The information war continues raging….
On one battlefront, we have Elon Musk trying to push back against quasi-government control mechanisms that constrict information and the flow of discussion and ideas. On a lesser, albeit similar battlefield, we see this.
DuckDuckGo used to be the preferred search engine for those who wanted privacy on-line and unfiltered, i.e. organic, search engine responses. Unfortunately, CEO Gabriel Weinberg is now stating he will change the algorithm to remove independent information and media outlets and will replace them with only approved MSM results.
“Like so many others I am sickened by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the gigantic humanitarian crisis it continues to create. #StandWithUkraine️,” Weinberg tweeted on Wednesday. “At DuckDuckGo, we’ve been rolling out search updates that down-rank sites associated with Russian disinformation.”
Riddle me this my friends: The White House has officially admitted to creating misinformation, disinformation and malinformation as part of their strategic campaign against Russia in Ukraine. NBC news gleefully embraces the strategy {SEE HERE}. However, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has an official agency mission {SEE HERE} to “help the American people understand the scope and scale of Mal, Dis, and Misinformation activities,” and Google/DuckDuckGo/Big Tech have officially aligned with both U.S. government interests, promising to target, remove and penalize any entity engaged in Mal, Dis and Misinformation activities.
Think for yourself while it is still legal to do so.
The justification for the manipulation of information, the creation of dis/mal/and misinformation, and the propaganda campaign writ large, is based on a position that the U.S. is on the virtuous side of the conflict. Where virtue is determined by the officials creating the lies.
Yes, according to the official position of the Biden administration, lying for the public good is essentially now the admitted narrative.
Putting aside the creation of lies, to advance a strategic geopolitical objective, the bigger admission in the U.S. government statements is that much of the information coming to the American public – from them – is manufactured, false, fabricated and wrong.
Simultaneous to this admission of manufactured lies, the platforms of Big Tech and social media are saying they will target, remove and block any content that contradicts the official government position.
In the case of Google, the dominating search engine for information over the internet, they state it is an infraction against their policy to espouse a claim “that contradicts official government records.” Yet, the U.S. government is officially admitting the information they are creating for the government records, is self-admittedly false….. and now in comes DuckDuckGo with the assist.
Not wanting to overinflate the CTH position, but this now admitted reality is exactly why we have taken the following position.
…”There is no such thing as “disinformation” or “misinformation”. There is only information you accept and information you do not accept. You were not born with a requirement to believe everything you are told; rather, you were born with a brain that allows you to process the information you receive and make independent decisions.”…
There are only two elements within the public discussion of information, truth and not truth.
In an era filled with “fact-checkers” and institutional guardians at the gates of Big Tech, let me explain exactly why it is important not to accept the speech rules of the guards.
When you accept the terms “disinformation”, “misinformation” or the newest lingo, “malinformation,” you are beginning to categorize truth and lies in various shades. You are merging black and white, right and wrong, into various shades of grey.
When your mind works in the grey zone, you are, by direct and factual consequence, saying there is a problem. You are correct, however, this is where people may make a mistake. That problem is supposed to be there.
It is not a solution to the problem to try and remove the grey simply because it takes too much work to separate the white pixels from the black ones. You were born with a gift, the greatest gift a loving God could provide. You were born with a brain and set of natural instincts that are tools to do this pixel separation, use them.
If you define the grey work as a problem you cannot solve on your own, you open the door for others to solve that problem for you. You begin to abdicate the work, and that’s when trouble can enter. The sliding scale of Pinocchios is one of the most familiar yet goofy outcomes.
Put more clearly, when you accept the terminology “disinformation”, you accept a problem. The problem is then the tool by which authorities will step in to make judgements. Speech, in its most consequential form, is then qualified by others to whom you have sub-contracted your thinking.
When you willingly sub-contract information filters to others, you have lost connection with the raw information. CTH was founded upon the belief that truth has no agenda, nor does it care about you, your feelings, or your opinion of it. It just sits there, empirically existing as evidence of information in its most pure form.
