The Washington Post has published another article warning its readers that the Russians are “hacking our minds”, this one authored by CNN’s Fareed Zakaria.
“Russia hasn’t just hacked our computer systems. It’s hacked our minds.” blares the ridiculous, propagandistic headline for an article about “the Russian model” of propaganda which “rests on the principle that people get convinced when they hear the same message many times from a variety of sources, no matter how biased.”
Which is funny, since this is not the first time WaPo itself has repeated this cartoonish narrative about Russian mind-hackers.
The problem is not just that Russia has hacked America’s computer systems. It seems to have hacked our minds.
My latest column: https://t.co/iVFK7u2F4o
— Fareed Zakaria (@FareedZakaria) December 18, 2020
"Russia and other adversaries may not need to hack the election if they can hack something else: our minds."
From The Washington Post. Democracy Dies in Darkness. pic.twitter.com/RkURiogRUc
— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) October 4, 2020
Just two months ago the Washington Post editorial board published an article titled “The U.S. may be safe from foreign interference in this election. But what about perception hacking?“, which opens with the line “Russia and other adversaries may not need to hack the election if they can hack something else: our minds.”
The paranoid screed unironically argued that Russia is using its super powerful propaganda engine to make people paranoid and doubtful of US electoral systems, which could actually have an adverse effect on the US election. As though telling people their mental and perceptual faculties are being hacked by a hostile foreign enemy with the goal of influencing the election would not make them paranoid and doubtful of US electoral systems.
Zakaria’s piece builds on this already established theme by parroting the still completely evidence-free claim that Russia was responsible for the far-reaching cyber intrusion into the IT company SolarWinds, whose cybersecurity we recently learned was left so unprotected that its update server’s password was literally “solarwinds123”.
“But what about the perhaps more insidious Russian efforts at disinformation, which have helped to reshape the information environment worldwide?” Zakaria asks. He then does a few mental gymnastics to tie Russia’s propaganda campaign to Donald Trump, because of course he does, and leaves the reader with the closing line, “The problem is not just that Russia has hacked America’s computer systems. It seems to have hacked our minds.”
Nothing to see here. In the West, it's perfectly normal and not at all compromising for a news agency like @Reuters to employ a CIA agent to ensure that the company can "meet the disparate needs of the U.S. Government." https://t.co/I5DJH04Beq pic.twitter.com/qjxtJcwFDB
— Ali Abunimah (@AliAbunimah) December 17, 2020
WaPo keeps hammering this narrative about powerful Russian mind-hackers as though Russia is the only nation with an existing propaganda campaign on the world stage and not one of the weaker ones doing so. The US government itself openly uses propaganda on foreigners with programs like Radio Free Europe, Radio Free Asia and Voice of America, which actually serve the more important function of presenting the illusion that those are the only form of US government propaganda.
In reality the plutocratic class which owns the mass media works closely with the US government and sets up its institutions to only elevate voices which advance narratives that are favorable to the status quo those plutocrats have built their kingdoms upon. WaPo itself is owned by the richest man in the world who is also a CIA contractor and sits on a Pentagon advisory board. The unofficial propaganda operations of the oligarchic empire give it a massive edge in international narrative control that dwarfs both official US propaganda programs and anything the Russian government could ever come up with.
Among some very stiff competition, one of the dumbest recurring themes in western imperialist media is the idea that world affairs, entire electoral and governmental systems, and even our very minds, are being controlled by a nation with the same GDP as South Korea. Russia does not have an especially strong sway over the world stage, it just happens to be one of the few remaining power structures which have resisted absorption into the US-centralized empire and is being targeted with a propaganda campaign aimed at changing that.
Russia is not hacking your mind. If anyone is hacking your mind, it’s the vast globe-spanning power structure loosely centralized around the United States which has been aggressively propagandizing you into supporting the continuation of status quo politics since you were born.
The dawn of political insight comes when you realize that propaganda is not just something that is done by other nations to other people. It is done by your own rulers, in your own nation, and it is being done to you.
____________________
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57 responses to “The Washington Post Can’t Stop Babbling About Russians ‘Hacking Our Minds’”
…. Babbling About Russians ‘Hacking Our Minds’
Isn’t this, just perhaps, precisely the product of the fake news construct, promoted throughout his incumbency, by Trump, implanted into soft-minded Americans; to which he may now turn, as his last-ditch pretext to protect the National Security interests of the State, by attempting to declare Martial Law at the last moment just prior to January 20th 2021?
