Censorship Gone Bonkers - 'Be A Good Citizen!'
Yesterday the censorship department at Twitter went bonkers.
Twitter Safety blogged:
Disclosing networks of state-linked information operations
Today we are disclosing four networks of accounts to our archive of state-linked information operations; the only archive of its kind in the industry. The networks we are disclosing relate to independent, state-affiliated information operations that we have attributed to Armenia, Russia and a previously disclosed network from Iran.
...
RussiaToday we’re disclosing two separate networks that have Russian ties.
1. Our first investigation found and removed a network of 69 fake accounts that can be reliably tied to Russian state actors. A number of these accounts amplified narratives that were aligned with the Russian government, while another subset of the network focused on undermining faith in the NATO alliance and its stability.
...
Be a good citizen!
Do not amplify narratives that are aligned with the Russian government.
Do not undermine faith in the NATO alliance and its stability.
Do not amplify narratives that are aligned with the Russian government.
Do not undermine faith in the NATO alliance and its stability.
Do not amplify narratives that are aligned with the Russian government.
Do not undermine faith in the NATO alliance and its stability.
Do not amplify narratives that are aligned with the Russian government.
Do not undermine faith in the NATO alliance and its stability.
Do not amplify narratives that are aligned with the Russian government.
Do not undermine faith in the NATO alliance and its stability.
Do not amplify narratives that are aligned with the Russian government.
Do not undermine faith in the NATO alliance and its stability.
Do not amplify narratives that are aligned with the Russian government.
Do not undermine faith in the NATO alliance and its stability.
Do not amplify narratives that are aligned with the Russian government.
Do not undermine faith in the NATO alliance and its stability.
Do not amplify narratives that are aligned with the Russian government.
Do not undermine faith in the NATO alliance and its stability.
Do not amplify narratives that are aligned with the Russian government.
Do not undermine faith in the NATO alliance and its stability.
Everyone got that now?
Also this:
Aaron Maté @aaronjmate - 18:53 UTC · Feb 23, 2021Twitter adds a warning to @MaxBlumenthal's report in @TheGrayzoneNews on leaked UK gov't files (https://thegrayzone.com/2021/02/20/reuters..) exposing a major propaganda campaign targeting Russia: "These materials may have been obtained through hacking."
Is this warning applied equally? I doubt it.

bigger
The warning is of course not applied equally. Neither do 'Uighur' stories based on hacked papers from China censored nor do 'Navalny poison' stories based on hacked data from Russia get a 'hacked materials' warning.
Unfortunately even tweets which links to the Moon of Alabama piece on the 'hacked' British documents do not get such marks.
That's too bad because Twitter's 'hacked material' insert created a Streisand effect and the such marked Grayzone story went viral.
The censors did not like that. Some twenty hours after the 'hacked materials' insert on tweets to that story was first applied it vanished.
I have, by the way, no idea if the British material was hacked or if it comes from a whistle blower. Neither is that important. The material is genuine and it is full of information which the British authorities want to hide but which that the global public deserves to know. That is the only thing that is important for publishing it.
Posted by b on February 24, 2021 at 15:16 UTC | Permalink
next page »Haha love a good Streisand effect backfiring on the Fascist Regime!
Posted by: Et Tu | Feb 24 2021 15:26 utc | 2
Question: how difficult could it be to create alternative 'social networks', that are not liberal-fascist?
...or would any attempt be sabotaged by liberal-fascist infrastructure companies (Amazon, MS, etc)? If so, are there any non-liberal-fascist infrastructure companies in this world, that can stay non-liberal-fascist for an extended period of time?
Posted by: Mao Cheng Ji | Feb 24 2021 16:01 utc | 3
I will believe they are acting in good faith when they expose similar networks tied to Israel and Turkey.
Posted by: catb | Feb 24 2021 16:30 utc | 5
So, only the official party narrative is allowed in the news.
Only government approved documents can be discussed and only documents explicitly declassified can be seen.
Therefore, the only government malfeasance the media can cover is malfeasance officially admitted and any other non-governmental approved narrative is censored.
In that case, there is nothing to discuss as the US government never admits malfeasance or any wrongdoing at all.
Strangely, a large fraction of US citizens will be perfectly fine with this since it protects everyone from "fake news" and "Russian meddling".
Any country that allows this behavior deserves the dictatorship they live under.
Posted by: Mar man | Feb 24 2021 16:53 utc | 7
Anyone I know who even takes note of such events is totally in support. It shows, to them, that Biden is crushing Trump/Putin. Cause for celebration. All praise to the algorithms that ferret out the evildoers.
When fascism came to Germany the populace wanted it. Or enough of them did. Same is happening here. No surprise.
Posted by: oldhippie | Feb 24 2021 16:55 utc | 8
Question: how difficult could it be to create alternative 'social networks', that are not liberal-fascist?
Posted by: Mao Cheng Ji | Feb 24 2021 16:01 utc | 3
Very difficult, see https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/you-cant-just-build-your-own-twitter/
Posted by: Saraj | Feb 24 2021 17:08 utc | 9
thanks b
kind of a shame about twitter and facebook, but it was bound to happen... for propaganda to work, it has to be pretty thorough... apparently the intel agencies believe control of twitter and facebook are an important part of this... controlling the msm in itself, is not enough..
Posted by: james | Feb 24 2021 17:08 utc | 10
Thanks, it is in fact refreshing to see you have realized the censorship has gone completely bonkers, because it is just a symptom of a totally insane world at the moment. Or, as John Lennon said more than 50 years ago but it is more relevant than ever
“The World Is Run By Insane People, For Insane Objectives”
Reflect On:Today, Lennon’s message has become quite obvious, and there are many examples to choose from. The only difference is, more people seem to know about it, and the collective consciousness is shifting with regards to how we view our world.
Posted by: Norwegian | Feb 24 2021 17:26 utc | 11
On the Week in Review thread last night I posted two links to ZH showing that, at least, the Navalny BS is such
It seems Amnesty International have revoked Navalny's Prisoner of Conscience status after discovering he maybe isn't such a nice guy was one link and the other was about coming sanctions against Russia because of poor ol Navalny
I see the narrative unraveling in empire because of the intertubes that were not around in Hitler's era and so total brainwashing is harder because not all the sources of information are controlled.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Feb 24 2021 17:27 utc | 12
i had (blissfully) forgotten the intercept existed after greenwald left. that article is ridiculous because...
1. it was from one police department
2. showed them doing literally nothing that hasn't been done on a much larger scale by five eyes intel agencies and their domestic compatriots
3. provided no information that could be read as "proof of genocide" under even the most pompeo-esque propaganda microscope.
4. is written by a member of the "you only get mad when israel does stuff!!!!" squad who seems to suggest china is stealing its own land...?
good for a larf. as for the twitter/NATO hilarity it is more useful ammo to load when idiots trot out the tired "they're private companies derp!" bullshit. why not just let the manchildren at bellingcat draw up a list of approved opinions?
Posted by: the pair | Feb 24 2021 17:35 utc | 13
Fascism by any other name... But isn't this just the beginning of public/private partnership for, of and by profiteers. Profiteers who desperately need existential enemies and fretting populaces to perpetuate the myth of a 'dangerous world.'
As with Snowden's revelations, we know what the policy is, and the crimes committed against 'democracy' but it's still good to get 'official' confirmation.
Posted by: gottlieb | Feb 24 2021 17:37 utc | 14
I again link Kit Klarenberg's article that expands upon the Blumenthal findings. Kit says much of the material was made available by Anonymous, the "hacktivist collective," but doesn't say they were hacked. Not that it matters given the gravity of what's revealed. Moreover, Twitter's actions confirm Russia's assessment of it--it's in the service of a foreign government and not an independent, non-government agency, and it will soon be sanctioned by Russia for what it is and does. IMO, independent corporate media no longer exists in the West--it's completely beholden to the so-called security services that guard the Empire from unwelcome truths becoming known. Of course, those agencies fail constantly as the exposure of their efforts prove.
