NEW DEPARTMENT OF TRUTH SIGNED INTO LAW

This may be a case of you tell me, and indeed I'd be interested in seeing people's reaction to this bit of legislation that was quietly signed into law during the past few days' holiday season:

Obama Quietly Signs The "Countering Disinformation And Propaganda Act" Into Law

The heart of the concerns is reflected in these paragraphs:

Recall that as we reported in early June, "a bill to implement the U.S.’ very own de facto Ministry of Truth had been quietly introduced in Congress. As with any legislation attempting to dodge the public spotlight the Countering Foreign Propaganda and Disinformation Act of 2016 marks a further curtailment of press freedom and another avenue to stultify avenues of accurate information. Introduced by Congressmen Adam Kinzinger and Ted Lieu, H.R. 5181 seeks a “whole-government approach without the bureaucratic restrictions” to counter “foreign disinformation and manipulation,” which they believe threaten the world’s “security and stability.”

Also called the Countering Information Warfare Act of 2016 (S. 2692), when introduced in March by Sen. Rob Portman, the legislation represents a dramatic return to Cold War-era government propaganda battles. “These countries spend vast sums of money on advanced broadcast and digital media capabilities, targeted campaigns, funding of foreign political movements, and other efforts to influence key audiences and populations,” Portman explained, adding that while the U.S. spends a relatively small amount on its Voice of America, the Kremlin provides enormous funding for its news organization, RT.

“Surprisingly,” Portman continued, “there is currently no single U.S. governmental agency or department charged with the national level development, integration and synchronization of whole-of-government strategies to counter foreign propaganda and disinformation.”

Long before the "fake news" meme became a daily topic of extensive conversation on such discredited mainstream portals as CNN and WaPo, H.R. 5181 would task the Secretary of State with coordinating the Secretary of Defense, the Director of National Intelligence, and the Broadcasting Board of Governors to “establish a Center for Information Analysis and Response,” which will pinpoint sources of disinformation, analyze data, and — in true dystopic manner — ‘develop and disseminate’ “fact-based narratives” to counter effrontery propaganda.

In short, long before "fake news" became a major media topic, the US government was already planning its legally-backed crackdown on anything it would eventually label "fake news."

...

And so, with the likes of WaPo having already primed the general public to equate "Russian Propaganda" with "fake news" (despite admitting after the fact their own report was essentially "fake"), while the US media has indoctrinated the public to assume that any information which is not in compliance with the official government narrative, or dares to criticize the establishment, is also "fake news" and thus falls under the "Russian propaganda" umbrella, the scene is now set for the US government to legally crack down on every media outlet that the government deems to be "foreign propaganda."

Just like that, the US Ministry of Truth is officially born.

Now I don't know about you, but all sorts of images and thoughts are running through my mind. Not the least of these is Josef Goebbels, the Third Reich's Propaganda Minister. Goebbels was nothing if not cunning. Goebbels knew that outright lies would never work. For propaganda to be effective, it had to contain enough truth to sell the lie, which is the purpose of propaganda: sell the lie. How to do it? Wrap it in truth. Thus, the old Deutsche Wochenschau newsreels would show the decimation of the German cities as Allied and Soviet bombers were pummeling them into rubble. That was the truth part. It would not have done to say the bombing effort was unreal, or ineffective, since millions of Germans could easily see otherwise. The lie was contained in the pledges of "final victory", in the rumors of secret weapons, strategies, reserve armies, and so on. The technique, at its most basic, is a human one: tell (or show) the truth, inculcate trust, then sell the lie.

To reinforce the lie when even it could no longer be sold, it was reinforced with summary executions if a German even questioned the propaganda, and this is the problem with all propaganda ministries and "departments of truth."  And I submit that it is also a problem inherent with this bill.

But I strongly suspect the real dangers already lie elsewhere, and it's an epistemological problem the corporate controlled media and any government propaganda organ now faces: their moral capital is already so low that no one trusts them any more, even if they should suddenly tell the truth, not just as the occasional matter, but as a consistent agenda. Think of the boy who cried wolf, once too often, until the wolf actually appeared, and no one believed him any more. Our corporate controlled media have been lying to us to drive political agendas for so long that no one believes them, from the USS Maine sinking, to the magic bullet, to Waco and "we did it for the children," to the whole 9/11 narrative, to dodging Darth Hillary's health issues and the constant drumbeat of a Hillary victory, and now, to the whole (largely collapsed) Russia hacked our elections meme. (No one seems to recall those Russian allegations years ago of US attempts to steal their elections from Mr. Putin).

