{"id":363474,"date":"2018-05-31T05:10:15","date_gmt":"2018-05-31T04:10:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=363474"},"modified":"2018-05-31T05:10:15","modified_gmt":"2018-05-31T04:10:15","slug":"how-the-people-who-control-america-manufacture-our-consent-to-their-rule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/editorials\/how-the-people-who-control-america-manufacture-our-consent-to-their-rule\/","title":{"rendered":"How the people who control America manufacture our consent to their rule"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eric Zuesse<\/span><\/p>\n

Modern dictatorship, as Walter Lippmann pointed out in 1921 about \u201cthe manufacture of consent,\u201d<\/span><\/a> is the \u201ccreation of consent\u201d and \u201cis not a new art. It is a very old one which was supposed to have died out with the appearance of democracy. But it has not died out. It has, in fact, improved enormously in technic,\u201d so that we now have artificial \u2018democracy\u2019<\/span><\/a>, which George Orwell prophetically allegorized in his 1949 novel 1984<\/i>. But here is the real version of it, today:<\/span><\/p>\n

On May 26th, a youtube was posted titled “TIME Editor Literally Admits He\u2019s For Gov. Propaganda!\u201d<\/span><\/a> It\u2019s about, and discusses this: Richard Stengel, who was a former Managing Editor of TIME<\/i> magazine (2006-2013), and then the U.S. Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy (2014-2016), had hosted, on April 20th, at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), a Workshop for College and University Educators \u2014 in other words, for professors \u2014 and this workshop was titled \u201cPolitical Disruptions: Combating Disinformation and Fake News\u201d<\/span><\/a>. Stengel and his panel of \u2018experts\u2019 were teaching these professors how to recognize \u2018Fake News\u2019, and Stengel made clear there that it\u2019s whatever violates America\u2019s \u201cmaster narrative.\u201d (Truth-falsity has nothing to do with it, he and they were teaching.)<\/span><\/p>\n

After a lot of unquestioning questions from his academic audience, and only near the very end of the entire workshop, an unidentified attendee asked a questioning question:<\/span><\/p>\n

Q: I\u2019m going to kind of go against the grain here and challenge us to \u2026 think about the media cartels, which control and dominate the way that the discourse is shaped. Is that not fake news in certain ways? \u2026 So for example, I\u2019ll talk about the events in Gaza three weeks ago. Every American \u2014 every mainstream American and world outlet wrote a title that said, \u201cPalestinians killed\u201d or \u201cdie in clashes with Israel.\u201d There were snipers, hundreds of feet away, shooting at unarmed demonstrators, but every major newspaper outlet \u2014 or every major news outlet called it clashes. No one calls that fake news.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

So there\u2019s a question here about how we are defining and what merits our attention as fake news that we need \u2014<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

STENGEL: So just to \u2014 so a \u2014 so give me \u2014 give examples of the master narratives that existed \u2014 or still exist that maybe need to be questioned.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Q: American master narrative about \u2014 what is it \u2014 destiny \u2014 manifest destiny. American narrative about entitlement to American land despite American \u2014 Native Americans\u2019 presence and the massacres against them. The denial of the continuing aftermath of slavery that is continuing to be a part of American mainstream media and mainstream consciousness.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

[The invited panel of \u2018experts\u2019 then answered with irrelevancies. Finally, Stengel came in with:]<\/span><\/p>\n

STENGEL: So I\u2019ll \u2014 you will be the last question, but I just want to weigh in on that for one second. So there\u2019s another word for master narratives. It\u2019s called history.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Basically every country creates their own narrative story and, you know, my old job at the State Department was what people used to joke as the chief propagandist job. We haven\u2019t talked about propaganda. Propaganda \u2014 I\u2019m not against propaganda. Every country does it, and they have to do it to their own population<\/i> [he is saying that every nation is the same in this regard], and I don\u2019t necessarily think it\u2019s that awful. And this idea of a news cartel \u2014 I mean, I was editor of TIME in 2012, during that election, and I remember \u2014 you know, you were competing against cartels and everybody. I remember being on a panel with the then-editor of The New York Times, who said, it\u2019s really hard to break through these days. This is the editor of The New York Times saying it\u2019s hard to break through. I almost \u2014 I wanted to jump off the platform \u2014 like, what\u2019s it like for the rest of everybody? So, I mean, there\u2019s no \u2014 I mean, there are cartels, but the cartels don\u2019t have hegemony like they used to.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

