The 'Fire With Fire' Discussion

 Back on Saturday morning, after I discussed Rumble, RT, France and propaganda....the question arose:

On a side note I'd like to hear your opinion on whether fighting fire with fire works even it comes to propaganda? Or do you think it's better to rise up above it? It seems we have a generation of politicians who'll lie without hesitation coupled with a client media who'll allow it when it aligns with their owners interests. How can you cut through that noise?

Before I really get into the 'meat' of this discussion.....a word of warning.  Mankind is given a basic map of 'hazards' and 'opportunities' upon arrival, and it's your own luck, perseverance, and determination to improve that map (avoiding getting lost).

The amount of propaganda dumped upon you today?  It's probably 100 times the level that I faced in 1977 leaving for the 'big-world'.   Between radio, newspapers, TV, the internet, social media and development of highly specialized propaganda....you probably get 200 'bits' of information/BS fed to you daily, and you have to make some decision to consume it, or dump it.  Your life-map is the only thing protecting you.

I pondered upon this over the weekend.  There are five factors at play.

First, I've spent a fair amount of my life reading and reviewing history, which often has two sides to it.  It's fairly easy to see how Germans fell for Soviet-style propaganda in the 1920s/1930s, or how they fell for Nazi-style propaganda in the 1930s time period.  It's easy to lay out far left or far right politics both in the US, and throughout Europe for the past two-hundred years....with various groups trying to get you 'on their team'.

To be fair....people in general....want to believe SOMETHING.  It used to be if it came across via a priest, in Latin and in text....you had zero skepticism.  If it came via the radio....you weren't skeptical enough to avoid it.  TV came along.....you weren't that skeptical.  The Internet came along...you didn't feel skeptical.  Social media came along and you didn't feel any skepticism.  

Via each stage, our skepticism has edged upward.  It just took a while.

Second, in general....people consider information to be the only true weapon against propaganda.  In military and intelligence circles.....information is the 'kryptonite' to a successful propaganda campaign.

No one is saying volumes of data....just that a page of facts often makes the difference.  But I'll add this....sometimes now, you have fact-checkers who are basically part of the propaganda machine....so you can't be 100-percent trusting of them.

Third, just in case you were wondering....there's well over 2,000 years of practice in the art of propaganda.  It's been around forever.

It's been openly practiced in religion, in politics, sport, news, business, science, medicine, entertainment, and even legends.  

If a story is good enough....it survives on.  Bigfoot is built in such a way.....Roman history has various bits of propaganda built into it.....Ben Franklin (of American fame) developed various stories which were fraudulent in nature but convincing to bring you over to the anti-UK side....and much of the French revolution (late 1700s) was built on absolute propaganda.  For every ounce of value in environmentalism....there's another ounce of BS/propaganda.  

Fourth, our use of common sense in today's rich environment of propaganda?  It's limited.

Six years since day one of the Trump era....with all the chatter and BS combined....one might fail to realize after x-number of accusations and charges....not one conviction on the 'orange-man' has occurred.  If you tried to ask why to some Brit or German journalist....they'd mostly just grin and suggest another charge is coming shortly.  Surely, you'd believe the latest charge would work and finally rid the world of the 'orange-demon'?

Our level of common sense is a problem because of the massive amount of news conceived and published on a daily basis.  If you counted social media, news networks, and blog/vlog folks.....there's probably enough information created in one 24-hour period....over the world....to take you a good thirty days to review and pronounce BS, crap, or true news.  We simply don't have the time to devote to such a task.

Fifth and final....on cutting through the 'noise'?  Trying to create opposite-propaganda is time consuming and probably of limited value.

You can openly review various sides to a story and eventually come to a middle-ground....but it's going to require you to devote time.

You can limit your propaganda coming in and just select a very limited or marginal amount of news into your life.  I see a lot of Russians who do this now....who mostly have zero belief in anything they hear.  In the Russian case....sports scores seem to be the only point of belief that they trust in.

You could ask questions.  A lot of the environmental propaganda has serious BS attached and just two or three questions quickly qualifies their facts to be marginal or non-existent.  An example, when one say you have only ten years before the Earth is destroyed....why is it always a round-number like 10?  When one only uses a data set of 1820 to present for a threatening report.....why does the data set start in 1820 and not 1420?  

I'll end this discussion with this landscape.  After Kennedy was assassinated.....the Warren Commission came to form a clear propaganda tool (889 pages) to absolutely convince you of Oswald being the one and only person involved in the shooting.  

Within five years, there are dozens of 'facts' cited in the 889 pages....which simply weren't true, and probably another thousand pages of data never added to the report....which would have cast a problem in convincing you of Oswald's guilt.

Twenty years after the report?  The US government met and just simply agreed....there was more to the story....probably a conspiracy, with additional people in the mix, but no one was willing to terminate the Warren Commission Report.  So it survives on today....mostly just a propaganda tool left on the shelf.  

One might make the case that the Bible also fits into the discussion....the Catholic Church fits....most of political affairs since the late 1800s, and our economic world itself is dependent on propaganda to survive (we need to believe in the value of a product, or the value of money).  

My advice: ask questions....be skeptical....use common sense....laugh over round numbers in the mix...and just consume less news.  Don't be so willing to believe everything that you hear.