Episode 1258
Toward degrowth / Giorgos Kallis + Susan Paulson
Nov 10 2020
The OAS (Organization of American States) was created in 1948. Over the course of its history, it has been deeply aligned to the White House agenda. Nevertheless, in the previous administration of the Secretary General, Miguel Insulza, who served in the Organization of American States from 2005 to 2015, the Secretary General, Miguel Insulza, maintained a balanced approach, and he condemned Israel, Israel's military actions, and also supported United Nations calls for a ceasefire during the 50 day Gaza war in 2014. And under this administration, the states that belong to this organization were able to condemn the actions of Israel. Now [the OAS] completely silencing them.
Center for Economic and Policy Research's Francesca Emanuele on her article, "Gaza Is Causing Diplomatic Rifts in the Western Hemisphere: The Organization of American States’ pro-Israel stance may erode its legitimacy in the region," at Foreign Policy.
Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon.
Heba Gowayed
Sep 11
Wealthy States Outsource Their Borders to Poorer, Indebted States / Heba Gowayed
Follow
Weekly Mailing List
New interviews every Monday
Oct 29 2020
Posted by Alexander Jerri
Welcome to the Moment of Truth: the thirst that is the drink.
I avoid advertisements as much as possible. I’ve avoided them like the plague, which has been good practice for the plague. I’ve missed all the commercials my friends are in because of that avoidance. When I listen to podcasts I scrub past pitches for absolutely anything. But Hulu makes you sit through the ads. I mute them, but sometimes I’m not quick enough. Thus, many’s the time I’ve heard, “At so-and-so, we believe—” Every company pulls this crap at some point, no matter how non-sensical it is. “At White Claw, we believe –” there is no “at.” You’re a beverage. And you don’t believe in anything but making money. “At Clear Blue, we believe –” What do mean, “at Clear Blue?” You’re a stick women pee on to see if they’re pregnant! You’re not a place. There’s no brick-and-mortar house of pee sticks. And what can you possibly believe? “At pee stick we believe in the pH level of urine.” You believe in selling pee sticks. You don’t have any other beliefs, because you aren’t human, regardless of what the Supreme Court has said in the past. You are an agreement to peddle pee-activated color-changing material housed in plastic for the profit of your owners and part-owners. You are a legal construction designed to be a financial instrument. That’s all you’ll ever be. Give up your stupid dreams of being a real boy, Pinocchio, it’s not going to happen.
I’ve gone off before about advertising. Commercial advertising. How it’s a waste of education dollars. Because that’s what it is, bad, poisonous education. A commercial is a 15 to 60 second lesson on acquisitiveness and shallow values. It’s school for consumers, and most of it is either outright lies, id-tapping fantasies, or dramas meant to communicate insecurity. Sometimes I’ll catch a radio ad out of the corner of my ear, and something they say, some made-up statistic, reassures me about the future, then suddenly I’ll realize what’s happened, what I’ve bought into, and out of shame at being such a gullible sucker I want to stab myself in the brain.
The amount of money spent on advertising is hard to get a grip on. There are figures that represent ad purchases, but the limits of an... read more