The search for truth, in all things, is the mission objective of this assembly. Often, we don’t like the truth; often, the truth is bitter, cold, challenging and even painful to accept. However, the truth doesn’t care. Information in its most raw form is ambivalent to your opinion. If you struggle to accept these things, that’s when you need grey. The New York Times is not called the “grey lady” accidentally.
Personally, I am an absorber of information – perhaps on a scale that is unusual. But I do not discount information from any form until I can put context to it and see if the information makes sense given all the variables present. When something doesn’t feel right, it’s almost always because it isn’t right.
Often, I find myself struggling in the grey and complex. It is not unusual to spend days researching, digging, clarifying a situation, only to discover the path to finding the truth is in another direction entirely. Erasing everything and starting over is frustrating, but it is genuinely the only approach that works; and often finding truth is supposed to be difficult, that’s why it is rewarding.
In the digital information age, we are bombarded with information. It is easy to be overwhelmed and need to find something or someone who has better skills at separating the black grains from the white ones. All opinions in this quest should be considered; thus, it is important to allow the free flow of information.
I am not necessarily a speech absolutist. There is some language that needs to be constrained if we are to participate in a respectful society, with grandma’s rules and knowing the audience. The CTH has guidelines for comments for this exact reason. However, those constraints need to be based on a set of inherent values. When it comes to information it is important to draw a distinction from speech.
There needs to be an open venue for all information. Unfortunately, when we begin to apply labels or categorization to information, there’s an opportunity for information to be manipulated – even weaponized. Saul Alinsky spent decades pondering the best techniques to weaponize information and speech. Alinsky’s intentions, in the endeavor to change society by changing how language and information was used, were not good. He devoted his completed rulebook book to Lucifer.
Be careful about anyone saying we need to label or categorize information in order to control or remove speech from the discussion.
You were not born with a requirement to believe everything you are told; rather, you were born with a God-given brain that allows you to process the information you receive and make independent decisions.
Unfortunately, the collectively aligned group of U.S. Govt, the Intelligence Community and now Big Tech, are saying they will put every roadblock they can muster in your way as you attempt to navigate through the misinformation they control.
With that in mind, I would finish with this. Be kind to those who cannot see through the misinformation, and do not invest too much time trying to convince them. Convincing is an endless quest, because it transfers the responsibility of discernment from them to you. They will become dependent on you and that my friends can be a heavy weight.
Remember, “Whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be. And whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.” ~ Max Ehrmann
.
“Some people are just nuts”…
How the mighty (ducks) have fallen.
🤣
Years ago, I threw away all the dictionaries because who would ever need them again with the internet at our fingertips?
Those are now collector’s items of what words used to mean.
Every meaningful word I grew up with will soon be “archaic”.
I suspect you’re right…for a little while at least. I bet you wish you still had those dictionaries.
I should have realized that when something made perfect sense, was time to be a true contrarian!
😁👍
It’s not too late:
“In addition … we also often place news modules and information boxes at the top of … search results”
Read: “the approved Democrat / WEF / One-World Government” narrative so you’ll think what we want you to think
We’ve come full circle. Emojis are the new hieroglyphics.
Everyone should have hard copy dictionaries from several decades ago. They should also have hard copy encyclopedias the 1911 Britannica is the gold standard, but any set pre-1960 or 1950 is good to have.
They currently rewrite history, definitions and scientific facts in real time.
My kids didn;t believe that when I was young Beijing
was called Peking…So I found an old encyclopedia and
showed them, they were surprised..
Children never believe their parents. If anyone else had told them that, THOSE are the people they’d believe. We just do the spade work and plant the seeds, water with repetition, stand back, and wait for age and life experiences to teach them we did know what we were talking about. If we (and they) are fortunate, it doesn’t take long.
Bombay. also?
Our local thrift stores have many, many dictionaries for $1 to $2 apiece. Based on what you just said, I believe I’ll start buying ’em up.
Ditto. Prolly a good idea to buy copies of the U.S. Constitution also….fairly certain their going to outlaw it soon, or rewrite it.
I’m the guy who picked those dictionaries out of your trash.
I also collect maps and shop manuals.
I’m amazed at the number of people who don’t know how to read a map.
