Which all goes prove that with Zionists, as with any zealots, a reliable method for filtering useful content from propaganda is simply to not believe a word they say. That’s served me very well in life as well as in Substack comment threads.
Lying is, to them, just a tool. Knowing that removes its effects.
The narrative control isn't that complete. Public opinion doesn't matter much anymore. What counts is Big Money's control of USA elections. Displease Israel, lose your job.
The main pillar of Jewish Zionism that the reality does not exist and only narrative and image matter, is crumbling. More people realize that reality exists no matter what narrative there is.
It is easy to move an object that is unconnected to the ground – much more difficult to move an object that has deep roots. People in free fall are desperate for something to hold on to. People without a ground to stand upon – whether cultural, historical, ethical, etc. – sink easily as in quicksand, and can be manipulated as a liquid is manipulated by the plumber and his tools.
The rogue US regime is a ship of fools sailing on a sea of bad ideas with no ground. Hyper-individualized atoms all the way down.
Funny to watch land-o zion mormon Romney and jewish zionist blinkin wringing their hands at how challenging it is for them understanding why normal people are appalled by images of thousands of dead,and destruction on an inconceivable scale.
The attempt to normalize the genocide, one of the most sickening aspects to observe over these last few years. Particularly watching the democratic party's unwavering support (under Joe Biden) for the Zionists and Israel, while the genocide being conducted was obvious. Bernie Sanders even refused to use the word "genocide" for many years.
Storytelling is compelling. So too is money. In America, money = speech. Those with the most money do their best to define the narrative while using loads of money to outshout those who differ. Algorithms suppress dissenters. And when outshouting and suppression fail, you can always smear dissenters as un-American, unpatriotic, anti-semites, "radical leftists," and so on.
I'm not sure I understand your comment. I'm a historian. I've taught history and written it as well. Historical accounts, as you know, are always selective. They are both less than the past (because you can't cram all the facts in any account) and more than the past (because we historians always add our spin and biases).
A historical narrative is just that--a selective account. A connected story. Narrative control, in my mind, links to what Orwell wrote in "1984": he who controls the past controls the future. And he who controls the present controls the past.
Narrative managers in the present seek to control what facts are reported, what facts are ignored, and indeed they invent new "facts." They attempt to define and dictate meaning. They use language in the most dishonest ways to sway our emotions and actions (Orwell, once again, in "Politics and the English Language").
So, we are always fighting for meaning, fighting for facts, even as others fight to constrain and twist those facts and meanings for their own purposes. The struggle for meaning, the fight over whose facts and interpretations matter and whose don't, is a constant in life even as it becomes more acute in war since war is a matter of life and death, sometimes on a massive scale.
You seem to be arguing that narrative shouldn't be applied to "history" that is happening "right now," but we humans are always telling each other stories, even about what happened seconds ago.
It seems to me the term “narrative” is all but interchangeable with PR, particularly slick PR. The various interpretations of the details of 10/7 in Israel is an example — the Israelis never mention the role their helicopters loaded with hellfire missiles played in the overall death count or destruction of homes that day. To hear their version, Hamas and Hamas only, was responsible for all of it even though that’s impossible.
So many people want the unvarnished facts which never seem to be available. I think one reason (among many) why young people in particular have turned against Israel is due to their obvious attempt to do exactly what they’re desperately trying to do — manipulate the narrative rather than being honest.
Re: Bill's and JennyStokes: What Caitlin is talking about, is the massaging of the message, the development of the propaganda cover for use by the political elite - as in the G-7 united front system in which they all agree to one cover story for an event. This is along the lines of "framing" which is a technique developed long ago in neo-liberal think tanks so that everyone is trapped into carrying on conversations within the limits of their thought-frame. This is promoted through complicit media and scholarship channels. This "narrative" concept is simply this manufactured cover story that everyone is expected to accept and pass along. Deviation is punished.
Truman and Eisenhower didn't get rich after they left office. It was Gerald Ford who invented the presidential library billion dollar bribe collection scheme, which all subsequent presidents have employed.
Hasbara will deny till their last breath that Netanyahu and the IDF intentionally set up their own people to be captured by Hamas and then implemented the Hannibal Doctrine killing as many people as possible, both Hamas and their own Israeli citizens. Truly an intentional betrayal and slaughter.
