Showing posts with label cognitive dissonance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cognitive dissonance. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 10, 2025

Lessons Learned

 

Lessons Learned

by C.A. Matthews

Welcome to our tenth anniversary celebration of The Revolution Continues!

It’s been ten years this month since I agreed to become blog editor. TRC had another name originally, and it was posted on another social media platform, but it gradually transformed into what you’re reading today. That tentative first step kicked off a busy decade of writing, editing, reading, and researching how human beings manage to screw things up and try to put them back together again.

Ten whole years. Would I agree to do it all again, knowing what I do now? Hmm… Let me think about it.

Some folks place TRC under the category of “political science,” but I prefer think of it more as a study in anthropology, history, sociology, and psychology. People making life either harder or easier for themselves or others is what our time on this planet is all about, in my humble opinion. And it’s amazing just how many in power enjoy making life more difficult for others in order to “get ahead.”

It’s issues like these that trigger my spidey-sense gained from my background in psychology. Why do sociopaths get such satisfaction from the struggles and suffering of their fellow human beings? Can’t we simply learn to respect each others’ differences, and live and let live? Most days, apparently not.

And with that insight, I’ll share ten pearls of wisdom gathered over the last decade from fighting in the trenches of American politics and activism. I’m sure you’ve discovered most of these yourself. Feel free to comment on which one(s) has/have made the biggest impression on you.

Ten Tough Lessons Learned Over the Past Ten Years

1. We must act as our own heroes.

Nobody is going to become our “savior” and save us from our failures as a nation or as a people or as a species. We must learn to save ourselves and do it over and over again. This is what the brave crew of the Madleen in the Freedom Flotilla are attempting. This is what the March to Gaza is all about.

Political heroes in particular are more than likely to let you down. Take for example Bernie Sanders. This blog began as The Bernie Blog in 2015 when a handful of enthusiastic “Berners” came together in hopes of spreading the word that democratic socialism could solve all of America’s problems. The only problem with that idea was that the corrupt system under which Americans elect their leaders and solve their society’s challenges didn’t want to have anything to do with people like Bernie or his followers. They particularly despised any philosophy of governance containing the word “socialism” in it as well.

More on that corrupt system in a moment. One day soon I promise to write more about the origin story of the TRC blog and how our relationship with Bernie changed. Suffice it to say, there are a lot of funny, scary, and very educational stories to tell about how we survived it all...

 

To learn the remaining nine lessons, please continue reading the rest of this article on Substack. Just copy or click on this link: 

https://therevolutioncontinues.substack.com

There you'll see related article and video links, all the graphics, and be able to leave comments. You can become a free or paid subscriber and receive weekly posts in your email box, along with occasional special articles just for paid subscribers, too.

Subscribe to The Revolution Continues on Substack today. Power to the people!
 

 

This article is the 523rd blog posting of The Revolution Continues. We began in June 2015, and we're still going strong. Please keep reading, sharing, and subscribing to help TRC continue for another ten years. 

You can make a donation at https://paypal.me/camatthews or at Buy Me a Coffee or at Ko-fi. Every little bit helps since this is my only source of income. Thank you.

 

Tuesday, May 24, 2022

Cognitive Dissonance



Update: Since this was published online, there's been yet another mass murder--this time at an elementary school in Ulvade, Texas. We'll talk about it in next Tuesday's post, but in the meantime, I believe this week's theme explains much about America's obsession with gun violence and sponsoring bloody warfare around the world.

This week we're all still reeling from the hideous massacre of ten African Americans by an 18 year old white boy. Shooter Payton Gendron drove three hours to predominantly Black East Buffalo to hunt down residents. His 180 page manifesto demonstrates that he idolizes the white supremacy philosophy of the Ukrainian Azov Battalion. Where did an American kid ever get such a horrific idea that actual Nazis are to be worshiped and glorified?

Could it be that our dumping of billions of dollars of weaponry into the current proxy war and the mainstream media's downplaying of the Nazi white supremacist attitudes of the Ukrainian militias is to blame?  Gendron made it clear that he sympathized with the Azov Battalion when he displayed their Nazi symbology, yet Biden and his neoliberal lackeys in the media continually downplay and actively try to rehabilitate their members' heinous reputations.

