Political Dark Side: Propaganda, Censorship, and Calumny

 

by

Gadfly

As a concept, “politics” is neither good nor bad.  Its application, however, is either good or bad.  My favorite political philosopher, David Eastman, had a simple definition for politics: “the authoritative allocation of values.” 

Values are not the same as virtues.  Values are preferences based on desire, which can be virtuous or vicious.  Virtues are principles that promote goodness and provide guideposts for virtuous behavior.  Vices represent evil passions and effects.

Power is a value, and a vicious behavior if it is sought as an end and not a means.  On the other hand, power can represent a virtue if it manifests the authority of moral behavior to achieve goodness.  Both forms can manifest in the character of the body politic of a nation.

These distinctions were recognized and understood centuries ago in the wisdom shared by St. Paul to the Galatians in Chapter 5 of the Judeo-Christian Bible.  In this short chapter, Paul reminds his followers of the difference between the liberty of the fruits of the Holy Spirit in contrast with earthly bondage.  It is amazing how clearly this liberty versus bondage choice is recognizable in the current true life drama playing out in America.

A political dark side dominates the American body politic, and it is patently observable in the form of propaganda, censorship, and calumny. 

In his book, Mein Kampf, Adolph Hitler provided his observations about the importance of propaganda in this passage (I included this material in another previously published article “Evidence Is Overwhelming but There Is an Elephant in the Room”): 

 

The art of propaganda consists precisely in being able to awaken the imagination of the public through an appeal to their feelings, in finding the appropriate psychological form that will arrest the attention and appeal to the hearts of the national masses [this is why Democrats aggressively define the opponent; see also here]. The broad masses of the people are not made up of diplomats or professors of public jurisprudence nor simply of persons who are able to form reasoned judgment in given cases, but a vacillating crowd of human children who are constantly wavering between one idea and another. (...) The great majority of a nation is so feminine in its character and outlook that its thought and conduct are ruled by sentiment rather than by sober reasoning. This sentiment, however, is not complex, but simple and consistent. It is not highly differentiated, but has only the negative and positive notions of love and hatred, right and wrong, truth and falsehood [and Democrats/Leftists employ calumny with no limits].

Propaganda must not investigate the truth objectively and, in so far as it is favourable to the other side, present it according to the theoretical rules of justice [i.e., the emphasis on social justice, fair share, equity, diversity & inclusion, dignity & respect, etc.]; yet it must present only that aspect of the truth which is favourable to its own side [similar to progressive George Lakoff’s axiom that it is the frame that matters, and facts are only relevant if they fit the frame]. (...) The receptive powers of the masses are very restricted, and their understanding is feeble. On the other hand, they quickly forget. Such being the case, all effective propaganda must be confined to a few bare essentials and those must be expressed as far as possible in stereotyped formulas [e.g., racist, bigot, white privilege, misogynist, homophobe, Islamaphobe, etc.  In her presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton argued that Trump followers fit into one or more of the standard progressive stereotypes.]. These slogans should be persistently repeated until the very last individual has come to grasp the idea that has been put forward. (...) Every change that is made in the subject of a propagandist message must always emphasize the same conclusion [does it not shock, let alone surprise, that Democrats/Leftists persist in their calumny against Donald Trump?]. The leading slogan must of course be illustrated in many ways and from several angles [Trump dossier, impeachments, a raid on Trump’s home, etc.], but in the end one must always return to the assertion of the same formula.[1] (Text in bold, italics is my editorial insertion)

With such bold actions in the form of propaganda, why not also censor?  Just today, Jonathan Turley reported that the AP press is in full denial of widely known facts.  See here.

More disturbing because of its subtle yet sinister behavior is the combination of propaganda, censorship, and calumny by Big Tech.  Dr. Robert Epstein, a registered Democrat, provides compelling evidence here.  This can be fixed by Congress and the Courts as threats to our First Amendment Rights.  “We the people” should insist that this happens.

