For What Its Worth II (with no apologies)

There's something happening here
But what it is ain't exactly clear
There's a censor hangin'out over there
Telling me I got to beware

I think it's time we stop
Children, what's that sound?
Censorship's what's going down

There's battle lines being drawn
Nobody's right if no one can talk
If we all must fear that someone will squawk
And so-called liberals won't walk the walk

It's time we stop
Hey, what's that sound?
The Censor's here and he's snooping 'round

It's a field day for the damned thought police
Silencing our voices as they please
No singing songs or carrying signs
Unless, you know, you're on the right side

It's time we stop
Hey, what's that sound?
Look who's shutting free speech down

Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you're always afraid
Step out of line, the man takes your platform away

We better stop
Hey, what's that sound?
Censorship is going down.

You better stop
Hey, what's that sound?
Look who's shutting free speech down

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Pluto's Republic's picture

What scares me worse are all the folks who don't notice it.

That's when you feel truly alone.

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
enhydra lutris's picture

@Pluto's Republic

be well and have a good one

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9 users have voted.

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 --

It is a bit of a problem for freedom of expression.
A peculiar twisted-up mind mess.
I think there is some wisdom to be gleaned from this.
What it is ain't exactly clear.

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enhydra lutris's picture

@QMS

Thanks for reading, QMS

be well and have a good one

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6 users have voted.

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 --

CB's picture

as the sheeple were herded through in lockstep. We all saw this happening in real time at DKos. It's ironic to see this expose at the Epoch Times - a 'fake news' propagator in it's own right.

Award-Winning Journalist Sharyl Attkisson: Propagandists Have ‘Overplayed Their Hand’
01/25/22

Former CBS journalist Sharyl Attkisson in an interview last week said mainstream media’s shift from investigative journalism toward a corporate-sponsored, “fact check” mindset originated with left-wing activists seeking to discredit conservative news outlets — and it’s had a major impact on coverage of the pandemic.

Former CBS journalist Sharyl Attkisson in an interview last week said mainstream media’s shift from investigative journalism toward a corporate-sponsored, “fact check” mindset originated with left-wing activists seeking to discredit conservative news outlets.

That shift has had a major impact on news coverage of the pandemic, Attkisson said.

Attkisson, winner of five Emmys for investigative journalism, told viewers of Epoch Times TV’s “America’s Thought Leaders,” the term “fake news” used by the media in the run-up to Donald Trump’s election likely originated with First Draft, an online fact-checking organization created with funds from Eric Schmidt, then-CEO of Google and an active supporter of Hilary Clinton.

“First Draft thought of ‘fake news’ as only a problem in the conservative media,” Attkisson said. “There was no liberal version of ‘fake news.’”

Attkisson said prior to 2015 – 2016, there was no public movement “begging for Big Tech, social media or other third parties to set themselves between us and open information online or in the news.”

But that changed, she said.

“Many people embraced the notion that some know-nothing third party that quite frankly was having its strings pulled by some corporate or political interest could insert themselves and say what we can and can’t see and read, and what we should believe,” Attkisson explained.

Attkisson took a deep dive into the phenomenon in her bestselling book, “Slanted: How the News Media Taught Us to Love Censorship and Hate Journalism,” published in 2020, but written before the pandemic narrative developed.
...

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enhydra lutris's picture

@CB

with this latest round, but this shit has been happening to some degree for a long time. McCarthy comes to mind as does the prosecution of Eugene V. Debs.

Thanks for the article.

be well and have a good one

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9 users have voted.

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 --

dystopian's picture

Right on EL!

I always loved the piano version Stills did on Four Way Street, called America's Children. It starts at 2:25 or so ... a great take on the tune with some cool rapping on it...

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6 users have voted.

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

Pluto's Republic's picture

@dystopian

"Jesus Christ was the first non-violent revolutionary...."

And then the thread broke and all that energy and truth was squandered. Happens again and again. The almost utopia is suffocated. There is no effort to form a more perfect union in the United States. That's been dead for a long time. There are only efforts in certain foreign nations to nationalize their wealth and resources. Those are the nations the US is determined to destroy. Seems to me that all our troubles just trickle down from that. The US corporate state is the Antichrist. We are the citizens of the Antichrist. Trapped inside a hypocrisy that most cannot grasp.

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4 users have voted.

____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
enhydra lutris's picture

@Pluto's Republic

nice ring to it, good T-shirt, poster or bumper sticker.

be well and have a good one

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4 users have voted.

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 --

Pluto's Republic's picture

@enhydra lutris

...good T-shirt, poster or bumper sticker.

I'm just channeling. The design is taking shape the global subconscious.

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3 users have voted.

____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
enhydra lutris's picture

@dystopian

be well and have a good one

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2 users have voted.

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 --

last night, marveled at his revolutionary music.
And then, this...

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6 users have voted.

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

enhydra lutris's picture

@on the cusp

be well and have a good one

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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 --

zed2's picture

Is it network censorship? Threats, intimidation?

I know that many Democrats are under pressure from pretenders at the top who in reality are just cyber-squatting on the party's name. They are fake Democrats who are not even fans of democracy.

The DNC considers itself entitled to rig its own primary elections. It claims it can do whatever it wants.

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enhydra lutris's picture

@zed2

platforms and, to a lesser extent, the algorithms. If you can only speak where no one is ever listening, that is effective censorship, as are search engines that never include you in their results.

be well and have a good one

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3 users have voted.

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 --

zed2's picture

Nor is he popular among them. (last I heard) They live in fear of their top management that was so rabidly pro HRC.

Google is a TISA party, that means they are trying to nullify real democracy everywhere and steal the future of the world for corporations. With a global Contract On Democracy.

Enslaving the entire planet.

.

Don't ever use GMAIL. They censor truth. And data mine their email for information on people. Read its EULA.

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zed2's picture

in the UK of the future.

This is from Terry Gilliam's absolutely brilliant dystopian film "Brazil" (1985)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NA9B6-s6r7Y

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zed2's picture

Because people have invested here in businesses.

That makes it so things cannot be democratic. They get an entitlement that supersedes everything else with only the most intentionally brain dead exception imaginable. That exception has self cancelling language that makes it so it cannot work.

Its so lame and ridiculous its been written in the academic literature about for being so insanely lame. But its real. Look it up! Read it yourself.

Economist Dani Rodrik is one of the world's more articulate critics of the (trade treaties that nullify democracy) things.

drodrik.scholar.harvard.edu

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