Story at-a-glance

• Research links microplastic exposure to chronic diseases like high blood pressure, stroke, and diabetes, ranking among the top 10 predictors of these conditions
• Communities with higher microplastic levels experienced significantly more chronic diseases, with risk steadily increasing alongside higher plastic concentrations
• A study found microplastics embedded in artery plaque, and affected patients were over four times more likely to experience heart attacks, strokes, or death
• Plastic particles trigger inflammation and immune responses when lodged in tissues, raising disease risk even in people without conventional risk factors
• Effective ways to reduce exposure include filtering your drinking water, avoiding plastic food packaging, using glass containers, choosing natural fiber clothing and considering natural progesterone supplementation to address related hormone disruption

You’re absorbing plastic through the air, food and water daily. These microscopic plastic particles are being detected inside living tissue — lodged deep within organs, absorbed through your gut and circulating through your bloodstream.

Emerging research has uncovered strong connections between this plastic exposure and conditions like high blood pressure, stroke, and metabolic dysfunction. Studies now link even low-level, everyday exposure to a higher risk of cardiovascular events. This is no longer just about reducing waste. It’s about protecting your heart, your brain and your long-term health.

Microplastics Rank Among Top Predictors of Chronic Disease

Research presented at the American College of Cardiology’s Annual Scientific Session evaluated the concentration of microplastics in seafloor sediment across 555 U.S. coastal and lakeside census tracts between 2015 and 2019.¹ The goal was to compare plastic exposure levels with disease rates in those same communities.

Using data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, researchers examined the prevalence of high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke, and cancer and used machine learning to assess how microplastic pollution stacked up against 154 other environmental and socioeconomic factors.

•People living near high-microplastic zones had more chronic illness — Communities exposed to higher microplastic levels experienced notably higher rates of noncommunicable diseases such as stroke, high blood pressure and diabetes. Researchers emphasized that these plastic particles were inhaled or ingested — not from unusual behaviors, but from basic day-to-day activities like drinking water, eating food, or simply breathing air.

•Microplastics ranked in the top 10 predictors of chronic disease — The study found that microplastics were among the top risk factors for chronic illness. For instance, microplastic exposure showed a strong correlation with stroke, placing it on par with other high-risk variables like racial minority status or lacking health insurance.

•More plastic meant more disease, showing a clear dose effect — The study revealed a dose-response pattern, meaning disease risk climbed steadily alongside higher plastic concentrations. Regions with very high microplastic levels — defined as over 40,000 particles per square meter of sediment — had the worst disease outcomes, while areas with under 200 particles had the lowest.

Plastics Create Long-Term Biological Stress

The researchers were surprised by how high microplastics ranked in the data. This finding pushed microplastics into the spotlight as a credible, under-recognized driver of modern disease — something your body could be reacting to daily.

•Plastic particles stay in your body — Microplastics are defined as fragments between 1 nanometer and 5 millimeters across. They come from common products: food packaging, building materials, clothing, and even cosmetics.

Unlike biodegradable materials, these particles don’t break down in your body. Instead, they can lodge in tissues or circulate in your blood, where they trigger immune responses, hormone disruption or low-grade inflammation — conditions tied to heart disease, insulin resistance and more.

•The researchers urged immediate steps to reduce environmental plastic load and minimize personal exposure — As lead study author Sai Rahul Ponnana, a research data scientist at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine in Ohio, put it, “Taking care of our environment means taking care of ourselves.”²

Plastics Buried in Your Arteries Silently Raise Your Heart Risks

A related study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found microplastics lodged in human artery plaque.³ Researchers analyzed plaque removed during surgery from patients with advanced carotid artery disease.

•They confirmed the presence of plastic compounds — This included varieties common in food containers, pipes and packaging. Out of 257 participants, 150 — over half — had detectable levels of these plastics embedded in their plaque.

•Those with plastic-laden plaque had far worse health outcomes — Patients who had plastics in their plaque were more than four times as likely to experience a heart attack, stroke, or die from any cause within the three-year follow-up period than patients with no detectable plastics.

•The researchers found jagged, foreign plastic fragments inside immune cells — The study also showed that these plastics had embedded deeply into tissue. Electron microscopy revealed sharp-edged particles wedged inside foam cells — immune cells that gather in artery walls during plaque formation.

Most particles were smaller than 1 micron — smaller than the width of a red blood cell — suggesting they were nanoplastics, which are even more dangerous because of their ability to penetrate cells.

Plastics Quietly Inflame Your Arteries

Researchers also found that the presence of plastics correlated with higher levels of certain inflammatory markers that are known to worsen vascular inflammation and increase the risk of sudden plaque rupture. This is what causes many heart attacks and strokes. Plastics also coincided with greater immune cell presence, meaning the body was actively responding to the foreign material like a chronic infection.

•Plastic particles were confirmed using chemical fingerprinting — Some particles gave off distinct chlorine signatures, confirming the presence of polyvinyl chloride (PVC). PVC is found in everything from plumbing pipes to credit cards — and its breakdown products are known endocrine disruptors.

•Even with no conventional risk factors, plastics still raised disease risk — The researchers adjusted for cholesterol, age, diabetes, body mass index, and blood pressure. Even after accounting for these common risk factors, plastics still predicted who got sick. This means even if you’re eating well and exercising, your exposure to plastic pollution could quietly undermine your heart health.

•Your daily environment is the source, and the damage adds up — The plastics detected in this study were the same types found in water bottles, food containers and many household products. The study didn’t find them in just one region — they appeared across multiple areas. This means plastic pollution is a widespread problem with personal health consequences. If it’s in your air, water and food, it’s likely getting into your bloodstream — and staying there.

How to Reduce Your Microplastic Exposure

If you’re leading a healthy lifestyle but dealing with high blood pressure, blood sugar problems or early signs of cardiovascular stress, it’s time to look beyond diet and exercise. Plastics are showing up in arteries, and no one really knows how to get them out. The most effective way to protect yourself is to cut your exposure at the source. You won’t eliminate every particle, but you can drastically lower how much enters your body each day. Here’s where to start:

1.Upgrade your water filtration and ditch plastic bottles — Drinking contaminated tap water or buying plastic bottled water exposes you to microplastics every single day. I recommend switching to a certified water filter designed to remove microplastics. If your water is hard, boiling it before use dramatically reduces microplastics.⁴ Always choose glass bottles when buying bottled water.

2.Make smart food packaging choices — Heat and plastic are a dangerous combo. Stop microwaving food in plastic containers, and avoid plastic wraps touching your meals. Store leftovers in glass, stainless steel, or ceramic. When you’re shopping, choose products in glass jars over plastic packaging whenever possible. These changes are simple but powerful — they reduce direct ingestion of plastic particles.

