The mainstream media’s hysteria over “fake news” is aimed less at the few instances of intentionally fabricated stories than at well-reported articles that challenge the U.S. government’s dubious official narratives, says David P. Hamilton.
By David P. Hamilton
For the most part, “fake news” is a fake concept designed by the corporate news media to discredit those who challenge the official U.S. hegemonic narrative. The typical MSM fake news accusation starts with some egregious fictionalization and then morphs over to the real targets: the subversives, those who would dispute foundational elements of the official history or its recent approved updates.
The New York Times building in Manhattan. (Photo credit: Robert Parry)
These subversive elements are likely to question important myths, such as the necessity of the nuclear incineration of Hiroshima or – before the Iraq War – Saddam Hussein possessing WMD, and hence must be silenced.
There are people in this world who write what they know to be fiction and try to pass it off as fact. Many of them work for the CIA and related institutions. Then, there are satirists like The Onion who write fictionalized truth. These professional prevaricators are not what draws the ire of the corporate “news.”
The approved rendition of U.S. history is a composite of lies, euphemisms and dubious rationales taught in schools, public and private, since the nation’s founding. It is continuously updated by the corporate news media. There is an army of PR types and psy-op warriors working constantly on this project; some private sector, some public, who often switch roles and sectors, but work hand-in-glove regardless.
The real fake news is the fake narrative that flows perpetually forth from these functionaries of the MSM to dominate the discourse which the billionaire owners allow voiced via their facilities. In this manner, we are all being played, all the time, and have been since birth.
For the record, the official narrative follows certain principles. Among them are:
- The U.S. is never wrong in any conflict with other nations.
- If the U.S. ever happens to be wrong, it was a reasonable mistake.
- U.S. intentions are always benign and honorable.
- U.S. judgment is always objective and fair.
- The U.S. is a democracy and always supports democracy.
- Americans are a peaceful people.
- Americans are a superior people, so American lives matter more.
- Americans are always on the high moral ground because God is on our side.
- The word of our leaders is sufficient proof of any assertion.
- The U.S. is the greatest nation in history.
- Private is always better than public.
- Individualism is always better than collectivism.
One-Sided ‘News’
In application of these principles, NPR’s “All Things Considered” never considers the Maduro government’s position in Venezuela, nor is Noam Chomsky, often voted the world’s foremost public intellectual, to be heard on this “public” radio. Nor will North Korea’s negotiating position relative to their nuclear weapons program be explained. It requires the U.S. military to refrain from conducting war games on North Korea’s border in exchange for freezing their weapons program; unmentionable because the U.S. militaristic leadership is unwilling to consider the proposal and because it sounds too rational.
Noam Chomsky, one of America’s leading thinkers on the Left. (Photo credit: Duncan Rawlinson)
You will hear from the world’s greatest exporter of terrorism that Iran, which hasn’t invaded a neighbor since Darius I in 500 BCE, is the world’s greatest exporter of terrorism. And that apartheid Israel is a democracy. And that the Saudis are jolly guys in silk robes you want to hold hands and dance with.
Are the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, et al, lying knowingly? Not exactly. The news media doesn’t have to invent the lies, only repeat them. They are mainly the stenographers of governmental agencies that provide the raw material to be quoted, invariably substantiating the validity of the official position. The owners of those news outlets likely believe that narrative, but mainly they want you to believe it.
The pundits and talking heads of those news media, the on-camera personalities, must think within the parameters the official narrative or they wouldn’t have been hired to the position of highly paid spokesperson for it. Wolf Blitzer is a Zionist true believer who used to do P.R. for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Anderson Cooper is a Vanderbilt heir worth $100 million.
How objective can you be about issues of income inequality when you’ve been the top .0001% for six or seven generations? And if one dare to go off the reservation, the next thing you know you’ll be working for RT for a lot less money like Ed Schultz.
This process of narrative creation is principally a matter of focus, parameters and interpretation. On major U.S. cable news channels, the great bulk of coverage involves domestic politics, mass murders and “natural” disasters. In Europe, the focus is far more on international relationships.
The spectrum of opinion allowed in the U.S. is limited to the point that Hillary Clinton is considered “the left” and the anti-capitalist left might as well not exist. The range of permissible opinion typically stretches from pro-capitalist social liberals to pro-capitalist social conservatives. This is hardly surprising if one considers that billionaire investors own the controlling interest in all major U.S. news media. One outcome is that the U.S. is the only major industrial nation without a significant socialist political party.
The private interests that own the news media don’t have to get together and compare notes because they all have a high level of ruling-class consciousness that includes shared economic fundamentals, e.g., socialize debts and privatize profits. Their message control is described far more clearly by Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman in Manufacturing Consent, chapter 1 on “the propaganda model”.
Dubious Conformity
It is generally accurate to assume that there is an entirely reasonable interpretation of news events that contradicts what you are being told to believe by the corporate news media. Cases of official duplicity are notorious and legion: the Gulf of Tonkin, WMD in Iraq, the black kid killed by the police had a gun, etc.
President Lyndon Johnson announces “retaliatory” strike against North Vietnam in response to the supposed attacks on U.S. warships in the Gulf of Tonkin on Aug. 4, 1964. (Photo credit: LBJ Library)
Central among the American myths is that the myth surrounding the origins of the Cold War. This myth would have you believe that the Soviet Union in 1945, despite having lost over 30 million of its citizens during two German invasions in less than 30 years and with a devastated infrastructure, would suddenly decide to invade Western Europe, into the teeth of the world’s sole nuclear armed military power, the USA, and its various formidable allies.
Furthermore, that the Soviets would do this despite having achieved their major war aims, a divided and demilitarized Germany and a “sphere of influence” between themselves and Germany, an arrangement agreed upon by Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt at Yalta. This Cold War creation myth of Soviet aggressive intent is essentially a U.S. cover story to mask U.S. aggression disguised as defensive.
Like Germans in 1939 believing the Polish horse cavalry was about to attack their tanks, Americans bought this spurious interpretation. These steady U.S. “defensive” efforts have now brought NATO, essentially an agency of U.S. foreign policy, to Russia’s very doorstep in the Baltic states, with Ukraine up next for NATO membership. Who is the aggressor?
Every other late Twentieth Century storyline of official U.S. history had to conform to the basic foundational concept of the U.S. defending freedom against an expansionist Soviet Union/Russia bent on destroying us. And so, today, we have thousands of NATO troops, innumerable missile batteries and nuclear-armed aircraft carrier-led naval battle groups patrolling Russia’s borders and shorelines, including the Black Sea, because “THEY are the aggressor.”
Try to imagine the U.S. reaction to a Russian fleet cruising the Gulf of Mexico, although that might be difficult given that 11 of the world’s 17 aircraft carriers, a uniquely aggressive weapon, belong to the U.S., all with unlimited range, and Russia’s only puny little single carrier rarely leaves Russian territorial waters and doesn’t have enough range to get to the U.S. and back.
