Listen to a reading of this article:
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The oligarchic empire is working harder and harder to bolt down our minds in service of its agendas.
Silicon Valley is working more and more openly in conjunction with the US government, and its algorithms elevate empire-authorized narratives while hiding unapproved ones with increasing brazenness.
The mass media have become so blatantly propagandistic that US intelligence operatives are now openly employed by news outlets they used to have to infiltrate covertly.
NATO and military institutions are studying and testing new forms of mass-scale psychological manipulation to advance the still developing science of propaganda.
A transparently fake “whistleblower” is being promoted by the US political/media class to manufacture support for more internet censorship and shore up monopolistic control for institutions like Facebook who are willing to enforce it.
Wikipedia is an imperial narrative control operation.
They’ve imprisoned a journalist for exposing US war crimes after the CIA plotted to kidnap and assassinate him.
I do reporting on some really disconcerting topics, but the research I did for this is some of the most terrifying I've done in my years as a journalist:
NATO is developing “cognitive warfare,” waging a “battle for your brain,” to “make everyone a weapon”https://t.co/z40x6k96OW
— Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) October 11, 2021
The powerful work so hard at such endeavors because they understand something that most ordinary people do not: whoever controls the dominant narratives about the world controls the world itself.
Power is controlling what happens; absolute power is controlling what people think about what happens.
If you can control how people think about what’s going on in their world, if you can control their shared how-it-is stories about what’s happening and what’s true, then you can advance any agenda you want to. You’ll be able to prevent them from rising up against you as you steal their wealth, exploit their labor, destroy their ecosystem and send their children off to war. You can keep them voting for political institutions you own and control. You can keep them from interfering in your ability to wage wars around the world and sanction entire populations into starvation to advance your geostrategic goals.
This status quo of exploitation, ecocide, oppression and war benefits our rulers immensely, bringing them more wealth and power than the kings of old could ever dream of. And like the kings of old they are not going to relinquish power of their own accord, which means the only thing that will bring an end to this world-destroying status quo is the people rising up and using the power of their numbers to end it.
Yet they don’t rise up. They don’t because they are successfully propagandized into accepting this status quo, or at least into believing it’s the only way things can be right now. Imperial narrative control is therefore the source of all our biggest problems.
And they’re only getting more and more aggressive about it. More and more forceful, less and less sly and subtle in their campaign to control the thoughts that are in our heads.
Many of those who have this realization see it as cause for despair. I personally see it as cause for hope.
![When you tear out a man's tongue..." -Tyrion Lannister, Game of Thrones [957x601]: QuotesPorn](http://i.imgur.com/FVJfxB5.png)
They work so hard to manufacture our consent for the status quo because they absolutely require that consent; history shows us that rulers do not fare well after a critical mass of the population has turned against them. And they’re working harder and harder to manufacture that consent, even as extremely influential people begin questioning whether we’re being deliberately deceived about everything.
They used to look like someone using a bucket to bail out water from a leaky boat. Now they look like someone treading water, barely managing to get their mouth and nose high enough to take gasps of air.
They’re working harder and harder because they need to.
The fact that the propagandists have to work so hard to keep our society this insane means the natural gravitational pull is toward sanity. They have to educate us into crazier and crazier ways of thinking from the moment we go to school until we die, because otherwise we’ll collectively awaken and shake off their shackles.
It takes a lot of educating to keep us this stupid.
You think you’re struggling? You should see the people trying to manufacture consent for a status quo that is both plainly insane and self-evidently unsustainable. They’re the ones doing all the heavy lifting in this struggle. They’re the ones fighting gravity.
Hope is not a popular position to take in a world that is being abused, exploited and being driven mad by manipulative sociopaths. Which is understandable.
But I just can’t help it. I look at how hard they are struggling to keep the light from bursting in and driving out the darkness, and I can’t help but think, “Those poor bastards can’t keep that up much longer.”
