Do you remember trying to comprehend the emphatic denial by Iraq’s “Baghdad Bob” (i.e. Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf) in March 2003 that there were no U.S. troops nor tanks in Baghdad? Most of the cable news networks juxtaposed Bob’s claim with live film of tanks rolling through the streets. Looking foolish was the least of his problems. Made me wonder what would lead a man of education and experience to so fiercely embrace a lie. The world witnessed the same phenomenon with Adolf Hitler during his final days in his bunker beneath the rubble strewn streets of Berlin.
Then comes Ukraine and Russia’s “Special Military Operation” and the spirit of Baghdad Bob is being channeled through a host of politicians, pundits and erstwhile experts. The following is an example (I am declining to name the writer to minimize further embarrassment to him) of the Baghdad Bob delusion:
Russia right now is under extreme stress and Russian leaders are tense and unhappy. The operation in Ukraine has not only ground to a halt, but Russia continues to suffer agonizing losses of men and material. It has had to make secret deals with Iran and North Korea to have enough ammunition and supplies to stay in the war. Its home industry is too tardy and underfunded to be able to keep up with demands for urgent production of war goods. It has run out of soldiers, drafting middle age and older men and yanking prisoners from confinement to serve on the two main fronts of the Ukraine conflict. None of this has seemed to work. Every day Russia makes more military blunders and Putin has just fired one of his top commanders, General Alexander Lapin. While Russian opinion polls (which may be fake) claim Putin is still popular, he is facing a grim future if the losses turn into a complete route and the Russians have to evacuate Ukraine. In fact, Russian commanders are now preparing to evacuate the important city of Kherson, claiming that it is of no importance (which is complete nonsense).
The gentleman who wrote the preceding paragraph is well educated, well spoken and a veteran of the U.S. Department of Defense. I have known him for a short time and know that he is not a liar. What stuns me is that he genuinely believes this. Maybe we should call this “Flat Earth Syndrome?” It consists of embracing as fact assertions that are contradicted by actual evidence.
I want to deconstruct some of his claims.
The operation in Ukraine has not only ground to a halt, but Russia continues to suffer agonizing losses of men and material.
The objective reality is that Russia has stepped up its aerial campaign and has destroyed critical power and energy nodes throughout Ukraine. How does that translate into “ground to a halt?” It is true that neither the Russians nor the Ukrainians have been able to move very far or very fast on the ground during the last three weeks. But that is because the fields and dirt roads are mud pits. If you want to move overland in Ukraine you need to be on a paved road and, if you do that, you make yourself a prime target for artillery and air strikes. Despite the rain soaked ground, Russian forces have continued to advance in the Donetsk, albeit slowly.
What about the “agonizing losses of men and material?” Last I checked it is Ukraine, not Russia, that is begging for more cowbell from the United States and NATO. And Ukraine is so short of able bodied soldiers that the mobilization that started in March was extended to November 21. Not my opinion, that is the claim of a Ukrainian official in charge of “recruitment” made just last week (October 24):
The Ukrainian army needs additional troops so all men under 60, who are liable for military service, should expect draft notices, head of the Kiev City Center for Recruitment and Social Support Yury Maximov said.
“There is a need for additional [troops]. We need to increase our potential,” he said in an interview with the TSN news agency. “Clearly, we must have enough defense troops. I believe that the mobilization campaign will continue,” Maximov added. . .
Martial law was imposed in Ukraine on February 24, 2022. The next day, the State Border Service announced a prohibition on Ukrainian men aged between 18 and 60 from leaving the country until martial law was over. In August, the Verkhovna Rada (parliament) once again extended martial law and a general mobilization campaign for 90 days, until November 21.
https://tass.com/world/1526665
Russia, by contrast, has had one mobilization and just announced it had been completed. If you want to see how desperate the West is to control this narrative just do a google search with the terms “Ukraine” and “Mobilization.” The vast majority of the results are stories about Russian mobilization. You really have to dig deep to find the facts about Ukraine’s staggering losses.
What about this claim?
Every day Russia makes more military blunders and Putin has just fired one of his top commanders, General Alexander Lapin. While Russian opinion polls (which may be fake) claim Putin is still popular, he is facing a grim future if the losses turn into a complete route and the Russians have to evacuate Ukraine.
I have discussed in an earlier piece that the appointment of General Surovikin represented a shift in Russia’s approach to the Special Military Operation. Surovikin was named Supreme Allied Commander and given control of all Russian forces in Ukraine. Before he assumed that position the commanders in Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporhyzhia operated independently.
How is Ukraine supposed to force Russia to retreat without robust, effective combat air, guaranteed supplies of artillery shells and an ample tank force, not to mention healthy soldiers to operate these weapon systems? The answer is simple–they won’t and they can’t. The Ukrainian armed forces are degraded severely today compared to what they could put on the field of battle on February 24th. I challenge anyone to make the case that Ukraine is stronger, more capable today than they were eight months ago.
The foolish analysis I highlighted above is but a symptom of a sickness that has infected the West (and I am not talking about Covid). The descent of the West into the thicket of lies is not confined to indulging fantasies about the military situation Ukraine. The corrupted culture of the West also proselytizes that there are more than two genders, that men can be pregnant, and that windmills and solar panels are sufficient to power modern societies. Hell, we were told the Covid vaccine would keep people from getting Covid. I think the underlying cause for the delusional thinking that dominates Western economics, politics, medicine and popular culture is that the West has adopted a rigid, intolerant ideology that is reminiscent of the intellectual sclerosis rooted in Marxism that led to the death of the Soviet Union. The Russian people learned some hard truths in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet empire. I believe that the people of the United States and Europe are going to experience a similar rude awakening. And it won’t be pretty.
What do you think? Why are so many smart people embracing objectively false narratives?
Agreed on all points. But I know a number of people, who are otherwise intelligent, that buy into all these things. Pointing out facts only drives them into a frenzy. There seems to be an existential crisis in the West that is centered on the ability to control not only the narrative but also the battlefield. In spite of any contrary information that may surface, the majority of the people (not just the governments) of the West insist that everything is great for them and the Ukraine and terrible for any of their enemies (Russia being the main one). It’s going to be a hard fall and it will likely be accompanied by continued denial and rationalization.
I agree all the way except for not putting out this stupid and foolish man,s name. What in the world on what planet is he living on? Put his name out and I will have a time to joy of his idiocy. He can compete with Biden. I thought. I had two men I hated so much, but now it’s three. Biden, Zelensky and now this unnamed moron.
Put the quote or part of it into a google search and see what unfolds.
Indeed. Five second search to ‘Jim’. Let’s not further abuse our host’s privacy wishes though.
Please show me which portion of the screed you googled. I couldn’t find an exact match after the complete text and several partial text searches. I would like to know the sadly misinformed person who is given a platform to peddle lies.
Hate is such an ugly word. Do you know what true hate feels like? I hope you never do. Please, understand, I disagree with their choices in life, Biden, Elenski and the unnamed person.
the same here….
The simple explanation is that they are Panglossian.
As far as they are concerned all is for the best in this, the best of all possible worlds.
Russia threatens to expose the falsehood, so it must be demonized.
Ditto China.
Ditto Iran.
Ditto Venezuela.
The West can not be the best of all possible worlds if there are “others” that take a good hard look at what the West has become and said “Thanks, but no thanks. We don’t want to hitch a ride in your clown car.”
It is precisely because they are ‘smart.’
Who is most likely to understand wtf is going on right now? Computer nerds? Baristas? Civil servants? HR drones? Of course not.
Or is it truck drivers, construction workers, factory workers, small business owners, and farmers?
We are often told that MAGA is living in an alternate reality. That’s sort of true, except I would just call it reality. For it is they who confront reality on a daily basis and transform it with their labor.
These other people mostly sit in chairs and / or push buttons all day. Mostly pointless servant labor.
They are institutionalized. After all they have all those fake zeros in their pensions to worry about!
Indeed, who has really lost touch with reality?
Once you start to see things through the lens of class warfare it all makes sense.
“It is precisely because they are ‘smart.’” — yes, rat-cunning smart.
I think the Enron case study puts the matter in perspective.
[Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room is a 2005 American documentary book and film based on the best-selling 2003 book of the same name by Fortune reporters Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind,..]
Fear. It’s fear. They don’t want to be kicked out of the cult. Also, there is a good chance that some of these people are fearing actual bodily harm if they speak out of turn. They could be canceled, fired, disowned, disappeared. Anything could happen. My older brother works at, THE AGENCY. With some of the things he told me about, the powers that be will do ANYTHING, to stay in power and keep everyone under control. By any means necessary.
It’s fear of “not being the good guys anymore” and they will go to the death of their sanity to prove they still are.
when was the west the “Good Guys”It has always been a magicians trick.native americans,black people,mexicans,chinese (1800,s),irish immagrants,italians,polish,arabs,labor leaders,communists,socialists,chinese and russians again.ask these people how they feel about it.Larry istrongly disagree with not naming people.you give them a pass on evil,or stupidity.those judges who sign no knock warrants that go horribly wrong must be named or there is no responsibility.they must be called out!
Nor do I doubt for a second that Europe has been threatened. And I don’t mean physically. Just listen to the ridiculous statements of the Swedish PM who could not disclose the author of the sabotage of the gas pipelines to his own people for reasons of national security?!?!? Which the German Chancellor exchanged for public interest. And we all know that it is in the interest of all Germans not to know the saboteur of their own lives! And we also learned something else. That with the proliferation of Russophobia in Europe that began in 2019, after all, it was not Russia that sabotaged its own gas pipelines. Thesis that still occupied the MSM for several weeks! As incredible as it may seem to someone who has just arrived on planet earth.
Just three (3) things.
“This above all: To thine own self be true.”
“The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.”
Regarding the Nazis, George Patton said it out loud. “The victors always end up becoming the very thing they once fought against.”
And here we are.
I agree. They will never bite the hand that feeds them. I saw these type of people in my former school system. Anyone who thinks the future is rosy, is myopic.
CCP always described in exactly that language
It appears to me that it has got to the point where these clowns fully believe their own propaganda and, as you say, too fearful to even consider believing anything else.
The “Russia is just a gas station masquerading as a country” and “Russian military has always been and still is crap” so called truisms were created decades ago and got built on in the interim by everyone from Ivy League professors to think tanks to politicians and media. The result is shallow, compromised, ignorant people at all levels, in all spheres.
One positive is that the Russians appear to know these clowns well and seem to playing their cards with that knowledge in mind.
“Fear”
The pie shrinking, austerity without improved productivity. No hope for future growth.
Simply, the “west” cannot compete economically with the “east”
Fear
The old tricks do not work, the nagging suspicion that the facade of superiority is false – i.e. awareness that the “west”s competitors / rivals / enemies can effectively penetrate and counter the “west”s trickery.
Knowledge cannot be contained – North Korea demonstrates this, as well as Iran. Knowledge made apparent in weaponry.
The nagging suspicion that the weapons don’t work, and the “west” is incompetent – e.g., Boeing 737Max, subprime, F35, Patriot, mRna.
Knowledge made apparent in confident suppression of “color revolutions” – e.g. Kazakhstan.
“Smartness” the narcissistic consolation prize of the “western” education. I am better than you. The intellect, before succumbing to madness, is very cruel.
Putin once said
– Valdia ? Munich ? Year end news conference ? Year end call in ?
If the “west” continues its current behavior there will come a time when you ask for help and no one will help you.
I find it interesting how so
many conservatives think
Putin is such an evil man and he is failing Russia. The mainstream media is liberal, if not communistic; so why do they lie about Russia and Putin of he is like them? The reality is he is nothing like them and he is succeeding. Liberals hate one group more than anyone.. White Christian men.
Bravvvoo Andrew…all the media in the world are coummunistic or liberal;that is the same!!!!And the most endangered spicies on the world is..White Christian men!Rise up brothers!!
Yes indeed brother 🙂
“Liberal” is not “communistic”. Russia is not communist and neither is Putin. He is an Orthodox Christian, and maybe that is why he is hated souch by the liberal West.
Yes, that’s my point friend !
Simple, they are still liberals – liberal as in so-called liberal democracy. They’re just the bad cop in the good cop / bad cop dynamic of the world’s policeman.
I would look at what these ‘conservatives’ do for a living, it will tell you much.
On the genuine role that “Conservatism” serves in our two-party system, here are a few hard truths emanating from a distinguished man in – wait for it – the late 19th century. Already it was obvious that this “Conservatism” never conserved anything.
“This [Northern conservatism] is a party which never conserves anything. Its history has been that it demurs to each aggression of the progressive party, and aims to save its credit by a respectable amount of growling, but always acquiesces at last in the innovation. What was the resisted novelty of yesterday is today one of the accepted principles of conservatism; it is now conservative only in affecting to resist the next innovation, which will tomorrow be forced upon its timidity and will be succeeded by some third revolution; to be denounced and then adopted in its turn. American conservatism is merely the shadow that follows Radicalism as it moves forward towards perdition. It remains behind it, but never retards it, and always advances near its leader. This pretended salt hath utterly lost its savor: wherewith shall it be salted? Its impotency is not hard, indeed, to explain. It is worthless because it is the conservatism of expediency only, and not of sturdy principle. It intends to risk nothing serious for the sake of the truth, and has no idea of being guilty of the folly of martyrdom. It always when about to enter a protest very blandly informs the wild beast whose path it essays to stop, that its “bark is worse than its bite,” and that it only means to save its manners by enacting its decent role of resistance: The only practical purpose which it now subserves in American politics is to give enough exercise to Radicalism to keep it “in wind,” and to prevent its becoming pursy and lazy, from having nothing to whip.”
Robert Lewis Dabney
Excellent, thought provoking piece.
I think psychologically a great many people lack consistent, reliable personal boundaries. And that absent these, it’s almost impossible for them to have a moral compass (which includes a functional BS detector).
Lacking such, they are like untethered adolescents.. just ambling from temporary buzz to buzz.
Like children of dysfunctional families, they crave stability and defer to the facade of authority. But they’re unable to discern healthy and competent authority from abusive authority, so they constantly vaccilate between reflexive compliance and teenage rebellion.
Good comments. It’s a combination of moral compass with a strong BS meter. You have to born with both, and you have to have enough experience to further develop both. That’s why the 10% estimate is so low.
Related to moral compass, if you do the bidding of who’s paying you, or you want to be the next upcoming big thing, then you become a slave to the “authorities” of that system. Moral compass either doesn’t exist or gets buried. This is how peacetime DoD promotes. When the social environment doesn’t provide repurcussions or negative consequences for immoral or bad behavior, then everything goes to shiite. This is where we are today.
I’m still amazed at how many so-called intelligent people fell for the Covid garbage. And yet nearly all of the ordinary working folk I know – barbers, mechanics, cleaners, gardeners, painters, etc. – knew instinctively that it was all lies.
You would also think that after the Iraq lies were revealed when no WMDs were found, people would at least be more hesitant to believe war rhetoric again. The same people who called out “fake news” regarding Trump, buy the same narratives from the same people on Iraq and now this proxy war. No learning from a past mistake, no critical thinking. I think there is a problem with automatically trusting people in positions of authority, so logic and critical thinking go into suspended animation. I think it comes down to sources and that’s where the guys running the show have so much institutional control over the narratives we get fed. The first casualty of war is the truth. I automatically begin by not trusting those sources automatically from the start but dig into matters to see where that origin may be. Lies have an origin point. There’s other information out there if folks just look more. JMO
It’s extraordinary that the serial foreign policy failures of the last 25 years are still given any air time.
Did you watch the movie “Don’t Look Up”?
If you didn’t – watch it. Not because it is particularly good as a cinematographic piece, but I think it is astoundingly good at describing the current state of the US elite if you look past the attempt to make cheap partisan stabs.
The scientists and the experts are sloppy and corrupt and just want TV time, the politicians are imbeciles driven by money from the private sector and finally the private sector have some ideas but can’t implement them well and have no fallback plans. In order to cover for their failures they tell the populace to not look up, ignore the reality and that everything is fine. And people do, until everything blows up.
So why are so many smart people embracing objectively false narratives? Because they are constantly told to not look up, and looking up is punished while not looking up is praised. What would a smart person do then?
Yeah, you have a good perspective on the film. The obsession with legacy and social media….! some of my favourite actors in this film. Mark Rylance is such a good actor. Look up Wolf Hall. its one of my favourite television series – truly seperb !
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/will-biden-gamble-on-a-ukraine-coalition/
MacGregor takes apart the latest neo con “idea” trotted forth by the neo con wind up shill, patraeus.
Military strategy is about the relationship of means to ends. National political and military leaders are preoccupied with means and think too little about ends. It is not enough to be a good technician, today’s political and military leaders must be serious strategists, acutely sensitive to the limits which America’s strengths and weaknesses impose on strategic choices.
The cost to Americans and Europeans of escalating the conflict should not be underestimated. The president and his generals must appreciate how injurious military failure would be to an American society already weakened by 20 years of self-defeating deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. American military morale is at a low point. Recruiting for the U.S. Armed Forces, especially the ground forces, is harder than at any time since the 1970s. American economic performance is fragile. Europe’s economic outlook is bleaker still.
In his fight with Russia, Bonaparte not only badly misjudged his opponent, but he also grossly misjudged his allies. President Biden and his generals should not make the same mistakes in Ukraine.
“Why are so many smart people embracing objectively false narratives?”
Russophobia … and …
reluctance to admit that what some of us naively call “our civilisation” is actually in decline …
Sorry, I was not replying to you Taras but to Mr Johnson’ question ….
You cannot have a country run on endless war and endless warmongering. Ultimately, the people go insane.
“The gentleman who wrote the preceding paragraph is well educated, well spoken and a veteran of the U.S. Department of Defense.”
Wow, that was a real potpourri of wishful thinking on his part. Probably he’s on Arestovych’s hotline.
I’d guess he used a compactor to get them all into one paragraph.
Many so called smart people are not smart, they only think they are smart, or worse, smarter than everyone else….Critical thinking, according to some researcher, is only within something like 10% of the populace. To outthink all the lies, half truths, pre determined narratives, one must possess critical thinking to weigh out all the various angles to determine if they connect or loose. Another thing re so called smart people, they often get fixated on their opinions or personal bias, unable to even try and reason outside of their comfort zone. Ex: some people refuses to try certain food for fear of the unknown, even though their sense of smell and sight tells them the food would likely be delicious, and yet, they refuse.
Those ‘smart’ people are selected for their obedience to authority, as Chomsky points out here, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLcpcytUnWU
Which researcher, please?
My answer to the problem at hand: First of all, human intelligence is quite limited. Then there is fear, specially for those close to true power, and also a similar factor, for a closely related bracket of people – the more people are successful in society, the more they tend to identify with it, namely its belief system.
Touché. I have a nephew who’s a cancer researcher and considers the WaPo and NYT the definitive sources for Russia/Ukraine doings.
I asked him once, that when Merck or Pfizer etc. come out with a promising new drug therapy, do you only read the studies coming from them or do you widen your field to independent studies? He replied, “Of course I don’t just look at their studies.”
So I asked him, “Then why do you hang your hat on the WaPo and NYT as definitive sources? It’s the same thing.”
Deer in headlights look.
We are watching the cognitive dissonance that many people faced at the 2016 elections. Their narrative did not match the results thus their conclusions meant the US was either a racist country, and/or subverted by Russia, the start of the Russia Gate narrative.
We are in a similar space now, that Russia, not even in the G7, facing the combined might of the West is still able to win, cognitive dissonance will occur making the people ripe to another false narrative. In which direction will the elite try to push this narrative, I don’t know. Many people are saying they would just memory hole it, like the failure in Afghanistan.
I wonder if that’s even the correct question to bother asking at all? Essentially, people are going to believe what they want to believe, not to sound too basic but I’ve come to that conclusion in my own household. Other factors are the obvious ones many have commented and suggested on like laziness, denial, follow the herd mentality, or brainwashed for lack of a better term.
As absolutely frustrating as it is, like Putin who says he has given up negotiating with the collective West/Washington but then the trickles of continued offers still come through, I personally just have to let it go as there’s nothing, and I mean nothing, I can do to have a horse drink no matter how many times I’ve lead it to water. Part of me has succumbed to the “less is more” philosophy. The one person I see who has the capacity to get Red-pilled is Jordan Peterson. With his followers, to me he’s teetering on the edge of eventually admitting what’s going on. He’s danced around this issue for many months now but just hasn’t made that final realization yet. In the end, why should I care.
Sorry for the blabbering non-answer but I’ve had to compartmentalize some of these world changing events to my own eyes and what I read on my laptop from a secluded and very rural homestead in Canada.
Yes I agree with all you’ve said. It’s interesting to watch Peterson teetering on the edge of Christianity…because that’s what we are witnessing. When man has convinced himself that he is the be all and end all of the cosmos, and he can make this earth a paradise he will continue down that road no matter the evidence to the contrary. Alfred, save your own soul and let God convert the rest. That’s work enough for anyone.
