Soft Propaganda, Opiate Of The Masses

The quintessential guilty pleasure of the 21st century may be binge watching shows on platforms like Netflix. Guilty, because your favorite series was probably designed to serve as a smoothly effective soft propaganda vehicle for policing, military funding, and war. Take the case of the BBC's Call the Midwife one of my all time favorites as it combines socialized medicine, public health, disability rights, and the womanly art of midwifery in a setting that has evolved over seasons to resemble my now vintage childhood. 

That Midwife has been doing hasbara for Israel for a few years will probably not surprise you. To be fair, the show also portrays London's Muslim immigrant community sympathetically, but the Holocaust industry is on full display in more than one episode where the word "Israel" is uttered with a reverence that again is reminiscent of my youth. And of course it is the mighty U.S. and the plucky UK that vanquished Hitler. (Red Army? What Red Army?)

So I was more disgusted than surprised when the new season devoted an entire episode plus bits of a few others to glorifying the U.S. space program.

I'm already surrounded by soft propaganda for the "warfighting domain" undergoing the most rapid expansion in funding and mission at the moment.  

Getting students pumped about space begins in preschool 

and runs right through post graduate research at universities on behalf of aerospace profiteers. 

That this is an Anglicized effort is revealed by Australian educators sick of their government injecting science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) curricula with pro-U.S., pro-militarized space content. Also revealed by the rubber bullets fired at resisters to AUKUS and other manifestations of the vassal status of Australia vis a vis the U.S./NATO war machine.

We see Hollywood and professional sports and corporate media and corporate public education work in concert to promote positive views of the military, including Space Force, and the never-admit-it's-military NASA.

All NASA programs are military in nature, no matter what pr they put out to the contrary. You remember how NASA was founded by Nazi rocket scientist Werner von Braun, right? He was one of many who knew that the next world war would undoubtedly be fought using outer space and that space therefore needed to be dominated by the U.S. before Russia or China could gain a toehold.

So it is that the fictional residents of the East End of London gather around the television for breathless witness of the moon landing. Perennial child Sister Monica Joan is the most rapt (and, incidentally, the character most addicted to what we'd now call screen time), her blissed out wrinkled face lit up by the light emanating from the boob tube. 

Some might call it coincidence but the context of U.S. Space Force presently supporting construction of  multiple rocket launch sites in the UK, New Zealand, and Australia seems relevant. RAND think tankers noted that militarizing outer space would be the largest industrial undertaking in the history of the human race. Thus, very expensive. How to get citizens to willingly give up pensions, health care, public transit and other necessities that their corporate overlords have decided they can no longer afford?

https://x.com/TheSurvivalPodc/status/1834300137105227782

Russian President Putin today made crystal clear the role that space technology plays in the current NATO proxy war escalations when he observed that long-range, precision-guided missiles can only be controlled via satellites Ukraine lacks. So, Russia would consider such strikes as evidence of NATO attacking Russia. WWIII immediately began trending on Twitter.

It's what the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space has been saying all along. The GN's latest video "US/NATO Dangerous Alliances" gives the details and invites concerned citizens of the world to join in with Keep Space for Peace activities October 5-12.

Religion was once the opiate of the masses. Television and other forms of digitized entertainment have long since surpassed it. As we face down a potential nuclear Armageddon, keep a clear head if you can.

In Way Over Its Head, U.S. Empire Doubles Down

I've written before about suspecting that the decision to brand U.S. imperial wars as Democrat (Ukraine, genocide in Gaza) or Republican (Iraq, Afghanistan) was a strategic error. Case in point: the wrestling match in Congress to pass yet another $95.3 billion for "D" wars, including ramping up a long term military presence to turn Taiwan into the next Ukraine.

Unrelated issues like militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border, a vote and donation magnet for Republicans, are a stumbling block under this strategy. The Punch and Judy show of the two parties battling it out despite having the very same corporate sponsors is now impinging on keeping the debt-ridden empire and its proxy warriors solvent.

What to do?

Simon Ateba, White House correspondent for Today News Africa, summed up the plan succinctly:

Possibly Congress can beat that. Here's what they spent valuable time and effort on yesterday -- condemning evidence-free allegations of rape being used to portray Israelis as victims rather than genociders.

The U.S. empire is on the skids. Broke, ideologically deranged, and clutching at straws to justify its continued aggressive actions around the globe. (For a peek into U.S. ambitions to put nukes in space -- and the resistance -- check out the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space.)

It's understandable that empire managers are panicking. Their worst nightmare has come true. As their decades of global dominance wind down before they even got a chance to dominate outer space, targeted nations are making common cause with one another. 

https://twitter.com/Sprinter99800/status/1754837851756188009

Who could have foreseen this development? Just about everybody who can perceive that the emperor has no clothes.

Congested & Contested: Space Wars Are Upon Us

Free download here

When the Pentagon's think tank, the RAND corporation, publishes a study it's worth paying attention. Remarkable in their prescience, RAND reports accurately predicted the Ukraine war and the Iraq war. 

