Is anyone talking about the incredible power differential between propagandists and propagandized, the one that's hundreds of times more disparate in favor of the supposed victims than its opposite?
I don't know what it's called but there's a narrative driven phenomenon that literally renders us blind to what happens right in front of our noses. We see it happen, someone can say did you just see that happen and we'd say yes, but then some renegade water-cannons the bullshit away and calls out what happened for what it essentially is, which means what it really is, everyone insists that the "fool" or "moron" or "subverter" doesn't know what they're talking about because you can't say *that* about *this*. I've had people argue that when authorities murder people it's not murder, and when authorities perpetrate violence, it's not violence, and when their war dogs decimate and pillage and rape, those aren't crimes against humanity, those are unavoidable collateral damage.
Not kidding.
That's how powerful compartmentalization can be. Put the same thing in a different box and put a different label on it and suddenly, subliminally, it feels like a different thing.
In terms of the inordinate expense and resource drain required to keep the propaganda juggernaut going and defend it against the truth -- which notice, means defending a little pack of lies against the entire universe that has no interest in playing along -- compared to lies, the ease and efficiency and speed at which truth spreads without any special support or encouragement and the difference in its impact wherever it goes makes it a no-brainer, hands down winner crossing the finish line before lies have managed three steps from the post.
It's bizarre to see how it works and then look at people dumbly staring as if they were blind would they just saw.
The only way it can work is if thousands and millions choose to lie right along with it.
Our complicity in the lies blinds us to the lies and blinds others who mistake the arrogance of the insensate for the confidence of the experienced.
We can't know what we can't see, when we don't see but pretend we know, in terms of what takes place in us cognitively, neurologically, it's like we opened an inner portal straight into the depths of the insane delusions of hell.
As soon as people realize where the power actually resides and that they were light to all this time to cringe in dread at the horrendous illusions played out on "world stage" -- does anyone notice what that expression implies in terms of humanity versus psychopathy? -- we'll finally see the insane and infantile games of the rich which cover and distract from their bloody, rape crazed secrets for what they are. The glory in their shame, and the smoke from the cataclysm that is coming to destroy all their works will go up forever and ever. We've never been closer to that tipping point.
Oh, come on! The objective information is provided, it isn't all propaganda. For example, in the runup to Bush's Iraq invasion, he kept making claims about WMD while the UN weapons inspectors were telling about what they were finding, as were others who operated on the ground in Iraq. So, while the MSM overall supported the Bush narrative, at least to the point of arguing the "what if" point, it was also giving objective evidence against it.
I had arguments about this with friends who chose to disregard the UN and foreign journalist reports for their own reasons. Propaganda works when you have a compliant audience and IMO, the American public is absolutely uncritical, its our fault that we are in this mess. Americans are into accepting conspiracy theories over having to do the critical thinking and rational assessment required to be objectively informed.
We see what's happening but chose to not due the difficult work of getting to the objective truth because, IMO, we're too lazy.
I don't know I entirely agree with Caitlin's premise; if the Wizard no longer feels the need to even hide behind a curtain, is he working harder or easier?
It's true that trust in legacy media is at an all time low, and viewership of that media by the under 55 age group is almost non-existent, so the fight for control and censorship of on-line content is furious.
I'd like to believe that there's a bright dawn looming just beyond our dark horizon. I would also like to believe that there's a suitcase under my bed containing two million dollars, but at this point I can't tell which is the more likely.
The Wizard (the They) is simply delaying right now...so many still are true believers in the 'narrative' (especially the genius well-developed Red v Blue in America, the 5th Gen Chatter Wars are deflection and cover for the real Enemy). The new dawn is taking down the real They: Vanguard, Blackrock and the Others. They control everything from the top down... It appears you may simply want 'to believe' instead of acting...get your head in the fight now Riff, it's not a game. This is Big. Clever word-smithing is over, thank God.
Since belief informs action I believe my priorities are straight. And a world without clever word-smithing is that much duller. Any handy tips you'd like to pass along on bringing down Blackrock and Vanguard would be most appreciated.
Riff, I'm sure you do 'believe' your priorities are straight, look under your bed however as you said. Vanguard and Blackrock and the Others, right now, it's simply that it's known, they couldn't suppress it any longer, they own everything. It's now known thanks mainly to the Internet. That's the real Education. For sure there are those working on bringing them to justice (somehow), and right now just knowing is getting in the fight. It's an Awakening of sorts. I understand your position. And, if I knew how to take them down I sure couldn't detail it here...but, having some fun, my best guess is: 1) Kill them all from afar; or, Nuremburg-style trials and sentencing. Let none escape this time to their Islands, strongholds, compounds or Mars (Smile). Next get back to no Federal Taxes and no ever-growing brown-shirt social marxist bureaucracies, and take back power to the Individual, Counties and States in that order. Europe and it's nation/colonies have had a love relationship with Socialism for a long time, so they can do whatever..., but the players there must be brought to 1 or 2 above.
Our ivy league jurists swapped "freedom of speech" for "owner censorship". Imagine if this mindset prevailed during the invention of the humble copper wire telephone: Graham Bell, suitably inculcated by the Venture Capital Crowd behind the scenes, starts listening in and recording EVERY phone call....why? Because he owns the copper wire (it's graham bell's network), the law allows to do it.
By modern elite thinking, Graham Bell was "an idiot" because he left "money on the table" by not spying on every phone call and creating a profile of every citizen, "to sell for advertising" which makes it all pure. Dystopia is dejure.
I'm not as hopeful for the USA b/c of the deeply ingrained glorification and use of violence.
When I see police departments resemble Hunger Games 'peace keepers' and the airways filled with Ceaesar Flickerman clones, I think it's more likely that the USA will first descend into a revolution that will fail, leading to a rise of a Panem society.
Which, I believe will ultimately fail, but not after rivers of blood are spilled.
The rest of the world? Huh. I'm not so sure. I have opinions about other societies, but my experience and knowledge are shallow so I'll keep my mouth shut on that.
However I do live in Canada (left NYC in the mid 80's).
I think we're going to be OK here. First of all, our Federal Gov't is a minority one which inherently makes it more responsive to the people. Secondly, we've avoided the major stumbling blocks of the USA (living wage, universal health care, reasonable education system). While our own MSM is as captured as the USA, there's not the sense of desperate rage and fear that percolates up from the USA.
Canada if FAR from Utopia. But it is a much better functioning society overall.
Yeah I saw it. I'm good b/c it got handled, didn't it? Here's the last paragraph. (Please note, I did say that our MSM up here is as captured as in the US so they buried this little bit...)
Several months ago, Acting Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Wayne Eyre and DND deputy minister Jody Thomas acknowledged in an internal document that the various propaganda initiatives had gotten out of control. “Errors conducted during domestic operations and training, and sometimes insular mindsets at various echelons, have eroded public confidence in the institution,” noted a June 9, 2021, message signed by Eyre and Thomas. “This included the conduct of IO (Information Operations) on a domestic operation without explicit CDS/DM direction or authority to do so, as well as the unsanctioned production of reports that appeared to be aimed at monitoring the activities of Canadians.”
I like how there's such a long article that basically says nothing of any real substance. So what they did is probably illegal, but they still won't tell the public what they did to them.
Yeah, that's a good point. And you would think re a story of this magnitude there'd be more.
I think they put it up for two reasons:
1. As a CYA sort of measure. If there's blowback the Citizen can say they brought it to the public's attention. So if something DOES blow up about this, they can say that they printed a story. But also there's the main driver of the MSM today...
2. Clicks. Despite it being memory holed in Canadain MSM, a headline as sensational as this one was would definitely get those.
The question I have (which makes this warrant a second read) is ... is there actually a story there? As I write this, the only stuff I can recall from the article is that the Canadian military did online stuff that the big assed muckey-mucks thought was a bad idea. So maybe that's not much of a story.
I. Don't. Know.
Perhaps that's a good lesson?
I mean, I'm not running around yelling that the military is attempting mind control. I can see it as a poorly thought PR exercise just as easily.
Which one is it?
IDK.
And maybe me simply being willing to say that and move on is a healthy thing.
I really don't know.
And I'm comfortable w/ that ignorance for now. I only have so much bandwidth, y'know? There's lots of other stuff for me to be more concerned with.
I think you're right: it's fear borne. I sat here for a few moments reflecting on your post before reaching that conclusion. The population of the USA is afraid at its deepest level. You can call it 'insecurity' if you want, but America USED to be a nation gazing at the next horizon with such a sense of hope and excitement- I was 11 years old when they walked on the moon.
In the '70's, one after another America dealt with as a nation Vietnam, Watergate and then a wounded economy of economic stagnation coupled with sharp inflation (which is a paradoxical economic event), humiliated by Iran.
Which gave rise to Regan, a more polished version of Trump. He called out the establishment and set in motion policies and events that turned the attitude of America around.
