i figure it’s a lot simpler. we’ve pissed russia off for a long time and they can likely bomb us into oblivion. maybe discretion before valor is called for from our fine brass.

it’s called complicity. when we go for a drive or buy food at the store we are supporting it. that’s why nobody complains. it goes back to sumeria and assyria and even hoboken.

Self-evident to you and to other intelligent and accurately informed people, but obviously not to the mass; and your blaming the mass for being less intelligent and less-informed than the hired deceivers, is blame-the-victim stuff, which is evil because the blame should instead be to the billionaires who have hired those professional deceivers — not to their suckers. So they’re not intelligent, and so forth, but they’re not what has caused these invasions.

I said it because the sleight of hand used to the fool the public (by the media, or the state) is on par with the childrens trick when an adult pretends to remove the end of their thumb.

In other words the charade is pretty self evident with a little bit of enquiry.
In my opinion a lack of cognitive skills is not the fundamental reason why so many of the public continue to support brutal policies despite the evidence that is available to all of us.
For example large swathes of the British population are willing to give the benefit of the doubt to a serial liar like Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (over the alleged poisoning of the Skripals) even if it means conflict with Russia.
My contention is that at some level they are drawn to confrontation, or at least a romantcised form of nationalism, so it might be worth exploring why this might be the case rather than seeing them as passive recipients of propaganda.

Re. “in my book it is no longer good enough to say they have been ‘fooled’ – Eric isn’t fooled, I’m not fooled, and virtually the entire Off-G community is not fooled, so how can we rationalise popular support of extreme political violence by suggesting the public has been ‘fooled’.”:
My answer: Do you think you’re normal? I know that I am not. To presume that you are a typical representative of the broad national population would be idiotic. I don’t understand why you did it.

Harry – I always appreciate your posts Harry. Thanks.

Great post, thank you.

Harry – I quite agree. There is certainly more at work than the effectiveness of the American propaganda apparatus. I keep hearing Charles de Gaulle’s words echo when I think of my fellow American’s collective refusal to face reality. De Gaulle returned from JFK’s funeral and told his information minister that he knew the U.S. State had killed JFK but that the American people didn’t want to face this reality. His comment about we Americans was: (“They don’t want to know. They don’t want to find out. They won’t let themselves find out.”) So of course the CIA conveniently created the term: “conspiracy theory” so we Americans “never have to find out” what is really happening in the world.
De Gaulle’s observation is as true today as it was in 1963. The only difference between the “conservative” Americans I know who are propagandized by watching Fox News, and the “liberal” Americans I know who watch PBS or listen to NPR, are that the latter group gets their non-stop fact-free imperial war propaganda with more sophisticated musical interludes and more pretentious banter. In America you are “free” to hear the message that “Putin is bad” with either country, classical or even jazz music in the background on either “conservative” or “liberal” media. It seems to me that there is a massive amount of existential bad faith at play in the American psyche that is based in deep unconscious or only partially conscious fear. I was only 11 years old when they assassinated Kennedy, and by the time I was 15 they’ed completed the job and had assassinated MalcolmX, MLK, and Bobby too. Before our very eyes the U.S. government killed the entire top tier of progressive leadership in America. There was a powerful – “message” – conveyed in such clear ruthless brutality. I “got that message” consciously and it shaped my life. My friends and family who still can’t face that message “consciously” watch PBS and listen to NPR for solace.