Dear Dirty America

People seem to think they’d know when government agencies, think tanks, or transnational corporations are influencing their thought patterns and manipulating their behaviors, as if that sort of thing would be obvious in 2014.

As obvious, say, as Nazi jackboots stomping through your town, or President Obama’s eyes turning laser red while he lied to the public about drone warfare, tensions in the Middle East, or the war on terror. “Man, if you think we’re being propagandized hard these days, you should check the newspapers in the early 20th century,” a friend of mine told me.

But we are not living in the 20th century any longer, and it’s about time we figured that out. The levels of manipulation and ‘propaganda’ are so sophisticated and advanced, we not only miss every attempt made at controlling and affecting our collective thought and public reaction to an event or worldview, we joyfully interact with the very mechanisms put into place to shape our mindsets and, occasionally, spring us into premeditated action.

The Associated Press recently broke a story about the Cuban Twitter, set up by high-tech contractors flown in from places like South America and Denver, Colorado. “At its peak,” the report reads, “the project drew in more than 40,000 Cubans to share news and exchange opinions.” The users were not aware the system was created by the US government, nor did they understand their private information and data was being used for political purposes.

But what kinds of purposes were these Cuban Twitter users fulfilling, unbeknownst to them? From the AP:

Documents show the U.S. government planned to build a subscriber base through “non-controversial content”: news messages on soccer, music and hurricane updates. Later when the network reached a critical mass of subscribers, perhaps hundreds of thousands, operators would introduce political content aimed at inspiring Cubans to organize “smart mobs” — mass gatherings called at a moment’s notice that might trigger a Cuban Spring, or, as one USAID document put it, “renegotiate the balance of power between the state and society.”

The Arab Spring, to the potential Cuban Spring.

It’s pretty nefarious, and it should make any common American question the celebrated uprisings throughout the world, from Tunisia and Egypt to the more recent public explosion in Ukraine. It’s not that those places weren’t already suffering from massive public discord, but what major corporate and government backers were stirring things up behind the scenes? And what do they hope to achieve?

When the George Soros-funded USAID always lingers around the edges of these “grass roots movements”, the public should be very skeptical about what cause they are serving when they take to the streets. It’s become so obvious that the uprisings in Ukraine were prematurely ejaculated so NATO and its western forces could push the Ukraine to the EU and undermine Russia’s influence in the world just a little bit more.

An EU-Ukraine would allow NATO military and missile bases to stare down Russia and Iran. It was the ace up the sleeve of President Obama’s handlers after they were met with fierce rejection (relative to the general apathy) of American citizens at the thought of militarily engaging Syria.

The president (mister War is Peace, or “the George Zimmerman of the Middle East“) offered one of his soothing assurances that what was attempted in Cuba was not covert action. Rather, despite the documents claiming it was to spark civil unrest and disturb the Cuban government, Obama said “it served an important purpose by helping information flow more smoothly to Cubans.” Because he loves you. And he loves Cubans. And he loves freedom of speech.

Exactly. The kind of free speech that is tightly controlled, and of particular information that would lead to a preordained outcome favorable to those in power in the highest levels of the United States government.

Bob Menendez, the Democrat from New Jersey and chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said USAID should be applauded for its role in trying to give the people of Cuba a platform to talk to each other. He praised the attempt because it was in favor of the free flow of information in a closed society. Of course, it wasn’t that at all, and he knows it. It was an illegal collection of data, or a high-tech spy program in a sovereign nation, and it was going to be used to destabilize a foreign government. It should come with jail sentences for all involved.

But that’s of no concern to Bob Menendez, who is a criminal, first of all. Menendez has done far shadier deals on Sunday mornings while sitting in his underpants eating runny eggs and burnt sausage. That’s why he’s in the US Senate. It’s the best place to hide. Second of all, he’s dangerous and might as well be a foreign agent playacting a good American, concerned with liberty and freedom for all.

Imagine if Cuba, or Iran, or a country with a government hostile to the United States, set up a server in America to gather its users’ information, and then try to use that to spark what would look like impromptu protests. Worse yet, what covert campaigns is our own government running in our borders? We already know all of our information is being collected. How are our minds being manipulated through mainstream media outlets, TV programs, advertisements, and social media sites? But that could never happen in America. No, we’d know it if we were being manipulated. We’d see it coming from miles away.

In 2014 we’ve got our noses nearly touching our smart phones. We know the NSA is collecting nearly everything we do online, from web searches to Skype chats, to cell phone conversations and text messages. We know the president signed into law the updated NDAA bill, which allows the US government to indefinitely detain any American citizen it deems dangerous, and they don’t have to give a reason for it. We know the White House has granted itself the power of being judge, jury, and executioner for dozens or hundreds of people it deems too dangerous to be living on this planet.

Where does the manipulation begin and end? What current social media platforms and Internet browsers were created covertly with back doors in them? What information is privileged in searches on Google, and what information is kept buried in the junk? What happens when ebooks can be wiped clean from ereaders all around the world?

I don’t trust our collective internal alarm system for malfeasance and manipulation. I think we’re dumb, lazy (me included), and so integrated into a sophisticated system that seems like it’s serving us, but in reality is not, that we cannot begin to perceive the levels of behavioral manipulation and social development.

We’re interacting with the 1984 telescreen, but rather than hiding in the corner of the room, just beyond its Big Brother gaze, it’s been incorporated into our daily lives through entertainment, banking, work, and social connections. We not only love it, we can’t function without it.

[“Bahamas, Cuba, Florida” photo by NASA/Chris Hadfield]