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What if the “Conspiracy” is Real?-A disturbing glance at the powers-that-be
Frontpagemagazine ^ | Feb 23, 2021 | Joseph Hippolito

Posted on 02/23/2021 7:41:34 AM PST by SJackson

In a matter of just five days, two separate incidents demonstrated the collusion used by the powers-that-be to control thought.

On Feb. 5, Mike Lindell, who founded MyPillow, released a two-hour documentary, "Absolute Proof," providing detailed evidence of fraud during the Presidential election. On Feb. 10, the House of Representatives' impeachment managers showed a video of the bedlam at the Capitol on Jan. 6, bedlam they accused President Donald Trump of inciting.

Once Lindell released his documentary, Google and Wikipedia attempted to manipulate his search results and biography, respectively. Two days after the impeachment managers released their video, David Schoen, one of Trump's defense attorneys demonstrated how the video deliberately misrepresented his client. Trump's trial ended the next day in acquittal.

Both cases show the determination of Big Government, Big Tech and Big Media -- at the very least -- to promote narratives that advance their unified interests and agendas. In the process, those three entities -- along with Big Business, Big Academia, Big Whatever -- will try to destroy anyone who opposes those narratives. 

As FrontPage Magazine reported in "People of the Lie," organizations ranging from businesses to foreign governments to federal agencies to charitable foundations use "astroturf" to influence opinion. "Astroturf" provides the illusion of a grassroots campaign while hiding its artificial nature. The strategy involves creating various kinds of written and video content -- including blogs, social media accounts, video channels, online comments, letters to the editor -- often through third parties.

"Special interests have unlimited time and money to figure out new ways to spin us while cloaking their role," said Sharyl Attkisson, who won five Emmy Awards for CBS News. "Surreptitious astroturf methods are now more important to those interests than traditional lobbying of Congress. There's an entire industry built around it in Washington.

"The whole point of astroturf is to try to give the impression there's widespread support for or against an agenda when there's not. Astroturf seeks to manipulate you into changing your opinion by making you feel as if you're an outlier when you're not."

One way special interests manipulate opinion is through "fact checkers." As the Columbia Journalism Review's Tim Schwab reported, PolitiFact and USA Today used their "fact checkers" to defend Bill Gates "from 'false conspiracy theories' and 'misinformation,' like the idea that the foundation has financial investments in companies developing Covid vaccines and therapies," he wrote.

But Gates' own tax records reveal such investments. Moreover, PolitiFact's and USA Today's parent organizations -- the Poynter Institute and Gannett, respectively -- receive money from Gates' foundation.

Schwab's reporting reveals a second technique: derision and defamation.

"Hallmarks of astroturf include use of inflammatory language, such as ‘crank,’ ‘quack,’ ‘nutty,’ ‘lies,’ ‘paranoid,’ ‘pseudo’ and ‘conspiracy,’ " Attkisson said. "Use of the charged language tests well. People hear something’s a myth, maybe they find it on Snopes and they instantly declare themselves too smart to fall for it."

Lindell's updated Wikipedia biography provides numerous examples. In discussing his efforts to reveal election fraud, Wikipedia claims "Lindell promoted a conspiracy theory, popular with Trump supporters, that falsely claimed that voting machine companies Smartmatic and Dominion conspired with foreign powers to rig voting machines to steal the election from Trump."

In addition, “Lindell was among those who advanced the false conspiracy theory that people associated with Antifa were responsible for the attack, saying they had probably ‘dressed as Trump people,’” Wikipedia claims. But as FrontPage Magazine reported in “Capturing the False Flag,” the evidence favors Lindell’s opinion.

Wikipedia also claimed Twitter "banned Lindell for perpetuating the unfounded claim that Trump won the 2020 election," and that his documentary was "filled with false claims about the election."

Lindell asserted Wikipedia even maligned his character to the point where his Christian foundation to help drug addicts is losing support.

"They've called employees and friends that I've had for 15, 20 years," Lindell said. "In churches, people are hesitant. What kind of person is he, really? Is this really for us? It's damaging, very damaging."

"They can put up anything they want. They're their own boss. They're a monster."

Google, meanwhile, directly attacked Lindell's ability to make money.  On the day Lindell released "Absolute Proof," Google inserted "all these crazy stories," he said, to bury his website in the search algorithm. The search engine also raised the price every time he clicked on his name from 5 cents to $1, he said, until Google prevented him from clicking on his name.

"After taking $20,000 of my money, Google said, 'You don't get to buy this anymore,' " Lindell said. "They shut it off. That's unheard of for your own name, It's an anti-trust law violation, for sure."

