BREAKING “Palestinians, & Arabs are their own worst enemy!”
As someone from Latin America who grew up in the US my entire life and often traveled to LATAM & have now been to West Asia, Russia & beyond, I find it extremely arrogant & on cue with Western exceptionalism, for US & Western pundits to blame “Arabs,” Palestinians, & Syrians or Assad for not getting their shit together & for what’s happened. It’s suspect because we all know it’s the same hands behind this & you’re diverting attention from the actual culprits.
How rich after the West has never had to endure a fraction of the constant sanctions, bombings, threats, coups, purposeful destabilizations & absolute mind fucks, that the people of Africa, West Asia & Latin America have for centuries now. Never.
Our governments have in fact actually caused this upon pretty much everyone in the world and then created Israel to be the Great Satan’s baby brother, a mini genocidal settler state because that’s what the West comes from, especially the US & UK, who taught Israel everything it knows including how to commit genocide. Gaza isn’t the first genocide by the West. Native Americans, Africans, Indians, were exterminated and Libya’s slave trade, Vietnam, & other subsequent disasters to name a few, produced massive losses of life.
Yet most US Americans can’t even figure out that our government is a failed state headed toward fascism, our elections are selections, corporations run our lives, & our economy relies on war, sickness & destruction to survive. Most couldn’t figure out Covid was manipulated to make us sicker, & elections & politics like the border issue are used to turn us against each other with fear, for control & increasing the surveillance state, because pretty much everything said about other countries or ideologies is false and they need you to believe the lies and blame someone else. Most of this is also true of Europe and the UK. We can’t figure out how to tame our governments & we have more resources & none of the above issues we’ve caused in other nations but have the impudence to demand they “had a chance & are their worst enemy”? Ha, the fall will be hard.
The audacity of Westerners who’ve never been to these countries without having the red carpet rolled out just because they’re western, repeating the same tired diatribe that Westerners have said about the Global South for centuries. “These savages can’t figure it out! I’m done saving them!”
But you never saved anyone. You’re complicit because you still find yourself superior. You simply pretended to care because it got you jobs, accolades and & the world applauds you for the most minimal effort while the people of these countries suffer anyway. Ouch you got yelled at by your government! Now you’re not allowed to be criticized & thx for “your work”? That’s how this works.
What’s worse is this mentality, pervasive in the Western perspective, has also been adopted by the very people whose nations we screwed. By Arabs, Latin Americans, Asians & Africans who then criticize each other & say, “Yes we need the Western man, we can’t fix it ourselves. We need their business, look how they never have problems like we do! It’s our leader’s fault! We need to be more like them.” I’ve heard it all from friends, family members & in countries the West has targeted.
That’s by design. You don’t get to pretend it means you’re right. It simply means the Empire’s succeeded in turning victims on each other.
This struck a nerve with me because what’s behind Syria’s fall is very clear to me. Destabilize, sanction, push to war, isolate, weaken, attack on multiple fronts, coup government, blame leader, push despair, “save them” by keeping them down & collecting resources. Rinse & repeat.
It’s been done thousands of times before. Because of this I know who truly is to blame & it certainly isn’t the victims. But the people of the Global South, & I am also one, need to learn one thing: The Empire will never be your friend.
Also find here https://x.com/fiorellaisabelm/status/1869669340611477761?s=46
https://substack.com/@fiorellaisabel
I miss the convo couch Fiorella. for a time yours and I think kit cabellos show were my main go to's for a while; and I very much valued your opinions and perspectives… … lol EVEN the Fi rants… … lol. Just sending a supportive note. and although I don't know you personally. I have attended social functions here in l.a in the past related to this work where you and Pasta also attended. so yes… … I'm also very emotionally invested my heart and thoughts are thinking of you as well.
I agree with you but would like to add that the dynamic of "little brown brothers" turning on themselves and each other is the same thing as the dynamic within the Western countries which we call "internalized racism" among communities of color. In Iran, I called it "cultural rape". But mostly I think they are choosing to believe the bullshit propaganda the Western governments and media (and educational institutions, which is why pundits specializing in the M.E. are so often clueless) have put out forever. Why would ANY Syrians believe the propaganda these Western outlets have been pushing? Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, and Iran have ALL been around far longer than any European or modern American country. She who laughs last, lasts.