Thomas Sowell | The welfare state is the oldest con game in the world
"The welfare state is the oldest con game in the world. First you take people's money away quietly and then you give some of it back to them flamboyantly."
Thomas Sowell
Posts
Julian Assange | when asked “Who do you think is the number-one enemy?”
in Julian Assange„Our number-one enemy is ignorance. And I believe that is the number-one enemy of everyone. It’s not understanding what is actually going on in the world. It’s only once you start to understand that you can make effective decisions and effective plans. Now the question is: who is promoting this ignorance? […] It is bad media. It really is my opinion that the media in general are so bad we have to question whether the world wouldn’t be better off without them all together. They’re so distortive to how the world actually is that the result is we see wars and we see corrupt governments continue on. One of the hopeful things that I have discovered is that nearly every war that has started in the past 50 years has been a result of media lies. The media could have stopped it if they had searched deep enough — if they hadn’t reprinted government propaganda — they could have stopped it. But what does that mean? Well, that means, basically, populations don’t like wars. Populations have to be fooled into wars. Populations don’t willingly, with open eyes, enter into war. So, if we have a good media environment, we might also have a peaceful environment.“
Julian Assange
Prof. Dr. Michael Meyen | mainstream media are not a mirror of reality
in Prof. Dr. Michael Meyen"The very first thing we have to understand is that the mainstream media are not a mirror of reality. Not even a distorted mirror of reality, but provide us with a reality that is constructed according to its very own points of view. Which is made to influence us in a certain way."
Prof. Dr. Michael Meyen
Antoine Bechamp | The Germ Theory of infectious contagious disease is convenient
in Antoine Bechamp, Montague R. Leverson"The Germ Theory of infectious contagious disease is convenient because it provides what every simplistic view of a problem seeks before all else: a culprit, an invisible hare for the hounds to chase in their costly research labs, universities, hospitals, and drug factories. The fact that the hare can never be caught is the perfect guarantee that their race will never finish, their demands for funding will never cease, and their ability to generate profits for the drug and chemical corporations will continue to grow."
Montague R. Leverson
M.A.Verick | The most dangerous Weapons of Mass Destruction are the Mass Media
in M.A.Verick"The most dangerous Weapons of Mass Destruction are the Mass Media. For they destroy the people's spirit, creativity and courage, replacing them by fear, mistrust, guilt and self-doubt."
M.A.Verick
James Paul Warburg | We shall have world government
in James Paul Warburg, Paul Moritz Warburg"We shall have world government, whether or not we like it. The question is only whether world government will be achieved by consent or by conquest."
James Paul Warburg
David Rockefelle | We are grateful to the Washington Post, the New York Times, Time Magazine and other great publications
in David Rockefelle"We are grateful to the Washington Post, the New York Times, Time Magazine and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected their promises of discretion for almost 40 years......It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subjected to the lights of publicity during those years. But, the world is more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world government. The supernational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national autodetermination practiced in past centuries."
David Rockefeller
Karl Kraus | loathing journalism and the intellectual corruption
in Karl Kraus"I have spent many years loathing journalism and the intellectual corruption that emanates from it with all the strength of my soul."
Karl Kraus
Mahatma Gandhi | who dare to question authority
in Mahatma Gandhi"The world cannot be improved if everyone blindly follows the majority. It needs people who have the courage to question the seemingly irrefutable, who dare to question authority and use their own minds."
Mahatma Gandhi
Dr. Tim O’Shea | The shackles of mental control
in Dr. Tim O’Shea"The shackles of mental control, perceptual filtering and cultural conditioning are harder to throw off today than ever before.
We are the most conditioned, programmed beings the world has ever seen. Not only are our thoughts and attitudes continually being shaped and molded; our entire consciousness seems to be subtly and relentlessly erased. The doors of our perception are carefully and precisely controlled.
It is an exhaustive and endless task to constantly explain to people how most things of their everyday wisdom are scientifically planted in the public consciousness via a thousand media clips."
Dr. Tim O’Shea
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe | Nothing is more disgusting than the majority
in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe"Nothing is more disgusting than the majority: because it consists of a few powerful predecessors, of rogues who adapt themselves, of weak who assimilate themselves, and the masses who imitate without knowing at all what they want."
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Larken Rose | In truth, the belief in “government” is a religion
in Larken Rose"In truth, the belief in "government" is a religion, made up of a set of dogmatic teachings, irrational doctrines which fly in the face of both evidence and logic, and which are methodically memorized and repeated by the faithful. Like other religions, the gospel of "government" describes a superhuman, supernatural entity, above mere mortals, which issues commandments to the peasantry, for whom unquestioning obedience is a moral imperative."
Larken Rose
Albert Schweitzer | I am a free man
in Albert Schweitzer"Under no circumstances do I want to be merely a ′common′ man. I have the right to be exceptional – if I can. I want opportunities, not security. I do not want to be a citizen who is humiliated and dulled by government support. I want to encounter risk, have desires and fulfill them, suffer disaster and enjoy success. I refuse to sell my own determination for a pittance. I would prefer to face life’s difficulties rather than lead a secure existence. I prefer the exciting tension of my own success to the dull calm of Utopia. I want neither to sacrifice my freedom for benefits nor my human dignity for charity. I have learned to think and act for myself, to look the world squarely in the face and to recognize that this is my achievement. This is what is meant when we say: I am a free man!"
Albert Schweitzer
Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann | a manufactured reality constructed by the media
in Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann"What you find in people's minds today is often not reality at all, but a manufactured reality constructed by the media"
Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann
José Luis Sampedro | Public opinion is influenced by the media
in José Luis Sampedro"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
Michael Crichton | You don’t play ball with the power structure
in Michael Crichton"…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
Ayn Rand | you may know that your society is doomed
in Ayn Rand"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
Edward Bernays | The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions
in Edward Bernays"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
Noam Chomsky | The smart way to keep people passive and obedient
in Noam Chomsky"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
Gore Vidal | The corporate grip on opinion
in Gore Vidal„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
Richard Schickel | tranquilizing it with new toys. The idea is to render us passive
in Richard Schickel"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
John Kozy | As such, they exist merely to sell snake oil
in John Kozy"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
Prof. Dr. Markus Gabriel | massive misalignment in our current worldview
in Prof. Dr. Markus Gabriel"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
Sergei Petrowitsch Kapiza | state of deep hypnosis
in Sergei Kapiza“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
Prof. Dr. Knut Löschke | how natural science is turned into a whore of politics
in Prof. Dr. Knut Löschke"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 )