by William Skink
True equality has never, and will never, exist. There is no level playing field. Some lives matter more than others. That’s just the way it is.
Many liberal-leaning people will no doubt recoil at such a brazen assertion. But it’s true. And we are all guilty.
Take, for example, the victims of the Manchester bombing, which targeted attendees of an Ariana Grande concert. Those victims matter immensely because their deaths feed a warped narrative of western victimization that is packaged and sold by corporate media for beneficial political effect.
Unfortunately critical context is often lacking. The perpetrator of the Manchester bombing is alleged to be a Libyan refugee. Libya is a mess because Neoliberals like Clinton and Obama exploited a supposed humanitarian crisis to enact regime change. The resulting chaos has turned Libya into a failed state.
The people dying in Libya don’t carry the same weight as western casualties. After Gaddafi was sodomized with a bayonet, then executed, interest in Libya disappeared. That doesn’t mean the country isn’t descending deeper into disarray.
If you are a liberal supporter of Democrats in America, Libya is probably a distant memory. And because the New York Times isn’t telling you what’s happening in Libya, you would have no clue that a recent bloodbath is pushing Libya closer to outright civil war.
But if you read the Moon of Alabama blog, you would know that the situation in Libya is quickly deteriorating:
(Cairo) Nobody has their eye on Libya with all “western” media preoccupied with DC machinations, Russiaphobia and the first overseas trip of President Trump.
What about the implosion we are on the brink of seeing in Libya following the murder of all LNA Air Force personnel at the Brak al-Shati AFB?
The death toll in the attack of a Libyan National Army airbase, in south Libya, rose to over 140, a spokesman for Field Marshall Khalifa Haftar said on Sunday.
Remarkably it was militia (called ‘the third force’) of the UN unelected Government of National Accord (GNA) under Faez Serraj that attacked and executed the unarmed men in the Brak al-Shati Air base. There were allegedly foreigners among the attackers possibly aligned with al-Qaeda.
This death toll in Libya means nothing to western audiences. Neoliberal complicity in these deaths also means nothing. The result of this reckless blindspot could have dire consequences down the road.
I hope I’m wrong.