911 and the Propaganda Model

[mjd1982]

See, this is why credibility is important. So many times I tell people, "If you don't acknowledge such and such point, or admit such and such mistake, you'll lose credibility here." (I'm not necessarily talking about you personally, mjd.) And they always say, "so what? Why should I care whether you think I'm credible?"

And this is why. It's a real nuisance on both sides. I wish that I could believe what you say without having to doubt and check every point. Most likely you wish I could just believe you when you tell the truth. But no. When credibility is damaged, communication becomes so much more difficult.

However, if you're telling the truth, I have a possible explanation why our experiences are so different. By any chance are you talking mostly to young people? Young people are less likely to be well-informed about 9/11 details because they pay less attention to current events. I and everyone I knew certainly did, when we were in our teens and twenties. But you can't blame the MSM for not reaching people who aren't listening.

I'm not just talking to young people. Speakers Corner, e.g. is populated mainly by middle aged people.

Part of the problem you're having making this case is that calling this phenomenon "censorship" is very misleading. Censorship is the forceful prevention of someone publishing or communicating something. Market pressures don't qualify as force. If I refuse to publish your novel or news story (for any reason including that I might think it will anger some powerful person) I'm not censoring you. If I prevent you by force from printing the novel or news story yourself, then I'm censoring you.

There are so many things that you could say about populist news media owned by corporate interests that would not come across as mere hyperbole at best. You could say it leads to bias, you could say it leads to minority views being marginalized, you could say it leads to some important information not reaching as wide an audience as it should. Calling it censorship overstates it to the point of falsehood, which makes your argument easy to refute. I'm assuming that's not what you want.

Your referring to overt censorship, whereas I am including self censorship. This is the problem.

Now we're getting somewhere.

Here's the part I don't agree with: that the result of media pandering to popular interest inevitably serves interests of power. We might make a case that it serves the interests of power more often than not, or more than it should. But I don't see the direct connection, the cause and effect, between free market forces and serving interests of power that makes it a hard and fast rule. For instance, the public likes to see secrets and scandals exposed, and the MSM play to that, which makes it rather difficult for the powerful to suppress secrets and scandals when clearly it would be in their interest to do so.

You should ask yourself what view of the world an advertiser wants his messages to be surrounded by. It is not that the US is a state run by war criminals who would have been executed under the Nuremberg laws, or that the US is the prime exporter of terror in the world. This is not the image that readers want, far less that that is favourable to powerful interests. Check out the history of the Daily Herald in the UK for more info.

Agreed.

Okay, here's the logical problem with that. The system protects the powerful, but not when they get out of line, such as by being caught breaking the law as Black was. Okay... but if it doesn't protect the powerful when they get out of line, what's the point? When else do they need protecting, and from what?

It looks like I could point to one fallen, disgraced, or fired previously-powerful figure after another, from McCarthy to Gonzales, and you can say, "yep, that's another one that got out of line." And all the ones that so far have not been caught in scandal or crime or incompetence or unpopular decisions and brought down: "those are the ones being protected."

If you can only tell who's really "powerful" in hindsight based on who got in trouble and who didn't, it's meaningless. It's circular logic. In the end it provides no evidence that anyone is being protected at all.

No. It protects powerful interests, power structures. Individuals are neither here nor there when they get out ofline. Mccarthy's a perfect example. The red scare was a fraud. But this wasnt the story. This persisted until long after he was out of the picture. He was vilified because he went after other elements of the power structure. Acccording to the Model, power defends itself. But when it abuses its power, for its own good (bigging up the red scare, the terror scare etc), it will get filtered out.

Since the state of the U.S. mainstream media provides no evidence that powerful interests are being protected, it provides no evidence that they're being protected re 9/11.

As above. And given the gross censorship of 911, this leads to the conclusion that powerful interests are being shielded.

At this point, I also have to ask: if there is no conspiracy (and we seem to all agree on that), but rather social, political, and economic forces at work, should we move this thread to Politics?

