Thread by @17cShyteposter

Once you understand how powerful propaganda is, it becomes immensely tempting to use it yourself

One of the reasons we've built an anti-reality machine is that journalism selects for people who are able to mindkill themselves to what they're doing

The flip side of this is that it's impossible (and idiotic to expect) you can transmit the full understanding of what leads to a good, virtuous, and productive society to every member of it

So some definition of "propaganda" is absolutely vital to keeping society functional

This means that "propaganda" itself isn't an evil function, it's a neutral one. Its virtue depends on the truth it's derived from

This might take the form of tradition, religion, Party doctrine, journalism, etc

Most if not all other forms of "propaganda" will admit that they're doctrine. They believe—rightly—there's nothing *wrong* with doctrine. It's necessary

Journalism is the unique outlier. It requires people built to lie to themselves about the very nature of what they're doing

The thing that World War SSC vs NYT has revealed nakedly bare is that journalists consider themselves *anti*-doctrinists. They purely believe that they have no special motives, malice, or ideological drive

They consider themselves pure truth-seekers. From three different pieces:

So the doctrine of the journalist isn't fixed: it's whatever we've decided is "truth," today. There is *one* comparison to the propaganda of modern journalists, but it's so on the nose that it's been made embarrassing to say

https://twitter.com/17cShyteposter/status/1316232473349517320

Here's the kicker: journalism believes itself the product of "objective, disinterested truth," but if you forced every single NYT writer to read this study Clockwork Orange-style, *not a single one* would dare to write a piece exploring it "objectively"

archive.is/rjs7R

The response, instead, would be a feverish effort to dox, expose, and destroy the author for writing truth

All in the name of "objectivity"

Our cultural guardians—science-trusters, all of them!—cloak themselves in our highest "virtue," while viciously opposing it at every turn.