"no matter how absurd, and did not particularly object to being deceived because it held every statement to be a lie anyhow. The totalitarian mass leaders based their propaganda on the correct psychological assumption that, under such conditions, one could make people believe the most fantastic statements one day, and trust that if the next day they were given irrefutable proof of their falsehood, they would take refuge in cynicism; instead of deserting the leaders who had lied to them, they would protest that they had known all along that the statement was a lie and would admire the leaders for their superior tactical cleverness.” ― Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 1951
“And the new Kremlin won’t make the same mistake the old Soviet Union did: it will never let TV become dull. The task is to synthesize Soviet control with Western entertainment.” ― Peter Pomerantsev, Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia, 2014
“In America, everyone is entitled to an opinion, and it is certainly useful to have a few when a pollster shows up. But these are opinions of a quite different roder from eighteenth- or nineteenth-century opinions. It is probably more accurate to call them emotions rather than opinions, which would account for the fact that they change from week to week, as the pollsters tell us. What is happening here is that television is altering the meaning of ‘being informed’ by creating a species of information that might properly be called disinformation. I am using this world almost in the precise sense in which it is used by spies in the CIA or KGB. Disinformation does not mean false information. It means misleading information–misplace, irrelevant, fragmented or superficial information–information that creates the illusion of knowing something but which in fact leads one away from knowing. In saying this, I do not mean to imply that television news deliberately aims to deprive Americans of a coherent, contextual understanding of their world. I mean to say that when news is packaged as entertainment, that is the inevitable result. And in saying that the television news show entertains but does not inform, I am saying something far more serious than that we are being deprived of authentic information. I am saying we are losing our sense of what it means to be well informed. Ignorance is always correctable. But what shall we do if we take ignorance to be knowledge?” ― Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business, 1985
"we are losing our sense of what it means to be well informed. Ignorance is always correctable. But what shall we do if we take ignorance to be knowledge?” - 1985 - that came November 6, 2012 when Twitter interpretation of the world was taken as knowledge. Tweeting-thinking, Twitter-length ideas and concepts.
November 6, 2012 is when Twitter-thinking took over, 10 seconds or less Tweeting-thinking - taking ignorance as knowledge. Memes as comprehension. Twitter-values nation was announced November 6, 2012. Mob mentality around Twitter-thinking founded.
“Science is more than a body of knowledge; it is a way of thinking. I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time—when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness. The dumbing down of America is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30-second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance. As I write, the number-one videocassette rental in America is the movie Dumb and Dumber. “Beavis and Butthead” remain popular (and influential) with young TV viewers. The plain lesson is that study and learning—not just of science, but of anything—are avoidable, even undesirable.” ― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, 1995
“enormously influential media, the 30-second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming” – Twitter thinking described in 1995 by Carl Sagan, was announced November 6, 2012 by Donald J Trump on Twitter - misunderstandings and comprehension failures
Twitter status id message 266037143628038144
“Настало время замечательных историй. Расскажу вам о том (теперь уже можно), как мы с Дональдом Трампом приняли решение освободить Америку и сделать её снова великой. На это нам понадобилось целых 4 года и ещё 2 дня. Всё началось ночью с 6 на 7 ноября 2012 года.”
“Сказать, что я сильно переживал… значит ничего не сказать. Я был в ярости. Писал гневные твиты и посылал проклятия. Единственным человеком на всю сеть, кто тогда бился до конца, не хотел признавать и мириться с результатами, был Дональд Фредович. Он поднял в небо свой самолёт и летал между Нью-Йорком и DC, призывая весь мир через свой твиттер - начать марш на Вашингтон!”
Monday, May 19, 2025
So sick, so sickened of Americans (people in the USA) “eating the Kremlin onion”, so sick of this never-ending bullshit. USA people who fall for White House / Elon Musk antics and Surkov Shuffle. The “winning of debate” by antics and aggression. So fucking sickening.
489,799 views April 30, 2025
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTnQMCOhZFMDo you ever get that feeling that the USA isn’t just getting dumber it’s actually working on it like it’s a group project and everyone’s bringing Cheetos but no one brought a damn pen. We’re not just slipping into stupidity like it’s a hot tub we’re cannonballing into it. We’re throwing parades for it. We’re giving it TV deals endorsement contracts and a podcast where it talks about its healing journey.
And it’s not your imagination our society really is getting dumber and not the good kind of dumb or the fun kind of dumb like laughing at videos of cats slapboxing the bad kind the kind where we seem to be daring each other to trip over the same rock 5,000 times and then sue the rock for emotional damages and just for the record I think we’re all guilty of this to some degree and if you even hint that maybe thinking is good you’re immediately labeled an elitist like you just walked into a bowling alley wearing a monocle quoting Kirkagard all right.
