Media And Politicians Throw So Much Bullshit At Us That It Is Difficult To See Through It
Western media are feeding us bullshit. It is so strong that even western politicians, like the public, seem to believe in it. The reason is that it is increasingly difficult to detect the bullshit because there is just too much of it.
Gilbert Doctorow takes on the Western disinformation campaign especially with regards to the fall of Bakhmut:
[I]t is these censorious states and the mass media that carry their messages with stenographic precision into print and electronic dissemination who are the ones that day after day feed disinformation to the public. It is cynically composed and consists of a toxic blend of ‘spin,’ by which is meant misleading interpretation of events, and outright lies.The many months long battle for the provincial Donbas city of Bakhmut, or Artyomovsk as it is known in Russia, has been described variously from on high in Washington, London and Berlin. When the likely outcome was unclear, the defense of Bakhmut was called heroic and demonstrative of the brave fighting spirit of the Ukrainians.
Casualty figures issued by Kiev and then trumpeted from Washington suggested that the Russians were stupidly throwing away the lives of their fighting men by using WWI style human waves of attackers who were decimated by the defenders. Russian lives are cheap was the message. The fact that Russian artillery on site outnumbered and outperformed Ukrainian artillery by a factor of five or seven to one was freely admitted by the Western propagandists as they pleaded for increased supplies to Kiev. They, nonetheless, issued casualty reports for the Russians that inverted the force correlation. It was assumed, obviously with reason, that the public was too lazy or too uninterested to do the arithmetic.
I had earlier taken on the nonsensical casualty claims:
The Russian forces fire ten times the number of shells the Ukrainians can fire. In a modern war artillery fire causes 65+% of all casualties. It is thus impossible that Ukraine is losing less soldiers than the Russians.The total ratio may well be 7 to 1 but it will certainly be to the advantage of the Russian forces side.
The reporting on the alleged not-fall of Bakhmut in mainstream media is similar nonsensical:
The New York Times writes:
As Russia Claims Victory in Bakhmut, Ukraine Sees Opportunity Amid Ruins
Russia’s capture of Bakhmut would be a powerful symbolic success for Moscow. It would represent the first Ukrainian city it has seized since Lysychansk last summer, and be a setback for Kyiv, which expended precious ammunition and sent some of its most capable forces to try to thwart Russia’s devastating monthslong assault on the city. Thousands of troops from both sides are believed to have been killed in nearly a year of intense fighting there.
Bakhmut has fallen. Why then is the NYT writing in the subjunctive 'would'? It does not make sense.
The Washington Post does likewise:
As hold on Bakhmut slips, Ukrainian forces push to encircle city
Ukrainian forces have been reduced to small footholds in the devastated eastern city of Bakhmut, which despite its limited strategic importance has emerged as the war’s bloodiest battlefield. But they have made gains on the Russian flanks, in a move to encircle the city and extend the fight there, according to Ukrainian officials and military personnel in the field.
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Ukraine still holds slivers of the city, including the area around what has become a landmark of Ukraine’s last redoubt: a destroyed sculpture of a Soviet MiG fighter jet, according to multiple military personnel involved in defending the position, which Russian forces continue to contest.
No. Ukraine does not hold 'slivers of the city'. Videos published yesterday evidently prove that:
Ukraine Control Map @UAControlMap - 10:50 UTC · May 22, 202346/48 Wagner flag raise in south west Bakhmut near the destroyed MiG statue
Coordinates: 48.57570907, 37.96475216
Map view: Google
'Encircling the city' is likewise a dream.
Source: LiveUAmap - bigger
Source: LiveUAmap - bigger
The scale of the map is on the bottom right. From it we can tell that the Russian forces, under attack, have moved back some 1 or 2 kilometers from the difficult to defend fields towards better suited positions after Ukrainian forces wasted their lives to open a corridor for the troops fleeing from Bakhmut. That attack happened on May 11. On the following day the Russian Defense Ministry said that the Ukrainian side, during the last 24 hours, had lost 1,725 men, 9 tanks and 55 armored combat vehicles. That was so far the biggest reported daily loss in this war. The lines on the flanks of Bakhmut have since been stabilized.
So where please is the 'encirclement'? The maps show no attempt of one.
Yves Smith points out that the disinformation allures have seemingly turned into the believes of those who issues them:
US Geopolitics: Believing Impossible Things
In corporate America, there’s a decent risk that fakery will get caught out by competitors, short sellers, whistleblowers, and just plain careful reading of audited financials.
...
By contrast, in politics, reality avoidance is routinely the key to a long and successful-looking career, witness Eurocrats’ fondness for “kick the can” strategies. And that propensity is particularly dangerous when leadership groups have become both selfish and short-termist. There really was once upon a time some people who went into government service for the service part, and not for the revolving door and networking.
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But now, the well-honed effectiveness of propaganda has encouraged politicians and their media amplifiers/allies to go hog wild with selling Big Lies. And the worst is there are no consequences for the perps.
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The wee problem with the war in Ukraine and the escalating US eye-poking of China is neither is going very well, to the degree that the propaganda started fizzling out very quickly in the Global South and is losing its potency in the West. It’s hard to keep up the pretense of a great inevitable Ukraine victory with Ukraine losing Bakhmut, after Zelensky made it the centerpiece of his Congressional love-fest last December. Oh, but Ukraine is still trying to deny it is lost, as they did for Mariupol and Soledar until well after the fact.
The believe into impossible things is not only with regards to the war in Ukraine but also with the bigger view towards China:
Similarly, US officials may have told themselves that much of the world regarded China with suspicion due to its often-overheated rhetoric and hypersensitivity to slights. But these self-comforting beliefs about China’s position on the world stage got a big wake up call with China brokering a normalization of relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran, and then Syria. Now China is making more trouble by wandering into America’s back yard, as in Europe, and talking up its napkin-doodle Ukraine peace plan.
The extreme hostile G7 communique on China is simply another expression of western delusion:
According to the Financial Times, the G7 has issued its strongest condemnation of China, and most of the other international mainstream media also highlight that it "amps up pressure on China." It seems that the only way for the G7 to catch people's attention and show its sense of presence is to speculate on the issues related to China.As a "rich countries' club" that once accounted for up to 70% of the global economy, the G7 has been facing a serious existential crisis in recent years as its economic weight has been declining, coupled with a decline in global population share and perceived attractiveness.
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The louder the anti-China rhetoric from the G7, the smaller its actual impact will be, as this is a natural law. This is because it would mean that G7 serves the strategic interests of the US rather than the welfare of the international community, making it difficult to receive any "assistance" but more difficult to make progress. It is very likely that in the end, the G7 will find that it has expended a lot of effort, but the result is only spinning its wheels.
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The Hiroshima summit seems to have given the G7 a sense of "shaping history," but this illusion will soon be blown away by the winds of reality, since without internal prosperity and development, external displays of strength are only superficial.
Unfortunately many people in the west believe the bullshit their politicians and media are throwing at them. As Caitlin Johnstone observes:
The problem that underpins most other problems in modern times is that human minds are highly hackable, and that the science of hacking them at mass scale has been advancing since Bernays over a century ago. This is what keeps people consenting to the destructive and exploitative agendas of the powerful against their own interests.
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Many people, maybe even most people, are to some extent aware that our entire civilization is bullshit. Relatively few are able to describe exactly how and why it’s bullshit, though, because there’s so much bullshit it’s hard to get a clear view of how the bullshit is happening.It’s hard to understand how and why our civilization is bullshit exactly because our civilization is bullshit. It’s rife with lies, the teachers feed us lies, the algorithms feed us lies, and we’re trained to look for information in areas that will turn up lies.
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In a civilization that’s made of bullshit, it’s rare to gain solid enough footing and high enough ground to be able to look around and clearly see how all the bullshit is happening. Everything here is geared toward preventing us from gaining that footing. It takes hard, diligent work, and more than a little luck.
Unfortunately her conclusion is right.
Posted by b on May 22, 2023 at 14:25 UTC | Permalink
next page »Very depressing article.
Add hate filled culture wars to piles of bullshit, and the end result is that Russia and China win just by surviving.
They do not need to destroy us. We can do that all by ourselves.
Posted by: Woke American | May 22 2023 14:37 utc | 1
And they think they are going to dominate the planet that way too.
Posted by: Bemildred | May 22 2023 14:44 utc | 2
Some time ago, I came to a conclusion that Western Civilization (read: Europe and US) is founded upon three pillars: racism, extreme violence, and cognitive dissonance.
Posted by: Palm & Needle | May 22 2023 14:49 utc | 3
Not to mention that the F-16, its numerous maintenance crews, hangars, fuel, spare parts, etc..can't even be deployed without a credible defense against Russian hypersonic missiles, which doesn't seem to exist...
Posted by: pyrrhus | May 22 2023 14:50 utc | 4
"human minds are highly hackable." Human minds in this system. By design. The elite do not want a critically thinking public able to see contradictions and see the reality behind the necessary facade. That would threaten their position. From childhood (to a great degree) we are indoctrinated, taught obedience, rote learning, conformity, attention spans gradually reduced, while provided w/ ample distractions, entertainment (TV, later social media etc), etc, which provide 'escape' from the drudge labor, and, together w/ a corporate news media, leads people around by the nose.
Posted by: tricia | May 22 2023 14:55 utc | 5
It’s my impression that the primary purpose of regimist media these days is to communicate the party line to cadre within the gov’t and near to the gov’t.
Posted by: Exile | May 22 2023 14:58 utc | 6
To see the disinformation patterns at work at a high level, try looking at Google News. It's is a continually updated aggregate of all the MSM headlines that are being given away for free.
The fall of Bakhmut story is a case in point.
First off I will note that MoA was 24 hrs ahead of the general news cycle on this topic and also regularly reports events that barely are touched by MSM as viewed in aggregate.
