Monday, March 13, 2023

"The 10 Rules of Propaganda"

"The 10 Rules of Propaganda"
by Brian Maher

"Lord Arthur Ponsonby was a British diplomat and politician, dates 1871–1946. This keen and cagey fellow pinpointed 10 rules of propaganda. They are these:

1. We don’t want war, we are only defending ourselves.
2. The other guy is solely responsible for this war.
3. Our adversary’s leader is evil and looks evil.
4. We are defending a noble purpose, not special interest.
5. The enemy is purposefully causing atrocities; we only commit mistakes.
6. The enemy is using unlawful weapons.
7. We have very little losses, the enemy is losing big.
8. Intellectuals and artists support our cause.
9. Our cause is sacred.
10. Those who doubt our propaganda are traitors.

Just Look at the News: A daily scan of the newswires calls to mind three or more of these propaganda rules. On some days, six or seven. On others still, all 10. We refer specifically to the conflict presently arage in the eastern European nation of Ukraine. Let us now consider these rules. We will not take up each of them since some rules relate closely to others. We will instead weld these together. To proceed…

1. We don’t want war, we are only defending ourselves.
2. The other guy is solely responsible for this war.

On how many occasions have you read or heard condemnations of Mr. Putin’s “unprovoked” act of aggression? To phrase it differently, when has it not been described as unprovoked? Yet a man can argue very persuasively that Mr. Putin’s war was indeed provoked. The Russian autocrat warned on several occasions that NATO expansion into Ukraine was a “red line.” Russia would not abide the NATO dagger pressing against its vitals (parts of Ukraine actually lie east of Moscow). Yet the NATO alliance had announced its intentions to incorporate Ukraine - despite Vladimir’s moans and grimaces.

A de Facto NATO Member: It is true that no formal offer of membership has come. Yet for years the United States and its NATO allies were arming and training Ukrainian forces. Why do you think these Ukrainian forces have performed so excellently? Some have in fact referred to Ukraine as a de facto NATO member. It has merely been awaiting the de jure formality of actual membership. You may argue that Mr. Putin’s invasion was unjustified. You may argue that it was unnecessary. Your editor himself has maintained these very points. Yet you cannot argue that it was unprovoked.

Putin’s Evil!
3. Our adversary’s leader is evil and looks evil.
9. Our cause is sacred.

Here is a very condensed sample of headlines regarding the blackened state of Mr. Putin’s soul: “Vladimir Putin — ‘Evil on the Level of Joseph Stalin’”; “Yes, Putin Is Evil”; “Putin Is Evil, Not Mentally Ill, a Psychological Explanation”; “’Terrifying’ Putin Driven by ‘Evil Forces,’ Says ECB’s Christine Lagarde” “How Vladimir Putin Became Evil”

And is this not the very face of evil?
The title of the magazine article affixed to this caption bears the title “The Secret Source of Putin’s Evil”. Now you have the flavor of it. We could continue but mercy forbids it.

Is Putin Really Evil? Yet how do these demonologists know if the man is evil? Have they looked under the hood… and glanced his soul? Perhaps the man is psychologically impaired. Perhaps he goes by a different morality. Perhaps he is simply misguided. Or perhaps he simply believes his nation is under threat and that his invasion is justified. No - not justified - necessary. We would not claim that he is an especially congenial fellow. We would not claim that he is “nice.”

But evil? That we are not prepared to say. Yet we are prepared to say - and will say - that for the past year propaganda has enjoyed a very brisk circulation. Evil on the level of Joseph Stalin, as the one headline screamed? This is the work of the propagandist.

No Special Interest?
4. We are defending a noble purpose, not special interest.

Defending Ukraine may certainly qualify as a “noble purpose.” We do not contend otherwise. Yet there are several arms manufacturers who presently drive an excellent trade. They must replace all the armaments that have been dispatched to - and continue to be dispatched to - Ukraine. Are they not a special interest? Meantime, our spies inform us that a disturbing portion of monies parading under the banner of “Ukrainian aid” has been diverted to the pockets of Ukrainian oligarchs. We would sort these oligarchs into the category of “special interest.”

“We Don’t Do Those Things”
5. The enemy is purposefully causing atrocities; we only commit mistakes.

We are told that Russia’s calendar of sins is endless. These hellcats are shooting projectiles into apartment buildings, hospitals, schools, churches. Yet we are likewise told that Russia suffers from an acute ammunition lack. Why would these Russians waste valuable ammunition on these valueless targets? Perhaps such targets were struck by accident. It is war and incidents as these are nearly inevitable. Perhaps even Ukrainian forces struck some of these structures unintentionally.

We recall one instance in which a Russian missile struck very near the Polish border, murdering two. As chance would have it the “Russian missile” was an erring Ukrainian air defense missile. Perhaps Ukrainian forces fired upon Russian forces from these sites. Russians would be justified to return the fire.

Reports of Russian massacring of civilians proliferate widely. Yet closer examination reveals that at least some of these claims are of very dubious validity. We would be stunned and gobsmacked if atrocities of various sorts have not occurred - perpetrated by both sides. It is, after all, war. And war is the very negation of civilization. Yet there is little to no evidence that atrocities are official Russian policy. That, we hazard to say, is propaganda.