Look – ZIO/US could not stop Russia turning 200 thousand ISIS into fertiliser
Could not stop Russia saving Maduro
Could not stop Russia’s peace deal in the Armenian conflict
ZIO/US just don’t have anything to intimidate Russia with !
Russia exhibited over SEVENTY ‘never before seen’ weapons in Syria !
Whenever the ZIO/US comes up with ANOTHER military ‘adventurism’ idea – Putin just has to get on the phone and say – don’t ***KING try it !!
ZIO/US is just a bag of ***KING wind !!
Perfect. ‘Nuff said.
I’m more than a bit skeptical about the true source of this “hack”, and the deluge of well-timed hysteria. Haven’t we learned anything about false flaggery yet? If deep dual state deception artists can pull off a very sophisticated 9/11 psyop and almost convince the whole world it was some ragtag bumpkins from Al Qaeda, then burrowing into the US security computer systems leaving fake Russian fingerprints is a piece of cake.
Our minds are being hacked alright and they’re using technology to do it. Anyone who thinks the technology doesn’t exist, or won’t exist in the near future, hasn’t been paying attention.
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“Big Brother In Disguise: . . .
https://www.wakingtimes.com/big-brother-in-disguise/
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[From the horses arse, I mean mouth, (WaPo) itself:]
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“For example, asks Washington Post reporter Ariana Eunjung Cha:
‘What kind of warnings should users receive about the risks of implanting chip technology inside a body, for instance? How will patients be assured that the technology won’t be used to compel them to take medications they don’t really want to take? Could law enforcement obtain data that would reveal which individuals abuse drugs or sell them on the black market? Could what started as a voluntary experiment be turned into a compulsory government identification program that could erode civil liberties?’
“Moreover, it’s not just our homes and personal devices that are being reordered and reimagined in this connected age: it’s our workplaces, our health systems, our government, our bodies and our innermost thoughts that are being plugged into a matrix over which we have no real control.”
`
“Indeed, it is expected that by 2030, we will all experience The Internet of Senses (IoS), enabled by Artificial Intelligence (AI), Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), 5G, and automation. The Internet of Senses relies on connected technology interacting with our senses of sight, sound, taste, smell, and touch by way of the brain as the user interface. As journalist Susan Fourtane explains:”
`
“Fourtane outlines several trends related to the IoS that are expected to become a reality by 2030:
1: Thoughts become action: using the brain as the interface, for example, users will be able to see map routes on VR glasses by simply thinking of a destination.
2: Sounds will become an extension of the devised virtual reality: users could mimic anyone’s voice realistically enough to fool even family members.
3: Real food will become secondary to imagined tastes. A sensory device for your mouth could digitally enhance anything you eat, so that any food can taste like your favorite treat.
4: Smells will become a projection of this virtual reality so that virtual visits, to forests or the countryside for instance, would include experiencing all the natural smells of those places.
5: Total touch: Smartphones with screens will convey the shape and texture of the digital icons and buttons they are pressing.
6: Merged reality: VR game worlds will become indistinguishable from physical reality by 2030.”
Only if you feel compelled to attend sporting events in colossal stadiums or mega-concerts.
The world is bigger than any of us can imagine … let’s get out there and get together.
Sorry, there will not be the energy resources to run that techno wet dream world…
Sounds more like Fareed Zakaria had his mind hacked by a flesh-eating microbe.
w
“The Washington Post Can’t Stop Babbling About Russians ‘Hacking Our Minds’…if anyone is hacking your mind, it’s the vast globe-spanning power structure loosely centralized around the United States which has been aggressively propagandizing you into supporting the continuation of status quo politics since you were born… it is done by your own rulers, in your own nation, and it is being done to you.”
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If one goes to a garbage dump, he/she shouldn’t be surprised that the place is dirty and filthy and filled with useless junk and smells really bad.
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If one reads or trusts State Corporate Media, he/she shouldn’t be surprised that the place is dirty and corrupt and filled with junk and lies and… smells really bad.
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It’s Their job to peddle bull manure nonstop 24 hours each and every day. It’s the job of any sane person to ignore them entirely and assign them to the Scrap Heap of History. They are paid whores being well compensated to peddle filth.
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If anyone believes ANYTHING The Media Harlots say, the fault is NOT with The Harlots. The fault is… you know where.
