![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/propaganda-ss.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nBy Caitlin Johnstone \u2013 via Information Clearing House Nov 5, 2019<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/h1>\nIt\u2019s important to avoid fake news, Russian media or conspiracy theorists. We must only trust those reputable news outlets who tell us that neoliberalism is working fine, that US foreign policy is perfectly sane, and that protests are only happening in Hong Kong and nowhere else.<\/span><\/p>\nThe difference between state media and western media is that in state media the government controls what information the public is given about what\u2019s going on in the world in order to prevent political dissent, whereas in western media this is instead done by billionaires.<\/span><\/p>\nAny attempt to understand the world which fails to take into account the fact that extremely powerful people are pouring massive amounts of money and resources into manipulating your understanding of the world will necessarily result in a distorted worldview.<\/span><\/p>\nWhenever news media reports unsubstantiated assertions from anonymous sources in government agencies, just mentally insert \u201cHere is something the government told us to tell you:\u201d into the beginning of the report, because that\u2019s all they\u2019re doing.<\/span><\/p>\nRussia and China haven\u2019t become any more of a threat to you than they were three years ago, yet you think about them many times more often than you did back then. That\u2019s propaganda at work, FYI.<\/span><\/p>\nAll the establishment loyalists you argue with are ever really saying is, \u201cNo! The TV would NEVER lie to me!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nSometimes all I can do is stare in awe at the power and efficiency of the imperial propaganda machine. When I first started this gig in 2016 Assange had way more support, from Berners, Greens, Trumpers, all across the spectrum. Now a large amount of that support has been eroded. For Trumpers Assange is being extradited for his own good to bring down the Deep State. For liberals he\u2019s a Russian asset. For leftists he\u2019s a rapist and fascist enabler. There\u2019s a narrative for everyone, no matter where you are on the political spectrum. It\u2019s really impressive.<\/span><\/p>\nI love alternative media, but we\u2019re fucking idiots sometimes. You never see MSM doing our job for us, but we do their job for them all the time by attacking other alternative media figures, circulating CIA\/CNN narratives about targeted nations and targeted individuals, etc.\u00a0The only reason to ever do mainstream media\u2019s work for them is if you\u2019re looking for a job in MSM. If you actually want to participate in alternative media it\u2019s your job to make things harder for establishment narrative managers, not easier. They get paid enough to do their own work.<\/span><\/p>\nDominant power structures are corrupt beyond the possibility of salvation and humanity is driving itself toward miriad cataclysmic disasters all at once, yet many are more worried about those who share their basic ideology but have slightly different opinions. This is stupid.<\/span><\/p>\nThere\u2019s no separation between the personal struggle to free yourself from untruth and the collective struggle to free the world from untruth, in the same way there\u2019s no separation between an antibody attacking an individual pathogen and the entire body recovering from a sickness.<\/span><\/p>\nAnyone who wants Silicon Valley oligarchs to censor the flow of information in any way is a drooling idiot.<\/span><\/p>\nMSM\u2019s official position appears to be that there is no ideological difference whatsoever between Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, other than the fact that you have permission to elect Warren but not Sanders. Apart from that, though, they\u2019re exactly the same.<\/span><\/p>\nThere\u2019s a difference between Democrats and Republicans, in the sense that there\u2019s a difference between the jab and the cross in boxing. The jab is often used to set up the more damaging cross, but they\u2019re both wielded by the same boxer, and they\u2019re both punching you in the face.<\/span><\/p>\nThe \u201cfeud\u201d between mainstream Republican pundits and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez fits perfectly within the Overton window of establishment-approved debate, and can therefore be safely ignored.<\/span><\/p>\nRemember when voters in 2016 were like \u201ccan we please have even one major candidate who doesn\u2019t have something seriously wrong with them?\u201d, and the entire US political system was all \u201cLOL nope,\u201d and then nobody burned that system to the ground and flushed it down the toilet? Good times.<\/span><\/p>\nWar is the worst thing in the world. It\u2019s worse than economic injustice. It\u2019s worse than the war on drugs. It\u2019s worse than racism, xenophobia, homophobia and sexism. Those things are bad. War is worse. The priorities of leftists and progressives should reflect this, as should the priorities of anyone who claims to care about their fellow humans.<\/span><\/p>\nTrump: I am ending wars!<\/span><\/p>\nNeocons\/liberal hawks: Oh no it sure is bad and horrible that this isolationist president is ending all the wars!<\/span><\/p>\nWars: [continue completely unabated]<\/span><\/p>\nImagine someone coming up to you with a money jar saying \u201cExcuse me, we\u2019re raising funds to build another military base in Somalia, would you care to make a donation?\u201d No one would ever knowingly put money toward such an endeavor. Yet taxpayers do this unwittingly all the time.<\/span><\/p>\nNobody comes out of the womb demanding to go to war. Left unmolested it would never occur to a normal human brain that strangers on the other side of the planet need to have explosives dropped on them by overpriced airplanes.\u00a0The problem isn\u2019t democracy, it\u2019s propaganda.