The election is irrelevant. Better to put our time to…
You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the winds will blow after November: Wall Street, the War Machine, The Corporate Borg will still run the joint, only moreso.
Though dead as a dinosaur, the current system still has its legs kicking, and will for the foreseeable future. The power class not only fails to understand that their Wars and Money Love have led to not only massive failures, but that their visions and plans are literally insane.
(“Insane” not as pejorative, but precisely as if someone planted toasters in the ground expecting unicorn trees to sprout. Not.Connected.To.Reality. That’s our bosses.)
What is to be done?
To my mind there’s three intelligent topics we as citizens should be examining with an eye to getting them done as soon as possible. I’m curious which of these, if any, people would like to see the political internet focus on. And what are the practical steps to getting there?
1. Breaking into, then breaking up, the 1%s propaganda apparatus called “Mainstream Media.”
2. Stopping the The Long War (as its perpetrators call it among themselves).
3. Ending any and all gifts to politicians and officials by non-human entities.
None of this happens with just the left, just the right, or any other slice of the political spectrum. Given the complete collapse of the Democratic/Republican and Conventional Liberal/Conservative dualities as far as serving the people’s interests go we’re going to have to build on a Sufi story punchline: When danger threatens it threatens all alike.
Everyone hates the Media; wants the centralized messaging to disappear. Plenty of people have noticed that our Wars are unmitigated disasters in every way, and if the public even heard the fact stated in a mainstream venue, they’d snap to it instantly. (Much like everyone realized Bush was incompetent around Katrina time.) Everyone knows (except some Supreme Court Judges) that some mixture of bribery, mutual blowjobs, and extortion is what drives government/business relations.
Trump/Hillary is awesome, awful? S/he said that? Who cares, the election is over and we’ve lost. Now, which ways do we turn things around.
Myself, I believe that Occupying the Media is the lynchpin to the whole current power arrangements. I was writing letters and pamphleteering back when 55 Corporations controlled most programming and content that things would only get worse for us, and the world, if we didn’t break up Media Central. Eleven years ago I was writing at TOP, when there were only Six Corps controlling focus and conversations, that until we break up Big Media, infiltrate it, and democratize it, we might win battles here and there, but we’d lose in the end.
For instance, there’s these Presidential debates coming up: How different is everything if one of the moderators says “Our 15 years of Wars have produced more, and more widespread, terrorists and terrorism, and at massive expense to us and tens of millions of innocents. What do you have to say about this fact?”
Could we organize the Internet to force moderators to deal with the Endless War in the Debates? How?
(btw, my proof as to the need to break up Media Central? Our effective choices for President are Trump and Clinton. Q.E.D.)
But, so what of what I believe? What do you believe?. Imagine you had the power to make the internet focus getting one KEY thing done: would it be any of the three I’ve listed? Maybe not. Whatever it is you think is KEY, what are the practical steps to get something done?
Comments
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Goals as stated in an email:
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.--Aristotle
If there is no struggle there is no progress.--Frederick Douglass
... I don't do Facebook --
Data Mining Central --
When Cicero had finished speaking, the people said “How well he spoke”.
When Demosthenes had finished speaking, the people said “Let us march”.
There is also the website...
I provided the address for that also. Although, I think they keep the FB page more up-to-date.
LOL, as if not just being on the Internet isn't an open invitation to data mining.
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.--Aristotle
If there is no struggle there is no progress.--Frederick Douglass
Zuckerberg is a piece of shit, and there are degrees of
badness even in this.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Zuckerburg
Sorry I can only give one thumbs up.
Nor do I
I don't give a damn that my nephew's toddler took a crap on the potty today, and my sister took a selfie trying on a new dress for ????? 's party Saturday. WTF is going on in peoples' mind to be so willing to sell their brains to such tripe. Your vacation pics of everyone in a car on I 70 don't excite me in the least, and I don't want to play F***in Farmville with my sister inlaw. Time for the USA to pull its collective head from Zuckerburg's ass, and get a life... IMHO
Spot on... More than you could imagine.
From a personal security perspective.... Stay away from any/all personal social media. I learned that from "professional work" days back in the late 90's
"Dissent is the highest form of patriotism." - Howard Zinn
I was on
USPS/Post office trying to print a shipping label the other day. My computer was grinding real slow. When I got the address in and clicked next, which takes you to the details page, I noticed at the bottom left of the screen where you sometimes see the progress of your request, everything that was running. I shit you not, it said at first "waiting for USPS" then something else then "waiting on google" then "waiting on facebook". I about shit. I don't even have a facebook account. WTF. Do these pos companies mine everything???
Yes they do mine everything
If you want privacy on line you have to use the TOR browser. It probably will not stop the NSA (hi guys!!), but it should take care of Google, Facebook and their ilk. The private browsing settings or windows on some browsers, might give you enough protection that Google and Facebook will not bother to try to mine your data since they have a few billion willing victims who let them mine their data at will.
I'll look into it. Thanks.
"Progressive" in their name, though, already means most of who they aim to appeal to will turn off immediately. And "build alternate media" is plain silly for a lot of reasons. But it sounds like somewhere to make at least conversation happen. Thanks again.
Orwell: Where's the omelette?
Why do you assume a hatred of the Left?
In the first place, there's little evidence that the majority of America is right wing. 47% of them just said they were willing to vote for a socialist president--in a CNN poll, no less, so it was a poll trying to make it look like America would never vote for a socialist president--and that's how they presented that data on TV, too, with much shaking of heads.
Our problem isn't convincing a bunch of right-wingers that we're right-wing enough to be buddies with them. That would never work anyway.
We should be honest about who we are, and honest about the areas where we can legitimately work with the right wing on things we both oppose, and then we'll have a coalition that includes more people than progressives.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
"Progressive" means "Left"
to most of America. I'm just saying it's poor branding for something that says it's for every faction.
Orwell: Where's the omelette?
That's OK; the left needs a place to go
the right already has places to go, the Libertarian party or their local churches. Our relation to them should be one of coalition, I think, not necessarily being in the same party.
OTOH, if we wanted to do a purely anti-corruption party that included both right and left, that could be powerful. It would require a degree of trust and compromise I'm not sure is forthcoming from either side.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
That's the point. Anything effective has to go
beyond conventional L/R, D/R thinking.
Orwell: Where's the omelette?
The election is over. We lost.
I'm still working on this.
We won. We were robbed. What do we have to do to make sure that never happens again? That's what I want to do.
We won the primary. We did that part right. What we didn't do was protect our victory. How do we do that?
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
well, at this point that's
neither here nor there. If the power structure continues as we have it -- and i do not rule out that even the current rulers can be slapped awake -- we've lost however many elections we have coming in the future, already.
