Drinking The Qool-Aid

Note: the list of previous articles on this topic has moved to the end of the page.

UPDATE 11OCT20: Radio Far Side will host a livestream discussion of the Q Phenomenon on 13OCT20, with guests Joseph P. Farrell and Catherine Austin Fitts.  Join us for this special event: Q & the Qult - A Multi-Spectrum Analysis.

 UPDATE 26SEP20: Out long-standing thesis that the current global situation is an elite turf war seems to be catching on.

The title of this article is a layered allusion, including both Jim Jones' Guyana cult and the deadly Kool-Aid now known irreverently as Guyana Punch, and Tom (The Right Stuff) Wolfe's 1968 book The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, in which Ken (One Flew Over the Cuckoos's Nest) Kesey and his band of Merry Pranksters drove across the US in a school bus, doing LSD and mushrooms while seeking enlightenment.

These are apt allusions for the Qniverse, as the three-year-old psy-op has expanded internationally.  The global spread of Q primarily encompasses Western countries, but is not limited to them.

A recent article received some play in the corporate media, likening QAnon to the spread of the COVID-19 virus.  This is not entirely disingenuous, as memetics researchers of popular culture have long equated cultural memes to viral infections.  In fact, even the term "viral" has long been used to describe certain content that suddenly receives mass attention, as with fads or pop stars.

Please note that Q and QAnon are not the same thing.  Q is a psy-op, likely based on a strange internet phenomenon years ago called Cicada 3301.  It only posts as "Q" on 8kun in the "Patriots Fight" board, of which it is the only member.

If Q is the cause, then QAnon is the effect.  QAnon is what the followers of Q call themselves, and which I call Qvians.  The world as they see it is what I refer to as the Qniverse.  Q "drops" information on 8kun, which is then interpreted by the Apostles and Acolytes, and distributed through the Priesthood to the masses.

I deliberately use religious terms and symbolism, because the Q Phenomenon resembles in many disturbing ways a religious movement and hierarchy.  I have detailed this idea in several previous posts, all linked at top.



I have also likened the Qvians to a Personality Cult, or Qult, as early as March of 2019.  This has been picked up by the corporate media in the past couple of weeks, with tones of panic and fear.  However, since they have only taken my idea and not the research behind it, they really have no clue what they are talking about.

The Qult is by no means violent or dangerous - at least not yet.  What terrifiess the Establishment and the corporate media is that Q represents a new age of information dispersal that they will never understand nor be able to participate in.  And it is effectively countering their narratives as fast as they launch them.

This is the primary appeal of Q, and its most dangerous aspect.

Like the alien message in the Jody Foster film Contact, Q data is a multi-dimensional puzzle.  Each drop is its own message, but using visual and textual cues, the drops can be arranged to form additional layers of messaging.

This is also the connection to Cicada 3301.  Multi-layered puzzles, once decoded, provide clues to other puzzles, which then are "stacked" to provide more clues or solutions to past puzzles.

Essentially, Q is a training technology for an entirely new form of communication.  Ut us not a passive medium, like radio, movies or TeeVee.  Instead, it challenges followers to think multi-contextually, much like the titles of my articles.  The "receivers" are forced to think and research to fully understand the messages being relayed by Q.

Q delivers messages in batches, much like the nearly 100 drops in the past two weeks, then it goes silent to analyze what parts of the messages have been received and how the information is being distributed.  It then formulates new drops to "steer" the conversation either to past information that was missed, or to new information for processing.

Just as with any hierarchical system, there are those privy to the inner circule, and layers of followers down to those with only the most superficial understanding.  There is an initiation phase, in which the initiate must learn the Qvian "code," read the more than 4,700 drops to date, and learn to interpret the messages

If Q was the Freemasons, most Qvians would be in the Blue Lodge of the first 3 degrees, while a select few advance to the 33rd degree, with full access to Q deepest revelations.

Q's wide appeal is based on the dopamine response, similar to computer games and social media.  Solving puzzles and announcing one's findings to the wider Qniverse provides that critical burst of pleasure and pride that is addictive.  This is evident when Q goes into "listening mode".  The Qvians quickly start wringing their hands and wondering when the next drops will come, while going back and reparsing previous drops for hidden information.

While in "listening mode," Q is mapping networks of chatter, cataloging what is being said, and predicting behavior in both the real and vitual worlds basedd on a technology similar to clif high's webbots, combined with a powerful data mining function that creates virtual "persons" with the habits and personalities of those reacting to its drops.

Q is essentially like many marketing systems used by the big firms, but vastly more powerful.  When we surf the internet, small bits of code follow us around, log our activities, measure how long our eyes are fixed on any one item, determine which ads catch our attention, aand even follow us around the real world to see where we shop, dine and entertain ourselves.  They build an avatar of us that can be manipulated to, in turn, manipulate us.

Imagine that technology, along with aspects we don't want to imagine, backed by bottomless funding, and incomprehensible processing power and infinite storage and modeling capacity.

