David Barsamian: One of the intentions of corporate-controlled media is to instill in people a sense of disempowerment, of immobilization and paralysis. Its outcome is to turn you into good consumers. It is to keep people isolated, to feel that there is no possibility for social change. wordsmith.social/protestation/…

Noam Chomsky: The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum - even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there's free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate. wordsmith.social/protestation/…

William Blum: Patriotism, like religion, meets people's need for something greater to which their individual lives can be anchored ... America's state religion, (is) patriotism, a phenomenon which has convinced many of the citizenry that "treason" is morally worse than murder or rape. wordsmith.social/protestation/…