VS staatscensuur op Facebook (ook in de EU)

Facebook maakte onlangs bekend dat het de strijd verder aangaat met 'fake news' ('nepnieuws') door samen te werken met 2 propaganda organen van de overheid, het National Democratic Institute (NDI) en het International Republican Institute (IRI). Eerder werd al bekendgemaakt dat Facebook samenwerkt met de rechtse, door de NAVO gesteunde Atlantic Council (dat lobbyt voor de buitenlandse terreur van de VS en haar oorlogshond de NAVO, plus uiteraard het militair-industrieel complex)......

Met name 'linkse' alternatieve mediaorganen die op internet werkzaam zijn zoals Common Dreams, worden al aangepakt door Facebook, waardoor de zichtbaarheid van deze sites op het platform zwaar is teruggebracht........

Het is dan ook meer dan duidelijk dat de VS steeds verder verandert in een politiestaat, inclusief de daarbij horende censuur......

Bovendien is Facebook met deze samenwerking verworden tot het zoveelste propaganda orgaan van de VS, de grootste terreurentiteit op onze kleine aarde........ Ofwel het sociale netwerk wordt opgescheept met censuur en dat voor het zogenaamd brengen van 'fake news' (nepnieuws) en propaganda, terwijl de 'normale' reguliere (massa-) media voortdurend fake news en propaganda brengen (en zichzelf daarbij censureren, althans als het gaat om artikelen van de journalisten die werken voor die media, maar die hun werk nog wel serieus nemen.....)

De meeste nieuws en actualiteiten sites en blogs op het internet danken hun ontstaan juist aan de smerige berichtgeving in/op de reguliere (massa-) media, berichtgeving die zoals gezegd bol staat van nepnieuws en propaganda voor de huidige inhumane neoliberale maatschappij en waar de illegale oorlogen van de VS op basis van doorzichtige leugens worden voorgesteld als absoluut noodzakelijk, zelfs als dat meer dan 1,5 miljoen doden kost, zoals in het geval van de illegale oorlog die de VS en NAVO partners in 2003 tegen Irak begonnen....... 

Facebook heeft in samenspraak met de fascistische apartheidsstaat Israël, besloten een groot aantal accounts van Palestijnen te verwijderen van haar platform........ Alsof de Palestijnen zionisten onderdrukken....... 

Lees het volgende artikel van Alan MacLeod, eerder gepubliceerd op FAIR.org, door mij overgenomen van Anti-Media, en geeft het door, ook in Nederland gaat men dezelfde kant op, bovendien is de censuur op Facebook ook van toepassing op Nederlandse accounts.....

Meet Facebook’s New Propaganda Partners

September 26, 2018 at 2:46 pm

Written by Alan Macleod

(FAIR) — Media giant Facebook recently announced (Reuters, 9/19/18) it would combat “fake news” by partnering with two propaganda organizations founded and funded by the US government: the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and the International Republican Institute (IRI). The social media platform was already working closely with the NATO-sponsored Atlantic Council think tank (FAIR.org, 5/21/18).

                    

Reuters (9/19/18) described two branches of the National Endowment for Democracy, set up by the Reagan administration during the Cold War to promote US foreign policy objectives, as “two US nonprofits.”

In a previous FAIR article (8/22/18), I noted that the “fake news” issue was being used as a pretext to attack the left and progressive news sites. Changes to Facebook’s algorithm have reduced traffic significantly for progressive outlets like Common Dreams (5/3/18), while the pages of Venezuelan government–backed TeleSur English and the independent Venezuelanalysis were shut down without warning, and only reinstated after a public outcry.

The Washington, DC–based NDI and IRI are staffed with senior Democratic and Republican politicians; the NDI is chaired by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, while the late Sen. John McCain was the longtime IRI chair. Both groups were created in 1983 as arms of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a Cold War enterprise backed by then–CIA director William Casey (Jacobin, 3/7/18). That these two US government creations, along with a NATO offshoot like the Atlantic Council, are used by Facebook to distinguish real from fake news is effectively state censorship.

Facebook’s collaboration with the NED organizations is particularly troubling, as both have aggressively pursued regime change against leftist governments overseas. The NDI undermined the Sandinista government of Nicaragua in the 1980s, and continues to do so to this day, while the IRI claimed a key role in the 2002 coup against leftist President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, announcing that it had

“served as a bridge between the nation’s political parties and all civil society groups to help Venezuelans forge a new democratic future…. We stand ready to continue our partnership with the courageous Venezuelan people.”

