18 Comments

"J6ers wanted to be martyrs"? That's a rather broad, presumptive statement and didn't appear to be that way to me.

Expand full comment

It doesn't matter. If you march into the capitol, be prepared to seize power. If you aren't, stay home and do LITERALLY ANYTHING ELSE. Caesar didn't cross the Rubicon in "peaceful protest", Sulla didn't march his legions into Rome to "protest unfair elections". If you're going to do something that could (even fleetingly) be considered a coup, go full-speed and full-force.

You're gonna pay the consequences either way if you fail, and you might as well get your buck's worth.

Expand full comment
Jan 20·edited Jan 20

What doesn't matter? I don't think they were expecting to "march into the capitol" until the doors were magically opened for them when they then sauntered in. I doubt martyrdom was foremost on their minds. You have quite the dramatic flair, perhaps you should have been among them.

Expand full comment

Intentions don't matter. And I'm not talking about martyrdom, I'm talking about appearances. You don't march in the capitol of a government that supposedly stole an election just for the sake of venting your frustrations. You either topple that government or you do nothing. When you throw a temper-tantrum with just enough bad optics to give that government an excuse to crack down, you've screwed yourself twice, not once.

Americans really are the most moronic people ever to have existed. This is Realpolitik 101.

Expand full comment
Jan 21·edited Jan 21

Ever hear of a peaceful demonstration??? Does Ghandi ring a bell? MLK? How were they to topple a government wo weapons? That clearly wasn't their intention. At least they did SOMETHING. Some that were arrested WERE NOT EVEN THERE and they're still looking to arrest more!

Hindsight is always 20/20.

Assuming that you're not American then. That's why we became the greatest country ever. Troll.

Expand full comment

He sure spread a lot of the original disinfo convincing the alternative right that Russia was steamrolling when in reality Russia was desperately fumbling everything due to blatant sabotage by the Kremlin's pro-Western elites.

I will be struggling against the ghost of Lira and Saker for that matter for the next decade because lies are swallowed much easier by the general public than the truth.

Still, RIP, he didnt deserve to die in that way.

Expand full comment

The reality that Putin's Russia is an alternative form of neo-liberal globalism (and eager for partnership with Washington) rather than its antithesis is too complex and subtle for widespread consumption. The political fanboys want Marvel Comic level politics, narrative in place of analysis.

Whatever his weaknesses Lira was honest about the regime in Kiev. He had the decency to stand with the dissidents within Ukraine. He definitely deserved better.

Expand full comment

there is a very good podcast episode with you and Robert out there, drjug.

An awkward moment came in that stream though, when he revealed his various ancestries.

But we all like Robert's sober and detached writing, his insights, and the breadth of his interests. As we enjoy Ron Unz after all. His latest pieces have been absolute bangers.

All their qualities notwithstanding, one can't help but wonder at Unz republishing Robert's posts like clockwork on his aggregator site. Perhaps, a case of ethnic nepotism inside the ranks of those publishing against the whole "ethnic nepotism" issue?

Expand full comment

He was an American. The U.S. State Dept. did nothing for him because of his politics.

Expand full comment

Frantic's explanation of what happened to Gonzalo Lira, and the southfrontpress link, gives the most credible explanation, not found anywhere else, or even reported on by the mainstream media, of what happened. So sad. Whatever his politics were, he gave credible reports of what was happening, and as Frantic describes, the corruption in the Ukranian system, and most likely what any citizen there has to deal with, and be pawns of globalist powers, are the cause of his death, and the suffering of the Ukranian people in the middle of all of this, which could have been avoided by the Minsk Agreement, that even Germany and France supported, for the good of their own people, but outweighed by the massive financial interests that support, as Putin pointed out, "Anglo-American" interests, a GDP and currency dominance that outweighs that of Germany and France by multitudes

We can now see the same pattern of currency/financial markets interests that have caused the chaos in Iraq and Lebannon over the past generation, and in terms of journalists executed, in Mexico by the cartels, who most likely have their money laundered by globalist hedge funds

