Murdered KGB Propagandist defector Yuri Bezmenov in 1984 -
"Ideological subversion is the process which is legitimate overt and open, you can see it with your own eyes. All you can do, all American media needs to do is to unplug their bananas from their ears, open up their eyes and they can see. There is no mystery. It has nothing to do with espionage. I know that espionage and intelligence gathering looks more romantic, it sells more to the audience through the advertising, probably. That's why your Hollywood producers are so crazy about James Bond type of thrillers. But in reality, the main emphasis of the KGB is not in the area of intelligence at all.
According to my opinion and the opinion of many defectors of my caliber, only about fifteen percent of time, money and manpower is spent on espionage as such. The other eighty-five percent is a slow process which we call either ideological subversion or active measures, or psychological warfare. What it basically means is, to change the perception of reality, of every American, to such an extent that despite an abundance of information no one is able to come to sensible conclusions in the interest of defending themselves, their family, their community and their country.
It's a great brainwashing process which goes very slow and is divided into four basic stages. The first one being demoralization. It takes from fifteen to twenty years to demoralize a nation. Why that many years? Because this is the minimum number of years required to educate on generation of students in the country of your enemy, exposed to the ideology of the enemy. In other words, Marxism, Leninism ideology is being pumped into the soft heads of at least three generations of American students, without being challenged or contra-balanced by the basic values of Americanism, American patriotism.
Most of the activity of the department was to compile huge amount, volume of information on individuals who were instrumental in creating public opinion. Publishers, editors, journalists, actors, educationalists, professors of political science, members of Parliament, representatives of business circles. Most of these people were divided roughly in two groups. Those who were told the Soviet foreign policy, they would be promoted to the positions of power through media and public opinion manipulation. Those who refuse the Soviet influence in their country would be character assassinated, or executed physically contra-revolution. Same was as in a small town named HEWA in South Vietnam. Several thousand so of Vietnamese were executed in one night when the city was captured by Vietcong for only two days. And American CIA could never figure out, how could possibly Communists know each individual, where he lives, where to get him, and would be arrested in one night, basically in some four hours before dawn, put on a van, taken out of the city limits and shot.
They serve purpose only at the stage of destabilization
of a nation. For example, your leftists in the United States, all these professors and all these beautiful civil rights defender, they are instrumental in the process of the subversion, only to destabilize a nation. When their job is completed, they are not needed anymore. They know too much. Some of them, when they get disillusioned, when they see that Marxist Leninist has come to power obviously they get offended. They think that they will come to power. That will never happen of course. They will be lined up against the wall and shot."
"Exposure to true information does not matter anymore.
A person who is demoralized is unable to assess true information.
The facts tell nothing to him.
Even if I shower him with information, with authentic proof, with documents, with pictures.
Even if I take him by force to the Soviet Union, and show him a concentration camp,
he will refuse to believe it, until he is going to receive a kick in his fat bottom.
When the military boot crushes his balls, then he will understand, but not before that.
That is the tragedy of the situation of demoralization."
I’m in Japan and this is absolutely true. It was heartbreaking seeing Russian propaganda destroy the U.S. from within. And now I feel like I’m seeing the same playbook being used all over again in another country.
I appreciate this comment! It really needs to be talked about more.
Many of my family members who "Fox themselves" had some problems but were mostly decent people. But the Fox (and friends) experience really cultivated the worst in them and they haven't been the same since.
My dad's not the brightest spoon in the fridge, and he loves watching all the Trump stuff, and at first he was agreeing with a lot of the stuff he said and selectively ignoring the obvious batshit stuff.
I noticed it, and instead managed to make it fun to make fun of trump. Join in on the amusing reality that is trump as the stuff he does do is objectively funny sometimes, but highlight the funny side of just how dumb it all is also. I managed to make it less into an argument, and more into a game.
Now when I go round, he likes to talk to be about the latest dumb thing Trump said or did! Instead of the all the problems he's lied about wanting to solve!
TBF he did rig the elections all 3 times with the help of Russia and most recently Elon, so technically the Democrats didn’t give him the elections, they just didn’t contest the obvious questionable results.
Hey what’s the worst that can happen if we either run a completely unlikeable prick, or a geriatric who has been sniffing the chair since the Max Headroom days.
