CENTRAL VIEW for Monday, September 23, 2019

Caveat Emptor: Let the (online searcher) beware!

Dietitians say, "You are what you eat." But, when it comes to voting, recent studies show we are creatures of what we read in print and also creatures of the mainstream, electronic-media (MSM). Alas, we may also be captives of our online searches using Google.com.

Harvard-trained psychologist, Dr. Robert Epstein, is an ardent supporter of Hillary Clinton. That, however, did not prevent Epstein’s American Institute of Research and Technology from doing a non-partisan, in-depth study of the publically available Internet search engines. In a moment, Dr. Epstein’s shocking findings about Google.com.

Meanwhile, have you ever wondered why some people you usually consider to be sane hold some political opinions that you know in your heart to be insane? Well, it depends on what they read and/or view. A person who leans politically Left is likely to read The New York Times, The Washington Post, listen to National Public Radio, watch CNN, MSNBC on cable, and get their political news from broadcast networks such as ABC, CBS, NBC, and PBS-TV.

A person who leans to the politically Right is likely to read The Washington Times, The Epoch Times, listen to conservative talk radio, and get their political news from Fox News, Fox Business News, Newsmax TV, and One America News Network.

Most studies show about 35-percent of the electorate lean Left and about 35-percent of the electorate lean Right. That means the 30-percent who are undecided are the prime targets of the major political parties and, as Dr. Epstein reports, "... are the prime targets of Google."

"It’s the undecided people", says Dr. Epstein, "who determine the outcome of the election, so if you can swing a lot of undecided people... then you have the power to flip elections in a way that no one can trace."

To be clear, this writer, like 90-percent of online searchers world-wide, uses Google. But if the subject matter has anything to do with politics, I turn to the non-political duckduckgo.com. Why? Because as Dr. Epstein’s pointed out in recent interviews with Breitbart Tech and also Fox News, Google designs its search algorithms to lead online searchers to where Google wants them to search.

For example, Google and Amazon are business partners. That’s perfectly legal. Dr. Epstein suggests a simple test: type the letter "a" into the Google Search Block, and you are taken to Amazon.com. That shows you the power of the Google algorithm to take you where Google wants you to go. That same algorithm is also used to take searchers to articles that favor the Left and away from articles that favor the Right. (By the way, Algorithms are not a rock band led by a former US Vice President.)

"I still am a Hillary Clinton supporter," says Epstein," but I just don’t think that things should be done that way. I don’t think that any company should be able, whomever they’re favoring, should be able to shift millions of votes without anyone knowing, without leaving a paper trail, without a single trace, come on, that’s insane!" (In 2016, Google and its parent company, Alphabet, Inc, were Hillary Clinton’s top two donors.) We report. You decide.

©2019. William Hamilton.

William Hamilton, is a laureate of the Oklahoma Military Hall of Fame, the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame, the Nebraska Aviation Hall of Fame, the Colorado Aviation Hall of Fame, and the Oklahoma University Army ROTC Wall of Fame. Dr. Hamilton is the author of Formula for Failure in Vietnam: The Folly of Limited Warfare, McFarland Books, (2019). For pre-publication orders: Toll free: (800) 253-2187 "Central View," can also be seen at: www.central-view.com.

Dr. Hamilton can be contacted at:

Email: william@central-view.com