By Dr. Paul Craig Roberts: From time to time readers ask what it is like trying to communicate with people in an era of mass disinformation. There are a few individual voices, as often as not censored and under attack, against which the TV and print media and the establishment’s Internet sites are arrayed. It is frustrating, especially as so many people are content with a few minutes of managed news headlines. The insouciance in the population is massive.
Imprimis claims 6,200,000 readers and usually presents a reasoned and informed article that encourages thought. But often even these articles sometimes contain historical lies.
For example, Harmeet Dhillon, CEO of the Center for American Liberty writes about “The Politicization of the Department of Justice” in the August 2022 issue of Imprimis. She makes her case and leaves us with the frightening fact that the US Department of Justice is a powerful force misusing law to destroy the civil liberty guaranteed by the US Constitution.
She makes the important point that 9/11 was used “to attack ourselves” with the Patriot Act that inaugurated an era of government spying, illegally and unconstitutionally, on citizens and weaponizing information against those Americans regarded as “political enemies. ”
All well and good, but she accepts the official 9/11 story: “First the terrorists attacked us.” Conservatives, who are more patriotic than liberals, who seem to prefer a Tower of Babel to a unified country, have a difficult time separating government from country. Consequently, if there is a claim of foreign attack, like the Gulf of Tonkin and 9/11, conservatives rush to the defense of the government. They wrap themselves in the flag and become dupes of the propaganda.
Another example of the perpetuation of a historical lie is Christopher Flannery’s article in the December 2022 issue of Imprimis. In this curious article Flannery portrays Abraham Lincoln as a President who created a new birth of freedom for America with his Emancipation Proclamation.
This is absurd. The Emancipation Proclamation was a war measure intended to provoke a slave revolt that would cause Confederate soldiers to desert the front lines and rush home to protect their parents, wives, and children. Union officers were terrified that Lincoln would create the impression among Union soldiers that they were fighting and dying for the sake of blacks slaves. Lincoln’s own Secretary of State criticized the proclamation for freeing the slaves only in the areas where we have no presence and leaving them in bondage where we rule. Lincoln’s own words freed slaves only in Union unoccupied areas “in rebellion against the United States.”
One can understand that Republicans, which essentially means conservatives, would try to court black votes by claiming to have fought a war to liberate them. But it hasn’t worked.
It is a curiosity of our time that today blacks vote Democrat, the party that opposed Lincoln’s war, and the conquered South vote for their Republican conquerers.
Another example of conservatives gone amiss is Glenn Loury. Writing in the Autumn 2022 City Journal, Loury says “Racial inequality is deep and abiding.” But he is opposed to racial preferences for blacks as a method of their advancement. Loury believes, and I agree, that blacks are not helped by advancing them on a non-merit basis.
Racial inequality can have many other reasons than racism. There are many inequalities in the world. We see them in athletic performance, in the income distribution, in creative acts, and so on. These inequalities exist in all populations regardless of the presence or non-presence of blacks.
The racial inequality that we have today comes from treating white Americans as legally second class citizens. If you refuse to hire a black, the federal government will have you up on racial discrimination charges, but it is perfectly OK to refuse to hire a white. Affirmative action gives blacks rights to be hired and promoted before whites regardless of merit.
So what Loury should be analyzing is the second class citizenship of white Americans, especially heterosexual white males despite the prohibition against unequal treatment in the 14th Amendment. It is a paradox of history that the 1964 Civil Rights Act has been turned into discrimination against white Americans.
For my last example I take Matt Taibbi, one of the best journalists of our time. Taibbi has fallen for the disinformation that George Floyd was murdered. https://taibbi.substack.com/p/on-white-fragility
As the coroner’s report made clear, as is reported on my website, George Floyd’s blood showed the presence of fentanyl at 2.5 times the fatal dose.
George Floyd complained of breathing problems prior to any restraint.
The video taken at a distance by the teenage black girl, from which it seemed that officer Chauvin’s knee was on Floyd’s neck, is an example of perspective distortion as experts testified at the trial. The up close police videos show that Chauvin’s knee was on Floyd’s shoulder, an approved restraint measure. The reason for the restraint was to keep Floyd still, thus conserving his ability to use oxygen until the medics the police had called arrived. Chauvin recognized that he had a fentanyl case and was trying to keep Floyd still until help arrived.
The media universally declared Chauvin a murderer, provoking burnings and lootings of many cities’ business areas and making it impossible for any jurors to give Chauvin a fair trial. In the mid-20th century such irresponsible behavior by the media would have led the court to dismiss the case against Chauvin on the grounds that an impartial jury could not be found.
So how do we explain the ignorance of one of the few remaining journalists America has?
There is a limit to everyone’s time and energy. None of us can focus on everything. Additionally, Taibbi, a former left-winger prior to being thrown out of the gang for telling the truth, might have grown up with the belief that white cops are racists who discriminate against blacks. If so, then for Taibbi the media’s account of George Floyd was what he was prepared to believe.
So, dear readers, no, I do not enjoy writing. Yes, trying to communicate is frustrating. Why do I do it? Because when there is no truth there is tyranny. I do not claim to always be correct, but that is my goal. My agenda is truth. I find it very disturbing that it is truth tellers, not liars, who are censored.
The Ever Widening War
If reports are correct that modern Western weapon systems are slated to pour into Ukraine–the latest US and German tanks, Patriot missile systems, and other current weaponry–Minister Reznikov is correct.
These weapons imply that Ukraine has enough soldiers left to use them. It will require months to prepare Ukraine for these weapons. A logistical system is necessary for the delivery, maintenance, and protection of the weaponry from Russian air and missile attack. This will require US/NATO personnel on the ground in Ukraine if the weapons are to be effectively used.
In other words, the “limited military operation” has widened into a war between the US/NATO/Ukraine and Russia.
Apparently, it is going to be a war without a NATO declaration of war. The reason is that if all the weaponry promised is delivered, NATO and the US will be without fighting ability except in Ukraine where the weapons will be located. Russia could, if she had the leadership, simply sweep through weapons-depleted Baltics and Finland around Germany into France and circle back to Serbia, leaving East and West Europe cut off and surrounded. But this would make the war officially one with NATO, and the US would have to use its only means–nuclear weapons.
So it looks as if Russia will continue to pretend that there is only a limited military operation, and US/NATO will continue to pretend that the weapons are just aid to Ukraine.
A Russian military operation that the Kremlin should have completed in a few days eight years ago has now, once belatedly begun, extended another year. The consequence of the Kremlin’s unpreparedness and endless delay is a full-fledged involvement of US/NATO in the war with the aim of retaking Donbass and Crimea from Russia. The increased Ukrainian firepower means far more Russian casualties, and Washington’s involvement has passed the threshold at which Washington can accept a Russian victory.
It short, the Kremlin has blown its opportunity, and we are headed toward Armageddon.
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