Trump and his supporters know the politics of personal destruction well. The Establishment ridicules them as "traitors" and "domestic terrorists," yet lauds agitators from Antifa and Black Lives Matter as "peaceful protestors" whose anger justifies their violence. The Establishment branded protestors who breached Capitol security Jan. 6 as treasonous to link them to Trump, whom the House's impeachment managers accused of inciting insurrection.

But when Schoen spoke Feb. 12, he used the managers' own video against them. Trump's lawyers took parts of that video, which contained shots of the Capitol chaos and edited versions of Trump's comments that day, and compared it to Trump's complete remarks in their full context.

"Words matter, they told you, but they selectively edited the President's words over and over again," Schoen said. "They manipulated video, time-shifting clips and made it appear the President's words were playing to a crowd when they weren't."

More importantly, Schoen showed how impeachment managers altered tweets to make them say what the managers wanted them to say.  A photo in the New York Times showed Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, the lead manager, examining two tweets. In one, Trump retweeted a statement expressing support. In the other, that supporter thanked Trump and reiterated her support.

But the timestamp on both tweets showed "2020," not "2021." Worse, the supporter's account in the photo showed a blue checkmark indicating verification -- which does not appear in the original account. 

"The hatred that the House managers and others on the Left have for President Trump has driven them to skip the basic elements of due process, and fairness, and to rush an impeachment through the House, claiming, 'urgency,' " Schoen said. "But the House waited to deliver the articles to the Senate for almost two weeks, only after Democrats had secured control over the Senate."

That hatred also motivates Big Media and Big Tech to indulge in "fake news," as Trump calls it. Though he made the term popular, "liberals were first to heavily promote use of the phrase referring to conservative disinformation and right-wing websites," Attkisson said.

In September 2016, a non-profit group, First Draft, announced "a partnership to tackle malicious hoaxes and fake news reports," Attkisson said. "The goal was supposedly to separate wheat from chaff, to prevent unproven conspiracy talk from figuring prominently in internet searches."

As Lindell and many others know, the powers-that-be determine what "chaff" is. Facts and proof just get in their way. 

So, who created First Draft? Google, through its parent company, Alphabet, whose executive chairman, Eric Schmidt, ranked among former President Barack Obama's major donors. In 2016, Schmidt "devoted himself," Attkisson said, to helping Hillary Clinton's campaign.

"His company funded First Draft around the start of the election cycle," Attkisson said. "Not surprisingly, Hillary was soon to jump aboard the anti-fake news train. Her surrogate, David Brock of Media Matters, privately told donors he was the one who convinced Facebook to join the effort."

For information consumers, the lesson is clear.

"Be aware when interests attack an issue by controversializing or attacking the people, personalities, and organizations surrounding it rather than addressing the facts," Attkisson said. "Most of all, astroturfers tend to reserve all of their public skepticism for those exposing wrongdoing rather than the wrongdoers.

"In other words, instead of questioning authority, they question those who question authority."

While questioning those who question authority -- risking potentially devastating lawsuits in the process -- colluding interests from disparate fields inadvertently pose a powerful question:

What if the "conspiracy" is real?


TOPICS: Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: censorship; davidbrock; facebook; firstamendment; google; mediamatters; mikelindell
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1 posted on 02/23/2021 7:41:34 AM PST by SJackson
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To: SJackson

The real power of the media/big tech monopoly was on full display here on FR with all the posts about Ted Cruz’s poodle.

Constitutional conservatives understand that a US Senator has nothing to do with the administration of a power grid beyond rules or policies that impact the entire nation.

People prone to gaslighting and diversionary media tactics do not understand this.

In the end, even Cruz folded like a cheap suit. “They” have enormous power and they know how to wield it because we do not resist.

“They” successfully spun two news cycles about Cruz instead of Cuomo, Biden’s unpopular mandates and nominees, the pending immigration train wreck, school openings, and the failure of green energy to meet the needs of Texas during a severe cold snap.

It is so obvious, yet here we are..... the next diversionary gas lighting is right around the corner. Just watch.


2 posted on 02/23/2021 7:48:59 AM PST by volunbeer (Find the truth and accept it - anything else is delusional)
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To: SJackson

“Power is always dangerous. Power attracts the worst and corrupts the best.” Edward Abbey


3 posted on 02/23/2021 7:49:57 AM PST by SMARTY (“"Rancor is an outpouring of a feeling of inferiority." Ortega y Gasset)
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To: SJackson; SunkenCiv; governsleastgovernsbest

Bookmarked. Thank you.


