Anyone who opposes western interventionism or thinks the poor are human beings is a Russian antisemite. If you disagree, it’s because you are a Russian antisemite, too.

Narrative is a funny thing. You can do everything right, cross all your ‘T’s and dot all your ‘I’s and color within all the official lines, but if you offend the powerful they can still rearrange the dominant narrative underneath you to kill your public influence.

In Venezuela right now some guy named Juan is being elevated to the leadership of the nation simply by the governments of other nations referring to him as “President Guaido” and denying the legitimacy of the actual guy who is running the Venezuelan government. The funny thing about that is if enough people believe it, it can theoretically work; the only thing keeping leaders in place is the agreed-upon narrative that they’re the leaders. If you can replace that narrative with a different one, as powerful people are currently attempting to do, in theory it is possible to effect a coup by pure narrative. You couldn’t ask for a more perfect illustration of the power of narrative control.

Smear campaigns work in the same way. Anyone challenging authorized narratives and the status quo of oligarchic hegemony can have their reputations destroyed by the lackeys of the plutocratic class which exerts massive influence over the political/media class, thereby neutralizing their ability to influence the public. If the public distrusts someone, they aren’t going to believe the narratives that that person is putting forward, even if those narratives are as sane as protecting the poor, opposing senseless warmongering, or defending Palestinian rights. In today’s political climate where smearing someone as a socialist or communist is increasingly ignored, the most effective smear campaigns are currently those which paint the target as a servant of the Kremlin or a hater of Jews.

British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s populist leftism and support for Palestinian rights has gotten him targeted by an amazingly virulent smear campaign which journalist Jonathan Cook describes as “a perfect, self-rationalising system of incrimination – denying the victim a voice, even in their own defence.” A narrative has been promulgated with extreme aggression by the UK media that a horrifying epidemic of antisemitism has somehow overtaken the Labour Party under Corbyn’s leadership, and that Corbyn himself is (despite a lifetime of opposition to all forms of racism and bigotry) a closet antisemite as well.

Corbyn has responded to this fact-free smear campaign with capitulation after capitulation, most recently with the suspension of MP Chris Williamson on baseless accusations of antisemitism and a Twitter post yesterday of a video warning about antisemitic conspiracy theories. There is nothing inherently wrong with warning people about antisemitic conspiracy theories (which are toxic for a whole host of reasons), but the video Corbyn chose to share explicitly cited criticism of Zionism as an example of one such conspiracy theory. Zionism is the racist ideology supporting the continued existence of a Jewish ethnostate (much like the white ethnostate sought by American white nationalists like Richard Spencer), and it is the driving force behind the oppression and persecution of the Palestinian people today.

Validating this conflation of anti-Zionism with hatred of Jews is a capitulation to the demands of those who have been advancing this smear campaign, and it is the wrong way to fight it. It will never work, because the goal has never been to fight antisemitism, the goal has been to destroy Corbyn. It wouldn’t matter if Corbyn did everything everyone demanded of him and then posted a video of himself being whipped while screaming “Lord have mercy on this wicked Nazi Jew-hater!” on his knees–no amount of capitulation will end this campaign to eliminate him. The target is not antisemitism, the target is Corbyn. And the goal is not to tell the truth but to advance a narrative.

We are seeing the same type of smear campaign advanced against Congresswoman Ilhan Omar in response to her support for Palestinian rights, criticism of the US Israel lobby, and opposition to US regime change interventionism in nations like Venezuela. Currently she is again being smeared as an antisemite for making the demonstrably true claim that influential Americans push for allegiance to Israel, even while the GOP is taking a much smaller amount of flack for putting up a poster which literally depicts her as having ties to the 9/11 attacks. The fact that this brazen Islamophobia is receiving far less establishment media attention than fact-free accusations of antisemitism tells you that this smear campaign has nothing to do with fact and everything to do with narrative.

Yet still we see Omar attempting to appease these unappeasable smearmongers by publicly apologizing for perfectly truthful and accurate statements. The campaign to kill her influence will continue for as long as she continues to disrupt the official narratives of the US-centralized empire, so no amount of apologizing or sensitivity to concern trolling about antisemitism will ever stop the smears.

Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard has also been subject to the same narrative control subversion for her opposition to US interventionism in Syria, Venezuela and Iran, her criticisms of disastrous US interventionism in the past in Iraq and Libya, and her calls to end the new cold war against Russia. American mass media has been flipping the fuck out ever since she announced her candidacy for the presidency and working overtime to smear her as a friend of the Kremlin and of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad. During a recent guest appearance on The View, the Hawaii Representative was told by the ditzy daughter of late bloodthirsty psychopath John McCain that “When I hear the name Tulsi Gabbard, I think of Assad apologist.”

