People who are only just beginning to research what’s wrong with the world often hold an assumption that mainstream news reporters are just knowingly propagandizing people all the time. That they sit around scheming up ways to deceive their audiences into supporting war, oligarchy and oppression for the benefit of their plutocratic masters.
Once you’ve learned a bit more you realize it’s not quite happening that way. Most mainstream news reporters are not really witting propagandists–those are to be found more in plutocrat-funded think tanks and other narrative management firms, and in the opaque government agencies which feed news media outlets information designed to advance their interests. The predominant reason mainstream news reporters say things that aren’t true is because in order to be hired by mainstream news outlets, you need to jack your mind into a power-serving worldview that is not based in truth.
https://twitter.com/27khv/status/1329704468137512961
A recent job listing for a New York Times Russia Correspondent which was flagged by Russia-based journalist Bryan MacDonald illustrates this dynamic perfectly. The listing reads as follows:
Vladimir Putin’s Russia remains one of the biggest stories in the world.
It sends out hit squads armed with nerve agents against its enemies, most recently the opposition leader Aleksei Navalny. It has its cyber agents sow chaos and disharmony in the West to tarnish its democratic systems, while promoting its faux version of democracy. It has deployed private military contractors around the globe to secretly spread its influence. At home, its hospitals are filling up fast with Covid patients as its president hides out in his villa.
If that sounds like a place you want to cover, then we have good news: We will have an opening for a new correspondent as Andy Higgins takes over as our next Eastern Europe Bureau Chief early next year.
Does this sound like the sort of job someone with a less than hostile attitude toward the Russian government would apply to? Is it a job listing that indicates it might welcome someone who sees mainstream Russia hysteria as cartoonish hyperbole designed to advance the longstanding geostrategic interests of western power structures against a government which has long resisted bowing to the dictates of those power structures? Someone who voices skepticism about the plot hole–riddled establishment narratives of Russian election meddling and Novichok assassinations? Someone who, as Moon of Alabama notes, might point out that Putin is in fact at work in the Kremlin right now and not “hiding out” in a “villa”?
Of course not. In order to get a job at the New York Times, you need to demonstrate that you subscribe to the mainstream oligarchic imperialist worldview which forms the entirety of western mass media output. You need to demonstrate that you have been properly indoctrinated, and that you can be guided into toeing the imperial line with simple attaboys and tisk-tisks from your superiors rather than being explicitly told to knowingly lie.
Because if they did tell you to knowingly lie to the public to advance the interests of the powerful, that would be propaganda. And propaganda is what happens in evil backwards countries like Russia.
New on MoA:
How 'Western' Media Select Their Foreign Correspondentshttps://t.co/xHgBZFBTZd pic.twitter.com/fQzdvfA1On— Moon of Alabama (@MoonofA) November 20, 2020
Mainstream establishment orthodoxy is essentially a religion, as fake and power-serving as any other, and if you want to work in mainstream politics or media you need to demonstrate that you are a member of that religion.
That’s all you’re ever seeing when you notice blue-checkmarked reporters tweeting in promotion of imperialist interests and status quo politics. They are not laboring under the delusion that they are saying anything new or insightful that a hundred other people aren’t saying at the exact same time; they are signaling. They are letting current and prospective peers and employers know, “I am a believer. I am a member of the faith.” This way they are ensured the continued advancement of their careers in mainstream news media.
This is why you have labels for anyone expressing skepticism of establishment narratives like “conspiracy theorist”, “useful idiot”, “Russian asset” or “Assadist”; the powerful people who understand that whoever controls the narrative controls the world need labels to separate the faithful from the heathens. It means the same thing as “heretic”.
The fast and easy way to get rich and famous has always been to promote the interests of the powerful. This is as true in every other sector as it is in media. For this reason, those who pour their energy into criticizing existing power structures and shining a bright light on their dynamics aren’t likely to be living in fancy mansions or going to ritzy parties any time soon, while those who do the opposite actually will. And yet when someone sets up a Substack or a Patreon account to make criticizing the powerful their life’s work, it is they who will get called money-grubbing grifters by the propagandized.
The faces you see thrust onto screens by the plutocratic media are not spouting falsehoods while being aware of their deception, any more than any preacher is knowingly lying when they say you’ll burn for eternity if you don’t accept the gospel. Most of them believe everything they are saying, because they have been propagandized into becoming good acolytes and proselytizers of the faith.
The most propagandized people on earth are those who are responsible for promulgating propaganda.
___________________________
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79 responses to “New York Times Job Listing Shows How Western Propaganda Operates”
As others have pointed out this job posting appears to be fake. I have spent considerable time trying to verify it and have been unable to do so. Moreover, the two references used By Ms. Johnstone are a) a tweet by Bryan MacDonald and b) a piece MacDonald wrote for MoA. MacDonald provides no actual evidence that this job posting is genuine. As someone who has great respect for Ms. Johnstone, I hope to see her either admit to having been duped or provide evidence that this was other than some kind of spoof. It serves no cause to promulgate phony accusations.
With respect, Ms Johnstone, I am really glad other commenters wondered about the ad because I certainly did. Maybe it’s a joke? Or a set-up? A Russian desk advertised (!!!) by the NYT? Pointing to the obvious, I really don’t think propagandists set propaganda interpreting ability or shrewdness as a job qualifier in an ad. I suggest a paper’s first job requirement is writing skill. Better yet, a demonstrable proficiency. And, maybe, for a Russian position, an ability to speak Russian? I hardly think familiarity with opinions on Russian current events relevant. Maybe?
