The most obvious and significant culprit in ‘Trump Anxiety Disorder’ is the mass media, which has been fanning the flames of panic, writes Caitlin Johnstone.
By Caitlin Johnstone
CaitlinJohnstone.com
A new, updated data set is now available on a psychological phenomenon that has been labeled “Trump Anxiety Disorder” or “Trump Hypersensitive Unexplained Disorder,” and it says that the phenomenon only got worse in 2018. The disorder is described as a specific type of anxiety in which symptoms “were specific to the election of Trump and the resultant unpredictable sociopolitical climate,” and according to the 2018 surveys Americans are feeling significantly more stressed by the future of their country and the current political environment than they were last year.
Pacific Standard reports as follows:
“As the possibility of a Hillary Clinton victory began to slip away—and the possibility of a Donald Trump presidency became more and more certain—the contours of the new age of American anxiety began to take shape. In a 2017 column, Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank described this phenomenon as “Trump Hypertensive Unexplained Disorder”: Overeating. Headaches. Fainting. Irregular heartbeat. Chronic neck pain. Depression. Irritable bowel syndrome. Tightness in the chest. Shortness of breath. Teeth grinding. Stomach ulcer. Indigestion. Shingles. Eye twitching. Nausea. Irritability. High blood sugar. Tinnitus. Reduced immunity. Racing pulse. Shaking limbs. Hair loss. Acid reflux. Deteriorating vision. Stroke. Heart attack. It was a veritable organ recital.
Two years later, the physiological effects of the Trump administration aren’t going away. A growing body of research has tracked the detrimental impacts of Trump-related stress on broad segments of the American population, from young adults to women, to racial and LGBT communities.
The results aren’t good.”
I do not for one second doubt that Americans are feeling more stressed and suffering more health-degrading symptoms as a result than they were prior to Trump’s election. But Pacific Standard and its “growing body of research” ignore the most obvious and significant culprit behind this phenomenon which is tearing people’s health to shreds: the mass media which has been deliberately fanning the flames of Trump panic.
The always excellent Moon of Alabama blog has just published a sarcasm-laden piece documenting the many, many aggressive maneuvers that this administration has made against the interests of Russia, from pushing for more NATO funding to undermining Russia’s natural gas interests to bombing Syria to sanctioning Russian oligarchs to dangerous military posturing.
New on MoA:
Putin Asks And Trump Delivers –
A List Of All The Good Things Trump Did For Russiahttps://t.co/6p6NldXfmE pic.twitter.com/uUP0xS8GEX— Moon of Alabama (@MoonofA) January 15, 2019
And yet the trending, most high-profile stories about Trump today all involve painting him as a Putin puppet who is working to destroy America by taking a weak stance against an alarming geopolitical threat. This has had the effect of manufacturing demand for even more dangerous escalations against a nuclear superpower that just so happens to be a longtime target of U.S. intelligence agencies.
If the mass media were in the business of reporting facts, there would be a lot less “Putin’s puppet” talk and a lot more “Hey, maybe we should avoid senseless escalations which could end all life on earth” talk among news media consumers. But there isn’t, because the mass media is not in the business of reporting facts, it’s in the business of selling narratives. Even if those narratives are so shrill and stress-inducing that they imperil the health of their audience.
Like His Predecessors
Trump is clearly not a Russian asset, he’s a facilitator of America’s permanent unelected government just like his predecessors, and indeed as far as actual policies and administration behavior goes he’s not that much different from Barack Obama and George W Bush. Hell, for all his demagogic anti-immigrant speech Trump hasn’t even caught up to Obama’s peak ICE deportation years. If the mass media were in the business of reporting facts, people would be no more worried about this administration than they were about the previous ones, because when it comes to his administration’s actual behavior, he’s just as reliable an upholder of the establishment-friendly status quo as his predecessors.
Used to be that the U.S. mass media only killed people indirectly, by facilitating establishment war agendas in repeating government agency propaganda as objective fact and promulgating narratives that manufacture support for a status quo which won’t even give Americans health insurance or safe drinking water. Now they’re skipping the middle man and killing them directly by psychologically brutalizing them so aggressively that it ruins their health, all to ensure that Democrats support war and adore the U.S. intelligence community.
They do this for a reason, of course. The Yellow Vests protests in France have continued unabated for their ninth consecutive week, a decentralized populist uprising resulting from ordinary French citizens losing trust in their institutions and the official narratives which uphold them. The social engineers responsible for controlling the populace of the greatest military power on the planet are watching France closely, and understand deeply what is at stake should they fail to control the narrative and herd ordinary Americans into supporting U.S. government institutions. Right now they’ve got Republicans cheering on the White House and Democrats cheering on the U.S. intelligence community, but that could all change should something happen which causes them to lose control over the thoughts that Americans think about their rulers.
Propaganda is the single most-overlooked and under-appreciated aspect of human society. The ability of those in power to manipulate the ways ordinary people think, act and vote has allowed for an inverted totalitarianism which turns the citizenry into their own prison wardens, allowing those with real power to continue doing as they please unhindered by the interests of the common man.
The only thing that will lead to real change is the people losing trust in corrupt institutions and rising like lions against them. That gets increasingly likely as those institutions lose control of the narrative, and with trust in the mass media at an all-time low, populist uprisings restoring power to the people in France, and media corporations acting increasingly weird and insecure, that looks more and more likely by the day.
Caitlin Johnstone is a rogue journalist, poet, and utopia prepper who publishes regularly at Medium. Follow her work on Facebook, Twitter, or her website. She has a podcast and a new book “Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers.” This article was re-published with permission.
Well stated & backed w/ actual facts of what President Trump has done not what MSM has lied about. MSM has taken their tactics from the Nationalist Socialist German Workers’ Party & less than 100IQ individuals have been led like the sheep that they are!
Russiagate is a religious belief. No matter how much evidence amounts to the contrary, just believe. Believe. And be healed!
http://opensociet.org/2019/01/26/insidiocracy-russiagate-corporate-media-losing-my-religion-4
‘Rising like lions..’eh? That kinda talk got Shelley drowned with extreme prejudice. The anxiety of the age is a death-bed symptom of a species on the brink of auto-genocide through either an ecological Holocaust without precedent in hundreds of millions of years, or thermo-nuclear war caused by a dying Real Evil Empire that refuses to allow ANY state on Earth to exist without bowing and scraping before the Exceptionals.
The role of the Western fakestream media presstitues has been and continues to be quintessentially evil, mendacious and hypocritical. But what do you expect of an industry where anyone displaying any decency, intelligence or integrity has been purged over the last few decades by the Israel First lobby, and creatures like Murdoch?
Great Comment – 100%
How About Comparing
a Trump Campaign Rally
To an R. Kelley
“free love” concert ???
Was there not comparative
hedonistic propagation
Subliminally suggested
in Trump/Kavanagh
Vs. the similarly assaulted
15 yr. old White school girl?
