It's all postmodernism. They realized a long time ago that they could just redefine words to mean whatever they need them to mean in order to win an argument.
"Racism" is another example. It isn't racist to discriminate against white people, because they redefined racism to mean "power plus prejudice" rather than the previous definition of "bigotry on the basis of race". Thus giving themselves carte blanche to be as racist as they want.
That's why it's impossible to talk to these people. Dialogue requires a common language, which doesn't exist when words mean whatever they want them to mean.
And inflation was going to be transient remember that? The shots were gonna keep you from getting Covid. Mandates were never going to happen....that’s just a conspiracy theory. Two weeks was gonna stop the spread. Vaccines were gonna induce herd immunity at 70% jabbed. How effing stupid do these people think we are?! I mean, seriously. We are treated like morons and gaslit at every turn.
Don't forget how all of a sudden gas prices are through the roof, but that has absolutely nothing to do with their energy agenda. It's all Putin's fault.
Looks like a duck, acts like a duck, walks like a duck, well Vern, thats a trans frog, don’t you see that you big dummy. And its been double vaxed and boosted, so it is safe from gettin that Chinese monkey pox well you know the drill.
Two quarters in, what they gonna say in October after the 3rd Q, right before the election? Lies.
"Notice how “information” can even be manipulated simply by modifying word meanings. I’ve often wondered if this entire two years has been a “pandemic of definitions”. Even the word “pandemic” itself was subtly redefined to serve someone’s interests. Thus we have “pandemic” with no widespread mortality and no defined end point, “cases” with no symptoms and no live infection (or even a diagnosis), “deaths from” instead of “deaths with”.
Whenever I hear someone say: “When the pandemic hit…” I want to correct them: “You mean, when normal life was redefined as an “emergency”?”
Yeah...love your explaining "pandemic emergency" ..
I'm a skeptic; always have been. Also I was born an irritatingly curious child and never grew out of it? "Why, How, When, Who" are my preferred words...not forgetting "Can you prove it?"
"The American ruling class currently personify a group of shady used car salesmen. They are a cartel of scammers and snake oil salesmen, and they have their eyes on the objective: the removal of our fundamental freedoms at the lowest cost possible."
Isn't that just a perfect description, though I think "the cost" is not going to be as low as they imagined.
Well, the power of language is (or should be) well known, though having taught rhetorics, communication, semiotics and semantics and so on, I'm as biased as one can be. Still, partaking of media as if they were foot-in-the-door-style travelling salesmen is always a good model to adopt, to remian baseline critical thinking (no, not the brainwashing technique being put to use on your children at school, the real thing).
But the language of power.... ah, now there's the thing.
As we always want to cut to the bone with definitions, since the most basic, logically true and simple definition is the skeleton of the word, term, expression or similar, what is the language of power? t's very simple. It consists of three words, and is universal. From raising a child to training a dog to being leader or boss or captain or CEO or president, it's the sam. Only modified by context.
"Obey, or else".
That is the innermost atom of the language of power. "Eat your brusslesprouts or no desert!" to "Drop what your holding and lie down on the pavement or we will shoot!" to "This is not a recssion (and I'll make sure any journo asking uppity questions get sh*tcanned for life, and their little dog too!", it's all the same.
The iron glove may well wear velvet, but it can still grip just as hard.
very well expressed. because it contains a conditional, the formula "obey, or else" also breeds distrust - "why should I comply?" is a reaction that comes naturally to many.
Exactly so - the conditional and the reaction offers the way out, even if one cannot hope to topple a gargantuan power structure.
But what cannot be challenged head on can be evaded or avoided, outmaneuvered and outlasted.
Also, under any system where power is the point of the system rather than what can be achived with power, being unprofitable, or even a drain or just being outside the system without challenging its "right to rule" generally means the system leaves you alone.
Any such system can only be defeated by internal coup (no guarantees it improves matters), by a change of values over time leading to improvement (which takes several generations, at least three and alos needs cultural homogenity to work at all) or by external invasion and subjugation (again, no guarantees that actually helps) or by being bled dry by the people simply saying "Fudge it" and not bothering to do any more work than the absolute minimum required.