Friends, mainstream media platforms are an additional instrument in advancing propaganda, censorship, and calumny.  Yet, there is a growing number of alternative news sources that still pride themselves on honest journalism.

What more can be done?  First, recognize this is a spiritual contest that cannot be avoided by denying the presence of evil intentions and behaviors.  Second, be on good terms with the source of our moral authority and pray for wisdom and courage.  Third, do what we can to rebuke evil and affirm good behavior.  Not only does the soul of our nation depend upon these actions, but our very own souls are at stake as well.

My articles have recently been sparse because I am attempting to do what can be done through a nonprofit called Stand Together Against Racism and Radicalism in the Services, Inc. (www.starrs.us).  I invite you to check us out, join the cause, and spread the word. 

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[1] Mein Kampf citations are from the Project Gutenberg-hosted 1939 English translation by James Murphy.

What Is a Moron?

 

by

Gadfly

This article was inspired by Matt Walsh’s recent book, What Is a Woman?   Walsh discovered “that no one—not doctors, therapists, psychiatrists, or politicians—can actually define the word ‘woman’.”  This despite long standing dictionary definitions, such as “an adult female person.”

Our newly sworn-in justice of the Supreme Court even admitted to not knowing the definition of a woman during her Senate confirmation.  She now sits on the highest court of our Nation (arguably of the free world as well), which judges constitutional issues critically dependent upon clear definition.

How might this happen in Twenty-First Century America—the land of the free and the home of the brave? 

The answer?  Our educational and progressive political factions are producing morons.  How else would one describe those who insist on letting others know what pronouns they go by?

A moron is “a foolish or stupid person.”  The same source for this definition also reveals the use of this term is considered “offensive.”  Here is the announcement: “The terms idiot, imbecile, moron, and their derivatives were formerly used as technical descriptors in medical, educational, and regulatory contexts. These uses were broadly rejected by the close of the 20th century and are now considered offensive.” 

I am obliged to point out that the Progressive Era (and its Leftist ideology) became a formidable political presence at the close of the 20^th century.

Offensive or not, traditional America is threatened by an alarming and growing population of morons.  The condition is not unique to our era.  Here is wisdom over two millennia-old from the Book of Proverbs (KJV):

·       The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline. (1:7)

·       In everything the prudent acts with knowledge, but a fool flaunts his folly. (13.16)

·       The heart of him who has understanding seeks knowledge, but the mouths of fools feed on folly. (15.14)

·       Let a man meet a she-bear robbed of her cubs rather than a fool in his folly. (17.12)

·       The devising of folly is sin, and the scoffer is an abomination to mankind. (24.9)

·       Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him. (26: 4)

·       Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly. (26.11)

Now, truth is deliberately or unwittingly spun to be offensive, and it must be leveraged in a way that empowers power. For example, when a demographic enjoys less of the fruits of prosperity or manifests larger percentages of criminal activity, it is called a racial disparity, strongly implying discrimination.  See for example this article about disparity within the Veterans Affairs system.  The megaphone that amplifies this distortion of truth is an army of morons in mainstream and social media.

In his book, What Do White Americans Owe Black People?  Racial Justice in the Age of Post-Oppression, DePaul University Philosophy Professor Jason Hill critiques the institutionalization of spin in university programs.  He sets the tone in this introduction to Chapter 4, “Their Final Solution:  The New Negritudes, Revolutionary Victim Studies, Black Nihilism, and the Abolition of ‘Whiteness’”:

Soon after tasting the victories of this moral eugenics program unleashed against whites’ actual or imagined sins, blacks were voraciously hungry.  They were also filled with anger and explosive rage.  Gratitude was not an emotion they felt, as beneficiaries of the rights accorded them via the civil rights movements.

