Herndon, J. M., Hoisington, R. D., & Whiteside, M. (2020). Chemtrails are Not Contrails: Radiometric Evidence. Journal of Geography, Environment and Earth Science International.
“Conclusions: the public and the scientific community have been systematically deceived into falsely believing that the pervasive, jet-sprayed ‘chemtrails’ are harmless ice-crystal contrails. we have presented radiometric measurements which unambiguously prove the falsity of that characterization for one specific, but typical instance. we show in a more general framework that the physical manifestations of the aerial trails are inconsistent with ice-crystal contrails, but entirely consistent with aerosol particulate trails.”
Herndon, J. M., Hoisington, R. D., & Whiteside, M.. (2020). Chemtrails are Not Contrails: Radiometric Evidence. Journal of Geography, Environment and Earth Science International
“Aims: concerted efforts are made to deceive the public into falsely believing the jet-emplaced tropospheric aerosol trails, called chemtrails by some, are harmless ice-crystal contrails from aircraft engine exhaust-moisture. our objective is to use radiometric measurements in the range 250-300 nm to show that a typical chemtrail is not a contrail, and to generalize that finding with additional data. methods: we utilized international light technologies ilt950uv spectral radiometer mounted on a meade lxd55 auto guider telescope tripod and mount assembly. results: radiometric solar irradiance spectra data that included the transit of a typical tropospheric aerosol trail between radiometer-sensor and the solar disc showed significant absorption during the transit period. the during-transit absorption is wholly inconsistent with the almost negligible adsorption by ice, but is wholly consistent with absorption by aerosolize particulates, including coal fly ash. this result is consistent with other aerosol-trail physical phenomena observations. conclusions: the public and the scientific community have been systematically deceived into falsely believing that the pervasive, jet-sprayed ‘chemtrails’ are harmless ice-crystal contrails. we have presented radiometric measurements which unambiguously prove the falsity of that characterization for one specific, but typical instance. we show in a more general framework that the physical manifestations of the aerial trails are inconsistent with ice-crystal contrails, but entirely consistent with aerosol particulate trails. we describe potential reasons for the deception, and cite the extremely adverse consequences of the aerial particulate spraying on human and environmental health. for the sake of life on earth, the modification of the natural environment by aerial particulate spraying and other methodologies must immediately and permanently end.”
Shearer, C., West, M., Caldeira, K., & Davis, S. J.. (2016). Quantifying expert consensus against the existence of a secret, large-scale atmospheric spraying program. Environmental Research Letters, 11(8), 084011.
“Nearly 17% of people in an international survey said they believed the existence of a secret large-scale atmospheric program (slap) to be true or partly true. slap is commonly referred to as ‘chemtrails’ or ‘covert geoengineering’, and has led to a number of websites purported to show evidence of widespread chemical spraying linked to negative impacts on human health and the environment. to address these claims, we surveyed two groups of experts – atmospheric chemists with expertize in condensation trails and geochemists working on atmospheric deposition of dust and pollution – to scientifically evaluate for the first time the claims of slap theorists. results show that 76 of the 77 scientists (98.7%) that took part in this study said they had not encountered evidence of a slap, and that the data cited as evidence could be explained through other factors, including well-understood physics and chemistry associated with aircraft contrails and atmospheric aerosols. our goal is not to sway those already convinced that there is a secret, large-scale spraying program – who often reject counter-evidence as further proof of their theories – but rather to establish a source of objective science that can inform public discourse.”
Xiao, S., Cheshire, C., & Bruckman, A.. (2021). Sensemaking and the Chemtrail Conspiracy on the Internet: Insights from Believers and Ex-believers. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction
“How do people come to believe conspiracy theories, and what role does the internet play in this process as a socio-technical system? we explore these questions by examining online participants in the ‘chemtrails’conspiracy, the idea that visible condensation trails behind airliners are deliberately sprayed for nefarious purposes. we apply weick’s theory of sensemaking to examine the role of people’s frames (beliefs and worldviews), as well as the socio-technical contexts (social interactions and technological affordances) for processing informational cues about the conspiracy. through an analysis of in-depth interviews with thirteen believers and seven ex-believers, we find that many people become curious about chemtrails after consuming rich online media, and they later find welcoming online communities to support shared beliefs and worldviews. we discuss how the socio-technical context of the internet may inadvertently trap people in a perpetual state of ambiguity that becomes reinforced through a collective sensemaking process. in addition, we show how the conspiracy offers a way for believers to express their dissatisfaction with authority, enjoy a sense of community, and find some entertainment along the way. finally, we discuss how people’s frames and the various socio-technical contexts of the internet are important in the sensemaking of debunking evidence, and how such factors may function in the rejection of conspiratorial beliefs.”
Tingley, D., & Wagner, G.. (2017). Solar geoengineering and the chemtrails conspiracy on social media. Palgrave Communications
“Discourse on social media of solar geoengineering has been rapidly increasing over the past decade, in line with increased attention by the scientific community and low but increasing awareness among the general public. the topic has also found increased attention online. but unlike scientific discourse, a majority of online discussion focuses on the so-called chemtrails conspiracy theory, the widely debunked idea that airplanes are spraying a toxic mix of chemicals through contrails, with supposed goals ranging from weather to mind control. this paper presents the results of a nationally representative 1000-subject poll part of the 36,000-subject 2016 cooperative congressional election study (cces), and an analysis of the universe of social media mentions of geoengineering. the former shows ~ 10% of americans declaring the chemtrails conspiracy as ‘completely’ and a further ~ 20-30% as ‘somewhat’ true, with no apparent difference by party affiliation or strength of partisanship. conspiratorial views have accounted for ~ 60% of geoengineering discourse on social media over the past decade. of that, twitter has accounted for >90%, compared to ~ 75% of total geoengineering mentions. further affinity analysis reveals a broad online community of conspiracy. anonymity of social media appears to help its spread, so does the general ease of spreading unverified or outright false information. online behavior has important real-world reverberations, with implications for climate science communication and policy.”
