60

Photo Illusion

Todd Hayen

An interesting course of events is about to take place. We are all about to enter a time machine and return to the era before photography was invented. This would be approximately 1820. Let’s just leave it at that date because, for all intents and purposes, photography as we know it was probably “invented” sometime around 1822 by Frenchman Nicéphore Niépce.

We could argue this fact until we were all blue in the face, considering all of the weird evidence supporting strange photographic-like processes going back to at least the century before. Certainly, photography as we know it today started in the mid-19th century, and more toward the end of it if you really want to get technical. Certainly, no one in the general public knew what a photograph was until the late 1800s.

Humans were around living a rather civilized life for many hundreds of years, if not thousands, before this startling advancement in scientific technology. My, oh my, how did we survive? Rather well, actually. And soon, if not already, we will have to survive again without photography being a reliable presentation of objective reality—assuming it ever was.

So, let’s sit on that for a minute. How reliable has photography been in representing true, objective fact? Well, for one thing, photos have often been subjected to a bit of interpretation. We have never been able to really tell, without question, if a photograph represented reality. It has been easy to snap a photo of something that just isn’t as clear as it seemed to be at the time of snapping.

Then there is obvious “photo retouching”—when a photo is manipulated either in the darkroom (yes, they used to have to actually DEVELOP photos with chemicals!) or even while a subject is being photographed. One of the most interesting cases regarding “in the camera trickery” was the Cottingley Fairy incident, which took place in 1917. It is a fascinating story, including the quite famous writer Arthur Conan Doyle (of Sherlock Holmes fame). Doyle and many others believed, without a doubt, that these two little girls had these encounters with actual fairies and took photos of them.

Photography at the time was considered about as reliable in capturing manifest reality as physically being there and seeing what was being photographed with your own eyes. Although most anyone today would take one look at these Cottingley photos and know without a doubt they are paper cutouts of fairies, the hoax caught on like wild fire and Sir Conan Doyle was not the only one who believed in their authenticity, nearly everyone else who looked at them did—even photo experts—even scientists from Kodak who said “look, real fairies, wow!”

People trusted photography, and people trusted moving pictures even more. For the most part, these two mediums were reliable, unless presented intentionally as fake or as movie magic to entertain. Even then, however, the magic of photo fakery was not that sophisticated. Most fake photos could be analyzed, resulting in the exposure of the fakery (maybe this is not as true as it would seem, so many people got away with fakes). So, if seriously scrutinized, photos and movies have been reliable sources for proving certain factors of reality. Not anymore.

With the advent of AI art and AI movies, it is nearly impossible for the casual viewer to discern the accuracy of a photo or movie in its attempted depiction of reality. Sure, for a while, this will continue to go relatively unnoticed. No one will really care if what they see in a photo or “video” is “real” or not.

They will continue to put their hand to their mouth, suppressing the expression of awe and amazement as they watch a cat fly through the air, turning somersaults, or a dog mouthing the lyrics to their favourite song. Soon enough (if not already), that amazement will succumb to the words, “wow, how did they do that?” and eventually dissipating to a ho-hum, who cares, response. Then, back to the pre-photo days of 1822 we will all go. Abandoning the miraculous invention of photography to the dustbin of “it was interesting while it lasted” technology.

I am sure equally advanced technology will be able to analyze AI-generated photos and pronounce the fakes as fakes. But by the time one has gone through the effort to do so, who will really care? Not only will new photos of current “things” be useless, but old photos will also be useless as a chronicle of time, people, and things of yesteryear (unless you were looking at physical, paper, photos—and why would you be doing that?).

I’m sure all of you have seen photos of the past manipulated through AI—adding motion to still photos, or simply photographic images of events and objects that never actually existed. In fact, this alone is probably the greatest blow we will experience with this new (some say “evil”) technology—our past (as it was documented by photography) will be destroyed as well as our present.

Who cares, really? Well, maybe no one should care. At least not very much. As I have been saying, photography is very new; it is only about 200 years old. People got along fine before its invention. It is still interesting, however, that the advent of AI photography may be the first technological advance that will actually bring us back to a more primitive time.

When invented, photography proved useful for documenting the present (at least that was its intention), allowing people in the future to remember the past. It will now lose that function. Not only will it not be a reliable source for presenting reality in the present, but it will also become useless for creating documentation of the present for future eyes to see and ponder.

