Skip to main content

Artificial ideological confusion: A common practice by the establishment

by system failure

On the occasion of the 2016 US elections, we observe a culmination of ideological battles in primaries' debates, mainstream media panel discussions, as well as, online discussions in forums, social media, etc., in the blogosphere.

In previous article we referred to some "logical leaps" that the establishment uses to force the individual to bypass a certain rational hierarchy. This process is based on the fact that many voters are being misinformed, poorly informed, or, not informed at all, concerning the substance of the political process. The establishment frequently exploits such a fact to promote preferable candidates using a powerful symbolism, rather than focusing on the most significant details of the real policies that these candidates will promote once they get elected. Hillary Clinton is a characteristic example of such a candidate for the US presidency.

It appears that the means of the dominant neoliberal doctrine also use such logical leaps for the purpose of spreading ideological confusion and revive, more or less, a modern type of McCarthyism and a new round of Communist Phobia. We've already mentioned such type of tactics back in the FDR-era, through which the corporate establishment tried to demonize Roosevelt's New Deal plan.

What makes such an effort today appear rather bizarre, is the fact that the dominant neoliberal doctrine itself has been established over the decades on a deeply apolitical culture. Yet, now that senses a threat, mobilizes its mechanisms to refuel a distorted ideological discussion, but only for the purpose of spreading confusion in order to sustain its dominance.

The defenders and mouthpieces of a peculiar modern financial fascism, as a main component of the neoliberal doctrine, naturally use logical leaps to avoid, for example, to give straight answers to simple, rational questions. When someone asks a reasonable question, for example, why after so many billions in bailouts to the banks, the situation of the banking system has not been improved, while the pensions-salaries have been slaughtered and the Greek economy is getting worse, the answer from a mainstream journalist, or, economist, can be actually irrelevant, like "you have no idea how the banking system works".

In the United States, in Greece, and elsewhere, a common ideological confusion concerns the term Socialism. Now that the establishment sees that Bernie Sanders' popularity is rising stormily, despite that he says openly that he is a Democrat Socialist, the mouthpieces in the mainstream media, social media, etc., are using logical leaps to present Socialism as something evil and authoritarian. One common practice to do this, is to equalize the Nazi ideology of National Socialism with Bernie's Democratic Socialism.

The manipulation here is based on the fact that in both these ideologies - apart from the fact that both contain the term Socialism - the state plays a significant role in many aspects who determine the everyday life of citizens. By isolating this simple characteristic, the establishment mechanisms reproduce a totally distorted perception about Socialism, based on a ridiculously simplified logical leap: the state plays a central role = Democratic Socialism coincides with Nazi ideology.

Many people who have not studied the details and the historical origin and development of these ideologies, will believe that they are identical, while in fact, they are not only fundamentally different, but totally opposite. Furthermore, in practice, in the case of Nazi Germany for example, it was not the power of the state that supported Hitler's campaigns, but the power of the big private capital.

Only an example briefly:

  • Nazi ideology is based on National Socialism, which is very different from Democratic Socialism that Sanders supports. In fact, they are totally opposite ideologies. One fundamental difference is that Democratic Socialism supports the rights of the majority (the right for work, education, healthcare, human rights, etc.), regardless of any ethnic, racial, sexual, economic, political, or other differences. Which is very different from the National Socialism, which supports the rights only of a specific ethnic group against others, while also rejects groups based on other characteristics (sexual orientation for example).

  • Despite of its "Socialist" component, in practice, and historically, National Socialism developed deep ties with the big private capital. The deep ties of Adolf Hitler with the big German industrialists, like Krupps, for example, as well as many American corporations during WWII, has been recorded. To sustain the necessary means for his huge campaigns, Hitler used the power of the funding and the means of production of the big capital, combined with the labor hands, among them workers from concentration camps, that have been working under slavery conditions.

This is only an example of how the establishment attempts to demonize undesirable ideologies which can threaten the sovereignty of the neoliberal doctrine. It appears that such types of tactics become less and less influential, which naturally brings further anxiety to the ruling elites.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Oct. 7 Reports Implode: Beheaded Babies, NY Times Scandal, & More

Glenn Greenwald    

Πώς ο Γκρίνμπεργκ μπορεί να θάψει το καθεστώς Μητσοτάκη

του system failure    Είναι ξεκάθαρο ότι η αναμφίβολη πρωτοκαθεδρία του καθεστώτος Μητσοτάκη οφείλεται σχεδόν αποκλειστικά σε μια άκρως επιθετική επικοινωνιακή εκστρατεία που είχε καταφέρει μέχρι στιγμής να κρύβει κάτω από το χαλί (τουλάχιστον ως ένα βαθμό) τον αυταρχισμό και τη διαφθορά του καθεστώτος, καθώς και τις καταστροφικές πολιτικές που εφαρμόζει.  Και δεν είναι πλέον μυστικό, ότι ο άνθρωπος-κλειδί πίσω από αυτή την εκστρατεία είναι ο Αμερικανός δημοσιοσχετίστας, Σταν Γκρίνμπεργκ .    Όμως καθώς το καθεστώς επαναπαύθηκε στις δάφνες της νίκης των τελευταίων βουλευτικών εκλογών, τα μεγάλα προβλήματα συνέχισαν να συσσωρεύονται και φάνηκε ότι το καθεστώς είτε δεν ήθελε, είτε δεν μπόρεσε να τα αντιμετωπίσει. Έτσι, είδαμε σε σύντομο χρονικό διάστημα να έρχονται τα πρώτα σημαντικά πλήγματα στην πρωτοκαθεδρία του, μέσα από τα αποτελέσματα των δημοτικών και περιφερειακών εκλογών. Παρόλα αυτά, η αλαζονεία των καθεστωτικών στελεχών παρέμεινε αμετάβλητη, καθώς θεώρησαν ότι η τραγωδία των Τ

