9 comments

1. “I have not bowed to current academic nostrums about nomenclature, or accepted the flyblown philacteries of Political Correctness. So I do not acknowledge the existence of hyphenated Americans, or Native Americans or any other qualified kind. They are all Americans to me: black, white, red, brown, yellow, thrown together by that swirling maelstrom of history which has produced the most remarkable people the world has ever seen. I love them and salute them, and this is their story.” Paul Johnson, A History of the American People, p. xv.

   • We need to recover the word nostrums.

     Thank you T. David.

2. A Facebook friend of a Facebook friend posted that who (I’m using the OP’s preferred pronoun) identified as “Transparent” (i.e., a parent who is Trans), with preferred pronouns Who and Where.

3. On a related note. Is conditioning and related reporting of events to shape thought and behavior conspiracy? Is the news being reported or being shaped and projected?
   Are attempts at clarity embraced or cancelled? You’ll know who rules when you know what you can and cannot critique or even talk about….

   Manufacturing Consent:

   “ The Propaganda model of communication and its influence over major media organizations

   The propaganda model describes the major pillars of society (the public domain, business firms, media organizations, governments etc.) as first and foremost, profit-seekers. To fully consider the effects of the propaganda model, a tiered diagram can be drawn. Due to the impressionable and exploitative nature of major media organizations including broadcast media, print media, and 21st century social media, media organizations are placed at the bottom. As the model scales upward, it pans to the larger organizations who are financially capable of controlling advertising licenses, lawsuits, or selling environments. The first level displays the public domain in which prominent ideologies within the masses can influence the intentions of mass media. The second level pertaining to the business firms accounts for the media’s source of information as business firms are wealthy enough to supply information to media organizations while maintaining control over where advertisers can sell their advertisements and stories. The final layer, the governments of the major global powers, are the wealthiest subgroup of the pillars of society. Having the most financial wealth and organizational power, media organizations are most dependent on government structures for financial stability and political direction.”

   Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media is a 1988 book by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky.

   Source

   • From Pewresearch.org May 2012 –

     “The Blogosphere Worries about Government Propaganda

     Bloggers from both the right and left sides of the political spectrum united last week in overwhelmingly condemning the House passage of an amendment intended to modernize rules surrounding the dissemination of information. Both sides argued the bill was an overreach of government power, warning it would enable public officials and the military to disseminate propaganda to the American public. But they disagreed over who was responsible. Liberals feared the military and Republicans were trying to expand their influence while conservatives warned that President Obama would employ that power for political means.

     The issue received negligible coverage in the mainstream media last week, reflecting the libertarian leanings and privacy concerns that are often present in social media.

     For the week of May 21-25, discussion over the Smith-Mundt Modernization Act was the No. 5 topic on blogs, according to the New Media Index from the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. Almost all the bloggers who discussed the topic linked to the same report-a May 18 BuzzFeed article that offered details of the bill.

     While a much smaller part of the conversation, defenders of the bill also came from various segments of the political spectrum. Representatives of a wide range of organizations such as The Heritage Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) claimed the opposition to the act was based on misinformation and that the bill would make the workings of the U.S. government more transparent.

     Domestic Dissemination of Propaganda

     Sponsored by Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-TX) and Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), the Smith-Mundt Modernization Act would allow Americans to see materials produced by the U.S. government for overseas consumption. The bill would also remove prohibitions which prevented Americans from receiving news from organizations like Voice of America and Radio Free Europe. Supporters also argued that the amendment contained protections so that the U.S. government and the Department of Defense could not use propaganda on its own citizens to improperly influence public opinion.

     The amendment was attached to the National Defense Authorization Act and was passed with bipartisan support by the House on May 18. However, when the Senate approved their version of the defense appropriations a week later, it did not include the same amendment. (The future of the legislation depends on what happens when the House and Senate versions of the bill are reconciled.)

     BuzzFeed staffer Michael Hastings posted a story that day entitled “Congressmen Seek to Lift Propaganda Ban.” The piece, which quickly drew attention in the blogosphere, cited both supporters and critics of the bill, but focused mostly on the perceived dangers. In it, an unnamed Pentagon official is quoted as saying, “It removes oversight from the people who want to put out this information. There are no checks and balances. No one knows if the information is accurate, partially accurate, or entirely false.” (A correction to the story noting that the amendment would not apply to the Department of Defense, but only to the State Department and the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), did little to quiet the reaction.)

     Most bloggers had strong negative reactions after reading the BuzzFeed article.

