We Don't Get Fooled Again

Everyone is jumping on the Bash SCL/Cambridge Analytica bandwagon, and especially those whose agenda is to paint the conservative/nationalist movement as being somehow evil and nefarious.

The video linked above is slick and subtle. It first casts the process of demographic analysis as a black art, with ominous background music and an astounded tone. It then goes on to talk only about the Trump and Brexit campaigns, as if these were the only organizations that used such tools.

Now, I'm not saying that SCL/CA and the techniques of mass market manipulation (MMM) aren't evil and nefarious, but they are by no means limited to Trump and Brexit. In fact, they are just the latest iteration of the study and science of Marketing/PR pioneered by Edward Bernays at the beginning of the 20th century. In other words, SCL/CA may have invented better tools for MMM, but the basic formulae and tenets they use are a century old, and more if you include Sigmund Freud (Bernay's uncle).

The idea of polling people voluntarily, using seemingly innocuous questions, and then applying matrices to cross-reference the responses to build a psychological profile have been the mainstay of MMM for decades. These types of analyses have shown up in women's magazines and online since at least the 1950s.

People are offered the perceived benefit of getting to know themselves better, and thus freely hand over all kinds of data about themselves to complete strangers, who then plug the answers into mathematical formulae and derive a complex profile of the individual. The film Blade Runner opens with a scene of an interviewer applying a psychological profile to one of the characters, and that film was released in 1982. The infamous LBJ Daisy ad, released in 1964, used the same techniques and led to the candidate being swept into office.

Every single public figure, organization, political party, corporation, and movement has used these exact same techniques to manipulate mass audiences since before anyone reading this was born. In fact, advertising was created to advance future sales into the present by manipulating the viewer by pursuading him/her that a product is vital and/or bestows status on the owner. Listen to Bill Moyers interviewing Edward Bernays several decades ago, and see if you don't hear the exact same thing that the "documentary" at the top of this article says, and from the mouth of the man who invented it.

What is import to keep in mind as we hear SCL/CA lambasted over the next few weeks is that it is an effort to taint Donald Trump. It is a sophisticated attempt to target an issue that crosses party and political divides. This is not to say that Trump or Brexit are good or bad, but they did garner the majority of votes. In other words, Bernays' techniques were used to win those elections, and are now being used to taint them. It is amazing to watch this if you are aware of what is being done to the mass audience.

In other words, digital privacy is an issue that crosses political affiliations. SCL/CA, and by extension Facebook, is a convenient whipping boy around which the political left is building a narrative that appeals to both sides of the spectrum. Once a sufficient mass indignation and panic has been achieved, the political left will offer themselves as the solution to this problem, even though they are as much to blame as anyone else.

The problem here is not SCL/CA, it is the entire MMM industry itself. Consumers are so woefully ignorant of how these things function that they fall prey to them repeatedly and are never even aware of it. This is not a left/right, globalist/nationist, nor racist/diversity issue. It is one that pervades every single aspect of modern life. We are ALL targets from ALL directions using the same time-tested tools and techniques that have worked so well for the past 100 years. Cambridge Analytica is just one single organization in a vast sea of similar companies, all offering the same "benefit" of manipulating mass markets, and each with their signature matrices and algorithms.

If universities stopped devoting so much class time to gender and racial diversity studies, and more time to the PR/MMM industry and its methods, we would all be much better off - at least less likely to fall for these manipulations.

But then, students would suddenly realize how they've been manipulated and the entire advertising and PR industry would collapse and governments would lose the ability to steer entire populations.

Can't have that, can we?

The Sorcerer's Apprentice

We live in an age when corporations, even more than governments, can literally "flip a switch" and create information, or make it disappear.

Organizations like Google, Farcebook and all their related and equivalent beasts - including all of China's homegrown copies - are the embodiment of fascist architecture.  No need to burn books when hitting the delete button neatly vanishes the past, and data entry clerks create the future, like hives of Winston Smiths.

