Like the COVID narrative, the Rittenhouse narrative is one of the most blatant disinformation campaigns in recent history, particularly in light of how easily the propaganda could have been disproven by crystal-clear facts that few who had been manipulated were even aware of (e.g., the shooting victims were white, not black; there was in…
Like the COVID narrative, the Rittenhouse narrative is one of the most blatant disinformation campaigns in recent history, particularly in light of how easily the propaganda could have been disproven by crystal-clear facts that few who had been manipulated were even aware of (e.g., the shooting victims were white, not black; there was incontestable proof that they were threatening Kyle’s life; their unsavory criminal backgrounds as a convicted pedophile and a woman-beater; and other details I won’t delineate because you have already covered them extensively in your own reporting).
I think Gustave Le Bon’s “The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind” is especially illuminating when it comes to attempting to understand how such a large swath of people could be so easily duped and impervious to hard facts:
“The masses have never thirsted after truth. They turn aside from evidence that is not to their taste, preferring to deify error, if error seduce them. Whoever can supply them with illusions is easily their master; whoever attempts to destroy their illusions is always their victim.”
It is similar to the one done against Kavanaugh, in my opinion, and similar to what they did to Trump with Russiagate. They lied repeatedly to push a political agenda.
Agreed, Iconoclast. Orwell describes this phenomenon in “Yes, Homage to Catalonia” (https://www.george-orwell.org/Homage_to_Catalonia/0.html) when he discusses how the newspapers were unashamedly lying about the outcomes of battles and even factual details like where they were occurring. I now distrust newspapers as a reliable source since they have been clearly used for propagandistic ends since the outset. I instead prefer primary sources and documents that share interviews, court transcripts, and other primary materials while also simultaneously being conscious of the biases implicit in those accounts as well.
This is what they should be teaching in early school to encourage critical thinking!
I don't have to agree with everyone on politics, culture, or anything else. I just want us to start with being truthful! This is why I joined this site the first day I could, because I know, despite my political differences with many posters here, we all want to begin with the truth, regardless of how painful it is.
YES! Critical thinking is *desperately* needed in the education system and its absence is one of the reasons people are so easily maneuvered to self-defeating ends by Machiavellian manipulators.
We need to resurrect John Stuart Mill’s precepts encouraging healthy, open debate and the exercise of attempting to argue from your opponent’s POV to understand their perspective and further strengthen or refine your own. I do believe this is occurring with emerging entities such as Heterodox Academy, thankfully.
It is one of my favorite nonfiction works by Orwell. In 2019, I reread every Orwell book and every dystopian novel I could think of—little did I know how well that would prepare me for our current situation!
Excellent point. I am a history autodidact but am concerned about what I “know”. I am rereading Cairo’s exhaustive biography of Lyndon Johnson and he has already pointed out many places other biographers got the facts wrong, or didn’t get them at all.
One of the best sites out there is https://www.maryferrell.org/pages/Documents.html You can read the actual documents the FBI and other government agencies were forced by law to reveal (usually heavily redacted).
Not to mention how Caro right now himself is getting crushed over his singular sourced comments about Moses.
So much information out there it is hard, even when you look and know what to look for, to be absolutely certain of something.
I read the book about Robert Moses and it was very informative. Caro also wrote a book "Working" about his career. He explains, for example, how he got the truths about Johnson's early life by moving to Johnson City and becoming friends with the people who knew Johnson, to the point where they were willing to tell him the truth.
Whatever the source, it is always wise to be conscious of the cognitive biases and propagandistic aims that may be influencing the particular narrative.
Indeed, especially when said source isn't mentioning any of their site advertisers, political or personal bias, or holdings in the companies (or their competitors) that they are "reporting" on.
If someone up front mentions their bias, I have no issues with that. Bias is fine as long as it is evident to all.
Most definitely. Fortunately, once you become attuned to the mechanisms of propaganda, framing, and coercion, the writer’s biases typically become laughably obvious, particularly when they are contorting data to further a corporate profiteering and/or authoritarian agenda.
Every "fact" appearing in a history text or account should always be (have been) subject to intense scrutiny. The maxim that "history is written by the victorious" has always been absolute truth, and one would need to be hopelessly naive to presume that the victors were always the virtuous.