The Reuters report (9/19/18) mentioned that Facebook was anxious to better curate what Brazilians saw on their feeds in the run-up to their presidential elections, which pits far-right Jair Bolsonaro against leftist Fernando Haddad. The US government has a long history of undermining democracy in Brazil, from supporting a coup in 1964 against the progressive Goulart administration to continually spying on leftist President Dilma Rousseff (BBC, 7/4/15) in the run-up to the parliamentary coup against her in 2016 (CounterSpin, 6/2/17).

           

Glenn Greenwald (Intercept, 12/30/17) reported that “Facebook has been on a censorship rampage against Palestinian activists who protest the decades-long, illegal Israeli occupation, all directed and determined by Israeli officials.”

Soon after it partnered with the Atlantic Council, Facebook moved to delete accounts and pages connected with Iranian broadcasting channels (CNBC, 8/23/18), while The Intercept (12/30/17) reported that in 2017 the social media platform met with Israeli government officials to discuss which Palestinian voices it should censor. Ninety-five percent of Israeli government requests for deletion were granted. Thus the US government and its allies are effectively using the platform to silence dissenting opinion, both at home and on the world stage, controlling what Facebook‘s 2 billion users see and do not see.

Progressives should be deeply skeptical that these moves have anything to do with their stated objective of promoting democracy. Bloomberg Businessweek (9/29/17) reported that the far-right Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) party went to Facebook headquarters for discussions with US companies about how it could use the platform for recruitment and micro-targeting in the 2017 elections. AfD tripled its previous vote share, becoming the third-largest party in Germany, the far right’s best showing since World War II.

Public trust in government is at 18 percent—an all-time low (Pew, 12/14/17). There is similar mistrust of Facebook, with only 20 percent of Americans agreeing social media sites do a good job separating fact from fiction. And yet, worldwide, Facebook is a crucial news source. Fifty-two percent of Brazilians, 61 percent of Mexicans, and 51 percent of Italians and Turks use the platform for news; 39 percent of the US gets their news from the site.

This means that, despite the fact that even its own public mistrusts it, the US government has effectively become the arbiter of what the world sees and hears, with the ability to marginalize or simply delete news from organizations or countries that do not share its opinions. This power could be used at sensitive times, like elections. This is not an idle threat. The US created an entire fake social network for Cubans that aimed to stir unrest and overthrow the Cuban government, according to the Guardian (4/3/14).

That a single corporation has such a monopoly over the flow of worldwide news is already problematic, but the increasing meshing of corporate and US government control over the means of communication is particularly worrying. All those who believe in free and open exchange of information should oppose Facebook becoming a tool of US foreign policy.

By Alan Macleod / Republished with permission / FAIR.org / Report a typo

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Zie ook:
'Facebook censuur gestuurd door het westers militair-industrieel complex en de NAVO in het bijzonder..........'

'Facebook en Twitter verwijderen nu volledige accounts.........'

'The US military’s vision for state censorship'

'Why the Coordinated Alternative Media Purge Should Terrify Everyone' (Tyler Durden op Zero Hedge)

'First They Came for Alex Jones — We Told You We Were Next — We Were' (Matt Agorist op The Free Thought Project)

'9/11 forum geblokkeerd, de waarheid mag niet gezegd worden........'

'Facebook (en Twitter) onderdrukt meningsvorming door het verwijderen van (echt) onafhankelijke media'

'Wie het nieuws controleert, controleert de wereld......'

'Facebook en Twitter verwijderen de eerlijke journalistiek en oprechte opinie >> censuur.....'

Facebook verlaat 'tranding news' voor 'brekend nieuws' van 80 reguliere mediaorganen, ofwel nog meer 'fake news.....''

'Facebook komt met nieuwsshows van betrouwbare media als CNN en Fox News.... ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha!'

'Censuur op het internet met vliegende start in de VS, 'het land van het vrije woord....''

'Facebook en NAVO werken samen in censuur op niet welgevallig nieuws......'

'Facebook helpt Saoedi-Arabië: doodstraf door onthoofding van vrouw die het waagde kritiek te uiten.....'

'Aanval op alternatieve media 'succesvol': meer en meer sites worden van het net geweerd.........'

'ThinkProgress eiste censuur van Facebook en werd inderdaad gecensureerd.... ha! ha! ha! ha!'