War is peace. Slavery is freedom. Ignorance is strength. Isolation is solidarity.
“People who are only just beginning to research what’s wrong with the world often hold an assumption that mainstream news reporters are just knowingly propagandizing people all the time. That they sit around scheming up ways to deceive their audiences…”
The job ad discussed here shows that the assumption about reporters scheming up HOW to deceive is wrong! Now we know that they are not supposed to scheme, but to accept a detailed “narrative” and write accordingly.
more good solid truth. i have friends who love the NY Times. but it’s past is its present i tell them. something else to argue about. i’m so sick of arguing. it makes the opponents stiffen. i’m learning how to stretch over to pull them up from their morass. not great at it yet. but hoping.
trust me i’m so glad not to join in Thanksgiving this year. maybe for ever.
not long ago some marine noncom threatened to kill me for trying to explain thermate. fageddaboudit…what do we need the middle east for?
no resource is worth the trillions we spent so some of our wealthy comrades can acquire a new mine.
In the days we are in, I consider it is a great Blessing from Jesus that I did not have children. I would have been so worried for them in this decadent and crazy world.
I truly believe this prophecy from Jesus is coming true now:
“For the time will come when you will say, ‘Blessed are the childless women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!” (Luke 23:29)
Keeping my Rosary on hand!
https://www.samwoolfe.com/2013/04/plagiarism-in-bible.html
Merry Yaldā and a Happy Gregorian Calendar to you
Me too. I think I shared this link here before, but I am once again reminded of the Bob Dylan song “Masters of War”, which lyrics include:
.
“You’ve thrown the worst fear
that can ever be hurled,
fear to bring children
into the world”
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“For threatening my baby,
unborn and unnamed,
you ain’t worth the blood
that runs in your veins”
…
“Even Jesus would never
forgive what you do.”
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here is the song as sung by Ed Sheeran:
Which begs the question, why on earth would you post the Ed Sheeran version over Bob’s? Horrible.
Herman and Chomsky’s Manufacturing Consent captured the process as it was then occurring, mainly behind the scenes in the major outlets. In the 1980s numerous smaller newspapers, etc, still remained, and were still able to accommodate a semblance of journalistic integrity with some investigative license. Those days are gone of course and the small outlets now form the Fifth Estate of the internet except they’re no longer limited to the small town.
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And that’s what scares the bejesus out of the rulers. On the one hand they now hire willing propagandists overtly, and on the other use the same muppets to advocate censorship of the Fifth Estate. Dutiful to a fault they are, especially the slightly less mainstream ones with some remnant figleaf of false ‘credibility’ among ‘progressives’. And it’s the ‘progressives’ that need to be recruited to the censorship project, as creatures like Richard Stengel well know, and that’s gaining traction.
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Jimmy Dore’s latest interviews with Glenn Greenwald, especially the third one, are well worth watching to see the depths the kept ciphers of the bourgeoisie are reaching to please the rulers.
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The campaign to censor alternative news sites isn’t so much about ‘freedom of speech’, or ‘amending’ the First Amendment as Stengel et al. would have it. It’s all about freedom of reach, as Sacha Baron Cohen put it in his own naive advocacy of platform censorship. The ruling class actually doesn’t give a rat’s rectum about what you or I may say to each other, but they do if you or I can say it to 1,000,000 others. And they’re now using their ‘journalist’ mouthpieces as both disseminators of their lying propaganda and as the keenest advocates of limiting everyone’s freedom of reach.
yeah, those dore interviews with greenwald are excellent.
Besides the rot of the news, there are all those wonderful jobs listed on Craigslist to write good reviews of crappy worthless merchandise that purveyors of junk and other garbage love to sell. So, I reading about the difference between sociopaths and psychopaths; so, my guess is that most Americans are sociopaths, because they have a conscious, but that doesn’t stop them from changing their behavior. Psychopaths on the other hand can do no wrong. So, LOL, they all good, and hardly worth a second thought.
Others have observed the fishy nature of Bryan Macdonald’ s Twitter (re)post …
I’m no fan of the NYT, believe me. That said, a brief search for the original job offer came up with zilch. Anybody who has a direct link to the original NYT job offer Please post. Thanks.
Here:
https://nytimes.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/INYT/job/Moscow-Russia/Russia-Correspondent_REQ-008536
Is nytimes.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com part of the New York Times organization?
Maybe not … https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workday,_Inc.
Could Workday, Inc. be hacked?
I detest the NYT and though they are certainly an arrogant bunch, they are not as ham-fisted or blatant as this particular job offering suggests.
It appears NYT outsources employee searching to Myworkday, a common practice
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If you look at the link a couple of levels up, you’ll see other NYT jobs advertised. ie, https://nytimes.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/INYT/
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Would these more benign boring listings be hacked too?
Sorry, I just don’t buy the idea that MSM “journalists” don’t know they are lying. Any person with intelligence, with knowledge of events, as these journalists must have, should easily conclude that the MSM take on things is a bunch of lies.
I think they DO know that they’re lying, down deep, but have made some kind of unconscious pact with the devil in order to hold onto their livelihoods, and lifestyles, to just report what they are expected, and required, to report. It probably takes a certain amount of self forgetfulness, or self deception, which they have probably become masters at.
Or maybe they just say to themselves, “well, if I don’t do this job, somebody worse will”.
these are some ignorant aholes though. did you see bari wiess on joe rogan trying to justify
her smears? or chris mathews in obvious terror that bernie sanders winning would get him lynched in times square?