Next, the pattern of MSM coming around was in weird gyrations where Sunday 5/21, the headlines were a choose-your-own-adventure as orthogonal states of existence, all extant at once:
Bakhmut will never fail
Bakhmut scene as Russia turns tail to flee
Bakhmut can't fall
Bakhmut is contested
Bakhmut is fallen
These points of view were all superimposed in the Google News results midday Sunday.
Vladimir Z himself is quoted by MSM at having 3 of three positions at the same time!
Another funny (peculiar) thing is that if you query Google for "united states disinformation targeting russia" you are likely to get White House and State Dept links as top results. The sense of the results are inverted to the query, but just accept them as object instances and the results are true, even as they seem to report the opposite.
https://www.guernicamag.com/tomas-hachard-the-red-ink/
//There’s a Communist joke that the Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek loves to tell about the tricky nature of freedom of speech. A man moves from East Germany to Siberia, where he knows his letters will be censored. He establishes a code with his friends: anything written in blue ink is honest and true; anything written in red ink is false and only there to get the truth past the censors. A month goes by and the man’s friends receive a letter written in blue ink: “Everything is wonderful here. Stores are full of good food. Movie theaters show good films from the West. Apartments are large and luxurious. The only thing you cannot buy is red ink.”//
Posted by: Arrnon | May 22 2023 14:59 utc | 7
Woke American @ 1
Exactly!
The rest of the world need just keep cool and sit down watching the lie-based bully gangster to go bust all by themselves.
Posted by: lulu | May 22 2023 15:10 utc | 8
I was speaking about this very issue to a couple of pals the other day, that is the implausibility of the relative casualty ratios. They get their news from the NYT, BBC, FT etc. They simply would not entertain the idea that those sources might well be wrong, and possibilty deliberately so. Certainly they would never trust anything that comes from the Kremlin, and regard say the US DoD or UK Mod briefings as news, but Russian briefings as lies. Now I am not so naiive as to think the Russians don't lie too - everyone does. However on balance we have found ourselves in a position that if say the Uk Daily Telegraph reports some "news" or analysis about this war, then the truth is probably exactly the opposite. And you can take this for almost any western MSM sources. The Russians are losing the media war, but they are on balance more truthful and objective than most western sources.
Now having a couple of pals who prefer to be misled is one thing, but we have a political ruling class that has the same beliefs. Very dangerous.
Posted by: m | May 22 2023 15:15 utc | 9
Unfortunately, this article describes what I observed: The West is doomed. We are doomed.
Maybe we'll arise from the ashes again some day, but I am 56y and probably will not witness that.
Therefore I decided the learn the language and migrate to Russia - the last hope for white civilization...
Posted by: Klaus | May 22 2023 15:16 utc | 10
Look carefully at the composition of G7. The countries in G7 are either former colonists (Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan) or their conquered, compliant colonies (Canada, USA), which continue colonial policies. Except for USA, none of these have their own mineral resources needed for a modern, flourishing economy. Naturally, they have to prey on the Rest (of the world). However, the old days of military invasion of a defenseless country belonging to the Rest, planting their flag and claiming it for their King/Queen are politically untenable in the modern world. Instead, they have to do it with financial, economic, technological and often cultural means. Dominate the financial world, establish reserve dollar/euro/yen dominancy and technological supremacy, and you don't need to physically invade a country in the Global South. You can bring down the economy and hence the non-compliant government of a country through "sanctions" that are not even approved by the subservient United Nations!
But the days when G7 used to be more than 50% of world's economy and everyone needed dollars to trade are GONE, FOREVER. Now there are alternatives like Chinese Yuan and BRICS have overtaken G7 in economic strength (adjusted for PPP for now). Russia and Brazil have the natural resources, Russia has the technical might, India has the software might and China is the manufacturing giant with financial might. No one needs G7 anymore. Hence the existential struggle of G7 (and NATO) in a proxy war in Ukraine against Russia, to be repeated in China in the near future! If it succeeds, we are back to colonial times. If not, a multipolar world prospers and G7 withers, a well-deserved fate.
Posted by: Kant | May 22 2023 15:16 utc | 11
Thanks for this dark analysis b.
A hegemon knows the game and plays it well. Or it did and now it is over.
Events of the last few days indicate that the World is sick of hegemonic behaviour and it will not let G7 + other obedient idiots, create their own autistic realities anymore.
China told them to shut up, RF speaks to them multiple languages, India and others cue the line.
I think that this gloomy state of stupidity you describe and point out ends very soon.
Posted by: whirlX | May 22 2023 15:17 utc | 12
I have an embargo on BigLie Media to keep my mind unpolluted. It works really well. Soon the major tool used by the Mafiosi for enforcement will be circumvented by RoW. Objective conditions outweighing the BigLies will swamp them as reality changes in a way that can no longer be lied about.
If we're serious about cleaning up the media, MOA Blog might be a good place to start. Otherwise this post sounds like hypocrisy.
It's been a mess here since about Christmas.
People from around the world read this blog.
Ther is nowhere better but it's blighted by some disgusting comments.
Left untouched.
My view is if we are against facism then let's walk the walk please.
In Ukraine, America England and Europe.
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b whats your view on the lack of information regarding the DU cloud ?
You must be concerned. Do you drink milk, drink tap water.
Posted by: Mark2 | May 22 2023 15:20 utc | 14
The ur-bullshit behind all other instances of day-to-day bullshit is money. In the real world, bullshit still has to be paid for just like everything else, but since bullshit is not productive, there is a direct relationship between the amount of bullshit and the economic distortion required to fund it all. Bullshit is paid for by various means of chicanery: by taxes and confiscation, by subsidies, by fraud, by debt, but in modern economies most of all by financial repression.
Once interest rates went negative, it opened up the bullshit spigots to full diarrhea. Negative interests rates effectively give governments and big corporations the motive, means, and opportunity to lie about everything. In fact, negative interest rates are themselves an embodied lie, an inversion of the laws of economic physics which sends shockwaves of nonreality out into the world that eventually have to be absorbed and liquidated by reality. It is impossible to tell the truth with negative interest rates, because they force you to live the lie that spending is saving.
The solvency of the West is a lie, and so therefore is everything else about Western culture. The minute, the very instant that the economic lie is admitted, then all the Wokeness stops. No more Affirmative Action, no more UBI, no more defunding the police, no more welfare, no more transgenderism. The powers that be have no alternative other than to ramp the Wokeness up to 11 eleven because once you start to question any of it, the whole wretched edifice comes crumbling down and with it their mandate and their claim to power.
Every dollar bill is basically a quantum of bullshit, and nothing more. It ought to read, "This note is back by the full lies and nonsense of the US Government." Every dollar transaction sacramentally unites the daily bullshit with the father of bullshit and prays for his kingdom to come. It is a satanic force that must be destroyed, and the rest of the world has seen that.
Posted by: Intelligent Dasein | May 22 2023 15:25 utc | 15
If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit. More and more people are being red pilled thankfully. The BS for years already has been ludicrous. You can get more believable stories if you let a kindergarten class make them up nowadays. Then the trolls make their way here and echo whatever BS the MSM is feeding the sheep. News flash, the majority of us roll our eyes at your attempts, but hey if you want to waste your time go ahead I suppose.
The SMO will continue until all goals are completed. Ukraine and Nato will continue to throw resources at a losing battle trying to save face. The world will continue to turn away from the US and its puppets, creating a new multipolar world. Things are happening at a faster pace than I imagined. Like the saying goes, slow at first then all at once. Been a hell of a show so far.
Posted by: Watzov | May 22 2023 15:31 utc | 16
Kudos for this article! Yes, so much bullshit is thrown at us that it becomes impossible to tell what's what - and the most effective lies are the lies of omission, in the teeth of a hailstorm of rubbish some topics are utterly missing. It's hard to notice something that isn't there.
In George Orwell's 1984, the totalitarian state would periodically rewrite the history books, making everything logical and correct. The old Soviet Union had a similar classical approach to propaganda. But modern western propaganda is more like avant-garde jazz: a whirlwind of noise and conflicting rubbish that drowns out all else. It's like using noise to jam a radar system. One can still find old books that are clearly written, there is no attempt to destroy the past, just bury it beneath a blizzard of garbage so that people don't even know it's there.
Posted by: TG | May 22 2023 15:37 utc | 17
Casualty figures issued by Kiev and then trumpeted from Washington suggested that the Russians were stupidly throwing away the lives of their fighting men by using WWI style human waves of attackers who were decimated by the defenders. Russian lives are cheap was the message.
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wow, the Western propagandist do not bother to update their popaganda terminology against its rivals.
They used and still use the exactly same human waves of attackers to excuse their defeat by Chinese Volunteer Army during Korea War.
Whenever there is a Chinese film about Korea War, which by the way are not that many in the last thirty plus years to avoid to hurt the feeling of the USA, such as the recent "The Battle at Lake Changjin(长津湖战役)", Chines social media would be swarmed with this derogatory terminology "人海战术(human waves of attackers), implying Chinese lives are cheap and Chinese commanders got no ideas about military tactics and strategies.
Posted by: lulu | May 22 2023 15:42 utc | 18
(This is a great site for current, accurate info).
To add some chilling context - and, perhaps, some understanding of the who/why behind much of our purposeful mass info deceit - one need look no further than Yuri Bezmenov's warnings from 40 years ago.
As a former KGB agent (he defected ~1970), Yuri resurfaced in the early 1980s to warn the West - especially the US - that it was rapidly, completely losing the undeclared, non kinetic war that the USSR had launched in the 1950s.
Employing the ancient Sun Tzu dictum "Destroying your enemy without striking a single blow", the Soviets skillfully employed a wide array of (dis/mis)info techniques by which the targeted audience (the western capitalist countries) would lose the collective ability of self defense/self interest.
As the son of a Soviet general, Yuri was a participant in this long running operation.
When Headquarters Moscow fell in 1992, a rapid infusion of technical, financial and industrial resources poured into a then agricultural backwater ... thus creating the CCP-led colossus that is today's China.
Somewhat ironically, the International reviles the traditional Christian Russian nation into which Russia has returned, as it continues its ascendancy in the West.
