As an information junkie from way back the past several years have provided a great seminar on the art of information and disinformation. One of my new favorite words is Mis-Dis-Information. Seems the best defense we have against such assaults is our own evolutionary emotional reactions to being so abused.
Brilliant article Ray. You’ve crystallised my thoughts pretty much exactly. False hope gets us nowhere. Speaking for myself… the main purpose of my particular Substack, is not so much to offer ‘solutions’.. as it is to perhaps ‘shine a light on the problems’ in the hope that it may inspire others to think of them.
Inspiring to think is a good first step. After being informed, nobody can say they haven't been warned, so they cannot just transfer their responsibility to an imaginary authority. Fake opposition wants people to stop there and just hope. Revolting... And they dare to criticize me for being "pessimistic" or "fatalistic"! It is they, who are placing their lemmings on the death row, who are blindly following them.
After being informed, the enforcers (who might be reading this, too) might also be able to realize that they will not be spared. Everybody must keep informing them, because it's not going to happen only because the information is available in Substack articles.
Without enforcers, the globalist agenda dies.
Still, the threat of famine, immobilization, general poisonings, long blackouts, communication lockdowns, and civil turmoil are real (with WW3 on TV and an "alien attack" on the back burner), so our articles can also assist with ideas for the hard times to come. Quite a few readers are extremely helpful, too.
Plus.. we’re writing for history. Thousands, if not millions, are documenting every single imaginable angle of this worldwide treachery. It will be difficult for them to make all this shared data disappear from the face of the earth. (although, I could be wrong)
Eventually AI will fade to black as the biggest deception visited on the human species in its legendary evolution. We will very likely need those stone tablets or we will simply make do with smoke signals, long trips and real communication? Even Thomas Paine probably could have done without his pamphlets if pressed. We are a creative if annoying lot.
? I am having no issues. However the book is free in multiple depositories online. Monoskop has a copy. Internet Archive ought. Here is a brief cite from the War College. Note the spin. overlooked classic of information warfare/operations, disinformation, and fake news is Jacques Ellul’s Propaganda: The Formation of Men’s Attitudes (1965). Jacques Ellul was a French sociologist and philosopher who served as professor at the University of Bordeaux. Author of over 50 books and more than 1,000 articles, he was a renowned expert on propaganda and the effects of technology on society. His views now seem prescient in light of computational propaganda.
Ellul describes what we now call the information element of national power in stark terms. Western nations have again become concerned about propaganda and disinformation due to the actions of the Chinese and Russian governments. We have a responsibility to grasp how disinformation targeting the populace can challenge defense. Ellul speaks to those concerns.
Addressing targeting the populace, decades before big data and micro-targeting, Ellul wrote that in propaganda “…the individual never is considered as an individual, but always in terms of what he has in common with others, such as his motivations, his feelings, or his myths. He is reduced to an average; and, except for a small percentage, action based on averages will be effectual.” (p. 7) This explanation appears timeless. However, technology now allows us ever-greater market segmentation, and therefore ever-smaller groups can be targeted with disinformation based on their shared views. Mass movements arise from the connection of motivated people with like-minded others. Strengthening those connections and making the connected group even more like-minded can be accomplished through amplifying information that reinforces common views and minimizing exposure to information that effectively challenges shared views. Amplifying supportive voices while minimizing opposing ones occurs in what we now call “filter bubbles.”
Regarding “filter bubbles,” Ellul wrote “Propaganda tends to make the individual live in a separate world; he must not have outside points of reference.” (p. 17). Ellul went on to say and modern research supports) that “Those who read the press of their group and listen to the radio of their group are constantly reinforced in their allegiance.”(p. 213) Social and traditional media information outlets on radio, television, and the internet allow us to self-select what information we even see, much less accept. To avoid the cognitive dissonance of contrary opinions, we can deny ourselves outside points of reference, and thereby reinforce our own allegiances.
Ellul recognized that these filter bubbles make us vulnerable to adversary propaganda by promoting our efforts, as unwitting consumers of propaganda, to seek information that keeps us interested, and agrees with our preconceived notions. He observed that “What is needed (for propaganda), then, is continuous agitation produced artificially even when nothing in the events of the day justifies or arouses excitement.” (p. 20) He added that, from an enemy’s perspective, “For propaganda to succeed, it must correspond to a need for propaganda on the individual’s part…. There is not just a wicked propagandist at work who sets up means to ensnare the innocent citizen. Rather, there is a citizen who craves propaganda from the bottom of his being and a propagandist who responds to this craving.”(p. 121) In other words, we choose our own disinformation; it is not forced upon us. For westerners, Ellul implies that in our freedom-loving society, free speech is important, but we must also do more than support free choice in the information we consume
By immobilization I meant inflation and growing energy/gas/diesel prices. Sorry about being too curt about it.