They will also tell you that history began on Oct 7th.
We all know of the decades of oppression, murder and theft perpetrated by Israel.
On Oct 7th there were thousands of Palestinians, including children, that had been kidnapped by Israel and were being held in torture prisons outside of judicial review. These were a red flag waved before the bull, the Palestinians. Israel: "If you want to free them from torture there is only one way, trade for hostages." Israel created the rules.
15 days before Oct 7th Netanyahu had, in a speech at the UN, gone before the world and wiped Palestine from the map.
The six days before Oct 7th Israeli settlers invaded and defiled, day after day, the al Aqsa mosque.
On Oct 4th or 5th the IDF RELOCATED a rave party to 3 miles from the Gaza Wall and on the path to what the IDF knew was Hamas' prime target the Re'im miliatry base. This RELOCATION was done by the IDF Division Headquarters who overruled the IDF Gaza sector officers. A surprising move for headquarters to insert themselves into a decision about a party.
Netanyahu and the IDF had captured Hamas' detailed jailbreak plan a year before and knew they would launch the jailbreak on a Jewish holiday or the Sabbath, Oct 7th was BOTH of these. Israeli media estimates that 50% of the IDF was on leave on Oct 7th, a perfect day for a party near the Gaza Wall and on the path to Hamas' prime target.
[yes, there is more, so much more; a mountain of evidence that Netanyahu wanted Oct 7th and the IDF did more than let it happen they set it up]
Yes, Gypsy, that phrase is worn out. But it is the ppl that are saying it as a weapon, such as the zionist entity and their vassal states EU, UK, USA, Canada, AU and others. The zionist entity stains all Jews worldwide by claiming to be The Jewish State, when they are no such thing and good Jews everywhere are appalled by their criminal bahviour. With the Russian transports landing in Turkiye, it may not be long before they and Egypt join the war, then that zionist problem is GONE.
Caitlin - You have nailed it for the 10,000th time.
If you have ever worked in the Fortune 500, you have certainly heard your manager say "perception is reality". They understand that narrative control is more important to their career than providing products and/or services to employees and/or customers.
Manipulators -- in the personal or geopolitical realms and everything in between -- are bad news, and need to be avoided at all costs. Fake news, back stabbers -- all of them.
Absolutely, and not only by the narcissistic practices of others. From my observation, in so many ways, it may be our own psyche that is our greatest enemy. Our mental processes are a labyrinth lined with funhouse mirrors. If we don't maintain constant vigilance, then we can be sucked in again and again.
"The I that I know does not know enough to know that it does not know enough... Who I think I am is only the ego talking, a fragile wafer cast upon an immense inner sea."
Their pathetic lying propaganda is everywhere. Critical thinking skills zero or just outright corruption. Cannot debate argue with a neo Nazi fascist thug Zionist ever. May as well smash your head against the Wall. What a fucked up duplicitous corrupt world
Arguments don't matter or work with such vile soulless depraved creatures. Only brutal force. Hence israel must be totally destroyed and west and jews forced to pay humongous reparations.
"Little Alex" in "A Clockwork Orange" referred to himself facetiously as "your humble narrator", while describing his sadistic acts from a narcissistic perspective.
Tucker Carlson, America Enables Israel’s Crimes
Israel portrays itself as a beacon of morality; the only source of light in the otherwise dark and barbaric Middle East. But is the country really that righteous?
A new report from Middle East Eye, titled “‘I Wished for Death’: Sexual Violence in Israel’s Prisons Is an ‘Organized State Policy’,” suggests the answer is an emphatic no. The piece highlights testimonies alleging that Israel’s highest “political, military, and judicial authorities” approve sexual torture, including rape using objects and trained military dogs, against non-Jewish inmates. The details, pasted below directly from the article, will make you gasp. Emphasis is ours.
“One former detainee, a 42-year-old woman from north Gaza… said she was bound naked to a metal table and repeatedly raped by two masked soldiers… She recalled that she was left shackled, naked and bleeding throughout the night before the soldiers returned the next day to continue raping her… Throughout her ordeal, she was filmed.”...
