Please do your own research. The information I share is only a catalyst to expanding ones confined consciousness. I have NO desire for anyone to blindly believe or agree with what I share. Seek the truth for yourself and put your own puzzle together that has been presented to you. I'm not here to teach, preach or lead, but rather assist in awakening the consciousness of the collective from its temporary dormancy.
Historical Court Case – The Fluoride Cover Up Will Soon Be Exposed
A historical trial weighing the risks of water fluoridation is set to begin in San Francisco on Monday June 8.
For the last four years, attorneys with the Fluoride Action Network have been fighting a legal battle against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over whether water fluoridation violates the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). A recent ruling by the judge in the case has now set the stage for a federal trial which will include three international experts in neurotoxicity testifying on the dangers of water fluoridation.
The Fluoride Action Network (FAN) is set to argue that water fluoridation violates the TSCA provisions which prohibit the “particular use” of a chemical which has been found to present an unreasonable risk to the general public. Under section 21 of the TSCA citizens are allowed to petition the EPA to regulate or ban individual chemicals.
The FAN began their legal battle in November 2016 when they joined with five organizations and five individuals to present a Citizens’ Petition under Section 21 of TSCA to the EPA. The Citizens’ Petition calls on the EPA to prohibit the addition of fluoridation chemicals to U.S. water based on the growing body of evidence showing that fluoride is a neurotoxin at doses currently used in communities around the United States.
The plaintiffs in the case include: FAN, Moms Against Fluoridation, Food & Water Watch, the American Academy of Environmental Medicine, the International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology and the Organic Consumers Association.
The plaintiffs’ have presented studies to the court detailing the evidence of neurotoxic harm as part of their Proposed Findings of Fact. Dr. Paul Connett, PhD, director of FAN, points to a number of recent studies detailing the affect of fluoridation on IQ levels.
“As of 2020 there have been 72 fluoride-IQ studies, of which 64 found a lower IQ among children with higher fluoride exposure,” Connett stated. “Many of the earlier studies were in places with elevated natural fluoride levels. There is now very strong evidence that fluoride damages both the fetal and infant brain at the levels used in artificially fluoridated areas.”
While the court will allow FAN to present evidence related to the harms caused by water fluoridation, the court has stated that the EPA cannot present information related to the purported benefits of fluoridation. The move was seen as a victory for FAN and opponents of fluoridation. The EPA also attempted to exclude three experts from speaking at the trial. However, the court over ruled the agency and will allow the expert testimony. Experts include Dr. Philippe Grandjean of Harvard and the University of Southern Denmark, Dr. Howard Hu of the University of Washington, and Dr. Bruce Lanphear of Simon Fraser University in British Columbia.
The trial is set to begin on June 8th via Zoom. I will be reporting on the trial for The Last American Vagabond. Stay tuned for daily video reports and articles.
What is Fluoride?
The substances added to municipal water supplies known by the name “fluoride” are actually a combination of unpurified byproducts of phosphate mining. In the United States thousands of tons of fluorosilicic acid is recovered from phosphoric acid plants and then used for water fluoridation. During this process the fluoride ion is created.
This process of taking waste from the phosphate industry and putting it into drinking water has long been criticized for its effects on human health and the environment. It is well known that water fluoridation has led to dental fluorosis for millions of children. This discoloring of the teeth was called “cosmetically objectionable” by the Centers for Disease Control.
Beyond the cosmetic effect there have been several studies indicating overwhelming health issues related to fluoride, especially for children. Another study found a connection between exposure to water fluoridated at relatively low concentrations and a reduced IQ among children.
As recent as September 2017 the journal Environmental Health Perspectives published the study “Prenatal Fluoride Exposure and Cognitive Outcomes in Children at 4 and 6–12 Years of Age in Mexico,” examining the results of prenatal exposure to fluoride and the potential health concerns. The researchers called the study “one of the first and largest longitudinal epidemiological studies to exist that either address the association of early life exposure to fluoride to childhood intelligence or study the association of fluoride and cognition using individual biomarker of fluoride exposure.” The study was funded in part by the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
The researchers found that higher prenatal fluoride exposure was associated with lower scores on tests for cognitive function at age four, and between ages six and twelve. The researchers acknowledge that their results are “somewhat consistent” with past ecological studies which indicate children living in areas of high fluoride exposure have lower IQ scores than those in low-exposure areas.
A study published in the journal General Dentistry warns that infants are at risk of dental fluorosis due to overexposure from fluoride in commercially available infant foods. The researchers analyzed 360 different samples of 20 different foods ranging from fruits and vegetables, chicken, turkey, beef, and vegetarian dinners. Chicken products had the highest concentrations of fluoride, followed by turkey. The New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation (NYSCOF) reports that the fluoride levels were due to pesticides, fertilizers, soil, groundwater, and/or fluoridated water. The high levels found in the chicken and turkey can be attributed to “fluoride-saturated bone dust” involved in the process of mechanically separating the meat.
Another study published in Environmental Health found a potential connection between fluoride exposure and the prevalence of adult attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children. The researchers studied data on ADHD among children age four to seventeen collected in 2003, 2007 and 2011 as part of the National Survey of Children’s Health, as well as state water fluoridation data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) collected between 1992 and 2008 . It is the first study to analyze the relationship between exposure to fluoridated water and ADHD prevalence.
The team discovered that children living in areas with a majority of the population receiving fluoridated water from public water systems “tended to have a greater proportion of children and adolescents diagnosed with ADHD. ” The researchers concluded that:
“this study has empirically demonstrated an association between more widespread exposure to fluoridated water and increased ADHD prevalence in U.S. children and adolescents, even after controlling for socioeconomic status (SES). The findings suggest that fluoridated water may be an environmental risk factor for ADHD.”
In addition to these studies related to fluoride and children, dozens of other studies have indicated a variety of health problems. A recent study published in the Journal of Analytical Chemistry indicates that fluoride ions found in fluoridated water and toothpaste may lead to an increase in Urinary Stone Disease (USD). The study was conducted by chemists from Russia and Australia, led by Pavel Nesterenko at the University of Tasmania. The team studied 20 urinary stones from patients at a Russian hospital and discovered fluoride ions in 80% of the stones. This could be due to high levels of fluoride in patients’ urine, possibly from drinking water containing fluorides and ingesting fluoride toothpaste.
A study published in the BMJ’s Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health confirmed fluoride’s negative effect on the thyroid gland and a possible connection to depression, weight gain, and other negative health effects. Researchers with the University of Kent in England examined thyroid activity for those in areas with fluoridated water and those without. The team examined 95 percent of the English population in 2012 and 2013 and found that high rates of underactive thyroid were 30% more likely in areas with high fluoride concentration. An underactive thyroid can lead to depression, weight gain, fatigue and aching muscles.
Question Everything, Come To Your Own Conclusions.
If you were a woman with painful, cystic breasts who lived in the 1800’s — your doctor might have advised you to “paint your breasts” with iodine. Some doctors even injected iodine directly into the breasts or ovaries to heal cysts.
Your doctor may have heard about it by word of mouth from the women he treated. Imagine how difficult word of mouth was back then — long before fast transportation and instant messaging.
Yet — this was real evidenced based medicine — shared for free by women who cared about each other. And you can bet — if it didn’t work — those same women would have told you!
Iodine had a rich healing history, long before the 1800’s. Prior to that, seaweed was used in healing treatments, but no one knew it was the iodine in it that did the healing.
So why is it that most women today have never heard about painting cystic breasts or ovaries with iodine? How did this simple yet fundamentally proven, effective treatment get lost in the archives of ancient medicine?
And iodine wasn’t just used for cysts. In 1829, a Paris doctor named Jean Lugol, created Lugol’s Solution from 5% iodine and 10% potassium iodide combined with distilled water. This was formulated for lung diseases, which were prevalent in Europe at the time. Word of mouth spread quickly. Doctors of this era had a saying:
“If you know not where or why, use you then K and I.”
(KI = potassium iodide) from “The Iodine Crisis” book by Lynne Farrow.
Iodine was used for a multitude of documented disease treatments — from asthma and lung conditions — to infections, gout, ulcers, burns, inflammation, croup, etc..
From Civil War canteens to early nebulizers — iodine was popular and effective. Potassium Iodide was also widely used for tertiary (cerebral) syphilis. Vincent Van Gogh suggested iodine to his brother — both had tertiary syphilis.
By the early 1900’s — Iodine was listed in the Merck Manual (the best selling medical textbook) as the treatment most used for tumors.
Iodine suppositories were marketed for prostate issues and salves were created for breast cysts and other conditions. Salves – mixing iodine with a carrier oil – can reduce skin irritation and iodine evaporation for topical application.
In 1989 on a trip to rural China, Dr. G. Robert DeLong, a pediatric neurologist noticed some disturbing health issues among the children.
“The children in the Chinese village disturbed him most: One in 10 suffered from mental retardation, deafness and other problems that were preventable with a small dose of iodine,” writes Sarah Avery. (Article listed below in Resources)
Dr. DeLong used a simple 55-gallon oil drum filled with potassium iodate with an IV type tubing drip on top of a bridge that crossed an irrigation canal. It dripped into the water supply and was guarded by a villager day and night, and refilled when necessary. The result?
“As a result of Dr. DeLong’s work, “Infant mortality rates were cut in half. Goiters disappeared. The children grew taller and had an average IQ 16 points higher than children in nearby villages where the water wasn’t iodized.”
The cost per person was less than 6 cents. The profound changes were priceless. (The Iodine Crisis by Lynne Farrow)
In 1945, Grand Rapids, Michigan was the first city in the U.S. to fluoridate its water. By the 1950’s, community water fluoridation was a standard American health policy — with the full support of dentists, government health agencies, and numerous others in the medical and scientific community.
Most people are surprised to learn that unlike the pharmaceutical grade fluoride in their toothpaste (still toxic and comes with a warning if ingested), the fluoride in our community water supply is an untreated industrial waste product.
Highly toxic hydrogen fluoride and silicon tetra fluoride gases are by-products of fertilizer production. Prior to the 1970s, these pollutants were vented into the atmosphere and caused some of the most noxious air pollution in the country.
The U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (OSHA) cautioned that FSA, an inorganic fluoride compound, had dire health consequences for any worker that came into contact with it.
Breathing its fumes caused severe lung damage or death. An accidental splash on bare skin would lead to burning and excruciating pain.
“Fluoridated water contains trace elements of arsenic and lead. Without the phosphate industry’s effluent, water fluoridation would be prohibitively expensive. And without fluoridation, the phosphate industry would be stuck with an expensive waste disposal problem.” (OSU resource below)
But ask most dentists — and it’s all about tooth decay prevention.
It is this fluorosilicic acid that has, since 1945, been transported from fertilizer factories to water reservoirs throughout the United States. Once there, it is drip fed into drinking water. (See OSU resource below for full history)
Healing With Iodine: Supplementation is Essential for Heart Disease, Diabetes, Cancer
Unbeknown to most, our major source of dietary iodine was removed from salt and flour in the 1970’s. Even today — most people think they get enough dietary iodine in salt and bread. Check the label on that bag of flour in your pantry. It most likely contains another poisonous Halogen—bromine.