A garden we have with my wife, but people in cities are stuck with the supermarket slop.
Privately-grown produce and home-raised animals (chicken, rabbits, goats etc.) are likely to be prohibited in the near future, although in some part of the country enforcers will be hard to find. Here, in KY, most job listings are for enforcers and sick-care. There are not enough people willing to take the risk and the humiliation of having to comply.
I was simply parsing the details as I read your piece, wanting to make this distinction between thinking and actually doing. Not a judgement of you. I highly doubt here in the USA with the current particular members of the US Supreme Court that any such bans on growing food will exist. All service members and sheriffs officers would have to be suddenly repeal their oaths to not follow the Supreme Court.
The USA was built on small holders and most of existing law is still built for us to be such.
Most of the time anyone using this rhetoric is wanting to excuse themselves from actually doing something.
These people will do whatever they are told because they have nothing to defend.
I never though it was judging me. This site is not about me, anyway! :)
There are already townships in Britain and the US, where people cannot "legally" grow food in their garden. These are local edicts and it takes about 10 years for such cases to reach the Supreme Court and that is only if it makes it through lower courts and the SC is willing to discuss it.
It doesn't matter what fake authorities (these days, it's mostly executive posing as legislative) declare, they do what they think they have to do and those who know growing is important will grow. My wife and I do. :)
They seem to be creeping in on us. There are about 800 of them, with an average capacity of 20k... They are well-equipped with coffins and body bags, but have no evac plans. I expect the inmates will have to undergo some life-changing experiences there, mostly "medical" or "psychological" (the latter is a euphemism for torture).
As an information junkie from way back the past several years have provided a great seminar on the art of information and disinformation. One of my new favorite words is Mis-Dis-Information. Seems the best defense we have against such assaults is our own evolutionary emotional reactions to being so abused.
Brilliant article Ray. You’ve crystallised my thoughts pretty much exactly. False hope gets us nowhere. Speaking for myself… the main purpose of my particular Substack, is not so much to offer ‘solutions’.. as it is to perhaps ‘shine a light on the problems’ in the hope that it may inspire others to think of them.
Inspiring to think is a good first step. After being informed, nobody can say they haven't been warned, so they cannot just transfer their responsibility to an imaginary authority. Fake opposition wants people to stop there and just hope. Revolting... And they dare to criticize me for being "pessimistic" or "fatalistic"! It is they, who are placing their lemmings on the death row, who are blindly following them.
After being informed, the enforcers (who might be reading this, too) might also be able to realize that they will not be spared. Everybody must keep informing them, because it's not going to happen only because the information is available in Substack articles.
Without enforcers, the globalist agenda dies.
Still, the threat of famine, immobilization, general poisonings, long blackouts, communication lockdowns, and civil turmoil are real (with WW3 on TV and an "alien attack" on the back burner), so our articles can also assist with ideas for the hard times to come. Quite a few readers are extremely helpful, too.
Plus.. we’re writing for history. Thousands, if not millions, are documenting every single imaginable angle of this worldwide treachery. It will be difficult for them to make all this shared data disappear from the face of the earth. (although, I could be wrong)
There’s someone else keeping books….that’s God…in fact He’s keeping tract of every idle word a person speaks…not a one of us will escape the judgment!
The AI that is running the worldwide simulation might preserve everything for posterity. :)
Eventually AI will fade to black as the biggest deception visited on the human species in its legendary evolution. We will very likely need those stone tablets or we will simply make do with smoke signals, long trips and real communication? Even Thomas Paine probably could have done without his pamphlets if pressed. We are a creative if annoying lot.
https://warroom.armywarcollege.edu/special-series/dusty-shelves/elluls-propaganda/
Access denied.
? I am having no issues. However the book is free in multiple depositories online. Monoskop has a copy. Internet Archive ought. Here is a brief cite from the War College. Note the spin. overlooked classic of information warfare/operations, disinformation, and fake news is Jacques Ellul’s Propaganda: The Formation of Men’s Attitudes (1965). Jacques Ellul was a French sociologist and philosopher who served as professor at the University of Bordeaux. Author of over 50 books and more than 1,000 articles, he was a renowned expert on propaganda and the effects of technology on society. His views now seem prescient in light of computational propaganda.
Ellul describes what we now call the information element of national power in stark terms. Western nations have again become concerned about propaganda and disinformation due to the actions of the Chinese and Russian governments. We have a responsibility to grasp how disinformation targeting the populace can challenge defense. Ellul speaks to those concerns.
Addressing targeting the populace, decades before big data and micro-targeting, Ellul wrote that in propaganda “…the individual never is considered as an individual, but always in terms of what he has in common with others, such as his motivations, his feelings, or his myths. He is reduced to an average; and, except for a small percentage, action based on averages will be effectual.” (p. 7) This explanation appears timeless. However, technology now allows us ever-greater market segmentation, and therefore ever-smaller groups can be targeted with disinformation based on their shared views. Mass movements arise from the connection of motivated people with like-minded others. Strengthening those connections and making the connected group even more like-minded can be accomplished through amplifying information that reinforces common views and minimizing exposure to information that effectively challenges shared views. Amplifying supportive voices while minimizing opposing ones occurs in what we now call “filter bubbles.”
Regarding “filter bubbles,” Ellul wrote “Propaganda tends to make the individual live in a separate world; he must not have outside points of reference.” (p. 17). Ellul went on to say and modern research supports) that “Those who read the press of their group and listen to the radio of their group are constantly reinforced in their allegiance.”(p. 213) Social and traditional media information outlets on radio, television, and the internet allow us to self-select what information we even see, much less accept. To avoid the cognitive dissonance of contrary opinions, we can deny ourselves outside points of reference, and thereby reinforce our own allegiances.
Ellul recognized that these filter bubbles make us vulnerable to adversary propaganda by promoting our efforts, as unwitting consumers of propaganda, to seek information that keeps us interested, and agrees with our preconceived notions. He observed that “What is needed (for propaganda), then, is continuous agitation produced artificially even when nothing in the events of the day justifies or arouses excitement.” (p. 20) He added that, from an enemy’s perspective, “For propaganda to succeed, it must correspond to a need for propaganda on the individual’s part…. There is not just a wicked propagandist at work who sets up means to ensnare the innocent citizen. Rather, there is a citizen who craves propaganda from the bottom of his being and a propagandist who responds to this craving.”(p. 121) In other words, we choose our own disinformation; it is not forced upon us. For westerners, Ellul implies that in our freedom-loving society, free speech is important, but we must also do more than support free choice in the information we consume
You are only pointing at thought.
As an example. Without a garden is to be immobilized. And really, its about a garden that can provide food enough.
By immobilization I meant inflation and growing energy/gas/diesel prices. Sorry about being too curt about it.
A garden we have with my wife, but people in cities are stuck with the supermarket slop.
Privately-grown produce and home-raised animals (chicken, rabbits, goats etc.) are likely to be prohibited in the near future, although in some part of the country enforcers will be hard to find. Here, in KY, most job listings are for enforcers and sick-care. There are not enough people willing to take the risk and the humiliation of having to comply.
I was simply parsing the details as I read your piece, wanting to make this distinction between thinking and actually doing. Not a judgement of you. I highly doubt here in the USA with the current particular members of the US Supreme Court that any such bans on growing food will exist. All service members and sheriffs officers would have to be suddenly repeal their oaths to not follow the Supreme Court.
The USA was built on small holders and most of existing law is still built for us to be such.
Most of the time anyone using this rhetoric is wanting to excuse themselves from actually doing something.
These people will do whatever they are told because they have nothing to defend.
I never though it was judging me. This site is not about me, anyway! :)
There are already townships in Britain and the US, where people cannot "legally" grow food in their garden. These are local edicts and it takes about 10 years for such cases to reach the Supreme Court and that is only if it makes it through lower courts and the SC is willing to discuss it.
It doesn't matter what fake authorities (these days, it's mostly executive posing as legislative) declare, they do what they think they have to do and those who know growing is important will grow. My wife and I do. :)
Sure. I wouldn't live anywhere near those concentration camps.
They seem to be creeping in on us. There are about 800 of them, with an average capacity of 20k... They are well-equipped with coffins and body bags, but have no evac plans. I expect the inmates will have to undergo some life-changing experiences there, mostly "medical" or "psychological" (the latter is a euphemism for torture).
Best not to be taken...
Oh, and I could care less what city people do. Its all Sodom and Gomorrah to me. We all still do have a choice.
Exactly.
Sources. These are really good from the Corbett report; much relevance to now. parts 1 and 2
https://odysee.com/@corbettreport:0/The-Gutenberg-Conspiracy:b?r=2QYiZPCorVAp9SLUcg3Yo1HNTK9PZBJx
https://odysee.com/@corbettreport:0/What-Hath-God-Wrought:8?r=2QYiZPCorVAp9SLUcg3Yo1HNTK9PZBJx