My wife drives me crazy with google maps app. I can actually see our destination, but the app says to go another way. I like maps myself. They don’t have you drive in a lake.
Yep, give the kids only maps and a stick shift, and they’ll never go anywhere!
Thrift stores and second hand, used book stores, still have older dictionaries available, at great prices. Have picked up a few over the years when our local library has their annual book sales to raise money, usually can get older dictionaries for just a $1.50! Would think having a few on hand for home schoolers will become a necessity.
Even the old encyclopedia collections may come in handy for neighborhood, pod, schools once home schooling becomes a major source of education. Those are going for a nice small dollar these days too since everyone decided that whatever is on the internet is always true so no need for all those books gathering dust.
D’accord – when I read about this I saw that a Russian search engine called YANDEX was not censored.
Anyone have any knowledge of this? I am so clueless in the downloading department- I am a bit inhibited in upsetting the apple cart on my laptop!.
Putin Putin Go!
Go to yandex.com and enter some search criteria. A good search to use is “Donald Trump”. Trump’s personal website(s) and Wikipedia page should top the list if the results are uncensored. If a bunch of news sites – particularly negative news – are first, it’s a censored search engine.
Anything I’ve read, yandex was mediocre. But that was a while ago.
I’m using swisscows search lately. A couple ads at the top of each search are mildly annoying, but the results are good.
Certainly the case for Google!
I have taken out the trash with DDG and intend on doing that from now on.
NOTE: be careful with Firefox…DDG appears when one least expects it and have DELETED it as on of the Search Engines for Firefox and Brave!!!!
All I can see to DDG…”See ya'”!!!!!!!!
You left out the thing about doors and hitting on the way out.
The minute I saw they’d been corrupted, I deleted them.
Sounds and smells like somebody stepped on a duck.
Duck Duck Gone (yes, I stole that).
DDG had neither the technology nor the brand recognition to amount to anything. The only thing they had going was their neutrality. Once they lose that, they are a nobody. Who cares what their CEO thinks? To quote DJT, everything that goes woke turns to shit.
Switching search engines is easy. They should have thought of that.
Oops … you’re quoting PDJT … ohhhhhhhh mommmmmaaaaaaaa
PDJT has been canceled by Duck Guck Go. Why?
At DuckDuckGo, we’ve been rolling out search updates
that down-rank sites associated with Russian
disinformation.
… well … since PDJT noted the “genius” of Putin for taking advantage of a feckless NATO, European dependence on Russian gas, and a completely incompetent American POTUS … DDG has determined PDJT is “associated” with Russian disinformation … hence … DDG will disappear PDJT.
For your own good, of course. Thanks be to our overlords. Yeccccccccchhhh! Goodbye DDG.
Bet he got a fat brown envelope!
“Another one bites the dust… and another one gone and another one gone…another one bites the dust…”
“Hey, gonna’ sit by you. Another one rides the bus.” Oh, wait. That was Weird Al Yankovic.
🤣
I abandoned this search engine a long time ago, it has always given results that were as bad or worse than google, if thats possible
We are encased in a bubble of propaganda. We must poke holes in it to breathe.
Puzzled: Well said. The only place to find truth is reading old books and talking to me dogs.
Both are excellent ideas. We have to maintain sanity.
Do your dogs talk back? Betting they do in a language only you understand.😉
All they say is “Treat?” in 7 barking styles.
Hahaha…we’re co-parenting our daughter’s sweet dog for about four days. That is the one word that she knows backwards and forwards. No problem as I always keep a supply in for her when we keep her. Because she’s at “grandma’s”, and that’s what we are for…spoiling!
dogs and cats can understand about 70 human words and have their own language indeed if you know how to interpret it
Aye…there’s the rub!
Gary Larsen had the most brilliant cartoon about that. Owner chewing out his dog in owner speak…dog thought bubble interpreting what he’s saying..”Blah, blah, blah, Ginger, Blah blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, Ginger.”
That’s about right. Larsen is genius.
I quote that cartoon all the time! LOL
“Blah, blah, blah, Ginger ” sounds like psaki.
