A piece I wrote last week, “A Brief List Of Official Russia Claims That Proved To Be Bogus,” could have been much longer, but I was held back by time and format restraints. Appropriately, Substack does not want authors sending massive emails to customers, so there are some restraints on the length of certain posts. Also, putting together a comprehensive list of official Russia deceptions of the last five years would take an awesome amount of time.
However, I do want to create such a document, so I’ve hit on a solution, which is to regularly update and lengthen that article. It will not be mailed out, but it will live online and each update will be marked by date. Today, prompted by a letter from a friend, I added an entry that perhaps should have been at the top of the list. I’ll keep adding as time goes on. I think this is a necessary project, because it’s unlikely that academics or the commercial press will devote any energy to chronicling these particular deceptions.
Any suggestions of incidents I may have missed are welcome here. Thank you for your patience and indulgence. The updated article:
So, I've been tinkering with the list - I'm going to try to put it in at least rough alphabetical order, and add to it whenever I can. It will take a while, and because of its size, I won't be able to mail it. But I'll make sure to mark updates to the list. I added two new entries today, plus some more backup to the rest of the list.
Matt, PLEASE team up with Greenwald and Aaron Mate and make a full length documentary about Russiagate. I’m thinking something like Inside Job. There’s no one in a better position to do this. It would be so helpful. There’s no way the average American can possibly sift through all the Russiagate stuff, but a documentary presenting the greatest hits in chronological order, they just might watch it.
Exactly. Explaining all the veins of it is almost impossible with all the actors working sometimes in concert and othertimes separately. It’s a rube goldberg.
I studied Russia, spent several months there over 7 years, and ran an office in Central Asia. I followed Putin before, in the 90's. I am glad there is some voice of honesty and integrity in the USA. I want to thank you for this. It's more than criminal, these lies. It's incredibly dangerous.
Any plans to cover how the media is turning a sexually motivated serial crime (in Atlanta,) into another clarion call to FIGHT RACISM?
It's clearly not racism that caused that sick prick to shoot up a place full of people... at least to anyone who has ever watched Forensics Files or read anything about serial killers.
Nope.. it's racism and cause to report your neighbors.
My kid's school sent out an email after that reminding parents of their efforts to fight racism. One of their programs is a reporting system where kids are encouraged to anonymously report others for perceived racism.
Honestly, IS racism a credible threat these days? Or, is it just some boogeyman being used to bludgeon anyone who goes against the authoritarian wave of Nazism spreading across the country?
Is it time to wander off across national borders and ride out the storm yet?
Consider connecting with Stephen McIntyre (@climateaudit) and Fool Nelson. They have done a terrific job for years exploding Russiagate myths - without falling for the right wing conspiracies either. If you care about this topic, these are some of the most important researchers to read.
Someone who might be another good guest to talk to on this subject is David Talbot (Devil's Chessboard) -- recently, he and Chris Hedges did a segment on RT -- and it was insightful.
If only we could find a progressive Ken Burns type to take on the challenge of a 10 part series of how all of it worked -- kind of like a retrospective of Russiagate tactics --- so as to prepare for the next round (which btw - you are helping us decode by the day).
Just saying - David Talbot would be a great addition to Team TK!
This list will be endless, and every time you add something to it, a Twitter commenter or MSNBC analyst will wonder aloud whether you’re “on Putin’s payroll” or remind you that you used to be a good person and wonder when you “changed.”
Even the critical thinkers I know are in denial about the consequences and significance of the Russiagate years. (They also tell me to “stop spending so much time online” when, e.g., I express alarm about saber-rattling between nuclear powers, or about the endless drone bombing of Syria and Yemen.)
This last decade was the period during which the Rovian “we create our own truth” approach went explicitly bipartisan and was adopted by the media as well. Russiagate was only part of this change, but it was a huge part.
In 20 years, we’ve gone from Bush’s idiotic declaration that he had stared into Putin’s eyes and seen his kindly soul ... to Biden’s much, much worse public declaration that Biden is a demon who lacks a human soul. Media elites liked the first stupid thing, but they seem to LOVE that second, much worse thing.
The cynicism and success of liberal elites’ attempt to prevent political discussion and accountability is astonishing and terrifying. In my opinion, the expiration of the Russiagate narrative is the main reason for the sudden rise of woke racism and woke segregation; Russiagate and neoracism perform the same function: drowning out political thought and political speech, and preventing powerless people from effectively organizing.
I read Manufacturing Consent in high school and my dad was a reporter, so I was never too naive about the propaganda functions of journalism. But Russiagate (and the WMD/Iraq War scam) ushered in this new era, in which there is no objective truth or historical record to appeal to, and nobody is expected to hold consistent principles. Today, intelligent, literate people take for granted that both political parties and all news organizations knowingly lie to us regularly without shame or accountability. It isn’t just the institutions that encourage dishonesty; individual reporters have internalized the idea that it’s okay to deceive and defame others as a means to an end.
The utilization of "student loans" has allowed the Universities to grow like mushrooms after a rainstorm. No accountability, bloated bureaucracies, very poor quality of their product (education) and hoarding their very substantial endowments in the billions. They have become as bad as the federal gov't in their practices and policies. Loans are like printing money since a raise in tuition and fees is just absorbed by DEBT that is now being considered to be paid off by taxpayers who never attended any college. What a scam. The more irresponsible institutions become the more criminals and scammers find ways to profit from their stupidity. The U.S. Treasury has become the center of a huge catch of money just ripe for the picking since elected officials have NO interest in protecting taxpayers or the money collected by our feckless gov't.
It’s not the loans - it’s the ruinous terms. I paid off 2 loans. I consolidated others totaling 70k You can consolidate ONE TIME my rate is stuck at 8.25% Let me RE-fi at current rates. Between payments and taxes since graduating I’ve paid my principal back AT LEAST 1x. Due to deferrals etc when times were hard my total debt is over 100k. How about the same treatment as mortgages and other consumer debt? Why won’t servicers take additional “principal only” payments??? I won’t even begin to pile on to the list of the abuses by servicers and the schools themselves (especially the online diploma mills).
Somewhat a non-sequitor but you can bail out “the masses” (mostly well-intentioned and/or naive) or you can pay for illegal immigrants to have FREE FREE FREE FREE including FREE COLLEGE.
Tell us again how you think Biden has all of his mental facilities and that they work in concert. Please... and tell us how Dear Leader is going to reverse global warming, overpopulation and end racism, sexism, anti statism, manage the children in cages his own mouth has encouraged to flood the borders again...
Hey, in all fairness I can definitely see Biden having an "old person moment" and claiming that U.S. President Joe Biden is a demon who lacks a human soul.
There are a large number of growing platforms (telegram, locals, mewe, individual journalists sites like this, that are encouraging discussions, book clubs, scientific exchange outside of MSM. I think the only people left on MSM are those who thrive on receiving their next marching orders. Im a liberal and the left has left that vakue system years ago.
I don’t know if those alternative systems can accomplish much in the face of unified corporate and state power.
I used to do a lot of political volunteering, and was constantly reminded that even a policy favored by 80% of the residents of a city cannot be enacted against the wishes of determined elites. Cannot, full stop.
Popular “victories” like marijuana legalization, bail reform, and the establishment of gay marriage rights are doled out by elites to keep complacent, comfortable NPR liberals complacent and comfortable and to prop up the fiction that we live in a democracy. But overwhelmingly popular policies that actually erode the power of corporations and oligarchs never seem to become law.
I appreciate your optimism, though—and I think it’s probably much more useful than my deepening pessimism.
LOL. “NPR liberals” - you mean the NPR that is owned by the remaining Koch head? Also, do you not remember anti-monopolistic lawsuits that made significant changes to the corporate landscape in the 80’s -like MCI’s. Now, we need to break up a few major media/tech conglomerates. The victories you mentioned weren’t “doled out” - they were won in court. The whole deep state BS is so tiring because it’s mostly false and lazy thinking (the world is much more complex than that. Same goes with calling MSM liberal when the number one cable network,radio networks and local TV affiliates are controlled by the right.