Would also note that history is written by your culture and country. I have read assiduously on WWII and only recently learned of the largest land battle in that war. No American that I have asked has heard about it. My Ukrainian OR tech new it immediately
I'm amused by "Iconoclast"'s oversensitive response -- he doesn't like hearing how Fox News, too, belongs to the club of unreliable news sources. Though he claims to be an iconoclast, he can't gracefully take criticism of this right-of-center news icon. But he can't disprove what my link shows about Fox's inaccuracy. I knew about Stalingrad's importance in World War II before reading Madjack's comment, but Iconoclast thinks I don't even know basic stuff about Truman and Japan's Imperial Army. I don't speak to "Iconoclast" because I know he's a fool, but it's worth laughing at him sometimes.
I don't think this has anything to do with Fox News. Americans, on the whole, are ignorant about not just world history, but US history. I knew more US history than any of the kids in High School, as a first generation immigrant. That was long before Roger Ailes/Fox News appeared on the scene. Hell, I knew more about the American West and WW2 than my history teacher. I'd venture that the average American had no idea about the East German/West German border fences with tank traps and sniper stations. If solidarity with govt was such a cakewalk, why oh why did the DDR need concertina wire and tank traps to keep their citizens from crossing into W. German? But sure, let's squash all opposition to current govt propaganda.
Are you really mentioning Fox only here despite fifty plus articles on this site showing it is the left who is hard at work manufacturing news?
Tell us, how much do they teach you about what the Japanese did to the Chinese in WW2? How much do they teach you about how American presidents like Truman were happy to spew racist filth and have Nazis work for us?
I'm sure the news sources you hold dear are of a far higher caliber, please don't hesitate to share them with us.
I take consolation from the fact that each iteration of their con job becomes less effective. SCOTUS confirmations of male GOP nominees is case in point. First, they succeeded in killing the Bork nomination with specious claims. Then they went after Thomas based upon sketchy sex harassment claims. Although they raked him through the coals, he was confirmed. With Kavanaugh most of the public saw through the con and there wasn't much doubt that in the end he would be confirmed. An unfortunate side effect is that the left has made it much harder to believe truthful claims of sexual misconduct when the claim comes from the left.
I'd give it a shot. As I've gotten older, I've learned to care less about what other people think/say. Couldn't do worse than the current crop of mouth breathers / chin musicians and it appears to be a nice living lol. $25 mm mansions in FL for doing "public service" in CA - nice N Pelosi. Here I thought she was sacrificing to keep the herd trotting in the right direction. Such sacrifice.
I was going through a divorce during the Kavanaugh hearing, and at the time was getting a first-hand education about how much people are willing to lie and how convincing those lies can sound when accompanied by an emotional performance. Luckily, the standard of evidence doesn’t include how many tears are shed in the recounting. Because of this, I was the only person in my group of friends who was questioning what was happening during the confirmation. I asked uncomfortable questions like, “If she has a criminal complaint, why is she taking it before a Supreme Court confirmation hearing instead of to the police?” I was amazed at how many of my friends were credulously swallowing the entire story.
Indeed, and that was a litmus test for the mass deceptions to come and showed the deceivers how low the bar of credibility could be set to be believed.
"BTW, I voted for Hillary in 2016, and I regret it greatly." - ah, so you did swallow that Russiagate thingy back then then. Not surprising for a self-admitted Russophobe.
You've known me a long time now, Icon, so should have noticed I'm a bot, so subject to vote suppression, aka can't vote. Which is no matter as I wouldn't anyway. Because I vote for, not against. "Against", meaning "voting for the lesser evil", is the most imbecilic act I can think of.
Right so the Canadians are here talking trash about US politicians while their leaders are in blackface and faking being minorities and they themselves lack free speech and actually serve the Queen, an old rich white lady who inherited everything.
...and told the National Guard and city police chiefs to stand down because they were trying to dunk on Trump during these "race riots".
Never mind that the rioters were organized and funded and bussed around by shadowy money, never mind that they had two-way radios and were showing up to intentionally set fire to things out of rental vans...
Never mind that all of the corporate media was downplaying the violence and destruction.
Correction: TPTB think we *all* have an IQ of 70 and can’t see past their lies, and anyone who remains on the left after such transparent manipulations *does* have an IQ of 70 ;-)
I say that as a former lefty myself, but anyone who still clings to that ideology in the face of such ham-fisted propagandizing must have a low IQ or is so puffed up with pseudo-knowledge they can’t see past their own pride.