Countering their own deplorable fake news record will be difficult, and the way that they will do so will be not through direct confrontation, but via already tried and tested means: planting false stories, having "fake commenters" commenting on websites, and particularly foreign ones, such as PressTV(the Iranian site), Al Jazeera, RT, and of course on various free and independent media sites. And these attacks will come in the form of exhibiting or displaying "more thorough research"... after all, the government has lots of money, and can hire researchers to nitpick anything to death, to find the "falsifying footnote" to embarrass any author of any story, corporate controlled media or otherwise. But this tactic will be coupled with the age-old tactic of pettifogging (which we may summarize by saying "look at this tree bark, not the forest.")

The bottom line? I'm less worried about some American version of Dr Goebbels (after all, we had those and still have them with the talking heads on the corporate controlled media). I'm more worried about how we will see an explosion of such techniques on the internet, and how many will succumb to those efforts and start believing them, even as the bombs are falling, and we're reassured of final victory...

...and of course, we need such a law, don't we, because after all, we need to counter the growing propaganda threat from the Russians, who just hacked our election (so we're told)...

Remember the Maine!

See you on the flip side...

Posted in

Joseph P. Farrell

Joseph P. Farrell has a doctorate in patristics from the University of Oxford, and pursues research in physics, alternative history and science, and "strange stuff". His book The Giza DeathStar, for which the Giza Community is named, was published in the spring of 2002, and was his first venture into "alternative history and science".

34 Comments

  1. Dan on January 1, 2017 at 5:28 am

    So here we are… Room 101.
    The walls aren’t as thick as I thought they’d be.



  2. Robert Barricklow on December 30, 2016 at 11:52 am


  3. Ramura on December 30, 2016 at 1:59 am

    I just sent an email to JPF with this info, but I will also post it here. If you are concerned about any of YOUR favorite alternative websites getting blocked, look up their IP address. Even if the URL is blocked, the IP address will get you there.
    Do an IP address search from your favorite URL to identify their IP code. WRITE THESE DOWN! Even if they take down the URL (assuming it is just blocking and NOT a complete bring-down of the internet or energy-grid), you will be able to still get to your favorite websites for information or whatever.

    Go to this link (or IP lookup tool of your own choice) http://network-tools.com/

    In the box on the left, “Express” is top button (I leave it there).
    Scroll down a bit to a white “enter” box (not labeled, but will already have a number in it that looks like this: 100.4.67.163
    Delete that, and ENTER your favorite website URL: http://www.gizadeathstar.com

    The page will open. In this case, the TOP number is: 45.55.159.188

    If you then paste THAT number in your browser, it will take you to http://www.gizadeathstar.com

    Your website’s URL (www.name.com) may not work, but their IP will still get you there. Good to know!

    I intend to do this for all my “critical” alternative websites, JUST IN CASE!



    • goshawks on December 30, 2016 at 5:33 pm

      Ramura, thanks for the info. Appreciated.

      If you do get around to making an IP list of your “critical” alternative websites, I am sure the readers here would appreciate any IPs you wish to ‘share’… (grin)



      • Jeannie on December 31, 2016 at 2:38 am

        ditto… share, share, 😀



        • Robert Barricklow on January 2, 2017 at 2:33 pm

          Jeannie
          That’s the spirit!



    • Robert Barricklow on January 2, 2017 at 2:30 pm

      Ramura
      Thanks.
      I copied…
      just in case.



  4. moxie on December 29, 2016 at 7:57 pm

    Interesting. I just noticed today that someone from Voice of America followed my anonymous social media account. Also, those pop-ups and redirects when you open news articles are becoming annoying.



  5. Robert Barricklow on December 29, 2016 at 6:36 pm

    Passed similarly to the infamous 1913 Federal Reserve bill that was passed on Christmas Eve in the dead of night. Same sinister brotherhood slinking, slithering in the shadows of the halls of power.
    All we have is the private corporatized news spewing out propaganda for profit. Their Press Corp singing as if were a press choir, all from the same page/no matter the network nor state of location.
    It was the comedy channel that really coined fake news as currency to spend and spin for profit; while, at the same time entertaining the hip, that just simply couldn’t swallow the…



    • Robert Barricklow on December 29, 2016 at 6:43 pm

      silly willy mainstream drool. Stephen Colbert and his ilk took to it duck to water and the establishment joined in; after all they owned it.



      • Robert Barricklow on December 29, 2016 at 6:51 pm

        But this signature Ministry of Truth has been around for some time. It has various departments that we experience here in the form of moderation. It is built into the cake; in this case/internet. Another facet is the protection racket types like Norton and McAfee who are weighted to the dark side like Facebook. There are a smorgasbord of bots that are employed by the Ministry of Truth[if truth be told] that patrol the internet caused problems that other bots are then employed to fix. They work both sides of the fence; making money and laughing all the way through bankster occupied territories around the corporate fascist globalized world.



