The role of media in establishing public consensus
Link to an essay on the role that “technical authority”, media propaganda, and how “consensus of experts” are used to influence the public and to exert control over us. This essay is an eye opener.
Changing the language definition in order to make a point
Another example of fiddling with language to make a weak conclusion with low certainty sound more impressive than it really is.
Climate scientists tried to censor film by director Michael Moore
Michael Moore’s film Planet of the Humans questions much of the “common wisdom” about solar power, wind energy and so forth and argues renewable energy has its own issues. Leading climate scientists sought to have the film censored from public viewing.
Munchausen by Internet
This is an Internet/social media phenomena that never occurred to me: “Munchausen by Internet occurs when medically well individuals fake recognized illnesses in virtual environments, such as online support groups.”
The culture of perpetual outrage: “The harmful ableist language you unknowingly use”
This is what happens when we constantly seek out reasons to be perpetually outraged. The world is overrun with individuals who every day, intentionally seek out things to be outraged about. Common speech is now perceived as intentional and hurtful sleight to someone, somewhere. There is nothing we can say anymore without offending someone, somewhere. I have referred to concepts as “brain dead”, which is likely offensive to those with brain injuries. Which, should be obvious by now, includes me.
“Global heating?”
The Guardian is a daily fictional story service that pretends to report the news. They’ve tossed the IPCC official terminology of “climate change” and replaced it with their own creation of inflammatory rhetoric “climate crisis” and “global heating”.
When is something a “Crisis”?
When is something a “crisis” and when is it not? “Crisis” is an intentional word used to evoke emotions – or to call for action. One can choose to use the word “crisis” to suggest something awful (even if not really) or can deliberately choose not to use the world “crisis” to minimize the optics of the situation.
It’s back: The bogus World Happiness Report annual announcement
The bogus World Happiness Report is back. The news media loves to run stories about this annual nonsense report that defines happiness as living in a Scandinavian country. I analyzed and demolished this report back in 2016.
How lazy reporting can influence your thinking
Laziness leads to Reuters showing a thumbnail graphic that is badly out of date, and which may mislead readers into thinking the Covid situation is much worse than it is now. This is not nefarious or intentional propaganda – it is most likely just laziness.
When you re-define the language, you can control the world
“Tear gas” and “Pepper spray” have been redefined by riot enthusiasts as “chemical munitions” and “chemical weapons” as they seek to ban the use of crowd control measures by police, when employed at “mostly peaceful protests”. Changing the language is one of the first steps taken in a propaganda campaign. Language redefinition goes on all the time, and lately, with increasing frequency.