He’s Using Chemical Weapons!
6. The enemy is using unlawful weapons.

“Kyiv Claims Russia Used Banned Chemical Weapon”; “Russia’s Tear Gas Bombings in Ukraine May Be First Step in Dangerous Chemical Escalation”; “Ukraine’s Battlefield Is Haunted by Putin’s Chemical Weapons Legacy.”

We assigned our spies the case. They inform us there exists no evidence of Russian chemical weapons use. Videos have circulated - however - of Ukrainian soldiers preparing chemical weapons for battlefield use. Other videos circulate of Russian soldiers gagging on these chemical agents. We cannot confirm their trueness.

270,000 Russian Casualties?
7. We have very little losses, the enemy is losing big.

Source after source cites claims of unspeakable Russian deaths and woundings. Figures of 270,000 Russian casualties have been proposed. Yet the original invasion force consisted only of 190,000 men. Are they all - plus 80,000 others - dead or injured?

The British Broadcasting Corporation decided to so some spade work. They attempted to discern the true number of Russian fatalities. This they did by poring through death notices, funeral announcements, social media and other venues. What did they discover? They could only identify the names of 16,071 confirmed Russian fatalities. They concede the possibility that they are undercounting the butcher’s bill by as much as 40%. In all, BBC places Russia’s total irretrievable losses (wounded, killed or missing people) at some 144,500. These figures nonetheless place the actual casualty roster - both killings and woundings - far below the mainstream telling.

We are loathe to employ the word “only” when discussing deaths and woundings. It is a morbid affair. Each man is a unique human creature crafted in the image of his creator. Yet the BBC’s sleuthing indicates strongly that Russian casualty figures are extravagantly exaggerated. It is in keeping to Propaganda Rule no. 7.

8. Intellectuals and artists support our cause.
How many intellectuals and artists boast Twitter accounts bearing an image of the Ukrainian flag? They are nearly beyond count.

10. Those who doubt our propaganda are traitors.
Your patriotic editor has been labeled traitorous on many, many occasions - by readers and colleagues alike.

The Propaganda War: Does Russia transmit its own propaganda? We are certain that it does. Upon reflection we must amend the prior statement - we suspect strongly that Russia transmits its own propaganda. We cannot be certain. That is because none of it is allowed in. It is all censored out by the Western press. They have erected a great cordon walling off Russian propaganda.

How else does one explain the universal media claims of Ukrainian righteousness and Russian evil? Of Ukrainian brio and Russian incompetence? Of Ukrainian victory and Russian defeat? We will merely state that we have been privy to… conflicting… reports. Yet we are aware that by posting the 10 Rules of Propaganda… we will be accused ourself of distributing propaganda - Russian propaganda. We plead nolo contendere… comrade."

Canadian Prepper, "Emergency Video! The FED Is Panicking! War Bonds Are Next!"

Canadian Prepper, PM 3/12/23:
"Emergency Video! 
The FED Is Panicking! War Bonds Are Next!"
Comments here:

Sunday, March 12, 2023

"Warning! Bank Runs Will Create A Mad Max Society"

Full screen recommended.
Jeremiah Babe, 3/12/23:
"Warning! Bank Runs Will Create A Mad Max Society"
Comments here:

"Oh SH*T! The Banks Are Collapsing, As The Money Starts Disappearing"

Redacted, 3/12/23
"Oh SH*T! The Banks Are Collapsing, 
As The Money Starts Disappearing"
As money starts to disappear, banks are starting to collapse. This is causing panic among the people, as they worry about what will happen to their money. Watch this video for more information on bank runs and how they could affect you."
Comments here:

"The Pension Crisis Will Wipe Out All Of Your Retirement Savings This Year"

Full screen recommended.
"The Pension Crisis Will Wipe Out All 
Of Your Retirement Savings This Year"
by Epic Economist

"U.S. pension funds are about to implode and wipe out the retirement savings of millions of state and local government employees. A flood of new reports reveals that the nation’s pension system is severely underfunded and many private equity firms have lied to their customers about their true ability to pay retirees in 2023. The stock market meltdown is set to make conditions even more precarious, and about $4.1 trillion dollars in retirement funds are on the line. And the worst part is that the catastrophic collapse of U.S. pensions means that all taxpayers are going to be financially squeezed by even higher taxes in order to make up for such massive asset losses.

As it turns out, U.S. pension funds – usually known as the gold standard for retirement security – aren’t that safe at all. New reports show that our public pension system is facing serious challenges that are threatening the retirement plans of millions of American workers. Private equity firms typically use pension money to purchase and restructure companies with the intent to sell them off later on for a profit. However, between the processes of buying and selling, these firms do not provide transparent metrics for valuing the purchased asset. This means private equity businesses can literally manufacture a number to report to their clients, the pension investors.

New pieces of evidence reported by CNN, Reuters, and The Guardian show that these firms frequently inflate valuations when seeking new investments. In December, private equity businesses reported to pension officials that their assets were worth much more than they actually are today. And data just released by Reuters proves that all of these firms were skimming billions of dollars of fees off retirees’ money. Since 2019, the public pension system lost over $1.5 trillion, facing a 21% loss in 2020 alone. At the same time, these losses have added an overwhelming amount of stress on our public pension systems, and now state and local pensions are already facing a $4.1 trillion shortfall.

