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The REAL Reason U.S. Targets Whistleblowers
U.S. leaders have long:
- Condemned China for spying and hacking our computers … But the Snowden leaks show that America is doing the same thing — on a much larger scale
- Considered waterboarding to be a war crime and a form of torture, including when the Japanese did it in WWII (and see this). But when we did it, we insisted it was not torture
- Proselytized other countries to follow free market capitalism. But we no longer follow free market capitalism in America. Instead, we have socialism for the rich and sink-or-swim capitalism for everyone else. Whether you call it crony capitalism, fascism, communist style socialism, kleptocracy, oligarchy or banana republicanism … it ain’t real capitalism
- Labeled indiscriminate killing of civilians as terrorism. Yet the American military indiscriminately kills innocent civilians (and see this), calling it “carefully targeted strikes”. For example, when Al Qaeda, Syrians or others target people attending funerals of those killed – or those attempting to rescue people who have been injured by – previous attacks, we rightfully label it terrorism. But the U.S. government does exactly the same thing (more), pretending that it is all okay
- Lambasted those who do not follow a rule of law as tin-pot tyrants. But the rule of law has broken down in America, and we now have less access to justice than in many parts of the world
- Blasted oppressive regimes which do not allow free speech, a free press and other liberties for their people … But have discarded most of those same liberties in our homeland
- Scolded tyrants who launch aggressive wars to grab power or plunder resources. But we ourselves have launched a series of wars for oil (and here) and gas
- Said that those who support terrorists should be treated as terrorists. But the U.S. government has long supported terrorists for cynical political purposes.
- Sought to “spread democracy” around the world. But democracy is not being honored at home (more here and here)
- Said that we must stamp out terrorism. But we are doing the exact same things we accuse the terrorists of doing (or worse)
Can you spot a pattern of hypocrisy?
Indeed, the worse the acts by officials, the more they say we it must be covered up … for “the good of the country”.
For example, Elizabeth Goitein – co-director of the Liberty and National Security Program at New York University School of Law’s Brennan Center for Justice – writes:
The government has begun to advance bold new justifications for classifying information that threaten to erode the principled limits that have existed — in theory, if not always in practice — for decades. The cost of these efforts, if they remain unchecked, may be the American public’s ability to hold its government accountable.
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The government acknowledged that it possessed mug shots, videos depicting forcible extractions of al-Qahtani from his cell and videos documenting various euphemistically termed “intelligence debriefings of al-Qahtani.” It argued that all of these images were properly classified and withheld from the public — but not because they would reveal sensitive intelligence methods, the traditional justification for classifying such information. The government did not stake its case on this time-tested argument perhaps because the details of al-Qahtani’s interrogations have been officially disclosed through agency reports and congressional hearings. Instead, the government argued that the images could be shielded from disclosure because the Taliban and associated forces have previously used photos of U.S. forces “interacting with detainees” to garner support for attacks against those forces. Even more broadly, the government asserted that disclosure could aid in the “recruitment and financing of extremists and insurgent groups.”
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The government’s argument echoed a similar claim it made in a lawsuit earlier this year over a FOIA request for postmortem photographs of Osama bin Laden. A CIA official attested that these images could “aid the production of anti-American propaganda,” noting that images of abuse at Abu Ghraib had been “very effective” in helping Al-Qaeda to recruit supporters and raise funds. The appeals court did not address this argument, however, resting its decision on the narrower ground that these particular images were likely to incite immediate violence.
The judge in al-Qahtani’s case showed no such restraint. She held that the photos and videos were properly classified because “it (is) both logical and plausible that extremists would utilize images of al-Qahtani … to incite anti-American sentiment, to raise funds, and/or to recruit other loyalists.” When CCR pointed out that this result was speculative, the judge responded that “it is bad law and bad policy to second-guess the predictive judgments made by the government’s intelligence agencies.” In short, the government may classify information, not because that information reveals tactical or operational secrets but because the conduct it reveals could in theory anger existing enemies or create new ones.
This approach is alarming in part because it has no limiting principle. The reasons why people choose to align themselves against the United States — or any other country — are nearly as numerous and varied as the people themselves. Our support for Israel is considered a basis for enmity by some. May the government classify the aid we provide to other nations? May it classify our trade policies on the basis that they may breed resentment among the populations of some countries, thus laying the groundwork for future hostile relations? May it classify our history of involvement in armed conflicts across the globe because that history may function as “anti-American propaganda” in some quarters?
