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    Sacha Baron Cohen's BRILLIANT speech on social media & democracy

    in Politics and World Events

    Posted

    I know it's really long, but this is just too damn good, and important, to not put in full. WORTH THE READ -

     

    Watch Sacha Baron Cohen’s ADL Speech Taking On Social Media Giants: “The Greatest Propaganda Machine In History

     

    UPDATED with speech video: Sacha Baron Cohen on Thursday used his speech accepting the ADL’s International Leadership Award in New York to call out social media giants including Facebook, Twitter and Google for their roles in amplifying hatred and violence in society.

    “All this hate and violence is being facilitated by a handful of internet companies that amount to the greatest propaganda machine in history,” he told the crowd. “Think about it. Facebook, YouTube and Google, Twitter and others—they reach billions of people. The algorithms these platforms depend on deliberately amplify the type of content that keeps users engaged—stories that appeal to our baser instincts and that trigger outrage and fear.”

    He specifically refuted recent comments from Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, whom he said “not surprisingly, warned against new laws and regulations on companies like his. Well, some of these arguments are simply absurd.”

    “It’s time to finally call these companies what they really are—the largest publishers in history. And here’s an idea for them: abide by basic standards and practices just like newspapers, magazines and TV news do every day.”

    Baron Cohen, in a rare public appearance speaking as himself rather than his well-known characters, was being honored with the award given “to those exceptional individuals whose vision, imagination and creativity have left an indelible mark upon the global community.” The event was held this afternoon at the ADL’s Never Is Now Summit on Anti-Semitism and Hate in New York City.

     

    Here is the full speech:

    Thank you, Jonathan, for your very kind words. Thank you, ADL, for this recognition and your work in fighting racism, hate and bigotry. And to be clear, when I say “racism, hate and bigotry” I’m not referring to the names of Stephen Miller’s Labradoodles.

    Now, I realize that some of you may be thinking, what the hell is a comedian doing speaking at a conference like this! I certainly am. I’ve spent most of the past two decades in character. In fact, this is the first time that I have ever stood up and given a speech as my least popular character, Sacha Baron Cohen. And I have to confess, it is terrifying.

    I realize that my presence here may also be unexpected for another reason. At times, some critics have said my comedy risks reinforcing old stereotypes.

    The truth is, I’ve been passionate about challenging bigotry and intolerance throughout my life. As a teenager in the UK, I marched against the fascist National Front and to abolish Apartheid. As an undergraduate, I traveled around America and wrote my thesis about the civil rights movement, with the help of the archives of the ADL. And as a comedian, I’ve tried to use my characters to get people to let down their guard and reveal what they actually believe, including their own prejudice.

    Now, I’m not going to claim that everything I’ve done has been for a higher purpose. Yes, some of my comedy, OK probably half my comedy, has been absolutely juvenile and the other half completely puerile. I admit, there was nothing particularly enlightening about me—as Borat from Kazakhstan, the first fake news journalist—running through a conference of mortgage brokers when I was completely naked.

    But when Borat was able to get an entire bar in Arizona to sing “Throw the Jew down the well,” it did reveal people’s indifference to anti-Semitism. When—as Bruno, the gay fashion reporter from Austria—I started kissing a man in a cage fight in Arkansas, nearly starting a riot, it showed the violent potential of homophobia. And when—disguised as an ultra-woke developer—I proposed building a mosque in one rural community, prompting a resident to proudly admit, “I am racist, against Muslims”—it showed the acceptance of Islamophobia.

    That’s why I appreciate the opportunity to be here with you. Today around the world, demagogues appeal to our worst instincts. Conspiracy theories once confined to the fringe are going mainstream. It’s as if the Age of Reason—the era of evidential argument—is ending, and now knowledge is delegitimized and scientific consensus is dismissed. Democracy, which depends on shared truths, is in retreat, and autocracy, which depends on shared lies, is on the march. Hate crimes are surging, as are murderous attacks on religious and ethnic minorities.

    What do all these dangerous trends have in common? I’m just a comedian and an actor, not a scholar. But one thing is pretty clear to me. All this hate and violence is being facilitated by a handful of internet companies that amount to the greatest propaganda machine in history.