So Isaac Asimov the famous author and biochemist who by the way was smart enough to predict this dumpster fire decades ago nailed it when he said the following: anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is just as good as your…
2:48
America used to at least pretend to value intelligence scientists were admired writers were respected because people actually read books and the guy who invented sliced bread was a national hero.And now if you use words with more than three syllables somebody accuses you of word salad. You know we used to aspire upward and now we aspire sideways toward whoever talks the loudest and fastest while knowing the least and don’t kid yourself this isn’t some natural entropy of society it’s a conscious choice we like stupid it’s just easier it doesn’t make you feel bad about scrolling through 19 hours of YouTube videos titled “Watch this dog say bro.”
And look I get it i waste time on some of this stuff too especially when it comes to cats and dogs but I digress and meanwhile critical thinking you know the thing that separates us from barn animals uh no offense to barn animals he gets treated like a personal attack and God forbid you ask a question that doesn’t fit neatly on a bumper sticker and next thing you know you’re called a hater or worse negative vibes because toxic positivity is also part of this problem
Oh I wish we could use social media to deal with the mass psychosis, cult deprogramming, people who believe anti-science in USA crisis… and to promote MLK Jr, Malala and other good ideas on world peace.
Glad to see people make it to he front page of social media actually addressing problems of human needs. We just need to inspire everyone to do this on a sustained basis.
https://old.reddit.com/r/london/comments/1kqm2p5/trapped_in_my_flat_for_over_a_week_no_lifts_no/
Reddit community posting “sick of this country, USA”
Good to admit, but the scope of the mass dehumanization we are living under in 2025 isn’t really being faced up to…
https://old.reddit.com/r/Vent/comments/1kqp5sy/im_sick_of_this_country_us/
Gullibility crisis in USA
Egomania crisis in USAThe MAGA movement has been all about electric media messages of saying “being a Republican party member is the greatest in the world, better than all others, ultra-humans”
People have been bombarded from cloud computing and media lords like Rupert Murdoch and Elon Musk X to be told they are superior than other human beings and that starving, dehumanizing, taking away medical care of non-Republicans is goodness. Digital messages delivered with media machines.
School classrooms do not address people over age 24 who believe messages off social media and who blindly accept Fox News HDTV messages at age 70. School classroom education is not how Americans learn, they learn from electric media systems. People have been bombarded from cloud computing and media lords like Rupert Murdoch and Elon Musk X to be told they are superior than other human beings and that starving, dehumanizing, taking away medical care of non-Republicans is goodness. Digital messages delivered with media machines.
Gullibility Crisis, Gullible USA
“The truth is, it’s getting harder to describe the extent to which a meaningful percentage of Americans have dissociated from reality,” The Atlantic’s Charlie Warzel wrote “I’m Running Out of Ways to Explain How Bad This Is.” - October 19, 2024 - America’s gullibility crisis, Zachary Basu
Blind Faith USA
There is a blind faith in USA that is you prank or trick someone, you teach a lesson. And it is that manipulation of others as “the final word”, that Donald Trump does with Truth Social and Elon Musk does with X media platform, and Rupert Murdoch does with Fox News and other media. A religion faith that if you manipulate others you win. Faith In Liars
Tuesday May 20, 2025
If all social media users could sustain on this topic for 6 months every day, Neil Postman’s 1985 book “Amusing Ourselves To Death”, which is only 188 pages - we might start to turn around the crisis of year 2024 and year 2025.
“What are your thoughts about attention spans dropping from 2.5 minutes in 2004 to 47 seconds in 2025?”
https://old.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/1kr3ue1/what_are_your_thoughts_about_attention_spans/
It’s becoming harder and harder to ignore that Americans are not only willing to stand up to let Billionaires rule, but also willing to die for Billionaires in the name of hate.
“Unluckily we have most major news outlets sucking his dick and asking for more. And most Americans get their news from these outlets. I just watched Monday’s episode of the Daily Show, the Biden’s cognition narrative being repeated throughout the outlets is so weird. He (or his team) did so well with what he/they were given. Now we’re heading towards some dystopia and they want to prop it up?”
https://old.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/1kr4vzz/joe_biden_isnt_your_scapegoat/mtbfz9o/"It’s really not Trump, it’s the ten of millions of Americans that want the narrative they are receiving from him and Fox. Everytime someone goes against Trump and his narrative they are dismissed by his supporters.
Fox tried to angle away from Trump a couple times from 2020 to 2022, and everytime they did, there was mass reaction from their viewers. They started watching News Max or OANN instead. Fox then realized they need to just embrace him or they could lose everything.
