Wednesday, August 03, 2022

Lying Ghouls, Credulous Fools, and Power Tools

Although The Rape of the Mind was published in 1956, its description of how to commit textual assault is timeless: "facts are replaced by fantasy and distortion. People are taught systematically and intentionally to lie. History is reconstructed, new myths are built up," all in order "to confuse the luckless citizens of the country" and "strengthen and flatter" the rulers. Big Education, Big Journalism, Big Entertainment, Big Tech, Big Climate, Big Race, and Big Woke, all in service to Big State. 

"In the semantic fog that permeates the atmosphere, words lose their direct communicative function." Paradoxically, communication as such is no longer occurring, even though something is being communicated -- just not reality-to-other-minds.

Recall the dual vector of language, which links to reality at one end and minds at the other. Let's say I tell you that inflation is transitory -- or that the U.S. is systemically racist, women earn 70 cents to the manly dollar, Monkeypox doesn't discriminate, elementary school children need to be groomed, etc. These are all obvious lies, so what is being communicated? Easy: power. 

Note also that each lie pretends to "empower" this or that client of the state, whether stupid and unhappy feminists, dysfunctional blacks, promiscuous compulsive homosexuals, or mentally ill teachers and students. The Lie promises increased empowerment, but "power to live in unreality" is like "freedom from truth," a contradiction in terms.

The word, once considered a first token of free human creation, is transformed into a mechanical tool (Meerloo).

True, but the person who assimilates the Lie also becomes a tool, which is the greater purpose of the exercise: for credulous fools to become power tools for lying ghouls

For example, it is critical for you to believe in climate change in order for the incredibly lucrative grift to continue for wealthy Democrats. You will never benefit from the lie, but consenting to the lie will certainly benefit the powerful. 

I suppose you also get some virtue and status, in that you get to signal your superiority to people like me, so that's something. It reminds me of how poor whites were harmed by the institution of slavery, but at least they got to signal their superiority to blacks. 

Why do the words keep changing? Because you can't keep language separate from reality forever. Rather, reality eventually comes roaring back, no matter how hard you try to keep it at bay. Indeed, reality may be defined precisely as that which comes back despite all our efforts to redefine it.

Politicians seeking power must coin new labels and new words with emotional appeal, "while allowing the same old practices and institutions to continue as before... The trick is to replace a disagreeable image though the substance remains the same" (ibid.).

Which reminds me of what we said a few posts back about how this represents the opposite of "transubstantiation," in that the Liar changes the semantic accidents while the underlying substance endures. 

For example, killing a baby is still killing a baby even if we call it "a woman's right to choose." Taxes are taxes even if we call them "investments," and men are still men no matter how much we pretend that guy is Female Athlete of the Year. Less than ten percent of the population still commits more than half the violent crime, even if woke prosecutors don't charge them.

My morning indoctrination from the NY Times contains the following howler: although 98% of Monkeypox cases afflict less than 1% of the population, "Nothing about the virus limits its spread to only men who have sex with men (not all of whom identify as gay or bisexual)." So, even if it does in fact disproportionately affect homosexual men, they aren't necessarily homosexual men, so there.

Ever wonder why they hate us so much? Totalitarians fabricate "a hate language in order to stir up mass emotions." Again, the ghouls lie to the fools in order to turn them into powerful tools. It may be sick, but you can't say it doesn't work. 

21 comments:

julie said...

Again, the ghouls lie to the fools in order to turn them into powerful tools. It may be sick, but you can't say it doesn't work.

Yep, unfortunately. It's almost too easy.

John Venlet said...

The saddest thing about the fools becoming tools of the power seekers is their total unawareness of being in service to the lies. I see it even in my own family, and it saddens me to no end.

Gagdad Bob said...

NPCs.

Gagdad Bob said...

I have mostly LOFO relatives. It certainly makes one believe in original sin, in that we are all born into this tenebrous web of lies.

Gagdad Bob said...

The Urban Dictionary definition of NPC is not bad:

"We exist in a simulated reality and some humans take on the role of NPCs, spouting 'opinions" they are programmed to spout and repeating in a cult-like manner."

julie said...

Same here, John. Even those of our friends and family who lean in our direction tend to do so with great hesitation; they can't bring themselves to understand just how bad things really are.

Gagdad Bob said...

I have a 90 year-old aunt by marriage who is like NPC version 1.0, programmed way back in the 1950s and still spouting the same lines. Very bright, but it doesn't matter.

Gagdad Bob said...

Another aunt by marriage is 75, but I suppose she is v2.0, programmed in the '60s.

julie said...

Yep. I think my dad is also v.2. I was talking with him the other day, and he finally said, "you know, I think you might be doing the right thing with homeschooling..." He's not really a leftist, because when he allows himself to notice some things, he can recognize that they are wrong. But he has to be hammered over the head with it, and there usually isn't much point because he goes back to default position pretty quickly.

Gagdad Bob said...

The second aunt is also hi IQ, but those Manhattan secular Jews are the most devout Democrats. They are also the most apt to fear Christianity, even though Christians are the most philo-semitic and progs the most antisemitic.

Gagdad Bob said...

My mother-in-law in Florida thinks DeSantis is an antisemite. She's straight out of a Woody Allen movie.

Gagdad Bob said...

About the BLM riots, she said something like, "Of course they steal, they're hungry."

Gagdad Bob said...

The colored have enough trouble!

julie said...

Lowered expectations...

I'm pretty sure if my grandma were still alive, she'd look at current year circumstances and feel completely vindicated that she spent her adult life trying to pass as white.

John Venlet said...

Speaking of colored troubles, but more in line with raped minds, and the mind rapists, I present Stacey Abrams perverting the Christian faith to justify killing babies.

https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/stacey-abrams-says-her-faith-in-god-guides-her-pro-choice-stance-184213893.html

julie said...

Well if Stacy Abrams said it, then it must be practically a Christian sacrament.

Gagdad Bob said...

Dred Scott v2.0: Whoopi suggests God supports abortion: He gave us ‘freedom of choice’.

julie said...

That's right up there with our gnostic troll from this weekend.

Gagdad Bob said...

Turns out the constitution is unconstitutional.

julie said...

Reading that, I can't help thinking:

"Use water on the plants? Like, from out the toilet? But Brawndo's got what plants crave. It's got electrolytes."

Van Harvey said...

Well... the constitution is unconstitutional... reached my quota of news really damn fast today.

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