I just recently saw a story that the 13 year old “victim” of Trump admitted to making it all up. It’s maddening and hard to keep up anymore. I’m tuning out more everyday. Thanks for another great read
I think humanity has always had the problem of distinguishing between truth and lies and those confections in between.
This 2,500-year-old advice helps me - I hope it might help others -
Kalama Sutta :
10 Points as Guide through Life
1. Do not simply believe what you hear just because you have heard it for a long.
2. Do not follow tradition blindly merely because it has been practised in that way for many generations.
3. Do not be quick to listen to rumours and hearsay.
4. Do not confirm anything just because it agrees with your scriptures.
5. Do not foolishly make assumptions.
6. Do not abruptly draw conclusions by what you see and hear.
7. Do not be fooled by outward appearances.
8. Do not hold on tightly to any view or idea just because you are comfortable with it.
9. Do not accept as fact anything that you yourself find to be logical.
10. Do not be convinced of anything out of respect and deference to your spiritual teachers.
You should go beyond opinion and belief. You can rightly reject anything which, when accepted, practised and perfected, leads to more aversion, more craving, and more delusion. They are not beneficial and are to be avoided.
Conversely, you can rightly accept anything which, when accepted and practised, leads to unconditional metta, contentment, and wisdom. These things allow you time and space to develop a happy and peaceful mind.
This should be your criteria on what is and what is not the truth: on what should be and should not be the spiritual practice.
"Mainstream news has largely squandered whatever credibility it once held. And AI has finished off the rest. Any image of any person, doing or saying anything imaginable, can now be generated on demand." Great point, Todd, but the same can be said of the alternative media as well, including X, Facebook, TikTok and etc..
I even find myself creating fake image for my site, although they are all done in jest, I'm sure some may misconstrue the images as fact. Any more, I feel I need to put a disclaimer on any "supposed" real image, because they may not be. In fact I just did so the other day, when I linked an image of the children killed at a school in Iran from the bombings. Was it real, AI or from a totally different incident. Who knows, anymore.
Yes, definitely alt media as well. Although if they honestly are alt media they will refrain from such doings consciously. OR...they are part of the agenda themselves!!
Thank you...and good luck with your family! I once in a while share stuff with my family, stuff I think is "sheep proof," and I have regretted it every single time. I think the source poisons anything (meaning the fact it comes from ME ruins it)...
I've had formal and professional training in the field of narrative setting, persuasion in mass media and political campaign messaging. One of my media communications professors went on to be a co-founder of factcheck.org, Kathleen Hall Jamieson. She's now at UPenn's Annenberg School, has moved on to specialize in "medical science" focused communications, you know, the "follow the science" crowd of scolds, censors and propagandists who pushed The Science (TM) of the plandemic. The pseudoscience of behaviourism, narratives that distort perception and perspectives to provoke a 'desired' behavior change.
She taught me a lot, though it was much earlier in her career. The saying, 'Those who can, do. Those who can't teach.' comes to mind. She now 'does' as much as she teaches. At least for a time she was happy to just teach, and shared many of the tools in the dark arts used by psychological operators.
I took a circuitous path when I graduated, didn't work anywhere near the field until I started working with politicians a decade later, occassional campaign work exposed me to many masters of the field.
I can't say I ever mastered it myself, but I do have more familiarity than most. And I'm able to identify tools from the toolkit I learned existed.
For the longest time I thought that made me pretty immune to the effects of narrative manipulation. And I largely was. A whole lot of bullshit never got through my defenses.
It wasn't until about fifteen years ago that I began to sense my defenses were flawed; that I had a glaring weak spot in them. Called 'my teamism.' I could spot the deceptions and manipulations emanating from 'their team.' *They* weren't going to get anything past me. *They* rarely did.
It was a slow, overdue realization that 'my team' had been pulling the wool over my eyes for most of my life. I didn't want to admit it, fought the slowly unfolding epiphany as long as I could. Until the truth of it was undeniable: I had been mentally sucker-punched by 'my team' for most of my life. I trusted 'my team.' Foolishly.