Agree on Andrew Sullivan. I just heard that Steve Hayes and Jonah Goldberg (now of The Dispatch) have left the news side of FOX commentating because of the special on FOX Nation (subscription side of the network) by Carlson called the Patriot Purge. They are literally consumed by Trump!
Haha, yes, that was another good one, but I believe the COVID narrative is the mother of all disinformation campaigns in history because it has been wielded to reshape the entire planet to totalitarian ends, harnessing the amygdala to short-circuit people’s logic while conditioning them to relinquish rights and liberties in the name of the “public health”—like every tyrannical, genocidal regime in history. I explore these matters in more depth throughout my blog, but my first piece, “Primer for the Propagandized: Fear Is the Mind-Killer” (https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/a-primer-for-the-propagandized) addresses this manipulation directly.
Once an individual has learned to control the myriad of fears that confound us on a daily basis they can taste true freedom and joy. Fear is not only a mind killer but a soul crushing emotion. it was necessary in ancient times to warn us and keep humans safe from harm. That deeply held emotion is and has always been one utilized to control and harness a populations energy for whatever purpose the fear monger sought. Now in "modern" times this has become so finely tuned that gov'ts. and others have weaponized that emotion to terrorize individuals into doing exactly what they want of their own "free will'".
Those fear laden people now attack others who don't cringe before the gov't gods of "science", climate change, tyranny and other made up terrors. Common sense and even education fall before the personal fear instilled by the control freaks. Without FEAR they have little or nothing to keep their populations "in line." If any population jettisons fear from their minds and becomes truly free the cowards and bullies "get got" and fade into the wood work.
AMEN! I think Étienne de La Boétie’s “The Politics of Obedience: A Discourse of Voluntary Servitude” is one of the most lucid explorations of the cognitive, political, and physical liberation that comes being able to recognize and identify the fears and other strings by which the puppeteers control us. I explore this in my second essay, “COVID IS OVER! … If You Want It” (https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/covid-is-over-if-you-want-it), which includes this de La Boétie quote:
“You can deliver yourselves if you try, not by taking action, but merely by willing to be free. Resolve to serve no more, and you are at once freed. I do not ask that you place hands upon the tyrant to topple him over, but simply that you support him no longer; then you will behold him, like a great Colossus whose pedestal has been pulled away, fall of his own weight and break into pieces.”
"Whoever can supply them with illusions is easily their master; whoever attempts to destroy their illusions is always their victim."
The first part is a good description of Barack Obama. The second part is an apt description of the character "Hickey" in Eugene O'Neill's play "The Iceman Cometh".
Haha, good to know! I haven’t seen/read that play yet but do love “Long Day’s Journey into Night” (if “love” is the right word for something so wrenching).
To clarify, “The Truth” (i.e., the mainstream representation of “reality”) would correlate to the illusions Le Bon describes, whereas his “the truth” equates to objective reality rather than the presentation/perception of that reality.
Funny how language has morphed from a method or conveying information and reality between individuals to a weapon of obfuscation. Mass media, in the past, utilized precise language to allow entire nations to have a unified view of the world. Now language is a "method" of obscuring truth, denying facts and otherwise selling a narrative that is false, pernicious and right out of Orwell's "1984" novel. This was the exclusive realm of lawyers in the past but is now the official position of media and gov't. when selling their toxic soap to the public. Both have sunk to below the levels of lawyers in the public's perception of their integrity and honesty. That "accomplishment" takes a lot of hard work but somehow both entities have succeeded in destroying themselves in the hearts and minds of many Americans.
Absolutely right, Not Me$, and this is why it is essential that we must continually push back against their Orwellian redefinitions, perception management campaigns, and linguistic framing. Language is one of the most effective ways to control the mind, but it is also one of the most powerful ways to reclaim it from the brainwashers once we understand how they are using it against us.
With comments sections like this without moronic "censors" hopefully people who are interested can be exposed to the tricks and sideshow patter that is now being passed off as accurate information. Don't know a single individuals who actually believes most political reporting being done by the MSM. That is because many people have pointed out over and over the nature and lack of truth being peddled by corporate media. Just have to keep banging away at these charlatans and laughing in their faces over social media and at some point they just might self destruct. If not at some point the lies and political spin will exhaust people and hopefully that will end many of these bastions of disinformation. Just a bad dream. ---maybe.