That is Q.

What's even more fascinating, if not frightening, is that Q has convinced the Qvians that it is one man, in close proximity to Donald Trump and working in concert with him to provide "transparency" that circumvents the corporate media.  Few, if any, can conceive of Q being a vast marketing and surveillance operation that is invading and steering their thoughts.

Q is siphoning eyeballs away from the corporate media.  At a meta level, the events of 2020 have been a clash between the dying mass media, represented by the Democrats and the Left in the US, and the rise of the interactive media of the future, represented by the Republicans and the Right in the US.

Americans are generally unaware of it, but the entire world is going through the same process to varying degrees.  There is a clash of historic proportions taking place, and like all of them in history, there are those who fear and fight, and those who adapt and adopt.  Humans are merging with their technology is a way few have foreseen.  A kind of hive mind is emerging, where we are no longer independent actors, but the sum of the media we consume.

The horse became the internal combustion engine.  The blacksmith became the mechanic.  The green grocer because the grocery store, which became the mall.  Metal money became paper money, which became plastic, and now is a QR code.  Technological change seems inevitable, and the old systems will always fight the new, until the new seems indispensible to our lives.

Q is the nascent form of a wildly new and strange technology.  It is teaching followers to think a new way and manipulating the Qvians with a power few are cognizant of.  While it is clearly and increasingly manipulating popular culture in its favor, it may also be planting the seeds of its antithesis.  Herein lies the rub.

As Sun Tzu teaches us, the best way to defeat an enemy is to control every aspect of how the enemy will react.

Q manipulates the Qvians into thinking and acting in certain ways, while at the same time "predicting" how the "enemy" will react.  This technique is essentially a digital box canyon.  The "enemy" is led into a range of predictable reactions, which are easily countered since Q created the entire scenario to begin with.

The Qvians get their shot of dopamine, feeling as if they've been part of a victory.  The "enemy" is trapped by its own actions.  And Q gets the reputation of being prescient, even prophetic.

It is entirely plausible and possible that everything occurring in the US right now, and worldwide, is being orchestrated by Q to achieve whatever end it is seeking.  Q is doing this by drawing together religion, politics, media, pop culture, and technology.  It parses history and current events through the filter of human nature, then carefully calibrates what information to inject to cause predictable outcomes.

This, dear reader, is why I am both fascinated and terrified by Q - enough so to spend three years studying and writing about it.

I suspect, with good reason, that we are all being engineered, not just by Q, but by competing systems as well.

And here we arrive full circle back at the Qool-Aid.

Previous posts:
Deep Throat v. Q
Q The Conspiracy - A Phenomenon
The Gospel According To Q
A-Marketing We Will Q
The Name Of The Q
Q The LARP Carp
Spe-Q-lating On Q
In The Twilight Of The Q
Jonesing For Q
Analyzing Q-Analysis

The Silence of the Q

The Q Prophesy
To Q Or Not To Q
A Quantum Of Q-Bit
Surfing the Q Wave
CQ CQ CQ
Q Tips And Quislings
Some Quick Q
The Voice Of Q
The Q Treason
Q The Endgame
Right On Q?
Q The God-Emperor
Who Is Q?
Behold The Qult
Notre Dame du Q
The Q Genesis
Behind the Q Ball
The Qiller Q
Q d'Etat
Q the Revolution

GO100, the GEC and Queuing Up
Pre-Qognizant
The Q Scenario
The Qult Ascendant

Q The Conspiracy - A Phenomenon

For background on today's rant, we recommend that you look up these YouTube channels: PrayingMedic, JustInformed Talk, SpaceShot76.

With that bit of housekeeping out of the way, time to turn our piercing eye on this Q-anon thing.  Perhaps you've seen the hashtags #Qanon or #WWG1WGA.  Maybe you're passingly familiar with this phenomenon.  If not, you're missing one of the most interesting internet memes I've ever seen, and I've been on the internet since before the web existed and there was any such thing as a browser.

I published an article a while back on the historical context of Q, and the phenomenon has gotten even more interesting since then.  What is pushing the intrigue into hyperbolic orbit are the recent "drops" from Q that promise some real July fireworks that can stand as a test of the Q's claims.

To fully appreciate this phenomenon, you will need a primer, as the insiders have developed a kind of jargon.  Many of the terms used by the Q-Anon come from a 1996 film called White Squall.  Phrases like "where we go one, we go all" (WWG1WGA), "the storm" and several others are lifted directly from the script.  Make of that what you will, but the fact remains.

Next, there are terms like "drops" (Q posts on 8chan - not 4chan), "proofs" (things Donald Trump does or says that ostensibly confirm Q's proximity to him), and "decodes" (the Anons decipher coded drops).  It is at this point that I direct the gentle reader to familiarize himself with  the Cicada 3301 phenomenon, which appears to be an early version of Q that I'll get into shortly.

