Empire, Lies and Propaganda

The propaganda nation has ascended, and Americans remain profoundly ignorant of what it is their empire does around the world. They largely believe what they are told by authority figures, even if what they are told makes no logical sense. Even if what they are told contradicts the evidence in front of their faces. Even if the liars have clear motives for lying to them. Even if similar situations floated right past the liars in the past without comment, clear hypocrisy.

I have called such pathetic ignorance criminal, naming a new category of misdemeanor, criminal ignorance. In a democracy the citizens are responsible for informing themselves about critically-important situations, and not relying on one side's baseless claims. Sitting back and being told what to think by the government or by the profit-driven media is not informing one's self. The responsibility of citizens, in a democratic republic, is to sort the liars from the truth tellers. When citizens shirk this responsibility they are derelict in their civic duties, as they cannot make sound, rational decisions. Thus the decisions they do make: giving support, voting, influencing others, are negligent, reckless, unsound and should be called out. That is criminal ignorance.

In America far too much of the public is criminally ignorant about most important issues, including war and peace. So they are ripe for the Big Lie, the technique of Hitler, which is now routinely executed by US politicians.
One such Big Lie is the Obama Jihad against Bashar al Assad, claiming that Assad used chemical weapons on August 21 and a whole lot of other times previously. No evidence has ever come out to connect the Syrian military to any gas attack, and yet every single instance is blamed on Assad by the propaganda wing of the insurgents, and then these accusations are dutifully repeated by Western media and Western government officials.
What evidence has emerged is that the Al Nusra terrorist groups in Syria have used Sarin gas, repeatedly. Quite a different narrative.

The Big Lie depends also on censoring out the other side. So when UN Investigator Carla del Ponte tells the world that it was the opposition rebels and not the Syrian government this cannot be mentioned by the Big Liars. This evidence is not permitted to be relayed to the masses. This crucial evidence – if one is actually concerned about civilian deaths – passes by as if it never happened. The Big Liars are exposed by what they will not say, as well as what they do say.

"...[T]hus 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."
- Mein Kampf, vol. I, ch. X

An immoral foreign policy depends upon deception. Citizens cannot know that they are responsible for atrocities half a world away, or else they might act on this knowledge. As the masses are so willingly ignorant, this is not difficult to achieve as long as the press agrees to limit its sources and revelations.
This is academic. It is a fait accompli, and has been the status quo for the entire modern age. See Manufacturing Consent if you're unfamiliar with the way corporate media churns out one-sided foreign policy "news."

The game is set. Only the players and the skirmishes change. The goal of empire is to expand empire and to take more profit from outside, thus enabling it to maintain its position of global domination and to reward those who are favorable to its agenda. It is a self-perpetuating juggernaut that grows out of control and eventually destroys itself by overreaching. That's how history has shown the evolution to be. Destruction can be slow or rapid. In the nuclear age, it can come in minutes. It's a high-stakes game this war and peace. Those who see themselves as invincible will overreach faster and in more spectacular fashion. While Hitler lied himself into a massive empire and built a military never before witnessed on earth, even his five-year plans were cut short.

Joe Giambrone from here

Big empires, small empires, similar goals. Expand, profit, maintain position regardless of citizens' wishes and opinions. Reward those favourable to the current agenda. This is capitalism writ large. To bring it to an end we need to seek out the 'willingly ignorant' and wake up the sleeping masses. The evidence is out there; socialism is the only alternative.
JS