We can hope, anyway! You are fortunate in that you don’t know anyone who’s been swindled by this mass deception campaign. I know far too many. Totally agree laughter, humiliation, and satire are key to defeating the propagandists and tyrants. And a few Molotov missives like my “Letter to a Tyrant” (https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/letter-to-a-tyrant ;-)
Interesting point, Iconoclast. That would be an ambitious goal, although certainly one worth aiming for! I would be happy toppling just a few tyrants for starters ;-) That said, I think the evidence of collusion in democide, corruption, fraud, and deception is so irrefutable, we *could* dethrone them through a series of Nuremburgian trials helmed by Dr. Reiner Fuellmich and his band of 1,000+ attorneys around the globe.
Like the COVID narrative, the Rittenhouse narrative is one of the most blatant disinformation campaigns in recent history, particularly in light of how easily the propaganda could have been disproven by crystal-clear facts that few who had been manipulated were even aware of (e.g., the shooting victims were white, not black; there was incontestable proof that they were threatening Kyle’s life; their unsavory criminal backgrounds as a convicted pedophile and a woman-beater; and other details I won’t delineate because you have already covered them extensively in your own reporting).
I think Gustave Le Bon’s “The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind” is especially illuminating when it comes to attempting to understand how such a large swath of people could be so easily duped and impervious to hard facts:
“The masses have never thirsted after truth. They turn aside from evidence that is not to their taste, preferring to deify error, if error seduce them. Whoever can supply them with illusions is easily their master; whoever attempts to destroy their illusions is always their victim.”
It is similar to the one done against Kavanaugh, in my opinion, and similar to what they did to Trump with Russiagate. They lied repeatedly to push a political agenda.
They are despicable liars. I discount everything they say
It's killing me as a history major because it has caused me to re-evaluate every singular source of historical information as "Suspect" now.
Its pretty obvious this media bullshit has been going on forever and we are only now seeing the full scope of it.
Agreed, Iconoclast. Orwell describes this phenomenon in “Yes, Homage to Catalonia” (https://www.george-orwell.org/Homage_to_Catalonia/0.html) when he discusses how the newspapers were unashamedly lying about the outcomes of battles and even factual details like where they were occurring. I now distrust newspapers as a reliable source since they have been clearly used for propagandistic ends since the outset. I instead prefer primary sources and documents that share interviews, court transcripts, and other primary materials while also simultaneously being conscious of the biases implicit in those accounts as well.
This is what they should be teaching in early school to encourage critical thinking!
I don't have to agree with everyone on politics, culture, or anything else. I just want us to start with being truthful! This is why I joined this site the first day I could, because I know, despite my political differences with many posters here, we all want to begin with the truth, regardless of how painful it is.
YES! Critical thinking is *desperately* needed in the education system and its absence is one of the reasons people are so easily maneuvered to self-defeating ends by Machiavellian manipulators.
We need to resurrect John Stuart Mill’s precepts encouraging healthy, open debate and the exercise of attempting to argue from your opponent’s POV to understand their perspective and further strengthen or refine your own. I do believe this is occurring with emerging entities such as Heterodox Academy, thankfully.
Here for Homage.
Such a great and relevant book.
It is one of my favorite nonfiction works by Orwell. In 2019, I reread every Orwell book and every dystopian novel I could think of—little did I know how well that would prepare me for our current situation!
If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend Orwell’s complete Essays (https://smile.amazon.com/Essays-Everymans-Library-Contemporary-Classics/dp/0375415033/). Riveting and could not be more prescient.
Oops, ignore that stray “Yes” before “Homage to Catalonia”—typing too quickly ;-)
Excellent point. I am a history autodidact but am concerned about what I “know”. I am rereading Cairo’s exhaustive biography of Lyndon Johnson and he has already pointed out many places other biographers got the facts wrong, or didn’t get them at all.
One of the best sites out there is https://www.maryferrell.org/pages/Documents.html You can read the actual documents the FBI and other government agencies were forced by law to reveal (usually heavily redacted).
Not to mention how Caro right now himself is getting crushed over his singular sourced comments about Moses.
So much information out there it is hard, even when you look and know what to look for, to be absolutely certain of something.
