Bonum Certa Men Certa

Beyond the 'Public Relations'

Edward Bernays
Edward Bernays, a man behind mind control,
imposed ignorance, and consumerism



Summary: Novell's and Microsoft's use of PR, new AstroTurfing from Comcast/Radian6, and convenient delusions about the Gates Foundation

FOR THOSE who may not know this, the term "public relations" (or "PR") was coined early in the last century after the term "propaganda" (also beginning with "Pr") got a bad reputation. The methods used in the United States to manipulate people's emotions about products and policies directly influenced the Nazi regime, which in turn destroyed the positive/benign connotation associated with a word like "propaganda". Nowadays it is a dirty word (languages evolve/devolve), but the rules and methods remain the same, most commonly under the umbrella of "PR" (where the word "relations" is euphemistically used in the same sense as in the Council of Foreign Relations). For those who are interested, there is an excellent BBC documentary series about the subject and it is called "The Trap". It comes in many parts. US citizens celebrate a shopping/spendings holiday today, called "Black Friday". The documentary addresses the emergence of consumption culture as well, since it is closely related to the genesis and commercial purpose of PR techniques.



“They were all uploaded by an account called "TESTDRIVE9", referring/belonging to a company Novell seems to have hired or partnered with.”Over the past couple of years we have spent some effort studying Microsoft PR agencies (Microsoft externalises PR activities). Once these are analysed and documented properly it becomes easier to tell apart truth from spin. The same goes for front groups of Microsoft, whose inherent function is similar but not identical.

Since this Web site is primarily about Novell, worth bringing up is a bunch of new "success stories" that ended up in YouTube this week. They were all uploaded by an account called "TESTDRIVE9", referring/belonging to a company Novell seems to have hired or partnered with. From its channel description:

Interactive Ideas (www.interactiveideas.com) is one of the UK's leading value-added software and peripheral distributors, providing channels to market for technology products.

This channel hosts short non-technical videos explaining the real world business benefits of implementing SolarWinds, Red Hat, Novell, Acronis, JBoss and Kerio solutions in your organisation.


This account has just uploaded no less than 4 European "success stories" (advertisements) for Novell, from Denmark, Holland, Austria, and the UK. Here is an example.



Novell's (mis)use of YouTube is a subject we previously touched on in:



Novell recently preached about its attempt to "change the perception of Novell." And yes, it seems like "perception management" [1, 2], as PR professionals call it.

To give another new example, Radian6, the non-Microsoft AstroTurf equivalent of Visible Technologies, is still spying on our reader Ryan on behalf of Comcast, trying to suppress his rants about bad service. He can see that Radian6 is doing this and has produced proof a few days ago. His blog was also being monitored by Visible Technologies, which was funded by Microsoft, contains (former) Microsoft employees, and has Microsoft as a client.

“Novell recently preached about its attempt to "change the perception of Novell."”Another entity that uses heavy PR and "perception management" (other than Microsoft, Novell, and Comcast) is the Gates Foundation, whose selfish deeds require huge amounts of spin. The Gates Foundation already controls a lot of the press (simply because it funds the press) and right now there is more spin about "family planning" (sometimes a euphemism for sterilisation, much like "public relations" for brainwash or "rendition" for torture).

It turns out that the Gates family is still very keen on shrinking the population in Africa. The Gates Foundation funds this goal, just as it funds colonisation of Africa with Monsanto [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8] and the pharmaceutical industry (patents) [1, 2, 3].

From reading Bill and Melinda's thoughts on family planning you would think they only cared about WHY women would want smaller families (they say because their children don't die) and that they didn't care any longer about HOW women can reduce the number of children they have (family planning). But the Foundation just funded one of the largest family conferences on family planning in years


According to Wall Street's business press, the Gates Foundation is building another mansion at the cost of $500,000,000 while spending the same amount of money grabbing more control of the education system, which Microsoft in turn uses to exclude rival software and to indoctrinate the young. From one source that glorifies it:

School boards in Memphis, Pittsburgh, and Hillsborough County, Fla., voted this week to take part in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s national $500-million program to improve teacher effectiveness, according to press reports.


The Associated Press wrote a few weeks ago that "The real secretary of education, the joke goes, is Bill Gates." There is nothing positive about it, based on history.

"Excessive distrust is not less hurtful than its opposite. Most men become useless to him who is unwilling to risk being deceived."

--Luc De Vauvanargues

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

Microsoft Uses LLM Slop to Defraud (or Rob) Shareholders
Microsoft is basically defrauding its shareholders by LLM slop
The "Davos Effect": Tarnishing the Reputation of Places Not by Overtourism But by Oligarch Infestation
The last Venice needs is an affiliation with Venetian oligarchs
 