Rightly or wrongly, in his initial campaign against Carter he pointed out just how shitty Americans felt about America. I don't recall him being all that wonky regarding policy TBH; but back then my news consumption was limited to the funny pages, the sports pages and Ann Landers. I DO recall how he harnessed the sense of hopelessness in the USA: as a nation we felt like we had been getting our asses kicked since 1968. The message he gave that I recall was 'It needen't be like this. We're better than this shitshow and I'll make it so.
It was easy to vote for him, despite me voting for Carter in '76 b/c it was a shitshow. We were frustrated; not so much afraid, but frustrated.
Regan got elected and did stuff. Just what? Beats me- see funny pages-but...BUT you felt good about being an American again.
I can still recall clearly his '84 re-election campaign 'It's morning in America'. Google it- what a powerful, powerful political ad. He didn't 'win' the election- IIRC it was the biggest landslide in history.
I truly believe that the current USA mindset of fear began in the Clinton era. That was the first time I realized that the system was broken. Nixon resigned over Watergate b/c he couldn't stand the idea of being impeached. Clinton reveled in it.
He lied repeatedly to Congress, and the American people, but b/c of the media was given (and still gets) a pass. He sold American workers out worse than FDR's predecessors; and the American population was warned of this by Ross Perot around '94. And got away with it like nobody's business.
I've concluded that the current state of the US mindset- that fear- can trace it's roots directly back to Clinton's shamelessness which opened the floodgates to acceptable lying.
Americans USED to believe in their government. They USED to believe their media told them the truth. They USED to believe that they were, as a whole, good people.
They used to have faith.
Now they don't even believe in themselves anymore.
Can you blame them?
The average 30-40 year old KNOWS they'll never achieve the standard of living their parents had available to them. Let alone the 20-30 year olds. The average American's only sense of community today is their workplace (see Scott Galloway). Not their family, not their church, not their Lion's/Elk/Rotary etc clubs...
Their fucking job. Which will throw them under the bus the minute the profit and loss statement says to do so.
The society is atomized into individual dots of existence. Even Cait sees that; see how often she writes about the 'self'. Self healing. Self regard. Self care. Teensy but vocal minorities now set the agenda and the rules of conversation. Whether it's people screaming for 'trans' rights or whatever to 'content moderators' in social media, it's an iron fist that descends.
The individual has no sense of responsibility to the society, b/c the society view it them as but a cog or a resource to be exploited. And that realization percolates out.
Here's a thought experiment: ask yourself what are the names of your next door neighbors? Or the people that live across the street from you? Do you know those three entities I just described? Really?
This will get much, much worse before it gets better, man. Especially in the USA.
I've become a fan of Robert Barnes. He fights for individual rights in court, but has a very cynical view of judges in general. He thinks the American people will awaken an put enough pressure on the courts and politicians to halt the growing totalitarianism, which as Caitlin says is rooted in propaganda. Like Caitlin, Barnes believes the narrative is collpasing.
Most piquant in my experience is how the American Gumby is conditioned to pavlovian hatred-on -demand. The most fear inspring experience from America is the use and abuse of Hatred, at the flick of a switch. That's why i call them gumby toys. They're not people anymore.
Americans can love Mexicans then Hate them viscerally with great bodily harm; Love Saudi Arabia, hate it tolerably, then cooperate again; Hate Afghanistan, Love Pakistan; Hate Lebanon Love UAE; Love China while corporate profits flow, then hate it when it's time to switch off; Love Philippines, fight war with Philippines. Nothing is too petty to fight over, but also nothing is so grave that it cannot be wilfully ignored via benign neglect.
All that is needed is to bend the gumby. That's where Princeton, Stanford, Harvard, Yale et al come in. Writing the narrative and justification. Then the last step is promotion/launch. This where Hollywood studios and their news divisions come in. Rinse Wash Repeat. It's quite a remarkable thing watching the gumby dance.
The longer we keep thinking that the source of our problems lies exclusively with the corporations, et al., the longer we self-propagandize. The cold hard fact is: many, many people have a stake in keeping the world the way it is now. This includes virtually all of (y)our readers. As long as the world as it is is at least partially the world as we think it ought to be, then that 'uprising' you mention will be delayed a long time. The corporations don't have all the power, you know - their power is nothing compared to ours. We just exercise it apathetically, giving them license to move freely. So long as the working class evades taking responsibility for capitalism, capitalism will continue to run its course.
"But I just can't help it. I look at how hard they are struggling to keep the light from bursting in and driving out the darkness, and I can't help but think, "Those poor bastards can't keep that up much longer.""
Except that they will now be deploying autonomous robots to do their bidding for them, that will never get tired. Autonomous robots that have been trained in psychology and neuroscience, trained on all the information that every individual has contributed about themselves on social media and their phones.
Agreed, except to 'walk away from social media"? Are you kidding me, this is our only voice and it's the real 5th Gen battlefield, and we are winning some now as Caitlin's article points out and I know, and it's in the air! It's the most free speech we the People have now where it still exists, as here, till the Social Marxist censors get rid of it all "for the People's Good".
Well then, we need to develop an alternative social media, don't we. While we think we are winning, Facebook is processing our comments to get a better understanding of each of our psychologies, so that they can better target us in the interest coaxing us to accept their narratives. They employ psychologists, psychiatrists, neurologists and other behavioral scientists to help develop algorithms that will be able to peg what motivates us more precisely, and these algorithms operate in the realm of microseconds, faster than our minds can build defenses against them.
~
Facebook is not like a public telephone systems where the public has actionable rights to their privacy, Facebook is a private corporation with investors whose only interest is that Facebook be profitable. Listen to one of the founders of Facebook who left Facebook for ethical reasons.
There is already alternate Social Media, like right here, but there are larger groups for sure, like Gabb and Telegram and others still forming. I agree FB is doing all you say and much, much more. They will be the 'informants' in the end of the 'good people' vs the 'bad people'. I quit them, and it was fine, everyone who has an ounce of backbone should quit those Progressive spies. But they inserted themselves into business and that has so many with a dog collar and leash on now as there isn't quite as good an alternative yet for that other than your own website or other media types...podcasts etc. on the 'free speech' channels. The Dark Web underground is still there too. We have platforms...especially for countering The They. We are in a 5th Gen War right now and we are winning some very strategic battles.
Thanks, yes there are many of us out there working to get alternatives on the market. Stay tuned. Unfortunately the common carriers like AT&T, Comcast, Verizon, etc. still own the wires/fiber optics over which our communications must travel. Not sure how we fix that problem after so many decades of deregulation.
Yes, it's The They and they control regulation and deregulation, and have the entire government behind either, to protect and defend it. We have to get rid of the agencies and their administrative law, for which none of US voted. Glad you are working for alternatives.
Thank you Caitlin, one of your best pieces ever, IMO. Look no further than Vanguard and Blackrock, and the few Others: the They. The They that does exist. There is a They and the They are now planning in league with all of their lower minion's and co-conspiritors (knowing and/or unknowing) in all governments, but not all the 'minds' or 'guns taken' yet of the People, particularly the US. Yes, be of good cheer the cat is out of the bag...finally. It's more than Hope. We all feel it. Similar too, in a way, to when the Berlin Wall fell, the Communist Party's members, in particular, the bureaucrat's and socialist's were totally in shock as the official narrative had been the exact opposite. Boom! The They couldn't control or stop it... This time we cannot let them make a come back, that's the big issue now, because they will just fall back (retreat is better than head on) and equivocate (reinforce the fear, deflect (economic disaster or biowarfare, who knows?), and use guerrilla warfare 4th and 5th Gen-style and it will be easy for them to do so. Know that. We can't be duped again and we absolutely have to maintain the Freedom of the Internet. The Comms. Even this little glimpse of Freedom does feel so damn good and I want more of it!!!
The claim that education make people stupid. For example, regarding the SARS-CoV-2 virus, it's disease Covid-19, and the vaccines, all one needed to do was to pay attention to only virologists, immunologists, epidemiologists, go only to valid scientific and medical web sites, watch Vincent Racaniello's college virology lectures and Brianne Barker's immunology lectures on youtube, listen to Vincent Racaniello's This Week in Virology (microbe.tv/twiv) podcast, etc, in other words educate yourself!
Stupid people support Trump for a variety of selfish, ignorant, narcissistic reasons. They made this problem in their support of the GOP and its lies told during elections and its appeal to their fear and sense of entitlement. Understand that the stupid people acted against the Civil Rights Act, they are not for individual rights, they fully supported the GOP's trickle-down and laissez-faire economic policies that created this mess. But they're too stupid to understand that they are the problem. They aren't educated enough to understand the connection between their choices, based on their beliefs, and the reality that they whine about. They are the problem.
I don't have any numbers, but there are Trump voters who knew every wart and failing he possessed; they voted for him anyway as a great "fuck you" to a system which in all seriousness presented us with a Hilary Clinton, and then, a Joe Biden.
