Month: February 2023

The media had 100% fell short on the Jeffrey Epstein story. The way the media covered the Epstein story, particularly in the early stages, had a significant impact on how the public understood the scope and severity of his crimes. Back in the early 2000s, there were two teenage girls who reported Epstein to the FBI because they couldn’t report to the local police where they were from due to the crimes being committed in another state. The FBI didn’t do a thing when they called and reported that they were assaulted. After that, the girls went to Vanity Fair to try to get the story out about what had happened, but the story was never released. Instead, a piece was written about how Epstein was this mystery man billionaire, and highlighted all of his elite friends and lavish lifestyle. In the years that followed, Epstein’s crimes received relatively little media attention, despite ongoing investigations and legal proceedings. It wasn’t until 2018, when the Miami Herald published an explosive investigative report on Epstein’s alleged sex trafficking ring, that the story gained widespread attention. The media’s coverage of the Epstein case has been criticized for downplaying the severity of his crimes and focusing too much on his wealth and connections. Some have also accused the media of failing to hold powerful people, who may have been involved in Epstein’s crimes, accountable.

China has been using various communication channels to influence the beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors of a target audience. They are trying to push promoting a particular ideology, undermining the credibility of an opponent, or mobilizing support for a cause. The American people are already compromised with information that China has. There have been various reports and allegations of cyber attacks and intellectual property theft by Chinese hackers against US government agencies, companies, and individuals. Some of these attacks have reportedly targeted sensitive information related to military, economic, and technological capabilities of the US. The goal for China is to have a “military campaign against the United States to convince Americans to give up their society.”

“Through such operations, the American people were led to believe for years that the United States was winning in Vietnam, when it was actually losing, as the Pentagon Papers proved,” (Durden). Just from this alone, people can see that the government can use the media for lies whenever they want. When a government attempts to manipulate or control the media, it undermines the free flow of information that is essential to a healthy democracy. From the text, it is evident that the American people are constantly being told lies and having information kept from them. A government has a responsibility to provide accurate and truthful information to its citizens, and using the media to deceive or mislead the public is a violation of that responsibility.

“The Twitter Files show that there is a serious trust issue in the media environment, which is extremely dangerous at a moment when we pursue some common ground on historically controversial issues such as climate change and vaccination policies,” (Feltri). The public’s opinion and level of faith in the government’s reaction to the pandemic were significantly shaped by the information and updates about government policy that were shared via Twitter. From the information the people now know, it just adds to how hard it is to trust media and government. If the government operates in a way that is not transparent or accountable, it can be difficult for people to trust it. This is especially prevalent in this case from all the information censorship and attempts to keep information under wraps.

Here comes one of his ghosts to torture me. For carefully bringing in wood. I’ll be a failure. Maybe he won’t mind if I bother him. Caliban, a character who is frequently seen as a symbol of the colonial peoples of the New World, makes his debut in Act 2 of William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest.” The exploitation and tyranny of colonized peoples might be compared to Prospero’s subjection of Caliban, who is thought to symbolize the colonial powers. “I’ll show thee the best springs. I’ll pluck thee berries. I’ll fish for thee and get thee wood enough. A plague upon the tyrant that I serve,” (Act II Scene II). The concept of exploitation and subjugation can be used to make a connection to Shoshana Zuboff’s book “The Age of Surveillance Capitalism.” According to Zuboff, the leading tech corporations have made their fortunes by secretly gathering and analyzing enormous volumes of consumer personal data. This is similar to the way that colonizing powers exploited the resources and labor of colonized peoples for their own benefit. With the help of targeted advertising and other behavioral manipulation techniques, this data is subsequently used to turn consumers into a marketable commodity. “It is no longer enough to automate information flows about us; the goal now is to automate us,” (Zuboff 14). Whether it is Prospero or the computer industry, those in power oppress both Caliban and the current internet user and use them for their labor or data. Claims of superiority or necessity, such as Prospero’s assertion that he is educating and civilizing Caliban or tech corporations’ assertion that their services are necessary to modern life, are used to justify the exploitation. Why these power relations are so dangerous can be partially explained by the psychology of totalitarianism. Totalitarian governments rely on complete population control, frequently accomplished via the employment of propaganda and other psychological tactics. Similar to how the internet firms in “The Age of Surveillance Capitalism” exploit customers with targeted advertising and other psychological tricks. Individual autonomy and independence may be lost as a result of these strategies when people have a greater propensity to react to other pressures. Even if he finally fails, Caliban struggles against Prospero’s rule and makes an effort to assert his own independence in “The Tempest.” Resistance to authoritarian governments frequently includes this fight for autonomy as well.