We can’t stop them from controlling the narrative if half of the voting population wants to hear it."
https://old.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/1kr4vzz/joe_biden_isnt_your_scapegoat/mtb6ths/Wednesday May 21, 2025
Repeating:
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April 3, 2015 Bill Gates gave a Ted Talk about how USA was unprepared for a pandemic. People even in 2025 do not admit mistakes and say “Bill Gates was correct”.
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We are more anti-science and pro-disease in 2025 than we were in 2019.
Denial abounds, silence on serious topics.
Carl Sagan already witnessed this trend and made a public notice to We The People on January 8, 1994 - and published a book in 1995.
Twitter-thinking took over USA nation mindsets, Russian information warfare embraced and welcomed, since March 2013.
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https://old.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/1ku5bsi/jon_stewart_shares_dark_prediction_for_how_the/
I listened to the Jon Stewart quote, and he says “one man”. This isn’t one man. JD Vance cult of pope couch chanting and Elon Musk and all the others in the White House have been building up since 2013. People want to keep acting like this is all just “normal Fox News audience” and Rush Limbaugh audience behavior,… it isn’t. All my family and where I’ve lived since 2006 has changed. Texas, Georgia, Florida, Arizona - people have changed into believing falsehoods. People are not taking Neil Postman and Reddit, and Lemmy and Twitter and Facebook and Cambridge Analytica and Russian information warfare seriously…
The Apple iPhone changed everything in 2007. And 2012 and 2013 is when social media users changed. Hate-filled, nasty, dehumanizing. This is not just a FEW PEOPLE in the White House, this is everyday Americans who used to say computers were for nerds and don’t trust people on the Internet.
They used to say don’t trust rich city slickers in New York City - and now they obey one with terrible ideas. They are actually attracted to the power and success of hate and dehumanization.
Jon Stewart thinks the media is bending to Donald Trump, nope. Donald Trump and the media are bending to a core values and moral shift in the entire population. And it is right here on social media. Neil Postman’s 1985 book 'Amusing Ourselves to Death" explains it.
Look at the pandemic. Bill Gates in April 2015 warned the whole world in a ted talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Af6b_wyiwI
This isn’t even about billionaires. Bill Gates isn’t spewing bullshit like RFK Jr. this is about what Carl Sagan wrote in his 1995 book… which is quoted in this posting on Lemmy.
How come nobody can parrot “Bill Gates was correct in April 2015 about us being unprepared for a pandemic”? How come we can’t recite truth and facts and people can only recite fiction memes and junk?
My Conspiracy Theory
is that humanity is attracted to fiction storytelling far more than science + truth. But since I don’t use lies, deception, techniques of fiction storytelling that are copied from best-selling fiction, it gets avoided.
Real Men Admit they lost their hearts and minds to bullshit Russian memes and messages since March 2013.
Real People Admit that Russia defeated their nation with Surkov Unreality, Real People Admit Real.
Repeating 000003
Friday, May 23, 2025
Without study, people do not see it.
Without study of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s 1954 education and teachings, very few people see the common problem of all time periods, all cultures, all languages, all ages, all races, all geography, all nations.
“Most people can’t stand up for their convictions, because the majority of people might not be doing it. See, everybody’s not doing it, so it must be wrong. And since everybody is doing it, it must be right. So a sort of numerical interpretation of what’s right. But I’m here to say to you this morning that some things are right and some things are wrong. Eternally so, absolutely so. It’s wrong to hate. It always has been wrong and it always will be wrong. It’s wrong in America, it’s wrong in Germany, it’s wrong in Russia, it’s wrong in China. It was wrong in 2000 B.C., and it’s wrong in 1954 A.D. It always has been wrong, and it always will be wrong. It’s wrong to throw our lives away in riotous living. No matter if everybody in Detroit is doing it, it’s wrong. It always will be wrong, and it always has been wrong. It’s wrong in every age and it’s wrong in every nation. Some things are right and some things are wrong, no matter if everybody is doing the contrary. Some things in this universe are absolute.” - February 28, 1954
“Jesus is not an impractical idealist; he is the practical realist.” - December 25, 1957
Let’s take the USA for example.
USA is not founded on the Bible or Quran, “old world order”, where you can not amend and rewrite the book. The USA is founded on a “new world order” of 1776 reason thinking where you can amend the constitution.
Nothing legally prevents, it is not against the law, to Amend the Constitution of the United States of America. Michael Moore from Flint Michigan pointed this out loudly in public.
‘It’s too bad you have to be 35 to be president,’ Moore said. ‘We put that in the constitution, the Founding Fathers, because people died at 38 or 40 back then. Y’know, we need to lower that. If that was lowered to 30 …’ - https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6663337/Michael-Moore-says-Alexandria-Ocasio-Cortez-allowed-run-president.html
It is entirely legal and possible to change even to put in a specific person who is an exception to laws about country of birthplace, age, etc.
