«…But most importantly, the job of capturing intellectual elites, inciting division and conducting ideological infiltration could be outsourced to non-state actors such as NGOs, media organizations, lobbies, religious groups, aid agencies, and transnational diaspora communities. …»
So many what’s this was done. For example the narrative about «Uighur genocide» was seeded to media, real NGOs and international bodies, via one spook disinformation cutout masquerading as consultancy called “Horizon Advisory” plus another masquerading as a think tank: “ Foundational for Defence of Democracy”.
It’s incredible how gullible the media and NGOs and the public are. They fell for it hook, line and sinker.
Notice that now that DC is actually openly committing genocide in Palestine…..they don’t even make anymore of the lies about China and Uighur!
I make a point of watching Ray McGovern. He’s an interesting guy. However, as with most pundits on the twitter-sphere, or on sub stack, too, for that matter, he lacks a coherent theory of the state in which to contextualise his observations of US or global politics. Which, for me, is most frustrating, having cut my teeth on Miliband and his debates with Poulantzas and Althusser, both of whom still inform my theory of the state. All these years later. For better or worse!
I share your frustration. Many pundits offer interesting observations but fail to see the big elephant in the room: class relations. The capitalist state organizes the interests of the dominant classes and disorganizes the dominated classes. An empirical approach is necessary but insufficient. It needs to be informed by a coherent theory of the state otherwise we end up naming all the agencies and organizations that form this mind-boggling network and miss the forest for the trees. The outsourcing of more and more functions of governance from representative institutions to public private partnerships hasn't dissolved state power, it has made it more pervasive and internalized. The bourgeoisie cannot exist without constantly revolutionizing the instruments of production, and thereby the relations of production, and with them the whole relations of society. All that is solid doesn't disappear when it melts into air. And that applies to class domination as well.
A really absorbing piece, Laura. In more concrete terms, it strengthens my view that the three branches of US government have jointly and severally surrendered most, but not yet all, of their their imputed sovereignties/sovereignty to an increasingly autonomous military-industrial-intelligence complex …. Which, henceforth, will assume an even greater role in policing society and governance, writ large, in the name of national security. In this sense, it matters not who is elected President, Senator, or Congressman/woman. Or political party. Nor does it even matter whether elections are held, or not, although the MICINT would prefer that they were. For propaganda purposes, if nothing else.
Thank you for appreciating my work. If we agree that the state is a tool of class rule, we should ask which class is ruling. The US has outsourced its core functions to unelected interest groups heavily invested in the MIC, MICI or in Ray McGovern’s definition MICIMATT (Military-Industrial-Congressional-Intelligence-Media-Academia-Think-Tank) complex. That complex is virtually unaffected by popular vote, it can easily accommodate the negligible deviations proposed by either party. It doesn’t matter whether you get a Democrat or a Republican in the White House.
«…But most importantly, the job of capturing intellectual elites, inciting division and conducting ideological infiltration could be outsourced to non-state actors such as NGOs, media organizations, lobbies, religious groups, aid agencies, and transnational diaspora communities. …»
So many what’s this was done. For example the narrative about «Uighur genocide» was seeded to media, real NGOs and international bodies, via one spook disinformation cutout masquerading as consultancy called “Horizon Advisory” plus another masquerading as a think tank: “ Foundational for Defence of Democracy”.
It’s incredible how gullible the media and NGOs and the public are. They fell for it hook, line and sinker.
Notice that now that DC is actually openly committing genocide in Palestine…..they don’t even make anymore of the lies about China and Uighur!
I make a point of watching Ray McGovern. He’s an interesting guy. However, as with most pundits on the twitter-sphere, or on sub stack, too, for that matter, he lacks a coherent theory of the state in which to contextualise his observations of US or global politics. Which, for me, is most frustrating, having cut my teeth on Miliband and his debates with Poulantzas and Althusser, both of whom still inform my theory of the state. All these years later. For better or worse!
I share your frustration. Many pundits offer interesting observations but fail to see the big elephant in the room: class relations. The capitalist state organizes the interests of the dominant classes and disorganizes the dominated classes. An empirical approach is necessary but insufficient. It needs to be informed by a coherent theory of the state otherwise we end up naming all the agencies and organizations that form this mind-boggling network and miss the forest for the trees. The outsourcing of more and more functions of governance from representative institutions to public private partnerships hasn't dissolved state power, it has made it more pervasive and internalized. The bourgeoisie cannot exist without constantly revolutionizing the instruments of production, and thereby the relations of production, and with them the whole relations of society. All that is solid doesn't disappear when it melts into air. And that applies to class domination as well.
Smart.
A really absorbing piece, Laura. In more concrete terms, it strengthens my view that the three branches of US government have jointly and severally surrendered most, but not yet all, of their their imputed sovereignties/sovereignty to an increasingly autonomous military-industrial-intelligence complex …. Which, henceforth, will assume an even greater role in policing society and governance, writ large, in the name of national security. In this sense, it matters not who is elected President, Senator, or Congressman/woman. Or political party. Nor does it even matter whether elections are held, or not, although the MICINT would prefer that they were. For propaganda purposes, if nothing else.
Thank you for appreciating my work. If we agree that the state is a tool of class rule, we should ask which class is ruling. The US has outsourced its core functions to unelected interest groups heavily invested in the MIC, MICI or in Ray McGovern’s definition MICIMATT (Military-Industrial-Congressional-Intelligence-Media-Academia-Think-Tank) complex. That complex is virtually unaffected by popular vote, it can easily accommodate the negligible deviations proposed by either party. It doesn’t matter whether you get a Democrat or a Republican in the White House.
Can you please elaborate how 1971 fiat currency move made the cold war easy for USA ,if possible in a separate article