I have to give it to the oligarchs and the agenda setters they employ; the more I think of it, the more I am astounded. If people don’t understand the mind bending power of the media and those who control it, I refer you to this whole kerfuffle of “fake news” as the prime evidence. When one assesses mainstream media and the way they turned their weakness into a competitive advantage in order to stifle the free market of ideas, what comes into sharp focus is the nefarious brilliance that resides in the mind of those who are the owners of information.
The age of social media and the internet was supposed to “democratize” news and empower the citizenry to be a part of the broader narrative. Instead, the elites did it once again as they manipulated society and cowed people right back into compliance. Six major corporations collectively distribute more than 85% of the news and media that we consume. This effectively means that six people own 85% of the information that ends up serving as the basis from which we form our opinions of the world. The marketplace of information–and by extension the sharing of ideas–is effectively monopolized by six people who can dictate to the workers they employ on their payroll what is newsworthy and what is to overlook.
It is no coincidence that the primary objective of all militaries during war is to first take out the lines of communication of enemy forces then to go after news and media outlets. The common denominator in both instances is the aim to eliminate the means of communications among the opposing force’s chain of command and to keep the adversarial nation in the dark as a form of psychological warfare against the civilian population. Think back to the Iraq war and how thousands of tomahawk missiles were propelled in the direction of the Ministry of Information, at TV stations and at the hotels where journalists were broadcasting stories. The objective was to neutralize the ability of the “enemy” to convey a story that diverged from the narrative our bankrupt media was passing on as news through embedded “journalists”–anything beyond propaganda was being dealt with as a threat to the war effort.
My friends, that same war has been declared against us, the people, as the powerful have used hostile actions with military precision in order to eliminate voices that don’t fit into the narrative of “us versus them” and the endless sensationalism that is being peddled as news. Where corporate jackals could not use Tomahawk missiles, they used instead a weapon even more powerful. The best way to euthanize truth and to abort justice is to drown both with a thousand conspiracy theories. Thus a diabolical plan was launched, the media focused on one sensational story after another only to then revisit the story that they hyped up and debunk it with their “truth-o-meter” bullshit. Most of the time, the sources of the very “lies” the media was debunking was the mainstream media themselves. What a brilliant idea, they MSM gets to cash in and cash out as they make money telling lies only to make yet more money by debunking the same lies they were peddling.
But that was only step one of the agenda, for the next step was even more cunning and nefarious. Once enough outrageous stories were planted and enough lies disseminated, their partners in crime in Congress and politicians in DC stepped in to speak against the evils of “fake stories”. These fake phonies like Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, Barack Obama, Mike Pence and the rest of the prevaricating cabal in black suites, took to the mic to be shocked! shocked! that lies were being sold as news. “Fake News” became an existential threat that had to be dealt with, yet another drum beat of war was being sounded—this time the next victim of imperial invasion was the very notion of free speech.
We will never know what the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)–the last act that Obama signed before slithering out of the White House–contains and the efforts written therein among the tens of thousands of pages that effectively treats ideas as a weapon of mass destruction. The bill authorized the Federal government and the Department of Defense to “counter propaganda and disinformation directed at the United States.” This is how freedom dies in the dark as people drunk off power use euphemisms and big words to hide their devious intentions. You would think the Washington Post would have jumped all over this, dedicated energy to educate the public and spoke truth to power. Instead they ignored the story and effectively keep acting the mouthpiece of the government they are supposed to keep in check as they shoot down any story that diverges from the narratives proffered by authority or stories that don’t fit in the box of sensationalism and outrage. How ironic then, the Washington Post’s new tag line is “democracy dies in the dark” even as they are the accomplices who killed it—it’s like these gnomes get glee from mocking us.
Perhaps though we deserve this as as society. After all, if you pour honey on your body and then enter into a bear’s cave, would you be surprised if you get clawed. Yesterday, I posted a quasi-satire article about Barack Obama (link) that used mock to bring light to Obama’s empty record. One lady on Facebook responded “this is Fake News, flag this as fake news everybody”. This same lady who pretends to be a social justice warrior by night is so feeble that she labels any idea that is not in compliance with her ideology as hate stories and fake news that has to be silenced. This is the height of absurdity, how are people fighting for freedom of speech by squelching the freedom of other people to speak. We are turning into a joke as a society as we let a vocal minority bully us into submission.
Yesterday, I read a story about an advocacy group in France that aired a commercial encouraging parents who find out that their child has autism to consider keeping the baby. The aim of the commercial (link) was to let parents know that children with autism are every bit the blessing as those who society deems to be “normal” and by extension aspired to reduce the number of abortions that targets fetuses which are developmentally stunted. The commercial was a smashing hit in France, it broke the record for the number of times a video was watched within 24 hours. Everyone from Joe public to media stars joined in to endorse the commercial.
Ah but big brotherism stepped into the foray and decided to shutter the commercial. The justification that was used was that the commercial was political and only presented one side of the debate. But when lawsuit was filed, the discovery phase uncovered this most astounding fact—the commercial was banned because two people expressed their hurt feelings. Millions of people who loved this commercial thus were told to beg off as the snowflake demeanor of two people became more important to protect than the voices and preferences of millions. This is the tyranny of the minority in ways that is astounding; we are letting a few veto the will and the speech of the masses. Divide and conquer is no joke; by catering to the hurt feelings of a few, the voice of the public is stifled. The minute you object to this form of censorship, you are labeled a racist, or a sexist, or a (insert label and then add an ist to it).
To be honest, it’s getting tiresome listening to people equating someone who thinks differently with bigotry and dismissing someone based on their beliefs. Unless someone is outright advocating violence, let them talk and then you let your ideas win the day. Why are people in a rush to shut people down? This is lunacy and infantile behavior of the highest order. Trying to stifle people’s voice is an indication of the vindictive nature of those who think they can police the thoughts of others. If I was invited to a KKK convention, I would go. Know why? Because my ideas of oneness and unity are more powerful than their non-idea of hatred and divisiveness. Better ideas win the day so why are people in a rush to let brute force and rhetorical violence determine winners and losers in the marketplace of ideas. Seriously, are we in this to change hearts or are we in this to prove points. Too many people who go around saying justice are really saying “just us”.
All these conflicts are done for a purpose. By infusing our minds with the notion of “fake news”, we are being trained to reject any narrative that does not follow the dictates of the mainstream media. This is how the fractional few are able to enslave the masses; they get us to dismiss truth tellers as “conspiracy theorists” and by extension they make us reject anyone who does not think like us as enemies that has to be dealt with. The 99% are thus reduced into islands of grievance and convinced to fight one another instead of uniting to take on those who run roughshod over all. It’s ironic, we are in the age where everyone thinks they are strong enough to fight against injustice even as they are fragile to the point of getting hurt over something innocuous as a thought. This is what happens when we fight armed with half-knowledge as all of us stay getting owned by those who own the full information. #KillingFreeSpeech
“To suppress free speech is a double wrong. It violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker.” ~ Frederick Douglass
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Those who are offended by free speech will get offended by this video below and never watch it; those who love free thought will watch this and be moved by it.
Teodrose Fikremariam
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