Whose life history shines
in excellence of character
Even as the likes of Trump
/Kelley get public approval
I Don’t quite understand you,
Caitlin Johnstone, vis-a-vis
_ _ __ __ _Essencial Characterizations
Revealed on Social Media
How About Comparing
a Trump Campaign Rally
To an R. Kelley
“free love” concert ???
Was there not comparative
hedonistic propagation
Subliminally suggested
in Trump/Kavanagh
Vs. the similarly assaulted
15 yr. old White school girl?
Whose life history shines
in excellence of character
Even as the likes of Trump
/Kelley get public approval ?
Where Is The Backlash ???
what comparisons speak to
100 days of denial by Kentucky
Bigot Mitch McDonnell who
Withheld a SCOTUS vote on
behalf of right wing Bigotry
In order to approve the Right Wing
Racial/Sexist Bigot Kavanaugh?
now a SCOTUS JUSTICE ?????
can we not see the implications that confront us … ??
People are rightfully terrified. Propaganda channels our rightful fear into bizarre ideas which result in ineffective actions regarding our right to the redress of our grievances. My suggestion is to start forming mass groups, not for attending the speeches of political “leaders”, but for the purpose of helping one person at a time redress their grievance.
Instead of 30,000 people attending a Sanders’ rally, imagine if even a few thousand of those people showed up at a police station to help a victim of police brutality, if then a few thousand more people showed up at the mortgage company of the police officer who doesn’t make enough money to afford their home any longer, if 10,000 plus people showed up at an Amazon warehouse until the place was heated/airconditioned and the working conditions changed to be just, if a social security office was mass visited until they explained why they would not grant a much needed disability, if the homes of insurance company executives had 5000 people on the street until they stopped denying insurance, etc.– we would make a difference.
We are wasting time and resources trying to get people elected to represent us. They won’t do that. They aren’t chosen for that purpose. They are chosen by the powerful before we even vote. So I say don’t spend another dime or hour on politicians. If we turn all our attention to helping our fellow citizens, regardless of that citizen’s ideology, we will pull together and we will help each other and things will change.
I’m not saying this is a perfect answer to everything we face but it is one workable strategy. We already know we have the money and people for it. We just need to take those resources away from the powerful and use them to directly help each other.
This is what France is doing, let’s watch & learn. Great sentiment, true democracy!
HRC cheated/stole Dem primary? Why? ‘National Security directed her to…… to Elect Trump… by design. Russiagate is also by design to eventually vindicate Trump thus assuring him of ReElction. Most Politicians including Trump are probably unaware of the mind control that is being used on them, by suggestion by ‘National Security’ experts. . . . Who are they ? Religious Fanatics,,,,the mind control is probably sanctioned by the Catholic Church. Full scale Genocidal Megalomanics.
Trump Derangement Syndrome affects millions.
But Trump’s own actual derangement affects millions more.
You couldn’t come up with a better formula for chaos in government.
No wonder Putin worked so hard to get him elected.
He is a secret weapon.
(Just sarcasm, guys)
As far as changes in America, there simply are not going to be any of the least significance (always excluding major catastrophes like war and depression) for the foreseeable future.
It’s a bleak outlook, but I fully expect things to get worse in the near future. The establishment has no impulse for change.
Articles which contain sentences such as, “If the Democrats would only…” or “When the Democrats…” just serve the cause, keeping a sense of hope or expectation going, keeping a sense of there really being a kind of democracy in America.
But there is not. The basic political system is designed that way, and I don’t see that changing any time soon.
Again, I think I stated it fairly well here:
https://chuckmanwordsincomments.wordpress.com/2018/07/22/john-chuckman-comment-how-american-politics-really-work-why-there-are-terrible-candidates-and-constant-wars-and-peoples-problems-are-ignored-why-heroes-like-julian-assange-are-persecuted-and-r/
January 24, 2019 ‘Air Pelosi’ – What you don’t know about the lucrative travel our leaders enjoy on your dime.
We have long noted Pelosi’s abuse of the perks of public office that granted her access to luxury military travel. This current expedition is hardly new for her.
https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/fitton-big-air-pelosi-what-you-dont-know-about-the-lucrative-travel-our-leaders-enjoy-on-your-dime/
Well, they have to got to get those Mary Jane RXs, after all, and there’s nothing better for the news industry than victims.
The “tyrannical government” has already arrived! Many of us don’t know that yet. It began with an assassination in Dallas TX in 1963, and virtually finalized with the lies and deceptions that produced the inside job we call 9/11!!
More about this:
Add to this how the “war on drugs” is really a war WITH drugs!
As reporter Gary Webb exposed how druga were funneled into US cities, mostly communities of color, that it is a documented fact the CIA is into drug trafficking.
And in US permanent war “foreign policy” we send our troops to Afghanistan. Why are they there? Partly to guard and protect Afghanistan’s poppy fields which feeds into the CIA’s opiate trade that, in turn, feeds into the drug infestation in America!
That is noted from the following prior report:
We’re the current “Evil Empire” of the world, imposing a foreign policy based on lies and deceptions that got us into Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Syria, etc.
As with Pearl Harbor, we deliberately provoke targeted “enemies” into war with sanctions to force them into conflict, then blame THEM as the aggressor nation!
We are STILL in Afghanistan to guard their poppy fields for CIA drug trafficking!
ISIS is a US creation used and supported as a CIA asset.
We object to the costs of Social Security and cut veterans benefits while we spend TRILLIONS on wars against countries who have never attacked us! And they are countries mostly populated by Muslim and brown people.
We rain bombs on them, including weddings, hospitals, women and children — while we gripe and moan about the refugee crises these wars cause!
The USA is the world’s largest arms dealers! Permanent war is US foreign policy! Why? War is profitable! All wars are bankers’ wars!
The “deep state” OWNS Congress and our corrupt government for voting to continue funding trillions of dollars for “permanent war,” not peace!
The CIA controls the mainstream media. Example: Jeff Bezos who owns The Washington Post, has a $600 million CIA contract through Amazon, which he also owns.
The US military industrial complex “invents” new “enemies” to provoke into conflict, and war, as it sees fit to profit from! Osama bin Laden has been dead since Dec 2001, but the US propaganda machine kept him conveniently “alive” for war-on-terror scare propaganda. Bin Laden was on CIA payroll as a CIA asset during the former Soviet Union’s failed invasion of Afghanistan.
Then our government invented a new 9/11 “mastermind,” Sheik Muhammad, who we waterboarded 183 times, then followed by a federal judge blaming Iran for 9/11.
If average Americans are troubled by all this confusion and contradictions, it’s deliberate and by design! That’s how our terribly flawed US “foreign policy” works. To keep the American public in constant disruption while we occupy and exploit resouces for US control and ownership. Our presence in Africa (AFRICOM) is a prime example.
So is this: the USA has more people in prison than any other country in the world. Keeping people locked up is PROFITABLE.
That’s how the privatized prison industrial complex works, all of which has corrupted our entire “justice” system.
