When I was growing up I remember that some parents used to limit the amount of time their children were allowed to sit in front of the boob tube; or idiot box as some called it. Nowadays kids have TV’s in their bedrooms. Hell, most of them carry a portable TV in their back pockets that are capable of streaming their favorite shows 24/7; although why someone would want to watch a TV show on a 2 inch screen is beyond me.

Back when I was a kid, not only was our television viewing time restricted to a certain extent, there weren’t as many channels available either. If I recall correctly, I think there were only 13 channels on the television; and not all of them came in crystal clear. With the advent of cable TV the number of channels skyrocketed; with there now being hundreds of channels available to keep your minds satiated with mindless drivel.

It is not just television programming that has expanded its reach; the film industry has taken advantage of advancements in technology as well. When I was a kid if you wanted to see a movie you had to go to a theater and buy a ticket. Then along came VHS, then DVD’s, and now you can stream movies right to your PC or phone via Netflix not to mention the fact that most broadband internet providers offer access to any programming you find on your TV as well as access to new releases from Hollywood.

I know a lot of people don’t think about all this programming designed to keep them entertained, but I think about it a lot. Take for instance the word programming; have you ever stopped to think what it implies? Have you ever stopped to think what computer programmers do? Programmers write programs that tell computers how to operate; or to react to data. Don’t you think it is entirely possible that everything you see on the big screen is designed with the same purpose in mind; to ‘program’ you to react in a certain fashion to stimuli?

Then of course there is the word fan; as in fans of a major sports team or celebrity. The word fan is derived from fanatic; one who is overly zealous, or extremely enthusiastic about and devoted to some interest or activity. This ties directly into another subject of interest for me; celebrity endorsements. Why do people care what their favorite actor/singer/athlete thinks; are people incapable of forming their own thoughts without outside assistance? Why do people care what clothes those people wear; do they think buying a pair of Air Jordan’s is going to make them play basketball as well as Michael Jordan did? The whole idea that there are some people who will shape their lives based upon what some celebrity or athlete thinks and wears is truly sad to me; it shows that the person doing so has no sense of self-worth, no individuality.

One of the saddest things I’ve learned is that most people are simply incapable of seeing how what comes across the TV and Big Screen shapes their opinions on so many subjects. People will watch a TV documentary, or a full length feature film, about a subject and afterwards think they know all there is to know about that subject; never stopping to ask if the facts presented, or the story told is historically accurate.

Take for instance the television mini-series The Son’s of Liberty, which was shown on, of all things, The History Channel. If you had watched that, without any understanding of the events leading up to the American Revolution, you may have come away thinking that the war was started and won by Samuel Adams, John Hancock and Paul Revere alone. Yet since it was on The History Channel people assume it is a historically accurate rendition of the events portrayed on the screen. So what happens is that people will gladly sit around their TV screens for a 3 part mini-series than pick up a book that is historically accurate, and read it. Then, when you provide them with facts that contradict what they saw on the television screen, their minds are incapable, or unwilling, of processing that information; and it is rejected.

Another example is Steven Spielberg’s film, Lincoln; which is loosely based upon the book by Doris Kearns Goodwin, Team of Rivals. If that film is/was your only exposure to Lincoln, and the events surrounding slavery, you would have come away thinking Lincoln was a saint. Yet history proves that Lincoln was not the saint he has been made out to be.

Lincoln may have thought that slavery was an abomination, but he certainly knew that under the constitution he had no authority to abolish it. He said as much in his First Inaugural Address, “I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.”

The problem with people today is that they often read something, but they don’t stop to think about what they’ve just read. That passage from Lincoln’s Inaugural Address is a perfect example of how people skim over something without thinking about what they’ve read. Lincoln states that he had no purpose to interfere, (which means regulate or abolish) slavery; but he added the qualification of, ‘…in the States where it exists.’ What that means is that he had no authority to interfere with the institution of slavery in the South were it was already an established institution. He did feel that slavery should not be allowed to spread into territories that wanted to become States. His reason for that was twofold. First he wanted all newly admitted States to be for white settlers only; without competition from negro settlers. Any serious study of his speeches would prove that to be the case; yet by my mentioning that I will be called a racist; for the truth is always denigrated when it contradicts the programming, (indoctrination), people have underwent in school and in the media.

The second reason Lincoln did not want slavery to spread what because of the fact that most of the Northern States had already abolished slavery, yet some of them would not permit freed slaves to live among them. Lincoln’s home State of Illinois is a prime example of that. These Northern States would end up becoming the stronghold of the Republican Party, and if slavery were to be allowed in the newly admitted States it would increase the power held by the Democrats, (which was the remnant of the party established by Thomas Jefferson; one of limited power for the central government). The North could not allow that to happen, as it ran contrary to their ideas as to what purpose government should serve.

