Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. (George Santayana)

[sarettah]

Salem Witch Trials:

From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salem_witch_trials

The episode is one of the Colonial America's most notorious cases of mass hysteria. It has been used in political rhetoric and popular literature as a vivid cautionary tale about the dangers of isolationism, religious extremism, false accusations, and lapses in due process.

It was not unique, but a Colonial American example of the much broader phenomenon of witch trials in the early modern period, which took place also in Europe. Many historians consider the lasting effects of the trials to have been highly influential in subsequent United States history. According to historian George Lincoln Burr, "the Salem witchcraft was the rock on which the theocracy shattered."

McCarthyism:

From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism

McCarthyism is the practice of making accusations of subversion or treason without proper regard for evidence.

It also means "the practice of making unfair allegations or using unfair investigative techniques, especially in order to restrict dissent or political criticism." The term has its origins in the period in the United States known as the Second Red Scare, lasting roughly from 1950 to 1956 and characterized by heightened political repression against supposed communists, as well as a campaign spreading fear of their influence on American institutions and of espionage by Soviet agents. Originally coined to criticize the anti-communist pursuits of Republican U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin, "McCarthyism" soon took on a broader meaning, describing the excesses of similar efforts.

The term is also now used more generally to describe reckless, unsubstantiated accusations, as well as demagogic attacks on the character or patriotism of political adversaries.

Pizzagate:

From: The saga of 'Pizzagate': The fake story that shows how conspiracy theories spread - BBC News

No victim has come forward. There's no investigation. And physical evidence? That doesn't exist either.

But thousands of people are convinced that a paedophilia ring involving people at the highest levels of the Democratic Party is operating out of a Washington pizza restaurant.

The story riveted fringes of Twitter - nearly a million messages were sent last month using the term "pizzagate".
So how did this fake story take hold amongst alt-right Trump supporters and other Hillary Clinton opponents?

Let's start with the facts.

In early November, as Wikileaks steadily released piles of emails from Clinton's campaign chairman John Podesta, one contact caught the attention of prankster sites and people on the paranoid fringes.

James Alefantis is the owner of Comet Ping Pong, a pizza restaurant in Washington. He's also a big Democratic Party supporter and raised money for both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. He was once in a relationship with David Brock, an influential liberal operative.

Alefantis - who's never met Clinton - appeared in the Podesta emails in connection with the fundraisers.

And from these thin threads, an enormous trove of conspiracy fiction was spun.

Users of 4chan, a message board known for free speech, extreme content and trollish behaviour, began posting speculation and supposed connections gleaned from internet searches. They trawled Alefantis' Instagram feed for pictures of children and the modern art which lines his restaurant's walls, and dreamt up a paedophile sex ring involving prominent politicians and political donors.

Soon there were protesters outside of Comet Ping Pong. Alefantis even invited some of them in - they filmed the encounter and put it on YouTube.

"They ignore basic truths," Alefantis tells BBC Trending. For instance, the conspiracy supposedly is run out of the restaurant's basement. "We don't even have a basement."

"Sometimes an innocent picture of a child in a basket is just an innocent picture of a child in a basket and not proof of a child sex trafficking ring," he says.

The conspiracy theory bubbled up from 4chan onto the mainstream internet when a Reddit user posted a long document with all of the "evidence" several days before the US election. It first appeared on a section of the site popular with Donald Trump supporters from the extremist white nationalist alt-right.

"Blinding ignorance does mislead us. O! Wretched mortals, open your eyes!" (Leonardo da Vinci)

"It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have." (James A. Baldwin)

"War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength." (George Orwell)

"All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure." (Mark Twain)

"Once your faith, sir, persuades you to believe what your intelligence declares to be absurd, beware lest you likewise sacrifice your reason in the conduct of your life. In days gone by, there were people who said to us: "You believe in incomprehensible, contradictory and impossible things because we have commanded you to; now then, commit unjust acts because we likewise order you to do so." Nothing could be more convincing. "

"Certainly any one who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices."

"If you do not use the intelligence with which God endowed your mind to resist believing impossibilities, you will not be able to use the sense of injustice which God planted in your heart to resist a command to do evil. Once a single faculty of your soul has been tyrannized, all the other faculties will submit to the same fate. This has been the cause of all the religious crimes that have flooded the earth." (Voltaire)

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[JesseQuinn]

salute

if I may add one of my favs (that Baldwin quote is top 20 at least, wicked compilation all around)

“I'm for truth, no matter who tells it. I'm for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I'm a human being, first and foremost, and as such I'm for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.”

― X

[sarettah]

Originally Posted by JesseQuinn

salute

if I may add one of my favs (that Baldwin quote is top 20 at least, wicked compilation all around)

?I'm for truth, no matter who tells it. I'm for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I'm a human being, first and foremost, and as such I'm for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.?

― X

Ignorance is bliss.

.

[Bladewire]

The great masses of the people will more easily fall victims to a big lie than to a small one. - Hitler

The broad masses of a population are more amenable to the appeal of rhetoric than to any other force. - Hitler

The victor will never be asked if he told the truth. - Hitler

It is not truth that matters, but victory. - Hitler

Hate is more lasting than dislike. - Hitler

I use emotion for the many and reserve reason for the few. - Hitler

If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed. - Hitler

Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it. - Hitler

The very first essential for success is a perpetually constant and regular employment of violence. - Hitler


All propaganda has to be popular and has to accommodate itself to the comprehension of the least intelligent of those whom it seeks to reach. - Hitler

By the skillful and sustained use of propaganda, one can make a people see even heaven as hell or an extremely wretched life as paradise. - Hitler

If today I stand here as a revolutionary, it is as a revolutionary against the Revolution. - Hitler

As soon as by one's own propaganda even a glimpse of right on the other side is admitted, the cause for doubting one's own right is laid. - Hitler

The great strength of the totalitarian state is that it forces those who fear it to imitate it. - Hitler

Germany will either be a world power or will not be at all. - Hitler

[onwebcam]

I hear ya. Democrats can't even remember a month ago when they got slaughtered considering they put the same old bat shit crazy Pelosi back in the lead. Pelosi, now the highest ranking democrat in the US. LMAO... Keep it up nitwits. Perhaps Pelosi for president 2020?

[Bladewire]

Originally Posted by onwebcam

I hear ya. Democrats can't even remember a month ago when they got slaughtered considering they put the same old bat shit crazy Pelosi back in the lead. Pelosi, now the highest ranking democrat in the US. LMAO... Keep it up nitwits. Perhaps Pelosi for president 2020?

The leader of genius must have the ability to make different opponents appear as if they belonged to one category. - Hitler

[JesseQuinn]

Originally Posted by sarettah

Ignorance is bliss.

true fucking say but I'll still take the opposite. you are such a scorp btw =p



"When we drop fear, we can draw nearer to people, we can draw nearer to the earth, we can draw nearer to all the heavenly creatures that surround us."

-bell hooks