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Feral Finster's avatar

Endless and endlessly performative squabbling over matters that the Empire doesn't care about, lockstep unity when it comes to keeping the billionaires happy and the wars stoked.

Tens of billions are lavished upon Ukraine and Sanders votes against any accountability, but the citizens of East Palestine are denied so much as a hotel voucher.

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AJF's avatar

Sanders is my Senator. No longer receive responses from him unless it's an issue he agrees with. Which by the way have been few and far between these past years.

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Daniel Geery's avatar

He's pushing hard for WW3. Along with AOC and countless others. EeeeHaaa!

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Jul 31, 2023
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Society's Stinky Parts's avatar

It's left capitalism. It's not supposed to do anything well but propagate.

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Feral Finster's avatar

I used to be a supporter. I now see him as neutered at best, a sheepdog at worst.

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Jul 30, 2023
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AJF's avatar

I've spoken to a number of people in his office on issues and sent well researched factually based emails over the last 3 years. For example my concern surrounding the alterations to the International Health Regulations (IHR) through the WHO, mandating experimental procedures, and much more. I formerly identified politically as a progressive democrat. No longer. That party is no longer recognizable. No calls for peace negotiations, no recognition of 'vaccine" injured. All for lockdowns (a prison term). Just fine with biological men competing in women's sports (Title lX) I could go on....

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Jul 30, 2023
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AJF's avatar

I am...40 years now!

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Feral Finster's avatar

Lol, people made comparable excuses for Obama, even as he betrayed his supporters, over and over and over.

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Jul 30, 2023
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Feral Finster's avatar

So you are seriously saying that Sanders owes no allegiance to anyone outside of Vermont, and moreover thst wars and empire are in the interest of the people of Vermont?

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Aug 1, 2023
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Society's Stinky Parts's avatar

Good. Only mentally ill people want to be a slave and have a "job".

The rest of us just want to make what we and ours need and do as we will.

Your Calvinist economic model is no longer relevant.

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Aug 1, 2023
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Jul 30, 2023
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Feral Finster's avatar

So you're saying he's neutered. And you make more excuses, and it’s not as if AIPAC has forbidden any accountability for Ukraine, to give the first example to come to mind.

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Jul 30, 2023
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Feral Finster's avatar

Evidence, please.

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Jul 30, 2023
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Feral Finster's avatar

Yet plenty of other congressmen did vote to force some accountability on Ukraine.

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Kojo's avatar

He can afford to if he has morals and backbone. . He wants the money.

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Stevan H Hauck's avatar

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." William Casey, former CIA Director

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Tereza Coraggio's avatar

Great point Caitlin! I also refer to empire privilege, which supersedes white privilege and applies to all of us who assume our ability to consume without producing. That's logically impossible for whole societies without colonized slave populations, yet we never question it.

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Noah (he/him)'s avatar

I don’t think it’s fair to trivialize white privilege ever. Not to mention the fact that slavery still exists in America to this day, on prison farms (former plantations) where black inmates are sentenced to life or death and produce agricultural, license plates and many other goods for no pay.

As a socialist something I really don’t like is how class solidarity is sometimes misrepresented to exclude, diminish or ignore white privilege and the very real struggles BIPOC face, both in the past and the present.

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Society's Stinky Parts's avatar

You're not a socialist. You're a neoliberal social capitalist trying to jam your focus-tested partisan pieties where they don't belong and aren't welcome.

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Noah (he/him)'s avatar

You can absolutely be a socialist and still acknowledge that marginalized individuals have it harder historically, statistically and presently than white, straight, christian individuals in America. Anyone who chooses to ignore that isn’t a real socialist. In no way does me acknowledging the very real barriers marginalized people face diminish my disdain for capitalism. You’re not even a socialist. You’re a disgusting troll and that’s why you never contribute anything of value or importance.

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Society's Stinky Parts's avatar

Your post is nothing but self-important religious dispensation. Anyone who believes in myth (like that there is a Black intersubjectivity prior to capitalism, or that race is somehow materially different from any other capitalist classification) should shut up and stop thinking with their emotions.

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Noah (he/him)'s avatar

Slavery is older than capitalism. Nice try.

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Society's Stinky Parts's avatar

Define intersubjectivity without googling it, virtue hoarder.