Bessi, A., Coletto, M., Davidescu, G. A., Scala, A., Caldarelli, G., & Quattrociocchi, W.. (2015). Science vs conspiracy: Collective narratives in the age of misinformation. PLoS ONE
“The large availability of user provided contents on online social media facilitates people aggregation around shared beliefs, interests, worldviews and narratives. in spite of the enthusiastic rhetoric about the so called collective intelligence unsubstantiated rumors and conspiracy theories – e.g., chemtrails, reptilians or the illuminati – are pervasive in online social networks (osn). in this work we study, on a sample of 1.2 million of individuals, how information related to very distinct narratives-i.e. main stream scientific and conspiracy news – are consumed and shape communities on facebook. our results show that polarized communities emerge around distinct types of contents and usual consumers of conspiracy news result to be more focused and self-contained on their specific contents. to test potential biases induced by the continued exposure to unsubstantiated rumors on users’ content selection, we conclude our analysis measuring how users respond to 4,709 troll information – i.e. parodistic and sarcastic imitation of conspiracy theories. we find that 77.92% of likes and 80.86% of comments are from users usually interacting with conspiracy stories.”
Cairns, R.. (2016). Climates of suspicion: “Chemtrail” conspiracy narratives and the international politics of geoengineering. Geographical Journal
“Concurrent with growing academic and policy interest in ‘geoengineering’ the global climate in response to climate change, a more marginal discourse postulating the existence of a climate control conspiracy is also proliferating on the internet. here, the term ‘chemtrails’ is used interchangeably with the term geoengineering to describe the belief that the persistent contrails left by aeroplanes provide evidence that a secret programme of large-scale weather and climate modification is ongoing. despite recent calls for greater appreciation of the diverse ways in which people conceive of and relate to ideas of climate control, and widespread acknowledgement of the importance of democratic public engagement in governance of geoengineering, the chemtrail conspiracy narrative has received very little attention in academic work to date. this paper builds on work highlighting the instability of the distinction between ‘paranoid’ and ‘normal’ views, and examines the chemtrail conspiracy narrative as a discourse rather than a pathology (either psychological or sociological). the analysis finds that while some elements of the chemtrail narrative do not lend themselves to democratic processes of deliberation, and potential for engagement with more mainstream discourse appears to be low, nevertheless certain elements of the discourse (such as the moral outrage at the idea of powerful elites controlling the climate, or the importance of emotional and spiritual connections to weather and climate) highlight concerns of relevance to mainstream geoengineering debates. furthermore, the pervasive suspicion that characterises the narrative and its reminder of the key role that trust plays in knowledge creation and the justification of beliefs, signals what is likely to be a perennial issue in the emerging international politics of geoengineering.”
Bantimaroudis, P.. (2016). “Chemtrails” in the Sky: Toward a Group-mediated Delusion Theory. Studies in Media and Communication
Llanes Álvarez, C., San Roman Uría, A., Nunes Nancabu, P., Ruiz Gippini, M., López Landeiro, P., & Franco Martín, M. Á.. (2016). Chemtrails: An Overview of The Phenomenon. European Psychiatry
Bantimaroudis, P., Sideri, M., Ballas, D., Panagiotidis, T., & Ziogas, T.. (2020). Conspiracism on social media: An agenda melding of group-mediated deceptions. International Journal of Media and Cultural Politics
“This study examines students’ social media interactions in relation to their subcultural explorations of a conspiratorial nature. a sample of 476 students from four european universities participated in a survey about conspiracy theories in social media group discussions. in the survey, we examined various social and media factors in relation to students’ beliefs in conspiracy theories. the results of this exploratory study reveal that students treat social media as news sources; furthermore, they trust social media more than traditional mass media. the study reveals demographic, personal and technological factors that encourage a mediated conspiratorial discourse.”
