Very good. American elites do try to create a reality to their liking by incessantly bullshitting everyone. The thing is, they've done it so long--as you said it really escalated after 9/11/2001--that many of them actually believe it themselves.
When you think a thing too long, you start to believe that thing. That's how our brains work.
I recall Putin being quoted as saying that American officials & media lie all the time, in a surprisingly uniform way. I've since learned he was 100% correct in that assessment. It's hard to take any pride in how the West has been manipulated to believe outright lies. All the nations of the West are being stolen out from under 'the people' by a vicious elite. It's appalling.
Hmm... I suppose if the ruling elites in the West "ignore reality" and wish to brainwash us with their chosen narrative, can we of the working class "ignore their narrative" and re-establish reality as the only topic worth discussing?
Hear, Hear, sir! You eloquently wrote "In fact, in Lincoln’s 1860 there were 3000 independent newspapers operating in the United States. Today, we have only 672 major daily newspapers operating in the US, although we have over 10x the population (31 million in 1860 compared to 333 million today)." Well written, sir. Political and economic centralization strikes deeply! We were once a semi-politically decentralized, semi-economically decentralized, semi-culturally decentralized, and semi-scientifically decentralized system with a a decentralized (for domestic matters, at least) information ecosystem.....
fwiw, I'm inclined to think that the "unnamed Bush aide"responsible for the "reality-based community" quote was Robert Kagan, instead of Karl Rove. Rove is the guy who keeps getting that quote attributed to him, but it just sounds more like Kagan to me.
I agree it does sound more like Kagan, but Kagan wasn't working as a "senior aide" to Bush in 2002. He was haunting the halls of some neocon think tanks at the time.
you’re right on that. I’ve gotten to consider Kagan as a charter member of the foreign policy establishment (until quite recently; whatever happens with the Trump administration, at least the election will shut Kagan up for a while.) But it’s true, RK hasn’t held an official position in any administration since the Reagan administration, when he was a speechwriter for Secretary of State George Schultz (beginning at age 25-26, which appears to me to illustrate the sort of inside track that someone gets as the son of an Ivy League history professor.)
8.5 out of every ten German soldiers to die in combat during WWII died on the Eastern Front. But it was the economic might of the United States and the combined navel power of Great Britain and the United States that won the war and ultimately defeated Germany and Japan. The United States provided Russia with equipment, without which, it is very likely that Russia would have lost to the Germans very early in the war, they were hanging by a thread and the equipment the U.S. provided enabled them to hang on long enough for, wait for it..Mother Nature, in the form of the worst winter in centuries, to stop the Germans cold, no pun intended.
Very good. American elites do try to create a reality to their liking by incessantly bullshitting everyone. The thing is, they've done it so long--as you said it really escalated after 9/11/2001--that many of them actually believe it themselves.
When you think a thing too long, you start to believe that thing. That's how our brains work.
I recall Putin being quoted as saying that American officials & media lie all the time, in a surprisingly uniform way. I've since learned he was 100% correct in that assessment. It's hard to take any pride in how the West has been manipulated to believe outright lies. All the nations of the West are being stolen out from under 'the people' by a vicious elite. It's appalling.
Russia hasn’t won yet, sweetheart.
Once again I am forced to offer you my thanks for proving my thesis so well.
Hmm... I suppose if the ruling elites in the West "ignore reality" and wish to brainwash us with their chosen narrative, can we of the working class "ignore their narrative" and re-establish reality as the only topic worth discussing?
Hear, Hear, sir! You eloquently wrote "In fact, in Lincoln’s 1860 there were 3000 independent newspapers operating in the United States. Today, we have only 672 major daily newspapers operating in the US, although we have over 10x the population (31 million in 1860 compared to 333 million today)." Well written, sir. Political and economic centralization strikes deeply! We were once a semi-politically decentralized, semi-economically decentralized, semi-culturally decentralized, and semi-scientifically decentralized system with a a decentralized (for domestic matters, at least) information ecosystem.....
Well Lincoln shut down many opposition newspapers and jailed journalists. So there’s that. That sociopathic tyrant was the original narrative shaper.
fwiw, I'm inclined to think that the "unnamed Bush aide"responsible for the "reality-based community" quote was Robert Kagan, instead of Karl Rove. Rove is the guy who keeps getting that quote attributed to him, but it just sounds more like Kagan to me.
I agree it does sound more like Kagan, but Kagan wasn't working as a "senior aide" to Bush in 2002. He was haunting the halls of some neocon think tanks at the time.
you’re right on that. I’ve gotten to consider Kagan as a charter member of the foreign policy establishment (until quite recently; whatever happens with the Trump administration, at least the election will shut Kagan up for a while.) But it’s true, RK hasn’t held an official position in any administration since the Reagan administration, when he was a speechwriter for Secretary of State George Schultz (beginning at age 25-26, which appears to me to illustrate the sort of inside track that someone gets as the son of an Ivy League history professor.)
Can we just call them liars not reality creators.
I liked the article very much
8.5 out of every ten German soldiers to die in combat during WWII died on the Eastern Front. But it was the economic might of the United States and the combined navel power of Great Britain and the United States that won the war and ultimately defeated Germany and Japan. The United States provided Russia with equipment, without which, it is very likely that Russia would have lost to the Germans very early in the war, they were hanging by a thread and the equipment the U.S. provided enabled them to hang on long enough for, wait for it..Mother Nature, in the form of the worst winter in centuries, to stop the Germans cold, no pun intended.
So why isn't Ukraine winning now?
Postmodern brain infection holding discourse creates reality.