The gentleman right there. Last question.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Q: I don\u2019t think you all addressed her issue, which I<\/i> [would] put in terms of understanding what happens in the world, because what is happening in America is what I\u2019m \u2014 the United States flipped on the Global South and in the Third World, which we live with for many, many years in terms of a master narrative that was, and still is, propaganda.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

STENGEL: You know what? I hate last questions \u2014 (laughter <\/i>[from the audience \u2014 they evidently felt that this statement from Stengel was humorous; and the panelists, too, at 1:16:55 in the video<\/span><\/a>, were smiling at his saying this, apparently sharing Stengel\u2019s clear hostility toward that questioner, and toward his question]) \u2014 don\u2019t you?<\/i> [One of the panelists here, who was still smiling, now shook her head vigorously yes while raising her right eyebrow also in assent to this] I never \u2014 I usually just want to end something before the last question.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

But at any rate, I want to thank this fantastic panel here today. (Applause.)<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

And I do want to say I actually think the \u2014 I mean, talk about optimism. I mean, the optimism is all of you there figuring out how to teach your students about this, and using some of the techniques and some of the sources that we\u2019ve talked about here today, and I hope you are successful.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Thank you very much. (Applause.)<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

(END)<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Stengel refused to address that last question, though he had implicitly promised to answer it when he said \u201cThe gentleman right there. Last question.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

And, yet, instead of booing here at the end, the assembled professors issued \u201cApplause.\u201d They had just been told that American propaganda being directed at the American people, by the U.S. Government and its \u201cmedia cartels,\u201d is good, because it\u2019s what creates \u201chistory,\u201d and it consists of real news, not the fake type. And things such as what the Euro-Americans did (or do) to America\u2019s natives don\u2019t belong in America\u2019s \u201cmaster narrative\u201d or \u2018history\u2019, and so are better ignored, not mentioned. These professors didn\u2019t think that what Stengel and his \u2018experts\u2019 had said was disgusting; they didn\u2019t think that any professor who accepts it should be fired; they instead thought that this is actually the way professors should be, and that it\u2019s what they should do, and should inculcate into their students.<\/span><\/p>\n

Perhaps this is the reason why the youtube\u2019s title, “TIME Editor Literally Admits He\u2019s For Gov. Propaganda!\u201d<\/span><\/a> ended in an exclamation-mark: the discussants there, in that \u201cJimmy Dore Show\u201d segment, were stunned \u2014 even though they had failed to make note of the fact that Stengel\u2019s \u201cWorkshop\u201d was for \u2018historians\u2019 and other academics, and so was even more disgusting than Dore and his guests noted it to have been. But, otherwise, they covered well the putrid ground of this CFR Big-Brother seminar, which had, in fact, been designed for the CFR\u2019s invited academics (people selected by CFR , so as to train them, essentially, to propagandize for their \u201cmaster narrative\u201d), to teach to them what and how to teach to their students. This was like a seminary, except for representatives of the aristocracy, instead of for representatives of the clergy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Consequently, peeling away the surface of Big Brother\u2019s face, to see the workings underneath that artificial skin, there aren\u2019t mere formulae and algorithms, as is now so commonly assumed and demonized; but, instead, there are the owners of the corporations and aristocratic fortunes that fund organizations such as the CFR \u2014 and this is the reason why they fund this, and why the endowed academic chairs at universities and colleges get filled by the sorts of people who issued that \u201cApplause\u201d there, instead of any \u201cBoos,\u201d after having been taught that \u201chistory\u201d and that \u201cthe news\u201d consist only of \u201cthe master narratives\u201d of the nation’s \u201cmedia cartels,\u201d and that all else is just \u201cfake news.\u201d \u201cPropaganda \u2014 I\u2019m not against propaganda. Every country does it, and they have to do it to their own population, and I don\u2019t necessarily think it\u2019s that awful. And this idea of a news cartel\u201d<\/i> is also fine, because you\u2019re still \u201ccompeting against cartels and everybody.\u201d<\/i> Just so long as everybody is \u201ccompeting,\u201d it\u2019s good; and, \u201cI mean, the optimism is all of you there figuring out how to teach your students about this, and using some of the techniques and some of the sources that we\u2019ve talked about here today, and I hope you are successful\u201d<\/i> in that competition, for funding by the donors to the CFR, and for job-offers from the universities and colleges that teach the \u201cmaster narratives.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