And most prisoners people of color on drug-related convictions — a result of the profiteering from those Afghan poppy fields our military is sent to protect for CIA trafficking that’s feeding into the opiate drug infestation of predominently black communities in American cities
Yep, quite a world we’re corrupting!!
So you’re saying we deliberately provoked Japan to war by refusing to sell them crude oil so they could use it to kill more Chinese?
“The most obvious and significant culprit in ‘Trump Anxiety Disorder’ is the mass media, which has been fanning the flames of panic” – – – writes Caitlin Johnstone.
” Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who sees us? and who knows us?”
– – – Isaiah 29:15
800,000 Thousand laid off workers also disrupt ancillary earners, and/or creditors bound to the American economic system.
– – – Yes? or No?
Drug related death rates increase exponentially under MAGA concept of “equal rights”, i.e. tax breaks for the rich, others F-Off.
– – – https://www.drugabuse.gov/related-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates
Untold millions in America live w/o health care; but we afford tax breaks for billionaires, Old Boy clubs, fraternities & confederates.
– – – Trump-ish – Anxiety Disorder IS CLEARLY NOT CAUSED BY MAINSTREAM MEDIA !!!
But by an ass-hole, selfish IDIOT whom will Inevitably prove himself to be the greatest Ignoramus in the WH since Andrew Johnson.
— Abe Lincoln’s VP –( whom Trump Most Nearly Emulates ! ! !)
Impeachment
Johnson played into the hands of his enemies by an imbroglio over the Tenure of Office Act, passed the same day as the Reconstruction acts. It forbade the chief executive from removing without the Senate’s concurrence certain federal officers whose appointments had originally been made by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. The question of the power of the president in this matter had long been a controversial one. Johnson plunged ahead and dismissed from office Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton—the Radicals’ ally within his cabinet—to provide a court test of the act’s constitutionality. In response, the House of Representatives voted articles of impeachment against the president—the first such occurrence in U.S. history. While the focus was on Johnson’s removal of Stanton in defiance of the Tenure of Office Act, the president was also accused of bringing “into disgrace, ridicule, hatred, contempt, and reproach the Congress of the United States.” The evidence cited was chiefly culled from the speeches he had made during his “swing around the circle.” What was at stake in the trial was not only the fate of a president but the very nature of the federal government. If Congress were able to remove the president, then, many Americans believed, the United States would be a dictatorship run by the leaders of Congress.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/andrew-johnson
This is the last word for someone who uses scripture as a sword for their narrative……
Psalm 75 1-10
Romans 13 verse 1
Isn’t the Almighty in control? Oh, okay you are
Yahweh – “Isn’t the Almighty in control? Oh, okay you are”.
Only thing I’m in control of are my personal opinions —
As to your second admonition, I take respectful heed —
And remind you the words from Paul in 2 Timothy 3 —
Yes, The Almighty is in control, but Signs of the Times
– – Speak, in SHOUTS the warnings of 2 Timothy 3 – – –
Below please find several Valid Reasons (“out-of-the-horses-mouth” why “The Mainstream Media” is not the culprit of/for
“Making People Sick”
————————————–
Then came Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who said Thursday that he doesn’t “really quite understand why” federal workers didn’t just take out loans to cover little, incidental expenses such as, you know, rent, mortgages, food, healthcare, stuff like that.
He was asked what he made of reports that furloughed federal workers were turning to food banks and homeless shelters to survive the shutdown.
“Well,” Ross answered, “I know they are and I don’t really quite understand why because as I mentioned before, the obligations that they would undertake, say borrowing from a bank or a credit union, are in effect federally guaranteed, so the 30 days of pay that some people will be out is no real reason why they shouldn’t be able to get a loan against it.”
The 81-year-old former investor, who says he’s worth about $700 million (after previously claiming to be worth billions), proceeded to dig his hole deeper.
“Now, true that people might have to pay a little bit of interest,” he said, “but the idea that it’s paycheck or zero is not a really valid idea.”
Because what’s a little interest on an undesired loan if it helps Trump spend billions on a project that most experts say wouldn’t work?
Linda Sherry, director of national priorities for the advocacy group Consumer Action, called Ross’ comments “outrageous” and “sickening.”
“This guy is unbelievable,” she told me. “What he’s saying, that you should borrow more, is exactly the route you shouldn’t take when you face financial trouble.”
{ from, “Borrow To Ease A Bit Of Pain? NO” – from David Lazarus @ LA Times / Business — 1/25/19
“Propaganda is the single most-overlooked and under-appreciated aspect of human society. The ability of those in power to manipulate the ways ordinary people think, act and vote has allowed for an inverted totalitarianism which turns the citizenry into their own prison wardens, allowing those with real power to continue doing as they please unhindered by the interests of the common man.
The only thing that will lead to real change is the people losing trust in corrupt institutions and rising like lions against them. That gets increasingly likely as those institutions lose control of the narrative, and with trust in the mass media at an all-time low, populist uprisings restoring power to the people in France, and media corporations acting increasingly weird and insecure, that looks more and more likely by the day.”
The “New Bolsheviks” are coming like a runaway train to restore “power to the people”. This is where those who are polarized the most lead the “populist uprising”.
Please tell me a time and place in history where ”The People” have ever had control?
This gives great insight on this topic
Jun. 14, 2012 These 6 Corporations Control 90% Of The Media In America
That’s consolidated from *50* companies back in 1983. But the fact that a few companies own everything demonstrates “the illusion of choice,” Frugal Dad says.
http://www.businessinsider.com/these-6-corporations-control-90-of-the-media-in-america-2012-6
Excellent –
— Thank You.
My sickness with him isn’t driven by the “mainstream media”
It’s driven by his personality first…his callous, selfish administration his incessant LYING his childishness his incompetence his blatant fear mongering and appeals to bigotry…his pandering to his base to the exclusion of 70% of the population…
And the attacks on the environment and the poor…giving tax breaks to the already very wealthy … Etc etc etc
He’s a fucking cancer
It’s just like all the angst and anxiety we had when GWB was leading us to invade Iraq and legalize torture. Oh wait, no it’s not. I wonder what’s different? The media? But maybe the media is more consistent than we think. After all, in both cases the media is campaigning for the same result: regime change. To rescue us from evil doers don’t you know. I still have my “United We Stand” bumper sticker from back then. Do you?
Which is reported in a false light by the media, with blatant lies.
In fact, he is the best chance you can finally have to beat tyranny since 1961. But you wont let him. That begs other questions.
he is the best chance you can finally have to beat tyranny
LOL
give him the chance he will be the tyrant
True,but what does it say about the American “voting system” which allows such incompetent candidates to stand, and two such disastrous winners of the only two Parties allowed to go ahead, to buy with great, long-lasting fanfare the prize of four years to destroy the USA and any other country the “Reps” and Senators help the POTUS to attack?
He is, but, sadly, he represents a very substantial portion of American attitudes and opinions.
If you stop and look really hard at what America has been doing in the world for years, you will see that Trump is not something from another planet.
He’s a very recognizable part of what America is.
I agree.
Just as one man’s freedom fighter is another man’s terrorist so it is in the media wars where one man’s news source is another man’s joke repertoire.
Stating that this imaginary “Trump Anxiety Disorder” is the cause of any of the ills of this Administration’s ills is in itself folly. That Trump lies, unabashedly, that he is both intellectually challenged and devoid of any real policy or management acumen is evident in his decidedly obtuse and disjointed public ramblings and tweets. This is not up for debate one just needs to listen and observe.
But somehow this is all a “disorder” for those that simply observe and comment on his policy and behavior. How shoddy and facile that view is in my opinion. What a bit of pseudopsychological sheepdip does the author dip into to come up with that nugget?
Yes, many of us are up in arms, many are sickened by Donnie’s petulant and vitriolic outbursts. His tearing apart of long-held alliances, his breaking down of institutional norms, his autocratic bromances. It’s almost as if he has some psychological disorder himself…or maybe it’s his supporters that do? Just sayin’.
Why do you think it has to be an either/or situation? I think that’s part of the TDS that I described below. It is intellectually lazy to not grasp that Trump’s narcissism and his “disjointed ramblings” are only part of the problem, and that until we demand better choices we will continue down the path to economic and environmental collapse, if not Armageddon. RussiaGate is the vehicle by which they feed TDS to keep us from looking at the real issues of importance that neither side of the aisle can address without pissing off their sponsors. MSM watchers are the ones who are sheep-dipped. Just sayin’.
People outside the USA in many cases see little difference between POTUSTRUMPET and his predecessors except he is more outspoken and vulgar, sometimes letting slip a truthful statement about his beloved MAGA.
I see that nearly every person in a recent Congress motion on NATO voted to ensure the obsolete gang was not able to be denied US participation by the whim of Trump (as if he would really withdraw, or that NATO could or would want to go on without the Big Boss).
Say hello to NewsGuard – the app that will protect you from real news.
Things would be just as bad with Hillary Clinton as president, as we all know the right-wing would waste inordinate amounts of time and resources obstructing, smearing, manipulating, etc…creating an identical sense of terror and anxiety. This is the “new normal” in the corporate-whore media, regardless of whether the president has a (D) or (R) next to their name. This whole system needs an overhaul. Decentralization is the future, if we’re lucky enough to have one.
What I really hate about what we’ve been calling “Trump Derangement Syndrome” is that so many of the latte-sippers think that it’d be just wonderful to get back to “normal”, as in the way things were during the Obama years. They are so insulated from reality that they don’t realize what these “regime change” wars and clandestine operations have done to the rest of the world, and that Hillary was intent on escalating them. How much disconnect from reality must a person have to put a “coexist” bumper sticker on their car, a “Hate has no home here” sign on their lawn, and then vote for an evil witch who gloated “We came, we saw, he died” when Gaddafi was anally bayoneted. We need to insist on better choices, and we need to abandon both major parties in droves before any real change will be possible.
Thank you Skip, for expressing my thoughts so eloquently. I agree with every point you make. Seeing so many people behave the way you have described, it sometimes makes me wonder if they live in a parallel world where other rules and rationales apply.
After all what you describe (and how I too feel) should be so obvious to everybody!
Right you are, Nathan. Skip has an exquisitely sensitive bullshit and hypocrisy detector, as well as a finely-tuned danger meter.
I hope to hell that SOMEBODY in the mass media recognises and mentions that the ranking Neocons in the current administration (Pompeo and Bolton), who posture as though they were the head of state rather than Trump, have just initiated another coup d’etat–the equal of Obama and Clinton’s masterpiece in Ukraine–this time in Venezuela, where the US government i) refuses to withdraw its diplomats at the insistence of the legitimately elected Venezuelan president and ii) has recognised an unelected pretender to the office in place of Maduro. Apparently, the Neocons in Washington think they get to decide who runs every country on the planet, rather than the voters in those countries. Washington has starved and bled Venezuela to death with its sanctions and disruption of the international petrol market, now it intends on unleashing a violent “civil war” in that country (sort of a Syria Redux), because–make no mistake–the “leftists” in the “Bolivarian Republic” will fight back against any US-supplied mercenaries.
Thanks Realist and Nathan. I haven’t kept up on the Venezuelan situation lately, but I know they’ve got a lot of oil, so that always spells trouble for any country that doesn’t allow it to be looted by the right companies. It looks like another showdown with Russia. I just read they sent two bombers to Venezuela to support Maduro. I hope he has sufficient support from his own military, and that they haven’t been bought off. Yikes!
Skip, Realist, Nathan – Excellent comments. As Nathan said you all express the thoughts of many of us very eloquently indeed.
it is well known and proven that people say one thing and do the exact the opposite
MSM “news” garbage won’t make you sick if you don’t watch it.
If you subscribe to cable / sat TV, NY Times etc., you are supporting this crap with your money.
You’ll be amazed at easy it is to do without garbage “news” and garbage “entertainment”, and it’s not like their garbage is cheap.
I agree and disagree. You can’t take the MSM seriously. It is just propaganda. But it is important to follow the MSM. I have a bookmark to a page carrying the headlines of most of the MSM platforms. I check it out every morning. I do that (not to get the “news”) but to find out what narrative is being advanced by whomever it is that is actually running this country. Usually, you can discern a pattern of what they are trying to accomplish.
It is sad that we have come to this in this country. But it is one of the tools I use to try to divine what is actually happening.
As a friend of mine says, I read the NYT so that I know what I’m supposed to think.
or not to
Excellent comment. I get the WashPost headlines in my email inbox every morning (not the full stories, b/c THEY are blocked by EU rules — a pathetic effort to clamp down on non-authorised-Narrative-sharing by the non-authorised). They probably raise my blood pressure, so preposterous and poisonous is the propaganda line, but the silver-lining is at least I feel I am aware of what BS the Establishment is trying to shove down the public’s throat.
Mike:
I’ve been saying the identical thing for years. Forewarned is forearmed. We know it’s propaganda; decipher it.
Vince from Ohio
I glance over Google and UPI “news” webpages for the same reason as you: awareness of what garbage they’re feeding people.
My main point was directed towards people who are SUPPORTING these businesses with cable / sat TV, newspaper subscriptions, etc.
If it were possible to get large numbers of people to end their subscriptions, there would be a big change in their behavior – in the end, it’s about money.
And it’s not a big sacrifice – it’s 80 or 90 pct. garbage
Actually I get RT America on my satellite subscription which I tune in to daily to get my news. Can’t watch and don’t watch MSN news.
Is it just a coincidence that Caitlyn Johnstone’s articles started appearing here after Robert Parry’s passing last year? Because her presence doesn’t even com e close to the journalistic gravitas that this site used to command. Links to Medium and youtube don’t help along with the description of “rogue journalist” (oh, please!), “poet”, and “utopia prepper”. Consortium News used to top my list of sites that I used to recommend to friends.