Why would our “protective” government agencies remove a critical element like iodine and replace it with a toxic fire retardant like bromine? Why would they allow it to be consumed in products like Mountain Dew? Why would they allow it to off gas in infants clothing, mattresses, furniture upholstery, carpets, etc.?
Here is the problem with fluorine, bromine, and chlorine — these highly toxic halogens from the periodic table displace iodine.
When we inhale or ingest them — they compete with iodine at the receptors, displace it, and then sequester themselves in the tissues, disrupt our endocrine system and often lodge in the brain.
While iodine raises IQ, the other three lower it. Documented studies of fluoride also show increased risk of bone cancer, osteoporosis, hip fractures, Down’s syndrome and damage to our pineal gland.
Without the protective grace of iodine — fluids accumulate in the tissues, hormone disruption occurs, cysts develop to surround the toxins and prevent them from entering the bloodstream.
Mammograms often rupture these cysts in the breast — releasing toxins from their protective cell wall into the bloodstream. Like popping a balloon.
Iodine is an inexpensive, NATURAL element that can’t be patented. Iodine “reverses” benign breast, prostate and ovarian cysts before they become cancerous — very often within two weeks to three months.
But what would become of the cancer industry?
Finally — a recent study appeared in the medical journal of all medical journals — The JAMA (listed in resources below). In an age of natural health censorship — it is difficult to do your own research, which I always recommend. Look stuff up!
The article states what many of us in the natural medicine field have known for years, and been criticized for by our dentists — fluoride ingested by pregnant mothers lowers their children’s IQ.
This news is actually in a “prestigious” medical journal. Imagine that?
Question Is maternal fluoride exposure during pregnancy associated with childhood IQ in a Canadian cohort receiving optimally fluoridated water?
Findings In this prospective birth cohort study, fluoride exposure during pregnancy was associated with lower IQ scores in children aged 3 to 4 years.
Meaning Fluoride exposure during pregnancy may be associated with adverse effects on child intellectual development, indicating the possible need to reduce fluoride intake during pregnancy.Abstract
Importance The potential neurotoxicity associated with exposure to fluoride, which has generated controversy about community water fluoridation, remains unclear.
Objective To examine the association between fluoride exposure during pregnancy and IQ scores in a prospective birth cohort.
Design, Setting, and Participants This prospective, multicenter birth cohort study used information from the Maternal-Infant Research on Environmental Chemicals cohort. Children were born between 2008 and 2012; 41% lived in communities supplied with fluoridated municipal water. The study sample included 601 mother-child pairs recruited from 6 major cities in Canada; children were between ages 3 and 4 years at testing. Data were analyzed between March 2017 and January 2019.
Exposures Maternal urinary fluoride (MUFSG), adjusted for specific gravity and averaged across 3 trimesters available for 512 pregnant women, as well as self-reported maternal daily fluoride intake from water and beverage consumption available for 400 pregnant women.
Main Outcomes and Measures Children’s IQ was assessed at ages 3 to 4 years using the Wechsler Primary and Preschool Scale of Intelligence-III. Multiple linear regression analyses were used to examine covariate-adjusted associations between each fluoride exposure measure and IQ score.
Results Of 512 mother-child pairs, the mean (SD) age for enrollment for mothers was 32.3 (5.1) years, 463 (90%) were white, and 264 children (52%) were female. Data on MUFSG concentrations, IQ scores, and complete covariates were available for 512 mother-child pairs; data on maternal fluoride intake and children’s IQ were available for 400 of 601 mother-child pairs. Women living in areas with fluoridated tap water (n = 141) compared with nonfluoridated water (n = 228) had significantly higher mean (SD) MUFSG concentrations (0.69 [0.42] mg/L vs 0.40 [0.27] mg/L; P = .001; to convert to millimoles per liter, multiply by 0.05263) and fluoride intake levels (0.93 [0.43] vs 0.30 [0.26] mg of fluoride per day; P = .001). Children had mean (SD) Full Scale IQ scores of 107.16 (13.26), range 52-143, with girls showing significantly higher mean (SD) scores than boys: 109.56 (11.96) vs 104.61 (14.09); P = .001. There was a significant interaction (P = .02) between child sex and MUFSG (6.89; 95% CI, 0.96-12.82) indicating a differential association between boys and girls. A 1-mg/L increase in MUFSG was associated with a 4.49-point lower IQ score (95% CI, −8.38 to −0.60) in boys, but there was no statistically significant association with IQ scores in girls (B= 2.40; 95% CI, −2.53 to 7.33). A 1-mg higher daily intake of fluoride among pregnant women was associated with a 3.66 lower IQ score (95% CI, −7.16 to −0.14) in boys and girls.
Conclusions and Relevance In this study, maternal exposure to higher levels of fluoride during pregnancy was associated with lower IQ scores in children aged 3 to 4 years. These findings indicate the possible need to reduce fluoride intake during pregnancy.Introduction
For decades, community water fluoridation has been used to prevent tooth decay. Water fluoridation is supplied to about 66% of US residents, 38% of Canadian residents, and 3% of European residents.1 In fluoridated communities, fluoride from water and beverages made with tap water makes up 60% to 80% of daily fluoride intake in adolescents and adults.2
Fluoride crosses the placenta,3 and laboratory studies show that it accumulates in brain regions involved in learning and memory4 and alters proteins and neurotransmitters in the central nervous system.5 Higher fluoride exposure from drinking water has been associated with lower children’s intelligence in a meta-analysis6 of 27 epidemiologic studies and in studies7,8 including biomarkers of fluoride exposure. However, most prior studies were cross-sectional and conducted in regions with higher water fluoride concentrations (0.88-31.6 mg/L; to convert to millimoles per liter, multiply by 0.05263) than levels considered optimal (ie, 0.7 mg/L) in North America.9 Further, most studies did not measure exposure during fetal brain development. In a longitudinal birth cohort study involving 299 mother-child pairs in Mexico City, Mexico, a 1-mg/L increase in maternal urinary fluoride (MUF) concentration was associated with a 6-point (95% CI, −10.84 to −1.74) lower IQ score among school-aged children.10 In this same cohort, MUF was also associated with more attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder–like symptoms.11 Urinary fluoride concentrations among pregnant women living in fluoridated communities in Canada are similar to concentrations among pregnant women living in Mexico City.12 However, it is unclear whether fluoride exposure during pregnancy is associated with cognitive deficits in a population receiving optimally fluoridated water.
This study examined whether exposure to fluoride during pregnancy was associated with IQ scores in children in a Canadian birth cohort in which 40% of the sample was supplied with fluoridated municipal water.MethodsStudy Cohort
Between 2008 and 2011, the Maternal-Infant Research on Environmental Chemicals (MIREC) program recruited 2001 pregnant women from 10 cities across Canada. Women who could communicate in English or French, were older than 18 years, and were within the first 14 weeks of pregnancy were recruited from prenatal clinics. Participants were not recruited if there was a known fetal abnormality, if they had any medical complications, or if there was illicit drug use during pregnancy. Additional details are in the cohort profile description.13
A subset of 610 children in the MIREC Study was evaluated for the developmental phase of the study at ages 3 to 4 years; these children were recruited from 6 of 10 cities included in the original cohort: Vancouver, Montreal, Kingston, Toronto, Hamilton, and Halifax. Owing to budgetary restraints, recruitment was restricted to the 6 cities with the most participants who fell into the age range required for the testing during the data collection period. Of the 610 children, 601 (98.5%) completed neurodevelopmental testing; 254 (42.3%) of these children lived in nonfluoridated regions and 180 (30%) lived in fluoridated regions; for 167 (27.7%) fluoridation status was unknown owing to missing water data or reported not drinking tap water (Figure 1).
This study was approved by the research ethics boards at Health Canada, York University, and Indiana University. All women signed informed consent forms for both mothers and children.Maternal Urinary Fluoride Concentration
We used the mean concentrations of MUF measured in urine spot samples collected across each trimester of pregnancy at a mean (SD) of 11.57 (1.57), 19.11 (2.39), and 33.11 (1.50) weeks of gestation. Owing to the variability of urinary fluoride measurement and fluoride absorption during pregnancy,14 we only included women who had all 3 urine samples. In our previous work, these samples were moderately correlated; intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) ranged from 0.37 to 0.40.12
Urinary fluoride concentration was analyzed at the Indiana University School of Dentistry using a modification of the hexamethyldisiloxane (Sigma Chemical Co) microdiffusion procedure15 and described in our previous work.12 Fluoride concentration could be measured to 0.02 mg/L. We excluded 2 samples (0.002%) because the readings exceeded the highest concentration standard (5 mg/L) and there was less certainty of these being representative exposure values.
To account for variations in urine dilution at the time of measurement, we adjusted MUF concentrations for specific gravity (SG) using the following equation: MUFSG = MUFi × (SGM-1)/(SGi-1), where MUFSG is the SG-adjusted fluoride concentration (in milligrams of fluoride per liter), MUFi is the observed fluoride concentration, SGi is the SG of the individual urine sample, and SGM is the median SG for the cohort.16 For comparison, we also adjusted MUF using the same creatinine adjustment method that was used in the 2017 Mexican cohort.10Water Fluoride Concentration
Water treatment plants measured fluoride levels daily if fluoride was added to municipal drinking water and weekly or monthly if fluoride was not added to water.12 We matched participants’ postal codes with water treatment plant zones, allowing an estimation of water fluoride concentration for each woman by averaging water fluoride concentrations (in milligrams per liter) during the duration of pregnancy. We only included women who reported drinking tap water during pregnancy.Daily Fluoride Intake in Mothers
We obtained information on consumption of tap water and other water-based beverages (tea and coffee) from a self-report questionnaire completed by mothers during the first and third trimesters. This questionnaire was used in the original MREC cohort and has not been validated. Also, for this study, we developed methods to estimate and calculate fluoride intake that have not yet been validated. To estimate fluoride intake from tap water consumed per day (milligrams per day), we multiplied each woman’s consumption of water and beverages by her water fluoride concentration (averaged across pregnancy) and multiplied by 0.2 (fluoride content for a 200-mL cup). Because black tea contains a high fluoride content (2.6 mg/L),17,18we also estimated the amount of fluoride consumed from black tea by multiplying each cup of black tea by 0.52 mg (mean fluoride content in a 200-mL cup of black tea made with deionized water) and added this to the fluoride intake variable. Green tea also contains varying levels of fluoride; therefore, we used the mean for the green teas listed by the US Department of Agriculture (1.935 mg/L).18 We multiplied each cup of green tea by 0.387 mg (fluoride content in a 200-mL cup of green tea made with deionized water) and added this to the fluoride intake variable.Primary Outcomes
We assessed children’s intellectual abilities with the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence, Third Edition. Full Scale IQ (FSIQ), a measure of global intellectual functioning, was the primary outcome. We also assessed verbal IQ (VIQ), representing verbal reasoning and comprehension, and performance IQ (PIQ), representing nonverbal reasoning, spatial processing, and visual-motor skills.Covariates
We selected covariates from a set of established factors associated with fluoride metabolism (eg, time of void and time since last void) and children’s intellectual abilities (eg, child sex, maternal age, gestational age, and parity) (Table 1). Mother’s race/ethnicity was coded as white or other, and maternal education was coded as either bachelor’s degree or higher or trade school diploma or lower. The quality of a child’s home environment was measured by the Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (HOME)–Revised Edition19on a continuous scale. We also controlled for city and, in some models, included self-reported exposure to secondhand smoke (yes/no) as a covariate.Statistical Analyses
In our primary analysis, we used linear regression analyses to estimate the associations between our 2 measures of fluoride exposure (MUFSG and fluoride intake) and children’s FSIQ scores. In addition to providing the coefficient corresponding to a 1-mg difference in fluoride exposure, we also estimated coefficients corresponding to a fluoride exposure difference spanning the 25th to 75th percentile range (which corresponds to a 0.33 mg/L and 0.62 mg F/d difference in MUFSG and fluoride intake, respectively) as well as the 10th to 90th percentile range (which corresponds to a 0.70 mg/L and 1.04 mg F/d difference in MUFSG and fluoride intake, respectively).
