Tag: propaganda

Our Post-Truth, Post-Trust World

That we inhabit a post-truth world seems to accepted wisdom. But that’s only half of it. We also live in a post-trust world. In a post-truth world, everything is shaped by the implicit goals of the entity claiming to state the “truth,” as the entire point of claiming to state the “truth” is to persuade the target populace to agree to something favorable to the issuer of the claimed “truth.”

In other words, the “truth” as something that has no intentional spin of self-interest no longer exists. What is passed off as “truth” is spin intended / designed to serve the interests of those doing the spinning.

This is the definition of propaganda and marketing, which are pure expressions of self-interest, and they’ve been around since the dawn of civilization, as persuading others to do what serves your private interests is much lower cost / more profitable than having to modify their behaviors with force.

The first step in the con of propaganda and marketing is to win the trust of the mark. This is a fascinating process, as some people are willing believers and others are skeptical, and so the trust campaign must speak to both the skeptics and those primed to embrace the message for reasons that have less to do with the entity issuing the message and more to do with their internal beliefs.

The trick with skeptics is to present persuasive evidence–the “facts.” These can be first-person accounts, scientific studies, or something presented as self-evident. The con artist presents the facts as if they are objective and the mark is invited to “decide for yourself:” the con artist claims he has no intent to persuade.

This is humorously illustrated in Melville’s classic novel The Confidence-Man.

The rise of the collection of data and the scientific method introduced the idea of “objective truth” that was based on facts collected from observations that were repeatable by anyone able to isolate the same variables. In other words, these truths could be verified by anyone using the same tools to collect data that isolated the same variables, so it wasn’t a private truth, it was a public truth everyone had to accept as fact.

The power of “objective fact” was too good to pass up, and so manipulating the metrics of data collection and analysis became the new territory of developing trust and establishing “truth” to serve private interests. Sample sizes were kept small, subjects were selected for their likelihood of yielding the desired data, and analytic tools weeded out outliers that undermined or contradicted the pre-selected “results.”

As McLuhan observed, The medium is both the message and the massage, and so the synthetic media that broadcast the human voice and visual images captured our attention and imagination in ways the written word could not. Now we have AI, which mimics human speech so engagingly that we attribute it with human characteristics: intelligence, emotions, empathy, etc.

With social media and smartphones, these media/ AI technologies have scalable visibility and virulence: they are ubiquitous (everywhere) and extremely contagious / virulent, spreading quickly through vast populations.

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The US took out Iranian leaders and facilities with surgical precision – but the Islamic Republic is winning the propaganda war… with comedy Lego videos

Long before the first blast ripped through the night, the target was mapped out.

The Americans and Israelis knew that this building near the city of Isfahan was a key node of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Force. Inside, men planned and coordinated Iran‘s ballistic missile and drone attacks.

The mid-March operation was layered and surgical. First came observation. RQ-170 Sentinels – a highly classified, low-observable ‘stealth’ unmanned aerial system – had tracked a surge in activity at the facility. Vehicles roared in and out; crews scrambled from hangars; communications spiked. An Iranian attack was imminent.

Then came the invisible assault: EA-18G Growler jets choked Iranian radar with jamming, while AGM-88 HARM missiles hunted down any communications systems still emitting signals, destroying some and forcing others to go dark. With the site effectively blinded, F-35I Adir stealth fighters slipped into position, backed by heavier firepower: B-2 Spirit bombers carrying the massive GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator.

When the kinetic strike came, it was swift, decisive and awesome.

The GBU-57 does not explode on impact; instead, it punches deep into its target before detonating. That night, buildings pancaked inward, their roofs buckling as reinforced steel layers imploded, crushing underground command centres. By dawn, all that remained was a charred ruin, its most senior personnel little more than a smear of blood amid shattered concrete.

In the days that followed, Iran’s missile activity in the region slowed. Follow-up surveillance confirmed a ‘functional kill’ – a critical gap in Iran’s ability to plan and execute missile operations.