The U.S. has an estimated 800 foreign military bases in well over 100 countries while Russia has three in two countries. U.S. military budget is at least ten times that of Russia’s and was just increased by 10 percent while the Russians just reduced theirs by 7 percent. Who is the aggressor?
David P. Hamilton is a long-time Austin activist and writer. An archive of his other articles can be found at http://www.theragblog.com/tag/david-p-hamilton/. His Facebook page is https://www.facebook.com/david.hamilton.71066700.
I watch Ed Schultz every night (except Fridays, Saturday/Sunday) on RT, DISH Channel 280; also he’s on Direct TV Channel 231. I hope you do, too. RT = real truth – question more.
“The Fake News” hysteria appears to actually be a psy-op of sorts, with the intent of crushing the 1st Amendment. A week or so ago, Trump mentions pulling the FCC license on certain news outlets, to thunderous applause. Taking this to the (il)logical conclusion, RT, Sputnik, al Jazeera, and other foreign news sources that won’t run Western-friendly stories are more than likely on the hit list. Then next most certainly on the list will be alternative media sources, due to the fact that they have the audacity to directly contradict, quite often correctly, the ‘official’ narrative of things. This is a full frontal assault of the Free Press, and is being cheered on all too enthusiastically. It is quite literally, the proverbial ‘slippery slope.’ Be careful what you wish for.
It’s not subtle Samantha Power and Cass Susstein have explained it all
from 09/19/2017 NYT: Samantha Power: Why Foreign Propaganda Is More Dangerous Now.
Power says that, contrary to what you might think, it’s really really hard to tell “fake news” from real news and citing George Washington, no less, claims we must be vigilant about “foreign influence” (I’m not sure how stringent that designation is)
and then today Bloomberg (Susstein) Russia Is Using Marxist Strategies, and So Is Trump.
oh, and for the record, he include Bernie Sanders in using Marxist strategies (sharpening the contradictions)
They’re one of Washington’s power couples ….
Yes, we definitely live in an upside down world. I believe though we are starting to see glimpses of the fruit bore from the “fake news” hysteria. I am Canadian and recently received an e-mail from Open Media that Bell Canada (like Comcast in the US) is trying to push government officials, in their dealings with the closed door NAFTA agreement, to get rules to allow them to censor the internet. Here is an excerpt from the e-mail:
They’re (Bell Canada) trying to use closed-door NAFTA talks to sneak in a mandatory website blocking system and radical new copyright rules that would give an agency unprecedented power to dictate what you can and can’t see online.
Just makes me wonder if we are moving toward fascism. To me it already seems that we live in plutocracies but maybe we can throw in some fascism for good measure. So frustrating…
and so many average citizens are eager to give up “freedom” in exchange for “safety” …. (because freedom is dangerous)
Rugged American Individualism … the new frontier persona appears to have died out with the boomers. Funny because my parents generation had hobbies and “eccentricities” and took pride in same … today’s most folks seem ground down and without much energy, time or money (heaven forbid one “neglect” the “family” to pursue a personal interest — wasn’t popular when I was a kid either, and yet, there were non-work related, non-political hobbies and enthusiasms)…
See also the Back to the Land movement of the 1970s and “vision quest” type cross cultural pursuits …. vestigial in 2017 — how sad.
Disney, World of — Glorified this individualism weekly — every Sunday night.
“12. Individualism is always better than collectivism.”
I’m not aware that this principle has ever been pursued by the PTB much less promoted by their puppet MSM. The individual is anathema to them.
It is, nonetheless, the only one of the twelve principles you suggest as being promoted that is actually true. The individual reigns supreme…always.
I think anyone who needs to “understand” fake news has been sleeping somewhere for decades.
The American mainline press has been in the fake news business for my entire adult life.
Only the term, “fake news” is new.
yes, the MSM has always served the powerful and the status quo — almost always the same thing with their own, now dubbed “deep state” agenda and vigorous (not always suitable for public consumption) foreign policy. The fairness doctrine and the prior very high status of the big networks news divisions (CBS was #1) relied on palpable, observable, demonstrable “fairness”, now barely simulated.
Adam Curtis’ hypernormalization, traces this demolition of foundational trust in the media (beyond the recognized bias of, say, a Fox News/MSNBC) as possibly deliberate, deliberately polarizing, “sharpening the contradictions” and creating the “impossibility” of compromise or cooperation. Part of the “learned helplessness” so apparent … the “battered wife syndrome” so often mentioned wrt to the left and liberals wrt to the Democratic Party’s endless “tacking to the right” and denigation of “the left” … even as American politics is so skewed that twice-defeated Hillary Clinton is not only still considered an “important voice” despite demonstrating an inability to “lead” and having written a book devoid of future vision … oh, and yes, I saw her referred to as “left” …some bizarre definition that inexplicably can call someone dyed-in-the-wool neoliberal and neoconservative (the new neocolonialism) “left” …
Maddow last night (I only watched briefly) suggested that the ceaseless onliine criticism of Clinton in 2016 comment sections was likely part of the Russian plot, and those commentators co-conspirators (without mention of Clinton’s paid army of commenters) …
There is now utter disruption of many sites, most recently The Atlantic, filled with right wing juvenile “jokesters” … other sites are filled with those do little beyond making personal attacks on other commenters, be they ever so humble and/or anonymous and inconsequential … it all creates an inhospitable manure-like stinkiness … “not worth it” … particularly when you discover you have gained a personal troll. As a result it feels darker and lonelier …
Brad Owen October 17, 2017 at 4:48 am WWII had to be fought, to destroy the fascist/NAZI movement.
(fudmier says not really Mr Owen, he fascist/NAZI movement was to convince Americans and Brits that British powers in Palestine, should permit a military base to be strategically located ie middle of the oil and gas fields; it was the post WWI bankers idea to hide behind the nation state their intentions take over of all oil and gas, by any means possible, use of force, treaties, war, regime change, any means possible).
