Yesterday I started a thread on Twitter lamenting the fact that support for WikiLeaks and Julian Assange has been eroded all across the political spectrum since 2016 by the establishment smear campaign.
I started the thread because I’d just been reflecting on how some of the first clumsy articles I ever wrote for this gig were basically just me marvelling at how support for Assange had united Berners, Trumpers, Greens, anarchists, libertarians and hackers against those who sought to silence him. Yet today I routinely see people from those factions smearing him because, at some point between then and now, an establishment propaganda narrative got through to them.
Sometimes all I can do is stare in awe at the power and efficiency of the imperial propaganda machine. When I first started this gig in 2016 Assange had way more support, from Berners, Greens, Trumpers, all across the spectrum. Now a large amount of that support has been eroded.
— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) November 4, 2019
Almost immediately after I made the initial post, commenters started lining up to unintentionally prove me right. A Bernie supporter came in to proclaim that Assange is “a giant piece of shit”, and a liberal claimed Assange was “a de facto member of an election campaign to get a white nationalist elected president of the U.S.”
Multiple Trump supporters came forward arguing in support of their president’s persecution of Assange, arguing that his imprisonment and pending extradition is no big deal, claiming Assange is a CIA asset, saying Assange needs to be punished for publishing US military secrets, arguing that Trump is actually just trying to force Assange to give up his sources for the 2016 publications (as though a president coercing a journalist to give up a source with the threat of life in prison would be perfectly fine and constitutional), and claiming Assange’s persecution is coming exclusively from the UK and not the US (the US extradition request is the only reason for his continued imprisonment and US officials are openly giving instructions to British prosecutors in the courtroom).
These are all groups who once supported Assange, and now they’ve all got members who are cheerleading for the Trump administration’s agenda to extradite him and lock him away for life. They’re all cheering for the same agenda, but they’re doing it for different reasons.
Or so they think.
What's your reason for NOT supporting Julian Assange? Do you have one?
If so, then read this exhaustively researched response to every complaint anyone has had against Assange. They've all been debunked.https://t.co/W9g6R6On0R
— Lee Camp [Redacted] (@LeeCamp) April 26, 2019
In reality, they’re all cheering for the exact same agenda for the exact same reason: powerful people want to make an example of a journalist who exposed US war crimes, and they’ve been advancing a concerted smear campaign across all political sectors to manufacture support for that agenda. Just as with war, they manufactured support for a preexisting agenda and then went in for the kill. The only reason a Trump supporter and a Democrat believe they want Assange prosecuted for different reasons is because they’ve each been fed different narratives corresponding to the values of their respective ideological echo chambers.
Because of the QAnon psyop and other related narrative management operations, Trump supporters believe that everything this president does is a brilliant strategic maneuver against the Deep State, even when it transparently facilitates longstanding establishment agendas. Because of the Russiagate psyop and its related mass media smear campaign, liberals who once celebrated Assange for his publications on Bush administration war crimes now celebrate a Trump administration agenda to imprison a journalist for publishing inconvenient truths. Leftists targeted with other smears believe he’s a fascist and a rapist. Paranoid types believe he’s a CIA asset and “controlled opposition“, even as he’s being tortured to death by the empire he supposedly serves.
Every political sector has been given a custom-made reason to hate Assange by the narrative management network whose sole interest is imprisoning a journalist for telling the truth. And it’s been done so brilliantly that people never even stop and question who these new beliefs they’ve suddenly espoused are really serving. The science of propaganda is truly awe-inspiring sometimes.
It’s good for Assange to be locked up because it will hurt the Deep State. It’s good for Assange to be locked up because he’s a Russian agent. It’s good for Assange to be locked up because he’s a rapist. It’s good for Assange to be locked up because he’s a fascist enabler. The only common denominator in all these wildly different narratives is the belief that it’s good for Assange to be locked up. Which tells you that this is all it’s really about. Turn off the narrative soundtrack and what do you have? A man locked in a cell and no one coming to his rescue.
US Needs To Occupy Syria Because Of Kurds Or Iran Or Chemical Weapons Or Oil Or Whateverhttps://t.co/AZH4NZejve
— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) November 3, 2019
It’s just like the illegal US occupation of Syria. US troops need to be in Syria because of humanitarian concerns. US troops need to be in Syria because of chemical weapons. US troops need to be in Syria to stop ISIS. US troops need to be in Syria to counter Iranian influence. US troops need to be in Syria to counter Russian influence. US troops need to be in Syria to protect the Kurds. US troops need to be in Syria because of oil. There’s a different reason for every ideological echo chamber.
But take away the narrative soundtrack and what do you have? US troops staying in Syria. That tells you what this is actually about.
Simply mentally muting the narrative soundtrack that babbles about all the endless justifications for the US-centralized empire’s behaviors, and instead looking at the actual behaviors themselves, is a great way to see the empire’s true motives for yourself. Ignore all the stories about why things need to be as they are and you just see things as they are: weapons of war being deployed all around the globe, resources leaving the hands of the many and going into the hands of the few, more and more surveillance laws and mechanisms being put into place, more and more dissident voices losing their online platforms, more and more dissident journalists being locked in cages.
That’s the real goal. That’s all it’s really ever about. Despite all the different reasons people offer for their support of pernicious longstanding establishment agendas, the real reason is that they’ve been propagandized into doing so because it benefits the powerful.
It's the propaganda, plain and simple. There's been a concerted narrative management campaign spanning all western nations and every political sector to kill public support for Assange. It's just like a war: manufacture consent, then go in for the kill.https://t.co/rUa1eJqg0w
— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) November 4, 2019
You might think it’s more difficult for the propagandists to come up with different narratives for each ideological echo chamber, but it’s actually easier, because people will actively gaslight themselves into believing a propaganda narrative if it helps protect them from cognitive dissonance. If you closely identify with the Democratic Party, then you’ll do the propagandists’ work for them and actually talk yourself into believing the persecution of Assange is good if it helps you to defend that identity structure and protects you from the cognitive dissonance caused by the 2016 WikiLeaks publications. If you closely identify with support for Trump, then you’ve got every cognitive incentive to try and insulate yourself from the psychological discomfort you’d experience by consciously acknowledging that this administration is doing something deeply disgusting to Assange, and you’ll quickly snap up any excuse you’ve been given to do so. Brighter sparks will even come up with their own variations and add them in to the mix.
The whole propaganda matrix works this way: people are actively herded into conflicting ideological echo chambers, and the “us versus them” mentality which that conflict engenders creates strong identification with and loyalty to that tribe. From there it’s just a matter of giving people narratives which allow them to self-gaslight in a way that protects those identification structures.
But if you simply ignore the narratives and watch where all the troops, resources and prisoners are actually going, you’ll see what’s really going on. World minus narrative is night-and-day different from world plus narrative. We must find a way to overcome their deceptions.
______________________
Thanks for reading! The best way to get around the internet censors and make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for my website, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, liking me on Facebook, following my antics on Twitter, checking out my podcast on either Youtube, soundcloud, Apple podcasts or Spotify, following me on Steemit, throwing some money into my hat on Patreon or Paypal, purchasing some of my sweet merchandise, buying my new book Rogue Nation: Psychonautical Adventures With Caitlin Johnstone, or my previous book Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I’m trying to do with this platform, click here. Everyone, racist platforms excluded, has my permission to republish or use any part of this work (or anything else I’ve written) in any way they like free of charge.