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33 responses to “It Takes A Lot Of Education To Keep Us This Stupid”
Big Pharma is the perfect cover for the Mafia … the good ol’ Cosa Nostra Mafia of the Sixties –
In 1975, my long-deceased father-in-law told us he had left his Big Pharma position as a Vice President and chemist, due to Mafia takeover of Hoffman LaRoche.
With the U.S. Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) 1986, and further regulatory agency infiltration, Big Pharma has no responsibility, and – as we witness now – charge top dollar.
What better racket could there be?
Health Mandates and control of entire economies.
—————— It is a mystery to me who will benefit from the devolution of the USA, but the attack on information was well underway in Trump’s White House.
Note that the Wayback Machine started “Fact-Checking” in April 2020, coincidental with the Pandemic exposing the Wuhan Lab Leak.
So, he who runs Facebook Runs —- The Western Military Industrial Complex?
Hello, oh followers of Caitlin. I just published something interesting myself. I think it flows quite well with this article form Caitlin. So I will give you the link
https://yaxls.wordpress.com/2021/10/16/see-the-whole-field/
Title is “See the Whole Field; An Essay on countering the propaganda of the Oligarchy”
Basically, I am saying we need new forms of non private social media for the public to be able to develop a clear idea of what to replace our present system with. Enjoy.
Just exactly WHAT do people do after they’re all woke up — pick up a gun; guillotine some VIPs; march hand in hand down Penn. Ave. forever and demand, demand, demand that the Elite behave better, or else?
Here’s what you are eventually going to HAVE TO DO because
there. is. no. other. way.
If you do not want More Of The Same, do not vote for another R or D, ever, no matter what an R or D promises!
I remember when I realized Sanjay Gupta was a liar. It was when he “fact checked” Michael Moore’s movie “Sicko” which I had just seen when it was first released. Gupta listed three claimed lies from the movie, and Gupta was lying about all three. It’s been so long, I can’t remember what they were, but one was a thing that the movie never claimed, so just a made up straw man. There must have been some complaints about it, because Gupta was on again admitting he was wrong on one of the three things, but stood by the other two. Is this an advanced form of gaslighting? “See I admit when I’m wrong, so you have to believe the other two lies”?
Then years later I heard he had changed his public position on marijuana from opposition to support. I wondered if it was possible he was evolving for the better. But no, he obviously knows he works for blood money, and being the last one to admit they were wrong about marijuana is not that impressive.
I tend to think the guy is water-skiing behind Big Pharma’s speedboat. He casually changed his mind about marijuana when Big Pharma’s position moved to “If you can’t beat them, join them” and they decided to try their luck at medical marijuana. He told Joe Rogan he smoked weed once and felt uncomfortable facing some personal issues. You bet! :o)
I think you are right.
Sanjay Gupta is THE absolute illustration of how modern propaganda by educated guys works. I listened to his interview with Joe Rogan that you mentioned in your piece yesterday. Amazing! Gupta is a very smooth operator, a kind of new Fauci, only without the cutting edge. He’s playful, humorous and someone you spontaneously want to trust. Of course a con-man who would look like a con-man couldn’t con anybody. It was interesting to observe how he set traps for Rogan while maintaining possible denial. Joe, who knows the music, in spite of falling under Gupta’s spell, managed to avoid them until there was a bit of a muddy moment when he said: “What is the survival rate, 99,7%?”, meaning to point out it was very high. Just like in a boxing match, Gupta saw his chance, as the medical authority, in this hesitation and threw an uppercut: “I think the deaths are 0,5%”. We were crossing the Grand Canyon on a string here. Then Gupta got his sword from under his cape, like the matador in a bullfight and proceeded to the kill: “This means one in 200 people dies! Who wants to take that chance?” At which point Joe Rogan was AWOL. Gupta1-Rogan 0. But this is pure gaslighting and Gupta is bound to know it, otherwise I don’t know what legitimacy he’s got to advise CNN on the matter! The reality, according to Worldometers is that 743.880 Americans over 333 millions have allegedly died of Covid in 20 months, i.e. 0,22%. Less than half what Gupta claimed, with a survival rate of 99,97% as Rogan said! But 95% of these folks were on death