Thursday, April 27, 2023

We Are Being Desensitized

 

                                                     We Are Being Desensitized

                                                      Junious Ricardo Stanton

                                                                 


Long-term socialization effects of the mass media are also quite likely increased by the way the mass media and video games affect emotions. Repeated exposures to emotionally activating media or video games can lead to habituation of certain natural emotional reactions. This process is called ‘desensitization.’ Negative emotions experienced automatically by viewers in response to a particular violent or gory scene decline in intensity after many exposures. For example, increased heart rates, perspiration, and self-reports of discomfort often accompany exposure to blood and gore. However, with repeated exposures, this negative emotional response habituates, and the child becomes ‘desensitized.’ The child can then think about and plan proactive aggressive acts without experiencing negative affect.” The Impact of Electronic Media Violence: Scientific Theory and Research by L. Rowell Huesmann https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2704015/


As we look at what is happening in our country we are forced to admit we live in a violent society, a culture where we are inundated with daily reports and images of hurt, harm and murder, individual attacks, mass shootings and assaults. It’s as if we are going mad but when we stop to analyze what’s going on we see the culture we live in condones and encourages antisocial behavior. The ongoing escalation in violence in the US, in my opinion, coincides with the increase of violence promoted and shown in the mass media which is now ubiquitous and omnipresent.

The availability of violent programming in film, television, streaming services and video games are having a devastating impact on our psyches and behavior, especially in young children. “Children in the United States spend an average of between three and four hours per day viewing television and the best studies have shown that over 60% of programs contain some violence, and about 40% of those contain heavy violence. Children are also spending an increasingly large amount of time playing video games, most of which contain violence. Video game units are now present in 83% of homes with children. In 2004, children spent 49 minutes per day playing video, and on any given day, 52% of children ages 8–18 years play a video game games. Video game use peaks during middle childhood with an average of 65 minutes per day for 8–10 year-olds, and declines to 33 minutes per day for 15–18 year-olds. And most of these games are violent; 94% of games rated (by the video game industry) as appropriate for teens are described as containing violence, and ratings by independent researchers suggest that the real percentage may be even higher. No published study has quantified the violence in games rated ‘M’ for mature—presumably, these are even more likely to be violent.” The Impact of Electronic Media Violence: Scientific Theory and Research by L. Rowell Huesmann https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2704015/

You say, so what? Just watching violence on television or playing violent video games doesn’t make a person violent or induce them to act inappropriately. Well, that is the question. Do watching violent programming and playing violent video games impact our psyche and undermine human impulse control? There are studies that show this is indeed the case. “More recent studies have confirmed that high exposure to television violence for children and adolescents is also associated with higher levels of aggression and violent behavior. Exposure to violence shown through media is consistently associated with problem behaviors, such as increases in aggression and anxiety. Children could also end up with lower empathy and compassion for others.

Some children exposed to various forms of media violence – not just television violence but violence on the internet, in movies and in video games – can come to view the world as a mean, scary place where they are not safe and they can do little to protect themselves from harm. This is a particular problem for very young children, such as those under the age of six, who have difficulty distinguishing reality from fantasy.” Here’s how witnessing violence harms children’s mental health https://theconversation.com/heres-how-witnessing-violence-harms-childrens-mental-health-91971

What we are experiencing is more and more children are showing less empathy and compassion for others. While media is not the sole cause, media consumption is a major factor. Our children watch around five hours of television per day and this doesn’t include other media. “Most television programming contains violence. Children who witness considerable media violence can become desensitized — or less shocked by violence, less sensitive to the pain and suffering of others, and less likely to show empathy for victims of violence. Violent media — and specifically violent video games — desensitize children. Many popular games are even similar to modern military training techniques that desensitize soldiers to killing. For example, only about 20 percent of soldiers in World War II actually were able to shoot the enemy. However, during the Vietnam War, 90 percent of soldiers could shoot and kill without hesitation. The change was attributed to new training procedures that included having soldiers practice shooting human-shaped figures rather than bulls-eyes (Grossman and Siddle, 1999). Lifelike video game violence desensitizes children in the same way, and leads to automaticity — or the learning of a behavior to the point that it becomes reflexive.” How violence in media effects children’s behavior by Terry Levy https://evergreenpsychotherapycenter.com/violence-media-affects-childrens-behavior/

Many parents lack empathy or they are chronically stressed out, frustrated and angry; and their children emulate them thus passing their dysfunction onto another generation. What can we do to address this pressing problem? In future articles we’ll look at practical ways we can heal ourselves and our community.