We retained a covariate in the model if its P value was less than .20 or its inclusion changed the regression coefficient of the variable associated factor by more than 10% in any of the IQ models. Regression diagnostics confirmed that there were no collinearity issues in any of the IQ models with MUFSGor fluoride intake (variance inflation factor <2 for all covariates). Residuals from each model had approximately normal distributions, and their Q-Q plots revealed no extreme outliers. Plots of residuals against fitted values did not suggest any assumption violations and there were no substantial influential observations as measured by Cook distance. Including quadratic or natural-log effects of MUFSGor fluoride intake did not significantly improve the regression models. Thus, we present the more easily interpreted estimates from linear regression models. Additionally, we examined separate models with 2 linear splines to test whether the MUFSGassociation significantly differed between lower and higher levels of MUFSG based on 3 knots, which were set at 0.5 mg/L (mean MUFSG), 0.8 mg/L (threshold seen in the Mexican birth cohort),10 and 1 mg/L (optimal concentration in the United States until 2015).20 For fluoride intake, knots were set at 0.4 mg (mean fluoride intake), 0.8 mg, and 1 mg (in accordance with MUFSG). We also examined sex-specific associations in all models by testing the interactions between child sex and each fluoride measure.
In sensitivity analyses, we tested whether the associations between MUFSG and IQ were confounded by maternal blood concentrations of lead,21mercury,21 manganese,21,22 perfluoro-octanoic acid,23 or urinary arsenic.24 We also conducted sensitivity analyses by removing IQ scores that were greater than or less than 2.5 standard deviations from the sample mean. Additionally, we examined whether using MUF adjusted for creatinine instead of SG affected the results.
In additional analyses, we examined the association between our 2 measures of fluoride exposure (MUFSG and fluoride intake) with VIQ and PIQ. Additionally, we examined whether water fluoride concentration was associated with FSIQ, VIQ, and PIQ scores.
For all analyses, statistical significance tests with a type I error rate of 5% were used to test sex interactions, while 95% confidence intervals were used to estimate uncertainty. Analyses were conducted using R software (the R Foundation).25 The P value level of significance was .05, and all tests were 2-sided.Results
For the first measure of fluoride exposure, MUFSG, 512 of 601 mother-child pairs (85.2%) who completed the neurodevelopmental visit had urinary fluoride levels measured at each trimester of the mother’s pregnancy and complete covariate data (Figure 1); 89 (14.8%) were excluded for missing MUFSG at 1 or more trimesters (n = 75) or missing 1 or more covariates included in the regression (n = 14) (Figure 1). Of the 512 mother-child pairs with MUFSG data (and all covariates), 264 children were female (52%).
For the second measure of fluoride exposure, fluoride intake from maternal questionnaire, data were available for 400 of the original 601 mother-child pairs (66.6%): 201 women (33.4%) were excluded for reporting not drinking tap water (n = 59), living outside of the predefined water treatment plant zone (n = 108), missing beverage consumption data (n = 20), or missing covariate data (n = 14) (Figure 1).
Children had mean FSIQ scores in the average range (population normed) (mean [SD], 107.16 [13.26], range = 52-143), with girls (109.56 [11.96]) showing significantly higher scores than boys (104.61 [14.09]; P < .001) (Table 1). The demographic characteristics of the 512 mother-child pairs included in the primary analysis were not substantially different from the original MIREC cohort or subset of mother-child pairs without 3 urine samples (eTable 1 in the Supplement). Of the 400 mother-child pairs with fluoride intake data (and all covariates), 118 of 238 (50%) in the group living in a nonfluoridated region were female and 83 of 162 (51%) in the group living in a fluoridated region were female.Fluoride Measurements
The median MUFSG concentration was 0.41 mg/L (range, 0.06-2.44 mg/L). Mean MUFSG concentration was significantly higher among women (n = 141) who lived in communities with fluoridated drinking water (0.69 [0.42] mg/L) compared with women (n=228) who lived in communities without fluoridated drinking water (0.40 [0.27] mg/L; P < .001) (Table 1; Figure 2).
The median estimated fluoride intake was 0.39 mg per day (range, 0.01-2.65 mg). As expected, the mean (SD) fluoride intake was significantly higher for women (162 [40.5%]) who lived in communities with fluoridated drinking water (mean [SD], 0.93 [0.43] mg) than women (238 [59.5%]) who lived in communities without fluoridated drinking water (0.30 [0.26] mg; P < .001) (Table 1; Figure 2). The MUFSG was moderately correlated with fluoride intake (r = 0.49; P < .001) and water fluoride concentration (r = 0.37; P < .001).Maternal Urinary Fluoride Concentrations and IQ
Before covariate adjustment, a significant interaction (P for interaction = .03) between MUFSG and child sex (B = 7.24; 95% CI, 0.81- 13.67) indicated that MUFSG was associated with FSIQ in boys; an increase of 1 mg/L MUFSG was associated with a 5.01 (95% CI, −9.06 to −0.97; P = .02) lower FSIQ score in boys. In contrast, MUFSG was not significantly associated with FSIQ score in girls (B = 2.23; 95% CI, −2.77 to 7.23; P = .38) (Table 2).
Adjusting for covariates, a significant interaction (Pfor interaction = .02) between child sex and MUFSG(B = 6.89; 95% CI, 0.96-12.82) indicated that an increase of 1 mg/L of MUFSG was associated with a 4.49 (95% CI, −8.38 to −0.60; P = .02) lower FSIQ score for boys. An increase from the 10th to 90th percentile of MUFSG was associated with a 3.14 IQ decrement among boys (Table 2; Figure 3). In contrast, MUFSG was not significantly associated with FSIQ score in girls (B = 2.43; 95% CI, −2.51 to 7.36; P = .33).Estimated Fluoride Intake and IQ
A 1-mg increase in fluoride intake was associated with a 3.66 (95% CI, −7.16 to −0.15; P = .04) lower FSIQ score among boys and girls (Table 2; Figure 3). The interaction between child sex and fluoride intake was not statistically significant (B = 1.17; 95% CI, −4.08 to 6.41; P for interaction = .66).Sensitivity Analyses
Adjusting for lead, mercury, manganese, perfluorooctanoic acid, or arsenic concentrations did not substantially change the overall estimates of MUFSG for boys or girls (eTable 2 in the Supplement). Use of MUF adjusted for creatinine did not substantially alter the associations with FSIQ (eTable 2 in the Supplement). Including time of void and time since last void did not substantially change the regression coefficient of MUFSG among boys or girls.
Estimates for determining the association between MUFSG and PIQ showed a similar pattern with a statistically significant interaction between MUFSGand child sex (P for interaction = .007). An increase of 1 mg/L MUFSG was associated with a 4.63 (95% CI, −9.01 to −0.25; P = .04) lower PIQ score in boys, but the association was not statistically significant in girls (B = 4.51; 95% CI, −1.02 to 10.05; P = .11). An increase of 1 mg/L MUFSG was not significantly associated with VIQ in boys (B = −2.85; 95% CI, −6.65 to 0.95; P = .14) or girls (B = 0.55; 95% CI, −4.28 to 5.37; P = .82); the interaction between MUFSG and child sex was not statistically significant (P for interaction = .25) (eTable 3 in the Supplement).
Consistent with the findings on estimated maternal fluoride intake, increased water fluoride concentration (per 1 mg/L) was associated with a 5.29 (95% CI, −10.39 to −0.19) lower FSIQ score among boys and girls and a 13.79 (95% CI, −18.82 to −7.28) lower PIQ score (eTable 4 in the Supplement).Discussion
Using a prospective Canadian birth cohort, we found that estimated maternal exposure to higher fluoride levels during pregnancy was associated with lower IQ scores in children. This association was supported by converging findings from 2 measures of fluoride exposure during pregnancy. A difference in MUFSG spanning the interquartile range for the entire sample (ie, 0.33 mg/L), which is roughly the difference in MUFSG concentration for pregnant women living in a fluoridated vs a nonfluoridated community, was associated with a 1.5-point IQ decrement among boys. An increment of 0.70 mg/L in MUFSG concentration was associated with a 3-point IQ decrement in boys; about half of the women living in a fluoridated community have a MUFSG equal to or greater than 0.70 mg/L. These results did not change appreciably after controlling for other key exposures such as lead, arsenic, and mercury.
To our knowledge, this study is the first to estimate fluoride exposure in a large birth cohort receiving optimally fluoridated water. These findings are consistent with that of a Mexican birth cohort study that reported a 6.3 decrement in IQ in preschool-aged children compared with a 4.5 decrement for boys in our study for every 1 mg/L of MUF.10 The findings of the current study are also concordant with ecologic studies that have shown an association between higher levels of fluoride exposure and lower intellectual abilities in children.7,8,26Collectively, these findings support that fluoride exposure during pregnancy may be associated with neurocognitive deficits.