FDR had intel in 1940 that fascists/NAZIs were created by Synarchists already 100 years in existence. He knew they had to be stopped. They were stopped on the battlefield, but NOT in the boardrooms where the movement was hatched. The Synarchists
.. took over … when FDR(1944). FDRs OSS guys loyal to him were fired the day after FDR died, so the coup began with the takeover of the Intel community. From there it spread covertly to MSM, MIC, universities, think tanks, political parties, etc…we have become the thing we opposed in WWII. Fudmier agrees communism was and still is a part of the D&C strategy that has worked for Synarchist so well for so long. then at 4:50 am Brad continues This is class warfare:the owning/ruling class making a grab for total power, and breaking the working class down to serf status. They are supremely organized. We are not.
yes, yes yes, fudmier agrees, but the underlying driving force is ownership of the money machine and the energy fuels. oil and gas.. The bankers drive to gain possession of all of the oil and gas in the world began in in Switzerland (1896) when the banking community accustomed to divide and conquer (D&C) methods decided to pit the Jewish people against the Mulsum people, and to pit the two different branches of Islam against each other, in the middle east as a means to gain full control over all oil and gas in the world (explains why everyone has been after Russia). Truman proclamation 46092..just after WWII, claimed USA owned all land under the sea and 20 miles inland everywhere in the world.. to pay subsidize the oil interest cost of locating that oil and gas everywhere in the world, the continental shelf Act (1954) was passed and used to fund the seismic mapping of all oil and gas in the world… BTW Britain also claimed they owned the lands beneath the seas. Governed humans everywhere in the world have been kept in the dark.. and things are coming to a head.. globally everyone is learning the real threat to their security is the governments that rule the people who live in the nations. BTW the nation state divides the world into nearly fenced parts.
The word “Nazi” refers to the German “nazionalistische” (nationalist) so is not an acronym and need not be in upper case. Why do you quote an entire comment-response stream instead of adding to it??
It much appears that you are trying to discredit and distract the commentary by adding a vague expansive conspiracy, with an occasional marginal fact but no supporting evidence. Please limit your comments to specific supportable assertions or brief generalizations, and provide links for those who want to consider detailed evidence.
Well Stated. The history of Russia has demonstrated some regional hegemony, mostly to gain sea ports or for defensive purposes. Under Stalin it was hoping to control enough territory around the USSR to avoid any future “surprise” attacks. To my knowledge it has never issued a “Monroe” doctrine, claiming an entire hemisphere. Russia has for most of its modern history worked to be accepted and assimilated into European society. However after 2014 and the US led coup in Ukraine, Russia has pivoted to China and Eurasia. Sanctions have forced it to become more diverse economically and build up defenses. Russia has no means of invading the USA. Even if Sarah Palin sees it from her home in Alaska.
One can go down a list of every major US military action, starting with WWII, and note many distortions, fabrications, and withholdings of fact. These falsified narratives, foisted on the public, leave the majority of the population in a state of profound ignorance and misunderstanding about what really took place and why. David Hamilton is absolutely correct – much of US history, especially modern military history, is a kind of mythical story.
Ron Paul discusses the media with Robert Parry:
http://russia-insider.com/en/russia-gate-and-failure-journalism-ron-paul-talks-robert-parry/ri21258 (24:12 min)
Thanks for the link. Good to see Mr. Parry and Ron Paul together.
Superb piece by Mr. Hamilton.
He absolutely nails some of the most vital issues of our current politico-economic reality.
This was quite an interesting essay. One point worth emphasizing:
The connection between the “approved” version of US history and fake news is an important one. People saturated with historical notions which aren’t quite accurate are probably going to be much more susceptible to “fake news”. This was certainly true for me, for until I started some independent reading of history, I was surely a sucker for the official line being put out by Power Elites.
On #5: I think the greatest propaganda/lie is that both the Cold War, and now, are about the US fighting to bring democracy to the world. No. They have fought for 70+ years to bring capitalism to the world so US businesses and moguls can profit.
The US would much, much, much rather prefer a compliant dictatorship which beheads journalist and subjugates women, if it allows some US business interests to profit or if by doing so it stabilizes a particular market—than a progressive, fair state that wants to keep its wealth-producing resources in it own country, own businesses or the state itself, to try to improve local lives.
“Spreading democracy” is imo the most egregious lie of the US. Far too many examples to count.
And ignorant or imbecilic Americans and the MSM eat that up.
We are in fact aware. Or some of us are aware. Some of us in Europe are aware to put it precisely. We in many nations in Europe do still enjoy a relatively unbiased press (Not Britain), and even when biased, the events reported are in most cases a summation of the events with a slight/moderate political bias. The problem starts when you have a investigative press, where is the hidden agenda ? Is there an agenda ? This is where it becomes very difficult. We mostly laugh at the blatantly imbecile reporting done in most American MSM, it is so thick that my 14 year old girls point out the obvious, The reason for this is that Europeans have a more balanced view of the world, we have to , we are mostly small nations and are forced to try to understand the world around us, thus also being more in favour of negotiations and compromise. We do not specifically indulge ourselves in any way to the 12 points in the article (More suited for a football club than a country).
But alas, the future is still bleak; the ability of three letter services to fabricate and distribute their version of reality is quickly on its way to make it almost impossible for ordinary people to find out what the truth is, what the facts are and what is clear fiction. We have an indication of the importance of these capabilities by looking at the funding they receive and the amount of resources invested.
1984 has to a large extent become true, Joseph Goebbels would nod approvingly, it is far more productive and controllable to create a fiction that suits your purpose, than to do damage repair and mitigation.
The global scramble to control the media, is proof of this. I am just lucky to live in a country, with such a small language impact, that it is utterly insignificant to control our press and opinions.
But the future IS bleak.
There is another rather sinister facet of what I think still comes under the umbrella of “fake news.” That is the long-standing CIA involvement and manipulation of multiple forms of media to both vilify “enemies” and to falsely promote America as a flawless beacon of hope and decency for humanity. Two excellent histories of the Cold War demonstrate the rather amazing lengths the CIA has gone in the past to create and promote false narratives. One can only imagine what is going on today. “The Cultural Cold War,” by Frances Stoner Saunders, and “Finks” by Joel Whitney, both demonstrate the morally corrupting influence of the CIA’s operations to manipulate and control the public mind. It isn’t simply the blatant lies like the – “Russia, Russia, Russia, Putin, Putin, “Pokemon,”- narrative that are destructive, but the corrosive non-stop CIA involvement in manipulation of the public mind from film, to print, to web, to conferences, to academia, and to its army of web based government trolls (see the Snowden documents).
Yes, the secret agencies are the greatest potential threat to democracy, and have been corrupted. They use secrecy to manipulate news, overthrow democracies in secret wars, spy on true patriots, and otherwise serve as a secret army of fascism and oligarchy within a former democracy. Congressional oversight is deliberately ineffective, as Congress is corrupted by universal campaign bribery.
«On major U.S. cable news channels, the great bulk of coverage involves domestic politics, mass murders and “natural” disasters. In Europe, the focus is far more on international relationships.»
I’m european (italian) and to me the above sentence sounds funny: the bulk of coverage covers domestic… also here. The little news we get from abroad, first of all from the USA, comes only when something really big happens. And guess what: our newsmen in foreign countries read the local MSM and make a summary of what they have read. And summaries are even worse than the original.
Don’t even dream that things are better in Europe.
Where have you been David P. Hamilton?! We need your voice and your sanity. Are there others like you out there? Finally! someone has stated what I’ve been seeing all along – the MSM is calling those who recognize the lies about Russia as purveyors of “fake news”. We really need a bunch of people who have even a small readership, to start calling out the MSM on this. The lies are coming so thick and fast it’s hard to keep up.