Your "they are the problem" comment needs to be expanded greatly.
He absconded with the US presidency, it was a magic trick and he did it in plain sight, all while the elite snickered at him. It was certainly the greatest electoral feat in American history. The fact of trumps ascendency is beacon of hope - he defeated everything Caitlin rails against. Democracy worked in this case, but, never again has been the elite rallying cry ever since.
Trump was an unauthorized President and Caitlin is altogether right in this article - control the narrative, control allowable speech, control what and how we think is the game - it is obsessed over by the commentariat - and Trump defeated it.
Yes he was a bloviating incompetent ignoramus but that’s besides the point, his presidency was largely a nothing. Trump’s ascendency is the point, the greatest political feat in our lifetime and the fact that his presidency was completely incompetent, loathsome and crude is and was worth it.
The great hegemony of which Caitlin speaks is polite and proper and all gussied up with the trappings of wokeness - I will take the homespun Trump voter any time.
Let's not get carried away. Trump was just an unlikely elitist, is all. In fact, that's why Clinton and the DNC got behind his candidacy to begin with. He ran as a populist outsider (as many presidents have done before) and popularized the term deep state -- which was commendable -- but then tortured Assange. Once elected, he governed as your typical shitty republican president, the details of which I don't really need to itemize here.
Again, what's needed lies far outside what a Trump can deliver, and maintaining a Them-or-Trump dichotomy only keeps the current clownshow going. Trump may have infuriated the narrative, but he certainly didn't defeat it.
Yes agreed, my little screed went off track, I meant to say Trump was heterodox stylistically but brainlessly pursued orthodox GOP political goals. His genius was a fluke. He got it, felt it, channeled it, and some how he flaunted conventional wisdom and broke every rule of electoral politics and rode that chaos to victory. I know “greatest political feat ever “ is big but it is fitting, he broke the machine and his rudeness was for me a bonus a gift from heaven, he was colon hydrotherapy for our masters.
Trump offered change in a change year election. This took no genius. On the democratic side Sanders drew enormous crowds doing the same thing, until he was kneecapped by the Obama/Clinton axis of evil. Trump -- the salesman -- knew what Americans were buying. That's all.
No, much bigger - sui generous - look at the ferocity of the counter action, the elite have gone insane. Caitlin suggests the elite are showing signs that their manipulations and machinations are in trouble, their motivation increasingly plain to see and that is cause for hope. I don’t share that conclusion but as usual she expresses herself well.
Say what you will about "typical shitty republican," at least the Republican Party was democratic enough that it was theoretically possible for him to win. The GOP is apparently somewhat capable of reform, not under complete domination by the elites. The asses are not. They'd best go the way of the Whigs. Any 3rd party candidate is better than a Dem.
Hilarious! Trump labelled the 'Elitist' by you? I'm wondering if you aren't the They yourself now... And you have the nerve to bad-mouth Trump for even trying...do you know how dangerous that was? As to Assange, Trump would have pardoned him but his 'advisors' in the Military/Brown Shirt Bureaucracies convinced him not too. The rule of law and all that... He was played, he didn't understand, like most, just how deep the DS really is. And as written by you above, well, the They's propaganda is still very much alive and well. Orange Man BAD! Just keep that front and center...
That's your answer? Sorry but that's what I said, guess you didn't read it. You seem Hell bent though on trashing Trump who was indeed an outsider to the Swamp. How about you reply to that? He had never held political office. And he used his own money in the Primary because he knew the fake Republicans would not back him..., because he was not sold out already. And he called out the no-good lying Fake News to the point they crapped their pants on live TV many times (how happy that made me, still feel the goose-bumps of truth being said), and they have not recovered to this day! But, you, take pot shots from the side lines, which is a huge Tell. I think you are a part of the whole defamation campaign yourself? Talk about a Cult... Sorry, but I'm not about to trash Trump as a cultist, he actually was after the pedo's (4th Floor Murderer's) and other assorted trash we call our elected politicians, judges, and Administrative State. They feared him and they really had no one to fear till then...
My take is that the establishment indeed threw everything they had against him; he didn't help himself by running a pretty dismal re-election campaign and surrounding himself with some pretty dismal swamp creatures.
It was all rigged, top to bottom, even the election and so much more... You believe the voting just stopped in the middle of the night? Hilarious. That all kinds of 'mail-in' voters were just found? You believe the leaked narrative one week ahead of the AZ audit canvass saying, "Biden won!" wasn't propaganda from the legacy media/CIA/as instructed by Vanguard Etc., when they knew what the canvass really found? Tell me you believe the results from all the foreign servers etc. #LMAO! Trump had to Go! He was a neophyte in the Swamp, the most honest person there in reality. He did one BIG HUGE thing however, he called them out to their smarmy faces: FAKE NEWS! He does not get near enough credit for that..., he used their own networks to do it too! How I loved that. Genius! That alone was worth his presidency! And now we have Biden as Vanguard/BlackRock's new Puppet. So much better...#LMAO sadly again! They are back in power, but they have taken a lot of incoming...and are going to get some more it looks like.
OK that’s it Jackie speaks for me. I find it amazing that people who recognize this illiberal moment for what it is )like Riff and Caitlin) can’t see past Trumps personal foibles. Mr. Trump gamed the system and stole the Oval Office. This is the system of elites that you decry and he beat it. What gives? Don’t you understand that Trump was a victory for people who want to reject global hegemonic imperial power. Trump thought the establishment were hypocrites and said it every chance he had. As Jackie says - genius. Insofar as Trump was a liar it was out of incompetence and combativeness. The elite are so much smoother and refined in there lies - I believe that is Caitlin’s enduring analysis and constant theme.
Aside from such shenanigans, Trump ran a shitty re-election campaign and during his tenure surrounded himself with some shitty swamp people, one assumes willingly (Bolton, Pompeo, Addelson come to mind). There is no "They" who are responsible for that and Trump fanboys (or gals) need to own that. Your unwillingness to see this constitutes a weakness in your arguments as glaring as those Obamaphiles who still maintain that his greatness was done in by those mean republicans.
It was a fluke, the They couldn't get ahead of it fast enough to rig it, their software and servers etc. just weren't capable of dealing with it, they made some strategic errors and the Public was no longer quite so Educated/Propagandized as before and over voted them. The They fixed it though this time didn't They? All better now...
I absolutely agree. However, all of them that I know personally ended their support when it became obvious that he is an incompetent with no concern for what they value, that he incessantly lied often with no reason to, his refusal to take responsible action in our interest, and his alignment with GOP policies that they never supported.
To clarify, I'm referring to those that now support him. They are a big problem in this country and pose an existential threat to our democracy and to the very concept of equal opportunity that we had and to every functional ecosystem that we have left.
In attempting to weigh calamities, I would call the current liberal embrace of institutions like the CIA, the FBI, and the NSA, combined with their calls for social media monopolies like Facebook, Twitter, and Google to further censor and monitor their users' content, along with the MSM silence regarding the false imprisoning of Julian Assange, their weaponization of identity politics, and their assimilation of Bush-era war criminals into their fold, to give anything Trump supporters have cooked up a real run for their money when it comes to engendering an "existential threat to our democracy."
Why would I reconsider my statement? This isn't about labels, such as your use of "liberal" that implies that I am somehow accusing "conservatives" of being Trump supporters and therefore calling "conservatives" stupid. Far from it as a lot of Trump supporters are far more liberal than I am as they are libertarian, just to the right of the most extreme liberals, anarchists.
Trump promised to drain the swamp and made it worse. His supporters ignore that and lie about it. He did nothing to reverse Bush's and Obama's policies with regards to those agencies and their anti-democratic behavior. His problem with them was that he made himself a target with his lies about his Russian contacts, his attempts at Russian deals, his desire to get Russian help with his campaign and his obstruction into the investigation that those actions brought on.
Trump and his supporters, including elected GOP officials, participated in lying and providing misleading information that resulted in this mess. While calls for censoring such statements is understandable as a democracy requires an informed electorate, I don't know who would be the fair gatekeeper. The stupid among us have shown zero interest in determining the objective reality as they have proven themselves immune from facts.
I'm not trying to imply anything, and I used the term liberal as that is the label commonly used to describe them, however far their politics have strayed from classic liberal values. Political labels are quite meaningless these days but come in handy for posts such as these. I thought my context was clear enough. I agree that this isn't about labels, and I don't buy into the democratic/republican spats that only benefit those in maintaining our rotten status quo: Bush got us Obama who got us Trump who got us Biden. The mess is uninterrupted. They're all rotten as far as I'm concerned, because the system by which they are elevated is itself corrupted.