3.Re-evaluate your kitchen essentials — Plastic cutting boards shed tiny fragments every time you chop. Over time, those bits wind up in your food. Switch to wood and glass boards instead. Also swap out plastic utensils for stainless steel. These swaps lower your exposure while making your kitchen more durable and clean.

4.Choose natural fibers and rethink how you wash clothes — If you’re wearing polyester, acrylic or nylon, you’re wearing plastic. These synthetic fabrics shed microfibers into the water system during every wash. Choose cotton, wool, or linen instead. For synthetic clothes you already own, wash them less often and use a microfiber-catching laundry bag or filter. This one step protects your body — and the planet.

5.Consider natural progesterone to help offset estrogenic plastic damage — Many plastics act like estrogen in your body. That’s a major reason they interfere with your cells and hormone balance. If you’re dealing with signs of estrogen dominance, like mood swings, stubborn weight, or fatigue, natural progesterone helps balance things out. It acts as a direct counter to the hormonal disruption plastics cause.

How to Use Progesterone

Before you consider using progesterone, it is important to understand that it is not a magic bullet, and that you get the most benefit by implementing a Bioenergetic diet approach that allows you to effectively burn glucose as your primary fuel without backing up electrons in your mitochondria that reduces your energy production. My book, “Your Guide to Cellular Health: Unlocking the Science of Longevity and Joy,” covers this process in great detail.

Once you have dialed in your diet, an effective strategy that can help counteract estrogen excess is to take transmucosal progesterone (i.e., applied to your gums, not oral or transdermal), which is a natural estrogen antagonist. Progesterone is one of only three hormones I believe many adults can benefit from. (The other two are DHEA and pregnenolone.)

I do not recommend transdermal progesterone, as your skin expresses high levels of 5-alpha reductase enzyme, which causes a significant portion of the progesterone you’re taking to be irreversibly converted primarily into allopregnanolone and cannot be converted back into progesterone.

Ideal Way to Administer Progesterone

Please note that when progesterone is used transmucosally on your gums as I advise, the FDA believes that somehow converts it into a drug and prohibits any company from advising that on its label. This is why companies promote their progesterone products as “topical.”

However, please understand that it is perfectly legal for any physician to recommend an off-label indication for a drug to their patient. In this case, progesterone is a natural hormone and not a drug and is very safe even in high doses. This is unlike synthetic progesterone called progestins that are used by drug companies, but frequently, and incorrectly, referred.

Dr. Ray Peat has done the seminal work in progesterone and probably was the world’s greatest expert on progesterone. He wrote his Ph.D. on estrogen in 1982 and spent most of his professional career documenting the need to counteract the dangers of excess estrogen with low-LA diets and transmucosal progesterone supplementation.

He determined that most solvents do not dissolve progesterone well and discovered that vitamin E is the best solvent to optimally provide progesterone in your tissue. Vitamin E also protects you against damage from LA. You just need to be very careful about which vitamin E you use as most supplemental vitamin E on the market is worse than worthless and will cause you harm not benefit.

It is imperative to avoid using any synthetic vitamin E (alpha tocopherol acetate — the acetate indicates that it’s synthetic). Natural vitamin E will be labeled “d alpha tocopherol.” This is the pure D isomer, which is what your body can use.

There are also other vitamin E isomers, and you want the complete spectrum of tocopherols and tocotrienols, specifically the beta, gamma, and delta types, in the effective D isomer. As an example of an ideal vitamin E, you can look at the label on our vitamin E in our store. You can use any brand that has a similar label.

You can purchase pharmaceutical grade bioidentical progesterone as Progesterone Powder, Bioidentical Micronized Powder, 10 grams for about $40 on many online stores like Amazon. That is nearly a year’s supply, depending on the dose you choose.

However, you will need to purchase some small stainless steel measuring spoons as you will need a 1/64 tsp, which is 25 mg and a 1/32 tsp, which is 50 mg. A normal dose is typically 25 to 50 mg and is taken 30 to 60 minutes before bed, as it has an anti-cortisol function and will increase GABA levels for a good night’s sleep.

If you are a menstruating woman, you should take the progesterone during the luteal phase or the last half of your cycle, which can be determined by starting 10 days after the first day of your period and stopping the progesterone when your period starts.

If you are a male or non-menstruating woman, you can take the progesterone every day for four to six months and then cycle off for one week. The best time of day to take progesterone is 30 to 60 minutes before bed as it has an anti-cortisol function and will increase GABA levels for a good night’s sleep.

This is what I have been personally doing for over a year with very good results. I am a physician so do not have any problems doing this. If you aren’t a physician, you should consult one before using this therapy, as transmucosal progesterone therapy requires a doctor’s prescription.

FAQs About Microplastics

Q: How do microplastics affect health?

A: Microplastics are tiny fragments of plastic that enter your body through food, water, and air. Studies show they don’t just pass through — they lodge in your tissues, including artery walls. Once inside, they trigger inflammation and disrupt normal cell function, increasing your risk for high blood pressure, stroke, diabetes and cardiovascular events.

Q: Where did researchers find plastic in the body?

A: In a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers discovered plastic embedded in plaque removed from human carotid arteries. These particles were detected inside immune cells and tissue debris, confirming that plastics don’t just float through your system — they settle in and do damage.

Q: What diseases are linked to microplastic exposure?

A: The American College of Cardiology study found strong associations between microplastic pollution and several chronic conditions, including stroke, high blood pressure and diabetes. Higher microplastic concentrations in the environment directly correlated with higher disease rates in surrounding communities.

Q: How do plastics cause damage inside arteries?

A: Plastics act like irritants inside your body. They activate immune cells, release inflammatory chemicals and destabilize artery plaque. This raises your risk of serious events like heart attacks and strokes, even if you don’t have conventional risk factors.

Q: How can I reduce my microplastic exposure?

A: You can lower your risk by filtering your water, avoiding plastic food packaging, switching to glass or stainless steel in the kitchen, wearing natural fibers and using a natural progesterone supplement if you’re dealing with estrogen dominance from plastic exposure. Each step helps remove a source of plastic stress on your body.

The post Evidence Links Microplastics to Chronic Disease appeared first on Activist Post.

With the West boiling alive and systemic shocks hitting Europe and Australia, the concept of a backup plan has turned from a ‘nice-to-have’ into a survival necessity. But where do you go when you need freedom, sustainability, and a break from the chaos?