Respectfully,
Myriad

It relates to the 911 conspiracy, as I mentioned in my OP.

 

[8den]

This is not correct. Let's take an example. I'm pretty well qualified, but I would never conceivably get employed by the BBC, I would state, since I would not be the kind of person who would label the Iraq war as a quagmire. And if I did happen to slip through the net, it would be systematic that my reports would never make it as "news", no matter how significant they were. A good example is the Downing Street Memo.

Just a point here, I have worked in the BBC newsroom, and in Al Jazeera's, CNN, Sky and Bloomberg. I Freelance and move from one to the other on a pretty easy and regular basis. This point is completely 100% wrong, and show's you utterly no idea how a newsroom operates and what a journalist does.

Secondly your propaganda model doesn't work, enormous amounts of sensitive information is shared and sourced freely in a newsroom, and it's protected simply by the professionalism of the staff. That senior management were repressing a story would not be a secret for long. I'm not privy to every decision that is made, I do work in an edit suite. When something is serious and concerns are issues, it's where senior management, and the legal team come and discuss the story, right then and there, I've been in the room when stories have been spiked for a variety of reasons, and fine your logic twisted. You are arguing from increduality and doing a poor job of it.

 

[SDC]

You should ask yourself what view of the world an advertiser wants his messages to be surrounded by. It is not that the US is a state run by war criminals who would have been executed under the Nuremberg laws, or that the US is the prime exporter of terror in the world.

No. It protects powerful interests, power structures. Individuals are neither here nor there when they get out ofline. Mccarthy's a perfect example. The red scare was a fraud. But this wasnt the story. This persisted until long after he was out of the picture. He was vilified because he went after other elements of the power structure. Acccording to the Model, power defends itself. But when it abuses its power, for its own good (bigging up the red scare, the terror scare etc), it will get filtered out. [end edited quote]

I promise, no grammar or dictionary comments this time. I will grit my teeth.

Your first paragraph... You say, correctly enough, that advertising/ marketing is a critically important element in the news media. Your next sentence has an implied linkage to the first: so am I correct when I gather that you are saying that, indeed, "the US is a state run by war criminals who would have been executed under the Nuremberg laws, or that the US is the prime exporter of terror in the world"?

I'm not trying to attack you by this question. It just appears to be a fairly clear statement of what may be your ideology, and I'd ask you to confirm or correct that.

When you refer to the "Nuremberg laws..." I'm sorry, but that is the common term applied to the anti-Jewish racial laws in Germany instituted in the 1930s, I believe. I think you meant to say "Nuremberg trials." Very few people believe that Bush is a Jew. (Though I recall hearing about a Polish communist official in the 1970s, at the height of Poland's officially sanctioned anti-semitic campaigns, complaining that Sen. Pat Moynihan had to be a Jew because he had "oy" in his surname. No joke.)

And Tail Gunner Joe (McCarthy) ... in fact, he was on to something. There was a significant amount of Soviet spying in the US during WW2. It's become increasingly accepted that Alger Hiss was up to no good. (Darn those allies!! Whoever heard of allies spying on one another?) This last paragraph is just a digression; I wanted to type, "Tail Gunner Joe." Please do not attack me on its account.

 

[stilicho]

You should ask yourself what view of the world an advertiser wants his messages to be surrounded by. It is not that the US is a state run by war criminals who would have been executed under the Nuremberg laws, or that the US is the prime exporter of terror in the world. This is not the image that readers want, far less that that is favourable to powerful interests.

So, for those who do think that the US Administration is filled (or, rather, was filled) with war criminals, and who believe that the US is the primary exporter of terror, how do you explain their beliefs? Where do you suppose they got these ideas? In Galbraith's memoirs, he relates a conversation with Robert McNamara where he, himself, believed that if the Allies had lost WWII it would be themselves and not the Nazis on trial at Nurmberg.

I even recall, in high school history, discussing this same possibility (or probability).