We don’t actually disagree about as many things as you seem to think we do.
Yes, I was referring to the NPR that’s beholden to the Koch family and to donors like Wal-Mart. Yes, I’m aware that antitrust law was all eviscerated in the 80s, with long-term, devastating effects. Yes, I’m aware that the media and tech monopolies need to be broken up. These things are pretty obvious!
I do strongly disagree with you, though, when you say that rights like gay marriage were “won in court.”
The Supreme Court is a political body that’s unusual in a few ways: its members can’t be voted out of office; it has given itself veto power over the legislation passed by Congress; it describes itself, and is described by others, as an interpreter of laws rather than as an unelected political body; its handful of members come almost exclusively from the same handful of elite prep schools and Ivy-League colleges.
In any case:
The death penalty didn’t become unconstitutional and then, just a few years later, become constitutional again.
The constitution didn’t allow states to criminally punish gay sex, and then forbid states to punish gay sex, and then require that states recognize gay marriages.
Racial discrimination didn’t start out as constitutional but gradually become unconstitutional.
The idea of a “living constitution” is a fiction that allows judges to act as priests who are in special communion with the spirit of democracy. This power of communion gives them the right to overrule actual democratic processes.
The law doesn’t change because lawyers bravely and brilliantly do battle with briefs and oral arguments. Gay marriage and unlimited corporate “speech” did not gain protection because they were proven to be the correct policies in a neutrally judged debate tournament.
Similarly, Hillary Clinton did not move, in just a few years, from literally laughing out loud at the idea of gay marriage to tweeting “proud” on the day that the SCOTUS gave gay couples the right to marry.
People with power—whether they’re kings and queens, oligarchs, generals and admirals, religious leaders, or SCOTUS Justices—must carefully maintain their legitimacy and power by making strategic concessions to popular opinion. Liberals would be more pissed off about Citizens United and Bush v. Gore if it weren’t for feel-good decisions like Obergefell v. Hodges. The justices understand what they’re doing.
I’m not a defeatist; I’d like it if the people of this country were self-governing, and we should do what we can to take more power for ourselves. We can’t do it without the freedom to speak and assemble, which is why the work of people like Edward Snowden and Glenn Greenwald is so important. But lying to ourselves about how power actually operates won’t help us.
I believe the only thing America should work on if they are serious about maintaining their "Superstatus" is education. China educates every able mind to the max, and the old saying "knowledge is power" will never get old. If you see the dimwits in our government services, either party allegiance, they are dumb unable to think for themselves just hustling along to keep getting their paychecks. Russia and China are both sitting on a fence singing "Time is on my side"
Unfortunately, “education,” like “racism,” is one of those words that has a different meaning every week. (Even people who would prefer that we eliminate K-12 STEM classes will claim to be advocates for education.)
I do wonder how the kind of education kids in China get relates to the organization of social life in China. I want kids in the US to know how to read and write and solve for X, but I wouldn’t want the US to become China in order to compete with China. (Russia, meanwhile, is just a trainwreck—not an economic powerhouse in waiting.) And even though we need to give kids a better education than they’re getting today, we can’t become a nation of 382 million electrical engineers and neurosurgeons.
Also: a child who’s materially deprived can’t really compete with a child whose basic needs are being met. Educational outcomes are always going to be affected by economic policies, like our current policy of letting profitable corporations pay their full-time workers less than a living wage.
(I guess this is a sidenote—and I’m sure you’d agree with me—but: our society would be healthier and more democratic if we had full respect for the contributions of people who aren’t book-smart. Janitors and Wendy’s cashiers—and plumbers, and bricklayers, and administrative assistants—are all doing honest and important labor. They do more for us than Deloitte consultants and hedge-fund managers do! In exchange for their work, they should be guaranteed secure housing, access to health care, the chance to spend time with their families, leisure time, and the ability to retire when they become old. Wasn’t that guarantee part of “the American dream?” Everyone made fun of Trump when he said, clumsily—or shrewdly?—that he “loved the poorly educated.” But we SHOULD love, and respect, people who can’t or won’t get degrees and can’t or won't master calculus. I have a friend who barely made it out of high school. He’s a cool guy, works exactly as hard as he should, and deserves a stable, dignified life. He’s not a failure.)
You make many very good points. Janitor's and Wendy's cashiers - and plumbers and bricklayers and administrative assistants all do important work. We should have a society where all can achieve the quality of life and dignity you describe. That doesn't mean we need to diminish reading books, being smart, thinking critically and expressing ideas clearly. We should all do that, regardless our perceived station. As for Trump's respect for the poorly educated, he didn't show much respect in paying contractors and laborers when he filed Chapter 11 on his casinos. He remained wealthy: his contractors and workers received 10-15 cents on the dollar.
Just a point. In may places those plumbers, mechanics, electricians and others are out earning "college educated" clerks, white collar mid-level managers, and others. Supply and demand are at play here. Over the road truckers are now in demand and are paid pretty well and education is now too important. In an ideal world education would be its own reward and any career enhancement would be a good by product.
The problem isn't about "earning' it's about organizing society to serve society instead of bullshitting people into thinking their jobs are their identity.
We've been tricked into allowing the "economy" to organize society instead of society organizing society.
Notice how we have no control over the economy anymore ? Funny how private banks run the economy/society don't you think ?
Shuffling people from one shrinking industry into another just lowers wages anyway.
If you haven’t done so, I recommend reading “Bullshit Jobs.” It reinforced the gut feeling I had every day that my job is worthless, contributes nothing to society and can essentially be done by a monkey (no offense to monkeys). But that college degree financed by the govt sanctioned equivalent of the loan shark down the street makes me “highly marketable.” I don’t know whether to laugh because it’s such a freakin scam or cry because I bought the lie
I watched an interview with the author of that book. I never read the darn thing but the interview did a very good job of pointing out the futility of our current system of creating system managers who never dare to ask why the system still works the way it does or why we never change it.
Glad to hear you are able to laugh about the fact we've all been tricked by western cultural hang ups.
When you ask western capitalists why we need more worthless beads and trinkets they tend to run away from the question.
If we continue on the way the system works now we will soon be buried in Trump ties and Kim Kardashian purses or some other sort of plastic crap that cannot fill the spiritual/emotional void that materialism has been hiding.
Yet Amazon is still setting records selling crap to people that they don't need just because they want to come home to a christmas present every day despite the good feeling only lasting a few minutes.
Amen, brother! The only thing that you forgot is the complicity of the public in all of this. "It isn’t just the institutions that encourage dishonesty; individual reporters have internalized the idea that it’s okay to deceive and defame others as a means to an end", you say. Absolutely right. But you maintain that "intelligent, literate people take for granted that both political parties and all news organizations knowingly lie to us regularly without shame or accountability"; if so, then they are nevertheless on board with it, or else there aren't many "intelligent, literate people" left, of the sort defined by you. I nowadays find it impossible to have a rational conversation with people who have been very close to me and whom have been, for 40-50 year apparent vehicles of honesty, sanity, and good judgment (by which I DON'T mean that they necessarily share my views), in addition to literacy and intelligence. Now they've mostly gone mad and cannot seemingly have any discussion that doesn't remain fixedly within the narratives forwarded (but likely not invented) by the media. If they really "take for granted that both political parties and all news organizations knowingly lie to us regularly without shame or accountability", then their capacity for double-think must be nearly unlimited. The people that I'm talking about are in MY sector of the general public. The wider general public may be rather less literate, but I doubt that it's less intelligent or emotionally mature, and certainly it's at least as sane (and at least as insane) as the people who, until recently, made up my particular cocoon of society, rationality, and affection.
"The fault, dear Brutus, is not only in our media stars,
But also in ourselves, that we are enthusiastically complicit"
I agree with you. The thing is the media and its' propagandists are one of the only things in this world where there is NO accountability or consequences for being caught "red handed" lying or pushing a false narrative that destroys people or institutions. A free Press has become an out of control monster utilized to terrorize people and institutions by political operatives and very evil individuals. Any revolution will probably target this very corrupt institution and the "baby will be thrown out with the bathwater."
