Media And The Cult

A mostly unexamined aspect of the ongoing crisis is the role the media plays in keeping the managerial class misinformed. It is always assumed that the firehose of lies that come from regime media is designed to trick the public, but the truth is no one in charge cares about public opinion outside the extremes. Politicians come and go, and the parties take turns pretending to be in charge but the administrative state and the managerial class that runs it are permanent.

One only has to look at the presidential elections over the last thirty years to see that elections have no impact on policy. Bill Clinton was supposed to be a break with the polices of Reagan and Bush, but things changed very little. Bush was supposed to bring decency back to the White House. Instead, he empowered the neocons, who set about making war on the world. Obama was supposed to put an end to all that war making, but instead doubled down in Afghanistan.

If you could map changes in public policy from election to election since the Cold War you would end up with a line that slowly moves upward. The only change we see is slightly more of the same with each change in administration. The same can be said of the changes in the House and Senate. As we have recently seen with the Republicans in the House, they are just a shadow of the Democrats, who shadow the Republicans as they take turns in the majority.

The reason for this is ninety percent of our elected representatives never have to fear the voters. They only have to fear the wrath of their party leaders, who are the representatives of the economic elites that underwrite the system. For the typical congressman or senator, there is no profit in appealing to the voters, if it means going against party leadership. That can only result in a primary challenge, so the rational course is to do what the party tells them.

If the political system is now immune to public opinion, then why are we awash in mass media filling the public square with propaganda? One reason is inertia. There was a time when winning the voters mattered and the media was an essential part of how the parties presented their claims to the public. Listen to media figures talk about their profession and they often sound like museum pieces. The Washington Post hilariously has the line, “Democracy Dies In Darkness” on its masthead.

Another reason for the explosion of agit-prop might be that as the number of safe seats has grown, the consensus between the two parties has narrowed. That means the range of acceptable dissent has narrowed as well. Look around Washington and there is only one acceptable position on most issues. For example, you can wail about the southern border, but you cannot oppose immigration. You can “care about working families” but you cannot oppose finance capitalism.

When a broad range of positions are tolerated, the focus is on winning the public to your side, but when the range of tolerable positions is narrow, the focus must be on keeping everyone inside that tolerable range. That is where the media comes in with its firehose of official nonsense. The point is not to sway or trick a skeptical public, but to enforce conformity of opinion inside Washington. Ironically, this was the primary purpose of the media in the Soviet Union.

Take for example this post at the National Interest. This is one of the many neocon publications used to control official debate on foreign policy. It was founded by Irving Kristol, one of the founding members of the neocon cult. The post reads like it was written by a crazy person, but that is because it is a collection of assertions circulating in the mass media for years. The point of the post is to keep these assertions circulating and therefore the default position on Russia.

Imagine you are a congressman sitting on a committee that serves the interests of the Military Industrial Complex. Image further that you made the mistake of reading unapproved analysis of the war and the war claims. You might be tempted to question the people making the claims, until you run into this wall of official opinion that sprouts from every regime outlet and every regime member. Even if you are skeptical, you will find nothing but hostility to your questions.

In many respects, Washington now operates like a cult. People at all levels are recruited into politics because they conform to the attitudes of the cult. Those who show a lack of enthusiasm are either bullied into submission or expelled. Meanwhile, those inside are subjected to a constant wave of mass media that reinforces the currently acceptable opinions of the cult leaders. The media is an endless chorus praising the cult and the positions held by the cult.

Another aspect of cults is that the people inside them lack the perspective and self-awareness to see themselves as being in a cult. No one ever says “I decided to join a cult” because no one in a cult thinks they are in a cult. Instead, they think the logic of the cult explains everything that needs explaining. To those outside, the logic of the cult seems weird and possibly dangerous. The people inside appear to be painfully divorced from reality, maybe even insane.

This is exactly how normal people see Washington. They see lunatics ranting and raving about imaginary demons, while obvious problems are ignored. One congressman after another swears allegiance to a foreign power, while hooting about China and Russia influencing our elections. This is all amplified by a mass media system that is designed to reward such behavior and punish any hint of skepticism about the narrow set of acceptable opinions.


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Captain Willard
Captain Willard
23 days ago

“The point is not to sway or trick a skeptical public, but to enforce conformity of opinion inside Washington”

I think this is directed outside DC too. Mimesis is a feature of any aristocracy. All the agitprop is directed at letting the provincials know what opinions are officially sanctioned in the Imperial Capital so they can be aped in salons across America.