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Jul 31, 2023
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Noah (he/him)'s avatar

White privilege bs, huh? I guess that’s why slavery still exists in the US. I guess that’s why cops target black people more than any other race. I guess that’s why right wingers bully trans ppl online till they literally kill themselves. But it’s all bs right? FOH. You can stand for class solidarity while refusing to be blind and ignorant. Class solidarity is about equality, equity and fairness. If you don’t understand that there’s something wrong with you.

Edited to add-

The point is you shouldn’t HAVE to pick one. You should still be able to be unapologetically black and gay and respected both as an individual and as a member of the working class.

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Society's Stinky Parts's avatar

Respect is aristoccracy. You should actually fuck off with your capitalist religious shit.

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Noah (he/him)'s avatar

You don’t know what any of those words even mean, and you’re the worst troll on the planet. No one on here is going to be stupid enough to think I’m a capitalism simp or that I have any positive feelings toward Christianity whatsoever.

It’s pretty disgusting to see obvious right wing trolls calling themselves socialists because of how much Caitlin has downplayed social justice issues. In any event, I’m going to block you because you’ve harassed me more than enough. Genuinely, I hope you die.

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Society's Stinky Parts's avatar

Actually it's clearly obvious that you're a neoliberal simp precisely because of your cognitive (trite moralistic) focus and your tendency to insert your feelings and judgments as if they were facts. Underneath your slick "democratic socialist" rhetoric, it's pretty obvious just what you and your party are.

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Noah (he/him)'s avatar

I’m not even bothering to respond to this because it’s nothing but a bunch of racist, transphobic disgusting garbage. I genuinely hope you die.

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Literally Mussolini's avatar

"I genuinely hope you die." LOL!

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Society's Stinky Parts's avatar

Nobody cares about the mental illnesses you call doctrines and nobody needs to.

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Robert Billyard's avatar

Be aware the term "conspiracy theory" originated with the CIA as a way of discrediting anything other than their official narrative and they have direct influence in both the MSM and movies made in Hollywood.

Everything written and said is from bias, in one form or another.

Protect your precious soul, by multi-sourcing, reading skeptically and globally. Develop trusted sources and cross reference. Ask who benefits?

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Feral Finster's avatar

When the conspiracy originates with and works to the benefit of the Establishment, of People Of Influence And Authority, you can bet that I'll call it a "conspiracy theory".

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Alistair P-M's avatar

A friend of mine believes that Putin is a bad guy because the Guardian says he is, and my friend believes the Guardian because they say the kind of liberal left wing stuff my friend agrees with. I tried telling him that the Guardian is functionally no different from the Telegraph or the Sun and he laughed at me. Tough conversation that was

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Feral Finster's avatar

Just different idpol.

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Society's Stinky Parts's avatar

I suppose you didn't have time to relate the image of GCHQ destroying flash chips on video cards with an angle grinder days before the Guardian completely changed its tune.

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Alistair P-M's avatar

I'm afraid I don't know what you mean by that. Changed their tune on what?

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Society's Stinky Parts's avatar

The _Guardian_ used to be a muckraking, speaking-truth-despite-power publication before they became neoliberal PMC lapdogs. The change in character was sharp, right around this time:

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/uk/guardian-reveals-how-it-destroyed-nsa-gchq-files-1.1500208

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Jul 30, 2023
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Alistair P-M's avatar

Ugh yes when I tried telling everyone about what's happening in Ukraine last April, a couple of ppl sent me links to an Intercept podcast about "Putin's brutal war on Ukraine"

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Jul 31, 2023
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Alistair P-M's avatar

I can't decide what I think about Scott Ritter. He is undoubtedly a hero for putting his neck on the line trying to stop the Iraq war from happening, and he has taken lots of abuse for being outspoken on the Ukraine conflict. On the other hand, his loyalty to the US army seems to make him unable to criticise the US war machine. He's good to listen to for an objective assessment of military developments

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Crixcyon's avatar

Very true, you can trust neither side. Every empire in world history has fallen due to corruption and arrogance. The US empire is well on its way to total destruction as it now exists. According to Martin Armstrong, the US will be in total crumble-lation by the early 2030's. It's inevitable. Simply avoid all mainstream media and seek out alternative sources. It might be a good idea to drown your TV in the bathtub...unplugged of course.