We have no photos of the pre-1800 world. Thousands of years of existence have not been photographically documented. Everything that was documented with photography since its invention in 1822 is also a useless resource for future generations to see what the world was like during the past 200 years. Considering the effort to destroy all media in its original form (paper, cellulite (film), etc.), it will be difficult to come by original media (welcome “Fahrenheit 451”), which, by the nature of the medium, is not alterable.

All photos ever taken will possibly be manipulated in such an AI way once it is digitized, rendering them inauthentic in their original intention of documenting reality at the time they were taken.

Perhaps, then, we’ll rediscover the ancient art of skepticism, that trusty old companion from the days when tales were spun by firelight and truths were verified by word of mouth—or not at all. In this grand illusionist’s trick called progress, AI doesn’t just blur the lines; it erases them entirely, leaving us to navigate a world where every image is a fairy tale waiting to be debunked.

But fear not, dear reader, for in losing our photographic crutches, we might just stumble upon something far more enchanting: the unfiltered wonder of our own unreliable eyes, proving once again that reality has always been the greatest hoax of all.

Todd Hayen PhD is a registered psychotherapist practicing in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He holds a PhD in depth psychotherapy and an MA in Consciousness Studies. He specializes in Jungian, archetypal, psychology. Todd also writes for his own substack, which you can read here

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dimami
dimami
Sep 4, 2025 4:33 PM

New York Times was one of the first online to digitalize it back cataloge and then charge a fee and make one jump through hoops to be able to see what was written 40 / 50 / 60 years ago.
The local library used to have all the old newspaper copies but they only have digitalized copies which have to be ordered and paid for in-advance with question in why,

Who controls the digitization controls the past.

jeff
jeff
Aug 24, 2025 10:54 PM

Also books, newspapers, dissertations, monographs, music, movies, documentary film, science papers, radio archives, paintings, performances, home movies, old TV shows, revisionist history, history, everything … woosh.

Todd Hayen
Todd Hayen
Aug 26, 2025 2:15 AM
Reply to  jeff

Woosh is right.

collins
collins
Aug 24, 2025 5:44 PM

comment image

Paul
Paul
Aug 25, 2025 6:57 PM
Reply to  collins

The dumbest don’t lead us. They are the smartest on almost every metric. But also most evil.

collins
collins
Aug 24, 2025 5:40 PM

With the advent of AI art and AI movies, it is nearly impossible for the casual viewer to discern the accuracy of a photo or movie.

I have a theory if it is in the press MSM or alternative then mostly likely it is fake.

Remember this.

comment image

Lynn Ertell
Lynn Ertell
Aug 24, 2025 3:27 PM
Todd Hayen
Todd Hayen
Aug 26, 2025 2:17 AM
Reply to  Lynn Ertell

This was back when photo journalism was a thing…I don’t think anyone questioned the validity of this photo. Do they today?

rickypop
rickypop
Aug 24, 2025 12:37 PM

Does 9/11 ring a bell?

J. Dena
J. Dena
Aug 24, 2025 2:16 PM
Reply to  rickypop

Bldng 7 looked exactly like a very large red flag flying furiously…

Pyewacket
Pyewacket
Aug 24, 2025 10:37 AM

Photography these days has become very similar to the information engine that is Wikipedia. In parts; very truthful and accurate where conflicting narratives aren’t involved.

The Real Edwige
The Real Edwige
Aug 24, 2025 8:40 AM

UK Fabian government and Google in bed together, much to Politcos’ fake concern:
https://www.politico.eu/article/data-tech-google-taxes-buying-habits-produce-eu-uk-us-microsoft/

Aloysius
Aloysius
Aug 24, 2025 4:54 AM

You guys give conspiracy theory a bad name.

antonym
antonym
Aug 24, 2025 2:49 AM

As long as a person cannot identify in consciousness with another being, s/he will have to rely on the very partial chain of image-eyes-brain-biasses. The “third” eye is good but will be scary for most as they will see also “invisible” beings manipulating us. Therefore the first priority is finding the connection with the Divine in the individual Soul.

Todd Hayen
Todd Hayen
Aug 26, 2025 2:18 AM
Reply to  antonym

Yes.

Veri Tas
Veri Tas
Aug 23, 2025 10:56 PM

History erasure has been going on for a very long time.

Erik Nielsen.
Erik Nielsen.
Aug 23, 2025 11:57 PM
Reply to  Veri Tas

Sure. Inside the laptop. But they cant erase hard copies in the basement……………..LOL.
Thats why this idiotic digital society never will be my friend.