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81 responses to “Propaganda Narratives Are Custom-Made For Each Ideological Echo Chamber”
Bravo! Thank you so much for this lovely piece. I learnt a lot from this. Please do not relent. Worth every second spent reading. I look forward to yet another mastermind.
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This is late to the party on this article, but I just want to get it out there. Here is the Assange narrative played our on a comment thread on one of the echo chambers, the faux-progressive political blog DailyKos: https://www.dailykos.com/comments/1900015/75507674#comment_75507674
This is a good article, highlighting two important problems. The Trump administration should not be continuing the Obama crusade against Assange and Wikileaks, and, the balkanization of the marketplace of ideas is readily exploited by propagandists in power.
However, Hilary won the popular vote. Had she also won the Electoral College, Assange would likely not be alive to be tortured to death. Its plain sad that UFO enthusiasts could concoct a plan flash mob Area 51 to free aliens – and some actually showed up – but free Assange has no plan.
Assange could be a victim of disaster capitalism; too many activists need him in jail to pad their arsenal of crisis to exploit, in addition to the usual example-making by the state.
Media echo chambers are an outgrowth of old-style PC foruming; naturally occurring community groupings with the unfortunate propensity for outings. However, there is, or should be, room for bridge chambers to link and challenge ideas as well, as this blog appears to be.
Quite sorry I munged up the layout, which makes it bothersome. Here it is in a more readable form. Please feel free to ditch the first version.
“Never trust anything that does not cry. (Y.T.) We feel ourselves isolated and lonely as we are besieged by noise that does not seem to be coming from other humans, but rather the clanging of inhuman machines in the distance; and we are to some degree correct. We believe that there is a malign entity behind each thread of bullshit narrative, and we are mostly wrong, in my opinion. It is in the telling and retelling bullshit to each other that causes it to seem as though it has a mind of its own.
What we lack is the training and development of patience and maturity in our own thoughts and actions, and the most powerful skill in becoming real, is humility.
Thérèse of Lisieux
Certain words in her quote will likely provoke botlike thoughts, and harsh and contemptuous commentary. They are the thoughts of a woman whose entire intellectual career and earthly life spanned 24 years. Take it up with her.
Although dying in her 20’s, she managed to share such observations as:
“Truth suffers, but never dies.” “To have courage for whatever comes in life — everything lies in that.” “Pain is never permanent.”
Dr. Charles Verge
Realize that theology is tangential to Theresa’s observations. Her thoughts do not mandate Catholicism, Christianity, or deism, when she states If you can bear in peace the trial of being (serenely) displeasing to yourself… Can you do so? For that is the way of the Buddha as well; and out of the finger-trap of feeling exploited and crushed by the narrative matrix. I think.
“Never trust anything that does not cry. (Y.T.) We feel ourselves isolated and lonely as we are besieged by noise that does not seem to be coming from other humans, but rather the clanging of inhuman machines in the distance; and we are to some degree correct. We believe that there is a malign entity behind each thread of bullshit narrative, and we are mostly wrong, in my opinion. It is in the telling and retelling bullshit to each other that causes it to seem as though it has a mind of its own.
What we lack is the training and development of patience and maturity in our own thoughts and actions, and the most powerful skill in becoming real, is humility.
Caitlin much as I used to like your earlier work I think you are losing the plot. Assange and Pilger are both dirty because they have not and will not address the ‘9/11 elephant in the room’ any more than you do. When placed in a corner and forced to say something meaningful about it he famously flunked it. Assange’s body language tells it all. He shat his pants on the 9/11question then managed to stutter out the possibility of Saudi involvement then seemed to develop a slight paralysis of his throat and stammered and yammered about possible other states but could not bring himself to say more on the issue only to say it was ‘no longer so important’ as there were more recent events requiring our attention. The elephant in the room could have shat on his head but he would pretend not to notice it, but maybe blink a lot…You could almost see the little red Mossad sniper laser scope triangle, on his forehead that he was obviously imagining. The man is obviously living in fear, of Israeli retribution if he opens his mouth. Some people imagine that Wikkileaks was being fed by the Mossad Unit 8200/Talpiot operatives all along. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zG23AyiIObk&fbclid=IwAR11P6Y7JtffXcXiEW9K4-ysJ3WXKw0zyTReWufpUZ5IcP0jO1LS2TlaGtY
Caitlin much as I used to like your earlier work I think you are losing the plot. Assange and Pilger are both dirty because they have not and will not address the ‘9/11 elephant in the room’ any more than you do. When placed in a corner and forced to say something meaningful about it he famously flunked it. Assange’s body language tells it all. He shat his pants on the 9/11question then managed to stutter out the possibility of Saudi involvement then seemed to develop a slight paralysis of his throat and stammered and yammered about possible other states but could not bring himself to say more on the issue only to say it was ‘no longer so important’ as there were more recent events requiring our attention. The elephant in the room could have shat on his head but he would pretend not to notice it, but maybe blink a lot…You could almost see the little red Mossad sniper laser scope triangle, on his forehead that he was obviously imagining. The man is obviously living in fear, of Israeli retribution if he opens his mouth. Some people imagine that Wikkileaks was being fed by the Mossad Unit 8200/Talpiot operatives all along. .https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zG23AyiIObk&fbclid=IwAR11P6Y7JtffXcXiEW9K4-ysJ3WXKw0zyTReWufpUZ5IcP0jO1LS2TlaGtY
the border-less ruling criminals create the tower of babel, that is the philosophical chaos that prevents the masses from thinking clearly. look into the academia, where anything goes and more careerist mess is generated everyday.
Antiwar.com posted then pulled an article about Julian Assange by Diana Johnstone.
They posted the reason which I can’t make any sense of. I read the Diana article carefully and can’t find anything to justify it.
What is happening to Antiwar.com?
Were they sent a message with orders or a threat? NSA, CIA, FBI, DOD, …?
Is this like CounterPunch.org that was threatened by the Propornot agitprop and relented and spiked several authors like Mike Whitney, Diana Johnston, and Caitlin Johnstone. Some were before Propornot and some after – I can’t remember which.
Since Justin Raimondo passed I have wondered if Antiwar.com would change.
Are we now seeing it change, and into another protection racket for the elites?!
I just checked my post on this at Antiwar.com and found they had deleted it.
This is the new Antiwar.com.
Thanks for passing this on. I only occasionally read information posted at Antiwar.com, if reposted or linked somewhere else, so I wouldn’t know they have turned to the dark side. I knew early on, perhaps as early as early 2017, when this deplatforming thing first started, that a coordinated, pernicious effort would be made to silence voices on the internet. One very important thing to check, and it is often overlooked or under-appreciated: the role of Big Ad on the internet. Since so much ad money now flows to the internet, and Big Brands are more paranoid about “brand safety” than Donald Trump is about the Deep State, advertisers have literally been dictating to websites, telling them to remove or demonetize content that could even come close to endangering their brand’s “safety.” If Antiwar.com changed ad-buying companies, like Drudge did, the new company could easily be dictating which content and/or authors are no longer permissible on the site. Like most humans, Antiwar.com folks will bow to the lure of the almighty dollar. “It’s all about the Benjamin’s, baby!”
