The American Empire’s abuses of its own core population go not unnoticed by a growing number of members of said core population. And their grievance goes something like this:

There is, however, a Machiavellian logic to abusing your core population in the above-listed ways while relying on their willing sacrifice in imperial wars. The logic is, that if you emasculate a nation’s men by blocking every channel of their masculine expression except through imperial military service, those men will more than enthusiastically serve the master that beats them just to have that one outlet of masculine dignity, that one illusion of liberty. So thankfully, there is now a truthful recruitment ad for the US Marine Corps. From the voice-over:

Hop in he hovercraft and forget about how your wife is giving hand jobs just so she can feel alive in your absence… Bomb terrorists and their wives! Why take it out on us when you can take it out on them and their happy marriages.

The forever-war in the Middle East that began under George H.W. Bush is not letting up. That’s on top of the America Empire’s past seventy years of waging war against its own White people and seventy years of destroying Europe.

An empire that becomes hated by its own core population can either soften the tyranny or double-down on it. It’s a gamble from the point of view of the imperial ruling class because granting your aggrieved core population its long-denied liberties can backfire in the form of a revolution. This is why we are presently seeing our ruling classes double-down on the tyranny. That could be a sign of confidence on their part, or it could be a sign of panic.

Below is Josh Tillman, stage name Father John Misty, performing John Lennon’s “Happy Christmas” in 2013. I’m fascinated by the neohippies’ sometimes paradoxical attitude toward imperial war. I don’t think that they are animated by nostalgia for an era that passed more than a decade before they were born, nor solely by faraway military action. The desire for peace finds a different outlet in different people.