25 November 2017

Neo-McCarthyism, the First Amendment and the Compromise of the Humanitarian/NGO Complex

I offer this link as an excellent summary of what has aptly been described as Neo-McCarthyism. The current climate is a strange one and while the Establishment media has always played fast and loose with the truth there are seasons in which the lies seem to be pervasive, dominant, oppressive and overbearing.


It's a dangerous period and one of great mistrust. People fear speaking out, they fear damaging their careers and self-censorship ends up doing as much harm as the real thing. It would seem the clampdown is intensifying and the persecution of RT (Russia Today) not only sends up some warning flags it also ends up exposing other erstwhile advocates of 'human rights'.
For years there have been journalists writing about the corruption and appropriation of various non-profit and humanitarian NGO's by the Establishment. They have been infiltrated and controlled by both agents and money. Once ostensibly neutral they increasingly represent the concerns and values of the Establishment. Some are even all but advocating the militaristic policies of the United States... calling attention to crimes that support the US narrative while falling silent on other occasions.... ones that just happen to gel very nicely with the Establishment agenda. This is especially true in the realm of foreign policy. In some cases (as in Syria) they have collaborated and colluded with US propaganda and have all but called for military intervention.
The signal for this shift actually took place in the 1990s with the advent of so-called Humanitarian Wars. It was a new paradigm for the post-Cold War period. Since it was the humanitarian NGO's which would call attention to the deeds and report on the misdeeds it was important to control them. It took some time and the control is not absolute, but it doesn't have to be. The same is true of the media.
But if we are entering a period of McCarthyism and if indeed one of the larger agenda goals of the War on Terror 2.0 is to clampdown on the Internet then we had better enjoy and utilise our present freedoms because we may look back at the first decade or so of the 2000's as a golden age long gone.

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