Why is the American state a Disinformation Machine?
In 1948 the American Smith-Mundt Act allowed the creation a global disinformation media network which mimicked the British global charter of the BBC's 1927 World Service. But in the USA it was restricted domestically. (How you could separate them is beyond me.) This is the genesis of the CIA using the global media as an extension of their subversive activities globally - and helped the Anglo-American Empire to grow.
Repeal - In 2012 the Obama government repealed the part of the 1948 Smith-Mundt Act that prevented the use of disinformation on the American public - it is now "legal" - though it is clearly unconstitutional, but to date has not been challenged and so it is the "law." And this is a typical Democrat Party strategy that they call "one and five" - it will take one million dollars and 5 years to challenge unconstitutional laws.
The Bureau of Global Public Affairs -
"The bureau was formed on May 28, 2019, in a merger between the Bureau of Public Affairs and the Bureau of International Information Programs"
"The Assistant Secretary of State and Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy & Public Affairs, Michelle Giuda, presented on the merger, claiming it will work closely with its media partners as it ramps up its mission to “better communicate,” assuring the audience that it is “perfectly aligned with Smith-Mundt.” However, Giuda neglected to mention that Smith-Mundt as originally legislated, is no longer strictly applicable."
The Bureau of Global Public Affairs is probably the beating heart of the American administrative states global disinformation and censorship machine working with government partners, media, and traitors all over the world. All for the benefit of what I call global fascist capitalism.
I think it was the British conning the Americans into creating the Anglo-American empire, which is what the British Empire became. Look at the similarities. Forever wars for profit and power.
Yes and the British Empire was a continuation of the Roman Empire which was a continuation of the Egyptian Empire which was a continuation of the Sumer Empire...
Yes, our western elites and their fascism projects go back a long, long, way.
Only yesterday I was reading up on the 1st, second, and third Reichs, and for the first time in my life realized the Holy Roman Empire was created by the Germans, and it was the first Reich, the second was the Wiemar Republic, which a lot of the German nobility and aristocrats were unhappy with, and so they joined the Nazi Party and helped Hitler create the Third Reich. Huge numbers of Nazis were nobles and aristocrats who saw their way back to fascism and power was via Hitler and the party. If you want a great website with great historical articles on this try adarapress.com
democracy *is* real and good, it just never meant what rulers said it meant. In practice all it means is that rulers have to restrict themselves to things they can successfully lie about. This really is a gigantic improvement over truly arbitrary rule, as it effectively prevents all sorts of flagrant horrific abuses that have been common historically.
What we're seeing now is the rulers realizing that the new information velocity means their room for maneuver is about to shrink by another order of magnitude at least. Exactly what will come of this remains to be seen. If things go well it'll be rangevoting.org :)
I agree it could easily go that way, which is really sad and ironic. But it's not a given. The tortured lies currently being told about social media censorship aren't widely believed even as things are, nor are they entirely effective at preventing information leakage. Political power is widely diffused to a broad managerial class and it's hard for it to act concertedly to take the steps that would be necessary to really squash dissent.
Just wait, Pelosi all ready brought up the cause to give unlimited extended terms for their criminal actions and next will be Marshall Law when people finally wake up to smell the shit. They are fully prepared for this and a Dictatorship is on the way.
They have yet to drop the hammer all the way. Whether they will or not, I agree, it’s yet to be seen. But where we are at this very moment is well beyond the Constitution. So we very much have no Constitutional protection demonstrated. Just just a matter of degrees at this point.
So far I like Musk, and lets not assume that because someone is rich they can't be trusted. He's working with Taibbi to evaluate just how instrumental Twitter was in pushing Biden for president while knocking Trump off Twitter. I was a registered democrat and would never vote for Clinton, just didn't vote, which brought a lot of flack from people I know. During Trump's presidency not only did I feel the democrats acted like a bunch of autocrats on a mission to remove him from office, but the mainstream press did as well. Many who wrote on left wing sites operated with the same lack of journalistic integrity. They shifted their allegiance to the dems. Greenwald left the Intercept which he got underway because they would not allow him to publish an article on Hunter Biden's labtop, and like Twitter they wanted a Biden win. Greenwald is a journalist.
That is only an admission that you haven't done your due diligence.
I have always said "If you're not a part of the solution, you are a part of the problem.". I don't want to be a part of the problem, so here is a link for you: https://www.corbettreport.com/musk/
You will soon enough find that he is the same fecal matter as the other globalist filth, but a different pile.
What can I say, but I am tolerant and adopt a wait and see attitude, which requires little of me. I'm so glad I didn't jump on the I hate Trump bandwagon, and buy all the lies the democrats and the deep state pushed on a public they thought stupid and easily led. I'm glad I didn't buy the lie of Russia-gate which tried to remove an elected president from office, or buy the lie that his followers are nothing but low like scum. I'm glad I didn't buy the lie that Trump hired prostitutes to pee on the bed the Obama's slept on, but maybe you did. Did you buy the lie that we had an insurrection on January 6, with no guns to overturn the reins of government, with just a couple of old people dead? Do you buy the lie that a January 6 comm made up of democrats and two republicans who hate his guts can determine truth? Did you buy the lie, the propaganda, that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction and never speak up?
