Caitlin Johnstone

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Yet Another Major Escalation In Establishment Internet Censorship

YouTube, whose corporate owner Google is arguably the most powerful company on earth, is now deleting user videos which claim the US election was fraudulent. YouTube’s official statement on its decision to do this is very revealing, not so much for what it says as for what it does not say. At no point does…

Caitlin Johnstone
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YouTube, whose corporate owner Google is arguably the most powerful company on earth, is now deleting user videos which claim the US election was fraudulent.

YouTube’s official statement on its decision to do this is very revealing, not so much for what it says as for what it does not say.

At no point does the video publishing platform attempt to argue that it is removing these videos because they jeopardize anyone’s health or safety, as it did when it began deleting videos deemed to be spreading misinformation about Covid-19.

At no point does it attempt to argue that these videos are inciting violence, as it did when it began deleting QAnon videos.

At no point does it claim that these videos are misleading voters, as it initially began collaborating with the US government to prevent, since all the voting is over and done with.

It’s simply deleting the videos because they are believed to be wrong. This is an important distinction, because it’s a marked deviation from the previous policy of content deletion used by YouTube and other new media platforms.

“Yesterday was the safe harbor deadline for the U.S. Presidential election and enough states have certified their election results to determine a President-elect,” YouTube writes. “Given that, we will start removing any piece of content uploaded today (or anytime after) that misleads people by alleging that widespread fraud or errors changed the outcome of the 2020 U.S. Presidential election, in line with our approach towards historical U.S. Presidential elections. For example, we will remove videos claiming that a Presidential candidate won the election due to widespread software glitches or counting errors. We will begin enforcing this policy today, and will ramp up in the weeks to come.”

I neither know nor care whether the sort of election fraud alleged to have taken place in the contest between Joe Biden or Donald Trump actually happened; I know the processes by which candidates are elevated to run in a US general election are corrupt and rigged from top to bottom, so the question of whether additional manipulation took place between two establishment-approved imperialist oligarch lackeys in a pretend election is not particularly interesting to me. But this new move by YouTube is a major escalation in the continually escalating rollout of internet censorship protocols by US government-tied Silicon Valley megacorporations.

Even if America did not have the single most flawed election system in the entire western world (and it does), and even if it had been conclusively proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that no election fraud of any sort took place (and it hasn’t), it would still be a massive escalation beyond previous online censorship protocols to begin censoring people simply because they are wrong. People are allowed to be wrong. A free society allows people the right to voice wrong beliefs because the only alternative is creating a monolithic Ministry of Truth which has authority over what the right and wrong beliefs are.

Those of us who’ve been warning of the dangers of government-aligned plutocratic corporations lowering their standards for silencing speech further and further were not committing a slippery slope fallacy; it’s not fallacious to warn of a slippery slope when the slope is demonstrably real. The fact that we’ve been methodically paced from accepting the cross-platform deletion of Alex Jones a couple of years ago to random internet users being silenced for no other reason than expressing wrongthink today shows us the slope is very real and very consequential, and our slide into information totalitarianism will continue if something major does not change.

Matt Taibbi has written a solid article condemning YouTube’s latest ramp-up and highlighting the double standard in the way Democrats have been pushing narratives about Trump colluding with Russia to fraudulently steal the 2016 election for four years with no consequences whatsoever while Trump supporters are banned from doing essentially the exact same thing. I would add that the primary source of this double standard is not ideological bias (though that’s surely a factor as well) but the coziness these Silicon Valley tech giants have formed with US government agencies who signed off on Russiagate but not on Trump’s claims. It’s not so much a liberal bias as it is a US intelligence cartel bias.

In reality, there was never any more evidence for liberal claims of Russia interfering with the US election in any meaningful way than there is for election fraud in 2020. Actual journalists and impartial social media platforms would have recognized the indisputable fact that the Russian hacking narrative was extremely porous and remains completely unproven, and the narrative about Russian memes swaying the election is a complete joke. The only thing giving the Democrats’ claims more narrative weight than those of the Republicans today is that one was endorsed by the US intelligence cartel (the same US intelligence cartel which just so happened to wind up advancing multiple preexisting agendas using Russiagate) and the other was not. That’s it.

Those who understood that whoever controls the narrative controls the world and that plutocrat-controlled mass media is the linchpin of the oligarchic status quo were very excited about the arrival of the internet, because they understood its information-democratizing potential. Now we’re all watching those hopes slowly eroded into nothing as the same power structures which control and influence the mainstream media now work to take full control over online information.

