Oliver Stone, who has gone over to the dark side, recently refused to condemn Trump’s comments about Charlottesville because he claimed the deep state is a more serious problem than Trump. This is a piece I wrote about the deep state last January. I was familiar with the concept when it emerged in its current form since I had come up against it in studying Turkey. It has long been a common description of how the Turkish government operates & to my mind is rooted in Islamophobia & orientalism. That was my conclusion after studying it in Turkey so it is no surprise that those who employ it most, like Stone, are libertarian rednecks.
This is a post I originally posted about the deep state on January 28, 2017
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If you want to be politically au courant these days & still remain shallow you have to learn the lingo, especially the accusatory terms. Denunciation is the lion’s share of fashionable politics.
To be really cool but not give away the shallow depths of your understanding, these terms are de rigueur: neocons, neolibs, alt-right, alt-left, Deep State, color revolution. Most people don’t have a clue what they mean which is precisely the charm of using them. Nobody wants to look stupid by asking what the hell they mean.
Deep State has come into its own since Glenn Greenwald & Global Research use it now to claim the Deep State, defined as the CIA, defense industry, & corporations, is plotting to destabilize Trump’s presidency. Global Research, always on the cutting edge of nutty, goes further in suggesting that protests against Trump are a color revolution, meaning orchestrated by the CIA & Soros. Presumably the color of this one is pink, the motif of the Women’s Marches in the US.
The term Deep State originated in the 1990s to describe a clandestine network within the Turkish political system that conspires against popular democracy. It includes the military, judiciary, intelligence agencies, & operates mafia-style in collaboration with the CIA. The concept seems to be used most by foreign journalists with an Islamophobic distrust of Turks justified by libertarian nihilism & little understanding of how governments administer capitalism.
There’s no confusion why Global Research uses the term. It’s a right-wing libertarian cesspool which promotes the “New World Order” scenario of David Icke & Eva Bartlett that reptilian Jewish bankers called the Illuminati rule & are moving the world toward fascism. It isn’t that libertarians don’t see the class character of society but that they hold working people in contempt. To them, all substantive change comes from the nefarious forces of the Deep State & Illuminati.
Our man Greenwald may not advocate that reptilian anti-Semitic crap but he has zilch understanding of how capitalism & government relate to each other–a blind spot he has demonstrated more than once, especially in his campaign for Chuck Hagel as the lesser of evil US Secretary of Defense. Since when do progressives get involved in the selection of who administers US wars?
Libertarians & political fashionistas parrot the term Deep State because it appeals to their nihilistic suspicions that everything is fake & manipulated & it confirms their elitist, anti-Semitic prejudices that clandestine agencies & reptilian Jewish bankers run the world. When millions of working people enter the stage of history, they scorn them as manipulated by financiers & undercover operatives. To their minds, all revolutions & mass protests–from the Arab uprisings in Egypt, Syria, Yemen, & Bahrain to the Women’s Marches–are orchestrated by the CIA & Soros.
Who can reason with such madness? It’s political martyrdom to try.