     “Americans could now be subjected to the hardcore, massively manipulative and disinformation-filled propaganda that is usually reserved for foreign countries such as Iraq,” predicted afteramerica at Guerilla Media. “While propaganda in the United States was always somewhat covert and disguised as something else, the new bill apparently seeks to form an actual Orwellian Ministry of Truth, where propaganda is just part of daily business.”

     “This legislation opens the door for the government to legally lie to the American people,” added Bill Wilson at Pray the News. “Many would say that the mainstream media is already a propaganda arm of the government. Nevertheless, it will be far more difficult to discern the truth by making propaganda legal.”

     Conservatives charged that the bill was an attempt by the Obama Administration to manipulate public opinion.

     “The American people are subjected to a steady stream of propaganda-right from the talking heads of the MSM,” wrote Matt at Conservative Hideout. “So, I think that the proposed legislation will do nothing more than make official the media bias and disinformation that the American people receive on a regular basis anyway.”

     “Who here still recognizes their country?” wondered Roryann O’Rourke. “Every morning I wake up and I hear the latest coming out of this administration, the most corrupt administration I believe we’ve ever had…Our representatives want to allow the use of PROPAGANDA?”

     KrisAnne Hall could not believe that conservative members of congress were supporting the legislation.

     “Isn’t domestic propaganda something that this administration has been engaging since 2008?” she wrote. “We should care, because this crime against the American people is not being perpetrated by a Socialist President through executive order. It is CONGRESS authorizing this manipulation.”*

     Liberals, on the other hand, blamed others for what they viewed as an expansion of government power.

     “At a time when the American Public’s trust in Government is at an all time low, the House wants to make it easier for the Government to lie to us?” asked Richard Jensen at News From the Front. “And also keep in mind that Bush and company was able to get the country into a needless war with Iraq without those powers. How easy do you think it would be for the next guy who uses those tools to bomb somewhere else.”

     “This is the military industrial complex run amok, and it’s going to be up to every American citizen to read between the lines of just about everything now,” charged Beth at Veracity Stew. “It is truly the age of disinformation, and if this bill passes, it’s only going to get worse.”

     The outrage led to a response from the bill’s authors who claimed the concerns were a result of misinformation…..”

4. How we got here….

   “ December 10, 1924
   The Society for Human Rights is founded by Henry Gerber in Chicago. The society is the first gay rights organization as well as the oldest documented in America. After receiving a charter from the state of Illinois, the society publishes the first American publication for homosexuals, Friendship and Freedom. Soon after its founding, the society disbands due to political pressure.

   1948
   Biologist and sex researcher Alfred Kinsey publishes Sexual Behavior in the Human Male. From his research Kinsey concludes that homosexual behavior is not restricted to people who identify themselves as homosexual and that 37% of men have enjoyed homosexual activities at least once. While psychologists and psychiatrists in the 1940s consider homosexuality a form of illness, the findings surprise many conservative notions about sexuality.

   November 11, 1950
   In Los Angeles, gay rights activist Harry Hay founds America’s first sustained national gay rights organization. In an attempt to change public perception of homosexuality, the Mattachine Society aims to “eliminate discrimination, derision, prejudice and bigotry,” to assimilate homosexuals into mainstream society, and to cultivate the notion of an “ethical homosexual culture.”

   December 15, 1950
   A Senate report titled “Employment of Homosexuals and Other Sex Perverts in Government” is distributed to members of Congress after the federal government had covertly investigated employees’ sexual orientation at the beginning of the Cold War. The report states since homosexuality is a mental illness, homosexuals “constitute security risks” to the nation because “those who engage in overt acts of perversion lack the emotional stability of normal persons.”

   Over the previous few years, more than 4,380 gay men and women had been discharged from the military and around 500 fired from their jobs with the government. The purging will become known as the “lavender scare.”

   April, 1952
   The American Psychiatric Association lists homosexuality as a sociopathic personality disturbance in its first publication of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Immediately following the manual’s release, many professionals in medicine, mental health and social sciences criticize the categorization due to lack of empirical and scientific data.

   April 27, 1953
   President Dwight Eisenhower signs Executive Order 10450, banning homosexuals from working for the federal government or any of its private contractors. The Order lists homosexuals as security risks, along with alcoholics and neurotics.

   September 21, 1955
   In San Francisco, the Daughters of Bilitis becomes the first lesbian rights organization in the United States. The organization hosts social functions, providing alternatives to lesbian bars and clubs, which are frequently raided by police.

   August 30, 1956
   American psychologist Evelyn Hooker shares her paper “The Adjustment of the Male Overt Homosexual” at the American Psychological Association Convention in Chicago. After administering psychological tests, such as the Rorschach, to groups of homosexual and heterosexual males, Hooker’s research concludes homosexuality is not a clinical entity and that heterosexuals and homosexuals do not differ significantly. Hooker’s experiment becomes very influential, changing clinical perceptions of homosexuality.

