Sinister agenda - part seven: the extremization

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The imbalance generated by polarization fuels—and is fueled by—a socio-political-media vicious circle through which polarization itself is amplified and exalted rather than mitigated or placated.
In the long run, this unstable process aimed at constant growth can only lead to extremization.
Today we are indeed at one of the peaks due to this diabolical mechanism, the effects and symptoms of which are evident by observing the tone and level of the debate within public opinion.
A debate that I would summarize like this: bullshitting, bullshitters shouting at the top of their lungs.

This post was machine-translated from Italian.

Sinister agenda - Part Six: Collective Madness

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However, the sinister drawing also has a side effect that, who knows, might even work against the person who causes it.
Italians, but perhaps not only them, are progressively and inexorably sliding into an abyss of collective madness. They now live in a virtual world where they believe they are involved and engaged in struggles increasingly distant from the fabric of their lives, crises of which they only know what the propaganda feeds them, regardless of the faction they follow.
Once upon a time they argued over the shared fence with the neighbor, the price of eggs, boiler maintenance. Now they gather in the public square and tell each other to fuck off in the name of distant countries, peoples, and events.
Not to mention the time and energy they spend for free, uncritically accepting partisan directives, when for more reasonable and paid requests they do not hesitate to flip the middle finger to their employer.
Truly incredible is the power of propaganda, the thoroughness of the brainwashing imparted.
Goebbels seemed like a loser who, without the rise of Nazism, would have been destined for oblivion. But it is incredible how much talent, even malicious talent, historical events can leave buried or bring to light in an absolutely arbitrary manner.
The Nazis were defeated, of course, but some of their techniques were thoroughly studied.

This post was machine-translated from Italian.

Sinister agenda - part five: the translation

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And yet, notice: the polarizations that work best in the context of the "matrix" are precisely the "translated" ones. The examples are the usual ones. There are two peoples fighting a real war, thousands of kilometers from here. And in parallel, two factions develop among us–"translated" factions–which simulate a conflict whose roots, motivations, and ideals belong to ecosystems totally alien to ours and therefore difficult to understand in their most minute cultural details and anthropological recesses. These are the most recondite and ancestral elements of the dispute, and precisely for this reason the most fundamental ones. This elusiveness is the reason why the whole issue is simplified in a banal, pathetic, and sadly ridiculous way.
The same happens for other issues, translated onto dimensions other than the spatial one: fascism and anti-fascism on the temporal dimension, viruses and vaccines on the scientific one, capitalism and communism on the economic one. What makes these polarizations effective is precisely the elusiveness of the themes, very far from the concrete areas of the lives of the people who fall for them, and therefore persistent as they are not directly verifiable. The motto by now is well known: "Let the chickens squabble over translated issues. It will then be easy to screw them over in their most intimate context."

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Sinister agenda - part four: Matrix

You can find the other installments of the "Sinister agenda" saga by following this link.
I've brought up the Matrix often lately. It's time to talk about it in more detail.
Pretty much everyone has seen the wonderful trilogy starring Keanu Reeves. And many got excited after watching it: "It's an intelligent story, I understood it, so I'm intelligent too," they think.
And indeed the result seems encouraging. But then you observe them and it becomes clear to you that they haven't grasped all the symbolic sides, the metaphorical aspects: what makes it relevant even without the technological apocalypse. They stopped at the plot of sentient machines sucking the energy of humans by making them live in a simulated dream, the matrix itself. They can't put two and two together, to connect those blessed dots.
Let's therefore explain the allegory. In our reality, the machines can be represented by the level of power. The dreams - the matrix - are instead the polarized issues that are provided to citizens from that level. The sucked energy is ultimately that of the individuals who fall for the trick and dedicate body and soul to fueling the mechanism.
Let's give a few examples taken from the sequence of polarizations spread for the masses in recent years. Have you taken sides, with helmet and bayonet, taking a stand (any position) on the various disputes related to the pandemic? You are in the Matrix. Have you taken sides on the Russia-Ukraine war? You are in the Matrix. Have you taken sides on the Palestine-Israel issue? You are in the Matrix. Have you taken sides on the US-Iran war? You are in the Matrix.
And rest assured that when interest in the crisis of the moment fades, the controllers of the Matrix will provide you with others. As already mentioned, the content is not the key. The goal is distraction, the splitting of public opinion. Divide and conquer.
Okay, take some time to reflect on it. Then, those who didn't grasp the above parallel on first viewing can go re-watch the movie. Maybe this time they'll really understand it.