They were hungry for power—black power.  They were hungry for revenge.  They were hungry to assume the perpetual mantel of victims and the conferral of moral, iconic sainthood that came with it for the first time.  The insignia of moral innocence that they would enjoy as a result of being seen as historical victims would give them a great deal of social capital—in fact, more social capital and political clout than they could have hoped for.  Long after they had achieved that power, and after they had emancipated from the bondage of legal disenfranchisement, too many of them squandered and wasted that capital.  They are now on the verge of self-eviction from the realm of the historical process.

Hill’s analysis explains how universities have become incubators for the “victimhood” mentality, which is clearly Marxist-based.  His analysis is corroborated by such scholars as Bruce Bawer in his book, The Victim’s Revolution:  The Rise of Identity Studies and the Closing of the Liberal Mind.

On a more practical level, champions of identity politics--the Congressional Black Caucus--arranged to further institutionalize “victimhood capital” by chartering the Military Leadership Diversity Commission in the 2009 National Defense Authorization Action, just in time for the inauguration of America’s first black president.  Less than a month after the inauguration, the Department of Defense issued its first publication advancing the concept of “diversity management,” even though efforts to overcome “disparities” based on race, ethnicity, gender, and so forth, are patently in violation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which made discrimination in any form illegal. 

Using the Department of Defense as a Petri dish to demonstrate efficacy, President Obama then advanced a campaign to infiltrate the entire federal government with Executive Order 13583 on August 18, 2011.  Eleven years later, we have diversity, inclusion, and equity officers and staff in state governments, academia, and the corporate world.  Participating diversity and inclusion morons have no clue; many even celebrate this dangerous indoctrination.

Like alphabet clones in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, beginning in preschool, our children are being groomed to be morons.  There are morons across generations, and despite my hope for them, they tend to be dismissive, even hostile to facts and arguments that threaten their worldview.  The telltale sign is attacks against the messenger, not the message.  Just look at the reaction to the SCOTUS ruling on abortion.

Is America still a good nation when its people argue for killing children in their mother’s womb?  Except for rape or incest, ALL pregnancies stem from CONSENSUAL sexual activity.  This is the first choice the Left completely ignores.  From a pragmatic perspective, duplicity in this form of murder tends to attract votes—a high price to be paid for those who get sacrificed at the altar of secular humanism.  (Nearly four years ago, during the Kavanaugh SCOTUS confirmation hearings, I published an article on the logic of abortion here).

As divided as America is, many—too many--feel enslaved to evolving circumstances beyond their control.  Most stems from ideological bondage.

We are well advised to abide by this passage in John 8:32: “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”  Being free to make moral choices may or not be satisfying in our mortal lives; yet, for all of us, it matters in terms of being in good standing after death.  Moron or not, we are all accountable for our choices,

BLM + Antifa = KKK

by

Gadfly

Good Americans are worried and confused. 

They worry about the hateful tensions that politically divide America. 

They are confused as to why this is happening. 

One of the reasons is because there are bad Americans.

Yes, it is that simple—the existential and eternal contest between good and evil is on full display in America.

Groups of Americans symbolized in the title’s equation are bad people.  All have been or are spawned, encouraged, and sustained by a political ideology that claims to advocate for those on the margin, disenfranchised, under-represented, victims of cultural identity oppression, flouters of border sovereignty, and so forth.

The Ku Klux Klan emerged during the Post-Reconstruction Era as a terrorist effect upon those—black and white--who sought the full integration of the emancipated black into the fabric of American society.  A political ideology in the form of the Democrat Party advocated for slavery, fought Reconstruction efforts, established Jim Crow laws, and other means for denying liberty to black Americans.

Even after the Civil Rights Act of 1964--clearly a legal and symbolic form of reparations for the sin of slavery--the modern Democrat exploits the perception of racism in other forms.  They cry “voter suppression” without any evidence to support it.  They cry “systemic racism” without any evidence to support it.  These machinations took place as the KKK lost currency with the more concerted effort to more fully integrate minorities in American society. 