Thank you David Hamilton, please write some more – and thank you Robert Parry for publishing this.
ranny – Yes, it is an excellent article by David Hamilton. A very timely article, considering all the massive propaganda unleashed by the Ruling Elite and their minions to suppress the real news on the websites like the “Consortium News” , by trying to create confusion in people’s minds that it is all Fake News on the websites.
Thanks, Adam, I did read that piece on Truthdig. Violence will only be met with violence. The Truthdig article mentions how the Standing Rock protesters had to deal with attempts to break their nonviolent resolve.
Bayard Rustin was the lead organizer of the 1963 March on Washington for jobs and justice. He was a black gay pacifist from Philadelphia. Coretta Scott King wrote that the group organized it in 2 months.
The philosophy of peace must be there, to supply diplomats when the oligarchy comes to the table. But they never do that until they are afraid, because peace and rights say nothing in their language of bullying. They were brought to the table in the 1960s by riots and violence beyond the ability of their suppression forces, which are now much greater. We will see progress only after riots and infiltration of the police and national guard to deny enforcement to oligarchy.
The rhetoric of peace, like the tenets of Christianity, is truly an opiate of the masses. Both the carrot and the stick are essential in dealing with scoundrels.
WOW, this is one of most relevant stories I have read in a while.
Shockingly, ever since Donald Trump got elected president, the most passionate believers in fake news have been Democrats. Want to hear some outrageous half-baked, goofball conspiracy theories with no factual basis? Just watch Rachel Maddow connect the dots on MSNBC. She was once an excellent journalist. Not any more.
You’re a fraud dude.
He said nothing inconsistent with the article: did you understand his comment?
I think in principle, it is perhaps distributed more or less evenly. About half of the people who voted for Hillary Clinton believed Russians had hacked vote counting (something not even the most aggressive neocons and representatives of the military industrial complex claimed explicitly, though, of course, the frequent headlines about “hacking the election” certainly were meant to make people believe this, even if it was not claimed explicitly), and about half of the people who voted for Donald Trump believed in Pizzagate. The main difference seems to be that among Republicans, this is rather on the fringes (people like Alex Jones, but even he distanced himself from Pizzagate, mostly rather obscure blogs, forums and Youtube channels), while among Democrats, the extreme evidencefree conspiracy theories are completely in the mainstream – Rachel Maddow and others spread them almost daily on MSNBC, the Washington Post, CNN, the New York Times, mainstream Democratic politicians.
I believe the “Media” are a total farce and cover up the depredations of the Heinous Hypocrites…”
June 25, 2017
The Heinous Hypocrites and Their Fancy Titles
…
I could go on and on showing various sources of evidence that our “leaders” are reportedly consorting and supporting terrorist groups. I believe if we really had a functioning justice system the past and present leaders in power would be put on trial. Instead they cavort on the world stage. Either they know their “allies” are funding and supporting terrorism and turning a blind eye. Or they do not know which shows their incompetence and stupidity. Or are just following “orders” from certain countries in the Middle East that appear to control their foreign policies and to whom they appear to pledge allegiance….
[read more at link below]
http://graysinfo.blogspot.ca/2017/06/the-heinous-hypocrites-and-their-fancy.html
“Fake news” is the new incarnation of the “vast right wing conspiracy” (that no decent people pay any attention to) …
I didn’t realize how manipulative and dishonest that meme — “vast right wing conspiracy” — was until the last election cycle. Certainly the Clintons had an array of sworn enemies, some of whom (O’Reilly, Limbaugh, Judicial Watch etc) had unlimited media access to broadcast to their “unwitting” audience … who were “stupid” enough to watch Fox news.
It was during the election cycle that I realized that most Clinton supporters knew next-to-nothing about the server investigation, the FOIA Foundation documents, much less Benghazi … fingers-in-ears, la-la-la, not only not listening, not-listening not-paying-attention as a badge of honor … manufactured “fake news” from the “vast right wing conspiracy” … even when it involved rather serious ethical transgressions (signing a conflict-of-interest agreement and then ignoring its provisions, violating it).
Yes, they lied to us throughout the cold war and now they are trying to convince America to “ignore the man behind the curtain” for this “new cold war” (which arguably is the same-old cold war under different public relations)
Black Lives Matters has shown the limitations of both “consciousness raising” and “social media activism” … As far as I can tell, they (like Julian Assange) have been essentially blacklisted by the MSM — I wonder how many names are on Hillary Clinton’s enemies list.
I should be appalled that “The Resistance” et.al. lack vitality …and focus… oh, and leadership… still resisting that lesson.
I snagged a copy of Listen Liberal at a thrift store — published March 2016 — more and more obviously relevant, even prescient, and on-target now than then … the origin of all that “fake news” is a lot closer to home than they’d ever admit … they’d sooner give up that “vast right wing conspiracy” meme.
That is very astute, thank you for linking ‘fake news’ and the prior ‘vast right wing conspiracy’, spot on !
And of course the Urban Educated would never, ever pay attention to ‘fake news’. I think this phenomena
has its roots in academia. I’m taking an online class in Sociology (a terrible class, very poorly taught, with
an awful textbook). But it has been illuminating. For example, in a discussion of ‘prejudice and discrimination’
(like who on this earth does not both practice and experience some variants of both ?), the text describes
people who are ‘free of prejudice and discrimination’ (yes, surely they are) as “all-weather liberals”. Those
who are not so enlightened ? Ah yes, they are “active bigots”. Notice the implied but not spelled out contrast
to the ‘good liberals’ — the ‘bad conservatives’. This is how the “all weather liberals” learn to look down on the
rest of us poor benighted (or as my liberal sister says of me, “very, very misguided”) Others, regardless of our
actual political leanings. (I’m a Green who supported Bernie and then safely voted for Jill Stein in a Red state,
but I guess I’m still misguided). This feeds into the “basket syndrome” of HIllary’s famous quote. To me, the worst
part of the quote was actually not the ‘deplorables’ but the fact that she put EVERYONE into ‘baskets’. Google
the entire quote to see what she said, and think about what that means.
Not sure why the concept of a “right wing conspiracy” is “manipulative and dishonest” except as an excuse of the fake liberals. The Clinton pursuit of warmongering for bribes shows that they are part of the right wing conspiracy. They are liberal only on neutral issues like ecology, identity group rights, etc., but financed by oligarchy. It was the right wing that “lied to us throughout the cold war” and are now joined by fake liberals in “trying to convince America to ‘ignore the man behind the curtain’ for this ‘new cold war’.”
the word conspiracy is meant to invalidate anything and everything … even things worthy of concern and discussion … it’s like declaring someone a “liar,” and then ignoring them forever — on every subject, forever and ever amen. (even when backed up with FOIA documentation).
