davel [he/him] @ davel @lemmy.ml

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2 yr. ago

Whataboutism is itself a thought-terminating cliché.

Citations Needed podcast: Whataboutism - The Media's Favorite Rhetorical Shield Against Criticism of US Policy

Since the beginning of what’s generally called ‘RussiaGate’ three years ago, pundits, media outlets, even comedians have all become insta-experts on supposed Russian propaganda techniques. The most cunning of these tricks, we are told, is that of “whataboutism” – a devious Soviet tactic of deflecting criticism by pointing out the accusers’ hypocrisy and inconsistencies. The tu quoque - or, “you, also” - fallacy, but with a unique Slavic flavor of nihilism, used by Trump and leftists alike in an effort to change the subject and focus on the faults of the United States rather than the crimes of Official State Enemies.

But what if "whataboutism" isn’t describing a propaganda technique, but in fact is one itself: a zombie phrase that’s seeped into everyday liberal discourse that – while perhaps useful in the abstract - has manifestly turned any appeal to moral consistency into a cunning Russian psyop. From its origins in the Cold War as a means of deflecting and apologizing for Jim Crow to its braindead contemporary usage as a way of not engaging any criticism of the United States as the supposed arbiter of human rights, the term "whataboutism" has become a term that - 100 percent of the time - is simply used to defend and legitimizing American empire’s moral narratives.

This isn’t about religion. It’s about settler-colonialism. Plenty of Jews are anti-zionist.

Oh thanks. I’ll fix.

That’s Grimm.

I’ll be here all week. Try the veal.

Yes, Zelensky was democratically elected on a platform of peace & reconciliation. Unfortunately he wasn’t able to deliver on those promises, because as soon as he got into office, the fascists made it clear that they’d kill him if he did deliver, and the pressure they put on him to get what they want continues.

Zelensky was in no way qualified for the job. He was a comedian who played the president on TV. It was a wildly popular show. It’s like if Martin Sheen ran for president after The West Wing. He was basically groomed & funded by a Ukrainian oligarch to play a TV president and then run for president. Ukraine has long been considered the most corrupt nation in Europe.

His presidential term ended over a year ago, and the longer the election is postponed, the less legitimate he will appear.

They think we just fell out of a coconut tree, and don’t exist in the context of all in which we live and what came before us.

Hey I liked JIRA. I liked it even more after they forced us use Saleforce for issue tracking 💀

But, I see that I’m on an ml community somehow, so I know that would fall on deaf ears, because government is part of capital or whatever.

It falls on deaf ears because we already know how most people think things work, because we used to think the same, because we went through the same indoctrination/miseducation as everyone else. But we eventually figured out that it’s bullshit, that it’s a civil mythology.

Previously. Previously.

Amazing and delightful. Best mom ever.

If you want to understand the itch that tinyman square scratches for some people online, and why they’re hostile toward attempts at dispelling those myths, read False Witness from the “Brainwashing” series.

I lived through the cold war and believed most of the propaganda. The layers of the propaganda onion are seemingly infinite. It took about 20 years to peel them all.

The convictions weren’t for Russian collusion but for financial fraud, lying under oath, and failing to register as a foreign agent/lobbyist for Ukraine & Turkey.

• IT Pro: Cambridge Analytica models were exaggerated and ineffective, [UK Information Commissioner’s Office] claims
• Wall Street Journal: Mueller Doesn’t Find Trump Campaign Conspired With Russia
• Jacobin: Democrats and Mainstream Media Were the Real Kremlin Assets
• Washington Post: FEC fines DNC, Clinton for violating rules in funding Steele dossier
• Washington Post: Russian trolls on Twitter had little influence on 2016 voters
• Jacobin: It Turns Out Hillary Clinton, Not Russian Bots, Lost the 2016 Election
• Matt Taibbi: Move Over, Jayson Blair: Meet Hamilton 68, the New King of Media Fraud The Twitter Files reveal that one of the most common news sources of the Trump era was a scam, making ordinary American political conversations look like Russian spywork
• Jacobin: Why the Twitter Files Are in Fact a Big Deal On the Left, there’s been a temptation to dismiss the revelations about Twitter’s internal censorship system that have emerged from the so-called Twitter Files project. But that would be a mistake: the news is important and the details are alarming.
• MSNBC Repeats Hamilton 68 Lies 279 Times in 11 Minutes
• Matt Taibbi: CIA "Cooked The Intelligence" To Hide That Russia Favored Clinton, Not Trump In 2016
• Aaron Maté: Under Trump, the CIA is still covering up its Russiagate fraud
• Chris Hedges: Why Russiagate Won’t Go Away The cynical con the Democratic Party and the F.B.I. carried out to falsely portray Donald Trump as a puppet of the Kremlin worked, and continues to work, because it is what those who detest Trump want to believe.

thx!

Kit Klarenberg is an investigative journalist, not an opinion column writer.

Please post somewhere else next time so we don’t get reports. Maybe c/history or c/ukraine.

I wouldn’t be surprised if some back channels between Iran and the USA agreed to these limited exchanges to save face and not go to war.

I’ve heard from multiple sources that this is the case, and I haven’t heard any counterarguments.

And I wouldn’t be surprised if Israel knew this and is exposing this as a way to push the USA to war.

Doubtful. Assuming the satellite images are real (very likely), they would have gotten out anyway. These are commercial-grade resolution, akin to Google Maps.

“Fu Manchu made me do an imperialism.”

Sorry to hear about your investment woes, downvoters 📉