To the point: Your post identified die-hard Trump supporters as those who pose an existential threat to our democracy (kind of an overused and misused phrase at this point; like we've got this pristine thing in danger of being ruined by this or that faction); I believe those on the democratic side along with establishment republicans who oppose Trump pose at least as big of a threat as Trump's dead-enders. It was this idea I was asking you to consider. Perhaps you already account for this, but your post didn't make that case.
Trump pulled shady deals with the Ukraine and his sycophants don't seem to care that he lies and those who opposed him spread CIA BS about him being Putin's puppet and pee tapes and don't seem to care about those lies either. I find both sides rotten and unworthy of my support.
Trump himself brought on the investigation by a) lying about his ties to Russians, (b) lied about his Russian deals, (c) sought campaign help from Russians, and (d) obstructed the investigation.
That the CIA, FBI and other agencies are not good guys isn't the issue here. What is is that Trump did act in a way that focused the investigation on him. He's a serial liar and can't seem to help it but had he told the investigators the truth about his Russian ties and deals and hadn't sought Russian help, he wouldn't have been investigated. He brought that on himself.
Re: your claim that Democratic voters are at least as big a threat as Trump supporters:
Show me where the Democratic voters have acted to suppress voting or tried to overturn an election. Look at what happened when the GOP SCOTUS stopped the vote in Florida that would have found Gore the real winner had the count gone to completion. The Democratic voters did nothing but complain about GOP behavior and SCOTUS interference.
Trump supporters acted to overturn the election because they believed a lie. They refused to evaluate reality and the objective evidence that there was no fraud, as reported by every state's election officials, including Republicans. Trump supporters are an existential threat as they operate on conspiracy theories and not reality.
I try to stick with the original definition of political terms and not the twisted ones that we hear all the time.
To the point of Caitin's post, she states that "It Takes A Lot Of Education To Keep Us This Stupid", which I reject because all one need do is perform true research and one will find objective facts. For example, with regards of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, Covid-19, masks, distancing, its vaccines, etc, all one need do is to reference valid textbooks and look at valid scientific sites and ignore all others. for example, Vincent Racaniello provides his virology lectures and Brianne Barker her immunology lectures on youtube, check them out. He also provides the This Week in Virology podcast (microbe.tv/twiv) that provides objective information.
So, education is the answer. Her allegation about an elite controlling the message goes only as far as an individual's laziness goes. How many anti-vaxxers and Covid-19 is a hoax supporters ever tried to get an education? None. The objective truth is there, just look for it, such as on scholar.google.com, not some conspiracy theory site. Stupid, lazy people are the problem.
So, the problem with the MSM is not that it's complicit in some grand game, it's that reporters and journalist aren't competent enough to report more accurately. Vincent Racaniello disusses this ad nauseum. For example, vaccines do NOT prevent infection, they help reduce the risk of more sever illness, so why does the media say things like "the vaccines fail to prevent infection"?
Hilarious, and Who are you? That you want to keep the They vs Them, Blue vs Red 5th Gen Warfare narrative going? Your science as the only Science, or whatever. All 'science' is now social science and it is controlled at the college, academic and bureaucratic levels. You don't know that? There are some dissenting voices but they risk losing their 'licenses'. And the 'Stupid People' narrative so well-done, Pal. We know now that you are the 'narcissistic' person with the right 'reasons', from the Propaganda Central Committee. This is completely off topic as well in many respects but, certainly on topic for the us vs them argument(s) subtrafuge. The Civil Rights Act? Really? #LMAO!
LOL! Blame the messenger, right? It is an "us v them" situation because of the GOP and their supporters, period. Nixon started this division with his Southern Strategy (https://www.southerncultures.org/article/southern-strategy-from-nixon-to-trump/) in an attempt to gain support of whites who opposed desegregation and equal opportunity for blacks. The Divisiveness is from the sense of white entitlement that the GOP took advantage of whereas the Democrats fought for equal rights and lost enough white support to further GOP priorities that act against the interests of the GOP base.
The 'stupid people' narrative is spot on as these people are either stupid, they refuse to educate themselves as to the scientific facts about the virus, covid-19 and the vaccines, or they know better and use the existing stupidity for GOP partisan purposes.
There is objective reality and the narrative of conspiracy theories deludes people into thinking that there isn't, that there are two sides to every fact. There is not.
Jeff Bliss writes more like someone in the Matrix, he is not alone and your own comment underlines that. Just saying...but, Caitlin is right we are still winning out here on the Outside.
The Civil Rights Act could not have passed without Republican support. Republicans voted overwhelmingly for the bill. Since the "southern strategy," its true the Republicans have welcomed many racists into their ranks, but you lie about the CRA, and the "southern strategy" has lost its charm for Republicans, who are now arguably less racist than Democrats. Note Republicans voted overwhelmingly for the bill and for cloture in the Senate. From Wikipedia:
By party
The record of the roll call vote kept by the House Clerk on final passage of the bill
I know that the majority of Republicans voted for the CRA, but those aren't the people I am talking about, those are the electorate who considered themselves "conservative", who Nixon called the "silent majority". The conservative Southern Democrats left the Democratic Party and joined the Republicans, primarily for their state's rights position, as Goldwater argued.
I was pretty excited when AOC first came in the scene. But, then between her pic of her, her mother and Pelosi on her Twitter page....and the Netflix propaganda "documentary" about her rise to power, I knew once again they tried to fool me. Now, I simply don't vote. Why? Tell me it matters.....
You should just say between Vanguard, BlackRock, and the Others it's hard to tell which has the most ass-crazy cult. But leave Trump out, he actually wasn't bought and paid for...he tried to work within the They's Swamp and the They certainly fixed his wagon, didn't They?
...and transferred a gazillion dollars to Wall Street
Facts can never win a battle against belief. Any one of these is enough to show there was no swamp-draining going on. "Draining the Swamp" is merely "Hope and Change" for the QAnon crowd.
Just to be clear, are you saying that you believe that Trump does not also have a cult of personality just as obtuse as those other politicians I mentioned?
To split lines here, Obama offered the hope of a progressive and he turned out to be no more than a moderate Republican, to the left of the GOP, but certainly no progressive. So, those that gave him a chance and came to disappointment are not stupid, they accept the reality of his failings. Those that continue to apologize for him are stupid as they fail to see those failings.
What unlawful foreclosures? OK, list the actual laws that Obama would have used to prosecute those in the financial industry for the subprime mortgage crisis.
Not good enough. Find actual information that indicates that they had evidence that they did something prosecutable and link to those stories.
The problem here is in the deregulation that was the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act that repealed the Glass-Steagall Act. What was once illegal, such as a bank participating in speculation, was no longer. The problem was that there were areas that were not regulated, such as in the mortgage brokerage business. Regulated banks had rules to apply when granting loans that mortgage brokers didn't. So, while a regulated bank could grant subprime loans, it had to qualify the borrower and have more reserves to handle the additional risk of those borrowers.
Mortgage brokers didn't. They sold high risk subprime loans to everyone because those brought the highest price when the loan was sold to Wall Street because of the higher interest rates for investors. They sold subprime loans to fully qualified customers too. People defaulted on their loans. They were lawfully foreclosed, regardless of how they were sold the loan.
Were you replying to me? I'm not sure I mentioned 'poor illegal immigrants' at all. You better double check that...Secondly, you make no sense whatsoever from there on, Falcon (Hilarious)/NoName. Geez...
Is anyone talking about the incredible power differential between propagandists and propagandized, the one that's hundreds of times more disparate in favor of the supposed victims than its opposite?
I don't know what it's called but there's a narrative driven phenomenon that literally renders us blind to what happens right in front of our noses. We see it happen, someone can say did you just see that happen and we'd say yes, but then some renegade water-cannons the bullshit away and calls out what happened for what it essentially is, which means what it really is, everyone insists that the "fool" or "moron" or "subverter" doesn't know what they're talking about because you can't say *that* about *this*. I've had people argue that when authorities murder people it's not murder, and when authorities perpetrate violence, it's not violence, and when their war dogs decimate and pillage and rape, those aren't crimes against humanity, those are unavoidable collateral damage.
Not kidding.
That's how powerful compartmentalization can be. Put the same thing in a different box and put a different label on it and suddenly, subliminally, it feels like a different thing.
In terms of the inordinate expense and resource drain required to keep the propaganda juggernaut going and defend it against the truth -- which notice, means defending a little pack of lies against the entire universe that has no interest in playing along -- compared to lies, the ease and efficiency and speed at which truth spreads without any special support or encouragement and the difference in its impact wherever it goes makes it a no-brainer, hands down winner crossing the finish line before lies have managed three steps from the post.
It's bizarre to see how it works and then look at people dumbly staring as if they were blind would they just saw.
The only way it can work is if thousands and millions choose to lie right along with it.
Our complicity in the lies blinds us to the lies and blinds others who mistake the arrogance of the insensate for the confidence of the experienced.
We can't know what we can't see, when we don't see but pretend we know, in terms of what takes place in us cognitively, neurologically, it's like we opened an inner portal straight into the depths of the insane delusions of hell.