The power of “fake news” is that it opens the door for people to believe almost anything from whatever source they deem to be reliable or properly “intentioned” (biased). … pick any conspiracy theory … throw enough straw and bullshit conjecture into the air and eventually visibility is reduced to zero….
It’s like conversations with 09/11 truthers that progress until some point where the truther reveals that they don’t believe any planes were hijacked or that anyone died on 09/11 … not to mention that the pentagon was hit by a rocket (not a plane) and it was a tiny insider (fit in a thimble) conspiracy centered around Building 7 … but with any accounting for whose rocket, fired from what launcher, where by whom to explain the Pentagon … as with questions surrounding building 7 being wired for “demoltion” when, with what, by whom in anticipation of what … to further what cause. Yes, I’ve run into truthers who claim to believe the collisions with the twin towers were all done with holograms … mass delusion, false flag, etc. It’s exhausting to even discuss the power of such imagined conspirators … all an inside job by a handful of people (and all the first responders and medical forensive personnel brainwashed along with the families of the (cough – alleged) dead). The mind reels imaging the world these people inhabit … overseen by some high tech, flawlessly efficient, impossibly powerful overlords. I always said I doubted the Bush Administration could successfully organize a yard sale, they’d be so busy fighting amongst themselves and having turf wars over the venue, pricing policies, and who among them got first dibs on what was being offered for sale.
What impressed me recently is how often tptb repeat failed “strategies” — death squads in Vietnam, sent to Central American, introduced into Iraq — with the same bad outcomes and sequelae … “Ideas lying around” are often bad ideas that have already largely failed or performed poorly — see sectored Yugoslavia to sectored Iraq to attempts to sector Syria (even if the first step is called “Kurdish independence”).
Consortium News, Counterpunch and Chomsky (and some others) are the only places with active historical memory and healthy skepticism …
The label “Fake News” is meant to keep all-good-people traveling the straight and narrow MSM narrative via the never before so flagrantly partisan MSM. Trump gives them a lot to work with … but what so frightening is what never makes the front page … squeezed out by sexual harassment in Hollywood or Trump’s outrageous (stupid) lies and fabrications about Obama and military families. We celebrate “our” victory of ISIS in Raqqa … well, the kurds did the heavy lifting, without mention that the Kurds also got air support from Russia, or that Raqqa is now in smithereens, the air pungent with the smell of decaying bodies under the rubble … much as we left Mosul.
independent: http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/syria-isis-russia-kurdish-ypg-happening-in-secret-a7857471.html
the MSM won’t admit American / Russian cooperation in “liberating” Raqqa… spoils the narrative.
Good points. Excessive conspiracy theories tend to discredit other alternatives to state/MSM propaganda, and are used to discredit reasonable concerns about real manipulation. It can be hard to tell what is excessive, but as you state, theories without evidence are only worthwhile in sketching possibilities until evidence emerges. Many believers resort to interest-group echo-chamber confirmations fed by mere suggestions or possibilities rather than evidence, which makes them easily manipulated themselves.
And a popular movement has to be nonviolent. One person who actually has King’s powerful voice and rhetorical skills is Glen Ford of Black Agenda Report.
Peaceful is what it’s all about Jessica.
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/nonviolent-resistance-will-destroy-corporate-state/
You got that right Jessica, you see what happened to Robespierre. This planet needs a Mahatma Gandhi, or a Martin Luther King, and a whole lot of people to get behind this person, if a leader like one of these great peacemakers were to ever appear. It would be even more progressively exciting if this peaceful leader were a woman.
I think it was Realist who made mention of how all of us little people, like clerks, cleaning people, tradesmen, and etc., types would just go on strike. Imagine no plane flights, no cashiers anywhere, and picture empty highways, if even for but one day this would rock the establishment down to it’s core. I’m not a visionary enough to know how to organize this, but there are those who do have these talents, and I wish they would soon arrive on the scene to start a real revolution unlike the phony revolts our politicians run on. Joe
Occupy was going viral but the state forces under O crushed it while the demo’s smothered it with co-option
Succesful revolutions occur when a critical mass of the population delines to a certain economic level and the state forces stand down.
Like celebrate when the day comes you see Occupy meets the Tea Party. This divide we all sense in our society isn’t as much of an unusual occurrence as much as I believe it is engineered by the Deep State, under the orders of the Shadow Government. (See Kevin Shipp YouTube)
You know this BannanaBoat, that our marvelous MSM knows how to set the narrative, and by doing so the corporate owned MSM also gets to diagnose the public’s overall sentiments, giving the establishment the upper hand to make us all believe what they want us to believe. I say this because I thought that back in 2010 the Tea Party received an incredible amount of praise, like what about those Minute Men costumes? Then the optics of Ocuppy Wall St. was some guy beating a drum, and protesters blocking New York highway exit ramps preventing people from going to work. Then the media makes sure to comment on how the Tea Party cleans up after themselves….like hey Tea Party please, pretty please come to our town. And one other thing, if the Left ever does rise again then someone please tell Madonna and George Clooney not to come. Joe
Joe- Don’t invite Clooney…lol. Yeah, I too believe the Tea Party was largely manufactured. I did a little research on that a while back and found ties to the corporate state including both parties. Either way, these nationalists are tools of the ruling elite.
Exactly; when the educated are not morally outraged enough to act, they leave the deposing of oligarchy to the miserable poor in the next recession, which leads to a long chain of violence. There is no risk to oligarchy in the speeches of a great peacemaker, so it means nothing to them. They will praise the fake peacemakers, and arrest those who get uppity. The oligarchy had to fear the riots of the 1960s before they pretended to see the reasoning of MLK, who would be unheard of without the riots.
BB says ‘Succesful (sic) revolutions occur when a critical mass of the population delines (sic) to a certain economic level and the state forces stand down’ …or a critical mass of the petty-bourgeoisie join force with the proletariat and the state forces stand down.
You might find a great leader but first you have to defeat the MSM. Without an honest independent press anyone attempting change will be taken down the MSM (if not dead in a mysterious accident/suicide).
No truer words can be said about our wonderful MSM. You got it right Robyn. Joe
It does get depressing when you try to talk to people about our disastrous foreign adventures, the new McCarthyism and Russia, the destruction of the main street economy and the working class, etc. They spout the MSM pablum back at you and look at you like you are from another planet. They’ve been watching and reading the MSM for years, and that’s all they know.
Thomas Phillips,
Yes. Very depressing indeed. When I try to talk to my wife about these issues, she tells me that I am getting news from all these fake websites and those loonies who write these comments. And she went to college too – English major and taught English in South East Asia during 1960’s. Rachel Maddow, Lawerence O’Donnell, Wolf Blitzer, Judy Woodruff, and the likes are her source of true information. And for her, Hillary is the perfect leader/President U.S. and the World can have. She is still mourning her Election loss.
