Katelyn > Recent Status Updates

White women left black women behind in hopes of pushing themselves forward quicker. Even joining the racist movement to make stride for white feminism. birth control only became popular once the white supremicists realized it could prevent more black babies from being born at a faster rate than white ones. Every misogynoir stereotype given to black women was upheld by white women, even to this day

Same tactics used to vilify protesters in america (eg pinning BLM protests as violent riots) are eerily similar to the tactics of the KGB during the prague spring to vilify revolutionaries.

KGB & CIA both interested in spreading propaganda around MLK during civil rights - soviets were somewhat successful in tying him with anti US imperialism but when they tried to expand that to south america, they fell flat

Kgb tried to live up to its great past of “illegals”, which werent fully realized for their greatness at the time, but couldnt really recruit skilled people due to a lack of popularity in communist belief, and the only info they got was result of greedy and disloyal people. Their greatest success after wwii was gaining info in science & tech rather than government

America was so close to having a soviet spy in the white house, but the MGB did infiltrate Los Alamos to gather intel on the bomb successfully. Once america cracked the soviet cipher (done by a woman might i add), the secrets started pouring out & america decided to instill fear of soviet spies throughout the country

The underground soviet spies herding the british gay communists wasnt on my bingo card but alas. This could easily be a story from today and i wouldnt bat an eye.

stalin was delusional & paranoid & projected it onto the soviets- such instances seem comparable to the current president of the US…

the beginning of a radical shift towards better living conditions starts with knowing your neighbors, and then giving room to empathize with each other and build community. The state doesnt want us to know our neighbors because they prefer we ask them politely for change that will never happen if we leave it up to them (bc they are personally invested in or lobbied by real estate)

the cycle of increasing rent, increasing homelessness, then displacing people in order to keep property values from lowering is a big issue. interesting that majority of poor ppl now live in suburbs instead of cities due to gentrification (return to cities).

chapter one has focused on how absurd it is to be paying someone rent for a property that will only appreciate its value for the owner. renters do not see any benefits of renting long term and usually pay way more than maintenance costs

when considering klaas’s point of preventing corrupt people from entering powerful spaces i am reminded of how much money is required to run for office, and how many politicians only get to where they are because of big donors who are self-interested, and therefore indebts the politician to their own interests thru campaign donation

lots of very interesting research and storytelling. something that stuck with me was the reasoning Klaas gives behind why dictators are surrounded by crazy rumors about how strong or superhuman they are- it is to see who is loyal/subordinate enough to repeat these myths, and therefore lift them high in power.

Insightful and well-researched looks on how power gets attained and who seeks it

thinking about how america pictures communist countries as underdeveloped due to their economy rather than in the context of these usually war-torn and dilapidated places which are using communism as a way to rebuild.
and the quote by truman at the end of chapter 57 defending US interference in the greek civil war will always live in my brain. “our way of life is based on the will of the majority…”

french L based on the elites failing to listen to the general population? sounds about right

seeing how the chileans were able to recognize the pattern of the jakarta method because they were educated about it vs americans are not taught anything about propaganda (esp used by the US CIA) in other countries.

it makes me wonder if america underwent similar tactics that lead to genocide of our own people, at what point would we collectively be able to recognize the propaganda?

amazing how history repeats itself - none of the major indonesian allies made an attempt to stop the genocide

reading about how much the US involved themselves in places just to remain a large world power puts a lot into perspective when it comes to how the US is acting in current events of israel-palestine.

cia assassinates the Brasil president for promoting land reform, increasing literacy rates and expanding voting rights

getting to the juicy details that we dont learn in school

learning more about what was happening in east asia during WW2 and how much influence socialism and communism naturally had in these areas. so many countries the US paints as poor, undeveloped countries were once colonies of exploitative and racist western governments (and japan). if the US let them turn to communism, how would that have really affected the world? Why does the US see socialism as such a threat?