Introduction:
This is a short article about Caitlin Johnstone. For those who have never heard of her, she is a former astrologer who now makes a living writing about politics. She has no experience whatsoever in any popular movement from below, but she presents herself as an expert. As you will see, she cloaks herself in “left” clothing while serving as a defender of the fascist connected Putin and his crowd. In normal times, crackpots like Johnstone would never be noticed. However, she is taken seriously and widely read on the left.Who she is and why she’s achieved a following is explained here. This article by Elena Velvet is really not just about Johnstone; it’s about the whole crowd of agents of Putin/Assad/Islamic Republic of Iran, whose influence is actually getting stronger in the left.

Here is a screenshot of Johnstone’s web site. Note that there is not a single article critical of Putin, Assad, Xi, the Islamic Republic, etc. That is always a sure tipoff. Just like Putin-controlled RT and Sputnik TV, she uses themes popular on the left to draw people into the far right authoritarian web.

Johnstone has a much larger readership because she has foreign security ops backing her and she’s been slowly working her way from fringe to center like Max Blumenthal for the last handful of years (she’s been at it for significantly fewer years than Blumenthal). Her main appeal is people think she is honest about calling out US propaganda, which is basically one of the ways that the Russian FSB (security apparatus) trolls the left — posting about propaganda which is itself propaganda.

She’s also very popular because she’s very emotional, targets all the left of center’s known and predictable pain points. She has all of the qualities of Fox News, except for leftists, or even progressive-ish liberals who are pro Pal(estine). Her style of reactionary politics are very appealing to angry people without a class analysis (like John points out with Hitler analysis). She has extremely compelling “hot takes”.

Why else is Zionism so popular (in my opinion)? It’s extremely appealing with its “I’m trying to avenge the Holocaust” sort of propaganda, but in reality has a totally reactionary-appeal, punishing politics.

Johnstone’s support for the far right.

Also, Johnstone’s content reflects finely calibrated psychological manipulation by design. She feeds narratives into left of center spaces, her whole job is to migrate the Overton window right for people. (Note: The “Overton window” is the spectrum of ideas that is considered generally acceptable, so Johnstone is helping shift that spectrum to the right while pretending to be on the left.) So the combo of being extremely well funded by foreign regimes’ security ops and her production of finely psychographically calibrated content (like Facebook ad targeting, but for leftists) is fully designed as fash (fascist) entryism for people left of center. This target marketing aspect is absolutely what makes her so popular. Russia knows its audience.

This know your audience aspect is by the way why Palestine is making any waves whatsoever. It’s literally the only liberation movement backed with authoritarian cash and a massive fake media network built out since 2000s by foreign regimes (and perfected since the Syrian revolution 2011 and is ongoing). The pro Palestine movement has

Johnstone also plays the anti-Semitic trope.

been getting support for definitely a decade, probably two, that has been increasingly understanding how to mass manipulate the Western left into following orders. That Palestine has an outpouring of support is directly related to the infowar operating on their side. Almost every genocidal action/tactic etc. that has happened in Gaza on October 7 has 1:1 precedence in Syria. But Syrians have these same infowar forces working in opposition to them, which is why (a) they get crickets (silence) and (b) the dynamic of despots learning tricks from each other and observing what

Johnstone trots out all the usual lies in defending the fascistic Assad regime.

the international community, especially the “West”, allows despots to get away with is barely part of the conversation. Surely Assad has learned from Israel over the years as well, but this latest round is deeply based in watching what Assad has gotten away with so Israel feels confident it can do the same, and so far Israel has been accurate.

(Oaklandsocialist comments here: Some may misrepresent what this author is saying by claiming that she does not support Palestine liberation. Her equating Israel to the fascistic Assad regime completely disproves that claim. The author is simply explaining why it is that support for Palestine has gained traction but support for Syrians has not.)

So If these foreign regimes (Russian, Iranian, Syrian, etc.) didn’t want the total overthrow and demise of American bourgeois democracy, this entire dynamic would look quite different. Palestinians would be as abandoned by the left like the Syrians have been.

So, in short: It is challenging to fight Caitlin Johnstone because we don’t have Russians paying us to do this work nor do we have access to their media network that cross posts and amplifies, and uses botnets and bots and pays kids in the global south to produce authoritarian-erasure content.

What is the real source of Johnstone’s funding?

The best we can do is point out the fact that she’s full of sh*t and where her alliance lies: to Putin and oppressive, far right. She’s basically Jackson Hinkle in a left aesthetics costume.

Also, let’s be clear she’s not “good” on Palestine. She”s a trojan horse who Palestine-washes her content. Those are different things.

Regarding how to not get people’s defenses up: send them her anti-semitic screenshots and where she defends far-right people. Without further comment. Her BS speaks for itself. Can also share Syrians / Iranians tweeting opposition to her. Can also pull all of her content where she slams Ukrainians and Uyghurs. No shortage of bad takes to compile into a white pages style document.

Oaklandsocialist comments: Again, to emphasize: The popularity on the left of people like Johnstone is a symptom of the disastrous crisis in the left, where so much of that left has been drawn into Putin’s far right web. For more on this, see: Putin draws the left into the far right.

Johnstone’s support for the far right.