The Anons are a secretive group of groupies that form a kind of priesthood.  They "decode" Q drops, do some rather interesting research in the public domain, and issue clarifications and predictions based on the drops.  A fictional allusion that would also fit the Anons are the Baker Street Irregulars who assisted Sherlock Holmes in gathering information.

A recent example of the proofs in action is the contention that on at least two occasions, Trump has spotted and acknowledged folks wearing Q t-shirts at rallies.  Another is a posted photo claiming to be a reflection off the back of Trump's iPhone of a lamp in the office on Air Force One.  Word is cryptic "proofs" like this help to avoid issues with national security laws.

So, here's the background so far:

Q began "drops" in late October of 2017, on an exclusive board on 8ch.net.  According to legend, this appearance coincided with the Las Vegas massacre and all of the speculation over conspiracies, official and otherwise.

The legend holds that the US military was on the verge of a coup against Barack Obama and the Deep State cabal that had taken over the federal government, beginning with the Bush I presidency.  Fearing that such a move would cause more problems than were manageable, the insiders decided to recruit Donald Trump as a "clean" outsider who could come in and "drain the swamp".  Let's set aside the fact that this seems like an enormous Hail Mary pass, the thinking is that Trump was a popular icon of the American Dream - rags to riches, self-made billionaire, man of the people, etc.

The legend continues that the Hillary Clinton campaign bought into this plan - without being aware - thinking that Trump would be a cake walk opponent in the general elections.  They did everything they could to both promote Trump as a viable candidate in the primaries, and to paint him as a buffoon, thus ensuring a Clinton victory in November 2016.  The rest, as we know, is not legend.  She lost.

What has ensued since then, according to Q Canon, is a massive covert war just under the public radar with the Bush-Clinton-Obama cabal on one side, aided and abetted by the GeezerMedia [my term], and Trump and his team on the other side.  If you use your Little Orphan Annie Secret Decoder Ring found in your jar of Ovaltine, current events can certainly be interpreted to support this reading.  But then, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

Now, if you are unfamiliar with Cicada 3301, it is well worth your time to read up on it, especially in light of Q-anon.  In January 2012, a series of coded puzzles began appearing on various boards like 4chan and 8chan.  They were extremely byzantine, requiring vast historical, cryptographic, computer, linguistic, and geographic knowledge and/or exceptional research skills.  To date, no one knows (openly) who started Cicada 3301 or what the purpose was, though plenty of speculation goes to it being a recruiting tool, most likely for an alphabet organization within the 5-Eyes.

The more you learn about Cicada 3301, the more parallels you find to the Q-Anon phenomenon: encoded messages, research, a single source point, a bunch of cyber-jockeys going nuts with excitement.  If you buy the entire Q-Anon legend, then the 2012 start date wuld seem oddly coincidental with a purposed military coup during the Obama regime - particularly Round 2 - and the hatching of a plan like this one to "red-pill" the masses.

The plan would be easy to dismiss without someone in the presidency willing to throw the power of the office behind it.  Otherwise, it could be easily dismissed as just more conspiracy theory noise. Cicada 3301 recruited the Anon teams and put them in place, and Trump is certainly theatrical enough, with an appropriate poker face, to pull off a public narrative that is bread and circuses, while covertly running a massive operation to take down nefarious elements within the federal government.

All circumstantial, I grant you, but at what point does the evidence pile up high enough to be taken seriously?

So, here's where things stand at the moment:

• Mass resignations of Congressional Representatives and Senators, as well as CEOs of major companies (think Google); 
• thousands of arrests of child porn and sex rings (PizzaGate figures heavily into the legend, see John Podesta WekiLeaks email); 
• ANTIFA and their ilk; 24/7 bashing of the Trump administration in the GeezerMedia; 
• sweeping replacements of activist judges and Attorneys General across the country; 
• complete clean-out of upper management in key federal agencies;
• the latest hubbub over Imran Awan plea deal and what - exactly - the feds got in return (think servers and Seth Rich).

The list goes on, but you get the idea.  And it's not limited to the US, as Hungary, Austria, Italy, Germany and other countries have turned sharply to the nationalist/populist camp, as well.  These are facts.  How you interpret them is up to you.

The Q phenomenon started off quietly enough.  Q is purportedly an individual or group close to the president using 8chan to send leads to information ("crumbs") that is publicly available though ignored by the GeezerMedia.  It requires slow dissemination and grass-roots realization to initiate the "Great Awakening," also known as "red pilling," in order to side-step shock and backlash.

If you are a fan of spy novels and you aren't following the Q-Anon story, you are missing probably one of the greatest plots ever conceived.  Honestly, whether you buy into Q-Anon or not, it is addictive.  Are the Black Hats really bad?  Are the White Hats really good?  Do you know what you think you know?  Is Q real?  Does Trump sanction Q?  Will the Deep State actually be sent up the creek in public trials that will make Watergate look like a Sunday picnic?  Stay tuned...!

