Why?

How do you rehabilitate a tbm like the one I once was in 2022 who is for the first time considering exiting Plato's Cave and stepping out in the sunlight?

Are three quarters of the American people just stupid and lazy?


https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/gallup-american-trust-in-media-plummets-only-congress-less-trusted-among-major-us-institutions/ar-AAMbOr0

https://news.gallup.com/poll/355526/americans-trust-media-dips-second-lowest-record.aspx

https://www.poynter.org/ethics-trust/2021/us-ranks-last-among-46-countries-in-trust-in-media-reuters-institute-report-finds/

https://www.axios.com/media-trust-crisis-2bf0ec1c-00c0-4901-9069-e26b21c283a9.html

I think it's animosity between the classes. The aristocracy lies to us little people "for our own good" and expects us to be grateful for it. In good times, we play along. In bad times, we think something nefarious is afoot.

So you get people buying stories like US biolabs in Ukraine. It's likely that Mitt is right about it being a hatchet job by Russia and China, but since journalism is essentially dead it's hard to put that horse back in the barn.

To tie this in with Mormonism, church leaders are well intentioned even if clueless. Not all Mormons are Kool Aid drinkers. They humor their leaders without actually believing them.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/20/2022 09:25AM by bradley.

As long as the oligarchy can keep us hating on each other, they’re good. That’s what much of the MSM is for, to keep us divided and hating on one another rather than them. It works because people like to feel superior to others.

An early part of recovery from Mormonism, as this board often attests to, begins with attempts at feeling superior to Mormonism (‘I’m smarter than that’), and often descends to attempts at feeling superior to individual mormons (‘why are they so dumb’). I submit that part of recovery is overcoming this need to feel superior.


As for bio-labs in Ukraine: Victoria Nuland, of the State Department (and married to one of the more destructive neo-cons), answering a direct question put to her from the Senate, confirms that Ukraine has “biological research facilities”, of which the US is concerned that “…Russian forces may be seeking to gain control of…”:

https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/1501313109520175104?s=20&t=yxiAWfGzYM_uuA_vPXI44Q

Here’s an article expanding on her answer:

https://news.antiwar.com/2022/03/08/nuland-us-working-with-ukraine-to-keep-biological-research-facilities-out-of-russias-hands/

"That’s what much of the MSM is for, to keep us divided and hating on one another rather than them."

Maybe that not working anymore is why the war. There was a time when dissent was encouraged. Now there is movement towards it being criminalized. The truth is what they say it is, and you will either agree or be silenced.

So perhaps it's "bread and circuses" time as the empire falls in real time.

> There was a time when dissent was encouraged. Now
> there is movement towards it being criminalized.

"Lock her up?"


---------------------
> The truth is what they say it is, and you will
> either agree or be silenced.

I'm glad you disagree with Trump, DeSantis, and the Florida and Texas legislatures. I hadn't realized you were so objective.


---------------------
> So perhaps it's "bread and circuses" time as the
> empire falls in real time.

That's more of what we've come to expect.

[Bradley, did a portion of our exchange get scrubbed? I can’t remember. I’m feeling gas-lit.]


“Maybe that not working anymore is why the war. There was a time when dissent was encouraged. Now there is movement towards it being criminalized. The truth is what they say it is, and you will either agree or be silenced.”

Yes. It’s disheartening.

[Bradley, did a portion of our exchange get scrubbed? I can’t remember. I’m feeling gas-lit.]

Something about death cults, now I remember. It must have been on the other cold-dogger thread about nuclear war, which has been scrubbed. My bad.

I see that my utterly tasteless digs against GAs remain intact.

The current business with the media and the public reaction to it makes me sympathetic to Mormonism. Apparently, I have been raised on lies. Mormon lies are innocuous by comparison.

I shouldn't comment on either war or the war machine. Better to not know.

