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Bulletins and News Discussion from June 24th to June 30th, 2024 - Waiting for War - COTW: Lebanon

Image is of fires in northern Israel set off by Hezbollah, to force settlers to retreat from their occupied areas, in response to attacks on civilians in Lebanon.

I'm not gonna lie to you - I thought Israel would have started shit with Hezbollah by now which would have derailed whatever megathread theme I had planned, so I didn't bother planning one.

If you want a decent couple pieces going over what Hezbollah has done to Israel, then have a look at How 'Israel' Has Lost The North and Hezbollah's Quarterly Report. It's not exactly the most professional analysis, as you'll see if you read it, but it gets the point across and relies on evidence. In essence, Hezbollah has pushed the Israelis back tens of kilometers and decimated their border infrastructure, all while unveiling anti-aircraft missiles that have forced Israel to reconsider bombing runs. They still probably have the ability to turn various towns and cities in Lebanon to rubble, but Hezbollah can do massive damage back to Israel in turn. This has gone on so long with so little meaningful opposition by Israel that border settlements are going a little haywire and tentatively declaring independence from Israel and saying they don't want IDF troops there anymore. I don't take these terribly seriously from a military standpoint but it is indicative of the Zionist settler mindset crumbling over the last 9 months.

We're now at the point where Israel kinda has to go to war against Hezbollah or the entire Zionist ideology of military deterrence and expansion via illegal settlements simply no longer functions, but that war will also lead to massive destruction for military and civilian facilities (ports, power stations, war factories, etc) which is a massive problem for Israel's continued existence. Hamas continues to function inside Gaza despite the surface occupation of significant areas, including the Gaza-Egypt border, and attrition there is leading to big materiel and psychological losses for Israel too. And Yemen has, for all intents and purposes, prevailed against America's failed attempt to thwart their blockade - with some in the army claiming it's the most intense naval battle America has faced since WW2 - and missile strikes are tentatively beginning to hit or at least threaten ships in the Mediterranean Sea.

Nukes are still lurking quietly in the background, of course, but the Resistance is perfectly aware of that and still seems confident to go ahead with operations, so I can't really do anything but shrug and say that I trust them to do what's right.

The COTW (Country of the Week) label is designed to spur discussion and debate about a specific country every week in order to help the community gain greater understanding of the domestic situation of often-understudied nations. If you've wanted to talk about the country or share your experiences, but have never found a relevant place to do so, now is your chance! However, don't worry - this is still a general news megathread where you can post about ongoing events from any country.

The Country of the Week is Lebanon! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.

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1.2K comments

  • Okay, so we're all eyerollingly familiar with the "revolution betrayed, same as the old boss" trope in media and pop history, usually aimed at anything leftist to imply that nobody can ever escape recreating the nightmarish qualities of the status quo, because it turns out that the way things are is just The Way Things Are, for good reason, as nature and your wise betters ordained. It's the natural order, and naive radicals who think they can build something different are destined to be seduced by wealth and power into becoming the very despots they blah blah blah, we know how it goes.

    As a cultural artifact of capitalist realism and a method of control, it's a well-examined phenomenon. But I want to examine it as an artifact of liberal guilt. Specifically, guilt for supplanting feudalism and then immediately overseeing the horrors of the industrial revolution both inside the core and without. Seeing the way liberals now are sealing their eyes and ears to any evidence of their ideology's culpability in what's going on in the world, and having observed their Quixotic "cannot fail, only be failed" attitude for some time, the Revolution Betrayed narrative now so obviously aligns with other liberal copes that I'm kind of embarrassed I didn't see it before. They believe that they are the best (only) "realistic" option, that if they can't do it then it can't be done. If their ideology and mode of production has failed to deliver a better world after four hundred years, then that means a better world simply is not possible, and anyone who says otherwise is either lying or stupid.

    I think the fact that they think this is inevitable also goes a long way to explaining their semi-mystical view of power. "Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely" Everyone bows sagely. I don't even necessarily disagree with the basic take here, but they just leave it at this vague truism that is inevitably leveled at those seeking the power to liberate themselves, but not at those from whom people need liberating. Because their power is ordained by law, by the natural order. It turns the phrase into a masochistic civility fetish (literally, like a totem) that whispers to you that it's okay not to fight, that it's "evil" to fight dirty even for your life, and that the most morally pure thing you can experience is defeat. Secular Calvinism and lack of education have done a number on us all here in the states and resulted in generations of highly propagandized "too smart for politics" rubes who are narrow-minded about most things but shockingly credulous about state enemies, utterly sanctimonious but completely lacking knowledge of past and present, liberals, I realized I was just describing liberals, this post is getting away from me.

    Anyway, thoughts on "Revolution Betrayed narratives as Liberalism's Pyramid Head"?

1196 comments