   January 13, 1958
   In the landmark case One, Inc. v. Olesen, the United States Supreme Court rules in favor of the First Amendment rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) magazine “One: The Homosexual Magazine.” The suit was filed after the U.S. Postal Service and FBI declared the magazine obscene material, and it marks the first time the United States Supreme Court rules in favor of homosexuals.

   January 1, 1962
   Illinois repeals its sodomy laws, becoming the first U.S. state to decriminalize homosexuality.

   July 4, 1965
   At Independence Hall in Philadelphia, picketers begin staging the first Reminder Day to call public attention to the lack of civil rights for LGBT people. The gatherings will continue annually for five years.

   April 21, 1966
   Members of the Mattachine Society stage a “sip-in” at the Julius Bar in Greenwich Village, where the New York Liquor Authority prohibits serving gay patrons in bars on the basis that homosexuals are “disorderly.” Society president Dick Leitsch and other members announce their homosexuality and are immediately refused service.

   Following the sip-in, the Mattachine Society will sue the New York Liquor Authority. Although no laws are overturned, the New York City Commission on Human Rights declares that homosexuals have the right to be served.

   August, 1966
   After transgender customers become raucous in a 24-hour San Francisco cafeteria, management calls police. When a police officer manhandles one of the patrons, she throws coffee in his face and a riot ensues, eventually spilling out onto the street, destroying police and public property.

   Following the riot, activists established the National Transsexual Counseling Unit, the first peer-run support and advocacy organization in the world.

   June 28, 1969
   Patrons of the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village riot when police officers attempt to raid the popular gay bar around 1am. Since its establishment in 1967, the bar had been frequently raided by police officers trying to clean up the neighborhood of “sexual deviants.”

   Angry gay youth clash with aggressive police officers in the streets, leading to a three-day riot during which thousands of protestors receive only minimal local news coverage. Nonetheless, the event will be credited with reigniting the fire behind America’s modern LGBT rights movement.

   June 28, 1970
   Christopher St. Liberation Day commemorates the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall riots. Following the event, thousands of members of the LGBT community march through New York into Central Park, in what will be considered America’s first gay pride parade.

   In the coming decades, the annual gay pride parade will spread to dozens of countries around the world.

   December 15, 1973
   The board of the American Psychiatric Association votes to remove homosexuality from its list of mental illnesses.

   January, 1974
   Kathy Kozachenko becomes the first openly gay American elected to public office when she wins a seat on the Ann Arbor, Michigan City Council.

   June 7, 1977
   Singer and conservative Southern Baptist Anita Bryant leads a successful campaign with the “Save Our Children” Crusade to repeal a gay rights ordinance in Dade County, Florida. Bryant faces severe backlash from gay rights supporters across the U.S. The gay rights ordinance will not be reinstated in Dade County until December 1, 1998, more than 20 years later.

   November 8, 1977
   Harvey Milk wins a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and is responsible for introducing a gay rights ordinance protecting gays and lesbians from being fired from their jobs. Milk also leads a successful campaign against Proposition 6, an initiative forbidding homosexual teachers.

   A year later, on November 27, 1978, former city supervisor Dan White assassinates Milk. White’s actions are motivated by jealousy and depression, rather than homophobia.

   May 21, 1979
   Dan White is convicted of voluntary manslaughter and is sentenced to seven years in prison. Outraged by what they believed to be a lenient sentence, more than 5,000 protesters ransack San Francisco’s City Hall, doing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of property damage in the surrounding area.

   The following night, approximately 10,000 people gather on San Francisco’s Castro and Market streets for a peaceful demonstration to commemorate what would have been Milk’s 49th birthday.

   October 14, 1979
   An estimated 75,000 people participate in the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. LGBT people and straight allies demand equal civil rights and urge for the passage of protective civil rights legislature.

   July 8, 1980
   The Democratic Rules Committee states that it will not discriminate against homosexuals. At their National Convention on August 11-14, the Democrats become the first major political party to endorse a homosexual rights platform.

   July 3, 1981
   The New York Times prints the first story of a rare pneumonia and skin cancer found in 41 gay men in New York and California. The CDC initially refers to the disease as GRID, Gay Related Immune Deficiency Disorder.

   When the symptoms are found outside the gay community, Bruce Voeller, biologist and founder of the National Gay Task Force, successfully lobbies to change the name of the disease to AIDS.