Your comment, or at least one, is still there. As for the article, There wass one sentence, not essential to the story, referring to his mother. The Global Research reprint, still posted, has cut that sentence out.
Message from Julian:
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“This is not about me.
This is about you!”
— Julian Assange from Belmarsh prison, Nov 5, 2019
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https://twitter.com/SomersetBean/status/1191891381394038784
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[39:34, 40:30 Message from Julian] LIVE: M.I.A., Lowkey join London protest in support of Julian Assange — November 5, 2019
https://youtu.be/MpjFvokjAJ8?t=2374
“It’s not just me. It’s much wider. It’s all of us. It’s all journalists, and all publishers who do their job who are in danger.”
“This is not about me. This is about you!”
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— Julian Assange, investigative journalist and publisher
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Truth – Julian Assange – This is about you
https://i.imgflip.com/3fn1wj.jpg
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Truth – Julian Assange – Chris Hedges
https://i.imgflip.com/3fn1bf.jpg
I absolutely have to jump in here, at the risk of seeming self-promotional. In reality, I’m mainly applying a piece of crucial Caity Johnson insight to the climate emergency — by far humanity’s most important issue.
In the most highlighted sentence from Caity’s piece, she says, “ The only reason a Trump supporter and a Democrat believe they want Assange prosecuted for different reasons is because they’ve each been fed different narratives corresponding to the values of their respective ideological echo chambers.”
How true! Yet what no one (besides me) is saying is that Caity’s brilliant insight applies to the climate issue. The Republican echo chamber is fed the message that climate change doesn’t exist; the Democrat one, in a far more subtle and sinister way, is fed the message that it exists but isn’t an emergency that we must make top priority PRONTO.
The best illustration of this Dembot brainwashing is the charge chosen for Trump’s impeachment. Anyone serious about the climate emergency would demand Trump’s impeachment for the crime against humanity of ecocide — his aggressively worsening humanity’s worst emergency ever (reflected notably in his insane withdrawal from the Paris climate accord). Yet Democrats choose a Ukraine scandal that has NOTHING to do with major issues that could offend their donors or reflect badly on the party. Democrats’ chosen charge is a deeply sinister form of anti-climate brainwashing.
Here’s the new piece where I say all that and more. If you hate dangerous propaganda — as Caity’s followers should — please read and share it WIDELY. https://medium.com/@patrickwalker_77969/hijacking-the-impeachment-debate-for-climates-sake-8191b8c54ede
BTW, Medium spent almost a day pondering whether to distribute my piece before deciding not to–which will adversely affect readership. Wonder whether they had a quandary about weighing its importance versus its extreme danger to the powers-that-be.
I suspect we are all in the Assange firing line, – just that they haven’t caught up with us yet because we are too many
It never ceases to amaze me just how human beings can twist anything or anyone into their own ” cubby-hole “. She is just a little teenage girl:
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2019/11/07/greta-effect-are-we-really-this-time-for-certain-certain-heading-for-end-times/
There is also Julian’s point of view. He has been answering letters these months from prison:
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> LETTERS FROM BELMARSH: WHAT JULIAN ASSANGE SAYS WE SHOULD DO TO SAVE HIS LIFE . . .
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> In defiance of all the forces trying to silence Julian Assange, he continues to speak to the world. He is doing so through the only avenue left to him — by sending replies to the letters of supporters that reach him in Belmarsh Prison. . . .
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> Taken together, they map out the path to building a successful campaign that may free Julian Assange and save his life. The following are proposals for the “free Assange” campaign from Julian’s letters from Belmarsh. . . .
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> “Start a ‘free Assange’ organising committee in [your town or city]!” . . .
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> “. . . the days when I could read and speak and organise to defend myself, my ideals and my people are over until I am free! Everyone else must take my place.” . . .
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> “… — …” [S.O.S.] . . .
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> “It is people like you, great and small, fighting to save my life that keeps me going. We can win this! Don’t let the bastards sacrifice freedom of speech, European democracy and my life . . .”
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> “Push on that which will move, not simply that which opposes. Said another way, find weak links in the chain that binds me.” . . .
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> “. . . organisations that can be influenced and which are not used to protest or have difficulty defending against it ideologically”. . . .
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> “Please adapt above to local conditions. I am very isolated and not sure of the state of play, but you get the idea.” . . .
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> “Thank you! The suffering here is profound, but we can win this! Knowing you have my back is what gets me through!” . . .
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> “I am in a very dark place presently. Light up the night until victory!” . . .
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> “Thank you for fighting to save my life. Please pass on my love and appreciation to all who are showing such commitment to bringing me safely home.” . . .
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> “Knowing you are out there fighting for me keeps me alive in this profound isolation.” . . .
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> “It’s not just me. It’s much wider. It’s all of us. It’s all journalists, and all publishers who do their job who are in danger.” . . .
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> “Truth, ultimately, is all we have.”
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Letters from Belmarsh: What Julian Assange says we should do to save his life — 18 October 2019
https://independentaustralia.net/life/life-display/letters-from-belmarsh-what-julian-assange-says-we-should-do-to-save-his-life,13219
thank you for posting this.
Re: qAnon psyop
You misspelled a word there. Its r-e-l-i-g-i-o-n, not p-s-y-o-p. You are welcome.
same difference.
It is not really possible to authenticate the true origin of the comments on any thread on the Internet. It is known that intelligence groups have vastly infiltrated public discourse on the internet with multiple fake personalities. So thinking that a group (liberals, conservatives, Trumpers, Bernie supporters etc) are going one way or another based on printed words on a screen or paper is disingenuous at best. People are being led and consent is being manufactured by this ruse.
Manufacturing the stance and the group in order to propel allegiance is one of the pillars of propaganda.
that being said, sanders has not been good on foreign policy, and his support for assange, so far as i am aware, has been tepid at best. otoh i see a lot more trump supporters backing his about face on assange. great point about intel groups infiltrating public discourse; it’s striking how hard they are pushing for another war. it’s hard to understand what their animosity against trump stems from, since he shares so many of their values. i guess it’s game of thrones stuff.
On the bus this morning I was asked how long do I expect the United States government to allow sites on the Internet that are critical of our government. I told him that the average person never get to see those websites because they are too busy working and living. They only get their ” news ” from the idiot box TV. When I got home I found this waiting for me to share with Ms Johnstone’s readers:
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2019/11/06/how-the-deep-state-justifies-itself-in-america/
Removed. Keep antisemitic shit off my site.
– CJ
Keep antisemitic bullshit off my site. I don’t like banning people here, but I definitely will.
You forgot the ‘Assange pooped in the Ecuadoran embassy’ folks (I actually heard that one). The anti-poopers take a strong stand against pooping, and Assange has definitely pooped, and now must pay the price.