In contrast with the Mexican study,10 the association between higher MUFSG concentrations and lower IQ scores was observed only in boys but not in girls. Studies of fetal and early childhood fluoride exposure and IQ have rarely examined differences by sex; of those that did, some reported no differences by sex.10,27–29 Most rat studies have focused on fluoride exposure in male rats,30 although 1 study31 showed that male rats were more sensitive to neurocognitive effects of fetal exposure to fluoride. Testing whether boys are potentially more vulnerable to neurocognitive effects associated with fluoride exposure requires further investigation, especially considering that boys have a higher prevalence of neurodevelopmental disorders such as ADHD, learning disabilities, and intellectual disabilities.32 Adverse effects of early exposure to fluoride may manifest differently for girls and boys, as shown with other neurotoxicants.33–36
The estimate of maternal fluoride intake during pregnancy in this study showed that an increase of 1 mg of fluoride was associated with a decrease of 3.7 IQ points across boys and girls. The finding observed for fluoride intake in both boys and girls may reflect postnatal exposure to fluoride, whereas MUF primarily captures prenatal exposure. Importantly, we excluded women who reported that they did not drink tap water and matched water fluoride measurements to time of pregnancy when estimating maternal fluoride intake. None of the fluoride concentrations measured in municipal drinking water were greater than the maximum acceptable concentration of 1.5 mg/L set by Health Canada; most (94.3%) were lower than the 0.7 mg/L level considered optimal.37
Water fluoridation was introduced in the 1950s to prevent dental caries before the widespread use of fluoridated dental products. Originally, the US Public Health Service set the optimal fluoride concentrations in water from 0.7 to 1.2 mg/L to achieve the maximum reduction in tooth decay and minimize the risk of enamel fluorosis.38 Fluorosis, or mottling, is a symptom of excess fluoride intake from any source occurring during the period of tooth development. In 2012, 68% of adolescents had very mild to severe enamel fluorosis.39 The higher prevalence of enamel fluorosis, especially in fluoridated areas,40 triggered renewed concern about excessive ingestion of fluoride. In 2015, in response to fluoride overexposure and rising rates of enamel fluorosis,39,41,42 the US Public Health Service recommended an optimal fluoride concentration of 0.7 mg/L, in line with the recommended level of fluoride added to drinking water in Canada to prevent caries. However, the beneficial effects of fluoride predominantly occur at the tooth surface after the teeth have erupted.43 Therefore, there is no benefit of systemic exposure to fluoride during pregnancy for the prevention of caries in offspring.44 The evidence showing an association between fluoride exposure and lower IQ scores raises a possible new concern about cumulative exposures to fluoride during pregnancy, even among pregnant women exposed to optimally fluoridated water.Strengths and Limitations
Our study has several strengths and limitations. First, urinary fluoride has a short half-life (approximately 5 hours) and depends on behaviors that were not controlled in our study, such as consumption of fluoride-free bottled water or swallowing toothpaste prior to urine sampling. We minimized this limitation by using 3 serial urine samples and tested for time of urine sample collection and time since last void, but these variables did not alter our results. Second, although higher maternal ingestion of fluoride corresponds to higher fetal plasma fluoride levels,45 even serial maternal urinary spot samples may not precisely represent fetal exposure throughout pregnancy. Third, while our analyses controlled for a comprehensive set of covariates, we did not have maternal IQ data. However, there is no evidence suggesting that fluoride exposure differs as a function of maternal IQ; our prior study did not observe a significant association between MUF levels and maternal education level.12 Moreover, a greater proportion of women living in fluoridated communities (124 [76%]) had a university-level degree compared with women living in nonfluoridated communities (158 [66%]). Nonetheless, despite our comprehensive array of covariates included, this observational study design could not address the possibility of other unmeasured residual confounding. Fourth, fluoride intake did not measure actual fluoride concentration in tap water in the participant’s home; Toronto, for example, has overlapping water treatment plants servicing the same household. Similarly, our fluoride intake estimate only considered fluoride from beverages; it did not include fluoride from other sources such as dental products or food. Furthermore, fluoride intake data were limited by self-report of mothers’ recall of beverage consumption per day, which was sampled at 2 points of pregnancy, and we lacked information regarding specific tea brand.17,18 In addition, our methods of estimating maternal fluoride intake have not been validated; however, we show construct validity with MUF. Fifth, this study did not include assessment of postnatal fluoride exposure or consumption. However, our future analyses will assess exposure to fluoride in the MIREC cohort in infancy and early childhood.Conclusions
In this prospective birth cohort study from 6 cities in Canada, higher levels of fluoride exposure during pregnancy were associated with lower IQ scores in children measured at age 3 to 4 years. These findings were observed at fluoride levels typically found in white North American women. This indicates the possible need to reduce fluoride intake during pregnancy.Back to topArticle Information
Corresponding Author: Christine Till, PhD, Department of Psychology, York University, 4700 Keele St, Toronto, ON M3J 1P3, Canada (ctill@yorku.ca).
Author Contributions: Ms Green and Dr Till had full access to all of the data in the study and take responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.
Concept and design: Green, Lanphear, Martinez-Mier, Ayotte, Muckle, Till.
Acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data: All authors.
Drafting of the manuscript: Green, Flora, Martinez-Mier, Muckle, Till.
Critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content: All authors.
Administrative, technical, or material support: Green, Lanphear, Martinez-Mier, Ayotte, Till.
Supervision: Flora, Till.
Conflict of Interest Disclosures: Dr Lanphear reports serving as an expert witness in an upcoming case involving the US Environmental Protection Agency and water fluoridation, but will not receive any payment. Dr Hornung reported personal fees from York University during the conduct of the study. Dr Martinez-Mier reported grants from the National Institutes of Health during the conduct of the study. No other disclosures were reported.
Funding/Support: This study was funded by a grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Science (grant R21ES027044). The Maternal-Infant Research on Environmental Chemicals Study was supported by the Chemicals Management Plan at Health Canada, the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, and the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (grant MOP-81285).
Additional Contributions: We thank Nicole Lupien, BA, Stéphanie Bastien, BA, and Romy-Leigh McMaster, BA (Centre de Recherche, CHU Sainte-Justine), and the MIREC Study Coordinating Staff for their administrative support, as well as the MIREC study group of investigators and site investigators; Alain Leblanc, PhD, Insitut National de Santé Publique du Québec, for measuring the urinary creatinine; Christine Buckley, MSc, Frank Lippert, PhD, and Prithvi Chandrappa, MSc (Indiana University School of Dentistry), for their analysis of urinary fluoride at the Indiana University School of Dentistry; Maddy Blazer, BA, York University, for assisting with preparation of the manuscript; Linda Farmus, MA, York University, for statistical consulting; and John Minnery, PhD, Public Health Ontario, for his valuable engineering advice regarding water fluoridation. We also thank staff affiliated with community water treatment plants who helped to provide water fluoride data for this study. 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Episode 356 – Top 5 “Conspiracy Theories” That Turned Out To Be True : The Corbett Report
We all know the old trope of the tinfoil hat wearing conspiracy theorist who believes crazy things like “the government is spying on us” and “the military is spraying things in the sky” and “the CIA ships in the drugs.”
Except those things aren’t so crazy after all. As it turns out, many of the old “conspiracy theorist” fantasies are actually true.
Here are five examples of things that were once derided as zany conspiracy paranoia and are now accepted as mundane historical fact.
#1 – The CIA Ships in the Drugs
The Central Intelligence Agency, the most well-known branch of America’s shadowy intelligence community, features in a number of popular conspiracy theories. One of the theories about the CIA’s dirty dealings that has been around for decades is that the agency helps bring illegal drugs into the United States.
But this isn’t just a theory. In fact, the CIA has been involved in drug running from its very inception.
Just months after its creation in 1947, the agency began a relationship with the Corsican mafia that controlled the Old Port of Marseille in post-war France. That relationship involved a quid pro quo: The CIA would protect the mafia if the mafia would keep the Communists from taking control of the port. In this case “protecting the mafia” meant protecting their most lucrative business, which just happened to be smuggling heroin into the United States. This “French Connection” thrived for decades, with the majority of the heroin in the US in the post-war period coming via France under the watchful eye of the CIA.
From the Korean War to the Vietnam War and beyond, CIA-supported warlords used CIA-run airlines like Air America to ship heroin from the “Golden Triangle” at the borders of Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar. As even The New York Timesreported, the agency prevented the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs from monitoring drug trafficking in the region. They even stopped an investigation into “an Air America DC-3 loaded with heroin packed into boxes of Tide soap powder” that had been seized on its way to the US.
In the 1980s yet more agency involvement in drug smuggling rings came to light. This time it was drug traffickers connected to the Contras in Nicaragua that received help from the agency. After the Contra-connected trafficking came to light, a Senate investigation headed by Senator John Kerry confirmed government complicity in the drug trade.
BOB MCKEOWN: As for the CIA, it’s denied ever aiding or condoning drug smuggling.
JOHN KERRY: Reports were reaching the highest councils of our government, in the White House and in the Justice Department. There is no question of that. I can document that.
MCKEOWN: The White House and Justice Department disputed Kerry’s report at the time. But he still believes some government officials turned a blind eye toward drug dealing in the mid-1980s, after the time at the heart of Gary Webb’s stories.
In the 1990s, award-winning journalist Gary Webb traced the Contras’ CIA-protected backers to cocaine shipments into the US, and, ultimately, to the crack epidemic of the 1980s.
Stories of CIA drug running continue to be covered up almost as quickly as they are exposed, from the CIA Beech 200 that was apprehended in Nicaragua with 1100 kilos of cocaine to the crash of a Grumman Gulfstream II that had been used for CIA rendition flights that was carrying 3.3 tons of Columbian cocaine. Then there’s the CIA’s relationship with Afghan drug warlord Ahmed Wali Karzai in Afghanistan and the admission that the Sinaloa cartel was aided by US agencies and the recent confession that famed Columbian drug king Pablo Escobar worked for the CIA.
At this point, the fact that the Central Intelligence Agency has facilitated drug running into the United States is one of the worst kept secrets in history.
#2 – The government is spraying us from the skies
It is incumbent on everyone who wishes to remain in the respectable, polite circles of society that they deride all chemtrail theorists as kooky fringe-nut wingbats (or whatever the ad hominem du jour is). I mean, who could actually believe that the government would ever coordinate a program to spray toxic chemicals on unwitting citizens?
Except, of course, for the pesky little fact that the US government has done precisely that. Repeatedly, in fact.
Like in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1950. The US Navy conducted an experiment they codenamed “Operation Sea-Spray,” in which they secretly sprayed the population with Serratia marcescens, a “rod-shaped gram-negative bacteria” that just happens to be a human pathogen.
And what did the Navy hope to accomplish with this experiment? Why, to “determine the susceptibility of a big city like San Francisco to a bioweapon attack by terrorists,” of course.
Which, I suppose, answers the experimenters’ question, doesn’t it? Are San Franciscans susceptible to a bioweapon attack by terrorists? Well, yes, evidently . . . assuming by the word “terrorist” you mean the US Navy.
So surely this type of thing was just a one-off. They never tried something like this before or since, right? . . . Right?
Like in 1953, when “the U.S. Army secretly dumped a carcinogen on unknowing Canadians in Winnipeg and Alberta” as part of a cold war weapons test.
In fact, in 1977 the U.S. Army that they “conducted 239 germ warfare tests in open air between 1949 and 1969,” using the public as human guinea pigs in New York, San Francisco, Key West, and numerous other cities.
But don’t worry, everyone. I’m sure the government wouldn’t be doing anything like this to the unaware masses today. That’s just crazy talk.
JEFF FERRELL: KSLA News 12 discovered chemtrails are even mentioned by name in the initial draft of House Bill 2977 back in 2001 under the Space Preservation Act. But the military denies any such program exists. Jeff Ferrell, KSLA News 12 reporting.
ANCHOR: And you know it turns out [that] until nine years ago the government had the right under US law to conduct secret testing on the American public under specific conditions. Only a public outcry repealed part of that law, with some exceptions.
Over the last decade internet conspiracy analysts have brought the term “false flag” to the public consciousness.
In naval warfare, a “false flag” refers to an attack where a vessel flies a flag other than their true battle flag before engaging their enemy. It is a trick, designed to deceive the enemy about the true nature and origin of an attack, and it has been used over and over by government after government for hundreds of years in order to motivate their people for war.
In the 1780s, Swedish King Gustav III—looking to start a war with Russia in order to shore up his own domestic political power—dressed some of his own troops in Russian military uniforms and ordered them to attack a Swedish outpost on the Russian border. The ruse worked, and the Swedes, outraged at this supposedly “Russian” attack, gave the king the authority to launch a “defensive” war.
