Mind Control, 'what You're Seeing and What You're Reading Is Not What's Happening.'
About a calendar month ago, Sen. Bob Aspersion (R-Tenn.) complained that too much of today's Republican Political party has found itself in "a cult-like situation equally it relates to a president." Shortly afterward, Donald Trump Jr. appeared on Fox News and was surprisingly reluctant to pass up the criticism.
"You lot know what," the president's adult son said, "if information technology's a cult, it'due south considering they like what my male parent is doing."
Ane of the problems with cults, however, is that its leaders tell its followers to ignore external sources of information -- because in order for the scheme to work, the leaders must be seen as the sole authority for truth.
All of this came to mind watching Donald Trump Sr. in Kansas City yesterday, where the president addressed this twelvemonth'due south national convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW). Officially, this was an official White House effect, but practically, it wasn't long before Trump turned the gathering into some other partisan entrada rally, which included this unscripted annunciation:
"But remember: What you're seeing and what you're reading is not what's happening."
In his novel 1984, George Orwell wrote, "The party told you to reject the evidence of your optics and ears. It was their final, near essential command."
Seven decades subsequently, the dynamic Orwell described seems eerily familiar. Americans may run into and read about current events, simply their president is request us non to trust our lying optics. Instead, to sympathize "what's happening," nosotros must instead turn to Donald Trump and those who deliver the kinds of messages he approves of.
Indeed, the scope of these efforts appears to exist expanding. The New York Times reported overnight on what happened on Air Force One recently when the president learned that Melania Trump's tv was tuned to CNN.
He raged at his staff for violating a rule that the White House entourage should begin each trip tuned to Fox -- his preferred network over what he considers the "simulated news" CNN -- and acquired "a bit of a stir" aboard Air Forcefulness Ane, according to an email obtained by The New York Times. The email, an internal substitution between officials in the White House Military Office and the White House Communications Agency last Thursday, also called for the ordering of two boosted televisions to back up Axle, a TiVo-similar streaming device, to brand sure the president and showtime lady could both sentry TV in their separate hotel rooms when they travel.At the end of the electronic mail chain, officials confirmed that tuning the TVs to Fox would exist standard operating process going forward.The channel-flipping flap was the latest instance of how Mr. Trump, at a pivotal moment in his presidency, is increasingly living in a world of selected information and bending the truth to his own narrative. As his aides piece of work to keep him insulated from the outside world, Mr. Trump is doubling downwardly in his efforts to tell supporters to trust him over the words of critics and news reports.
We're accustomed to politicians peddling falsehoods to the public and hoping to go away with it. What nosotros're seeing with Trump, however, is qualitatively dissimilar. This is what Rachel described on the show last night equally "deliberate trafficking in unreality."
Equally regular readers know, it's go a staple of the Trump presidency. The White House hasn't exactly been subtle about its vision: Don't trust news organizations. Don't trust the courts. Don't trust pollsters. Don't trust U.Southward. intelligence agencies. Don't trust unemployment numbers. Don't even trust election results.
The listing, however, keeps growing. The FBI is doubtable. Then is the Justice Department. And then are climate scientists. So are medical professionals who aren't comfy with regressive GOP health care plans.
The say-so for truth will tell usa what's true. Others are not to exist trusted.
Adding insult to injury are those who volunteer to keep with these tactics. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Tex.), the chairman of the House Science Committee, advised Americans terminal year "to get your news straight from the president. In fact, it might exist the only way to go the unvarnished truth."
This is a twisted perspective, non just considering the president routinely has no utilize for reality, just likewise because, in a autonomous order, the idea that truth-seeking citizens must turn exclusively to the national leader is and then antithetical to American norms, it'south genuinely offensive.
It is, however, eerily consistent with a Republican president who told voters during the campaign, "Politicians accept used yous and stolen your votes. They have given you nothing. I will give you everything… I'yard the simply ane." In his GOP convention speech, Trump added, "Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it…. I am your voice."
And that phonation is now telling us not to believe what we see and read.
Source: https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/trump-tells-supporters-what-youre-seeing-not-whats-happening-msna1126311
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