Consider, for instance, their recent study of what Chinese and Russian primary sources had to say about 10 key events in the U.S. space program 1985-2011. The authors described how the U.S. had others on the planet riled up by

the establishment of the U.S. Space Force in 2019, and multiple policy and warfighting documents have rapidly followed. Given this activity and the concerns raised in domestic and international fora[sic] regarding the increasingly congested and contested nature of space, there has been surprisingly little open-source analysis of Chinese and Russian perceptions of these developments. [emphasis mine]

Findings included that neither Russia nor China appears to believe U.S. space programs are not military in nature (no kidding), and that the U.S. unilateral withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty in 2002 was viewed by both as a turning point after which a more aggressive stance was evident

Here's the list of all the events for which reactions were collected:

• Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) (1983) and U.S. Space Command creation (1985) 

• President Bill Clinton’s National Space Policy (1996) 

• Mid-Infrared Advanced Chemical Laser (MIRACL) test (1997) 

• Commission to Assess United States National Security Space Management and 

Organization (“Rumsfeld Commission”) (2001) 

• U.S. withdrawal from Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty (2002) 

• U.S. Air Force (USAF) Counterspace Operations doctrine (2004) 

• President George W. Bush’s National Space Policy (2006) 

• Operation Burnt Frost (2008) 

• President Barack Obama’s National Security Space Policy (2011) 

RAND also observed that Russia had more national pride invested in space technology and achievements, while China appeared to study Western space tech mostly with an eye to understanding it. They did not necessarily want to build something better themselves. However, China did successfully shoot down their own satellite recently after the U.S. did so in 2008.

The authors appeared to believe it was harder for Americans to understand Chinese nuance and societal expectations than Russian attitudes. For instance, some of the events on their list of 10 were little noted at all in Chinese publications they surveyed, while other events not on the list received significant attention in "native-language primary sources, such as..government publications, military journals, academic reports, and domestic media."

RAND also appeared to be setting up conditions for further curtailments of free speech in the U.S. and Europe as there were multiple references to China and Russia taking note of Western voices critical of their own countrys' space programs. 

Draconian anti-protest laws  just passed in the UK are a harbinger, no doubt, as the declining West struggles to manage the narrative.

From the What's Happening feed on my Twitter account this morning:

A report from 2000 may be of interest too. With it looking like Taiwan could become the next Ukraine, maybe I'll find time to read RAND's Dire Strait: Military Aspects of the China-Taiwan Confrontation and Options for U.S. Policy.

What Did You Learn in 2020?

Source: NationalPriorities.org Tradeoffs

Some of the things I learned in 2020 were useful and probably will remain so going forward. For example, how to produce videos (and plan for the time suck known as post-production). Others were interesting and useful at the time, but it's unclear how they'll apply to this Boomer's future life. For example, how to win at British parliamentary style debate.

Some things I already knew but received much more evidence for in 2020:

A team of people collaborating with a common goal can accomplish more than any given individual can accomplish.

Distrust for authority will influence people to act against their own (and society's) best interests when it comes to public health.

Pranksters were busy in 2020. Here are designs allegedly for Space Force which turned out to be a hoax (the Nazi-like uniforms, not the Space Force).

All space programs are fundamentally military programs.

Screenshots from Google News on the final day of December, 2020.

The ginning up of support for space programs both public and private is covert militarization of public sentiment. And probably a military recruiting tool as well.

The ginning up of support for nuclear power is also being done with military applications in mind.

Information conveyed by corporate-controlled organizations, including National "Public" Radio, manufactures consent for continued militarism and promotes ignorance about the forces driving our global climate emergency.

The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. And government in the U.S. exists to make sure of it.

False dichotomy and the personification of everything are still the leading errors in thinking used to control the masses. My run for elected office was an attempt to use one to combat the other. Jury is still out on whether this can be done, and whether or not it is a beneficial approach.

Things I did not learn in 2020 but hope to make some progress on in the new year:

How to be most effective as an information worker in a corporatized, capitalized world that rapaciously consumes nature including humans. For example, is my time and energy working for an anti-racist transformation best spent lifting up marginalized voices, working to organize white supremacist-leaning working class, a combination of both, or something else altogether?

How to make my actions as effective as possible in realizing the better world that I know is possible. I've tried protesting, marching, rallying, civil resistance, speaking, writing for mainstream publications, blogging, meeting with elected officials, petitioning, social media posting, street theater, and door knocking. Also running for elected office, also lobbying at the state level and the federal level. I've joined some organizations and helped start others. Also spent some decades teaching for critical thinking which I have National Board Certification in.

Link to buy the book here.

While I ponder all this I'll be promoting my first published book, something I need to learn how to do.

I will also will be facilitating education for a small pod at the preschool level. I could claim I'm doing that because I know for a fact that empowering young learners makes a positive difference in the world. But the truth is, I'm following my bliss.

And, while pondering, I'll take on a local project to improve the community I'm temporarily living in. One I can do safely while observing covid protocols in a state that is telling people EMTs will no longer be able to send cardiac arrest patients to hospitals because California hospitals are maxed out on ICU beds for covid patients.

Something I've spent the end of 2020 doing is taking time to process my grief over the pandemic and its harms. 

I was so busy when it hit that I of necessity made accommodations for it but powered onward through my busy, busy days with taking time to grieve. 

Source: The Philadelphia Inquirer "For health-care workers during COVID-19, the burnout is real, and it's getting worse" Dec. 1, 2020  photo by Heather Khalifa

I'll grieve for all the families who've lost someone. Grieve for all the health care workers strained to their breaking point. Grieve the greed that has killed millions forced to work in unsafe conditions without health care or sick leave from their jobs.

2020 has been so difficult that people have yearned for a new year to begin. 

I hope we don't find a future so harsh that we look back on 2020 as the good old days.