Propaganda and the Media Part 4
All you have to do is think
By Larry Romanoff for The Saker Blog, June 05, 2021
If I were a dictator, one of my first dictates would be that every adult must take at least one university-level course in logic. In today's world, with what is essentially an international criminal element in control, one which effectively manages public perception through their leverage over the mass media, readers would benefit immensely from some exposure to the principles of logic.
The main issue is that logic is concerned with the practical science of reasoning (truth and validity of arguments), but the actual mental processes we employ in reasoning are the province of psychology, not science, and are often not valid, leading to conclusions which are not true. It is the latter that media propagandists use to violate the former, by taking advantage of our psychological reasoning processes to lead us to false conclusions while masking their tactics so we remain unaware of the deception. Most of these tactics are surprisingly simple.
One is to associate an argument with a famous person or an embedded religious or political tenet. A statement like "Every patriotic American will agree that . . .", is often sufficient to lead us to a wrong conclusion, in spite of our intuition telling us something is not right. Another tactic very commonly used is to attack the character or authority of the author, or even the tone of his writing, without actually addressing the substance of his argument, and in fact to rigorously avoid addressing the argument. If I can successfully impugn your character, many readers will discount anything you say.
And surprisingly often, simply stating the opposite without any supporting evidence is sufficient to deflect our reasoning from the truth: "He stated the now-debunked theory that . . .", with no evidence the theory was actually debunked, nor by whom, nor on what basis.
I will focus here, with examples, on two primary tactics in the false logic of media propaganda. The first is the astonishingly simple one of attaching a lie to a truth. Our psychological reasoning processes will recognise a first statement as true, then automatically accept an attached lie as being also true. The second is the use of statements that appear at least plausible, but which are followed by a vacuum of information, forcing us to either accept or reject outright the statement, but giving us no basis on which to do so. Uninformed readers will almost inevitably accept such unsupported statements as true, in spite of the total lack of evidence.
Much of the information presented to us in the form of what we now term "the official narrative" of so many geo-political events, is almost childish in its presentation yet so cleverly done by the propaganda experts that little apparent criticism is generated and the public seem to accept the stories in spite of the immense and glaring flaws. This is the reason the media articles present either no details or almost none; if no information is given, there is nothing to question or attack; if no claims are made, no resistances arise.
Thus, we have statements referring to "China's increasing militarism in the South China Seas", but no information, no data, no documentation beyond that empty claim. This leaves readers with the choice of either accepting or rejecting the claim itself but, except with informed readers, no basis on which to do either because of the complete lack of information. And, traditionally, if the public encounter this claim in five or six different media sources, they will tend to accept it as true in spite of the complete absence of evidence. Even worse, it has been repeatedly proven that big lies are more readily accepted than are the small ones. This is the legacy left by Freud, Bernays and Lippman, the ease of "pulling the wires that control the public mind", provided only that one controls the microphone.
Usually, the 'official narrative' contains a simple statement that is either true or at least marginally plausible, one which we tend to accept intuitively as true. As I noted, one of the most clever tactics in propaganda is to attach a lie to a truth. Casual or cursory readers and viewers will almost always fail to notice the startling lack of logic and discontinuity in reasoning in the information they are accepting as true. Consider this from CNN:
"China's ambition is to make high-speed rail the mode of choice for domestic long-distance travel, but [China is really doing this because] high-speed railways are symbol of the country's economic power . . . increasing prosperity . . . [and] political influence." (1) In other words, China is building its high-speed rail network to (a) show off, and (b) to gain political influence over other nations. A lie attached to a truth. The first statement is true - that China is making high-speed rail the travel mode of choice, but the attached statements are rubbish, insulting claims presented without a shred of supporting evidence. But in the mental logic of an unschooled reader, the lie attached to the truth is generally accepted, unquestioningly, as also true.
