"I have found that, to make a contented slave, it is necessary make a thoughtless one. It
is necessary to darken his moral and mental vision, and as far as possible, to annihilate his power of reason. He
must be able to detect no inconsistencies in slavery; he must be made to feel that slavery is
right...."
-- Frederick Douglass --
The Minds of
Men - Official Documentary by Aaron & Melissa Dykes
-
T r u t h s t r e a m M e d i a
Premiered Dec 16, 2018
GET $5 OFF when you order the DVD, use code SUBPROJECT119 @ TheMindsofMen.net (includes extras: extended interview,
deleted scene, behind the scenes featurette and trailer).
State Of Mind: The Psychology Of Control, from the
creators of A Noble Lie: Oklahoma City 1995, reveals that much of what we believe to be truth is actually
deliberate deception. The global elites are systematically implanting lies into our consciousness to erect a
"tyranny over the minds of men." This film exposes the mind control methods being used to turn our once vibrant
society into a land of obedient sheeple.
Are we controlled?
To what extent and by whom?
What does it mean for humanity's future?
From cradle to grave our parents, peers, institutions and society inform our values and behaviors but this process
has been hijacked. State Of Mind examines the science of control that has evolved over generations to keep us
firmly in place so that dictators, power brokers and corporate puppeteers may profit from our ignorance and
slavery. From the anvil of compulsory schooling to media and entertainment, we are kept in perpetual bondage to the
ideas that shape our actions.
State Of Mind delves into the abyss to expose the true agendas at work. This film reveals the secret manipulations
at work and provides shocking and suppressed historical and current examples. From the ancient roots of the control
of human behavior to its maturity in the mind control experiments of intelligence agencies and other organs of
manipulation, State Of Mind reveals a plan for the future that drives home the dreadful price of our ignorance.
We are prepared for a new paradigm. Will we choose our own paths or have one selected for us? State Of Mind unveils
the answers that may decide whether humankind will fulfill its destiny or be forever shackled to its own
creation.
Obedience to Authority
Tyranny relies on obedience from the masses. So what makes people obey the system? An analysis of
the 1961 Milgram electrocution experiments and the 1971 Stanford Prison Experiments help shed some light on the
psychology of following orders and transferring power to the State.
"Jacques EIlul is a French sociologist, a Catholic layman
active in the ecumenical movement, a leader of the French resistance in the war, and -- one is tempted to add,
after reading his book -a great man. Certainly he has written a magnificent book. ... The translation by John
Wilkinson is excellent.
"With monumental calm and maddening thoroughness he goes through one human activity after another
and shows how it has been technicized -- rendered efficient -- and diminished in the process.... "
-- Paul Pickrel, Harper's
"The Technological Society is one of the most important books of the second half of the twentieth
century. In it, Jacques Ellul convincingly demonstrates that technology, which we continue to conceptualize as the
servant of man, will overthrow everything that prevents the internal logic of its development, including humanity
itself -- unless we take the necessary steps to move human society out of the environment that 'technique' is
creating to meet its own needs."
-- Robert Theobald, The Nation
"...The effect is a contained intellectual explosion, a heated recognition of a tragic complication
that has overtaken contemporary society."
The bystander effect describes a seeming paradox: the more people who are around to help in a
given emergency, the less likely that any one individual will actually stop to help. Today James dives into the
psychology underlying the bystander effect and explains how we can flip this quirk of human cognition on its head
to help change the world for the better.
Why should you question authority? The answer lies within this ground breaking social psychology
experiment by Stanley Milgram regarding human behavior and authority.
The death squads and concentration camps of history were never staffed by rebels and
dissidents.
They were were run by those who followed the rules.
The
Psychology of Control:
Alex Jones interviews Richard Grove and James Lane (Day 1)
ABOUT TRAGEDY AND HOPE: SUMMARY, PURPOSE, FORM, AND FUNCTION
Tragedy and Hope provides a portal through which individuals can discover, identify, and integrate useful tools,
resources, and activities which stimulate and fortify Cognitive Liberty, providing primary sources, research, and
educational methods which facilitate consciousness.
Tragedy and Hope's purpose is to enable individuals to research and form groups of
independent thinkers to solve humanity's most pressing problems, by identifying the etiology (study of the
cause-and-effect origins) and thus understanding our way toward the solutions we seek.
State of Mind:
Alex Jones interviews Richard Grove and James Lane (Day 2)
ABOUT TRAGEDY AND HOPE: SUMMARY, PURPOSE, FORM, AND FUNCTION
Tragedy and Hope provides a portal through which individuals can discover, identify, and integrate useful tools,
resources, and activities which stimulate and fortify Cognitive Liberty, providing primary sources, research, and
educational methods which facilitate consciousness.
Tragedy and Hope's purpose is to enable individuals to research and form groups of
independent thinkers to solve humanity's most pressing problems, by identifying the etiology (study of the
cause-and-effect origins) and thus understanding our way toward the solutions we seek.
Mathematical Equation Illustrates Tyranny Vs
Liberty
Alex Jones has an impromptu mathematics session with the writer of State of Mind Richard
Grove. Where they describe how you can show people tyranny vs liberty using simple equations.
Soylent Green Now Actually Being
Promoted
As a Way To Save The Earth
Truthstream Media
First published at 20:50 UTC on September 8th, 2019.
We're at the point now where they're legitimately pitching Soylent Green to everyone
as the "solution" to society's manufactured "problem". Damn I wish George Carlin was here...
Please help support us on Patreon, read our goals here:https://www.patreon.com/truthstreammedia Truthstream Can Be Found Here: Site:http://TruthstreamMedia.com |
Our Film: TheMindsofMen.net|Twitter:
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PLEASE DON'T FORGET TO SUB US OVER AT BITCHUTE.COM/TRUTHSTREAM!
we're going to start putting up exclusive content there because of the obvious.
(Absolute
Proof The Public is Manipulated with Scripted Brainwashing!)
Ben Swann Truth in Media:
Government Program To Control Religious
Thought?