Our armchair historian gives us the following words of warning to those who would try to excuse fascism.

No Such Animal

by Coast Watcher


Knowing history as I do, I am continuously baffled by those who insist that there are "good Nazis."

People, there’s no such animal!

All those images of young men (and it is young men for the most part) sporting battledress badges and tattoos with Nazi symbols are exactly what they appear to be—Nazis.

Symbols have meaning. A "Caution: Contents will be hot after heating" symbol means the contents of a receptacle will be hot after heating. "Danger: Wet floor" means the surface of the floor is wet and dangerously slippery. Nazi swastika, SS lighting bolt, and black sun images mean exactly what they indicate—the person wearing them is committed to persecuting Jews, Gays, the Roma, the disabled—in fact anyone their extreme right-wing ideology tells them to, to the point of killing them in the most brutal way possible.

There. Are. No. Good. Nazis.

If somebody tells you otherwise, refer them to a history of Nazi German atrocities during the 1930s through to 1945. Don't forget to include those perpetuated in Ukraine and Russia following Operation Barbarossa, the 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union. The Azov Battalion people you are praising to the skies for defending Ukraine against Russia are ideologically no different to those SS folk 77 years ago. In fact they wear the same symbols to show their ideological connection and affinity with those fascist invaders. The "enemy of my enemy is my friend" does not apply to these people.

Get this through your head: There. Are. No. Good. Nazis.

 

What does this defense of fascism mean to America and the West in the long run? Peace activist and former Green Party Vice Presidential candidate Ajamu Baraka states:

Zelensky talks about the need to “defend the West,” “Europeanness,” “Western values,” and the liberal/left does not recognize the inherent assumptions of white supremacy in those terms. But Payton Gendron did and is why he enlisted in Zelensky’s fight not in Ukraine but in the middle of an African American community.

An exaggeration?

History will determine that. But what some of us see is a racialized discourse operating just below the surface in which Europe and Europeaness that Ukrainians strive for is also connected to a racialized trope of Europe being ontologically civilized while the less-white Slavs are barbarians, prone to irrational violence, like the Russians who decided “out of nowhere” to just attack Ukraine!

We also understand that downplaying the threat of a resurgent white supremacist fascism in its most sophisticated form represented by Zelensky who has become that slick, right-wing politician with politics as racist as Trump but without the crudeness who many feared could emerge in the U.S. No one could have anticipated that person would emerge in Europe as the lovable face of fascism.

Buffalo closes the loop that connects crude white supremacy with its more polished and dangerous expression. Both of these versions represent a consensus that is committed to using force and violence to ensure that white power will not to be “replaced.” This new consensus has created the ideological foundation for the legitimation of a cross-class white supremacist defense of something called European values and the interests of Europe. The lack of concern for the consequences of the war and sanctions on the rest of the world confirms that this consensus and the interests it defends are in contradiction to the interests of the non-Western global majority.

For us, Buffalo is not a wake-up call but a declaration of war. 

--Ajamu Baraka, The New Supremacist Consensus Part Two


Related Articles:

Buffalo Shooter Wore the Same Neo-Nazi Symbol as Ukraine's Azov (video) https://youtu.be/sZDR7hsMOi8 

Massacre in Buffalo Highlights the Legacy of Racist Violence https://popularresistance.org/massacre-in-buffalo-highlights-the-legacy-of-racist-violence/

The New Supremacist Consensus Part Two--Shootings in Buffalo Solidify the Consensus https://popularresistance.org/the-new-white-supremacist-consensus-part-two-shootings-in-buffalo-solidify-the-consensus/ 

New Laws Make It Hard for Some Educators to Discuss Buffalo Shooting in Class https://truthout.org/articles/new-laws-make-it-hard-for-some-educators-to-discuss-buffalo-shooting-in-class/

Buffalo, The Tulsa Massacre and the Legacy of Anti-Black Violence https://www.rsn.org/001/buffalo-the-tulsa-massacre-and-legacy-of-antiblack-violence.html 

Cornel West: "White supremacy is as American as apple pie, as the latest killings in Buffalo show. Biden needs to take a stand against neofascists."  https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/may/21/trump-black-white-supremacy-buffalo-joe-biden

Anti-Terrorism Bill Targeting White Supremacists  https://truthout.org/articles/anti-terrorism-bill-targeting-white-supremacists-puts-house-gop-on-the-defensive/

TRC's Ukraine War Series  https://continuousrev.blogspot.com/p/ukraine-war-series.html

Hunter Biden Raked in $11 Million from China and Ukraine (video)  https://youtu.be/9FznPmC84bY 


Seen on Twitter:

Tuesday, February 23, 2021

Why Am I Not Surprised?




