Granting for the sake of argument that there will be a future, with the Doomsday Clock at 89 seconds to midnight, Donald Trump in the White House and the Cabinet From Hell being confirmed right and left by people who do know better but are terrified to vote their conscience, future social scientists will look back at this time and conclude one thing: We lost the war on truth — hopefully for only a time and then we got a grip on things and regrouped. Because if we don’t regroup and win the war on truth, then we are truly lost as a culture.
The seminal work on disinformation in a totalitarian society is George Orwell’s 1984. Double Think, Double Speak, Memory Hole, all the concepts that come along with a culture that is being systematically railroaded away from critical thought and into mindless mass worship of an unworthy autocrat, comes from this novel written in 1948.
The Cold War was on in the years following WWII. 1984 was set in a world of perpetual war. “Oceania is at war with Eastasia. Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia.” Whether it was true or not, or whether the scenes of war were AI is immaterial. That the people believed that it was true was all that mattered.
And that brings us up to today. Donald Trump is a master of propaganda. And with the help of Elon Musk he is systematically dismantling our government — while we’re looking elsewhere. Take 13 minutes and watch this. It is a tutorial which will provide you with everything that you need to know.
— Roman Godzich (@Romang) February 6, 2025
It really is this simple. This is why Fox News has been so successful. Fox News offers simplistic, emotionally charged talking points and people believe them. That is the tragedy here. This is way beyond a culture war, this is a bloodless coup. So far. There very well may be bloodletting. I personally am waiting for Trump to stage a Reichstag Fire equivalent. I pray that I’m wrong but so far I haven’t been, in terms of “there is no low they won’t go.”
ABC News/Mickey Mouse was wrong to settle the defamation lawsuit with Trump for $14 million (plus a million in legal fees.) It was an easily winnable case. Now there’s talk of CBS News/Paramount settling with Trump as well, because they don’t want to see the Paramount/Skydance merger be held up.
It’s bribery, plain and simple. Trump is lying through his teeth about 60 Minutes doing “election interference.” And it’s a moot point anyhow. Harris lost. Let sleeping dogs lie, except that he can’t. This will be a horrifically bad move if CBS folds on this, but with billionaire corporate interests calling the shots and money being the level of consideration, not truth, not democracy, it’s very probable that could happen. And woe is us.
The transcript validates the network’s argument that it was engaging in standard journalistic practice by using a more “succinct” segment of Harris’ response to the Israel question than the one that was featured in a preview on Face the Nation the day before. And it shows that Trump has not only absurdly exaggerated what happened (as is his wont); he has flagrantly misrepresented the nature of the editing and continues to do so.
“CBS and 60 Minutes defrauded the public by doing something which has never, to this extent, been seen before,” Trump averred on X today. “They 100% removed Kamala’s horrible election changing answers to questions, and replaced them with completely different, and far better, answers, taken from another part of the interview. This was Election changing ‘stuff,’ Election Interference and, quite simply, Election Fraud at a level never seen before. CBS should lose its license, and the cheaters at 60 Minutes should all be thrown out, and this disreputable ‘NEWS’ show should be immediately terminated….This will go down as the biggest Broadcasting SCANDAL in History!!!”
The idea that making Harris seem a bit more cogent (or less “CRAZY” and “DUMB,” as Trump put it in October) could have been “election changing” was always silly, all the more so in light of Trump’s victory, which was by no means close in the Electoral College. But Trump is simply lying when he says 60 Minutes “replaced” Harris’ answer with a “completely different” answer “taken from another part of the interview.”
We need to get as good of a media response mechanism and a cogent messaging system as Trump has. We have the distinct advantage of telling the truth and the truth does have a power of its own — but not when it’s buried under a mountain of lies. And that’s where we are now. Our light is hidden under a bushel.
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I’m sorry I don’t have hope to offer for those who only believe in the material universe, and think all experiences that lie outside the so called natural laws, is simply a human creation. Then those with the most guns and gold clearly have nothing that can stop them, and that is where we are. Trump has the US military, the nukes, and the richest man on earth in his camp, along with the tatters of our government. What’s left? Well…my answer is hope lies in the largest field of experience…the unknown. For those of us who believe in realities beyond what we presently know, by any names you care to use or invent, then truth is usually associated with the ‘divine’ no matter the culture’s paradigm. Ours is one mostly of Abrahamic religions, Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. Others, like Hinduism offer a different paradigm, but the goal still remained liberation from the darkness of rebirth through enlightenment. Lies do not liberate. Truth is freedom. Truth is the divine path. One of the oldest known religions claims at death you must cross the Chivat bridge which appears unique to each soul, depending on the life you lived. One path led to the house of lies. The other led to the house of songs. Life is decisions. Honoring Truth is a decision. Loyalty is a decision. Love is a decision. Sacrifice is a decision. Hate is a decision. Intolerance is a decision. To lie is a decision. To kill is a decision. Evil is a decision. Hope is a decision. I repeat…HOPE IS A DECISION! I’ve decided to go to the house of songs…Dylan said in a song… I’ll know my song well before I start singing. On my way to 72…I’ve got a pretty good idea of the tune. Decide to sing a song of freedom from the darkness. Someday we may find we’ve been in a chorus across the centuries all this time, and that we’ve never been alone. It was just another lie.
I like this video a lot, because it helps me see through the haze of BS that they are trying overwhelm us with.