But Br’er Rabbit, Lincoln did fight a war to free the slaves; it says so in the history books. Well, did your history book also include the correspondence of Lincoln himself regarding the reason for the war; did it include the Johnson-Crittendon Resolutions in which Congress laid out the reasons for the war; did it tell of how Lincoln supported a constitutional amendment that would have made slavery permanent and irrevocable in America?

All of those things are relatively easy to verify if you would but do a bit of research, yet not one of them are included in Spielberg’s glorified narrative of Lincoln. Oh, and if you still believe Lincoln deserves to be praised and honored for all he did for the blacks, then maybe you ought to read what he thought about them, “I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races,-that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race.”

Those words aren’t mine, they are Lincoln’s, taken from his 4th debate with Stephen Douglas, held at Charleston, Illinois on September 18, 1858. That too is easily verifiable if people would just do some research. But no, they’d rather sit in the comfort of their home watching a DVD than spend a few hours seeking out the truth.

Those are just two examples of how the media, both film and TV, are used to alter history; to indoctrinate you into believing lies about our country’s past. Yet there is more to how the media is used to formulate and manipulate your thoughts and beliefs. All one has to do is turn on their TV for any length of time today and look at how advertisements are showing people wearing face masks; programming us to accept this as ‘normal’ and ‘acceptable’ intrusions upon our liberty to deal with a crisis; which if people would just research the facts, they would find it isn’t a crisis at all; especially one of the magnitude the news media is making it out to be.

A perfect example of how television and movie programming has shifted our opinions is cop dramas and cop movies. The cops shows I grew up watching, like Adam-12, had very little violence in them, and the things the cops did were hardly considered violations of the rights of criminals; even though the laws they may have been enforcing were violating the liberty of the people.

Look at cop shows today; especially shows like NCIS or NICS Los Angeles; where there are always shootouts, always dead perps, and the cops violate the 1st, 4th and 5th amendments with near impunity. The cops, the ‘good guys’; if you want to call them that, break into homes, detain people without charges, and use force whenever they believe it to be justified. The actions of the agents on these shows are a far cry from the actions of officers Malloy and Reed on Adam-12; that’s for sure.

The first time this became apparent to me, and I know I’m gonna piss some off when I say this, is when I saw the first Dirty Harry movie. Harry Callahan violated the rights of suspected criminals; justifying it by saying the system protected the rights of criminals at the expense of the victims. Yet our law is supposedly founded upon English Common Law, and in English Common Law Judge William Blackstone wrote, “[B]etter that ten guilty person’s escape, than one innocent suffer.”

Today cops act with qualified immunity; meaning they cannot be sued if their actions harm another, or deprive them of their rights and liberty. This ‘free pass’ or get out of jail free card, gives them the leeway to take the law into their own hands; at the cost of our rights. Our grandparents would be astonished to see what law enforcement has become; and it’s all thanks to our having been conditioned by cop shows and cop movies into accepting this as justifiable police behavior.

I’m not saying there isn’t crime, and that crimes haven’t become more violent. What I’m saying is that the rights of the people these cops are sworn to protect take precedent over enforcing the law; especially when the laws themselves violate our basic rights and liberty. But we accept it because we’ve been brainwashed into accepting it by the shows and movies we watch.

I fully understand, and actually support, what these Black Lives Matter say in regards to police brutality and abuse of power. Yet that brutality and abuse of power is not limited to, or targeted solely against blacks; it covers us all with its tyranny; and that is where BLM and I part ways. BLM and Antifa feel that this abuse of power gives THEM a free pass to commit crimes; assualts, looting, and destruction of public property. If they were truly against police brutality, then why aren’t they limiting their protests to those in the system that allow for this abuse to continue? What has a Target store, a Confederate Statue, or some guy wearing a MAGA hat done to harm them? Go to any Black Lives Matter protest and tell them that ALL lives matter and you’ll be lucky if YOU aren’t attacked. They don’t care about your rights, only theirs; and that is why I do not support what they are doing. I do support their claim that there have been egregious abuses of power by the police; I just don’t agree that they are the only ones entitled to justice, nor their mode of obtaining it.

And before I hear from the Thin Blue Line crowd; the ones who say we should unquestioningly support law enforcement, let me ask you a simple question. If there are good cops in law enforcement, (which I’m sure is the case), why don’t these good cops weed out the bad ones; AND why do these good cops enforce laws that violate the basic rights and liberty of those they are sworn to serve? Just following orders doesn’t cut it, as the Nuremburg Trials proved at the end of World War II.

We accept this behavior because we see it day in and day out on the TV and big screen; it’s what cops do to enforce the law; to protect us common folk from the ‘bad guys.’ We have been indoctrinated…programmed into accepting this type behavior; just as we’ve been programmed into accepting deviant behavior, as well as kinds of other things.