Well worth the ten/twenty minutes of one's time to watch Yuri's interviews. Viewable online.
Posted by: Joe B | May 22 2023 15:44 utc | 19
Thanks for this rant, b. It's about time someone said this out loud. This situation has been brewing for a long time in Oz; the most obediently docile US-UK lapdog on Earth.
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | May 22 2023 15:55 utc | 20
Btw, some time ago I was listening to a BBC drama about Suez Canal, and noticed the British politicans used the terminology "freedom of navigation" as the pretext to invade Suez Canal to try to take the control away from Egypt.
It reminds me that USA aircraft carriers and military ships now use the exactly same terminology "freedom of navigation" to raise the tension in South China Sea.
The Anglo-Saxon Empires do stick to their tradtions......
Posted by: lulu | May 22 2023 16:04 utc | 21
As Yves Smith goes on to say in the post quoted above, the problem for the US/NATO folks is how they are going to get themselves out of the pickle they are in when the smoke blows away and things become clear to everyone - their lies are exposed. I dont think the Mighty Wurlitzer can keep folks distracted forever (though we should not undrestimate it). John Helmer´s latest post on this subject makes the current MoA post look positively cheerful by comparison. I have read that President Putin learned as a young man that it is wise to leave an exit for a cornered rat because it is likely to take its attacker down with it if it can´t win. Glad I don´t have to make the decisions he may be faces with as this thing winds up over the next several months.
Posted by: c | May 22 2023 16:05 utc | 22
The old media became unprofitable years ago due to the internet. Now they are propped up by donors, which explains their descent into totally fabricated propaganda, much more so than in decades prior. The writers and editors are dependent upon donor largess for their employment, so they will always write what their donors want them to write. Lying puts food on their table.
Posted by: FVK | May 22 2023 16:08 utc | 23
@11 Kant (think)
Your description of the G7's mineral resources is wrong on one count. Canada is NOT a conquered and compliant country and it is actually no. 4 on the list for total global share of mineral resources. Canada is a proud member of the once mighty U.K Commonwealth that still exists in some fashion to this day. It has never been conquered by ANY nation including the US as Britain and France were unofficially two "partners" in the development of the New World North which you still see to this day. Canada is in the enviable position of eventually being able to break away from the Western Coalition once it falls apart spectacularly in the next couple of years. The RoW can actually like Canadians cuz we're so nice and polite lol...
Posted by: safe | May 22 2023 16:09 utc | 24
With all the bullshit in the world it is comforting to have the security of King Charles III and his Royal Sausage Fingers.
Posted by: too scents | May 22 2023 16:14 utc | 25
For a long time I felt insulted by the low level bullshit TPTB attempted to spoonfeed us through MSM. Consuming less and less MSM does help, I think most of the world is now using that option. More and more am thinking they just have no one on staff who can write. No grammar, no rhetoric, no vocabulary, why would they be able to come up with a solid plot? Try to hire anyone under 70 who can write.
Posted by: oldhippie | May 22 2023 16:17 utc | 26
Let's not forget the Institute of Sluts and Whores (ISW). Anal-ysis which is actually regurgitated Uke Pravada 'information' releases.
Posted by: DilNir | May 22 2023 16:17 utc | 27
Many people, maybe even most people, are to some extent aware that our entire civilization is bullshit. Relatively few are able to describe exactly how and why it’s bullshit, though, because there’s so much bullshit it’s hard to get a clear view of how the bullshit is happening.
The problem is not the amount of bullshit, the problem is inability to separate between fantasy and reality, plus extreme bullying from authorities ('covid'). In short it is obedience training in preparation for war.
Posted by: Norwegian | May 22 2023 16:18 utc | 28
If we follow the pattern of past events - Ukraine declared loss of Soledar about a week after the fact. So that would put "Ukraine" - and MSM - announcing the loss of Bakhmut sometime around next Weekend after a "heroic last defense".
Other option is Atlantic Council and whoever handles MSM are still figuring out what to say about Bakhmut, which left the earlier Bakhmut narrative in a limbo.
Posted by: unimperator | May 22 2023 16:28 utc | 29
meh. haven't read her since she went full retard on the trans issue (among others) and it's the typical humanist/materialist "derp our brains are hackable cuz we're scared little monkeys" excuses for the heirarchy of humanity. sorry, but some people are born slaves and want to be slaves. they could easily see through the bullshit - most people reading this page do so on a regular basis - but then they'd have to do shit about it and westerners are too hopelessly addicted to comfort to even try such a thing.
as for the propaganda in question it's on full blast as far as canadian news outlets go. also saw a headline somewhere about "patriots shoot down hypersonic kinzhals! world changing game changer! headless body in topless bar!!!!!!!" i didn't bother seeing what evidence if any they had but it sounds unlikely. at this point the blob will keep the propaganda poop chute wide open until
1. they intervene, WWIII, ?????, nuclear winter, success! or
2. the ukies get stomped out so badly it can't be ignored and the MSM creates some new "urgent matter" to distract the proles. (e.g. "OMG teh debts seeling!!!11!" or the earth trying to kill us with fire for another summer.)
Posted by: the pair | May 22 2023 16:32 utc | 31
Posted by: Joe B | May 22 2023 15:44 utc | 19
I read that after the visitation of the RCMP section watching the Russian ambassador in 1986, and I read it again several years ago while parsing a site about America under attack. It has largely come true, and what we see now is also worse than even 1984, the book which I also read in private school back in the late 70's, beginning of the 80's before returning north.
I also noted just like 24, that Canada got thrown into the non-mineralized countries but up north, more deposits are being found of all sorts of minerals as the glaciers melt. Thanks for the article, b.
Posted by: Arcticman | May 22 2023 16:36 utc | 32
Bottom line is politicians have always lied and big corporations have always spewed bs (in internal and external communications). Problem is a lot of people lack grounding (as Caitlin infers) and look to these wrong sources as leaders. That big journalism is now dominated by corporations and tech has provided tools to let the marketing teams run the show means the new breed of journalists are mostly ass kissers now.
Posted by: Gail Storm | May 22 2023 16:47 utc | 33
TG | May 22 2023 15:37 utc | 17
But modern western propaganda is more like avant-garde jazz: a whirlwind of noise and conflicting rubbish that drowns out all else
Your analogy is offensive. To discern and appreciate the essential qualities of avant-garde jazz requires considerably more empathy and attention than the average pedestrian can muster.
Avant-garde jazz tends to be brutally honest.
Don't mistake chaos for bullshit.
Posted by: john | May 22 2023 17:08 utc | 34
Ron Unz over at the Unz Review has a long data filled article on kickback schemes in the US Presidency going back to Eleanor Roosevelt
Posted by: Exile | May 22 2023 17:08 utc | 35
Posted by: Woke American | May 22 2023 14:37 utc | 1
I don’t find this article depressing at all. Thanks again b. I find it inspirational that the MSM media bullshit and propaganda can be called out in real time, deconstructed, proven false and utterly debunked by non MSM internet based analysts. Spread the word, shout it from the rooftops. Send the link to your family and friends. All that is required for evil to succeed is for good people to do nothing.
Posted by: Lev Davidovich | May 22 2023 17:19 utc | 36
*Up periscope*
It's amazing how badly the MSM covered this. I don't mind cheerleading. But at least report the facts. There was a very clear story going on of Wagner clearing the city, block by block over the course of weeks. And the MSM didn't cover it at all. Even if they want to cover counterpoints, at least cover the points. ISW was miserable also.
If you were following only the MSM, the fall of Bakhmut came out of nowhere. As if Wagner somehow went from 0% to 100% in an evening. But actually there was a relatively steady progress from the east and the north. The west side of the canal. Crossing the canal. The railroad. Crossing the railroad. The metals plant. The garages. The Citadel. The parts of the Citadel. The Children's Hospital. And finally the large buildings near the SW corner (Mig road junction). None of this was covered by the MSM.
If you wanted the story, you needed to follow DPA, Weeb Union, or Military Summary. They showed the clear progress happening over several weeks. And often you could check on their sources (Remy, Rybar) and even see supporting videos with geolocated Russian forces deeper and deeper into the city.
I think you have to be wary of any source (people get carried away with wanting to "break news" and "call the election" before it's over. And with hopium. But the (relatively) pro Russian milbloggers kicked the butts of the MSM and the ISW. I knew we would eventually get to ground truth and one side or the other would be proved right. And it was the milbloggers and not the MSM/ISW/retired flag officers on TV.
Shame, shame.
OK...coffee break is over, back on my head. Gotta get my Pride week memo written for my Langley supervisor. Traffic is a bitch and only congressional spawn can afford to live in Great Falls and send their kids to the second best high school in NOVA (after TJ).
Posted by: Anonymous | May 22 2023 17:21 utc | 37
Posted by: karlof1 | May 22 2023 15:19 utc | 13
“Dialectical materialism, a philosophical approach to reality derived from the writings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. For Marx and Engels, materialism meant that the material world, perceptible to the senses, has objective reality independent of mind, spirit…or bullshit MSM propaganda.”
Thank you for your excellent posts Karlof1.
Posted by: Lev Davidovich | May 22 2023 17:22 utc | 38
"The problem that underpins most other problems in modern times is that human minds are highly hackable, and that the science of hacking them at mass scale has been advancing since Bernays over a century ago. This is what keeps people consenting to the destructive and exploitative agendas of the powerful against their own interests."
That comment @1 by Woke American. I have watched my family and friends all become brainwashed and fully believe in the propaganda of the last decade. They will not read links I send them, will not research themselves. Just Lemmings going with the flow. Lemmings that prefer to go with the flow.
As Patrick Armstrong wrote - "All we have been told is a lie" or "Everything we know is a lie" (I can't remember which) and that goes right back to much of the cold war propaganda.
Human stupidity. Russia killed off the Islamic state in Chechnya. They killed off the Islamic state in Syria. And now they are killing off the Nazi state in Ukraine.