Have you, Spirit, carried out my instructions for you to point the storm? And as you said, I have spread them over the island in armies. I came to the King’s son by myself. These lines come from separate areas of the text in Act 1, but they correlate directly with each other. The lines come from Prospero and from this, an argument can be made that the storm was whipped up by Prospero and he wants to regain his power by using control and manipulation to the others on the island. The readings from Zuboff and Desmet, and the video from Kuhn also relate to control and manipulation. Prospero’s actions can be seen as a metaphor for how businesses use technology and data to manage and sway customers. Businesses utilize data and algorithms to forecast and shape consumer behavior, much as Prospero does to influence others. Using data and technology, corporations in contemporary society have the ability to manipulate and control people. This is comparable to Zuboff’s claim that businesses affect people’s behavior and develop new systems of exploitation and control by using the data they collect. According to Zuboff, businesses are exploiting this data to build new types of exploitation and control, just like Prospero does in the play to influence and control the other characters on the island. Zuboff’s concept of “surveillance capitalism,” which she characterizes as a new economic system that depends on the collecting and analysis of personal data to develop targeted advertising and influence behavior, is also fundamentally based on the concepts of control and manipulation. The first act of The Tempest and The Psychology of Totalitarianism also both deal with the concept of power and control. Similar to how totalitarian governments utilize propaganda and manipulation to keep control over their citizens, Prospero in the play is able to use his magic to manipulate and control the other characters. “The entirety of human subjectivity becomes an insignificant by-product of mechanistic processes,” (20). From this perspective you can see that humanity does not matter, everything can be boiled down to simple particles that interact in accordance with the law of mechanics. Lastly, the first act of The Tempest shares ideas of change and transition with the Kuhn “paradigm shift” video. The Kuhn video demonstrates how scientific paradigms can change and evolve over time, leading to new ways of understanding the world, just as the play reflects a transition from the old order to the new. This idea can also be extended to how businesses and governments are reshaping social control structures and power dynamics through the use of new technologies and data collection. For instance, the emergence of new technologies like the internet and social media has created significant difficulties for governments in policing the spread of knowledge and ideas. In reaction, many governments have changed how they exercise their control, using methods such as censorship, propaganda, and monitoring.

Kennedy examines the role of the pharmaceutical industry in the development of the COVID-19 pandemic. He argues that the pharmaceutical industry has been complicit in the spread of the virus, as well as in the development of the vaccine. Kennedy argues that the pharmaceutical industry has been able to capitalize on the pandemic by creating a “vaccine-industrial complex” that has allowed them to reap huge profits from the sale of vaccines. Anthony Fauci learned at the dawn of his career that pandemics and fake pandemics provide opportunity to expand bureaucracy’s power and to multiply the wealth of it’s pharma partners. The chapter exposes Fauci for who he really is and shows he doesn’t care about the well being of people. Kennedy details Fauci’s status as a typical bureaucratic crisis-monger and serial liar in. Kennedy claims that Fauci and others at the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention consistently clog the committees that decide whether to allow the marketing of all of these experimental drugs with individuals who have ties to Big Pharma or who are currently executives for one or more pharmaceutical companies. Everything is rigged, and the lying mainstream media, which receives millions or billions in advertising revenue from Big Pharma, has repeatedly repeated mountains of lies throughout the entire process.

Although doctors and public health officials have emphasized the value of booster shots to maintain immunity to the virus, some people have expressed worries about the price, availability, and potential side effects. This is not supporting the mainstream media narrative to get the booster shot because it is completely safe. The mainstream media has pushed the narrative that if you don’t get the vaccine or the booster, you will be at a higher risk to get COVID which is not necessarily true. Experts don’t know all the information to know this stuff. Vaccines usually take years to perfect and be safe, so the uncertainty of the vaccine and booster have to be talked about more. The choice to get a booster shot should ultimately be made based on the patient’s unique situation, medical history, and competent medical guidance. Being forced to get the vaccine or booster because it’s mandated for a job, school, or sport is ridiculous and shouldn’t be the case. https://www.self.com/story/controversy-covid-19-vaccine-booster-shots

The video with Dr. Aaron Kheriaty is a timely and important reminder of the dangers of technocracy and the need to protect the Hippocratic Oath and the Nuremberg Code. I learned of the potential risks of self-spreading vaccines, transhumanist ideology, and government gag orders, all of which threaten the ethical principles of medicine and the safety of patients. This information is very credible because it is a warning for what could be. Self-spreading vaccines are a new technology that could potentially be used to vaccinate large populations quickly and efficiently. However, this technology raises serious ethical concerns, as it could be used to manipulate people without their knowledge or consent. Transhumanist ideology is another potential threat to the Hippocratic Oath and the Nuremberg Code. It could lead to a situation where people are treated as objects and their autonomy is disregarded. Gag orders are another potential threat, it could lead to medical professionals being unable to speak out about important issues, which can have serious implications for patient safety. From my searches on Google and DuckDuckGo it seems Dr. Aaron Kheriaty is someone who has very strong beliefs and won’t back down. UC Irvine fired him because of his refusal to get vaccinated. He has the best interest of the people in mind and I don’t doubt anything.

Dr. Steven Nissen called for an immediate halt to the rollout of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine due to its potential link to rare blood clots. He argues that the risk of these clots is too great to ignore and that the vaccine should not be administered until further research is conducted. Dr. Nissen seemed to be one of the only ones who cared about the well being of people, as the EPOCH article discusses emails that were released by the FDA show that the agency rushed the approval of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine in order to enable vaccine mandates. The emails also suggest that the FDA was aware of the potential risks associated with the vaccine, but chose to approve it anyway. It is hard to trust anyone when it comes to information about COVID. CDC officials who had spread misinformation about the coronavirus pandemic have apologized after it was revealed that the source of the false data was not from public emails, but from a private source. It is important to note that this is not the first time the CDC has been accused of spreading misinformation about the virus. In the early days of the pandemic, the CDC was accused of downplaying the severity of the virus and of providing inaccurate information about the spread of the virus. Several other organizations, including the World Health Organization, have been accused of providing false or misleading information about the virus.