OMG Share broadcast and learn!!!!

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/sep/25/rewilding-britains-rainforest-planting-trees

I don't care how "left " you consider yourself. Anyone who cares about democracy, and honesty, and getting factual information, should be concerned.

And even IF we get a Democratic President in 2020, this movement will continue to build. We must already be working on a counter push plan. The problem is that you cannot intellectualize it away. They have carefully steered their followers into disbelieving intelligent answers. Like this fellow is providing. How do you fight against something that supports itself with lies that its followers refuse to disbelieve?

We start with talking about it now.

When Hillary Clinton said that "there is a vast right wing conspiracy" she was right back then. And years later it cumulated in her defeat in 2016. But instead of the Democratic party pushing against it back then, the plan was to "if you can't beat em, join em" with the DLC and the Third Way. Democrats and all other liberal thinking independents really need to raise the alarm and take concrete steps to get education out about what is happening around the world and has even latched onto our own parties here, especially within the Republican party.

We are all up against a oligarchy operation to get the worst of the worst seated in power.

A note about Bernie Sanders: I appreciate how Bernie has delineated the fight not between Rs and Ds but more Oligarchs vs the 99.99% rest of us.

I like how he's welcoming that demographic that are directly affected by Repub's policies that kept them down but chose to continue to vote for Repubs out of fear (or racism or patriarchy).

Thanks for posting.

I would also add we need to become more organized and cooperative with our own political cohorts, parties, and class. Like a family, we need to keep the money at home, amongst ourselves. Do business with each other if we can, learn self-reliance and production for home use, get solid value for what we spend. You can't starve an oligarch, but you can make it harder for them to make fat profits. Don't let your wherewithal become their lunch.

By the truckload. Election security was one of the several areas that will be hurt. Lovely.

and that's a very tall order.

that suggests the left move to the center or we lose to Trump. Something has to give. We can barely go any farther right and this analysis makes the most since!!!!

Somehow it's easier to see the problem in other countries rather than our own.

MUST stay united. Labour was disorganized and divided, giving the new right enough edge to dominate the election. We cannot make the same mistake. We cannot have a repeat of 2016. There's far too much at stake. Please, please, keep this primary civil. Stop it with the nit picky and over the top attacks on candidate forums. We need all of us. ALL OF US united to ensure our democracy survives. This shit is that goddamn serious.

Nothing really has changed in 100 years. 100 years ago, the United States entered WWI after Woodrow Wilson ( one of the biggest pricks of American History-http://www.ruthlessreviews.com/1867/10-biggest-pricks-in-american-political-history/) ran for re-election on keeping this country OUT of the war. Yet, he persuaded Americans to enthusiastically enter into the meat grinder that war that ended up costing 40 million casualties (115,000 American military deaths alone) and set the stage for the rise of Fascism and Nazism and another meat grinder called WWII.

How did he do it?

How did he get the United States to change it's mind collectively after going back on his promise to keep the country out of war?
Easy. First, he created an apparatus built to change minds through media; The Committee on Public Information, aka "The Creel Committee".( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Committee_on_Public_Information)
One of the members of this committee was the nephew of Sigmund Freud; Edward Bernays who would go on to write "Crystallizing Public Opinion" in 1923 and "Propaganda" in 1928. Both books outlined how to influence and shape public opinion. He would go on to found the first public relations firm that would be the back bone of Madison Avenue advertising firms (Think "Mad Men" of the early 20th century)

Next, you criminalize all opposition speech against the war; it was the reason Eugene Debs was locked up, The Espionage and Sedition Act: (http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=2&psid=3479). It would also serve as the basis for charging the Rosenbergs and sending them to the electric chair

Next, you rid the country of dissenting voices and contrary ideas. You do this with the Palmer Raids: (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmer_Raids).

And because the press is already owned by millionaires who are already ideologically conservative, it's not much of a matter for them to go along with the okey doke:

"The Powers That Be" by David Halberstam: https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/83enm6tn9780252069413.html

"Manufacturing Consent" by Noam Chomsky:

"Outfoxed" by Robert Greenwald


Since we know we can't depend on the "for profit corporate media" (Thanks, Bob Kincaid) we have to rely on ourselves for alternative media and news. We also must make ourselves technically savvy to propaganda and actual "fake news" propagated by outside sources and government agencies. Support local newspapers and outlets, support independent news and podcasts. Make your own e-zines, newsletters and blogs that disseminate actual news. We need to make the transition from "Cold War" thinking to Cyber War thinking. https://morningconsult.com/opinions/fighting-the-new-digital-propaganda-war/

We've an enormous road ahead to try to preserve democracy and one which requires much more than relying on outstanding journalists and activists like Greta Thunberg, the Parkland students, many new progress movements, AOC, Bernie and more.

The news habits of millions of Americans have to be adjusted and they have to be educated. So far I don't see very many consistent and accessible venues to facilitate that process. People often give up looking or slip back into their old habits of following mainstream media if the only alternative news they find is scant or irregular. I know because I've tried this with a number of people. It's a big issue and where very wealthy individuals like Steyer and Bloomberg should be directing resources.

Thanks for posting.

He mentions that Finland, which just elected a young, progressive Prime Minister, is one of the world leaders in "digital literacy," and also one whose citizens are some of the best at detecting fake news. But, at least around here, it seems people gobble up fake news, because it's both entertaining and reinforces what they already believe. I don't know if that was ever true in Finland but, if so...how do you educate people to be suspicious of such entertaining, self-validating messages without coming across with the sort of "eat your spinach" attitude that usually will be met with knee-jerk rejection here in the U.S. (and I'm guessing the U.K. as well)?

https://www.doubledown.news/watch/tag/George+Monbiot