Open Thread - 08-04-23 - Re-education

Submitted by JtC on Fri, 08/04/2023 - 7:19am

Is we learning yet?

Occasionally while surfing the internet I'll run across this hair on fire exclamation: "I'll see you in the re-education camp". Re-education? I thought that's what schools were for? Take that as you may, or not. I believe there is an effort afoot to thoughtscape your mind for you, as though you aren't intelligent enough to think for yourself.

To my mind, there's no need for a re-education camp, the camp has already been built, it's all around us. Like an ubiquitous schoolmarm, everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Like an insidious rehabilitation program, not of the physical world, but of the mental realm. Fences built around the mind are as effective as a barrier of razor edged concertina wire, maybe more so, because once the fences are accepted then there's no need for escape.

brain.jpg

There's also no need to think for yourself in this new world, there are those that have imagined a new perspective for you, a new world void of individualistic ideation, a contrived world where we all graze together in a field of conformity. A field grown of genetically modified seeds of thought, artificially planted to grow into an engineered system of compliance. "You will be happy", so the slogan states, first by coercion and cancellation and then forcefully if need be, just ask any political prisoner.

Do you watch TV? Movies? Read newspapers? Surf the web? Do you sometimes feel that your mind is being reprogrammed? The idea is to tear down the old systems to be replaced with new social and political paradigms. Paradigms less favorable to the human condition that most of us remember from the not too distant past. The new paradigms are portrayed as benevolent change. Benevolent change for whom begs the question?

The tools of the revisionists are gaslighting, obfuscation, semantic drift, lies and propaganda, or to term it in a concise nutshell, brainwashing. Done on a subliminal level, repeated ad infinitum, the susceptible mind will nod in affirmation, and in my humble opinion, said affirmation already exists among the majority. The real target of this onslaught of mind control are the youth, who have grown up with social media's bells and whistles and will welcome the chance to freely roam the parochial constraints of their own programmed minds. Our new normal will be their old normal.

Once the mind is corralled the march to the abattoir of self determination will be a slow walk to democratic irrelevance. Is free will even a thing anymore? Was it ever a thing?

A case in point is the contemporary onslaught on the First Amendment. Breaches of the First Amendment are nothing new, especially during war: Civil War (PDF) and WWI and WWII, to mention three examples. To me though, this new push seems to be an attempt at permanent displacement of what is arguably our most important right, the right to say what we want (with certain boundaries) without government interference. The federal government wants that pesky little hindrance of free thought and free will out of their way, for good this time. Recent revelations have shown the federal government's back door efforts to stifle free speech by coercive corporate de-platforming, cancel culture, and outright censorship. The government can't stifle your speech but a private entity can, or so goes the thinking. So government thumbs its nose at that quaint document from the late 18th century and leads big tech in a symbiotic dance of power and greed.

But could these recent revelations be part and parcel of what I perceive as a war on the First Amendment? Maybe so.

Nowadays red flags go off for me when a whistleblower comes forward with new revelations. It didn't used to be this way, Watergate and the Pentagon Papers are prime examples of revelations that lead to real consequences and real changes. Juxtapose that with today, starting with Dan Rather, nothing seems to be consequential and nothing changes. I've spoken of this before.

I watch the current revelations with apprehension. I fear the government is using the expose' of its coercion with big tech to normalize government censorship, to make it accepted and mainstream. The truth is being thrust upon us to sweep away the First Amendment right under our noses and right before our eyes. It's demoralizing and despairing when nothing is done about government transgressions and I'm afraid that's exactly what will happen again. I posit that demoralization and despair are exactly the end goal of these so called revelations. Capitulation and compliance are the objectives.

And we come full circle back to what I mentioned earlier:

A field grown of genetically modified seeds of thought, artificially planted to grow into an engineered system of compliance.

Is we learning yet? Those that wish us muzzled have.

I'm proud to be a conscientious objector in the war for my mind.

To view the lyrics click the white "CC" button at the bottom of the video
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Submitted by JtC on Fri, 08/04/2023 - 7:22am

what's on your non-re-educated minds?

Please watch the "Political Corruption" video at the end of the open thread. Turn the closed captions on to read the lyrics. It's outstanding.

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Submitted by enhydra lutris on Fri, 08/04/2023 - 9:40am
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The sad thing is that large swaths of the public have been indoctrinated and conditioned into demanding censorship, clamoring for unpleasant and/or dissenting speech to be taken down, for books to be burnt and voices to be silenced. There was a time when some tried to achieve some sort of consensus via discussion and argumentation, but that has evolved into a desire for simple uniformity and conformity which is not so much achieved as imposed. Government actions and machinations are greatly simplified and assisted by the fact that the government need only sell its ideas and programs to these cadres of self-righteous who then become free, unpaid enforcement teams.

be well and have a good one
have a great weekend also,too.

