saudi royals, do you?
“But this regime change intervention would be completely different!”
No it wouldn’t. There has never been a US-led regime change intervention in the Middle East that wasn’t disastrous. Cheering for regime change interventionism in Iran is cheering for all the destabilization, chaos, terror, death, rape and slavery that always necessarily comes with such interventions. Wanting to inflict that upon the world is monstrous.
“This is different, though! This one is led by Trump! Look at all that he’s accomplished in North Korea!”
Okay, three things:
1. All that Trump has done with North Korea is take the very first step in the most rudimentary beginnings of peace talks. I fully support him in taking that step, but you can’t legitimately treat it as an “accomplishment” which proves that he is a strategic genius capable of facilitating the impossible task of non-disastrous regime change in Iran.
2. Even if Trump does help bring abiding peace to the Korean Peninsula, it won’t legitimize regime change interventionism in Iran. Hell, even if Trump gets North Korea to denuclearize (and he won’t), it still wouldn’t legitimize regime change interventionism in Iran. US-led regime change interventionism is always disastrous, especially in the easily destabilized geopolitical region of the Middle East.
3. Neocons are always wrong about foreign policy. Always. There’s no reason to believe Trump spearheading a longstanding neocon agenda would work out any better than Bush or any other neocon.
“Well what about the Iranians in Iran who want regime change?”
What about them? The fact that some Iranians want their government changed has nothing to do with you or your government. The Fox News and Washington Post pundits who keep pointing out the fact that Iran, like America, contains people who are unhappy with its current system of government are only ever trying to galvanize the west against Tehran. There’s no good reason for you to be acting as a pro bono CIA propagandist running around telling westerners how great it would be if the Mullahs were gone.
“Well I don’t want the US to intervene, I just want the Iranians to free themselves!”
Two things:
1. This administration is already currently engaged in regime change interventionism in Iran in the form of escalated CIA covert operations and harsh economic sanctions, and its involvement with Iranian terror cult MEK suggests it may run far deeper than that in a similar way to US involvement with extremist groups in Syria, Libya and Ukraine.
2. Why say anything, then? Ever stop to ask yourself why you’re always cheering for Iranians to overthrow their government? Why constantly cheerlead for something which requires zero western involvement? Whom does that help? Do you think Iranians don’t already know that America hates their government?
All you’re doing is helping to signal boost the pro-regime change propaganda that US defense and intelligence agencies have been seeding into American public consciousness for many years. Your “Yay, free Iran!” sentiments aren’t helping Iranians, they’re helping the western propagandists target western audiences. You’re just helping the public get more okay with any actions taken against the Iranian government, in exactly the same way Russiagaters help manufacture support for escalations against Russia.
Iran is Next! #FREEIRAN #Qanon pic.twitter.com/5zdpZ3KJj1
— Sherry Lynn⭐️⭐️⭐️ (@mssherrylyn) June 19, 2018
Come on, people. Think harder. This one isn’t difficult. It’s not a random coincidence that you’re all being paced into supporting regime change in the final target named seventeen years ago in General Wesley Clark’s famous “seven countries in five years” list of neocon regime change agendas. The only thing that has changed is the face on the agenda.
Iran is not different from the other regime change targets of Iraq, Libya or Syria. Barack Obama served George W Bush’s third and fourth terms, and Donald Trump is serving his fifth. They were strong-armed in different ways by America’s unelected power establishment into advancing different regime change agendas depending on where their political support came from and public sentiment at the time, but it’s all been pointed at the exact same region for the exact same reasons.
Leave Iran alone. Leave the Iranian people alone. There is no legitimate reason for you to be cheering for regime change in Iran, and anyone who tells you otherwise is an evil piece of shit. Reject them.
Qtipper outrage in 3,2,1……
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Funny how few TBP commentors know so little about Qanon and what’s really going on. You read a few Q drops and think you’re “in the know” and make up your biased minds that it’s a larp.
Why was N.Korea key? Iran is the same situation. Nukes. CIA control.
Trust the plan (if you can figure it out).
Smoke Anon Dream Kush
A couple of hits and you too can be a parallel universe 36DD chess player like RS
Admin promoting American Intelligence Media? They suck.
Who is “conned” now?