Everyone here has experienced cocktail conversations with normies who parrot Regime talking points. Challenging them either makes heads explode or assures a lonely cocktail hour as you’re marked as a dangerous dissident with unapproved opinions.

manc
manc
Reply to  Captain Willard
23 days ago

Yeah I’m going to one of those parties tonight, will be quite a few AWFL’s and their defeated husbands there. I’m looking forward to telling people I don’t give a pigs ass about Israel, Gaza, The Ukraine, trannys…I won’t bring these topics up, its the opening night of the town carnival but if asked I’ll be honest. Life’s too short.

mikebravo
mikebravo
Reply to  manc
23 days ago

Yup. Always state you opinions. Let em know that you consider their behavior and recieved opinions wierd.
It might jog the odd one or 2 towards wrongthink and the right side.

Jeffrey Zoar
Jeffrey Zoar
Reply to  manc
23 days ago

If they ostracize you, you’ve won!

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  manc
23 days ago

Welp, it was good knowing ya, Manc. I’ll lay a wreath.

Whitney
Member
Reply to  manc
23 days ago

Start saying the tranny’s are mentally ill. I’ve seen conservatives get uncomfortable and quiet when I point the truth

TempoNick
TempoNick
Reply to  Whitney
23 days ago

For that matter, gays are as well.

Snooze
Snooze
Reply to  manc
23 days ago

Maybe pretend to go along with the consensus but add some doubt as to gender reassignment surgery for minors.

Xin Loi
Xin Loi
Reply to  Snooze
23 days ago

Specifying restrictions on poisoning or mutilating minors gives away the store, BECAUSE – if it is really possible to be “born in the wrong body”, then it follows that restricting corrective action in minors is doing them an injustice.

This is one practice that must be opposed 100% of the time, because making exceptions admits the possibility that the whole mental illness has some validity – that 2+2 sometimes can equal 3, or 5, as O’Brien would have it.

Member
Reply to  manc
23 days ago

“Vladimir Putin and the Russians are not destroying the monuments to our ancestors, desecrating their graves, or sexually mutilating our children.”

Ostei Kozelskii
Member
Reply to  Captain Willard
23 days ago

Maybe, but I guess the question is why? Why bother influencing public opinion when public opinion no longer seems to matter?

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  Ostei Kozelskii
23 days ago

The role of the public is to implement and carry out and conform to the policies, so they are told what they are. TPTB sets the policies. There is no public input in deciding and formulating public policy at this stage, but it requires the public to be aware of what they are and to carry them out. The propaganda for the public is a to-do list. Captain is right here.

Steve
Steve
Reply to  Jack Dobson
23 days ago

Yep. It’s called horizontal enforcement. Get the “masses” to crack down on their neighbors and you can get the same effect as if you were to use the mailed fist, but at far lower cost.

Robbo
Robbo
Reply to  Steve
23 days ago

Yep. Exhibit A: Covid Karens

Arshad Ali
Arshad Ali
Reply to  Ostei Kozelskii
23 days ago

It does matter. Got to keep the factory farm animals hypnotised. What the regime fears — though it will never admit it — is popular insurrection.

Ostei Kozelskii
Member
Reply to  Arshad Ali
23 days ago

I suppose you’re right. The power structure’s hysterical overreaction to the J6 trespassers is strong evidence in your support.

manc
manc
Reply to  Ostei Kozelskii
23 days ago

DC and the media went coo-coo for cocoapuffs over Jan 6 because they were humiliated by the proles. Can’t have that.

Steve
Steve
Reply to  Ostei Kozelskii
23 days ago

Overreaction, yes, hysterical, I don’t think so. More like cold calculation. Those ducks were all in a row before J6.

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  Steve
23 days ago

The two aren’t mutually exclusive. It took me a long time to accept, but the Help and Ho’s of the Ruling Class, and maybe the Ruling Class itself, were terrified over J6, which in fact was partially engineered by the State. I’ve thought for a long time that if the “Right,” for want of a term, ever reciprocates with violence, the Regime will curl into a fetal position and cry immediately. The problem is history is replete with such a counterpunch never being thrown and the ones who could have stopped it easily failing to do so. We are seeing… Read more »

Steve
Steve
Reply to  Jack Dobson
23 days ago

You might be right. I can’t get my brain to wherever it is the DC brains are. They might have been truly terrified, but I don’t know, it could have been acting.

The revelation of the Pelosi documentary and what we now know about all the GI agents provocateur in the crowd puts a big question mark on the whole narrative. To me, anyway.

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  Steve
23 days ago

(Side note: I give Steve a firm upvote, and it turns into a minus! This Dominion biz has got to stop.)

WillS
WillS
Reply to  Alzaebo
23 days ago

It appears to change the total.

Jeffrey Zoar
Jeffrey Zoar
Reply to  Steve
23 days ago

Steve, I don’t think every congress critter was in on the plan. Some of them were just plain terrified.

Ostei Kozelskii
Member
Reply to  Jeffrey Zoar
23 days ago

And terrified for no good reason. You’d think Tiglath-Pileser’s hosts were descending upon DC rather than a load of selfie-taking fatties in goofy costumes. I wonder how they would have responded to a real insurrection–you know, one with actual violence, maybe a few gun shots from the interlopers, and a burning building or two.

