Israel-Hamas war: You're being manipulated by atrocity propaganda

Ever seen posts or news articles that seem designed to tug at your heart strings while simultaneously coercing you into hating the apparent perpetrators? That is atrocity propaganda in action.

In wartime, information is a weapon all it's own. Information is used to sway popular opinion in order to influence public support so that governments feel as though they have carte blanche to act however they choose when faced with a crisis. Of course that always comes with the caveat of government officials shoehorning agenda-specific actions and legislation into whatever courses of action they choose to take, so the people grant such permissions at their own peril.

This is where a powerful psychological weapon comes into it’s own. A psychological weapon that will not only influence the average citizen into condoning drastic actions for the sake of ending apparent crises, but also comes loaded with an added effect of making it socially damning to oppose the decisions of their elected officials. I’m of course referring to what is known as “atrocity propaganda.”

We're seeing the typical atrocity propaganda routine when it comes to the conflict in Israel just like we did with Ukraine and Russia - both sides are accusing one another of heinous atrocities in order to win favor and hopefully get additional support for their operations. The problem is that in these wars of information, both sides will resort to disseminating blatant misinformation in order to gain the edge.

This is a story as old as warfare itself, with countless examples throughout history alleging that the enemy is so barbaric that they would do absolutely anything to anyone they considered connected to their enemy. A popular tactic amidst the fog of war is to allege atrocities committed against children.

Looking back in time, we find a good example of this in propaganda from World War 1, meant to paint the German army in as negative a light as possible.

“Babes on bayonets” was a common trope used to demonize German troops during World War 1

There are many images from the day that depicted Germans killing children with the bayonets on their rifles. This of course turned out to be false, though some publications you might see on Google search will not outright disavow this as fully debunked, but readily admit that the events described in Belgium where this was alleged to have happened is based on flimsy evidence, such as an eyewitness account describing a drunken German solder killing a 2-year-old child. An occurrence that couldn’t be adequately corroborated by any real evidence.

Still, I draw parallels to this propaganda about the German military during World War 1 to the “beheaded babies” narrative put out by various news outlets, and even lyin’ Joe Biden himself, who was outed by his own staff for lying about seeing evidence of babies having been beheaded by Hamas. Even the Israeli government admitted they don’t have evidence to corroborate those accusations, and they stand to gain the most from affirming this atrocity as factual.

The trope of a given group harming children through various means is also a common one in use today in political squabbles on the internet. You can easily see daily occurrences of both sides of the U.S. political paradigm accusing the other of committing horrible acts against children in order to attempt to appear morally superior to their counterparts with whom they vehemently disagree on pretty much everything since most people who claim to be politically active are only as knowledgable as their last NPC programming session of the latest narratives and talking points. But I digress.

My immediate concern is that in light of the influx of dubious information coming out of Gaza and Israel in general, there will be a true push backed by public outcry to censor and silence anyone who doesn't have the approval of whoever crowns themselves "misinformation czar." It won’t be as cut-and-dry as all that, but some kind of overarching authority who has crowned themselves as the arbiters of truth will likely be the result. You can kiss any semblance of 1st amendment rights goodbye at that point.

It will be a textbook example of the Hegelian Dialectic in action. For those unfamiliar with that term, I’ll explain. A problem arises - or is created by the powers that be. The people then demand a solution to that problem. Then the government, seeing that they have the backing of the sheep in the population, roll out their proposed solution which invariably means that the government will make a grab for even more power.

Problem → Reaction → Solution.

The Covid scamdemic was another situation where a problem arose, the people cried out for a solution without setting any boundaries, and the governments of the world gave themselves carte blanche to trample all our rights.

Do you remember during the heights of covid fearmongering when people would guilt-trip one another into compliance with absurd mask mandates by saying dumb things like "You're trying to kill grandma!" in order to get you to submit to their childism whims? That is another instance of this kind of social stigma deployed to pull you into the same mass formation psychosis that gripped those misguided fools who believed someone committing the crime of breathing while unmasked in their general vicinity would kill them and their whole families.

