#information control

[mcromwell]

There's a joke on Tumblr that this is "reading comprehension/media literacy website" (derogatory) and yes, that is a deserved critique in many respects, but simultaneously, I have a lot more sympathy for that nowadays. When it comes to reading comprehension, especially, because a lot of y'all were simply not taught how to read properly. The literacy rate in America is heinous, and it's not your fault, it's the fascist capitalists that benefit from illiteracy pointing the yoke of education into the ground.

That being said, just because you were failed by your country doesn't excuse you from personal responsibility and education past formal schooling. Learning how to read and really comprehend the text makes you less vulnerable to propaganda and misinformation. Plus, getting smarter feels good! It makes it so you have so much more stuff to enjoy! More books, more movies, more articles. Reading is cool.

[deservedgrace]

something that's really been bothering me lately is how the church i was a part of would like... repackage doctrine to make it sound nicer and more acceptable. like, the belief that all humans are evil by nature and deserve eternal torture for the crime of existing is inherently violent and cruel. but my church didn't frame it like that. they framed it as "yes we're ALL evil and wicked and we ALL deserve hell to atone for our sin (being human) BUT god loves you despite you not deserving love or happiness or anything good at all and all you have to do to avoid the pits of hell is accept jesus as your savior isn't that so amazing????" and they framed the crucifixion as this beautiful, selfless act of god by taking our place on the cross instead of "this all-powerful being who created all the rules decided that he required torture, death, and human sacrifice to be able to tolerate us". and it's not "women will be viewed as lesser than men" it's "women must submit to their husbands the same way we all must submit to god it's not dehumanizing it's holy and yes women have different roles but that doesn't make them lesser than and sure we don't have any women in leadership positions in the church and we would never even consider it, come on now that's ridiculous, but that's just because men are supposed to lead because men and women are different and created for different purposes it's just biology". and there are plenty others! i know that the reframing of everything is part of how they can even get people to accept the doctrine in the first place, but being on the outside of it is kind of horrifying. when you get down to the actual beliefs that are held without the distortions and manipulation, so many are violent, cruel, dehumanizing, abusive. but they distort and manipulate these beliefs to make them seem acceptable, morally correct, and redefine what love is and should look like.

[spicy-vent-central]

If you are a Millennial or Gen Z in America and are genuinely taking the piss out of Gen Alpha for "not being able to read" I just want to let you know (as someone in your age group) that you're turning into your parents in a lot of unhealthy and harmful ways.

Who's fault is it that these kids aren't learning phonics pal? Look around yourself at who is responsible for our government/public schools and who is raising them. Kids are and have always been kids, adults however change drastically over time. You can't blame Boomers for your problems but not accept (at least partial) responsibility for Gen Alpha's problems. These are the children of our generation and it's our responsibility to give them a solid foundation and if we don't do that, we cannot blame them for not having it.

We are all victims of the larger political system and Gen Alpha is already being systemically repressed. They will grow up from birth with the whole sum of human knowledge and access to instant communication in the palms of their hands. This makes them EXTREMELY hard to control from a governmental standpoint. Why do you think we suddenly have this unwarranted, unprecedented and illogical change in how kids are being taught to read? The system is already trying to rob these kids of their power to make change by denying them access to information in the only ways it can. Instead of seeing that for what it is and helping empower the next generation, a lot of you are continuing the trauma cycle of "younger generation bad" and it's really disappointing. I see and hear your struggles, especially millennials. Y'all have been getting blamed for shit since you had no control over since you were kids, let's not do that to the next batch of kids though okay? It's our jobs to build these kids up.

[sweaterkittensahoy]

Something I have noticed from antisemites who are trying to pretend they're not antisemites is that they love to either reblog a post multiple times, but each time it's a different argument for the same post. And they also love to make response posts where they lay out their argument while calling out a post from someone that they could reblog and answer directly.

I've never seen a group pull information control tactics like this. But that's what it is. By rebloging the same post over and over with a different argument or statement under each one, they are trying to force the OP to split their attention to answer several points all at once so they can find a single nugget they can exploit by saying "Well, in this reply, you said X, but over here, you said Y."

And making a whole new post is an attempt to force the OP to answer their preferred version of events rather than discussing any points the OP made in their post.

Anyway, it's fucking wild and a little terrifying to see fascist tactics so clearly in use.

[gothkrispies]

Information Control as defined by the BITE model. I learned about information control through the Cults To Consciousness podcast and it sounded VERY familiar.

[phoenixyfriend]

I think one of the things that helps explain Satine's slightly baffling 'the Republic should stop fighting this stupid war' take is that she does not know the things that the audience knows.

Nobody told her about the Blue Shadow Virus, the carpet bombing of civilian homes on Ryloth, the Defoliator on Maridun, the attacking of hospitals, and so on.

She just knows that there's a war happening, and that it's killing a whole lot of people for reasons that, as far as she or anyone else has been told, are mostly just about someone wanting to secede. She knows that places are getting invaded, but logically, this is something that should be handled by diplomatic channels.

And the thing is, if everyone was arguing in good faith (e.g. if all the Separatists were working from the same angle as Mina Bonteri), then she'd be right! But the war is being run by Sith Lords and war profiteers, and while Satine is used to people wanting war for the sake of war, she's managed to talk people into not doing that before, so it should be easy for large senates of the Republic and CIS's nature to make it work too.

This war could have been an email.

Unfortunately, there are Sith, and there is large scale biological warfare that implies attempted genocide, and there is pillaging of captured planets, and so on. But nobody told her that, because if they shared that information publicly, then things would go even more wildly out of hand,* and so she's just like "wow, this war is stupid as hell. Maybe you should stop killing people and talk it out, because that's politics. You know, your job?"

So all that, but exaggerated to the point of secondhand embarrassment, because it's an animated series intended for an audience of twelve-year-old boys.

*Palpatine benefits from pushing for the Jedi to see the war as necessary, but the civilians to see it as bullshit, and so he definitely errs on the side of keeping the Seppie war crimes a secret from the public, which includes politicians that are not part of the Republic Senate/Loyalists.

[unwelcome-ozian]