Subversion of the Anti-War Movement

The biggest anti-war event of the past decade is targeted by the establishment and its cohorts.

On February 19th in Washington DC, the Rage Against the War Machine Rally, organized by the Libertarian Mises Caucus and other peace groups, promises to be the biggest anti-war rally in America since the outbreak of the Second Iraq War. The rally has a mix of speakers from across the political spectrum, a coalition of some of the brightest and loudest anti-war speakers in our generation.

Naturally, the proponents and benefactors of the war machine will do anything to stop it.

The event got pushback as soon as it was announced, with claims of it being a pro-war, Putin apologist rally. The Twitter handles associated with the event got bombarded with demands that this-or-that speaker get pulled from the event. Screenshots of tweets from various speakers were passed around as evidence that it’s not really an anti-war rally. After all, if you are against the endless stream of weapons and aid to Ukraine, then that must mean you are enabling the aggressor in their invasion.

To be clear, the event includes people with a pro-Russian tilt, as well as a neutral and pro-Ukrainian tilt. In the complex web of geopolitical events spanning decades, there is bound to be a wide range of perspectives on the origins and nature of the conflicts. There are also going to be incendiary comments coming from controversial speakers that can be cherry picked and used in an unfavorable light. But the event is bigger than that. What unites people at this time exceeds the dogmatic confines of any one speaker or ideology— it is the common cause of world peace.

The critics of the event have overlooked this, willingly or unintentionally, to put pressure on the Libertarian Mises Caucus to cancel certain speakers and break up the event from within. One speaker, Scott Ritter, a former Chief UN weapons inspector, uniquely qualified to speak on the issue of nuclear disarmament, had been invited and uninvited twice before backing out of the event. The backlash comes from some of his comments about the inevitable Ukrainian defeat in this current situation, and his recent charges of unlawful contact with a minor.

The charges come not from children being harmed, but from a fantasy role play in an over-18 online chatroom. Lead Jeffery Epstein researcher Ryan Dawson said on the case: “Pedos 99% of the time have CP on their computer and fit a particular profile. Scott Ritter didn't. It was simple entrapment and also entirely online in role play [with] only adults. That's not a predator. That's a setup.”

The entrapment started when Scott Ritter was one of the loudest voices against the Iraq war before the invasion in 2003. He correctly claimed that Saddam did not have weapons of mass destruction. But any good-faith interpretation would not suffice for critics, and the rally came under fire from constant attacks and smears for having such a speaker. The LP and the other organizations in the event caved to pressure from the mob. They released a statement trying to clear up the bad PR from his invitation. Scott Ritter published his speech that he would’ve given on his Substack. It is one of the best speeches I’ve ever read.

Optically, cancelling Ritter is understandable. Event organizers were put in the difficult position of having to choose between eliminating targets on their back or keeping the speakers they had already booked. The mob is unrelenting—they prey on any weakness and infighting, and will not stop until they destroy your event. Bickering among supporters and detractors over the fiasco almost threatened to tear the whole thing apart, also wedging a gap between those hoping to appeal to a wider audiences and those not willing to compromise values. Of course, it’s that very quality of remaining steadfast on core values that gave the many of the speakers and organizations behind this event their appeal in the first place.

The event is subject to big tech censorship as well. Let’s look at the Google algorithms. When you look up the event, the first Google search result is a hit piece. The Black Agenda Report piece titled “Why the Rage Against The War Machine Rally Is #antiwarsowhite”:

The article makes the ridiculous assertion that the LP party thinks “a movement ain’t right unless it’s led by whites”, despite the multiple non-white speakers at the event. Quoting deleted tweets posted years ago, and clearly in jest, by people associated with the LP movement, the article surmises that Libertarians want to kill trans people. Grasping at straws to try and smear the event, the writer claims to be anti-imperialist and anti-war, but makes no attempt to suggest another anti-war event, or advocate for policies that would bring peace. Nevertheless, bad faith proponents of war will amplify these messages, with the help of the big tech to put the hit piece at the top of the search algorithm to subvert the event.

The reality of the rally is much different. The demands are wide ranging; some are precise and achievable in the short term, and others propose decade-long initiatives in a bigger picture perspective. At the top of the list: stop giving money to Ukraine and push towards negotiating a peace settlement. These demands come a year into the war and over 100 billion U.S. tax dollars spent, and a growing body of evidence of Western politicians pushing the government in Kiev away from negations in an attempt to weaken Russia.¹²

The hundreds of billions of unaudited money and weapons sent to Ukraine have done nothing more than to throw the country into chaos, an increasingly totalitarian state that has senselessly thrown young men to die on the front lines of a war they cannot win. Pushing us all closer to nuclear war in the process.

A domestic anti-war movement could cut the funding, push the Ukrainians and Russians towards negotiating peace, and create a safter world for all of us.

So this event is such a challenge to the powers that be, it has been ignored by mainstream media, subject to big tech censorship, and bad-faith smear campaigns. All to stop a wide ranging coalition of peace advocators from joining together under a common cause. That is proof enough we are a threat to the war machine.

If you’re considering going to the event but have had pause, consider the attempts that have been done to subvert it. Consider that it has the most impressive lineup of consistently anti-war speakers of the past several decades, like Ron Paul, Chris Hedges, and Scott Horton. Consider the severity of the situation and the stakes that our government has turned to for escalation.

This could be our biggest chance. We have to show up by the thousands and not let outside attempts break us. Come rage.

1. https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/05/06/boris-johnson-pressured-zelenskyy-ditch-peace-talks-russia-ukrainian-paper

2. https://global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202302/08/WS63e2fc90a31057c47ebad913.html