As IF Times

link: https://slaynews.com/news/elon-musk-tears-down-house-of-cards-if-this-isnt-a-violation-of-the-constitutions-first-amendment-what-is/

Back in the day, someone had the brilliant idea to create a vehicle by which news and information could be disseminated. This could only have come about when the inputs and opinions of the masses mattered, thus, the idea of having some kind of news vehicle came to fruition.

Before then, news, or more likely gossip, was spread by word of mouth, at drinking establishments, at churches or by travelers coming through a town.  Of course, before then, there was no news other than what the overlords decided that the peasants needed to know; and all  the peasants needed to know was to keep working to pay taxes to the rulers.  Thus, knowledge was either what the church or the rulers decided was knowledge.

As the phenomenon of education proliferated, so did the notion of critical thinking.  In order to think critically, you needed information, unbiased and provable. This made the imposition of news and information more problematic for those who were used to controlling knowledge to the masses.  As someone eloquently wrote, ‘knowledge is power’ and suddenly, the opinions of the masses mattered. Eventually, newspapers and journals became the default arbiters of legitimate news and their operators became very powerful.  It became a lot easier to determine when someone was untruthful, because the journals would be a credible check.

With the onset of the television age, the new unimpeachable source of information and knowledge became TV networks. I can still remember people stating that ‘if it was on TV, it must be true’. While a large swath of people still believe this, the credibility of heretofore unimpeachable sources has long since expired. The slogans of “The Paper Of Record” for the New York Times and “Democracy Dies In Darkness” for the Washington Post are comically ironic.  The days of Walter Cronkite invoking “ And that’s the way it is” as his sign off are also quaint relics of the past.  The currency of credibility of these outlets have long been spent.

Television was a very powerful medium because most people are easily manipulated by what they see as much as what they hear. It’s been widely accepted that if not for TV viewers watching a debate between a nervous looking Richard Nixon and a polished looking John Kennedy, that Nixon would have won the presidential election in 1960 on the issues alone.

Clearly some objective means of news and information was needed and in 2007, a new micro blogging site, Twitter was created.  The new social media phenomenon allowed anyone to post their thoughts and views with a 280 character maximum. As in all successful businesses in history, this service tapped into a monstrous pool of demand and soon, having a Twitter handle was as de rigueur as having a last name. Whether student or CEO, politician or dictator, famous or unknown, everyone wanted to have their say and most importantly, to hear what others thought.  Thus having ‘followers’ became the new currency of fame.  Unfortunately, Twitter is hardly the font of knowledge.  The most vapid attention whores can garner millions of acolytes and create financial empires for themselves.  Strangely, a platform which notionally allowed the democratization of news and information, became a receptacle for the most vapid in society whose opinions, not knowledge, were expressed.  Well, the first amendment also protects the stupid, so you get what you get.  What many don’t understand is that free speech allows people to say things that others may not want to hear….otherwise it ain’t free.

A great upheaval occurred recently as the platform was purchased by Elon Musk. Long regarded as a vehicle for left wing narratives and censoring of ‘unacceptable’ views, Musk revealed what many have known for years….Twitter was a corrupted platform which enabled propaganda favored by their operators.

It’s been great entertainment to watch ‘celebrities’ profess the validity of their views while at the same time wanting to censor those with views whom they oppose. Philosophically, this is like the monkey wanting to censor the organ grinder. We are treated to the deep intellectual insights of such as Alyssa Milano or of famous meathead Rob Reiner. Oddly, those that have always defended Twitter when it was their own platform are now condemning it for allowing just ‘anyone’ to speak on it and worst of all, with views opposing theirs.  Like a scene from the film Blazing Saddles, many have expressed threats to leave the platform and no longer treat the rest of us to their utterances.

Even more sinister however are the revelations by Musk of the collusion between Twitter and political operatives to sway elections and push detrimental policies. The light has been turned on in the kitchen at night and the cockroaches are scattering.