What I find heartbreaking is the fact that Assange risked everything to tell the truth about the crimes that have been committed by the powerful, yet the vast majority doesn’t give a shit. I proudly wear a shirt with his image and the reactions I get range from total ignorance (Is that David Bowie?) to outright hostility ( He’s the reason Trump is president, he’s a dick, etc.).
The human experiment is failing badly.
> to outright hostility ( He’s the reason Trump is president,
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Hillary herself, by being so corrupt, is the reason Trump is president.
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> he’s a dick, etc.).
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Truth — Julian Assange — Defend Assange Campaign
https://www.facebook.com/wikileaks/photos/a.1009727849062327/2420194401348991/?type=3&theater
Once a lie is indoctrinated it takes a truly open mind to see the truth. Most people find comfort in the lie. Nothing causes more unease than to believe in government corruption. It is more comforting to pick a side and say we are the good guys and they are the bad guys. It amazes me how people can see the hidden agenda of the other side of an issue but cannot see the hidden agenda of the cause they support. Hit the right subject Caitlin and you can upset your most ardent supporter. The trick is not to pick a side.
i’m a leftist and i strongly support assange, and manning, and anybody who exposes war crimes and faked war crimes (as in syria, or saddam’s purported wmd’s).
What exactly do you support. Their right to publish confidential information. Ok. I am on board with that. Will you also support the next guy who smears your darling candidate or cause or is your support just because it lines up with your personal views.
if it’s true like wikileaks what is your problem? i made it clear i support anybody who exposes war crimes, as manning and wikileaks did, or the brave whistleblowers who exposed the opcw for faking syrian war crimes.
are you aware of the meaning of “smears”? it involves lying. are you asking if i would support the next guy who lies about a candidate i support? the answer should be obvious. if sanders, who i support, smears assange, then i don’t support that. what exactly do you support? from the way way you implicitly accused them of smearing the pentagon or clinton, i guess i probably know.
This article is about supporting people who tell the truth. So you are for truth tellers for war crimes just not in general I guess. People are hypocrites by supporting an action based on a cause and then condemning the same action for a cause they do not like. I simply asked if you would be so supportive of whistleblowers for your own darling candidate or cause. For example today we give Biden a pass on past Ukraine activity and try to impeach Trump on something even simpler. This is hypocritical.
you guess im not in support of truthtelling in general and i answered you, what evidence do you have for your smear? none. i didn’t say i only supported truthtellers for war crimes. i guess you don’t have good reading comprehension. i don’t support biden or trump, and i told you how i would regard sanders if he condemned assange. by the way, i don’t think condemning war crimes is a “darling cause”, and i find it bizarre that you do. i simply asked who do you support? hilary? nobody is smearing her by calling her a warmonger, and nobody is smearing biden by calling him (or trump) corrupt. so what is your point?
I support no one. They are all sleazeballs including Bernie Sanders. If I cast a vote next election it would be for Tulsi Gabbard.
Sorry to crowd the bandwidth, but this one is a must see if you have not seen it. It’s long… Over an hour long, and it starts about 5 minutes in. Cynthia McKinney. She is so amazing.
Have not watched all of it yet, but it’s just amazingly informative what I have seen so far.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nicwqcUYGSI&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR0zGL1NIRn5SqwzkIQNMUeWx_5RSox5H7UhdM2_H1GZFhqHovf71MH7VDY
Here she is roughing up Rumsfeld. Funny to watch. Believe me, this kind of stuff strikes home… You make not think so… Rumsfeld may look ok…. but he’s got lots of damage on board from that exchange. Best thing he can do is go to the nearest church and pray.
and the war criminals’ answer to Ms. McKinney’s questions was delivered to her in the form of “get the hell out of town, nigga, who do you think you are?”
In addition to the, in the words of award-winning journalist Chris Hedges, “Washington’s carefully orchestrated character assassination of Assange”, there is also the US attempts to frame and arrest Julian Assange using allied countries where he was moving.
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For example, just yesterday this new remarkable report:
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> THE FBI TRIED TO MAKE ICELAND A COMPLICIT ALLY IN FRAMING JULIAN ASSANGE
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> 5 November 2019
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> Former Icelandic Interior Minister tells Independent Australia how he blocked U.S. interference in 2011 in order to defend WikiLeaks and its publisher Julian Assange. Sara Chessa reports.
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> A MINISTER OF THE INTERIOR wakes up one summer morning and finds out that a plane full of United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents has landed in his country, aiming to carry out police investigations without proper permission from the authorities.
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> How many statesmen would have the strength to say, “No, you can’t do this”, to the United States? Former Icelandic Interior Minister Ögmundur Jónasson, in fact, did this — and for the sake of investigative journalism. He understood that something wrong with the sudden FBI mission in Reykjavik, and that this had to do with the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks and its publisher Julian Assange. . . .
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> But this was not only about defending Iceland´s sovereignty. According to Mr Jónasson, during this process, he had been informed that the FBI showed up in Reykjavik with the aim of framing Julian Assange. . . .
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> Mr Jónasson says:
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> “Kristinn Hrafnsson is highly respected in Iceland. But for WikiLeaks and whistleblowers in general, I think it will depend – as indeed anywhere – on the public, which in the end is the guardian of freedom, including the freedom of the press. You can have excellent laws and constitutions, and they are, for sure, needed, but it is almost non-relevant if society is asleep. You need people to speak up.”
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> This is for Mr Jónasson the main point also in Assange’s case:
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> “WikiLeaks was bringing out the truth, revelaing crimes which should have been taken to court. This has been prevented. So the charges brought against the publisher are, in reality, charges against free speech and freedom of the press. The American police and secret services are trying to create an atmosphere of impunity, where they can do anything. Even when they landed here, they were showing contempt for democracy.
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> “What they are doing to Assange is in opposition to the American Constitution and the principles of human rights, they claim they are protecting.”
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> He is not alone in his considerations, given what the UN Special rapporteur on torture, Nils Melzer, said some months ago regarding Assange.
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> The former Icelandic Interior Minister is aware of this and quotes the statement by Melzer:
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> “In 20 years of work with victims of war, violence and political persecution I have never seen a group of democratic states ganging up to deliberately isolate, demonise and abuse a single individual for such a long time and with so little regard for human dignity and the rule of law … The collective persecution of Julian Assange must end here and now!”
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> “These are heavy words,” Mr Jónasson says. . . .
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> “All this for carrying out investigative journalism.”
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> In 2016, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention also stated Assange should walk free. However, he is in a London prison, waiting for the U.S. extradition hearing scheduled for February 2020. Meanwhile, the sexual misconduct allegations in Sweden (never turned into charges) are not involved with his current imprisonment.
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> When Mr Jónasson is asked who can do something to make governments align with the UN request, he again brings into play the people:
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> “All depends on us. There is not such a thing as spectators. Everybody is taking a part — sitting quiet is taking part!”
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The FBI tried to make Iceland a complicit ally in framing Julian Assange
https://independentaustralia.net/life/life-display/the-fbi-tried-to-make-iceland-a-complicit-ally-in-framing-julian-assange,13277
Caitlin, I’ve noticed the same as you did thing WRT respect for Assange, and have had a difficult time figuring out when and how this happened. Even Trump himself seemed to appreciate Wikileaks (perhaps for the wrong reasons), but now he is calling for Assange’s head. Did Trump’s opinions genuinely change this much, or was he threatened or coerced into speaking out against Assange?