On November 16, 2020, a U.S. Navy Arleigh Burke–class guided missile destroyer, USS John Finn, launched an SM-3 Block IIA interceptor—a missile designed to quickly ascend from the earth’s surface and kinetically strike ballistic missile reentry vehicles outside of the earth’s atmosphere, using what is known as hit-to-kill technology. Minutes earlier, a target missile emulating an ICBM launched from the Marshall Islands’ Kwajalein Atoll in the southern Pacific toward open ocean northeast of Hawaii. USS John Finn’s Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMD), according to MDA, used an “engage-on-remote” capability, using off-ship sensors, to coordinate the interceptor launch. The test, with the mission name FTM-44, was successful in destroying the incoming “ICBM-representative target.”
~
This article can be read here:
New U.S. Missile Defense Test May Have Increased the Risk of Nuclear War By Ankit Panda
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/55914.htm
“The predominant reason mainstream news reporters say things that aren’t true is because in order to be hired by mainstream news outlets, you need to jack your mind into a power-serving worldview that is not based in truth… You need to demonstrate that you have been properly indoctrinated…”
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In other words, selling your soul to the Devil.
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“…if you want to work in mainstream politics or media you need to demonstrate that you are a member of that religion.”
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Commandment One: “You shall have NO other gods before me!” Media whores can’t even get past the first one.
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“This is why you have labels for anyone expressing skepticism of establishment narratives like ‘conspiracy theorist’”…
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To be called conspiracy theorist today is a badge of honor. It shows that you are NOT a member of their retrograde cult and thus are allowed to explore and express actual truth.
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“The faces you see thrust onto screens by the plutocratic media are not spouting falsehoods while being aware of their deception… Most of them believe everything they are saying, because they have been propagandized into becoming good acolytes and proselytizers of the faith.
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Because a deeply deluded person spouts deeply flawed narratives without malice does not change the fact they are peddling harmful flawed narratives. Innocence of delusion is no excuse.
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Fervently and passionately believing and peddling Iies does not magically turn them into truths. These are delusions peddled by The Deluded to a mostly confused public.
Good points, well made. But take it a bit further.
You’ve slipped into seeing the world in essentially tribal terms, with the good “us” guys (ordinary citizens) vs. the bad “them” of the self-serving elites who craft the narratives we consume. However, barring perhaps the occasional true sociopath, the elites are just like us: they subscribe to narratives that align with their self interests. With the foremost self-interest generally being subscription to the norms and expectations of one’s tribe. “Davos man” believes he’s a good guy, working on the side of the angels to advance the state of humanity. Because that’s what he and his tribe of fellow movers and shakers tell themselves. Our human ability to rationalize is boundless.
I’m not saying anything you don’t already know, but it’s something that’s easy to forget. It’s important that we not do so, however. Not if we hope to change things for the better. Having a realistic understanding of how our enemies think and where they’re coming from is essential if we’re ever to convert them. The instinctive part of them that susses out self interest needs to be made aware that the narrative they’re following is ultimately NOT in their self-interest. But you can’t reach that part of anyone by direct attack.
Good point. The capitalist, anticommunist religion is so deeply ingrained, including through miseducation, that it is very difficult to eliminate. I think that some of us were born impervious to most of that brainwashing, and that we must therefore be responsible for re-educating those poor sods who believe everything they are told by government propagandists.
Maybe some of us who were not “born impervious” can also be of use in developing a re-education strategy. I was a product of post-war American schools where patriotism was inculcated from kindergarten through high school. While I was always inclined to rebel against arbitrary authority, it wasn’t until I went to college that I began to learn about the real history of my country and the larger world and participated in the movements against the Vietnam War and for Civil Rights/Black Power. Still, it wasn’t until my much later years that I had the time and opportunity (c/o key books and the internet) to become more fully educated about the systemic evils of capitalism, racism, imperialism, ecocide, etc. So, if I was able to move beyond intense and pervasive patriotic/capitalist programming, then surely others can do so as well, albeit via different vehicles than some available back in the 60s and 70s, regrettably including affordable higher ed.
Let me remind you that back in the 1980s when the Soviet Union still existed, it was cool to NOT harshly criticize them. Anyone who did was compared to Senator Joe McCarthy. The mainstream argument was to placate the Soviets, to give them the benefit of the doubt, to kill them with kindness, and above all to not directly challenge them.
Now that real communism is dead and has not existed in Russia for the past 30 years the political left are all acting just like Joe McCarthy did back in the late 1940s. Anyone want to explain this?
The United States dominated the Twentieth Century for four principal reasons. Its manufacturing capability far exceeded anyone else’s; perhaps the most dramatic illustration was its stunning production in the Second World War when it, for example, manufactured 300,000 aircraft, twice as much as the next place country. Its inventive capability was also immense: from airplanes to electricity transmission to assembly lines the USA was the inventor and, equally important, the adaptor of numerous world-changing innovations. Thirdly, unlike most of the non-Anglosphere world, it was politically stable: even under the strain of the Great Depression its political system held. Finally the “American Dream” had sufficient reality to be attractive. But what is left today of these four? Much (most?) of its manufacturing has been outsourced to China. What remains of American ingenuity? – a buttonless iPhone is not at the same level as the Apple 1. As to political stability, whoever sits in the White House at the end of January 2021 will be regarded as an interloper by half the population; that will have consequences on the street. The American dream that your children will be better off – by every measurement – than you were has collapsed: the children, crushed by unpayable debt and zero-hour contracts, hide in your basement. And as it goes with the West’s leader, so, ceteris paribus, it goes with the other Western countries. The outlook is poor, unstable and desperate>
~
This telling article can be read here:
An Epitaph for the West by Patrick Armstrong!