Here is another excerpt from CNN, this one even more startling in its claim:
"A Pew Research report from late 2020 found that of 14 countries surveyed across Europe, North America and East Asia, every one had a majority negative view of China. But opinions of China were worsening even before the pandemic . . . and [this began] in 2019 when top [Chinese] diplomats began aggressively calling out alleged slights against China in press conferences or on social media." (2) Do you see what has happened? The Jewish-owned media and (largely) Jewish columnists trashed China relentlessly for all of 2020, with Pew cheerfully noting that all surveyed countries had a negative view of China. However, the reason for this negative view wasn't the incessant attacks on China in the public media, but instead was due to Chinese diplomats "aggressively calling out" these false claims and insults. A lie attached to a truth. The first statement of the polls is undoubtedly true, but the attached claim is obviously rubbish, yet readers will generally accept the entire paragraph as true. So, the reason people don't like me is not because you have been publishing lies about me but because I have been objecting to the lies you tell.
The above two examples taken from thousands similar in my files, are simply hate literature, preparing the public to accept severe political or military action based on 'a thousand cuts'. But there is another category potentially much more serious, related to the covering-up of crimes committed by our International Cabal of Gangsters (ICG). The propaganda tactics and the devastation of logic are very similar, as is the naive credulity of readers. In these cases, we also have (a) a simple statement that appears intuitively plausible, (b) a complete lack of information and detail, and (c) a ridiculous conclusion either presented outright or at least insinuated, but entirely without support. Again, in modified form, a lie attached to a truth.
I assembled some typical examples for presentation here, and was surprised to see they all related to biological attacks. Each is a startling example of an 'official narrative' that cannot possibly be true, yet so cleverly done that each event raised no discernible challenges from the vast readership of the mass media. Each is almost certainly an example of high crimes perpetrated by our ICG and being covered up by their media friends, yet no one apparently noticed. Such is the power of clever propaganda. Hence the subtitle of this essay: All you need to do is think. Let's look at these in turn.
UK Foot and Mouth Disease
In Part 1 of this series I referred to the two epidemics of UK foot and mouth disease that resulted in the culling of millions of cattle and bankrupting most small farmers. I covered this in detail in an earlier article (3) which I recommend you read. The official narrative was that "Animal Rights Activists" entered the biological labs at Pirbright and Porton Down and stole "some vials" (note the framing) of the pathogen and spread it throughout the country. This is our simple statement that appears intuitively plausible, but presented with a complete lack of information or detail. The 'truth' was the outbreak of the disease; the lie attached to it was about the perpetrators.
However, both Pirbright and Porton Down are Level-4 Military bio-weapons laboratories under 24-hour military guard. No 'activist', animal-rights or otherwise, could possibly penetrate such an installation without being shot dead in the attempt. Second, a 'vial' is a tiny glass bottle containing maybe 10 ml. of fluid, something you could easily put into your pocket. But the deadly pathogen was spread throughout the entire nation and infected many millions of cattle, which would require several thousand liters of the pathogen. You cannot accomplish that with a 'vial', and you cannot carry it on a bicycle. So now we have our animal-rights activists approaching a forbidden, off-limits, deadly-force environment, backing up a 5-tonne truck, loading it with several cubic meters of a deadly pathogen, and driving away not only unmolested but apparently unnoticed. Further, we must have had thousands of activists to cover all of England and infect the millions of animals on virtually every small farm in the country. Even more, they must have been wearing Harry Potter invisibility cloaks because they did all that unseen and undetected. Why does this story make sense to you? And so far, we haven't required facts; we are simply using logic.
Would the story make more sense if the media had told you that for three months prior to this outbreak, departments of the UK government were scouring the nation for all sources of timber that could be burned to incinerate diseased animals? It wasn't even much of a secret. Would the story make more sense if the media had told you that according to papers leaked from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, the UK government had made a 'dry run' of precisely this event only a few months beforehand? Very similar to Event 201 prior to the outbreak of COVID-19, if you're interested in coincidences. Would the story also make more sense if we learned that one or two Big Agra companies suddenly appeared in the aftermath to take control of more or less the entire beef supply of the UK?
