2016 marked a year that will most likely go down in the ‘post-truth’ history books as the year of the created reality. ‘Post-truth’ is now an internationally accepted term, nominated by Oxford Dictionaries as the “international word of the [2016] year.” And should we be worried?
The definition of ‘post-truth’ reads as this: “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.”
‘Post-truth’ and ‘fake news’ were once the conjurings of Orwell. 1984 was never meant to be an instructional manual. Nonetheless, the 21st Century has experienced a shaping and manipulation by reigning powers – authenticity, facts, falsehoods are difficult to disseminate from each other.
Led by the U.S. powers that be, the created reality now obstructs the path to truth, inarguably keeping the masses confused. The American political establishment continues unhindered while the rest of us wade through the disinformation trail they have deliberately left behind.
The irony is, some of the more ludicrous Fake News came from CNN, when Chris Cuomo reported on the WikiLeaks’ publication of documents pertaining to the Democrats, warning the world with his attempts to discredit the information because “remember, it’s illegal to possess these stolen documents. It’s different for the media. So everything you learn about this, you’re learning from us.”
Of course, as The Free Thought Project points out, CNN’s parent company is the Clinton News Network, and that Time Warner was one of Clinton’s top donors (amongst JPMorgan Chase), donating a lazy $411,000 to her endeavours.
As argued before, by many alt media organizations – and because corporate media choose to ignore this – the re-emergence of the Red Scare has tactfully surfaced to the top, deflecting any possibility that the Americans saw Clinton as an unfit candidate to run the nation.
Introducing the Russians as the likely cause for Clinton’s failure is reminiscent of McCarthyism. Without evidence, the Washington Post was the first to publish the consensus – that Russian hackers interfered with the elections. The CIA has “concluded in a secret assessment that Russia intervened in the 2016 election to help Donald Trump win…”
Rather than post evidence, however, they posted hearsay with nothing to back up their claims. Shortly after, the FBI didn’t concur with the CIA, suggesting the claims were “fuzzy” and “ambiguous.” The FBI assessment of Russian involvement went further, saying “there is no clear evidence — even now … There’s a lot of innuendo, lots of circumstantial evidence, that’s it.”
Coupled with both Trump and WikiLeaks’ founder Julian Assange denying any Russian involvement, and Assange going so far as to say it came from an insider; the Washington Post report still went viral.
Seemingly, there is an endless stream of misinformation (fake news?) running from corporate media, leaving them open to mockery. But it is “imperative to understand these false and misleading news items amount to government propaganda,” says Claire Bernish, journalist and free-thinker for The Free Thought Project.
This paves the way for other actions to be shoved down our throats, including war, Bernish says.
Contrary to the troves of information available on the internet, the Fake News machine is now well oiled. The citizen, it appears, has now been officially manipulated into believing they can’t discern fact from fiction. The independent media is still here, folks, but the need to be spoon fed is inescapable.
This article (Destroying the 2016 Facts to Make Way for the 2017 ‘Truth’) is a free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author AnonWatcher and AnonHQ.com.
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