..“Another former prisoner… recounted being shackled to a metal bed and repeatedly raped by soldiers and a trained dog… ‘Every time I screamed, I was beaten. This continued for several minutes, while soldiers filmed and mocked me,’ [he] said… Later, another soldier forced his penis into the victim’s mouth and urinated on him.” https://israelpalestinenews.org/tcn-america-enables-israels-crimes/
NATO has accessible documents about what they call cognitive warfare. Not influencing what happens, but how we comprehend the world. It’s neither isolated propagandists nor only Zionism. It’s a complex of western governments, media, academia, military, industries and big business. You described the mechanisms thoroughly.👍
Call on Pope Leo XIV to do whatever it takes to save Gaza and stop the bombing, and end the starvation. Let him go to Gaza and stand with the suffering people who are being massacred by Israel and the Western posers. He can go to Gaza right now, and insist aid be allowed in. Then on to the West Bank to end the occupation and apartheid.
Is there anything more important in today's world than this?
Which all goes prove that with Zionists, as with any zealots, a reliable method for filtering useful content from propaganda is simply to not believe a word they say. That’s served me very well in life as well as in Substack comment threads.
Lying is, to them, just a tool. Knowing that removes its effects.
Look at their actions. That is truth. No matter how they use words to spin their criminal behaviour.
Q: How do you know when a Zionist is lying?
A: His/her lips are moving.
It’s no wonder then that Mossad’s motto is ‘By way of deception thou shalt do war’
Better yet, believe the opposite of what they say.
The narrative control isn't that complete. Public opinion doesn't matter much anymore. What counts is Big Money's control of USA elections. Displease Israel, lose your job.
That’s all related.
The main pillar of Jewish Zionism that the reality does not exist and only narrative and image matter, is crumbling. More people realize that reality exists no matter what narrative there is.
It is easy to move an object that is unconnected to the ground – much more difficult to move an object that has deep roots. People in free fall are desperate for something to hold on to. People without a ground to stand upon – whether cultural, historical, ethical, etc. – sink easily as in quicksand, and can be manipulated as a liquid is manipulated by the plumber and his tools.
The rogue US regime is a ship of fools sailing on a sea of bad ideas with no ground. Hyper-individualized atoms all the way down.
Funny to watch land-o zion mormon Romney and jewish zionist blinkin wringing their hands at how challenging it is for them understanding why normal people are appalled by images of thousands of dead,and destruction on an inconceivable scale.
The attempt to normalize the genocide, one of the most sickening aspects to observe over these last few years. Particularly watching the democratic party's unwavering support (under Joe Biden) for the Zionists and Israel, while the genocide being conducted was obvious. Bernie Sanders even refused to use the word "genocide" for many years.
Storytelling is compelling. So too is money. In America, money = speech. Those with the most money do their best to define the narrative while using loads of money to outshout those who differ. Algorithms suppress dissenters. And when outshouting and suppression fail, you can always smear dissenters as un-American, unpatriotic, anti-semites, "radical leftists," and so on.
I guess it works until it doesn't.
I am going to be 77yrs old Bill Astore in May.
There are many people on Caitlin's site that are older.
Narrative = a connected story.
A book of Fiction is a 'narrative.' It tells a story.
History is also a 'narrative' after the history is OVER not when it is happening.
As we go on in this completely screwed up/American oriented universe. Words begin to mean NOTHING.
What does 'narrative control' mean?
You as usual are using the wrong words to form something which has NOT happened.
SO sick of this word which people with no language ability "latch on to."
I can tell you now..........narrative to describe History happening right now is NOT narrative.
I'm not sure I understand your comment. I'm a historian. I've taught history and written it as well. Historical accounts, as you know, are always selective. They are both less than the past (because you can't cram all the facts in any account) and more than the past (because we historians always add our spin and biases).
A historical narrative is just that--a selective account. A connected story. Narrative control, in my mind, links to what Orwell wrote in "1984": he who controls the past controls the future. And he who controls the present controls the past.
Narrative managers in the present seek to control what facts are reported, what facts are ignored, and indeed they invent new "facts." They attempt to define and dictate meaning. They use language in the most dishonest ways to sway our emotions and actions (Orwell, once again, in "Politics and the English Language").
