Naming the Elephant in the Room

41  2017-08-31 by torkarl

A few days ago I made an impassioned shout out to all the people who lived through the last year on r/conspiracy and paid attention. I referenced the iconic post of a new form of protest.

My post pointed out the huge propaganda backlash that was created by all the mini-conspiracies spawned during and after the 2016 election cycle.

This is my report back to you:

1800 views. 72% upvoted. 107 comments.

Out of those 107 comments, I can count only 9 direct responses (good, bad, or in-between) that honestly responded to my actual point about there being a huge backlash that changes the tone of discussion here.

That means - if I am right - this single post caught 98 comments intended to do exactly the thing I called out - blow smoke on a serious discussion. Thats 91% of comments in the post that may well be ultimately aimed at derailing the discussion.

See for yourselves.

Dancing Around the Elephant in the Room

I call the propaganda threads out as sliders. I think they are specifically aimed to slide off one topic (the backlash) and into another (drumpf, russia, jews, etc).

Details and slider spots in my op posts below.

EDIT: phraseology

37 comments

Solid work OP, but we cannot outwork the shill farms.

Open Source software is astronomically more important now than fully licensed expensive software from a Big Corp. We are Linux, they are Windows.

we cannot outwork the shill farms.

Fuck that. Don't say or think or feel that.

Truth always wins in the end. Doesn't matter that the going might be tough in the process.

Keep fighting.

I disagree "truth" wins in the end. I think truth typically loses and the liars (winners) win the wars and get to tell everyone else what the truth is so we end up believing lies as truth and we think the truth won, but it didnt.

Do you know why truth doesnt win? because good is dumb and plays by the rules.

You described what you did because you’re not looking at the end.

We haven’t gotten to the end.

Don’t think we have.

And until we do, you cannot cast judgement upon what that end will be based uno how things have been.

I don’t deny that there is a lot of resistance. Of course. However, don’t think for a second that just because the dark side may have an upper hand here and there that this means that truth doesn’t win in the end.

Truth DOES win in the end.

You’re going to die. I’m going to die. They’re going to die.

Everyone’s going to die - physically-speaking anyway. And upon that moment will a lot of things get answered that currently remain hidden.

The bullshit that occurs right now/right here today is not nor will it be as strong as what occurs upon the moment of your shedding this physical vehicle.

If you think about things superficially and in the here and now only, then perhaps you might think that “we have lost” or that “they have gotten the upper hand”.

I don’t think about things in such ways, however.

It’s about perspective, ultimately.

Do you know why truth doesnt win? because good is dumb and plays by the rules.

This comment shows that you know what neither truth is nor what good or “playing by the rules” is either.

TPTB are “playing by the rules”. You just don’t understand that those rules are cosmic and quite a lot grander and more vast than what you have any idea about.

In your current state of limitation you won’t be able to “outwork the shill farms” or properly fight. In your current state of limitation, you think the way you described here - that “good is dumb”.

Expand your perspective and understand that even TPTB and all the things they do which can legitimately be considered horrible present opportunities for you to evolve your identity and become a better and stronger and more intelligent and evolved being.

You can’t give up and resign yourself to as horribly defeatist an attitude as you are presenting here, however.

I like your post and I am willing to believe you as soon as you provide some proof.

You don't have to believe anything. Matter of fact, I encourage you to not believe anything. "Belief" is weak. It's what people cling to when they don't have an actual intelligent assessment of a thing.

Stay away from it. Strive for knowledge. Go for data. Think critically in your life, and arrive at the best perspectives you can about existence and the cosmos around you.

Also make sure and question what it is you take in as and call "proof". You may find that actual reality is a lot more difficult to categorize and pin down than that which you can "prove" via the conventional human channels. Those channels are themselves often faulty. There are a lot of very real phenomena in existence that defy what in simple human terms can be "proven". If you spend your life tied only to that which falls under what convention says you can "prove", then you will miss out on a lot of very real phenomena.

I've questioned everything, now I believe nothing.

No problem with questioning. It is important to know when one's arrived at an answer and further questioning is no longer necessary, however. That part's important too. Not saying you don't know or do this, mind you. Just saying questioning alone is nothing to necessarily hang one's hat upon.

