“That’s what is to be a slave.” – Roy Batty Blade Runner.
Now we’ve all had a taste of it. What have we learned?
The vast majority of people in the USA haven’t actually been slaves. Yet there are a lot of folks who’d like to enslave us all. These people don’t care what your skin color is. They want you enslaved in a system. Their System.
These are the people that want you to be dependent on their largess. They offer bright baubles of technology, healthcare, entertainment, etc. then make us feel “less than” if we’re unable to afford those baubles.
They offer us a daily dose of fear via the news, & commercials. “More terrifying moments of unrest today in Minneapolis. The President today said, ‘insert daily out of context statement here‘ does this statement mean the end of America? See our report at 11. Suffering from Kidney Failure? Are you going to die? Try our new drug, if you can’t afford it (The implication is your insurance is bad, or you don’t make enough and are therefore ‘less than’) contact us and we’ll help pay your bill.”
They keep us apart by instilling mistrust in each other. “It’s white oppression, it’s black criminality. It’s racist, that person is a Nazi. Wear a mask, don’t wear a mask, wear a mask as a symbol of solidarity, You should wear a mask because you never know who might be carrying a virus. Black Lives Matter=Good speech, All Lives Matter=Bad speech, ACAB (All cops are bastards), Why are the police not stopping this looting?”
With each new presidential administration, there are people who are “Right” and people who are “Wrong” the actual facts of the administration’s accomplishments or failures notwithstanding. The “Right” and the “Wrong” people flip based on how the media presents a particular narrative.
In simplest terms, we’re always being manipulated by headlines, soundbites, and glamorous ads showing us things that a great many of us can’t afford. The ads implicitly extol the virtue of working harder to make more money so that we can afford these pretty things. The thing lots of people miss is that all of us working harder, generates more tax revenue that in turn, fuels the system.
The same system that locks us in our homes, costs us jobs, and vilifies individuals who after doing the math, decide that feeding their families is worth the risk.
That same system almost deifies individuals in protests that devolve into rioting and looting. It makes a sick kind of sense. Either situation creates an “Enemy” that can be pointed to, now or in the future, to maintain the cultural division.
As long as the American people are fearful and divided, the powerful can do as they please in plain sight. Who will question the national guard being brought in to quell riots? Who will question another lockdown because of a spike in Covid-19 cases?
Social Media was supposed to help level the playing field allowing people to communicate with each other directly, expressing thoughts and beliefs freely without bias, other than those biases the people brought with them.
As Social Media blossomed, controls were put into place to silence dissent. Those controls started out innocently to prevent blatant racist and hate from spilling unbidden onto computer screens. Those controls quickly escalated into full blown censorship.
The implied reason for that censorship is that “average people” are unable (too immature, or too stupid) to process dissenting opinions without experiencing angst. Therefore it is assumed they need to be protected from free thought, instead of exercising the freedom of simply choosing not to view items which are offensive to them.
Mind you, what one may find offensive, others may find informative. With censorship instituted on social media no-one has to decide, and everyone is once again placed in a bubble of docile safety and conformity.
Safe, in that bubble, they’re not troubled by dissenting opinion and not forced to think for themselves or form their own opinions. The narrative of those in control is preserved and the correct “Group Think” is doled out 200 characters at a time, by sanctioned influencers.
How are sanctioned influencers picked? They’re approved by Twitter checkmarks and number of followers. An influencer with a large number of followers and a check mark is seen as someone “In the know“. They remain a blessed influencer as long as they maintain the appropriate narrative.
However if an influencer goes off the reservation or someone speaking counter to the narrative, (There are always a few allowed, to maintain the illusion of Facebook or Twitter’s impartiality,) becomes troublesome. Their follower count mysteriously decrements. Their coveted Twitter Checkmark is removed, they end up in “Twitter Jail” or their messages simply vanish, and finally they are banned outright. These people still have online presences, they’re just on other platforms with lower brand recognition.
Platforms like GAB aren’t allowed to post their applications on Google Play or the Apple App store. Other platforms like Parler are allowed to have Play Store or Apple App store presences for the time being.
This speaks to the tight integration between Google, Apple, and the group, or groups controlling the narrative. Not only are specific people exiled from Twitter and Facebook, their ability to be seen by the masses is limited by the corporations who provide the dominate operating systems for smart devices as well.
Isn’t it odd that nudity, violence, and graphic sex is allowed on a platform like Twitter and freedom of political messages is not? Even odder is that Apple and Google provide access to an application which can present these images while at the same time denying access to alternate applications which are largely politically conservative in nature. The only difference being that Twitter filters out comments that present dissenting political opinion?
Isn’t this exactly the kind of thing that is never supposed to happen in a free society?
Hillary’s America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party – Amazon Prime: This one is interesting because the film-maker Dinesh D’Souza tells the story from his first person viewpoint. He was convicted and sent to jail for an illegal political contribution. Then he begins an re-examination of how he, an immigrant thought about America. I’m sure that some of the film is apocryphal, nonetheless it was thought provoking and served, as art should to make the viewer re-evaluate their beliefs.
Hoaxed – Itunes: I’ve been questioning the veracity of the media since before Trump. I was questioning journalism during the Bush administration. I believe that journalism shouldn’t be editorial or opinion printed as fact. When I started noticing that there were two truths depending on what your news source was, I had questions. This was especially true for me, when the “Truths” were diametrically opposed. Mike Cernovich explores the dichotomy from a conservative and personal perspective as well as the perspectives of other conservative journalists or film-makers who have been on the receiving end of journalistic inequity. The most interesting piece was the story of Documentary director Cassie Jaye.
Keep and Bear – Amazon Prime: This one is interesting. It’s the story of a California family who moves to Idaho. Once there, the director Darren Doane discovers that most of his neighbors have guns. From there Doane decides to learn more about the gun culture and discovers that it’s not what he thought it was.
attention. This is a docu-series. It details the precautions and research that’s always ongoing to prevent influenza. The people in this series are heroes and they put a lot of their lives into trying to predict where outbreaks are likely to happen. It’s worth watching because most of us never know what’s going on behind the scenes when we get our flu shots.
Chasing Coral – Netflix: This is a documentary that follows researchers looking at the effects of oceanic warming on reefs. It’s got beautiful scenery of coral reefs with a before and after juxtaposition that’s jarring. Ocean warming and pollution does a lot of damage to reefs. Most of us don’t notice because the reefs are in places that we can’t reach. If this film makes you pay more attention to reducing your impact by recycling, extending the lifespan of something you own or properly disposing of chemicals it will have served its purpose.