Archive for the ‘Russiagate’ Category
FOUR GREAT HISTORICAL LIES
I’ve been hampered in writing about current events lately because it’s really been seeping in that almost everyone is propagandised. By that I mean that most people largely hold a worldview that is actively promoted by special interests. It’s what I mean when I say all religions and ideologies are the same. It’s what Colonel Kurtz meant when he said “Everyone is loyal to the nightmare of their choice.” It’s not a new phenomena, it’s been around since organized religion and hereditary class structure for sure. In the last century though, as the sciences of advertising and propaganda took off, it’s grown far more pervasive and multi-dimensional: Enormous numbers of people believing things that just aren’t true.
It doesn’t make them bad people, in fact it says nothing about them as individuals at all. People are people, most of us are pretty decent under normal circumstances. It doesn’t make them “sheep” either, I hate that terminology/mindset the same way I hate the “friend zone” concept. It does however mean they will actively go to great lengths to defend their world view. Motivated reasoning and such kicks in here, people use the fine brains evolution/God gave them to believe they are right and others are wrong. My lie is comforting, it makes sense of the world, it provides me with tons of social support and reinforcement. I’m on the winning team!
The problem, and it’s a huge problem, is that belief in nonsense may allow one to commit atrocities. Bad things can happen from widely believed lies. Here are four great historical examples. And they are great, each and every one of these is brilliant propaganda. A lie the targeted audience wanted to believe! A lie that touches all the sweet spots. In very considered order, here are four of “The Greatest Lies in History:”
- “The Stab in the Back Myth.” This was the idea that arose after World War One that the Central Powers, Germany especially, lost the war not because it was a stupid war where the Allies had numerous advantages, but because a cabal of socialists, communists, and especially Jews conspired to cripple their war effort. Like all great lies, there’s zero evidence to support it, and it doesn’t pass the laugh test logically; but it explains the loss of the glorious war and blames people many Germans already had been taught to hate. Illustrated in a 1919 postcard above.
- “The Arab Nations Told the Palestinians to Flee!” lie. After Israel’s 1948 war of independence during which 700,000 Palestinians were ethnically cleansed (IE chased out at gunpoint) from what is now Israel, Israel claimed that the Arab governments told the Palestinians to flee! Perfect! So of course they are the Arab governments’ problem, and Israel promptly passed laws prohibiting them from returning to their homes in Israel. Even Israeli historians now admit this was pure propaganda, Arab governments never did anything of the kind.
- “Stop the Steal.” Yerp, brilliant. Trump supporters want to believe Trump was the greatest president ever, they want to believe that Democrats/socialists/communists/libtards are plotting against them, the true Americans. The fact that there is zero evidence for this lie, and logical reasons why it’s BS, no matter. Characteristics that all four great lies share, that so many people believe(d) them is why I am fond of saying “We’re not really an intelligent species.”
- “Russiagate.” This is the one where so many of my friends and readers are going to balk. Sorry, not sorry. Did Putin try to influence the 2016 election? Possibly, though so far no evidence has been provided in support of same. And Russiagate has now grown into an incredibly elaborate theory where Trump was a “Russian asset/Putin’s Puppet” all along. Brilliant. Dems don’t need to look to their own party’s failings that led to Trump’s election, and now they are fully supportive of Washington’s imperial war forever policy!
The beauty of great propaganda illustrated. No one is immune. I certainly believed in some stupid myths when I was younger. “If blacks would just comply with law enforcement and there would be no problems” is the ugliest that comes to mind now. I’m sure there are others. Life, a constant struggle to identify and remove beliefs other people have instilled in oneself. Most people never even understand that. A freaking shame that so much human society seeks to indoctrinate, not enlighten.
Speaking of blacks and police, tomorrow’s blog. Just trying to sort out the fact from fiction in the Daunte Wright shooting. God rest his soul in any event, no one deserves to die in a traffic stop. #StaytheFHome #WearaDamnMask #FelesRegula #dearMoonCrew
Copyright © 2021 Doug Stych. All rights reserved.
(Image: Austrian postcard from 1919, author unknown, Public Domain in this Universe.)
SOWING THE WIND
I had to take a break. Covid and Trump’s antics were beating me down. And I feared my posts were blurring into each other. I was blurring into something. Moving on … So, less than a week from Christmas 2020. Donner Party winter coming up looks like: Opinion | Lewis and Clark’s Long, Dark Winter. And Ours. One out of a thousand Americans is already dead of Covid, should hit one out of five hundred by spring. Vaccines are being deployed, but in the US, and I’m being diplomatic here, the mixed compliance with science and reason based public health measures; means there’s still going to be mass death before we achieve herd immunity through vaccination. If we ever do.
