As John Lennon told us; "I read the news today, oh boy, the English army had just won the war." Well, not really, that was the Soviets, but that headline wouldn't sell so well, and no one else would be reporting it that way.
I had a parallel experience in science. Research PhD: expected path was post-doc (maybe several), then obtain research grant, deliver to research institution as research assistant professor --> tenure track, blah blah. But I discovered I loved to teach and students thought I was unusually good at it. And so I followed my spirit and said "screw it" to the standard expectations. As your (and perhaps my) experience illustrates, we need a lot more of those nonstandard paths in all areas of human endeavor if we are to shake up this corrupt self-reinforcing system enough to actually set a better course for ourselves. Just an opinion, of course.
"...if we are to shake up this corrupt self-reinforcing system enough to actually set a better course for ourselves."
It's a nice idea but it's not going to happen. You're not fighting a corrupt system. You're fighting human nature. Even more, you're fighting the nature of the universe.
The vast majority of people don't even see the causes of the, "corrupt system," and are not willing to expend the heroic amount of energy required to push the switch lever to put the train on a better track. Most of them don't even understand that there is a problem, much less that there could be a better track for our species. The people in positions where they could really make a difference aren't particularly interested in changing things because, "Sure, there are some problems but... Well, it's working pretty well for me. Why should I put so much effort into changing something that's working?"
The fact that you had a similar experience in a completely different discipline should point out to you that it really is a problem with the nature of the universe and the nature of human beings. What are the options? It's either that or a secret cabal of people seeking to enslave the world, right? (Down one of these paths lies madness...)
Almost correct... The English General won the war at Waterloo but the news that was carried was incorrect, and reported an untruth that Napoleon had carried the day. This was an intentional deception fostered by those forces what we now know as the illuminati who took advantage when the panic was spread to the run on the banks... And so a fortune was made by those of forces of deception, but what remained was that army of nobles who knew the truth. Those who stand firm even to this very night fight in the darkness knowing tomorrow brings the new light of day.
What Caitlin is saying is certainly true of my experience as a writer even though my degrees were in philosophy and health education, not journalism. I would underscore, as well, that what Caitlin is saying about journalism is true of every academic discipline: if you do not learn to credibly parrot the dominant narratives and believe them with all your heart, you will not survive a hostile job market designed to promote yes men/women and weed out dissidents of whatever stripe. This is also true in health and medical occupations, that if you do not embrace the dominant paradigms and practices early on (all dictated by bottom line considerations) there's a good possibility you'll be refused a university degree, much less not survive the grueling internship that's a requirement for professional practice.
There is a heartbreaking story in the Guardian of a few days ago about how this affects surgeons. The article is about suicides amongst young surgeons.
I know the article you mention. I saw it, too. The entire medical profession is screwed up probably beyond all hope of repair, and will stay that will until a sound philosophy of what health is can be somehow instilled (I'm not holding my breath). Health has nothing to do with drugs or profitability. When the 3rd leading cause of preventable death (in the U.S., anyway) is medical error, what can you say?
So much i’d say is true and consequences obvious, perhaps there’s no answer to that Drake equation, that darkness void of life... Be still the darkness as we move thru this dark valley, fear no evil, at journey’s end we once again we find the light of a beautiful Harvest Moon.
America is ruled by Mob-think. Tocqueville observed back in the 1830's that Americans had freedom of expression but everyone said the same things. Lately it's become painfully obvious that censorship on the internet has taken a turn for the worse, and comments that are deemed not PC get shut off. Our daily conversations with people have to conform to what the majority is peddling or we meet a wall of silence.
You can't have a serious discussion on say political corruption lasting more than five minutes in America but go abroad and perhaps you can discuss it all night long. In this environment the status quo is always upheld and any opinion to the contrary is considered heresy. To prop up this bankrupt status quo the powers that be keep the nation under control with a cabal of dinosaurs. Forget about reform.
If censorship is what you desire, then recent events are surely a problem, the Sun and the moon tug upon the earth strongly tonight, and so those chains of would be tyrants are most easily broken, when all people see the truth and become a force unto themselves to block and to STOP those of greed who have sold their souls to agree to a contract of death. No it will become unfounded unfunded and put out to pasture to fight in their no man’s land of darkness but as for those who seek the truth there will always be light.
The news complex has got to be one of the most detrimental constructs ever invented. Pure and utter propaganda.