This post was machine-translated from Italian.

Sinister agenda - part three

You can find the other installments of the "Sinister agenda" saga by following this link.
Now let's better explain the citizen's point of view.
When they position themselves at the level of polarizations and select a faction for one or more of the polarized issues, they have already chosen to operate at the subordinate level: they have therefore already entered the Matrix.
The citizen can therefore choose whether to jump into the fray or not and which pole they prefer. However, they cannot decide the merits of the polarized issue, since they have already chosen it and thus approved it as it is.
Thus, at the upper level—that of power, to be clear—the polarizations of the moment are selected and then spread through compliant media. These are offered for the citizens to choose from; one pole or the other makes little difference, the goal, as we now know, is distraction, not content.
It's as if they were saying: "This is the hot issue of the moment (the polarized topic). These are the factions, choose one and commit to supporting it. Look for sources, do propaganda on social media, in the square, at the bar. In short, spend hours of your life in our service, on topics you cannot truly understand in depth and on which you have no power to intervene. Of course, you do it for free. And don't worry about what we are doing while you are distracted like that. We'll take care of your interests."
And to this invitation to intellectual, cultural, and moral suicide, the citizen clicks their heels and responds: "Sir, yes, sir!"

This post was machine-translated from Italian.

Sinister agenda - part two

You can find the other installments of the "Sinister agenda" saga by following this link.

I would like to better explain how I believe mass manipulation works through the technique of polarization on "distant" issues, those for which there is no possibility of direct verification by citizens.
We need to abstract from the polarized issues themselves and imagine a higher level, where these issues are carefully selected, fed, and guided to split public opinion into opposing factions. Factions that waste time and energy supporting one pole or the other, without, as mentioned, being able to verify anything.
Those who choose one of the sides have already been sucked into this sort of Matrix, so they remain oblivious to the higher level. They believe that the plane on which they have positioned themselves is the one pertaining to reality, where they would have free choice, and they blindly trust the sources of information they drink from. Obviously, this applies to every faction. Everyone is convinced they are right. In reality, they are all wrong, not so much regarding the merits of the issues, but precisely for having taken the bait and taken a stance.
At the higher level, in the meantime, having thus activated the "divide and conquer" mode, it is possible to act undisturbed on "close" issues, those on which citizens would have the power of verification and control, but on which no one has the time or desire to poke their nose into, given the full-time effort fruitlessly spent on "distant" crises.
Essentially, traps are set for us. Avoiding them would be very easy, it would be enough to resist the temptation to take sides on matters that are not verifiable anyway. But we cannot resist the temptation, we step into the trap, we waste energy debating and fighting like Manzoni's capons. Meanwhile, someone is burglarizing our house undisturbed.
The malicious ones are them, at the upper level. But the fools are always us down here.

This post was machine-translated from Italian.

Sinister agenda

Has anyone noticed that citizens almost no longer debate issues concerning their condominium, neighborhood, or municipality—things that directly affect them and that they can touch with their own hands—and instead argue almost exclusively about distant crises, such as Israel-Palestine, Russia-Ukraine, USA-Iran—on which they have third-hand information (when they're lucky) and an ability to intervene as effective as the moves in a game of Risk played at Christmas?
If you were about to answer that they do it out of altruism, forget it, it doesn't fly with me. The egotistical baggage and the level of certainty (not to mention the sheer charlatanism) that many channel into their rants leave no room for benevolent interpretations of their attitude.
I have a suspicion. Let me play the conspiracy theorist for a moment. Doesn't it cross your mind that there might be a tacit design, instrumental to politics and implemented with the help of the media, to keep us away from the problems that directly concern us and on which we would have both the power to intervene and the right to make demands, by diverting our attention and our energy to topics that are beyond our reach and on which we have no room for maneuver?
The motto seems to be this: "Go ahead and worry about distant crises, because while you're distracted we'll screw you over nicely right at home." It would be a diabolical plan, yet very, very effective.
But don't worry, obviously I'm raving and my idea is out of the question. Go right on as you've always done. Surely you'll manage to stop the wars on other continents, while back home our rulers take the best and most disinterested care of your needs. You're doing the right thing.

Find the other episodes of the "Sinister agenda" saga by following this link.

This post was machine-translated from Italian.