In so many ways, the Iran War is 21st-century conflict epitomised.

Never has warfare been so forensically and professionally conducted; never so surgical. Swathes of the enemy leadership taken out in minutes; cyber-war neutering Iranian facilities in seconds. Never has a regime of terror been so utterly, and precisely, shattered from the air.

On the ground, Israel’s infiltration of Iran’s security forces is equally extraordinary. I am told by sources it is so pervasive that when confusing or seemingly counterproductive orders are issued, the default assumption is that they’ve come from commanders who are Mossad agents. The systematic degradation of Iran’s security apparatus is unprecedented.

And yet the Iranian regime believe they have won. The Supreme National Security Council of Iran called the war an ‘undeniable, historic and crushing defeat’ for the enemy. It’s what you’d expect them to say. But many in the West are taking them at their word.

We must ask why.

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Senior BBC Iran reporter exposed as opposition activist

After a top reporter at the BBC drew outrage for publishing a quote demanding Iran be nuked, she’s been revealed as a dedicated regime change activist whose career was launched by a CIA-founded propaganda network. Serious questions remain about the BBC’s editorial process. 

On April 6, 2026, horrified social media users began drawing attention to an extraordinary statement allegedly provided to the BBC by a twenty-something Iranian:

“About them hitting energy infrastructure, using an atomic bomb, or leveling Iran – my honest reaction is that I’m okay with all of these.”

Three hours later, as the uproar grew, the quote suddenly vanished from the BBC’s article. It had been replaced by a far less controversial criticism of the Iranian government. The episode raises serious questions about the BBC’s editorial process, as well as the background and motivations of the author responsible for the article.

Who is Ghoncheh Habibiazad?

At the ripe old age of 27, Ghoncheh Habibiazad has already achieved more than most British journalists will in their lifetime. After just four years in the field, she has already risen to the position of ‘Senior Reporter’ at BBC Persian – a prestigious and influential role which requires a “minimum of 8 – 10 years of experience in journalism,” according to a BBC job listing.  

Following four years of higher education on the Iranian government’s dime, Habibiazad graduated from the University of Tehran in 2020, and immediately began aligning herself with her country’s enemies. In October 2021, she was brought on as an intern at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), a CIA propaganda project founded by notorious spymaster Allen Dulles which nominally separated from the Agency in the 70s. During her time at the network’s studio in Prague, Habibiazad’s LinkedIn page notes that she conducted such groundbreaking investigations as “an article on “hidden disabilities”” while “working remotely for Radio Farda,” an RFE/RL subdivision that serves as Washington’s official Persian-language mouthpiece.

The same month she began interning for RFE/RL, Habibiazad joined forces with Marjan TV, another outlet founded by expat regime change activists. She would spend the next year and half developing social media content for the outlet and its subsidiary, Manoto TV. The broadcaster has been described by Iranian academic Shahab Esfandiary as “a pro-monarchy network with the mission of glorifying the Pahlavi dynasty, one of the worst dictatorships of the 20th century.”

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Foreign Influence Exposed: How Non-U.S. Social Media Accounts Shape the Narrative on Iran Conflict

Foreign social media accounts could be shaping negative narratives about the U.S.-Iran conflict, raising concerns about misinformation and public perception.

A report by Pew Research Center on March 25 indicates that a significant number of Americans are against U.S. military involvement in Iran. According to their survey, about 61 percent of Americans are dissatisfied with President Donald Trump’s handling of the conflict, while 37 percent express approval.

Furthermore, by a margin of almost two-to-one, more of the survey’s participants believe military action is not progressing well—45 percent compared to the 25 percent who think it is going extremely or very well.

But is someone shaping this narrative? On X, foreign users are certainly influencing the way the conflict is perceived. A recent analysis published on conservative political commentator Glenn Beck’s website of more than 1,000 viral English-language posts may offer valuable insights into who is crafting the narrative.