Today I discovered the best song of hope I've heard in a long time. Gerry Rafferty's "The Ark" from 1978.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=p9MOCN29akc

"I submit that part of recovery is overcoming this need to feel superior."

Okay, I apologize. That said, I'd put the GAs somewhere between toe fungus and jock itch.

For anyone who might be confused...

Biological research labs, with which the US government is openly involved (and which are an easy target for disinformation activities) are not the same thing as bioweapon labs, about which an evidence free conspiracy has been floated.

https://ua.usembassy.gov/embassy/kyiv/sections-offices/defense-threat-reduction-office/biological-threat-reduction-program/

Thank you.

3/4 of Americans stupid and lazy? I would put it more like seven eighths. Human kind is doing itself in rapidly and not with bombs or chemical weapons but with selfimportance.

If you can stomach it, read or listen to a GA GC speech, they’re media masters but without caring or empathy for the listeners

"God loves you, but only if you do what we say."

Cold-Dodger Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Why?

There are several answers to that question. First, people trust their own beliefs over factual information. Second, if you are part of the story, you generally wwant the media to tell the story from your perspective and are disappointed when the media doesn't do that (this has happened in my family). Third, there have been "fake" (made-up) stories that have appeared in powerful newspapers from time to time. The one that comes immediately to mind was one written in 1977 supposedly about a disco addict. The story was the basis for the song "Stayin' Alive," written and performed by the Bee Gees, but the story turned out to have been completely made up.
>
> How do you rehabilitate a tbm like the one I once
> was in 2022 who is for the first time considering
> exiting Plato's Cave and stepping out in the
> sunlight?

You can't rehabilitate anybody unless they actually want to be rehabilitated. If you say you want to be rehabilitated but then doubt my intentions when I try to rehabilitate you, then maybe you really don't want to be rehabilitated at all; rather you wish to confirm your previous biases. And if that's all you're looking to do, then I will most likely never be able to rehabilitate you--at least not until the time that you come to doubt your beliefs, if that time ever comes.

Don't misunderstand me. I'm not trying to be cruel here. I'm just letting you know that if you strongly believe something to be true even if all of the available facts says it isn't true, then there is very little, if anything, that I can do that will change your mind.
>
> Are three quarters of the American people just
> stupid and lazy?

No. But aall of us (or nearly all of us) have strong beliefs about the world around us, and for most of us, changing strongly held beliefs in the face of new facts is a very tall order indeed.

I should also note that for most people, worrying about what is and isn't true often comes second to surviving and thriving in society. Nowadays, most people are so busy trying to make a living and raise families that they don't really have the time to examine their own beliefs, let alone seek out facts that might show those beliefs to be untrue.
>
>
> https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/gallup-ame
> rican-trust-in-media-plummets-only-congress-less-t
> rusted-among-major-us-institutions/ar-AAMbOr0
>
> https://news.gallup.com/poll/355526/americans-trus
> t-media-dips-second-lowest-record.aspx
>
> https://www.poynter.org/ethics-trust/2021/us-ranks
> -last-among-46-countries-in-trust-in-media-reuters
> -institute-report-finds/
>
> https://www.axios.com/media-trust-crisis-2bf0ec1c-
> 00c0-4901-9069-e26b21c283a9.html

I believe Americans are nothing if not reactionary and reaction has taken the place of thoughtful research. Shallow media feeds on this.

Do you trust the media is one of those very ambiguous questions, like do you believe in god. There is a strong social-acceptability bias. People will claim they believe in God because that is the acceptable answer, when they really don’t much care.

People will say they don’t trust media for the same reason, though not trusting media is the socially acceptable answer.

On the God question, which God do you or don’t you believe in is highly relevant, and rarely asked. On the media question, which media do you or don’t you trust is highly relevant as well. If one person doesn’t trust Fox or OANN, and another doesn’t trust NPR or WSJ, do they both get lumped together as “doesn’t trust the media”? They would seem to me to be two pretty divergent groups.