Most of us have heard George Orwell’s famous line from his book 1984. Being truthful, it’s such a simple day to day virtue most people strive towards in their personal lives while trying to also instil it in the lives of their children. This second quote above relates, and speaks so clearly to where politics has arrived in 2016. If you agree with that second quote then just out of interest, think to yourself which presidential candidate is being portrayed this way in the mainstream press and entertainment media. Then don’t let your political leanings change the first name that came into your mind.
Obfuscation of a narrative seems to be a necessary skill and not something deplorable in the realms of power, journalistic or political. Well respected American journalist Sharyl Attkisson describes this process in modern media so clearly in the Ted Talk below. She tells her audience that there is an entire industry which has the sole objective of countering any damaging narrative. They do this by posing as a grass roots news organization. She calls them AstroTurf organizations because they are fake grass roots. Nothing about them is organic in growth of popularity. They are all well-funded mouthpieces set up by and for the powerful.
Philosophies are one of the motivating forces behind a narrative being twisted. Some are intentionally deceptive at a base level and don't seem to be recognised as such by the general public but rather employed en masse by those with, or wishing to gain more, societal control.
It's no surprise to see disciple of Saul Alinsky, Hillary Clinton, use every method in his book to attack her opposition like she has done while speaking today at her latest meagrely attended rally. This speech on the 'Alt-Right' follows on from her suggestion in the 90's of a vast right wing conspiracy to bring down her and her husband with scandal after scandal. Nevermind that Bill Clinton is a rapist, flies on planes belonging to convicted pedophiles, funneled drug money through a counterfeit finance authority he set up in Arkansas and ripped off retirees through their investments in the Whitewater scandal, and that's just off the top of my head. Forget all that, it's those truth-seekers who are nuts!
It would have taken a considerable effort for a non-technical person to find all that out in the 90's. I think Alzheimers and thyroid problems may have impeded Hillary’s judgement though when she spoke in today’s rally about Alex Jones of infowars.com. She brought up three issues to try to convince her audience (some of whom cheered at Alex's name) that Alex and subsequently Donald Trump were kooks. Issue one was "He thinks 9/11 was an inside Job", issue two the "Oklahoma bombing was an inside job" and issue three "Alex Jones said the children who died at Sandy Hook were actors and no one really died".
This is a great illustration of how to confuse the casual listener. Mix in one half truth, one truthful and one patently false statement and let the ‘useful idiots’ take it from there. The trouble with making statements like this, in this day and age is that it's rather easy for an honest person to do their own research and get to the truth. Jones responded to the allegations almost immediately with verifiable information on all three of her statements. Anybody who is interested to really get to the bottom of those statements is going to learn a lot of information Hillary would rather them not know, and she has herself to thank for it.
Although mainstream media is only one aspect Hillary uses in her coordinated attacks on the truth we can look to methods of operation of some popular political thought just in the last century and it's very easy to see the framework that is needed for them to succeed. Interestingly enough, truth is not mentioned in the rules from this particular ideology below. An ideology of which Hillary is a fervent believer. Read the statements and test it out for yourself. Does it leave you with the impression that the truth is utmost or is it about forcing your will upon others?
Someone who does not want the truth to come out obviously has something to hide. In order for a political operative to employ dishonest tactics in extreme measure, their end result must only be something that if it were to be understood by an unconditioned populous in its entirety would almost certainly inspire an immediate revolt.
If something is truthful there is no need for drawn out attack plans. You just speak the truth and let the people make up their minds according to what works best for them in their experience. If you have to covertly change people’s minds first before introducing them to your "truth" then you've already removed from the equation the very thing that enables an individual to act in their own best interest, the ability to think critically. They can no longer think this way because intentional confusion, ridicule, perceived social stigmas (as illustrated in the rules above) have been infused into what was once a very straight forward proposition. This only serves to benefit the promoter of these tactics, whatever their agenda, and not the individual's personal situation.
This of course brings us to the centuries old struggle I find behind almost all political theatre. Should the individual have control over his own destiny or should the state? Every new law or regulation seems to bring with it either a blow to individual freedom or step towards it for the common man. It blows my mind how a political philosophy can claim to bring power to the people through revolution against abuse from their rulers, only to enact policies which strip those same people of more of their individual choices by transferring that seized power back into the hands of the new elite few. This puts the people in an even more susceptible position to abuse, the very thing they were promised they would be delivered from. It’s never about people and always about power.
Even the most casual observer of news must see the control tactics inherent in the following clipping.
More power over these aspects of your life by the state always means less power for you. Once you’re powerless you are at the whim of the powerful and when that power corrupts, as it always does, atrocities are never far behind.
Just to end on a somewhat humorous note, I saw this image which relates to the gun control section in the above newspaper clipping again, keep the second amendment in mind and then apply common sense.