Another escalation of Empire War with Activism and Journalism

Caitlin Johnstone 26 May 2026. caitlinjohnstone-au/yet-another-escalation-in-the-empires-war-on-activism-and-journalism

The war of the empire against activism and journalism continues to tighten, and Trump administration takes on The mark of left-wing web presenter Hasan Picker and anti-war activist Medea Benjamin for the crime of providing humanitarian aid to Cuba.

{Let's read carefully – it's lefty though?. md}

This is another act of aggression within the same wave of attacks and questioning uncomfortable fact and clear moral views throughout the Western planet over the past years.

This is not a separate substance from the persecution of Julian Assange for revealing American war crimes.

This is not detached from the ever-increasing escalation of net censorship, which we have seen following events in Gaza, Ukraine, after Covid, 6 January, the 2016 U.S. presidential election and any another excuse that imperial communicative administrators could have found.

This is not detached from the Trump administration's efforts to deport foreigners for criticizing the State of Israel.

This is not a distraction from efforts to suppress pro-Palestinian protests and demonstrations on university campuses.

This is not a separate issue from the arrests of activists in the UK on suspicion of terrorism for saying "I support Palestine Action".

This is not a separate issue from activists who have been charged with saying "From river to sea" in any parts of Australia and Germany.

This is not detached from the efforts made by the empire to suppress the BDS movement and ban the boycott of Israeli products.

This is not separate from the ban on the abroad press entering the Gaza Strip introduced by Israel, nor from the systematic extermination of Palestinian journalists in the Gaza Strip led by Israel.

This is not detached from the artificially induced hysteria about “anti-Semitism” in Western societies and the efforts of Western governments to silence Israel's criticism in the name of the protection of Jews.

This cannot be separated from the massive increase in Israel's budget for hasbara this year and from the army of paid trolls that flood the discussion on the Internet.

This is not detached from the constant shelling of imperial propaganda, which we see all day from the pluralist press, justifying all war and slandering all dissident.

This is not detached from the way imperial oligarchs specified as Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Larry Ellison buy out media specified as The Washington Post and CBS and social media platforms specified as TikTok and Twitter to manipulate the way people think, act and vote.

This is not detached from the way technology platforms manipulate algorithms to hide different sources of information from the public and usage false “fact verification” companies to suppress unauthorized facts.

It is not separate from measures of government secrecy, which forbid the public from knowing what the rulers are doing, and which severely punish anyone who tries to uncover uncomfortable facts.

The Empire wages a constant war on intellectual clarity and moral clarity, due to the fact that fact and morality are its enemies.

They do not want us to have any undisturbed vision, clear mind, functioning centers of empathy and well-formed consciences, due to the fact that if we had them, we immediately stripped the brick-to- brick empire.

Therefore, they prosecute anyone who tries to broaden the awareness of Western society through activism and journalism. In an empire built on lies and fueled by human blood, telling fact is seen as treason, and doing what is right as rebellion.

The only sensible consequence to specified a dystopian situation is to join the revolution. Let's aid distribute unauthorized ideas and information. Let us take action to rise awareness of the abuse of the empire. They're trying to keep it all a secret, so we request to bring it to light.

They would not have fought so fiercely to suppress fact and compassion if it did not pose a direct existential threat to their power structure.