George Paine
George Paine's JournalWow! That was so wrong in so many ways.
That was so stunningly a bad assessment of Trump, it takes one's breath away.
Trump speaks his mind. Why was this supposed to be a good thing? Abusers, liars, con-men, bullies, sociopaths, narcissists, psychopaths, dictators and murderers all speak their minds.
It's the content of one's mind that counts. Garbage within, garbage out.
"A tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury..." is one way to speak your mind.
"This is a terrific investment. You'll make 10% per month, every month, forever!"
"I'm going to murder your children before your eyes. See how you like that!"
It's the content of the mind that is speaking, not the mere fact of speaking.
Primary problem with corporations
Every beginning textbook on accounting will mention this.
There are many kinds of costs incurred by corporations, but also by partnerships, small businesses, mom & pop stores and individual people. Wages, utilities, equipment, materials, and so on.
One of them is called Social Costs. It's the effect you have on the environment and human society around you.
Historically Corporations have not paid these costs, and fight to avoid them, because to pay them will reduce profit or force them into a loss. Corporations that run at a loss for too long will die (aka bankruptcy).
The result is that the environment and human society pay these costs for the corporation. When humans don't pay them, the environment is degraded, perhaps permanently. Thus we get polluted air and water, slag heaps, clearcut forests, plastic everywhere, bad health care, slave wages, and so on, without end.
Other than their avoidance of paying their Social Costs, I don't really have a major argument with Capitalism and Corporations.
Corporations should be required to pay their social costs and do it without decades of litigation before they cough up. This involves significant restructuring of our legal and capital-raising systems.
But the idea is simple. Don't damage people and the environment, because you will pay for whatever damage you do. You can't just walk off and say "I don't live here, so screw you," which is the equivalent of hiding behind the "corporate veil." If a person behaved this way, we'd diagnose them as sociopathic or psychopathic.
In effect, corporations, as currently operating, have serious personality disorders.
If corporations accept from the start that they need to pay - or avoid creating - their social costs, capitalism can survive. If they don't, they will so destroy the environment and human societies that nothing will survive.
It's the same as telling your kids, "You mess up the living room, you clean it up, and you do it now."
Mailing Lists (snail)
This may be off-topic but I can't find anywhere else more appropriate.
Does anyone create/keep mailing lists of snail mail addresses for Dems?
I've created one in EXCEL for all Dem Senators & Congresspeople. I'm looking for lists of State party leaders and left-sympathetic media & education/research people. I'm sending info which works best by snail mail (as email with attachments just gets deleted, unread). This is the source document for mail-merging address labels and letters.
Anyone out there besides myself who is doing this?
Antipropaganda tools
The following was originally posted on the Activism>Propaganda Debunking forum, but I think it belongs here as well.
You can't fight propaganda unless you recognize it at the moment it occurs.
The website "Principles of Propaganda" has a lot of antipropaganda tools. For example:
Pocket-sized lists of principles of propaganda and counterpropaganda, criteria of psychopathy (the best propagandists), concise recommendations for dealing with misinformation. Plus a two-page Presidential Psychological Assessment, and the 40 most common logical fallacies: Link
Propaganda quotes: Link
Death by Propaganda: The history of the Right's propaganda war against Hillary Clinton: Link
Blog series on propaganda principles: Link
Blog series on counterpropaganda principles: Link
Presidential Psychological Assessment - Know the details of the psychological forces behind Trump's behavior and you'll know why he behaves as he does and how he's likely to behave in the future: Link
The Forty most common logical fallacies: Link
Propaganda techniques: Link
Pocket-sized lists of useful principles
Feel free to share this information, but share it wisely.
My goal is to enable people to defend themselves against propaganda.
One of the features of the website are the pocket-sized lists, designed to be printed four-to-a-page, double-sided. You can literally stick them in your shirt pocket and whip them out when confronted with:
1) A psychopath - 1% of Americans are high-level psychopaths, about 9% are low-middle and upper-middle psychopaths. (It's a spectrum personality disorder.) Do the math. Only 1% of the high-level psychos are violent. The other 99% are "merely" toxic people without a conscience who can ruin your life and walk away whistling. You will not be surprised to learn that psychopaths gravitate towards positions of power such as politics, corporate boardrooms and executive suites, where they can comprise an estimated 10% of the members, and to con-man activities of all sorts. You could say that Trump is simultaneously filling all these slots. 12 criteria are listed. Example:
LACKS REMORSE: Despite their words, they experience little emotion or concern for the pain and suffering of others. Unfazed, dispassionate, coldhearted & unempathic, disdainful towards their victims, saying they deserved it.
[Editorial note: If corporations are now "people," most of them behave like psychopaths.]
2. Principles of Propaganda and Counterpropaganda (9 principles each). Examples:
BLAME: Never waver, acknowledge no doubt; always blame, never credit the other side. Debase, defame, dehumanize.
RESPOND: Lies not immediately refuted become the audience's truth.
3. Dealing with misinformation. Four scenarios. Example:
Continued Influence effect: Despite retractions or corrections, people continue to rely on misinformation.
Solution: Alternative explanation fills gap left by retracting misinformation.
Good Practice: Strengthen retraction through repetition, but without reinforcing the myth.
There's a ton of explanatory material supporting these intentionally brief statements.
PDF copies of the above which you can download or print directly are HERE
Arm yourself with useful information.
The GOP have been skillfully propagandizing Americans for decades.
The Dems need to know exactly how they do it and how to counteract it.
Uncertain about Impeachment?
If you're uncertain whether Trump should be impeached or not, take this Presidential Psychological Assessment. It's designed to reveal the psychological meaning and implications of what you know about Trump. Know the details of the psychological forces behind Trump's behavior and you'll know why he behaves as he does and how he's likely to behave in the future:
https://propagandaprinciples.wordpress.com/2019/06/14/presidential-psychological-assessment/
MoveOn.org Civic Action and Political Action street addresses
I don't know how else to post this or how to find a better place to post it.
If you know a better place, please repost it there.
MoveOn.Org Political Action, PO Box 96142, Washington DC 20090
MoveOn.org Civic Action, P.O. Box 2021 L Street NW, Suite 400, Washington DC 20036-4982
These addresses came from, in order:
https://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/fecimg/?C00341396
https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/moveon-civic-actionmoveon-org/#non-profit-info
I saw people wondering about this some time ago on a posting now archived.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x160366#160366
Antipropaganda tools
You can't fight propaganda unless you recognize it at the moment it occurs.
The website "Principles of Propaganda" has a lot of antipropaganda tools. For example:
Pocket-sized lists of principles of propaganda and counterpropaganda, criteria of psychopathy (the best propagandists), concise recommendations for dealing with misinformation. Plus a two-page Presidential Psychological Assessment, and the 40 most common logical fallacies: Link
Propaganda quotes: Link
Death by Propaganda: The history of the Right's propaganda war against Hillary Clinton: Link
Blog series on propaganda principles: Link
Blog series on counterpropaganda principles: Link
Presidential Psychological Assessment - Know the details of the psychological forces behind Trump's behavior and you'll know why he behaves as he does and how he's likely to behave in the future: Link
The Forty most common logical fallacies: Link
Propaganda techniques: Link
Profile Information
Gender: Do not displayHome country: USA
Member since: Mon Oct 14, 2019, 04:02 PM
Number of posts: 9