Dr. Kary Mullis, Biochemist, 1993 Nobel Prize for Chemistry: Dr. Kary Mullis “If there is evidence that HIV causes AIDS, there should be scientific documents which either singly or collectively demonstrate that fact, at least with a high probability. There is no such document.” (Sunday Times (London) 28 nov. 1993) Dr. Heinz Ludwig Sanger, Emeritus Professor of Molecular Biology and Virology, Max-Planck-Institutes for Biochemy, Munchen. Robert Koch Award 1978: “Up to today there is actually no single scientifically really convincing evidence for the existence of HIV. Not even once such a retrovirus has been isolated and purified by the methods of classical virology.” (Letter to Suddeutsche Zeitung 2000) Dr. Serge Lang, Professor of Mathematics, Yale University: “I do not regard the causal relationship between HIV and any disease as settled. I have seen considerable evidence that highly improper statistics concerning HIV and AIDS have been passed off as science, and that top members of the scientific establishment have carelessly, if not irresponsible, joined the media in spreading misinformation about the nature of AIDS.” (Yale Scientific, Fall 1994) Dr. Harry Rubin, Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California at Berkeley: Prof. Harry Rubin “It is not proven that AIDS is caused by HIV infection, nor is it proven that it plays no role whatever in the syndrome.” (Sunday Times (London) 3 April 1994) Dr. Richard Strohman, Emeritus Professor of Cell Biology at the University of California at Berkeley: “In the old days it was required that a scientist address the possibilities of proving his hypothesis wrong as well as right. Now there’s none of that in standard HIV-AIDS program with all its billions of dollars.” (Penthouse April 1994) Dr. Harvey Bialy, Molecular Biologist, former editor of Bio/Technology and Nature Biotechnology: Harvey Bialy “HIV is an ordinary retrovirus. There is nothing about this virus that is unique. Everything that is discovered about HIV has an analogue in other retroviruses that don’t cause AIDS. HIV only contains a very small piece of genetic information. There’s no way it can do all these elaborate things they say it does.” (Spin June 1992) Dr. Roger Cunningham, Immunologist, Microbiologist and Director of the Centre for Immunology at the State University of New York at Buffalo: “Unfortunately, an AIDS ‘establishment’ seems to have formed that intends to discourage challenges to the dogma on one side and often insists on following discredited ideas on the other.” (Sunday Times (London) 3 April 1994) Dr. Gordon Stewart, Emeritus Professor of Public Health, University of Glasgow: Prof. Gordon Stwart “AIDS is a behavioural disease. It is multifactorial, brought on by several simultaneous strains on the immune system – drugs, pharmaceutical and recreational, sexually transmitted diseases, multiple viral infections.” (Spin June 1992) Dr. Alfred Hassig, (1921-1999), former Professor of Immunology at the University of Bern, and former director Swiss Red Cross blood banks: Prof. Alfred Hassig “The sentence of death accompanying the medical diagnosis of AIDS should be abolished.” (Sunday Times (London) 3 April 1994) Dr. Charles Thomas, former Professor of Biochemistry, Harvard and John Hopkins Universities: “The HIV-causes-AIDS dogma represents the grandest and perhaps the most morally destructive fraud that has ever been perpetrated on young men and women of the Western world.” (Sunday Times (London) 3 April 1994) Dr. Joseph Sonnabend, New York Physician, founder of the American Foundation for AIDS Research (AmFAR): Joe Sonnabend “The marketing of HIV, through press releases and statements, as a killer virus causing AIDS without the need for any other factors, has so distorted research and treatment that it may have caused thousands of people to suffer and die.”
Brenes-Guillén, L.. (2019). Kary Mullis: padre de la técnica de la reacción en cadena de la polimerasa (PCR). Revista de Biología Tropical, 67(9), Blog.
“El desarrollo de la biología molecular y la genética ha sido posible gracias al trabajo multidisci-plinario de muchas personas, en este blog quiero resaltar el trabajo del dr. kary banks mullis, el cual se considera el padre de la técnica de la reacción en cadena de la polimerasa, o mejor conocido como pcr, protocolo que utilizamos diariamente en nuestras investigaciones y que tiene grandes aplicaciones médicas e industriales. el dr. mullis, obtuvo su grado de licenciatura en ciencias (química) en el instituto de tecnología de georgia en 1966. en 1973 obtiene su título de doctorado en bioquímica en la universidad de berkeley. en 1979, se une a una de las primeras compañías en biotecnología lla-mada cetus en california, años después desarrolla (junto a un equipo de trabajo) la síntesis de oligonucleótidos y la pcr. gracias a este ‘momento eureka’ inicia la revolución de la biología molecular, tanto a nivel de investigación como con toda la industria de equipos y consumibles que requiere. debido a este aporte tan significativo, recibe en 1993 el premio nobel en quími-ca, galardón que compartió con michael smith, quien lo recibió por sus investigaciones en mu-tagénesis dirigida basada en oligonucleótidos y su desarrollo para estudios de proteínas. a pesar de que se considera uno de los descubrimientos más importantes a nivel cientí-fico del siglo xx, al principio contó con una serie de inconvenientes o algunas preocupaciones sobre el funcionamiento de la técnica. en su página personal, el dr. mullis describe al menos cuatro de los posibles problemas que enfrentaría su gran idea, sin embargo el más importante por resolver era la enzima que utilizaría para lograrlo, ya que debía ser funcional a altas tem-peraturas. cabe resaltar que la idea contemplaba el uso de ciclos de elevadas temperaturas (50°c a 95°c) para lograr abrir la hebra de adn y poder amplificar la región de interés, y que por ende el procedimiento debía ser llevado en un baño maría (en ese momento no habían termocicladores). en 1988, junto a r. k. saiki y colaboradores, describe el uso de una enzima polimerasa termoestable, la polimerasa taq, aislada de la bacteria thermus aquaticus (obtenida de fuentes termales), la cual se puede utilizar a altas temperaturas. este último hallazgo junto a la técnica de pcr revolucionaron todos los conocimientos de genética y biología molecular que se tenían hasta el momento, siguen siendo muy útiles hoy en día y son la base de otras técnicas y protocolos ampl…”
Galibert, F., & Netter, P.. (2021). Hommage à Kary Mullis. Bulletin de l’Académie Nationale de Médecine, 205(4), 383–386.
