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The British colonized 25% of the world & made English the Global Language. The Americans inherited this legacy, standardized English as the language for 'Global Communication' et Viola! You have a de facto chokehold on the Information Space for centuries. It's not that American Propaganda is 'sophisticated,' but rather that for many a Human Mind on the planet, they cannot fathom going above & beyond the English Language to understand the world around them.

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Feb 11Liked by Caitlin Johnstone

This is a brilliant well researched piece. Thank you very much for. A block buster expose’ and explainer Caitlin you’re brilliant and necessary!

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Anyone interested in how the propaganda machine operates should read some of the Mk Ultra program documents that escaped the CIA burning them , along with the military documents for conducting propaganda operations(PsychologicalOperationsGoldstein.pdf) both in the war zone and US citizens for support of the war.

Mk Ultra was spun into a conspiracy theory primarily focused on programming assassins, when in fact it was really about programming US citizens. The number of research programs is staggering, children in school, unwitting citizen subjects and researchers and conducted over more than 10 years. Investigations of the program went nowhere and the true motive was never revealed. In hindsight it's pretty clear what the motives were. Control of the people.

What the US has turned into is far worse than what it was supposedly fighting the cold war for against the Soviet union. Namely the surveillance society we all now live under. Without proper ID you can't see a doctor, get a job, drivers license or travel by anything controlled by the US government. You can be watched by your computer, cellphone or TV. We are living in a militarized police state with a two tiered justice system and no say in how the government is run. The vast majority of Americans are completely oblivious to this. And we're paying them to do it!

"Those who give up liberty for safety will get neither" B. Franklin

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"killed very Russianly" 😂😂😂

Did my feelings about being an American change with knowing that the government is backing a genocide in Gaza? Yes, but they were already pretty bad after learning Native American history.

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Every western media carries the same headlines: "Russia's unprovoked attack on Ukraine", "Iranian backed militias", "Israel's right to self self defense". They all carry the same news and euphemisms as they all are fed from the same trough, only the willfully blind could fail to notice.

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We may have been propagandized into accepting the war or we may not have been. If we don't accept the war, we can only go to demos, sign petitions, have discussions with other people, but we can't just call someone and tell them that this is enough and it has to stop. NOW. Instead, the people who might be able to do that are sending weapons and punishing people for not supporting a genocide.

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As Caitlin Johnstone has emphasized over-and-over-again in her multiple thought-provoking, illuminating and empire-exposing articles - understanding "Propaganda", "Media Manipulation" and possessing "Critical Thinking Skills" is essential to laying bare the strategies used by Empire Managers to manipulate perceptions and reality.

For those interested, here are some book suggestions from my "Propaganda Reading List":

-----(1) "Propaganda" by Edward Burnays (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19220394-propaganda)

(2) "Public Opinion" by Walter Lippmann (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/920442.Public_Opinion)

-----(3) "Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media" by Noam Chomsky & Edward Herman (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12617.Manufacturing_Consent)

(4) "Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes" by Jacques Ellul (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/274826.Propaganda)

(5) "Crystallizing Public Opinion" by Edward Burnays (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25314952-crystallizing-public-opinion)

(6) "How Propaganda Works" by Jason Stanley (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30009140-how-propaganda-works)

(7) "Network Propaganda: Manipulation, Disinformation, and Radicalization in American Politics" by Yochai Benkler & Robert Faris & Hal Roberts (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40846640-network-propaganda)

(8) "Propaganda Blitz: How the Corporate Media Distort Reality" by David Edwards & David Cromwell (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39105639-propaganda-blitz)

(9) "Media Control: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda" by Noam Chomsky (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12615.Media_Control)

(10) "Propaganda and the Public Mind" by Noam Chomsky & David Barsamian (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21535437-propaganda-and-the-public-mind)

-----(11) "Palestine in Israeli School Books: Ideology and Propaganda in Education" by Nurit Peled-Elhanan (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15826038-palestine-in-israeli-school-books)

(12) "Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent" by Alan Macleod (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43585113-propaganda-in-the-information-age)

(13) "Fake News, Propaganda, and Plain Old Lies: How to Find Trustworthy Information in the Digital Age" by Donald Barclay (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49195693-fake-news-propaganda-and-plain-old-lies)

(14) "Trust Me, I'm Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator" by Ryan Holiday (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16171188-trust-me-i-m-lying)

(15) "Toxic Sludge Is Good for You: Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry" by John Stauber & Sheldon Rampton (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/659246.Toxic_Sludge_Is_Good_for_You)

There are many more excellent books on Propaganda, Media Manipulation, & Public Relations. The above is just a sprinkling of some of the best I have come across (IMHO).