Great points. I’m with you being cautious but so far what’s he’s spent for a pile of shit co and the exposure of blatant corruption and unconstitutional behavior represents the most important evidence of political and bureaucratic treason in my almost 70 years on the planet. They are all stealing and lying and blaming us for their crimes and failures.
Well, many, especially those who are into politics are aware of such things, but many aren't and maintain a very naive perspective about their government. The issue is to expose them, make people aware of what their government is capable of doing, and prevent it from happening again, and use it as a starting point to investigate other platforms where you have an abuse of governmental power, and perhaps stop it. It was found that twitter also rigged the Covid debate which didn't provide people with alternate information on a very important and deadly issue. Yeah, many know politics is dirty, but it's important for them to know how dirty it is. It may also encourage the mainstream media to operate in more journalistic fashion like they use to years ago when informing the public was a job they took seriously.
I stopped watching, listening to and reading main stream media sources years ago because I got tired of being lied to on a daily basis. On the other hand I do like watching, listening to and reading when various people dismantle the MSM narrative. Caitlin Johnstone, Eva Bartlet and James Corbett are just three of them. After 17 years of being able to see through their bovine fecal matter I have become proficient at picking their narrative apart myself.
While there absolutely is a bandwagon, any alliance with billionaires is necessarily one of convenience. Don’t think for a moment Musk has any interest in structural changes. A temporary aligning of interests, nothing more.
"Did you buy the lie that we had insurrection on January 6, with no guns to overturn the reins of government, with just a couple of old people dead? Do you buy the lie that a January 6 comm made up of democrats and two republicans who hate his guts can determine truth? Did you buy the lie, the propaganda, that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction and never speak up?"
Nope. None of it, but it seems you are selective in your purchase of lies. The myths and legends surrounding Elon Musk in particular.
I an not the Oracle in Delphi, so no, it doesn't. I do have an open mind, but when something as obvious as Obama's hope and change, or the orange clown's MAGA, or Elon Musk reinstating banned users because he cares about the first amendment......(?) He has had plenty of time, but nothing has happened. What he is trying to do is get back all of Killary's deplorables that have left Twitter in droves because of the banning of the orange clown and others. It's all about revenues. Everything else is a distraction.
Musk hasn't had plenty of time, and he and Taibbi are continuing to work on it. In Taibbi's last post he said he was exhausted. Maybe Musk does care about the first amendment, and because he has money does not rule that out. Perhaps you should adopt a wait and see attitude and not jump to conclusions, like your guru Caitlin who too often makes assumptions and most definitely displays a political bias, in case you haven't noticed.
Judging from your reply I take it that you didn't like the video much. That is, if you even watched it.
During the entire POTUS campaign of 2008 I was telling everyone, particularly the "YES, WE CAN!!!" crowd that nothing will change after Dumbo is (s)elected. If anything does change, it will be for the worse.
I look at Elon Musk followers the same way I looked at said crowd, followers of the orange clown and the rats behind the pied piper.
Elon Musk is just as much onboard with the WEF agenda as Bill Gates and the rest of the globalists. You may not want Bill Gates' chip implant, but you're ok with it as long as Elon Musk produced it. Have I understood you correctly?
I was always a registered democrat, but often voted third party, or didn't vote. I was never thrilled about our presidential choices. I did vote for Obama and bought the lie he was a progressive, then read an article by another black man who worked with him in Chicago politics who said he wasn't. and in my opinion he wasn't, so no second time around for me. Jimmy Dore is about the only one I know who is critical of him on this point, and Caitland makes many excuses for him and holds him accountable for nothing. I did't vote for Trump but was glad he won since I detest Hilary, due to her pathological love of war. Assange is in agreement on that one. Did't vote for Trump, didn't vote, however I did detest the very obvious intent on the part of the democrats to try and remove Trump from office. The deep state, the mainstream media and many on the left were complicit in that as well. I hated them for that. I hated the way they degraded his base, fellow Americans, because as a meme on Facebook put it, they were an uneducated, immoral lot. Screw them! I dropped my affiliation with the democrats and am a registered independent. I voted for Trump the second time as a big FU to the democrats. I'm very anti-war, even as a kid, and although I didn't like many of Trump's policies I liked the fact that for the first time in the 21st century, no war. Obama set the stage in supporting the coup in Ukraine in 2014 and now his VP turned president is using Ukraine in what will become a long drawn out war using the lives of it's people to bring Russia and Putin down. A Brzezinski approach. I despise Biden on many levels and for many reasons. I'm not going to condemn Musk because he's rich, and I will take a wait and see attitude. I think the democrats have to be held accountable for all there BS that tried to remove an elected president from office whether you liked him or not. I don't know if you're American or not, but in my opinion the founding fathers, and I don't dislike them, set the stage that gave those who are rich too much power and why the 1% of the population has 40 % of it's wealth. Maybe you would like to watch the video clip of Michael Parenti on our founding fathers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aP2fK728nCA
"Obama set the stage in supporting the coup in Ukraine in 2014 and now his VP turned president is using Ukraine in what will become a long drawn out war using the lives of it's people to bring Russia and Putin down."
As I have stated earlier, "The breaking apart of Yugoslavia and Czecoslovakia were some of the first steps in the process that is now in its final stages: The destruction, balkanization and subsequent looting and pillaging of Russia.