Expand full comment

New details have emerged. I don't think Ukrainian or US authorities cared too much about "silencing forever" Lira's dissident voice. His death was due to rapacious subhuman common criminality it seems:

"Outrageous facts have come to light about the murder of journalist Gonzalo Lira: The American, who was tortured to death in SIZO, a Kiev pre-trial detention center in a special wing controlled by the SBU, was the victim of extortionists. SIZO employees and an SBU agent extorted $250,000 from Gonzalo for a change of preventive treatment. The vice-consul of the US embassy, who dealt with the problems of Lira, knew about the blackmail and twice wrote a statement to the SBU and the OP. As a result, the extortionists began demanding $500,000 for Lira’s transfer at his own expense.

The money was to be transferred in cryptocurrency to the SBU agent’s bank.

Three days after the increase in rates, Gonzalo called his lawyer, but before the lawyer got there, he was killed. An ambulance crew found that he had died of cardiac arrest, with multiple burns from stun guns. The US embassy is silent, Zelensky’s office is silent, the Ukrainian security service is ready to pay for the delivery of the body to Poland, and that’s it. Curtain closed."

https://southfront.press/gonzalo-liras-torturers-were-allegedly-trying-to-extort-500000-from-him-killed-him-after-he-told-his-lawyer/

Expand full comment

The dissident Right is incoherent because it is ungrounded. It speaks for no constituency that is actively engaged within the existing system, it only speaks for those who are being excluded from it. There is no sector of industry that relies on the Right or that stands to benefit from the Right coming to power. Big business can live with the Left and the surviving small business sector is desperate to keep wages low so must support open borders. Without a concrete constituency the Right is doomed to the fringes where it plays with performative or expressive politics.

Expand full comment

Lira was *Chilean*. If any well-informed person ought to know how to operate during martial law, one would think a Chilean would.

Expand full comment

But he was born in the US I thought. That life of his family went over his while in grew up in the American dream. He admitted as much in his videos. I think in part it was Lira's arrogance that undid him.

Expand full comment

"For instance, Israel using the war in Gaza to take out Palestinian journalists and intellectuals."

You sick, broh?

Expand full comment

The vast majority of J6ers weren't larping. They made the mistake of believing that America was still a free country and that they could protest at the Capitol but that is now only reserved for far left wing groups and causes. Even if the "bad" J6ers were larping revolutionaries as Stark contends then why didn't they bring deadly weapons to the Capitol?

Jan 6th was nothing more than a protest that turned in to a riot largely due to Capitol police resorting to aggressive tactics and the actions of federal informants like Ray Epps who exhorted people to go to and in to the Capitol the night before and day of the riot. But now it's Ray Epps who wants to have things both ways and pretend to be a victim and misunderstood regular Trump supporter in all of this.

Expand full comment

“End of History” paradigm... that was Sergei Magnitsky's paradigm also. As Bill Browder often says, Sergei "believed in the rule of law and died for his belief." My guess is that once this story gets more traction, Bill Browder and his humanitarian allies will take this issue to the highest international level. The parallels between Magnitsky & Lira are so similar it should be a "slam dunk" to get justice here, although, again, belatedly.

Expand full comment

Well written and truthful article here. V

Good Analysis of the true situation of the SMO and alt right movement. Lauren Southern did a 1 hour confession about how messed up and egocentric the alt right is where she spoke badly about Milo Yiannopoulos, Tommy Robinson and Paul Joseph Watson. Strangely in attempting to find it to link here I think she has taken it down. One of her closing points was in all these movements Left and Right it seems it's never really about the cause and in the end about who can shout the loudest and their need to get heard overshadowing the truth.

Regarding the greater question where humanity is headed as a whole I think A

Adam Curtis summed it up rather well in his final episode to his documentary series. Its entirity is worth a watch to fully understand. All linked here:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbPZYrS_g_At_AciykufZokPrN53wyZ0w&si=jEy91XZ-tWTUYHX-

Expand full comment