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The Revolution Continues's avatar

"In this way we are kept barking and snarling at each other, without ever turning our gaze upon our rulers, and without ever noticing how many more there are of us there are than them."

You are so right, Caitlin. We outnumber the bastards "ruling" over us currently, and they don't have to remain in power forever. It's time we all show some backbone and tell the Empire that we don't want their endless wars for profit and take them out. We need to strike, sit out, lie down, and yell out, "We're mad as hell and we're not going to take it anymore." And mean it. We owe it to our fellow human beings and our planet.

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Joy Bose's avatar

This is so true! The establishment left vs right dichotomy is completely one dimensional. Pro vs anti imperialist and/or pro establishment vs anti establishment should be added as an extra feature to rank all such media outlets.

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Andrew Thomas's avatar

The US has one party with two right wings. Gore Vidal, not verbatim. The great Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere was called a ‘tin-pot dictator’ by an old acquaintance, and was resolutely hated by the 60s-70s version of the US blob, for trying to maintain a one party state, as the only way to avoid a slide into tribalism of a country whose borders were drawn without any regard for the ethnicities and histories of the people of that country. At some point, he responded to all of the criticism by saying, as best I can remember, ‘the USA, too, is a one-party state, but, owing to typical American extravagance, it has two of them.’

The term ‘left’ as it has been abused in the US propaganda wars, has no meaning at all. Along with the words communist, fascist, democratic, liberal, conservative and freedom. And even right. When there is no spectrum- when the only game in town is the full-spectrum dominance of the global neo-colonial US Empire- even right loses its meaning. It is a relational term. It’s ok to use the term ‘west’ because it still has some real meaning- the US, Five Eyes, EU, NATO. An ironically useful four-letter substitute for the Empire, the existence of which its proponents deny.

Wonderful job, as usual, Caitlin.👍

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David's avatar

The puerile polemics that plays out daily in the national dialogue is indicative of the sophomoric level of discussion that the powers that be wish the public to engage in. Ignoring substance and focusing on the superficial the ultimate aim is to keep the public ignorant, confused and divided while the special interests keep their plunder high and dry. A zombified public keeps a path open to facilitate the pillage and subjugation of the nation.

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Toma's avatar

I wish these media bias websites would add a "pertinent news" rating. Barbie gross opening amounts, the number of McDonald's drive thru order mistakes in a week and the like rated as 0 and global warming, cost of living and war profit etc rated at 10. It would change the perception of the analysis considerably. Left or right are meaningless if the issues being reported are meaningless. We're being inundated with drivel and distractions to argue over.

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Jul 31, 2023
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Society's Stinky Parts's avatar

Wouldn't it be cheaper to pay all Chinese people to jump off a chair simultaneously?

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Toma's avatar

That's their DOOMSDAYS DEVICE. It's why their frantic about a dwindling population.

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Society's Stinky Parts's avatar

Only capitalist fertility cults compete on the basis of population. Ah, well.

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Toma's avatar

Taylor who?

Does Swift mean she has a brain?

Mebbe I should look her/him/it up to edicate meself. Went through one of dem siezmic eevents here in Hawaii don't want anudder.

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Jul 31, 2023
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Toma's avatar

I've got to respond to this.

Greta was probably there.

"While Caplan-Auerbach is excited about the chance of becoming a Swiftie herself, she is mostly driven by the opportunity to demystify science."

“What I love is to be able to share that this is science” she said, adding that “it doesn’t have to happen in a lab with a white coat. Everyday observations and experiences are science.”

From CNN report on the swifties

Caplan-Auerbach is the geologist that investigated this " earthquake".

Americans gullibility at an all time high!

Hawaii recently had hurricane Calvin run over the state. I've been sailing and commercial fishing for the better part of my lifetime. I've sailed through hurricanes tropical storms and take these things seriously. Calvin dropped from hurricane to tropical storm just as it hit the Big Island with gusts up to.60 mph predicted. I was downloading the sat data from the natl. Hurricane center keeping track of it every day. The governor declared a state of emergency and shutdown the state.

