All Episodes
Previous Next
June 9, 2006 - Freedomain Radio - Stefan Molyneux
35:58
274 One Day in the Life of a Newspaper

The differences between a free press and statist mouthpieces...

| Copy link to current segment

Time Text
Good evening, everybody.
Hope you're doing well. It's Steph.
It's 11.10pm on June the 9th, 2006.
Hope you're doing well. I wanted to try a little something this evening.
I picked up a Globe and Mail newspaper.
Which is at globeandmail.com, I think.
It is sort of the Canadian equivalent of the New York Times.
It's the highbrow newspaper, and I used to subscribe to it quite regularly.
But, of course, over the last year or two, I've tried to not read too much media, for the same reason that you don't want to read nothing but Mein Kampf in the Bible, because it makes you despair for the race, and it can help puncture the optimism that I feel is sort of part of my nature around freedom.
But what I think would be interesting, just to look at from an outside sort of experimental standpoint, would be to say, let's look at the newspaper and see how many stories are associated with the state and how many stories are not associated with the state.
And we'll do this just in sort of two areas.
You could do it in just about all areas, but I won't test your patience with that.
And we'll do it in the business section and we'll do it in the main section and we'll just have a couple of comments on it because I think it's important to understand where the general population is coming from in terms of their understanding of how the world works.
I think it's the most from the media, from the newspapers and to some degree news and so on.
But I think it's important to understand when we're talking to people just what kind of sea they're swimming in mentally.
You stop your average fish and you say, what temperature is the water?
They'd say, what water, right?
I mean, you and I don't go around usually and say, my God, there's a lot of air around me at the moment because it's just something that is part of our daily existence and because it's so consistent and such a sort of singular picture that we have singular sensation, we don't really notice it anymore.
And I think it would be interesting to look at this, right?
So the free media and so on is a general idea.
I think it's interesting to have a look at.
And I won't... I haven't really looked at this newspaper in great detail.
I just looked at the cover. But what we'll do is we'll flip through, and you can try this with just about any newspaper that you pick up.
Just have a look and see how much of it is about the government and how much is it about the non-government aspects of society.
Just so that you can understand that I'll sort of make the case here that when we're talking about the media...
We're talking about state media, media about the state, and media entirely related to the activities of the state, and I've made arguments as to why that is the case in other podcasts, but I just think it's an important thing to look at.
I don't think I'll be able to resist making a few comments about the contents of the stories, but I absolutely will try and keep those to a minimum.
So, on the front page, this is the Globe and Mail, globeandmail.com, Friday, June the 9th, 2006.
So, of course, the cover story is a severe blow to Al-Qaeda.
Twin 225-kilogram bombs bring to an end three-year U.S. hunt for Iraq's most wanted insurgent.
And the opening, we'll just read the opening paragraph or two, and I'll just give you a sense of how it lands for our Muslim friends.
A key element of Iraq's insurgency was dealt a heavy blow yesterday when two two hundred and twenty-five kilogram bombs dropped by a U.S. F-16 warplanes slammed into a simple two-story building northeast of Baghdad, killing Abu Musab al-Zakai and six others.
The death of Mr.
al-Zarqai was immediately hailed as a major victory for the White House's war on terror.
The Jordanian-born militant was the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, part of the foreign fighter wing of the insurgency, and the angry face of those willing to resort to any means to drive the U.S. military out of the country.
Believed to have carried out at least two beheadings himself, he masterminded the killings of hundreds of people, most of them civilians, in a string of suicide bombings and kidnappings across Iraq.
U.S. President George Bush was visibly pleased when he spoke in the White House Rose Garden about Mr.
Zarqawi's death. Zarqawi's death is a severe blow to al-Qaeda.
It is a victory in the global war on terror, and it is an opportunity for Iraq's new government to turn the tide of this struggle.
Now, I'm not going to go any further.
I mean, this is the same sort of nationalistic, horrifying stuff that you get whenever people talk about war from the sides of the aggressors.
And so I would like to, I'll just sort of do this on the fly, but I'd like you to sort of cast your mind back about, I guess, three and a half, four years, to September 11, 2001, and see if you can see how it might have been reported if it had been from the other side, right? I mean, from the side who hate US foreign policy.