Official data shows that the 100 largest public pension funds in the United States had been funded at just 78.6% of their total obligations at the close of the last quarter. Between December 2022 and February 2023, a whopping $220 billion was lost due to the tech bubble burst. And while pensioners are at risk, Wall Street’s pension fund managers are protected thanks to their heads-we-win-tails-you-lose business model, says Sirota. While reporting asset losses for investors, some of the firms managing pensioners’ money are raking in even more fees from investors and continuing to raise executives’ pay.

In other words, they are legally stealing money from U.S. workers, and no one is doing anything about it. This money transfer from the retirement accounts of hard-working Americans to the pockets of rich Wall Street fund managers is scandalous and shameful. But still, nobody seems truly worried about the consequences this may pose to millions of state and local employees that are likely to spend their retirement years closer to poverty than they ever imagined.

In essence, the U.S. pension fund crisis is a reflection of America today, where corruption is legalized and it is the people who bear the brunt of the mistakes of our so-called leaders while they get exploited and outright robbed by a power-hungry elite that won’t be satisfied until they seize everything we have ever fought for."
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Musical Interlude: The Moody Blues, "This Is The Moment"; "Candle of Life"

The Moody Blues, "This Is The Moment"
Photo: Templo de Zeus Olímpico (Temple of Olympian Zeus)
 -Atenas - Grécia (Athens - Greece)
o
Full screen recommended.
Moody Blues, "Candle of Life"

"A Look to the Heavens"

“These three bright nebulae are often featured in telescopic tours of the constellation Sagittarius and the crowded starfields of the central Milky Way. In fact, 18th century cosmic tourist Charles Messier cataloged two of them; M8, the large nebula left of center, and colorful M20 on the right. The third, NGC 6559, is above M8, separated from the larger nebula by a dark dust lane. All three are stellar nurseries about five thousand light-years or so distant.
The expansive M8, over a hundred light-years across, is also known as the Lagoon Nebula. M20's popular moniker is the Trifid. Glowing hydrogen gas creates the dominant red color of the emission nebulae, with contrasting blue hues, most striking in the Trifid, due to dust reflected starlight. The colorful skyscape recorded with telescope and digital camera also includes one of Messier's open star clusters, M21, just above the Trifid.”
"The eternal silence of infinite spaces frightens me. Why now rather than then? Who has put me here? By whose order and direction have this place and time have been ascribed to me? We travel in a vast sphere, always drifting in the uncertain, pulled from one side to another. Whenever we find a fixed point to attach and to fasten ourselves, it shifts and leaves us; and if we follow it, it eludes our grasp, slips past us, and vanishes for ever. Nothing stays for us. This is our natural condition, most contrary to our inclination; we burn with desires to find solid ground and an ultimate and solid foundation for building a tower reaching to the Infinite. But always these bases crack, and the earth obstinately opens up into abysses. We are infinitely removed from comprehending the extremes, since the end of things and their beginning are hopelessly hidden from us in an encapsulated secret; we are equally incapable of seeing the Nothing from which we were made, and the Infinite in which we are swallowed up."
- Blaise Pascal

"You May Think..."

"To show mercy is not naive. To hold out against the end of hope is not stupidity or madness. It is fundamentally human. Of course... we are all doomed; we are all poisoned from our birth by the rot of stars. That does not mean we should succumb to the seductive fallacy of despair, the dark tide that would drown us. You may think I'm stupid, you may call me a madman and a fool, but at least I stand upright in a fallen world."
- Rick Yancey

The Poet: Maya Angelou, "A Brave And Startling Truth"

"A Brave And Startling Truth"

"We, this people, on a small and lonely planet
Traveling through casual space,
Past aloof stars, across the way of indifferent suns,
To a destination where all signs tell us
It is possible and imperative that we learn
A brave and startling truth.

And when we come to it,
To the day of peacemaking,
When we release our fingers
From fists of hostility
And allow the pure air to cool our palms.

When we come to it,
When the curtain falls on the minstrel show of hate,
And faces sooted with scorn are scrubbed clean.
When battlefields and coliseum
No longer rake our unique and particular sons and daughters
Up with the bruised and bloody grass,
To lie in identical plots in foreign soil.

When the rapacious storming of the churches,
The screaming racket in the temples have ceased.
When the pennants are waving gaily,
When the banners of the world tremble
Stoutly in the good, clean breeze.

When we come to it,
When we let the rifles fall from our shoulders,
And children dress their dolls in flags of truce.
When land mines of death have been removed,
And the aged can walk into evenings of peace.
When religious ritual is not perfumed
By the incense of burning flesh,
And childhood dreams are not kicked awake
By nightmares of abuse.

When we come to it,
Then we will confess that not the Pyramids
With their stones set in mysterious perfection
Nor the Gardens of Babylon
Hanging as eternal beauty
In our collective memory,
Not the Grand Canyon
Kindled into delicious color
By Western sunsets.

