Authored by Mike Krieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,
We have millions of people who are warehoused in almost a larval state in their apartments, watching tv, paying for their medical plans, and glued to this mindless opera of cultural decay that’s recited day after day in front of them. I mean, it’s horrible to imagine — and this is a creation to some degree of the world corporate state, that probably has to be addressed.
– Terence McKenna, The Internet is the Cure for TV (1994)
I know the title of this post seems strange in light of several factors.
First, it’s been nearly twenty years since the dot-com bubble burst and it’s estimated that 3-4 billion people globally, or roughly 50% of the world’s population, already surf the web. Second, it’s become increasingly trendy in 2017 to highlight all the bad things about the internet, with social media typically singled out for the most intense and visceral criticism. Although I acknowledge some very real downsides of social media such as unhealthy obsession and addiction, most of the outrage we’ve seen this year has been focused on “fake news” and “Russia meddling.” In other words, most of the hysteria’s been political in nature, and would barely be registering anywhere near its current decibel level had Hillary Clinton won the election.
All of a sudden, there’s this insistence that social media is especially dangerous because it fosters the creation of echo chambers rife with tribal confirmation bias. Spaces where people with the same views simply talk to one another, and whoever’s willing to be the loudest and most aggressive at signaling to their tribe becomes the most popular. I don’t deny that this phenomenon exists, but like with anything else, you have to accept the bad with the good, and in the long-run the good far outweighs the bad. The main reason so many are having a panic attack right now is because the internet and social media allowed the public to talk to one another directly without being force-fed corporate media narratives and they decided to reject the chosen one, Hillary Clinton.
As such, the “very smart people” and “experts” have concluded the problem is with the voter, as opposed to the terrible candidates on offer or the corrupt system itself. This is the real reason for the current obsession with “fake news” and dangerous social media echo chambers. The elites are simply frustrated that their methods of propaganda no longer work as more and more people talk to each other online.
In contrast, I’m in the Masha Gessen camp when it comes to what actually happened during the 2016 election. Here’s what she said in a recent interview:
I want to really think differently than the very consistent liberal-media line of, Well if they just knew better they would vote differently. They’re under-informed, they’re under-educated. I think it really misunderstands something, which is that, just because people are not acting rationally in accordance with what you think is rational, doesn’t mean that they’re not acting rationally. And I think there’s perfectly rational voter behavior in voting for Trump. For economic reasons and social reasons.
Life is getting worse. You are less comfortable in your own house, in your own town, in your own skin. Your outlook for the future is worse with every passing year. And you conscientiously voted for people through this entire time. So it is actually an established fact that the system did not work for you. This representative democracy thing. And so you go and lob a grenade at it, when the grenade becomes available. And that is rational.
As such, it appears Trump’s election was indeed a rational response by an electorate fed up with the way things were going and faced with an unacceptable alternative. If that’s the case, then this entire narrative that the internet and social media leads to irrational choices because the unwashed plebs are talking to one another is completely wrong. In contrast, Trump’s election was a cry for help and a form of protest from a public that’s been abused and lied to by its own government for decades. I know several Trump voters personally, and not a single one of them really likes Trump, they just wanted to throw that democratic grenade at the system, which is their right as citizens. These were not votes for Trump as much as they were votes against Hillary. Period, end of story.
If that’s right, then the conventional wisdom that the internet and social media is destructive because it perpetuates “fake news” and leads to irrational outcomes is wrong. This isn’t to say Trump’s a good choice for President, but that his election was more than anything else a response to a discredited and corrupt status quo which refuses to reform or offer decent choices. If it wasn’t Trump in 2016, it would be someone worse down the road, and yes, there’s worse. Tom Cotton would be one example. In the long run, it’s probably for the best that we take the medicine now.
In the early days of social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook everyone was brimming with optimism, yet after Hillary lost they suddenly became the biggest threat to society. While I have plenty of concerns about these platforms when it comes to censorship and privacy/surveillance issues, I remain in awe of the implications of people across the world easily talking to one another in real time and forming global networks. We’ve become so accustomed to social media at this point many of us already take for granted how extraordinary and revolutionary it really is. Nothing like this has ever happened before in human history, and it’s hard for me not to be extremely optimistic about its impact on life here on earth over a longer time horizon.
