Richard Balzano

by Richard M. Balzano The United States frequently criticizes Cuba, Nicaragua, Russia, Iran, China, and other adversaries for press restrictions and censorship. We repeat this with confidence, moral clarity, and the cadence of people who have internalized a very specific geopolitical common sense. And yet we, the most propagandized population on earth, may well be the one most certain we aren’t: confidently parroting conventional wisdom built through generations of curated narrative management so normalized, institutionalized, and respectably packaged that it doesn’t even register as propaganda. The problem isn’t that propaganda exists “over there”—it’s that we’ve spent decades perfecting a version of it so subtle, so …

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by Richard M. Balzano The Trump regime is itching to invade Cuba. Rambling to the press, Trump claimed it would be an “honor” to “take Cuba,” adding, “Whether I free it, take it, I think I could do anything I want with it.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio has called to topple Cuba throughout his career, and recently Texas Senator Ted Cruz called this “the most promising time in our lifetime to see the communist regime fall,” suggesting that intervention and foreign investment will transform it into an “island paradise.” With no sense of irony, these would-be liberators’ recent oil embargo has manufactured a humanitarian …

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by Richard Balzano Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has a skewed understanding of the Second World War. In a recent Sky News Arabia interview, Graham claimed the existential threats faced by Israel are akin to those faced by the U.S. in WWII, insisting that Israel’s military response in Gaza is no less justified than the allied choice to bomb civilian targets in Germany or the American decision to drop atomic bombs on Japan: “Just flatten it. We flattened Berlin. We flattened Tokyo. Were we wrong to drop an atomic bomb to end the Japanese reign of terror?” He has repeatedly invoked Hiroshima and Nagasaki to justify …

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by Richard Balzano Americans are perhaps the planet’s most propagandized population. Exceptionalism, innocence, and decades of propaganda have diluted the general public’s ability to critically process international affairs and U.S. foreign policy. The media is complicit, for when Washington sets its crosshairs on another government and primes the public for intervention, the empire’s ambitions are strategically branded in uplifting good-guy savior rhetoric and cheered by flag-waving mainstream media consumers insisting that this time we’ll be greeted as liberators. (Hint: we won’t… .) Protesters recently took to the streets in Iran and Venezuela, but not for the reasons we’re given by the mainstream media. Many of …

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by Richard Balzano Economic coercion has become a routine instrument of U.S. foreign policy, using sanctions to pressure smaller states to yield to American hegemony. Often hailed as a peaceful alternative to conventional warfare, sanctions are inherently violent by design, undercutting any claims of humanitarian intent. Sanctions are designed to inflict deprivation inside target states. Sanction-induced deprivation (SID) is intended to create unrest and trigger anti-government mobilization, to in turn bring about desired political change. Reasonable observers may identify popular mobilization as evidence of civil society, but with no sense of irony or self-reflection, Washington capitalizes on protests to label target governments as illegitimate authoritarian …

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