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Adam Johnson Profile picture
@adamjohnsonCHI
Apr 4 • 12 tweets • 3 min read • Read on X
Scrolly
The Economist and Bloomberg also called the downing of fighter jets an “escalation” by Iran. Everyone knows you’re supposed to just let invading militaries bomb your universities and girls’ schools and apartment buildings and that shooting back is an act of unhinged aggression.
If you’re invaded, 1000s of your people are killed, your infrastructure destroyed and your leadership is wiped out in a sneak attack, anything short of you doing this to the enemy in response cannot, by definition, be an “escalation”. Thats how language works, that how words work
Last I checked Iran has done exactly zero of these things to the US so they have not come remotely close to “escalating.” Being Modestly Successful At Fighting Back is not an “escalation.”
I am going to become the joker Image
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Capturing POW’s bombing your population is, of course, not “hostage taking”.
Recall “kidnapped from a tank”
“Fighter pilot…taken hostage” Image
[disgusted Stabler voice] he was just a 32 year old bombing a college dorm
BBC is also calling the American POW a “hostage”. Again what do words mean really bbc.com/news/live/cm29…Image
ABC News Australia is also calling the downed POW a potential “hostage” Image
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.@abbydphillip also calls the downed pilot a "hostage"
@abbydphillip ostensibly straight reporter @Elex_Michaelson also refers the downed pilot as a potential "hostage"

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More from @adamjohnsonCHI

Adam Johnson Profile picture
Apr 1
A very strange article that makes repeated references to an “Iranian nuclear weapons program” that US intelligence has repeatedly said doesn’t exist. He was sabotaging and threatening *civilian* nuclear scientists but this somehow becomes “stopping Iran from getting the bomb”
Again, US intelligence has repeated time and time again since 2003 that Iran has neither the desire to build a nuclear bomb nor do they have an active program to do so. A fact strangely omitted from this piece of rank propaganda
If New Yorker editors have access to some unique intel that Iran had or has a “nuclear weapons program” they should share it with the CIA, ODNI, NSA, DIA, NRO, NGA, and military intelligence who have repeatedly disagreed with this conclusion for 20+ years
Read 7 tweets
Adam Johnson Profile picture
Mar 22
No Kings is planning 3000-events on 3/28 and its 1700-word press release makes zero mention of Iran, only opaque mentions of “illegal wars” (which ones?) I like many of the orgs involved but what’s the utility of these generic “anti-authoritarian” word salads at this moment
Given how much Trump’s attack on Iran is rapidly escalating and the stakes involved, it seems now would be a good time for No Kings and Indivisible to marshal their tremendous resources and hold an actual antiwar march with clear demands, not more partisan pep rallies.
Perhaps they could, at least, mention the country the US is poising to invade with ground troops by name idk. This may offend some of indivisible’s donors who also fund Zionist organizations but it would let them capture the profound antiwar sentiment rn, esp among democrats.
Read 5 tweets
Adam Johnson Profile picture
Dec 22, 2025
more brainless stenography from the paper of record. Is anyone at NYT interested in doing any actual journalism or just running through a list of "officials says" and wholesale embracing the US govts line? lets break down the problems with the latest copy and paste job from NYT🧵
(1) The piece heavily implies that Venezuela's oil is under sanctions from "The US and other countries". It is not, it is only under sanctions from the US.

(2) we've now moved from scare quotes to the NYT just using the term "ghost tankers" This is a meaningless propaganda term
Why are they "ghosts"? Could it be because one country (the US) is stealing their oil? And they'd like them to not do that? Is anyone at the NYT interested in asking if these ships are hiding their location because the US is hijacking them rather than the current narrative...
Read 11 tweets
Adam Johnson Profile picture
Dec 19, 2025
It’s correct that Israel doesnt want Hamas out of power in a formal sense, they want them totally disarmed which is to say they want everyone in Gaza disarmed so they can use an IDF solider getting a paper cut as a pretext to finish the job against a wholly defenseless population
This is why, despite half of Palestinians disapproving of Hamas according to most polls, 70% reject Hamas disarmament because (1) they know in effect Israel means a disarmament of everyone not on their payroll and (2) they’re be nothing standing between them an total annihilation
This is why this “external” security force plan keeps hitting “roadblocks” because its based on a fundamental distortion of Israel’s goals. Israel doesnt want Palestinian autonomy—Hamas or no Hamas—they want to staff out occupation/depopulation plans to the US and its Arab allies
Read 7 tweets
Adam Johnson Profile picture
Dec 4, 2025
There’s a frog in boiling water element to this too. On polymarket you can bet on whether Gaza will be ethnically cleansed. On Kalshi you can bet on whether they’ll be famine in Gaza (that one paid out for ‘yes’ btw) This is objectively depraved and should not be legal but 1/2 Image
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it is not only legal but totally normalized and never commented on by anyone in our media. CNN, by partnering with Kalshi, is going to be “reporting on the news” now while offering the chance to wager on these events. On mass death, starvation, dispossession and genocide. 2/2
The fate of victims of an ongoing genocide—a genocide often supported and backed by the same investors and executives of these gambling apps—are just another chip on a roulette table. The total dehumanization of the billions of NPCs they wager on and fleece is complete and total.
Read 5 tweets
Adam Johnson Profile picture
Nov 27, 2025
A simple way of explaining this to people is that Israel’s calculus is that they can maintain apartheid and carry out genocide and will still be seen as a normal country—just with some bad apples. BDS says no, this is unacceptable. Israel is banking on Business As Usual. 1/4
“Open dialogue” claptrap is just another version of Business As Usual. To the extent speaking to Israelis in person has any political utility (very debatable) it is VERY MUCH outweighed by the more urgent and meaningful goal of cementing Israel’s pariah status. 2/4
There’s a reason why 38 states have passed anti-BDS laws and exactly zero have banned Socratic Masterminds like Peter Beinart or Ben Burgis from speaking to Israelis. One challenges actual power, one is fart sniffing idealism and/or careerism 3/4
Read 4 tweets

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