Blatant Ratings Grab - Who likes FOOTBALL?? How about SEX??!

One to enlarge our audience. tags - football, footy, hero, Collingwood, gatorfingers

STOP THE PRESSES - Was Jarryd Blair really doing the International Sign Language "Gatorfingers" (loosely translated to a kinky two holed fingering in English) or was he simply emanating the great George W Bush with a devil sign ... or was GWB really doing gatorfingers with the entire Arizona State Athletics team? I am tipping the latter, that kinky fuck!

Compliments to the Age for having a for once mildly interesting but at least somewhat humorous story about football, or was it about Gatorfingers, or was it about GWB and the devil sign ... either way it highlighted a disinformation event ... and check it out. ITS ABOUT FOOTBALL WOOHOO ... great investigative journalism ... putting those skills to great use here ... I mean the number of people this affects is staggering ... okay so most of them can't actually count but if they could it'd be a BIG number

Now if he had been doing the Barracuda then well, phew, that would be offensive ...

Of course people will ask what is the difference ...

[SockRatEz says: okay, what is the difference?]

perhaps the Age will do a follow up ...

[SockRatEz says: here's hoping ... ]

[Greg the Bunny says: you a bit jaded SockRatEz?]

[SockRatEz says: fuck off ... what I am is flabberghasted ... perhaps if the Age spent less time on some dick doing the Gatorfingers in a fucking photo and more time on things that matter they wouldn't have reported on the latest fire at Fukashima 4 hours after the BBC was reporting it ... IN THE MIDDLE OF THEIR NIGHT ... ]

[Greg the Bunny says: don't worry about the fire ... Kev sent Julia over to cry some of her crocodile tears to put it out with ... hah crocodile, see what I did there?]

[Ferretous says: I reckon I'm going to lose [e]props from sparx for this post ...]

[HappyAppleStarlight says: perhaps she could do with some Gatorfingers? I'm not really sure I get what it means but it sounds good ... and lots of people seem to be into it by the looks of those photos ...]

[SockRatEz says: ha ha, one of the two of you is going to cop it!! I know that!!]
[sparx says: Actually, I'm totally psyched to respond to this because I bet no one would expect me to know or care anything about organised sports. OH HOW LITTLE YOU KNOW ME. Not only are organised sports an effective way for the ruling class to distract us all from the fact that we're being fucked over every single day [see: bread and circuses] it also works to reinforce the basic "us versus not-us" programming that we all get force-fed as kids and makes shit like wars possible. Think about it: you get two teams with different uniforms and anthems and flags and shit symbolically battling over territory, while the atmosphere gets the crowd's bloodlust pumping and everyone has the vicarious thrill of "victory" over the "enemy." So, in short, organised sports are an excellent substitute for war in times of relative peace, and if, hypothetically, a society that's already obsessed with organised sports ever does go to war, it's not that massive a cognitive leap to transfer the uniform-wearing, anthem-singing, flag-waving bloodlust from the symbolic sports field to the literal battle ground. You dig me?]
[HappyAppleStarlight says: I still don't get the Gatorfingers, you guys. Gators don't even have fingers.]
[sparx also says: And as for your so-called "Gatorfingers" I think you'll find it's actually called "the shocker" and if you're gonna use cheap smut as a way to get more hits, I'll thank you do a bit of fucking research and at least get your terminology correct. Would it kill you to do some due diligence?]

[Greg the Bunny says: yeah, that killed the mood.]
[Ferretous says: oh really ... no fingers huh? I'll thank YOU HappyAppleStarlight to do some basic research ... and stop spreading godsdamn disinfo about gators! As if they don't have enough to deal with, people trying to deny them etymological credit for shit an' all]
[SockRatEz says: ah, that's better, vitriol! and nice use of an underhanded diversion tactic!]

Disinformation Sensitivity Workshop #2: Chains We All Can Believe In

I dare you, I fucking dare you [from this extremely safe distance] to imagine three people are imprisoned in a prison.

Wait, what? "Imprisoned in a prison?" Who's editing this shit? OK, let's make it a bar. With, like, all your favourite kinds of beer, and the good tequila, oh, and you know those wasabi pea things that are about 20% MSG? I love those things.

Right. As I was saying: I dare you, I fucking dare you [from this extremely safe distance] to imagine three people are imprisoned in a bar.

And imagine the interesting and poignant thing about this bar is that the door is wide open.

Now: imagine that one of these three people realises the door to this bar is wide open and tries to escape, but as soon as this happens, all kinds of alarms go off and all three people are gassed until they lose consciousness.