As soon as people realize where the power actually resides and that they were light to all this time to cringe in dread at the horrendous illusions played out on "world stage" -- does anyone notice what that expression implies in terms of humanity versus psychopathy? -- we'll finally see the insane and infantile games of the rich which cover and distract from their bloody, rape crazed secrets for what they are. The glory in their shame, and the smoke from the cataclysm that is coming to destroy all their works will go up forever and ever. We've never been closer to that tipping point.
Oh, come on! The objective information is provided, it isn't all propaganda. For example, in the runup to Bush's Iraq invasion, he kept making claims about WMD while the UN weapons inspectors were telling about what they were finding, as were others who operated on the ground in Iraq. So, while the MSM overall supported the Bush narrative, at least to the point of arguing the "what if" point, it was also giving objective evidence against it.
I had arguments about this with friends who chose to disregard the UN and foreign journalist reports for their own reasons. Propaganda works when you have a compliant audience and IMO, the American public is absolutely uncritical, its our fault that we are in this mess. Americans are into accepting conspiracy theories over having to do the critical thinking and rational assessment required to be objectively informed.
We see what's happening but chose to not due the difficult work of getting to the objective truth because, IMO, we're too lazy.
I don't know I entirely agree with Caitlin's premise; if the Wizard no longer feels the need to even hide behind a curtain, is he working harder or easier?
It's true that trust in legacy media is at an all time low, and viewership of that media by the under 55 age group is almost non-existent, so the fight for control and censorship of on-line content is furious.
I'd like to believe that there's a bright dawn looming just beyond our dark horizon. I would also like to believe that there's a suitcase under my bed containing two million dollars, but at this point I can't tell which is the more likely.
The Wizard (the They) is simply delaying right now...so many still are true believers in the 'narrative' (especially the genius well-developed Red v Blue in America, the 5th Gen Chatter Wars are deflection and cover for the real Enemy). The new dawn is taking down the real They: Vanguard, Blackrock and the Others. They control everything from the top down... It appears you may simply want 'to believe' instead of acting...get your head in the fight now Riff, it's not a game. This is Big. Clever word-smithing is over, thank God.
Since belief informs action I believe my priorities are straight. And a world without clever word-smithing is that much duller. Any handy tips you'd like to pass along on bringing down Blackrock and Vanguard would be most appreciated.
Riff, I'm sure you do 'believe' your priorities are straight, look under your bed however as you said. Vanguard and Blackrock and the Others, right now, it's simply that it's known, they couldn't suppress it any longer, they own everything. It's now known thanks mainly to the Internet. That's the real Education. For sure there are those working on bringing them to justice (somehow), and right now just knowing is getting in the fight. It's an Awakening of sorts. I understand your position. And, if I knew how to take them down I sure couldn't detail it here...but, having some fun, my best guess is: 1) Kill them all from afar; or, Nuremburg-style trials and sentencing. Let none escape this time to their Islands, strongholds, compounds or Mars (Smile). Next get back to no Federal Taxes and no ever-growing brown-shirt social marxist bureaucracies, and take back power to the Individual, Counties and States in that order. Europe and it's nation/colonies have had a love relationship with Socialism for a long time, so they can do whatever..., but the players there must be brought to 1 or 2 above.
Bring back public stocks and lamp post swings.
This is an OUTSTANDING new video once it is released and unlocked (on sub-stack and Rumble):
https://censorednews.substack.com/p/caa983ee-05d6-4e7d-8ba3-2cc9691ce4f7
YouTube Promotes CNN Lies and Hate Speech
Matt Orfalea -- Draft
Our ivy league jurists swapped "freedom of speech" for "owner censorship". Imagine if this mindset prevailed during the invention of the humble copper wire telephone: Graham Bell, suitably inculcated by the Venture Capital Crowd behind the scenes, starts listening in and recording EVERY phone call....why? Because he owns the copper wire (it's graham bell's network), the law allows to do it.
By modern elite thinking, Graham Bell was "an idiot" because he left "money on the table" by not spying on every phone call and creating a profile of every citizen, "to sell for advertising" which makes it all pure. Dystopia is dejure.
I'm not as hopeful for the USA b/c of the deeply ingrained glorification and use of violence.
When I see police departments resemble Hunger Games 'peace keepers' and the airways filled with Ceaesar Flickerman clones, I think it's more likely that the USA will first descend into a revolution that will fail, leading to a rise of a Panem society.
Which, I believe will ultimately fail, but not after rivers of blood are spilled.
The rest of the world? Huh. I'm not so sure. I have opinions about other societies, but my experience and knowledge are shallow so I'll keep my mouth shut on that.
However I do live in Canada (left NYC in the mid 80's).
I think we're going to be OK here. First of all, our Federal Gov't is a minority one which inherently makes it more responsive to the people. Secondly, we've avoided the major stumbling blocks of the USA (living wage, universal health care, reasonable education system). While our own MSM is as captured as the USA, there's not the sense of desperate rage and fear that percolates up from the USA.
Canada if FAR from Utopia. But it is a much better functioning society overall.
what's this? O Canada!
https://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/defence-watch/military-leaders-saw-pandemic-as-unique-opportunity-to-test-propaganda-techniques-on-canadians-forces-report-says
Yeah I saw it. I'm good b/c it got handled, didn't it? Here's the last paragraph. (Please note, I did say that our MSM up here is as captured as in the US so they buried this little bit...)
Several months ago, Acting Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Wayne Eyre and DND deputy minister Jody Thomas acknowledged in an internal document that the various propaganda initiatives had gotten out of control. “Errors conducted during domestic operations and training, and sometimes insular mindsets at various echelons, have eroded public confidence in the institution,” noted a June 9, 2021, message signed by Eyre and Thomas. “This included the conduct of IO (Information Operations) on a domestic operation without explicit CDS/DM direction or authority to do so, as well as the unsanctioned production of reports that appeared to be aimed at monitoring the activities of Canadians.”
I like how there's such a long article that basically says nothing of any real substance. So what they did is probably illegal, but they still won't tell the public what they did to them.
Yeah, that's a good point. And you would think re a story of this magnitude there'd be more.
I think they put it up for two reasons:
1. As a CYA sort of measure. If there's blowback the Citizen can say they brought it to the public's attention. So if something DOES blow up about this, they can say that they printed a story. But also there's the main driver of the MSM today...
2. Clicks. Despite it being memory holed in Canadain MSM, a headline as sensational as this one was would definitely get those.
The question I have (which makes this warrant a second read) is ... is there actually a story there? As I write this, the only stuff I can recall from the article is that the Canadian military did online stuff that the big assed muckey-mucks thought was a bad idea. So maybe that's not much of a story.
I. Don't. Know.
Perhaps that's a good lesson?
I mean, I'm not running around yelling that the military is attempting mind control. I can see it as a poorly thought PR exercise just as easily.
Which one is it?
IDK.
And maybe me simply being willing to say that and move on is a healthy thing.
I really don't know.
And I'm comfortable w/ that ignorance for now. I only have so much bandwidth, y'know? There's lots of other stuff for me to be more concerned with.
I think you're right: it's fear borne. I sat here for a few moments reflecting on your post before reaching that conclusion. The population of the USA is afraid at its deepest level. You can call it 'insecurity' if you want, but America USED to be a nation gazing at the next horizon with such a sense of hope and excitement- I was 11 years old when they walked on the moon.
In the '70's, one after another America dealt with as a nation Vietnam, Watergate and then a wounded economy of economic stagnation coupled with sharp inflation (which is a paradoxical economic event), humiliated by Iran.
Which gave rise to Regan, a more polished version of Trump. He called out the establishment and set in motion policies and events that turned the attitude of America around.
Rightly or wrongly, in his initial campaign against Carter he pointed out just how shitty Americans felt about America. I don't recall him being all that wonky regarding policy TBH; but back then my news consumption was limited to the funny pages, the sports pages and Ann Landers. I DO recall how he harnessed the sense of hopelessness in the USA: as a nation we felt like we had been getting our asses kicked since 1968. The message he gave that I recall was 'It needen't be like this. We're better than this shitshow and I'll make it so.
It was easy to vote for him, despite me voting for Carter in '76 b/c it was a shitshow. We were frustrated; not so much afraid, but frustrated.
Regan got elected and did stuff. Just what? Beats me- see funny pages-but...BUT you felt good about being an American again.
I can still recall clearly his '84 re-election campaign 'It's morning in America'. Google it- what a powerful, powerful political ad. He didn't 'win' the election- IIRC it was the biggest landslide in history.
I truly believe that the current USA mindset of fear began in the Clinton era. That was the first time I realized that the system was broken. Nixon resigned over Watergate b/c he couldn't stand the idea of being impeached. Clinton reveled in it.