In 1931, the Japanese were looking for a pretext to invade Manchuria. On September 18th of that year, a Lieutenant in the Imperial Japanese Army detonated a small amount of TNT along a Japanese-owned railway in the Manchurian city of Mukden. The act was blamed on Chinese dissidents and used to justify the occupation of Manchuria just six months later. When the deception was later exposed, Japan was diplomatically shunned and forced to withdraw from the League of Nations.
In 1954, the Israelis hired a number of Egyptian Jews to plant bombs in American and British cinemas, libraries, and other civilian targets to be blamed on the Muslim Brotherhood or other malcontents. The plan, known as the Lavon Affair, was part of an effort to convince the British to retain their military presence in the occupied Suez Canal zone. Several bombings took place, but the British were ultimately forced out after Nasser nationalized the canal in 1956.
In August 1964, the USS Maddox, a US destroyer on patrol in the Gulf of Tonkin, believed it had come under attack from North Vietnamese Navy torpedo boats, engaging in evasive action and returning fire. The incident led to the Gulf of Tonkin resolution authorizing President Johnson to begin open warfare in Vietnam. It was later admitted that no attack had occurred, and in 2005 it was revealed that the NSA had manipulated their information to make it look like an attack had taken place.
In June 1967, the Israelis attacked the USS Liberty, a US Navy technical research ship conducting maneuvers off the coast of Egypt. The ship was strafed relentlessly for hours in an attempt to blame the attack on Egypt and draw the Americans into the Six Day War, but amazingly the crew managed to keep the ship afloat. In 2007, newly released NSA intercepts confirmed that the Israelis knew they were attacking an American ship, not an Egyptian ship as their cover story has maintained.
In the fall of 1999, a wave of bloody apartment bombings swept through Russian cities, killing 293 people and causing widespread panic. Although blamed on Chechen terrorists, later that month FSB agents were caught planting the exact same type of bombs as in the other blasts. The government claimed that the FSB bomb was part of a “security exercise” but the terror hysteria of the apartment bombings were used to justify Russian aggression in Chechnya and win public approval for a full-scale war. Russian troops entered Chechnya the next month.
In 2001, attacks in New York and Washington are blamed on Al Qaeda as a pretext for invading Afghanistan. In the months leading up to the event, American negotiators had warned Afghanistan’s Taliban that they were interested in securing right of way for proposed pipeline projects, and the US would achieve this with either a carpet of gold or a carpet of bombs. The Bush administration’s first major national security directive, NSPD-9, a full-scale battle plan for the invasion of Afghanistan, including command and control, air and ground forces, and logistics, was drafted and sitting on the President’s desk to be signed off on September 4, 2001, seven days before the 9/11 attacks. The invasion proceeded as planned in October.
Naturally, mainstream commentators have to pretend that “false flags” and staged terror incidents are ludicrous flights of fancy that have no historical precedent . . . unless they’re talking about one of their enemies, like Russia, staging a false flag incident. Then it’s perfectly acceptable.
#4 – The CIA ran mind control experiments on unwitting Americans
Ever hear the “theory” that the government abducted people against their will and experimented on them to study mind control techniques and mind-altering chemicals? Well, it isn’t a theory, it’s a documented fact. The US government did run just such a program, dubbed Project MKULTRA, and it was exposed in the 1970s. . . or at least parts of it were.
What we don’t know about Project MKULTRA and its affiliated subprojects could probably fill several warehouses with books, but what we do know is voluminous (and scary) enough. The formerly top-secret program was as horrific as any dystopian fantasy ever devised . . . and is now openly acknowledged and documented.
Even the Wikipedia article on the subject admits that the project was completely illegal, employed unwitting test subjects, and attempted to “manipulate people’s mental states and alter brain functions through the “surreptitious administration of drugs (especially LSD) and other chemicals, hypnosis, sensory deprivation, isolation, verbal and sexual abuse (including the sexual abuse of children), and other forms of torture.”
Some aspects of the MKULTRA nightmare are relatively well-known by now.
One series of experiments, presided over by Sidney Gottlieb, involved administering LSD to unwitting Americans, including mental patients, prisoners, drug addicts and prostitutes. This included “Operation Midnight Climax” in which unsuspecting men were drugged and lured to CIA safe houses by prostitutes on the CIA payroll. Their sexual activity was monitored behind one-way mirrors and used to study the effect of sexual blackmail and the use of mind-altering substances in field operations.
Another experiment, dubbed MKULTRA Subproject 68, was overseen by the esteemed psychiatrist Dr. Ewen Cameron. This subproject involved Dr. Cameron using LSD, paralytic drugs, electroshock therapy and drug-induced comas to attempt to wipe patients’ memories and reprogram their psyche. When brought to light, the program was identified as an attempt to refine methods of medical torture for the purpose of extracting information from unwilling sources and condemned. Lawsuits regarding the blatantly illegal experimentation conducted by Cameron continue to this day.
Yet despite CIA assurances that the program was scrapped in 1973 (“would the CIA ever lie to us?”), documentary evidence continues to emerge that the program was far more extensive and horrific than the public was ever told.
But simply pointing to the documented horrors that took place during the officially acknowledged period of the officially acknowledged program’s officially acknowledged existence is enough to make even the most stubborn conspiracy deniers squirm in their seats.
MELISSA DYKES: MKULTRA would mostly be remembered for its drug experiments.
DOCTOR: I’m going to give you this cup which contains lysergic acid 100 micrograms.
NARRATOR: That’s “acid.” Characterized by hallucinations, illusions, distortions of perception and thinking.
NEWS ANCHOR: John Gittinger, recently retired chief psychologist for the CIA.
GITTINGER: You could disable a whole city by putting a very small amount in our water supply.
DYKES: Everything from prostitution studies to poisions to top-secret weapons like the heart attack gun grabbed headlines with the sensational accounts of the CIA’s sketchy techniques.
SENATOR: You’ve brought with you some of those devices which would have enabled the CIA to use this poison for . . .
CIA REPRESENTATIVE: We have indeed.
SENATOR: . . . for killing people?
NEWS ANCHOR 2: Good evening. The White House disclosed today that the CIA’s drug testing program on unsuspecting Americans had been more expensive than the agency had admitted.
SPEAKER: . . . CIA secretly funneled money through scores of research foundations, colleges, hospitals, and clinics, including a $375,000 grant through the Shifter [?] Research Fund here in Washington.
DYKES: The complex and compartmentalized management of such a large project through front groups and with the participation of countless agencies and institutions to carry out secret research should be a testament to just how sophisticated and shadowy government science had become.
SPEAKER 2: They’re names of doctors, they’re names of officials, they’re names of former and present CIA officials who were involved, they’re names of hospitals. And depending on how you treat it, it could be sensational.
#5 – Chemicals are turning the friggin’ frogs . . . female
You’ve probably seen the memes about it. It’s one of the best known and most parodied conspiracy memes of recent years, constantly held up as an example of how utterly deranged and off base-online conspiracy theorists are. *MEME. After all, everyone knows that chemicals in the water aren’t turning the frogs gay. They’re turning them female.
Reports began to emerge on this phenomenon a decade ago, like this one from LiveScience: “Pesticide Turns Male Frogs into Females,” which points out that scientific research is demonstrating that “a commonly used pesticide known as atrazine can turn male frogs into females that are successfully able to reproduce.”
Atrazine, it turns out, is a weed killer used primarily on corn crops, and can cause “sexual abnormalities” in frogs, such as hermaphroditism (having both male and female sex organs). The study from 2010 further discovered that atrazine’s effects are long-lasting and can influence reproduction in amphibians.
The results suggest that atrazine could have potentially harmful effects on populations of amphibians, animals that are already experiencing a global decline. And despite the steady flow of funny memes this observation has generated, this is no laughing matter. As study author Tyrone B. Hayes of the University of California, Berkeley explains, the study suggests that atrazine—which is banned in Europe—could have potentially harmful effects on populations of amphibians, animals that are already experiencing a global decline.
Though there’s no mention of the frogs’ sexual preferences, pesticides are admittedly bending the genders of amphibians. And to top it all off, since atrazine interferes with the production of the sex hormone estrogen, present in people and frogs, the findings could have implications for humans as well.
But it isn’t just atrazine. Over the last century, mass manufacturing of plastics and other products have meant that our environment is now awash in chemicals called “endocrine disrupters” which, a growing body of research suggests, interferes with sperm production and may impair human fertilization. These chemicals may be one of the reasons that sperm counts are undergoing a dramatic drop in developed countries and other issues with men’s health, including “testicular cancer, undescended testes and low sperm count.”
That’s actually a pretty big deal. But I guess if you want to make trendy hipsters laugh, just tell them these completely admitted scientific facts about the pesticides that are wreaking untold havoc on our environment and then do your best impression of a loud-mouthed Texan ranting about gay frogs. You’ll have your friends in stitches. Just don’t say it’s a theory.
In Conclusion…
In truth, there are many many more examples of conspiracy “theories” that turned out to be true, from the US government knowingly injecting poor black sharecroppers with syphilis to the CIA heart attack gun to the “anonymous” letter that the FBI wrote to Martin Luther King urging him to kill himself. So, what other not-so-theoretical conspiracy theories do you know of
Countless studies have found that fluoride is associated with a lower IQ, fatigue, bone cancer, immune system disruption, thyroid disease, and even decreased fertility.
Even worse, the government’s agenda is to convince communities that fluoride is essential for preventing cavities, so it continues to be added to drinking water, toothpaste, mouthwash, and even prescription drugs.
While it is clear you cannot rely on the government to protect your health, the good news is that you can use this 2 step approach to fight back and reduce fluoride exposure and detoxify accumulated fluoride from your body.
Step 1: Reduce Fluoride Exposure Immediately
Repeated fluoride exposure causes accumulation in the body. Only around 50% of the fluoride you are exposed to is excreted and the rest is stored in your teeth, bones, pineal gland, and several other tissues. As a result, the more fluoride you are exposed to, the more dangerous it becomes to your body.
This is why it is essential to immediately reduce your exposure to fluoride.
Here are the most common sources of fluoride and how to avoid them:
• Teflon: Non-stick pots and pans can increase the amount of fluoride in your food by up to 300%. Stick to stable-high heat oils and you will not need non-stick cooking ware.
• Non-organic: Anything that is not organic, be it wine, fruit, or vegetables, are contaminated with high levels of fluoride. That is because non-organic farmers often use a fluoride-based pesticide called cryolite.
• Tap Water: If your tap water is not from a private well, there is a high chance it is fluoridated. Bottled water is not any better. The best option is to install a water filter that removes contaminants like fluoride.
• Toothpaste: Just because you do not swallow toothpaste, does not mean the fluoride cannot get into your body. Simply switch out your existing toothpaste for a fluoride-free toothpaste.
Step 2: Effectively Detox Fluoride
It is impossible to completely avoid exposure to fluoride, which it is why you must detoxify fluoride from your body. One mineral in particular, zeolite, has unique properties known for detoxifying fluoride and other toxins and heavy metals.
Zeolite is a natural mineral that chelates toxins. This means that it binds to toxins like a magnet, pulls them from your system, and helps your body excrete them.
Since around 50% of the fluoride you are exposed to is stored in the body, zeolite is considered an ideal option for detoxing this toxin. Plus, if you regularly take zeolite, it can detoxify fluoride before it even has a chance to build up in your cells.
