People really don’t understand how social movements work do they?
It is very often elites, or at least, middle ground actors (like professionals and petty boug) that lead social movements even if they are movements of workers etc. this is just a historical regularity, regardless what one may think of it normatively
For nationalist, anti imperialist, Islamist etc coalitions, which are cross class coalitions, this is especially the case. Maxime Rodinson & Franz Fanon were already discussed this 60 years ago.
Comprador elites and their children are often the leaders of social movements against the supporting/dominating state and institutions at issue.
This is true for settler revolutions—where settler movements based on elites biting the imperial hand that feeds them is basically part of the definition of the phenomena (see Veracini), and for their opposite in anti colonial & anti imperial movements.
For example: it’s a commonplace in Palestinian discourse these days to argue that Fatah and the PA are puppets of Israel, and that they are comprised of elites, and yet we can also recognize they’re the source for much of the resistance to Israel.
There’s nothing contradictory about this that doesn’t stem from the nature of the situation itself. Similarly, Hamas received US & Israeli funding at its founding, and the PLO and CIA have had an accord since the 70s or even earlier
Does the CIA’s deal with the PLO operations chief (they even brought him and his newly wed bride to US to go to Disneyland) negate the PLOs actions against Israel during that 20 year period? It would be bizarre to say it does.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
What’s funny is that one of the main actual disinformation techniques of the CIA & FBI (as well as intelligence & secret police for at least 2 centuries ) is the purposeful spread of conspiracy theories
It was part of COINTELPRO and CHAOS and it was openly used by CIA and Army intelligence in the US occupations and invasions of Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere
Conspiracy theories: 1. Focus on individuals & cabals rather than structures 2. Give the idea that a system can be reformed and is fundamentally benign or good otherwise 3. Scapegoat sections of the elite (to the benefit of other sections of the elite)
This kind of strawmanning is super cringe. Hussein had serious and legitimate reasons to oppose the US, but we know that around 2001-2003, he was writing romance novels and seeking normalization and peace with the US, which the US ignored bc of its imperialist militarist drive
Notably Hussein had opposed the US (implicitly) prior to the Gulf War & his country suffered in tremendous disproportion—the US murdering millions of Iraqi children because of his failed attempt at assertion of regional power. No doubt a murderer but nonetheless a rational actor
The Iraq war was gratuitous and absurd by even its own terms—Hussein had offered to abdicate. It’s frankly hilarious that my claim that victims of US imperialism respond rationally by attacking the US is construed as a defense of US policy and official mendacity.
It’s really annoying that the two dominant left perspectives seem to be one kind of reductionist anti American campism and the other a kind of conspiracy reductionism about CIA or Israel meant to exculpate the US where it really is at fault
Only a perspective that recognizes the US Is a hegemonic murderous settler state and intrinsically so BUT not the *only* one is sufficient to analyze the world
Or to put it another way, there is no reforming the US and destruction of the cancerous blot on the world that is the US state is a *necessary* but not *sufficient* step to changing the world for the better
No I believe Bin Laden when he said he did not attack the US because he hated their freedom (he added if he hated freedom, why didn’t he attack Sweden). No I believe it’s because, as OBL said, the US is an imperialist war machine occupying Muslim lands & committing genocide.
9/11 conspiracies and ancient aliens are both premised on the idea that non white people are utterly incompetent and therefore need the help of aliens, &/or the CIA &/or the Jews in order to do anything at all.
Conspiracy theorists hold non white people (but especially people from MENA, less one group) in utter contempt—they do not think they can hold sincere convictions, genuinely hate the US for its murderousness, or carry out organized planned attacks against it
Conspiracy theories about Sirhan Sirhan, the Gulf War, the first trade center bombing, 9/11, Afghanistan war, Iraq war, Bin Laden, the Israel Lobby, ZOG, all share these key features.