“On average 88% of the videos in top 10 search results related to elections came from authoritative news sources (amongst the rest are things like newsy late-night shows, creator videos and commentary),” YouTube boasts in the aforementioned statement on its deletion of wrongthink election videos. “And the most viewed channels and videos are from news channels like NBC and CBS.”

As though rigging your algorithms to give users results which link to the same plutocratic media outlets who’ve helped deceive the public about every war and continuously manipulate them into believing status quo politics totally work is something to be proud of.

If information which isn’t approved by the powerful continues to be squeezed into smaller and smaller fringe circles, the information-democratizing potential which once gave revolutionary thinkers so much hope will be completely nullified, and all that will remain is a network which allows establishment power structures to distribute propaganda much faster than they could back in the days of the old media. Here’s hoping our rulers fail in their attempts to do this, and that we succeed in our desire to stop them.

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57 responses to “Yet Another Major Escalation In Establishment Internet Censorship”

  1. William Haught Avatar
    William Haught

    Are the sheeple who use the phrase “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” complain about Russia-gate, and believe in supposedly “mysterious” “blue-shifts” not the same people who had 1) Clinton Derangement Syndrome since the mid-90s and Gore Derangement Syndrome since a few years later, 2) ignored mysterious red-shifts in 2000 and 2004 or worse shouted complaints about them down, and 3) called Al Gore a Sore Loser???

    Obviously one would expect per long-standing conventional wisdom Democrats to tend to go to the polls later or vote by mail during a pandemic, real or hyped propaganda, so I do not see anything mysterious other than black box voting machines counting the votes. Where is the questioning of partisan Republican vote counters such as Election Systems & Software (ES&S)? Greg Palast has noticed that the red-shift of official results vis-a-vis the election polls is in line with the votes that are questioned and not counted, so we can be reasonably sure the real problems that actually have an effect are hypocrisy and voter suppression on the part of the (more) Repugnant Party and its supporters.

  2. Tim Glover Avatar
    Tim Glover

    Caitlin, perhaps as citizen activists we she press Facebook, Twitter et al to put “this is disputed” warnings on other stories. Father Christmas would be a good start. Then perhaps the existence of God?

  3. Deuce Avatar
    Deuce

    Taibni is right. The double standard is preposterous. Facebook allowed every conceivable charge of everything from collusion to rape to fly against Trump, yet won’t even let Americans with substantive evidence so much as suggest that a single vote was miscounted in 2020.

    So what do we find at the top of Caitlin’s page? A “Follow me on Facebook” button. Attached to an article about how rotten and corrupt and destructive social media is. Folks the socials HAVE NO POWER OVER YOU. All you ever had to do was bow out and never use them. We could bankrupt them by the end of the week. But oh jeez we can’t to that because then we might miss another ‘double standard’s article by Caitlin. And DEFINITELY miss, yet again, the ACTUAL double standard of her even being there. Honestly what possesses a person to, with a straight face, tell you how awful social media is, then simultaneously urge you to follow all of their social media channels? Who is the REAL fraud? What is the REAL double standard? Who’s is REALLY talking out of both sides of their mouth? Who will ACTUALLY tell you something truthful and honest without some ulterior motive behind it? Sadly Caitlin, for all her bluster, can’t survive these questions.
    I have no social media. Because since the rise in Facebook in 2007 it was clear to me what a evil piece of putrid trash it was and would become. I never yielded. For nearly a decade and a half I have shouted from the rooftops that Facebook was evil and would end badly. Now everyone wants to bounce back to me how right I was along with an invite to like their Facebook page. ITS COMPLETELY FUCKING CRAZY. At the end of the day Caitlin IS right. The Socials are a wasteland destroying our minds and societies with malice aforethought and impunity. Yet every day, instead of doing literally nothing and putting them out of business, you all show up for work ready to participate in it. Because your participation is all that is required to keep the ship afloat. But you are so in love and addicted to them that you can’t quit them. You can’t make the impossibly easy choice to DO NOTHING. Instead you willingly keep running back. Because memes and cat videos. A perfectly good reason to murder truth and enslave every mind in the civilized world. And to be clear it IS you. Maybe not every single one of you, but definitely most. One in two people in the modern world is on Facebook. The numbers don’t lie. It is you no matter how much you, like Caitlin, try to shrug it off. Addicts deny their addiction. You can’t trust and addict and rarely can you even reform them. Addicts do things like rail against Facebook then ask you to follow them there. Because even when their rational brains tell them the truth, the addiction gets the Marquee. Just like the addicts roaming the streets of Seattle that have made it an unlivable dystopia, you, the addicts of social media, will do the same to the entire world. All the while protesting how everyone else did it to you and your will full participation should be overlooked. Like any rock bottom junkie would.
    Sincere thanks for all your efforts. You could have done nothing and saved the world. But you had to feed that monkey those cat videos didn’t you. I get it. That’s way more important than preserving civilized society. Right? Now tell me more about how bad everyone ELSE’S double standards are.

