Fascinating. The false narrative creates its own reality. Nations and leaders become trapped in its algorithms, like President Obama trying to parse words to negotiate an impossibly thin semantic channel between US adventurism in Iraq, and the current Russian Adventure. The challenge was not in drawing a contrast, they are two very different narratives. The challenge was that they are both corrupted and there is no truth left to stretch between them. It is an impossible diplomatic position.

If this phenomenon is intentional, which must be assumed, the question is, "What drives it?" And for me, "why does it seem to be getting worse?"

What drives it is that we treat the rest of the world as our personal depository of resources, and get really pissed off if any other country tries to grab a piece. It seems to be getting worse, because the corporatists who run things want more, more, more.

-- Mal

Makes sense. There is an insatiable id at the bottom of capitalism that will consume everything. Humans are power junkies, and all is not enough. And we are clever monkeys...we find very creative ways to improve our ability to oppress. So the powerful control the language, the language creates a history, the history excludes the weak and uses the gullible, and the wheel goes round and round. But I think the powerful always overplay their hand. They create a system that generates alternate realities...and it spins very fast, and it creates many possibilities. Like all junkies, they are in control of the message, until they aren't. Using the same machine, the oppressed eventual rise up and sometimes bad things happen, and a bigger pendulum swings form one false narrative to the other.

That's the big trap of the false narrative. We can all fall prey to our own propaganda. But is there a way out of it? Is there a true narrative? A process that can over come the lies...? I was thinking about the reconciliation in South Africa as a brief shining moment of truth healing old divisions.

How do we speak truth to power? How does the president transcend the false narrative and speak truth to the power behind the curtain?

I think the problem lies partially in the complacency of the precariat masses (myself included). Too tired, too afraid, too jealous of the scraps we get to come out of our isolation and make our own history... nobody said democracy was easy. No answers, no true narrative, much risk, and an uncertain path forward.

organ for the rich! When all it can do is repeat false talking points over and over again. With the death of a free and honest media that seeks the truth, America will be doom to a fate that we can only begin to imagine