I think that local news, sports (except the Olympics), and weather are still pretty honest. It’s when they go to the “national” desk with their well paid whores that things get really smelly.
Hear, hear.
So that’s what happened to me. 16 months ago I began having horrible headaches and have been to countless doctors trying to find the problem. They have finally quit for the most part and the really bad ones did finally subside to just one of those headaches that pisses you off.
Oh Brent…..damn. I know about the “headache” your talking about although I’d never go to the doctors myself by choice….anyhow, it happened to me sometime after the invasion after 9/11 when we attacked another country based on obvious lies.
~
Don’t worry the pissed off headache eventually wears off, or at least it did for me. Then you are left with an empty spot in your head that you have to decide how you are gonna fill. Fill it with love if you want my opinion, but pissed off love is kind of a different and I don’t blame you.
~
So, consider the initial headaches you had as a sort of “blessing” that meant you were waking up to the reality of the theatre of it all. Kabuki theatre seems to me.
~
Take two aspirin and call me in the morning if you still feel crappy!
~
Ha, ha…..
-Ken
All one should need to question anything fro the WaPo, is to know that Jeff Bezos owns it. His ex-wife is more attuned to the needs of humanity than Bezos will ever be, or care to be.
Anything printed in the WaPo is suspect, unless it is accompanied by substantial proof. If the written word, alone, were proof, I write myself into a billion dollar fortune and hold the bank responsible when it could not produce my money.
“Hacking Our Minds” and other related spheres:
Condoleezza Rice: Mushroom Clouds
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyWsyqLDYjE
George Bush: 16 Words
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvvXnVyJ8lA
Victoria Nuland: Leaked Phone Conversation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WV9J6sxCs5k
Russiagate in 3 minutes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alt5kD7ei1I
Thank you for the links which clearly demonstrates who the perps are . I have nothing but respect for real journalists such as Aaron Maté .
Exactly the type of journalists the world needs more of .
Narrators who spin elaborate webs of narration start to believe their narrations to be facts. This is a sign of beginning
of madness and their ultimate destruction. One sincerely hopes that they don’t destroy the life on earth as they destroy themselves. Since they are extremely greedy and self centered, one hopes they are not suicidal also.
I would love it if these accusers would invite the Russians on their television shows to debate them; if they can’t do that maybe there is something wrong with the accusations? They could also ask the Russians when they stopped beating their wives, but knowing the Russians they will add to their criminality by denying this.
Here’s who has hacked your mind: The Washington Post. In totalitarian countries everyone knows the news is propaganda. But here in the so-called Land of the Free we live under the illusion that we are being told the truth. We aren’t.
My impression is that a large number of us proles do not believe the boss media. But this doesn’t matter because we have no power anyway.
I once made fun of a high-level stock broker of my acquaintance when I saw a copy of the _New York Times_ on his desk. I told him I didn’t see a bird cage or cat box around. He said, ‘I have to read it so I know what I’m supposed to believe. It’s like reading _Pravda_ in the Soviet Union — you know it’s all made up, but you need to know the party line if you want to get along.’
As long as there are people of great power and great wealth, there are going to be media that lie, because knowledge is power and therefore must be denied to the lower orders.
You make a great point here.
`
I do think people are waking up, unfortunately too slowly. It’s easy for most to go along with the narratives and pretend something like an independent, investigative media still exists. Pretend that a government that is accountable to the people still exists. Harder to ask questions and risk being ostracized, or worse.
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I really don’t know much about, what we call totalitarian, countries, but I imagine people there live with the propaganda and put on a happy face in public. But in private, they all know they can’t believe a word of it.
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The majority in the, so called, enlightened, “democratic west” kneel before the gospel of the media, largely, without question, and use it to justify all manor of horrors.
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“But here in the so-called Land of the Free we live under the illusion that we are being told the truth. We aren’t.”
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Indeed.
You know who the bastards who run the American Empire are really afraid of? Not Russia, not China. No, they’re afraid of Caitlin. Yes, that’s right, they’re afraid of small independent voices like Caitlin’s and Jimmy Dore’s and John Pilger’s and Abbie Martin’s and Ed Curtin’s and Norm Finkelstein’s and David Griffin’s and Bill Mitchell’s and other prophets in the wilderness, small independent voices who have figured out a way–in the midst of this exploitative, oppressive, violent, ecocidal nightmare we’ve been lulled into–to tell the truth about it, as they see it, to try to wake us up. Because if that ever happens, if these voices in the wilderness somehow find a way, from inside or outside themselves, to shake us from our slumber before they’re silenced, then the bastards will have a hell of a lot more to be afraid of, that being us. Want to help them? If you’re able to, provide a little financial support. But much more importantly, and we’re all able to do this, support them by believing in the triumph of the human spirit.