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Another narrative that we need to be careful of is the idea that surveillance is good and noble. Just 15-20 years ago, the level of surveillance that we’re seeing now would have prompted tremendous amounts of criticism and alarm. Today, everyone has been conditioned to believe that we have no inherent right to privacy. Young people have been conditioned to think that carrying around cameras and microphones, and documenting all of their daily activities in the public domain is “normal.” We’ve become too comfortable with giving out our personal information — to the cashier at the store, to any website or technology company that asks for it, to our doctors (detailed personal information that they absolutely do not need to diagnose or treat us), and to government institutions, etc. We pose for amusement parks to take our pictures when we enter the parks, we use our images and real names when we post on the internet, and we never question what this information will be used for and what limitations will be placed on its use.
——————
Something that I find highly disturbing is how the environmental movement has been hijacked by the “Climate Change” movement which is obviously a movement that is being led by and for the benefit of the energy, real estate/development, technology, and finance industries — and, more disturbingly, is also a front for the surveillance industrial complex. There is nothing **green** in the “Green New Deal.” Instead, we are told that we need sensors throughout our homes so that they can track our energy use and pollution output — and cameras and microphones in all of our “Smart Home” technolgy that they claim will somehow make the world a better place. We need street lights with cameras, microphones, and sensors to track all of our movements and actions when we are out in public. All of this is being done in the name of Climate Change and the environment, yet nobody questions how this technology itself will negatively affect the environment. We need to get back to real environmentalism, which has nothing at all to do with being profitable, and which would be fought by various industries, not promoted by various industries.
but the science is not a “movement”, and that some organizations or people are trying to use it to support their own agendas in no way discredits the science. what’s your solution to this looming and vast problem?
Your propaganda bell should be going off by your own statement. Science can be manipulated by the narrative just like everything else. Follow the money.
THE MONEY goes straight to the fossil fuel industry, a major component of the Military Industrial Complex. DUH!!!!
the money belongs to the fossil fuel companies, and they are doing the manipulating. if it were that easy to manipulate scientists (i’m not talking about economists or ‘political scientists or drug research) then their own scientists wouldn’t have told them the science of climatology was sound, and the BEST study would have come to a different conclusion. i suggest you follow your own advice and follow the money, because you have been manipulated by a narrative originally created by the same ad agency that shielded the tobacco industry for decades.
“various industries” vs. “various industries”? – oh, you mean like the evil Schwinn lobby that would impose its fascist agenda on Exxon Mobil, Ford, and GM; just like the passive solar design, insulation, and thermostat conglomerates who would place “sensors throughout our homes so that they can track our energy use and pollution output” have bought off 97% of the scientific community to enslave us while PG&E fights to uphold our freedom. Thank you for demonstrating the biggest threat to our future: an educational system that teaches students to read and write but not to think. Give Me a Fucking Break!!!!
i specifically mean the fossil fuel industry that lives off the use of the product that is causing global warming. if you think exxon is fighting for your freedom, you either aren’t thinking at all or you shill for them. every single national science organization supports the science, and exxon, mobil, ford, and gm are not helpless in our system. the more i think about it, the more dishonest you look, to be honest. thank you for demonstrating how nonsensical the propaganda narrative is.
You need to do more research into the entities who are backing the “Green New Deal” and the people who are backing them. These are not benevolent people. There is a very obvious authoritarian thread that is woven throughout the “Climate Change” narrative, and many vested interests who will gain in both wealth and power from this propaganda.
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Want to tackle climate change (and environmental pollution, in general)?
………..
1.) Enact tariffs that offset labor and environmental difference between countries so that companies can no longer exploit lax environmental (and labor) regulations. This would have the added benefit of greatly reducing global trade (as opposed to local trade), which is one of the leading causes of carbon pollution, and pollution in general.
….
2.) Instead of “Energy Star” and similar scams, profile the total pollution and resource usage in **real-life** situations for a given appliance or piece of equipment. As it is, they don’t account for the fact that many people have to wash their clothes or dishes multiple times because the “efficient” machines don’t heat water enough or use enough water to properly clean things — manufacturers actually recommend that people run the water in the nearest tap to get it hot enough before starting the appliance (dishwashers, in particular). And if a machine is designed (yes, actually designed these days) to break down within 7 years instead of the 20-40 years they used to last, then there is nothing green or efficient about it.
….
3.) Eliminate planned obsolescence (also applies to #2). Nothing is worse for the planet than all the gadgets and junk that are disposed of prematurely because manufacturers rely on customers to constantly consume new or “upgraded/updated” products. It is a known fact that manufacturers intentionally design products to break down well before their potential lifespan, and many products are designed in a way that you can’t fix them (sealed compartments, no universal parts, etc.).
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4.) Plant trees. The Climate Change oligarchs are claiming that we need new technology to trap carbon and put it underground. What they fail to acknowledge is that we already have this technology and it’s relatively cheap, in addition to helping to keep the earth cool and moist — trees. It has the added benefit of providing oxygen and filtering our environment.
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5.) Impose a tax on manufacturing (and other pollution-heavy industries and technologies) and use this money to pay the countries who host our rainforests so that they don’t feel the need to deforest their lands in order to compete with the rest of the capitalist world.
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As the other poster noted, science is known to be manipulated in order to promote certain narratives. Ask just about any scientist, and they will readily tell you that public monies are withheld from those who go against the established narratives, and freely given to those who are willing to support a particular bias.
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The “hockey stick” graph, in case you weren’t aware, was obviously politically driven. The author used a false methodology (bad math) to make his point.
…..
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/403256/global-warming-bombshell/
https://www.climatedepot.com/2019/10/18/the-reference-frame-top-ipccs-paleoclimatologist-agrees-that-manns-hockey-stick-papers-were-wrong/
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And another more recent paper on changing ocean temperatures was proven wrong.
https://phys.org/news/2018-11-climate-scientists-wrong.html
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An article about the philosophical bias in science of all types.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6415937/
………………
A collection of articles about fraud in science:
https://bps.stanford.edu/?page_id=4939
You would appreciate this piece: http://www.wrongkindofgreen.org/2019/01/17/the-manufacturing-of-greta-thunberg-for-consent-the-political-economy-of-the-non-profit-industrial-complex/
It’s a long one, but a good one.
That was excellent, Seamus. I highly recommend that others read this as well. Thank you for sharing it.
Remember Aaron Shwartz too. And so many others who risk everything everyday and die by the hands af fascists. As the forests burn and the oil seeps and they walk through garbage and sewage. At least Assange has lived a meaningful life.
the alive live on the blood of the killed, for sure.
Outstanding.
Magic.
Just loved that code pic…
Global warming stuff.
https://gazelda.com/20191106-a-crash-course-in-climate-change/
Broad spectrum support for Julian Assange
https://gazelda.com/broad-spectrum-support-for-julian-assange/
Love you Caitlin. This will soon be over though. As important as Assange is, he wouldn’t be able to stop what’s coming. None of us can. It started thousands of years ago and they will kill us all. I know I sound insane but our worship of science and technology has lead us slowly to mass suicide like so many organisms and cultures<- before us. The earth will recover eventually but humans may not survive. We all know this. We are powerless to stop it. It is encoded into our DNA. I HOPE that provides some solace. Assange is a martyr. We will remember him fondly.