There are surprising plot twists, shocking revelations and nefarious characters who threaten the entire planet.  There's high technology and boots on the ground.  Answers are hiding directly in front of you, but only future revelations will make the current situation clear.  As Q likes to say, "The future proves the past."  Will the stunning predictions come to pass, or will the whole thing crumble into a footnote of internet history?

I might be tempted to dismiss the whole thing, except that I bought into Clif High's webbots years ago.  As anyone who has followed his work over the years knows, the Secrets Revealed meme has played a starring role in the ALTA reports for more than five years.  The Q phenomenon fits almost perfectly into those predictions, in a way and with language that seems to eerily presage the form and function of Q-Anon.

This is one of the most sophisticated media campaigns I have ever witnessed.  It is entirely free, using open resources on the internet.  It relies entirely on a growing underground of folk "in the know" to take the meme viral.  It appeals to a broad demographic spectrum, who come at it from many varying points of view.  People have invested vast amounts of their own time and money into promoting the phenomenon.  It is, well...at the risk of sounding hyperbolic, one of the most amazing media phenomena I have seen in my 40+ years as a media professional.

If you are a psychologist, sociologist, demographer, marketing/PR professional, cryptographer, MBA, media specialist, or just a fan of human behavior, and you are not following the Q-Anon phenomenon, you are missing what will likely become a case study of mythic proportions that will fill textbooks for years to come.  Viral campaigns of the past only wish they had achieved this kind of interest and devotion.

If you are just joining the fun, don't worry.  The whole thing seems to be building to a huge climax in the near- to mid-term (October Surprise?), and by the time it hits the mainstream, you will have missed much of the "pure" development - before it becomes clouded with truck-loads of academic gobbledy-gook and political spin.

Looking for a great summer novel for the beach or lake house?  Just type Qanon into your favorite search engine and settle in for some fascinating clicking.

It Is Neither Rare Nor Well Done

It's interesting to note that it was two Houston boys that, on the one hand made broadcast news respectable, and on the other destroyed it.

Back in the Stone Age of analog video, there was an Houstonian named Walter Cronkite.  He rose up through the ranks to become probably the most iconic American news faces of all time.  We called him "Uncle Walt", and he held our hands and walked us through wars, assassinations, (alleged) Moon landings, and some of the most enduring stories of the 20th century.  If he belched, his audience tasted lunch.  He could do no wrong and trained his viewers to trust visual news as if it was real.

His successor was also an Houstonian.  His name was Dan Rather.  He rose to fame by standing on the beach during Hurricane Carla in 1961, then pretended to be embedded with actual troops in Vietnam, and set the standard for "reporters" who made themselves part of the story, rather than objectively reporting it.

Both of them helmed CBSNews, which was once one of the most trusted network news shows, and is now one of the least.

Of course, both of them were globalist shills with different styles, but back then, globalism was one of those tin-foil hat conspiracy theories that only strange men babbling to themselves on street corners talked about - you know, the ones that Momma warned you to stay away from?

Between Walt and Dan, we see the beginning of the end of trust in media.  Walt sat in a studio and read copy to us with a voice and sincerity that made us believe anything.  Dan dove in, staged stories, pretended to be in the thick of it, and weaponized the trust we had in Walt against us.

Nowadays, whenever there's a storm a-brewin', every Tom, Dick and Slicker runs to the beach to try and become the story, a la Dan Rather.  In Desert Storm, CNN vidiots were "embedded" with rear-echelon supply trucks that got lost in the sand, had to be rescued, and then told us how harrowing the action was (that they never saw).

To my mind (a dangerous thing all by itself), the 1980s TeeVee show Max Headroom was the perfect metaphor for the vast difference in media theory.  Unbowed, intrepid reporter Edison Carter got down in the thick of it and told it like it was.  He brought us the live, gritty pictures of reality and told stories that hit hard and changed minds.  His counterpart, Max Headroom, was a creature of the media.  He was the deus ex machina that swam in the digibits and was as likely to go rogue as do anything useful.

Max Headroom was the epitome of Marshall McLuhan's assertion that in the future (now), the medium would become the message, that media would no longer be channels for communications, but the end-all-be-all of communications.  If you doubt this asserting, then ask yourself do you trust a talking-head on TeeVee more than the babbling loony on the street corner, given that their content is the same?  In fact, doesn't broadcasting something make it more real than reality?

This axiom is further demonstrated by the endless parade of personalities and celebrities who pitch products and causes for money.  Can you extract Al Gore the man from Al Gore the global-warming bubblehead?  Is there any difference in your mind between Michael Jordan the athlete and Michael Jordan the Nike shoe salesman?  Would either of these men have any credibility if the media had not conferred it upon them?

To my thinking, Max Headroom was a seminal moment in media history.  This fictional character because a ubiquitous pitchman and icon of the 1980s America.  He sold all kinds of products, was interviewed by "serious" news heads, was used to lampoon all manner of leaders and institutions, and became the message and the medium in a single entity.  I can trace the blurring of reality and fiction directly to him.