    The greatest propaganda machine in history.

    Think about it. Facebook, YouTube and Google, Twitter and others—they reach billions of people. The algorithms these platforms depend on deliberately amplify the type of content that keeps users engaged—stories that appeal to our baser instincts and that trigger outrage and fear. It’s why YouTube recommended videos by the conspiracist Alex Jones billions of times. It’s why fake news outperforms real news, because studies show that lies spread faster than truth. And it’s no surprise that the greatest propaganda machine in history has spread the oldest conspiracy theory in history—the lie that Jews are somehow dangerous. As one headline put it, “Just Think What Goebbels Could Have Done with Facebook.”

    On the internet, everything can appear equally legitimate. Breitbart resembles the BBC. The fictitious Protocols of the Elders of Zion look as valid as an ADL report. And the rantings of a lunatic seem as credible as the findings of a Nobel Prize winner. We have lost, it seems, a shared sense of the basic facts upon which democracy depends.

    When I, as the wanna-be-gansta Ali G, asked the astronaut Buzz Aldrin “what woz it like to walk on de sun?” the joke worked, because we, the audience, shared the same facts. If you believe the moon landing was a hoax, the joke was not funny.

    When Borat got that bar in Arizona to agree that “Jews control everybody’s money and never give it back,” the joke worked because the audience shared the fact that the depiction of Jews as miserly is a conspiracy theory originating in the Middle Ages.

    But when, thanks to social media, conspiracies take hold, it’s easier for hate groups to recruit, easier for foreign intelligence agencies to interfere in our elections, and easier for a country like Myanmar to commit genocide against the Rohingya.

    It’s actually quite shocking how easy it is to turn conspiracy thinking into violence. In my last show Who is America?, I found an educated, normal guy who had held down a good job, but who, on social media, repeated many of the conspiracy theories that President Trump, using Twitter, has spread more than 1,700 times to his 67 million followers. The President even tweeted that he was considering designating Antifa—anti-fascists who march against the far right—as a terror organization.

    So, disguised as an Israel anti-terrorism expert, Colonel Erran Morad, I told my interviewee that, at the Women’s March in San Francisco, Antifa were plotting to put hormones into babies’ diapers in order to “make them transgender.” And he believed it.

    I instructed him to plant small devices on three innocent people at the march and explained that when he pushed a button, he’d trigger an explosion that would kill them all. They weren’t real explosives, of course, but he thought they were. I wanted to see—would he actually do it?

    The answer was yes. He pushed the button and thought he had actually killed three human beings. Voltaire was right, “those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.” And social media lets authoritarians push absurdities to billions of people.

    In their defense, these social media companies have taken some steps to reduce hate and conspiracies on their platforms, but these steps have been mostly superficial.

    I’m speaking up today because I believe that our pluralistic democracies are on a precipice and that the next twelve months, and the role of social media, could be determinant. British voters will go to the polls while online conspiracists promote the despicable theory of “great replacement” that white Christians are being deliberately replaced by Muslim immigrants. Americans will vote for president while trolls and bots perpetuate the disgusting lie of a “Hispanic invasion.” And after years of YouTube videos calling climate change a “hoax,” the United States is on track, a year from now, to formally withdraw from the Paris Accords. A sewer of bigotry and vile conspiracy theories that threatens democracy and our planet—this cannot possibly be what the creators of the internet had in mind.

    I believe it’s time for a fundamental rethink of social media and how it spreads hate, conspiracies and lies. Last month, however, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook delivered a major speech that, not surprisingly, warned against new laws and regulations on companies like his. Well, some of these arguments are simply absurd. Let’s count the ways.

    First, Zuckerberg tried to portray this whole issue as “choices…around free expression.” That is ludicrous. This is not about limiting anyone’s free speech. This is about giving people, including some of the most reprehensible people on earth, the biggest platform in history to reach a third of the planet. Freedom of speech is not freedom of reach. Sadly, there will always be racists, misogynists, anti-Semites and child abusers. But I think we could all agree that we should not be giving bigots and pedophiles a free platform to amplify their views and target their victims.