There is no such thing as "liberal-fascist." "Liberal" has never meant any sort of quasi-anarchist commitment to untrammeled individual rights. It has always meant the freedom of the press. The thing is, the real meaning of freedom of the press for the liberal is the freedom of the owners of the press to do what they want. The fact that customarily a free-for-the-owners'-press happen to produce the right kind of news suitable for owners and the advertisers is seen as the benefit of a free press. As for "fascist," no concept of fascism that doesn't include legal and illegal restrictions on freedom and government propaganda mobilizing the citizens to sacrifice for recovery from defeat/further conquest is not a serious concept of fascism at all. Both liberalism and fascism revere property but will compromise for necessity, liberalism for a certain degree of class peace, fascism for war, but if anybody is determined to indoctrinate the masses it is fascism. The implicit notion here that people daring to think or worse, live, differently than tradition may inspire rage in mad dog reactionaries. But this is at bottom the same rage that led Catholics and Protestants to murder each other or for witches to be killed by the thousands (yes, they were,) or for monarchists to kill republicans or for one ethnic/religious/national group to murder another. Modern society is not a genuine offense, no matter how bigoted you are. The keyboard has a hyphen but hitting it between "liberal" and "fascist" is just more crypto-fascist BS. It doesn't matter how many times you type it, it's not a thing.
Posted by: steven t johnson | Feb 24 2021 18:11 utc | 16
@Saraj 9, "Very difficult, see https..."
It seems to me, they make it sound more difficult than it really is.
Think of thepiratebay. It gets banned, blocked, raided, sued - from 2006 at least - and yet it lives. It changes from .org to .whatever, it finds registrars and infrastructure somehow.
And you don't really need google/apple store all that much: a browser will suffice.
And search? paypal, bank - what is this all about? I'm sure thepiratebay works with advertisers somehow (definitely with VPN companies), and somehow it gets paid. And that's all there is to it. Imo.
Posted by: Mao Cheng Ji | Feb 24 2021 18:14 utc | 17
Dear steven, when fascists call themselves 'liberal', it makes sense (to me) to identify them as 'liberal-fascist'.
And that's all there is to it.
You are free to classify and identify them any way you like. May I suggest, as an alternative, 'woke-fascist'?
Posted by: Mao Cheng Ji | Feb 24 2021 18:23 utc | 18
Bonkers is putting it mildly.
When Twitter banned the President of the United States of AmeriKKKa I thought "Wow! Isn't that illegal?"
So I dug into my archived TV recordings to find Jane Hutcheon's One + One interview with Jack Dorsey. I recall being impressed with Jack at the time the interview went to air in May, 2018. Jane H is a good interviewer. She asks a question then shuts up and listens (an almost lost art in Interview Land).
I can't believe the Jack Dorsey in the interview would allow this sort of crapola to dominate Twitter, and am hoping that he's decided to let the psycho-fuckwits in charge of AmeriKKKa make utter fools of themselves.
Here's Page 4 of One + One's Archive. The Dorsey interview is near the bottom of the page.
What do you think?
https://www.abc.net.au/news/programs/one-plus-one/archive/?page=4
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Feb 24 2021 19:07 utc | 19
Do not amplify narratives that are aligned with the Russian government.Do not undermine faith in the NATO alliance and its stability.
Don't you know that you ARE a Kremlin's agent and/or a Putin's puppet if you agree with Russian president's statement that 2x2=4, or that the Earth revolves around the Sun? Dude, if you support it after it was said by mr.Putin, it means you spread a Russian propaganda and/or disinformation. What's wrong with you? Poor fellow, you don't even realize how deep the Russian tentacles have penetrated your brain. What nonsense - to admit the very idea of agreeing on something with the Russians! But you are not hopeless, because a team of inerrant elves from Twitter/Facebook will help you wake up.
So you better be a good citizen, and do not amplify narratives that are aligned with the Russian government.
Mao Cheng ji>: where are you, the hell are U from?
I suspect you ve got links with and support a narrative that pretty much aligns with Chinese govt.
Btw, do you also usually undermine faith in the Nato Alliance and its holy stability?
luke smith has a video that offers an alternative... 7 minute video for anyone interested...
Fixing Social Media for Good
he mentions pleroma, peertube, urbit and stuff like this.. more tech geek stuff but probably the way of the future...
my tech friend brian mentions this - "it should be the governments who are required to create their own platforms. not piggy back on private corporate platforms." wow, that is so true, so it will never happen in the present day and age....
Posted by: james | Feb 24 2021 19:26 utc | 23
another comment from my friend - "well the problem, in my mind, is that interacting with gov't is becoming a social media affair. it shouldn't be. they should be keeping to conventional channels. if they want to make public statements it should be on their own fucking websites." what a novel concept!
Posted by: james | Feb 24 2021 19:28 utc | 24
The interesting aspect of the Twitter ban on Trump is that it tends to reinforce the theory that POTUS is just a Token Figurehead with Zero Power. It was an extraordinarily myopic act for The Swamp to approve.
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Feb 24 2021 19:31 utc | 25
James@ 23
The very fact that the alternatives are regarded as "tech geek stuff" will be the reason most people won't make the move to a different platform. They feel much better having something that requires no thinking to use, and seem content to have they personal data mined, sold, and stored freely by the providers. As they say, if you can't tell what the product is when you visit a site....the product is you.
Posted by: Digital Spartacus | Feb 24 2021 19:39 utc | 26
Narrative control has always been part of the grift. But one can always cultivate a critical mind, read widely, understand history and try to think carefully about how ideology works. I'm a fan of Zizek's film 'Pervert's Guide to Ideology' because it points out that 'propaganda' is never disseminated from a central point by diabolical puppet-masters. Ideology is dispersed and decentralised, and radiates from all points. It is embodied, and in a way this makes it even more sinister, because it cannot be countered by rationality and argument. But we can try to understand it in its complexity, and there are plenty of excellent thinkers who have done so to fall back on: Marx, Nietzsche, Althusser, Foucault, Baudrillard, Zizek, not to mention all of the Frankfurt School and their successors.
But it also is astonishingly naive to expect narrative to align with a truth imagined to lie outside narrative. Truth is an effect of narrative combined with authority. The early Greeks grasped this in their genealogy of the Muse: she is the daughter of Zeus (sovereign power) and Mnemosyne (memory). We just happen to live in a world where all narrative forms are indeterminate: nothing is true, everything could be true... This is an effect of narrative form not an intrinsic problem of content.
Posted by: Patroklos | Feb 24 2021 19:44 utc | 28
The West becomes more Stassi-like daily while Russian and Chinese media become more open and transparent. This was predictable given the ever decreasing returns for the Empires as they get hollowed out by their parasitic financial systems. Somehow, I doubt Orwell would be at all surprised.
Posted by: Karl Sanchez | Feb 24 2021 19:48 utc | 29
@ Digital Spartacus | Feb 24 2021 19:39 utc | 26... i agree with you and with what you say...
more comments from my friend on twitter -
"the thing is that the whole reason twitter is "interesting" is because public figures and politicians are on it. beyond that, i'm not sure why anyone cares about social media. it's all about posting pictures of your lunch and getting in trouble for saying edgy things in public."and "i'd be just as happy if all social media disappeared overnight. overall i think it's much less of a problem than people make it out to be"
my response - "i question the direction our world is going in.. i feel we are being bombarded with propaganda at this point... i wonder if there is an alternative... so much of what i hear from people is complete propaganda fed by the media - msm or social media at this point.."
his response - "sure. but the answer is to get off social media. not find "alternatives"
to which i agree.. i am not on twitter, but have an account on fb that i have used in the past for promoting music gigs... i am questioning the relevance of this at this point too..