People seem to have no perception they are brainwashed and how dangerous that is. Now on top of that we have US biowarfare and US big pharma with drugs that change the DNA.
Western - US propaganda is targeted at the educational/intelligence level of western populations. As in Blazing Saddles - You know. Morons. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yfThrHJpkQ
Posted by: Peter AU1 | May 22 2023 17:28 utc | 39
On this subject, I can't resist quoting the Jefferson Airplane, The Crown of Creation album, featuring the mushroom cloud of a nuclear explosion on the cover:
You and me we keep walkin' around and we see
All the bullshit around us
You try and keep your mind on what's going down
Can't help but see the rhinoceros around us...
And later in the song:
Everything someday will be gone except silence
Earth will be quiet again
Seas from clouds will wash off the ashes of violence
Left as the memory of men
There will be no survivor my friend...
And finally:
All the idiots have left...
Posted by: Cabe | May 22 2023 17:34 utc | 40
Posted by: unimperator | May 22 2023 16:28 utc | 29
They’ve switched from fighting in Bakhmut, to fighting for Bakhmut.
Wordplay escalation.
Posted by: anon2020 | May 22 2023 17:46 utc | 41
I actually had some admiration for zel when it all started. Most of it went away when I learnt in March/april 2022 the y could've gone back to status quo only if zelansky had showed some spine and now it's all gone since I learnt he avoided Lula so he can continue this slaughter of the bravest among his people and keep being the darling of western elite.
The man is such a disappointment.
Posted by: A.z | May 22 2023 17:57 utc | 42
Posted by: tricia | May 22 2023 14:55 utc | 5
"human minds are highly hackable." Human minds in this system. By design. The elite do not want a critically thinking public able to see contradictions and see the reality behind the necessary facade."
A fair assessment. It appears to me that humans (and other cognizant organisms) possess a survival mechanism tied to pattern recognition and memory buffers, where "information" (normally less deceptive in honest transactions, but ALWAYS subject to mechanisms of deception, internal and external) comes in and remains fresh for a while, unless reinforced or disproven. This feeding the pattern recognition system that is tied directly to survival. As sophisticated anti-ethical studies most likely understood long ago, newer techniques for the oldest strategy of divide and conquer sought absolute dominance of information sources (we used to call this media consolidation, and recognized it for the threat it was, with legal protections regulating this threat) which at this point are well completed, and enhanced by magnitudes through technological means. Ultimately, if not already (and I would say so) "AI" generated manipulations will be all there is on these channels. Recent/contemporary history will be swept clean of unwelcome dirt. There will be only one message permitted at any given time, with no context or countervailing discussion. Which is why the notion below, blows.
Posted by: Mark2 | May 22 2023 15:20 utc | 14
"If we're serious about cleaning up the media, MOA Blog might be a good place to start. Otherwise this post sounds like hypocrisy.
It's been a mess here since about Christmas.
People from around the world read this blog.
Ther is nowhere better but it's blighted by some disgusting comments.
Left untouched."
Ah, modern sensibility demands silence. As if there is not enough yet. One of the strange ploys taken here, much more unusual (to me) than the racist or religious dirt throwing, is the spoofing.
The last time I saw that, was on Media Whores Online, more than 20 years ago. That website was on fire from posters who had it with lying media actors. It was shuttered, with murmurs of career risks for the "anonymous" owner(s). Beings as those folks were clearly kindred to the Democratic power structure, that line of reasoning is just to be expected horseshit. What it was, was a need to reinforce that cudgel and remove critical assessments on a worldwide platform. How important that was is much clearer from here. And someone thinks that censorship is the solution to devious posters.... Perhaps "thinking" is not the true description or motivation. If censorship is the solution, then we dont have any problems.
Posted by: Not Ewe | May 22 2023 17:59 utc | 43
Most people are bovine like in their consumption of news.
And worse a lot individuals I knew as critical savy thinkers and observer's of the world around them have become comatose to event's and just accepting unequivocally the official narrative.
Anyone else noticed similar?
Kid's are way more cynical and questioning .
Posted by: jpc | May 22 2023 18:02 utc | 44
Posted by: jpc | May 22 2023 18:02 utc | 44
Poor old no brain Longhorn. Getting hammered here as ‘bovine’ even in abstentia…too bewildered by Kinzhals taking out Patriots; DU going up in western drifting smoke and Prigozhin declaring the liberation of Artemovsk.
Perhaps he’s come to his senses? Maybe he’s finally realised he’s been fed bullshit? The epiphany and undoubted embarrassment as he realises that it was all Russophobic hubristic nonsense.
Posted by: Lev Davidovich | May 22 2023 18:23 utc | 45
Doctorow's brief article claimed disinformation without actually proving that it was disinformation.
And if you hammer absolutes like "It’s hard to understand how and why our civilization is bullshit exactly because our civilization is bullshit." you rig the debate so that no one can counterargue; they just get branded as disinformation without any proof.
Posted by: Inkan1969 | May 22 2023 18:28 utc | 46
If a city falls and no one sees it or hears it, did it really fall?
The AIs, the news salad, the pronous, all that crap is simply an assault on the very idea of truth. Ultimately on civilization itself. It's some sort of a death wish, perhaps an emergent property of the human kind. The battle of Kurukshetra - ultimately the spiritual vs the material. FWIW, I could never figure out how anyone would bet against Krishna; a teacher explained to me, their dharma.
Eros and Civilization. Perhaps this is the how and the time our death wish manifests.
Posted by: oracle | May 22 2023 18:41 utc | 47
Mass media is the most outstanding hallmark of modern civilization through which an educated person can learn about things around the world that on one's own resources and effort cannot accomplish alone due to individual limitations. That beacon of modernity is dead!!! in the so-called western world.
I grew up in Hong Kong until college age. Since the third grade I was literate enough to comprehend news and informational media articles and started to grow intellectually. In those days, Chinese language news sources associated with Communist China (Xinhua, People'd Daily etc.) or USSR (Pravda, Tass, etc.) were too ideologically hysterical for me to buy their messages, so I mostly followed the Chinese versions of western news sources(Reuters, AP, UPI, etc.). In those days China did have a publication circulated among intellectuals internally within China called (Reference News), but it wasn't available to the general public, not even in China proper let alone in Hong Kong. Today, it's now the other way around! The western media is full of bullshits while the Chinese press has become what I follow to gleam bits and pieces of information to stayed rudimentarily informed.
I believe the western media has buried the west's own future.
Posted by: Oriental Voice | May 22 2023 18:43 utc | 48
So put the blame for rotten activities where it belongs, which is not with (hacked) citizens.
Caitlin:
Finding the truth in our bullshit society is like being in a room that’s rapidly filling up with actual, literal bull feces. It’s splashing around, it gets in your eyes, you’re struggling to keep your head above it so you can breathe — so it’s hard to see where all the bullshit is being piped into the room from. Getting a lucid understanding of what’s going on in the world is very much the same: you suspect you’re being bullshitted, but every source that turns up when you try to learn about stuff assures you that it’s all good and the world works just like you were taught in school. . .here
Posted by: Don Bacon | May 22 2023 18:45 utc | 49
"Our daily news sources, newspapers and TV, are now so craven, so unvigilant on behalf of the American people, so uninformative that only in books do we learn what's really going on."
Kurt Vonnegut from A Man Without a Country 2005
Posted by: Chas | May 22 2023 18:47 utc | 50
[email protected]
In Canada that means that the MSM is actually kept going by the government. Without government subsidy the legaacy media would have a choice between going out of business and earning a reputation for truth telling by telling the truth.
Which the government would call 'disinformation.'
The major role of the media is to relay, to all those in society of the careerist bent, the Party Line. If the Party, of the Ruling Class and Capitalism, says that Up is Down then it is essential that the word be communicated quickly and simultaneously.
Thus, when the Globe and Mail publishes the news that Up is Down, the friends of authority are prepared and positioned to fend off the cynics who will remark that things have reached a pretty pass when it is officially held that the laws of physics have been suspended.
And so they will respond by suggesting that the cynic is showing his ignorance of Philosophy- for everyone understands that Pascal and Kant, to make no mention of Dr Wittengenstein, long ago established that Up is rarely not Down and that Black is always White and that it is a measure of one's ignorance to deny what even the CBC and the State Department understand.
The important thing is not to show that Ukraine is winning the war but that anyone who suggests otherwise, and particularly those who go so far as to welcome Ukraine's defeat, will suffer for expressions of dissent.
Thus it is that every single member of the Canadian House of Commons, every one of the various political parties, including those founded on the same principles as the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics, including who have made careers out of boasting of their socialist principles and their opposition to privatisation, industrial agriculture, oligarchical monopolies, Nazi ideas and Death squads, will leap to his/her feet in applause of Zelensky the fuhrer of the moment. Not because they are deceived but because the salary is great.
If it were not for the MSM society would be composed oof people thinking for themselves, often foolishly, always tending to be guided by the wealthy/powerful and the established but unable, as they are now assisted in doing by the media, to explain, at a moment's notice, the inexplicable and to rationalise that which is clearly false.
Posted by: bevin | May 22 2023 18:51 utc | 51
unimperator | May 22 2023 16:28 utc | 29
*** Other option is Atlantic Council and whoever handles MSM are still figuring out what to say about Bakhmut, which left the earlier Bakhmut narrative in a limbo.***
This last couple of days, newspapers in the UK prioritise such VERY URGENTLY IMPORTANT things as some pimped up nobody of a daytime tv presenter gets dumped ... a new search for a child missing abroad for sixteen years (usually regurgitated when those who rule need a distraction), and the Home Secretary getting a speeding ticket (only a little over the limit, so hardly a big deal -- except in parliament and the mass-media, where it becomes a truly massive event). All that remains is for Gary Glitter to be arrested again.
As for Russian victory in Bakhmut .... oh! .... what victory?
Posted by: Cynic | May 22 2023 18:58 utc | 52
" Unfortunately, this article describes what I observed: The West is doomed. We are doomed.