Danilova, V. M., Matyshevska, O. P., & Komisarenko, S. V.. (2021). Nobel Prize laureate Kary Mullis and the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The Ukrainian Biochemical Journal, 93(5), 122–131.
“The article highlights the major life and career milestones and the extraordinary personality of 1993 nobel prize laureate in chemistry kary b. mullis. the background of mullis’ invention of the polyme-rase chain reaction (pcr), a revolutionary and monumental method of molecular biology and genetics of the 20th century, is described. the pcr technique is based on multiple selective copying of a particular segment of dna with the help of enzymes in vitro. under these conditions, only the target region is copied, and only if it is present in the studied sample. the invention of the pcr method has been one of the most outstanding events in molecular biology in recent decades.”
How strangely will the Tools of a Tyrant pervert the plain Meaning of Words!
— Samuel Adams
Archon (Greek: ἄρχων, romanized: árchōn) is the Greek term for “ruler”. Cognate derivatives are, e.g., terms such as:
monarchy
dyarchy
hierarchy
patriarchy/matriarchy
gynarchy
autarchy
anarchy (etymology discussed subsequently in more detail)
According to Aristotle’s Constitution of the Athenians (78-c. 100), the power and influence of the king first devolved to the archons, and these offices were filled from the aristocracy by elections on a decennial basis. Archon Eponymos was the primary magistrate, the Polemarch referred to the head of the armed forces, and the Archon Basileus was in charge of the religious aspects of society.
Various fraternities and sororities use the title of archon or variations on it. Some Gnostic sects used this term for demons associated with the planetspheres.
3-D computer rendering of an “archon”
The term anarchy is the negation of the term archon (i.e., the negatory prefix *a). It thus means “without a ruler/master”, i.e., human beings that do not accept a master and who do not allow others to rule over them (they are not slaves to anyone). Importantly, this derivation should not be confused with “chaos or without rules”. Anarchy simply is the negation of slavery.
Niemand ist mehr Sklave, als der sich für frei hält, ohne es zu sein. ‘
~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
(Transl.: None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.)
Human beings who are anarchists are thus literally beings that do not accept to be ruled by archons, i.e., they are free and cannot be ruled and suppressed by external forces (they only subordinate themselves to natural law, viz., the timeless universal metaphysical foundation of morality and ethics; cf. the Kantian categorical imperative).
Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law.
— Immanuel Kant, Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals (1785)
In this context a quotation by the freedom fighter Malcolm X is of great pertinence.
He asked the following quintessential question concerning the highest of all virtues:
What is the price of freedom?
Answer
Death.
P.S. This does not imply that one has to die to be free, but it means that one has to be willing to risk once own life for the greatest of all goods, viz., the ultimate expression of human potential: Absolute Freedom.
If one is not willing to go “all in” one has lost the quest for freedom a priori because one is not willing to risk what it takes to achieve it. Fear is the inhibitor of freedom. Death is the mother of all fears. Ergo, overcoming the irrational fear of death is a condicio sine qua non for the obtainment of superordinate transcendental values.
Non-cooperation with evil is a sacred duty.
~ Mahatma Gandhi
Freedom comes with wisdom, intrinsically. They are inseparable, and no society wants people to be free. The communist society, the fascist society, the capitalist society, the Hindu, the Mohammedan, the Christian – no society likes people to use their own intelligence because the moment they start using their intelligence they become dangerous – dangerous to the establishment, dangerous to the people who are in power, dangerous to the “haves”; dangerous to all kinds of oppression, exploitation, suppression; dangerous to the churches, dangerous to the states, dangerous to the nations.
In fact, a wise man is afire, alive, aflame. He would like rather to die than to be enslaved. Death will not matter much to him, but he cannot sell his life to all kinds of stupidities, to all kinds of stupid people. He cannot serve them. Hence, the societies down the ages have been supplying you with false knowing. That’s the very function of your schools, colleges, universities.
They don’t serve you, remember, they serve the past, they serve the vested interests. Of course, they go on puffing your ego up bigger and bigger, they go on giving you more and more degrees. Your name becomes longer and longer, but only the name – you go on becoming shorter and shorter. A point comes where there are only certificates and the man has disappeared. First the man carries the certificates, then the certificates carry the man. The man is long dead.
~Osho
“The structure of the control network of transnational corporations affects global market competition and financial stability. so far, only small national samples were studied and there was no appropriate methodology to assess control globally. we present the first investigation of the architecture of the international ownership network, along with the computation of the control held by each global player. we find that transnational corporations form a giant bow-tie structure and that a large portion of control flows to a small tightly-knit core of financial institutions. this core can be seen as an economic ‘super-entity’ that raises new important issues both for researchers and policy makers.”
‘In which case, the wisdom of a city founded on natural principles
depends entirely on its smallest group and element – the leading and
ruling element — and the knowledge that element possesses. The class
which can be expected to share in this branch of knowledge, which of all
branches of knowledge is the only one we can call wisdom, is by its nature,
apparently, the smallest class.’
Socrates in dialogue with Glaucon
‘Well, I think the first one to catch the eye is wisdom. And it seems to
have an unusual feature.’
‘What is that?’
‘It is truly wise, I think, this city we have described. It has good judg¬
ment, doesn’t it?’
‘Yes.’
‘Now this thing, judgment, is clearly knowledge of some sort. Good
decisions, I take it, are the result of knowledge, not ignorance.’
‘Obviously.’
‘But our city contains many types of knowledge, of very different
kinds.’
