reply on: The Coming "Propaganda Blitz" Against El Salvador \ stacker news ~bitcoin

11 sats \ 2 replies \ @Atreus OP 1 Dec 2022 \ parent \ on: The Coming "Propaganda Blitz" Against El Salvador bitcoin

A lot that could be said & studied viz., propaganda and what @TomK said. There's been a background "arms race" for decades to develop the best means/instruments to influence populations; Cyberspace happens to be the optimal "battlespace" for their deployment, and I think people are catching on to that since '20.

To quote Ellul —

Naturally, the educated man does not believe in propaganda; he shrugs and is convinced that propaganda has no effect on him. This is, in fact, one of his great weaknesses, and propagandists are well aware that in order to reach someone, one must first convince him that propaganda is ineffectual and not very clever. Because he is convinced of his own superiority, the intellectual is much more vulnerable than anybody else to this maneuver...

Just as people have learned to recognize the sound of "gunfire" and "explosives," they have to learn to recognize the 'sound' of manipulation. It's become an imperative, both for our communities & people in general.

50 sats \ 0 replies \ @chungkingexpress 2 Dec 2022

Very well put, thank you. I experienced this first hand during the covid mania of '20-'21. My educated friends, almost without exception took the "trust the science" approach. It was an example of Clown World in action as the actual truth became propaganda and the propaganda became truth.

I am not a particularly smart person, I have always struggled with mathematics, programming, and science, but I have a deep appreciation for philosophy, art, and language which somehow I feel gave me a slight inroad to understanding the "sound of manipulation" as you say. I could see it on the faces of the media personalities, I could read between the headlines of the newspaper, it slowly became more and more clear to me.

I have since developed an ability to happily parse a newspaper or headline, however clearly Clown World-aligned, not for its "truth content" in any objective sense, but for its signifiers of the next move. I read the national newspaper of my country like the script of a television show, with plot twists and guest appearances, with deus ex machina and season finales and product placement.

Does this make me vulnerable as I blindly reject all and everything coming out of the media apparatus, even on the off chance that it is beneficial for me to actually follow that advice? Yes it certainly does. But that is a risk I am willing to take.

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @TomK 2 Dec 2022

And in the wider context: the simple fact that this cartel of power lets SBF running around and is trying to white-wash him morally is very telling. He is the big authentic propaganda machine that crypto doesn't work. But again: 99.9% didn't see his interview, laughed about it or simple forgot the shitshow!