The "press" was granted great powers by our Constitution. That same Constitution is now under attack by those very same people., Kind of like an institutional suicide taking place in full view of the world. History will puzzle over this wanton destruction of a self-ruling nation by the very people and institutions charged with protecting and nurturing the idea and practice of self governance. Maybe beyond the ability humans to rule themselves no matter how great the ideas and documents created to codify that self rule.
The constitution was bullshit from day one. The press exists for profit just like every other business does and the results we see now just like in the beginning of this country are due to consolidation for the purpose of control.
Class struggle is an idea whose time has come and gone with the exposure of Communism as the ultimate murderous rule by elites and bureaucrats. Just another idea that pits individuals against others who are yoked to the same wagon of the State but don't know it. The gov't in whatever form is in the drivers seat cracking the whip over the oxen (proletariat) pulling a society loaded with excess baggage doing little or nothing to enhance that society. After close to 90 years of Communist rule in Russia how did that work out for the "working class?"
Seems like capitalism has caught and passed communism by far.
So you're so naive as to think elite's aren't currently murdering people ?
How's capitalism working out for the working class ?
So funny how capitalists cannot fathom the idea of anything but capitalism and even the mention of how the elite fuck up any and all attempts to organize society due to their pathology sends them into the trained response of attacking communism.
The indoctrination worked like a charm on you didn't it ?
No one said anything about communism and yet you just had to go there due to decades of indoctrination.
I lose more faith in humanity every time I see how effective McCarthyism has turned out to be.
We'll never move beyond capitalism due to the elite refusing to move beyond capitalism and the lack of critical thinking of the indoctrinated.
«In the beginning of the Trump administration, the Times geared up to cover the Russia affair, Baquet explained. [...] "The day Bob Mueller walked off that witness stand, two things happened," Baquet continued. "Our readers who want Donald Trump to go away suddenly thought, 'Holy shit, Bob Mueller is not going to do it.' [...]" Now, Baquet continued, "I think that we've got to change." The Times must "write more deeply about the country, race, and other divisions. [...] If Baquet follows through, the paper will spend the next two years, which just happens to be the run-up to the 2020 presidential election, building the Trump-is-a-racist narrative.»
Hah I remember at work when the zombies were apoplectic because their savior Mueller squashed their dreams. This is a workplace where the policy is “avoid discussing politics,” (UNLESS it’s FB/TWITTER or CNN sanctioned positions). It’s interesting how creative some are at drumming up one empty, corrosive lie after another. Too bad they can’t use that creativity in service to ALL of society instead of producing cultural revenge porn
Those are completely different: before Trump the security services (the modern euphemisms for "spies" and "political police") spread propaganda and lies in the interests of the USA ruling class as a whole, currently and very dangerously the security services are spreading party-political propaganda, trying to influence elections on a massive scale not in protectorates like Venezuela or England or south Korea, but in the USA itself. They no longer act as tools of the state, but are acting as principals.
«ushered in this new era, in which there is no objective truth or historical record to appeal to, and nobody is expected to hold consistent principles.»
That is quite wrong: it not a new era. My usual quotes:
T Jefferon letter to W Jones, 1814: “I deplore with you the putrid state into which our newspapers have passed, and the malignity, the vulgarity, & mendacious spirit of those who write for them: and I inclose you a recent sample, the production of a New-England judge, as a proof of the abyss of degradation into which we are fallen. these ordures are rapidly depraving the public taste, and lessening it’s relish for sound food. as vehicles of information, and a curb on our functionaries they have rendered themselves useless by forfieting all title to belief.”
G Orwell, "Looking Back on the Spanish War", 1943: “Early in life I have noticed that no event is ever correctly reported in a newspaper, but in Spain, for the first time, I saw newspaper reports which did not bear any relation to the facts, not even the relationship which is implied in an ordinary lie.
I saw great battles reported where there had been no fighting, and complete silence where hundreds of men had been killed. I saw troops who had fought bravely denounced as cowards and traitors, and others who had never seen a shot fired hailed as the heroes of imaginary victories; and I saw newspapers in London retailing these lies and eager intellectuals building emotional superstructures over events that had never happened. I saw, in fact, history being written not in terms of what happened but of what ought to have happened according to various ‘party lines’.”
"In my opinion, the expiration of the Russiagate narrative is the main reason for the sudden rise of woke racism and woke segregation; Russiagate and neoracism perform the same function: drowning out political thought and political speech, and preventing powerless people from effectively organizing."
Once narrative is as good as the next. These narratives are to keep us from talking about CLASS, period.
This is a fantastic idea and a real public service. Thank You! (One could seriously write an entire book just dealing with the Cult of Maddow that's sprung up around her months-long disinformation campaign. But surely there are better uses of time....)
I have very intelligent and well-educated liberal friends in prestigious jobs who actually, genuinely belied that Trump was taking orders from Putin, and seem to believe it to this day.
I mean, I get that they hate Trump, but you have to have lost your grip to think the world works this way. I've learned not even to discuss it with them, because it gets unpleasant very quickly.
Yes. It’s an article of faith among Ivy League graduates. They identify with the elite and adopt the same religious tenets as them. I’ve disconnected from many over the past couple of years simply because they will not tolerate dissent. To disagree is to label yourself a racist, a Nazi, etc... and they won’t risk their social status for it.
It's just western culture telling them that they are their career. Look back in time and people were much more rounded individuals with many varying interests.
Today folks have been reduced into what industry or profession they earn their living from and really nothing else.
Why do you think the arts are being shut down and philosophy is on the back burner?
Something is about to take a drastic turn for society as a whole. That's exactly why we aren't allowed to know anything about it.
Hate is very much like a dark religion. The things believed by haters are pretty weird. Leftists are on the lame level as racists when it comes to believing crazy stuff about other people. Some of the trash I heard growing up about African/Americans is on the same level of stupidity as the Trump's a Russian agent and all the other nutty stuff about his personal life and mental health. Difference is the Maddow's of the world are encouraged to spew nonsense and are wiling to engage in lies and deceit everyday. They gleefully misinform the American public without an ounce of remorse or conscience. That is what "religious fanatics" and hate filled people do. The entire MSM engaged on the same propaganda as was fed to Rwanda people by their media that was advocating for the genocide. We got close to having media clowns calling for "re-education camps" and lists of individuals being canceled for their political beliefs and activities. Better pay close attention.
Wait, why do you think this is purely leftist when the granddaddy of neoliberalism was Ronny Ray gun ? Funny how the right has been helping them along the way don't you think ?
You have to get past the fake left/right paradigm hustle. You're losing a class struggle due to it.
Not to get too "into the ideological weeds" with this thread but Americans usually move from social class to social class by dint of their education, work ethic and just normal intra-generational advancement. The class struggle argument does not seem to apply even to the very "under class" since they too move ahead over time. The permeant underclass that existed in the past was never a fixture in American society. The underclass in America are the upper-middle class in many parts of the world. Just defining "class" utilizing economics, education, or other criteria can be a daunting task. Societies and people seem to tend to self-stratify themselves based on many criteria. Some are amenable to political fixes and others just part of the human condition whereby DNA, or IQ determines the pecking order. Stupidity, arrogance, hubris, kindness, empathy, ambition and other traits can and do influence everyone and their standing within any organized society. There are "gatekeepers" to the very, very elite classes that appear to be a permeant multi-generational fixtures around the world. No "class struggle" will ever effect them or their ilk.
It would appear that Pres. Wilson was a very troubled and unbalanced man. His wife ran the country while he hid his debilitating stroke. His seemly hatred of African Americans appears to be driven by not culture but an obsessive racism. He did so many things before his election and after to block ANY progress by the African American community that it is shocking that the leftist political thinkers hide and excused him based on his "progressive" policies. It just goes to show that politics is way stronger that morality. Just recall how the feminists of the 1990's defended to this day the probable rapist and overall sexual abuser Bill Clinton because it was politically expedient. And some even declared him a "hot guy." Politics is a pretty twisted endeavor that warps souls and exposes peoples hubris.
