{"id":251843,"date":"2022-04-06T07:41:33","date_gmt":"2022-04-06T07:41:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=251843"},"modified":"2022-04-07T06:02:55","modified_gmt":"2022-04-07T06:02:55","slug":"bidens-booming-economy-is-just-another-front-in-the-medias-war-on-reality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=251843","title":{"rendered":"Biden\u2019s \u201cbooming economy\u201d is just another front in the media\u2019s war on reality"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Kit Knightly \u2013 Off-Guardian April 5, 2022<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p>Did you know the economy was booming? This may come as a shock to anyone out there who a) <em>is alive<\/em> or<br \/>\nb) <em>has to buy things<\/em>, but it\u2019s definitely true.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MSNBC\/status\/1508995198486994949\">MSNBC<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/04\/05\/business\/economy\/recession-economy.html\">New York Times<\/a> said so.<\/p>\n<p>Mehdi Hasan did a segment <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=_mFR51FK8CE\">on his show<\/a>:<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_mFR51FK8CE\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n&#8212;<\/div>\n<p>NBC report <em>\u201cPresident Biden\u2019s approval rating has fallen to lowest level of his presidency despite booming economy\u201d<\/em>, and Hasan just doesn\u2019t understand why people would be <em>\u201cunhappy with the way Biden is handling the economy\u201d<\/em> when wages are growing and they\u2019ve added a \u201crecord 6.4 million job\u201d in 2021.<\/p>\n<p>Now, OK, that reported 4.5% wage growth is lagging way behind inflation, meaning in real terms people are being paid <em>less<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, alright, the \u201cnew jobs\u201d were really just (some) of the people who lost their jobs during lockdown being rehired.<\/p>\n<p>And fine, the reason spending is increasing could be <em>that everything costs more<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>But seriously, we\u2019re fine, it\u2019s booming.<\/p>\n<p>Now, some booming economy deniers, Russian bots or anti-vaxxers will doubtless point to all the \u201cevidence\u201d that the US economy is not booming.<\/p>\n<p>They\u2019ll probably point out that inflation is<a href=\"https:\/\/think.ing.com\/articles\/us-inflation-is-only-going-higher\"> at a 40 year high<\/a>, and likely to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/videos\/2022-04-04\/ubs-u-s-inflation-to-hit-8-5-in-march-video\">keep on rising<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>That the current price of gas is the <a href=\"https:\/\/eu.usatoday.com\/story\/money\/2022\/03\/08\/gas-most-expensive-us-history\/9404939002\/\">highest ever in US history<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>That the US is expected to enter a recession <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marketwatch.com\/story\/u-s-economy-will-fall-into-a-recession-this-summer-as-inflation-eats-into-consumer-spending-former-fed-official-warns-11649101555\">by the end of the year<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>That house prices are increasing so fast that experts are predicting a <a href=\"https:\/\/edition.cnn.com\/2022\/03\/30\/homes\/us-housing-market-bubble\/index.html\">\u201chousing bubble\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>That \u201chomeless camps\u201d and \u201ctent cities\u201d with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vice.com\/en\/article\/k7w5ma\/phoenix-tent-city-homeless-encampment\">populations in the thousands<\/a> are popping up in<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/List_of_tent_cities_in_the_United_States\"> dozens of cities<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>That the \u201ccrippling sanctions\u201d placed on Russia seem to have \u201caccidentally backfired\u201d and hurt the US economy badly.<\/p>\n<p>And, most of all, that moves are afoot which could see major oil trades <a href=\"https:\/\/finance.yahoo.com\/news\/saudi-arabia-considers-ditching-dollar-170000924.html\">being done in Yuan, not dollars<\/a>. A change that could potentially cause the death of the petrodollar, the end of the USD as the global reserve currency, and send the US economy into a death spiral somewhere between Black Monday and <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Hyperinflation_in_the_Weimar_Republic\">Weimar Germany<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Clearly, this is all just conspiracy theories and nonsense. The economy really <em>is<\/em> booming. Oh, and in more good news the chocolate ration has increased from 30 grams a week to 20.<\/p>\n<p>\u2026that\u2019s enough sarcasm for now. It\u2019s time to circle back to reality, because that is what\u2019s missing here.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Reality.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I originally started writing this piece as a brief illustration of the language of propaganda \u2013 an entry in the \u201cNew normal newspeak\u201d series, but in the writing it changed.<\/p>\n<p>It made me think \u2013 the story is more insidious than just a lie, or even re-inventing the meaning of words. It\u2019s an illustration of how far removed from the world of the real our \u201creality\u201d can become.<\/p>\n<p>In the 50s and 60s, a single full-time job could feed, clothe and house a family of four. Now every family needs at least two incomes just to get by. Millions of people work multiple jobs and struggle to make ends meet.