  4. KansasCrude Avatar
    KansasCrude

    I’ve been to the Space Museums in Hutchinson KS which is one if not of the largest space museums in the U.S.. Now run by the Smithsonian. The equipment and capsules used for the “Moon Landings” are amazingly fragile and small. The pics/tapes from the Apollo space flights still are questionable and crafted by Stanley Kubric.

    I went from a dyed in the wool believer to someone with lots of questions. The Van Allen radiation belt still has some unanswered questions for me. A lot older with a better understanding of history and propaganda has left me less than fully CONvinced.

  5. Stephen Morrell Avatar
    Stephen Morrell

    Already the despicable Guardian is starting on the next target: podcasts.
    .
    See:
    .
    https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/dec/12/sinister-sounds-podcasts-are-becoming-the-new-medium-of-misinformation

  6. tim rourke Avatar
    tim rourke

    The Right to be Wrong

    Well, I think it’s time to lay another of my pearls of wisdom in Caitoz’ comments box. The issue this time is in her article of December 12, found at https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2020/12/12/yet-another-major-escalation-in-establishment-internet-censorship/

    The salient sentences are; “People are allowed to be wrong. A free society allows people the right to voice wrong beliefs because the only alternative is creating a monolithic Ministry of Truth which has authority over what the right and wrong beliefs are.”

    Caitoz is one of the brighter bulbs in internet land but is still hampered by the old liberal conception of how right and wrong work. This trope is at the heart of the Truth Crisis in western society. People keep getting crazier and splitting into more extreme and antagonistic ideologies because; “people are allowed to be wrong.”

    No.

    No one is allowed to be wrong. In pretty much anything resembling a real democracy, from Ancient Athens to the New England town hall, you shoot your mouth off in public and you had better be prepared to substantiate what you say.

    In real democracies, the penalties for seeking to misinform and misdirect, or just wasting everyone else’s time due to your egotism, can be stern. I believe in Ancient Athens they risked getting a hot pepper shoved up their asses. In Ye Olde New England Towne halls, they might get dunce capped or even put in stocks.

    We might find solutions more appropriate to our times, but to sanction bullshitters and blatherers is not to start a slippery slope to a “Monolithic Ministry of Truth”. It is to actually value democracy.

    What most people do not realize about Liberalism is that it is antagonistic to democracy. A true Liberal does not want to have to deal with those they regard as ignorant or beneath them. They tend to want to live in their private worlds.

    Thus they do not want a monolithic state ruling over them, even though it might still be committed to a secure and provident existence for its people. They also do not want any sort of democracy, no matter how much lip service they pay to the ideal. What they are most comfortable with is an oligarchy.

    An oligarchy is always a weak government. It is weak because it is always full of factions within factions which do not want anyone leading them and imposing their “Truth” on “My Truth.” It keeps the subordinated classes disempowered by keeping them confused and divided by multiple truths.

    So you have two basic methods of keeping the untermenchen neutralized. They are not exactly about “narrative control” as in Caitoz’s favorite trope. There is the totalitarian “one big truth” and there is the liberal “many small and contradictory truths”.

    Of course, in those times in history where something like a real democracy has broken out, it is governed by simple truth. The rules of thought prevail, as taught from Aristotle through Descartes to Bertrand Russell; a thing is true or it is false, nothing is true and false at the same time, and a thing is true when its contrary is false.

    This tends to really flip out people with a liberal frame of mind. People are saying that a thing is either right or it’s wrong. They are denying that there can be many truths and many realities. Oh, dear!

    However, there is no way that any human association can function adequately together unless there is a consensus among them about what is true. That is as true for a whole society as for the staff of a pizza joint.

    If you dropped a group of people down in a wilderness within which they would have to figure out among themselves how to survive and find their way out, they would quickly decide what the truth is about the situation, and what is the right way to deal with it. If they do not, the buzzards will soon be picking their bones.

    So, either the Ministry of Truth or the absolute right to be wrong in public; this is a false dichotomy. Either way is arrogance imposing on normal human relationships, impeding the necessary seeking of the truth, the real, the right way, about things.

    There is no freedom of speech. There is no right to be wrong. Nothing good comes from these ideas. They are intensely driven in through the educational and other cultural institutions by people who would rather be on top of a dysfunctional society than be nothing special in a healthy one.