        • Robert Barricklow on December 29, 2016 at 6:56 pm

          There is no public news for the people – except in the alternative media realm on the internet[mostly]. That’s the rub for the sinister slinking slithering types that can’t stomach a real world of the living filled with love & truth. A nightmare they work hard to manufacture out of existence.



          • Robert Barricklow on December 29, 2016 at 7:01 pm

            Yes, I adore truth, it is, after all
            a revolutionary act.



        • Roger on December 29, 2016 at 10:36 pm

          I highly suspect Norton spyware protection of also being spyware.



          • Robert Barricklow on December 30, 2016 at 11:17 am

            I concur.
            It is part of the information warfare complex.



  6. OrigensChild on December 29, 2016 at 6:30 pm

    How can you tell when an Empire is nearly dead? The Empire is forced to create a Ministry of Truth to officially sanction their version of it. Every empire who has attempted to bury truth ends when placed in the grave of aborted confidence. In the most extreme cases such a collapse ushers into history a new Dark Age or a reboot of civilization. As long as we maintain the written word we stand a better chance to prevent either extreme end.



  7. Robert Barricklow on December 29, 2016 at 5:58 pm

    There will be blood.
    In the world of violence there are players who are not only deadly accurate; their acumen t turn the tables and get others to do their dirty work is also signature mafia. The Russian mafia doesn’t play nice, and no doubt they have contacts within the gray world of spy vs spy; as does the CIA[and their alphabet brothers]. They just might work together to get a wet-solution that nips this potential blood-bath in the bud.
    This doesn’t bode well for those with short-fuses, that sets off bombs and expect others to clean-up their messes. These others[friend & foe] may just start with that short-fuse, and work their way up the kill-chain together – dispatching those along the way that are disturbing business model running from as smoothly as possible.



    • Robert Barricklow on December 29, 2016 at 6:23 pm

      Above should have been posted under the News & Views.



  8. Roger on December 29, 2016 at 1:18 pm

    It will back fire and just convince more people that are in the middle that they really do have a lot to hide. And what they hear, but don’t want to believe, is probably real. The best way to make info go viral is by attempting to sensor it. The best way to grow your resistance is being more pushy and controlling.



  9. Vomito Blanco on December 29, 2016 at 12:57 pm

    I’m not sure if it was Lyndon Johnson or Joseph Stalin who said: “never pass a law that is dangerous in the hands of your enemy,” but handing Trump a weapon to take out fake news is quite a gift, if he decides to turn it on the IG Farben/CIA fake news. I believe his son-in-law was talking about a Trump TV channel and voila! you now have the official government news and the locus of the anti-fake news counterinsurgency– with newly legislated government funding and covert anti-fake news operatives included. It does in effect become the ministry of propaganda. Put Steve Bannon in charge and it becomes quite formidable in my estimation.

    The danger of a Trump TV would be if it devolved into a crass, 24 hour reality show revolving around Trump and his family, although his presidential power would probably really benefit from this intimate format as it would be widely watched. In fact, almost impossible not to watch at times as we will be able to tune in live to observe the president reacting to the major and minor issues of the day. Not to mention all the surprise guests, the celebrities, the beautiful women, the DC gossip. It would be the king of all reality shows. Imagine President Trump running his mouth after a state dinner where he didn’t like the guest, or found the foreign dignitary’s wife very attractive or very ugly? Wouldn’t it be fun to watch President Trump berate his sycophantic underlings when they screw things up or a shouting match between him and willful Ivanka over some petty domestic grievance or some huge policy issue that effects the lives of millions of people? How about the eye candy of First Lady Melania slinking around in a bathrobe while she listens to the Donald talk out loud about the day’s duty while eating his breakfast; he’s got a mouthful of cornflakes and talking about getting even with China, Iran, or the NY Times and she’s talking about shopping and son Baron’s problems at prep school. I could even imagine loose lipped Donald accidentally blurting out state secrets during dinner or during some late night pillow talk while the cameras are still rolling, possibly mentioning the “huge” tribute in gold Earthlings have to pay regularly to some “nasty” aliens who “aren’t nice” or maybe some derogatory tidbit about the sissy and the transvestite who occupied the Whitehouse before him and why he’s got get rid of the bed in the master bedroom, even if Abraham Lincoln did sleep in it.

    Come to think of it, I think I would really enjoy a Trump presidential reality show.