These posts, published between February 28 and March 13, showed a significant influence from accounts based outside the U.S. In his opinion, these accounts, along with the groups or governments behind them, are significantly steering the conversation on X, inundating it with “inflammatory and demoralizing propaganda,” which can alter public perception and sentiment.

Mauro, a national security analyst and founder of The Mauro Institute, spoke to The Gateway Pundit about his discovery. He shared that, according to his research, “more than half, specifically 559 out of 1,000, of the viral X posts written in English about Iran come from abroad. These 559 posts garnered more than 650 million views and accumulated nearly 22 million total interactions, including reposts, likes, and replies. For him, “This engagement underscores the power of social media to amplify certain narratives.”

Interestingly, a random selection of 150 posts from the thousand viral X posts showed that 108 (72%) were negative, whereas only 40 (27%) were positive. The non-U.S. portion of that random selection showed a significantly negative response, with 64 percent expressing negativity and only 10 percent showing positivity. According to Mauro, this imbalance alone raises questions about the authenticity of the discourse surrounding the issue.

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The American Mind Has Collapsed: How Vaccine Damage and Tribal Stupidity Created a Nation of Gullible Fools

How Mainstream America Became Dumb… and then Dumber

I’ve spent years observing, documenting, and sounding the alarm about the erosion of American intelligence and discernment. Today, I believe we are witnessing not just a cultural or political decline, but a mass cognitive collapse — a deliberate, engineered stupidity that has rendered a once-critical populace into a nation of gullible fools.

This is not an accident. It is the culmination of a multi-front war on human cognition, waged through toxic vaccines, processed food poisons, electromagnetic pollution, and a relentless propaganda machine that celebrates mediocrity and punishes truth. The evidence is everywhere, from the halls of government to the checkout line at the grocery store. We have crossed a cognitive event horizon, and the path back to reason seems all but lost [1]. Here’s how we got here, and why it matters for the survival of freedom itself.

The Unprecedented Decline of American Intelligence

The data is in, and it’s grim. Across all ages and demographics, test results show Americans are getting dumber [2]. This isn’t a minor dip in scores; it’s a systemic plunge. I believe this mass cognitive decline is largely driven by physical and chemical assaults on the brain, with vaccine damage playing a central role. The adjuvants in vaccines, particularly aluminum, are a silent, pervasive threat [3]. Studies have found high aluminum levels in patients with Alzheimer’s, autism, and epilepsy, and this neurotoxic substance is directly injected into the population, especially infants [3].

Long-term persistence of vaccine-derived aluminum hydroxide is associated with chronic cognitive dysfunction [4]. This is not speculation; it is documented science that the corrupt medical establishment desperately wants you to ignore. When you combine this with the brain-damaging effects of other environmental toxins like lead [5], glyphosate in food, and electromagnetic fields from 5G, you have a perfect storm for neurological decay. The once-critical American mind, capable of innovation and self-governance, has been replaced with a gullible, tribalistic stupidity that I find unprecedented in our history. We are becoming a population of psychological zombies, primed to believe anything our tribal leaders tell us [6].

The Artemis Moon Farce: A Case Study in Celebrating Nothing

Nothing exemplifies this collapse of basic reasoning more than the public’s reaction to NASA’s Artemis program. Celebrating a flight that’s merely planned to go around the moon as “going back” to the moon reveals a total failure of logic and an embrace of empty symbolism. This manufactured triumph is a perfect symbol of an empire that can no longer distinguish reality from propaganda, nor achievement from theatrics.

This isn’t about space exploration; it’s about the degradation of meaning. A society that celebrates a symbolic loop as a monumental return has lost its ability to assess value and substance. It eagerly consumes the spectacle while ignoring the substance — or lack thereof. This willingness to applaud a non-event is a symptom of a deeper sickness: a population so cognitively damaged that it cannot perform the most basic reality checks. It is ready to be sold any story, no matter how hollow, as long as it’s wrapped in the flag and accompanied by a press release. The provided sources on this specific NASA mission are limited, but the pattern of celebrating engineered narratives over tangible reality is a hallmark of our cognitive decline.