Look around. The water is getting hotter every single day. We are staring down the barrel of potential fuel shortages that could cripple entire regions. This isn’t fear-mongering; it’s just reading the script they are following. When the trucks stop rolling, the shelves go empty, and the grid goes down, do you want to be stuck in a 15-minute smart city where your existence is metered and permitted?

This isn’t about running away. That’s what the gatekeepers call it. This is about moving toward self-reliance. It’s about opting out of a system that wants to own you, body and soul. I’ve been living this life for almost twenty years now, mostly in Mexico, and let me tell you, the peace of mind you get when you step off the hamster wheel is invaluable.

I’m spending my time on a sustainable ranch right now that is totally off the grid. We’ve got solar panels, massive battery banks, and we grow our own food. While the West is debating which pronoun to use on a digital ID, I’m watching the sunset over mountains that don’t care about my carbon footprint. This is the kind of secure, off-grid, eco-friendly offshore real estate that acts as an insurance policy against the insanity.

For years, I talked about this stuff, and people looked at me like I had three heads. That was back in 2010 when I started The Dollar Vigilante. Back then, it was about lifestyle and maximizing freedom. But it shifted from a lifestyle choice to a survival necessity the moment 

Canada decided to freeze the bank accounts.

Let that sink in.

They didn’t even take the money; they just locked the digital door. You couldn’t buy food. You couldn’t pay rent. You couldn’t leave. In Canada, you weren’t allowed to leave. That is the definition of imprisonment. When they can turn off your money and your ability to travel with a keystroke, you are not free. You are a tenant in their digital plantation.

That is why the shift has been so palpable recently. I’ve known Michael Cobb of ECI Development for nearly two decades. We’ve worked together on places like Grand Pacifica in Nicaragua. He told me recently that he has seen a “crescendo” of people waking up. It’s not just talk anymore. People are taking actual steps. They are transacting. They are moving.

And, they are moving to communities where the mindset is different. In Latin America, specifically in developments like Grand Pacifica, you aren’t just buying a house; you are entering a network of like-minded people. It’s a tribe. When I go to Anarchapulco or other events, I see thousands of people who get it. We are building a new world while the old one burns down.

But I get it. I hear the excuses all the time. “Jeff, I can’t move because I don’t speak Spanish.” Or, “It’s too complicated.”

It’s not complicated, but I understand the language barrier. For a long time, the best options for freedom and affordability were in Nicaragua or Panama. Nicaragua is incredible… Grand Pacifica is basically packed with Dollar Vigilante readers at this point. But if you are terrified of learning a new language, you might hesitate.

That’s about to change.

Register here for the live reveal of a brand new development in Belize. This is huge. Belize is the gem of Central America for English speakers. You get the freedom, the climate, and the lack of intrusive government that you find in Latin America, but everyone speaks English. You can drink the water, you can talk to your neighbors, and you can understand the contracts. It removes that last psychological barrier to exit.

However, the window of opportunity is closing shut.

And, the cost of waiting is going up, literally.

I was just talking to a conference organizer recently who told me that half the people who signed up for an event had to cancel because their airfares had almost doubled. That’s not an accident. That is a mechanism of control. Between the inflation destroying the currency and the fuel crises looming, travel is becoming a luxury good again.

They are pricing you into your prison.

Once everyone realizes it’s time to leave, it’s too late.

I’ve been saying this for fifteen years. When the herd panics, the exit is blocked. We saw a preview of this during COVID. Borders snapped shut. Visas were required out of nowhere. If you didn’t already have a plan, you were stuck. The trains will be full. The flights will be grounded. You don’t want to be the one looking for a lifeboat when the ship is already underwater.

Getting out is becoming a financial calculation. Do you spend $800 on a flight now, or $2,000 later… if they even let you fly? Do you buy an asset you can touch now, or do you hold fiat dollars that are being debased into oblivion?

The time for research is basically over. We are entering the endpoint of this collapse scenario. You can feel it. They are recycling the same playbook, getting lazier and more aggressive with each iteration. If you are standing in a place you don’t want to be for the next ten or twenty years, you need to move, and you need to move quickly.

Whether it’s securing a foothold in Nicaragua, Panama, or this new spot in Belize, you need a physical location outside the reach of the Western tyrants. You need a place where “trust the science” is a punchline, not a religion. You need a place where your wealth is your property, not a government loan that can be recalled.

We are building a community of people who are standing in truth against the state and central banks. We are improving ourselves, our health, and our wealth while the grid goes down.

Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

The grid is going to go down, folks. The question is, where will you be standing when the lights flicker out for good? Hopefully, you’ll be somewhere warm, with people you trust, holding real assets. Get out while you still can.

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The post Nicaragua to Belize: Finding Your Freedom Haven Before the Grid Goes Down appeared first on Activist Post.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping concluded a two-day summit in Beijing on May 20, 2026, signing roughly 40 cooperation documents and adopting a joint declaration on a multipolar world order, according to state media reports [1]. The declaration rejects the idea of a single ideological center and advocates for civilizational diversity, according to analysis by Ladislav Zemanek, a non-resident research fellow at the China-CEE Institute and expert of the Valdai Discussion Club [2]. Zemanek wrote that the partnership “is not a crusade against the West. It is a revolt against unipolarity — against the idea that one civilization, one ideology, and one political model should dominate the entire planet indefinitely” [2]. The summit came just days after Xi hosted U.S. President Donald Trump, a timing analysts described as deliberate [3].

Background of the Partnership

Russia and China first issued a joint declaration on multipolarity in 1997, according to historical records cited by analysts [2]. At that time, the Soviet Union had collapsed and American unipolarity seemed unchallenged, but both powers sensed the instability of a world organized around a single ideological center, Zemanek wrote [2]. The current partnership is rooted in opposition to unipolarity and perceived Western dominance of international institutions, officials said. Zemanek described the partnership as “a revolt against the idea that one civilization should dominate the planet indefinitely” [2].

Scholar Glenn Diesen notes that the relationship has evolved despite a historical power imbalance, including Russia’s appropriation of more than 1.5 million square kilometers of Chinese territory during the Qing Dynasty [4]. However, Diesen also observes that confrontation without established rules has spiraled from Ukraine to Syria, underscoring the need for major powers to consult on consequential issues [4]. The 2026 summit marked the 25th anniversary of the Russia-China Treaty of Good-Neighborliness, Friendship and Cooperation, which laid the foundation for the strategic partnership [1].