Perhaps even more disturbing, this justification for secrecy will be strongest when the U.S. government’s conduct most clearly violates accepted international norms. Evidence of human rights abuses against foreign nationals, for instance, is particularly likely to spark hostility abroad. Indeed, the judge in the al-Qahtani FOIA case noted that “the written record of (al-Qahtani’s) torture may make it all the more likely that enemy forces would use al-Qahtani’s image against the United States” — citing this fact as a reason to uphold classification.
Using the impropriety of the government’s actions as a justification for secrecy is the very antithesis of accountability. To prevent this very outcome, the executive order that governs classification forbids classifying a document to “conceal violations of law” or to “prevent embarrassment to a person, organization, or agency.” However, a federal judge in 2008 interpreted this provision to allow classification of information revealing misconduct if there is a valid security reason for the nondisclosure. Together, this ruling and the judge’s opinion in the al-Qahtani FOIA case eviscerate the executive order’s prohibition: The government can always argue that it classified evidence of wrongdoing because the information could be used as “anti-American propaganda” by our adversaries.
Human rights advocates cannot rely on al-Qahtani to tell us what the photos and videos would reveal. The government asserts that his own knowledge of what occurred at Guantánamo — knowledge he gained, not through privileged access to government documents but through his personal experience — is a state secret. The words that Guantánamo detainees speak, once transcribed by their attorneys, are “presumptively classified,” and the government determines which of those words, if any, may be released. Legally, the government may classify only information that is “owned by, produced by or for, or is under the control of the United States Government.” Because the detainees are under the government’s control, so, apparently, are the contents of their memory.
That’s why high-level CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou was prosecuted him for espionage after he blew the whistle on illegal CIA torture.*
Obviously, the government wants to stop whistleblowers because they interfere with the government’s ability to act in an unaccountable manner. As Glenn Greenwald writes:
It should not be difficult to understand why the Obama administration is so fixated on intimidating whistleblowers and going far beyond any prior administration – including those of the secrecy-obsessed Richard Nixon and George W Bush – to plug all leaks. It’s because those methods are the only ones preventing the US government from doing whatever it wants in complete secrecy and without any accountability of any kind.
But whistleblowers also interfere with the government’s ability to get away with hypocrisy. As two political science professors from George Washington University (Henry Farrell and Martha Finnemore) show, the government is so hell-bent to punish Manning and Snowden because their leaks are putting an end to the ability of the US to use hypocrisy as a weapon:
The U.S. establishment has often struggled to explain exactly why these leakers [Manning, Snowden, etc.] pose such an enormous threat.
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The deeper threat that leakers such as Manning and Snowden pose is more subtle than a direct assault on U.S. national security: they undermine Washington’s ability to act hypocritically and get away with it. Their danger lies not in the new information that they reveal but in the documented confirmation they provide of what the United States is actually doing and why. When these deeds turn out to clash with the government’s public rhetoric, as they so often do, it becomes harder for U.S. allies to overlook Washington’s covert behavior and easier for U.S. adversaries to justify their own.
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As the United States finds itself less able to deny the gaps between its actions and its words, it will face increasingly difficult choices — and may ultimately be compelled to start practicing what it preaches. Hypocrisy is central to Washington’s soft power — its ability to get other countries to accept the legitimacy of its actions — yet few Americans appreciate its role.
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American commitments to the rule of law, democracy, and free trade are embedded in the multilateral institutions that the country helped establish after World War II, including the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the United Nations, and later the World Trade Organization. Despite recent challenges to U.S. preeminence, from the Iraq war to the financial crisis, the international order remains an American one. This system needs the lubricating oil of hypocrisy to keep its gears turning.
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Of course, the United States has gotten away with hypocrisy for some time now. It has long preached the virtues of nuclear nonproliferation, for example, and has coerced some states into abandoning their atomic ambitions. At the same time, it tacitly accepted Israel’s nuclearization and, in 2004, signed a formal deal affirming India’s right to civilian nuclear energy despite its having flouted the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty by acquiring nuclear weapons. In a similar vein, Washington talks a good game on democracy, yet it stood by as the Egyptian military overthrew an elected government in July, refusing to call a coup a coup. Then there’s the “war on terror”: Washington pushes foreign governments hard on human rights but claims sweeping exceptions for its own behavior when it feels its safety is threatened.
