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

'Confidential Computing'? More Like a Giant Back Door.
CacheWarp AMD CPU Attack Grants Root Access in Linux VMs
Cybercrimes and Online Abuse From Extremists and Militants on a VPN/Tor
A straitjacket or lobotomy won't solve this issue
Links 02/12/2023: Pfizer Sued for Lies About Efficacy, Censorship of Scientific Dissent, More Pfizer Layoffs
Links for the day
Selling Free Software
by Richard Stallman
 
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, December 02, 2023
IRC logs for Saturday, December 02, 2023
Links 03/12/2023: CRISPR as Patented Minefield, Lots of Greenwashing Abound
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news
Professor Eben Moglen: In 1991 Richard Stallman Thought GNU/Linux Was Doomed Due to Software Patents
Back when Linus Torvalds was about to release Linux Prof. Moglen and Dr. Stallman had already spent years developing GNU and refining its licence, the GPL, which Linux would later adopt
Montana’s TikTok Ban Was to Protect Free Speech and the United States' First Amendment
TikTok does not embrace Free speech
GNU/Linux Surges to Almost 4% Worldwide on Desktops/Laptops, 2% in Latest Steam Survey (Ubuntu Not the Top Distro)
We've fortunately bet on a winning platform
Links 02/12/2023: ChatGPT Drowns in Bad Press, Censorship Worldwide Increases Some More
Links for the day
[Meme] Screenshots of Web Pages (Relevant to One's Article) Are Not Copyright Infringing Anywhere in the World
bullying and hate crimes
IRC Proceedings: Friday, December 01, 2023
IRC logs for Friday, December 01, 2023
A Year of Doing Techrights 'Full Time'
been a year!
Microsoft and Its Boosters Worsen Linux Security
The circus goes on and on
Links 01/12/2023: Facebook Infested With Malicious Campaigns by Imposters, ACLU Gives Advice on Doxxing and Online Harassment
Links for the day
Just Like Its Budget Allocation, the Linux Foundation Devotes About 3% Of Its Latest Newsletter to Linux, Devotes More to Linux's Rivals
It's just exploiting the brand
Links 01/12/2023: Google Invokes Antitrust Against Microsoft
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news
UK Government Allowing Microsoft to Take Over Activision Blizzard Will Destroy Jobs
Over 30,000 fired this year? More?
It's Cheaper to Pay Bribes (and Produce Press Releases) Than to Pay Fines (After Lots of Negative Publicity)
Does the UK still have real sovereignty or do corporations from overseas purchase decisions and outcomes?
November 2023 Over With GNU/Linux at All-Time Highs According to statCounter
ChromeOS+GNU/Linux combined are about 7% of the "market"
New Report Provides Numerical Evidence That Google Hired Too Many People From Microsoft (and Became Malicious, Evil, Sociopathic)
"Some 12,018 former Microsoft employees currently work for the search and data giant"
Google: Keep Out, Don't Save Your Files, and Also Let Us Spy on Everything You Do
Do you still trust "clown" storage?
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, November 30, 2023
IRC logs for Thursday, November 30, 2023
Links 01/12/2023: Many Suppressions in Hong Kong and Attempts to Legitimise Illegal and Unconstitutional Fake Patent 'Court' in EU (UPC)
Links for the day