Ben Swann Truth in Media takes a look at a secretive government program being created at Arizona
State University. The program is designed to control the way Muslims and Christians view religion
"The globalist create confusion by design so
that people see a smoke screen and can't figure out what's going on and that they hope would just
roll over and give up."
-- Alex Jones, vid: Trump Puppeted By Pro-War Left To
Attack Syria --
Adaptation and
Conformity The Selling Out of Alex Jones/Infowars
Link:Psywars
Why the Bad Guys Keep Winning How come the bad guys keep getting away with it?
All this was inspired by the principle–which is quite true in itself–that in the big lie there is
always acertain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more
easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus
in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small
lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to
large-scale falsehoods. It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would
not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Even though the facts
which prove this to be so may be brought clearly to their minds, they will still doubt and waver and will
continue to think that there may be some other explanation. For the grossly impudent lie always leaves
traces behind it, even after it has been nailed down, a fact which is known to all expert liars in this
world and to all who conspire together in the art of lying.
Similarly, Hitler’s propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, wrote:
That is of course rather painful for those involved. One should not as a rule reveal one’s secrets,
since one does not know if and when one may need them again. The essential English leadership secret does
not depend on particular intelligence. Rather, it depends on a remarkably stupid thick-headedness. The
English follow the principle that when one lies, one should lie big, and stick to it. They keep up their
lies, even at the risk of looking ridiculous.
Science has now helped to explain why the big lie is effective.
As I’ve previously pointed out in another context:
Psychologists and sociologists show us that people will rationalize what
their leaders are doing, even when it makes no sense ….
Sociologists from four major research institutions investigated why so many Americans believed
that Saddam Hussein was behind 9/11, years after it became obvious that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11.
The researchers found, as described in an article in the journal Sociological Inquiry (and re-printed by
Newsweek):
Many Americans felt an urgent need to seek justification for a war already in
progress
Rather than search rationally for information that either confirms or disconfirms a
particular belief, people actually seek out information that confirms what they already
believe.
“For the most part people completely ignore contrary information.”
“The study demonstrates voters’ ability to develop elaborate rationalizations based on
faulty information”
People get deeply attached to their beliefs, and form emotional attachments that get
wrapped up in their personal identity and sense of morality, irrespective of the facts of the
matter.
“We refer to this as ‘inferred justification, because for these voters, the sheer fact that
we were engaged in war led to a post-hoc search for a justification for that war.
“People were basically making up justifications for the fact that we were at
war”
“They wanted to believe in the link [between 9/11 and Iraq] because it helped them make
sense of a current reality. So voters’ ability to develop elaborate rationalizations based on
faulty information, whether we think that is good or bad for democratic practice, does at least
demonstrate an impressive form of creativity.
An article yesterday in Alternet discussing the Sociological Inquiry article
helps us to understand that the key to people’s active participation in searching for excuses for
actions by the big boys is fear:
Subjects were presented during one-on-one interviews with a newspaper clip of this Bush
quote: “This administration never said that the 9/11 attacks were orchestrated between Saddam and
al-Qaeda.”The Sept. 11 Commission, too, found no such link, the subjects were told.
“Well, I bet they say that the commission didn’t have any proof of it,” one subject
responded, “but I guess we still can have our opinions and feel that way even though they say
that.”
Reasoned another: “Saddam, I can’t judge if he did what he’s being accused of, but if Bush
thinks he did it, then he did it.”
Others declined to engage the information at all. Most curious to the researchers were the
respondents who reasoned that Saddam must have been connected to Sept. 11, because why else would
the Bush Administration have gone to war in Iraq?
The desire to believe this was more powerful, according to the researchers, than any active
campaign to plant the idea.
Such a campaign did exist in the run-up to the war…
He won’t credit [politicians spouting misinformation] alone for the phenomenon,
though.
“That kind of puts the idea out there, but what people then do with the idea … ” he said.
“Our argument is that people aren’t just empty vessels. You don’t just sort of open up their brains
and dump false information in and they regurgitate it. They’re actually active processing cognitive
agents”…
The alternate explanation raises queasy questions for the rest of society.
“I think we’d all like to believe that when people come across disconfirming evidence, what
they tend to do is to update their opinions,” said Andrew Perrin, an associate professor at UNC and
another author of the study…
“The implications for how democracy works are quite profound, there’s no question in my mind
about that,” Perrin said. “What it means is that we have to think about the emotional states in
which citizens find themselves that then lead them to reason and deliberate in particular
ways.”
Evidence suggests people are more likely to pay attention to facts within certain emotional
states and social situations. Some may never change their minds. For others, policy-makers could
better identify those states, for example minimizing the fear that often clouds a person’s ability to assess facts …
The Alternet article links to a must-read interview with psychology professor Sheldon Solomon, who explains:
A large body of evidence shows that momentarily [raising fear of death], typically by asking
people to think about themselves dying, intensifies people’s strivings to protect and bolster
aspects of their worldviews, and to bolster their self-esteem. The most common finding is that
[fear of death] increases positive reactions to those who share cherished aspects of one’s cultural
worldview, and negative reactions toward those who violate cherished cultural values or are merely
different.
And I would argue that the fact that the governments of the world have given trillions to the giant banks has invoked the same mental process – and susceptibility
to propaganda -as the war in Iraq.
Specifically, many people assume that because the government has launched a war to prop up
the giant banks, it must have a good reason for doing so.
Why else would trillions in taxpayer dollars be thrown at the giant banks? Why else would
the government say that saving the big boys is vital?
And I would argue that the fear of another Great Depression (an economic death, if you
will) is analogous to the fear of death triggered in many Americans by 9/11.
This creates a regression towards old-fashioned thinking about such things as banks and
the financial system, even though the giant banks actually do very little traditional banking these days.
In other words, the big lie appears to be as effective in financial as in military
warfare.
Reason Number 2: The Urge to Defend Bad Systems
Psychiatrist Peter Zafirides, M.D sent us an excellent article explaining why good people defend bad systems:
From the bust of the housing bubble and mortgage meltdown to Bernie Madoff and Jerry Sandusky, to
political candidates and campaigns, it seems not a week goes by before another story of corruption and scandal
breaks. And very predictably, the following questions always seem to follow:
“How could they get away with this?”