Gabbard’s response? Contributing to the war machine’s propaganda narratives about Syria.

“There is no disputing the fact that Bashar al-Assad in Syria is a brutal dictator,” Gabbard said. “There is no disputing the fact that he has used chemical weapons and other weapons against his people.”

Again, Gabbard is not being targeted by establishment mouthpieces like John McCain’s hellspawn because there is an actual concern that she holds some weird kind of loyalty to a random Middle Eastern leader on the other side of the world. Yet Gabbard capitulated to narratives she knows damn well are highly questionable in a vain attempt to appease her smearers.

This is not how you beat these creeps. The way to beat them is to attack the smear directly.

I’ve been the target of smear campaigns myself, and I’ve had blunders and successes in dealing with them. The fact that I’m still here speaking to a large readership without my influence having been killed off means I’ve picked up a clue or two about dealing with attempts to manipulate the public narrative about me, so I’m just going to share what I’ve learned here in case it’s useful to anybody.

 

Anyone who attempts to control the dominant narrative about who you are and what you stand for is trying to control you and your voice. It is a direct attack on your ability to influence your world, and if it succeeds you will necessarily be rendered impotent. It is therefore necessary to fight a smear campaign about you as directly and aggressively as any other attempt to rob you of your faculties or capabilities. This means not ignoring your smearers, nor capitulating to their demands, but engaging their smears loudly and publicly in a way that fully exposes what they are attempting to do to you.

If you are being lied about by someone attempting to influence public opinion about you, debunk that lie and loudly draw attention to it. If your position is being misrepresented by someone attempting to influence public opinion about you, correct that misrepresentation and call attention to how manipulative and dishonest your smearer is being. Explain their real motives for coming after you and dismiss their false stated reasons for the bogus justifications that they are.

They are trying to control the narrative about you, so the idea is to take back that control of your narrative. You don’t need to convince everyone that you’re right, you just need to prevent their malicious narrative about you from becoming the one everyone accepts as true because that’s what everyone else is saying. Most people believe things not because of facts and evidence, but because other people in their life believe those things. If you can create enough doubt in the malicious narratives being circulated about you and enough trust in your own, you can punch through that dynamic of unanimous consensus and keep your influence from being killed.

When you see it for what it actually is, a smear campaign is actually really gross to look at. People have a natural revulsion to manipulation and deception once they’ve seen it, especially when it’s done in the service of the powerful against the interests of the disempowered. All you need to do, then, is forcefully draw attention to what they’re doing to the point where their engagement in the smear campaign makes them look worse than they’re trying to make you look. This will kill their ability to manipulate public perception of you.

It sucks to have to do this. It feels really gross to keep having to wade into the muck and fight your smearers on their level, but the alternative is letting them control the narrative about you, which is the same as handing them control over your voice and, to an extent, your life. Because you can be one hundred percent certain that they will not cease working to kill public trust in you and your words if you just ignore them or be nice to them hoping that they will stop. Remember, they are not actually concerned about you being a Nazi/antisemite/Putin-lover/Assadist; they don’t actually care about fighting antisemitism in the way you or any healthy adult does. They have one simple goal, and that is to kill off your influence over the herd. Keep putting out your own message as well; don’t let fighting smears become the majority of your output, but don’t give them a single inch of control over the public narrative about you, either.

If you see someone smearing Corbyn, Omar, Gabbard, or any other target of establishment smear campaigns like Julian Assange, the best way to help them continue to disrupt the narrative matrix is to (A) refute the smear, then (B) aggressively expose the smearer for what they are and what they’re about. Whoever controls the narrative controls the world, and whoever controls the narrative about a particular thing controls that thing. If that particular thing is something or someone you care about, don’t let them control the narrative about it. Never treat an argument made in bad faith like it’s an argument made in good faith. Expose their lies and force a conversation about the despicable tactic that they are employing.