Maybe we'll arise from the ashes again some day, but I am 56y and probably will not witness that.
Therefore I decided the learn the language and migrate to Russia - the last hope for white civilization...
Posted by: Klaus | May 22 2023 15:16 utc | 10 "
What mistakes, did the West make, that Russia should avoid to preserve its status as the last hope for White civilization ?
Posted by: Deplorable Commisar | May 22 2023 19:00 utc | 53
HELP!!! I'M STUCK IN A $32 TRILLION LIE MACHINE!!!
Posted by: Dulles_Did_Dallas | May 22 2023 19:02 utc | 54
The thing that has constantly pissed me off about the reaction here in the US to the Ukraine situation is the entire LACK of skepticism and proportionality about the MSM/official version of events, when it was just 20 years ago when there was a BLATANT, UNDENIABLE (at least to non-ideologues) example of the US concocting numerous lies and going to the other side of the world to attack a country that hadn’t threatened us. Why can’t more of my fellow citizens say to themselves “Hmmm.. they kind of lied about that Iraq War thing, maybe THIS time I’ll be a little more cautious about believing them…”
Posted by: Eddie S | May 22 2023 19:12 utc | 55
How about assuming everything we read from Western mainstream voices is bullshit and assume the opposite is true?
Not so hard then…
Posted by: paulmeli | May 22 2023 19:28 utc | 56
Along with messaging comes the labeling of people. "The necons hoodwinked us. . ."
Wait a minute. Here's the Dem White House babbling on regarding "national security" as if the US has enemies on the doorstep.
...from the White House, Mar 24, 2023
FIVE-ALARM FIRE: The House Freedom Caucus’ Extreme Budget Proposal Weakens Our National Security
The extreme MAGA Republican House Freedom Caucus proposal will be a five-alarm fire for families—including by weakening our national security with drastic cuts. Their proposals will:
>Undermine Military Readiness
>Damage Efforts to Deter China
>Set Back the Navy and the Air Force
>Weaken Our Economic Competitiveness with China . .here
Posted by: Don Bacon | May 22 2023 19:32 utc | 57
Hmmm.. they kind of lied about that Iraq War thing, maybe THIS time I’ll be a little more cautious about believing them…”
Posted by: Eddie S | May 22 2023 19:12 utc | 55
Why indeed?
It's the obvious question.
And you can ask it about Libya Syria and Iraq twice.
I take it you are referring to Afghanistan.
Posted by: jpc | May 22 2023 19:55 utc | 58
Posted by: Eddie S | May 22 2023 19:12 utc | 55
That should be Afghanistan as well.
Posted by: jpc | May 22 2023 19:57 utc | 59
There's an article at Counterpunch today which gives a perfect example of how the media works.
This author's article on drone warfare: Tara Sonenshine.
As soon as I read it, my 1st thought (Oh my prophetic soul!) was, I'd bet anything that she was some State Dept apparatchik in the Obama administration. oh she's that and a whole lot more.
So now CP posts an article in which the drone warfare program of the Obama admin is not worth mentioning. The millions killed throughout the MENA region and beyond and the precedent set.
not
worth
noticing.
Posted by: rjb1.5 | May 22 2023 20:02 utc | 60
Re: oldhippie, post # 26
You, oldhippie, can certainly write. I’ve been reading MOA since the SMO began, when I started flailing about in a panic for some reality in the rising sea of MSM misinformation; I found a few blogs and this site. On it I most appreciate b’s analyses and the contributions of you and a handful of other posters, which I’m happy to fish for amid a lot of much less interesting commentary and often abundant trollery. Laugh if you like but my opinion of you is so high that I actually harbour the (maybe lunatic) hope/suspicion that you are in fact a now-retired literary eminence, indeed one of the greats of American letters, whom I won’t name but you might guess. If I’m way off, please accept the compliment.
Posted by: To no Chujo | May 22 2023 20:15 utc | 61
@paulmeli, #56:
How about assuming everything we read from Western mainstream voices is bullshit and assume the opposite is true?
Ain't that simple. Much of media's heinous sin is what they don't report.
Take an example. We are all aware of the corruption and bullshit in the Big Pharma and healthcare systems. The media don't report them. How the hell do we the people gather the necessary info to reform and correct the problems in these systems? Healthcare accounts for 17% of current US GDP, and US ranks at thebottom among developed nations on life expectancy and wellbeing scales. That 17% is growing too. Healthcare has always been expensive here, but used to be even though 20% (15% company paid health insurance benefits plus Medicare company/employee contributions) of my labor compensations was dished out to the healthcare industry before I retired, at least I and my family got some decent and responsive ervices (preventive medicine practices and drug policies). Not any more! In retirement our Medicare Plan B cost is $570 each for me and my wife, plus Plan C (advantage plan) and D. And it takes us at least half an hour each time on that stupid phone to talk to a non-robo when we need to contact our healthcare provider staff. And it is also obvious much of the services that providers do recommend as "needed" is dubious, more in line with the providers finding excuses for claiming expenses at insurance companies. We have lost faith in our providers. The media never discuss this very critical social issue. There is no grassroot awareness of how this part of our life is broken. We now live in healthcare bullshit, and sliding further down the slippery slope each passing date.
The same is true with politics, with local taxation and services provided, with police brutality and personal security. One can foresee that each proposed budget items in Fed or local governments are for greasing the hands of politicians and cronies, without ever any accountabilities whatsoever, but our media never report them, and the grassroot just live on in polyanna, happy ever after!
Posted by: Oriental Voice | May 22 2023 20:24 utc | 62
I got to know someone quite well who spent 35 years working in the Dept of Regulatory Affairs at US Housing and Urban Development, in D.C.
"workin' the regs," she called it. she was fully convinced that she was helping people, that HUD helps people find housing. Kafkaesque: refining the majesty of US housing law, per the whims of congress and its committees, the executive and the caprice of one's boss but more so the constant turnover at the office of Director of HUD. and SCOTUS gets in on the act.
anyway, within the confines a bureaucratized American bourgeois lifestyle, the system works for people like this. Because they have money, their speech works, they perform "speech acts", they do things. they have retirement packages, buy a Prius, go to Europe for vacay on occasion. and they never fart out of turn, cuz the boss and everyone else is spying on them, to ensure no one ever does or says or even thinks something dissonant from Big Bro's purpose and mission statement. Ask them, "if the US is defending against Chinese aggression, how come we've killed so many Koreans?" they wouldn't know what you mean. do "North" Koreans count? does the millions of dead Russians under Clinton "shock and awe," the US doing to Russia what it was doing in Iraq et al, do they count?
they don't even exist. "i can connect nothing with nothing." it's a multiverse of madness where there is no causality, all there is is some bullshit called "identity," cuz tribal affinity is what matters. "look at me! i'm an overworked Disney furry who claims to feel empowered by the vapid narcissism of Halle Balle's oh so transressive 'little mermaid,' b/c if i don't do this, Disney will fire me. and i'll lose my insulin."
btw, it can't be "all lies, all the time." when katrina is about to crash into New Orleans, they can't lie about that kind of stuff.
Posted by: rjb1.5 | May 22 2023 20:30 utc | 63
A nation without an honest media with conscience and people's welfare in mind is a nation doomed to the fate of a failed state. The one I am living in is looking that way. Based on what I've seen and heard, the group of nations across the Atlantic from us look that way too.
Posted by: Oriental Voice | May 22 2023 20:32 utc | 65
Thought For The Day: You don't need a conspiracy to generate conspiracy-like behavior.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stigmergy
Whether termites or humans, you can get unified coordinated actions without an actual secret chain of command. Services of the Illuminati not required. So, Russia is bad, China is bad, Trans is good, Big Pharma is good, Ukraine is winning, Dollar hegemony is here to stay and so on. Relax and just go with the flow. Kinda like the shameless old man in "Catch 22" who cheered for fascists and Allies alike.
Posted by: Eighthman | May 22 2023 20:32 utc | 66
The problem with Caitlin Johnstone is that she is so bitter with "western" propaganda, because she used to swallow huge quantities of what now she calls "bullshit". She was (and still is) imbued of liberal propaganda, but, when liberal propaganda became ridiculously obvious and untenable, instead of admitting her own shortcomings (nothing wrong with that) and learn something, she tried to cope with her credulity by denouncing everything as "bullshit" and, as such, equally wrong to her own previous beliefs if not worse. However for every piece of propaganda she denounces, she falls for some other piece of propaganda: she is totally sold to the neoliberal ideology of inclusivity, diversity and so called human rights, and she can't get through it. I mean, up until 2017 (look for it on the Wayback Machine), the banner of her Twitter profile was a photograph of the infamous tank man from Tiananmen square! That is a clear mark of the fake left, that abandoned the class struggle and the fight againts capitalism to embrace affirmative action and human rights: a mark of the rotten liberalism that destroyed the left in the USA, then in the Anglosphere and now it is trying to destroy the left in all Europe. In a sentence she is part of the problem until she sees through her own falsehood.
That said, our civilization is not built on "bullshit", nor it is "bullshit". Such nihilism is only going to favour the elite: without the hope of a return to a glorious past, the dream of conservatives, and without the hope of carry on the progress of the current civilization, the dream of socialists, there is no true alternative to the present, that is, no true alternative to the globalist vision. If this were the Middle-Earth, Caitlin Johnstone would be a follower of Denethor: the enemy made her believe there is no alternative.
Posted by: SG | May 22 2023 20:37 utc | 67
Posted by: Eighthman | May 22 2023 20:32 utc | 66
how do people get 'the French disease'?
Posted by: rjb1.5 | May 22 2023 20:38 utc | 68
Posted by: Not Ewe | May 22 2023 17:59 utc | 43
thanks for the reminder about MWO, that was a great site
Posted by: pretzelattack | May 22 2023 20:45 utc | 69
Caitlin Johnstone is indispensable. She uniquely and consistently goes to the core of the problem: the relentless, ubiquitous manipulation of the public through mass media. And her observation that the human mind is eminently hackable--including yours and mine--cannot be repeated often enough. "It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so." Indeed.
