The Big Bamboozle

The Big Bamboozle

“… If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.” Carl Sagan

I’ve been reflecting on events of the past several years and considering the coming election a few months away. It strikes me that we lack the context of our obligation as citizens. We have no idea the depth of the deceit. We hear a comment on the radio or TV and accept it as fact without considering that we are listening to an opinion – not a fact. Of course, this depends on the delivery, but it can be intentionally deceptive. The lead or opening line is a true statement, but what inevitably follows is conjecture. Media outlets never say “… here’s an opinion about…” or “… thank you for your expert opinion.” They present these comments as supporting evidence and facts of the story.

As we enter the final phase of electioneering, we’ll see the accusations fly, and the innuendos sneak into these opinions. I consider this advertising, and it has only one purpose; to sway your point of view and change your perception and make you vote for their candidate. It would be laughable if our future weren’t at stake.

The two prevailing parties are firing accusatory salvos at each other. They play to our passions and on our emotions. They insert comments by paid actors and celebrities’ opinions that push their platform.

We don’t realize that this is how we live our lives. By this, I mean that a continual stream of lies and disinformation lulls us into complacency and apathy. We live with a constant flood of data, most of which is bullshit. We’re numb.

The destruction, reinterpretation, and misrepresentation of our history and notable events should warn anyone who cares about liberty, that we face an insidious foe. We must be aware that we’ve been invaded by an ideology that clandestinely controls our media, our educational system, our banks, our corporations, and especially our government.  

Leftist educators, most of whom have communist and socialist leanings, infiltrated our system. They reprogrammed our children planting these surreptitious ideas in those curious minds and promoting a leftist doctrine. They took control of our institutional policy, suggesting ‘common core’ instruction and substituting principles that adjust the delivery level to the lowest common denominator. Their claim of fairness and equity for all the students was the assertion – no child should compete academically. I cannot call it education. It was truly indoctrination.

These leftists claim that grades are an unfair measure of learning that caused irreparable damage to fragile psyches. Grading creates competition. They purport that Everyone passes; Everyone gets a trophy for participating. This became the mantra for Common Core.  

The result: The United States ranked 17th educationally among the top twenty countries of the world. The US Department of Education estimates that 19% of High School graduates are functionally illiterate. Should we be proud of this educational failure? Is this to be our legacy?

The programming begins in the primary grades and continues through secondary schooling. It is most prevalent in colleges, and graduate programs were leftist propaganda flourishes and blooms. Graduation completes the indoctrination phase, and entry into the workforce sees its practical application.

These well-planted seeds of descent into our political and social systems, are evidence by those already processed through the indoctrination camps. Our inability or differentiate lies from truth is witness. We believe what we’re told through the media.

We currently live in a federal constitutional republic, but we are leaning toward a far-left democratic socialism. We have liberal tendencies that reward an open market system of capitalism. Our real political system is a Partocracy-based on the strength of two main parties that entertain other lesser groups for election purposes and to cloak any concerns about unfair elections practices. The politicians of these two main-stream parties control the government.  

“The truth can’t be allowed to live under the occupation. It’s too dangerous. The occupation lives upon lies!”

Nazi Germany knew that misinformation is key to a successful invasion. Hitler’s chief disinformation officer Joseph Goebbles understood the power derived from well-placed lies and propaganda. His promise of reunification, reparation, and superiority played the tune that all of Germany would eventually dance.

“Whereas it appeareth that however certain forms of government are better calculated than others to protect individuals in the free exercise of their natural rights and are at the same time themselves better guarded against degeneracy, yet experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms, those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny; and it is believed that the most effectual means of preventing this would be, to illuminate, as far as practicable, the minds of the people at large, ….whence it becomes expedient for promoting the public happiness that those persons, whom nature hath endowed with genius and virtue, should be rendered by liberal education worthy to receive, and able to guard the sacred deposit of the rights and liberties of their fellow citizens, and that they should be called to that charge without regard to wealth, birth or accidental condition of circumstance.”