When they wake up one of these three people realises [again] that the door to this bar is wide open and tries [again] to escape. But as soon as this happens the other two people become afraid and argue with the first person, saying, basically: the last time someone tried to escape all kinds of alarms went off and all three of us were gassed until we lost consciousness and it was really socially awkward and got in the way of drinking.

And when the first person again tries to escape, the other two people beat this person up until they lose consciousness, and when this person wakes up they don't try to escape again, even though the door is still wide open.

Furthermore: imagine that one of these three people is then taken away and replaced with a new person. This new person realises that the door is wide open and tries to escape. No alarms go off and no one is gassed, but the original two people remember what happened the last time and become afraid. So they beat up this new person until they lose consciousness, and when this new person wakes up they don't try to escape again, even though the door is still wide open.

Imagine that one of these three people is then taken away and replaced with a new person, who realises the door is wide open and tries to escape, but the other two people, one of whom has never experienced the alarms or the gas, become afraid and prevent this attempted escape by beating up this new person until they lose consciousness.

Now: imagine that one of these three people is then taken away and replaced with a new person, who realises the door is wide open and tries to escape, but the other two people, neither of whom has ever experienced the alarms or the gas, become afraid and prevent this attempted escape by beating up this new person until they lose consciousness.

So here's where I'm going with this: none of these three people have ever had the experience of being gassed but each person will now try to prevent the others from escaping out that wide open door. 

Finally, imagine that one of these people is me and another one of these people is you.

And this, I contend [and still maintain], is predictive programming. 

NEVER TRUST A MAN IN A MASK: The Food Liberation Army and the Myth of McDonalds

DISCLAIMER: I HAVE A DREAM

I have a dream. Well, not so much a dream, really. More like one of those, what do you call the wakey-time dreams? Incredibly detailed and elaborate assassination fantasies? Right. So. I have a dream. In my dream I abseil from the top of a sky-scraper right through the front window of McDonalds. Ronald McDonald is there. Waiting. Waiting for me. I have a piano wire with me. I do what needs to be done.

Then I fly - slowly, majestically, like an eagle - back to the top of my sky-scraper. It's a nice dream.

I guess it's a little disturbing, but now I've shared it with you I feel much better. Also, I'm probably not the only one who has these thoughts - these ideas - am I?

[#i'mtheonlyonebraveenoughtosharethemonasweetnewblogcalledTotalDisinformationAwarenessthough.]

INTRODUCTION: ROCK'N'ROLL MCDONALDS

So as I was having a flashback to my detailed assassinate Ronald McDonald with piano wire fantasy [wait  what? I had  a flashback to a fantasy? WOW! SO WRONG!] I'm sure you can imagine my happy surprise when I found an article about a group in  Finland called The Food Liberation Army who have done just that. Let's see what this reputable, mainstream publication has to say about it:

Children look away now: Food campaigners carry out sick spoof threat to behead Ronald McDonald after taking statue as 'hostage' [Daily Mail online, February 12, 2011]

Campaigners for ethically produced food today carried out their threat to behead Ronald McDonald - in a sick publicity stunt that has been branded 'poor taste' by the restaurant chain. Members of a group calling themselves the 'Food Liberation Army' staged the beheading in a Helsinki art gallery, after sparking outrage last week by releasing an Al Qaeda-style spoof video in which they were seen holding a hooded Ronald McDonald hostage.

Who's smiling now, clown? Huh? Who's smiling no- wait, never mind.

Members of the group stole a Ronald McDonald statue from a Helsinki restaurant on January 31, posting their videoed demands on YouTube days later. Finnish police later recovered the statue and arrested two of the members. But the group had prepared their own version of the iconic fast food character, which was executed in a performance with a guillotine today. Artist Jani Leinonen was present at the event - unmasked this time as he posed for photographers with the disconnected head of Ronald.

Mr Leinonen is one of the two members of the group who was arrested earlier this week. In the original YouTube video, the group are seen in black balaclavas with Ronald in the foreground, wearing a hood. The spokesman threatens to execute the character if the fast food chain refuses to answer questions about how it produces its products. McDonalds told MailOnline after the footage was released that the stunt was 'in very poor taste'. It also denied the group's suggestion that it was attempting to hide details about its food quality and manufacturing processes.