Formerly- I’m not familiar with Parry; thought Caitlin makes some good points though? I agree the monikers lack “gravitas”, but it seems a minor point… Do you object to anything she says in the piece? It seems a useful corrective to the general discussion online. I was thinking of sharing it on facebook where my contacts seem blind to media propaganda in terms of the frame she suggests.
Don’t know what you’re trying to imply. Why don’t you just say what problem you have with Caitlin, instead of, well, whatever the hell you just did?
I agree with your respect for Robert Parry, who was the heart and soul of Consortium News and my favorite journalist for years. It was a blow to us all, and especially for Consortium, when he passed. I think Consortium has admirably adjusted and preserved the integrity and standards which made it so good in the past.
I don’t understand the criticism of Caitlin Johnstone; I have followed her for a couple of years now and think she is the most exciting writer I read, and I am happy that Consortium is publishing her work. She does use humor and a light-hearted approach in some of her writing, but it is balanced by her insightful knowledge and passion. Plenty “gravitas” for me.
Caitlin mentioned the moonofalabama.org website, which is highly recommended.
I took time to relate to Caitlin, but I think she gets to the root of many of the problems in the news and is worth reading. An excellent site also is the Greanville Post, which seems to find unusual angles and very interesting commentary.
Robert Parry if i remember correctly he refused to publish 9/11 articles that did not agree with the official story
Probably the worst part of how the media exerts its influence, is that it is completely inescapable… no matter what you do. Even if you were to cut yourself off from the media entirely, you’d still have to deal with the situation second-hand. Those who are (heavily) influenced/controlled by the media, wreak enough havoc on all the rest of us to sometimes make life unbearable. This brand of psychosis really is “viral” (pun maybe intended), as we are often gaslit, silenced, and railroaded into submission. Arguably, Twitter is the most vile of all of those media institutions. It could theoretically be used predominantly as a force for good, but in general, it never will be. (Take a look at who helped fund their existence in the first place.)
I avoid the MSM and also Facebook, twitter, instagram etc and manage to find enough variety on sites I have found reliable (no Newsgarbage for me- I use Linux and have adblock). I like this site, also tomdispatch,informationclearinghouse, and links from these; also RT and vesti news to get another point of view abut Russia.
I agree that Trump seems to be making a lot of people nuts, but is “Americans … feeling significantly more stressed by the future of their country and the current political environment” really indicative of a “disorder”? Sounds like a healthy apprehension of reality to me!
Was people being less “stressed by the future” during the Obama years more rational? Because, after all, the future turned out to feature Trump …
Good rebuttal, and the disconnect is in the idea of “healthy”.
Citizens live through the loss of earning power/jobs, through the absurdity of the w.h. and congress,, through the absurdity of perpetual & pervasive wars – and, they do not react in healthy ways.
As long as there are teevee sports, cartoonish films, easily attainable car/house/school loans/and prescription drugs, the public will not be propelled toward sensible and productive responses to the absurd, immoral and lawless governance by which they are oppressed.
msm contributes to and is complicit in the malaise that pervades america.
Similarly:
“All the ways that Canadian journalists serve the ruling class”by James Wilt (Briarpatch)
https://briarpatchmagazine.com/blog/view/all-the-ways-that-canadian-journalists-serve-the-ruling-class
Interestingly, the NY Times has published two articles in the last two days grudgingly acknowledging the gist of what Caitlin Johnstone is saying here, that the reality of the Trump administration is very far from the Putin-puppet caricature:
• “Where Words and Acts Clash: White House’s Russia Policies” by Peter Baker, Jan. 21
• “Trump vs. His Administration on Russia” by Noah Weiland, Jan. 22
This is classic Times: they’re self-conscious enough to run a couple of these, but lack the integrity to use this insight (for them it’s an insight; we’ve known it all along) as a scalpel to dissect the prevailing phony narrative.
I have taken the liberty to post the late Founder Editor of this website Robert Parry’s reasons for founding The Consortium News website in the first place in 1995 . His reasons, based on his experiences from his employment in the national press and his disappointment in the emerging realities of a fake news industry designed by giant corporations to create fake narratives to propagandize American consumers of “News” based on dishonest reporting are compelling today more than ever.
From the Late Founder and Editor Robert Parry: When we founded Consortiumnews.com in 1995 – as the first investigative news magazine based on the Internet – there was already a crisis building in the U.S. news media. The mainstream media was falling into a pattern of groupthink on issue after issue, often ignoring important factual information because it didn’t fit with what all the Important People knew to be true.
Indeed, that was the original reason that I turned to what was then a new media platform to create a home for well-reported stories and to challenge the many misguided conventional wisdoms.
As one of the reporters who helped expose the Iran-Contra scandal for The Associated Press in the mid-1980s, I was distressed by the silliness and propaganda that had come to pervade American journalism. I feared, too, that the decline of the U.S. press foreshadowed disasters that would come when journalists failed to alert the public about impending dangers.
Also by 1995, documents were emerging that put the history of the 1980s in a new and more troubling light. Yet, there were fewer and fewer media outlets interested in that history. The memories of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush were enveloped in warm-and-fuzzy myths that represented another kind of danger: false history that could lead to mistaken political judgments in the future.
Some of our early articles reexamined important chapters of the 1980s (such as the “October Surprise” controversy from Election 1980 and evidence of Nicaraguan contra-cocaine trafficking).
Though we have struggled with funding – surviving for more than two decades through a combination of our own frugality and the generosity of our readers – we have managed to produce groundbreaking journalism on many of the most significant issues of the day, including national security, foreign policy, politics and the environment.
We also looked at the underlying problems of modern democracy, particularly the insidious manipulation of citizens by government propaganda and the accomplice role played by mainstream media. Rather than encouraging diversity in analyses especially on topics of war and peace, today’s mainstream media takes a perverse pride in excluding responsible, alternative views.
It’s as if The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN and the others have learned nothing from the disaster of the Iraq War when they pushed the groupthink about WMD and betrayed their responsibilities to the American people and the people of the world. Despite all the death, destruction and destabilization caused by the Iraq invasion, there was almost no accountability in the U.S. press corps, with many of the worst offenders still holding down prominent jobs and still engaging in the same terrible journalism.
When I was a young reporter, I was taught that there were almost always two sides to a story and often more. I was expected to seek out those alternative views, not dismiss them or pretend they didn’t exist. I also realized that finding the truth often required digging beneath the surface and not just picking up the convenient explanation sitting out in the open.
But the major Western news outlets began to see journalism differently. It became their strange duty to shut down questioning of the Official Story, even when the Official Story had major holes and made little sense, even when the evidence went in a different direction and serious analysts were disputing the groupthink.
