"Public opinion is influenced by the media and the media are in the hands of those who rule and those who rule favor those who say what is convenient for them and erase everything that does not suit them. So public opinion is, above all, media opinion."
José Luis Sampedro
"…Whoever has the power in society determines what can be studied, determines what can be observed, determines what can be thought. Scientists fall in line with the dominant power structure. They have to, because the power structure pays the bills. You don’t play ball with the power structure, you don’t get money for research, you don’t get an appointment, you don’t get published, in short you don’t count anymore. You’re out. You might as well be dead."
Michael Crichton
"Money is the barometer of a society’s virtue. When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion- When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing- when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors- when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you- when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice – you may know that your society is doomed."
Ayn Rand
"The Jesuits are a MILITARY organization, not a religious order. Their chief is a general of an army, not the mere father abbot of a monastery. And the aim of this organization is power – power in its most despotic exercise – absolute power, universal power, power to control the world by the volition of a single man [i.e., the Black Pope, the Superior General of the Jesuits]. Jesuitism is the most absolute of despotisms and at the same time the greatest and most enormous of abuses…"
Napoleon Bonaparte
"The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. …We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. …In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons…who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind."
Edward Bernays
"The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow a very lively debate within that spectrum – even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people a sense that there’s free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of debate."
Noam Chomsky
„The corporate grip on opinion in the United States is one of the wonders of the Western world. No First World country has ever managed to eliminate so entirely from its media all objectivity – much less dissent. „Of course, it is possible for any citizen with time to spare, and a canny eye, to work out what is actually going on, but for the many there is not time, and the network news is the only news even though it may not be news at all but only a series of flashing fictions…“
Gore Vidal
"The current moguls understand that true media power lies not in firing up our outrage, as Hearst did, but in befuddling it or tranquilizing it with new toys. The idea is to render us passive so that they can exercise their power to sell us a bunch of stuff we mostly don't need and mostly don't want"
Richard Schickel
"America’s journalists are not 'newshounds'. They are nothing more than salesclerks, hocking the products their employers want to sell. The pretty faces that now function as most television news anchors are no different than the pretty models used to sell other products. The American “free” press is comprised of nothing more than a number of retail outlets which sell stories slanted to please their target audiences. As such, they exist merely to sell snake oil."
John Kozy
"I actually see a massive misalignment in our current worldview because natural science and technology, represented these days by virology and computer simulations, have taken the former place of religion. In short, essentially at the end of the day, engaging in unsubstantiated metaphysics. However, based on facts. Yes, the natural sciences are now part of the standard realm of ideology, and ideology today means, that you can lie with the facts..."
Prof. Dr. Markus Gabriel
"Slavery begins with fear, but also with confidence and carelessness."
Johann Gottfried Seume
“Society sees nothing because it is kept in a state of deep hypnosis. People have never been so manipulated as they are now. A human being is not given a chance to stop and understand what is happening. Endless series, one more stupid than the other, vulgar pop music, lustful or aggressive films that gently affect the subconscious, cultivate a spirit of selfishness and violence. A normal person quickly becomes an unprincipled animal that leads an absolutely meaningless life.”
Sergei Petrowitsch Kapiza
"I'm fed up, or to put it even more clearly: I'm fed up with the permanent and increasingly religious climate gibberish, with energy turnaround fantasies, with electric car worship, with scary stories about doomsday scenarios from Corona to conflagrations to weather catastrophes. I can no longer stand the people who shout this into microphones and cameras every day or print it in newspapers. I suffer from having to witness how natural science is turned into a whore of politics.
I am tired of being told what to be ashamed of by abused, pubescent children. I am tired of being told by some deranged people that I am to blame for everything and everyone - but especially as a German for the past, present and future misery of the whole world. [....]"
Prof. Dr. Knut Löschke ( 28. September 2021 via Facebook )
"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."
Yuri Bezmenow
Die Wahrheit war nie die höchste Priorität der menschlichen Gesellschaft. Sie war die höchste Priorität einiger Individuen, aber niemals der Gesellschaft als Ganzes – denn die Gesellschaft funktioniert nicht auf der Basis von Wahrheit. Wenn man zwei der mächtigsten Institutionen der Menschheit betrachtet – die Wissenschaft (und ihre Gemeinschaft) sowie die Religion (und ihre Kirchen) –, dann hat keine von ihnen die Wahrheit als ihren zentralen Wert. Für einzelne Menschen mag das gelten, aber nicht für die Institutionen als solche.
Der Hauptwert der Wissenschaft ist Macht; der Hauptwert der Religion ist Ordnung und Organisation. Religion dient dazu, Ordnung in der Gesellschaft aufrechtzuerhalten, während es der Wissenschaft in erster Linie um Macht über die Welt geht.