«very intelligent and well-educated liberal friends in prestigious jobs who actually, genuinely belied that Trump was taking orders from Putin, and seem to believe it to this day»
The "seem" in "seem to believe" is one key. While I often joke that TDS is a substance far more powerful than LSD in generating hallucinations, I actually reckon that these people know how vitally important it is for their lifestyles to seem to stay "on message".
Additionally I suspect that many of them don't even have to make a conscious effort seem to believe, but actually believe, and not even because of their ability "doublethink": many have fully absorbed the need to sincerely agree with the "conventional wisdom", without questioning it.
«That said, the president had stumbled in ways that left her bruised by the time of the 2018 incident. In 2014, she moderated an alumnae discussion in New York on free speech. A white female panelist argued it was a mistake to ban Mark Twain’s “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” because he used the N-word; that panelist then uttered the word in hopes, she said, of draining the word of its ugly power. Students denounced Ms. McCartney for failing to denounce that panelist. The president requested forgiveness. Later in 2014 she wrote to the college community, lamenting that grand juries had not indicted police officers in the deaths of Black men. “All lives matter,” Ms. McCartney concluded in an inadvertent echo of a conservative rallying cry. Again, Smith students denounced her and again she apologized.»
Not sure the "mommy vs daddy" paradigm works in every culture. Can't get more cynical and untrusting of institutions that Italians, Greeks and other Mediterranean peoples. Though the males appear dominant there is a very strong "mommy" influence within those cultures.
The idea you put forth seems one of self aggrandizing by the very people who are presenting this idea. Leftists and liberals -- good, --- conservatives -- not so good. Alll just a result of authoritarian male influences. Bit too easily inserted into today's stereotyping of middle American's who are a large part being demonized by the "college educated' and media elites who appear to not know many of the pretty decent people who occupy the "fly over States." Social theories are mostly put forth by people who always appear to enhance their own position and culture over those not within the Ivy walls of Universities. Like blue bloods and Royals for centuries held fast to the idea of bred intelligence that you inherited by dint of your bloodlines. Our new Royalty finds academic driven narratives that explain conclusively why they are at the top of the social pecking order. How special!!
Please include the Russia probe into Jill Stein’s presidential campaign. I had never seen such widespread hatred reserved and displayed for such a benevolent character in modern history. ‘’A Russian asset “ croaked the fossilized Goldwater Girl.
Oh yeah, Tulsi Gabbard was smeared with the Russian brush as well. It’s a great catch all campaign killer.
The FEC is still going after Jill Stein for obviously bogus reasons. The Democrats are intent on burying the Green Party. The campaign finance section of HR1 is an arrow aimed straight at the heart of the Green Party. These people are evil.
The "Greens" just might steal the most radical leftists from the Democrats and divide them into oblivion if not stopped NOW. Trumpists threaten the same type of divide to the GOP. Both are working overtime to negate those threats. Behind the scenes the establishment GOP are really undermining the Trump "comeback" and his supporters. The 2022 mid-terms will tell the tale. Dems might need a suicide watch at some point. They have become a rudderless airplane headed for a mountain at full speed. Talk about tone deaf and out of touch.
You aren't going to get rid of oligarchs with violence in the next 100 years. Taibbi does what actually needs to be done - he educates people & advocates for free speech.
Guess that it can be theorized that Mao, Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot and other mass murders who achieved high political office were in fact serious mental cases (let the pros. determine what type of illness). Were they monsters far outside the human tribe or just individuals who could and did release the horrors lurking within the societies and individuals over whom they held sway. After all given the numbers of individuals killed and/or directly murdered it might just indicate the degree of darkness and monstrosity that lives just beneath the surface within many seemly normal people. Is humanity just another volcano waiting for the right conditions to explode before returning to its everyday dormancy?
Like your well thought out and compelling responses. Problem I see with the application of "academic" explanations is that the theories are like pre-shaped boxes that very "smart" and linguistically adroit individuals place selected historical evidence to prove a point they are predisposed to believe. Like confirmation bias in a way. Could be correct or not but as it is other "smart" individuals advance their own interpretation of the same "evidence" while finding radically differing conclusions. Then a third set of people, the consumers of information, decide based on their own POV which idea is better or more plausible and they like good tribalists they defend it with all their intellectual might. (School of thought academics) The intrinsic truth then becomes hidden in the bogs and swamps of argument, "research" and the prevailing popular social theory of the day. The school of "can we ever know anything" is always at play in the background.
Don't think you got anything wrong but like many searchers for an ultimate truth you may believe you have reached a destination when in fact the journey is still in the making. Great listening to your POV and ideas.
You are almost the last honest man in journalism. I hesitate to say this, because I don't want you to stop, but heedless truthtellers usually meet a sticky end.
Remember when, in December 2016, the Russians were accused of hacking into the U.S. electricity grid? What actually happened was malware code was found on one laptop not connected to the grid.
Never let ANY crises go to waste. Just wait for the COVID Passports for interstate travel. The permeant military occupation of D.C. and the lap-dog media parroting and cheering every excuse for new gov't regulation and control on so called free people. The impending train wreck will be very ugly.
Except that the government is and always has been owned by roughly the same crowd.
It will be ugly, I have to agree. I just won't fall for the elite pointing the finger at the government as the cause. Government was never meant to represent such a small segment of any population.
Two somewhat opposing things can be true at once, no? Russia might be guilty of SolarWinds attack, but not the grid hack. Putin might ruthlessly dispose of enemies, but still be an important leader who deserves to be engaged. Russia might feel legitimately threatened by US seeking to enlarge NATO at its borders, but not have right to invade Crimea.
Things like this with real references to back them up are exactly what is needed, and what I believe everyday people are hungry for. Now for smart, industry knowledgeable people like yourself to network with colleagues to create a team, send a unified message and/or add to a new “channel”. I believe people will flock to it ultimately. That, and then doing the same (exposing) those who then (will) create the diversions/smoke screens should shed light on their deceptive behavior, further the trust in this endeavor, and bring us toward the truth. You’ve now won another subscription renewal and a big THANK YOU, for starters.
So, I've been tinkering with the list - I'm going to try to put it in at least rough alphabetical order, and add to it whenever I can. It will take a while, and because of its size, I won't be able to mail it. But I'll make sure to mark updates to the list. I added two new entries today, plus some more backup to the rest of the list.
Matt, PLEASE team up with Greenwald and Aaron Mate and make a full length documentary about Russiagate. I’m thinking something like Inside Job. There’s no one in a better position to do this. It would be so helpful. There’s no way the average American can possibly sift through all the Russiagate stuff, but a documentary presenting the greatest hits in chronological order, they just might watch it.
Exactly. Explaining all the veins of it is almost impossible with all the actors working sometimes in concert and othertimes separately. It’s a rube goldberg.
I wrote up some of my own attempts to educate my fellow Americans. https://www.quora.com/Vladimir-Putin-continuously-tells-or-conveys-to-the-Russian-people-that-he-wants-to-challenge-America-militarily-Do-Russians-think-they-can-win-such-confrontation
I studied Russia, spent several months there over 7 years, and ran an office in Central Asia. I followed Putin before, in the 90's. I am glad there is some voice of honesty and integrity in the USA. I want to thank you for this. It's more than criminal, these lies. It's incredibly dangerous.
Any plans to cover how the media is turning a sexually motivated serial crime (in Atlanta,) into another clarion call to FIGHT RACISM?
It's clearly not racism that caused that sick prick to shoot up a place full of people... at least to anyone who has ever watched Forensics Files or read anything about serial killers.
Nope.. it's racism and cause to report your neighbors.
My kid's school sent out an email after that reminding parents of their efforts to fight racism. One of their programs is a reporting system where kids are encouraged to anonymously report others for perceived racism.