And, so, here\u2019s a concrete example of the end-result: an MSNBC segment, whose underlying asssumption is that U.S. theft of Afghanistan\u2019s mineral wealth will be okay, displays how this upside-down world is being presented directly to America’s voters, by people such as those CFR invitees:<\/span><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=aCi-P2j0G5E<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Rachel Maddow\u2019s & Col. Jack Jacobs\u2019s psychopathy are on full display there, at 6:00 till the end at 16:45. The discussion in that part of the segment, accurately represents this entire segment (which is publicly available only in the full presentation of that evening\u2019s complete Rachel Maddow Show, where it can be seen at 12:25-18:40):<\/span><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.msnbc.com\/rachel-maddow\/watch\/more-questions-than-answers-from-trump-s-afghanistan-speech-1029582915676?playlist=associated<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s the entire Maddow Show, dated 21 August 2017.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, that show’s transcript<\/span><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.msnbc.com\/transcripts\/rachel-maddow-show\/2017-08-21<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

notably excludes, from the transcript, this interview of Jack Jacobs \u2014 that entire segment is simply eliminated, entirely, from the show-transcript \u2014 and MSNBC also didn\u2019t include the interview as being among the stand-alone excerpts that MSNBC posted from that program. This segment went down the memory-hole (perhaps in retrospect the Show\u2019s producers thought that it would be too embarrassing), but people such as Jimmy Dore somehow had obtained or retained the key clips from it, which Dore published and discussed (with his guests) at youtube, on 23 August 2017. (Incidentally, Dore likewise did the earlier-mentioned discussion, “TIME Editor Literally Admits He\u2019s For Gov. Propaganda!\u201d<\/span><\/a>. Both of those discussions are very sharp.)<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s just one of the innumerable examples, of how the people who control America, manufacture consent, to being ruled by them. What the public need \u2014 or even want \u2014 is ignored, except as something to be manipulated by the owners of the \u201ccartels\u201d (those presenters\u2019 ultimate bosses). The end (those owners\u2019 dictatorship<\/span><\/a>) justifies any means, and truth is simply to be ignored. This is what Stengel\u2019s workshop taught, and what MSNBC was pumping out to its market.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of\u00a0 They\u2019re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010<\/i><\/span><\/a>,<\/i> and of<\/span> \u00a0<\/i>CHRIST\u2019S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity<\/i><\/span><\/a><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eric Zuesse Modern dictatorship, as Walter Lippmann pointed out in 1921 about \u201cthe manufacture of consent,\u201d is the \u201ccreation of consent\u201d and \u201cis not a new art. It is a very old one which was supposed to have died out with the appearance of democracy. But it has not died out. It has, in fact, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1254,"featured_media":363475,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[461,519],"tags":[30,96,535,59,524,754,523,49,76],"class_list":{"0":"post-363474","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-editorials","8":"category-newswire","9":"tag-big-brother","10":"tag-cover-up","11":"tag-global-news","12":"tag-military","13":"tag-russia","14":"tag-syria","15":"tag-ukraine","16":"tag-usa-news","17":"tag-warfare"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1254"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363474\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/363475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}