Nor the Danube, flowing its blue soul into Europe
Not the sacred peak of Mount Fuji
Stretching to the Rising Sun.
Neither Father Amazon nor Mother Mississippi who, without favor,
Nurture all creatures in the depths and on the shores
These are not the only wonders of the world.

When we come to it,
We, this people, on this minuscule and kithless globe,
Who reach daily for the bomb, the blade and the dagger
Yet who petition in the dark for tokens of peace.
We, this people on this mote of matter,
In whose mouths abide cankerous words
Which challenge our very existence,
Yet out of those same mouths
Come songs of such exquisite sweetness
That the heart falters in its labor,
And the body is quieted into awe.

We, this people, on this small and drifting planet,
Whose hands can strike with such abandon
That in a twinkling, life is sapped from the living.
Yet those same hands can touch with 
such healing, irresistible tenderness
That the haughty neck is happy to bow,
And the proud back is glad to bend.
Out of such chaos, of such contradiction
We learn that we are neither devils nor divines.

When we come to it,
We, this people, on this wayward, floating body,
Created on this earth, of this earth,
Have the power to fashion for this earth
A climate where every man and every woman
Can live freely without sanctimonious piety,
Without crippling fear.

When we come to it,
We must confess that we are the possible,
We are the miraculous, the true wonder of this world.
That is when, and only when,
We come to it."

-  Maya Angelou

The Daily "Near You?"

Gardiner, Maine, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"One Million Russian Troops Marching To The Polish Border"

"Col. Douglas Macgregor Straight Calls", 3/12/23
"One Million Russian Troops Marching To The Polish Border"
"Analysis of breaking news and in-depth discussion of current geopolitical events in the United States of America and the world."
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"Most People Are Good..."

"Most people are good and occasionally do something they know is bad. Some people are bad and struggle every day to keep it under control. Others are corrupt to the core and don't give a damn, as long as they don't get caught. But evil is a completely different creature. Evil is bad that believes it's good." 
- Karen Marie Moning

"Breaking News! Bank Runs Spreading, Long Line Ups; US Nuclear Bombers Near Russian Cities; DEFCON 2"

Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 3/12/23:
"Breaking News! Bank Runs Spreading, Long Line Ups; 
US Nuclear Bombers Near Russian Cities; DEFCON 2"
Comments here:
o

"It’s Fallen Off a Cliff"

Full screen recommended.
Dan, iAllegedly 3/12/23:
"It’s Fallen Off a Cliff"
"Mortgage refinances have been completely destroyed as a result of the higher interest rates. There used to be millions of people doing this. Now it’s into the thousands. When will it end?"
Comments here:
o
Gregory Mannarino, 3/12/23:
"Alert! Markets, A Look Ahead: 
Systemic Breakdown And A Consolidation Of Power"
Comments here:
o

"Shopping Trip To Costco! Stocking Up Before Prices Increase!"

Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, 3/12/23:
"Shopping Trip To Costco!
 Stocking Up Before Prices Increase!"
"In today's vlog we are at Costco, and looking for groceries that have a long shelf life. With prices going up at all major grocery stores around the world, we are at Costco hoping to find some cheaper options to help us prepare for the future. It's getting rough out here as grocery prices have reached an all time high!"
Comments here:

"This I Believe..."

"This I believe: That the free, exploring mind of the individual
human is the most valuable thing in the world.
And this I would fight for:
the freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected.
And this I must fight against:
any idea, religion, or government which limits or destroys the individual."
- John Steinbeck

“Are You Sane?”

“Are You Sane?
by Charles Hugh Smith

“A sane person to an insane society must appear insane.” 
– Kurt Vonnegut, “Welcome to the Monkey House”

“Madness has engulfed the entire world, with a concentration of power in the hands of a few psychopathic financial elite wielding an inordinate and dangerous expanse of power over the lives of the common man. They are a modern day version of Al Capone, except their weapons of choice aren’t machine guns, but a printing press, peddling debt, creating derivatives of mass destruction, and peddling heaping doses of disinformation. The contemporary criminal class wears Hermes suits, Rolex watches and diamond studded pinky rings, drops $500 to dine at Masa in NYC, travels by chauffeured limo, lives in $10 million NYC penthouse suites, occupies luxurious corner offices in hundred story glass towers, and spends weekends hobnobbing with the other financial elite at their villas in the Hamptons. They have nothing but utter contempt for the lowly peasants who depend upon a weekly paycheck to make ends meet. Why work when you can steal $1 or $2 billion from farmers with no consequences?

The willfully ignorant masses are kept at bay by the selling them a false dichotomy of Republicans versus Democrats, conservatives versus liberals, and capitalism versus socialism. The ruling class distracts the public with fake wars on poverty, drugs and terror, while using these storylines to further enrich themselves and keep the public alarmed and frightened. We’ve been “fighting” the wars on poverty and drugs for over four decades and poverty is at record levels, while drugs are easier to obtain than candy in a candy store. The war on terror is nothing more than a corporate arms dealer welfare plan. The end of the Cold War put a real crimp in the bottom lines of Lockheed Martin and the rest of the peddlers of death. 9/11 and the subsequent undeclared wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria, with Iran on the horizon, and a proxy war with Russia have been a godsend to the bottom lines of the corporations Eisenhower warned about in 1961.