No. It protects powerful interests, power structures. Individuals are neither here nor there when they get out ofline. Mccarthy's a perfect example. The red scare was a fraud. But this wasnt the story. This persisted until long after he was out of the picture. He was vilified because he went after other elements of the power structure. Acccording to the Model, power defends itself. But when it abuses its power, for its own good (bigging up the red scare, the terror scare etc), it will get filtered out.

Let's assume that individuals count for nothing and that only this mystical "power structure" is what matters. If this were true, then all "power structures" would essentially be the same and would be permanent institutions. (It "defends" itself).

Under such a theoretical model, the Aztec "power structure" would still be there and Cortes--the individual--would count for nothing. The Abbasid Caliphate would still be there and Hulagu--the individual--would count for nothing. The Roman Catholic Church would remain as powerful as it ever was and Zwingli, Luther, Huss and Calvin would count for nothing. The Russian Empire would be intact and neither Kerensky nor Lenin would count for anything.

Moreover, individuals within these fated "power structures", eg Nicholas II, Alexander VIII, Moctezuma, and so on, would count for nothing either. Do you yet detect anything wrong with your gross simplification of political systems?

 

[Myriad]

Your referring to overt censorship, whereas I am including self censorship. This is the problem.

There are many many good reasons to apply self-censorship: propriety, civility, respect for audeince interests, artistic style, appropriateness for the venue, restraining emotion to give reason a chance, among others. Without self-censorship this forum couldn't exist. Without self-censorship we'd all, as individuals and as factions in a complex society, be perpetually screaming at each other at the top of our lungs about whatever crosses our minds.

It's a good thing we... wait a minute. It occurs to me after seeing last night's video of Alex Jones's bullhorn ranting collide with Geraldo Rivera's effort to model Hooters waitresses in the guise of a news story, that as factions in a complex society we are perpatually screaming at each other at the top of our lungs about whatever crosses our minds. We need more self-censorship!

When an individual suffers from diminished capacity for verbal self-censorship in social situations, it's called Tourette's Syndrome. What's it called when society as a whole suffers from this same embarrassing ailment?

You should ask yourself what view of the world an advertiser wants his messages to be surrounded by.

Advertisers differ in the view of the world they want their messages to be surrounded by. Insurance companies, home security companies, cleaning products manufacturers, and challengers for political office try to depict a world filled with imminent danger. Soft drink sellers depict a world of healthy youthful exuberance. Rap music producers depict a world of violence and imminent revolution.

Again, you seem to perceive a malevolent force in this, where I see an interacting network of dynamic influences and conflicting interests too complex to trace in detail. (That complexity is why laws intended to fix various imbalances usually, throough unintended consequences, make things worse.)

It is not that the US is a state run by war criminals who would have been executed under the Nuremberg laws, or that the US is the prime exporter of terror in the world.

And it's not that the US is a vast bowling pin factory inside a giant purple hippopotamus orbiting Saturn either. How does the fact that it's not presented on TV lend any validity to that view?

No. It protects powerful interests, power structures. Individuals are neither here nor there when they get out ofline. Mccarthy's a perfect example. The red scare was a fraud. But this wasnt the story. This persisted until long after he was out of the picture. He was vilified because he went after other elements of the power structure. Acccording to the Model, power defends itself. But when it abuses its power, for its own good (bigging up the red scare, the terror scare etc), it will get filtered out.

So the Capitalist Propaganda System isn't controlled by, and doesn't benefit, specific individuals, nor a conspiracy among individuals. "Powerful interests and power structures?" Power itself acts with volition to protect itself? This is getting strange, I thought we were making progress focusing on who is actually misbehaving here which could lead to suggestions for how to make it better. But vague semi-sentient "power structures" arising emergently from a network of social, political, and economic interactions driven ultimately by human nature would appear impossible to assail without changing human nature or ripping apart the network. Trying to fight it through political means would be as much a category error as declaring a war on "terror."

