[PieterCasparzen]

Easy to get sucked into that habit but it's better for a FReeper to resist it. Problem about finding (correctly discerning) the patterns in the news is the conflicting propaganda messages sent up.

One way to read the news is to take each article at face value and assume it is 100% true.

The other way is to try to discern the truth from the lies.

I'm not talking about wacko "patterns" like alien messages, etc.

I'm talking about remembering what was published over the years - what the government admits to, for example.

If they, for example, admit to spying on Americans, or backing a revolution in a foreign country.

More than a few times I've posted OLD news articles where government or businesses admitted to some thing, let's call it "X", in response to someone saying "X" was essentially a wacky conspiracy theory I had. I posted, for example, and old NY Times article, or book by a military historian, which publicly declared "X".

After my post of the "old news", the "debater" who inferred that I was a "wacko" promptly goes away. I hope they start to think for themselves - I don't want to berate people, I'm simply putting info out there for people to think on and seek the truth. Sometimes I post just "claims", other times factual sources. In either case - it is my desire that people search for the facts themselves and not blindly trust my claims or news clippings when I post them.

One example of "conspiracy wacko" info - the financial support Jacob Schiff gave the Japanese government in their war against the Russian Empire. I'm just noting a historical fact - which is easily verifiable because the Japanese government bestowed honors on Schiff. It's only after compiling quite a number of facts, and analyzing them as a whole system, that one can start to understand how the world's elites operate.

Once the facts are staring us in the face, and the most simple analysis of them contradicts what we are being told by government, the press or elite financiers/merchants, then when they oppress us and we continue to deny anything is wrong - at that point we are the ones preventing us from beginning to plan and act to right the wrongs perpetrated against us. It's then the ultimate example of "sticking our head in the sand".

Much of what is in the news is carefully crafted lies, effected by exaggerations, omissions, etc. One must carefully sift through stories and analyze them to have any clue about what is really going on, and even with all that effort the details of what is going on in the highest circles of power and influence we have no way of knowing except for an occasional unintentional leak (slip) here and there.

[Resettozero]

I'm talking about remembering what was published over the years - what the government admits to, for example.

For a FReeper who sometimes cannot remember why he went into the kitchen, remembering all these things is a growing problem. But...it's good to keep one's mind as sharp as possible.

[zeugma]

Those of us who pay attention will notice that much of the actual truth does actually come out, though it seldom does so in a way that people automatically connect to the correct events and consequences. Years ago I noticed that there were some really interesting nuggets of information to be found in the Wall Street Journal in the little articles that show up seemingly at random as just a paragraph or two.  You had to look for the info, and later remember and correlate them to other things correctly.

Yes, people think some of this stuff is just crazy conspiracy theories. It makes them more comfortable in their lives, and I no longer try to push them beyond their comfort zones, mainly because it really doesn't help things much. They may someday have their own 'light bulb' moment, when things shift in their perceptions to great clarity, but most people never do. From what I've seen, clarity of what's really going on out there can bring anger and unhappiness, and I no longer and driven to bring those fruits to anyone else.