The New York Times published an astonishingly horrible article the other day titled “Latin America Is Facing a ‘Decline of Democracy’ Under the Pandemic” accusing governments like Venezuela and Nicaragua of exploiting Covid-19 to quash opposition and oppress democracy.

The article sources its jarringly propagandistic claims in multiple US government-funded narrative management operations like the Wilson Center and the National Endowment for Democracy-sponsored Freedom House, the extensively plutocrat-funded Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and the United States Naval Academy.

The crown jewel of this piece of State Department stenography reads as follows:

“Adding to these challenges, democracy in Latin America has also lost a champion in the United States, which had played an important role in promoting democracy after the end of the Cold War by financing good governance programs and calling out authoritarian abuses.”

Whoa, nelly.

The fact that America’s most widely regarded newspaper feels perfectly comfortable making such a spectacularly in-your-face lie on behalf of the US government tells you everything you need to know about what the mass media in America really are and what they do.

The United States has never at any time been a champion of democracy in Latin America, before or since the Cold War. It has intervened hundreds of times in the continent’s affairs throughout history with everything from murderous corporate colonialism to deadly CIA regime change operations to overt military invasions. It is currently trying to orchestrate a coup in Venezuela after failing to stage one during the Bush administration, it’s pushing regime change in Nicaragua, and The New York Times itself admitted this year that it was wrong to promote the false US government narrative of electoral shenanigans in Bolivia’s presidential race last year, a narrative which facilitated a bloody fascist coup.

This is propaganda. There is no other word for it. And yet the only time western politicians and news reporters use that word is to talk about nations like Russia and China.

Why is propaganda used in an ostensibly free democracy with an ostensibly free media? Why are its news media outlets so consistently in alignment with every foreign policy objective of US government agencies no matter how destructive and inexcusable? If the media and the government are two separate institutions, why do they so consistently function as though they are not separate?

Well, that’s easy. It’s because they aren’t separate. The only thing keeping this from being seen is the fact that America’s real government isn’t located where people think it is.

In a corporatist system of government, where no hard lines are drawn between corporate/financial power and state power, corporate media is state media. Since bribery is legal in the US political system in the form of corporate lobbying and campaign donations, America’s elected government is controlled by wealthy elites who have money to burn and who benefit from maintaining a specific status quo arrangement.

The fact that this same plutocratic class also owns America’s media, which is now so consolidated that it’s almost entirely run by just six corporations, means that the people who run the government also run the media. This allows America’s true rulers to set up a system which promotes narratives that are favorable to their desired status quo.

Which means that the US has state propaganda. They just don’t call it that themselves.

Strip away the phony two-handed sock puppet show of US electoral politics and look at how power actually moves in that country, and you just see one more tyrannical regime which propagandizes its citizens, brutally cracks down on protesters, deliberately keeps its populace impoverished so they don’t get powerful enough to change things, and attacks any nation which dares to disobey its dictates.

Beneath the thin layer of narrative overlay about freedom and democracy, the US is just one more despotic, bloodthirsty empire. It’s no better than any of the other despotic, bloodthirsty empires throughout history. It just has good PR.

Plutocrats not only exert control over America’s media and politics, they also form alliances with the secretive government agencies whose operators remain amid the comings and goings of the official elected government. We see examples of this in the way new money tech plutocrats like Jeff Bezos, Peter Thiel and Pierre Omidyar have direct relationships with the CIA and its proxies.

We also see it in the sexual blackmail operation which was facilitated by the late Jeffrey Epstein in connection with billionaire Leslie Wexner and Israeli intelligence, along with potentially the FBI and/or other US intelligence agencies. Today the internet is abuzz as newly unsealed court documents relating to Epstein and his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell reveal witness testimony regarding underage sex trafficking, with such high-profile names appearing in the documents as Alan Dershowitz, Bill Clinton, and Prince Andrew.

The Overton window of acceptable political discourse has been shrunk into such a narrow spectrum of debate that talking about even well-known and extensively documented facts involving the real nature of America’s government and media will get you laughingly dismissed as a conspiracy theorist, which is itself a symptom of tight narrative control by a ruling class which much prefers Americans thinking they live in a free democracy whose government they control with their votes.

In the old days you used to be able to tell who your rulers were because they’d sit on thrones and wear golden crowns and make you bow before them. Human consciousness eventually evolved beyond the acceptability of such brazen indignities, so it became necessary for rulers to take on more of a background role while the citizenry clap and cheer for the illusory puppet show of electoral politics.

But the kings are still among us, just as cruel and tyrannical as ever. They’ve just figured out how to mask their tyranny behind the facade of freedom.

But 2020 has been a year of revelations, a trend which seems likely to continue accelerating. Truth cannot stay hidden forever.

______________________

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75 responses to “When Corporate Power Is Your Real Government, Corporate Media Is State Media”

  1. There are so many intriguing angles to the Epstien/Maxwel story. What might be most fascinating is the total lack of curiosity by our Legacy Media. This is The Dog That Didn’t Bark.