I will check out the video you linked to. Did you watch the one I linked to?
"I think the democrats have to be held accountable for all there BS that tried to remove an elected president from office whether you liked him or not."
I agree, but we both know that whomever did 9/11 will be put on trial first.
I don't remember whether I did or not, so send it again. I'll watch it if I didn't already. So you believe someone did 9/11? I always thought someone did, but never wanted to go there for whatever the reason.
So, what is it? Is it the part about his grandfather being an autocrat, and the Autocrat Party being banned in Canada, and that he has obvious autocratic traits? Or is it the fact that he "seemingly" came out of nowhere and made the big time you didn't like?
TL;DR the former free speech warriors got the whip hand.
Meanwhile, once they fell out of power, the Right became the rule-breakers, the transgressors, the pranksters, the folks who said outrageous truths, while the Left turned into hall monitors, snitches, and finger-wagging moralists that made The Church Lady look like G.G. Allin by comparison.
This is not because of any inherent puckishness on the Right or censioriousness on the Left, but because of their relationship to power.
Thank you for this. Some half of the comments on a typical caitoz Substack post are some aspirational play for private authority along the lines of "People need to obey" and "*I* could run the machine better". Rather than question how the machine runs us, they declare themselves impervious. Rather than question whether the supposed problem is actually the machine's normal function, they virtue-signal ever harder as if it had a "mind" that could be "persuaded".
I keep hoping I'll wake up to a Caitlin article titled "No, You Can't Run Totalitarianism Better: Notes from the Edge of the Narrative Matrix".
The solution to the censorship the biggest tech giants are engaged in is really very simple. Walk away from them. Just walk away and leave them to rot in the ditch by the highway in the middle of the desert. Never speak or write their names again. I did it. Why won't you?
Your solution actually is one of the classic ways suggested by economics textbooks to dismantle monopolies. The government can also do it, as can other companies if they develop alternatives. None of this is easy, but it is good to do. META stock dropped from $385 to $120 because more and more people realize that META sucks.
I deleted my Facebook account about 13 months ago. I was shocked at I haven't missed it at all. And when you read about how Zuckerberg was basically created by the U.S. government so they could surveil us--with greater precision than the Stasi or Gestapo--it makes it easier & easier to stay away.
Funny how that works. The voices from one side illegally shut down voices from the other side and when it reversed the first side gets indignant.
Free speech is not hate speech. Logic is not hate speech. Truth is the truth. A lie is a lie.
If you stop reasonable debate, then you are a nothing more than a liar. Once you do that you become the only truth. It is then a short step to justifying criminal actions and a little leap to corruption and eventually murder.
Lies are not politics despite the fact the entire political class is full of shit on most issues and it is up to both sides to find the truth and come to reasonable consensus on most issues. They don't.
Seek first to understand and then to be understood.
Exactly. Beautiful article. I'm Gen X, and many of us were raised to think the censors and book burners were the evil ones. We hated the Nazis and Soviets for these actions.
I thank God for Musk, and think he is doing good work, but he could be doing GREAT work. Let people tell the truth about Ukraine!
Some of us fought the censorship about how mild covid is, and therapeutics instead of injections, and the deadliness of the Pfizer shot, etc., and the censors de-platformed us, fired us, and de-banked us. Some of our neighbors shrieked like banshees at little kids to PUT ON YOUR MASK! Even though now we know masks do no good. Later, we questioned the war in Ukraine, and got the same treatment.
When you intimidate people into silence, you turn them into cowards.
"I thank God for Musk, and think he is doing good work, but he could be doing GREAT work."
What is there to be thankful for with regards to a man that wants us all to have a chip implanted in our heads? His grandfather was one of the founders of the Technocratic Party of Canada. It's policies were found to be so extreme that the party was outlawed, and Elon is following in his grandfather's footsteps.
People in the Elon Musk fan club remind me of the "YES, WE CAN!!!" crowd 15 years ago. They actually believed that things would change for the better after eight years of Dubya. I used every opportunity prior to the election to warn people about his slick and smooth ways.
After the election I repeatedly said "I told you so!" every time he broke an election promise, and after four years of his not closing Gitmo, not pulling the plug on Afghanistan and Iraq, but instead obliterating Libya and destroying large parts of Syria etc., etc.
Scott Ritter was banned from Twitter for telling the truth about what the US is doing in the ME. After Musk took over he thought he'd take Elon Musk on his word, and opened a new account in his own name. He was able to do that without problems. Then he posted the comment that he was banned for prior to the Musk takeover. The day after he was once again banned.
......, and as Scott Ritter said about Elon Musk in an interview with James Corbett @thecorbettreport.com recently, "Meet the new boss. The same as the old boss."
Nothing has changed at Twitter, and nothing ever will.
Big Brother … watching us all the time … regulating us all the time … thru big tech’s social media, billions of surveillance cameras, 100ks of satellites… everyone is being monitored continuously… every word we write and photo we upload on social media goes into the cavernous maws and stomach of the deep state and the over powering military industrial complex of US … which rules the world …..