China's "Pork Speculators"
In 2019 and 2020 China was hit with a nation-wide wave of deadly swine flu, necessitating the culling of several hundred million pigs - China's main meat source. The pathogen was distributed with small drones flying over countless thousands of farms while spraying something. The outbreak was the truth; the attached lie was again related to the perpetrators. All of the Western media, including Hong Kong in this instance, flooded their pages with claims that 'pork speculators' were responsible for this. Let's ignore facts for the moment and try to apply some logic.
First, many laboratories in many countries research such pathogens, but the amounts necessary for research typically are a cupful. The volume of pathogen necessary to infect and\or kill 300 million pigs would be at least tens of thousands of liters. Where would our 'pork speculators' obtain such a volume of a deadly pathogen? The nearest 7-11? Wal-Mart? The only source of any pathogen in that volume would be a military bio-weapons lab where it was created for use. There is no evidence that China has any such labs but for the moment let's assume they do have. How would the pork speculators gain access to it? What do you suppose would happen if you and I went to such a military installation and said, "Good morning. We would like to buy 5,000 liters of anthrax, please." Exactly. And if the Chinese did have such a facility they would be unlikely to supply people wanting to kill most or all of their own country's meat supply.
Perhaps more to the point, in any country, WHO would have access to these facilities and the pathogens contained therein? Only agencies of that government. Nobody else. Logic permits us to dismiss the possibility of the pathogen arising from a Chinese facility, so what would be the source? We don't have a smoking gun, but China and Russia are surrounded by 400 American military bio-weapons labs. There is no other likely source, and no other country with a likely motive or with ample experience in this area, which means the swine flu epidemic in China was either quite or very possibly a US biological weapons attack. And the media flood of 'pork speculators' was propaganda meant to pre-empt rational thought on the part of readers. The lie attached to the truth, to protect the perpetrators (ICG) and blame the victim.
Let's Look at SARS
We don't know how SARS was created and released, but we do know the official narrative as presented in the Western media was a lie from beginning to end. And if the media are promulgating a lie, we know they are covering for those responsible. Why else would they do it? I covered this in detail in an earlier article you may care to read. (4) Let's look at only one part of the SARS epidemic, the "super-spreading event" at the Amoy Gardens residential complex of 30 and 40-story buildings, home to almost 20,000 people that experienced a massive outbreak and had to be evacuated. Virologists were unanimous in categorising this as "the most spectacular event" of the entire SARS crisis.
The official (Western media) narrative flood told us the virus was spread through defects in the building complex’s drainage or sewage system, Wikipedia adding poetically that the virus "was blown by a gentle maritime breeze" from the toilet sewage pipes into the stairwells and thence to all the apartments. We don't need facts here; we just need to use our heads.
What would be the source of the huge amount of SARS pathogen required to infect all those buildings? What would be its means of locomotion, and why would it choose to gather in volume in that one location? And how could it do so? Do SARS viruses form flocks? By what means would such a huge amount of this coronavirus enter the sewage systems in the first place? The sewers are all underground; there is no entry point. How could a breeze, 'gentle maritime' or otherwise, possibly enter the sewage system of a huge apartment complex? Is there a hole in the external wall where all the toilet pipes emerge? Next, to blow air and pathogen from an underground sewer upwards to infect all apartments on 40 floors of 10 buildings would require more than a gentle breeze - more likely a hurricane.
I am not a plumber, but a "defective sewage system" in a high-end high-rise apartment building does not seem to possess the claimed qualifications to distribute lethal pathogens to all apartments. In any case, aside from the initial – and unsubstantiated – claim, there were no reports either before or after the outbreak to suggest any plumbing defects ever existed. Once again, to a casual reader the story sounds plausible until we stop to think about the practical logistics. After all, sewage and drainage pipes are no doubt dirty places which make a happy home for germs of all kinds, but those germs are there because we put them there each time we dispose of waste. They don’t enter a building and seek out the drainage pipes of their own accord, then run around independently like mice looking for a place to hide, and lurking until victims approach. Nor do they spread throughout a building and intentionally enter each home. Either case would require an intelligence. And a large pail.
