On a few occasions during different debates here I've read statements that pretty much claimed that Daily Kos was kind of like a friendly neighborhood sports bar where people talk about this and that, not really getting into in-depth analyses or discussions about the big issues/challenges we're facing.
I take that argument as a kind of tongue-in-cheek push back against the discussion of certain issues in a certain way, i.e., deviating from the mainly partisanship tone and tenor of the site.
Anyways, I've been thinking about that and wanted to get an idea from readers about the reasons they write diaries, or participate in discussion threads. I assume that people write for all kinds of reasons, anywhere from just passing the time and interacting with others (the friendly sports bar analogy), to calling attention to important issues (wrongs, injustices, political activities), to hard-core social justice activism.
As to myself, I would say that what animates me to write is a desire to understand the mechanism by which those in power attempt to deceive us, to lie, manipulate, and exploit. In other words, my thing is to try to understand (to the best of my abilities) how those in power use propaganda to try to manipulate the citizenry. Regarding this topic, there is one particular article I recommend: The Propaganda System That Has Helped Create a Permanent Overclass Is Over a Century in the Making.
The reason I think this is important is because I've seen hopeful signs during the last couple of years; I remember over ten years ago some people calling attention to the rising police state, to the corporate state (the capture of government by corporations), and throughout most of that time those arguments were not taken seriously. But now, all of the sudden, and especially after the birth of the Occupy Wall Street movement (in 2011), the recognition of those issues as central to the discussion of the actual state of affairs of the country are going mainstream (at least in political and social justice circles).
What I find remarkable is that this has happened against the backdrop of what I consider to be an almost overwhelming and relentless propaganda campaign by the ruling elite to muddle the waters, to keep what they are doing hidden, to spread false narratives.
That's why I think that people like Chris Hedges, Amy Goodman, Juan Gonzalez, Bill Moyers, and former kossacks David Sirota, Cenk Uygur, and Glenn Greenwald, and many other truth-tellers deserve to be recognized as true warriors against the almost overwhelming barrage of propaganda and misinformation being peddled by the corporate state and its sycophants.
Of course, that battle never ends... At least for me, one particular area of interest now is how the corporate-controlled faux-left do their thing. I actually find the damage they do even more pernicious an insidious because their intention is to get through the normal cognitive defenses of liberals and progressives. One case in point, in my opinion, is MSNBC, among others. I think this topic is covered masterfully by Chris Hedges in the article "The Treason of Intellectuals."
The other day I read an article about this topic which argued that the process by which people reach an accurate understanding about these issues is through the process of discovery, of not only asking questions, but of entertaining or considering different answers to those questions.
It is this process of discovery that propagandists, political hacks, and misguided true believers seek to disrupt, and this is done in multiple ways. When it comes to online forums, there is one particular source on this topic which I think accurately deconstruct the process: The 15 Rules of Truth Suppression.
Another thing to keep in mind is that you will usually see those types of tactics being used when the focus of an argument is pointed towards established powers, seeking to disrupt the status quo in any way. Again, a good primer on the twisted psychology of those who engage in that type of disruption (and embrace the status quo) can be found in Chris Hedge's article I mentioned above.
Finally, as to the question "Why are you here?" in my case I like the idea of engaging in the type of discovery that leads to uncovering lies, misinformation, false narratives, pablum, an outright corruption. I just see it as trying to do the best I can (within my capabilities) to be an engaged citizen. And hopefully any findings I'm able to ascertain (as much as that's possible) will then inform my decisions when it comes to political involvement, with the ultimate goal to helping not only elect more and better Democrats, but on letting politicians know that we are keeping a watchful eye on what they are doing, on influence-peddling corruption, and the injustices born from it.
The bottom line? It is a good thing to question those in power, to speak truth to power, to engage in the process of discovery. You don't have to get the right answer immediately as long as your motivation is always to get to the truth of things.
But that process is sometimes arduous; you have to connect the dots, build the evidence, and as you do, you'll reach certain conclusions, and then you build on that.
That right there, that process, is what disinformation artists seek to disrupt. Those who write about this stuff suggest that one of the best ways of blunting the effects of disinfo artists is to be aware of the tactics. I happen to agree.
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