In a solid new article titled “Facebook and Twitter Cross a Line Far More Dangerous Than What They Censor” on the cross-platform silencing of The New York Post‘s publication of Hunter Biden’s emails, The Intercept‘s Glenn Greenwald writes the following:
That is always how it will work: it is exclusively the voices on the fringes and the margins, the dissidents, those who reside outside of the factions of power who will be subjected to this silencing. Mainstream political and media voices, and the U.S. Government and its allies, will be fully free to spread conspiracy theories and disinformation without ever being subjected to these illusory “rules.”
Censorship power, like the tech giants who now wield it, is an instrument of status quo preservation. The promise of the internet from the start was that it would be a tool of liberation, of egalitarianism, by permitting those without money and power to compete on fair terms in the information war with the most powerful governments and corporations.
But just as is true of allowing the internet to be converted into a tool of coercion and mass surveillance, nothing guts that promise, that potential, like empowering corporate overloads and unaccountable monopolists to regulate and suppress what can be heard.
Facebook and Twitter Cross a Line Far More Dangerous Than What They Censorhttps://t.co/CR3wDPsCvs
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) October 15, 2020
Greenwald is correct. The increasingly iron-fisted internet censorship we’ve seen rolled out over the last four years has consistently targeted groups that are oppositional to the status quo with which monopolistic Silicon Valley megacorporations like Twitter, Facebook and Google have aligned themselves.
Monopolistic corporations, historically, do everything they can to maintain their power. Once you’ve reached a certain level of power and influence, this means agreeing to collaborate with existing power structures, like when Google, Facebook and Twitter were called before the Senate Judiciary Committee and instructed to come up with a strategy “to prevent the fomenting of discord”.
“We all must act now on the social media battlefield to quell information rebellions that can quickly lead to violent confrontations and easily transform us into the Divided States of America,” the social media giants were told by think tanker and former FBI agent Clint Watts, who added, “Stopping the false information artillery barrage landing on social media users comes only when those outlets distributing bogus stories are silenced—silence the guns and the barrage will end.”
Friendly reminder that last year representatives of Google/Youtube, Facebook and Twitter were instructed on the floor of the US Senate that it is their responsibility to "quell information rebellions" so as to "prevent the fomenting of discord.”https://t.co/X4Hc56fH0k
— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) August 6, 2018
Obviously a violent uprising is something that any sane person would hope to avoid, but when you’re talking about “information rebellions” with vague terms like “discord” and “division” you’re not limiting yourself to the prevention of violence. You’re talking about controlling the flow of information to prevent people from using the power of their numbers to collectively take direct action against the ruling power establishment in any way.
As Greenwald noted, the internet was initially hailed as a tool of the people for democratizing the flow of information instead of allowing that flow to be controlled entirely by the media-owning class, and for the moment it is still far more democratic than it was back before the public had any access to media platforms of their own. People with an ear to the ground understood the potential political ramifications of a new paradigm in which ordinary people can circulate ideas and information without the permission of the establishment political/media class.
The problem came in when the corporations which were elevated to the top of this new paradigm began collaborating more and more brazenly with ruling power structures, to the point where they’re now just openly working with US government agencies to determine what information to censor. They have every incentive to do this as talk of antitrust cases and reinterpreting Section 230 heats up; they know the odds of their monopolies being torn apart go down the more favorable they make themselves to the government powers that would enforce them.
This is a major, major problem for humanity as a species, because we will never be able to make real changes to the systemic problems which are driving us toward disaster as long as establishment power is controlling our ability to interact with each other.
To Those Cheering on Censorship: pic.twitter.com/9bt0t2chE3
— Richard Medhurst (@richimedhurst) October 16, 2020
Establishment power will keep advancing its own interests at all cost, even if it means pushing us into nuclear war or climate collapse. The only way to end their destructive rule is for a critical mass of the public to rise up and use the power of their numbers to force real change. People will not rise up and use the power of their numbers to force real change as long as they are being successfully propagandized not to by the ruling power establishment. People will continue to be successfully propagandized as long as a critical mass are prevented from viewing ideas and information which contradict establishment-friendly narratives.
It really is that simple. If internet censorship of dissident voices continues to tighten, it will lose any potential to exist as a tool of the people which can be used to advance real change, and will instead exist only as a tool for the powerful which enables them to dispense propaganda narratives at a much faster rate than they previously could. With the added bonus of sweeping surveillance powers.
The establishment pushes censorship for the same reason cult leaders and abusive partners work to isolate their victims: they don’t want people sharing ideas and information with each other about their abuser, because that can lead to their victims escaping from the abuse. We will never escape from the abuse as long as we are successfully prevented from sharing ideas and information with each other about our abusers to awaken a critical mass.
