ObergComment: Illiteracy or knowledge? Now an existential choice
In times of fake and omission – not to speak of deliberate deception and lies – society’s very foundation is shaken: What can we believe? Who can we trust? What is reliable and truthful information – and how do I know?
Tragically, substantial knowledge with complex reasoning about our complex world and its problems has been overwhelmed by marketing, smart soundbites, tweets and ignorance.
Diversity has been substituted by uniformity, political correctness and, more recently, the awfully destructive cancel culture and its close companion, self-censorship.
People read less, and less and less the long argument – such as (good) books about global problems. Perhaps because we think we are so busy? Whatever the reason, the attention span has shrunk and many have a comfort zone the size of a pinhead.
It bodes ill – no matter the kind of social body in which this disease takes root. It spread like malign cells in a human body.
And it seems that it is OK to lie, not the least for the big and powerful.
•
Many people ask us: What do you think I should read to better understand the world?
Well, you can always turn to TFF – we’ve been around since 1986 and we are not easily fooled. The large majority of analyses, articles and videos we publish is research-based and written by people with enough life experience to be both factual, critical and constructive – and not in need of getting famous or to pursue careers that might tempt them to join the above-mentioned trends.
– particularly when you act too…
Fortunately, there are still lots of good media and analytical bodies that you can rely on – not the least thanks to solid scholarship and integrity. Certainly, TFF is not the only one but even in the field of peace, conflict and future research, a wide-ranging mainstreaming and uniformity have developed. TFF has not and will not go that way.
TFF is also people-financed and all-volunteer. We receive no funds from corporations or governments and have no sugar daddy. These characteristics is a guarantee for you.
However, we think it is our duty to help you find these other good sources beyond ourselves – win-win for us and for them.
Here are our recommended links to media worldwide you may like to consult instead of holding on to your local mainstream media which perhaps you do because it is difficult and time-consuming to find your own way.
And then you have all the Themes on our front pages – in red.
There is enough to throw yourself into!
All in one place. At your fingertips. We call that public education.
•
There is only one – yes, one – remedy in times of fake, omission, conspiracy and propaganda: Substantial, verifiable knowledge created with objective, scientific methods and intentions while also being open about unavoidable subjectivity and consciously promoted values.
Like medicine, peace, conflict and future research is a value-oriented endeavour. Like doctors, we at TFF believe in diagnosis, prognosis and treatment, or healing. That is a value orientation in and of itself and we gladly state that nonviolence is better than violence and that our goal is to push thinking and action in the direction of less, not more, violence in our world.
In these times everyone has a choice: To either become illiterate and be fooled – or to be in the know and reveal and ignore the rampant, unethical newspeak that has spread like a pandemic the last 20-30 years, not the least in the fields of conflict, war and peace.
•
If you found this relevant and want TFF to continue to do what we’ve always done, send us the equivalent of a cup of coffee…
Officially, the drones were not identified. By simply thinking critically – which journalists and selected experts no longer do – there may be a good reason for that. And this article will never be mentioned in Denmark… Drones over Denmark. No damage. No trace. No answers. Yet the headlines scream “Russian threat,” and Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen speaks with a certainty that defies logic: “We don’t know they were Russian—but we know Russia is the biggest threat to Europe.” It could be nobody else – unless you make an interest analysis which I did two days ago. This is not security policy. It’s theatre. And the audience is being played. Let’s rewind. These drones—unphotographed, untracked, unclaimed—appear and vanish like ghosts. Airports shut down. Panic spreads. Military budgets swell. And the narrative hardens: Russia is behind it. But what if that’s not just wrong but deliberately misleading? Here’s a hypothesis for...
And why the world, especially the EU, must now declare itself independent of the United States. UN’s 80th anniversary This year, the United Nations celebrates the 80th anniversary of its founding. The UN was formed after the scourge of the Second World War, in which 70 to 85 million people were killed and many countries were destroyed. That war came on the heels of the First World War, which also killed between 15 and 22 million people. After the Second World War, especially after the use of nuclear weapons by the United States, which marked a turning point in the history of warfare that could result in the end of civilisation as we know it, humanity decided to move away from the era of empires and big power politics and usher in a new era of peace, freedom and cooperation. These were the principles enshrined in the UN Charter. The United States...
Drones over Nordic airports. No damage. No trace. No answers. Most assume Russia—but what if that’s not so? Why is there so much we are not told? This article explores the strategic ambiguity behind recent drone incursions and asks: Who else might benefit from sending drones into NATO airspace? From Ukraine’s surprising drone supremacy to Russia’s possible signalling, the silence itself may be the loudest message. These are the kinds of questions decent, intelligent investigative journalists and commentators could easily research. Why don’t they? Did you, dear reader, know or think of this? That the most powerful weapon in today’s conflicts might be the one that leaves no trace – and no answers. Just enough fear to justify the next move? Recently, drones have repeatedly appeared over Nordic airports and near some military facilities. They cause no damage – for which reason the designation “hybrid attack” is misleading but serves a purpose. These...