‘Of course it does.’
‘Is it the knowledge possessed by its carpenters which entitles us to call
c our city wise, and say it possesses good judgment?’
‘Certainly not,’ he said. ‘That merely entitles us to call it good at car¬
pentry.’
‘So a city is not to be called wise because of its knowledge and judg¬
ment in making the best possible wooden furniture.’
‘Absolutely not.’
‘How about its knowledge of making things out of bronze, or any other
knowledge of that kind?’
‘No, nothing like that,’ he said.
‘Nor the knowledge of how to grow crops from the soil, since that’s
called farming.’
‘So I believe.’
‘Is there, then,’ I asked, ‘among any of the citizens of this city we have
d just founded, any branch of knowledge which makes decisions about the
city as a whole – deciding on the best approach to itself and to other cities
– and not about one particular element in the city?’
‘There most certainly is.’
‘What is this knowledge, and in which group is it to be found?’
‘It is the knowledge possessed by the guardians,’ he said. ‘And it is
to be found in the rulers, whom we have just been calling the perfect
guardians.’ 11
‘And what is the label you give your city on the strength of this know¬
ledge?’
‘I call it sound in judgment, and truly wise.’
e ‘So which do you think our city will have more of? Metalworkers, or
these true guardians?’
‘Metalworkers,’ he said. ‘Far more.’
‘Of all the groups which have a branch of knowledge of their own, and
which are identified as a group, wouldn’t the guardians be the smallest?’
‘Easily the smallest.’
‘In which case, the wisdom of a city founded on natural principles
depends entirely on its smallest group and element – the leading and
ruling element — and the knowledge that element possesses. The class
which can be expected to share in this branch of knowledge, which of all
branches of knowledge is the only one we can call wisdom, is by its nature,
apparently, the smallest class.’
Sir Francis Galton, was an English Victorian era statistician, polymath, sociologist, psychologist, anthropologist, eugenicist, tropical explorer, geographer, inventor, meteorologist, proto-geneticist, and psychometrician. He was knighted in 1909.
Galton produced over 340 papers and books. He also created the statistical concept of correlation and widely promoted regression toward the mean. He was the first to apply statistical methods to the study of human differences and inheritance of intelligence, and introduced the use of questionnaires and surveys for collecting data on human communities, which he needed for genealogical and biographical works and for his anthropometric studies.
He was a pioneer in eugenics, coining the term itself and the phrase “nature versus nurture”. His book Hereditary Genius (1869) was the first social scientific attempt to study genius and greatness.
As an investigator of the human mind, he founded psychometrics (the science of measuring mental faculties) and differential psychology and the lexical hypothesis of personality. He devised a method for classifying fingerprints that proved useful in forensic science. He also conducted research on the power of prayer, concluding it had none by its null effects on the longevity of those prayed for. His quest for the scientific principles of diverse phenomena extended even to the optimal method for making tea.
LibriVox
Hereditary Genius
A biographical summary of the pre-eminent men of Britain grouped by profession. The extensive survey draws from information including college graduation, reputation during career, fellowships, and even known relatives. Includes discussions on findings and observations as well as referenced appendices. - Summary by Leon Harvey
„We enter the Reichstag to arm ourselves with democracy’s weapons. If democracy is foolish enough to give us free railway passes and salaries, that is its problem… We are coming neither as friends or neutrals. We come as enemies! As the wolf attacks the sheep, so come we.“ — Joseph Goebbels
„The people’s community must not be a mere phrase, but a revolutionary achievement following from the radical carrying out of the basic life needs of the working class. A ruthless battle against corruption! A war against exploitation, freedom for the workers! The elimination of all economic-capitalist influences on national policy. Maintaining a rotten economic system has nothing to do with nationalism, which is an affirmation of the Fatherland.“ — Joseph Goebbels
A lesser known fact is that Goebbels stratagems were “inspired” by Edward Bernays (who authored the book entitled “Propaganda” in 1928).
Bernays stated the following in his 1965 autobiography:
They were using my books as the basis for a destructive campaign against the Jews of Germany. This shocked me, but I knew any human activity can be used for social purposes or misused for antisocial ones.
Further References
Doob, L. W.. (1950). Goebbels’ Principles of Propaganda. Public Opinion Quarterly
“For almost a dozen years german propaganda minister goebbels was recognized as a master of his trade by those who fought and by those who acclaimed the nazi state. this article, based on both the published and unpublished portions of goebbels’ diary, summarizes the major propaganda principles which he followed.”
Meyer, M., & Welch, D.. (2006). Propaganda and the German Cinema, 1933-1945. The History Teacher
“This is the most comprehensive analysis to date of nazi film propaganda in its political, social, and economic contexts, from the pre-war cinema as it fell under the control of the propaganda minister, joseph goebbels, through to the end of the second world war. david welch studies more than one hundred films of all types, identifying those aspects of nazi ideology that were concealed in the framework of popular entertainment.”
Propaganda and mass persuasion: a historical encyclopedia, 1500 to the present. (2013). Choice Reviews Online
“This fascinating survey provides a comprehensive introduction to propaganda, its changing nature, its practitioners, and its impact on the past five centuries of world history. written by leading experts, it covers the masters of the art from joseph goebbels to mohandas gandhi and examines enormously influential works of persuasion such as ‘uncle tom’s cabin,’ techniques such as films and posters, and key concepts like black propaganda and brainwashing. case studies reveal the role of mass persuasion during the reformation, and wars throughout history. regional studies cover propaganda superpowers, such as russia, china, and the united states, as well as little-known propaganda campaigns in southeast asia, ireland, and scandinavia. the book traces the evolution of propaganda from the era of printed handbills to computer fakery, and profiles such brilliant practitioners of the art as third reich film director leni riefenstahl and 19th-century cartoonist thomas nast, whose works helped to bring the notorious boss tweed to justice.”
