The NPC meme has gone mainstream. Reports by major mass media outlets like the New York Times and the BBC have turned it into a viral sensation, and now everyone and their grandma knows about the meme used to spoof mindless followers of liberal media herd mentality programming. Any venture into the fray of the political Twittersphere now comes with a twist of alternate accounts with gray-faced profile pictures bleating things like “Orange man bad” and “#IMPEACH” in cartoonish mockery of the repetitive lines used by the rank-and-file opposition to Donald Trump.
And it’s great. The foam-brained mainliners of MSNBC and Washington Post propaganda deserve to have their unquestioning faith in establishment narratives mocked at every turn, and the propagandists who promulgate those lies day after day deserve to be lampooned. One of the most fundamentally profane things a human being can do is turn over their mental sovereignty to the institutions and agendas of the powerful, and by allowing themselves to be indoctrinated into establishment narratives that is exactly what is happening. They abdicate their rightful position as a creative participant in this world and allow their mental processes to be transformed into a looping churn of ideas manufactured in some DC think tank for the benefit of a few billionaires and their lackeys.
Interacting with such indoctrinated minions can be very much like interacting with an non-player character (NPC) in a video game. Read the comments section of any popular social media post about Russia or Julian Assange and you’ll see the same three or four spoon-fed talking points repeated over and over again like the “I took an arrow in the knee” guys in Skyrim. If you begin engaging these mechanical regurgitators you’ll find yourself having the exact same conversations, often verbatim, which just so happen to also be arguments promulgated by Rachel Maddow and Seth Abramson not long before.
This happens because an echo chamber has been carefully and deliberately designed to streamline ideas into the heads of Democratic Party loyalists without any interference from outside narratives causing cognitive dissonance. On November 2, 2007, John Podesta wrote an email to billionaires George Soros, Peter Lewis, Herb and Marion Sandler, John Sperling, and millionaire Steve Bing with a detailed and structured overview of material the group had covered during a meeting they’d had in September. Click ‘Attachments’ and then ‘2008 Combined Fundraising, Message and Mobilization Plan’ on this WikiLeaks release to read the full document, page two of which contains the following passage:
“Control the political discourse. So much effort over the past few years has been focused on better coordinating, strengthening, and developing progressive institutions and leaders. Now that this enhanced infrastructure is in place — grassroots organizing; multi-issue advocacy groups; think tanks; youth outreach; faith communities; micro-targeting outfits; the netroots and blogosphere — we need to better utilize these networks to drive the content of politics through a strong “echo chamber” and message delivery system”
And on page four:
“Create a robust echo chamber with progressive messaging that spans from the opposition campaigns to outside groups, academic experts, and bloggers.”
#CaravanInvasion pic.twitter.com/XSymuAn3PX
— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) October 23, 2018
Of course, the only reason Democrats and their plutocratic puppet masters have been working so hard to control political discourse is because Republicans have been using the echo chamber dynamic so effectively against them. During the Bush years it was fascinating to interact with American conservatives because of the way all the pundits on Fox and AM radio would all start saying the same thing about a given issue at the same time, and by the next day all the rank-and-file Republicans would be repeating their input word-for-word in water cooler conversations from coast to coast. Right wingers forget this, but the term “echo chamber” was originally popularized to refer to the way Republicans had successfully streamlined information from think tank to pundit class to rank-and-file conservative media consumer.
Indeed, many of these same right wingers who are going around talking about what hollow, unthinking NPCs liberals are show up in my social media notifications regurgitating think tank-manufactured arguments which have been funneled into their minds by the still very functional GOP echo chamber. It’s beyond me how anyone can see themselves as a sovereign free thinker while believing they’ll be fighting the deep state by voting for Republicans in the midterms or that this administration’s neoconservative warmongering in Iran is perfectly legitimate, but God bless them, they manage.
Both Democratic and Republican party manipulators alike now aggressively control the partisan groupthink within their ranks, because they and their plutocratic owners understand that whoever controls the narrative controls the world. Rank-and-file #Resistance NPCs bleat that Trump is Putin’s puppet and Julian Assange “can leave the embassy whenever he wants” like good little automatons, and MAGA hat-wearing NPCs bleat that their president is “fighting the deep state” and it’s important to elect Republicans because a group of migrants is heading toward the US border right before the 2018 midterms.
Right wingers: Liberals are a bunch of mindless, groupthink-following NPCs.
Also right wingers: Regime change in Iran would be a great idea. I know because the president told me so.— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) October 18, 2018
In reality, the only people who benefit from Democrats or Republicans controlling the US government are the plutocratic class which owns them both. The #Resistance is an astroturf movement manufactured in DC by establishment manipulators to harness the grassroots energy of the Bernie Sanders movement, and when you strip away the adoring narratives of his supporters and the hysterical narratives of his political opponents, Trump is not significantly different as a president from his predecessors. Both are posing as organic grassroots populism. Both are artificial manipulations staged to herd the public into supporting establishment politics for the benefit of the powerful.