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Thursday, April 20, 2023

Insanity Abounds

 

                                                                       Insanity Abounds 

                                                        Junious Ricardo Stanton 


                                                                     


“If the social order judges success by material gain, the most successful will be the most corruptible and selfish.” Ancient Nile Valley Proverb 

 

      The American Empire is in rapid decline because of its’ immense reliance on technology, its adoration of materialism and worship of power. The root of its devolution is its rejection of wisdom and humanitarian values. From its inception the United States was built upon covetousness, the theft and expropriation of indigenous people’s lands, the abuse, violation and extermination of the native inhabitants, subjecting them to massive social and ecological disruption and oppression. 

Under the guise of “civilizing” savages, bringing Christianity to the heathen and providing a land of opportunity for themselves, Europeans plundered, raped and pillaged the land, reshaping it into their image making it profitable using the free labor of a myriad of racial and ethnic groups beginning with their own so called “indentured” bonds people. 

      This same pattern replicated around the globe as Europeans used sea piracy, invasion and colonization to enrich their ruling classes, monarchs, Popes and early capitalists.; all the while ignoring the basic values and philosophy of the Christian religion, they professed to be spreading to benefit humanity! 

        The misanthropes who guided the European nation states and their religious and economic systems thought the spiritual laws that govern the universe did not apply to them. Their behaviors became the true culture, its ethos, its role model and foundation, not the noble sounding words in their founding documents, or the wording of their laws and religious services. For centuries they thought they were immune to retribution, they thought they could engage in immoral behavior without consequence.

          Present day America is witnessing the stark reality that you indeed reap what you sow, for every thought, word and deed there is an equal consequence! One consequence is a lack of trust in the government, the media or major institutions. As we watch the financial system implode, we are being told by the ruling class, “the system is sound”.  As the standards of living, the life span and general sense of wellbeing erodes, we are told things are fine, move along nothing to see here. As we experience the collapse of the social order, we are told this is the “new normal” and so on and so on. 

            Each day we are subjected to more and more Orwellian doublespeak where lies are passed off as truth, war is labeled peace, decadence is lauded as progress, pilferage is deemed giving, rampant deep-seated inflation is called “transitory” and induced sickness is called healing!  We live in an upside-down world, a Bizzaro World like in the D.C. Superman comics where a parallel Frankenstein world existed which was the polar opposite of life on Earth.

We are being conditioned to accept this unreality as real. We are being entrained, brainwashed and hypnotized to fall for the flim-flam and the okey-doke.  If the plutocrats behind this nefarious scheme have their way, things will get much, much worse! Don’t take my word for it d o some research on transhumanism, human augmentation, bio-digital convergence and the Fourth Industrial Revolution! These psychopaths truly have a god complex.

We live in what I call a reverse Ubuntu, instead of a philosophy of inclusion, interconnectedness, interdependence and mutual support, “I am because we are, we are because I am”; we are living in a predatory environment where the philosophy appears to be: might makes right, what’s mine is mine and what’s yours is mine and I’m going to take it! This type of social milieu is unsustainable! It cannot last forever and we are witnessing the unraveling of American society before our eyes.

  How can we prevent the slide most empires experience? I don’t think we can, I don’t think we have the will to change this mess; it must run its course. That doesn’t mean we have to allow the psychopaths and crazies running the show to take us down with them. We can be in it, but not of it as the saying goes. We can be here but choose not to acquiesce to the insanity, decadence and immorality all around us. We can choose to live our lives with forthright intention and moral purpose as opposed to living a willy-nilly lifestyle controlled and manipulated by people who do not have our best interests at heart.

We can for instance begin to seek wisdom by examining our lives to see what works and what doesn't. What if you were more polite, loving, empathetic and compassionate, what would your life look like? Being kind doesn’t mean being a chump or allowing folks to take advantage of you and abuse you. It is a choice to be a different person. How about trying to live an empathetic life for thirty days just to see what it would look and feel like. How about thinking before you speak, choosing your words wisely instead of just reacting or being discerning in your speech?

What if we started remembering and applying the folk wisdom of our ancestors, you know the old sayings you got tired of hearing when you were growing up like: “you can’t lay down with dogs and not rise up with fleas. Or, you never miss you water ‘til your well runs dry.

 Africans believed in the social benefit and  practicality of good character because good character contributed to a harmonious society. Our ancestors cultivated good character (the real role of culture) and we carried that with us everywhere even during the Maafa, the great tribulation of enslavement. But now we emulate what we see in the media, hear in the songs and do to play the video games.  We need to rethink the notion of good character, what it means and what are its benefits; otherwise, the insanity will continue to metastasize.