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Manning’s and Snowden’s leaks mark the beginning of a new era in which the U.S. government can no longer count on keeping its secret behavior secret. Hundreds of thousands of Americans today have access to classified documents that would embarrass the country if they were publicly circulated. As the recent revelations show, in the age of the cell-phone camera and the flash drive, even the most draconian laws and reprisals will not prevent this information from leaking out. As a result, Washington faces what can be described as an accelerating hypocrisy collapse — a dramatic narrowing of the country’s room to maneuver between its stated aspirations and its sometimes sordid pursuit of self-interest. The U.S. government, its friends, and its foes can no longer plausibly deny the dark side of U.S. foreign policy and will have to address it head-on.
***
The era of easy hypocrisy is over.
Professors Farrell and Finnemore note that the government has several options for dealing with ongoing leaks. They conclude that the best would be for the government to actually do what it says.
What a novel idea …
* Note: That may be why Guantanamo is really being kept open, and even prisoners that the U.S. government admits are innocent are still being blocked from release: to cover up the widespread torture by keeping the evidence – the prisoners themselves – in a dungeon away from the light of day.
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Now hold on a second Sparky. Are you telling me this is NOT "the most transparent administration in history"?
lol "Sparky" lol excuse me while laugh so hard coffee is coming out of my nose. Thank you lol.
Ok, now yea.... AND the DC's habitual arrogant hypocrisy means its own little toolkit is coming up the sidewalk to knock on the door to say, "well, howdy there, DC, remember me?"
"This will be the most transparent administration in U.S. History."
*Deletes campaign promises from website*
NSA has run "total info awareness" program for years
You mean, since 911? The world is a stage for a good reason. It can get ugly on the dark side. It is not shown publicly because it would ruin marriages, jobs, relationships. It is hidden place where our anger and curiosity can be displayed, our prejudices and weaknesses. When that is available to the enemy, you have no chance of winning at anything. Espionage is The Hatfields and McCoys with no ending whatsoever.
There has been reason to spy on individuals who may have information that could be used to harm. Who has the financial resources to carry on a full scale global surveillance operation when the whole goddamn economic framework is falling the fuck apart from the ground right on up to the top of govt. This is poor leadership through and through or a coup d etat in disguise and Israel now runs America maybe both. The only country not being spied on and not complaining about the spying is Our Friend IsUNREAL.
There is a mildly interesting article in the german "Welt" about Snowden. It is available in english (that's fairly uncommon): http://www.welt.de/politik/deutschland/article121247719/Snowden-the-Long...
Thanks for the link, but the article doesn't mention what would appear to be the main reason for the revolt .
They write : " ... Anglo-Saxon settlers revolted against British rule in 1776; the conflict already then was over ideas and loyalties".
According to some Peter Cooper, a writer :
"After Franklin gave explanations on the true cause of the prosperity of the Colonies, the Parliament exacted laws forbidding the use of this money in the payment of taxes. This decision brought so many drawbacks and so much poverty to the people that it was the main cause of the Revolution. The suppression of the Colonial money was a much more important reason for the general uprising than the Tea and Stamp Act."
http://www.citizensamericaparty.org/happiness.htm
It's simply another version of this fake story attributed to Franklin. Variations in yours are the "...in the payment of taxes" phrase.
The theory was that if the Colonies issued money backed by their land holdings, then no interest was charged and this somehow made everyone rich and prosperous. This ignores the basic reason many people imigrated to the colonies was the essentially free land for farming that the dead indians were no longer using. Buy a few slaves and you're in business. Rich and prosperous, indeed.
The US didn't have cities stuffed to the gills with rural-to-urban economic migrants - yet - like big Europan cities. Franklin supposedly made this statement when remarking on the amount of poor and beggars in London.
Britain prohibited any of its colonies from issuing their own money at that time. The law directed at the colonies didn't change much - there wasn't enough British money floating around so the states took matters into their own hands. There wasn't a single authority that issued 'Colonial script' because the US government didn't exist yet and no federal taxes were collected.
Thanks that was interesting!
Dead on article forecasting how things workout. Thx
Love it. I've seen another one just like that but there is more of W's face than Obamas. Meet the new boss..
"DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER!"
The WORLD is fed up with Washington.
Where's the Zit or is the Zit the only part we're seeing?