Todd Hayen
Todd Hayen
Aug 26, 2025 2:19 AM
Reply to  Erik Nielsen.

agreed

George Mc
George Mc
Aug 23, 2025 9:49 PM

Off topic but this is just pure mockery now:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvgvz090195o

The Edinburgh Comedy Awards. And spot the box ticking:

British comedian Sam Nicoresti has become the first transgender person to win the award for Best Comedy Show at the Edinburgh Fringe.

….

Ayoade Bamgboye won best newcomer for her show Swings and Roundabouts – making her the first black woman to take the award.

Bamgboye is going large on the victimhood angle:

She told BBC News the show was a running commentary on what it means to suffer – a particular suffering “because of the circumstances of your birth and identity”.

Identity, eh? Moving on…

Nicoresti, who has just pocketed £10,000, “took the accolade for the show Baby Doomer, which explores life as a trans woman”.

He also makes this metaphysical announcement:

Winning the award sure is swell, I’m super excited and stoked and jazzed. I did this for the queers making weird art, and it’s a privilege to share this moment with the first all female line-up of award winners.

The “first all female line-up”!

But here’s the biggest laugh:

Nica Burns, director of the Edinburgh Comedy Awards, said the winners capture the spirit of modern comedy – “bold, brilliant, and deeply connected to audiences”.

So a guy whose act “explores life as a trans woman” is “deeply connected to audiences”?

Aloysius
Aloysius
Aug 23, 2025 10:18 PM
Reply to  George Mc

The young are frightening. I saw some recently. Like a bunch of attention-addled animals, pigeons maybe, or rats. And they are everywhere. Watch your wallet.

Erik Nielsen.
Erik Nielsen.
Aug 23, 2025 10:54 PM
Reply to  George Mc

You guys havent seen nothing yet. We already found out the Bible has its roots in India, and both Mike Tyson and Muhammad Ali, and Beatles have India origin.

British Comedy shows are also outperformed by India with several horse length and gold coins: https://youtu.be/QTssx01EZXY .

underground poet
underground poet
Aug 23, 2025 6:43 PM

I was hoping the picture was actually a painting, and then you would have at least had an asset.

kofimoseley
kofimoseley
Aug 23, 2025 6:43 PM

Good stuff. You presented some legitimate, well-reasoned positivity here, and I appreciate that. I avoid AI in all forms myself. I want zero exposure to it. I find that asking myself, “Did they need that in 1885?” or “Did that exist in 1885?” or “What would my great-grandfather have thought?” leads me in the right direction. I taught photography once. First semester was Mathew Brady and Dorothea Lange and making a pinhole camera, second semester was all 35mm. It was my first year teaching and I had to learn it as I taught it. I couldn’t have done it without the helpful people at Wolf Camera.

C.M.
C.M.
Aug 24, 2025 9:49 PM
Reply to  kofimoseley

To anyone who appreciates those older times, I would recommend the two-film set, My Father’s Glory and My Mother’s Castle, about the real-life boyhood of French playwright, Marcel Pagnol. They’re a portrayal of old world values, innocence, simplicity, friendship, family, boyhood adventure. There’s nothing else like it.

For me, this two-film set is in my top 7 movies of all time.

https://theunexpectedworld.substack.com/p/my-fathers-glory-and-my-mothers-castle

In the meantime, the two major musical themes from the film are kind of beautiful: https://theunexpectedworld.substack.com/p/music-two-beautiful-orchestral-themes

Todd Hayen
Todd Hayen
Aug 26, 2025 2:21 AM
Reply to  kofimoseley

I used to be big time into photography, had my own darkroom, developed film, had an enlarger, etc. I was pretty young doing all this (around 13 to 16) so didn’t have the money to do it well (my family was rather poor). But I had a blast.

TaxHaven
TaxHaven
Aug 23, 2025 5:22 PM

My prediction is that “AI” will prove virtually irrrelevant to real life. There can be no substitute for human inventiveness and ingenuity in research, composition and art and, while AI may be a cute distraction for the techno-fetishists it can neither grow potatoes nor perform creative actions. All it can do is collate online sources and mimic.