- or -
“Why didn’t someone say or do anything about it?”
In trying to answer these questions, we have to first understand a bit about both individual and group
psychology. The answers may potentially surprise or frighten you, but it is through this understanding, that
any real (and lasting) change can occur. Beyond these obvious questions lies another stark reality: good people
tend to continue to defend bad systems.
Why does this happen? What is going on here?
Why do we stick up for a system or institution we live in—a government, company, or marriage—even when
anyone else can see it is failing miserably? Why do we resist change even when the system is corrupt or unjust?
A new article in Current Directions in Psychological Science, reveals the conditions under which we’re
motivated to defend the status quo—a psychological process called “system justification.”
The Power of the Status Quo
In system justification theory, people are motivated to defend the status quo. There is a need to see it
as being good, just and/or legitimate. People not only want to hold a favorable view of themselves and the
groups they associate with, but they also hold favorable views of an entire, overarching social system. There
is a lot at stake here on an individual psychological level that may not have anything to do with the
particular candidate, or government or social issue.
There are consequences for trying to buck the system. What will happen if you try to introduce a
different type of political or economic system? You tend to be mocked, marginalized or completely ignored.
People need to believe that the systems they believe in are legitimate. But this can cause bias and very
dangerous blind spots when it comes to the issue of corruption in these systems.
“Now this is not the same as acquiescence,” says Aaron C. Kay, a psychologist at Duke University, who
co-authored the paper with University of Waterloo graduate student Justin Friesen. “It’s pro-active. When
someone comes to justify the status quo, they also come to see it as what should be.”
According to the research, four particular situations
significantly increased the likelihood that system justification would occur:
1. When a threat to the system occurred.
2. When one is dependent on the system.
3. When there is no potential escape from the system.
4. When one has low personal control of their lives.
Threat
When we’re threatened we defend ourselves—and our systems. Before 9/11, for instance, President George
W. Bush was sinking in the polls. But as soon as the planes hit the World Trade Center, the president’s approval ratings soared. So did support for Congress and the police.
During Hurricane Katrina, America witnessed FEMA’s spectacular failure to rescue the hurricane’s victims.
Yet many people blamed those victims for their fate rather than admitting the agency flunked and supporting
ideas for fixing it. In times of crisis, say the authors, we want to believe the system works. This bias is
real. The problem is, it may not even be consciously in our awareness.
Dependency
We also defend systems we rely on. In one experiment, students made to feel dependent on their
university defended a school funding policy—but disapproved of the same policy if it came from the government,
which they didn’t perceive as affecting them closely. However, if they felt dependent on the government, they
liked the policy originating from it, but not from the school.
Inescapability & Loss of Control
When we feel we can’t escape a system, we adapt. That includes feeling okay about things we might
otherwise consider undesirable. The authors note one study in which participants were told that men’s salaries
in their country are 20% higher than women’s. Rather than implicate an unfair system, those who felt they
couldn’t emigrate chalked up the wage gap to innate differences between the sexes. “You’d think that when
people are stuck with a system, they’d want to change it more,” says Kay. But in fact, the more stuck they are, the more likely are they to explain away its
shortcomings.
Finally, a related phenomenon: The less control people feel over their own lives, the more they endorse
systems and leaders that offer a sense of order.
Change Is Possible!
The research on system justification should not be overwhelming or demoralizing. If anything it can
really help to enlighten those who are frustrated when people don’t rise up in what would seem their own best
interests. The awareness of this psychological tendency in all of us is the first step in trying to minimize
its impact. Awareness is critical if one hopes to meaningfully change systems.
According to Dr. Kay, “If you want to understand how to get social change to happen, you need to
understand the conditions that make people resist change and what makes them open to acknowledging that change
might be a necessity.” This is true whether the change one desires is individual or societal.
But do not despair! Whether on an individual or societal level, change absolutely happen. Awareness and
knowledge is the first part of the process.
Never give up the fight.
Never doubt how truly powerful you are.
Reason Number 3: Assuming that the Super-Elite Are “Like Us”
Vanderbilt researchers have found that the brains of psychopaths have a dopamine abnormality which
creates a drive for rewards at any cost, and causes them to ignore risks.
Abnormalities in how the nucleus accumbens, highlighted here, processes dopamine have been found in
individuals with psychopathic traits and may be linked to violent, criminal behavior. Credit: Gregory
R.Samanez-Larkin and Joshua W. Buckholtz
The brains of psychopaths appear to be wired to keep seeking a reward at any cost, new research from
Vanderbilt University finds. The research uncovers the role of the brain’s reward system in psychopathy and
opens a new area of study for understanding what drives these individuals.
“This study underscores the importance of neurological research as it relates to behavior,” Dr.
Francis S. Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, said. “The findings may help us find new
ways to intervene before a personality trait becomes antisocial behavior.”
“Psychopaths are often thought of as cold-blooded criminals who take what they want without thinking
about consequences,” Joshua Buckholtz, a graduate student in the Department of Psychology and lead author
of the new study, said. “We found that a hyper-reactive dopamine reward system may be the foundation for
some of the most problematic behaviors associated with psychopathy, such as violent crime, recidivism and
substance abuse.”
Previous research on psychopathy has focused on what these individuals lack—fear, empathy and
interpersonal skills. The new research, however, examines what they have in abundance—impulsivity,
heightened attraction to rewards and risk taking. Importantly, it is these latter traits that are most
closely linked with the violent and criminal aspects of psychopathy.
“There has been a long tradition of research on psychopathy that has focused on the lack of
sensitivity to punishment and a lack of fear, but those traits are not particularly good predictors of
violence or criminal behavior,” David Zald, associate professor of psychology and of psychiatry and
co-author of the study, said. “Our data is suggesting that something might be happening on the other side
of things. These individuals appear to have such a strong draw to reward—to the carrot—that it overwhelms
the sense of risk or concern about the stick.”
To examine the relationship between dopamine and psychopathy, the researchers used positron emission
tomography, or PET, imaging of the brain to measure dopamine release, in concert with a functional magnetic
imaging, or fMRI, probe of the brain’s reward system.