'VS staatscensuur op Facebook (ook in de EU)'

'Facebook stelt perstituee van New York Times aan als censuur-agent...... ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha!'

'Het echte Facebook schandaal: manipulatie van de gebruikers en gratis diensten voor eertijds presidentskandidaat Obama.......'

'Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook doneerde aan de politici die hem in de VS aan de tand voelden >> in het EU parlement maakte hij gebruik van megalomane EU politici.....'

'Facebook wil samen met door Saoedi-Arabië gesubsidieerde denktank censureren.... ha! ha! ha! ha! ha!'

'Media Too Busy Defending John McCain to Report the News That Actually Affects You' Onder andere aandacht voor PRISM.

'Westerse massa misleiding in aanloop naar WOIII......'

'VS gebruikt sociale media om 'fake comment' te verspreiden en de bevolking te hersenspoelen met leugens, ofwel 'fake news....''

'Eis een nee tegen censuur op het internet!' 

'Facebook e.a. hebben lak aan AVG (GDPR), misbruik persoonsgegevens gaat gewoon door.......'

'Jeremy Corbyn wordt gedemoniseerd als antisemiet.......'

'VS gebruikt sociale media om 'fake comment' te verspreiden en de bevolking te hersenspoelen met leugens, ofwel 'fake news....''

'Facebook: verrijking van oliemaatschappijen en andere grote bedrijven, plus wereldwijde corruptie.......'

'Rusland krijgt alweer de schuld van hacken, nu van oplichters Symantec en Facebook....... ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha!'

Facebook Purges Independent Media for “Political Disinformation”

Facebook Blocks Links to Free Speech Competitor ‘Minds’

Hier nog wat links over de ongebreidelde agressie, beter gezegd terreur van de VS:
'VS buitenlandbeleid sinds WOII: een lange lijst van staatsgrepen en oorlogen..........'

'List of wars involving the United States'

'VS vermoordde meer dan 20 miljoen mensen sinds het einde van WOII........'

'VS: openlijke militaire oefening met terreurgroep in Syrië......'

'NAVO gaat VS helpen in Zuid-Amerika terreur uit te oefenen: Colombia lid van de NAVO.........'

'VS commando's vechten o.a. in Midden- en Zuid-Amerika, aldus het VS ministerie van oorlog.........'

'De VS, een duivels imperium, dat achter haar psychopathisch moordende troepen staat??'

'De war on drugs is veel dodelijker dan over het algemeen gedacht'

'Terreuraanslag in Iran moet acties uitlokken die de VS tot een oorlog met Iran 'dwingen''

Arabieren en Afghanen zijn bepaald niet bedroefd om de dood van McCain......

In een opiniestuk van As’ad AbuKhalil in Consortium News (door mij overgenomen van Anti-Media), beschrijft hij hoe anders arabieren en een volk als de Afghanen kijken naar de dood van oorlogsmisdadiger, oorlogshitser en grootlobbyist van het militair-industrieel complex McCain.

In een voorbeeld geeft hij aan hoe verschillend alleen al een uitspraak van McCain wordt geïnterpreteerd door westerlingen of arabieren. Een vrouw in een zaal waar hij vanwege z'n presidentscampagne van 2008 sprak, kreeg van McCain als reactie op haar uitlating dat Obama een arabier is, dat Obama geen arabier is, hij is een nette familieman. Westerse media jubelden 't uit, wat een fantastische man die McCain, immers hij zou als republikein Obama hebben verdedigd...... 

Deze ontkenning van McCain zal iemand die goed geïnformeerd is over WOII, doen denken aan ontkenningen in en na de oorlog, de ontkenning dat iemand geen fanatieke nazi kan/kon zijn, daar hij een 'nette familieman' was...... Zoals men na de oorlog maar al te vaak ontdekte van fanatieke psychopathische nazi's die in concentratiekampen tekeergingen, zoals kampcommandanten, die thuis de brave huisvader uithingen.... 

Hoe een arabier over deze uitspraak zal oordelen is wel duidelijk, hij of zij ziet in de uitspraak van McCain een bevooroordeelde westerse klootzak, die stelt dat een arabier geen nette persoon kan zijn........