  2. The state infiltrated the media long ago. The CIA project Mockingbird inserted their agents into the media, and paid existing journalists to work on their behalf. The most blatant of their efforts exposed in the utter lack of true journalism regarding the JFK assassination. The CIA works for the state, which along with its corporate partners works for the banking cartel. “Accusing governments like Venezuela and Nicaragua of exploiting Covid-19 to quash opposition and oppress democracy.” That’s rich, given that exactly the same thing is going on in the US at the same time. The State, corporations, and banking cartel are all members of the same club, and you ain’t in it. Their one and only objective is the confiscation of wealth from those who create it. It’s a suicidal circular firing squad, since such confiscation will ultimately eliminate the means of producing that wealth, but they are after all insane.

    1. Labor creates wealth. And they deserve a large piece of the pie- a very large piece, since THEY are the ones who actually do the work to create it.

  3. They do not know how corrupt and evil their Government actually is. They just vote and pay taxes. That is the extent to which they actually “participate” in “their” Government.
    They tragically do not know the reality. It is hidden from them.
    It is censored-out, by the editors, producers, and other management, of the billionaires “news”-media.
    These are the truths that can not pass through those executives filters.
    These are the truths that get filtered-out, instead of reported.
    No democracy can function this way – and, of course, none does. This article can be read here:
    How the Billionaires Control American Elections by Eric Zuesse!
    https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2020/07/31/how-the-billionaires-control-american-elections/

  4. Surely, the western alliance knows the chances of their Governmental systems emerging from a military failure, an economic failure, a social failure; and the failure of its academies of higher learning; that somehow the status quo is going to be maintained. Therefore no reform is necessary. They want to commit suicide and want us all to follow them to their graves.

  5. This is a true story.

    Starting out in life I was not hooked up and the first jobs I had were minimum wage. I improved my situation when I began working as a bellhop in the Olympic Hotel in Seattle. I was single and suddenly I had a job that paid twice minimum wage. I was in fat city.

    One weekend a bunch of military officers showed up from South America. It was quite a scene. Dozens of different uniforms all of them gilded to the 9s. These were not lieutenants, not a one. I was amazed. I had a fancy gold trimmed Bellhop uniform, but I was naked next to these guys.

    After a few hours I found myself next to an admiral from some South American country. I think it was Columbia. We exchanged glances and that caused him to ask me about my job. He pumped me quick with 20 questions learning I was an Engineering Student; with a girl-friend; who was working my way through college. Currently, as a bellhop.

    These three things impressed him. Being straight, studying engineering, and holding down a job.

    His epaulets were solid gold. I asked him if he was a general.

    No I am an Admiral he said.

    I asked him what was up with all the Uniforms quickly adding that things were strange since no published info about this gathering. That way my question would not seem strange. I had expected a notice on a reader-board welcoming them to tell me what was going on, something like that. That was standard procedure. A blank reader-board on a chrome stand stood close by. I waved my hand in the direction of the reader-board adding that other employees did not know what the event was either.

    Oh, he said. This is the ‘School of the Americas’.

    In Seattle’s Capital Hill Neighborhood at the time was the ‘Revolutionary Communist Book Store’ I think a paper I picked up there had told me about the ‘School of the Americas’ it was something other people had never heard of and I really can’t remember why I knew what it was. Since I knew something about it, I feigned ignorance.

    What are you learning?

    Police Techniques.

    We had a great talk and I was told to look him up if I ever came to his city.

    https://fas.org/irp/crs/soa.htm <- info on the 'School of the Americas'.

  6. Michel Bélisle Avatar
    Michel Bélisle

    Dixit Sir Thomas More 500 years ago in his book “Utopia”:

    “Therefore I must say that, as I hope for mercy, I can have no other notion of all the other governments that I see or know, than that they are a conspiracy of the rich, who, on pretence of managing the public, only pursue their private ends, and devise all the ways and arts they can find out; first, that they may, without danger, preserve all that they have so ill-acquired, and then, that they may engage the poor to toil and labour for them at as low rates as possible, and oppress them as much as they please; and if they can but prevail to get these contrivances established by the show of public authority, which is considered as the representative of the whole people, then they are accounted laws; yet these wicked men, after they have, by a most insatiable covetousness, divided that among themselves with which all the rest might have been well supplied…”

    The difference today is that the rich can devise more “ways and arts” than ever before.

    Keeping my Rosary on hand!