Would it have assisted your understanding if the media had informed you of the immediate conclusion by Russian virologists that the SARS virus "absolutely" originated in a lab? It was interesting that while SARS emerged first in Guangdong Province, fate led the infected persons to travel to Hong Kong where the virus spread. The health officials in the Chinese Mainland snuffed it out immediately while Hong Kong took the hit, and SARS was statistically a Hong Kong epidemic rather than Mainland Chinese. That almost sounds like an attempt that failed.
Let's Look at MERS
In late 2012, the world experienced the onset of a new mini-epidemic from a novel coronavirus that was named MERS because it supposedly originated in the Middle East, infecting small numbers of people in Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Qatar. The virus was blamed on camels which, after millennia of friendly cohabitation with man, suddenly decided to share their virology with humans. I covered this in detail in an earlier article you may care to read. (5)
The outbreak in Korea was the largest manifestation of MERS outside the Middle East, hitting that country with economic damage in the billions. According to the official narrative in the Western media, South Korea’s infections were apparently traced to an (unidentified and almost certainly fictitious) "businessman" who developed MERS after returning from a trip to the Middle East. We have our (quite plausible) opening statements followed by conclusions offering zero detail, in fact truth followed by a lie.
One item neglected by the media was the massive outbreak of MERS at the US Osan Air Base in Korea, which conveniently was very near the home of the likely-imaginary 'infected businessman'. The Osan airbase is the home of the US JUPITR ATD, a military biological program that operates its other lab facility at Fort Detrick, MD, as well as home to one of the US military’s bio-weapons production labs and a very secretive WHO bio-lab operated by the US military. The theory most closely fitting the facts is that the MERS outbreak may have been caused by a laboratory accident at the JUPITR biowarfare project, and our 'infected businessman' may in fact have carried the pathogen in the opposite direction.
Interestingly, there was sparse coverage of the MERS outbreak in South Korea, certainly compared to SARS, where we were treated to virulent China-bashing 24/7 for most of a year.
Let's Look at ZIKA
An unremarkable little virus so mild most people don't even know they have it, and one that had never done any harm to anyone. ZIKA is spread only by mosquitoes and never traveled anywhere in its entire life, remaining sequestered in a forest in Uganda where it was discovered. But then one day ZIKA developed a kind of viral wanderlust and traveled 12,000 kilometers or so, crossing the Pacific Ocean, the US and Mexico, all of Central America and the Caribbean, and finally traversing all of South America to land on the Atlantic side in Rio and São Paulo. From there, it almost instantaneously radiated outward 4,000 or 5,000 kilometers in all directions to cover most of Brazil, then spread to all of South and Central America and the Caribbean, flooding more than 20 countries within a few months, voyaging as far as Mexico and Puerto Rico.
How did this happen? Well, according to the massive flood in the Western media, ZIKA was brought to Brazil by an infected traveler from Micronesia who had come to watch the World Cup. The plausible lie attached to the truth. And again, we don't need facts; we just need to use our heads. ZIKA is not a contagious disease; it is spread only when bitten by an infected mosquito. If the (fictional) traveler had indeed been infected, how many millions of mosquitoes would have had to bite this unfortunate Micronesian to become infected and then infect millions throughout Latin America within a very short time? To cause such a rapid outbreak would require hundreds of millions of infected mosquitoes. Even more, how could infected mosquitoes traverse all of South America? Can mosquitoes fly over the Andes? How could they travel 10,000 or more Kms. to flood 20 countries in a few months? How did they travel the 12,000 Kms. to Brazil in the first place? You know the official story cannot possibly be true.
ZIKA was given massive prime time Western media coverage, replete with photos of graveyards, tombstones, urns filled with wilting flowers. Why? The number of people who had experienced even mild illness from ZIKA was perilously close to zero, and no person had ever died from it. What was happening?
