As "The Captive Mind" posits that the primary means of ensuring compliance from "the people" is not propaganda, but physical coercion. The state does not 'reason' or 'debate' with non-compliance. 'Students' are forced to go to school and learn the 'official' version of history, for example (home schooling aside), and accept it (i.e., the hierarchical "binge-purge" model of education in which regurgitation of ossified narratives is valued more highly than any independent or creative thought).

Propaganda serves as post-facto justification in order to give people some way to rationalize what goes on around them. This helps to allow the threat of violence to suffice as a means of maintaining control without the state having to resort to actual violence, in most cases.

In one of Stefan's other videos, he calls professional licensure a dog collar that you're forced wear. He calls modern folks 'free-range slaves'. The 'human farms,' as he calls states, are run by 'farmers' who have realized that free-range slaves are more productive than those kept in a more strict captivity. (And it undoubtedly is better for for everyone than the slavery-of-old.) He says that allowing a few slaves escape here and there creates a desired illusion of freedom. One could argue about the accuracy of Stefan's ideas, but I don't find that as useful as simply accepting it as Stefan's own aesthetic/philosophical position, or his worldview, and understanding it or interpreting it as you would for say, any other artist/philosopher. This brings to mind the understanding that the 1% consists mostly of "human farmers" (i.e., kleptocrats and cronies) and other escaped 'slaves'.

It seems that folks who tend to take issue with my comments here (@enoch, @ChaosEngine, @newtboy, @Taint, among others) have taken on the recent swell of anti-"libertarian" rhetoric as their own (particularly the more tabloid-like forms of it).

That's not as important to me as the question of why there seems to be so much media attention given to these ideas of late? I think it may have to do with setting the stage for opposing a possible 2016 presidential run by Rand Paul (who has already been 'branded' as a 'libertarian' by opponents of both parties).* Or it may have to do with how technology (particularly in the Bay Area, where I live, but certainly in other places as well) is increasingly making individuals less reliant on the state, more self-sufficient, and more able to access the information they need to recognize their status as a serf, and/or plan their means of escape from the 'farm'.

*I guess the media cares less about an "ideological war" against "libertarianism" than they do about crafting a practical strategy of electoral politics. Hence their insistence in conflating conservatives, Republicans, libertarians, and even anarchists (which couldn't be more dissimilar at their core).

Like tabloids and colonialism, Zoo magazine is one of Britains many demoralizing sources of embarrassment.

Freedom of Information provides a way for peeps to feel warm and cozy about their government acting unilaterally to ends deemed necessary by a small cadre of monkeys, while providing the mechanism for unchecked bullshit to continue unhindered.
OH, it also makes for marginally effective tabloid journalism, creating overnight sensations through banal, pompous delivery seasoned with an over-abundance of narcissistic swagger.

"CIA releases information"......Oxymoronic??! Haven't peeps with the ability to dissect newsspeak and "official statements" known that the CIA orchestrated the Iranian coup for over 30 years?

For the tiny morsels cretins like Cenk use to further distract increasing numbers of folks with regurgitate editorializing, the huge chunks of abuse of power sit rotting on a Nation's dinner plate, served nightly by whores of media everywhere. Cenk, yer a tool.

↑ ↑ TYT's "progressive daily news and political commentary" since they reared their Sirius head has derptly crafted serious issues into their brand of junk-food news and tabloid-sensational fluff since Cenk started belching his snipish drool 5 years ago, and the kids here eat it up like Skittles and Arizona Watermelon Fruit Cocktail Juice w/codeine and promethazine...

Purple Drank Internet Drizzle

Well I'm disappointed in TYT.

The original article on the Slate was hack written 'Caveat in Paragraph 19' tabloid junk. The caveat being that they fail to mention they are quoting fiction until the very end of the article.

TYT have taken the bait and regurgitated the story without even mentioning the caveat. The conviction that Cenk has in his furore (which is exactly what tabloid articles aim to cause) makes me doubt TYT's credibility on other stories they report that I haven't happened to have read first.

The article the Slate quoted is "Civilization Watch - Unlikely Events" which you can read directly here.

Cards' political views are about as far removed from my own as you can get; but this essay was about reinterpreting history and the absurdity of predicting the future.

You could argue that Card is protecting his real views behind a shield of fiction, or some weak argument to that effect, but It's obvious TYT didn't even read it

It wasn't jumping AT the guy, it didn't even know he was there. It was trying to run away from the guy filming it as he got closer and closer to it and it was scared.

Geez, these title's are getting as bad and misleading as tabloid news articles.

LOTS of people sue tabloids and news papers. However, he might just win this case.

Rumours are that Valve is making a "Steam Box" - a sort of media center/console/PC for your living room. Could this Big Picture actually be part of their big picture?

Man, I could write rhetorical headlines for a tabloid.

Cold-clock crackin' it'
greenback-stackin' it;
CrrrRashin', an hackin', an tabloid trashin' it it-

Mr. Kieth won't stop! // Cause he's the KIng-at-th' muck-rack TOP!!

(drop fat bass line here) Boooosh, D-booosh, D-boooosh, D-BOOOOSH!

How can it be that media turn up to cover a tabloid story at a hospital and everyone is confused like it never happens? Is this the last hospital in the world to have to figure this one out?