Uiteraard zien arabieren McCain zoals hij was, een smerige oorlogsmisdadiger door wie tienduizenden mensen om het leven zijn gekomen, zo stond de schoft ook achter de illegale oorlog tegen Irak (intussen meer dan 1,5 miljoen doden...), sterker nog, daar was hij al meteen na 9/11 voorstander van, zoals hij ook voorstander was van de illegale oorlog tegen Syrië (al vanaf 2006 voorbereid door de VS, natuurlijk met hulp van McCain....), verder was hij voor een oorlog tegen Iran..... 

Waarbij dit alles nog opgeteld moet worden, dat hij terreurstaat Israël zwaar steunde en alle bloedvergieten door die fascistische apartheidsstaat niet eens bekritiseerde, neem het grote aantal moorden begaan door Israëlische scherpschutters, die sinds maart dit jaar aan de grens met de Gazastrook een groot aantal ongewapende, vreedzaam demonstrerende Palestijnen hebben doodgeschoten*, terwijl ze zich NB op 'Palestijns grondgebied' bevonden...... Daarbij vermoordden deze psychopaten zelfs kinderen, invaliden, duidelijk herkenbare journalisten en als zodanig herkenbare medisch hulpverleners...... McCain was veel eerder zelfs tegen de onderhandelingen van Israël met Yasser Arafat (PLO)........

Lees het uitstekende stuk van AbuKhalil voor veel meer duidelijkheid (zo vertelt hij dat de directeur van Human Rights Watch een lovend stuk over McCain schreef....), voorts zie de berichten over McCain onder de links, die weer onderaan in dit bericht terug zijn te vinden:

Being on the deadly end of his policies, many Arabs view John McCain in a very different way than the U.S. mass media has presented him.

The destruction of Mosul. (Wikimedia Commons)

(CN Op-ed) — It is not unusual that Arabs and Americans look at the same event from divergent lenses. Take, for instance, a scene from John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign when he told  a woman in the audience who had called Obama an Arab: “No, Ma`am. He is not an Arab. He’s a decent family man.”

That brief exchange has been tweeted and retweeted thousands of time in the last few days following McCain’s death. It has been promoted by people in mainstream media (and think tanks and academia) as evidence of the civility, “classiness”, and lack of prejudice of McCain.  Yet, Arabs saw something entirely different in that exchange.  They saw bigotry from McCain, who was denying that Obama was Arab in the same way one denies that someone is a Nazi.  He clearly implied that an Arab can’t be a decent family man.  In fact, Gen. Colin Powell was the only U.S. politician who pointed this out at the time.  But a new image of McCain is being formulated before our eyes.

For Arabs in the Middle East and in the U.S., the view of McCain does not conform to the hagiography of U.S. media.  People in the region remember well that McCain supported every U.S. and Israeli war, invasion, or attack against any Arab target. They remember that he was a major proponent of invading Iraq and argued for the expansion of U.S. wars into Iran, Libya and Syria in the wake of Sep. 11.

While the Washington director of Human Rights Watch was writing tributes to McCain, Arabs were remembering him as a champion of Middle East dictators (except those on bad terms with the U.S. and Israel.) It was not a coincidence that both the official Saudi regime lobby in DC and AIPAC promptly released emotional eulogies for McCain. The English-language, Arab Times (a mouthpiece of Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman) dedicated a special issue to him.

McCain never wavered in his conformity with AIPAC’s agenda.  He never had disagreements with the Israeli government except in outbidding them in his hostility to Palestinian rights and the usefulness of negotiations with Arabs.

Yet in the context of Washington politics, McCain was not regarded as the anti-Arab/anti-Muslim that he was, perhaps because there were Arabs and Muslims that he approved of. He championed, for instance, Iraqi opposition figure Ahmad Chalabi (a key fabricator in the buildup to the U.S. invasion of Iraq) and the Afghan Muhajedeen. He was very close to Arab despots and approved arms sales to their repressive armies and intelligence apparatuses. He spoke of democracy but in the way that invading and colonizing states glorify “freedom” to justify conquest.

McCain was a champion of Syrian rebels and pictures of him with Jihadi extremists (in Libya and in Syria) were circulated by Arabs on social media in the last week. while the Washington press corps and Human Rights Watch were paying tribute him as “a defender of democracy.”

Schooled by Scoop

McCain was mentored on the Middle East, according to his biographies, by Henry “Scoop” Jackson, who for years was the dean of ardent Zionists in the U.S. Congress. Those were in the days when a few members—mostly Republicans—dared to challenge AIPAC. McCain’s first trip to Israel was a member of a delegation led by Jackson when McCain was the Navy’s liaison to the Senate.  Typically, like all U.S. politicians who visit Israel, McCain became convinced by  the view from Israeli military helicopters of the vulnerability of “little Israel” and that Israel needed to continue to occupy, invade, attack and assassinate.