Zionist and US imperialist criminals are about to grab the natural gas off shore Gaza

globinfo freexchange   As the genocide against Palestinians of Gaza is about to be completed with an act of unprecedented brutality by the Zionists and butcher Netanyahu through the bombardment of about 1.4 million civilians in Rafah, it seems that they have already set their next primary goal. Which, in short, is to grab the natural gas resources off shore Gaza, together with their US imperialist buddies whose contribution to the genocide has been undoubtedly critical.     As already reported , in 2007, Hamas came to power and Israel launched an offensive on Gaza Strip, leaving behind 1,400 dead Palestinians, but taking with it the gas fields. Within a year, Israel announced the discovery of the Leviathan natural gas field, which did include Gaza's riches, valued at 453 billion dollars. But Gazans have been denied around 47 billion dollars in revenue. As for Tel Aviv, it's gunning to become a new hub. At that moment in time, that is 2022, Russian oil and gas were sanctioned.

Israel’s Descent Into Madness & the Holocaust Comparison

BreakThrough News   Rania Khalek was joined by Tarik Cyril Amar, a historian from Germany and associate professor at Koc University in Istanbul, to discuss Israel’s descent into genocidal fascism. Prof. Amar addresses whether it’s useful to make Holocaust and Nazi comparisons and the real reason behind the West’s unshakeable loyalty attitude when it comes to Israel’s barbarism.   

Neocon Queen Victoria Nuland Ends Her Reign: Exposing a Catastrophic Career

Glenn Greenwald    

The Shadowy, Intelligence-Linked Group Driving the US Towards War With Iran

"United Against Nuclear Iran does not miss an opportunity to try to bring the United States closer to a military conflict with Iran. And on the other side of the equation, they also have worked very hard to oppose efforts to de-escalate the U.S.-Iran relationship."   by Alan Macleod   Part 7 - A Lesson From History   The history of Iran has been intimately intertwined with the United States since at least 1953 when Washington orchestrated a successful coup against Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh. Mosaddegh had refused U.S. demands to stamp out Communist influences in his country and had nationalized the nation’s oil. The U.S. installed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi as a puppet ruler. An unpopular and authoritarian ruler, the Shah was overthrown in the Revolution of 1979. Since then, it has become a target for regime change, and its nuclear program is something of an obsession in the West. Often orchestrated by UANI officials while they were in government, the U.S. has carried

Το σκάσιμο της φούσκας Μητσοτάκη με νέα επίσημη χρεοκοπία και οριστικό τέλος της μεταπολίτευσης

του system failure   Τα αποτελέσματα των εκλογών της 25ης Ιουνίου ήταν λίγο-πολύ αναμενόμενα όσον αφορά τις πρώτες θέσεις με βάση και τα αποτελέσματα της πρώτης κάλπης του Μαίου. Αν συμπεριλάβουμε και το ποσοστό της αναμενόμενης αποχής, δεν μας έδωσαν κάποια ιδιαίτερη έκπληξη. Αυτό όμως που φαίνεται να αιφνιδίασε ακόμα και το συστημικό κατεστημένο, είναι η είσοδος των δύο υπερσυντηρητικών, ακροδεξιών κομμάτων Νίκη και Σπαρτιάτες, με το τελευταίο να έχει ξεκάθαρες διασυνδέσεις με τον πρώην Χρυσαυγίτη, Ηλία Κασιδιάρη. Παρά τη μεγάλη νίκη Μητσοτάκη, οι μιντιακοί ινστρούχτορες της καθεστωτικής προπαγάνδας εμφανίστηκαν σε γενικές γραμμές "μουδιασμένοι" και αυτό οφείλεται στο γεγονός ότι το συστημικό κατεστημένο (δηλαδή τα μεγάλα οικονομικά συμφέροντα που ελέγχουν και το σύνολο των μεγάλων ΜΜΕ πανελλαδικής εμβέλειας), πέτυχε μόνο έναν από τους τέσσερις μεγάλους στόχους που είχε θέσει εξ'αρχής. Μιλώντας με ποδοσφαιρικούς όρους, ουσιαστικά έχασε με σκορ 3-1.   Ο μεγάλος στόχος πο

Study Finds Media Giants New York Times, CNN, and Fox News Pushing for US War in Yemen

by Alan Macleod  Part 2 - Biased Reporting MintPress conducted a study of four leading American outlets: The New York Times , CNN, Fox News and NBC News. Together, these outlets often set the agenda for the rest of the media system and could be said to be a reasonable representation of the corporate media spectrum as a whole. Using the search term “Yemen” in the Dow Jones Factiva global news database, the fifteen most recent relevant articles from each outlet were read and studied, giving a total sample of 60 articles. All articles were published in January 2024 or December 2023. The study found the media wildly distorted reality, presenting a skewed picture that aided U.S. imperial ambitions. For one, every article in the study (60 out of 60) used the word “Houthis” rather than “Ansar Allah” to describe the movement which took part in the Yemeni Revolution of 2011 and rose up against the government in 2014, taking control of the capital Sanaa, becoming the new de facto government. Ma

The truth about Alexei Navalny

Glenn Greenwald / Dangerous Ideas with Lee Camp / The Hill /  

Israel Carries Out Most Sadistic Massacre, Opens Fire On Gaza Aid Convoy

Richard Medhurst