<\/span><\/p>\nBack when the wealthy had less wealth and ordinary citizens could support a family on a single income, the rich had a concept called \u201cnoblesse oblige\u201d meaning their status came with obligations to society. Now the wealth gap is much greater, and the rich feel no obligation to anyone.<\/span><\/p>\nLess contempt for imaginary \u201cPutin apologists\u201d, more contempt for actual billionaire apologists.<\/span><\/p>\nThe narrative that Gabbard is preparing a third party run is revealing, in that there\u2019s zero evidence for it whatsoever yet they keep bringing it up. It\u2019s literally just something pundits started saying in an authoritative tone of voice, and it was magically transformed into accepted orthodoxy. It\u2019s a great illustration of how effective the establishment narrative managers are; they can create the illusion of a fact out of thin air just by saying something over and over again in an assertive tone.<\/span><\/p>\nHere\u2019s a crazy thought: If \u201cthe troops\u201d are constantly feeling the need to commit suicide<\/strong><\/span><\/a> after doing what they\u2019ve been ordered to do while deployed, maybe what they\u2019re doing over there isn\u2019t so great and noble after all.<\/span><\/p>\nIt sure is cute how we\u2019ve known for years that the US and its allies armed actual, literal terrorists in Syria with the goal of effecting regime change, yet the only Syria controversy we\u2019re ever allowed to acknowledge is whether there are an adequate number of US troops there.<\/span><\/p>\nI\u2019m still tripping on how we\u2019ve been fed all these wildly different narratives about why the US needs a military presence in Syria, from humanitarianism to Kurds to ISIS to Iran to Russia to chemical weapons to oil, yet this isn\u2019t immediately extremely suspicious to everyone.\u00a0I mean, if some guy was constantly calling me up and giving me a whole range of wildly different reasons why he needs my bank account number, I\u2019d immediately assume that what he actually wants is my bank account number, you know?<\/span><\/p>\nSo many of spiritual-type people\u2019s highest values would work fine in a world without sociopaths. Forgiveness, humility, trust, seeing people\u2019s basic innocence, etc, they work fine until you run into a manipulator with no empathy. In this world they require much more nuanced use.<\/span><\/p>\nThings are getting stranger and stranger. Things getting stranger and stranger is what it looks like when long-fixed patterns begin to dissolve. For a species that has been on a trajectory toward self-destruction, patterns dissolving can only be a good thing. We\u2019ll win this.<\/span><\/p>\nCaitlin’s articles are entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, liking her on <\/em>Facebook<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/a>,<\/strong><\/span> following her antics on <\/em>Twitter<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/a>, checking out her<\/em> podcast<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/a>, throwing some money into her hat on <\/em>Patreon<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/a> or<\/em> Paypal<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/a>, or buying her book <\/em>Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/a>. <\/em>https:\/\/caitlinjohnstone.com<\/em><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
The difference between state media and western media is that in state media the government controls what information the public is given about what\u2019s going on in the world in order to prevent political dissent, whereas in western media this is instead done by billionaires.<\/span><\/p>\n Any attempt to understand the world which fails to take into account the fact that extremely powerful people are pouring massive amounts of money and resources into manipulating your understanding of the world will necessarily result in a distorted worldview.<\/span><\/p>\n Whenever news media reports unsubstantiated assertions from anonymous sources in government agencies, just mentally insert \u201cHere is something the government told us to tell you:\u201d into the beginning of the report, because that\u2019s all they\u2019re doing.<\/span><\/p>\n Russia and China haven\u2019t become any more of a threat to you than they were three years ago, yet you think about them many times more often than you did back then. That\u2019s propaganda at work, FYI.<\/span><\/p>\n All the establishment loyalists you argue with are ever really saying is, \u201cNo! The TV would NEVER lie to me!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Sometimes all I can do is stare in awe at the power and efficiency of the imperial propaganda machine. When I first started this gig in 2016 Assange had way more support, from Berners, Greens, Trumpers, all across the spectrum. Now a large amount of that support has been eroded. For Trumpers Assange is being extradited for his own good to bring down the Deep State. For liberals he\u2019s a Russian asset. For leftists he\u2019s a rapist and fascist enabler. There\u2019s a narrative for everyone, no matter where you are on the political spectrum. It\u2019s really impressive.<\/span><\/p>\n I love alternative media, but we\u2019re fucking idiots sometimes. You never see MSM doing our job for us, but we do their job for them all the time by attacking other alternative media figures, circulating CIA\/CNN narratives about targeted nations and targeted individuals, etc.\u00a0The only reason to ever do mainstream media\u2019s work for them is if you\u2019re looking for a job in MSM. If you actually want to participate in alternative media it\u2019s your job to make things harder for establishment narrative managers, not easier. They get paid enough to do their own work.<\/span><\/p>\n Dominant power structures are corrupt beyond the possibility of salvation and humanity is driving itself toward miriad cataclysmic disasters all at once, yet many are more worried about those who share their basic ideology but have slightly different opinions. This is stupid.