Tag Archives: 2018

Another Point of View

Hold The Front Page: The Reporters Are Missing And Journalism Is Dead

Gallery

 

(Edit: I've tried to write on this subject for a while now and failed, realizing I would not, probably could not, do it justice. So when I came across this article by John Pilger I quickly decided to re-post it. Please excuse the British theme. The music may be different, but the theme (regardless of your political, religious or social affiliation) remains the same here in the US. 

This is not about suppressing conservative or liberal voices. This is about suppressing dissent of any kind that does not follow or support the official narrative. - Cognitive Dissonance)

 

by John Pilger via ConsortiumNews.com

 

So much of mainstream journalism has descended to the level of a cult-like formula of bias, hearsay and omission. Subjectivism is all; slogans and outrage are proof enough. What matters is “perception,” says John Pilger.

By John Pilger
Special to Consortium News

The death of Robert Parry earlier this year felt like a farewell to the age of the reporter. Parry was “a trailblazer for independent journalism”, wrote Seymour Hersh, with whom he shared much in common.

Hersh revealed the My Lai massacre in Vietnam and the secret bombing of Cambodia, Parry exposed Iran-Contra, a drugs and gun-running conspiracy that led to the White House. In 2016, they separately produced compelling evidence that the Assad government in Syria had not used chemical weapons. They were not forgiven.

Driven from the “mainstream”, Hersh must publish his work outside the United States. Parry set up his own independent news website Consortium News, where, in a final piece following a stroke, he referred to journalism’s veneration of “approved opinions” while “unapproved evidence is brushed aside or disparaged regardless of its quality.” Continue reading Hold The Front Page: The Reporters Are Missing And Journalism Is Dead →

Cogs Two Ice Floes Post, Patreon Content

Mother Nature Shows Off Her Stuff

Gallery

Mother Nature Shows Off Her Stuff

By

Cognitive Dissonance

 

 

Mrs. Cog and I live on the edge of the Blue Ridge Plateau here in Southwestern Virginia. And by on the edge I mean literally on the edge. Our back property line ends where a very steep wooded drop off begins. Five more steps over the property line and it's a one way trip down for well over a quarter of mile.

I call it the ridge.

Continue reading Mother Nature Shows Off Her Stuff →

Cogs Two Ice Floes Post, Patreon Content

Control the Narrative and You Control the People

Control the Narrative and You Control the People

By

Cognitive Dissonance

 

It is extremely difficult to get where you are going if you don't know where you presently are. And you can't know where you are if you don't know where you have been. Control the narrative and you effectively control the people.

When my son was young (we are talking over 25 years ago when he was around seven years of age) one of the ways I would keep him occupied when on car trips was to place a paper road map (aka a narrative) on his lap and ask him a multitude of questions for the duration of the trip.

The first question when starting a trip was, "Where are we on the map?" Essentially I was asking him to physically and mentally locate us in the present on a two dimensional representation of reality. And unsurprisingly this was initially difficult for my son, since he lives and plays in a three dimensional world. I encountered similar difficulties as a student comprehending plane (two dimensional) geometry. But unlike other students, I quickly understood solid (three dimensional) geometry because it mimicked real life as I perceived it.

Then I would ask "Where are we going?" This was the future, a point in time not yet experienced. Because our perceptual point of view has not yet experienced this (or any) future, the future is infinitely variable. My son had some difficulty with this concept because in his mind the future was set (we’re going to Grandma’s house) but had not yet arrived. While the narrative map represented an infinite number of possible futures, his task was simply to locate one…Grandma’s house. Continue reading Control the Narrative and You Control the People →

Cogs Two Ice Floes Post, Patreon Content

Impotence and Denial: The Desperate Virtue Signaling Voices

Gallery 1 Comment

Impotence and Denial: The Desperate Virtue Signaling Voices

By

Cognitive Dissonance

 

 

Regardless of whether we are speaking of individuals or groups, what is not said is often far more important and enlightening than what is. How and why we self censor while conforming to the collective hive mind speaks volumes about whom and what controls, or at least greatly influences, our thinking and beliefs.

While those engaged might argue otherwise, virtue signaling is all about displaying our cognitive compliance to the group think of our adopted tribe or herd. Virtue signaling usually does not require actual activity or productive effort towards whatever we are signaling about, thought it also doesn’t preclude it, only that we inform the clan we are right thinking and obedient to the hive mind. In form and function, it is very similar to the movement of herds of animals and flocks of birds.

On the surface this makes perfect sense, allowing the individual to share in the rewards (physically, emotionally and monetarily) of being a cooperative and accepted member of the group. Even today the opportunity for safety and prosperity rise when we join a group rather than live the solitary life, even if our group is defined as a nation or religion. Living alone in the Outback for example, particularly for those not well adapted, is not conducive to a long healthy life.

But just as the hive mind demands uniformity in speech and thought, so too does it command certain thought and speech to be verboten and not to be broached other than in passing and in a derogatory manner. Continue reading Impotence and Denial: The Desperate Virtue Signaling Voices →

Cogs Two Ice Floes Post, Patreon Content

A Near Death Experience: Back from the Brink

Gallery

A Near Death Experience: Back from the Brink

By

Cognitive Dissonance

 

In an odd sort of way I am familiar with death, having danced around its perimeter all my life. A few of those waltzes can be attributed to close calls, near misses and other assorted near fatal brushes with death. But those were different from what I wish to describe in this piece.

A head on collision at 50 MPH (before the era of airbags and mandatory seat belts) unintentionally riding a motocross bike off a forty foot cliff, accidentally walking off the roof of a two story building or nearly having my arm swallowed by a whirling roaring mechanical beast, to name just a few, is just not the same as cardiac arrest and cessation of respiration.

While they all might have scared the hell out of me, with a few leaving me severely wounded or scared for life, they are not comparable to the near death experience(s) (NDE) I’m about to discuss in this article. Continue reading A Near Death Experience: Back from the Brink →