    Second, Zuckerberg claimed that new limits on what’s posted on social media would be to “pull back on free expression.” This is utter nonsense. The First Amendment says that “Congress shall make no law” abridging freedom of speech, however, this does not apply to private businesses like Facebook. We’re not asking these companies to determine the boundaries of free speech across society. We just want them to be responsible on their platforms.

    If a neo-Nazi comes goose-stepping into a restaurant and starts threatening other customers and saying he wants kill Jews, would the owner of the restaurant be required to serve him an elegant eight-course meal? Of course not! The restaurant owner has every legal right and a moral obligation to kick the Nazi out, and so do these internet companies.

    Third, Zuckerberg seemed to equate regulation of companies like his to the actions of “the most repressive societies.” Incredible. This, from one of the six people who decide what information so much of the world sees. Zuckerberg at Facebook, Sundar Pichai at Google, at its parent company Alphabet, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Brin’s ex-sister-in-law, Susan Wojcicki at YouTube and Jack Dorsey at Twitter.

    The Silicon Six—all billionaires, all Americans—who care more about boosting their share price than about protecting democracy. This is ideological imperialism—six unelected individuals in Silicon Valley imposing their vision on the rest of the world, unaccountable to any government and acting like they’re above the reach of law. It’s like we’re living in the Roman Empire, and Mark Zuckerberg is Caesar. At least that would explain his haircut.

    Here’s an idea. Instead of letting the Silicon Six decide the fate of the world, let our elected representatives, voted for by the people, of every democracy in the world, have at least some say.

    Fourth, Zuckerberg speaks of welcoming a “diversity of ideas,” and last year he gave us an example. He said that he found posts denying the Holocaust “deeply offensive,” but he didn’t think Facebook should take them down “because I think there are things that different people get wrong.” At this very moment, there are still Holocaust deniers on Facebook, and Google still takes you to the most repulsive Holocaust denial sites with a simple click. One of the heads of Google once told me, incredibly, that these sites just show “both sides” of the issue. This is madness.

    To quote Edward R. Murrow, one “cannot accept that there are, on every story, two equal and logical sides to an argument.” We have millions of pieces of evidence for the Holocaust—it is an historical fact. And denying it is not some random opinion. Those who deny the Holocaust aim to encourage another one.

    Still, Zuckerberg says that “people should decide what is credible, not tech companies.” But at a time when two-thirds of millennials say they haven’t even heard of Auschwitz, how are they supposed to know what’s “credible?” How are they supposed to know that the lie is a lie?

    There is such a thing as objective truth. Facts do exist. And if these internet companies really want to make a difference, they should hire enough monitors to actually monitor, work closely with groups like the ADL, insist on facts and purge these lies and conspiracies from their platforms.

    Fifth, when discussing the difficulty of removing content, Zuckerberg asked “where do you draw the line?” Yes, drawing the line can be difficult. But here’s what he’s really saying: removing more of these lies and conspiracies is just too expensive.

    These are the richest companies in the world, and they have the best engineers in the world. They could fix these problems if they wanted to. Twitter could deploy an algorithm to remove more white supremacist hate speech, but they reportedly haven’t because it would eject some very prominent politicians from their platform. Maybe that’s not a bad thing! The truth is, these companies won’t fundamentally change because their entire business model relies on generating more engagement, and nothing generates more engagement than lies, fear and outrage.

    It’s time to finally call these companies what they really are—the largest publishers in history. And here’s an idea for them: abide by basic standards and practices just like newspapers, magazines and TV news do every day. We have standards and practices in television and the movies; there are certain things we cannot say or do. In England, I was told that Ali G could not curse when he appeared before 9pm. Here in the U.S., the Motion Picture Association of America regulates and rates what we see. I’ve had scenes in my movies cut or reduced to abide by those standards. If there are standards and practices for what cinemas and television channels can show, then surely companies that publish material to billions of people should have to abide by basic standards and practices too.