It's easy to spot the lies and deceptions from 'their team.' We are weak when spotting them from those we identify with as like-minded. Our biases are the weakest link in our mental armor, cloud our discernment.
I've learned that 'their team' is often a source of more truthful information than 'my team.' 'They' will be the ones who tell me I have food stuck in my teeth, or that my clothes make me look fat. Unpleasant things 'my team' might not say. But are true.
We must always be skeptical of information we receive that has agendas behind them. From 'their' information sources, and from 'our' information sources. *Especially* from 'our' information sources. Our mental armor is already pretty well-trained, on alert from 'their' sources. Our weak spot in our mental armor is from 'our' sources. Meaning we must question 'our team' much more rigorously.
If we seek truth.
For some (most?) this level of vigilance is too hard, exhausting. It's easier to trust a side, or say it's all lies, than to try to discern truth from rigorous examination of all sides. Most choose the path of least resistance and pick a team to trust. Some choose to completely drop out and stop caring, declare it all lies. The number of us who seek truth in an untruthful world is frighteningly small.
The narrative engineers know this about the human mind. And exploit it masterfully. Like my old professor.
Today it is very hard to distinguish truth from BS. I follow reputable people who follow reputable people and then I still find myself questioning things. I know this is all by design. Cause confusion, throw in some doubt and then cover it up with something sweet and smelly. At this point we don't know what to think. Bingo.
“The masses have never thirsted after truth. They turn aside from evidence that is not to their taste, preferring to deify error, if error seduce them. Whoever can supply them with illusions is easily their master; whoever attempts to destroy their illusions is always their victim.”
I just recently saw a story that the 13 year old “victim” of Trump admitted to making it all up. It’s maddening and hard to keep up anymore. I’m tuning out more everyday. Thanks for another great read
Thanks for an interesting and fundamental post.
I think humanity has always had the problem of distinguishing between truth and lies and those confections in between.
This 2,500-year-old advice helps me - I hope it might help others -
Kalama Sutta :
10 Points as Guide through Life
1. Do not simply believe what you hear just because you have heard it for a long.
2. Do not follow tradition blindly merely because it has been practised in that way for many generations.
3. Do not be quick to listen to rumours and hearsay.
4. Do not confirm anything just because it agrees with your scriptures.
5. Do not foolishly make assumptions.
6. Do not abruptly draw conclusions by what you see and hear.
7. Do not be fooled by outward appearances.
8. Do not hold on tightly to any view or idea just because you are comfortable with it.
9. Do not accept as fact anything that you yourself find to be logical.
10. Do not be convinced of anything out of respect and deference to your spiritual teachers.
You should go beyond opinion and belief. You can rightly reject anything which, when accepted, practised and perfected, leads to more aversion, more craving, and more delusion. They are not beneficial and are to be avoided.
Conversely, you can rightly accept anything which, when accepted and practised, leads to unconditional metta, contentment, and wisdom. These things allow you time and space to develop a happy and peaceful mind.
This should be your criteria on what is and what is not the truth: on what should be and should not be the spiritual practice.
The Kalama Sutta (Anguttara Nikaya III, 65)
"Mainstream news has largely squandered whatever credibility it once held. And AI has finished off the rest. Any image of any person, doing or saying anything imaginable, can now be generated on demand." Great point, Todd, but the same can be said of the alternative media as well, including X, Facebook, TikTok and etc..
I even find myself creating fake image for my site, although they are all done in jest, I'm sure some may misconstrue the images as fact. Any more, I feel I need to put a disclaimer on any "supposed" real image, because they may not be. In fact I just did so the other day, when I linked an image of the children killed at a school in Iran from the bombings. Was it real, AI or from a totally different incident. Who knows, anymore.
Linking once again @https://nothingnewunderthesun2016.com/
Yes, definitely alt media as well. Although if they honestly are alt media they will refrain from such doings consciously. OR...they are part of the agenda themselves!!
Thank you!!
So true. Trying to stay focused on what is in front of me.
That's about all we can rely on.
Bo
Bo? My first dog was named Beau Beau...and a recent dog, his namesake, was Bobo...