              And –

“Leave no authority existing not responsible to the people.”

― Thomas Jefferson, 

Jefferson knew that having power infers responsibility, and our obligation as citizens is to guard it jealously to prevent its perversion. There are safeguards in the Constitution against lies.  “…false statements of fact are an exception from the protection of free speech under the First Amendment. In United States law, a false statement of fact will not be exempt from some civil or criminal penalty, if a law has imposed one.” Unfortunately, freedom of speech is frequently used to obscure any allegations. Our liberal-left leaning judicial system cultivates these tendencies.

We watched as a politically leftist biased agenda, infiltrated our lives and our country. We allow a self-centered and self-absorbed lifestyle to take over our country. Our self-indulgent lifestyle spawned a corrupt nation. We think our government serves us; well, the converse is true.

This atheist, leftist, and amoral doctrine has no place in this country except that we are free to choose how we worship, and there is no national religion. Yet we adhere and accept this view as the American Doctrine, and allow it to control our national policy. To appease a minority, we abandon school prayer; we condone ‘taking a knee’ to support a leftist organization during the National Anthem. We rewrite our history to sanction the convenient misinterpretations for a single racial group.

Our Constitution and Legal Systems are morality-based. Our foundation is morally centered but based on the freedom to worship how and whom we choose. We traded God and righteousness for a more luxurious and non-threatening ideal.

This loss of faith and direction initiated our demise. Without a moral compass, we are adrift in a sea of selfishness, hedonism, and subject to the winds of popularism. We do as we please without consideration of the consequences to others on the impact on others. We appear incapable of personal accountability. 

I don’t recommend or suggest that we all embrace a National Religion. It doesn’t much matter what you consider to be your higher power, as long as it isn’t yourself. If we cannot exercise self-control, how can you look within to find moral direction? We have indeed lost our sense of morality. A self-centered lifestyle will always default to hedonism rather than altruism. That’s why we are where we are today. Self has replaced God, and we are out of control.

We expect our representatives to lead us through personal examples. But they are us. We have the government we deserve because the people we elect are our reflection. We are self-centered, so are they. We cannot hold them accountable to a standard that we do not live ourselves.    

“Forget the politicians. The politicians are put there to give you the idea you have freedom of choice. You don’t. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land, they own and control the corporations that have long since bought and paid for, the senate, the Congress, the state houses, the city halls, they got the judges in their back pocket, and they own all the big media companies, so they control just about all of the news and the information you get to hear. They got you by the balls. They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying to get what they want. Well, we know what they want. They want more for themselves and less for everybody else. But I’ll tell you what they don’t want. They don’t want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don’t want well informed, well-educated people capable of critical thinking. They’re not interested in that. That doesn’t help them.”

― George Carlin

Mr. Carlin makes an excellent point here. The people we chose as our representatives are now our masters; even though this was not the original design, it is the truth. As the founders intended, the job of these representatives was to carry our wishes and desires to the government and to speak for us — somehow, this was inverted. They now tell us what to do.

Our Representative-Democracy mutated into a Partocracy over the last two-hundred forty-four years. Our apathy encouraged this change as we became more egocentric, selfish, myopic, and oblivious. We didn’t care about the other guy; it was all about self. We left our misrepresentatives in Washington DC to run the country and tell us what we’d like to hear and ultimately what we’d get.  

Now we bitch about the egomaniacs that were elected by egomaniacs. The people we chose to represent us are our direct reflection! Our best hope is term limits. But don’t expect Congress to go quietly. What incentive could they have to kill the golden goose? They have lifetime salaries, lifetime preferential healthcare, and lifelong acknowledgment and titles as elected officials. They will not go willingly.

The lines between news and opinion are blurred. It’s impossible to tell the difference from any media sources, especially the top broadcasters. I’ve looked for reliable reporting for many years since I’m usually not where these stories happen; I wasn’t there to see it, but I would appreciate the truth, not an opinion. Yes, I’d like to know what took place without interpretation. Who do I trust? I can say without fear of repercussions that I don’t believe what I see from major periodicals or broadcast sources. They are all politically aligned and are ratings-driven. They are as self-centered as we are.