LineInTheSand
LineInTheSand
Reply to  Ostei Kozelskii
23 days ago

I think that they still care about managing public opinion because, although conservatives are effectively repressed, the activist left can still obstruct some of their plans. The Gaza protests are a good example.

I expect to see the day when they don’t even have to pretend to care about public opinion at all anymore.

manc
manc
Reply to  LineInTheSand
23 days ago

Public “approval” is important to the regime because a) they’re insecure and b) it confirms their goodness. Look what happens when the public rejects received wisdom, ie Trump over Clinton and Brexit. The regime flips out, and their adherents get the signal to also flip out.

Member
Reply to  Ostei Kozelskii
23 days ago

Because totalitarian regimes (and we are, no doubt, neck deep in one now) are absolutely obsessed with public opinion, for reasons stemming from simple narcissism -to be worshiped as the Dear Leader or part of the New Elite, to validate the rightness of themselves and their policies and actions. They just don’t want to be feared and obeyed. They want to be loved and adored, and if it takes the Secret Police to make their “citizens” love them through repression, that’s also part of the fun.

cg2
cg2
Reply to  Pickle Rick
23 days ago

You must love Big Brother. It is not enough to obey him: you must love him.

KInda like that?

Arshad Ali
Arshad Ali
Reply to  cg2
23 days ago

Kinda like that. All explained in Orwell’s magnum opus. Because obedience by itself can be reluctant, grudging, half-hearted, and ready to turn into disobedience. And this obedience at the point of a gun can be expensive to elicit. But none of this if the helots love their oppressor, their tyrant. They have then internalised obedience and are incapable of ‘thought crime.’ That’s why Orwell’s Oceania has ‘thought police’ — because independent thought is the precursor, the sine qua non, of independent and radical action.

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  cg2
23 days ago

To sing His hosannas, now and forever!
Do ye so as part of the Host.

Chet Rollins
Chet Rollins
Reply to  Captain Willard
23 days ago

Also, blasting the space with nonsense makes it much harder for dissident opinions to spread through the noise.

Arshad Ali
Arshad Ali
Reply to  Chet Rollins
23 days ago

Absolutely. The amount of trivial and distracting ‘news’ in media space is staggering. It’s literally impossible to build a coherent worldview on the basis of such. Plus it develops the inability to concentrate on anything for any length of time — call it ADHD if you wish.

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  Arshad Ali
23 days ago

Oh man. That’s why I gave up on Drudge as an aggregator, or on any ‘popular news’ site. Try making sense of that mess, zigzagging about this way, that way, every which way. It just gives you a headache like putting on “They Live” glasses.

Barney Rubble
Barney Rubble
Reply to  Captain Willard
23 days ago

Agreed. While “serious” media is directed at insiders, low-brow media (Morning Joe, The View, Fox News, Daily Wire) exists to ensure that the masses internalize The Narrative. Not that the elites give a flying farq about public opinion when it comes to making policy (obviously), but managing AINO is easier if the cattle don’t raise a ruckus. The best form of censorship is encouraging self-censorship. It’s a little different with rightwing media. Their mission is to (a) divert dissent down harmless dead-ends that lets normie blow off steam impotently. And (b) exploit normie’s patriotism so he’ll get rah-rah over the… Read more »

Arshad Ali
Arshad Ali
Reply to  Barney Rubble
23 days ago

Very well said indeed. The bible here remains Orwell’s ‘1984.’

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  Arshad Ali
23 days ago

But didn’t you hear? They raised the chocolate ration!

WillS
WillS
Reply to  Arshad Ali
23 days ago

“Brave New World” by Huxley is also relevant and prescient.

Arshad Ali
Arshad Ali
Reply to  WillS
23 days ago

In BNW, the proles actually got something — a soma ration, easy work, casual sex with no consequences, and the ‘feelies.’ And this was available regardless of whether you were an Alpha or an Epsilon. In 1984 life is hard and getting harder, and mindless fanaticism is all that makes life tolerable.

Pozymandias
Reply to  Arshad Ali
23 days ago

It seems like the current plan is to offer everyone a choice of things drawn from both BNW and 1984. From BNW we have the choice of legal super-weed, porn and casual sex (though fewer and fewer people actually look like anyone would want to f00k them. From 1984 we get mindless fanaticism (TDS, Covidism, anti-White pogroms). If some of the globalists get their way with pushing bugs-as-food we will also have reduced or just plain disgusting food choices that will be very 1984-ish.

Tired Citizen
Tired Citizen
Reply to  Captain Willard
23 days ago

Challenging them either makes heads explode or assures a lonely cocktail hour as you’re marked as a dangerous dissident with unapproved opinions.”

No matter the topic, you’ll be called a racist. It’s the universal, ultimate sin.

