Matt Taibbi and a team of writers have created a 70 page report on the “information cartel” — the new conglomerate cabal of Big Money, Big Government and Big Tech that wants to censor and nudge you into servitude and obedience. Facebook promptly censored his report on censorship. Taibbi tweeted that out, and Facebook realized they were proving his point, and reversed it. It was “just a bug” said a Facebook executive, unconvincingly.
Click to enlarge (twice even) Illustration by mrmooremedia.com
Matt Taibbi, Racket News
Report on the Censorship-Industrial Complex
The citizen’s starter kit to understanding the new global information cartel
Until World War II, America had no permanent arms manufacturing industry. Now it did, and this new sector, Eisenhower said, was building up around itself a cultural, financial, and political support system accruing enormous power. This “conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience,” he said, adding:
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes… Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.
After sixty-plus years, most of America – including most of the American left, which traditionally focused the most on this issue – has lost its fear that our arms industry might conquer democracy from within.
The wannabee rulers seek to craft a battle against a foreign enemy seeking to control the US through “mis-, dis- and malinformation” and to frame free speech itself as “outdated”.
The “Censorship-Industrial Complex” [CIC] is just the Military-Industrial Complex reborn for the “hybrid warfare” age.
Much like the war industry, pleased to call itself the “defense” sector, the “anti-disinformation” complex markets itself as merely defensive, designed to fend off the hostile attacks of foreign cyber-adversaries who unlike us have “military limitations.” The CIC, however, is neither wholly about defense, nor even mostly focused on foreign “disinformation.” It’s become instead a relentless, unified messaging system aimed primarily at domestic populations, who are told that political discord at home aids the enemy’s undeclared hybrid assault on democracy.
The report should become the next go-to document for anyone wondering who is linked to what when yet another Disinformation Institute appears to tell us that black is white, that freedom is slavery and that your car causes storms. Just for examples, the report covers groups like Centre for Countering Digital Hate, the Trusted News Initiative, and to name a random few… ClaimBuster, DisinfoCloud, MythDetector, DisinfoWatch, FactCheck.me, and the Global Disinformation Index.
The Wall of Money feeding the Disinformation
It takes a lot of cash to keep the lies levitating so the report describes large funders and central players like “Craig Newmark Philanthropies” which gave away as much as $419m between 2018 – 2022 to disinformation initiatives and schools of journalism.
In entry number 26 Newmark is described as the “anti-disinformation” elite of the elite.
What they do/What they are selling: The idea that his money can be a “force multiplier” for battling disinformation. Craigslist’s free classified ads helped destroy local newspapers, but Newmark has found friends in journalism with gifts of $10 million to the Columbia Journalism School and $20 million to CUNY’s Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism.
Characteristic/worldview quote: “You can manipulate a person by manipulating a person’s feed. You can tell a person what to believe and maybe tell a person what to do.”
Connected to: Almost everybody, including, probably, anyone currently in the room with you.
In sum: A mega-fund core to power the explosive growth of the Censorship-Industrial complex.
But it’s not just “philanthropists” at work, the US government is funding it too:
The Aspen Institute is a fundraising powerhouse, receiving over $140 million in contributions and grants in 2021. According to USAspending.gov, the Aspen Institute has received tens of millions of dollars in grants and contracts from the U.S. government, primarily from the State Department, but also from USAID.
The following entities and foundations are listed by Aspen as donors of over $500,000 or more, with many donating over $1 million: the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; Johnson & Johnson; JP Morgan Chase Foundation; Walmart; Blackrock; and the Open Society Foundation.
Millions of dollars is paying salaries of people to write lies about how climate skeptics are funded by fossil fuels, anti-vaxxers are conspiracy theorists and to pat journalists on the back with comforting pap like: “Don’t face the Information Apocalypse alone.”
It looks daunting, but this is where it starts — shining the light on the Big Money behind the lies. Spread the word, share the message. Know the enemy.
