Robert Parry — The Orwellian War on Skepticism

Official Washington’s rush into an Orwellian future is well underway as political and media bigwigs move to silence Internet voices of independence and dissent, reports Robert Parry.

The Establishment cannot maintain control of the narrative without control over the media.

"… what [Richard] Stengel [State Department Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy, the principal arm of U.S. government propaganda] and various mainstream media outlets appear to be arguing for is the creation of a “Ministry of Truth” managed by mainstream U.S. media outlets and enforced by Google, Facebook and other technology platforms.

In other words, once these supposedly responsible outlets decide what the “truth” is, then questioning that narrative will earn you “virtual” expulsion from the marketplace of ideas, possibly eliminated via algorithms of major search engines or marked with a special app to warn readers not to believe what you say, a sort of yellow Star of David for the Internet age.

And then there’s the possibility of more direct (and old-fashioned) government enforcement by launching FBI investigations into media outlets that won’t toe the official line. (All of these “solutions” have been advocated in recent weeks.)

On the other hand, if you do toe the official line that comes from Stengel’s public diplomacy shop, you stand to get rewarded with government financial support. Stengel disclosed in his interview with [Washington Post columnist David] Ignatius that his office funds “investigative” journalism projects.

“How should citizens who want a fact-based world combat this assault on truth?” Ignatius asks, adding: “Stengel has approved State Department programs that teach investigative reporting and empower truth-tellers." ...

Must-read.

Of course, this is nothing new. Repressive governments have always tried to control the narrative. Karl Marx, who made his living as a reporter and what we could call a columnist today, was driven out of Europe and found refuge in the more liberal England. In the USSR, underground alternative news was communicated surreptitiously through the use of mimeograph machine and sub rosa networks. In the Sixties, the anti-war and countercultural activists used alternative newspaper that were distributed free. Like other attempts to control the truth, this will also fail.

Consortium News
The Orwellian War on Skepticism
Robert Parry

Lord Keynes — Philip Pilkington on Hayek and the Origins of Neoliberalism

When Hayek’s economics essentially failed, he turned to a different program: social and political theorising.

While Hayek's economics may have failed his own expectations, his social and political theorizing lead to the dominant contemporary narrative, likely wildly beyond his expectations. It was an idea whose time was right, even though it was not a right idea. Now we are experiencing it's failure.

Social Democracy for the 21st Century
Philip Pilkington on Hayek and the Origins of Neoliberalism

Lord Keynes

Fabius Maximus — We are all Republicans now

Summary:  America has a broken OODA loop. Dozens of posts here have documented it, but this past month provided ample more evidence. From both Left and Right. Today we look at the Right: their indifference to the real world, their eagerness to believe lies by their leaders, and steadfast adherence to failed strategies. On another day we’ll discuss the similar traits of the Left.  Led by these two groups, American’s crash on the rocks seems guaranteed.

Fabius Maximus
We are all Republicans now

The "moron meme" is catching on.

New Right strategy – Take power by controlling the narrative

The only political party linked to organized ‘voter fraud’ in 2012 was the one loudly denouncing it....

As [Richard] Viguerie has explained, over the decades, and as part of its long term strategy to take power, the New Right has built a net- work of alternative media outlets, think tanks, political operatives and elected officials, the likes of which progressives cannot begin to match. And it’s why they control the national conversation.

In These Times
The New Right’s Rabid Watchdog
Joel Bleifuss | former director of the Peace Studies Program at the University of Missouri-Columbia, is the editor & publisher of In These Times

These are also some of the neoliberal forces aligned against increasing policy space and therefore MMT. And they control the narrative at present. It's not all on the right either. Pete Peterson is a New Democrat, and he has been just as active for decades, too. Now it is paying off.

Meanwhile, the left is asleep at the switch as the New Deal crumbles under the assault, lead especially by the assault on organized labor. The economic dynamic is between ownership, with management the minions of ownership, and labor. Distribution of productivity gains over the past several decades reveals graphically who is winning. This chart illustrating the productivity-compensation gap says it all.