I’m an independent voter. Both parties are slaves of the 1%, the corporations and rich that rule us. Then Trump came along, and stole the GOP base right out from under them, the establishment GOP right career politicians. Trump is like Nixon or Reagan on steroids. The GOP is still sticking to Trump’s “The election was stolen!” line. A shame. If Trump actually reached across the aisle with some humility, he could still come out of this a national hero like DeGaulle or Nasser. Fat chance.
And the Dems are playing the Russia card again. Yes, Russia has engaged in some massive cyberattack on the US just when the Dems need it most! Perfect! Yeah, the Cold War never made much sense to begin with, now it’s like a bad Get Smart episode. Yes, Putin is a ruthless SOB like 90% of human leaders ever, including plenty of US allies; but the idea he is trying to destroy the west is ludicrous. NATO has been the aggressor since its inception. I’m not the only one dubious of this all too convenient alleged Russian hack: A Pandemic of Russian Hacking. Change my mind.
So two items of current news tonight. A new form of Covid seems to have appeared and been spreading in England: New coronavirus variant: What do we know? It appears to be even more contagious than the earlier strains, which is alarming and causing some economic disruption as countries close their borders to England. It long ago escaped England though, and has been detected elsewhere. It doesn’t appear to be any more dangerous than other versions of Covid. And viruses mutate constantly, it’s one of their things. The new vaccines will work on it, but it’s just another reminder that Covid is likely to be with us for a while, if not permanently. A new wrinkle, but most of the world will cope. America, not as much. We can’t even get people to wear masks, let alone get vaccinated.
The other item is Trump and martial law. Trump, who frankly seems increasingly unhinged these days, has apparently been talking about declaring martial law and seizing voting machines etc in key states to prove his massive voter fraud … fantasy. So far cooler heads have prevailed. This isn’t something that can be fixed with a sharpie. I don’t know what would happen if Trump declared martial law, and I don’t want to find out. I’m heartened that our electoral and judicial institutions withstood Trump’s fantasy legal assault, I can only hope the military will similarly say “We’ve sworn not to obey unconstitutional orders, we’re standing down.”
So we end up with Proud Boys trying to seize voting machines and records, and governors calling up their National Guards to resist. Hope not, but we’re in a tumultuous period of both global and American history, anything can happen. I plan to keep blogging through it, I’ve been trying to make sense of the world since preschool, and if anything am more determined than ever to do so. The Trump era, what a time to be alive.
That being said, help is appreciated. Even 1$ a month patrons add up, and a few 10$ a month patrons help appreciably. Support an old veteran who has been trying to make the world a better place using reason and science since the 60s: Patrons. Patrons get my undying gratitude, and I’ll write posts about topics they suggest. For some reason one of my Facebook groups, Glitches in the Matrix, recently exploded. Exploded as in new members flooding in. If any of them finds their way here and wants me to write about my glitch experiences here, now’s your chance.
That being said, I saw the Jupiter/Saturn “Christmas Star” conjunction tonight. Image above. It was easier to see last time, no city lights. Stay sane, warm, and safe everyone. #StaytheFHome #WearaDamnMask #FelesRegula
Copyright © 2020 Doug Stych. All rights reserved.
(Image: Copyright © 2020 Doug Stych. All rights reserved.)
RUSSIAGATE, THE FINAL CHAPTER
My long promised last Russiagate post. I tried to cover all the important points, and marshall my arguments logicly. Even so, there are things I didn’t have space to include, so I chose carefully. As my mentor Sally used to say “If you can’t explain something on a single page, you don’t understand it.” If anyone disagrees, persuade me otherwise. In any case, enjoy the ride.
So, I posted this link on the Doug’s Darkworld Facebook group, and commented on it. In this case probably best to read the article at the link before carrying on. This was my comment:
“Sanders has consistently pushed Russiagate? I find that deeply disappointing.”
And it opened a can of worms. In essence a number of people claimed I was taking Russiagate way too lightly, and that Russian interference in the 2016 election was a fact. Several points were raised, and hopefully I will cover them. In considered order:
First, how I feel about Russiagate and whether or not Russia tried to meddle in the election isn’t the point of the article. The point of the article above is that the reaction to alleged Russian meddling has been over the top, and used to seriously limit freedom of the press in the US. This is far more a danger to an open democracy than putative foreign meddling, I mean really, we’re going to limit our press to preserve our freedoms? Wait, what? I might also mention that since the US government is the greatest meddler in foreign elections the world has ever known, outrage about Russian teenage trolls is a bit misplaced.