Did you know that during Ronald Reagan’s presidency the head of the CIA, William Casey, told the president, “We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false”? Well he did, and the question then arises, what disinformation program is he talking about, and who initiated it?

Ever hear of Operation Mockingbird? Operation Mockingbird is one of those subjects that cause people to say, “Here he goes again, delving into conspiracy theories.” Well Operation Mockinbird is not a conspiracy theory, it is a conspiracy fact. If you were alive in the 70’s you probably remember Carl Bernstein as part of the duo of investigative reporters who broke the Watergate Story; leading to the resignation of President Nixon.

In 1977 Bernstein broke the story of Operation Mockingbird in a story published in Rolling Stone Magazine. In his expose he reported on how many journalists – some of them Pulitzer Prize winners – had joined the CIA’s payroll, and were writing fake stories to disseminate the CIA’s propaganda. He also reported on how other journalists were either blackmailed into publishing false information, or they had been given false ‘leaked’ information which they accepted as truth. Operation Mockingbird is/was real, and it was estimated back in the 50’s the CIA had control over 25 newspapers, and had 3,000 journalists working as salaried employees of the CIA, or as contracted employees. One such journalist was Joseph Alsop; whose articles appeared in over 300 newspapers across the nation.

I find it both hilarious and a bit sad that people, especially Trump supporters, have suddenly taken up the mantra of Fake News, when the news has been fake for decades; designed to shape public opinion according to the whim of the so-called Deep State. This kind of influence on the news media goes back way back before Donald Trump was even born.

Trump was born in 1946, and twenty nine years before Trump was born a U.S. Congressman named Oscar Calloway stood on the floor of Congress and said, “In March, 1915, the J.P. Morgan interests, the steel, shipbuilding, and powder interests, and their subsidiary organizations, got together 12 men high up in the newspaper world and employed them to select the most influential newspapers in the United States, and a sufficient number of them, to control generally the policy of the daily press….They found it was only necessary to purchase the control of 25 of the greatest papers.

An agreement was reached; the policy of the papers was bought, to be paid for by the month; an editor was furnished for each paper, to properly supervise and edit information regarding the questions of preparedness, militarism, financial policies, and other things of national and international nature, considered vital to the interests of the purchasers.”

If they knew back then that the media could be effectively used to shape, or shift, public opinion, what makes you think that, with all the technological advancements, they are not using it for the same function today?

You are not going to find the truth on the TV; sorry to break that news to you. (Pun intended) You also aren’t going to find the truth if you go to social media sites like Facebook; where its censors work tirelessly to block and restrict the posting of facts that prove the news media’s narrative is a lie.

If you want the truth you’re going to have to dig for it; you’re going to have to use your brain and sift through the lies to find it. Does that entail some effort on your part? You’re damned skippy it does, but if you care about the truth, you’re gonna have to do it, or else accept the lies that are being spoon fed to you by a system that is designed to shape your thoughts and keep you obedient to your masters. It’s like Carlin said, “…they don’t want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don’t want well informed, well educated people capable of critical thinking. They’re not interested in that . . . that doesn’t help them. That’s against their interests.”

James Madison once said that knowledge will forever govern ignorance, and for a people who wish to be their own governors, they must arm themselves with the power that knowledge gives. Well, as long as you let the news media, or TV shows and movies shape and manipulate your thoughts, you are kept ignorant, and by virtue of that, kept in a constant state of bondage and servitude.

If you truly want to be free, the best advice I could give you would start with the simple sentence, TURN OFF YOUR TV. Just look at how effective it has been in transforming this country into a place where the people allow themselves to be muzzled, have their business or places where they go for food and entertainment shut down, and are willing to turn on their friends and neighbors who have not fallen for the lies being told them.

In 1790 the Irish politician and orator John Philpot Curran said, “The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance.” To put that into modern terms, if you want to be free you have to keep on your toes against any, and all, who would take that freedom from you. Otherwise, if you don’t, you’ll never again see freedom; and you’ll bequeath bondage and servitude to your children and their children.

We may not be able to fix the damage that has been done to our freedom; the damage is probably too extensive to do that. But we can plant the seeds of liberty in our youth; give them the knowledge so that they might do as our ancestors did, and shake off the shackles of tyranny and oppression. Maybe they’ll get it right and not make the same mistakes we did. That’s all I can hope for at this stage of the game; for as far as I’m concerned…WE’RE SCREWED!

September 22, 2020

~ The Author ~
Br’er Rabbit (Neal Ross), Student of history, politics, patriot and staunch supporter of the 2nd Amendment. Send all comments to: bonsai@syix.com.

If you liked Neal’s latest column, maybe you’ll like his latest booklet: The Civil War: (The Truth You Have Not Been Told). Life continues to expand for this prolific writer and guardian of TRUE American history.