If We’re Losing the Information War, Then Someone Is Winning It
“The uniformity and obedience of the media, which any dictator would admire, thus succeeds in concealing what is plainly the real reason for the US attack, sometimes conceded openly by Administration spokesmen.” – Noam Chomsky
Are you losing the information war? Not if you’re reading this. If you read The Freedom Fighter, you will get the news that the so-called Mainstream Media will not or can not deliver to you.
I am not a stooge or shill for any government or corporation. I alone decide what information is published to this medium. No one tells me what to write or what not to write.
I will not be a puppet. I may be imprisoned or murdered for defending the first amendment. You may be thrown in jail for reading this.
Another dilemma is whether to target the supply side of the conspiracy theory or the demand side. Should governmental responses be addressed to the suppliers, with a view to persuading or silencing them, or rather be addressed to the mass audience, with a view to inoculating them from pernicious theories? – Conspiracy Theories
I will always fight for knowledge of the truth and I will strive to tell you the truth because; who else will?
Who told you that a resolution was introduced to Impeach the President? Who told you about the Gas Price Spike Act, that if passed will make everything you buy cost more money? Who told you that the DHS/TSA is working on expanding their operations to your neighborhood? Who told you that Obamacare will lead to our priests, pastors, rabbis and imams being imprisoned? Who told you that the First Amendment has effectively been repealed?
Not the people who studied Communications and Journalism in college. Not the people who work in Mainstream Media for large corporations, making six figure and million dollar salaries.
Why didn’t they tell you these things? Did they not know? They have news feeds from AP, Reuters, et al. They have reporters on the beat. They have sources. It is their profession and living.
They knew. Someone decided not to tell you. Someone ordered them not tell you.
We begin by discussing different understandings of the nature of conspiracy theories and different accounts of the kinds of errors made by those who hold them. Our primary claim is that conspiracy theories typically stem not from irrationality or mental illness of any kind but from a “crippled epistemology,” in the form of a sharply limited number of (relevant) informational sources. Those who hold conspiracy theories do so because of what they read and hear. In that sense, acceptance of such theories is not irrational from the standpoint of those who adhere to them. There is a close connection, we suggest, between our claim on this count and the empirical association between terrorist behavior and an absence of civil rights and civil liberties.10 When civil rights and civil liberties are absent, people lack multiple information sources, and they are more likely to accept conspiracy theories. – Conspiracy Theories
How ironic. Cass Sunstein wrote Conspiracy Theories so the Government could use it to fight people like me. He says we make up theories based on what we read and hear. What I read is Government documents. What I hear are the words of the politicians themselves. How is that a theory? I’m not a conspiracy theorist. I’m a conspiracy realist.
Conspiracy
an agreement by two or more persons to commit a crime, fraud, or other wrongful act. any concurrence in action; combination in bringing about a given result. – Dictionary.com
Conspiracy theories turn out to be especially hard to undermine or dislodge; they have a self-sealing quality, rendering them particularly immune to challenge… We bracket the most difficult questions here and suggest more intuitively that a conspiracy theory can generally be counted as such if it is an effort to explain some event or practice by reference to the machinations of powerful people, who have also managed to conceal their role… conspiracy theories have some distinctive features, above all because of their self-sealing quality; the very arguments that give rise to them, and account for their plausibility, make it more difficult for outsiders to rebut or even to question them… This account seems to capture the essence of the most prominent and influential conspiracy theories… Of course some conspiracy theories, under our definition, have turned out to be true. – Conspiracy Theories
Sunstein says that we are terrorists if we insist on open, transparent government, if we insist on having true, factual information. He understands the results of an absence of civil rights and multiple sources of information, but instead of restoring civil rights and allowing the free flow of information; people of his ilk want to label us as terrorists and eradicate truth and freedom.