And tell the journalists,the good guys are not the ones on the same side of the censors. Those who call themselves brave while defending The Powers That Be. Just call them minions…
REFERENCE
Report on the Censorship-Industrial Complex: The Top 50 Organizations to Know
What a curious word ‘disinformation’ is, the Oxford Dictionary gives the following meaning: “false information that is given deliberately.” Formerly known as blatant lying, especially by people who have something to hide. No wonder so many of us no longer trust or respect any politician, medical personnel or media. One of the best quotes came from Robert Kennedy Jnr recently,”The free flow of information is the sunlight and water and fertiliser of democracy.” A great notion but pretty much extinct.
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The censorious and totalitarian Left (a tautology, I know) are now more powerful than they have ever been and dominate in all Western countries and institutions. Hopefully there is more fightback from the thinking community and exposure of them by reports such as this. Well done.
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David Maddison,
You find it tautological because that’s your definition of “left”. Let me recommend Arnold Kling’s views on The Three Languages of Politics. That EconTalk is based on a short book that’s a couple of bucks on Kindle, but you get pretty much everything in the podcast.
It struck me that his “three languages” are exactly like the French motto Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite, so it’s not exactly a new idea. The traditional “left vs. right” political battle is between people who favour fairness and justice (egalite) and people who favour family, order and stability (fraternite). Liberte was of secondary concern to both sides.
In my view what we have now is a straightforward battle along the “liberte” axis, with authoritarians wanting to trample everybody regardless of fairness or stability. We can’t really call Bill Gates and his ilk left wingers — he’s not fighting for fairness — what he is is a would-be tyrant.
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David, many moons ago I was an avid reader of the US edition MAD magazine.
In one edition as I recall they had some stickers, one that stood out for me was a two liner (paraphrased).
First line in very large font
Second line smaller font
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This reminds me of Lysenko in the Soviet Union.
His ‘research’ produced results that met with the approval of Stalin, and later Mao, with the resulting famines causing the death of many millions.
Lysenko applied political power to silence opposition and eliminate his opponents within the scientific community. (Sounds familiar!)
There seems to be a high level of ignorance among the political community, or am I missing something?
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So, Facebook first uses censorship to prevent someone from talking about censorship. When caught out, they respond with ‘disinformation’. You couldn’t make this up.
Note: Funny how every time there’s a bug at Facebook or a human error at the NYT, it’s always somehow anti-conservative.
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Waiting for the “ bug “ vaccines!
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And now Elon Musk has appointed a WEF member, covid vaccine pushing, diversity, equity and inclusion believer as Twitter CEO. Shame, it was good while the (hope) lasted.
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The comment by President Eisenhower was very perceptive; a man ahead of his time.
No doubt he would have liked the diagram above, but been tempted to ask, O.K. we have detailed the problem, but when are we going to do something about it.
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KK,
Zerohedge (They also posted the report above in full) is one group who are at least pointing this out, they had a busy week;
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/why-legacy-media-wont-cover-cias-alleged-attempt-influence-2020-election
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/elites-manufacture-fake-hate-crisis-pretext-mass-spying-blacklists-and-censorship
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/watch-live-hearing-how-dhs-enables-silencing-dissent
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/fahrenheit-2023
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Now that is what I call a virus.
It even passes the Koch’s Postulate
As originally stated, the four criteria are:
(1) The microorganism must be found in diseased but not healthy individuals;
(2) The microorganism must be cultured from the diseased individual;
3) Inoculation of a healthy individual with the cultured microorganism must recapitulated the disease; and finally
(4) The microorganism must be re-isolated from the inoculated, diseased individual and matched to the original microorganism.
Select any organism and follow its path through disease and destruction.
M.turnbullis, G. gillardis, S. grantia and even the more insidious parasitical organisms that live in a host J. winstonium and G. huntus.
Wherever you put them, forget the platitudes and finery, look at the resulting rot.
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The oft repeated observation and quote ” quis custodiet Ipsos custodes” by Juvenal is correct . As always.