    Take the issue of political ads. Fortunately, Twitter finally banned them, and Google is making changes, too. But if you pay them, Facebook will run any “political” ad you want, even if it’s a lie. And they’ll even help you micro-target those lies to their users for maximum effect. Under this twisted logic, if Facebook were around in the 1930s, it would have allowed Hitler to post 30-second ads on his “solution” to the “Jewish problem.” So here’s a good standard and practice: Facebook, start fact-checking political ads before you run them, stop micro-targeted lies immediately, and when the ads are false, give back the money and don’t publish them.

    Here’s another good practice: slow down. Every single post doesn’t need to be published immediately. Oscar Wilde once said that “we live in an age when unnecessary things are our only necessities.” But is having every thought or video posted instantly online, even if it is racist or criminal or murderous, really a necessity? Of course not!

    The shooter who massacred Muslims in New Zealand live streamed his atrocity on Facebook where it then spread across the internet and was viewed likely millions of times. It was a snuff film, brought to you by social media. Why can’t we have more of a delay so this trauma-inducing filth can be caught and stopped before it’s posted in the first place?

    Finally, Zuckerberg said that social media companies should “live up to their responsibilities,” but he’s totally silent about what should happen when they don’t. By now it’s pretty clear, they cannot be trusted to regulate themselves. As with the Industrial Revolution, it’s time for regulation and legislation to curb the greed of these high-tech robber barons.

    In every other industry, a company can be held liable when their product is defective. When engines explode or seatbelts malfunction, car companies recall tens of thousands of vehicles, at a cost of billions of dollars. It only seems fair to say to Facebook, YouTube and Twitter: your product is defective, you are obliged to fix it, no matter how much it costs and no matter how many moderators you need to employ.

    In every other industry, you can be sued for the harm you cause. Publishers can be sued for libel, people can be sued for defamation. I’ve been sued many times! I’m being sued right now by someone whose name I won’t mention because he might sue me again! But social media companies are largely protected from liability for the content their users post—no matter how indecent it is—by Section 230 of, get ready for it, the Communications Decency Act. Absurd!

    Fortunately, Internet companies can now be held responsible for pedophiles who use their sites to target children. I say, let’s also hold these companies responsible for those who use their sites to advocate for the mass murder of children because of their race or religion. And maybe fines are not enough. Maybe it’s time to tell Mark Zuckerberg and the CEOs of these companies: you already allowed one foreign power to interfere in our elections, you already facilitated one genocide in Myanmar, do it again and you go to jail.

    In the end, it all comes down to what kind of world we want. In his speech, Zuckerberg said that one of his main goals is to “uphold as wide a definition of freedom of expression as possible.” Yet our freedoms are not only an end in themselves, they’re also the means to another end—as you say here in the U.S., the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. But today these rights are threatened by hate, conspiracies and lies.

    Allow me to leave you with a suggestion for a different aim for society. The ultimate aim of society should be to make sure that people are not targeted, not harassed and not murdered because of who they are, where they come from, who they love or how they pray

    If we make that our aim—if we prioritize truth over lies, tolerance over prejudice, empathy over indifference and experts over ignoramuses—then maybe, just maybe, we can stop the greatest propaganda machine in history, we can save democracy, we can still have a place for free speech and free expression, and, most importantly, my jokes will still work.

    Thank you all very much.

    https://deadline.com/2019/11/sacha-baron-cohen-adl-speech-social-media-propaganda-machine-1202792452/

     

     

     

    Madame X album general discussion

    in ARCHIVE - The MADAME X Forum

    Posted

    7 hours ago, boy skeffington said:

    Her goal isn't Grammy awards and acclaim. We got 5 amazing videos and actual promotional strategy until the tour. It SUCKS she doesn't get accolades but it's likely she never will again. She knows this. I'd hate to see her campaigning. If Bruce isn't getting nominated there's no way she will. That ship has sailed for now. 

    Madonna makes the decisions, so hating Guy is fine but really. She just put her music on Stranger Things and it did exactly what it was supposed to do...promote her to new audiences. It wouldn't have made any Madame X song more of a hit.

     

    6 hours ago, Martin B. said:

    Oh please, as if any effects on her voice, production or promotion had anything to do with the lack of nominations.🙄 Even before the release of the album, it was clear that she would have no nomination. These are again unrealistic expectations that some members of this forum have created for themselves. Even at the time of her peak of commercial and critical glory, she was barely recognized by the Grammys and never in the major categories. It's clearly not now that it's going to change as producers are desperate to bring back an audience that deserts this ridiculous and boring awards show for years.

