I’m Tired Of Our Enlightened Elites And Their Gaslighting

I’m Tired Of Our Enlightened Elites And Their Gaslighting, Spinning and Stupid (part II)

“Propaganda is the art of persuading others of what you don’t believe yourself.” (Decimius Magnus Ausonius)

In light of the widespread dishonesty coming from our “elites” I decided to update and republish this article I wrote in 2022. I believe it is more relevant today than ever.

I’m tired of the gaslighting, spinning and stupid coming from our unenlightened ‘enlightened elite.’ Who are these ‘enlightened elites’ I speak of? Well those government officials, academics (professors & students), journalists, celebrities, and social media “influencers” who make stuff up so they can lecture those of us they deem unenlightened on what we should believe, how we should think, what we should say, and of course, how we should vote.

All of what they utter is annoying, most of it’s wrong, and much of it’s harmful.

Some of the harmful stuff the ‘enlightened elite’ have spread:

1. BBC’s Deceptive Editing of President’s Trump January 6 Speech. The latest MSM scandal is BBC’s integrity free editing of Trump’s January 6, 2021 speech where they edited his remarks to make it appear he was inciting an insurrection when he was not. They then included this in a “documentary” about January 6.

The Cambridge Dictionary defines “Documentary” as “a film or television or radio programme that gives facts and information about a subject.”

So riddle me this, how can BBC’s fact free film that was intentionally edited to promote a lie be called a “Documentary?” Propaganda yes, documentary no.

I wish this was an isolated occurrence, but it’s not. Some of my favorite gaslighting by the MSM includes, but certainly is not limited to:

– “The Steele Dossier” and the “Russian Collusion Hoax.”

– Hunter’s laptop coverup.

– The AP’s history of dressing up propaganda as news. Most recently they employed a Palestinian “journalist” they knew was connected to Hamas from at least 2018 until after the October 7, 2023 Hamas terrorist attack to report on Gaza and Hamas! Alas, this is nothing new for the AP, in the 1930s they entered into an agreement with Nazi Germany that allowed them to remain in Germany after the other western press organizations were expelled. As part of that agreement the AP employed Nazi photographers and agreed not to run stories critical of the Nazi party. In other words, the AP became a propaganda arm of Nazi Germany.

– Dan Rather and CBS’ 2004 “fake but accurate” scandal. You remember, when Rather promoted a forged letter on his “news show” concerning George W. Bush’s National Guard service. When caught, Rather’s defense was the letter was fake but accurate.

– CNN’s 1998 “Tailwind” fiasco, another fact free “documentary.”

– NY Times and their boy Walter Duranty – the Time’s Moscow bureau chief for 14 years. Duranty is famous for covering up the famine Stalin created in Ukraine during 1932-’33 that resulted in about 3.9 million Ukrainian deaths. Duranty won a Pulitzer for this “reporting.”

I could go on, but I think the above examples make it clear that the “enlightened elites” of the MSM have been gaslighting us since at least 1898…”Remember the Maine?” Besides, to cover all the MSM’s gaslighting would result in an article with a word count that would rival Tolstoy’s War and Peace.

2. Blaming Republicans For The Horrific Attack On Paul Pelosi. The ‘enlightened elites’ lost no time in spinning the 2022 horrific attack on Paul Pelosi as a direct result of the ‘extreme rhetoric’ of those MAGA peeps. The attack on Pelosi occurred on October 28 at 2:30 am…the attack on the ‘unenlightened’ started less than 13 hours later.

At 5:16 pm the Hill reported that Pres. Biden “suggested” the attack “was a natural progression from lies Republicans have spread about the 2020 election.” Others rushed to jump on that evidence-free train, including Former Pres. Obama, Hillary Clinton, Andrea Mitchell, Jennifer Rubin, and Adam Kinzinger.

So what do we now know? Well:

The attacker was a homeless illegal immigrant from Canada with drug and mental issues named DePape who once thought he was Jesus. For the past 20 years DePape lived at various places in the San Francisco/Berkeley area (surprise), including a garage and storage shed. His latest adobe, before prison, was a bus parked in the yard of a house with a BLM sign in the window and a LGBT flag flying from a tree. The NY Post notes that “[a] closer look reveals the characteristics of a homeless encampment, or what Europeans call “‘an open drug scene.’”