Not only the american people, I assure you, not only the american people ...
lol I wanted to give more than +1... Like plus 1 billion. You could put a smiley_face that says <insert presidential candidate's face here>.
PS I wanted to commend the earlier post on forgiveness... Restoration and forgiveness, e.g., of debts. Some cultures emphasize wrong-doer's obligation to fix what they broke while others emphasize forgiveness from injured party. Notmutually exclusive concepts by a long shot. So forgiveness is particularly needed when even if wrong-doer pines to make restoration but has done permanent, irrevocable damage. Then forgiveness is even more valued. But those two cultural norms work well because is difference in emphasis only rather than either/or.
....I'll start forgiving the crony criminals running our country as soon as they start blowing the back of their fucking heads out.
have you ever seen the effect fluorescent lights give the interior of recently blown out cranium? It really isa sight to behold.
All that confirms at the moment is that Snowden (as well as those assisting him) is acting against the United States of America and the citizens thereof - for the benefit of other, more despotic foreign powers. No equivalent information has been revealed regarding the intelligence operations of Russia, China, or any despotic country that has aided Snowden's betrayal of the United States of America and all of its citizens.
The stuff that Snowden alleges of the government is magnitudes of order worse in Russia and China. Until Snowden decided to be the proverbial bull in the china shop, the NSA was simply cleaner about something done by countries across the world. Unfortunately, people would rather excuse the damage from Snowden and assume that it won't hurt them.
The only way to really get to the bottom of this is to bring Snowden to justice in the United States, and to see that nothing interferes or interrupts the process. Then make sure that any copycats meet the same fate as Manning and Snowden - imprisonment.
i tried to downvote you but the counter is disabled. Snowden is a hero.
"The stuff that Snowden alleges of the government is magnitudes of order worse in Russia and China."
Careful here, there is a core of people here with Mancrushes on the bare chested Vladimir.
But in this case, I have to agree with them, Not being the worst does not justify the US's actions
Interesting to see people completely excuse/ignore other countries while going straight to bashing the US.
Interesting that seth immediately points at other countries' abuses over which US citizens have little influence, yet apologizes for any sort of criminal, out-of-control abuse and damage done by the NSA. The NSA is not god, seth, no matter how much you want it to be.
And forget the sophistic argument about ignoring abuses in other countries. That is irrelevant in this argument (except as comparison and even that is not very flattering to the NSA).
Yes, you can give yourself an UP ARROW.
Imprisonment without a trial, of course. right sethstorm? That might get messy, and nothing must interfere with or interrupt the NSA goose-steppers.
Soon, I would expect the NSA cultists to demand Predator-drone strikes on accused whistle-blowers and journalists who report on leaked documents. Cleansing of the leakers, more sanitary.
The mentally and morally unhinged cult of NSA apologists.......starring sethstorm.
Yes, by all means, let's bring the whistleblower to justice and just ignore all the perpetrators. The bull need to go fucking nuts in the china shop and break all that shit up.
You would be funny if you weren't so pathetic.
Oh, what the hell, I'll laugh anyway....
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HAAAAAA!
This government abuses me constantly. They are the bad guys, not the Russians or the Chinese. TSA, NSA, Customs and Border Enforcement, DHS, etc., etc. Don't tell me about "our" country. This is YOUR country now, I disown it.
Fuck you and the horse you rode in on.
No wonder George Bush refuses to personally consume bunches of government sponsored and modified infectious bro-coli like yours. Nice capture
LOLOLOLOLOLOL...
hmmm you sure that's not Kool-Aid you got there? Just checking.
If anyone's drinking that, it's the pro-Snowden folks that can't find fault or question why he isnt being pursued more aggressively. They would rather go for the red meat and not wonder why he's the only leaker that isnt being brought to justice(without regard to expense).
We must be doing something right. The trolls are coming out in droves. Good job ZH team.
.
Fixed it for you, Sethie boy.
Because he's hiding in a country that doesn't have an extradition treaty with the US. It's one of the few places on earth that he is out of reach (on a relative basis) of US assassination squads. But you knew that. Stop with the thinly disguised Cass Suntein/Diane Feinstein talking points -- you are not quite subtle enough.
I wonder who downvoted you EW?
I assumed sethany was a .gov troll but he seems to have had his little feelings hurt.
Seems to be the same guy on a few accounts. Classic troll. Nothing of substance. Just trolling.