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As a former Decentralized Intelligence professional … mostly freelance …
in my experience, disinformation has all the classic earmarks of truth.
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“disinformation has all the classic earmarks of truth.”
To be convincing it would have to be, so it becomes impossible to tell what is truth as both sides scream ‘disinformation’ at each other..
Once it gets to “Russians are raping babies” it gets past disinformation and into ridiculous propaganda, but the same people try it on as they have to appeal to all IQ levels.
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The “Russians are raping babies” thing isn’t stupid or ridiculous. In fact, it can be very useful. It’s a technique whereby the reader’s gauge of ‘reasonableness’ or credibility gets recalibrated. Once you’ve been told enough times that the Russians are raping babies, even if you don’t believe it, you’re now more inclined to believe stories that are only a little bit less ridiculous. Your bullshitometer has been covertly tweaked – and you didn’t feel a thing.
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There ya’ go … an earmark loop.
Yeah, when Trump was painted as a sleeper Russian agent that had sex workers wet a hotel bed because Barack once slept in it, and then suggested people drink bleach for COVID, and Joe never ever met any of Hunter’s business partners, all that totally sounded like it could be true.
Plus, it is perfectly plausible that a novel corona virus would just happen accidently, by random chance, to naturally evolve right next to a corona virus lab with out even the slightest chance of the lab having anything whatever to to do with it.
Damn raccoon dogs.
Yep, just enough truth to be believable.
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Beware of Institute and foundation groups until you’ve checked them out . . .
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As I have noted before, the Left are terrified and unaccepting of alternative opinions. It’s their way or the highway. It’s interesting that Leftists are free to comment on this conservative-owned site, similarly for Elon Musk’s Twitter, but we conservatives and fellow rational thinkers are censored on “their” sites such as Farcebook, YouTube, warmist climate blogs, newspapers etc. And people are also mislead by dishonest, biased search returns on Leftist oriented search engines like Google. Even ChatGPT4 has a built-in Leftist bias.
A reasonable expectation of all those platforms is that they provide equal access for all points of view. They are, of course, privately owned and can “do as they please” with an important EXCEPTION.
In the United States where most of the Big Tech media platforms are based, they operate under Section 230 protections against repercussions for any content they carry. That’s because they are considered platforms like a telephone service or electricity supply. The supplier is not responsible for how someone uses their product. However, these media companies are clearly not acting as platforms but are publishers. They have proven this by taking editorial control of the content, i.e. censorship. Therefore they should lose the Section 230 protection offered by the U.S. Government which was originally put in place to encourage the development of the Internet industry and make ISPs not liable for inappropriate or illegal content their platforms might carry from a third party.
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David,
Even the teaching of Maths in Australia smells of built in bias.
Australian Association of Mathematics Teachers
First mission statement in the footer:
And by the way:
How to handle the new technologies:
Let’s not forget the critical areas:
And here was me believing assessment of mathematics at these levels was a right or wrong answer with potentially part marks for the workings. So the question is how does this manufactured ‘tripe’ infest an organisation and dominate the structure of its website and the direction of its discussion.
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The AAMT qualifies for the soon to be announced Australian of theYear award for Word Salads.
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Absolutely incredible.
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Last night I went to an ‘innovation hub’ networking event. Really interesting BTW. But at the start they not only did the above, but went on to “… recognise these people as the first innovators, scientists and entrepreneurs.”
Can you get any further from reality than believing that before the British settled, that indigenous tribes were practicing science and entrepreneurship?
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Celebrating the Culture is against the First Commandment
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“The supplier is not responsible for how someone uses their product. ”
That didn’t work so well for Kim Dotcom at Mega, or for Julian Assange. When the State want to destroy you, their laws mean nothing to them.
