Open Thread - 10-04-24 - Normalizing the New Normal Reprise

I'm going to republish a piece from 12-30-22 titled Normalizing the New Normal. The point of the original essay was my theory on how whistleblowers are used to introduce governmental overreaches so as to normalize whatever it is that they want us to accept. Case in point: Where we are with regards to government censorship and the Twitter revelations from a few years ago.

My point about Snowden wasn't meant that he was in on the revelations, but his disclosures were used to normalize governmental spying.

When a new whistleblower comes on the scene it raises my eyebrows, what are they trying to normalize now. Whistleblowers are not what they used to be, in my humble opinion anyway.

This is an opinion piece. I have no proof other than my lying eyes. And my intuitive gut. I'll throw this out there as speculative fodder for the un-indoctrinated and open mind.

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

I've been thinking for a while now that both sides of any given narrative are controlled.

Full Spectrum Dominance - Are we there yet?

Sure does seem like it to me. Please consider this:

Suppose you are a propagandist. Would it not be optimum to control both sides of a narrative? Both sides of an issue, pro and con. That would be total control, full spectrum dominance if you will. Could it be possible that our realities are so controlled that the idea of oppositional perception is but a facade? In today's world who knows what is real, right? With all the gaslighting and lying is it any wonder that folks are confused? Is that not the tenet of Full Spectrum Dominance?

I think that if you look you can see it in many issues nowadays, it may be subtle as is all good propaganda. The yin and yang may be manipulated into a soup of disinformation and obfuscation. Think about how you form your opinions, what you read, what you see, what you think about. If one could control that input then one could formulate your reality.

Source

Examples:

Elon Musk: Something just hasn't sit well with me about this Elon Musk and Twitter deal. It all seems contrived. I certainly don't consider him a hero as some have made him out to be. Could there be more to his Twitter acquisition than just his self proclaimed altruistic motivation. I'll put a theory out there and let you be the judge.

learning-while-earning-the-new-normal_0.jpg

Let's suppose that freedom of speech may not be Musk's ultimate goal in buying Twitter. Let's suppose that normalizing the new normal is actually the goal. What do I mean by that?

Musk is bringing front and center the alphabet agencies hand in censoring Twitter users. He is exposing that which many of us have suspected for a long time, that is, the government is colluding with big tech to catapult their narrative and to shut down oppositional view points. Exposing that is a good thing, right? My immediate reaction was, "Sure is". But, wait a minute.

Since I've been going on about normalizing the new normal, let me try to explain. The behind the scenes collusion of big tech and the state is being exposed with the intent to normalize that unholy marriage. To put it out there for all to see. It's shocking, right? But after a while the shock wears off and people begin to accept it. There's nothing that can be done about it, so we have to live with it, right? There's no hope citizen, accept your medicine and let Big Daddy Government handle this. Accept this fact and prepare yourself for CBDCs and digital slavery. Go back to sleep.

People are and will be outraged. "My Constitution" is crying out across the land. Folks will ululate, throw up their hands, shake their heads, call out for reform. But slowly, over time, the short attention span majority will move on to the next big thing and the tech/state collusion will be normalized and we the people have lost another right. Perhaps the most important right of all. And it's out there for all to see.

The new normal has been normalized.

Is there a precedent for this new normalization process? Yes, I think there is.

Edward Snowden: The revelations he made astounded the world. I've always had an uneasy feeling about his revelations. Things just didn't sit right with me. Now I think I can verbalize that uneasy feeling.

How and why would Snowden's revelations be considered controlled narrative to catapult the new normal? It was about exposing the clandestine operations of the alphabet agencies to normalize the fact that we are being spied on. To get you to accept the fact that nothing can be done about it. To get you to accept it and shut up about it. In short, to normalize spying and the loss of rights. You have to admit, it worked. It's out there now and there hasn't been a thing done to thwart it. In fact, it's gotten worse.

You may surmise, "But Snowden's life was ruined over his revelations". Was it? Do you really think that he couldn't be snatched up if the alphabets really wanted to get him?

Conclusion: Trust nothing. Question everything. Fear and despair are the medium, your mind is the target.

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Comments

trust any of it at your own peril.

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QMS's picture

.
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What is normal? Perhaps generally accepted views. On the average,
'most' people agree with the broadcast message. Then there are the
outliers. The thinkers where independent analysis is still a thing. The
population of this site would be mostly included in that position IMO.

Thanks for the stimulating essay. I can't offer any solutions. Maybe
being able to recognize trends is just a beginning? An involved process
ensues almost guaranteed to drive you nuts.