Also note that NATO has sent most of its ammunition to Ukraine, Generals don’t want to send the rest of their war reserves, and new production is very limited. Also, most trains in Ukraine need electricity to move stuff and this not available to them.
The Russians will attack soon and not screw around in Eastern Ukraine. A Corps of around 40,000 troops will push south from Belarus to cut off Kiev from Poland, another Corps will push up north from Kherson to connect in a vast pincer movement.
Game over. Z will flee or be ousted in a coup. An agreement will give Russia Eastern and Southern Ukraine.
Good to see you Carlton. Russia will wind up with the Azov/Black Sea coasts. But it won’t be by the decree of an agreement. They will win it, hold it, that’s that. I suppose what’s left of the rump would agree, but it’s going to be moot, no? Any who, thanks for G2Mil. Boy, were you were right about Ford Class. Bet money they sent a substantially not mission capable carrier up to NATO when they sent Ford up to NATO this past week. God help those kids out there. All of them out there.
Excellent.
Sooner the Uki show is over we can start on the Taiwan show.( Short and sweet, no ads.)
The biggy will be the American Civil War 2 show. It will be a series made for social media with no end in sight. Manic cougars with sausage lips and squirrel nut cheek pouches, screaming non stop. Total MAGA – Trump-Putin hysteric’s. White men hate, is the new black.
Another planet altogether would be nice. Blue chicks might be ok, once you get used to the long tail l suppose. Gotta be better than lies without end.
after thousands of polack soldiers died in ukraine soils wearing mercenary uniform , it would be hard for poles to do any military provocation to belarus
I agree, this is the most likely scenario.
But overall this is interesting.
California ANG was training UAF since early 90s. Various western agencies have been herding Ukie nazis since WWII and NATO black ops/special forces military training their forces since at least 2014.
Nonetheless there does not seem there was any desire for Ukraine to “win” this conflict or for NATO to “win” any greater conventional conflict that grew out of it. Otherwise Ukraine would have had HIMARS and modern artillery from the outset, with ammo plants set up in Poland and Germany. Even now there is only a small inadequate push to replenish ammunition in the west. Ukraine would also have needed A10 and F16 squadrons and USA’s best air defense systems. There was plenty of time to do all of this and more, but no serious attempt was made.
One needs to ask what is the overall purpose of this charade??
First, the US has as much chance of succeeding in a war against Russia on its border as Russia has of succeeding in a war against the US in Mexico. We are no longer in the 70s and those equipments you are talking about have to travel to another continent. With conventional missiles that weren’t available in the 70’s!
But Biden couldn’t be clearer. Bleed Russia and Regime change in Moscow! He just didn’t mention the part of disconnecting the EU and China from Russian commodities because it’s even more obvious. We are talking about avoiding the consolidation of a Euro-Asian economy – without dollars – which is now worth 50 trillion a year. Against 20 trillion of US GDP.
Very good question.
Maybe this whole thing is a Psy-Op by the WEF Gang.
Ukraine is not supposed to “win”; it is supposed to play its part in jabbing the Bear.
Question is: when the Bear eats the Ukes what’s next?
Mass psychosis.
…caused by large mortgages and student loan debt.
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”
Upton Sinclair
Your questions are part of the “over analyzed problem” with “smart, well educated” people. Americans have forgotten “true grit”, calling a spade a spade…there’s no “problem” with this guy you don’t know well, he has the same “facts” as you… so therefore… he indeed is a LIAR. The brainwashed Americans are simply sugar coating flat out liars as if they have a “dissonance “ problem, or some such thing, when the truth is, they “prefer the lie”…and they are not called out for the liars they are. Hum… seems this very “theme” is in the BIble…
Great points
I think one underlying issue is the human tendency to think many people repeating the same talking points or theories lends credibility to whatever is asserted. We see this in modern science with appeals to consensus. Opinion polls are used by media as much to enforce conformity as to measure.
Rather than bolstering the underlying facts, consensus thinking just creates more pressure to conform to apparent authority. Only a small subset of people are disagreeable, in psych terms, enough to stand up to the mob. Even people brave in other contexts will often buckle to perceived social pressure.
Anyone thinking for themself being accused of repeating Russian talking points (where can we even get those any more after all the censorship?) adds more incentive to go along with the mob. Military folks in particular want to be “team players” and don’t want to be seen as supporting the other side.
But facts have a nasty habit of not caring about any of those things
Comfort in crowd-think. Much like the dolts in the climate change cult: their echo chambers provide a safe environ for their psychobabble. Russia will be providing a much needed kick to teats of the 404-supporters.
Our small groups of like-minds were correct with Covid-1984 and now with 404. Not like the trajectory will be affected by us, unfortunately.
I keep seeing the “404” thing. What is it?
FGB3…404 error codes are generated when a user attempts to access a webpage that does not exist, has been moved, or has a dead or broken link. The 404 error code is one of the most frequent errors a web user encounters.
Glad I could help educate you yet again… you are welcome…
we live in the times of Idiocracy. 70+ years of peace and plenty in the west have bred generations that overwhelmingly have not had a more traumatic experience than, say, death of an elderly relative. Naturally they have a completely distorted, unrealistic perspective. An iron ingot must pass through fire, pressure and hard beating to become hard steel. Good times produce weak men…
Here is the interesting thing about our system – like it or not you are a part of it, you cannot extract yourself from it and with that, you are enjoying the fruits of exploiting someone else.
Consider the climate change debate, it is difficult to point fingers when your house is cooled in the summer, heated in the winter, stuff is delivered via Amazon dot com and you are enjoying that carbon-costly cruise vacation.
Morally, the west is bankrupt but it is also “all in” on the bankruptcy and at the end this is a war of control of dwindling resources. The West needs someone else to “power” it while it collectively pursues the 5th wheels, the big trucks, the expensive overlanding hobbies, the travel, the youtube vlogs, the companies that “connect people online” and are valued in the trillions of dollars without actually making anything.
You can say all you want about communism but it was extremely environmentally friendly. Why? ‘Cause having nothing to consume meant no consumption meant no consumerism meant no frivolous spending meant environment was protected. This is why only former eastern european countries managed to preserve their forests, the wolves and the bears, the western europeans have none of that, been consumed/shot/eaten/destroyed a century+ ago in the mad dash to get rich. The west’s lifestyle is a disease, it’s a virus like that agent Smith described in the Matrix. We sold that idea to everyone so now everyone wants 2-3 cars, big homes, travel, living standards, only the planet cannot really support that.
What you are witnessing now is a world of increasing population intersecting with dwindling space intersecting with dwindling resources, increasing natural disasters, fast spreading deadly disease etc. After 6 decades of lavish western lifestyles, there is no politician who will come out on TV and say that to their population. “Hey fellow Americans, this is your president XYZ, just so you know, from today on you will live with the environmental footprint of the average Somalian. I know we don’t make anything anymore, I know none of you grow any food, I know most of you think that chocolate milk comes out brown straight from the cow and I know many of you are used to all your conveniences but from today on it stops ’cause you know, we ate all of our resources 5 years ago”.
“Uhm, Mr. President, can’t we just colonize someone who has these resources”?
Mr. President: “Hey, great idea!”….
As someone said, the more educated, the “into” the system, the more “invested” in it, the more likely you are to lap up the bulls*it.
P.S. Today, for the 30th straight year the UN general assembly unanimously voted to condemn USA for its Cuba embargo. Not a single mention of it on CNN…. We done somethig wrong? NO WAY!!!
Because a quick check of those who do would show their War Monger creds with the MIC. These low-lives have no problem pushing war for money – the consequences for the innocent be damned! It’s nothing but a big money game for them, i.e. it’s smart money for the smart people, no big deal if the world blows apart for these devils!
Why are so many embracing false narratives? Mass psychosis is a theory. The Salem witch trials and Nazi Germany are some examples that are given. The cause is above my pay level-perhaps narcissistic
culture is one reason. Western culture and the USA may be exhibits 1A for mass psychosis study, Also, we seem pretty stupid. I recall my dad who was in south pacific in WW2. He didn’t like the Japanese but he did not mock them; he said they were brave fierce combatants and they had families too. That is a lot more mature than the babble we will hear from a San Francisco area white liberal journalist touting their journalism degree from Northwestern.
At Mouche Larry. And the reason for the Orwellian dystopia regarding the conflict in Ukraine that we find ourselves in the West is very simple and was prepared as far in advance as a nation logistically prepares for a war. With hundreds of communication agencies controlling the entire MSM. Because it’s the only way to manipulate public opinion in favor of war. Without which it is never possible to fight a war for long. I no longer believe for a second that high figures of any western state are not fully aware of the mirror propaganda they propagate and do not know precisely what is happening in Ukraine today.
They no longer have room to maneuver to retreat today. Which is very dangerous and can lead the world far beyond a regional proxy conflict. It is crucial to know what Scholz was actually doing in China. Because I’ve read completely opposite opinions. It seems to me that the Franco-German axis of the EU was very unhappy with the price of US LNG. Which gives me some hope that Europe will finally wake up from collective hypnosis! Because, for better or for worse, when Winter settles in for real in Western Europe, it’s going to have to wake up. I hope with massive demonstrations on the street!
What Larry is asking is something I’ve thought about for some years now, it’s almost (well, it is I guess) inexplicable. Mr Wallace above seems to be right, but I think it’s more that that. Maybe some people care about the truth and others don’t?, some are hypnotized and others not? It’s amazingly frustrating. I’ve hung out at the same bar for many years now, from there I know a retired Wash DC police officer. He’s, as one might expect, fairly conservative but he told me the other night that “if the Republicans crush it this Nov 8th, they will abolish Social Security and Medicare”. I had not heard of this before – why is that?, why does he hear things I don’t hear? Same bar, within a few days of Russia going into Ukraine with force, she’s wearing a wristband with the Ukrainian colors, “all the teachers are wearing them”. She doesn’t know where Canada is, let alone Ukraine. About the same time, I had a conversation with my wife, I said something like, “The Russians look like they may attack Kiev”, she told me, “it’s not Kiev, it’s Keeeev”. I said, “how do you know”, she said it was told to her by the TV guy. For my wife, for 70 years it was Kiev, now it ain’t. Aye Caramba!
My wife and I gifted our niece $100 for her 11th birthday, only to find that her proud parents had made her donate $100 to help the Ukraine.
As Andrei Martyanov has been saying, you can’t help stupid because dumb people have no idea they are dumb.
We have given up trying to educate my sister and brother-in-law on anything – Covid, Syria/OPCW, the Ukraine. They believe 100% every on the TV news. All else is “fake news” to them.
But we certainly have learned. It is the last time we give any money that might go towards the “Azov cause”.
As Jimmy Dore says: “I refuse to call ‘Chicken Kiev’ ‘Chicken Keev.’ “
Hey keep giving to your niece, sounds like she needs it Sounds like she needs all the help she can get. Did your dear sister think 80 billion needed another 100?
“What do you think? Why are so many smart people embracing objectively false narratives?”
Jews control all media. Jews control our culture. Jews control our government. Jews want to kill White People.
If you disagree, you will be cancelled and most people don’t want to be cancelled. Instead, they opt for political correctness.
It’s Pavlovian on conservative sites. I merely asked once what return we get from all the money sent to Israel, and people who had intracted with me in a friendly manner for years blocked me after telling me to “go back to Stormfront”.
Boring nonsense. Blaming everything on the Jews is just so unimaginative. It’s dumb. Plus it doesn’t even correspond with the facts. Read ‘The Creature from Jekyll Island’ Jim if you want to know who controls.
Larry asks” “What do you think? Why are so many smart people embracing objectively false narratives?”.
Orders, Larry. They can’t tell the truth. Right? I’m just a regular guy, perceptive, not all that bright. Being curious, I started digging into all this with Putin’s decrees in December. I found Andrei Martyanov, The Saker, Then Sonar21 appeared, then Alex Mercouris, then the videos started between all of you guys, Larry. Know what? Not one speck of analysis you guys put out has been wrong. Everything State and the Pentagon said about this thing was wrong, but they were lies to keep the dough flowing. They did it in Nam, they did it in Iraq, Afghanistan, they’re doing it here. We’re turning the corner, right? Liars. Because: money. Another thing you got right, Larry in that how rich the DC region got in a flash.
So, we have Martyanov’s brilliant 26 year old diplomats (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_hSNvrmpA4 )and security dopes writing our doctrine and press releases for us, but it’s all lies, Andrei laid the whole thing out the other night. So, if *I* know the truth, little old me, THEY know the truth. The American people should be wise to their lies. They are smart people, at least they got their degrees, I never did, but with a little snooping around starting many years back with Taki’s and Unz, Giraldi, Hudson, Ron Unz, then the military/intel blogs, I discovered and found the truth of this Ukraine, the truth about Russia, Putin, their military, and Ukraine’s and our prospects. And what liars our people at the top are and what they’re doing in our name. One appropriation of 50 billion at a time. We’ll get around that corner.
Shit, Larry, they tell lies where the truth would do because it isn’t the average citizen’s kid going off to fight, the Deep State knows few are paying attention anyway. So why tell such lies? Imagine if we were drafting for Ukraine like we did in Vietnam. Think we had war protests then? Send drafted American children to Ukraine, see how they would pay attention. Until their own blood is in the game, the American citizen is blind to it. Very, very disappointing.
well said Jim.you left out Japan,S. Korea,and Iran post ww2
Great post! No doubt that money is the weapon of control.
And the Jew controls the money for the Jew’s benefit. The offshoring of American jobs, open borders and endless wars does not benefit White People.
The recent vote in the UN condemning the U.S. over the Cuban blockade was voted for by every member except two, the U.S. and Israel.
How much money do we give Israel? We once had nothing but friends in the Middle East. What happened?
All politicians are shit. All politicians are whores.
Ultimately, if you are not proud of your own blood, your own race, you will not survive. America is becoming a third world country, slowly but surely.
Who commits most violent crime?
You might have noticed there is a racial narrative out there and only one: White People are evil.
You might be an ordinary guy, but like most of us on these forums you are an inquisitive explorer, a seeker of why things are happening not just the “what.”
I do not say we a “seekers of the truth” as this would be pretentious nonsense, but we do try.
The people who rise to the top in large bureaucracies are mostly careerists who are insecure and afraid and who require the status that organizations confer to give their lives meaning; to make themselves real. They can be competent, they can get things done, but they never dissent.
That is not to say all people in organisations are like this and that organisations aren’t necessary; as J K Galbraith wrote in, I think, the New Industrial State”:
” If you want to do big things you need large organizations”
But as Paul Tillich said “all institutions are inherently demonic” which is to say organisations cause people to do irrational, evil things which they can only do by subordinating truth to the needs of the organizational demons.
This subordinating of truth to the demons is what Larry’s anonymous acquaintance is doing in his egregious piece of writing. The problem for civilization is that these people occupy powerful positions, they know how to speak authoritatively and plausibly and they suck people in even us explorers and motivate us to do irrational and evil deeds like the Invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, not to mention Ukraine.
“The corrupted culture of the West also proselytizes that there are more than two genders, that men can be pregnant, and that windmills and solar panels are sufficient to power modern societies.”
Just toss out some silliness mixed with a serious issue and blame it all on “the corrupted culture of the West.” That is not convincing. Intelligent advocates of alternative energy sources do not make such assertions. Can you name one that does? What they do say is that we absolutely must develop those (and many others that are feasible) alternatives to fossil fuels if our civilization is to survive. They have mountains of evidence to back this up. Have you missed the fact that we’re in the midst of the sixth great extinction (extreme biodiversity loss) and do you know about similar extinction events in earth’s past? Are you unaware that 1,000-year climate catastrophes are now occurring frequently? Do you not recognize the untenable pattern of human population growth and consumption?
Conflate, conflate. The geopolitical dissenters against globalism such as yourself mistakenly conflate a range of globalist projects including LGBT and human rights, racial inclusiveness, economic inequality mitigation, the Covid scamdemic, the Petrodollar hegemony, the Ukraine proxy war against Russia, the hybrid cold war against China, overpopulation and migration, impossible economic growth and the Green Agenda – as though there is some monolithic evil plan that integrates all of them and controls all policies of the West.
That is simplistic nonsense. There are different groups of players involved in each of these policies, having established capitalist ventures that simply recognize challenges, seize the initiative and promote their profitable solutions – they have found (or created) opportunities to make money through these, and they use propaganda means at their disposal to gain acceptance. Some of these are outrageous and even heinously criminal, but that does not make all aspects of all these issues invalid or unworthy of support.
Climate change caused by GHG emissions is unquestionably the most significant threat to humanity’s continued existence. A consensus of climate scientists urges the wealthy nations to step up efforts to mitigate the worst effects and develop alternatives to burning fossil fuels, because we are the main cause, and because inaction now will exponentially increase the cost later. Only the wealthy can afford to invest the kind of money needed, so I say let’s let them. China is among those in the forefront, both of polluting the atmosphere and of building cheap energy generation sources, especially solar-electric and battery storage, which increasingly will provide power especially for transportation, enabling conservation of precious oil resources.
Let’s get with the program to preserve habitat for life on earth, not drag our feet and poo-poo those energy substitution endeavors merely because they comport with the WEF or other oligarchic agenda for profiteering!
Wow! In one windy post, voila the QED!
Carbon dioxide fueled climate change is another scam to control the incredulous. Bolstered by “math is racist so don’t bother running the numbers”
Here are a few numbers for you.
CO2 traps radiation in a very limited bandwidth. That is saturated at a lower level than the planet has ever seen. Additional CO2 feeds plants and greens the planet.
Co2 levels were higher during the last ice age for crying out loud.
Carbon is a cycle it ebbs and flows naturally. Human contribution is negligible.
Your green energy is a scam. It is way for the elites to control the rest of us. They get the massive SUVs, 10,000 sqft oceanfront homes and Gulfstream while enjoying a steak. We get the bus, high density apartments and delicious bugs, as long as we all behave that is.
Your green energy revolution is a fantasy and if it could ever happen it would require 2000 years of diesel supply just for the mining.
The amount of materials needed for just the first 20 years of wind and solar installations:
189 years worth of copper production,
400 years of nickel production,
9,921 years of lithium production,
1,733 years of cobalt production,
29,113 years of germanium production,
Note, for example, that known lithium reserves amount to less than 3% of what would be needed to replace fossil fuels with wind, solar and batteries, for the first 20 years.
Known cobalt reserves amount to less than 4% of what would be needed for the first generation, and so on.
Keep in mind, too, that mining projects typically take something like 20 years to come on line. Longer, if the environmentalists get their way.
The people pushing it don’t even believe it! The “Climate Czar” has 12 cars, 6 houses, 2 yachts and a private jet!
That’s your future, now eat your cricket burger and stop complaining or your CBDC account will be frozen.
Alex,
You beat me to it… in responding to that above comment on “climate change”. Ironic that the topic of this thread boils down to mass psychosis!
I do that racist math stuff for a living, and I look at the human caused climate change this way:
Statistical F-test is the old way of measuring variation. Measure variation “with human” and “without human”. Based on what we really do know, the climate variation without human is far greater than the climate variation with human. It’s a big scam. The BS meter goes real high!
Thank you. The whole scam is so laughable as well as transparent. They don’t even try to cover up how stupid it all is. Its the same mass psychosis as Covid.
Half of these loons think lithium batteries are made of unicorn poop. Electricity comes from the wall.
The ignorance is infuriating.
The desired result of the last 4 decades of government education[sic].
I find comments like this fascinating, as climate denial is like saying Russia is on the ropes and Ukraine is crushing it. Let’s take a step back, and think about whether our civilization, and its industries, can have an impact on the whole ecosystem. What do you guys really gain by saying climate change is a scam, without considering there’s some truth to it? I can see the negative effects of climate change accumulate outside my window, and breath it in. I live in the Rockies where forest fires and smoke pollution increase each year.
At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what I believe or you believe, only the physical consequences of earth’s natural systems. If a doctor tells you that you have cancer, you can deny it or try to learn more about it. Yeah, it’s possible the diagnosis is wrong, but it’s worth learning if that is actually the case.
The main concern with climate change is that it will be as catastrophic, over decades, as nuclear war. Why? Our agriculture can only exist within a certain range of humidity and temp variations. As Earth warms, the entire weather system we have been used to the last 10,000 years goes out the window, and causes widespread crop failure, drought and famine. How will our societies cope without food, hundreds of millions of refugees seeking food and water?
According to IPCC, Earth at an average +2 or +3 celsius above historical average will devastate agriculture, and cause failure of multiple ecosystems (Amazon being one, Great Barrier Reef and oceans another), and I’m sure you can follow the logic to a variety of future dystopias.