TempoNick
TempoNick
Reply to  Captain Willard
23 days ago

They think I’m a kook and I have fun with it and keep playing it up just to get their reactions. That’s okay. Just like with Ukraine, I will be proven right again in the end. Interestingly, my cousin’s husband, former Marine (through the ROTC) and I were talking about this stuff. I gave him my line about how we may be under some sort of a military government right now expecting him to groan, but he actually said it wasn’t that outlandish. (Think about two things that happened. 1) Obama being forced to exit the airplane in China through… Read more »

Last edited 23 days ago by TempoNick
Bourbon
Bourbon
Reply to  Captain Willard
23 days ago

The point is not to sway or trick a skeptical public, but to enforce conformity of opinion inside Washington What’s encouraging is that we are finally starting to rectify an existentially horrifying categorical error which we [ostensible patriots] had been making, back circa the three decades of the Rush Limbaugh era. For years upon years upon years, Rush was very fond of talking about how the Democrat Party was sending the marching orders to the media, and how the media was dutifully parroting whatever line it was that the Democrat Party needed to have parroted at any particular point in… Read more »

Neoliberal Feudalism
23 days ago

So-called “democracy” is simply an oligarchy which owns the propaganda apparatus to manage public opinion. As Anglin writes, “in a democracy there is no one to petition for grievances.” The conservatives have always been toothless losers, nipping at the heels of liberals as Robert Lewis Dabney, chief of staff to Stonewall Jackson, famously said. What we are seeing is a transition of globohomo from a soft power model of rule to a hard power model of rule, which is more costly to our elites but necessary given the way information flows on the internet. They can’t keep their fake narratives… Read more »

LineInTheSand
LineInTheSand
Reply to  Neoliberal Feudalism
23 days ago

I believe a fundamental vulnerability of whites is gullibility relative to other races. This is probably a result of evolving in environments where high trust was adaptive. The Herbert quote you mention: “When I am weaker than you, I ask you for freedom because that is according to your principles; when I am stronger than you, I take away your freedom because that is according to my principles.” is a perfect example of the trick that whites fall for over and over. The depth of this trait is shown in that whites never learn to recognize when their principles are… Read more »

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  LineInTheSand
23 days ago

For instance, blacks don’t think they’re short-sighted and impulsive, they don’t notice what is a glaring stereotype to us. In the same way, we don’t think of ourselves as gullible, when it’s plain as day to blacks or pharisees.

Steve
Steve
Reply to  Alzaebo
23 days ago

Very much this. It is terribly difficult to see oneself as others see him.

Good to see I’m not alone in this failing.

pyrrhus
pyrrhus
23 days ago

The thought bubble surrounds DC and adjacent areas so effectively that no one can even notice actual problems or propose anything that might resolve them effectively…Head Start was the idea of a Yale professor, but by 1974 he concluded it didn’t work, and was basically baby sitting..Nevertheless, Head Start continued to grow larger every year since…As counsel for our local Head Start, it became mainly about a food fight, and occasional brawl, between blacks and hispanics for the jobs and food involved…But the appropriation is never cut..

AntiDem
AntiDem
23 days ago

As Robert Dahl pointed out, one necessary condition of functioning democracy is the ability of the people to set the agenda. After all, before we can decide what to do about the important issues of the day, we must first decide what the important issues of the day actually are. Outside of the Acela Corridor, and its attendant Twittersphere, does anyone actually care about Ukraine? Or Gaza? I think I might have gone the entire year of 2006 without ever once wondering what transgenders are up to, and I seemed to get along fine, but someone decided this was one… Read more »

Citizen of a Silly Country
Citizen of a Silly Country
23 days ago

The media was always crooked, but now, it’s not even a factor. Who reads the WaPo or NYT. Who watches regular news? Boomers, I suppose. The media is now like an inhouse newsletter for a company or a college station. The people in the company or school might watch to see who’s up or down, but no one else cares. This is a good sign. The managerial class and the rest of the world are moving apart. You can see it in how the doxxing is no longer effective. Calling someone a racist is now laughed at. The cultures and… Read more »

Steve
Steve
Reply to  Citizen of a Silly Country
23 days ago

Who reads the WaPo or NYT. Who watches regular news? Boomers, I suppose.

Look at the ratings. The correct answer is almost no one outside the capitals. Like you said, it’s become an inhouse newsletter.

Citizen of a Silly Country
Citizen of a Silly Country
Reply to  Steve
23 days ago

You inspired me to check it out. Looks like the WaPo is still losing huge amounts of money and laying off staff. Good to see.

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  Citizen of a Silly Country
23 days ago

Yes, but the WaPo is owned by the richest man in the world, and I doubt that it was purchased by him to make money. So a better way to judge whether it “is good for us” might be in loss of readership/influence, rather than just revenue.