Posted by: james | Feb 24 2021 19:52 utc | 30
The Uyghur suffering is genuine, as far as I can detect. It started when thousands of Uyghurs went off to Syria to fight for the jihadis. The Chinese government got frightened, and clamped down on the Uyghurs, fearing the jihadis coming back. The problem is that later on, Western anti-Chinese propaganda picked up on it, and exaggerated the problem. You have no idea how serious it really is, the area being now inaccessible. As usual, the West supports Muslims, and jihadis, when it suits them, and then tells you they're evil in another context.
Posted by: Laguerre | Feb 24 2021 19:58 utc | 31
I wish this was merely a case of temporary or even permanent insanity.
Sadly, the real reason is clear: these security departments in the tech giants are staffed with all manner of ex-intel agency people. Deliberately or not, they see what the establishment see and infect their views on everyone else there.
Watch the evolution of Alex Stamos over the years to see this in action.
Posted by: c1ue | Feb 24 2021 20:00 utc | 32
Yet another article on the West's double standards:
"Twitter’s accusation is a classic case of it jumping to conclusions, as there is nothing at all to suggest the leaks were a product of hacking."
No! It's made out to look that way; but as the author points out below, it's standard proceedure:
"However, this attitude is a direct manifestation of the enormous double standards at play in response to this kind of journalism.
"Whistleblowing and leaks which reveal secrets from enemy states constitute a form of journalism and reporting which deserves to be praised. But to many governments in the West, especially those in the United States and the United Kingdom, leaking is considered out of bounds when they are on the receiving end. It is as if the standards they preach to other countries – in particular, transparency and freedom of information – suddenly don’t count.
"In exploring this phenomenon, the cases of Julian Assange and Edward Snowden are good places to start. If these men were Chinese, Russian or Iranian, they would be widely celebrated and lauded by the mainstream media as heroes and martyrs who have been subjected to state oppression for simply daring to reveal the truth, as was the case with doctor Li Wenliang and ‘citizen journalist’ Zhang Zhan in Wuhan.
"Yet because Assange and Snowden are Western, and in turn directly challenged the US-led security establishment with their leaks on surveillance and various atrocities, they are treated differently, as criminals and fugitives. The mainstream media minimize the coverage accordingly, and make sure their cause or work cannot gain public sympathy. State action against them is not given scrutiny." [My Emphasis]
As George Galloway has announced, "I now wear a star on my chest thanks to Twitter’s extraordinary ‘state media’ discrimination."
Looks like we need to design some sort of MoA barfly star we can proudly pin to our shirt fronts and wear with pride.
I posted a blanket condemnation of Isr@elis a couple of days ago on Twitter. Hardly fair, I know, but it was after reading that their government is denying P@lestinians in the Occupied Territories anti-covid vaccine, and I was angry.
Less than 48 hours later, I turned on my Mac laptop and it was completely unresponsive -- after 13 mos. of flawless performance. (I borrowed it from my girlfriend at the beginning of the pandemic.)
But after 24 hours of it being shut off & unplugged, the laptop started up just fine.
I can't help wondering if my Mac was attacked (with Twitter's cooperation) from foreign parts. Anyway, I've just deleted Twitter from my menu, and won't be going back. I lack the know-how & resource$ to carry out any sort of cyber-battle ... and even moreso, I fear my girlfriend's wrath if she learns I endangered her laptop!
Posted by: JimmyB. | Feb 24 2021 20:29 utc | 34
controlling the infosphere is going to be more important as reality increasingly eludes the comprehension of the delusional morons running the US and West. telling Twitter what to do hopefully will soon be about the only thing the "deep state" actors can do.
the 1st rule of "success" in capitalism is, if you don't believe your own b.s., no one else will. the 2nd rule is TINA. a simple fact, like China's relative success vs corona threatens to overturn the whole lying fantasy shit show.
how much slander is required to maintain the insane idea of capitalist or western or whatever superiority? it's incalculable. tens of thousands of jobs in the West exist today to do one thing: promote the insanity of Western, capitalist superiority. tell it to the buffalo, lying shitbag.
Posted by: jason | Feb 24 2021 20:32 utc | 35
Digital Spartacus #21
Mastodon
Thank you. If you are a participant of mastodon do post a link there to this MoA report and tell us how long it stands.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Feb 24 2021 20:37 utc | 36
stjohnson @ 16 said; "There is no such thing as "liberal-fascist."
Yep, an oxy-moron. You folks keep uniting "liberal" with all kinds of negative meanings. Please STFU, and grab a clue. For the edification of some;
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/liberal
Posted by: vetinLA | Feb 24 2021 20:43 utc | 38
P.S. I for one, reject the phrase "neo-liberal", it's new speak to confuse the populace. Liberal is liberal. That fool who just croaked,(Rush L.) was one of the first to demonize the word liberal, and it worked.
Posted by: vetinLA | Feb 24 2021 20:50 utc | 39
Posted by: james | Feb 24 2021 19:28 utc | 24
Absolutely right comment, I always thought and joked about it during the peak of twitter fever with Trump directing the galaxy from that platform. Government business should be in governmental sites. That is why Putin does not have any accounts, but I am sure he would not get lost using a computer. It has happened with all media tools, radio at the beginning, a platform for education and literacy transformed into a cheap bazar, then the same with TV and now with the internet, they could and should be enlightment tools until the "smart" boys show up, the Gates and Zucky types with their crappy soft and "what can I do for you today".
Posted by: Paco | Feb 24 2021 20:50 utc | 40
uncle tungsten @36
Not a participant. An illustration only in response to people who seem to think that an alternative is difficult to launch. As James pointed out earlier, there are any number of alternatives.
Posted by: Digital Spartacus | Feb 24 2021 20:51 utc | 41
Who needs outright censorship when you can just willy-nilly change a words meaning? Or, is that just another form of censorship?
Posted by: vetinLA | Feb 24 2021 20:57 utc | 42
Digital Spartacus #41
Thanks, people, like moths, seem to be attracted to the brighter lights and miss the peaceful glow of the candles.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Feb 24 2021 21:05 utc | 43
@ Posted by: Laguerre | Feb 24 2021 19:58 utc | 31
You chronology doesn't check out. The so-called "clamp down" begun after that terrorist knife attack that killed some 200 Chinese, before the Syrian war.
Even if that was the case, the fact is that it was the USA that declared war against Syria, and promptly used ISIS as a proxy force against it. Therefore, the USA is fomenting Uyghur terrorism, therefore, China is fighting a foreign power by suppressing Uyghur radicalism. Inadvertently, you're giving reason to China.
And Xinjiang is not inaccessible. If you have the money and the will, you can travel there as normal. Of course you won't have access to the reeducation camps, the same way you won't have access to many places you visit as a tourist in other countries (I can't, for example, enter a prison in the USA as a tourist).
karlof1 #33
on the quote you cited in that post: "In exploring this phenomenon, the cases of Julian Assange and Edward Snowden are good places to start. If these men were Chinese, Russian or Iranian, they would be widely celebrated and lauded by the mainstream media as heroes and martyrs who have been subjected to state oppression for simply daring to reveal the truth, as was the case with doctor Li Wenliang and ‘citizen journalist’ Zhang Zhan in Wuhan. "
I might add the growing sentiment for change in Nigeria and the 'court persecution' of Sheikh Zakzaky.
Tehran Times reports:
The hearing of the case against Sheikh Zakzaky and Mallimah Zeenah has been adjourned again, this time until 8 and 9 March. IHRC is deeply concerned for the health of both Sheikh, whose health continues to deteriorate, and Mallimah, who tested positive for Covid-19.IHRC Chair Massoud Shadjareh said:
“It is clear that there is something other than the processes of law at work here. The couple need to be released immediately and these trumped up charges thrown out of court.”
Meanwhile, a peaceful rally organized by supporters of Nigerian cleric Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky in Abuja was attacked by security forces.
The protest rally was held on Monday against Sheikh Zakzaky's arrest and trial. Those attending the protests called for the immediate and unconditional release of Zakzaky, who is the leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), and his wife.
Fars news reports:
Speaking in an interview, Professor Zaki said, “They want to keep him out of public domain by all means… The government is more particular on Sheikh Zakzaky because of his followership… The leaders and their Western masters are afraid that Nigerians will revolt against them and free the country from their exploitation if Sheikh Zakzaky continues with his call.”Umar Faruq Zaki is a professor and lecturer at Usmanu Danfodiyo University, in Sokoto, Nigeria.
Below is the full text of the interview:
Q: Why is Sheikh Zakzaky popular among faithful followers of all religions, especially Islam and Christianity?
A: The government is more particular on Sheikh Zakzaky because of his followership. Many people are understanding and supporting his call. Therefore, the leaders and their Western masters are afraid that Nigerians will revolt against them and free the country from their exploitation if Sheikh Zakzaky continues with his call.
Q: What is promoted by the Islamic Movement of Nigeria?
A: The goals of Islamic movement in Nigeria are two:
1. For the Muslims to understand the true teaching of Islam through understanding of Ahlul-Beit.
2. To free the country from corruption and exploitation by Western powers.
Q: How do you view Sheikh Zakzaky’s trial? Is the prolonged process of the trial aimed at gradual murdering of the IMN Leader?
A: Actually, they do not want Sheikh Zakzaky to continue his call. So, they want to keep him out of public domain by all means. Because his survival is their death. They are mortally afraid of him. America, Israel, Zionist are all the same and leaders of Nigeria are their obedient servants. In fact, we do not have leaders in Nigeria because our so called leaders are not protecting the interests of the country. They are following the dictates of the Western powers. Therefore, Nigerian leaders are simply servants of the Western powers. They are leading Nigeria to destruction.
Free all prisoners of conscience.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Feb 24 2021 21:14 utc | 45
Twitter and FB are fast becoming boomer legacy media.
Nowadays I mainly use Telegram and Zalo (a social media app in VN) and Discord.
For search I alternate between Yandex and DuckDuckGo.
What surprises is that the chinese internet alternatives (Beidou) are not all good, you are constantly bonbarded with ads and links to click, me think of the 3 "great powers", the Russian commits the most to internet freedom, you can find pretty much everything in Russian space and surprisingly easy.
Posted by: Smith | Feb 24 2021 21:29 utc | 46
Are you surprised? The entire history of western civilization is about censoring and censorship don’t believe me just check a few collage text books on man and civilization, usually Iran, China and other non western related civilizations are not covered or get deserving coverage. Censoring history is a practice of less civilized.
Posted by: Kooshy | Feb 24 2021 22:08 utc | 47
"You chronology doesn't check out. The so-called "clamp down" begun after that terrorist knife attack that killed some 200 Chinese, before the Syrian war.
Posted by: vk | Feb 24 2021 21:05 utc | 44
I wouldn't contest the precise chronology. That was not my point.
"And Xinjiang is not inaccessible. If you have the money and the will, you can travel there as normal."
Glad to hear it if it's true. I was planning my trip to China, once COVID is over. if Xinjiang is on I'll be a taker, though I have some doubts.
Posted by: Laguerre | Feb 24 2021 22:10 utc | 48
Seems YouTube censored a Consortium News live stream:
YouTube Removes a CN Live! Episode
Take that with a grain of salt, since the CN are a bunch of wackos.
Either way, it's all going according to what was predicted. The capitalist powers are so eager to make Biden work that they are quickly trying to put the genie back to the bottle. In the process, they may actually be accelerating the flux of History.
Biden is the classic "back to the good ol' times" emperor. There were many in History and he probably won't be the last one.
In my opinion, the decline of the USA begun not after the September 2008 financial crisis. Also, I think Barack Obama was the last POTUS to "do what he wants"; i.e. I predict that all the POTUS after him (Trump, now Biden and so on) will be historically weak, which means they will be more and more puppets with little autonomy of decision and ever narrowing margins of maneuver. That also implies that the two parties of the USA will continue to converge, to the point they will probably either burst into a fragmentary situation of crisis or to mere ceremonial, quasi-religious tokens of democracy. That's my prediction for the next 30-50 years of American History.
@31 Laguerre
The Uyghurs terrorist insurgency started long before Syria. It began in earnest around 1990, after the fall of the Soviet Union. Since then there have been hundreds of attacks on Chinese citizens resulting in a couple thousand deaths. Bus bombings are the Uyghurs go to terrorist method.
The Uyghurs go to Syria for training in hopes that on return to China they will be more efficient killers.
Xinjiang is very accessible. Of course you can't go to restricted areas...try taking a tour of Guantanamo or see what happens if you attempt to visit a restricted US military base.
But I suspect you know this and are wittingly and willingly contributing to the disinformation campaign which goes part and parcel with censorship.
Posted by: Jason | Feb 24 2021 23:31 utc | 50
@Laguerre
Uyghur problems go way back. China has over half of its land covered by autonomous provinces and smaller autonomous areas. They vary widely in the amount of autonomy they have. Some are largely Muslim like Xinjiang (which also has sizable Kazakh, Uzbek, and Tajik Muslims. Others, such as in the South and in and around Tibet vary mainly in language and ethnic traditions. Because the kids are not speaking Chinese at home, education suffers, and the economy in these areas is often tourism.
Up until 2009, protests were common but small and short-lived in Xinjiang. In the summer of 2009, for my holiday, I decided to take my summer break in a cool place and took a short job in northwestern Xinjiang. I went through the capital of Urumqi on July 6. News had been cut off and so my contact had not warned me, but brutal violence with dismemberment against Chinese by Muslims had been carried out on dozens in the streets. Buses were burned. That afternoon, Chinese mobs, increasing violence, were marching through the streets, every one with a short stick. My contact met me at the train station, and we walked with my luggage on the main street. We finally found a place in a Muslim apartment complex that let us on. Then I was able to persuade a Muslim restaurant to give us shelter. We finally reached my contact's home and stayed until he said even there was no longer safe. As we left Urumqi, we saw that all of the Muslim restaurants had been burned. We managed to get out to the small town to my job...but most parents would not let their children attend.
In the small town where I taught a very small group of bravehearts, I saw everyday on the TV the closeup TV clips of bloody people's body parts.
Xinjiang is a desert with snowy mountains in the north. They get water from ancient underground's tunnels. There is quite a bit of mining.
I will not be going back.
Posted by: Helen | Feb 25 2021 0:12 utc | 51
What eludes me about Russian cyber actors is their utter stupidity and their utter genius. We are told that the Solar Winds attack was an absolutely super duper act of pure hacking genius. But on the other hand Russian hackers cannot hide a twitter bot's point of origin. According to The Intercept, Mueller was able to indict Russian hackers because one of them forgot to sign into their VPN account. Go figure.
I suspect that any tweet which "takes the Kremlin line" is assumed to be tied to Russians regardless of its point of origin. Otherwise, Twitter would have to have the resources of the CIA to identify a multitude of cyber actors to back track them.
Posted by: Erelis | Feb 25 2021 0:14 utc | 52
You would think they would hire people who have some idea as to what might be plausible when they invent these stories? It's very strange to see. There has been a long string of these unconvincing stories aimed at Russia. The claim the supported Trump after 2016 was a watershed too, all caution to the winds after that. Skripals, Navalny, one after another that makes no sense. It's like they want to make a point and are failing. Or maybe propaganda is all they have.
Posted by: Bemildred | Feb 25 2021 0:54 utc | 53
Regarding "liberal" and "neoliberal"...
"Liberal" appeared in Europe in a socio-economic context in the late 1600s to describe an system where business would be free, unhindered by royal/government control. For the most part, to start up a business, one needed a royal license or patent. The liberals wanted unregulated business, and their motto was "laissez faire" (let it be done/happen). Laissez-faire capitalism is generally considered the first (entrepreneurial) phase of capitalism, starting in the early 1700s.
Outside the English-speaking world, the word still relates to free trade and unregulated business practices.
"Neoliberal" is more recent, coming into common usage since the arrival of the Thatcher/Reagan regime of globalization. Neoliberals go one further than the original liberals. While the latter just wanted governments to let businesses do their thing, the neoliberals believe that it is government's duty to promote and support business, in other words to play a major role in making it possible for corporations to make money. Hence, Boeing and the other corporations and the big banks must NEVER be allowed to fail, for that would represent a failure of government as it is understood in neoliberal ideology.
Posted by: RJPJR | Feb 25 2021 1:02 utc | 54
OOps we now have a Helen Falun Gong with body parts images floating around in their brain.
Listen up Helen. We have spent a lot of effort and money to train and indoctrinate our head chopper mercenaries.
We do not need anybody trying to change them for God's sake.
Posted by: arby | Feb 25 2021 1:02 utc | 55
The inevitable outcome of a BidenCorp victory was much discussed here and apart from hysterical pushback from the dembot and her offsider (who turns up 'ere under a new nym from time to time), most seemed to agree that a BidenCorp victory would be about tokenistic appointments at the top to gloss over reality, while the empire doubled down on war, oppression & censorship, none of which would ever cop a mention on msnbc etc.
It has happened as predicted so there is little excuse for emotive reaction. What is much more important is charting the evolution of this certain to fail faux reality so that those of us who care sufficiently to undermine the empire's most recent satori can do so effectively.
It is vital to remember that none of these types, be they '1%ers', enablers, satraps or the thugs at the pointy end, are omniscient or omnipotent, in fact because of the types who are most likely to seem successful in any of those roles eg sociopath, narcissist, greed driven & egomaniacal, they inevitably over-reach and can be brought down by hubris if the resistance is accurate and timely.
Given the huge amounts big tech was pouring into BidenCorp for prez 2020 it was certain that success would create two mutually supportive situations, vastly increased censorship and censorship's handmaiden propaganda - not just banner headline 'the Russkies are evil' propaganda, but more directed & targeted propaganda in any nation states regarded as being more susceptible to shaking hands with the Chinese or Russian 'axis of evil'.
There have been two recent examples of that so far this year which haven't been reported widely here on afaik anywhere else. The first is in Guyana, which is soon to become a major hydrocarbon source. The exploitation is meant to be undertaken by a joint amerika/china venture. However some really funny business has gone on in the most recent Guyana elections (probably done by the englanders since Guyana is an alleged 'former' englander colony) which were caused by a government member switching sides and after a disputed election the candidate amerika insisted upon was made bossfella. I doubt the China half of the syndicate is going to get a look in any longer.
Guyana suffers from some of the race issues of many former englander colonies as the englanders dragged many 'indentured labourers' (read slaves) from the sub continent to Guyana and a la Uganda, Hongkong, Fiji & other territories did zilch for repatriation at 'independence'. This made them ideal for the divide & rule ploy englanders love.
The most recent 'funny business' occurred in a region few are even barely cognisant of, Micronesia. One of the reasons little news ever comes out of Micronesia is that most of the 'nations' of Micronesia are no such thing. Located in the central Pacific most of Micronesia's 'nations' were invaded by amerika during amerika's war with Japan and have never been granted independence. They have no democratic representation in DC and on those occasions when they have tried to assert independence amerika jumps in, offers to give every family a 4wd or similar on condition they stay with the empire and they do (the level of awareness of the world is somewhat limited for many Micronesians). That said there are some independent nation states in Micronesia and they are no longer behaving as a good satrap should.
A couple of weeks ago there was a slight hiccup when the leaders of Micronesia jacked up over the fact that although it was 'their turn' to nominate the next Secretary-General of the Pacific Islands Forum, the gig had gone to a Polynesian nominee. The Pacific Islands had been divided into three main subgroups by colonisers working with compliant anthropologists - all the better to divide and rule. The three groups are Micronesia (eg Nauru, Kiribati ), Polynesia (eg Tahiti, Tonga) and Melanesia (eg Solomon Islands, Fiji).
I must confess to being mildly surprised when I heard that Australia & Aotearoa, the two bullies of the Pacific Island Forum had led the push against Gerald Zackios the Micronesian delegate who had worked for many years as an ambassador in Washington DC. "perhaps it has been decided to push amerikan influence outta the Pacific', I foolishly thought. Hmm no such thing what has happened is that some of the Micronesian states have decided to open diplomatic relations with Beijing which of course meant cutting Taiwan adrift. Now on one level that is sad because indigenous Taiwanese are close relations of other Pacific peoples, so cutting them adrift is no small thing, but of course indigenous Taiwanese are totally ignored between acts of extreme repression in Taiwan, so dropping Taipei for Beijing makes SFA difference.
On the other hand going along to get along with China has already shown benefits for Micronesia, in this instance Kiribati.
the links in this post all express outrage from a neoliberal patronising post colonial point of view. I included them instead of links to more neutral or pro-China media because readers must see for themselves exactly how the empire/borg/global blob conceals its crimes under a patina of faux bonhomie.
Last here is a link from the reactionary Sydney Morning Herald expressing Australia's outrage at the 'cheekiness' & 'ingratitude' of those damned Micronesian fuzzy-wuzzies.
Posted by: Debsisdead | Feb 25 2021 1:09 utc | 56
Mao Chung Ji@18 "Dear steven, when fascists call themselves 'liberal', it makes sense (to me) to identify them as 'liberal-fascist'.
And that's all there is to it.
You are free to classify and identify them any way you like. May I suggest, as an alternative, 'woke-fascist'?"
This is idiotic. When fascists call themselves something else (whether "liberal" or "nationalist" or even "Marxist") the proper response is to call them liars, or cryptofascists. The crypto- prefix means hidden or coded. The point of coining oxymorons like "liberal-fascist" is to pretend liberalism is somehow fascist. Reducing political terms to mere political invective is manipulative, cheap rhetoric, i.e., political swindling.
The suggestion of "woke-fascist" is particularly stupid (this is the charitable interpretation,) for suggesting that being ragged on for bad manners in abusing minorities is somehow equivalent to having unions turned into government bureaus, open discriminatory laws against select minorities, street violence against leftist, voiding of elections, official government propaganda reinforced by universal censorship, rule by decree, wars of conquest etc. I have my own issues with "woke," largely centered around the sex panic/militant prudery. But deranged bluenoses like William Gruff and references to QAnon-ish conspiracies have exactly the same problem. Bitching about "woke" doesn't help anyone, because stupid never helped anyone.
The idea that winning the election (especially an election where there are only two candidates vetted by the ruling class) is an indispensable part of self-definition as a "liberal." Fascists are opposed to mere elections putting in power enemies of the nation. Creating nonsense terms like "liberal-fascist" is about sowing confusion.
Posted by: steven t johnson | Feb 25 2021 1:30 utc | 57
The term liberal-fascist refers to people who consider themselves liberals, but in reality are not; in fact, these people resemble fascists more and more with each passing day. A more precise term would be “liberal”-fascist (with the quotes). It’s not so much about SJW witchhunts as about absolute faith in everything the state says and hysterical demands to censor any dissenting opinion.
Posted by: S | Feb 25 2021 1:39 utc | 58
For all those who are interested in the current situation in Xinjiang, here is a recent interview conducted by Robert Barwick of the Australian Citizens Party with Jerry Grey, a British-born Australian citizen who lives in China and who went cycling in Xinjiang.
Jerry Grey was a police officer in Britain in the 1980s and later worked in private security. Among the tidbits he drops during the interview is one stating that in the ten years up to 2017, there had been 800 deaths from terrorist-related incidents in Xinjiang.
Grey includes his experience of living under COVID-19 lockdown in China so the interview had been done within the last 12 months.
Posted by: Jen | Feb 25 2021 1:39 utc | 59
He he. The pseudo-term 'liberal-fascist' means nothing. This is because we are now in the post-semantic era. Words don't really mean anything nomore. Get used to it.
@Mao Cheng Ji #3:
Question: how difficult could it be to create alternative 'social networks', that are not liberal-fascist?
Not that difficult, but someone must pay for it.
...or would any attempt be sabotaged by liberal-fascist infrastructure companies (Amazon, MS, etc)?