Looking back over the past two decades, I wish I could say that the media trend that we detected in the mid-1990s had been reversed. But, if anything, it’s grown worse. The major Western news outlets now conflate the discrete difficulties from made-up “fake news” and baseless “conspiracy theories” with responsible dissenting analyses. All get thrown into the same pot and subjected to disdain and ridicule.
We have seen travesties, such as legendary investigative journalist Seymour Hersh having to take his important story debunking the Obama administration’s claims about the Syria-Sarin case of 2013 to the London Review of Books because his normal outlets in the United States wouldn’t run his exposé.
Now, even as the fate of the world becomes more tenuous amid a resumption of Cold War tensions between the West and Russia, we are seeing the Western media engaging in a self-inflicted blindness that has left the West’s citizens blind as well. This dilemma – this crisis in democracy – has made the role of Consortiumnews even more essential today than it may have been in 1995.
Robert Parry, Editor
I agree with Robert Parry’s assessment of the media. From way back in 1995 the seeds of a growing news media which was wholly supportive of fake government narratives and which conveyed them reliably to millions of viewers was emergent. Today it is stronger than ever seeking to delude us all. The threat of fake news has grown to immense proportions within the “free” press which is supposed to inform us but has instead decided to misinform us.
Very well said. However, I do see one positive amidst all this mess, which has become more evident to me personally: it is becoming so blatantly obvious that mainstream media outlets are lying and insulting our intelligence, that we are perhaps at an inflection point. I’m not quite sure why, but I feel as though the 1-2 punch of BuzzFeed’s totally inaccurate report of Trump directing Michael Cohen to lie to the Special Council being debunked by the office of the Special Council itself, and the horribly botched reporting of the situation regarding the Covington H.S. students being readily exposed as pure propaganda, will truly put into motion the acceleration of the demise of the mainstream media, as currently constituted.
It is my sincerest hope that all the race-baiting, forced sexism, and all forms of induced socioeconomic dissonance will finally come to an end in my lifetime. This appears a bit more likely, in light of the media flying way too close to the sun.
>it is becoming so blatantly obvious that mainstream media outlets are lying and insulting our intelligence<
Yes, and people are paying substantial amounts for subscriptions, to be lied to and insulted.
Hopefully, those people see things for the way they really are, before long. Sometimes, they victimize others outside their echo chambers about as much as they themselves are the victims.
This whole situation does in some way affirm one tried and true axiom: the best way to lead really is by example. Apparently, the overt hypocrisy of the mainstream media ought to do much to undermine the illusion of leadership that they have created over the years. This may very well be a moment of the relatively “Silent Majority” becoming aware of its own existence.
I’m not claiming victory yet, as there is still a very long way to go in the battle for the truth and an end to the undue influence of the ruling elite, but the momentum is clearly in favor of these causes right now.
Yes I have to agree that the only thing that will save us from the propaganda machine of the media is for a vast majority of Americans to wake up from their slumber, overcome their cognitive dissonance that the media institutions which they have been bred and programmed to respect as bastions of a free society bravely confronting wrongdoers and evildoers protecting us from all forms of evil are themselves guilty of stoking fear and anxiety in the general population based on nothing but lies.
Trump should be credited with his continuous assault on the fake media even if he is a sucker for the sympathy and support of Fox News which is also all kinds of fake news as well. We need to parse his convictions based on his observations that the majority of the “news” which is assembled against him and constantly creates false narratives to tie him to their accusations such as being an employee (puppet) of Vladimir Putin and separate that from his obsession with sympathetic and also fake news media such as Fox.
It is the case that all news is now filled with fake news and it will get even worse as technology evolves and spreads to enable the creation of entirely fake news filled with politicians appearing to speak words they never spoke which by evolving digital editing magic cannot be discerned even by experts as fake. “Deepfakes” news is right around the corner and soon we will be bombarded with fake news we cannot distinguish from reality. It is a scary thought but already all too real.
Soon average Americans will be tested to either believe the all too believable fake news or choose another path disbelieving all news as fake news no matter how convincing. Either that or they will (most likely) choose sides in the technologically advanced fake news wars filled with statements politicians never made but indistinguishable from reality. Literally we will not be able to tell if politicians said the things we see ad hear them saying.
Unless a majority of Americans see through the technology and learn to distrust what they hear and see with their own eyes and ears all is lost and I think that the probability that they will see the lies in the information being presented to them is unfortunately very small.
We have entered an age where digital fake news can be created and is in fact being created by artificial intelligence and technologically advanced digital chicanery which is programmed by the creators of “news” at every level which is believable and indistinguishable from reality even by experts whose profession is detecting fake news.
Will the professionals whose job it is ferret out all the fake news be able to keep up with the avalanche of fake news? Will they have an avenue to alert us all when fake news tries to delude us? The answer is probably not. Even if the fake news sleuths had a budget as large as the fake news purveyors their small numbers would be swamped by the massive fake news content comprising many websites funded by well monied powers to pump out the fake news in vast quantities which thanks to digital wizardry which will be indistinguishable from reality even by the experts is none the less extremely convincing. What will happen when actions of actual flesh and blood humans is twisted by the chorus of digitally created fake news funded by the vast wealth of media corporations to convince us all to believe a pack of lies?
Look up “deepfakes” on your browser to see the problem and the potential to radically alter the perspectives of us human beings. As we grow in our technological mastery of digital media there are forces that will seek to corrupt that technology for self interests and those self interests will be the self interests of giant corporations.
Donald Trump is left to be the little Dutch boy with his finger in the dyke holding back the oncoming tsunami of fake news while he himself is forced to cater to the demands of the fake news purveyors or else. The right wing pundits have set their sights on the new promised land of ultimate propaganda and have determined that their blitzkrieg against the Maginot Line of reality versus fake news is the immigrant wall. Either Trump gets it done or he is out they threaten. Why is this important to them? It is important because it will confirm their ability to control us.
But even if he succeeds in his stated goal and gets funding for a wall that will not be the end. After that there will be more demands backed by more fake news that he will be forced to support making Russia public enemy number one and demands that he tows the line to the letter of their wishes funded by immense wealth in order to drive the demand for their “products” which are more weapons and more bombs and more delivery platforms and more of everything that the military industrial complex has on its wish list.
Russiagate is nothing more than the strategy to create a Russian boogeyman in order to secure a future in a new cold war and to secure all of the money defense contractors made fighting the former Soviet Union in a new bid for a super sized military budget. It also conveniently distracts all inquiries as to the real reasons that Trump was elected which blame ultimately falls on the conservatives (no not the liberals) that control the press which gave him billions in free advertising in the presidential campaign in order to fleece republican super PACs out of all their billions to get the opposing republican candidates a shot at election amidst the hailstorm of a straw man presidential candidate backed by free advertising they provided to Trump, a candidate of their own making. Trump spent very little to win the election. All other republican candidates were opposed to him and even the republicans were opposed to Trump until they realized that the power of the media was unstoppable.