Please look at the UN IPCC reports and findings, or evaluations of those reports by credible experts: one such article I refer back to often is by IPCC reviewer Peter Carter: https://theanalysis.news/a-dire-warning-about-the-end-of-human-civilization/
The only thing consistent about the climate is that it has been changing for at least 2 billion years.
The IPCC and the rest have yet to make single prediction that wasn’t laughingly false.
They even manipulate the data and models retroactively and STILL cannot get it right!
There is zero actual science behind that nonsense, its all politics, just like the claims that Ukraine is winning, politics never trumps reality. You have it backwards.
As I mentioned even the biggest zealots don’t believe it, it’s all manipulation for control over the plebes.
Here is some science for you.
The globe is not warming, in fact we are courting another mini Ice Age..
No model that ignores the natural geological natural carbon cycle has any validity.
Any model that attributes zero climate effects by the sun can be taken seriously.
Your so-called “Green” technologies cannot function without massive input from petroleum.
Those lithium batteries don’t fall out of the sky, they require thousands of gallons of diesel to make each one, and they are a true and real environmental hazard, as are those retarded wind turbines and idiotic solar panels which never produce the energy used to make them, then they are the gift that keeps on giving- heavy metals and toxic waste in the ground leaching into the water supply.
Real actual science shows that currently the world is at historic low levels of CO2, too low. This effects several cycles and natural processes that support the increase in levels which supports life at all levels.
Man-made co2 is not even measurable, it is insignificant.
Without co2 all life on the planet would end.
I know these days it is fashionable to ignore reality in favor of politics, but if we wish to survive and thrive as a species we need to stop polluting the planet with the toxic witches brews that are needed for your ridiculous nonsensical green energy. It is not green, it is not renewable and it damn sure isn’t clean.
The most ludicrous thing about it is there are people who actually think governments and billionaire oligarchs give a crap or are able to improve if we would only give then just a little more money.
Enjoy your cricket urge. Klause Schwab will be eating prime rib and laughing.
Alex Thrace:
Part of what I’m trying to say is that to whatever degree you or I are correct about climate change, whether it’s a scam and the IPCC is wrong, or there’s a lot of truth to their warnings, the consequences will bear out in our future. It’s similar to the information war over Ukraine: whether Larry is accurate or not, whether mainstream media tells the truth or not, the actual battlefield consequences happen in spite of all the claims. The US cannot propagandize its future success by spinning a narrative alone: success has to be backed up by strategic and technical competence.
Excellent point.
Your whole argument against climate change being an issue is that the proposed solution is unworkable. Ok, I happen to agree. This still does not change the fact that the American/Western lifestyles do not scale. What happens when 1.5 billion Chinese want 2 F-350s, a 5th wheel and two homes? I think this is the problem. The solution is not “green energy” (which is a scam as implemented), it is a drastic reduction in consumption coupled with reduction in child bearing coupled with reduction in discretionary spending/consumerism. Unfortunately, there is no way you can tell this to the average Westerner and western politicians know this – hence the resource war against Russia.
I think what you say there is no way to say it also depends a lot on who you say it to. I believe that anyone who is over 50 years old and has still known a society far from current levels of consumption would not mind turning back. I did not care. For a very simple reason. Because consumption doesn’t make anyone happy and proof of that is that the West is all fucked up. From a certain level it’s an addiction like any drug. I often give this very simple example. I remember my father’s generation spending all winters with a good coat and a good raincoat. Today we each have 10 of each. And some pieces of clothing are even difficult to buy good pieces that last 10 years as they did. If it weren’t for textiles, one of the biggest polluters in the world! Same with the cars.
All this to say that the problem was never the common citizen who only does what he is programmed to do. If banks offer cheap credit, make 10 credits. And on top of that there are still much bigger problems like the world population having doubled in the last 50 years. Even if my continent, Europe, is just old people. It’s not just the money that is poorly distributed. And to think that we were just 1 BI 200 years ago… The problem is always those 1% who own 99% of the world’s wealth, always wanting more! But as there are also those who say that we will never reach 10 BI because from 2060 onwards the world population starts to decrease… The question is, will it be true?
Even the west won’t be able to afford a western lifestyle soon. The only thing that made it possible was the petrodollar scam.
The Chinese will enjoy the lifestyle they can afford. When we figure out how to do things better, our life styles will improve. It is the nature of humanity, we will figure it out absent elite busybodies getting in the way.
Alex Thrace…delusional anti-science. There have been 18 planetary extinction events. One was caused by an asteroid. The Chicxulub Impact which destroyed the dinosaurs. All the others were caused by CO2 levels. The last extinction event was caused by 6ppm CO2, we’re currently at 4ppm. Folks don’t appreciate that +1 degree celcius average is the difference between growing crops…or crop failure. Currently inflation is linked to the western states drought condition, one third of our agricultural produce. Not coming back any time soon.
CO2 levels are extinction events. Proven. Your pseudo-science will not feed you or your family. The last global extinction event of CO2 warming took 20,000 years to create. The industrial revolution, caused by man… took only 200 years. We’re 2/3rds to the next extinction event. Are you worried for your grandchildren yet…?
You are lost in lithium batteries. They are NOT the future…. your pseudo science is so bogus. Carbon cycles do not ebb and flow. We no longer inhabit a primordial planet…that was the formation, billions of years ago. Since the dawn of man…there has not been an extinction event, but now, the oceans are super-saturated with CO2, so much they are acidic carbonic acid, calcium reefs and shellfish / crustaceans are vanishing, global warming has moved fishing and crab stocks north of Alaska and Greenland. De-forestation and soil tilling are destroying the last carbon sinks. Are you really so much in denial that you are really that ignorant…? Get educated.. or eat crickets instead.
Your IPCC “average global temperature ” makes as much sense as the average phone number or average price of a food item in the grocery store. Average up the items in your cart will not tell you the price of an item you don’t have in your cart
I looked at the hacked materials from East Anglia. My 9 year old grandson write more sophisticated code than that.
The Earth still cycles i hate to have to be the one to tell you this, predicted trends over 50 years tell you exactly nothing, but the absurdities of climate science are legendary as are their failures.
I reiterate even the Grand Poohbah of the Climate Cult doesn’t believe it based on his activities.
Your claim that previously extinctions were caused by CO2 is utter nonsense. Besides you just destroyed you own point. CO2 variations are NATURAL, we know warming and CO2 are correlated, CO2 rises AFTER the warming, CO2 is an indicator of LIFE. So no wonder the elites hate it.
There is artic ocean current cycle that is getting ready to deep freeze Europe.
Soon they might be sacrificing their children to the Weather God praying for a little of that Global Warming.
Alex…globally, all the ice is melting. Heat does that. Switzerland has lost 1/3 of it’s ice in 20 years. All global glaciers are melting. Greenland and Antarctica are the worst and accelerating increasing sea level rise. Trapped CO2 in our atmosphere is heating globe, the poles about 10* more than the rest. CO2 levels have doubled in just 200 years, now just 1/3 below the levels of the last extinction event, which took 20,000 years. Greenhouse gases, CO2, methane and Nitrous Oxides have spiked. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/united-nations-state-of-the-climate-report_n_6367b84ee4b08f849aac4083
The Cretaceous Triassic boundary extinction is the only event caused by a meteor, all the rest were an increase of greenhouse gases from volcanism. CO2 emissions are the precursor of all other extinctions caused via global warming. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extinction_event
Europe is not entering an ice-age, every year now breaks a new heat record. Europe has been on fire every summer the last 5 years. So has Colorado, Washington, Idaho, California etc. The planet has massive droughts. The California / western states drought has lost us 1/3 of our agriculture. The mississippi river is so low, grain barges cannot navigate it. Now do you see where inflation happens from… along with rail strikes and truckers quitting crappy jobs enmasse… Also, there is no Arctic Current cycle. Period. There is the AMOC and the THC Thermohaline Circulation. Both are afflicted with warming and CO2 saturated water down to 2000 feet, so we see more severe hurricanes and tornadic activity across the mid-states. Fish and crab stocks keep moving north seeking colder water. Both Greenland and Antarctica are melting both on their surface and massively, from underneath. And this is accelerating as massive glaciers break off their grounded underpinning leaving nothing to hold back the glacial ice flow. Increased Scientific research with modern technologies demonstrates this. Greenhouse gas emission according to you is plant food which makes plants grow. So why are crops diminishing in size and volume. Bio combustion, fossil fuels and cement-making are the largest releases of CO2. Deforestation exacerbates that effect. So where is all the giant corn…?
Remember that a 1* temperature change seems nothing, but as an annual average, that determines whether you can grow food or not, and Florida won’t support crops in 50 years. Just as African deserts and heat keep moving North, so now UK is able to grow white grapes and award winning champagne.
“Delusional anti-science ”
Where have we heard that before?
No one in the ‘pro-CO2 persuasion’ being the cause of “extinction” events has yet mentioned the on-going weather-manipulation programs, on-going since the 1970s. Those droughts and forest fires in the West are due to this weather manipulation, which is definitely human caused, but it is intention not a by-product of industrial civilization. Those elites in control of the weather (and by implication, climate) are using these manipulations for their own benefit. California has been in a major drought for years, with resulting fires, crop failures, etc. When enough farmers and ranchers give in and sell, guess who will swoop in and buy? Oh, maybe someone like…Bill Gates…yeah like Bill Gates. The weather manipulation through stratospheric aerosol injunctions are happening right above your heads and you don’t see it. “Oh that’s just contrails”. Sorry buster. Contrails quickly vanish; these “chemtrails” persist and then spread out across the sky creating a thin, artificial layer of clouds that hold in heat. That’s a humongous red pill.
FGB3…. read Boyles Law of partial pressure. Chemtrails just espouses complete ignorance. So, when a jet engine burns fuel at around 2000*F and exhausts into air which is around Minus – 60*F, it instantly freezes into ice crystals. The ‘Con’ in contrails is a ‘Con’traction for ‘Con’densation trail. Glad I could help you solve a known mystery that few people think is a mystery at all.
You know why Gates is buying farmland…? Multiple agricultural universities have proven that no-till methods of farming help soil and ground cover crops lock in massive amounts of CO2. Tilling isn’t necessary at all. You just plant through cover with a seed drill… and you didn’t know that either…? Glad I could improve your advancement in actual reality education… Enjoy… ! !
Norecovery…well said Sir… you represent a rare voice of sanity in the wilderness of denial by flat-earthers who reject scientific principle… because they can’t even understand the gravity that anchors them… let alone dark matter.
You must not know that 1,000-year climate changes were occurring over the last 26,000 years, long before “GHG” emissions. Anyway, the kind of energy sources you envision are being tried right now! in Germany. Let’s see how that works out.
FGB3… Climate change has always happened. Apart from a couple serious asteroids, the cause of mass extinction events is almost always volcanism and increase of CO2, as well as methane, sulphur, a few others causing atmospheric warming. You can easily look this up. What is different is that in the current Holocene period, the amount of CO2 in our atmosphere, has doubled in barely 200 years, instead of the usual 20,000 years. Never during paleo time has there been such a rapid rise which is proved in the geologic record. We know that increased CO2 causes global warming, but it is the actual rate of increase is what is so alarming. The Holocene has been renamed the Anthropocene …why, because the rapid rise in CO@ is directly attributable to the industrial revolution, the mass burning of fossil and carbon fuels. Ploughing more fields, producing more crops, the increasing use of fertilizers. Volcanism is significantly reduced since the prior epochs in the world’s formation. The sudden alarming spike is directly due to the activities of man.
Remember that solar, wind and water power are delivered free, with no cost of fuel. Storage of power is crucial and being addressed in many forms. Tidal power generation is powerful, yet limiting. The grail is cheap enough hydrogen powering membrane ion-exchange fuel cells. Like a battery. We’re getting there..but we’ll always need oil, it is in most of the material in your home, transportation, business and construction. Hopefully we won’t have to burn it anymore.
“Why are so many smart people embracing objectively false narratives?”
First off: They aren’t that smart. If they were, they wouldn’t work for government, they’d work on Wall St., Silicon Valley, etc.
Second off: They’re not paid to think for themselves, they’re paid to massage the egos of their bosses. This isn’t surprising in a bureaucratic end-state where conformity and order-following are rewarded, and whistleblowers are jailed. The blob cultivates such toadies, ultimately to it’s own detriment. It doesn’t even have to be explicit. Most mid-wits are bright enough to pick up on the social cues and toe the line to keep getting those gubbmint paychecks.
Combine that with hiring & promotions based on identity instead of competency, and you have a perfect storm of incompetency and group-think that ends in a hilarious blood-spattered shit-stained clusterfuck. If you think I’m exaggerating, just wait until the USD loses it’s reserve currency status and they can’t keep paying all these feckless apparatchiks. Because just like a gamma will fuck up a blowjob, they were handed a literal money-printing machine and managed to redline it until the engine blew all the oil past the compression rings, all that’s left is for the crank to seize and the block to explode.
Then the REAL fun begins. The pogroms. The trials. The sentences.
They forgot that they set the standard with the Nuremburg hearings. If it was good enough for the Nazis..!
And because I forgot to address the already iconic figure of Badad Bob today. Bagdad Bob as Saddam’s well-trained Minister of Information, as Larry says, was only speaking for his people and especially for his armed forces not to demobilize in the face of US military might. That as early as 1991 when the first US F-15s took off, 40 Iraqi SU-22 fihterjets also took off right away but it was to flee to Iran! And apparently they managed to modernize 20 and 10 already operate with drones and guided missiles. Anyone who doesn’t have a dog after 40 years of sanctions, hunts with a cat. Isn’t that what you say?
It is also good to remember that more than just patriotism, we soon learned that Saddam’s military equipment was almost entirely counterfeit in Iraq. Like tanks without any armor. Just to cite an example. But I also believe that in a country divided in half between Sunnis and Shias the national union should not be quite 5 stars! Hence also having always found the great threat that Saddam posed to Israel to be ridiculous. It must have been weapons of mass destruction. Poor bastards that not even babies could hold in their arms in maternity hospitals in Kuwait!
Why believe the false narratives when pieces of reality poke their inconvenient little heads up in the grand arc of the story?
YBecause it is uncomfortable, disconcerting, challenging, even painful to closely examine those diamonds of reality strewn about in our familiar, constructed psuedo-reality…despite their beauty those sharp gems might very well cut you to the bone.
Or as my Zen meditation mentor stated, only the phonies don’t get enlightened.
My theory is that the comfort of most peoples lives changes how you think .
The closest comparison is since I have been working outside since 01 ,the weather is always a concern ,it strikes panic etc .
I knew a woman who was a studio makeup artist ,who had absolutely no concern .
The point I am trying to make is that most Europeans and Americans have had it so good for so long ,the idea it could change is impossible for them to fathom.
Look at people who lived in the depression, my grandfather never forgot it and lived accordingly, same with my german relatives who nearly starved after the war.
It’s hard to get the point across in just a comment section.
The delusion was prophesied 2000 years ago. The Bible says that God would send a delusion such that they would believe a lie (2 Thessalonians 2:11). This corrupt society in the West has thrown God out and along with that all restraint. There is still hope but a fading one that the people will wake up and repent.
Truth (reality) is hard because it doesn’t care what we think.
Lies (narratives) are easy because they ARE what we think.
And nothing we think is really that true.
Well said, Gigi!
I’ll quote you on this.
Larry, as usual, you are spot on with your Ukraine assessment. However, when you vacillate into gender territory, power generation and request input, I’m happy to elucidate. Firstly, there are only 2 genders. No-one can objectively claim otherwise. Men cannot get pregnant, that’s a scientific fact, they lack the appropriate plumbing. No-one is seriously suggesting that is real…apart from a single category of thought progenitors who are apparently unaware of gender scientific biology. However ludicrous that belief might be…and I read it only in certain spaces. On genders, there is only man and woman. But there are men who wholly identify as being a female and prefer exhibiting those female mannerisms. Similarly, there are women who also identify as male, even though they aren’t, they dress and act like men, in their world and their relationships. If they prefer to pretend they are not their sex / gender, they can. They are American Citizens with the same rights as you and I. People forget we have the same rights as Citizens, regardless of who they are, who they love or what color they are. We are ALL immigrants here except for the Indigenous Indians. I have no right to tell them who they should love and as Pope Francis said” Love is Love”. He also said “Who am I, to Judge” This is freedom. America. Freedom to choose. People try to co-opt my flag and My Patriotism. Freedom of choice belongs to all Americans…does it not…? Would you, the reader, have someone telling You whom to love…? Now there are some confused non-binary kids, who just don’t fit in, they might prefer women or men, they haven’t figured themselves out yet…maybe they’re saying that simply for the attention…no matter, it’s their choice, they’ll figure it out, without my direction. DeSantis is convinced there’s some huge overwhelming gender surgery happening all over Florida…but there isn’t, I live in Florida, it’s as obvious as there are ZERO teachers teaching ‘GayDom’ here either. And Critical Race Theory is not taught in any schools, anywhere in America…never has. Only in one post-grad University course, that’s it.
Back to solar panels, windmills and Don Quixote. No-one has ever suggested that as panacea. We use a lot of energy. Sure, we can harness sunlight, wind, water and tides as energy which has zero purchase cost with freight-free delivery, no mining costs, zero pollution. In delivery. All these need storage, massive grid scale. We are attaining that. New technologies everyday. Most promising are large liquid metal batteries and molten copper salts pipeline storage. Hydro-power, Hydrogen fuel cells and nuclear energy are huge. Ongoing work on nuclear fusion is massive. Nuclear energy is adapting to high temp / low pressure Thorium reactors. Fail-safe. 99% efficiency whereas current Uranium nuke power is less than 1% efficient, then we have to store the crap for ever. Thorium is so abundant, it’s a problem in rare-earth minerals mining. We will always need oil, for societal materials, it’s products permeate our everyday, in plastics, clothing, construction…everything…we just won’t have to burn it anymore.
You are indeed correct that “the West has adopted a rigid, intolerant ideology”. Why has America of late, become So Intolerant….? Americans should stand up for each other and celebrate each other…don’t you agree…? We are All Americans..aren’t we… ! ! Equal freedoms for every American, enshrined in Law and the Constitution. Their ‘Belief’ is fine for them, but it does NOT override nor usurp MY belief…for in America we are all Equal…Free to choose…..are we not…! ! Or is that a Lie….?
I am sorry to see the American exceptionalism even here. The whole reaction is about America, as if the rest of the world doesn’t count or doesn’t even exist. I can understand that someone starts with talking about their own culture and that is okay by me, but to be so completely ignored rubs me the wrong way.
America was exceptional, once. That was before the demoralization campaign became sufficiently effective (search Odysee or Bitchute for Yuri Bezmenov and the Khazarian Mafia).
Yea, slaveowners were indeed exceptional.
TIL, no one ever owned slaves in world history except in the USA.
Only in USA are slaveowners praised as exceptional inventors of freedom and equality that are blessed by God himself.
The constant drumming in of exceptionalism and superiority creates the mental state that justifies treating other states and people as backwards and inferior, after all if you are as good as it gets, top of the tree, king of the walk, then the rest are less. Less become other. Other becomes dehumanised. Dehumanised deserves attacks. Attacks become justice.
Jouke… tell me…. what is this supposed American ‘exceptionalism’ except a phrase adopted by Bush/Cheney to justify devastating innocent smaller countries whilst breaking International Law. The rest of the world is sick of it… they can’t ignore it any more.
Sorry, but there’s no “right” to be wrong and an ass about it to boot, not for American citizens and not for those of any other country you happen to name.
Grown ups maybe. They get to choose things but where do you draw the line of choice?
Paedophilia, beastiality, surgery and brainwashing of confused children, destruction of free speech, deliberate lies by public officials? Where is the line that preserves truth and society if everyone can just do what they want.
Ash… there are already laws against Pedophilia and bestiality. Whatever LGBQT folks do is their own business, none of mine nor yours, unless they break societal laws. Everyone can make their choice to be gay, or not. It’s a personal choice which affects no-one else. No one forces you to be gay, so live and let live. In Utah and several Southern States, a 50 year old man can marry a 12 year old girl. Are you OK with that…? Free speech is permitted unless it promotes violence against class, creed, clan or others. There is NO surgery and brainwashing of children, this is a made up crisis by DeSantis and others. Society is adult enough to make their own choice without Govt interference. Deliberate lies by public officials has now become the new normal. Remember when Nixon and Clinton were impeached for a single lie to the American people… there is a recent winner who blew all those records away…10,000 lies is just not enough anymore….
What I object to is catering to the LGBQT community such that the vast majority of citizens have to live and work by their “special needs”. They are an almost infinitesimally small percentage of the population garnering a disproportionately large amount of attention, influence and pandering to.
This is the best essay I’ve ever read on the subject, Larry. Why do so many smart people embrace objectively false narratives? I suppose it depends on where you look.