In reality, the politicians are interchangeable and bought off by corporate and special interests. The people are sold a fable, and controlled opposition is the fairy tale. They perpetuate the welfare/warfare state that enriches Wall Street, the military industrial complex, the healthcare service complex, politically connected mega-corporations and the corporate media propaganda complex. The American people are given the illusion of choice by their keepers. The system is rigged. The real decisions are made by unelected secretive men who operate in the shadows and use their wealth to direct the decision making of the politicians, government bureaucrats, and corporate entities that benefit from those decisions. Edward Bernays described a society that existed in the 19th Century, 20th Century, and has now grown to immense proportions in the 21st Century:

“Political campaigns today are all sideshows. A presidential candidate may be ‘drafted’ in response to ‘overwhelming popular demand,’ but it is well known that his name may be decided upon by half a dozen men sitting around a table in a hotel room. The conscious manipulation of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country.” – Edward Bernays 

The manipulation of the masses has been perfected by the ruling class through decades of corporate mass media messaging the purposeful dumbing down of the populace through government public school education that teaches children how to feel rather than how to think. The conscious manipulation of the masses has been designed to produce obedient non-thinking consumers of corporate products, educated to believe the accumulation of material goods with debt constitutes wealth, to fear whatever the government tells them to fear, and never look up from their iGadgets long enough to actually think for themselves. We are bombarded with Orwellian memes designed to keep us sedated and pliant, as the ruling class pillages the national wealth and expands their power and control over our lives.

Conform; Stay Asleep; Do Not Question Authority; Obey; Consume; Reproduce; Submit; Watch TV; Buy; Follow; Doubt Humanity; No New Ideas; Feel, Don’t Think; Fear; Accumulate; Honor Apathy; Believe Experts; Surrender; Spend; No Independent Thought; Win; Want More; Hate; Succumb To Desire; Yield To Power; Choose Safety Over Liberty; Choose Security Over Freedom 

This insane world was created through decades of bad decisions, believing in false prophets, choosing current consumption over sustainable long-term savings based growth, electing corruptible men who promised voters entitlements that were mathematically impossible to deliver, the disintegration of a sense of civic and community obligation and a gradual degradation of the national intelligence and character.

Vonnegut and Huxley’s social commentary reveals a basic truth that societies and human beings have been prone to bouts of madness over the course of decades and centuries. Humans are a weak species, susceptible to the vagaries of greed, lust, gluttony, wrath, sloth, envy and pride. The seven deadly sins are in full bloom today, as the American empire descends through Dante’s inferno of reality TV, celebrity worship, religious zealotry, adulation of wealthy titans, military conquest and worship of false idols.

This is where the interests of those in power and those being ruled have coincided, as a fiat based monetary system allowed unlimited spending to keep the welfare/warfare state growing, enriching the crony capitalists, deepening the power of the state, and providing the masses with foreign made trinkets, baubles, corporate logoed clothing, techno-gadgets, and pimped out financed wheels. The concepts of self-restraint, discipline, saving for a rainy day, prudence, discretion, and deferred gratification are rarely displayed in modern day America. In a case of mass delusion, Americans have convinced themselves to live for today, recklessly ignore their futures, irresponsibly spend money they don’t have on things they don’t need, neglect their civic duty towards future generations, choose ignorance over knowledge, and vote for spineless politicians who promise them entitlements that are mathematically impossible to honor. The public’s foolish attitude towards debt accumulation matches the arrogance of our gutless intellectually dishonest leaders.”

"The Psychology of Manipulation: 6 Lessons from the Master of Propaganda"

"The Psychology of Manipulation: 
6 Lessons from the Master of Propaganda"
by Ryan Matters

"Edward L. Bernays was an American business consultant who is widely recognized as the father of public relations. Bernays was one of the men responsible for “selling” World War 1 to the American public by branding it as a war that was necessary to “make the world safe for democracy”. During the 1920s, Bernays consulted for a number of major corporations, helping to boost their business through expertly crafted marketing campaigns aimed at influencing public opinion.

In 1928, Edward Bernays published his famous book, "Propaganda", in which he outlined the theories behind his successful “public relations” endeavours. The book provides insights into the phenomenon of crowd psychology and outlines effective methods for manipulating people’s habits and opinions. For a book that’s almost 100 years old, "Propaganda" could not be more relevant today. In fact, its relevance is a testament to the unchanging nature of human psychology.

One of the key takeaways of the book is that mind control is an important aspect of any democratic society. Indeed, Bernays maintains that without the “conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses”, democracy simply would not “work”.

We are governed, our minds molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. According to Bernays, those doing the “governing” constitute an invisible ruling class that “understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses”.

In "Propaganda", Bernays draws on the work of Gustave Le Bon, Wilfred Trotter, Walter Lippmann, and Sigmund Freud (his uncle!), outlining the power of mass psychology and how it may be used to manipulate the “group mind”. If we understand the mechanism and motives of the group mind, is it not possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without their knowing about it?