It does!!! Clever, Mycroft. 😂
The thing is, the Idiots In Charge are far more completely encases in a bubble of their own making.
They not only don’t welcome dissenting opinions, they enforce an absolute speech, opinion code, and hold excommunication over the heads of their adherents, and themselves.
As Sundance says, none of us like to hear “often, we don’t LIKE the truth”; and the enemy, with their “hate speech” and “safe spaces” attempts to banish the truth from their Universe.
It has been reported that when Bill expressed concerns about Hillarys campaign, that contradicted the group think, Hillary threw an ashtray at him, and aides hustled him away, and KEPT him out of the “inner circle” meetings, thereafter.
And, see the result; Hillary LOST. The Idiots In Charge are at WAR with us, but they can not possibly win, and this is one of several of their fatal flaws; TRUTH will out, and they can hide their heads in the sand all they want, it will NOT stop the truth; it just enables them to avoid SEEING and Hearing, and therefore aknowledging and responding to it.
“Its funny how falling, seems a lot like flying,…
right up to the end!”
Excellent comment Dutchman and on the nails. Thanks for your thoughts, J.C.
Yea it’s always that sudden stop.
Duck, duck, go……away.
So what’s the alternative to DuckDuckGo?
Swisscows
Startpage
We’ve been happy with Startpage for as long as it’s been available. Went from askjeeves /Ask now to that so MANY years ago, I cannot remember when. It gives PDJT on Wiki first, then Yahoo, then a couple of MSMs, then his own website…not too bad, we think.
Startpage is working well for me. I see no indication that I’m being tracked.
Has anyone asked Mr. Weinberg how he proposes to differentiate between Russian misinformation, Ukrainian misinformation, American misinformation, and the truth? Let people see the information and make their own determinations.
And therein lay the as yet unspoken problem. Wherever shall we find this holier than us, all knowing, trustworthy soul to make these important and crucial censoring decisions for us should some unforeseen tragedy befall our most trusted leader, Mr. Weinberg?
Excellent comment, I DON’T TWEET ON THE NAILS! I’m with you 100%, Thanks for your time and effort. Jim
Switched to Brave this morning as my default search provider. We’ll see what happens.
Made the switch a while back. Took a little while to get used to the graphics of the interface, but so far, so good. Was on DDG before they went over the edge.
Same here dropped as soon as they did that nasty – I’m a little disappointed in Brave Search, hopefully it will improve with time
Does any one have any other suggestions ??
<Does any one have any other suggestions ??>
I think they should do away with the DH in baseball 🙂
Thanks what is Brave and how do I find it? I’m checking Brave.com right now. jIM
Quoting Texas Bix Bender in his book” dont squat with your spurs on.” Coming’ as close to the truth as a man can come without actually gettin’ there is coming pretty close. but it still ain’t the truth.
Knowing that the White House is for sale, after he’s done with Twitter, @elonmusk should offer to buy the CIA, FBI and Department of Justice.
Great idea! And maybe get Congress as a throw-in…
Information is out there, you just have to let it in. However, it becomes increasingly more difficult to connect the dots when there is an overt effort to hide select dots from our sight. Not impossible. Just more difficult, requiring more effort.
I read that DDGo was merely Bing w/ tracking disabled and not a separate search engine
Brave Search is supposed to be a new search engine that doesn’t filter like the others
https://brave.com/search-and-web-discovery/
Brave search is best.
Search engines that only provide government approved results are the end of free speech.
Corporatism/Fascism sux.
DDG has NEVER been any better than Google.
Swisscows is a good option.
Bets, I agree as I have been using Swisscows for awhile now. It’s also great for kids or grandkids as it is family friendly.
Have you been using swisscows? I’ve been using them lately. searX is also good.
I am checking out different search engines.
On their homepage, Swisscows “collects donations for Ukraine”.
I am waiting for someone to stop the merry-go-round.
Anyone have any experience using Yandex? According to some reports it is the least censored. Pros / cons?
Qwant, Brave, Mozilla
Thanks !
I’ll give Qwant a try
Qwant just entered into a deal with Microsoft.
