Another Successful American Propaganda Effort
By Tim Gatto
30 April, 2014
Countercurrents.org
American political figures like to talk about "American Democracy". The truth is, there is no "American Democracy", it is something that our rulers like to foist upon the World stage much like parents like to tell their children about Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny. It's fiction made in order to keep their "children" in line. The "children" in this case are the majority of Americans that don't have inside access to the mechanizations of the new American reality that is daily becoming more like a police state with all the trappings the best the Third Reich ever had to offer.
The difference in the manner that this is being achieved is infinitely more subtle. No longer does the government need to put down dissent or randomly arrest those that question their authority. The appearance of allowable dissent is in fact, one of the ways that they to manage an appearance of a Democracy, but dissent will only be tolerated only as long as it manages to create the illusion of a democracy.
The best case in point id the Occupy Movement. When demonstrations started to sweep the nation and Occupy managed to shut down ports in Oakland and threatened Houston, the government swept in with local, State and Federal authorities to shut down dissent throughout the United States due in part to their "Fusion Centers" throughout the US, consisting of over 22 law enforcement agencies working in tandem with each other. It wasn't a coincidence that all the Occupy settlements were disbanded throughout the nation in days.
Most people in the United States are oblivious to what is being done in their name and at this point in history, even if they were told the truth, few would believe it. Regretfully, most wouldn't care. The rule in this century is that if you are just above the poverty line and have all the toys that make you happy and you "fit in" with others of your social status, just shut up and don't rock the boat, no matter what consequences you see down the road. Sound familiar? Well it should be, we all see over and over on television how Germany let itself be deceived by Hitler and his propaganda machine.
You would think that Germany would have learned by know but sadly, like the Americans that have been constantly exposed to this particular lesson in history, they haven't learned a thing and neither have we. At this very moment in our history our mass media is sanctioning government propaganda like it was the Gospel (that in my belief is another load of propaganda). People don't seem to want to think for themselves and this is why it is so easy for their so-called "leaders" to do their thinking for them.
In my lifetime I saw a brief moment of clarity when people started to question actually question those in authority. The mainstream media has done its very best to ridicule that time in the late '60's and early 70's as the "hippie" era and ascribe everything that happened to drug abuse and rich white elitist kids trying to break out of their parents mold. Still, it wasn't that simple. Maybe the reason was that World War II wasn't that far off in the distance and we saw another government lying though its teeth to the people that they were supposed to be representing. It could have been because many young men didn't want to go and fight and die for something they could care less about, in any event. this was one shining moment in history when the people of America rose up and said no. If LBJ and Nixon were alive today I wonder what Vietnam would mean to them today.
We had another all to brief moment of clarity just last year when Obama claimed that the government of Syria was using chemical weapons against children in that nation's civil war. The media was all over that, with people like CBS's Scott Pelley proclaiming that the Syrian dictator had "crossed Obama's red line". McCain and the other war hawks in Washington were rubbing their hands in anticipation over cruise missiles striking Damascus. The fix was in and the fleet was assembled off the coast of Syria. It was just about a done deal until the people of the United States started phoning, e-mailing and calling their Congressmen.
Suddenly, President Obama decided to leave it up to Congress. Maybe after 12 years of warfare, getting involved in another Middle-East debacle wasn't the best way to go, especially when he could plainly see that the American people were seemingly getting sick and tired of seeing their hard-earned tax dollars and their soldiers being wasted in something that would obviously come to no-good. That and Vladimir Putin's intervention made the vote in Congress unnecessary. The Syrian chemical weapons were put on the chopping block but resentment among the neo-cons simmered.
Now we have a situation when suddenly a part of Eastern Europe called Ukraine has now become the most important part of the World. It doesn't matter that more than half the population of the United States couldn't find Ukraine on a map, the fact is that they want "democracy". It doesn't matter to most Americans that they have no idea who took over the government in the capital city of Kiev, they are against Russia getting involved. Secretary of State Kerry (who was once one of the primary players in out "moment of clarity" during Vietnam) has come out firmly against Russian involvement in Ukraine. It doesn't matter that there hasn't been a single iota of verifiable proof that they are involved, the mainstream media has come out on Kerry's side and that's all here is to it.
Even though pictures of Russian "special forces" wearing no insignia, whipping up revolutionary fervor that were printed in The New York Times as incontrovertible proof that Russia was fomenting revolution proved to be false and the NYT's had to print a retraction, the mainstream media keeps hammering away. The gullible American people, waylaid by the fate of Flight 370 and the Clipper's owner talking racist, have no idea how close we are to permanently screwing up the planet.
Just ask yourself what would we do if Russia was spending billions of dollars propping up a coup in Mexico or Canada? How would we feel about them moving military weapons into adjoining nations if there were any?
Apparently this doesn't bother the average American. That Germany is one of the members of NATO that is most supportive of the United States is totally lost on them also. The fact that 20 million Russians died dislodging the fascist German military machine, along with their Eastern European allies seems not to enter into the equation. The only predominant theme is the unrelenting propaganda coming from CNN, CBS and other mainstream media. The fact that most of what is being reported is retracted days later falls on deaf ears.
One reason I don't write as often as I would like to is because it takes a chisel and a hammer to get things to register with most Americans. That and the fact that my writing is only carried on publications that people who already have a good grasp of what the score really is, actually read. I wish that every so often, people that don't have an inkling of what is really happening would take a moment out of their precious, self-involved day and read what I'm trying to tell them.
Russia needs a civil war or a confrontation in Ukraine like most people need cancer. There is nothing in it for them. They sell natural gas to Ukraine and I'm sure they don't want that income to stop. The provinces that are protesting against the people that pulled the coup in Kiev were given to Ukraine by Russia. Kerry is lying, Obama is lying and nobody seems to care. Well, after the sanctions put in place today, the deputy Russian foreign minister said that if the astronauts need replacing in the space station need transportation, perhaps they should use a trampoline. Oh, by the way, he also said that foreign energy interests in the Russian gas and oil regions may be curtailed.
Maybe that will make the people that run the American government sit up and take notice.
Tim Gatto is former Chairman of the Liberal Party of America, Tim is a retired Army Sergeant. He currently lives in South Carolina. He is the author of "Complicity to Contempt" and "Kimchee Days" available at Oliver Arts and Open Press. Tim Gatto's new book "Contempt to Outrage" will be available soon from Oliver Arts and Open
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