How I (too) was fooled by western propaganda
‘The milk(ing) of human kindness‘: examining western propaganda..
See an updated version of this article here: https://bestchinainfo.com/geopolitics/how-i-was-fooled-by-western-propaganda/
The phrase was coined , like so many, by ‘Shakespeare‘, in Macbeth (1:5), Lady Macbeth complains her husband “is too full of the milk of human kindness” to kill his rivals. But soft, what light through yonder window breaks? ;>
I’m writing this as an ‘ex-westerner‘, who has lived and worked in the UK, US, EU, North Africa, Australia and now resides in China — I’m a ‘re-pat‘, not an ‘ex-pat’ — And I’ve seen a lot of life from a western perspective, the untied snakes and their star bangled spanner, (always preferred the Jimi Hendrix version meself) ;> What’s the connection between propaganda and ‘the milk of human kindness’ ?
See also:
‘Bad things happen when good people do nothing‘
https://bestchinainfo.com/geopolitics/bad-things-happen-when-good-people-do-nothing/
Nobody’s perfect, sometimes, we make mistakes. A recent ‘exchange’ between an office grunt at the ‘AsSwIPe’; — my pet name for something that calls itself the Australian Strategic Policy Institute and myself highlighted to me what I feel to be a fundamental issue humanity faces, especially in light of the constant ‘drip-feed, tirade even, of anti- China propaganda being spewed from the dribbling collective stenographer mouthpieces of the western msm.
‘At first I was taken aback, astonished in fact that ASPI had taken the time to trawl through more than eight years of my twitter timeline, (dang! they don’t seem to have much to do eh?) — until they found something that they felt was ‘incriminating’ enough to publicly ‘throw back’ at me. But after pondering, I then realised this had, in fact, revealed something rather precious.. ‘
— ChinaBazzar
‘The milking of human kindness‘: Western propaganda and the ‘demonising’ of China..
I’m writing this as an ‘ex-westerner‘, who has lived and worked in the UK, US, EU, North Africa, Australia and now resides in China — I’m a ‘re-pat‘, not an ‘ex-pat’ — And I’ve seen a lot of life from a western perspective, the untied snakes and their star bangled spanner, (always preferred the Jimi Hendrix version meself) ;>
So, What’s the connection between propaganda and ‘the milk of human kindness’ ?
The phrase was coined , like so many, by ‘Shakespeare‘, in Macbeth (1:5), Lady Macbeth complains that her husband “is too full of the milk of human kindness” to kill his rivals. But soft, what light through yonder window breaks? ;>
Nobody’s perfect, sometimes, we make mistakes. A recent ‘exchange’ between an office grunt at the ‘AsSwIPe’; — my pet name for something that calls itself the Australian Strategic Policy Institute and myself highlighted to me what I feel to be a fundamental issue facing humanity, especially in light of the constant ‘drip-feed, barrage even, of anti- China propaganda being regurgitated and spewed out by the dribbling collective stenographer mouthpieces of the western msm.
See also: From the late great Andre Vltchek, Jul 08,2020:
“Western, particularly British and the US demagogy, have managed to reach ‘heights’ of deadly perfection. Already they’ve conditioned billions of brains, in all corners of the world into a servile way of thinking. All this is not just propaganda anymore; it is the true art of indoctrination. It hardly ever misses its target. And even if it fails to convince some strong individuals completely, it always leaves a mark on the psyche. In short: Western propaganda is perfect. Deadly. Until now, it’s been bulletproof.“
‘Bad things happen when good people do nothing‘
https://bestchinainfo.com/geopolitics/
‘At first I was taken aback, astonished in fact that ASPI had taken the time to trawl through more than eight years of my twitter timeline, (dang! they don’t seem to have much to do eh?) — until they found something that they felt was ‘incriminating’ enough to publicly ‘throw back’ at me. But after pondering, I then realised this had, in fact, revealed something rather precious.. ‘
— ChinaBazzar
“Booyah? White whale? Really? #Twit. So, you found a post I regurgitated years ago, before I’d researched this properly and fully. Amazing. And?
Now I HAVE researched, and my understanding is far more complete about the actual #Facts of the past and present in #Tibet and #Xinjiang”
— ChinaBazzar
So. What the MIC funded ASPI found, was that 8 years ago was that I once tweeted something, (retweeted most likely), in support of what I thought at the time to be a ‘just cause’, that is to say the ‘Free Tibet’ thing. How misguided I was..
But here’s the thing: the ASPI provided impetus for me to reflect, understand, and thence highlight just how easy it is to get completely taken in and fooled by western propaganda and agitprop when your human compassion is prodded.
The milking of human kindness indeed. Yes. It happened to me too. And I thought I knew enough. Clearly I did not. I know enough now to know I was wrong, mistaken, misled, duped.
