Mountains of information, disinformation and breaking away

With the terrorist attacks in Paris, Brussels and now in Nice we can find lots of information and disinformation on the net.

Mark Evans, Loren Feldman, Cynthia Brumfield, Rachel Sklar

I must remark that in the blogging world there are lots of people who try to break down or crush all that is said in the media and want their readers to believe it is all fake. I noticed this with the lies about the Brussels Airport (where I also work and could see the real damage), of which bloggers said the published photo’s were fake or from other places, etc.

With certain bloggers I chatted and became convinced they intentionally wrote such lies, whilst others I became convinced they were not so good in their head. The last category hopefully would be recognised soon by their readers, but for the first category it is much more difficult for the readers to unmask their acts of false information giving.

Since the time of Pericles, defenders of human freedom have promoted the virtues of open debate within society, and for the full freedom of citizens to investigate their government and world. Whether in a household, a classroom, or a nation, a free flow of critically examined and openly discussed ideas gives us our best chance for intellectual growth and personal achievement. {Our Classified World}

When I was a teacher I demanded from my pupils that they thought for themselves and analysed everything which came in front of their eyes. They never had to take something as the full truth nor undiscussable or unmentionable.

Atiaf Alwazir, Yemeni activist and researcher speaking during session 1: “Hopes and Fears” of The London Conference on Cyberspace.1 November 2011

Everything should be checked … the problem is we can not check everything personally, so we hope we can have trustworthy sources. By time we can come to know who is trying to tell the truth and who does sincere research to tell the truth, opposite those who just tell some fantasies or bring irresponsible post. Biggest problem is when we allow ourselves to become dependent on the news or mass media. In industrialized and information-based societies, the danger exists that  individuals tend to develop a dependency on the media to satisfy a variety of their needs, which can range from a need for information on a political candidate’s policy positions (to help make a voting decision) to a need for relaxation and entertainment, but also to be led in their decision making or news gathering so that they always can blame somebody else for the wrong information or when something went wrong. By allowing the media to direct them they put away their own responsibility.

When we look at the media and how certain states made it possible by the media to control their people, we see that the greater the number of social functions performed for an audience by a medium (e.g., informing the electorate, providing entertainment), the greater the audience’s dependency on that medium, and how easier they can be placed in line with the leaders thinking or wants. But we also notice the greater the instability of a society (e.g., in situations of social change and conflict), the greater the audience’s dependency on the media and, therefore, the greater the potential effects of the media on the audience. In that instance propaganda of the state is a very big weapon and ideal tool for control.

We do find countries which try to play with the “war within” being convinced that by silencing those who dare to speak, they shall win. also when there are factories or big commercial institutions which seem to loose grip on their customers they do not mind to secure their brand by providing enough funding for the leader in favour.

Media freedom is generally held to be necessary for democratic societies end as soon as leaders notice they start loosing control, they start limiting the freedom of the media (a beautiful example is Turkey with Erdogan, the 105th Caliph, his reactions).

Often we see that when certain who should keep law and order have done something wrong and others like to criticise it, they are being silenced. Even in a state which always shouts loud it is the land of freedom police arrest people because they tweeted on wrote negative things about the police force in their state. Arresting people for speech is something the Americans should be very careful about. They also should think twice before continuing supporting the billionaire who is able to bring the land in chaos and ruins and who is not afraid to say he would start a world war with what happens now in Europe.

The danger exist that leaders of a state want to silence those who have a voice or want to dissent, to notice things, to point out facts, to express an opinion.

Media are an outlet for public discussion and opinion and generally fulfil the functions of seeking truth, educating the public, and serving as a watchdog over government.

A blogger who claims to be a “Truth Connoisseur” and having “an inquiring and incisive mind”, saying he is also “an open-minded skeptic” wants to be “an avid learner” and “Part-Time Researcher” who looks also at this phenomena of reality and freedom of speech.

He has a website where he perhaps want to “breakaway” as an outgrowth/spawn from the notion of the ‘Breakaway Civilization’. He writes

The term ‘Breakaway Civilization’ was an idea that is the brainchild of historian and notable scholar Richard Dolan, who coined the term a few years ago.