Minor point: Robert Caro
Yes I saw that thanks. “The power broker” about Robert Moses is also excellent
I read the book about Robert Moses and it was very informative. Caro also wrote a book "Working" about his career. He explains, for example, how he got the truths about Johnson's early life by moving to Johnson City and becoming friends with the people who knew Johnson, to the point where they were willing to tell him the truth.
Here are a few books worth of non-PR about someone who wielded the same level of power.
https://vault.fbi.gov/search?SearchableText=murray+humphreys
Whatever the source, it is always wise to be conscious of the cognitive biases and propagandistic aims that may be influencing the particular narrative.
Indeed, especially when said source isn't mentioning any of their site advertisers, political or personal bias, or holdings in the companies (or their competitors) that they are "reporting" on.
If someone up front mentions their bias, I have no issues with that. Bias is fine as long as it is evident to all.
Most definitely. Fortunately, once you become attuned to the mechanisms of propaganda, framing, and coercion, the writer’s biases typically become laughably obvious, particularly when they are contorting data to further a corporate profiteering and/or authoritarian agenda.
Every "fact" appearing in a history text or account should always be (have been) subject to intense scrutiny. The maxim that "history is written by the victorious" has always been absolute truth, and one would need to be hopelessly naive to presume that the victors were always the virtuous.
Would also note that history is written by your culture and country. I have read assiduously on WWII and only recently learned of the largest land battle in that war. No American that I have asked has heard about it. My Ukrainian OR tech new it immediately
"No American that I have asked has heard about it" -- hm, maybe they watch unreliable news sources like Fox News and think the Battle of the Bulge was larger than Stalingrad: https://www.foxnews.com/us/world-war-ii-veteran-recalls-fighting-in-battle-of-the-bulge
I'm amused by "Iconoclast"'s oversensitive response -- he doesn't like hearing how Fox News, too, belongs to the club of unreliable news sources. Though he claims to be an iconoclast, he can't gracefully take criticism of this right-of-center news icon. But he can't disprove what my link shows about Fox's inaccuracy. I knew about Stalingrad's importance in World War II before reading Madjack's comment, but Iconoclast thinks I don't even know basic stuff about Truman and Japan's Imperial Army. I don't speak to "Iconoclast" because I know he's a fool, but it's worth laughing at him sometimes.
I don't think this has anything to do with Fox News. Americans, on the whole, are ignorant about not just world history, but US history. I knew more US history than any of the kids in High School, as a first generation immigrant. That was long before Roger Ailes/Fox News appeared on the scene. Hell, I knew more about the American West and WW2 than my history teacher. I'd venture that the average American had no idea about the East German/West German border fences with tank traps and sniper stations. If solidarity with govt was such a cakewalk, why oh why did the DDR need concertina wire and tank traps to keep their citizens from crossing into W. German? But sure, let's squash all opposition to current govt propaganda.
I 100% agree. Specifically on US history, imo.
We are unquestionably doomed to repeat history because every day we erase or change it to suit our needs when the truth makes us uncomfortable.
They suck too but are hardly the worst offender right now.
I found it odd you picked them. I'm sure it's not due to your political leanings.
I'll play history 20 questions, I guess, tell me, how many people did Stalin kill in his purges?
Are you really mentioning Fox only here despite fifty plus articles on this site showing it is the left who is hard at work manufacturing news?
Tell us, how much do they teach you about what the Japanese did to the Chinese in WW2? How much do they teach you about how American presidents like Truman were happy to spew racist filth and have Nazis work for us?
I'm sure the news sources you hold dear are of a far higher caliber, please don't hesitate to share them with us.
THIS!
It's the singular sourced stuff that is truly suspect. Say that five times fast lol.
Anything like Krakatoa erupting, where dozens of cultures are all recording the event, seem a lot less vulnerable to the lies.
I take consolation from the fact that each iteration of their con job becomes less effective. SCOTUS confirmations of male GOP nominees is case in point. First, they succeeded in killing the Bork nomination with specious claims. Then they went after Thomas based upon sketchy sex harassment claims. Although they raked him through the coals, he was confirmed. With Kavanaugh most of the public saw through the con and there wasn't much doubt that in the end he would be confirmed. An unfortunate side effect is that the left has made it much harder to believe truthful claims of sexual misconduct when the claim comes from the left.