The MSM does so because they are paid propagandists. Watch Don Lemon at CNN for a case study in how these type reacts to power. When the old regime was in charge he gave them what they wanted. Now there’s a new regime and he’s trying to do the same but lacks the substance to do so with a different palette. He will ultimately fail and be removed.
I will not comment on government because you’ve lived it and its obviously a lot more complicated there, particularly where it intersects with law enforcement and the national security state.
Thinking voters have not embraced it and never will after having been exposed to the Afghanistan withdrawal model. Even the dumbest of us saw it for what it was when the narrative couldn’t even survive a single news cycle.
Emotional voters have not embraced it because they are focused on the stress being caused by economic issues. You cannot manipulate a person with one type of fear if they are already immersed in another type of fear.
It is fascinating to watch this administration put to life all the historical questions I’ve pondered but never really understood the answer to until now.
Larry – great question. My thoughts on this:
If you are sleeping soundly and lost in your own dreams, you may not awaken in time to realise that your house is on fire.
The truth wakes us up to reality, no matter how unpleasant. We can then respond to save ourselves and those we care about. Lies on the other hand lull us ever deeper into slumber.
From the Gospel of Thomas: “All those who seek the truth shall find it. At first you will be dismayed, then astonished, and then you will be free and reign over all”.
Most people cannot get to the dismay part.
Why are so many smart people embracing objectively false narratives?
A tragic question. Everyone I know has been sucked into the narratives. The ones that have a chance to climb out of the fog of delusion are still stuck on TV news, & that is shocking to me.
24/7 clever propaganda campaign, bullying, censorship, it is an extremely skilled disinformation campaign is my answer. It is easy to get ‘black pilled’ with the tragic result. I have resorted to prayer because my smart friends & family have ears of clay.
Thankfully Larry has not been ‘black pilled’ & has used his knowledge & verbal skills to shine a bit of light on the real scoop & others with similar skills at shining the light on the mirage spun by the Criminal Grifting Class.
What people think is determined by who writes their paycheck.
Why smart people even honest ones embrace the narrative on ukraine ?
– maybe they are russophobic at heart and hate everything russian ?
– maybe they are told to follow the narrative OR ELSE ?
– maybe they have this public opinion following narrative and secretly/privately have separate opinion ?
– maybe they are PAID $$$ to write about these articles following the narrative ?
– maybe they are BLACKMAILED to follow the narrative else child pornograpy found on their computer suddenly ?
– maybe they are just ignorant and too trusting / blind toward their own govt propaganda ?
i myself saw how SST Col Lang turned into this brain mush neocon , for YEARS this col lang claimed he is against neocon yet when the russian SMO started he become one and allow propaganda lies to be put on this SST site bearing his name… How can someone that claimed to be a neocon for years suddenly become neocon in a heartbeat ?
I believe it is some kind of super-loyalty. It is internalising some concepts so deep it becomes part of your internal ID.
Are you an individual, that chance to dwell in world hegemon or world first state of peasants and workers? Or are part of tbe hegemon or of the perpetual revolution.
When soldier were dying “for motherland, for Stalin” – What drove them? Perhaps at this point they identified themselves not with mortla body but with potentially immortal statehood, idea.
And then the denial of this idea, factual or not, becomes a suicide.
When propaganda managed to reach that deep, that challenging some concepts becomes attack on a person’s very existence – it is a lost cause. “what need would i have in the world where j do not exist?”
And Ukraine, being testing ground for western psy-ops, show sees this perfectly. Very few can challenge their own existence. Very few can challenge deeply internalized, intertwined with their personal being concepts.
Why are ‘smart’ people in the west so stupid these days?
Because we have forgotten what being smart is.
Many western people assume that completing a degree at an Ivy league university makes them smart in general.
So: ‘I was top in my class at gender studies, now let me give you my opinion on Russian military doctrine’.
Western higher education seems to drain many people of critical thinking skills, these days. We all know the liberal idiot who is a top lawyer from a prestigious university and law firm, but who also seriously believes Putin is mentally ill, or that Donald Trump is a Russian agent.
Others are just con artists who know how to sound intelligent. Take the racist and profoundly stupid Joy Reid and Tiffany Cross at MSNBC.
Into this vacuum step dirty rats. Take Jake Sullivan. If I wanted an amoral, pathological liar and slimeball to help me rise in DC, he’d be a good person to go to. But if I wanted an NSA to steer the American ship of state in safe waters, he’d be the last person to turn to, because in overall terms the guy is an idiot of the highest order.
I doubt that Jake could reverse a car out of a driveway.
It’s possible to be very intelligent in one specific area, but very stupid overall. Andrei Martyanov often laments what’s happened to American education and argues that it produces idiots, who manage to rise. Anyway that’s my 10 cents for what it is worth.
Very dark force gripping the west. Truly like living through a zombie apocalypse. I can see the dark delusions in full form by watching medical bureaucrats telling us from a podium that it is now mandatory, by force of law, to inject an experimental concoction into our veins. Most people do not recognize this as ghoulish evil, because the delivery is so banal and matter of fact. What was once so obviously wrong, is now defensible by simply marshaling the “greater good” tag line. None if it can be easily explained. Mass hypnosis, perhaps?
“Why are so many smart people embracing objectively false narratives?”
I suggest two reasons. The first is that it is personally uncomfortable to admit a mistake, and the bigger the mistake and the longer it’s been held, the bigger the discomfort.
The second is fear. People can lose their friends and their livelihoods by speaking openly against the established narrative. This is a real fear of a real threat, and one not to be lightly dismissed.
We in the collective west are not there yet, but soon our best chance to move forward will be if a man of Putin’s stature emerges from the ruck and leads.
This historical event should shut up people (real ppl not trolls) who think russia is weak..
The US/UK intelligence op to ruin Hongkong by supporting the riots
The same MO of trolls/astroturfers/media claiming china weak because they are not bashing the rioters and only letting the HK police force handle it day by day.. Even when the rioter turned to more violent (burning people alive , ganging up on women) the chinese hold fast and the media kept claiming china is weak. BUT CHINA IS PLAYING THE LONG GAME
and the russian in 2022 also playing THE LONG GAME as they are winning in every front. While trolls/astroturfer kept trumpeting over ukraine fictional victories , russia winning the war in SMO and in the world stage which is FAR MORE IMPORTANT than the SMO itself.
– In energy front , Russia rally even the oldest US ally Saudi arabia into ignoring US ‘orders’
– In European front , the economic disaster on EU and UK will be more evident as it is impossible to hide it any longer.. the massive demonstration in EU will be exposed toppling european nation’s leadership.
– Russia expose to the world that US and EU will use violent right wing / nazi elements for their own purposes. It is a thing that every nation’s leadership knew and this time it is publicly shown without shame by US and EU
– Iran is now on the front page due to it’s incredibly cost effective weapons and the most important is their renewed alliance with russia in modernizing iranian military. Gone the pro west clique in iranian govt who still dream about making peace with EU as it is proven EU is just US’s dog.
– The whole world (those not US vassals) know this is the time to break US bondage and they all follow Russia and China. African nations especially aware of this and there’s been many noise from africa trying to break their colonist bondage like france. France will collapse economically if their link to african vassals are cut.
– Nations know this conflict will result in fast financial decline of the west and the demise of US dollar. They saw how US dollar destroying many US vassals like japan and nations will flock to safety toward russia and china. US dollar will be relegated back to CONUS and US citizens will live normal like other nations , WITHIN THEIR MEANS (which is good for US as a nation in the long run)
Ah yes, the “Open Society” is rooted in “Marxism”. This idea would not amuse old Popper, Karl at all …
The liberals pretending to be conservative have got exactly what they ordered – only they don’t really want to acknowledge that …
And the USSR perished from all sorts of things – certainly not from “Marxism”. According to it it should not have existed at all, but without it there would probably not even more be Russia today.
That is just a tricky thing with the dialectics … especially when people interfere …
“You really have to dig deep to find the facts about Ukraine’s staggering losses.”
I’ll say. You can’t Google it, that’s for sure.
Pepe Escobar in tweet the other day had Ukraine combat dead at 200,000 (80,000 of which he thought were mercenaries. Interesting.), and Col. Macgregor has been very consistent the last two weeks in his various interviews, claiming the number of Ukraine combat dead has reached more than 100,000, with between two hundred and four hundred thousand others having been wounded.
Which makes for quite a big spread on the casualty count. If we go with the higher end figure, of four hundred thousand wounded, that would mean the Armed Forces of Ukraine have suffered 500,000 thousand total casualties so far, and if the AFU started the war with between 400,000 and 600,000 combat effectives, the two figures I have seen most bandied about, then essentially that means the Ukraine Army is no more.
At least as far as it was constituted in the glory days of February and March, when it stymied the Russian onslaught and forced it to retreat with its tail between its legs in the northeast, while holding strong everywhere else.
Excepting down Mariupol way of course, were its finest fighting units, also known as Nazis, got slapped around by a militia and some Chechens and were eliminated permanently from the chessboard.
What does all this mean? Who knows. I think one of most telling moments of this war, happened back in late July, when the Ukraine MoD put out a release stating it had lost 90,000 men killed. Zelensky immediately walked this figure back, all the way to 10,000 if memory serves, and said there had been a mistake, what the MoD meant to say that it was the Russians that had lost 90,000 killed.
Clerical error don’t you know.
My contention is, for whatever its worth, Pepe’s figure is likely the most accurate. 200,000 Ukraine servicemen have been killed, and here is the shocker, I believe less than that have been wounded. That is how pathetic the performance of this army has been.
The Ukriane Army may be the first in modern history to achieve a killed to wounded ratio were the number killed is greater than the number wounded.
Hell, you might have to go back to the Battle of Canae to see a worse performance, as the Romans in that battle lost 65,000 men killed and left no wounded, missing or prisoners behind.
I think it’s pretty obvious that there’s a massive information operation running, they even call it ‘cognitive warfare’
https://www.innovationhub-act.org/sites/default/files/2021-01/20210122_CW%20Final.pdf
there’s research from the University of Adelaide identifying the scale of pro ukrainian bots being used,
https://declassifiedaus.org/2022/11/03/strongmassive-anti-russian-bot-army-exposed-by-australian-researchers-strong/
not only is there an IO running but there’s also an operation taking down any dissent, I’ve seen loads of Twitter accounts suspended,
it’s all very Orwellian, life is easier if you give in and learn to love Big Brother.
take the vax, support the Ukraine, vote Democrat, Drink the Kool-Aid, get extra Soylent Green,
Go Brandon!
America is just one big Jonestown now.
“I believe that the people of the United States and Europe are going to experience a similar rude awakening”
and tbf i can’t wait that this will happen as soon as possible. The whole western Bullshit can only go, because the middle class actually believe it. They have to suffer to finally wake up.
Mass Media, Belive Systems and dumb people.
Robert Malone on Mass Psychosis: https://rwmalonemd.substack.com/p/mass-formation-psychosis
Talk about Projecting. 🤦♂️
Dead on post from a french military man who states that the french troops in romania are like walking dead. Barely enough food and sleep. Leclerc tanks struggling to make their way in Carpates mountains…
this is quite interesting from patrick lancasters channel. looks like general mud has taken over . it is a nice thing to have total air superiority. Without it NATO would not survive over there.
looks like artillery spotting using drones- how effective- we have come along way since the artillery spotting balloons of ww1
https://weaponsandwarfare.com/2019/07/02/wwi-spotting-for-the-armys-big-guns-i/
Russian Drone, Artillery & Electronic Warfare Destroy Ukraine Positions in Kharkiv
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VJb7Zrxc6Q
You know Larry;
When I saw the headline : Deconstructing : I thought maybe you’d gone Marxist.
How wrong I was.
Anyone the least bit familiar with the Question of Palestine, even those educated by Elite Western Institutions, immediately and completely aware that this entire history — panned for western audiences –, for more than a century, in the West, has been fraud piled upon lies, baked with malice and moral turpitude.
To this day.
And when Russian Federation joined Axis of Resistance, aligning with Syria, Iran, Hisb Allah in 2013 and 2014 — when, overnight, following overthrow of Ukraine President by UK/US, Feb. 2014, the criminal western oligarchs immediately assigned Russia same social status as Palestine and Palestinians. In 2015 Russia entered Syria; seven years later, began mission in Ukraine.
This treatment of Palestine and Palestinians is the rule and this rule also transferred to Russia, overnight, in Feb. 2014. And don’t say these things didn’t happen.
Westernism and Zionism, embarked on special military operation more than a hundred years running to destroy Palestine. . . yet the people resist, to this day.
Let this be a parable for those same western and zionist bigots [and liars, and pathological liars, and criminally insane and war criminals] that bit off more than they can chew, viz a viz Russia and Russians!
Put another way, the [supposed] ‘smartest’ man in Europe at the time, Sigmund Freud, admitted he did not understand and had no way of educating himself about characters in Dostoyevsky novels. Imagine that?
The moral of the story is the west does not possess educated men and women, of which this current epoch and in concert with Ukraine Crisis, to point out just one example, plainly and simply and clearly demonstrate.
This illusion is that the west if full of intelligent and educated men and women.
Could have fooled me!
Our culture and civilization and society is so depraved — a direct result of malice etc. of the oligarchs, our lords and masters — that sex=love; money=intelligence; wisdom=cleverness. . . .Etc. Etc. Etc.
Whatever one thinks of Putin, he has publicly made it abundantly clear over and over again that his civilization’s fight is with these western oligarchic and mass murdering criminals. . . —-&, unlike them, he understands all the damage they have done and continue to try to do, the world over.
Russian leadership understands these criminals, these maniacs don’t know how to stop lying! After all, isn’t this the number one purpose of an Ivy League Education? to be indoctrinated into this western oligarchic/criminal crime syndicate of Gangsters, and their Gangster Capitalism? This project, built on lies, perpetuated by lies, . . . welp, maybe they should not have bit off more than they can chew. . . but they did, and why did they? They are not actually very well educated, for starters.
-30-
They think that telling the truth would lead to loosing the war.
And loosing the war would lead to loosing their power.
So, they are trying to win by keeping the population quiet.
We will see how this will work.
Can you be sure that Russia will win?
This is indeed a question that has been bothering me for years. How is it possible in a society like Switzerland (where I live)? That healthy people (mentally and physically), well trained, without obvious problems are deeply and sincerely convinced of a narrative and do not even ask questions. It can’t be just a matter of manipulation.
Finally, I became convinced that this phenomenon is essentially due to human nature. The fact that humans have a certain consciousness is not free. It comes at a price. Humans need beliefs and convictions in order to have a minimum of mental stability. And moreover, humans live in groups, in societies. So they share many of their beliefs and convictions with the groups and societies they live in. Apparently, it is not possible otherwise. I think this is the reason why humanity has survived. Not because of the mind, but despite the mind. Because humans are guided by “instincts” (not in a pejorative sense) deeper than their minds.
However, there is the issue of biodiversity (copyright Putin). A society is healthier when several beliefs and convictions can coexist. And this is where Western societies have become toxic.
PS: Just a small thing. If I am well informed, India was one of the first countries that officially accepted a third gender. Not for ideological reasons, but for physical-medical reasons. There are people everywhere where – physically – the gender cannot be clearly determined. Apparently, in India, the number of such people has exceeded a certain critical mass. Besides, in nature there are often exceptions, so this should not surprise us too much.
Shakespeare wrote a comedy “The Taming of the Shrew” showing how indoctrination works. “Forward, I pray, since we have come so far,
And be it moon, or sun, or what you please.
And if you please to call it a rush-candle,
Henceforth I vow it shall be so for me.”
The problem with delusion and fantasies is that it can lead to some very dangerous decisions. Larry, with you contacts, is there any truth that on the 31st of Oct, one of those dangerous decision was being contemplated?
“A strange thing is taking place early Monday morning. All United States military aircraft have turned their transponders off. The planes can no longer be tracked by civilian entities or via the Internet.
Even more ominous, word is coming out of several regional airports around the US, especially several near US nuclear missile bases, that fighter and other military aircraft are being quietly moved to those Regional airports, with no explanation.
One possibility is that the US is moving the aircraft to put them away from likely nuclear attack targets, such as air bases. This would – in theory – allow some of the US military aircraft to survive a nuclear first strike. It’s almost the same as when the military moves planes or ships to avoid a coming hurricane.
Page Regional Airport in North Dakota is one such air field where military aircraft are said to be re-positioned. Page is about 219 miles from Minot Air Force Base, a nuclear weapons base.”
Also, any idea what’s happen to journalist James Gordon Meek?
More delusion if anyone thinks turning transponders off and moving planes will make any difference at all if a nuclear attack is about to be launched. But who knows, never underestimate the stupidity of the American people (to paraphrase Will Rogers).
More likely the MIC has found a new scam to make money off the tax payer.
Thanks for quoting the Bard. All this couldn’t be worse than the Spanish.
Spot on question Mr Johnson … I think that, all in all, a good explanation for the masses credulity could be summarized in the quote from Matrix’ Cypher character, “Ignorance is bliss”
https://youtu.be/OLv6ycYcpGI?t=1
It’s and easy answer. White collar work, especially as an employee, does not lend itself to the experience you get from the kind of feedback you get either as a skilled laborer, small business person, farmer or self-employed professional.
You won’t stay in business long if you don’t have any common sense. Conversely, there isn’t the same kind of feedback loop in a bureaucracy. The feedback is paper, reports, studies, PowerPoint slides, etc. and those pieces of paper are treated as gospel.
Many people don’t know that the company that owns Macy’s was largely built by the Lazarus family. I remember reading something about the family. One member of management talks about how the Lazaruses were people persons. I like to be out on the sales floor talking to people. If you put a 30 page report on their desk it would just sit there. They would never read it.
You need both kinds of people. You need grinders who are detail oriented and will do the work to put out those reports. But you should never give them final authority on anything and that’s what our society seems to have done.
“..what would lead a man of education and experience to so fiercely embrace a lie…”
it’s more to do with weather they are psychopaths or not – than with any education/experience.
Only their acting experience is relevant here and psychopaths learn early how important it is to act to be able to hide their mental defects from normal people.
They mostly are experts on acting and gaslighting.
Especially if they come from a certain psychopath support group masqueraded as a ‘culture’…very heavily represented in Brandon’s administration. Especially within their Covid19 Murder System.
“Mass formation” is the answer to why people are blinded by ideology and can’t take in reality. Two researchers:
• Dr Mattias Desmet on how to stop mass formation psychosis.
https://www.youtube.com › watch
• Ariane Bilheran
« Seuls 3 types de profils résistent au déferlement totalitaire »
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMMVIppx-Qw
It’s a well studied phenomenon. No reason to throw one’s hands up in the air and act surprised.
Here’s some fun facts and “5 Things You Need to Know!”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQChw_Rk1Kk
Bilheran mentions three types of people who have the ability to resist mass formation (déferlement totalitaire):
• Anti-main stream people, non-conformists, who always question commonly accepted rules imposed on them.
• Earth bound people, ruled by common sense in a way that makes them immune to ideologies, not comfirmed by reality or experience.
• Some intellectuals and artists.
https://www.thetranslationbridge.com/my-post
This sounds about right. Most people are either conformists, or are part of the 50% who are by definition of below average intelligence (or suffering from the Dunning-Kruger effect like our ex PM, Liz Truss), or are dependent for their wages on conformity to the norm. That takes care of most people, leaving only the small band of the consciously vicious, greedy and psychopathic, and the resistant whom you describe.
Another part of the rigid ideology: the market spontaneously supplies what you demand. Be careful what you wish for.
This downbeat analysis of UAF Kherson offensive comes from BBC’s senior foreign correspondent who has a lot of experience of reporting conflicts (mostly Middle East). Worth a watch: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-europe-63507401
Thanks. That was instructive.
Apparently, there is no evidence, at all, that the Ukraine Army in the Kherson region is assembling the massive amounts of men and material that will be necessary to drive the Russians back to their 2013 starting postitions.
And here my media is informing me that the Kerch bridge was left standing to better facilitate the Ukraine advance into Russia proper.
Is it just me, or has the definition of “an offensive” changed with this war. I always thought an offensive had to involve at least a few divisions, but three or four brigades is all you need these days to claim a mighty offensive is underway. Ok, whatever, you’ve got to change with times I guess, but come on, I refuse to accept that a depleted company or two wandering around in a cow pasteur should be recognized as an offensive, if said companies aimless wanderings should happen to be in the direction of enemy postitions.
Call me a Poot’n Puppet all you want Western media, but I’m not going to go there.
The definition of recession also changed. USA English has turned into real life version of what George Orwell called Newspeak.
Thanks Larry. Intellectually i accept your argument wholeheartedly and have made many of the same points myself. However it’s so difficult for me to actually come to terms with what it means. What chance has the general public who never even tries to understand what’s really going on. It’s easy to point out that what’s happening is a conspiracy, because that’s true also, but the argument you make is compelling.
Blind ideology combined with absolute stupidity. What could possibly go wrong!