________________________

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50 responses to “How (And How Not) To Beat A Smear Campaign”

  1. There seems to be no way out for decent Westerners desirous of breaking down the Iron Curtain of the left-right controllers of the narrative. I think our only hope is Putin. A recent statement by Saudi oil minister al-Falih shows that the old Nixon-Faisal petrodollar agreement responsible for all US-waged wars outside the Americas may be falling. That is good news for Venezuela too.
    Here is the story the West has not heard:
    http://www.newsilkstrategies.com/international-relations/uh-on-saudis-side-with-putin-against-us-sanctions

  2. Wow! Caitlin, you sure have an interesting group of commentators, I am bleary eyed just reading them all. Some of them need to read your new book: Rogue Nation….. Here is a short quote, and then a poem of mine for you.”Once we assuage our conscience by calling something a ‘necessary evil’ it begins to look more and more necessary and less and less evil.” Sydney J. Harris. or “Everyone’s values are defined by what they will tolerate when it is done to others.” William Greider…..~Judgement~ Makes one so ugly, who should be so beautiful. Who are you and I to say of another they’re bad or good when we don’t even know them well enough to say hello! It’s not the one’s we judge my friends, who have a price to pay……..Hey! Hey! Hey! Small town minds, little selfish bitter people, they hung their hero on a cross two thousand years ago, and He’s still hanging there today. I say “Free Him from that cross, and send him on His way”……Hey! Way down, deep inside yourself, you know what I am saying; You have a little circle of friends who think the way you think, and all the rest are Wop’s or Niggers, or Spics, or Chinks. Hey! There’s a stranger knocking at your door, He’s got blood on His hands and feet, but you won’t let Him in cause He doesn’t think the way you think….Judgement makes one so ugly, who could be so beautiful…….by George I have not said this to you before, this is a new comment by a new follower of yours……..I did make a comment on another post of yours, but it was a different statement….Well last try…..

  3. Wow! Caitlin, you sure have an interesting group of commentators, I am bleary eyed just reading them all. Some of them need to read your new book: Rogue Nation….. Here is a short quote, and then a poem of mine for you.”Once we assuage our conscience by calling something a ‘necessary evil’ it begins to look more and more necessary and less and less evil.” Sydney J. Harris. or “Everyone’s values are defined by what they will tolerate when it is done to others.” William Greider…..~Judgement~ Makes one so ugly, who should be so beautiful. Who are you and I to say of another they’re bad or good when we don’t even know them well enough to say hello! It’s not the one’s we judge my friends, who have a price to pay……..Hey! Hey! Hey! Small town minds, little selfish bitter people, they hung their hero on a cross two thousand years ago, and He’s still hanging there today. I say “Free Him from that cross, and send him on His way”……Hey! Way down, deep inside yourself, you know what I am saying; You have a little circle of friends who think the way you think, and all the rest are Wop’s or Niggers, or Spics, or Chinks. Hey! There’s a stranger knocking at your door, He’s got blood on His hands and feet, but you won’t let Him in cause He doesn’t think the way you think….Judgement makes one so ugly, who could be so beautiful…….by George

  4. There seems to have arisen an obligatory custom of apologising whenever you are accused of bigotry by a big enough crowd, rightly or wrongly. I have encountered something similar in ‘woke left’ circles where, whenever a woman or a POC accuse you of sexism or racism respectively, regardless of their grounds for the accusation, it is almost obligatory to admit guilt and apologise, and anything else is a horrible faux pas. The idea is that, ironically, only an irredeemable sexist or racist would ever deny that they are a sexist or racist, just like no good Christian would deny being a sinner. This practice, which was bad enough and obviously and demonstrably conducive to abuse, was justified by the claim that a marginalised or oppressed minority must be compensated for its oppression by being given a privilege; now the same dynamic seems to have been extended to the subject of anti-Semitism, even though Jews are neither marginalised nor oppressed in the West today.
    .
    The way seemingly brave and principled public figures invariably end up apologising for no good reason at all reminds me a bit of the obligatory ‘self-critique’ of Communist party members accused of deviations from the party line in Stalinist regimes. That repeated admission of their own ‘mistakes’ and ‘sins’ allowed them to be restored to the party and to some posts, temporarily – but eventually it culminated, in the worst periods, in their falsely confessing that they were counter-revolutionary foreign agents, followed by an execution. The cyclically re-occurring apology lends credibility both to the original accusation and to future accusations. You think you are manipulating the system, but the system is manipulating you. The way Williamson apologised and was nevertheless suspended merely for mildly criticising the party’s approach to the problem is an example. Once again, the result is the marginalisation and weakening of a strong anti-imperialist voice.
    .
    This apology epidemic has to stop. Omar should never have apologised, Williamson should never have apologised and Corbyn should never have sacrificed him and numerous others. Corbyn’s appeasement of the witch-hunters by throwing principled and/or prominent leftists under the bus has been not just conterproductive, but shameful, immoral and harmful; it doesn’t seem like too much of a stretch at this point to say that this spineless strategy may end up fatally undermining, for now and some time onwards, that very cause which he became the face of.