Why Am I Not Surprised?

by Redd (not a psychic) Phlagg

I'm frequently asked, "How did you know Biden wouldn't give us the $2,000 he promised back in January before the Georgia special election. Are you psychic or something?"

"No, I'm not psychic," I'll reply. "I just read the signs, and the signs were fairly clear on this pronouncement. You'll notice he's not done or said anything of any importance about Medicare For All in his first month, either, and he's also backed away from even promising Obamacare with a public option."

"Hey, you're right!" my questioner will exclaim. "You must be psychic."

"No, not psychic. I'm just observant. You can do likewise."

I switch into my teacher mode in an attempt to get my companion to connect the dots on their own. "Okay, here's what you do. Just watch a politician closely for a while and follow his or her most common pattern of behavior.  What have these two examples--the promised $2,000 check and the promised Medicare For All and Biden's lack of response on either issue--have in common?"

"Uh, that he's busy?"

"Sure, he's busy, but who isn't?" I'll heave a sigh here, but I won't give up. "Let me give you some more examples. Biden says he'll be an environmental president, yet he doesn't support even the Dems' watered down version of the Green New Deal, and it's open season on hunting wolves in Wisconsin now because his EPA won't put them and the rapidly dwindling Monarch butterflies back on the endangered species list to protect them from going extinct. When asked if he would forgive most student debt like he said on the campaign trail, he hems and haws. So, Biden says one thing and does the opposite, right?"

"Yeah, sounds like he's really busy," my companion says with a blank look on his face. "I sure hope we get that $2,000 check soon. I've been laid off since late March 2020, and my wife has left the state and taken the kids to live with her sister since they've got heat, and the landlord is ready to evict me."

It's at this point in the conversation that I usually feel like repeatedly bashing my head into a wall in frustration.

It seems some folks of the "Blue MAGA" persuasion can put two and two together and come out with six. They will almost always believe every utterance coming out of a Democrat's month and will give them the full benefit of the doubt. Doubly so if the Dem politician is good-looking and young(ish)--'cause how can a pretty lady lie, right?


Oh, to be so innocent and trusting!

And yet, they're hurting--badly. Whenever they notice that I'm batting a thousand when it comes to predicting what Biden's responses will be on the issues, they're impressed and honestly confused as to how I can be so certain what Biden will do/not do. It's almost as if the cognitive dissonance inside their skulls is too much to bear, so they just shut down and regurgitate the party line and drool down the front of their shirts.

How are these poor besotted souls any different from the original red-hatted MAGAts who blindly followed Trump? Answer: They're no different. They've joined a cult that tells them how to think and what to say. When painful reality creeps up on them, they could find themselves in an existential crisis. In time, some might even be willing to walk away from the lies and seek solace elsewhere in the arms of a welcoming "third party."


But not all will.  I've observed their behavior patterns closely. These blindly devout "blue-no-matter-who" types are the ones who, when the next election rolls around, will more than likely cast their ballots as they're instructed by the corporate-owned-and-operated Democratic Party USA. They'll believe every word, every promise, and fall for every trick in the book.

Why am I not surprised?

Is there any way to save these individuals from themselves? Furthermore, is there any way to save our country from the destruction to our environment and society that is caused by these Red/Blue cult members? Until the cultists leave their cult by recognizing how they are simply acting as a front for the billionaire oligarchs who truly run the show, there is no hope. We are screwed.

Next time someone makes a comment that they're surprised why they haven't received their stimulus check or Medicare For All yet, tell them you're a psychic. You're a psychic who will predict what Biden won't do next. Maybe if enough of us do this it will convince them to join our cult, the cult of intelligent and independent thinkers.

