We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Tuesday, November 17, 2020

Posts that I especially recommend today: Tuesday, November 17, 2020

  • All Wars Must End! by Christopher Black from New Eastern Outlook (based in Russia, but international in writers whose articles they publish).
  • Social Media as a Weapon by Brian Berletic from his weblog Land Destroyer Report. (Note: Since Berletic "outed" himself recently, having used the pen-name "Tony Cartalucci" previously. He is currently using video clips to address issues, but still providing many references to back up his arguments. He, together with his family, has lived in Thailand for a least 10 years.) My commentary follows:
In this video clip, Berletic reveals how US social media-tech corporations such as Facebook and Twitter have functioned in Thailand and neighboring countries as a weapon to destabilize their governments and shape their policies to bring into alignment with US policies and political interests. 
I've argued many times that the neofascism as practiced by the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire has shaped classic fascism by greatly enhancing the manipulation of information that targeted populations receive. This weapon was first used in WWI, and to the surprise of their propaganda agents, the methods used were astonishingly successful in turning the American public from neutrality to active support for the USA to enter the war. They used propaganda to portray the Germans as diabolical people. After the war, these same techniques were used, and developed, in advertising to motivate consumers to purchase the many products of corporations.

The Nazis also used propaganda to motivate their populations to go to war; but because the science of propaganda was still rudimentary, Nazis mostly relied on force or the threat of force. This is the classic view of Nazism which current Empire propagandists try so hard to differentiate from today's rule. I've tried throughout the more than 10 years of blogging to describe this process. (See this commentary, for example.) But our capitalist masters didn't stop there--they rewrote history, and their concentration of wealth and power of the post-WWII years brought increased control over jobs and careers. Those that didn't subscribe to their agendas were left to dead-end jobs or to starve to death, and those that contributed to their agendas were well remunerated and enjoyed comfortable careers. 
Fascism is predominately the last stage of capitalism, and it depends on methods of control of populations. I argue that it matters not what forms this control takes--whether it is accomplished through the threat of force or control of information or the manipulation of information that a population is permitted to access--it is still fascism. Censorship is increasing exponentially. But our masters have methods beyond the mere access to information: they have used psy-ops to create chaos and fear in their populations which makes it easier for them to impose policies that increase their control over populations. I choose to call these advanced methods "neofascism". To be sure, the directors of the Empire continue to use the threat of violence to ensure a population's compliance when their propaganda techniques fail to work. 
A contemporary writer by the name of Gabriel Rockhill seems to have a real grasp of this neofascism, but he chooses to call it plain fascism. I recommend to you the following posts featuring his articles:
Fascism: Now You See It, Now You Don’t!;
Liberalism and Fascism: Partners in Crime; The U.S. Did Not Defeat Fascism in WWII, It Discretely Internationalized It; Liberalism & Fascism: The Good Cop & Bad Cop of Capitalism; A Counter-History of Fascism and Liberalism
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