“Hide nothing from the masses of our people. Tell no lies. Expose lies whenever they are told. Mask no difficulties, mistakes, failures. Claim no easy victories.”—Amilcar Cabral
“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.”—Thomas Jefferson
Let us get one thing crystal clear: We in the the United States of America, do not live in an informed genuine people’s ‘democracy’ nor do we have a government or mass media that is honest and transparent that serves the needs, interests, and aspirations of everyday ordinary Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people.
It is time to cease being in denial and dispense with mythology.
The government of this nation is owned and operated, in real terms, by the power elite of giant avaricious corporations, including the corporate-stream ‘news’ media. In fact, the U.S. government, including so-called ‘elected’ representatives, has become, in reality, nothing more than a corporate clone, replete with self-serving pimping political parasites intent upon keeping everyday ordinary people dis-informed, divided, and controlled on the de facto plantations of the Democrat and Republican parties.
The politicians of this nation from Barack Obama on down, including both Democrats and Republicans, have repeatedly demonstrated that they are adroit at lying, dividing, and manipulating—not truth telling. They are irreconcilably wedded to a corrupt and dishonest corporate-owned political system, taking their cues from the relatively tiny, filthy rich, national and global power elite—always at the enormous economic, physical, and psychological expense of the everyday ordinary people of this nation and those throughout our precious Mother Earth.
These elected so-called people’s ‘representatives’ in the executive and legislative branches of the corporate-owned U.S. government are in essence anything but genuine representatives of the struggling masses of everyday ordinary people of all colors and both genders. They are stage props in the political theater of the absurd—keeping people perpetually divided, manipulated, and controlled in a corrupt political system that has gone absolutely berserk. And the judicial branch, has for the most part, become a terrible and sick joke—acting essentially as ping-pong systemic rubber stamps.
Corporate-stream vomit
The U.S. corporate-stream media, which includes ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, MSNBC, FOX, etc., constantly disinform and lie by omission to the everyday people of this nation by presenting the regurgitated and lopsided narrative of a greedy, war mongering power elite. This is nothing more than packaged corporate-stream vomit being rammed down the throats of everyday ordinary people by the corporate-stream media in service to the thought police and systemic gatekeepers of the Democrat and Republican plantation.
Why does the corporate-stream media continue to serve the masses of people a diet of lies and distortions, i.e., a diet of vomit? What purpose does it serve?
The U.S. so-called ‘mainstream’ media are essentially owned and/or controlled by only five major corporations. These corporations are in turn owned and/or controlled by a small and powerful power elite whose objective is not to honestly inform the masses of people—but rather to shape and thereby control public opinion. These corporations are in turn wedded to other corporations that make huge profits of blood money from manufacturing weapons of destruction in the air, in space, on land, and in the seas. Thus, the drums of war are virtually always being pounded—in the name of allegedly protecting an economic, political and social ‘democracy’ that, we the people, of this nation do not in the main enjoy. The objective of the corporate-stream media is to keep pumping the vomit to the people in order to ensure that the blood money from war profits of, for example, Boeing, General Electric, Honeywell, etc., continue unabated. This reality has nothing to do with so-called ‘national security’ or ‘democracy’—but everything to do with the reaping of enormous profits for the national and global power elite, at the immense expense of humanity, both nationally and globally.
Another objective of the corporate-stream media is to seek to discredit those persons who seek to expose the lies, distortions, and/or frame-ups, etc., by the government and its various local, state, and federal police and so-called ‘intelligence’ agencies. The courts, of course, also play a major role in in attempting to legitimize systemic actions to discredit, silence, imprison, or otherwise ‘neutralize’ political activists who are organizers and truth-tellers in this nation. There are no limits to the depths of dirty tricks and set-ups that the government, with the support of the corporate-stream media and the courts, will utilize in attempts to neutralize, discredit, and silence persons who oppose its agenda. They just keep pumping out the vomit to be consumed by everyday ordinary people.
Finally, another potent objective of the corporate-stream media (including the ‘entertainment’ industry) is to distract from the truth and to distort it in every conceivable fashion. U.S. and British television networks are particularly notorious in, for example, propagating drama shows and so-called sitcoms that attempt to distract people from the obvious while utterly distorting historical and contemporary reality. The corporate-stream media moguls are keenly aware of how the narrative and agenda of the power elite can be stealthily propagated in the seemingly innocuous name of ‘entertainment.’ Being entertained is one thing but being subliminally brainwashed is quite another.
Lie after lie after lie
The immense damage and impact of and by the corporate-stream media on the minds and daily lives of everyday people should never be underestimated.
