To All My Manipulated Sisters and Brothers.
We react negatively to emotion laden words like, "manipulated", but
isn't that a big part of how we Humans interact, both on a personal
basis as well as our interaction between government and governed?
What caused Cathy and me to decide on buying a Toyota Tacoma? Why do
I lean toward Progressive Propaganda? What caused me to proclaim
myself to be an Agnostic...but not an Atheist or a Buddhist or a
Christian?
Interwoven throughout that which we call, "information", are
deliberate efforts to manipulate our decisions.
The thing we should do, but do very little of, is to learn how to
reason...how to think...how to process what is going on around us. We
send our children to school to be "Educated". Some of us can afford
to send our youngsters to Church schools, or to Private schools that
teach the young to believe exactly as we do. Very little of what we
call education is teaching our children how to reason and how to
question.
How we adults handle the manipulation that goes on constantly around
us, depends on how we've trained ourselves to reason. Because we have
few "teachers" to teach us how to reason, we mostly must teach
ourselves. For most of us it is a life long process. It's far easier
to lock in, as Mostafa does, and declare that we have found "Truth
Everlasting", and look down our learned noses at the rest of the
world.
Actually, I rather like the "Trial and Error" method. But then I
always did like flea markets, secondhand shops and the Salvation Army
stores. Life is like walking into that huge Salvation Army store and
beholding row after row of interesting castoffs. By picking and
choosing, mixing and matching, picking up this or that and setting
aside an earlier item, we come to the checkout counter with an array
of stuff we would never have discovered if we'd not entered the front
door. Think of all those people who never enter. What dull lives
they must live. They head for the latest glitzy shop peddling useless
bobbles, never questioning, never looking behind the Wizard's Curtain,
never wondering where such a shop came from. Just willing to accept
what it offers, until told that it no longer is fashionable, and a new
Flashy Shop springs up.
In my opinion, through all of those Forces that have Manipulated me, I
find the Salvation Army approach to be far more interesting than if I
accepted going from one glitzy shop to the next, without question.
Those who mix and match, are far more apt to leave Life in better
shape than they found it.
Finally, I like to think of myself as a river rather than as a big
rock. The rock is heavy and secured to one spot. It goes on
generation after generation, solid, unmoving and unchanging. But the
river is never still. It moves. It passes through forests, meadows,
villages, and through canyons on its way to the Sea. The river
certainly has a far more interesting existence than the Rock, and is
far more likely to make life joyful and tolerable for those among whom
it passes, than the contribution of the Rock.
Well, I notice the open Sea just around the next bend, so I'll need to
be on my way.
Carl Jarvis
On 1/19/19, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
There is an incredible amount of manipulation and lying going on in relation
to social media. It's a world that Carl and I have no direct experience
with, but it is extremely important today for most people around the world
in particular with political discourse. All kinds of things have been
happening with Facebook which don't necessarily get reported accurately in
mainstream media, when they are reported. And most people don't know that
they're being manipulated.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Friday, January 18, 2019 9:29 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Narrative Control Firm Targeting Alternative
Media
It makes sense that the Ruling Class spins their Fairy Tales to confuse and
lure Working Class Americans down a Primrose path. But are we really so
gullible as to fall for it again and again and again?
And by the way, if Donald Trump is the poster boy for success, then give me
a grass hut and a Ukalalie.
Carl Jarvis
On 1/18/19, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Narrative Control Firm Targeting Alternative Media January 18, 2019
NewsGuard is led by some of the most virulently pro-imperialist
individuals in America and its agenda to shore up narrative control
for the ruling power establishment is clear, writes Caitlin Johnstone.
By Caitlin Johnstone
CaitlinJohnstone.com
The frenzied, hysterical Russia narrative being promoted day in and
day out by Western mass media has had two of its major stories ripped
to shreds in the last three days.
A report seeded throughout the mainstream media by anonymous
intelligence officials back in September claimed that U.S. government
workers in Cuba had suffered concussion-like brain damage after
hearing strange noises in homes and hotels with the most likely
culprit being "sophisticated microwaves or another type of
electromagnetic weapon" from Russia. A recording of one such highly
sophisticated attack was analyzed by scientists and turned out to be
the mating call of the male indies short-tailed cricket. Neurologists
and other brain specialists have challenged the claim that any U.S.
government workers suffered any neurological damage of any kind,
saying test results on the alleged victims were misinterpreted. The
actual story, when stripped of hyperventilating Russia panic, is that
some government workers heard some crickets in Cuba.