Here, a severe blow to Al-Qaeda could be reframed as a severe blow to U.S. foreign policy.
And here, because, you know, they're aiming for the Pentagon, and they were aiming for the Twin Towers, the financial and military might, and so on.
And so here, the first paragraph could read from sort of September 11, 2001, the day after.
A key element of U.S. foreign policy power was dealt a heavy blow yesterday when a number of planes flew into American buildings, killing 3,500 people.
The death of these people was immediately hailed as a major victory by Osama bin Laden to liberate his country.
And some of the people who were killed were part of the military-industrial complex.
Through which America attempts to overthrow foreign governments.
And of course some of the people who were killed in the Pentagon had masterminded the coups of other countries and so on.
And then, can you imagine in the third paragraph saying that Osama bin Laden was visibly pleased when he spoke in a tape from somewhere in Afghanistan where he says,"...this retaliatory attack on America is a severe blow to its foreign policy credibility,
it is a victory in the global war for independence from U.S. aggression, and it is an opportunity for the American people to wake up to the horrors that the governments are perpetrating overseas." Can you imagine if that were the statements that were made after September 11th about this?
Of course, it would be considered to be absolutely appalling, moral cowardice and viciousness of the worst order, and I absolutely guarantee you, probably in less than a generation, all of the people who write this kind of stuff will be looked at as absolutely appalling moral horrors.
So, of course, this is all government stuff, right?
This is all the stuff to do with the war on terror, And so that is the first sort of story.
Now the second one is Empty Chairs, Angry Youths, and Ignominy.
And this is the opening paragraph.
It was meant to be a hero's farewell for the man who has led the blood-soaked insurgency against the U.S. occupation of neighboring Iraq.
See? Occupation or not? Invasion and so on.
Instead, it served as a testament as to how far Abu Musa Bar-Sakawi had sunk even in the eyes of those he grew up with.
The bloodlust is out.
And, of course, this is all about the guy getting killed as well.
And then we have another story on the front page, which is this guy, David Ahanakaou, conviction for promoting hatred was overturned yesterday, and a new trial was ordered by a judge who questioned whether the former Aboriginal leader willfully intended to spread hate when he told a reporter that Jews were a disease.
Chief Justice Robert Lang of the Saskatchewan Court of Queen's Bench said the lower court judge who convicted this gentleman and fined him $1,000 last summer erred by not taking into account whether the comments were made spontaneously and in anger.
So this is a court conviction, obviously the state.
And then there's a bunch more stuff to do with the terror raids, and then there's three little things here, which is...
The Premier's meeting on the federal equalization programs ends amid bickering, finger-pointing, and even name-calling, which is a bad thing.
The next one is, developers close to Quebec Premier Jean Charest stand to make millions from the privatization of a ski hill in Mount Orford National Park, documents reveal.
And here, the national broadcaster here is the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, CBC.
CBC sportscaster Brian Williams, who said this week that he will join rival CTV, has been abruptly fired.
And, of course, this is a government agency here that he is being fired from.
So that's the first page, right?
So, I mean, we'll sort of go along this fairly speedily, but I think you'll sort of get the idea.
So here, A2, this is the second page.
Reopen autism case, Ontario asks court.
The Ontario government is seeking to reopen a major court of appeal case involving special treatment for autistic children, claiming that an expert witness has undergone a dramatic change of height about the costs associated with treatment.
So I'm sure that's fully understandable as a state issue.
And also here we have Homolka name change rejected.
So this is this crazy Carly Curls woman who, with her boyfriend, murdered a whole bunch of women.
She's failed in her latest attempt to change her name.
This is, of course, all to do with government.
Government allows the name change to go on.
And here we have Mountain of Fire.
This is A3. Mountain of Fire, Belches, Scalding, Gas, Lava.
Survivors of Java's May 27th earthquake fled in panic yesterday when huge clouds of scalding gas and streams of lava were expelled from Mount Merapi, Indonesia's most active volcano.
