I want everyone to know where I stand. .
Frans Vandenbosch 方腾波 02.08.2023
Truth …
Everyone knows where I stand. I’m on trial
for the gullible who haven’t really read me,
but pass judgment nonetheless
based on what others have said!
This may be known: I am nobody’s servant.
Though I’ve been dredged to the dregs,
I’m still waiting for that one line
in which I row from the wrong place!
I’m not so much out for a fight,
but what is not good, friends, I call bad
and whatever my opponents claim
I will go my own way as long as I live.
A poem, written by Anton van Wilderode for his last collection Buitengaats in 1996, two years before before his death.
Where I stand, issue by issue
Inspired by Caitlin Johnstone, I want to present my readers with my political and social viewpoints. You, my esteemed readers, deserve to know where I stand. I will try to be as transparent as possible about my ideology, politics, religion, social issues and more.
Reading through my essay, you will notice that all my viewpoints are heavily influenced by my years of living in China. China and my close connection with many Chinese people of all capacities have opened my blinders. Also my intense travels all over this globe (I have been to > 50 countries) have widened my viewpoints on many issues.
I do not believe that every coin has two sides. There are coins with only one side. I do not believe that the truth is always grey and has to be somewhere between black and white. There are stories which are black, so dark black that we refuse to read or believe it.
I’m a political rebel, always been. It is a tradition in our 1200-year-old family history.
Ideology
The political adage: “Whoever is young and not on the left has no heart, he who is old and not on the right has no mind” does not apply to me.
I’ve never been a socialist. Lately many people have accused me of being a communist. I do not mind, they have no clue what modern Chinese Communism is. Really; I just support shoving things as far to the Chinese way as possible until we’ve created a healthy and harmonious world and moved from competition-based social systems to systems in which we collaborate with each other for the good of everyone.
That’s my ideological preference, but I’m not arrogant enough to believe I personally know what’s best for everyone, so more than anything what I want is a world where we’re not being manipulated and deceived about what’s going on so that we can figure out the best course for humanity as a collective. That’s why first and foremost ahead of my own ideological preferences I support government transparency, democratized information, free speech, personal freedom and the end of western mass-scale manipulation and propaganda. Once everything’s out in the light and our perception is no longer being obfuscated and distorted by the powerful I personally believe we’ll find our way toward something resembling modern socialism as practised in China. But I hold that belief with an open palm.
Politics
Western politics is a Kabuki show. It is a theatre play, nowhere serving the people. Top actors as Biden, Von der Leyen and Zelenskyy should be given a Golden Palm or an Oscar.
I have lost confidence in western style elections. I believe the closer you get to the nexus of power the more worthless electoral politics becomes, because more and more effort goes into manipulating the electoral process to protect the interests of status quo power. Elections in most western countries are completely useless and fake, and even the elections for provincial and municipal politcians are aggressively manipulated. Our “representatives” no longer represent the people.
The power of our politicians is based on the regular media, not on the voting system. I don’t personally think we’re likely to see big meaningful changes in the west until the people force change to happen by direct action, and that’s not going to occur as long as everyone’s being successfully manipulated into accepting the status quo by mass-scale propaganda. That’s why I write about propaganda so much. I see it as the ultimate obstacle to the changes we desperately need.
War and militarism
I see the American empire-like power structure centralized around the United States as the greatest source of conflict and dysfunction in the world today. All the largest international conflicts of our day ultimately boil down to the US empire trying to secure planetary domination and weaker nations resisting it in some way. Europe, Japan, South Korea and many others are vassals of the USA. Its campaign to secure planetary hegemony is placing our world at greater risk of nuclear war as it sees the empire engaging in increasingly confrontational standoffs with Russia and China. I therefore see ending the US empire and neutering its global war machine as a matter of existential importance for humanity. Only after the collapse of the American hegemony, there will be freedom and peace at this globe.
Environment
I believe a nuclear war is the greatest existential threat to our species. I do not believe in human caused global warming. I feel that it is suspicious that this debate consumes so much oxygen while there is so much evidence to the contrary. And so much other urgent issues to care about.
Obviously, there are rich and powerful people who are looking to ride their various agendas on top of humanity’s shift from fossil fuels to other energy systems.
Spirituality and religion
I was raised Roman Catholic but gradually left the Roman Catholic church. I’m critical of all religion and believes.
In China, I went to the official SARA/government -registered Catholic church. Especially in China, I despise the “Roman” catholic, aka ex-underground house churches, reporting to Rome. The official Chinese un-Roman Catholic church is, in my opinion, much more sincere and closer to the original teachings than the current Roman Catholic Church of Pope Francis. I am strongly convinced that the replacement of Pope Benedict XVI by Pope Francis in 2013 was a regime change, organised by the CIA.