He lied repeatedly to Congress, and the American people, but b/c of the media was given (and still gets) a pass. He sold American workers out worse than FDR's predecessors; and the American population was warned of this by Ross Perot around '94. And got away with it like nobody's business.
I've concluded that the current state of the US mindset- that fear- can trace it's roots directly back to Clinton's shamelessness which opened the floodgates to acceptable lying.
Americans USED to believe in their government. They USED to believe their media told them the truth. They USED to believe that they were, as a whole, good people.
They used to have faith.
Now they don't even believe in themselves anymore.
Can you blame them?
The average 30-40 year old KNOWS they'll never achieve the standard of living their parents had available to them. Let alone the 20-30 year olds. The average American's only sense of community today is their workplace (see Scott Galloway). Not their family, not their church, not their Lion's/Elk/Rotary etc clubs...
Their fucking job. Which will throw them under the bus the minute the profit and loss statement says to do so.
The society is atomized into individual dots of existence. Even Cait sees that; see how often she writes about the 'self'. Self healing. Self regard. Self care. Teensy but vocal minorities now set the agenda and the rules of conversation. Whether it's people screaming for 'trans' rights or whatever to 'content moderators' in social media, it's an iron fist that descends.
The individual has no sense of responsibility to the society, b/c the society view it them as but a cog or a resource to be exploited. And that realization percolates out.
Here's a thought experiment: ask yourself what are the names of your next door neighbors? Or the people that live across the street from you? Do you know those three entities I just described? Really?
This will get much, much worse before it gets better, man. Especially in the USA.
I've become a fan of Robert Barnes. He fights for individual rights in court, but has a very cynical view of judges in general. He thinks the American people will awaken an put enough pressure on the courts and politicians to halt the growing totalitarianism, which as Caitlin says is rooted in propaganda. Like Caitlin, Barnes believes the narrative is collpasing.
Very hopeful, indeed.
kiersjust now
Amen: "you can advance any agenda you want to".
Most piquant in my experience is how the American Gumby is conditioned to pavlovian hatred-on -demand. The most fear inspring experience from America is the use and abuse of Hatred, at the flick of a switch. That's why i call them gumby toys. They're not people anymore.
Americans can love Mexicans then Hate them viscerally with great bodily harm; Love Saudi Arabia, hate it tolerably, then cooperate again; Hate Afghanistan, Love Pakistan; Hate Lebanon Love UAE; Love China while corporate profits flow, then hate it when it's time to switch off; Love Philippines, fight war with Philippines. Nothing is too petty to fight over, but also nothing is so grave that it cannot be wilfully ignored via benign neglect.
All that is needed is to bend the gumby. That's where Princeton, Stanford, Harvard, Yale et al come in. Writing the narrative and justification. Then the last step is promotion/launch. This where Hollywood studios and their news divisions come in. Rinse Wash Repeat. It's quite a remarkable thing watching the gumby dance.
The longer we keep thinking that the source of our problems lies exclusively with the corporations, et al., the longer we self-propagandize. The cold hard fact is: many, many people have a stake in keeping the world the way it is now. This includes virtually all of (y)our readers. As long as the world as it is is at least partially the world as we think it ought to be, then that 'uprising' you mention will be delayed a long time. The corporations don't have all the power, you know - their power is nothing compared to ours. We just exercise it apathetically, giving them license to move freely. So long as the working class evades taking responsibility for capitalism, capitalism will continue to run its course.
"But I just can't help it. I look at how hard they are struggling to keep the light from bursting in and driving out the darkness, and I can't help but think, "Those poor bastards can't keep that up much longer.""
Except that they will now be deploying autonomous robots to do their bidding for them, that will never get tired. Autonomous robots that have been trained in psychology and neuroscience, trained on all the information that every individual has contributed about themselves on social media and their phones.
Just walk away from social media.
Agreed, except to 'walk away from social media"? Are you kidding me, this is our only voice and it's the real 5th Gen battlefield, and we are winning some now as Caitlin's article points out and I know, and it's in the air! It's the most free speech we the People have now where it still exists, as here, till the Social Marxist censors get rid of it all "for the People's Good".
Well then, we need to develop an alternative social media, don't we. While we think we are winning, Facebook is processing our comments to get a better understanding of each of our psychologies, so that they can better target us in the interest coaxing us to accept their narratives. They employ psychologists, psychiatrists, neurologists and other behavioral scientists to help develop algorithms that will be able to peg what motivates us more precisely, and these algorithms operate in the realm of microseconds, faster than our minds can build defenses against them.
~
Facebook is not like a public telephone systems where the public has actionable rights to their privacy, Facebook is a private corporation with investors whose only interest is that Facebook be profitable. Listen to one of the founders of Facebook who left Facebook for ethical reasons.
~
https://youtu.be/PMotykw0SIk?t=1281
and
https://www.theverge.com/2017/12/11/16761016/former-facebook-exec-ripping-apart-society
There is already alternate Social Media, like right here, but there are larger groups for sure, like Gabb and Telegram and others still forming. I agree FB is doing all you say and much, much more. They will be the 'informants' in the end of the 'good people' vs the 'bad people'. I quit them, and it was fine, everyone who has an ounce of backbone should quit those Progressive spies. But they inserted themselves into business and that has so many with a dog collar and leash on now as there isn't quite as good an alternative yet for that other than your own website or other media types...podcasts etc. on the 'free speech' channels. The Dark Web underground is still there too. We have platforms...especially for countering The They. We are in a 5th Gen War right now and we are winning some very strategic battles.
Thanks, yes there are many of us out there working to get alternatives on the market. Stay tuned. Unfortunately the common carriers like AT&T, Comcast, Verizon, etc. still own the wires/fiber optics over which our communications must travel. Not sure how we fix that problem after so many decades of deregulation.
Yes, it's The They and they control regulation and deregulation, and have the entire government behind either, to protect and defend it. We have to get rid of the agencies and their administrative law, for which none of US voted. Glad you are working for alternatives.
Fakest whistle blower update:
https://thegrayzone.com/2021/10/21/facebook-whistleblower-frances-haugen-us-intelligence/
"Those poor bastards". There's the empathy that we're sorely lacking towards the official Bad Guys. Maybe there really is hope.
Thank you Caitlin, one of your best pieces ever, IMO. Look no further than Vanguard and Blackrock, and the few Others: the They. The They that does exist. There is a They and the They are now planning in league with all of their lower minion's and co-conspiritors (knowing and/or unknowing) in all governments, but not all the 'minds' or 'guns taken' yet of the People, particularly the US. Yes, be of good cheer the cat is out of the bag...finally. It's more than Hope. We all feel it. Similar too, in a way, to when the Berlin Wall fell, the Communist Party's members, in particular, the bureaucrat's and socialist's were totally in shock as the official narrative had been the exact opposite. Boom! The They couldn't control or stop it... This time we cannot let them make a come back, that's the big issue now, because they will just fall back (retreat is better than head on) and equivocate (reinforce the fear, deflect (economic disaster or biowarfare, who knows?), and use guerrilla warfare 4th and 5th Gen-style and it will be easy for them to do so. Know that. We can't be duped again and we absolutely have to maintain the Freedom of the Internet. The Comms. Even this little glimpse of Freedom does feel so damn good and I want more of it!!!
The claim that education make people stupid. For example, regarding the SARS-CoV-2 virus, it's disease Covid-19, and the vaccines, all one needed to do was to pay attention to only virologists, immunologists, epidemiologists, go only to valid scientific and medical web sites, watch Vincent Racaniello's college virology lectures and Brianne Barker's immunology lectures on youtube, listen to Vincent Racaniello's This Week in Virology (microbe.tv/twiv) podcast, etc, in other words educate yourself!
Stupid people support Trump for a variety of selfish, ignorant, narcissistic reasons. They made this problem in their support of the GOP and its lies told during elections and its appeal to their fear and sense of entitlement. Understand that the stupid people acted against the Civil Rights Act, they are not for individual rights, they fully supported the GOP's trickle-down and laissez-faire economic policies that created this mess. But they're too stupid to understand that they are the problem. They aren't educated enough to understand the connection between their choices, based on their beliefs, and the reality that they whine about. They are the problem.
I don't have any numbers, but there are Trump voters who knew every wart and failing he possessed; they voted for him anyway as a great "fuck you" to a system which in all seriousness presented us with a Hilary Clinton, and then, a Joe Biden.
Your "they are the problem" comment needs to be expanded greatly.
I’m a big fan of Trump.
He absconded with the US presidency, it was a magic trick and he did it in plain sight, all while the elite snickered at him. It was certainly the greatest electoral feat in American history. The fact of trumps ascendency is beacon of hope - he defeated everything Caitlin rails against. Democracy worked in this case, but, never again has been the elite rallying cry ever since.
Trump was an unauthorized President and Caitlin is altogether right in this article - control the narrative, control allowable speech, control what and how we think is the game - it is obsessed over by the commentariat - and Trump defeated it.
