“This is  The Big Picture in 5 Minutes,   woven from direct quotes from civic participators found and curated by KIP   on social media for the past 9 years.” - KIP      

“Saying   “I don’t pay attention to politics” today is equivalent to saying “I don’t pay attention to volcanos”   in Pompeii in seventy-nine A D.” - Hari Kondabalu

 

“What many people may have failed to realize is that   this isn’t politics anymore,   it’s an   information   war.” - Rodney Caston

”We are in the middle of a global war between Liberal Democracies and Kleptocratic Authoritarians financed by organized crime   and the super rich. ”- @JayRouseDC

”We’re at an inflection point in Human History. All over the planet. And the Earth itself. All of history. All of our ancestors. All of our progeny. We’re in this together. ”  - @DrGJack Brown

”What binds these people?   It’s the oil.      It’s peak oil   facing a future   of renewables.   It’s carbon finance   versus   climate finance. ”    - anonymous member of a FB group

”What if   the fascists   not only believe in climate change   but are already working to ensure their own maximum protection from the fallout   through   extreme wealth and power   accumulation?”   - Pedro Nicolaci da Costa

”Corruption is why the United States hasn’t acted on climate change. ”  - unknown

”It’s almost as if criminal billionaires are loyal to each other   and not a country or ideology… ” - @WI_politics_now

” Working against   the rest of us    and society's   goals.   …with “Iron Triangles”   of organized criminals,   corrupt government officials,   and business leaders.” - KIP

 And it is” not just about criminal rule of the U.S.   “It is about criminal rule in ALL global democracies,   and a multipolar realignment    of global geopolitical power   where the US and global democracies   have a much diminished role.” - genericperson04 on Twitter

“If you see billionaires   using platforms to give Putin cover,   just push them aside in your minds eye   to see the early oligarch funders of their fortunes.  And considering those oligarchs were birthed out of the Kremlin, perhaps now you can see the malevolence afoot, all this time. We’ve just allowed the underworld’s wealth and aims to swamp and divide…until its bosses were in control of nation states resources   and laws -   to thieve   without consequence.   That is what this moment is about.  Gangsters taking their shot.”   - @lincolnsbible 

 “The threat to democracy in the 1940s was totalitarianism. The threat to democracy today is billionaires:   media, money, and influence.”   - @protecttruth_

“To cause demoralization,   desensitization,   fracture alliances and networking, degrade trust, undermine authority,   disrupt information flow, create chaos and confusion,   and generally contribute to the injury and destabilization of western democracy.” - @USHadrons

“If it’s being done for marketing,   it can be done for manipulating voters.” - Aaron Marks

“It’s easy to be an online campaign genius   if you have foreign intelligence and Facebook handing over all the answers.”  - Rachel Larris 

"2016’s  meme army was proof of concept for an info war in 2020."  - Charlie Warzel

“So much of the GOP is complicit. Either they get away with stealing our democracy   or they go to jail.”   - @CurtisMCauliff 

“We started KIP because we kept hearing people say “it’s big.    It’s bigger than you think.    It’s all connected.” But we were Feeling blind, baffled.    Then digging more, and seeing what they mean. - KIP     

 “It could be argued   that International organized crime & their infiltration of industry, finance & politics is the primary reason why our political aspirations have essentially stagnated for the past few decades; That paradigm is nearing it's end. The zeitgeist is   in it's   death throes.”-  @spiralcow     

”It all boils down to the fact that with the collapse of the USSR, Western democracies opened up their markets in good faith to a new state that was allegedly a fellow democratic republic, while it clandestinely explicitly used access to those markets to subvert their democracies.”  - @spiralcow

 “Manufactured scandal   weaponized against honest politicians   by a transnational crime syndicate,   utilizing the military intelligence apparatus of enemy states   to achieve corrupt criminal rule   of the largest economy on earth.  They will stop at nothing to achieve their goals.”   -  @frannywild

”At KIP we know our news and information landscape has changed. Our map makers have changed.   We need to start listening   to the people in our networks   who are doing the hard work of parsing this all,   people motivated,   sharing good information,   organizing thoughts,    using their skills to connect the dots. ”  - KIP

”At KIP   We’re calling for something new.    Imagine Fifth Estate   Pulitzer Prizes. We call them Cassandra Awards,   for the best civic participators.   We need them   after the corporate capture of the Fourth Estate   by interests linked to transnational organized crime. ”   - KIP

”Who's connecting dots for you   in media literacy,   critical thinking,   civic responsibility,    holding power   to account?” - KIP

/end of transcript of The Bigger Picture in 5 Minutes from KIP’s Cassandra Awards nominees