Remember Alex Jones? Big Texan, voice like a fleet of helicopters, talked about Satan a lot? How often do you notice him these days? I used to see his face around all the time, but ever since his coordinated deplatforming across multiple online platforms I often forget he even exists. I have no idea what he’s even up to these days; he could be a hemp-wearing hippie now for all I know.
Maybe you’re happy to not see Jones himself around anymore, but think about what kind of power these monopolistic platforms have for a second. They can completely disappear someone from public attention at a whim. That’s how thoroughly they’ve come to dominate political discourse, and that’s just too powerful a weapon for a small group of oligarchs to wield.
"If you don't like power companies burning coal, go make your own grid." https://t.co/jxoqJBVO3G
— Alice (@AliceFromQueens) October 15, 2020
It’s hard to know what to do about this problem. The common argument that is often made sincerely by libertarians and insincerely by liberals is that monopolistic social media platforms which censor speech can be fought by free market competition–that developers can just start new platforms which people will flock to as safe havens from authoritarian regulations. This is a path fraught with obstacles, as Ars Technica explained following a House Judiciary Subcommittee antitrust investigation, because these giant platforms have been actively making competition next to impossible.
Of course people are free to start more fringe alternative social media platforms that won’t be censored. They’re free to dig a hole in the ground and yell into it without censorship, too. In both cases, nobody will hear them; a critical mass of people will never be reached with healthy new ideas and unauthorized information. In order to be allowed to grow to a size where a critical mass could be influenced, they’d be forced to collaborate with existing power structures and implement censorship in the same way Facebook, Twitter and Google are doing.
Moreover, there’s nothing the establishment narrative managers would like better than for dissident voices to quarantine themselves onto obscure fringe platforms where they can’t infect the mainstream herd with wrongthink. A mass exodus of all dissident voices from all mainstream platforms wouldn’t cause problems for the establishment, it would solve problems for the establishment.
So I don’t see competition resolving this problem any time soon. I think it’s going to have to be faced directly, in the same way all the other arms of establishment oppression must be faced directly. I think we need to stand as close to the mainstream spotlight as we can, draw as much attention as possible to the dangers of internet censorship by monopolistic oligarchs, and hopefully drum up some support for legal action against these corporations which benefits ordinary human beings.
Straight blocking of URLs was wrong, and we updated our policy and enforcement to fix. Our goal is to attempt to add context, and now we have capabilities to do that. https://t.co/ZLUw3YD887
— jack (@jack) October 16, 2020
Basic public pressure helps too. Twitter has announced a rollback of its decision on the New York Post article, opting to attach a disinfo disclaimer instead of blocking to URL. This is still a paternalistic authoritarian intervention into information sharing, but it does show that censorship decisions can be swayed by public outcry. The establishment can only advance ugly policies if people aren’t shining a big bright light on what they’re doing and calling lots of attention to it; they risk losing the ability to manufacture consent if they are too brazenly forceful in their authoritarianism.
Like the rest of our struggle, we’ll either win this battle or we won’t. But we’ve got to do everything we can to make sure humanity comes out on top, because there are very dark days ahead of us if we fail. There are some battles which we can afford to lose because the cost outweighs the benefit and it won’t affect the outcome of the war, but this is not one of those battles.
_______________________
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 at my website or on Substack, 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, throwing some money into my tip jar on Patreon or Paypal, purchasing some of my sweet merchandise, buying my books Rogue Nation: Psychonautical Adventures With Caitlin Johnstone and 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, use or translate any part of this work (or anything else I’ve written) in any way they like free of charge.
Bitcoin donations:1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2
65 responses to “No Real Change Can Come If Speech Is Restricted By Monopolistic Oligarchs”
The PDF Drive Review
The PDF Drive is an online document storage service. It is free, mobile friendly, and safe. But, it is important to note that you should not click on links in PDFdrive documents. You should also use a cloud reader to open your PDF files to ensure they are virus-free. You can also get a DMCA disclaimer from The PDF Drive before you start using it.
Been reading your work for a while and am a growing fan.
You are a great advocate for liberty and sanity. Keep up the good work!
“…The problem came in when the corporations which were elevated to the top of this ‘new’ paradigm began collaborating more and more brazenly with ruling power structures, to the point where they’re now just openly working with US government agencies…”
Nothing “new” about this collaboration, coordinated by the globalist Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and its many affiliates, directors, and corporate partners.
The famous CIA “Operation Mockingbird” of the 1950s and 60s, which involved the major media at the time (CBS, NBC, ABC, WashPost, NYTimes, Time, etc), was led by CIA director Allen Dulles — who was also a CFR director for 40 years. Many of those media execs were also CFR members (Paley, Sarnoff, Meyer-Graham, Sulzberger, Luce, et al).