Posted by: Rodrigo | May 22 2023 20:49 utc | 70
rjb1.5 | May 22 2023 20:38 utc | 68
*** how do people get 'the French disease'? ***
Rigged elections?
Posted by: Cynic | May 22 2023 20:54 utc | 71
Additional to 37,
I find the claims of Ukraine still occupying part of Bakhmut bizarre. WHAT PART!? I mean there's no issue of secrecy if there's actual full scale occupation and conflict ongoing. What building or trench line? (I'm not counting some wounded guy or hider in a basement.) But if there's an actual corner of the city Urkaine holds, where is it? It sure isn't at the Mig road junction, since the Russians hold all the structures there. We have videos of them hoisting flags and walking around. They would not be doing that if there was still active Ukraine defenders right there.
And the ISW map is silly. They give the Russians all the structures and just have a micron (maybe a few yards) of the street crossing itself as not occupied. But how the heck can the Ukrainians be holding there without any buildings or trench lines. It's silly.
Add onto that, that there's a huge amount of what looks like deliberate muddling of "near Bakhmut" with in Bakhmut. Sometimes with deceptive headlines.
https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2023/05/22/exp-bakhmut-fight-embed-pkg-05222301p-seg1-cnn-world.cnn
Bottom line MSM got caught with their pants down. Never reported the progressive block by block clearing of the last few months. And even right up until the town fell the only reporting was about GAINS by the Ukranians (the whole flanks thing, also conflated with in Bakhmut, at times.) Not even a reporting of both points (Wagner gaining in the city and UFA on the flanks...but ONLY reporting the flanks and ignoring the gains...right up until the whole city fell...zero warning.
Shame, shame, shame.
Posted by: Anonymous | May 22 2023 20:56 utc | 72
insanity in nature exists
nevertheless it cannot
endure. that is an immutable
law of nature. nature always wins.
nature doesn’t care about human
reality.
Posted by: Dingo | May 22 2023 21:00 utc | 73
Additional to 37:
What's even scarier is the possibility that it's not just our idiot MSM/audience, but that the administration is not even getting good intel. See for example:
https://www.nysun.com/article/missed-signals-on-bakhmut-symptomatic-of-bidens-broader-foreign-policy-failures (paywalled, but free with a signup, use a disposable email).
I'm NOT saying our administration is this pathetic. But I'm not anguine they aren't. I can see us spending millions on all those people making those hyper detailed huge deck PPT slide daily briefings. But not bothering to follow Remy and Rybar or DPA or the like. And I'm not saying to follow them uncritically. But at least take a look! Knowledge is power.
Posted by: Anonymous | May 22 2023 21:08 utc | 74
Posted by: Cynic | May 22 2023 20:54 utc | 71
stigm-ergy
the effecting of stigmas.
aka, slander. deceit. projection. etc.
maybe people get it thru the eye? aka, invidia?
the constant stimulus of envy, greed, suspicion, and the like while also creating a false, incoherent portrait of reality, serves to arouse the death drive. "the psychologists have shown the way." as A Christie says in 'the pale horse.'
the primal slander is Hamlet's: Frailty, thy name is woman.
half the species is under constant suspicion.
Posted by: rjb1.5 | May 22 2023 21:16 utc | 75
Posted by: Joe B | May 22 2023 15:44 utc | 19
This is exactly what Johnstone meant by easily hackable human minds. Bezmenov served the conservative audience of the US with the type of horsecrap they had been inocculated to accept uncritically and it all went in their heads, hook, line and sinker. The standard scenario of subversive orientals who undermine the superior western civilization.
One cannot miss, of course, the similarity with the concept of "Kulturbolschewismus" that the Nazis had expounded and which was latter rebranded as "Cultural Marxism".
What is totally missed by the luminaries who swallowed (and continue to do so) such narrativs is that these deleterious, corrosive "anti-Western" values supposedly promoted by agents of communism were deemed harmful to the advance of communist ideals (unless one speaks of opposition to colonialism and racism, prominent western values to this day). It is inconceivable that communist agitators would promote social mores that they considered liberal chainholds hindering their cause.
But just as the westerners, especially the US Americans believed in a "Yellow Peril", even as the Chinese nation was in an abysmal state (and no commies involved in this), so did they believe in a massive Bolshie plot that would uproot the foundations of their lofty civilization. That is the damage anti-communist propaganda did in their heads (and no, the issue was never the crimes and failures of communism, but population management).
And this is also why Bezmenov, who did a splendid job in establishing a comfortable life for himself by serving the muppets the crap they wanted to hear, was brought out in recent years to repeat that the Russian Federation continues the same commie practices, only now to promote conservative values to undermine the ultra-prog west. Precisely what the liberal bipeds love to hear, like ther conservative so-called counterparts.
Posted by: Constantine | May 22 2023 21:18 utc | 76
after hundreds of years
trying to achieve a one world
government. anger, hate,resentment ,lies
has manifested itself through the full
spectrum of media. the one avenue
still in malevolent control. to funnel
human perception.
Posted by: Dingo | May 22 2023 21:31 utc | 77
Lev Davidovich | May 22 2023 17:22 utc | 38--
Thanks for your reply. Of course, dialectical reasoning is very old, well before Marx et al. But those who never take an intro to philosophy course will likely never learn how to use and apply it. Same goes with the teaching of rhetoric and debate. All that and more is taught in Chinese and Russian schools as basic curricula whereas its very rare in Neoliberal land.
I can't recall who or on what thread but it was said that Putin had yet to disown Liberalism which is very incorrect. In his 2019 interview with the Financial Times, he said Liberalism was essentially dead--"obsolete"--as it had outlived its usefulness, which shocked the hell out of his interlocutors. There's also a video of the interview, which remains one of the best windows into Putin's thought on a number of topics. Real News!
Anonymous | May 22 2023 17:21 utc | 37
It's amazing how badly the MSM covered this…… ISW was miserable also.
You do realise ISW Institute for the Study of War is Victoria Nuland and family?? Her husband, sister and brother-in-law?
You do know that, right? Why would Victoria Nuland’s family “think tank” provide “reliable” news about the war Bickie Vicki started?
Posted by: Melaleuca | May 22 2023 21:50 utc | 79
Salaam to all at this bar.Most know of the ten commandments.However, there is an eleventh- which is most relevant in this here digital epoc - "Accuse the other side,of that,of which you are guilty",thanks Dr Goebbles.The MSM,has just confiscated it and keep packaging it and the vast majority buy and consume the b/s.However,b/s like everything else,wont last forever,and wtshtf,oh boy it ain't gonna be sweet or pretty!
Posted by: qassem | May 22 2023 21:58 utc | 80
Lies are served to push western nations over certain threshold – then a cold and hard truth will be told – there's no choice, not really. You've chosen war, you did it already a year ago or so. That there was somebody hiding the truth and lying about everything does not matter anymore. New reality cancels the old one.
These lies are meaningful. They have a sinister purpose.
Posted by: js | May 22 2023 22:09 utc | 81
You want to know why civilization is bullshit?
Because humans are bullshit.
Solved that for you.
You can't fix human civilization or human society without fixing human nature. And you can't do that with the products of human society: religion, social pressure, education (of the sort currently imposed), or so-called "morality" (more bullshit.) And certainly not the coercion of the state.
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | May 22 2023 22:14 utc | 82
Lots of philosophy today, but little analysis. What’s next in Ukraine?
Posted by: Douglas | May 22 2023 22:16 utc | 83
Crooke's SCF article today, "The EU is over-invested in the Ukrainian war-project", will fit into either current thread. The first several paragraphs belong here and riff on his al-Mayadeen column I excerpted and linked to last Saturday:
The European Union, by any standards, is over-invested in the Ukrainian war-project — and in its romance with Zelensky too. Just earlier this year, the western (and EU) narrative was that the coming post-Winter offensive by Ukraine would ‘break’ Russia and render a ‘coup de grace’ to the war. MSM headlines spun a regular tale of Russia on its last legs. Now, however, the Establishment messaging has done a 180°. Russia is not ‘on its last legs’ …Two very Establishment Anglo-American media in the UK (in which US Establishment messages often surface) finally — and bitterly — have admitted: ‘Sanctions on Russia failed’. The Telegraph laments: They “are a joke”; “Russia was meant to have collapsed by now”.
Belatedly too, the realisation also is dawning across Europe that Ukraine’s offensives will not prove decisive, as had been expected only weeks earlier.
All the propaganda and BigLies on Ukraine and Russia cover up lots of reality providing a very unwelcome result:
"Put simply, European leaders have dug themselves into a deep hole. European states, by emptying what remained in their armouries of old weapons for Kiev, had grimly hoped that the coming Spring/Summer offensive would settle everything, and they would not have to deal with the problem — the Ukraine war — anymore. Wrong again: They are being invited to ‘dig-in deeper’." [My Emphasis]
I'd say demanded, not "invited". Again, Eurofascism and Nazism only know one direction--all in to the death, in this case, of Russians or Slavs if we widen the scope of NATO's Plan Ost. Crooke doesn't say so overtly, but the genuine interests of Europe and the Outlaw US Empire sharply diverge over Ukraine:
"European leaders do not appear to see that the next few months in Ukraine are a key inflection point; Should the EU not firmly refuse ‘mission creep’ now, a slew of adverse economic consequences will ensue. Ukraine is not a stand-alone foreign policy issue, but rather the pivot around which Europe’s economic prospects will rotate." [My Emphasis]
Zelensky is clearly the Neocon's mouthpiece as what he says are their words, and what he wants are their goals:
"Zelensky’s F-16 blitz through Europe last week is indicative that, whilst some European leaders want Zelensky to end the war,he – conversely – wants (literally) to take the war to Russia (and likely all of Europe)." [My Emphasis]
That's the sort of news that's not being reported, although we here are generally informed of the score. What the Neocons want is for Europe to completely ruin what remains of its economies by forgetting about producing things people need and instead produce what's required for Total War. And here is where we reach the crossover point between the two threads as the BigLies are beaten down by Big Reality:
"Having thrown in their lot with the Biden Administration, an unreflective EU leadership eagerly embraced financial war on Russia. It unreflectively embraced too, a NATO war on Russia. Now European leaders may find themselves pressed to embrace a supply-line race to match ‘logistics’ with Russia. That is, Brussels is being urged to re-commit to ‘winning the war’, rather than ‘ending it’ (as a number of states want)." [My Emphasis]
The emphasis helps show the two different camps: NATO/EU/Outlaw US Empire versus national leaders of individual European nations--they are not one and the same. PLUS, what the Outlaw US Empire/NATO are demanding cannot really be accomplished now that Europe's been cutoff from its abundant and inexpensive source of energy needed to run an All War economy. Again, should have built all the factories required before blowing up the pipelines and cutting Europe's other energy wrists. Ah... But The BigLie that Sanctions from Hell would bury Russia's economy was swallowed so deeply it's emerged from Europe's rectum. The leader attached to the bait hook needs to be wound around some necks starting with BigLie Media Talking Heads.
