It's not paranoia if they really are out to get you
this post was submitted on 28 Jan 2026
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Manufacturing Consent
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That's the fucked up part. It is still called paranoia when there's a valid reason to think someone is out to get you.
I'd like to imagine a passage like that is a bit if civil disobedience by the journalist
They may be required to say Maduro's claims were without merit, due to fear of reprisal/lawsuits from the white house, so instead decided to put the the statements next to each other
Even a MAGA supported will notice the obvious contradiction this way
MAGA voters are after all, famous for not only their high level reading skills (some of them even graduated high school!), but also their critical thinking skills. I mean, who hasn't read one of their well crafted and well reasoned arguments that have been posted all over Fuckbook and X/Shitter for the last decade?
We all know what scholarly and level-headed individuals they are, and they definitely scour CNN articles with a fine-toothed comb to try to understand the motives behind the writing.
but, but, muh media fact bias check!
They are hard at work on Iran now too. Idk about cnn because I'm not dumb enough to watch them, but all the influence agents online, including on lemmy here, who knew they would bother, are all pumping it. Poor Iranians harmed by their government, as if the US didn't orchestrate the entire thing. No government is good, it doesn't justify military incursions that will just make everything worse. As if they give a fuck about protesters, they threw them all under the bus associating them with the enemy that just attacked them with impunity.
I strongly disagree on this point. The US almost certainly didn't orchestrate Iran. Mossad maybe had some ability there (they retain sleeper agents in Iran) but the US has very limited capabilities there. Iranians have long standing discontent against their government that eventually boiled over. I would say that the US and Israel would definitely throw gas on the fire any way they could but doubt very much they started it.
The US and Israel openly bragged about staging the riots and the targets of the terrorist attacks look very organized.
They also indirectly started the protests with the economic sanctions. For more info see https://youtu.be/Y9Yt-g_CptI
They strangled tje ecpnomy creating the discontent. And you better believe they are neck deep inflaming tensions, stoking violence.
I think it is not believable that a rational informed person could disagree with these points frankly. Unless you were born yesterday.
Source, as evidence, instead of relying on a screenshot of a screenshot:
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/01/27/politics/cia-venezuela-foothold
Thank you. So the context, which the screenshot of a screenshot doesn't show you is that these are the final paragraphs summarizing the rest of the article (which is cut out) was all about how the CIA was very much involved.
Reading the whole thing* in that context* I don't see the cognitive dissonance - more, that it's agreeing that he was right all along that the CIA was in fact fucking around with their country.
Did you try reading the yellow highlighted text in the screenshot?
Gaslighting doesn’t exist, it's a term you made up because you're crazy
Americans are as literate, on average, as a 4 yo Chinese kid. They just get the feel for things ("America bad? No, Maduro bad. Maduro crazy!").
Let's not hyperbolize an already bleak fact. The average american reads at a 7th-8th grade level, and 54% of Americans read below a 6th grade level
It's getting slowly worse post-covid though
https://www.theglobalstatistics.com/literacy-rate-in-the-united-states/
Interesting source and I've worked with NCES data (before they were mostly fired last year) so I'm familiar with the findings. There's obviously tons of reasons, but the state by state difference is the more interesting aspect to me. Linguistic minorities being tested in English, for instance.
That said, as someone who studied this quite a bit in graduate school, I know a few big reasons. Economic disparity is one of the biggest, and that itself lends itself to all sorts of things like lower school quality, no breakfast, additional employment during teenage years, pollution, no parents to help with homework due to work, etc. My advisor was basically just running an experiment giving families basic income and the kids education shot up extremely fast.
But we also have anti-intellectual culture issues, racism in how we address bilingualism (including in CA where 1990s ppl voted to ban bilingual education in sheer ignorance) and so on. All this impacts reading comprehension, but not nearly as much as the economic factors for some reason.
Thank you for the detailed reply.
I would agree, anecdotally, from my time in social work. Kids that missed meals, kids that had parents not paying attention to them or not interacting at the end of the day (often because they're still at work, single parenting is hell), all little tiny factors that build up over years until you're not a few weeks behind, you're years behind your peers.
I've seen firsthand what happens to kids with decent brains when they're not utilized and raised in an anti-intellectual household. Lots of wasted potential, and unfortunately, they become a very easy-to-influence group.
I'm sorry, I couldn't stop myself. 😂 But thanks for the proper info!
Yeah but those are american grades
Americans are as literate, on average, as a 4 yo Chinese kid.
At least we have the freedom to talk about Tenny Man Square, you stupid tankie!
Literally 1967 by Jorjor Well
It was just a one-off happenstance I am sure!
its so bad, my brain needs me to believe its intentionally calling our military intelligence apparatus out, but i know it isn't.
Well, maybe they weren’t “plotting” to overthrow him. Maybe they just got bored that day and threw a dart at a map!
Maduro been real quiet since the US government kidnapping him dropped?
If it’s a real news article there should be a reference right? I couldn’t find any current matching articles online.
That's impressive since someone linked it down below. https://edition.cnn.com/2026/01/27/politics/cia-venezuela-foothold
Thanks, I don’t know how I missed that.
I don't really thing we can give much if any credit to the CIA, almost promise you that Delcy Rodríguez sold Maduro out.
almost promise you that Delcy Rodríguez sold Maduro out.
Well she did probably sell out Maduro... But did you consider who she sold out to?
they should have ambushed him and stuck him in a bunker to be traded
after breaking his ribs like they did to Maduro's wife
Take your pick. She could have easily fired of a text to all sorts of people in DC she's previously been associated with. And if none of the insiders had called her back, the state department would have been the obvious next choice.
The CIA is the organization in charge of foreign regime installment operations. She was approached.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jan/22/delcy-rodriguez-capture-maduro-venezuela
Did you actually read the article you just linked to me cause it gives every indication that she did the approaching. She's ambitious and I'd bet 20 dollars she reached out first.
The military of venezuela sold maduro out. Delcy wasn't in a position to sell anything. The generals were when they gave intelligence on maduro and loyalists and stand down orders to allow low flying helicopters to make the US look tough.
The US military would've never agreed to that mission without a deal with venezuela's military, mobilized, targeting the most protected spot in the country. They couldn't reliably take out all the weapons systems that could hit helicopters, including rpg's and shoulder fired weapons, machine guns some truck mounted, manpads.
So it stands to reason the military is the de facto ruler of venezuela, and it's civilian leadership are puppets, being overseen by the military to sell out the assets and give their tribute to the US. This is a template from the cold war, I'm shocked our news is so bad none of them have broached this even with their audiences.
I’m shocked our news is so bad none of them have broached this even with their audiences.
Media Consolidation. Shouldn't be a shock to anyone. It's gotten noticeably worse in the last couple decades.
Getting even worse right now. And the fight went out of all the big establishment news anyway, they sucked before but still hated the president, now they surrendered, and consolidation of news and entertainment continues.