Our digital personas are there in cyberspace… after we die .. the rich and cyberaties can be recreated in cyberspace… where they can live forever … as long batteries can power them … probably in the satellites encircling the planet with solar power ….
"It's almost like democracy is an illusion and our rulers do whatever they want to us, up to and including restricting the ways we're allowed to communicate with each other, in whatever way benefits them and their agendas."
"Democracy" is in the eye of the beholder and we've all been blinded. "Freedom of Speech" means the government's freedom to tell us any bullsh*t they want and we're suppose to swallow it whole with no complaints or talk back. I keep pinching myself and I can feel it, so I guess this isn't an "illusion." But it sure feels like a nightmare some days.
Reading "American Midnight" right now and the parallels to what was going on in the run-up to WW I and what's happening now are incredible.
US government used access to the mail the same way the internet is now being used to suppress speech and promote propaganda. The origins were in the Philippines war
US military intelligence was born there and used surveillance and control to repress and crush nationalists. Those tactics were then imported to US (by the same guy who originated the program in Philippines) and brutally expanded to crush US left, labor, and radicals like IWW and Socialists. The Espionage Act and the Sedition Act were enacted in 1917 and 1918 to crush anti-war dissent. Far more draft dodgers in WW I than Vietnam!
But now, the government doesn't even have to put activists in jail. The "left" either self censors or capitulates.
The current pathetic "left" is either ignorant of or ignores this history and once again got outflanked by the Right wing Fascist forces.
Last year, as a repeat offender on Farcebook, I received 130 days in its virtual jail. The only reason I'm still on Fb is because of connections. Connections to family and connections to friends, friends going back as far as 65 years. Yes, I'm kinda stubborn in my old age and therefore stubborn in that I will not conform to the dictates of a captured government.
I check FB about once a week to check up on far-flung friends, tell jokes, make sure no one has died, etc.
I'm 56 and for my generation and above it's a primary means of basic communication.
The US government needs to nationalize it and append it to the Post Office. Grant ownership of the data to the people. Take out all commercial interests.
Also millions of people have essentially created autobiographies, and that's too valuable to be kept in corporate hands.
Let Zuckerburg keep a copy of it all to run free in the marketplace with his stupid Meta bullshit.
It wouldn't need to be ultimately, but it's a US company and the US government is in the best position to take it through eminent domain if it wanted to.
Be yeah, it might make sense to hand the foreign pieces off to each country. You might lose some efficiency breaking it up, but sure.
And the US Post Office handles international mail already.
The reason is that shills are sent out to tell the sheep that they “need” Facebook, which they don’t. It only exists as a vehicle for data-rape. That’s the basis of their stock market value.
Exactly. We weaponized social media against them. That’s why they’re clamping down on speech. It’s a threat to them. They want us out of communication.
“Social media platforms”? You’re already speaking venture capital language. And have therefore already sucked in their premise.
Community has existed on the internet from the beginning, before the venture capitalists came in to collect your data. And that community in far healthier forms without the narcissistic premise of collecting “followers” and without the hidden bait of “algorithms” to define what you see and what you think. What you have on “social media platforms” is not community. It’s controlled space for commercial profit, on someone’s private website.
It’s not community or the publicly shared commons.
A lot of people didn’t grasp much in civics and social studies class. And society is paying the price for it.
We now have sheep begging to be exploited for profit, while calling it “community”.
It's all so tiring now, trying to find the wee nuggets of truth in sea of madness and dis/mis-information with the seemingly mind-meld of government propaganda and corporate(MSM) media sources. It can be done but it takes a lot of time that most of us don't have. It has definitely changed(worsened?) over the last few years. SO..., I've mostly stopped. I now watch more movies on the streaming services, trying to not let their embedded propaganda detract from the enjoyment of the story. Besides I've now found it easier to not get so worked up on anything I can't try to change. I'll now leave that to the younger generations. Good Luck! Peace, All
My ancestor fought in the Continental Army so he could have free speech. I'm sure he approves of this message. The entire American federal government simply has to be replaced. It is corrupt and tyrannical beyond reform.
Why is the American state a Disinformation Machine?
In 1948 the American Smith-Mundt Act allowed the creation a global disinformation media network which mimicked the British global charter of the BBC's 1927 World Service. But in the USA it was restricted domestically. (How you could separate them is beyond me.) This is the genesis of the CIA using the global media as an extension of their subversive activities globally - and helped the Anglo-American Empire to grow.
Repeal - In 2012 the Obama government repealed the part of the 1948 Smith-Mundt Act that prevented the use of disinformation on the American public - it is now "legal" - though it is clearly unconstitutional, but to date has not been challenged and so it is the "law." And this is a typical Democrat Party strategy that they call "one and five" - it will take one million dollars and 5 years to challenge unconstitutional laws.
The Bureau of Global Public Affairs -
"The bureau was formed on May 28, 2019, in a merger between the Bureau of Public Affairs and the Bureau of International Information Programs"
"The Assistant Secretary of State and Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy & Public Affairs, Michelle Giuda, presented on the merger, claiming it will work closely with its media partners as it ramps up its mission to “better communicate,” assuring the audience that it is “perfectly aligned with Smith-Mundt.” However, Giuda neglected to mention that Smith-Mundt as originally legislated, is no longer strictly applicable."
