Orlov: The Limits of Propaganda

As Paul Craig Roberts has recently reported, the US government is in the process of launching an all-out war on truth. Those who express views contrary to the party line out of Washington will be labeled a threat. Eventually they may find themselves carted to one of the concentration camps which Halliberton (Dick Cheney’s old company) has constructed for $385 million. But that may take a while. In the meantime, we can expect lots of other, less dramatic developments. Indeed, some of these are already happening. Here they are, listed in order of severity.

1. Self-censorship. Those who have previously tried to get the truth out no matter out become more reticent and prone to equivocation when reporting on “hot” issues.

2. Topic-avoidance. They start avoiding certain “hot” issues that they feel are most likely to get them into trouble.

3. Response to harassment. A few incidents of mild official harassment cause certain blogs to start watering down their content, or pulling down content in response to harassment.

4. Blacklisting. The officials start censoring content on a case-by-case basis, blocking or shutting down certain internet sites that they consider seditious.

5. Blocking communications. The officials start dealing with the “hard cases” of uncooperative individuals who remain, shutting down their communications by disabling their cell phones, shutting down internet access, and by imposing travel restrictions so that the “hard cases” are forced to remain in places where they can be watched.

6. Detention. Those found to be truly uncooperative, who try to circumvent the restrictions, are rounded up and shipped off to the above-mentioned camps.

This may seem like a dire prognosis, but actually I just want to present a relatively complete list of public measures for your consideration. Yes, there will be a few “hard cases” who will insist on getting right in the face of Washington officialdom in futile hopes of somehow affecting the political process or winning over a few of their compatriots. But at some point such individuals become indistinguishable from people with mental problems. That is because if you live in the US, actually know how the political system there operates, and still think that the US is a democracy, then you DO have a mental problem. You can’t have it both ways: either you buy into the official propaganda, or you don’t.

Also, it bears pointing out that the vast majority of people in the US are quite happy listening to Washington’s propaganda, be it from Fox or NPR, don’t consider it propaganda, and have been conditioned to consider anyone who attempts to tell them the truth to be tin hat-wearing conspiracy theorist nut case. And that means that tin hat-wearing conspiracy theorist nut cases have a role to play. They are important to have, in the same way that a village idiot is important to have, so that children can learn what idiocy looks and sounds like. So, why bother sending them to a concentration camp?

And so it seems likely that the village idiots… ahem, truth-tellers will remain free-range for the time being, unless they really lose it and start tilting at windmills. But then that becomes a bona fide mental health issue.

Unless, of course, full-on war hysteria breaks out. In that case, while the external goons are busy pretending to be “not winning, not losing” but somehow “keeping America safe” in yet another wretched part of the world, the internal goons have to be kept busy. Rounding up undesirables would give them something to do.

That’s the state of affairs in the United States and its subservient territories: Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand and a few others. But Washington’s propaganda isn’t working at all well in the rest of the world, be it Russia or China or Latin America. In all of these places, Washington’s message control has more or less failed. This is why the people in Washington are in a bit of a panic, and labeling internal dissidents as a “threat” is just them flailing in search of an answer. They can’t stop lying, and they can’t even pretend to rule the world if everyone knows that they are lying, so their only option is to try to squelch every voice except their own. They may succeed at this within the US (some would say they already have) but as far as the rest of the world—good luck!

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An interesting development took place two days ago in my tiny patch of the world: an article I produced together with Club Orlov’s special Kiev correspondent Yu Shan which I ran a while ago, then translated into Russian, was published as an editorial by a major Russian online daily, VZGLYAD.ru. In itself this is not a surprise; my stuff does get published in Russian once in a while, and this is an excellent article, which is why I ran it and translated it. But what surprised me was the response it received. Below is a sampling from the over 100 comments it received in just two days. It is here to afford you a peak behind the one-way mirror through which the world views the US. I hope that you enjoy it.

