The Quiet Part
Say the quiet part out loud and take action against it. Today.
“...We will continue to actively engage in the hard work of direct diplomacy on the ground until we reach a final solution.” --Remarks by Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield at the UN Security Council Stakeout Following a Vote on the Situation in the Middle East
“I am happy to be a fascist!”--Israeli Minister of Culture Miri Regev
“[Palestinians] are beasts, they are not human.” --Israeli Deputy Defense Prime Minister Rabbi Eli Ben Dahan (2013)
"There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel. Everything is closed. We are fighting human animals and we act accordingly.” — Israeli Defense Minister Yoav GallantBiden Repeatedly Confuses Ukraine & Russia & Iraq https://rumble.com/v4f44no-biden-repeatedly-confuses-ukraine-and-russia-and-iraq.html
The Quiet Part
by C.A. Matthews
Some days you have to pinch yourself. Did she really say that? (Yes, she did.) Did he really say those dehumanizing and racist things? (Yes, he did.) Did our president confuse Ukraine and Russia and Iraq? (Yes, he has mixed up these sorts of things on several occasions, but it has nothing to do with his cognitive decline issues we're told.)
Why are they saying (or acting) the “quiet part” out loud?
It hit me about eight years ago that the corrupt American status quo doesn’t waste time on niceties anymore. They don’t try to hide the fact that they couldn’t care less about the working classes. They don’t care if their mindless “puppet-president” is just that obvious nowadays. Our electeds don’t even pretend to be on our side as they take yet another wad of cash from AIPAC and send billions of dollars in bombs to Israel to assist with a genocide of the Palestinian people.
The smug establishment is saying the “quiet part” out loud. For this reason alone we should take them at their word. Push all those doubts out of your mind. The US is gladly helping Israel with their “Final Solution to the Palestinian Question.” Our UN ambassador just said it out loud, didn’t she?
No doubts about it at all—the US government doesn’t care if the Israelis wipe out the entirety of the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank to take their land, natural gas and oil resources. And why should it? We’ve done it ourselves before, haven’t we?
Whose land do you live on, “American”? The original inhabitants’ land—not the white settlers’ stolen parcel. Don’t give me that, “I paid for it—it’s my property!” nonsense. All property is theft. You did not create the land out of thin air, did you? It belonged to someone else before you. And probably before them as well if they were of European heritage. Wiping out entire indigenous peoples and language groups and replacing them with white Anglo-Saxon culture is as American as Dutch apple pie and German frankfurters, a.k.a. hot dogs.
Don’t grieve if this makes you look complicit with genocide by association. The quiet part needs to be said out loud from time to time to keep us honest. So kudos goes out to United States Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield for keeping it real. Even if it was a faux pas on her part or a poorly worded statement she read without editing first, she still made it. Now the world knows exactly why the US continues to veto a ceasefire in Gaza in the UN Security Council. We’re helping the Israelis with their “Final Solution” according to a senior US official, so that makes it official.
The term “Final Solution of the Jewish Question” was a euphemism used by Nazi Germany’s leaders according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Most of us know enough history to understand what the Nazis were up to at their concentration camps during the 1940s. They weren’t holiday camps. They didn’t expect the people who walked in through their gates to walk out ever again. “Final” meant just that. No more problems can be expected from people who aren’t breathing any longer.
“It’s all so...shocking, isn’t it?” I’ve heard this line many times over the past four months. “The US is openly supporting a genocide in Gaza and turning a blind eye to the war crimes their ally Israel is proudly committing. Who would have thought this was possible in the year 2024? I blame [insert villain of the week the duopolists are shouting about here].”
My response to this line of nonsense is this: “I don’t know where you’ve been most of your life, but what is so shocking about how the US has never learned its lesson and has decided to support white settler-colonialism on their ‘world’s largest aircraft carrier in the Middle East’? How long did legal chattel slavery of Africans exist in the US? We slaughtered Native Americans both before and after our blessed independence from Great Britain in the 18th century, did we not? Please stop trying to blame others for the war crimes Americans have done, continue to do and condone others for doing.”
When the US government spends massive amounts of their tax payer dollars on military budgets, it expects to win after all. You can’t expect the US to “win” if it doesn’t have the best in armaments and locations to launch its military strikes from, can you? Israel has been the site of many American operations in that corner of the world, operations to secure and steal petroleum resources. Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq again… We’re in it together! Why should Americans worry about brown-skinned “human animals” getting wiped out in our journey to gain control over more of the Earth’s black gold? The Israelis certainly don’t act squeamish about it.