In the span of 20 years, between Uncle Walt and Max Headroom, the medium went from a passive reporter to an active creator of reality.  The decay of Western civilization rests squarely on this phenomenon.  It cannot be blamed entirely on the medium, since the audience must be active participants in this process.

Oh sure, Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble pitched Winston cigarettes in a prime time animated show, and that was part of the process.  Even Peter Bergman pitching cough medicine with the famous line, "I'm not a doctor, but I play one on TeeVee," helped blur the line.  But Dan Rather and Max Headroom finished the process.  The former created fiction out of reality, while the latter created reality out of fiction.  Together they ensnared a civilization in a perception trap of circular references.

Our world, or at least the perception of it, has been irreparably damaged by the blurring of medium and message.  There are rays of hope as new generations seem to be extracting themselves from the medium, but it remains to be seen whether they reject the medium, or only change the message.

As the legendary Ernie Kovacs rightly said, "Television is a medium, so called because it is neither rare, nor well done."  More than any other, he truly grasped the power of the message.

We Control The Horizontal And The Vertical

I'm going to tell you something, and I'm going to try and be delicate.  I don't want to bruise delicate psyches or shock anyone unduly.

But first, think about this...in fact, check yourself regularly as you go about your business every day.  When you walk into a room with a TeeVee, do you automatically look at it?  When you are talking with someone and there is a TeeVee in the room, do you find your eyes wandering over to the screen...usually when the transition graphics are running?

I want you to think about this long and hard, and concentrate on it for at least a week.  The reason is that you are mind controlled.

I told you it wasn't going to be easy.  No one wants to admit they are mind controlled.  Perhaps a kinder, gentler term would help...hypnotized.  Maybe that will help you feel like you can snap out of it if you really try.  And try you must.  Now that I have implanted the thought in your mind, you will at least think about it on occasion, perhaps catch yourself being drawn to the TeeVee.

Not to discourage you, but it took me many years to snap out of it.  Many of those years were spent studying and creating media content that helped hypnotize people.  I was pretty good at it.  I got paid well and won awards for it.  Even though I was trained and conscious of what was happening, I was still a victim, because the power of the medium is almost overwhelming.

TeeVee, and movies too, rely on a physiological phenomenon that has been burned into our brains over millennia of development as a species.  Our eyes/brain automatically react to movement and flashing light.  It's an automatic response.  Things that move and flash might be food, or water, or perhaps a predator.  Whatever the reason for it, it is very hard to control

TeeVee specifically uses lots of colorful rotating graphics and loud, splashy music that usually begin with a strong beat to make us look.  Once our gaze is locked by spinning logos and swooshing meaningless elements and blaring music, we are primed to have suggestions pumped into our minds.

Notice that the swooshing stuff is immediately followed by a single strong statement, called a "lead".  The lead has been chosen as the message of the moment that will kick off every segment and fill the lower-third title crawl.  Whenever you get bored by the pictures, your eyes are automatically drawn to the words incessantly scrolling across the screen, when the message is pounded into your brain over and over again.

Suppose you and I meet at our favorite cafe (where a TeeVee or two are streaming messages at us) and I say, "Trump."

Two years ago, you would probably think of Bridge, Hearts or Spades, or at least the expression "trump card."  Now, your head is full of images of a fat, grey-haired loudmouth, and your mind is full of one of two narratives, depending on whether you watch "left" or "right" media.

The fact that there are only two narratives to choose from, left or right, and not three, ten or a hundred, is that the information you are fed is pre-arranged in diametrically opposed packages.

Depending on which one your are conditioned to subscribe to, your reaction to "Trump" will be pleasurable or painful.  Both of us are probably unable to create a third narrative, since we have not thought that way and don't have the vocabulary ready to express it.  If we stick to the two controlled narratives, we most likely have an hour or more of conversation ahead parroting all the messages we have heard.

I do not watch TeeVee, nor listen to the radio.  Haven't for more than a decade.  I subscribe to a very narrow selection of YouTube channels that I believe are free thinkers, or just purely mind candy for times when I want to relax.  For that reason, I am forced to formulate my own narratives, which regular readers here know do not conform to most "mainstream" ideologies.

I also read a lot.  And write a lot.  I teach English and have been paid to write on many occasions, sometimes winning awards for it.  The books I read generally went out of print a century ago or more, though my collection of over 3,000 books (last time I bothered to count) spans the last 3,000 years.

I only listen to recorded music and use an ad blocker on all my browsers.  I avoid every possible contact with advertising.  When I accidentally see one, it usually makes me laugh because they are so wildly manipulative, appealing to our basest emotions and desires.  In fact, I spend a lot of time on my Twitter feed ridiculing and satirizing the media, because it is an effective way to break the spell.

The reason I mention all this is to demonstrate the amount of effort necessary to break the habit and get out of the conditioning.  The mind is like a muscle - it must be exercised regularly or it will atrophy.  Trust me, TeeVee and the other media depend on us being lazy and unwilling to exercise our minds.

