Noam Chomsky & Vijay Prashad: US Empire in Withdrawal | FULL INTERVIEW 2022

Noam Chomsky and Vijay Prashad, two of the left's most brilliant critics of US empire, sit down with Jacobin Show's Ariella Thornhill to discuss their new book "The Withdrawal." To Noam and Vijay, US global power acts much the same way a Godfather rules over a Mafia family, imposing its interests on all who stand in its way domestically or internationally. The wide-ranging discussion touches on American exceptionalism, Military Keynesianism, the roadblocks for a new Iran Nuclear Deal, and the implications of Rep Nancy Pelosi's recent visit to Taiwan.
Noam and Vijay's new book: thenewpress.com/books/withdrawal
Subscribe to the channel and hit the like button!
Subscribe to Jacobin in print for just $10: jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?cod...
Music provided by Zonkey: linktr.ee/zonkey

[@paulpell]

It will be a very sad day when Chomsky is no longer with us, which, unfortunately, will be way too soon. Thankfully Vijay will be with us for a long time, the world needs more people like them.

[@hampusheh]

I don't know, I feel like Noam will just look more and more like a wizened old stone with moss on it and live for ever.

[@againstorthodoxy4212]

Chomsky will outlive you and I. Do not worry.

[@justinbozeman9279]

Chomsky got a blood transfusion from keith the other day so he's gonna last a bit longer

[@subversivelysurreal3645]

~we’re so very fortunate to have him with us❤️.

[@charlottecooney1019]

@@hampusheh see ex

[@jocosus3]

This conversation should be be mandatory viewing for all Americans who want a better world. #Solidarity

[@treefrog3349]

Oh what a beautiful idea! The American Public has been so dumbed-down that many cannot see the persistent erosion of the democratic ideal

[@herbertdarick7693]

And also for the majority who doesn't care, because they need it.

[@kaimarmalade9660]

The one with Vivek and Zizek is much better. This talk just demonstrates what we all already can taste in the air-- that there isn't a workable plan for a Leftist political program in the United States that can produce GDP growth and rates sufficient as to not to cause an economic and social holocaust. We have to milk the globalist, financialist megalith to create enough growth to fuel the consumer spending economy or else (in theory) lots and lots of the working class people that Chomsky claims to advocate for are going to die or have their life expectancies diminished through poverty and malnutrition. We need to think of solutions that will grant normal people a means of upward economic placement and get past the idea that the working class people in the United States (or throughout the world) are going to spontaneously organize themselves peacefully into cooperative groups and take over the economic system. May 68' demonstrates just how little it takes to buy off the working classes. It will take even less when they're hungry and disenfranchised. Panem et Circenses. It's not class warfare. It's actual warfare but in a jig-saw puzzle. Interests are skewed across class lines as it's unclear where economic and military interests begin and end. The international social order is unironically Sicilian.

[@averayugen8462]

@@herbertdarick7693 they would revile us for saying that lol

[@psung5837]

@@herbertdarick7693 ĺ

[@medicuswashington9870]

I am forever grateful to you for this discussion. I am 86 and sense that I have been waiting for this sharing of the truth. Thanks and stay strong.

[@terryrose6567]

It is refreshing to watch and listen to this presentation. Ariella, Vijay and Noam form a troika in perpetuity... The student, the scholar, and the wise man.

[@titaniumskunkogkush4365]

Yeah. Agree. I can't stand Jennifer Pan. She's not anti imperialist at all.

[@kevintewey1157]

The truth feels good but I would expect it to come from Vijay prashad first

[@averayugen8462]

students scholars and wise people are my faves!

[@justingoretoy1628]

Student, scholar, prophet.

[@dipthongthathongthongthong9691]

Agree. I really appreciated the inter-generational vibe in this conversation.

[@maryannjenkins875]

The interviewer was also great. Her summaries, just outstanding. She hit the ball out of the park with every question.

[@pointyfingers]

I normally find long contextualized questions annoying but after this host, I'm realizing most people are just bad at it. She did amazing!! I listened to every word very carefully.

[@jero4059]

@@pointyfingers Who is she?

[@TheGodFr0mTheMachine]

That's Ariella!

