In America today, the most important condition the tiny ruling elite running things depend on is a deceived and propagandized population incapable of figuring out how they are being manipulated, subjugated, and exploited. In other words, we truly live in an age of deception, now more than ever before.
When it comes to the root of the system, to the first cause of political, social, and economic dysfunction, all of it rests upon the ability of those in power to spread lies, false narratives and misinformation, 24/7.
With that condition in place, the increasingly fascistic ruling elite is then able to go about their real business: divide and conquer, and convince people to act against their own interests so the fruit of their labor is systematically transferred to the ruling elite.
In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act.
-- George Orwell
The current state of affairs, whereas we've basically acquiesced (because of the effects of manipulation) to giving up our constitutional rights (without much of a fight), and when income inequality has never been higher, and when economic security is vanishing by the minute all over the country, replaced by a sense of fear and apprehension as the middle class disappears and people are forced to live at a subsistence level, and when crassness, selfishness, greed and ignorance are encouraged, came about as the result of a highly coordinated strategy that some say was parked by the Powell Memo (in the 70's). This lead to the so-called "business activist movement."
The Powell Memo and the Business Activist Movement sprung by it was basically a reaction by the rich and powerful to what they saw as "too much democracy, equality, freedom, and economic security" achieved by average folks after generations of mighty struggles, coming out of the 60's. So the rich folks organized a movement to basically take over the levers of power, including political power, in order to eventually bring back the natural order of things: a subservient and ignorant population that can be easily subjugated and exploited.
Taking over the government was pretty easy. All they had to do was to first use their wealth and power to pay off politicians to tear down the proper regulatory framework that protected us against predation. That resulted in mass media conglomeration, which is now being used to "beat you over the head all they long" with false narratives and propaganda, and the tearing down of financial regulations, opening the door for the establishment of the current Wall Street criminal racketeering cartel.
And then, of course, any tyrannical ruling class needs security and enforcement of their edicts, and that explains the total information awareness police state, and the increase militarization of police forces across the country which are increasingly acting as corporate goons.
This is the core of the system... Below that, if you peel the onion one level, you have the mostly farcical political system with two corporate-controlled parties. The differences between the two party establishments are mainly aesthetic, with one appearing to be more extreme and mean-spirited than the other. In fact, those differences are played up to the maximum, with one party appealing more to extreme religious fanatics, old-style southern racists, and sadistic puritanicals; the other seems to be more reasonable, tempered, tolerant, and inclusive.
At the margins, those differences do give the voting public two different clear choices (which is the reason I never advocate giving up on electoral politics), and the consequences of one party being in power, over the other, do make a real difference in people's lives, but in the final analysis, when the system is looked at as whole, the fact remains that we are talking about a plutocracy, a Corporate State (with corporations as the paymasters of treasonous politicians of both parties), protected by a judiciary largely on the take (as well), and a total information awareness surveillance/security apparatus, and reinforced by an eerily powerful and effective propaganda machine in the form of the corporate media conglomerate.
This is the true nature of the system; in other words, the truth. It is however an inconvenient truth, for many reasons. It is inconvenient to all those who support and benefit from this arrangement, and that is why there is so much effort on truth suppression, down the power structure.
I argue that to a great extent, this truth answers this question: Do You Want an Echo Chamber at Daily Kos?
You see, and again, all the way down the power structure, those who benefit from the current system have an incentive to suppress this truth, and especially from allowing citizens to organize a social justice movement based on awareness of the true nature of the system. For obvious reasons, that's very dangerous for the tiny ruling elite that has manged to set this thing up.
We live in a nation where doctors destroy health; lawyers destroy justice; universities destroy knowledge; governments destroy freedom; the press destroys information; religion destroys morals; and our banks destroy the economy.
-- Chris Hedges
And so within the context of misinformation and propaganda, there is a role played by political hacks, opportunists, infiltrators, and sock-puppets.
Each one of them have an interest in maintaining the lie, and it is usually motivated by selfishness, greed, or misguided ideas that have been internalized. There are also other reasons, including hyper-partisanship, and the propensity to fall victims of cult of personality.
Either way, whether these folks are political hacks, opportunists, infiltrators, sock-puppets or true believers, in the final analysis they are dishonest in that what they do is to pretend to be one thing, while actually being something else. They are not interested in the truth per se, but on moving their agenda forward, on maintaining their position, their advantage, on protecting their paymasters, the establishment, the approved narrative.
I usually stay away from labeling these issues as Left wing vs. Right wing vs. Centrists, or Pragmatists, etc., because I think that to a certain extent those distinctions are themselves manipulative abstractions.
In other words, whether workers should have rights, or whether children should be protected from child-labor exploitation, or whether there should be a livable minimum wage, or whether we should dump toxic waste into our rivers and streams, etc., to me are not left or right issues, but issues of social and economic justice.
And so, that is why they use disruptive truth suppression tactics, that is why they obfuscate, lie, rely on smokescreens, false narratives, and outright propaganda. And especially, that is why they are always insisting that all issues are considered through a false dichotomy dictum, either/or, when in fact there is no reason to do view any of the big issues we need to confront in that manner.
You can be politically active, campaign, volunteer, man phone banks, post flyers and posters, make phone calls, during political campaigns, AND you can also demand justice, expose corruption, and engage in all manner of social justice activism, protest rallies, etc.
For far too long, these folks have been able to operate more or less in the shadows, impersonating as good-faith debaters while being anything but, hence disrupting others from being able to engage in what is arguably the very hard work of figuring out the true nature of the system, without which no real effective solutions can be gleaned.
Corporations write our legislation. They control our systems of information. They manage the political theater of electoral politics and impose our educational curriculum. They have turned the judiciary into one of their wholly owned subsidiaries. They have decimated labor unions and other independent mass organizations, as well as having bought off the Democratic Party, which once defended the rights of workers. With the evisceration of piecemeal and incremental reform—the primary role of liberal, democratic institutions—we are left defenseless against corporate power.
-- Chris Hedges
But people are smarting up and figuring out
the tactics being used by these bad-faith actors, and slowly, whether they are political hacks, opportunists, (government/corporatons-paid) sock-puppets or infiltrators, or misguided true believers, they are not going to be able to prevent people from not only figuring out the true nature of the system, but from organizing against it in the pursuit of true democracy and respect for the Constitution, for justice, and the rule of law.
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Market For The People |
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