    The first rule of a really free society is; If you don’t know what you’re talking about, keep your mouth shut.

    Happy Birthday, Cait.

    1. Tim Glover Avatar
      Tim Glover

      Hmm, well I think where you are coming from is that, for example, people should not be allowed to wrongly shout “fire” in a naval dockyard. I disagree; I would say that people ought to be allowed to shout “fire” if they sincerely believe that there is a fire, however inconvenient, because just sometimes, they are right and you are wrong and that can have serious consequences. I also think there is an important distinction to be made between mistaken beliefs, which everyone should be free to express, and malicious lies, which are indeed prohibited by law.

    2. Anthony Christie Avatar
      Anthony Christie

      Interesting you stop at Russell, not Schrödinger, not Gödel.

  7. eridani Avatar
    eridani

    Eliminate electronic voting, period. Not that they result in election fraud, but that there is no way to tell for sure if they have been involved in fraudulent behavior ,or (more likely) just simple errors. I’ve seen (on TV) totals going up to a number like 30,00 and then begin to go backwards. Not fraud, but likely a simple buffer overflow error. Why don’t those errors get detected? Because elections are by their very nature beta tests of the software. We only vote a few times a year, but ATMs are used billions of times a year–which is why all bugs that matter to them have been resolutely eliminated.

  8. Fred Grosso Avatar
    Fred Grosso

    Caitlin, calm down. This may not be about voicing beliefs. It may be about voicing lies. I may believe that you should receive consequences. I may not believe what I state but lie by saying that you did something reprehensible that most people hate and suggest you deserve consequences. This may occur in a situation where it is likely that the people that read/hear what I say could easily be convinced to enforce consequences upon you. If I’m voicing these lies on a platform controlled by someone who doesn’t want to publish lies, they can refuse to let me use their platform without being lackeys for the government.

    1. Anarcissie Avatar
      Anarcissie

      Actually, what you want to say is that people running a platform should have the power to delete what they don’t like. That would normally be reasonable, but Google is an unreasonable entity which holds quasi-monopolistic power. Perhaps it should be broken up. Meanwhile, since someone else is filtering the evidence, we have to assume that everything Google publishes may be a lie. Of course, this contributes to the situation in which no one trusts anyone else, already widely lamented but unavoidable given the framing and filtering imposed by Google and other state institutions upon public discussion.

      What I wonder is if we’re ever going to be able to use the Internet and other media to get at any truth. So far the outlook is not good.

    2. Tim Glover Avatar
      Tim Glover

      It is not possible for the platform to distinguish between lies and mistakes. If you have reason to believe someone is telling malicious lies, the correct redress is the courts.

  9. mike k Avatar
    mike k

    Corrupt oligarchical authoritarian systems and their managers love secrecy and censorship — it’s what they do. Get used to it, or overturn the corrupt system and it’s oligarchic managers. All else is masochistic whining. If total revolution against the rich and powerful is your deep understanding of our only way out of this dead end culture, then put it out there plain and simple in all your communications — before it is too late! Kill the tyrants before they kill all of us.

    1. Anarcissie Avatar
      Anarcissie

      But who will do it? It’s not so easy.

    2. NoName Avatar
      NoName

      Violence and non violence are the tools of the masters. Violence for them and non violence for you. It is no coincidence that the system has promoted non violence so heavily through its outlets of media, education and religion. Rendering the populace self impotent has led us to an imminent slavery.
      Division and distraction make the masses’ focus fragmented.
      Compensation mechanisms drug the unwary through electronic, substance, and process addictions. Who will do it, indeed? All are not disabled. Many sparks may fly from a fire but only one will burn down an entire forest. Keep your eyes peeled.

      The Pareto Principle states that 80% of consequences come from 20% of causes. It is control of those numbers that the system works towards. Dissent is ignored until it approaches critical mass. Then the Machine goes to work. In volatile times mistakes get made.

      There is a rush to total tyranny right now in order to entrench the system before a very likely collapse. The elites have seen this coming for years and have been working on it and planning while we have been dancing into the trap. 2030 is not a random number, it’s an estimate. True revolution replaces an existing power structure. Neither is it a dinner party. Be careful what you wish for. Make peace with that now, either way. Act or don’t act, but don’t react.

  10. RWood Avatar
    RWood

    Be wary of bright shiny things — they may lead into tidal waves.

    Looking at the current board, and the invisible PTB, it is dimensional chess.

    The demurral by Scalia moves a bishop: ‘the case fell within its “original jurisdiction.”

    Don’t forget who is setting rules against themselves and pushing.

    Can Julian be saved?