Two things. First, something that was heavily censored in the Western media: a UK company named Oxitec had for several years been conducting "transgenic mosquito trials" throughout Latin America, pretending to mate their mosquitoes with the local variety to produce sterile offspring, releasing hundreds of millions of mosquitoes in all countries. It was then that the outbreak of ZIKA occurred.
The second thing was that ZIKA was being tarnished with tales of brain damage to infants, tales entirely lacking medical or logical foundation, but propagated nonetheless. On the heels of these tales, and interspersed with them, was the sudden awakening or resurrection of literally hundreds of US-based and funded NGOs all campaigning loudly - with massive media support - for all of Latin America to abandon its laws against abortion - for the sake of all these ZIKA-infected mothers who would now give birth to infants with "devastated brains".
And that is the entire story. The pro-abortionist NGOs are primarily Jewish, as are the media, and as is Oxitec with its funding and connections naturally including the usual group of suspects. The only conclusion that fits all the known facts is that ZIKA was deliberately unleashed, using pre-infected mosquitoes, as part of a plan to eliminate the anti-abortion laws in Latin America - the world's only holdout. I researched this thoroughly and covered it in an earlier article which may interest you. (6)
Beijing COVID-19
By late May of 2020, Beijing had been virus-free for nearly 60 days. I recall having an uncomfortable feeling that this wasn't the end, my fears justified when Beijing experienced a new outbreak in the Xinfadi market. (7) The media immediately hit us with a small flood of propaganda that Beijing was experiencing its "second wave" - a characteristic of COVID-19 that had been heavily promulgated by the media in spite of the clear fact that NO epidemic in history has ever exhibited second or third or fourth natural 'waves'. We were also hit with repeated claims that "China's wet markets" were a natural breeding ground for pathogens, and that this latest outbreak "showed how the virus can still come back as restrictions are eased". (8)
The Western media went silent rather quickly with the announcement from the intensive investigation of "a groundbreaking virus tracing discovery", which was that the strain of the new virus in Beijing was the same as that in much of Europe, that this variety had never before been detected in China and was clearly an import. Dr. Daniel Lucey confirmed a Reuters report on the genetic sequencing that "the virus is from a different continent", and thus was clearly imported. (9) It was also much more contagious - and more deadly - than previous varieties.
The media did note that the Xinfadi market was the largest fresh-food market in all of Asia, filling more than one square kilometer and equivalent to nearly 160 football fields, with many thousands of shops. But they failed to tell us that virtually the entire market was "severely contaminated" while nothing in the surrounding area was touched. It was obvious the contamination entered the market - and only the market - from a source external to China, definitely unrelated to bats or other 'wildlife'.
The propaganda framing and tactics are instructive: we were already conditioned to accept 'second waves' in spite of these being a media fiction, and also pre-conditioned to accept that these markets are unsanitary - even when they aren't. But given the lies attached to a truth, and given no detail, our mental processes accept as true the conclusions desired by the media.
The lack of logic, however, is glaring. How can a very different variety of a virus travel from another continent to Beijing without leaving infections along the way? And this new virus was traveling with friends if it could infect 160 football fields in a couple of days. Virus outbreaks always begin on a very small scale, and then expand, so what would be the source of such a huge amount of pathogen released in one place at one time? And why would it cross half of China, choosing to land on and infect only that one location in Beijing, the largest market in all of Asia with hundreds of thousands of visitors each day, while sparing every other possible victim? That would almost require an intelligence. And a large pail. To forestall such conclusions, the Western media placed a news embargo on this topic immediately upon the facts being released. We are left with the uncomfortable feeling that the Western news media were issuing propaganda meant to cover for their friends in the ICG.