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2020/11/20/an-epitaph-for-the-west/
The road to all-out nuclear war is paved with good intentions AND gold bricks. Grab yours while there are some left!!
It is amazing how many people should be in jail among the political and economic leaders and among the mainstream medias people.
As it was the case for 9-11 where there were no wreckages to be seen in the Pentagone and in the famous field in Pennsylvania, I suspect the pandemic did not occur by sheer chance. Some people released it among the population.
Truly, we are living in the return of the days of Noah just before the return of Jesus. Very few men of honesty and honor. The decadence is everywhere.
Keeping my Rosary on hand!
And what about what they do not report:
https://healthimpactnews.com/2020/censored-in-u-s-millions-across-europe-protest-new-lockdowns/
There is high probability that this virus has been intentionally released by the elites.
And the mainstream medias (belonging to the elites) will report only what is fitting with the agenda of the elite.
And because in 2020, those are the return of the days of Noah just before the return of Jesus, the elite is of course decadent, so their agenda is also a decadent one.
Keeping my Rosary on hand!
We all have choices to make. Those choices have consequences — fame and fortune, marginalization and starvation. The tens of millions of human beings directly or indirecty employed by the MIC made their very predicatble choice just a few days ago.
No matter what your “hate object” or for what personal or “professional” reason you “hate” …………….
The CIA infiltrated the major news media more than 60 years ago. Soon after WWII they started project Mockingbird, which put CIA operatives in every major news room, and indeed have had several quite famous talking heads on their payroll. Which is why major media spent 10 times the coverage and 10 times the money on the OJ Simpson murder trial than they did on the CIA murder of JFK. You might as well get your news from Langley VA. The NYT is just an agent of the state, like all the rest. FOX news is just their token conservative unit, to bolster their credibility.
Same I fear is true of the mainstream entertainment industry. Going to a popular movie is also taking a trip to Langley. And despite the kneeling thing, bigtime sports have also become deep state propaganda tools. Not sure about bigtime concerts, but maybe someone can comment upon them.
All I know about bigtime concerts is they haven’t corrupted Roger Waters.
https://rogerwaters.com/
I was like Waters, and going to make a video, but am not like him, and like him. Waters is rich from concerts and album sales. I have done everything unpaid, and what I received in royalties was stolen. I wrote three multimillion seller books, and am in poverty. I have simply asked people to pay for the books that they read freely, and ask for $3 each. They are the products of approximately 20,000 hours research and putting the puzzle pieces together. None would show me the respect by doing so- the money would be used to organize a nonprofit.They are well aware. i am not doing any “concerts” videos or emails (I research happenings and send out emails of info) until I get funded. I am only waiting to get $500 – and then resume. I am not asking much- and humankind may perish, but at this point, i am not sure that they deserve to live. We have one month to summon up courage to fight the establishment- I dont care. because nobody else does
Hear, hear.
Yes, the propagandists live in the same box that they’re trying to put us into. But I would say the oligarchs do, too. They believe they are good people doing the right things.
Astute comment, David. It’s taken me a while to understand that most who promote essentially evil positions are not themselves evil. Contrary to a common theme in the comments to this blog, the majority of voices supporting the oppressive, ecocidal status quo–and damning those who deviate from the official narrative–are NOT psychopaths or sociopaths. They are rather, as Caitlin points out, true believers in a BS religion. Her words bear repeating: “The faces you see thrust onto screens by the plutocratic media are not spouting falsehoods while being aware of their deception, any more than any preacher is knowingly lying when they say you’ll burn for eternity if you don’t accept the gospel.” This insight should indicate the more effective ways to counter these true believers, which do not include calling them names and cutting off all conversation with them and those who listen to them. They do include directly addressing and refuting their “theology.”
My experience of interacting with true believers is that their beliefs are very important to them, and that they will hold on to them fiercely regardless of evidence, logic, or common sense. This is a curious phenomenon which I don’t think has been fully explained or understood. But it does suggest that just as calling them names or cutting them off often doesn’t work, neither does reasoning or the presentation of evidence. Education does not seem to make any difference, as witness the numerous college-educated, presumably well-informed Russiagaters. Another example are climate-change deniers; a survey noticed that the more educated they are, the better armed they are for the rigorous defense of their beliefs. I suggest reflecting that it’s really not up to any of us to correct everyone else’s beliefs. No one has access to absolute, universal truth — we can say how we see things, but not how God (if any) sees them.
Tis indeed a mystery, SG, as to how to reach true believers as you so accurately describe them. And you’re right that none of us has a handle on the “absolute, universal truth” so as to allow us “to correct everyone else’s beliefs.” But those important things said, is there no opening for what one might loosely call evangelism? Perhaps the only way to alter a false religion is to introduce a genuine one. Albert Schweitzer thought so and thus distilled what he believed was an elemental, universal value–a standalone ethical/spiritual principle freed from the baggage of traditional religious doctrine and dogma. I’m not sure anyone since has come up with anything better.
https://newtonfinn.com/2017/12/18/two-rivers-one-spirit/
The genuine one is Marxism and always has been.