There is really only one way to combat this creeping threat.  Buy all the hard-copy books you can find, especially those printed before the 1940s, and especially things like dictionaries, atlases, encyclopaedias, and similar reference books.  The day will certainly come when owning real, printed books will be illegal, a la Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, but until then, the only way to preserve unedited, unmolested knowledge is in a form that cannot be manipulated by the gargantuan media monsters.

An individual is only as powerful as the information he has.  This is why governments spent inordinate amounts of time and money on "intelligence."  Seeking the truth, while denying it to one's enemies is the oldest form of warfare Humankind has known.

When people lie to us, they are in fact committing a form of violence, because when we act on false information, the outcome is likely to be far less than what we were hoping to get.  When Google, Farcebook and others purposely deny us information, they are in fact committing violent acts on us for the express purpose of causing us pain.  Whether they alter the information or block it altogether makes no difference.  It is the denial of true and correct information that constitutes the act of violence.

For centuries, governments has done this.  We variously call it propaganda or false flag attacks, but over the centuries, we have come to expect it from such institutions.  For millennia, religions have done the same.  Governments only usurped and secularized the technique, but the results have been the same.

Now there are corporations who have the power to deceive both governments and religions.  In the digital age, it is not who controls the libraries, it is who controls the transmission.  After all, having powerful information is useless without the ability to transmit it to someone else.  As a corollary to Marshall McLuan's postulate that the "medium is the message," we can now add that the "medium controls the message," and "whoever controls the medium controls the world."

If I have the power to alter, block or manipulate any message sent to anyone on the planet, or worse, to generate messages based on your habits on- and off-line, then I have to the power to deprive you of necessary information, or to change the content of the message. or even worse, to change the information to cause you to act wrongly.

The most devious part of this kind of warfare is that it is now possible to manipulate the messages, disguise the manipulation, and to do it so fast as to make the manipulation seem almost impossible, even if it is suspected.

A couple of decades ago, the US broke up the Bell System, because a single company had full control of all telephonic communications.  Most of the worry then was simply non-competitive control of pricing for access, but I can imagine that if Bell could have manipulated real-time conversations at will and without detection, then the outcry would have been far more urgent.

Before that, the US broke up the Standard Oil Company (Rockefeller's monopoly) because it had complete control of petroleum from the wellhead to the fuel tank.  One entity having this amount of control over something as important as energy rang alarm bells in the minds of millions of people.  Rockefeller not only had the power to set prices, but to control quantity, quality and delivery.  He could force producers to sell lower and force consumers to buy higher, and there was nothing anyone could do.

That those former monopolies acquired so much power as to alarm most rational people and cause a wave of cabal-busting, it is even more alarming that no one seems to have the temerity to take the Googles and Farcebooks apart.  This is because, unlike Standard and Bell, the new monopolies own the government.  They can cut off government just as effectively as any individual.  And those the leviathans can't control with fear, they can simply buy with bottomless cash supplies.

This degree of fascism has never existed before in human history.  We have seen extreme cases on numerous occasions, including the current American and Chinese empires, but never have we seen such power coagulated in so few hands with so little opportunity to control it.  These corporations have endless power to advertise themselves, insert themselves into so many aspects of daily life, and absolute authority to boost or destroy whomever they please, and with the twitch of a finger, they can make any of us vanish - if not physically, then in any other way that matters.  They can control our ideas, thoughts and actions in ways we are hardly even aware of.

Imagine if/when these behemoths launch algorithms that can digest vast amounts of data almost instantly, then act and react faster than most of us can even glance at our watches.  A more serious question arises, though.

If we mere humans are able to break up these digital monopolies, would we find ourselves becoming the Sorcerer's Apprentice?  Would we hack the magic broom into a thousand pieces, only to see each piece become a new attack on our humanity?

These are serious problems and they raise even more serious questions.  We are blithely dancing into our own demise without question who or what we are following.  It is well past time to migrate away from Google and Farcebook and their ilk.  Choke them with the power of the purse.  They thrive on our eyeballs, so we must deprive them of their food.

