Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Propaganda and Fear Turns Free People into Bugs
Townhall.com ^ | February 7, 2022 | Will Alexander

Posted on 02/07/2022 4:15:31 AM PST by Kaslin

Democrats and leftists are using propaganda and fear about COVID, climate change, cancel culture, crime, and color so effectively that many no longer need new laws, mandates, or threats to fall in line.

They’re being trained like elephants and fleas to act like processionary caterpillars.

Elephants can grow to 13 feet tall, weigh up to seven tons, and their trunks alone are packed with 40,000 muscles (the human body has 600). But if you train an elephant early enough, it can be conditioned to believe that a flimsy rope tied around its leg to a stake in the ground is unbreakable.

Fleas are wingless insects with powerful hind legs that can jump up to 150 times their body length. If you put them in a jar and screw a lid on, they’ll bang their heads against the lid over and over again to escape. But after three days, the head-banging stops and they’ll only jump to just below the level of the lid. That’s the sign that their wills are broken. Even when you remove the lid, fleas capable of jumping 150 times their body length never attempt to escape the jar for the rest of their lives.

Worse, if they reproduce in the jar, their offspring – masterful jumpers by nature – will never jump above the level of the lid. Three days is all it takes to make a flea believe that escape is impossible.

Prolonged deception trains elephants and fleas – powerful by nature – to act like processionary caterpillars which, by nature, is one of Earth’s most slavish bugs.

French entomologist Jean-Henri Casimir Fabre (1823-1915) wanted to test just how sheep-like these critters could be. He arranged the caterpillars around the lip of a flowerpot until they followed each other in an unbroken circle, then he put their favorite food close enough for them to pick up the scent. Fabre watched for hours, then days, then a week as caterpillars dropped dead from exhaustion and starvation, with food just inches away.

“The caterpillars, in distress, starved, shelterless, chilled with cold at night, cling obstinately to the silk ribbon covered hundreds of times, because they lack the rudimentary glimmers of reason which would advise them to abandon it,” Fabre wrote in The Life of the Caterpillar. “The ordeal of a five hundred yards’ march and three to four hundred turns teach them nothing.”

Sound familiar?

The ordeal of seeing America destroyed, especially over the past two years, has taught processionary Democrats nothing. Despite the suffering caused by their repressive COVID response, defunding the police, institutionalizing a systemic black supremacy post-George Floyd, criminalizing political differences, weaponizing cancel culture, and deliberately facilitating the flow of millions of illegals across our borders – Democrats and leftists still cling obstinately to policies that are literally destroying people’s lives.

Worse, through propaganda and fear, Americans have been conditioned either to freely participate in the dismantling, to sit back and watch, or to just “tune out” altogether as institutions crumble. And as horrendous and dumb as Democrat-leftist propaganda is, it’s been effective because they keep it simple and the same tired slogans are repeated day-in and day-out, year after year by the leftist media, ignorant celebrities, pathological politicians, and left-leaning activists.

“You’re a white supremacist.” "You’re homophobic.” “You’re Islamophobic.” “My body, my choice.” “Black Lives Matter.” “Defund the police.” “America was founded on racism.” “Men can get pregnant.” “You’re a climate change denier.” “This is a pandemic of the unvaccinated.” “Climate change is an existential threat.” “Voter ID is voter suppression.” “No justice, no peace.” “Stay at home; save lives.” “It’s time for infrastructure equity.”

Knowingly or not, they’ve followed the playbook of Joseph Goebbels himself, chief propagandist of the Nazi Party. Here’s what he said about propaganda which explains in part how, over time, even the freest people who ever lived, can be deeply manipulated:

- “Propaganda works best when those who are being manipulated are confident they are acting on their own free will.”

- “This is the secret of propaganda: Those who are to be persuaded by it should be completely immersed in the ideas of the propaganda, without ever noticing that they are being immersed in it.”

- “...the rank and file are usually much more primitive than we imagine. Propaganda must therefore always be essentially simple and repetitious.”

- “The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly – it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over.”

- “Think of the press as a great keyboard on which the government can play.”

- “That propaganda is good which leads to success, and that is bad which fails to achieve the desired result. It is not propaganda’s task to be intelligent; its task is to lead to success.”

The slavish behavior toward overtly ridiculous policies can also be explained by the “Asch Conformity Experiment,” first conducted in the late ‘50s by gestalt psychologist Solomon Asch. The experiment demonstrated how quickly people will deny what they see with their own eyes and yield to group pressure. They yielded for two reasons: 1) They genuinely believed that the group knew better and, 2) They wanted to avoid the pain of being social outcasts.