Not all zeolites are effective at detoxifying fluoride. In fact, most are completely ineffective.
When mined, zeolite has already been in the ground awhile, soaking up lead, arsenic, and other environmental toxins and heavy metals like a sponge. If ingested in its raw form, freshly mined zeolite would be too big and too dirty to work properly.
The one you need is the liquid zeolite, Pure Body, made by Touchstone Essentials.
Why is this particular zeolite supplement so important?
Pure Body is specially processed so that the zeolite particles are cleansed and sized small enough to pass through the body where fluoride is stored. Pure Body is then tested by third-party labs for purity and sizing.
TL&DR
Fluoride is a dangerous toxin. Despite its massive list of terrible side effects, fluoride is still added to your drinking water, food, and toothpaste.
What makes fluoride even more dangerous is that it accumulates in the body. Only 50% of fluoride is excreted, so the longer you are exposed to fluoride, the more toxic it becomes in your body.
It is critical that you detoxify fluoride with a liquid zeolite supplement like Pure Body, before the exposure leads to irreversible damage.
It is only when you are no longer under the influence of fluoride that you can break free from the government’s fluoride agenda and take back your health.
Be a lion, not a sheep and start protecting yourself (and your IQ) from fluoride.
Mass media is the most powerful tool used by the ruling class to manipulate the masses. It shapes and molds opinions and attitudes and defines what is normal and acceptable. This article looks at the workings of mass media through the theories of its major thinkers, its power structure and the techniques it uses, in order to understand its true role in society.
Most of the articles on this site discuss occult symbolism found in objects of popular culture. From these articles arise many legitimate questions relating to the purpose of those symbols and the motivations of those who place them there, but it is impossible for me to provide satisfactory answers to these questions without mentioning many other concepts and facts. This article explores the theoretical and methodological background of the analyses presented on this site as well as introducing the main scholars of the field of mass communications. Some people read my articles and think I’m saying “Lady Gaga wants to control our minds”. That is not the case. She is simply a small part of the huge system that is the mass media.
Programming Through Mass Media
Mass media are media forms designed to reach the largest audience possible. They include television, movies, radio, newspapers, magazines, books, records, video games and the internet. Many studies have been conducted in the past century to measure the effects of mass media on the population in order to discover the best techniques to influence it. From those studies emerged the science of Communications, which is used in marketing, public relations and politics. Mass communication is a necessary tool to ensure the functionality of a large democracy; it is also a necessary tool for a dictatorship. It all depends on its usage.
In the 1958 preface to A Brave New World, Aldous Huxley paints a rather grim portrait of society. He believes it is controlled by an “impersonal force”, a ruling elite, which manipulates the population using various methods.
“Impersonal forces over which we have almost no control seem to be pushing us all in the direction of the Brave New Worldian nightmare; and this impersonal pushing is being consciously accelerated by representatives of commercial and political organizations who have developed a number of new techniques for manipulating, in the interest of some minority, the thoughts and feelings of the masses.”
– Aldous Huxley, Preface to A Brave New World
His bleak outlook is not a simple hypothesis or a paranoid delusion. It is a documented fact, present in the world’s most important studies on mass media. Here are some of them:
Elite Thinkers
Walter Lippmann
Walter Lippmann, an American intellectual, writer and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner brought forth one of the first works concerning the usage of mass media in America. In Public Opinion (1922), Lippmann compared the masses to a “great beast” and a “bewildered herd” that needed to be guided by a governing class. He described the ruling elite as “a specialized class whose interests reach beyond the locality.” This class is composed of experts, specialists, and bureaucrats. According to Lippmann, the experts, who often are referred to as “elites,” are to be a machinery of knowledge that circumvents the primary defect of democracy, the impossible ideal of the “omnicompetent citizen.” The trampling and roaring “bewildered herd” has its function: to be “the interested spectators of action,” i.e. not participants. Participation is the duty of “the responsible man”, which is not the regular citizen.
Mass media and propaganda are therefore tools that must be used by the elite to rule the public without physical coercion. One important concept presented by Lippmann is the “manufacture of consent”, which is, in short, the manipulation of public opinion to accept the elite’s agenda. It is Lippmann’s opinion that the general public is not qualified to reason and to decide on important issues. It is therefore important for the elite to decide “for its own good” and then sell those decisions to the masses.
“That the manufacture of consent is capable of great refinements no one, I think, denies. The process by which public opinions arise is certainly no less intricate than it has appeared in these pages, and the opportunities for manipulation open to anyone who understands the process are plain enough. . . . as a result of psychological research, coupled with the modern means of communication, the practice of democracy has turned a corner. A revolution is taking place, infinitely more significant than any shifting of economic power. . . . Under the impact of propaganda, not necessarily in the sinister meaning of the word alone, the old constants of our thinking have become variables. It is no longer possible, for example, to believe in the original dogma of democracy; that the knowledge needed for the management of human affairs comes up spontaneously from the human heart. Where we act on that theory we expose ourselves to self-deception, and to forms of persuasion that we cannot verify. It has been demonstrated that we cannot rely upon intuition, conscience, or the accidents of casual opinion if we are to deal with the world beyond our reach.” –Walter Lippmann, Public Opinion
It might be interesting to note that Lippmann is one of the founding fathers of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), the most influential foreign policy think tank in the world. This fact should give you a small hint of the mind state of the elite concerning the usage of media.
“Political and economic power in the United States is concentrated in the hands of a “ruling elite” that controls most of U.S.-based multinational corporations, major communication media, the most influential foundations, major private universities and most public utilities. Founded in 1921, the Council of Foreign Relations is the key link between the large corporations and the federal government. It has been called a “school for statesmen” and “comes close to being an organ of what C. Wright Mills has called the Power Elite – a group of men, similar in interest and outlook shaping events from invulnerable positions behind the scenes. The creation of the United Nations was a Council project, as well as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.”
– Steve Jacobson, Mind Control in the United States
Some current members of the CFR include David Rockefeller, Dick Cheney, Barack Obama, Hilary Clinton, mega-church pastor Rick Warren and the CEOs of major corporations such as CBS, Nike, Coca-Cola, and Visa.
Carl Jung
Carl Jung is the founder of analytical psychology (also known as Jungian psychology), which emphasizes understanding the psyche by exploring dreams, art, mythology, religion, symbols, and philosophy. The Swiss therapist is at the origin of many psychological concepts used today such as the Archetype, the Complex, the Persona, the Introvert/Extrovert, and Synchronicity. He was highly influenced by the occult background of his family. Carl Gustav, his grandfather, was an avid Freemason (he was Grand Master) and Jung himself discovered that some of his ancestors were Rosicrucians. This might explain his great interest in Eastern and Western philosophy, alchemy, astrology and symbolism. One of his most important (and misunderstood) concepts was the Collective Unconscious.
“My thesis, then, is as follows: In addition to our immediate consciousness, which is of a thoroughly personal nature and which we believe to be the only empirical psyche (even if we tack on the personal unconscious as an appendix), there exists a second psychic system of a collective, universal, and impersonal nature which is identical in all individuals. This collective unconscious does not develop individually but is inherited. It consists of pre-existent forms, the archetypes, which can only become conscious secondarily and which give definite form to certain psychic contents.”
– Carl Jung, The Concept of the Collective Unconscious
The collective unconscious transpires through the existence of similar symbols and mythological figures in different civilizations. Archetypal symbols seem to be embedded in our collective subconscious, and, when exposed to them, we demonstrate natural attraction and fascination. Occult symbols can, therefore, exert a great impact on people, even if many individuals were never personally introduced to the symbol’s esoteric meaning. Mass media thinkers, such as Edward D. Bernays, found in this concept a great way to manipulate the public’s personal and collective unconscious.
Edward Bernays
Edward Bernays is considered to be the “father of public relations” and used concepts discovered by his uncle Sigmund Freud to manipulate the public using the subconscious. He shared Walter Lippmann’s view of the general population by considering it irrational and subject to the “herd instinct”. In his opinion, the masses need to be manipulated by an invisible government to ensure the survival of democracy.
“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country.
We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society.
Our invisible governors are, in many cases, unaware of the identity of their fellow members in the inner cabinet.”
– Edward Bernays, Propaganda
Bernay’s trailblazing marketing campaigns profoundly changed the functioning of American society. He basically created “consumerism” by creating a culture wherein Americans bought for pleasure instead of buying for survival. For this reason, he was considered by Life Magazine to be in the Top 100 most influential Americans of the 20th century.
Harold Lasswell
In 1939-1940, the University of Chicago was the host of a series of secret seminars on communications. These think tanks were funded by the Rockefeller Foundation and involved the most prominent researchers in the fields of communications and sociological studies. One of these scholars was Harold Lasswell, a leading American political scientist, and communications theorist, specializing in the analysis of propaganda. He was also of the opinion that a democracy, a government ruled by the people, could not sustain itself without a specialized elite shaping and molding public opinion through propaganda.
In his Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences, Lasswell explained that when elites lack the requisite force to compel obedience, social managers must turn to “a whole new technique of control, largely through propaganda.” He added the conventional justification: we must recognize the “ignorance and stupidity [of] … the masses and not succumb to democratic dogmatisms about men being the best judges of their own interests.”
Lasswell extensively studied the field of content analysis in order to understand the effectiveness of different types of propaganda. In his essay Contents of Communication, Lasswell explained that, in order to understand the meaning of a message (i.e. a movie, a speech, a book, etc.), one should take into account the frequency with which certain symbols appear in the message, the direction in which the symbols try to persuade the audience’s opinion, and the intensity of the symbols used.
Lasswell was famous for his media analysis model based on:
Who (says) What (to) Whom (in) What Channel (with) What Effect
By this model, Lasswell indicates that in order to properly analyze a media product, one must look at who produced the product (the people who ordered its creation), who was it aimed at (the target audience) and what were the desired effects of this product (to inform, to convince, to sell, etc.) on the audience.
Using a Rihanna video as an example, the analysis would be as follows: WHO PRODUCED: Vivendi Universal; WHAT: pop artist Rihanna; TO WHOM: consumers between the ages of 9 and 25; WHAT CHANNEL: music video; and WHAT EFFECT: selling the artist, her song, her image and her message.
The analyzes of videos and movies on The Vigilant Citizen place a great importance on the “who is behind” the messages communicated to the public. The term “Illuminati” is often used to describe this small elite group covertly ruling the masses. Although the term sounds quite caricatured and conspiratorial, it aptly describes the elite’s affinities with secret societies and occult knowledge. However, I personally detest using the term “conspiracy theory” to describe what is happening in the mass media. If all the facts concerning the elitist nature of the industry are readily available to the public, can it still be considered a “conspiracy theory”?
There used to be a variety of viewpoints, ideas, and opinions in popular culture. The consolidation of media corporations has, however, produced a standardization of the cultural industry. Ever wondered why all recent music sounds the same and all recent movies look the same? The following is part of the answer:
Media Ownership
As depicted in the graph above, the number of corporations owning the majority of U.S. media outlets went from 50 to 5 in less than 20 years. Here are the top corporations evolving around the world and the assets they own.