Her brainwashing started too long ago starting in 1950’s. It is too late now for her to learn. All her high school friends and their husbands are about the same.
Dave P-
It is a shame that your wife’s college experience did not include a course in logic. Unfortunately, there are many more like her than there are like us. Common sense is no longer common, and rational arguments are passe. The propagandists have won.
Skip Scott –
Yes, propagandists have won as you wrote. What else one can expect! 1950’s was a prosperous era of Eisenhower years. Dances – cha, cha, cha; a summer cottage and a Chris Craft boat, and the boys at the lake. At school they taught you that the Russians are coming, the Russians are monsters. There was not a word of political discussion ever on the dinner table. Even in 1970, if you happen to utter the word Russian – and Cuba or Castro was too then on the list – at the dinner table, they were upset – and almost faint. Teaching logic was not part of the curriculum unless you are lucky to learn it at home.
For me, it was interesting to observe that how the whole society had been brainwashed – completely. But interestingly, I found the people otherwise very open and good when I arrived here during mid 1960’s. And simple people compared to Europe, very easy to mix with right away. And I also knew that Russians are good people like any other people in the West. People are people every where.
Now they have started another round of brainwashing here, much worse than the first one even. At least there was lot of opposition in academia and from “the Left” at the time of that McCarthy Era.
Joe, we need someone with real oratorical skill like King. Obama’s rhetoric was not for blacks but for Wall Street. Antifa, Black Lives Matter, the reaction to Trump and the argument over standing for the national anthem are still part of identity politics, which siphons off meaningful discourse. We’re flailing around if we don’t address how oligarchy dominates and our government lets corporations call the shots. Our society is actually in deep trouble with joblessness, homelessness at all-time highs while unfairness prevails in the economy. Police brutality is part of the need to keep people in line and it’s Jim Crow for blacks. The US military consumes 54% of the discretionary budget while a paltry 6% goes to education. The Russia hysteria is designed to keep people from seeing that the problems we should deal with are here, not in Russia.
Jessica it is timely you bringing up Martin Luther Kings ‘Beyond Vietnam’ speech. Why, just yesterday while I was thinking of speeches worth telling my 13 soon to be 14 grandchildren what speeches were the best in my lifetime, Kings ‘Beyond Vietnam’ speech came first, and JFK’s ‘American University’ speech came in a close second, by my evaluation. If you update Kennedy’s American University Speech by replacing the words USSR/Soviet Union to Russian Federation then Kennedy’s speech is still relevant today, and maybe even more so it is relevant as we all sit upon the eve of destruction. Joe
The cold war was declared by Churchill,not by Stalin.
Henk if we were closer I’d declare you the winner, and give you a big fat cigar….Churchill gave the Soviet Union the name ‘Iron Curtain’ in 1946 from Harry Truman’s front porch in Missouri. Joe
“Iron Curtain” is a phrase that was first coined by Josef Goebbels in 1944.
Yes but Churchill did a better job of promoting it, and I didn’t say he invented the saying. Thank you though your comment should be noted as an important historical fact, mark. Joe
Henk, correct you are:
For Russians, Stalin is the ‘most outstanding’ figure in world history, followed by Putin
h**ps://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/06/26/for-russians-stalin-is-the-most-outstanding-figure-in-world-history-putin-is-next/?utm_term=.c136ffad4447
Sadly the Washington Post just can’t report the news that Russians adore Stalin, but twist it so that Stalin comes off as some evil guy.
You know that is not true, and you regurgitate WaPo propaganda.
Continued attempts to control “the masses” as the power structure sees their grip slipping, the vote in Austria yesterday just the latest indication. There’s a good interview with Chris Hedges by World Socialist Workers (heavens!) about failure of the elites since they care only for the upper tier who support them monetarily, and workers have been shafted and they know it. Hedges calls mainstream journalists “courtiers for the elites”. He worked for NYT for 10 years and went independent during the madness of the Iraq war and talks about it in the interview.
Neoconservativism and neoliberalism are all about supporting the moneyed elites who support them, and more and more people, workers of the world, are seeing through their pretense. Hence the power holders are compelled to double down on their outrageous fabrications. Trump is one of the elites, and his latest ridiculous stand on Iran isn’t playing well with other nations.
Hedges’ closing point is that the elites will make more and more attempts to silence dissent, including this “algorithm” news nonsense that has sprung from the anti-Russia new McCarthyism. I do agree with Hedges that we are going to have to organize for justice, as in the days of Martin Luther King, focusing on no more war and getting corporations to be accountable to people, not just stockholders and Wall Street, and on taking steps to preserve the planet, not plunder it.
I have been writing comments of how we the people need a leader, little did I ponder the idea of this leader being a sports jock. I think that we should all rally behind Colin Kaepernick. Other than that Jessica I agree that something big and stupendous is going to have to happen, to first unite us citizens, and secondly to get ourselves out onto the streets to march against this country’s elitist policies. Joe
Did you see this bro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2l-h3LdPig&t=623s?
Jimmy Dore – Green Beret Convinced Kaepernick To Kneel During Anthem
Adam when my wife speaks to people about the ‘National Anthem take a knee’, she always brings up Nate Boyer the Green Beret who had encouraged Kaepernick to make a statement about the slanted justice system. What is thoroughly disappointing is how easy it was for Trump to turn the narrative around from one of equal justice for all, and especially minorities, to a theme supposedly about our National Pride. I feel that this little trick of Trump’s was a gift to the ‘bad apple cop’, and nothing more. Just for the record, if you hadn’t noticed, Trump is really big with the police, and military. I take this to be Trump’s insurance policy against anyone willing enough to overthrow him.
PS I prefer Ray Charles singing ‘America the Beautiful’….listen to the words they are so much better than the Star Spangled Banner lyrics. Joe
Joe- It has always been an insurance policy of the ruling elite to call on nationalists when faced with social unrest. Travis Smiley had a good discussion w/ Larry King this week regarding lessons learned from peaceful movements (spec MLK) and the use of ‘America the Beautiful’ instead of the anthem (’80s Bullets). Hedges too has focused recently on peaceful populous movements rather than the antifa approach. I must agree.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gflvn3kcP5U
Thank you for this. It reminds me of the recent podcast interview of Nancy Pelosi on CNN by David Axelrod.
Pelosi is a grand example of why the Democrats will keep losing elections. She is the classic neo-liberal who gave up on logic and truth some years ago; perhaps she never had those skills. Her attitude throughout the interview was the classic “american exceptionalism;” she clearly stated that “god is on our side.” She spoke of her religion as they all do to pander to her electorate. She cited the bible and the needs of hope people find in it. Could that be because she can’t give them any hope or does not want to.
Can you imagine the year 2017 and we have to put up with the “god is on our side” nonsense. Of course she is said to be a “fantastic fund raiser” for the party. Imagine what collecting all the money does to what is owed to the detonators — the wealthy. The corruption, I mean.