 

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Thursday, April 13, 2023

Africa Is Not Toeing the US Line on Ukraine

 

Africa Not Toeing The US Line on Ukraine

Junious Ricardo Stanton



“When President Biden announced sanctions against Russia over their February, 2022 invasion of Ukraine, he called it a battle of democracy over tyranny. He expected Africa to rally to the US lead. Unsurprisingly, not one of Africa’s 54 countries as joined US sanctions against Russia. Many are neutral; some even supporting Russia’s war to prevent NATO’s eastward expansion to Russia’s borders and gain independence of Ukrainian Donbas from Kyiv aggression that has killed thousands of Ukrainians there.” Africa All Out 54-0 Against Joining Biden’s Proxy War on Russia by Walt Zlotow Posted on April 4, 2023 https://www.antiwar.com/blog/2023/04/04/africa-all-out-54-0-against-joining-bidens-proxy-war-on-russia/

I’ve been saying for a good while now the world is choosing sides and the US/NATO/Israel axis is not the team the Global South, the Arab block, Asia nor Oceana (except for Japan, New Zealand and Australia) want to join or play with. When Russia initiated its Special Military Operation in Ukraine over a year ago the US responded by issuing multilevel sanctions against Russia and some of its citizens. Uncle Sam expected the rest of the world to dutifully go along and acquiesce to everything the US wanted.

But so far US policymakers who by the way paid for and executed the 2014 coupe d’état that toppled the democratically elected Ukrainian government and replaced it with a pro US quisling, are not having much success getting the rest of the non-Western world to go along with their plans. The Biden administration has been scrambling to get African leaders back in the fold with no success! Good for our African kin, they see the handwriting on the wall.

The US has sent the big guns to visit the African continent to get the various leaders on board with their numerous agendas such as: COVID vaccines, support for the US in Ukraine, trade and commerce etc. The African have been reluctant to go along with the US agenda. Interestingly the African continent is the lowest vaccinated continent on the planet and the COVID infection rates continent wide are extremely low! https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/  Their rejection of the vaccines paid off. Africa is buying into the climate crisis narrative but not like other regions around the world because the continent is facing real challenges with desertification, draught and food security.

The US Secretary of State, the Vice President, the First Lady and a host of lessor diplomates have visited the African continent in an effort to persuade African leaders to sign on to their various agendas. The US even sponsored a US- African Leaders Summit from December 13-15 2022 in Washington D.C. to discuss a myriad of issues supposedly designed to engage Africans as equal partners in trade, regional matters, advancing “peace and security” and reinforce the US-African commitment to “democracy and human rights.”  https://www.state.gov/africasummit/  

This is noble sounding verbiage and goals but the reality on the ground is far different. The track record of the US is not good when it comes to dealing with Africa and Africans. Thus far their overtures don’t seem to have produced the desired results. For example, African leaders have not taken America’s side in the proxy war against Russia, and for very good reason. It is the US not Russia that is engaged in mischief and neocolonial skullduggery in Africa.

“For starters, the US was delusional Africa would follow America’s proxy war on Russia. It’s the US, not Russia that is bombing Africans in Somalia, Niger and possibly others. It was the US, not Russia that supported colonialism and neo-colonialism in Africa to suppress nationalist movements assumed to be led by commies. Even if Marxists were involved, that was none of Uncle Sam’s business. Since 2008, US trained officials attempted at least 9 African coups… Instead of sanctimonious, self-serving adulations of American ideals, President Biden might consider ending US drone strikes in Africa killing many. Stop bullying African leaders to blindly support our proxy war. Remove our 29 African military bases and bring home the troops defiling Africa sovereignty. No more African coup plotting might help as well.” Africa All Out 54-0 Against Joining Biden’s Proxy War on Russia by Walt Zlotow https://www.antiwar.com/blog/2023/04/04/africa-all-out-54-0-against-joining-bidens-proxy-war-on-russia/

Uncle Sam finds himself in a dilemma and a conundrum of his own making. All of a sudden, the US wants to recognize Africa, partner with the various nations and respect their sovereignty. However this new stance belies their real history on the continent, a history of assassinations and coups instigated by the US https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-36303327, .Our African brethren are hip to the game and seem to be saying, “Actions speak louder than words.” Africans  are fully aware of the US ongoing history of imperialism and neocolonialism. https://theintercept.com/2022/01/26/burkina-faso-coup-us-military/

The most obvious example of the waning influence of American foreign policy is how the world and Africans in particular are refusing to go along with the US proxy war in Ukraine. “ “The African response to the war in Ukraine surprised the US and Europe. Not one country in Africa has joined the US led sanctions on Russia and the dominant stance of the continent has been neutrality. The US and its European allies expected strong support from Africa and strong condemnation of Russia. Instead, they got neutrality from most, a lack of condemnation of Russia from many, and the blame being placed on the US and NATO by several.” The War In Ukraine and How Africa Surprised the West by Ted Snider  https://original.antiwar.com/ted_snider/2023/04/02/the-war-in-ukraine-and-how-africa-surprised-the-west/ . Yea, good for our African brethren!

