Legacy media, partisan media, media funded by the rich isâwith notable exceptionâanimated not by a desire to expose wrongdoing or produce useful information, but to manufacture talking points, nuggets of superficially-sounding truisms and thought memes about why politics is best left to the professionals. Most âforeign policyâ reporters and pundits, especially, are motivated by the creation, repetition, and dissemination of these talking points, these thought memes, these Reasons Nothing Can Change and Nothing You Do Matters.Â
Donât use the word genocideâitâs not technically accurate.Â
And even if it is accurate, Biden is working hard to get a ceasefire anyway.
And even if heâs not actually working for a ceasefire but simply renamed a âtemporary pauseâ a âceasefireâ and still supports the vague objective of âeliminating Hamasâ no matter the carnage, he canât actually end the war anyway even if he wants to.
And even if he could end the war, itâs politically bad for him to do so. Wait, no, itâs politically unimportant.Â
And even if itâs not politically bad or unimportant, civilian deaths have reduced anyway, so whatâs the point? Also, didnât you hear the UN âlowered the count of women and children killed in Gazaâ?Â
Wait, they didnât actually do this? Okay, well itâs already out there so it doesnât matter. It feels true, it feels like the number is too high and brown people are shifty and untrustworthy.Â
And even if civilian deaths havenât gone down and the UN didnât actually lower its count, Hamas canât remain in power anyway. This is just a pat thing to say, right? Sounds anodyne enough?  Okay, so you want Hamas to remain in power? Youâre pro-Hamas?
There was a ceasefire on October 6.
Terrorist, terrorist, terrorist.
Free the hostages.
Hostages.Â
Ceasefire on October 6.
How can Israel have a ceasefire with terrorists? Wait, itâs happened before, over a dozen times?Â
Look, Biden is doing all he can to broker a ceasefire which, I know I just said was impossible, and also said he was powerless to do. Unless he does it then heâs not. Look, we canât really impact Israel, Biden is mostly a spectator, but also itâs important he and Congress send Israel another $26 billion in weapons.
What about Darfur? Haiti? Tigray? These are things, no? I just googled âwar crimes going on rnâ and this came up and despite never mentioning them before I think we should bring them up. But the US isnât giving these genocidal regimes billions a year in weapons? Yes, but Hamas, Terror, Hostages, Darfur, Iran, Houthis are violating maritime law.Â
Shocked and horrified but what they see on their social media timelines on a daily basis, and the USâs direct role in it, thereâs tremendous professional incentive in our media to come in and explain away, redirect, justify, and cast doubt on the obvious conclusion that this has to stop, that it simply cannot go on. Because it wonât stop, itâs bipartisan consensusâthe powers that be decided it has to go on and thereâs an election to win in November. There is thus a buyerâs market, and has been for the past seven months, for reporting and opinion pieces to explain why Nothing Can Change and Nothing You Do Matters.Â