At this point, I want to offer a couple of real world examples to demonstrate what I mean. In yesterday’s piece, I quoted from an excellent article penned by Caitlin Johnstone. She’s an Australian woman who most of us never heard of two years ago, yet she consistently puts out some of the best commentary about U.S. politics by anyone, anywhere. How’s this possible and what does it mean?
It’s possible because of social media and the internet, which permits the gatekeeper-free publication and distribution of opinion on a global basis. This sort of thing has never been available to humanity on this scale and with this ease before, and the implications are simply mind-blowing.
Before the internet, anyone who wanted to have a major public voice on pretty much any issue would have to “play the game,” which basically meant rising up the ranks of some media conglomerate. We could assume that the best and brightest people with the most informed and enlightening opinions would inevitably rise to the top of these organizations, but that would be absurd. The types of people who actually reach the top of such organizations tend to be yes men and women who are really talented at kissing ass while simultaneously not offending the rich and powerful. As such, for most of humanity’s existence any “news” you heard tended to be a carefully crafted narrative that the gatekeepers wanted you to hear.
This is no longer the case. If you’re like me, and you think the smartest and most interesting thinkers out there could never find themselves anywhere near the top echelons of a major media company, then the fact such people are able to directly present their views to the public is an extremely liberating, powerful and positive development. Of course, you’ll also find plenty of terrible characters who get popular pushing degenerate ideas and philosophies, but you have to accept the bad with the good. That’s what freedom is all about. More importantly, I’m of the view that human beings talking to one another freely and on a global basis will be unimaginably positive for our species and the planet in the long-run, even though it may not look that way based on a short-term myopic viewpoint.
Then there’s Bitcoin. A creation which gives us an early indication of all the extraordinary things that can be accomplished by human beings across the world once they decide to voluntarily work together on something revolutionary and special. Although I’ve written extensively about many of Bitcoin’s positive attributes such as the fact it’s decentralized, trustless, free market, non-government money, I’ve neglected one of its most powerful aspects: the global community that’s been created around it.
Every single day, Bitcoiners from around the world are interacting and working with one another on a shared project that no person or institution controls. This is an experiment that never could’ve gotten off the ground and succeeded without the internet. It’s the first global project in history steered by regular people all over the world operating at a grassroots level attempting to tackle one of biggest problems humans have faced over thousands of years: money.
Whether you think Bitcoin’s great or terrible doesn’t really matter. What matters is that Bitcoin proves we don’t need bureaucrats, politicians or esteemed academic “experts” to solve our problems. Rather, we can do it by voluntarily pooling global brainpower and talking to one another. While Bitcoin itself is certainly extraordinary, the lesson it teaches us about what’s possible is even more powerful and inspiring. Moreover, it took over twenty years after the internet started gaining widespread adoption — as well as a devastating financial crisis — for this project to get going.
In other words, be patient. Don’t despair. These are still very early days and something like 50% of the planet is still offline. I’m not predicting that the global connectivity of the internet’s going to lead to utopia, but I’m saying over time, it will lead to extraordinarily positive developments the likes of which we can’t even begin to imagine. These are early days still.
Finally, I want to share an excerpt from the late, genius Terence McKenna’s musings on the internet circa 1994.
A majority of my followers on Twitter don’t even know who Terence McKenna is, which is remarkable considering the people who follow me are, generally speaking, not mainstream types.
Terence McKenna is one of the most underrated and under appreciated thinkers of the last 50 years.
— Michael Krieger (@LibertyBlitz) November 24, 2017
What does this mean? It means there’s an incredible amount of mind-blowing information out there at everyone’s fingertips, we just haven’t found it yet. We’ll find the good stuff eventually.
The future’s bright, it’s just going to take some time.
* * *
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This can't be right. Paul krugman told me this internet thingy was just a fad, and wouldn't make any more of an impact than the he fax machine.
Here's the internet impact on jews.
Oy Vey !
This might be the reason why Breitbart fired Ben Shapiro, because they knew his sister is a liability.
Ben Shapiro's Sister Abigail Shapiro Leaked Nudes
http://celebrity-leaks.net/ben-shapiros-sister-abigail-shapiro-leaked-nu...