  11. Gregory Herr Avatar
    Gregory Herr

    How much more “in your face” does the new world order fascism have to be before people realize what’s up? Encroaching algorithm censorship is lurching into full frontal fuck the First Amendment Censorship. I suppose the “children” out there who just love being treated as “children” are happy now that Big Brother fixed things so they don’t have to plug their ears and scream anymore.
    And in other news, Biden wants mandatory masks and NY State may be going mandatory vax. Meanwhile, livelihoods are disappearing almost as fast as any remnants of concern in Washington for even a bare minimum of a social safety net. Joe wasn’t kidding when he said it was going to be a Dark Winter. That sonofabitch.

    1. Webej Avatar
      Webej

      I’m afraid we are on the threshold of a cultural war and an unfathomably deep labyrinthe of totalitarian misinformation where it will be impossible to know the truth about anything. Virtually all ‘information’ will be purely instrumental.

      It’s been “in your face” for a long time now. Unnecessary gratuitous gestures such as finding Satam al-Suqami’s passport in the dust of 911 can only be interpreted as an arrogant taunt.

  12. ShootTheOrc Avatar
    ShootTheOrc

    You’re an asshole if you are still using YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Seriously, stop bitching. You KNOW they censor, you KNOW they shadowban and waste your time. You KNOW they are unjust and fickle and idiotic. YOU KNOW THESE THINGS!!!

    Stupid kitten. You have to do better than bitch and moan. Put action to belief!

  13. Roundball Shaman Avatar
    Roundball Shaman

    … this new move by YouTube is a major escalation in the continually escalating rollout of internet censorship protocols by US government-tied Silicon Valley megacorporations.”
    .
    What must people do when they’re in an abusive personal relationship? They must leave it and fast. If one continues to be in a relationship with an abuser once they know what they’re dealing with, then they have no reason to complain. They know what they are involved with and they keep on with it.
    .
    Same with these sorry-ass abusive and restrictive internet platforms. They suck. Their policies suck. Their practices suck. Their “ideals” sick. Their “goals” suck. Their algorithms suck. Everything about them… sucks. The answer? Have NOTHING TO DO WITH THEM. The World got along fine before without them, and it will get along fine once they’ve disappeared from existence.
    .
    Oh, they’re “convenient?” Or…“What could I do without Them?!” Or, “I wish I didn’t have to use Them but I HAVE TO USE THEM!” Making excuses for Them and for one’s own behavior just plays into Their hands and they get ever stronger every day. If one chooses to use Them, you’ve already surrendered and lost the battle. Just what They want and expect from you. And there can be no more complaining about it because that right to do so has been effectively given up by staying in a bad relationship when you should know better.
    .
    “A free society allows people the right to voice wrong beliefs because the only alternative is creating a monolithic Ministry of Truth which has authority over what the right and wrong beliefs are.”
    .
    So what does this say about the nature of the our Society and World in which we live? It is anything but “free”. A free society has gone the way of decency and class and working hard and trying to do things the right way. All of those things are now sitting in the trash bin of history and gathering dust as they are not needed in The New Normal.

  14. SeaClearly Avatar
    SeaClearly

    Remember this (from more than 12 years ago), as it ties into the present, exactly:

    “Obama Confidant’s Spine-Chilling Proposal”:
    In 2008, while at Harvard Law School, Sunstein co-wrote a truly pernicious paper proposing that the U.S. Government employ teams of covert agents and pseudo-“independent” advocates to “cognitively infiltrate” online groups and websites — as well as other activist groups — which advocate views that Sunstein deems “false conspiracy theories” about the Government. This would be designed to increase citizens’ faith in government officials and undermine the credibility of conspiracists. Sunstein advocates that the Government’s stealth infiltration should be accomplished by sending covert agents into “chat rooms, online social networks, or even real-space groups.” He also proposes that the Government make secret payments to so-called “independent” credible voices to bolster the Government’s messaging (on the ground that those who don’t believe government sources will be more inclined to listen to those who appear independent while secretly acting on behalf of the Government). This program would target those advocating false “conspiracy theories,” which they define to mean: “an attempt to explain an event or practice by reference to the machinations of powerful people, who have also managed to conceal their role.”

    https://www.salon.com/2010/01/15/sunstein_2/

    1. Gregory Herr Avatar
      Gregory Herr

      I do remember—the Greenwald article is a good recommendation. Have you read David Ray Griffin’s “Cognitive Infiltration”? And guess who makes up the other half of an Obomber “power couple”? Samantha Power.

      1. SeaClearly Avatar
        SeaClearly

        Yes, I have read that, as well as all of his other books.