The popularity of video clips is inherently dangerous. First of all, they are edited and rarely provide an essential frame of reference. You’re shown the action with an intentionally misleading title that sets up the clip. Now you’re programmed to interpret the video as the presenter intended.

An excellent example is the viral clip of an afternoon scene, a van, and a few people on the street. The lead-in tells us that this clip shows the police shooting a man in the back several times. That’s where it ends. Regrettably, we don’t know why they shot him or the beginning or the rest of the story. You’re lead to conclude that the police are at fault; it is police brutality; this was murder. Was it? Do you really know what happened or only what the media intended? Is this incident factually represented, or is it used to incite more violence? Is this another swindle?

Another Bamboozle is Socialism. This cunning left-wing plot to move us to ‘total’ state ownership is in full vigor. Education reforms, revisions of history, promises of equality, redistribution of wealth, and anything for free campaigns that place – [enter group name here] – above any other are the seeds. We’ve been nurturing them since the 1950s by believing bloviating blackguard politicians and their promises. What they offer is NOT free, and will NEVER be universal.

If healthcare will be equal and universal, why would the Executive Branch of the government need their own system? Who in their right mind would give up a lifetime salary with full preferential benefits?

Ask, who will pay for the programs? Stand in the mirror and point at that image.  

That’s who will bear that burden.

Printing more money is not the answer. The redistribution of wealth won’t work. Making the wealthiest 1% accountable to fund these initiatives will cause them to flee and stash their funds in friendly off-shore safety zones. Since 98% or our leaders are in the upper 1%, why would they enact policies or laws that lower them to our economic level? Seizing this wealth will destroy what remains of our innovation, manufacturing, and development.

Lastly:

Socialism does not work. IT DOESN’T WORK! No matter how you massage it, or adapt it, or change it, or rename it – It doesn’t work. It fails every time and in any iteration. There is not one successful instance of Socialism in the history of this planet. It will always fail. Why? Because everyone is NOT equal, and we can’t make everyone equal. If everyone is suffering, do you want to suffer, too? If 65.9% of Americans own homes, would you surrender your property so the remaining 34.1% don’t could be equal? Would that be fair?

Do you think that Jeff Bezos, or Bill Gates, or Warren Buffet will hand over nearly $400 Billion to accommodate this doctrine? Will the other six hundred four billionaires follow along willingly? Are you ready to surrender your savings and everything you own so that everyone in the country can be equal? 

Venezuela is in a severe crisis and makes an excellent case study. Socialism failed there for these significant reasons. 

  1. Nationalization of private industry
    1. No government can effectively run and manage thousands of business
  2. Currency  
    1. They printed money as they needed it, so it became worthless.
  3. Price Controls
    1. Shortages in nationalized markets created run-away inflation and a vigorous black mark in everyday necessities, which continued to inflate prices.

In their March 16th, 2020 article, Forbes calls Socialism, The failed Idea That Never Dies. Find it and read it. There is a multitude of others on the InterNet. I think this one says it well.

It’s not really Socialism, people say, “…we just want equality and fairness for everyone.” But we already have those things here. Our government mismanages them. Since we ARE the government, we mismanage them. We have the vehicle to make changes. We’re reluctant to use it. We’re not likely to see an internally lead change from the current crop in government. The seated misrepresentatives are there by our choosing. The leadership we can expect from them is to continue to solidify their positions of power and whittle away at our liberty. We sent them, and we can recall them, hopefully with better choices.

Did you ever stop to think that our perceptions are the problem? Maybe the issue is more about our reaction to bad data? Could it be faulty leftist programming and indoctrination? Should we believe everything, we hear and read or should begin questioning things again. Maybe, we should start checking the sources.

If it looks like bullshit and sounds like bullshit and smells like bullshit, it’s probably bullshit!