I think big picture analysis and practical, focused effort is needed right now. What you want isn't going to happen as long as Media Central makes up all the narratives that reach the entire population within two days, at most.
Orwell: Where's the omelette?
I think it is time
to organize a tax strike.
I did it on my own during the Reagan administration. I seriously hated how he was spending my tax dollars and just stopped.
Years later, when Bill Clinton became president, my faith was (foolishly) restored and I set myself right with the IRS. There were penalties. I didn't mind paying them because my conscience was clear, and I do believe in the common good being funded by the common people.
There is no reason in the world in this day and age that we should not be able to allocate our tax dollars as we see fit. When April 15 shows up, those who pay should be able to allocate their payment as ratios over all the agencies under the control of our government
Let's face it. That's all we elect our "representatives" to do. If we could secure our votes, there is no reason why we couldn't decide which government agencies received our taxes. I don't mind paying taxes. It is how we achieve mutually beneficial things that aren't part of the profit-based world. I have no children but am personally invested in education because they are the future. I'm not a trucker but I think there is a reason why ordinary people need roads maintained. I'm not scared of the world's hatred of us as much as TPTB are. I think it's time for them to get very few dollars from our citizens.
This an only be achieved with a massive tax strike. When our feckless government is deprived of its revenues, the parasitic, dying capitalistic monolith will no longer be able to parasitize the treasury that is sustained by the people.
Now, I know I'm on the list. I have been for a while. Want to hear my totally tin foil hat personal experience? There's no way to hide it if I tell you via email or phone. Where and how do we go from here?
So the big question is: how can we create secure channels for communication? How do you do that when they are listening, 100% of the time?
)edited for spelling(
The computer program that issues BitCoin does so
without collecting taxes.
Taxes never fund the money issuer.
Taxes do not fund the federal government, our sovereign currency issuer.
Rather, the money we use to pay our taxes comes from government spending.
Which isn't to say that we shouldn't go on a massive tax strike. It might make a political statement. But it won't prevent the government from creating dollars any more than withholding taxes prevents the computer program that creates BitCoin from creating more BitCoin.
The BitCoin program isn't revenue constrained and neither is our federal government.
Been there... done that gg
But look at what good the tea party has done with the same mentality. We are choking the wrong chicken here. Yes, our elected reps are chumps, but they are beholden to the Corps, the MSM, the MIC. We just need a way to choke off the money that makes it sooo easy for Corps to buy our elected officials.
Shut down the revolving door to Lobby firms, Wall St Banks, War Contractors, etc.. Make a law that any elected official is forbidden to ever work in association with lobbying, banking, Wall St, or the MIC. Make them go to work in the real world... growing veggies in decaying urban food deserts, food banks, crisis counseling, nursing, auto mechanics,, teachers...or all those places that employers want to pay $7.85 per hour; Like Walmart, McDonalds, Chick Fillet (sp)? ( never been there!!) The entire service industry needs workers....
Make retired Senators and Congress critters taste their own fruit. Make them buy their own Health insurance, make them pay office rent, and for their own office expenses and staff while in DC and State Houses across the country. (Like any other self employed entrepreneur) Pay them the median household income while in office. We need to pull the "Silver Spoon" from their collective asses, and make them work for their constituency, rather than their "Sugar Daddies and Mommies"
To do those things you need political power.
It's circular reasoning.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Hence: "First, seize the presses."
Nothing can be done until mass-reach media is somewhat democratized, when you think it through.
Orwell: Where's the omelette?
1.
It's already happening. Many millennial and us old fogey types have already left it behind. We don't need, want or care for the voice of the machine.
2. The war will never stop until there are no people left to fight wars. Such is the nature of humans.
3. As long as greed survives, you will never stop the grifting or the wars. Again, it's the nature of the beast.
Face it.
If you have children, tell them why they should have none. The future is not bright regardless of what those in power tell you. They just wish for more servants so as to live the life they have for as long as possible.
The countdown has begun.
Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.
Not really.
I know we've had 4 generations of being taught that 'new' equals 'better' but even the kids are mainly recycling what they hear from Media Central, directly or indirectly. As far as the internet goes, it's just a tool for divide and conquer, everyone going to their preferred informational ghetto. Go to, say, BlackListedNews and then to Huffington Post and see how many top stories they carry in common.
I'm talking about the mechanism we actually have in reality right this minute shaping our actual political life, the life we are living; not about the two-decades long fantasized day when the internet, somehow, replaces ubiquitous mass communication -- and the salient part -- whether you seek it out or not.
If tomorrow morning Media Central puts out the story "Obama, McCain, caught in love tryst with 3 headed Martian" the whole g'dam internet is going to be saying "I knew it" or debunking it by noon time. We see it every single day, every hour.
NO, the ability to reach every single American with the same impression within a day is NOT the same as you and me in our tens of millions wandering around to our favorite watering hole, oblivious to what others are taking in.
Mass-reach media and internet media are apples and ducks. Different things entirely.
Your second point is what we've been being programmed with since Social Darwinism raised it's head, but humanity has stopped wars as often as they've started them, and never embarked on thousands more. The scientism of the 19th C isn't really all that scientific when you get down to it.
And yes, greed is a natural part of power, BUT quite often the Rulers have figured out how to live extravagantly, indulgently, while making sure the peasants have enough of a decent life for themselves. I think just saying "oh, it all sucks, and that's the way it is' is useless. Remember, the public relations drive since "The Century of the Self" was initiated has been to convince us that our feelings are all that matter.
Orwell: Where's the omelette?
so what does that mean?
and
and
I am not sure I get all you say correctly, so correct me, if I have the wrong clues.
Why are mass-reach media and internet media different like ducks and appels?
Let me try. Internet media are accessible across national and cultural and ethnic boundaries with the speed of "light" (well not really those electrons who spin our digit need time to travel over the Atlantic and Pacific, but...) mass reach media though is not accessible world-wide through TV or radio, it doesn't travel fast and if you want to access it, you have to use the internet and access it from there. How many mass-media channels use internet media to fill up their news broadcasts?
There are "breaking news" because some dude had twittered something and another dudesse got 100 likes on her FB comment or some such and commentators are obsessed with watching their likes and dislikes etc. And CNN is reporting it on TV. Great. The access to both media forms is controlled more and more by corporations, who fiddle around in ther code beneath the surface. The so-called informational ghettos you have on the internet are illusions, imo. People can believe they can hide there, or believe they might influence something, writing there, but why would you believe it's for "real"?