At this point, anyone who still believes either party actually represents their interests is an NPC. No matter what happens in the midterm elections (traditionally a retaking of the House by Democrats and possible gains in the Senate as well, but given Democrats’ fondness for failure lately who knows) the only real winners will be the plutocratic class which holds all the cards and controls all the outcomes regardless of which party is in power. I’m not telling people that voting necessarily makes no difference or that it’s something they should avoid, but I am saying that no real change will come to America until Americans uproot the two-headed one-party system of the oligarchy and replace it with something that serves them.
Until that happens, nobody who believes that giving power to either party will help them is really playing the game. The Democratic and Republican parties are two fists on the same boxer using the same one-two punch combination over and over again, and the person that they are punching is you. You don’t win a boxing match by choosing which fist you’d prefer to get hit with and leaving yourself open to it as often as possible, you win it by fighting the actual boxer. This fight is already currently underway whether you choose to fight back or not. The bell has already been rung and you’ve been eating leather for a long time now.
Don’t be an NPC. Get those gloves up.
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32 responses to “Midterms 2018: Battle Of The NPCs”
Have a long time friend who I can’t go too deep on current events because he just goes into the group think mantra, “must hate trump, must hate trump”. So sad really that people have given their minds over to the “man”. We used to fight the “man”. But now we just bend over and let them ram us from sphincter to spine.
Bernie lost for years with Liberty Union Etc. ( had, and have great friends who started it), Remember there is no I in Team. Team D and R sucks. What do the Power Brokers want? Power to the People. Keep on… BDS
Free Assange and others from the Empires. Truth is good.
The main difference between the 2 major parties is their stance on identity politics (things like racism, human rights, immigration, women’s rights, protecting children, gun control, gay marriage, etc.) We need to be aware that identity issues is the only one of the 4 major problem areas that does not affect the plutocrats’ bottom line. So they can act magnanimous by pretending to care about those issues so as to prevent us from focusing on the other 3 issues, which are critical to their increasing wealth and power.
The other 3 major problems that BOTH PARTIES do are:
(1) protecting the oligarchs, Wall St, banksters, lobbyists, corporations, etc. who control our government and legal system with bribes.
(2) protecting the war profiteers, the neocons, those working for a new world order, the military and surveillance industries, etc who use up over half our taxes on killing people.
(3) protecting corporations that are polluting (fracking, coal mining and power stations, oil drilling, clear-cut forestry, chemical, agriculture, and pharmaceutical industries) who create toxic places for us to live (and get sick).
Nice! A concise summary to spell it out — that’s just what I needed.
Not voting signals submission. Voting for someone not in the duopoly is voting against the duopoly.
“ I am saying that no real change will come to America until Americans uproot the two-headed one-party system of the oligarchy and replace it with something that serves them.”
Pretty fair conclusion. Is such an occurrence Likely and if so when and what preconditions might be necessary. I think sadly Americans have lost the desire and critical thinking capacity to actually assume the responsibility of self governance. Add in the Screens and we are easily manipulated, we are too easily distracted and adolescent in our desires.
“Please write in simple sentences.”??
Your request at the end is in quotes. I’m not sure if you’re serious or making fun, LOL.
A simple sentence has one subject and one predicate — no subordinate clauses. Nobody writes in that style (unless they’re learning a second language).
Of course, your paragraph is a great example. I know what it means, even though it needs some punctuation:
“Is such an occurrence likely, and if so, when and what preconditions might be necessary? I think sadly Americans have lost the desire and critical thinking capacity to actually assume the responsibility of self governance. Add in the Screens and we are easily manipulated; we are too easily distracted and adolescent in our desires.”
I agree for the most part, but some of us have not let screens direct our lives. We’ve killed the TV. We’re on the Internet, but we’ve got all the dissident & indie news sites bookmarked, now that the Ministry of Truth (Atlantic Council) has gotten cooperation from the social media corps. People are heading over to uncensored social media in droves. I’m one of them.
But the brightest spot to me is that I read books and I know a lot of other people who do. We crave depth of thinking.
An excellent commentary addressing the greatest confidence trick of the past century — the illusion that the United States is a democracy.
Edward L Bernays, wrote in Propaganda in1929 of our “democratic” society:
“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society [sic]…. “This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized….[sic]
“We are dominated by the relatively small number of persons…who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses….. We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of….. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.” [sic.]
Edward Bernays never questioned his definition of democracy, the “engineering of consent” or the sanity of the “relatively small number who pull the wires.”
Bernays, Sigmund Freud’s nephew, would use Freud’s concept of the subconscious to develop a theory of “public relations” that relied not on trying to persuade through rational argument, but to manipulate through subconscious desires.
