Afghanistan, China, COVID-19, Empire, Geopolitics, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Neoliberalism, North Korea, Propaganda, Russia, Syria, War

Nations Under Attack (Part 4): Propaganda Narratives in Action

Part 1 of this series argues that elites aggressively seek to acquire and control resources and power—primarily for their own personal enrichment. Part 2 outlines how the Western elites enact this agenda against nations that are targeted for resource pillage and inclusion within the broader sphere of Western influence for ongoing power projection and exploitation. Part 3 deals with narrative as a tool of war. This part provides an overview of the common propaganda narratives used against key targets of the empire.

“So I came back to see him a few weeks later, and by that time we were bombing in Afghanistan. I said, “Are we still going to war with Iraq?” And he said, “Oh, it’s worse than that.” He reached over on his desk. He picked up a piece of paper. And he said, “I just got this down from upstairs” — meaning the Secretary of Defense’s office — “today.” And he said, “This is a memo that describes how we’re going to take out seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran.””

GEN. WESLEY CLARK interview with Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!

“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organised habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. …We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. …In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons…who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.”

― Edward Bernays, Propaganda

The following catalogue of the principal propaganda narratives employed by the USA and its allies against they key target nations of the last few decades, specifically China, Russia, Iran, Syria, Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, North Korea, Cuba and Venezuela.

These propaganda narratives are presented without undue criticism or rebuttal. To be effective, most propaganda narratives require some element of truth within them to make their tale credible to the casual observer. In presenting these narratives, I have not taken much effort to analyse the truthfulness of the various claims and assertions from which they are composed. It is hoped that the reader will take some time to research and reflect on a range of different perspectives before reaching his or her own position as to the truth of the matters. In the end, my position is that all propaganda involves some sort of lie and in my view the propaganda narratives documented are inevitably damaging to the peaceful co-existence of the world’s community of nations and people.

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Conspiracy Theory, Propaganda, Psychology, Social Media

Rabbit Holes, Relatives and Friends

The covid era has been a difficult time during which many relationships with family and friends have been wrenched apart over polarised differences of views about what it has all meant and who, or what, is responsible. This polarisation of society has been ramped up by politicians, “experts” and the media. While this polarisation was actively sought by the authorities as a way of maintaining control, it was important for opposing ideas to not become mainstream and those who rejected the official narrative were therefore targeted and cast as conspiracy theorists, covid deniers and anti-vaxxers.

Techniques employed governments, social media platforms, and mainstream media outlets against dissidents and dissident ideas included:

  1. Censorship: Governments and social media platforms implemented policies and practices aimed at removing content that was deemed to be false or misleading. While these efforts were largely intended to combat misinformation and disinformation about COVID-19, they also had the effect of limiting the spread of dissenting views and alternative perspectives.
  2. Dismissal: Some mainstream media outlets and public figures dismissed or downplayed dissenting views about COVID-19, characterizing them as conspiratorial or anti-science. This framing may have contributed to a stigmatisation of dissenting viewpoints and a reluctance among some individuals to express or engage with alternative perspectives.
  3. Harassment: Individuals who expressed dissenting views about COVID-19, including scientists, healthcare professionals, and members of the public, faced harassment and attacks online and in person. This harassment had a chilling effect on the expression of alternative perspectives and created a hostile environment for dissenters.
  4. Polarisation: The COVID-19 pandemic has been a highly polarising issue, with individuals and communities divided along political, ideological, and cultural lines. This polarisation may have made it more difficult for dissenting views to be heard and engaged with, as individuals were more likely to dismiss or ignore perspectives that were seen as belonging to an opposing camp.

Throughout the covid period, mainstream media articles appeared on a fairly regular basis that were aimed at mostly younger people concerning the seemingly offbeat opinions and beliefs of often older parents, uncles or whacko friends. While these articles purported to offer sympathy and advice to distraught relatives of people caught up in conspiracy and misinformation rabbit holes, close examination reveals them to be propaganda vehicles designed to discredit nonconforming views and provide advice to mainstream friends and relatives on how to deal with and (hopefully) de-programme them.

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Academic Cheating, Artificial Intelligence, Teaching Resources

Academic use of ChatGPT by students – A guide for lecturers according to ChatGPT, 20 February 2023

Introduction

The advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools like ChatGPT pose an added layer of complexity for academics seeking to minimise student cheating. This article was prepared to assist lecturers and teachers to identify and design strategies to address student use of such technologies, which by offer the seductive temptation to shortcut true learning.

In approaching this topic, I have designed a series of questions for ChatGPT that illustrate its current capabilities and use these to provide a resource. These questions and responses are provided below verbatim, as per the interaction.

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Big-pharma, COVID-19, Vaccines, Virology, Viruses

The Viral Conundrum

The COVID-19 event has brought a new awareness to many people about the fields of epidemiology and virology which most of us have largely assumed to be unproblematic examples of sound science with which we have had little cause or standing to debate the ‘experts’.

However, if the past three years has taught us anything it is that vastly too much of what we have been told by politicians and ‘experts’ has turned out to be false and, in many cases, deliberately deceptive. The draconian measures many governments instituted in a largely vain attempt to control spread of the purported SARS-COV2 virus have been widely discredited as being ineffective and lacking scientific evidence or justification—including lockdowns, face masks and social distancing.

Fundamental to the entire covid-19 narrative is the assertion that there is such a thing as a virus and that this virus has been isolated and characterised as the purported SARS-COV2. But, what is the evidence for this assertion and do viruses even exist?