With regards of the rulers to have figured out how to make their peasants have a decent life....Yeah, they figured it out, but it's a question if those lives were decent, and there is another question. As long people can see one poor peasant getting some perks and others are not, there will be wars, class war, tribal war, wars of isolation whatever.. Someone, who grew up in a little village in the tropical forests in West Africa explained it to me like this: In the village people want everyone to be equal and mostly they are. But if something is introduced that make some of them more equal than the other, it's over with the decency.
Well those internet media they are in those villagers' lives now. The younger generation is as capable of analyzing what's going on world wide, them being in a tropical forest village, capital city or being a student in the US. They can use their internet ghetto sites to communicate, but that's all.
Why would they be able to influence political powers?
Isn't the organizational power the internet ghetto media sites offer an illusion? The only thing not being illusional about it, is the fear of those in power to manage, manipulate and own the internet media and the mass-reach media, tghe fear of those potential organizations power to destroy their own political power and corporate profits. So, they will get crashed, softly, smoothly, intelligently, deceitful, meanly and completely. IMO.
I don't understand your last paragraph with regards to the PR people convincing us that "our feelings is all that matters". I think that to each individual their own feelings actual matter a lot and they are driven by them. And TPTB know that and analyze the hell out of those "feeling and emotional facts" to make sure they can divide and conquer playing fuzzy with those feelings. The whole conversations online are proving that what matters to individuals are their own feelings. Of course, saying that, means to get "ridiculed". Being emotional, what a stupid thing. But you can't stop having emotions and feelings and they drive each person to communicate and act. Do you agree? Feelings are in our dna. Thinking too, we can't stop both.
I don't know, what ia would like to see first. I like to occupy the internet.
(oops I think I do already, but so far it hasn't change anything).
https://www.euronews.com/live
Different in that mass-reach reaches the masses; internet don't
A few days ago you could go to several sites where the Brit House of Commons report on Libya found that the West attack was based on lies. Still can.
It's not been mentioned anywhere on Mass-Reach. Imagine it were.
Which venue affects public opinion, and immediately, to boot?
Orwell: Where's the omelette?
jim is not convinced that indie media is the way to go
he thinks that we can wrest control of the mainstream press from those currently running it.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Thank you!
Don't see why people don't grasp that. Are they really unaware that THE shaper of public opinion remains the Media Cartel, even after just witnessing who has been selected as worthy of being presidential candidates?
Even after all the internet-aided protests yield more authoritarianism, everywhere (excepting Tunisia at first)? That YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit are known to censor content and that websites can be and have been blocked by governments at the drop of a hat?
It boggles the mind that people still don't see that reaching the entire population in one day is intrinsically different than posting in some tiny corner of the web. And different from throwing wrenches into the most powerful agitprop instrument in all history.
Orwell: Where's the omelette?
I respect your point of view (and I'm glad I understand it
correctly) but I don't actually agree with it, as I said in another comment.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Why do you think you can crack the corporate media
any more easily that other components of the oligarchy? The only particular vulnerability I see for the corporate media is that they are subject to being bypassed more now than in the past. That is why restricting the internet is a priority for the powers that be.
They are universally hated. By the entire
political spectrum. If -- IF -- the blogosphere focused on breaking into, and breaking up, Centralized Media it could be done, and done quickly, working a dozen different angles.
Regardless, Media Central is killing us. Since the internet has been invented shit's been going downhill in the main. (Yes, some battles won; the war being lost, as our enemies grow in power year after year.)
It boggles my mind that people imagine we have any option if we intend to grow democracy. How? Tweet each other until twitter is shut down if we grow actually effective (as has happened everywhere)?
Orwell: Where's the omelette?
An interesting perspective on the electoral college & Berners
Dawn Papple's opinion piece is running as the featured story over at Inquistr. I'm still absorbing it all, and haven't yet decided about it. I thought others might want to read the whole article for themselves.
Read more at http://www.inquisitr.com/3527032/could-just-thousands-in-wyoming-or-verm...
The question is, though, what happens next?
The House of Representatives has not decided a "tied" election since 1824.
In 1876 they punted the decision to a "blue-ribbon panel" (five Congressmen, five Senators, five Supreme Court Judges) who were to "determine the validity" of disputed results from selected states. The panel was supposed to be balanced, with 1 neutral Judge, but the Judge stepped down and was replaced by a Republican, which resulted in a decision for Republican Rutherford Hayes along purely party lines.
In 2000 the Corporate Media screamed so loudly and so long that the country "could not wait" for a House decision, that the Supreme Court felt justified in horning in and deciding the election by stopping the recount in just one state.
What would they come up with this time to get out of doing their Constitutional duty?
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
Start Now
Create a group akin to the League of Women Voters, e.g. The League of Next Generation Voters and host a presidential debate. Obviously T & C won't show, but the other two might, especially if it looks like one of this is going to show up and use the whole, live streamed spot as a free ad.
Of course, you'd have to have a fairly large audience as a draw. Maybe TYT could pull it off, but Johnson probably wouldn't think it's an impartial forum.
In the end a TV network will want to 'partner' up for the 2024 debates, which will be a slight victory in that we're back to business as usual but at least we've forced them to include the little guys.
“He may not have gotten the words out but the thoughts were great.”
I look for declining party membership and the next recession
No matter who "wins" in November, I'll lay at least 50/50 odds that in January when Gallup does their biennial party ID poll, Democrats and Republicans together will be less than 50%. Who the hell wants to belong to either one of them after this year? If our two major parties together can't claim the allegiance of even half of Americans, that screams out a political market failure that will be hard to ignore. The corporate media will try, but the fertile ground for new parties and new ways of organizing political effort will have to bring forth new shoots.
When the next recession hits and the big banks collapse like jostled soufflés (after the election -- they won't make the 2008 mistake again), it's a good bet the pain among the 99% will make 2008-9 look like a walk in the park. Our captured parties will be faced with a hard choice: listen to universal public outcry or satisfy their sponsors. Can't see them doing anything but the latter, no matter how much furious pandering they do to try to cover it up. That's the point at which the parties' rot will become so far advanced that they will be ready to be toppled. Social media may be censored, but if the Egyptians and the Iranians can figure a way around that, so can Americans. Especially young Americans, who will be the leaders of the rebellion.
New political and communications structures will arise when the time is right for them. The crowdsourcing and grassroots media efforts that fueled the Sanders primary campaign was like a preseason game, where personnel and plays and strategies get tested. The next games are going to count for real.
Please help support caucus99percent!
But I'm asking what do WE do now.
It's the prepared people who will hold sway when chaos falls, and we have no preparation outside noting the things wrong. What do we NEED to achieve, and how can we use the internet to achieve it? Thus, my questions in this essay.
And I do wish people would give up their delusions about "someday, somehow, the internet will change everything; when things are bad enough." We've had the internet for 2 decades now. Egypt had it and now they have a worse dictatorship than ever. Iran had it and now they have a more entrenched power elite. Ukraine had it and the prominent critics and organizers via web are now in jail, disappeared, and without a website. Greece had it and they've got austerity enough to be literally killing off the population. Portugal had it and it's now illegal to criticize the police. China has it and you can't talk about half of real life. Saudi Arabia has it and it's a device to track and suppress critics.
No. We need to seize the organ which has made it possible for Trump and Hillary to be the people who are going to acquire power. Despite the internet knowing they are both shits.
Well, maybe in another 20 years, or 40, the internet will somehow give everybody the same message to consider within a day, like Mass-Reach clearly can do now. Who thinks we have that long?
I know you to be one of my favorite thinkers. I put it to you that the Internet is like a beachhead on the public's general narrative-consumption. The mainland is the organ where 90-95% of people STILL get their news and entertainment. Just cause they are viewing the Mainstream's Output on phones and tablets instead of from tv and hardcopy paper doesn't mean people are free of Media Central's ability to hide, delay, and ignore true things and to promote 1% lies.
So the question is: how do we use this beachhead to reshape the mainland? Dolling up the internet and adding icons and shit sure won't do that.
Orwell: Where's the omelette?
Now is the time for research and forming strategy
The establishment is powerful because they have immense wealth and with that they own the media and the politicians. The economy is on extremely shaky grounds. There are lots of potential triggers that will cause a depression. That would have the effect of eliminating wealth and debt. It takes the power away from the 1%. At that point, democracy can kick in and we can redesign the system to avoid these mistakes, economically and politically. But, we need to figure out how to do that and what the end goal is. At that point we can swamp the MSM using the internet. At that point we can create a political party that is capable of moving us to the future. At that point we can elect congresscritters that will vote for the people not the corporations. But...we need to know where we are going.
Capitalism has always been the rule of the people by the oligarchs. You only have two choices, eliminate them or restrict their power.
#2. Hunker down.
Boomers are leaving the work farce - and entering S.S. World - at the rate of over 5,000 a day, over 150,000 a month. Now, one would think that that there a boatload of job opportunities for Millenials. Apparently not.
On the other hand it presents plenty of opportunity to create "retirement communities." We once called them communes. Instead of individually "enjoying" our golden years in this dystopian b.s., birth us a group of 10 or 12 (or 50 or 100), buy 5, 10 or 50 acres (or a high rise), and pop up our own communities to ride out this 21st century nightmare.
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
According to many...
The jobs are there. My son at 18 can get 4 jobs today...at, or near minimum wage, in communities where they have to pay exorbitant prices for rent, car insurance, food, etc.. And then the corps offer employee hovels, but the availability depends on how many foreign workers they hire on work visas as they are required to provide them housing first. Vail Corp states they will be short 20-25% of their ideal winter workforce of 30,000 employees...and kids go to work and struggle to live the dream for $10.25 an hour to provide the oligarchy food, maid service, ski lessons, etc.. Is it a surprise they can't find workers?
Work farce
I don't know if "work farce" was a typo or intentional, but it made me laugh.
intentional. n/t
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
Very very smart.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Technology does not automatically fix things.
Our illusion that it would is pretty much dead, I'd say, in most quarters. The hopeful days of the early blogosphere have elicited an ugly response from the PTB that most people don't want to look at much, or take very seriously, and thus a lot of what the technology could offer us is being stymied. In addition, you're right, the internet, even unhampered, does not represent enough power to counteract corporate/financial control of the world.
You're also right that we need to seize more territory. Aside from the ministerial activism of healing and strengthening our people, our primary need right now is to have places and spaces that are ours. This is something that a lot of left-of-center people are not comfortable with thinking about; it sounds too aggressive, too acquisitive, too much like war; also, people have this insane idea, likely built in the 80s and 90s, that our great need is to reach out to those who are different than we are, those who disagree. When I look around and I see over 55% of the American population with, literally, nowhere to go; no vehicle for expression, no community of like minds--starving for a place to call home; when I see that even mainstream polls show that that majority is in agreement with me on several key issues, but has no power--it's pretty clear to me that reaching out to those who disagree is not where the focus should be. The words "echo chamber" in this day and age, in which majorities of the populace are denied vehicles for expression and power on every front, are about as helpful as the words "conspiracy theory," and I wouldn't be surprised to find that they came from the same place. On some issues, we've almost reached a supermajority in this country, yet we still keep talking like we're a tiny minority that has to convince/educate the public which disagrees with us because it's not educated. For the love of Mike!
So, I'm in agreement with you on those two fundamental points, but we have a profound disagreement on strategy and tactics. The problem with taking over, or taking back, the Mainstream media in whole or in part, is the same problem with taking over, or taking back, the Democratic party, only more so. Corporations, very rich and powerful ones, controlled by very rich and powerful people, control the Mainstream Media, just like they control the two major parties--the only difference is that, in the case of the media, the control is direct: the Mainstream Media is one function of six very large corporations whose reach is global.
IMO, we are in no way prepared for an all-out assault on, and takeover of, even one media company; how are we going to do that? Let's say we could activate everybody in this country who agrees with us--and there's a lot of them, admittedly--would we have enough disposable income, all of us together, to buy out the majority shareholders of TimeWarner, or DisneyCorp, or GE, or whoever else is running the news currently? If we don't, then how do we make them change? Regulations and laws? Then we're back into convincing the government to represent us instead of them. You've seen how that's been working. Can you imagine the current Congress repealing the Telecommunications Act? Or the Democratic congress of 2009-2010 doing so? Can you imagine the FCC actually rejecting the will of the wealthy and siding with the people, which basically means they'd have to tell the rest of the government to fuck off?
We may not like where we are, but we need to start where we are. What we have may not be sufficient--in fact, as you point out, it's demonstrably not so--but we have to start with what we have.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
We actually have plenty.
Way more than enough. It doesn't take much, other than the internet, to build a Media monster the equal of NBC. What we don't have is the will to build it. Turns out Libruls can't be herd any more than cats. It is why Bernie's "revolution" is so hard to kickstart. There already are too many groups dividing the effort.
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
It sounds like you're more in agreement w/me than not--
You're in favor of building the indie media rather than taking over Big Conventional Media. So am I, though you're more optimistic than I am--I see the problems jimp is pointing out; I just think this is our only logical next step. As far as media is concerned, anyway.
And besides, indie media and its practitioners are being shelled right now; they need help. They need to be networked together for defensive purposes, if nothing else.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Well, like I said,
it's tough to herd cats. And liberals. Everyone has their fiefdoms, and guard their proprietary property like it were Fort Knox. While that's understandable it doesn't help the cause. We decided, off the bat, to be as "open source" as we possibly could to help others serious about putting together a web radio station do just that. It's easy enough to do, takes very little money and time, but not as easy to maintain. When some find out it takes both time and work they're soon gone.
Still, yes, I believe it to be one of the top three or four aspects of our (progressive) salvation. Our own Media, that is. It's one of the top two or three reasons we started ours up.
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
We should talk soon--
You've definitely got info/expertise I need.
I'll be in touch.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Thank you for actually reading for content.
As to breaking into, and break up, the Media -- show me the option. If you are in the middle of the ocean and your boat sprouts a hole, you find a way to fill the hole or you sink. That's where we are.
Practical methods: For example, crowdsourcing adverts. Say an advert of "Our Wars Have all Failed." (Whatever the funders want.) Then when the local venue rejects it bring the crowd in front of their place of business every day. Spread the protest through the internet.
That is, USE the damned thing for practical objectives.
You might remember when the FCC was going to push new rules allowing greater media concentration. In one week they, and Congress, got something on the order of near 2 million emails -- and this was from left, right, center, teachers, parents, church groups, unions, small business people, and got the rule blocked. This kind of "danger threatens us all alike" spirit that we have to work on.
Seriously, I don't have time to detail all of them, but if you put yourself into the mindset: here's a problem and I MUST solve it, you too, anyone, could come up with a half dozen avenues of effort. Challenges to licenses on 'fails to serve the public good'; eminent domain; massive campaigns of 'stop bullshitting us' aimed at editors and talking heads....
I'm talking about prioritizing on an object.
We could change the media landscape in months. In months. More we need to do it or we're going to continue losing, and there's no way around that reality.
Orwell: Where's the omelette?
Yes, look at Wells Fargo
for an example of what happens when you leave known criminals in control and punish their victims.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Excellent Essay, why not pursue all 3 goals?
For any of them to succeed we are going to have to build bridges among disparate groups across the political spectrum.
"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."
i was mainly hoping to get some forward-thinking
going, through discussion. See what people think about 'what is to be done,' my suggestions or no.
To my mind everything starts with seizing the King's Presses, but people seem to have the poorly thought-through belief that the internet makes that unnecessary. Can't figure out why people don't see than in the real world Mass Reach Media still sets what happens: If the internet were a real power there'd be neither Trump nor Hillary nor their ilk as options for president. Moreover, witness Greece, Egypt, Iran, China, Ukraine, Bahrain, Portugal, Italy, etc etc. Internet-powered democracy has gotten its ass kicked all over the world, with more rightist control then ever. The Powers That Be can, and have, and do, and will, cut the thing off as soon as it poses a real threat.
Orwell: Where's the omelette?
well, regarding the media....
Based on my very limited experience younger people do not get their news from TV or Radio. As for manipulation of the internet by TPTB, it's not like they don't control TV media. Alternatively, we've seen how Facebook and Twitter can control info too, probably shouldn't be too reliant on them. As for Radio, well Air America was a failure. What is there to be learned from Air America's failures? Personally, I think efforts should continue on the internet. I suppose we could try mass direct mailings, but otherwise I think print media is dead. I guess I'm just rambling. Also, it was the internet that powered Bernie Sanders.....
"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."
Young people get the same news except
it isn't from TV or radio. What difference does it make (in terms of narrative-making) if I read a commentary on a NY Times story about Putin turning people into newts at Reddit on my iRadiate, or if I read the Times article in hardcopy? The narratives all come from the same place, but maybe some pot-stirring in local little corners of the internet. Not that that's useless, but it is nowhere near sufficient to our desperate need.
Orwell: Where's the omelette?
true /nt
https://www.euronews.com/live
1. Create our own
Media. It doesn't need to be central or centric, whatever, but it Does need to be connected. That is, we don't need to be like the MSM, practically spouting every story word for word, but we Do need to be a Network of sorts.
It is one of the reasons we created our practically invisible radio station/ network.
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
And in maybe 20 or 50 years the alternate
media will grow to a position where it can create narratives for the entire population in one or two days. Surely we have that much time. In the meantime, how fucked are we with Mass-reach Media shaping the public narratives?
Orwell: Where's the omelette?
Will yet another new party will be any more relevant
than this election or than all the other new parties that preceded it?
The only maybe relevant thing I see in the immediate future is trying to get the Greens 5% of the popular vote. After election day, I'll pursue other thoughts. Please Goddess, let them be more optimistic than I feel right now.
I would say number one, vote for Jill Stein and tell everyone
about her. Assuming for the moment the voting machines will not be hacked, then the only reason she's not viable is because everyone keeps saying she's not viable. If everyone who likes her would vote for her, she'd win. If people voted their hopes and not their fears, she'd win. If all those voters who are going to stay home because they don't like either mainstream candidate instead went to the polls and voted for Jill Stein, she'd win. And wouldn't Hill scream if the first woman President is not her? That alone would make it worth the price of admission.
Number one not necessarily because it's the most important thing, but because we only have about 6 weeks to do everything we can.
Number two, make the voting machines unhackable, with paper trails. Now that the primaries are over, no one seems to be working on this, which is a shame. It doesn't matter what new party we come up with if the MSM is going to stop polling and the Dems and/or Reps are going to hack the machines. If in the process, investigation revealed that the Dem primaries were hacked and who hacked them and sent a few vote disenfranchisers to jail, that'd be a bonus. But if we ever plan to have any kind of free and fair elections, we need to do something about the hackable machines.
Number three, I think I agree with your idea about new media. It should be a piece of cake to outwork and outwrite the MSM. They have become terrible and mostly no longer practice journalism. We just need to figure out the financing and marketing.
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Jill Stein is going to be Nadered.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
They're trying, but don't buy it. The mainstream candidates
are both terrible. So was Al Gore (I liked the guy, but...) - more Dem voters voted for Bush than voted for Nader, so Nader wasn't the spoiler. Maybe Joe Lieberman was. Or the fallout from Clenis. Or Wooden Al himself. Or his wife. Or all of the above. The Dems need to stop running terrible candidates and then blaming the voters for turning away. It's on them.
Neither Clinton nor Trump deserves my vote by dint of winning the mainstream party nominations. Especially not this year. My vote is available to the best candidate. For me, that's the candidate who best expresses my values, which is Jill Stein.
I'm looking for Jill to take a lot of votes of independents and the apathetic, people who are considering not voting at all - not necessarily taking Hillary's votes, which I think will come from Reagan Democrats. If Hill is running neck and neck with Trump when the polls only give a choice of the two of them, then that's not on us, that's on her. That she can't beat a ridiculous orange combover everythingist bully is on her. It's because of her corruption from olden days until recently.
Both mainstream candidates pander to the rich. Both will do little or nothing about income inequality, climate change, or wars. They differ on social issues, but not some YUGE issues that need immediate attention. I don't want Trump to win. But I don't want Hill to win either. At this point, they're close enough together that I'm willing to take a chance and join with the people who will vote against both of them. Upsets do happen, and with those unfavorable numbers, there is an opening for an upset.
If there is a spoiler, Jill's not the spoiler. Hill's own record is the spoiler.
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I agree 100%
My comment meant that Dems will blame Jill rather than their own stinking (literally) candidate.
They believe firmly in plantation politics and the slaves have to be put back in their place.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
paper trails don't prevent hacking.
No, but they make some versions of it more difficult
to present as a kosher win.
Unfortunately, we've got multiple kinds of voter purging and out-and-out fraud going on here to deal with. All hail Hydra.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
As I understand it, with paper trails, if any candidates suspect
hacking, they can count the paper votes with all parties present. Paper votes win.
Please check out Pet Vet Help, consider joining us to help pets, and follow me @ElenaCarlena on Twitter! Thank you.
I'm sorry, Elana but I'm a retired programmer/systems analyst
who knows paper trails can be hacked, too.
It is very disheartening to me to hear people who want to keep electronic voting alive. I know how hackable it is from every level, including the data stream that sends counts electronically to the final tabulator. Data can be intercepted and manipulated at every stage of electronic voting.
The only secure vote (and who knows how secure that is) is a paper ballot. These need to be tracked in person by both (or all) parties through final tabulation.
Do you keep all of your receipts when you shop? People toss them once the list is fulfilled. Furthermore, there are plenty of ways to fake up a bunch of paper ballots - all of which rely upon electronics.
I'm fighting a losing battle here, but I believe anyone with a computer related background can confirm that there is no way to secure electronic voting. Having lost this argument too many times by people who glorify efficiency, I have resorted to asking for open source code, which statistically reduced cheating but does not bar it from occurring.
CSTS, whose post is above yours, is correct. Paper ballots might stem the tide of ballot cheating so some degree, but the fix is in. We, the people can't win at the ballot box.
All right then, we need paper ballots, tracked carefully.
Or a parallel sort of system - vote both electronically and paper with the paper completely uncoupled from the electronic. Use the electronic for efficiency unless someone suspects something and wants to count the paper ballots. Absolutely, all parties need to be involved. It's crazy that we can't trust but we know we can't, so track carefully.
Yes, I do save my receipts.
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The best place to begin is where we are.
Vote for candidates who best express your thoughts and hopes for our world, regardless of their chance for immediate "victory".
Live like you care about the future of our planet and its ablity to continue to support life. Use only what you truly need; consume less, and protect and preserve remaining habitat for the myriad other life forms that actually make our biome viable.
Recognize the futility of quick fixes and messianic leaders and simply become your small part of the change that is needed, regardless of whether or not we can first convince those holding the reins of power.
We don't need to wait for the direction of a new organization or a new consensus to begin to work toward becoming the change that we are looking for.
“ …and when we destroy nature, we diminish our capacity to sense the divine,and understand who God is, and what our own potential is and duties are as human beings.- RFK jr. 8/26/2024
Agree with everything except the last sentence
Individual actions are good, and if that's all people have the energy for, then that's fine; but the idea that somehow we're going to all do our own individual bit and it will turn out fine, or turn out better--I don't believe that. There will have to be organization, infrastructure, and resources--if we want any changes to happen, or if we even want to be able to deal with these times from a position of resilience.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
For me, the last sentence is most important of my comment.
Perhaps if it is stripped down to it's essential components you will find it less objectionable.
We can't wait the generations it will take to build a credible national party with both state and local representatives in place. The accelerating rate of climate change is not offering us generations, at best a decade or two, before we've screwed the pooch and have self perpetuating feedback loops in motion that will make even zero CO2 emissions insufficient to halt a mass extinction event.
We can, however, begin immediately to make personal and local efforts to minimize our contributions to warming while efforts continue on the State and Federal levels to build the organizational structure to compete at those levels.
My fear is that if we, collectively, wait until a viable environmentally responsible Party is built before we begin to change our individual behaviors, the path forward will become even narrower and less possible than it already is.
“ …and when we destroy nature, we diminish our capacity to sense the divine,and understand who God is, and what our own potential is and duties are as human beings.- RFK jr. 8/26/2024
I think people should begin to do whatever they can do
individually as soon as possible, as soon as they can.
I didn't find your comment "objectionable."
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
I assure you that right this moment there
are large numbers of armed men, bigots and lunatics, who hold the consensus that they will need to take power, should chaos abound. These people can only be beaten by a consensus by a large majority of people working to obviate chaotic conditions. Such conditions being made possible by corruption in business and perpetual war.
Orwell: Where's the omelette?
I'd suggest that we have a lot of housework to do
before--or at the same time--as we do whatever other work we're doing.
The Left has this habit of acting like the condition of its activists doesn't matter in the least, because we are fighting for the right, and like all good people everywhere, we disregard every injury, mental, physical, economic, and spiritual, as long as we're fighting for the right. As someone on Daily Kos once said to me when I said I was demoralized and had no energy: "Just think about President Romney. That'll fix it." There's a "rub dirt on it, you ain't hurt so bad" habit of thought. This habit is so ingrained, like many of our other habits of thought, that we don't even see it anymore. Nor, I'd say, do we see ourselves. We act like "the movement" is a given, and if it's not big enough, it's only because we have failed in reaching people--or alternately, because the people we're trying to reach are stupid or bad in some way. It's like we're blind to all we've lost under the assault of the last 40 years. The older, more successful movements of the 30s, 50s, 60s, and 70s had communities, or at the very least inhabited a society that didn't put up so many structural roadblocks to developing such, the main one being an all-out assault on time. The result of all this is that we end up like people sitting in a car with 250,000 miles on it and myriad mechanical problems, angry because we're not winning a race.
One of the mechanical problems is the media, of course, and that's where I'd start working, though you wouldn't like the way that I'd do it. But a much more fundamental mechanical problem is the isolation, exhaustion, and demoralization that are the results of a long-term assault on people power.