“The really striking thing is with these two very different techniques we saw a very similar
pattern—both were heightened in individuals with psychopathic traits,” Zald said.
Study volunteers were given a personality test to determine their level of psychopathic traits.
These traits exist on a spectrum, with violent criminals falling at the extreme end of the spectrum.
However, a normally functioning person can also have the traits, which include manipulativeness,
egocentricity, aggression and risk taking.
In the first portion of the experiment, the researchers gave the volunteers a dose of amphetamine,
or speed, and then scanned their brains using PET to view dopamine release in response to the stimulant.
Substance abuse has been shown in the past to be associated with alterations in dopamine responses.
Psychopathy is strongly associated with substance abuse.
“Our hypothesis was that psychopathic traits are also linked to dysfunction in dopamine reward
circuitry,” Buckholtz said. “Consistent with what we thought, we found people with high levels of
psychopathic traits had almost four times the amount of dopamine released in response to
amphetamine.”
In the second portion of the experiment, the research subjects were told they would receive a
monetary reward for completing a simple task. Their brains were scanned with fMRI while they were
performing the task. The researchers found in those individuals with elevated psychopathic traits the
dopamine reward area of the brain, the nucleus accumbens, was much more active while they were anticipating
the monetary reward than in the other volunteers.
“It may be that because of these exaggerated dopamine responses, once they focus on the chance to
get a reward, psychopaths are unable to alter their attention until they get what they’re after,” Buckholtz
said. Added Zald, “It’s not just that they don’t appreciate the potential threat, but that the anticipation
or motivation for reward overwhelms those concerns.”
Has anyone tested the heads of the too big to fails for this
dopamine abnormality?
What are the odds that they have it? And if they have it, what are the odds that they will voluntarily
start acting responsibly, especially given the broken incentive system?
Experts also tell us that many politicians also share traits with serial killers.
Specifically, the Los Angeles Times noted in 2009:
Using his law enforcement experience and data drawn from the FBI’s behavioral analysis unit, Jim
Kouri has collected a series of personality traits common to a couple of professions.
Kouri, who’s a vice president of the National Assn. of Chiefs of Police, has assembled traits such as
superficial charm, an exaggerated sense of self-worth, glibness, lying, lack of remorse and manipulation of
others.
But — and here’s the part that may spark some controversy and defensive discussion — these traits are
also common to American politicians. (Maybe you already suspected.)
Yup. Violent homicide aside, our elected officials often show many of the exact same character traits as
criminal nut-jobs, who run from police but not for office.
Kouri notes that these criminals are psychologically capable of committing their dirty deeds free of any
concern for social, moral or legal consequences and with absolutely no remorse.
“This allows them to do what they want, whenever they want,” he wrote. “Ironically, these same traits
exist in men and women who are drawn to high-profile and powerful positions in society including political
officeholders.”
***
“While many political leaders will deny the assessment regarding their similarities with serial killers
and other career criminals, it is part of a psychopathic profile that may be used in assessing the behaviors of
many officials and lawmakers at all levels of government.”
When their bets came up craps, they had the gall to hold the American people hostage for trillions in
bailouts. Their fellow psychopaths in Congress gladly forked over the money. Rather than mend their ways, these
evil men have returned to their excessive risk taking and continue to pay themselves billions in compensation,
while the American middle class is smothered to death under mountains of debt. These evil Wall Street geniuses
have shown no remorse as seven million people have lost their jobs and millions more have lost their homes due
to the greed and avarice displayed on an epic scale.
Wall Street bankers exhibit the epitome of psychopathic behavior, showing lack of empathy and remorse,
shallow emotions, egocentricity, and deceptiveness. Psychopaths are highly prone to antisocial behavior and
abusive treatment of others. Though lacking empathy and emotional depth, they often manage to pass themselves
off as average individuals by feigning emotions. These Wall Street bankers will never willingly accept
responsibility for their actions. They continue to use their wealth and power to control the politicians in
Washington DC and the misinformation propagated by the corporate media they control. They own and control the
Federal Reserve and will print money until the whole system collapses in a spectacular implosion that destroys
our financial system. They only care about their own wealth, influence and status. They have no shame.
The idea of nobless oblige or trickle-down economics, certain versions of it, is bull,” Keltner added.
“Our data say you cannot rely on the wealthy to give back. The ‘thousand points of light’—this rise of
compassion in the wealthy to fix all the problems of society—is improbable, psychologically.”
Those in the upper-class tend to hoard resources and be less generous than they could be.
Given that many in Congress and top government posts are multi-millionaires, the study might help
explain why politicians seem only to work to make themselves wealthier and to help their wealthy buddies.
We will remain disempowered if we assume that the super-elites are “like us”. Unless we
learn to spot “wolves in sheep’s clothing”, we will continue to fall prey to their scams.
This is not to say that all rich or powerful people are psychopaths. There are some great
men and women who are affluent or who serve in Washington, D.C. But many do have psycopathic tendencies.
Reason Number 4: The Life-Or-Death Struggle to Defend Our Beliefs
When your deepest convictions are challenged by contradictory evidence, your beliefs get
stronger.
***
In 2006, Brendan Nyhan and Jason Reifler at The University of Michigan and Georgia State University
created fake newspaper articles about polarizing political issues. The articles were written in a way which
would confirm a widespread misconception about certain ideas in American politics. As soon as a person read a
fake article, researchers then handed over a true article which corrected the first. For instance, one article
suggested the United States found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The next said the U.S. never found them,
which was the truth. Those opposed to the war or who had strong liberal leanings tended to disagree with the
original article and accept the second. Those who supported the war and leaned more toward the conservative
camp tended to agree with the first article and strongly disagree with the second. These reactions shouldn’t
surprise you. What should give you pause though is how conservatives felt about the correction. After reading
that there were no WMDs, they reported being even more certain than before there actually were WMDs and their
original beliefs were correct.
They repeated the experiment with other wedge issues like stem cell research and tax reform, and once
again, they found corrections tended to increase the strength of the participants’ misconceptions if those
corrections contradicted their ideologies. People on opposing sides of the political spectrum read the same
articles and then the same corrections, and when new evidence was interpreted as threatening to their beliefs,
they doubled down. The corrections backfired.