Social psychologist Stanley Milgram took the Asch Conformity Experiment even further. A Jew, he wanted to account for group behavior that justified the butchery of the Holocaust. He conducted tests to see whether ordinary people would use shock to inflict pain on innocent people at the behest of an authority who told them it was for the greater good.

“The ordinary person who shocked the victim did so out of a sense of obligation,” Milgram wrote in 1974. “With numbing regularity, good people were seen to knuckle under to the demands of authority and perform actions that were callous and severe. Men who are in everyday life responsible and decent were seduced by the trappings of authority, by the control of their perceptions, and by the uncritical acceptance of the experimenter’s definition of the situation into performing harsh acts.”

As shocked as we are at how quickly America has deteriorated, it’s time for patriots to snap out of it. This is not an experiment. We are not elephants or bugs. Laws are openly being broken at every level of government, and real people have suffered, lost their livelihoods, and their lives. Unprecedented propaganda and fear are being used to paralyze people who would otherwise take action against truly dangerous and tyrannical policies.

Eventually, even some of Fabre’s caterpillars broke away to feast on pine needles and find their way home. But not before suffering exhaustion, cold and near-starvation after circling the pot 335 times for 84 hours.

There are signs that Americans have had enough of the division, fear, suffering, and propaganda. Because leftist policies are doomed to fail – as history has clearly shown – it’s only a matter of time when the America we all know will break away and find its way back home.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: america; animals; freedom; propaganda

1 posted on 02/07/2022 4:15:31 AM PST by Kaslin
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Kaslin
"...it’s only a matter of time when the America we all know will break away and find its way back home."

We better hurry...I'm running out of time.

2 posted on 02/07/2022 4:21:01 AM PST by blam
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin
It starts with propaganda aimed at stopping people from calling others out. Just take a look at how the Propaganda Media covers up for Democrat politicians - a useless bunch of misfits, losers, perverts, and grifters. The propaganda starts with trust in the media characters who are themselves also misfits, losers, perverts, and grifters.

You wouldn't invite any of them into your life yet people are conditioned to listen to them as though they are some kind of authority. The whole thing is confirmation of the Milgram Experiment.

People need to be red-pilled and embrace the idea of telling someone spouting Leftists Propaganda talking points and cancel culture to "just shut your effing mouth you jagoff".

3 posted on 02/07/2022 4:33:49 AM PST by T.B. Yoits
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

I am wondering if that toilet paper craze after the media showing repeated images of a person buying TP on TV was completely planned as a test of compliancy.

Note there was no hues and cries on TV about TP restraints like there is when people rush to buy gas or take money from the banks.

However, the elites are playing with fire here, because they have set up a liability fo dummed down populace to run on banks one of these days. All China has to do is snap fingers.


4 posted on 02/07/2022 4:36:10 AM PST by JudgemAll (Democrats Fed. job-security in hates:hypocrites must be gay like us or be tested/crucified)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: T.B. Yoits

I heard cocaine induces also a megalomania in its users as well as intimidates the sheep not on the devil drug.

Biden’s incoherent yet bully senility is the telltale sign of someone who takes garbage laced cocaine… not even the pure one. It turns the user to become gay and pedophile too.


5 posted on 02/07/2022 4:39:13 AM PST by JudgemAll (Democrats Fed. job-security in hates:hypocrites must be gay like us or be tested/crucified)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: blam

I’m running out of practice ammo ...


6 posted on 02/07/2022 4:49:03 AM PST by MHGinTN (A dispensation perspective is a powerful tool for discernment)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: MHGinTN

I no longer practice - I’m keeping it in reserve - hoping I never need it

Have a new .45 for concealed carry - though lately I’m unable to carry for a couple of reasons - main reason is because of where I work (no comment)

But knowingly or unknowingly, the sheep 🐑🐑🐑 are being conditioned for the arrival of the anti-messiah and ‘Peace and Security’.

As we both already know. 🤔

✝️✝️✝️🙏🙏🙏🛐🛐🛐


7 posted on 02/07/2022 4:57:37 AM PST by SaveFerris (The Lord, The Christ and The Messiah: Jesus Christ of Nazareth - http://www.BiblicalJesusChrist.Com/)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: JudgemAll
Remember, though, that the toilet paper craze was rooted in something that was real. Overall there was no “shortage” of toilet paper, but with businesses closed and people stuck in their homes the entire market and supply chains were completely out of kilter. With very little warning, we transformed to an environment where everyone was using toilet paper at home while hardly any was being used in office buildings, restaurants, and other commercial establishments.

So across much of the country you had grocery stores and convenience stores with no toilet paper in stock, while wholesalers that sold to commercial establishments had warehouses full of toilet paper they couldn’t sell.

