Pretexts and Variants and Surprises, Oh My! — Mickey Z.

Mickey Z. — World News Trust

November 29, 2021

On November 27, CNN released a new article with this clickbait title: "World is put on high alert over the Omicron coronavirus variant.” Those who got to paragraph 19 learned that there is actually "little information" available about the so-called variant. With a little research, you’d discover that the South African doctor who alerted authorities about omicron called the symptoms “so mild.” None of this has stopped the powers-that-shouldn’t-be from spreading panic and installing travel bans. You’d think by now, the general public would recognize such simplistic propaganda tactics.

We’ve been bombarded for nearly two years with Covid-related deceptions. We’ve been bombarded since, well... forever with government/corporate lies in the name of getting us to line up behind them out of fear disguised as patriotism. Please allow me to introduce a few of the many false pretexts used by the Home of the Brave™ to wage war and other military conquests across the globe.

To coerce the American public to support the First World War, Woodrow Wilson enlisted the nascent public relations industry until the guise of the Creel Committee. Click here to read my full article on this heinous effort. In this article of mine, I discuss the pretexts, false pretenses, and outright lies used to condition Americans to trust the narratives on the Mexican-American War, Pearl Harbor (World War II), and the Gulf of Tonkin (Vietnam War). In case you’re not the type to click on links for fear of shattering your confirmation bias, please allow me to elaborate on the deceitful efforts to get the Spanish-American War up and running. 

In 1897, U.S. President Teddy Roosevelt stated bluntly, “I should welcome almost any war, for I think this country needs one.” His wait lasted less than a year. February 15, 1898, was a muggy Tuesday night in Havana Harbor. Some 350 crew and officers settled in onboard the U.S.S. Maine. “At 9:40 p.m., the ship's forward end abruptly lifted itself from the water,” writes author Tom Miller. “Along the pier, passersby could hear a rumbling explosion. Within seconds, another eruption — this one deafening and massive — splintered the bow, sending anything that wasn't battened down, and most that was, flying more than 200 feet into the air.” 

By the time of the Maine explosion, Cuban and Filipino rebels were already fighting Spain for independence in their respective lands. The Maine was in Havana Harbor in 1898 on a purportedly friendly mission. “Yet,” writes Miller, “the visit was neither spontaneous nor altruistic; the United States had been eyeing Cuba for almost a century.” 

American newspapers, especially those run by William Randolph Hearst (New York Journal) and Joseph Pulitzer (New York World), jumped on the Maine explosion as the ideal justification to drum up public support for a war of imperialism. 

“Tabloid headlines depicting Spanish atrocities against Cubans became commonplace, and the influential papers of both men were outdoing each other in the sensationalized screaming for war,” says historian Kenneth C. Davis. When Hearst sent artist Frederick Remington to Cuba to supply pictures, Remington reported that he could not find a war. “You furnish the pictures,” Hearst replied, “and I’ll furnish the war.”

Spain was easily defeated, the legend of Teddy Roosevelt was manufactured whole cloth, and the Cubans (and Puerto Ricans) found themselves exchanging one colonial ruler for another. In the Philippines, where U.S. soldiers were ordered to “Burn all and kill all,” over the next decade, six hundred thousand Filipinos were eventually wiped out… all to the war cry of “Remember the Maine! To hell with Spain!”

These myths do more than justify actions at the time. They become part of our concept of our country and get exhumed and pressed into service when needed. These myths survive despite careful studies that expose reality. For example, in 1976, Admiral Hyman Rickover of the U.S. Navy mounted an investigation of the Maine disaster. Rickover and his team of experts concluded that the explosion was probably caused by “spontaneous combustion inside the ship’s coal bins,” a problem common to ships of that era. 

I could go on… and on. I’m not sure if that would help. Unless you start giving yourself enough credit to discern truth from mendacity, we're stuck. The template they use is familiar and painfully obvious. You don’t need a degree, a fancy title, a weapon, and certainly not a white lab coat. All you need is an unwavering commitment to intellectual self-defense to feel like Nada in They Live:

Trust me, there’s nothing like that feeling when you can suddenly see the latest news as the insulting attempt at programming it is. Once that’s happened, you’ll never go back. The whole “truth shall set you free” thing can be pretty rad.

 P.S. Omnicron is an anagram for moronic

Mickey Z. is the creator of a podcast called Post-Woke. You can subscribe here. He is also the founder of Helping Homeless Women - NYC, offering direct relief to women on New York City streets. To help him grow this project, CLICK HERE and donate right now.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of World News Trust.)