<\/p>\n<p>The UK has food banks readily discussed in the news every day. For most of my life the UK did not <em>have<\/em> foodbanks, I had never heard of them before I was thirty.<\/p>\n<p>A relative of mine once told me a story about travelling to South America in the 1980s and seeing the first homeless person she had ever seen. Now, millions of unfortunate people are forced to live on the streets all across the Western world.<\/p>\n<p>People cannot afford gas or heat or food or rent. The price of everything is increasing even as wages lag behind inflation. Everywhere you shop you buy less and spend more.<\/p>\n<p>If all of that can be translated into \u201cbooming\u201d, then \u201cthe economy\u201d itself becomes a nonsense concept so abstract and removed from real-life experience that it is either entirely fictional or completely irrelevant.<\/p>\n<p>We just lived through a fake pandemic. We know we have rigged elections. \u201cThe economy\u201d is apparently meaningless.<\/p>\n<p>How much of what we see and hear in the mass media has any grounding in reality at all? We know it\u2019s not 100%, and it could easily be as little as none.<\/p>\n<p>Maybe we\u2019re not <em>headed toward<\/em> an Orwellian dystopia, we\u2019re <em>already living in one<\/em>. A world where reality is not refuted, it is simply not acknowledged to exist.<\/p>\n<p>The only \u201ctruth\u201d is the headlines, which report nothing but covert advertising for the status quo or pump out outrage porn designed to divide society along carefully constructed fault lines, and distract from the simple truth \u2013 everything is getting worse and they\u2019re doing it on purpose.<\/p>\n<p>No matter how they employ contrived statistics to convince the mass of people that everything is fine (even as they\u2019re fired for not being vaccinated and have to choose between getting warm or getting fed) the truth is that almost everyone works more and has less. Worries more, enjoys less. Fears more, thinks less.<\/p>\n<p>Economically, educationally, spiritually\u2026we\u2019re going backwards. And behind this decline is <em>intent<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not accidental, it\u2019s not a by-product of \u201cthe system\u201d, it\u2019s not the inevitable fallout of capitalism \u2013 it is directed, deliberate and malign. They are trying to make you poor, they <em>said so<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Fly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/live-news\/20220404-fly-less-go-vegan-how-people-can-take-climate-action\">less<\/a>. Drive less. Shower <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breakingnews.ie\/ireland\/ryan-to-advise-shorter-showers-and-driving-slower-to-curb-energy-costs-1284285.html\">less<\/a>. No meat. No sugar. No alcohol. <a href=\"https:\/\/off-guardian.org\/2021\/07\/31\/whats-really-behind-the-war-on-home-ownership\/\">Rent don\u2019t buy<\/a>. Own nothing. <a href=\"https:\/\/off-guardian.org\/2020\/11\/12\/own-nothing-and-be-happy-the-great-resets-vision-of-the-future\/\">Be happy<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>They want you to suffer. They want you to be cold and hungry and not to <em>mind<\/em>, or even <em>know<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>They want you sitting in your rented one-room flat, shivering under fifty layers of rented clothes, sipping your rented cup of GMO-cabbage water, and nodding in approval because the rented television says the economy is doing well.<\/p>\n<p>They want you arguing vociferously with your neighbours about things that <em>never happened<\/em> to people who <em>do not exist<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>They want you to live like a pauper and smile because you\u2019re doing it for a good cause <em>they made up<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>They want you to <em>\u201creject the evidence of your ears and eyes\u201d<\/em>, because making people believe a lie \u2013 especially an obvious, irrational, impossible lie \u2013 is the purest form of power and the ultimate form of control.<\/p>\n<p>Orwell was right about that, as he was about so much else.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">&#8212;<\/p>\n<h3>Can you spare $1.00 a month to support independent media<\/h3>\n<p>Unlike the Guardian we are NOT funded by Bill &amp; Melinda Gates, or any other NGO or government. So a few coins in our jar to help us keep going are always appreciated.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.paypal.com\/donate\/?cmd=_s-xclick&amp;hosted_button_id=CKFB3MH8CGB9U\">Paypal<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/liberapay.com\/OffGuardian\/donate\">LiberaPay<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/off-guardian.org\/2022\/04\/05\/bidens-booming-economy-is-just-another-front-in-the-medias-war-on-reality\/\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Desperate to bolster Biden\u2019s plummeting approval ratings the MSM is now trying to convince Americans that the economy is booming<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[61,66],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-251843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Commentary","category-Economics"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=251843"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251843\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":251844,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251843\/revisions\/251844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=251843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=251843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=251843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}