China COVID-19
I will dwell here on only one media propaganda topic, that of the source and distribution of COVID-19 in China. The Western media, beginning with Radio Free Asia, were at first unanimous in the virus 'leaking' from the labs at Wuhan University, but when China counter-attacked with Fort Detrick, the narrative changed to bats. This was so true that even the US social media censored anyone suggesting a lab origin for the virus. We have now turned 180 degrees, with the lab origin again on the table and Facebook welcoming posts on Wuhan (but not Fort Detrick). Presumably, blaming bats is now prohibited.
This new 'examination' was prompted largely by Nicholas Wade, a former New York Times science writer, who performed a detailed investigation proving that the case for a lab leak was scientifically strong although, like all others, he focuses only on a release from Wuhan but not from Fort Detrick which would be more plausible for many reasons.
In terms of media propaganda, the process is similar: a lie attached to a truth. In spite of all prior attempts and a great amount of media noise, there was never a shred of evidence presented to document the possibility that the virus escaped from the Wuhan lab. But we are now fed a new item - that the US has a huge volume of "intelligence" which has apparently not been examined, but which will now be critically appraised for proof and evidence of China's 'guilt'.
Once again, all we need to do is think. For 18 months, the US, through the media, made intense and unremitting efforts to blame China for the outbreak. Is it really possible that during all that feverish prosecution the CIA and State Department sat on a "treasure trove" of intelligence which might have proved China's guilt, but somehow didn't bother to check? Such an assumption is completely devoid of logic. The more sensible assumption is that everything was examined from every possible point of view, and logic would suggest that this latest ploy by Biden will produce nothing but more media noise. The best defense is a good offense.
To add a bit of fuel to the fire, the US State Department claims - with no evidence again - that "several scientists" at Wuhan were hospitalised at the onset of the outbreak with "what appeared to be" COVID-19 symptoms, as if they would know. But this "almost proves" it was China's fault after all. The Chinese authorities have stated firmly that the above claim is not true, that no one from the Wuhan lab was ill or hospitalised, but the Western media ignore this or discount it as Communist propaganda. In this case, a lie attached to another lie.
I would be remiss in not mentioning the greatest leap of all in the logic of the Western media narrative of this event: that an accidental escape of a pathogen would occur in one of China's main transportation hubs with literally tens of millions of travelers leaving or passing through on the eve of China's annual migration - the world's largest - where perhaps 600 million people might be traveling home for Chinese New Year. If I were a pathogen wanting to escape confinement, I couldn't do better. Utilising this one location at that time would virtually guarantee an instant nationwide epidemic of biblical proportion, spreading the infection throughout the entire country with the potential to set China's economy back 30 years in one swoop. That would almost require an intelligence. And a large pail.
This story has not yet reached its final chapter.
China's 6 Bio-attacks
It hasn't been reported in the West, but China suffered a total of 6 biological attacks within two years, the swine flu and COVID-19 being only two. There were various concentrated outbreaks of bird flu, some of very deadly pathogens, and none of which had a clear natural source. The question is, why China? The media propaganda narrative suggests China lacks sanitary cohesion, but the truth is that most countries in Asia are well below China in sanitation, India being perhaps the worst example. Logic encourages us to ask why India doesn't have dozens of pathogen outbreaks, and why all these epidemics occurred only in China. And of course logic also induces us to ask who has 400 biological weapons labs surrounding China and Russia.
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Notes
(1) https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/china-high-speed-rail-cmd/index.html
(3) https://www.moonofshanghai.com/2020/06/larry-romanoff-uk-foot-and-mouth.html
(4) https://www.moonofshanghai.com/2021/01/sp-larry-romanoff-sars-november-16-2020.html
(5) http://www.bluemoonofshanghai.com/politics/mers-november-18-2020/
(6) https://www.moonofshanghai.com/2020/06/larry-romanoff-zika-june-12-2020.html
(7) https://www.moonofshanghai.com/2020/06/covid-19-china-reseeded-with-covid-20.html
(8) https://news.yahoo.com/beijing-closes-market-locks-down-113540088.html
The original source of this article is The Saker Blog
Copyright © Larry Romanoff, Moon of Shanghai, Blue Moon of Shanghai, 2021
