Letter to Mark Zuckerberg: The Deeper Ramifications and Implications of Selective Social Media Censorship

Institutionalized Deception in America as the Norm........

A recent tete-a-tete with a dear friend about the role that language plays in our respective communities, the current Panama Papers debacle, and the racially-tinged, false narratives (lies) that engulf our communities in America daily, encouraged me to explore the central theme of the linguistic foundation of American societal evolution…….institutionalized deception. 

If you ever wondered why America is so reviled around the world, not to worry; it’s not just because our military plays global policeman around the world killing millions of innocent civilians so that our government leaders can award special, no-bid, crude-oil (diamond/gold/plutonium/uranium/bauxite/platinum/ivory....name your country and I'll tell you what the U.S.-sent economic hitmen, and/or military, are after)) extraction contracts to their cronies…..not only because the United Staes of America has been the only country in the history of the world to drop a nuclear weapon on innocent civilians, killing half a million of them within minutes…..not just because of our supercilious attitude towards the rest of the world……not simply because we have deceptively re-qwritten the rules of engagement around the world, enslaved millions in a global piracy pyramid scheme, innocently entitled Capitalism……not solely because we engage in a passively-sounding, “ethnic cleansing” of millions of indigenous people who stand in the way of America acquiring natural resources at all cost…..not only because we engage in the genetically modification of viruses which are used to massacre millions around the world….not just because of our cowardly, genocidal role in the African Slave Trade, which resulted in the racial subjugation of tens of millions of Africans and their descendants…..not just because of these and many other atrocities…..no…..mainly, because….white….Americans…….lie.

In all my travels, I found that this is peculiar to North America. Caucasians from Hungary, Slovenia, Finland, Netherlands, Portugal among other places, do not as a rule, as a collective, make the usurpation of the truth a lifelong obsession. In many places I have visited, with predominantly Caucasian populations, I discovered that, in fact, this sad condition is largely limited to North America, France, and England...in that order.

Yes, there are instances of playing around with the truth the world over. From cradle to the grave, a smattering of this flaw is as human as playing some form of ball game as a kid, but when you institutionalize it.......hmmm, you are talking big leagues.

The use of linguistic calisthenics to manipulate others is a peculiarly (white) American obsession. It is ugly, putrid and sickening.

Traveling through the icy wastes of Baffin Island in northern Canada during the 1880s, Anthropologist Franz Boas didn’t mean to spark a century-long argument. He simply wanted to study the life of the local Inuit people, joining their sleigh rides, trading caribou skins and learning their folklore. He was particularly intrigued by their language, noting the elaborate terms used to describe the frozen landscape: “Aqilokoq: softly falling snow” and “Piegnartoq: the snow [that is] good for driving sled,” to name just two.

Mentioning his observations in the introduction to his 1911 book “Handbook of American Indian Languages,” he ignited the claim that Eskimos have dozens, or even hundreds, of words for "snow". Although the idea continues to capture public imagination, most linguists considered it an urban legend, born of sloppy scholarship and journalistic exaggeration. Some have even gone as far as to name it the 'Great Eskimo Vocabulary Hoax'. The latest evidence, however, suggests that Franz Boas was right all along.

The point being that, judging by the voluminous antonyms of any word, any feeling, any expression, attitude or characteristic, in each and every of our respective societies, one can safely interpolate, extract, understand and summarize the mannerisms of that particular society. 

Thus, the most common aspect of American life, the major underlining factor in the evolution of American life, the singular core definition of American values, is embodied by continuous vile deception…….odious mendacity…...patronizing equivocation…..slimy trickery…..venomous cunning…..blatant lying……glib canard-insertions……hurtful fabrication……seedy perversion…..inhumane hypocrisy…..reprehensible insincerity…...tendencies to adjust the truth…..beady-eyed fudging……privileged treachery…..little white lies……vicious false narratives…..conscienceless duping…..layers of continuous smoke-and-mirrors……massive whoppers….deliberate misstatements……Houdini-misdirections.....juggling the truth…..blood-stained legerdemain…..deceptive dissimulation…..evil embellishments…..immoral turpitude…..constant deception…..lifelong fraud…..privileged prevarication…..dangled red herrings……myopic misrepresentation……deliberate omission……ugly untruths……flagrant flimflam falsehoods…..duplicitous double-dealing…..terrible tall tales…..pulling fast ones……tara-diddly trumpery (see the irony, Donald?)…..pompous pretense….sarcastic snow jobs…...bombastic betrayal…..duplicity…..forgery…..bilious blarney……bastardly boondoggle……(un)creative cheating……ingratiatingly cunning circumvention…..fawning cozenage…….circumstantial craftiness……greasy guile…..idiotic hokum…..meandering misinformation……deadly disinformation…..unctuous untruths……and justifying all of them constantly, accordingly.