At one time DePape was a ‘progressive nudist activist’ who made hemp jewelry and the life partner of Gypsy Taub, another nudist activist. Honestly, I’m not making this up.

Ms. Taub describes herself as a progressive who “absolutely” admires Pelosi. At one time she “hosted a public-access television program called “‘Uncensored 9/11,’” in which she discussed 9/11 conspiracies theories…in the nude. Of course, that was before she was convicted and sentenced to prison on 20 charges, including stalking, attempted child abduction, and child molestation involving a 14 year old boy. Gotta love those California Girls.

I’m not seeing much MAGA here. Instead, I’m seeing a mentally unstable guy with drug issues and a rather strange “life partner” who would not have been in the U.S. except for our enlightened governmental elites failure to enforce immigration law. But facts don’t seem to matter to our “enlightened elites.”

3. Defining “Election Denier” To Exclude Election Deniers. Yea, really. CBS News’ “enlightened elite” Scott MacFarlane came up with a definition of “Election Denier” and even made a nifty chart for us unenlightened. According to MacFarlane, an Election Denier is a person who does one or more of the following (caps in original):

1. “QUESTIONED LEGITIMACY OF BIDEN’S ELECTION”
2. “SAID 2020 ELECTION WAS STOLEN”
3. “REPEATED DISPROVEN CLAIMS OF FRAUD”
4. “SIGNED ON TO TEXAS LAWSUIT TO OVERTURN 2020 ELECTION”
5. “OBJECTED TO 2020 ELECTORIAL COLLEGE COUNT ON JAN. 6”
6. “SUPPORTED 2020 AUDIT”

Call me skeptical, but I have to question why CBS’s definition of an “Election Denier” only applies to people who question the 2020 election. Could it be they want to exclude Democrats who engaged in the same activity in previous elections? At least 46 Democrats, including Presidents, Senators, Congressmen and others would be Election Deniers if CBS’s definition included more than just the 2020 election.[1]

What’s more problematic than CBS excluding Democrats from being labeled “Election Deniers,” is the MSM and many government officials’ attempt to define those who question the integrity of an election as a danger to our nation. To the contrary, the danger to our republic is the refusal of the powers-that-be to take the legitimate concerns of Americans seriously and conduct an honest investigation into the integrity of our elections. Instead, without even a cursory investigation, we’re continuously assured that voter fraud is a figment of our imaginations. But is that true? Just since 2000 our elections have at best been chaotic.

1. The 2000 presidential election ended up going to the U.S. Supreme Court…all over poorly designed “butterfly” ballots, hanging chads, dimples, and voter intent.
2. In 2004 there were questions about Ohio’s voting machines resulting in a number of Democrats challenging the acceptance of Ohio’s electoral votes.
3. 2008 was a banner year. In 2011 it was discovered that 19 pages of signatures to get Obama on the 2008 Indiana primary ballot were forged. Without those signatures he would not have been on that ballot. In 2012 the NY Post reported 1,099 felons illegally voted in the 2008 Minnesota election…Al Franken was elected senator by 312 votes. This was also the year ACORN ( the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) gained fame for fraudulently registering thousands of voters across the country.
4. In 2014 the Washington Post reported on a study by Old Dominion University Professors J. Richman and D. Earnest in which they estimate that 6.4% of non-citizens voted in 2008 and 2.2 % voted in 2010.
5. We all know about 2016 and claims of Russian interference and Trump stole the election and the 2020 claims of voter fraud and that Biden stole the election.

Is there voter fraud? Yep. Is voter fraud so pervasive that it results in stolen elections? Yep, at least in two local elections.[2]  Has voter fraud swung national and/or statewide elections. I don’t know, and neither does anyone else because no one has investigated to what extent voter fraud occurs. However, at least the 2008 Minnesota senate election is sketchy.