Self-propelled howitzers of the Gaddafi forces, destroyed by French Rafale airplanes at the west-southern outskirts of Benghazi, Libya, in March 2011 in another war backed by McCain. (Wikimedia Commons)

In Congress, McCain managed to become associated with AIPAC’s agenda more than his colleagues. He always argued for more support for Israel. And when Israel and the U.S. both accepted negotiations with Yasser Arafat, he remained skeptical, raising doubts about the intentions of the Palestinians.

After his election to Congress, McCain quickly set himself up as an expert on defense and foreign policy. His first foreign policy posture in Congress was in 1983, when he opposed U.S. intervention in Lebanon, but not on humanitarian grounds. Instead he basically argued that far more force was needed against Syria and its allies in Lebanon. This became a pattern for the Vietnam veteran: that more force is always needed wherever U.S. troops are deployed. Some attribute the “surge” to him, as if the surge really salvaged American fortunes in Iraq.

In an article written during his 2008 presidential campaign, The New York Times talked about the McCain Doctrine and referred to his reaction to Sep. 11, when he argued for war on Syria, Iran, and Afghanistan.  For McCain, war was the only recourse for dealing with foes of the U.S. and Israel. And war was not effective for McCain without massive force and heavy troop deployments.

The Senator and the Ikhwan

McCain was a champion of the Muslim Brotherhood (Jam’iyat al-Ikhwan al-Muslimin), even if that put him at odds with Gulf rulers who he also supported.  This position may seem uncharacteristic given his longstanding fealty to AIPAC and its agenda, and his general unfriendliness to Arabs and Muslims. But McCain may have undertaken this role at the behest of AIPAC.

Homs, Syria

In the aftermath of the Arab uprisings, McCain negotiated with leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria, Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt.  It was after a series of visits from leaders of those movements to Washington that they basically reversed their traditional position on Israel. Leaders of An-Nahda rescinded their plan to criminalize normalization with Israel, while leaders of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood pledged commitment to the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty. 

Similarly, the stance of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood abandoned any hostility toward Israel and even toward its occupation of the Golan heights.  McCain’s confidence in the ability of the Ikhwan to deliver the interests of Israel and U.S., led him to oppose Sisi’s coup as he trusted that Mohammed Morsi would be able to guard U.S. interests and the interests of the Egyptian-Israeli military-intelligence alliance.

McCain became, in this manner, an unabashed champion of what is called in the West (and in the Gulf regimes’ media) the “Syrian revolution”.  He also trusted the Islamists in the “revolution” and hoped that Israeli interests would be served by a change of regime that would be aligned with the U.S. and Israel. The risk of promoting Jihadi Islamist rebels was, for McCain and the Israeli lobby, worth the effort.  For that, McCain’s death was mourned by leaders of the “liberal” exile opposition and by Jihadis of the Syrian rebels, including Huthaifah `Azzam, the son of `Abdullah `Azzam (the mentor of Usamah bin Laden). (Huthaifah `Azzam later deleted his post after I drew attention to it).

The career of McCain intersected with the rise of AIPAC on Capitol Hill.  He also benefited from the Reagan and Bush Doctrines, both of which relied on the use of massive force against the enemies of U.S. and Israel.

The assessment of McCain can’t hope to achieve a measure of balance given the adulation by mainstream media for a man whose political sins were always instantly forgotten.  His reference to Vietnamese by a pejorative term was seen as an example of his frank talk—not of his prejudice. His involvement with Charles Keating was seen as an example of a minor error and not of the corruption of an influential senator.  His endorsement of war, the Israeli occupation, and his embrace of tyrants (especially in the Gulf and North Africa) have not been perceived as inconsistent with the media’s image of a champion of human rights.

In the end, John McCain was a major face of American empire, just as were two people who attended his funeral–Obama and Bush –and one who did not, Trump.

By As’ad AbuKhalil / Republished with permission / Consortium News / Report a typo

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* Het totale aantal doden sinds maart dit jaar, Palestijnse mensen die door 'heldhaftige scherpschutters werden vermoord) lag op 13 augustus jl. op 168 waaronder 23 kinderen..... Het aantal gewonden (van licht- tot zwaargewond) lag op meer dan 20.000..... (waarbij 68 Palestijnen een amputatie moesten ondergaan...)