Western Reactions and Criticisms

The growing Russia-China partnership is frequently described by Western commentators as an “authoritarian alliance” plotting against the “free world,” according to media reports [2]. A statement from the U.S. State Department, according to an official who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the alliance threatens the rules-based international order, the report stated. European officials have expressed concern that the partnership undermines NATO’s security posture, according to a report [2].

Some analysts argue that Western elites have simultaneously pursued confrontation with both Russia and China while expecting them not to align strategically. Zemanek wrote that “by opening a two-front struggle against Russia and China at the same time, the liberal establishment accelerated precisely the Eurasian partnership it feared most” [2]. Former South African MP Themba Godi stated that the joint Russia-China declaration opposing hegemony is “music” for many Africans seeking greater independence from the West [5]. The summit, according to Godi, signals a shift in global power dynamics.

Economic and Sanctions Dynamics

Western sanctions imposed on Russia since the Ukraine conflict began have not caused the expected economic collapse, according to Russian economic data cited in analysis [6]. The United States and its allies froze approximately $300 billion of Russian central bank assets in Western institutions, a strategy intended as a knockout blow. Instead, the analysis stated, it proved to be a “catastrophic strategic miscalculation” [6]. Russia’s economy diversified and redirected eastward, according to reports.

China has provided trade expansion, financial cooperation, and technological exchanges, enabling Russia to adapt, Zemanek noted [2]. Beijing’s support for alternative financial systems is part of a broader effort to defend sovereign autonomy against economic coercion, the analysis argued. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) has made a landmark decision to conduct the majority of transactions in national currencies instead of the U.S. dollar, according to reports [7]. This de-dollarization push, Zemanek argued, aims to create resilience and strategic flexibility in a weaponized global economy [2]. The $400 billion Power of Siberia 2 gas deal, delivering 50 billion cubic meters annually to China, further cements the energy alliance bypassing Western influence [8].

Implications for the West

Zemanek argued that multipolarity could offer a path to Western restoration by allowing nations to reclaim sovereignty and tradition. He wrote that “multipolarity is not the West’s enemy. In reality, it may represent the only path toward Western renewal” [2]. He noted that liberal globalism has hollowed out Western foundations through deindustrialization, border weakening, and social fragmentation, and that ordinary Europeans and Americans increasingly reject that vision [2].

Critics say the decline of unipolarity weakens liberal democratic institutions and may embolden authoritarian actors, according to political analysts [9]. Some Western analysts argue that a multipolar world could lead to higher prices and greater instability [9]. The summit underscores an ongoing transition in global governance, though the pace and outcome remain uncertain, officials said. Zemanek concluded that a balanced world of sovereign civilizations “does not threaten Europe or America. It may offer the only viable path toward restoring their own civilizational confidence” [2].

References

1. “LIVE UPDATESPutin-Xi summit delivers 40 deals and sweeping joint declarations (VIDEOS)”. RT. May 20, 2026.
2. Ladislav Zemanek. “Here’s how Putin and Xi can save the West from itself”. RT. May 22, 2026.
3. NaturalNews.com. “Russia-China summit signals strategic realignment as Moscow deepens dependence on Beijing”. NaturalNews.com. May 21, 2026.
4. Glenn Diesen. “Russias geoeconomic strategy for a Greater Eurasia”.
5. “China-Russia declaration ‘music to our ears in Africa’ – politician”. RT. May 21, 2026.
6. NaturalNews.com. “Washingtons Sanctions Gamble Backfires Leaving a Golden Russia and a Broken Dollar”. NaturalNews.com. January 22, 2026.
7. NaturalNews.com. “END OF THE DOLLAR_ SCO nations to abandon USD shift to domestic currencies for financial transactions”. NaturalNews.com. July 07, 2023.
8. Ava Grace. “Russias new gas pipeline to China threatens to upend global energy markets and squeeze US suppliers”. NaturalNews.com. September 05, 2025.
9. Kit Knightly. “Fake Wars & Higher Prices: What A ‘Multipolar World Order’ Really Means”. ZeroHedge. May 22, 2026.

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The legislation is being framed as a turning point for U.S. crypto policy, but there’s a major piece of the puzzle being overlooked, argues Singh.

Agrowing number of people see the Clarity Act, which intends to establish clear and enforceable guardrails for the U.S. crypto industry, as a sign that Washington has firmly closed the door on the “regulation-by-enforcement” approach seen under the Biden administration to a more structured framework for the crypto industry.

And look, on paper, it’s a major step forward. There is no doubt the Clarity Act offers clearer definitions and a more coherent regulatory perimeter for the industry.

But regulatory clarity does not automatically lead to adoption. Because even if Congress gets the market structure right, the U.S. crypto tax framework, in its current form, is still a bit messy and complicated.

Form 1099-DA is confusing for crypto investors

On paper, Form 1099-DA, which any business defined as a crypto broker must issue, is about transparency, standardized reporting and improved compliance.

The Form 1099-DA asks crypto users for the number of assets, acquisition date, sale and disposal date, as well as specific sections for aggregated transactions for stablecoins and NFTs.

However, it is becoming more counterproductive than intended. Crypto users are now receiving tax forms that often report proceeds without a reliable cost basis, fail to properly capture holding periods and excludes non-custodial activity entirely. The result is a fragmented and incomplete picture of a user’s actual tax position.

For retail investors, that means manually reconciling thousands of transactions across exchanges, wallets, bridges and DeFi protocols, often with conflicting data that does not align with what the IRS receives.

Even within the industry, the problem has become immense. When assets are moved between platforms, the cost basis often disappears. The receiving exchange has no reliable way to reconstruct historical purchase data. Yet, the system is designed as if crypto can be reported with the same precision as traditional securities held within a single brokerage account.

It cannot. So the burden falls back to the individual taxpayer. They are now expected to override, reconcile and reconstruct their entire transaction history, or risk audit exposure if they get it wrong.

The audit trail and record-keeping requirements in the Clarity Act represent a necessary trade-off for regulatory certainty under the CFTC, but the operational hurdles they impose can’t be ignored.

To the bill’s credit, the underlying intent of these strict mandates is a massive win for the industry. Forcing audit trails to definitively prove the absolute segregation of customer assets injects a level of trust and security that will protect retail users and prevent the catastrophic commingling of funds that defined early crypto collapses.

However, the technical challenges of implementing these systems remain daunting. While the bill wisely acknowledges that tailored, onchain tracking solutions are required rather than outdated legacy reporting stacks, the operational demands are steep. Because digital asset markets run 24/7, firms must build and maintain continuous audit trails capable of instantly matching real-time blockchain ledger data with off-chain communications.