Here's another little experiment.  Next time you get together with friends and actually talk (as opposed to using devices or absorbing media), be aware of what is being discussed.  Chances are, nearly all of the conversation will revolve around the media - what someone saw, heard or read.  Very little will have to do with personal experiences and anecdotes.

If you feel particularly daring, go prepared with a story or topic that is far from the beaten path (say medieval architecture or unusual political view) and notice how everyone reacts.  I will bet dimes to donuts the conversation shuts down for a few seconds before going back to the media.

Finally, and I know this doesn't apply to readers here because they would be basket cases before finishing one column, if a loved one is "triggered" by certain topics, words or ideas, then they are most certainly mind-controlled.

"Triggering" is a concept from the Bernays school of public relations and propaganda.  It was developed out of Freudian and Jungian hierarchies and archetypes.  The triggers are basically weaponized fears and desires that are used to control our behavior.

There are fears of being excluded from the group, or desires to lead the group.  They are herd instincts that have been deeply researched and particular sounds and pictures have been associated with them.  They can be triggered without us knowing it, and our responses have been programmed into us so that we react in predictable and controllable ways.

One example that is very powerful is "for the children".  We will do anything, buy any product, try any technique, and rally the troops "for the children".  This is one of our most basic instincts and it is one of the most weaponized.

Any number of crimes have been perpetrated by nothing more than saying "for the children".  Just look at vaccines.  Politicians, social workers and advertisers use "for the children" all the time.  "Amber Alerts" and "No Child Left Behind" are all examples of "for the children".  Child 'protective' Services justifies all the horrors they wreak in the name of "for the children".  You can completely shut down someone's defensive reactions by sayiing, "It's for the children."

Yes, sadly, we are all mind controlled.  The media is so pervasive now that we can hardly extract ourselves from it.  We feel embarrassed if we can't discuss last night's game or the lastest episode of Game of Thrones or Orange Is The New Black.

Have you ever felt ashamed or left out because you don't watch or missed an episode of the current craze?  You are mind-controlled.  Are you angry that Tim Allen's Last Man Standing got cancelled?  You are controlled by the "right" narrative.  Are you ecstatic that it got cancelled?  You are controlled by the "left" narrative.

The proper response from a clear-thinking mind is, "Who gives a shit?"

As an aside, I usually return FOLLOWS on Twitter as a courtesy.  I often get very nice messages thanking me for the follow, though I admit I am sadly lacking in that department.  The other day I got a response that read, "Hi! Thanks for following us. How do you use social media? For Business or Pleasure?"

I responded, "I use social media to ridicule and satirize the enemies of Truth, though just as often I point out the absurdities of using social media."

I have yet to get a reply.  They may even have UNFOLLOWed me.  Que sera!

You can follow the fun @RadioFarSide.  I'll most likely FOLLOW you back, if you stick around long enough.

The Big Lie

The cultural trope of the dogged reporter in rumpled suit with a large view camera and fedora with a press card tucked in the hat band is an illusion that many of us still labor under.  Somewhere in our subconscious, we link this trope to the blow-dried puffballs that read teleprompters and who haven't been in the field researching for years, if ever.

In recent months, there has been somewhat of a backlash against this kind of "news" reading, with more and more folks realizing just how manipulated the audience is.  Our perceptions of the world at large are completely controlled by massive "information" corporations, many of which share board members and shareholders.

These corporations spend little or nothing on actual research.  They depend almost entirely on wire feeds like AP or Reuters that "gather" the news and distribute "stories" to paid accounts like FOX, CNN, and any of the other alphabet outlets.  One might notice the occasional difference in which "stories" lead off the broadcasts, but overall, there is almost zero difference in content between any of the outlets.

The local affiliates do some news gathering.  They have "reporters" and cameramen who run around in satellite trucks beaming news conferences from city hall, or images of chalk outlines and crime-scene tape.  This is hardly news, but it keeps the rubes happy and buying advertisers' products.  Pays well, too, if you're a puffball.

Few people stop to consider that ALL news is fake, though.  All of it at all times in all places.  It may be reporting actual events, but there is a catch:

The second a cameraman starts recording, you are only seeing what the cameraman (and his producer/reporter) what you to see.  He cannot possibly, nor does he try, to record the entire context of the scene.  He is busily getting interesting pictures and "coverage" of the scene, but it is only his perspective - influenced by his desire to get noticed and advance up the food chain - further influenced by the producer/reporter's orders to "get this".

The producer/reporter, in turn, is looking for a certain angle that will get him or her noticed so they can move up the food chain - perhaps go to national.  So they are looking for the most sensational aspects of the "story", a hook that will get attention.

So far, two people have had direct influence over what we the audience can see and learn about the "story".