I recently explored this topic in an essay about how occult rituals and predictive programming are used to manipulate the collective consciousness, influencing the thoughts, beliefs and actions of large groups of people, resulting in the creation of what occultists call “egregores”. Here I have extracted some key insights from Bernays in an attempt to show how his book "Propaganda" is, in many ways, the playbook used by the globalist cryptocracy to process the group mind of the masses.

1. If You Manipulate The Leader Of A Group, The People Will Follow: Bernays tells us that one of the easiest ways to influence the thoughts and actions of large numbers of people is to first influence their leader. If you can influence the leaders, either with or without their conscious cooperation, you automatically influence the group which they sway.

In fact, one of the most firmly established principles of mass psychology is that the “group mind” does not “think”, rather, it acts according to impulses, habits and emotions. And when deciding on a certain course of action, its first impulse is to follow the example of a trusted leader.

Humans are, by nature a group species. Even when we are alone, we have a deep sense of group belonging. Whether they consciously know it or not, much of what people do is an effort to conform to the ideals of their chosen group so as to feel a sense of acceptance and belonging.

This exact method of influencing the leader and watching the people follow has been used extensively throughout the last few years. One notable instance that comes to mind is the horrendously inaccurate epidemiological models created by Neil Ferguson, which formed the basis for Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s lockdown policies. Once Johnson was convinced of the need to lockdown and mask up, the people gladly followed.

2. Words Are Powerful: The Key To Influencing A Group Is The Clever Use Of Language: Certain words and phrases are associated with certain emotions, symbols and reactions. Bernays tell us that through the clever and careful use of language, one can manipulate the emotions of a group and thereby influence their perceptions and actions. By playing upon an old cliché, or manipulating a new one, the propagandist can sometimes swing a whole mass of group emotions.

The clever use of language has been employed throughout the Covid-19 pandemic to great effect. An obvious example of this was when the definition of “vaccine” was changed to include injections utilizing experimental mRNA technology. You see, the word “vaccine” is associated in the public mind with a certain picture – that of a safe, proven medical intervention that is not only life-saving but absolutely necessary.

If governments had told people to go get their “gene therapies”, the vast majority of the public would likely question the motives behind such a campaign; they would feel extremely skeptical because the phrase “gene therapy” is not associated with the same images, emotions and feelings as “vaccine”.

The same goes for the word “pandemic”, the definition of which was also changed. The word “pandemic” is generally associated in the collective consciousness with fear, death, chaos and emergency (largely thanks to Hollywood and the myriad virus films it has released over the years).

3. Any Medium Of Communication Is Also A Medium For Propaganda: Any system of communication, whether phone, radio, print, or social media, is nothing more than a means of transmitting information. Bernays reminds us that any such means of communication is also a channel for propaganda. There is no means of human communication which may not also be a means of deliberate propaganda.

Bernays goes on to stress that a good propagandist must always keep abreast of new forms of communication, so that they may co-opt them as means of deliberate propaganda. Indeed, systems that most people would associate with freedom of speech and democracy are none other than means of circulating propaganda. Facebook fact-checkers, Big Tech censorship and YouTube’s Covid banners certainly fall into this category.

Other examples of this include the recent algorithm updates made by various search engines (including Google and DuckDuckGo) to penalize Russian websites, although this should come as no surprise (Google has been engaging in this type of “shadow propaganda” for many years).

4. Reiterating The Same Idea Over And Over Creates Habits And Convictions: Although Bernays terms this a technique used by the “old propagandists”, he, nonetheless, recognizes its usefulness. It was one of the doctrines of the reaction psychology that a certain stimulus often repeated would create a habit, or that the mere reiteration of an idea would create a conviction.

Repeating the same idea or the same “mantra” again and again is a form of neuro-linguistic programming aimed at instilling certain concepts or emotions into the subconscious mind. Indeed, people who are feeling sad or depressed are often advised to repeat to themselves an uplifting saying or affirmation.

There are many examples of this simple, yet effective, technique being used to great effect over the last few years. Think Q’s “trust the plan”, the globalist favourite, “build back better” or the incessant repetition of that twisted phrase, “trust the science”. Included in this category are the 24/7-in-your-face death statistics and case numbers, aimed at promoting the illusion of a pandemic.

There are more obvious examples of this as well, such as news anchors in different areas all reading from the exact same script.

5. Things Are Not Desired For Their Intrinsic Worth, But Rather For The Symbols That They Represent: After studying why people make certain purchasing decisions, Bernays observed that people often don’t desire something for its usefulness or value, but rather because it represents something else which they unconsciously crave. A thing may be desired not for its intrinsic worth or usefulness, but because he has unconsciously come to see in it a symbol of something else, the desire for which he is ashamed to admit to himself.

Bernays gives the example of a man buying a car. From the outside, it may appear as if the man is buying the car because he needs a means of transport, but in actuality, he is buying it because he craves the elevated social status that comes with owning a motor vehicle.

This idea, too, applies to the events over the last few years. For example, masks are a symbol of compliance. Everyone knows they don’t work but they wear them because of their desire to “fit in”, and to be seen as an upstanding citizen who follows the rules. Covid-19 injections are also a symbol and many people choose to get them because they have a desire to avoid being called an “anti-vaxxer” or a “conspiracy theorist”.

