Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley): The biggest impediment to free speech is people’s belief that they have it. Not censorship. Not refusal to platform critical voices. Not the war on journalism. It’s the fact that most people are propagandized into saying what the powerful want them to say, and don’t know it.
“This problem can be addressed simply by bringing awareness to it in every way we can. Manipulation only works if you don’t know it’s happening, so drawing attention to it and describing how it happens in as many ways as possible helps people start seeing through it.”
Great piece overall! In respect to the above question, much of hypnosis is done by suggestion for a very good reason: the mind will tend to resist if something is given as a command or even advice. Suggestion helps give the appearance of choice, but the reality is people emote with the thought or image embedded in the suggestion. It’s the constant emoting with a predetermined set of images and narratives, and their repetition, which makes it “feel” true.
Hence, the importance of switching gears and having a more open conversation about how propaganda and brainwashing actually happen and look like, rather than trying to win an argument on x, y, z subject. (We all know by now that the latter rarely works).
You have a good point, Caitlin, about how people get propagandized to think in a narrow way.
However, it is also essential to note that the vaccine might be killing up to six million people a year. Lots of articles in the Epoch Times, and other sources. Russell Brand (on the left) and Tucker Carlson (on the right) also pointed this out.
Censorship and propaganda work hand in hand. Goebbels never would have gotten anywhere if they allowed anyone else to express a point of view. The Soviets, with Pravda, did the same.
The propaganda machine has always been much more sophisticated in the U.S., because we have controlled opposition, like Fox, RINOs, and maybe DINOs (hard for me to say, because of where I once sided ideologically, but don't anymore).
Censorship of alternatives to the vax, like Ivermectin, killed millions. Read RFK's book, "The Real Anthony Fauci."
I will keep this short. It doesn't matter what we say, it matters only if it has an effect. You'll see popular journalists criticize and demonize dissent of ideas within either of the empire's parties. My point is that the empire creates counterarguments for the party to use to dissuade those people from voicing their opposition to any issue. This is by design and part of the herding. Propaganda is what it is, but it becomes more elaborate in the sense that the empire takes great care to make it's bad ideas look great. Risking nuclear war with Russia should be an absolutely not reaction to any sane person. Yet the US empire makes itself look virtuous, altrustic even...when nothing could be further from the troops. "Let's not end nearly all life on the planet over this." is often met with "Are you crazy? Russia is wrong!" Literally mass loss of life within hours or minutes and people rather have moral supportity than a liveable planet? lol
Firstly, my apologies for submitting this response today, unrelated to Caitlin's article.
But.....the matter deserves to be posted.
It concerns a news item today from the ABC in Australia. I'll keep it simple
"The United States military warned Australia's defence chief that allegations of war crimes from Afghanistan may affect future cooperation with the SAS and Special Operations Command."
How many ways can one spell HYPOCRISY
I could respond in the Australian press but both are so rightwing as my letter would never see the light of day, one being Murdoch. The other being football oriented and total US sycophants. Say no more.
Finally, I was tempted to mention, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Cambodia, Laos, Yemen, half of South America, support for all Israel's crimes against Palestine since 1967, even today, but I won't bother. Please fill in all the remainder if you have the time.
"Someday the leaders of ecocidal corporations will be put on trial for their crimes against our planet, and their defense that they did it to generate profits for their shareholders will be treated the same as war criminals saying they were just following orders."
Can we apply this same idea to politicians? After all, they do everything to generate profits for their owners, the billionaires/oligarchs. "Just following orders" should be an automatic jail sentence for anyone who cooperates in the killing of people and the planet.
The description of how fake duopoly shepherds people into one of the two parties using wedge issues like culture war is good. But it doesn't entirely describe the majority of the US population: non-party non-voters.
The ruling elite have honed the bipartisan kabuki and its praetorian institutions. They must have honed a similarly effective system to keep the non-party non-voter from organizing into enough of a bloc it's a threat to the status quo, no?