Honestly, IS racism a credible threat these days? Or, is it just some boogeyman being used to bludgeon anyone who goes against the authoritarian wave of Nazism spreading across the country?
Is it time to wander off across national borders and ride out the storm yet?
Seems like the lions are at the door here.
You raise important questions. Make good points. See Andrew Sullivan piece.
Consider connecting with Stephen McIntyre (@climateaudit) and Fool Nelson. They have done a terrific job for years exploding Russiagate myths - without falling for the right wing conspiracies either. If you care about this topic, these are some of the most important researchers to read.
Someone who might be another good guest to talk to on this subject is David Talbot (Devil's Chessboard) -- recently, he and Chris Hedges did a segment on RT -- and it was insightful.
If only we could find a progressive Ken Burns type to take on the challenge of a 10 part series of how all of it worked -- kind of like a retrospective of Russiagate tactics --- so as to prepare for the next round (which btw - you are helping us decode by the day).
Just saying - David Talbot would be a great addition to Team TK!
This list will be endless, and every time you add something to it, a Twitter commenter or MSNBC analyst will wonder aloud whether you’re “on Putin’s payroll” or remind you that you used to be a good person and wonder when you “changed.”
Even the critical thinkers I know are in denial about the consequences and significance of the Russiagate years. (They also tell me to “stop spending so much time online” when, e.g., I express alarm about saber-rattling between nuclear powers, or about the endless drone bombing of Syria and Yemen.)
This last decade was the period during which the Rovian “we create our own truth” approach went explicitly bipartisan and was adopted by the media as well. Russiagate was only part of this change, but it was a huge part.
In 20 years, we’ve gone from Bush’s idiotic declaration that he had stared into Putin’s eyes and seen his kindly soul ... to Biden’s much, much worse public declaration that Biden is a demon who lacks a human soul. Media elites liked the first stupid thing, but they seem to LOVE that second, much worse thing.
The cynicism and success of liberal elites’ attempt to prevent political discussion and accountability is astonishing and terrifying. In my opinion, the expiration of the Russiagate narrative is the main reason for the sudden rise of woke racism and woke segregation; Russiagate and neoracism perform the same function: drowning out political thought and political speech, and preventing powerless people from effectively organizing.
I read Manufacturing Consent in high school and my dad was a reporter, so I was never too naive about the propaganda functions of journalism. But Russiagate (and the WMD/Iraq War scam) ushered in this new era, in which there is no objective truth or historical record to appeal to, and nobody is expected to hold consistent principles. Today, intelligent, literate people take for granted that both political parties and all news organizations knowingly lie to us regularly without shame or accountability. It isn’t just the institutions that encourage dishonesty; individual reporters have internalized the idea that it’s okay to deceive and defame others as a means to an end.
Fuck, Substack: just add an edit function already!
I meant: “Biden’s declaration that Putin* is a demon...”
I got what you meant from context, man.
However, knowing Biden, I also completely believe that Biden would publicly declare "Biden is a demon who lacks a human soul."
He's just another Ron Burgundy who has to read whatever is on the prompter. HAS to.
Bullshit. Biden has grown on some issues and changed his position accordingly - like favoring bankruptcy for student debt now. Why is that bad?
I agree we need to address student debt but until Universities are held accountable I'm not for baling out the masses.
The utilization of "student loans" has allowed the Universities to grow like mushrooms after a rainstorm. No accountability, bloated bureaucracies, very poor quality of their product (education) and hoarding their very substantial endowments in the billions. They have become as bad as the federal gov't in their practices and policies. Loans are like printing money since a raise in tuition and fees is just absorbed by DEBT that is now being considered to be paid off by taxpayers who never attended any college. What a scam. The more irresponsible institutions become the more criminals and scammers find ways to profit from their stupidity. The U.S. Treasury has become the center of a huge catch of money just ripe for the picking since elected officials have NO interest in protecting taxpayers or the money collected by our feckless gov't.
Who now owns the feckless government ? It ain't us peasants now is it ?
It’s not the loans - it’s the ruinous terms. I paid off 2 loans. I consolidated others totaling 70k You can consolidate ONE TIME my rate is stuck at 8.25% Let me RE-fi at current rates. Between payments and taxes since graduating I’ve paid my principal back AT LEAST 1x. Due to deferrals etc when times were hard my total debt is over 100k. How about the same treatment as mortgages and other consumer debt? Why won’t servicers take additional “principal only” payments??? I won’t even begin to pile on to the list of the abuses by servicers and the schools themselves (especially the online diploma mills).
Somewhat a non-sequitor but you can bail out “the masses” (mostly well-intentioned and/or naive) or you can pay for illegal immigrants to have FREE FREE FREE FREE including FREE COLLEGE.
Oh please... DO go on to explain how lucky we all are to have Dear Leader here at long last.
Tell us again how you think Biden has all of his mental facilities and that they work in concert. Please... and tell us how Dear Leader is going to reverse global warming, overpopulation and end racism, sexism, anti statism, manage the children in cages his own mouth has encouraged to flood the borders again...
Hey, in all fairness I can definitely see Biden having an "old person moment" and claiming that U.S. President Joe Biden is a demon who lacks a human soul.
I'd prioritize a block feature over an edit feature. For a platform that gets subscriber dollars, Substack is more like Suckstack.
ikr? 🤙
There are a large number of growing platforms (telegram, locals, mewe, individual journalists sites like this, that are encouraging discussions, book clubs, scientific exchange outside of MSM. I think the only people left on MSM are those who thrive on receiving their next marching orders. Im a liberal and the left has left that vakue system years ago.
I don’t know if those alternative systems can accomplish much in the face of unified corporate and state power.
I used to do a lot of political volunteering, and was constantly reminded that even a policy favored by 80% of the residents of a city cannot be enacted against the wishes of determined elites. Cannot, full stop.
Popular “victories” like marijuana legalization, bail reform, and the establishment of gay marriage rights are doled out by elites to keep complacent, comfortable NPR liberals complacent and comfortable and to prop up the fiction that we live in a democracy. But overwhelmingly popular policies that actually erode the power of corporations and oligarchs never seem to become law.
I appreciate your optimism, though—and I think it’s probably much more useful than my deepening pessimism.
LOL. “NPR liberals” - you mean the NPR that is owned by the remaining Koch head? Also, do you not remember anti-monopolistic lawsuits that made significant changes to the corporate landscape in the 80’s -like MCI’s. Now, we need to break up a few major media/tech conglomerates. The victories you mentioned weren’t “doled out” - they were won in court. The whole deep state BS is so tiring because it’s mostly false and lazy thinking (the world is much more complex than that. Same goes with calling MSM liberal when the number one cable network,radio networks and local TV affiliates are controlled by the right.
We don’t actually disagree about as many things as you seem to think we do.
Yes, I was referring to the NPR that’s beholden to the Koch family and to donors like Wal-Mart. Yes, I’m aware that antitrust law was all eviscerated in the 80s, with long-term, devastating effects. Yes, I’m aware that the media and tech monopolies need to be broken up. These things are pretty obvious!
I do strongly disagree with you, though, when you say that rights like gay marriage were “won in court.”
The Supreme Court is a political body that’s unusual in a few ways: its members can’t be voted out of office; it has given itself veto power over the legislation passed by Congress; it describes itself, and is described by others, as an interpreter of laws rather than as an unelected political body; its handful of members come almost exclusively from the same handful of elite prep schools and Ivy-League colleges.
In any case:
The death penalty didn’t become unconstitutional and then, just a few years later, become constitutional again.
The constitution didn’t allow states to criminally punish gay sex, and then forbid states to punish gay sex, and then require that states recognize gay marriages.
Racial discrimination didn’t start out as constitutional but gradually become unconstitutional.
The idea of a “living constitution” is a fiction that allows judges to act as priests who are in special communion with the spirit of democracy. This power of communion gives them the right to overrule actual democratic processes.