"... and not wonder why he's the only leaker that isnt being brought to justice... "
Soooo ..., you wonder why he's the only leaker that isn't being brought to justice ...
Mmmmh ..., I guess you also probably wonder why there isn't any US military base next to the Kremlin .
no, I wonder why Chase has had a branch office in Moscow since 1950. Don't you?
"no, I wonder why Chase has had a branch office in Moscow since 1950. Don't you?"
If it's true, it's interesting, and yes, I wonder why .
LOL...poor Seth...it's gotta be a real bitch to learn that not only have you been lied to all your life, but that you've been stupid enough to BELIEVE the lies...
Seth you are in real bad shape , you need to go in for reprogramming , you're burnt to a crisp .
GW, that was a fantastic column, fan-fing-tastic lol. Forgive me, but IMHO,it was. Thank you. I. Kant's essay Perpetual Peace was in some respects a tirade about government hypocrisy ... If memory serves that was 1796 ? or 1795? but not opaque like most of his stuff. Anyway, one of his rules for trying to get some kind of integrity was 'publicity' but not like the kind DC tries to stifle when whistle blowers like Snowden tell the truth. Kant meant publicity as a test... Kant said it is difficult to tell what is right or wrong but suggested that a rule of thumb was if an established government representative conceived a plan or idea for reasoned action that could only succeed if the plan and/or reasoning behind it was not disclosed, it was probably immoral. That was some serious paraphrasing but I am pretty sure that was the gist. You might also get a kick out of his secret article that was inserted during the second printing... He called it the secret article... His little joke :) .... Anyway, thank you for excellent column and opening my eyes a little more. I suddenly have the urge to go outline a new article on Kant.lol
GW read Machiavelli's The Prince, it all starts there.
Nation states singing "reason of state", never say what they'll do and always cover up their tracks with false flags. In fact, in reality, the exact opposite of state's public image as in the written constitution and legislative process.
And the Prince is the very icon of this logic. He is PAID to incarnate it!
"We all lie and cheat. Some of us are better at it!"
When you get to the state of universal empire status, fighting for total power, the morph is just total.
Dorian Gray is now totally beyond recoginition.
That's why all empires come to an end and the cycle rebegins. Snowden is a catalyst to that process.
I agree, falak pema, and as a kind of self-conscious joke, how about a pissing contest over how much further I can extrapolate what you wrote?
The oldest book on the Art of War starts by saying that success in war depends on deceits, and ends by saying that spies are the most important soldiers. Just extrapolate that for thousands of years, and one has the world as it is now, namely, almost totally dominated by the best professional liars and immaculate hypocrites.
"The era of easy hypocrisy is over."
That quote reflects the underlying reality, that there is always an arms race between different systems of organized lies, operating organized robberies. The problem with the notion of "hypocrisy" is that IS a weapon! More deeply there is a PROBLEM with false fundamental dichotomies being the source of various sets of impossible ideals, which always necessarily result in hypocrisy, since impossible ideals can NEVER be actualized, but rather tend to make the opposite happen in the real world.
We appear to be entering an interesting transition, precisely BECAUSE "The era of easy hypocrisy is over." However, that is NOT YET being systematically appreciated enough by enough people. What I say is that we are living in a kind of Bizarro Mirror World, where everything is proportionately backwards, and distorted, because the biggest bullies' bullshit social stories have almost totally dominated the language that we use to communicate, and therefore, shapes the ways we think. Due to the real history of warfare, the people who were the best at being dishonest, and backing that up with violence, became the richest and most powerful people, and they made and maintained the sovereign states. Government IS organized crime, which is controlled by the best organized gang of criminals. All of the most important laws are legalized lies, backed up with legalized violence.
There are no fundamental dichotomies between people. Everyone necessarily operates some system of organized lies, in order to engage in organized robbery. There are no exceptions, and there never can be, as long as we perceive those people as finite beings. I assert those perspectives as being basic, universal axioms, that are consistent with postmodernizing sciences, as well as ancient mysticism. The degree to which the biggest bullies' bullshit world view dominates everything includes the ways that it dominates the philosophy of science. In that sense, I say we need to go THROUGH the looking glass, to stop being superficially cynical about apparent hypocrisy, and understand that we have most of our axioms backwards, due to belief in false fundamental dichotomies, which generate impossible ideals, which make it impossible to not be hypocritical.
