manipulation – Sillyfrog's Blog

Unanswered Question: Why do we keep lying to ourselves?

Posted on 05/25/202305/25/2023 by Susan St.Pierre

I saw a post and only read two lines of the poem.
The image of George Floyd was clearly displayed at the top of the page.
The poem spoke of “slave ships”.
That was enough for me.
The death of George Floyd was tragic on so many levels but the stubborn adherence to the idea that it had anything to with race is absurd. What that mindset does is perpetuate a myth, a political flashpoint, and a lie.
Derrick Shovan was a terrible, barbaric, man and cop.
George Floyd was a drug addict, repeat criminal, and misguided soul.
We could investigate all day long the ‘whats and whys’ that made them each that way, but that’s not the point.
Something terribly tragic happened and we’re not placing the blame on ‘what happened next’ where it belongs.
Both men had culpability in the route they took to that place and time of Floyd’s death, yet their race wasn’t deemed, even in court, as having an influence.
So, why do we keep lying to ourselves?
Why is George Floyd a folk hero?
How does his life and death have anything to do with slave ships?
Derrick and George were already known to each other.
No ‘hate crime’ allegation was pursued in Derrick’s trial. Because race was NOT a factor. (He was a real ‘rotten egg’ and got what he deserved.)
Race hustlers came rushing out of the woodwork, though. Some for financial gain (BLM organizers) and others for political leverage (BLM self-proclaimed Marxists, among others). Both types should have been recognized as and declared opportunists immediately.
That’s why the riots, marches, and continued mythology over George Floyd are so baffling and IMHO are symptomatic of even darker ills than a would-be individual act of racism.
Those most desperate ubiquitous illnesses are victimhood, ignorance, and-bias inspired- gullibility.
The clear perpetrators of those crippling diseases are the media, our educational system, and political activists. If you want something ‘real‘ to be outraged about, their accountability isn’t even going to be EVER considered. The avoidable death and destruction in the aftermath will go on being falsely labeled a noble crusade. Instead, the misnomer of “systematic racism” (in this specific case) will continue to destroy our harmony, unity, and sense of justice. We will therefore go on being victimized and consumed by ‘lies’, half-truths, and narrative manipulations, until the nefarious goal of dehumanizing and dividing our country for the purpose of totalitarian control, is achieved.
Don’t play a role in it by not getting your facts straight.

Unanswered Question: May I have your attention on occasion?

Posted on 02/28/202302/28/2023 by Susan St.Pierre

This post was inspired by a comment that I made on another post. It was about my opinion that our media is complicit in a larger global campaign of stealing our freedoms and futures by promoting an almost daily “crisis” and/or a new focus of outrage. You can totally disagree with my assessment and still learn from this post, so I ask you to continue reading.
Let’s start with a cute childhood riddle.
“What’s worse than discovering a worm in your apple?”
“Discovering half of a worm in your apple, of course.”
This is funny and a perfect segway to my next question:
“What’s worse than being fooled?”
“Not knowing that you’ve been fooled, of course.”
If you’ve never watched the TV series called Brain Games, I excitedly suggest it to you. It explores the human brain’s limitations and strengths. It’s science, folks!
Many of you already know how frustrated I get when I’m shutout of a conversation. Some of you expect conversations to be a competition to conclude “Who is ‘right’?” and avoid them because who has time for ‘battles’ these days?
What if conversations were a means to gain knowledge and understanding? That’s how I ‘see’ them.

We are not physically nor mentally equipped to pay attention to more than one thing at a time. That’s a fact. Multi-tasking is actually a state of busyness not a super-human mental ability. We may jump from one task to another with alacrity, but our efficiency suffers for it. Sorry for popping that bubble. 😉
So, what I am trying to point out is that no matter what YOU believe, you can be distracted and fooled by others who are able to get your attention. I certainly have been fooled and it not only ‘stinks’ it can be costly. The best attention getters are passionate or fear-based media reports. We’re wired to protect ourselves and preserve our values so, of course, we ‘drop’ everything else we could be paying attention to, in favor of self-preservation.
If we’re ‘busy’ in this fast-paced world, the available amount of our attention beyond our tasks is limited.
Do you know people who just read headlines and/or listen to media ‘warnings’ and leave that ‘ugly’ topic of “politics” to the zealots? I do. I can’t blame them. What bothers me is that they are being ‘played’ by censorship and misdirection when they do.
But, lucky for us there are retired, thoughtful, concerned, citizens who DO pay attention because it’s our “politics” that, whether we like it or not, directly affect our prosperity, freedom, and futures.
So, I ask, “May I have your attention on occasion?”
That request comes with no expectation of agreement or argument. It is a matter of “food for thought” in a busy world.
Below is a segment from Brain Games that may ‘open your eyes’ to how easily we can be fooled (and robbed) when our attention is diverted… many times it’s diverted for unseemly purposes. [In my humble opinion, our language, institutions, and futures are being ‘pick pocketed’ and twisted, while we’re being told in the media that we are each other’s adversaries by calling us racist, unkind, and uncaring, according to our political positions. We’re better than that. 😉 ]
We’re all in this together, friends!