Weeping mothers with children in their arms fought to get onto trucks as families packed onto mopeds to stream down the mountainside after a series of deafening explosions set off gas clouds at about 8 a.m.
And, of course, it says government officials said 3,500 people had abandoned their homes and so on.
Of course, a lot of this stuff is government interviewed and so on.
So that's sort of partial government stuff.
It's government response to a natural disaster.
All right. So, Premier's bid for unity turns to acrimony.
Shocking, I know. This doesn't smell like team spirit.
It's a big analysis of the premiers who are all getting here to discuss how best to pillage the taxpayers.
And here, know when to fold them, Mr.
Levine. This is John Ibbotson's column where he says, Raymond Levine should have resigned yesterday.
But Raymond Levine is a senator, and senators are hard to get rid of.
So it's a question of whether the senator should stay.
Of course, these three articles all entirely to do with the state.
In fact, I would say that the only free market stuff, or private stuff, we've come so far along is the ads.
Now here, we have Charest Supporter could benefit in Park Deal.
This is the thing from the front.
And here, Canada, in brief, we have leadership hopefuls using public offices.
A number of liberals are using taxpayer-funded parliamentary offices to promote party leadership bids and would break federal election laws if they fail to refund the public purse.
That's all state stuff. Air India inquiry set to open June 21st, Ottawa.
All to do with the government.
Around 1985, it's over 20 years now, the judicial inquiry into 1985 Air India Bombing will open June 21st.
This has been going on for over 20 years and has cost more than $20 million.
Murder suspect completes psychiatric evaluation.
The court-ordered psychiatric assessment of a man accused of murdering three members of a southern Alberta family is complete.
Blah, blah, blah. So this is all to do with state evidence and state courts.
And then Environment Canada, a state agency, has released this as the spring is the warmest on record, data show.
The spring of 2006 has been the warmest in Canada since record keeping began in 1948, according to preliminary data from Environment Canada.
So, of course, that's all to do with the state and state agencies.
And here we have another article, A7. I'm going to skip the one about this racist, this anti-Semitic, or potentially anti-Semitic native leader.
Here we have native salmon rights upheld.
Restrictive fishing policy does not violate the Charter, B.C. Court of Appeal rules.
A federal government policy that restricts commercial salmon fishing to native people during specific periods is a legitimate political choice and does not violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the B.C. Court of Appeal ruled yesterday.
All... State stuff about whether the natives can fish or not.
And here we have a wiretap access bill to be revoked.
The Conservative government will revive plans to require telecommunications companies to build in increased access for internet and telephone wiretaps with a bill that will probably be tabled in the fall.
Again, this is, of course, the state prying on citizens.
Authorities confronted. Wall of silence.
CSIS RCMP briefed Muslim leaders before going public with news of arrests.
It may have been the most politically correct terrorism bust in history.
This is all about how these Muslims were apprehended, these suspects.
The next one is all A8. Ottawa wants to involve China in terrorism fight.
Move planned as Canada assumes helm of Global Financial Action Task Force.
So this, of course, is Ottawa trying to get China to become a full participant in In the war on terror, because, of course, there's nothing terrifying about being a victim of the Chinese government.
Page A9. Arrests linked to alleged plot in Canada stun UK community.
Canadian extradition hearings anticipated for British Pakistani citizen Abed Khan, right?
So is the government going to expel them or not?
Again, it's all state stuff. On the same page, Muslim groups call for a summit on youth.
And that's six Islamic groups are asking Canadian politicians to help them arrange a meeting of community organizations, youth groups and imams, in an effort to prevent the radicalization of young people.
And the beautiful thing is that they're really only interested in non-radicalizing the younger people.
They're certainly not interested in taxpayers' money.
So here we have Stalwart of the Christian Right criticizes Canada.
So this is a report from somewhere in the States.
This is page A10. Republican John Hostetler said yesterday that reports of alleged terrorist activity in Toronto illustrate why border security must be tightened.
It is fair to say that the Canadian border is virtually unguarded.
Republican John Hostetler.
So, of course, this is complaints from the Americans about the Canadian border.
And here, there's a big article on how terrorists can go and buy bomb materials.
This stuff is just easy to buy in this day and age.