It is a good thing to do in context, however.

And as inferior as belief certainly is to actually knowing, I have to admit that it's sometimes an inevitable step on the way toward knowing. Therefore, and as such, we have to be careful not to entirely disavow that particular aspect of cognizance. Stay away from unnecessary belief - yes - i.e. that belief which can ultimately be illuminated by actual knowledge. However, also understand that there are some circumstances where, being the very limited, still developing, work-in-progress organisms that we are, complete and total knowledge of a thing might need to be temporarily eschewed while we accrue additional data from elsewhere.

Cheers,

Dont allow yourself to become demoralized, that's the ultimate goal. Study metaphysics, occult philosophy. There is Truth out there to be found.

Are the 91% all shills or are some of them just stupid r/conspiracy subscribers? Every sub has some.

I wonder the same thing. It's hard to tell a lot of the time.

But when real users fall for an obvious distraction, they win.

Where's the conspiracy, OP?

s/

The conspiracy is that r/conspiracy began looking at a lot of strange things that led from the email releases by Wikileaks. They did their usual treatment: "Gray aliens abduct Hollywood actress and impregnates her." I mean, it's tabloid stuff. Everybody was ready and willing to blow it off as classic 4chan bullshit.

Next thing you know, NOBODY can talk about that abducted actress!

The conspiracy is this: Very strange and alarming claims emerge, which every sane person hopes are not factual in any way, and they are NEITHER refuted convincingly NOR ignored completely. They are made impossible to have any discussion about.

I am standing up and saying the obvious.

I'm on your side, OP. I watched your other post and noted the fuckery. My (bad) joke was just preemptive of the shills that were about to derail your point. Thank you for putting together a true illustration of what is going on around here.

Seriously. Wikileaks is a treasure trove, a conspiracy theorists fucking wet dream... i cant believe i dont see nore discussion about it here. It has especially died down post-PG-ban. But man, Pedosta has an email regarding free energy and aliens, for fuck's sake. The guy was Bill Clinton's former chief of staff, iirc! You have to dig through this sub now to find any real discussion. It used to just be the blatant anti-semitic posts that attempted to "discredit" discussion on here, not it's overren with ShareBlue, CTR, and other crossover from "mainstream" reddit, who will downvote you for not buying into a DeepState-produced conspiracy theory Sad, this place used to be a great place for discussion.

We need to stand up.

Figure out how to keep our conspiracy discussions and not be out-foxed by thought police.

If one small online community of free thinkers - a tiny sliver of reddit's massive base - really threatens the stability of the most powerful organized entity on the planet - the planet has some serious stability problems!

You would think your anonymous discussion on a web forum would be inconsequential, until you realize that there are entire multi-million dollar companies dedicated to influencing said discussions towards a certain agenda (ShareBlue, CorrectTheRecord, MediaMatters, etc).

Quick Analysis on the threads that seemed off-topic or only relevant to a small sector:

Start of Thread: Your entire post seems more like dancing around the issue than anything the "deep state" or "controlled media" is doing. 7 comments. This is me playing, but I'm pretty sure the user wanted this post to die. Best quote: "I didn't tip any ships, or rock any boats, you did."

Start of Thread: The true elephant in the room rhymes with shoes. 15 comments. Don't we all just love to be connected to radical anti-semitism? Best quote: "I don't want to kill all Jews."

Start of Thread: Personally, I think it's a mistake to believe that just because most people in the government hate Trump, that means there is some "deep state" plot to discredit him 13 comments

Start of Thread: Meanwhile, we know for a fact that Russia set up a massive propaganda network in the US to help discredit Clinton. What are you referring to? 63 comments This kind of started out as a regular discussion but then just spiraled out of all reason with almost all those comments "exchanged" between two users who had a remarkably detailed interest in the Russia coverup ...ummm... coverup.

Best quote: "I don't want to kill all Jews."

Why post this quote completely out of context? The other user provoked with "just say you want to kill Jews."

Exactly. When you have to say that sentence in a serious thread, something's seriously wrong. Nobody should ever be talking about killing Jews or anybody else.

Because I see so many threads that seem to intentionally make the discussion about anti-semite extremism, when there is no hint of that to start with.