The division of the country has been accomplished in the past 30 or 40 years. It's been done by choosing issues which have no clear answer and pushed in the media to keep people arguing and divided. While the political elections look like the country is split 50-50 that's not really the case. Trying to have a discussion with someone and you almost inevitably run into a issue where you are extremely divided and end up being angry at each other. And the result is that things keep getting worse and we keep losing our rights. Wages have been stagnant for 40 years while inflation has increased. The government creates programs to solve problems that it has created.
For instance:
Homeland Security was created as a result of 911. It's a coincidence that Sept. 11 translates to 911? A nice little psychological tweak for peoples thoughts in the future. It was a coincidence that our defense system was told to stand down by Cheney that day? So Homeland Security was created to stop terrorism and secure our borders. And yet we can't stop 8 year old barefoot kids from crossing. And the only terrorist attacks have been from domestic sources. Foreign terrorists have never been a problem. But domestic surveillance has. Now, mass shootings are the issue. I can't wait to see what the solution will be. That problem is most likely caused by video games and movies and children being indoctrinated by them from age 5. Of course the military is taking full advantage of having kids all trained to fly drones by video games.
What has happened in America is the same techniques that our government has used since its inception against indigenous people. The culture is destroyed over 1 or 2 generations and the people are indoctrinated into the new one. The trickle down economics theory has really been the trickle up theory. The money has trickled up to the wealthy. If you are poor just remember that it's all your fault. Opportunity abounds.
The US politicians, judicial system and economic system are all corrupt. Individually nothing can be done. When the majority of Americans are struggling to survive they have no time to engage in politics. Writing your elected officials will get you nothing. I've tried. The system has been broken by choice. It needs a complete renovation. Welcome to the banana republic of Amerika. Our reality has been created for us.
A book could be written on this but who needs another book that no one has the time or inclination to read?
"Someday the leaders of ecocidal corporations will be put on trial...." C.J.
If global warming is true there won't be enough time for that to happen. Given the latest data on sea temperature rise it looks like that is the case.
"When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it."
If what I read about human socialization is true (cf. Goffman) then a substantial number of people _desire_ propaganda and censorship. The first feeds them things they want to hear (have been trained to want to hear) and the second helps keep away unpleasant thoughts. Extensive testing (some of which is available on the Net) has demonstrated that almost everyone is susceptible to it, including the very smart folks who think they're immune. I recall a brief passage of _Mad Men_ in which someone tells Dan Draper that she completely ignored some piece of advertising. "That means it worked," Draper replies.
WOW!!! Caitlin has just written us a survival guide for our times.
We are living in times of endless lies and propaganda which can and will foreclose the future for us and future generations.
We have to realize we are governed by petulant sociopaths having no regard for costs(social and otherwise) or consequences. They are delusional ideologues enslaving whole populations.
I just went paid as a way of saying thank you for essential content we must know.
Caitlin, If we were to focus on the manipulators behind the curtain, who exactly would that be? Every corporate CEO? Military leaders? Religious leaders? Constantly exposing the actual culprits might be more productive than just saying we’re all being manipulated and divided.
It is quite humbling to realize that if I had lived the life of the person whom I consider evil, I'd probably be up to the same (or similar) stuff I call out evil.
If one can access the deeper subtler realities and laws of nature accessible to us all (without the needs of any special external apparatus) through our pure minds, then one sees the world outside as a mere reflection of the one inside.
This is not to say that one should give up all external, physical, vocal action and focus on the mind alone, but it is to say that once the mind starts realizing its nature, all resulting actions nudge the world towards greater wisdom and self-realization.
Then instead of planting seeds of hate (ignorance), the same set of actions come from a place of unselfish compassionate love.
RFK junior wants to pardon Assange and Snowden and relieve 100,000 U.S. troops of their duty in Japan, Germany and elsewhere. He is probably the most successful litigator for the U.S. people against corporate malfeasance and he is running for President... Make it happen... stop fucking whinging
The best way to keep a prisoner from escaping is never to let him find out he's in prison.