During the last two decades, I noticed that I am fast moving towards Confucianism. The way I’m approaching people, both in China as in the West has more Confucianist characteristics than Catholic.
I fully respect but I’m not a big fan of Taoists; they’re too inactive. And neither I’m a fan of Buddhists; they’re too moderate in their emotions.
Civil rights
I think protecting the rights of the individual protects the health of the collective. It’s always going to be the outspoken fringesters who first notice something’s wrong about where we’re at or where we’re headed, so you need to make sure there’s space for them to speak and be heard. Because in the West, nobody can be trusted to determine what speech is valid and true, it needs to be legal to the furthest extent the collective can tolerate without harm.
The freer people are to think, speak, act and live however they want undisturbed, the healthier our society is; this means freeing them from having their minds manipulated by the powerful as noted above.
The collective is also within its rights to stop an individual from harming them. If someone is using wealth and power as a weapon to exploit and abuse people for instance, then their wealth and power can rightfully be taken away in the same way a mass shooter’s weapon can be taken away to protect the collective.
Social justice issues
I oppose wokeism, political correctness, racism, sexism and discrimination against disempowered groups of all sorts. These are real problems that do need to be solved as humanity winds its way into the future; we can’t just ignore them. But I do get frustrated at times with the way these issues consume all the political oxygen in the room without leaving any space for far more urgent matters like the looming threat of nuclear war, and I do think it’s a bit ridiculous that in our current political environment being a racist is regarded as far more outrageous and offensive than being a warmonger. But I understand that’s just the nature of the western mainstream political framework people are being presented with, where we’re encouraged to argue as hotly as possible over culture war issues that don’t threaten the powerful at all, so we don’t start turning that heat onto issues like war, ecocide and oligarchy.
Covid-19
From the beginning of the pandemic, I have categorically refused any vaccination with an American vaccine. Instead, I volunteered to participate in phase II testing of a Chinese vaccine. It is my firm belief, supported by a mountain of reports and evidence, that the Covid-19 pandemic was a US-developed bioweapon. I am an outspoken advocate of wearing face masks and of well-organized lockdowns. I’ve never caught Covid-19.
I know that I have annoyed a lot of people with these outspoken viewpoints.
Digital money and digital currency
I support the use of digital money as practised in China, i.e. an app with exchange options without any interference or connection to the bank or the government. Such digital money doesn’t really exist in the west where they call this kind of money “black money”
I also support the use of digital currency; and again, as practised in China, i.e. a digital currency backed by a government agency trusted by more than 90% of the population. Unfortunately, such kind of digital currency system can’t be applied in the west because the average trust of western governments by its citizens is less than 35%.
Right and left wingers
I strongly despise all western political parties. All, both left and right wing.
If I have to be pinned down on the Western left-right scale then I am extreme right, but not so extreme right as the Communist Party of China. No, this is not a typo: the CPC is far right, conservative and nationalist in many ways. And social-democratic in other respects.
The left-right scale for classifying political positions is obsolete, by the way. Today, the main contradictions in our society are no longer the old left-right divisions, but the divisions between the haves and the have-nots. The big gap is now between those who hold the power of politics & media and those who have to endure it all.
I despise libertarians and progressives of all kinds and opinions, especially those who want to push through American socially disruptive opinions here in Western Europe.
Media and politics
I do not watch TV and I do not read western newspapers or their websites. But I daily do read dozens of articles, reports and dissertations in five languages from a wide selection of sources all over this globe.
I believe that our western media and politics are victims rather than perpetrators. And that we must stop fighting them; that we should aim our arrows at the causes of the demolition of our media and politics, at the real perpetrators, the sponsors and those who want to destroy the cohesion of our society with big money.
Yes, I have an agenda. I’m addicted to truth. That’s why I never watch TV or read mainstream media.
Cognitive dissonance:
Sometimes people hold a core belief that is very strong. When they are presented with evidence that works against that belief, the new evidence cannot be accepted. It creates a feeling that is extremely uncomfortable, called cognitive dissonance. And because they feel it is so important to protect their core belief, they will rationalize, ignore and even deny anything that doesn’t fit in with the core belief. (Frantz Fannon)
Various
I support Julian Assange.
I’m extremely sceptical to UFO stories.
I believe that both the assassination of J.F. Kennedy and 9/11 was organised by the CIA.
I advocate the destruction of all US intelligence agencies.
I’m an old school believer in the value of Trust. When trust is broken, sorry means nothing.
At my website, in more than 30 articles you can find further details about my viewpoints.
