Reason: the power of comprehending, inferring, or thinking especially in orderly rational ways
Logic: interrelation or sequence of facts or events when seen as inevitable or predictable
Propaganda: ideas, facts, or allegations spread deliberately to further one’s cause or to damage an opposing cause
Manipulation: to control or play upon by artful, unfair, or insidious means especially to one’s own advantage
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I wanted to include those definitions from the Merriam-Webster dictionary describing the terms above so we can better understand how our country’s culture is shifting from one that believed in “reason” & “logic” into one that is easily manipulated by propaganda, thanks to conditioning and indoctrination.
But first, please note what is missing from the definitions above: none of these terms include any references to or requirements of any kind of education whatsoever. A person who hasn’t been professionally educated can be logical and reasonable just as a person who has collected a myriad of degrees from Ivy League universities can be completely devoid of logic or reason and easily manipulated by propaganda. We see it all the time.
In fact, there are many who would argue that the more a person is subjected to professional, modern-era “education” the more likely that person is to be indoctrinated and brainwashed. After all, most educational institutions today do not educate in any type of socratic method to stimulate critical thinking but, instead, strictly impose a specific viewpoint (more than likely from the left side of the political spectrum which controls the schools), and go as far as shunning anyone who presents an alternative point of view to the one that the teachers wish to impose. We hear about this happening all the time in high schools and college campuses all around the country. In essence, this is the very foundation for the “cancel culture,” which has now spilled over from colleges and universities and into the mainstream and every day life.
This explains why so many on the Left automatically assume that a person who doesn’t share their opinions is either “ignorant” or “uneducated.” Ironically, these Leftists are also the people who proudly proclaim that they would NEVER listen to “Faux News” or anything other than the often-discredited media they read the headlines from. To them, refusing to read or listen to anything that could challenge their points of view- or their indoctrinated brains- is a badge of honor.
Which is why the following situation was, in my opinion, simultaneously remarkable and yet, not surprising. I am talking about the recent Tucker Carlson segment with author and former President Bill Clinton adviser Dr. Naomi Wolf, which I have posted below. In it, Dr. Wolf, a vocal Democrat and feminist, makes the argument that under the Biden Administration we may have reached what she characterizes as the 10th step in becoming a fascist/totalitarian government. She further argued that if people don’t “wake-up” very soon, the small window that we currently have to get our country back before it is lost forever, will close.
In the interview, as well as in many of her Tweets, Dr. Wolf complains about the horrendous repercussions of the COVID-19 lockdowns on people and small businesses and how the lockdowns have been promoted by the big corporations for their benefit. She even goes as far as to say that, had she known that Biden would support the lockdowns, she “would never have voted for him.”
My question to her would be “how could you NOT know?” I know that Biden mostly hid in his basement during the campaign and that his campaign rhetoric was purposely vague, but I thought it was very clear that not only would he be supporting the lockdowns, he would also be expanding on mandates. Anyone who was paying attention understands that his statement about listening to “science” really means that he will listen to whatever he is told by the big corporations and the elites that control him.
What’s more, we knew that he would make all of us, the U.S. taxpayers, bailout the states that destroyed lives and their own economies through their criminal ineptitude, like Democrat Gov. Cuomo in NY and Democrat Gov. Newsom in CA.
As to everything else that Dr. Wolf is now arguing, most conservatives, including President Trump, had been sounding those alarms for quite a while. If she had been listening to the voices outside of her echo chambers, she would have known all this a long time ago.
Instead, she is an example of someone who not only was manipulated by the propaganda, but who used her bully pulpit to promote it. Her blogpost on the “10 Steps to Fascism” are a perfect example of this. Although she takes several shots at President Obama for many of the things that he did during his autocratic administration, she also tries to fit the “Trump is a fascist” narrative into boxes that it simply doesn’t fit in with vague ideas and incomplete sets of facts. Rather than admit that her ideology has been proven wrong and that she has been bamboozled by the Democrats for so long, it is easier for her to make one last desperate attempt at relativism based not on facts, but on subjective opinions. In other words, she tries to play upon facts to her own advantage (manipulation) while spreading allegations deliberately to damage an opposing cause (propaganda). Now reality has caught up to her and our country so she is trying to make amends without having to admit just how wrong she has been. So, while I applaud her for finally speaking out, if she and others had not been so close-minded and unwilling to listen to opposing viewpoints, maybe we wouldn’t be in the situation we are in. Maybe.
And she is not the only Democrat going through this rude awakening. There is also the case of the white, female, liberal, university staffer at Smith College who recently resigned from her position after blowing the whistle on the deplorable “atmosphere of racial discrimination at the school.” I posted the story below. She is someone who, as the Left aims to do, has been labeled a racist not because of any words or actions, but because of the color of her skin. We know that this is something that is happening all over the country, not just in schools and colleges, but in government and corporations (i.e. Coca Cola).
Think about that for a second: the Left claims that they want to eliminate racism by not just putting certain racial characteristics above all others, but by attributing certain behaviors to race. This is exactly what racism is, not the eradication of it. This is also nothing more than an illogical and unreasonable manipulation which is being promoted by propaganda.
Again, I applaud this lady for speaking out. But, how could she not see this coming? Many of us have been attacking this new form of sanctioned racism for years while also predicting that what is reality now would happen. Ironically, we have been called “racist” for fighting true racism. You don’t have to be a fortune-teller, nor have a Ph.D. from any institution to see what has been happening and understand what the consequences would be: you just need to follow facts to their reasonable and logical conclusion to know what would come next.
These are just two recent examples of how “educated” people should have known something, but they didn’t. There are many others. The whole idea of “man-made climate change,” for example, presupposes a desired outcome by denying not just science, but logic and reason. The desired outcome for people who believe it is the need to think that they have some control over climate (or their destiny) by doing something as simple as recycling, planting a tree or just talking bout climate change. The desired outcome for the governments and corporations that promote the idea is to exert more control over the population and gain more power, money, or both.
A reasonable and logical person would question the conclusion that climate is controlled by man when s/he learns that climate has been changing from ice ages to global warm-ups for billions of years before the advent of man. So, if man causes global warming or cooling (depending on the day) what caused those changes before man even existed? Conversely, if those were not caused by man, doesn’t it stand to reason that the current ones are not, either? But facts, logic and reason are not what drives the narrative: propaganda and the manipulation of data do and even the questioning of the official narrative (which is, I thought, what science was really about) will earn you mockery and shunning.
And I won’t even go into the true story of Greta Thunberg and her rise to fame except to say that there are probably no better examples of propaganda so perfectly designed to fool so many at a global scale.
Of course, all of this permeates down to the every day virtue-signaling foot soldier who propagates the lies while patting themselves on the back. These are people who won’t even try to double-check or even question that which they have been manipulated into believing because, unfortunately, that is the very nature of propaganda. And when you point out a defect in the reasoning or, more likely, a lie, they suddenly become busy or irate and have to leave the conversation. Or they will throw a tantrum peppered with a few ad hominem insults before they leave in a hissy fit and block you.
Meanwhile, the window to save our country continues to close.
https://www.foxnews.com/media/naomi-wolf-tucker-clinton-adviser-biden-lockdowns
Reality Shrugged 