“A list of the properties controlled by AOL Time Warner takes ten typed pages listing 292 separate companies and subsidiaries. Of these, twenty-two are joint ventures with other major corporations involved in varying degrees with media operations. These partners include 3Com, eBay, Hewlett-Packard, Citigroup, Ticketmaster, American Express, Homestore, Sony, Viva, Bertelsmann, Polygram, and Amazon.com. Some of the more familiar fully owned properties of Time Warner include Book-of-the-Month Club; Little, Brown publishers; HBO, with its seven channels; CNN; seven specialized and foreign-language channels; Road Runner; Warner Brothers Studios; Weight Watchers; Popular Science; and fifty-two different record labels.” – Ben Bagdikan, The New Media Monopoly
AOL Time Warner owns:
64 magazines, including Time, Life, People, MAD Magazine and DC Comics
Warner Bros, New Line and Fine Line Features in cinema
More than 40 music labels including Warner Bros, Atlantic and Elektra
Many television networks such as WB Networks, HBO, Cinemax, TNT, Cartoon Network and CNN
Madonna, Sean Paul, The White Stripes
Viacom owns:
CBS, MTV, MTV2, UPN, VH1, Showtime, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, TNN, CMT and BET
Paramount Pictures, Nickelodeon Movies, MTV Films
Blockbuster Videos
1800 screens in theaters through Famous Players
“Disney ownership of a hockey team called The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim does not begin to describe the vastness of the kingdom. Hollywood is still its symbolic heart, with eight movie production studios and distributors: Walt Disney Pictures, Touchstone Pictures, Miramax, Buena Vista Home Video, Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Buena Vista International, Hollywood Pictures, and Caravan Pictures.
The Walt Disney Company controls eight book house imprints under Walt Disney Company Book Publishing and ABC Publishing Group; seventeen magazines; the ABC Television Network, with ten owned and operated stations of its own including in the five top markets; thirty radio stations, including all the major markets; eleven cable channels, including Disney, ESPN (jointly), A&E, and the History Channel; thirteen international broadcast channels stretching from Australia to Brazil; seven production and sports units around the world; and seventeen Internet sites, including the ABC group, ESPN.sportszone, NFL.com, NBAZ.com, and NASCAR.com. Its five music groups include the Buena Vista, Lyric Street, and Walt Disney labels, and live theater productions growing out of the movies The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, and King David.”
The Walt Disney Company owns:
ABC, Disney Channel, ESPN, A&E, History Channel
Walt Disney Pictures, Touchstone Pictures, Hollywood Pictures, Miramax Film Corp., Dimension and Buena Vista International
Miley Cyrus/ Hannah Montana, Selena Gomez, Jonas Brothers
Vivendi Universal owns:
27% of US music sales, labels include: Interscope, Geffen, A&M, Island, Def Jam, MCA, Mercury, Motown and Universal
Universal Studios, Studio Canal, Polygram Films, Canal +
Numerous internet and cell phone companies
Lady Gaga, The Black Eyed Peas, Lil Wayne, Rihanna, Mariah Carey, Jay-Z
Sony owns:
Columbia Pictures, Screen Gems, Sony Pictures Classics
15% of US Music sales, labels include Columbia, Epic, Sony, Arista, Jive and RCA Records
Beyonce, Shakira, Michael Jackson, Alicia Keys, Christina Aguilera
A limited number of actors in the cultural industry means a limited amount of viewpoints and ideas making their way to the general public. It also means that a single message can easily saturate all forms of media to generate consent (i.e. “there are weapons of mass destruction in Iraq”).
The Standardization of Human Thought
The merger of media companies in the last decades generated a small oligarchy of media conglomerates. The TV shows we follow, the music we listen to, the movies we watch and the newspapers we read are all produced by FIVE corporations. The owners of those conglomerates have close ties with the world’s elite and, in many ways, they ARE the elite. By owning all of the possible outlets having the potential to reach the masses, these conglomerates have the power to create in the minds of the people a single and cohesive worldview, engendering a “standardization of human thought”.
Even movements or styles that are considered marginal are, in fact, extensions of mainstream thinking. Mass medias produce their own rebels who definitely look the part but are still part of the establishment and do not question any of it. Artists, creations, and ideas that do not fit the mainstream way of thinking are mercilessly rejected and forgotten by the conglomerates, which in turn makes them virtually disappear from society itself. However, ideas that are deemed to be valid and desirable to be accepted by society are skillfully marketed to the masses in order to make them become a self-evident norm.
In 1928, Edward Bernays already saw the immense potential of motion pictures to standardize thought:
“The American motion picture is the greatest unconscious carrier of propaganda in the world today. It is a great distributor for ideas and opinions. The motion picture can standardize the ideas and habits of a nation. Because pictures are made to meet market demands, they reflect, emphasize and even exaggerate broad popular tendencies, rather than stimulate new ideas and opinions. The motion picture avails itself only of ideas and facts which are in vogue. As the newspaper seeks to purvey news, it seeks to purvey entertainment.”
– Edward Bernays, Propaganda
These facts were flagged as dangers to human freedom in the 1930’s by thinkers of the school of Frankfurt such as Theodor Adorno and Herbert Marcuse. They identified three main problems with the cultural industry. The industry can:
reduce human beings to the state of mass by hindering the development of emancipated individuals, who are capable of making rational decisions;
replace the legitimate drive for autonomy and self-awareness by the safe laziness of conformism and passivity; and
validate the idea that men actually seek to escape the absurd and cruel world in which they live by losing themselves in a hypnotic state self-satisfaction.
The notion of escapism is even more relevant today with the advent of online video games, 3D movies, and home theaters. The masses, constantly seeking state-of-the-art entertainment, will resort to high-budget products that can only be produced by the biggest media corporations of the world. These products contain carefully calculated messages and symbols which are nothing more and nothing less than entertaining propaganda. The public has been trained to LOVE its propaganda to the extent that it spends its hard-earned money to be exposed to it. Propaganda (used in both political, cultural and commercial sense) is no longer the coercive or authoritative communication form found in dictatorships: it has become the synonym of entertainment and pleasure.
“In regard to propaganda the early advocates of universal literacy and a free press envisaged only two possibilities: the propaganda might be true, or it might be false. They did not foresee what in fact has happened, above all in our Western capitalist democracies — the development of a vast mass communications industry, concerned in the main neither with the true nor the false, but with the unreal, the more or less totally irrelevant. In a word, they failed to take into account man’s almost infinite appetite for distractions.”
– Aldous Huxley, Preface to A Brave New World
A single piece of media often does not have a lasting effect on the human psyche. Mass media, however, by its omnipresent nature, creates a living environment we evolve in on a daily basis. It defines the norm and excludes the undesirable. The same way carriage horses wear blinders so they can only see what is right in front of them, the masses can only see where they are supposed to go.
“It is the emergence of mass media which makes possible the use of propaganda techniques on a societal scale. The orchestration of press, radio and television to create a continuous, lasting and total environment renders the influence of propaganda virtually unnoticed precisely because it creates a constant environment. Mass media provides the essential link between the individual and the demands of the technological society.”
– Jacques Ellul
One of the reasons mass media successfully influences society is due to the extensive amount of research on cognitive sciences and human nature that has been applied to it.
Manipulation Techniques
“Publicity is the deliberate attempt to manage the public’s perception of a subject. The subjects of publicity include people (for example, politicians and performing artists), goods and services, organizations of all kinds, and works of art or entertainment.”
The drive to sell products and ideas to the masses has to lead to an unprecedented amount of research on human behavior and on the human psyche. Cognitive sciences, psychology, sociology, semiotics, linguistics and other related fields were and still are extensively researched through well-funded studies.
“No group of sociologists can approximate the ad teams in the gathering and processing of exploitable social data. The ad teams have billions to spend annually on research and testing of reactions, and their products are magnificent accumulations of material about the shared experience and feelings of the entire community.”
– Marshal McLuhan, The Extensions of Man
The results of those studies are applied to advertisements, movies, music videos and other media in order to make them as influential as possible. The art of marketing is highly calculated and scientific because it must reach both the individual and the collective consciousness. In high-budget cultural products, a video is never “just a video,” Images, symbols, and meanings are strategically placed in order to generate a desired effect.
“It is with knowledge of the human being, his tendencies, his desires, his needs, his psychic mechanisms, his automatisms as well as knowledge of social psychology and analytical psychology that propaganda refines its techniques.”
– Propagandes, Jacques Ellul (free translation)
Today’s propaganda almost never uses rational or logical arguments. It directly taps into a human’s most primal needs and instincts in order to generate an emotional and irrational response. If we always thought rationally, we probably wouldn’t buy 50% of what we own. Babies and children are constantly found in advertisements targeting women for a specific reason: studies have shown that images of children trigger in women an instinctual need to nurture, to care and to protect, ultimately leading to a sympathetic bias towards the advertisement.
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Sex is ubiquitous in mass media, as it draws and keeps the viewer’s attention. It directly connects to our animal need to breed and to reproduce, and, when triggered, this instinct can instantly overshadow any other rational thoughts in our brain.
Subliminal Perception
What if the messages described above were able to reach directly the viewers’ subconscious mind, without the viewers even realizing what is happening? That is the goal of subliminal perception. The phrase subliminal advertising was coined in 1957 by the US market researcher James Vicary, who said he could get moviegoers to “drink Coca-Cola” and “eat popcorn” by flashing those messages onscreen for such a short time that viewers were unaware.
“Subliminal perception is a deliberate process created by communications technicians, by which you receive and respond to information and instructions without being consciously aware of the instructions”
– Steve Jacobson, Mind Control in the United States
This technique is often used in marketing and we all know that sex sells.
Although some sources claim that subliminal advertising is ineffective or even an urban myth, the documented usage of this technique in mass media proves that creators believe in its powers. Recent studies have also proven its effectiveness, especially when the message is negative.
” A team from University College London, funded by the Wellcome Trust, found that it [subliminal perception] was particularly good at instilling negative thoughts. There has been much speculation about whether people can process emotional information unconsciously, for example pictures, faces and words,” said Professor Nilli Lavie, who led the research. We have shown that people can perceive the emotional value of subliminal messages and have demonstrated conclusively that people are much more attuned to negative words.” – Source
A famous example of subliminal messaging in political communications is in George Bush’s advertisement against Al Gore in 2000.
Right after the name of Gore is mentioned, the ending of the word “bureaucrats” – “rats” – flashes on the screen for a split second.
The discovery of this trickery caused quite a stir and, even if there are no laws against subliminal messaging in the U.S., the advertisement was taken off the air.
As seen in many articles on The Vigilant Citizen, subliminal and semi-subliminal messages are often used in movies and music videos to communicate messages and ideas to the viewers.
Desensitization
In the past, when changes were imposed on populations, they would take to the streets, protest and even riot. The main reason for this clash was due to the fact that the change was clearly announced by the rulers and understood by the population. It was sudden and its effects could clearly be analyzed and evaluated. Today, when the elite needs a part of its agenda to be accepted by the public, it is done through desensitization. The agenda, which might go against the public best interests, is slowly, gradually and repetitively introduced to the world through movies (by involving it within the plot), music videos (who make it cool and sexy) or the news (who present it as a solution to today’s problems). After several years of exposing the masses to a particular agenda, the elite openly presents the concept the world and, due to mental programming, it is greeted with general indifference and is passively accepted. This technique originates from psychotherapy.