Leave the Iranian people alone?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/01/03/tens-of-thousands-of-people-protested-in-iran-this-week-heres-why/?noredirect=on
Many other articles about this, but they are usually obscure and not up front in the mainstream.
Washington Post isn’t mainstream? WP isn’t a propagator of Deep State propaganda?
You’re funny.
I said “usually obscure”, apparently you have a problem understanding what that meant.
Try looking on the internet and see where the majority of the reporting on the Iranian people’s opposition to the government prevails, it won’t be in the MSM, it will be on far more obscure news sites.
You must be smoking crack. Any public demonstrations in Iran are given top billing in the MSM. It wouldn’t matter if the Iranians were protesting a decrease in the gasoline subsidy, it would be spun as “yearning for freedom” which in US mediaspeak means forced regime change.
David Ignatius gets a 1099 from Langley.
Hey Anon thanks for proving correct the title of her article.
I didn’t, perhaps you are seeing what you want to see.
Fuh-Q.
The same POS title applies to the Deep State, Democrats, NeoCons, RINOs, MSM, Hollywood, Useful Idiots etc here in the USSA. Liberals want to exterminate us using the IRS, FBI, NSA, Financial runarounds, credit denials, Affirmative Actions, government programs and grants, education dumb downs, bullying of Whites and Conservatives, censorship, rules against Christians, media slanders, propaganda, fake history, destruction of Conservative monuments, etc. The Yellow Belly Snowflake backstabbing Commie Pinko JLGBTQ Cowards don’t have the guts to meet us at the OK Corral. PS: My credit score is over 800 and I ordered a rifle over the internet but Capital One Denied the purchase, the Tribe doesn’t want Goy to own guns or land. I called the NRA and they said try Wells Fargo so I’ll be there Monday (and dump the POS “One”).
Sorry, but WF is not likely to be your friend either – they are famous for bad initiatives like opening accounts you didn’t ask for, demanding you pay deposit insurance you didn’t need and more.
Consider finding a credit union you can work with – most are smaller, more customer-focused and less ideological. There’s one in TN called Ascend that won a lawsuit to enlarge their customer base beyond the original limitations – I’ve been using them for years and so far, no problems.
https://www.ascendfcu.org/
Until one or more of Hillary, Obama, Holder, Lynch, Rice, Comey, Rosenstein, etc are in handcuffs, I’m going to keep on assuming that the only purpose of Q is to keep the MAGA crowd from jumping off the Trump train in 2018 and 2020.
Caitlin Johnstone is certainly cranking them out, you have to give her that. She’s banging out one of these long form pieces about every 30 hours.
Impressive.
……I see what you did there…..
First, I do not live or die by Q, I consider it a speculative news source and sample it sometimes, but do not follow it as religiously as some.
Having said that, I have a few criticisms with some points in the article. Regime change pre Trump and post Trump are worlds apart. In the Bush Era and Obama era, we would wage a war that did not seem to have victory as a goal, but appeasement, that left things ambiguous at best. Trump is anti ambiguous, who will wage war, defeat the enemy and set terms favorable to the US and supportive of establishing stability in the region. We as a nation have been born and raised in a swamp of politics and public opinion since maybe before WWII and we just can’t comprehend a nation moving according to a presidents vision versus what can I do to make sure my party wins next years elections. Whether or not this is good is open for debate, but I believe it will be the only way our country will move forward from the swamp we find ourselves in.
The writers opinion feels to me that I’m reading a CNN fake news piece, in that they would rather see a puppy dog shot than allow any hint of credit given to President Trump for managing the end of the Korean War and the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula; every step in that direction taken is responded to with a glib “well,we’ll see if they do this,” followed by an endless string of “well, he stil has to do blah blah blah.” In their mind it will be three or four generations that will pass before any credit can be given to Trumps diplomacy. Still, the author seems to offer her independent thoughts as opposed to the talking points hashed out by every other news show, so I will respectfully disagree with the article and applaud the independent thoughts presented.
I believe Q is a Deep State head fake. What’s this crap about Iran? It makes sense to remain vigilant about neocon schemes, but I sense zero movement toward overthrowing the Iranian government. Trump would never do it. It’s not even remotely comparable to lobbing a few Tomahawks at an empty airfield or maintaining the low-level efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq that were undertaken by prior administrations.