Another report which dominated news for a day recently claimed that
former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort (the same Paul Manafort
who the Guardian falsely claimed met with Julian Assange in the
Ecuadorian embassy) had shared polling data with a Russian associate
and asked him to pass it along to Oleg Deripaska, who is often labeled
a "Russian oligarch" by western media. The polling data was mostly
public already, and the rest was just more polling information shared
in the spring of 2016, but Deripaska's involvement had Russiagaters
burning the midnight oil with breathless excitement. Talking Points
Memo's Josh Marshall went so far as to publish an article titled "The
'Collusion' Debate Ended Last Night," substantiating his
click-generating headline with the claim that "What's crystal clear is
that the transfer to Kilimnik came with explicit instructions to give
the information to Deripaska. And that's enough."
Except Manafort didn't give any explicit instructions to share the
polling data with Deripaska, but with two Ukrainian oligarchs (who are
denying it).
The New York Times was forced to print this embarrassing correction to
the story it broke, adding in the process that Manafort's motivation
was likely not collusion, but money.
These are just the latest debacles as reporters eager to demonstrate
their fealty to the U.S.-centralized empire fall all over themselves
to report any story that makes Russia look bad without practicing due
diligence. The only voices who have been questioning the establishment
Russia narrative that is being fed to mass media outlets by secretive
government agencies have been those which the mass media refuses to
platform. Alternative media outlets are the only major platforms for
dissent from the authorized narratives of the plutocrat-owned
political/media class.
Imagine, then, how disastrous it would be if these last strongholds of
skepticism and holding power to account were removed from the media
landscape. Well, that's exactly what a shady organization called
NewsGuard is trying to do, with some success already.
A report by journalist Whitney Webb for MintPress News details how
NewsGuard is working to hide and demonetize alternative media outlets
like MintPress, marketing itself directly to tech companies, social
media platforms, libraries and schools. NewsGuard is led by some of
the most virulently pro-imperialist individuals in America, and its
agenda to shore up narrative control for the ruling power
establishment is clear.
The product that NewsGuard markets to the general public is a browser
plugin which advises online media consumers whether a news media
outlet is trustworthy or untrustworthy based on a formula with a very
pro-establishment bias which sees outlets like Fox News and the U.S.
propaganda outlet Voice of America getting trustworthy ratings while
outlets like RT get very low ratings for trustworthiness. This plugin
dominates the bulk of what comes up when you start researching
NewsGuard, but circulating a plugin that individual internet users can
voluntarily download to help their rulers control their minds is not
one of the more nefarious agendas being pursued by this company. The
full MintPress article gives a thorough breakdown of NewsGuard's
activities, but here's a summary of five of its more disturbing
revelations:
No. 1 The company has created a service called BrandGuard, billed as a
"brand safety tool aimed at helping advertisers keep their brands off
of unreliable news and information sites while giving them the
assurance they need to support thousands of Green-rated [i.e.,
Newsguard-approved] news and information sites, big and small."
Popularizing the use of this service will attack the advertising
revenue of unapproved alternative media outlets which run ads.
NewsGuard is aggressively marketing this service to "ad tech firms,
leading agencies, and major advertisers".
No. 2 NewsGuard's advisory board reads like the fellowships list of a
neocon think tank, and indeed one of its CEOs, Louis Gordon Crovitz,
is a Council on Foreign Relations member who has worked with the
American Enterprise Institute and Heritage Foundation. Members of the
advisory board include George W Bush's Secretary of Homeland Security
Tom Ridge, deep intelligence community insider Michael Hayden, and the
Obama administration's Richard Stengel, who once publicly supported
propaganda in the U.S. (see the Tweet below for a direct quote.) All
of these men have appeared in influential think tanks geared toward
putting a public smiley face on sociopathic warmongering agendas.
No. 3 Despite one of its criteria for trustworthy sources being
whether or not they are transparent about their funding, the specifics
of NewsGuard's financing is kept secret.
No. 4 NewsGuard is also planning to get its news-ranking system
integrated into social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter,
pursuing a partnership which will make pro-establishment media
consumption a part of your experience at those sites regardless of
whether or not you download a NewsGuard app or plugin.
No. 5 NewsGuard markets itself to state governments in order to get
its plugin installed in all of that state's public schools and
libraries to keep internet users from consuming unauthorized
narratives. It has already succeeded in accomplishing this in the
state of Hawaii, with all of its library branches now running the
NewsGuard plugin.
We may be certain that NewsGuard will continue giving a positive,
trustworthy ranking to the New York Times no matter how many
spectacular flubs it makes in its coverage of the establishment Russia
narrative, because the agenda to popularize anti-Russia narratives
lines up perfectly with the neoconservative, government agency-serving
agendas of the powers behind NewsGuard. Any attempt to advance the
hegemony of the U.S.-centralized power establishment will be rewarded
by its lackeys, and any skepticism of it will be punished.
We need to use every inch of our ability to communicate with each
other to make these manipulations clearly understood.
Caitlin Johnstone is a rogue journalist, poet, and utopia prepper who
publishes regularly at Medium. Follow her work on Facebook, Twitter,
or her website. She has a podcast and a new book "Woke: A Field Guide
for Utopia Preppers." This article was re-published with permission.