“This episode should alarm every American. A very few people can unaccountably shape what you read. This is how freedom dies.“
—–Sohrab Ahmar, New York Post op-ed editor, regarding the mainstream media’ and social media attempting to embargo the Post’s story today suggesting Joe Biden’s participation in his son’s Ukrainian influence peddling.
Ahmar was writing about the events described in this Ethics Alarms post.
You should read his entire column here.
Particularly striking is his list, though far from complete, of instances in which the mainstream media didn’t hesitate to report what Twitter termed in this case “the lack of authoritative reporting on the origins of the materials included” in the report. The Post editor begins by echoing what Ethics Alarms has been emphasizing regrading the news media’s descent into unprincipled partisan propaganda over journalism: “This is what totalitarianism looks like in our century…”
“Enemy of the people”? The President was correct, if impolitic, with his blunt assessment, and each succeeding month has made that more evident.
Ethics Alarms 
This is more dangerous than foreign interference in the election.
I dread what is in store for the country once Biden wins and the Dems take the Senate.
But you see, you won’t HAVE to, because all the dirty tricks are just because the need to get rid of Trump, don’t you see? Once they get back into power, then they’ll play everything by the book again, just like when Obama was president. That’s why we need to vote for Biden.
Then all of the scandals and pandemics and violence will be behind us. At least until the nasty old Republicans even dare to think of taking power back, right?
Ow. That hurt my brain to write, even facetiously.
They keep pretending rhat the Ovama administration was “scandal free”.
The people who are pushing for censorship and increasing bias in the media are… well, some of them are probably sociopaths out to manipulate people for their own personal gain. The ones who aren’t, though, are authoritarians: they are willing to incur dogma and corruption in order to prevent things that they fear more. Our options are to either convince them that they should be even more afraid of dogma and corruption, or to figure out what they truly fear, which they probably don’t realize themselves, and put those fears to rest, so that they’ll be less likely to warp and tear the fabric of society to try and protect themselves.
Based on my experiences with both routes, putting people’s fears to rest is far easier and more effective just so long as you know the basic fear patterns. I’ve now got a free workshop to train people on how to implement it, so I’m looking forward to seeing the good it’ll do.
No. They have good intentions, but they are paving the way to Hell for us.
I’m confused as to what you mean by “no,” because I agree with what you said afterward and I don’t think it contradicts what I said. Can you please elaborate?
Sorry. I should have been more clear.
I believe they fear nothing. They are heroes in their own minds regardless of the result. They either succeed or become martyred in defeat. You cannot change their course.
In other words, they are the liberal Taliban.
You mean they use a form of virtue ethics? They believe themselves to be heroes based on how they behave, regardless of whether they’re effective? I hadn’t considered that–that’s a good point.
In that case, I’d deconstruct their empty virtues using the same system I use to describe fears. If their virtues don’t originate from the desire to prevent something they fear, then they have a broken compass. Their virtues are completely arbitrary, and I can sow enough doubt in their souls that they realize they don’t know what they’re doing. That works best if I give them a credible alternative, in the form of virtues like investment, preparation (formerly exposure), transcendence, and ethics, to address actual fears.
I don’t yet have a workshop on extemporaneous deconstruction, unfortunately.
I’ve now got a free workshop to train people on how to implement it,
Oh, Multimagnitudinous Cuttlefish, is this “it” for learning to put other people’s fears to rest, or recognizing and dealing with ones own fear patterns? Or both?
Both. Recognizing one’s own fear and putting it to rest is good preparation for doing the same for others, especially since it also fosters humility and empathy, since the emotions that one must work through in oneself are the often the same emotions one must guide others through.
I have to say, the covering up of the story becoming the story has been tremendously successful in that it has distracted attention from the underlying story and whether it’s true. It’s a great “Look over there!” move. All Joe has to do is deny it and the focus goes back to social media and newspapers. Brilliant. Is anyone pressing on the underlying story?