Back at the news room, the Executive Producer and Assignments Editor are using corporate guidelines to decide what stories get aired, and which angle of the story they want to show.  They give direct orders to the producer/reporter - in many cases even before they arrive at the scene - on what the Management wants to see.  Is it a crime involving drugs that would support the official narrative of the Drug War?  What races are involved in the story and can that be spun into narrative support?  What genders are involved, and can that be spun?  Even the section of town - poor vs. rich areas - influence whether and how a story gets reported.

By now, dozens of people have influenced a story, and it hasn't even gotten to editing.  At this point, the producer/reporter will scribble a few notes, being sure to get all of Management's agenda points in, and then record a stand-up.  Even for live reports, this is not necessarily done at the scene, and can even be separated by large amounts of time from the actual footage at the scene.  In some cases (that I have actually been involved with) the cameraman is the only person on the scene and the stand-up is done much later after Management decides what angle they want to show.  The producer/reporter was not even at the scene and can be manufacturing a story out of whole cloth, choosing pictures that roughly match the "story".

At this point, the editor takes over.  The footage and producer/reporter's stand-up are assembled by someone making additional choices about what looks good, cuts together well and adds to the narrative.  The "story" is given a time slop of, say, thirty seconds, so the editor must figure out how to cram as much (or little) information in the slot given.

The finished story is reviewed by the producer/reporter, who may make changes.  It is then passed by the Executive Producer, who checks the story for "relevance" and ensures that it does not violate any of the political dictates of Management.

The finished video is cured for air and a "wrap-around" narrative is written for the puffballs to read off the teleprompters.  Occasionally, the anchor puffballs may kill a story, usually just to exert their authority, because they are considered part of the Editorial Staff.

By now, clearly a great many people have influenced a "story" before we even get to the Advertisers, who exert an inordinate amount of influence over content.  Certainly, any stories that are detrimental to their products or company are killed, but they are known to influence stories touch on the corporations' political agendas, as well.

If a story has passed what is now hundreds of influencing forces, it gets aired, where the audience decides how much importance and credibility they place on the "story".  The audience reaction - whether tongue-clucking or rioting - has been carefully contrived through multiple layers of "gate-keeping". It is a science of manipulation.

Clearly, it is ALL fake news.  Any given "story" may have varying degrees of "truth" in it, but from the moment the camera starts recording until the light and sound impedes on our senses, the process of "reporting" news is designed to remove "truth" and insert "agenda".  The news we watch is no more "real" than a blockbuster superhero movie.

If we all approached the media with the understanding that it is ALL FAKE NEWS, we would be a long way down the road to protecting ourselves from manipulation science.  Of course, the best option is to turn it all off completely, but this is a rather difficult option, since the media has infused vast amounts of our lives.

Being aware of the vast pressure of agendas on every frame of video and every word of narrative will erect a wall of defense against manipulation.  Additionally, being aware that manipulation is coming from every direction all the time is another line of defense.  Even a 24/7, live-streaming webcam cannot show us truth, since it can never show what is behind the camera.

IT IS ALL FAKE NEWS.  The image at the head of this column of an ABC report faking a crime scene report is not the exception, it is the rule.

Snidely Whiplash And The Pissers

Well, here we are on the threshold of history.  It is rare when one can anticipate such dramatic leaps in the historical timeline down to the very minute, but the inauguration of Donald J. Trump as the 45th president of the US is certainly one of them.

In one sense, it reminds me of the Apollo 11 Moon landing, when a great swath of the world's population knew in advance the precise moment when history would change.  In fact, many would witness the event on TeeVee, just as many presumably will do with the inauguration.

Despite the overwhelming curiosity I feel regarding the exact nature of how Trump will affect history, there is little doubt in my mind that we have arrived at a nexus of timelines, where the path forward is obscured by millions of voices clammoring to predict either magnificent or horrific outcomes from this point on.

For myself, I have not yet decided whether Trump is friend or foe.  I admit that I deeply desire this moment to be when the wave of history crests and the inexorable backlash begins against a truly detestable group of humans who have worked tirelessly for the past century to steer the globe towards mass slavery and subjugation.

But I just can't shake this nagging feeling that the whole thing is a set-up, an "op".  My spidey-sense is tingling as I construct multiple plausible scenarios whereby Trump or those around him are setting a massive trap for humanity.  I can distinctly see how all of this could be an enormous scheme to shut down the freedom movement once and for all.

As I've said more times than I care to enumerate, I am a contrarian.  When I see masses of people running in one direction, I figure the best course is to go the opposite way.  I would normally consider myself a fool for doing this, except that it has worked far more times than not.  In fact, I am often rewarded for this conscious choice by being at the head of the line when the masses end up coming back my way.

In my analysis, I begin with the premise that Trump is a "false messiah.'  I assume that he, or those around him, have pushed him to the front as the sugar that draws the ants.  What worries me is that the classic ant trap usually involves mixing the sugar with boric acid, which is obviously lethal to the poor creatures who fell for the ruse.

Here's one part of the trap:

We know, because they have revealed themselves quite clearly, that the Corporate Media collude both among themselves and with the Deep State.  This collusion is used to steer mass sentiments and popular culture at a very subtle level.  Having worked many years in mass media, I am well aware of this fact and have spent many years trying to warn people.