Thank you so much Caitlin for choosing a different path. It's thanks to people like you that we can still find dissenting opinions. Nothing is more important right now!
After years of owning and running a private medical primary care practice I took on a side job 6 hours a week, as a Chief Medical Officer of a local nuclear power plant. That is where I quickly learned what it means to tow the corporate line. I was hired just after the plant had a 2 million hour of no on-the-job-accident celebration. A very big affair to which I was invited. Lots of awards, tables of food, and dignitaries. Two weeks into the job I examined an injured worker, who could barely walk and he was in moderate pain. I sent him home with followup and filled out the requisite worker’s injury forms as not able to work until improved. Within 30 minutes the head of the plant was at my door yelling WTF, this was not acceptable. The lightbulb went off in my head as I reviewed previous significantly injured worker’s cases with the nursing staff. Of course bonus pay was involved with the no injury record in the departments. Most significantly injured personnel were brought back to the plant by a co-worker for 30 minutes or so daily, allowed to sit in a chair and sign in, then escorted by car back home. Voila, no on the job injuries and the monies kept flowing. The injured workers went along with this scheme as not to disappoint his or her team.
This is what Caitlin refers to as everyone knows exactly what they are supposed to do without being told to do so. I didn’t last too long in that corporate world of deceit. Even when I thought I was advocating for my patient, I realized who was the boss and who set the rules.
Wow. I have seen some corruption around worker safety but this is unbelievable. Well... Rhetorically unbelievable, that is. Given what I've personally witnessed it's definitely not literally unbelievable.
The only place I think you're not correct is that the workers went along with it, "not to disappoint his or her team." I'd say they went along with it because they absolutely knew that trying to fight it would accomplish nothing other than costing them their job, income, home, family, and everything else they had worked for, including the future lives of their children, and that the system would continue on without pause after rolling over and destroying their life exactly as it had before they tried to speak up about the corruption.
I can tell you that I live in complete poverty because I saw what happened in the world and refused to participate. I worked for a quite influential accounting and consulting firm in a pretty low position but the higher-ups had actually marked me for future promotion because they thought I was a sociopath and would happily be a part of the machine in exchange for prestige and wealth. I saw and heard things that I found profoundly disturbing as I was raised with some pretty solid moral and ethical values. Mostly in the realm of what has been called, "affluenza."
I could tell you some stories about sociopaths mistaking me for, "one of us," and the things I have learned from those experiences that would horrify you. They really are a sort of different species that just looks like the rest of us.
Really enjoyed this one. Some further reading which really illuminates how the press work:
o Heroes (or pretty much anything really) by John Pilger.
o Flat Earth News by Nick Davies.
o No contest by Alfie Kohn.
I also had a similar experience to Caitlin when I was just out of university. I worked for a company that created personalised need feeds for clients.
My job involved, essentially, reading and categorising offered releases to make sure they went to the right people. Two absolutely key things I learnt from that:
o The vast majority of the news you read is a combination of news agency wire clippings, corporate and government press releases, and quotes from officials taken from, you guessed it, MPs press releases. What Davies calls Churnalism. Moat 'journalists' spend their days doing a combination of cutting and pasting and editing. This is why all the papers are identical, they take the same stuff from the same sources. 'No Contest' explains the mechanism for this - it's competition. Read that book for further details but suffice it to say that everything you think about competition is very likely to be inaccurate.
o There are obvious linka the press never looka at, and they're generally linked to raw materials. I can't tell you how often I'd see a combination of press releases that went something like this:
'MPs condemn brutality of the civil war in x region of y African country.
Rip Tinto announces immense diamond mine in x region of y African country. (And it was often Rio Tinto, those guys are absolute scumbags).
It doesn't take a genius to work out that there's something fishy going on when a corporation is perfectly happy to open a goddamn diamond mine or whatever in what's supposed to be the midst of a bloody civil war. Read between the lines a bit and it's very obvious that one or both sides must be getting paid off - how else could the mine stay open?
This, btw, is why clues up activists as well as business types but the Financial Times. Because the FT openly lays out those kinds of facts.
I spent most of my (20) years in television, working in operations and engineering. While not directly in the news department, I was required to record satellite feeds for the news department to use. Many from pharmaceutical companies, organizations and agricultural entities, as well of course ones from government agencies. One day standing next to the monitor checking the feed, I decided to read the copy on the screen which was the pre-written copy for the reporter to use. Noteworthy were the blank spaces for their ("add your here") names and news organization. Much to my chagrin, another moment came when I was personally deeply involved with a statewide protest and was in the room when an important vote was coming from the governor and state council. Who across the room did I see? A former employee of the news department who had gone to work for the governor's office. Ha Ha. You have to laugh. Not so funny now of course!