OK, Trump did not get it. But he got a full endorsement of a possible future US regime change in Venezuela. And that is what Ms Machado has advocated. On October 10, 2025, the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded its Peace Prize to Venezuelan opposition figure María Corina Machado. The citation praised her “tireless work promoting democratic rights.” But Ms Machado has openly called for U.S. military intervention in Venezuela, stating on CBS: “The only way to stop the suppression is by force—U.S. force.” She or her party has received funding from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a U.S. government-backed body known as a CIA front organisation and for supporting regime-change operations worldwide. And in 2018, she sent a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, asking him to use “force and influence” to help dismantle Venezuela’s government—citing alleged ties to terrorism, Iran and narcotrafficking. This year’s NATO Norwegian prize...
PRESS RELEASE – 6 OCTOBER 2025 LAY DOWN YOUR ARMSPEACE PRIZE FOR 2025 is awarded Francesca Albanese The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories – as the person who, in accordance with Alfred Nobel’s will, has “done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations and for the abolition or reduction of standing armies as well as for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.” Francesca Albanese has forcefully and unwaveringly worked against Israel’s full-scale war on the occupied Palestinian territories, in particular Israel´s ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people. She has confronted Israel’s systematic war crimes and crimes against humanity in a truly global outreach. Further, she has brought governments, international organisations and people’s groups together to underline the responsibility of the world at large to act and to stop arming, enabling, and profiting from Israel’s ongoing criminal actions. But first of all, Albanese...
TFF on Substack
Discover more from TFF Transnational Foundation & Jan Oberg.
OK, Trump did not get it. But he got a full endorsement of a possible future US regime change in Venezuela. And that is what Ms Machado has advocated. On October 10, 2025, the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded its Peace Prize to Venezuelan opposition figure María Corina Machado. The citation praised her “tireless work promoting democratic rights.” But Ms Machado has openly called for U.S. military intervention in Venezuela, stating on CBS: “The only way to stop the suppression is by force—U.S. force.” She or her party has received funding from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a U.S. government-backed body known as a CIA front organisation and for supporting regime-change operations worldwide. And in 2018, she sent a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, asking him to use “force and influence” to help dismantle Venezuela’s government—citing alleged ties to terrorism, Iran and narcotrafficking. This year’s NATO Norwegian prize...
PRESS RELEASE – 6 OCTOBER 2025 LAY DOWN YOUR ARMSPEACE PRIZE FOR 2025 is awarded Francesca Albanese The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories – as the person who, in accordance with Alfred Nobel’s will, has “done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations and for the abolition or reduction of standing armies as well as for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.” Francesca Albanese has forcefully and unwaveringly worked against Israel’s full-scale war on the occupied Palestinian territories, in particular Israel´s ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people. She has confronted Israel’s systematic war crimes and crimes against humanity in a truly global outreach. Further, she has brought governments, international organisations and people’s groups together to underline the responsibility of the world at large to act and to stop arming, enabling, and profiting from Israel’s ongoing criminal actions. But first of all, Albanese...
OK, Trump did not get it. But he got a full endorsement of a possible future US regime change in Venezuela. And that is what Ms Machado has advocated. On October 10, 2025, the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded its Peace Prize to Venezuelan opposition figure María Corina Machado. The citation praised her “tireless work promoting democratic rights.” But Ms Machado has openly called for U.S. military intervention in Venezuela, stating on CBS: “The only way to stop the suppression is by force—U.S. force.” She or her party has received funding from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a U.S. government-backed body known as a CIA front organisation and for supporting regime-change operations worldwide. And in 2018, she sent a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, asking him to use “force and influence” to help dismantle Venezuela’s government—citing alleged ties to terrorism, Iran and narcotrafficking. This year’s NATO Norwegian prize...
PRESS RELEASE – 6 OCTOBER 2025 LAY DOWN YOUR ARMSPEACE PRIZE FOR 2025 is awarded Francesca Albanese The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories – as the person who, in accordance with Alfred Nobel’s will, has “done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations and for the abolition or reduction of standing armies as well as for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.” Francesca Albanese has forcefully and unwaveringly worked against Israel’s full-scale war on the occupied Palestinian territories, in particular Israel´s ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people. She has confronted Israel’s systematic war crimes and crimes against humanity in a truly global outreach. Further, she has brought governments, international organisations and people’s groups together to underline the responsibility of the world at large to act and to stop arming, enabling, and profiting from Israel’s ongoing criminal actions. But first of all, Albanese...