Terrorists can go shopping for material in the aisles of any local hardware store.
So, of course, they'll start banning that stuff relatively soon.
And then, here is another article.
We're on page A15. This is Stockwell Day.
Public Safety Minister, Stockwell Day, speaks at a security conference in Ottawa yesterday.
He said a stolen SUV can be worth $95,000 overseas, and he says that helps finance terrorism.
Because he's recently become a public safety minister, so of course he's fully up on international finance and money laundering and car theft, so he's not just sort of throwing stuff around.
I'm sure he knows exactly what he's talking about.
Terrorists are getting into the car theft business to finance their activities because the profits are so high, Public Safety Minister of Stockwell Day says.
So again, this is a guy talking about stuff he doesn't have any clue about, of course, but of course this is reports from the government.
So, so far, we're batting a thousand.
It's all government stuff.
A beheading, now part of Lexicon of Terror, this week's claim that Stephen Harper's head had been coveted as a terrorist trophy reveals a deeper, darker, and possibly more disturbing revelation about society.
The decapitation of an enemy is now an inescapable aspect of world violence, unlike taxation, said Mark Viederman, former chief strategist at the McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology.
So, of course, that is another issue.
This is a state-funded think tank.
I am 99% sure.
And then there's a whole bunch of stuff about going to kill this guy, mourning and praise from ranks of Hamas, and let's have a look at the world in brief.
Let's see what we have here.
Oh Lord, there's an article here from Tehran with a guy named...
Ahmadinejad, evasive about nuclear talks, let's just call him Iran's president, said yesterday that his regime is ready for talks on its nuclear capabilities, but he has sent mixed signals on how much is open for negotiation, and hinted Tehran has the upper hand in its showdown with the West, right?
So it's government to government. Secular Somali warlords push backwards towards capital, Mogadishu.
Warlords driven out of Mogadishu by an Islamist militia are advancing back towards the capital from the last stronghold of Jauhar, right?
So this is All state starfires.
Potential state stuff. Refugees being replaced by the displaced, UN says, in a highly comprehensible sentence.
NATO confirms expansion in southern Afghanistan.
Nepal's top rebel warns of another revolution.
Tigers reject EU monitors' delegation from Colombo.
I'm sure they just mauled them.
So, of course, this is all state stuff as well.
Let's have a look at the next page.
Under fire, Moscow looks at resigning as TTC chair.
Okay, this is all gripping stuff that you want to know about.
The Toronto Transport Commission, which is our publicly run subway and bus system, this guy is the chairman.
With the Toronto Transit Commission in crisis and some placing the blame at the feet of its combative chairman, Howard Muscoe, the long-time local politician, said yesterday he is thinking of stepping aside.
But not yet! And then you have pictures of a couple of cops here, drive-by shooting, wounds three.
And then you have another, so this is all state stuff.
Officer cursed teen before shooting, inquest told.
A policeman slapped Jeffrey Riottica's head and called him a vulgar name moments before he shot the fleeing.
Haha, fleeing.
Seventeen-year-old in the back, the slain youth friend, told the coroner's inquest yesterday.
He testified that the officer's actions were so frightening that he believed the man was related to three white teens, Mr. Riottica.
Ryotika's angry friends had been chasing in a bid at revenge on May 21, 2004.
So again, that's all state stuff.
So, so far we're getting up to A21, and here we see all of this stuff to do with the state.
Now here we have health, hormones, and cancer.
So let's have a look here.
We actually have some non-state stuff here.
So the first one is the face you'd spot first in a crowd is...
When you walk into a crowded room, who is the first person likely to catch your eye?
A team of US and Australian scientists ran a series of experiments in which they showed men and women images of angry faces mixed in with other facial expressions.
The results revealed that angry male visages are spotted more rapidly than angry female faces by both men and women.
They are also noted more quickly than faces of either gender expressing fear, happiness, or sadness.
So let's have a look here, down, down, down.
Ah, holds positions at both the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Melbourne.
Now, I am not entirely sure that that's publicly funded or privately funded, but I really do have to think that that's publicly funded.
If you know, please let me know.