– an American
I very much suspect that the great majority of people who publically voice their opinions on Julian Assange have not read any of Wikileaks books and happily rely on hearsay rather than look up any actual documents provided by Wikileaks. And from my reading of so-called journalist’s responses, it appears that this applies to them also, so the errors emanating from their ignorance and repeated soundbites “inform” those who simply cannot bother to analyse the whys and wherefores of what lazy and cowardly media present.
At airports in Shanghai and Sydney, and bookshops in New Zealand, where I asked if they had any of Wikileaks and/or Julian Assange’s books, the answer from around a dozen outlets was always the same – No!
Even among the few who searched their national databases for me. So it looks like the propaganda has affected bookshop as well. Yet ‘The Wikileaks Files: the world according to the US empire (Verso, 2015) is a must read – or should be – for any aspiring journalist. As is Julian’s ‘When Google met Wikileaks. (OR Books, 2016). Assange’s intellect, brutally damaged by UK government vindictiveness, is/was exceptional – and has been insulted and undermined at every turn until the torture he has endured already has turned him into a shadow of his former self. That is a huge tragedy and perversion of justice that is unforgivable and provides good reason to put all of his torturers on trial.
Dear Caitlin: I can’t believe that you, of all people, used the weaponized term “Conspiracy theorist”:
“Conspiracy theorists believe he’s a CIA asset and “controlled opposition”, even as he’s being tortured to death by the empire he supposedly serves.”
We who understand there were no WMDs, that it was, indeed, the CIA who assassinated JFK and not LHO, that the towers fell because of controlled demolition, etc. etc, are not “conspiracy theorists.” I would not have expected this from you. It is not a conspiracy to examine the evidence and state that the evidence does not support the explanation given. Please find another word to describe people who believe Assange is a CIA asset or any other falsehood. Do not demonize us poor souls who understand how the deep state works and have to suffer having this awful knowledge.
Yeah I always forget that some people are sensitive about that term. I personally find it perfectly innocuous; conspiracies happen and we need theories to discuss them. The problem comes when people act like labeling those theories a “conspiracy theory” invalidates them, which is silly. I’ll change it to “paranoid types”.
Thanks for this. I agree with Joyce’s position. It bugs me no end that many “alternative” independent journalists, e.g. Grayzone members like Aaron Maté and Max Blumenthal, Michael Tracey, etc.
I get the assumption, or argument, that there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with the phrase apart from its history of being rhetorically weaponized by the CIA and the Establishment in general.
But the term has been weaponized, so it’s like fingernails screeching down a blackboard to see it being thoughtlessly normalized. I hope you stick to “paranoid types” in the future.
PS: I sure wish this comment platform permitted paragraph breaks. Is there a link or page somewhere that at least sets forth the platform’s features and options? For instance, I see that avatars can be changed, but I can’t figure out how to do it– or how commenters figured it out. I would appreciate guidance, thanks.
You’re so good at this and so right and if you think of all the tiny thoughts that the human mind is capable of pulling out of seemingly nowhere, it quickly becomes apparent that our minds are a lot like our guts, filled with millions of bacteria and our brains the end product of billions of years of bacteria thinking about themselves; so, of course we are what we are; really no different at than all that bacteria in our stools.
Did you miss one Caitlin, or was I reading too quickly? A friend of mine and some commenters on blogs have said that Julian’s a Mossad agent, the proof being that he’s never published anything against Israel.
LOL. A Mossad agent wouldn’t be rotting away in a prison; who do you think runs Western Civilization?
There is a school of thought that suggests a certain playboy hedge fund multimillionaire of Jewish extraction who repeatedly entertained rich and extremely powerful friends with underage young ladies on his private island may well have been a Moss odd agent – yet somehow he reportedly committed suicide while being held in Federal custody. Any “insurance” files pop up yet? Apparently that news item got stale very quickly considering the possible implications.
Robyn wrote:
“A friend of mine and some commenters on blogs have said that Julian’s a Mossad agent, the proof being that he’s never published anything against Israel.”
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Indeed, people should verify what the true facts are before repeating gossip they hear, or even they see on TV. Yes, as probably you mean, that’s just another one of the many different smears.
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WikiLeaks is an international press/media organization and has published literally millions of documents from many whistleblowers on covered-up wrongdoing from all around the world.
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For example, here you have a long list of WikiLeaks revelations on the government of Israel:
.
Julian Assange Exposed the Crimes of Powerful Actors, Including Israel — Global Research
https://www.globalresearch.ca/julian-assange-exposed-crimes-powerful-actors-including-israel/5675361
“divide and rule” works every time.
Human Beings always look for excuses to do nothing about anything that might be wrong. It is always much easier to believe ” Big Brother ” then to challenge him. The United States Congress did not declare war on Syria so our troops are there illegally. How come absolutely no one is going to court to have this illegal war stopped.Human beings are basically cowards cowering before Big Brother in all his evil forms.
Congress declaring war does not make the presence of US troops on Syria legal. UN law applies which is built in to each nations laws as part of the treaty and takes precedence over any national law ie its own law states that the US should obey UN law.
UN law can be summarized as follows. The legitimate government (ie UN recognised government is that of Assad) of a country can request support from allies (Russia and Iran) so they are there legally.
The only other reason is the the UNSC approves the military action. Nothing has been approved, therefore there There are no laws about humanitarian crises, fake gas attacks, free passes for Israelis, Qataris or Saudis…..nothing at all. All actions by these nations and the US are plainly illegal.
U S troops need to be in Syria ( Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, wherever ) as their part in using up all the MIC output so that workers can build more weaponry and keep the U S economy in the plus column.
Depleting resources and #1 in pollution.
Julian upset Congress because a great majority of them, and their families, are getting filthy rich on the insider trading of this particular segment.
Banks don’t really have a product, they just the mechanism of transfer.
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The Health insurance complex will fill in another large portion of waste to aid the economy.
Another tool for the pols.. That’s why neither Party can bring on the real Medicare for All program.
Payola!
Dystopia … here we come.
I used to wonder, back in the day, about why America starts all the wars and Russia and China get labelled as aggressive. This article explains it perfectly. It is straight out of Orwell.
For what it’s worth, here is one small voice who still supports Assange. (I guess I’m not a member of any particular “circle”.)
So am I Kerry, and I wonder if I may have an interesting example, and it is to do with Protective Dogs.
Protective dogs are those who bond very closely to their human, and are prepared to die to save their human, – they go everywhere with their human, and woe betide anybody who attacks their human, as generally speaking they are, eg. Rottweilers, Ridgebacks and others, – pack dogs, and you are the alpha of their pack.
What has this to do with Assange?
I had a young female friend, – not girlfriend, much taken to walking through forests, beaches at nightfall, special places, you know the sort, – thin, almost wraith-like, but of firm and generally life-supporting opinions.