Now that the media have stolen their prized campaign dollars they are fighting the Frankenstein baby that they created who is pushing back on their fake news. Trump threatens their power by continuously calling out all the fake news while also falling victim to his own vanity for news outlets that continue to sing his praises all in order to control him.
Trump will perhaps be the final challenge to the media’s supremacy and as a creation of their own making might ultimately be brought down by his creators in the media. Once they accomplish that, their power to create and destroy politicians and to convince us all that some foreign devil is responsible for all of it will be complete. The technology will advance until we literally cannot believe our eyes and ears.
Trump said that the media is the enemy of the people and for once I believe that this consummate liar and Frankenstein baby of the media is telling the truth. Trump is not to blame. He is just a symptom and an inevitable product of the giant propaganda machine of our western “free” press and the giant corporations which control it.
Beware of outlets posing as “fact checkers” – many, if not most of them, have also proven to be either false flags or compromised. I, for instance, used to confide in PolitiFact, until they began too frequently using The Washington Post as a source for verification. Please research NewsGuard – they are an insidious creation of the Deep State and moneyed interests, who wish to actually implant their programs on all of our smartphones, so that they can flag actual serial purveyors of Fake News as “credible” , while flagging actually credible sources such as WikiLeaks and probably ConsortiumNews itself as “fake news”
I presume that you are probably aware of the Integrity Initiative story by now… but if you’re not, please research that too. It’s the biggest scandal of the last year or so, and it’s getting almost no media coverage at all.
Also, it’s worth noting that Congresspersons – particularly the Democrats – are very likely speaking from rehearsed talking points, as are media outlets. Their linguistic patterns are very suspicious to me, as there appears to be relatively very limited variance between the words and phrases used between them. When asked to elaborate further, they often stonewall on the question. On these points, they seem to know a lot, but understand relatively very little. Usually a tell-tale sign that the points were rehearsed in some fashion.
One particularly revealing incident that happened within the last two weeks is that Nancy Pelosi twice (seemingly) plagiarized Chuck Schumer’s tweets. Either they both copied off of a common source, or Pelosi directly copied and pasted what Schumer himself said. If the latter happened, I would have expected Pelosi to embed Schumer’s tweet instead. It was interesting to watch.
Citizen One, as always there is much to think about what you say I thank you for what is clearly a thoughtful response and, I think, accurate.
A personal story that might offer further discussion: Several years ago as I was regularly reading The NY Times both off the stand and digitally, they introduced the first digital commentary. They offered Tabs where one could see Reader Responses, NY Times selected Responses, and All Responses. Initially, it was stunningly impressive. For instance, if I read a nonsense piece by say, David Brooks, I could watch him take gas in the Reader commentary where most of the numbers would be. The experience was exhilarating because it represented a form of real-time rejection, a kind of Democracy In Action, or an Ancient Greek Forum. Slowly but probably inevitably, it became clear that commentary was being manipulated but it did prove to me that if honestly presented and watched, there is phenomenal power and justice there, just as there Usually was in the Forth Estate before MOCKINGBIRD. Kind of like the the exchanges we experience here.
Bob,
I totally agree. That is the disappointing part about our media system. We have the answers to make it function like the fourth estate envisioned by some but they have taken up Goebbels definition of propaganda as their business model. It has literally become that they will do anything that suits their self interest and nothing that does not. It stops right there. There are no qualifiers, no moral requirements, no ethical dilemmas present for telling lies. They will do anything and everything to make money and they absolutely do not give a damn about their supposed sacred duty to protect our democracy through some magical process called “acting in the public interest”. It is the stupidest notion they ever heard. It is an empty vessel containing no meaning and having no worth or value to the media moguls. They spend millions to get their deregulatory pals in government situated in key agencies to break down the regulations requiring balance and limited control and fairness.
It has been a long slow slide to the point we are at today.
I posted a fairly long comment that wasn’t posted as of the time of this comment (awaiting moderation, blah blah blah), so I’ll summarize: also refer to the details about NewsGuard and the massive Integrity Initiative scandal. Also note the subtle lack of variance in words/phrases between the media/politicians, which suggest rehearsed talking points. When asked to elaborate on them further, they often stonewall. Knowing a lot, but understanding very little – tell-tale signs. Red flags everywhere.
Refer to the NewsGuard and Integrity Initiative stories, as well
(I twice previously attempted to write about this at length, but it got caught in the Moderator Approval spider web)
Indeed “the mass media is not in the business of reporting facts, it’s in the business of selling narratives” so populist uprisings in the US may require more rejection of mass media and anger about personal finances, as few here have any moral concern or analytical capacity.
As during the election, the media is acting like a tabloid, exclaiming in horror but failing to examine soberly. Ghastly things are ignored — Gaspel’s apparent perjury during her confirmation about the existence and size of family disruption, Trump’s many serious lies of significance that make us unsafe on the world stage, some serious probing of Republican complacency.
So many times, I have either wondered how he could do (or even try to do that) minus congress, heedless of civil rights and other laws… and yet, it’s not working — thing being “cast adrift” to grow more and more helpless, instead it is “learned helplessness” borne of quite real recognized helplessness, irrelevance. I was impressed by Cockburn at Counterpunch talking about the British working class/countryside …. You might think that there would be some irritation and confusion that Brexit is incoherent and Brexit and May seemingly abandoned by many who championed …. even anger.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/01/22/on-the-brink-of-brexit-the-only-thing-most-people-outside-westminster-know-about-brexit-is-that-its-a-mess/
Russiagate occupies much of “liberal” MSM …. absurd. Really we can handle more adult content between Trumpian pageants and Mueller “bombshells” …. can we get some resolution about truthiness and how much credibility anyone should give Guiliani (or Cohen) and why we should care (I mean really) given Trump’s deliberate obfuscation and lack of shame.
And the cure for the Trump Anxiety Disorder? Why an American version of the Yellow Vest Uprising that has French authorities wondering, wondering, “oh, no, not another 1789?”
Starting here in the USA on, say, President’s Day, Monday, February 29.
Pretty much following the script that the French people are writing, with mass outpourings in the streets, ever peaceful and joyful, as Americans discuss what sort of world, were it collectively up to each and every one of us. Said get-togethers
to be continued every Monday, thereafter, for as long as it takes for we the people to figure things out.
The key, of course is that initially there be no agenda nor designated leaders nor timetable.
Spread the word!
Of course only Saturdays would draw any crowds.
Right on Caitlin, as usual. Will the American sheep shed their wool and show wolf hides? I doubt it. We are too deeply disturbed and addled about the truth to mount any meaningful revolution. The full spectrum psychological warfare waged against us that began in childhood has all too successfully robbed us of our sanity and humanity. Only rare souls manage to come out from under the all smothering blanket of bullshit propaganda.
You are right on target. Sadly, any attempt to address this issue is met with outrage and allegations of right wing propaganda. The Left can not or will see the truth when it is staring them in the face.
This article sums it up.
Lay it on the line honey!