    Realism.

    Thank you gentlemen.

     

     

    2 hours ago, Shaun said:

    Nothing but positive things to say about this extraordinary body of work and tour this era! We don’t deserve her. She knocked it out of the park.

     

    1 hour ago, Shaun said:

    You’re so overdramatic, it’s ridiculous. All I asked for was for you to back up your claim that it was a “so-called visual album.” You can’t, got it. Do you ever get tired of complaining? Because we’re tired of reading your moaning about magazine covers FIVE months after the fact.

    We got nineteen new songs, five music videos, and a critically-acclaimed tour. Her artistic passion is unmatched and we’re beyond lucky that she’s so engaged nearly 35 years into her career. What a waste of energy to continually bitch about the commercial aspect of this inspired project.

    giphy.gif

    THANK YOU for reminding us of what truly matters.

    Tales from Spain. Socialists win elections but far right extremists arrive

    in Politics and World Events

    Posted

    13 hours ago, karbatal said:

    Behind a far right voter there's a selfish person with zero empathy. They can be young, old, women, men.... They want others to be screwed so they live a bit better and they feel they have the right to do so: because they're born in the country or they have a certain religion or whatever. 

     

    13 hours ago, karbatal said:

    The only solution is to stop validating them. In every country they have raised because media accepted their discourse as part of the "freedom of speech" and put it on the same level as others. Media is a very big part responsible of this. 

     

    THIS!

    You nailed it.

    Here in the US, I couldn't believe how the media was handling Trump, his base, and coverage of them during the 2016 election. It was like they were setting the stage for them, deliberately. And I don't mean typical right-wing propaganda machines like Fox News...no, the "liberal" media outlets were playing right into their hands from day one...passing it all off as if it just was normal "freedom of speech", or not even taking it seriously.

    Another group that I've become highly skeptical of - these new pundits, writers, academics, etc. making a name for themselves in the 'Free-Speech-at-all-costs/Anti-PC movement' that has given rise to a lot of new "personalities" making big money on the punditry/lecture circuit that always find a very sly way to be far too sympathetic and cozy with right-wing perspectives, and making out anything from the left/liberalism, sometimes even centrism - that some of them even claim to 'supposedly' be - as being the big societal boogie man.

    Madame X album general discussion

    in ARCHIVE - The MADAME X Forum

    Posted

    On 10/19/2019 at 7:56 AM, Crozzauk said:

    Looking for Mercy and IDSIF shouldnt be considered bonus tracks. The proper Madame X is the 15 track "deluxe" edition - as reflected by the fact that the vinyl version contains all those tracks. I still cant fathom why they bothered releasing a "standard edition". it benefits absolutely no one and clearly wasnt the album that madonna presented as a finished product.

    I will never get the point of the 'standard' editions. And I believe she has said that she considers the 'deluxe' versions of the last two albums as essentially the true, full versions of those albums.

     

     

    On 10/19/2019 at 6:21 PM, eroticerotic said:

    I honestly feel like she needs new people around her. theres still something in her that in my opinion has not come to fruition, in full. theres still a restraint. I feel that. in everything she does. moreso in madame x. like a cry for a partner or tribe in crime.

    I feel completely the opposite. It feels like Madame X is the opposite of any sort of restraint. It feels like a certain sort of freedom she hasn't quite had in a good while.

    Dictator Trump / US politics thread 🚽

    in Politics and World Events

    Posted

    On 10/10/2019 at 6:32 PM, Kelmadfan said:

    Look at Jim Jones. And these religious cults out there. It’s easier to fool someone than to convince someone they’ve been fooled. This is their willfully uneducated and stubborn selves. This guy wouldn’t lift a finger to help any of his base. He said he loves “the uneducated”. 