4 posted on 02/23/2021 7:53:05 AM PST by Robert A Cook PE (Method, motive, and opportunity: No morals, shear madness and hatred by those who cheat.)
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To: SJackson

Unless State sort out the Election Day Fiasco, the GOP can forget ever winning back the Congress, Senate or Presidency.


5 posted on 02/23/2021 8:00:11 AM PST by FreedBird
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To: volunbeer

I just read an article that someone or some group-—undoubtedly Dimmocommie—has hired a Mariachi band to surround Cruz’s home and drive his family crazy by playing loud Mexican music endlessly. This is how tyrants push people to be under their thumb, attacking them not only at the office, but at their home, which is supposed to be the ultimate sanctuary. Dimmocommies never worry about ethics, the no-no of playing dirty, or exhibiting any other shred of decency.


6 posted on 02/23/2021 8:03:38 AM PST by EinNYC
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To: SJackson

The Omega Conspiracy
Thomas

As in the Days of Noah
As in the Days of Lot

The Messiah’s words.


7 posted on 02/23/2021 8:04:51 AM PST by Varsity Flight ( "War by the prophesies set before you." I Timothy 1:18)
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To: SJackson
These tactics being used by the deep state and Biden Administration are commie tactics.

Commies pull off power grabs by pushing the lie they'll be the 'lost parents of our childhood' who will give to us without taking. Who will 'distribute' family wealth evenly and fairly among all the children and protect us.

The truth of communism is they'll murder your bother, rape and torture your sister and starve one of your parents to death.

The biggest "Nigerian Scam" from hell the world as ever seen is Communism.

8 posted on 02/23/2021 8:14:26 AM PST by GOPJ (Was Jussie Smollett working for "Homeland Security" when he faked a hate crime?)
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To: SJackson

The thing I find disturbing is the war on cows. I swear this is about trying to destroy demand for beef which will drive vast tracts of grassland down in price. I do think that pretty much any weird Lefty thing we are seeing in this country today boils down to an attempted land grab by psychopaths who are well beyond the cracking a few eggs to make an omelette phase.

Riots- drive down real estate prices in expensive areas.

Unchecked immigration- empties out developing world land, making acquisition easier.

Veganism- causes cognitive decline and frees up farmland.

War on cows- frees up farmland.


9 posted on 02/23/2021 8:16:23 AM PST by BlackAdderess (IMO Congress is a symptom whereas K Street is the problem)
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To: BlackAdderess

Look at who owns the most farm land now.

And their statements on the future of meat based protein.

Love it or lump it, they have the money to force this.


10 posted on 02/23/2021 8:20:16 AM PST by redgolum (If this culture today is civilization, I will be the barbarian)
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To: redgolum

Having the money doesn’t seem to meet their desire to get the best price possible with no consideration given to social cost. Destroying the ability for entire populations to obtain needed nutrients to prevent cognitive problems kills the future. Slash and burn. Thats what we are dealing with.

This is not a job for individuals, this is a job for government.


11 posted on 02/23/2021 8:35:28 AM PST by BlackAdderess (IMO Congress is a symptom whereas K Street is the problem)
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To: redgolum

They might have the money, but government of the people, by the people, and for the people have to back their legitimacy and the money itself for this all to be a done deal. There actually are a number of ways to shut this crap down.


12 posted on 02/23/2021 8:39:52 AM PST by BlackAdderess (IMO Congress is a symptom whereas K Street is the problem)
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To: SJackson

“What if the “conspiracy” is real?”

Of course the conspiracy is real.

How long will we have to wait for people to catch up this time?

And do we have that much time?


13 posted on 02/23/2021 8:44:58 AM PST by dsc (Evil doesn’t have a day job.)
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To: SJackson

I have a question for anyone. What is the difference between “astroturf” and gaslight”?


14 posted on 02/23/2021 9:19:36 AM PST by caver
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To: caver
For what it's worth, slang definition from wiki.

Astroturfing is the practice of masking the sponsors of a message or organization (e.g., political, advertising, religious or public relations) to make it appear as though it originates from and is supported by grassroots participants.

Gaslighting is a form of psychological manipulation in which a person or a group covertly sows seeds of doubt in a targeted individual or group, making them question their own memory, perception, or judgment.


15 posted on 02/23/2021 11:12:57 AM PST by SJackson (If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun...folks in Philly like a good brawl, BH Obama)
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To: EinNYC

The joke could be on them, he might like Mariachi music.


16 posted on 02/23/2021 11:14:31 AM PST by SJackson (If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun...folks in Philly like a good brawl, BH Obama)
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To: SJackson

Oh OK, an organization verses an individual.
I’m still confused. the MSM media has been accused of gaslighting the public.