Once something is added to your collection of beliefs, you protect it from harm. You do it instinctively
and unconsciously when confronted with attitude-inconsistent information. Just as confirmation bias shields you
when you actively seek information, the backfire effect defends you when the information seeks you, when it
blindsides you. Coming or going, you stick to your beliefs instead of questioning them. When someone tries to
correct you, tries to dilute your misconceptions, it backfires and strengthens them instead. Over time, the
backfire effect helps make you less skeptical of those things which allow you to continue seeing your beliefs
and attitudes as true and proper.
***
Psychologists call stories like these narrative scripts, stories that tell you what you want to hear,
stories which confirm your beliefs and give you permission to continue feeling as you already do.
***
As the psychologist Thomas Gilovich said, “”When examining evidence relevant to a given belief, people
are inclined to see what they expect to see, and conclude what they expect to conclude…for desired conclusions,
we ask ourselves, ‘Can I believe this?,’ but for unpalatable conclusions we ask, ‘Must I believe
this?’”
***
What should be evident from the studies on the backfire effect is you can never win an argument online.
When you start to pull out facts and figures, hyperlinks and quotes, you are actually making the opponent feel
as though they are even more sure of their position than before you started the debate. As they match your
fervor, the same thing happens in your skull. The backfire effect pushes both of you deeper into your original
beliefs.
***
The backfire effect is constantly shaping your beliefs and memory, keeping you consistently leaning one
way or the other through a process psychologists call biased assimilation. Decades of research into a variety
of cognitive biases shows you tend to see the world through thick, horn-rimmed glasses forged of belief and
smudged with attitudes and ideologies.
***
Flash forward to 2011, and you have Fox News and MSNBC battling for cable journalism territory, both
promising a viewpoint which will never challenge the beliefs of a certain portion of the audience. Biased
assimilation guaranteed.
***
The human understanding when it has once adopted an opinion draws all things else to support and agree
with it. And though there be a greater number and weight of instances to be found on the other side, yet these
it either neglects and despises, or else-by some distinction sets aside and rejects, in order that by this
great and pernicious predetermination the authority of its former conclusion may remain inviolate
- Francis Bacon
It is very difficult for anyone to
really listen to evidence which contradicts our beliefs. But unless we learn how to grit our teeth and do so, we
will forever be victims to the divide-and-conquer game which ensures that we have politicians who will ignore our demands,
we will be so wedded to one investment strategy that we will forever lose money on our investments, and we will
generally be weak and disempowered people.
Reason Number 5: Forgetting that We Don’t Live in Tribes
Biologists and sociologists tell us that our brains evolved in small groups or tribes.
As one example of how profoundly the small-group environment affected our brains, Daily Galaxy
points out:
Research shows that one of the most powerful ways to stimulate more buying is celebrity endorsement.
Neurologists at Erasmus University in Rotterdam report that our ability to weigh desirability and value
doesn’t function normally if an item is endorsed by a well-known face. This lights up the brain’s dorsal
claudate nucleus, which is involved in trust and learning. Areas linked to longer-term memory storage also
fire up. Our minds overidentify with celebrities because we evolved in small tribes. If you knew someone,
then they knew you. If you didn’t attack each other, you were probably pals.
Our minds still work this way, giving us the idea that the celebs we keep seeing are our
acquaintances. And we want to be like them, because we’ve evolved to hate being out of the in-crowd. Brain
scans show that social rejection activates brain areas that generate physical pain, probably because in
prehistory tribal exclusion was tantamount to a death sentence. And scans by the National Institute of
Mental Health show that when we feel socially inferior, two brain regions become more active: the insula
and the ventral striatum. The insula is involved with the gut-sinking sensation you get when you feel that
small. The ventral striatum is linked to motivation and reward.
In small groups, we knew everyone extremely well. No one could
really fool us about what type of person they were, because we had grown up interacting with them for our whole
lives.
If a tribe member dressed up and pretended he was from another tribe, we would see it in a heart-beat.
It would be like seeing your father in a costume: you would recognize him pretty quickly, wouldn’t
you.
As the celebrity example shows, our brains can easily be fooled by people in our large modern society
when we incorrectly ascribe to them the role of being someone we should trust.
As the celebrity example shows, our brains can easily be fooled by people in our large modern society
when we incorrectly ascribe to them the role of being someone we should trust.
The opposite is true as well. The parts of our brain that are hard-wired to quickly recognize “outside
enemies” can be fooled in our huge modern society, when it is really people we know dressed up like the “other
team”.
***
Our brains assume that we can tell truth from fiction, because they evolved in very small groups where
we knew everyone extremely well, and usually could see for ourselves what was true.
On the other side of the coin, a tribal leader who talked a good game but constantly stole from and
abused his group would immediately be kicked out or killed. No matter how nicely he talked, the members of the
tribe would immediately see what he was doing.
But in a country of hundreds of millions of people, where the political class is shielded from the rest
of the country, people don’t really know what our leaders are doing with most of the time. We only see them for
a couple of minutes when they are giving speeches, or appearing in photo ops, or being interviewed. It is
therefore much easier for a wolf in sheep’s clothing to succeed than in a small group setting.
Indeed, sociopaths would have been discovered very quickly in a small group. But in huge societies like
our’s, they can rise to positions of power and influence.
As with the celebrity endorsement example, our brains are running programs which were developed for an
environment (a small group) we no longer live in, and so lead us astray.
Like the blind spot in our rear view mirror, we have to learn to compensate and adapt for our
imperfections, or we may get clobbered.
Grow Up
The good news is that we can evolve.
While our brains have many built-in hardwired ways of thinking and processing information, they are also
amazingly “plastic“. We can learn and evolve and overcome our hardwiring – or at least compensate
for our blind spots.
We are not condemned to being led astray by [banksters and power-hungry sociopaths].
We can choose to grow up as a species and reclaim our power to decide our own future.
Reason Number 6: Pretending We Know
People who don’t know much about a subject tend to over-estimate their understanding. Ironically, experts in any subject tend to underestimate
their abilities (because the more you know, the more you realize that you don’t know.)
