I kept seeing these ads for the Epoch Times, starring an obnoxious geek claiming to be the sole source of truth in this dangerous world. He is an annoying actor with a repulsive propaganda message and I wondered who was behind the Epoch Times.
Falun Gong is behind the propaganda. Falung Gong is a spiritual movement that originated in China as a synthesis of Buddhism and Taoism with a dash of Hinduism thrown in. It has an authoritative leader who now lives in the US and continues to spread his message, which is bitterly anti-Communist and right wing. He thinks Trump is their savior, since Trump claims to be tough on China.
So how does a Buddhist group that preaches virtue, truth, forbearance and suffering as well as refusing to form an organization or accept money, get from China to Deer Park, NY? With enough money to build a 400 acre compound guarded with AK47s? That takes power and money, both of which, Falun Gong says, are bad karma. Looks like they’re hypocrites.
Why did China persecute them? When they claimed to have millions of followers and were asked to join state sanctioned ‘churches,’ the founder refused. Red flag! They have an underground movement with millions of members? They could do the same thing Mao did! But c’mon, China, they’re a bunch of Buddhists, meditating on virtue, what’s the big deal?
What Americans forget is the Taiping Rebellion (look it up) during which a man started a quasi-Christian movement that spread like wildfire about the same time as the US Civil War. Hong Xiuquan claimed to be Jesus’ younger brother with a mission to set up a Heavenly Kingdom. After fourteen years and 20,000,000 deaths, Hong was overcome. 20,000,000 deaths, 17 ravished provinces. This is not the kind of historical event a nation is likely to forget.
But how did Falun Gong get to the U.S? Follow the money. As it turns out, the U.S. State Department is giving 1.5 million dollars to an internet freedom group tied to Falun Gong:
“The State Department has decided to fund a group run mainly by practitioners of Falun Gong, a Buddhist-like sect long considered Enemy No. 1 by the Chinese government, to provide software to skirt Internet censorship across the globe.
State Department officials recently called the group, the Global Internet Freedom Consortium, offering it $1.5 million, according to Shiyu Zhou, one of the group’s founders. A State Department official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, confirmed the offer.”
Why would the State Department do that? Well, why did they fund and protect Fetullah Gulen to live in his Pennsylvania compound and preach Islam? Maintaining a government in exile in case the US wants a regime change? Who knows?
For regular people not involved in shady geopolitics, the main thing is to know the Epoch Times is full of s**t. We need to know this because all that virtue, forbearance and meditation stuff is appealing and we are easily deceived.
You can meditate, be virtuous and kind for free, you don’t need to join a cult to be spiritual.
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