Not yet. There are functioning alternative social networks, e.g., Gab, Minds.
If so, are there any non-liberal-fascist infrastructure companies in this world, that can stay non-liberal-fascist for an extended period of time?
One could use a Russian infrastructure company like Yandex.Cloud or SberCloud. Or simply use a Russian social network, e.g., VK (requires phone number for registration).
Posted by: S | Feb 25 2021 2:05 utc | 61
I guess, one can use fake liberal proto-fascist to avoid the wrath of nitpickers.
Posted by: S | Feb 25 2021 2:13 utc | 62
Maybe the reason or one of them:
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/twitter-executive-also-part-time-officer-uk-army-psychological-warfare-unit
Posted by: Wolle | Feb 25 2021 2:30 utc | 63
Is "liberal-fascist" and oxymoron or some related crime on common vernacular (like English)?
IMHO, it is a real phenomenon that may originated from institutions that proselyte liberalism in various countries, like NED. For example, it came to the attention of liberals in North America and Europe that the democratic institutions in Venezuela and Bolivia are highly deficient and coup attempts should be supported, and that the failure of such attempts in Venezuela is lamented (and spurs more efforts, like the theft of Venezuelan gold by UK) and the success in Bolivia was promptly approved. In both cases the pro-liberal locals were quite fascist.
Now an interesting scenario is developing in Ecuador. A freedom loving government replaced anti-liberal Correistas, and was quite busy taking loans from IMF and outlawing Correistas political parties. Now we are after the first tour of Presidential elections there, with Correista candidate in the lead, to run in the second tour against someone to be decided. Originally it would be a right winger who got 19.59% of the vote, but that may be hopeless so there are some maneuvers to change the "number two" tag to an "ecologist and nativist", a proper liberal, and American embassy gently entices a liberal-fascist alliance. Ecologists warmly supported a rebellion by police against Correistas 10 years ago, but even so it is not a marriage easy to consulate.
In short, anywhere it deems convenient, liberals support fascists, cannibals and other charming characters. As it goes for a while, liberals acquire fascistic values and try them in their home countries. Show trials and corporate censorship for now.
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Feb 25 2021 3:14 utc | 64
Do not undermine faith in the NATO alliance and its stability.
Do not amplify narratives that are aligned with the Russian government.
Do not undermine faith in the NATO alliance and its stability.
Everyone got that now?
Alan MacLeod actually tweeted about this:
"This is not a joke. Twitter has deleted dozens of account for the crime of 'undermining faith in the NATO alliance.'"
https://twitter.com/AlanRMacLeod/status/1364548110521876480
Undermining faith in the North American Terrorist Organization (NATO) is a Thought Crime of the highest order!
The punishment for this crime is being forced to watch a conga line of Anglo-American media mouthpieces blather about whatever is their Moral Outrage of the Month--Clockwork Orange style.
Welcome to the United States of Oceania.
Posted by: ak74 | Feb 25 2021 4:32 utc | 65
More from Alan MacLeod about Twitter's censorship:
Twitter Deletes Dozens of Russian Accounts for “Undermining Faith in NATO”
https://www.mintpressnews.com/twitter-deletes-accounts-for-undermining-faith-in-nato/275641/
Posted by: ak74 | Feb 25 2021 4:53 utc | 66
Instead of crying over unfair behavior and spilt milk and sympathizing with each other, we (at least those of us who were foolish enough to open a "social" account) should immediately take the first step by closing all "social" accounts subject to US censorship and furiously write to anyone we have an address for to try to convince them to boycott the dang things. RIght away. That's the only way.
Posted by: Piero Colombo | Feb 25 2021 6:19 utc | 68
@vetinLA | Feb 24 2021 20:57 utc | 42
Who needs outright censorship when you can just willy-nilly change a words meaning? Or, is that just another form of censorship?
Yes, I am sure you have read 1984 where the Ministry of Truth took great pride in constantly issuion new revision of the official dictionary, each issue thinner than the previous one. This is what is going on now, in addition to change the meaning of words asyou rightly point out. In my country they have also changed the names of provinces and eliminated counties just to make people disorientated and confused, thus easy to control.
Posted by: Norwegian | Feb 25 2021 6:30 utc | 69
@vk | Feb 24 2021 22:41 utc | 49
Seems YouTube censored a Consortium News live stream:YouTube Removes a CN Live! Episode
Take that with a grain of salt, since the CN are a bunch of wackos.
So you have no problems defending censorship as long as those censored are 'wackos' or whatever convenient label you apply?
If you are only against censorship of people who agree with you, you are not against censhorship.
Posted by: Norwegian | Feb 25 2021 6:41 utc | 70
@vk | Feb 24 2021 22:41 utc | 49
Consortium News is 'a bunch of wackos'???
Your credibility is taking a serious hit with that one.
@Bemildred | Feb 25 2021 0:54 utc | 53
You would think they would hire people who have some idea as to what might be plausible when they invent these stories? It's very strange to see. There has been a long string of these unconvincing stories aimed at Russia. The claim the supported Trump after 2016 was a watershed too, all caution to the winds after that. Skripals, Navalny, one after another that makes no sense. It's like they want to make a point and are failing. Or maybe propaganda is all they have.
It is delibrate psychological terror with the goal of demolishing thruth and reason. The script goes something like this: Publish a totally ridiculous story about mysterious russians (Skripals) being poisened by their own government using poison no-one can survive, but still they survive. Then follow up with messaging that if you do not buy into the story, you are an enemy of your own country sympathizing with the evil russian government murderers (that haven't murdered anyone).
The point they are making is that truth and reason does not apply, and you simply have to obey. It is a psychological attack.
Posted by: Norwegian | Feb 25 2021 6:53 utc | 72
@steven, "When fascists call themselves something else (whether "liberal" or "nationalist" or even "Marxist") the proper response is to call them liars, or cryptofascists."
Dear steven,
You're welcome to practice whatever 'response' your consider 'proper'. You're also welcome to categorize my suggestions as 'particularly stupid', 'nonsense', or use any other characterization your consider 'proper'.
Rest assured that, if I could, I would never try to cancel you.
Cheers.
Posted by: Mao Cheng Ji | Feb 25 2021 7:21 utc | 73
Apropos neoliberalism.
The liberalism which is referred to here is the economic liberalism which was adopted in the United Kingdom in the 1840s after the "reform" of the Corn Laws, which permitted free trade in grain and therefore brought down both the price of wheat and the small farming community in the UK, as it was intended to do. Later these liberal policies (largely modelled on the "comparative advantage" economic theory, which had already been refuted by the time it was developed by David Ricardo) were used to justify the Irish genocide of 1847-9.
This policy was eventually abandoned later in the nineteenth century, except for places like India, of course. It was restored in the West in the 1970s, under the name of "free trade", and therefore is called neoliberalism, or new liberalism in the economic sense.
The term is not a compliment.
I suspect that the term "liberal-fascist" derives partly from the term Islamofascist, meaning a Muslim who does not bow to Washington six times a day, and partly from the term "social-fascist", a Stalinist term for a socialist who did not bow to Moscow six times a day.
Posted by: MFB | Feb 25 2021 7:26 utc | 74
If you are against censorship (good!) don't practice it here, unless a post is calling for violence. Different viewpoints enrich the soup: there are enough MSM mono factory soups on the Internet.
Posted by: Antonym | Feb 25 2021 7:37 utc | 75
Laguerre is right. b has detailed the situation of the Uighurs in several articles.
On the one hand there are the ever-changing stories of the "eye witnesses" that claim systematic torture, rape, "genocide" etc. That`s the anti-Chinese desinformation/propaganda part.
On the other hand there are really people - probably significantly less than the one million, but still a lot of people - who are actually held in detention centers in China. There is no systematical mistreatment in these facilities. Instead there are courses in Chinese language and political education/indoctrination as well as some not overly hard work. Still, people are not free to leave and are seperated from their family members. And that without them having broken any law, only on the ground that as Muslims they are suspected of beeing illoyal.