(This may be learning a sport or a musical instrument. When you get decent at it, it
becomes fun … and learning how to improve is pleasurable. On the other hand, if you make nails-on-chalkboard noises
while learning how to play electric guitar or fall a lot while you’re learning how to ski, it isn’t as fun … and it
is tempting to give up and avoid it if your friends try to “drag you along”. The same dynamic might apply to
learning as well.)
If we realize that we are resisting learning new information – either because we assume we
already know it all, or because we want to avoid the embarrassment of being a beginner – we will remain stuck where
we are, and we will never grow wiser or more powerful. If your mind is already “full”, you can’t fill it any more.
Indeed, one of the secrets of really smart people is to adopt a “beginner mind”, so that they are open to learning
new information.
A CIA operative allegedly told Washington Post editor Philip Graham … in a conversation about the willingness of
journalists to peddle CIA propaganda and cover stories:
You could get a journalist cheaper than a good call girl, for a couple hundred dollars a month.
The Church Committee found that the CIA submitted stories to the American press:=
[missing vid]
The New York Times discusses in a matter-of-fact way the use of mainstream writers by the CIA to
spread messages.
The government is paying off reporters to spread disinformation.
A 4-part BBC documentary called the “Century of the Self” shows that an American –
Freud’s nephew, Edward Bernays – created the modern field of manipulation of public perceptions, and the
U.S. government has extensively used his techniques.
The Independent discusses allegations of American propaganda.
One of the premier writers on journalism says the U.S. has used widespread propaganda.
The CIA and other government agencies also put enormous energy into pushing propaganda through movies, tv and video games.
We intentionally listed propaganda last, because we only fall for propaganda to the extent we fail to learn
the first 7 lessons … i.e. to wake up and think for ourselves.
As Michael Rivero notes:
Most propaganda is not designed to fool the critical thinker but only to give moral cowards an
excuse not to think at all.
Moral cowards … or people too lazy to learn how their own minds – and those of the bad guys – work.
Human Resources: Social Engineering in the 20th
Century explores the rise of mechanistic philosophy and the exploitation of human beings under modern
hierarchical systems. Topics covered include behaviorism, scientific management, work-place democracy, schooling,
frustration-aggression hypothesis and human experimentation.
Scott Noble, the filmmaker behind the extraordinary and informative documentary "Psywar" has
made another revelatory and important documentary, available free to the public, called "Human Resources: Social
Engineering in the 20th Century".
"Essentially", says Scott, "this film is about the rise of mechanistic philosophy and the
exploitation of human beings under modern hierarchical systems." The film includes original interviews with: Noam
Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Rebecca Lemov (World as Laboratory), Christopher Simpson (The Science of Coercion), George
Ritzer (The McDonaldization of Society), Morris Berman (The Reenchantment of the World), John Taylor Gatto (Dumbing
us Down), Alfie Kohn (What does it mean to be well educated?) and others.
Read David Ker Thomson's review of the film. He writes: It answers the significant events of
the last century the way a glass answers the implicit questions of a man who peers into its reflective surface,
point for point. It corresponds, in short, to reality.
Psyops, or psychological operations, is a term used to describe the techniques of psychological manipulation used
in warfare. These operations are used to deceive, confuse, disrupt and demoralize the enemy, with an aim toward
weakening enemy resistance or even causing enemy forces to surrender and enemy populations to capitulate.
As the flip-side to the ancient wisdom that knowledge is key to all successful warfare strategies, the art of
deliberately sewing deception has been understood and practiced for thousands of years.
Psywar
This film explores the evolution of propaganda and public relations in the United States, with an
emphasis on the elitist theory of democracy and the relationship between war, propaganda and class.
Includes original interviews with a number of dissident scholars including Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Michael
Parenti, Peter Phillips (Project Censored), John Stauber (PR Watch), Christopher Simpson (The Science of Coercion)
and others.
A deep, richly illustrated study of the nature and history of propaganda, featuring some of the world's most
insightful critics, Psywar exposes the propaganda system, providing crucial background and insight into the control
of information and thought.
Are you irate, irritable and irrational when presented with evidence that goes against your
preconceived notions of how the world operates? Looking for a solution to your stress? Join us this week on The
Eyeopener as we examine the theory of cognitive dissonance and how it stops people from confronting the
uncomfortable truths about the way the world really works.
Solutions: Overcoming Stockholm
Syndrome
In the 1970s, a strange psychological phenomenon was identified: in traumatic abduction
situations, a certain percentage of the population is prone to falling in love with their abductors. But if we are
living in a societal prison of the mind, then are there those who have fallen in love with their mental jailers?
Find out more about societal Stockholm syndrome in this week's edition of The Corbett Report.
When the first edition of The Media Monopoly was published in 1983, critics called Ben
Bagdikian's warnings about the chilling effects of corporate ownership and mass advertising on the nation's news
"alarmist." Since then, the number of corporations controlling most of America's daily newspapers, magazines, radio
and television stations, book publishers, and movie companies has dwindled from fifty to ten
to five.
The normalcy bias, or normality
bias, refers to a mental state people enter when facing a disaster.
It causes people to underestimate both the possibility of a disaster occurring and its possible effects. This often
results in situations where people fail to adequately prepare for a disaster, and on a larger scale, the failure of
governments to include the populace in its disaster preparations. The assumption that is made in the case of the
normalcy bias is that since a disaster never has occurred then it never will occur. It also results in the
inability of people to cope with a disaster once it occurs. People with a normalcy bias have difficulties reacting
to something they have not experienced before. People also tend to interpret warnings in the most optimistic way
possible, seizing on any ambiguities to infer a less serious situation.
Economic Collapse - Why People Die in Crisis - Normalcy
Bias
The normalcy bias, or normality
bias, refers to a mental state people enter when facing a disaster.