8 posted on 02/07/2022 5:02:49 AM PST by Alberta's Child ("Mr. Potato Head ... Mr. Potato Head! Back doors are not secrets.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin
Hi, Kaslin. A very chilling article, thanks for posting. I experienced the reading like a Stephen King novel.

Democrats and leftists still cling obstinately to policies that are literally destroying people’s lives.

They do this because they wrongly believe that they themselves will escape the consequences along with the elites. Like Solzhenitsyn those Leftists must have their come-to-God moment. They will finally know the truth, just before the machine removes each one's head.

– it’s only a matter of time when the America we all know will break away and find its way back home.

I am always amazed to read such a clearly reasoned article that arrives at such a false conclusion. The entire article is written to tell us how elephants, fleas, caterpillars, and men are controlled, and that it is always -- always -- the scant remnant that escapes.

Come to Jesus.

9 posted on 02/07/2022 5:18:07 AM PST by .30Carbine
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

I was taught that when the rope is finally removed from the elephant’s ankle it continues to stand next to the stake.


10 posted on 02/07/2022 6:39:08 AM PST by yeff (Yuor biran has teh alibtiy to mkae oderr out of caohs)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

The propaganda is being deployed 24/7 by the security-agency controlled press, acting against America’s citizens, rather than against America’s enemies.

Even the young parents of today are requiring grandparents to be vaccinated before they can hold their grandchildren.

We are experiencing mind control and insanity from a murdering Fauci government.

Nothing about any of this adds up. Trump’s two fake impeachments and Russia Russia Russia. The FBI conspiring and succeeding in taking down the President, aided and abetted by the fake “Press”. All democrats dropping out of primaries while Fauci unleashed Coronavirus, lied about it, the very Criminal Mastermind Fauci who invented it being placed in charge of America responding to it, the fake “vaccine”, the insane lockdown, the Brandon fake presidential campaign run from his basement for pete’s sakes, the brazenly stolen election, the agents-provocateur fake insurrection Jan 6, the Iron Curtain erected against citizens in Washington, the Antifa riots going unpunished, the insane BLM violence looting and murder going unpunished, street thug criminal George Floyd becoming a saint for the Marxist left, the teaching of CRT racist anti-white race theory, the mobilizing of the FBI against parents who criticize Marxist schoolboards, the Russia Russia Russia campaign for war on Ukraine, the sex-drug-addict grifter Hunter Brandon and Brandon crime family ties to China and Ukraine, the handing over of Afghansitan of trillions of dollars of arms to Islamic terrorists, the 2 million plus invaders illegal aliens massing on and walking across the US southern border, the vilifying of protesting truckers, overt state police-state control in the USA, Canada and all over Western Europe, even Australia.

What is going on? None of this adds up.


11 posted on 02/07/2022 7:01:07 AM PST by FlyingEagle
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

Good analogies in this article.


12 posted on 02/07/2022 7:35:23 AM PST by Sans-Culotte (11/3-11/4/2020 - The USA became a banana republic.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Alberta's Child

“So across much of the country you had grocery stores and convenience stores with no toilet paper in stock, while wholesalers that sold to commercial establishments had warehouses full of toilet paper they couldn’t sell.”

Same was true of fresh produce and milk. Growers and dairies that shipped in bulk (like 10 gallon bags of milk) to restaurants and company cafeterias were stuck with it. They weren’t set up (yet) to ship it out in gallon jugs to the stores where it was needed.

Seemed like those logistics got figured out pretty quickly though.

I think the lack of workers now, 2 years later, is something much deeper. They can’t all still be living off government funds. Even decent paying positions go lacking. Had to go into the bank and waited an hour. There were two bank tellers (they must make okay money I would think). Well, one guy stayed at his teller position, and the other guy was running all over the place helping at the counter, taking care of the safe deposit boxes, and handling miscellaneous paperwork.


13 posted on 02/08/2022 12:51:45 AM PST by 21twelve (Ever Vigilant. Never Fearful.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: FlyingEagle

“We are experiencing mind control and insanity from a murdering Fauci government.”

I was telling my daughter how years ago (bird flu?) I was getting prepared and told her how supplies and businesses would be impacted.

1) Fear of lack of supplies so there are runs on stuff.
2) Lack of supplies because workers are sick.
3) Lack of supplies because workers are taking care of someone sick.
4) Lack of supplies because workers are afraid of getting sick.

What I did not anticipate was lack of workers due to governmental closures, government funds to people not working, and government vaccine mandates.

Like Reagan said, Government isn’t the solution - it is the problem.


14 posted on 02/08/2022 12:58:28 AM PST by 21twelve (Ever Vigilant. Never Fearful.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson