American Media - 'Tools And Vassals of Rich Men Behind The Scenes'

Submitted by Ray Pensador on Fri, 06/30/2017 - 11:24pm

I've long ago concluded that the American public is subjected to the most sophisticated system of mass propaganda the world has ever known (or suffered), bar none. And, I've concluded that ALL social dysfunction can be traced back to the effects corporate-owned media propaganda has on the population.

I have come to see the system of propaganda in the United States as a very sophisticated PsyOps tool (cognitive malware) that has been deployed throughout the entire society. Google, Facebook, Twitter, countless of other apps and social media sites, all operating based on sophisticated algorithms that constantly analyze our behavior (as individuals, and as groups), end up controlling us, even if in a very tenuous, just below the surface (of consciousness) manner.

The New York Times, WaPo, SF Chronicle, Boston Globe, Miami Herald, Chicago Tribune, Hartford Courant, San Diego Union Tribune, San Jose Mercury News, PBS, HuffPo, Salon, Daily Kos, CNN, NBC, ABC, MSNBC, FoxNews, CBS, CNBC, and the entire universe of corporate-owned media and news outlets most Americans are exposed to have an incredible amount of influence over the way we think and behave, on a daily basis.

What is it that they hide? The current system--some call it Neoliberalism, market fundamentalism, or capitalism--has totally failed; it is taking its last breath, thrashing about. It can't be saved, reformed, rebuilt. It's done. From its ruins, something new is emerging (even if people are not conscious about it yet), as people seek to create a better society, having realized that the depraved nature of the current system can't meet people's yearning for justice, safety, common decency.

At some level, this awakening is spreading across the world, in Athens, and New York, San Francisco, Barcelona, Rome, San Juan, Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo, and it is manifesting itself in several "convulsions," whether Occupy Wall Street, Los Indignados, or Barcelona en Comú, Syriza, Zapatistas.

The reason for this is the same: the brutal and depraved supra-national regime of Neoliberalism (imposed by financial and corporate cartels, and their tools, like the IMF, World Bank, fake NGOs) are extremely organized, wreaking havoc in country after country, pillaging, looting, exploiting human and natural resources to satisfy their unquenchable greed.

This supra-national "system" still remains somewhat hidden from the consciousness of most people, but as social justice activists continue their struggle, it is slowly beginning to be revealed, little by little.

There will come a time--it could be any time, any day--when the understanding about exactly how this system (international Neoliberalism) is structured, and operates, will be fully revealed and understood by a significant segment of the populations being affected by it. And when that day comes, the system will fall in such a cataclysmic manner that it will catch everybody by surprise. People will say they didn't see it coming; that they never thought a system that looked almost omnipotent in its brutal control and oppression, could actually come and end so swiftly.

But future historians will write that the process that led to its demise took several decades...

At the end, that's what the massive propaganda we're being exposed to, 24/7, is trying to prevent, or delay. Add to that massive surveillance, infiltration of ALL social justice groups by government and corporate goons.

But these depraved fucks, the ruling elite, won't be able to stop the tsunami of righteousness that will sweep the world once people wake up to the true nature of the system.

So now, here's the (temporary) challenge... When I talk to you, I can tell within 30 seconds if you're being distracted, manipulated, controlled, by these propaganda systems. I can tell if you listen to PBS's war propaganda, or to MSNBC's "analysis," or God-forbid, CNN, NYT, or FoxNews. And so I'll know that if you think those outlets are legit, or if you post stuff on Facebook, or Twitter all the time, and think their psychographical algorithms don't affect you, then I'll know it may take you a little bit longer to free your mind from the corporate state control. But if you are a truth-seeker, you'll eventually come to realize the true nature of those "tools" of the corporate state, and you will find a way to free yourself from them. And at that point, you and others thus awakened, will bring the entire system down, in favor of a new era.

In my opinion, the following quote attributed to John Swinton (1829–1901), perfectly summarizes the role of the corporate-owned media:

There is no such a thing in America as an independent press, unless it is out in country towns. You are all slaves. You know it, and I know it. There is not one of you who dares to express an honest opinion. If you expressed it, you would know beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am paid $150 for keeping honest opinions out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you are paid similar salaries for doing similar things. If I should allow honest opinions to be printed in one issue of my paper, I would be like Othello before twenty-four hours: my occupation would be gone. The man who would be so foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the street hunting for another job. The business of a New York journalist is to distort the truth, to lie outright, to pervert, to villify, to fawn at the feet of Mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread, or for what is about the same — his salary. You know this, and I know it; and what foolery to be toasting an "Independent Press"! We are the tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes. We are jumping-jacks. They pull the string and we dance. Our time, our talents, our lives, our possibilities, are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes.

My suggestion? The sooner you come to terms with the true nature and purpose of the corporate media landscape in the U.S., the sooner you'll free yourself from the control of the depraved ruling elite. And at that point, you'll be on your way to real freedom.

Tags:

#Disinformation #MDM #CorporateMedia #Propaganda

Vote

Comments

Submitted by GreatLakeSailor on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 12:51am

Glad you posted here, Ray.

Yours is definitely the prevailing view here at c99p. Our population is fully propagandized and when this scam goes down, it's gonna go down like the house of cards it is - quick and flat.

I'll just add a couple of media outlets that really showed their colors in the last year: Mother Jones (that one is heart breaking), AlterNet (though, at times they seem to pull themselves free), I dunno who else, it's getting late.

Do you post regularly post on another venue? I enjoy your essays.

—

Compensated Spokes Model for Big Poor.

Submitted by Steven D on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 9:26am

Hey Ray!

@GreatLakeSailor Good to see you back.

—

"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott

Submitted by LaFeminista on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 12:58am

Hi Ray, propaganda doesn't even need to be extreme

it can be subtle changes in the reality to get the desired reaction, then slowly over time you have bent the perceived "reality" out of all recognition.

eg In our society successful people are rich, rather than the system being defective in allowing these massive discrepancies in and accumulations of wealth.

Submitted by pro left on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 1:17am

I agree R P

and once you are free you'll probably ask yourself how did I fall for their BS for so long when it was so obvious. Hopefully the masses will wake up and realize what's going on, the sooner the better.

Submitted by Ray Pensador on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 1:36am

GreatLakeSailor, the way the corporate media manipulates

people is very insidious (La Feminista alludes to that in her comment). The reason is because the problem is not that much of the information they put out is false; the problem is the narrative; the framing of issues, ideas, challenges. More importantly, the problem lies in what they don't cover, on the ideas and narratives they go out of their way to hide, to obscure.

At the end of the day, the narrative that emanates from the U.S. corporate media can be seen as being self-serving to those in power. And that what's makes it propaganda, IMHO.

Thanks a lot for sharing your perspective.

—

www.RayPensador.com
When you boil it all down, the number one step you can take to get out from under the fascist boot of the oligarchy is to stop subjecting yourself to the the U.S. corporate news media. It is a powerful psyops weapon.

Submitted by LaFeminista on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 2:22am

Indeed the information itself may be 'true' the reasoning

@Ray Pensador how it was achieved can be the twisted part.

Submitted by gulfgal98 on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 8:03am

^^^This!^^^

@Ray Pensador This is true, especial the part I have highlighted below:

The reason is because the problem is not that much of the information they put out is false; the problem is the narrative; the framing of issues, ideas, challenges. More importantly, the problem lies in what they don't cover, on the ideas and narratives they go out of their way to hide, to obscure.

We are seeing this in the way no one have covered the DNC lawsuit nor the Awan brothers spy ring in Congress. IMO, the Awan brothers spy ring should be the story everyone is talking about and yet there has not been one word written or spoken about it in the mainstream media.

—

Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

Submitted by eyo on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 9:25am

"Awan ...spy ring should be the story everyone is talking about"

@gulfgal98 What the huh? Let's talk about it. I cannot believe no one is asking anything about DWS's criminally insane lax security, not just for the DNC but all of Congress! I mean she leaked everything and the guy escaped to Pakistan and is now under some kind of "diplomatic protection" Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? Multiple exclamation points! I'm afraid they stfu because, well it's over. The only thing left it seems is to bomb the shit out of everything everywhere to "recapture" some secrets, or something.

Is it really only The Capitol Police who are investigating anything? Because they are so qualified?

Protect the Congress – its Members, employees, visitors, and facilities – so it can fulfill its constitutional and legislative responsibilities in a safe, secure and open environment.

Oops a little too open maybe. FBI consulted? Nope, they are just a Federal Bureau of Investigation. duh. NSA? Who knows what they or the CIA are doing, maybe they own the Awans.

If there is an update I missed about who is investigating that would be great. I only hear crickets. Thanks.

peace

Submitted by gulfgal98 on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 1:58pm

More on the Awan brothers

@eyo First, this was from Zero Hedge, written by William Craddick.

One bombshell that has been all but ignored by the main stream media is that Imran Awan had access to Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s iPad password, meaning that the brothers also had direct access to the notorious DNC emails.

The brothers are accused of removing hundreds of thousands of dollars of equipment from congressional offices, including computers and servers, while also running a procurement scheme in which they bought equipment, then overcharged the House administrative office that assigns such contractors to members.

Some congressional technology aides believe that the Awan’s are blackmailing representatives based on the contents of their emails and files, due to the fact that these representatives have displayed unwavering and intense loyalty towards the former aides.

Second, with more detail from World New Daily written by Garth Kant. Yes, I know that WND is mostly a scandal sheet but this story replicates the information contained in the Zero Hedge story, but with more detail.

The brothers and their associates are now under criminal investigation by the U.S. Capitol Police, which is getting expert technical assistance, presumably from the FBI.

The criminal investigation actually began in late 2016, with the brothers under suspicion of secretly accessing the lawmakers computer networks, storing information on secret servers, and stealing equipment from Congress.

The IT techs were employed by three members of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and five members of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, which store sensitive national security documents, including material related to terrorism, on their own committee servers.

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2017/06/the-biggest-scandal-youve-never-heard-of/#sv6...

—

Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

Submitted by SnappleBC on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 11:38am

Holy CRAP!

@gulfgal98

Thanks for bringing that up. I hadn't (LOL) heard it before.

—

A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard

Submitted by dfarrah on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 10:45am

And the narratives

@Ray Pensador usually promote underlying assumptions that soak in really well.

—

dfarrah

Submitted by dfarrah on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 10:47am

If people would question

@dfarrah some of the underlying assumptions, we might get somewhere.

—

dfarrah

Submitted by native on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 3:04pm

The problem is that many

@dfarrah
of America's underlying assumptions are false, and that a large and complex power structure has been built on top of them.

—

native

Submitted by GreatLakeSailor on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 8:17pm

That's my cue for a Chomsky quote iffin there ever was one.

@Ray Pensador

More importantly, the problem lies in what they don't cover, on the ideas and narratives they go out of their way to hide, to obscure.

The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum - even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there's free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate.

The Common Good, by Noam Chomsky, Odonian Press, 1998

Jimmy Dore posted a bit where he shows a MSDNC round table of propagandists cackling away "between the limits" and their guest, another MSDNC employee, but this one a journalist (he later parted ways, dunno fired or quit), Dylan Ratigan goes outside the limits. He says out loud rich Saudis fund Wahhabi terrorists (17/19 911 terrorists were Saudis.....). Oh, those propagandists tried sooo hard to change the subject but Ratigan kept pulling them back. Both fun and sad to watch.

Edit: Duh, queue changed to cue

—

Compensated Spokes Model for Big Poor.

Submitted by thanatokephaloides on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 1:56am

Once in a while...

.... I watch "at" some of these supposedly "liberal" news shows. There was a time when I'd happily agree with most of the views proffered, and walk away beLIEving that these people on the tube actually thought the way I did.

Then I started playing on c99 regularly, especially after getting the defacto eviction from Daily Kos courtesy of the Ides of March Decree.

Today, my reaction is more of the nature of "WTF, over?" Especially, I catch the buried warmongery a lot more than I used to!

So I've lived the very story of your Essay, Ray.....

—

"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

Submitted by snoopydawg on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 2:26am

Obama made spreading propaganda legal

18 months ago, Obama signed a NDAA that made propaganda legal. This article explains what he did and the consequences of doing it.

Obama Quietly Signs The "Countering Disinformation And Propaganda Act" Into Law

Here is the full statement issued by the generously funded Senator Rob Portman (R- Ohio) on the singing into law of a bill that further chips away at press liberties in the US, and which sets the stage for future which hunts and website shutdowns, purely as a result of an accusation that any one media outlet or site is considered as a source of "disinformation and propaganda" and is shut down by the government.

Here is another article by Paul Street that goes with this essay.

Beyond Inauthentic Opposition

The Democrats have been seizing the moment to close off the potential for serious, actually Left opposition. With MSNBC’s arch-Russophobe Rachel Madoff in the propaganda vanguard, Democratic elites have responded to the Trump ascendancy by concocting a fake “Resistance” movement. It’s a curious formation, devoid of any real progressive meaning beyond “bipartisan” opposition to Donald Trump. “The Resistance” grants loyalty to Hillary Clinton, a One Percent champion and a leader in the War Party’s calls for deadly confrontation with Russia and for regime change around the world.

It's great to see you writing here Ray. Hopefully you will stick around with us. This site has been a godsend for people who have shaken off our mental shackles and seen how corrupt the Democratic Party is and how they are worse than the republicans and are the more effective evil.

—

There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?

Submitted by mimi on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 3:27am

hmm, how about you and me and all of us?

added something mean to clarify ...

I have come to see the system of propaganda in the United States as a very sophisticated PsyOps tool (cognitive malware) that has been deployed throughout the entire society. Google, Facebook, Twitter, countless of other apps and social media sites, all operating based on sophisticated algorithms that constantly analyze our behavior (as individuals, and as groups), end up controlling us, even if in a very tenuous, just below the surface (of consciousness) manner.

Look at the left-hand column of the caucus99percent website. We proudly are members and users of facebook, twitter and have understood the mechanisms of propaganda. We may be not fooled, but we are part of the system and use the same tools. Your narrative is fantastic language that arouses quite some enthusiasm for your ideas about the sophisticated PsyOp tools that has been deployed throughout the entire society, INCLUDING US HERE through your own extraordinarily well formulated "counter propaganda".

Just saying, it doesn't bother me, it's just insane to believe we can espcape it needing to use the same platform and tools.

No offense and really much peace for all of us and some sanity. I always wondered how you kill the internet... any ideas on that one?

—

https://www.euronews.com/live

Submitted by mimi on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 3:24am

oooh, I just was curious and wanted to see your website

@mimi @mimi
www.raypensador.com

It's blacklisted in my country ... ouch ... how come ... you must be a real confusing guy ... or are the Germans that fascist again to blacklist your website nilly willy?

Lord help me to survive the internets. I feel caught and have a hard to time to breathe. All those darn nets to catch the fish just to let the fish rott.

Ok, I am a dummy, but I like peace, I don't like bombs. And yes, I know, this site is not funded and supported by corporate rich elitists and such ... but that is not necessary - in the end for us - to do the same thing as those corporate funded outlets do ... manipulate the thoughts of your readers, watchers and listeners ... and it spreads as fast as all the other stuff on the internet. So why would we be different?

And why do we write at all? Is it not to "manipulate" the readers to follow our line of thoughts? When does this activity become a manipulation and/or organized psy-op and when is it just innocent conversation about some humans on a keyboard trying to cope with our world with the technology, that can destroys our sanity and one we have developed to begin with.

We are all nuts and love to be nuts and love to eat them nuts too. Et tu, ~~Brute~~ ...?

—

https://www.euronews.com/live

Submitted by eyo on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 9:32am

Ray was the first person I ever saw banned at dailykos

@mimi @mimi he has been writing about the Deep State conspiracies since forever, I only found him through dkos and then he got bojo'd. https://www.dailykos.com/blog/Ray Pensador, in case you're interested.

peace

Edited to add: I don't use Facebook or Twitter and I am here too, like you. If this place really does represent the 99% then we will constantly have something to discuss because we'll never totally agree on everything.

Submitted by Steven D on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 9:30am

Banned

@eyo for thought crimes.

—

"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott

Submitted by gulfgal98 on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 10:19am

This is exactly right

@Steven D There was an organized group trying to get Ray banned for telling the truth. You are right, Steven D, hey banned Ray for thought crimes.

—

Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

Submitted by Ray Pensador on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 5:30pm

@gulfgal98 Thanks a lot for

@gulfgal98 Thanks a lot for your support and encouragement.

—

Submitted by gulfgal98 on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 7:31pm

Hang in there Ray

@Ray Pensador Truth tellers always bear a lot of derision before their truths rise to the top. I am very happy to see you posting here again and hope you will post more often. Be safe.

—

Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

Submitted by GreatLakeSailor on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 11:18am

Your comment made me think of this

@Steven D

Eurythmics "~~Sex~~ Thought Crime" 1984

—

Compensated Spokes Model for Big Poor.

Submitted by thanatokephaloides on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 12:45pm

Ray Pensador: banned from Daily Kos

@Steven D

..... for thought. No "crime" about it!

—

"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

Submitted by FuturePassed on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 9:32am

Ray was the first person I ever saw banned at dailykos.

@eyo
Wow! I am honored to make your acquaintance. I hope you will make C99% your home at least part of the time.

Submitted by dervish on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 9:45pm

He's a member of the DKos Skull and Bones Society

@FuturePassed , that's an exclusive club, and it's full of highly talented people.

—

"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."

Submitted by CB on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 10:13pm

I wonder how many here are honorable members

@dervish
of that esteemed club? I got mine. I proudly display it on my mantel with my other medals.

Submitted by mimi on Sun, 07/02/2017 - 8:04am

It's Sunday afternoon in Germany right now - and now your site

@mimi
is visible for me here too. So, whatever it was that showed it as blacklisted here in Germany yesterday, it isn't anymore.

The miracles of the internet angles just take me over to nirvana.

Just saying. And thanks to whoever made it happen.

—

https://www.euronews.com/live

Submitted by gulfgal98 on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 8:31am

Yes we do use

@mimi Facebook and Twitter to promote essays from this site. I handle the Twitter account for C99 and believe that it has been a useful tool for our site. I am only speaking of Twitter now, but it is just a tool which can be used for good or evil. Simply because it is perverted by others and our government does not mean that we still can get some value out of it right now. Unlike the MSM which communicates only one direction, Twitter can be interactive and as the person who handles the Twitter account, I also follow many other sources. If I see a tweet that represents what the members of this site mostly agree to, I retweet it. This has led to us increasing our number of followers, which means more eyes see our linked content.

edited for clarity

—

Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

Submitted by FuturePassed on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 9:37am

I agree.

@gulfgal98
You do great work. Just never forget that while you're using it, it's using you. There are people gathering every piece of information about us they can find. The extent that they can use it to make all sorts of predictions and manipulations frightens me. I don't want any corporation that gets the urge to learn what I'm doing even if I'm mowing the lawn.

Submitted by Ellen North on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 11:09pm

@FuturePassed

@FuturePassed

Fuck with it where you can - sometimes just look up things you have no interest in or for other people, randomize a bit here and there.

The assumptions built into the algorithms and their interpretation will likely be at least somewhat inaccurate to start with; give them a little tilt to maybe send them off a little further. Google wants to know, through AI, what we think before we think it; I don't think I like this desire/effort at all, myself.

—

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Submitted by earthling1 on Sun, 07/02/2017 - 12:01pm

I practice that all the time, EN

@Ellen North
I Google things like pogroms, Nazis, serfdom, guillotine, Romanovs, propaganda, etc. Along with swine, dog treats, muskets, twine, rope, and many other mundane items that surely will bore anyone to death.

—

Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

Submitted by Ellen North on Sun, 07/02/2017 - 2:03pm

@earthling1

@earthling1

Good stuff! They begin by being detached from reality and the least we can do is to extend this to areas beneficial to ourselves.

—

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Submitted by Ellen North on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 10:53pm

@mimi

@mimi

... I always wondered how you kill the internet... any ideas on that one?

If you don't mind my putting my 2 cents in: censorship, currently in progress...

—

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Submitted by mimi on Sun, 07/02/2017 - 2:31am

to kill the internet - sorry to come back so late to this

@Ellen North
(see why in my other comment I just posted), but I don't believe you can kill the internet through censorship. I think technologically it's not possible, unless you destroy all the connecting cables and towers and servers that allow the communication to be spread and become "material" through electrons movements.

Thoughts are free. There is no criminal behaviour in having thoughts. You could censor single people for their thoughts once they have been spoken or written out and ban and punish them (as they always have been) in the physical world. But you can't do that with the thoughts written with digits and electrons spinning somewhere in some direction to make their meaning available on some server's hard drives or cutting their routes through the wires worldwide. In order to "kill" the internet you have to destroy all of the hardware that makes it possible at the same time everywhere in the world. That will never happen and if it were theoretically possible, which I doubt very much it would, it would cause indeed such a chaos and disaster that I hope to never to live throught it.

At least that is how I believe the internet works.

—

https://www.euronews.com/live

Submitted by Ellen North on Sun, 07/02/2017 - 1:41pm

@mimi

@mimi

As far as I'm concerned, killing the internet as a 'free and fair' communication and information-gathering system kills the internet itself, reducing it to another propaganda/product-pushing entertainment device like the TV which people like many of us have been abandoning in droves, so I suppose that the issue here is perceptual, as to what the phrase 'killing the internet' means to different people.

I did want to illustrate my point, although I seem to be getting only old stuff on this, as has often occurred in recent years in my searches in 'sensitive areas'...

https://www.yahoo.com/news/blogs/sideshow/295-words-phrases-blocked-chin...

The 295 words and phrases blocked by Chinese Web censors
Eric Pfeiffer
Reporter
The SideshowMarch 9, 2012

https://www.hrw.org/reports/2006/china0806/3.htm

II. How Censorship Works in China: A Brief Overview
1. The “Great Firewall of China”: Censorship at the Internet backbone and ISP level

Political censorship is built into all layers of China’s Internet infrastructure. Known widely in the media as the “Great Firewall of China,” this aspect of Chinese official censorship primarily targets the movement of information between the global Internet and the Chinese Internet.

Internet censorship in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is overseen technically by the Ministry of Information Industry (MII). Policy about what substantive content is to be censored is largely directed by the State Council Information Office and the Chinese Communist Party’s Propaganda Department, with input from other government and public security organs.2 Physical access to the Internet is provided by nine state-licensed Internet Access Providers (IAP), each of which has at least one connection to a foreign Internet backbone, and it is through these connections that Chinese Internet users access Internet websites hosted outside of China.3 The individual Chinese Internet user buys Internet access from one of several thousand Internet Service Providers (ISPs), who are in effect retail sellers of Internet access that is in turn purchased wholesale from the nine IAPs.

Internet routers, devices that deliver and direct packets of data back and forth between networks, are an essential part of Internet networks. Most of today’s routers also allow network administrators to censor or block—or, as the industry calls it, “filter”—the data going through them, programming the router to block certain kinds of data from passing in or out of a network. This filtering capability was initially intended so that Internet Service Providers could control viruses, worms, and spam. The same technology, however, can also be easily employed to block political, religious, or any other category of content that the person programming the router seeks to block.4

The first layer of Chinese Internet censorship takes place at this router level. According to the 2005 technical analysis of Chinese Internet filtering conducted by the Open Net Initiative, IAP administrators have entered thousands of URLs (Internet website addresses) and keywords into the Internet routers that enable data to flow back and forth between ISPs in China and Internet servers around the world. Forbidden keywords and URLs are also plugged into Internet routers at the ISP level, thus controlling data flows between the user and the IAP. 5

This router-level censorship, configured into the hardware of the Chinese Internet, is reinforced by software programs deployed at the backbone and ISP level which conduct additional “filtering” of political content. (In many countries such censorship software deployed at the backbone and ISP level is a product called SmartFilter, developed by Secure Computing. China, however, has developed its own home-grown filtering software.)6 Such filtering programs are used globally by households, companies, and organizations for all kinds of purposes: they enable employers to block employees from surfing pornography or gambling online from the office, and enable schools to prevent young students from accessing age-inappropriate content.

It is this type of censorship or blocking that causes an error message to appear in the Chinese Internet user’s browser when he or she types, for example, http://www.hrw.org (the Human Rights Watch website) into the address field of his or her browser. ...

... 2. Censorship by Internet Content Providers: Delegating censorship to business

Building censorship into China’s Internet infrastructure is the first way in which the Chinese government seeks to block user access to politically sensitive information. The second step is to prevent ISP’s—many of them privately-held businesses, some with foreign investment—from hosting politically objectionable content by holding them liable for doing so.8 The third step targets Internet Content Providers (ICPs): organizations or individuals (either for-profit or non-profit) who provide publicly available content on the Web (news, entertainment, or commercial websites), or who provide platforms on which users can communicate and converse with one another (chatrooms and bulletin board systems known commonly as BBS), or on which users can create and share text, photographs, audio and video (blogging services, photo- and video-sharing sites, podcasting and audio-sharing services, etc.).

All ICPs—commercial or non-commercial—are required to register for and display a license in order to operate legally, and are held liable for all content appearing on their websites, whether created by the company’s or organization’s employees, or by any of the site’s visitors or users of its content-creation and sharing services.

If an ICP wants to obtain—and keep—its business license to operate in China, it is expected to prevent the appearance of politically objectionable content through automated means, or to police content being uploaded by users for unacceptable material, which is then taken down manually by company employees.9 The obligation to do so is manifested in a “voluntary pledge” signed by hundreds of organizations including Chinese companies, universities, and government offices. This “Public Pledge on Self-discipline for the Chinese Internet Industry,” initiated by the Internet Society of China (ISOC), commits signatories to “energetic efforts to carry forward the rich cultural tradition of the Chinese nation and the ethical norms of the socialist cultural civilization” by observing all state industry regulations. In particular, signatories vow to refrain “from producing, posting, or disseminating pernicious information that may jeopardize state security and disrupt social stability.”10 The Internet Society of China is the major professional association for the Chinese Internet industry. While the ISOC is called a “nongovernmental organization,” its “governing body” is the Ministry of Information Industry, the government ministry in charge of China’s national Internet infrastructure.11 To date, Yahoo! is the only Western company known to have signed the pledge (as will be discussed further in Section IV, Part 1).12

The display of politically objectionable content can result in reprimands to company management and employees from the MII, the State Council Information Office, the Communist Party’s Propaganda Department, and/or various state security organs, accompanied by warnings that insufficient controls will result in revocation of the company’s license. In order to minimize reprimands and keep their licenses in good standing, BBS and blog hosting services maintain lists of words and phrases that either cannot be posted or which cause monitoring software to “flag” the content for manual removal by employees.13

Search engines likewise maintain lists of thousands of words, phrases and web addresses to be filtered out of search results so that links to politically objectionable websites do not even appear on the search engine’s results pages, even when those websites may be blocked at the backbone or ISP level. Thus, the user is prevented from knowing that the forbidden content exists at all. This is a deliberate choice made by the operator of the search engine.14 ...

... But the complicity of companies is even more direct: they actually run diagnostic tests to see which words, phrases, and web addresses are blocked by the Chinese authorities at the router level, and then add them to their lists, without waiting to be asked by the authorities to add them. And because they seek to stay out of trouble and avoid complaints from the authorities, many businesspeople who run ICPs in China confess that they are inclined to err on the side of caution and over-block content which does not clearly violate any specific law or regulation, but which their instincts tell them will displease the authorities who control their license.18 In all these ways, companies are doing the government’s work for it and stifling access to information. Instead of being censored, they have taken on the role of censor. Yahoo!, Microsoft’s MSN, and Google all act as ICP’s in China.
3. Surveillance and censorship in email and web chat

As in most countries, email services hosted on servers inside the PRC are expected to respond to requests by law enforcement authorities for user information and copies of email communications. Yahoo!, the only non-Chinese Internet company providing email services with user data hosted inside the PRC, has responded to information requests in criminal cases, as have all domestic Chinese businesses that provide email services. Because Chinese law enforcement bodies and courts include a range of internationally protected political speech in their interpretation of what constitute criminal acts under Chinese domestic law, Yahoo!’s compliance with Chinese law has assisted in the conviction of at least four Chinese government critics (see below, Section IV, part 1).

Mobile and Internet chat services licensed to sell services to Chinese users inside the PRC are also required to filter politically sensitive content. As mentioned in the previous section, in 2004 Xiao Qiang obtained a block sensitive word list used by the popular QQ instant messaging service, owned by the Chinese company Tencent.19 Human Rights Watch has received reports from users of other Internet chat services that some messages containing political content were sent but not received by the intended recipient. In at least some cases, however, users suspected that the blocking had taken place at the ISP or backbone level, rather than at the level of the chat client itself.20 However, at least one international company, Skype, has admitted to building censorship functions into its Chinese-language chat client developed jointly with the Chinese company Tom Online (see Section IV, Part 4).21 ...

This is not much over a year old.

https://www.pri.org/stories/2016-06-03/how-china-has-censored-words-rela...

How China has censored words relating to the Tiananmen Square anniversary

PRI's The World

June 04, 2016 · 10:30 AM EDT
By Kuang Keng Kuek Ser

The beginning of every June is one of the busiest times for Chinese censors. That's when the world — except China — commemorates the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing.

Internet censorship is tightened during this time of each year not only to prohibit discussion of the brutal crackdown on the pro-democracy protest that happened 27 years ago, but to erase the incident from Chinese history, especially among younger generations.

The impact of such suppression is staggering. Only 15 out of 100 Beijing University students could recognize the “Tank Man” photo, which is the global symbol of the bloody crackdown, according to journalist Louisa Lim in her book “The People's Republic of Amnesia: Tiananmen Revisited.” ...

We'll never know what we already aren't seeing...

—

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Submitted by eyo on Mon, 07/03/2017 - 6:27am

Great post and worth repeating

@Ellen North thanks, I just finished watching the Chomsky Hedges interview Part One, from Lookout's Weekly Watch. Then for some reason I downloaded and watched the RT documentary about North Korea "The Happiest People on Earth". I guess it was "suggested" by google or something.

We'll never know what we already aren't seeing...

North Korea exists upon pure propaganda according to that video, it is incredible. One segment does show their Intranet, where citizens go to learn things. They absolutely worship their dear leaders in the video, it made me really really uncomfortable watching it. Their orphanage is world renowned? I don't know it looked like prison to me, I would most certainly have suffered under that regimented brainwashing. Here it is not so overt, but still drives me crazy.

https://nknetobserver.github.io/

Your Friendly North Korean Network Observer
Packets don't care about borders
...
North Korea's Internet access is as unique as many other things about the country are. The country is said to have a fairly large internal domestic internet disconnected from the rest of the world. Most citizens with access to computers are only allowed to access this network, not the global computer network the rest of us connect to. But North Korea isn't completely cut off from the world, select people in North Korea, including government officials, visitors, journalists and other select people, have access to the same network the rest of us do.

Since only a small portion of the country has access to this network, North Korea has an extremely small presence on the Internet. All traffic in and out of North Korea, from computers inside the country to computers anywhere else on the globe, goes through a very limited set of connections. Generally, on a physical level, North Korean access to the Internet has been through a connection on the border with China, or through satellite links.
...

what you quoted is worth repeating

Internet routers, devices that deliver and direct packets of data back and forth between networks, are an essential part of Internet networks. Most of today’s routers also allow network administrators to censor or block—or, as the industry calls it, “filter”—the data going through them, programming the router to block certain kinds of data from passing in or out of a network. This filtering capability was initially intended so that Internet Service Providers could control viruses, worms, and spam. The same technology, however, can also be easily employed to block political, religious, or any other category of content that the person programming the router seeks to block.

Goodbye net neutrality, we hardly knew ye. It is simple, those who control the routers control the Internets.

Thanks

#7.3.1 As far as I'm concerned, killing the internet as a 'free and fair' communication and information-gathering system kills the internet itself, reducing it to another propaganda/product-pushing entertainment device like the TV which people like many of us have been abandoning in droves, so I suppose that the issue here is perceptual, as to what the phrase 'killing the internet' means to different people. I did want to illustrate my point, although I seem to be getting only old stuff on this, as has often occurred in recent years in my searches in 'sensitive areas'... https://www.yahoo.com/news/blogs/sideshow/295-words-phrases-blocked-chin... The 295 words and phrases blocked by Chinese Web censors Eric Pfeiffer Reporter The SideshowMarch 9, 2012 https://www.hrw.org/reports/2006/china0806/3.htm II. How Censorship Works in China: A Brief Overview 1. The “Great Firewall of China”: Censorship at the Internet backbone and ISP level Political censorship is built into all layers of China’s Internet infrastructure. Known widely in the media as the “Great Firewall of China,” this aspect of Chinese official censorship primarily targets the movement of information between the global Internet and the Chinese Internet. Internet censorship in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is overseen technically by the Ministry of Information Industry (MII). Policy about what substantive content is to be censored is largely directed by the State Council Information Office and the Chinese Communist Party’s Propaganda Department, with input from other government and public security organs.2 Physical access to the Internet is provided by nine state-licensed Internet Access Providers (IAP), each of which has at least one connection to a foreign Internet backbone, and it is through these connections that Chinese Internet users access Internet websites hosted outside of China.3 The individual Chinese Internet user buys Internet access from one of several thousand Internet Service Providers (ISPs), who are in effect retail sellers of Internet access that is in turn purchased wholesale from the nine IAPs. Internet routers, devices that deliver and direct packets of data back and forth between networks, are an essential part of Internet networks. Most of today’s routers also allow network administrators to censor or block—or, as the industry calls it, “filter”—the data going through them, programming the router to block certain kinds of data from passing in or out of a network. This filtering capability was initially intended so that Internet Service Providers could control viruses, worms, and spam. The same technology, however, can also be easily employed to block political, religious, or any other category of content that the person programming the router seeks to block.4 The first layer of Chinese Internet censorship takes place at this router level. According to the 2005 technical analysis of Chinese Internet filtering conducted by the Open Net Initiative, IAP administrators have entered thousands of URLs (Internet website addresses) and keywords into the Internet routers that enable data to flow back and forth between ISPs in China and Internet servers around the world. Forbidden keywords and URLs are also plugged into Internet routers at the ISP level, thus controlling data flows between the user and the IAP. 5 This router-level censorship, configured into the hardware of the Chinese Internet, is reinforced by software programs deployed at the backbone and ISP level which conduct additional “filtering” of political content. (In many countries such censorship software deployed at the backbone and ISP level is a product called SmartFilter, developed by Secure Computing. China, however, has developed its own home-grown filtering software.)6 Such filtering programs are used globally by households, companies, and organizations for all kinds of purposes: they enable employers to block employees from surfing pornography or gambling online from the office, and enable schools to prevent young students from accessing age-inappropriate content. It is this type of censorship or blocking that causes an error message to appear in the Chinese Internet user’s browser when he or she types, for example, http://www.hrw.org (the Human Rights Watch website) into the address field of his or her browser. ... ... 2. Censorship by Internet Content Providers: Delegating censorship to business Building censorship into China’s Internet infrastructure is the first way in which the Chinese government seeks to block user access to politically sensitive information. The second step is to prevent ISP’s—many of them privately-held businesses, some with foreign investment—from hosting politically objectionable content by holding them liable for doing so.8 The third step targets Internet Content Providers (ICPs): organizations or individuals (either for-profit or non-profit) who provide publicly available content on the Web (news, entertainment, or commercial websites), or who provide platforms on which users can communicate and converse with one another (chatrooms and bulletin board systems known commonly as BBS), or on which users can create and share text, photographs, audio and video (blogging services, photo- and video-sharing sites, podcasting and audio-sharing services, etc.). All ICPs—commercial or non-commercial—are required to register for and display a license in order to operate legally, and are held liable for all content appearing on their websites, whether created by the company’s or organization’s employees, or by any of the site’s visitors or users of its content-creation and sharing services. If an ICP wants to obtain—and keep—its business license to operate in China, it is expected to prevent the appearance of politically objectionable content through automated means, or to police content being uploaded by users for unacceptable material, which is then taken down manually by company employees.9 The obligation to do so is manifested in a “voluntary pledge” signed by hundreds of organizations including Chinese companies, universities, and government offices. This “Public Pledge on Self-discipline for the Chinese Internet Industry,” initiated by the Internet Society of China (ISOC), commits signatories to “energetic efforts to carry forward the rich cultural tradition of the Chinese nation and the ethical norms of the socialist cultural civilization” by observing all state industry regulations. In particular, signatories vow to refrain “from producing, posting, or disseminating pernicious information that may jeopardize state security and disrupt social stability.”10 The Internet Society of China is the major professional association for the Chinese Internet industry. While the ISOC is called a “nongovernmental organization,” its “governing body” is the Ministry of Information Industry, the government ministry in charge of China’s national Internet infrastructure.11 To date, Yahoo! is the only Western company known to have signed the pledge (as will be discussed further in Section IV, Part 1).12 The display of politically objectionable content can result in reprimands to company management and employees from the MII, the State Council Information Office, the Communist Party’s Propaganda Department, and/or various state security organs, accompanied by warnings that insufficient controls will result in revocation of the company’s license. In order to minimize reprimands and keep their licenses in good standing, BBS and blog hosting services maintain lists of words and phrases that either cannot be posted or which cause monitoring software to “flag” the content for manual removal by employees.13 Search engines likewise maintain lists of thousands of words, phrases and web addresses to be filtered out of search results so that links to politically objectionable websites do not even appear on the search engine’s results pages, even when those websites may be blocked at the backbone or ISP level. Thus, the user is prevented from knowing that the forbidden content exists at all. This is a deliberate choice made by the operator of the search engine.14 ... ... But the complicity of companies is even more direct: they actually run diagnostic tests to see which words, phrases, and web addresses are blocked by the Chinese authorities at the router level, and then add them to their lists, without waiting to be asked by the authorities to add them. And because they seek to stay out of trouble and avoid complaints from the authorities, many businesspeople who run ICPs in China confess that they are inclined to err on the side of caution and over-block content which does not clearly violate any specific law or regulation, but which their instincts tell them will displease the authorities who control their license.18 In all these ways, companies are doing the government’s work for it and stifling access to information. Instead of being censored, they have taken on the role of censor. Yahoo!, Microsoft’s MSN, and Google all act as ICP’s in China. 3. Surveillance and censorship in email and web chat As in most countries, email services hosted on servers inside the PRC are expected to respond to requests by law enforcement authorities for user information and copies of email communications. Yahoo!, the only non-Chinese Internet company providing email services with user data hosted inside the PRC, has responded to information requests in criminal cases, as have all domestic Chinese businesses that provide email services. Because Chinese law enforcement bodies and courts include a range of internationally protected political speech in their interpretation of what constitute criminal acts under Chinese domestic law, Yahoo!’s compliance with Chinese law has assisted in the conviction of at least four Chinese government critics (see below, Section IV, part 1). Mobile and Internet chat services licensed to sell services to Chinese users inside the PRC are also required to filter politically sensitive content. As mentioned in the previous section, in 2004 Xiao Qiang obtained a block sensitive word list used by the popular QQ instant messaging service, owned by the Chinese company Tencent.19 Human Rights Watch has received reports from users of other Internet chat services that some messages containing political content were sent but not received by the intended recipient. In at least some cases, however, users suspected that the blocking had taken place at the ISP or backbone level, rather than at the level of the chat client itself.20 However, at least one international company, Skype, has admitted to building censorship functions into its Chinese-language chat client developed jointly with the Chinese company Tom Online (see Section IV, Part 4).21 ... This is not much over a year old. https://www.pri.org/stories/2016-06-03/how-china-has-censored-words-rela... How China has censored words relating to the Tiananmen Square anniversary PRI's The World June 04, 2016 · 10:30 AM EDT By Kuang Keng Kuek Ser The beginning of every June is one of the busiest times for Chinese censors. That's when the world — except China — commemorates the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing. Internet censorship is tightened during this time of each year not only to prohibit discussion of the brutal crackdown on the pro-democracy protest that happened 27 years ago, but to erase the incident from Chinese history, especially among younger generations. The impact of such suppression is staggering. Only 15 out of 100 Beijing University students could recognize the “Tank Man” photo, which is the global symbol of the bloody crackdown, according to journalist Louisa Lim in her book “The People's Republic of Amnesia: Tiananmen Revisited.” ... We'll never know what we already aren't seeing...

Submitted by gustogirl on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 3:14am

I've missed you Ray!

And I'll admit I've worried a little for you too.

When PBS had WaPo's journalist on to talk about RUSSIA! RUSSIA! RUSSIA!, it turned my stomach.
The old PBS would have exposed the rag to their Bezos/CIA connections in a much more interesting story.

The days of less intrusive, less obvious propaganda are now gone. I guess it's going to all be part of the awakening, that they have become so freaking arrogant, that they have so well convinced themselves of the stupidity of the populace. Maybe they're right? My friend couldn't resist her moment of Trump hate today, as we shopped and did mundane things. She and I had caucused for Bernie together.

I wonder if you have followed George Webb at all? I'm not sure what I think of him but there have certainly been a lot of attempts to discredit him. One of the guys attacking him reminded me of the guy we all pegged for FBI back in the hippie days, photographing everyone but looking and sounding more hippie and radical than all of us put together.

The interesting thing about Webb is that he is obviously from a more liberal background, but he has intersected with the alt-right in his investigations. George has steered me in one direction I mean to follow (as son as I find that bookstore gift certificate) and get Seymour Hersh's The Red Line and the Rat Line.

Anyway, so glad to see you, Ray. Hope you hang out here a bit more. What happened at TOP? Did they run you off?

Submitted by gulfgal98 on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 8:42am

I also follow

@gustogirl George Webb, Jason Goodman, and Trish Negron who have been working together on this. What George does is post his working theories in real time. That leaves him open to criticism and charges of being a conspiracy theorist. It also can mean that he is not always right, especially on the details, but I am beginning to think that in the big picture, he is very close to what is really happening. It also seems a lot of other people are starting to conclude similarly.

—

Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

Submitted by eyo on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 11:58am

George Webb on ... organ harvesting?

@gulfgal98 thanks I just looked at his two most recent vids, unbelievable. I can't follow it because if it's true, that is uh... I don't know. Speechless is where I am with that right now. NGP Vanagain why not. oof

Anyway he said this article was good, it is just a couple days old and covers mostly what I've read here already. http://www.wnd.com/2017/06/the-biggest-scandal-youve-never-heard-of/
and this is what I'm talking about. the whole Group!:

... Given the Awans’ business dealings, it may be no surprise that their work in the House was not done by the book, to say the least.

These are the key elements of the case that make its so extraordinary and so potentially troubling:

The Awan group had access to all of their bosses’ emails, documents and confidential files: everything on the lawmakers’ office computers and other electronic devices.

That gave the technicians illegal access to all secret and privileged congressional information, including any potentially sensitive material that could be compromising and/or politically embarrassing.

Lawmakers have no way of knowing if anything on their electronic devices was copied.

The technicians had no oversight, and there was virtually no tracking of what they did.

That was an extraordinary violation of the House security rules.

The Awans are suspected of setting up a secret server to store information.

They were paid much more than those in similar positions.

The suspects were all banned from the House of Representatives computer network back in February when the investigation was announced. But, despite all the damning evidence that continues to accumulate, no one has been charged or arrested. It also appears that none of their passports has been confiscated.
...

peace
irresistible roasted linguine

Submitted by gustogirl on Mon, 07/03/2017 - 10:52am

Can't we add

@eyo , that Debby Wasserman Shultz is the original person to hire an Awan? Also, I heard she still has at least one in her employ?

It is pretty easy to infer from all this Awan business that there is plenty of blackmail to go around in Congress and elsewhere.

Submitted by lotlizard on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 3:41am

That’s odd — your (Ray’s) website bars access from Germany. n/t

Submitted by gustogirl on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 5:16am

how can you tell?

@lotlizard
I went to the site but don't see it.

Submitted by lotlizard on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 5:29am

I’m in Germany and I can’t open the webpage.

@gustogirl
As another c99 member (mimi) also posted above, all I get is a red and white error-message box that says:

403: Access Forbidden

Your location (DE) has been blacklisted.

Submitted by eyo on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 9:48am

The Internet is broken

@lotlizard It's a sad day to see a blacklist come between us, so long net neutrality. Blacklist, who is the ISP imposing a blacklist? Of what? Conspiracies? lol how do you get anything done without conspiring with others? duh I wonder are they blacklisting climate change debate too? sad

The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it --John Gilmore

.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Gilmore_(activist)

peace

Submitted by GreatLakeSailor on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 11:37am

Can you use the Wayback Machine to get around the sensorship?

@lotlizard

https://web.archive.org/web/*/raypensador.com

Another option (that costs money) is a proxy service.

—

Compensated Spokes Model for Big Poor.

Submitted by dkmich on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 6:15am

Hi Ray

Good to see you here, and thanks for all the support on Twitter.

—

"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

Submitted by Big Al on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 6:26am

The corporate owned media is a big part of it, but also

the educational system ingrains the illusions of American democracy and exceptionalism, teaches historical lies to maintain the illusions, and conditions people to accept authoritarianism from an early age. So certainly not ALL of our "social dysfunction" comes from the corporate media/government propaganda system.
However, the corporate television media should absolutely be boycotted by all who understand the deal. There is no reason to give them clicks, anything needed to know in that regard can be gleaned from in summary from the internet.

Submitted by CS in AZ on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 11:37am

Some of the most

@Big Al

"Socially dysfunctional" people I have known grew up in extremely religious environments (Mennonite) in homes that didn't even have televisions, or were very restricted in what they were allowed to watch if they did. Their brainwashing was severe and happened almost entirely in church and through the church community, as they were isolated and insulated from all competing ideas.

Some of them are still working through their upbringing decades later, trying to recover. Fear was the tool used against their young minds: fear of devils and demons and hell. That does a real number on a child's mind and thinking. Talk about conditioning to follow authoritarian conformity.

I also know survivors of childhood abuse, physical and sexual, or neglect, or poverty and hunger. The struggle to overcome social dysfunction and damage caused by screwed up families is vast and leaves no time to watch tv news or give a shit about the problems of the world, when one is struggling mentally with simply surviving.

I also agree about schools. Big time conditioning of young minds, along with dishonest, selective, sanitized history. In first grade or before it starts: conditioned to sit quietly, stay in line, follow the rules, do as instructed, and ask the right kind of questions but avoid disallowed ones. Don't question authority, because they control you. This is pounded into us while we're still watching cartoons and Sesame Street on the television. We're prepped to accept the media propaganda later, but it starts with social lessons about conformity much earlier in life.

There's no simple solution, mind control is a multifaceted and complicated problem. Learning critical thinking, reading comprehension and analysis of information presented, and engaging open minded explorations of various perspectives, all are important.

Submitted by Big Al on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 3:13pm

Very good points CS.

@CS in AZ Religion of course is the king of conditioning and manipulation.

Submitted by orlbucfan on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 6:31am

Good morning, RP!

Always a great pleasure to read your writings. Rec'd X forever!

P.S.: It was called the "Yellow Press" back in the 19th century.

—

Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.

Submitted by Raggedy Ann on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 8:08am

Thanks for the excellent essay, Ray.

The best thing I did was cut the satellite teevee cord a year ago. I don't watch local "news," either. I have a few sites I trust to get any new information from. This is my first go-to site.

Change will come. It won't come without pain and suffering. We must prepare for that. We must be ready to help usher in the change.

—

"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

Submitted by ggersh on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 8:10am

History rhymes quite often

Willing Blindness and Gradual Seduction to Evil

https://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/

"I was satisfied that I wasn't personally to blame and that I hadn't known about those things. I wasn't aware of the extent of the crimes.

But one day I went past the memorial plaque which had been put up for Sophie Scholl in Franz Josef Strasse, and I saw that she was born the same year as me, and she was executed the same year I started working for Hitler.

And at that moment I actually sensed that it was no excuse to be young, and that it would have been possible to find things out."

Traudl Junge, Hitler's Secretary

—

I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

Submitted by Song of the lark on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 8:35am

How would we act

if we had no information at all. What are your core values?

Submitted by jobu on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 8:42am

The Lights of Perverted Science

But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Winston Churchill

Churchill himself can be thought of as a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.

However, this quote allows us to to refer to the dark arts of propaganda as perhaps the most pernicious of perverted sciences that we have, as you so eloquently portray in this post.

Great to see you here. Your perspective is greatly appreciated.

Submitted by eyo on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 9:02am

Populus vult decipi.

The people "Like" to be deceived.

Cheers Ray.

Reasons not to use Facebook, there are many. Freedom, for one but go on.
Free Software, Free Society, that's what I think. Thanks.

peace

Submitted by on the cusp on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 9:35am

Ray!

Great to have you here, and as always, it is great to read what's on your mind.

—

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Submitted by Pluto's Republic on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 9:50am

You landed in an enclave of people who have

…already made the journey. They're on this side of the looking glass; the side where reality is stubborn and where the constant propaganda doesn't get much of a foothold. People appear to know when the narrative is "wrong". And if they are not sure, they for sure are listening and evaluating.

This should feel like a safe place to you. When you're been kicked around out there for seeing too early, what was ultimately exposed as the truth — you tend to be edgy. But you'll find people here probably sympathetic to your point-of-view. It's a creative environment. Ideas are entertained here. So you don't have to work so hard.

There is not much ideology here. Mostly you'll find shared observations and ideas. No two people believe exactly the same thing in the same way. It's as if each one has a piece of the code and they're trying to see how fits. We're defining the problem and discussing solutions, which is not exactly a walk in the park. My own impressions, entirely.

So if I read you right, you say the ruling elite are introducing chaos into society through policies that amplify inequality in the economic security of individuals, and the system remains "hidden from the consciousness of most people":

There will come in time--it could be any time, any day--when the understanding about exactly how this system (international Neoliberalism) is structured, and operates, will be fully revealed and understood by a significant segment of the populations being affected by it. And when that day comes, the system will fall in such a cataclysmic manner that it will catch everybody by surprise.

People will say they never thought a system that looked almost omnipotent in its brutal control and oppression, could so swiftly come a end.

That's optimistic. Sounds like you're predicting a revolution or take-over from within.

The massive propaganda we're being exposed to, 24/7, is trying to prevent, or delay it but the ruling elite won't be able to stop the tsunami of righteousness that will sweep the world once people wake up to the true nature of the system.

That's the pattern. Enjoy yourself.

—

IMAGINE if you woke up the day after a US Presidential Election and headlines around the the world blared, "The Majority of Americans Refused to Vote in US Presidential Election! What Does this Mean?"

Submitted by snoopydawg on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 11:59am

You nailed what the GOP are doing now with the budget

@Pluto's Republic from this hideous health care destroying bill, to reducing the SNAP by up to $200 billion, reducing the HUD budget to every other heinous things the GOP are trying to rush through, this is the reason for it:

So if I read you right, you say the ruling elite are introducing chaos into society through policies that amplify inequality in the economic security of individuals, and the system remains "hidden from the consciousness of most people":

Where is the outrage from the Christian churches or any other organization that say that they follow the teachings of Christ?

I have been saying that the democrats should be closing down congress and doing everything in their power to keep this health care bill from seeing the light of day.
Instead, they are sending out fundraising emails that state that they need the money to fight Trump. Trump? by himself? or Trump and the whole damn republican party? Yes. Every damned person who wants to push for these draconian cuts to not just the health care bill, but to the food stamp programs, HUD and every other organization that the poor, elderly and disable rely to live.

Obama has no problem taking little pot shots at Trump for his asinine tweets, but for Gawd's sake, the ACA is hiss legacy and I would think that he would want to see this stay in tact even as flawed as it is.

Then there is the woods dwelling, wine swilling candidate who lost to the worst candidate in the history of elections peaking her head out every now and then to repeat the bullshit reasons for why she lost to it.

But if she actually cared as much for women and children as everyone thinks she does, she would be speaking out against what the republicans want to pass.

How this type of legislation can even see the light of day without this country going ballistic is just mind numbing and fear inducing.

However, you did state why this happening and why no one is speaking out against it except for the people that will be affected by it.

the ruling elite are introducing chaos into society

The GOP are the figureheads on this because people expect this type of cruelty from them. When in fact, this has been planned for decades and the timing is right for it to be implemented.
Interesting isn't it, how the democrats have put themselves in a position to not be able to do jack shit about it.

Thanks for stating this, Pluto

…already made the journey. They're on this side of the looking glass; the side where reality is stubborn and where the constant propaganda doesn't get much of a foothold. People appear to know when the narrative is "wrong". And if they are not sure, they for sure are listening and evaluating. This should feel like a safe place to you. When you're been kicked around out there for seeing too early, what was ultimately exposed as the truth — you tend to be edgy. But you'll find people here probably sympathetic to your point-of-view. It's a creative environment. Ideas are entertained here. So you don't have to work so hard. There is not much ideology here. Mostly you'll find shared observations and ideas. No two people believe exactly the same thing in the same way. It's as if each one has a piece of the code and they're trying to see how fits. We're defining the problem and discussing solutions, which is not exactly a walk in the park. My own impressions, entirely. So if I read you right, you say the ruling elite are introducing chaos into society through policies that amplify inequality in the economic security of individuals, and the system remains "hidden from the consciousness of most people": There will come in time--it could be any time, any day--when the understanding about exactly how this system (international Neoliberalism) is structured, and operates, will be fully revealed and understood by a significant segment of the populations being affected by it. And when that day comes, the system will fall in such a cataclysmic manner that it will catch everybody by surprise. People will say they never thought a system that looked almost omnipotent in its brutal control and oppression, could so swiftly come a end. That's optimistic. Sounds like you're predicting a revolution or take-over from within. The massive propaganda we're being exposed to, 24/7, is trying to prevent, or delay it but the ruling elite won't be able to stop the tsunami of righteousness that will sweep the world once people wake up to the true nature of the system. That's the pattern. Enjoy yourself.

—

There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?

Submitted by Lily O Lady on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 1:01pm

It isn't so much what the GOP wants to pass as it is what

@snoopydawg

Democrats don't want to pass when they have the power to do so.

#19 from this hideous health care destroying bill, to reducing the SNAP by up to $200 billion, reducing the HUD budget to every other heinous things the GOP are trying to rush through, this is the reason for it:

So if I read you right, you say the ruling elite are introducing chaos into society through policies that amplify inequality in the economic security of individuals, and the system remains "hidden from the consciousness of most people":

Where is the outrage from the Christian churches or any other organization that say that they follow the teachings of Christ?

I have been saying that the democrats should be closing down congress and doing everything in their power to keep this health care bill from seeing the light of day.
Instead, they are sending out fundraising emails that state that they need the money to fight Trump. Trump? by himself? or Trump and the whole damn republican party? Yes. Every damned person who wants to push for these draconian cuts to not just the health care bill, but to the food stamp programs, HUD and every other organization that the poor, elderly and disable rely to live.

Obama has no problem taking little pot shots at Trump for his asinine tweets, but for Gawd's sake, the ACA is hiss legacy and I would think that he would want to see this stay in tact even as flawed as it is.

Then there is the woods dwelling, wine swilling candidate who lost to the worst candidate in the history of elections peaking her head out every now and then to repeat the bullshit reasons for why she lost to it.

But if she actually cared as much for women and children as everyone thinks she does, she would be speaking out against what the republicans want to pass.

How this type of legislation can even see the light of day without this country going ballistic is just mind numbing and fear inducing.

However, you did state why this happening and why no one is speaking out against it except for the people that will be affected by it.

the ruling elite are introducing chaos into society

The GOP are the figureheads on this because people expect this type of cruelty from them. When in fact, this has been planned for decades and the timing is right for it to be implemented.
Interesting isn't it, how the democrats have put themselves in a position to not be able to do jack shit about it.

Thanks for stating this, Pluto

—

"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

Submitted by snoopydawg on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 1:33pm

I am aware of the game the democrats play each time they are

@Lily O Lady in or out of power. When they are in power, they can't find the votes to pass legislation that we want. And when they are out of power, they say "now is the time for..."

I posted this article link in Ray's diary that states how true this is. This a great article and I hope people will have the opportunity to read it.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/06/30/beyond-inauthentic-opposition/

—

There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?

Submitted by Lily O Lady on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 3:03pm

I know you know, snoopydog. Others might not know.

@snoopydawg

—

"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

Submitted by thanatokephaloides on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 6:13pm

Christian outrage

@snoopydawg

So if I read you right, you say the ruling elite are introducing chaos into society through policies that amplify inequality in the economic security of individuals, and the system remains "hidden from the consciousness of most people"

Where is the outrage from the Christian churches or any other organization that say that they follow the teachings of Christ?

A certain Christian gentleman by the name of Francis has, in fact, been outraging it up about these very issues. But even his own fellow Churchmen are deprecating this message of his, despite the fact that he runs the place, in name at least. The Index of his universal exhortation Evangeli Gaudium reads in part:

[Chapter Two, Section I:]

I. Some challenges of today’s world [52-75]

No to an economy of exclusion [53-54]
No to the new idolatry of money [55-56]
No to a financial system which rules rather than serves [57-58]
No to the inequality which spawns violence [59-60]

You can read the official English text of Evangelii Gaudium here.

#19 from this hideous health care destroying bill, to reducing the SNAP by up to $200 billion, reducing the HUD budget to every other heinous things the GOP are trying to rush through, this is the reason for it:

So if I read you right, you say the ruling elite are introducing chaos into society through policies that amplify inequality in the economic security of individuals, and the system remains "hidden from the consciousness of most people":

Where is the outrage from the Christian churches or any other organization that say that they follow the teachings of Christ?

I have been saying that the democrats should be closing down congress and doing everything in their power to keep this health care bill from seeing the light of day.
Instead, they are sending out fundraising emails that state that they need the money to fight Trump. Trump? by himself? or Trump and the whole damn republican party? Yes. Every damned person who wants to push for these draconian cuts to not just the health care bill, but to the food stamp programs, HUD and every other organization that the poor, elderly and disable rely to live.

Obama has no problem taking little pot shots at Trump for his asinine tweets, but for Gawd's sake, the ACA is hiss legacy and I would think that he would want to see this stay in tact even as flawed as it is.

Then there is the woods dwelling, wine swilling candidate who lost to the worst candidate in the history of elections peaking her head out every now and then to repeat the bullshit reasons for why she lost to it.

But if she actually cared as much for women and children as everyone thinks she does, she would be speaking out against what the republicans want to pass.

How this type of legislation can even see the light of day without this country going ballistic is just mind numbing and fear inducing.

However, you did state why this happening and why no one is speaking out against it except for the people that will be affected by it.

the ruling elite are introducing chaos into society

The GOP are the figureheads on this because people expect this type of cruelty from them. When in fact, this has been planned for decades and the timing is right for it to be implemented.
Interesting isn't it, how the democrats have put themselves in a position to not be able to do jack shit about it.

Thanks for stating this, Pluto

—

"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

Submitted by Pluto's Republic on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 6:33pm

So true. Francis is all over it.

@thanatokephaloides

Which is only fitting for a church based on the life of a social justice warrior and political activist.

—

IMAGINE if you woke up the day after a US Presidential Election and headlines around the the world blared, "The Majority of Americans Refused to Vote in US Presidential Election! What Does this Mean?"

Submitted by randtntx on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 9:51am

I'm hoping for a

"tsunami of righteousness". It will be a miracle if we get there. It seems the deck is stacked against us. It requires an awful lot of people to open their eyes. The icebergs are melting fast. Melt, melt, melt. Drip, drip, drip. Unexpected feedback loops abound.

Submitted by Mark from Queens on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 10:56am

Excellent essay. MSM propaganda + Education system = inculcation

process. To me there is hardly a more important topic for us to ruminate on at C99.

I agree, there is a psy-op, designed by governments and the real PTB, to confuse and obfuscate human beings from their better, most intrinsic senses, which is to instinctively collaborate, have compassion for those dispossessed and build a world in which everyone can lead dignified and humane lives.

The MSM feed the lemmings nationalistic propaganda, cunningly mixed with manufactured controversy and celebrity gossip, until we have a population of stunted adolescents, ready to kill anyone who is perceived to be cutting in on our stuff, whether internationally or personally, in the dog eat dog world of unbridled Capitalism, the divinity to which Americans are trained to ~~prey~~ pray.

But to me the twin engines of early brainwashing, American Exceptionalism and the American Dream, begin with our schooling. MSM and advertising then massage that conditioning in a relentless blitz of 24/7 preying upon the subconscious, to mortgage one's happiness until a future date when, through consumerism and always striving to achieve the American Dream (i.e. material acquisition, envy of their neighbors, status, etc).

From there it is very difficult to get adult Americans, so long indoctrinated into fealty for their country and all of its institutions (especially the military) beginning with the first thing committed to memory as children at school the Pledge of Allegiance, to become citizens functioning on the level that real democracy demands, which is informed, rational and compassionate, civically-involved folks, willing and able to stand apart as dissenters and rebels, from the decisions being made whoever the current occupants in government are (which is why the Red/Blue team sports charade works so well to keep us divided).

As I was leaving to do the laundry today on this brutal NYC heatwave day, I observed what struck me as yet another example of all of this at work. On our floor in front of the neighbors' apartment across the hall was a dreaded black dude wearing Amazon delivery clothes, having lugged up three floors all the groceries our neighbors have now come to regularly ordering online. They're probably in their mid-30's, quite capable of pushing the ubiquitous city carriage for groceries. Yet, everything they seem to buy comes from Amazon.

As the delivery guy was leaving I remarked to him that his company has a heinous record to treating employees at the warehouses horrendously. On top of which I said they are a monopoly owned by a megalomaniac intent on buying up every company he can. To which he said he knew about the recent purchase of Whole Foods. Instead of understating how monopolies are bad, do you know what his reaction was? "It's probably a good time to buy some of their stock."

In the first instance, the selling of convenience overrides any personal responsibility to the social fabric, as long as I can get mine and continue living this soft existence falsely equated with "progress," who cares where it comes from, how it is made, manufactured and delivered. We've been trained that as Americans, it is our god-given right to have any and everything at the moment we want it. Extrapolate that out exponentially to the 1% living in that world at an inconceivable level, and one has to consider it one of the most evil developments.

While the other is emblematic of the Junior Capitalist mindset that every little flunky, indoctrinated in the purposely elusive American Dream mythology, buys into as being just one step away from becoming the next contestant on Who Want To Be the Next American Millionaire. If pulling your bootstraps up isn't working, then be ever vigilant for the next ponzi scheme or Wall St scam to "invest" in.

Thanks again, Ray.

—

"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

Submitted by Ray Pensador on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 5:26pm

@Mark from Queens That's an excellent post

@Mark from Queens That's an excellent post, spot on. I used to view the "lemmings" and those who seem to willingly go along with their own exploitation, with a bit a contempt. But my view on this has evolved.

We all know that throughout history, "average" people are capable of unspeakable things, of inflicting all kind of injustices on others, of preferring to be entertained (and sometimes deceived), than educated (in the real sense of the word).

But when people live in a system that has been purposely set up to create artificial scarcity, to keep people on the rat-race wheel, running faster and faster just to survive, one can't expect them to become public intellectuals.

In a sense, they're victims, even if many of them embrace the grotesque worldview being fed to them by their masters.

Whom I see as truly evil and contemptible are the people who should know better, who have at their disposal the time, resources, financial wherewithal to scheme, to device ways of manipulating the citizenry. Those who purposely exploit people's weaknesses and/or character flaws, whether fear, racism, ignorance, religious fundamentalism, greed.