row with three or four comorbidities. Their deaths were packaged as Covid-19 by (Big Pharma inspired?) federal mandate because they happened to test positive to a routine PCR test that, according to its own inventor, Kary Mullis, is useless for diagnosis (!). God knows what the real cause of their deaths was and autopsies have not been allowed (!). In any case, it’s not one in 200 that have died in the general population but one in 450 who was on death row anyway in some nursing facility most of the time – old folks die everyday while babies are born. It’s called the cycle of life. This changes completely the perspective on the (lucrative) general vaccine mandate – including children and healthy and naturally immune adults – which is what Gupta is selling. So we’re in the same gaslighting area as CNN anchors previously stating that Joe Rogan had taken horse dewormer to fight Covid, which everyone interested knew was a ridiculous lie to smear both Rogan and Ivermectin. but Gupta brings it charm, subtlety and distinction. As John Lennon wrote in Working Class Hero at about the time Gupta was born, “There’s room at the top, they are telling you still but first you must learn how to smile as you kill.” A roadmap ? :o)
It’s very similar to what happened on 9/11. No forensic analysis and no technical engineers were allowed to collect anything. I remember till today the ones giving interviews right after the collapse reporting several successive explosions very similar to what can be seem in controlled demolitions. The contractors who built the towers were there in fancy limousines to say to the media that it was not possible something like that to happen,.But as soon as they were showing up they were being erased from the news. To make a narrative like that to happen you gotta have the keys leading to the front doors of everything since the beginning and you gotta keep a tab in everyone responsible for real information to be under control. It was hard but they did convince everyone about the legitimacy. Now it’s been harder for them to be the heroes. People know what they are. And after 2 years they are in despair because time is running and the results expected are not coming out. They are using harsher punishments to force people to do what they want but it will not work.I like to think about everything what they did since 9/11 till this covid time as a big fucking karma coming back right on their faces. We will never live as we used to live after so many deceptions. People in America are more inclined to die as free American citizens than complying to a tyrannical government. They started America as refugees fleeing away from the oppressors. It’s a good way to go. The old America is dead. Let them choose their fate in their own terms.
Of course there must be a lot of people in the 9/11 loop, starting with Congress and the corporate media, Giuliani etc. There must have been a lot of money flowing! It reminds me of Clint Eastwood’s High Plains Drifter: “One hang, we all hang!” The rest is all for show. Even AOC knows which side the bread is buttered. It’s like Tiananmen Square.
https://worldaffairs.blog/2019/06/02/tiananmen-square-massacre-facts-fiction-and-propaganda/
As Paul Simon sings, “All lies and jests, still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest, la la lie” :o)
I’m sure that the World Trade Center Atrocity was an inside job, but not at all sure that more than a small cadre of insiders, an evil cabal, planned it or were aware of it or directly involved. One of the principal reasons that many people dismiss the inside job theory is that they imagine that a vast conspiracy would have been necessary, and that such a “worldwide web” could not have been kept so completely under wraps. Sharing this common sense view, I suspect that most of the PTB, including the MSM, the MIC, and the vast majority of politicians–yes, perhaps including even “W” himself–simply bought the bullshit prepared for post-disaster mass dissemination as expertly as the explosives had been inserted into the buildings. Same goes IMHO for JFK, RFK, Malcolm, MLK, and, likely, Teddy and JFK Jr. No doubt the bastards, or their successors, are still there in the heart of things.
Needless to say, in the Real World w’s minders would have got him – and all the kids and teachers – out of the school the moment they heard about the second plane hitting the Twin Towers, and he/they wouldn’t have stayed there for another half-hour before finally leaving. But they DIDN’T, and the ONLY possible explanation is that Bush and Co knew what the targets were. And needless to say, his pathetic explanation (for not leaving immediately) that he didn’t want to frighten the kids is precisely THAT – ie pathetic!