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You’re kidding, right? Don’t expect any of that to happen with the current US Administration in control and as long as a majority of platforms support the leftist narrative. I’m sure they would love to have a go at the likes of Twitter now that Musk owns and runs it, but one need to keep up appearances as well. If Twitter had an ISP that they ran their platform on, they would have tried to pull the rug from under them by that means like they did with OAN, PragerU and others but it will be a bit rich to exercise double standards so blatantly to target one party on 230 grounds while turning a blind eye to others. So for the time being nothing will happen.
But KP (post 9.2) is right, if they really want to destroy you (and if you are relatively small fry) then they’ll first whip up public sentiment against you (like they did with Assange) even if it takes years, and then go in for the kill.
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Seen the resume of the new (Elon appointed) CEO? US admin don’t have to worry.
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I use tricks to get past the Google algorithms. For instance if you use Google Advanced Search terms censored by the BBC such as “Event 201” or censored by the Fact Checkers such as “Vera Sharav”. These terms are taboo terms not mentioned by these sites. So use of these terms, block out the BBC, Fact Checkers and other Leftist biased websites.
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David said, “As I have noted before, the Left are terrified and unaccepting of alternative opinions.”
Because truth is to leftists’ dogma what sunlight is to vampires, or kryptonite to Superman – fatal. Also, their views and demands rarely survive scrutiny, hence they won’t tolerate any discussion, which is where the current ‘cancel culture’ strategy comes in. For them, dealing with conservative commentators and questions is a game of Whack-a-mole.
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I’m afraid most people today either like the new censorship or don’t know about it or don’t properly understand it.
Of course the onboard elites like it and happily promote and encourage the censors and try to keep the ignorant people happy with small crumbs and bribes.
How we tackle this with any well organised defence is a big problem and probably costs a lot of money and hard work and certainly no flash salaries and handouts to help bolster the cause.
Their so called dangerous CC is the greatest fraud and con trick ever, yet most people don’t understand the facts and can’t dispute the con merchant’s claims.
I’m not optimistic that we can quickly turn this around and even Ian Plimer recently came to the same conclusion.
In another 10 or 20 years it probably will become clearer to the majority of people ( I hope) that the entire mitigation lunacy is just a waste of time and money.
But by then the OECD countries will be a lot poorer and the wasted trillions of $ will have to be paid back.
I sincerely hope that I’m wrong.
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That’s what I was saying 10 and 20 years ago.
Still, we keep hope alive, push the message out, expose the inconsistencies, the lies and lack of actual evidence, and by the time truth has prevailed, new crises and new lies will have been promoted to feed the gullible.
Our health will continue to deteriorate until the parasites have been purged and the leeches removed.
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[…] important post by Jo Nova on the Censorship Industrial Complex, an echo of the Military Industrial Complex that grew up after WW2 and an advanced form of the […]
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This is the WEF/NWO explaining in detail how we are being manipulated and guided down a path of servitude!
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In Nineteen Eighty Four there were four Ministries between which the entire apparatus of government was divided.
The Ministry of Love is in charge of law and punishment, the Ministry of Peace controls war, the Ministry of Plenty manages rationing, and the Ministry of Truth produces propaganda.
Their names, in Newspeak: Minitrue, Minipax, Miniluv, and Miniplenty.
(Various sources.)
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All run by “MiniBoss”!!! 🙂
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Right on cue the FED Labor govt is AGAIN wasting billions of $ on new hydrogen projects to make Australia a new renewables SUPER POWER.
By why does the govt ( or taxpayers) have to fund this idiocy, surely there are plenty of WOKE companies ready and willing to fund these new GREEN ( ?????) energy fantasies?
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/05/10/certified-hydrogen-the-newest-twist-in-australias-renewable-energy-insanity/
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I’m trying to work out how we would export this stuff in significant volumes. It’s way more expensive than FF derived hydrogen and it’s difficult to transport due to its low density and has high liquefaction costs and leakage problems. There is also the issue of the enormous fresh water requirements in a dry continent. And, if we use this at home it adds significant costs to local energy prices which are already fast becoming unaffordable.