What is it that really makes USA an exceptional country? It is the “great wall” established by the framers of the Constitution along with the Amendments. Ever wonder why the globalist beat their chest as the rescuers of the world touting “democracy” for all…but…not a democratic republic like USA. Lol…..
It’s so much easier to control a democratic country through controlling the narrative. The majority of the citizens live their lives using the “survival section of the brain”….very easy to manipulate!
The globalist are adamant about taking down the great democratic republic USA. They lose sleep at night thinking about the 1st and 2nd amendment….Defend the great Constitution and Amendments with your life…. enemies from without and from with in. The “Great Wall”
Freedom comes at a cost. If you frighten chooks, 99% of them will run INTO the cage for safety. Yellow vests and similar anti establishment movements or revolutions will only succeed when people are prepared to accept personal responsibility for their own lives. The fact that the yellow vests do NOT have a unified agenda gives me hope, although I see the bitcoin phenomenon as a more likely sign of people wanting to take personal control of their own lives rather than trying to control the lives of others.
While I can definitely see how and why Bitcoin (and cryptocurrencies, in general) appeal to people, I have concluded that it is, in fact, a wasteful “pump-and-dump” scheme that actually destroys, rather than creates/stores, actual value. The cost of mining and maintaining Bitcoin is at least 1/800 th of the world’s energy expenditure, and increasing over time (up to a point, of course) – that is an absolutely ENORMOUS amount of energy. Currencies are supposed to be a store of value backed by collateral – it’s not actually supposed to continuously destroy value over time. It is actually so expensive to mine Bitcoin at this point at its current valuation (~ $4,000 USD last time I checked), that the energy expenditure is greater than the supposed output value in terms of Bitcoin. Early adopters made out like bandits at the expense of others, and it will probably crash further once the “Bitcoin whales” cash out.
A novel concept, whose support is usually well-intentioned, that actually violates the laws of physics, and the physical economy. Even Edward Snowden believes it will fail. However, blockchain’s system of security does have real value. (Just, not as a store of currency itself.)
Apparently, the French yellow jackets think they know who really runs their country and are undertaking some semblance of a revolution against them and their mouthpiece Macron. They are also still under the impression that they might be able to prevail against the recognised purveyors of “legitimate force” who enforce the will of government. I am skeptical about their chances, but wish the best of luck to them. After all, their targets are the asshats who perpetrated the mass slaughters in Libya and now Syria, and who unconditionally support the ruthless and mindless hegemony of the warlords in Washington threatening the entire planet with potential mass extinction. The perfumed French princes, starting with the mincing Mr. Macron, practice the same psychosis of exceptionalism as their American pimps, though Macron glibly tries to make some disingenuous distinction between “nationalism,” which is said to be disdainful and “patriotism,” which he characterises as laudable. All that is just so much hypocrisy, and his people know it.
Back in the States, the mass media has been used so effectively as a tool of the controlling elite insiders that most Americans have no clue who to protest or attempt to overthrow, in spite of their massive frustration with government policy and its brutal effects upon their daily lives. Many thought they appropriately rallied round the presidential candidate who most openly campaigned on peace, prosperity and common sense when they voted for Trump. Now they are brainwashed every day by the media and its Democratic chorus that they support a traitor, a “puppet” of Vladimir Putin, who commits non-stop treason, even through he’s done the bidding of the deep state at every turn. These deplorables have never been “smart” enough to perceive the “right-thinking” notion that war is really peace. If they had only listened to Hillary! These great unwashed have also been quite effectively shown that no lives matter when it comes to a confrontation with the police or other armed authority figures. Ask not only the black human targets in dozens of American metropoles, but also the white kids with lifetime student loans who mistakenly thought they could express free speech in the “Occupy” movement, which was strangled in its crib by domestic goons who took their orders just as eagerly from Obomber as they did from Dubya. Americans have been so cowed that they do not even mount peaceable protests or demonstrations any more. The set-to’s in the street which the media tools have deigned to cover (such as in Charlottesville) have demonstrably been false-flags, docudramas orchestrated by professional showmen financially supported by George Soros and his ilk, their purpose: to discredit protest in general and to scare the bejesus out of any “self-respecting” citizens who might otherwise be tempted to display any public objection against the insane militarism that rules this country and dictates every dangerous facet of its foreign policy.
Oui Realiste. Tant pis. Nous sommes screwed.
Very perceptive and informative comments as always. I agree with you regarding the chances of Yellow Jackets to prevail. The Ruling Class in the affluent West is united and has simply too many tools at their disposal to deal with these situations – including total control of the Media.
Surely CN can do better than this. A headline post about … a “Pacific Standard” report … on anxiety in America?
“Trump is clearly not a Russian asset, he’s a facilitator of America’s permanent unelected government just like his predecessors, and indeed as far as actual policies and administration behavior goes he’s not that much different from Barack Obama and George W Bush.”
Source for that? Why, it’s a (different) Caitlin Johnstone opinion piece!
Look, calling out Beltway Establishment BS is one thing; peddling thinly disguised Trump propaganda is another. The “f***ing moron” (Sec. of State R. Tillerson) doesn’t have a clue, has been owned by DC people who actually DO from the very beginning, and the self-serving justifications of people who thought they were being cute / smart / rebellious by supporting him look more pathetically diluted by the minute.
Whatever medications you are on, you ought to get off. They’re affecting the way you think. Quote source for that? Unquote. What, did you want an encyclopedia reference showing that Trump operates the same as Bush and Obama? The fact is, he is far superior. Bush and Obama both got us into numerous Wars. By both his statements and actions, Trump has indicated that he is not wanting to get us into Wars. When he secured the Republican nomination he forced the Republican Party to alter their platform, removing the guarantee of arms to Ukraine. That was a most excellent move. Hillary was promoting no-fly zones, and Trump says let’s get the hell out of there, even though mainstream media is pushing for us to stay. Plenty of evidence that Trump is different. So I’m not in total agreement with Caitlin Johnstone, but I’m in complete disagreement with your assertion that he’s a moron and that he’s in the pocket of DC. More than any president then we’ve had in a long time, he is an anti-establishment character. Let me guess, you were a Hillary fan. Get off the pills. You don’t need them.
It may not affect as many people as Trump Anxiety Disorder, but ever since she showed up at CN, there’s a Caitlin Derangement Syndrome that appears fairly reliably in the comments below her pieces.
The etiology is a mystery, but MLS is manifesting definite symptoms.
Yes, the media intentionally exacerbate our fear and anger. Our emotions drive their ratings. Biologists call this fight or flight.
Trump Derangement Syndrome is nothing new. Derangement syndrome is an American tradition.
There is something to worry about. Yes, Trump is corrupt and crazy. He represents peak commodification of a human being. The Trump brand.
https://opensociet.org/2018/12/21/derangement-syndrome/
I can only keep my old tried fingers crossed that the sheeple wake up and if not Please those under 30 it just might possible for change in the near future by voting out the criminals