She came very close to being assaulted and raped one night by some oaf, just saved by an old guy walking his dog, the dog grabbing the oafs bare buttocks and throwing him to one side then standing over his throat with large teeth bared and growling fiercely. – end of attempted rape!
What next? people calling for the dog to be destroyed!! – the breed to be destroyed, the lout be compensated. the girl not allowed to walk anywhere anymore, WTF?
So, Assange is not a skinny vulnerable girl, but he has exposed a bunch of greedy super-rich on their way to destroy our civilisation, read this analysis (please) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800914000615
The .01%, the 36 families, and their subordinates, think it is fine that skinny young women get raped when walking free, their protective dog, etc. should be killed, nobody should stop these monsters from destroying the earth, so any argument is acceptable, – Assange has tried to be a protective Human, protecting the rest of us, at great personal cost, – do we believe that the protective human should be killed, that the breed of protective humans should be killed? – I don’t.
lots of Moxie you have dear **CJ**
–
i have never seen anyone connect the dots like you do
–
and your experience proves, time and time again
that no Tweet of Truth
will go un-attacked
by the forces controlling the Dark Side
–
god how they hate, despise and rage at the Light
and dread that the Stake of Truth
will be driven into their Heart of Darkness
–
OM NAMO BAGAVATE VASUDAVIA
HARI OM SHANTI, Truth, Truth, Truth
Caitlin,
You are one of the very best journalists alive today. I wish I knew how to contact you through the mail, as I want to give a donation. I refuse to ever doing any financial transactions on-line. Do you have a mailing address?
CHARLES ANDREW ROBINSON and a extract from the The Wounded Mind
– by Kingsley L. Dennis,
My only concern is that the word witch is still for many used in a negative connotation & there for will Witch Trials become contemporary with Journalist’s Burnings & or Drownings
A very good point! We know we live in an age where Big Data drives Targeted Advertising. It of course makes sense that they would target propaganda narratives to each group. Probably in the future, an AI will devise targeted propaganda narratives for each individual person.
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Of course, one thing that has changed in that while this has only partially worked in political spheres, nowadays everyone is in their own little echo chamber so all they hear is the targeted propaganda aimed at their little circle. And very, very few bother to pay enough attention to see any of the propaganda aimed at other groups, which makes it harder to understand that what you are seeing in your one little group is also programmed and designed BS just for that little group.
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One of the advantages of moving around various groups is seeing the different propaganda that is aimed at each group. On top of the obvious advantage of understanding that each group is getting shafted by the same Oligarchs and really should be fighting together.
From Caitlin’s description, it is also obvious that the research that Pavlov did with his dogs is still being used to great effect. Ring the Bell, watch the Dog salivate. Except now they are trained to Bark Loudly on the Internet.
Thank you, but why bother constructing an AI machine to drive targeted propaganda, if people are so eager to expound upon and propitiate nonsense on their own?
The Wounded Mind
– by Kingsley L. Dennis
There’s something fundamentally wrong with how the world is right now. Don’t you see it – feel it? We are a species with noble character, with a great spirit, and with a sacred soul. In our hearts we wish only for the betterment of all people; for love and justice and communion. And yet what we see going on in the world is nothing less than complete madness. We have to say it exactly as it is – there is a sickness going on and this pathogen is being perpetrated on a vast scale.
I propose the possibility for the existence of some kind of infection/invasion/contagion that produces a form of mental ‘madness’ that is so normalized within us that we hardly recognize its presence. That is, this ‘presence’ has embedded itself into our various forms of social conditioning (or perhaps even produces this conditioning) in order to veil its existence. This normalized madness then usurps genuine thinking patterns, with the result that when everyone shares the collective psychosis then the madness of the world appears to be a ‘normal feature’ of human civilization. And those people who are ‘awake’ to the genuine human spirit and mind are considered the crazies – the anomalies – as the following tale shows:
There was once a wise and powerful king who ruled in a remote city of a far kingdom. And the king was feared for both his might and his love of wisdom. At the heart of the city was a well whose water was cool and crystalline, and all the inhabitants drank from this well, even the king and his courtiers, because there was no other well in the city. One night, while everyone was asleep, a witch entered the city and poured seven drops of a strange liquid into the well, and said:
‘From now on, anyone who drinks this water will go crazy.’
The next morning all the inhabitants drank the water from the well, except the king and his lord chamberlain, and very soon everyone went mad, as the witch had foretold. During that day, all people went through the narrow streets and public places whispering to each other:
‘The king is mad. Our king and his lord chamberlain have lost their reason. Naturally, we cannot be ruled by a mad king. We must dethrone him!’
That night, the king ordered a golden cup of water from the well to be brought to him. And when they brought the cup the king and his lord chamberlain drank heavily from it. Soon after that there was great rejoicing in that distant city of a far kingdom because the king and his lord chamberlain had regained their reason.
The King and his love of wisdom (Genuine Mind) was corrupted by the poisonous drops of the witch’s liquid (virus/pathogen) that resulted in the mass epidemic of craziness (psychosis/Wounded Mind). This corrupted mind then became the dominant narrative that influenced social behavior. This Wounded Mind is like a contagion that infects.
Our collective ‘cultural mind’ is continually being shaped by dominant social-cultural narratives that normalize our mental and emotional behavioral patterns. These norms are then transferred into cultural myths that serve to transmit and reinforce these mass-minded belief systems. We end up validating our own corrupted thinking through unconscious affirmations. Once this seed of psychosis is planted then it aims to propagate and strengthen through diversions and manifestations that legitimate its own ‘logical’ existence. Like a mental cancer it ingratiates itself into our own neural pathways as an insider rather than an outsider so that we fail to notice its toxic presence. Yet there remains a niggling sense of something being ‘not-quite-right’ deep within any sensible/sensitive person.
This strange reality of ours becomes internalized so that we adapt to a form of ‘normality’ and anyone who speaks up or questions this ‘paradigm of normality’ is considered either odd, eccentric or, at worst, crazy. A more recent category for such people is now to be designated as a ‘conspiracy theorist’ which is a quick brush to dismiss people with ideas or thinking contrary to this ‘norm.’ And those people who appear to accept and encourage such norms are quickly brought ‘into the fold’ and supported in their career paths. The majority of those manifesting the Wounded Mind are not in psychiatric care but running most of our social, political, and financial institutions. Positions of great power necessitate their own specific mindset, one that is generally provided by the corrupted mind.
A Disturbance of Mind
The presence of the Wounded Mind is like a sickness of the soul, and it manifests as a disturbance in the collective unconscious. Just like any other virus or pathogen, it seeks to spread itself by infecting as many carriers as possible. Those people who carry the Wounded Mind (whether knowingly or not) act as transmitters and amplifiers for it, strengthening its frequency within the collective nonlocal field of consciousness. A collective possession is what we refer to as a psychic epidemic, or a disturbance in the field. Such disturbances can have varying affects upon people’s mental health and well-being.