The Bureau of Global Public Affairs is probably the beating heart of the American administrative states global disinformation and censorship machine working with government partners, media, and traitors all over the world. All for the benefit of what I call global fascist capitalism.
Ivan M. Paton
The US roots are long before this - they go to the Philippines and the anti-war, anti-labor, anti-left campaigns of WW I.
Interesting you got any more details on it? the Smith-Mundt act made it legal.
Thanks for the intel. It seems much of the skullduggery was concentrated during and after WWII.
I think it was the British conning the Americans into creating the Anglo-American empire, which is what the British Empire became. Look at the similarities. Forever wars for profit and power.
Yes and the British Empire was a continuation of the Roman Empire which was a continuation of the Egyptian Empire which was a continuation of the Sumer Empire...
Yes, our western elites and their fascism projects go back a long, long, way.
Only yesterday I was reading up on the 1st, second, and third Reichs, and for the first time in my life realized the Holy Roman Empire was created by the Germans, and it was the first Reich, the second was the Wiemar Republic, which a lot of the German nobility and aristocrats were unhappy with, and so they joined the Nazi Party and helped Hitler create the Third Reich. Huge numbers of Nazis were nobles and aristocrats who saw their way back to fascism and power was via Hitler and the party. If you want a great website with great historical articles on this try adarapress.com
Ivan
It’s not democracy. That’s the message I’m getting, idk about anyone else...
democracy *is* real and good, it just never meant what rulers said it meant. In practice all it means is that rulers have to restrict themselves to things they can successfully lie about. This really is a gigantic improvement over truly arbitrary rule, as it effectively prevents all sorts of flagrant horrific abuses that have been common historically.
What we're seeing now is the rulers realizing that the new information velocity means their room for maneuver is about to shrink by another order of magnitude at least. Exactly what will come of this remains to be seen. If things go well it'll be rangevoting.org :)
Authoritarian/totalitarian rule. That’s what will come of it. That’s what IS coming of it. But we haven’t hit bottom yet.
I agree it could easily go that way, which is really sad and ironic. But it's not a given. The tortured lies currently being told about social media censorship aren't widely believed even as things are, nor are they entirely effective at preventing information leakage. Political power is widely diffused to a broad managerial class and it's hard for it to act concertedly to take the steps that would be necessary to really squash dissent.
Just wait, Pelosi all ready brought up the cause to give unlimited extended terms for their criminal actions and next will be Marshall Law when people finally wake up to smell the shit. They are fully prepared for this and a Dictatorship is on the way.
It’s already here. People just do t know it yet.
They have yet to drop the hammer all the way. Whether they will or not, I agree, it’s yet to be seen. But where we are at this very moment is well beyond the Constitution. So we very much have no Constitutional protection demonstrated. Just just a matter of degrees at this point.
So far I like Musk, and lets not assume that because someone is rich they can't be trusted. He's working with Taibbi to evaluate just how instrumental Twitter was in pushing Biden for president while knocking Trump off Twitter. I was a registered democrat and would never vote for Clinton, just didn't vote, which brought a lot of flack from people I know. During Trump's presidency not only did I feel the democrats acted like a bunch of autocrats on a mission to remove him from office, but the mainstream press did as well. Many who wrote on left wing sites operated with the same lack of journalistic integrity. They shifted their allegiance to the dems. Greenwald left the Intercept which he got underway because they would not allow him to publish an article on Hunter Biden's labtop, and like Twitter they wanted a Biden win. Greenwald is a journalist.
"So far I like Musk."
That is only an admission that you haven't done your due diligence.
I have always said "If you're not a part of the solution, you are a part of the problem.". I don't want to be a part of the problem, so here is a link for you: https://www.corbettreport.com/musk/
You will soon enough find that he is the same fecal matter as the other globalist filth, but a different pile.
What can I say, but I am tolerant and adopt a wait and see attitude, which requires little of me. I'm so glad I didn't jump on the I hate Trump bandwagon, and buy all the lies the democrats and the deep state pushed on a public they thought stupid and easily led. I'm glad I didn't buy the lie of Russia-gate which tried to remove an elected president from office, or buy the lie that his followers are nothing but low like scum. I'm glad I didn't buy the lie that Trump hired prostitutes to pee on the bed the Obama's slept on, but maybe you did. Did you buy the lie that we had an insurrection on January 6, with no guns to overturn the reins of government, with just a couple of old people dead? Do you buy the lie that a January 6 comm made up of democrats and two republicans who hate his guts can determine truth? Did you buy the lie, the propaganda, that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction and never speak up?
Great points. I’m with you being cautious but so far what’s he’s spent for a pile of shit co and the exposure of blatant corruption and unconstitutional behavior represents the most important evidence of political and bureaucratic treason in my almost 70 years on the planet. They are all stealing and lying and blaming us for their crimes and failures.
Well, many, especially those who are into politics are aware of such things, but many aren't and maintain a very naive perspective about their government. The issue is to expose them, make people aware of what their government is capable of doing, and prevent it from happening again, and use it as a starting point to investigate other platforms where you have an abuse of governmental power, and perhaps stop it. It was found that twitter also rigged the Covid debate which didn't provide people with alternate information on a very important and deadly issue. Yeah, many know politics is dirty, but it's important for them to know how dirty it is. It may also encourage the mainstream media to operate in more journalistic fashion like they use to years ago when informing the public was a job they took seriously.
