Bad Actors

Sharing for self-education purposes. There are important points here to learn if you did not know these things already.

Leaked Documents Show How China’s Army of Paid Internet Trolls Helped Censor the Coronavirus

Last year, I had tracked the outbreak of COVID-19 pretty carefully (but wasn’t blogging here to share my findings). It was very clear that China suppressed tons of information and news that was being reported, then swiftly covered it up. They even covered up the cover-up.

The ability to “control the narrative” has long been held by State actors. The current cybersecurity hack (SolarWinds) in the news is one such narrative. We’re never being told the entire truth.

Essentially it means that there is no such thing as a “trusted source” of information if it cannot be verified, cross-checked, reference and proven to have a historically accurate track record. Mistakes are made, but mistakes require publishing that truth – in other words, publicly admit it and try to do better.

But coverups are something else altogether and every State entity engages in coverup activity.

Done correctly, the coverup becomes the official historical narrative. Literally billions of people are then deceived in perpetuity and believe in the official narratives.

This is what Donald J. Trump is trying to do – perpetuate a phony narrative, endlessly repeated and hope it “sticks” in the historical record as the Trump truth, but I seriously doubt he’s going to have any success trying to pull this off (outside of his loyalist base). There are too many counter-acting forces and investigative reports at work exposing his false narrative.

Here are a few examples of other narratives now being exposed:

Barr undercuts Trump on election and Hunter Biden inquiries

Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny dupes spy into revealing how he was poisoned

‘Subpoenas are necessary’: House watchdog details extensive meddling with CDC Covid-19 reports

Most people know by now that Trump has been lying since he took office (about everything) and his fabricated stories about winning the election are just more extensions of his incessant lying. Some of his loyalist like Barr are refusing (finally) to go along with some of these lies. History will judge both men extremely poorly. But if you recall, the past year has had both men in the news quite a bit, always spinning a false narrative for the masses. Now, it’s finally and slowly starting to fall apart. But astute observers always knew this early on by simply examaning the actual evidence.

The Navalny story is yet another false narrative that was being spun by Russia, who DID indeed attempt to kill Navalny, but ultimately (so far) failed to do so. Putin has pretended (again) that he’s not the man behind these type of murders of opposition opponents, but that’s just part of the false narrative he’s been spinning for years. History will eventually reveal that Putin has also been lying all along, but he’s now got lifetime immunity for any and all crimes committed.

The subpeona story is still another false narrative that was heavily spun by America’s bad actors in the Trump Administration, who non-stopped lied to Americans about the COVID-19 pandemic and their response. Their malfeasance killed people and created a entirely false narrative about the pandemic. This was all over the major media networks who dutifully helped deceive Americans.

Good investigative reporting can definitely counter-act the false narratives being promoted by State actors, provided they perform sufficient research, bring forth documented facts and get enough media coverage with their results. The problem comes when false narratives drown out the actual real narratives, a topic that I’ve shared here before. We’re literally drowning in disinformation from bad-faith actors, from citizen journalist / bloggers to entire campaigns and State agents.

The deliberate misinforming of the general public serves to divide and distract and dissuade the populace from acting on accurate information. It’s a simple, proven, workable formula that allows other people with dubious intents to manipulate millions. You’ll vote for the wrong people (the liars), you’ll support the creeps, criminals and fraudulent, and you’ll refuse the real information that is actually helpful and accurate if you don’t know how to find it (or are too lazy to do so).

Connedspiracy theory (a term I coined as far as I know many years ago) relies upon reactionary emotions. Rather then let any story prove itself out (give it time), the connedspiracy promoters immediately spin the narrative to suit their own bias, hoping you don’t catch on to their fear-mongering, deflections, distortions, fabrications and lies. Then when one connedspiracy eventually falls apart, they’ve always got a dozen more already well underway – they’re always changing the narrative and never admitting to their originals errors and falsehoods. This keeps you off-balance and distracted from examining their historical inaccuracies. Nobody seems to be holding them accountable for their gross deceptions either.

Historical accuracy is critically important, because new narratives build upon former narratives, and if one link in the chain is wrong, then the entire narrative is likely to be wrong as well.

Within the American media landscape, to include both major and minor publishers, the ability to change narratives is part of the business model. Fear sells, and so does conspiracy. Facts are rather boring and don’t gain readership (or advertising views and revenue). We inherently seek out that which is alarming and shocking, constantly looking for that “fix” which is akin to a adrenal gland hit, awakening and alarming you, getting your immediate attention and interest. Information specialists know this and prey upon this craving constantly.

The fault is ours, because in general, we refuse to stop letting ourselves be manipulated. It’s too much work and we’re addicted to shock, always wondering what comes next in this never-ending stream of manipulation and deception.

I have come to believe that life is much, much more then this and this is indeed a type of pointless existence, ie., literally a “waste of life”. You will never, ever get this wasted time back. Once spent, it’s gone forever. Manipulated people aren’t living their lives, their living the life that is being designed for them. Other people are quite happy to govern and dictate and manipulate your life by engaging in these practices, it’s how they make their living, and they get their own kicks out of leading people around by the nose. To them, this is their way to live, but to everyone else, the receivers of their disinformation and deception, it’s something else entirely. It’s manipulation, and I have come to believe, it is very, very harmful.

I constantly run into people that don’t realize how completely manipulated they’ve are. They parrot party lines, talking points, and proffer stupid quips and claims that they’ve absorbed somewhere, never seriously questioning why they believe what they believe, nor understand how these views are just implanted ideas fed to them by someone else. For me, it’s kind of embarrassing because I can’t really help them, though I’ve tried, many, many times. They seem to lack a foundation of truth, and have built an edifice of misunderstandings into towers of bias and ill-informed opinions.

It’s actually hard to talk to such people. You’re expected to confirm their opinions and bias, not disagree or challenge them. This is in part is why they don’t seem to be capable of learning more, they don’t want the discomfort of exposure, so it doesn’t happen that often. This has become the accepted way of pretending we’re actually communicating, when we’re really not. Both side are just pretending to be in agreement.

And isn’t that what is actually at the heart of false narratives? Whether by State actors or basement bloggers? Pretending? Hiding the real truth? Most people don’t even know what the real truth is (neither do I), but I’m at least aware that most of the claims being made are definitely not true, precisely because I cannot find corresponding supportive evidence, something I’m always looking for. I could say that virtually every major narrative I’ve examined is actually false and built on lies, misrepresentation and cherry-picking of selective facts.

So in effect, everyone is generally always misleading everyone else because that’s just how it’s done throughout most of our society. There are some exceptions, but not many. Science requires rigorous rules and feedback to determine measurement accuracy, but even then, the information generated can still be easily manipulated to suit someone’s bias. The process of science isn’t the same thing as the sharing of scientific facts and evidence. But people don’t operate scientifically, and neither does the media or social interactions. We expect a certain amount of mistruths, withheld information and conflated claims when dealing with people, it’s the social norm. But what happens with the media does this?

Electronic devices have now replaced human interactions on a massive scale. We’re no longer able to read body language, facial expressions, intonation and other cues to determine if we are being lied to. We tend to believe a source simply because it’s been put into print. If a television host or radio personality makes a statement of fact, then it’s considered to be true, more likely then not. It is this tendency to “believe” and accept what we watch, read, see or hear that is being manipulated. It goes without saying that the media shouldn’t be lying to us, but it does, often.