 

BIO: Redd Phlagg has seen the handwriting on the wall--and it was scribbled there using purple crayon by the Red/Blue cultists. Redd's mission in life is to help de-program these sad souls and lead them back to reality, thereby freeing the world of endless enslavement to the capitalist class. It's a lofty goal, but Redd heartily welcomes you to join in this crusade.

Related Articles:

Biden's First Month Marked by Broken Promises

https://popularresistance.org/bidens-first-month-marked-by-broken-promises/

Biden's Comments on Loan Forgiveness

https://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/67932-fact-check-bidens-comments-on-loan-forgiveness-and-elite-colleges

Half of America In or Near Poverty

https://www.nationofchange.org/2021/02/22/2021-update-half-of-america-in-or-near-poverty/ 

Biden's Agriculture Nominee Could Bring Us Back Into the Trans Pacific Partnership

https://truthout.org/articles/bidens-agriculture-nominee-could-bring-us-back-into-trans-pacific-partnership/


Caught on Twitter--

***

The Revolution Continues is now in our sixth year taking on the propaganda of the fauxgressives and their friends in the corporate-owned duopoly. We need passionate revolutionaries like you to help us provide progressive insights that are being actively censored elsewhere. If you can donate a little to the cause, please do so at the Paypal.me link below.

http://paypal.me/camatthews

Thanks for all you do in making the world a better place. Power to the people!

***

From Change:

Over the past days, millions of Texans have gone without power. Freezing weather. Burst pipes. Flooded homes. Petition starter Anil knows it didn’t have to be this way. Texas should have been able to source energy from out of state. But their energy grid is disconnected from the other two energy grids in the country. Anil is calling for Texas leaders to right this wrong. Add your name now to call for Texas to join the East and West power grids. 


Petition Texas to Join East and West Energy Interconnects with the Tres Amigas Project

1,995 have signed Anil Raj’s petition. Let’s get to 2,500!


Sign now with a click

Texas has faced a unique disaster of its own making in the historic winter storm that hit the state in Feburary 2021. As of Feb 16th, some 4 million Texans are facing extended power outages in freezing weather will little to no warning to prepare beforehand. With several accident-related deaths already caused by these power outages, and countless stories of frozen pipes and other property damage, Texas’ mismanagement of the power grid has caused untold harm to its citizens.

One unique aspect of Texas’ energy system stands out as a determining factor in this disaster--the isolation of the state’s energy grid from the only other two energy grids in the country, the Eastern Interconnection and the Western Electricity Coordinating Council. As an independent energy grid, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) must balance its own energy production and consumption within the state. Since Texas can not borrow energy from other states, and with a drastic curtail of energy supply due to the storm, Texas citizens must bear the brunt of the consequences of this failed governance with prolonged energy blackouts.

Fortunately, the Tres Amigas project in New Mexico, started in 2010, would create such an interconnection between the country’s three power grids. Since ERCOT has proven themselves incapable of living up to their name and sustaining the reliability of the Texas power grid, we demand Governor Greg Abbott and Public Utility Commission Chariman DeAnn T. Walker to cease stonewalling their participation in the Tres Amigas project, and to join the East and West interconnections for ensured power reliability throughout the state.

Additional Reading:

Grandmother, 3 children die in Sugar Land house fire, officials say by Vincent Crivelli. Feb. 16, 2021.

HPD: Woman, little girl die from carbon monoxide poisoning caused by car running in garage to keep warm by Dough Delony. Feb. 16, 2021.

Texplainer: Why Does Texas Have Its Own Power Grid? by Kate Galbraith. Feb. 8, 2011

Hola, Amigas by Kate Galbraith. Aug 26, 2010.

Tres Amigas

Sign now with a click

Visit petition page

***

From Public Citizen:

At a town hall last week, President Biden was asked about taking executive action to cancel up to $50,000 of federal student loan debt for millions of Americans.

Biden replied, “I will not make that happen.”

That was disappointing.

But it doesn’t have to be — and we can’t let it be — the end of the story.

