Censorship USA & the Big Lie

March 10, 2018

The power of the ruling plutocracy of the United States depends, more than anything else, on censorship: censorship to make people believe a Big Lie. The Big Lie is that only a minuscule and hence impotent minority of people in the United States think it would be a good idea to remove the rich from power to have real, not fake, democracy with no rich and no poor (a.k.a. have an egalitarian revolution.)

The Big Lie says it is therefore impossible to remove the rich from power and crazy to even talk about doing it, never mind actually organizing a serious movement to make it happen. The Big Lie prevents people from removing the rich from power. All the rich have to do to stay in power is to make sure people keep on believing the Big Lie.

The Big Lie Requires Big Censorship

But the Big Lie requires Big Censorship, because the truth is that the vast majority of ordinary people would LOVE to remove the rich from power to have real, not fake, democracy with no rich and no poor, and they will say so when anybody ever asks them. I have asked thousands of random people this question, and made a video of me doing it on the streets of many neighborhoods of Boston (view it at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95b3SmBYwfU ). More than 90% of random people on the street say the egalitarian revolutionary idea is a good (or great!) idea. And they also say (in this related video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jr8Yf2f3mYw ) that if an organization sincerely advocated egalitarian revolution then they would support that organization MORE, not less.

To make people believe the Big Lie the ruling class must censor from the mass and alternative media (which it controls) all expressions of egalitarian revolutionary aspiration. This is why you have never heard or seen anybody on radio or TV or in a mass circulation newspaper or magazine say anything such as, "I think we should remove the rich from power to have real, not fake, democracy with no rich and no poor."

This is also why the Gallup Poll company refused, when I offered to pay them their full price, to do a national poll asking people if they think it is a good idea or a bad idea to remove the rich from power to have real, not fake, democracy with no rich and no poor. (See my email correspondence with the Gallup Co. below.)

This is also why Amy Goodman's Democracy Now! refused to ask random people in the U.S. the same question (about whether they think it's a good idea or a bad idea to remove the rich from power, etc.) and tell its audience how people answered. I, and several other people, formally requested that Democracy Now! interview random people across the United States this way. We used the radio show's own "suggestion for stories" window on its website to make our suggestion, and we included the video of my interviewing random people on the streets of Boston as an example of the kind of thing they could do. We pointed out that Democracy Now!'s audience would be extremely interested in knowing how ordinary people around the nation answered this question. Democracy Now! ignored the suggestion.

The ruling class fears it would be removed from power if we ever learned the truth about ourselves, that we are the vast majority--not a hopelessly tiny and weak minority--in wanting an egalitarian revolution. This is why the ruling class uses extreme censorship to protect its Big Lie.

Censorship is Why People Aren't Aiming to Remove the Rich from Power

This total censorship makes people who have an egalitarian revolutionary aspiration feel that they are all alone in having it. It makes people think that they dare not "confess" their egalitarian revolutionary aspiration to anybody else for fear of being seen as a crazy idiot. This censorship makes the rank-and-file in reform efforts (such as people fighting for a $15/hr minimum wage, or teachers waging a strike for decent pay, or tenants fighting against unjust evictions, etc.) believe that they would LOSE public support if they dared to express the egalitarian revolutionary aspiration that they actually have. This is why such people don't call for removing the rich from power to have real, not fake, democracy with no rich and no poor. It's not because they wouldn't LOVE that. It's because they believe the Big Lie. They don't know the censored truth, which is that they would GAIN support from the general public if they advocated their egalitarian revoutionary aspiration.

With respect to any serious effort to build an egalitarian revolutionary movement, this censorship paralyzes people with hopelessness. If you are reading this article, you too have likely been paralyzed with hopelessness when it comes to actually removing the rich from power, as opposed merely to aiming for a band aid reform that leaves the plutocracy totally in power.

Once people know that they are the vast majority in wanting to remove the rich from power, then it becomes possible to actually remove the rich from power in the manner I discuss here: https://www.pdrboston.org/how-we-can-remove-the-rich-from-power . (You can read about my personal experience in 1969 that taught me what happens when people discover they are not alone in havng an anti-establishment aspiration. I wrote about it in "What Causes a Political Sea Change?")

How the Gallup Poll Co. Censored the Truth to Protect the Big Lie

I contacted the Gallup Poll company division of Gallup, Inc. in October of 2016 to pay for a national poll of all United States residents (not just registered voters) asking just two yes-or-no questions. (I didn’t tell them what the questions were at first, but the questions asked if the message on the PDR button--"Let's remove the rich from power to have real, not fake, democracy with no rich and no poor"--was a good idea or a bad idea.) I spoke to Gallup representatives on two occasions by telephone. They were very friendly, said they could do what I wanted, and seemed pleased to take my money. But as soon as they heard what the exact questions were that I wanted in the poll, they said they would not do it. Here are the exact questions I put in my last email to the Gallup representative:

Some people say, "Let's remove the rich from power, have real--not fake--democracy, with no rich and no poor."

Q #1. If this were really possible, would you like it to happen?

Yes or No (or not sure)

Q #2. If you knew that an organization sincerely wanted this to happen, would that make you think better or worse of the organization?

Better or Worse (or not sure)

Here’s the reply I received after I sent the exact questions I wanted:

From: "Joe Daly" <Joe_Daly@gallup.com>
To: "John Spritzler" <spritzler@comcast.net>
Sent: Friday, October 14, 2016 1:17:26 PM
Subject: RE: Draft of two questions for national public release poll (all adult Americans)

Hi John,

Thanks for providing this information. Upon review this is not a project we can move forward with. For the reasons we discussed yesterday – scope or work and length of engagement. Additionally, the questions and subsequent data would not be the right fit for Gallup.

Thanks again for your interest in our organization.

All the best,
Joe

There were no “reasons we discussed yesterday—scope or work and length of engagement”; that was just a dodge. Clearly however, as Joe Daly said, “the questions and subsequent data would not be the right fit for Gallup.” Gallup is not in the business of undermining the power of the ruling class by informing the public that the vast majority wants to remove the rich from power to have real—not fake—democracy with no rich and no poor. (Other polling companies informed me they could only poll registered voters or people online, which is not suitable in this context.)