The Horse is Dead

The 1960s were a breeding ground for psychological operations—whether it was the Cuban Missile Crisis, the assassinations of JFK, RFK, and MLK, the Manson family saga, or the Kent State massacre. These events shaped a generation, but it wasn’t until the 1990s that the architects of mass perception found their perfect formula.

Initially, I set out to catalog the most infamous psyops of the 1990s, highlighting their patterns and implications. But in the end, I’ve succumbed to the sheer futility of it all. As one astute commenter noted, perhaps the better course is to forget—to untangle oneself from these constructed narratives and move forward.

Still, for the sake of posterity, here are some of the most notable psychological operations of the 1990s, ranked in no particular order:

  • The Simpson Trials (1995) – A media circus that turned a double homicide into the ultimate courtroom spectacle, setting the standard for sensationalist legal coverage.
  • Lorena Bobbitt (1993) – A domestic abuse case twisted into tabloid gold, shifting public discourse on gender and violence in ways both grotesque and performative.
  • Y2K (1999) – A manufactured panic that convinced millions the world might end at the stroke of midnight on January 1, 2000.
  • The Gulf War (1990) – A conflict sold with precision-marketed propaganda, complete with staged testimonies and made-for-TV missile footage.
  • Nancy Kerrigan/Tonya Harding (1994) – A bizarre, soap-opera-style scandal that turned figure skating into a battleground of class warfare and villainous narratives.
  • The Waco Siege (1993) – A tragic standoff that played out like a scripted horror, setting the stage for future debates on government overreach.
  • The Oklahoma City Bombing (1995) – A national tragedy that reinforced domestic terrorism as a dominant fear in the American consciousness.
  • The Monica Lewinsky Scandal (1998) – A presidency consumed by sex, scandal, and the relentless 24-hour news cycle.
  • The Columbine Massacre (1999) – A defining moment for media-fueled moral panic, spawning myths and policy shifts that still linger today.
  • Long Island Lolita (1992) – A lurid crime that became a spectacle of tabloid excess, reducing real-life violence to daytime talk-show fodder.
  • Olympic Park Bombing (1996) – A moment of terror at the Atlanta Olympics that ignited debates on security, civil liberties, and the dangers of trial-by-media.

Ultimately, my humble suggestion is this: expunge these events from your mind and experience. They were never meant to inform, only to distract. Even as I list them here, I recognize the irony. But perhaps acknowledging the game is the first step toward moving beyond it.

Now, back to real life.

18 thoughts on “The Horse is Dead”

  1. A nice summary and good advice! If only i could follow it. I just want to travel briefly down memory lane here, to a time when I only suspected some events were fake on the periphery of my brain, but was afraid to to give voice in public (which eventually led to my happy isolation here among fellow thinking humans).

    I was reading Time Magazine after OKC, and they showed a diagram of the event, perhaps a photo, and said there was a large cavity in the ground where the bomb had gone off. I looked and looked, and there was none! There was just a cement column reinforced by rebar of a type where angular force of a bomb would not have any impact on it.

    That’s where I left it!

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      1. Its the only one for this (pnac)entury.

        Trump was planned at least 60 years ago, evidenced by this 119th congress.

        “Who or more likely what is the capstone?” – is the question that never gets asked here…

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          1. How should I know? I do know its not my first time here on this planet so if pushed to answer I would say “50/50 The father of lies/unknown”.

            What/Who do you think?

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          2. Here is my honest reasoning:

            1. The small number of $Tn families just below are human, at least in looks. Notice still connected to the earth.
            2. At $Tn level it can no longer be about the money and also why spend $Bns on PSYOPs if the money matters?
            3. Nasty Bastards Inc or the worlds oldest cartel maintain a permanence for mi11enia
            4. This is a Test Environment. I suspect the current criminals have ancestry dating back millennia too…
            5. This may suggest they are the original Architects and Administrators of a system designed around their beloved money.
            6. The separation of the Capstone possibly implies a Spiritual entity.

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          3. 7. Or the separation is the divide they like from us… thinking of us as animals to be farmed

            8. I don’t blame many born into it, esp if it seems the the norm or the other families will take their power.

            9. The drugs war is another example Mr.Starr. Drugs have always been tolerated, just not the independents. Its too much money.

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  3. Although not a singular psyop, the TV shows Friends and Seinfeld played a large part in lulling the masses in the 1990s into a stupor, where NY City was the hip place to be, full of cuddly people, carefree lives, clever conversion, and just in general ultra cool. Centering the attention of the USA on NY City for good old 9/11/01, where we were supposed to feel sorry for New Yorkers. I know most readers here are of the age to know better about New York City – it is probably the most unfriendly place in the world, who are frankly completely unsympathetic (fake) victims. Because middle America was smart enough to despise New York city and most of it’s rich ass hole inhabitants before 9/11 – which flipped overnight after that.

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    1. Interesting angle, I never thought of those shows in the context of 9/11. New York is almost a default “big city” or urban locale for shows and movies, going back a long time, as the iconic capital of big business and finance in the 20th century.. but maybe so.

      I thought of them moreso as promoting an urban lifestyle to young people, and maybe being a little glamorous or romantic / escapist to suburbanites or “flyover country” in general. Prelude to urban renewal projects in many cities, and young people wanting to live downtown in stylish modern lofts and go to coffee shops, and have jobs in exciting startups or something.

      I’m not sure they expected Seinfeld to do well.. Jerry maybe had a “buy,” they gave him his own show and he liked David so David got to go along for the ride.. but David in interviews seems genuine he didn’t expect it to last, and probably they were ready to pull the plug imo. But when they saw it had some connection with audiences, THEN they had no problem really getting behind it. But it wasn’t a given, even today it’s very divisive and many people loathe the misanthropic and narcissistic characters and humor.

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      1. A big show, indeed. I’d add the TV magician David C letting the Statue of Liberty disappear multiple times. And all the movies. The first Die Hard, and The Sqeeze were all about 911.

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      1. Nice. And don’t forget Everybody Loves Raymond! Uggh.

        So some background, as I had a lot of exposure to New York in the 1990s. I went to college in upstate New York, Albany area, lived there 10 years. Visited a friend in Manhattan often in the late 1990s. Rudy Giuliani was cleaning up the city, again making it a place to love, as in “I love New York”. Which is a tough sell, considering it is one of the most corrupt places in the world. I also lived with my girlfirends parents in upstate New York, on a farm, and her father was a state district attorney who investigated medical fraud, and very hard boiled. Irishman who grew up in Staten Island. And he absolutely hated New York city and liberal politics, which is why he moved upstate.

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  4. Also, I got back on Facebook and couldn’t help sniping at some of the stupid posts, like someone lamenting the health of Noam Chumsky:

    Noam Chomsky hospitalized after massive stroke

    I said good riddance to a professional liar and got the usual treatment for daring to criticize such a great man. So I lobbed this hand grenade after, saying he was such a sweet old man to call for the genocide of the unvaccinated. No response to that. So that is how it works, if you are Bill Gates, Chumsky, you can casually suggest a large chunk of humanity needs to die – for the greater good of course! But criticize one old POS psuedo-scientist ivory tower lifer and prepare for ostracism.

    Noam Chomsky says the unvaccinated should just remove themselves from society | National Post

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  5. The 60s were about science and space, with the 2001 movie, and A11. Atom bombs and power, a bright future. Nothing anchored the materialistic world view like that, deep into the subconsciousness.

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