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Wednesday, April 05, 2023

Finally Truth Is Emerging

 

Finally, Truth Is Emerging

Junious Ricardo Stanton



“In August 2021 Science Magazine, a peer-reviewed academic journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, highlighted groundbreaking research out of Israel that upended the public health establishment. The research, which relied on a database enrolling some 2.5 million Israelis and was led by Tal Patalon, head of the KSM Research and Innovation Center at Maccabi Healthcare Services, and deputy Sivan Gazit, found that previous infection from Covid-19 conferred considerably stronger and longer-lasting protection against the Delta variant than vaccines.” The CDC finally admitted the science on natural immunity. What took so long? Jon Miltimore https://www.themainewire.com/2022/08/the-cdc-finally-admitted-the-science-on-natural-immunity-what-took-so-long/

 

If the COVID “pandemic” taught us anything, it was to not rush to embrace counterintuitive theories or policies that have not been fully vetted or tested. By that I mean for hundreds of years it has been known that developed immunity is an excellent way to prevent future illness and stop the spread of illnesses once the condition progresses through a community. In the past, the only people who were quarantined and shut in were the very ill, those who contracted a disease and were laid low by it. The rest of the community went about their normal activities taking precautions not to become immune compromised or infected.

With SARS-COV-2, those customs were turned on their head.  Irrationally, “public health officials”, government bureaucrats and “philanthropists” aggressively waged war on conventional public health practices. Anyone who dared to question or challenge their new “science” was demonized, marginalized, ostracized and threatened with loss of employment! Why, what new evidence surfaced, what new research unequivocally proved natural immunity was ineffective against the “novel coronavirus” SARS-COV-2?

Those who pushed the counter intuitive modalities never, ever once proved natural immunity was ineffective! Never. Not only that, they vilified existing inexpensive and readily available treatments opting instead to promote and even mandated inadequately tested, mRNA vaccines. They kept saying vaccines were the only solution. People like Bill Gates who stood to gain billions from the COVID injections was at the forefront of this counter intuitive movement, pushing the notion SARS-COV-2 was a global pandemic, which just in terms of the numbers it is not!

            Bill Gates is not a scientist, he is not a physician and he is not an epidemiologist! All he is is a cunningly greedy man who paid millions to squash the proven science of natural immunity, who used his influence to excoriate physicians who honored their Hippocratic Oath. Gates and his billionaire buddies used their money to control the COVID narrative. https://www.politico.com/news/2022/09/14/global-covid-pandemic-response-bill-gates-partners-00053969 They influenced public health officials to mandate “vaccines” and technology they have financial stakes in, this is a major conflict of interest! https://www.cjr.org/criticism/gates-foundation-journalism-funding.php  Gates and his posse of billionaires control the narrative, and it was a known fact. “It is not inconceivable that you might find yourself some day reading a story about a Gates-funded health project, written up in a newspaper that gets its health coverage underwritten by Gates, reported by a journalist who attended a Gates-funded journalism training program, citing data collected and analysed by scientists with grants from Gates. What happens when we need to move beyond the success stories? If the Gates Foundation influences governments, NGOs, and the media on global health, who will be able to offer objective feedback on its goals, practices, and impact? If expensive polio and malaria eradication efforts, pursued not just by Gates but by the entire global health community at Gates' urging, fail, to whom will Gates be accountable for that failure? Currently the foundation is ultimately accountable for its success or failure only to the four decision-makers on its board.” Gates- A benevolent Dictator For Public Health? Laura Freschi, Alanna Shaikh https://philanthropynewsdigest.org/features/alliance-pnd/gates-a-benevolent-dictator-for-public-health

            Gates is one of the prime movers behind the push for global vaccinations. He funds an organization that promotes global vaccination. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4166931/ Well thank goodness the tide is rolling back, thanks to numerous successful lawsuits, the truth is coming out.

Natural immunity is quite effective, it’s natural, it doesn’t cost a dime and it is much longer lasting than the unsafe, ineffective injections pushed by Gates and Co. A successful lawsuit has forced the vaccine pushers to admit natural immunity is just as if not more effective and longer lasting in protecting from SARS-COV-2!

“From the very beginning, NCLA challenged discrimination against the naturally immune by the government and employers. We consulted top scientists and poured over multiple studies, which all confirmed that natural immunity is at least as effective as a vaccine. Unfortunately, it is too late for tens of thousands of Americans, who lost their livelihoods for merely exercising their constitutional rights to bodily autonomy by declining an experimental vaccine that was medically unnecessary for them. CDC should apologize to all naturally immune Americans who were coerced into getting vaccinated or fired because of the agency’s deceptive, irrational, unscientific guidance—and employers should rehire those workers immediately.” - Jenin Younes, Litigation Counsel, NCLA  https://nclalegal.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/PRESS-RELEASE_CDC-updated-guidance_Final.pdf

Work to cultivate your ability to muster a natural immunity response to all potential health challenges, natural immunity baby!

                                               

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