“These programs were never about terrorism: they’re about economic spying, social control, and diplomatic manipulation. They’re about power.”
-Edward Snowden
For those who don’t remember, or perhaps are too young to know, the last time we were all supposed to be fearful of an invisible enemy it was called ‘terrorists’. The solution then, much as it is now, was to give up priceless individual liberty in order to grant the government more power. After 9/11 our friend’s the propagandists had everyone in the country waving American flags and demanding something be done, per usual, to safeguard lives. Wounded, confused, and convinced ‘new norms’ were the only answer, the people cheered as the Patriot Act passed. Stood proud as their government gained a legal path to spying on every aspect of their lives, while scoffing at ‘conspiracy theorists’ and ‘terrorist sympathizers’ with their crazy notions of cost.
Then came a man named Edward Snowden. A National Security Agency whistleblower with a not so shocking revelation; the government had been spying on everyone. Emails, phone calls, texts, web pages, every digital footprint, collected and saved. Analyzed by the brightest minds, no doubt. Picked apart and patterned six ways to Sunday in the darkest halls of the NSA. Possibly even fed into the latest cutting edge Artificial Intelligence. What a beautiful Black Sky.
It’s Tinfoil Hat Time! Thanks for not burning down my office.
Being distrusting of the government, adrift in the center of the aisle in this precision controlled two party system, provides an interesting perspective. Half the time half the people love your observations. They are intelligent, insightful, informed, even mind blowing. Meanwhile to the other half, you’re a fool. Ignorant of facts, and bereft of any real sense of reality. Then when the political party changes, like magic, it switches. Allies are enemies, and friends foes. What was once wit is now nonsense, nonsense now wit. All the while, there you are. Ever unchanging. Still calling it as you see it.
Donald Trump is a hegelian dialectic manchurian puppet designed to pacify any real resistance to the eventual destruction of autonomous nations full of autonomous individuals, specifically the United States of America. A perfect double edged razor. A scapegoat, in the ritualistic sense of the term, that symbolizes capitalism, America, and the ‘old ways’ of freedom, on which the sins of the past are thrust. With his perfectly crafted yet pompous words he simultaneously says precisely what half the people long to hear, and what the other half can only hear as hate. A masterful diplomat, turning every situation to his favor. Speaking to the Matrix generation through an underground digital persona named Q, calling out the propagandists on their lies, alluding to fighting the illuminati, he manages to also speak directly to the hearts of red, white, and blue blooded Baby Boomers, apple pie and all. He is not there to save the day. He is there in order to lull those who hear his message into in-action, and to associate any who stand opposed to the prevailing winds with him, so they may be sent into the proverbial desert to die, leaving the brave new world clean of past transgressions.
What the hell am I smoking, you ask? A lot. Nevertheless, perhaps a little backstory will make sense of the plot twist known as President Donald Trump.
King George Bush II and the war he restarted for his pops with only United Nations approval and bullshit evidence of weapons of mass destruction, all predicated on a massive false flag, acted as a catalyst for many of my generation. Right before our very eyes the propagandists, working in concert with the architects of war, abused what was still a strong sense of patriotism in order to manipulate the people into bad ideas. Almost as soon as the dust had settled at ground zero ‘W’ had quite literally declared “there is a new world order”, hopped from Bin Laden to Baghdad, and ushered in an age of limitless surveillance and intrusive limitations to freedom here in America. Of course, by the time he left office all anyone cared about was how he racistly mishandled a natural disaster. Particularly Kanye.
Then along came Obama. The half white half black newbie senator who was supposed to unite the people, after Bush’s divisive racism, with his perspective as both of America’s predominant races. Approximately 40 seconds into becoming President he was suddenly 100% black. Like a big hug, he brought disenfranchised African Americans back into the flag waving fold almost over night. It was pretty amazing, really. Any white person who took issue with anything he did, despite sharing a 50% racial trait with him, were no longer just mad at the government like we had been, no, we were racists.
The propagandists, who only moments ago were lifting the veil on Bush’s lies, told us to trust the new guy. Love the new guy. Only racists criticize the new guy. He wanted to give us all free medicine, they said. He had a plan to save lives, they said. What we ended up with was more of the same. Legalized intrusions into personal autonomy, by a government in bed with billion dollar pyramid schemes masquerading as private industry, screwing the people from both ends of their wallet, while placing newborn infants in debt to banks the very second they’re born rather than waiting until after graduation. Oh, and it’s not free for you, or you, and you, and you can’t keep your plan. By the end of his terms, and after his informal adoption of Trayvon Martin and a sketchy arms deal south of the border, it was white America’s turn to feel purposefully disenfranchised by propagandist design.
Throughout this Bush to Obama era an ugly beast grew hungry and large. A vile creature, known as ‘political correctness’. First murmured in the halls of academia, this appaulling affront to the 1st amendment and individual freedom became more and more prevalent in primary education and popular culture, eventually worming its way into law. If you must know for legal reasons my preferred pronoun is ‘Dude’. But you can push air past your vocal chords and wiggle your lips and tongue around when addressing me however you like. Words will never hurt me. I am rubber you are glue.
As PC Nazi’s morphed into cancel culture (the slippery slope is real), pushing people born and raised on ‘sticks and stones’ further and further out of society, free minds pushed back. Most prominently in the only place they safely could, the now hugely successful internet. In a tale as ancient as trolls and moderators, the digital war between freedom and control was fought on the web, and lost. Over and over free speech gave ground as the ‘information superhighway’ went from a bastion of safety tucked away from real life, to a harsh mirror of ‘irl’ rife with policy and censorship. A very unsafe space directly connected to every aspect of society, where the wrong words can end careers and ruin lives. Any remaining semblance of the old internet, the once beautiful virtual wild west that sat outside the control of the powers that be, is now called ‘the dark web’ and likened to a ‘black market’. After all, to those in power there is nothing more heinous and frightening than free people unfettered by god-like authority.
All the while ‘conspiracy theories’ about plots by secret global elites who control institutions of power went from being conversations had only by weirdos with newspaper clippings in Coney Islands at 3 a.m., to a vastly popular internet topic. What once appeared only in newsletters and in underground papers was now digitized, reproduced, talked about, built upon, converted into documentaries, displayed as web content, and most dangerously, discovered and believed by more than just the insane. A multitude of theorists speculating online, information spreading faster and faster by the bandwidth increase, feeding a desire for truth that was sparked by 9/11.
The NSA spying on our reactions and frustrations, every step of the way, since October of 2001.