The article continues on dealing with the impossibility of success for policy built on lies and utterly inept judgements, like Russia's industrial capacity. And the same crap analysis is being made for the Big Picture too. At its end, Crooke asks the Big Question:
Is there a way out from the ‘hole’ the EU has dug for itself?Yes — it is called ‘honesty’. [My Emphasis]
Honesty means the demise of BigLie Media and all its players, even its institutions like BBC, AP, Reuters, etc. IMO, Europe isn't ready for such Honesty (although its people mostly are) and will continue digging its hole. Honesty for Europe means admitting many nasty truths that are currently falsehoods and eliminating the EU Colonial Structure and its enforcer NATO. Yes, that would constitute a political Sea Change and one long required.
Also in east germany was a monthly little paper for leading figures of the SED, the ruling party. „Wer Wie Was“ was a guideline for rhetoric about actual topics. The party line handed over for discussions with unconvinced people. They presented ways how to talk till the pictures and comparisons to use. This is now organized much more streamlined. Back than and today again i am thinking often of words by Stanislaw Lem (hence the name - Lem from Lemberg now Lvov), a polish science fiction author. Coming from the east, his writing was not about future technology, it was about future sociology. In one of his books he calls anything coming from official side negative information. This doesnt mean its bad all the time, only anything they announce is wrong and you can use it to identify the possibilities that are not true. From all that could have happen this what the goverments announce is not the reality.
I was musing the whole day about the rhetoric of our days. My conclusion is whatever they say, the just want to save the moment. And tomorrow is tomorrow and an another day with a new phantasy. Never admit any failure. Find a different excuse when the old doesnt reflect reality enough anymore. Never remind of what you said before. They jump around in their thoughts and actually destroy the ability of their followers to think straightforward. This is not a bug, its a feature. The judgment day is soon and is called democratic election. Nobody need anything to know beyond this date.
All of this is the tragedy of our time. I agree with one of the flies today who wrote that Russia and China (and RoW) only have to survive till he West will destruct themself with this. It is a shame and have to disappear soon. World cant afford this anymore.
Posted by: rico rose | May 22 2023 22:38 utc | 85
Richard Steven Hack | May 22 2023 22:14 utc | 82--
You can't fix human civilization or human society without fixing human nature.
Human nature is governed by culture, and for most human societies it became dysfunctional with the abrupt change to settled agriculture and its associated accumulation. IMO, a great effort is now underway to alter human culture that's headed by China and Russia. I've articulated some of the major points as they relate to political-economy and the "new" (which is actually old) philosophy and culture pathways associated to it. It already has several billion adherents globally. One great advantage is we know how the current dysfunctional culture arose, was modified and perpetuated, which means we know how it can be undone.
Caitlin Johnson is right on:
It’s hard to understand how and why our civilization is bullshit exactly because our civilization is bullshit. It’s rife with lies, the teachers feed us lies, the algorithms feed us lies, and we’re trained to look for information in areas that will turn up lies.
...
In a civilization that’s made of bullshit, it’s rare to gain solid enough footing and high enough ground to be able to look around and clearly see how all the bullshit is happening. Everything here is geared toward preventing us from gaining that footing. It takes hard, diligent work, and more than a little luck.
The collusion between 'reporters', media and big banking cartels feeds a constant stream of bullshit to direct depositors into their trap.
Pam Martens and Russ Martens do that hard work and diligent analysis at Wall Street On Parade and have just refined their analysis of the institutionalised lying that sits at the heart of corrupted USA capitalism.
Pretty much everything the average American has read about the banking crisis is wrong. And there is at least a prima facie case that could be made that Big Media is responsible for that misinformation.Let’s start with the dozens of mainstream media reports that small banks were bleeding deposits and these deposits were flooding into the biggest banks in the U.S. as a safe haven. Those reports gave the distinct impression that the mega banks on Wall Street are viewed by Americans as a safe place to stash money, never mind that they blew up the U.S. financial system in 2008 and still have more than $200 trillion in derivatives lurking in the shadows.
According to FRED data compiled by the St. Louis Fed (see chart above), bank deposits at the 25 largest U.S.-chartered commercial banks peaked at $11.556 trillion on April 13, 2022, then went into a persistent downtrend that erased $457 billion of deposits by December 12, 2022. Meanwhile, the more than 4,000 small U.S. banks, on the other hand, produced a $25 billion gain in deposits in the same time span.
And to top it off there is the final 'bailout' heist by JP Morgan:
The only feedback loop we’re seeing is the echo chamber of the mainstream business press.What is not in dispute about JPMorgan Chase’s grab of First Republic Bank is the following: JPMorgan Chase was first called First Republic’s “rescuer” by the media. Then JPMorgan Chase became First Republic’s “advisor” to find strategic options for its survival. Then JPMorgan Chase put at least 800 of its employees to work on doing due diligence in order to buy First Republic for itself and get a sweetheart deal from the FDIC. The sweetheart terms of the deal include the FDIC eating 80 percent of any losses on single-family residential mortgages for 7 years and 80 percent of any losses on commercial loans, including commercial real estate, for five years. The FDIC also, bizarrely, handed JPMorgan Chase a $50 billion, five-year fixed-rate loan at an undisclosed interest rate.
All of this raises the question, who got the bailout: uninsured depositors at First Republic Bank or JPMorgan Chase?
Posted by: uncle tungsten | May 22 2023 23:44 utc | 87
Norwegian #16:18 utc | 28
The problem is not the amount of bullshit, the problem is inability to separate between fantasy and reality, plus extreme bullying from authorities ('covid').In short it is obedience training in preparation for war.
Indeed it is for war plus for pillage to the benefit of some bank or hoarder equivalent.
That is not a permit for the despair as RSH offers in # 22:14 utc | 82
Because humans are bullshit...You can't fix human civilization or human society without fixing human nature. And you can't do that with the products of human society: religion, social pressure, education (of the sort currently imposed), or so-called "morality" (more bullshit.) And certainly not the coercion of the state.
Obedience training clearly works in many societies and cannot be countered by the above RSH formula of promoting despair and resignation to societies and the state's institutions of the obedience training.
I say you can build human civilization and human society by developing inquiring minds and inform human nature so that wise choices are made when presented with conflicting goals and objectives.
Sages throughout history have advocated and implemented training and practice regimes to assist humanity navigate to betterment. Whole societies and cultures developed myth and music and theatre to convey the messages of mind development and establish extremely effective bullshit detectors and peaceful responses.
The neoliberal mongers would have us be in a state of isolation, despair, compliance - to be anti social - as it suits their monopolising agenda.
Solidarity between us in daily practice of society building is precisely the antidote. Work on it. For thousands of years the Aboriginal people of Australia worked to perpetuate that form. They are not alone and the world has many instances where human natures that feed peaceful relations and mutual benefit are celebrated and promoted in myth, culture and music.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | May 23 2023 0:14 utc | 88
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | May 22 2023 22:14 utc | 82
Morality is bullshit. Morality is a personal Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | May 22 2023 22:14 utc | 82
Morality is bullshit. Morality is a personal choice that requires a commitment to an ethical lifestyle.
It isn't easy in our society, but with effort it is achievable. Perhaps you aren't trying hard enough.
I generally like your input, but you really missed the mark here. that requires a commitment to an ethical lifestyle.
It isn't easy in our society, but with effort it is achievable. Perhaps you aren't trying hard enough.
I generally like your input, but you really missed the mark here.
Posted by: David F | May 23 2023 0:24 utc | 89
Thank you "b" and all cited authors.
Thought provoking realist post.
Posted by: Don Firineach | May 23 2023 0:26 utc | 90
Posted by: uncle tungsten | May 22 2023 23:44 utc | 88
Saw that over at WSoP a little while ago. It's open corruption and collusion between media or media holdings companies that probably share board members and majority shareholders with the banks they are reporting on. As WSoP has amply documented, Jamie Dimon and Chase are literal criminals who will never see the inside of a courtroom, much less a jail cell. Talk about demoralizing; what are we supposed to do about it? OWS did absolutely nothing except allow the surveillance and police state to get new powers.
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 23 2023 0:56 utc | 91
"...how do people get 'the French disease'?" [email protected]
Unprotected sexual contact with an infected person.
Posted by: bevin | May 23 2023 1:02 utc | 92
@tricia | May 22 2023 14:55 utc | 5
And more than all those you mentioned, the induced psychosis of religion and belief in god thingies. It is not a coincidence that big government and big deities co-evolved and remain connected.
Posted by: Hermit | May 23 2023 1:15 utc | 93
I don't know about French disease but Polish disease could be fatal:
❗️Chairman of the Russian State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin: Poland must pay to our country more than $750 billion as a compensation for its post-war restoration and developmentPoland has betrayed its historical memory.
It has forgotten that its liberation from the Nazi invaders came at a high price, paid by the Soviet people.