We need some authentic people to appear in both parties. They are both falling apart and we will have riots starting soon if we do not get the wealth disparity straightened out, and the climate change denial, and the horrendous problems with the K-12 school systems, the money in elections (the corruption) and the gun problem, and the lies coming out of the white house and the mouths of every Republican (and others). Add yours to the list. Chomsky and Sam Harris should get Nobel Prizes for their logic and data and value systems. Where on Earth are the Democrats going to get some meaningful candidates? How about a new party?
When I listen to politicians like Nancy Pelosi, it furthers allows me to see the divide between our government and it’s people.
Nobel Prize for that Sam Harris??? He has advocated preemptive nuclear strikes against Muslim countries, simply because they are Muslim.
Sam Harris loses his sanity when talking about Muslims. His ethnic hatred of Arabs – the Jewish Middle Eastern cousins – has no limits. But of course he pretends hilariously to be scientifically objective towards the ongoing Middle Eastern tragedy, courtesy US neocons/ziocons. It is rather dangerous that his ilk is ignorant en masse about the Jewish role in the Bolshevik revolution.
They should better start teaching the “Two Hundred Years Together” by Solzhenitsyn at Jewish schools, otherwise the world is going to experience, again, the Jewish “idealism” on the intolerable scale, as Russia has learnt already.
Sam Harris still believes that his tribe is the most moral and superior and bestest in all respects. This logic is deeply ethnic and escapes reason. He becomes a patented idiot when talking about Jews and Muslims.
No he did not . Don’t believe everything you read.
Sam Harris explains here:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=z7T7barZEeU
And defends himself here:
https://www.samharris.org/blog/item/response-to-controversy
He’s one of the good guys !
the poisoning of the American mind against Sam Harris likely makes him a lost-cause in the short run … people rebell against the idea that they could be wrong.
Harris has said things — been inarticulate at times, but more often been deliberately misinterpreted — for which “he must never be forgiven” .. I agree that much of this “outrage” is “fake news” that has been stoked, imho, by people who clearly wanted to silence him … his presumed islamophobia, imho, is media (“fake news”) created … \
I do not stand in wonder at his brilliance … but he’s not the islamophobic boogyman nd punching bag some (I’m looking at you Greenwald) some want him to be…
He’s continues to be “crucified” for thing he said in 2004, without acknowlegement of the vast waters under the bridge and his later clarifications …. cheap trick… “whipping boy” … see also the vilification of maajid nawaz (for sharing the stage) …
The statement by Pelosi on America and god is exactly this:“America is a great county and God is always with us.”
You can hear it on the Pelosi video at time 33:40.
At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixaWNoEnf6o
You can decide for yourself if “America is a great country” but you can’t decide for yourself if “God is always with us.” I would guess that David Hamilton, the author of this article would disagree that America is a great country. I think perhaps we could say it has the potential to become a great country. Once we get to the place where the weaknesses of this country I mention above have been corrected, we might be able to say we have a great country. But that is a far off projection. If the people took charge we could do it but when the powerful are in control it is nearly impossible. Famous persons from Plato to modern philosophers have outlined the problems of society and the weaknesses of humans but one can find countries in the world which have very happy people because they have good health care which is of the medicare for all type and they help each other day to day and do everything to advance their children. Why not here. Check out some of the articles about the scandanavian countries. They are very big on social support; not the Ayn Rand darwinian competition mentality. See one example here:
http://time.com/4706590/scandinavia-world-happiness-report-nordics/
I’m sympathetic to the idea of some countries being better models for society, but to clarify, the evolutionary perspective (i.e. Darwinism) recognizes the role both individual (competitive) and collective (cooperative) existential strategies play in evolutionary dynamics (especially human), with the ‘choice’ of strategy being influenced by the context of its expression. Darwin himself was aware of all this. So equating evolutionary accounts, or Darwinism, with competition or pursuit of self-interest is, at best, incomplete, and, at worst, misleading, as evolutionists have a lot to say about cooperation!
The DNC is now completely controlled by oligarchy and will not reform. They will continue to put up fake liberals sold in advance to oligarchy. New parties that truly represent their supporters are the answer, forming coalitions to gain majorities. South Korea has a real democracy; we have a fake run by oligarchy. The cause is corruption of mass media and elections by economic power, which never surrenders peacefully.
Amen! Snicker-snort… Good post, Frank.
You lost me at “Sam Harris”. Harris is a neocon, racist, American exceptionalist on steroids.
I think the solution is just to have ONE PARTY… A one party state would solve so many problems. There just isn’t room for multiple points of view in this global world anymore. There are just too many problems that need to be solved quickly and the ONE PARTY STATE is the best model to do that with. Not only would the country be united again but all the media would be on the exact same page. And any people that disagree, as there would always be some that think differently and will cause trouble, they would be marginalized in society and at worst incarcerated. The society would kind of be self policing if it were a requirement for any high office or position that you need to be a PARTY MEMBER. Think about it… this really could work and has worked in the past.
Obviously it does not implement democracy, and those you approve will be outside. One-party rule by the US duopoly is the problem, not the solution.
Anon So what are you going to do about Trump and his supporters? Surely you don’t believe we should give them any kind of political or media platform? Once we have identified the problem, why hem & haw? Restriction is the only plausible option, given the dire emergency the planet is under, there just isn’t time for political re-education at this point.
You are a troll: your comment is foolish; you try to change the subject to obscure the problem; and your use of bold and caps shows your intent to propagandize.
Excellent idea! Then we could stop worrying about all this crazy money spent on elections and stop with the useless, time-wasting gridlock of Dem-Republican bickering and jockeying for power. Would simplify things greatly.
The really funny things is to hear all the NATO nations, and other US allies, frantically crying that they need protection against “Russian aggression” or “Chinese aggression” or “Iranian aggression”.
Those very nations are full of foreign soldiers and weapons, which go and do very much whatever they like, with absolute impunity. But the soldiers are not Russian or Chinese or Iranian.
They are American. Those nations don’t need to worry about aggression or being invaded: it has already happened, it’s all over, and they are occupied.
Tom Welsh, Yes. Very true. The Media in those countries is controlled as well just like MSM in U.S..- Occupation forces are presented as defenders of freedom or something like that.
The US is occupied by terrorist Pentagonians.
Yanks, dontcha just love your hypereality ?
No, Martin, this Yank for one, does not.
Here is an interesting look at how Washington uses tax-payer funded propaganda and how much is spent to get the world to see democracy through the eyes of the United States:
https://viableopposition.blogspot.ca/2017/10/the-cost-of-promoting-american-agenda.html
While Washington points the finger at Russia for its propagandizing during the 2016 election, it is quite clear that Washington is involved in propagandizing the world with its own version of democracy and freedom.