  5. “President Guaido” ?? But.. But.. He is the President ??
    He just got appointed as President of North Korea, with a mandate from Donald Trump ??

  6. Here’s a Right-Left coalition against the U.S. perpetual wars for profit:
    ”The Tucker-Tulsi Show”

  7. It is always worth noting that the attacks on congresswoman Omar are the same attacks that congresswoman Cynthia McKinney had to endure that eventually led to her removal from congress for her speaking truth to power.

    Rep Mckinney on the two party charade and loyalty oath to Israel.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_VNOk7Wv5A

    Rep Mckinney confronting Donald Rumsfeld on US contractors and human trafficking.

    1. Note how Rep Mckinney brings up the multiple “war games” going on during the September 11, 2001.

      For more information on those war games:
      https://www.corbettreport.com/9-11-war-games/

  8. I think when I look at Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez’s actions since they have been in the limelight I can see two distinct approaches that are working. Ocasio Cortez is very fast and effective in her use of twitter to respond and reframe. Omar mainly seems a bit more humble, uses less tech, but is very impressive in her words and actions. Her apology over the AIPAC comment is an example. Bottom line, both reps continue to speak out… they are not backing down.
    I have a great deal of admiration and respect for both representatives, also for Tulsi Gabbard. All are being subjected to a sustained barrage of pressure and are showing courage and conviction along with their human frailties

  9. Regarding isreali influence in american politics:
    https://electronicintifada.net/content/us-lawmakers-bully-ireland-over-move-ban-israels-settlement-goods/26736

    Good for Ireland (so far).
    Theyre pretty stubborn.

  10. It’s a very good and interesting point.
    But is it Monday morning quarterbacking?
    What should Gabbard have said to spawn of McCain?
    Likely it was there intent to record the image of Gabbard casting berating or even aspersions against the departed war hero and to his poor child none the less.
    Gabbard seems pretty bright (as if I am capable to judge), but she’s no greased pig like Clinton (clearly).
    Looks like she sensed a trap had been set.
    Does she know the details sufficiently to venture into those treacherous waters?
    Is Asad a monster? Put it in perspective. She needs an answer for this attack.
    She’s done pretty well in the past – she’s not there to defend Asad but she does not agree with frequent use of regime change and the supporting of terrorist groups particularly when it results in such suffering for so many innocent people as it has so obviously done in Syria. I guess Bolton would claim that Asad is harming his people by defending the nation.

    Caitlin is a wordsmith. Many good people do not have that talent. What should Gabbard have said? What is the balanced view?

    I like Ms Oman’s approach – say what you need to, then punch them in the face. It’s could only have been better had she called for that monster to be hauled to the dungeon in chains. Was Abrams convicted? Can his pardon be over-turned?

    1. Gabbard Should have Flung Facts back at McCain..As Caitlin says, Gabbard was very likely aware that Assad is NOT a Brutal Dictator.. Nor using Chemical weapons

      Syria is right now being attacked with internationally Banned Chemical Weapons – White Phosphorus..Same Illegal weapon Israel rains on Gaza

      1. Yes, I agree Brian! Another point I wish to raise in support of Caitlin’s editorial, is that there is a MILE of other independant media websites, with FACTS that contradict the scum bags narratives being pushed, in other words, exposing the lies for the TRUTH! This is war, and it is war against the populists, that’s us, war against Truth, and anyone going against their Agenda. This is not a democratic system, that is just a facard! As Caitlin has stated, when the MSM beast’s get caught out, they just quickly and quietly revert to the truth…..for a while, then the lying scum bags are at it again!

        1. Google scum is fucking with the Captcha…anyone eles finding it difficult?

    2. Yeah Gabbard totally blew it. And any chance I’d vote for her. Genuflecting to John McCains ghost is repulsive. She’s dead to me now. This would have been the perfect time to point out that every “undisputed” gas attack attributed to Assad was coincidentally preceded by John McCain visiting Syria for photo ops with known ISIS leaders. And all involved the use of Chlorine gas made by US companies in his state, and stored in vessels labeled in English. But no. Instead she genuflected to a freaking talk show host. Is this what you want from the leader of the free world. She’s dead to me now. How much more donor money is she going to squander on a ‘campaign’ that was over before it started? The ‘controlled outsider’ cutout was never going to fool anyone. Game over Tulsi. She should do the right thing and return her campaign donations to the few people that still believe she is the cutout she’s trying to present to the world. She already lost.