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A Baron of Lies Turns the World Upside Down—and Loses

Comedians are being deprived of their creativity: to turn Trump’s remarks into slapstick, you only have to do one thing—nothing at all. If you just let him speak, he provides “top-notch” entertainment at the lowest possible level. Less amusing is the fact that the Western media, which purports to offer reporting and analysis, takes this utter nonsense seriously. If you follow experts in the West, you’ll rub your eyes and ears in disbelief. Never before have reporting and assessments been so riddled with nonsense and so far removed from reality. The people and media of the West, in their Diederich Hessling-like subservience, don’t even begin to realize that they are being led into disaster by the powerful in Israel and the US. Instead of preparing people for the fact that the West—above all Europe—is heading toward collapse and deprivation, rosy forecasts are being issued

Yet careful research certainly makes it possible to paint a realistic picture. This is a laborious task, as the entire West has conspired to lie to the world. Through censorship and AI, the circles that shape public opinion and shape policy have the means to make Western populations believe that the Israelis are the good guys and that the Americans will prevail. This is nothing new: there have always been only winners in a war. Thus, the Nazis tried to convince their people until 1945 that final victory was tantalisingly close. During the wars in Korea and Vietnam, the Americans “won,” and Russia has been “losing” in Ukraine for four years. And now the Americans and Israelis are “winning” in Iran, Lebanon, indeed throughout the entire Middle East.

The fact that this propaganda cannot be true is also evident from the fact that the claims are becoming increasingly fantastical—even the famous Baron Münchhausen would blush.

As always in my reporting, this is merely an attempt to describe and analyze the overall situation. Too many factors are at play simultaneously around the world, and when conducting an analysis, there is always a risk that one might omit certain facts—deeming them irrelevant to the overall trend—only to be proven wrong by reality later on.

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NEVER FORGET: Ilhan Omar’s Father was Top Propaganda Official in Genocidal Somalian Barre Regime – Then He Changed His and Her Name and Entered US Illegally

On Friday J. D. Vance told Benny Johnson in their interview that radical leftist congresswoman Ilhan Omar committed immigration fraud. Vance promised the White House will go after Ilhan for her crimes.

The Gateway Pundit has been reporting on Ilhan’s alleged immigration fraud since 2019.

Do Americans know the story on how Ilhan Omar made it into the United States?  In July 2019 we reported on Omar’s father Nur Said. 

Here is what we reported:
David Steinberg published an extensive report on the alleged crimes and history of Rep. Ilhan Omar and the “Omar” family.

In his report, David found that the Omar family changed their name in order to enter the United States.

Via PowerLineBlog:

In 1995, Ilhan entered the United States as a fraudulent member of the “Omar” family.

That is not her family. The Omar family is a second, unrelated family which was being granted asylum by the United States. The Omars allowed Ilhan, her genetic sister Sahra, and her genetic father Nur Said to use false names to apply for asylum as members of the Omar family.

Ilhan’s genetic family split up at this time. The above three received asylum in the United States, while Ilhan’s three other siblings — using their real names — managed to get asylum in the United Kingdom.

Ilhan Abdullahi Omar’s name, before applying for asylum, was Ilhan Nur Said Elmi.

Her father’s name before applying for asylum was Nur Said Elmi Mohamed. Her sister Sahra Noor’s name before applying for asylum was Sahra Nur Said Elmi. Her three siblings who were granted asylum by the United Kingdom are Leila Nur Said Elmi, Mohamed Nur Said Elmi, and Ahmed Nur Said Elmi.

Power Line also included this graphic on the Omar Elmi family.