        Danny Jowenko on WTC 7:

  15. David Eire Avatar
    David Eire

    My perception of events leads me to believe there was massive fraud in the US Elections 2020. But I also see that the US Establishment, including both political parties, have determined to end the Trump era and are universally ignoring any and all evidence of fraud.
    The Establishment is determined to install Biden and Harris. Biden and his people are all on board with the Great Reset and Biden’s Administration will prepare the US for its part in the Reset. What is unfolding in the US is a global struggle between Nationalism and Transnational Capitalism – aka Neoliberal Globalism.
    Their betrayal of Trump will cost the Republican Party dearly with its base but they are obviously willing to take the hit and cooperate with the Reset. The Republican base will be sold the China Done it Hoax which will replace the Russia Hoax of the past 4 years. Most republicans will fall for it and lap it up like democrats and liberals fell for the Russia Hoax. They will want to believe it was China and communism. Anything to avoid seeing the truth that the election fraud was carried out by Americans and supported (ignored) by the Republican Establishment.
    It’s all very tragic but almost inevitable. Propaganda really works because most people have no clue whatsoever how their perceptions are being manipulated. They trust the government and the media implicitly. You can see that every day on the Streets around you as populations across the world permit their small to medium size business economies to be destroyed.
    We have some very very difficult years ahead.

  16. Michel Bélisle Avatar
    Michel Bélisle

    No surprise there.

    They want to continue sinning that is all.

    It is like their famous fight against climate change.

    They know that the earth groans under the weight of sin and that the climate then tends to go wrong.

    Their madness pushes them to seek to control the climate so that it does not disturb despite sin because they are determined to continue to sin.

    We are truly living in the return of the days of Noah just before the return of Jesus!

    Decadence is everywhere and more obvious among the upper class.

    Keeping my Rosary on hand!

  17. Em Avatar
    Em

    Who decides what ‘authoritative news’ is? Is it the likes of the same ‘main stream’ people who first drew-up the Constitution; who are now interpreting and determining what is permissible and what is not under their laws and orders?

    Is it any wonder then that the populace of the country finds itself in such a mindset morass, and is, belatedly, now awaking to the perpetual lies and deceptions that have been ‘hand-me-downed’ as part of supposed factual American history?

    Based on the ‘silver spoon’ hand he was dealt; for the last four years we’ve had to grin and bear witness to the ‘trump card’ play of a narcissist sociopath scam artist in fomenting distraction and unrest, while he serves himself and his cohorts’ greed at the publics coffers.

    Has it ever been any other way in the world’s leading “exceptionalist” Imperialist country?

  18. Rick Merlotti Avatar
    Rick Merlotti

    Everything the Borg says is coming from malevolent furreners is being used on Americans by the Borg’s MSM, the intel agencies, ad nauseam, 24/7. The propaganda levels are turned to 11. Two goals – somehow absorb the recalcitrant states, Russia, China, Iran, Syria, North Korea, Venezuela into the empire, while at the same time effecting the controlled disintegration of the US. Endgame is global neo-feudalism built on the corpse of the Nation State system. Massive power for the Borg, massive depopulation of the planet, massive suppression of any kind of dissent from the serfs. There’s yer great reset.

  19. Khatika Avatar
    Khatika

    Information is always controlled. It is just taking a few years to get control of the internet. Years ago the state would simply shut down news outlets. Then they figured out it was easier to just control them. This is another rage against the machine article. What is happening now is nothing new. Depressing but not new. If a new youtube, google etc got more popular, they would be either get on board or get shut down.

  20. Mikhail Avatar
    Mikhail

    “People are allowed to be wrong. A free society allows people the right to voice wrong beliefs because the only alternative is creating a monolithic Ministry of Truth which has authority over what the right and wrong beliefs are.”
    EXACTLY.
    Never better wrote.
    Many thanks, Caitlin..!

    1. Khatika Avatar
      Khatika

      Free society is an oxymoron. Frredom only comes from shunning society. Once you become part of society, you adopt its constraints. Once you accept those constraints it is very easy to get you to accept more.

  21. Steven Bruns Avatar
    Steven Bruns

    Why is Ms. Johnstone’s perfectly rational, fact-based commentary such an attraction for such egregiously ill-informed loons? That is the question before us today.

  22. jackoliver Avatar
    jackoliver

    Unfortunately – we are addicted to the BS !
    It’s BS overload at this stage !! I was raised thinking man actually walked on the MOON !
    How did the ‘moon’ buggy fit in that tiny capsule ??

    1. Khatika Avatar
      Khatika

      It was in the uhaul trailer they were towing behind the capsule.