As in much earlier times, the opening up of Twitter to become a more truly free speech platform will hopefully enable real dialogue on real issues.  People will be more truthfully informed and those in power will need to pay attention.  The views of the dirty unwashed will matter. The time when certain overlords control the message may again be over.

source: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/doj-intervenes-in-case-challenging-illinois-coronavirus-restrictions

Why are people so malleable?  Or perhaps, the less polite question is, why are people so gullible?  Has this always been so, or is this a phenomenon of today’s internet and fake news environment?

A guy who knew that gullibility was an immutable fact of human nature was P.T. Barnum.  For those too young to know who this guy was,  Barnum was a American character who lived in the 19th century and who took great advantage of his unique insights into this ubiquitous frailty of human nature.  Barnum did a lot of things in his life including author, philanthropist and politician.  What he was most famous for however, was his career as a showman and the Barnum and Bailey circus was his signature life legacy.

He is widely credited with the famous line of “there’s a sucker born every minute” and thus many of his attractions at his entertainment shows included improbable acts and exaggerated freaks which he charged people to see.  Today of course, such individuals are mainstream.  For example, the bearded lady is now the chief health officer of Pennsylvania.

This predilection to naivete by the public has been capitalized upon by many shrewd operators since Barnum’s time, notably by those in the entertainment industry; by politicians and of course by the modern news media.  Oddly the capacity to be fooled seems to be endless since none of the ‘tricks’ employed by the noted groups have substantially changed over the generations.

In the case of the entertainment racket, they at least try to put out some new variations of the same themes, but in politics and with the majority of today’s mainstream news, they don’t even bother to go through the motions of obfuscation.  They just make things up out of whole cloth!  At least while Barnum was feeding the public his versions of reality, there was always some nugget of plausibility to his presentations.

The recent fiasco which has been the handling of the covid flu, billed as biblical in scale by every mainstream news outlet, has lifted the curtain on them to definitively expose that….they really don’t know what they’re talking about and that they’re just making things up as they go along.

Of course, the usual suspects, the New York Times and the Washington Post were the very worst in their breathless reportage of death rates to infinity and spreading hysterical narratives of gloves, masks, distancing, isolation and toxic surfaces….most tactics of which are currently being debunked. The media are not just crying wolf, they have created a three act musical of the hysteria.  The narratives by these media outlets have proved to be demonstrably erroneous, yet the public naively consumes them like P.T. Barnum sideshows. As an aside, it’s interesting to note that so many ‘health’ experts look about as healthy as a 3 week banana.

This news coverage of this recent imminent disaster  places the climate change imminent disaster back to page 2 of their permanent bleats about the end of the world.  World hunger and  AIDS has been pushed way to the back pages. You’d think people would get Armageddon fatigue.

Meanwhile, power drunk politicians enforced arbitrary tyrannical dictates upon their subjects under the cover of public security.  Hairdressers are thrown in jail, while inmates are released so as not to suffer Covid infection.  People are allowed to stand on wet sand, but not dry sand.  No canoeing in the ocean.  You can line up at Wal Mart and Home Depot but not at the local donut shop which had to remain closed.  People being arrested for not wearing their masks properly or for sitting in their cars.  Long standing businesses and livelihoods are ruined forever and the mental stress impact is immeasurable.  Yet the idiots get elected again and again.

There will be lots of psychology books written in the future looking back at this dystopian moment in history.  People will wonder how could a population of sane people have allowed this to happen?  It’s very reminiscent of the murder of Kitty Genovese in 1964 New York.  As the poor  woman was being murdered in front of her apartment in Queens, not one person came to her aid despite her loud screams as she was being killed.  In interviews afterwards, people said that they didn’t want to get involved and they thought that someone else would intervene.

It looks like we’re starting to see more and more pushback from regular people who refuse to stand by and suffer by irrational dictates. They are refusing to buy the hysterical narrative pushed upon them. They are refusing to stand by and rely on others to intervene. It’s surprising that it hasn’t happened sooner and in greater numbers, especially in America.  Perhaps it’s a lot to expect that people will finally reach an epiphany about the real roles of media and government in this sad period, but there’s always hope.

Old P.T. was only after people’s money with his charades.  Continuing to swallow the narratives of the media and politicos will cost people a lot more than that.