The hype surrounding any new technology can be absolutely astounding and “investor” desperation for anything “growthy”, for any sort of real return, is very deep in these times of no-net-growth and no-real-returns.

mgeo
mgeo
Aug 24, 2025 5:09 AM
Reply to  TaxHaven

Machines and automation allowed the vermin to reduce wages and exploit employees even more. Oligarchy allowed them to ratchet profiteering. They are left with the problems of ongoing management, creativity, surveillance and totalitarian control. Their inbred spawn cannot take over. AI is one desperate response.

Binra
Binra
Aug 23, 2025 4:14 PM

Imagery precedes and underlies the technology of reproduction and representation.
The second commandment (to not make FOR your SELF any image of anything in heaven or earth and give it worship) is the warning against a ‘self-imaged’ reality substitution. For true relationship will thereby become a hated or blocked intrusion of a ‘peace’ that otherwise has no claim to exist – BUT as an image that frames the Whole in pieces.

That we ‘love our image’ is the basis for its making -we give it our reality by willing so, but a ‘special’ love (serving vanity) must generate a reversal by which such an split off identity is threatened by exposure to truth, and thus truth is denied, masked over, defended (by attack) as demonised FRAMING of truth set by the image of our own making.

The false inheritance represented by the Prodigal Son is of a self-imaged sense of lack or deprivation, yet by ‘taking a living inheritance’ out of true context, he can only run off in a copy that – unlike truth, is corruptible – because it is a mind-adjustment of reality and not the direct extension of the Cause in the Effect.

The wish to see ‘in our own light’ becomes the mind that sees in many and conflicting lights, which is also to fail to recognise reality and thus learn to see what is not there – as in the emperor’s new robes.
Incentivisation frames the mind to ‘play false to win praise or escape blame – that is to say fear and threat of pain of loss – framed within false or mistaken dependencies or inheritances.

While finding word and phrase to sketch this is a challenge, the real obstacle to communication lies in the determination to live from grievance of a self-specialness lacking support and taking offence by operating as a pre-emptive defence. Prejudice is evident in the well developed ability to almost instantly scan anything and everything for threat by finding ‘what is wrong’ with it or them (blameable) and what is worth stealing (basis for praise).
Mostly this operates invisibly as the social order of acceptance or respectability – according the the lights or perspectives set by the context.

Perception is necessarily selective and therefore cannot attain or equate to true knowledge. It can be trained to perceive in way that no longer actively block knowledge – which is integral to our created being – not to the claims set on self-image. Fear (projected conflict) will block Communication until recognised as the call FOR Communication. Blocked Communication will generate dissonance and the developing of abilities to mask out, or repackage toxic debts into the appearance of credits by which to compartmentalise a mindshare as an asset to the perceived necessity and demand for control.

What then is our basis for determining true from false when our own mind is trained for the purpose of obfuscating via rules and filters that are set by war -as the means to establish ‘truth’?

‘Ne-cess’ derives from unyielding. A rigid or locked down will, set as a basis for intellection, runs on imaged meanings specific to its own formative experience. From the pain and confusion of disconnection from Communication within being, rises the mind of substitution.
Imagery can thus ‘operate’ a feedback loop for retriggering life shocks or conflicts – along with masking mitigations, comforts and fantasies of projected ‘re-enactments’ by which to solve the past in the future by stamping the present in its image.

Discernment is of an embracing presence that is at rest in its own nature – regardless the outer dynamics of the situation. Balance is a fluid and adaptive and creative alignment of will – that in the light of the abuse of will, is better called ‘willingness’ – for a truly free will is a willingness for truth, not a wilful demand truth fit our image, idol or ideal of what we (think we) WANT!

Our world is in a sense forcing the development of a discernment of truth as the breakdown of ‘false solutions’ reaches it tipping point. We can and often do choose to die in and by our illusions rather than truly dis-illusion -for waking up from lies to nightmares is hardly a real shift of renewal or reintegration – even if it can serve to question our thinking as the basis for seeing and reacting in a world for getting.

Paul Lockwood
Paul Lockwood
Aug 23, 2025 3:55 PM

Photographs probably never told us as much as we think they did. Does a photograph (or a video) of the US Congress in session or the UK parliament in session really tell us much about the political reality of our time? Would a video of Julius Caesar and the Roman senate tell us much about Ancient Rome and its political and social reality? Fascination though we might find it, it wouldn’t tell us anything that historical research hasn’t told us already.