[@kevintewey1157]

An interviewer can only pitch the ball stop worshiping people

[@kevintewey1157]

Vijay prashad and Noam Chomsky didn't need an interviewer to bestow their wisdom on us they could have just chosen to do it spontaneously Interviewers are just people sometimes with access and sometimes we should question them for that It could be suspicious

[@LetsGoGetThem]

Going by Noam's sharp mind, he has many years left to provide wisdom. The man is pushing into his 90s and he is as sharp as a 20 year old! It's actually unreal.

[@jacobjorgenson9285]

You’ll never see him use notes for anything 🤯

[@MaTeTris]

He is way sharper than a 20 year old.

[@jame2182]

As a citizen of the united states of america I have to make huge efforts to get accurate legitimate news from all over the globe. These gentlemen are brilliant and assist me enormously. I'm so grateful for their analysis

[@rezakarampour6286]

Solving 9-11 By Christopher Bollyn . '

[@zsmith4853]

I am very glad to know that you are open minded. I only wish that many more millions of American citizens were similar like yourself.

[@beastmode8203]

@@zsmith4853 we are not tankies like the rest of you.

[@rezakarampour6286]

Search . ' They Don't Hate Us For Our Freedom . '

[@bucketiii7581]

"huge efforts" AKA you can't get it spoonfed to you on TV. Quit crying and do some actual work. You live in the heart of empire. Act like it.

[@nicholasperugini3418]

Ariella is a good interviewer. Concise and fluent.

[@tomt55]

An excellent and imperative discussion with 2 of the most important contemporary intellectuals today.

[@JohnT.4321]

I'll agree to that. Gives a perspective what the media won't do.

[@p8entlyobvious925]

Rubbish. The one sided nature of their argument is for all to see. Although Putin is an actual Godfather . He is a Human not an imperialist government so he is O.K. Isn't Putin's control of the eastern part of the continent an imperialist adventure. Just because the Russian Empire is a ramshackle kleptocracy means we should ignore it. I used to admire Chomsky. He is not being fair and balanced. He has downgraded himself to virtually a Russian propagandist. Chomsky going on with Russell Brand was bad taste. Chomsky himself has become a conspiracy theorist .with Brand he was trying to show how censorship in the U.S Is worse than that of Nazi Germany. Just garbage

[@deljay1840]

Chomsky is best when he brings up how the USA was always planned to be this way

[@CyberspacedLoner]

An Oligarchy (Electoral College/Presidential/Senatorial Republic) instead of a Democracy, Capitalism and Imperialism ?!

[@kevintewey1157]

@@CyberspacedLoner anything but communist I guess ( but it should be)

[@robertrichard6107]

@@CyberspacedLoner A boozed-up manifest destiny of slave owners/ white supremacists cut loose with a doctrine of discovery.

[@jeffbiscuit]

So excited to watch this. The idea of Vijay and Noam coming together like this is utterly brilliant and this will be the next book I read.

[@irvinhansen7173]

Loss of "appetite for dialogue and diplomacy" is an excellent observation of current U.S. policy. It complements Chomsky's Godfather analogy.

[@cliffordmaxwell9802]

Noam Chomsky is back baby!

[@lynnwood7205]

Regarding Cuba. Fidel Castro remarked that only because Cuba had no oil was it allowed to be.

[@robertrichard6107]

Anaconda Oil Wells (Bush Family) kept out of Cuban Waters.

[@raymundogonzalez6450]

Yeah ! But bloking them economically give a sense to the regular People that " that system " doesn't work! [ why not allow them to trade freely and allow the " System" work? ) meaning current situation give a false or inaccurate impression that is favorable for the Corporate Capitalism like " Better" system. Why not allow they implemented freely implement the way they want to live and trade???

[@joethao2161]

This was a great interview! Always enjoy listening to Noam and Vijay speak facts.

[@zachflame123]

Great talk, great host, great guests, great show

[@treefrog3349]

The simple fact that you will never hear conversation like this on main-stream, corporate-owned media should be very disturbing to all. Orwell and Huxley warned us.

[@rezakarampour6286]

' Noam Chomsky : US is World Biggest Terrorist .