In the meantime, start building private libraries of books - real, printed books with print dates long before the digital age.  Collect reference books - medical, electrical, engineering, and general knowledge.  They are powerless to block or modify that information, but we should be ready for full on physical attacks on books if they get desperate enough.  Threatened beasts are unpredictable.

Like master pickpockets, they dangle shiny baubles in front of our eyes while sliding their fingers into our minds to steal our humanity and reality.

When things seem too wonderful to be true, they often are.

Thought Police Invade The Far Side

Akun Facebook pribadi saya dinonaktifkan.

• Bantuan Desktop
• Bantuan Ponsel Fitur
• Pusat Bantuan Lainnyatab menu tambahan
• shareBagikan Artikel
• Jika akun Facebook Anda dinonaktifkan, Anda akan melihat pesan khusus apabila Anda mencoba masuk ke akun Anda.
• Kami mnonaktifkan akun Facebook yang tidak mengikuti Ketentuan Facebook. Beberapa contohnya termasuk:
• Mengirim konten yang tidak mengikuti Ketentuan Facebook
• Menggunakan nama palsu
• Berpura-pura menjadi seseorang
• Tetap berperilaku yang tidak diizinkan di Facebook dengan melanggar Standar Komunitas kami
• Kontak dengan orang lain untuk tujuan pelecehan, periklanan, promosi, kencan, atau perilaku lainnya yang tidak diizinkan
• Jika Anda yakin akun Anda dinonaktifkan karena kekeliruan, harap mengajukan banding.
• Catatan: Jika Anda tidak melihat pesan penonaktifan ketika Anda mencoba masuk ke akun, Anda mungkin mengalami masalah masuk. Harap kunjungi pusat bantuan kami untuk bantuan masuk ke akun Anda.

I am proud to announce that - somehow - I have offended the Farcebook gods and have been cut off.  This must be a first for a non-terrorist site in Indonesia, since it is highly unusual for Indonesians to express politically-incorrect opinions.

Perhaps it was my ceaseless ridicule of Farcebook and its annoying thieving plagiarist owner, Mark Puckerberg.  I quite enjoy trashing the owner using his own product.

Like all fascist swine, though, they never tell you exactly what you did wrong.  Instead, they present a list of possible infractions and let your guilty conscience project its own sin onto the list.  This is a hallmark of Fascism, as any reader of Kafka will immediately understand.  The System makes an entire range of activities illegal, so that any given person and any given time has violated any given law.  Thus, you can be punished arbitrarily for any given infraction without ever being told exactly what you did wrong.

No great loss.  I have, or rather had, five Farcebook pages for various purposes.  The loss of one or another makes little difference, though it did provide an audience that I didn't reach with this blog or Twitter of YouTube.  Since I receive no revenue from my efforts on any of the outlets, the loss of one does nothing to hurt me.  One of the many reasons I chose not to monetize my efforts and become dependent on a revenue stream controlled by fascists.  Exhibit A: the YouTube producers who have had their legs cut off.

This kind of abuse and fascistic attempt to control free and unhindered speech is precisely why outlets like 4chan are so popular.  The poster is anonymous and there is no way to trace anything back to a source, and all posts eventually disappear of their own accord, so there is no history.  In this Kafka-esque world, it makes perfect sense, though in a sane world, anyone should be able to post anything under their own name and let the marketplace/peers judge the value of the content.

Puckerberg and his ilk like to call themselves the new media, but in effect they are nothing but an evolution of the gatekeepers of yore.  They sit atop their little ant hills, proudly controlling everything that goes in and out of their nest.  This is nothing but the high school group leader writ incredibly large.  They will set the standard for what is cool and acceptable, and if you want to stay in the group, you had better follow.

I am sure something will eventually happen to our Twitter account, as well.  Followers have shot up 25% just in the last week, probably due to the fact that we post news links combined with a healthy dose of sarcasm and satire.  The only real way to fight the bastards is to laugh at them.  It is the one thing they fear the most, because they take themselves far too seriously.