Let's have a look here at the second part here.
Greater odds of twins. Ah, here we go.
Health Canada is the government agency.
Health Canada apparently did the right thing in the early 1990s when it refused to allow dairy calves to be injected with a controversial synthetic hormone meant to boost milk and beef production.
So, five times more twins?
I think that was right. Five times more twins.
Okay, asthma and cataracts.
One of the main drugs used for controlling asthma symptoms seems to boost the risk of developing cataracts among older patients, according to a Quebec study.
Now, who did this study?
I've got to imagine that...
Ah, yes, here we go. Montreal's McGill University, the publicly funded, so this is all government stuff.
And cancer cookbook.
Cancer therapy is a powerful appetite suppressant that medications can cause, blah, blah, blah.
Group of dieticians from Toronto's Princess Margaret Hospital.
And this is, of course, all government stuff you can order here.
Chemical used in water bottles linked to prostate cancer.
Researchers in the U.S. have linked exposures to trace amounts of bisphenol A, a widely used chemical that leaks from many plastic products to prostate cancer in animal experiments.
So this may be private, may be public, I don't know.
I'm just doing a scan here.
60% below levels Health Canada considered safe.
And I'm just doing a scan here to see if there's any indication.
Dr. Lauren Socke, University of Toronto, leading Canadian prostate expert, so he's publicly funded.
Hard to say. We'll give this a maybe.
So, we've got, I think, two maybes so far.
And last but not least, we get to page 822, which is the comment page.
And, of course, everything is nothing but glee, of course, over the death of this Al-Qaeda fellow.
So Canada—this is the first of the editorials—Canada has to chase bilateral trade deals, of course, as government stuff.
Bucking Hugo Chavez, when Peru's president-elect Alan Garcia stepped to the podium on Monday to comment on his election victory.
He said the only real loser was someone who doesn't even carry Peruvian identification.
So, that's all government-to-government stuff.
The third one here is talk to the hand.
In the halls of justice, mighty decisions are being taken by few that will affect the many.
So, it is that judge's turn to time-honored methods of settling disputes.
In Orlando, Florida, U.S. District, Judge Gregory A. Presnell this week arranged for a round of rock-paper-scissors.
Yes, it's true. And so I'm not even going to bother with the letters for the editor.
I bet you they're absolutely all to do with state stuff, but let's not even bother.
So here we have all things being equalization.
So this is about the equalization stuff, the sort of rolling tides of taxpayer money that flows across this country.
Zack brings the Mounties back.
Contrast this. A decade ago, our Mounties couldn't even protect 24 Sussex Drive from a knife-wielding weirdo who got right into the Prime Minister's bedroom door with the intention of slitting his throat.
And so, today, the same redcoats have foiled what appears to have been a major terrorist plot.
Of course, I guarantee you it won't be because of their incredible sleuthing.
It will be because somebody confessed or there was some sort of video or just sort of fell into their lap.
And Rick Saluten, another missed opportunity in this week's national trajectory from panic over homegrown terror to relief and even amusement about the gang that couldn't bomb straight.
There is another opportunity missed.
The first opportunity missed was 9-11.
It was a chance for Americans and those like us who identify with them to extend their empathy to parts of the world that experience terror far more than we do.
Again, this is all about what the government should do or shouldn't do.
And then here's a story called Putting a Little Zizou into Life.
And you think this is about soccer, and it says it starts, Last Sunday I watched France playing soccer.
But of course it turns out to be France's multicultural, political approaches to this, that and the other.
Now, the back page of this newspaper is all around social studies and private and obituaries and stuff.
So let's not worry about that.
But so far, I think you'll get the point, and I will not, I think, you can sort of do this if you want, I will not bother with the report on business, because I think you get the idea that the media is a state media.
The media is entirely involved in reporting on the government.
And of course that is a very easy thing for reporters to do because the government loves to be reported on.
It's sort of what they live for, right?
And so the government is constantly, people constantly want to use the media to raise their profile.
Thank you.
reporting, investigative reporting into the nature or the source of things.
And there's lots of reason for that.
We can go into another time.
But I just sort of wanted to get that point across.
