We Are the Villains in This Story
I Wish This Was Not So, But Reality Says It Is...
I was listening to my local Pastor recently and he did a preach that covered the thought of unity. He made a statement that makes a lot of sense. He said, you can’t have unity if the unity is based on lies. The reason we have so much division in the world and our own country (USA) is because those that want to push the agenda have caused a major fracture in the minds of those of us who believe that our right to life, liberty and happiness should not be based on how much suffering we bring to other people that destroys their chance for their lives, their liberty and their happiness. When I read about the children and women who were MURDERED in a failed missile attack and even had a double tap involved the way it looks, on a SCHOOL in Iran I was sickened. If you weren’t you have mental issues. Murder is murder, no matter how you paint it. Soldiers weren’t “fighting for my freedom” when that school was blown to pieces. The following post is not mine. But the truth in contains and teaches is. I couldn’t have said it better, so I let Caitlan say it. Cognitive dissonance and the Stockholm syndrome has taken hold of the men and women of my country and most every Western nation. This is a lesson in reality. Read it and weep. I did. ~C.L.
“You grew up wanting so bad to be Luke Skywalker, but you realize that you were basically a Stormtrooper.” ~ Daniel Crimmins
Nobody wants to believe they’re the villain in the story. Nobody wants to believe their government is run by psychopaths who are inflicting unfathomable evils upon populations around the globe in order to rule the world.
It’s much nicer to believe you’re the Good Guys. Much easier to sit with the idea that your government might make an innocent mistake here and there, but overall is a driving force for the good of humankind, and is certainly superior to the villains it makes war with.
That’s a fiction, though. It’s a comfortable lie. A fairy tale that westerners tell themselves to avoid a profoundly uncomfortable truth.
The truth is that we are the villains.
We are the terrorists.
We are the tyrants.
We are the evil regime.
Our soldiers aren’t out there defending our country, they’re out there murdering people for defending their country. They’re not fighting for freedom and democracy, they’re fighting for money and power.
Daniel Crimmins from the US Army 3rd Infantry Division wrote the following about the Iraq War in 2015:
“Then you realize you haven’t seen anything to support the idea that these poor fuckers are a threat to your home. You look around and you see all the contractors making six figure salaries to fix your shit, train Iraqis, maintain the ridiculous SUVs the KBR dicks ride around in. You consider the fact that every 25mm shell costs about forty bucks, and your company has been handing those fuckers out like shrapnel flavored parade candies. You think about all the fuel you’re going through, all the ammo and missiles and grenades. You think about every time you lose a vehicle, the Army buys a new one. Maybe you start to see a lot of people making a lot of money on huge amounts of human suffering.
“Then you go on leave, and realize that Ayn Rand has no idea what the fuck she’s talking about. You realize that Fox News and Limbaugh and John McCain don’t respect you or your buddies. They don’t give a fuck if you get a parade or a box when you get home, you’re nothing to them but a prop.
“Then you get out, and you hate the news. You hate the apathy, and you hate the murder being carried out in your name. You grew up wanting so bad to be Luke Skywalker, but you realize that you were basically a Stormtrooper, a faceless, nameless rifleman, carrying a spear for empire, and you start to accept the startlingly obvious truth that these are people like you.”
That’s the reality right there, folks. We can wake up and start living in reality, or we can remain asleep in the fiction.
It’s time to wake up to the reality that western civilization is a depraved dystopia where most people are sleepwalking in a propaganda-addled stupor under an empire that is fueled by human blood. And it’s time to awaken to the fact that as westerners it is our duty to tear that empire down brick by brick, for the sake of our children and grandchildren, and for the sake of our fellow man.
by Caitlin Johnstone
CaitlinJohnstone.com
March 12, 2026
The best way to get on Cailin’s mailing list to make sure you see everything she writes is to get on her free mailing list. Her work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece here are some options where you can toss some money into her tip jar if you want to. Click here for links for her social media, books, merch, and audio/video versions of each article. All my work is free to bootleg and use in any way, shape or form; republish it, translate it, use it on merchandise; whatever you want. All works co-authored with her husband Tim Foley.
I, Courageous Lion, Approve of Caitlan’s message!
I learned at my parents' knees some of these truths. I read "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" and actually blubbered my way through the last chapter; I was 15.
My father told me about the absurdity of the JFK assassination and much more. "Closing the 'gold' window" anyone?
My mother declared at the Viet Nam lottery to which both older brothers were subject: "I don't care what your number is. You're not going."
And damn -- she meant it.
Dresden, Tokyo, Nagasaki, Hiroshima, Viet Nam, Tuskegee, Philadelphia (1985), Ruby Ridge, Waco, the first "Gulf War," and more. Then Sep 11th...An utterly and absolutely absurd official story. Even if it were true, what did the people of Afghanistan have to do with it? Or Iraq? Millions need destroying?????? Millions who had absolutely nothing to do with it?
And I am told the sacrifice of my 4th and 5th Amendment protections is requisite and worth it? 𝑼.𝑺.𝑨. 𝑷.𝑨.𝑻.𝑹.𝑰.𝑶.𝑻. 𝑨𝒄𝒕? Surveillance? For "safety's sake?"
Worked for years on Sep 11th truth. Subjected to insult, obnoxious diversions, obstinacy, and more. Finally, quietly moved away from those efforts. Dejectedly convinced that "the people" were unteachable, that they believed the liars, the war mongers and preferred them over their own fellow ordinary American who tried with others to point out the obvious.
So. The "COVID" terrorist attack? Yep...obvious outta the gate and I knew exactly how it would go. This time, I said "Screw dat. Don't give a sh*t cuz I know exactly how "Americans" will behave and I have zero interest in banging my head against that same brick wall." And so I didn't.
And now the Iran debacle...another chapter in the centuries' long story of this country's five minutes of freedom and decency followed by hundreds of years of conquest, murder, land theft, and destruction -- here and around the world.
💔
The sickening abhorrent diabolical truth and it hurts to look at it, but the honest and courageous will despite the pain and cognitive dissonance. God have mercy on us.