Last edited 23 days ago by Compsci
RealityRules
RealityRules
Reply to  Citizen of a Silly Country
23 days ago

Ironically, in Regime-speak, “the news”, is also for the bugwomen to use to confirm their, “confirmation bias”, and to do their, “fact-checking.” That is in fact how they use it. It is an inner hive signaling mechanism so they can understand the priority of the day. It also signals the outer-hive and allows them to confirm and re-affirm the moral code and the, “facts”, that support it. Of course, that outer hive is college educated but totally incapable of seeing that there are no facts in those reports – only opinion and often emotionally and cognitively manipulative statements. It is… Read more »

Ostei Kozelskii
Member
23 days ago

One congressman after another swears allegiance to a foreign power, while hooting about China and Russia influencing our elections.”

That’s the money quote, right there. You just can’t make a truer observation about AINO’s rulers than that.

LineInTheSand
LineInTheSand
Reply to  Ostei Kozelskii
23 days ago

It’s examples like the one you cite that caused me to conclude, sadly, that the ability to think independently is quite rare, even among smart people. Our leaders are openly “Israel first” while decrying the relatively minor influences that Russia or China may have. They demand that Israel remain an ethnostate while anathematizing any white gathering. The fact that most people, even very smart ones, don’t even perceive the inconsistency is still striking to me. My favorite example is, during the height of the c0vi1d hysteria, when most liberals said that people who wouldn’t wear masks should have their lives… Read more »

Ostei Kozelskii
Member
Reply to  LineInTheSand
23 days ago

It’s entirely possible that Leftists fully realize their hypocrisies and inconsistencies, by simply don’t give a dam’ because the only thing that matters to them is obtaining absolute power. And if forcing Leftist narratives in the face of shrieking illogic leads to gaining greater power, they’ll happily do it.

Those mutants are wired differently from normal people.

stranger in a strange land
stranger in a strange land
Reply to  Ostei Kozelskii
23 days ago

…spiteful mutants at that

Mow Noname
Mow Noname
23 days ago

“…people inside them lack the perspective and self-awareness to see themselves as being in a cult. No one ever says “I decided to join a cult” because no one in a cult thinks they are in a cult.” Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it. At the end of 2020 (after the Biden coup and in the hight of my blue-stage Covidian tyranny) I joined a cult. In blatant violation of recommended mandatory guidelines, members gathered in large groups, refused to wear ceremonial face coverings and took communion on the tongue. Most adult, male, members carried firearms and all of… Read more »

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  Mow Noname
23 days ago

“Cult” is like “terrorism”: the definition is situational. All of us who dissent from the official narrative and directives are either in a cult or on the right side of history. Which depends on who is holding the dictionary.

Jeffrey Zoar
Jeffrey Zoar
Reply to  Jack Dobson
23 days ago

My seminary educated career minister uncle told me the only difference between a religion and a cult is the number of members

Ostei Kozelskii
Member
Reply to  Jeffrey Zoar
23 days ago

Could be. So, which has larger numbers? AINO’s power structure or the dissident sphere? Of course, I suppose both could be cults, if one goes strictly by the numbers.

Marko
Marko
23 days ago

I am going to white pill here. It’s not all bad. “The Cult” hates Trump, but there are a lot of R-congresspeople (including my huge cuck of a congressman) lining up with him and going to the podium for him. Then there’s people like JD Vance, Thomas Massie, and Matt Gaetz, who appear to have a clue. And they are the symptom of a larger, underground movement of New Right people. I know these are just a handful of congressmen, but it’s a start, and it shows that not all of Washington is stuffed affirmation-seeking retards. But I suppose we… Read more »

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  Marko
23 days ago

It is doubtful that the system is salvageable by any means, let alone politically, but I do find Gaetz fascinating. The police state apparatus pulled out all stops to destroy him and force him out of Congress and failed. Maybe he struck a deal–it wouldn’t surprise me, but if not that means something. What, I don’t know, but it is a green shoot.

Marko
Marko
Reply to  Jack Dobson
23 days ago

Yeah who knows what happened. I imagine anyone who is identified as principled in some way gets a talking-to by strange men in suits.

I like to think that there is a counter-elite forming up which has support by some rich men or big influencers, enough that Gaetz can’t be squashed like a bug and Massie can openly question the FBI. Or there are more people in Washington that have a conscience than we think. Who knows.

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
23 days ago

The emergence of “conspiracy theory” to describe anything that runs counter to the official narrative is the tell. Some claim the Soviet Union was unable to survive the rudimentary internet and the information that became widely available to some of its people despite years of broadcast jamming. I don’t know whether that’s really true, but the concept certainly is. Westerners in general and Americans in particular are the most propagandized people on earth precisely because there are so many outlets available to provide official information labeled as “news” or “entertainment” or whatever. Now that outside outlets provide actual information or… Read more »

WillS
WillS
Reply to  Jack Dobson
23 days ago

I think the systemic change following an economic collapse would be some flavor of tyranny, martial law maybe. It may be the whole point of economic collapse.