Must listen to everbody. Po has been right. Very positive. https://usawatchdog.com/not-stepping-into-wwiii-peace-coming-bo-polny/
Brilliant piece…
I am under the impression that we have always been told lies or been manipulated to some degree.
We really know nothing about why we are even here and what our lives are all about.
AI is now another thing before us to confuse and deceive us.
It’s hard to believe anything anymore even gut feelings are being overloaded.
Yes, we have, and as I said in the article, back then it took a bit more work to pull our leg.
Wow So well put. One of your best. I confess I shared it with family who I share little with as that stopped working a few years ago!!
Thank you...and good luck with your family! I once in a while share stuff with my family, stuff I think is "sheep proof," and I have regretted it every single time. I think the source poisons anything (meaning the fact it comes from ME ruins it)...
I've had formal and professional training in the field of narrative setting, persuasion in mass media and political campaign messaging. One of my media communications professors went on to be a co-founder of factcheck.org, Kathleen Hall Jamieson. She's now at UPenn's Annenberg School, has moved on to specialize in "medical science" focused communications, you know, the "follow the science" crowd of scolds, censors and propagandists who pushed The Science (TM) of the plandemic. The pseudoscience of behaviourism, narratives that distort perception and perspectives to provoke a 'desired' behavior change.
She taught me a lot, though it was much earlier in her career. The saying, 'Those who can, do. Those who can't teach.' comes to mind. She now 'does' as much as she teaches. At least for a time she was happy to just teach, and shared many of the tools in the dark arts used by psychological operators.
I took a circuitous path when I graduated, didn't work anywhere near the field until I started working with politicians a decade later, occassional campaign work exposed me to many masters of the field.
I can't say I ever mastered it myself, but I do have more familiarity than most. And I'm able to identify tools from the toolkit I learned existed.
For the longest time I thought that made me pretty immune to the effects of narrative manipulation. And I largely was. A whole lot of bullshit never got through my defenses.
It wasn't until about fifteen years ago that I began to sense my defenses were flawed; that I had a glaring weak spot in them. Called 'my teamism.' I could spot the deceptions and manipulations emanating from 'their team.' *They* weren't going to get anything past me. *They* rarely did.
It was a slow, overdue realization that 'my team' had been pulling the wool over my eyes for most of my life. I didn't want to admit it, fought the slowly unfolding epiphany as long as I could. Until the truth of it was undeniable: I had been mentally sucker-punched by 'my team' for most of my life. I trusted 'my team.' Foolishly.
It's easy to spot the lies and deceptions from 'their team.' We are weak when spotting them from those we identify with as like-minded. Our biases are the weakest link in our mental armor, cloud our discernment.
I've learned that 'their team' is often a source of more truthful information than 'my team.' 'They' will be the ones who tell me I have food stuck in my teeth, or that my clothes make me look fat. Unpleasant things 'my team' might not say. But are true.
We must always be skeptical of information we receive that has agendas behind them. From 'their' information sources, and from 'our' information sources. *Especially* from 'our' information sources. Our mental armor is already pretty well-trained, on alert from 'their' sources. Our weak spot in our mental armor is from 'our' sources. Meaning we must question 'our team' much more rigorously.
If we seek truth.
For some (most?) this level of vigilance is too hard, exhausting. It's easier to trust a side, or say it's all lies, than to try to discern truth from rigorous examination of all sides. Most choose the path of least resistance and pick a team to trust. Some choose to completely drop out and stop caring, declare it all lies. The number of us who seek truth in an untruthful world is frighteningly small.
The narrative engineers know this about the human mind. And exploit it masterfully. Like my old professor.
Today it is very hard to distinguish truth from BS. I follow reputable people who follow reputable people and then I still find myself questioning things. I know this is all by design. Cause confusion, throw in some doubt and then cover it up with something sweet and smelly. At this point we don't know what to think. Bingo.
“The masses have never thirsted after truth. They turn aside from evidence that is not to their taste, preferring to deify error, if error seduce them. Whoever can supply them with illusions is easily their master; whoever attempts to destroy their illusions is always their victim.”
~ Gustav le Bon
"Believe carefully." Love it.
Thank you!!
excellent Todd.
Thank you!!