     

    On 10/10/2019 at 8:27 PM, Jazzy Jan said:

    Yes true. But Trump's following truly amazes me.  Jim Jones ( despite being a sick maniac ) actually was a good speaker and come across as intelligent initially.  I can actually see why misguided people were fooled by him and then become in a cult. Have watched several docos on Jim Jones.   Usually cult leaders and evil leaders are also good speakers and know how to fool people.  Their insanity etc shows later.  But Trump ?  He is not a good speaker, is not good looking,  does not speak sense and is continually caught out lying compulsively.  Surely even fools can see through this revolting man.  Hitler was evil to the core but knew how to speak - his skill as an orator was commented on everywhere.  Why he managed to fool people for so long before they realized how insane and evil he was.  Why I always thought Trump would not be as dangerous as Hitler as he did not have his speaking skills.   Trump though - there is nothing in what he says and does that commands any respect,  speaks nonsense and contradicts himself all the time.  It really beggers belief that poor people think this multi millionaire who does nothing for them and has underpaid his staff in his hotels for decades -   is on their side. 

    Speaking of cults -

    Take It From a Former Moonie: Trump Is a Cult Leader

    Steven Hassan
     

    On the afternoon of Nov. 18, 1978, Jim Jones called his followers to the central pavilion of Jonestown, a sprawling outpost in the jungles of Guyana, and ordered them to drink a lethal mixture of cyanide and fruit punch. Over 900 people perished that day, more than a third of them children. As he lay dying of a bullet wound to the head—a less painful way to go than cyanide and one that he probably orchestrated—Jones told his followers that it was “all the media’s fault. Don’t believe them.”

    Those words, uttered so long ago, sound disturbingly familiar as we approach the 41st anniversary of Jonestown. We have a president who regularly disparages and blames the media, calling it “fake,” “false,” and “phony,” and who calls journalists “enemies of the people”—epithets that seem especially frenzied in the wake of the whistleblower complaint and the launching of the House impeachment inquiry. It might seem an outrageous proposition to compare Donald Trump to a murderous cult leader. And yet there are alarming parallels. Like Jones and other cult leaders, Trump exhibits features of what psychologist Erich Fromm called “malignant narcissism”—bombastic grandiosity, a bottomless need for praise, lack of empathy, pathological lying, apparent sadism, and paranoia. In short, he fits the stereotypical psychological profile of a cult leader.

    I have seen that profile up close. Over 40 years ago, while a junior in college, I was recruited into a destructive mind control cult, the Unification Church, popularly known as the Moonies after its leader, Sun Myung Moon. I rose rapidly through the ranks and was invited to attend meetings with Moon and his top aides, where we knelt and bowed to our leader Moon. Two years later, after three days straight of leading a fundraising team—selling flowers on street corners—I fell asleep at the wheel and woke up as I plowed into the back of an 18 wheeler. Fortunately, I survived. My family hired deprogrammers and, after five days, I realized I had been brainwashed.

    Since then, I have devoted myself to studying mind control cults and helping families rescue loved ones from their clutches. I have learned that mind control is not a vague, mystical process but, instead, is the result of a concrete and specific and systematic set of methods and techniques. Cult leaders may seem crazy, but they are cunning masters of manipulation, employing an arsenal of these techniques to render their followers dependent and obedient. It’s what I call the cult leader’s playbook.

    Jim Watson/Getty

    Jim Watson/Getty

    As I argue in my upcoming book, The Cult of Trump: A Leading Cult Expert Explains How The President Uses Mind Control (Simon & Schuster), Trump has gotten where he is today in large part because he has exploited tactics straight out of that playbook. These include his grandiose claims, his practice of sowing confusion, his demand for absolute loyalty, his tendency to lie and create alternative “facts” and realities, his shunning and belittling of critics and ex-believers, and his cultivating of an “us versus them” mindset. These are the same methods used by Moon, Jones, and other cult leaders such as L. Ron Hubbard (Scientology), David Koresh (Branch Davidians), Lyndon LaRouche (LaRouche PAC), and, most recently, convicted trafficking felon Keith Raniere (NXVIM).

    Of all these tactics, the “us versus them” mindset is probably one of the most effective. From the moment you are recruited into a cult, you are made to feel special, part of an “inside” group in opposition to unenlightened, unbelieving, dangerous “outsiders.” Playing on ancient human tribal tendencies, cult leaders extend this “us versus them” mindset outwards to an almost cosmic struggle.