You could say that power wisely used for the benefit of others is like carrying water in your cupped hands, while power for the sake of power is like carrying water in your fist.
awesome image of the water-carrying fist! being a mother of two sons who, when they were young, refused to eat, forced me into introspection. I didn't want to punish them, so to make them eat I had to go through crazy hoops and loops. of COURSE they turned out alright (taller and smarter than their parents), but I didn't want to fight them over it, which to me meant an abuse of power. I came to realise there are many shades of non-compliance, all the way to civil disobedience and the matrix of power really only appears to be binary (powerless vs powerful). but let's keep that to ourselves, the AI crowd won't like that.
You're last paragraph says it all. I would respectfully suggest that "ruling class" is interchangeable with the terms True, Minor and Petite Elite classes.
Forgive this longer comment, but I think its illustrative in explaining, that the peasantry (you and I) have no idea why we are seeing these non-sensical, farcical occurrences in our world wide societies, past our assumptions of stupidity and corruption.
Classes and their respective realities:
A few quick definitions - True Elites are the Global oligarchs and World bankers/financiers; Minor Elites are the politicians, worldwide bureaucrats, low level financial players (traders, hedgers, corporate real-estate, social tech moguls, etc); Petite Elites (actors, musicians, sports figures, writers, influencers, fake media, etc.) are those who willingly push/sell the agendas, propaganda, lies and grooming to the peasantry (us)...they are the tool of choice, in large part, because they came from the peasantry, and so the peasants are more apt to identify with, listen to and accept their rhetoric over that of the True Elite class.
Along with the four strata above, come four differing realities. This should be no surprise to anyone here. If it is, step back and look at the bigger picture again.
If you understand this, then you should grasp how these upper classes, are able to lie to your face, tell you they're lying and expect you to believe it. Then when you don't or call them on it, you're vilified, cancelled and possibly jailed.
Why explain this? Because until the enlightened peasantry, start waking others to this reality, we will be dismissed, oppressed and manipulated by the likes of the sloven harpers, on shows like the view.
Understand that the 3 elite classes have different realities, than the peasantry. You may say, reality is reality...there are no differences...but recent history and what Jordan outlines in this piece prove, that reality, is unfortunately a variable and not an across the board constant.
Here is an example I recently had.
I was visiting a relative...a smart, accomplished and well off person (through hard work and savviness in the real-estate industry). Operates in the realms of the Minor and Petite elites. This person is not a leftist, holds no political affiliation and operates on a basis of common sense. However, will watch CBS morning shows that spew propaganda and will nod agreeably with the soft sell stories, about climate change and Ukraine. This person has several properties, enough money, eats out verses cooking at home, etc. So their reality (which is well earned) is much different than mine. They're not really worried about gas prices, food prices, or mortgage rates. I am by no means broke or paycheck to paycheck, but do have concerns about those things and more.
An eye opener for me was when I accompanied my relative to one of their friend/associate's house. This associate would be a Minor Elite (in my view)...it should be noted, this person also earned their money, it didn't exist before it was earned (no silver spoons). The conversation was great, the associate was not snobby, condescending or superior or a leftist nut. However, it became apparent that their reality was much different than mine...170K+ acre property, live stock, staff for housing/maintenance/ landscaping/animals, several European vacations per year, a 12K sqft main house, etc. Their realities...staff shortages, discontent with landscaping, poor first class airline service, last years poolside furniture, etc. Their reality is different than my relative's and VASTLY different than mine. Both my relative and the associate are purely business people...no political agendas to overtly push, no activism.
My point - there are 4 (or more) class strata, that have 4 (or more) realities. The further apart the classes, the more divergent the realities. Add in a geopolitical agenda/goal and you get what Jordan describes...overt lies, double speak, non-sensical reasoning..."gas prices aren't an issue if you drive an electric car; there is no recession, but Putin is responsible for the recession; there is a gas supply shortage and oil companies won't drill, but we have a climate crisis and oil companies must be crushed; we must send strategic oil overseas to lower U.S. prices;, the virus is deadly, the vax will prevent/cure it, but only if you get the boosters and if you get sick then it's the dirty unvaxxed Trumpers' faults and the boosters worked because you didn't die and if you did die it's the Trumpers' faults."
They are able to do and say these things because whether literally or ideologically, their realities do not match yours. Why is that important to know and explain...because they are creating the reality YOU are forced to live with and in.
When the WEF elites talk about a brave, new, fair, future world...those terms mean very different things to them, than they do to you or I...because they only apply to them. We do not and never will factor into their reality.
Last thought - From professor Herman Daly – Former senior World Bank Economist
"Difference between top and bottom salary earners - up in the range of 500 to 1, the rich and the poor become almost different species, no longer members of the same community...commonality of interest is lost, so it’s difficult to form community and have good friendly relationships across class differences that are that large."