I stopped watching, listening to and reading main stream media sources years ago because I got tired of being lied to on a daily basis. On the other hand I do like watching, listening to and reading when various people dismantle the MSM narrative. Caitlin Johnstone, Eva Bartlet and James Corbett are just three of them. After 17 years of being able to see through their bovine fecal matter I have become proficient at picking their narrative apart myself.
While there absolutely is a bandwagon, any alliance with billionaires is necessarily one of convenience. Don’t think for a moment Musk has any interest in structural changes. A temporary aligning of interests, nothing more.
Musk is not the cool guy Fran and many like her thinks. He is just as much a status quoer as the rest of the billionaires.
I recommend taking a look at the video I linked to further up in this thread.
"Did you buy the lie that we had insurrection on January 6, with no guns to overturn the reins of government, with just a couple of old people dead? Do you buy the lie that a January 6 comm made up of democrats and two republicans who hate his guts can determine truth? Did you buy the lie, the propaganda, that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction and never speak up?"
Nope. None of it, but it seems you are selective in your purchase of lies. The myths and legends surrounding Elon Musk in particular.
You are coming across as quite authoritarian and give the impression that the truth resides with you, but it doesn't
I an not the Oracle in Delphi, so no, it doesn't. I do have an open mind, but when something as obvious as Obama's hope and change, or the orange clown's MAGA, or Elon Musk reinstating banned users because he cares about the first amendment......(?) He has had plenty of time, but nothing has happened. What he is trying to do is get back all of Killary's deplorables that have left Twitter in droves because of the banning of the orange clown and others. It's all about revenues. Everything else is a distraction.
Musk hasn't had plenty of time, and he and Taibbi are continuing to work on it. In Taibbi's last post he said he was exhausted. Maybe Musk does care about the first amendment, and because he has money does not rule that out. Perhaps you should adopt a wait and see attitude and not jump to conclusions, like your guru Caitlin who too often makes assumptions and most definitely displays a political bias, in case you haven't noticed.
You think you bought truth with one article. God!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Judging from your reply I take it that you didn't like the video much. That is, if you even watched it.
During the entire POTUS campaign of 2008 I was telling everyone, particularly the "YES, WE CAN!!!" crowd that nothing will change after Dumbo is (s)elected. If anything does change, it will be for the worse.
I look at Elon Musk followers the same way I looked at said crowd, followers of the orange clown and the rats behind the pied piper.
Elon Musk is just as much onboard with the WEF agenda as Bill Gates and the rest of the globalists. You may not want Bill Gates' chip implant, but you're ok with it as long as Elon Musk produced it. Have I understood you correctly?
I was always a registered democrat, but often voted third party, or didn't vote. I was never thrilled about our presidential choices. I did vote for Obama and bought the lie he was a progressive, then read an article by another black man who worked with him in Chicago politics who said he wasn't. and in my opinion he wasn't, so no second time around for me. Jimmy Dore is about the only one I know who is critical of him on this point, and Caitland makes many excuses for him and holds him accountable for nothing. I did't vote for Trump but was glad he won since I detest Hilary, due to her pathological love of war. Assange is in agreement on that one. Did't vote for Trump, didn't vote, however I did detest the very obvious intent on the part of the democrats to try and remove Trump from office. The deep state, the mainstream media and many on the left were complicit in that as well. I hated them for that. I hated the way they degraded his base, fellow Americans, because as a meme on Facebook put it, they were an uneducated, immoral lot. Screw them! I dropped my affiliation with the democrats and am a registered independent. I voted for Trump the second time as a big FU to the democrats. I'm very anti-war, even as a kid, and although I didn't like many of Trump's policies I liked the fact that for the first time in the 21st century, no war. Obama set the stage in supporting the coup in Ukraine in 2014 and now his VP turned president is using Ukraine in what will become a long drawn out war using the lives of it's people to bring Russia and Putin down. A Brzezinski approach. I despise Biden on many levels and for many reasons. I'm not going to condemn Musk because he's rich, and I will take a wait and see attitude. I think the democrats have to be held accountable for all there BS that tried to remove an elected president from office whether you liked him or not. I don't know if you're American or not, but in my opinion the founding fathers, and I don't dislike them, set the stage that gave those who are rich too much power and why the 1% of the population has 40 % of it's wealth. Maybe you would like to watch the video clip of Michael Parenti on our founding fathers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aP2fK728nCA
"Obama set the stage in supporting the coup in Ukraine in 2014 and now his VP turned president is using Ukraine in what will become a long drawn out war using the lives of it's people to bring Russia and Putin down."
As I have stated earlier, "The breaking apart of Yugoslavia and Czecoslovakia were some of the first steps in the process that is now in its final stages: The destruction, balkanization and subsequent looting and pillaging of Russia.
I will check out the video you linked to. Did you watch the one I linked to?
"I think the democrats have to be held accountable for all there BS that tried to remove an elected president from office whether you liked him or not."
I agree, but we both know that whomever did 9/11 will be put on trial first.