Believers themselves are truly aware of the evil in their beliefs, and by the way, I showed evidence in my book THE UNTOLD NATURE OF CHRISTIANITY that pastors are taught in seminary that the bible is lies- that they serve the Vatican by pimping the flock and by feeding them lies- intentionally- so your point is moot. Journalists, as illustrated by JOhn Swinton, are fully aware of the truth, and give us misinformation as told to by the CIA to keep their jobs and salaries. IT is all about the benjamins. Just like the military, the police, the doctors, the pharmaceuticals, the educators, and the like, money has ruled them and they are whores for the rulers- screwing the people for their pay from those rulers.
I have had four pastors mentor me. In seminary they are taugt that the bible is lies. They are fully aware. It is the mystery of evil. How can they lie and kill so easily? It is very disturbing when you perceive the depth of evil. It is more than greed, it is malicious malevolent harm done and going to be done.
Ouch, that job ad… Is NYT sure they’re advertising for Russian coverage, and not American coverage?
Yes it struck me that way too
I have been wondering if the ad is not a troll or joke of some sort. It seems a bit blatant for the Gray Lady.
In ‘Killing America: A 100 Year Murder’
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http://c-cluster-110.uploads.documents.cimpress.io/v1/uploads/d7e4577b-19bf-4359-a563-88a000e5384a~110/original?tenant=vbu-digital
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M. S. (Mike) King takes us through 40 key steps (“Wounds”) that have been inflicted on America over the past century
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Quoting some of the preamble …
“AMERICA 1900
In this rapidly developing “land of opportunity” there are no Federal Income Taxes, no State Income Taxes, no Sales Taxes, no Social Security Taxes, no Capital Gains Taxes, no IRS, no Department of Homeland Security, no Department of Education, no welfare schemes, no Central Bank, very little debt, and a sound currency backed by Gold.
…
In foreign commerce and relations, Americans are a peace-loving people who have no interest in embroiling their young country in Europe’s intrigues and squabbles. The idea of going overseas to fight foreign ‘bogeymen’ is unthinkable.
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America’s prosperity affords many of its people the luxury of increasing leisure time. From this free time grow Sports Leagues such as Baseball’s National League (1876), to be followed by the American League (1901). College Football has exploded in popularity, with the first professional teams to form in the early years of the new century. Millions of young men sharpen their bodies and mental toughness by competing in all varieties of Sports.
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As for the women folk, the ladies of America are exactly that, ladies. Women are family oriented, valued for their sweet demeanor, and respected for their virtue.
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America’s children are raised to respect their God, their parents, their elders, and their teachers.
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And then … (just some of the key wounds which reveal exactly which group controls the narrative AND therefore the brainwashing.)
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• Wound #1: 1896 – Adolph Ochs buys the New York Times
• Wound #4: 1913 – The 17th Amendment (Direct Election of US Senators)
• Wound #6: 1913 – The Federal Reserve Act
• Wound #9: 1926 – David Sarnoff Establishes NBC
• Wound #10: 1928 – William Paley (Paloff) Buys CBS
• Wound #11: 1933 – Eugene Meyer Buys The Washington Post
• Wound #16: 1940-1960 – Marxists Consolidate Control Over Hollywood
• Wound #18: 1947 – The CIA is Established
• Wound #20: 1953 – Leonard Goldenson Takes Over ABC
• Wound #32: 1979 – The Department of Education is Established
• Wound #34: 1985 – Sumner Redstone (Murray Rothstein) Buys MTV
His Preamble leaves a bit to be desired, especially:
“AMERICA 1900
“In foreign commerce and relations, Americans are a peace-loving people who have no interest in embroiling their young country in Europe’s intrigues and squabbles. The idea of going overseas to fight foreign ‘bogeymen’ is unthinkable.”
But of course, the 1898 American war on Spain had recently concluded at that time. In America, there was popular support for the war, wherein the Americans expanded their empire by taking control of substantial territories from Spain such as Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippine Islands. Fifty to sixty years earlier, the Americans had taken approximately the southwestern third of what is now the United States from Mexico via colonization and war. So, no, it seems the Americans weren’t so peace-loving after all.
Then President Wilson campaigned for re-election in 1916 on his record of keeping the U.S. out of the war in Europe. But the U.S. was soon to become embroiled in the war in Europe, fighting the foreign bogeyman in the person of the Kaiser.
So the premise of the noble America in 1900 that has fallen so low over the past century should be rejected because the America of 1900 was not quite so noble as he posits.
Thank you for that very valid point. That preface was a little superficial, reflecting the average blissfully ignorant citizen in a typical peaceful family neighborhood. But please don’t let that distract from the other key points.
There is always more to a (any) war in terms of who desired it, orchestrated it, funded it and benefitted from it than most of us are ever privy to – we need to do some deep research.
James Corbett has done a great video called “Debunking a Century of War Lies”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yw0-ASR4sr8
Here is a list that you might appreciate. I forget the source at the moment – but they aren’t China’s (or Iran’s) wars.