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Excellent. Yet I suggest that you have seriously understated the effectiveness of Empire mass media control. For example Seymour Hersh has categorically resolved the Nord Stream sabotage as an America LNG industry attack on our western Europe allies.

https://seymourhersh.substack.com/?utm_campaign=subscribe-page-share-screen&utm_medium=web

https://open.substack.com/pub/seymourhersh/p/a-year-of-lying-about-nord-stream?r=2euzq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

This is out there, but American journalists never mention

Same with the 1200 (sometimes 1400) Israelis killed on Oct 7. Somehow no Empire journalist (nor seldom if ever even the excellent substackers) ever mentions the many occupied Israeli houses flattened by IDF tanks, nor the many (100s) Israeli cars fleeing music festival flattened by Apache helicopter . . . The Hannibal Doctrine was employed. I don't have the #s, but I seriously doubt that even 600 were killed by HAMAS. But you never read: "The brutality of the genocidal Zionist massacre in Gaza was prefigured by their self-slaughter of Oct 7. The withdrawal of IDF forces, the complete disregard of clear and specific warnings from what turned out to be sacrificial surveillance teams, the multi-hour delay in response all, speak the the Zionist intent to maximize Israeli dead.

And of course these media never mention that the intent of HAMAS was to take hostages for exchange. As the Israelis hold many thousands of Palestinians hostage, mal-treatment of hostages was not on the agenda. I tire of reading opposition to genocide in Gaza - which begins by 'acknowledging' HAMAS as a terrorist force must be eliminated. By any rational standard the IDF is and has long been the terrorist force. And we, in our failure to control any aspect of our government, find that we have long used them as murderous mercenaries - and of course as trainers of our police forces.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2003/6/5/israels-latin-american-trail-of-terror

The distinction between government owned propaganda in Russia and corporate owned media is mote as the corporations that own the media are in point of fact the Government. The vile anti-Constitutional Precedents that have redefined Bribery as corp. speech has inevitably effected the merger of State and corporate power that Mussolini defined to be fascism. The uniquely American variant of fascism is corporate dominated, and Biden the perfect lapdog,. Bribery in every economic sector maximizes profits in every sector (and has created obscene new sectors, e.g. private for-profit prisons).

The toxicity and instability of this system is unparalleled. Domestically it is driving Nazi Fascism of scapegoating, dehumanizing LTBTG, women, immigrants, minorities; deconstructing education. . . As both parties are funded by the same donor-owners; elections are but kayfabe; the illusion of opposition

So long as this system of bribery exists, our hopes are futile and climate collapse inevitable.

What hope is there? Glad you asked!

–- Constitutional Reset 2024 ---

Supreme Court Crushing OUR Rights Take Back the Court - A3S1:

Judges shall serve on good Behaviour Ergo, shall be fired on bad Behaviour

Revoke False Precedents

-$s are not Speech nor Corps people-

That rot bred present fascism!

The Fix: Public Funding of Elections

$200 Voter Vouchers - Nothing Else!

DC will work for us & our children:

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-Market Forces Drive Solar/Wind

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Why? Gotta Save the Whole World

Make Friends, Not War

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Here’s a better word for the US empire’s propaganda - DECEPTION

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The most effective propaganda in the world combined with a ruthless surveillance system ( the East German Stasi pales in comparison) is what has turned public discourse on the political system into sophomoric banter which is innocuous and downright puerile. The tragedy is that the victims of this assault on the mind, i.e. the American public, are not even aware of it.

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WELL NOW, haven't I been describing this ABSOLUTE REALITY now for days on end, in myriad replies that lots of folks upvoted but ignored in the sense that they didn't address this same ABSOLUTE REALITY in their own words?

JUST consider how deeply brainwashed folks can scream and yell about Russia, on any vacuous, inane level, WITH ZERO EVIDENCE because OBVIOUSLY usa rank propaganda can't have evidence because it is ALL LIES.

Which so so many fully realize full well but they can't seem to describe this reality.

WHY? Please ask yourselves WHY?

It is crucial to making this a just, decent, humane, kind, ... world instead of the usa war criminal, Wars of Aggression, usa Holocausts Galore, genocides daily, "butchering women & children" [P C Roberts] [please fill in blanks yourselves, like Caitlan J is doing.