  11. In a related point, I’ve thought a bit about how opposition political campaigns need to work in an age when opponents have unlimitted media power to attack and shape their own naratives. The conclusion I’ve reached is that its important to stay on message. To keep saying the same thing over and over. This is because the listener out there is only going to hear an opposition voice in snippets here and there. Thus, they might hear something that for example a Tulsi Gabbard is saying. Then they hear CNN, CNN, CNN, MSNBC, CNN, WaPo, NYT, CNN, CNN,MSNBC before they again hear something from Tulsi. This is why it is important for opposition voices to stick to the same message. Because what they hear now needs to connect to what they heard a week ago which was the last time they were able to hear that opposition voice. This is of course true for any political campaign, Carville and the Clintons did it well in ’92. But its even more true for the opposition voices who only get a limited amount of the total bandwidth received by the people they are trying to reach. They have to be repeating the same message, because it won’t make any sense if they are saying something different now than a week before. Thus, opposition politicians should not jump from issue to issue, and they need to remain constant. It is only confusing to the listeners who don’t get to hear them often if one week they are correctly pointing out that the Israeli lobby has a vast influence on American policy, then the next week they are apologizing and even worse calling into question what a listener heard them say the week before.
    ——————–
    Another way of saying be strong and stick to your values.

  12. It’s really all about telling the truth. If someone accuses you of lying or having false motivations then simply stand up for the truth, and show how they are lying about you. Never give in to bullies.

    1. Petra Liverani Avatar
      Petra Liverani

      Yes, it’s really so very simple. Tell the truth. Is it that hard? Why is telling the truth seen as not a viable option? What is so terrible about the unvarnished truth?

      1. It is that simple. And what’s crazy is that in 2019 you literally cannot tell a lie. You are pretty much recorded in some way 24/7. Cameras are everywhere. Citizen reporters are everywhere. Information is everywhere. That Tulsi Gabbard would make such a factually inaccurate statement publicly, while laying completely off a guy like McCain who had so many skeletons and told so many lies, ruins her immediately for me. Because it either means she’s super dishonest or super stupid. I’ll pass on both.

  13. Dennis ONeill Avatar
    Dennis ONeill

    The reason there is so much nonsense about what is largely a non-existent problem of antisemitism is because the Zionist terrorists who founded and presently govern Israel on land that was stolen from its inhabitants who were brutally ethically cleansed are increasingly encountering resistance to their terror, and their sociopathic ideology of racial superiority of Zionism by American Jews, and other people all over the world. Netanyahu, who is a hard core criminal thug, will likely go to prison for his financial crimes, and opinion poll after opinion poll shows that American Jews, in increasingly larger numbers, except for sociopathic gangster scum like Sheldon Adelson, deplore the racist terrorist state of Israel.

    1. Just had to say that your sentence structure is expert level. All that in 2 perfectly structured, punctuated and grammatically flawless sentences. I tip my hat to you.

      Oh and btw your post is also spot on.

  14. Hey Caitlin. I 99% agree with you – the one disagreement is on the Corbyn video. The video makes a distinction between “zionism” as a political ideology and “zionism” as a vague conspiracy theory of shadowy Jewish control, and specifically condemns only the latter.

    Similarly, Ilhan Omar did NOT apologize for what she said, in fact she doubled down on it in her “apology”. Her “apology” was in the “I’m sorry you are offended by the truth” vein.

    Both are subtle points, and I suspect you have no illusions about being a master of subtlety (your mastery runs in the opposite direction, and we love you for that).

    1. David Spagnol Avatar
      David Spagnol

      I feel the same way as John about the Momentum video (Corbyn only forwarded it, it’s not his video as such). The problem with the video was that it did not cover anything like enough ground. What it said was OK, but the false allegations of antisemitism tend to be about legitimate criticism of the actions of the Israeli government, and very few about conspiracy theories.

      1. My thought would be to ask why on earth the leader of a major political party is relying on a video made by someone else, even if they are supporters, instead of simply making his own video that says what he wants to say exactly how he wants to say it. I understand why poor activists forward other people’s videos to make a point. But the leader of a major party should have the resources to make videos that express exactly the point he wishes to make.

  15. Petra Liverani Avatar
    Petra Liverani

    Could not agree more with not capitulating. I simply don’t understand people feeling the need to capitulate. Attack is the best form of defence. And, as you say, you need to control your own narrative. That’s why the homepage of my website (https://occamsrazorterrorevents.weebly.com/) has this quote:

    “Those who do not have power over the story that dominates their lives,
    the power to retell it, rethink it, deconstruct it, joke about it, and change it as times change,
    truly are powerless, because they cannot think new thoughts.”

