Engineering of Elections
Loyalists, Lobbyists, Luddites & Liz Cheney
Staunchly conservative Congresswoman Liz Cheney (R-WY) suffered a massive defeat last night in her bid for re-election despite the verifiable fact that the ideological conservative routinely supported former President Trump’s policies and voted consistently in step with her GOP party. However, Liz Cheney also demonstrated critical thinking, professional integrity and personal courage when she voted to impeach the former president based on his behavior, an act which was notably out of step with her party.
Congresswoman Cheney’s display of independence was in keeping with her oath to the Constitution and her commitment to serve the people to the best of her ability, but the people in Wyoming apparently thought any deviation from complete compliance with the party line renders her useless. Or at least they believed that to be the case based on the aggressive media attacks against her from her own party and the praise she garnered from the traditionally liberal media channels such as CNN.
Given that at the heart of the second impeachment proceedings against former President Trump were his misrepresentations of fact that the 2020 election was stolen from him because of fraud and his frequent claims of the #FakeNews industry’s victimization of him, it is ironic that the misrepresentations of facts about her apparently influenced so many to vote against her in the August 2022 primary election. How are the people supposed to identify #FakeNews when the channels are so biased as to only report what is consistent with their point of view, especially when organizations of all stripes commit to narratives which are created by public relations and marketing gurus?
This misrepresentation of fact in order to influence people is the true fraud which is affecting everything from public health decisions to political decision making, today. It was called the “engineering of consent” by the father of public relations and father of propaganda, Edward Bernays, who in keeping with Orwellian “double-think” called the intentional manipulation of public opinion using psychological methods the “essence of democracy.” The engineering of consent is the bread-and-butter of lobbyists. It is also the tool of authoritarian organizations and totalitarian governments which previously was known as propaganda, but now is disparaged as fake news or disinformation.
Sometimes the dissembling is accomplished in subtle choice of wording, theatrics and innuendo, like when Bernays got a group of stylish young women to light up cigarettes at a strategic time and place on behalf of the Tobacco Industry who wanted to expand its market share; he called the cigarettes “liberty torches” to imply smoking represented modern feminism. Bernays was also an early mentor for fluoridationists when he advised the lawyers of fluoride polluters to mobilize dentists in white coats to promote the practice while ignoring, dismissing, or denying the troubling evidence of harm. (See The Fluoride Deception)
Engineering consent often employs logical fallacies. Emotional appeals and invoking “common sense” are mainstays, as are harking back to the good-old-days in order to disparage change (see Luddites) or ridiculing those who are resistant to change by citing modern experts. Language may be an imperfect tool for communicating meaning, but it is an exquisite tool for controlling people’s behavior.
However it is accomplished, the engineering of consent in the population, which in recent years has included ‘curating’ search engine results and censoring speech on social media platforms, is dishonest and manipulative. It provides people with a skewed view of reality which has significant consequences in the lives of individuals, operation of businesses, and beneficence of government.
Although I am neither a Republican nor Democrat, I’m more in alignment with traditional liberal values and tend to vote Democrat which does not mean I don’t see value and wisdom in some GOP positions. I do. More importantly, I see value in honesty, critical thinking, and human rights. In that way, I believe I’m more in step with Congresswoman Elizabeth Cheney (R-WY) than I am with Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). Sen. Warren calls for censoring those opposed to medical mandates or/and who report incidents of vaccine injuries and scientific studies that are not supportive of the vax/mask agenda while loudly championing #MyBodyMyChoice, a hypocrisy which I suggest is another example of #DoubleThink.
I wish Liz Cheney the best of luck in her future endeavors, and I will continue to do what I can to support the honesty and integrity in government that she represents.
Maggie Russo is the author of “Dance with the Devil: Love in the Age of Covid”
I don't know what happened with the election, but more and more I feel it likely was stolen. There's too much information to keep up with, but maybe I haven't made time to digest certain things because I'm ashamed at the double standard of the left, so I don't realize there are defendants of Jan 6 kept in horrific conditions, who did nothing more, or much less, than progessives who have occupied public spaces in protests the media has been friendly to.
I could be wrong about Cheney, but I feel she's part of a divisive political theater ...
I would not have otherwise encountered this interview, but, with substack magic of peeking at what's at the top of the too - long list, earlier today Celia Farber spoke so highly of Diana West, whom I've never heard of. I took the time to listen to this. It is sad and humbling to learn more about the depth of these double standards, and the ruined lives along the way.
I've never liked Trump. I no longer believe one word from the media, including anything they've ever said about him. Still, I don't like Trump ... maybe it's all the things he's put his name on, and certainly anyone who tries to take credit for this horrific "vaccine" as if it's a good thing isn't someone I can get behind. But what he's been able to galvanize, has a heart and soul to it (regardless of his integrity or lack of), and is not deserving of the contempt it's given from every direction.
This is the first article of yours that I disagree with, but hope this feedback is OK.
This is the interview and article from Celia - https://celiafarber.substack.com/p/diana-west-america-has-unraveledi?utm_source=%2Finbox&utm_medium=reader2
I haven't delved enough into the election to know what happened. It's noteable that the extremely thorough Mathew Crawford of Rounding the Earth seems to think there were serious problems with the election, but he hasn't as far as I know done a decisive article on it.
But they are certainly capable of stealing an election and lying with the same mouthpieces who lied all through covid.
A thought on narcissism, which I was learning a lot about earlier in the pandemic ... it is typical narcissist - especially H.G. Tudor's concept of "lesser narcissist" as Trump may be - behaviour to refuse to loose, to pre-emptively make accusations (like "they're gonna try to steal the election!"), and do absolutely anything to refuse to admit a loss.
So it was natural to assume the challenges to the election were the delusions of a narcissist refusing to admit wrong, plus cult like supporters who believe anything he said. But I think there's a lot more to this, even if the lesser narcissist's dangerous stubbornness and psychology of flying monkeys is true also.
I remember thinking the Lincoln Project were probably decent people, and clever with some of their Trump insults. I thought the film, "Unfit" was very good. Later I was repulsed at how the Lincoln Project ridiculed Ivermectin, in a short video that ended with "because you're not a fucking horse".
I think there is evil far greater than Trump happening, and I don't trust Cheney / the Jan 6 charade, as they want us to think that Trump - and some of the values this country was founded on, are the true enemies, as they take obscene amounts of power, including of the mental terrain. . .