A lot of their users were not happy.
I posted a CTH article on Brian Cate’s Telegram and got suspended. Someone reported me as posting “annoying content”.
“annoying content”
Of all the important points brought forth by Sundance’s post, none is more important than the ‘grey area’ issue he mentions.
Dems have, historically been relentless in slicing and dicing the Constitution into a million fine nuances such that our budding Neo-Communist States of America (led by Biden the Fool) can now more easily charge a person with offenses on the basis of codified law that clearly seeks to punish or chill the free exercise of constitutional rights because of one’s thoughts or opinions. (Note that today, in an important legal sense, criminality can attach to the impossibly nebulous notion of ‘hate,’ to such an extent that ‘hate’ itself has the force of illegality by receiving additional sanctions that are above and beyond the acts committed.)
So, for the record: I proclaim and reserve my constitutional right to hate anything or anybody, but especially those individuals who infringe the constitutional rights of others by destroying their property or taking their lives. So, please notice that now, where clear laws have been broken by blatant criminal acts, our woke jerks in the Dem party feel rather fuzzy about what appropriate punishment should be (soon-to-be Supreme Court Justice Jackson Brown. You see, they don’t care about vile behavior, their biggest enemy is thought, FREE THOUGHT, and that is certainly a loathesome fact.
Try this:
https://techcrunch.com/2021/06/22/braves-non-tracking-search-engine-is-now-in-beta/
This guy was ALWAYS a fraud.
I dumped communist DDG 6 weeks ago! Their loss!!
I use the Brave Search. It’s not as comprehensive, but it’s improving. I love their browser.
Been using Startpage for 25 years. DDG has just slit its own throat.
Same here, Brave browser has blocked 716,000 ads since i’ve been using it.
Startpage as a search engine does a good job for me.
I just changed from ducky to Gibiru. Works fast and NO tracking.
My browser is dissenter.
Ukraine works for Joey.
They’re paying him via Hunter so it’s kind of the other way around.
Of course, for expediency’s sake we could list the countries not paying the Biden crime family and save space.
Hello Mr. Gabe weinberg,
I will now stop using your search engine. I don’t need you telling me what to think and search for.
happy easter.
I see what you did there.
Frankly Duck Duck Go has always sucked
Weinberg is now onboard with the ship of fools.
DuckDuckGo was bought by MSM a lil ways back, this is not surprising. The search engine to use is Brave. I have been using Brave for about a year now, and it blocks tracing, protects some privacy and I get the real results, not a bunch of ads or misinformation. But with that said, One still needs to research the articles themselves. Brave allows me to connect to sites that Google and DDG doesnt.
Honestly! Best yo just go to TCT! And Dr.Mercola!! SCORE!!!
Glad all this got researched before DuckDuckGo helped to hide it.
The MSM’s Ukraine Neo-Nazi Amnesia
Alternative Analyses on Ukraine Russia Conflict
I found a link to this website search engine here on CTH and it appears to work.
Let’s try to confirm if it’s an acceptable alternative.
https://search.brave.com/
I have been using this search tool for some time now. Works well for me.
https://gibiru.com/
O.K. so the new CEO at Duck Duck Go wants to destroy our constitutional freedoms so we must use Google, that screens for appropriate content in their little heads. What is an option, is their a better option. I’ve used Duck Duck go and love it.
“When any government, or church (or state-aligned media outlet for that matter) undertakes to say to the people, ‘This you may not read, this you must not see, this you are forbidden to know,’ the end result is tyranny and oppression no matter how righteous the motives.”
– Robert A. Heinlein (paraphrase of a sentiment attributed to Mr. Heinlein)
RAH RAH RAH!
Already got rid of DDG as my search engine…don’t use FireFox any more either…
Adios DUCK DUCK GOogle!
It’s all about control.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
WASHINGTON. DC (Courthouse News) — “A federal judge imposed a prison sentence plus house arrest and probation on a Tennessee man who stormed the Capitol, saying the government wants to keep an eye on people like him as the 2024 presidential election approaches.