So, we are always fighting for meaning, fighting for facts, even as others fight to constrain and twist those facts and meanings for their own purposes. The struggle for meaning, the fight over whose facts and interpretations matter and whose don't, is a constant in life even as it becomes more acute in war since war is a matter of life and death, sometimes on a massive scale.
You seem to be arguing that narrative shouldn't be applied to "history" that is happening "right now," but we humans are always telling each other stories, even about what happened seconds ago.
Please help me understand your point.
It seems to me the term “narrative” is all but interchangeable with PR, particularly slick PR. The various interpretations of the details of 10/7 in Israel is an example — the Israelis never mention the role their helicopters loaded with hellfire missiles played in the overall death count or destruction of homes that day. To hear their version, Hamas and Hamas only, was responsible for all of it even though that’s impossible.
So many people want the unvarnished facts which never seem to be available. I think one reason (among many) why young people in particular have turned against Israel is due to their obvious attempt to do exactly what they’re desperately trying to do — manipulate the narrative rather than being honest.
PR is a better word.
Re: Bill's and JennyStokes: What Caitlin is talking about, is the massaging of the message, the development of the propaganda cover for use by the political elite - as in the G-7 united front system in which they all agree to one cover story for an event. This is along the lines of "framing" which is a technique developed long ago in neo-liberal think tanks so that everyone is trapped into carrying on conversations within the limits of their thought-frame. This is promoted through complicit media and scholarship channels. This "narrative" concept is simply this manufactured cover story that everyone is expected to accept and pass along. Deviation is punished.
It's NOT narrative if it has no end.
see below...
As John Dewey said in 1905: "Politics is the shadow cast upon society by big business." If you take money out of politics, what remains?
The human soul.
A more honest, more accessible, version of politics--maybe.
Truman and Eisenhower didn't get rich after they left office. It was Gerald Ford who invented the presidential library billion dollar bribe collection scheme, which all subsequent presidents have employed.
There would not have been an Oct 7th possible without narrative control, Netanyahu and the IDF wouldn't have dared.
And what is a false-flag but a form of narrative control.
Hasbara will deny till their last breath that Netanyahu and the IDF intentionally set up their own people to be captured by Hamas and then implemented the Hannibal Doctrine killing as many people as possible, both Hamas and their own Israeli citizens. Truly an intentional betrayal and slaughter.
They will also tell you that history began on Oct 7th.
We all know of the decades of oppression, murder and theft perpetrated by Israel.
On Oct 7th there were thousands of Palestinians, including children, that had been kidnapped by Israel and were being held in torture prisons outside of judicial review. These were a red flag waved before the bull, the Palestinians. Israel: "If you want to free them from torture there is only one way, trade for hostages." Israel created the rules.
15 days before Oct 7th Netanyahu had, in a speech at the UN, gone before the world and wiped Palestine from the map.
The six days before Oct 7th Israeli settlers invaded and defiled, day after day, the al Aqsa mosque.
On Oct 4th or 5th the IDF RELOCATED a rave party to 3 miles from the Gaza Wall and on the path to what the IDF knew was Hamas' prime target the Re'im miliatry base. This RELOCATION was done by the IDF Division Headquarters who overruled the IDF Gaza sector officers. A surprising move for headquarters to insert themselves into a decision about a party.
Netanyahu and the IDF had captured Hamas' detailed jailbreak plan a year before and knew they would launch the jailbreak on a Jewish holiday or the Sabbath, Oct 7th was BOTH of these. Israeli media estimates that 50% of the IDF was on leave on Oct 7th, a perfect day for a party near the Gaza Wall and on the path to Hamas' prime target.
[yes, there is more, so much more; a mountain of evidence that Netanyahu wanted Oct 7th and the IDF did more than let it happen they set it up]
Let's not fall into their narrative by referencing "Oct 7th" - it is Al-Aqsa Flood.
Thank you Kathleen. Now, if we can only get people to stop saying “ANTISEMITE” (yeah, lookin at you, Caitlin.)
I’m a Semite. THEY are not.
Yes, Gypsy, that phrase is worn out. But it is the ppl that are saying it as a weapon, such as the zionist entity and their vassal states EU, UK, USA, Canada, AU and others. The zionist entity stains all Jews worldwide by claiming to be The Jewish State, when they are no such thing and good Jews everywhere are appalled by their criminal bahviour. With the Russian transports landing in Turkiye, it may not be long before they and Egypt join the war, then that zionist problem is GONE.