There something else you might do. Look up Peer Tube and it will come to you.
“Russia hasn’t just hacked our computer systems. It’s hacked our minds.”
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Projection. I’m sure Russia is involved in mind control experiments/operations, but this is U.S. Intel agencies projecting their own evil onto Russia. No doubt Russia does the same thing in their media.
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The U.S. government has a long and documented history of mind control experiments and operations.
Our government is the same one which conducted experiments on the tuskegee airmen. Lest we expect any less of them today. Here is a lengthy list of such in America. Many by the CDC.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unethical_human_experimentation_in_the_United_States
When you write putting the author last it causes stutter thinking to know this is not you speaking. Similar to a propaganda technique ( not meaning you ) to the headline grabber, or first couple sentences or first paragraph. Respectfully submitted.
“But what about the perhaps more insidious Russian efforts at disinformation, which have helped to reshape the information environment worldwide?” Zakaria asks.
Safe subject matter for sure.
Just what one would expect from a gang of pathological liars. The incessant caterwauling from the CIA infiltrated Mockingbird Media about the dangers presented by other nations serves one, and only one purpose. To disguise the far greater danger from our own. The most grave threat to our liberty, livelihood, indeed our very lives lies not in Russia, China, or any nation in the Middle East. It’s in Washington DC. Those other nations don’t present the danger of sending armed goons to my house to enforce some insane, tyrannical, if not criminal edict.
Hahaha Russia GDP is also the size of Texas
Russia has virtually ZERO debt !
World debt is estimated at 280 trillion ( although it is much – much higher ) – of that the US owes around 90 trillion !!
You are an economic NOBODY !!
Note: You know that you are making a difference Caitlin – when your site starts attracting ‘shills’ like BROWSERDUMMY !
The GDPs of North Korea, North Vietnam, Cuba, Afghanistan and Iraq (to name a few) are even smaller, yet the Empire of Greed, Violence and Hypocrisy failed to ‘conquer’ any of them.
What does anyone expect from an infant country that’s still behaving as a spoilt brat. It has no history other than a litany of broken treaties, genocide, slavery and a developing penchant for extreme and aggressive warfare. There’s plenty ‘good’ money to be made by slaughtering the rest of the world. Oh well, that’s capitalism.
The Washington Post can’t help itself…not when a war with Russia seems to be its primary goal. And pinhead-elect Joe Biden can’t help himself from repeatedly vowing retribution against Russia based on manufactured charges by the MSM backed up by zero evidence. The dynamic duo of the American media and the American government seem to weigh every comment and action as to how effectively they might provoke Russia, or China, or Iran, North Korea or Venezuela into a shooting war. Essentially, the American side has flat out accused Russia of an act of war, an egregious, duplicitous and protracted–not incidental–offense, and it would seem they hope them’s fightin’ words.
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They use the same tactics whenever they want to start shooting at any country they’ve chosen as a target: They make up false charges out of thin air, fail to provide any evidence in support of such charges, dismiss out of hand any exculpatory facts provided by their “enemy” and just start shooting when they feel it most advantageous. Then they stay forever in an occupation they can never effectively control, needlessly extending the slaughter sometimes for decades.
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It’s how they vivisected Yugoslavia and Hitlerized Milosevic, took out the Taliban, Saddam, and Gadaffi, absolutely destroying those societies, and what they’ve tried with Assad and whoever runs Yemen, and Somalia, yielding millions in both the dead and the dispossessed. They’ve also applied this formula, except for the final shooting phase, with Iran and Venezuela, slathering on mountains of sanctions and even assassinations over and above the usual slanders.
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I would have thought they’d polish up their skill sets in the art of the ultraviolence on one or both of the latter thoroughly savaged victims before going full frontal with a nuclear super power, but Joe’s got a lot to prove and so little time left to do it. He looks like such a jackass when he puts on that affected sneer, like he’s a Maori warrior or something. I mean, c’mon, man!
