GIGEE QEBECQUA

I have posted this once before tv is g*******t Gov. For as long as there has been human language, humans have been using it to manipulate one another. The fact that it is possible to sk**lfully weave a collection of symbolic mouth noises together in such a way as to extract favors, concessions, v**es and consent from other humans has made manipulation so common that it now pervades our society from top to bottom, from personal relationships between two people to international relationships between government agencies and the public. This has made it very difficult to figure out what’s going on, both in our lives and in the world. whether that be the manipulations you may encounter in your small-scale personal interactions or the large-scale manipulations which impact the entire world: Understand the fact that humans are storytelling animals, and that whoever controls the stories controls the humans. Mental narrative dominates human consciousness; thought is essentially one continuous, churning monologue about the self and what it reckons is going on in its world, and that monologue is composed entirely of mental stories. These stories can and will be manipulated, on an individual scale by people we encounter and on a mass scale by sk**lful propagandists. We base our actions on our mental assessments of what’s going on in the world, and those mental assessments can be manipulated by narrative control. Be humble and open enough to know that you can be fooled. Your cognitive wiring is susceptible to the same hacks as everyone else, and manipulators of all sorts are always looking to exploit those vulnerabilities. It’s not shameful to be deceived, it’s shameful to deceive people. Don’t let shame and cognitive dissonance keep you compartmentalized away from considering the possibility that you’ve been duped in some way. Trust your own understanding above anyone else’s. It might not be perfect, but it’s a damn sight better than letting your understanding be controlled by narrative managers and dopey partisan groupthink, or by literally anyone else in a narrative landscape that is saturated with propaganda and manipulation. You won’t get everything right, but betting on your own understanding is the very safest bet on the table. It can be intimidating to stand alone and sort out the true from the false by yourself on an instance-by-instance basis, but the alternative is giving someone else authority over your understanding of the world. Abdicating your responsibility to come to a clear understanding of what’s going on in your world is a shameful, cowardly thing to do. Be brave enough to insist that you are right until such time as you yourself come to your own understanding that you were wrong. Find reliable news reporters who have a good sense for navigating the narrative matrix, and keep track of them to orient yourself and stay on top of what’s going on. Use individual reporters, not outlets; no outlet is 100 percent solid, but some reporters are pretty close on some specific subjects. Don’t let paranoia be your primary or only tool for navigating the narrative matrix. Some people’s only means of understanding the world is to become intensely suspicious of everything and everyone, which is about as useful as a compass which tells you that every direction is north. Spend time in conspiracy and media criticism circles and you’ll run into many such people. Rejecting everything as false leaves you with nothing as true. Find positive tools for learning what’s true. Speaking of confident, authoritative tones, be suspicious of confident, authoritative tones. It’s amazing how much traction people can get with a narrative just by posturing as though they know that what they’re saying is true, whether they’re an MSNBC or FOX NEWS pundit or a popular conspiracy You tuber. So many people are just plain faking it, because it works. You run into this all the time in debates on online political forums; people come at you with a supremely confident posture, but if you push them to present their knowledge on the subject and the strength of their arguments, there’s not actually anything there. They’re just accustomed to people assuming they know what they’re talking about and leaving their claims unchallenged, and it completely throws them off when someone doesn’t buy their feigned confidence schtick. Be aware of projection, and be aware of the fact that it cuts both ways: unhealthy people tend to project their wickedness onto others, while healthy people tend to project their goodness. Don’t let your goodness trick you into thinking there aren’t monsters who will deceive and manipulate you, and don’t let sociopaths project their own sinister motives onto you by telling you how rotten you are. This mixes a lot of good people up, especially in their personal lives. Not everyone is good, and not everyone is t***hful. See this clearly. Understand that t***h doesn’t generally move in a way that is pleasing to the ego, i.e. in a way Hollywood scripts are written to appeal to. Any narrative that points to a Hollywood ending where the bad guy gets karate kicked into lava and the hero gets the girl is manufactured. Russia gate and Q***n are both perfect examples of an egoically pleasing narrative with the promise of a Hollywood ending, either by Trump and his cohorts being d**gged off in chains or by the “white hats” overcoming the Deep State and throwing all the Democrats and Never-Trumpers in prison for p********a. Ain’t gonna happen, folks. Remember that when it comes to foreign policy, the neocons are always wrong. They’ve been so remarkably consistent in this for so long that whenever there’s a question about any narrative involving hostilities between the US-centralized power alliance and any other nation, you can just look at what Bill Kristol, Max Boot and John Bolton are saying about it and believe the exact opposite. They’re actually a very helpful navigation tool in this way. Hold your worldview loosely enough that you can change it at any time in the light of new information, but not so loosely that it can be slapped out of your head by someone telling you what to think in a confident, authoritative tone. As Carl Sagan once said, “It pays to keep an open mind, but not so open your brains fall out.”