    Salman Rushdie

    We are fed so much utter bullshit that is rubbed right in our faces which we do not call out … much to the amusement of the power elite who feed it to us.

  16. Totally agree with this article. Any chance Corbyn will get a spine over this Anti semite smear..?
    He cannot afford to give an inch because it will just reinforce the narrative against him, because they will be quoting him giving ground.

  17. mark mcdougall Avatar
    mark mcdougall

    The guy, Juan was also given the account number and passcode for all of venezuelas bank accounts in the US and control of their US oil refinery,.. thats before we get to the Gold they once held in Britain,.. so there’s more than just narrative happenning here, but yes, narrative is the distracting and enabling power.

  18. “There is no disputing the fact that Bashar al-Assad in Syria is a brutal dictator,” Gabbard said. “There is no disputing the fact that he has used chemical weapons and other weapons against his people.”

    Well, Major Gabbard just lost me right there. I thought she was an island of honest sanity in a swampland of lies and criminality.

    Yet she can say those things after visiting Syria and talking to Mr Assad.

  19. inforebelscum Avatar
    inforebelscum

    Once again Caitlin provides another excellent example of leftist double standard privilege. Smearing everyone to the right of Karl Marx is the go to tactic of the left yet somehow smearing is wrong – very, very wrong – when it is done to lefties. What do you think is the sole purpose of calling someone a “racist” or “sexist” or “homophobe” or islamaphobe” or “nazi” etc other than to smear the accused as being an evil monster so as to end any further discussion?! Remove the timber from your own eye first, Comrades.

    And isn’t Trump using the very same anti-smear tactics Caitlin suggests i.e. fighting back against smears by the left? Isn’t that what really drives the left nuts – his refusal to be smeared by the usual leftist narratives?

    FTR I am neither a righty nor a Trump supporter.

    1. What is the purpose of correctly calling out bigotry, you ask?

      You seriously are proposing that to ignore such things is really the best way to deal with them?

      Do you think the same thing about other pathologies?

      1. Except these days, its really more just name calling. I don’t like Trump, but it seems almost reflexive to call him names like racist and fascist. Rarely is any supporting info or facts given. I almost fell out of my chair the other day when I heard some lefty writer call Trump an “anti-semite” the other day. The guy who gives Israel everything they want at all times was called an anti-semite! Of course, no facts or supporting evidence was supplied. It was in the form of the now formulaic name calling against Trump.

      2. inforebelscum Avatar
        inforebelscum

        John, there is nothing “pathological” about not agreeing with the leftist Cult of Equality. Disagreeing with the COE does not make one evil anymore than it makes one evil for disagreeing with the Jesus cult. The purpose of calling someone an “ist” or a “phobe” is to smear the accused as being an evil person in order to shut down their opposing view.

  20. Bizarrely, I woke up this morning with you on my mind, Caitlin. And not for good reasons.

    I agree with you on this that the attacks on these politicians are simply smears. Lies designed to destroy them promoted by their enemies.

    But I think that the accusations of child abuse targeting Catholic priests are also smears. Lies designed to destroy it.

    I know this is something that you believe and promote as do a number of other anti-war leftists. Well,

    I CHALLENGE YOUR NARRATIVE CAITLIN!

    You often cannot effectively challenge smears because usually there is no proof. Smears often work because they play on the ignorance of the majority who only read the headlines and who naively believe them.

    Many people – especially feminists – have a big problem with the Catholic Church because:

    (1)it is regarded as “male dominated”.
    (2) it is a global institution.
    (3) it is generally opposed to homosexuality and “LGBTism”.
    (4) it is opposed to abortion.

    I personally only have issue with (3) here, but would not aggressively oppose the church because of this as the church is a compassionate one which promotes peace. That is something that you would support it on if you set your prejudices aside. (Something I know you will not do).

    I very strongly believe that those – like yourself Caitlin – are only too willing to believe and promote the smears targeting Catholic priests because you have a personal prejudice against the Catholic church and not because you have any genuine evidence.

    I

    1. inforebelscum Avatar
      inforebelscum

      John, are you saying that priests did not rape children and that the church did not try to cover it up?! That the church did not finally admit its crimes and paid out millions of dollars for it? That the priests who admitted their evil deeds were all lying?
      The church is not a victim here – it is the perp. Truth is not a smear.

