Back in the U.S.
Back in the U.S.
Back in the U.S.S.R.
Well the Ukraine girls really knock me out
They leave the West behind
And Moscow girls make me sing and shout
That Georgia’s always on my my my my my my my my my mind
Oh, show me ’round your snow-peaked mountains way down south
Take me to your daddy’s farm
Let me hear your balalaikas ringing out
Come and keep your comrade warm
Beatles
America in the 1970s
The above song was written in 1968. The Beatles were in India at the time, at an ashram taking meditation lessons. The song parodies several popular rock styles. But more importantly it poked fun at both the U.S. and the Russians boasting about how great their own countries were. With the Vietnam War layered on top of a continuing Cold War, the whole propaganda war was beginning to wear thin.
In the 1970s the U.S. withdrew from Vietnam, admitting, essentially, defeat. The U.S. economy was tanking and Nixon was being run out of office (quite deservedly, most of us thought). By 1975 the Church Committee had held several hearings concerning corruption in government intelligence agencies.
The most shocking revelations of the committee include Operation MKULTRA involving the drugging and torture of unwitting US citizens as part of human experimentation on mind control; COINTELPRO involving the surveillance and infiltration of American political and civil-rights organizations; Family Jewels, a CIA program to covertly assassinate foreign leaders; Operation Mockingbird as a systematic propaganda campaign with domestic and foreign journalists operating as CIA assets and dozens of US news organizations providing cover for CIA activity. It also unearthed Project SHAMROCK in which the major telecommunications companies shared their traffic with the NSA.
Wikipedia
Many of us growing up during that time became convinced that our country was not the great moral beacon of democracy, peace and prosperity that it was made out to be. Thankfully most of us had the right to speak and write about these things, though the Internet was not yet born.
Many more revelations would come to light over the following years. And I mean MANY more. But Eisenhower’s Military Industrial Complex – now becoming the Corporate Entertainment Government Complex – seemed to be shoring up its damaged reputation and preparing to continue its quest to capture the hearts and minds of the American people, and then, the people of the world.
I am impressed in particular with their ability to sell to Americans and the world a new age of pharmaceutical-based health care for both body AND mind (seeing as the mind was simply a function of the brain, according to modern psychiatry).
9/11 went off with no major hitches, ushering in a whole new era of U.S. military violence abroad, and electronic surveillance at home – now integrated into our new cell phone and computer networks.
The once diverse and interesting entertainment industry, starting with TV, then radio, music, movies, books, magazines and video games, while being expanded to hundreds of separately branded services, was brought under the control of just six major corporations: National Amusements (Viacom); Disney; Time Warner; Comcast; News Corp; and Sony. This is why I now refer to it as “corporate media.”
PBS – the most trusted name in corporate media
The Public Broadcasting Service began operations on October 5, 1970, taking over many of the functions of its predecessor, National Educational Television (this per Wikipedia). It is officially non-profit and operates under a set of rules designed to prevent undue influence on content from large donors. There is no doubt, however, that the content leans liberal, with the news blatantly so.
Frontline
Frontline is the news documentary arm of PBS and is produced by its large Boston affiliate WGBH. Frontline has been producing shows since 1983.
Frontline has produced 785 documentaries so far. I have only seen a few of them. In reviewing the list of them all on Wikipedia, the older ones seemed very diverse, though of course always attempting to provide more in-depth information relating to current news stories.
The ones I have seen more recently seem more focused on partisan political issues. The attitude seems to be that Trump and Putin are obviously public criminals, while most of the rest of us are above all that and just trying to get along. What happened to the revelations of corruption in the U.S. that began to appear in the 1970s? Shouldn’t those who see this as a continuing problem get some kind of voice? It seems all these voices were now considered to be “conspiracy theorists.” But weren’t the conspiracies unearthed in the 1970s quite real?
The 2019 season included such titles as: Zero Tolerance – a critique of Trump’s immigration policy; Kids Caught in the Crackdown – more of the same; America’s Great Divide: From Obama to Trump (Parts 1 & 2); NRA Under Fire; and United States of Conspiracy.
The 2020 season included: Policing the Police 2020; President Biden; Trump’s American Carnage; American Insurrection; and Germany’s Neo-Nazis & the Far Right.
The 2021 season included: America After 9/11; Putin’s Road to War; Plot to Overturn the Election; The Power of Big Oil (in 3 parts); and Police on Trial.
Plot to Overturn the Election has been aired several times. It locates some shady operators involved with Stop the Steal, but fails to tell the whole story of who Lin Wood and Sidney Powell were or how they became convinced that computerized tabulation machines had been tampered with. It makes the whole operation look much more secretive than it really was.
The 2022 season started with Lies, Politics and Democracy which accuses Trump “undermining American democracy.” It also contains another part of Putin’s Road To War, which in its turn demonizes Putin.
It’s not that these people don’t deserve our derision. But I find it superficial and naive to think that the problems in a society come from a few outspoken leaders. Where is that leader getting their information and advice? That’s what I want to know.
Alternative Media – the least trusted name…
You see the problem. The six great companies that run all the major information sources on this planet are not going to air research that attempts to uncover their own corruption or true agendas. Why should we assume, if Trump and Putin are so bad, that they are the only ones? If Russia indulges in misinformation and propaganda, wouldn’t America also? That’s what we thought we learned in the 1970s. Well, this lesson seemed to somehow get unlearned. Corporate media, it seems, now has clean hands and thus has the right – if not the duty – to expose those with dirty (bloodstained) hands.
But what about all those killed by dangerous medicines, by toxins released into our environment in the name of pest control , weed control, hygiene, or shopping convenience? Don’t those deaths result in blood on someone’s hands? Aren’t we interested in who they are and why they did it? Can we really expect the world to respect our moral pronouncements when our own people and institutions are also guilty of crimes? How can we put our own house in order if we don’t know how corrupted it has become?
The task of informing us of such things has fallen on the “alternative media.” These people attempt to get the “truth” out using various online platforms and with minimal funding (usually). They are an odd mix of super-intelligent researchers, loud mouth trouble makers, and outright imposters. They are needed and they are also hated, mostly by the corporate media. And so they and their messages have been banned (censored, deplatformed, terminated) by many corporate media platforms.
The Wall Street Journal recently released a list of people banned from Twitter. It is incomplete.
Donald Trump: Former U.S. President.
Mike Lindell: The MyPillow CEO was banned over a series of claims about the 2020 presidential election.
Kanye West: The rapper was recently banned from Twitter for posting antisemitic comments on the site.
Sidney Powell: Lawyer and former Trump employee was banned during a “purge” of accounts that supported Q.
Michael Flynn: Trump’s former national security adviser was also banned during the Q purge.
Lin Wood: A member of Trump’s legal team and Q supporter.
Roger Stone: The political consultant and ally of Trump was banned in 2017 for making insulting remarks toward CNN anchors and contributors.
Steve Bannon: Trump’s former adviser was banned when he suggested that FBI Director Christopher Wray and chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci should get beheaded.
Katie Hopkins: The conservative British political commentator was banned in 2020 for mocking the Black Lives Matter movement and for calling immigrants “cockroaches.”
Gavin McInnes: The founder of the Proud Boys, a group the ADL describes as “a right-wing extremist group with a violent agenda,” was banned. Twitter prohibits all violent extremist groups.
Conservatives argue that this prohibition is not applied consistently. The argument that companies like Twitter are targeting conservative anti-corporate messages seems obvious to the people getting banned. But to many others the impression that these people deserve to be silenced is very strong. The limiting of free speech for the “good of society” seems sensible to more and more people. It doesn’t seem to occur to them that this would seem anti-American to those whose voices are being silenced.
Marjorie Taylor Greene: This U.S. representative’s personal account was banned for repeated violation’s against Twitter’s misinformation policy. Greene was spreading information about COVID-19.
The argument against banning “misinformation” is, of course: Who gets to decide? Shouldn’t I get to decide this for myself? Doesn’t the suggestion that I must defer to “experts” invalidate my own ability to think and decide?
Alex Jones: In 2018, this right-wing conspiracy theorist was banned for violating Twitter’s policy against abusive behavior. One of Jones’ theories is that 9/11 was an inside job (which is true per Courtney Brown’s work).
Milo Yiannopoulos: The conservative commentator was banned for repeatedly harassing and insulting the actress Leslie Jones.
Raúl Castro: The former Cuban president and other accounts run by the Cuban government were banned in 2019.
The Wall Street Journal’s list includes some minor celebrities that posted nude photos or violated the privacy of other people. We might assume that those bans were legitimate. But the big question still remains: Shouldn’t I be free to decide for myself who is being criminally dishonest or verbally abusive?
Wikipedia also carries a list of Twitter suspensions, both temporary and permanent:
These people were banned for things they said about COVID:
Donald Trump
David Icke: A famous British personality who believes that Reptilian ETs exist (they do).
Naomi Wolf: Feminist writer banned for criticizing the COVID shots.
Nation of Islam: A black church banned for criticizing the COVID shots.
Alex Berenson: Former NYT writer banned for criticizing the COVID shots.
Greg Locke: Church pastor banned for criticizing the COVID shots.
Emerald Robinson: Journalist banned for criticizing the COVID shots.
Robert Malone: Virologist banned for criticizing the COVID shots.
Plus these recent bans:
The Babylon Bee: Comedy site banned for making fun of somebody (I’m not kidding).
Jordan Peterson: Canadian psychologist banned for making fun of a public figure.
James Lindsay: Intellectual banned for anti-woke ideas.
Doesn’t freedom mean free speech?
We are hearing that other governments around the world are banning free speech. Russia, Iran, China are being attacked by our corporate media for their bans of dissident voices and their propaganda. But what about our own failures to allow free speech? Does the fact that speech remains freer here excuse those abuses? How long can we continue to assert that we honor our founders’ ideas here, when corporate media removes dissident voices from their platforms?
I have really only looked at Twitter here. But those platforms include hundreds of TV stations, movie production houses, other social media companies like Meta, newspapers, magazines and “information” websites. And I see a similar pattern across all these platforms. The corporate world continues to act to protect its version of the truth, while it becomes clearer and clearer to more people that it isn’t the truth.
In the 1970s such brazen attempts to silence dissent could have provoked protest marches. Now it is just as likely that the failure to silence dissent will provoke a protest. In my opinion, we are walking away from a vision for the future that our founders expressed as best they could in the Declaration of Independence. But more importantly, I see us walking away from sanity, from a strong sense of personal responsibility, and from the skills we will need to survive as a species. The proper exercise of our freedoms is an extremely valuable set of skills, and we are losing them.
Here is a quote provided to me by Robert Malone:
“The drive of the Rockefellers and their allies is to create a one-world government combining supercapitalism and Communism under the same tent, all under their control. Do I mean a conspiracy? Yes, I do. I am convinced there is such a plot, international in scope, generations old in planning, incredibly evil in intent.”
–Rep. Larry P. MacDonald, killed in Korean Air Lines 007, 1983