Perhaps we can skip right over the part about how you fight it -- I strongly suspect that what you have in mind falls squarely into the "ripping apart the network" category which I find quite horrifying in its casual acceptance of the gigadeath that would result (see: Cultural Revolution) -- and jump to the key question: If you could replace market-driven capitalist media, what would you replace it with? To my knowledge the only other model that's ever existed in the real world is media controlled entirely by government and/or by other elites such as guilds, churches, and aristocracies, which is much worse (and protects power even more effectively and ruthlessly). But perhaps I'm overlooking something. Please point to either a real-world model you would emulate, or the details (perhaps a draft constitution) of the unprecedented improved alternative system you'd advocate.

Respectfully,
Myriad

 

[SDC]

Personal Breakthrough!

I've just figured it out; that is, why Mjd's postings have seemed awfully familiar for some time. Not as quotations or paraphrases, but in the sense and the tone. He's coming at this from a Marxist-Leninist perspective. The tone and sensibility of his statements are like nothing so much as reading ... not Marx, who was truly a genius; but the most successful, practical, practicioners of Marxist-Leninist ideology: Lenin, Stalin, and the rest of the Bolsheviks. There are the firm programmatic statements, the harsh attacks on all opponents (including all other socialists, though that doesn't apply here), the hints of eventual retribution, the refusal ever to recognize others' points of view, and the claims that they speak for "the people"/ "das Volk"/ "narod" thereby justifying every statement and every act.

You may ask why I feel qualified to speak on this matter. I can only point to my Ph.D. in modern Russian and East European history from the Univ of Michigan. (What in god's name has happened to their football team?) I cut my academic teeth on this stuff when communism was still in power in many countries; and yes, I've spent a good amount of time in real police states, when I was a student. I've seen it up close and personal, albeit always with the protection of my American student status.

I respectfully suggest that all threads which he has started be moved to the politics area. He's not arguing 9/11; he is arguing Marxist-Leninist politics, using 9/11 as the hook. For another standard method of Marxism-Leninism is to latch onto a particular cause and try to make it theirs, and use that as a springboard to, at least, greater political influence, if not outright power.

No wonder Chomsky doesn't follow him.

 

[SDC]

ps OK, Mjd, you may attack me now. I've figured it out. I can put your statements into the familiar contexts of Lenin's or Stalin's (and others') writings which, in the days of John Sobieski [digression threatens!], I read. In the original Russian. Sometimes just for the linguistic exercise. Oh god. "Chto delat'?" "Dizzy with success." All the rest of it.

pps I seem to have become a student, after being new blood. Is this a normal progression?

 

[Pardalis]

That explains why he keeps saying that the opinion of a person on the street is more valid than structural engineers and firefighter testimonies.

pps I seem to have become a student, after being new blood. Is this a normal progression?

Yes, I think "Muse" is next. You can ask for it to be changed and have your own personal title here:

http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2928688#post2928688

 

[stilicho]

I've just figured it out; that is, why Mjd's postings have seemed awfully familiar for some time. Not as quotations or paraphrases, but in the sense and the tone. He's coming at this from a Marxist-Leninist perspective. The tone and sensibility of his statements are like nothing so much as reading ... not Marx, who was truly a genius; but the most successful, practical, practicioners of Marxist-Leninist ideology: Lenin, Stalin, and the rest of the Bolsheviks.

Frankly, I can't see what any of mjd1982's stuff has to do with 9/11 either.

But this is worse than mere M-L political philosophy. He's identifying, with fruitless vagueness, "power structures" that are self-perpetuating until, well, until they aren't I guess.

The difficulty I have with his model is why, then, I have read Greg Palast and Naomi Klein in a mass publication that also advertises Jaguar and BMW automobiles. Under his "propaganda model", such a thing would never happen. (The mass publication is, of course, Harper's; you don't have to stop there--Atlantic Monthly, Utne Reader, The New Republic, all contain both advertising and articles that are not flattering of the "power structure".)

If mjd1982 truly wants to see modern-day "power structures" under transition, he need look no further than the heavy industry/banking structures in Japan, the role and constitution of the Communist Party in China, and the roles of religious and secular institutions in the Muslim world. While I don't have the energy to research and list all the individuals involved in these transitions (on both sides), I assure mjd1982 that they do exist.