People who suffer from a Wounded Mind may carry it as an ‘undefinable’ trauma within them, and it is common to turn to alcoholism or drug dependencies as a way of coping (or of escape). When a person feels stressed or traumatized they are like an open wound for further mental invasion. And it can be quite subtle at first as our modern societies have devised endless ways for our interference. We are distracted to look away from our own minds and thus miss the psycho-pathogen in action. As a person further integrates the Wounded Mind they may find themselves vulnerable to victimization; such as through social harassment and bullying (especially online nowadays), or as addicted-consumers of sexual deviancy, pornography, and socially-sanctioned extreme experiences. The monk Thomas Merton said that our modern societies suffer from a crisis of sanity:
‘The problems of the nations are the problems of mentally deranged people, but magnified a thousand times because they have the full-straight-faced approbation of a schizoid society, schizoid national structures, schizoid military and business complexes.’1
If all modern institutions are infected by a corrupted system of mental thinking patterns then, as Merton suggests, this instability will be amplified and made worse. Individual neuroses are given institutional sanction and support within a culture that has based its social norms upon such irrationalities. The irrational has broken through and implanted itself as the rational standard rule. It is perhaps little wonder that people can be so susceptible to this mental pathogen when it comes to us dressed up in sheep’s clothing. As is always the case, those people most vulnerable are usually those who are conditioned to authority and/or passivity. This trait, unfortunately, is one that is first implanted through compulsory schooling.
Likewise, people who are easily influenced by external opinions, and whom are prone to group-thinking, are amongst the first to give away their mental independence to external sources. The virus of the Wounded Mind preys upon such ‘group-think’ individuals as they are the mass open playing fields for psychic epidemics. The ‘mass mind’ of humanity helps in the transmission and proliferation of the psychic pathogen – the wounded mind. As the famous psychiatrist R.D. Laing once said – ‘The condition of alienation, of being asleep, of being unconscious, of being out of one’s mind, is the condition of the normal man…normal men have killed perhaps 100,000,000 of their fellow normal men in the last fifty years.’2 Conscious awareness is perhaps our greatest antidote.
If we are to see human history from a wider perspective then it is important we view major events, human actions, propaganda, social disturbances, power struggles, and the rest, from this standpoint of the wounded mind. The modern human mind has been formed from many traits that include greed, lust, ambition, materialism, insincerity, and a ‘split’ personality. In all, these are traits that mark a lack of authenticity. The Wounded Mind seeks to develop greater degrees of inauthenticity and lack of empathy within the individual. We can see such personalities walking across the world stage.
The peril of the Wounded Mind is that resistance may also help to spread it. That is, people who often start out resisting and fighting against this corrupted mindset often find themselves adopting it’s values in order to survive. It’s the ‘if you can’t beat them, join them’ type of thinking. And this cliché too is very likely to have been a product of the Wounded Mind intending to verify itself. It may seem that we are struggling to awaken against our very own spell of sleep.
Under the Pathogen Spell
It has often been said – by mystics, sages, and wisdom traditions – that humanity is collectively asleep. Our ignorance over our condition, and the absence of real knowledge, indicates we are asleep. Similarly, the Gnostics viewed humanity as being ‘asleep’ under a trance – a form of material spell – that has severed us from contact with a genuine divine source. Instead, we are ruled by a false or ‘flawed god,’ a demiurge, that has malevolent intentions to keep us trapped within the material realms.
The more we breed this Wounded Mind within our societies and cultures the more people will behave and live like automatons. We will live within a tighter range of conditioned stimuli that programs specific opinions and thinking patterns that validate the pathogen. A person who is more conditioned to obedience is more susceptible to receive the mental virus. Perhaps this is why our modern societies are establishing rigid orders of control and obedience, such as when we travel, pass through airports, etc. It can be likened to a preparation for automated behavior as a requisite for an automated mind. The mystic George Gurdjieff wrote:
‘Contemporary culture requires automatons. And people are undoubtedly losing their acquired habits of independence and turning into automatons, into parts of machines…. Man is becoming a willing slave. He no longer needs chains. He begins to grow fond of his slavery, to be proud of it. And this is the most terrible thing that can happen to a man.’3
By adopting the mentality of the Wounded Mind, we participate in our own suppression and further the behavior of an automaton. We need to recognize that many of our incumbent social systems are set-up to corroborate and reinforce the consensus mind-set. Any genuine resistance cannot come from any ‘mass movement’ but only from those persons who can think and act independently.
It is important to recognize that the Wounded Mind is a field phenomenon, and that our own mind and thoughts do not exist securely guarded within our heads. Since we are all interconnected within the non-local field, we are all susceptible to the infection of this predatory virus. The first step we can take is to accept the possibility that the pathogen virus exists. The Gnostic text The Gospel of Philip says: ‘So long as the root of wickedness is hidden, it is strong. But when it is recognized, it is dissolved. When it is revealed, it perishes…’ The danger lies in our distraction.
We must guard against being diverted away from our authenticity and lured into the modern distractions of hedonistic pleasure-seeking, greed and materialism, and the running after shallow satisfactions. After all, this illusive psychosis offers false promises. Our modern cultures appear to want to prevent the majority of people from pursuing their own genuine developmental paths. This is no doubt because our capitalist-consumer based societies require a regular mass of workers and consumers whom live a regulated, predictable, and conformist life.
Yet it is now necessary to see the Wounded Mind for what it is – recognition and acknowledgement is key. If we cannot bring harmony and good sense to the world around us, then we should at least bring it upon ourselves. We are the wounded ones who can become our own wounded healers.
Extracted from the book Healing the Wounded Mind: The Psychosis of the Modern World and the Search for the Self.
Go see Vaxxed or Vaxxed2 and you’ll understand how these minds became wounded.
Good documentaries, I have seen Vaxxed and am aware of the harms that vaccines can and do cause. There are many environmental poisons we are exposed to harming our bodies and thereby our minds as well. But there are also many emotional and mental poisons passed down from damaged wounded minds / Souls. These damaged emotional and mental states are propagated both knowingly and unknowingly.
Good (but long) post, Charles. One of the problems with human society is that people conflate “sanity” with “normalcy,” or what is common. As most of us here know, humans have extremely strong herd instincts; because of this, we are genetically wired to think and act like those around us. If we stray from the herd in our thoughts or actions, we are ostrasized, which can be deadly for humans. Sociopaths who learn how to control group narratives weild a powerful weapon.
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What we need to do is make it acceptable, even desirable, to think differently from everyone else. Healthy skepticism is essential if we are to ever break the chains of those who seek to rule us. “Conspiracy theorists” should be celebrated, even if they get things wrong from time to time. From what I’ve seen, they tend to be right far more often than those who spout establishment talking points.
I dig it. Our collective ‘cultural mind’ is continually being shaped by dominant social-cultural narratives that normalize our mental and emotional behavioral patterns. These norms are then transferred into cultural myths that serve to transmit and reinforce these mass-minded belief systems. We end up validating our own corrupted thinking through unconscious affirmations. By Kingsley Dennis, https://kingsleydennis.com/
That’s pretty much what H. sapiens, esq. does on our own, and it has been arguably useful at a time when we were not as intellectually evolved as we are now. We still have this tendency.
I disagree with Kingsley Dennis’ perspective:
We are much more complicit and responsible for our degeneracy of mind than we wish to admit. “The Man” may be doing this to us, but our response to attempts at control are not futile.