“In 2020, an estimated 4.6 billion people were over the age of 28 worldwide. This represents approximately 60.6% of the total global population at the time, which was around 7.88 billion people.”
We could have picked a leader from ANYWHERE in the world, and put THEIR SPECIFIC NAME and IDENTITY (a single person) as an exception into the USA Constitution.
People flock to hate. People prize hate. People value hate. Look all over the world, look at social media every hour of every day. People prize hate and war as entertainment. Reminder: This message started with context of February 28, 1954 equations from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. - which in further context, was a decade after World War Two that was spanning Japan / Germany / etc.
At what point do educated, Internet connected (Wikipedia available easily and quickly, at almost no cost, even advertising free) Americans (since year 2010), people of the Untied States of America face up to The February 28 1954 Equation… they have not seen what is apparent with world study. That is why education, learning, being serious about war and being serious about conflicts matters.
We could have changed the laws to pick from 4.5 billion people anywhere in the earth to allow them to become The President of the United States of America. But… you know what we came up with in year 2020? Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Both old white men.
We are not only failing to grasp the history of psychology problems, mass psychosis of World War Two, we are creating something even worse! “In 1954, the world population was estimated to be 2,685,894,860 people” - we are not FACING UP to REALITY of what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr was telling us and recording for future (his teaching is still available in May 2025) in 1954.
We (the people) are attracted to hate. We are attracted to shit. Donald Trump isn’t just an ordinary American, he is incredibly popular and very successful American at drawing crowds, influencing ideas, promoting hate, spreading hate, teaching hate! We prize hate, and we prize mocking and insulting the poopy-diapers and orange skin color of Donald Trump! We are attracted to the entertainment and amusement of mocking itself / total mockery White House.
“It’s not enough to have lived. We should be determined to live for something. May I suggest that it be creating joy for others, sharing what we have for the betterment of personkind, bringing hope to the lost and love to the lonely.” - LOVE (1972), Dr. Felice Leonardo Buscaglia Ph.D.
impossible to put into words
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr is not the cause
Donald J Trump is not the causeIn many ways, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and Donald J Trump have things in common. Both are well traveled people who listen and function to articulate what they witness.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. expresses the reality of the damaging and corrosive impact of hate upon the world. How non-fun and unenjoyable life is when hate is both prized and not left behind in history.
Donald J Trump is describing the life of a rich person, a celebrity, a super star. Rupert Murdoch has influenced Donald Trump. Wealth and power. Any of us can see what Fox News is saying, what Twitter is saying to Donald Trump - hist first term in office everyday people openly remarked that he was live Twittering Fox News. https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/01/05/trump-media-feedback-loop-216248/
Are we facing up to what sports teams owners and media networks see?
Do everyday people truly want sports stars with armies of medical doctors and dietitians creating super-human people running around a rectangle? Is FIFA popular all over the world in poor areas of Africa, to the poor in Mexico and South America? yes. Are parents in USA raising their children to admire sports stars paid $5 million a year and tossed-away when not good enough? yes. That’s what poor people praise and desire.
Media networks see the demand for sports scores, rumors, trades, injuries, dirt, mistakes on and off the rectangle.
Wealth lords view themselves as sports players that were born with talent or genetics and that people should flock to them like sports stars.
Do everyday people want a public space for every 25 families and watch neighbor children make friends and get exercise? Not very often. Once you remove the incentive of children playing to become super-rich stars of sports, there isn’t much interest in friendships and physical exercise encouragement. Children are encouraged to aspire to the top, not to just deal with bodily functions and need for friendships. At least not in 2025.
Yes, this writing is a huge struggle.
Chapter 19
The Kidnap Of Mass Mind: Fundamentalism, Spartanism, and the Games Subcultures Play
Howard Bloom
August 2000"Today’s cyber-era Spartans are bone crushers of conformity. They are the fundamentalists of both the left and right. Some are godly; some are secular. Religious extremists, ultranationalists, ethnic liberationists, and fascists fall on the fundamentalist side of the line. Brooking no tolerance of those who disagree, they invoke a golden past and a higher power, both of which demand submission to authority. The worst shoot, burn, and bomb to get their way. Their opposites are Athenian, Socratic, Aristotelian, diversity-generating, pluralistic, and democratic. They pay lip service, and often a good deal more, to such slogans as “I may disagree with what you have to say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” The groups which follow this pattern are more diffuse than their rivals; in fact, the right to be loose-knit is part of their philosophy. They include liberals, democratic socialists, libertarians, and many free-market capitalists. These champions of human rights use the word “freedom” to liberate the individual, not to hammer home the triumph of a chosen collectivity.
The Athenian strategy moves to the top when things are going well. Spartanism grabs the throne when the world is going to hell."