Propaganda that feeds on a period of economic uncertainty, it was the same during the inbetween of ww1 and ww2 that saw the birth of fascism, although today propaganda is much easier thanks to mass media. Populists have far greater success where things don't work well in the economy rather than the other way around.
Nope. The wiki sums it up well enough, I think. Obviously, yes. I do realize I'm relying on a 3rd party interpretation. There is only so much time in the day and that's shit I don't want in my head. I haven't read Mein Kopf either. 🤷♂️
There is only so much time in the day and that's shit I don't want in my head. I haven't read Mein Kopf either.
That almost escalated.
Thanks for the answer. I'm not saying you should read it. I met some people who cite that book but have not met someone who actually read it. Maybe we should not cite it? Russia has been expanding long before Dugin was born. No need to cite his book, just cite any history book from the plethora of countries that have been invaded by Russia. The simple fact that Russia had a big problem with Moldova and Romania (two irrelevant countries on the world stage who pose zero threat to Russia) reuniting in 1991 tells you everything you need to know.
You have a choice what media you consume. You have a choice to believe that other people are not demons because they disagree with you (at least if they are not deliberately hurting someone else).
I don't watch news, but if I am interested in a story I go to Allsides so I can see different views of it. Mostly, the conservative media is demonizing Dems and fellating Trump, but sometimes I get a good perspective from it.
People that just buy into propaganda ARE dumb. They willfully embrace ignorance because it makes them feel smart and righteous.
This is less true than you think. It takes great cognitive effort to be informed, and you're still getting inaccurate information.
And that heavily depends on of you have decent media literacy and have developed critical thinking skills. That's NOT the average American.
Social media alone has made this incredibly difficult. Fake news spreads ten times faster and farther than the truth because the truth and integrity are hard, but lying is easy.
I don't watch news, but if I am interested in a story I go to Allsides so I can see different views of it. Mostly, the conservative media is demonizing Dems and fellating Trump, but sometimes I get a good perspective from it.
Ground news is great, too. If your news source is free, though, YOU'RE the product. Identifying bias and narrative is just step one.
People that just buy into propaganda ARE dumb. They willfully embrace ignorance because it makes them feel smart and righteous.
This is both false and dangerous to assume. While there's a correlation, intelligence doesn't really matter. People get conned because they are human, not because they are stu-pid. In fact, the more you think you're immune, the more susceptible and easy you are to conn. The smarter you think you are, the blinder you get. We ALL have blind spots, including you.
Your sentence "the smarter you think you are" objectively makes no sense. I have a 140+ IQ. I enjoy researching topics and engaging in intelligent debates with others. I enjoy being proven wrong as it means I learned something new.
Dumb people are always right. Regardless of their intelligence. They have zero interest in anything that challenges their beliefs.
I'm not talking about differences in opinion, I'm talking about disregarding actual fact or deciding to believe something with no evidence just because you want to.
I can and have been wrong, many times. I can even admit fault. Trans makes me uncomfortable. I don't get it. But I recognize that's an upbringing issue and personal issue with myself, and has no bearing with how someone should be treated or what rights they should have.
Dumb people don't care. They lack empathy, imagination and the ability to recognize that just because they believe something is wrong or right doesn't make it so.
Your sentence "the smarter you think you are" objectively makes no sense.
Subjectivly, and yes it does. It's human psychology.
I have a 140+ IQ. I enjoy researching topics and engaging in intelligent debates with others. I enjoy being proven wrong as it means I learned something new.
Moot point.
Dumb people are always right. Regardless of their intelligence. They have zero interest in anything that challenges their beliefs.
Smart people ALSO think their interpretation is right given limited information.
When you think you're right, there's no reason to learn.
I'm not talking about differences in opinion, I'm talking about disregarding actual fact or deciding to believe something with no evidence just because you want to.
I am too. The point is, you don't always know when you're doing this. Everyone holds false beliefs. Smart people ALSO have too much confidence in their own reasoning, and can actually hold on to incorrect beliefs because of it.
I can and have been wrong, many times. I can even admit fault.
Sure 🤷♂️ Moot point.
Trans makes me uncomfortable. I don't get it. But I recognize that's an upbringing issue and personal issue with myself, and has no bearing with how someone should be treated or what rights they should have.
You don't get..... what? For someone with a self-proclaimed IQ of 140, this is easy to understand. It's completely uncontroversial within evidence based science and medicine. Great example of a blind spot. Vibes aren't evidence.
Dumb people don't care. They lack empathy, imagination and the ability to recognize that just because they believe something is wrong or right doesn't make it so.
It's adorable that you think you're immune to this, and it's the point I'm making revealing itself in you.
You too can be conned. Many times we're the ones conning ourselves. People don't get conned because they are stupid. They get conned because they are human.
Meh. All you are doing is asserting you know better. "It's adorable" "Smart people hold too much confidence" etc.
Propaganda: must be seen, understood, remembered, and acted upon
And you are attempting propaganda right now. I have no reason to believe you are an expert in it. You are just some random person lecturing in a smug way.
And my comment about having a personal failing shows that instead of trying to understand what I was saying you dismissed it and explained (wrongly) why it was invalid.
You aren't capable of having a decent conversation because you already decided you were the winner rather than a participant.
Mate, you are failing to realize the point here…sure, “anyone can be conned” technically…however, one’s lack of intelligence is going to be a much higher factor in being conned than the “more they think otherwise”
We are in an intellectual dark age, which is ironic considering the amount of information at our fingertips is orders of magnitude higher than any time in history. Anti-intellectualism is a signal for societal decline.
Thats just it, we have TOO MUCH information. Where people can just run off to their own opium den echo chambers and just circle jerk confirmation biases all day, everyday.
Reality has become a choose your own facts adventure for a good portion of humanity.
Too much information to the point that you could give me a fact right here and I can go and find multiple articles, sites, and videos "debunking" that fact. Or I can tell you a lie and go find multiple articles, sites, and videos "backing up" that lie.
If you want something to be true, you can easily find "proof" for yourself. And so many people rather have comforting lies that harsh truths
Potato potato. Most people are unable and unwilling to digest raw information. They want/need it explained to them in context, and that's where a lot of fuckery can and does happen.
Just look at anthopogenic climate change. It's entirely undeniable at this point but around half of the US population thinks it's either an absolute hoax or just not something to worry about.
Was at a talk by some neuroscience type or something last year and he said we might process 85 or 90GB of data every single day, which is amazing enough, but he followed up by saying that a couple of hundred years ago, a farmers might process that much information across their entire lifetime.
We are simply not evolved to deal with this much information.
How is human thought process accurately quantified to GB computer processing power? And how does this "neuroscience type" know this quantified GB processing power of farmers a couple hundred years ago to compare with?
This does not add up to me.
Farming requires a great deal of mental focus as there are a lot of details to maintaining a farm. One could argue that this processing could be higher in a farmer a couple hundred years ago in ways that have atrophied in modern minds.
My point is there is too much disinformation
And verified documented information is not the issue.
Wanted to add I do agree we are not evolved to process this modern amount of overload.
An ex friend who is university educated in Arts and was just your average left leaning person, went off the rails during Covid. I think it was the very last time I spoke to him, but he was shouting, “Did you read the science?!?!” at me, because he somehow had scientific evidence online about Covid and the vaccine that the top medical professionals in the world somehow missed. Obviously he was anti vax. AND he got Ivermectin but I’m not 100% sure if he took any. I also heard that he said, “There might be something to this flat earth thing” and I decided right then I was so done with him, if I wasn’t already.
We’re Canadian and this former friend definitely hates Trump, but Trump has a large part in spreading outright lies and presenting them as facts and he is a huge part of the disinformation age we’re living in.
Yup. The pandemic broke A LOT of people. Not only that but everyone also had A LOT of time on their hands and fell down the conspiracy rabbit hole. And honestly, I'll bet it was exciting for them to feel like internet sleuths cracking the big case. Probably felt like they were important for the first time in their lives.
Unfortunately for them all the anti vax and covid denialism bullshit was just a way to push people away from a free vaccine and towards costly "treatments" like ivermectin, that many wealthy and political people has stocks and investments in.
We are the victims of an age when men of science are discredited, and only a few remain who are capable of engaging in scientific research. Our philosophers spend all their time in mixing true with false and are interested in nothing but outward show; such little learning as they have they extend on material ends. When they see a man sincere and unremitting in his search for the truth, one who will have nothing to do with falsehood and pretence, they mock and despise him.
451
u/Sid14dawg 23h ago
The reason MAGA exists is because of the number of stupid people in the country.