The words of the martyred South African political activist Steve Biko are worth remembering and internalizing: “The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.”
If we do not critically think for ourselves then we are slaves—systemic slaves of all colors.
Whether it’s about this nation, Libya, Palestine, Syria, Somalia, or the Ukraine (Obama Regime Engaged in MH17 Cover Up, by Donn Marten), etc., we the ‘American’ people, are fed a diet of lie after lie, after lie, after lie by the corporate-owned U.S. government and the corporate-stream U.S. media.
Even as joblessness, home foreclosures, prison incarceration, homelessness, the so-called ‘national debt,’ and corporate glut and domination, etc., reach virtually unprecedented heights, the corporate-stream media would tell us that conditions are somehow getting better for the masses of everyday people in drone man Obama’s NDAA, NSA, ‘kill list,’ surveillance/de facto police state. We are expected to suck up the corporate-stream media’s vomit despite what we see and experience firsthand in our families and communities. I reiterate: If we do not critically think for ourselves then we are slaves!
Moreover, those relatively ‘fortunate’ few in this nation who are able to attend colleges and universities are also force-fed a diet of corporate-stream vomit by ‘educational’ institutions that are increasingly corporate owned and/or controlled and are largely beholden to promoting a corporate narrative and agenda. This is not real education and it is certainly not an environment wherein critical thinking is seriously encouraged, supported, and promoted. Indeed, critical thinking, just as in the larger U.S. society, is, in actuality, considered to be subversive. Notwithstanding the outrageous debt that most students are compelled to incur in order to attend these colleges and universities, far from being educated, they are being brainwashed to be systemic cogs—good little obedient, non-critically thinking corporate slaves.
As bloody conflicts and wars persist, at the behest of the national and global corporate power elite, decimating our planet’s natural environment, ravaging Mother Earth and her people, the time is upon us to creatively, consistently, and collectively act in the interest of ourselves and the rest of everyday ordinary humanity. This is not a matter of choice—it is a matter of absolute necessity.
We in this nation are not Democrats or Republicans—we are victims of the Democrats and Republicans. It is time to stop being their victims and find the ways and means together to relegate those pimping political parasites (and their corporate-stream media) to the dustbin of history.
What must we the people do?
The situation in this nation is dire but not hopeless. Here are some ideas of what we can do as individuals and collectively:
- We should immediately start to utilize critical thinking. To do so is, in and of itself, a necessary and revolutionary step. Thomas Jefferson correctly stated that, “Every generation needs a new revolution.” This 21st century generation must act now if there is even to be yet another generation.
- We should treat the corporate-stream media for what it is, understanding that its objective is to keep us disinformed, manipulated, and controlled. However, we should also share our insights with our friends, neighbors, and other associates—while simultaneously listening to their perspectives with a view towards creatively ways to develop and/or support viable alternatives to the corporate-stream media and be consistent.
- We should remember to use plain, simple, down-to-earth language when communicating our observations, ideas, and goals—keeping in mind that if we truly want to change this rotten system, we must endeavor to be in ourselves that which we want to see in a more humane and just society for which we are striving.
It is important to remember that this cynical political system thrives upon and exacerbates human weaknesses. Thus, we should strive to recognize our own strengths, weaknesses, and limitations as we organize and communicate with one another.
We everyday ordinary people must consistently utilize a very large dose of creativity as we aid one another to debunk and disengage from the poisonous vomit of the corporate-stream media. The task before us is an imperative one for this nation and humankind as a whole. In the paraphrased words of Amilcar Cabral, we must “tell no lies to the people and claim no easy victories.”
Remember: Each one, reach one. Each one, teach one. Onward then, my sisters and brothers. Onward!!!
Intrepid Report Associate Editor Larry Pinkney is a veteran of the Black Panther Party, the former Minister of Interior of the Republic of New Africa, a former political prisoner and the only American to have successfully self-authored his civil / political rights case to the United Nations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In connection with his political organizing activities, Pinkney was interviewed in 1988 on the nationally televised PBS News Hour, formerly known as The MacNeil / Lehrer News Hour. Pinkney is a former university instructor of political science and international relations, and his writings have been published in various places, including The Boston Globe, the San Francisco BayView newspaper, the Black Commentator, Global Research (Canada), LINKE ZEITUNG (Germany), and Mayihlome News (Azania/South Africa). For more about Larry Pinkney see the book, Saying No to Power: Autobiography of a 20th Century Activist and Thinker, by William Mandel [Introduction by Howard Zinn]. (Click here to read excerpts from the book.)