I don't remember whether I did or not, so send it again. I'll watch it if I didn't already. So you believe someone did 9/11? I always thought someone did, but never wanted to go there for whatever the reason.
Yeah, forgot I did watch it. He's too critical without substantiating what he claims to be truth.
So, what is it? Is it the part about his grandfather being an autocrat, and the Autocrat Party being banned in Canada, and that he has obvious autocratic traits? Or is it the fact that he "seemingly" came out of nowhere and made the big time you didn't like?
TL;DR the former free speech warriors got the whip hand.
Meanwhile, once they fell out of power, the Right became the rule-breakers, the transgressors, the pranksters, the folks who said outrageous truths, while the Left turned into hall monitors, snitches, and finger-wagging moralists that made The Church Lady look like G.G. Allin by comparison.
This is not because of any inherent puckishness on the Right or censioriousness on the Left, but because of their relationship to power.
Thank you for this. Some half of the comments on a typical caitoz Substack post are some aspirational play for private authority along the lines of "People need to obey" and "*I* could run the machine better". Rather than question how the machine runs us, they declare themselves impervious. Rather than question whether the supposed problem is actually the machine's normal function, they virtue-signal ever harder as if it had a "mind" that could be "persuaded".
I keep hoping I'll wake up to a Caitlin article titled "No, You Can't Run Totalitarianism Better: Notes from the Edge of the Narrative Matrix".
Here's a great video that explains why you probably wouldn't be able to do it any better if you were in charge.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rStL7niR7gs
Sounds pretty complicated to me. Takes a special skill set to keep all the machinery and psychology together! Whew.
Hahahaha!
“finger-wagging moralists that made The Church Lady look like G.G. Allin by comparison” made me spit out my coffee. G.G. Allin. That’s a deep cut.
Cats have sharp claws, as a tree near my colony will attest.
The solution to the censorship the biggest tech giants are engaged in is really very simple. Walk away from them. Just walk away and leave them to rot in the ditch by the highway in the middle of the desert. Never speak or write their names again. I did it. Why won't you?
Freedom of speech is kind of pointless if you can't speak where people hear you.
Even in the most totalitarian period of the Soviet Union, you had perfect freedom of speech, as long as you were alone in the woods.
Your solution actually is one of the classic ways suggested by economics textbooks to dismantle monopolies. The government can also do it, as can other companies if they develop alternatives. None of this is easy, but it is good to do. META stock dropped from $385 to $120 because more and more people realize that META sucks.
I deleted my Facebook account about 13 months ago. I was shocked at I haven't missed it at all. And when you read about how Zuckerberg was basically created by the U.S. government so they could surveil us--with greater precision than the Stasi or Gestapo--it makes it easier & easier to stay away.
That's fine and good, but the work of reestablishing or replacing those relationships formerly mediated by tech is daunting.
Funny how that works. The voices from one side illegally shut down voices from the other side and when it reversed the first side gets indignant.
Free speech is not hate speech. Logic is not hate speech. Truth is the truth. A lie is a lie.
If you stop reasonable debate, then you are a nothing more than a liar. Once you do that you become the only truth. It is then a short step to justifying criminal actions and a little leap to corruption and eventually murder.
Lies are not politics despite the fact the entire political class is full of shit on most issues and it is up to both sides to find the truth and come to reasonable consensus on most issues. They don't.
Seek first to understand and then to be understood.
Exactly. Beautiful article. I'm Gen X, and many of us were raised to think the censors and book burners were the evil ones. We hated the Nazis and Soviets for these actions.
I thank God for Musk, and think he is doing good work, but he could be doing GREAT work. Let people tell the truth about Ukraine!
Some of us fought the censorship about how mild covid is, and therapeutics instead of injections, and the deadliness of the Pfizer shot, etc., and the censors de-platformed us, fired us, and de-banked us. Some of our neighbors shrieked like banshees at little kids to PUT ON YOUR MASK! Even though now we know masks do no good. Later, we questioned the war in Ukraine, and got the same treatment.
When you intimidate people into silence, you turn them into cowards.
"I thank God for Musk, and think he is doing good work, but he could be doing GREAT work."
What is there to be thankful for with regards to a man that wants us all to have a chip implanted in our heads? His grandfather was one of the founders of the Technocratic Party of Canada. It's policies were found to be so extreme that the party was outlawed, and Elon is following in his grandfather's footsteps.
https://corbettreport.substack.com/p/meet-elon-musk-technocractic-huckster
People in the Elon Musk fan club remind me of the "YES, WE CAN!!!" crowd 15 years ago. They actually believed that things would change for the better after eight years of Dubya. I used every opportunity prior to the election to warn people about his slick and smooth ways.
After the election I repeatedly said "I told you so!" every time he broke an election promise, and after four years of his not closing Gitmo, not pulling the plug on Afghanistan and Iraq, but instead obliterating Libya and destroying large parts of Syria etc., etc.
Scott Ritter was banned from Twitter for telling the truth about what the US is doing in the ME. After Musk took over he thought he'd take Elon Musk on his word, and opened a new account in his own name. He was able to do that without problems. Then he posted the comment that he was banned for prior to the Musk takeover. The day after he was once again banned.
......, and as Scott Ritter said about Elon Musk in an interview with James Corbett @thecorbettreport.com recently, "Meet the new boss. The same as the old boss."