I think you give “W” more credit in the area of intelligence than he merits. Remember, this is the guy who, in seeming sincerity, said that God told him to invade Iraq. I think “W” was easily bullshitted about almost anything by those closest to him (Cheney & Co.), which is why he was put into office. But perhaps I’ve giving him too much benefit of the doubt.
Is that how the song goes? I have a terrible time hearing song lyrics correctly, and I always thought it was, “All I suggest, still a man hears what he wants to hear and this regards the rest.” Lol, your way makes more sense. This may be a record for number of years I’ve had a major song wrong.
Even if all you say is true (and certainly the postmodern fear of death as oblivion has been exploited to the max) the left should initially roll WITH the governmental response to the pandemic, not against that response. Whether overreaction or underreaction, the American government sent sizeable checks and delivered free medical care to help its citizens through a crisis. Sending substantial assistance to the poorest countries of the world has become a topic on MSM “news, ” if only to protect ourselves from vaccine-evading mutations. The public sector, which socialists have always championed, felt it necessary to step forward in an aggressive manner in countries across the globe to assist average citizens, something not seen in America since the Great Depression. Most importantly, climate change and other key environmental issues have been linked, even in the propagandist MSM, to the pandemic response, the latter being seen as a model of aggressive, coordinated governmental action for tackling the former. I can’t remember hearing on “news” shows so much talk about the plight of the poor and minority communities, which have suffered the greatest impact from the pandemic. And I have little doubt that it was nothing but the pandemic that prevented (for how long remains to be seen) the start of the next of America’s forever wars. Sure, most if not all of this was intended to keep the neoliberal system from crashing and get it back humming ASAP. Yet how much momentum is here, suddenly, unexpectedly, for the left to seize and run with, to use jujitsu style against the PTB? And yet some of us would rather bitch about wearing a mask….
If you live in America and you start talking about the use of a facial mask they will right away assume you are a democrat. But the funny side is even now – after this long time living under surreal circumstances – a significant number of people used to be fierce and loyal Democratic Party supporters, they are the ones in doubt about how much they can trust after all this time. If they are not helping to dig a hole where they will not get out of it. Somehow, no matter what, the damage related to reputation is irreparable even among those who have devastating headaches due to the habit to have to think about something from time to time. And this is something very important in my opinion.
Agreed. The entire fabric of neoliberal society is fraying, as Caitlin suggests. Time to think seriously about what comes next, the new narrative. People, being people, will need one.
In the last two years the healthcare system was seized by politicians, media and corporations worldwide to be used as a tool for manipulation. Representatives and podcasters have more authority to keep the official narrative than physicians and scientists. These last ones when speak a different version of what is really happening and it’s not aligned, they are enemies of the state. I’ll dare to compare this permanent state of fear inducted towards everyone as an experiment very similar to what happened in 1938 when Orson Welles broadcasted The War of the Worlds. 60 minutes of transmission for anyone listening to that thing was enough to create panic. Today we are 24 hours connected in several shit things installed in our smartphones. It has been quite normal the hospitals overall American cities since the beginning. The fuss and Armageddon is just happening in media and social media. It’s almost like trying to win a fist fight against Godzilla using just hard words. People are totally right about not following the mafia in controlling America at the White House.
“Operation Mockingbird was the CIA doing something to the media. What we are seeing now is the CIA openly acting as the media.” Karl Rove: “[W]hen we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.” https://seaclearly.com/2020/11/21/the-times-they-are-a-changin
“Those poor bastards can’t keep that up much longer.”
I wish I could agree with that line but the people making the decisions don’t have to do any of the work to keep their stuff. They can play golf or sun bathe on the deck of their yacht while they pay their toadies (yeah, I know what the fuck that means) to lie, cheat, steal & plunder the planet for them. I could do that all day, pee in a bottle & toss it at some poor soul in his dingy… maybe not the peeing & tossing part which is what separates us.