Well said in four short paragraphs. This can be expanded to an article or articles. Hope you’ll do it. Thanks!
Realist you are. But I doubt that the American Empire wants a shooting war with Russia or China, because that could end the whole empire game in a mushroom cloud. I suspect that as the carefully engendered fear of the Soviet Union /communism was redirected into the fear of Islam/terrorism when the former began to fade, so now the latter is being redirected into the fear of resurgent Russia/China. There is much more of a domestic psyop here IMHO than an even more direct and belligerent move in foreign policy (although Venezuela or Iran might prove me wrong). As I see it, the plutocrats, their politicians, and their MSM are talking much more to the American public with this latest BS than to our major foreign adversaries, who’ve learned to take our BS and accompanying economic warfare in stride, knowing they’ve got those nukes.
I also doubt it will degrade into a shooting war, but the risk IS there nonetheless. Mostly we will continue to ratchet up tensions, and seek regime change in Moscow. The looters are still drooling over Russia’s vast resources that they were pilfering during the Yeltsin era. They can’t wait to get back there. The risk is that there are factions way more aggressive and nationalist than Putin. Navalny only has support of about 2 pct.
If they only want to cow Russia and China into submission, they’ve got to make their threats seem totally plausible. This they do quite convincingly. Threats at such a level must be on a hair trigger, and that ultimately removes human control from the equation. We are at the mercy of random quantum fluctuations in the fabric of reality. No one will forgive them just because they go “oops” as the missiles are launched. As was established long ago in a Hollywood movie for teenagers, the only way to win this game is not to play. Yet they persist. If “alarmism” can prevent Armageddon, I’m all for it.
Thank Gaia for you, Caitlyn. This stuff seems so obvious to me but almost everyone I know is brainwashed by it. It feels so lonely sometimes. Much love.
Our minds have been ‘hacked’ from birth.
‘Work, work, work, buy, buy, buy, do what you’re told, shut up and die’
Exactly.
That says it all John.
That was funny even though it’s not. The phones too. Computers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DU1B_XkyIk
Dr. Bruce Weil says that every day at three in the afternoon he shuts off all of his electronic devices. What he says next is prefaced by ” It’s painful at first”. Then he goes on past that telling statement.
Dopamine addicts, simply put. A world full of junkies.
Speaking of hacking our minds;
https://risingtidefoundation.net/2020/07/16/a-study-of-schillers-ghost-seer-part-i/
https://risingtidefoundation.net/2020/06/16/a-study-of-schillers-ghost-seer-part-2/
Gaw-lee! Lookit that, wud’ja!
Zaccharia has either lost his mind or sold his soul … or both. And it’s got nothing to do with Russia.
This is to be expected from the major media in the United States, for the last eight months they have been running the most successful fear-porn industry in the world. A couple hundred million terrified sheep are wearing masks and rubber gloves and hiding in their homes in fear of a virus that is no more dangerous than the flu. It isn’t surprising at all that these disgusting fear mongers would also scare their sheeple with the imagined malfeasance of the great Russian Bear. Our leaders have destroyed the United States and it will become apparent after the new masked imbecile takes the reins away from the orange clown and gets back to his war crimes.
It’s far deadlier than the flu. Science is right, Rush Limbaugh is wrong. Wear a mask and stop being a drama queen.
Bill Conklin is right. You fell for it.
“Yeah, well you know, that’s just like, your opinion, man.”
– Jeffrey (“The Dude”) Lebowski
…and just like assholes, everybody’s got one. But without evidence to back them up, they’re much less useful.
Everything has been hijacked and corrupted. Even your precious science.
Fine. Wear your mask just dont insist I become a lemming with you.
Keep walking Suzie, not interested.
Excuse the vulgarity – but watch Putin tear Fareed Zakaria a new asshole !
Notice that our MSM never features speeches or interviews of Putin or Lavrov. They slander and libel them daily, but we never get to hear the words coming out of their mouths. How’s that for mind control?
Anyone who speaks up for peace is immediately de-platformed from the MSM. Remember Phil Donahue? Tulsi Gabbard? The MSM’s efforts at mind control are so blatant that if you have any capability for independent thought they are laughable. Unfortunately common sense seems to have been largely bred out of the US sheeples.
You can watch them on youtube but no one bothers with it. Most just dont care. They see what they want to see. If Putin went on tiktok he would get alot more views.
Pretty much what you should expect from the CIA house organ.