This is not, and is not be intended to be, a general claim that conspiracy theories are unjustified or unwarranted. Much depends on the background state of knowledge producing institutions. If those institutions are generally trustworthy, in part because they are embedded in an open society with a well-functioning marketplace of ideas and free flow of information, then conspiracy theories will generally (which is not to say always) be unjustified. On the other hand, individuals in societies with systematically malfunctioning or skewed institutions of knowledge – say, individuals who live in an authoritarian regime lacking a free press – may have good reason to distrust all or most of the official denials they hear… we will focus on indirect means of undermining such theories, principally by breaking up the closed informational networks that produce such theories… What can government do about conspiracy theories? Among the things it can do, what should it do? We can readily imagine a series of possible responses. (1)Government might ban conspiracy theorizing. (2) Government might impose some kind of tax, financial or otherwise, on those who disseminate such theories. (3) Government might itself engage in counterspeech, marshaling arguments to discredit conspiracy theories. (4) Government might formally hire credible private parties to engage in counterspeech. (5) Government might engage in informal communication with such parties, encouraging them to help. – Conspiracy Theories
Or you could murder them. Do you remember that? Do you remember all the so-called Conservative show hosts and pundits who laughed and mocked him? Why didn’t they tell you that he was arrested right after asking John Kerry about the Skull and Bones? Who else asked inappropriate questions about Skull and Bones? Tim Russert was the only legitimate, credible man in the Mainstream Media. I’m surprised that any politician would appear on Meet the Press because Russert’s bullshit detector was very sensitive and always set on high. He did not have a “crippled epistemology.” He always showed evidence of his claims. Tim Russert died suddenly of a heart attack.
“Barack Obama is a radical. We should not be afraid to say that.” – Andrew Breitbart
Yes we should. Breitbart died of a heart attack the day he planned to release those videos. They said he died of heart attack while he was still on the sidewalk. Breitbart and Russert asked the wrong questions and paid for it with their lives. They both died of heart attacks. Casualties of the Information War.
Imagine a government facing a population in which a particular conspiracy theory is becoming widespread. We will identify two basic dilemmas that recur, and consider how government should respond. The first dilemma is whether to ignore or rebut the theory; the second is whether to address the supply side of conspiracy theorizing by attempting to debias or disable its purveyors, to address the demand side by attempting to immunize third-party audiences from the theory’s effects, or to do both… Government is faced with suppliers of conspiracy theories, and might aim at least in part to persuade, debias, or silence those suppliers. – Conspiracy Theories
Don’t worry. You won’t have a “heart attack” if you believe in the correct, Government approved conspiracies.
Not all false conspiracy theories are harmful; consider the false conspiracy theory, held by many of the younger members of our society, that a secret group of elves, working in a remote location under the leadership of the mysterious “Santa Claus,” make and distribute presents on Christmas Eve. This theory is false, but is itself instilled through a widespread conspiracy of the powerful – parents – who conceal their role in the whole affair. (Consider too the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy.) It is an open question whether most conspiracy theories are equally benign; we will suggest that some are not benign at all… If children believe in Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny, there is no problem for government to solve… – Conspiracy Theories
So, do you understand? Be good, obedient wards of the State, and keep your mouth shut. Don’t say things that might be offensive. Don’t say things that might not be true.
Why do you want to cause problems for the Government. It is too difficult for them to deal with so much free speech. They must infiltrate too many organizations. They must pay people to put out mis/disinformation to counter yours. If they put out anonymous information, they’ll lose credibility. If they do it themselves, they lose credibility. If they do nothing, they lose credibility. If they try to stop it, they’re evil. If you lie, they must stop you from lying. If you tell the truth, they must stop you from telling the truth. When they carry out nefarious conspiracies, they must keep them secret, but since we live in an open, democratic society, the secret is eventually exposed. If they don’t try to keep it secret, we may not allow them to do it. Why do you want to make it so hard for them to do what they know is best for you? Why don’t you just be a good citizen, and stop consuming alternative news sources? Why don’t you stop asking questions and just STFU and be a good controllable citizen?
I don’t watch TV. I don’t read the newspaper. I read articles on Drudge Report, I listen to talk radio all day every day, left and right-wing. Before I started writing this magazine, I believed the conservative talk show hosts were credible. I’ve lost respect for many of them because of their lack of coverage of news that is truly important.
The news-people I give credence to are: Lyndon Larouche, Hal Lindsey, and Republic Broadcasting Network, especially Clint Richardson on The Corporation Nation.
Who do you think is winning and losing the Information War?
Information – Get it while you still can!
The Freedom Fighter 