Contradiction in U.S. policy becomes impossible to ignore

For small and mid-sized investors, especially, the compliance burden can exceed the economic benefit. And if the future of crypto depends on broad participation, that is a serious structural problem.

This is where the contradiction in U.S. policy becomes impossible to ignore.

On the one hand, the government is supporting innovation, market growth and domestic leadership in digital assets. On the other hand, it is implementing a tax reporting regime that treats decentralized networks as if they were traditional brokerage accounts with perfect data continuity.

Those two positions cannot both scale. We’ve already seen partial backtracking, particularly around how the regime applies to non-custodial or DeFi activity. That’s a start, but it only scratches the surface.

The deeper issue is yet to be solved. The IRS does not need to turn crypto exchanges into perfect, all-seeing record keepers to improve compliance. It needs a framework that acknowledges the reality of fragmented ownership and cross-platform asset movement.

Other jurisdictions are moving in that direction. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (commonly referred to as CARF), for example, leans toward standardized data collection across platforms without pretending that intermediaries can reconstruct a perfect cost basis history for every user.

Exchange reporting should not function as a definitive ledger. Its purpose should be to flag unreported activity, not to force millions of users into impossible reconciliation exercises based on incomplete institutional data.

Even within the U.S., there are early signs of recognition that the current approach is too blunt. Discussions around de minimis exemptions and targeted relief for small transactions suggest policymakers understand that friction matters.

While the act does provide a de minimis exemption to shield low-volume brokers and dealers from registering or maintaining these heavy systems, which will protect the smallest startups, it simultaneously creates a steep compliance cliff for the middle market.

While established industry giants can treat these real-time surveillance pipelines as an expensive upgrade, growing businesses caught just above the de minimis threshold face sheer engineering complexity and costs that could prove a massive barrier to entry.

Reform is still lagging behind rhetoric

But at the federal level, reform is still lagging behind rhetoric, and that gap is becoming harder to ignore.

Because if the U.S. continues to define “crypto-friendly” as regulatory clarity alone while ignoring the existing tax burden, adoption will not accelerate significantly.

It will stall at the edges. High-net-worth participants and sophisticated funds will continue operating. Builders will continue building. But mainstream retail participation, the layer that many argue is needed for true scale, will quietly opt out under the weight of compliance complexity.

The U.S. won’t need to ban crypto to slow its growth, but it may tax it into friction, while other jurisdictions design systems that make participation materially easier.

The post The Clarity Act won’t lead to adoption without crypto tax reform appeared first on Activist Post.

Noise emitted by data centers can be heard and felt hundreds of feet away, and noise levels can reach up to 96 decibels — for 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Sound levels exceeding 85 decibels are considered dangerous and potentially damaging to human hearing, depending on the duration of the exposure.

Residents living near artificial intelligence (AI) data centers are reporting symptoms — including dizziness, nausea, vertigo, insomnia, headaches and anxiety — that they believe are directly related to the centers’ noise pollution.

According to the Environmental and Energy Study Institute, the noise emitted by data centers can be heard and felt hundreds of feet away, and noise levels can reach up to 96 decibels — for 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Sound levels exceeding 85 decibels are considered dangerous and potentially damaging to human hearing, depending on the duration of the exposure.

Data centers also emit infrasound, a low-frequency (below 20 Hertz) rumble that the human ear can’t hear, but the body feels as pressure or vibration.

Infrasound generated by data centers is “the new enemy,” Futurism reported earlier this month. The centers’ cooling systems, power generators and server racks are suspected infrasound culprits.

‘Infrasound’ may negatively affect heart functioning

Some data centers have been built as close as 50 feet from people’s homes.

Residents exposed to infrasound from data centers are reporting symptoms similar to EMR Syndrome, which is linked to the electromagnetic radiation (EMR) emitted by cell towers, cellphones and Wi-Fi networks.

This symptom overlap comes as no surprise to Paul Héroux, Ph.D., associate professor of medicine at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and a medical scientist in the McGill University Health Center surgery department.

“Sound, electric and magnetic fields of the same frequency have some overlap in their biological effects because they are similarly disruptive energy injections,” Héroux said.

Héroux is also vice chair of the International Commission on the Biological Effects of Electromagnetic Fields, a “consortium of scientists, doctors and researchers” who study wireless radiation and make recommendations for wireless radiation exposure, “based on the best peer-reviewed research publications.”

According to Héroux, infrasound at high volumes can directly affect the human central nervous system, causing disorientation, anxiety, panic, bowel spasms, nausea, vomiting, eventual organ rupture and even death.

He pointed out that in 1957, French scientist Vladimir Gavreau began experimenting with low-frequency acoustics to create an audio weapon for the French military.

Just five years ago, German researchers published results from an in-vitro study showing that after just one hour of exposure, high levels of infrasound interfered with the heart muscle’s ability to contract properly.

Based on those findings, it’s possible that chronic exposure to infrasound from data centers could negatively affect heart function, Héroux said.

W. Scott McCollough, lead attorney for Children’s Health Defense (CHD) EMR & Wireless cases, also wasn’t surprised that exposure to infrasound emitted by data centers and radiofrequency (RF) radiation from cell towers and other devices can trigger similar symptoms. He said:

“Infrasound waves come from periodic pressure fluctuations, very akin to how modern radio systems modulate RF energy to carry information. The modulation leads to asymmetric bursts of energy with sharp peaks and valleys. Both lead to resonance and amplification, leading to stronger peaks in energy or sound pressure.”

‘Not in my backyard’: Most U.S. adults don’t want a data center near them

The average data center is roughly 100,000 square feet — large enough to fit nearly two football fields. Proponents of the gigantic infrastructures argue they are necessary for the U.S. to keep its competitive edge over China in the AI revolution.

But local residents — especially women — are sounding the alarm. Critics warn that the center will likely harm nearby residents, including children, and the surrounding environment.

Last month, Maine was poised to become the first state to enact a moratorium on new data centers. However, Gov. Janet Mills vetoed the bill. She wrote in a letter explaining her decision:

“A moratorium is appropriate given the impacts of massive data centers in other states on the environment and on electricity rates. But the final version of this bill fails to allow for a specific project in the Town of Jay that enjoys strong local support from its host community and region.”

Maine is one of at least 11 states that have proposed legislation to restrict or ban data center development since late 2025.

A Gallup poll conducted in March found that 7 in 10 U.S. adults oppose having a data center in their area. Only 7% said they were strongly in favor. Fifty-five percent of women said they strongly opposed data centers, compared to 43% of men.

‘These decisions must be made at the local level’

AI data centers have already drawn fierce, bipartisan criticism for their water and electricity consumption and environmental impact.

