Disinformation and Psychopolitics

Disinformation was called dezinformatzia in Soviet Russia and it was an important part of Soviet policy making. Once information becomes a habit in any sphere, once people become careless about the exact truth, then we are all at risk. Truth can be twisted so that the distortion is unconsciously absorbed. The master in the art of disinformation for many is Sun Tzu, the author of the Ping Fa (Principles of War). His theory was that all warfare is based on deception.

As I mentioned in an earlier post on Corporate Media on Oil Disinformation is deliberately spreading intentionally falsified information to mislead or deceive others. Misinformation, on the other hand, is usually not deliberate. Inaccurate or erroneous information is created either by forwarding an information (be it press releases or results of a report) without verifying or questioning, or by crafting an information that is subjective and serves a (hidden) agenda.

During the war the most convincing way of spreading deception is to capture an enemy agent and persuade him to submit false information to his own people. Wulf Schmidt (code name tate) for example was captured by Brits and during his captivity he transferred a considerable amount of disinformation to Germans. Poor Germans believed that he was one of the best agents they had in Britain and awarded him the Iron Cross, first class.

Disinformation can become also a personal character or a political motto. T.E. Lawrence (known as Lawrence of Arabia) was a compulsive or pathological disinformer.

Any propaganda material to encourage and support nationalistic feelings as well as to create national pride can be used as a part of disinformation. Novels, for example, can be used to make the enemies look weak. Perhaps that was one of the aims of Ian Fleming’s James Bond extravaganzas. Russians, reacted with Andrei Gulyashki’s Avakum Zakhov, KGB equivalent of Bond. The idea of contra novel series was launched by the order of Vladimir Semichastny, the head of KGB, in 1961.

As William Blake said “Truth can never be told so as to be understood, and not believed.” Truth is twisted so much that it becomes difficult to separate fact from speculation or lie. Goebbels would be happy to see his assertion become true today – “the bigger the lie, the more it will be believed.” Examples? 9/11, Iraq’s WMD, Saddam’s link to Al-Quaida, or anything on CNN, BBC, Fox. We ordinary citizens are not capable of separating lie from truth. And there is no counter intelligence for filtering all those for us. But contrary takes place.

By using misinformation and disinformation, corporate Media more and more influences the way people perceive things. It does it, in particularly, by hiding the facts (denial); by showing something else (deception) and by distorting the stories and statistics (manipulation). It crafts and makes news in such a way that the end message hits our survival needs and feelings.

People inform themselves about the developments in the world by mostly watching TV. Today we see how people are forced to believe what is presented by their channels. Look at Israel-Lebanon war coverage. When did the event started? Oh yes, 27 July, when the two Israeli soldiers were kidnapped. But what happened on 26 July? Any idea? By the way, where those soldiers were kidnapped? You heard Qana massacre. A tragic mistake they call it. Because Hizbullah was firing rockets from that building? Does any body question what happens if you try to launch that kind of rocket from a building? Is it possible to launch such a rocket from a building? Etc etc etc.

We are all doomed. Yes, there is alternative media on internet. How many of them are sponsored by elite powers as if it were alternative, and how many of them are really independent and alternative? A handful?

There is no such thing as an independent press one way or the other. We all know it.
Look at what a former New York Times Journalist John Swinton was saying about journalism all the way back in 1880 in free America:

“I am paid weekly for keeping my honest opinion out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you are paid similar salaries for similar things, and any of you who would be so foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the streets looking for another job. If I allowed my honest opinions to appear in one issue of my paper, before twenty-four hours my occupation would be gone.”

“The business of the journalists is to destroy the truth, to lie outright, to pervert, to vilify, to fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread. You know it and I know it, and what folly is this toasting an independent press?”

“We are the tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes.” (see more on Swinton).

OK. There is no really independent press as well as no objective news anymore. Is there a free press then? Unfortunately NO. There is only big press who is free to deliver disinformation. We are only bombarded by biased information, misinformation and also disinformation carefully crafted by the cultural, religious, moral and economic philosophies.

As Deanna Spingola puts it forward: "there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns — the ones we don't know we don't know."

Today, if you talk about wrongdoing of the US government and its close allies you are labeled as terrorist. If you talk about wrongdoing of Israel you are an anti-Semitist. Remember Joseph McCarthy communism hysteria in the US in 1954s? Legendary journalist Edward R. Murrow reported in his “See it Now” broadcast of 9 March 1954 on CBS: If none of us ever read a book that was "dangerous," had a friend who was "different," or joined an organization that advocated "change," we would all be just the kind of people Joe McCarthy wants.

Murrow argued that “Most truths are so naked that people feel sorry for them and cover them up, at least a little bit.” Sounds familiar?

In fact, today people in the developed countries are just as vulnerable as the people in repressed regimes. Indeed perhaps more so, because they are more likely to accept what they are told as the truth. The simplest example is the use of opinion polls to convince people. Our perceptions are manipulated and controlled by corporate media, ordered by holder of their leashes.

Psycho-politics (psychological warfare) is on. It is producing maximum chaos in the culture of the enemy. But, contrary to their expectations it helps creating more terrorism and promotes Islamic fundamentalism today. God may forgive them, but the victims won’t.

Disinformation
Corporate Media