There are many more. This is just a partial list.

Charles Winick has defined language as “a system of arbitrary vocal symbols, used to express communicable thoughts and feelings and enabling the members of a social group or speech community to interact and to co-operate.” It is the medium of oral expression. Prior to this humans just engaged in non-verbal communication.

Language is one of the most powerful emblems of social behavior. In the normal transfer of information through language, we use language to send vital social messages about who we are, where we come from, and who we associate with. It is often shocking to realize how extensively we may judge a person's background, character, and intentions based simply upon the person's language, dialect, or, in some instances, even the choice of a single word.

Given the social role of language, it stands to reason that one strand of language study should concentrate on the role of language in society. Enter sociolinguistics.

Sociolinguistics has become an increasingly important and popular field of study, as certain cultures around the world expand their communication base and intergroup and interpersonal relations take on escalating significance.

The basic notion underlying sociolinguistics is quite simple: Language use symbolically represents fundamental dimensions of social behavior and human interaction. 

The notion is simple, but the ways in which language reflects behavior can often be complex and subtle. Furthermore, the relationship between language and society affects a wide range of encounters--from broadly based international relations to narrowly defined interpersonal relationships.

Sociologically, language moulds the individual from infancy. The child comes to know most of the things of the world through language, as it becomes an important attribute of his personality. Its importance to the society lies in the following:

(i) Easy Social Contact:
Firstly, it makes social contact easy. Society, as we have seen, is a web of social relationships which imply development of social contacts among the individuals with language contacts become easy to be established because men can easily exchange their ideas. According to E. H. Sturtevant, “A language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols by which members of a social group cooperate and interact…..for better or worse…..by accident or design.

(ii) Culture-Carrier:
Language conserves our culture which it passes to posterity.
Secondly, language helps or hinders the spread of culture. Ideas require language. Sometimes an idea or concept is hard to translate because the language has no words with which to express it. Some East Asian cultures are facing this difficulty in our country because Hindi, the national language does not possess terms for a number of English words used in sciences. The Hindi linguists have coined some words to replace English as a medium of instruction. These coined words are, however, more difficult to understand and remember than the English words. 

The culture that exists at a given time and place has come from the past and is the result of accumulation of things, attitudes, ideas, knowledge, error and prejudice. The animals as we have seen are incapable of speech except for a few sounds and so incapable of having any culture and civilization, and as such their communication is limited to a connected web of repeated non-verbal actions. It is man alone who through language has acquired a high degree of culture and civilization. As pointed out above it raised man from savage state to a noble state.

(iii) Easy Conveyance of Ideas:
Thirdly, language gives a capacity for conveying ideas about a great variety of things. In times when there was no language, the ideas were transmitted by signs or cries which were not easy to interpret. Man felt great difficulty in the clear expression of states of emotion.

There was no uniformity of these signs or cries. Some of these signs were quite complicated, for instance, the idea of ‘man’ was denoted by extending the forefinger, the rest of the hand being shut, and drawing a line with it from the pit of the stomach down as far as can be conveniently reached.

But with the invention of language now a number of ideas and states of emotion can be conveyed in an easy and simple way. A language that could transmit an idea such as “the flood came, and destroyed the houses”, through delicate variations in sound was an achievement far superior to the transmission of ideas, by a variety of cries.

Thus the importance of language to any society is clear. It has led man from mere clumsy animal to a human being in the real sense of the word. It has simplified the conveyance of ideas, smoothed social contacts, conserved our cultures and transmitted them for posterity. 