Miriam Eckenfels, director of CHD’s EMR & Wireless Program, said she sees similarities in the U.S. situation between data centers and new cell towers, which are also known to cause harm to human health and the environment.

In both cases, companies that stand to profit try to put up infrastructure close to where people live, learn and play. “People don’t want them, so they oppose them,” Eckenfels said.

Local communities should have the right to say no to such developments. “These decisions must be made at the local level and not in Washington D.C., where folks are far removed from the reality on the ground and the negative consequences.”

Related articles in The Defender

• Watch: AI Data Centers ‘Spreading Like an Aggressive Cancer’
• Will Maine Become First State to Block Data Centers?
• Wireless Radiation Sickness Gets a New Name: ‘EMR Syndrome’
• Critics Warn of ‘a Dragnet of Surveillance’ as U.S. Pushes Ahead With Plans for More ‘Smart’ Cities

The post ‘The New Enemy’: Noise Pollution From AI Data Centers Causing Nausea, Insomnia appeared first on Activist Post.

The pattern of media reports – based on White House leaks – that an agreement with Iran is almost completed has become predictable. Where once the markets fluctuated wildly (and some insiders made huge profits with the information), each time we hear that the deal is almost complete only to see it fall through, the markets barely move.

It is dangerous to have a US Administration that no one in the US or the rest of the world believes. When White House “sources” claim a deal is in sight only to have President Trump post another AI graphic of the US military – or himself – firing missiles at Iran, the futility of engaging with the United States becomes reinforced to the rest of the world.

This is not projecting strength. It is signaling moral and ethical bankruptcy. And it is dangerous. In a world where no other country sees value in negotiating to end disputes with the US government, the only solution is to prepare to use force against it.

A US government whose word is no good will soon find a world that refuses to speak with it.

That is what we have seen with the Iranian response to the US surprise attacks of last June and this February 28th. Two times the US used lies and deception that we were negotiating as an honest partner as cover for a pre-planned attack. How can any country negotiate in such circumstances?

There is a word for this: nihilism. It is the belief that there is no truth. Only the convenient lies and deceptions to force one’s will. Governmental nihilism leads to bankruptcies both financial and moral. Nearly $40 trillion in debt demonstrates the former bankruptcy, while our foreign policy of war and aggression demonstrates the latter.

A world that sees force as the only way to negotiate with the United States may not attack us immediately. But it will prepare to do so. That is what Iran has done for the past four decades. That is what our “rivals” China and Russia have done. Others are following suit.

The government and its neocon mouthpieces continue to propagandize the American people that we have the strongest military in the history of the world. And while it is true that we have a powerful military, more expensive than most others combined and capable of projecting force worldwide, it is also irrelevant.

Despite the relentless propaganda of “War Secretary” Hegseth, we are slowly learning the truth about the US war of aggression against Iran. Just a few weeks of fighting has nearly depleted our arsenal while barely denting that of Iran. Despite the US Administration’s initial claims that 90 percent or more of Iran’s military was destroyed, we now know that the opposite is the case: nearly 90 percent of Iran’s military remains intact.

What we should have learned from 20 years wasted in Afghanistan – that a nation fighting for its homeland has an immense advantage – has still not been learned.

Having the “most powerful military in the world” is irrelevant if the US continues to pursue a global military empire. There will never be a military strong enough for that. It is a lesson we have just learned in Iran.

If the American people are not willing to demand that their elected officials uphold the Constitution and restore our good name as honest brokers, I am afraid the future consequences of our current nihilism will be grave.

The post When Our Word Is No Longer Good appeared first on Activist Post.

For much of the nation, it feels like we are in a permanent economic crisis with no end in sight. I have been documenting our long-term economic decline for years, and now we have reached a point where Americans have literally never felt this bad about the state of the U.S. economy. Considering everything that we have been through over the last several decades, that is saying a lot. So how will the American people be feeling if economic conditions continue to deteriorate? We might want to be thinking about that, because all of the long-term trends are taking us in the wrong direction very rapidly.

The University of Michigan has been tracking consumer sentiment for more than 70 years.

On Friday, we learned that the University of Michigan’s index of consumer sentiment has fallen to the lowest level ever recorded…

American attitudes just hit a milestone of sorts. On Friday, the University of Michigan reported that its index of consumer sentiment fell to the lowest level ever recorded in 70-odd years of surveys.

Sentiment was already low at the start of this year, but it fell sharply after the Iran war began at the end of February and sent gas prices sharply higher.

Until this year, the previous lowest level was in June 2022, when inflation was running at the highest level in decades. Friday’s sentiment reading was 10% below even that number.

“Prices remain extremely high, labor markets have unambiguously weakened in the last four years, and now we’re in the middle of a war,” said Joanne Hsu, director of consumer surveys for the University of Michigan. “I don’t think the fact that we’re lower than June 2022 should come as a surprise to anyone.”

At this stage, nobody can deny what is happening.

Those at the very top of the economic pyramid are still thriving, but just about everyone else is really hurting.

Since the 1970s, there have been many periods of great economic turmoil, but even during those times Americans felt better about the economy than they do right now…

Indeed, households are feeling worse about their personal finances and the broader state of the economy than they did during the Great Inflation of the 1970s, when the cost of groceries doubled and the government was forced to ration gasoline; the Volcker shock, from 1979 to 1982, when the average interest rate on 30-year mortgages hit 18.6 percent and the country went into devastating back-to-back recessions; the early months of the coronavirus pandemic, when 200,000 firms collapsed, the unemployment rate flirted with 15 percent, and essentials such as infant formula became impossible to find; and the Great Recession, when the stock market lost half its value, the banking system teetered on the brink of implosion, and lenders foreclosed on 6 million homes.

Read that paragraph again and let it really sink in.

Even during our darkest economic moments, Americans always had hope that things would eventually turn around.

Unfortunately, that is no longer true.

According to one financial expert, consumers are now “entrenched in financial stress”…

Americans “are entrenched in financial stress,” Bruce McClary, senior vice president of membership and media relations at NFCC says — the result of elevated prices on top of near-historic highs of consumer debt on credit cards and auto loans.

The nonprofit organization, which provides education and solutions for individuals struggling with their finances, especially debt management, reported a “significant surge” in consumers reaching out for credit counseling, which could be a warning sign for the broader economy, NFCC says. While it’s encouraging to see individuals seeking help before they have run out of options and can’t pay their bills at all, the widespread struggle could be evidence of the overall consumer economy’s health declining, the organization says.

Financial stress has become a permanent part of most of our lives.