It causes people to underestimate both the possibility of a disaster occurring and its possible effects. This often
results in situations where people fail to adequately prepare for a disaster, and on a larger scale, the failure of
governments to include the populace in its disaster preparations. The assumption that is made in the case of the
normalcy bias is that since a disaster never has occurred then it never will occur. It also results in the
inability of people to cope with a disaster once it occurs. People with a normalcy bias have difficulties reacting
to something they have not experienced before. People also tend to interpret warnings in the most optimistic way
possible, seizing on any ambiguities to infer a less serious situation.
Secrets of the Italian Cruise Ship
Disaster
[ Normalcy Bias ]
The normalcy bias, or normality
bias, refers to a mental state people enter when facing a disaster.
It causes people to underestimate both the possibility of a disaster occurring and its possible effects. This often
results in situations where people fail to adequately prepare for a disaster, and on a larger scale, the failure of
governments to include the populace in its disaster preparations. The assumption that is made in the case of the
normalcy bias is that since a disaster never has occurred then it never will occur. It also results in the
inability of people to cope with a disaster once it occurs. People with a normalcy bias have difficulties reacting
to something they have not experienced before. People also tend to interpret warnings in the most optimistic way
possible, seizing on any ambiguities to infer a less serious situation.
Infowars is set to commission a poll by a professional polling agency that will ask Americans if
they are willing to submit to a TSA anal cavity search in order to fly. We reckon a solid 10-20 per cent would say
yes. What other questions should be asked in order to illustrate how much indignity travelers will tolerate?
The logical conclusion of a new Harris poll is that one third of Americans actually want to be
slaves. We are in a lot of trouble and we're running out of time.Poll: Nearly One Third Of Americans Would Accept
'TSA Body Cavity Search' in Order to Fly - http://www.infowars.com/poll-nearly-o...Poll: 35% Of Americans Would Wear "Electric Shock
Bracelet" in Order to Fly - http://www.infowars.com/poll-35-of-am...
Prank illustrates how majority of Americans
will yield to draconian privacy invasions
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
October 30, 2013
A prank set up by a comedian and a film crew in which
shoppers were told that they would have to undergo a full body scan in order to enter a candy store shockingly
illustrates how a majority of Americans will willingly submit to draconian invasions of their privacy with barely a
thought for the consequences.
The prank, which took place in San Luis
Obispo, California, utilized a real mobile body scanner as well as a model who acted as a plant by being scanned
repeatedly. A man with a hand wand played the authority figure who assured shoppers that the body scan was
necessary for their “security” and to detect weapons.
While the video shows numerous passers-by objecting to the idea of body scanning to enter a candy
store, the makers of the short film made it clear that the majority of people stood in line and were
perfectly happy to be scanned.
“The goal was to see how far we could take this scanning and if people would let us! To our
surprise, most people didn’t put up much of a fight and went along with the person ahead of them in
line,” states the blurb accompanying the
YouTube video.
It’s important to stress that although this was a prank, the people submitting to the body
scan did not know it was a prank, indicating that they would happily go along with naked body scans to
enter shops and malls if such a policy was really introduced.
Even after one man is told the device is a naked body scanner and reacts incredulously, he still
agrees to submit to the scan before being told it’s a prank.
After the 4 minute mark in the clip, numerous people seem to be shocked by having to undergo a body
scan to enter a candy store but line up to submit to the scan anyway.
At the 5 minute mark, a woman refuses to take the body scan, but a young Asian man eagerly
volunteers to do so. At the 7 minute mark, a child expresses his desire to be scanned, proclaiming, “do me!”
The comedian behind the prank, Rich Ferguson, acknowledged that the it was “based on a sad
reality.”
As we highlighted last year, there is seemingly no end to the shame that many Americans are willing
to put themselves through if ordered to do so by an authority figure.
Infowars
commissioned a Harris Interactive poll which found that almost one third of American adults would accept a
“TSA body cavity search” in order to fly. The survey also indicated that a majority of Americans think it is
“reasonable” to make disobeying a TSA official in an airport a criminal offense.
Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Infowars.com and Prison Planet.com. He is
the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a host for Infowars Nightly News.
This article was posted: Wednesday, October 30, 2013 at 10:54 am
In some states, including Missouri, laws have been put
into place that require schools to conduct “active shooter drills” to prepare for school shootings, sort of like a
fire drill prepares them for fire.
However, when seeing the tactics that the schools use for these drills it seems like they are designed to
traumatize the children. It is also leaving many to ask if these drills are practice for false flag events.
Missouri’s Lincoln County school district has already held over a dozen of these drills in the past year
alone.
Missouri students and teachers required by law to
participate in active shooter drills
Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
March 6, 2014
Teachers in St. Francois County, Missouri, have complained
after they were told part of their duties include being shot at with pellet guns during “active shooter” drills.
Officials told the teachers they would be required to wear goggles to protect their eyes.
[missing vid]
After four teachers contacted the Prosecuting Attorney’s
office in the state, Associate Superintendent Sarah Long told KMOX in St. Louis said teachers “could sign up to work in department meetings and in
other professional developmental opportunities” instead of participating in drills they found “too scary.”
Missouri students and teachers are required by law to participate in active shooter drills. “In August 2013, the
state legislature took a cue from a handful of post-Sandy Hook lawmakers, like the ones in Illinois and Arkansas,
and voted to require every school district to conduct simulated shooter drills,” NBC News reports. Drills are “meant to help law enforcement craft strategies to take
down active shooters, as well as to familiarize teachers with the sound of guns and teach them to act
quickly.”
According to Missouri State Teachers Association spokesman Todd Fuller, the issue has come up before in other
school districts in the state. “I think what we’re going to see is a need to readdress and reevaluate the statute,”
he told KMOX.
Jerrod Mahurin, the St. Francois County prosecutor, acknowledged teachers had contacted him asking for legal
advice. They did not file a formal complaint.
Active shooter drills conducted by police are now routine across the country. In rural Oregon last year,
teachers were traumatized when masked men appeared unannounced at a high school in
Halfway and burst into a teachers’ lounge and opened fire with
blanks.
In 2013, in El Paso, Texas, the parents of students at a local high school were outraged when officials
conducted an unannounced drill. Parent Stephanie Belcher told the New York Daily News she received a panicked text message
from her son as the drill unfolded. “I’m not kidding,” the student told his mother. “There’s gunshots and people screaming and we were locked in a storage
closet.”