Derek Diamond
Derek Diamond
Aug 23, 2025 3:13 PM

“Consider the famous Depression-era photo of Allie Mae Burroughs. The photo became iconic in part because of her determined expression. It’s typically titled “Tenant Farmer’s Wife”.” Aric McBay

‘Women lead the way in farming, but representation lags behind
March 04, 2015

https://www.aricmcbay.org/2015/03/04/column-women-lead-the-way-in-farming-but-representation-lags-behind/

“The homeless situation in the U.S., in big cities in particular, was critical even before the pandemic. Now the numbers are unprecedented. Not even during the ‘Great Depression’ was there anything like the current level of those without basic shelter.” John Steppling

‘Anteroom of Our Own Extinction

 Jan 18, 2021 

https://off-guardian.org/2021/01/18/anteroom-of-our-own-extinction/

“Where development projects in the past may have taken months or years to get moving, Cousineau said the behind-the-scenes movements in the Smart Village vision have the potential to move at light speed.”

‘Communities on the Move: Cochrane’s Smart Village project takes shape
Casey Stranges

Jul 5, 2022

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/communities-on-the-move/communities-on-the-move-cochranes-smart-village-project-takes-shape-has-a-lot-of-pokers-in-the-fire-5536753

… “Stranges”

People Are Strange”

https://youtu.be/sezc05A4s2g

Who cannot remember … Microsoft’s infamous Steve Ballmer

Steve Ballmer Developers Music Video

https://youtu.be/rRm0NDo1CiY

One Empire Over See: Control Over the World’s Seed Banks

Vandana Shiva

October 27, 2020

https://organicconsumers.org/one-empire-over-seed-control-over-worlds-seed-banks/

Will the Poor Always be with Us?

Jim Tull

March 18, 2017 

https://www.localfutures.org/will-poor-always-us/

“An Indigenous leader who lives in TImmins, Ont., says she was never consulted about a proposal for an encampment relocation project at the edge of town near a landfill site.”

‘Indigenous leader says she was never informed of plans for an encampment site in Timmins, Ont.
Jonathan Migneault

Apr 09, 2025 

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/timmins-homeless-encampment-indigenous-1.7505705

‘Homelessness rising in the region: study
Marissa Lentz-McGrath

Feb 24, 2025

https://www.timminstoday.com/local-news/homelessness-rising-in-the-region-study-10277507

THE BIG READ: How the pandemic exposed Northern Ontario’s hidden homeless crisis
Jenny Lamothe

Mar 11, 2023

https://www.timminstoday.com/the-big-read/the-big-read-how-the-pandemic-exposed-northern-ontarios-hidden-homeless-crisis-6682012

Corn Taste Better on the Honor System

Robin Wall Kimmerer

https://emergencemagazine.org/feature/corn-tastes-better/

You’ll Get Yours Aplenty

Blaze Foley

https://youtu.be/wMZ4MdQNzqE

Erik Nielsen.
Erik Nielsen.
Aug 24, 2025 12:18 AM
Reply to  Derek Diamond

Smart village. Couldnt they have found another name?
Fok Smart cities, villages, communities, countries, societies, entities, unities.

Derek Diamond
Derek Diamond
Aug 24, 2025 3:01 AM
Reply to  Erik Nielsen.

“This idea is extremely popular. United Nations official Maimunah Mohd Sharif said in 2019 that “compact, walkable cities with good public transport greatly reduce our per capita carbon footprint.” The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says that “compact cities lessen the impact on the environment with … less automobile dependency.”

Can a City be Sustainable?

Max Wilbert

Autumn 2022

https://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/magazine/entry/can-a-city-be-sustainable/

“The digital slave-system of the Fourth Industrial Repression is being imposed on us by stealth.

Various aspects of the sinister technology have gradually crept in over the years under the excuse of fighting crime or terrorism or, more recently, of combating the spread of a so-called pandemic.
As we saw in our recent article on “15 Minute Cities”, we are now being told that it is all about urban planning and making life generally more pleasant for everyone by reducing traffic congestion and pollution.

Anyone who sees through this greenwashing attempt is dismissed as a paranoid fool or as a dangerous conspiracy theorist spreading fear and disinformation.” Paul Cudenec

Exposed: London’s secretive “smart stations” roll-out
March 13, 2023

https://winteroak.org.uk/2023/03/13/exposed-londons-secretive-smart-stations-roll-out/

“Someone’s always playing corporation games
Who cares, they’re always changing corporation names …”

We Built This City

Starship

https://youtu.be/NtM3jjLP7AE

Derrick
Derrick
Aug 23, 2025 2:12 PM

Have a care that you don’t wander too far from the cave.