The law doesn’t change because lawyers bravely and brilliantly do battle with briefs and oral arguments. Gay marriage and unlimited corporate “speech” did not gain protection because they were proven to be the correct policies in a neutrally judged debate tournament.
Similarly, Hillary Clinton did not move, in just a few years, from literally laughing out loud at the idea of gay marriage to tweeting “proud” on the day that the SCOTUS gave gay couples the right to marry.
People with power—whether they’re kings and queens, oligarchs, generals and admirals, religious leaders, or SCOTUS Justices—must carefully maintain their legitimacy and power by making strategic concessions to popular opinion. Liberals would be more pissed off about Citizens United and Bush v. Gore if it weren’t for feel-good decisions like Obergefell v. Hodges. The justices understand what they’re doing.
I’m not a defeatist; I’d like it if the people of this country were self-governing, and we should do what we can to take more power for ourselves. We can’t do it without the freedom to speak and assemble, which is why the work of people like Edward Snowden and Glenn Greenwald is so important. But lying to ourselves about how power actually operates won’t help us.
Gay marriage was defeated by ballot in California.
I definitely think it was won in court.
The Mormons had a lot to do with influencing the ballot measure in CA. They have since softened their stance after the Prop 8 backlash.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/koch-brothers-buy-npr/
well said.
I think they meant neolib globalists... State Propaganda Mouthpieces.
Seriously?
I believe the only thing America should work on if they are serious about maintaining their "Superstatus" is education. China educates every able mind to the max, and the old saying "knowledge is power" will never get old. If you see the dimwits in our government services, either party allegiance, they are dumb unable to think for themselves just hustling along to keep getting their paychecks. Russia and China are both sitting on a fence singing "Time is on my side"
Unfortunately, “education,” like “racism,” is one of those words that has a different meaning every week. (Even people who would prefer that we eliminate K-12 STEM classes will claim to be advocates for education.)
I do wonder how the kind of education kids in China get relates to the organization of social life in China. I want kids in the US to know how to read and write and solve for X, but I wouldn’t want the US to become China in order to compete with China. (Russia, meanwhile, is just a trainwreck—not an economic powerhouse in waiting.) And even though we need to give kids a better education than they’re getting today, we can’t become a nation of 382 million electrical engineers and neurosurgeons.
Also: a child who’s materially deprived can’t really compete with a child whose basic needs are being met. Educational outcomes are always going to be affected by economic policies, like our current policy of letting profitable corporations pay their full-time workers less than a living wage.
(I guess this is a sidenote—and I’m sure you’d agree with me—but: our society would be healthier and more democratic if we had full respect for the contributions of people who aren’t book-smart. Janitors and Wendy’s cashiers—and plumbers, and bricklayers, and administrative assistants—are all doing honest and important labor. They do more for us than Deloitte consultants and hedge-fund managers do! In exchange for their work, they should be guaranteed secure housing, access to health care, the chance to spend time with their families, leisure time, and the ability to retire when they become old. Wasn’t that guarantee part of “the American dream?” Everyone made fun of Trump when he said, clumsily—or shrewdly?—that he “loved the poorly educated.” But we SHOULD love, and respect, people who can’t or won’t get degrees and can’t or won't master calculus. I have a friend who barely made it out of high school. He’s a cool guy, works exactly as hard as he should, and deserves a stable, dignified life. He’s not a failure.)
You make many very good points. Janitor's and Wendy's cashiers - and plumbers and bricklayers and administrative assistants all do important work. We should have a society where all can achieve the quality of life and dignity you describe. That doesn't mean we need to diminish reading books, being smart, thinking critically and expressing ideas clearly. We should all do that, regardless our perceived station. As for Trump's respect for the poorly educated, he didn't show much respect in paying contractors and laborers when he filed Chapter 11 on his casinos. He remained wealthy: his contractors and workers received 10-15 cents on the dollar.
Just a point. In may places those plumbers, mechanics, electricians and others are out earning "college educated" clerks, white collar mid-level managers, and others. Supply and demand are at play here. Over the road truckers are now in demand and are paid pretty well and education is now too important. In an ideal world education would be its own reward and any career enhancement would be a good by product.
The problem isn't about "earning' it's about organizing society to serve society instead of bullshitting people into thinking their jobs are their identity.
We've been tricked into allowing the "economy" to organize society instead of society organizing society.
Notice how we have no control over the economy anymore ? Funny how private banks run the economy/society don't you think ?
Shuffling people from one shrinking industry into another just lowers wages anyway.
We need a new system, that's all there is to it.
If you haven’t done so, I recommend reading “Bullshit Jobs.” It reinforced the gut feeling I had every day that my job is worthless, contributes nothing to society and can essentially be done by a monkey (no offense to monkeys). But that college degree financed by the govt sanctioned equivalent of the loan shark down the street makes me “highly marketable.” I don’t know whether to laugh because it’s such a freakin scam or cry because I bought the lie
I watched an interview with the author of that book. I never read the darn thing but the interview did a very good job of pointing out the futility of our current system of creating system managers who never dare to ask why the system still works the way it does or why we never change it.
Glad to hear you are able to laugh about the fact we've all been tricked by western cultural hang ups.
When you ask western capitalists why we need more worthless beads and trinkets they tend to run away from the question.
If we continue on the way the system works now we will soon be buried in Trump ties and Kim Kardashian purses or some other sort of plastic crap that cannot fill the spiritual/emotional void that materialism has been hiding.
Yet Amazon is still setting records selling crap to people that they don't need just because they want to come home to a christmas present every day despite the good feeling only lasting a few minutes.
Exactly.
Amen, brother! The only thing that you forgot is the complicity of the public in all of this. "It isn’t just the institutions that encourage dishonesty; individual reporters have internalized the idea that it’s okay to deceive and defame others as a means to an end", you say. Absolutely right. But you maintain that "intelligent, literate people take for granted that both political parties and all news organizations knowingly lie to us regularly without shame or accountability"; if so, then they are nevertheless on board with it, or else there aren't many "intelligent, literate people" left, of the sort defined by you. I nowadays find it impossible to have a rational conversation with people who have been very close to me and whom have been, for 40-50 year apparent vehicles of honesty, sanity, and good judgment (by which I DON'T mean that they necessarily share my views), in addition to literacy and intelligence. Now they've mostly gone mad and cannot seemingly have any discussion that doesn't remain fixedly within the narratives forwarded (but likely not invented) by the media. If they really "take for granted that both political parties and all news organizations knowingly lie to us regularly without shame or accountability", then their capacity for double-think must be nearly unlimited. The people that I'm talking about are in MY sector of the general public. The wider general public may be rather less literate, but I doubt that it's less intelligent or emotionally mature, and certainly it's at least as sane (and at least as insane) as the people who, until recently, made up my particular cocoon of society, rationality, and affection.
"The fault, dear Brutus, is not only in our media stars,
But also in ourselves, that we are enthusiastically complicit"
I agree with you. The thing is the media and its' propagandists are one of the only things in this world where there is NO accountability or consequences for being caught "red handed" lying or pushing a false narrative that destroys people or institutions. A free Press has become an out of control monster utilized to terrorize people and institutions by political operatives and very evil individuals. Any revolution will probably target this very corrupt institution and the "baby will be thrown out with the bathwater."
The "press" was granted great powers by our Constitution. That same Constitution is now under attack by those very same people., Kind of like an institutional suicide taking place in full view of the world. History will puzzle over this wanton destruction of a self-ruling nation by the very people and institutions charged with protecting and nurturing the idea and practice of self governance. Maybe beyond the ability humans to rule themselves no matter how great the ideas and documents created to codify that self rule.
It certainly explains why heads were lopped off by the thousands during and after the French Revolution.
Propaganda wasn't as advanced back then as it is now. From slavery to feudalism to capitalism and now back to feudalism.
When you pissed off too many peasants back then, there were consequences.
Just have to survive the dark age and try to carry on.