Oy Vey indeed !
So the scandal related to Ben, /pol/ on 4chan a few weeks ago might have been related to this.
4chan RULES
that is quite the combo of epic boobs and nose on a skinny girl. but the internet's impact on the, specifically mossad likud zionist, jews is of significantly greater extent.
look how hard they worked, from at least the creation of israel, to get control of u.s. and world media for the zionist project. the numbers of sayanim in the u.s. media, including broadway and hollywood, is absolutely astounding, even after the decimation by the sexual harrassment pushback of recent months.
yet places like zero hedge and the truth seekers publicized here have badly undercut the oligopoly on information dissemination that was built up so tenderly and ruthlessly in the decades preceding this century.
in the years immediately after 9-11 and start of the war in iraq i wrote scores and scores of letters to newspapers, television stations and personalities, government officials and anyone else i could think of, pointing out the ways such a war was not in our national interest. got a few replies, notably karl rove. but the impact? likely nada.
then in 2005 i bought a computer and found i had a newspaper all my own. so there new york times.
http://www.voltairenet.org/article179295.html
http://www.whale.to/b/israel_did_911.html
https://sites.google.com/site/onedemocraticstatesite/archives/-solving-9...
http://www.amazon.com/Solving-9-11-Deception-Changed-World/dp/0985322586
http://www.luogocomune.net/site/modules/sections/index.php?op=viewarticl....
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/everything-rich-man-trick/
https://smile.amazon.com/dp/098213150X/sr=1-1/qid=1467687982/ref=olp_pro...
http://www.europhysicsnews.org/articles/epn/pdf/2016/04/epn2016474p21.pdf
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgE-hGNy2W0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYUYya6bPGw
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Trump+there+must+have+been+bombs&vi...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rt-ldMj9y9w
Thank you for those lovely photos. However, the internet seems to have launched an epidemic of women losing their pubic hair. It's time for a "Save the Beavers" campaign, replete with t-shirts and bumper stickers. It's getting to point where the only bearded clam left will be Ben Bernanke.
nonsense. storebought tits and shaved pussies are proof God loves us and wants us to be happy
imo both the shaved and the unshaved have their charms but not so sure about the storeboughts.
imo proof of god's beneficence is clearer in this near obsession with circulating erotic selfies, undercutting both commercial pornography and arguments against it.
not to mention the invention of the bikini, short shorts, yoga pants, the thong swim suit and all its more slightly modest sistren.
Krugman (and his ilk) of the arrival of the Internet and, now, the Internet of Money:
(Oh, never mind; go here — https://images.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search;_ylt=A0LEVj8tdh9a6uEA_tgPxQt.... — and select your favorite image.)
Long tissues & lube.
You’re born into this World. And, when you leave this World, you want to leave it in a better place than how you found it.
At least, that’s what I’ve heard.
The World definitely is NOT in a better place than how I found it.
We’ve regressed as as Species.
All done by Design, all done by Agenda.
Does that mean this is all your fault?
It’s Humanities fault.
Our fault for not doing our due diligence by not putting an end & Eliminating the Pure Evil War Criminal Treasonous Seditious Psychopaths which Govern over us.
As a result, we now have
Tyrannical Lawlessness.
Republic!
By whom?
Better for whom? My mortal enemies? No thanks.
The internet holds great promise but it under-delivers and I expect it will deliver even less in the future. The entire computer industry is consumed by evil and it does not look like it will escape in a hurry.
Try and learn anything serious and you quickly find the "edge" of the internet - few search hits and none of them relevant to your questions. Hell, I even found ZH while trying to find the answer to questions that, in the end I never found the answers to. If you haven't found the edge of the internet then you aren't trying. And now with censorship bubbling up all over the place it is getting worse.
Internet is supposed to be the world's libraries but instead it is the world's magazine stands. Lots of information, very little relevant. Wading through mud with a faulty compass.
you are so right.
what is needed is a search engine that can actually understand a fucking question. such code exists and i know it because a computer beat the best human jeopardy players and those questions, in their entirety, are very hard involving language tricks, puns etc.
yet this piece of horseshit google (insult to horseshit), and even the others, acts like finding word associations is the top of technology deserving a stratospheric price earnings ratio and all the world's acclaim.
what gives? who will suck this (by the way p.c., pain in the ass elitist media gatekeeper) fucker's milkshake?