Pick up any newspaper that you like.
Have a look through the articles and see how many of them are related to the government or with government sources and how many of them are not related to the government.
And so far, I wasn't able to find a single story here that didn't have at least a partly funded government agency or government source.
And of course, most of it was directly around government policy.
Now, of course, government policy causes millions upon millions of dollars, billions of dollars to flow around the country, so it's very important.
But it's just important to understand that the media is the outlet for state propaganda.
I mean, this is not something too shocking, I'm sure, and it's not something too surprising.
But I think if you sort of look at it, instead of thinking it in this sort of abstract way, like the media is some sort of thing out there, but look at, you know, your local newspaper, look at the local news, like flip it on, have a look and see.
How many of the stories have either people from the government as the source or it's directly about government policies or involve the police or education and so on?
How much of it talks about the government and how much of it talks about the non-governmental aspects of society?
Now, there's lots of reasons.
I mean, trade secrets and companies and so on.
But basically, the issue is that when people look at society, right?
Because we don't want... What do I know about society?
I don't know anything. I have people that I know.
I don't know anything. I know nothing about Canada as a whole.
I have people that I know. I have people I do business with and some friends and I guess up until a couple of years ago, some family and But, I mean, what do I know about Canada?
What do I know about America? Nothing, right?
I mean, it's people that I meet, but then in the collective sense, right?
In the larger sense. There's a society out there, right?
And how do people get society?
How do they understand it?
How do they conceptualize it?
Well, they conceptualize it through the media, right?
So this is a very important thing to understand for most people who spend any amount of time around the media.
And this is not just those who read the New York Times or Globe and Mail or, you know, whatever, the Financial Post.
These are people who have any access to the media.
They flip on the TV, watch some news, and so on.
They look at society as the state.
This is something that's very important to understand.
Because everything that's in the media is entirely derived from state sources or to do with state activities, when people think of America or Canada or Scandinavia or Sweden or any of these places, what they think of is the state.
The state is society.
This is a very important thing, and I hope to not repeat it too much, but it's just very important to understand when you're talking to people about getting rid of the state, they really can't imagine any kind of aggregate collective, other than maybe the local corporations or maybe an extended family, they can't think of a society or a country or a civilization.
Or a culture as anything other than the state, because this is how the collective is continually portrayed to them.
There is no human collective that exists outside of your immediate knowledge that is not the state, because the only thing that's ever talked about by the media is everything to do with the state.
And so why that's important is because...
People don't understand, because it's such a constant hum, and there's so few exceptions, people don't understand that what they think of as society is the state.
They don't think of the state as separate.
They don't think of the state as separate from society.
They think of the state and society are synonymous.
And the reason that that's important is because...
There's never any mention of state violence, except, you know, the state bombed these bad people who were trying to kill us in our self-defense and so on.
The state is everyone.
The state is society. The state is the collective.
Violence is never mentioned in any way, shape, or form.
Equalization payments and tax strategies and so on.
Violence is never mentioned.
And, of course, the only mention you get of the police is almost never, in terms of collecting of taxes from middle-class people, unless they're like evil middle-class people with grow-ups in their basement or something, But it's always, you know, facing down gangs or dealing with biker gangs or dealing with drug dealers, right?
So the role of the police and the media is always portrayed as defending middle class WASP society usually against people who are problematic, who are way outside the pale of society and so on.
And the role of the police in collecting taxes, of course, is never ever mentioned.
Unless it's like, well, see, they got Al Capone because he didn't pay his income tax, right?
As opposed to, Al Capone was created through prohibition and then was thrown in jail through a further abuse of power.
So an abuse of power creates this guy and then a further abuse of power puts him away.
And somehow we're supposed to feel that this is a benevolent situation.
But people can't understand what you mean when you say the state.
For them, the state is society.
It's, again, it's like asking a fish what temperature is the water.
And they say, well, what water?
You say the state is violence.
They have no idea what you're talking about.
I mean, it's important to kind of go a little bit slow with people and sort of get them to understand, instead of sort of taxation is violence right off the bat, Just to get them to understand, it's a slow process, because this is also propagandistic, right?