    2. Dennis ONeill Avatar
      Dennis ONeill

      The Catholic Church is a criminal organization that is: (1) a cult of sociopathic, and psychopathic pedophiles who abuse little boys, and girls. This is well established in courts around the world which have ordered that the pedophile cult Catholic Church pay out billions in settlements for their crimes, and some of the twisted deviant fucks called Priests have actually even been sentenced to prison where they belong for life. (2) a child sex slave trafficking organization that also set up its bank at the end of WWII at the behest of the CIA to launder narco money. (3) a psyop targeted at gullible people like you who want to be told what to believe by those in authority so that you can be controlled. I have an uncle who is a Catholic priest who can’t stand the criminals who run it. He said the entire Catholic Church is controlled by the mafia. He means Cosa Nostra, which is in turn a subsidiary of the real mafia which is the Jewish Mafia, of which Meyer Lansky, Bugsy Segal, Jack Rubenstein (Rubby), A.N. Pritzker the patriarch of the Pritzker billionaire clan, Jacob Arvey, Sydney Korshak, and others. It was the Jewish mob that got behind neoconartist, criminal thug Barack Obama, made him up in drag, he’s a closet homosexual, as is Rahm Emanuel, to be a progressive, and sold him to the suckers in America to elect as president. I know a man who owns the only remaining home on a block in Lincoln Park that the scum bag dog face Penny Priztker doesn’t own. She tried to gyp this guy out of his home by low balling him on it. He told that fat, ugly POS scum bag Penny to fuck herself; and which she probably did because she’s so ugly I doubt anyone else would want to. He happens to be Italian-American so he knows a thing or two about the Outfit, and the Jewish scum who run it. http://lukeman.com/Titles/supermob.htm

  21. Joseph Mirzoeff Avatar
    Joseph Mirzoeff

    What about homophobe? That one has been used on Tulsi. What about racist? Is that fair for Trump? What about misogynist? And the classic “conspiracy theorist”! I’m that, Trump’s that, too, mostly closeted. Of course there are politically correct theories, like 911, some assassinations, and non-pc Newtown, Obama’s birthplace.

    Trump’s on your side about mainstream media, probably the world’s strongest soldier in that fight. He’s helping destroy their narrative.

    I’ve been trying to popularize one: “climate-change alarmist”, more specifically”global-warming alarmist”. Please see:

    https://www.sentinelsource.com/opinion/letters_to_the_editor/don-t-tax-carbon-end-fossil-fuel-subsidies-by-joseph/article_4614123b-5fc2-57f4-ab47-7be5b57164b7.html?fbclid=IwAR3tWxWF21od3SofQk0Z-GyK3Ke-HcxH-xhf39ayoImTYsZ4gsg1CnHD7fE

    1. Tulsi has more than apologized for and made up for her previous hideous remarks.

      How can one be “alarmist” about a 10 year window to change everything about food and energy production if we are to survive as a species?

      Trump is on NOONE but Trump’s side. Wake the fuck up.

      1. inforebelscum Avatar
        inforebelscum

        John, the Chicken Littles have been forecasting that “ten year window” nonsense for over 45 years now.

  22. “Whoever controls the narrative controls the world”- C. Johnstone

    Who runs Hollywood?
    http://articles.latimes.com/2008/dec/19/opinion/oe-stein19

  23. Yet too few are actually using the actual name of the global corporate hegemon: The Anglo-Zionist Empire. It spans the entirety of the global north with vassal nations in the global south. The stealing of indigenous(black and brown people) resources, the white supremacist attitude are all part and parcel of the AZ empire. The training of US policeman by Israeli military is not just a mere coincidence. It is not mere coincidence that the major trope used against those who want to halt the empire’s continuous crimes against humanity are called ‘anti-semitic.’ It is not mere coincidence that over half of the United States have ‘anti-BDS laws nor is it just mere coincidence that the first laws that were attempted to pass in both houses of Congress were ‘anti-BDS’ laws. It is not mere coincidence the documentary “The Lobby-USA” has been suppressed by the major media outlets in the USA.

    This is the true nature of the Anglo-Zionist empire.
    http://files.abovetopsecret.com/files/img/xr506a7bcb.PNG

  24. The Israeli military/government is totally inhuman. A one-nation resolution to the Palestinian benefit is the only possible just way to end this theft of land, country and murder of Palestinian adults and children. Full compensation needs to be paid by the Zionist thieves and murderers – as well as from foreigners complicit in their support of the NaZionists – especially the weird US fundamentalist Christian Right wingers – and the US government and its Neocon terrorists!

    1. Now how did that response to another political essay get in here! Well, laying it all out as I see it! More shootings across the so-called Israeli/Palestinean border – 25 young people severely wounded – maybe some have since died. The cowardly Israeli military snipers from behind their heaped up soil barricade on their side of the illegal border!

