Definition of useful idiot: a naive or credulous person
who
can be manipulated or exploited to advance a cause or political agenda.
It was one task of the KGB [in 1982] to apply its skills of secrecy and
deception to projecting the Soviet party's influence. Today there are
Chinese and Russian troll farms that produce misinformation to keep
both left and right at each other's throats. Discord and chaos is their
goal.
Here is a quick test.
If you donate to a political organization without
knowing how or
where they actually use the money, you might be a useful idiot.
If you find yourself having to defend or explain
political
slogans you don't actually believe in, like "Defund The Police" doesn't
actually mean defunding the police, you might be a useful idiot.
If you join a protest march or rally in order to
feel
like you're
"doing something", you might be a useful idiot.
If you continue to rationalize and justify violence
against
innocent business owners, police or bronze statues, you might be a
useful idiot.
If you support a political organization because of
what
they say
they are against but are ignorant of what they claim they are for, you
might be a useful idiot.
If your Facebook, Twitter or Instagram feed
contains a
black
square in the past 60 days, you might be a useful idiot.
If you support COVID-19 government orders to wear a
mask as legal
- unless someone feels the need to scream in the face of a police
officer, you might be a useful idiot.
If your support for police or justice reform
includes a
checklist
of ideas like government-mandated vegetarianism, carbon-taxes on
manufacturers and higher taxes on the wealthy, you might be a useful
idiot.
If you claim to support generic ideas such as
"Black
Lives
Matter" but then donate to organizations like Planned Parenthood, you
might be a useful idiot.
If you are against The 2nd Amendment but also
support
defunding
the police, you might be a useful idiot.
If you claim to defer to science when the data
supports
your
political ideals but then ignore it when it inconveniently does not,
you might be a useful idiot.
If you find yourself parroting vague aphorisms like
"No
Justice,
No Peace" while claiming to be against violent protesters, you might be
a useful idiot.
If you claim 1st Amendment protections for speech
and
public
assembly for protesters but then support government lockdowns for
public health reasons, you might be a useful idiot.
If you believe you can simultaneously support the
Black
Lives
Matter or Antifa organizations and the US
Constitution, you might be a useful idiot.
If you are using an iPhone to Tweet a selfie
wearing a
#BLM
T-shirt but believe Capitalism is part of the problem, you might be a
useful idiot.
If you feel guilty because of your skin color or
something your
dead ancestors did, you might be a useful idiot.
If you support government-funded abortions for
Black/Brown
communities but are opposed to government-funded abstinence education,
you might be a useful idiot.
If you carry a sign supporting BLM, Antifa or
Defund
the Police
and don't see Carl Marx when you look in the mirror, you might be a
useful idiot.
If you define generic words such as 'looting' or
'vandalism' as
inherently racist, you might be a useful idiot.
If you believe teenagers robbing beer from a CVS is
some form of
reparations for slavery, you might be a useful idiot.
If you believe anything a white person has achieved
or
owns is
proof that systemic racism exists, you might be a useful idiot.
If your ideas come from the "Main Stream Media" from
either side of
the
political spectrum or from biased web sites pushing their agenda you
are being manipulated by coordinated
misinformation. Look at this short clip to see what I
mean.
So how do you avoid the pitfalls of manipulation by
the
media? Simple,
do your own homework. Look for primary sources to verify the message.
Be very suspicious of something that just feels right to you, because
you already have biases. Beware of Chinese and Russian
troll farms; they feed your biases and are designed to get both left
and right to hate each other. Find sources that have a track record of
being factually right. Google, YouTube, et. al. manipulate search
results by putting results that agree with their agenda first, so you
will need to go further down in the search results to find unbiased
results. Be aware, don't be a pawn!