Zie ook:
'McCain terminaal ziek: vier als het zover is zijn dood luidruchtig, niets om je voor te schamen'

'McCain oorlogsmisdadiger >> massaal ten onrechte geëerd na z'n dood'

'John McCaine: politieke helden zijn op den duur meestal teleurstellend'

'Begrafenis McCain: onbeschaamde verering van een massamoordenaar en oorlogshitser'

Begrafenis McCain: onbeschaamde verering van een massamoordenaar en oorlogshitser

Caitlin Johnstone zal waarschijnlijk wel de persoon zijn die zich in de VS het meest heeft geërgerd aan het eren van oorlogsmisdadiger John McCaine. Niet vreemd dus dat ze woedend is over de hysterische aandacht voor een paar seconden video van de begrafenis ceremonie, waarin massamoordenaar George W. Bush snoep geeft aan Michelle Obama.

Lees het artikel van Johnston en verbaas je over de smerige propaganda die de begrafenis van oorlogsmisdadiger McCain omgaf. Overigens dit geldt bepaald niet alleen voor de VS, ook in de EU en daarmee in Nederland doet men alsof een tweede Nelson Mandela is gestorven i.p.v. een doortrapte oorlogshitser en oorlogsmisdadiger........ (daarmee was McCain tevens een grootlobbyist voor het militair-industrieel complex dat veelvuldig politici financieel steunt, bijvoorbeeld voor het voeren van campagne voorafgaand aan verkiezingen in de VS......)

In het artikel gaat Johnstone o.a. in op het dagelijks hersenspoelen van de VS bevolking, een indoctrinatie die erop is gericht zoveel mogelijk oorlog te voeren en schoften als McCain op te hemelen als moreel hoogstaande vredestichters...... E.e.a. uiteraard mogelijk gemaakt door politici en vooral de reguliere (massa-) media*, die zo lopen te schreeuwen over 'fake news' (nepnieuws), maar ondertussen ongegeneerd propaganda maken voor het terroristische buitenlandbeleid van de VS en letterlijk liegen dat het gedrukt staat over de illegale oorlogen die de VS (met de NAVO aan de hand) voert in landen waar het niets, maar dan ook helemaal niets heeft te zoeken.....

The Internet Loses It Over Bush Sneaking a Piece of Candy to Michelle Obama

September 3, 2018 at 12:07 am

Written by Caitlin Johnstone

(CJ Opinion) — As of this writing, a tweet by disgraced Broadway fraud convict Roland Scahill has 90 thousand shares and 362 thousand likes, which if you’re not used to Twitter is a ridiculously high amount that nobody generally hits. The tweet features nothing but four seconds of video footage from the John McCain funeral, and the caption “George W. Bush sneaking a piece of candy to Michelle Obama is warming my heart.”

Roland Scahill

✔@rolandscahill

George W. Bush sneaking a piece of candy to Michelle Obama is warming my heart .

4:58 PM - Sep 1, 2018

• 483K
• 124K people are talking about this

That’s it. That’s all it took to win Twitter for the day. Those four seconds of footage have been circulated around TV news stations to ‘ooh’s and ‘ahh’s of fawning establishment pundits yammering incessantly about how the death of War Hero John McCain™ has let everyone Put Aside Our Political Differences™ and Come Together As Americans™ to celebrate the life of a man who dedicated his entire political career to sowing death, suffering and devastation at every opportunity. A war criminal giving a piece of candy to the wife of another war criminal at the funeral of a war criminal is all it took to get mainstream American brains gushing with dopamine and oxytocin.

Because that’s how compartmentalized Americans are from the reality of what war is and what it means. The explosions, the screams, the charred and shredded human bodies, the chaos and displacement and all the suffering, terrorism, slavery and rape that necessarily always comes with it, the million Iraqis killed under Bush, the unfathomable humanitarian disasters created in Libya and Syria under Obama, all the devastation created in all the military interventions McCain helped push for, all of that is so peripheral and distant in American consciousness that it can be dismissed with a wave of the hand and a piece of fucking candy.

And it isn’t really their fault. The more woke Americans who’ve grown to resent their brainwashed countrymen hate it when I say this, but it isn’t. It’s not a coincidence that the nation with the most powerful military in the history of civilization and the most billionaires in the history of civilization also happens to have the most sophisticated propaganda system in the history of civilization, and that propaganda system is pointed at them from a very early age to normalize the war machine that is used to protect the empire of the billionaires.