Johnny
Johnny
Aug 23, 2025 1:32 PM

Buddhists call it Maya.
And photo ‘illusions’ are just a tiny, tiny piece of the magical mystery we call Life.

Erik Nielsen.
Erik Nielsen.
Aug 24, 2025 12:23 AM
Reply to  Johnny

A splitsecond of a fragment of time without smell, sound, real colours, sense of temperature, wind and humidity.
But it serves to wake up memories hidden deep inside your heart.

George Mc
George Mc
Aug 23, 2025 12:59 PM

I have long thought that computer generated images were the death of special effects in movies. One of the most fascinating books I ever read was a history of those effects – but this was long before CGI. And the only way that such a book would have an appeal is if people still thought that “the camera never lies”. So, they’d watch something like the old Ray Harryhausen movies and think, “How did they do that?”

I recall sitting in a cinema watching RH’s “Golden Voyage of Sinbad” where there’s a little homunculus flying around and a child in the row in front was whispering in a tone of awe, “Is that thing real?” Ray would have been so gratified at that.

No child would whisper that now. Because everyone knows how it’s done. And no-one cares.  

 

mgeo
mgeo
Aug 24, 2025 5:15 AM
Reply to  George Mc

Directors everywhere managed great things without CGI, up to maybe end of 1970s.

George Mc
George Mc
Aug 24, 2025 7:53 AM
Reply to  mgeo

John Carpenter did great with The Thing which is far more impressive than the CGI prequel.

Brian Sides
Brian Sides
Aug 23, 2025 12:51 PM

We have come along way since Apollo11 in 1969 and they lost the tapes
Now rockets can land vertically into there lift off gantry a most spectacularly stupid thing to want to do or fake.
Newsbenders 1968 at 9.25 with a bit of fakery fake moon landing on grainy black and white TV “Firing there retro rockets to land there space craft in the dust covered surface”
1969 Apollo11 landing as broadcast in grainy black and white Aldrin “40 feet down picking up some dust”0 feet, down 2.5. Picking up some dust.

Veri Tas
Veri Tas
Aug 23, 2025 11:32 PM
Reply to  Brian Sides

The truth certainly is not rocket science.

comment image

mgeo
mgeo
Aug 24, 2025 5:20 AM
Reply to  Veri Tas

Opertion Fishbowl was an attempt to “punch a hole” in the radiation belt(s). The belt has still not recovered.

Willem
Willem
Aug 23, 2025 12:24 PM

Trickery will always have an audience as long as trickery entertains. Here is Jeroen Bosch who explains how that worked at a faire in 16th Century Holland.

comment image

The problem with trickery is that it opens up many more/ infinite more possibilities than the real hard (and often considered dull) truth that Norwegian socks smell and that 2+2 equals 4.

Suppose that 2+2 would not equal 4, what could happen then?
-Endless possibilities, like the man on the moon, the eye in the sky, and -who knows- that a dull man whose Norwegian socks smell odious is actually a man without any shortcoming (including not being dull and not having smelly socks). Make believe… first by the dull man with smelly socks, and then if he can make believe others that he is not a dull man, etc, the possibilities are endless…

The problem lies not in trickery, the problem is when it is actually believed that David Copperfield can vanish a train.

Brian Sides
Brian Sides
Aug 23, 2025 2:08 PM
Reply to  Willem

They tell us 1+1 = 2 except it does not work out like that with Rabbits. You start with one rabbit and then you add another rabbit on top of that . Pretty soon you have lots of rabbits so 1+1 = many . Then They tell us 1-2 = -1 so you start with1 apple and you take away 2 apples leaving you with minus 1 apple. A pretty neat trick if you can do it.

NixonScraypes
NixonScraypes
Aug 23, 2025 10:36 PM
Reply to  Brian Sides

Do the apple trick with money and you can end up running the world.

Erik Nielsen.
Erik Nielsen.
Aug 24, 2025 12:29 AM
Reply to  NixonScraypes

Thats precisely what happened.

NixonScraypes
NixonScraypes
Aug 24, 2025 9:12 PM
Reply to  Erik Nielsen.

Precisely.

underground poet
underground poet
Aug 24, 2025 11:06 AM
Reply to  NixonScraypes

But to what end does the running do well?