American society is tribalism. This is apparent to anyone who’s lived among tribal people. A tribal system means that any tribesperson has to totally submerge his or her identity in the tribe. Independent thought is verboten if it goes contrary to the tribal line. (I have seen meetings where tribe members in discussion strongly disagreed with the tribal line but when it came to voting invariably voted with the tribe anyway.) Once you understand this it makes sense why apparently intelligent and educated people can switch off their brains and turn into animated broken records spouting the line their political tribe decreed. This is also why American “elections” are actually only vying for the vote of the people not part of either tribe; no matter how disastrous the current regime, its tribal supporters will blindly vote for it anyway.
Herd behaviour.
I am convinced that the majority of us Westerners are strongly inclined to so-called ‘herd behaviour’.
In situations of confusion, fear or panic a person is strongly inclined to follow their neighbour especially if the latter appears to
know what to do or where to go.
We are no longer able to reason independently!
I really do understand why people believe in those lies. To comprehend in one lie, one must understand that everyone lies, every tv station, every radio, every piece of newspaper, and every site on internet. All of those which are easly accessible, and held as common knowladge – are lying. The whole scale of those lies is just incomprehensible. I needed long time to analyse and asimilate this truth, and I was just stunned how worldwide this lie is. And I knew NATO lies before this war, but still, I was astounded. And most people want to just believe this world has at least base decency – if they believe in this – they have to believe in those lies.
But truth will come forth, one way or another, everyone will have to face this reality as lies came up sky high. I almost pity them. It will be devastating for most of them, so for anyone who knows – please – be gentle with those who do not know. Understanding that everything in big world is a lie is just mind bending. And minds will be bend.
Why are so many smart people in the west embracing objectively false narratives?
1. It depends on definition of “smart”, if it means obeying teachers and professors and being a well-taught poodle, then it is only logical that they would always put first the sense of belonging to the dominant way of thinking even at the cost of the truth.
2. The problem of the truth and the reality is that it always compel someone not to shy away from statements that hurts (especially when you are part of the elit, and much of what you have depends more on what you have been given than on what you have done or what you think you deserve) and not to face your inner contradictions (being a leftist progessive and at the same time having rich parents for instance)
3. The moral problem : In a post-christian and post-truth society, the dominant ideology was that, after getting rid of the church and the religions, people will not need to believe but only to be rational. That was a mistake : they couldn’t destroy that need and instead they replaced it (TV and MSM being the new church, even more during Plandemic Time). Even more so, the rationality harms the dominant class too : Justice is much more rational than injustice, especially since you need some kind of justice between bad guys in order to fulfill their evil plans.
The explanation for “is well educated, well spoken and a veteran” is rather simple, and I will do it by example: Renascence artists in Italy where nothing short of geniuses. Yet when they unearthed Greek statues, discolored with age, they really believed discolored statues look better and Greeks did it because they were smart.
Intelligence is closely related to humanity, honesty, education (not medical and engineering) and literacy, if we are talking about the understanding and organization of society. Intellectuals are erudites who understand the epoch, because they are looking at a mosaic of several billion squares. If they don’t have money to pay the mortgage, heating and food bills, the costs of their children’s education, they will put themselves up for sale. Just look at the transformation of pop-philosopher Slavoj Zhizhek and thousands of “former” intellectuals.
Follow the money. The Ukraine banking system and commercial sector has been a washing machine for western dirty money and political bribes. If this disappears, they’ll have to find another country to handle the “laundry”. While not impossible it will require a lot of effort and take time to restore a Ukraine level of service and cover. The current arrangement must remain operating until the last Ukranian. The final chapter will be the west accusing Ukraine of not following its military/political advice along with claims that much of the weapons were stolen. Not the fault of the west that Russia prevailed. Cheerleaders keep cheering at football games even when the score is 70 to 3. The question is what country will the west select to replace Ukraine?
True. When I was working in London all the JPM bankers were putting money in Ukraine at 10% interest on the dollar, interestingly the other country offering same mad rates was Georgia. Another colour revolution target.
Then after the feeding frenzy and insane interest rates defying any logic when western banks barely offered 1% the banks in Ukraine collapsed.
Mass marketing for war in USofA is and has been pervasive and effective. I (and I imagine many here) have spoken with intelligent, well read, friends who have told me the same ignorant lies about whatever: Putin sick, Russia out of missiles, etc. It was shocking and continues to be that way every time I talk to someone who has swallowed all the lies.
War Marketing is not in your face, but it is pervasive here in USofA. Marketing is very advanced and nuanced and effective these days .
Moral cowardice, self-interest, personal corruption, lack of personality.
Technical education may not say much, and it often disguises a flawed character.
Military officers can be a snapshot of the institutions to which they belong, in their time.
In the present age, disagreeing with the absurd requires courage.
And those who succeed have to bear the consequences.
Few can.
The Mockingbird media tells them that. Its not like they read Russian telegram and Russians are tight lipped with bad PR which would not be believed anyway. Common sense is not so common either – take men and women. I’m a 51 year old man, met plenty of men and women in that time, also have a grow son and daughter, we are so damn different and physically and emotionally not even close to being equal. But we’re all walking around pretending because we are indoctrinated with this equality line. OFC feminists pick and choose when they want to be equal…no draft for heavens sake lol.
Dear Mr Johnson,
I regularly read and admire your work. However, commentators “norecovery” and “Anglo Man” have earlier pointed out the dangers of conflating one problem (Western propaganda about Ukraine) with other issues (gender, climate, vaccines, etc).
Though raised and living in one of the USA’s imperial satrapies, I’m old enough to have grown up watching the original Superman TV show. Remember, “Yes, it’s Superman … who … fights a never-ending battle for Truth, Justice and the American Way.” Only much (much, much) later did some of us learn the American Way is not always(!) about Truth & Justice. BTW, on the matter of gender, that was a guy who wore his underwear on the outside. But I digress.
Anyway, to your question “Why are so many smart people embracing objectively false narratives?” The answers are both specific and general:
– most people do not take the trouble to go behind the headline/soundbite;
– mainstream/legacy media has been concentrated in fewer hands, therefore fewer sources of both news and opinion;
– a consequence is the echo chamber of media referring to itself for validation;
– news and opinion have been conjoined for 40 years – recall Rupert Murdoch’s (in)famous quote “opinion IS news;”
– need one point out the deliberate manipulation of media and narrative by various government organisations, including (ahem) your former employer – and what then of Operation Mockingbird?
– propaganda (in the sense of manipulation) is not a new thing, in modern times used during WWI and then formalised in the work of Edward Bernays and others;
– not long after that we get to “If you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it, and you will even come to believe it yourself.” Dr Goebbels would be proud of modern efforts at ‘narrative control;’
– basically, the same techniques are used to sell washing powder, sneakers, smart phones, holidays – after all, it’s not the product/service you’re buying, it’s the story/image/context;
– in the case of Ukraine, the narrative (“We must stand with brave little Ukraine” and “Russia bad”) is necessary to *manufacture consent* (Chomsky’s term) for the agenda (weaken/destroy Russia and probably fuck Germany). Caitlin Johnstone’s blog (caitlinjohnstone.com, recommended) is much given to dissecting this relationship of narrative and agenda.
I could go on ad nauseam. “Why are so many smart people embracing objectively false narratives?” To put it succinctly, “because they don’t know any better, and many don’t want to know any better.”
Thanks for your efforts and illumination. Keep up the good work!
Kind regards.
Well, Larry, you managed it. You left me speechless. That article was perfect. And sums up the true state of the USA. Nicely done sir!!
Good morning Larry, I would like to premise that I live in Italy, and specifically in southern Italy, that is, on the outskirts of the empire: I believe that this fact allows me to observe with a little advance (or perhaps a considerable advance) some degenerative phenomena that are taking place in the western world, compared to you or, to others like you, who live in the center of the empire
As you well know, any social and state formation needs a strong moral tension on the part of its members in order to thrive; unfortunately physiologically this moral strength tends to become sterile with the passage of time.
Even in the best phases there will always be a struggle between those who demand absolute respect for the founding values of their social structure and those who ask for compromises in the name of the reason of state.
As the degenerative process is triggered and progresses (the disappearance of external enemies and dangers is the fundamental catalyst for this process) the latter take over the former: that is, the shrewds replace the intransigent moralists.
Unfortunately, once started you cannot stop the process: even the shrewds, at some point, become cumbersome because they are able to understand the consequences of their work and this represents a serious limitation because they will not be willing to go beyond a certain limit. At this point the shrewd ones take a step back (retreat to the rear and try to manipulate those who take their place). The time has come for the stupids: they are willing to do anything to secure their immediate personal advantage precisely because they are unable to understand anything else.
A state led by stupid people can obviously only achieve very disappointing results: the antidote will be the creation of a virtual reality in which all the parameters aimed at measuring the functioning of society are totally falsified. Most people, like a herd of sheep, will follow the crowd and believe in this virtual reality (some are stupid, others just too ignorant), some will not believe it but out of laziness they will pretend to believe it, some still will not believe it and will be treated like a fool.
In the end the house of cards will collapse on itself, victim of all the lies on which it was built. As you know in 378 AD the Roman imperial army, led by the emperor himself, clashed, in Adrianople, against a horde of Goths: the Romans had never suffered defeats in the open field by the barbarians because the latter did not know how to fight in an organized way, they could organizing ambushes but a pitched battle was obviously another thing. In concrete terms, the assumption that the barbarians did not know how to fight in the open was true, the problem was that the army that thought it was the best in the world was simply not capable of fighting at all: so the Roman Empire was broken.
Outskirts? Italy has never chosen a non CIA approved leader since WW2
“Made me wonder what would lead a man of education and experience to so fiercely embrace a lie. The world witnessed the same phenomenon with Adolf Hitler during his final days in his bunker beneath the rubble strewn streets of Berlin.”
Larry. Have you watched the 2004 Oliver Hirschbiegel movie “Downfall”?
I don’t believe Hitler was embracing a lie so much as Fatum. Hitler knew he was sick, but there was nothing he could do but let the disease(s) play out. Hitler knew he was being lied to all the time, and that he had probably helped create that environment to exist, but during the last days of World War II there was nothing he could do about it. You’re not paranoid if people are really out to get you.
It all comes down to one question: Did Hitler believe he was the hero of his own story?
What about this :
1. Group think is a powerful engine
2. Wishful thinking / denial is of course involved, but still more specifically :
3. They have been putting SUCH A HUGE AMOUNT OF MONEY on the scheme, that they just CANNOT ACCEPT THAT IT DOESN’T WORK.
Here is the belief at work that money by its own magic can achieve any result you may desire.
(Sigh) I expect more war credits and of course more lies …
That idiot Petraeus wants to lead a multinational coalition to take on Russia. Hail, hail Fredonia!!
Will Biden Gamble on a Ukraine Coalition? – The American Conservative
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/will-biden-gamble-on-a-ukraine-coalition/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
“General Betrayus.” Kind of says it all.
“I, _________, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully execute the duties of the office on which I am about to enter, so help me God.”
The West Point Oath “General Betrayus” took. For these people the Constitution no longer exists, God is dead, and everything in between is gobbledygook.
These people live for the money. Too bad money is a thing not a meaning. They live to be front and center. Too bad “front and center” is nothing but pure celebrity.
The enemy General Betrayus fell to were the charms of a woman not his wife. General Betrayus went out for a hamburger when he had steak at home.
Sorry if this sounds harsh. This guy looks haunted. Where’s the character? Where’s the honor? Where’s the truth?
His career is a long line of blunders and failures. He does however kiss the right asses.
The United States of America used to be proud of itself as a nation with a mission. The concept of ‘mission’ was coined inside Christian communities: to be American was equated with being a man with a ‘mission’. Soon this originally activist Christian concept of ‘mission’ was taken over by all institutions within the American society, especially by the army and by capitalist businesses that are constantly in dire need of ‘mission statements’. The original Christian content of ‘mission’ however was gradually stripped off or put between brackets.
Well, after 9/11 the US under the leadership of president Bush jr. tried to renew its missionary zeal by proclaiming ‘a world-wide war against terrorism’. This revitalized missionary zeal lead the US armed forces to attack Saddam Hussain, because he was said to be in possession of ‘weapons of mass destruction’. This narrative turned out to be objectively false, but who cares? What was important was the ardent missionary zeal that justified the attack on Iraq. With a comparable missionary zeal the Biden administration transformed the Ukraine into a battlefield, where a supposedly ‘evil’ (Russia, Putin) has to be overwon. Again this narrative lacks truth, but who cares? What is important is to keep feeling a self-propelling burning force inside that is called ‘mission’, because ‘mission’ is the magic word that pro-actively justifies all the actions of the US. Having proclaimed yourself a ‘man with a mission’, you automatically are in possession of a divine right to remove the rights of other people (f. e. the indigenous Indians of the great plains of America, who were branded to be ‘pagans’ by means of a Christian missionary zeal. ‘Pagans’ do not possess the rights that a people with a mission does possess. It’s this missionary zeal that formed the pretext (false narrative) that justified the spread of world-wide imperialism against other people). It’s precisely because of this typical American obsession with ‘mission’, that America has become ‘the hegemon’ in the eyes of other people. Thanks to the narrative of having a ‘mission’ America justifies all its unilateral actions. Well, Russia has stood up against this missionary unilateralism of the Western elites by starting a SMO that is slowly grinding away all the missionary self-justifications & divine self-elevations of the US and its vassals (: NATO). Slowly but surely president Putin is showing this emperor to be without clothes.
Yet another aspect of the deleterious effects of the ‘Christian’ religion, which has made an exorbitant contribution to the evils of the world – counterbalanced by a much smaller contribution to the general good of nations.
Two things came to mind on this subject. The first was Plato’s Allegory of the Cave -worth looking up – but it explains how the majority are happy to live in the dark with their optical illusions projected onto them by their jailors as opposed to stepping out into the wonderful world.
The other was this quote from Ibsen’s ‘The Wild Duck’: Rob the average man of his life-illusion, and you rob him of his happiness at the same stroke
“the West has adopted a rigid, intolerant ideology that is reminiscent of the intellectual sclerosis rooted in Marxism that led to the death of the Soviet Union.”
The display of ignorance about what Marxism is is reaching painful levels now. No folks, all this you mentioned has nothing to do with Marx’s conclusions, if anything, it’s the complete opposite. And no, the USSR didn’t find because of adherence to Marxism but because of its abandonment of Marxist theory. You’re just repeating prejudices you heard somewhere.
Please, refrain from mentioning Marx in your commentary, Larry. It’s irrelevant to your otherwise interesting points and doing it makes your credibility suffer.
Ta.
Yes! The words ‘Marxism’, ‘Communism’, and ‘Socialism’ are commonly used as insults in the US, due to centuries of indoctrination by their capitalist masters. Usually this is voiced by people who have never read a word of Marx, and have zero understanding of the concepts behind these notions – just a vague idea that getting involved in such things will mean losing ‘freedom’, or becoming ‘Russian’ or some such idiotic result. The lack of serious and wide, good quality education in the US is partly the cause of this.
Consider this quote from an American education expert:
“The US has never been first in the world, nor even near the top, on any international tests. Consistently over the past half century, American students have typically scored near the median at best, but most often being in the bottom quartile. The historical record indicates that American elementary students are only average at best, their performance degrading year by year until high school seniors perform last in almost all international tests. The International Science Studies that began in high schools in the late 1960s and early 1970s found that 14-year-olds were below average and seniors scored last of all countries. In the International Mathematics tests that began in the 1960s, American high school seniors scored last of all nations. In the 1982 International Mathematics Study, high school seniors placed at the bottom on almost every test. In terms of the PISA tests, American students – placing last – are simply following the pattern that has been consistent for the past 50 years or more.”
And a quote from one news report: “In October of 2013 a new global report issued by the OECD found that Americans ranked well below the worldwide average in just about every measure of skill. In math, reading, and technology-driven problem-solving , the United States performed worse than nearly every other country… The US would have looked even worse if China had been included in this study. In basic literacy – the ability to understand and use basic written text – 80% of Americans reached only a level 2 out of 5. And in math and numerical proficiency, using numbers in daily life, they are worse … and 10% scored below level 1. Technological literacy and ability were worse too. In problem-solving in a technological environment and the use of “cognitive skills required to solve problems”, the Americans were at the bottom.” And that bottom is in math, vocabulary, language usage and technology, with Chinese students far surpassing the Americans even when using a language that is not their own
“Why are so many smart people embracing objectively false narratives?”
Because smart is not the same as intelligent. Smart only requires memorization and attention to established doctrine, whereas intelligence involves curiosity, introspection, and skepticism. This is nothing new really, it’s just amplified by the new media environment to the point where it appears to be new. There’s no mass psychosis here. This is just the way it’s always been.
My Mum, growing up was drilled into me as looking good. Comb your hair, put your stuff in the wash, no matter where, look like you grew there.
Not at all what it appears to mean today esp uSA.
America’s greatest diversity hire, US secretary of defense Lloyd Austin advise Ukrainians to advance on Kherson. ” I believe that the Ukrainians are able to take back Kherson”. Failed general in the US armed force’s getting Ukrainians killed. Not a problem if there not your troops.
But hey, he’s got lots of Raytheon stock and a job when it’s all over.
The US penchant for suppressing dissenting views goes way back, reached a climax during the McCarthy/Truman era, dropped during the intervening years, and resurged during the COVID-19 scare.
The COVID resurgence was for the purpose of selling the public mRNA concoctions that didn’t work, and have proved to be harmful.
The current frenzy is for the purpose of selling WWIII to the public.
This quite similar to methods pursued by Goebbles during the 3rd Reich..
INDY
MONEY.
“What do you think? Why are so many smart people embracing objectively false narratives?”
Money. Add status they will kill by proxy to keep, Prestige, Power.
They’ll say anything to keep the system in the West and America going another day.
Sonar21 you do realize that the businesses roll capital right?
That many exist on a near daily series of ‘payday loans’ where they borrow the money and pay it back within a short period, this is called REPO?
That if interest rates climb a small amount they are destroyed?
That having become accustomed to free negative interest rates money as their entitlement they borrow freely to gamble with the market?
That’s what happened to Boeing BTW, the $46B bailout was exactly what they had just leveraged in a stock buyback.
That governments in America and elsewhere run essentially the same way?
You are talking to and about addicts – they are addicted to power – which is rare and hides – Prestige which is the illusion of power [see Nuland, Kagans] but above all the entire system requires endless money and more than exists.
MONEY, and the goodies and Prestige and status it brings.
But *why* would someone in DOD sign onto this?
A McMansion in Arlington perhaps?
A wife with a greedy beak?
Kids in College?
The answer is they must keep their McMansions, their status, their prestige, they must nod along.
“Why are so many smart people embracing objectively false narratives?”
Many, even smart people, are incapable of seeing outside that which is required to keep their bread buttered.
I do mean literally incapable.
I am convinced that this is a real psychological barrier that cannot be overcome. (Unless one is somewhere on the autist spectrum)
This is what happens when you have a system of government schools which is designed to condition children to the idea that they have an obligation to trust and obey government authorities at all times. Under this system the idea that your government is lying to you about almost everything becomes very difficult to even entertain.
People are subject to deep, primal, and usually subconscious, psychological drives. Many of the great comments here recognize that fact and call out different facets of how it is operating within individuals and society.
“The gentleman who wrote the preceding paragraph is well educated, well spoken and a veteran of the U.S. Department of Defense. I have known him for a short time and know that he is not a liar. What stuns me is that he genuinely believes this.”
Being intelligent, educated and well-spoken is not a prophylactic against the primal psychological drives. Those drives are a feature in the human psyche, not a bug, that served important roles in our evolution as social creatures. The masters of propaganda know this and know how to scientifically hyper-activate or dial down specific drives, as the need may be, to focus and direct populations’ minds to achieve desired objectives. I suspect your acquaintance is caught up in all of that, as most all of us are to some extent on at least some topics.
Then there are personal – or more idiosyncratic – psychological footings that come into play. There is a basic type of personality that cannot handle stress/anxiety at all. I mean no one likes to be anxious, but some people really can’t deal with it, internally. Many such people become drug/alcohol abusers, some recluses. Another strategy this personality type, with a subtype of extrovert and type A, will embark on is to not only personally embrace an anxiety reducing view of the world, even if it’s at odds with objective reality, but also demand that others adopt that very same view. Contrary outlooks can’t be tolerated b/c that would cause the anxiety inducing object to return to the forefront. For these people, the drive to reduce anxiety is stronger than the drive to ascertain and embrace truth. If you spent years hating Russia and believing they are the enemy, then a skillful Russian victory in UKR could be very anxiety inducing, particularly if your career in the DoD is around protecting your tribe from, what you believe to be, the massive existential Russian menace.
That your career and social circle participation depend on conformity to Russia as evil menace concept just adds fuel to the fire in the mind.