The constitution was bullshit from day one. The press exists for profit just like every other business does and the results we see now just like in the beginning of this country are due to consolidation for the purpose of control.
Can you say, CLASS STRUGGLE ?
Class struggle is an idea whose time has come and gone with the exposure of Communism as the ultimate murderous rule by elites and bureaucrats. Just another idea that pits individuals against others who are yoked to the same wagon of the State but don't know it. The gov't in whatever form is in the drivers seat cracking the whip over the oxen (proletariat) pulling a society loaded with excess baggage doing little or nothing to enhance that society. After close to 90 years of Communist rule in Russia how did that work out for the "working class?"
Seems like capitalism has caught and passed communism by far.
So you're so naive as to think elite's aren't currently murdering people ?
How's capitalism working out for the working class ?
So funny how capitalists cannot fathom the idea of anything but capitalism and even the mention of how the elite fuck up any and all attempts to organize society due to their pathology sends them into the trained response of attacking communism.
The indoctrination worked like a charm on you didn't it ?
No one said anything about communism and yet you just had to go there due to decades of indoctrination.
I lose more faith in humanity every time I see how effective McCarthyism has turned out to be.
We'll never move beyond capitalism due to the elite refusing to move beyond capitalism and the lack of critical thinking of the indoctrinated.
The term "class struggle" is a dead give away. Can Communism be far behind. Words matter.
I didn't know terms had expiration dates ? Since when has this been law ? Why don't you want to talk about class ?
«In my opinion, the expiration of the Russiagate narrative is the main reason for the sudden rise of woke racism and woke segregation»
That seems to have been a specific strategy to turbocharge "race" as a topic, explicitly commanded to staff by the chief editor of the NYT in 2018:
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/new-york-times-chief-outlines-coverage-shift-from-trump-russia-to-trump-racism
«In the beginning of the Trump administration, the Times geared up to cover the Russia affair, Baquet explained. [...] "The day Bob Mueller walked off that witness stand, two things happened," Baquet continued. "Our readers who want Donald Trump to go away suddenly thought, 'Holy shit, Bob Mueller is not going to do it.' [...]" Now, Baquet continued, "I think that we've got to change." The Times must "write more deeply about the country, race, and other divisions. [...] If Baquet follows through, the paper will spend the next two years, which just happens to be the run-up to the 2020 presidential election, building the Trump-is-a-racist narrative.»
Hah I remember at work when the zombies were apoplectic because their savior Mueller squashed their dreams. This is a workplace where the policy is “avoid discussing politics,” (UNLESS it’s FB/TWITTER or CNN sanctioned positions). It’s interesting how creative some are at drumming up one empty, corrosive lie after another. Too bad they can’t use that creativity in service to ALL of society instead of producing cultural revenge porn
«But Russiagate (and the WMD/Iraq War scam)»
Those are completely different: before Trump the security services (the modern euphemisms for "spies" and "political police") spread propaganda and lies in the interests of the USA ruling class as a whole, currently and very dangerously the security services are spreading party-political propaganda, trying to influence elections on a massive scale not in protectorates like Venezuela or England or south Korea, but in the USA itself. They no longer act as tools of the state, but are acting as principals.
«ushered in this new era, in which there is no objective truth or historical record to appeal to, and nobody is expected to hold consistent principles.»
That is quite wrong: it not a new era. My usual quotes:
T Jefferon letter to W Jones, 1814: “I deplore with you the putrid state into which our newspapers have passed, and the malignity, the vulgarity, & mendacious spirit of those who write for them: and I inclose you a recent sample, the production of a New-England judge, as a proof of the abyss of degradation into which we are fallen. these ordures are rapidly depraving the public taste, and lessening it’s relish for sound food. as vehicles of information, and a curb on our functionaries they have rendered themselves useless by forfieting all title to belief.”
G Orwell, "Looking Back on the Spanish War", 1943: “Early in life I have noticed that no event is ever correctly reported in a newspaper, but in Spain, for the first time, I saw newspaper reports which did not bear any relation to the facts, not even the relationship which is implied in an ordinary lie.
I saw great battles reported where there had been no fighting, and complete silence where hundreds of men had been killed. I saw troops who had fought bravely denounced as cowards and traitors, and others who had never seen a shot fired hailed as the heroes of imaginary victories; and I saw newspapers in London retailing these lies and eager intellectuals building emotional superstructures over events that had never happened. I saw, in fact, history being written not in terms of what happened but of what ought to have happened according to various ‘party lines’.”
"In my opinion, the expiration of the Russiagate narrative is the main reason for the sudden rise of woke racism and woke segregation; Russiagate and neoracism perform the same function: drowning out political thought and political speech, and preventing powerless people from effectively organizing."
Once narrative is as good as the next. These narratives are to keep us from talking about CLASS, period.
This is a fantastic idea and a real public service. Thank You! (One could seriously write an entire book just dealing with the Cult of Maddow that's sprung up around her months-long disinformation campaign. But surely there are better uses of time....)
I have very intelligent and well-educated liberal friends in prestigious jobs who actually, genuinely belied that Trump was taking orders from Putin, and seem to believe it to this day.
I mean, I get that they hate Trump, but you have to have lost your grip to think the world works this way. I've learned not even to discuss it with them, because it gets unpleasant very quickly.
Yes. It’s an article of faith among Ivy League graduates. They identify with the elite and adopt the same religious tenets as them. I’ve disconnected from many over the past couple of years simply because they will not tolerate dissent. To disagree is to label yourself a racist, a Nazi, etc... and they won’t risk their social status for it.
It’s a nice little cult thing they’ve got going.
It's just western culture telling them that they are their career. Look back in time and people were much more rounded individuals with many varying interests.
Today folks have been reduced into what industry or profession they earn their living from and really nothing else.
Why do you think the arts are being shut down and philosophy is on the back burner?
Something is about to take a drastic turn for society as a whole. That's exactly why we aren't allowed to know anything about it.
None are so blind as those that will not see
They're fucking Nazis.
Hate is very much like a dark religion. The things believed by haters are pretty weird. Leftists are on the lame level as racists when it comes to believing crazy stuff about other people. Some of the trash I heard growing up about African/Americans is on the same level of stupidity as the Trump's a Russian agent and all the other nutty stuff about his personal life and mental health. Difference is the Maddow's of the world are encouraged to spew nonsense and are wiling to engage in lies and deceit everyday. They gleefully misinform the American public without an ounce of remorse or conscience. That is what "religious fanatics" and hate filled people do. The entire MSM engaged on the same propaganda as was fed to Rwanda people by their media that was advocating for the genocide. We got close to having media clowns calling for "re-education camps" and lists of individuals being canceled for their political beliefs and activities. Better pay close attention.
Wait, why do you think this is purely leftist when the granddaddy of neoliberalism was Ronny Ray gun ? Funny how the right has been helping them along the way don't you think ?
You have to get past the fake left/right paradigm hustle. You're losing a class struggle due to it.
Not to get too "into the ideological weeds" with this thread but Americans usually move from social class to social class by dint of their education, work ethic and just normal intra-generational advancement. The class struggle argument does not seem to apply even to the very "under class" since they too move ahead over time. The permeant underclass that existed in the past was never a fixture in American society. The underclass in America are the upper-middle class in many parts of the world. Just defining "class" utilizing economics, education, or other criteria can be a daunting task. Societies and people seem to tend to self-stratify themselves based on many criteria. Some are amenable to political fixes and others just part of the human condition whereby DNA, or IQ determines the pecking order. Stupidity, arrogance, hubris, kindness, empathy, ambition and other traits can and do influence everyone and their standing within any organized society. There are "gatekeepers" to the very, very elite classes that appear to be a permeant multi-generational fixtures around the world. No "class struggle" will ever effect them or their ilk.
Seems to me someone wrote a book about the "class struggle" having a very stark effect upon the elite in France, once upon a time.