It's like tainting the post so every normal person who doesn't even think about killing Jews feels terrible for having stumbled into your scary world.

Hmmm

I'm guessing this was the Elephant you named? http://imgur.com/a/vqZp5

That issue is the full-out response from deep state, controlled media, with an unprecedented, insane, never-before-seen level of propaganda and disinformation regarding that single, multi-faceted line of inquiry into how exactly the intended candidate for POTUS missed it, and we ended up with the guy who was built up in order to lose it.

Frankly, think about how much people care about Mitt Romney. He was the last presidential nominee that failed. The answer is not many.

Instead they chose to react clumsily, unconvincingly, and to flat-out deny and censor it. Now they are doubling down in every direction. Why, why, why?

Beyond Clinton herself and a few of her close friends have you seen anyone or any media advocating for her to be president? Was there any recount besides Wisconsin(By state law a recount was mandatory due to less then 1% difference in vote)? Who keeps bringing up that illegal aliens cost him the popular vote? Who keeps handing out maps of all the states he won during the election? Who made the Election Fraud Commission?

There's something in common in my paragraph above. The real Elephant in the room is Trumpian propaganda to blame all the negative press he gets as an attempt of TPTB to elevate Clinton. You won't even get any Clinton love beyond she was better then Trump in /r/politics. Make her stand trail for her crimes, but stop using it as some TPTB excuse for Trump.

Why do you insist this issue is even about how you or me stand on politics? (You could find out if you tried)

I'm interested in conspiracies. Some conspiracies involve politics.

Sometimes it becomes important for political operatives to stamp out political conspiracies. Is that what you want? Do you want all the skull-duggery that emerged during this last season, and is landing on page one as we type, to just evaporate?

Because that is exactly what you implied in your writing. That media which is critical of Trump is propaganda because their candidate did not get elected.

multi-faceted line of inquiry into how exactly the intended candidate for POTUS missed it

Now in this post,

this single post caught 98 comments intended to do exactly the thing I called out - blow smoke on a serious discussion.

I'm responding with my opinion that the reason you had little discussion is because of my points in my last post. No one besides Trump and his propaganda cares that she lost anymore. That propaganda is the real conspiracy and you're biting right into the apple.

So once someone is no longer directly involved in politics we should just forget about anything they may have done wrong?

Make her stand trail for her crimes, but stop using it as some TPTB excuse for Trump.

No one besides Trump and his propaganda cares that she lost anymore.

Please inform me where I said we should forget about wrongness once they are done in politics.

You should have included the rest of that sentence you quoted:

...and ended up giving it (the election) to the guy who was built up to lose it

That's hardly a ringing endorsement of the current POTUS. We all knew (except t_d diehards and even some of them) that Trump was just barely, a tiny bit, cleaner than Mrs C. He was a laughable candidate from the start. So how did he win? How did four blue-wall states turn?

And in the immortal words of Nachem the Beggar, "Why should we suffer?" Let us talk. Don't censor free speech.

You're upset that most of the commenters didn't agree with you or say what you wanted them to.

most of the commenters didn't agree with you

Yes. That's the point. Now explain a 72% upvate.

1800 views? That's a damn shame. When I saw it, I really hoped that it would be seen by 100x that number.

What exactly made that 'new form of protest' post "iconic"?

Easy to answer that: real old-school "the people's voice" style protests have been infiltrated and turned into media propaganda events.

So a different form of protest is needed to say "you cannot steal our resistance."

That's what these posts are about - the ability to have a voice in this particular forum without being subverted.

I think we have different meanings of iconic posts.

The elephant in the room is always Ganesha and he will win.

Yes, but Ganesha is benevolent. We could use more of that.

That means - if I am right - this single post caught 98 comments intended to do exactly the thing I called out - blow smoke on a serious discussion. Thats 91% of comments in the post that may well be ultimately aimed at derailing the discussion.

Sounds accurate to me. Only thing is: your post there has 3000+ points. That means you hit r/all. And r/all always brings in bad actors. The comments are a good example of the kind of thing you are talking about, but those commenters are not the same ones we have causing trouble throughout the rest of the sub. The invading brigaders who go into less upvoted topics are a different beast, even if their tactics frequently resemble those other jerks coming in from r/all.