Think of it in terms of net worth. Let's say a peasant has a net worth of $50K...500 times that would be $25 Million. Ever heard of any True, Minor or Petite elites with that much or more? Biden, Pelosi, Tech moguls, celebs, etc.?? Any of them seem to be affected by the realities you have to live with everyday??
Do researchers/lab techs share the same realities/fates, as the chimps in the cages?? To Elites looking at the peasantry, the question applies in the same vein.
Since she can't define recession. I am curious as to what Karine Jean-Pierre defines a strong labor market as?
According to Seeking Alpha - "Jobs Report: Revisions Have Turned Negative and The Labor Force Participation rate dropped back to 62.2%. YoY, this June is lower than last June by 185k jobs.
Despite a job report that beat expectations, there is no doubt the market is cooling."
Also to quote Politco - "By some measures, notably job gains and the unemployment rate, the economy looks fantastic. By others, including overall gross domestic product growth, consumer and business sentiment and public polling on the issue, it looks like we are already in a recession."
Among your best. It's a chronicle of unmitigated madness, but plain demolitions of all it like these need to become common refrains. I've used the word "sheeple" unconsciously in the past while having no appreciation of the morbid depth of this phenomenon until recent years.
Moving goal posts, changing language/definitions and a healthy, constant dose of gaslighting is all this administration is good for. Don’t believe your lyin eyes, or pocketbooks for that matter.
Can we throw "man" and "woman" into the assault on definitions of things we've all been clear on until 30 seconds ago?
It's all postmodernism. They realized a long time ago that they could just redefine words to mean whatever they need them to mean in order to win an argument.
"Racism" is another example. It isn't racist to discriminate against white people, because they redefined racism to mean "power plus prejudice" rather than the previous definition of "bigotry on the basis of race". Thus giving themselves carte blanche to be as racist as they want.
That's why it's impossible to talk to these people. Dialogue requires a common language, which doesn't exist when words mean whatever they want them to mean.
Keep hammering away. You’re over the target.
And inflation was going to be transient remember that? The shots were gonna keep you from getting Covid. Mandates were never going to happen....that’s just a conspiracy theory. Two weeks was gonna stop the spread. Vaccines were gonna induce herd immunity at 70% jabbed. How effing stupid do these people think we are?! I mean, seriously. We are treated like morons and gaslit at every turn.
Don't forget how all of a sudden gas prices are through the roof, but that has absolutely nothing to do with their energy agenda. It's all Putin's fault.
Right?!
I like your writings and thinking; Agree with about 99% of it; sometimes even 100%
"When they say the pandemic is not over, what they mean is, there’s still vaccines to be sold, goal posts to be moved and money to be made."
Looks like a duck, acts like a duck, walks like a duck, well Vern, thats a trans frog, don’t you see that you big dummy. And its been double vaxed and boosted, so it is safe from gettin that Chinese monkey pox well you know the drill.
Two quarters in, what they gonna say in October after the 3rd Q, right before the election? Lies.
Thanks for making me laugh hysterically 🤣 Great way to start the day!
The re-definition of the word 'pandemic' was instrumental to the whole Covid Hoax success.
We subsequently modified the spelling somewhat when 'plandemic' became common usage, at least amongst the cognoscenti.
Good work Jordan.
Exactly right. I wrote about this here: https://thefreethinker.substack.com/p/i-will-never-apologize-for-being-7d2
"Notice how “information” can even be manipulated simply by modifying word meanings. I’ve often wondered if this entire two years has been a “pandemic of definitions”. Even the word “pandemic” itself was subtly redefined to serve someone’s interests. Thus we have “pandemic” with no widespread mortality and no defined end point, “cases” with no symptoms and no live infection (or even a diagnosis), “deaths from” instead of “deaths with”.
Whenever I hear someone say: “When the pandemic hit…” I want to correct them: “You mean, when normal life was redefined as an “emergency”?”
Yeah...love your explaining "pandemic emergency" ..
I'm a skeptic; always have been. Also I was born an irritatingly curious child and never grew out of it? "Why, How, When, Who" are my preferred words...not forgetting "Can you prove it?"
"The American ruling class currently personify a group of shady used car salesmen. They are a cartel of scammers and snake oil salesmen, and they have their eyes on the objective: the removal of our fundamental freedoms at the lowest cost possible."
Isn't that just a perfect description, though I think "the cost" is not going to be as low as they imagined.
I prefer to call it “ The Mystery Juice © “ myself. Well done.
Killer Kool-Aid.
Not to mention words like "expert," "science," "data," "misinformation," and so many others.
This literally is a word war.
Well, the power of language is (or should be) well known, though having taught rhetorics, communication, semiotics and semantics and so on, I'm as biased as one can be. Still, partaking of media as if they were foot-in-the-door-style travelling salesmen is always a good model to adopt, to remian baseline critical thinking (no, not the brainwashing technique being put to use on your children at school, the real thing).
But the language of power.... ah, now there's the thing.
As we always want to cut to the bone with definitions, since the most basic, logically true and simple definition is the skeleton of the word, term, expression or similar, what is the language of power? t's very simple. It consists of three words, and is universal. From raising a child to training a dog to being leader or boss or captain or CEO or president, it's the sam. Only modified by context.
"Obey, or else".
That is the innermost atom of the language of power. "Eat your brusslesprouts or no desert!" to "Drop what your holding and lie down on the pavement or we will shoot!" to "This is not a recssion (and I'll make sure any journo asking uppity questions get sh*tcanned for life, and their little dog too!", it's all the same.
The iron glove may well wear velvet, but it can still grip just as hard.
very well expressed. because it contains a conditional, the formula "obey, or else" also breeds distrust - "why should I comply?" is a reaction that comes naturally to many.
(Thank you.)
Exactly so - the conditional and the reaction offers the way out, even if one cannot hope to topple a gargantuan power structure.
But what cannot be challenged head on can be evaded or avoided, outmaneuvered and outlasted.
Also, under any system where power is the point of the system rather than what can be achived with power, being unprofitable, or even a drain or just being outside the system without challenging its "right to rule" generally means the system leaves you alone.
Any such system can only be defeated by internal coup (no guarantees it improves matters), by a change of values over time leading to improvement (which takes several generations, at least three and alos needs cultural homogenity to work at all) or by external invasion and subjugation (again, no guarantees that actually helps) or by being bled dry by the people simply saying "Fudge it" and not bothering to do any more work than the absolute minimum required.
You could say that power wisely used for the benefit of others is like carrying water in your cupped hands, while power for the sake of power is like carrying water in your fist.
awesome image of the water-carrying fist! being a mother of two sons who, when they were young, refused to eat, forced me into introspection. I didn't want to punish them, so to make them eat I had to go through crazy hoops and loops. of COURSE they turned out alright (taller and smarter than their parents), but I didn't want to fight them over it, which to me meant an abuse of power. I came to realise there are many shades of non-compliance, all the way to civil disobedience and the matrix of power really only appears to be binary (powerless vs powerful). but let's keep that to ourselves, the AI crowd won't like that.
Great piece Jordan.
You're last paragraph says it all. I would respectfully suggest that "ruling class" is interchangeable with the terms True, Minor and Petite Elite classes.
Forgive this longer comment, but I think its illustrative in explaining, that the peasantry (you and I) have no idea why we are seeing these non-sensical, farcical occurrences in our world wide societies, past our assumptions of stupidity and corruption.
Classes and their respective realities:
A few quick definitions - True Elites are the Global oligarchs and World bankers/financiers; Minor Elites are the politicians, worldwide bureaucrats, low level financial players (traders, hedgers, corporate real-estate, social tech moguls, etc); Petite Elites (actors, musicians, sports figures, writers, influencers, fake media, etc.) are those who willingly push/sell the agendas, propaganda, lies and grooming to the peasantry (us)...they are the tool of choice, in large part, because they came from the peasantry, and so the peasants are more apt to identify with, listen to and accept their rhetoric over that of the True Elite class.
Along with the four strata above, come four differing realities. This should be no surprise to anyone here. If it is, step back and look at the bigger picture again.
If you understand this, then you should grasp how these upper classes, are able to lie to your face, tell you they're lying and expect you to believe it. Then when you don't or call them on it, you're vilified, cancelled and possibly jailed.
Why explain this? Because until the enlightened peasantry, start waking others to this reality, we will be dismissed, oppressed and manipulated by the likes of the sloven harpers, on shows like the view.
Understand that the 3 elite classes have different realities, than the peasantry. You may say, reality is reality...there are no differences...but recent history and what Jordan outlines in this piece prove, that reality, is unfortunately a variable and not an across the board constant.
Here is an example I recently had.
I was visiting a relative...a smart, accomplished and well off person (through hard work and savviness in the real-estate industry). Operates in the realms of the Minor and Petite elites. This person is not a leftist, holds no political affiliation and operates on a basis of common sense. However, will watch CBS morning shows that spew propaganda and will nod agreeably with the soft sell stories, about climate change and Ukraine. This person has several properties, enough money, eats out verses cooking at home, etc. So their reality (which is well earned) is much different than mine. They're not really worried about gas prices, food prices, or mortgage rates. I am by no means broke or paycheck to paycheck, but do have concerns about those things and more.
An eye opener for me was when I accompanied my relative to one of their friend/associate's house. This associate would be a Minor Elite (in my view)...it should be noted, this person also earned their money, it didn't exist before it was earned (no silver spoons). The conversation was great, the associate was not snobby, condescending or superior or a leftist nut. However, it became apparent that their reality was much different than mine...170K+ acre property, live stock, staff for housing/maintenance/ landscaping/animals, several European vacations per year, a 12K sqft main house, etc. Their realities...staff shortages, discontent with landscaping, poor first class airline service, last years poolside furniture, etc. Their reality is different than my relative's and VASTLY different than mine. Both my relative and the associate are purely business people...no political agendas to overtly push, no activism.
My point - there are 4 (or more) class strata, that have 4 (or more) realities. The further apart the classes, the more divergent the realities. Add in a geopolitical agenda/goal and you get what Jordan describes...overt lies, double speak, non-sensical reasoning..."gas prices aren't an issue if you drive an electric car; there is no recession, but Putin is responsible for the recession; there is a gas supply shortage and oil companies won't drill, but we have a climate crisis and oil companies must be crushed; we must send strategic oil overseas to lower U.S. prices;, the virus is deadly, the vax will prevent/cure it, but only if you get the boosters and if you get sick then it's the dirty unvaxxed Trumpers' faults and the boosters worked because you didn't die and if you did die it's the Trumpers' faults."
They are able to do and say these things because whether literally or ideologically, their realities do not match yours. Why is that important to know and explain...because they are creating the reality YOU are forced to live with and in.
When the WEF elites talk about a brave, new, fair, future world...those terms mean very different things to them, than they do to you or I...because they only apply to them. We do not and never will factor into their reality.
Last thought - From professor Herman Daly – Former senior World Bank Economist
"Difference between top and bottom salary earners - up in the range of 500 to 1, the rich and the poor become almost different species, no longer members of the same community...commonality of interest is lost, so it’s difficult to form community and have good friendly relationships across class differences that are that large."
Think of it in terms of net worth. Let's say a peasant has a net worth of $50K...500 times that would be $25 Million. Ever heard of any True, Minor or Petite elites with that much or more? Biden, Pelosi, Tech moguls, celebs, etc.?? Any of them seem to be affected by the realities you have to live with everyday??
Do researchers/lab techs share the same realities/fates, as the chimps in the cages?? To Elites looking at the peasantry, the question applies in the same vein.
Start educating your friends and families.
tru dat. the context (who, why, what, how, when, where something is said) is everything.
Since she can't define recession. I am curious as to what Karine Jean-Pierre defines a strong labor market as?
According to Seeking Alpha - "Jobs Report: Revisions Have Turned Negative and The Labor Force Participation rate dropped back to 62.2%. YoY, this June is lower than last June by 185k jobs.
Despite a job report that beat expectations, there is no doubt the market is cooling."
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4522637-jobs-report-revisions-have-turned-negative
Also to quote Politco - "By some measures, notably job gains and the unemployment rate, the economy looks fantastic. By others, including overall gross domestic product growth, consumer and business sentiment and public polling on the issue, it looks like we are already in a recession."
https://www.politico.com/newsletters/politico-nightly/2022/07/08/biden-gets-the-jobs-report-he-wanted-00044820
Let them show the stats for the rise in consumer prices and then tell us we are not in a recession!!!!
Good article, Jordan will be linking tomorrow @https://nothingnewunderthesun2016.com/
Among your best. It's a chronicle of unmitigated madness, but plain demolitions of all it like these need to become common refrains. I've used the word "sheeple" unconsciously in the past while having no appreciation of the morbid depth of this phenomenon until recent years.
Moving goal posts, changing language/definitions and a healthy, constant dose of gaslighting is all this administration is good for. Don’t believe your lyin eyes, or pocketbooks for that matter.