It would appear that Pres. Wilson was a very troubled and unbalanced man. His wife ran the country while he hid his debilitating stroke. His seemly hatred of African Americans appears to be driven by not culture but an obsessive racism. He did so many things before his election and after to block ANY progress by the African American community that it is shocking that the leftist political thinkers hide and excused him based on his "progressive" policies. It just goes to show that politics is way stronger that morality. Just recall how the feminists of the 1990's defended to this day the probable rapist and overall sexual abuser Bill Clinton because it was politically expedient. And some even declared him a "hot guy." Politics is a pretty twisted endeavor that warps souls and exposes peoples hubris.
«very intelligent and well-educated liberal friends in prestigious jobs who actually, genuinely belied that Trump was taking orders from Putin, and seem to believe it to this day»
The "seem" in "seem to believe" is one key. While I often joke that TDS is a substance far more powerful than LSD in generating hallucinations, I actually reckon that these people know how vitally important it is for their lifestyles to seem to stay "on message".
Additionally I suspect that many of them don't even have to make a conscious effort seem to believe, but actually believe, and not even because of their ability "doublethink": many have fully absorbed the need to sincerely agree with the "conventional wisdom", without questioning it.
«these people know how vitally important it is for their lifestyles to seem to stay "on message".»
Some context as to the $700,000 a year president of a prestigious "liberal" college with $78,000/year student fees:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/24/us/smith-college-race.html?smid=tw-share
«That said, the president had stumbled in ways that left her bruised by the time of the 2018 incident. In 2014, she moderated an alumnae discussion in New York on free speech. A white female panelist argued it was a mistake to ban Mark Twain’s “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” because he used the N-word; that panelist then uttered the word in hopes, she said, of draining the word of its ugly power. Students denounced Ms. McCartney for failing to denounce that panelist. The president requested forgiveness. Later in 2014 she wrote to the college community, lamenting that grand juries had not indicted police officers in the deaths of Black men. “All lives matter,” Ms. McCartney concluded in an inadvertent echo of a conservative rallying cry. Again, Smith students denounced her and again she apologized.»
Yes, wedgies and noogies are the worst
Good grief. Well said.
Not sure the "mommy vs daddy" paradigm works in every culture. Can't get more cynical and untrusting of institutions that Italians, Greeks and other Mediterranean peoples. Though the males appear dominant there is a very strong "mommy" influence within those cultures.
The idea you put forth seems one of self aggrandizing by the very people who are presenting this idea. Leftists and liberals -- good, --- conservatives -- not so good. Alll just a result of authoritarian male influences. Bit too easily inserted into today's stereotyping of middle American's who are a large part being demonized by the "college educated' and media elites who appear to not know many of the pretty decent people who occupy the "fly over States." Social theories are mostly put forth by people who always appear to enhance their own position and culture over those not within the Ivy walls of Universities. Like blue bloods and Royals for centuries held fast to the idea of bred intelligence that you inherited by dint of your bloodlines. Our new Royalty finds academic driven narratives that explain conclusively why they are at the top of the social pecking order. How special!!
Please include the Russia probe into Jill Stein’s presidential campaign. I had never seen such widespread hatred reserved and displayed for such a benevolent character in modern history. ‘’A Russian asset “ croaked the fossilized Goldwater Girl.
Oh yeah, Tulsi Gabbard was smeared with the Russian brush as well. It’s a great catch all campaign killer.
The FEC is still going after Jill Stein for obviously bogus reasons. The Democrats are intent on burying the Green Party. The campaign finance section of HR1 is an arrow aimed straight at the heart of the Green Party. These people are evil.
The "Greens" just might steal the most radical leftists from the Democrats and divide them into oblivion if not stopped NOW. Trumpists threaten the same type of divide to the GOP. Both are working overtime to negate those threats. Behind the scenes the establishment GOP are really undermining the Trump "comeback" and his supporters. The 2022 mid-terms will tell the tale. Dems might need a suicide watch at some point. They have become a rudderless airplane headed for a mountain at full speed. Talk about tone deaf and out of touch.
Both parties are rudderless airplanes and have been since the early 70's at least.
No, they won’t. The radical leftists are way beyond electoral politics as a solution. You cannot vote out oligarchs.
You aren't going to get rid of oligarchs with violence in the next 100 years. Taibbi does what actually needs to be done - he educates people & advocates for free speech.
Guess that it can be theorized that Mao, Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot and other mass murders who achieved high political office were in fact serious mental cases (let the pros. determine what type of illness). Were they monsters far outside the human tribe or just individuals who could and did release the horrors lurking within the societies and individuals over whom they held sway. After all given the numbers of individuals killed and/or directly murdered it might just indicate the degree of darkness and monstrosity that lives just beneath the surface within many seemly normal people. Is humanity just another volcano waiting for the right conditions to explode before returning to its everyday dormancy?
Like your well thought out and compelling responses. Problem I see with the application of "academic" explanations is that the theories are like pre-shaped boxes that very "smart" and linguistically adroit individuals place selected historical evidence to prove a point they are predisposed to believe. Like confirmation bias in a way. Could be correct or not but as it is other "smart" individuals advance their own interpretation of the same "evidence" while finding radically differing conclusions. Then a third set of people, the consumers of information, decide based on their own POV which idea is better or more plausible and they like good tribalists they defend it with all their intellectual might. (School of thought academics) The intrinsic truth then becomes hidden in the bogs and swamps of argument, "research" and the prevailing popular social theory of the day. The school of "can we ever know anything" is always at play in the background.
Don't think you got anything wrong but like many searchers for an ultimate truth you may believe you have reached a destination when in fact the journey is still in the making. Great listening to your POV and ideas.
«smeared with the Russian brush as well»
Senator Borah, a tradcon nationalist, was also so smeared in the 1920s as a russian "fellow-traveller" (the old way to say "passive collusion").
Matt Taibbi and Glen Greenwald may actually save the fourth estate!
Only we can save the fourth esatate.
Let's hope.
Whatever you're smoking, don't bogart, pass it along to me.
You are almost the last honest man in journalism. I hesitate to say this, because I don't want you to stop, but heedless truthtellers usually meet a sticky end.
I feel the same way.
Remember when, in December 2016, the Russians were accused of hacking into the U.S. electricity grid? What actually happened was malware code was found on one laptop not connected to the grid.
https://theintercept.com/2016/12/31/russia-hysteria-infects-washpost-again-false-story-about-hacking-u-s-electric-grid/
Just the "intelligence services" and media laying the foundation for the BIG Russian Hoax to come.
-and the Domestic War on Terror.
Never let ANY crises go to waste. Just wait for the COVID Passports for interstate travel. The permeant military occupation of D.C. and the lap-dog media parroting and cheering every excuse for new gov't regulation and control on so called free people. The impending train wreck will be very ugly.
Except that the government is and always has been owned by roughly the same crowd.
It will be ugly, I have to agree. I just won't fall for the elite pointing the finger at the government as the cause. Government was never meant to represent such a small segment of any population.
Inverted totalitarianism is a real bitch.
Don't worry, they will probably orchestrate a mass killing to control things once again.
Yep
Fortunately the Texas energy grid fiasco last month didn't occur 4 years ago. Who knows what kind of speculation that may have caused?
"Russian Weather Control Machines".
hahaha
Two somewhat opposing things can be true at once, no? Russia might be guilty of SolarWinds attack, but not the grid hack. Putin might ruthlessly dispose of enemies, but still be an important leader who deserves to be engaged. Russia might feel legitimately threatened by US seeking to enlarge NATO at its borders, but not have right to invade Crimea.
Not sure I understand that. Can you elaborate?
Got it. Thanks.
Things like this with real references to back them up are exactly what is needed, and what I believe everyday people are hungry for. Now for smart, industry knowledgeable people like yourself to network with colleagues to create a team, send a unified message and/or add to a new “channel”. I believe people will flock to it ultimately. That, and then doing the same (exposing) those who then (will) create the diversions/smoke screens should shed light on their deceptive behavior, further the trust in this endeavor, and bring us toward the truth. You’ve now won another subscription renewal and a big THANK YOU, for starters.