Thankfully there is a global network of very good journalists emerging. For those of us living in North America and Western Europe it is more important than ever to multi source our news and opinion internationally.
In Canada our MSM is a total waste of time and our alternate sources aren't any better. Americans can be thankful there many alternates willing to give you the straight goods.
This is WW lll and it is a very hybrid war fought on many fronts: only one of which is the battle for freedom of speech.
Not so quick to call WW3, I for one perhaps now in this new world of pronouns can announce proudly the advent of Me, Myself, and I... Accordingly 3 votes, three shots at freedom, and I intend to use all three to vote these criminals out, out of offices that they surely have stolen, in positions they clearly do not deserve, or responsible for actions they do not merit. You see to declare WW3 that’s surely the end of you and me all three.
I think that every decent person who loves the truth should read the book "The Bought Journalists" by Udo Ulfkotte, a former journalist of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, who unfortunately passed away (in somewhat suspicious circumstances) !
If you read his book, you will look at the lying profession of journalism in the West as "authentic" a little differently ! 😉
As John Lennon told us; "I read the news today, oh boy, the English army had just won the war." Well, not really, that was the Soviets, but that headline wouldn't sell so well, and no one else would be reporting it that way.
I had a parallel experience in science. Research PhD: expected path was post-doc (maybe several), then obtain research grant, deliver to research institution as research assistant professor --> tenure track, blah blah. But I discovered I loved to teach and students thought I was unusually good at it. And so I followed my spirit and said "screw it" to the standard expectations. As your (and perhaps my) experience illustrates, we need a lot more of those nonstandard paths in all areas of human endeavor if we are to shake up this corrupt self-reinforcing system enough to actually set a better course for ourselves. Just an opinion, of course.
"...if we are to shake up this corrupt self-reinforcing system enough to actually set a better course for ourselves."
It's a nice idea but it's not going to happen. You're not fighting a corrupt system. You're fighting human nature. Even more, you're fighting the nature of the universe.
The vast majority of people don't even see the causes of the, "corrupt system," and are not willing to expend the heroic amount of energy required to push the switch lever to put the train on a better track. Most of them don't even understand that there is a problem, much less that there could be a better track for our species. The people in positions where they could really make a difference aren't particularly interested in changing things because, "Sure, there are some problems but... Well, it's working pretty well for me. Why should I put so much effort into changing something that's working?"
The fact that you had a similar experience in a completely different discipline should point out to you that it really is a problem with the nature of the universe and the nature of human beings. What are the options? It's either that or a secret cabal of people seeking to enslave the world, right? (Down one of these paths lies madness...)
Almost correct... The English General won the war at Waterloo but the news that was carried was incorrect, and reported an untruth that Napoleon had carried the day. This was an intentional deception fostered by those forces what we now know as the illuminati who took advantage when the panic was spread to the run on the banks... And so a fortune was made by those of forces of deception, but what remained was that army of nobles who knew the truth. Those who stand firm even to this very night fight in the darkness knowing tomorrow brings the new light of day.
What Caitlin is saying is certainly true of my experience as a writer even though my degrees were in philosophy and health education, not journalism. I would underscore, as well, that what Caitlin is saying about journalism is true of every academic discipline: if you do not learn to credibly parrot the dominant narratives and believe them with all your heart, you will not survive a hostile job market designed to promote yes men/women and weed out dissidents of whatever stripe. This is also true in health and medical occupations, that if you do not embrace the dominant paradigms and practices early on (all dictated by bottom line considerations) there's a good possibility you'll be refused a university degree, much less not survive the grueling internship that's a requirement for professional practice.
There is a heartbreaking story in the Guardian of a few days ago about how this affects surgeons. The article is about suicides amongst young surgeons.
I know the article you mention. I saw it, too. The entire medical profession is screwed up probably beyond all hope of repair, and will stay that will until a sound philosophy of what health is can be somehow instilled (I'm not holding my breath). Health has nothing to do with drugs or profitability. When the 3rd leading cause of preventable death (in the U.S., anyway) is medical error, what can you say?