  7. Instead, “liberals” today largely consist of often deluded Social Justice Warriors. They think and act with emotion, not reason. Their primary goal doesn’t seem to be fighting for the rights of those who’ve been denied them, but to take away the rights of those they disagree with. They don’t remotely believe in the Bill of Rights, especially the First Amendment. How many people have been fired recently, for posting a comment on social media, in their free time, which offended these Social Justice Warriors?
    This moving article can be read here:
    Culturally Appropriating the Word “Liberal”
    https://donaldjeffries.wordpress.com/

  8. Edward Herrman and Prof Noam Chomsky wrote a fascinating book way back in the 1980’s called “Manufacture of Consent”. A key point made in the book was that if you looked at the American media and simply said ‘what would state media do?’, the American corporate media did exactly what a state media would have done in the same situation.
    This was back in the 1980’s, back when The Great Communicator was leading the drive of the efforts that resulted in just six corporations controlling what Americans see.
    I read that book, enjoyed it and found it quite enlightening. Today it would probably be very boring because it covered events of the early 1980’s in great detail. I remember the shooting of the Pope being discussed in great length. But it was still a very enlightening book, and I have always since looked on the American corporate media as what it truly is, which is state media.
    It has uses as a window into what the elites want you to think, which is always useful information to those devoted to the cause of Thinking Something Different. But that’s all its good for. They don’t even do decent drama anymore, and the sports are all fixed.

  9. “Beneath the thin layer of narrative overlay about freedom and democracy, the US is just one more despotic, bloodthirsty empire. It’s no better than any of the other despotic, bloodthirsty empires throughout history. It just has good PR.”

    Applicable to those who have HIJACKED the name of the US, but we need to restore the US to the original vision Roundbal Shaman references below.

    Let’s take it back. We need little to LIVE but the power over us is wielded through appeal to our WANTS and EGO. Put those who would seek to control us through our own desires out of business. Stop consuming their products, choose alternatives. Use alternates to the big tech propaganda machines. Walk away. Destroy the man behind the curtain by starving him of our lifeblood sucked via consumer vampirism. If the majority of the masses did this, we could take out world back overnight. It’s starts with individual choices and choosing truth over convenience.

    1. People are asleep in an induced coma. What you demand requires waking them up.

      For starters, figure out a way to convince Americans not to get their information from mainstream media’s “tell-a-vision”, where people “channel” into for receiving their “programming”.

      And also not to read the words the media “spell” out for us every day.

      1. As long as people spend their energy blaming Americans for ‘whatever’, they don’t have to do anything about anything. Syria, Yemen, farming, yellow vests, unemployed, poverty, slavery, yeah, slavery, attacks on Russia, China, most Americans are pretty much covered as far as healthcare (most have it from jobs, Medicare & Medicaid covers the rest and it’s rare when someone isnt covered). Drive around in the US, it’s a 1st world country with MOST living better than other parts of the world. Police in normal clothes, fairly chill, except in riots. Some folks have a weird idea about the US. Just like people try to say China is evil. Or Russia. There’s a pretty off message about the US. Why? Agenda?

        1. That ‘covered’ on health care for most Americans is giant deductables so the first thousands of dollars of an illness comes direct from their pocket. Most Americans are covered by some sort of health care. But most bankruptcies in America are caused by the cost of health care. Both statements are true, and you don’t see why until you read the fine print of that ‘coverage’. Which most Americans don’t see until the surprise medical bills arrive later and then the bill collectors start hounding them. Then they become the family that used to have a home but now lives in the trailer park and works two jobs each even though one of them was just recently in the hospital.
          You must live in a special neighborhood. Where I live, the police always bully everyone because its the only way they know to act. Everyone is on edge when the police are around, because one never knows what they will do nor who they will arrest (after planting evidence) nor who they will hurt, and no one breaths a sigh of relief until they are gone.

          1. Do you live in a leftist urban center controlled by oligarch puppets spouting the MSM propaganda messages, and enforcing compliance with street thuggery and bad cops? That is a fingerprint of the controlled and not coincidentally where division is fostered and enabled toward the goal of collapsing the foundational principles of the true US ideal, not the hijacked ones.

            It also is NOT representative of the larger US or it’s law enforcement and population, no matter how hard the MSM tried to amplify it.

        2. Carokyn Zaremba Avatar
          Carokyn Zaremba

          You are completely wrong about everyone in the U.S. being covered by health insurance! Most companies are cutting health care benefits and have been doing so for years. Medicaid and Medicare do not cover everything. You are completely out of touch with the conditions in the working class in the U.S. I speak as a U.S. citizen. You don’t know what you’re talking about.

          1. I’m a US citizen, as well. I’m aware there are aprx 10-15% uninsured, totally unacceptable. Obamacare is garbage ins. Everyone must be covered and not be bankrupted. Medicare for All is fine, but doesn’t go far enough, imo. I’ll take a Congressperson’s coverage. My point is, there’s no need to create the impression, as these comments often do, of Americans being sabre rattling drooling bridge trolls while everyone else ‘knows the truth’. We’re people like anywhere, with MANY different PsOV, not all entirely preoccupied with getting rich & fat & bombing strangers while we nod in agreement with or turn our heads to what govts here and elsewhere are doing. There ARE people like that here, and elsewhere. Many are not. I wouldn’t expect anyone outside of the US to know much about the purpose, history, lives, conditions of the US, why would they? Probably didn’t study it in school, have no vested interest in it. It’s not all bad. I find it’s a bit like what people say about China, which is running the country now much like our Founding Fathers envisioned, for the general welfare of the people. Watch a few vids on the new China. Russia, too, more or less. I simply feel people may be waiting for America to elect Jesus (or explode, lol), and everything will fall into place. That’s one reason why I’ve posted some articles as a separate comment here, below, imo, there are quite a few players in this problem we all have. City of London & Wall Street, some major think tanks, NGOs & alliances, intel ag’s, a whole bunch of oligarchs, the ‘same as it’s ever been’ crowd is your and my real enemy. Unfortunately, it’s a major problem, I’m afraid & it’ll take all of us.