“There is no legitimate reason for you to be cheering for regime change in Iran, and anyone who tells you otherwise is an evil piece of shit.” ————- article
This is really a terrible article …. NOT because of it’s content, because I agree with much (not, all) of it.
It’s the concluding remark above. Caitlin is no different here than Leftist pieces of shit who shout down all opposition to alternative views, and then resort to name calling.
First of all “cheering” is pretty much a benign act. Actually, it’s not even an “act” at all (unless I physically go cheer at a rally of some sort). Otherwise, it is really just a thought. So, Caitlin thinks I’m a piece of shit if I even THINK that just maybe the Iranians should be able to choose their own government? Really? Well, go fuck yourself Caitlin, you thought nazi.
And kudos to her for covering every possible objection. She covers them ALL …. and God help you (!!) if you even disagree with one of them. She wants, errr DEMANDS, that you agree with her lock, stock, and barrel …. otherwise you are a piece of shit.
People like her, regardless of which side of the debate, generally should be ignored like the plague.
First the word “terrorist” was overused, so that just about anyone is a terrorist these days.
Next, the word “racist” was overused and misapplied to the extent that everyone to the right of Ruth Bader Ginsberg is a racist.
Now I see that the word du jour is “evil.” By the end was of the year, I will be an evil, racist terrorist. And so will you all.
“She wants, errr DEMANDS, that you agree with her lock, stock, and barrel …. otherwise you are a piece of shit.”
How is that different from Ann Coulter?
Good point, EC. I seem to remember there was a lot of backlash when another dude said, “You’re either with us, or against us.” Your legitimacy is easy to call into question with thinkpieces like this one.
Trump’s 2016 campaign had three pillars:
Ending illegal immigration
Disengaging from international agreements that restrict our sovereignty
Avoiding stupid foreign wars.
Trump’s going to dance with the one who brung him.
Planks are now pillars?
We love multi-tasking. We can make liberals head explode domestically, traumatize the Europeans and their slow suicide by the religion of peace and bring China and little rocket man to heel while also supporting and fomenting popular revolution in Iran. I think the Iranians have suffered enough and we need to help them throw off the chains of their Mullah oppressors!
Open Iran to tourism, get some damn carpets flowing (do they make anything else?) and bring them back into the family of civilized nations. Iranian babes are hot they need to be shared with the world and not hidden away under a headscarf.
Q is total BS, so sad when Jerome Corsi was shilling his new book by jumping on the Q bandwagon….but I guess everybody has to make a buck however they can.
Trump is ripping away the vassal states from our global competitors…..should be pretty obvious to everybody and doing it without invading…..much more efficient and harder for Russia and China to fight against. He is also pressuring them directly. Our leftists and the globalists are losing their minds. Ha ha.
CIA and US government meddling in the internal affairs of Iran has created the issues (problems) the US has with Iran now . CIA assignation of the Iranian President in 1955 and installing the puppet Shaw was our first total Middle East fuckup . Thinking the Iranian people were stupid was the second big fuckup . America had a progressive moderate alliance with a democratic Iranian government till CIA dick beaters got involved . If you know any American citizens of Iranian desent pre Shaw puppet government you would understand the distrust of average Iranians today . The one good thing is many Americans of Iranian desent know and understand the complete disconnect that has evolved between average American citizens and their so-called representitive government regarding Middle East policies and they know who the winners and losers are and how and why they are chosen !
Do you mean the Shah of Iran or Robert Shaw?
Trump is such a nice guy and swamp drainer he has in 1.5 years dropped 40,000 bombs on the 3rd world. Exactly as many as Bush Jr. in 8 years. Obummer dropped 100,000 in his 8 years.
At that rate he will bring peace with 240,000 bombs. Its hard to make war when your country doesn’t have one stick still standing and what’s left of your family is in a refugee camp dying of cholera and your daughters are turning tricks in an elite pedo brothel at the ripe old age of 4. Nothing new to us mind you.
You sure it’s not 39,000 bombs – or 41,000?
The world is a vampire, sent to drain
Secret destroyers, hold you up to the flames
And what do I get, for my pain?