— ChinaBazzar
I was taken in, duped, fooled, by the western propaganda playing on my natural human compassion for the ‘plight of the oppressed’, my indignance on behalf of people suffering human rights abuses.. But. I hadn’t checked to see if what I was regurgitating was actually true.
After my initial horror that I had, (quite obviously to me now), been well and truly duped by the western msm, came the realisation, that if I could be so easily duped, so could, and can, millions of other people who, in other circumstances, one could call, logical, conscientious, decent people with no ‘axe to grind’, no vengeful agenda to take out on some innocent ‘bystander’.
— ChinaBazzar
MIC ASPI AsSwiPe TWAT PNAC MSM 1066 2001 2003 and all that..
Now I look back at this with some regret; I saw straight through the illegal #US led war on and invasion of Iraq in 2003, from the moment two steel-frame buildings were demolished, (N.B. steel frame buildings don’t totally collapse neatly through fire..) in 2001 in New York I knew what game was afoot; The War Against Terror — or T.W.A.T for short — George.W.Bush’ initial phrase for the (well laid out and still viewable) PNAC plans for the anglozionist takeover of the MENA:
‘General Wesley Clark exposes the 7 countries in 5 years’ PNAC plan
From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGkSNAHqpJM
Anyway, the way I saw it was that everything was staged and ready for the world press, the ‘MSM‘, in the same way that ASPI’s ‘satellite image analysis’ is ‘msm ready‘:
So. ‘How could I have been fooled by western propaganda about Tibet‘? (To be fooled or not to be fooled.. that is the question..) Well, the same way everyone else gets fooled. We don’t take the time to check facts, verify the veracity of information. We take as ‘gospel’ that what the MSM tell us is truth. Factual. Iraq was all but destroyed and hundreds of thousands of innocent lives lost on the basis of.. some pictures of.. trucks.. buildings..
It’s clear to see exactly the same ‘methodology’, technique, or to be more precise; ‘flimflam’ being used again by ASPI. Dang.. are ‘they’ so unimaginative ans short of ideas that this is the best ‘they’ can come up with..?
I have little doubt that the finer point of this exchange, this issue, will be indiscernible and moreover, of little consequence to the likes of Mr Ruser or his paymasters at ASPI, or theirs at Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems, Northrop Grumman, Thales, Raytheon etc, but over and above this, the ‘point’ of this article really is of the essence, the zeitgeist of the times we are currently living in. Propaganda. And its’ (mis)uses.
Propaganda: Take a Proper gander..
Propaganda: Propaganda modern Latin word, propagare, meaning to spread or to propagate, that which is to be propagated. Originally derived from a new admin body of the Catholic Church circa 1622 aimed at “propagating” the Catholic faith in non-Catholic countries.
The term began taking a pejorative or negative connotation in the mid-19th century, when it was used in the political sphere.
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda#Etymology
@Nrg8000 #Twit. Not your buddy. A ‘complete backflip’? Simple. Because, years after forming an opinion based on western propaganda,
I researched, properly; something you fail to do because that’s NOT what you’re paid to do by the NED and arms corporations who fund #ASPI.— ChinaBazzar
Quote from ASPI: ” ASPI’s International Cyber Policy Centre (ICPC) has teams of researchers who concentrate on policy, technical analysis, information operations and disinformation, satellite analysis, surveillance and China-related issues.”
— ASPI
Replying to @Nrg8000 ‘Yes I too fell prey to ‘cognitive dissonance’.. not ashamed to admit it. And not too proud to admit I was wrong. I wouldn’t call it ‘manic insanity’ any more than a large swathes of western populations are still ‘manic’ and ‘insane’ Nor am I ‘aggressive’. ‘
— ChinaBazzar
‘So happy you finally found your ‘white whale’ sweetie! ‘
‘Vocal for the free Tibet movement’, when I was far less-informed perhaps, yes, as many people do, I regurgitated the standard western ‘agitprop’. Now my opinion is quite the reverse; the CIA (now NED) were hooking Tibet to subvert + plot against China; the Lama crew were CIA funded feudal overlords of a serfdom anyway. (See also Hong Kong, Xin Jiang)
— ChinaBazzar
Here’s the thing: @Nrg8000 & AsSwiPe unwittingly provided impetus for me to reflect, understand, and thence highlight just how easy it is to get completely taken in and fooled by western propaganda and agitprop when your human compassion is prodded. Yes. It happened to me too. And I thought I knew enough. Clearly I did not. I know enough now to know I was wrong, mistaken, misled, duped.
However, one takes heart from the breathtakingly amateur incompetence of such ‘agencies as AsSwIPe (ASPI: Australian Strategic Policy Institute) For the so-called ‘big players’ of arms corporations to fund these clowns to conduct anything other than tea-making is a most comforting sign.