The degree to which we should appreciate that we are looking at a Bizarro Mirror world, in which everything appears backwards, can not be overstated! There are no good solutions to be found in still maintaining false fundamental dichotomies, and recommending that impossible ideals be miraculously actualized. Instead, evolutionary ecologies, through changes of state, or changes in the dynamic equilibria of the different systems of organized lies, operating organized robberies, is the deeper meaning of the emergence of a situation where "The era of easy hypocrisy is over."
What we theoretically NEED is for our philosophy of science to go through deeper and deeper, radical and revolutionary paradigm shifts, most of which are due to the degree to which the biggest bullies' bullshit world view was able to direct the philosophy of science to go in the directions which it has in the past. Most of those directions have misled us away from the ancient mysticism, that was the original source of religions, some of which sort of mutated to become the social enterprise we call "science." However, as a social enterprise, science has suffered the same as every other aspect of society from being paradoxically dominated by its funding, and vicious relationships between money and power, to be directed in ways that science too became driven out various limbs, of organized lies, operating organized robberies, which too many of those within that social enterprise, of course, denied was the case.
Anyway, my point is that we need profound changes in the basic paradigms of many basic aspects of the philosophy of science, which then applies to political science, and especially to militarism, because warfare was actually the oldest and best developed social science, but was paradoxically so, since success in warfare depended on deceits and spies. Therefore, in many ways, the best of the best professional liars and immaculate hypocrites were those most skilled at militarism. Moreover, that process never stopped, but only became more based upon information, and symbolic, rather than still based as much upon physical power. Therefore, the War Kings that made sovereign states ended up having their powers covertly taken over by the Fraud Kings, who were effectively able to privatize the most important public powers.
Therefore, the monstrous fascist police state or national security complex that the USA has built is as hyper-complicated and privatized as the public money supply became before it. The Bizarro Mirror World Fun House that we are witnessing take shape is spinning faster and faster, more and more out of control! It has become surreal that the most basic and obvious social and biological facts are those which are the most denied and buried under bullshit, although they are still obvious, if one just looks with open eyes. The central features of human ecology are the death controls. Those death controls developed through history to become the human murder systems. Those murder systems were the history of warfare, whereby being deceitful and dissembling were the most important ways to become successful. That continued to unfold, and become more sophisticated, so that civilization ended up developing monetary systems based on the maximum possible frauds, which were backed up by murder systems based on the maximum possible deceits.
Thus, the full extent of the "hypocrisy" has been magnified by many orders of magnitude, to become of astronomical sizes. The same as the current world system boils down to global electronic money frauds, backed by atomic bombs, the basic ways that our civilization operates is as like a Bizarro Mirror World Fun House, in the shape of a spinning top carousel. Our civilization is almost totally dominated by the best professional liars, and immaculate hypocrites, operating entrenched, well-established, systems of legalized lies, backed by legalized violence. However, the resolutions can never be to stop that from happening. Rather the solutions are to accept that, and go THROUGH the looking glass, to understand more and more deeply WHY everything is being seen backwards.
"The era of easy hypocrisy is over." However, OF COURSE, it should be obvious that the government of the USA is the biggest organized crime gang, and biggest terrorist organization, in the world at the present time, since there are NONE which are not doing something similar, in their own ways.
A word for what you describe is continuum, a natural philosophy working toward what you describe is a process philosophy such as A.N. Whitehead's 1927 and a physics is probably the newest take in quantum physics of a continuum between particles and wave similar in some ways to the Boscovich point atom from the 18th century. The issue of government and citizen morality is one of recognizing the need for rules of thumb but not absolutes such as the combination of Kant's views and American 19th century pragmatism which says ideas have to be adaptible but even that would only go so far (e.g. See Pulitzer prize winning Metaphysical Club by Menand 2001 on William James, Charles Peirce, O.W. Holmes etc. post civil war philosophy). Unfortunately U.S. didn't get the warnings about the dangers of ideology.
Ideology = compatible false ideas that connect and assemble to form cognitive impediments (~ mental disease)
These often take root from philosophy.
Ideas can adapt because they're just abstraction, there's nothing 'backing' them, they're entirely imaginary.
Observations are non-abstract and 'backed' by repeatability testing, thus adaptability is inapplicable and immaterial.
So why do I need adaptive-ideas at all?
If I insist on using adaptive idea all I get is a theory that needs testing by observation.