Bernays Freud-inspired theories have been adopted by countless politicians and political machines– not the least by Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels – and are deeply ingrained in the US system of government.
Ironically, the Nazis forced Freud out of his home in Vienna and out of his country.
As always you nailed the ridiculousness of the left and the right spewing out prepackaged think in every arguement. I follow various channels to see what’s up in the left and right (along with free thinkers and Libertarians) to see what is in the mind of the U.S. citizenry. It is mind-blowing that so many cannot smell the propaganda campfire burning their brain cells. We don’t need government. We don’t need to be governed. We have forgotten how to be free. I’ve heard your boxer analogy before but today it was especially hard-hitting (pun intended). You Rock Caity!
Mama, “We don’t need government. We don’t need to be governed.”
Spot on! But the problem is the vast majority of people want government because most people are busy bodies. They want the power of government so that they can wield it against those they disagree with. That is why any revolution that does not result in the dismantling of power will just be another case of replacing one asshole with power with another asshole with power. Such a revolution must be rejected with the same vigor as the rejection of the
current power structure.
Howie Hawkins 2018 HH/2020 BDS When does Iran War start, or the Democracy for Syria by the invaders?! BDS. Let’s change the subject to Iran, etc.. Kill your TV! Have a nice day.U.S. Media is the MIC State. Profit on… or Wage Peace and Truth
For fucks sake Caitlin. This post is impenetrable. My IQ IS 152 and i don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.
Please write your posts in plain English and In shorter sentences so that old fuckers like me can follow you!
I normally can and like your stuff.
Actually I’m getting tired of your pro-Trump narrative because he is, and always was and always will be a Neo-Con, and all his rhetoric indicating he is different was just a way to fool independents into voting for him. We’d find out who did 911. Yah, the Saudis did it all. You can tell by the dancing “Arabs???” (or Mideastern Semites of some sort) First appointment is Giuliani, the Bush Administration’s front man in NYC as his lawyer. He’s going to get out of Afghanistan. He’s going to get out of Syria. He’s going to have peace with Russia. He’s going to legalize drugs. Bull shit, and if you still believe its all the “Deep State” it was the CIA who killed Kennedy who invented today’s Covert Politics and currently its really the deep state Adelsons, Goldman Sacs, Pompeo and Gina Haspel, Trump’s torturer in chief, who are the real problems today. I’m concerned now you might be as fake as Donald.
Do you suggest voting for BDS or Cuomo in NY? Lesser Evil is what it is. ” We came, we saw. he died. (cackle)”. Is Obomber (Odroner) campaigning for the pro war Dems. today? Lesser Evil is The D and R War Criminal Parties.
Can’t decide whether I’d rather be an NPC or a sheeple.
Well said. I think a solution might be to promote write-in candidates. I will likely explore this in the future.
none of the above (nota)
Imagine if nota was an option on the ballot in the last presidential election?!
NOTA would have been the winner. I’d rather vote for an acronym than play their game, which is the Unpopular Vote.
Us Them
the Essence of Propaganda.
Stereotypes are at the heart of all propaganda efforts.
Their purpose is to create the perception that our actions are always ethical
and honorable, while those of our opponents are always unethical and dishonorable.
I fear you give the Republicans to much credit.
They didnt came up with this… This is much older.
Absolutely on target Caitlin. Here in Australia, it is almost exactly the same situation. Given that voting is mandatory here, it’s time to really use that vote for change.
“…but I am saying that no real change will come to America until Americans uproot the two-headed one-party system of the oligarchy and replace it with something that serves them.”
In a nutshell. Wish more folks had your sense, Ms. Johnstone!
Btw…and maybe this sounds lame…but I’m still digesting your horrifying assault experience essay from several weeks ago.
Somehow, “I’m so deeply sorry that happened to you”-while true-seems weak.
But what doesn’t seem weak is the person you’ve become, and I’m incredibly grateful for the benefit of your wisdom, moral courage and inspiration! Thank you.
A good article but Caitlin is way off trying to paint this as a the-right-is-just-as-guilty issue. Anti-free speech/thought is a 99% leftist program.
Because fascism is no different than democracy… Can your posts get any more simplistic?
You literally don’t understand what this is all about, do you Bob?
The last two paragraphs made great sense.
How can you use an acronym like NPC without ever spelling it out??????? I have no idea what you’re talking about.
Bob, third paragraph, first sentence.
NPC is an abbreviation.
Radar, scuba, NIMBY and ABBA are acronyms: https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-acronym-1689058
I agree with you. I’m not part of the video game culture, and didn’t like waiting ’till the 3rd paragraph to find out what NPC stood for.
I didn’t wait for the 3rd para.; just Googled it. Easy-peasy, and doesn’t require a 152 IQ, either.
And you continue to make sense to this old WASP.
All one had to do was click on the very first highlighted link in the essay containing NPC. I had no idea what it was, I clicked, I read, and voila!