The United States is the most important player in the imperial alliance centralized around it, and therefore its citizenry are necessarily the most propagandized people on earth. You can’t have the populace of such an important nation suddenly demanding that troops be brought home and the resources being spent on bombs be spent eliminating the economic inequality on which your empire depends instead, so you’ve got to get into their minds early and aggressively to manipulate the way they think about war. Everything from flag worship to the fetishization of military personnel to Pentagon-controlled Hollywood movies are used from early childhood to install the assumption that their nation’s bloated military budget is only ever going toward good and never evil, and to prime their minds for the war propaganda they will be fed by the plutocrat-owned news media.

Margaret Kimberley@freedomrideblog

McCain killed people in Vietnam and supported killing people elsewhere. GWBush killed 1 million Iraqis and Obama killed thousands and brought slavery to Libya. But Bush gives Michelle Obama a piece of candy so let's just forget about all that.

11:41 PM - Sep 1, 2018

• 2,945
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Day after day after day after day, from when they are small until their dying breath, the American psyche is pummeled with this relentless assault upon its natural sense of empathy and reason. So it’s understandable that every now and then one of them snaps and shoots up a building full of people, inflicting the same kind of mass murder at home they’ve been trained to accept as normal abroad. And it’s understandable that they’d be duped into thinking the monstrous evils that have been inflicted upon our world by Bush, Obama and McCain (and Henry Kissinger, who also made an appearance at the funeral) are innocent little oopsie-poopsies which pale in comparison to something so monumentally heroic as correcting a woman who called Obama an Arab once, or sharing a piece of candy.

But if Americans are ever going to escape from the chains of oligarchy, they’re necessarily going to have to cease consenting to imperialism. Without their resources being funneled into hundreds of bases and countless military and intelligence operations overseas, there’d be a chance to fix America’s infrastructure and make sure everyone gets what they need. Without the US economy being propped up with the barrel of a gun to ensure the success of globalist agendas, Americans would have a chance to create a real economy based on real things that they themselves own and control. Without the ability to use the US war machine to advance their agendas, the oligarchs who control America’s economy, government and media will be unable to rule over the increasingly wealthy and powerful masses. Without the best technology and the brainpower of the brightest Americans being sucked up into the war machine, the nation’s most creative minds will lose their incentive to point their ingenuity at death and destruction, and can point it at useful innovations instead.

And then the propaganda machine which holds the whole empire together will be useless and impotent, and the shackles on American minds will crumble. And the rest of the empire will follow.

David Sirota

✔@davidsirota

We live in a media culture that basically says that even if Henry Kissinger, George W. Bush & Dick Cheney show up to a nationally televised political event, it is uncouth to even gently mention the wars they initiated & the thousands of deaths their decisions are responsible for.

9:38 PM - Sep 1, 2018

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The first step in this direction is to cease normalizing the monsters who facilitate human butchery around the world. Stop believing they need to be regarded as “heroes” just because they wore a uniform at some point. Stop believing that it’s ever okay to push for needless wars which butcher innocent men, women and children. Stop believing a man can facilitate the slaughter of a million people and not have that clearly be his single defining legacy. Stop believing that it’s worse to criticize a warmonger than it is to be a warmonger.

Because if it’s up to the bastards who rule us currently, they’ll happily keep shushing us into polite silence while continuing to march us along our current ecocidal, omnicidal trajectory until it gets us all killed. They’ll make saints of warmongering empire loyalists and uphold their murderous lives as exemplary and virtuous, and if we say we want to move things in a different direction we’ll be shouted down with buzzwords about heroism and decency until we shut up. If we leave it up to these pricks, we’ll become the first species to go extinct due to politeness.

Stop letting them normalize and elevate people who embody the very essence of the imperial oppression machine. Stop letting them humanize psychopathic war whores. Stop letting them twist this into a conversation about respecting those with different political opinions and make it about what it is: the mass murder of innocents for power and profit. Refuse to be reprimanded into polite silence. Refuse to die of politeness. Seize control of the narrative and force sanity into our imperiled world.

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Opinion by Caitlin Johnstone / Republished with permission / Medium / Report a typo

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* Al moet niet vergeten worden dat ook tv series en films, gemaakt in de VS, hard meewerken aan het hersenspoelen van de VS bevolking (en de bevolking van andere westerse landen).......

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