Officially, the drones were not identified. By simply thinking critically – which journalists and selected experts no longer do – there may be a good reason for that. And this article will never be mentioned in Denmark… Drones over Denmark. No damage. No trace. No answers. Yet the headlines scream “Russian threat,” and Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen speaks with a certainty that defies logic: “We don’t know they were Russian—but we know Russia is the biggest threat to Europe.” It could be nobody else – unless you make an interest analysis which I did two days ago. This is not security policy. It’s theatre. And the audience is being played. Let’s rewind. These drones—unphotographed, untracked, unclaimed—appear and vanish like ghosts. Airports shut down. Panic spreads. Military budgets swell. And the narrative hardens: Russia is behind it. But what if that’s not just wrong but deliberately misleading? Here’s a hypothesis for...
And why the world, especially the EU, must now declare itself independent of the United States. UN’s 80th anniversary This year, the United Nations celebrates the 80th anniversary of its founding. The UN was formed after the scourge of the Second World War, in which 70 to 85 million people were killed and many countries were destroyed. That war came on the heels of the First World War, which also killed between 15 and 22 million people. After the Second World War, especially after the use of nuclear weapons by the United States, which marked a turning point in the history of warfare that could result in the end of civilisation as we know it, humanity decided to move away from the era of empires and big power politics and usher in a new era of peace, freedom and cooperation. These were the principles enshrined in the UN Charter. The United States...
Drones over Nordic airports. No damage. No trace. No answers. Most assume Russia—but what if that’s not so? Why is there so much we are not told? This article explores the strategic ambiguity behind recent drone incursions and asks: Who else might benefit from sending drones into NATO airspace? From Ukraine’s surprising drone supremacy to Russia’s possible signalling, the silence itself may be the loudest message. These are the kinds of questions decent, intelligent investigative journalists and commentators could easily research. Why don’t they? Did you, dear reader, know or think of this? That the most powerful weapon in today’s conflicts might be the one that leaves no trace – and no answers. Just enough fear to justify the next move? Recently, drones have repeatedly appeared over Nordic airports and near some military facilities. They cause no damage – for which reason the designation “hybrid attack” is misleading but serves a purpose. These...
In times of fake and omission – not to speak of deliberate deception and lies – society’s very foundation is shaken: What can we believe? Who can we trust? What is reliable and truthful information – and how do I know?
Tragically, substantial knowledge with complex reasoning about our complex world and its problems has been overwhelmed by marketing, smart soundbites, tweets and ignorance.
Diversity has been substituted by uniformity, political correctness and, more recently, the awfully destructive cancel culture and its close companion, self-censorship.
People read less, and less and less the long argument – such as (good) books about global problems. Perhaps because we think we are so busy? Whatever the reason, the attention span has shrunk and many have a comfort zone the size of a pinhead.
It bodes ill – no matter the kind of social body in which this disease takes root. It spread like malign cells in a human body.
And it seems that it is OK to lie, not the least for the big and powerful.
•
Many people ask us: What do you think I should read to better understand the world?
Well, you can always turn to TFF – we’ve been around since 1986 and we are not easily fooled. The large majority of analyses, articles and videos we publish is research-based and written by people with enough life experience to be both factual, critical and constructive – and not in need of getting famous or to pursue careers that might tempt them to join the above-mentioned trends.
Fortunately, there are still lots of good media and analytical bodies that you can rely on – not the least thanks to solid scholarship and integrity. Certainly, TFF is not the only one but even in the field of peace, conflict and future research, a wide-ranging mainstreaming and uniformity have developed. TFF has not and will not go that way.
TFF is also people-financed and all-volunteer. We receive no funds from corporations or governments and have no sugar daddy. These characteristics is a guarantee for you.
However, we think it is our duty to help you find these other good sources beyond ourselves – win-win for us and for them.
Here are our recommended links to media worldwide you may like to consult instead of holding on to your local mainstream media which perhaps you do because it is difficult and time-consuming to find your own way.
And here is our link collection to a lot of analyses, serious debates, theories, concepts, ideas and self-learning.
And then you have all the Themes on our front pages – in red.
There is enough to throw yourself into!
All in one place. At your fingertips. We call that public education.
•
There is only one – yes, one – remedy in times of fake, omission, conspiracy and propaganda: Substantial, verifiable knowledge created with objective, scientific methods and intentions while also being open about unavoidable subjectivity and consciously promoted values.
Like medicine, peace, conflict and future research is a value-oriented endeavour. Like doctors, we at TFF believe in diagnosis, prognosis and treatment, or healing. That is a value orientation in and of itself and we gladly state that nonviolence is better than violence and that our goal is to push thinking and action in the direction of less, not more, violence in our world.
In these times everyone has a choice: To either become illiterate and be fooled – or to be in the know and reveal and ignore the rampant, unethical newspeak that has spread like a pandemic the last 20-30 years, not the least in the fields of conflict, war and peace.
•
If you found this relevant and want TFF to continue to do what we’ve always done, send us the equivalent of a cup of coffee…
Peace & future researcher + Art Photographer
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TFF on Substack
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