Thinking on Louis Farrakhan, Elijah Muhammad, and earlier Black nationalists, and Israel: if a domestic movement demanding a separate, ethnically exclusive Black nation is rightly criticized for rejecting pluralism and equality, then a foreign government doing the exact same thing through military force cannot be funded as a "beacon of democracy." To argue otherwise is racism.

Israel does not deserve more American money for weapons. Prime Minister Netanyahu has taken Israel down an ugly path. Self-defense does not include indiscriminately bombing homes, hospitals, churches, ... — Joaquin Castro
Just over two years ago, only 37 House Democrats — mostly on the party’s hard-left flank — voted for a similar bid to crack down on U.S. aid for Israel.
This time, a much broader swath of Democrats came along — 103 of the 211 members voting Wednesday, plus another 10 who voted “present.”

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/07/15/israel-aid-vote-house-democrats-00999917

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Herman & Chomsky said it back in 1988.

The hypothesis advanced by the propaganda model, excluded from debate as unthinkable, is that in dealing with the American wars in Indochina, the media were "unmindful", but highly "patriotic" in the special and misleading sense that they kept -- and keep -- closely to the perspective of official Washington and the closely related corporate elite, in conformity to the general "journalistic-literary-political culture" from which "the left" (meaning dissident opinion that questions jingoist assumptions) is virtually excluded. The propaganda model predicts that this should be generally true not only of the choice of topics covered and the way they are covered, but also, and far more crucially, of the general background of the presuppositions within which the issues are framed and the news presented. Insofar as there is debate among dominant elites, it will be reflected within the media, which in this narrow sense, may adopt an "adversarial stance" with regard to those holding office, reflecting elite dissatisfaction with current policy. Otherwise the media will depart from elite consensus only rarely and in limited ways. Even when large parts of the general public break free of the premises of the doctrinal system, as finally happened during the Indochina wars, real understanding based upon an alternative conception of the evolving history can be developed only with considerable effort by the most diligent and skeptical. And such understanding as can be reached through serious and often individual effort will be difficult to sustain or apply elsewhere, an extremely important matter for those who are truly concerned with democracy at home and "the influence of democracy abroad," in the real sense of these words.

How to Sell a Genocide: The Media’s Complicity in the Destruction of Gaza

By Adam H. Johnson

Foreword by Noura Erakat

A gripping exposé of how the corporate media fueled genocide in Gaza

https://www.plutobooks.com/product/how-to-sell-a-genocide/

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The American Transformation, 1945–1975

A Self-Study Curriculum on the National Security State, Propaganda, and the Political Economy of Systems

core readings, counterpoint readings (the strongest opposing case), primary sources/films

  1. A Cross of Iron: Harry S. Truman and the Origins of the National Security State, 1945–1954

Andrew Callaghan traveled directly to the West Bank to interview Palestinians about living under military occupation and dealing with Israeli settlers.

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