So the storm hits the island and I'm wondering where the wind is. The smoke from my cigar is rising vertical. The sky is clear blue. The Pacific is truly living up to its name, flat calm like glass. 1 to 6" rain predicted and not a drop. The sat data clearly showed a tropical storm over the island at that time.

I got into a discussion about this with my landlord and he asked me to explain it. The only thing I could come up with was computer generated images. Crazy? The ocean stayed calm and no rain or wind for 4 days after the storm passed. I'm not supposed to believe what my own eyes tell me? The governor made the comment that "It was a good dry run for hurricane preparations". "Everyday observations and experiences are science."? Guess not.

Hawaii seems to be a test bed for absurdity. A few years back Civil Defense issued a warning "Incoming ICBM impact in 20 minutes. This is not a drill." over cellphone and TV. It then took 20 minutes to issue a statement that it was a mistake. Oooppps. The excuse was someone pushed the wrong button. Sure.

I think the gullibility factor of Americans is complete. They believe anything the government tells them. Scary in my opinion.

Now I'm heading for Walmart for my heavy duty tinfoil and duck tape for my alien proof hat.

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Jul 31, 2023
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Toma's avatar

Want me to pick you up some?

Wd40 with the new metal spout makes an awesome portable flame thrower for evil aliens. Works great for rats too.

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todd smith's avatar

Too true! In America the MSM can assume the fact that Americans (including the University-graduated) just don't know much about the Outside World, so even though US Empire is criminally interventionist, it promotes a dumbed-down "isolationist" mindset at Home. So the average educated American sees an Ecuadorian, say, as a less-than-perfect expression of What an American Is, so "Being American" is always the Measure, which is the Imperial mentality, a projection or delusional view of the World not shared by most non-Americans...

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Patrick Powers's avatar

The USA is the ideal and everyone else wants that. They secretly resent their governments holding them back and hope they will be overthrown. How can we not help them on the road to freedom and democracy?

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unwarranted's avatar

I think this is directly related to the “conspiracy” to de-platform and marginalize RFKJR. I have presented this link twice recently, but I don’t know how many folks are clicking on it. RFKJR is involved in litigation, suing the BBC which created a group called the Trusted News Initiative. This group was begun to render invisible any person or group that challenged the orthodoxy on matters related to Covid-19. It soon grew into a plan to silence anti-imperialist journalists, critics of Israel, and anyone who annoyed the oligarchs who run the MIC.

Every “legacy” news outlet, I.e., print, TV, radio, basically ANY news source that isn’t only online, is a de facto member of the “legacy” umbrella. As it happens, the internet is the ONLY place where RFKJR can be seen or heard. His rise in popularity is owed solely to his online exposure.

So RFKJR’s lawsuit is central to the lockstep dedication of the MSM to ignore real stories and promote fabricated ones. He’s a successful litigator, so maybe he can show how Julian Assange has been conspiratorially disappeared. How embarrassing if a lawyer can force media moguls to report news they don’t like!

Here’s the link:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7_gHzPvOpIo&pp=ygVFRXhwb3NpbmcgdGhlIFJlYWwgUmVhc29uIExlZ2FjeSBNZWRpYSBGZWFycyBNZSBsIFJvYmVydCBGLiBLZW5uZWR5IEpy

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Kojo's avatar

RFK Jr is a charlatan. Just another oligarch and tool of empire. He supports American exceptionalism and Israeli imperialism.

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unwarranted's avatar

I’m not trying to sell him to anybody. He may not be the tool you see him as, because he’s pissing off his party and getting blackballed in the MSM. Also, he wants no part of the proxy war. If he’s a threat to the status quo, I won’t call him names simply because he’s not ideal.

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Society's Stinky Parts's avatar

His virtue is irrelevant. It's childish to send anyone through a process of competitive lying and expect not to get a better liar out the other side. People really need to think harder about what their own actions are doing to *themselves* and their own perceptions of the world, and whether putting any faith in heroic institutions causes or preserves more problems than it materially solves.

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Society's Stinky Parts's avatar

Receiving new information is a continuous process, and so is that self-monitoring. Whenever you find yourself believing incredible tales, that might be a good time for a self-audit.

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Kojo's avatar

What are you talking about?