I'd suggest that whatever we want to do, it's going to have to start from where people actually are, that we establish meet-ups like detroitmechworks was trying to do in OR--and where is he, by the way?--and really commit to making them work. Once a basic level of trust is established, exchange contact information--I know phone trees are old tech, but we want a back-up in case the PTB step up their assault on the internet, and, anyway, how realistic is it that we will be able to mount any kind of successful movement without knowing each other better? Show up, and keep showing up, and get to know each other IRL. Eat together, cry together, have parties together, feed each others' dogs when we're gone. Create a small travel fund to help those who are isolated.
I've been desperately wanting to rent a beach house and invite all the FL caucusers for a beach weekend this fall, but right now is a bad time for me to spend extra money, because I'm trying to close on a house. Maybe everybody could come up for the housewarming, whenever that ends up being.
As for the election, I think we should have a hurricane party of sorts on election night, all over the country--getting together, enjoying each others' company, drinking, music, games, what have you. If we had our acts together, we could use that as a kickoff, not a miserable defeat. We've never been in a larger majority in my adult lifetime than right now.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
More and better politicians.
That's what we need, only from third and fourth and fifth parties. If we can just get the right politicians, and I know we've been working at that for 200 plus years without success, we can right this ship.
Not completely without success
It's just that what success we've had has been far too limited. Part of it IMHO is the absence of "None Of The Above" as a factor to keep the politicians in line ("Behave yourself or you'll be replaced by None Of The Above!").
Part of it is an electoral system designed back when horse and buggy was the fastest way to get from town to town. It worked OK for 13 coast-hugging ex-Colonies, but not when you can fly across 48 states in 4 hours.
So now what?
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
Now what? Well I know what I'm going to do.
I think everyone has to figure that out for themselves.
"So now what?" - I think I can answer that question but I doubt
anyone is gonna like the answer.
I think the corruption has gotten so widespread and entrenched that it's going to take the only thing that ever worked in our history when things have reached this level.
Violent revolution or mass insurrection...
It's sure as hell not what I want, and maybe I am being nihilistic (something I am not generally prone to) however throughout our history as a species when things have reached this level time and time again if positive changes were not implemented quickly enough by those in power things generally exploded, in many cases to the point of the collapse of the entire society.
Distrust and fear are rampant and both breed anger. and nothing is more terrifying to many than an uncertain, but most likely dim, future, with little or no hope of or ability to alter their circumstance will lead a certain percentage to feel that violent action is not just justified, but the "Righteous" thing to do, and who knows? History could come to view such people through the same rose colored glasses we do our nations founding fathers.
Anger leads to rage, rage leads to violence and violence leads to more and more reciprocal violence.
So I guess my only answer to "So now what?" would be to tell everyone to invest in Pitchforks and Torches.
That, or maybe we can crowdsource the purchase of an island (hopefully mountainous, global warming and all that) and declare ourselves a sovereign nation lol!
Man, we really are most likely screwed. I just depressed myself writing this. {sigh}
"I used to vote Republican & Democrat, I also used to shit my pants. Eventually I got smart enough to stop doing both things." -Me
The Greens need to run candidates for Congress and State
Assemblies. Running for President and Senator is just an ego trip if you have no experience. The House and State Assemblies are where Democracy is being choked. And it is much cheaper to run there, more likely to have an audience without spending megabucks on TV.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Surely you jest
Comment intended as reply to Big Al
Just a tad
Where would you like people to gather and organize and work
and fight and eat and cry? I'm getting behind the third-party idea because 1)it challenges the corrupt major two parties, and something needs to do that, and, more importantly, 2)there has to be somewhere that people gather, come together, form community, and figure out what they want to do next. Individualism as a political strategy is at least as defunct as the political parties are. If people don't come together, nothing will be done, not even the small ways of trying to spread resilience so that fewer people shatter under the upcoming body blows.
So, where then? I can't use churches, like the right wing does; almost everybody I talk to on the left has an almost reflexive distrust of all organized religion. Even some Black people do, albeit from a different point of view (there is the idea that a lot of Black preachers misuse their power over their congregations and basically take money from politicians in exchange for promoting them to their communities). So, churches are out. Look around you. Where do people gather? Where is there community? I'm talking about for the majority of the population, not for those lucky enough to be in a small town or a farming community where people have somehow maintained ties.
Universities used to be our answer to the right wing's churches and Elks Clubs but no more; they've been taken over. Can we take them back to some extent? Don't know. Maybe? But faculty are incredibly vulnerable and exposed, as the recent lockout at Long Island showed--and most of us aren't even "real" faculty, but instead are adjuncts. Even "real" faculty probably won't get protection from the administrations of colleges and universities if big donors or the government say that certain activities must stop.
Where else? Where are we going to gather? Where do Americans imagine gathering when they're thinking politics? A political party, or maybe an issue-based campaign with an issue group attached (some of these, like the ACLU and NOW have percolated into the consciousness of at least those Americans who are politically aware).
If you've got another suggestion, I'd be delighted to hear it, and I mean that sincerely; I'd like it if we could come up with a move that wasn't utterly predictable--though if we did, announcing it on the internet is probably not the greatest way to go about doing things.
Which brings me to the fact that we probably won't be doing anything unless we also start meeting in person.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
As far as where to gather goes, if I recall correctly our nation
was largely founded in Pubs and Ale Houses.
Why not stick with a good thing.
"I used to vote Republican & Democrat, I also used to shit my pants. Eventually I got smart enough to stop doing both things." -Me
Bernie Sanders showed me
that a large percentage of the people are ready to change direction away from neoliberal/neocon policies but TPTB are too strong to move away from them. I remember 2008 when I thought Obama getting elected would produce that change and all we got was more of the same. I think the worst thing about Obama did was to quash the very thing he campaigned on, Hope and Change. He taught me very well how not to trust anything that comes out of a politician's mouth. If/when the economy bottoms out again the US may, yet again, elect leaders who will pull another FDR-like performance and return the US to a more equitable society. Otherwise living in the US is going to be even harder than it is today.
I think mass media is the key
To work on. There must be small independent TV stations still around. I think we need to find them. There are enough of us to take over control of a few of those, IMO.
Finally! Someone actually dealing with the issue!
Thanks. I called up a NYC local (not network) station a few years ago. "How much to run ads." This package, that package... you could get a week of spots at 11pm for a couple of hundred dollars.
Orwell: Where's the omelette?
I knew it!
