Manufacturing consent: action and reaction
Herman and Chomsky’s indelible book on political media propaganda was a landmark in exposing the strategic deception of media outlets. It is through their corporate profiteering that they spin stories to awaken mass hysteria. Their thesis has stayed true till this day with a welcoming new craziness from the war on terror, Obamacare, Trump, Covid and now the Ukraine war. Public hysteria from media news prompts congressional action beneath the surface.
News outlets frame news in an inaccurate ideologically motivated audience clicking methodology. Reading a heading from the New York Times about Russia automatically sparks danger in the minds of Americans. Russia is the antagonist to the US’ mission of democratic protection. It is so baked in that any action on their end is a red flag. Russia is the big bad wolf and she must be stopped. It does not matter whether or not, she is in the wrong, solely that the word Russia has power. The rest of details mean nothing. The entire Ukraine war is simplified to Russia attacked Ukraine therefore it is wrong. No context no nothing. It must have been Russia’s jealousy and arrogance to return to the USSR. Every media station brings on journalists who spew this. They present this as fact. Yet they play no footage of him actually saying that. Is that his real goal? Just take the media’s word for it. If so called journalists so it is true, it is true.
A common line is the war is completely unprovoked. Really? Firstly, Russia was blamed for blowing up the Nord Stream pipeline. Why? It had to be Russia they are evil. There is a tendency to blame any wrong doing on Russia. Hunter Biden’s laptop Russia disinformation. Trump’s presidency, Russian agent. Russia is the American Voldemort, anything goes wrong blame Russia. A similar tactic to medieval Christian sorrows, blame the Jews. Ridding the pipeline made no sense for Russia given its advantage to Russia. The US was ousted for its nonsense months later but it finally came to fruition with Ukrainians doing it. The US government knew this but chose to blame Russia. Any easy way to raise citizen ire. They deceived the public into assuming it was the enemy in order to gain public sympathy and further the war. The ironic part of this, while there is no footage of Putin’s grand plan there is countless evidence of plans to the US planning on demolishing Nord Stream. Manufacturing lies of the enemy while shifting blame with skeletons in the closet is truly bold.
Questioning if Russia was provoked is amazing. The US promotes Russia’s malicious attacks on Ukraine. Why are they doing this? Russia is evil. There is way more to the story. NATO promised to stay out eastern Europe and continues to breathe down Russia neck. Ukraine was off-limits but NATO did not care. This put NATO on their border. The US denies ever making this deal but there is sufficient archive transcripts that say otherwise. Putin made his concerns known during Bush’s presidency. The Ukrainian coup in 2014 was assisted by the CIA. The west’s interest in Ukraine was affirmed on air to steal Russia’s robin. American is funding militias to overpower the pro-Russia government for pro-American government. The US was expanding its hegemony alongside NATO to Russia’s border. Crimea was an attempt to maintain the pro-Russian faction of Ukraine. The western side may have wished to be liberalised but not the entire country. Thus un-ironically the first treaty with Ukraine which the US forced Ukraine to reject was to give over the Donbas region and cease NATO alliance. Not the greatest deal but one that in Russia’s mind protected its self interest.
From this explanation alone along with the exuberant amount of evidence is somehow ignored. The media from the government down portrays this conflict as good versus evil. Russia is out for blood and the US are the liberators. This is an age-old narrative. There is an evil in the world and America needs to stop it. Whether it be nazis, Japanese, communists, muslims and so on. While the nazis are in a class of their own even Japanese were not unprovoked. Japan was at war with China and America supplied them with arms even more so using economic warfare to provoke an attack. Roosevelt’s administration sanctioned the Japanese while assisting the Chinese in their war. The Japanese were stuck and attacking the US was the sole option to stop their influence in the asian region. Apparently more evidence points to intelligence knowing of the attack on pearl harbour but allowing it to produce patriotism. Did this account for two atomic bombs? Communists and muslims were easily branded and easily perceived as dangerous enemies to fight against whether in Vietnam or Iraq.
The media always presents their perspective of the enemy’s rationales not the enemy’s original audio. Bin Laden’s attack was blamed as islamic extremism and hating freedom. He never said any of this. He complained that America was killing innocent muslims, backing dictators and placing military bases in islamic holy cities. America continued to kill innocent muslims contributing to the rise of ISIS and strengthening of the Taliban. These groups were not anti-American for its liberalism but for its genocide on the muslim world for its own interest namely oil and money. The war in Afghanistan was elongated long after Bin Laden’s death to feed off military contractors. McCarthyism was a straight attack on communism. Invading Vietnam for its communist sentiment campaigned and manufactured by the Johnson administration for economic appeal. Saddam Hussain did not have WMD’s but the fear struck in the public garnering heavy support. Even the CIA was aware of this falsity and yet Bush argued and the media pushed it. For the sake of democracy it was worthwhile while committing the same mistakes at the expense of American citizens’ lives.
