I have never witnessed such a disconnect between the narrative promulgated by the corporate media and reality. I know I’ve talked about this before but every day brings a new example.

These types of disruptive narratives are far more common than is acknowledged. One aspect to this infowar revolution has been the inversion of the western media business model: Its revenue no longer derives from readers who buy or subscribe​,​ and who want, and expect​,​ reality.  

At the national level, it is government and its agencies which now pay millions for their narratives to be put forth.  There is no standing apart from this discourse; there is no thinking outside of the dominant narrative as the Twitter Files have revealed. And now thanks to the Columbia Journalism Review, and Jeff Gerth’s four-part series, we know a lot more about the “real disinformation”, especially the way in which the national security state, in league with their corporate media pals whipped up a new Cold War with Russia. Russia-gate seriously fucked-up the function of media, and media’s understanding of its function, beyond repair. Over the past seven years mainstream American media have come to see and embrace their task as the conveyance of official propaganda.

And it works​. People repeat narrated realties. They embrace tribal-narrated messages. Ideology has replaced reality. This has become a big problem since intelligence, after all, is an ongoing attentiveness to reality, which is inconsistent with willfulness and fantasy.

So arguments no longer revolve around truth. They are judged by their fidelity to the tenets of tribal messaging. You are either with the narrative or against it. Remaining loyal to ​team blue or red becomes the highest morality. That loyalty requires each member to avoid raising controversial issues, questioning weak arguments, or calling a halt to wishful thinking. And to further reinforce conviction in the rightness of the narrative,​ the other team must be marginalized and mercilessly ridiculed to make them seem stupid or crazy.

To comprehend how we got to this era of disconnect it’s useful to go to the way back machine. The Reagan Administration, created an office of Public Diplomacy and brought C.I.A. tactics to bear domestically to reshape the way Americans perceived the world. Writing for Consortium News, investigative journalist Robert Parry revealed  the existence of a C.I.A. perception management program begun during the Reagan administration. It had the aim of selling false stories to the American people to further the interests of the national security state. “In that sense, propaganda in pursuit of foreign policy goals would trump the democratic ideal of an informed electorate. The point would be not to honestly inform the American people about events around the world but to manage their perceptions by ramping up fear in some cases and defusing outrage in others depending on the U.S. government’s needs.” The ultimate outcome was articulated by CIA Directer William Casey: “We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false”

Perversely, Casey’s outcome has come to pass for America’s elites as well. They have become consumers of the very same propaganda they’re foisting on the rest of us. The point here is that this methodology for the American ruling class has become mandatory. It is as self-destructive for those individuals who try to move beyond it​,​ as it is to question its core tenets. In the process, the American ruling class, led by the neocons, has become overtly hostile to empiricism and truth.

It’s no wonder the United States is in such a mess economically, socially and morally when unabashed delusion is our national pastime. And rather than a corrective to corporate media, social media has only intensified the disconnect as Americans find comfort in their own tribal narratives.

Update: Seymour Hersh has moved to Substack where he just confirmed that it was the US who destroyed the Nord Stream pipelines.

What a surprise.

Whodunnit? – Facts Related to The Sabotage Attack On The Nord Stream Pipelines