• American Revolutionary War (1775–1783)
• Little Turtle, (Mihšihkinaahkwa) Wars (1747 — July 14, 1812
• Kekionga Wars (1790-1791)
• Cherokee-American Wars (1776–1795)
• North-West Indian Wars (1785–1793)
• Shays’ Rebellion (1786–1787)
• Whiskey Rebellion (1791–1794)
• Quasi War (1798–1800)
• First Barbary War (1801–1805)
• German Coast Uprising (1811)
• Tecumseh’s War (1811)
• War of 1812 (1812–1815)
• Creek War (1813–1814)
• Second Barbary War (1815)
• First Seminloe War (1817–1818)
• Texas-Indian Wars (1820–1875)
• Arikara War (1823)
• Aegean Sea Anti-Piracy Operations of the United States (1825-1828)
• Winnebago War (1827)
• First Sumatran Expedition (1832)
• Black Hawk War (1832)
• Second Seminole War (1835–1842)
• Second Sumatran Expedition (1838)
• Aroostook War (1838)
• Ivory Coast Expedition (1842)
• Mexican-American War (1846–1848)
• Cayuse War (1847–1855)
• Apache Wars (1851–1900)
• Puget Sound War (1855–1856)
• First Fiji Expedition (1855)
• Rogue River Wars (1855–1856)
• Third Seminole War (1855–1858)
• Yakima War (1855–1858)
• Second Opium War (1856–1859)
• Utah War (1857–1858)
• Navajo Wars (1858–1866)
• Second Fiji Expedition (1859)
• John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry (1859)
• First & Second Cortina War (1859–1861)
• Paiute War (1860)
• American Civil War (1861–1865)
• Yavapai Wars (1861–1875)
• Dakota War of 1862 (1862)
• Colorado War (1863–1865)
• Shimonoseki War (1863–1864)
• Snake War (1864–1868)
• Powder River War (1865)
• Red Cloud’s War (1866–1868)
• Formosa Expedition (1867)
• Comanche Campaign (1867–1875)
• United States Expedition to Korea (1871)
• Modoc War (1872–1873)
• Red River War (1874–1875)
• Las Cuevas War (1875)
• Great Sioux War of 1876 (1876–1877)
• Buffalo Hunter’s War (1876–1877)
• Nez Perce War (1877)
• Bannock War (1878)
• Cheyenne War (1878–1879)
• Sheepeater Indian War (1879)
• Victorio’s War (1879–1881)
• White River War (1879–1880)
• Pine Ridge Campaign (1890-1891)
• Garza Revolution (1891–1893)
• Yaqui Wars (1896–1918)
• Second Samoan War (1898–1899)
• Spanish-American War (1898)
• Philippine-American War (1899–1902)
• Moro Rebellion (1899–1913)
• Boxer Rebellion (1899–1901)
• Crazy Snake Rebellion (1909)
• Border War (1910–1919)
• Negro Rebellion (1912)
• Occupation of Nicaragua (1912–1933)
• Bluff War (1914–1915)
• Occupation of Veracruz (1914)
• Occupation of Haiti (1915–1934)
• Occupation of the Dominican Republic (1916–1924)
• World War I (1914–1918)
• Russian Civil War (1918–1920)
• Last Indian Uprising (1923)
• World War II (1939–1945)
• Korean War (1950–1953)
• Laotian Civil War (1953–1975)
• Lebanon Crisis (1958)
• Bay of Pigs Invasion (1961)
• Vietnam War (1965–1973, 1975)
• Communist insurgency in Thailand (1965-1983)
• Korean DMZ Conflict (1966–1969)
• Dominican Civil War (1965–1966)
• Insurgency in Bolivia (1966–1967)
• Cambodian Civil War (1967–1975)
• War in South Zaire (1978)
• Operation Eagle Claw (1980)
• Gulf of Sidra Encounter (1981)
• Lebanese Civil War (1982–1984)
• Invasion of Grenada(1983) Action in the Gulf of Sidra (1986)
• Bombing of Libya (1986)
• Tanker War (1987–1988)
• Tobruk Encounter (1989)
• Invasion of Panama (1989–1990)
• Gulf War (1990–1991)
• Iraqi No-Fly Zone Enforcement (1991–2003)
• First Intervention in the Somali Civil War (1992–1995)
• Bosnian War (1992–1995)
• Intervention in Haiti (1994–1995)
• Kosovo War (1998–1999)
• Operation Infinite Reach (1998)
• War in Afghanistan (2001–present)
• Iraq War (2003–2011)
• War in North-West Pakistan (2004–present)
• War in Somalia (2007–present)
• Operation Ocean Shield (2009–2016)
• American-Led intervention in Libya (2011)
• Lord’s Resistance Army insurgency (2011-2017)
• American intervention in Libya (2011)
• American-Led intervention in Iraq (2014–2019)
• American intervention in Libya (2011)
• American-Led intervention in Syria (2014–present)
• Yemeni Civil War (2014 to present)
You failed to notice, “1896 – Adolph Ochs buys the New York Times”. Any one who studies American history in depth is well aware that “news” organizations have played a key role in the despotism of the Psychopaths In Charge. The Hearst news organization promoted the Spanish American War with absolutely false propaganda, and it worked perfectly. I too would question how “peace loving” Americans were, but would definitely describe them as gullible. Sane people simply can’t comprehend how truly evil psychopaths really are, which makes them easy marks.
(This is a CRITICISM of Skoolafish, not support for him!!!!)
To Frank Thompson:
You missed Skoolafish’s main point.
When he wrote:
“And then … (just some of the key wounds which reveal exactly which group controls the narrative AND therefore the brainwashing.)”
And then made sure you know who the group is by listing them, including showing that Paley was named Paloff, he was telling you that the Jewish Bolsheviks are the REAL enemy, but he is either too ashamed or too cowardly to say it straight.
Again I am exposing Skoolafish not supporting his anti-semitism!!!!
I say this because I am guessing that my comment was removed because it was misunderstood!
Let me add (just to test formatting)
Chalmers Johnson: “I no longer read the New York Times for the news – I read it for the lies”
I’ve always subbed to the NYTimes to keep abreast of what the overclass regards as the desired conventional wisdom. It serves no other purpose.