    2. Shawn Avatar
      Shawn

      You can see the landing sites on the moon if you have a good enough telescope! No hoax!

  23. Diana Allen, MS, CNS Avatar
    Diana Allen, MS, CNS

    I hope you never get banned. But.. should we start brainstorming other ways to stay connected? Ways that don’t rely on the WWW? (Ham Radio? Bicycle Courier? Land Lines? Pony Express?)

    1. Mikhail Avatar
      Mikhail

      I hope the same, Diana…
      And you pointed out something crucial, because this “system” will be more and more “closed” with the time, IMHO.
      Maybe many of us will end trying to reach each other trough 14 MHz Ham band…
      (…I´m a Ham, btw… 😉 )
      Kind regards..!

      1. Newton Finn Avatar
        Newton Finn

        AE911Truth is exploring internet venues in which mainstream censorship is apparently not going on, some of which venues were likely created precisely to circumvent that censorship. I know nothing about these alternatives to YouTube but have great respect for AE911Truth, so I thought that Caitlin and her readers might want to scope out these sites.

        https://www.ae911truth.org/news/718-ae911truth-extends-reach-to-new-generation-of-online-media

  24. JWK Avatar
    JWK

    I would propose there has never been an election that wasn’t saturated with fraud. It’s one of the major flaws of democracy. Someone is counting votes. Who they actually work for is not public knowledge. In this particular case, it appears that they are working for the same party that Google is. It’s not the Democrats or the Republicans, both of which are also working for that party. Whether it be the Military Industrial Complex, the newly exposed Medical Industrial Complex, the Intelligence “community”, or the corporate oligarchs that own them, rest assured they are concerned for our welfare only if it happens to coincide with theirs. Which isn’t often.
    Truth can easily withstand any scrutiny, criticism, or argument. It neither needs nor requires protection by censorship. LIES DO!!!

  25. Tired and no longer active revolutionary Avatar
    Tired and no longer active revolutionary

    “Here’s hoping our rulers fail”
    And here’s the real world: When our rulers fail another lying, ruthless, corrupt, oppressive group of rulers will take their place. A wise man wrote: “Faith without action is dead” and I say that hope without action is also dead.

    1. Charlotte Ruse Avatar
      Charlotte Ruse

      “The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.” Orwell “Animal Farm”

  26. Charlotte Ruse Avatar
    Charlotte Ruse

    ‘The United States’ top general said the Chinese military was benefiting from the work Alphabet Inc’s Google was doing in China, where the technology giant has long sought to have a bigger presence.”
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-china-google-idUSKCN1QV296

    Maybe, big tech and the US security state are in cahoots with the CCP determined to turn Western Liberal democracies into a China-style surveillance state.

  27. Lloyd Avatar
    Lloyd

    Who knew that the “unseen hand” hovers over a keyboard?

  28. Joseph Olson Avatar
    Joseph Olson

    Obombie stole the 2008 primary from Reptillary >
    Reptillary stole the 2016 primary from Bean Brain Bernie >
    Bidet Biden stole 2020 primary from Bean Brain Bernie >
    Bidet Biden stole 2020 general election from Orange Man >
    “Fraction Magic” > BlackBoxVoting.org > the electronic vote
    rigging cartel has stolen EVERY election worldwide for decades

  29. Fair dinkum Avatar
    Fair dinkum

    Let’s call them what they are:
    FOOLTUBE..
    FAKEBOOK.
    SHITTER.
    GAGGLE.
    DIMSTERGRAM.
    (Add yours here).

    1. Julius Skoolafish Avatar
      Julius Skoolafish

      FAECESBOOK

  30. Vince Avatar
    Vince

    First they came for Alex Jones & we said “blah blah blah, then they came for….well you know how this goes. To his credit Alex Jones warned us HE would be banned first,( back in 2005. )
    Now we have the ‘New World Order conspiracy theory” is, in fact, a very stark reality. The latest phase of the rollout, following U.N.Agenda 21/Agenda 2030 ‘operation lockstep’ it’s now all about “The Great Reset” & ‘Build Back Better’ mantra.
    For the little people I say, Better Buy Bitcoin.
    Thanks for all your hard work & deep thought Caitoz. Anti war is pro – humanity

  31. Ned B. Avatar
    Ned B.

    The purpose of the mainstream media is not to inform you, but to conform you.
    – Ned B.