John D. Rockefeller killed medicine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTdFEN_yuh0
Yeah, its a Jimmy Dore video.
I no longer trust anything Jimmy Dore says. He is a bandwagon man.
I would hope so.
Should I assume you're angry over his Cornell West interview.
Or maybe it is his stance on COVID vaccines.
Dore makes excellent points.
Which bandwagon do you ride on.
Jimmy hopped off after he got injured from the covid jabs. He’s anything but mainstream now.
So much i’d say is true and consequences obvious, perhaps there’s no answer to that Drake equation, that darkness void of life... Be still the darkness as we move thru this dark valley, fear no evil, at journey’s end we once again we find the light of a beautiful Harvest Moon.
America is ruled by Mob-think. Tocqueville observed back in the 1830's that Americans had freedom of expression but everyone said the same things. Lately it's become painfully obvious that censorship on the internet has taken a turn for the worse, and comments that are deemed not PC get shut off. Our daily conversations with people have to conform to what the majority is peddling or we meet a wall of silence.
You can't have a serious discussion on say political corruption lasting more than five minutes in America but go abroad and perhaps you can discuss it all night long. In this environment the status quo is always upheld and any opinion to the contrary is considered heresy. To prop up this bankrupt status quo the powers that be keep the nation under control with a cabal of dinosaurs. Forget about reform.
Yes I found this while living in the USA (apart from my friends) most people just agreed with you then walked away. Stepford people!
Have wonderful political discussions here which has literally saved my life.
Americans are probably the most hypocritical people on Earth. The culture promotes it.
Yes.
Maybe one could call this The Stepford Syndrome?
If censorship is what you desire, then recent events are surely a problem, the Sun and the moon tug upon the earth strongly tonight, and so those chains of would be tyrants are most easily broken, when all people see the truth and become a force unto themselves to block and to STOP those of greed who have sold their souls to agree to a contract of death. No it will become unfounded unfunded and put out to pasture to fight in their no man’s land of darkness but as for those who seek the truth there will always be light.
The news complex has got to be one of the most detrimental constructs ever invented. Pure and utter propaganda.
Thank you so much Caitlin for choosing a different path. It's thanks to people like you that we can still find dissenting opinions. Nothing is more important right now!
Yes Caitlin. Thank you.
Their reporting is nonsense, not news sense.
News is what somebody somewhere wants to suppress; all the rest is advertising.
Lord Northcliffe
You definitely made the right choice
After years of owning and running a private medical primary care practice I took on a side job 6 hours a week, as a Chief Medical Officer of a local nuclear power plant. That is where I quickly learned what it means to tow the corporate line. I was hired just after the plant had a 2 million hour of no on-the-job-accident celebration. A very big affair to which I was invited. Lots of awards, tables of food, and dignitaries. Two weeks into the job I examined an injured worker, who could barely walk and he was in moderate pain. I sent him home with followup and filled out the requisite worker’s injury forms as not able to work until improved. Within 30 minutes the head of the plant was at my door yelling WTF, this was not acceptable. The lightbulb went off in my head as I reviewed previous significantly injured worker’s cases with the nursing staff. Of course bonus pay was involved with the no injury record in the departments. Most significantly injured personnel were brought back to the plant by a co-worker for 30 minutes or so daily, allowed to sit in a chair and sign in, then escorted by car back home. Voila, no on the job injuries and the monies kept flowing. The injured workers went along with this scheme as not to disappoint his or her team.
This is what Caitlin refers to as everyone knows exactly what they are supposed to do without being told to do so. I didn’t last too long in that corporate world of deceit. Even when I thought I was advocating for my patient, I realized who was the boss and who set the rules.
Wow. I have seen some corruption around worker safety but this is unbelievable. Well... Rhetorically unbelievable, that is. Given what I've personally witnessed it's definitely not literally unbelievable.
The only place I think you're not correct is that the workers went along with it, "not to disappoint his or her team." I'd say they went along with it because they absolutely knew that trying to fight it would accomplish nothing other than costing them their job, income, home, family, and everything else they had worked for, including the future lives of their children, and that the system would continue on without pause after rolling over and destroying their life exactly as it had before they tried to speak up about the corruption.
I can tell you that I live in complete poverty because I saw what happened in the world and refused to participate. I worked for a quite influential accounting and consulting firm in a pretty low position but the higher-ups had actually marked me for future promotion because they thought I was a sociopath and would happily be a part of the machine in exchange for prestige and wealth. I saw and heard things that I found profoundly disturbing as I was raised with some pretty solid moral and ethical values. Mostly in the realm of what has been called, "affluenza."