6. One Can Manipulate Individual Actions By Creating Circumstances That Modify Group Customs: Lastly, Bernays tells us that if one wishes to manipulate the actions of an individual, the most effective way to do so is to create circumstances that engender the desired behavior. What are the true reasons why the purchaser is planning to spend his money on a new car instead of on a new piano? […] He buys a car, because it is at the moment the group custom to buy cars. The modern propagandist therefore sets to work to create circumstances which will modify that custom.

For example, why all of a sudden does everyone “stand with Ukraine”? According to Bernays, it’s not because there is a war going on and innocent people need our love and support, but rather because it is the new “group custom” to do so. The process of altering group customs begins from the top down. In every nation or social clique, there are leaders, public figures and influencers. Manipulating those with the most sway eventually filters down into the public mind. That is why when a celebrity decides to wear something extravagant on the red carpet, a whole new trend can arise overnight.

Similarly, at the beginning of the Covid saga and then the Russia-Ukraine war, the media were quick to circulate stories of celebs “catching Covid” and urging people to stay home, or public figures condemning Russian actions and calling for stricter sanctions (which just so happened to hurt the West more than they hurt Russia).

The Propaganda Playbook: The world is a volatile place right now. Things seem to change quickly and no one knows what might happen next. However, amid all this chaos there is one thing that has not changed and is unlikely to change any time soon, and that is human psychology. Because of this, the tactics used to manipulate people’s thoughts, beliefs and actions have not changed either. In fact, most of them were outlined in detail 100 years ago by Edward Bernays in his 1928 book, "Propaganda."

That’s right, the Puppet Master’s playbook isn’t a secret. It’s right there, freely available to anyone who cares to understand how the powers that be seek to influence them on a daily basis."
Freely download "Propaganda", by Edward L. Bernays, here:

"Tyranny of the Mobjority"

"Tyranny of the Mobjority"
Notes from the road to nowhere, plus war, 
pregnant Russians and modern representative democracy...
by Joel Bowman

"We're on a road to nowhere,
Come on inside.
Taking that ride to nowhere,
We'll take that ride."
~ Talking Heads, "Road to Nowhere" (1985)

"Welcome to yet another Sunday Sesh, dear reader, that time of the week when we poke our head above the parapet, feel for flesh wounds and praise the heavens we’re still among the quick.,Grateful to answer in the affirmative, we begin today’s epistle with a lively enough observation: There are pregnant Russian women everywhere!

Since the onset of war in Eastern Europe, millions of people have been displaced, conscripted... and worse. Among the masses are an exodus of young Russians, twenty- and thirty-somethings who grew up with dreams that didn’t include marching off to the battle front or dying face down in a muddy trench.

War is indeed the health of the state, as Randolph Bourne once observed, but it is quite another thing for the poor souls who must actually fight it. Understandably, desperate people do desperate things... even fly to the other side of the planet, to a country with 100% inflation and rolling economic crises, where they speak a foreign language and where there is little enough hope, even for the locals.

Since the start of last year, more than 22,000 Russians have arrived on these fair shores... including 5,000 pregnant women in the past few months alone. There were 33 of them on a single Ethiopian Airlines flight.

At stake for these refugees: An Argentine passport. And not just for the baby, who automatically qualifies having been born here on rich, pampas soil, but for the parents, too. This is a non-trivial upside, as Argentine passport holders can travel to 170 countries visa free; Russian passport holders, 87. (Also, Argentina is not at war with a foreign power... only with itself.)

We asked some of our porteño friends how they felt about the sudden influx of foreign nationals to their already crowded capital. Their response was uniformly welcoming, exactly as one would expect from people accustomed to separating the actions of individuals from the diktats of their governmental overlords.

And yet, the scourge of warfare exists so long as the simple-minded “Us vs. Them” narrative is allowed to persist... on both sides. Bill has been expounding on his Bad Guy Theory of late, noting what ought to be obvious to even the most uninterested bystander: the situation is always more complicated than we, “The People,” are led to believe.

And yet, whipped into a foaming, chest-thumping frenzy, there is scarcely a great cause Homo Credulous won’t get behind, provided he finds himself happily ensconced in the false security of the mobjority. Yes, dear readers, we speak here of the most sacred, fattened heifer of them all: modern, representative democracy, the very subject of today’s musing...

"Tyranny of the Mobjority"
By Joel Bowman

"Man: He’ll go along with just about anything. Given the right circumstances…a little programming…and enough time for it all to marinate in his soft, mammalian brain…there is almost nothing Homo Credulus will not learn to embrace. Don’t believe us?

Take a look at the historical record; you’ll soon wonder how we ever got this far. Sure, you’ll discover gizmos and flying contraptions…art and agriculture…music and mathematics. You’ll witness spectacular scientific breakthroughs, the number “0” and a man’s footprint on the moon. You’ll also find automobiles with so many cup holders, you won’t know where to holster your oversized 7/11 Big Gulp.

But you’ll also scratch your head. Perhaps you’ll even weep. And if you think hard enough, you’ll put a few things to serious question…“Central banks?” “Modern democracy?” “The Chelsea Handler Show?” How has mankind survived such atrocities? Self inflicted, no less! And why, moreover, does he rush so earnestly to repeat and replay his worst mistakes? (Ms. Handler has been on air since 2006!)