        3. You call around THIRTY million people without the ability to pay for overly expensive insurance, “rare when someone isn’t covered”?? Are you daft? Spoiled? Entitled? Ignorant? All of the above? Good god, Agnes…

        4. Insurance premiums often add up to thousands of dollars per year, even with employer participation. The deductibles can add up to thousands more. Many people cannot afford this. Some who can afford insurance choose not to dedicate such a huge percentage of their income, and risk going without.

          It surprises me so many people remain unaware of this.

          1. I accept the deserved criticism, as my poorly worded first comment (should have said denial of treatment is rare) stepped on my actual point about its a big cabal of losers running the world. I’d had Caitlin’s comment from a previous column about the US being basically a third world country and multiple commenters who write as if all Americans are the problem on mind. I see a whole bunch of ‘western’ nations, including some M.E. & European, as a group, so find the mainly the US comments to be a distraction. That’s just how I see it.

  10. “Just like Marxists of old, the new movement views wrongthink as unforgivable, but the new Marxism is also extremely corporatist.”

    https://thefederalist.com/2020/07/31/how-to-keep-corporate-wokeness-from-destroying-america/

  11. Roundball Shaman Avatar
    Roundball Shaman

    “When Corporate Power Is Your Real Government, Corporate Media Is State Media”
    .
    Americans foolishly believe that they “elected” their “leaders”. This con game has been going on for many generations. But the true leaders of America are those who run major corporations and other big-moneyed interests. Do Americans elect the leaders of those corporations and interests? Not hardly. What Americans get to do is “elect” a chair-sitter, a chair-warmer, a False Daddy Figure, an order-taker waiting for his/her true boss’ orders like someone who takes restaurant orders being called in on the phone.
    .
    But it wouldn’t matter if Americans DID elect the leaders of major corporations because that would devolve into the charade that current voting already is of “choosing” between two approved-and-vetted-cookie-cutter-approved-agenda-water-carrier “candidates”.
    .
    “Beneath the thin layer of narrative overlay about freedom and democracy, the US is just one more despotic, bloodthirsty empire. It’s no better than any of the other despotic, bloodthirsty empires throughout history. It just has good PR.”
    .
    How does a country that began with such promise and potential end up like this? The acting out of the worst of human nature that the Founders warned of. Were the Founders themselves perfect men? No, no one is. Did they have flaws? Damn straight they did. But they had one hell of a good idea in the beginning and they are currently rolling over in their graves at the sight of what’s happened to their dream. And maybe the worst of that is that they would not be surprised about this, just deeply hurt and disappointed.

    1. Mr. Ehret is one of the best out there; reading his articles puts your brain to work.

    2. Keep it up. I too am a Matt E fan. There is a great series of live lectures from Matt, Cynthia Chung, and others to be found on “The Rising Tide Foundation” site. On FB too.

      1. Yes, Ron & David, very, very good stuff! Great history. Tho, it dawned on me, those outside of the US probably would not mind one bit if the US failed altogether. I fight for it, but I’m biased. To me, it’s very sad in a way. It is/was a great run. Or, maybe it really wasn’t? Idk, it’s home.

  12. Caitlin Johnson’s article is so strong that I do not want to disturb with my always critical and sceptical remarks. However, I would like to see, for example, a more elaborate and detailed picture of the mechanisms of how big money influences the content of the establishment media. Perhaps, some insider should reveal it, while it may cost a job. Besides, sometimes it is the government that punishes those newspapers that do not obey. Thus, I have read that “The Guardian” was directly attacked because they continued to publish classified materials.
    What Caitlin is talking about seems to be true, but it is only part of the picture, the system is enormously complicated.

    1. Chomsky and Herrman looked at this in Manufacturing Consent.
      At first glance, this seems to be a decent 10 min summary.
      At one point, a young person is asking Chomsky for details of how elites control the media. He replies by asking how elites control General Motors. They don’t need to ‘control’ GM, they own it. The same with the media.
      You can probably find lots more info searching under “Manufacturing Consent”

      1. Thanks for that reference.

        Chomsky’s theory is confirmed by the fact that the scholars of Tartu University (Estonia), who wrote about the journalists’ self-censorship, did not refer to Chomsky.

        From Wikipedia, which is often very biased, I found a survey of Chomsky’s book “Manufacturing the Consent”. It is written:

        “If a given newspaper, television station, magazine, etc., incurs disfavor from the sources, it is subtly excluded from access to information. Consequently, it loses readers or viewers, and ultimately, advertisers. To minimize such financial danger, news media businesses editorially distort their reporting to favor government and corporate policies in order to stay in business.”