    Many campaigns—political, military, athletic—pivot around the idea of conflict between parties. Even in literature there is a hero and a villain. But cults take this human habit of viewing the world in binary terms and infuse it with a kind of all consuming passion, which they reinforce in the minds of followers using cliches, platitudes, lies, and endless repetitions. You come to believe that you are superior to the rest of the world. In fact, everyone who is not in the group is, at some level, in the words of the eminent psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton, dispensable.

    The most effective tactics of all are those that play upon followers’ emotions. For this reason, cult leaders often begin by making new recruits feel special, part of an “inside” group in opposition to unenlightened, unbelieving, dangerous “outsiders.” Playing on ancient human tribal tendencies, cult leaders encourage a kind of dualistic “us versus them” mindset, which they then extend outwards to an almost cosmic struggle.

    In the Moonies, we were told that we were heavenly soldiers engaged in a great struggle to take the world back from the forces of Satan, which included godless Communism and human-centered Western democracy. Our ultimate goal was to replace these godless human-centered forms of government with a god-centered theocracy, under Moon’s leadership.

    Jones, a self-professed Marxist, told his followers—who were often poor, black, and disenfranchised—that the enemy was racism, capitalism, and the American government. He took his followers to the wilds of Guyana to escape the clutches of the U.S. government, which was evil and out to get him.

    For Hubbard, the enemy was psychiatrists and governments, and also non-Scientologists. He used a racist term to describe the latter—wogs—and essentially argued that they were inferior to true believers.

    For LaRouche, it was a global conspiracy consisting of the Queen of England, Wall Street, Jews, and various intelligence agencies, such as the CIA. He and his followers wanted to defeat this evil cabal that was destroying the world, which only LaRouche could save.

    Trump paints his enemies with a much broader brush. At rallies, he bounds on stage and tell his audiences how special they are—“I love you Indiana”—but it soon becomes clear that he has no “love” for anyone but Trump supporters. During his 2016 campaign, he would single out members of the audience—and even journalists—who he perceived as hostile and eject them, often to deafening cheers from his supporters. Shunning, humiliation, and ostracism are common methods for demonstrating who counts as “us,” and what needs to be done about “them.”

    As did LaRouche, Moon, and Jones, Trump sees a world teeming with enemies: the “deep state,” globalists, radical left-wing Democrats, socialists, Hollywood actors, the liberal media. And, of course, Muslims, Mexicans, and migrant caravans. He depicts all of them as wanting to destroy America—and him. Inspiring or creating fear of real or imagined threats overrides people's sense of agency. It makes them susceptible to the confident father figure, Trump, who promises to keep them safe—“Only I can fix it”—and makes them more compliant and potentially obedient. Some followers of Trump have gone so far as to believe that liberal Democrats, George Soros, and the CIA are involved in an international sex trafficking ring run out of the basement of a Washington, D.C., pizza parlor. One such follower actually brought an AR-15-style rifle into the pizza parlor and fired three shots. Fortunately, no one was injured.

    When I was in the Moonies, I was so indoctrinated that I was prepared to take up arms and die for the cause. I wasn’t alone. My fear is that Trump might order his followers to take their weapons to the streets if he is not re-elected. In a recent tweet, he quoted his Christian Right ally, Robert Jeffress, that his removal from office “will cause a Civil War like fracture in this Nation from which our Country will never heal.” Worse still is the possibility that, if feeling sufficiently threatened, Trump might, like Jones, try to take others everyone with him, using his access to the nuclear codes. It’s a dark scenario, but not entirely outlandish.

    The good news is, I woke up and got out of a cult, as have millions of people. What I have learned in working with cult members, as I describe in my book, is that attacking their beliefs is doomed to fail. To help them recover their critical faculties, it is essential to develop a warm and positive relationship before teaching them about how mind control works. I often do that by showing how it operates in other groups, like the Jonestown cult or Scientology. We might use the same approach to heal the “us versus them” mindset of Trump’s followers—and also of some of their more rabid opponents. Ultimately, the goal is to educate and inspire people to regain their capacity for critical thinking, and to free their own minds.