Problem is, our enlightened government elites have never conducted an honest investigation into the issue of voter fraud and election integrity…even though there’s more than enough evidence to justify one. Instead, they prefer to ignore the evidence, arbitrarily deny there is any problem, and label citizens who express legitimate concerns as Election Deniers who are a threat to our republic…then they complain that people have little or no faith in the integrity of our elections

4. Blaming The Burglary Of Katie Hobbs’ Campaign Headquarters On Kari Lake. On October 25, 2022 Katie Hobbs’ gubernatorial campaign headquarters was burglarized, an act that without a doubt must be condemned. However, without waiting for any evidence, Ms. Hobbs’ campaign manager blamed the burglary “on her Republican opponent Kari Lake and Lake’s allies, accusing them of “’spreading dangerous misinformation and inciting threats against anyone they see fit.’”

Ungood things usually happen when one speaks first and thinks later…

On October 27 Daniel Mota Dos Reis – a 36 year old homeless illegal immigrant from Portugal – was arrested for the burglary of Ms. Hobb’s campaign headquarters. To date no one from Hobbs’ campaign has bothered to explain how this homeless illegal immigrant from Portugal was influenced by unspecified “dangerous misinformation” Ms. Lake was accused of spreading.

5. Undermining Free Speech By Spreading Misinformation Claiming That Misinformation Is Not Protected Speech. One such example is the November 1, 2022 tweet by Senator Dick Durbin – who at the time was the Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee and has a JD from Georgetown – in which he stated “Free speech does not include spreading misinformation to downplay political violence.” Uh, yes it does.

Senator Durbin needs to read the Supreme Court decision in Brandenburg v. Ohio, 395 U.S. 444 (1969) which held that the only speech that is not constitutionally protected, is speech that’s (1) directed at producing imminent lawless action and (2) is likely to produce such action. So yes, misinformation, disinformation, and even hate speech (however that is defined) is all protected speech.[3]

Not sure if Durbin should demand his tuition back from Georgetown, or Georgetown should demand its JD back from Durbin.

6. The Absurd Claim That We Need To Limit Free Speech In Order To Have Free Speech. The usual argument is ‘If you’re for free speech, you can’t (argue with, get upset by, offended by, or ignore) people who say things you don’t like.’

An example of this argument is a recent tweet by David Weissman, who has (or had, seems his X account is no longer active) a “blue check”[4] on Twitter, in which he stated “Hey conservatives, if you say you’re for free speech, why get outraged when people use pronouns to identify themselves?” The implication being you can’t be a free speech proponent if you get “outraged” over the speech of others. That position is both stupid and dishonest.

There’s nothing inconsistent about being a free speech proponent and being “outraged” by the speech of others. What is inconsistent with being a free speech proponent are attempts to silence speech you disagree with by violence, advocating for government censorship, or using the “heckler’s veto.”

The danger to our nation is not citizens exercising their Free Speech rights or questioning the integrity of our elections. No, the real danger is our “elites” gaslighting us in an attempt to gain and retain power and prestige.

4

Mr. Weissman had his blue check when it had to be awarded to a person by Twitter and not as a result of having your account verified and pay a monthly fee as is now the case on X. This is important because at the time, Twitter only gave a blue check marks to those they considered among the elites.

[1] Democrats who would be “election deniers” under CBS’ definition include Presidents Biden, Obama, Clinton, and Carter; Vice-Presidents Harris and Gore; Senators Booker, Boxer, Brown, Durbin, Kennedy, Reid, and Markey (when he was a Rep); Twenty-six congressmen; two former governors – Dean and Mcauliffe. Even Biden’s staff got in on the action – Klain (Chief-of-Staff), Fudge (HUD Sec.), Kerry (Climate Czar) and Karine Jean-Pierre (WH Press Secretary); and of course Hillary Clinton and Stacy Abrams.

[2] Heritage Foundation. In 2015, a judge ordered a new election for a city council seat in Perth Amboy, NJ that was decided by 10 votes with at least 13 illegal absentee ballots cast. The 2003 mayoral primary in East Chicago, Indiana, was overturned by the state Supreme Court due to widespread voter fraud. The new election resulted in a different winner.

[3] For a brief but good discussion of 1st Amendment speech law see: The First Amendment Encyclopedia, Middle Tennessee State University, Incitement to Imminent Lawless Action

[4] Mr. Weissman had his blue check when it had to be awarded to a person by Twitter and not as a result of having your account verified and pay a monthly fee as is now the case on X. This is important because at the time, Twitter only gave a blue check marks to those they considered among the elites.