57 Comments
Dec 21, 2022Liked by Michael P Senger

How can so many people, having lived through the last three years, still believe the official narrative(s) of COVID.

Nothing they said was true. Nothing. And yet people continue to wear masks. Continue to defend the Intelligence Services spying and censoring Americans.

Trump really was a threat to our democracy--at least half the country sees nothing wrong with Fascism as long as Trump is not in the White House. The hypocrisy is astonishing to behold and leaves me speechless.

Expand full comment
Dec 21, 2022Liked by Michael P Senger

Hard to fathom the extent of the mass surveillance and the pervasive thought policing our government is engaged in here. In what way are still a “free” country? Will we the sheeple awaken to demand constitutional adherence, or have we passed that point? Even asking those questions now likely puts one on a domestic terrorist watch list.

Expand full comment
Dec 21, 2022Liked by Michael P Senger

Love this statement: Because censorship involves the exercise of power to silence another individual, censorship is inherently hierarchical. A person who lacks the power to silence another cannot censor them. For this reason, censorship inherently reinforces existing power structures, whether rightly or wrongly.

So it is interesting that those demanding it are CRT or CT subscribers but it all makes sense under the rubric of the art of war you open with.

Expand full comment

I think you have pinned the insect of willful ignorance and disregard for human rights that has been plaguing Western civilization with your comment in your Tablet essay:

“…stripped of all disguise, the illusion of virtue, competence, and commitment to human rights among the Western political class is nothing more than conformity with easily subvertible norms and institutions passed down by prior generations.”

Virtue, competence, and commitment to human rights must be practiced and clung to like life itself, not just believed in or thought about. The Bible is full of examples of this faith put into action (see the book of Hebrews for a synopsis), and we need to recognize it and practice it ourselves on a daily basis.

Mr. Senger, you are certainly heeding the call to “encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you [us] may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.” (Hebrews 3:13)

Expand full comment

It’s becoming increasingly clear that the various large government apparatus have been captured for decades. Their interests are NOT the interests of US citizens, but rather the globalist 1% who control 99% of the worlds wealth. This is true for all western nations, as we watched them march in lockstep over the last few years. Just remember: the apex parasites who created a “pandemic” in order to boost bioweapon uptake, are the same ones who want CBDC… Do not comply.

Expand full comment
Dec 21, 2022Liked by Michael P Senger

An under-discussed, if discussed at all, related topic is how the censorship and propaganda campaign taints jury pools. Anyone charged with crimes, especially the political crimes invented by officials controlling the narrative, like not masking, dining out where vax id's are required, protesting rigged elections, etc, are unable to receive a fair trial. When jury pools are nearly 100% masked, jabbed, believe the "most safe and secure election ever" propaganda narratives those charged with these political crimes face a jury that's never heard counterarguments and are predisposed to believe counterarguments are dangerous dis/misinformation, normal defenses and appeals to commons sense fall flat, become counterproductive. Look no further than the DC trials of the J6'ers for this evidence. Set aside partisan leanings in DC, even R's subjected to the massive censorship and propaganda efforts are tainted by it and incapable of rendering a fair verdict.

The sophisticated and comprehensive deployment of The Narrative perpetuates itself this way, resulting in fewer opportunities to hold the regime officials accountable in peaceful ways that our constitutional system was designed to resolve conflicts and tensions between citizens and their government. Setting the stage for uncontrolled rejection of unaccountable government. At risk of suffering the same ultimate fate as many tyrannies in history. Censorship and propaganda end up putting the government and officials at greater risk of civil unrest and collapse than the threat of civil unrest and collapse that the censorship and propaganda is ostensibly wielded to protect from. As citizens realize the system itself is rigged, extra-legal and illegitimate.

Expand full comment
Dec 21, 2022·edited Dec 21, 2022Liked by Michael P Senger

Excellent essay, as usual, Michael.

If we were down the pub, I might be tempted to initiate a hair-splitting session with you on the definitions of mis- and disinformation. I tend to look at misinformation as any report, message, or story that--with or without intent--misinforms the recipient to the point where he or she develops an incorrect understanding of an event or situation. And then disinformation as simply misinformation that is deliberately crafted and disseminated with intent to deceive. I'd include under that definition false propaganda, à la Goebbels in the 30s, Cheney in the aughts, or Fauci during the World's Deadliest Pandemic™.

But I'd probably classify the Trojan Horse or the Sudetenland deception as more "ruse de guerre".

Anyway, thanks for a great piece, one that I'm going to share to my dozens of followers. We all owe you a pint!

Expand full comment
Dec 22, 2022Liked by Michael P Senger

Wel done. Censorship is a way to promulgate lies. Why do "free" nations need to lie to their puiblic?

Expand full comment

So do you consider "an epidemic growing exponentially" as misinformation or disinformation? Given that it doesn't has been known since at least 1927. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRC0D6LWwUQ

Expand full comment

There are very specific reasons for what they do, if we only look

Expand full comment
Dec 22, 2022Liked by Michael P Senger

Thanks for this very thoughtful piece. You succinctly distill the choice that has been made for us: that supposed foreign disinformation justifies censorship at home. This is not acceptable in America. I like your analogy of your Internet anarchy to the foolish belief at the end of the 19th century that industrialization, commerce, and international Socialism had eliminated the likelihood of a war. Is there any in-between solution? Doesn’t the law allow defamation suit, for false information and damage to reputation? Can a mechanism be built to make that easier on the internet?

Expand full comment
Dec 21, 2022Liked by Michael P Senger

I'd prefer that we have a right to lie even while under oath or in furtherance of a crime. Regarding lying under oath, I think there is a tendency to give more credence to what people say in this situation - liars take advantage of this. I think it would be better to take away this advantage so that juries aren't swayed by this.

Regarding criminal investigations, I think it should be legal to lie to the FBI or the police in general, mainly because it makes non-liars vulnerable to being prosecuted for honest mistakes in memory, but true liars are going to do it anyway.

Expand full comment

"We have met the enemy, and he is us." -Pogo

For the past 6 years, we've heard nothing but non-stop claims of "Russian disinformation." Now, with the release of the Twitter files, we see who was really engaged in disinformation.

Expand full comment

This article reads like a piece of propaganda disinformation by western governments. The idea is promoted that we are at risk from foreign sources of disinformation when it is glaringly obvious that our own governments are the main culprits. From UK government "nudge units" promoting the Covid narrative to the FBI supervising censorship and feeding misinformation to Twitter. Remember the non-existent Iraqi WMD vigorously promoted by the US/UK governments? Fauci and Fisher in the US promoted a take-down of the Great Barrington Declaration on the harms of lockdown. Foreigners are not the problem! The problem is our corrupt political class and the mainstream media stenographers to power who masquerade as "journalists".

Expand full comment

Our Governments just turn on the £ or $ printing presses when they want to further devastate our National economies!

Expand full comment