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‘Contradictory’ Public Opinions on Iran Are Baked Into CBS’s Polling

A recent CBS News poll (3/17–20/26) declared that a majority of Americans (53%) say it would be “unacceptable” if the United States were to end the conflict with Iran with that country’s current leadership still in power.

Moreover, the poll also found that large majorities of Americans say it is “important” to “make sure Iran’s people are safe and free,” to “permanently stop Iran’s nuclear programs,” and to “stop Iran from threatening other countries.”

These results seem to suggest that most Americans want the war to continue until those goals, including regime change in Iran, are actually achieved.

Much of the rest of the poll, however, suggests the public does not support the war with Iran, even when “conflict” instead of the touchy word “war” is used to describe what’s happening. According to the poll:

  • 60% disapprove of the US taking military action against Iran.
  • 62% disapprove of the way Donald Trump is handling the situation in Iran.
  • 57% believe the “conflict in Iran” is going “very/somewhat badly.”
  • 51% do not believe it is important to change Iran’s leaders to ones that are pro-US.
  • 92% believe it is important to “end the conflict as quickly as possible.”

The report notes: “If those desires between goals and a fast end seem contradictory, it connects to the continued call for more explanation from the administration.”

The poll did ask if the Trump administration had clearly explained its goals, and only 32% said it had; 68% said no.

But that is not evidence of the public’s “continued call for more explanation.” There is nothing in the poll that suggests the public is demanding more information, and in the absence thereof, the public exhibits contradictions between its preferred goals and a quick end to the war. The explanation is a non sequitur.

One reason for the contradictions is that the poll asks each question as though it were free from any context. Respondents are not asked to evaluate each goal in light of possible cost. If, for example, regime change is a goal of the war, how long should the US continue to press for that change, given the likely cost in money and lives?

The poll lists several goals, and each one might seem pretty appealing—assuming it could be reached. Respondents hear a goal and say, sure, it’s important, without having to confront the inevitable trade-offs. Reporting such responses as though the public is actually demanding the US pay the costs to achieve regime change, or to make the Iranian people free and safe, is a wild distortion of what the poll has actually measured.

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Pentagon Wants It to Be Illegal for Reporters to Ask “Unauthorized” Questions

A judge last week struck down the Pentagon’s restrictions on journalists seeking “unauthorized” information, siding with the New York Times in its lawsuit against the government. In response, the Pentagon on Monday added some meaningless window dressing and essentially reissued the same restrictions. The administration pledged to “immediately” appeal the decision on the original policy, and on Tuesday, the Times filed a motion to compel the administration to comply with the judge’s order. 

As alarming as the Pentagon’s antics are, the Times’ lawsuit is not the only case about whether reporters have the right to ask questions. It’s not even the only one in the news this week. 

In 2017, police in Laredo, Texas, arrested citizen journalist Patricia Villarreal under an obscure and never previously used law making it a felony to ask government employees for nonpublic information for personal benefit. Her supposed crime was asking a police officer about two local tragedies — a suicide and a deadly car wreck.

Her arrest was widely ridiculed, and a judge quickly threw out the charges. When Villarreal sued over her arrest and mistreatment by officers, the legal question wasn’t whether the charges against her were permissible but whether they were so obviously bogus that she could overcome qualified immunity, the unjust and expansive legal shield that protects government employees from liability for all but the most blatant violations. That issue went to the Supreme Court twice, but on Monday, the Court declined to review a federal appellate court’s ruling that the officers were shielded from liability. 

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The Foreign Communist and Leftist Organizations Behind Pro-Cuba Regime Propaganda in the U.S.

The Nuestra América Convoy, composed of American and international leftists that recently delivered aid to the Cuban regime, was a network of at least 23 Marxist, socialist, and anti-American organizations, many with foreign ties and funding, including connections to the Chinese Communist Party.