And how the hell is Navalny the opposition leader in Russia? There were two other opposition candidates, plus Putin, all of whom got way more votes in the election than Navalny. It’s like saying Liz Cheney is America’s opposition leader.
Or, as Upton Sinclair stated in the early 20th century:
‘It is difficult to get a man (or woman) to understand something when her/his job depends on not understanding it’
Swap Russia with USA in the advert, then change a few names and it gets closer to true..
Don’t tell me any human with even a single brain cell believes that garbage, let alone a “professional” journalist. They don’t. Never underestimate the criminality of low life.
So, if a journalist believes what they are saying or writing, and it turns out to be proven false to the satisfaction of some critical mass of the public, then they are morally off the hook, not accountable for disseminating falsehoods?
I think that public figures, including journalists, should be held to account much as pilots and bus drivers are to a higher standard of care, as they have a podium that non-media figures do not; their words reach a wider audience and have more influence, just as a bus driver is responsible for the safety of a greater number of lives than a person driving a car with only themself or friends/family who they presumably care about enough to drive safely.
The first paragraph is a strawman.
If you consider me to be wrong regarding Christians, I stand uncorrected, and do not agree that any are truly good. My book THE UNTOLD NATURE OF CHRISTIANITY remains correct on all counts. I left the faith due to knowledge and to percieving the fruits of the faith. Some Christians do good, a nominal bit, not wholeheartedly, and not out of any reason other than selfishness and appearances. I am fully aware- and those that tell truth do so to ease their conscience, and do not back up their professed love or truth in actions. i asked for their help for two years before I got angry, they would not accept or answer many hundreds of emails and phone calls asking for help-when they could have easily.
I WAS NOT WRONG ABOUT CHRISTIANS. THEY ARE PHONY PLASTIC HATEFUL, PRETEND, HYPOCRITICAL, AND IN THEIR OWN MINDS THEY REDEEM THEMSELVES BY GIVING LITTLE BITS OF TRUTH ALONG WITH THEIR LIES, AND BRING MANY INTO THE HELL REALM. I AM NOT MISTAKEN. THEY DON’T CARE FOR HUMANS AT ALL, HAVE STOLEN MY MONEY THAT I WOULD USE TO SAVE HUMANITY. MY INTEGRITY IMPELLS ME TO HATE THEM FOR THEIR BAD VALUES AND FOR THEIR DECEITS AND UNWILLINGNESS TO ADMIT WRONG- THEY NEED TO REPENT. THEY STOLE MY MONEY AND REFUSE TO DO WHAT IS RIGHT. IF THEY WANT TO CONTINUE THE DECEPTION AND TO LET EVERYONE DIE, SO BE IT.
Your entire comment is a strawman; I didn’t say anything about morality or accountability. My first para is not a strawman, it’s a common perspective. I know this because I interact with people all day every day learning about their perspectives.
We always want to believe people are reasonable and open minded but only by interaction do we find just how diverse peoples opinions are on the world around us. Twitter and even this blog are a microcosm of the greater whole.
Unfortunately any job that you have your company and your co=workers expect you to ” toe the company line at all times “. When you stop doing that they will urge you to leave. Here within these United States you are told to love it or leave it; changing it or improving it is not allowed. We are number one; we are next to god, nothing we ever do is wrong!
There is actually a lot of truth in what you say. If I am an intolerable company putting out a poisonous product, you must exercise your freedom. It is my company, so leave. Start your own competing product. The public also can not buy my poisonous product and put me out of business. We are all free to do as we wish. But you have no right to complain, just leave because I will not change. That is pure capitalusm and pure freedom. When we start saying I must change for the greater good, then it starts socialism. Let the publuc decide if they want to drink mountain dew, Not others decide I dont need it.
Many people feel compelled to take jobs they don’t like or approve of. We are not all free to do anything we like; we have materially limited choices. As for belief in the familial, tribal, or general good, it seems deeply ingrained in human nature beyond what could be accomplished by culture, and may have originated in the process of evolution, since groups that were completely atomized socially could have trouble surviving. However selfish the genes, they do have to cooperate with other genes to survive and reproduce.
You just described why and how the American society, under unfettered capitalism, is engaged in a long-standing, protracted act of suicide. Even your sense of understanding reveals that you, too, Khatika, have bought in to the MSM propaganda. Very few are properly equipped to exist in a society, if remaining in a war with it. It is difficult to commit to the effort required to stand on your on feet, true to your ideology, unless unfettered capitalism has already made you wealthy as you grow. It actually is possible to create a society in which products such as Mountain Dew would never exist, because the collective understanding would not permit such products to exist.
In other words, mainstream media may well determine the choices made in constructing a society in its early stages but, in the end, whether for good or for ill, journalists will, in the main, continue to support the society as the one true society. As a child, once burned by sticking his or her hand in a fire, people learn not to do that again. In this society, mainstream media perpetuates the lies and restrictions handed down to us. In another society, it is possible that the truths and possibilities might be handed up, from the people, not down to them.
Humanity falls into two broad categories. Those who want to be left alone and live as they see fit and those who feel compelled for whatever reason to tell others how to live their lives.
I would not respond to a person who thinks poor people must die.
You don’t seem to realize it, but you have made the argument that “pure capitalism” and “pure freedom” are bad things. I’m grateful for places where the collective agrees to fund and enforce effective environmental protections, consumer protections, etc.