Students at the North Lake College in Irving, Texas, were subjected to an unannounced shooter drill in October,
2012. Following complaints about the exercise, the college insisted it sent out email notifications. However,
according to KVUE, an Austin, Texas television station, faculty said they were not informed about the active
shooter drill. “The Dallas County Community College District said college administrators call the drills
‘necessary,’ but they will continue to review the process and make changes as they are needed,” KVUE reported.
Less than a week after Sandy Hook, an elementary school in East Harlem, New York, conducted an unannounced
exercise. The school was locked down and a woman’s voice said “shooter” and “intruder” over the school’s public
address system. Police responded after a woman called 911. The incident was particularly troublesome due to the
fact the school “serves 300 students with special needs, including those with severe emotional disabilities,
autism, cerebral palsy and other disorders,” according to the New York Times.
[missing vid]
In January of last year Illinois students in classrooms at
the Cary-Grove High School endured police firing blanks in school hallways “in an effort to provide our teachers and
students some familiarity with the sound of gunfire,” according to principal Jay Sargeant, CBS Chicago reported. “From the school’s request, they want to let the students know
what the sound of gunshot might be, should that occur in their school,” Cary Police Chief Steven Casstevens
added.
A number of parents said they were not informed prior to the drill, although the school district claimed it had
sent out email notifying them. It said the uninformed parents did not receive the email due to a technical
problem.
In the past drills have contained political messages. For instance, in 2004, cops in Muskegon, Michigan conducted a “mock attack” on a school bus as part of a
terrorism response exercise. The terrorists portrayed in the exercise were said to be fanatical
homeschoolers.
The exercise was a simulated “attack by a fictitious radical group called Wackos Against Schools and Education
who believe everyone should be homeschooled,” Homeschool World reported in September, 2004.
The simulated attack was funded by the Department of Homeland Security.
This article was posted: Thursday, March 6, 2014 at 9:43 am
It used to be that your privacy was invaded by people
entering your home and going through your personal possessions or by intercepting and reading your mail. Then they
invaded your private cyberspace. Now they are openly preparing you for then next assault — invading the privacy of
your mind.
This article was posted: Saturday, March 15, 2014 at 6:37 am
Feminist Control Freaks Want to Ban the Word
"Bossy"
Campaign backed by banks, oil companies, transnational
corporations. Feminism is a top down tool of the establishment which is used to promote cultural marxism, create
thought criminals and police language.
Germans under Hitler denounced their neighbors and friends not
because they genuinely believed them to be a security threat, but because they expected to selfishly benefit
from doing so, both financially, socially and psychologically via a pavlovian need to be rewarded by their
masters for their obedience. At the height of its influence around one in seven of the East German population
was an informant for the Stasi. As in Nazi Germany, the creation of an informant system was wholly centered
around identifying political dissidents and those with grievances against the state, and had little or nothing
to do with genuine security concerns.
It remains to
be seen how many Americans will keep buying the proven lies from their government (note the links
below). Time will soon tell if the people of this nation have the good sense to face that they are being
lied to, or succumb to government propaganda and demoralization.
Ex-propagandist for the
KGB,Yuri Bezmenov, had this to say
about demoralizing a people :
"As I mentioned
before, exposure to true information does not matter anymore. A person who was demoralized is unable to
assess true information. The facts tell nothing to him, even if I shower him with information, with authentic
proof, with documents and pictures. ...he will refuse to believe it.... That's the tragedy of the situation of
demoralization."
In addition to images of President Obama’s address
to the American public on Sunday night, it has emerged that the dramatic photos of Obama, Biden, Hillary
Clinton and members of the White House security team watching the assassination of Bin Laden “live” were in
fact completely staged, casting further doubt on the ever-changing official account of the
operation.The staging of the Obama speech photo is
embarrassing, but the staging of the situation room photos, which were heavily promoted by the establishment
media, falsely presented as evidence that Obama, Biden and Clinton saw the assassination of Osama live, and
used by the White House to lend credence to the fairytale they were busily scripting, are
damning.
DHS Gave Muslim Brotherhood VIP Treatment,
NO TSA PAT DOWNS
A newly released document obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request confirms
that the State Department ordered the Department of Homeland Security to spare members of the Muslim Brotherhood
traveling to the US in 2012 a TSA pat down or any kind of secondary screening.The one page
document (PDF), obtained by the Investigative Project on Terrorism, shows that members of a Muslim Brotherhood
delegation traveling through Minneapolis Airport, New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport and Dulles Airport were handed
expedited entry known as “port courtesy,” which is normally reserved for high ranking government officials and
dignitaries. At the time, the Muslim Brotherhood’s candidate Mohamed Morsi, later deposed, had not been elected
president.
Bin Laden was a strawman-villain concocted by the Western
intelligence apparatus to take the blame for the orchestrated terror that is scripted and carried out by the
globalist-allied factions. The Phantom Osama bin Laden was a skeleton key opening the door to foreign intervention
in the middle east or anywhere al Qaeda might be. The motive is simple-- ever-expanding wars for the military
industrial complex, and the often more lucrative periods of reconstruction (i.e. you break it, you buy it). The
occupation continues here at home with the creation of a police state supposedly meant to combat
terrorism.
The BFP Roundtable takes on the public apathy surrounding the illegal wars of
aggression, the extrajudicial drone assassinations, the illegal warrantless wiretapping, and other outrages of our
era. Why is the public so passive in the face of such abuses? And what can be done about it? Find out more in this
must-see BFP Roundtable discussion.
-- Harriet Tubman --
"I freed a thousand slaves; I
could have freed a thousand more,
if only they knew they were slaves."
Only the vigilant can maintain their liberties, and only those who
are constantly and intelligently
on the spot can hope to govern themselves effectively by democratic procedures.
"A society, most of whose members spend a great part of their time,
not on the spot, not here and now and in their calculable future, but somewhere else, in the irrelevant other
worlds of sport and soap opera, of mythology and metaphysical fantasy, will find it hard to resist the
encroachments of those who would manipulate and control it.”