U.S. District Chief Judge Beryl Howell spoke at the Thursday hearing about the “conundrum” many sentencing judges are facing as they decide how to sentence a nonviolent Capitol riot defendant like Blake Reed, who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of entering and remaining in a restricted building.
There’s a trade-off in punishment, she said, with jail time on one hand or longer supervision on the other. At the same time, some sentencing judges at the federal courthouse in Washington believe a period of supervision of at least three years is necessary to help prevent another insurrection. Howell toed that line and sentenced Reed to three years of probation, including 42 days of intermittent confinement and three months of home detention.
“It’s to protect our democracy from other people like you … engaging in the same political violence that shook our country,” she told Reed, adding that it is “imperative” that a siege on the Capitol never happens again.”
Obama appointee, Judge Howell
I miss America.
Bad times are coming. Anyone who can’t “see” through the misinformation or more accurately lacks discernment is a risk to you and your immediate family. I’d not only not try to inform them, but distance yourself as their lack of discernment means they could easily, if unintentionally, out you to the government and others that don’t have your best interest in mind.
Those that believe the lies are also most likely to need your help/preps because they’ve failed to prepare themselves. You are absolutely not responsible for those who chose not to prepare when the hard times arrive – and they are coming fast.
Other options are available.
http://www.restoreprivacy.com/google-alternatives
Thanks!
I’m willing to cut the people a little slack, but none for their corrupt government. Looking at their history, the Ukrainian people have been in the role of the soviet’s little bitch from almost the very start. They show many of the emotional scars and poor judgement of one being trapped against their will in a long term abusive relationship. For what was done to them ninety years ago, I would have schemed to arrange a nuclear warhead on Moscow at first opportunity.
Why can I still find pages that claim there was “Russian collusion”?
Why can I still find pages that insist Hunter’s laptop was “Russian disinformation”?
Why can I still find pages that call Kyle Rittenhouse a racist murderer? That Ruby Freeman’s suitcases of ballots didn’t exist? That Hillary had nothing to do with the peepee dossier?
And why am I inundated with “news” that Russians carried out the most recent “war crime” when it was clearly done by the Ukrainians themselves? A pox on both their houses, but please stop taking sides in this propaganda war.
LET US MAKE UP OUR OWN MINDS. We’re not children, and you certainly have ZERO reputation for honesty and impartiality.
I have removed DDG from my browser.
Isin’t that crap bag who started ducks part of the rino deep state bush cabal which is no surorise
I heard this more than a month ago and dropped DDG immediately. I am surprised that since this news circulated quite widely, at least on more conservative boards, that the company’s economic fortunes did not drop. OTOH, I suppose deep state is behind this search engine also.
I was watching a b ball game at the local watering hole, cause I don’t have TV at home . Theirs a ad for Duck Duck Go on the screen. I thought that’s the end of them.
App UNINSTALLED
Kind of ironic that DDG is currently running a large ad campaign claiming your searches are none of their business.
It’s none of their business but they will determine what information your search returns.
What a pity party ! So CEO of Duck Duck Go with all the facts at his finger tips buys the MSM & Government WEF/NWO false flag of Ukraine .
Not once does he accept Russian speaking people being rescued by the Russian Army after continuous attacks by CIA backed NAZI Ukrainian troops !
Just 2 facts Bio Labs on the Russian Border funded by the US DOD and former CIA head Cofe Black sits on the Board Of Burisma keeping a set warm for the Big Guys Son Hunter Biden !
Move Along Nothing To See Here 🙉🙈🙊
Try Brave: Runs atop Chrome but claims to be de-googled. I can state that it works fast, and does not return leftist rankings when I search for “controversial” topics. Runs well on Android also.
I am using Brave now. Seems to work fine.
Personally I just removed all Duckduck….. and I downloaded Brave in my PC and iPhone.
Ya, I got rid of Firefox browser as well as Duckduckgo search a while back when I heard they were going woke as well… and am using Brave browser and https://search.brave.com/…No complaints
I noticed DuckDuckGo changed their algorithms last year. I’d bet they changed them sometime mid-2020, but I don’t know for sure. Never trusted DuckDuckGo since last year.