Loss Of Trust In Institutions (Part 2)
The battle for your mind in the information war ranges from propagandizing information to controlling the mainstream media and social media.
Information
Information is information. However, information can be used against you in the form of propaganda. As William Joseph Casey infamously said, “We’ll [the CIA] know our disinformation program is complete when everything the US public believes is false.”
“Disinformation” is a murky subject, but it is most often traced back as a strategy used by intelligence agencies worldwide to control information. Merriam-Webster Dictionary writes about defining disinformation, “It is worth noting that disinformation was used (in the sense of ‘deceptive propaganda’) in the preceding decades, in a variety of countries, both with and without reference to Russian intelligence services.”
All information will come from a particular perspective or set of biases and will be influenced — knowingly, unknowingly, directly, or indirectly-- because a human writes it. Individuals, companies, organizations, and governments will present information that makes them look good.
Fact-checkers are being paid to “fact check,” which will make them hold their own biases to stay employed by their employer. Fact-checking is subjective, but what is true can be more challenging to determine than if it matches a prevalent political view, monetary motivations, and influences of the so-called “fact checker.”
A conspiracy requires two or more people to discuss or plan something for their benefit. That could be done at a business meeting over coffee or drinks. It could be two people meeting at a restaurant for dinner or at a driving range at a golf course. This is not a crazy concept, yet Americans have been gaslit to call anything that goes against the mainstream narrative a “conspiracy theory.”
You must decide for yourself what is good and bad information. You decide what information to enter in the battle for your thoughts and mind. You determine what type of information you consume. You decide what sources you believe present their case better than others.
In the Information Age, it is up to you to discern information that you think to be accurate and reliable by learning basic research skills. Information is a battlefield. People want to control what you think and how you think. Start to think for yourself.
Internet
The Internet is a super valuable tool in the Information Age. It has allowed people to start work from home and start online businesses. It has democratized information, making things that once only people in power or at the top of society knew about. Today, you can learn things online from people by reading websites, and blogs, watching videos online and purchasing digital courses from people who have an actual track record in their field.
While the Internet has many positives, it is also blamed for spreading “disinformation/misinformation/etc.,” as discussed above. The Internet has decentralized information. Centralized powers, from the higher education system to the government to big business, don’t want this for various reasons. The main reason is it creates more competition, options, and access to information rather than relying on a single source of information.
The Internet is now being controlled by search engine companies, such as Google, to control what you may or may not see when you enter a keyword. This type of influence and control makes people lose trust in the Internet because they know that the search results they see are being manipulated. This was found to be the case during Covid. Google has its own “Covid-19 medical misinformation policy” that you may have seen from using Google’s search engine on YouTube videos. Internet companies labeling articles, videos, et cetera as “disinformation” or “misinformation” makes people lose trust in those companies. Yet the companies control the Internet and what you can and cannot see. This has led people to lose confidence in the Internet because they recognize that the results they see are being manipulated. The powerful tool of the Internet can be used against you as propaganda to influence what you think and believe.
Learn basic research skills. Read multiple sources. Recognize the biases of the sites and sources your read.
Mainstream Media
The mainstream media’s job is not to give the public the news. The mainstream media's role is to make the public believe certain things. Another name for this is propaganda. Harvard University's The Future Of Media Project outlines the “U.S. Mainstream Media by listing publishers (owners, majority voting shareholders, and donors of titles) considered major US daily news sources.” Counterpunch writes, “Drug ads are estimated to account for as much as 72 percent of commercials and almost all media companies allow drug company representatives to serve as board members.” That is why the mainstream media does not present an opposing view against Big Pharma. An opposing argument may be allowed infrequently to appear unbiased, but the mainstream legacy media will never bite the hand that feeds them.
The Fourth Estate no longer does its job of checking against the government or doing even basic investigative journalism.
Social Media
Social media has replaced mainstream media. It is now where younger people get their news, entertainment, and spend their time. It also is a way to corral people into smaller groups to track and understand users’ interests and political views. Data is the new oil. This information about a user’s interest can be shared with third parties and the government for financial gain or to give data about someone to the government.
The Twitter and Facebook Files have shown the close relationship between social media companies and government agencies. Government agencies, from the CDC to the FBI, monitored and influenced social media platforms.
Facebook/Meta took orders from the CDC when determining what it would label “misinformation.” Anything would be labeled “misinformation” that went against the mainstream narrative, such as the injections are dangerous, Covid came from a lab, to criticism of Dr. Fauci was directed to the CDC.
The Twitter Files revealed by Matt Taibbi in his Twitter Thread found that Twitter controlled speech. Twitter shadow-banned accounts that spread accurate information across the platform. Twitter was working with the FBI. You can read the full summary below in Matt Taibbi’s Substack.
While it has yet to be explicitly revealed, there is no reason not to believe that the same things are not happening on other social media sites such as LinkedIn, Reddit, et cetera. Some alternative news sites like The Last American Vagabond, Unlimited Hangout, and others have been discussing these activities by the United States government intelligence agencies for a while.
The Fifth Estate, likewise, is controlled and influenced by government agencies, as the Twitter Files and Facebook Files have revealed. This has been known for a while within certain circles, but it was labeled as “disinformation/misinformation” or a “conspiracy theory.”
Americans live in a digital, physical, and financial panopticon where the United States government, with the help of large corporations, watches everything they do. Yet, many Americans proclaim they live in the “land of the free and the home of the brave.”
Read the first part of the Loss of Trust In Institutions.
Think for yourself and question authority.
Don't wanna be an American idiot
One nation controlled by the media
Information age of hysteria
It's calling out to idiot America
We’re not for everyone.