Eventually, these outlets tie themselves in knots of political correctness.  Take YouTube, for instance.  Advertisers complained that their ads were running against content they didn't like.  YouTube cut off the advertising stream, and suddenly no one - YouTube, advertisers or producers - were getting paid.  After all, the advertisers pay for eyeballs, and if the number of eyeballs drops precipitously, then what's to pay for?

The net effect was to strengthen the producers, who were forced to find their own advertisers and get crowd funding direct from consumers (see our Patreon link top right).  The entrepreneurial individuals are now beholden only to their consumers and direct advertisers, making them out of reach to the fascists, except to cancel accounts.

By the way, we are proud to say Google demonetized us six years ago, long before the current wave.  We were, and still are a leader in pissing off the powers that be.

The problem with things like political correctness is that, once you begin telling folks that they can't say certain things, the list will always continue to grow, until no one can say anything.  After all, we have all met folks who get offended by the simplest pleasantries.  Look at Ebeneezer Scrooge!

In the meantime, we do well to remember the immortal words of Henry David Thoreau:

"There are thousands hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root."

And the fight goes on.

Lumpy Koalas And Other Stuff

Dateline-Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: For many years, I've wanted to come to KL. Imagine my cisappointment when it turns out to be Singapore, Jr.

Regular readers will know my animosity towrds the saccarine neo-fascist state called Singapore.  Western gourists love it because they can tell all their friends they've been to Asia without ever leaving the safety of their nanny security state.

KL is a rubber stamp of that grotesque place.  From the same damn plastic money that won't fold, to the painfully clean streets and clockwork traffic, KL is as bland and unthreatening as Ohio.

Oh sure, there are the Petronas towers and the dancing water show, which to me are just more ant piles and attempts at a cultural life, to be found in any major metropolis near you.

Hell, even the gobs of palm oil plantatioms passed on the endless journey from the airport to city centre look like Disney-fied versioms of jungle. Even the colors seem carefully chosen by Imagineers to be painfully unthreatening.

We're here on business, and lest you think that affects my perceptions, disabuse yourself of the notion.  I spent three months in deep jungle on business and had the survivalist wetdream.  The experience would have scared the hell out of those pretenders on that survival 'reality' show I never watched.  So, I am ready for about anything on business trips...

Except more of this bland Western imperialistic crap that passes for much of Asian culture anymore.

Perhaps this is what the Visigoths felt when they finally got fed up and sacked Rome.  They just couldn't take any more of those damn coliseums and vomitoriums.  Probably because they came with those damn Roman legions groping you at the door.

Anyway, back to KL.

I'm here to tour the national theater and look in on the rigging system before it ships.  Four days at the Hangingtree hotel in a rubber-stamped room over a consumer orgy called a mall.  I can't even bring myself to buy the usual refridgerator magnet because it looks just like the one fron Singapore.  The only difference is it, like all the tourist crack here, has two ant piles on it.  At least Singapore has their nifty little seahorse-lion logo.  It's the only thing that distinguishes it from all the other imperial strongholds of the world.

One thing here feels like home. Even though the roads are in good repair and there's almost no traffic - wildly different from Jakarta-there' not one damn right angle to be found.  So it takes for-freakin'-ever to go anywhere.  You have go jump down, gurn around and pick a bale cotton just to cross the bloody street.

Food, bed...doggie style?

Who'da thunk this Texas farmboy, Mr. Solitude, would miss the anarcho-silliness of life in Jakarta, a city of 20 million nuts packed into the space of Houston's innerloop?   I guess it's because Indonesia still has a flavor. Despite the empire's best efforts, it just can't turn that country into a rubber stamp.  You gotta respect the tenacity of those folks.  I love people who see law and order as something to be actively ignored and dismissed.

Hell, Facebook won't even let me log on because I'm not in my usual cubby hole.  I hate when corporations try to nanny me.  I'll watch after myself, Mark Zuckerburg.  Get the f¥£k out of my business!  Like FaceBook is so dzmned important I can only log on from my home country?!  Worried that someone won't get tagged correctly, or what?

Oh yeah, back to KL...what do you call someone from here?  Oompa-loompa?