Nexus of Thought: April 2023

Saturday, April 22, 2023

How do dictators misinform their citizens?

Selectively report the facts through a state controlled or corporate directed filter machine. Air only approved stories.
Decontextualize events to fit a specific narrative
Marginalize Dissenting voices. Invite personal and public attacks against said people so that they become persona non-gratis. Declare them enemies of the state. Censor and deplatform.
Indoctrinate the youth using the education system
Politicize all institutions including the sciences (so that it is no longer a bastion of objectivity).
Inundate the citizens with state directed propaganda that promotes cycles of fear. Elevate the state authority as the sole antidote for the fear. Weaponize the surveillance system in the name of protecting people.

If you begin seeing any of this in a free society be very concerned. All of these aspects if not resisted head on will pick up momentum.

My beliefs

I believe ….

1.That there is a God who transcends space and time. (I call it God for want of a name although I personally prefer the Kabbalistic term Ein Sof).

2. That it is impossible to know the nature of God. It cannot be truly defined.

3. That the universe operates according to the Laws of Physics. Life evolved through a combination of natural selection, genetic drift and other selection pressures acting on a genome whose variation arose as a consequence of mutation.

4. That God can intervene but such intervention is undetectable and does not contravene the laws of physics. God is a subtle actor who presents no evidence of understandable design.

5. That an agnostic position on a personal God makes sense.

6. That revealed religion are merely man made attempts at trying to understand God and although some carry the wisdom of earlier thought they are all inherently flawed.

7. That humans need to develop their own moral code based on reason, logic and the collective thinking of what has worked in the past.

8. That some religious customs may serve a purpose with respect to group cohesion but they need to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

9. That God is a minimalist in action but not necessarily a disinterested party.

10. That the afterlife is unknowable.

11. That skepticism and the scientific method are the best tools we have in understanding the world.