Same stuff, different decade; only the names have changed. Eric Schmidt (Google), Sheryl Sandberg (Facebook), Stephen Adler (Reuters), etc. See this summary chart showing the modern interlock between the CFR, the media, and the government: https://swprs.org/the-american-empire-and-its-media/
“No real change can come” until we identify the entities behind the curtain
Hello John,
Thanks for your informative post.
Your Conclusion ““No real change can come” until we identify the entities behind the curtain” has been my focus for a long time. I really did not want the answer to be what i was finding. Eventually, after much preparatory experience, i read a book which put the fragments of data into a coherent picture.
`
I had the extra Ordinary good fortune to be introduced to Castaneda’s reportage 1n 1971 in a circumstance which proved beyond doubt the validity of his informant. Although it can be read as fiction, Castenada emerges as a devout anthroppologist grappling with something which took much of his lifetime to assimilate. I too found the understandings come much slower than anticipated. The toltec realityMap is tough country because the required cognitive architecture has been demonised & erased by Christian dogma. Our true nature and circumstance has been systematically concealed.
`
My vocation of disrupting massStupidity conflicts with the agenda which spans generations of humans, so i have a lot of personal experience in the pushback that heresy attracts. The original description of the mudShadows disclosed by nagual Juan Matus remains the only reliable interpretation. Castaneda published his account of events leading up to don Juan’s disclosure of the Topic of Topics in The Active Side of Infinity (a book which can be downloaded free from https://z-lib.org)
`
My subsequent research has tended to validate this description of an elusive saboteur of human potential.
I have associated inorganic beings with the realm constituted by dark matter, a substance which can be “seen” by a latent faculty.
`
Knowing what is really going on has been important to me from earliest memories, so i know roughly how much background work went into your remarks here. Maybe you will find adding the mudShadows to your realityMap fills in a swathe of blanks, too.
Best Regards, Peter
Capitalist collectives like Twitter and Facebook can be controlled, but P2P cannot. As the corps(e) become(s) more oppressive, information and ideas will increasingly leak around the edges. What is required and at this point what is missing is the desire to do so, but that may change.
Few people talk about the elephant in the room: Advertising.
Advertising ruins everything it touches.
Once ad revenue became the business model for Big Tech, the oligarchs were able to both draw most internet users to their platforms (and to keep them there) and also to garner market power that allowed them to make censorship decisions that affect all of us. Absent the cash cow of ad revenue, the internet as we know it would never have become the dystopian environment that it has become.
Want to fix the internet? Ban the collection and sale of personal information. Done.
Defying the Evil Empire with the truth of its war crimes turns my stomach!
https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2020/10/16/on-the-british-state-funded-bbcs-pending-smear/
Actually, we are getting real change from oligarchic censorship; its just not good change for the better.
Voting Trump is the only out.
If the Reset oligarchs are on the outs, they will need freedom from censorship to continue their ‘Resistance’ (to genuine humanitarianism).
Some people state this is okay because they are private companies. So are local electrical companies. Can their CEO shut off your power because you use it to post things on the internet that he dislikes? If you use cable for your internet, can their CEO shut you off? Can Costco cancel your membership because you show up on a hate blacklist?
Well… some people DO think its OK to punish people for political incorrectness using any means necessary.
It used to be, the alt-right was the feared ‘little brother’ of Big Brother statism, but the alt-left is proving just as susceptible to the dark power to punish.
An alternative conclusion to the Milgram electrical shock experiments, was that “Instead of a latent capacity for evil, we just want to feel good about ourselves.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/famous-milgram-electric-shocks-experiment-drew-wrong-conclusions-about-evil-say-psychologists-9712600.html
That is, if convinced doing evil is for a greater good, some people are all-on board. The censors may understand what they are doing is wrong, but those who aren’t psychopaths getting a kick, are sociopaths getting a kick.
Sociopathy is learned psychopathy.
I’m sorry, but Zuckerberg increasingly looks more like an alien than most aliens. Wouldn’t you think a billionaire could afford a better haircut? I mean, he’s probably actually a very intelligent and all around nice guy but a public image stand/body double in can’t be a bad idea and is certainly not out of reach from an economic standpoint. Look for Trump to have a relapse shortly after winning the election in order to take an early retirement back to the very real comforts of his former lifestyle. He will then receive yuge universal acclaim as our greatest President ever, yada yada.
I always thought Zuckerberg was trying to look like Data from Star Trek.
Trump, is not likely to win the election and will probably be severely and visibly punished for inconveniencing the Deep State, just to set an example. Or die of natural causes and quickly be forgotten.
Zuck and Data have the same complexion.
As to Trump being re-elected,
time will tell… and not much more to wait.
The air is thick with October surprises.
Trump has to be part of the game or at least backed by a faction that has enough clout to keep him from getting assassinated. I’m not sure which one it is and who the Trump backing faction is? They must have some clout, but way less than their opponents and will eventually pay the price.
