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The monopolist propaganda machine is in full swing

Posted by Rudd-O at Apr 22, 2009 10:54 PM |

Here's a stellar example of how the propaganda machine works.

From Slashdot:

Hugh Pickens writes "Vice President Joe Biden lauded Hollywood at a gala dinner in Washington, assailed movie piracy, and promised film executives that the Obama administration would pick "the right person" as its copyright czar. Biden warned of the harms of piracy at the private event organized by the Motion Picture Association of America in the sumptuous, newly renovated Great Hall of the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. "It's pure theft, stolen from the artists and quite frankly from the American people as consequence of loss of jobs and as a consequence of loss of income," Biden said, according to a White House pool report. Biden addressed President Obama's forthcoming decision about who will be named the intellectual-property enforcement coordinator, better known as the copyright czar. Under a law approved by the U.S. Congress last October, Obama is required to appoint someone to coordinate the administration's IP enforcement efforts and prepare annual reports. Copyright industry lobbyists sent a letter to the president asking him to pick someone sympathetic to their concerns, while groups that would curb copyright law sent their own letter (pdf) urging the opposite approach. We "will find the right person for intellectual property czar," Biden said."

(The bold text is mine)

See how it works now?

It's simple, really.  Someone, generally a think tank or a lobbyist firm, invents a new lie (NLP experts call this a reframe), accesorizing it with false moral justifications and false analogies (in this case, the analogy is that, since copyright infringement "causes" a loss of market value -- a complete fabrication -- it is "equivalent" to theft -- another fabrication that anybody familiar with the nature of theft can see right through).  Then, prominent politicians and famous people repeat it, over and over and over.  It doesn't matter that elementary common sense, examination of physical reality and basic ontology completely disprove the asinine notion of file sharing as theft; what matters is that powerful people with audiences are repeating the lie and assuming it's valid in their narrative.  Nor does it matter that the law declares very explicitly that copyright infringement is not theft -- because after a few years of this propaganda, everybody (including legislative powers) will be convinced the lie is true, and then the law will once again be rewritten to say that water is dry.  And when that happens (and it's going to happen), you might as well give up on truth because its destiny has already been sealed with a bullet between the eyes.

"If Joe Biden says it, it must be true".  That's how badly the world has strayed from the pursuit of truth.  Of course, once the lie has pervaded the ecosystem of ideas, it's mighty hard to uproot it, and it becomes impossible to discuss an antimonopolistic freedom agenda.  And, let me tell you, right now, the majority of laymen already classify copyright infringement as theft and are religiously convinced this is true, even as they themselves commit it; ironically, they are declaring themselves thieves, even though none of them would even dream of taking even a candy bar from a store!  That's how much we're fucked.

Of course, the "right person for copyright czar" (as Biden put it) doesn't even need to be described: it is going to be someone that is pro-monopoly and pro-coercion, but going to pay lip service to "fairness" and "balance" so as to not get too much opposition in his reign of evil.

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What do you mean, "theft"?

Avatar Posted by Fibonacci Prower at Apr 26, 2009 08:28 AM
Since when is the act of copying and sharing even comparable to criminal violence against seafaring ships - i.e. "piracy"?
Yes, piracy is terrible, and should be stopped by any means necessary, preferably starting on Somalia. But we file sharers are not "pirates" - I, for one, have never even set foot on an actual ship!

I don't mean it, Biden means it.

Avatar Posted by Rudd-O at Apr 26, 2009 08:28 AM
  Theft to me continues to mean theft, not whatever is politically expedient or fashionable. Fully agreed with you.

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