I could tell you some stories about sociopaths mistaking me for, "one of us," and the things I have learned from those experiences that would horrify you. They really are a sort of different species that just looks like the rest of us.
Really enjoyed this one. Some further reading which really illuminates how the press work:
o Heroes (or pretty much anything really) by John Pilger.
o Flat Earth News by Nick Davies.
o No contest by Alfie Kohn.
I also had a similar experience to Caitlin when I was just out of university. I worked for a company that created personalised need feeds for clients.
My job involved, essentially, reading and categorising offered releases to make sure they went to the right people. Two absolutely key things I learnt from that:
o The vast majority of the news you read is a combination of news agency wire clippings, corporate and government press releases, and quotes from officials taken from, you guessed it, MPs press releases. What Davies calls Churnalism. Moat 'journalists' spend their days doing a combination of cutting and pasting and editing. This is why all the papers are identical, they take the same stuff from the same sources. 'No Contest' explains the mechanism for this - it's competition. Read that book for further details but suffice it to say that everything you think about competition is very likely to be inaccurate.
o There are obvious linka the press never looka at, and they're generally linked to raw materials. I can't tell you how often I'd see a combination of press releases that went something like this:
'MPs condemn brutality of the civil war in x region of y African country.
Rip Tinto announces immense diamond mine in x region of y African country. (And it was often Rio Tinto, those guys are absolute scumbags).
It doesn't take a genius to work out that there's something fishy going on when a corporation is perfectly happy to open a goddamn diamond mine or whatever in what's supposed to be the midst of a bloody civil war. Read between the lines a bit and it's very obvious that one or both sides must be getting paid off - how else could the mine stay open?
This, btw, is why clues up activists as well as business types but the Financial Times. Because the FT openly lays out those kinds of facts.
I would add Matt Taibbi's Hate Inc to the list. Great book about what happened behind the scenes during election coverage in the U.S.
His vampire squid Goldman Sachs article is absolutely essential reading too.
I spent most of my (20) years in television, working in operations and engineering. While not directly in the news department, I was required to record satellite feeds for the news department to use. Many from pharmaceutical companies, organizations and agricultural entities, as well of course ones from government agencies. One day standing next to the monitor checking the feed, I decided to read the copy on the screen which was the pre-written copy for the reporter to use. Noteworthy were the blank spaces for their ("add your here") names and news organization. Much to my chagrin, another moment came when I was personally deeply involved with a statewide protest and was in the room when an important vote was coming from the governor and state council. Who across the room did I see? A former employee of the news department who had gone to work for the governor's office. Ha Ha. You have to laugh. Not so funny now of course!
Thankfully there is a global network of very good journalists emerging. For those of us living in North America and Western Europe it is more important than ever to multi source our news and opinion internationally.
In Canada our MSM is a total waste of time and our alternate sources aren't any better. Americans can be thankful there many alternates willing to give you the straight goods.
This is WW lll and it is a very hybrid war fought on many fronts: only one of which is the battle for freedom of speech.
Not so quick to call WW3, I for one perhaps now in this new world of pronouns can announce proudly the advent of Me, Myself, and I... Accordingly 3 votes, three shots at freedom, and I intend to use all three to vote these criminals out, out of offices that they surely have stolen, in positions they clearly do not deserve, or responsible for actions they do not merit. You see to declare WW3 that’s surely the end of you and me all three.
I worked at ABC World News. The Process was pyramidal in structure and there was the red phone in every room.
?
The mainstream “News” invariably is like kissing a wet fart . . .
I choose to avoid it.
MSM all owned by the same corps and pushing agendas—period.
Caitlin you’re a refreshing champion of truth through independent thought and genuine journalism.
Hard to believe that was the same Chomsky who later advocated that the unjabbed be excluded from society.
I think that every decent person who loves the truth should read the book "The Bought Journalists" by Udo Ulfkotte, a former journalist of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, who unfortunately passed away (in somewhat suspicious circumstances) !
If you read his book, you will look at the lying profession of journalism in the West as "authentic" a little differently ! 😉
Good luck trying to get American zombies to read anything that so much as hints at destroying their wonderful world.
But that also applies to Europe now. Know any German zombies who'd agree to read it?
I've always loved challenges ! 😉