When a war criminal (“we came, we saw, he died”) is considered for a professorship at Columbia University, when the US Congress gives 29 standing ovations to an obnoxious racist representing apartheid state, and when the definition of “bribery” is under revision to save this pro-Israel legislator: http://nypost.com/2017/09/30/menendez-has-set-a-new-low-for-blatant-corruption-in-the-us/ https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.591779, then one can say with confidence that the US is morally a colossus with feet of clay.
we came, we saw, he died. and then a gleeful cackle.
I’m realizing I should probably find a copy of Hitchen’s “No One Left To Lie To” … I largely bought into the “vast right wing conspiracy” idea … and suspect I was too eager to dismiss most of the charges levied against the Clintons’ personal conduct … although their treatment (and evidence of flagrant “use”) of “loyal friends” during the Lewinsky scandal caused me serious reservations … Hitchens absolutely loathed them … and his taste in targets for loathing was pretty spot-on …
I absolutely wanted to believe that everything was entirely fabricated … more and more I’m convinced that I was deceived (too old to blame my naivety … I didn’t believe Hillary then when she said she believed Bill Clinton’s “promise” that nothing happened… (I had pitied her in 1992 on 60 minutes) … to believe she was that naïvee would have been an insult; I accepted she had no alternative acceptable public face to parade on morning TeeVee — the same day as she rolled out that “vast right wing conspiracy” … which like two-headed babies and creatures from outer space seemed to be some tabloid freak show of implausibility. …
They seem to want you to sign up — MSNBC seriously wants you to enroll — send them your email for updates … loyalty oaths lurk. If Clinton (either of them) wants some future in American politics, they need to go away … but they can’t because they know they are past their sell-by date and the younger generation(s) and the older generations do not see them as “winners”
The myth is that war is for noble ideas – freedom, democracy, right economic system, freeing someone elses slaves. The truth is that war is about conquering territory, conquering resources, and conquering people. More cattle on your ranch means more power to you. No country ever goes to war to do something nice for someone else.
WWII had to be fought, to destroy the fascist/NAZI movement. FDR had intel in 1940 that fascists/NAZIs were created by Synarchists already 100 years in existence. He knew they had to be stopped. They were stopped on the battlefield, but NOT in the boardrooms where the movement was hatched. The Synarchists(ruling class boardroom NAZIs) WERE NOT STOPPED. They are still with us. They took over our country when FDR died, in late forties. FDRs OSS guys loyal to him were fired the day after FDR died, so the coup began with the takeover of the Intel community. From there it spread covertly to MSM, MIC, universities, think tanks, political parties, etc…we have become the thing we opposed in WWII. This is the truth. We were all worried about communists. It was a deflection of attention from the REAL threat: Synarchists.
This is class warfare:the owning/ruling class making a grab for total power, and breaking the working class down to serf status. They are supremely organized. We are not.
Brad, why not just call them oligarchy, which is a big enough step for most people. I respect your wish to have an over-arching theory, but I think that it is interfering with others’ comments. If readers want a specific theory of oligarchy stretching across oceans and centuries, which sounds too much like Hollywood to most, they can sample your EIR website and make up their minds. When you bring up all of your theories for every issue of oligarchy, it sounds as though you are trying to distract readers from more moderate and local statements about oligarchy (which are not inconsistent with yours), or trying to discredit your comment and others by taking the idea of oligarchy to theatrical extremes (what Abe calls an “inverted” trolling).
I think you need a more moderate and brief introduction of your idea to avoid damaging others’ statements about oligarchy. Your could try something like “Some people think that the US oligarchy is part of an international oligarchy originating in England or even Venice centuries ago (link to EIR website).” If readers don’t want to go that far back into history, you would not have hurt the other comment. I respect your intelligence and good intent, and hope that this suggestion does not offend.
Is this not a forum that is open to everyone, where everyone can express his opinion, views, etc. as long as those is not abusive, insulting, denigrating, etc.? Brad has not overstepped the conditions of good netiquette, so he is perfectly within his right to the opinion he expressed.
If you are not a moderator of this forum, who are you to tell Brad what he can/cannot express, and how he should express it? Quoting Ape’s favourite term is completely irrelevant, whilst your concern for Brad’s credibility does not look very sincere, to put it mildly.
To conclude: if you are not a moderator (I stand to be corrected) I suggest you mind the style of your own comments, not read the comments you don’t like, certainly refrain from playing the schoolmaster lest you discredit yourself, and let Brad & others get on with their comments as they see fit. Think about it ;-)
The good netiquette “concern” and schoolmaster “suggestion” of “Paranam Kid” do not look very credible, to put it mildly.
The fact that Brad thrice mentioned the all-time “favorite term” of “Paranam Kid” cannot be completely irrelevant.
For more of the signature “expression” of “Paranam Kid” and comrades, see the CN comments here
https://consortiumnews.com/2017/09/23/israels-stall-forever-peace-plan/
The term “synarchy” has been applied to describe “deep state” or “shadow” forms of government where political power effectively rests with a secret elite, in contrast to “oligarchy” where the elite is or could be known by the public.
EIR presents synarchy as a historical phenomenon, purportedly starting with Alexandre Saint-Yves d’Alveydre and the Martinist Order, followed by a series of significant individuals, organizations, movements and regimes. According to this view, an international coalition of financial institutions, raw materials cartels, and intelligence operatives installed fascist regimes throughout Europe during the Great Depression to maintain order and prevent the repudiation of international debts. Within this framework, the governments of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany may be viewed as synarchist regimes.
The irrelevant remarks of “Paranam Kid” and “anon” are a reprise of their Punch and Judy antics from the CN comments here https://consortiumnews.com/2017/09/30/how-syrias-victory-reshapes-mideast/
Brad Owen FDR knew U.S/ deep state help to start WW2 from the old implications of WW1. FDR is enabler to keep it happening. FDR knew the ahead days before Japan was going to hit Pearl harbor, need Japan to become the culprit to start the war with Germany to get close to Russia. Woodrow Wilson helped Trotsky with U.S Passport to go to Russia his Bolsheviks revolution wish come true in Russia. Some say Trotsky was U.S agent/German agent/Russian agent.. Bolsheviks were avowed Marxists and Jewish, almost like Zionists. Lenin and Stalin both disagreed how to have Communist dictatorship to spread. Germany already became socialist nation by then. Hitler and Stalin both friends one time before betray each other in the same war. U.S intervened and to force Russia to sign the treaty to give up the lands to Germany after WW1. Russia was forced to give up the lands to Germany in exchange for peace during WW1 because Lenin wanted to win over Germany, but lost it. Germany never occupied the lands until WW2. U.S never accuse Germany for it, but accused Russia to aid Germany during the first part of WW2, then the end part Russia decided to aid U.S because did not want to lose more lands, but helped to end Nazis by betray them for U.S govt.