17 posted on 02/23/2021 2:27:58 PM PST by caver
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To: SJackson
In a matter of just five days, two separate incidents demonstrated the collusion used by the powers-that-be to control thought.

Can't say we weren't warned...


 



 
Eerily familiar...
 
 

Party ownership of the print media
made it easy to manipulate public opinion,
and the film and radio carried the process further.


 



16. Ministry Of Truth

.......

The Ministry of Truth, Winston's place of work, contained, it was said, three thousand rooms above ground level, and corresponding ramifications below.

The Ministry of Truth concerned itself with Lies. Party ownership of the print media made it easy to manipulate public opinion, and the film and radio carried the process further.

The primary job of the Ministry of Truth was to supply the citizens of Oceania with newspapers, films, textbooks, telescreen programmes, plays, novels - with every conceivable kind of information, instruction, or entertainment, from a statue to a slogan, from a lyric poem to a biological treatise, and from a child's spelling-book to a Newspeak dictionary.

Winston worked in the RECORDS DEPARTMENT (a single branch of the Ministry of Truth) editing and writing for The Times. He dictated into a machine called a speakwrite. Winston would receive articles or news-items which for one reason or another it was thought necessary to alter, or, in Newspeak, rectify. If, for example, the Ministry of Plenty forecast a surplus, and in reality the result was grossly less, Winston's job was to change previous versions so the old version would agree with the new one. This process of continuous alteration was applied not only to newspapers, but to books, periodicals, pamphlets, posters, leaflets, films, sound-tracks, cartoons, photographs - to every kind of literature or documentation which might conceivably hold any political or ideological significance.

When his day's work started, Winston pulled the speakwrite towards him, blew the dust from its mouthpiece, and put on his spectacles. He dialed 'back numbers' on the telescreen and called for the appropriate issues of The Times, which slid out of the pneumatic tube after only a few minutes' delay. The messages he had received referred to articles or news-items which for one reason or another it was thought necessary to rectify.

In the walls of the cubicle there were three orifices. To the right of the speakwrite, a small pneumatic tube for written messages; to the left, a larger one for newspapers; and on the side wall, within easy reach of Winston's arm, a large oblong slit protected by a wire grating. This last was for the disposal of waste paper. Similar slits existed in thousands or tens of thousands throughout the building, not only in every room but at short intervals in every corridor. For some reason they were nicknamed memory holes. When one knew that any document was due for destruction, or even when one saw a scrap of waste paper lying about, it was an automatic action to lift the flap of the nearest memory hole and drop it in, whereupon it would be whirled away on a current of warm air to the enormous furnaces which were hidden somewhere in the recesses of the building.

As soon as Winston had dealt with each of the messages, he clipped his speakwritten corrections to the appropriate copy of The Times and pushed them into the pneumatic tube. Then, with a movement which was as nearly as possible unconscious, he crumpled up the original message and any notes that he himself had made, and dropped them into the memory hole to be devoured by the flames.

What happened in the unseen labyrinth to which the tubes led, he did not know in detail, but he did know in general terms. As soon as all the corrections which happened to be necessary in any particular number of The Times had been assembled and collated, that number would be reprinted, the original copy destroyed, and the corrected copy placed on the files in its stead.

In the cubicle next to him the little woman with sandy hair toiled day in day out, simply at tracking down and deleting from the Press the names of people who had been vaporized and were therefore considered never to have existed. And this hall, with its fifty workers or thereabouts, was only one-sub-section, a single cell, as it were, in the huge complexity of the Records Department. Beyond, above, below, were other swarms of workers engaged in an unimaginable multitude of jobs.

There were huge printing-shops and their sub editors, their typography experts, and their elaborately equipped studios for the faking of photographs. There was the tele-programmes section with its engineers, its producers and its teams of actors specially chosen for their skill in imitating voices; clerks whose job was simply to draw up lists of books and periodicals which were due for recall; vast repositories where the corrected documents were stored; and the hidden furnaces where the original copies were destroyed.

And somewhere or other, quite anonymous, there were the directing brains who co-ordinated the whole effort and laid down the lines of policy which made it necessary that this fragment of the past should be preserved, that one falsified, and the other rubbed out of existence.

 
 


18 posted on 02/24/2021 4:18:03 AM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: caver
I have a question for anyone. What is the difference between “astroturf” and gaslight”?


The Great Oz says:
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroturfing
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaslighting
 

19 posted on 02/24/2021 4:25:34 AM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: SJackson

This time I REALLY needed to read ahead!!


20 posted on 02/24/2021 4:27:15 AM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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