It's a slow process of unlearning all this nonsense in order to be able to sort of think even remotely clearly.
Because there's two kinds of...
The relationships that people have to the state, right?
I mean, this is sort of very broad, but I think you can sort of understand where I'm going with this.
And the first is the kind of relationship that people have with the state, which is the direct cover-up.
So, you know, in these kinds of newspaper stories, it's always about the government's there to help us, or look how well the government's doing, or look how badly the government's doing, and doesn't it make you mad, but there's never any real question of getting rid of the government.
It's just, it's taken for granted.
It's like aging, you know. Doesn't aging just make you mad sometimes?
But nobody says, well, let's repeal aging, right?
So there's the people involved in the direct cover-up, and they're directly involved in getting information out to people about the state's activities so that those people will have some warning or can profit from it or can involve themselves in fruitless debates about the minutiae.
Like, can you believe this? This judge in Florida produced something to rock, paper, scissors.
It's like, well, at least that's cheap, right?
At least it's not going to be stuck in the normal, expensive labyrinth of state justice.
So there's something to be said for that.
So it gets people riled up, either positively or negatively.
It gets them involved in fruitless debates, right?
Like, should slaves have more or less freedom rather than should there be slaves at all?
And so there are those people.
And then there's everybody else who is involved in pretending that there's no problem, right?
So, I mean, if you look at siblings, if you have a mom who's an alcoholic, right, there's a sibling who directly covers up for the mom's crimes, and then there's a sibling who pretends that there's absolutely nothing wrong and does everything, you know, goes out and becomes a cheerleader or whatever, and has a great time, so to speak.
And these two sort of roles are replicated in our relationship to the state, in most people's relationship to the state.
So there are people who genuinely are interested in the state, interested in political science, but all they do is bend over backwards to cover up the crimes of the state.
But secondly, there are people like everybody else who never talk about the state.
And so this is sort of like everybody else.
It's not a topic you can ever bring up.
So there's those who cover up the crimes that they know are occurring or at least have some knowledge of what the state is doing.
And then there are those people who sort of, nothing else is going on, right?
So Dr. Phil never talks about politics, and Oprah never really talks about politics, other than some vague generalizations.
But those people aren't directly involved in covering up the power of the state, but through their omission, they're very much the case.
They're distracting everyone by throwing all this other stuff that's supposed to be important.
You can think of lots of people like this, I'm sure.
So I just wanted to give you sort of that understanding that at least I think I have in regards to the media, that the separation between what we call a free media and what might be called a state-run media, like Pravda in Russia during the Soviet Empire, where it's a pure organ of the state, it's very hard for me to find the differentiator between...
Sort of a completely state-run media system and what we have in the West, which is a media system which is either covering up the crimes of the state, which is occurring in the main section and in the business section.
And then you have, like, careers and style and homes and so on, where nothing is ever talked about in terms of the state.
And those two aspects, I think, really mess with people's heads and put them in a very strong state of unreality.
With regards to state power, and I think that's very important to understand.
So, I would suggest that I pick up a newspaper.
And go through it, just to check stuff off.
You know, is this to do with the state?
Read through it, even if it seems like it's something about a volcanic eruption in Indonesia.
Read through it. Is it state sources that people are coming from?
Is there state stuff? What are the states?
It's always to do with the government, right?
This is just, it's an obsession that people can't get away from.
And of course, it's a productive obsession, because a lot of people make money from state activities.
But go through it, and just from the point of view of, you know, sort of, What are they getting?
What view are they getting of society?
And I think you'll quickly find that when you look at the media, society is the state.
The collective is the state.
The nation is the state.
And, of course, that sort of fascistic kind of unity...
Or unification of concepts is exactly, you know, how fascistic power structures emerge and gain control.
So it's just kind of important to understand what's out there so you become a bit more literate about the messages that people are receiving through these kinds of state organs of the media.
So I hope this has been helpful.
I will talk to you soon.
I had a wonderful donation today.
Thank you so much to those who sent some money in.
And I will...
I guess this is going to be next week because I'm not going to post any of this stuff.
It's too time consuming for my vacation.
Thanks for your time.
▲
Export Selection