Psychology gets a bad rap due to its excesses, especially those having to do with the “me, me , me” and “self-help” generation. However, it is real and we ignore it at our own peril.
Larry, you are too kind to this “gentleman”. Bill Clinton was well educated, well spoken and a veteran of the White House.
Why are so many smart people embracing objectively false narratives? The apostle Paul gives us the end-times answer,
“Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, that you be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first …
“And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” 2 Ths. 2
The Marxist comparison is apt.
Marx was a product of his time and place. While I hold that some of his insights regarding the mechanisms of society and economy are more or less correct (see e.g. Keen’s economic modelling work—I don’t know that his specific suggestions for alternative arrangements follow from said modelling, though), what Marxism did was give intellectual license to people to call themselves scientific, without remaining abreast of fundamental scientific principles and new developments. Marx clearly was aware of differential equations, and his views came from particular models that evaded full solution due to stochastic processes that interrupted neat solutions; stochastic processes in differential equations were not a developed mathematics in his day.
This problem was somewhat attenuated in the USSR with their heavy emphasis on math and sciences, but due to the relative lack of freedom to oppose authority, institutional claims were seldomly analysed and opposed outside the institutional framework, e.g. by concerned non-specialist but intellectually adequate citizens.
For the current west, it is not just a tragedy, but also a farce. The people who insist that they are operating in support of The Science, generally lack facility with heuristic, logic, math, and even the science of 400 years ago (Newton et alia).
The USA is a nation of idiots, by design. When you need to be told to drink water on a hot day, you’re an idiot. That’s the gist of idiocy that embraces this country. Many more examples can be listed but I’m not in the mood. As I mentioned, this is by design. For you see, idiots are easier to control and to feed (lab grown foods). I have 2 children in public school, 2nd and 4th grade respectively. The teachers are lazy and the curriculum is retarded. A public school in Burkina Faso has a more advanced curriculum. Like I said, by design.
Look at the headlines:
https://link.foreignaffairs.com/view/591db4bc2ddf9c3c420741f5hm4bw.343b/3cb8dc06
A local talk radio host on the drive home yesterday claimed Ukraine captured Russian troops and equipment and they were using WW1 machine guns because they have no modern arms.
As much as I wanted to call in and address his Twitter understanding of the SMO, I knew I would be pissing into the wind with that shit lib
The funny thing is that there are many videos of Ukros using Maxim machine gun (a late 19th century desing used in both WW).
Not much deconstructing is needed as it’s mostly ignorance.
Especially in the US.
Good people but they know nothing beyond their own borders. It has led to all their overseas problems since Nam.
They even looked at overthrowing our humble little Aussie government once , during the Whitlam era . (The rotten commie brought in that socialist Medicare). Although we were on the same side in WW1 WW2 Korea and Nam.
The more things change…..
The CIA dude at the time was big on overthrowing governments e.g. Chile. Said it was his right.
The more things change….
Austria was certainly threatened. Australia, not so sure.
Americans generally know where shitwater gulch is in Ohing.
Nicely said, Larry.
To answer your question IMHO the plethora of bs is a psyops program designed to convince large numbers of the population to hate the Russians and believe in the dominance of the military might of the West. It is similar to the program to brainwash the populations about Covid – in this case fear porn – and later to have the major portions of the population succumb to a mass psychosis condition. So a disease is the right way to look at this condition. Millions of Americans are currently brainwashed.
And this is very dangerous and even when Ukraine loses the war there will be many who won’t believe it. Now consider where that situation takes us,…
L.
I think what it is is that to the west the Russia-Ukraine conflict is a morality tale. Putin is evil; therefore he MUST lose.
I think the West’s foundational assumption is that right makes might; as with Sir Galahad our strength is as the strength of 10 because our heart is pure.
But if Putin is seen to be winning that places all of our assumptions in question – both about the conflict and about ourselves. It is our moral narcissism which is at stake in this war.
“Why are so many smart people embracing objectively false narratives?” Because they are paid to do it. Democracy is granted only if consensus can be manufactured by Media, private universities or think tanks and so on. You will not work for BBC or NYT etc. unless you’ve interiorized neoliberal dogmas. Criticism is allowed as long as it fits the narrative. Try to bring sensible arguments against this narrative – particularly in times of war – and you lose your position, if you’re lucky, if not just look at Julian Assange.
General Ben (10k Russian troops in Ukraine today 2014) Hedges is on BBC World Service today explaining why a Ukrainain victory is inevitable in next month or two.
I might listen for a giggle.
To echo some of the other comments, around 2016 western countries did the Flip and the official narrative became MORE important than the facts.
For many people what is happening in Ukraine, or whether Trump rather than HRC is guilty of massive bribes from Russia or whether Covid kills or just gives most people mild flu is not the issue.
The issue is about making people think one or the other. We have a duty to misinform others, and no duty to inform ourselves.
The reason can be found in Putin’s Valdai speech. The West is in the process of being removed from the dominant position that it occupied for half a millennium.
Western elites cannot cope psychologically with the ramifications of this condition that they themselves created through hubris. They have become delusional en masse, in the US, UK and EU, and many European countries.
The tide of history has turned toward the Global East/South and the West/North elites are being swept away. The initial response is denial. The 5 stages of grief are denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and finally acceptance.
Next comes the anger and thrashing about. This is a dangerous phase that can involve harm to others as well as self-harm.
They are doing all this Potemkin Village lying, particularly regarding Russia and Ukraine, because they are doing things they ain’t supposed to be doing and need to create time and space to set up what it is they are about to do and the digital domain is a very useful canvass for just this kind of whole cloth false narrative.
Got to say it because it really matters, everything, everything we have been told to believe here in America, is a lie. Everything. And it is everything is a lie for a critical purpose. Sure lies are used for controlling people, it is the vast dissimulation and false narrative 24/7/365 that is the operative strategy. Its easier to hide your lies when you lie about everything even things you need not lie about because it is like a smoke screen or fog which makes it very difficut to clearly see and define what the truth is.
Do it enough and as a collective body of people, folks start to forget what truth actually is even when it samacks em’ upside the head.
They, by “They” i mean an entity of normally untouchable actors, ie, a conspiracy of powerful influential actors not beholden to and people or nation state, but to their own very special interests, involved in conspiratorial action, so this cabal of maniacal despots is doing something setting up something they must have plausible deniabikity of before what they are doing is sprung upon the world stage. in order to create a situation where by once it is started not much can stop the action, the process.
And what that is is literally war using everything they can get and move into theaters whereby they can attack Russia and her Eurasian/European allies from a number of strategically viable directions.
I believe from careful, critical thinking consideration, examining the path the proxies of this conspiracy, primarily Ukraine, but all the NATO aligned conglomorate are involed, particularly Poland and Romania, as far as geographic considerations are concerned, there is also the Baltic element due to sea lanes and such control over Russian access and freedom of movement, that collectively they are in the late stages of a implementing an organized assault upon Russia. The reason is pretty simple. Overall just about every effirt to subvert, undermine, and destroy Russia has failed, many things ment to hurt and weaken Russia have backfired and strengthened Russia, really, nothing to date has worked in the least strategic level, and it is Russia’s anti-fragile makeup, which appears to have caught these actors off guard, that this is become the bugaboo of this cabal, this conspiracy, which has an awful lot, or should I say a lot of wonderful aspects in common with another bugaboo these actors just can not find any way to ivercome, undermine, subvert and destroy, which is One Hundred Million Armed To The Fucking Teeth American’s and their family friends and alliances. It is turning out these two pluralities of peoples indeed stand in the way of what this cabal of lunatics wants to do with this world. It is all that stands in their way. Stands in their way because this conspiracy is at a deficit in suitable manpower, especialky now, as Putin’s meat-grinder strategy in the Dinbas Arc has literalky killed, destroyed wounded permanently, so many human assets this conspiracy had within its organization, operatives, agent provocateurs, trained LARP’s, various ranks and specification of gangstalkers, (this last mostly white American/European males, many with some mil spec training, or tactical experience), a number of mil/tactical glowies, have been killied, greviously wounded/maimed, or found out risking their lives for what is not anything more than a glorified criminal gang who can’t give a flying fuck about you when your usefulness is done, these last have literally run away from the conspiracy’s proxie Ukrainian theater of operations entirely.
The thing you got to grok about these operatives sent in to work with their Ukrainian counterparts is they are a perishable resource, there just is only so many and even less talented experienced combat seasoned ones, simply because none if them even with a lot of combat experience have no experience with war as the Russian’s wage, nor with the weapons systems and combined arms tac-strat the Russian mikitary employs. Shooting mid east patriots, regardless their ideology religion or politics, their reasons for resistance to US mikitary presence and activity in their country, the experience in combat conditions is one that is very different, because they are in these mid east and african nation states as essentially invaders invading thise countries, running bases etc, for the power and enrichment if this cinspiracy of criminals, this cabal of globo=maniacs who right now possess an awful lot of control over the so called West.
The nuts and bolts of this is these actors in mil spec mufti, sheep dipped or pulled from antifa/BLM gangstalker ranks, globalist paid LARP whores, or otherwise, they are not an army per say, they are not an intigrated organized cadre as the Russian army is. They just ain’t real soldiers, Warriors, with a fully intigrated committed to defense of their motherland mikitary machine. And these cabal actors have been fed in oiecemeal and defeated in detail to date by a fully proffessional military alliance which has accrued over eight years of lethal existential direct warfare fighting this conspiracy’s proxy army it created in Ukraine. And much the same can be said for this Ukrainian military, which for all intents this cabal essentially wanted its own army its own fulky intigrated military, but being as this criminal gang is a non state collection of actors and being they hate themselves any nationalistic or sovereign nation state entity, and because legitimacy, mostly that last, no way could they get away justifying creating a private army particularly one million man strong and all the materiel and weapins needed to equip and train such an army. So what these criminals did was go into Ukraine, for a raft of useful reasons all pretty obvious, location location location. They ran a coup using American and Brit vassals, who contributed to the nurturing of fascist nazi elements, as they needed plausible deniability in the form of an illusion of a kegitimate sovereign nation state government in Ukraine, after successfully pulling off this coup they then proceeded to take the existing Ukraine military, turn it into a regiment factory, with primary emphasis on creating bascalky a terrir and reprisal army, regiments of terror and reprisal orientated soldiers, just what every criminal gang needs, enforcers, leg breakers, knee-cappers, every sort of irganized crime string men, they created a private army that wears the skin suit of a legitimate sovereign nation state,that itself is run by more of its criminal gang associates.
What happened thats driving everything, is when this army if kegbreakers and terrir-reprisal specialists ran up against true to lufe effective determined committed militia’s and Russian somdiers, Warriors in their own right mind you, this Ukie army of terror and reprisal regiments got the ass handed to them. Tanks armored cars and cannon/tube arty does not an army make, and this Ukie faux military has serious shortcomings which are built in and ingrained within its structure not quickly not easily changed. And i believe watching this conspiracy, it has a very centtalized styke if control, it rules from afar, a unique to it centralism, its it’s style, which us patently obvious in all its ways as its usurped Europe and America, it imposes its centralism form of power and control.
Thing is, you can not run an effective successful compitant military from a centralized criminal cabal center if absolute power and expect to go peer to peer with your army of enforcers against a real actual effective intigrated arms mikitary that Russia is in spades, in abundance.
Just taje for example Ukraine as a state entity. It apoears it possessed zero strategic reserves of anything. No military orientated industry capable of sustainable or up-rampning production. The truth if that is inrguable as the ukies began running out of munitions and weapons in the first few months of the Donbas Arc conflict. Against fortufied Mikitia’s, not even the Russian mikitary machine proper, but proffessional contract soldiers sent into the Arc to assist and support the Donbas Arc Militia’s. The Ukie army could not even beat those citizen warriors, most if whom had little to no formal military training in the classic nation statemikitary sense.
Huh? WTF? Does that all make sense or what?
And whats transpired is the Ukie military per say, is not up to the task, so now its time to bring in the big boys. NATO, ie, American proxy military assets are building up on the Ukie/Russian borders, they are gonna go in and get this taken care of, their mission to fight and destroy the Russian Alliance and in doing so weaken Putin and his people this setting up the grandest if all regime changes taking Russia out of the strategic picture thus leaving only the Chinese and the One Hundred Million Armed To The Fucking Teeth Anerican’s and Their Family, Friends and Alliances to dral with. One down two to go then its gravy days. Once Russia is handled the cabal proxy US. mil is turned on the American homeland, as there will not be any strategic enemy nation state foes to be concerned with.
Used to be almost impossible to figure out what was going on here in the US. The conflct in Ukraine and Donald Trump as POTUS and a sundry of dynamics, has expised this cabal of criminal lunatics for what they are. Essentially a criminal gang. Think if this conspiracy thats surounding us that way and a lot if things makes a lot if sense, and its common sense, basic critical common sense thinking. Ignore the rest of the theater and stupidity which is for distracting all of us.
Just be a decent law respecting time honoring tradition kind of good folk, keep these premises, and your American Christian codes in mind, and things add up, they make sense, you more easily see thru the lies and fake narratives, the false flags are naked to your insights. You see the dirty rotten dispicable criminality and the class if nasty greedy hateful selfish crooks running shit.
And you say ah! I see know. These fuckers are worse than low, they are skum of the earth. And it be a cold day in hellmouth before I bend a knee to these criminals and their minions.
Its an organized criminal gang. All they can do is kill me. They can never break me, never control my spirit my sense of place and time. And I am armed to the fucking teeth, if not to use to fight these skum, these criminals,to protect my family and friends, to at least make my stand, to never quit never give up. I am watching the Russians and the good folks in the Donbas Arc fighting, winning, against the worst this depraved cabal can throw at them, and i see myself and all sorts of good folks here in my country my countrymen and us Freemen, our great Republic and what it stands for, and regardless all the lies and depravities, the vast surveillance machine been sic’d on all of us, the gangstalking everywhere like cockroaches, the sick stupid shit these fucking crooks are doing, and I say theres no way I ever give up no matter what, I say Lets Win!
I say BFYTW!
Skip Towne… Wow… I would suggest Therapy. Your cognition is obviously derelict. Trump funded this Ukie stupidity. Your anger is evidently unhinged as is your in-fathomable rant… seek counseling, before it’s too late…. I pity those in your proximity.
Total transparency is the antidote
What happens to our politicians is a two step process. First, they shape deceptions or fantasies into reality as in, “we are exceptional and we can defeat anyone.” Then they watch their fantasy over and over until, their lies hypnotise them into a belief reinforced by defeating many little nations. This permanently impresses upon their psyche their self inflicted invincibility.
Second, with Karma or the laws of probability, if you wish, they get on the edge of the abyss and put on their self styled cape of invincibility believing they can fly.
In short it is a self inflicted dilluision started by their own attempts at deception.
PS. Debate is the only way to kill self interest and dilluision among politicians. To have a real debate, every Government document should be in the open. Norway did it.
Imagine if every CIA document was open to the Public. Would there be any heads of state assassinations, regime change, torture?
We don’t need to overthrow any agency or cause a revolution or destroy ourselves in a civil war. All we need to do is change what our government serves. Will ours serve the truth that sets us free, for real, or serve the deceptions that drag humanity to the edge over and over?
The gentleman who wrote that paragraph is well educated by a shitty education system. Working as intended, I dare to say.
There is someone named Adam L. Silverman who is a co-host at a blog called Balloon Juice, which is “owned” by John Cole. Silverman has become the de facto commentator/reporter on news out of Ukraine. Here are some of his job titles: He is “Subject Matter Expert” at Helios Global, which I believe resides in the world of think tanks. “Subject Matter Expert and Cultural Advisor” at OSD-Security Dialogue/US Army Europe. “Cultural Advisor” at US Army War College. “Cultural Advisor and Strategic Communications Director”,US Army Human Terrain System – TRADOC G2. “Cultural Advisor” 2nd Brigade Combat Team/1st Armored Division.
I’m not sure what a cultural advisor is or how one would go about getting certified as a subject matter expert. Going back to the early days of the US-backed coup in Ukraine Silverman began his reporting sipping his coffee at a cafe in Lvov.
We got into a debate about fascism. I offered the definition of a merger of business and state. When Mussolini’s name came up he dismissed me by saying that Mussolini never said that. I mentioned that since Mussolini spoke Italian, not English, he was probably right about what Mussolini said, but not the definition of fascism.
That got me banned there.
Subsequently Silverman has been spouting US talking points to the tune of Monty Python’s “Always Look On The Bright Side of Life”. People who question his various repetitions of US lies never get heard there because, quite simply, you are censored or outright banned.
Silverman, being an “expert” on the “subject” should have probably realized that what he was saying at Balloon Juice tasted like bullshit.
When you consider that being a expert at a think tank espousing certain government party lines which are shown to be wrong in the daily world press, it pretty much eliminates any hope for honesty on the subject, and from glancing at the comment threads, this guy has used censorship to bolster the government lies about events there.
I just wonder what he’ll say when the Russian tanks are parked in front of the president’s palace in Kiev.
That’s how low-information people in the US continue to thrive in ignorance.
“Subject Matter Expert” is terminology that comes from Project Management. It is a symptom of the intellectual implosion of the west, driven by the professionalization of management. Instead of having (often developing) scientific and technical understanding drive a project (including the potential decision to abort a project), the people “managing” are people who have “people skills” and “communication skills,” and can make up various documents and charts that follow the PMI (Project Management Institute, sic). “Subject Matter Experts” are technical/scientific personnel that are to give data, and bless the project (take the fall if the project does not succeed).
The “Project Management” framework probably arose from a misunderstanding of the Soviet decision to move their industry across the Urals in response to Hitler’s invasion. In that case, fundamentally, all that was required was to disassemble working machinery for transportation, transport, build pads and buildings, reassemble, and recommission. No new scientific understanding was needed, and Beria, with his cowboy antics, could get it done relatively quickly, and Subject Matter Expert would have been a meaningful category.
The same does not apply to new projects. Project Management is an attempt to make a kinder, gentler Beria to quickly “execute projects”. It is intellectually vapid.
A couple points:
On April 7, 2003, Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf said: “This invasion will end in failure.” Can’t argue with that.
Hal Freeman, an American who moved to Russia about 6 years ago with his late Russian wife and their children, writes a blog about his life in a small town at “Between Two Worlds” (https://halfreeman.wordpress.com/). He has just reported how the American sanctions have hit the local grocery store: NO MORE PEANUT BUTTER! Won’t be long until Putin resigns.
I concur. The “sickness that has infected the West” is called capitalistic western liberalism ideology that promotes the dictatorship of the egotistical individual over the natural freedoms of the family and the community at large. It appears to bode the end of the road for the West that has grown to think that the World is is their playground ever since the fall of Granada and the re-discovery of America in 1492.
Please don’t give these idiots any oxygen. They already control the narrative. We live in the empire of lies. Can’t stop, won’t stop.
I find there are 5 general categories of pundits
– anti-Russia virulent not objective
– anti-Russia mild some objectivity
– objective with limited facts (as not everything is known)
– pro-Russia mild, some objectivity
– pro-Russia blinkered not objective
Alot of people have eloquently commented on why this is above.
I believe in the absence of full facts, emotion, pressure or ambition comes into play. The backward, relatively poor, unfree image of Russia has been groomed into entire generations of Westedners.
In the UK ops like the Skirpals chemical poisoning ensure each generation has cause to fear and suspect Russia. So the scene is regularly laid.
Anyone growing up around people with prejudice know how emotional resentment can be. Multiply it by fear and any rational ideas of why these guys are maybe not so bad just don’t gel in the gut.
The West has no objective MSM.
Russia side is a bit more objective but the extreme reaction against them is also driving them to really hate the West in a way they never did.
Objective pundits are very very few and operate as best they can.
Overall in the west conditioning, ‘evidence’ of Russians being bad and an emotional fear based need to crush opposition is too strong. Combined with public censure and conditioning on issues like transgender. The answer is clear.
As adults in the West to be safe, to have a job, to not be attacked, turn into children, play let’s pretend. Like at 7, let’s pretend girls are boys, let’s pretend that’s normal, let’s pretend this is not what I can see with my own eyes it is.. The infantalisation of adults the West is well underway..adults in the room are few. What is an adult? A grown up who takes responsibility and is capable of independent judgement. A sovereign human.
As a result there is a sick feeling in the pit for many people living in the West of a society spiraling out of control that they barely recognise and increasingly don’t want to be part of.
So where do you go? For those people, the traditional values of Russia are a refuge from a screaming world of pretence and lies. Russia is not perfect but there is a realness to it.
Still it is frightening to admit ones own society has collapsed on so many levels. When a loved one is dying you love them more. When a nation is splintering,
increasingly unrecognizable and dying before your eyes and it’s yours, you cherish it more, even as you realize it is no longer what it was.
Everyone knows the truth on the ground will emerge. But in the West there are no consequences for lying. It’s ‘their truth’ versus the truth.
much of it is confirmation bias thru perceived wisdom, in my estimation.