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Geopolitics, Neoliberalism, Propaganda, Russia, Ukraine War, US Empire, War

Nations Under Attack (Part 3): Narrative as a Tool of War

Part 1 of this series argues that elites aggressively seek to acquire and control resources and power—primarily for their own personal enrichment. Part 2 outlines how the Western elites enact this agenda against nations that are targeted for resource pillage and inclusion within the broader sphere of Western influence for ongoing power projection and exploitation. This part deals with narrative as a tool of war.

Narrative is a key lens through which we form our view of the events and the world around us. Each event or account of the world comes as a form of story that is shaped by the storyteller and relayed to us for a purpose. Most of recognise this fact when we call out the Murdoch press or perhaps view with suspicion news sources like TASS, the Russian news agency or China’s CGTN. Critically, the importance of taking control of the narrative is also well known to governments and to the military and security agencies. Since Operation Mockingbird came to public attention, it is well known that the CIA has been shaping narratives in the USA and around the world for decades though its involvement in the US news and entertainment industries.

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Neoliberalism

Why I’m not vaccine hesitant

It is now plainly evident that the world is undergoing a horrifying descent into near universal totalitarian techno fascism driven by the agenda of an elite group of extremely wealthy individuals who have managed to engineer control over key global institutions and key governmental leaders. This program has been well documented in works published by the likes of The Rockefeller Foundation and the World Economic Forum led by Klaus Schwab. 

Quite early on in the covid pandemic, it was obvious that many aspects of the official account were engineered frauds: from the imposition of face masks in spite of 30 years of scientific evidence that these provided little to no protection from respiratory disease; through the inappropriate use of PCR to determine ‘cases’; through the bizarre definitions of death by covid to include any death within 60 days of a positive PCR test; through the massacre of elderly people in aged care facilities using DNRs and denial of life saving medications and use of drugs like midazolam; through the suppression of proven remedies to viral disease and fraudulent ‘studies’ of at least one of these drugs that was engineered to kill people; through the streamlined authorisation of untested genetic treatments without proper testing and with trials designed to succeed—which were subsequently invalidated by un-blinding and destruction of the control groups. 

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Australia, Big-pharma, Propaganda, Vaccine hesitancy, Vaccines

Vaccine hesitant or justified skeptic?

The following comments were originally posted on an article “Morrison’s over-hyping of vaccine delivery” by Jack Waterford. The comment was removed by the moderator under the justification of “spam”. The text has been amended for clarity and few points have been added in response to some helpful comments by a social media contact.

It is disappointing to see the easy dismissal of the opinions and views of a group of people that the author admits is now “perhaps a quarter of the population”. To blithely assume that such a vast number of people have no foundation for their skepticism and opposition to vaccines is arrogant in the extreme.

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COVID-19, Facemasks, Psychology

COVID-19 — Facemasks and Psychologists

During the course of the current COVID-19 pandemic, facemask wearing has become a point of massive contention with many authorities insisting on their use by people in public places and even issuing fines for people caught not doing so. In some cases this has led to ugly and often unnecessarily violent confrontations between members of the public and sometimes with police.

Meanwhile, the science on the issue has seemed to shift so that at one time people in positions of authority were saying they were unnecessary and even inappropriate for general public to use and then the same authorities shifting to recommending them and even making them mandatory by all.

In this connection, a section of recent ABC News article dated 9 September entitled “Majority of Australians support mandatory face masks in public places, survey reveals” caught my eye: 

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COVID-19, Geopolitics

Notes on the COVID-19 Pandemic

PCR Tests

It is beyond question that the PCR research tool was never intended to be used as a diagnostic test. Indeed, Kary Mullis, the developer of the method is on record as explicitly warning that PCR should not be used in this fashion. PCR was developed as a method for amplifying small samples of DNA and RNA so that they can be detected, period. The issue Mullis pointed out with PCR being used for diagnosis is that the number of amplification cycles the researcher uses is purely arbitrary and after around 35 cycles the test is extremely prone to false positives. Mullis went on to assert that after 60 cycles 100% of tests for any section of DNA would likely prove positive given that so much genomic code is shared across all living organisms. In the case of the current situation, we understand that the number of cycles used varies between laboratories and across regions (i.e. this implies that it has not even been standardised). While the number of cycles used is commonly not advertised in the press, it is understood from a number of sources that between 35 and 45 cycles is commonplace. That means the PCR test results must be assumed to be inherently prone to significant error rates. A second issue with PCR is that the method does not actually test for the presence of a virus, but rather for sections of DNA (or in this case RNA) that have somehow been identified as being uniquely associated with the genome of a target organism.

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Australia, China, CIA, Empire, Geopolitics, Neoconservatism, Neoliberalism, Politics, Propaganda, Russia, US Empire, War, Zionism

Australia and New Zealand — losing an empire, who will protect us now? Part 5. US decline and collapse

5. US decline and collapse — The end of empire

One of the great lessons of history is that all empires eventually collapse. Exceptional though many believe it to be, the US empire will be no different and there are many signs that having achieved a couple of decades of apparently unchallenged global domination following the fall of the USSR in 1991, the Anglo-US empire has hit its peak and the way forward lies in its decline. Although empires at their peak can look formidable and unassailable, their collapse can happen quite quickly and while there may be a final military denouement, this often happens in the context of a pre-existing collapse from within. In the end, it is the accumulation of a series of political, social, economic and military collapses combined with the inability of a delusional self-focused elite to face reality that leads to an overall collapse of empire.

Continue reading “Australia and New Zealand — losing an empire, who will protect us now? Part 5. US decline and collapse” →