Using the principles of Edward Bernays and reverse psychology, suppose you wanted to steer your political opponents into a trap.  The first thing you would do is find a charismatic leader who spouts all the right phrases (which you collected from social media) and then do everything you can to demonize him EXCEPT cut off his media exposure.  Doesn't it strike you as odd that Ron Paul was made practically invisible by the media, but Trump received the equivalent of millions of dollars of free air time just to ridicule him?  Both candidates were appealing to the same demographics.

Therein lies my first clue.  Ron Paul showed that there was a large and powerful movement among the masses who were ready to toss the entire elite class out of power.  He was rendered invisible in order to prevent the movement from getting out of hand.

Donald Trump appealed to the same groups, but he is a multi-billionaire media personality who is arguably a major insider, just from his social circles and business connections.

Ron Paul was a true outsider and uncontrollable.  Donald Trump is a true insider POSITIONED to look like an outsider in order to redirect the anti-elite movement and ultimately disable it.  In essence, Trump is the Pied-Piper of Hameln.  Frankly, I cannot imagine a scenario where the Corporate Media would implode the way they have unless it was absolutely necessary to complete the image that Trump is an outsider, thus ensuring all the "rats" followed the magic flute.

Imagine you are one of the Bilderberg/Davos tea-sippers.  You have a problem, in that the masses are getting restless and want to lamppost you and your family next Bastille Day.  You need to quell the revolution while at the same time getting everyone to buy into your evil plan to rule the world, and none of the masses can be aware that you did this or the spell won't work and they'll be even more angry.

Ron Paul was scary because he was a rationalist.  He could present clear, well-reasoned arguments why the US federal government and all its tentacles needed to be unwound.  You could make him vanish by simply not looking at him, but the masses who follow him are not going to go away that easily.

You find a popular demagogue with a wildly popular TeeVee show.  He has a massive ego, so even if he isn't aware he is being used, he own narcissism will blind him to your machinations.  In other words, he will believe his own bullshit.

You have to be sure the right crowds will follow him, so you implode your broadcast media operations, have your various thought-leading celebrities break down in public, and you trot out the heads of your surveillance operations to ridicule and threaten the demagogue.

This convinces everyone that the demagogue is a true outsider, even when all his political appointments are deep insiders from banking and corporate interests, including nominating the CEO of one of the largest corporations in the world to be the third in line to the throne.

Can you see how well this operation is working?

Just to be sure, keep threatening the legitimacy of the demagogue by claiming the election was rigged, or he engaged in perverted sexual practices, or various insiders like the CIA want to kill him.  Hell, fire the head of the Washington, DC National Guard at the moment the demagogue takes office, just to make the rubes sweat a bit.  Classic cliff-hanger stuff made in Hollywood.

To complete the scheme, the demagogue needs to believe what he is saying and doing.  I think Trump believes in himself with complete conviction, but his ego allows him to be rather easily steered in whatever direction the elites need him to go.  If Trump didn't believe it, then the insincerity would show up somewhere in his character or speech.  The bait must be absolutely convincing to keep the rubes on track.

I want to believe Trump is real and that all of the bread and circuses represent real events, but I can't.  I am so profoundly aware at how good Hollywood and the Corporate Media are at manipulating hearts and minds that I automatically assume that anything coming out of those institutions is complete horse shit and designed to the letter to ensnare and enslave the masses.

I do not know, at this point, whether Trump is in on it or not.  Nor do I pretend to know what the final act will be.  I can imagine a great many climactic scenarios, such as Trump being made a martyr in a very public way (like JFK or 9/11) in order to take control of people's psyches and emotions.  I can image scenarios in which Trump, and thus "his" movement, are thoroughly humiliated and denounced, causing people to flee any association with "freedom" and "liberty" and "nationalism."

Whatever the outcome will be, the plan is already in motion, so the aware mind will slowly be able to see patterns emerging.  I also figure nothing will happen at the inauguration.  The threats are all just part of the elites eliciting the "danger" response, so people will flock to Trump's side to protect him.

I look for the coup de gras to occur within a year, much like 9/11 did with G. W. Shrub.  Hopefully by then, we will be able to discern what the trap is and recognize it when it comes.

Whatever the case may be, I will reserve my enthusiastic applause for 2020 or 2024, when the history is written and we can begin the assessment.  Until then, I am holding my breath waiting for the other shoe to drop.

I always begin my analysis with two assumptions: 1) everyone acts out of self-interest at some level, and 2) Hollywood and the Corporate Media have turned bullshit into a Fine Art of Manipulation.  On these bases, I build worst-case scenarios, and thus I am rarely disappointed and, alas, often right about the state of current events.

No matter how much one likes and/or supports Trump, one must be prepared to accept that we are all being massively deceived - always a safe assumption.

In the end, Hope is not a solid foundation for rational thought.