6 Sentence Stories

Six Sentence Story- Just Pass the Potatoes

Posted on 11/02/202211/02/2022 by Susan St.Pierre

PROMPT WORD: ENERGY

Henry slid the door to the minivan closed realizing the day was just getting started and he already felt exhausted.

The struggle to get his six-year-old to put on something warm before he went off to school had somehow morphed into an argument over whether that layer was called a ‘coat’, ‘jacket’, ‘sweater’ or ‘sweatshirt’ ending in a shouting match.

Once behind the wheel, he relaxed and marveled over how easily an immature mind could manage the manipulation of the main topic of ‘staying warm’ into something so trivial with such skill.

When Henry got the text from his wife that their adult son, Josh, had surprised her and had come home from college for the weekend, he decided that the day that had had a rough beginning was going to end on a ‘high note’.

At dinner, all felt right until Josh leaned back in his chair and told his parents they had a duty to buy an EV and that all fossil fuel production worldwide should stop immediately or the planet-including mankind- was DOOMED!

Henry (once he picked his jaw up from the floor) calmly told Josh that he was being a little extreme with those conclusions and that current human beings could not, and should not, take that viewpoint seriously since not only transportation but most of all products and research, including our medicines, depend predominantly on hydrocarbons to which Josh covered his ears with his hands and screamed, “Killers!” then stormed out of the room as Henry just shook his head and said, “I just don’t have the energy for two immature arguments in one day… Please pass the potatoes, dear.”

https://girlieontheedge1.wordpress.com/2022/11/02/its-thursdays-six-sentence-story-link-up-10/

In my humble opinion...

SoCS 9-17-22 Ring- Warning

Posted on 09/16/202209/16/2022 by Susan St.Pierre

What came to mind immediately was the idiom “ring true”. I looked up its origin:

Ring false and the antonym, ring true, which means “seem genuine,” allude to the old practice of judging a coin genuine or fake by the sound it gives out when tapped. This practice became obsolete when coins ceased to be made of precious metals, but by then the idioms were being used to refer to other matters. [Mid-1800s]

The phrase ‘ring true’ takes on a lot of weight these days. Our media has worked overtime sensationalizing everything and simultaneously has avoided doing much factual investigation.
I don’t know about you, but I feel as though I’m in a never-ending game of “Gossip”.

To anyone who is unfamiliar with the game of Gossip, it starts with a phrase whispered into a person’s ear then that person hastily whispers it to the next and so on around a ring of several people. By the time it reaches person #1 again, the phrase’s words and meaning are completely different. It’s comical as a game but tragically lacking as a source of reliable information.

Our media is a ‘for profit’ group of businesses that rely on getting the public’s attention. So, using flashy, salacious, material, and misleading headlines, works well for them, especially in our fast-paced (short attention span) American society.
Clever a-moral people have discovered this lovely way to spread ideological propaganda AND make money. Worse than that, social media companies are “in” on it too by manipulating search engines and censoring sites who might ruin their hypnotic promotion of a single ideological message. I fear that a large number of people are becoming unwitting tools of a totalitarian movement. I also fear that our Constitutional Republic is in grave danger. Freedom of Speech and ‘thought diversity’ are the most essential elements of a free society. We’re losing them both at an alarming rate.
Those who question mass media information as not “ringing true” are being cancelled, arrested, and destroyed (many are now labeled domestic terrorists!) while a comfortably numb public doesn’t even notice… most don’t care to know. Seeking comfort, a group belonging, and a sense of virtuous superiority, has replaced the need to be ethical, reasonable, and truth seeking.
I know this sounds like a finger wagging rant and I suppose it is. Telling-it-like-it-is and pursuing Truth aren’t things I will watch die off without speaking my own mind.

Have a nice Saturday and please keep your ears, eyes, and minds open. Our country’s future needs your support. ❤

https://lindaghill.com/2022/09/16/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-sept-17-2022/