Herf, J.. (2005). The “jewish War”: Goebbels and the antisemitic campaigns of the Nazi propaganda ministry. Holocaust and Genocide Studies
“How the nazi leadership translated radical antisemitism into a narrative of an innocent, besieged germany striking back at an ‘international jewry’ it accused of starting and prolonging world war ii forms the subject of this study. in the nazis’ paranoid conspiracy theory ‘jewry’ comprised powers behind the scenes in london, moscow, and washington. in response to the ‘war of extermination’ that jewry had supposedly launched against germany, the nazi leadership publicly threatened to ‘exterminate’ and ‘annihilate’ the jews as an act of justified retaliation. in their minds and in their policy, the ideological connection between the ‘final solution’ and the second world war was inherent, rather than contingent. the following analysis suggests why a centuries-old hatred led to mass murder between 1941 and 1945.”
Welch, D.. (1993). Manufacturing a consensus: Nazi propaganda and the building of a ‘national community’ (volksgemeinschaft). Contemporary European History
“The point has to be made at once that any attempt to quantify public reaction to nazi propaganda is fraught with difficulties. accurate measurement of the effectiveness of nazi propaganda is weakened by the absence of public opinion surveys and the fact that, in a society that resorted so readily to coercions and terror, reported opinion did not necessarily reflect the true feelings and moods of the public, especially if these views were opposed to the regime. nevertheless, to state that public opinion in the third reich ceased to exist is not strictly true. after the nazi ‘seizure of power’ in 1933, propaganda minister joseph goebbels stressed the importance of co-ordinating propaganda with other activities. in a dictatorship, propaganda must address itself to large masses of people and attempt to move them to a uniformity of opinion and action. but the nazis also understood that propaganda is of little value in isolation. to some extent this explains why goebbels impressed on all his staff at the ministry of popular enlightenment and propaganda the imperative necessity constantly to gauge public moods. goebbels therefore regularly received (as did all the ruling élites) extraordinarily detailed reports from the secret police (sd reports) about the mood of the people and would frequently quote these in his diary. hitler, too, was familiar with these reports, and his recorded determination to avoid increasing food prices at all costs for fear that this would undermine the regime’s popularity suggests a political sensitivity to public opinion. to assure themselves of continued popular support was an unwavering concern of the nazi leadership, and of hitler and goebbels in particular.”
George Lakoff could write a book on the “conceptual metaphor” employed in the title of the whitepaper. George Orwell is turning in his grave (the “digital algorithmic ministry of truth”).
Here are the “three foundational pillars” of the whitepaper (expressis verbis):
Improve our products so they continue to make quality count;
Counteract malicious actors seeking to spread disinformation;
Give people context about the information they see.
“F the metaphorical understanding of a situation functions in two parts irst, there is a widespread, relatively fixed set of metaphors that structure how fc we think. for example, a decision to go to war might be seen as a form o ost-benefit analysis, where war is justified …”
Steuter, E., & Wills, D.. (2008). At war with metaphor. Nueva York: Rowman and …
“BACKGROUND:pedomorphism is the retention of ancestrally juvenile traits by adults in a descendant taxon. despite its importance for evolutionary change, there are few examples of a molecular basis for this phenomenon. notothenioids represent one of the best described species flocks among marine fishes, but their diversity is currently threatened by the rapidly changing antarctic climate. notothenioid evolutionary history is characterized by parallel radiations from a benthic ancestor to pelagic predators, which was accompanied by the appearance of several pedomorphic traits, including the reduction of skeletal mineralization that resulted in increased buoyancy.results:we compared craniofacial skeletal development in two pelagic notothenioids, chaenocephalus aceratus and pleuragramma antarcticum, to that in a benthic species, notothenia coriiceps, and two outgroups, the threespine stickleback and the zebrafish. relative to these other species, pelagic notothenioids exhibited a delay in pharyngeal bone development, which was associated with discrete heterochronic shifts in skeletal gene expression that were consistent with persistence of the chondrogenic program and a delay in the osteogenic program during larval development. morphological analysis also revealed a bias toward the development of anterior and ventral elements of the notothenioid pharyngeal skeleton relative to dorsal and posterior elements.conclusions:our data support the hypothesis that early shifts in the relative timing of craniofacial skeletal gene expression may have had a significant impact on the adaptive radiation of antarctic notothenioids into pelagic habitats.”
