After the sinking of the Lusitania, Sen. Robert La Follette claimed that the ship had actually been carrying large amounts of ammunition for the UK govt. The US & UK govts claimed this was false-even though both knew it wasn’t-& their respective medias dutifully repeated the lie.
A campaign (ultimately unsuccessful) was launched to remove La Follette from the Senate, & a big part of their charges was that he’d been spreading what would in today’s Orwellian lingo be called #misinformation.
Just a few years after the war ended, a New York customs official claimed the ship had in fact been carrying a large amount of ammo. Divers on the wreck in 2008 proved the customs official & La Follette were correct, & that the US & UK govts & press had knowingly lied at the time
Think about that: The US & UK govts & media lied about the Lusitania (& not just in regard to the ammunition, btw) & the 1 guy in Congress who told the truth about it was nearly impeached for supposedly spreading “#misinformation.”
Do you really think this willingness of govt & media to lie during wartime, & to demonize & try to silence & destroy those who tell the truth, has magically stopped sometime in the last 100 yrs???
Or do you think it’s more likely that their willingness to lie & to try to silence & destroy those who speak the truth (& their skill & sophistication at doing both) has massively INCREASED over the last 107 years???
PS - The large amount of ammunition stashed in the Lusitania's cargo holds DRASTICALLY increased the number of passenger casualties, because of 1) all the secondary explosions of the ammo touching off & 2) it caused the ship to sink a lot faster than it otherwise would've.
BTW, I'm currently up to my eyeballs (& have been for a while) working hard on an epic upcoming #DangerousHistoryPodcast mini-series on World War I propaganda in the US. Stay tuned!
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