“I watch (msnbc/fox) and I’m smart and the respective talking heads reinforce all the brainwashing America has provided so they obviously are smart as well. my work and friends circles consist of people who vote (democrat/republican) like i do and since we agree on everything we are obviously smart as well”.
Instead of inventing a new ‘syndrome’, I propose to use the existing, and well documented ‘Stockholm syndrome’. Siding with the people holding you hostage, coming to see them as the victims instead of the culprits. Easy in this case, once you bought the story of Russian aggression, omitting everything that led to this foreseeable, even forecasted war as the culmination of constant shelling of the breakaway republics, after placing a coup which ended democracy in the country, identifying Russians as ‘low life historical enemies’, and ignoring an agreement with your signature on it as ‘irrelevant’. The rest flows from this ‘condition’.
“Why are so many smart people embracing objectively false narratives?”
They aren’t smart; they are midwits who survive and perhaps even thrive by echoing the approved narrative to the right audience.
“Why are so many smart people embracing objectively false narratives?”
The answer is: because the propaganda has been objectives. They are not midwits. they are victims of deception. If we are to be smart we should not alienate them. Instead we should show them with patience.
Tribalism has completely taken over the American mind, and it’s being pushed 24/7 by a partisan media. For most poor liberals, the only “news” they get is from CNN or MSNBC…which is to say that they get no real news, just partisan spin. The spinmeisters live in a bubble, with most liberal websites not even allowing public comments (which would at least show the spinners that people in their audience disagree with them). In addition, Hillary Clinton completely changed political rhetoric. Politicians used to attack one another, but not the voters. Hillary started attacking voters with her “deplorables” comment, and the Democrats all jumped onboard, including the president. The Dems created a chasm in American society. And with this division comes digging in, even if your “facts” are total fantasy.
Die Antwort auf den Artikel müßte weitgehend philosophischer Natur sein. Wir sind in gewisser Weise schizophrene Wesen. Wir leben in einer – und das ist entscheidend – verbalisierbaren Vorstellungswelt und einer erfahrbaren Realitätswelt. Da zu diesen Realitäten der erfahrbaren Welt aber eben auch die verbalsierten Vorstellungen in Form unterschiedlichster Ausdrücksmöglichkeiten des Vorgestellten gehören, entsteht das Problem das hier angedeutet wurde. Auch Tiere leben in dieser „schizophrenen“ Welt, sie aber sind nicht wie wir in der lage ihre Vorstellungen durch Sprache in gleicher Weise wie wir zur Realität in einer Kommunikation zu machen, weshalb wir gern von ihnen behaupten, sie reagierten instrinktiv. Was, wie jeder Tierbesitzer aus Erfahrung weiß Unsinn ist.
Der Westen befindet sich, wie angedeutet in Larrys Text, in einer vergleichbaren Situation wie Goebbels und Bagdad-Bob. Sie sehen die Realität, sind aber als Führungspersonen der kollektiven Gemeinschaft geradezu gezwungen auf Vorstellungshoffnungen zu setzen, von denen sie – wie aus Goebbels Tagebüchern ersichtlich – ahnen, daß sie nicht erfüllbar sind. In einer solchen Situation ist es nicht verwunderlich wenn die politische Führung alles tut, um durch Narrative in den Massen die sie erreichen können, jenen Eindruck als Vorstellung zu erzeugen, die in ihren eigenen Vorstellungen nur Hoffnungen zukünftiger Realität sind.
Wer als Mensch solch einen Zustand noch nie erlebt hat, kann sich meiner Meinung nach nur die entsprechende Frage stellen. Nicht umsonst sagt man: die Hoffnung (eine verbalisierte Vorstellung) stirbt zuletzt.
The answer to the article would have to be largely philosophical. We are in a certain way schizophrenic beings. We live in a – and this is decisive – verbalizable world of imagination and an experienceable world of reality. Since to these realities of the experienceable world belong, however, just also the verbalized conceptions in form of most different expression possibilities of the imagined, the problem arises which was indicated here. Animals also live in this “schizophrenic” world, but they are not able to make their ideas reality in a communication by language in the same way as we do, which is why we like to claim from them that they react instinctive. Which, as every animal owner knows from experience, is nonsense.
The West, as indicated in Larrys Text, is in a comparable situation to Goebbels and Baghdad-Bob. They see the reality, but as leaders of the collective community they are virtually forced to rely on imaginary hopes, which – as evident from Goebbels diaries show – they suspect whatr cannot be fulfilled. In such a situation it is not surprising if the political leadership does everything to create narratives, that in the masses they can reach creates impressions, which in their own imaginations are only hopes of future reality.
Who as a human being has never experienced such a state, can in my opinion only ask himself the appropriate question. Not for nothing one says: the hope (a verbalized imagination) dies last.
Why? Simply put, all complex organisms engage in behavior for which they are rewarded and avoid behavior for which they are punished. This gentleman wants to be rewarded instead of being punished so he writes things like that.
As an extra bonus, a person is happier if they think that things they want to be true, are actually true. That is exactly how con-artists operate. The way to get people to believe what you are saying is to tell them what they want to hear. Madoff: I guarantee you annual 14% risk free returns on the money you invest with me. People end up entrusting him with $15B of their money.
Clearly one objective of the false narrative is to keep the weapons flowing. If the truth was more widely known, there would be much greater resistance to continued weapons shipments.
Ukraine conflict also nicely distracts from the mother of all economic collapses in the US. They have been trying to sell Europe their LNG for years. Weapons trying to sell those too. Chaching. Gets the dollars in, distract the people and buy time.
Oh and push China, divide Africa (starting to work, Kenya in the pocket),
sanction new Africa supply lines disrupt creation of alternative financial system and currency. Bonus! Plus create EU of north America while destroying Europe. Draft treaty in the works, then harmonies tax, shift manufacturing to Mexico, people already conditioned to open border, badabing.
There is literally no downside for the US. Unless Russia reacts in a way they did not expect. So why not lie when you get pie and alternative is you would die.
The statement made by the American counterpart to Baghdad Bob is mostly accurate except some of the names of things have been reversed:
Ukraine right now is under extreme stress and Ukrainan leaders are tense and unhappy. The operation in Donbass has not only ground to a halt, but Ukraine continues to suffer agonizing losses of men and material. It has had to continually make deals with US and EU to have enough ammunition and supplies to stay in the war. Its home industry is too tardy and underfunded to be able to keep up with demands for urgent production of war goods. It has run out of soldiers, drafting middle age and older men and yanking prisoners from confinement to serve on the two main fronts of the Donbass conflict. None of this has seemed to work. Every day Ukraine makes more military blunders and Zelensky had to fire two generals for being “traitors”. While Ukrainan opinion polls (which may be fake) claim Zelensky is still popular, he is facing a grim future if the losses turn into a complete rout and the Ukrainans have to evacuate. In fact, Ukrainan commanders are now preparing to evacuate the important city of Kharkov, claiming that it is of no importance (which is complete nonsense).
Warning: This is from a really politically incorrect source. But it certainly illustrates how many people with doctorates of one form or another are telling absurd lies, which surely they know are lies, to meet their ideological objectives.
https://www.unz.com/jtaylor/how-can-anyone-think-race-isnt-real/
Also, these same professional associations are conflating the biologically-determined property of “sex” with the mentally-determined notion of “gender”, yielding such absurdities as
“men who menstruate and get pregnant”.
They are changing the meanings of words, leaving no way to express the older meanings and categorizations.
They try to control us by controlling our language.
Orwell described one version of language control, and its goal:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newspeak
Note that this is different from redefinition of words, although the goal is similar.
A good article Larry, appropriate for our time.
There are several converging threads at work in the west. I think firstly its peoples have been pampered and insulated from the reality of what life can be like. It is a corruption fostered by the endless promise of influential advertising and ability of those who gain political and financial interests to harness this human weakness. Throw in an educational system that teaches stupidity and you can then exploit ignorance and create fantasy using modern communications to spread whatever story you like. Those with these powers have done so.
Western peoples have had little to stir them, but like our friends in Russia following the collapse of communism, we are about to learn what doing without is all about. Time is running out for the current crop of war mongers, liars who make up the bulk of our self interested leaders, they will find out being rich and powerful is meaningless when everything that supports that status collapses.
It really is just the American left still trying to punish Russia for repudiation of their golden utopian ideology
The ‘left’ in America just Hollar for the dollar.
No one outside West believes anything West says about why it attacks x y or z. No one is falling for it. The lies are for internal consumption.
Lies are largely irrelevant to Russia or China, they have a far harder tasking, creating multi polarity, defending themselves, holding allies together and creating an alternative financial system when America has fingers in every pie and then some.
The lies West tells are just standard operating procedure before theft, e.g. Brits said Australia was ‘terra nullis’ i.e. no people existed as aboriginals were backwards therefore land was actually empty of human beings therefore legally ok to take it and make title deeds. Ain’t seen no one.
(See Mabo case).
These lies before theft or murder change but it’s always being the SOP of the West.
There is actually just more light now than then.
The idea of such complex legally reasoned lies is also very British. After all no Englishman should take anothers land. That would be chaos. So how to avoid such a scenario like Australia. Easy. Just tell the Englishmen they are different to the Aboriginal, legally define the difference, ergo, legislate the lie and broadcast it to all so order is maintained.
The Russians are Orcs.
Gaddafi killed babies in incubators.
Saddam used chemical weapons on his own people.
Ergo, backward, evil different to us, ergo take their stuff and kill the bastards!
And to be clear when I say West I mean the leadership. Western people have never had the stomach for the brutality their leaders undertake, so risk of insurrection is always there. So the lie is needed for them to cope. Like the cheating husband who lies with the wife who just sadly looks the other way, even though she knows her husband and cheats and suspects this time is no different than the last, she nods at his story. As where else will she go.
There is only a minuscule ‘left’ in the USA, and none of it is represented by either ‘Liberals’ or ‘Democrats’ – these people are Capitalist flunkies. The only ‘Leftists’ are a few thousand grass roots socialists, who have no representation in US politics.
Thanks for another excellent article. As for why so many smart people embrace objectively false narratives my observation of people (myself included) is this; as we go through life we build a world view based on what we learn to believe early in life – it may be objectively true or false, but if we believe it, that’s what we build a world view on. Things like “America is #1!”, “Patton was a military genius”, “Mexicans are lazy”, “Money is dirty”, etc., etc. and we take it as fact that these things are true. We could just as easily believe the opposite, and we sometimes change our beliefs but it takes a smack to the head and some real effort. To change a person’s whole belief system is to change who they believe they are and that’s the kind of thing that happens VERY rarely – usually after almost dying and realizing you were a hair’s breadth from meeting God.
The West has a set of beliefs about itself, its role in the world, the role of other nations in the world, its power, its wisdom, its military capability, etc. – I think its safe to say that the West essentially believes it’s the apex of civilizational development (e.g. “the end of history”) and all others should just realize that fact and bend the knee but some may need encouragement. The “elite” and those who make their daily bread from this belief system, smart as some may be, will not willingly accept contradictory evidence because to do so invalidates their beliefs, their world view and them as a person – suddenly they are untethered and people don’t like that.
Right now, Russia is teaching the West that everything they believe about their place in the world, their capability, their military might, their importance and their value to humanity, is wrong. The West will not accept this teaching until it is on its knees, teetering into the abyss. Then, perhaps, the West will turn away from its destructive path.
The lure of rewards and pressure from above can bend the mind. Most of the response might be fake at first, in order to avoid punishment, but time and continual pressure can make most people into believers. Sad but true. It is human nature. Islam has that fact built into it. The tax on unbelievers and the continual shaming and other pressures eventually assure the genuine conversion of a captive population. That is why Elon will probably need to fire at least 75% of Twitter employees, and why a patriot government must totally wipe out the FBI and CIA and hire patriots into new agencies. If the employees are brainwashed, it is just not worth the trouble and time to deprogram them. Much easier and faster to start over with new employees.
There is nothing more ludicrous, hilarious and depressing than reading comments on Republican web sites about the war. I have in mind Instapundit, which is run by a guy named Glenn Reynolds, a law professor (specialty is “space law”) from UT. He got his start back in the post-9/11 Iraq days, and was a baghdad bob like cheerleader for the US effort there. At any rate: he will post something from that Lagan-backed ISW web site. Immediately the GOP types interrupt watching Fox News and manning Republican phone banks to demonstrate their deep understanding of Russian history and Russian military doctrine, all the while assuring us that Ukraine is WINNING. What is poignant is the assertions that the US military is THE FINEST IN THE WORLD, and that the US actually has the “agency” to affect matters on the ground.
Those people are hopeless. It’s nice to see some people on the R side calling for an end to the stupidity. But Reynolds and those people are fully invested in the complete falsehoods about American moral virtue and the US military as some crusading force appointed by God to right the world’s wrongs. It’s pathetic.
And I must say — the presence of this site, and the intelligent and thoughtful commentators, is a source of hope. Thanks for all you do, Larry.
A fun little essay
https://journal-neo.org/2022/11/04/who-would-have-thought-moscow-might-become-that-city-upon-a-hill/
“President Joe Biden’s national security adviser made an unannounced visit to Ukraine Friday, a U.S. official said…In a photograph published Friday by the Associated Press, Sullivan was pictured seated with Zelensky’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak. Watson said he also met with Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov and others.” – Washington Examiner, Nov. 4
Finally, the rats are coming out of their holes and into focus. This is a huge development, whether anyone realizes it yet or not.
Re: “The descent of the West into the thicket of lies”
As Noam Chomsky wrote: “Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state.”
In times past, there’s been plenty of propaganda spewed as fact. It’s always taken diligence to ferret out the truth in this society. Dive in at almost any point in American history and you’ll be swimming in a sea of bullshit.
I was born into the cold war, which Gore Vidal described as concocted by Truman & Co. to scare the American people into accepting a fully militarized economy. The “Red Scare” propaganda was everywhere. There was the HUAC. Blacklisting. Loyalty oaths. Operation Mockingbird. MK-Ultra.
The 1960s gave us the Gulf of Tonkin lie, political assassinations conducted by shadowy government agents blamed on lone nuts, COINTELPRO, and Nixon.
Post-Watergate we thought that there would be reform, but it never happened.
The student radicals of the 60s all turned into the establishment they previously loathed. The surveillance state grew more sophisticated. The media consolidated from 50 corporations to six — GE/Comcast, The Walt Disney Company, News Corporation, Time Warner, Viacom, and CBS— which now control 90 percent of the media. Our “news” and broadcast entertainment is all brought to you by Pfizer.
9/11, which has never been properly investigated, prompted tales of intact hijacker passports found in the rubble while the planes they allegedly flew evaporated. We were lied into more wars with the MSM shouting “WMDs!”. War was sanitized so that, unlike the Vietnam era, Americans never saw images from the battlefield and the horrors we visited upon third world peasants. We were instead fed rah rah stories by “embedded reporters” and the only images we saw were videos from a cruise missile about to hit “the bad guys”. We were supposed to cheer on “Shock and Awe”, narrated by Stormin’ Norman and Rumsfeld types. Dead soldiers returning home in coffins were blotted out of our consciousness.
Our government spends untold billions of $ figuring out ways to control us. Anyone who thinks MKUltra was just some long gone CIA program is looking in the mirror at the evidence of its effectiveness. As the old saying goes, “The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist”.
Our perceptions of events past and present is now being carefully shaped by military grade psychological operations, of which the whole crackpot “woke” ideology is a part. Keeping us at each other’s throats so we don’t notice our slide into fascism is the name of the game. Dehumanizing us by erasing even the most basic identity we have – male and female – leaves us without any sense of fundamental reality. History is erased along with any sense of our God given rights.
Almost nothing we are told via the incessant propaganda spewed by the MSM and Social Media giants is true. Some of it is so laughably absurd that it’s hard to understand how anyone can fall for it. But the phony “pandemic” showed just how quickly seemingly normal people can be turned into frightened obedient slaves who readily applauded the idea that those who questioned the narrative or the jab should be separated from society and even denied medical care.
Some of us are awake. Others are waking up. Many are hopelessly lost in what Professor Mattias Desmet has termed a “mass formation”, enabled by lives so disconnected from any sense of community and purpose that they must attach themselves to a “righteous” cause (e.g., gender ideology) in order to mitigate it. Those who resist are dehumanized and made disposable.
As Rod Serling said in ‘The Obsolete Man’:
“This is not a new world – it is simply an extension of what began in the old one. It has patterned itself after every dictator who has ever planted the ripping imprint of a boot on the pages of history since the beginning of time. It has refinements, technological advances, and a more sophisticated approach to the destruction of human freedom. But like everyone of the super-states that preceded it, it has one iron rule: logic is an enemy and truth is a menace.”
A thorough and articulate analysis I agree with you completely, I was just too lazy to type it all. People never want to admit they have been fooled and have been made to look like their judgment is very poor. Ego is a big issue….
I strongly believe that if the covid psyop had not happened, draining and exhausting as it was, the ordinary westerner would be asking a lot more questions. Tired, stressed people who just want a normal life again really don’t want to dive back into another rabbit hole of what’s real.
Larry
The descriptor you are searching for is “Collective Amnesia”. This is a state where the individual, group or masses cannot bring themselves to accept reality or truth because to do so would be so destructive to their accepted version of reality that they simply forget and ignore it’s existence.
Therefore a make believe alternative reality has to be constructed, one that reassures the aforementioned that everything is OK, where nothing ever goes wrong and everything stays the same. When repeated 24/7×365 generation after generation those inside that alternative world accept all without question.
Everyone asks who shot JFK, no one asks why he was shot.
“Everyone asks who shot JFK, no one asks why he was shot.”
Good point.
James Douglass.
What bother me most is not the propaganda but the fact there are less and less things that aren’t some to a degree.
C’mon it’s a facking hot war we have here. Everyday mans are dying on both side, how much on each side is not even a valid question at this point. “Welcome to the soldier side” as the song says… States reason is the reason mothers are crying for. That and money, as Antole France says ” We use to think we were sacrificed as patriots , in facts ; we died for industrial interests.”
I have dig some of the “financials” part of this conflict , the more I dig , the more I find shady deals and dirty money. Don’t dig under Donestk airport for an example. Don’t dig the gas deals on Black Sea and Dombass “Shall Oil”, don’t dig the farmland business , don’t dig the Odessan port business. Don’t dig about nuclear reactors parc renewal. Just don’t. You’ll find the skeleton in the closet of this war.
Same reason they embrace Climate Change, Woke, and every other false paradigms the governemnt has, their jobs depend on it.
There are probably many reasons for the delusions regarding Russia and other matters. One is utopian thinking, which has become endemic to the West especially after it’s ‘liberal’ 18th century revolutions. Another is that you can do almost anything with the press of a button. Even if people make a wrong decision they are usually shielded from the consequences by one or another aspect of the welfare state. This adds an additional disconnect from reality. A third reason is being hemmed in by machinery, including computers, with hardly any consequences for lying or proclaiming something stupid. So you have a virtual echo chamber, a virtual house of mirrors where lies and idiocy circle around and it becomes difficult to know what the truth is. Add to this a lack of real education and you have rootless people who don’t know how to soft the wheat from the chaff.
The philosopher Ortega y Gasset wrote that civilsations perish from arteriosclerosis. What is our Western world but sclerotic? I remember reading that even when the Aztecs were winning in battle against the Spaniards, they would throw away whatever initiative they had by pausing and taking men to sacrifice to their god. They found it impossible to change their way of thinking even though this would lead to their conquest and demise. I suppose this impossibility of changing also applies to the belief in Western exceptionalism.
“We risk being the first people in history to have been able to make their illusions so vivid, so persuasive, so ‘realistic’ that they can live in them.”
— The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America (1961), Daniel J. Boorstin
Source: https://russian.rt.com/ussr/article/1070108-putin-ukraina-rossiya-stolknovenie-istoriya
[This Russian RT article about president Putin meeting historians seems to be quite on topic in this discussion of delusions & illusions with regard to Ukraine, but has a sharp focus on Poland:]
“She hasn’t gone anywhere”: Putin recalled the old idea of the Polish leadership to absorb Ukraine
Poland retains the idea of absorbing Ukraine, formed by Warsaw before World War II, Vladimir Putin said. Earlier, the Foreign Intelligence Service noted that the United States and Poland are working on plans to establish control over “historical possessions” in Ukraine. In addition, Putin stressed that a clash with the neo-Nazi regime that emerged on the territory of Ukraine was inevitable.
Moscow would inevitably come into conflict with the neo-Nazi regime in Ukraine, but later it would have to do it from a worse position, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with historians and representatives of traditional religions in Russia.
“A clash with the neo-Nazi regime — Russia’s clash with the neo-Nazi regime that emerged on the territory of Ukraine — was inevitable, and if appropriate actions had not been taken on our part in February, everything would have been the same, only from positions that are worse for us,” Putin said.