How do you feel when the collective does things in which you vehemently disagree and impact your life in a major way.
Such as?
The job description sounds like an Onion headline. Truly unbelievable!
Now for some heavier suspicious developments. After I sent this book out in progress, in May 2019, one of my first internet escapades was a blog conversation regarding Assange’s charges, under the news headline “how will this affect journalism.” I commented “not at all” as establishment “journalists” don’t speak truth anyway. To my surprise, some bloggers tried to “debunk” my reporting in this book regarding John Swinton’s speech. They said it could not have been said around 1950 as I claimed, as John Swinton had lived in the 1800s. I researched this statement, and found several articles claiming both my source’s correctness, and that of the amateur fact-checkers, and supporting their statement was the famous Noam Chomsky. There was even a legitimate-looking NY Times article regarding Swinton’s death. There was something however that caught my eye. The Swinton articles had mentioned his income as $150 a week. I researched this also. That was an average editor’s salary at the time I stated- 1950. For those in 1870, it was $3….a month. In addition, I have seen caricatures in political drawings in the nineteenth century-they were radical strong messages the likes of which you don’t see anymore. The media being controlled by the elite was not initiated in a wide fashion until the 192os, as stated in my book EXPOSING THE MONEY MACHINE which placed the source of the deception- the banker Morgan asking a bunch of journalists to advise him on how to control people’s worldviews =probably a reaction to the negative journalism that bankers were getting during the industrial revolution, as I have viewed myself. As stated in my former book, they suggested that he buy the top twenty five journals and control the editing policies. It is now, December 2019, that a google search regarding John Swinton no longer has access to articles revealing the original man, they all refer to him living in the 1800s. There has been much of DARPA removing unwanted “fake” news from the internet, and I am having great difficulty researching this book with the absence now of information. There had been videos of Chomsky debating on the conspiracy theories, as contesting their validity, now gone. I was however, still able to find videos on Youtube portraying Chomsky’s position against “conspiracy theories” regarding 9-11. There is a website still up, though played around with, called ‘educate yourself” which explained (I saw in 2016) that MIT is a headquarters for CIA agents, and said that Chomsky works there. When I researched this, sure enough, I was able to contact him there, and had an email correspondence with him, sending him my book to review. And I have related what happened next. A few months later, an intelligence agent was at my residence. Chomsky is a shill. While he does criticize the government and expose vital information, he is too intelligent a man to not be able to discern the true source of evil and the clear factuality of conspiracy that he denies.
Obviously they are trying to make us all think, while reporting falsehoods, they do so in a fashion to show us the true nature of rulers. They are fully aware of the falsehoods that they preach. The CIA has infested the news and has made sure to divide and misinform the populace. The journalists are deceptive to keep their jobs- their livelihood is more important than the people- they glamorize soldiers knowingly and have led to the downfall of humanity- they know full well the reality, but don’t care to tell us-the salary is good and more important.
“The business of the New York journalist is to destroy the truth, to lie outright, to pervert, to vilify, to fawn at the feet of Mammon, and to sell his race and his country for his daily bread.
You know this and I know it, and what folly is this to be toasting an “Independent Press.”
We are the tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping-jacks; they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes.” – John Swinton, editor of the New York Tribune
Some do try to hint us to what is going around, and do give us hints to research
Well a severe problem is that the average person in the United States is so brainwashed and hypnotized by main-stream media, including the Democratic Rag, The New York Times, they don’t even realize that there is another point of view. They don’t even have any curiosity. Maybe it is possible to change that dynamic, but I can’t figure out how to do it. In the meantime psychopaths’ will rule the world until they destroy it. I have spent my whole life beating my head on the wall to explain this to the numskulls, but I am getting a pretty sore head. Hopefully the younger generation can get some sense knocked into the multitude.
The Squad represents the younger generation. Don’t look for any saviors there. Clueless, inexperienced, arrogant and violent. We’re circling the drain.
Swamping the drain, so to speak.
Don’t you think we should give the younger generation a chance, instead of writing them off just as they’re coming of age? Defeatism insures that circling the drain will only increase in speed. It’s NOT an oppositional stance; it promotes the goals of neoliberalism perhaps even more strongly than the true believers who buy the BS.
What we are is established pretty much by the age of ten. How that pattern will play out is not given by any means but the tendencies of a lifetime are well set. This is a quote: The definition of a stereotype is that it is an informational repository about a group of people which may or may not be true on an individual level. This young generation of which we speak has had a phone stuck in their hand since before they could read or write. We’ve all seen little ones who are but at the stage of learning to walk being babysat by a screen. Not interacting with the color, shape, form and smell of the world around them, not being learning by interacting with that world makes a child who is less able to process that world. Combine into a toxic stew that and an educational system which has reinvented itself as an indoctrination system (yes, it always was, but the part about critical thinking has become missing among others) and the very common lack of an established extended family unit and you very often have a much different sort of person than has ever been. Mangling this alteration of a natural humanity even further are the environmental factors concomitant with poisons in the air, in the water and in the food. It is worth noting that the first explosion of cancers came with not the generation that began to eat pesticide laced foods later in life. Theirs was typically lung cancer from smoking. It began with the generation that was exposed early on the delicate formative years. The same pattern manifests among generations regarding other factors. Age of onset is the key. Taking all of these things together does make for a young that is handicapped and compromised. That being said, there are plenty of exceptions which makes any generalities paradox. More than ever it is necessary to look individually rather than categorize in the way in which we are familiar with.
Bet you have a headache too. 🙂