NixonScraypes
NixonScraypes
Aug 24, 2025 9:11 PM

The arse end.

Erik Nielsen.
Erik Nielsen.
Aug 24, 2025 12:38 AM
Reply to  Willem

Its the pentagram on his head: Jesus(1 head) versus Lucifer(2 horn).
1 truth and many lies. If you turn that on its head, it becomes 1 lie and many truths(horns).

2+2=4.
Grass basic colour is green.
The sky basic colour is blue.

1 truth. Head, Jesus. Everything else are lies, 2+ lies, horns, Lucifer.

NO YOU CANNOT AS LIBERAL JUST CHANGE THAT TO 2+2=7, grass=MAGENTA; sky=YELLOW, because its your decision and its your truth.

Rolling Rock
Rolling Rock
Aug 23, 2025 12:00 PM

The manipulation of photographic images or video footage by AI is just a new way to mislead. How an image is literally framed can also distort the truth.

Close up framing can create a different narrative from when the subject matter is shown in full as the following graphic exemplifies. Creating illusions has been around for a long time, well before AI or our knowledge of it.

comment image

Erik Nielsen.
Erik Nielsen.
Aug 24, 2025 12:42 AM
Reply to  Rolling Rock

There are two forms of lies: Statistic, and old newspapers.

David Jones
David Jones
Aug 23, 2025 11:24 AM

Just look at this world, look at the desperation, the anguish and despair of so many people, anyone it seems who speaks out for humanity to rise to the heights of the stars is bound to become an enemy of the so-called elites and all of their grovelling minions, the sycophant politicians.

Look around the world at the pitiful excuse for so-called leadership past and present, Trump, Biden, Obama, Macron, Merz, Scholz, von de Leyen, Rutte, Starmer, Sunak, Johnson, Blair, Zelensky, Carney, Meloni, criminals, hypocrites and liars ad infinitum….

What has really happened? What has gone wrong? Why have these pathological people, mentally deranged people, psychologically ill people, become so politically dominant? Why have these insane narcissists declared war on humanity?

It seems that inside every globalist and politician, a psychopath instinct is very powerful, their only joy is to destroy, to dominate, we see it happening throughout history, and still we don’t become aware, most of these retards are created by their own ambition, hence they are the most dangerous people in the world.

Wherever a psychopath is, sooner or later they are going to become a leader. They are so troublesome, they are such trouble-makers, that the masses have to make them a leader, that is just to pacify them, they will only be at rest when they are at the top, when they are the boss.

Psychopaths have a tendency to become leaders. Adolf Hitler was a psychopath, he became one of the most appalling and shocking leaders in human history. He was a madman, but madmen have a few qualities in them which no sane man can ever have, they compete, and they compete with their total energy, and they compete madly. Because they are so mad, they don’t think, they act. While the sane person thinks, the mad person acts. The sane person goes on thinking and the mad person has already reached and acted and done. The sane person thinks of consequences, the mad person thinks of nothing, they simply rush in.

Remember, you can only give to others that which you have yourself. If you are a mentally unbalanced politician, whatsoever you say is immaterial, for you will only make all of the masses mentally unbalanced too, because of the cultivated false morality that these insane political criminals create, they have put the whole of humanity in a state of schizophrenia, everybody is more or less made into a hypocrite.

This unjust society forces you to remain silent. Don’t you dare speak out, If you do, you will go to prison, get a record, then you cannot easily work again, you cannot live life comfortably, you can no longer survive. It has become almost a necessity today that you don’t show your feelings, your common sense any more, you have to fully censor your authentic self, be constantly on guard.

Humanity is a victim of these power seekers, mad people whose only ambition in life is their ego, the whole of politics is nothing but an ego trip. The politician is not interested in solving problems, they are interested in making them as complex as possible, so they appear to become absolutely essential to you, you need them always. But in fact we really don’t need them at all and never did need them!

In your fear is their power, the more they make you afraid, the more powerful they are, outside the country they go on creating fictions, and inside the country they also continue, until they remove all of your freedoms.

All politicians are legal constitutional criminals, they forget completely that they are servants of the people, they start behaving as if they are the masters of the world. Yet they are the most unqualified stupid people in the world, their only quality is that they can manage to befool the poor masses. The politicians’ power, is in your unawareness, rather than being in power, they should be behind bars. If the world wants to be at peace, politicians should disappear entirely from this planet, they are the enemies of humanity, we have to be freed from their chains and their presence.

