No matter who wins in November, opaque agencies will have already primed the nation for more dangerous military escalations against countries outside the blob of the U.S.-centralized empire, writes Caitlin Johnstone.
By Caitlin Johnstone
CaitlinJohnstone.com
Back in April I said “China’s gonna be so surprised when it finds out it interfered in the November election.”
Now three months ahead of schedule China is already getting its surprise, alongside fellow unabsorbed governments Iran and Russia.
U.S. intelligence agencies say China and Iran are working to sway voters against Trump while Russia is working against Biden https://t.co/enFRpMEBkr
— Bloomberg (@business) August 7, 2020
Mass media throughout the Western world are uncritically passing along a press release from the U.S. intelligence community, because that’s what passes for journalism in a world where God is dead and everything is stupid.
The press release, from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and authored by National Counterintelligence and Security Center Director William Evanina, claims that Russia wants Donald Trump to win re-election in November and is pushing to advance than goal, while China and Iran are doing the same with Joe Biden.
China
“We assess that China prefers that President Trump – whom Beijing sees as unpredictable – does not win reelection,” the press release reads. “China has been expanding its influence efforts ahead of November 2020 to shape the policy environment in the United States, pressure political figures it views as opposed to China’s interests, and deflect and counter criticism of China.”
Russia
“We assess that Russia is using a range of measures to primarily denigrate former Vice President Biden and what it sees as an anti-Russia ‘establishment,’” the press release claims. “Some Kremlin-linked actors are also seeking to boost President Trump’s candidacy on social media and Russian television.”
Iran
“We assess that Iran seeks to undermine U.S. democratic institutions, President Trump, and to divide the country in advance of the 2020 elections,” says the press release. “Iran’s efforts along these lines probably will focus on on-line influence, such as spreading disinformation on social media and recirculating anti-U.S. content. Tehran’s motivation to conduct such activities is, in part, driven by a perception that President Trump’s reelection would result in a continuation of U.S. pressure on Iran in an effort to foment regime change.”
Great, if Biden wins they'll blame China and if Trump wins they'll blame Russia
U.S. Intelligence: China Opposes Trump Reelection; Russia Works Against Biden https://t.co/6MwxGIUDgR
— Dave DeCamp (@DecampDave) August 7, 2020
What this completely unsubstantiated narrative means, of course, is that no matter who wins in November America’s opaque government agencies will have already primed the nation for more dangerous escalations against countries which have resisted being absorbed into the blob of the U.S.-centralized empire. If Trump wins we can expect his administration to continue its escalations against Russia in retaliation for its 2020 “election interference,” and if Biden wins we can expect his cabinet of Obama administration holdovers to ramp up escalations against China in the same way while Joe mumbles to himself off to the side as his brain turns to chowder.
Keep in Mind
There is never a legitimate reason to believe any unproven claim made by unaccountable spook agencies about U.S.-targeted governments, but even if everything in this press release were true it’s an incredibly stupid thing to care about. The influence that Russia, China or Iran could exert over public opinion in the United States is a tiny fraction of that which is exerted by the unaccountable U.S. billionaire media every single day, which already has its own factions pushing for Biden over Trump and Trump over Biden. Adding some foreign social media operations into the mix would change literally nothing.
Secondly, as the press release itself acknowledges, the U.S. is openly pushing regime change in Iran. It is already engaging in various acts of economic warfare against all three of the named governments, and it openly interfered in Russia’s elections in the nineties to a far greater extent than anything it has even accused Russia of doing. The U.S. government’s own data shows that it is the very worst election meddler in the world by an extremely wide margin, which would make it a perfectly legitimate target for election interference by any nation on earth.
Lastly, the dumbest thing about believing foreign nations are interfering in American democracy is believing America has any democracy to interfere with. The integrity of U.S. elections ranks dead last among all Western democracies, public opinion is constantly manipulated by the media-owning plutocratic class which has a vested interest in maintaining the status quo which keeps them rich and powerful, and it’s a two-headed one party system where both corporate-owned parties advance the same Establishment agendas.
Press Release Power
Imagine believing that foreign leaders are looking at the dumpster fire that is the United States and thinking “I know how we can hurt them! We’ll sow division by saying mean things about their presidential candidates on social media!”
It’s the dumbest thing in the world. Yet all the Establishment narrative managers are jumping on this intelligence community press release as a real thing that we should all be excited about.