That aside, yeah, I still think what I thought a year or so ago. Meuller’s first round of indictments showed us that Russiagate was Nothingate. An oligarch paying a handful of teenage trolls to post a microscopic number of crude memes on Facebook affected the outcome of the election? Boy, billions of dollars in US election spending has been wasted if that’s all it takes. The second round of indictments showed it was political, timed as they were just before Trump’s Putin summit. A bunch of more or less random Russians indicted on “secret” evidence, Mueller knowing full well none of them are ever going to show up in court to testify. This was all Mueller came up with in a year?
Now granted I didn’t read the Mueller Report, because I knew if it contained any smoking gun evidence, it would be broadcast 24/7 on every available media outlet. I didn’t hear of any. He had two years to write a report that sounds very convincing to people who already believe in Russian interference, without presenting any actual evidence. Other people read it though, and there’s a lot of problems with what is in the report, which this article dissects in detail. And Mueller Report aside, there are simply logical problems with the whole ‘Russia interfered’ premise. I will expound:
First, if Clinton had run a fabulous campaign, pulled the Democrats together, gotten out the vote, had crossover appeal, and was set to win the election by a huge margin … and Trump unexpectedly won by some margin that was clearly traced to Russian tampering, yes, we’d have a big problem. That’s not what happened. The Clinton campaign was uninspired and made major gaffes. She failed to inspire Democrats to get out and vote in droves. And as a result Trump eked out an electoral victory by some very thin vote margins in a handful of states. Huge numbers of factors, many of which were controlled by Clinton herself, influenced how people voted … or didn’t vote. To claim that alleged Russian interference somehow trumped myriad other factors in the elections is to credit Putin with Godlike powers.
Moreover. Putin isn’t an idiot. The opposite in fact. He had to know his ability to directly influence the election was negligible. And if he got caught the repercussions could be extreme. Basically to believe Putin tried to influence the election is to believe that Putin did something brain dead stupid so that Clinton would have an excuse for losing the election. Because it certainly wouldn’t do him any good, the idea that Trump is some Manchurian candidate is again ridiculous. And this is completely borne out by the facts, relations with Russia are worse than they have been in decades, and Trump has done nothing to change that. Hell, he is happily selling Ukraine advanced weapons to use against their ethnic Russian rebels. Trump doesn’t serve anyone but his own ego and family, the idea that he is Putin’s puppet is, well, up there with Obama being a secret Muslim.
The thing that is most obvious to me in understanding Russiagate, who benefits? The people who have been running the country for decades, the Pentagon, the big corporations, the rich, and of course the Democratic party. What Russiagate has been, and continues to be, is brilliant propaganda. No need for Clinton and the Dems to examine their failings in the election, no siree, it was all the Russian’s doing. Perfect rationalization to justify our global domination ambitions, we need to defend the world against the evil Russians, Cold War II. Putin of course is in the unenviable position of trying to disprove something for which there is no proof in the first place. Trump is in the same position too, though for him it’s a great distraction from his other myriad giveaways to the rich. The GOP has illegal immigration, the Dems have Russiagate. Huge amounts of outrage and attention over distraction issues that are dwarfed by things like climate change, wealth inequality, out-of-control military spending, student debt, health care, etc.
The greatest propaganda aspect about both issues is … they can never be fixed! Neither Russia nor illegal immigration is going to vanish from the Earth, so always endless opportunity to demonize and spin. I grew up with the Cold War, and realized by my teenage years that the “threat” posed by Russia was being wildly exaggerated. And now Russia is a shadow of its former globe spanning imperial self, and we’re supposed to regard them as some sort of existential threat? Give me a break. The only threats to what is left of our democracy are in Washington and Wall Street.
In summation, it makes no sense for Putin to have tried to influence the election, his ability to do so is dwarfed by purely domestic factors in the election, and what “proof” has been offered boils down to “Trust Meuller!” As my old hippie friends say, “When did we start trusting the FBI?”
Copyright © 2019 Doug Stych. All rights reserved.
(Image: Trump trolling the Democrats. Credit: Russia.ru. I think that’s a Russian news site, but it may be an official Russian site, my Russian is rusty. I got it off Wikipedia so presuming it’s Public Domain under US copyright law.)
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