[@Zsswimmer1]

Except it's easily available on KZbin. While it should be, why expect it to be with how mainstream media has operated like this for decades? At some point people are responsible for educating themselves and not getting all their news from CNN or fox. Sadly I'm sure it's all by design. There are tons of free eash to access dialogue and speeches on this platform

[@robertrichard6107]

And Samuel Clemens (Twain)

[@MaTeTris]

​@@Zsswimmer1 Yeah, save for the fact that the algorithm will only show this to people who are already within this frame of mind. Mass media is still a very powerful force and one which a huge amount of people get their "information" from.

[@anitaburton5989]

Hats off to the Host, excellent job. Thanks.

[@rezakarampour6286]

Search . ' They Don't Hate Us For Our Freedom . '

[@hsingchen5141]

What an in-depth and thorough discussion between two most outstanding scholars, on the prevailing precarious world situation. The depth of cruelty and shamelessness of the self-proclaimed exceptionalist is simply beyond comprehension !

[@deljay1840]

Been listening Chomsky wherever I can find him ever since 2004 and 'The Corporation' documentary

[@Damacles9]

Me too!

[@PSYxTV]

When Chomsky just brutally went after Pelosi for buffing up her CV I couldnt help but laugh.

[@samdegoeij6576]

He was right, it was a pure egotrip.

[@Larez121]

@@samdegoeij6576 yup

[@jamesragsdale8202]

@ what minute:second?

[@adambird-ridnell6415]

@@jamesragsdale8202 11:40

[@dianagwinn8143]

Ego and financial profit. She took her son with her who has financial interests as well.

[@yunusemresahin6430]

Great interview Jacobin, thank you for having Noam. For me he is/was and always will be the voice of the reason fueled by the great passion for the wellbeing of humanity and further of ecology.

[@judyjeankwon1182]

When the godfather is in trouble, he goes crazy.

[@TheMangoman72]

when he can't keep control, he destroys it all...

[@voidisyinyangvoidisyinyang885]

Godfather=Chimpanzee male

[@elsonck2523]

@@TheMangoman72 Vijay Prashad: "Takes your favorite horse out of the stable, cuts off its head and puts it in your bed". Oppa Mafioso style

[@jeffbegley8210]

Wow - fantastic. Thank you Jacobin ! Great interviewing skills Ariella.

[@khalidakhan4752]

Excellent, rich analysis and evidence, thank you

[@jame2182]

Thank you, Ariella. Excellent work!

[@Christopherjoe]

I love Chomsky but the main reason Taiwan needs that sand is not for concrete but because that's where the silicon in computer chips comes from. Taiwan makes most of the chips and if they don't have the main ingredient the chip shortage (which leads to other shortages) is only going to get worse. Ukraine also exports sand as well as neon and krypton which are needed to make chips.

[@rezakarampour6286]

Search . ' They Don't Hate Us For Our Freedom . '

[@josephyoung6749]

I'm loving everything Vijay is saying, he's bringing the right tone here

[@kevintewey1157]

Vijay prashad is leaving Noam Chomsky behind that's true

[@swimmingmantis22]

This was such an amazing and awesome Interview! Thank you!

[@pattirockgarden4423]

US vs Cuba is a very sad situation. What a courageous people, the Cubans are! And China is playing a very wise, long game! US is showing how weak minded we have become.

[@kevintewey1157]

And tell me what more than the profit motive in the USA would make us weak?

[@elsonck2523]

Is China interacting with Cuba these days? Might be a good tit for tat though the Senate would go berzerk.

[@robertrichard6107]

U$ has always been stiff necked.

[@beastmode8203]

We 🇺🇸 determine the time, we 🇺🇸 determine if there's a long game. Play with us too much and the nukes fly ☢️

[@ceciliaromia]

Amazing interview!!! Thanks so much for sharing!

[@vorlon81]

Best interview so far of Jocobin

[@saptarsimondal7653]

Wow 😮 a great discussion! Wanted to hear it for so long!

[@krish2nasa]

" The attacks are compliments when the journalists lie about you, defame you, that shows you must be doing something right, so keep at it." -Noam Chomsky

[@raymondtarpley3946]

Great interview….good show👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿!!!

[@merfymac]

Vijay Prashad is having a revitalizing effect on Chomsky. Nice to see.