And, of course, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (named after a pair of congressionial individuals) has had a huge impact on the "power structures" of corporations both within and doing business with the USA. In fact, the "power structure" has done a very poor job of defending itself against this costly assault on its sanctuaries. It hardly matters to mjd1982. I would have to assume that he thinks Eliot Spitzer is somehow a part of the "conspiracy" even though his erratic assaults on businesses and the corporate world in general are brought to us by--ahem--the "power structure's" own media.

 

[mjd1982]

Just a point here, I have worked in the BBC newsroom, and in Al Jazeera's, CNN, Sky and Bloomberg. I Freelance and move from one to the other on a pretty easy and regular basis. This point is completely 100% wrong, and show's you utterly no idea how a newsroom operates and what a journalist does.

Secondly your propaganda model doesn't work, enormous amounts of sensitive information is shared and sourced freely in a newsroom, and it's protected simply by the professionalism of the staff. That senior management were repressing a story would not be a secret for long. I'm not privy to every decision that is made, I do work in an edit suite. When something is serious and concerns are issues, it's where senior management, and the legal team come and discuss the story, right then and there, I've been in the room when stories have been spiked for a variety of reasons, and fine your logic twisted. You are arguing from increduality and doing a poor job of it.

1. Your 1st para is your opinion, and has no validity in an argument, I'm afriad.

2. Your 2nd para misses the point that has been made over and over and over again. Please read my posts- it will save you time. The sort of people who will work in these systems (like you, probably) are hired because they are not the sort of people to believe/find out about/report these things. Check out this instance of Andrew Marr being exposed for one example.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=FSuaGIKTaEA

 

[mjd1982]

You should ask yourself what view of the world an advertiser wants his messages to be surrounded by. It is not that the US is a state run by war criminals who would have been executed under the Nuremberg laws, or that the US is the prime exporter of terror in the world.

No. It protects powerful interests, power structures. Individuals are neither here nor there when they get out ofline. Mccarthy's a perfect example. The red scare was a fraud. But this wasnt the story. This persisted until long after he was out of the picture. He was vilified because he went after other elements of the power structure. Acccording to the Model, power defends itself. But when it abuses its power, for its own good (bigging up the red scare, the terror scare etc), it will get filtered out. [end edited quote]

I promise, no grammar or dictionary comments this time. I will grit my teeth.

Your first paragraph... You say, correctly enough, that advertising/ marketing is a critically important element in the news media. Your next sentence has an implied linkage to the first: so am I correct when I gather that you are saying that, indeed, "the US is a state run by war criminals who would have been executed under the Nuremberg laws, or that the US is the prime exporter of terror in the world"?

I'm not trying to attack you by this question. It just appears to be a fairly clear statement of what may be your ideology, and I'd ask you to confirm or correct that.

When you refer to the "Nuremberg laws..." I'm sorry, but that is the common term applied to the anti-Jewish racial laws in Germany instituted in the 1930s, I believe. I think you meant to say "Nuremberg trials." Very few people believe that Bush is a Jew. (Though I recall hearing about a Polish communist official in the 1970s, at the height of Poland's officially sanctioned anti-semitic campaigns, complaining that Sen. Pat Moynihan had to be a Jew because he had "oy" in his surname. No joke.)

And Tail Gunner Joe (McCarthy) ... in fact, he was on to something. There was a significant amount of Soviet spying in the US during WW2. It's become increasingly accepted that Alger Hiss was up to no good. (Darn those allies!! Whoever heard of allies spying on one another?) This last paragraph is just a digression; I wanted to type, "Tail Gunner Joe." Please do not attack me on its account.

Sorry, what is the relevance of any of this?

Before you answer, note that pedantry is the sign of desperation.

 

[Pardalis]

Before you answer, note that pedantry is the sign of desperation.

Ooh boy, you must be one desperate individual...