Behind this particular premise lies [pun intended] a group of people so sophisticated they operated literally as a separate civilization from the rest of humanity. This is given to the extremely advanced knowledge and technological capabilities/infrastructure that they were able to create/reverse engineer not only by learning what they could from deeply classified black projects et al, but also from essentially monopolizing information and controlling access to it, thus preventing the rest of society/humanity from benefiting from such advanced progress. {What Does It Mean To ‘Breakaway’?}

Certain man of power have done everything to have the media telling what they want. Certain statesmen were even not afraid to have those killed who did not want to run in line and tell the people what the state wanted them to believe. Censorship has always been part of man’s life. Though we also had voices of those who were not afraid to uncover the dismal functions of state organisations or institutions. Every generation had its whistleblowers. To expose illegal or unethical activity of the state has proven dangerous for the one bringing it in the open, certainly as “external whistle-blowing” but by mass media spending more attention to them, the involved state became less able to easily harm the whistleblower. Though those persons mostly can not reclaim their previous life and some of them have even to leave the country. Data show that retaliation against whistleblowers is most severe and certain when the observed wrongdoing is systemic and central to the way the organization conducts its business and accumulates its profit {Joyce Rothschild and Terance D. Miethe 1999, Whistle-Blower Disclosures and Management Retaliation: The Battle to Control Information about Organizational Corruption; Joyce Rothschild, International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, 2008}. Even in countries where whistleblower protection laws prohibit reprisal against federal employees they often find themselves in danger and have to flee the country. In case no effort was made to silence them, a number of individual federal officials have been dismissed or suspended. It is important that much more work is made in our society to protect such people who bring out the wrongdoing of an institution or a state. Whistleblower protection, like freedom of information laws and other open government provisions, supports the right of freedom of expression. This right is the foundation of democratic accountability and of democratic government.

The whistleblowers also can dismantle the propaganda fog which makes people not noticing what their government is doing. As such the more or less systematic effort to manipulate the citizens can be broken. Most countries have utilized propaganda techniques repeatedly through their history, particularly during periods of war and international crisis. And the last few years it looks like we are in a general worldwide crisis where disinformation is rife. In one big federation of states it has come so far that the inhabitants do not notice it that their country manipulates press continually. Americans have employed numerous euphemisms for their propaganda in order to distinguish it from its totalitarian applications and wicked connotations. Many industrialised countries are implement an “ideological warfare.” We also notice that the term “Cold War” in the previous century used to refer to propaganda techniques and strategy (as in “Cold War tactics”) has again become common talk. Also “special operations,” and “information warfare” have become fashionable again.

Propaganda is of all times. Constantly we hear the ‘state talk’ from the different sites at best, in the worst circumstances only from one party, the other having no chance to say how it really is.

Edward Bernays points to the danger for this widely used tool, by those holding positions in many facets of society, from politicians, religious leaders, agents of the state to corporate brass.

“Propaganda is the executive arm of the invisible government.” {[Review] Recommended Book – Progaganda, By Edward Bernays}

Edward Bernays magnum opus “Propaganda”, originally published in 1928, outlines in profound detail many aspects of how propaganda works and details how the mass manipulation of the human subconscious can place can take at unprecedented scale. {[Review] Recommended Book – Progaganda, By Edward Bernays}

Communication techniques have been employed by government agents to cultivate public opinion so as to put pressure on governments to pursue certain policies, while traditional diplomatic activities — negotiations, treaties — have been planned, implemented, and presented in whole or in part for the effects they would have on public opinion, both international and domestic. {Kenneth A. Osgood, Encyclopedia of American Foreign Policy, 2002}

Today we can see we are at the top of propaganda making and can not escape the state interfering with the mas media. The propaganda vice-grip has reached unfathomable levels. Most people do not notice how they are manipulated by those they so called vote for. Worst is it in the U.S.A. were people think they are the most free democratic country, though they do not seem to see how only those who have enough money and dare to go over corpses can win the elections for presidency. The present republican candidate is a very good example of the danger of grandiloquence.

Throughout centuries many have searched as an individual how they could stand apart in this world where the unseen mechanism of society constitutes an invisible government which is the true ruling power of that country, and survive. They looked for ways not to be part of this world or to breakaway from the control grid that was trying to have everybody in its hand and was taxing every facet of their life.

“Much of what is reported as ‘news’ is little more than the uncritical transmission of official opinions to an unsuspecting public,” wrote Parenti.  Fox news commentator Brit Hume stated, “What [the mass media] pass off as objectivity, is just a mindless kind of neutrality.”  – Jim Marrs, Rise Of The Fourth Reich – The Secret Societies That Threaten To Take Over America {Zy Marquiez, TheBreakaway, 7 Actions Individuals Can Take To Navigate Through The Media Minefield}

Zy Marquiez had quite a few friends and acquaintances online and in person asking him how it is possible to figure out what information passes muster in our information overload reality of ours.  This got him thinking about the simple things that experience has taught him over time.