“The techniques of psychotherapy, widely practiced and accepted as a means of curing psychological disorders, are also methods of controlling people. They can be used systematically to influence attitudes and behavior. Systematic desensitization is a method used to dissolve anxiety so the the patient (public) is no longer troubled by a specific fear, a fear of violence for example. […] People adapt to frightening situations if they are exposed to them enough”.
– Steven Jacobson, Mind Control in the United States
Predictive programming is often found in the science fiction genre. It presents a specific image of the future – the one that is desired by the elite – and ultimately becomes in the minds of men an inevitability. A decade ago, the public was being desensitized to war against the Arab world. Today, the population is gradually being exposed to the existence of mind control, of transhumanism and of an Illuminati elite. Emerging from the shadows, those concepts are now everywhere in popular culture. This is what Alice Bailey describes as the “externalization of the hierarchy”: the hidden rulers slowly revealing themselves.
Occult Symbolism in Pop Culture
Contrarily to the information presented above, documentation on occult symbolism is rather hard to find. This should not come as a surprise as the term “occult”, literally means “hidden”. It also means “reserved to those in the know” as it is only communicated to those who are deemed worthy of the knowledge. It is not taught in schools nor is it discussed in the media. It is thus considered marginal or even ridiculous by the general population.
Occult knowledge is NOT, however, considered ridiculous in occult circles. It is considered timeless and sacred. There is a long tradition of hermetic and occult knowledge being taught through secret societies originating from ancient Egyptians to Eastern Mystics, to the Knights Templar to modern day Freemasons. Even if the depth of this knowledge was most probably lost throughout the centuries, mystery schools kept their main features, which are highly symbolic, ritualistic and metaphysical. Those characteristics, which were an intricate part of ancient civilizations, have totally been evacuated from modern society to be replaced by pragmatic materialism. For this reason, there lies an important gap of understanding between the pragmatic average person and the ritualistic establishment.
“If this inner doctrine were always concealed from the masses, for whom a simpler code had been devised, is it not highly probable that the exponents of every aspect of modern civilization – philosophic, ethical, religious, and scientific-are ignorant of the true meaning of the very theories and tenets on which their beliefs are founded? Do the arts and sciences that the race has inherited from older nations conceal beneath their fair exterior a mystery so great that only the most illumined intellect can grasp its import? Such is undoubtedly the case.”
– Manly P. Hall, Secret Teachings of All Ages
The “simpler code” devised for the masses used to be organized religions. It is now becoming the Temple of the Mass Media and it preaches on a daily basis extreme materialism, spiritual vacuosity and a self-centered, individualistic existence. This is exactly the opposite of the attributes required to become a truly free individual, as taught by all great philosophical schools of thought. Is a dumbed-down population easier to deceive and to manipulate?
“These blind slaves are told they are “free” and “highly educated” even as they march behind signs that would cause any medieval peasant to run screaming away from them in panic-stricken terror. The symbols that modern man embraces with the naive trust of an infant would be tantamount to billboards reading, ‘This way to your death and enslavement,’ to the understanding of the traditional peasant of antiquity”
– Michael A. Hoffman II, Secret Societies and Psychological Warfare
In Conclusion
This article examined the major thinkers in the field of mass media, the media power structure and the techniques used to manipulate the masses. I believe this information is vital to the understanding of the “why” in the topics discussed on The Vigilant Citizen. The “mass population” versus “ruling class” dichotomy described in many articles is not a “conspiracy theory” (again, I hate that term), but a reality that has been clearly stated in the works of some of the 20th century’s most influential men.
Lippmann, Bernays, and Lasswell have all declared that the public is not fit to decide their own fate, which is the inherent goal of democracy. Instead, they called for a cryptocracy, a hidden government, a ruling class in charge of the “bewildered herd.” As their ideas continue to be applied to society, it is increasingly apparent that an ignorant population is not an obstacle that the rulers must deal with: It is something that is DESIRABLE and, indeed, necessary, to ensure total leadership. An ignorant population does not know its rights, does not seek a greater understanding of issues and does not question authorities. It simply follows trends. Popular culture caters to and nurtures ignorance by continually serving up brain-numbing entertainment and spotlighting degenerate celebrities to be idolized.
“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, it expects what never was and never will be.”
– Thomas Jefferson
If you think Agenda 21 was bad, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Wait until you learn what the creepily utopian 2030 Agenda has in store for us all.
Once again Germany has stepped forward with their ideas of how to speed up the arrival of a one-world government.
While all eyes were on Obama and his creepily NWO speech, the German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier gave an address which went largely unnoticed. It was a lengthy speech – you can read his entire address here – but these are some takeaway points:
“We could also choose to put our faith in the power of diplomacy or shrug our shoulders” in the face of the conflicts in Syria, Libya, Iraq and Yemen he said, noting that Europe also faces a choice of fighting to hold the region together or allowing it to fall apart again and be overrun by populists.
“The United States is also faced with a choice; in six weeks’ time, here too, the choice is about the supposed withdrawal from a crisis-ridden world – which some are calling for – or cooperation with international partners to solve some of those problems, he continues, noting that this choice “is important for all of us.”
Indeed, “withdrawal, resignation, going it alone, or, responsibility for a better future; that is the choice in many places,” he said.
The United Nations would remain the central forum, for tackling these issues, he said. In the context of all the crisis meetings, “it gives me hope that we have made an important choice, the right choice, of the direction we want to take and that we have chosen unity and sustainability,” he said calling the 2030 Agenda a global pact that is the point of convergence for dealing with poverty and underdevelopment.
Now we know when they want the takeover to be complete: 2030.
What is the 2030 Agenda?
We have all heard of Agenda 21, but the 2030 Agenda isn’t quite so familiar. Agenda 2030 emphasizes gender and racial equality, eradication of poverty, and the total abolition of violence and hate.
It lays out that the future world is based entirely on these goals and that the only way to achieve these things is through sustainable development and control of climate change. Oh – and the planet will also be totally poverty free by 2030 as well.
Here are a few of the pertinent points:
It actually came into effect in January 2016.
Its full title is ‘Transforming Our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.’
The areas covered by the Agenda are people, planet, prosperity, peace, and partnership.
The 17 goals and 169 targets of the Agenda seek to build on the Millennium Development Goals and complete those that were not achieved.
The ‘Declaration’ agreed upon at the United Nations meeting in New York has 53 points.
Point 2 sets the tone: ‘On behalf of the peoples we serve, we have adopted a historic decision on a comprehensive, far-reaching and people-centred set of universal and transformative goals and targets. We commit ourselves to working tirelessly for the full implementation of this Agenda by 2030’.
Points 5, 18, 28, and particularly point 29 are particularly interesting. Now, in theory, it’s wonderful – rainbows and unicorns for everyone. It’s repetitive in the extreme, constantly pointing out the sanctity of sovereign nations and saying these issues apply TO EVERY SINGLE PERSON ON THE PLANET…
So, how does the 2030 Agenda morph into the arrival of a one-world government?
Simple. It is entirely impossible to achieve what they have laid out without a one-world government, the New World Order we have heard so much about over the last few years.
This is what they are stating WILL be achieved by 2030 with all countries somehow miraculously retaining their own culture, resources, and economies:
Total eradication of hunger across the planet.
Total eradication of race inequality across the planet.
Total eradication of poverty across the planet.
Total eradication of gender inequality across the planet.
Total eradication of war across the planet.
Total eradication of Malaria and other mosquito-borne diseases across the planet.
Total eradication of TB across the planet.
A set standard of education for every child on the planet.
Clean water and sanitation for every person on the planet.
A decent job for every worker on the planet.
Sustainable economic growth in every country on the planet.
Sustainable agriculture across the planet.
Sustainable livestock production across the planet.
A reduction in natural resource use in every country on the planet.
A reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in every industrialized nation on the planet.
A reduction in flood and drought events is susceptible locations around the world.
There are other odds and ends they have thrown in but the bottom line is that they intend for all of these things to be done by the year 2030.
Really? Honestly?
There are barely a half dozen countries on the planet that can engage in conversation without some disagreement and they honestly expect us to believe that there will be enough international co-operation while retaining nation sovereignty, to achieve even one goal on that list?
Achieving ANY of the goals on that list is impossible unless one single government calls the shots and enforces conditions whereby the goals become achievable. That means the removal of sovereign status for individual nations. It means one giant money pot made up of cash from every nation that has cash to finance these initiatives.
Few people realize just how far-reaching the effects of long-term exposure to fluoride can be.
Dental fluorosis may be the most obvious manifestation of fluoride damage as it discolors and pits people’s teeth, but much of the other harm it causes is not as easy to see and is often blamed on something else. Here’s a look at a few of the ways in which fluoride destroys your health.
Cognitive and IQ problems
Many people feel fluoridated water is a big reason for the general “dumbing down” of society we’ve seen in recent years. It makes sense when you consider that fluoride is a neurotoxin and 50 human studies have linked exposure to it with lower intelligence.
It affects people of all ages, with fetal brain development also suffering from fluoride exposure. One study from Harvard Medical School linked elevated levels of fluoride to lowered IQs in children. Other studies have found that it can cause memory impairments and even brain damage.
Because so much fluoride accumulates in the aorta, your heart can be affected by it significantly. Fluoride leads to oxidative stress and an inflammatory response, spurring atherosclerosis and heart damage.
In addition, fluoride in ground water has been linked to high blood pressure and a higher risk of heart attack and stroke.
Male infertility
One of the less obvious effects of fluoride exposure is male infertility. Lots of people fail to connect their troubles conceiving to the chemical, even though more than 60 studies have shown that it can impact male reproduction by reducing the quantity and motility of sperm as well as testosterone levels.
If you need further proof, consider the fact that American communities where the drinking water contains more than 3 ppm of fluoride had lower fertility rates than those areas with lower levels of fluoride in a study, even though the amount in question was within the limits of what the EPA considers “safe.”
Here’s another reason to avoid fluoride: It’s been found in studies to weaken bones. Some studies have found that areas with 4 mg per liter of fluoride in the drinking water have higher rates of fractures and lower cortical bone density. Animal studies have also found bone strength reductions at the hands of exposure to fluoride.
In addition, long-term exposure to fluoride has been found to cause skeletal fluorosis, which can lead to serious bone distortions and a “hunchback.” This is often misdiagnosed because it can look like other joint and bone diseases, like osteoarthritis.
Cell DNA damage and cancer
Fluoride causes genetic damage that can contribute to cancer. It’s been linked to lung and bladder cancers in particular, and some experts believe it can increase the risk of malignancies.
In one study, boys who were exposed to fluoridated water as children were found to have a significantly higher chance of developing bone cancer as adolescents.
Endocrine disruption
Fluoride can impact your endocrine function, inhibiting the secretion of insulin, T3, T4 and other hormones. It also impacts melatonin, which is responsible for regulating your sleep and wake cycle.
Gastrointestinal issues
Ingesting even small amounts of fluoride can cause stomach lining damage and vomiting in some people. Poison Control Centers get thousands of calls each year about excessive fluoride ingestion by children in the form of toothpaste, which can cause nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain.
Fluoride can damage your health in many different ways. If you have fluoride in your water or your toothpaste, it’s time to start making some changes if you want to preserve your health.
The World We Live In 