I think he’s part of the game. Possibly was unwilling but the powers have kompromat on him, or possibly he was willing and getting a huge payoff.
If his win was legit by the vote and a surprise to the powermongers, I’m not sure what that indicates. For many it could’ve have simply been a big NO to Hillary, not a YES to Trump.
I call it the ” owners and the masters end game “! To them it would be just ideal to end this sham ” democracy ” and just turn this entire country into what now exists within ” Gitmo ” on Cuba! No more charades or propaganda would be needed at all. The ” sheeple kneel and obey ” or they are tortured or killed; plain and simple.
~
Back to the incipient coup facing the United States, there should be no illusion that what is at stake in the unfolding scenario for the removal of Donald Trump is not just his presidency but the survival of the historic United States of American ethnos of which he is seen as an avatar by both his supporters and detractors.
~
This magnificent article can be read here:
Before the Bidens “Did” Ukraine, There Was Iraq – and Serbia by James George Jatras!
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2020/10/16/before-biden-did-ukraine-there-was-iraq-and-serbia/
Yet so many people never-Trump…. even though this guarantees a Biden victory.
Sigh.
I do not expect honest vote tallies anywhere in the U.S.A. in November. I expect chaos with no winner and lots of blood on the streets before ” martial law ” is declared and the U.S.A. ceases to exist. The C.I.A. and the F.B.I. take complete control of everything. Congress and the Courts are disbanded and everyone obeys orders or is summarily executed.
The first challenge is to get more of us to wake up, but that pales in comparison to the challenge of actually opposing the shadow power.
The illusion of freedom [in America] will continue as long as it’s profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater.”
~ Frank Zappa
Actually, there is a very real need for censorship in today’s world, for those who would like to be in the know for why, start with an internet search of, “Kabbalah”, and look around, you might even want to checkout what will happen when the messiah comes(exact spelling dependant upon particular religious beliefs).
“The increasingly iron-fisted internet censorship we’ve seen rolled out over the last four years has consistently targeted groups that are oppositional to the status quo with which monopolistic Silicon Valley megacorporations… have aligned themselves… It’s hard to know what to do about this problem.”
.
Simply stop using these platforms and any similar to them. The reason they succeed and prosper is because people continue to use them as those same users are voting to accept the widening censorship and prosecution of Thought Crimes and Wrong Think that these platforms commit. There’s no Holy Book that says these platforms have to exist. For almost all of human history, they didn’t exist and somehow we evolved and made it this far. Or, one can go on using these wretched platforms and actively participate in their own destruction. It’s a clear choice that you make every day. Do you forsake those who are trying to do you in, or do you use and support and empower them? One can always find excuses why they have to do something. It’s a value judgment. Perceived convenience of using platforms that debase you and empowers the Predator Class is a very high price to pay for giving up one’s integrity.
.
It’s no one’s damn business to protect us from bad ideas and wrong thinking. That’s our job, every one of us. We don’t need any damn minders keeping watch over us and deciding what is good or bad for us. Especially minders with heavy agendas who’ve already sold their empty souls to the dark side.
.
Let these peddlers of propaganda and deceit continue to censor and twist and distort and suck up to their chosen dark powers. That’s their business. But it doesn’t have to be ours. If you have a pipeline pouring sewer water into your home, turn that awful thing OFF.
it will lose any potential to exist as a tool of the people
It already is beyond that threshold. As one who has my own hole to scream into, I know this. Wondering if a comment like this will post is like wondering how a pare of dice will roll. And that does not have to do with anybody being independent or not.
Fly too close to the sun and you will find your wings melt. Independent or not.
Yesterday I was banned from posting here. I know Catlin had nothing to do with it.
Caitlin, sorry. It is my big paws.
To paraphrase Noam Chomsky: You don’t really believe in free speech unless you are willing to let people whose opinions you despise be perfectly free to express those opinions in public.
“Monopolistic corporations, historically, do everything they can to maintain their power. Once you’ve reached a certain level of power and influence, this means agreeing to collaborate with existing power structures, like when Google, Facebook and Twitter were called before the Senate Judiciary Committee and instructed to come up with a strategy “to prevent the fomenting of discord”.
`
I don’t think real change will come until we stop blaming, nebulous, “monopolistic corporations” or “power structures.” Contrary to what the 2010 Supreme Court, Citizens United decision held, corporations are not people. They have no sense of responsibility and they have no ability to care about anything.
`
People are responsible and they have names and faces. Those most responsible are the billionaire robber barons. I don’t see any way to have any real impact against a nebulous, oligarchic power structure or mega corporation. They hold all the cards.
`
Start placing the blame where it belongs, on the people most responsible: Rothschild, Walton, Mars, Koch, al Saud . . . Bezos, Gates, Arnault, Zuckerberg, Musk . . .. They’re hiding behind the mega corporations and power structures.