The fact that the left isn't outraged and calling for immediate investigations into China & Iran interfering in our election to HURT Trump is proof that the Russia hoax was never actually about "election integrity"
If they didn't have double standards they would have none at all
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) August 7, 2020
“If you want to know why Donald Trump will not confront Vladimir Putin about these allegations of bounties on U.S. soldiers — well there you go,” Rep. Swalwell says of the ODNI report on foriegn interference in the election.
https://t.co/m3jDqjY290— MSNBC (@MSNBC) August 8, 2020
Trump says “I don’t care what anybody says” when intel agencies disclosed Russia is interfering in our election to hurt Biden.
Of course he doesn’t.
He has solicited foreign help again and again.
From Russia, Ukraine & China.
He doesn’t care about our democracy. Only himself.
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) August 8, 2020
All this hand-wringing and arm-waving about foreign interference on social media comes as social media itself makes policy changes to ensure that only Western governments are allowed to conduct propaganda on its platforms, with Twitter instituting a new policy of labeling accounts from unabsorbed governments as “state-affiliated media” while placing no labels or restrictions on any accounts with extensive Western government ties.
The overall message in all this is that only Western government agencies and oligarchs may conduct propaganda on those who live in the U.S.-centralized empire. It should enrage us all that these unaccountable abusers feel so entitled to insert their rapey fingers in our minds and manipulate how we think, act and vote that they get all chest-thumpy about the idea of anyone else getting a word in edgewise. They do this because they understand that whoever controls the narrative controls the world, and there is no amount of evil they won’t do to ensure that they continue to control the world.
The reason sociopaths are able to insert themselves so easily into positions of power and influence in human civilization is because highly manipulative people with no empathy quickly learn that society is dominated by narrative, while the rest of us do not understand this. This must change before we will be able to create a healthy world.
Caitlin Johnstone is a rogue journalist, poet, and utopia prepper who publishes regularly at Medium. Her work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, liking her on Facebook, following her antics on Twitter, checking out her podcast on either Youtube, soundcloud, Apple podcasts or Spotify, following her on Steemit, throwing some money into her tip jar on Patreon or Paypal, purchasing some of her sweet merchandise, buying her books Rogue Nation: Psychonautical Adventures With Caitlin Johnstone and Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers.
This article was re-published with permission.
The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
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What about Israel’s meddling in our elections? Oh, we are not allowed to criticize the boss.
Thanks, Consortium News, for publishing this fine Caitlin piece with the mostest wonderful headline.
Overwrought? The empire is what is overwrought, as well as absurd. Get a grip!
As my brother Lloyd says, “Let’s make Orwell fiction again”.
My only complaint is that Caitlin changed from a photo, to which I can relate, to a painting, to which I cannot.
Beverly Alexander and AnnR my apologies for any offense. I find the word an appropriate description which is not meant as gender specific.
I’ve used it when describing similar behavior from males.
To be clear, Caitlin Johnston, assuming she is the lone writer, writes virtually nonstop and for many outlets. I’m personally giving the benefit of the doubt.
Johnston has gained a huge following and thus power, and should have no problem with what I originally posted here. I agree with most of her analysis, and perhaps I should have been more specific; and a little less overwrought.
Any word on which party’s bid will be accepted by Cambridge Analytica?
Al Gore made no excuses after the 2000 election. He would have won with Bob Graham as his running mate.
In other words,democracy doesn’t work?
Which democracy are you talking about? The USA does not have a democracy, it has a carefully controlled plutocracy and to ensure that the hoi polloi (i.e. ordinary working class citizens) have no real effects on the polity, the economy, the whole shebang is why:
a) the Electoral College exists (and you’ll note, I’m sure, that *neither* party has worked to remove it); b) there are only two so-called parties (in fact, as Caitlin rightly says, only one party with two heads – a Janus Party), both hand and glove with the MIC, with the corporate-capitalist-imperialist ruling elites (well, they’re part and parcel, aren’t they – or want to be).
In Germany – country with less than a third of our population – there are about a dozen parties for the federal government (plus proportional representation) …thus a far better representation of the wide swathe of German citizens political views. Now why couldn’t WE have such a political reality???? Much closer (not perfect) to real democracy than anything we pretend is democracy.
Shouldn’t it be “intelligence” agencies? Or “unintelligence” agencies?
Even “stupidity” agencies?
I do remember when Pres. Obama allowed the U.S. public to be propagandized in a manner similar to what they feed the Voice of America audiences. hXXps://foreignpolicy.com/2013/07/14/u-s-repeals-propaganda-ban-spreads-government-made-news-to-americans/
They were doing it before, of course, but this made it legal.
Now politicians are very wound up in their webs of deceit. As I. F. Stone says: “All governments lie.”