[@elsonck2523]

I think you're right. Noam's eyes were very lively today.

[@brianwheeldon4643]

Thanks to the 3 of you. Great.

[@Tannhauser108]

Outstanding interview 👍

[@joseolvera2223]

Great program!!! 2 World Great Historians and Intellectuals

[@charleskesner1302]

Thanks for bringing us this conversation. A consequential book for our time.

[@NameName-lv4lu]

Awesome content, 10/10 would watch again

[@jame2182]

Interesting and informative. Wise men discussing current world events

[@phyllisthompson4207]

Great segment,thank you guys. A very worthwhile listen.

[@prismbrandingrealestatebra6301]

I admire Noam Chomsky. Glad to see he is still ticking!

[@deanrao4805]

I only became involved with YT and internet audio/videos about ten years ago. I'd come across some compelling Noam Chomsky audio somewhere and I was looking for more. He still sounds good to me.

[@voidisyinyangvoidisyinyang885]

He also has over 40 books on political economy - feel free to dig in.

[@audibledarkness]

Great interview and discussion.

[@merbst]

Wow, Arielle is good, very talented!

[@r3b3lvegan89]

I just can’t get over this I’ve tried…..there has got to be a way to get Chomsky just one time to just pause and then right to the cameras face shout…..YOU SHALLNOT PASS. A dream of mine

[@rezakarampour6286]

Search . ' Noam Chomsky : Us is World Biggest Terrorist . '

[@AQuietNight]

Vijay Prashad is the gift that keeps on giving. India supported Russia in the Ukraine war because India got a juicy discount on the oil Russia sells them. India made sure they got a mutual defense pact (in regard to China's expansionist attitudes) with the United States and now they want to play defense games with China. China does the same with African nations, China gives them nice railroads and sets up plantations to grow food for China and next thing you know, these nations line up to support China in the UN. China shows money can get you friends.

[@kianh1903]

Expansionist (this & that) country, is derived from agenda western & outside powers who couldn't stand being 'outmatched' in whatever

[@Western_Decline]

You need to de-brainwash yourself. Too much anti-China hate.

[@jacpratt8608]

goose and gander Mehitabel. C'est la vie. USA should think about buying friends with nice railroads instead of bombing then into submission and dumping then?

[@robertrichard6107]

China shows mutual respect, communication, and diplomacy can get you friends, not self indulgent foreign interest.

[@AQuietNight]

@@robertrichard6107 Several of these countries were friends to Taiwan, that is until China showed up with wads of cash. Money can buy you love.

[@guvencagil]

Much thanks to the panel

[@MoranSE]

Thank you guys. Absolutely clear.

[@nedkelly8495]

Brilliant. Always. We in NZ hear you loud & clear. Inspiring, illuminating, empowering.

[@dyrectory_com]

Thank you! 👏🏼

[@ericwedin4154]

Great troika, very interesting discussion.

[@happygucci5094]

The young woman interviewing these two was absolutely brilliant!!

[@sdsa007]

very enlightening, so completely ominous.

[@militaryponnusamy3986]

Fantastic! Its aneye opener!

[@jame2182]

ARIELLA YOU ARE BRILLIANT!!!

[@Bisquick]

35:00 Reminded of Michael Parenti, an excerpt from his piece Mystery: How Wealth Creates Poverty: _In their perpetual confusion, some liberal critics conclude that foreign aid and IMF and World Bank structural adjustments “do not work”; the end result is less self-sufficiency and more poverty for the recipient nations, they point out. Why then do the rich member states continue to fund the IMF and World Bank? Are their leaders just less intelligent than the critics who keep pointing out to them that their policies are having the opposite effect?_ _No, it is the critics who are stupid not the western leaders and investors who own so much of the world and enjoy such immense wealth and success. They pursue their aid and foreign loan programs because such programs do work. The question is, work for whom? Cui bono?_ _The purpose behind their investments, loans, and aid programs is not to uplift the masses in other countries. That is certainly not the business they are in. The purpose is to serve the interests of global capital accumulation, to take over the lands and local economies of Third World peoples, monopolize their markets, depress their wages, indenture their labor with enormous debts, privatize their public service sector, and prevent these nations from emerging as trade competitors by not allowing them a normal development._ _In these respects, investments, foreign loans, and structural adjustments work very well indeed._ _The real mystery is: why do some people find such an analysis to be so improbable, a “conspiratorial” imagining? Why are they skeptical that U.S. rulers knowingly and deliberately pursue such ruthless policies (suppress wages, rollback environmental protections, eliminate the public sector, cut human services) in the Third World? These rulers are pursuing much the same policies right here in our own country!_ _Isn’t it time that liberal critics stop thinking that the people who own so much of the world---and want to own it all---are “incompetent” or “misguided” or “failing to see the unintended consequences of their policies”? You are not being very smart when you think your enemies are not as smart as you. They know where their interests lie, and so should we._ _"The ultimate hidden truth of the world is that it is something we make and could just as easily make differently."_ - the late great David Graeber *Socialism or [continued] barbarism.*