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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 --

Submitted by JtC on Fri, 08/04/2023 - 10:28am

@enhydra lutris
I agree on all points.

There are many sources of the indoctrination but I believe the boobtube to be the leading cause. There's the direct flow when watching it but there's the indirect flow when its used as background noise, sometimes all day. It's like listening to learning programs while asleep, it's subconscious programming. Before you know it you're spouting talking points just like the talking heads.

Heh:

Government actions and machinations are greatly simplified and assisted by the fact that the government need only sell its ideas and programs to these cadres of self-righteous who then become free, unpaid enforcement teams.

You mean cadres like Flying Monkey Squads who's sole intent were to run off anyone who dared stray from the edicts from on high? Now where did I see that at?

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Submitted by enhydra lutris on Fri, 08/04/2023 - 10:41am
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@JtC

and these days they're damn near everywhere

You mean cadres like Flying Monkey Squads who's sole intent were to run off anyone who dared stray from the edicts from on high?

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 --

Submitted by humphrey on Fri, 08/04/2023 - 11:46am

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Submitted by on the cusp on Fri, 08/04/2023 - 12:07pm

@humphrey the effort in The Netherlands and Ireland to kill off cattle and sheep so we can all go vegan and eat on bugs.
TV commercials do not feature Burger King, but I see tons of adds for vegetable concoctions, such as Nature's Balance. TV is grooming us on the diets of the future.

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

Submitted by snoopydawg on Fri, 08/04/2023 - 2:24pm
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@humphrey

since Biden just kicked millions off food stamps and decreased the amount they get for millions more. Old Tony needs to buy a fcking mirror and fix the problems at home before trying to dictate to the world. Gawd what a horrible person he is.

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Submitted by Cassiodorus on Fri, 08/04/2023 - 5:25pm
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@snoopydawg That's what it takes to try to pull off such a stupid con job.

(this is not an original thought: when I remember the video where it's mentioned I'll post it)

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“When there's no fight over programme, the election becomes a casting exercise. Trump's win is the unstoppable consequence of this situation.” - Jean-Luc Melanchon

Submitted by JtC on Fri, 08/04/2023 - 4:01pm

@humphrey
in political doublespeak is: "Food insecurity is global insecurity." Kind of like using food to implement color revolutions.

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Submitted by humphrey on Fri, 08/04/2023 - 12:41pm

It was a feeble attempt to explain the slow progress of the so-called offensive.

It didn't go over so well.

The next US military aid package will solve the problem.

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Submitted by on the cusp on Fri, 08/04/2023 - 1:12pm

@humphrey following X, so I don't have to.
British Intelligence is inaccurately named.

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

Submitted by usefewersyllables on Fri, 08/04/2023 - 2:03pm
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@humphrey

Why, Agent Orange, of course. We probably have several million barrels of it left in some warehouse somewhere. You know, new old stock that didn't get shipped to Vietnam, and is now taking up space.

Warehousing costs money- might as well give it to the Ukies, too. Defoliate all that farmland! That'll show the Russians who is boss...

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Twice bitten, permanently shy.

Submitted by wokkamile on Fri, 08/04/2023 - 1:11pm

for filing a fed court lawsuit on Weds against Google/YouTube for violation of his 1A free speech rights in censoring him at the behest of the Biden admin for his comments in the covid area. The social media censorship has gotten way out of hand.

It seems straightforward that the gov't cannot do indirectly -- using social media platforms to do its censoring -- what it is prohibited from doing directly and that private entities should lose their immunity from 1A liability when they collude with gov't to violate those rights thus becoming effectively state actors themselves.

https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/67660387/1/kennedy-jr-v-google-llc/

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Submitted by JtC on Fri, 08/04/2023 - 4:12pm

@wokkamile
RFK JR.

Thanks for bringing that forward, wokkamile.

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Submitted by Cassiodorus on Fri, 08/04/2023 - 1:41pm
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as once promoted by the Frankfurt School, bears relevance. Once they had culture itself as something spread through industrial products (movies, TV shows, modern advertising, electronic music, and so on), they controlled the public's frames of reference.