According to him, the situation was brought to the stage where it became suicidal for the Ukrainian people and deadly for Russia, brought by the “so-called friends” of Kiev: Ukrainians don’t exist, they’re thrown into a furnace, and that’s it.”
The head of state stressed that Ukraine, the Ukrainian people became the first and main victim of “deliberate sublimation of hatred towards the Russians, towards Russia”, while in the Russian Federation they have always treated and treat the Ukrainian people with respect and warmth.
About history lessons
Vladimir Putin also stressed that Moscow, having launched a special military operation, took responsibility in order to prevent a much more difficult situation. In this regard, the Russian leader recalled the events of 1941, when decisions on the defense of the USSR were delayed, despite intelligence data about the inevitability of an attack by Nazi Germany on the Soviet Union.
“Yes, now it’s also not easy, it’s difficult, it’s also bitter because, in fact, one people is fighting each other, in fact, the confrontation is going on within one people, just like it was after the upheavals of 1917, people were again pitted. Then foreign powers warmed their hands on the tragedy of our people. They did not care about both the whites and the reds, they pursued their own interests, weakened and tore historical Russia to pieces. And today, constantly supplying weapons to Ukraine, transferring mercenaries there, they are absolutely ruthless to its citizens. At their expense, they are promoting their geopolitical goals, which have nothing to do with the interests of the Ukrainian people, ”the president explained.
At the same time, Putin stated that the Russians would never allow the West to realize its efforts to disintegrate and destroy the Russian Federation: “We will defend our Fatherland in the same way as our heroic ancestors.”
On the Polish idea of absorbing Ukraine
In addition, Vladimir Putin noted that the idea of a certain part of the political beau monde of Poland to create a great state from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea, which was promoted before the Second World War, is still alive, and it has not been abandoned in Warsaw.
“But the idea is alive. And the idea of absorbing Ukraine has not gone away. But almost no one knows this, it is only in archival documents,” the head of state noted.
In April, the director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, Sergei Naryshkin, said that the United States and Poland were working on plans to establish control of Warsaw over its “historical possessions” in Ukraine. Later, he emphasized that the Kiev junta voluntarily surrenders state sovereignty to Warsaw. According to him, the Polish side, in order to cover up its plans to seize Western Ukraine, is even ready for more active cooperation on the Ukrainian issue with Hungary and Romania.
At the same time, Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev in his Telegram channel published the future, according to Western analysts, map of Ukraine. On it, a significant part of Ukrainian territories belongs to Russia, Poland, Romania and Hungary.
“What do you think? Why are so many smart people embracing objectively false narratives?”
Interesting topic. According to my preferences (hobbies), I have been following various social pages for a long time. It consists of a couple of blogs, some slightly better FB sidelines and a couple of YT pages.
But what is obvious, in recent times, how the standard has fallen from the phrase ATC; ambassador-to-the-cause, to the level of religion and cult.
A good example is YT MHV (Military History Visualized). It also has MHV not visualized. The author of these YT channels has a PhD in history. Past contributions, for example, on this page have published a biased treatment of the contribution of the Soviet Union to the course of the war. Memoirs were written by German generals.
Nicely dismantles Meinsten’s miracle at Kharkov, local superiority over a weakened opponent after an offensive. Bussines by the book, correct. But it’s not a miracle.
Regarding the initial question, I don’t know. Fitting in with the surroundings? Worrying about material survival? All mixed up, on the last contribution he completely squatted like a hen laying eggs. Comparisons of the Russia-Ukraine conflict with the Soviet-Finland conflict.
The man has a PhD in history. What happened to the usual handling of conflicts where you have three areas; directly military/economy/sociological?
He was able to deal with ALL of this in themes like the eastern front in ww2, but when it comes to 2022, the set collapses. “The Finns will win”.
To be honest, I don’t really care what the reason is, but it’s obvious. When he deals with ww2 he is objective, when he deals with the present time he crouches like a hen on eggs.
My theory is that we are witnessing the confluence of a messianic cult and a social credit system that rewards and punishes you professionally and financially. Those who dare to tell the truth or even pose a countervailing point of view will be pummeled into submission. You risk losing your significant other, home, job, financial wherewithal, even your children, you will get the modern day equivalent of the Scarlet Letter. Another way to see it is “Liberal/illiberal” facism wrapped around virtue signaling. White Liberal Elites have the audacity to tell Black or Brown people how to think and what their values are.
Last but not least, my final theory is delusion rooted in the abject fear of a fundamental power shift in the world, the advent of multi-polarity. Multi-polarity shakes the foundations of their most dearly held worldviews, it creates doubts about the principles they have organized their world around and that defines the essence of who they are..
Most people don’t care at all about facts. You can present them with a mountain of them, show them how to verify it all, still they don’t care. They’ll believe whatever they want to believe. Only suffering a certain reality in their very bones will, perhaps, make them change their mind, if they ever do, because there’s always a narrative that justifies anything that happens and makes it fit into their belief system, no matter how ludicrous. What’s somewhat astonishing is that this not only happens to common people, but also to powerful people who you suppose they’re informed.
LARRY another visual of broken glass for the folks that cannot handle the truth.
Could make for a lengthy comments moment.
SEE THE BROKEN GLASS ON THE OUTSIDE.
NO ALARMS WENT OFF…A BIT OFF IF YOU ASK ME. The Zerohedge article is very interesting indeedie.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/us-accuses-north-korea-hiding-large-munitions-shipments-russia
Still on the subject of the western disinformation campaign that Larry’s post is about, I would like to remind some episodes in Europe that may have gone unnoticed in the US, which make the Russophobic and disinformation campaign mounted after the 2014 coup in Ukraine undeniable. From what we read, today with the collaboration of more than two hundred communication agencies. Since it was mainly the European people who had to wash their heads, to use Larry’s words, as well. Even though most of the armament and the money come from the US. It is also worth remembering that many are included in the lend lease to be paid by both the EU and Ukraine in the future. Russia itself just in this century, in 2006, just paid the lend lease of WWII! And for the purpose of the current lend lease it is never too much to remember that the contract is from January 2021!! Where the US wrote to fight Russia in Ukraine. Even though in February Biden swore that it never crossed his mind that Russia would enter Ukraine! It didn’t happen just once!
But let’s go to facts and episodes that will go down in history forever after the EU itself legitimized the 2014 coup in Ukraine! From where emerged the first Interim President, Oleksandr Turchinov, who had already been condemned for being openly neo-Nazi by MEPs in the EP!!! It wasn’t just the famous “F*ck EU” by Victoria Nuland! In the same way that all the leaders of the Ukrainian extreme right parties that made the coup possible were all listed as dangerous neo-Nazis on Interpol’s lists. Some even banned from entering the US. But all this the West washed, hid and swallowed because it had to be swallowed! In the same way that pools in Independent Kiev were hidden between 2014/15 that showed without a shadow of a doubt that the majority of the Ukrainian population and not only Russian-speakers, never supported Maidan!!!!
But let’s go straight to the act that at least to me most indignant. In 2019 the EU passed an infamous resolution condemning both Russia and Nazi Germany for WWII?! The justification was the Molotov Pact!? 75 years after WWII! Which in my case, I think that even if I managed to erase all the history I studied, I could swallow. It was necessary to forget first that Stalin himself, according to documents that prove it, spent the entire 30’s asking England to stop Hitler before Nazi Germany completed its arms effort. To which the UK never acceded. By the way, what is also known is that both Chamberlain and France asked Hitler in Munich on the eve of WWII to attack only Russia, that they turned a blind eye! And Hitler spared them both at Dunkirk! Where England could have just left WWII! But Hitler always had big plans for England. And for the English aristocracy. Munich Accords, which confirm to Stalin that he will indeed be attacked and invent the Molotov Pact just to try to delay Hitler. As we all know! Because to deny the EU “cabal” just think about how Russia entered the 20th century, a totally rural nation with a huge industrial backwardness, which still had to face the WWI, from which it left all broken and even led to the Bolshevik Revolution! ! How could Russia want a WWII even in the first half of the 20th century? Under what conditions? Where it lost almost 30 MM souls! And that’s how EU thanked him!!! 75 years later!
Which was what disgusted me the most! It took Europe 75 years to remember to condemn Russia for WWII!?!?! A record of hypocrisy and brazenness that should go straight to the Guinness Book of Records! The English book of dumbest records in the world! Like running a marathon with a tray full of flutes! To which Russia somehow responds as early as 2021 when it finally manages to pass a UN Resolution against the glorification of Nazism with a vote of 153-2! Needless to say, the only two votes against were the US and UKR. With the abstention of EU vassal countries.
And maybe also mention the creation of the myth of the Holodomor by Ukraine also 75 years after the facts they describe?! In 2016! And needless to say, it generated a lot of discussion in the EU as well. When only 3 or 4 corrupt allies in the world recognized it and few more were open to discussing such belief! The usual PR Ukrop battles! And no one is surprised by the similarity of the term to the Holocaust. It was on purpose! Neo-Nazi Ukraine with new EU allies tried to convince the world in 2016 that Stalin had a plan for the Ukrainian genocide. Perhaps thinking about what they were already doing to the Russian population in Donbass at the time. But we are only talking about the great famines of the 1930s that shook the whole of Eastern Europe. How intrinsically rural civilizations throughout the world have always shaken over the centuries. Because agriculture also depends on phenomena that we do not fully master! In fact, in the years in question there was so much famine and so many people died of hunger in the territory of Russia as in Ukraine. And no one wants to deny that, once again, due to the enormous industrial backwardness, which is the greatest proof that Russia could have wanted WWII, the Stalinist regime was particularly brutal with the farmers demanding greater productions that would allow them, above all, to arm themselves! But he always did it in Russia and Ukraine. By the way, whoever set up Holdomor in the 21st century will never have asked who would harvest the crops after the Ukrainian genocide?
Guilty for being a psychopath perhaps but Ukraine will never be able to prove that there was any premeditated plan for the genocide of the Ukrainian people, because it is simply false. Like almost everything Ukraine continues to say today! Because not even the memory of its people can respect it. Still paying homage to Stepan Bandera, now with statues in every city. And I hope I have demonstrated beyond any doubt how the Russophobic cam
paign began to be mounted in Europe after Maidan. Which the US always knew would lead to an inevitable military conflict. And he prepared a disinformation campaign that, as I have already written here, no journalist alive today had ever seen it in the so-called “free world”! Where very little corresponds to reality! And here is a link that should clear all doubts about this conflict:
https://moderndiplomacy.eu/2020/11/13/how-the-cia-created-the-eu/
Errata: In the same way that POLLS in Independent Kiev were hidden between 2014/15 because they showed beyond any doubt that the majority of the Ukrainian population and not only Russian-speakers, never supported Maidan!!!!
* Kiev Independent – a news paper totaly pró Maidan.
Hi Larry,
It’s an honor and a pleasure to read your messages.
It keeps my trust in the human race, and based on the comments on your site, I’m not alone on this. For this I thank you.
Don’t see anything wrong with being proud of your community, country, area. After all we are predatory, territorial animals, talking Poison Frogs, here. There is something that bothers me, we have so many analysts, specialists, and generals here …
I may want to point the readers to the ending of his article, which I know it will be true.
“I think the underlying cause for the delusional thinking that dominates Western economics, politics, medicine and popular culture is that the West has adopted a rigid, intolerant ideology that is reminiscent of the intellectual sclerosis rooted in Marxism that led to the death of the Soviet Union. The Russian people learned some hard truths in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet empire. I believe that the people of the United States and Europe are going to experience a similar rude awakening. And it won’t be pretty”
The best display of people being confused is what to believe is the people in an international airport. Yesterday, I’ve been unlucky enough to spend few hours in the Amsterdam international, which is a fairly large air hub. I would not say that there were many people, but still enough to be noticed with N95 masks on the mouth, or the forehead. Seriously …
“The descent of the West into the thicket of lies…”
True. Who writes and enforces the narrative?
Out of all these comments there is only one which names the jew. The rest of you are still running in a circle trying to decipher all that you see through the filter of last century’s lies.
Larry, you might find this, from Ray McGovern, of interest:
https://raymcgovern.com/2022/11/04/the-cia-at-75-untreated-analysis-or-dangerous-tool/
Any comments?
“This creeping towards more involvement can easily lead to a catastrophic war between superpowers. The best Russia can do to prevent that is to speed up its operations in Ukraine. A fast and decisive defeat of Ukraine’s army is the only way to prevent a deeper U.S. involvement”
This quote from the latest MoA posting indicates the long-held thinking and hope of many of us commoners and ignorant yokels. Extending a conflict where and when the enemy is viciously amoral and ever recklessly ready to murder civilians and military alike and utterly unmoved by the consequences of carrying out false flags (of any dimension – from murdering VIPs to explode dirty nuclear bombs) is an enemy better to be destroyed and render powerless without delay… specially when there were and are means to reach such conclusion in a short period of time.
What makes the defeat of this depraved enemy such an urgent task is, above all, the existence of foreign sponsors, equally wicked, equally reckless and powerful enough to cause havoc nationally and internationally.
(The demonic powers behind this hellish enterprise are ready to destroy half the world in order to erase from off the face of the earth the only challenger to their global economic and financial take over, and to the world-wide spread of their social perversions and depravities)
The phenomenon that the US elites are displaying is typical of how elites of failed civilizations have reacted to the decline of their empires over the past five thousand years. To try and explain it here is impractical, it is complex, differs in qualitative and quantitative ways in each case whilst in the main having recurring common themes. Three good books written by archeologist and anthropologists that explain it all very well are:
The Collapse of Complex Societies – Joseph Tainter
A Short History of Progress – Ronald Wright ( (You Tube – Lectures)
Human Impact on Ancient Environments – Charles Redman. (Amazon Kindle)
Another book worth reading is:
…and Forgive Them Their Debts – Michael Hudson
This book is about how ancient civilizations used money and debt to conduct their affairs and how there was always the development of a rent seeker class (the US Oligarchs and their corporations), The book describes the inevitable tension this created in these societies as the rent seekers bought up all wealth producing assets and systems and put the populations into debt. Unlike now many of the leaders saw the corrosive effects of debt on their self interest and forced the rich to forgive the debts of the poor – wiping the slate.
What is happening now in the world is not new, it has happened over and over since man moved from being a hunter gatherer to agriculture that produced surpluses that could be seized by the elites at the top of the social pyramids created by organized society.
Agriculture started around ten thousand years ago and became ubiquitous after the first five thousand years as it is today. At sometime in that first period animal husbandry also developed.
It is only in the last couple of hundred years with the “enlightenment”, science and the industrial revolution that we see the progress of civilizations ours in particular as inevitable. The Greeks and many others saw civilizations as cyclic, that is the birth, rise and death. There is no good reason to believe if one considers the last five thousand years of “man the farmer” being any different.
People keep telling us that Chinese civilization is at least five thousand years old. The fact that various dynasties rose and fell and that the circumstances of the people rose and fell with them gives lie to this. Chinese society like all societies over the agricultural period have gone through the inevitable cycles of birth, rise and death.
The idea of perpetuity and constant progress is a myth.
As Reinhold Niebuhr pointed out:
“One of the most pathetic aspects of human history is that every civilization expresses itself most pretentiously, compounds its partial and universal values most convincingly, and claims immortality for its finite existence at the very moment when the decay which leads to death has already begun.”
Who does that remind you of?
I urge people to listen to or read these books as they give great insight into the human condition. They explain what is happening now and why. The problem for our civilization unlike the much smaller and far less technological civilizations of the past when we go down we will take down the entire planet with us. This will be a consequence of ecological destruction or nuclear war, but far more likely both.
Why look at the clowns making the statements? Waste of time. This is laying the supporting groundwork narrative to pull a false flag and be able to blame the russkies and portray them as ‘reckless teens reacting to severe setbacks’.
Just extend the trajectory of RMS Lusitania, Pearl Harbour to see what this will be but it’s like to involve US armed forces… who just got in the news as being there.
When pulled off, the next narrative is to present a planned solution to bring about wartime size QE because currently the fed rate has the commiE Union sink in a way that makes the Titanic look like a genuine life raft.
The only truth that matters is the war really isn’t going well for either side and their allies. Paradoxically it’s a conflict where all sides are loosing and console themselves by looking at the destruction and challenges of the other side and think their own losses are justified. This is as much a disaster for Russia as it is for Ukraine, Russia has lost more troops in just six months than it did in two years of war in Chechnya and the whole Afghanistan campaign. Ukraine has lost a third of its initial army so can’t celebrate either. As for the prognosis of Russia overrunning the Ukraine in a giant pincer movement that can never happen since with the terror bombing of their energy infrastructure has had the effect of galvanising the people to resist at all costs the same way Hitler’s V2 bombing of London made the British more determined and put them on the moral high ground
You know so well the number of soldiers Russia lost in Afghanistan as in Ukraine. But just the fact that you think Russia lost as many men in 6 months in Ukraine as in 10 years in Afghanistan says everything you really know. Or what you believe. You talk to Zelen too? Or with CNN?
Larry as disturbing as it is, humans have always been susceptible to mass psychosis. Think of all the madness in the name of religious wars that has occurred over the past 1000 years. Many people have limited time to analyse information and much less to go searching for a counter narrative that sounds more plausible. A lot of the problem is intellectual laziness and a lot of the problem is due to intellectual deficiency as well. But confirmation bias is very strong and if someone wants to believe something no mountain of facts or evidence to the contrary can change their mind. These are the people who are the doers in society – give them an order and they will just go do it. The analysts and free thinkers analyse why should I do it and what will be the outcome and that is the fundamental difference between leaders and followers. Thank you again for a great analysis of the situation.
Sorta funny I guess. I copy/pasted parts of the quote into Google to do a quick search on who the person might be. I did not find the person but instead found link after link to articles/pundits, etc which basically stated the same thing as the mystery quote. Give credit to the Western propaganda machine–they are on message.
One of the biggest problems that we face in the news today and also by those in power that comunicate to the people is this idea of not naming who said this, who wrote that, etc., you understand what I mean. This idea of being able to say whatever without naming the source and calling it safety or other things has started an epidemic of fallacies in reporting the so called truth when it is really not the truth. I think it is better to be quiet than to say something and not name the person. You have to stand for the truth.
I am sad that you did this in your article above. Just so you know, I do not really care who said that because there are so many parrots out there.
Why are so many smart people embracing objectively false narratives?
Money, money, money! They embrace the propaganda and compete with each other for more delusional analysis!
“Russia right now is under extreme stress and Russian leaders are tense and unhappy. The operation in Ukraine has not only ground to a halt, but Russia continues to suffer agonizing losses of men and material”.
Just substitute the name of Russia with that of Ukraine and the gentleman is spot on. Where does he get his “news” – Alice in Wonderland News where every fact is upside-down?
You say he is not a liar. So then what is he? Someone who carefully filters the news to only present one convenient fact? I wonder: what will it take to finally at last break thru his filter system so that he realizes he’s been wrong all along?
Ask him this: why is Zelensky asking for nuclear weapons if the Ukraine army is doing so well without them?
On second thought I will add this comment (& would delete my first if that could be done)…
The people who believe what this guy believes are truly brain-washed. The Cabal hired lots of smart people to study what we call brain-washing. Not all think-tanks are ineffective. What we are in now, in high gear, is a massive PSY-OP (Psychological Operation). Those who have been captured into it are of a certain type, what might be called “the good citizen”.
They are very moral in a secular humanist sort of way (they are invariably agnostics or atheists). They consider themselves “nice people”. They pay their taxes willingly, follow all the rules and laws scrupulously, do not question authority (of course), believe Government is basically good, as is the Media they watch at exactly the same time every evening, accept that the virus “just happened” and ‘Thank God for those vaccines!’, believe Black Lives Matter, believe Ukraine is a good little country trying its best to be like them, and that Putin and Russia are evil people and bullies ganging up on a smaller country (not fair!).
It’s a whole tapestry made up of these kinds of assumptions, which to them seem completely true and unassailable. They must be true, because otherwise what is the alternative? Well the “alternative” is to leave the PSY-OP and enter into what seems like a Wilderland, where nothing is as it seemed to them. A commentator (or several) pointed out Fear as being a major component.
But it is also a moral quandary. All this time they thought they were “the nice people”, “the virtuous”, and thus “RIGHT” (and it is very important for these folks to be “right”).
It’s simple really. Because they always watch the “right news” which agrees with their Government’s pronouncements, they can come up with the complete nonsense of this fellow as quoted. He’s brain-washed. He’s inside a Big Bubble which must be preserved in order to preserve himself from those nameless bad things out there in the World. He and his kind are sort of mentally ill.
So, when Reality inevitably pops his Big Bubble he’s going to be in sad shape. He’ll probably figure out some way to re-inflate that Bubble to avoid going mad.