As we discussed last time, the only real power in this world is the ability to control the dominant narrative about what’s going on. The only reason government works the way it works, money operates the way it operates, and authority rests where it rests is because everyone has agreed to pretend that that’s how things are. In actuality, government, money and authority are all man-made conceptual constructs and the collective can choose to change them whenever it wants. The only reason this hasn’t happened in our deeply dysfunctional society yet is because the plutocrats who rule us have been successful in controlling the narrative.
Whoever controls the narrative controls the world. This has always been the case....Push is coming to shove.
Caitlin Johnstone — Rogue Journalist
Wikipedia Is An Establishment Psyop
Caitlin Johnstone
Yes of course Wikipedia is an establishment psyop. I have never heard anyone claim otherwise.
ReplyDeleteWikipedia uses a standard trick of: “In order to make people believe your lies, you must include as much truth as possible.”
That is, Wikipedia includes truth on minor topics of no political importance, so that readers are suckered into believing Wikipedia’s major lies about war, ISIS,® Israel, the (non-existent) “national debt crisis,” and so on.
For example, Wikipedia calls the extermination of Palestinians in the Gaza Death Camp a “conflict.”
Wikipedia calls the U.S. destruction of Libya an “intervention.”
Wikipedia inserts the “six million” myth into all Wikipedia articles about World War II.
CAITLIN JOHNSTONE WRITES: “The only real power in this world is the ability to control the dominant narrative about what’s going on. The only reason government works the way it works, money operates the way it operates, and authority rests where it rests, is because everyone has agreed to pretend that that’s how things are. In actuality, government, money and authority are all man-made conceptual constructs and the collective can choose to change them whenever it wants. The only reason this hasn’t happened in our deeply dysfunctional society yet is because the plutocrats who rule us have been successful in controlling the narrative.”
Agreed, but how are plutocrats able to control the narrative?
Plutocrats are able to control it because most people would rather cling to their petty delusions than awaken and be free. This is why most people are slaves. As children we learn that this world in hideously cruel. To cope with this nightmare, we seal ourselves in a protective bubble of bullshit rationalizations and hate-filled “explanations.” We blame everything on some villain, and we withdraw into our own little dream worlds (e.g. religious belief) which we wrap around us like a security blanket. We self-medicate with bullshit, until we spend our lives walking around in a stupor. We are sleepwalkers. Plutocrats know this, and they use it to herd us to the slaughterhouse.
In short, the reason why plutocrats have supreme power is that average people voluntarily give it to them. You yourself may be awake, but the herd drags you along over a cliff.
CAITLIN JOHNSTONE WRITES: “How many other ‘Philip Cross’-like accounts are there on Wikipedia? Has the site always functioned an establishment psyop designed to manipulate public perception of existing power structures, or did that start later?”
Answer: Wikipedia has been that way since it began in 2001. I suspect that the U.S. government funded the development of Wikipedia, just like the government funded the development of Facebook.
According to the analysis fo Marx & Engels, the problem is that the establishment as the wielders of power control not only the narrative but through it, they control the entire framework that grounds a cultural worldview. It's not by accident that the Koch Bros are going after influence in the education system. It starts early.
ReplyDeleteIn the view of M & E, this result in a false consciousness among the victims and what we would now call "Stockholm syndrome." This means that is it unlikely that the victims will rise up unless they see through this.
So the prerequisite of revolutionary change (or arguably evolutionary change also) is removing false consciousness by "consciousness-raising."
That has been difficult previously since TPTB controlled communications.
But digital communications has changed that the TPTB are freaking out and trying to figure out how to keep narrative control without pissing the victims off with either overt censorship or shutting down the whole thing. The preferred way is marginalization "troublemakers" and shutting down offending portals and venues.
Wikipedia inserts the “six million” myth into all Wikipedia articles about World War II.
ReplyDeleteWhat myth? About that many Jews were intentionally killed by the Nazis, about that many non-Jews too. And far more in the wars due to them. The evidence for that is enormous and not seriously disputed.
Sure, there is bias at Wikipedia in many of the other directions you mention.
TOM HICKEY WRITES: “According to the analysis of Marx & Engels, the problem is that the establishment as the wielders of power control not only the narrative, but through it, they control the entire framework that grounds a cultural worldview. It's not by accident that the Koch Bros are going after influence in the education system. It starts early.”
ReplyDeleteExactly. In order to program a person to be your slave, you must begin to inject your lies into that person when he is very young. In this way your lies become part of his world view and his sense of personal identity. Your lies become grafted into his psychic DNA, so to speak. Your lies become familiar, comfortable, and reassuring. They cause suffering, but they are “safe.” Your slave’s poverty is wretched, but it “makes sense.” Your lies become “truth” for him. “Self-evident.” “Common sense.” “Incontrovertible.” “Objective. “Natural.”
Meanwhile actual truth and freedom terrify him. If you question the lies that he clings to, and which keep him enslaved, he treats your question as a direct attack on his person. He becomes nervous and angry. He attacks you as a “hater” and a “conspiracy theorist.” He calls you an idiot, and he runs away. How dare you challenge his programming and his slavery?
To use a computer analogy, if we want to enslave someone, we must alter his mind at the level of the CMOS setup. We must control his BIOS settings. We must do this to a person when he is young, before his mental hard drive gets filled up with a lifetime of experiences. If we wait too long, we find it difficult to program a slave’s CMOS. Therefore we must start early.
For example, public school children are continually programmed with the “six million”™ lie beginning in third grade. Students’ performance evaluations are based on how well they have accepted the lies and the programming.
TOM HICKEY WRITES: “But digital communications has changed that, and the TPTB are freaking out and trying to figure out how to keep narrative control without pissing the victims off with either overt censorship or shutting down the whole thing.”