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“When there's no fight over programme, the election becomes a casting exercise. Trump's win is the unstoppable consequence of this situation.” - Jean-Luc Melanchon

Submitted by JtC on Fri, 08/04/2023 - 4:26pm

@Cassiodorus
what the future holds given the speed of technological advancement.

Since so much past science fiction has become contemporary reality is it a stretch to think that the industrial products will be bypassed and the, ahem, "culture" will somehow be piped directly into the individuals brain, once they get past that pesky 1st amendment thing.

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Submitted by Cassiodorus on Fri, 08/04/2023 - 5:33pm
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@JtC of the Internet. I keep thinking of that line from the Culture Industry essay: "The misplaced love of the common people for the wrong which is done them is a greater force than the cunning of the authorities" (134). Remember, they originally wrote that in 1944 when there was no Internet and television was in its very early stages. So even in that day and age the triumph of the culture industry was quite profound.

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Submitted by JtC on Fri, 08/04/2023 - 7:17pm

@Cassiodorus
that much more of a technological advancement as the internet is today, for its time, especially for a generation that had just lived through the Great Depression and wanted affirmation that life was going to get better? The culture industry was as much a tool then as it is today.

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Submitted by Cassiodorus on Fri, 08/04/2023 - 9:06pm
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@JtC McLuhan iirc thought Hitler derived much of his power from radio...

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“When there's no fight over programme, the election becomes a casting exercise. Trump's win is the unstoppable consequence of this situation.” - Jean-Luc Melanchon

Submitted by travelerxxx on Sun, 08/06/2023 - 11:48pm
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@Cassiodorus

McLuhan iirc thought Hitler derived much of his power from radio...

As proof of the continuing power of radio, I enter as evidence Mr. Rush Limbaugh, et al. Yes, Rush is dead, but the medium is not. Don't believe it? Turn on any AM radio at any time of day anywhere in the USA.

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Submitted by janis b on Mon, 08/07/2023 - 12:03am
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@travelerxxx

It's amazing how someone (Rush Limbaugh) of so much consequence has become so passe. Is that a reflection of how far beyond dangerous absurdity we've gone?

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Submitted by mimi on Fri, 08/04/2023 - 2:30pm
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hmm, I have no mind to begin with, so they make war against nothing, once a dummy, always a dummy, who is the dummmy aggain ?. I am getting so confused..

Thanks very much for your outstanding essay. In order to educate myself I have to re-read it couple of times. Re-reading is am effective re-educational tool, isn't it?

Be well and have a good one and thanks for being here for us, JtC.

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Submitted by JtC on Fri, 08/04/2023 - 4:28pm

@mimi
glad you got some value from it, and no, you're not a dummy.

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Submitted by humphrey on Fri, 08/04/2023 - 2:36pm

less than positive situation.

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Submitted by snoopydawg on Fri, 08/04/2023 - 10:39pm
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@humphrey

Most of the new jobs created during his tenure were part time or gig workers who got no benefits and low pay.
Biden’s head of the fed has done a good job at reducing decent paying jobs in the tech sector and throwing hundreds of thousands of them on unemployment an keeping wages low. Add in the 30,000 thousand from yellow truck jobs. I’m wondering how many of those workers are sweating about whether they see their pensions get gobbled up in the bankruptcy?
I’ve also wondered how Romney could square his religious beliefs with stealing so many people’s pensions whilst he owned Bain capital? Has he been to confession about it yet…oops wrong religious cult. My bad. Remember that the church will get 10% of his wealth through tithing. I’m sure that the church leaders are quite happy.

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Submitted by snoopydawg on Fri, 08/04/2023 - 3:01pm
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.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Smithmas

Well maybe the 5th time is the charm

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Submitted by JtC on Fri, 08/04/2023 - 4:33pm

@snoopydawg
it looks like I'll have to get another stocking to hang on the mantle. I'll see if I can find one made from long orange flax fibers that I can comb over.

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Submitted by snoopydawg on Fri, 08/04/2023 - 4:38pm
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.

and wants the government to do more of it because they have been propagandized into giving up their rights. I think it’s one thing to believe something that we learned in school when we were young only to find out that it wasn’t true. Like America won WW2 and without our help Hitler and Germany would now be ruling the world only to find out decades later how it was Russia that conquered Berlin. Yes we helped a lot and we helped Russia win $$$, but they had been totally left out of the picture.