[@luperamos7307]

I like how everyone said "spend, spend, spend" during the pandemic and now nobody can afford to buy a place to live anymore.

[@justcomp1]

This was GREAT

[@norman_5623]

Thank you, KZbin algorithm, for inserting a DCCC fundraising ad with Nancy Pelosi at just the right moment in this video.

[@siamcharm7904]

america uses the tonya harding approach to competition named after the ice skater who kneecaped her rival.

[@robertrichard6107]

Nuclear Blackmail everytime brain dead Sec. of States repeat 'All options are on the table'.

[@jimburns7549]

Outstanding! Book ordered!

[@rockinray6197]

C'ome now did you buy the book, really

[@jimburns7549]

@@rockinray6197 If you don't believe my statement that I ordered it, why would you believe it if I said it twice?

[@aligadelaide9186]

G00d to put young and seasoned thinkers

[@deanrao4805]

I've been watching DVDs of the 1960s TV series "The Untouchables". The bombastic declarations of the mob bosses depicted in the show remind me of Noam Chomsky's Godfather principle.

[@kevintewey1157]

I'm glad some people on the real left starting to get this (So many fake left liberals ) do we understand and ... can we explain to others why we are the minions of The Godfather and just as responsible? Certainly if you cut off the head of the snake that would work but that is just not possible or advantageous the only thing left to change is our cells

[@voidisyinyangvoidisyinyang885]

Daniel Hopsicker has a new book to be released next month - entitled, "Gangster Planet"

[@zulqadarrrashid6201]

Excellent presentation 😊👍 Thank you 😊 ! Learnt so much. Regards and Respects from Pakistan 🇵🇰🇵🇰

[@oshinoedan5666]

Hyped to listen to the dynamic between these 2. One is the one who brought me into leftist and the other is my favorite living.

[@mikemccarthy1638]

“Fragile, not in decline…” Thanks for that; it’s so true - the ‘fragile’ part - going all the way back. Beginning with our origin story, we created a collective defense mechanism to shield our eyes from the otherwise clear evidence of harm done. We settled in to a pattern of child-like responses to the monsters we created, to justify our actions. And we wrote our history to embed this meme into our national character - our exceptional ability to identify our enemies, foreign & domestic, as monsters - in support of our never-ending, narcissistic ability to excuse, forgive, forget or deny our bad behavior. The realist school of international relations, including Kissinger, has no problem explaining (nor did Howard Zinn, RIP) America has been an empire continuously since its entrepreneurial & political leaders constructively decided about a year after the British-French 1763 Treaty of Paris ending their major war, incl. the French & Indian War in N. America. Britain suffered thousands of casualties in its effort to protect its subjects in the Atlantic colonies, depleting its treasury in the process (France also). So the people & govts of both were eager for repose & an end to violence. Since the Indians’ consent was key to the treaty’s success, consulting with them, Britain & France realigned & froze in place their claimed territories - thus hopefully ending their aggressive imperial expansion in N. America. Treaty compliance included leaving the Indians alone in a large triangular area bounded, more or less, on the north by the (now) British Canadian territories; on the west by the Mississippi River; and on the east by Appalachian Mountain divide - the western boundary of the Atlantic colonies. Even before ten yrs of war, colonial leaders (George Washington, et al.) had been exploring, surveying & assessing the benefits of taking & developing that vast expanse of ‘empty’ land, following the established European nation-state imperial rules then in effect.