Nothing has changed at Twitter, and nothing ever will.
Big Brother … watching us all the time … regulating us all the time … thru big tech’s social media, billions of surveillance cameras, 100ks of satellites… everyone is being monitored continuously… every word we write and photo we upload on social media goes into the cavernous maws and stomach of the deep state and the over powering military industrial complex of US … which rules the world …..
Our digital personas are there in cyberspace… after we die .. the rich and cyberaties can be recreated in cyberspace… where they can live forever … as long batteries can power them … probably in the satellites encircling the planet with solar power ….
Nailed it
"It's almost like democracy is an illusion and our rulers do whatever they want to us, up to and including restricting the ways we're allowed to communicate with each other, in whatever way benefits them and their agendas."
"Democracy" is in the eye of the beholder and we've all been blinded. "Freedom of Speech" means the government's freedom to tell us any bullsh*t they want and we're suppose to swallow it whole with no complaints or talk back. I keep pinching myself and I can feel it, so I guess this isn't an "illusion." But it sure feels like a nightmare some days.
Bloody hell, you've done it again. Thanks Caitlin
Reading "American Midnight" right now and the parallels to what was going on in the run-up to WW I and what's happening now are incredible.
US government used access to the mail the same way the internet is now being used to suppress speech and promote propaganda. The origins were in the Philippines war
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine–American_War
US military intelligence was born there and used surveillance and control to repress and crush nationalists. Those tactics were then imported to US (by the same guy who originated the program in Philippines) and brutally expanded to crush US left, labor, and radicals like IWW and Socialists. The Espionage Act and the Sedition Act were enacted in 1917 and 1918 to crush anti-war dissent. Far more draft dodgers in WW I than Vietnam!
But now, the government doesn't even have to put activists in jail. The "left" either self censors or capitulates.
The current pathetic "left" is either ignorant of or ignores this history and once again got outflanked by the Right wing Fascist forces.
Last year, as a repeat offender on Farcebook, I received 130 days in its virtual jail. The only reason I'm still on Fb is because of connections. Connections to family and connections to friends, friends going back as far as 65 years. Yes, I'm kinda stubborn in my old age and therefore stubborn in that I will not conform to the dictates of a captured government.
I check FB about once a week to check up on far-flung friends, tell jokes, make sure no one has died, etc.
I'm 56 and for my generation and above it's a primary means of basic communication.
The US government needs to nationalize it and append it to the Post Office. Grant ownership of the data to the people. Take out all commercial interests.
Also millions of people have essentially created autobiographies, and that's too valuable to be kept in corporate hands.
Let Zuckerburg keep a copy of it all to run free in the marketplace with his stupid Meta bullshit.
Use email.
It wouldn't need to be ultimately, but it's a US company and the US government is in the best position to take it through eminent domain if it wanted to.
Be yeah, it might make sense to hand the foreign pieces off to each country. You might lose some efficiency breaking it up, but sure.
And the US Post Office handles international mail already.
Did you know they are using a newly made branch of the Postal System for surveillance of the people? The Postal Service is already gone.
Everyone who has any of these apps, has a phone number and and email address. There is no reason to feed the beast at all.
Yep. There's a reason billions of people who already had email also have FB. It's a good basic structure for modern communication.
I was suspicious from the start, never joined, and glad for that. Don't need it.
The reason is that shills are sent out to tell the sheep that they “need” Facebook, which they don’t. It only exists as a vehicle for data-rape. That’s the basis of their stock market value.
But the point of this censorship is that social media was affecting change. That’s why they’re clamping down on speech. It’s scaring them.
Facebook is the co-opting. There’s nothing useful. It’s pushed on people because they could not make money on email.
Then they send out lemmings to peddle the story that anyone “needs” it.
Exactly. We weaponized social media against them. That’s why they’re clamping down on speech. It’s a threat to them. They want us out of communication.
“Social media platforms”? You’re already speaking venture capital language. And have therefore already sucked in their premise.
Community has existed on the internet from the beginning, before the venture capitalists came in to collect your data. And that community in far healthier forms without the narcissistic premise of collecting “followers” and without the hidden bait of “algorithms” to define what you see and what you think. What you have on “social media platforms” is not community. It’s controlled space for commercial profit, on someone’s private website.
It’s not community or the publicly shared commons.
A lot of people didn’t grasp much in civics and social studies class. And society is paying the price for it.
We now have sheep begging to be exploited for profit, while calling it “community”.
In summary as offered to us:
Out!
Now!!
Thx
It's all so tiring now, trying to find the wee nuggets of truth in sea of madness and dis/mis-information with the seemingly mind-meld of government propaganda and corporate(MSM) media sources. It can be done but it takes a lot of time that most of us don't have. It has definitely changed(worsened?) over the last few years. SO..., I've mostly stopped. I now watch more movies on the streaming services, trying to not let their embedded propaganda detract from the enjoyment of the story. Besides I've now found it easier to not get so worked up on anything I can't try to change. I'll now leave that to the younger generations. Good Luck! Peace, All
My ancestor fought in the Continental Army so he could have free speech. I'm sure he approves of this message. The entire American federal government simply has to be replaced. It is corrupt and tyrannical beyond reform.