Yep, and they couldn't play that card against Barrett.
I'd give it a shot. As I've gotten older, I've learned to care less about what other people think/say. Couldn't do worse than the current crop of mouth breathers / chin musicians and it appears to be a nice living lol. $25 mm mansions in FL for doing "public service" in CA - nice N Pelosi. Here I thought she was sacrificing to keep the herd trotting in the right direction. Such sacrifice.
I was going through a divorce during the Kavanaugh hearing, and at the time was getting a first-hand education about how much people are willing to lie and how convincing those lies can sound when accompanied by an emotional performance. Luckily, the standard of evidence doesn’t include how many tears are shed in the recounting. Because of this, I was the only person in my group of friends who was questioning what was happening during the confirmation. I asked uncomfortable questions like, “If she has a criminal complaint, why is she taking it before a Supreme Court confirmation hearing instead of to the police?” I was amazed at how many of my friends were credulously swallowing the entire story.
Indeed, and that was a litmus test for the mass deceptions to come and showed the deceivers how low the bar of credibility could be set to be believed.
"BTW, I voted for Hillary in 2016, and I regret it greatly." - ah, so you did swallow that Russiagate thingy back then then. Not surprising for a self-admitted Russophobe.
Or was it some female trickery in action?
Who did you vote for in 2016?
"who did you... for" as opposed to "whom did you ... for" - that's how I know you're American, icon.
This American would chastise his children if they didn't say "For whom did you vote?"
To which, I hope, you reply "none of your business"!
I tell them I wrote in their mother. She does yeoman's work in keeping the house running, but can also spend like the most profligate politician...
You've known me a long time now, Icon, so should have noticed I'm a bot, so subject to vote suppression, aka can't vote. Which is no matter as I wouldn't anyway. Because I vote for, not against. "Against", meaning "voting for the lesser evil", is the most imbecilic act I can think of.
And don't forget Needham.
I figured they'd be discussing Carrie Bourassa but what do I know.
"but what do I know" - indeed. Good advice to follow next time before posting.
Why do you refuse to denounce your white supremacist blackface wearing leader, comrade?
Wipe that white stuff off your nose first and then maybe something coherent will come out of your mouth. And watch that grammar, will ya?
Right so the Canadians are here talking trash about US politicians while their leaders are in blackface and faking being minorities and they themselves lack free speech and actually serve the Queen, an old rich white lady who inherited everything.
You can't make this stuff up.
...and told the National Guard and city police chiefs to stand down because they were trying to dunk on Trump during these "race riots".
Never mind that the rioters were organized and funded and bussed around by shadowy money, never mind that they had two-way radios and were showing up to intentionally set fire to things out of rental vans...
Never mind that all of the corporate media was downplaying the violence and destruction.
Absolutement!
Correction: TPTB think we *all* have an IQ of 70 and can’t see past their lies, and anyone who remains on the left after such transparent manipulations *does* have an IQ of 70 ;-)
I say that as a former lefty myself, but anyone who still clings to that ideology in the face of such ham-fisted propagandizing must have a low IQ or is so puffed up with pseudo-knowledge they can’t see past their own pride.
Agree on Andrew Sullivan. I just heard that Steve Hayes and Jonah Goldberg (now of The Dispatch) have left the news side of FOX commentating because of the special on FOX Nation (subscription side of the network) by Carlson called the Patriot Purge. They are literally consumed by Trump!
The Russia, Russia, Russia hoax still takes the cake in my book.
Haha, yes, that was another good one, but I believe the COVID narrative is the mother of all disinformation campaigns in history because it has been wielded to reshape the entire planet to totalitarian ends, harnessing the amygdala to short-circuit people’s logic while conditioning them to relinquish rights and liberties in the name of the “public health”—like every tyrannical, genocidal regime in history. I explore these matters in more depth throughout my blog, but my first piece, “Primer for the Propagandized: Fear Is the Mind-Killer” (https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/a-primer-for-the-propagandized) addresses this manipulation directly.
Once an individual has learned to control the myriad of fears that confound us on a daily basis they can taste true freedom and joy. Fear is not only a mind killer but a soul crushing emotion. it was necessary in ancient times to warn us and keep humans safe from harm. That deeply held emotion is and has always been one utilized to control and harness a populations energy for whatever purpose the fear monger sought. Now in "modern" times this has become so finely tuned that gov'ts. and others have weaponized that emotion to terrorize individuals into doing exactly what they want of their own "free will'".