`
These people and families have way, way, way, too much power and control over our planet and in people’s lives.
`
They are playing God.
I don’t think real change will come until we stop blaming, nebulous, “monopolistic corporations” or “power structures.” Contrary to what the 2010 Supreme Court, Citizens United decision held, corporations are not people. They have no sense of responsibility and they have no ability to care about anything.
–
I wish I could say it is amusing but I can’t. Watching a dog chasing a squirrel into a grove of wood and watching it then bark up the wrong tree is always sad. Corporate Servers are like dogs who wear leashes. A hard yank and the leash holders brings the corporate server to heal and if that means corrupting you content, it is not the evil pathological psychopathic corporations who did it.
–
And Trump is trying hard to get re-elected. Where he can he does more than bend rules. Trump does not respect any stinkin rules. But to be fair, neither did Obama.
Always something:
A hard yank and the leash holders brings the corporate server to heal and if that means corrupting you>r content, it is not the evil pathological psychopathic corporations who did it.
–
And I was not clear. Evil pathological psychopathic corporations are owners but they are not the ones who hold the censor leash on their servers. It is a bait and switch on an international scale that places blame in the wrong place.
Should have said: [corporations] have no personal accountability and they have no ability to care about anything.
`
And:
`
People are accountable and they have names and faces.
I agree with Shocker : corporations have neither humanity nor a means for accountability. Corporations are zombie organisations which in their sole purpose of generating income … impose and perpetuate hierarchy, the opposite of freedom.
`
Making individuals accountable for the outcomes of their decisions is an important ingredient of social hygiene.
Power over others … is what motivates many overAchievers, yet we tolerate the very things which destroy our self-respect and traditional individual freedoms. (for example : liars like Brockland, fools like khatika & Keith Hayes, and miseryPeddlers like Tired)
`
Where are the conscientious objectors ? to Trump’s endlessly cruel “war on drugs”, a criminal theft of traditional herbal medicines from the Public Domain, a massive deception which enables government insiders like CIA to fund their corrupting of traitorous generals and installing gangster politicians … everywhere from 1960s VietNam to today’s murderous regimes in Bolivia, Colombia and Brazil.
Reply to Peter Mann:
`
“Where are the conscientious objectors ? to Trump’s endlessly cruel “war on drugs”, a criminal theft of traditional herbal medicines from the Public Domain, a massive deception which enables government insiders like CIA to fund their corrupting of traitorous generals and installing gangster politicians … everywhere from 1960s VietNam to today’s murderous regimes in Bolivia, Colombia and Brazil.”
`
Interesting point about the “war on drugs.” The so called “legalized” drugs are the drugs that the robber barons can make money on, regardless of their affect on society, or people’s health. Just look at the opioid crisis. My, my how that has disappeared down the rabbit hole. All the while, they’re ruining poor (mostly minority) people’s lives for using, virtually, the same drugs that the upper and middle classes are allowed to use legally. Simply because the poor can’t afford to buy them “legally.”
`
The thing is, there seems to be a mountain of evidence that the banksters have been involved in laundering money for the drug cartels. For decades.
`
Not to mention the U.S. government’s involvement in the Iran Contra, crack cocaine scandal in the 1980s and 1990s. And lord knows what else. Was the U.S. really responsible for the crack epidemic that mostly affected, and increased the suffering of poor, black neighborhoods?
`
Yep. And all that “dark” money almost, certainly, was used for the ” . . . CIA to fund their corrupting of traitorous generals and installing gangster politicians … everywhere from 1960s VietNam to today’s murderous regimes in Bolivia, Colombia and Brazil.”
Meant to say “Was the U.S. [government] really responsible for the crack epidemic . . .”
”Just look at the opioid crisis. My, my how that has disappeared down the rabbit hole.”
`
Now that Shocker mentions it, there has been a sudden silence after the storm of hysteria about people killing themselves with synthetic opioids. I find sudden silences suggestive of hidden agendas : sinister as deceitful propaganda.
`
The lies about opium have been going on so long that almost nobody has an historical perspective on our most important medicine. Most people live their lives without encountering severe pain ; crippling pain mostly happens to “somebody else”. In a culture like today’s, designed to deaden empathy, being “somebody else” is most a most unfortunate predicament.
`
This ties in with my insistence that the stupefying of mankind is an artifact. Here is evidence that mankind has been compromised by a semi-intelligent parasite which feeds on distress and anger. Untreated pain is one of the worst things that can happen to us. Untreated pain is so potent that millions of people spend themselves bankrupt and take to thieving … to buy what used to be readily available as an agricultural product form an apothecary, or was grown as required by those too poor to buy medicine.