<\/span><\/p>\n There\u2019s no separation between the personal struggle to free yourself from untruth and the collective struggle to free the world from untruth, in the same way there\u2019s no separation between an antibody attacking an individual pathogen and the entire body recovering from a sickness.<\/span><\/p>\n Anyone who wants Silicon Valley oligarchs to censor the flow of information in any way is a drooling idiot.<\/span><\/p>\n MSM\u2019s official position appears to be that there is no ideological difference whatsoever between Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, other than the fact that you have permission to elect Warren but not Sanders. Apart from that, though, they\u2019re exactly the same.<\/span><\/p>\n There\u2019s a difference between Democrats and Republicans, in the sense that there\u2019s a difference between the jab and the cross in boxing. The jab is often used to set up the more damaging cross, but they\u2019re both wielded by the same boxer, and they\u2019re both punching you in the face.<\/span><\/p>\n The \u201cfeud\u201d between mainstream Republican pundits and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez fits perfectly within the Overton window of establishment-approved debate, and can therefore be safely ignored.<\/span><\/p>\n Remember when voters in 2016 were like \u201ccan we please have even one major candidate who doesn\u2019t have something seriously wrong with them?\u201d, and the entire US political system was all \u201cLOL nope,\u201d and then nobody burned that system to the ground and flushed it down the toilet? Good times.<\/span><\/p>\n War is the worst thing in the world. It\u2019s worse than economic injustice. It\u2019s worse than the war on drugs. It\u2019s worse than racism, xenophobia, homophobia and sexism. Those things are bad. War is worse. The priorities of leftists and progressives should reflect this, as should the priorities of anyone who claims to care about their fellow humans.<\/span><\/p>\n Trump: I am ending wars!<\/span><\/p>\n Neocons\/liberal hawks: Oh no it sure is bad and horrible that this isolationist president is ending all the wars!<\/span><\/p>\n Wars: [continue completely unabated]<\/span><\/p>\n Imagine someone coming up to you with a money jar saying \u201cExcuse me, we\u2019re raising funds to build another military base in Somalia, would you care to make a donation?\u201d No one would ever knowingly put money toward such an endeavor. Yet taxpayers do this unwittingly all the time.<\/span><\/p>\n Nobody comes out of the womb demanding to go to war. Left unmolested it would never occur to a normal human brain that strangers on the other side of the planet need to have explosives dropped on them by overpriced airplanes.\u00a0The problem isn\u2019t democracy, it\u2019s propaganda.<\/span><\/p>\n Back when the wealthy had less wealth and ordinary citizens could support a family on a single income, the rich had a concept called \u201cnoblesse oblige\u201d meaning their status came with obligations to society. Now the wealth gap is much greater, and the rich feel no obligation to anyone.<\/span><\/p>\n Less contempt for imaginary \u201cPutin apologists\u201d, more contempt for actual billionaire apologists.<\/span><\/p>\n The narrative that Gabbard is preparing a third party run is revealing, in that there\u2019s zero evidence for it whatsoever yet they keep bringing it up. It\u2019s literally just something pundits started saying in an authoritative tone of voice, and it was magically transformed into accepted orthodoxy. It\u2019s a great illustration of how effective the establishment narrative managers are; they can create the illusion of a fact out of thin air just by saying something over and over again in an assertive tone.<\/span><\/p>\n Here\u2019s a crazy thought: If \u201cthe troops\u201d are constantly feeling the need to commit suicide<\/strong><\/span><\/a> after doing what they\u2019ve been ordered to do while deployed, maybe what they\u2019re doing over there isn\u2019t so great and noble after all.<\/span><\/p>\n It sure is cute how we\u2019ve known for years that the US and its allies armed actual, literal terrorists in Syria with the goal of effecting regime change, yet the only Syria controversy we\u2019re ever allowed to acknowledge is whether there are an adequate number of US troops there.<\/span><\/p>\n I\u2019m still tripping on how we\u2019ve been fed all these wildly different narratives about why the US needs a military presence in Syria, from humanitarianism to Kurds to ISIS to Iran to Russia to chemical weapons to oil, yet this isn\u2019t immediately extremely suspicious to everyone.\u00a0I mean, if some guy was constantly calling me up and giving me a whole range of wildly different reasons why he needs my bank account number, I\u2019d immediately assume that what he actually wants is my bank account number, you know?<\/span><\/p>\n So many of spiritual-type people\u2019s highest values would work fine in a world without sociopaths. Forgiveness, humility, trust, seeing people\u2019s basic innocence, etc, they work fine until you run into a manipulator with no empathy. In this world they require much more nuanced use.<\/span><\/p>\n Things are getting stranger and stranger. Things getting stranger and stranger is what it looks like when long-fixed patterns begin to dissolve. For a species that has been on a trajectory toward self-destruction, patterns dissolving can only be a good thing. We\u2019ll win this.<\/span><\/p>\n Caitlin’s articles are entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, liking her on <\/em>Facebook<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/a>,<\/strong><\/span> following her antics on <\/em>Twitter<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/a>, checking out her<\/em> podcast<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/a>, throwing some money into her hat on <\/em>Patreon<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/a> or<\/em> Paypal<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/a>, or buying her book <\/em>Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/a>. <\/em>https:\/\/caitlinjohnstone.com<\/em><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n