The President Lyndon Johnson and Democrat-led Great Society agenda was designed to “buy” the minority vote through massive social welfare—a new form of chattel slavery.  America’s metropolitan inner-cities have been run by the Democrat Party for decades, where black-on-black homicides are endemic. How else does one explain the 80% intact families before the Great Society agenda and today’s 20%? 

Enter Black Lives Matter (BLM; part of the 170-organization network called the Movement for Black Lives).  No doubt some of the inspiration and justification came from the New Left’s Port Huron Manifesto and the creation of Students for a Democrat Society (members of which today occupy senior government positions, serve as university professors, and shape mainstream media). 

BLM was founded by three black, Marxist-trained women, who coined the term.  They naturally aligned with a group called Antifa (Anti-fascist), even though our current Democrat President dismissed them as “just an idea.” 

Combined, these two groups instigated riots across America to influence the 2020 presidential election (explicitly claimed on the BLM website).  Their efforts caused billions in damage and several deaths.  Their efforts were clearly and closely aligned with the Democrat Party. 

Reminiscent of Marxist communists, BLM routinely displays a raised black closed fist to signify solidarity among those aligned with a movement. 

Like the KKK’s symbolic clothing, Antifa wears black clothes and masks.

I have not come across any literature where a Post-Reconstruction Era Democrat spoke critically of the KKK.  Further, I am not aware of a single Democrat that has spoken out against BLM or Antifa. 

Good Americans have justification to be worried and confused. 

It is a citizen duty to recognize this threat to our Nation and to have the courage to do something about it. 

The risk of doing nothing?  Political chattel slavery, with a single political party (like communism or fascism) as the master.     

AD February 13, 2022

 

by

Gadfly

Strange title?

AD in this title refers to anno Domini, in the year of our Lord—the estimated birth of Jesus Christ as the anchor for our present Gregorian calendar.  This chronological reference point has fallen out of “grace” with the dominant and progressive secular humanists who now prefer BCE, which stands for Before the Common Era--even though it remains linked to the original Gregorian Calendar based on the birth of Christ.

          By changing the meaning (or lack of meaning) of the chronological element of our historical process, advocates can diminish the spiritual implication of natural law in deference to their own sense of morality in pursuit of utopia.  This is very Marxist in its approach.

Joseph Schumpeter captured the “Marxist effect” well in this passage from his book (published in 1950), Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy:

In one important sense, Marxism is a religion.  To the believer it presents, first, a system of ultimate ends that embody the meaning of life and are absolute standards by which to judge events and actions; and, secondly, a guide to those ends which implies a plan of salvation and the indication of the evil from which mankind, or a chosen section of mankind, is to be saved.  We may specify still further:  Marxist socialism also belongs to that subgroup which promises paradise on this side of the grave.  The religious quality of Marxism also explains a characteristic attitude of the orthodox Marxist toward opponents.  To him, as to any believer in a Faith, the opponent is not merely in error but in sin.  Dissent is disapproved of not only intellectually but morally.  There cannot be any excuse for it once the Message has been revealed (p. 5).

Why Does This Matter Now?

America is under assault—primarily from within by a domestic enemy.  The idea of America as envisioned in our founding documents—the Declaration of Independence, The Constitution, and Bill of Rights—is under attack via radicalism, which seeks through multiple vectors to advance an alternate vision of America.  This alternate vision fragments, divides, and diminishes the fundamental spirit of what it means to be American.

          Today, I watched a powerful interview on the role Big Tech is playing in this alternate vision.  You can watch the entire interview here.  It is based on a Heritage Foundation report that you can access here.

          The research in the above report, its concerns about totalitarianism, and its implications for the future of America reinforces the mission of a new nonprofit organization called Stand Together Against Racism and Radicalism in the Services, Inc. (www.starrs.us).

          Those who have been kind and gracious enough to follow Gadfly Corner over the years might be interested in checking out STARRS.  If you agree with the concerns and effort to stem the alternate vision of America, then please spread the word.