Join Public Citizen in urging Joe Biden not to give up already on using his authority as president to provide millions of Americans relief from crushing and discriminatory student loans.

Add your name.

Thanks for taking action.

For fairness,

- Robert Weissman, President of Public Citizen



Tuesday, February 9, 2021

Bread and Circuses Redux


Bread and Circuses Redux

Coast Watcher

Already long ago, from when we sold our vote to no man, the People have abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a time handed out military command, high civil office, legions—everything, now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things: bread and circuses. ~ Juvenal

The companies that bought time in the recent Superbowl commercial blocks are the same ones that were given trillions of dollars in bailout money by the same people who won’t give us a measly two thousand dollars Covid relief. Like the Roman arenas and circuses of long ago, many modern stadiums are built using public money. The American government obviously thinks that distracting the public by promoting spectacles like the Superbowl is worth more than providing actual payments of cash to help us all through the pandemic.

We’re now told that the next payment due April will be $1400, not $2000, because of the $600 paid out last year by the Trump administration. This is in blatant disregard of the numerous political statements made before the Georgia special election by Biden, Harris, Ossoff and Warnock specifically stating $2000 would be paid out in the event of a Democratic party victory.   

Having got what they wanted, why would the so-called Democrats bother to pay out now? 

We’re also told that the relief payments will be means tested, that anyone earning over $50K as an individual/$100K as a couple won’t get the money. This in spite of the fact that $50k/$100K isn’t a whole heck of a lot of money on which to live in some parts of the US.

Most other first world countries continue to pay their citizens relief money on a steady basis, and will probably do so for the foreseeable future. Not in the US, where capitalism declares everybody must go back to work to make more money for the rich and to hell with your kids and elderly getting exposed to Covid-19. 

Capitalists would prefer you didn’t think of such things, that you must agitate for schools, bars and restaurants to be reopened so you can go back to your "normal" grind. As a thank-you for your slavish cooperation, they’ll throw a few crumbs your way.

Instead of demanding our elected representatives do their duty to the people, we humbly petition them to do so and anxiously hope for bread and circuses. And that's what we get--overpriced distractions and food banks.

God help America. 

Related article:

 "Unbelievable": Bernie Sanders Slams Democrats Who Want to Narrow Income Eligibility for Stimulus Payments

https://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/67707-unbelievable-bernie-sanders-slams-democrats-who-want-to-narrow-income-eligibility-for-stimulus-payments


BIO: Coast Watcher isn't much into football or circuses of any kind. How long will the American public allow itself to be distracted? If the "$2K check" isn't forthcoming, will that awaken their ire and birth a political revolution? Coastie certainly hopes so!


 ***


The Revolution Continues is now in our sixth year fighting against the corporate duopoly. We're not ashamed to say that we need fellow revolutionaries like you to help us stay online and provide progressive insights that are being actively censored elsewhere. If you can spare some of your pocket change, please use the Paypal.me link below to donate to help fund our operations.

http://paypal.me/camatthews

Thanks for all you do in making the world a better place. Power to the people!

*** 


Families Belong Together (Logo)

Last week, under the cover of darkness, ICE hurriedly rounded up a group of chained and horrified Black immigrants from Alexandria, Louisiana on a deportation flight to Jamaica.

It came 8 days *after* the Biden administration issued a moratorium on deportations, but ICE took advantage of a temporary block on Biden’s deportation moratorium.

Let’s be clear: nothing in the judge’s order requires ICE to deport people right now--DHS has the power to grant stays of removal or use their prosecutorial discretion to stop it.

We need to ramp up the pressure fast -- Families Belong Together is joining with our partners at UndocuBlack Network and the Black Immigrant Collective to demand ICE stop deporting community members and return all our deported community members on iAero Airways Flight 3562. Will you add your name?

aCT NOW →

The Biden administration made a critical first step towards addressing our broken immigration system this week. The moratorium represented a previously-unimaginable collective exhale from thousands of Black and brown people -- both those in detention and their communities of support.

But instead of following this lead, ICE is barreling ahead using the same misguided and cruel removal policies that dominated the Trump era.

ICE might technically be allowed to continue with deportations, but it flies in the face of the crystal clear direction from the Biden administration -- and we can’t let them get away with it.