`
When it comes to stupidity : it really takes something exceptional to exceed the cruelty of demonising & prohibiting our most effective herbal medicine. A great fuss is made about addiction, as if addiction were the root of evil. The stupidity of believing this is truly grotesque. All life is addicted to food. So fundamental is this addiction, we even have a special word for food withdrawals (hunger). Yet nobody has the detachment to realise we are being lied to when some bastard tells us never to use opium because it is addictive. As stupidity goes, this is a gold-plated mindFuck.
`
The one who are most hurt by government monopoly on pain management … are those with undagnosed pain.
The medical industry (medical practice is no longer a profession) has no method of measuring pain, yet devoutly insists that it is entitled to sole administration of the herbal medicine which has never been improved upon by profiteers who turn predictable opium resin into white powders of inscrutable potency.
`
When a doctor decides that your pain is imaginary, or that you are lying about having pain … you are totally fucked!
You have 3 options.
Live with the pain.
Buy contaminated heroin or deadly fantanyl at blackMarket prices.
Or suicide.
Opium is not available.
Nobody is going to help you.
`
This predicament is perfect for mudShadows, and horrific for the unfortunate minority whose severe pain self-important quacks and bureaucrats can neither measure noR verify.
`
Witholding pain medicine is torture. The morality of this is monstrous, a cruelty which is not human.
A blatant defiance of Hyppocratic principles has been embraced by a corporatised monopoly on medicine.
“Establishment power will keep advancing its own interests at all cost, even if it means pushing us into nuclear war or climate collapse. The only way to end their destructive rule is for a critical mass of the public to rise up and use the power of their numbers to force real change. People will not rise up and use the power of their numbers to force real change as long as they are being successfully propagandized not to by the ruling power establishment. People will continue to be successfully propagandized as long as a critical mass are prevented from viewing ideas and information which contradict establishment-friendly narratives.” My hope is that at some point the inescapable realities in front of our noses–the increasing levels of oppression, exploitation, and marginalization of human beings; the waging of endless wars of aggression and the relentless pressure being put on China and Russia at the substantial risk of triggering nuclear war; and the escalating levels of pollution and plunder which eat away at and destabilize our global ecosystem to the point of threatening its total collapse–will trump ALL of the propaganda forced 24/7 down our collective throats, that harsh reality itself will undermine the manipulative fictions of virtual reality. Deep down, I believe, many (if not most) people now realize that they’re being fed a steady diet of bullshit by the MSM and the major corporate social media. And when push comes to shove, when a critical threshold of pain and despair is reached by the masses, I put stock in the old saying about what you’re going to believe, what I’m telling you or your own lying eyes. Either the universe is so constructed or has so evolved that truth will out…or it is not. My hunch, despite all the current, seemingly-overwhelming evidence to the contrary, is that it is. To paraphrase Shakespeare’s Hamlet, there is a divinity (or something like it) that shapes our ends, rough-hew them though we will. So now, more than ever, we must summon the will to believe in the human spirit. Only so armed can we engage in a strong, sustained, and victorious fight against the bastards eagerly killing people and planet.
Really big stuff for society and I’m glad you’re posting, writing on it. Would love your take on movie Social Dilemma.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaaC57tcci0&w=718&h=404%5D
–
And check it out.
–
https://www.tristanharris.com/
”they know the odds of their monopolies being torn apart go down the more favorable they make themselves to the government powers that would enforce them.”
`
This apparent explanation of the stupefying of the internet does not account for the trend of stupefication which has oppressed human thinking since Roman Democracy was subverted by politicians claiming to be Caesars, claiming to be reincarnations of Christ the divine vindictiveForgiver.
`
Always there is an insistence on censorship, first documented in Genesis with the excessive punishment of Adam and all his descendants … for Eve defying the criminal censorship of knowledge (of good verSus evil.)
`
It should be obvious that the only beneficiaries of our compulsory ignorance of Evil … are those with evil intent towards mankind. While we deny their existence, there are no grounds for counterMeasures.
`
The nihilising of evil should be an obvious threat to our safety ; the absence of concern about this imposed cognitive blindSpot … is itself a clue to the strange massHypnosis described by Gurdjieff as the antiThesis of enlightenedSovereignty.
`
To explain this insidiously persistent dynamic as economic dominoes … is an interesting digression from the gravity of prudish forces which insist on our being more stupid than necessary. Yes, Caitlin is correct in identifying the forces that persuaded today’s luckyGreedsters to grease and excuse the outrages inflicted by kleptocrats and political powerAddicts … yet at the same time, the effect of this explanation is to highlight our insignificance in opposing the sabotage of yet another potential for cognitive freedom.
`
Compared with corporations hoarding more income than they know how to spend … we individuals seem able to do no more than complain among ourselves.
Explanations which render us impotent are no explanation at all : what we need, more than ever before … is an explanation which sets us free from the Forces of Stupidity.
