Recently there was an account of NY times writer John Broder who apparently behaved in a way where it looked like he was paid to lie about Tesla at a critical juncture. The public uproar cause the NY Times editor to admit that Broder's judgment and accuracy were questionable but now Broder is on the NY Times editorial board and the NY Times attitude towards Tesla seems to mirror what appears to be an exposed plant's animosity toward Tesla, but remember plants don't provision for the shilling. Some people like the NY Times political reporting and the NY Times has been around for a while. But look at its ownership and look at its conflict of interest sponsorship. I am of the opinion that any person that knowingly and intentionally takes money to mislead the public should be doing life in prison and any so-called media outlet that takes money to lie to the public should have its charter yanked, its name permanently retired and its assets liquidated and the the proceeds confiscated and the corporate veil pierced and its management subject to civil and criminal prosecution and its creditors and share-holders left holding the bag to sue against the future earnings of anyone that survives the ordeal. I do not believe in "manufacturing consent" nor do I think we as a society should allow it! Let us consider some of the apparent reasons we don't already have such dissuasive arrangements. 1. The claim this would chill speech (see below) 2. Puffing is necessary to psychologically orient customers to products its part of what they pay for and it would be hard to enforce against (not really-see below) 3. Enforcement would be a nightmare (culture as law argument- see next paragraph.) So why has lying systematically come to be at the heart of our culture? Well you see its been there for a long time. Up until now we've lived in a capitalistic society which is fraud so regular incessant lying was part of holding it together. Ever wondered why the wealthy hated Obama so much? It is because early on he happened to utter the truth in public- what are you bitching about taxes for its not like you have "earned income." So this is the truth, so that is the truth they did not earn what they have. How did they get it then? They stole it from others. Under capitalism people with no social utility and net negative contribution steal (inherently dishonest) the work of people who do all the work, make all the sacrifices and absorb all the risks and losses. It is a system of systematic theft. Which is to say it is inherently dishonest and inherently lie based. These people also steal the time out of the majority of other people's lives to help keep them too exhausted to learn of their actual situation and do something about it. It is a society of dumbing down or lying. Surely not sustainable which is part of the reason for needing to end all forms of rent seeking but especially those that induce scarcity in the face of automation due to thermodynamic inefficiency like fossil fuel rent seeking. They fossil fuel us to tread mill us, to an extent it is like we are literally pushing are car around with our own bodies. There is also the issues of arbitrariness they hide behind. It is always some form of finders keepers. Its which set of hips you came out of (but look at the plight or women) or the various cost passing, cost socializing insurance scams. Its lotteries and casinos. But its also corporate fiefdoms. It is as if the the public finds themselves in a prison cell with the one psychopath who happens to find the loaded pistol on the floor. Now suddenly it is all about the finders keepers rights of the psycho path because after all by the rules of finders keepers he is suddenly entitled to rape and murder and mayhem because who could disagree arbitrary chance has crowned him and you better worship his property that pistol in his hand and even the one in his pants because according to him it will lead to the next anointed pistol holder. And according for him it would be unjust for the people to rush him. So you can see its a bulsht system of excuse making of lying that prays on people from infancy- a system of infant abuse. In the last presidential debate a new self-appointed American economic royalist Jeb Bush pointed out that he thought the answer to America's problems was Americans need to work more, they weren't working long enough hours- well they were working more than full time (spending most of their time in as state hapless involuntary unconsciousness doing tasks they don't care about deeply resent when can allow themselves to see clear enough to admit it or aren't trying to drown it in substances and distraction during any compromised remaining voluntary time) and 'working' more than the rest of the industry world already- so flog the with the royalist whip! Another economic royalist with a honorary title but the same claimed superiority based on nepotism but ironically tied to someone else's position tied public service said: I think American's like to 'work' for that they have. Now would they be working for themselves(?) or would they be working for say the British Queen or a Russian Oligarch? Or would they be laboring away pulling a human powered rickshaw while someone is asleep in a fully solar powered self-driving electric car cruising along next to them. Lets try to remember dimly (presumably none of us were alive) what led up the the Bolshevik revolution in Russia. It is said that Russia took slavery farther any other record of it. Russians made slavery into a spiritual art form. Cast systems are bad enough but at least in a remote time an untouchable could ascend, but imagine a system were the royals eugenically bread slaves in a kind of spiritual dog breading so that the enslaved humans (a recognized subspecies) were cultivated for their spiritual enrichment as servant dogs. What's a matter dog(?)that's the best dog food there is! So you can see the Russian people got tired of the socially useless and cast them off in the Bolshevik Revolution with massive collateral tragedy. But the better way to go if we can find it, is just to be as honest as we can and build systems that serve everyone along the way as completely as possible given the means we have at the time. To the extent we can and without interfering we should always be trying to help our fellow human beings have the best life and best experience they can. What is it that will fulfil them? We don't know, they probably don't know it, but it should still be a humble honest priority.