 

[mjd1982]

So, for those who do think that the US Administration is filled (or, rather, was filled) with war criminals, and who believe that the US is the primary exporter of terror, how do you explain their beliefs? Where do you suppose they got these ideas? In Galbraith's memoirs, he relates a conversation with Robert McNamara where he, himself, believed that if the Allies had lost WWII it would be themselves and not the Nazis on trial at Nurmberg.

I even recall, in high school history, discussing this same possibility (or probability).


Let's assume that individuals count for nothing and that only this mystical "power structure" is what matters. If this were true, then all "power structures" would essentially be the same and would be permanent institutions. (It "defends" itself).

Under such a theoretical model, the Aztec "power structure" would still be there and Cortes--the individual--would count for nothing. The Abbasid Caliphate would still be there and Hulagu--the individual--would count for nothing. The Roman Catholic Church would remain as powerful as it ever was and Zwingli, Luther, Huss and Calvin would count for nothing. The Russian Empire would be intact and neither Kerensky nor Lenin would count for anything.

Moreover, individuals within these fated "power structures", eg Nicholas II, Alexander VIII, Moctezuma, and so on, would count for nothing either. Do you yet detect anything wrong with your gross simplification of political systems?

1. He states it in the Fog of War too. But is this the tenor of public discourse? Is this reflected on the BBC, CNN, MSNBC? No, nowhere near, not in a million years.

2. Read the posts for christ's sake. I get pretty fed up having to repeat myself for you d'uhs. We are talking about the modern capitalist propaganda system- how does this relate to the Aztecs???

 

[mjd1982]

There are many many good reasons to apply self-censorship: propriety, civility, respect for audeince interests, artistic style, appropriateness for the venue, restraining emotion to give reason a chance, among others. Without self-censorship this forum couldn't exist. Without self-censorship we'd all, as individuals and as factions in a complex society, be perpetually screaming at each other at the top of our lungs about whatever crosses our minds.

It's a good thing we... wait a minute. It occurs to me after seeing last night's video of Alex Jones's bullhorn ranting collide with Geraldo Rivera's effort to model Hooters waitresses in the guise of a news story, that as factions in a complex society we are perpatually screaming at each other at the top of our lungs about whatever crosses our minds. We need more self-censorship!

When an individual suffers from diminished capacity for verbal self-censorship in social situations, it's called Tourette's Syndrome. What's it called when society as a whole suffers from this same embarrassing ailment?

We are not talking about the negative nature of that sort of self censorship. We are talking about self censorship regarding details that are detrimental to power.

Advertisers differ in the view of the world they want their messages to be surrounded by. Insurance companies, home security companies, cleaning products manufacturers, and challengers for political office try to depict a world filled with imminent danger. Soft drink sellers depict a world of healthy youthful exuberance. Rap music producers depict a world of violence and imminent revolution.

Again, you seem to perceive a malevolent force in this, where I see an interacting network of dynamic influences and conflicting interests too complex to trace in detail. (That complexity is why laws intended to fix various imbalances usually, throough unintended consequences, make things worse.)

No, I perceive a malevolent result, I have said this may times- the situation is the logical consequence of a media industry predicated on free makt capitalism. This means that important details will get filterd out through selection of personnel, 1st and foremost, self censorship, and censorship as well. Thus., powerful interests will get protected.

And it's not that the US is a vast bowling pin factory inside a giant purple hippopotamus orbiting Saturn either. How does the fact that it's not presented on TV lend any validity to that view?

Because it(my original comment) is what is supported by the facts and what an honest media would report.

So the Capitalist Propaganda System isn't controlled by, and doesn't benefit, specific individuals, nor a conspiracy among individuals. "Powerful interests and power structures?" Power itself acts with volition to protect itself? This is getting strange, I thought we were making progress focusing on who is actually misbehaving here which could lead to suggestions for how to make it better. But vague semi-sentient "power structures" arising emergently from a network of social, political, and economic interactions driven ultimately by human nature would appear impossible to assail without changing human nature or ripping apart the network. Trying to fight it through political means would be as much a category error as declaring a war on "terror."