Q

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enhydra lutris's picture

1) Perpendicular (to)
2) Average
3) Central portion of the bell curve
4) Habitual
5) What society/the government mandates
6) Not "abnormal"

Further reading: Howl and other poems, On The Road/Dharma Bums/Mexico City Blues, Excitable Boy/Mr. Bad Example (songs)

Lastly, #7 - who, what, and where you are at and in the moment:

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 --

QMS's picture

@enhydra lutris
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have never considered being normal
coming from a different planet where
nobody thinks alike
can accept eccentricities
not normal but mostly sane
not boring but engaged

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enhydra lutris's picture

@QMS

be well and have 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 --

QMS's picture

@enhydra lutris
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definitely only magic can explain this altered state of awareness
can't find it on google for sure

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enhydra lutris's picture

promising, but how much is nature helping??

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 --

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enhydra lutris's picture

@humphrey

militant hostility toward South Carolina, and the Lebanese as well.

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 --

QMS's picture

@enhydra lutris
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of Asheville before the survivors get out
and post disinformation on social media

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earthling1's picture

What if the alphabet agencies wanted to normalize facial recognition software in greater society?
Would they find some slouch to use by offering him riches as a frontman for some new social media app that let's people everywhere communicate online and introduce to them the facial recognition software to tag all their Facebook friends for free?
I was constantly being notified that so-an-so tagged my face in a photo on that site in and attempt to elicit an online response.
Which was why I canceled my registration/subtle consent with that app.
Another growing concern is the application of the "plausible deniability" concept in every act of our government, which takes "chickenshit" to a whole new level.
Thanks for starting the conversation.

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

there is reality.

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/business/international/2024/10/04/israels-ar...

(Bloomberg) -- Israel’s Arrow missile-interceptor system performed as expected against Iran’s attack on Tuesday, though some damage was caused in heavily populated areas including Tel Aviv, according to the head of the Israeli manufacturer.

Arrow, the most advanced of Israel’s defense systems, helped the country and allies including the US intercept the bulk of the roughly 200 ballistic missiles fired by Iran this week. It was Tehran’s second salvo against Israel in less than six months.

“Each ballistic missile was radar-detected. Then, based on its trajectory, a specific work plan was immediately designed for the interception,” said Boaz Levy, chief executive officer of Israel Aerospace Industries.

The US said the attack “appears to have been defeated and ineffective.” And there was just one fatality, a man in the West Bank.

Some things can't be hidden although they try.

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We are all now officially waiting to see how Israel goes about taking the next step up the ladder to WWWIII. The "news" treats this preposterous state of affairs as somehow normal, as of course plucky little Israel will not cave in to terrorism.

We are all spectators for the show.

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I cried when I wrote this song. Sue me if I play too long.

is the new normal.

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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

From what I have read (and it makes sense to me) Snowden was actually a bad guy, a SeeIA contractor (Booz Allen?) who infiltrated the NSA to see what it was collecting, which was literally everything. His "whistle-blowing" was to warn the bad guys that ALL of their online activity was being collected, but it was spun as warning the public, which it also did. I find it interesting that he is still alive and safely made it through Hong Kong and is supposedly in Russia.

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snoopydawg's picture

@Bring Back Civics

Greenwald didn’t release much of the Snowden files and took a lot of flak for it. Maybe that’s why he didn’t. After the heat dropped off of Snowden and he was safe in Russia, Greenwald should have released the rest.

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

lotlizard's picture

C. S. Lewis was already on to it, and their diabolical ways, when he published his novel That Hideous Strength way back in 1945:

"I've been told so many things that I don't know whether I'm on my head or my heels," said Mark. "But I don't see how one's going to start a newspaper stunt (which is about what this comes to) without being political. Is it Left or Right papers that are going to print all this rot about Alcasan?"

"Both, honey, both," said Miss Hardcastle. "Don't you understand anything? Isn't it absolutely essential to keep a fierce Left and a fierce Right both on their toes and each terrified of the other? That's how we get things done. Any opposition to the N.I.C.E. is represented as a Left racket in the Right papers and a Right racket in the Left papers. If it's properly done you get each side out-bidding the other in support of us—to refute the enemy slanders. Of course we're non-political. The real power always is."

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@lotlizard Must read that!

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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

We know the CIA is approving or even writing movie scripts, have been since it was created.
And then, we have this movie making Snowden a hero.
???

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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

@on the cusp Precisely. There has been almost no negative MSM treatment of Snowden.

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@Bring Back Civics Ok, I am susceptible to being duped.
I am glad I took a deeper "think" to it.
2 + 2 = 4, unless my first grade teacher was CIA.
Otherwise, there is no exception to the formula, friend.

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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

QMS's picture

@on the cusp
.
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this is how the spinners work opinion
make a known whistle blower into a good guy
for the sake of underhanded deception
if he is the freedom fighter they are trying to
brand him, why is he hiding out in Russia?

Like you, 3D chess doesn't work on me
tell it like it is, otherwise I can't listen

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