The worst part about these malicious moves is the amount of lives lost due to their greedy and egotistical visions. Pearl harbour could have been avoided as well as all the soldiers killed in Vietnam and Afghanistan. Beyond American citizens, Middle Eastern citizens would be less threatened by the growing terrorism due to America’s superiority complex. Still, the media presents America as the key to salvaging peace. Anyone who opposes is a devilish fool who is a communist or a fascist. How dare you oppose democratising the world. There is a great defence of anti-war sentiments in the show Boston Legal. Despite their deep friendship Denny Crane struggles with Alan Shore’s anti-war opinions. To Denny, Alan is undemocratic and un-American. Being against the war is a monstrous attack on the US. Alan’s opposition has little to do with the lies that came out later. Such a position is considered crazy. Yet it is so true. Politicians play the same record over and over. The same pattern with the same lies. The people are duped into patriotic sympathy. It happened in WWII, Vietnam Iraq and Ukraine.
War isn’t the only media mongering attempt to alienate and harass. Both Snowden and Assange are perceived as traitors to the country. The citizenry defend the government’s disgusting disastrous actions with little empathy. The media calls their traitorous moves as giving away classified intel when it was simply diluting governmental coverups. The irony is, the media is not the only one at fault. The people buy into their superiority complex. America is always right. America should go democratise the world. America has never done anything wrong. The only American issue is the culture war. The horizontal power grab between politics and race not the puppeteering from the government. Nothing wrong with the vertical power grab. America taking down terrorism awesome but American police terrible. America defends the world so ruffians can beat each other in the streets. If the government is doing it, it is okay not if a straight white male is. It is a total mess of values. An absolute trust in the governmental order. As long as it is bipartisan. If politicians agree they must be doing the people a favour instead of colluding to screw them over.
Trump was a perfect example of media politicising random narratives for clicks and attention. Russiagate and January 6th have FBI written all over it and yet that is apparently too much to consider. Americans already are aware of the CIA’s infamous coups and it is too much to believe that the FBI could do the same. If media outlets are inviting FBI members to deny these claims as absurdity they are probably lying. Calling an FBI advisor to debunk a corruption theory on national television is not an expert but a ploy. The amount of censoring during covid on viruses and lockdowns were insidious but the media brought on its sole authenticator. Since science is apparently run by a single expert instead of debate. This is not beyond the pale to internalise. It is very real and the evidence is astronomical. The generally pushed version has little evidence. It has mere slogans and pushed agendas. Say Russian agent long enough and it becomes true. Say covid is from bats and people believe it. There is no evidence it is merely media speech.
Veracity is absent. The media says it is true and people concede due to panic. Just because a president or a doctor says something does not make it true. Take it under advisement but do not conclude that it must be. It is good to be sceptical. Go get a second opinion. Yet the media feeds on fear. Manipulating clips to favour their agenda. Words like Russia and muslim make Americans cringe. Their reactionary impulse enables pervasive consent. Stop those bad men. Even if they were provoked. America sneakily creates the problems and then allows the public to react to brazen defence. Cultivating public paranoia to soothe elitist agendas. Playing politico-ideological stressors to embolden hate and division. Politicians forced lockdowns on citizens then didn’t follow their own rules only to be re-elected. Somehow either people forgave them or believed they were set up. Politicians wouldn’t lie. The media said that Pelosi was set up. It was a right wing attack. It is so easy to stoke division and motivate soldiers when political leanings are insufferable. Trump was the enemy because he was a jerk republican. He brokered two huge peace deals and aided the economy tremendously but no love because of manipulated media rhetoric.
People are fault as well. Many left wingers do not have right wing friends and vice versa. Political leanings divide the country and apparent camaraderie. Many Americans believe their news program is unbiased and that the other is biased. Both are. MSNBC is liberal and FOX is conservative. Listen to both to get a full picture but they don’t do that. In fear they could be wrong. Unwilling to accept maybe they are in the wrong. The media only makes them feel better about themselves. Unable to see the whole truth. They blame it on republicans or capitalism, rich or white people. The problem is one’s own monolithic view. Hold people accountable and vote for representatives who will actually make changes. Do not let the media compel a position. A clearly biased position but naivety is so evident. The citizenry are too reactive. They need to be proactive to make change and seek responsibility. At the end of the day, it is the citizenry who are suffering for the country’s decisions. America’s billions aid to Ukraine is going somewhere else instead of the suffering countrymen rebounding from covid and homeless in the streets. A proactive priority of values.
Focusing on America is easy since it is supposed to be the light onto the world and yet it is one of the most nefarious. The elemental cause of some of the most notorious consequences. Other democratic countries do the same. Democracy holds a certain naivety to the people. The media only further brands us-them paradigms as well as discolouring the obvious grey area into a dialectic of good versus evil. While the first shot may come from the enemy, things are not always as they appear. There are many ways to provoke an enemy. The media will lie for views and for continuity. Do not get sucked into their frame nor their deception. It is a propaganda tool for their own elitist discretion given the moguls own the business. Be careful who you trust and be sceptical of those who exaggerate.
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