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Caitlin Johnstone ⏳ Profile picture
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19 Dec, 15 tweets, 5 min read
The Washington Post Can't Stop Babbling About Russians 'Hacking Our Minds'

"The dawn of political insight comes when you realize that propaganda is not just something that is done by other nations to other people."
caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/the-washingt…
The Washington Post has published another article warning its readers that the Russians are "hacking our minds", this one authored by CNN's Fareed Zakaria.
The article about "the Russian model" of propaganda where "people get convinced when they hear the same message many times from a variety of sources, no matter how biased."

Which is funny, since WaPo has been repeating this same ridiculous message:
Just two months ago the Washington Post editorial board published an article which opens with the line "Russia and other adversaries may not need to hack the election if they can hack something else: our minds."
Zakaria's piece builds on this already established theme by parroting the still completely evidence-free claim that Russia was responsible for the far-reaching cyber intrusion into the IT company SolarWinds.
caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/secret-invis…
(SolarWinds, whose cybersecurity we recently learned was left so unprotected that its update server's password was literally “solarwinds123”. )
businessinsider.com.au/solarwinds-war…
WaPo keeps hammering this narrative about powerful Russian mind-hackers as though Russia is the only nation with an existing propaganda campaign on the world stage and not one of the weaker ones doing so.
The US itself openly uses propaganda on foreigners with programs like Radio Free Europe, Radio Free Asia and Voice of America, which actually serve the more important function of presenting the illusion that those are the only form of US propaganda.
archive.is/BjIl6
In reality the plutocratic class which owns the mass media works closely with the US government and sets up its institutions to only elevate voices which advance narratives that are favorable to the status quo those plutocrats have built their kingdoms on.
caityjohnstone.medium.com/former-msnbc-r…
WaPo itself is owned by the richest man in the world who is also a CIA contractor and sits on a Pentagon advisory board.
huffpost.com/entry/why-the-…
The unofficial propaganda operations of the oligarchic empire give it a massive edge in international narrative control that dwarfs both official US propaganda programs and anything the Russian government could ever come up with.
consortiumnews.com/2020/07/01/why…
Among some very stiff competition, one of the dumbest recurring themes in western imperialist media is the idea that world affairs, entire electoral and governmental systems, and even our very minds, are being controlled by a nation with the same GDP as South Korea.
Russia does not have an especially strong sway over the world stage, it just happens to be one of the few remaining power structures which have resisted absorption into the US-centralized empire and is being targeted with a propaganda campaign aimed at changing that.
Russia is not hacking your mind. If anyone is hacking your mind, it's the vast globe-spanning power structure loosely centralized around the United States which has been aggressively propagandizing you into supporting the continuation of status quo politics since you were born.
The dawn of political insight comes when you realize that propaganda is not just something that is done by other nations to other people. It is done by your own rulers, in your own nation, and it is being done to you.

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More from @caitoz

Caitlin Johnstone ⏳ Profile picture
21 Dec
Human behavior only changes when there's an expansion of consciousness, individually or collectively. Substance abuse doesn't end until you turn and face the inner demons compelling it. A society doesn't reject racism until it collectively becomes aware of how damaging it is.
For this reason, the ultimate fight is to spread awareness of what's really going on. It's not winning elections or getting what we want that will lead to lasting change, it's an expansion of understanding of what's really happening in ourselves, our society, and our world.
This is why so much of the battle is happening on the front of propaganda, censorship, and press freedoms. The more unconscious aspects of our world want to keep things secret, distorted, and hidden in the shadows, while those who want change are fighting to turn the lights on.
Read 4 tweets
Caitlin Johnstone ⏳ Profile picture
20 Dec
Americans keep expecting a system that's not built to serve their interests to serve their interests.
- Progressives look to congress for economic justice.
- Trumpers think the judicial system will overturn the election.
- Libs thought Mueller would arrest the entire Trump camp.
What these all have in common is a belief that the system can be used to radically change the system, and it just can't. The system is built by the powerful to maintain power structures which serve the powerful. That's it. It's not going to suddenly start serving your interests.
This is why the main US factions keep being proven wrong about their predictions of apocalyptic revelations which will take out the other party: they're taking it as a given that there's some part of the system which works in opposition to the other parts on behalf of justice.
Read 10 tweets
Caitlin Johnstone ⏳ Profile picture
19 Dec
The US has institutionalized poverty because if wealth were more evenly distributed in the most powerful nation on earth there'd be no ruling class to ensure the domination of the globe-spanning empire. Plutocrats wouldn't be able to buy the system; the people would control it.
This is the real wall US progressives keep crashing into when fighting for economic justice. Not a lack of votes, not a lack of seats in congress, not "it's just not realistic right now", but a system that is deliberately rigged to keep the general public poor and powerless.
You can't work within the system to obtain economic justice because the system is explicitly designed to maintain economic injustice. You will keep crashing into that same exact wall, over and over and over again, no matter how hard you try.
Read 12 tweets
Caitlin Johnstone ⏳ Profile picture
18 Dec
Secret, Invisible Evidence Of Russian Hacking Is Not Actually Evidence

"We can't share the evidence with you because the evidence is classified. It's secret evidence. The evidence is invisible."
caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/secret-invis…
The Communist Party of China has been covertly sending arms to extremist Antifa militants in the United States in preparation for the civil war which is expected to take place after Joe Biden declares himself President for Life and institutes a Marxist dictatorship.
Unfortunately I cannot provide evidence for this shocking revelation as doing so would compromise my sources and methods, but trust me it's definitely true and must be acted upon immediately. I recommend President Trump declare martial law without a moment's hesitation.
Read 23 tweets
Caitlin Johnstone ⏳ Profile picture
16 Dec
The Revolutionary Struggle Is A Fight Between Movement And Inertia

"Most of the energy going into this debate has been focused on personalities; on AOC, on Dore and on his critics. But really this is just the latest manifestation of a perennial dynamic."
caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/the-revoluti…
There's a feud on the American political left right now which (as usual) breaks down more or less along the lines of center-left "Bernie in the primary, Clinton/Biden in the general" progressives angrily opposing a push towards meaningful change from those further to the left.
It all started when comedian and lefty commentator @jimmy_dore made a video arguing that House progressives should refuse to re-elect Nancy Pelosi as House Speaker unless she puts Medicare for All to a floor vote.
Read 15 tweets
Caitlin Johnstone ⏳ Profile picture
15 Dec
The revolutionary struggle is ultimately always a battle of movement vs inertia. One side says "We need to move!" and the other side makes clever-sounding arguments for why not moving is actually the better strategy right now. In such debates, the movement side is always correct.
We're stuck. We're stuck in power-serving holding patterns that our driving us toward death and dystopia.

When something is stuck, you try to create movement. You wiggle it around to try and un-stick it. You don't fuss too much about which movements are "right", you just move.
That's all we're really trying to do here. We're trying to get things moving against a globe-spanning empire that is working to keep things inert. We're wiggling the stuck object back and forth, this way and that, trying to free it up from the inertia it's stuck in.
Read 8 tweets

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