He sums up what I and others repeatedly have told others also. Though he goes a step further saying it in a harsher way

“Don’t believe anything anyone says, including me.”

he writes. I am sure he means the same a I and my confraters (fellow creatures), demanding our readers to inform themselves and to check everything, also what we say or teach. We always have to be careful how we look at the news brought to us, reminding ourselves it is always just a “newsflash” a quick clocking at a moment when not everything is known.

Walter Lippman once said

“News and the truth are not the same thing…”.

They simply can’t be because at the moment of bringing the news it is a flash how people could perceive that what was happening , without knowing all details.

Zy Marquiez rightly remarks

If we take a cautious approach, we make sure we are not being mislead into opinions being passed off as facts, or a belief-system [i.e. the current race war propaganda nigh everywhere] at the outset that might work against us.  If in the end, the information is still true, nothing is lost.  But when news ‘happens’ to be incomplete, or if its disinformation, misinformation, or downright deception, we as individuals stand to pay a heavy price by believing news without verifying what’s being said.  Be wary. {Zy Marquiez, TheBreakaway, 7 Actions Individuals Can Take To Navigate Through The Media Minefield}

In this day and age, though the speed of development of information-access laws increased sharply, we may not forget that many are still ensuring deception putting more pressure and vesting greater economic and social power, investing lots of energy in false communication. Cheating may be a pan-cultural component of social life but politicians often make it not only their favourite sport but their profession.

There where the state leaders are investing lots of energy to get the people to consider themselves as one unit, one state more than as an individual, it is more problematic because countries are more corrupt if they feature a collective culture, rather than an individualistic culture.

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin speaks at a rally after endorsing Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa on Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2016. – Photo Alex Hanson

The general public is often not aware of the “Pinocchio phenomenon”, for example when the person every time when he does not say the truth goes for to touching his nose or striking his hair, the last action more to ask confirmation of the listener or giving a sign “you believe me hé!”.

In the old times liars may have been less forthcoming, but today they are not afraid any more to look sure of what they are saying and try to convince everybody of what for bully talk they are pronouncing. Mostly they take a peacock attitude, play the bully, making everybody else look a looser. How more they laugh with others, how more it seems the listeners are taking in their lies. This proofs why Donald Trump with his arrogant attitude could come so far in his candidacy for the presidential election. the biggest danger for the nation and for the world in general would be when such bullies win the election. We have seen that by Stalin who for some is still their god and worshipped as their best statesman. with beguilement, deceit, bluff, mystification, and subterfuge such people manage to propagate beliefs in things that are not true, but have convinced their listeners that “it must be so”.

We may not forget that in the end such major relational transgression mostly shall lead to feelings of betrayal and distrust and shall provoke a counter reaction which shall endanger the stability of the society.

Donald John Trump Sr. (1946) American business magnate, investor, television personality and author, chairman and president of The Trump Organization and the founder of Trump Entertainment Resorts.

By shouting and trying to ridicule the other people are becoming afraid to express an other opinion, and there lies the power of such bullies or political clowns. The agenda at play has to much at stake, and the power hungry shall not unremittingly shall do everything he can to get others to believe him (or her) even if this demands to falsify ciphers and documents. All funds will be well found.

As individuals, it is imperative that we proceed in our search for facts with a devoted approach that’s as flexible as it is trenchant.

Asking shrewd questions is practically mandatory to get to the bottom of things, or at least to follow certain leads. {Zy Marquiez, TheBreakaway, 7 Actions Individuals Can Take To Navigate Through The Media Minefield}

Receiving the information we have to keep an open mind and have to stay flexible as well.

The whole point is, when initially examining an issue, don’t get married to an opinion/statement,  regardless who it’s done by. Many times evidence surfaces that blows holes in the official story large enough to ferry the titanic through. {Zy Marquiez, TheBreakaway, 7 Actions Individuals Can Take To Navigate Through The Media Minefield}

Those graving for power do know that fear is a very good tool to get more credibility and power. We have come in an age where politicians and media are aware of the validity and commercial value of fear mongering.

Within a lot of the media, be it mainstream or alternative, there is an noticeable undercurrent of fear taking place.  This causes individuals to not only live very limiting lives believing that the end is nigh [in some cases, literally] but also leaves individuals feeling powerless. {Zy Marquiez, TheBreakaway, 7 Actions Individuals Can Take To Navigate Through The Media Minefield}

This fear and feeling powerless drives them in the hands of those who promise them heaven on earth and say they have the best solution to get rid of the problem causers. (Because there has to be some one at fault and therefore finger become pointed to other people, immigrants, other believers, other peoples, etc.)