There is nothing vague about power structures. High level corporate-political power interests. This is very simple and concrete. I have not even broached the topic of overthrowing it. The point is that when predicated on MSM censorship of important, newsworthy facts, 9/11 has a very simple conclusion.

Perhaps we can skip right over the part about how you fight it -- I strongly suspect that what you have in mind falls squarely into the "ripping apart the network" category which I find quite horrifying in its casual acceptance of the gigadeath that would result (see: Cultural Revolution) -- and jump to the key question: If you could replace market-driven capitalist media, what would you replace it with? To my knowledge the only other model that's ever existed in the real world is media controlled entirely by government and/or by other elites such as guilds, churches, and aristocracies, which is much worse (and protects power even more effectively and ruthlessly). But perhaps I'm overlooking something. Please point to either a real-world model you would emulate, or the details (perhaps a draft constitution) of the unprecedented improved alternative system you'd advocate.

As I have saidm this is not the point of the argument. It is that given that gross censorship of rudimnetary facts is reflective of power interests being protected, then 9/11 is an inside job, since gross censorship of rudimnetary facts is occurring on a mass scale.

 

[mjd1982]

Frankly, I can't see what any of mjd1982's stuff has to do with 9/11 either.

But this is worse than mere M-L political philosophy. He's identifying, with fruitless vagueness, "power structures" that are self-perpetuating until, well, until they aren't I guess.

The difficulty I have with his model is why, then, I have read Greg Palast and Naomi Klein in a mass publication that also advertises Jaguar and BMW automobiles. Under his "propaganda model", such a thing would never happen. (The mass publication is, of course, Harper's; you don't have to stop there--Atlantic Monthly, Utne Reader, The New Republic, all contain both advertising and articles that are not flattering of the "power structure".)

If mjd1982 truly wants to see modern-day "power structures" under transition, he need look no further than the heavy industry/banking structures in Japan, the role and constitution of the Communist Party in China, and the roles of religious and secular institutions in the Muslim world. While I don't have the energy to research and list all the individuals involved in these transitions (on both sides), I assure mjd1982 that they do exist.

And, of course, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (named after a pair of congressionial individuals) has had a huge impact on the "power structures" of corporations both within and doing business with the USA. In fact, the "power structure" has done a very poor job of defending itself against this costly assault on its sanctuaries. It hardly matters to mjd1982. I would have to assume that he thinks Eliot Spitzer is somehow a part of the "conspiracy" even though his erratic assaults on businesses and the corporate world in general are brought to us by--ahem--the "power structure's" own media.

Just a point on Sarbox, though it is not at all relevant- do you know the percentage of reports that are taken through to a successful prosecution? Was in the FT the other day, it's miniscule.

But this isnt what we're interested in. Interests of important power structures are things like geo political strategy, suppression of working classes, government sponsored genocide etc. Petty theft means nothing (the 3rd time ive told you know?)

 

[Pardalis]

As I have saidm this is not the point of the argument. It is that given that gross censorship of rudimnetary facts is reflective of power interests being protected, then 9/11 is an inside job, since gross censorship of rudimnetary facts is occurring on a mass scale.

It has been explained to you that WTC7 is not an important event.

It has been explained to you that WTC7 has been reported in the media.

 

[mjd1982]

I've just figured it out; that is, why Mjd's postings have seemed awfully familiar for some time. Not as quotations or paraphrases, but in the sense and the tone. He's coming at this from a Marxist-Leninist perspective. The tone and sensibility of his statements are like nothing so much as reading ... not Marx, who was truly a genius; but the most successful, practical, practicioners of Marxist-Leninist ideology: Lenin, Stalin, and the rest of the Bolsheviks. There are the firm programmatic statements, the harsh attacks on all opponents (including all other socialists, though that doesn't apply here), the hints of eventual retribution, the refusal ever to recognize others' points of view, and the claims that they speak for "the people"/ "das Volk"/ "narod" thereby justifying every statement and every act.