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Hydrogen transported as a fuel in comparison to other materials:-
https://twitter.com/MLiebreich/status/1596449504194367488
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Perhaps the biggest concern is the number of people that now support the new age censorship. Free speech is now described by the left as hate speech, as a justification for their push to a Marxist style censorship and control. When you look at the left’s playbook today, there are also many parallels to Nazism, with childhood indoctrination, race based ideology, the rewriting of history and increasing anti Zionism, and it’s becoming difficult to tell the two ideologies apart. History is repeating, but it’s the very worst of human history.
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C’mon Lefties.
Aren’t you going to jump in and tell us how wonderful censorship is?
Remember, you used to be against it before you took control of everything.
Hypocrites!
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you mean like banning Trans storytelling in libraries, banning critical race theory, banning all ‘woke’ concepts?
Is that what you are saying?
oh and where exactly has the left taken control of everything?
I love the idea that funding is only done one way, despite this links to the Heartland Institute (skeptics guide…)
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@Jo, we really need a LOL emoji…
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😀
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I see. Give a man a fish and he eats tonight. Teach him how to fish and he can eat for a lifetime. Brag that you know how to fish and you’re no bloody use to anyone.
In answer to Rupert’s question, here’s one way: google for Unicode emoji. You’ll find the grinning face has a code U+1F600. Replace the “U+” with “&#x” and put a trailing “;” after and you should get a grinning face: 😀
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That is the correct answer which works for any Unicode symbol.
e.g.
🌲= 🌲 (tree)In the specific case of smileys this blog will translate classic ASCII smileys into an emoji.
e.g. colon-hyphen-capitalD = 😀 and colon-hyphen-closeParenthesis = 🙂
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Keep it simple. all I did was colon capital D
this
:
then this
D
😐
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1. those things are all total nonsense
2. people have a right to control what their children are taught (and not have them sexualized or radicalized).
3. very often, in so-called ‘mainstream discourse’, it’s people who protest these things that are banned or marginalized.
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I admire your optimism in trying to convince Fitzroy and his lefty pals that sexualising primary school children is just wrong. Good luck with that.
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Other forms of child abuse are condemned.
Historical lies need to be exposed and not pushed onto children disguised as education.
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None of those things are being sought to be banned for people over the age of 18. The issues here are the political indoctrination of young children, and worse still, the sexualisation of young children, which was once considered a form of pedophilia, but now embraced by the left. This has even lead to a new term being proposed to describe pedophiles as MAPS or Minor Attracted Persons, to remove the stigma associated with the old reference. This new group obviously seeks to legitimise pedophilia and drag queens dressed up in full outfit at libraries are effectively part of that collective. This is all a very slippery slope of moral decay being pushed by the left and rightly being strongly resisted by those on the right.
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No one on the right is “banning” anything. That is a leftist tactic. Conservatives are defending parental rights to determine that which their children are exposed. Conservatives are not only banned from speaking they are attacked by mobs.
As to the adoption and expansion of the term “woke”, the left sees MAGA in everthing with which they find outrageous.
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Peter, parents have every right to control what their children are exposed to, including preventing their indoctrination by deviants and racists.
More to the point, why are these “drag queens” demanding access to children? At best, they are adult entertainers. At worst, far worse than that.
And people don’t want their children indoctrinated by racists either.
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“banning Trans storytelling in libraries”
I told y’all there would be an “I’m being victimised” post from one of the leftists real soon.
Poor PF, do you really miss the weekly story-telling that much !
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“Trans storytelling in libraries, banning critical race theory, banning all ‘woke’ concepts?”
Thing is, 97% of normal adults are not the least bit interested an ANY of these moral and ethical lies and depravities.
Most choose NOT to listen to this trash.
That is why the leftists have to attack the defenceless children with them.
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PF:
If you enjoy sitting on the lap of a bloke wearing makeup and a dress while he reads you a story, that’s up to you.
But don’t push that rubbish onto children.