  13. It’s really quite simple. When i post, repeatedly that the fighting between Democrats and Republicans, at the highest levels of power, is nothing but the political equivalent of a magician”s technique of distraction, I’m amazed at how many disagree or just don’t understand. We of the 99% have far more in common with one another than any one of us has with any one of the oligarchs who are stealing more of our country and our freedoms on a daily basis.
    The things exposed in an article such as this is why I say that, if climate change doesn’t end the human race first, we will continue our slow slide (though it’s picking up speed these days) to an eventual future of either full-blown totalitarianism, or a second U.S. revolutionary war for independence.

    1. Heard Mickey Hart of the Grateful Dead just say on a LiveStream, where he was urging people to vote Democrat,
      “Keep what’s left of America alive, and maybe we can turn it all around.”
      —————
      At this point, Trump must be stopped before we can even think about doing anything else. If Trump is not stopped, then the ability to change direction will be forever lost.
      The important fight right now is on the streets of Portland. If Trump wins, there will be no elections. Defend what little Freedom we have, and do it now. That is step one for any future change at all.

      1. If you think electing Joe Biden is any different than electing Donald Trump you’re fooling yourself.

        1. Poor Mickey … then again he has imbibed quite a bit of Kool-Aid, hasn’t he?
          Be prepared to see the lowest US voter turn out in history. People are through with the “lesser of two evils” scam.

  14. There’s only ONE Corporation, in case nobody noticed. Departments are ENCOURAGED to compete, or at least give the APPEARANCE of competing.

  15. Edward Stabile Avatar
    Edward Stabile

    FYI – during Obama’s second term Congress passed a law allowing the government to propagandize again to the citizens. This law had been rescinded after the McCarthy era. Another dubious achievement of Obama/Biden regime.

    1. No. Not quite. The law that was overturned was the Smith-Mundt Act of 1947—*coincidentally* the same year the CIA was instituted. The Portman-Obama effort goes largely unacknowledged, thank you for bringing it up. I was going to. It is being used quite incessantly at this point and more need to know about it as the Owners drag the proles into inevitable disaster with their warring ways.

  16. The Internet is chock full of different viewpoints and I truly enjoy most of them because it enables me to think about different perspectives. I am an old man now but I fear for the young people that may not have any decent future ahead of them.
    There is the rectified essence of your Democratic Party circa the awful year 2020, spreading its poisons into every organ of society like a fungal overgrowth, making the nation crazy as the old economy of cheeseburgers and happy motoring disintegrates under the spell of a mystifying plague and the peoples’ zombie indifference turns to epic woe and fury. This alarming article can be read here:
    When the Going Gets Weird, the Weird Get Punked by JHK
    https://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/when-the-going-gets-weird-the-weird-get-punked/

    1. JHK has jumped the shark. And he did not jump just any shark. He jumped a Megalodon. An 80 foot whopper. Mr. End of Suburbia is now a full-on Trump supporter and is openly expressing his racism. And Kunstler is a shameless a bitch of the American deep state. Fully half of the liberal commenteritat JHK had in his comment section left when K-Dog left Clusterfuck Nation a week ago. Now the only ‘people’ leaving comments on JHKs blog are to the right of Attila-the-Hun.

      I understand Ron you may be different.

      K-Dog wrote about why he left. He had been commenting there for 15 years.

      Seriously anybody who supported the deployment of Federal Troops to Portland is out to lunch. JHK supported and supports even now, the deployment of Trump Storm Troopers.

      https://chasingthesquirrel.com/ The article is called Moving On. And yes the url matches the url of my blog. I am K-Dog.

  17. When it rains it pours – double shame on the New York Times.
    Chief among the exponents of such conspiratorial thinking is the New York Times, the so-called “newspaper of record”. The Times is a diehard pro-Democrat and “never-Trump” organ. The paper also has a long history of serving as a conduit for United States intelligence agencies. Its nadir of propagandist functioning was making the false case of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and the genocidal United States and British war on that country. Indeed, some of the journalists who peddled that propaganda are still working at the paper and penning the most recent Russophobic articles.
    This editorial can be read here:
    Russophobia Goes Viral Again.. And Fatally No Cure
    https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2020/07/31/russophobia-goes-viral-again-and-fatally-no-cure/

    1. The newspaper of the Status Quo. It can have good content but not everybody has the discrimination to sniff out the bullshit. My bias against the Times means there had better be something very interesting or I won’t look at it at all. I prefer escaping the status quo and not being its slave anyway.

      The lies are big lies that can lead to war and other foolishness. There may not be very many lies in any one year but when the Times lies they do it big. Very big. Big enough lies to ruin the nation if enough people read it.

  18. Nice nod to Tim Dillon.
    I have enjoyed Whitney Webb’s appearances on his show/podcast.
    Keep up the good work, all of you.

  19. I have read and respected Caitlin’s commentaries for several years now, mostly on CounterPunch and Russia Today. I admire greatly independent journalists and have valued them always as superior human beings, the same way as I have always admired artists for the beauty they create in this meaningless and often brutal world.