[@mikemccarthy1638]

Continued comment here >>> The reader can imagine what happened next - The treaty forbade westward expansion of the 13 colonies into Britain’s claimed land set aside for the Indians. But the colonial elite quickly realized Britain & France were exhausted, unlikely to use force to compel compliance, and that their geographical advantages tipped the scales in favor of the westward expansion they’d planned on all along. So began the American imperial exercise in the form of settler colonialism. Beginning in 1764-65, settlers poured west down the Appalachians. France asked Britain to act to enforce the treaty, Parliament agreed & the Crown issued a proclamation forbidding the treaty violations to no effect. Parliament, viewing increasing colonial resistance as a rebellion and responded by enacting a series of ever-stronger sanctions, which the colonies continued to ignore or resist in the decade up to 1774. At this point, as the possibility of armed conflict became imminent, the rebels generated propaganda demonizing King George as a totalitarian monster, even though Britain’s actions almost to the end were administrative, having the support of large numbers of royalists. The westward colonial settlers were increasingly attached to taking land forbidden by the treaty & killing Indians. Via their posturing & propaganda, had made their treaty violations recede into the fuzzy historical background and turned their fight into a struggle against British tyranny, personified in a dictatorial King George. We’ve been pulling this trick repeatedly ever since to defend & expand the American empire. When we assert the lie that the US has the longest continuous democracy, in the process of writing our origin story, it’s to contrast Britain as the opposing monster determined to suppress colonial freedoms. But the truth is, the British Isles endured monstrous events in the century before its Glorious Revolution in 1688-89 - hundreds of thousands of Scots, Welsh, Irish & English were slaughtered, mostly under the reign of the last two Devine-right kings, Charles I and II (who, unsurprisingly, lost their heads). During that this century, Britain’s African slave shipments to N. America expanded, eg, in 1679, Charles II gave the British W. Africa Co. a 1200-yr charter to run the trade. Given that violent century before the Glorious Revolution, when the dust settled in 1689, Devine-right was dead & Parliament controlled the purse-strings - never to be surrendered. So, after roughly four-score & seven years of maturing British representative govt, it found itself confronted by rebellious colonial-settlers determined to replicate an imperial path that, in the long run, was in fundamental conflict with the democratic ideal.

[@eelkeaptroot1393]

They are good speakers !

[@aronhallam6449]

what island off of Africa does Noam mention ? i cant hear him

[@auto_ego]

I am mad at everyone else in America for not introducing me to Jacobin over a decade ago. At least Lisa Simpson introduced me to Noam Chomsky. Thank you, Lisa. This video is fantastic btw.

[@Cc-qc7fl]

Who’s in for ultimate chaos, where everyone fend for themselves? Sweet freedom!!!

[@BM-rm5pw]

Defund MIC " Military Industrial Complex ". There will be a better, peaceful world.

[@valq10]

Noam is a hero for all times.

[@jame2182]

GUNS!!! WEAPONS!!!! Pandora Box Has Been Opened and it can't be closed yet

[@Bisquick]

"Fun" fact: In the very movie The Godfather uncoincidentally, there's a scene which appropriately and pretty plainly highlights "the godfather" analogy being elucidated in this interview as they literally slice up a cake with a frosting image of Cuba on top, much like the parallel European antecedent in carving up African spheres of colonial influence. NATO's "offer you can't refuse" covert enforcement in Operation Gladio also alluded to in The Godfather part 3 if I recall, our global "full spectrum domination" masquerading as a "Pax Americana" is but a thin blood-soaked curtain we can all see but to point out, certainly to do anything to _actually change_ , is (as Noam often puts it) "not well to do". _"Hegel remarks somewhere that all great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce."_ - some guy

[@robertrichard6107]

NATO = New Third Reich

[@Bisquick]