We’re hoamskool’d what we’d best BELIEVE, by reality infomercial, complicit celebrities on AT&T ComCast Fox Disney Viacom. Whistleblowers & Journalists, outlawed by Corporate kleptocrats who rob, indenture, subjugate, incarcerate and silence us; who sneer that they TELL us, who we are allowed to LOTE for (often, this is performed by our beloved allies, ISDS Panels, oilgarchs or K Street social networking advocacy solutions firms.
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2016/12/site-behind-washington-posts-mccarthyite-blacklist-appears-to-be-linked-to-ukrainian-fascism-and-cia-spying.html
https://originals.optout.news/app/
https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/10/14/build-back-better-legislation-new-keynesianism-or-neoliberal-public-relations-stunt/
https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2021/10/08/national-report-101221-final.pdf
Noam Chomsky beat you to the post by decades, mate! It becomes steadily more clear how insightful he has always been.
“Vote for Biden” is about as insightful as my dog’s bark.
It comes down to: income disparity, mindlesness and specious obliviousness of our bosses, media, landlords, delusional kleptocrats WE’VE installed, senile yuppies, smug petit bourgeoisie simply cannot even be bothered, trying to lie to us anymore. Why, would they waste their time. We have no say, no way to oppose them or even protect ourselves, fight for our kids. Media is for, by, about and only from THEIR perspective. Our homes, savings, labor, debt… dignity as humans, is theirs to take. They’ve NO idea about ignoring us, since we’re what’s for dinner (like, we really give a shit about scared CAFO & slaughterhouse victims) ain’t nobody, here, but us chickens?
https://thebrick.house/ascending-dem-hawk-wants-to-pre-authorize-war-with-china/
https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/10/15/perpetuating-poverty-tech-and-temp-workers/
https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/10/14/build-back-better-legislation-new-keynesianism-or-neoliberal-public-relations-stunt/
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2021/10/why-record-numbers-of-workers-are-quitting-and-striking.html
Thanks for nailing it with your sharp insight. Thanks for staying optimistic.
Omg child politics are not real. FFS how do people still not get this shit. See you read an article like this and can immediately disprove most of it just by seeing a comment like this muck a muck who just hasn’t understood a damn thing actually going on.
What do you mean exactly? You’re talking in riddles.
Are you commenting on a completely different topic on a completely different website?
It may have been a copy/paste error.
If not, then it is the best example I have ever seen of a Non sequitur.
An important note. It does not take much for an American citizen to commit suicide in normal social conditions. Too much taxes and fees. Several insurances, mortgage, gas, gasoline, oil, incoming tax, etc. They are putting more weigh in the scales. How far they can go before the social collapse? It’s a dangerous game to play over the unknown shores of our minds. They are risking to make an urgent withdraw from all military bases worldwide to keep the totalitarian state going on. Russia and China finally would have peace at home not having to deal with the bullies coming from the other side of the world.
It’s not just ‘education’ Caitlin.
Throughout history the rulers have continuously fanned and fed the flames of fear.
Fear of Gods.
Fear of Kings and Queens.
Fear of prisons and punishment.
Fear of the law.
Fear of poverty.
Fear of the ‘enemy’
Fear of ridicule by our peers.
And the big one, fear of death.
Yep, the shit scared are putty in their hands.
Unless _ _ _we wake up.
Child sacrifice courtesy the highly educated.
People don’t give a shit on USA about Joe Biden talking about lifting travel restrictions to fully vaccinated people. I still convinced much less than half Americans were vaccinated. People don’t trust the media and government making a daily big deal about the fact they have seized your freedom to move and you will only have it back if you sign up to all what they have to offer in a Orwellian covid world. No one gave power to the president neither congress to do what they are doing. I’m looking forward to see if I’m right or wrong in the middle term elections. A massive Democratic Party defeat will be the answer. If Republicans keep it on, turn them down, hahahaha.
You could try taking it to court but you probably won’t have much luck. Public health rules are as old as civilization.