Thibodeau, P. H., Hendricks, R. K., & Boroditsky, L.. (2017). How Linguistic Metaphor Scaffolds Reasoning. Trends in Cognitive Sciences
“Language helps people communicate and think. precise and accurate language would seem best suited to achieve these goals. but a close look at the way people actually talk reveals an abundance of apparent imprecision in the form of metaphor: ideas are ‘light bulbs’, crime is a ‘virus’, and cancer is an ‘enemy’ in a ‘war’. in this article, we review recent evidence that metaphoric language can facilitate communication and shape thinking even though it is literally false. we first discuss recent experiments showing that linguistic metaphor can guide thought and behavior. then we explore the conditions under which metaphors are most influential. throughout, we highlight theoretical and practical implications, as well as key challenges and opportunities for future research. metaphors pervade discussions of abstract concepts and complex issues: ideas are ‘light bulbs’, crime is a ‘virus’, and cancer is an ‘enemy’ in a ‘war’. at a process level, metaphors, like analogies, involve structure mapping, in which relational structure from the source domain is leveraged for thinking about the target domain. metaphors influence how people think about the topics they describe by shaping how people attend to, remember, and process information. the effects of metaphor on reasoning are not simply the result of lexical priming. metaphors can covertly influence how people think. that is, people are not always aware that they have been influenced by a metaphor.”
Hülsse, R., & Spencer, A.. (2008). The metaphor of terror: Terrorism studies and the constructivist turn. Security Dialogue
“Terrorism studies is fascinated with the terrorist actor. though this may seem natural, the present article argues that a different perspective can be fruitful. from a constructivist point of view, terrorism is a social construction. the terrorist actor is a product of discourse, and hence discourse is the logical starting point for terrorism research. in particular, it is the discourse of the terrorists’ adversaries that constitutes terrorist motivations, strategies, organizational structures and goals. hence, the article suggests a shift of perspective in terrorism studies – from an actor-centred to a discourse-centred perspective. it develops a discourse approach that emphasizes the crucial role of metaphors in the making of reality. to illustrate this approach, the metaphorical construction of al-qaeda in the german popular press in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in new york and washington ( 2001), madrid ( 2004) and london ( 2005) is analysed. terrorism was first constituted as war, but from 2004 onwards the principal metaphor shifted from war to crime, constructing al-qaeda as a criminal rather than a military organization. this shift has transformed al-qaeda from an external to an internal threat, which has entailed a shift in counter-terrorism practices from a military to a judicial response.”
Ferrari, F.. (2007). Metaphor at work in the analysis of political discourse: Investigating a “preventive war” persuasion strategy. Discourse and Society
“The crucial historical moment represented by post 9/11 may undoubtedly be considered responsible for the subsequent hardening of american political rhetoric. and yet, the sudden increase of consensus catalysed by george w. bush and the consequences of his international policy bring his modus persuadendi up for discussion. the aim of this article is to present a framework for a metaphor-based critical analysis of persuasion in political discourse. our object of observation is george w. bush’s public speeches to the nation (2001–4). more specifically, the analysis is focused on the persuasion strategy enacted to promote the preventive war in iraq. in our approach, conceptual metaphor as related to emotion constitutes the fundamental argumentative feature and crucial tool to address the matter of persuasion in text, contributing to identifying both the ideological root and the persuasive strategy of a given discourse in the long run. synthesis of our results shows the potentialities of metaphor as a privileged cognitive tool for abstracting and constructing discourse strategies.”
Thibodeau, P., Mcclelland, J. L., & Boroditsky, L.. (2009). When a bad metaphor may not be a victimless crime : The role of metaphor in social policy. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society
“Metaphors are pervasive in our discussions of abstract and complex ideas (lakoff & johnson, 1980), and have been shown to be instrumental in problem solving and building new conceptual structure (e.g., gentner & gentner, 1983; nersessian, 1992; boroditsky, 2000). in this paper we look at the role of metaphor in framing social issues. our language for discussing war, crime, politics, healthcare, and the economy is suffused with metaphor (schön, 1993; lakoff, 2002). does the way we reason about such important issues as crime, war or the economy depend on the metaphors we use to talk about these topics? might changing metaphors lead us to different conceptions and in turn different social policies? in this paper we focused on the domain of crime and asked whether two different metaphorical systems we have for talking about crime can lead people to different ways of approaching and reasoning about it. we find that framing the issue of crime metaphorically as a predator yielded systematically different suggestions for solving the crime problem than when crime was described as a virus. we then present a connectionist model that explores the mechanistic underpinnings of the role of metaphor.”
Spencer, A.. (2012). The social construction of terrorism: Media, metaphors and policy implications. Journal of International Relations and Development
“The article illustrates a constructivist understanding of studying terrorism and counter-terrorism by applying metaphor analysis to a british tabloid media discourse on terrorism between 2001 and 2005 in the sun newspaper. it identifies four conceptual metaphors constituting terrorism as a war, a crime, an uncivilised evil and as a disease, and it illustrates how these understandings make certain counter-terrorism policies such as a military response, judicial measures or immigration policies acceptable while at the same time excluding from consideration other options, such as negotiations. it thereby re-emphasises that a metaphorical understanding of political phenomena such as terrorism can give international relations insights into how certain policies become possible while others remain outside of the range of options thought to be appropriate.”
At war with metaphor: media, propaganda, and racism in the war on terror. (2013). Choice Reviews Online
“A valuable contribution to our growing understanding of the ways in which we talk ourselves into war, genocide, and other crimes against humanity. it causes us to wonder what might happen if we had the courage to deal with our rivalries and conflicts in a realistic manner rather than dehumanizing and demonizing those we consider enemies. ” —sam keen, author of faces of the enemy when photographs documenting the torture and humiliation of prisoners at abu ghraib came to the attention of a horrified public, national and international voices were raised in shock, asking how this happened. at war with metaphor offers an answer, arguing that the abuses of abu ghraib were part of a systemic continuum of dehumanization. this continuum has its roots in our public discussions of the war on terror and the metaphors through which they are repeatedly framed. arguing earnestly and incisively that these metaphors, if left unexamined, bind us into a cycle of violence that will only be intensified by a responsive violence of metaphor, erin steuter and deborah wills examine compelling examples of the images of animal, insect, and disease that inform, shape, and limit our understand-ing of the war on terror. tying these images to historical and contemporary uses of propaganda through a readable, accessible analysis of media filters, at war with metaphor vividly explores how news media, including political cartoons and talk radio, are enmeshed in these damaging, dehumanizing metaphors. analyzing media through the lenses of race and orientalism, the book invites us to hold our media and ourselves accountable for the choices we make in talking war and making enemies.”