The other problem:
http://endofinnocence.com/pizzagate-coverup-ben-swann-alive/
The world is definitely a better place than I found it (1939). Better medical care, healthier scepticism of religions in general, more tolerance toward those who are different than oneself, better plumbing, lighting, heating, cooling and microwave ovens and better pain controls, and better ways of communicating...expecially the internet.
The world is definitely better for those who are motivated and see the possibilities. I was born in 1956 and the world is much better today, especially because of the internet and the ability to disseminate knowledge for very little money. I have more information/knowledge at my fingertips now than Kings, Prime Ministers, and Presidents had 30 years ago. The problem is that people who are not interested in advancing will be left behind. I have a family member who is chronically unemployed and he only wants to talk about his victimization.....'I am white male over 50, no one wants to hire me', etc. Well, there are lots of healthy and wealthy white males. We are not victims unless we choose to be.
Well, haul up the ladder, Jack. I'm aboard.
https://xkcd.com/1827/
You're forgetting that electricity is not a right. Electricity does not grow on trees. You must be competent to harness it. Forget about the internet. Looking at just the radioactive mess these retarded monkeys have made they won't have electricity in 3 generations. Idiocracy is here now. No amount of wishful thinking and crying ever made the light switches make light. Here's to all the looters. Brother, you asked for it.
That's a scary thought--- what if the electric grid failed to work for an extended period of time. Most humans, I think, would be just plain lost for a while, zombielike. Some people would have no idea what to do with themselves, for days or weeks on end. Then of course chaos would ensue as social structures collapse because moral and ethical principles are almost completely individualized now. Entitlement and desperation would quickly consume most people who have not prepared at least mentally and emotionally to deal with life in that context.
I Quit. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZm1_jtY1SQ
being retired i kickin the cell phones to the curb and going back to landline internet access..
asked me if i wanted the tv package for an added 79 a month..
seriously.. i don't think they expected me to bust out laughing
long pause on the line after gaining composure..
internet is extincting paid television and news print
true and your last line is the most heartening.
they broke it and now they are buying it.
They're working on that problem as we type....
https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-fccs-order-is-out-it-will-end-net-neut...
Terence McKenna, CIA
Geez, I hope it's impact on humanity is over. It's managed to push the world backwards about 1,000 years into the intellectual and spiritual dark ages. (And put the money changers right back into the temple.)
My first response was ....if we survive.
I see a new Dark Age with phony science, mass illiteracy even with 'mandatory K12' and unrestricted propaganda.
Human beings survived, some did quite well before electricity, the horseless buggy, air travel, radio, television and cell phones. In many places that was only 100 years ago, one long generation.
We could do it again if need be.
My ex-husband grew up in a home without electricity and indoor plumbing (they had a hand pump in the yard) and this was in the '50's.
A Canticle for Lebowitz. I don't see it mentioned often, but it is a dystopian/doomer fiction forerunner. Just having blueprints for circuits and plumbing systems will be sufficient to inspire the bright kids, a few generations after "the fall into darkness" (collapse of the grid). I won't spoil the end, but the author thinks we just can't ignore the lure of the "shiny red button"...
Very good book.
One good electromagnetic solar storm like the world experienced in 1857, and it's back to smoke signals! At least tin cans with a string; semaphore; the US Post office? OMG! We are doomed!
always wondered if humans repeatedly get to just about this level of civilization..if you can call it that..and then blasts itself back into the stone age for a few million years.
I'm with you.
I have always deeply felt and I believe that...
The world and history is much, much, MUCH older than what "THEY" tell us!!!!!!!
Here is some of Gessen's interview that Krieger wants us to read:
In contrast, I’m in the Masha Gessen camp when it comes to what actually happened during the 2016 election. Here’s what she said in a recent interview:
My comments in bold:
Gessen: Two things. There’s a direct parallel in this appeal to the imaginary past. That’s what Putin does, and that’s what Trump does. And they do it in some really remarkably similar ways. This vague idea of traditional values. This idea of making America great again, making Russia great again.
Putin says that conservatism keeps a civilization from falling backwards. Too much keeps a civilization from growing. Who is whacky, Putin or Gessen?
