Spot the Propaganda 1. Update

War propagandists, like magicians, use sensory and psychological misdirection that play upon our own cognitive biases.

Try this experiment that shows how important, powerful and persistent the Framing Bias is. Two cards will flash on the screen; say what they are out loud.

The philosopher of science, Thomas Kuhn said, ‘Without a paradigm, good or bad, we cannot function.’

He also warned us that, “We conform experience to our paradigms”. Or as Walter Lippmann said, “We frame first then see”.

We are adrift without a frame – we seek them and tend to grasp onto one when one (or two, as below) is presented.

1. Sensory misdirection: Magicians flourish a wand or a handkerchief to misdirect our attention away from an actual cause.
   Similarly the vivid picture of the boy misdirects our attention to an effect that is to the migrants and away from the cause: Wars Sponsored by NATO and its Gulf Allies. To solve the migrant crisis we must address the cause, War.
2. Psychological misdirection: Framing the debate as “Take in more refugees” or “Bomb ISIS” is a false dichotomy which limits, or frames, our thinking to false solutions. The real solution lies outside the framework of the debate.The aunt, a Canadian citizen, of the drowned boy could have been interviewed but as you can see in the video below, her solution would not fit within either of the frames offered by the CBC newscast. She is supporting Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard’s bill to stop supporting terrorists. An actual solution but one that lies outside the received frame of “acceptable thought”.
   
3. Evidence that journalists are at least to some extent ‘in on the game’. Do you see a “micro-expression” or as poker players say a “tell” below? Carefully watch Ms Barton’s right upper lip, near the corner of her mouth.
   Here is my take on it: Ms Barton had been involved in a discussion with the producers or news crew that some excuse was needed to show the disturbing image. Then in the broadcast, when she gave the excuse she was perhaps embarrassed about it or found the deception rather funny.
4. Are either of the proffered frames a logical solution?
   • Is taking in more refugees a solution? There are currently about 60 million refugees in the world.
   • Bomb ISIS? That is bomb one of the groups fighting against the Syrian Government but continue to support the other groups, many associated with Al Qaeda, who are also fighting the government. How would this be a solution?
5. Popular Geopolitics (what we are led to believe). The US, NATO and the Gulf Monarchies are fighting Assad because he is a brutal dictator who is killing his own people and because we and our allies want to bring democracy to Syrian people – without I suppose the “mistakes” we made in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya.Practical Geopolitics (the real goals and practices). Iran, Iraq, Syria and Hezbollah form a Shiite block independent of our allies in the middle east, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Israel, Jordan. Qatar had plans to build a gas pipeline to Europe through Syria. Syria preferred a pipeline from Iran. Iran and Syria are also allied with Russia. Both Russia and China have plans to integrate Eurasia and Africa into an economic sphere that would become the dominant economic power in the world. The US policy of containment, since 1947, has been designed to prevent that. See “The New Silk Road“.

   Evidence that the overthrow of the Syrian (and Iraq, Libyan, Sudanese) Government has been a long term US Geopolitical goal?
   General Wesley Clark, former Supreme Allied Commander Europe for NATO, describes what he was told in the Pentagon shortly after 9-11-2001.

   Evidence that the US has planned, since at least 2007, to cooperate with the Saudi’s to use Sunni Fundamentalist fighters to contain Iran and overthrow Syria.

   Evidence that the US has planned, since at least 2007, to cooperate with the Saudi’s to use Sunni Fundamentalist fighters to contain Iran and overthrow Syria.2007 article by Pulitzer Prize journalist Seymour Hersh.
   From the article:”We cannot reverse the Shiite gain in Iraq, but we can contain it.”

   “The U.S. has also taken part in clandestine operations aimed at Iran and its ally Syria. A by-product of these activities has been the bolstering of Sunni extremist groups that espouse a militant vision of Islam and are hostile to America and sympathetic to Al Qaeda.”

   Evidence that NATO sponsored Al Qaeda groups to overthrow the Syrian Government and contain Iran and Iraq

   Declassified Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) report from Apr. 12, 2012 link to article in The Guardian.

   “THE WEST, GULF COUNTRIES, AND TURKEY [WHICH] SUPPORT THE [SYRIAN] OPPOSITION… THERE IS THE POSSIBILITY OF ESTABLISHING A DECLARED OR UNDECLARED SALAFIST PRINCIPALITY IN EASTERN SYRIA (HASAKA AND DER ZOR), AND THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT THE SUPPORTING POWERS TO THE OPPOSITION WANT, IN ORDER TO ISOLATE THE SYRIAN REGIME, WHICH IS CONSIDERED THE STRATEGIC DEPTH OF THE SHIA EXPANSION (IRAQ AND IRAN) …”.

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