Betrayed desires, and a piece of the game
Even though I know, I suppose I’ll show
All my cool and cold, like old job
Despite all my rage I am still just a rat in a cage
Despite all my rage I am still just a rat in a cage
Then someone will say what is lost can never be saved
Despite all my rage I am still just a rat in a cage
There’s plenty of information out there, in open space to not care about the identity of some anonymous idiot:
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4147977-america-go-bankrupt-slowly-first
We are a bankrupt, finished place, as we obsess over bullshit. Few could comprehend, let’s say in 1988 what the Soviet Union would become in 1991. We have a much higher level to fall from, and we may not end up quite as bad off as 90’s Russia, but it’s coming.
Most governments are oppressive in one way or another. In the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave, for example you can:
a) Have any cash you are carrying over $100 stolen by copfuks for no particular reason.
b) Be shot by copfuks for no particular reason.
c) Have your bank account cleaned out by the IRS simply because they decide to, or the County DA if it decides you have broken some law.
d) Be sued for hundreds of thousands of dollars by the EPA (state or federal) if they find “unnatural” growth of algae in a roadside ditch in front of your property.
e) Elected officeholders, even for fairly minor state offices, are carefully vetted. True successful mavericks such as Jesse Ventura are few and far between.
f) Internationally we do whatever the fuck we want because we can.
What does this have to do with Iran? Nothing. The government of Iran is not perfect either. It has come a long way since 1979 but it still has plainclothed morality copfuks who hassle people in public for the crime of showing affection. It still puts drug dealers to death and tends to view substance abuse as a moral, rather than medical issue. It is pretty corrupt at the highest level…if you want to get wealthy there, you had better be a devout Shia muslim, with personal connections to the ruling elite and have a high opinion of the Revolutionary Guard.
Having said all that I have news for you regime changers. Iran is a normal country. It functions as a normal country the people there just want what most people want…Healthy kids who succeed in life and a decent enough job to support them. Iran is not a state sponsor of terrorism, nor does it directly threaten any other country. It is not at war with anyone nor does it have any troops outside its borders with the exception of Syria and Iraq, where they are engaged in fighting ISIS and Al Qaeda (our mutual enemies…at least officially).
Some Iranians hate the government. Some support it. Some would like to restore the monarchy. Some are religious, others go through the motions while others don’t give a fuck one way or another. Basically they are a lot like Americans.
I think Q just totally blew it!!!
He or she or whatever had a “very deep con” going until this POS Q exhortation came out and it reveals who is behind the curtain: surprise, mossad, cia clowns!!!
I have absolutely no doubt that MEK, mossad, cia are already engaging in destabilizing efforts and voila, Q comes along and jumps on the train. If that does not smack of a neo con or zio con effort, ???, I have seriously misunderstood what has been going down the last several decades.
Horse pucky, Caitlin. Your piece deserves a fire hose treatment, but I’m inclined to let the stink rise and attract the dung beetles just to see their number and hear the music of their digestion. One day their tune will change, but not today whatever evidence is presented to them, and to you their symbiote.
I have to wonder if Commiefornia is this stupid. http://amp.dailycaller.com/2018/06/22/caliph-runs-for-2020-president/
For my personal opinion, I don’t want to die for Iran. No American should want to or have to.
I also don’t mind regime change in Iran. They are responsible for a lot of really nasty stuff in the middle yeast and around the world.
Not that we’re remotely choir boys.
I guess I’m guilty of being old, but I remember growing up in the 70s and 80s and how Iran was responsible for all sorts of nasty shit as supporters of international terrorism. These days, it’s like they’re rehabilitated and nobody brings it up. The film, Argo, was about the worst indictment of them since Khomeini died. I still remember stories about their weirdbeards killing women for the crime of riding a bicycle. Oh, and I also remember their attempts to fuck with us since 2003 in the Persian Gulf. I feel like their drone hijacking and the capture of our sailors deserve some serious counter-fuckery.
If I were in charge, I wouldn’t drop one bomb or fire one bullet, but I would gladly provide funds to any anti-regime forces that pop up, if for no other reason than to return the favor of all their meddling in our business and their long-term support for terrorists. I would also fuck with them in every way possible short of war, economically, politically, socially, etc.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_and_state-sponsored_terrorism
So I guess I’m a piece of shit, says some internet cunt I never heard of.