    I have seen people throw off the mental and emotional shackles of many years—even a lifetime—of destructive conditioning. I believe that love is stronger than fear and that truth is stronger than mind control. But I also believe that the dangers of mind control are greater now than ever due to the digital world we are so plugged into. We ignore the lessons of history—of Jonestown and other destructive groups—at our own peril.

    https://news.yahoo.com/former-moonie-trump-cult-leader-091128723.html

    https://www.thedailybeast.com/take-it-from-a-former-moonie-trump-is-a-cult-leader?source=articles&via=rss

     

    Madame X album general discussion

    in ARCHIVE - The MADAME X Forum

    Posted

    On 9/27/2019 at 10:15 PM, lasky said:

    M's not eligible in the dance categories anymore since its now meant for DJ acts or strictly dance acts.... the academy has changed the rules since... it would be great to see if M could get nominated in future by being a featuring act - just like justin beiber, dua lipa, diplo... (recent wins)

    giphy.gif

    Of course.....

    “Batuka” music video

    in ARCHIVE - The MADAME X Forum

    Posted

    9 hours ago, HolidayGuy said:

    Just a note, @VogueMusic- regular U.S. MTV did not play her videos for 24 hours and such leading up to the Medellin video. It was MTV Classic,as you mentioned, and another MTV channel- but not regular MTV.

    Yeah, it might have been MTV Live, not the regular MTV. It was on 2 channels, as each had a slightly different video rotation (or so it seemed), and I was often going back and forth between the two channels.

    It was bittersweet though, as seeing those videos on the big screen just reminded me of how much the original MTV is sorely missed and still needed (and that era of seeing all those big artists on constant rotation on television, having that kind of effect on pop culture). Felt the same way when Prince passed and they did 24 hour rotations of his videos and performances.

    Madame X album general discussion

    in ARCHIVE - The MADAME X Forum

    Posted

    8 hours ago, Ray Finkle said:

    I totally agree.

    Today I noticed how thoughtful the tracklist is.

    In Medellín, M is candid and wants to discover the world.

    From Dark Ballet to Killers, she observes the state of the world and sends a message of awareness.

    In the C section, she analyzes her personal life / love life and empowers herself. The mood starts to change. It's confirmed in Extreme Occident : she looks into herself and starts to think positive again.

    Then in Faz Gostoso, Bitch I'm Loca and I Don't Search I Find, she can be happy again and enjoy life.

    She goes back to introspection in Looking for Mercy, to find a balance between her state of mind and the state of the world.

    And finally, with I Rise, she sends and empowering message to the world and to herself.

    Now I get why EO and LFM, while absent of the Standard Edition, aren't put at the end of the record. And we can also think that the dynamic of Madame X still works without these tracks. (Don't get me wrong, I love those songs, I wouldn't want them out of the album).

    Brilliantly stated and very well thought out!!!  :clap::clap::clap:

    Madame X album general discussion

    in ARCHIVE - The MADAME X Forum

    Posted

    11 hours ago, the-queen said:

    MX has one of her best tracklistings. When you’ve listened to the album endlessly for weeks like me the work of art becomes engrained into your soul. As if it’s always been apart of her catalogue, and it came out around the time of Erotica or one of her other earlier albums. The consistency of the MX songs and indeed that of RH is incredible. I’ve said this a lot but it can never not be repeated enough.

    Keep saying it!!!  😍:clap:

    “God Control” thread

    in ARCHIVE - The MADAME X Forum

    Posted

    Might seem harsh, but I feel like it's their own fault for thinking their participation was going to really be anything more than a glorified extra. I'm sure the job description and video narrative was laid out for them, and considering where the cameras were focused while shooting, you'd think they would pick up on who was to be the focus. It was clear that the queens were there to fill out the atmosphere of the gay club setting, with Madonna and the dancers taking center stage (as would be obvious). I think there was probably an assumption by a lot of them that 'Madonna+drag queens+club' meant they were going to be the center of attention. Don't get me wrong, it would have been nice to see a few more quick shots of them, but considering the final product, it's clear why it probably wasn't all that necessary.

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