Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley): Arguably the single most egregious display of war propaganda in the 21st century occurred last year, when the entire western political/media class began uniformly bleating the word “unprovoked” in reference to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
This being the same effect of "what page would you like to open the book to?"
Regularly, propaganda is conflated by "opening the book" to the page that supports the propaganda.
Ignore everything before, ignore everything after. History begins where we say it begins.
Open the book before that, you are a conspiracy theorist, or misinformed. "Please see the relevant Wikipedia page for the correct context" says Youtube, Facebook and the CIA.
Individuals, mostly narcissists will also insist on being our history keeper in our own lives.
All means to hold power over others.
The playbook is so simple, and yet the majority of the population will only believe what they are told by "Authorities."
In sales, I learned that the first number you tell someone is the one they remember, no matter what happens afterwards. That also applies to propaganda.
70% of the population simply follows the crowd. So the answer then is simply to give that 70% something good to follow.
People who parrot, “you can’t do anything about it” like family members of mine, or the normies in general, need our continual highlighting of the fact that that is propaganda as much as unprovoked is. Some more sinister players who know better should be in jail. But the average person needs help and a lot of it.
Another phrase I've seen suspiciously often is "Russia's full-scale invasion", as if there were some sliding scale of invasions and this is the worst possible kind
In his message to the troops prior to the July 4th weekend, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin offered high praise indeed. “We have the greatest fighting force in human history,” he tweeted, connecting that claim to the U.S. having patriots of all colors, creeds, and backgrounds “who bravely volunteer to defend our country and our values.”
As a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel from a working-class background who volunteered to serve more than four decades ago, who am I to argue with Austin? Shouldn’t I just bask in the glow of his praise for today’s troops, reflecting on my own honorable service near the end of what now must be thought of as the First Cold War?
Yet I confess to having doubts. I’ve heard it all before. The hype. The hyperbole. I still remember how, soon after the 9/11 attacks, President George W. Bush boasted that this country had “the greatest force for human liberation the world has ever known.” I also remember how, in a pep talk given to U.S. troops in Afghanistan in 2010, President Barack Obama declared them “the finest fighting force that the world has ever known.” And yet, 15 years ago at TomDispatch, I was already wondering when Americans had first become so proud of, and insistent upon, declaring our military the world’s absolute best, a force beyond compare, and what that meant for a republic that once had viewed large standing armies and constant warfare as anathemas to freedom.
In retrospect, the answer is all too straightforward: we need something to boast about, don’t we? In the once-upon-a-time “exceptional nation,” what else is there to praise to the skies or consider our pride and joy these days except our heroes? After all, this country can no longer boast of having anything like the world’s best educational outcomes, or healthcare system, or the most advanced and safest infrastructure, or the best democratic politics, so we better damn well be able to boast about having “the greatest fighting force” ever.
Leaving that boast aside, Americans could certainly brag about one thing this country has beyond compare: the most expensive military around and possibly ever. No country even comes close to our commitment of funds to wars, weapons (including nuclear ones at the Department of Energy), and global dominance. Indeed, the Pentagon’s budget for “defense” in 2023 exceeds that of the next 10 countries (mostly allies!) combined.
And from all of this, it seems to me, two questions arise: Are we truly getting what we pay so dearly for — the bestest, finest, most exceptional military ever? And even if we are, should a self-proclaimed democracy really want such a thing?
The answer to both those questions is, of course, no. After all, America hasn’t won a war in a convincing fashion since 1945. If this country keeps losing wars routinely and often enough catastrophically, as it has in places like Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq, how can we honestly say that we possess the world’s greatest fighting force? And if we nevertheless persist in such a boast, doesn’t that echo the rhetoric of militaristic empires of the past? (Remember when we used to think that only unhinged dictators like Adolf Hitler boasted of having peerless warriors in a megalomaniacal pursuit of global domination?).............................................................................
Absolutely 100% spot on! In Germany it's exactly the same. The word here is Angriffskrieg, which does not have an exact equivalent in English ("attack-war") but it rolls even more easily off the unthinking tongue than "unprovoked attack/invasion" and the meaning is the same. Very rarely, if ever, do you here anyone in the mass media refer to the war in Ukraine as anything but "der russische Angriffskrieg." I would like very much to know what the expressions are in other languages, because I'm sure the same is true elsewhere in the West. It's as if there was a central committee that decided on the prescribed words to use -- and maybe there actually is such a committee. If there isn't, it's even worse, because that means everybody does it willingly and without being told!
US/NATO WAR Propaganda does not inform the Public the Ukrainian government dramatically increased the shelling of the ethnic Russian speaking Ukrainian Civilians in the Donbas with up to 2000 shellings a Day in the week before February 24, that provoked Russia to make the incursion into Ukraine to stop it.
