{"id":652,"date":"2015-04-18T23:00:35","date_gmt":"2015-04-18T23:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/?p=652"},"modified":"2015-09-20T22:35:27","modified_gmt":"2015-09-20T22:35:27","slug":"russian-propaganda-and-paid-trolls-more-like-the-truth-and-the-blogosphere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lordre\/2015\/04\/russian-propaganda-and-paid-trolls-more-like-the-truth-and-the-blogosphere.html","title":{"rendered":"“Russian propaganda” and “paid trolls”? More like the truth and the blogosphere"},"content":{"rendered":"

J’adore la libert\u00e9; j’abhorre la g\u00eane, la peine, l’assujettissement.<\/i><\/p>\n

I love liberty, and I loathe constraint, dependence, and all their kindred annoyances.<\/p>\n

Jean-Jacques Rousseau<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Suddenly, everyone is scared\u00a0of\u00a0the scale of “Russian propaganda”.<\/h2>\n

\"US<\/a><\/p>\n

A basic chart comparing the current offenses in US and Russian foreign policy, which challenge the spirit of the United Nations\u00a0Charter.<\/em><\/p>\n

The new McCarthyism is born. They’re everywhere!<\/em> No-one had known that “the Kremlin” had so many “paid trolls” throughout the Internet<\/a>, including none other than me. Yes, apparently, I’m mind-controlled by Putin too. I’ll let you in on a little secret. We’re not paid by the Kremlin. Also,\u00a0what we’re saying isn’t propaganda, it’s called\u00a0the truth.<\/p>\n

Russia is not the aggressor in Ukraine. In fact, Russia and the Russian-speaking people of eastern Ukraine are the innocent\u00a0targets of the same stricken, evil world-conquering regime that carried out aggression against Iraq in 2003 because its arrogance leads it to think it\u00a0is\u00a0above the law. A regime consisting of torturers,\u00a0mad doctors and paranoid\u00a0spooks who will stop at nothing to control the lives of every\u00a0human being\u00a0on the face of the planet. The same government violating our civil liberties on an unprecedented grand scale, while decrying\u00a0Russians along with anyone else as “authoritarian” by some\u00a0hollow standard of so-called liberal democracy that has failed everywhere except – we are told<\/em> – under\u00a0the happy tin-plated dictatorship of Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Apparently, the solution to the truth and the bloggers who help to convey it against the tide of lies of the mainstream media is some dirty mound of money, and lots of it. Think of that paradox for a moment. On the side of the “dictator” Putin, there are grassroots bloggers all being rejected as “fake” by Western governments and “respected” journalists. Putin is called “plutocratic” by these liars, who came to office powered by corporate donors and who believe their dirty money is the “democratic” way\u00a0to resist\u00a0Putin “propaganda” emanating from (what looks like??)\u00a0genuine, grassroots bloggers telling the truth about Ukraine. I guess that when you have no popular support on the blogosphere, all you can do is fabricate something or use the bullhorns of corporate media, and that’s where the billions of dollars spent on getting America’s message out to the world is going to go – towards countering the “propaganda” of millions of Internet users who are sick and tired of lies being stuffed down their throats and would prefer to examine the facts according\u00a0to\u00a0their own interests.<\/p>\n

We don’t benefit from the US government winning in Ukraine. For the good of the American people, the American government must lose. If our attempts to help this righteous conclusion come\u00a0true are decried as “Russian” or “propaganda”, both labels are in error, but will probably help the US government lose by helping to demoralize it. Let them believe we are all “sent by Putin”. It will raise their blood pressure. From what we hear, heart\u00a0attacks are apparently being had about\u00a0“Russian propaganda” on the blogosphere.<\/p>\n

In the spectrum of US-versus-Russia, the “new Cold War”, and the question of which side\u00a0is worth supporting, I ask you to examine both sides’ records accordingly before picking a side. The US is currently waging a war of aggression against five\u00a0countries or more (they are hellbent on eliminating the government of Venezuela and I haven’t even included that on my chart), while Russia is barely committing aggression against one. Anyone with a bee in his bonnet about the “Russians in\u00a0Ukraine” (surprise, they have actually been\u00a0there for thousands of years) has gone crazy or lacks any ability to weigh up two offenders in a balanced way.<\/p>\n

The Russian government isn’t perfect, and I won’t make any excuses for the way President Putin governs, but the US is in no position to lecture Russia about aggression. The US is the biggest and most consistent aggressor in the world and has continued a policy of aggression against a host of countries, even while it accused Russia of that same particular violation.<\/p>\n

Most concerning is that the US government is swayed by an ideology of “exceptionalism”, which motivates it to this hypocrisy. The US would attack the whole world and murder all the world’s people in cold blood, and it will never suspend its crimes even as it condemns\u00a0the smallest measure\u00a0of Russian power and influence against an adjacent state swept up in a violent conflict. That particular form\u00a0of meddling is also being done by the US itself in Syria – supporting rebel groups<\/em> – and Congress approves bills to support this offense. Even the Russians don’t consider this to be aggression, but the US is prepared to whine about the Russians employing the same tactic in Ukraine, and will call it aggression. Keep in mind that the alleged Russian involvement in Ukraine is also only a response to the US aggression in the country, in which a democratically elected government was overthrown to install US-vetted puppet authority figures. As a response to aggression, it cannot itself be categorized as aggression.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0United States government is not, as it claims, bending\u00a0the rules in the interests of preserving international law and the peace of nations.\u00a0There is a fundamental conflict by the US rogue state against the international system.\u00a0On one side, the UN and international law. On the other side, the United States,\u00a0disguised under the flimsy ideology of “exceptionalism”.\u00a0The US complains against Russia with one hand for exercising any\u00a0right to protect Russian children from American bombs in Ukraine, while the same American bombs bend the law to blow up children all over the world. When one is morally bankrupt, as US foreign policy is, propaganda does nothing to help. Russia is not “winning the information war” because it pays bloggers or has invented some devious form of mind-control, but because it is right and the US government is wrong.\u00a0The evidence shows that the United States government is a deadly and criminal regime involved in aggression and responsible for murdering millions of people, and that the Russian government is not.<\/p>\n

The US government should stop creating corpses and stop protecting war criminals from\u00a0judgment, if it wants to improve its standing in the world. Counter-propaganda does you little good if you are evil.<\/p>\n

* Look at the fake comments denouncing the “Russian troll factory” below this article. All of them appeared at the same time, from\u00a0bots, attracted to the title of my\u00a0post. Whoever is complaining about the “Russian troll factory”\u00a0thinks the solution\u00a0is several\u00a0bots dedicated to\u00a0trolling everyone about the\u00a0“Russian troll factory”. Ironic.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

By\u00a0Harry J. Bentham<\/a><\/p>\n

\"HJB<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

J’adore la libert\u00e9; j’abhorre la g\u00eane, la peine, l’assujettissement. I love liberty, and I loathe constraint, dependence, and all their kindred annoyances. Jean-Jacques Rousseau Suddenly, everyone is scared\u00a0of\u00a0the scale of “Russian propaganda”. A basic chart comparing the current offenses in US and Russian foreign policy, which challenge the spirit of the United Nations\u00a0Charter. 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