Our seemingly endless cost of living crisis is getting even worse, and consumers are drowning in an ocean of debt.

As prices go up and up, our standard of living is steadily going down.

One recent survey asked Americans if they have reduced spending in certain areas or not, and the results were absolutely shocking…

• dining out: 54 percent say yes, while 44 percent say no;
• entertainment or leisure activities like going to movies, shows, or sporting events: 49 percent say yes, while 47 percent say no;
• vacation plans: 48 percent say yes, while 49 percent say no;
• grocery shopping: 43 percent say yes, while 56 percent say no;
• driving: 36 percent say yes, while 60 percent say no.

When close to half the country is reducing spending in multiple areas, that is really bad news for the economy.

In the past, when the economy has started to waver our politicians in Washington have intervened by borrowing and spending more money.

Borrowing and spending money that we do not have provides a short-term economic boost, but it also creates a long-term economic problem.

Now we are trapped in a nightmarish debt spiral, and so any short-term help that our politicians in Washington will be able to provide moving forward will be very limited…

The national debt held by the public, about $31 trillion, is now the size of the U.S. economy, up from 39 percent of the economy in 2008 and 79 percent in 2019. For most of the country’s history, the fact that the economy’s growth rate surpassed the interest rate on the debt enabled us to keep paying our bills.

But as my colleagues and I show in a policy brief for the Stanford Institute of Economic Policy Research, the fiscal outlook today is much more challenging. We concluded that the combination of higher deficits and climbing interest rates raises the risk that borrowing will become more expensive and will push government debt levels to climb relentlessly. This is a debt spiral.

The math is simple and unforgiving. Say both your annual income and your debt equal $100. Suppose you face a 2 percent interest rate but you get a 4 percent raise. You’ll have no problem paying your creditor their $2 in interest from your $4 in added income. But if you swap those rates around, every year puts you further in the hole.

It took decades of incredibly bad decisions to get us into this hole.

Sadly, there is no easy way out.

What this means is that a tremendous amount of pain is ahead.

If you think that economic conditions are bad now, just wait until you see what is coming.

We tried to defy the laws of economics for a long time, but now economic reality is catching up with us in a major way.

The post Americans Have Never Felt This Bad About The U.S. Economy In The Entire History Of Our Country appeared first on Activist Post.

Every year for the last four years, around the second Saturday in November, my daughter (now ten) has her first gymnastics meet of the season in Bloomington, Indiana, about an hour-and-a-half drive from our house. 

In 2022, we left early, while it was still dark, to make it on time for an early start for her level 2 competition. Surprisingly, it had started snowing an hour or so earlier, and there was already a dusting of snow on the lawns, houses, cars, and streets of our neighborhood. It doesn’t regularly snow in mid-November in central/southern Indiana, so even a light snow was unusual that time of year.

However, as we drove south towards Bloomington, the snow intensified. In some places, visibility was difficult and traffic slow along the two-lane route. Ice built up on the wipers, and as a result they didn’t clear the snow off the windshield as effectively, making visibility worse.

Nonetheless, we persisted, and made it to the gym in Bloomington on time, with around four inches of snow on the ground locally. I didn’t think the accomplishment remarkable, as I’ve driven in snow before, and although it requires more concentration and patience, it wasn’t impossible in those conditions. But I was very curious to see how many other families with gymnasts were willing to take the risk to drive an hour and a half in moderate/heavy snow for the event, and how many decided it wasn’t worth it, or even turned back.

As we entered the gym, and my daughter began her warmups with her team, I soon had my answer—not one other gymnast on her team was absent, or even late. All were present.

In the normal, sane world of my childhood, this wouldn’t have been extraordinary. But this was November, 2022, and the world was just beginning to recover from the insanity of the Covid-19 response. People in the US had endured harmful lockdowns, restrictions, and mandates, and healthy children were targeted despite the almost non-existent risks SARS-CoV-2 posed to their health. Were people done with all the safetyism and harmful, non-science based, virtue-signaling theatrics of the past two years? I was at once hopeful.

Fast forward to another morning later that winter. It had snowed overnight, maybe an inch and a half. At 5 am, we got numerous automated emails, calls, and texts (just to be sure) from the school district administration—school was cancelled. The excuse for the district wide snow day was “some outlying roads are slick and dangerous.”

We live near the center of town. Our daughters’ school was less than ten minutes from our house. In fact, almost any school in our district wasn’t more than twenty minutes from our house. Going to work that day, even at 8am, it was obvious the local roads were fine. Two hours later, they were dry. Not even remotely as difficult as the 1 1/2 hour drive to Bloomington we had done in November.

Upon perusing local social media posts, my wife and I observed much posturing in parents and teachers defending the district’s decision. Any complaint about the lack of concern for working parents schedules and disruptions to learning was met with the tried and true paeans to safety that had been leveled at any rational person for the last two years. “We just want everyone to be safe!” “What happens if a child is hurt on the way to school?” “The school could get sued.” “Just because you aren’t concerned doesn’t mean other parents shouldn’t be.” Etc, etc. A few more reasonable people made the point that not all the roads were clear, and some places outside of town were worse. 

Fair enough. It’s fine to give accommodations for people that live out of town on farm roads that never get plowed, and sometimes the city does a lousy job of plowing roads. I’m fine with that. That’s no different than what happened when I was kid. My house was located at the bottom of a very steep hill. Some snowy mornings, there was no getting up that hill in our rear-wheel drive, gas-guzzling 80s sedan. So we missed school occasionally when no one else did, and we made up our work. No harm, no foul.

That case-by-case accommodation scenario, for some reason, is now unacceptable due to a cultural shift. Now everyone goes to school, or no one does.

What had happened to the parents who were willing to drive eighty miles in a snowstorm for a gymnastics meet on a Saturday morning? Were these the same parents that now couldn’t drive, walk, or take a bus 5-10 blocks to school on the morning after an inch and a half of snow, and had only scorn for working parents who thought differently?

It gets worse. Sometimes, the school corporation has two-hour delays, starting school at 10 am instead of 8. This can happen for a variety of reasons, usually because the wind chill is single digits (Fahrenheit). Administrators often cite that buses are difficult to start in lower temperatures. I can’t remember this used as an excuse when I was a kid. Are buses harder to start in 2025 than in 1985? If yes, then why, exactly? 

One former superintendent told me too many kids don’t wear adequate coats at the bus stops. “What if we have a charity drive and people donate coats for kids that need them?” I suggested. 

“Well, many kids still won’t wear them,” he replied. 

“How is that your responsibility?” I wondered aloud. 