Yes he was a bloviating incompetent ignoramus but that’s besides the point, his presidency was largely a nothing. Trump’s ascendency is the point, the greatest political feat in our lifetime and the fact that his presidency was completely incompetent, loathsome and crude is and was worth it.
The great hegemony of which Caitlin speaks is polite and proper and all gussied up with the trappings of wokeness - I will take the homespun Trump voter any time.
Let's not get carried away. Trump was just an unlikely elitist, is all. In fact, that's why Clinton and the DNC got behind his candidacy to begin with. He ran as a populist outsider (as many presidents have done before) and popularized the term deep state -- which was commendable -- but then tortured Assange. Once elected, he governed as your typical shitty republican president, the details of which I don't really need to itemize here.
Again, what's needed lies far outside what a Trump can deliver, and maintaining a Them-or-Trump dichotomy only keeps the current clownshow going. Trump may have infuriated the narrative, but he certainly didn't defeat it.
Yes agreed, my little screed went off track, I meant to say Trump was heterodox stylistically but brainlessly pursued orthodox GOP political goals. His genius was a fluke. He got it, felt it, channeled it, and some how he flaunted conventional wisdom and broke every rule of electoral politics and rode that chaos to victory. I know “greatest political feat ever “ is big but it is fitting, he broke the machine and his rudeness was for me a bonus a gift from heaven, he was colon hydrotherapy for our masters.
Trump offered change in a change year election. This took no genius. On the democratic side Sanders drew enormous crowds doing the same thing, until he was kneecapped by the Obama/Clinton axis of evil. Trump -- the salesman -- knew what Americans were buying. That's all.
No, much bigger - sui generous - look at the ferocity of the counter action, the elite have gone insane. Caitlin suggests the elite are showing signs that their manipulations and machinations are in trouble, their motivation increasingly plain to see and that is cause for hope. I don’t share that conclusion but as usual she expresses herself well.
Say what you will about "typical shitty republican," at least the Republican Party was democratic enough that it was theoretically possible for him to win. The GOP is apparently somewhat capable of reform, not under complete domination by the elites. The asses are not. They'd best go the way of the Whigs. Any 3rd party candidate is better than a Dem.
According to polls both party's leadership is way out of step with their grassroots, the democrats believably moreso.
Hilarious! Trump labelled the 'Elitist' by you? I'm wondering if you aren't the They yourself now... And you have the nerve to bad-mouth Trump for even trying...do you know how dangerous that was? As to Assange, Trump would have pardoned him but his 'advisors' in the Military/Brown Shirt Bureaucracies convinced him not too. The rule of law and all that... He was played, he didn't understand, like most, just how deep the DS really is. And as written by you above, well, the They's propaganda is still very much alive and well. Orange Man BAD! Just keep that front and center...
Anyone who empowers someone like Pompeo is not serious about fighting the deep state, and never was. Period.
That's your answer? Sorry but that's what I said, guess you didn't read it. You seem Hell bent though on trashing Trump who was indeed an outsider to the Swamp. How about you reply to that? He had never held political office. And he used his own money in the Primary because he knew the fake Republicans would not back him..., because he was not sold out already. And he called out the no-good lying Fake News to the point they crapped their pants on live TV many times (how happy that made me, still feel the goose-bumps of truth being said), and they have not recovered to this day! But, you, take pot shots from the side lines, which is a huge Tell. I think you are a part of the whole defamation campaign yourself? Talk about a Cult... Sorry, but I'm not about to trash Trump as a cultist, he actually was after the pedo's (4th Floor Murderer's) and other assorted trash we call our elected politicians, judges, and Administrative State. They feared him and they really had no one to fear till then...
Trump was the only one not playing the 'They's' tune and so, he was taken out. If you didn't notice that then...whatever.
My take is that the establishment indeed threw everything they had against him; he didn't help himself by running a pretty dismal re-election campaign and surrounding himself with some pretty dismal swamp creatures.
It was all rigged, top to bottom, even the election and so much more... You believe the voting just stopped in the middle of the night? Hilarious. That all kinds of 'mail-in' voters were just found? You believe the leaked narrative one week ahead of the AZ audit canvass saying, "Biden won!" wasn't propaganda from the legacy media/CIA/as instructed by Vanguard Etc., when they knew what the canvass really found? Tell me you believe the results from all the foreign servers etc. #LMAO! Trump had to Go! He was a neophyte in the Swamp, the most honest person there in reality. He did one BIG HUGE thing however, he called them out to their smarmy faces: FAKE NEWS! He does not get near enough credit for that..., he used their own networks to do it too! How I loved that. Genius! That alone was worth his presidency! And now we have Biden as Vanguard/BlackRock's new Puppet. So much better...#LMAO sadly again! They are back in power, but they have taken a lot of incoming...and are going to get some more it looks like.
OK that’s it Jackie speaks for me. I find it amazing that people who recognize this illiberal moment for what it is )like Riff and Caitlin) can’t see past Trumps personal foibles. Mr. Trump gamed the system and stole the Oval Office. This is the system of elites that you decry and he beat it. What gives? Don’t you understand that Trump was a victory for people who want to reject global hegemonic imperial power. Trump thought the establishment were hypocrites and said it every chance he had. As Jackie says - genius. Insofar as Trump was a liar it was out of incompetence and combativeness. The elite are so much smoother and refined in there lies - I believe that is Caitlin’s enduring analysis and constant theme.
Aside from such shenanigans, Trump ran a shitty re-election campaign and during his tenure surrounded himself with some shitty swamp people, one assumes willingly (Bolton, Pompeo, Addelson come to mind). There is no "They" who are responsible for that and Trump fanboys (or gals) need to own that. Your unwillingness to see this constitutes a weakness in your arguments as glaring as those Obamaphiles who still maintain that his greatness was done in by those mean republicans.
His 2016 victory was a fluke based on intuition and his intuition let him down the second time.
Nah, I think Trump won. No one can convince me that 81 million people voted for a dementia patient.
It was a fluke, the They couldn't get ahead of it fast enough to rig it, their software and servers etc. just weren't capable of dealing with it, they made some strategic errors and the Public was no longer quite so Educated/Propagandized as before and over voted them. The They fixed it though this time didn't They? All better now...
Not sure what you mean by they’s tune
I absolutely agree. However, all of them that I know personally ended their support when it became obvious that he is an incompetent with no concern for what they value, that he incessantly lied often with no reason to, his refusal to take responsible action in our interest, and his alignment with GOP policies that they never supported.
To clarify, I'm referring to those that now support him. They are a big problem in this country and pose an existential threat to our democracy and to the very concept of equal opportunity that we had and to every functional ecosystem that we have left.
In attempting to weigh calamities, I would call the current liberal embrace of institutions like the CIA, the FBI, and the NSA, combined with their calls for social media monopolies like Facebook, Twitter, and Google to further censor and monitor their users' content, along with the MSM silence regarding the false imprisoning of Julian Assange, their weaponization of identity politics, and their assimilation of Bush-era war criminals into their fold, to give anything Trump supporters have cooked up a real run for their money when it comes to engendering an "existential threat to our democracy."
You may wish to reconsider your statement.
Why would I reconsider my statement? This isn't about labels, such as your use of "liberal" that implies that I am somehow accusing "conservatives" of being Trump supporters and therefore calling "conservatives" stupid. Far from it as a lot of Trump supporters are far more liberal than I am as they are libertarian, just to the right of the most extreme liberals, anarchists.
Trump promised to drain the swamp and made it worse. His supporters ignore that and lie about it. He did nothing to reverse Bush's and Obama's policies with regards to those agencies and their anti-democratic behavior. His problem with them was that he made himself a target with his lies about his Russian contacts, his attempts at Russian deals, his desire to get Russian help with his campaign and his obstruction into the investigation that those actions brought on.
Trump and his supporters, including elected GOP officials, participated in lying and providing misleading information that resulted in this mess. While calls for censoring such statements is understandable as a democracy requires an informed electorate, I don't know who would be the fair gatekeeper. The stupid among us have shown zero interest in determining the objective reality as they have proven themselves immune from facts.
I'm not trying to imply anything, and I used the term liberal as that is the label commonly used to describe them, however far their politics have strayed from classic liberal values. Political labels are quite meaningless these days but come in handy for posts such as these. I thought my context was clear enough. I agree that this isn't about labels, and I don't buy into the democratic/republican spats that only benefit those in maintaining our rotten status quo: Bush got us Obama who got us Trump who got us Biden. The mess is uninterrupted. They're all rotten as far as I'm concerned, because the system by which they are elevated is itself corrupted.
To the point: Your post identified die-hard Trump supporters as those who pose an existential threat to our democracy (kind of an overused and misused phrase at this point; like we've got this pristine thing in danger of being ruined by this or that faction); I believe those on the democratic side along with establishment republicans who oppose Trump pose at least as big of a threat as Trump's dead-enders. It was this idea I was asking you to consider. Perhaps you already account for this, but your post didn't make that case.