Caitlin - You have nailed it for the 10,000th time.
If you have ever worked in the Fortune 500, you have certainly heard your manager say "perception is reality". They understand that narrative control is more important to their career than providing products and/or services to employees and/or customers.
Very true. And something that will likely destroy human species unless stopped.
Israel murders kids for fun. I saw it on TV. Cancel it.
Manipulators -- in the personal or geopolitical realms and everything in between -- are bad news, and need to be avoided at all costs. Fake news, back stabbers -- all of them.
Absolutely, and not only by the narcissistic practices of others. From my observation, in so many ways, it may be our own psyche that is our greatest enemy. Our mental processes are a labyrinth lined with funhouse mirrors. If we don't maintain constant vigilance, then we can be sucked in again and again.
"The I that I know does not know enough to know that it does not know enough... Who I think I am is only the ego talking, a fragile wafer cast upon an immense inner sea."
~James Hollis
Their pathetic lying propaganda is everywhere. Critical thinking skills zero or just outright corruption. Cannot debate argue with a neo Nazi fascist thug Zionist ever. May as well smash your head against the Wall. What a fucked up duplicitous corrupt world
Arguments don't matter or work with such vile soulless depraved creatures. Only brutal force. Hence israel must be totally destroyed and west and jews forced to pay humongous reparations.
Exactly right Nick. I want my father’s family property in Palestine back that was stolen by JEWS.
"Little Alex" in "A Clockwork Orange" referred to himself facetiously as "your humble narrator", while describing his sadistic acts from a narcissistic perspective.
Israel trains dogs to rape prisoners.
Tucker Carlson, America Enables Israel’s Crimes
Israel portrays itself as a beacon of morality; the only source of light in the otherwise dark and barbaric Middle East. But is the country really that righteous?
A new report from Middle East Eye, titled “‘I Wished for Death’: Sexual Violence in Israel’s Prisons Is an ‘Organized State Policy’,” suggests the answer is an emphatic no. The piece highlights testimonies alleging that Israel’s highest “political, military, and judicial authorities” approve sexual torture, including rape using objects and trained military dogs, against non-Jewish inmates. The details, pasted below directly from the article, will make you gasp. Emphasis is ours.
“One former detainee, a 42-year-old woman from north Gaza… said she was bound naked to a metal table and repeatedly raped by two masked soldiers… She recalled that she was left shackled, naked and bleeding throughout the night before the soldiers returned the next day to continue raping her… Throughout her ordeal, she was filmed.”...
..“Another former prisoner… recounted being shackled to a metal bed and repeatedly raped by soldiers and a trained dog… ‘Every time I screamed, I was beaten. This continued for several minutes, while soldiers filmed and mocked me,’ [he] said… Later, another soldier forced his penis into the victim’s mouth and urinated on him.” https://israelpalestinenews.org/tcn-america-enables-israels-crimes/
And, a majority of the US Congress continues to support this,
Vote Aaron Bushnell 2026
Barely, now...
NATO has accessible documents about what they call cognitive warfare. Not influencing what happens, but how we comprehend the world. It’s neither isolated propagandists nor only Zionism. It’s a complex of western governments, media, academia, military, industries and big business. You described the mechanisms thoroughly.👍
Call on Pope Leo XIV to do whatever it takes to save Gaza and stop the bombing, and end the starvation. Let him go to Gaza and stand with the suffering people who are being massacred by Israel and the Western posers. He can go to Gaza right now, and insist aid be allowed in. Then on to the West Bank to end the occupation and apartheid.
Is there anything more important in today's world than this?
https://chng.it/gkvBfY44rq
Please sign the petition and share widely.
I have been writing the Popes for years now asking them to drive the food trucks into Gaza.
No response. They are all talk no action. Simple drive a truck 100 meters and starving people
will unload , next.........
What we can do, we must. Asking is one of those things. Not asking is on us. What the response is, is not in our hands. That is on them.
Links relating to Ella: https://app.icount.co.il/m/26643 and “brightminds” on telegram