  10. marcos toledo on December 29, 2016 at 12:02 pm

    I stop believing the media since at least the Vietnam War and the Kennedys assassinations. A since I have been a history buff probably long before those events. The USA unfortunately has never know how to tell the truth especially to themselves even when their survival as a society depends on it.



  11. GW on December 29, 2016 at 9:41 am

    This seems to me that similar patterns are also taking place here, in Czech republic. But they were using more NGOs and think-tanks, the soft-power crap, rather than a pressure from the state, so far. But it may be this is changing, I shall see.
    An good example of such crap:
    http://www.europeanvalues.net/kremlinwatch/



  12. Kahlypso on December 29, 2016 at 8:37 am

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministries_of_Nineteen_Eighty-Four#Ministry_of_Truth

    “The Ministry of Truth is the propaganda ministry. As with the other ministries in the novel, the name Ministry of Truth is a misnomer because in reality it serves the opposite: it is responsible for any necessary falsification of historical events.”

    “The Ministry of Truth is involved with news media, entertainment, the fine arts and educational books. Its purpose is to rewrite history to change the facts to fit Party doctrine for propaganda effect……..Minitrue plays a role as the news media by changing history, and changing the words in articles about events current and past, so that Big Brother and his government are always seen in a good light and can never do any wrong”

    Go over to wiki and read it.. its laughable. they are not even bothering to cover it up with a convulted para-complicated name.. Something like … Department of velicitude and citizen cerebral welfare committee..

    I also thought I’d get in with Orwell before Marcos turns up and goes Super Sayan over this..(as darn right he should.. this is deplorable.)



  13. Vila Mundi on December 29, 2016 at 8:00 am


  14. George Corson on December 29, 2016 at 6:47 am

    There’s little doubt the Globalist Controlled “Swamp” (that is Washington, DC) will ever nullify this legislation, after the Republicans take control. Globalization was never derailed with Hillary’s loss, it was simply “sidetracked”.

    Listen to F. William Engdahl’s analysis of the new Trump Administration:
    https://soundcloud.com/guns-and-butter-1/the-incredible-trump-deception-f-william-engdahl-356?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_campaign=wtshare&utm_medium=Facebook&utm_content=https%3A%2F%2Fsoundcloud.com%2Fguns-and-butter-1%2Fthe-incredible-trump-deception-f-william-engdahl-356



  15. Neru on December 29, 2016 at 6:24 am

    It is time for a private rerun of Babylon 5. Any good ideas to hide books and other unsavory materials from the ministry of truth and propaganda?



  16. WalkingDead on December 29, 2016 at 5:28 am

    “Remember, remember the 5th of November, the gunpowder, treason, and plot…”
    “If you found out it was your own government doing these things, would you really want to know?”
    V
    How long before the “black bags” start showing up and “Homeland Security” begins enforcing the “official narrative”? The Wests decent into fascism is proceeding apace.



    • Roger on December 29, 2016 at 1:25 pm

      They have to disarm us first or devastate our population and homeland in a major ground invasion where our military stands down. I wouldn’t put it past the members of the Global collective in the highest levels of our halls of power because they don’t consider themselves to be US citizens anymore except on public papers.



    • thebodyelectric on January 2, 2017 at 12:24 pm

      The use of bags has already started
      This is from a paper that serves the county of Sussex here in England but as one can see it also speaks of other areas of the world where such practice is occurring…
      http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/9003108.US_style_spit_masks_used_by_Sussex_Police/



  17. basta on December 29, 2016 at 5:16 am

    It’s pathetic, really. These people are losers, both literally and figuratively, in all that they do, and now they think they can legislate what you are to think and believe.

    Their arrogance only matches their incompetence, and if they weren’t safely ensconced deep within the cogs of the whole corrupt crony system, they’d be rightly in the for-profit jails they also “legislated” into being for their corporate pals, also members of the Big Club.

    So nothing really to worry about here, it will go the way of HRC, their poster child of crony entitlement, but it will claim it’s share from the pig trough and sit like a burr under your seat until it finally fades into irrelevance.

    BTW, since when is Obama wearing pale peach nail polish?



    • basta on December 29, 2016 at 5:19 am

      Oops, when this does come out of moderation, the “its” is not possessive. I really hate that sort of error so must acknowledge it here.



    • Freefall on December 29, 2016 at 1:37 pm

      Basta .. I think “bath house” Barry would wear a LOT of things that would blow our minds (if only we could see those more intimate moments) ..



    • mercuriAl on December 29, 2016 at 1:42 pm

      Pale peach pizza sauce.



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