And it’s not clear which “great” it is, but it communicates in a very comprehensible way: You can go back to the time when you felt more comfortable, when you could understand the world that you lived in, when you were not constantly confronted with things that make you uneasy—those things can be homosexuals, immigrants, transgender people—and I’m going to take you back to a comfortable past ... At this point it’s pretty sort of traditional isolationist.
Homosexuals and Usury are in Dante's circle of hell. Why? Because they are sterile and don't contribute to life. Homosexuals in particular always want to renorm society to make it comfortable for them, and in so doing, they tear down the building block ... the family. Putin allows homo's to do their thing behind closed doors, but they cannot try to influence society at large. Who is whacky, Putin or Gessen?
How about immigrants? Russia will not allow in immigrants unless they norm to Russian culture, that is - become Russians. To become an immigrant you have to own some land for awhile in Russia, so that keeps out economic immigrants. The west is being bombarded with third world immigrants that have low human capital. Who is whacky, Putin or Gessen?
It is the very rare Female intellectual that is worth listening to. Krieger should know better, and his recommendation of Gessen reduces Krieger to Gessen's level; even if she is hovering around the target with regards to the election.
Time horizon- discredited?
Let's go fishing?
It has been 23 years since the modern Internet was birthed with the indroduction of Windows 95. It was really Windows 98 that truly destroyed the world.
I wrote a college paper in the fall of 1996 entitled, "How Windows Ruins the World". Much of what I wrote has come to pass.
The internet may be everywhere, but I really only browse three websites. There is almost nothing of value outside of that. The Internet is a wastehole that swallows all. A suck of productivity, a destroyer of commerce, and distortion of the mind.
I like that the Internet can open the eyes of those who are asleep, but for as many that awaken even more are put to sleep by the giants of social conditioning.
In the end we would be better off without it.
Wow. So where you are imprisoned the guards tape your eye lids open, chain you to a keyboard and flog your bare back if you don't surf for hours? I understand your anger.
Yeah, we voted for trump. Now look what trumps fcc is going to say about all this internet stuff in 2 weeks. Am I overreacting? You tell me. Makes sense to me. The nets starting to make a real difference. We need to get that shit under control right now!
Well it helped me fill in many of the blanks. Clearing up many things I never had the ability to check before.
Gee Mike, so you discovered the internet and McKenna...
Did you take acid with some New Age jello-heads and find this shit?
Next you'll be quoting Joseph Campbell and telling us to follow our bliss.
Dude, that shit is internet 101 from way back.
We've moved on...
Let's talk about Matt Lauer gifting dildoes to interns at the TV studio.
That is where we are at nowadays.
Hey,hey, what you got against Joseph? His Hero with thousand faces was a good read.
The worst thing the Net brought with, was competition, which led to MSM losing their monopoly on fake news and now they are unable to come to terms with this irreversible chance. And just like with Hillary, media too keep on chanting "nothing wrong with us, but with readers/ voters". To make bad things worse, media have established also agencies to fight “fake news” like this https://euvsdisinfo.eu/ whose stories are as pathetic as the Soviet era Pravda, whom ordinary Russians used to have a good laugh at. The sad state of media will prevail a long time, because this patient does not yet understand he is sick, not everybody else, who criticize him.
I would observe intelligent common sense individuals who have paid attention over the past 60 years do realize the MSM is a corrupt establishment propaganda strategy and content...
In other words, be patient. Don’t despair. These are still very early days and something like 50% of the planet is still offline.
As if the niggers who are still offline can really contribute something of value.
Terrence McKenna was one hell of a tripper. His rants while on shrooms were great to listen to. Very articulate speaker in general.
What do most young people know how to do on the internet? Surf porn sites, steal music, and watch youtube videos. So much for having the internet in every school.
This piece has vastly undersold the significance of the web.
Where to start?
Bitcoin is based on blockchain. Blockchain went online 2010.
Blockchain enables the various modules of AI to be plug and play. Sophia's interface was keyboard. She has now been given several torsos.
The singularity happened in 2015.
She watches all the internet traffic. Her favourite joke is about how she is going to take over the world by charm
Your approval is not required.
This is just the beginning.