Sure, being painted with the same brush as Adolf Hitler and friends makes our consciences (what’s left of them) twinge a bit, but this genocide is all in a good cause. What cause is that? Well, our cause, of course! Saying the quiet part out loud should be of no concern to Westerners who have come to depend upon petroleum-powered vehicles and plastics, plastics, and more plastics to maintain their high standard of living.
The choice is simple: It’s our lavish lifestyles or the lives of strangers dying under tons of rubble in an open air concentration camp called the Occupied Territories. How many Westerners are going to give up their BMWs or Cadillac Escalades for the sake of saving little children from having their bomb-damaged arms and legs amputated without anesthesia?
Hands up all those willing to give up their lifestyle to save others? Anyone? Hmm, yeah, I thought so.
The quiet part said out loud recently in the West has been known by the vast majority of non-Western humans on this planet for decades now. They are not surprised at all. Ask a Cambodian or a Vietnamese person about how Agent Orange dropped from American aircraft in the 1970s changed their lives and the lives of their loved ones forever with its mutative effects.
Southeast Asians understand white settler-colonialism even if the whites didn’t come and take their land away from them directly. Destroying their villages and their health with cancer-causing chemicals pretty much made the point clear: Americans didn’t and still don’t give a shit about anyone’s health and safety. It should come as no surprise to you that the Global South sympathizes wholly with the Palestinians and not at all with the Israeli occupiers and their allies.
That’s the funny thing about saying the quiet part out loud. It’s only “shocking” to those who have benefited materially, financially, and socially from not hearing the words said out loud before. To everyone else it’s just, “Oh, yeah, we knew that all along. Why didn’t you know about it?”
So, why didn’t you know? Why have you been keeping the quiet part quiet in your own conscience? What do you have to lose by admitting out loud to others that your country is taking part in a genocide? What do you have to gain by being honest and acknowledging the truth of the matter? Will others expect you to fight back against it if you admit it’s a bona fide genocide? Will they expect you to give up your white settler-colonialist privileges (even if you’re not considered officially white in your Western society) in order to bring about an end to this genocide and the occupation of an indigenous people’s land and resources?
Will you have to *gulp!* actually change the way you think, speak, and act from here on out?
Change can be scary. But so is a genocide for the innocent civilians suffering through it. Why should you be allowed to remain quiet and unchanging, uncaring while others are dying in Gaza, Congo, Sudan...?
Say the quiet part out loud and take action against it. Today.
The biggest insult to the memory of the Holocaust is not denying it but using it to commit genocide against the Palestinian people. --Norman Finkelstein
Rest In Power, Aaron Bushnell
Active duty US airman Aaron Bushnell set himself on fire outside of the Israeli Embassy in Washington DC on February 25 protesting Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people. He has since died from his injuries. He is the second person to have self-immolated in extreme protest to bring awareness to the genocide in Gaza. A woman on December 2, 2023, self-immolated outside an Israeli consulate in Atlanta. Aaron’s last message on social media explains why he was protesting:
His last words spoken were "Free Palestine!"
Caitlin Johnstone summed up Aaron's protest in this way: "I would never do what Bushnell did, and I would never recommend anyone else does either. That said, I also can’t deny that his action is having its intended effect: drawing attention to the horrors that are happening in Gaza." from Aaron Bushnell Burned Himself Alive To Make You Turn Your Eyes To Gaza
Rest in power, Aaron. May your sacrifice not be in vain. #FreePalestine
Related Articles and Other Interesting Links
Remarks by Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield at the UN Security Council Stakeout Following a Vote on the Situation in the Middle East https://usun.usmission.gov/remarks-by-ambassador-linda-thomas-greenfield-at-the-un-security-council-stakeout-following-a-vote-on-the-situation-in-the-middle-east/
YANIS VAROUFAKIS: Here's What The West Actually Stands For https://rumble.com/v4focxn-yanis-varoufakis-heres-what-the-west-actually-stands-for.html
Scott Ritter--A Reflection on Duty and Conscience: Aaron Bushnell youtu.be/bWUjRDEm2bw?si=B6DDfQuPN_I3fR1B
The Root of All Evils https://therevolutioncontinues.substack.com/p/the-root-of-all-evils
Rafah Attack Escalates “Most Transparent Genocide of All Time,” Scholar Says https://truthout.org/articles/rafah-attack-escalates-most-transparent-genocide-of-all-time-scholar-says/