In essence, our ruling elite. I view the ruling elite as being beyond redemption, as evil incarnate, the manifestation of everything that's wrong with societies.

And I've come to the conclusion that they would never, ever, under any circumstances will ever do the right right thing, the decent thing, the fair thing.

It is up to us to first, try to fully understand who they are, the tools they use to manipulate us and exploit us, and to somehow stop them, for good.

process. To me there is hardly a more important topic for us to ruminate on at C99. I agree, there is a psy-op, designed by governments and the real PTB, to confuse and obfuscate human beings from their better, most intrinsic senses, which is to instinctively collaborate, have compassion for those dispossessed and build a world in which everyone can lead dignified and humane lives. The MSM feed the lemmings nationalistic propaganda, cunningly mixed with manufactured controversy and celebrity gossip, until we have a population of stunted adolescents, ready to kill anyone who is perceived to be cutting in on our stuff, whether internationally or personally, in the dog eat dog world of unbridled Capitalism, the divinity to which Americans are trained to ~~prey~~ pray. But to me the twin engines of early brainwashing, American Exceptionalism and the American Dream, begin with our schooling. MSM and advertising then massage that conditioning in a relentless blitz of 24/7 preying upon the subconscious, to mortgage one's happiness until a future date when, through consumerism and always striving to achieve the American Dream (i.e. material acquisition, envy of their neighbors, status, etc). From there it is very difficult to get adult Americans, so long indoctrinated into fealty for their country and all of its institutions (especially the military) beginning with the first thing committed to memory as children at school the Pledge of Allegiance, to become citizens functioning on the level that real democracy demands, which is informed, rational and compassionate, civically-involved folks, willing and able to stand apart as dissenters and rebels, from the decisions being made whoever the current occupants in government are (which is why the Red/Blue team sports charade works so well to keep us divided). As I was leaving to do the laundry today on this brutal NYC heatwave day, I observed what struck me as yet another example of all of this at work. On our floor in front of the neighbors' apartment across the hall was a dreaded black dude wearing Amazon delivery clothes, having lugged up three floors all the groceries our neighbors have now come to regularly ordering online. They're probably in their mid-30's, quite capable of pushing the ubiquitous city carriage for groceries. Yet, everything they seem to buy comes from Amazon. As the delivery guy was leaving I remarked to him that his company has a heinous record to treating employees at the warehouses horrendously. On top of which I said they are a monopoly owned by a megalomaniac intent on buying up every company he can. To which he said he knew about the recent purchase of Whole Foods. Instead of understating how monopolies are bad, do you know what his reaction was? "It's probably a good time to buy some of their stock." In the first instance, the selling of convenience overrides any personal responsibility to the social fabric, as long as I can get mine and continue living this soft existence falsely equated with "progress," who cares where it comes from, how it is made, manufactured and delivered. We've been trained that as Americans, it is our god-given right to have any and everything at the moment we want it. Extrapolate that out exponentially to the 1% living in that world at an inconceivable level, and one has to consider it one of the most evil developments. While the other is emblematic of the Junior Capitalist mindset that every little flunky, indoctrinated in the purposely elusive American Dream mythology, buys into as being just one step away from becoming the next contestant on Who Want To Be the Next American Millionaire. If pulling your bootstraps up isn't working, then be ever vigilant for the next ponzi scheme or Wall St scam to "invest" in. Thanks again, Ray.

—

Submitted by Ellen North on Sun, 07/02/2017 - 10:00am

@Ray Pensador

@Ray Pensador

Hello, Ray! I've been so happy to see you here of late and hope you'll be hanging out here lots, even if your perspective might be needed elsewhere perhaps even more.

I am wondering, though - do you think that our continuing to use deceptively flattering designations for the Parasite Class, terming them as 'elite' and thereby reinforcing the 'exceptional = wealthiest' propaganda in implying that they're the 'best of the best justifiably rising to the top' than merely pathologically greedy and power-hungry schemers stealing power and resources from everyone and everything else while expediently/deliberately poisoning virtually all that they touch, is adding to the psychological acceptance of their having some 'right' to destroy civilization, economies and ecologies for their personal self-enrichment?

—

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Submitted by earthling1 on Sun, 07/02/2017 - 1:06pm

Are we speaking of

@Ellen North
The artists formerly known as "The Moneychangers"?
/s

—

Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

Submitted by Ellen North on Sun, 07/02/2017 - 1:58pm

@earthling1

@earthling1

Lol, indeed! Only now that Mammon is the official religion, they've taken over and get to be 'elites' in propagandized common parlance.

FSM would really rather that they didn't do that...

—

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Submitted by Ray Pensador on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 11:23am

@mimi The common problems with ALL these media tools is

first and foremost their final intent, which is to manipulate the population (on behalf of the ruling elite); the second problem is the profit motive.

The issue is not that there's no utility that can be derived from these systems and networks (Google, Facebook, Twitter, et al). Of course there is; one can get information about things (much of it truth and accurate); one can learn, stay informed about certain topics, connect with others.

Those and others, are some of the positive things that can be gotten from these corporate-owned networks.

But therein lies the real challenge, and that's because that's how all propaganda works, by embedding itself inside systems of information that may seen otherwise benevolent.

Think of it as a Trojan Horse type of situation.

Along with news and information and staying touch with friends and being part of groups, when it comes to corporate-owned media, you're also manipulated via scientifically-designed behavioral algorithms. You are tracked, subjected to surveillance, to massive amount of cognitive infiltration (there are tens of thousands of paid trolls, government security agencies, a plethora of corporations, etc.).

When you add it all up, you're left with a toxic environment that ends up manipulating you (in the best case), or totally controlling you (in the worst case).

The solution? There is nothing wrong with technology itself. What people of goodwill need to do is wrestle these systems away from the corporate state and use them for the common good.

A good example? Caucus99Percent! This is exactly what I mean. Although it is almost certain that there is infiltration here as well, the vast majority of users, and most importantly, the wonderful people in charge of this site, are motivated by a genuine desire to know the truth about things (truth-seekers), by the promotion of social justice and the common good.

My point is that eventually we need to shift away from corporate-owned media a form our own Facebooks, and Twitters, and Googles. There should be thousands of social media sites that are independent, local, not hegemonic.

I'll be writing about this more in my next essay.

—

Submitted by The Hindsight Times on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 2:38pm

Did This Years Ago

@Ray Pensador

My point is that eventually we need to shift away from corporate-owned media and form our own Facebooks, and Twitters, and Googles. There should be thousands of social media sites that are independent, local, not hegemonic.

I did something similar to this about 7-8 years ago. A few of us science fiction fans kept getting banned on websites like Ustream, YouTube and the now former Justin.tv for playing copyrighted content when what was really going on was some very good discussions of the content of the shows in the chat room that accompanied the stream. Casts of shows such as Star Trek, all five series and the animated series, Babylon 5, Lexx, Andromeda, Firefly, X-files and movies from Blade Runner to Star Wars would get banned right in the middle of some great conversations prompting the person who got banned to setup another stream and renew the cast until another "complaint" of copyright infringement was acted upon, sometimes within minutes of the new stream starting.

Because of this constant harassment, even though it was not done by us for profit, we could not find a "safe" place. Since I already had a website, I set up a password protected portal and found streaming services that are free and can be limited to only the new protected portal. We have been enjoying whatever we want to stream for years, we have 5-6 dedicated people that stream/cast and we pick up streams from other places. We have a chat room where we have some very good conversations, not all the time but quite often and anyone can make requests as those that stream can be found in the chatroom. Though it isn't local, as we have members from all over the globe, it is independent and not hegemonic.

The Collective is what the community voted to name it, Star Trek Borg reference and a nice subliminal socialist message. Contact me if you enjoy scifi, though we cast documentaries and other things also, and wish to become a drone at The Collective.

Peace

first and foremost their final intent, which is to manipulate the population (on behalf of the ruling elite); the second problem is the profit motive. The issue is not that there's no utility that can be derived from these systems and networks (Google, Facebook, Twitter, et al). Of course there is; one can get information about things (much of it truth and accurate); one can learn, stay informed about certain topics, connect with others. Those and others, are some of the positive things that can be gotten from these corporate-owned networks. But therein lies the real challenge, and that's because that's how all propaganda works, by embedding itself inside systems of information that may seen otherwise benevolent. Think of it as a Trojan Horse type of situation. Along with news and information and staying touch with friends and being part of groups, when it comes to corporate-owned media, you're also manipulated via scientifically-designed behavioral algorithms. You are tracked, subjected to surveillance, to massive amount of cognitive infiltration (there are tens of thousands of paid trolls, government security agencies, a plethora of corporations, etc.). When you add it all up, you're left with a toxic environment that ends up manipulating you (in the best case), or totally controlling you (in the worst case). The solution? There is nothing wrong with technology itself. What people of goodwill need to do is wrestle these systems away from the corporate state and use them for the common good. A good example? Caucus99Percent! This is exactly what I mean. Although it is almost certain that there is infiltration here as well, the vast majority of users, and most importantly, the wonderful people in charge of this site, are motivated by a genuine desire to know the truth about things (truth-seekers), by the promotion of social justice and the common good. My point is that eventually we need to shift away from corporate-owned media a form our own Facebooks, and Twitters, and Googles. There should be thousands of social media sites that are independent, local, not hegemonic. I'll be writing about this more in my next essay.

Submitted by mimi on Sun, 07/02/2017 - 2:58am

Hi Ray, thank you for your response, sorry to

@Ray Pensador @Ray Pensador
not have read it earlier. As explained I had a party going on yesterday night. Now, I have posted something about killing the internet and how it could, would or couldn't and wouldn't work. If you could still have a look at my responses.

Regarding all you said above, of course I do follow you on those thoughts and agree with them. Just one point is not clear to me:

Along with news and information and staying touch with friends and being part of groups, when it comes to corporate-owned media, you're also manipulated via scientifically-designed behavioral algorithms. You are tracked, subjected to surveillance, to massive amount of cognitive infiltration (there are tens of thousands of paid trolls, government security agencies, a plethora of corporations, etc.).

I became aware of that situation (behavioral algorithms, tracking, surveillance research etc.). But why do you think this would only happen on corporate funded sites? Why wouldn't the same tools applied to our little site here, hanging on there by giving JtC way too little money and not often enough. We are not corporate, does that mean, we are not "victimized" by the same algorithms, trojan horses, surveillance techniques, targetted behavioral propaganda, intnetional surveillance, inciteful wordings etc.?

Are the financial funds to a site related to the fact that all of the internet's websites can be
targetted the same way, corporate funded ones or with "$27 style Bernie Sanders" style of mini donations?

There is something I don't understand about the underlying technology of the wwww. So far I believed its functions work independent on who finances what kind of website. Is that wrong?

I have to leave right now, but really look forward to what you would give as a response to that and look forward to see your future essays here.

first and foremost their final intent, which is to manipulate the population (on behalf of the ruling elite); the second problem is the profit motive. The issue is not that there's no utility that can be derived from these systems and networks (Google, Facebook, Twitter, et al). Of course there is; one can get information about things (much of it truth and accurate); one can learn, stay informed about certain topics, connect with others. Those and others, are some of the positive things that can be gotten from these corporate-owned networks. But therein lies the real challenge, and that's because that's how all propaganda works, by embedding itself inside systems of information that may seen otherwise benevolent. Think of it as a Trojan Horse type of situation. Along with news and information and staying touch with friends and being part of groups, when it comes to corporate-owned media, you're also manipulated via scientifically-designed behavioral algorithms. You are tracked, subjected to surveillance, to massive amount of cognitive infiltration (there are tens of thousands of paid trolls, government security agencies, a plethora of corporations, etc.). When you add it all up, you're left with a toxic environment that ends up manipulating you (in the best case), or totally controlling you (in the worst case). The solution? There is nothing wrong with technology itself. What people of goodwill need to do is wrestle these systems away from the corporate state and use them for the common good. A good example? Caucus99Percent! This is exactly what I mean. Although it is almost certain that there is infiltration here as well, the vast majority of users, and most importantly, the wonderful people in charge of this site, are motivated by a genuine desire to know the truth about things (truth-seekers), by the promotion of social justice and the common good. My point is that eventually we need to shift away from corporate-owned media a form our own Facebooks, and Twitters, and Googles. There should be thousands of social media sites that are independent, local, not hegemonic. I'll be writing about this more in my next essay.

—

https://www.euronews.com/live

Submitted by Ray Pensador on Sun, 07/02/2017 - 3:31pm

@mimi Government and

@mimi Government and corporate infiltrators permeate the entire Internet, with tens of thousands of them being paid by agencies, corporate communications and PR departments, security organizations, etc.

That's one layer of cognitive infiltration to witch all sites with public membership are subjected to. However, because smaller-membership, regional, local, and/or affinity sites are more closely monitored by administrators, propagandists have to be a bit more clever when they post stuff in those sites, trying to stay below the radar, while still engaging in thread-jacking using propaganda techniques, most of them based on logical fallacies.

But still, although not perfect, smaller, local, regional, topical sites are better able to keep a lid on the negative effects of cognitive infiltration.

A perfect comparison is the difference between a site like TOP, which in my opinion represents one of the most perfect examples of a site being totally infiltrated by pro-establishment trolls (who run rampant), and Caucus99Percent, where the administrators and moderators seem to have a good handle on things.

Regarding corporate-owned "social media" sites like Facebook and Twitter, the problem is that increasingly-effective algorithms are constantly being used, tweaked, calibrated, in real time, based on users' online behavior; something that eventually can affect even those who think they can spot propaganda easily.

I may write an essay covering these subjects more in-depth...

—

Submitted by mimi on Mon, 07/03/2017 - 3:42am

Thank You, Ray, best response I could hope for and yes, please,

@Ray Pensador
write more about it in depth when you can. It's an issue I have to understand.

I remember back when the internet and worldwide web was new, the National Press Building in Washington DC was one of the first buildings that got wired with broadband cable capacities . As a little woman in one of the news agencies back then, I got to use the www for research. As I worked before as an even more little woman in a bookstore I knew what kind of software they used in their store environment. So, I got the idea to build a website based on that kind of bookstore software.

So, I started and hired a programmer to help me with it. Someone, who was in Ohio, I believe. I remember well that he was able to cut me out nilly willy from my own site and do whatever he pleased - with the code - and I would have to be a coder to understand and fight against his coding skills, if I wanted to keep control over my site. But I wasn't and didn't really want to become a "deep coder".

Which led me to believe that everything that happens on the www is dependent on who controls and writes what kind of software, code, algothisms for various sites.

On the other hand I believed that the code written is basically represented in the status of the electron's spin that is "fixed" into the metal of the harddrive, ie a physical, material thingy, nobody has an imagination for. That was over 20 years ago. Meanwhile I am an old and memory challenged chatting person on C99p and still a very little woman.

So, I get the idea that a small site is closer monitored. That's an advantage delivered to us by "the good guys administrators" ...

I just thought even the best adminstrator can be fooled on the www. Sure it's more difficult, but then the poor adminstrator and his crew and friends who post on the site have to watch out 24/7 for "the bad guys - those algorithm trolling coders". And who in his right mind wants to be THAT dependent on what is happening on the site?

I say it's a cruel technology. The best to get high and addictive on and the worst for saying something "truthful".

A real Shakespearean tragedy, no?

—

https://www.euronews.com/live

Submitted by Ray Pensador on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 11:25am

@gustogirl, how nice to see you here. Thank you so much

for the kind words. I'm so grateful at the welcoming environment we've found here at Caucus99!

—

Submitted by Ray Pensador on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 11:27am

You should be able to access the website now.

I have a firewall set up because of hackers. I'll explain later on. Heading out now, but I'll continue the discussion this afternoon.

—

Submitted by eyo on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 12:18pm

So it was you who broke the Internet

@Ray Pensador did you ever hear of Postel's Law, or the Robustness Principle?

Fire-walling a whole country because "hackers" seems kind of extreme to me, that's all. I wonder why you find it necessary.

peace

Submitted by lotlizard on Mon, 07/03/2017 - 3:25am

Mahalo, Ray, thanks! — yes, it works now (from Germany). n/t

@Ray Pensador

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 11:31am

Hola, Ray! Long time. Welcome.

—

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Submitted by jobu on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 11:42am

@#Raggedy Ann

The best thing I did was cut the satellite teevee cord a year ago.

I play a game with my wife. We each take a turn predicting what will and will not be discussed on MSM cable. Needless to say we are laughing out loud now at the absurdity of just about all of our so called Talking Heads.

Wolf Blitzer is hard to beat in terms of full-on, I don't give a shit demeanor in his delivery of what he must know is utter bullshit.

Rachel Maddow is a tragic waste of talent.

Anderson Cooper's faceplate can no longer hide it. I sometimes imagine him as Max Headroom but much less relevant.

[video:https://youtu.be/Z2zf-XkQmVo]

Submitted by snoopydawg on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 12:03pm

Yep.

@jobu

Rachel Maddow is a tragic waste of talent.

—

There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?

Submitted by earthling1 on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 12:30pm

Great to read your essays again, Ray.

Hope you continue to post here.
Your essay here got me to thinking about how to counter the propaganda. Their use of narrative is effective in moving the subject matter in the direction they want your mind, and subsequently the populous as a whole, to go.
A case in point is Reality Winner. In the vernacular the MSM used initially, it was implied she was the guilty one. Only in the internet community was there mention that she was only accused of wrongdoing.
To this day I do not believe any major news outlet has posited that she was innocent until proven guilty.
In fact, I don't hear much of anything about her in the last few days.
It's as though our rulers have determined that ruse is failing, and so let's move on to the next one.
So, as above, I am starting to use the narrative of "our rulers" in place of "we" or "us" or "our" or tptb in both my essays, comments, or just conversing on the street. Such as, "Our rulers have determined that Iran has become a threat to their forces in Syria".
Or, "Putin will meet with a representative of our rulers next week at an economic summit at the White House". "Our rulers have ordered a carrier group into the Mediterranean". "Our rulers are urging the Saudis and the Qataris to end their dispute".
The term "the powers that be" seems muted by comparison.
Just food for thought.
Thanks again for your post. As you can tell, thought provoking.

—

Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

Submitted by native on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 1:59pm

I think that's an excellent suggestion.

@earthling1
I've always balked at the careless use of collective plural pronouns when referring to crimes perpetrated by the US government. For example, we did not invade Iraq, our government did. And we are not advocating for a war with Russia, our government is.

I suppose the terms "our government" and "our rulers" might be considered as being roughly synonymous, though not exactly. The former implies a degree of legitimacy that is not always entirely warranted. So perhaps "rulers" is the more accurate word.

—

native

Submitted by earthling1 on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 2:32pm

'Zactly, native

@native
Install our own narrative, piss on them. We will create a meme that we know and are aware that we are not in control of what "our rulers" are doing with our tax monies, buying a mercenary military to conquer the world. For their sole benefit.
If I had a dollar for every American citizen I've personally talked to that thought "We the people" were in control of the American government I would starve to death. I have not met anyone who would look me in the eye and say "We control this government".
The American people should be able to voice the reality that the "rulers" are in control without feeling like tin hatted conspiracy theorists.
It is Reality.
We can do this by labeling them as rulers whenever and wherever we referr to the government of America.
IMHO.

—

Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

Submitted by snoopydawg on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 5:05pm

Have you seen this video?

@earthling1
this video shows that no matter how many people want congress to pass something, it doesn't matter to them.
Look at how many people want single payer instead of this right wing Heritage foundation crap.
The person who created this does have some ideas on how we can go about changing things.

—

There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?

Submitted by Ray Pensador on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 5:13pm

@snoopydawg Yes, I've seen

@snoopydawg Yes, I've seen that video, and I think it perfectly summarizes our system.

—

Submitted by thanatokephaloides on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 6:51pm

we didn't, our government did

@native

I've always balked at the careless use of collective plural pronouns when referring to crimes perpetrated by the US government. For example, we did not invade Iraq, our government did. And we are not advocating for a war with Russia, our government is.

And when I tried bringing this up over on Daily Kos, i.e., That Other Place (TOP), I'd get the standard "We Are The Government" BS hurled in my face. At which point I'd be possessed by an uncontrollable desire to slap those idiots in the face with a stale raw herring, repeatedly!

Unless you're in the top 0.01% by income, you suffer from taxation without representation. I know of no one holding any share in sovereign power in Washington who has never made more than $50,000 a year after taxes. Yet the vast majority of Americans do resemble that remark!

And it's the folks who can and do get elected to Congress -- 1%ers damn near all of them -- who are exclusively responsible for these dirty deeds.

—

"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

Submitted by jobu on Sat, 07/01/2017 - 2:16pm

A Blizzard

@#earthling1

It's as though our rulers have determined that ruse is failing, and so let's move on to the next one.

Like a Blizzard with no Accumulation of Snow. That is how someone described the Russia, Russia, Russia hysteria 24/7. I suppose that is what can be said for any 'Narrative' that our rulers deem to be enforced by the MSM.

American Media - 'Tools And Vassals of Rich Men Behind The Scenes'

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IMAGINE if you woke up the day after a US Presidential Election and headlines around the the world blared, "The Majority of Americans Refused to Vote in US Presidential Election! What Does this Mean?"

IMAGINE if you woke up the day after a US Presidential Election and headlines around the the world blared, "The Majority of Americans Refused to Vote in US Presidential Election! What Does this Mean?"

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