    1. Newton Finn Avatar
      Newton Finn

      Down the pipe. I remember when the MSM was juicing up the American public for the immanent criminal war against Iraq. One of my close friends, a PhD student with deep ethical passion, was taken in by the relentless propaganda, while I saw through it, and our relationship was ruptured by arguments over this upcoming war. I tell this little story only to add emphasis to the importance of Caitlin’s mission to overcome the 24/7 conditioning which assaults average people, especially American citizens, and garners their support for something they would never sanction if they knew the true story. Diana Johnstone talks about R2P, the so-called “responsibility to protect,” which is used to convince otherwise sensitive, ethical people to endorse a war of aggression. As both Johnstones have pointed out, it’s a simple matter of demonizing a particular governmental leader, making people think he’s savaging the citizens of his country, and then make them further believe that America, because of its “values” and military might, is obligated to oust that leader and save the citizens he’s savaging. In other words, gross evil is committed by appealing to the moral decency and compassion of the average citizen; the best in human beings is twisted into support for the worst we can do. I, like many others, fear the return of R2P in full force under the Biden administration, so let us be ready to do all in our power to nip it in the bud.

  32. Michael H Strong Avatar
    Michael H Strong

    When personal computers first came in I imagined it was democracy. Instead of going to computer centers with my stack of punch cards to be added to the batch run with printouts the next day, I could now use not just a terminal, but a real computer, just smaller.
    I didn’t think, until much later, about the fact that these machines could only be manufactured by large companies, who were selling a product, not freedom.
    When Steve Jobs opened with the first Mac, he also closed down the Apple II and family line, which allowed outside vendors to create circuit boards and other add ons. The famous Super Bowl ad was supposedly aimed at IBM, smashing the mainframe monopolies. That was really just gaslighting for a personal computer designed to own the buyer, as determined by Jobs, an uber-control freak.
    And when Tim Berners-Lee wrote the WorldWideWeb specs, browser and server and sold the idea to tons of companies as a way to easily utilize the interconnected networks, soon named “The Internet,” it looked like open-turf time and democracy here we come.
    But all that structure supporting the equipment and the networking protocols, servers and the new ISPs was not created in mom and pop shops by locals. That required a lot of ownership.
    And now, thought is being owned.
    Already we are being turned into sharecroppers within our own lives. The “cloud” and the defaults increasingly going to “Drive” or other “cloud” locations which are nothing more than heavy duty computers with server software at someone else’s location. That and software which is only rented now, instead of purchased. Even our own notes and diaries, floating in “the cloud” and our devices on the “Internet of Things” (IOT).
    Brave old world.

    1. Diana Allen, MS, CNS Avatar
      Diana Allen, MS, CNS

      Interesting WWW history lesson, thank you. I have always boycotted “The Cloud” – never understood why anyone would want to save their private files in a public facility, virtual or otherwise.

    2. Mike McDonnell Avatar
      Mike McDonnell

      The internet is still free. It is applications such as facebook and google which censor content. Do not use these applications. I do not use either facebook or google and I am able to find information which is censored on those platforms. I use duckduckgo as a search engine. A founder of the internet commented that the net was designed to be robust against damage (usually military) but that it treats censorship as damage and routes around it. It takes draconian measures to throttle the internet. We are not there yet, though China is. For more about sensible ways to use the internet see the Free Software Foundation website, especially those articles there by one of my heroes, Richard Stallman.

      1. radkelt Avatar
        radkelt

        Check out proton mail website, offers encrypted email and vpn, and swiss cows search engine. I hear duck duck go has been compromised.

  33. Peter Senior Avatar
    Peter Senior

    Hi, as a general rule, you can be fairly sure something is true when:
    1. It is officially denied
    2. It is labelled a ‘conspiracy theory’
    3. Those explaining the issue are called ‘deniers’ and are denigrated
    4. Related comments, videos etc. are removed from Facebook, Google, YouTube etc.

    1. Cal Lash Avatar
      Cal Lash

      Like that @

      1. RWood Avatar
        RWood

        um tut sut!

  34. Josh Avatar
    Josh

    P.S. Also, I agree that the election (as such) is totally screwed seven ways to Sunday on purpose by the agencies who have been setting them up and running them. They do it every time, on purpose, for creepily similar reasons, and they have been at it for quite a while. That should stop being the case as soon as enough people stop buying into anything of the sort. As everyone who exists happens to be a person (including a fair number of the idiots doing this stuff) simple math should help us here, provided the number of us not buying it keeps climbing.

  35. Josh Avatar
    Josh

    Yeah, that’s right. I secretly (openly) suspect youtube and all it’s little friends of sharing the singular purpose of removing our collective consciousness as far away from being able to discern reality as possible, so that our species can be more easily programmed and controlled.
    Basically, the only thing they won’t tell is the truth, and they don’t want anyone else to either (or even stumble across it).

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