35:00 ish, echoed by Ariella at 54:34 ish - Reminded of Michael Parenti, an excerpt from his piece Mystery: How Wealth Creates Poverty: _In their perpetual confusion, some liberal critics conclude that foreign aid and IMF and World Bank structural adjustments “do not work”; the end result is less self-sufficiency and more poverty for the recipient nations, they point out. Why then do the rich member states continue to fund the IMF and World Bank? Are their leaders just less intelligent than the critics who keep pointing out to them that their policies are having the opposite effect?_ _No, it is the critics who are stupid not the western leaders and investors who own so much of the world and enjoy such immense wealth and success. They pursue their aid and foreign loan programs because such programs do work. The question is, work for whom? Cui bono?_ _The purpose behind their investments, loans, and aid programs is not to uplift the masses in other countries. That is certainly not the business they are in. The purpose is to serve the interests of global capital accumulation, to take over the lands and local economies of Third World peoples, monopolize their markets, depress their wages, indenture their labor with enormous debts, privatize their public service sector, and prevent these nations from emerging as trade competitors by not allowing them a normal development._ _In these respects, investments, foreign loans, and structural adjustments work very well indeed._ _The real mystery is: why do some people find such an analysis to be so improbable, a “conspiratorial” imagining? Why are they skeptical that U.S. rulers knowingly and deliberately pursue such ruthless policies (suppress wages, rollback environmental protections, eliminate the public sector, cut human services) in the Third World? These rulers are pursuing much the same policies right here in our own country!_ _Isn’t it time that liberal critics stop thinking that the people who own so much of the world---and want to own it all---are “incompetent” or “misguided” or “failing to see the unintended consequences of their policies”? You are not being very smart when you think your enemies are not as smart as you. They know where their interests lie, and so should we._ It's no coincidence that our bipartisan blackhole "defense" budget passes with ease to implicitly/explicitly enforce this now global financial "order" through the 1,000+ military bases worldwide and toward the perpetual benefit of US corporate/finance capital at the zero-sum cost of the global working class (not to mention the planet that we're consciously destroying at this point...), meanwhile any modest domestic spending bill or god forbid even the most basic of healthcare for the people that actually make the soulless mechanical logic of this life directed/enforced by capitalism at all worth living is callously thrown at the wayside at the mere suggestion. The empire feeds off the republic. To echo Rosa Luxemburg from 1918 Germany, before of course being executed by the freikorps paramilitary (later becoming the SS, shocker) at the behest of Ebert's ostensibly _social democratic_ SPD party, almost immediately resonating the truth of such a succinct political dichotomy which to this day only continues to reverberate its veracity more firmly: *socialism or* [continued] *barbarism* _"The ultimate hidden truth of the world is that it is something we make and could just as easily make differently."_ - the late great David Graeber

[@MikeFrame]

at 52:40 I couldn't make out who Noam said was a definitive source for exposing the blockade of UN efforts to facilitate Russian withdrawl.

[@brianadlich4406]

Cordovez and Harrison. Book is called Out of Afghanistan

[@dr.zoidberg8666]

While I think that Prashad's point at the end of the interview was very well made, I also think that it's a little bit of an understatement. My degree is in history & for the last several years I can't help but see similarities between the US & the Ottoman Empire. Like the Ottomans, our decline is entirely avoidable from a strictly materialist perspective... but I think it's also inevitable from a political perspective; which was observed in this discussion. It's not that we're lacking in military power or in corporate dominance, it's that our state institutions have become too dysfunctional & self-serving to respond appropriately to the needs of the people or, indeed, to a changing world. When I hear people talk about American "fragility," it sounds a lot like "sick man of Europe," to me. And once that perception becomes commonplace, it's very difficult to come back from it.

[@JohnT.4321]

Really an excellent comment.

[@justinbozeman9279]

It is corporate dominance in the social and political realms that have made our institutions dysfunctional for us though. They were never set up to bend over backwards for civil society. Nations are just workshops for capital. Also for the elite it is functioning quite well even if its short term no?

[@dr.zoidberg8666]

@@justinbozeman9279 Yeah, of course -- the same happened with the Ottoman Empire's ruling class. As time went by & their nominally feudal version of neoliberalism set in, the ruling aristocratic class demanded an increasingly dysfunctional governance in order to satisfy their personal desires.

[@jacpratt8608]

@@justinbozeman9279 it sure seems to have turned out that way. People keep saying people have the power. Uncertainty and contradictions the man says.