Don’t be too hard on yourself, Dear Reader. After all, repetition is nothing new…You’ll recall that it was the Greeks who first gave the world democracy – from the Greek, dÄ“mokratía, literally “Rule by ‘People’”. (And yes, it was those very same Greeks who put their own beloved Socrates to death…by a majority vote of 361-140.)
The beatings will continue until voter morale improves! 
Today, democracy is a cherished tenet of “the West.” It is woven into the civic religion, sewn into the social fabric. Men march off eagerly to fight for it, to proselytize it…and to die in forgotten ditches defending it. At least, that’s what they believe they’re doing. As usual, the poor saps have been duped. Herewith, a little historical context…

The phrase “Making the world safe for democracy” was actually a marketing slogan, coined back in the 1910s, as a way to sell “The Great War” to America. Weary from their own disastrous Civil War just a few decades earlier, in which hundreds of thousands of her finest sons gave up the ghost, Americans were mostly inward looking at the time. That is to say, they wanted little to do with what they largely saw as a “European affair.”

Polls might have indicated no appetite for battle…but the nation’s politicians were nonetheless starved for military misadventure. They sensed big profits abroad, both in manufacturing armaments and making onerous bank loans to foreign lands. Sure, “the nation” would have to fill tank and trench with warm young bodies…but very few soldiers would carry senatorial surnames along with their rifles. And so, after a public relations campaign of truly epic proportions, America marched off to war…wrapped in the delusion they had freshly been sold.

Eddie Bernays, the man who coined the phrase and, thus, peddled the war to America, made a fortune for his efforts. He was even invited by Woodrow Wilson to attend the Paris Peace Conference, in 1919, as a show of gratitude for his services. There, Bernays learned the full impact of his “democracy” slogan. An obviously bright fellow, the surreal experience caused him to think…"If people will line up to kill one another under the influence of a mere marketing campaign…they could surely be convinced to do, say and buy just about anything!"

Bernays was right. In fact, he wrote a series of books, detailing his insights. They included "Crystallizing Public Opinion" (1923), "A Public Relations Counsel" (1927) and a neat little number titled "Propaganda" (1928), in which Bernays laid out the blueprint for mass social and psychological manipulation. The collected works went on to become a runaway success…and the favorite of none other than Joseph Goebbles, Reich Minister for Propaganda in Nazi Germany between 1933-45.

Bernays himself, writing in his 1965 autobiography, recalls a dinner at home in 1933 where…"Karl von Wiegand, foreign correspondent of the Hearst newspapers, an old hand at interpreting Europe and just returned from Germany, was telling us about Goebbels and his propaganda plans to consolidate Nazi power. Goebbels had shown Wiegand his propaganda library, the best Wiegand had ever seen. Goebbels, said Wiegand, was using my book "Crystallizing Public Opinion" as a basis for his destructive campaign against the Jews of Germany. This shocked me. […] Obviously the attack on the Jews of Germany was no emotional outburst of the Nazis, but a deliberate, planned campaign."

It is indeed chilling to think of such a heinous undertaking as being engineered, blueprinted, premeditated and carried out according to some kind of script. And yet, there it is… in Bernays’ own words, the “Father of Propaganda.” "Having acquired somewhat of a tainted reputation-by-association, propaganda, itself, underwent a “strategic rebranding” after WWII. But make no mistake, the very same métier thrives to this day, under the more socially palatable designation, “Public Relations.” Still, a ruse by any other name...

Bread and Circuses: “Could we be so stupid again?” wonders the gentle reader. “Might the mob still be swayed by what Charles Mackay termed ‘extraordinary popular delusions and the madness of crowds?’” Why, of course! That’s the nature of the mobjority!

Whether in love, finance, politics or any other matter, man is wont to be convinced, assured, persuaded, often against his own best interests. Few are the absurdities in which he will not take refuge, invest his hard-earned capital or squander his morality. All he needs is a good story, something to arrest his imagination and cauterize his capacity for reason. A distraction from his lonely, quotidian existence, what Henry David Thoreau called the life of “quiet desperation.” A carefully constructed narrative, in other words, and a few crumbs to pass his lips.

The Roman poet, Juvenal, recognized as much when he mocked the panem et circenses (bread and circuses) stratagem almost two millennia ago. In his "Satire X", he referred to the Annona (a kind of grain dole) and the famous circus games, held in the Colosseum and elsewhere, as designed to keep the unthinking population fed and happy.

Look around you today, Dear Reader. What do you see, two millennia later, in the Year of Their Lord, 2023 AD? We’ve got reality television and Rhianna on the Super Bowl halftime show, plus food stamp programs and a Niagara of leaky bucket transfer payments. We’ve got China to the left of us, Russia to the right, and the whole bogus pretense of safety and security in between. There’s $31.6 trillion in national debt and government spending out the wazoo, all set against a nationwide crime wave, a fentanyl epidemic raging from sea to shining sea, while emotionally incontinent social justice warriors rewrite our precious culture, one children’s book at a time...

And behind it all, the greatest bread and circuses show ever invented: modern representative democracy. Now, as then, the show goes on!"
o
Talking Heads, "Road To Nowhere"