Globalist so-called elites, all politicians, non functioning biased justice systems, bankers, MSM media and journalists, unlawful police forces, hypocritical doctors and nurses who should know better, disgraceful corporations with no ethics, all certainly need exposure because as far as I can see, if these criminals are exposed completely, humanity, for the first time, will be able to be free from their full spectrum digital control matrix, their endless wars and anti-life agendas and their shameless criminality.

The globalists have made this world a tragedy and with each step we are moving further into their tragedy, and at the end of this tunnel is the death of all life on earth. They have cut the world into fragments with absurd narratives, unjust laws and childish beliefs, and now they direct seventy percent of the energy of humanity into unnecessary wars. War seems to be the only solution they know for forever remaining in power, we are lead by a criminal global death cult!

The whole humanity is invited to halt this insanity, because this is a decisive moment, this is the time when a great global revolution is needed, a revolution against all politicians, without any discrimination of whether they are socialist, communist, fascist, capitalist. Whether they believe in democracy or they believe in dictatorship, it does not matter. For the first time all politicians are standing together to destroy humanity, yet we can make humanity free from their insane political control narratives and rhetoric.

A few more authentic intelligent, rebellious people have to bring fire to every oppressed heart. A fire in which the whole rotten political game is finished. And with their political game finished, the politician the world over will disappear. The rebels will simply destroy these parasites and let the power be with the people. In fact, power should be distributed to everybody. It should be decentralized, there is not need for power to be centralized. Centralized, power is bound to corrupt. With power decentralized, everybody is powerful in their own way.

The time is very short and the work is tremendous, but if you have courage, the networks, the challenge can be accepted. Don’t depend on politicians, they cannot do anything, they are not even aware of where they have been leading humanity, into what nuclear darkness…

NixonScraypes
NixonScraypes
Aug 23, 2025 10:49 PM
Reply to  David Jones

No revolutions please. They always sound good but just make things even worse…always.

David Jones
David Jones
Aug 24, 2025 5:58 AM
Reply to  NixonScraypes

Revolution, as I am using the word here, means a conscious, individual effort toward evolution.

Real revolution is spontaneous.

That revolution is called rebellion.

NixonScraypes
NixonScraypes
Aug 24, 2025 9:29 PM
Reply to  David Jones

Rebellions are always quashed, revolutions only succeed when they get the finance. The psychopaths are natural liars and manipulate people into opposing sides, watch them destroy each other and walk off with the spoils of war.

Republicofscotland
Republicofscotland
Aug 23, 2025 10:48 AM

I suppose situations have been manipulated over the past 150 years or so with photography in mind, such as photos taken of events that have just past but are presented in real time, such as the Russian’s raising the the Russian flag over Berlin or the Americans raising the flag over Iwo Jima.

Then we have the likes of a renowned surgeon in Scotland faking a picture of the loch Ness monster, see below

The Surgeon’s Photo

Anyway photos will always be manipulated with for one reason or another – because the majority of people still (to a certain extent) believe what they see in a photo – though AI has chanced this for good – for me AI will just do the same and be programmed in most cases to be a propaganda tool – albeit, with better quality photos.

Infact for those in the know, they’ll probably see a unusual photo and think its AI first – I know I will

mgeo
mgeo
Aug 24, 2025 5:25 AM

Some of us want to have “been there, done that”. Someone contributed his bit to increase tourism to Scotland.

YourPointBeing
YourPointBeing
Aug 23, 2025 10:38 AM

For those who think the 33 thing has no history and is just coincidence:
Swilliamismis back and peeling back londons layers


Johnny
Johnny
Aug 23, 2025 10:31 AM

Smile.
You’re on c A n d I d camera.

TFS
TFS
Aug 23, 2025 10:11 AM

Just like the Overton window, Camera’s and photos have been used to frame conversation.

The Guardian is only too well aware of photo’s it has published in the past, purporting to show something, when in actual fact, the opposite was the case.

As always, when certain technologies march forward, there are others the come along, which can be used to detect frauds.

MIT released such a technology over 15yrs ago, which could detect people wearing masks, and had the bi-product of opening all sorts of research into engineering, science.

This AI, picture/movie/speech creating sits alongside digital technology that exists as a wet dream for those who would rewrite history. Wikipedia has shown that to be the case.