These TYT people? Muckrakers. Their segments reek of the stench of video-tabloidism. The hosts' air of shock and disgust at the subject matter they choose to editorialize, tiresome and unprofessional. TYT fool themselves if they consider themselves journalists-IMO they would equal in value to the crew of a news camera van assigned to bring you people the news you need, like car fires and people falling off ladders. Wish they would find something else to do besides litter this site with their snarky banter and all the news that's fit to shit. Down-vote if I could here, and remove their computer privileges there.

Oh, and Pastor Harris??-A tool as well.

>> ^conan:

incredibly stupid tabloid science. i'm amazed that there're still people who can differentiate between cause and correlation. fat parents are having fat kids, is it genetics? no, it's because whatever the reason for your bad eating habits, you pass them down to your kids. what to you expect from your kids when you only eat junk? they'll eat it too. either because they mimic you or because you're the one who feeds them! congratulations, now you have perfect excuses: what once were "heavy bones" now are "hunger hormones" and genetics. this "documentation" didn't provide any hard facts, just hormones with names in quotation marks and similar snake oil stuff.
Step 1: stop doing sports, eat more junk and surprise! you'll become overweight. Step 2: catch up on exercising and change your diet and surprise again! your weight will drop. it's common sense. and this comes from someone who's still perfecting step 1... ;-)


I think you're misunderstanding the point of it. Everything you say is correct to a degree. I didn't hear them say that the sole cause of obesity is hormonal, not once. I'd be surprised if you watched it all the way through. The way you feed your children and the habits you give them is absolutely the root cause, at least I would say so. Then society/culture, marketing, advertising fast food. The cheapest foods are junk, that also plays a part.

But what they're saying here, is that the reason some people end up getting wildy overweight and not just a bit chunky is because there isn't the same hormone to tell them they're full. The amount some fat people eat would make a regular sized person sick, in just one meal.

I don't believe obesity is genetic either, I am one of those people who inherited my mothers shitty eating habits, was overweight as a child and now have to suffer the consequences of that. However my sister was fed the same way, offered the same things, but was always skinny because she ate like a bird (one years she would only eat bread rolls, haha). My children are two very different types, too. My daughter can eat more than the average adult, you know that old saying, hollow legs? But she puts weight on if I let her eat the wrong things or every time she feels hungry, so over the years I've had to very much restrict her. Now she tends to make the right choices so hopefully that will go through to adult life with her and I've not passed down the same bad habits, however she would eat every half hour if she listened to her belly. My son is just the opposite. If he's not hungry I could offer him his favourite anything and he'd turn it down. Lucky bugger!

Then there's the thing where my sister all of a sudden in her late teens became overweight. That didn't make much sense. But her eating habits had very much changed. The bit in this doc where they were testing identical twins where one was overweight and one wasn't was fascinating and tied things up much neater.


>> ^snoozedoctor:

Getting fat is like filling a bathtub with water. If you run the spigot faster than the drain, it fills up. Now THAT is heavy science. Burn more calories than you eat = weight loss.


You're talking about how to lose weight, a science we all understand This is talking about the reasons some of us gain. It's always pissed me off when bigger people rather than just admit they stuff their faces, try and pass it off as big bones (eh?) or genetics. I'm even rather cynical of people who say they love their weight and being big is beautiful and they want to be like that. I think rather they know how bloody difficult dieting is, not just the losing weight but keeping it off, also I think those people, and bless them for it, accept that they don't want to go through the endless bullshit of dieting and gaining and embrace it. Or they've got some chubby chasers paying them top dollar to watch them eat and balloon to 400 lbs. Food is very very addictive once you've learnt the pleasures of it, just like a drug. It's very hard for anyone who doesn't have a weight issue to understand it, especially since you've been listening to people make endless excuses for it over the years. I think that's what is putting the blinkers on you now when you watch anything with alternative reasons for obesity, you just see it as an excuse.

This is exciting, because what they're saying is if they can recreate these hormones they will be able to find a way of replacing them, which will make the whole dieting process much much easier.

incredibly stupid tabloid science. i'm amazed that there're still people who can differentiate between cause and correlation. fat parents are having fat kids, is it genetics? no, it's because whatever the reason for your bad eating habits, you pass them down to your kids. what to you expect from your kids when you only eat junk? they'll eat it too. either because they mimic you or because you're the one who feeds them! congratulations, now you have perfect excuses: what once were "heavy bones" now are "hunger hormones" and genetics. this "documentation" didn't provide any hard facts, just hormones with names in quotation marks and similar snake oil stuff.

Step 1: stop doing sports, eat more junk and surprise! you'll become overweight. Step 2: catch up on exercising and change your diet and surprise again! your weight will drop. it's common sense. and this comes from someone who's still perfecting step 1... ;-)

>> ^Deano:

I've just started Richard Morgan's The Cold Commands (which I think is sci-fi/fantasy with gay characters but I'm not entirely sure) and then I'm going to reread American Tabloid by James Ellroy as I stopped and forgot all about it and I want to read the entire trilogy eventually.


You, sir, have excellent taste in books. Ellroy and Morgan are both awesome, especially the Dudley Smith and Takeshi Kovacs books respectively.

As for me, my last few were Iain Banks Transition, the Atheists Guide to Christmas and Paul Kimmage's Engage (true account of a tetraplegic rugby player, fascinating story and insight into coping with such a horrific accident).

I'm currently reading Milligan's Meaning of Life: An autobiography of sorts by Spike Milligan. It's really just a collection of Milligans other writings but it's great fun.