On May 3rd Pope Francis said NATO may have caused Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, doubling down on that June 14.
I speculate he was under intense pressure not to mention that again and he succumbed to the pressure.
With all the US Propaganda portraying Putin as an evil brutal monster, these four 1 hour sessions of him questioned by Oliver Stone tell a different story.
The 2nd hour with Putin, shows him in this One on One with Oliver Stone, to be more humane, rational, reasonable and down to Earth with the People than scripted US Presidents.
I have yet to watch sessions 3 & 4 but I definitely will!
They're doing exactly the same thing with China "aggression". Moon of Alabama wrote this yesterday:
"The BBC reported on August 22, 2022:
Taiwan: Two US warships sail through strait
Two US warships are passing through the Taiwan Strait, the US Navy has announced.
...
Washington says its two guided-missile cruisers - the USS Antietam and the USS Chancellorsville - are demonstrating freedom of navigation through international waters.
...
Beijing views such actions as provocative and maintains that the island of Taiwan is an integral part of Chinese territory.
On Sunday, its military said it was monitoring the two vessels' progress, maintaining a high alert, and was ready to defeat any provocation, Reuters news agency reports.
The US Navy said in a statement that the transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrated the "United States' commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific".
The WSJ on August 6, 2023:
Russia and China Sent Large Naval Patrol Near Alaska
A combined Russian and Chinese naval force patrolled near the coast of Alaska last week in what U.S. experts said appeared to be the largest such flotilla to approach American shores.
Eleven Russian and Chinese ships steamed close to the Aleutian Islands, according to U.S. officials. The ships, which never entered U.S. territorial waters and have since left, were shadowed by four U.S. destroyers and P-8 Poseidon aircraft.
“It is a historical first,” said Brent Sadler, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation and a retired Navy captain. “Given the context of the war in Ukraine and tensions around Taiwan, this move is highly provocative.”
...
Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska, a Republican member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the patrol was a reminder that the U.S. has entered “a new era of authoritarian aggression” and applauded the robust U.S. response.
Jeffery Sachs and John Mearscheimer have impeccable credentials as do Jay Bhattacharya and Peter McCullough, and if experts once universally admired can be disparaged and ignored you would think it would be enough to warn the sky is falling. Oh but no amount of truth is enough to break the spell of those infected with denial by faith in their self righteousness even as it herds them to the slaughterhouse. Denial is a powerful element of human survival and happiness, but all too often is the source of death and despair. A lack of denial can also be very painful making the choice a catch 22.
The illusionary truth effect is more effective when it supports people's biases. In regards to the United States there are a couple clear ones. Firstly, the first is that the mass media is credible and trustworthy, so it makes it easy for it to manipulate people. Secondly, the majority of the US see Russia as an enemy(ironically they are not). So Putin doing this seems easy to believe, next Zelinsky is lionized, some kind of hero. The average US person knows nothing about him, so boom, we are given someone to support.
It's weird, we invaded Iraq due to a "terrorist" Strangely several of the terrorists were connected to Saudi Arabia?Wrong country much? We'd never invade Saudi Arabia, and we have invaded other countries for less than what Saudi Arabia does openly. How many terrorist attacks happened in other countries since that caused the same reaction as September 11th?
The term unprovoked makes it easy for people to pick a side. Simplicity in politicals is seldom true.
At the beginning of the Ukraine conflict I remember seeing this use of the word "unprovoked" over and over. Even before I did some rudimentary online reading concerning recent Ukraine history, the fact that this word kept being used gave me the "thou doth protest too much" vibe. After all we don't say the unprovoked Vietnam War, unprovoked WWII, the unprovoked Revolutionary War, so why keep saying the "unprovoked" Ukraine War. Because IT WAS PROVOKED. Thou doth protest too much! By the way, my rudimentary online research, in spite of search engine censorship, easily turned up enough information on the US backed 2014 coup, NATO expansion despite promises it wouldn't, Minsk agreements broken by Ukraine and the west, Azov battalion attacks on ethnic Russians in the Donbass, and on and on., to see that this war was repeatedly, brazenly, and persistently provoked by the US/NATO/Ukraine. It's astounding and very scary to realize that MOST people do not even do this rudimentary amount of reading.
This being the same effect of "what page would you like to open the book to?"
Regularly, propaganda is conflated by "opening the book" to the page that supports the propaganda.
Ignore everything before, ignore everything after. History begins where we say it begins.
Open the book before that, you are a conspiracy theorist, or misinformed. "Please see the relevant Wikipedia page for the correct context" says Youtube, Facebook and the CIA.
Individuals, mostly narcissists will also insist on being our history keeper in our own lives.
All means to hold power over others.
The playbook is so simple, and yet the majority of the population will only believe what they are told by "Authorities."
In sales, I learned that the first number you tell someone is the one they remember, no matter what happens afterwards. That also applies to propaganda.
70% of the population simply follows the crowd. So the answer then is simply to give that 70% something good to follow.
People who parrot, “you can’t do anything about it” like family members of mine, or the normies in general, need our continual highlighting of the fact that that is propaganda as much as unprovoked is. Some more sinister players who know better should be in jail. But the average person needs help and a lot of it.
Another phrase I've seen suspiciously often is "Russia's full-scale invasion", as if there were some sliding scale of invasions and this is the worst possible kind
“The Greatest Fighting Force in Human History”
The Perpetual Wars You Aren't Supposed to Notice
In his message to the troops prior to the July 4th weekend, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin offered high praise indeed. “We have the greatest fighting force in human history,” he tweeted, connecting that claim to the U.S. having patriots of all colors, creeds, and backgrounds “who bravely volunteer to defend our country and our values.”
As a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel from a working-class background who volunteered to serve more than four decades ago, who am I to argue with Austin? Shouldn’t I just bask in the glow of his praise for today’s troops, reflecting on my own honorable service near the end of what now must be thought of as the First Cold War?
Yet I confess to having doubts. I’ve heard it all before. The hype. The hyperbole. I still remember how, soon after the 9/11 attacks, President George W. Bush boasted that this country had “the greatest force for human liberation the world has ever known.” I also remember how, in a pep talk given to U.S. troops in Afghanistan in 2010, President Barack Obama declared them “the finest fighting force that the world has ever known.” And yet, 15 years ago at TomDispatch, I was already wondering when Americans had first become so proud of, and insistent upon, declaring our military the world’s absolute best, a force beyond compare, and what that meant for a republic that once had viewed large standing armies and constant warfare as anathemas to freedom.
In retrospect, the answer is all too straightforward: we need something to boast about, don’t we? In the once-upon-a-time “exceptional nation,” what else is there to praise to the skies or consider our pride and joy these days except our heroes? After all, this country can no longer boast of having anything like the world’s best educational outcomes, or healthcare system, or the most advanced and safest infrastructure, or the best democratic politics, so we better damn well be able to boast about having “the greatest fighting force” ever.
Leaving that boast aside, Americans could certainly brag about one thing this country has beyond compare: the most expensive military around and possibly ever. No country even comes close to our commitment of funds to wars, weapons (including nuclear ones at the Department of Energy), and global dominance. Indeed, the Pentagon’s budget for “defense” in 2023 exceeds that of the next 10 countries (mostly allies!) combined.
And from all of this, it seems to me, two questions arise: Are we truly getting what we pay so dearly for — the bestest, finest, most exceptional military ever? And even if we are, should a self-proclaimed democracy really want such a thing?
The answer to both those questions is, of course, no. After all, America hasn’t won a war in a convincing fashion since 1945. If this country keeps losing wars routinely and often enough catastrophically, as it has in places like Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq, how can we honestly say that we possess the world’s greatest fighting force? And if we nevertheless persist in such a boast, doesn’t that echo the rhetoric of militaristic empires of the past? (Remember when we used to think that only unhinged dictators like Adolf Hitler boasted of having peerless warriors in a megalomaniacal pursuit of global domination?).............................................................................
https://tomdispatch.com/the-greatest-fighting-force-in-human-history/
speaking of provoked invasions... www.globalresearch.ca /america-has-been-at-war-93-of-the-time-222-out-of-239-years-since-1776/5565946
America Has Been at War 93% of the Time – 222 out of 239 Years – Since 1776 - Global Research
Absolutely 100% spot on! In Germany it's exactly the same. The word here is Angriffskrieg, which does not have an exact equivalent in English ("attack-war") but it rolls even more easily off the unthinking tongue than "unprovoked attack/invasion" and the meaning is the same. Very rarely, if ever, do you here anyone in the mass media refer to the war in Ukraine as anything but "der russische Angriffskrieg." I would like very much to know what the expressions are in other languages, because I'm sure the same is true elsewhere in the West. It's as if there was a central committee that decided on the prescribed words to use -- and maybe there actually is such a committee. If there isn't, it's even worse, because that means everybody does it willingly and without being told!
US/NATO WAR Propaganda does not inform the Public the Ukrainian government dramatically increased the shelling of the ethnic Russian speaking Ukrainian Civilians in the Donbas with up to 2000 shellings a Day in the week before February 24, that provoked Russia to make the incursion into Ukraine to stop it.
On May 3rd Pope Francis said NATO may have caused Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, doubling down on that June 14.
I speculate he was under intense pressure not to mention that again and he succumbed to the pressure.
https://www.politico.eu/article/pope-francis-nato-cause-ukraine-invasion-russia/,
https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/russia-ukraine-latest-news-2022-05-03/card/pope-says-nato-may-have-provoked-russian-invasion-of-ukraine-E7VAcqXGK8xNoHxJPQFs
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/06/14/pope-nato-may-have-provoked-russian-invasion-ukraine-not-pro/
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2022/06/14/italy-vatican-pope-francis-russia-war-ukraine-nato/5711655218266/
With all the US Propaganda portraying Putin as an evil brutal monster, these four 1 hour sessions of him questioned by Oliver Stone tell a different story.
The 2nd hour with Putin, shows him in this One on One with Oliver Stone, to be more humane, rational, reasonable and down to Earth with the People than scripted US Presidents.
I have yet to watch sessions 3 & 4 but I definitely will!
https://www.informationclearinghouse.info/57703.htm
They're doing exactly the same thing with China "aggression". Moon of Alabama wrote this yesterday:
"The BBC reported on August 22, 2022:
Taiwan: Two US warships sail through strait
Two US warships are passing through the Taiwan Strait, the US Navy has announced.
...
Washington says its two guided-missile cruisers - the USS Antietam and the USS Chancellorsville - are demonstrating freedom of navigation through international waters.
...
Beijing views such actions as provocative and maintains that the island of Taiwan is an integral part of Chinese territory.
On Sunday, its military said it was monitoring the two vessels' progress, maintaining a high alert, and was ready to defeat any provocation, Reuters news agency reports.
The US Navy said in a statement that the transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrated the "United States' commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific".
The WSJ on August 6, 2023:
Russia and China Sent Large Naval Patrol Near Alaska
A combined Russian and Chinese naval force patrolled near the coast of Alaska last week in what U.S. experts said appeared to be the largest such flotilla to approach American shores.
Eleven Russian and Chinese ships steamed close to the Aleutian Islands, according to U.S. officials. The ships, which never entered U.S. territorial waters and have since left, were shadowed by four U.S. destroyers and P-8 Poseidon aircraft.
“It is a historical first,” said Brent Sadler, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation and a retired Navy captain. “Given the context of the war in Ukraine and tensions around Taiwan, this move is highly provocative.”
...
Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska, a Republican member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the patrol was a reminder that the U.S. has entered “a new era of authoritarian aggression” and applauded the robust U.S. response.
Jeffery Sachs and John Mearscheimer have impeccable credentials as do Jay Bhattacharya and Peter McCullough, and if experts once universally admired can be disparaged and ignored you would think it would be enough to warn the sky is falling. Oh but no amount of truth is enough to break the spell of those infected with denial by faith in their self righteousness even as it herds them to the slaughterhouse. Denial is a powerful element of human survival and happiness, but all too often is the source of death and despair. A lack of denial can also be very painful making the choice a catch 22.
The illusionary truth effect is more effective when it supports people's biases. In regards to the United States there are a couple clear ones. Firstly, the first is that the mass media is credible and trustworthy, so it makes it easy for it to manipulate people. Secondly, the majority of the US see Russia as an enemy(ironically they are not). So Putin doing this seems easy to believe, next Zelinsky is lionized, some kind of hero. The average US person knows nothing about him, so boom, we are given someone to support.
It's weird, we invaded Iraq due to a "terrorist" Strangely several of the terrorists were connected to Saudi Arabia?Wrong country much? We'd never invade Saudi Arabia, and we have invaded other countries for less than what Saudi Arabia does openly. How many terrorist attacks happened in other countries since that caused the same reaction as September 11th?
The term unprovoked makes it easy for people to pick a side. Simplicity in politicals is seldom true.
At the beginning of the Ukraine conflict I remember seeing this use of the word "unprovoked" over and over. Even before I did some rudimentary online reading concerning recent Ukraine history, the fact that this word kept being used gave me the "thou doth protest too much" vibe. After all we don't say the unprovoked Vietnam War, unprovoked WWII, the unprovoked Revolutionary War, so why keep saying the "unprovoked" Ukraine War. Because IT WAS PROVOKED. Thou doth protest too much! By the way, my rudimentary online research, in spite of search engine censorship, easily turned up enough information on the US backed 2014 coup, NATO expansion despite promises it wouldn't, Minsk agreements broken by Ukraine and the west, Azov battalion attacks on ethnic Russians in the Donbass, and on and on., to see that this war was repeatedly, brazenly, and persistently provoked by the US/NATO/Ukraine. It's astounding and very scary to realize that MOST people do not even do this rudimentary amount of reading.
It was actually the second time this century.
The first use of this mnemonic technique en masse was the deliberate and unprovoked association of "Islamic" and "Terrorism".
Needless to say, ALSO a psyop to benefit America's Empire.
Heard it through the grapevine: this blog post was unprovoked!
We would not accept missiles in Cuba
But why does this expand to Russia not accepting missile INTERCEPT systems on their borders?
This is really good, thank you. Now apply the “illusory truth effect” to every other area of narrative....