   March 2, 1982
   Wisconsin becomes the first U.S. state to outlaw discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

   March 10, 1987
   AIDS advocacy group ACT UP (The AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) is formed in response to the devastating affects the disease has had on the gay and lesbian community in New York. The group holds demonstrations against pharmaceutical companies profiteering from AIDS-related drugs as well as the lack of AIDS policies protecting patients from outrageous prescription prices.

   October 11, 1987
   Hundreds of thousands of activists take part in the National March on Washington to demand that President Ronald Reagan address the AIDS crisis.

   Although AIDS had been reported first in 1981, it is not until the end of his presidency that Reagan speaks publicly about the epidemic.

   May – June, 1988
   The CDC mails a brochure, Understanding AIDS, to every household in the U.S. Approximately 107 million brochures are mailed.

   December 1, 1988
   The World Health Organization organizes the first World AIDS Day to raise awareness of the spreading pandemic.

   August 18, 1990
   President george Bush signs the Ryan White Care Act, a federally funded program for people living with AIDS. Ryan White, an Indiana teenager, contracted AIDS in 1984 through a tainted hemophilia treatment. After being barred from attending school because of his HIV-positive status, Ryan White becomes a well-known activist for AIDS research and anti-discrimination.

   1991
   Created by the New York-based Visual AIDS, the red ribbon is adopted as a symbol of awareness and compassion for those living with HIV/AIDS.

   December 21, 1993
   The Department of Defense issues a directive prohibiting the U.S. Military from barring applicants from service based on their sexual orientation. “Applicants… shall not be asked or required to reveal whether they are homosexual, ” states the new policy, which still forbids applicants from engaging in homosexual acts or making a statement that he or she is homosexual. This policy is known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

   May 20, 1996
   In the case of Romer v. Evans, the United States Supreme Court decides that Colorado’s 2nd amendment, denying gays and lesbians protections against discrimination, is unconstitutional, calling them “special rights.”

   September 21, 1996
   President Clinton signs the Defense of Marriage Act into law. The law defines marriage as a legal union between one man and one woman and that no state is required to recognize a same-sex marriage from out of state.

   April 1, 1998
   Coretta Scott King, widow of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., calls on the civil rights community to join the struggle against homophobia. She receives criticism from members of the black civil rights movement for comparing civil rights to gay rights.

   April 26, 2000
   Vermont becomes the first state in the U.S. to legalize civil unions and registered partnerships between same-sex couples.

   June 26, 2003
   In Lawrence v. Texas the U.S. Supreme Court rules that sodomy laws in the U.S. are unconstitutional.

   May 18, 2004
   Massachusetts becomes the first state to legalize gay marriage. The court finds the prohibition of gay marriage unconstitutional because it denies dignity and equality of all individuals.

   In the following six years, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, Iowa and Washington D.C. will follow suit.

   August 9, 2007
   Sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign, the Logo cable channel hosts the first American presidential forum focusing specifically on LGBT issues, inviting each presidential candidate. Six Democrats participate in the forum, including Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, while all Republican candidates decline.

   November 4, 2008
   California voters approve Proposition 8, making same-sex marriage in California illegal. The passing of the ballot garners national attention from gay-rights supporters across the U.S. Prop 8 inspires the NOH8 campaign, a photo project that uses celebrities to promote marriage equality.

   June 17, 2009
   President Obama signs a Presidential Memorandum allowing same-sex partners of federal employees to receive certain benefits. The memorandum does not cover full health coverage.

   October 28, 2009
   The Matthew Shepard Act is passed by Congress and signed into law by President Obama on October 28th. The measure expands the 1969 U.S. Federal Hate Crime Law to include crimes motivated by a victim’s actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability.

   Matthew Shepard was tortured and murdered near Laramie, Wyoming on October 7, 1998 because of his sexual orientation.

   August 4, 2010
   A federal judge in San Francisco decides that gays and lesbians have the constitutional right to marry and that Prop 8 is unconstitutional. Lawyers will challenge the finding.

   December 18, 2010
   The U.S. Senate votes 65-31 to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly in the U.S. Military.

   February 23, 2011
   President Obama states his administration will no longer defend the Defense of Marriage Act, which bans the recognition of same-sex marriage.

   June 24, 2011
   New York State passes the Marriage Equity Act, becoming the largest state thus far to legalize gay marriage.

   June 26, 2015
   With a 5-4 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, the U.S. Supreme Court declares same-sex marriage legal in all 50 states.”

   – pbs.org

   • Interesting how many of these events and landmark court cases occurred during the 2nd half of the Twentieth Century and accelerated significantly during the first couple of decades of the twenty-first. Back in the early 80’s I had a co-worker who was a WW2 veteran and he used to say that the second world war was “the beginning of the end of civilization as we know it.” Looks like he had a valid point. Thanks for posting this info.