The only reason Mr Kennedy is on the political scene is that he is a part of the Kennedy oligarchs. He IS the status quo.

So much for that load of red herring!

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unwarranted's avatar

Your total dismissal may be appropriate, but I think he will appeal to a lot of alienated voters who have seen enough of Trump and the fake parties. Again, I am not endorsing or promoting him, but I know of no other insider who has contradicted the “unprovoked” narrative or named the neocons who are pushing the proxy war. For that alone I think he has value as a moral voice, in a cesspool of liars and cynics.

He may be delusional about this country and its blood-ridden history, but somebody like him can shed more light on the rigged system for the millions who don’t yet see it. And if he can change the subject from inevitable war to imminent diplomatic talks, that would be pretty big.

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Kojo's avatar

Don’t talk about me personally. Talk about the subject.

RFK is an oligarch and a charlatan. A promoter of empire and imperialism. He’s not shedding light. He’s throwing clouds and diversion.

Charlatan.

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unwarranted's avatar

I see a self-limiting function in leaning on labels without considering context. Yes, RFKJR is a charlatan whose familial ties give him insider credibility. But he’s been able, through his litagatory talents to hone a reputation for standing up for the victims of corporate power and corruption.

Does this mean he will trigger a soft revolution? Of course not, but if a DP loyalist can call out the neoliberal extremists in his own party, that is a step in the right direction, isn’t it?

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AJF's avatar

Sharing this with friends who think they're getting all their "news" from the NYT and NPR. BTW reading "The Grey Lady Winked" by Ashley Rindsberg. A thorough look into the history of The New York Times. Forward by Mark Crispin Miller.

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Luca Baptista's avatar

The most insidious form of bias is "propaganda by omission". When most people believe something happens only because corporate media says it happens, they won't have anything to believe or disbelieve if there's no news about it.

And when you try to point out that what the media says is far from being the whole story, it puts a real strain on your relationships.

I've grown tired of seeing friends or acquaintances lavishing praise on garbage like the nyt, the guardian, and other shitneolib outlets - and calling "fake news", "disinformation", etc. whatever might deviate, even slightly, from the accepted path. It's impossible to convince them otherwise, especially when they look at you as if you're falling for the "conspiracists".

Society is breaking down, in all sorts of ways.

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Society's Stinky Parts's avatar

Lately, as the dream journal of the bourgeoisie (aka "the news") has become more obviously and explicitly mythical, it's become easier to point out the inversions, subversions, and other formal deceptions, without needing to reference the library of historical facts.

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Patrick Powers's avatar

Ordinary US citizen know nothing of history, geography, Big Money, or war. Ignorant of international affairs they are easily bamboozled. Those who do know such things also know that the key to success is to tell the mighty what they want to hear. Here's an inside eyewitness account courtesy Col. Douglas MacGregor. https://youtu.be/JQsFH--Qnrg. There's also the Senate hearing prior to the 2003 Iraq invasion where Joe Biden helpfully informs weapons inspector Scott Ritter that he if wants to boost his pay grade and ride in limos then he should get with the program.

Though in the case of the Russia blowing up its own pipeline you'd think they wouldn't need to know any of these things, just apply some common sense. It really is impressive the grip they have on the people.

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Society's Stinky Parts's avatar

Some of this stuff can be taught at the barrel head. Almost every day you can find a subject-object inversion in the financial news. For instance, "What do you think they mean when they tell you money *finds* a home or pork bellies "rose"? No it's not finding anything or moving around. Someone is moving it and directing it according to their plan. Someone is granting an enterprise a permission slip to operate. Who, and why is the WSJ trying to obscure their actions?"

Or, "Notice how they weave their judgments in with facts, even though they are reasonably disputable? Like 'unprovoked' before every single instance of 'Russian invasion'? They wouldn't have to saturate you with their propaganda if what they said were actually so."

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Daniel Geery's avatar

A few humble suggestions leap to mind. Listen to anything you can find by Michael Parenti, for truth about Empire. Listen to Chomsky about how "the unvaksed" should be outcasts from society and how we should have "moved on" from 9/11. Ditto the late Howard Zinn. Maybe also RFK Jr. genuflecting to the Zionists. How about turning back the United Snakes of America to those who were here first and lived in relative harmony with Nature?

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