What other nation has blown their citizens into smithereens like the usa did on 9/11? Human body parts hurled/exploded 6/10ths of a mile away - HORIZONTALLY. The Twin Towers were, according to these same serial liars, gravity collapses - earth to ALL, gravity ONLY works VERTICALLY!!

usa's citizens blown to smithereens, pieces so much smaller than microscopic that some 40% have NEVER BEEN IDed.

Make your comments something of SUBSTANCE. Who is going to listen to a bunch of babbling fools. We must put some actual effort, some intelligence, ... into the words that we speak to the lying demorats/repuglicans so that THEY HAVE TO LISTEN!!!

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I swear Caitlin, I can hardly fathom the idea that you (two) do all this research without some kind of research staff to sort it all out (on a daily basis). Nevertheless, you and Tim are one busy couple.

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Interesting angle that Tucker raised RE why doesn't Germany say what they, EVERYONE, knows the truth, the usa/usa agents blew up NordStream.

On 9/11, a number of German PhDs/Controlled Demolition experts were having a little celebration for a fellow that had just received his PhD. The party ended when news of 9/11 came on. TV monitors were rolled into the room and these experts all watched. Their UNANIMOUS conclusion, all of them, the Twin Towers were controlled demolitions.

========================

‘9/11: The Beginning of the End of Science’ — Professor Maximilian Ruppert’s full interview

In the newly released part of the interview, Ruppert speaks about why he remained silent for so long and about what he calls “the beginning of the end of science” that occurred on September 11, 2001.

International Center for 9/11 Justice | November 22, 2023

...

And now, to answer your actual question: Exactly one year later, I was still employed at the chair of Baustatik und Numerische Methoden [“structural analysis and numerical methods”]. We organized a little party because a dear colleague of mine acquired his PhD title, having finished his thesis one year after me. It was on this day, September 11th, that we had a really great party, as we should have.

I mean, you spend all this time researching, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and your topic is always in your head, for years, and you are fully invested. And so, we celebrated with my dear colleague. Then the celebration was suddenly over, and big monitors were rolled in. I remember it as if it were yesterday, even if it was so long ago. The party was over and then . . . Military personnel were also present. Anyone of importance was there.

Americans were not present. Normally they are always there when there is a party, and this was actually the reason why a higher-ranking officer said: “Look what happened there! The Americans are bringing down these towers and didn’t even bother to tell us! The audacity! Well, when there is a demolition on our side” — I’m now quoting him — “then they always come over to drink and guzzle, and now we can’t join them.”

This was the spontaneous reaction within the first seconds, after seeing the images. But then silence overcame us, because we realized that people had been harmed, and this took our breath away in the truest sense of the word.

Langemann:

So, could this small group of professionals see these images and truly instantly evaluate them? I mean, this sounds absurd. Who can instantly evaluate? But you did already elaborate on how long you have worked on these topics.

Ruppert:

All of us in that room did research these topics. This was a small community in the German-speaking area [of Europe]. There was also one in Israel with whom we were in close contact, and one in the USA, and [one] in the Far East as well, and that was it. So, everybody knew everybody.

And on that day, the German community — Berlin, Freiburg im Breisgau, Munich Bundeswehr University — they were all present. And we basically knew instantly, for buildings to come down that way, it can only be a planned procedure.

https://ic911.org/news/9-11-the-beginning-of-the-end-of-science-professor-maximilian-rupperts-full-interview/

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Good article with many examples of the linguistic manipulation that became so outlandish when the NYT kept using "unprovoked invasion" as if it was a single attached word. Still, even people who want maintain a semblance of objectivity keep falling into the trap of calling what is happening in Gaza a war, as if the two state solution had been implemented decades ago. Admittedly, it's hard to find precedents for what we're seeing, but the October 7 uprising seems more like a prison riot than anything else since the people in Gaza have been under the control of the Israeli State for at least seventeen years. The largest prison riot that I can recall was at Attica NY in the 1970's. I believe the total death toll was about forty, including ten guards and thirty prisoners. Conditions had been horrible but the riot was quelled without any attempt to kill all the prisoners housed there, and decades later there was a multi-million dollar settlement with prisoners who has lived through the abusive conditions. Was what happened in the Warsaw Ghetto described as a war between the ghetto and the German State?

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“We’ll know we’ve done our job when everything the public believes is a lie”

- some CIA person c. 1970s

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The ssame propaganda machine has been busy at work trying to manufacture consent for a broad US war in the middle east, in service of the zionists in Israel. They keep trying to tie everything to the Iranians which is a lie. A good analysis of it here:

https://mronline.org/2024/02/08/study-find-media-giants-new-york-times-cnn-and-fox-news-pushing-for-u-s-war-in-yemen/

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