The thought police were everywhere during Covid, and being outed as a member of the ‘resistance’ often carried grave consequences to one’s livelihood and career.

Any content creator on popular social media and streaming sites who were merely disseminating information that wasn’t approved by Pfizer or their puppets in government that had to do with the vaccines and approved treatments, or alleging that off-patent medications like ivermectin or hydroxychloroquine were effective against covid, could practically guarantee that their accounts would be either suspended or banned for wrongthink in short order.

It was as close to 1984 as we have ever been, and not a lot of ground has been given back afterward. And now, with the emerging situation in Israel, while considering the fervor prominent war pig Neocons have over absolutely anything concerning Israel whatsoever, I would not be surprised to see a full-sized U.S. government agency formed with the express purpose of monitoring all spaces of public discourse and policing what topics are discussed, and what information can be disseminated.

This is already taking place in Canada under the dictatorship of Justin Trudeau. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), having been granted new powers under bill C-11, are setting their sights on podcasters and podcast platforms to police speech.

Originally, the bill was meant to force streaming services such as Netflix, Spotify, YouTube, and Disney Plus to contribute to and promote Canadian media content (State-Sponsored media?) However, the decision was also made to set the threshold of revenue that places other, much smaller media outlets and content creators under the purview of the legislation at just $10 million CAD.

So what does that mean? Simple. It means that any podcaster OR podcast platform that makes more than $10 million is subject to regulation that may limit what type of content and subject matter they can cover.

And who decides what subject matter they’re allowed to talk about if they’re to be allowed to broadcast in Canada? The Canadian Government, of course.

Larger podcasters might just run their own proprietary platform because they have the capital to do so that is guaranteed to be in excess of $10 million. So naturally they fall under the purview of CTRC regulation. Smaller podcasters and creators, however, will likely be dependent on distributing their content on streaming juggernauts like Spotify, YouTube, and iTunes. They will also be subject to CTRC regulation.

So even if you’re a small-time creator with only 100 subscribers or so like me, you’re still subject to Canadian law if your content is to be allowed to be seen or heard there.

Imagine getting region-blocked from a large market like Canada just for telling the truth about the clot shot. Not only is that akin to the policing of thought itself, it’s the very definition of it. And it flies in the face of the very essence and purpose of the internet itself.

And if you think for one second that United States legislatures aren’t salivating at the possibility of finally putting a knife in the back of the freedom that the internet affords us, you’d be sadly mistaken.

Remember how children are weaponized for effect by propagandists looking to make a statement?

U.S. District Judge Beth Labson Freeman recently blocked the California Age Appropriate Design Code Act (ADCA) for being too broad in its scope for regulation that was sold as a means of protecting children online by forcing platforms to assess whether what they offer could cause harm to children. It also forces platforms to either meticulously assess the ages of users to prescribe the appropriate privacy measures to their accounts, or force ultra-restrictive settings for all users.

In her decision on the matter, Judge Freeman stated that California's threatened enforcement would force platforms to police content strictly, potentially filtering it to the point that the only thing you can watch on YouTube is Cocomelon. I joke, but that’s the basic gist of how restrictive it would be. Judge Freeman wrote that all users would be reduced to "reading only what is fit for children."

Wouldn’t that just be a boon for the people who would benefit the most from keeping us all ignorant and uninformed? Well, except for the shit that is peddled as truth on mainstream media networks and major social media platforms. They are all too happy to run a fine-toothed comb over the content on their platforms in order to filter out anything that the powers that be would find unsavory and inconvenient to their agenda.

The fight for the freedom to formulate our own thoughts never stops. Don’t let yourself be manipulated by the machinations of malevolent propagandists who stand to gain everything by stoking your ire toward their ideal enemy image.

Remember — History is a game of Telephone. You may find yourself forced to read between the lines to get at the truth. Never stop thinking for yourselves.