Kövecses, Z.. (2016). Conceptual metaphor theory. In The Routledge Handbook of Metaphor and Language
“In a radical departure from theories based on digital, amodal accounts of cognition and language, lakoff and johnson (1980) proposed an account of metaphor as fundamentally conceptual, arguing that familiar linguistic metaphors are but surface manifestations of underlying conceptual relationships. they claimed that most conceptual thought is metaphorical, and conceptual domains are instantiated and expressed in families of conceptual metaphors, such as ‘more is u’, ‘emotionallyintimate is physically close’, ‘argument is war’, ‘love is a journey’, and ‘theories are buildings’. these conceptual metaphors number in the hundreds (gibbs, 1994b; lakoff and johnson, 1999), and they combine to serve as the foundation for new metaphors. for many of these families of metaphors lakoff and johnson trace the underlying metaphor to a literal concept based on embodied physical experience.”
Navaro-Yashin, Y.. (2009). Affective spaces, melancholic objects: Ruination and the production of anthropological knowledge. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute
“This article critically engages with recent theoretical writings on affect and non-human agency by way of studying the emotive energies discharged by properties and objects appropriated during war from members of the so-called ‘enemy’ community. the ethnographic material comes from long-term fieldwork in northern cyprus, focusing on how it feels to live with the objects and within the ruins left behind by the other, now displaced, community. i study turkish-cypriots’ relations to houses, land, and objects that they appropriated from the greek-cypriots during the war of 1974 and the subsequent partition of cyprus. my ethnographic material leads me to reflect critically on the object-centred philosophy of actor network theory and on the affective turn in the human sciences after the work of gilles deleuze. with the metaphor of ‘ruination’, i study what goes amiss in scholarly declarations of theoretical turns or shifts. instead, proposing an anthropologically engaged theory of affect through an ethnographic reflection on spatial and material melancholia, i argue that ethnography, in its most productive moments, is trans-paradigmatic. retaining what has been ruined as still needful of consideration, i suggest an approach which merges theories of affect and subjectivity as well as of language and materiality.”
Koller, V., Hardie, A., Rayson, P., & Semino, E.. (2008). Using a semantic annotation tool for the analysis of metaphor in discourse. Metaphorik.De
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“This paper describes the application of semantic annotation software for analysing metaphor in corpora of different genres. in particular, we outline three projects analysing religion and politics metaphors in corporate mission statements, the war metaphor in business magazines, and machine and living organism metaphors in a novel and in a second collection of business magazine articles. this research was guided by the hypotheses that a) semantic tags allocated by the software can correspond to source domains of metaphoric expressions, and b) that more conventional metaphors feature a source domain tag as first choice in the type’s semantic profile. the tagger was adapted to better serve the needs of metaphor research and automate to a greater extent the extraction of first choice and secondary semantic domains. two of the three studies represent re-analyses of previous manual and/or lexical corpus-based investigations, and findings indicate that semantic annotation can yield more comprehensive results. in”
Yanık, L. K.. (2009). The Metamorphosis of Metaphors of Vision: “Bridging” Turkey’s Location, Role and Identity After the End of the Cold War. Geopolitics
“During the cold war, ‘buffer’ or ‘bastion’ seemed a popular metaphor to describe turkey. after the cold war, ‘bridge,’ (and, to some extent, the ‘crossroad’) metaphor started to dominate the turkish foreign policy dışcourse. this article traces the use of ‘bridge’ metaphor in this dışcourse in the post-cold war period by the turkish foreign policy elite. it develops two arguments. first, the word bridge is a ‘metaphor of vision’ combining turkey’s perceived geographical exceptionalism with an identity and a role at the international level. as a ‘metaphor of vision,’ the employment of the word ‘bridge’ highlighted turkey’s liminality and justified some of its foreign policy actions to eurasia and then to the middle east. second, because the bridge metaphor was used in different context to justify different foreign policy choices, its meaning has changed, illustrating that metaphors are not static constructs. it concludes by sayıng that the continuous use of ‘bridge’ metaphor might reinforce turkey’s ‘liminality,’ placing turkey in a less classifiable category than the regular ‘othering’ practices.”
The individual comes face-to-face with a conspiracy so monstrous he cannot believe it exists. The American mind has not come to a realisation of the evil which has been introduced into our midst. It rejects even the assumption that human creatures could espouse a philosophy which must ultimately destroy all that is good and decent.
When morals decline and good men do nothing, evil flourishes. A society unwilling to learn from past is doomed. We must never forget our history.
John Edgar Hoover was an American law enforcement administrator and the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States. He was appointed as the director of the Bureau of Investigation – the FBI’s predecessor – in 1924 and was instrumental in founding the FBI in 1935, where he remained director until his death in 1972 at the age of 77