But for people who swallowed all the Russia Russia Russia and Trump being the worst president ever and then the Rona fear porn propaganda that suddenly switched to Ukraine Ukraine Ukraine and "kill all the orcs" after they saw through the Iraq propaganda and they know why war propaganda is to manufacture consent for it, I think there’s another reason for why they did:

“Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice. One may protest against evil; it can be exposed and, if need be, prevented by use of force. Evil always carries within itself the germ of its own subversion in that it leaves behind in human beings at least a sense of unease. Against stupidity we are defenseless. Neither protests nor the use of force accomplish anything here; reasons fall on deaf ears; facts that contradict one’s prejudgment simply need not be believed – in such moments the stupid person even becomes critical – and when facts are irrefutable they are just pushed aside as inconsequential, as incidental. In all this the stupid person, in contrast to the malicious one, is utterly self satisfied and, being easily irritated, becomes dangerous by going on the attack. For that reason, greater caution is called for when dealing with a stupid person than with a malicious one. Never again will we try to persuade the stupid person with reasons, for it is senseless and dangerous.” ― Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison

I posted more on this last year and I will look for the link if anyone’s interested.
Many of us here saw through the massive propaganda campaign and lots of people on the wotb did too so why did so many others fall for it?

The NYT recently published an article about how saying certain things shouldn’t be allowed under free speech. It just mind boggling how easily people are willing to throw away their rights and ours just because they don’t like someone or they are afraid.

Rambling and maybe incoherent, but high pain day.

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Submitted by JtC on Fri, 08/04/2023 - 5:33pm

@snoopydawg
how many folks are willing to throw away their rights that they'll probably never get back. Maybe they don't understand how precious and fleeting those rights are.

Many of us here saw through the massive propaganda campaign and lots of people on the wotb did too so why did so many others fall for it?

I think a lot of it boils down to whether an individual trusts the government or not.

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Submitted by snoopydawg on Fri, 08/04/2023 - 10:58pm
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@JtC

have now accepted the man and all it represents.

IMG_5237.jpeg

I remember you doing an essay on this wondering what happened to the anti war protesters during Vietnam.

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Submitted by ban nock on Fri, 08/04/2023 - 6:16pm

and they are very different than reading something on the net you disagree with. Night and day different. We have access to as much and any information you want, never have so many had access to any and all information, calling this re education is ludicrous. I think we need to require a year of selective service at 18 to people can't grow old disassociated from reality.

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Submitted by TheOtherMaven on Fri, 08/04/2023 - 6:25pm
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@ban nock

without admitting you totally missed the point. And that includes CLAMORING FOR brainwashing and re-education!

If you don't think "selective service" involves INTENSE brainwashing, you have never been there.

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Submitted by on the cusp on Fri, 08/04/2023 - 6:29pm

@ban nock @ban nock as we want.

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

Submitted by JtC on Fri, 08/04/2023 - 6:30pm

@ban nock
this piece was about re-education camps? Or did you just read the first paragraph and decided to post an inane reply that had no bearing on the essay itself?

I think we need to require a year of selective service at 18 to people can't grow old disassociated from reality.

Huh?

I gave you a thumbs up anyway, consider it a participation trophy.

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Submitted by snoopydawg on Fri, 08/04/2023 - 7:19pm
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@ban nock

and no matter how old some people are.

I think we need to require a year of selective service at 18 to people can't grow old disassociated from reality.

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Submitted by snoopydawg on Fri, 08/04/2023 - 8:37pm
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.

Disinformation And Censorship, 1984–2023

Americans’ free speech is threatened as never before...

Orwell, again. 1984 seems written for the Biden era. Underlying it all is the concept of disinformation, the root of propaganda and mind control. So it is in 2023. Just ask FBI Director Chris Wray. Or Facebook.

George Orwell’s novel explores the concept of disinformation and its role in controlling and manipulating society. Orwell presents a dystopian future where a totalitarian regime, led by the Party and its figurehead Big Brother, exerts complete control over its citizens’ lives, including their thinking. The Party employs a variety of techniques to disseminate disinformation and maintain its power. One of the most prominent examples is the concept of “Newspeak,” a language designed to restrict and manipulate thought by reducing the range of expressible ideas. Newspeak aims to replace words and concepts that could challenge or criticize the Party’s ideology, effectively controlling the way people think and communicate (in our own time and place, think of “unhoused,” “misspoke,” LGBTQIAXYZ+, “nationalist,” “terrorist”).

Orwell also introduces the concept of doublethink, which refers to the ability to hold two contradictory beliefs simultaneously and to accept them both as true. This psychological manipulation technique allows the Party to control the minds of its citizens and make them believe in false information or embrace contradictory ideas without questioning (think mandating masks that do not prevent disease transmission). The Party in 1984 alters historical records and disseminates false information through the Ministry of Truth. This manipulation of historical events and facts aims to control the collective memory of the society in a post-truth era, ensuring that the Party’s version of reality remains unquestioned (think war in Ukraine, Iraq, El Salvador, Vietnam, all to protect our freedom at home.)

