I write a lot about how, in a political environment that is saturated in disinformation and propaganda, it's important to ignore people's words and watch their actions instead to get a clear picture of what's really happening. You could not ask for a better illustration of this than the recent behavior of the mass media with regard to Syria.
The always excellent Moon of Alabama put out a piece yesterday detailing the immense deluge of attack editorials disguised as information that have been churned out recently about anyone who questions the establishment Syria narrative, including a single day in which no less than seven smear pieces were issued by prominent publications. Seven. In one day.
If you look at the words within these smear pieces, you will gather that there has been a sudden disturbing emergence of evil bloggers, tweeters and activists who are hell bent on deceiving you into falling in love with Bashar al-Assad and pledging allegiance to the Russian flag. If you look at what these outlets are actually doing, however, you see a very different picture indeed: an aggressive, spurious campaign to inoculate the English-speaking world against the influence of anyone who disagrees with yet another war against yet another Middle Eastern country.
And people are noticing. It's getting too blatantly obvious, like a stranger coming up to you and talking about climate change while openly masturbating; what he is doing would eclipse interest in whatever he is saying. The frenetic publication of hit pieces against anyone who fails to fall in line with the establishment Syria narrative is fast becoming the real story here.
Many of these recent hit pieces are coming out of the UK, which is interesting given the way a BBC reporter recently admonished her interviewee for questioning the official story about the alleged Douma chemical attacks because his words could hurt the "information war" effort against Russia. If this view is widespread among British journalists (and recent headlines by the Times, the Independent and the Telegraph suggest that it may be), this means we're looking at an environment wherein reporters aren't even pretending it's their job to be truthful, tell all sides of a story and hold power to account, but rather to manufacture support for escalations against Russia and undermine anyone who resists.
Today yet another mainstream smear piece has been published about Vanessa Beeley, an investigative journalist who has done extensive work on the ground in Syria, which the UK's Huffington Post branch hilariously titled "How An Obscure British Blogger Became Russia's Key Witness Against The White Helmets". Its author, senior Huffpo editor Chris York, doesn't explain how we're meant to see an investigative journalist practicing the definition of investigative journalism on the ground in a war-torn nation as "an obscure blogger", but he has said that he has two more such articles on the way.
Who do these people think they're kidding? Are we truly meant to believe that people expressing skepticism about the authenticity of a "civil defense group" in a distant Middle Eastern country is suddenly the most dangerous thing in the world? Are we really meant to think it's normal for all these mass media corporations to suddenly start ferociously attacking anyone who expresses skepticism about the military agendas of western forces that have an extensive and well-documented history of using lies, propaganda and false flags to manufacture support for military agendas? Are we really meant to believe that Syria, a nation for which the US and UK have been plotting regime change for many years, is just now in sore need of humanitarian regime change? And that anyone who says otherwise just loves Bashar al-Assad, Vladimir Putin and dead babies?
Please. We're being lied to, aggressively and relentlessly. And it's backfiring on them.
Propaganda and censorship only work if they're invisible. Once it becomes obvious that propagandists are propagandizing, public attention moves from the material being presented to the people who are doing the presenting. And this is exactly what we are seeing with the establishment Syria narrative.
In martial arts you learn never to overextend and reach for your opponent, because leaning into striking range with your arm outstretched leaves you exposed to a devastating knockout counterstrike. Do that in a boxing match and you'll eat an uppercut that leaves you staring into a ringside doctor's pen light and questioning your life choices. By losing control of the Syria narrative and making such a strained effort to regain it, the establishment propaganda machine has overreached, and now we have only to point at what they're doing to cripple their Syria warmongering.
Let's make a lot of noise about this blatant, ham-fisted propaganda campaign. When people are looking straight at them and what they are doing, the psyops can't take root. Turn the lights on full blast in this kabuki theater and shatter the illusion for everyone.
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It's definitely an attempt at thought control and an outright attack on critical thinkers, and those who don't adhere to the status quo or mainstream media's agenda. I do believe that the establishment is afraid that the people are finally catching on and so they run to do these hit pieces on people whom they consider a threat, naturally. Anything to try to keep the people dumbed down and asleep at the wheel.
The answer is to just turn off their noise and ignore them, which people are already doing in droves which really freaks them out. The lamestream media is dying very fast. Alex Jones probably has twice the viewers as CNN. This scares them, so they lean on youtube to cut him off, but that backfires, so they file bogus lawsuits, which will also be a spectacular fail. They are cornered rats, no one buys their crap anymore and they are fighting to stay relevant. Which they aren't. Let's just all ignore them and move to Steemit and Minds and dTube and throw these bastards in the ash bin of history where they belong.
"It's not paranoia if they really are out to get you."
Could they be any more transparent about declaring war on dissent?
I'm starting to get a little bit concerned, though. When the velvet glove stops working they pull out the iron fist. We're "OK" here in the States – on the precipice of disaster – only because of our generally positive disposition to the Establishment.
Essentially because us freaky deaky types can't "PROVE" that the corporate media are lying to us. That they serve us to advertisers and we are the product.
If we stop buying the shit they are selling it will be time for some domestic "regime change". And that shit is really scary.
I wonder if we are at the point where they realise it's not working anymore. What happens then, when we've pulled aside the veil?
This is a bit too daunting to think about without the day's first cuppa tea.
A Frank Zappa quote comes to mind. "The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater."
You go from A Brave New World to 1984. Soma gets replaced with the Boot.
Laugh at them until they wither and crawl back under the rock from whence they came...
It's hard to be taken seriously when everyone is laughing at them..
https://steemit.com/blog/@lucylin/meeting-at-no10-downing-st-silly-saturday
The Moon of Alabama article is excellent. Highly recommended click.
Does it really matter what the narrative is on CNN or the mainstream media ? So long as their viewing/readership numbers keep decreasing and their influence continues to wain, they are becoming less and less relevant. They couldn't even win the election for Killary.
Wish I could say the same for the influence of mainstream media here in the great land of dumb, drunk and racist halfwits. But alas.
Also worth remembering the hundreds of millions of dollars spent by the US military on (UK based) PR and marketing firms to promote these agenda's. Like the $500 million spent to promote the war on Iraq The opinion of these war worshiping morally and ethically inept spokesrodents isn't cheap you know.
Get'em!!!!!
Curated for #informationwar (by @wakeupnd)
Relevance: Sharing the truth.
They are scared but united, none of MSM sends reporters to Aleppo or Douma, so their only defense when other outlets interview residents going against their narrative, their response is: :Oh yes, but those reporters are not MSM ( Russian Propagandist ), We need to pressure MSM to send reporters there.
Great article as always Caitlin. Who are the main Ministry of Truth's assholes?
Oh Those Embarrassing Moments: Atlantic Council's Ben Nimmo Outs 'Russian Bot' That Turns Out To Simply Be A UK Citizen Tired Of UK Government Warmongering
https://steemit.com/news/@clarityofsignal/oh-those-embarrassing-moments-atlantic-council-s-ben-nimmo-outs-russian-bot-that-turns-out-to-simply-be-a-uk-citizen-tired-of-uk