In fact, language is very valuable possession which has elevated man from the level of a savage to the plane of the "master of his domain"….except in the case of some Western societies, in which the very disingenuous elevation of language has relegated them, and debased their humanity back to the level of savages.

(iv) Need for a Universal Language:
The people of different parts of the world speak different languages. Not only that, people living in the same territory use different languages, or speak different dialects. Some think these differences in the language of the people of the world have served to limit inter-group communication and perpetuate social isolation. Others feel it is necessary to be able to discern between various groups and cultures. I am of the latter group, after all, I would not want someone to unwittingly think I had the average (white) American duplicitous mentality........average.

Since language is a great medium of communication the assumption has been made that if the people of the world have the same language it may help a great deal in removing the culture barriers and bring the people of the world nearer to each other thereby serving the cause of international understanding and cooperation. However, the removal of barriers goes beyond mere speaking one universal language. 

The nuances, the innuendoes, the nobility, or lack thereof, creates another universal problem all on its own. Deception, which is endemic to one culture, and abhorrent to another, will always remain a moral dilemma. The torture, and murder which appears acceptable to White Americans will never be accepted to Africans, or Native-Americans, whose use of force has, historically been only in the defense of their families and homesteads.

No doubt, a universal language may help in the cultural unification of the people of the world and remove misunderstanding that grow out of inability to communicate effectively, but the practical difficulty is to find out such a language. The proponents of different languages claim that ‘their language is better than any other language and that it alone provides a more efficient means of communication that it is more explicit, more logical, more flexible and far more easier to master.

Efforts have also been made to improve the existing languages, to make them more simplified and logical. But as yet no universal single language has been agreed upon and consequently the linguistic differences continue. It is also difficult for any people to learn more readily any other language than the mother-tongue.

One of the more troubling aspects is how religion, once their respective languages, have tried to subjugate large parts of the world to their bidding. We need alternative linguistic avenues to adequately explore our collective humanity. As for me, if I had a choice, I'd choose Xhosa, Yoruba, or Swahili as a universal lingua franca.......

Native Americans' communication is different from other cultures in a couple of ways. As Americans, we are used to the hustle and bustle of a busy everyday life. We are generally very talkative people. Native Americans are quite the opposite. 

James gave a list of 104 signs employed by the North American Indians in the place of words. "Darkness", for instance, was indicated by extending the hands horizontally forwards and backwards and passing one over the other so as to touch it once or twice; a man by a finger held up vertically; running by first doubling the arm upon itself and then throwing the elbow backwards and forwards. 

I find it illustrative that African communication is similar to Native-American communication, verbal and non-verbal, in many respects. These are some noteworthy aspects of African, and Native-American communication:

*Listen Before You Speak:
The Native American people are a quiet people. Silence is something that has long been embedded in their culture. If they are angry or upset, especially in a social situation, they do not express those emotions. They are simply silent. Some people take this as indifference or just not caring, but it is a part of their culture and something they have been taught since birth. When Native Americans do communicate they put much more of an emphasis and value on listening rather than speaking. They very rarely talk just for the sake of talking. They don't make much small talk except between close friends or family. Native Americans do not find power in words that other cultures may. There is much more emphasis on affective communication, such as expressing their feelings about something, rather than just verbal communication.

*Story Telling:
Listening, observing, and memorizing is something Native Americans, (and Africans), unlike Caucasian-Americans, are taught from the beginning as important skills to have. While they are a quiet culture, story telling is an oral way of passing their history and stories down from one generation to the next. The tradition of story telling has always been important to the Native American culture. While other cultures may write books about their experiences or learn about their history in school, much of Native American's culture comes from story telling.

*Rules for Communication:

1. You should know someone well before speaking to them for long periods of time or confiding in them.
2. Children should not display themselves verbally in front of adults.
3. It is inappropriate to express emotions in public or around people you don't know very well, verbally or non-verbally (contrary to the annoying practice of Whit eNorth Americans, who, blurt out out their every thought, secure in the comfort of their white privilege, arrogant in the disrespectful demands it makes of others)
4. You shouldn't ask direct questions or expect an immediate response from people you don't know very well (see comment above).
5. It is inappropriate to verbally discipline or praise a child in public. It should be dealt with in private/quietly (as opposed to the hero-worship mentality of White Americans who, devoid of note people, constantly seek to artificially create heroes at every turn).
6. It is inappropriate to speak for someone else, no matter who that person is. Everyone is titled to their own opinion, even a child.
7. In Indian conversations, it is not the person who speaks first who necessarily controls the topic. This is because an immediate response to what someone has said is not always expected, but may be delayed. The respondent therefore has control over the topic by choosing when to speak and what to say.
8. Do not compete with answers, no answer can be said it is wrong, and do not gaze directly at someone the entire time they are talking (the oneupmanship inherent in American society ensures a negative-energy within interpersonal relationships which is deviously masked as healthy competition, instead of the condescension it truly is).
These rules and communication aspects of the Native American culture can cause problems between other cultures trying to communicate with the Native American Culture.
"Communication Styles of Indian Peoples" by Mary Heit in AWASIS Journal

It is not without traces of irony, that I refer you to the most common historical description of Caucasians in America, by Native-Americans:

“ White man speaks with forked tongue”.

Many have encountered this statement without really examining, not only the historical significance, but the ugly contemporary truth embedded in its stark depths. From media news reports, (in which correspondents, reporters, bloggers, and news staff are told what to say, depending on the political inclinations, racial bias, and other marginalized predilections of the owners), to the highest echelons of political office (in which our Congressmen and women, Senators, Justices, and other leaders, dedicated to the acquisition, and retention, of power), delude, deceive and mislead, the masses, hide the truth, condone and maintain the same deceptive (dis)ingenuity which defines the average American mind. 

Students grow up thinking it is "the American thing to do” to cheat, businessmen maintain fraudulent tax records, hiding company profits in offshore tax havens, which while legal, all point to the stomach-turning patterns of behavior which are deemed acceptable in America. Racism has long been acceptable as a currency of exchange in social interactions, the consequences for which never seem to be called upon. Kids are taught the "difference" between white lies and blatant lies, as if they were different.

Justifications and disingenuous platitudes explain away the blatant murders of people of color, while the most “progressive” of white minds look the other way, claiming they are not personally responsible for the horrendous actions of their fellow white citizens. Pollution is a blight which is rampant in the lower-income class neighborhoods, while the rich factories thrive. Unemployment multiples like a conscienceless virus, while these same "unavailable jobs” are shipped overseas, sub-contracted, for reasons of economic expediency. Everything is predicated on the "spin", or how it can be explained all away......how you can get the victim to look the other way. Forget all the pain you have inflicted (and continue to inflict) on him/her.

Phone company, and other electronic customer service support is answered by cocks crowing in New Delhi, expensive sneakers are manufactured with near-slave child labor which is excused as long as the privileged white consumers in America get their Air Jordans. Cocoa is shipped in to make exclusive chocolates which cater to tens of millions annually during every occasion from Easter to St. Valentine’s Day, oblivious to the known fact that the labor that made it possible to get this from Ivory Coast is from child labor, many exploited sexually…..ditto the Gold from Ghana. 

The abject nature of their disingenuous pathetic apathy is noticeable in the diversion of attention from the diamonds which is always in high demand from white privilege in America. After centuries of simply taking it when they wanted, killing those who stood in their way (See Cecil Rhodes genocidal rise to the top with De Beers Diamond company)…spreading viruses and fomenting war in Liberia and Sierra Leone at will, now they simply pretend they are unwilling to accept diamonds from those regions unless they have a special designation which indicates they are not from that region…..(or have undergone a rerouting through European nations, before making their way to the diamond exchanges in Tel Aviv, Israel, and New York).

Which all brings me back to the point of this post. In order to secure all this ill-begotten wealth, all this undue white privileged, and all the international fear it has accrued......(white) America lies. It is as endemic to their nature as breathing is to most others.

It is that simple. 

That is basic American culture.....traced as far back as the encounters between the "immigrants" from the Mayflower, and the original Native-American owners of the land.....on up till the false justifications for most of the wars we have been recently embroiled in, 400 years later.

It is evil, and the sooner we stop giving it cutesey, adorable-sounding names, address, and expose, this inhuman, vile, vicious, odious chicanery of humanity, the sooner we can reform a society which has convinced us literally that the worms in the rotten apple is good for our deadly indigestion.