No Anagram For Avatar: Predictive Programing In Pop Culture [With Reference To Plato's Allegory Of The Cave]

DISCLAIMER:

I would like to begin this article with an explanation of why a discussion of James Cameron's movie Avatar [2009] is relevant to a blog that is devoted to total disinformation awareness. I intend to use this movie as an analogy to explore some of the issues surrounding predictive programming and cultural conditioning. Astute readers will note that these are two different labels for the same phenomena. I might equally call it behaviour modification or mind control, except that in the case of Avatar it happens on a mass scale. Recent estimates indicate that almost 27 million people have seen the film at a cinema with the full 3D immersion effect. For the sake of brevity I shall avoid any extended discussion of the technology behind Avatar, as I don't think the special effects are the most important factor here, although the experience of being totally immersed in someone else's vision is an issue that should be considered in depth.  Equally, I am omitting any discussion of the plot or storyline of the film as, for the sake of full disclosure I feel it is only right to admit that I haven't actually seen it on account of how the whole thing really fucking creeps me out.  

INTRODUCTION:  Not Just Imprisoned, The Prison Itself 

[Or: It May Only Be A Movie But It Has The Power To Transport Us All To A Magical Dreamland Where We Will Become So Happy We'll Want To Kill Ourselves]  

Firstly: no responsible, rational blogger would, could or should expect to get away with a line like that.

But I'm not a responsible, rational blogger.

I'm an irresponsible, alarmist blogger.

So that's alright, then.

As I will argue [#withlogic!] in this article, predictive programming is nothing new, and one of the earliest references that I've been able to find is Plato's allegory of the cave. Before we get into that, or  into what some more contemporary thinkers are writing about predictive programming, lets have some background information on all this Avatar shit [and a fucking creepy picture] preferably from a reputable, mainstream source:

James Cameron's completely immersive spectacle "Avatar" may have been a little too real for some fans who say they have experienced depression and suicidal thoughts after seeing the film the beauty of the alien world Pandora. On the fan forum site "Avatar Forums," a topic thread entitled "Ways to cope with the depression of the dream of Pandora being intangible," has received more than 1,000 posts from people experiencing depression and fans trying to help them cope.

A user named Mike wrote on the fan Web site "Naviblue" that he contemplated suicide after seeing the movie. "Ever since I went to see 'Avatar' I have been depressed. Watching the wonderful world of Pandora and all the Na'vi made me want to be one of them. I can't stop thinking about all the things that happened in the film and all of the tears and shivers I got from it," Mike posted. "I even contemplate suicide thinking that if I do it I will be rebirthed in a world similar to Pandora and the everything is the same as in 'Avatar.'"

Creepy, right?

Other fans have expressed feelings of disgust with the human race and disengagement with reality. Cameron's movie, which has pulled in more than $1.4 billion in worldwide box office sales and could be on track to be the highest grossing film of all time, is set in the future when the Earth's resources have been pillaged by the human race. A greedy corporation is trying to mine the rare mineral unobtainium from the planet Pandora, which is inhabited by a peace-loving race of 10-foot tall, blue-skinned natives called the Na'vi.

In their race to mine for Pandora's resources, the humans clash with the Na'vi, leading to casualties on both sides. The world of Pandora is reminiscent of a prehistoric fantasyland, filled with dinosaur-like creatures mixed with the kinds of fauna you may find in the deep reaches of the ocean. Compared with life on Earth, Pandora is a beautiful, glowing utopia.

Cameron's special effects masterpiece is very lifelike, and the 3-D performance capture and CGI effects essentially allow the viewer to enter the alien world of Pandora for the movie's 2½-hour running time, which only lends to the separation anxiety some individuals experience when they depart the movie theater.

"Virtual life is not real life and it never will be, but this is the pinnacle of what we can build in a virtual presentation so far," said Dr. Stephan Quentzel, psychiatrist and Medical Director for the Louis Armstrong Center for Music and Medicine at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York. "It has taken the best of our technology to create this virtual world and real life will never be as utopian as it seems onscreen. It makes real life seem more imperfect." Within the fan community, suggestions for battling feelings of depression after seeing the movie include things like playing "Avatar" video games or downloading the movie soundtrack, in addition to encouraging members to relate to other people outside the virtual realm and to seek out positive and constructive activities.

- Jo Piazza; Audiences experience 'Avatar' blues [cnn.com; Janurary 11, 2010]

So, let's review: Avatar is a "completely immersive spectacle" which has produced in some viewers "feelings of disgust with the human race and disengagement with reality" as well as suicidal ideation and the belief in some kind of supernatural afterlife upon death. Astute readers will immediately notice the similarities between this and the intended results of both military training and religious indoctrination.

And that is why I want to examine it more closely in our awesome new blog.