[@elsonck2523]

@@jacpratt8608 And like Orwell's doublespeak..."war is peace"

[@jimmiller5455]

American imperialism never stops

[@wendyjoyce5171]

The Canadian government is using the method of defunding the single payer health system, which Canadian people love, and now privatization talk is getting louder and louder. It’s sickening.

[@seansmith3058]

I've heard about the changes in Ontario, but is it happening elsewhere?

[@iart2838]

Homeless camps in major cities says it all about USA.

[@Zsswimmer1]

So do the reeducation camps in China and the absolute poverty (and I mean ABSOLUTE) outside any big city. Chinese poverty is a whole nother beast to US poverty, but with our wealth and technology and people here there isn't a excuse for the homelessness that pervades the us

[@jame2182]

Sand for Taiwan is essential for future growth

[@archyology]

The part where Noam talked about why the Afghanistan war was launched was great. Also very interesting about the middle East nuclear free zone.

[@robertrichard6107]

By Dec. 2020 a General on NPR said we're going into Afghanistan to get troops over there to go on to Iraq next.

[@mannibimmel09]

underrated

[@jeannedouglas9912]

To withdraw or withdrawl that is the question. Peace

[@rolandomorenosierra9498]

I am Cuban, and we will never allowed the us to impose their in my country, rs

[@johnhigson6206]

The USA behaves exactly as all other powerful enterprises of the past. It is not exceptional.

[@seansmith3058]

A point that is made in the video.

[@akhilleus12]

great interview!

[@Skylark_Jones]

I wouldn't call playing a proxy game with Russia in Ukraine, pumping Ukraine with hi tech weaponry while planting US soldiers in neighbouring countries US withdrawal.

[@elsonck2523]

Brzezinsky from his coffin: No withdrawal...they mean it to be an endless war.

[@jame2182]

RESOURCES! Alaska citizens own resources. Texas corporations own resources.

[@ericcarabetta1161]

It sure would be nice if we could direct our massive imperial machine to focus it's time, money, and energy on stopping climate change.

[@thilohesse8883]

Yes! Wouldn't that be grand?

[@brianwheeldon4643]

Great point Eric. From my own perspective lighting the blue touch paper in the global north are the following Insulate Britain, Just Stop Oil and the basis of the movement XR plus BLM, and in europe Last Generation, Save Old Growth Canada, Fireproof Australia, and like minded activists and scientists in Scandinavia, Derniere Renovation in France, Ende Gelande in Germany, to name only a few brilliant movements of human beings in the West. Africa has been suffering and resisting life ending neoliberal capitalism for centuries, the same in Latin America, across Asia, Oceania and Australasian indigenous peoples, never ever forget the indigenous peoples of North America and the Arctic. Sorry, this is clumsily written, and movements not mentioned. Serious Change has to start now. It's going to be critical in 10 to 20 years for all life everywhere.

[@PsyJaye]

It would be nice just to know We COULD Direct our imperial machine to focus on anything that We the People might appreciate and benefit from.. but this dog is off the chain,, Biden et al have slipped the leash.. and putting the leash back on again will be difficult if not impossible without getting bit.. so I say Bite Me & We'll Bite Back

[@robertrichard6107]

'need to bitch slap Wall St.

[@davidwright8432]

A stunningly clear analysis and critique of why we are where we are - and likely will never make progress from that situation. Many thanks to all three of you.

[@ireneserrano4570]

yes, U$ is the MOB

[@HenryCasillas]

☮️

[@DhruvDDesai]

Hope the west wakes up soon. The silent majority in US and UK needs to do something before it’s too late. US needs to apologise for all the wrongdoings and start afresh. 99% of US has good ppl. This 1% of US is screwing rest of the 99%.

[@lah6739]

I went back to Grenada after the US invasion in 1983. I'd lived there for a year 1980 -81. What the US did there was nothing short of criminal; a little, desperately poor country trying to make a go of it for it's people. Tore my heart out. After the US invaded, the country was flooded with cocaine causing even more problems. Never saw cocaine there before that.

[@saramuhumphries9225]

👍💐

[@iart2838]

Young people creating soon many enlightening podcasts they are our hope.