A third of the current Polish territory – regions with well-developed infrastructure, industrial facilities, and rich natural resources – became part of Poland after WWII solely through the effort of our country.
In the post-war years, the Soviet people, who sacrificed their own needs, spent on the restoration and development of Poland about $750 billion in current prices (we built more than 800 industrial, energy, and transport objects).Poland exists as a state only thanks to our country.
The Poles behave in a mean and dishonorable way:
1. They demolish memorials to the Soviet soldier and liberator.
2. They close down Russian schools.
3. They steal Russian assets.
They act in an abusive and ugly manner.Having abandoned the common history and desecrated the memory of our soldiers and officers, Poland must return the territories acquired as a result of World War II and reimburse our country for the funds spent on it during the war and in the postwar years.
In addition, it would be right to forbid Poland to cash in on Russia today, so we should stop the passage of Polish trucks through the territory of our country.
Let the goods be loaded onto Russian trucks.
It is Russian citizens who will profit from the transportation.In this case Poland’s expenses could be as high 8.5 billion euros. According to experts, about 2,000 Polish transport companies, which employ more than 20,000 drivers, will suffer or go bankrupt as a result of these actions.
The issue will be considered at the Duma Council on Monday.
Text
Well said Comrade Volodin. The Polish nationalists are piling bullshit on top of more bullshit as the years pass. No wonder the USA military are at home there. Expect evil from that quarter if the populace cannot cage the nationalist beast and get a grip on its history and cultural relationships.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | May 23 2023 1:33 utc | 94
French disease can be cured by antibiotics; in extreme cases, by the guillotine. As for Polish disease, well, there’s no cure for delusional psychosis.
Posted by: malenkov | May 23 2023 1:40 utc | 95
@SG | May 22 2023 20:37 utc | 67
If the vicious intolerance you describe is a "civilization", which I doubt, because it maps perfectly with propaganda introduced to divide society,* then it has produced non-sustainability and extreme inequality (as well as denying human nature). This, if nothing else, condemns the world you describe to near-term collapse (see Safa Motesharrei, Jorge Rivas, Eugenia Kalnay (2014-05). "Human and nature dynamics (HANDY): Modeling inequality and use of resources in the collapse or sustainability of societies". Ecological Economics. Volume 101, Pages 90-102, Elsevier, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2014.02.014), and I for one would not mourn it.
*I think you are confusing political liberals (Liberals are the descendants of the frightened aristocrats and plutocrats who watched the French revolution in dismay and invented liberalism as a kinder, gentler version of feudalism to maintain their wealth, power, and necks. The US was founded as a liberal oligarchy and remains that way today, less the kinder-gentler aspects because they are no longer necessary once the sheep are persuaded that they need the oligarchs that are eating them one at a time to keep them safe from the dangerous wolves out there.) and social liberalism which evolved from liberty, equality and fraternity, and consists of giving fellow humans the ability to think, feel, express and be themselves, without trying to impose your beliefs or values upon them.
Posted by: Hermit | May 23 2023 1:43 utc | 96
«Canada is in the enviable position of eventually being able to break away from the Western Coalition» Safe #24
Canada could break away for its refusal to address its inner contradictions. The first Canada is Canadi-E-n and not CanadiAn. Militarily conquered in 1760 by 60 000 anglo-saxons pirates - it still refuses to acknowledge the French Canadians as a nation, the founders of Canada in the European meaning. They try ever since to get rid of them, the Durham Report (1839) being one of the way to express the anglo-saxon's supremacy, some 80 years after the conquest war.
The peaceful multinational country that is Russia has certainly its problems, but does not shy away from admitting the multi national character of its fabric, with all the inner historic republics granted a national status.
Posted by: Canadien-Français | May 23 2023 1:44 utc | 97
Uncle [email protected]
There was a time when everybody knew what you remind us of- that human nature is defined by class society. To change it men struggle against class rule, in doing so they have no alternative but to build solidarity with other victims- to organise to resist and to conquer.
The information that you share regarding Australian Aboriginals is also true of those in Canada, where I live, a point made by Graeber and Wengrow in their "The Dawn of Everything." The reality is that all societies tend towards democracy and equality- otherwise they are bound to collapse if only because to deprive a man of the ability to govern himself and the community in which he (it ought to go without saying that by 'he' I mean both males and females) lives is to degrade him and to impoverish the group of which he is a part.
I spent the sixties telling the world that "there is no such thing human nature" and I don't think that I was wrong.
One of the very minor points that Crooke makes and which is worth repeating is that the EU, which has played a very important role in lining up governments behind NATO and Washington, is insulated from public opinion because it is, designedly, undemocratic.
It was this, rather than racism, stupidity or reactionary politics that galvanised the Brexit movement. Those campaigning against EU membership did so because they understood that political choices in the EU are limited by a constitutional law and a practical design that prevents the electorates of member nations from reforming the economies on which their societies are founded.
It is no accident that, throughout this Ukraine crisis, the lead has come from the EU Commissioner and the NATO Secretary General, both of them failed politicos selected for their obedience to the Ruling Class, and its leadership in Washington.
Incidentally, so far as Putin and neo-liberalism are concerned, I am one of those who believes that Russia is still deeply immersed in neo-liberalism. And that it has and must weaken the country.
That Putin has been carefully navigating his way out of the almost impossible position he inherited is very likely to be true. But he has had to move slowly and carefully in a society in which the oligarchs have enormous power.
It has long been my view that the "west's" hatred of Putin reflected the recognition, in London and elsewhere, that he was beginning to claw back power from the Browders and Khodorkovskys, (which is to say, fromn Wall St and The City). Hence the frenetic attempts to discredit him from the Skripal affair and the allegations of his responsibility for every oligarch's death, to Navalny, Pussy Riot and The Maidan.
Precisely what the difficulties he faces are it is impossible to know, what is clear is that he appears to be slowly dealing with the problems he faces. But what is undeniable, and needs to be understood is order to put his actions in perspective, is that the economy, from the Central Bank to the gigantic resource based corporations, is not under state control. And that the decades of neo-liberalism have corrupted institutions in Russia, just as they have everywhere else, weakening it and hobbling its choices.
Posted by: bevin | May 23 2023 1:51 utc | 98
It is always difficult to discern whether the blob/borg/deep state/ whatever you want to call the nexus between politics/oligarchs/media this week, is deliberately setting out to deceive in every case or whether the untruths stem from the fact that these controllers & functionaries of the blob are simply passing on the deceits they lapped up when listening to their forebears.
Bear with me for a sec while I go all boring and factual. As I understand it, according to the west's much celebrated World Trade Organisation (WTO) only those sanctions regimes endorsed by the United Nations are legitimate & enforceable - none of the current sanctions & boycotts of the Russian Federation have been endorsed by the UN, which in effect means that at some time in the very distant future, the WTO being slower than a wet week in winter, all of these sanctions will be determined to have been illegitimate restraints on trade and subject to big compensation claims by the target nation/s primarily Russia as well as any individuals who can show they have suffered personal damage.
Nevertheless despite the dubious legitimacy of these sanctions we have seen that over the past 18 months or so these western deceivers, the Blob have been leaning on the Rest Of the World especially those they refer to deprecatingly as "The Global South" in a manner that really means "Hey you down there, you low toads" to follow orders and join in the illegitimate sanctions.
For some the peak of this was seen at the G7 meeting where zelenski tried to lean on Prime Minister Modi of India but couldn't, to the point where he chickened out of trying the same on President Lula of Brazil.
For me the epitome of exactly how little the Blob knew about the world and its history occured over last weekend but it wasn't at the G7 no, it was when some ukrainian propagandist assisted by encouragement from the Blob chorus attempted to threaten the Barcelona FC who had just won La Liga, for the crime of thanking their Russian fans.
These fools know nothing, are they so unaware that they just don't know that the City of Barcelona where the football club is based is also the heart of Catalonia and that Catalans like Basques were the targets of oppression by the Hitler backed Franco terrorists? That Russia was the only nation in the world which actually supported the Catalans in their defence of the new ethnically egalitarian Republic? Whilst england, france & amerika (fukUS) claimed neutrality they were secretly funding the fascists? I dunno whether they knew it or not, probably not but they should have known that these friendly relationships between Russia and many, many once oppressed communities across planet earth abound: eg South Africa (apartheid resistance) Angola (white South Africa imperialism), Venezuela (protection from amerikan imperialism), Cuba (ditto) and in the case of communities such as the Catalan community they even exist within those nations the Blob imagines are allies.
Another thing that happened last weekend was that thousands upon thousands of ordinary normal Bulgarian citizens hit the streets to protest at their government's crass stupidity or greed or both in supporting amerika not Russia in this conflict. Ordinary Bulgars know that it was Russia that had protected them from invasion so many times in the past. Of course the same is true in Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, East Germany & even Poland where many citizens know the truth of the Great Patriotic War, not the bullshit the Blob feeds derps in the West.
More and more these ordinary people are pushing back on their blatantly bribed & bullied politicians and ths summer in Europe we will see that explode into a fury. If the Blob had won inside a year maybe what is going to happen wouldn't, but this cruel western imperialism has dragged too long now, people have had time to compare what they are being told by politicians & media with what they already knew, then talk it over with friends who agree.
It seems incredible but it is obvious that the Blob hadn't considered this reality before they jumped into the giant mess they created. These idjits simply didn't know history, not ancient history - modern history all from less than 100 years ago. They are just not going to be able to keep up the bullshit as they do not know enough to be able to make plausible bullshit.
Posted by: Debsisdead | May 23 2023 2:52 utc | 99
re: bevin | May 23 2023 1:51 utc | 99
I couldn't agree more vis a vis the Russian government's involvement in neoliberalism. We can only hope that the mass popular support this government is receiving from the Russian people, combined with the necessarily just decisions which mobilisation necessitates will allow this government to detach from oligarchs.
Posted by: Debsisdead | May 23 2023 3:01 utc | 100
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