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Cue an “I’m victimised” post saying they are being censored here…
… after their 2000th+ post ! 😉
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And such relentlessness leads the masses into sequacity.
https://www.thefreedictionary.com/sequacious
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As long as they can keep everyone fighting over impossible solutions to imagined problems they are safe . If we all unite and stop playing the victim and demand accountability then that will go a long way to fix it . The big question is – how long can governments hand out free money ?
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“…the most contested battlespace in the world is the space between your ears”.
Exerpted from:
https://corbettreport.substack.com/p/your-guide-to-fifth-generation-warfare
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Important to also be very discerning about who to donate your hard earned dollars to. We all like to support a good cause, but I’m very cautious nowadays – even when playing lottery.
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totalitarian control;
except this time the npc slaves are being trained to love their chains.
[like the Spanish rebels who cry out “Long live chains!” in Luis Bunuel’s The Phantom of Liberty]
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“I’ll reject your reality and substitute my own”, is a notable quote by Adam Savage from the Mythbusters show. To me it sums up the whole censorship/ disinformation/ moderation arena, which is actually now an information war. For years I have been a subscriber to a large newspaper so that I can read the news on my devices. With that subscription you have the ability to make comments on most articles. For years I have had comments rejected on a myriad of subjects which then peaked during COVID. Most comments were rejected only to be become truth within weeks or months. You knew that this newspaper was probably using the TNI type censorship. I made a fairly reasonable comment on the 2020 US election yesterday which was rejected. That’s it, subs cancelled immediately, I’ve had a gutful and now saved $400 per year. All my news will now come from Twitter, radio (local ) and probably the “free’ news feed on my phone. This blog is also a great source and I find that Jo’s articles tend to be much in advance of the usual news cycle. I might buy the occasional paper version of the newspaper- probably mostly for the footy, but even that is mostly nonsense these days. I know I am not alone.
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On the scientific integrity of Mythbusters;
https://joannenova.com.au/2018/11/climate-models-are-a-joke/#comment-2069793
Wobal Glorming is proven by their experiment.
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Never said I was a big fan of Mythbusters, just that quote!! Most of what they did was puerile nonsense, with very little actual real science.
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🙂
I got that from your post.
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A tsunami of membership into the major political parties change the base change policy and become the machine.
Period.
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the lobbyists control the party machine.
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Disinformation is in overdrive in relation to the evidence of Biden family corruption. An article in their ABC is headlined that “you should be skeptical” (something that never crossed their minds when it came to the Russia hoax). But further on it sites “evidence from a laptop SUPPOSEDLY belonging to Hunter Biden”. In the real world there is no longer any doubt whose laptop it is. Biden’s own lawyers even requested it be returned. But good old Aunty is still fighting the 2020 Presidential election.
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skeptical of anything contradicting the establishment narrative
credulous of anything that is part of the establishment narrative
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I think they devoted 2 or 3 episodes of Four Corners program to that nonsense Russian hoax story and were never sceptical. Nor did they ever retract or apologise for it.
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About time…
https://australianclimatemadness.com/2023/05/12/finally-coalition-backs-nuclear-power/
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Ps.. pity about Dutton’s comment about wanting to reduce CO2 emissions.
Totally unnecessary.
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Hold………….still receiving directions for post.
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Many forces dark and malign,
Against free speech worldwide align,
To silence the outspoken,
Whilst they the new woken,
Make all things untruthful benign.
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This is why the fascists so fear Donald Trump and are so deranged in their determination to stop him saving the US.
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It’s amazing this article comes up the day after Google AI has been trashed on its first public outing as a well taught and trained leftist toady. For most that should trash AI as a source of independent, logical inquiry into anything not closely defined by maths and science. It renders any social opinion it comes out with as totally laughable. I wonder if questions on AGW are interpreted via opinion based science or true science data? If sociology is so manipulatable then what is one to trust in anything this supposedly superhuman knowledge technology puts out?
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Good to know the BBC is policing the world.
https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/people/rebecca-skippage
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