Through these portrayals, Orwell highlights the dangers of disinformation and its potential to distort truth, manipulate public opinion, and maintain oppressive systems of power. The novel serves as a warning about the importance of critical thinking, independent thought, and the preservation of objective truth in the face of disinformation and propaganda.

Disinformation is bad. But replacing disinformation with censorship or replacement with other disinformation is worse.

1984 closed down the marketplace of ideas. So for 2023.
….
In simple words: The government is using social media companies as proxies to censor the contrary thoughts of Americans, all under the guise of correcting misinformation and in direct contrivance of the First Amendment.
…..
An amorphous threat is pounded into the heads of Americans (communism, Covid, terrorism, disinformation) and in its name nearly anything is justified, including in the most recent battle for freedom, censorship. The wrapper is that it is all for our own protection—Biden himself accused social media companies of “killing people,” the more modern version of the terrorism era’s “blood on their hands”—with the government assuming the role of knowing what is right and correct for Americans to know.

Under President Joe Biden, the government has undertaken “the most massive attack against free speech in United States history.” That was the extraordinary conclusion reached by a federal judge in Missouri v. Biden. The case exposed the incredible lengths to which the Biden White House and its federal agencies have gone to bully social media platforms into removing political views they dislike. The White House is appealing and obtained a stay, hoping to retain this powerful tool of thought control right out of 1984. A victory for censorship of Americans and their thoughts could be the greatest threat to free speech in American history.

Biden seems to think that 1984 was an instruction manual instead of a warning and he even went so far to create a Ministry of Truth. And everyone who supports the censorship has willingly gone into room 101 for reeducation.

You nailed it, JtC! Hopefully the court will stick to its decision and end the attack on the first amendment. Too bad though that most of our other rights are on life support. Biden is even chipping away at the 2nd amendment.

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Submitted by mimi on Sat, 08/05/2023 - 10:31am
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isn't it?

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Submitted by Lookout on Sat, 08/05/2023 - 10:53am
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...but not more propaganda. That's not re-education, its Continuing Ed....hey gotta keep that certification and license.

We all have some areas where we think clearly, but we also have blindness. Take RFK's (mistaken to my mind) Israel policy, but perhaps he'll discuss the matter with Max. That indicates the inclination to learn, but you know it sure is hard to let go of those long held beliefs and values...doesn't happen overnight...and especially if you think about from a societal level. Slowly, slowly, then all at once.
nyc-car-horse-530524975.jpg
from one car in 1900 to one horse in 1913

TPTB are pushing the narrative so hard, most people are seeing through the fog...at least they know things ain't right.

Well hope all is right with all of you!

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Submitted by wokkamile on Sat, 08/05/2023 - 11:42am

@Lookout RFK Jr backer despite disagreeing w him on Israel-Palestine, mostly Israel. But as I've noted, it's a matter ranking only about #17 on my list of top issues, so not remotely a deal breaker. For people like Max, who has written a book dealing with this area, it's obviously much more important. That's fine. But if it's true he's gone so far as to call Kennedy a "racist" and "liar" then he's getting way out of line, imo.

As for RFK's position, he's in a very tough place, already having been accused of antisemitism by the usual MSM/AIPAC sources for his couple of recent comments. He's easily the most carefully and critically scrutinized and misinterpreted candidate running for the presidency. I take his more recent staunchly pro-Israel comments and the interview with the controversial rabbi Shmuley as a political move to insulate himself from further attacks.

One analyst at the ConvoCouch, a guy named Pasta who has been covering Kennedy's campaign closely, says he's going overboard in support of Israel to avoid being Jeremy Corbyned. Interesting take and seems about right.

In any case, it was a bad look for him to turn around and decline a talk w Max, doing more damage than good. Hopefully the interview will happen soon and they both can agree to disagree and maybe Max will ease off his unnecessarily harsh criticism. (will go watch his chat w Jimmy right now.)

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Submitted by snoopydawg on Sat, 08/05/2023 - 7:14pm
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@wokkamile

when he said that anyone who kills an Israeli gets paid for it for the rest of their life. Or that Israel only hits military targets…and probably a few other things. But those 2 are doozies and easily debunked. My biggest concern is foreign policy because of how many lives ours destroys and how much money is wasted on it instead of it being invested in America, but instead destroys lives here.

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