“This problem can be addressed simply by bringing awareness to it in every way we can. Manipulation only works if you don’t know it’s happening, so drawing attention to it and describing how it happens in as many ways as possible helps people start seeing through it.”
Great piece overall! In respect to the above question, much of hypnosis is done by suggestion for a very good reason: the mind will tend to resist if something is given as a command or even advice. Suggestion helps give the appearance of choice, but the reality is people emote with the thought or image embedded in the suggestion. It’s the constant emoting with a predetermined set of images and narratives, and their repetition, which makes it “feel” true.
Hence, the importance of switching gears and having a more open conversation about how propaganda and brainwashing actually happen and look like, rather than trying to win an argument on x, y, z subject. (We all know by now that the latter rarely works).
You have a good point, Caitlin, about how people get propagandized to think in a narrow way.
However, it is also essential to note that the vaccine might be killing up to six million people a year. Lots of articles in the Epoch Times, and other sources. Russell Brand (on the left) and Tucker Carlson (on the right) also pointed this out.
Censorship and propaganda work hand in hand. Goebbels never would have gotten anywhere if they allowed anyone else to express a point of view. The Soviets, with Pravda, did the same.
The propaganda machine has always been much more sophisticated in the U.S., because we have controlled opposition, like Fox, RINOs, and maybe DINOs (hard for me to say, because of where I once sided ideologically, but don't anymore).
Censorship of alternatives to the vax, like Ivermectin, killed millions. Read RFK's book, "The Real Anthony Fauci."
I will keep this short. It doesn't matter what we say, it matters only if it has an effect. You'll see popular journalists criticize and demonize dissent of ideas within either of the empire's parties. My point is that the empire creates counterarguments for the party to use to dissuade those people from voicing their opposition to any issue. This is by design and part of the herding. Propaganda is what it is, but it becomes more elaborate in the sense that the empire takes great care to make it's bad ideas look great. Risking nuclear war with Russia should be an absolutely not reaction to any sane person. Yet the US empire makes itself look virtuous, altrustic even...when nothing could be further from the troops. "Let's not end nearly all life on the planet over this." is often met with "Are you crazy? Russia is wrong!" Literally mass loss of life within hours or minutes and people rather have moral supportity than a liveable planet? lol
"If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal."
-Emma Goldman
Firstly, my apologies for submitting this response today, unrelated to Caitlin's article.
But.....the matter deserves to be posted.
It concerns a news item today from the ABC in Australia. I'll keep it simple
"The United States military warned Australia's defence chief that allegations of war crimes from Afghanistan may affect future cooperation with the SAS and Special Operations Command."
How many ways can one spell HYPOCRISY
I could respond in the Australian press but both are so rightwing as my letter would never see the light of day, one being Murdoch. The other being football oriented and total US sycophants. Say no more.
Finally, I was tempted to mention, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Cambodia, Laos, Yemen, half of South America, support for all Israel's crimes against Palestine since 1967, even today, but I won't bother. Please fill in all the remainder if you have the time.
You've heard it all before
"Someday the leaders of ecocidal corporations will be put on trial for their crimes against our planet, and their defense that they did it to generate profits for their shareholders will be treated the same as war criminals saying they were just following orders."
Can we apply this same idea to politicians? After all, they do everything to generate profits for their owners, the billionaires/oligarchs. "Just following orders" should be an automatic jail sentence for anyone who cooperates in the killing of people and the planet.
The description of how fake duopoly shepherds people into one of the two parties using wedge issues like culture war is good. But it doesn't entirely describe the majority of the US population: non-party non-voters.
The ruling elite have honed the bipartisan kabuki and its praetorian institutions. They must have honed a similarly effective system to keep the non-party non-voter from organizing into enough of a bloc it's a threat to the status quo, no?
The division of the country has been accomplished in the past 30 or 40 years. It's been done by choosing issues which have no clear answer and pushed in the media to keep people arguing and divided. While the political elections look like the country is split 50-50 that's not really the case. Trying to have a discussion with someone and you almost inevitably run into a issue where you are extremely divided and end up being angry at each other. And the result is that things keep getting worse and we keep losing our rights. Wages have been stagnant for 40 years while inflation has increased. The government creates programs to solve problems that it has created.
For instance:
Homeland Security was created as a result of 911. It's a coincidence that Sept. 11 translates to 911? A nice little psychological tweak for peoples thoughts in the future. It was a coincidence that our defense system was told to stand down by Cheney that day? So Homeland Security was created to stop terrorism and secure our borders. And yet we can't stop 8 year old barefoot kids from crossing. And the only terrorist attacks have been from domestic sources. Foreign terrorists have never been a problem. But domestic surveillance has. Now, mass shootings are the issue. I can't wait to see what the solution will be. That problem is most likely caused by video games and movies and children being indoctrinated by them from age 5. Of course the military is taking full advantage of having kids all trained to fly drones by video games.
What has happened in America is the same techniques that our government has used since its inception against indigenous people. The culture is destroyed over 1 or 2 generations and the people are indoctrinated into the new one. The trickle down economics theory has really been the trickle up theory. The money has trickled up to the wealthy. If you are poor just remember that it's all your fault. Opportunity abounds.
The US politicians, judicial system and economic system are all corrupt. Individually nothing can be done. When the majority of Americans are struggling to survive they have no time to engage in politics. Writing your elected officials will get you nothing. I've tried. The system has been broken by choice. It needs a complete renovation. Welcome to the banana republic of Amerika. Our reality has been created for us.
A book could be written on this but who needs another book that no one has the time or inclination to read?
"Someday the leaders of ecocidal corporations will be put on trial...." C.J.
If global warming is true there won't be enough time for that to happen. Given the latest data on sea temperature rise it looks like that is the case.
Very true. It's difficult to censor all sources of media or all voices, but computer managed garbage like A/I can spit out propaganda endlessly.
"When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it."
-- Frederic Bastiat
If what I read about human socialization is true (cf. Goffman) then a substantial number of people _desire_ propaganda and censorship. The first feeds them things they want to hear (have been trained to want to hear) and the second helps keep away unpleasant thoughts. Extensive testing (some of which is available on the Net) has demonstrated that almost everyone is susceptible to it, including the very smart folks who think they're immune. I recall a brief passage of _Mad Men_ in which someone tells Dan Draper that she completely ignored some piece of advertising. "That means it worked," Draper replies.
WOW!!! Caitlin has just written us a survival guide for our times.
We are living in times of endless lies and propaganda which can and will foreclose the future for us and future generations.
We have to realize we are governed by petulant sociopaths having no regard for costs(social and otherwise) or consequences. They are delusional ideologues enslaving whole populations.
I just went paid as a way of saying thank you for essential content we must know.
Caitlin, If we were to focus on the manipulators behind the curtain, who exactly would that be? Every corporate CEO? Military leaders? Religious leaders? Constantly exposing the actual culprits might be more productive than just saying we’re all being manipulated and divided.
The problem is not that one particular thing, person, group, country, empire, etc. is bad or evil. The issue at hand is essentially delusion.
Buddha called it out 2500 years ago - Moha, Avijja, Delusion. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moha_(Buddhism)
It is quite humbling to realize that if I had lived the life of the person whom I consider evil, I'd probably be up to the same (or similar) stuff I call out evil.
If one can access the deeper subtler realities and laws of nature accessible to us all (without the needs of any special external apparatus) through our pure minds, then one sees the world outside as a mere reflection of the one inside.
This is not to say that one should give up all external, physical, vocal action and focus on the mind alone, but it is to say that once the mind starts realizing its nature, all resulting actions nudge the world towards greater wisdom and self-realization.
Then instead of planting seeds of hate (ignorance), the same set of actions come from a place of unselfish compassionate love.
RFK junior wants to pardon Assange and Snowden and relieve 100,000 U.S. troops of their duty in Japan, Germany and elsewhere. He is probably the most successful litigator for the U.S. people against corporate malfeasance and he is running for President... Make it happen... stop fucking whinging