The same commentators who downplay and excuse this when China does it would be immediately ON FIRE if somebody in the West proposed such a treatment of Muslims.
Posted by: m | Feb 25 2021 7:52 utc | 76
Navalny fan boy Leonid Ragozin blames Navalny's past hateful statements on his being under the influence of US Tea Party.
2/24/21, "What’s notable is that the unfortunate statements Navalny made over a decade ago under Tea Party influence draw infinitely more attention than “pro-Western” politicians in other ex-Soviet countries helping Putin by inciting hatred and implementing xenophobic policies today."
I don't recall hearing of Navalny at any Tea Party rallies in 2009 or 2010 at its height. The Tea Party began in early 2009 as a protest movement against government bank bailouts and general corruption. It expanded to include opposition to government favored mass influx of homeless unvetted illegal aliens. To me that's a life and death issue, but some would call that view "anti-immigrant." In any case, the Tea Party didn't last long, was quickly co-opted by the Republican Establishment.
Posted by: susan mullen | Feb 25 2021 7:53 utc | 77
@76 "The same commentators who downplay and excuse this when China does it would be immediately ON FIRE if somebody in the West proposed such a treatment of Muslims."
I don't read all (even most) comments here, so it's not clear to me what this "downplay and excuse" looks like. However: if the commenters in question are westerners, it seems perfectly fine to criticize tendencies of one's own society while remaining neutral, open-minded, and non-judgemental in respect to faraway ones. Unfamiliarity with the context of the events taking place in foreign lands being the most obvious reason.
Posted by: Mao Cheng Ji | Feb 25 2021 8:55 utc | 78
Posted by: Kooshy | Feb 24 2021 22:08 utc | 47 -- "Censoring history is a practice of less civilized."
Yuppp, all part of the vaunted "western values."
Another sign of the less civilised can be seen in those who continue to allege Chinese wrongdoing in Xinjiang despite being repeatedly refuted here, and even by Westerners living inside China.
It goes without saying that these less civilised people cannot see that Washington is governing from behind a barricade like some third world nation.
If Russia or China or Iran did that, the "civilised" nations will exercise their self-appointed "duty to protect" to sanction the socks off of them.
But then again, "western values" is what they tell the rest of the world to obey, but not themselves.
Posted by: kiwiklown | Feb 25 2021 9:40 utc | 79
Arby,
Actually no body parts floating in my brain. It was on TV over and over, just like the falling twin towers after 9-11. But from the TV, I could understand the trauma that most Chinese would have felt.
Falun Gong? Not at all. I'm a great fan of China, and I just withdraw from troubles areas and learn not to go there again.
A year after that incident, I returned and taught all over Eastern China for most of the next ten years. I was ejected like most foreigners on most visas last year due to COVID concerns. And most foreigners can't get back in for now. So I teach online.
Posted by: Helen | Feb 25 2021 10:42 utc | 80
b, you are hardly in a position to virtue signal opposition to censorship - you have indulged in deleting posts and besmirching commentators that you disagree with. If you replaced "faith in NATO alliance" with "Covid-19 virus and Vaccine" then, presumably, you would be all on board.
You may wish to rely on a distinction between "health" and "politics" but at least one well-regarded journalist has linked NATO to the plan-demic:
"Most countries in the world are back to normal now (& some never really left normal). It’s only really in NATO-land & countries closely allied to NATO-land where people are still locked down. Go figure, as they say."
Posted by: ADKC | Feb 25 2021 10:59 utc | 81
@78 Mao Cheng Ji
The context is in both cases the same: Terrorist attacks with thousands of dead.
Posted by: m | Feb 25 2021 11:15 utc | 82
@m, do you speak Chinese? How much time have you spent in China? In what capacity? How well do you understand Chinese politics, economics, class structure, culture, geopolitical challenges, general zeitgeist?
If the answer to the last question is "not much and not directly", then how can you judge its government actions? Unless of course they're completely out of bounds, which, based on your description, they are not.
Posted by: Mao Cheng Ji | Feb 25 2021 11:58 utc | 83
@ Posted by: MFB | Feb 25 2021 7:26 utc | 74
Liberalism is the ideology of capitalism. According to Losurdo, the term "liberal" (as an adjective) is first found in 16th Century Spain, and essentially was a defense of slave labor to serf labor.
The first theoretician of Liberalism that I can think of is John Locke. If he wasn't the first, he certainly was the most influential, as he was the philosopher of the Founding Fathers of the USA.
Liberalism was never an organized "school" or ideology. The term itself as we know today (an ism) was only consolidated sometime around the French Revolution (1789), hence why many people today (mainly Western First Worlders) still associate the term is progressivism and even leftism. In reality, they are confounding the term with radicalism, which was the faction of the abolitionist liberals who extrapolated liberalism to all human beings.
Neoliberalism is literally the New Liberalism. The neoliberals believe that everything that happened between the Russian Revolution (1917) and the post-war welfare state social-democracy was an abortion of History that should've never have happened. They then propose the return to the classical liberal era (until 1914) with updates to the new technological realities of their time, as if the period of 1917-1975 never existed. They then seek to "link up" 1980-present to 1500-1914.
--//--
@ Posted by: blues | Feb 25 2021 6:52 utc | 71
Weren't they the anti-vaxxers/COVID-19 denial during this pandemic?
@ Posted by: m | Feb 25 2021 7:52 utc | 76
The contexts are completely different. In fact, they're the opposite:
1) the West never intended to end terrorism. On the contrary, it seeks to strengthen it in order to use it as fear factor to discipline the masses;
2) the USA invaded and destroyed Iraq after 9/11 - a country that had nothing to do with it;
3) China is not exterminating anybody and is not invading anybody, let alone an unrelated country;
4) the Uyghurs get out of their reeducation camps not only educated, but with a job in the manufacturing industry;
5) China's method actually works in curbing terrorism, while the West's not only doesn't, but fuels even more terrorism.
Hard not to be surprised by the lack of empathy or plain common sense when it comes to rivals, what is so strange about Navalny being followed by security agents? Just picture the situation from the opposite angle, imagine a guy that has been trained in a Russian university, that calls for sanctions against its own country, in this imaginary case against the US, that encourages street protest and that is an enemy of the regime, would he be tracked by any of the seventeen security agencies in the US?. No need to hack anything, it is obvious for anyone to see that the guy is a national security risk, as simple as that.
Concerning the compromised NGO Amnesty International, it took them over a decade to find out the kind of nut they’re dealing with? No, it is a lot simpler than that, Navalny is a spent asset, completely discredited and not by his xenophobic rants or ultra positions, he committed political hara-kiri during his last court appearance for insulting a war veteran, the judge, known Russian personalities and celebrities and behaving like a true schizophrenic that in any other country would have been expelled by the judge from the court room, but why distract a nut when he is destroying himself? Let him dig a deeper hole, and that is what the judge allowed, a political suicide in front of everybody, including ten diplomats from EU countries. So a spent asset and a little window dressing for AI, that is what all that noise is about.
Posted by: Paco | Feb 25 2021 12:16 utc | 86
@vk "The neoliberals believe that everything that happened between the Russian Revolution (1917) and the post-war welfare state social-democracy was an abortion of History that should've never have happened."
Personally, I tend to define 'neoliberalism' as global financial capitalism. 'Global' being the key. Something similar to what's described here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra-imperialism . Technological advances in global communications and transportation (containerization) being its most important precursors.
But I agree that the collapse of the Soviet Union, a competing alternative model, has to be an important component also.
Posted by: Mao Cheng Ji | Feb 25 2021 12:28 utc | 87
@ Posted by: Mao Cheng Ji | Feb 25 2021 12:28 utc | 87
You're thinking about Monetarism - the economics school founded by Milton Friedman that served as the economic theory of neoliberalism after the 1980s.