Those fear laden people now attack others who don't cringe before the gov't gods of "science", climate change, tyranny and other made up terrors. Common sense and even education fall before the personal fear instilled by the control freaks. Without FEAR they have little or nothing to keep their populations "in line." If any population jettisons fear from their minds and becomes truly free the cowards and bullies "get got" and fade into the wood work.
AMEN! I think Étienne de La Boétie’s “The Politics of Obedience: A Discourse of Voluntary Servitude” is one of the most lucid explorations of the cognitive, political, and physical liberation that comes being able to recognize and identify the fears and other strings by which the puppeteers control us. I explore this in my second essay, “COVID IS OVER! … If You Want It” (https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/covid-is-over-if-you-want-it), which includes this de La Boétie quote:
“You can deliver yourselves if you try, not by taking action, but merely by willing to be free. Resolve to serve no more, and you are at once freed. I do not ask that you place hands upon the tyrant to topple him over, but simply that you support him no longer; then you will behold him, like a great Colossus whose pedestal has been pulled away, fall of his own weight and break into pieces.”
"Whoever can supply them with illusions is easily their master; whoever attempts to destroy their illusions is always their victim."
The first part is a good description of Barack Obama. The second part is an apt description of the character "Hickey" in Eugene O'Neill's play "The Iceman Cometh".
Haha, good to know! I haven’t seen/read that play yet but do love “Long Day’s Journey into Night” (if “love” is the right word for something so wrenching).
Many times "The Truth" contains no facts.
To clarify, “The Truth” (i.e., the mainstream representation of “reality”) would correlate to the illusions Le Bon describes, whereas his “the truth” equates to objective reality rather than the presentation/perception of that reality.
Funny how language has morphed from a method or conveying information and reality between individuals to a weapon of obfuscation. Mass media, in the past, utilized precise language to allow entire nations to have a unified view of the world. Now language is a "method" of obscuring truth, denying facts and otherwise selling a narrative that is false, pernicious and right out of Orwell's "1984" novel. This was the exclusive realm of lawyers in the past but is now the official position of media and gov't. when selling their toxic soap to the public. Both have sunk to below the levels of lawyers in the public's perception of their integrity and honesty. That "accomplishment" takes a lot of hard work but somehow both entities have succeeded in destroying themselves in the hearts and minds of many Americans.
Absolutely right, Not Me$, and this is why it is essential that we must continually push back against their Orwellian redefinitions, perception management campaigns, and linguistic framing. Language is one of the most effective ways to control the mind, but it is also one of the most powerful ways to reclaim it from the brainwashers once we understand how they are using it against us.
With comments sections like this without moronic "censors" hopefully people who are interested can be exposed to the tricks and sideshow patter that is now being passed off as accurate information. Don't know a single individuals who actually believes most political reporting being done by the MSM. That is because many people have pointed out over and over the nature and lack of truth being peddled by corporate media. Just have to keep banging away at these charlatans and laughing in their faces over social media and at some point they just might self destruct. If not at some point the lies and political spin will exhaust people and hopefully that will end many of these bastions of disinformation. Just a bad dream. ---maybe.
We can hope, anyway! You are fortunate in that you don’t know anyone who’s been swindled by this mass deception campaign. I know far too many. Totally agree laughter, humiliation, and satire are key to defeating the propagandists and tyrants. And a few Molotov missives like my “Letter to a Tyrant” (https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/letter-to-a-tyrant ;-)
As a history major, I don't know there has ever been a time, when all the elite were removed from power by the people.
There are scattered examples like the French Revolution, Castro removing Batistsa, etc, but never all at once, across the earth.
Interesting point, Iconoclast. That would be an ambitious goal, although certainly one worth aiming for! I would be happy toppling just a few tyrants for starters ;-) That said, I think the evidence of collusion in democide, corruption, fraud, and deception is so irrefutable, we *could* dethrone them through a series of Nuremburgian trials helmed by Dr. Reiner Fuellmich and his band of 1,000+ attorneys around the globe.
Haha, just like The Science™!
Holds up the Official MSNBC-CIA version of the Bible, thumping it vigorously: "THE SCIENCE!!!!!"