“Speaking Truth to Power” (American Friends Service, 1955) is a peaceful political tactic used to change the power structure under which people live and was effectively used by: Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Bishop Tutu, Martin Luther King…and many others.
However, today we are faced with a world where “speaking truth to power” is limited by fear of reprisal. Noam Chomsky explained why. He stated : “‘Speaking truth to power’ is unnecessary. Power knows the truth already and is busy concealing it. He might have added: in modern times they are also busy preparing reprisals for those who attempt it.
We live in a world in which our present government attempts to control “truth” by generating narratives that protect and empower them. If you fail to accept THEIR reality, they attack you as an apostate, ignoramus or worse. Often their “reality” is so radically at odds with what your senses, your intelligence and experience tell you is true, you can not logically accept what they claim, and you wonder how rational humans could have could have reached such “far out”conclusions. They are rational..their intention is to deceive.
On Nov 20, 2023, John Kirby, Biden’s National Security Advisor, was queried about the “Genocide Joe”, taunt directed at President Biden by demonstrators. Many Democrats believe our President, who will not call for a cease fire in Gaza is thus “complicit in IDF ethnic cleansing in the killing of 15,000 innocent Palestinian civilians”. In fact, a formal lawsuit alleging “genocide” was recently filed in a San Francisco court against the President and members of his administration who staunchly support the Netanyahu government.
Kirby responded, claiming the term “genocide” was used “inappropriately”. In the Biden-Kirby alternate reality world it is Hamas, not Israel who is committing genocide. In Kirby’s world, Israel (which has the 4th largest military in the world, equipped with US supplied heavy armor, massive intercontinental missiles, long range artillery, a powerful modern air force, and with 300,000 elite troops deployed in tiny Gaza) is the victim of “genocide”! In Kirby’s twisted reality a lightly armed militia of perhaps a few thousand—holed up somewhere in the vast area of shattered buildings and concrete rubble in Gaza— are committing genocide and Israel is the victim. Empirical observations, logic and human senses make that argument impossibly difficult to accept.
Hamas is a terrorist organization, it has attacked Israel in a vicious, horribly violent act, but can that attack be constituted as “genocide”? That would be difficult to prove. Were the 9/11 terrorists who struck the Twin Towers in fuel laden passenger jets committing genocide? They killed many more civilians, but was it genocide? No one has ever made that claim.
But our empirical observations from video and media reports reveal each day the level of destruction meted out in Gaza. The IDF has dropped the “equivalent of two Hiroshima nuclear bombs” in an area about the size and population density of Queens NY. Imagine that level of destruction in Queens! Media reports document the purposeful targeting and destruction of civilian targets, such as flour mills, bakeries (11 bakeries have been blown up), food caches, water purification facilities, hospitals, ambulances, sewage systems, residential areas, known refugee camps, and hospital parking lots where hundreds were seeking refuge against the incessant bombing. These IDF list of targets are enough to provide evidence to the world of the Netanyahu government’s intentions to kill, to terrorize and to eliminate or “cleanse” civilians from Gaza. Additional evidence of attacks on civilians is the fact that the IDF cut off all electricity, water, medicine and fuel supplies into the tiny enclave of 2.4 million. Furthermore they directed civilians to flee to areas to the south, where those areas were then intentionally bombed. These are evidences of war crimes, “ethnic cleansing” and even genocide. It is terrible to think that our ally Israel has descended to this level rage, revenge and inhumanity. We do not want to believe it. But the facts impose themselves on us.
But we are not really surprised. Kirby’s alternate reality is the typical modus operandi of the Biden administration where wrong is right, functional is dysfunction, open is closed, “safe” areas are targets and perpetrators are victims.
For Biden and Kirby our Mexican border is closed. Yet our eyes reveal to us thousands of illegals worming through razor wire coils, wading across the the Rio Grande or simply crowds walking across that border each month. Millions have done so already. Tens of thousands of illegals clutter the sidewalks in tent communities of our major “sanctuary” cities where they find handouts and temporary comfort. In the real world our border is wide open.
Joe Biden claims: “Bidenomics is working”, but consumer’s eyes roll and jaws drop when confronted with massively inflated prices at the gas pump, or grocery store check out, or McDonald’s, (“$16 burger meal”). Our pocketbooks and intellect tell us we have lost 1/5 of the value of our “Trump-years” dollar’s purchasing power under Biden. Our flattened pocketbooks tell us the truth: Bidenomics is not working.
There is “no crime wave” in Biden’s alternate reality. But our senses tell us that “defunding the police”,police “accountability” initiatives, and support for BLM has led to a “soft on crime mentality”, and a spike in car jackings, shootings, street-violence, and robbery. The spreading plague of “smash and grab” looter mobs in urban areas are called “peaceful, legitimate demonstrators” in this alternate Biden world. On the other hand, political demonstrators objecting to established government narratives or “received wisdom” get long sentences of incarceration, while “progressive” judges using no bail and “equity incarceration” policies release violent criminals to emerge on the streets to commit more vicious or heinous acts. They know the truth, but hide it.
Each weekend our President stiffly staggers and stumbles across the WH lawn to a waiting helicopter pad for his trip to Delaware; he knows not where to stand, verbally fluffs his printed lines, falls ignominiously, can not reliably remember where he is, reads haltingly (only from a prompter), when not reading prepared text he falls into “faux history” parables as his mind wanders, yet his staff tout him as “fit for another 4 years”. They know the truth but hide it.
We live today in a world where “truth” is only what elites in government and their media propagandists want you think. Those who actually see that the “Emperor has no clothes” and have the temerity to express that idea are attacked as idiots, “irredeemables”, conspiracy theorists, liars, antisemites, or dangerous “agent provocateurs”. They use fear to silence you and control your ability to speak truth to power.
Chomsky was right: Kirby and Biden (?) know Hamas is not committing genocide, that crime is rampant, that Bidenomics is a failure, that Biden is too old for the job, and that our border is wide open. But they are busy concealing facts which they do not want you to know and act on that knowledge.
But he would agree: Don't let them get away with it. Keep speaking truth to power!