Neoliberalism was founded in 1947 (Mont Pelerin Society). One interesting thing about the original neoliberals was that they didn't distinguish between European social-democracy and communism: in their view, the welfare state was the realization of the Communist Manifesto's program (it really does propose for what we nowadays call the welfare state in some of its pages as some kind of transition program).
The Mont Pelerin Society still exists.
Well, yes, economics is what I'm talking about. I don't care much about ideological drivel.
Although, Friedman seems a bit distant, more like classical. Not much globalization during his heyday.
Posted by: Mao Cheng Ji | Feb 25 2021 12:49 utc | 89
Biggest act of censorship is right in front of your face. That muzzle that you are wearing. Muzzles do tamp down speech.
It is not ‘just a mask’. It is the end of social life. To include political life.
Biggest social, behavioral, political experiment in history. And y’all stampeded yourself into total compliance. And now you are stampeding to get an injection that is not a vaccine. No one quite knows what it will do. Total compliance.
By now it should be clear to anyone that the muzzle and ‘vaccine’ charade has nothing to do with health. They do not care about your health. They do not care about you. They do not care about you at all. You do everything they say.
If an unruly serf says something out loud of course they get smacked.
Posted by: oldhippie | Feb 25 2021 13:11 utc | 90
Wow, b must have spent a lot of time at the chalkboard repeating sentences, when he was young. It was a thing back then.
Posted by: Sakineh Bagoom | Feb 25 2021 13:32 utc | 92
@ Posted by: Mao Cheng Ji | Feb 25 2021 12:49 utc | 89
Monetarism is the economic theory. Neoliberalism is the political-ideological doctrine. Neoliberalism found in Monetarism the missing piece for them to govern the Western world, sometime in the mid-1970s.
It is common for a political-ideological doctrine to absorb theories outside of its "field" in order to strengthen itself and gain power. Change of clothes (i.e. change of the theories it adopts) is also common.
The impression Westerners have nowadays that one political-ideological doctrine must always have exactly one economic theory or even that they are the same thing comes from the fact that we live in the Era of Marxism, i.e. a historical period where Marxism is dominant. But Marxism is the exception to the rule, based on the scientific theory of the greatest philosopher of all time.
In practice, the bourgeois ideologues will have to make do with much inferior theoreticians (John Locke, Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Paul Samuelson, Mises, Hayek, Böhm-Bawerk, Walras, Keynes, Friedman etc. etc. etc.) and so it is expected for them to change their thinkers from time to time.
about the power of Strike and mobilisation: Vijay Prassad
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qaav5cuvsE
Posted by: Charles Michael | Feb 25 2021 13:40 utc | 94
m @76:
"The same commentators who downplay and excuse this when China does it would be immediately ON FIRE if somebody in the West proposed such a treatment of Muslims."
Speaking for us Americans, you are absolutely correct! Vocational training and gentle deprogramming for people brainwashed to chop the necks of our citizens? Never! We'd just napalm those bastards and their entire families too. Prune that family tree right back to the roots! That is more economical and thus more rational, and it is ultimately more compassionate too as it only hurts for a few minutes and they are never denied their "Freedom©".
Posted by: William Gruff | Feb 25 2021 14:10 utc | 95
@ADKC and old hippie,
I gave up on this forum because of censorship. b's crocodile tears don't absolve his choices to toe the sociopath line on Covid. this is a spiritual war. do you know your neighbors? do you understand your local power structures? or are you wasting precious time preaching to the choir on forums like this?
Posted by: lizard | Feb 25 2021 14:17 utc | 96
@vk "Neoliberalism found in Monetarism the missing piece..."
The way I see it, economics is the base. Like I said, technological advances in global communications and transportation shifted the paradigm. What we have now is international division of labor, controlled by west-owned global finance. Global financial capital is rising above national boundaries; the role of national governments is to provide resources, infrastructure, and disciplined low-cost labor, thus attracting a portion of global capital, competing for it.
That's what I call 'neoliberalism', but I don't insist on it. What's in the name? 'Hyperimperialism', 'super-imperialism', 'inter-imperialism' or even 'state cartel' would do.
It's just that 'neoliberalism' is a popular word these days, that seems to be used to describe the current form of "relations of production". And why not.
Now, about ideologies. My feeling is, there are always hundreds of various ideologies flying around. The establishment will pick a suitable one, shine it up in think-tanks, and go with it. It'll become the dominant ideology. Until it doesn't suffice anymore, and then they'll replace it with another. But that's all bullshit. Pwogwessivism, liberalism, social democracy, the third way, whatever. No need to pay attention.
Posted by: Mao Cheng Ji | Feb 25 2021 14:18 utc | 97
And the US Dept. of Justice, by mercilessly attempting to extradite the innocent Julian Assange to lock him up in solitary confinement for 175 years, is "UNDERMINING MY FAITH" that they 1.] value justice at all, 2.] are willing to abide by the standard Western expectations of the "rule of law." -- like jury trials, habeas corpus, lawyer/client privilege, no politicized indictments, no prejudgment of verdicts, independence of judiciary and executive branch, etc. 3.] understand the crucial necessity of free speech and press to any functioning democratic society, 4.] are genuinely motivated by a desire to see justice done rather than political superiors placated, 5.] reject the imposition of cruel and unusual punishment, especially when no conviction on any criminal charge has been obtained, 6.] insists upon trying persons within the secret FISA system of "terrorist" courts, where the standard rights of the criminal defense are eviscerated to the point of near non-existence. With so much rattling of my "faith in the US Dept. of Justice" it would clearly seem that the only reasonable recourse is to have Twitter ban every account associated with the US Dept. of Justice immediately and permanently banned from Twitter.
Posted by: William David Fusfie | Feb 25 2021 14:36 utc | 98
@ Posted by: Mao Cheng Ji | Feb 25 2021 14:18 utc | 97
Now, about ideologies. My feeling is, there are always hundreds of various ideologies flying around. The establishment will pick a suitable one, shine it up in think-tanks, and go with it. It'll become the dominant ideology. Until it doesn't suffice anymore, and then they'll replace it with another. But that's all bullshit. Pwogwessivism, liberalism, social democracy, the third way, whatever. No need to pay attention.
That's the definition of democracy in the post-war, as defined by the likes of Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. and Hannah Arendt.
Schlesinger defined democracy or Western democracy as the system with a "vital center". A vital center is a political system dominated by a political spectrum (left-right). The ideologies within this political spectrum freely compete against each other in the public arena for political power (getting into the White House; forming a majority within a Parliament). Schlesinger is the father of what we nowadays call "pluralism". In opposition, a totalitarian system is one of a single party, in which he put Nazi Germany and the USSR - they don't have a "vital center".
Hannah Arendt defined totalitarianism as any system that vertebrates itself on one single meta-narrative (History). She put as the totalitarian holotypes both Nazi Germany and the USSR - the first built itself over the narrative of the master race; the second over class struggle. By exclusion, she defines a democratic system as those without a single narrative or any meta-narrative. By a different route, she comes to a similar endgame as Schlesinger, with the exception that, in her model, democracies don't necessarily need to be multi-party or even plural. You could be a single-party system and not plural - as long as the party doesn't adopt any "meta-narrative", it suffices as free and democratic. Needless to say, Arendt is one of the precursors to Postmodernism (absolute relativity).
That's why the West, until the present days, still consider itself as fully democratic and China and Russia fully totalitarian: as long as the West doesn't adopt a meta-narrative and keeps more than one party, they are democratic by post-war standards. It's not and never was about eradicating poverty, turning the world a better place, fomenting progress for the people etc. etc.
Be a Good Citizen
When is government censorship not censorship? When it's enforced by "good citizens".
Can you hear the historical echo of "good Germans"?
De-platforming is the new book burning?
!!
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Feb 25 2021 14:58 utc | 100
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Sputnik has a interview with Kit Klarenberg about these leaked files: UK Foreign Office Docs Reveal 'Full-Spectrum' Psyops to 'Destabilise Russia', Journalist Says
My guess is, there will be no discussion about this files in the western msm.
Posted by: Fran | Feb 24 2021 15:25 utc | 1