Tars Tarkas
Member
23 days ago

The media does a pretty good job of setting the agenda. You’ll see a certain phrase show up in the media and then all of the sudden everyone is using that same phrase. “Keeve” is a great example of this. One day the capital of Ukraine was known as Kiev. But then the message got, the capital of Ukraine is now pronounced “Keeve” and everyone got the message inside of a day. They not only decide what the terminology will be, but what is talked about and what is ignored. This trickles down as well. It’s not just the big… Read more »

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  Tars Tarkas
23 days ago

It was Kiev when it was Russian.
It’s now Keeve because it’s Ukrainian!
And will be called Crater once Zelenskyy is safely installed in Miami.

Last edited 23 days ago by Alzaebo
Hemid
Hemid
Reply to  Alzaebo
23 days ago

The Keeve Conformity is illustrative, but the real brainwashing propaganda there was the idea that the Ukrainian pronunciation of Kiev was distinct from the Russian. Except in heavily accented marginal cases, the difference was inaudible. Now it exists—and it always has. We knew there was no difference. Now we don’t know that anymore.

rasqball
rasqball
Reply to  Hemid
22 days ago

“Maybe I want to see the wheatfields…over Kiev and down to the sea…”
Joe Strummer/Clash “The Call Up” – Sandinista, 1981

Jeffrey Zoar
Jeffrey Zoar
Reply to  Tars Tarkas
23 days ago

It’s so effective because all clouds and wannabe clouds risk looking like dirts if they don’t embrace the new message, which is their greatest fear.

Ostei Kozelskii
Member
Reply to  Tars Tarkas
23 days ago

That’s a great example. But it’s not just the pronunciation, it’s also the spelling. I got my doctorate in Rooskii history in 2005 and all of us Russian history slobs, from the God-like panjandrum in the Harvard History Department to the lowliest first-semester grad student at Yazoo A&M spelled Kiev, well, Kiev. But, oh no. Turns out we were all oh so wrong. Proper spelling all this time was really Kyiv.

Bloody idiots–the influencers and the influencees.

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  Ostei Kozelskii
23 days ago

My general perception in life is that small minds dwell over insignificant distinctions. So in your example, only a “midwit” would quibble about spelling Kiev, as Keev, or Kyiv—when at point we all agree—and understand—we are discussing the same thing, the capital of Ukraine. Why is this done? Because the low level intellect has nothing of importance to relate on the topic at hand and it makes him think he’s “smarter” than you with such a comment. I usually let one of these quibbles by in polite discussion, but then react quite savagely upon the next one. This usually ends… Read more »

Wiffle
Wiffle
Reply to  Compsci
22 days ago

A fair policy to be sure, in letting one silly comment slip out.

Ponsonby
Member
Reply to  Tars Tarkas
23 days ago

Language is important. That’s why I always say and write “The Ukraine” which was also universally used before this latest great derangement. My understanding is that parallels the Russian term, in English “The Borderlands”. But then I might have been the only person cheering Putin on as he gave Tucker Carlson that backgrounder covering 800+ years of history. Just because America is a silly country doesn’t mean that real nations don’t have old but vital origin stories.

Ostei Kozelskii
Member
Reply to  Ponsonby
22 days ago

Right. I do the same. And one reason is because “The Border” is a name for a territory, not a true nation. And that accurately describes The Ukraine for the vast majority of its history.

Pozymandias
Reply to  Tars Tarkas
23 days ago

The Keeve nonsense actually offers an insight into how the regime thinks. They clearly believe in using Pavlovian “patterning” to control people. The idea is to create a recognizable trigger which is supposed to give the target person a signal to shut off his brain and accept whatever garbage follows. This process was famously illustrated in the movie The Manchurian Candidate. In the film the trigger was a sequence of playing cards so it can really be almost anything. Of course, people like me heard “Keeeeeve” and were instantly antagonistic to whatever narrative followed.

Ostei Kozelskii
Member
Reply to  Pozymandias
22 days ago

Why don’t you play a little solitaire…

Vinnyvette
Vinnyvette
23 days ago

This is exactly why mission destroy Trump was initiated before he even won.
He dared speak to the concerns of the dirt ppl, which is diametrically opposed to the washington elites program.
Doesn’t matter if Trump meant what he said, or if he intended to deliver. He dared say it.
in doing so he accomplished something more important than his proposed policy initiatives.
He forced the ruling class, the media and the alphabet agencies to drop all pretense and fully expose themselves and the game.

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  Vinnyvette
23 days ago

He forced the ruling class, the media and the alphabet agencies to drop all pretense and fully expose themselves and the game.

It was the most important thing Trump did, or any president ever did, and it was totally inadvertent.

Vinnyvette
Vinnyvette
Reply to  Jack Dobson
23 days ago

I didnt say Trump planned it did I? I stated the result. So you agree, but still grasping at straws to discredit him.
Kinda pathetic that TDS disease really…

Tars Tarkas
Member
23 days ago

The “deep state” is in full control of DC, as it was designed. Elected politicians are few in number (537 out of like 2 million plus) and come and go, while bureaucrats, agents, aides and lobbyists and the like spend entire careers in any one of the numerous agencies and bureaus of the federal government and the NGOs and lobbying groups. They are designed to not change. Things not changing is “stability” and “predictability.” I would think the people just below the appointed people in the bureaucracies are the real people in charge. The new president can appoint whoever he… Read more »

right2remainviolent
right2remainviolent
23 days ago

Inertia and the manufacturing of ‘consent’ for lack of a better term.

Most normies never question the nature of their reality; especially if there’s 24/7, all encompassing messaging bombarding them. It’s the repetition method of brainwashing to constantly hyper focus on the pre-chosen path.

So, offer a thesis and an anti-thesis that have the same outcome and you have the straight line of policy from the end of the cold war.

Left wing pressure for hate speech laws peter out, so we’ll use right wing pressure for hate speech laws. Drumroll please; now the toehold is secure for antisemitism laws…

Sgt Pedantry
Sgt Pedantry
23 days ago

Any thoughts on Sunak calling for elections? I like the Zero Seats/Zero GOP idea, but I still want to see Trump win bigly, for the yucks and as a mindless Fuck You.

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
23 days ago

Much agree. The parallel culture and economy of the ruling class are speaking to themselves. The speech outside that culture is as incomprehensible to them as speaking Swahili to an English bulldog.

Said speech is religious speech. Like Islam, the culture is racially diverse. Like Islam, largely illiterate, conducting themselves by rote.

The axioms, mores, and values contained in the religious speech that the ruling class and their media clergy use make no sense to us barbarians. Accuracy is important to a carpenter, but not to a community organizer.

Last edited 23 days ago by Alzaebo
rasqball
rasqball
Reply to  Alzaebo
22 days ago

Accuracy is important to a carpenter, but not to a community organizer.

Bravo!

Jeffrey Zoar
Jeffrey Zoar
23 days ago

In current year AINO I continue to be struck by how easily and efficiently, in ordinary conversation, on any of a very broad array of topics, it has become so automatic and unavoidable for anyone and everyone to signal their status with respect to the regime. Ingroup or outgroup, cloud or dirt, boomercon or DR, wokerati or sane person, wannabe cloud or ignoramus (some overlap there). It’s as if the conversational template has been laid down for us and all we have to do is check the boxes to show our allegiance. And there’s no avoiding it. Even by refusing… Read more »

James Proverbs
James Proverbs
Reply to  Jeffrey Zoar
23 days ago

This was the thought process to become a registered democrat. I figured “no affiliation” was an even bigger red flag.
I make the assumption, yeah yeah assume, that the crappy AI they devise will use the registered democrat as a first order to identify the “safe” people.

Epaminondas
Member
23 days ago

This is a fine explanation of the psychology of the Managerial State: it really is a cult. Most cults do not last, nor do they end well. Arguing with a madman who is waving a pistol around is never a good idea. So don’t do it.

Last edited 23 days ago by Epaminondas
3 Pipe Problem
3 Pipe Problem
Reply to  Epaminondas
23 days ago

…And, we know the final stage of cults: the racket. This is the end, my friend.

Jeffrey Zoar
Jeffrey Zoar
Reply to  3 Pipe Problem
23 days ago

I thought the final stage was Hale Bopp, or drinking the kool aid

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  Jeffrey Zoar
23 days ago

True, which is most unfortunate because in lieu of Kool-Aid, this one has its finger on the button/buttons.

Paintersforms
Paintersforms
Reply to  Jeffrey Zoar
23 days ago

Or taking the vaxx.

mikebravo
mikebravo
23 days ago

Aye. Dissent is tantamount to an attack on The Dear Leader.
If The Dear Leader can be either from a protected group or deified then that will be heresy/hate crime.
No insider can commit that offense and survive.

Whitney
Member
23 days ago

I think most of the world looks at the Western elites, with the US as its head, and view all as similar to orderlies in insane asylum dealing with a very large, strong lunatic who can just pop off at any time. You don’t know what they’re going to do, they’re really crazy and they’re super strong and you need a bunch of orderlies to take this guy down! But you know without doubt that you might be bruised and battered but you’re going to win because you have to.

Arshad Ali
Arshad Ali
23 days ago

Sounds like Orwell’s Oceania, where the most brainwashed were members of the Inner Party.

Evil Sandmich
Evil Sandmich
23 days ago

Take for example this post at the National Interest.

Wow, that’s completely unglued.
It is interesting from a Team B point of view though in that he voices buyers remorse in working to dump Trump while also taking a swipe at environmentalists.