He didn’t have an answer for that, because administrators don’t know when their responsibility starts or ends. So they just draw the line wherever its most convenient for them and for teachers, and use the Appearance of Safety in their justification. No consideration of what’s best for working parents, or even kids themselves (although they obviously love snow days).

One day in September this year, we had a districtwide two-hour delay for fog. Yes, that’s correct, fog. And don’t be fooled into thinking it was the kind of fog where you can’t find your butt with both hands. It was this (photo taken at 8am, one street from our house, and three blocks from the river where it would likely be the worst):

Are you seeing all the potential for dead kids in this photo? Me neither.

I predict, in the next several years, that the district will have a two-hour delay simply because it is raining hard in the morning, and that I will also continue to be a reckless jerk for suggesting that maybe that’s not in anyone’s best interests.

In the summer, a local principal contacted me, because she had noticed that the student absentee rates at her school were still around ten percent, much higher than they had been before the Covid pandemic response. The kids who were missing school didn’t have some chronic health problem. They simply were allowed by their parents to miss school on the flimsiest of pretexts. Teachers were also missing school more frequently than in 2019.

She knew I had served on the school district’s Covid advisory committee, and knew I wasn’t afraid to stand up to the mob, so she wanted my advice, and also was thinking about proposing a committee to address the problem. I told her I thought it was a cultural issue now, and there might not be an easy policy solution. She agreed, but nonetheless was eager to work on the problem. One of her solutions was a refrigerator magnet sent home with all the kids that asked, “When am I too sick to go to school?” It then listed the most obvious things like a fever, vomiting, or diarrhea, and not things like mild cold symptoms or a positive Covid test. That may have shaved a percentage point or two off of the absentee rates, but there’s still some work to be done.

About two months later, when the district announced a two-hour delay because of fog, I sent her an email where I wrote that “The difficulty of getting absentee rates back down to pre-pandemic response numbers gets compounded by tacit messages from school administrators that school just isn’t all that important.” She replied that she would “pass the message along.”

If kids should place their education as a high priority, the messages and actions of administrators, teachers, and parents they observe should clearly reinforce that importance. Using the Appearance of Safety as a convenient foil to avoid responsibilities and making hard decisions undermines that message completely. Just because public education isn’t paid for directly like gymnastics competition fees doesn’t mean it should get a pass. Otherwise, we will continue to accept less and get less value, and our kids will pay even more for our carelessness in the future than they already have.

And finally, if the school district is going to have a snow day, then let it be an actual snow day, not with some annoying pretense of an education via e-learning. We all learned how useless that was in 2020-21, and we shouldn’t forget that lesson. If the kids must be home, then they should be outside, sledding, having snowball fights, and building snowmen, not inside on screens!

That’s more like it!

Republished from the author’s Substack

The post Education Shrinkflation appeared first on Activist Post.

This interview delves into the uncomfortable discussion about what is actually driving successive waves of mass migration into Europe, the UK and North America, and who is capitalizing on this perpetual crisis. Upon closer examination, it’s now clear that NATO interventions are causing the very migrant crisis that its member states claim to be solving—by fueling the Far Right at home, and by prosecuting both military and economic warfare oversees. In terms of western foreign policy, one of the biggest influences is Israel. Likewise, Israel and its wealthy lobby are also funding the Far Right reactionary and Christian nationalist extremist factions throughout Europe and North America, creating the perfect storm for domestic unrest in Europe, and in turn, getting Europeans to back more wars against Muslim countries in the Middle East and beyond. In other words, the powerful once again pit the poorest and most abused people abroad against the poorest and most abused people at home. All the serve the interests of the transnational corporate state.

Patrick Henningsen, journalist, writer, and founder of 21st Century Wire, joins Pascal Lotaz, host of Neutrality Studies, for a conversation that links together NATO’s regime change wars, western sanctions—to the volatile issue of mass migration. Watch:

NOTE: The interview talks about elements of my recent article, “Collateral migration: how NATO and Israel are driving Europe’s immigration crisis,” found in the new edition of The Column Quarterly magazine, published by UK Column.
he UK.
READ MORE MIGRANT CRISIS NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Immigration Files

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The post EXPOSED: Western & Israeli Plan to Weaponize Mass Migration appeared first on Activist Post.

Joining the military should be regarded as the most dishonorable career path anyone could possibly choose.

Reading by Tim Foley:

Polly on Twitter asks, “Is there a pejorative term for military like what pig is for cops?”

Dear Polly,

No, but there should be. We need to start stigmatizing that shit.

It is not okay to be a stormtrooper for the western empire. It is not honorable. It is not worthy of respect. If you are a westerner who is considering joining the military, you should choose a different career path instead.

Don’t thank soldiers for their “service”. Don’t play along with the lie that your nation’s soldiers fight for your rights or your freedom. It only encourages more people to join the military when you do that. It’s irresponsible and unethical.

If you live in the west and you join the military, at no point will you ever be acting in defense of your country; you will be murdering people who are trying to defend their country. You will be murdering them in order to make rich men richer, to make powerful men more powerful, and to help bend the world to the rule of tyrants. And for no other reason.

Whenever I point out obvious facts like these I always get brainwashed westerners in my replies telling me I mustn’t say such things, because you should always place 100% of the blame on the powerful people who send the troops to war and 0% of the blame on the troops themselves. I have less than zero respect for these mindless objections. They are the reflexive product of blind indoctrination.

It serves nobody but the powerful to pretend soldiers bear no moral culpability for their actions in the nations they attack. It just makes it easier to recruit personnel into the armed forces of the most destructive power structure on earth, and to get them to obey immoral commands once they are enlisted.

These are grown adults engaging in behavior that would incur the harshest legal penalties in the books if they were inflicted upon westerners in their own country without the blessing of the powerful. It is only because they’re being inflicted on foreigners in the global south with the go-ahead from the relevant authority figures that participating in mass murder can be framed as acceptable.

It is true that these individuals are less evil than the oligarchs and empire managers who start the wars and hand out the orders, but that’s a low bar. It’s not okay to join the military of the western empire, and it’s not okay to obey orders when you are told to murder people. Never do these things. Ever.

Joining the military should be regarded as the most dishonorable career path anyone could possibly choose. Whatever’s the most obscene and undignified way to earn money your imagination can come up with, joining the military as a westerner should rank significantly lower than that. It should be as taboo and unappealing as it gets.

The crimes of the empire will continue until people stop facilitating those crimes. Anyone who volunteers to help the empire inflict murder and devastation on targeted populations should be regarded as the lowest of the low.

_______________

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The post It’s Not Okay To Join The Military appeared first on Activist Post.