    But Caitlin’s recent post about overpopulation being “a patriarchal myth” hit me like a sledgehammer. Similar to the effect one would experience after reading an article by, say, Carl Sagan or Neil deGrass Tyson, arguing that our planet is flat. That Caitlin would consider overpopulation being a “myth” is beyond my comprehension. Does she really think that adding almost 6 billion people in less than 70 years is OK?

    Does she really want to live in places with standing room only? And overflowing with filth and excrement, as in Calcutta, Mexico City, Mumbai, Dhaka, or Delhi or any of the dozens and dozens of monstrous metropolitan areas constantly growing like cancers all over the planet?

    Maybe she does. But I don’t. Like famous American wilderness writers, I am no longer interested in living in a world where I cannot find a wild lake anymore and cannot listen to a loon crying over moonlit boreal forest. Even much less am I interested in reading such a irresponsibly and staggeringly stupid article. One is enough. I’d like to leave when I can still remember only one such comment by Ms. Johnestone.

    1. One strike and “Yer out!” ?
      Tough crowd.
      If you’re going to use her first name, spelling her last one correctly would not seem to be too much to expect.
      The count stands at 0-1.

      1. Yes, one strike and you’re out! Just as it would be for Carl Sagan or Neil deGrass Tyson–or any responsible scientist or journalist.

        Yeah, true, I misspelled her name, I am sorry. I wanted to edit my post but there is no edit option here. I have reposted the corrected version under the original article.

    2. Don’t leave, Kaz, because of one statement Caitlin made. I have little doubt that she loves wilderness much the way you do. What she was getting at IMHO were the simple points that educating women seems to bring down the birthrate on its own, without Chinese-style draconian measures, and that the way people use natural resources, even more than the number of people using them, is of crucial importance in rescuing our imperiled environment. We need voices like yours, voices which reverence life, to be prominent on this blog–it’s the better for it–so why not just state your disagreement and the reasons for it, and then continue along in the conversation while adding the contributions or corrections you feel necessary or appropriate? I, and many others here, are very interested in what you have to say, could benefit from your wisdom.

      1. Well, Newton, how could I leave after a comment like yours? I don’t want to use worn-out, usually empty phrases, but you have indeed “made my day” and convinced me to stay if only to learn from comments like yours. There is only so much one can say in a short post like this. Much of what we really are cannot possibly be revealed if only because we are “island universes” and enjoy and suffer in solitude, as my favorite writer Aldous Huxley once said. I have always hoped to prove him wrong. And I have failed. Take care. Thanks a lot.

        1. Low income families and subsistence farmers expect their wives to produce many children to help with labor on the farm or contribute income to the family and support their parents in old age who don’t know about or cannot survive of state pensions. Wealthy people put their parents in old age homes.

    3. Every one of us has blind spots, and personally, I agree that overpopulation is a serious problem, and is the main cause of other serious problems. But if you can’t look past your disagreement with CJ on that point and recognize the many insights that she has contributed on other topics (like, say, the control of media and government by plutocrats), then you are a fragile being, and should indeed leave.

    4. I agree Kaz. Overpopulation is at the core of many of our problems. It used to be discussed in the ’70’s until the plutocrats reined in the ecologists because today’s Capitalism requires unlimited growth.

      There was a Behavioral science experiment I recall from Junior High. You take a box and start putting rats in it. Everything is fine until you put one too many rats in the box. Then the rioting begins. Whenever I am forced to go into a major city, or travel on their beltways, that experiment comes to mind. Just too many rats in the box.

    5. Over population is a myth

      World poverty could be alleviated overnight if global weaponry manufacturing were halted – overnight !

      The world (collectively) needs to change direction, oceans need to be cleaned up, free energy needs to be embraced – Ukraine ( for instance ) has 20% of the world’s organic ‘black’ soil and could easily become the long time ‘food bowl’ of Europe !

      Changing ‘direction’ would create all the ‘new’ opportunities to assure our species survived and thrived.

      We can continue to evolve perpetually.

    6. Overpopulation is not an open and shut case. Are there human cities that are overpopulated? Yes indeed. Is the planet overpopulated? Not even close. Is human society poorly run to the point of insanity? I think so, but if we didn’t allow sociopaths to lead us, that could easily change. The problem is not our numbers. The problem is our leaders.

  20. How do all of these polticians like Schiff, Clapper, Comey, etc. and the MSM such as the NYT and Wapo, etc. get away with all of their lies?
     
    Legislation was passed a few years ago that, for the first time, allowed the US government to legally propagandize (lie to) American citizens within the US and, not only that, literally pay the MSM to do it. It was called the “Smith-Mundt Modernization Act of 2012” Do yourself a big favor and read the not-very-long legislation.
     
    https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/BILLS-112hr5736ih/pdf/BILLS-112hr5736ih.pdf
     
    Small part of the above:
     
    “112TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION

    H. R. 5736

    To amend the United States Information and Educational Exchange Act of 1948 to authorize the domestic dissemination of information and material about the United States intended primarily for foreign audiences, and for other purposes.