Trump pulled shady deals with the Ukraine and his sycophants don't seem to care that he lies and those who opposed him spread CIA BS about him being Putin's puppet and pee tapes and don't seem to care about those lies either. I find both sides rotten and unworthy of my support.
Re: your statement of Trump being Putin's puppet:
Trump himself brought on the investigation by a) lying about his ties to Russians, (b) lied about his Russian deals, (c) sought campaign help from Russians, and (d) obstructed the investigation.
That the CIA, FBI and other agencies are not good guys isn't the issue here. What is is that Trump did act in a way that focused the investigation on him. He's a serial liar and can't seem to help it but had he told the investigators the truth about his Russian ties and deals and hadn't sought Russian help, he wouldn't have been investigated. He brought that on himself.
Re: your claim that Democratic voters are at least as big a threat as Trump supporters:
Show me where the Democratic voters have acted to suppress voting or tried to overturn an election. Look at what happened when the GOP SCOTUS stopped the vote in Florida that would have found Gore the real winner had the count gone to completion. The Democratic voters did nothing but complain about GOP behavior and SCOTUS interference.
Re: the Existential threat to our democracy:
Trump supporters acted to overturn the election because they believed a lie. They refused to evaluate reality and the objective evidence that there was no fraud, as reported by every state's election officials, including Republicans. Trump supporters are an existential threat as they operate on conspiracy theories and not reality.
I try to stick with the original definition of political terms and not the twisted ones that we hear all the time.
To the point of Caitin's post, she states that "It Takes A Lot Of Education To Keep Us This Stupid", which I reject because all one need do is perform true research and one will find objective facts. For example, with regards of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, Covid-19, masks, distancing, its vaccines, etc, all one need do is to reference valid textbooks and look at valid scientific sites and ignore all others. for example, Vincent Racaniello provides his virology lectures and Brianne Barker her immunology lectures on youtube, check them out. He also provides the This Week in Virology podcast (microbe.tv/twiv) that provides objective information.
So, education is the answer. Her allegation about an elite controlling the message goes only as far as an individual's laziness goes. How many anti-vaxxers and Covid-19 is a hoax supporters ever tried to get an education? None. The objective truth is there, just look for it, such as on scholar.google.com, not some conspiracy theory site. Stupid, lazy people are the problem.
So, the problem with the MSM is not that it's complicit in some grand game, it's that reporters and journalist aren't competent enough to report more accurately. Vincent Racaniello disusses this ad nauseum. For example, vaccines do NOT prevent infection, they help reduce the risk of more sever illness, so why does the media say things like "the vaccines fail to prevent infection"?
Caitlin needs to develop her thesis more.
Hilarious, and Who are you? That you want to keep the They vs Them, Blue vs Red 5th Gen Warfare narrative going? Your science as the only Science, or whatever. All 'science' is now social science and it is controlled at the college, academic and bureaucratic levels. You don't know that? There are some dissenting voices but they risk losing their 'licenses'. And the 'Stupid People' narrative so well-done, Pal. We know now that you are the 'narcissistic' person with the right 'reasons', from the Propaganda Central Committee. This is completely off topic as well in many respects but, certainly on topic for the us vs them argument(s) subtrafuge. The Civil Rights Act? Really? #LMAO!
LOL! Blame the messenger, right? It is an "us v them" situation because of the GOP and their supporters, period. Nixon started this division with his Southern Strategy (https://www.southerncultures.org/article/southern-strategy-from-nixon-to-trump/) in an attempt to gain support of whites who opposed desegregation and equal opportunity for blacks. The Divisiveness is from the sense of white entitlement that the GOP took advantage of whereas the Democrats fought for equal rights and lost enough white support to further GOP priorities that act against the interests of the GOP base.
The 'stupid people' narrative is spot on as these people are either stupid, they refuse to educate themselves as to the scientific facts about the virus, covid-19 and the vaccines, or they know better and use the existing stupidity for GOP partisan purposes.
There is objective reality and the narrative of conspiracy theories deludes people into thinking that there isn't, that there are two sides to every fact. There is not.
Written like a true partisan Democrat.
Jeff Bliss writes more like someone in the Matrix, he is not alone and your own comment underlines that. Just saying...but, Caitlin is right we are still winning out here on the Outside.
Nope. Written by someone who understands that the GOP and its supporters are the problem, have been since the signing of the Civil Rights Act.
The Civil Rights Act could not have passed without Republican support. Republicans voted overwhelmingly for the bill. Since the "southern strategy," its true the Republicans have welcomed many racists into their ranks, but you lie about the CRA, and the "southern strategy" has lost its charm for Republicans, who are now arguably less racist than Democrats. Note Republicans voted overwhelmingly for the bill and for cloture in the Senate. From Wikipedia:
By party
The record of the roll call vote kept by the House Clerk on final passage of the bill
The original House version:[30]
Democratic Party: 152–96 (61–39%)
Republican Party: 138–34 (80–20%)
Cloture in the Senate:[31]
Democratic Party: 44–23 (66–34%)
Republican Party: 27–6 (82–18%)
The Senate version:[30]
Democratic Party: 46–21 (69–31%)
Republican Party: 27–6 (82–18%)
The Senate version, voted on by the House:[30]
Democratic Party: 153–91 (63–37%)
Republican Party: 136–35 (80–20%)
I know that the majority of Republicans voted for the CRA, but those aren't the people I am talking about, those are the electorate who considered themselves "conservative", who Nixon called the "silent majority". The conservative Southern Democrats left the Democratic Party and joined the Republicans, primarily for their state's rights position, as Goldwater argued.
Stupid people support Barack Obama too.
Between Trump, Obama, AOC, and Clinton, it's hard to tell which has the most ass-crazy cult of personality going for it.
I was pretty excited when AOC first came in the scene. But, then between her pic of her, her mother and Pelosi on her Twitter page....and the Netflix propaganda "documentary" about her rise to power, I knew once again they tried to fool me. Now, I simply don't vote. Why? Tell me it matters.....
Hey, I was excited voting for Obama the first time. Then he picked his cabinet...
You should just say between Vanguard, BlackRock, and the Others it's hard to tell which has the most ass-crazy cult. But leave Trump out, he actually wasn't bought and paid for...he tried to work within the They's Swamp and the They certainly fixed his wagon, didn't They?
Trump picked Mnuchin. That tells me everything I need to know about Trump's claim of draining the swamp.
...and picked Pompeo
...and bombed Syria
...and supported Israel
...and sanctioned Venezuela
...and locked up Assange
...and transferred a gazillion dollars to Wall Street
Facts can never win a battle against belief. Any one of these is enough to show there was no swamp-draining going on. "Draining the Swamp" is merely "Hope and Change" for the QAnon crowd.
Oh, I see. "They all have a cult of personality except my guy." Right.
That's not what I said and you know it. You are Telling on yourself, sorry to say.
Just to be clear, are you saying that you believe that Trump does not also have a cult of personality just as obtuse as those other politicians I mentioned?
To split lines here, Obama offered the hope of a progressive and he turned out to be no more than a moderate Republican, to the left of the GOP, but certainly no progressive. So, those that gave him a chance and came to disappointment are not stupid, they accept the reality of his failings. Those that continue to apologize for him are stupid as they fail to see those failings.
Anyone who continues to support Obama after watching him allow 15 mil unlawful foreclosures while allowing the crooks to escape prosecution is stupid.
What unlawful foreclosures? OK, list the actual laws that Obama would have used to prosecute those in the financial industry for the subprime mortgage crisis.
Forgery
Securities Fraud
Wire Fraud
Mail Fraud
Fraud Upon the Courts
Not good enough. Find actual information that indicates that they had evidence that they did something prosecutable and link to those stories.
The problem here is in the deregulation that was the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act that repealed the Glass-Steagall Act. What was once illegal, such as a bank participating in speculation, was no longer. The problem was that there were areas that were not regulated, such as in the mortgage brokerage business. Regulated banks had rules to apply when granting loans that mortgage brokers didn't. So, while a regulated bank could grant subprime loans, it had to qualify the borrower and have more reserves to handle the additional risk of those borrowers.
Mortgage brokers didn't. They sold high risk subprime loans to everyone because those brought the highest price when the loan was sold to Wall Street because of the higher interest rates for investors. They sold subprime loans to fully qualified customers too. People defaulted on their loans. They were lawfully foreclosed, regardless of how they were sold the loan.
It's not Biden! It's who's behind, above and telling Biden. Get that straight or continue down this propaganda road to the end. Showers anyone?
Were you replying to me? I'm not sure I mentioned 'poor illegal immigrants' at all. You better double check that...Secondly, you make no sense whatsoever from there on, Falcon (Hilarious)/NoName. Geez...
#1776!