— ChinaBazzar
Background: Like minded spirits have and will continue, to take certain ‘entities’ to task on misrepresentation of facts, plain untruths, and downright dirty lies on Xinjiang, the ‘Uyghur issue’, and other matters in China, and worldwide, from the US State Department to the UK and EU parliaments, from the BBC to theGuardian and TheEconomist. One of these was the ASPI and one Nathan Ruser — @Nrg8000 whom I refer to as the AsSwIP e — Australian Strategic Policy Institute — who are funded by some very big ‘players’ in armament sales and weapons manufacture: Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems, Northrop Grumman, Thales, Raytheon etc — i.e. the ‘MIC‘ — the Military Industrial Complex that Eisenhower warned the world about in his farewell address: :”
Eisenhower‘s farewell address, January 17, 1961.
President of the United States (and five-star general during World War II) Dwight D. Eisenhower used the term in his Farewell Address to the Nation on January 17, 1961[12]:
“This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence — economic, political, even spiritual — is felt in every city, every statehouse, every office of the federal government. In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military–industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist.
We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods so security and liberty may prosper together. “
— Dwight D. Eisenhower
Bernays Guatemala Regime Change and Bananas: History will teach us nothing
< Click left to open this potted propaganda section and and read more — have a proper gander: History will teach us nothing. If we don’t know it., or if we’ve ‘been fed’ and ‘swallowed’ a false version..
Bernays Guatemala Regime Change Bananas
So what does propaganda feed on? Fear. Avarice. Greed, Insecurity Human compassion — the milk of human kindness — it works at a deep emotional level, at a primal level.. and when used for manipulation of people, to serve vested, corporate interest, it is milking these emotions and the responses elicited — milking human kindness, and milking humankind indeed..
Notes from ‘down under’.. All things are connected: ‘Bad things happen when good people do nothing.’ My bro’ in Australia oft uses this maxim and it’s a good one. Australia.. was there way back in ’87.. zoom forward.. China!
China is now the main engine driving the world economy (See Angus Maddison and chinese economic performance in the long run) The One Belt One Road Initiative ‘BRI’ will ensure the well-being of many nations in Eurasia for the foreseeable future — after the trade War, hybrid war, and military build-up attempting to encircle China (see John Pilger), not to mention the constant anti- China narrative being promulgated in the west. How should China proceed?
Should China counter every attack? Parry every blow?
Probably
Worthwhile viewing from Adam Curtis:
See also worthwhile reading: World Affairs Blog by Chris Kanthan
Nobody ever won the battle of ‘public relations by overestimating the intelligence of ‘General public’.
— ChinaBazzar
So, what should I do, any of us? Try to increase human understanding, communication, understanding of China, Chinese people, the Chinese ‘mindset’; Try to counter the negative propaganda that, if left unchecked, could see the worst of consequences for all of humanity.
I don’t need to believe, I know this: China is not your enemy! China’s goal
is not world domination, that’s soo last millennium darlings, so passé, the page we’re on now is world unification, working together for a shared future!
I don’t need to believe, I know this: The people of China, the Peoples Republic of China and The Chinese Communist Party, who work for the people, have the best interests of the world, of humanity, at heart — this is the Chinese way; unity, family, friendship, peaceful co-existence.
I don’t need to believe, I know this: China’s ‘vested interest’ is not corporate, nor avaricious, but one of mutual beneficence, unity and peace — the Chinese mindset is mutual cooperation and mutual benefit;
‘We’re all in this together’ — Let’s pull together!’
Footnote: Opinion: “One is reassured by the breathtaking incompetence of such ‘advertising/agitprop agencies’ as AsSwiPe — #ASPI — #Australian Strategic Policy Institute — The fact that so-called ‘big players’ of arms corporations fund these clowns to conduct anything above the level of tea making is.. erm.. how shall we say.. most comforting..” ;>
The West HAS to have ‘an enemy’; This, in my opinion is the cornerstone of ‘western’ governance. ‘Divide and Conquer’ and all that. China seems to me to be quite the reverse. ‘Me’ becomes ‘We’!
Thought: In six years living in China I’ve never even seen a fist fight. Though I’ve seen a woman smack her boyfriend / husband once or twice. (!) This says a lot about a country. Back in ye olde Englande or the
good ol’ US of A.. well,, I don’t need to tell you do I ?
I don’t think aggression is in the Chinese nature.
Chinese children are not being trained to attack. As part of their physical exercise they are taught how to defend self + country. Anyone who thinks otherwise simply does not understand China or Chinese people. Chinese people are ready to defend. Always. They’re fit, smart and prepared, from infancy to old age. They will DEFEND China, as will I, to reiterate: China is NOT interested in attacking anyone!
‘I have found that it is the small everyday deed of ordinary folks that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love.’ ~ Gandalf
(J. R. R. Tolkien ~ The Hobbit)