  25. Thanks again and always, Caitlin. You lay it all out so clearly – that the social justice pathway I have followed since I was a young fellow – anti-racist, anti-classist (no forelock tugging from me) pro-syndicalist – pro-the underdog position – is still the one I must take against those you explain to me would rather write another narrative – take charge of their vested interest discourse and shut down those calling for honesty and justice.

  26. From Caitlin Johnstone – brilliant !

    ‘How ( and how not) to beat a smear campaign’. 3 March 2019

    ‘Anyone who attempts to control the dominant narrative about who you are and what you stand for is trying to control you and your voice. It is a direct attack on your ability to influence your world, and if it succeeds you will necessarily be rendered impotent. It is therefore necessary to fight a smear campaign about you as directly and aggressively as any other attempt to rob you of your faculties or capabilities.

    This means not ignoring your smearers, nor capitulating to their demands, but engaging their smears loudly and publicly in a way that fully exposes what they are attempting to do to you.

    If you are being lied about by someone attempting to influence public opinion about you, debunk that lie and loudly draw attention to it. If your position is being misrepresented by someone attempting to influence public opinion about you, correct that misrepresentation and call attention to how manipulative and dishonest your smearer is being. Explain their real motives for coming after you and dismiss their false stated reasons for the bogus justifications that they are.

    They are trying to control the narrative about you, so the idea is to take back that control of your narrative. You don’t need to convince everyone that you’re right, you just need to prevent their malicious narrative about you from becoming the one everyone accepts as true because that’s what everyone else is saying. Most people believe things not because of facts and evidence, but because other people in their life believe those things. If you can create enough doubt in the malicious narratives being circulated about you and enough trust in your own, you can punch through that dynamic of unanimous consensus and keep your influence from being killed.

    When you see it for what it actually is, a smear campaign is actually really gross to look at. People have a natural revulsion to manipulation and deception once they’ve seen it, especially when it’s done in the service of the powerful against the interests of the disempowered. All you need to do, then, is forcefully draw attention to what they’re doing to the point where their engagement in the smear campaign makes them look worse than they’re trying to make you look. This will kill their ability to manipulate public perception of you.

    It sucks to have to do this. It feels really gross to keep having to wade into the muck and fight your smearers on their level, but the alternative is letting them control the narrative about you, which is the same as handing them control over your voice and, to an extent, your life. Because you can be one hundred percent certain that they will not cease working to kill public trust in you and your words if you just ignore them or be nice to them hoping that they will stop.’ ‘.

    This is the way to fight the Russophobic smear tactics of groups like #InitIntegrity and #AtlanticCouncil. Don’t succumb, don’t apologise – tackle them head on, look them in the eye. Demand they try to justify their smears. Thanks, Caitlin Johnstone @tonykevin

  27. An example of fighting a narrative is George Galloway attacking the dominant pro-Israel narrative
    .
    He never gives an inch. Nor does he let the interviewer off the hook. He calls out all the misleading assumptions and disinformation used to form the false narrative.
    .
    ht Truth at moonofalabama.org

    1. Galloway is fearless. He should offer an online course for people like Corbyn , Sanders , and Gabbard. Call it : ” How NOT to be a Surrender Monkey”.

  28. Instead of legalising “jew hating” anti semitism has become a piece of rubber band that can be twisted and turned into each direction but one and everything that makes international crimes undisputed and legalized at the same time while the usual robbery of the worlds treasures, enslavement of sovereign foreign nations and each single individual around the world since centuries is coming to an end. The progress itself – as usual untouched, unharmed and (not any more) secretly under cover. In the meantime we burn ourselves out with endless discussions, hatred and silly arguments that serve our executive handlers just perfectly in a surreal reality called democracy and a free world of puppets where all human beings are equal and have the same legal rights – being a under cover slave working for our master. We fight ourselves as equal ones, get distracted and fight and argue a little more until it is too late for any changes as it will be illegal, a terrorist act and against “the law” to fight or resist a very twisted reality in a non fenced and without borders international concentration camp – or as we Aussies who are legally not allowed to use the word concentration camp rename the same thing as detention centre.
    http://www.truedemocracy.net/hj32/28.html
    The titanic is sinking continuously and we haven’t changed still busying ourselves arranging chairs closer to the port holes as we do not want to miss the moment when the lights finally dim into darkness.

  29. I think you mean to say “pro-Russian” in your first paragraph, not “Russian”.

  30. EXCUSE ME!
    THAT was better than your poetry!

    1. Haha yes. Haven’t quite got an angle on her poetry yet, pretty well everything else she writes is spot on.

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