You may ask why I feel qualified to speak on this matter. I can only point to my Ph.D. in modern Russian and East European history from the Univ of Michigan. (What in god's name has happened to their football team?) I cut my academic teeth on this stuff when communism was still in power in many countries; and yes, I've spent a good amount of time in real police states, when I was a student. I've seen it up close and personal, albeit always with the protection of my American student status.

I respectfully suggest that all threads which he has started be moved to the politics area. He's not arguing 9/11; he is arguing Marxist-Leninist politics, using 9/11 as the hook. For another standard method of Marxism-Leninism is to latch onto a particular cause and try to make it theirs, and use that as a springboard to, at least, greater political influence, if not outright power.

No wonder Chomsky doesn't follow him.

Errr....

One of the most absurd things anyone has ever said to me.

 

[mjd1982]

It has been explained to you that WTC7 is not an important event.

It has been explained to you that WTC7 has been reported in the media.

Someone's angling for a banana...

I was out again today at Speakers Corner. I did it again. A crowd of ~50. 6 people knew about it; no one could believe they didnt know. I could do this all day every day.

Incidentally, I was also supported by a chap from this site- http://www.ricenpeas.com/ - used to work for the BBC and C4- he quit because he said their practices of reporting were "unethical", i.e. propagandistic

 

[Pardalis]

Someone's angling for a banana...

Reported.

I was out again today at Speakers Corner. I did it again. A crowd of ~50. 6 people knew about it; no one could believe they didnt know. I could do this all day every day.

Argumentum ad populum

Incidentally, I was also supported by a chap from this site- http://www.ricenpeas.com/ - used to work for the BBC and C4- he quit because he said their practices of reporting were "unethical", i.e. propagandistic

I don't care.

 

[Myriad]

Well, mjd, if all you want to do is complain about the problem without offering or even discussing solutions, let's return to the topic of 9/11.

We are not talking about the negative nature of that sort of self censorship. We are talking about self censorship regarding details that are detrimental to power.

For which you offer WTC7 as an example. But the details of the collapse of WTC7 are only detrimental to power if WTC7 was indeed demolished as an "inside job." In the context of the 9/11 consipracy argument, this is begging the question.

Because it(my original comment) is what is supported by the facts and what an honest media would report.

Your original comment was based on your interpretation of a comparison of very different wars in different centuries. It is, at best, an opinion. Honest and balanced media would report it as such, along with contrary opinions.

Which, I agree, they have largely failed to do. This is a deplorable situation. It's a shame you have no solutions to offer.

There is nothing vague about power structures. High level corporate-political power interests. This is very simple and concrete. I have not even broached the topic of overthrowing it. The point is that when predicated on MSM censorship of important, newsworthy facts, 9/11 has a very simple conclusion.

No, even accepting your premise of MSM censorship of news does not lead to any conclusion about 9/11. Affirming the consequent fallacy:

- If 9/11 was an inside job, news of it would be censored.
- News of 9/11 was censored.
- Therefore, 9/11 was an inside job. [invalid]

As I have saidm this is not the point of the argument. It is that given that gross censorship of rudimnetary facts is reflective of power interests being protected, then 9/11 is an inside job, since gross censorship of rudimnetary facts is occurring on a mass scale.

- News of 9/11 was censored.
- The censoring of news of 9/11 indicates power interests being protected.
- Therefore, 9/11 was an inside job. [?]

That one's just a non sequitur. Even accepting the stated premises, your ideas about which power interests were being protected, and what they were being protected from, are still pure speculation.

Aren't big insurance companies a power interest? They were stuck with the bill. Why weren't their interests protected?

When presented a web of fanciful "what-ifs" and political theories and urged to reach a conclusion from them, I look instead to facts based on physical laws that can be relied upon. Such as, that demolition charges, in order to perform their function of breaking steel beams with intense pulses of gas pressure, must make a lot of a certain kind of noise. All the political theory in the world can't disconnect that dot.

But, it's been interesting discussing our different perspectives on these matters. I appreciate the dialog.

Respectfully,
Myriad