Liberty Tree

NO, not near as biased as CNN and MSNBC. FOX only appears to be more biased to the right than it is because all the others are so far extreme left.

RandyBrian Loc: Texas

True. And in addition, it has to do with the way the left interprets even true facts.
examples:
If I say I am colorblind, race means nothing to me, then by the left's definition I am R****T because I am not violently ANTI-r****t.
If I say I believe in a capitalistic economy, then by the left's definition I am a n**i.
If I say I believe in God's definition of marriage, then according to the left I am a h**er and a homophobe.
If I say I believe in live and let live, just do not smash your choices into my face and my family's life, then I, agan, am a h**er and a 'wh**ever'phobe.
In other words, ANY time someone does not vehemently and aggressively AGREE with wh**ever the left says, then that person is a vile, h**eful, far right wing extremist.

Elwood Loc: Florida

Sure you are not talking about yourself as you seem to fit the description?

Old Thinker

I watch them but I'm no i***t... That's how I get my morning laughs... Joe is hilarious as he pretends to be somewhat conservative and talks about himself but Meka is just pathetic....their guests are also some of the biggest liars ever and never present any evidence... and the guy with the weird eyes on CNN has no clue about any subject they talk about but he is a bit funny in a bizarre way...

Linzo

Doesn’t anyone ever watch the PBS News hour for in depth balanced coverage? They continually do interviews with both Republicans and Democrats. I cut the cable years ago and only see the other sources mentioned above when on vacation.

Old Thinker

Do you really think PBS isn't biased?.... check out the contributors on MSNBC and CNN.... Alcindor is very biased opinions and her credentials reference PBS... I haven't watched lately but I am guessing that the only republicans on are the RINOS.....

Big dog

If you’re truly interested in what’s happening here in the USA 🇺🇸, try checking out the news from overseas, bbc, al jezara, etc....

RandyBrian Loc: Texas

I suggest you spend some time watching as many as you can, and compare each ones coverage of topics you KNOW facts about. If you work at being objective, you will very soon see that the liberal stations absolutely can not be trusted. A personal example is hurricanes. I have lived through dozens of them, cleaned up after them, and repaired damaged done by them, including traveling to work in cities hit by them, and have seen first hand where the left sites openly LIE about what is happening on the ground to support l*****t ideas.
But form your own opinion. Just don't lie to yourself to justify your prejudices.

Big dog

Precisely!

RandyBrian Loc: Texas

What the heck is WRONG with you?????
Only a complete nut job would be up at this time of night pounding on a keyboard!
Except for ME of course. I"M the shining picture of normality!
LOL !
Did you have a good Thanksgiving Big Dog?

Big dog

I’m guessing I passed out right after my last posting. As many of us elderly people here, I often take a ‘pre bedtime nap.

RandyBrian Loc: Texas

Yeah, I occasionally do the same. And it's happening more often. I'm not that old, 66, but like they say, it ain't the age, it's the milage.

Big dog

Okay ya got two years on me, yes, as you say, it ain’t the years, it’s the miles !!

Old Thinker

I do read news reports from almost everywhere... and it's a shame that the foreign sites are often more honest than our own.... I know I am more informed than most and definitely more so than the lefts useful i***ts..