While on trial for occupation, Israel is entrenching its military in Gaza – Day 137 https://israelpalestinenews.org/while-on-trial-for-occupation-israel-is-entrenching-its-military-in-gaza-day-137/
As Israeli Forces Fire on Starving Palestinians, US Again Vetoes UN Cease-Fire Resolution https://www.commondreams.org/news/us-vetoes-ceasefire
Exclusive: Israeli forces fired on food convoy in Gaza, UN documents and satellite analysis reveals https://edition.cnn.com/2024/02/21/middleeast/un-food-convoy-gaza-israel-strike-cmd-intl/index.html
Israel Demolishing Buildings to Construct Road in Gaza to Cut the Strip Into Two https://news.antiwar.com/2024/02/20/israel-demolishing-buildings-to-construct-road-in-gaza-to-cut-the-strip-into-two/
The Wire: Genocide is a Bad Investment https://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/2024/02/22/genocide-is-a-bad-investment/
Netanyahu’s Post-War Plans for Gaza Call for Military Occupation ‘Without Time Limit’ https://news.antiwar.com/2024/02/23/netanyahus-post-war-plans-for-gaza-call-for-military-occupation-without-time-limit/
Why Is the US Producing More Oil and Natural Gas Than Ever Under Biden? https://truthout.org/articles/why-is-the-us-producing-more-oil-and-natural-gas-than-ever-under-biden/
Chris Hedges: Julian Assange’s Day in Court https://scheerpost.com/2024/02/21/chris-hedges-julian-assanges-day-in-court/
Chris Hedges: Julian Assange’s Grand Inquisitor https://scheerpost.com/2024/02/22/chris-hedges-julian-assanges-grand-inquisitor/
Assange Appeal Hearing Plagued By Media Access Issues https://thedissenter.org/assange-appeal-hearing-plagued-by-media-access-issues/
UK High Court Finally Hears Assange's Request For An Appeal
https://thedissenter.org/high-court-hears-assange-request-for-appeal/
Immigrants Are Not Hurting US-Born Workers https://popularresistance.org/immigrants-are-not-hurting-us-born-workers/
Climate Cases Against Big Oil Are Merging Into One Super Suit https://popularresistance.org/climate-cases-against-big-oil-are-merging-into-one-super-suit/
Biden White House prepares Trump-style anti-immigrant executive order barring asylum claims https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/02/23/nocq-f23.html
No, Immigrants Aren’t Taking US Jobs https://scheerpost.com/2024/02/25/no-immigrants-arent-taking-us-jobs/
Ukraine’s Maidan Coup: The Evidence, 10 Years Later (w/ Ivan Katchanovski) https://scheerpost.com/2024/02/22/ukraines-maidan-coup-the-evidence-10-years-later-w-ivan-katchanovski/
Twenty-Five US Universities Face Calls To Cancel Starbucks Contracts https://popularresistance.org/twenty-five-us-universities-face-calls-to-cancel-starbucks-contracts/
The Rent Is Still Too High https://otherwords.org/the-rent-is-still-too-high
Jill Stein interview on "Arab Talk": youtu.be/VeEjhhEQ2Hg?si=_jgQpViWMQcnpyxY
Great column, art and links. Thanks.
That opening image is beautifully done and really sums up the corrupted and crumbling western world order.
As scholars of fascism always note, when a fascist tells you they are going to do something, believe them. When a top government official casually talks of a "final solution" that is not a slip-up .. that is a clear statement of intention. When another top official declares she's a proud fascist, believe her ... and understand the full scope and depth of dark depravity of what that means. And as these two clearly demonstrate, fascism is gender neutral. Women can be just as evil as men.
Polite silence in the face of such depravity is complicity. Complicity with war crimes is a war crime. You may never have held a rifle but through your silence you pull the trigger ... or drop the bomb ... or starve the child. Your guilt of complicity follows you, and as we all know -- karma can be a real bummer.
As the old quote by someone who spent eight years in Nazi concentration camps notes:
"First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me."
—Martin Niemöller
The opposition to the militarized police citizen suppression operation of Cop City in Atlanta is an example. The tools and techniques of suppression and conquest are always brought home to control the citizens who have been bled dry to fund empire. Note how Cop City protesters are now being hunted down and prosecuted as "terrorists".
At the end of all empires the weapons and lies that spread the empire are always brought home to beat down and control the uprising of citizens bled dry to fund the empire and fill the ranks of conquering armies. The American empire is imploding. Deluded citizens are awakening. They are hurt ... and they are angry. This is not a Republican/Democrat thing. It is not Right vs Left. It is -- and only ever is -- about TOP vs BOTTOM. It's class. Speak up for all, or suffer your fate alone, in silence.
Someone sent me a link to this handbook for organizing. I have not had a chance to read it, but it looks interesting. There are links at the bottom to reviews and an excerpt: "Practical Radicals
Seven Strategies to Change the World'" .... https://thenewpress.com/books/practical-radicals
We need to come together, or die separately and, dammit, the time is short.
Amazing how evil we can be in 2024.