Seana Sperling

The Vilification Industry and the Surveillance State

In Bullying, Civil Rights, Mobbing, Politics, Roma, Surveillance, World Relations on June 18, 2017 at 16:56

In the 1950s McCarthyism destroyed innocent lives. Anyone could be accused of being anti-American and have their careers destroyed because of the Watch Lists. In the New Millennium, an innocent person can be placed on the myriad of new watch lists. You could be placed on a terrorist watch list, a sex offender watch list, DEA watch-list, etc. The Community Action groups are called in, which could be VIPS, InfraGard, Neighborhood Watch, Freedom Corps, Sororities, etc. to monitor your every move as well as harass you everywhere you go.

Being under surveillance and the slander that accompanies these lists, can wreak havoc with your career and your life as I have found out. If you apply for a job, the watch team will contact the prospective employer claiming you are under investigation for something, and you will not hear back. If the prospective employer does an Internet search of your name and finds a false Police Report or false Police Record they will not call back. If you go for an eye exam, go for a haircut, the snitch groups will call them up, thus you will be treated badly.

I found a false Police Record under my name on www.instantcheckmate.com. This website claims to have “Real Records,” but is a con. I have no record and I am not a criminal, terrorist, pervert or whatever. I clicked on my name and at the top of the page that opened read: “CAUTION: This background report is very graphic. We do not censor our reports. We trust you to use this information responsibly. Please do not abuse this tool, or we could be forced to take it offline. The content of the report might shock you, so please prepare for the unexpected.” I paid the $9.95 to see what I was being accused of this time. There was no record. I contacted the site and threatened litigation and they took the slander down the next day. I called City Hall Records and said I was finding things online about some sort of Police Record and they confirmed that they had nothing negative about me.

Award winning Author, Gloria Naylor writes about this type of vilification and organized bullying in her fictionalized memoir 1996. What begins with a simple dispute with a neighbor escalates into a DEA investigation and gullible citizens are manipulated into stalking and harassing Naylor everywhere she goes. She writes of how friends turned on her and were actually aiding the bullies. She also writes of how the National Security Agency, the NSA, was using experimental surveillance equipment on her. (This technology is too terrible to think about, yet it is a reality. Her well-researched proof of the existence of this technology is listed in the Addendum of the book.)

The Neo-conservative Right-wing put the seed for much of this into place in the late 1980s. However, when the G.W. Bush Administration came to power in 2001 and after 911, they pushed through The Patriot Act and unveiled their already active Freedom Corps (citizen snitch groups). John Ashcroft then popularized this use of ordinary citizens to be the “eyes and the ears,” of the government.

The groups do more than just watch. When a person is targeted as anti-American (or whatever), the group may start a rumor campaign, which can be entirely manufactured. If the person looks white, they may tell all the people of color in the community, that the person is a White Supremacist. They may tell the Anti-Defamation League that the person is an Anti-Semite. They may tell the shops that the person is a thief or con artist. They may tell poor people that the person is a NIMBY and hates the homeless. The community watch group may also call in anonymous accusations to Law Enforcement claiming that the person is a criminal or crazy. They may tell Child Protective Services that the person is a known pedophile or sex offender. The bullies can accuse innocent people anonymously via the Internet or by a simple text to TIPS and then the self-righteous come out of the woodwork to stalk and punish.

The goal of the bullies is to isolate the target from any type of support. If everyone in the community hates him/her, then the Fascists have control. It is also a conditioning of the community: They unify a gullible community to hate the target and do the dirty work. This also has the bonus of chilling dissent within that community. Members of the community realize that if they do not go along with the bullies, they could become targeted as well.

The harassment directed at me may not be just politically motivated. It may also be racially/ethnically motivated by some of the primaries as my last name is Jewish and I am very likely part Roma. (The latter I was not aware of until 2000.) Unfortunately there are still hate groups in the U.S. that stalk and harass people of color, Jewish people, Roma people, LGBT, etc. In fact, recently, on Portland Indymedia, I found a list of Jewish last names that some Fascist had posted. Among these names were Spelling, Sperling and many more. It was a little shocking to see these names posted and for what, so other Fascists could hunt people with those names down? Globally Roma people are being tracked, horribly vilified, monitored and harassed by Fascists. That is overt discrimination.

What if, in the U.S., there is a more covert tracking and harassment of non-WASP people? There has certainly been a rise of shootings and false arrests of people of color throughout the U.S. recently and many are vilified by the mainstream news. Throughout history there have been instances when groups are turned against each other, manipulated by the wealthy elite. It’s the old “divide and conquer,” routine.

Remember that if you hear that a person is this or that: first, consider the source. Second, tell the accused about the accusation and the accuser. This is a constitutional right. Don’t be manipulated by some Fascist on the Internet. Remember that anyone can be anyone online or over the phone. What these groups are doing is criminal and un-constitutional.