Tars Tarkas
Member
Reply to  Evil Sandmich
23 days ago

Oy Vey! Anuddah axis of evil, only this time it’s Russia, China, and Iran. 2 are nuclear powers with nuclear triads and the other could be become a nuclear power fairly quickly.

It’s authored by RIchard Levine. These people never give up. They just pretend their last failure never happened and that once again the world is facing Adolph Hitler reincarnated. If we don’t “ACT” now, soon we will be speaking German, Chinese, Russian, Arabic, Persian. Of course, they never, ever worry that we’ll be speaking Spanish as millions of Spanish speaking 3rd worlders cross the Southern border.

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  Tars Tarkas
23 days ago

Long as Hebrew is spoken in an ever-expanding section of the Middle East, all is well with these types.

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  Tars Tarkas
23 days ago

The year 2085: “At least we’re not speaking English!”

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  Evil Sandmich
23 days ago

Holy schmidt. Right out the gate.
I want the movie version where Levine’s head swivels around in a 360 and he starts spewing green pea soup.

And how precious! He’s rehabilitating Trump. A NeverTrump diehard couldn’t possibly want more dead white MAGAs, could he?

Last edited 23 days ago by Alzaebo
Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  Alzaebo
23 days ago

The only part of the axis that matters to him is Iran. If Russia and China make nice with a certain Zionist entity, Mr. Levine will be waving their fighter jets into D.C.

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  Jack Dobson
23 days ago

Heh! In their last few minutes of life, commuters on the Beltway will be wondering, “Hey, who put up the big sign that says ‘Welcome to Tehran’?”

Last edited 23 days ago by Alzaebo
Tars Tarkas
Member
Reply to  Jack Dobson
23 days ago

But both Russia and China have decent relations with that certain entity. For crying out loud Putin has been moaning about Nazis for 2 plus years (although Nazi has a different meaning in Russia) and claimed in the Tucker interview that he called Zelensky and asked him why he’s supporting Nazis even as a Jew. Something about his father being a good anti-Nazi. Both have not claimed Iran to be enemy number 1 in the Middle East and have partnered with Iran, but both have normal relationships with Israel. Hamas has been caught with a lot of made in China… Read more »

Jeffrey Zoar
Jeffrey Zoar
Reply to  Tars Tarkas
23 days ago

It says something that this huge criminal class can continue to exist and do business in the surveillance state that is China

Ponsonby
Member
Reply to  Evil Sandmich
23 days ago

Not surprising that post was over the top, as it’s author might be occasionally confused with the ludicrous Admiral in drag of the same ‘dead name’ over at HHS. Wait….could it be possible!?!

Götterdamn-it-all
Götterdamn-it-all
23 days ago

Great concept: a cult! Here’s an article that explains why this “managerial state” has a cult vibe: https://www.unz.com/article/which-way-white-man/

Xman
Xman
23 days ago

“The point is not to sway or trick a skeptical public, but to enforce conformity of opinion inside Washington.”

The issue on which there is the most conformity in Washington is Israel.

And coincidentally…the media is almost entirely Jewish-controlled.

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  Xman
23 days ago

There are lots of gates in a large cattle yard.
Lots of gates, and fence-rails.

But eventually, they all funnel down to the only one that matters…
the slaughter chute.

Yman
Yman
23 days ago

If all white people are either gullible retarded or voluntary slave for inferiority itself
what’s the point, let the white people genetically become inferior as us so whole world fills with undesirable people

good side is despite being a white hating scumbag that Jew are absorbed too many white genes
without white Shabbos goy, Jew won’t survive coming anti-white rage
Problem of Jews is they are too white because they are too go nuts about white girl

Jeffrey Zoar
Jeffrey Zoar
Reply to  Yman
23 days ago

Men of all races go nuts for da white women. Can’t blame the small hats for that

trackback
22 days ago

[…] ZMan is very dyspeptic today. […]

Gary Hartman
23 days ago

Excellent !

cg2
cg2
Reply to  cg2
23 days ago

just to clarify this came to mind reading the National Interest post.

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  cg2
23 days ago

Blonde guys in the snow, singing “the du, du, du, the da, da, da…”
That’s Russian, right?

p.s. youtube also gave me this:
“Jews In Space”
https://youtu.be/sz7JGCj4Q5k?si=vPlqft50HC48bld3

Last edited 23 days ago by Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  Alzaebo
23 days ago

Dammit!! Talk about a cult!
Dafuq? Now Dr. Who is some black bloke with a cute blonde sidekick?

Eff me. Eff me blind. The Cult has even murdered Dr. Who and put a changeling in his place.

Last edited 23 days ago by Alzaebo
Paintersforms
Paintersforms
Reply to  Alzaebo
23 days ago

That’s what he gets for trying to genocide the Daleks.