Reflections on Patrick Lawrence’s Recent Article Dealing with Cognitive Warfare
I do have one issue with Patrick, his use of the phrase “liberal authoritarian ideology” with respect to this otherwise praiseworthy article. “Liberal authoritarianism” is an oxymoronic phrase unfortunately used more and more by decent and intelligent people. The same is true of terms like “progressive” and “leftist” when coupled with the concepts of authoritarianism, totalitarianism and censorship. The Democratic Party is not liberal, progressive or leftist, and it is to that political party that Patrick’s observations are (or should be) directed. Unfortunately, language has become so utterly manipulated that its capacity to serve as an efficient communicative tool is now trivialized. It is worth noting that the term “democracy” too has been perverted. Now, as used by the corporate media, the term demands facilitation of electoral fraud through relaxation of identity verification and use of unsecured ballots. It is no wonder, at least to me, that opponents of such measures suspect that they’re meant to be used to improperly impact elections. In the Republic of Colombia, for example, where I now live, where for almost a decade I chaired a university political science program, and thus, with which I’m familiar, the concept of voting without identity verification through picture ID supplemented by signature verification and ballot access available only at polling stations during actual voting would be considered anathema. The same is true almost everywhere else in the world. But not in many states in the United States of America, purportedly the “land of the free and the home of the brave” (at least according to slavery advocate Francis Scott Key).
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