`
I do not yet have a complete answer, while what i can propose towards freedom from Stupidity … is initially unpalatable and inconvenient. Thus it is both unFair & Necessary to point out that even our best investigative thinkers (such as Caitlin Johnstone) cannot provide an easy way forward.
`
Existing opinions have proven inAdequate .:. therefore, we need answers which do not presently exist.
Perhaps viable answers are absent because they are forbidden by farmers of tamed human beings ; farmers who have discovered and exploited our naἴve vulnerability … to Belief & selfAggrandisement.
`
Forbidden knowledge is a phenomenon that should arouse indignation and passionate opposition : it is more than a little StrangE that we tolerate compulsoryStupidities (such as incomprehension & impotence towards wholesale thefts of individual sovereignty by religions and political ideologies.)
`
Revolution by mass insight has consistently failed to materialise, despite our aspirations, despite freedom of speech … because we are not free to understand.
Our only personal option with these social media giants is to opt out. Turn off news and social media. Quit using twitter. If every time you walked in the facebook or twitter store they hit you in the face why go back but people do. I cannot control others actions but I can sure control my own.
Khatika – YES. QUIT. turn it off. Delete App. See the movie Social Dilemma
I agree, I think it’s a toss up whether tv or social media is more insidious. I turned off the tv decades ago which created an ever-increasing gap of understanding between myself and the tv-watching majority. I quit facebook last year because I didn’t want to view another hate-fest as seen in 2016.
So now, I am able to offend both left and right, rep and dem, by expressing the non partisan opinion that they’re all bullshit and no political solutions that benefit the common people are forthcoming.
I do advise anyone I can collar to READ their news, cut off the audio and visual streams which can plant toxic ideas in the mind so quickly that they don’t consciously register.
Caitlin’s blogs about healing ourselves are spot on, to unwind ourselves from both our own personal trauma, and the confusing and abusive messages of western and particularly american culture. When the mind isn’t troubled by insecurities and knee-jerk emotional reactions, apparent intelligence increases, as natural intelligence no longer suppressed.
“Khatika : Our only personal option
Khatika is saying that ignoring evil is the only way to defeat evil.
Sabotaging all our options by pretending to be informed and wise is itself evil.
`
Jesus said “Resist not Evil” because he is a spokesman for the Evil mudShadows, who prohibit opposition because they are weaker than their prey. This is why they rely on deception to steal meaning & intensity … from those they rob of sovereignty and awareness.
`
Being a spokeswoman for the mudShadows is why i dislike Khatika and her unFunny comments.
At what point does a human being, who is given a reasonable amount of Love and/or affection decide that he/she will do whatever it takes to become a PARASITE sucking at the teat of genocidal Capitalschism?
Threaten to throw out their video game console and force them to get a job when they are old enough to work. Worked for my kids. All four support themselves and none have come back home to live.
Their staying at a safe distance from Khatika probably has more to do with forcing her children to get a job as slaves in a system which turns human beings into a government-owned commodity.
`
The poor little buggers want to stay away from anything that makes them more meaningless and worthless.
Sharing. Agree 100% and thank you again for putting it all together. Brilliant and important.
“Obviously a violent uprising is something that any sane person would hope to avoid”. Which doesn’t speak well for the “peaceful” rioters.
There is a fundamental flaw in the way corporations are viewed. Libertarians will often claim that they have a right to do as they do because they are private businesses. They are not. Corporations are a creation of the state, and so are beholden to it, and should be treated the same as any other government office. They have no rights the state does not grant them.
Truth can easily withstand any examination, criticism, or argument. It neither needs nor requires censorship to protect it. LIES DO!!!
It is a symbiotic relationship brtween government and corporations. Ofte, waxing and waning one direction or the next. Happens in America, Russia, China and the rest of the world. Mom and pops stores or collective farming does not work. Maybe we should abolish cities and put everyone on collective communes. Corporations are a necessary evil.
Apparently they are not necessary. We got along fine without them for thousands of years. They are an historically new thing. The only thing I see them as necessary for is the consolidation of wealth and power. And given their incestuous relationship with government, an organization that uses the threat of, or active violence, including murder, to enforce its edicts, that consolidation is unlikely to be beneficial to most of us. They are nothing more than expanded partnerships, and at some point their sheer size gives them far too much power.
The censorship really kicked in after the 2016 election. Trump was not supposed to win. He beat Clinton in spite of wall to wall anti-Trump propaganda in MSM. Free speech on social media played a crucial role in Trump defeating his opposition; first the Republicans who did not want to give him the nomination; then the Democrats and the entire Neoliberal establishment and media apparatus. This completely freaked out the Neoliberal Globalists who own and run the Washington Regime (Deep State). They realized they were losing control of the narrative and the minds of the population. They realized they had to control social media and that is what they are working to do to this day; and I predict they will largely succeed.
So yes there is an agenda to censor and control social media; and from the very highest levels.