TPTB control the narrative by pretending that media monopolies (e.g. Google) are separate from the government.
So when Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube engage in outright censorship at the behest of government, TPTB say, “It’s a private company, and they can do what they want.”
(But it is illegal for a private company to decline to make a wedding cake for a gay couple.)
"The evidence for that is enormous and not seriously disputed."
ReplyDeleteAs you can see, the programming of "Calgacus" began when "Calgacus" was very young.
As a result of that programming, "Calgacus" regards the lies as "true." The (non-existent) "evidence" for the lies is "enormous," and "not seriously disputed."
The lies have become “self-evident.” “Common sense.” “Incontrovertible.” “Objective. “Natural.”
This is what programming does to people.
I forgot to mention that similar methods were and are used to control populations in religious societies. See the divine right of kings, for instance, and the great chain of being.
ReplyDeleteThe liberal revolutions were revolts against this worldview and the systems based on it. But a bourgeois mentality was installed in its place, and "the little people" just came under the control of a different category of elite masters.
"The evidence for that is enormous and not seriously disputed."
ReplyDeleteActually the evidence for that claim came from Nazi records and post-war testimony.
What is more controversial is the numbers affected under Stalin and Mao. They may be inflated, but apparently the meticulous Germans kept records.
Tom there is absolutely nothing in Nazi records which proves that the magic "six million" were exterminated. Not one iota.
ReplyDeleteAs for "post war testimony," the victors in any war portray themselves as innocent saints, and the losers as evil monsters.
During WW II, Gen. Curtis Le May oversaw the incineration of Japan by firebombing. After the war, Le May famously said, "I suppose if I had lost the war, I would have been tried as a war criminal."
Indeed.
Wikipedia is, in my humble opinion, the best thing produced in the English speaking world at the present time. The accumulated wisdom of humankind between freely available is not something to be sneezed at. I call it my Bible.
ReplyDeleteI cite Wikipedia all the time. Much of the information is fine.
ReplyDeleteHowever, in controversial areas, it is not always so.
This is not only in politics.
Although Wikipedia is useful, it is by no means authoritative.
But virtually nothing is. Everything needs to be checked and cross-checked in matters of any significance, if only reputationally. Being caught out is not good for the reputation.
You always have to differentiate between art and science including on Wikipedia...
ReplyDeleteWikipedia is information by consensus. The consensus is only as good as those who make it.
ReplyDeleteExactly the same as corporate media. You want sports scores or advertising, no problem.
The International Red Cross says that around 273,000 people died in concentration camps in Germany. That is a long way from six million. Also, if you think about it gassing people during a was is a ridiculous way to kill them. The only way to kill people in a war is with a bullet in the head. Also, bodies don't burn like the story goes, it takes incinerators. If you take the time to think about it the whole story of a holocaust falls apart in five minutes. That is why they don't want anyone to question it.
ReplyDeleteWhen Konrad was describing how people are enslaved by their own ideas and anyone who disagrees is considered an idiot I thought about how I was known as the "idiot" at one place I worked for about fifteen years because I had the audacity to not be a Christian. Christians claim that they are persecuted but a person doesn't know persecution until he disagrees with a room full of Christians.
So, I guess I have stepped on two false religions tonight.
I watched a Ryan Dawson video and it all clicked into place. David Cole was featured in it a lot. The Allied were brutal and terribly evil, and that's why today I don't feel safe and know the ruling elite are capable of anything. The allies needed a story to make the Germans to look more evil than they were.
DeleteTo get away with doing evil, you need to portray the enemy as more evil than yourself, then people will accept your evil, and maybe even think it is good, like the two atom bombs on Japan, or Churchill's fire bombing of German cities, or the blanket bombing of the South East Asia to get the "communists".
"The International Red Cross says that around 273,000 people died in concentration camps in Germany. That is a long way from six million."
ReplyDeleteIf you're such an expert on these matters then you should know that there were concentration camps set up by Germany in Austria, the Czech Republic, France, the Netherlands. And there were death camps setup in Poland.
And then there were internment camps, some really bad ones, based on race and nationality.
Sim: I not an expert on anything. I believe that the book I found the information in is "The Hoax of the Twentieth Century" by Arthur R Butz. I doubt that the information can be found with a Google search anymore since it is controlled by the people who benefit from the fiction. Yes, I am aware that many camps existed but they were internment camps and NOT death camps. I know you won't believe me and I don't want you to. I ask that you do not take what is thrown in your face for fact. Try doing a little investigating on the matter. It won't take long to realize the fiction. I suggest that you start here, "two hundred years together solzhenitsyn download"
ReplyDelete“And then there were internment camps, some really bad ones, based on race and nationality.”
ReplyDeleteAll belligerent nations had internment camps during World War II. No exceptions. The U.S. and Canadian governments had internment camps based on race and nationality (e.g. Japanese Americans).
In addition the USA had 152 internment camps for white Americans who refused to die to make rich people richer. The camp system was called the “Civilian Public Service.”
Since Germany lost their war, only German internment camps were “evil.” Only Germany’s industrial parks were called “death camps.”
KAIVEY WRITES: “To get away with doing evil, you need to portray the enemy as more evil than yourself.”
Exactly. No matter how evil we are, we are still “better" than the National Socialists because of the “holocaust.”™
“Holocaust”™ worshippers are the most militant cultists of all. If their faith-based claims are so “obvious” and “self-evident” and “supported by mountains of evidence,” why then do they throw people in jail for questioning the claims?
I’m just asking people to think for themselves, rather than swallow whatever the corporate media outlets tell them.
Yes I realize you're no expert.
ReplyDeleteSim: I'm not going to say what I realize about you but it is obvious what you are.
ReplyDelete