We have to be mindful that

Information can be presented in a manner that is concerning, but still self empowering. {Zy Marquiez, TheBreakaway, 7 Actions Individuals Can Take To Navigate Through The Media Minefield}

Always look who is behind the message and what the intention of the information might be.

Those who may benefit from certain events might be organizations or they might be specific people [i.e. George Soros].  However, always keep in mind almost always there are large factors at play that couple to institutions, organizations, or secretive groups who benefit from certain events taking place, or certain news being disseminated.

By following that rabbit hole, it will be easier to ascertain what kind of agendas these individuals might have given the discipline involved, the institutions involved, and any other poignant data that would be useful. {Zy Marquiez, TheBreakaway, 7 Actions Individuals Can Take To Navigate Through The Media Minefield}

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Preceding articles

Tolerance Ends When There Is No Tolerance Shown Towards Us

You might be an extremist if …

Human tragedy need to be addressed at source

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Additional reading

1. Message of Pope Francis I for the 48th World Communications Day
2. Daesh hits heart of Europe
3. A Black day for Belgium – Brussels Airport ravage
4. Knife-trust in democratic sore back
5. March 22 2016, attacks in Brussels at airport and metro
6. Public not informed enough about Jihad terrorism in Belgium
7. For those who call the Brussels Airport attacks a fake or a conspiracy of the government
8. What Associated Press released on Wednesday 23 March 2016
9. US President, Barack Obama Condemns The Outrageous Brussels Attacks
10. Terrorist attacks in brussels
11. Silence, devotion, Salafists, quietists, weaponry, bombings, books, writers and terrorists
12. After The Dallas Shootings, Police Are Arresting People For Criticizing Cops On Facebook And Twitter

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Further reading

1. Terrorists are not Muslims. Terrorists have no religion.
2. Unchallenged Islam and the cloud of terror
3. Women Speak Out Against Islamic Terror In France
4. France: The Coming Civil War
5. Sad Discussions
6. theintercept.com: After Dallas Shootings, Police Arrest People for Criticizing Cops on Facebook
7. Sheriff David Clarke Versus Don Lemon. Live Confrontation on CNN (Video)
8. and Twitter — Indiĝenaj Inteligenteco
9. Feed the Revolution: An Interview with Rojava Plan — The Free
10. Defending Freedom Of The Press: Activists Now Suing Facebook Over Censorship
11. Film Festivals in Conflict Zones
12. Michael Barone: Why Do So Many Liberals Want to Suppress Political Speech? 
13. Purdue student called to meet Dean over Facebook post criticizing Black Lives Matter
14. Thailand will shut down stations
15. Baha’is to receive only four minutes in their appeals court
16. Free Speech In India
17. Police in Kashmir Raid Newspaper Bureaus, Detain Employees, Seize Copies: Prabodh Jamwal
18. Israel NGO Transparency Law Takes AIM At Opposition, Not Honesty
19. The Fairy Tale of “Post-Modern” Turkey
20. How to circumvent Turkey’s social media block — TechCrunch
21. How to circumvent Turkey’s social media block
22. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube blocked in Turkey during reported coup attempt
23. [Bleep]
24. The surprising power of a movement once social media is taken away
25. Facebook Community Standards vs. Soh Lung Teo
26. Chinese Media Spurn UN Ruling on South China Sea
27. Facebook and Twitter are getting rich by building a culture of snitching
28. Federal Government Authorizes Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to Censor “Anti-Islam” Speech; Lawsuit Filed — The Counter Jihad Report
29. So, What Can Europeans Say?
30. An Award-Winning Documentary About Islamic Terrorists Becomes Hate Speech
31. Robert Fulford: Russian censors, then and now
32. 7/18/2016 – Large East Coast Virginia Fracking Earthquake – USGS Not Reporting?
33. Boshra: Comedians in Quebec are at a crossroads, and they’re not alone
34. America’s internet is incredibly free compared to most countries
35. Republican draft platform claims Pr0n is a public health crisis
36. Obama’s divide and rule presidency
37. Was Babe Hillary Born to Bash Free America?
38. So, you critiqued the president’s hairdo?
39. If you want to see underage characters’ underwear either learn Japanese or make your own games
40. The MMA Media’s Boys Club
41. Does Creativity Matter?
42. Illuminations of a Lunatic Fringe
43. Getting Smacked in the Face by Censorship in Today’s Society
44. Censure en Tunisie : 7 mois depuis le 14 janvier : Justice404 versus FreeAmmar
45. Tunisie : Après un an, #Ammar404 le retour ?
46. Terrorisme et TIC : Carte blanche à Ammar404 !