We need you to help put pressure on DHS to stop deporting our community members and return our deported community members on iAero Airways Flight 3562 -- add your name now.

Thanks for all you do,

Paola Luisi, Director
Families Belong Together

***


 
Home Depot & Lowe's: show us love and #RejectRoundup

Glyphosate, the main ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup, is increasingly linked to cancer. Yet, major stores still sell this toxic herbicide.

Join us in this week of action to tell Home Depot and Lowe's to Reject Roundup.

Take any of these 3 easy actions:

Take a picture of yourself with a message telling Home Depot and/or Lowe’s to Reject Roundup. 

Create your own sign on a piece of paper OR download and print this sign. Then email us your photo and we'll post on our social media.

OR

Mail or deliver these letters to Home Depot and/or Lowe’s. 

And let us know if you do.

OR

Post on social media.

Post the photo you took above or post one of these suggested messages on Lowe’s Facebook wall, Home Depot’s Facebook wall, and Twitter with these graphics.

  • Show bees and butterflies some love this Valentine's Day, @HomeDepot @Lowes. It’s time to #RejectRoundup! Bayer-Monsanto’s Roundup® weedkiller is decimating monarch butterflies by wiping out milkweed, the only food source for their young. Monarchs have declined by 90% in the past 20 years alone. Don’t let them disappear in our lifetime. 
  • Hey, @HomeDepot @Lowes, show us some love this Valentine’s day and #RejectRoundup! This toxic weedkiller is linked to cancer and reproductive harm. We want it off your shelves and out of our bodies! 
  • When are you taking Roundup off your shelves @Lowes and @HomeDepot? This Valentine’s Day, show some love for {insert what is important to you: our kids health, pollinators, groundskeeper health, our waterways, etc.} #RejectRoundup

 

Post anytime throughout this week and you can even post multiple times.

Thank you for joining our Valentine's Week of Action to Reject Roundup.

For the health of pollinators, humans, and the planet, 



Jes Walton
Food Campaigns Director
Green America 

 

*** 





 
From Friends of the Earth:


 
 

Take action to protect ocean habitats from floating factory farms.

Wild fish, sea birds, and dolphins are at risk -- along with the health of our oceans and coastal communities. Take action now.

The federal government is trying to permit industrial ocean fish farms in federal ocean waters without Congressional authorization. These floating factory farms pollute our coastal waters with pesticides and chemicals -- putting our ocean habitats in danger.

Our ocean ecosystem is too fragile to put in the hands of agribusiness, and we need your help to stop it. Tell your members of Congress to support the Keep FinFish Free Act to protect our coastal waters.

Sign now to demand our oceans are protected from floating factory farms!

Sign Now

Our oceans are fragile. It takes strategic planning and policies to protect marine environments. Industrial fish farms routinely cause massive spills, spreading diseases, pets, and threatening wild fish stocks.

Seabirds get entangled in the pens and cages. Whales, dolphins, seals, and sea lions experience food shortages.

Giant agribusiness is just another Big Polluter looking to exploit our public lands and water for the sake of profit.

Sadly, aquaculture is the fastest growing food production sector, while fish receive the least protections. Hold your members of Congress accountable for protecting our waters and wildlife.

Take action: Demand the health of our oceans and marine line be protected from aquaculture facilities.

Sign Now

Factory fish farms depend on toxic pesticides, pharmaceutical drugs, and genetically engineered crops -- such as soy -- a disturbing cocktail of toxins that greatly impact human health.

  • Pharmaceutical drugs used to control pests and disease in overcrowded pens can increase the risk of harmful bacteria becoming antibiotic resistant in human illness.
  • Dyes used to make factory farmed salmon pink have links to retinal damage and hyperactivity in children.
  • Chemical compounds used can increase the risk of cancer, reproductive problems, and disrupt the endocrine system.

We need your help to hold officials accountable for protecting us from toxic aquaculture facilities.

Demand your members of Congress put our health ahead of corporate profit. Demand they support the Keep FinFish Free Act.

Sign Now

Standing with you,
Hallie Templeton,
Senior oceans campaigner,
Friends of the Earth

***