Links 01/07/2025: "Independence Day in Taiwan", Bounties on Software Patents
Links for the day
What Happens When Your Law Firm is Preoccupied With Harassing and Trying to Extort a Humble Couple in Manchester, Even on Behalf of Violent Microsoft Staff From Another Continent
It's good to see that law firms which operate in bad faith are perishing
Lawyer X, Law Firm X and Elon Musk's X: scandals linked by Old Xaverian
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 01/07/2025: Distraction-Free Writing and Hytale Mismanagement
Links for the day
Links 01/07/2025: "Beauty of Blogging" and "Etiquette of Collapse"
Links for the day
The Web is a Dead End
We need to adopt alternatives
When Words Lose Their Intended Meaning
examples of words that, at least in the technical spheres, don't mean what they sound like
People Who Disagree With You on Technical Matters May or May Not Agree With You on Political Things (But Usually They Do)
What bothers me a great deal is seeing left-leaning people accusing other left-leaning people of being "nazis"
"Too Much Choice" and "Too Many Programming Languages"
What IBM and its apologists aim for was attempted in the 1930s and it failed
Microsoft Lost 400,000,000 Windows Users, According to Microsoft
more people adopt smaller computers and many people replace Windows with GNU/Linux, as they don't really need a new computer
Half a Year Gone, What's to Come Next
In the second half of 2025 we expect to be done with the Microsoft SLAPPs
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, June 30, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, June 30, 2025
People at the Very Top of Microsoft Know How Bad Things Really Are
There's no product that can replace the former profitability of Windows licensing and stuff that went on top of Windows
Gemini Links 01/07/2025: Mid Year and a Tour of Old Languages
Links for the day
EPO Presentation Bemoans Misuse of Slop in Decision-Making on Patents and in Classification (Which is Likely Illegal Too)
We habitually mention failed use cases of LLMs on the Web
Mass Layoffs at Microsoft Confirmed, "XBox Hardware Is Dead"
It's possible that over 20% of the staff will be laid off
Links 30/06/2025: Kyrgyzstan vs Media Freedom, Dalai Lama Succession
Links for the day
Gemini Links 30/06/2025: Backend Programs in Gemini and Dynamic Content Without The Scripting
Links for the day
Links 30/06/2025: Zuckerberg’s Tax-Evading Scheme Harms Kids, US Copyright Office Lacks Leadership
Links for the day
Microsoft Isn't Laying Off Tens of Thousands to 'Invest' in Slop ('Hey Hi'), It's Laying Off Tens of Thousands Because It's Running Out of Money (and Willing Lenders)
the layoffs are a sign of the business failing, not "hey hi" (whatever that is) replacing staff
Intel Lays Off 20% of Its Workforce, Microsoft is Doing the Same This Year
Like a yoyo, whatever goes up will come back down
Microsoft XBox Layoffs: Almost 2,000 Layoffs Became "Over 2,000"? (Over 20% of the Staff)
over 20% of staff will be let go, not counting staff that leaves voluntarily
GNU/Linux Rises to New Highs in Angola, Africa in General is Abandoning Windows
Western media barely covers Microsoft layoffs in Africa, but in recent years Microsoft culled the workforce and even shut down entire operations
Summer Plans in Techrights and Elsewhere
massive layoffs at Microsoft
Destination Geminispace (in the Age of LLM Slop and Slop Images That Infest the Web and Social Control Media)
Geminispace isn't vast, but at least it is - on average - a lot "cleaner"
GNU/Linux Growing in Sierra Leone This Year
Based on what statCounter is seeing, this year there are more and more people there who adopt GNU/Linux
Serial Sloppers Gonna Slop
More sites out there ought to call out the cheaters
Quartz (qz.com) is Spam and a Slopfarm
It used to be OK. Then they fired the staff.
Links 30/06/2025: US Economic Woes, Extreme Heat
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, June 29, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, June 29, 2025
Gemini Links 30/06/2025: "The AI Hype" and New AuraGem Ask
Links for the day
Our Desktops Are Not Your Experiments, X is Not an Experiment
Breaking what already worked
Microsoft's Big Lies Regarding This Week's Mass Layoffs Have Already Begun (and They're Already Being Spread by Slopfarms)
Microsoft is the "market leader" in slop
Explaining the Full Story of SLAPPs From Microsoft Staff
For every action there is a reaction, for every attack there will be proportionate consequences
The Openwashing Shills Initiative (OSI) - Part III: IRS and Status of OSI
"They lied to the US IRS and there’s a paper trail"
IBM Red Hat's Dogmatic Fanaticism Under a Thin Veil of "Modernism"
IBM now has the audacity to paint people who don't agree as "nazis"
Microsoft's Share in Guatemala Fell From 97% to 14%
Eventually Microsoft will get stuck in a loop of layoffs, layoffs, and more layoffs
They Made Technology Scary and Taught Us That It's Innocent, Friendly, Even "Social"
Rejection of all this "apps" and "gadgets" and "Smart" (whatever that means!) status quo isn't a rejection of society
The Media is Under Attacks Partly Because There's Little Other (Remaining) Press to Speak in Its Defence
The biggest danger here is that when there's very little press or no "opposition media" left it becomes even easier to crush critics because there aren't many people left to speak about the matter
If Your Web Site is Run by Bots, Eventually Nobody Will 'Read' It Except Bots (People Don't Want to Read Slop)
Eventually people learn from mistakes
Links 29/06/2025: Microsoft Releases False/Fake Benchmarks, "Google Wants You to Watch Ads or Take Surveys to Read Articles"
Links for the day
Links 29/06/2025: Data Breaches and Online Censorship
Links for the day
Gemini Links 29/06/2025: "The Price Of Eggs" and Gemini 3D Tic Tac Toe
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, June 28, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, June 28, 2025