In the German film, The Lives of Others, a couple’s life is destroyed because the Stasi put them on a watch-list. They were monitored daily. A friend of theirs who was a writer had been completely blacklisted, so he could no longer find work and friends were fearful to associate with him. Social Isolation through watch lists and defamation of character was the weapon the Stasi used to chill dissent and to destroy lives. The Editor of The Progressive Magazine is calling what is currently happening in the United States, the New McCarthyism. I call it the rise of Fascism.

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Punishment by the People

In Bullying, Civil Rights, Mobbing, Peace, Politics, Surveillance on June 16, 2017 at 15:56

By Seana Sperling

In the United States, Land of the Free, online groups are being manipulated to stalk, defame and harass Peace Activists, Whistleblowers, Writers and Educators because of supposed, un-American activities. Mike German of the ACLU has spoken about Military personnel hacking Activist’s websites and accounts and manipulating content to discredit them. It’s not just the Military however. In the age of, “If you see something, say something,” regular citizens are being empowered to watch and report on their neighbors. Some are calling this Cointelpro Two and the Editor of The Progressive Magazine is calling it The New McCarthyism.

The vilification of Activists and Whistleblowers, accompanied by mainstream media Gaslighting the public about the wars can manipulate some people into doing terrible things to others in the name of Patriotism. The general public are hand-fed propaganda from a profit-driven media and therefore anyone can be vilified. We have only to look at the high profile cases of Julian Assange and Bradley Manning for examples of Whistleblowers being demonized by mainstream media. For non-public figures, the community can be recruited to vilify the victim on something as simple as a message board or blog. Then the Netizens take to the streets to punish their target.

The cycle of history continues and we stubbornly refuse to evolve. In the 1960s the KKK used to stalk and harass Civil Rights Leaders and Activists everywhere they went. Some victims in Nazi Germany dealt with the same things some of us are experiencing today: defamation of character, stalking/surveillance, being verbally and physically harassed by members of the community and vandalism of property. www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/timeline/knacht.htm

The Eastern German film, The Lives of Others, shows the heavy surveillance and harassment the Stasi used against dissenters. Dissidents were vilified and blacklisted, resulting in complete decimation of their lives and isolation from their peers. Decomposition is the term for the Stasi’s destruction of a life incrementally. The U.S. counterpart to this is called Cointelpro Two.

Cointelpro Two: The authorities start a rumor campaign to recruit others to ostracize, harass and surveil/stalk the victim, sometimes even to death (Bullycide). Sex Offender or Terrorist are the memes of the Vilification Industry and innocent people are being labeled.

E-Personation can be employed to set the person up to appear as some kind of pervert or a danger to the community. Craigslisting the Person: Creating a fake and defamatory advertisement in their name. A man in Connecticut created an advertisement with his neighbors name and address, inviting men to come have sex with her. Men started showing up as she was leaving for work. Was it Cointelpro Two or just a vengeful neighbor? http://www.dailybreeze.com/latestnews/ci_14936500

The bullies also employ gaslighting to destabilize the person. Gaslighting defined: “…false information is presented with the intent of making a victim doubt his or her own memory, perception and sanity.[1] …denial by an abuser that previous abusive incidents ever occurred, up to the staging of bizarre events by the abuser with the intention of disorienting the victim.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaslighting

Gloria Naylor’s fictionalized memoir 1996 shows in grim detail how a life can be destroyed incrementally with slander, gaslighting and constant surveillance/tracking. The technology of today, enables the bullies to persecute incrementally and covertly. Cyberstalking and Cyberbaiting are the new tools used by the zealots to punish people that disagree with their Neo-Conservative agenda.

Mainstream media should be reporting about these abuses, but they are reticent. Advertising dollars trump real journalism and if the news is unpopular, then it is suppressed. Only independent news sources even mention Cointelpro Two and The New McCarthyism.

In Nazi Germany, censorship and propaganda was used frequently and enabled the Nazis to recruit. Propaganda was also used to pacify the rest of the public. Collaborators like Filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl created propaganda films showing the public a very different reality than what the Roma, Jews, Dissidents, LGBT and other victims of The Holocaust were really experiencing in the camps. Her films showed happy people exercising, working or just going about their day.

On our local News in Seattle there is more and more Soft News, but also a focus on local crime. The Soft News ranges from Fun Runs to interviews with Sports fans. Peace marches or non-violent acts of Civil Disobedience are often over-looked. Abuses against activists seem to be completely ignored. In Kurt Vonnegut’s, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, Eliot Rosewater comes home after work and as usual his parents are watching the “Happy News.” When this book was written, there was far less Soft News aired, so imagine Vonnegut’s satirical statement on the news, if it were written today.

