“By Caitlin Johnstone
Excerpt from "The Science Of Propaganda Is Still Being Developed And Advanced":
“We live in a far less free society than most of us think.
It looks like we're free. We don't get thrown in prison for criticizing our government officials. We can vote for whoever we want. We can log onto the internet and look up information on any subject we're interested in. If we want to buy a product we have many brands we are free to choose from.
But we're not free. Our political systems are set up to herd people into a two-party system that is controlled on both sides by plutocrats. The news media that people rely on to form ideas about what's going on and how they should vote are controlled by the plutocratic class and heavily influenced by secretive government agencies. Internet algorithms are aggressively manipulated to show people information which favors the status quo. Even our entertainment is rife with Pentagon and CIA influence.
How free is that? How free is your speech if there are myriad institutional safeguards in place to prevent speech from ever effecting political change?
It doesn't matter what you're allowed to say if it doesn't matter what you say. It doesn't matter if you're allowed to call the oligarchic puppet put in office by the last fake election a dickhead. It doesn't matter if you're allowed to Google any information you want only to find whatever information Google wants you to find.
What is the functional difference between a regime which directly censors the internet to prevent dissent and a regime which works with Silicon Valley plutocrats to control information via algorithms and has a system in place which prevents dissent from having any meaningful impact?
There is none.
We live in a profoundly unfree society that is disguised as a free society. Western liberal democracy is just totalitarianism dressed in drag.
And it's only getting worse. Propaganda is a still-developing science.”
Eastern Tiger swallowtail (Papilio glaucus), female, dark color form
Ice Age National Scientific Reserve Unit, Wisconsin, USA
image 2011 8/17 IMG_1489aaaa2
“An energy crisis is gripping the world, with potentially grave consequences”….for the nonRich that is.
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“In the last 6 years, 50% of US states had monthly county-level temperatures higher than anything seen since 1895, when the US started collecting this data”
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SCOTUS and America’s Judiciary is a malicious joke:
“1 country, 2 systems
Thomas Fee – Participated in attempted treasonous takeover of Capitol on Jan 6th. Is allowed by a judge to travel to a football game.
Fair Wayne Bryant – Stole a pair of hedgeclippers, sentenced to life in prison. Is granted parole on the 4th attempt after serving 24 years.”
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“Chomsky: It’s Life and Death — Intellectuals Can’t Keep Serving the Status Quo”
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DEMOCRAT Krysten Sinema brought cake into the House to help drive her point home about $15/hr:
“Cancelling $1.7T in taxes for 600 billionaires but not $1.7T in student debt for 45 M Americans is the modern version of let them eat cake.” Qasim Rashid, Esq.
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Think Custer with a boat:
“There was no heroic adventure, only bloodshed. Columbus Day should not be a celebration.”
“The Real Christopher Columbus”
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If Republicans’ base is a cult, then Democrats’ elected and unelected leadership is a cult.
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“More than half of police killings in the US are missing from official stats”
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“Human uniqueness and the denial of death”
Karina Scharenberg:
“Many ask how can brainy animals like ourselves be in this terrible predicament? It's very complex but I've been trying to understand who we really are and where we came from. I've been reading the book DENIAL to help me with this. This article came out in Nature back in 2009. I quote: "Among key features of human uniqueness are full self- awareness and ‘theory of mind’, which enables inter-subjectivity — an understanding of the intentionality of others"......" These attributes may have been positively selected because of their benefits to interpersonal communication, cooperative breeding, language and other critical human activities".
"However, the late Danny Brower, a geneticist from the University of Arizona, suggested to me that the real question is why they should have emerged in only one species, despite millions of years of opportunity. Here, I attempt to communicate Brower’s concept. He explained that with full self- awareness and inter-subjectivity would also come awareness of death and mortality. Thus, far from being useful, the resulting overwhelming fear would be a dead-end evolutionary barrier, curbing activities and cognitive functions necessary for survival and reproductive fitness. Brower suggested that, although many species manifest features of self- awareness (including orangutans, chimpanzees, orcas, dolphins, elephants and perhaps magpies), the transition to a fully human-like phenotype was blocked for tens of millions of years of mammalian (and perhaps avian) evolution"..."In his view, the only way these properties could become positively selected was if they emerged simultaneously with neural mechanisms for denying mortality"
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“What is the true cost of eating meat?”
“The factory farms that dominate food production employ abusive and neglectful practices that maximize profits at the expense of animal welfare, the environment, local communities and even our health.”
Meat, Egg and Dairy Alternatives
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“My wife has cancer, it took 5 months to wipe out 20 years of life savings and that was with insurance. The experience has turned me into a hateful, bitter person. We did everything we were told. We went to college, got degrees, saved a nice chunk of money in savings accounts and retirement accounts and minded our own business. The USA healthcare system took all of our savings and retirement and forced us to refinance our house so that we lost 15 years of equity. This is a country I’m supposed to be proud of? I hate this system and anyone that defends it.”
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“The Fairness Doctrine (1949-1987) required broadcasters to present both sides of political or controversial issues in an equal & honest way.
Tell Congress we can limit the damage of fake news by reinstating the Fairness Doctrine.
The future of our democratic republic depends on it.”
"The Court "ruled unanimously in 1969 that the Fairness Doctrine was not only constitutional but essential to democracy. The public airwaves should not just express the opinions of those who can pay for air time; they must allow the electorate to be informed about all sides of controversial issues.""
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“Collapse isn't an event, it's an unfolding process .”
“Shipping crisis ‘to last until next summer’ as container vessels queue in the Channel for European ports
EXCLUSIVE Giant vessels are waiting up to a week to enter some ports, following a warning from a UK minister over ‘major concerns’ about shortages in the run-up to Christmas”
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Manchin and Sinema
“Cartoon: The Thin Blue Line”
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“The only difference as compared with the old, outspoken slavery is this, that the worker of today seems to be free because he is not sold once for all, but piece meal by the day, the week, the year, and because no one owner sells him to another, but he is forced to sell himself in this way instead, being the slave of no particular person, but of the entire property holding and possession class.”
Friedrich Engels, “The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844”
image 2011 8/17 IMG_1489aaaa2
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