Ms Johnstone, the bottom line is always money. Big platforms need big money; big money is not attained by morals, ethics, humanitarianism, empathy, or truth. Google, Twitter, Facebook, etc. have turned into swill because swill is what makes the engines hum. Even if a ” truthful platform ” was brought into existence; the owners and the masters would find a way to either buy it out or destroy it. The government of China is befriending governments all over this planet that are not members of the United States goon squad. Instead of threats, and predatory lending the Chinese are leading humanity in a sound beneficial direction. The United Kingdom, the United States, Israel, Saudi Arabia, etc. may find themselves with their paper dollars on the outside looking in at a world that has completely shunned them altogether. The United States has 4,000 nuclear weapons and printing presses to make federal reserves notes that become de-valued more each day. The brainwashed masses are in for a very hard time; chaos is inevitable.
They asked Martin Armstrong how he made such bold predictions. He said we just follow the money.
I haven’t had time to read this article carefully, and I’ve got to get off to work soon, but the title alone sounds rather pessimistic to say the least.
Our societies are in the grip of monopolistic oligarchs anyway. If that makes real change impossible, we might as well all give up now.
But I’ll read it properly later!
I think Joshua is onto something. we can indeed set up our own chambers, our own version of reality, and will be quite happy, even joyful in our chambers. Which is something they cannot attain, since their version of reality is bereft of joy.
In fact this is going on right now, and people who subscribe to this other version of reality Are essentially immune to their propaganda.They’ve canceled their subscription.
We do already in our own minds.
True, but not something to recommend without dire warnings.
This malignant isolation is called defendedPsychosis.
This is the dynamic which underlies religious zealotry and narcissism.
`
Without feedback from interactions with reality, an isolated mind is wholly self-referenced, and therefore irrelevant..
`
Maybe we’re doomed to relieve the days of “samizdat”: the “self publishing” that the dissidents of the old Soviet Union evolved to get around state censorship. Maybe blogs like this are already doing that.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samizdat
I have always wondered how the German Fascists got eight million people to load themselves on trains and go to the Death Camps. Now that I see how the major media controls the narrative, and how science is ignored to bully the population of the English Speaking World especially into hiding in their homes, abandoning their elderly, allowing the closure of travel, schools, etc., because they are afraid of a virus that kills at the rate of the flu, I understand how the Germans did it. The World Fascists are doing the same thing now, but the populace doesn’t believe it. In the United States, we are turning into two camps. The brainwashed covidians and the people who think the whole thing is bullshit. I wonder what the scumbag politicians have in store for us next. It won’t be pretty, they have destroyed the world and the covidians believe the political dog shit. I can’t imagine they will wise up and fight back, they will just die in their homes of fear and despair, and in the meantime, they will think that people like me are conspiracy theorists.
The first thing those German fascists did was disarm the population. Which makes loading them on trains much easier.
https://wnninterviewsociety.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/543-us_migrantchildrendetentioncenter_img_episcopaldioceseofwesttx.jpg
You know, it’s a bit strange, but these oligarchs have established a seperated and insulated ‘manifestation chamber’ for themselves. It is completely private. It is totally secure. It is seperate from all other influences. Yet, it exists, physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, present in our world, and it is being projected into the collective consciousness. Its boundaries have remained inviolate, and its actions have remained the same, thus the continued manifestations. What if that hapenstance were to be changed?
What if others realized that they could establish secure and effective counterpoint ‘manifestation chambers’? What if we woke up, and truly realized exactly what it is which truly causes a reality to be?
“What if we woke up, and truly realized exactly what it is which truly causes a reality to be?”
We are all wrapped up in worlds of our own creation individually and collectively. We are masters at creating although for the most part, we do not yet realize this. And this creative ability is powered by beliefs, aided and abetted by language and the concepts expressed through linguistic structures. Deconstructing and/or seeing through ALL beliefs is the work of awakening. When you believe nothing, than everything is possible. Wake up, peeps.
I agree, Bob.
Belief limits what we can think.
Whereas belief kills creativity,
awareness is fluid & negEntropic.
We live in a Psychopathocracy, and have done for thousands of years, and but for the psychopaths our reality would be completely different, as would our history.
Do a search re Pathocracy
Then you would fin d out that we are overpopulated and have no more oil.
It reminds me of the “Iron dice”, in the runup to the first world war, the political atmosphere among the rulers of Germany made it practically impossible to prevent a war. Politicians kept talking about foreign threats and how something had to be done, but those threats were mostly imaginary. Nobody could say that, though, because the rulers controlled who got to speak and what they could say, effectively making a sort of legal reality out of their own opinions, and silencing anybody who said otherwise. Then when a lone gunman shot an archduke, nobody could say “Let’s wait until all the facts are in”; there was no other visible path but war. I think we might be headed in that direction.