(and I ain't alone). I come in contact on a somewhat personal level with 2, 3 and 4 year olds three days a week. They're smart as all hell. Two and a half year olds that not only know their ABC's, can count to 20, know their colors, but speak like they've done so since day one, with the vocab of a 6 year old. Four year olds that should be in second grade. I started noticing this phenomenon - and it is one - four or 5 years ago when a two and a half year old was talking to me as if he were 7 years old. "You've got to be kidding me," I told his grandfather, who just chuckled with an "oh, yeah... " Moms agree that their three year olds should be off to kindergarden, can't believe that they can "play" with an iPad like they were born with one, an iPhone just something to play with until the real deal comes down the pike.
So what is it about these toddlers acting three, 4 years older than their age?
I saw the answer on the teevee. Turns out Edgar Cayce - yes, That Edgar Cayce - predicted that "between 1998 and 2015 a new generation will be born" (that are Way smarter than those that came before). I suspect he was right on this prediction. I see it with my own two eyes three days a week. Forget the Millenials, it is these kids that will save the world.
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
Agree, Media Propaganda is the linchpin. Topic excites/vexes me.
First of all, thanks for introducing this topic/challenge JimP. Your presence at TOP was one I always paid attention to (a good many are here now!).
By far I think, propaganda, which happens when there’s media monopoly, is the biggest problem of all, beside and in tandem with Money In Politics. They work strongly together. It's not hyperbole to say that from these all else flows. No issue stands a chance of getting a fair hearing or being passed if the people making those decisions have an interest in either not informing the citizenry or distracting from it, and are beholden to their donors who basically own them. The combination creates just enough of a circus atmosphere in the media propaganda to keep the minions in thrall while woefully uninformed, while the behemoth of Money In Politics strangulates any worthwhile legislation that may improve the lives of the 99% wherever there’s more profit for the 1% at stake.
Many of us know that 6 corporations own 90% of the media. But has this really sunk in to the average person, I mean the real ramifications of what that means? This is not only true of media by the way. It’s the same for our food system and consumer products (thanks to the disintegration of anti-trust laws and the mergers and acquisitions of the 80’s up to the sheer dominance of global financial conglomerates). On the rare times I step into a NYC bodega I glance around at all the brightly colored packages of junk food and mentally see just one giant vat of high fructose corn syrup with various flavor tubes connected to it, getting pumped into these plastic bags produced by the same few companies. Corporate Monopoly was one of the really big memes out of OWS.
The other night, still stung from the thuggery of the heist of Bernie’s candidacy, I decided last minute that I would give a shot to another of these off-shoot Bernie groups that have sprung up around the country. These folks were showing the film “The Brainwashing of My Dad,” which I had wanted to see. Back story, I had recently been to the first meeting of the local Our Revolution meeting and left skeptical and disheartened. In the meantime they had sent an email invitation to a bbq they were throwing, with, get this, our corporate Dem city council member. That did it for me (more on that later).
So after spending 10 hours with our baby at home I was eager for the freedom to jump on a bicycle with the hope that this one might be different. I already had a better feeling about this group. They were called Politics Reborn (not the greatest name I thought) but I noticed the names of a few of its members, who were a progressive black couple in St. Albans, Queens who had set up a Bernie campaign office their backyard office space. I had gone there to canvass and was hoping to reacquaint with them. Without getting into my findings while canvasing (I wrote it up somewhere) there was slightly more Bernie support than Hillary, contrary to the establishment propaganda BS.
Pleasantly surprised after the film, everybody there, who were Bernie volunteers or campaign team members, shifted the discussion immediately from the subject of the film, specifically Fox News propaganda on older white folks, to more broad and comprehensive the elephant in the room, which is the all-pervasive media propaganda of the MSM and how it divides and conquers. This was exactly what I was hoping for, and everyone got it. We discussed the virtues of people getting together in person rather than mostly online, suggested ways to impact the masses and how to fight back in a world of corporate commodification. Everyone left enthused and looking forward to meeting again. So much for the fraud of Our Revolution. I was beginning to lose my mind, thinking, “where did all that amazing energy go engendered during the primary?” Visions of the veal pen Jane Hamsher spoke about and the graveyard of ideas Kshama Sawant indicted the Dem Party about filled my head. That great energy and passion is still very much there. Just have to get with the right folks.
One idea I suggested to fight back against propaganda was to do a little of our own. One idea I’ve had for a long time is to set up a basement-style, low-frequency/band AM radio station, for the purposes of just playing lectures of radical progressive philosophy that the MSM would never touch. Collect the most potent Chris Hedges, Cornel West, Christopher Hitchens, Glen Greenwald, Matt Taibbi, Greg Palast, George Monbiot lectures/appearances, alongside classic speeches like MLK’s “Beyond Vietnam”, Ike’s MIC, Malcom, IF Stone, Noam Chomsky, George Carlin’s “American Dream,” Bill Hicks, Lenny Bruce, etc (we all have our favorites) – and just play them all day long, uninterrupted, nothing else. They would have to be situated in a high traffic area, where during rush hour in bumper to bumper traffic, potentially thousands and thousands of people could hear it. You would put up signs or have a volunteer stand alongside the traffic with a sign saying simply, “tune into 610AM on your radio.” Everyone loved the idea. Another one I had along those lines is to buy an old ice cream truck and use it to broadcast the same. The draw would be to come check out the truck, which would have all sort of LW progressive quotes on it, and sell “$1 ice cream” while giving away LW literature and bumperstickers, etc. People are hungry for someone to shake things up. Would get people’s attention and get people talking. Short of that more local cafes dedicated to activist/teach-in/film night types of events, and also a revival of getting back into the public commons ala Occupy, re-creating the wonderful Occupy Town Hall-style public gatherings with the intention of getting folks who would not normally come out to such events to come and mingle.
Can’tStoptheSignal commented how we need to get together in person. I strongly agree and endorse that we do more of it. We held the first C99 East Coast meetup in Philly on the weekend just before the DNC convention. It was wonderful and I bet all who were there and more would show up for another one (though we have not one picture that I'm aware of!). I say we should try to get together a few times a year at least.
Overall, I think this discussion is imperative now.
In a nutshell, Media Propaganda and Money In Politics drive every aspect of our lives. Not understanding that, and then discussing ways to combat it, is whistling past the graveyard.
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"
- Kurt Vonnegut
Man, this is what I'm trying to get across.
Not only "couldn't have said it better myself" but "didn't say it better myself."
Narratives™ are made for us that are propagated throughout the culture and throughout all forms of media. This fixes people's attention as well as falsifying our actual situations. And everybody gets the narrative, whether they haven't seen a tv in 30 years, just their iPad or whatever.
Now we agree or disagree with the narrative, even soundly refute it (though most of America will never see that refutation), but all the time, we're dancing to their tune.
Orwell: Where's the omelette?
number one
the one who controls the media controls the message. the rest will follow.