Several have a documented history of organizing or participating in anti-American protests in the United States, including pro-Hamas demonstrations in Times Square within hours of the October 7, 2023 terrorist attacks, the July 2024 mass-vandalism protest at Washington’s Union Station, “Hands Off Iran” rallies, anti-ICE protests, pro-Maduro demonstrations, and other pro-communist causes.

The convoy’s primary organizing body was Progressive International, a self-described worldwide anti-capitalist organization formally founded in 2020, growing out of a 2018 call by Bernie Sanders’s institute and the Democracy in Europe Movement.

Its manifesto asserts that “capitalism is the virus” that must be eradicated, supports “revolution” to “transform society and reclaim the state,” and warns that “winning elections is not enough.”

The organization dismisses concerns about Chinese military aggression as an “invented narrative” and “anti-China hysteria.”

Its advisory council includes British Member of Parliament Jeremy Corbyn, a self-identified socialist who participated in the convoy, and Yanis Varoufakis, a former Greek finance minister who describes himself as an “erratic Marxist” or “libertarian Marxist.”

Progressive International co-organized the convoy alongside the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, which a 1978 CIA study prepared for the House Intelligence Committee described as “one of the most useful Communist front organizations at the service of the Soviet Communist Party,” noting its consistent alignment with Moscow’s foreign policy.

National Lawyers Guild president Suzanne Adely participated in a joint Progressive International and IADL delegation to the Palestinian Territories in 2024.

A central organizing and fiscal node for the convoy was the People’s Forum, a New York-based 501(c)(3) whose executive director, Manolo de los Santos, spoke at press conferences in Havana.

De los Santos has spent years in Cuba and built a career organizing protests in New York City. In April 2024, hours before anti-Israel protesters occupied Hamilton Hall at Columbia University, he addressed roughly 100 activists at the People’s Forum’s Manhattan offices, urging them to recreate the “summer of 2020,” a reference to the BLM riots that resulted in $400 million in damage across the country, and to “give Joe Biden a hot summer.”

Isra Hirsi, daughter of Rep. Ilhan Omar, traveled to Cuba as part of a People’s Forum delegation. She had previously been suspended from Barnard College for participating in a siege of parts of neighboring Columbia University during pro-Hamas protests.

The House Ways and Means Committee stated in a formal letter that the People’s Forum received over $20 million from Neville Roy Singham and his wife, Jodie Evans, between 2017 and 2022 through shell companies and donor-advised funds, and that it has “acted as a foreign agent of the Chinese Communist Party” while maintaining tax-exempt status. Singham, a U.S.-born tech mogul who sold his company for $785 million in 2017, moved to Shanghai and in July 2023 attended a Communist Party workshop on “promoting the party internationally.”

He shares premises with a Chinese propaganda firm whose goal is to “educate foreigners about the miracles that China has created.”

The People’s Forum hosted courses in late 2024 glorifying the Chinese revolution and events with diaspora groups defending the CCP. A George Washington University Program on Extremism report identified the People’s Forum as a key node funding activist groups with anti-U.S. and anti-Israel agendas aligned with China’s global messaging.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley urged an investigation into whether the People’s Forum should register as foreign agents under FARA.

Code Pink, founded in 2002 by Jodie Evans and Medea Benjamin, is a 501(c)(3) with a 23-year record of opposing U.S. foreign policy, actively opposing sanctions on Iran, Venezuela, North Korea, and Cuba, and disrupting congressional hearings including those of Henry Kissinger and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Code Pink chartered a plane for 100 convoy participants, delivered 6,300 pounds of medical supplies valued at $433,000, and charged each participant $1,600 for the trip.

Since 2017, roughly 25 percent of Code Pink’s funding has come from groups connected to Singham, who married co-founder Evans in 2019.

Since that marriage, Evans and Code Pink have, according to Senate Judiciary Committee documents, “stridently supported China,” with Evans publicly describing the Uyghurs as “terrorists” and defending their mass detention.

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