5. This is the last thing of this kind I will post on this site as I don’t want to sully it up. But I always find it interesting that certain new events and narratives somehow forward the political response in a certain direction, almost like it was pre-scripted. I could add more on that, but I won’t. Anyway, Agenda 2030 (yes, it’s a real thing, promoted by the UN, economic forum, etc) is easy to google. Anything that will get us there is probably not off limits. The strange gender stuff is part of it. ….I’m not sure how on-schedule they are. This is a taste of what it could look like, I guess…

   “ “Welcome To 2030: I Own Nothing, Have No Privacy And Life Has Never Been Better (World Economic Forum04:26am EST More From Forbes) Nov 10, 2016, By Ida Auken

   Welcome to the year 2030. Welcome to my city – or should I say, “our city.” I don’t own anything. I don’t own a car. I don’t own a house. I don’t own any appliances or any clothes.

   It might seem odd to you, but it makes perfect sense for us in this city. Everything you considered a product, has now become a service. We have access to transportation, accommodation, food and all the things we need in our daily lives. One by one all these things became free, so it ended up not making sense for us to own much.

   First communication became digitized and free to everyone. Then, when clean energy became free, things started to move quickly. Transportation dropped dramatically in price. It made no sense for us to own cars anymore, because we could call a driverless vehicle or a flying car for longer journeys within minutes. We started transporting ourselves in a much more organized and coordinated way when public transport became easier, quicker and more convenient than the car. Now I can hardly believe that we accepted congestion and traffic jams, not to mention the air pollution from combustion engines. What were we thinking?

   Sometimes I use my bike when I go to see some of my friends. I enjoy the exercise and the ride. It kind of gets the soul to come along on the journey. Funny how some things seem never seem to lose their excitement: walking, biking, cooking, drawing and growing plants. It makes perfect sense and reminds us of how our culture emerged out of a close relationship with nature.

   In our city we don’t pay any rent, because someone else is using our free space whenever we do not need it. My living room is used for business meetings when I am not there.

   Once in a while, I will choose to cook for myself. It is easy – the necessary kitchen equipment is delivered at my door within minutes. Since transport became free, we stopped having all those things stuffed into our home. Why keep a pasta-maker and a crepe cooker crammed into our cupboards? We can just order them when we need them.

   This also made the breakthrough of the circular economy easier. When products are turned into services, no one has an interest in things with a short life span. Everything is designed for durability, repairability and recyclability. The materials are flowing more quickly in our economy and can be transformed to new products pretty easily. Environmental problems seem far away, since we only use clean energy and clean production methods. The air is clean, the water is clean and nobody would dare to touch the protected areas of nature because they constitute such value to our well-being. In the cities we have plenty of green space and plants and trees all over. I still do not understand why in the past we filled all free spots in the city with concrete.

   Shopping? I can’t really remember what that is. For most of us, it has been turned into choosing things to use. Sometimes I find this fun, and sometimes I just want the algorithm to do it for me. It knows my taste better than I do by now.

   When AI and robots took over so much of our work, we suddenly had time to eat well, sleep well and spend time with other people. The concept of rush hour makes no sense anymore, since the work that we do can be done at any time. I don’t really know if I would call it work anymore. It is more like thinking-time, creation-time and development-time.

   For a while, everything was turned into entertainment and people did not want to bother themselves with difficult issues. It was only at the last minute that we found out how to use all these new technologies for better purposes than just killing time.

   My biggest concern is all the people who do not live in our city. Those we lost on the way. Those who decided that it became too much, all this technology. Those who felt obsolete and useless when robots and AI took over big parts of our jobs. Those who got upset with the political system and turned against it. They live different kind of lives outside of the city. Some have formed little self-supplying communities. Others just stayed in the empty and abandoned houses in small 19th century villages.

   Once in a while I get annoyed about the fact that I have no real privacy. Nowhere I can go and not be registered. I know that, somewhere, everything I do, think and dream of is recorded. I just hope that nobody will use it against me.

   All in all, it is a good life. Much better than the path we were on, where it became so clear that we could not continue with the same model of growth. We had all these terrible things happening: lifestyle diseases, climate change, the refugee crisis, environmental degradation, completely congested cities, water pollution, air pollution, social unrest and unemployment. We lost way too many people before we realized that we could do things differently.

   This blog was written ahead of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting of the Global Future Councils.

   Ida Auken is a Young Global Leader and Member of the Global Future Council on Cities and Urbanization of the World Economic Forum….”

   • Comments like those from these world economic forums could have come from any number of novels written during the so-called Golden Age of Science Fiction. Absolutely amazing!

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