Ай да Ю, ай да сукин ты сын! Читал с наслаждением с первой до последней буквы! Yu sonofabitch! I read it with delight from the first to the last word! Браво, желтолицый брат! Получил настоящие удовольствие от прочитанной статьи! Bravo, yellow-skinned brother! I got real pleasure from reading this article! Автору—огромный респект! Написано умно, с большим чувством, искренностью и тревогой за судьбу мира. Без излишнего умничанья и скороспелых выводов. Читала с удовольствием. Жду новых статей. С успешным дебютом!! This author deserves huge respect! This is written intelligently, with great feeling, sincerity and worry over the fate of the world. Without excessive sophistry or quick answers. I read it with pleasure. I wait for new articles. Congratulations on a successful debut! Огромное спасибо автору! Определение очень верное. Неврозы и прочие личные психотические явления, игры разума и продукты разыгравшейся больной фантазии… Голоса в голове. А больше ничего. A huge thank-you to the author! His diagnosis is very accurate. It’s all neuroses and other psychotic phenomena, mind games and products of an inflamed imagination… Voices in their heads. And nothing else. Ну что, Взгляд можно поздравить с новым талантливым автором. Well, Vzglyad should be congratulated with a new, talented author. Давненько не читал на ВЗ таких статей. Отлично! Лично меня “пробило”. It’s been a while since I read such an article in VZ. Excellent! Personally, it just bowled me over. Потрясающая эмоциональная статья! Несколько сумбурной мне показалась, но суть отражает на все 100. Браво! A stunning, emptional article! It struck me as a bit mussy, but its portrayal of reality is 100% spot on. Bravo! На удивление глубокая и проницательная статья. Автор молодец. Каждый отдельный параграф—жемчужина мудрости приобретенной на личном опыте. Кто пришел за правдой—услышит и увидит. A surprisingly deep, incisive article. This author is one clever cookie. Each paragraph is a gem of wisdom based on hard-won personal experience. Let him who came for the truth hear and see it. Умная статья. Особенно точно подмечена и описана интеллектуальная и нравственная деградация США за последние 30 лет. А если Хиллари Клинтон станет очередным президентом США. то процесс деградации придет в заключительную стадию. A smart article. It’s especially accurate in noting and depicting the intellectual and moral degradation of the USA over the past 30 years. And if Hillary Clinton becomes the next president of USA, the process of degradation will enter its terminal phase. Шедеврально! A masterpiece! Замечательная статья. Отличный слог, и главное, все верно… An amazing article. Beautiful prose and, most importantly, all true… Однозначно, это перл журналистики. This is a singular journalistic gem. Блестящий журналист. И мысли, и слог, и опыт. Большинство наших журналистов на такой уровень не тянут. A brilliant journalist. The thoughts, the prose, the experience. Most of our journalists can’t operate at such a level Великолепно! Magnificent! Не надо недооценивать этих набитых костями американских чучел—они скупили многие медиаресурсы и политическую элиту! Нужно развивать свою культуру, чтоб наша молодежь сама отвергла их гниющие западные ценности! Let’s not underestimate these bone-stuffed American scarecrows—they’ve bought up lots of media resources and the political elite! We must develop our culture, so that our young people naturally reject their rotten Western values. Блеск! Brilliant! Давно не читал таких честных эмоций! It’s been a long time since I read such honest emotions! Хорошая статья! Браво! A good article! Bravo! Написано от души… Чувствуется—выстрадано… Written from the soul… You can feel it—it’s based on suffering… Страшные они феминистки. Потому что злые. С такими страшными женщинами не победишь. Победа за теми чьи женщины счастливие и красивее. Those feminists are frightening. Because they are malicious. You can’t win with such frightening women. Victory will belong to those whose women are happier and more beautiful. Жжёт мужик. Про клоны нуланд очень хорошо заметил. В любом голивудском произведении вы увидите этих тёток в пиджачках на кофточку с большим вырезом, с наглым взглядом и папочкой (а теперь планшетиком) в руках и что то там быстро говорящих на ходу. This guy burns it up! Well noted about the Nuland clones. In any piece of Hollywood output, you can spot these biddies wearing a jacket over a low-cut blouse, with an insolent look, holding a folder (now a tablet) and babbling on about something on the go. Спасибо, Ю Шан… даже не за аналитику происходящего, а просто за то, что понимаешь, что только Россия и Китай вместе могут убить эту заразу Америку—раковую опухоль планеты. Thank you, Yu Shan… not even for the analysis of what’s happening, but just for your understanding that only Russia and China together can kill this American pest—the cancerous tumor of the planet. Автор правильно отметил пагубность феминизации американского общества и истоки ее “исключительности”. Американскими женщинами, захватившими власть в американской семье, во главу угла ставится культ “моего бэби”, которому все принадлежит по праву рождения. Отсюда их проблемы. The author accurately pointed out the malignancy of the feminization of American society and the origins of its “exceptionality.” American women, who have seized power in the American family, place their cult of “my baby,” who owns everything as a birthright, ahead of everything and everyone. Очень интересная статья. Чувствуется, что это идет у него изнутри, выстраданное, а не по верхушкам. Возможно, немножко сумбурно, но от этого кажется еще искреннее. A very interesting article. You can feel, that this is coming from within, from hard-won experience, not from skimming the surface. Perhaps a bit mussy, but because of this it seems even more sincere.

Having worked with Yu on revising his first rough draft, and on translating the result into Russian, I feel some amount of ownership, and pride, in this piece. How much pride? Well, much more than I could have felt had it only been published in English, where the response it received was undeservedly muted. Did a major English-language periodical pick it up? Ha-ha-ha you’ve got to be kidding! Oh, and in light of what Paul Craig Roberts said, and that list of measures… Draw your own conclusions, but for Yu’s next piece I am contemplating skipping the step of producing the intermediate, English-language result, and have it go straight into Russian.

Club Orlov