We better figure out a way to replace them or the hall of mirrors will go global and we’ll all be lost.
Spot on, Caitlin.
I appreciate seeing this article at CN.
If certain readers find Johnstone’s writing to be “overwrought” and disquieting to their sensibilities, then perhaps they’d best not subject themselves to her perspectives.
Frankly, I have found Johnstone to be consistently well informed, deeply thoughtful, humanely astute, and possessed of a well functioning BS meter.
As well, her ever present awareness and clear description of narrative control is a virtue that I hope might well be highly contagious. Indeed, I should welcome a pandemic of awareness about the web of media and academia deceit so assiduously relayed to profit the oligarchic state and to confuse and dismay the many, despite a society falling into accelerating collapse resulting from the deliberate arrogance and greed of a pathological elite who regard themselves as being the “top”of a most perverse “order”.
To those who might chance to argue that, as long as there is a “pecking order” it cannot be said that a complex society has collapsed, I would point out that lying, cheating, and stealing as policy may allow criminal behavior to be rewarded, for a time. However, if a corrupt “government” and its mouthpieces have lost the trust of the people, then such “power” as the peckers may wield must be that of violence and destruction and not of reason, principle, and conscience.
The little boy who cried wolf.
Our MSM is so gullibler and dumb that our Intel agencies can say anything without refutation or challenge.
The statement regarding Iran is so obviously false. Sure, I see a pro-Iranian news stories every day. It’s a juggernaut. Seriously. The U.S. public has been so conditioned to believe that Iran and Iranians (despite false disclaimers) are evil that we are starving them, depriving them of medicine, and harassing their passenger jets without the slightest protest in the U.S. We assassinated their highest ranking General and the only concern by a few people was that Iran might respond in kind. The idea that conducting assassinations is aggressions was not even considered.
So our Intel agencies are telling us that Iran, and not Israel or Saudi Arabia, has us wrapped around their fingers and we actually believe them. This reaches hew heights of stupidity.
You know, sometimes you need to stop writing posts and sit, and think, read, take a walk. No one can just keep writing this stuff 24 X 7 and not lose a sense of connection.
It’s not that I always, or even mostly disagree with Johnstone, it’s just that she never stops writing and some of it seems to be overwrought.
Whatever.
It’s also important to keep in mind that professional writers maintain their relevance, fan base, and income by maintaining a spot in the cultural discourse. When there are bills to pay, downtime is an enemy. I agree that the grind can have negative effects on creative output but vacations are sometimes a luxury beyond one’s means.
Antonio Costa: Overwrought is a term usually reserved as a put-down for women when they express themselves strongly. Your comment is vague. What is it that you disagree with?
I agree with Beverly Alexander. And there is nothing overwrought – at all – in expressing these really existing realities and one’s disgust with them on a daily basis, if need be. Why? Because we (the US and western vassals) are being confronted with the Newspeak, the outright lies, obfuscations, abominations (that we are committing on a daily basis and have been since 1945). And because we are bloody hypocritical, fundamental liars and Moloch worshiping barbarians.
We need to recognize that about ourselves. And that our MSM – all forms – are totally complicit.
Overwrought would seem to be the equivalent to hysterical in the mind of many of the other chromosome set.
If you are “tired” of reading Caitlin Johnstone’s editorials, then just pass over them. No-one is forcing you to read hers or anyone else’s musings. I do that often with commenters here and elsewhere whom I know, from long experience, always grind the same axe, at the same speed, and for same duration (and I’m NOT suggesting that you are one such.)
OTOH, Caitlin has put her finger on – quite some time ago – the exact fulcrum of our malaise: THE OFFICIAL NARRATIVE.
This piece – especially – spells out the realities that even someone with the reading comprehension of a Donald Trump could understand.
No animosity intended – just saying.
I for one, am very thankful to Caitlin, for not letting up. We have way too many Americans who either will not or cannot think critically, and there cannot be enough articles like Caitlin writes.
And BTW, how is it relevant whether or not Caitlin takes an occasional walk or not , and if she does, how much she does? And how would you know? Besides, if what she writes is “overwrought”, is anyone forcing you to read it?
Antonio, we can blame some writers and bloggers of writing or talking too much, but Caitlin will be among the very last ones on that list. Not because she doesn’t write a lot, but because the issues she writes about are so important and because she makes her points extremely clear and powerful. The problem is there are too many issues in our society that need to be addressed that are not being addressed…
Ironically, she took your advice: she’s taking a break from long form writing. She will, however, have her thumbs limbered.