Theory is the belief in ideas that one has, when one is pretending to be objective, dispassionate and without a belief in such ideas.
That integral deception is at the heart of this great corruption and cognitive artifice which passes itself off as mainstream 'science', today.
Resorting to adaptive-ideas is the mistake, the primrose path, the self-referencing loop of theoretical bunks, that's forever caught in the process of debunking itself to implement a new standard of adaptive-idea bunks, forever remaining susceptible to being wrong, in part or in whole, when compared to an observation.
Yet this wide-spread proxy-belief in translative and interpretive theories (adaptive abstract ideas), endlessly continues to dominate all observational data discussions!
But the observation is all we've ever really had to go on, at any point.
Yet mainstream pop-'science' continuously tries to derail us into thinking about and 'debating' immaterial abstract adaptive-ideas about an observation, rather than to focus entirely on the fact, anomalies and implications of the observation itself.
Consequently 99.9% of what calls itself 'science' is rendered entirely junk.
The 'break-through' always comes from observation, but what occurs today is that the break-through phenomena is pre-described, categorized and debated in abstract form, with every one talking about it abstractly, before there is even any observation.
So when an observation does come along, it's immediately slotted into the category it fits, and the adaptive ideas and proxy-beliefs of that category are claimed to be 'confirmed'.
Already the observation has been ignored, and the myopic bunk has already replaced observation, its significance, its anomalies and any inconsistencies with the proxy-believed category of new bunk.
The observation is picked clean and discarded almost as soon as it appears, and the abstraction discussion is all that mainstream 'science' has become.
The very careful examination of an observation before abstractly deciding what it means is all but dead.
This abstract adaptive-idea gobbledygook has supplanted true science inquiry like a prolific weed, growing in a once exceptionally productive paddock.
Thus what we get is an ever diminishing return on dollars invested, the parasitic weed soaks up the cash and provides no returns, it belches, it takes general credit for what it has done none of, puffs itself out of all proportion to actual accomplishment, declares 'mission-accomplished' without much prompting, then demands moar money and significant inputs to public policy formulation, and to propaganda-making, also.
The weed of abstractions and belief, that pretends not to be a belief system, has again taken over the entire process, and the 'non-believer' is again relegated to heretic status, and threatened with all sorts of reprisals, including state criminal sanctions.
PS: I saw David Suzuki promoting his agenda again on TV yesterday, saying politicians and scientists who disagree with and frustrate, "the science consensus", should be imprisoned for committing crimes against future humanity. So you don't even need evidence anymore! Observation has thus become irrelevant, and the adaptive-idea's (theory's) profoundly error-prone bunk has become everything, thus entirely imaginary and abstract future evidence will do, to imprison you, for real - right now!
It's completely insane and would be easy to laugh off, if it were not so fantastically stupid and if the progressive-liberal media were not giving it mainstream air-time rather than challenging and lambasting it as a completely absurd proposition. Suzuki should maybe be sectioned though, as he's obviously become unhinged. He's so ideologically-diseased that he sees no basic problem with it.
But that sort of stuff is becoming more typical of the level on which mainstream 'science' experts in pet proxy-belief systems now operate within the mass-media, i.e. they're surprisingly little different in their prescriptions from the Popes of Rome, in Galileo's day. Welcome to 21st century's mainstream science 'enlightenment' epoch. If you think we're moving progressively towards a more enlightened state of mind, you aren't really paying attention.
And kudos for tacit acknowledgment that perfect integrity/consistency is extraordinarily difficult in individuals and government but striving for it is admirable and necessary even if no one ever gets there... At least pausing and taking to admit one's own hypocrisy, examining one's intentions when actions are bound to hurt others... At least that contains some morality that mechanically applying unthinking absolute rules of good or bad can leave out or can be even more likely be used to perpetuate hypocrisy as a weapon than admitting a degree of relativism. Both an be exploited, though.
Sliding across the tracks into Poppertown...
:). Good old Karl. I suppose everybody's gotta be somewhere lol. But anything can be used to justify anything practically. One of my favorite science problems is what to say to people who declare adamantly that we absolutely cannot know anything about, say a property of a given physical entity. Of course dont usually say but just think, so you do know something ... You know you believe you can't knowor that it is unknowable lol. But we are damned if we do and damned if we dont and government and citizens rarely cannot do anything so it is impossible to escape the fact that consequences of anything can be either good or bad depending on how long you wait and who you talk to.