There are other media distractions and manipulations however. Naomi Wolf’s The Guardian UK article: Cheaters and the Sinister Normalization of our Surveillance Society, raises a timely warning about modern media popularizing punishment, stalking and surveillance with shows like the Reality series, Cheaters. The Show’s description: “Syndicated series featuring detectives with hidden cameras staking out the wayward and amorous.” Reality shows like Big Brother also diminish the importance of privacy and popularizes bullying and backbiting. Undercover Boss is another show that appears to be making surveillance of citizens mainstream and it is also an attack on workers by deifying management and punishing the worker.

This is how some Americans spend their leisure time, by either watching or participating in the surveillance of citizen’s private lives. It’s a gross abuse of the Fourth Amendment and this departure from the ideals of Democracy shows the decline of our common sense, ethics and personal responsibility to others. The people of the world look to the United States as a symbol of Democracy, a symbol of freedom. Is it just a façade?

Mike German Youtube
www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/timeline/knacht.htm
http://www.dailybreeze.com/latestnews/ci_14936500
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaslighting

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The Popular Liberal

In Bullying, Civil Rights, Education, Mobbing, Politics, Religion, World Relations on June 15, 2017 at 22:17

By Seana Sperling

When did Liberal become a dirty word? I see all sorts of jabs at liberals online and even a search for “Famous Liberals.” brought up the haters. There were online articles that rallied the masses to “Boycott Liberalism,” to articles with titles such as, The Twenty Most Annoying Liberals in the U.S. Urban Dictionary had one post claiming that extreme liberals were selfish crazies that brainwash people. This was posted anonymously. http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=liberal

What is a Liberal exactly? New York Times Columnist, Paul Krugman said, “I believe in a relatively equal society, supported by institutions that limit extremes of wealth and poverty. I believe in democracy, civil liberties, and the rule of law. That makes me a liberal, and I’m proud of it.” That sums it up for me too. So why are liberals and even the word under attack?

Aside from other issues, Liberal Media reports on corrupt business practices and corruption in politics. Liberals tend to be whistleblowers. Would we have had a Woodward and Bernstein working at F.O.X. News? Conservative media tends to gloss over uncomfortable truths about certain things because of their sponsors while liberal media exposes the facts.

Unfortunately when a term such as Liberal is disparaged, the folks who do not burrow into definitions will begin to disconnect themselves from the label for fear of becoming unpopular. In our attention-starved, insecure society, people fear being unpopular more than anything else. This makes it easy for the spinners, the propaganda artists.

The vilification of the word Liberal reminds me of when neo-conservative, Rush Limbaugh went after feminists. His infamous moniker for us was, Femi-nazi. Some began saying we were men-haters. As a result, some people became hesitant to call themselves Feminist (because they feared losing their popularity). Feminists don’t hate men and in fact many men consider themselves to be feminist. Do you think everyone should have equal rights? Then you are a Feminist as well as a Liberal.

I am a liberal, but I’m nobody. So, let’s take a look at the prominent liberals of the U.S. Bruce Springsteen, Michael Moore and Bill Maher are liberals. Alec Baldwin, Sean Penn, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, Keith Olbermann, Reverend Al Sharpton, President Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Al Gore are all known liberals. Many of these same people were also listed in the following article, 10 Liberals, Conservatives Love to Hate http://www.listosaur.com/politics/10-liberals-that-conservatives-love-to-hate/ Why the hatred? These are good people.

Here are some prominent conservatives: G.W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, the Koch Brothers, Sarah Palin, Paul Ryan, Scott Wilson, and Ann Coulter. Now here’s a conundrum. My guess is that these people would say they believe in equal rights for everyone. Therefore, shouldn’t they be calling themselves Liberals and Feminists? (They should, unless of course they do not, “practice what they preach.”)

There are many liberals from U.S. History as well, both Republican and Democrat. Interestingly, these historical figures are not targets of hatred. George Washington, John Adams, James Madison, Benjamin Franklin, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., John Quincy Adams, Abraham Lincoln, Jane Addams, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Florence Kelly, and Theodore Roosevelt were all liberals. So, if America is supposed to be a conservative republic and Liberal is such a dirty word, then why were the framers of the Constitution and defenders of Democracy primarily liberals?

Remember back in Junior High, when one group decided to go after someone with ridicule and slander? As a result of the ridicule, others would either pack up against the person or just shun them for fear of becoming unpopular. The same type of schoolyard behavior seems to be taking place at a grander level in this country. Some people can be manipulated into believing that liberals are evil and that the world is only 10,000 years old.

It’s all about Spin. It’s all about vilifying one thing to gain popularity for the opposite. Those who fear losing their popularity because of the label of Liberal bend to the whims of the spinners. Be careful. I hear that popularity is the gateway drug to acquiescence.

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