    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

    MAY 10, 2012

    Mr. THORNBERRY (for himself and Mr. SMITH of Washington) introduced the
    following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs

    A BILL

    To amend the United States Information and Educational Exchange Act of 1948 to authorize the domestic dissemination of information and material about the United States intended primarily for foreign audiences, and for other purposes.”

    Etc.
     
    With the above relatively new legislation in mind, it is easy to understand why and how high-level politicians in America get away with (stay out of jail for) lying to Americans 24/7. Essentially, as long as the liars tell the truth while under oath in secret testimony, they can say whatever the fuck they want in front of TV cameras. And boy did they do just that.
     
    Once again with even more feeling, the purpose of this VIP+MSM propaganda is to maintain in the minds of US citizens the belief that the US has existential threats to its national security in the form of Russia, China, Iran and, believe it or don’t, Venezuela and Nicaragua! (Again, this is all done to maintain the war budget and its millions of jobs.)
     
    In order to reinforce the proposition that the Smith-Mundt act largely explains the behavior of VIPs and “important” corporate news media, ask yourself the following question. Just exactly WHY was the Smith -Mundt Act (H. R. 5736) enacted into law in 2012, if not to permit the government and its propaganda arms like the NYT to lie to US citizens?

  21. Hey Caitlin .You keep outdoing yourself .This article is so write on with my thoughts being the very same .The
    difference being you have such a way with words and why I love reading your articles .Keep on doing what you do .It will wake up many .
    Cheers from Canada .

  22. The merger of corporatism and the state is called fascism, and on which the U$A was founded.

  23. Mainstream corporate media has created a wall of control between the US and its closest neighbors that is infinitely more effective at insulating its audience from the truth than Trump’s pathetic border boondoggle is at insulating them from the human wave of misery created by our destructive corporate imperialism in Latin America. It remains to be seen how effective the propaganda machine can be at insulating its audience from the truth that is now rippling up from its own households and out onto its own streets. Or more to the point, how effective the American people can be in following Garrison Keilor’s semi-satirical doctrine: “I believe in looking reality straight in the eye and denying it.”

  24. I bet all the newsroom handlers and gatekeepers are working overtime these days trying to figure out how to craft their deceit. No longer can they just print anything because they are [cue fanfare] The New York Times, or some other big media institution. Nowadays they’re getting called out every time. It’s fun to watch.

    1. Not only that, ordinary people’s media, down to linked cell phones, are spreading. (This is why many Important People are again trying to censor the Net.) As a result, much that used to be hidden has been revealed, such as routine police violence. A few weeks ago the NYT felt called upon to publish a compendium of police violence stories with videos, something that would never have happened back in the day. They were trying to get ahead of the story — the technique is called ‘pacing and leading’. Once ahead of it, you can divert or neutralize it.

  25. Everything you said is true. It will remain unchanged until the majority of people stop feeling ok. The middle class must be crushed first. No more netflix, playstation, diversions galore because they will worry about a place to sleep, a plate of food and a place to take a crap. The middle class must lose their comforts, then they will be ready for change.

    1. Going by 20th-century history, when the middle class feels threatened, for many of them the primary alternative is overt fascism. I don’t mean metaphorical fascism, I mean the kind where the fascist police actually break down people’s doors at 3 a.m. and take them away into the night, maybe forever. Be careful what you wish for.

      1. Agreed, and it scares the hell out of me, but Khatika has a point. Like with an addict, the existential level of dysfunction and despair in American society must reach a breaking point, a bottoming out, before the possibility of genuine change can open up. The anticipated depths of the coming Covid depression, should the meager tide-over benefits to the average citizen be cut off, the kind of devastation predicted in Catilin’s recent post about millions of evictions and foreclosures waiting in the wings of “the exceptional nation,” MAY be the trigger point of massive and relentless civil disobedience and resistance that would dwarf what happened after George Floyd was filmed being strangled to death by a cop. The revolution will not come through armed conflict between the cops/military and the citizenry. It will come, if it comes at all, through an endless ocean of “yellow vests” impeding and obstructing the normal operations of America’s corporation-controlled government. That uprising must be much too massive, far too overwhelming, for the PTB to arrest or imprison or shoot enough people to even begin to make a dent in it.

        1. Why do you think Homeland Security has been stockpiling millions of rounds of ammunition the last few years. In addition all the camps already constructed during the Obama years. They may not have enough prisons and bullets but by golly I think they will make a run at it anyway.

  26. Good morning, Ms. Johnstone! Your tremendous and important voice continues to fight propagand asplendidly. I thank you. Continued best wishes to you and yours.
    Since 2020 is a year of revelations, I welcome you and all of your readers to the revelation that as long as we have coercive government, the future is surely bleak.
    I don’t see anything I object to in your blog today. Except! The conclusion.
    Bribery and corruption will never go away, in my opinion. But bribing and corrupting government officials will become meaningless and futile only when those government officials have no power.
    In a peaceful voluntaryist/anarcho-capitalist society, there is no need to fear unbridled corporate power.
    The (truly!) free market is the bridle. And to trust in it and time is the only sane way forward.
    (Sorry, not sorry?)

    1. Please, Libertarian-capitalist.
      You have no right to label your greed-based system “Anarcho”.
      Please … get with it. (Or else start celebrating Sacco and Vanzetti Day.)
      Feel free to high-jack Liberty, just leave anarchism alone.

  27. The article states:
    “If the media and the government are two separate institutions, why do they so consistently function as though they are not separate? Well, that’s easy. It’s because they aren’t separate”.
    I generally agree with this statement to the extent the goals of the particular media outlet and the particular government agency align. Others will point out that if this statement is true then MSNBC would not be beating up Trump 24/7 or Fox would not have criticized Clinton or Obama when they were in power. Also, if the government and media are in bed with one another government officials that are a part of the inner circle would not go to jail or be forced to resign and the public would not be allowed to hear of the event (i.e. Sandy Berger, Hillary Clinton, Trump, etc.). Also, large corporations would never be fined or their executives put in jail and the public would never be allowed to hear of the event. Finally, web sites such as Ms. Johnstone’s would not be allowed and folks such as Zinn, Chomsky and Parenti would be silenced.
    I do not have a good response to these arguments other than to say (a) that possibly these are manufactured smoke screens to give the public the appearance that there is an independent press and real debate and that representative democracy is working (mixing in a little truth with a pack of lies can be very effective) or (b) the government and media have many factions (some well meaning and some corrupt) and all the factions are competing for power and that the corrupt factions (including some government agencies and some media outlets) will say or do anything to other factions (including other corrupt factions) to maintain, increase or get back into power? Does anyone have a better argument?

    1. In general, the bourgeois media are very solidly lined up behind the status quo because it gives them their power and privileges. However, in recent years the ability of the ruling class to govern its underlings seems to be failing, apparently because of sheer incompetence. (Too many dumb boys in legacy slots, mabye.) As a result a struggle between factions has become open and visible: the Deep State on one side and Trump’s fascist gang and their right-wing Republican hangers-on on the other. The overall structure of the capitalist state, which surrounds and gives form to its institutions, such as business corporations, remains intact; struggles between factions of the state are not ruled out.

      1. I think you’ve put your finger on it.

    2. There are genuine struggles within the power structure, but always within a framework that doesn’t undermine Empire. Chomsky does an excellent job of analyzing the boundaries of that framework. MSNBC vs. Fox is all within the acceptable window. It is theater. Notice that Trump was sabotaged from seeking detente with Russia, and Biden is running as a bigger war monger than Trump. And there is no in-depth analysis of any of the fundamentals of Empire anywhere in the MSM. They march in lock step. Also notice that the large fines accessed against major corporations never exceed the illegal profits those activities generated, thus perpetuating the frauds and other illegalities. It is called “industry capture” of regulatory agencies, and it has been accomplished both here and abroad.

  28. Another great commentary from Caitlin. I can’t help but wonder what percentage of the US population sees through the bullshit at this point. I know it’s not as high as I wish. Most are too busy on survival, and spend their off hours on mindless entertainment.

    As for Ms. Maxwell. I suspect the trial won’t step on the toes of the truly powerful, and that some plea bargain will be reached. They definitely won’t touch on the ties to blackmailed politicians. Those operations will continue unabated.

  29. Great synthesis! Great post!

  30. The perpetrators of the crimes and the propaganda OWN the media !

    MSM has become pure fantasy – worthy of the Brothers Grimm !

  31. The New York Times article is laughable. It’s widely known that the US is the most corrupt system under the sun. It outweighs Russia and China. The mainstream media is part and parcel of this corrupt political system. Let’s hope that Ghislaine Maxell will not be suicided as his master Jeffrey Epstein. If she talks, the US political system will be shaken to the very foundations. Because the US justice system is rotten, Ms. Maxwell will get a plea bargain, and the fat cats clap their hands. If not, the big shots will hire legions of the best lawyers across the US, which the DOJ can’t handle. But if Joe Biden wins, Maxwell will be set free after a decent interval. The US is a democracy in name only.

    1. I just get the feeling Ghislaine won’t uncover all the involved people in her and Jeffrey’s scandals. The folks who patronized these slugs are so kinky they are rooting for Ghislaine to beat her charges. That way, they can have more of the goodies that attracted them in the first place. Look at the paltry few charges they have Ghislaine up for…….a short time interval and charges like drinking too much milk at supper, etc.
      Who knows if she’s even in the slammer now? The involved won’t be exposed, except perhaps a few floor sweepers and dish washers. Billy Barr will do his very best to get her off on small potatoes.

      1. If Ghislaine is really in prison, it’s perplexing surprise. She must have double-crossed somebody In the Israeli Secret Intelligence Services …

  32. Sue Ellen Shoffiett Avatar
    Sue Ellen Shoffiett

    Thank you, Caitlin, for your voice of sane intelligence. There have been times for me that without your column, I surely would have questioned my own sanity.

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