15 facebook memes can’t, but tens of millions working in concert with a mass propaganda establishment designed to churn out thematic nonsense at a rate impossible to refute while spurring the divisions in culture by doing things like subverting (via funding) establishsd american cultural commentators? Yea that probably had an effect. Did it dictate the results? no. But it sowed discord, and placed a heavy thumb on the side of the scales that won.
There are no more opponents of Putin’s course and, if there are, they are mentally ill and need to be sent off for clinical examination. Putin is everywhere, Putin is everything, Putin is absolute, and Putin is indispensable
That Aleksandr Dugin?
(I have read it, it’s… a textbook. Not derogatorily, it says nothing new because that’s not it’s goal and it does present it’s material in a pretty engaging way, it’s just not more than that (and it didn’t really claim to be))
Okay but like, how exactly, did MAGA rise? He doesn’t specify that either, mind, he just makes the controversial claim that people would talk about the rise of a social movement they oppose. This is, in this case literally, propaganda 101. That you’re entrenching yourself so hard against someone presenting a contrary idea is the fundamental way this works. I’m not attacking or rejecting you, I promise, please believe me. I used to be pretty anti-feminist as a teen (thanks reddit), and like the cat says, we all fall for propaganda. There’s no shame in that.
What I’m telling you is that this type of video (I think literally these ones with Yuri Bezmenov), where someone in a position of presumed authority claims that there’s a vast Global Communist Conspiracy (or the like) that will take down America if it doesn’t do things like “teach the next generation True Patriotism”, will be used ten years later as an example in Foundations of Geopolitics. You’re falling for the exact same propaganda that actually led to the rise of MAGA. It’s not “enabling social rise through careful manipulation and Marxist Leninist concepts being unchallenged”, it’s telling both sides they’re right and giving them proof that the other side is clearly being manipulated.
(“It’s right in front of you” in particular means nothing. You can’t hide a huge social movement of the kind needed to destabilize a country, that just… doesn’t even make sense. It’s just a call to accept your own biases as factual. "It’s not a shadowy baseless conspiracy, it’s exactly whatever you think it is!")
… That video is a former KGB guy claiming color revolution theory as a real thing - it’s total bullshit, dreamed up to entice the same people that fall for Cultural Marxism today. It sounds really good, doesn’t it? But it’s all just confirmation bias - you’re ignoring everything else that’s happening, and the beats he lists off are incredibly common. Oh look:
WOW! But we have recordings of people complaining about the same things carved into megaliths a few thousand years ago, so he’s not exactly going to burn out his crystal ball by predicting they might come up again. It’s the exact same kind of BS the CIA trots out to explain how it overthrew all those South American governments: they didn’t, they just took credit for it and everyone believed them because it sounds so good. If you want more evidence that his theories are bullshit, look around: Did the US fall to a “Global Communist Conspiracy” in the last 40 years…?
Before Jinseioshi arrived, Silva already had a zoo’s worth of reptiles in his animal family, including six snakes, a leopard gecko, a Komodo dragon, an ocellated skink and a second alligator. He also has a dog.
A komodo dragon. I didn’t even know those were legal for private ownership.
Thank you! That’s… not much better, but at least it hasn’t gotten quite as bad as it’s going to…?
sigh. This shit is so fucking exhausting. just. fuck.
I’ve seen this article a whole bunch now, and I have yet to see anyone day if these SK workers were even here under false visas or something? They say they haven’t been charged, but are they just rounding up “legitimate” immigrant labor now, not even holding to their own flimsy pretense?
Nothing like it.
Okay, and that’s why I didn’t write that list initially: it’s not useful to my initial point. I instead provided two examples of diplomatic restrictions from situations that are similar in political outlook, then called what trump is currently doing “an absurd escalation of that privilege for no other reason than trump’s ego.”
He is not considering restricting all Iranians from shopping at costco (or “bulk goods / warehouse stores” to borrow what passes for their exact language), he is considering restricting the Iranian diplomatic visa holders from doing that. Since the title, while technically accurate, could be easily said to claim the former, I clarified. I don’t disagree at all that this is fucking absurd, just less so than it could have been interpreted to be.
(A peace offering: consulate or embassy staff in the US often buy goods that cannot be supplied by their home country (food, linens, etc.) at these warehouse stores for safety reasons (this is how the whitehouse kitchen operates, too). Given the sales volume, the direct control the customer has over the product from the moment of selection and the sheer quantity of the stores that are available in a given urban area, it makes it infeasible for a product to have been tampered with prior to it reaching the diplomatic staff. By restricting access, Trump would create a massive logistical complication and threat vector for the Iranians)
It’s extremely normal for host countries to impose restrictions on the activity of diplomats
That claim is independent of the examples I’ve already presented, that’s pretty explicit. I never claimed to be trying to present the whole of the spectrum of diplomatic visa processes with those examples. But sure, if you want specific but less relevant examples of what these restrictions look like, I can do that:
Etc.
It’s pretty boring though, and really doesn’t factor in to what’s going on in the above. The entire objective of my comment was just to clarify that trump is not considering a ban on shopping at costco for all Iranians (which would be stupid even for this administration) but a change to the diplomatic visa agreement between the US and Iran to include retail restrictions for their diplomatic staff, which is dumb but a lot less dumb than the title of the article implies.
(edit: clarity)
Those were examples with a similar degree of ‘political baggage’ as the USA/Iran political situation, hence why I chose them. It’s a very complex topic that I encourage you to look into if you’re curious about the specifics beyond what I presented in a two sentence lemmy comment.
Do they? I mean, there’s photos of literal piles of dead children and IDF executing people by tossing them off buildings - how much worse could it get? They pretty clearly aren’t a bit afraid of this being documented or ashamed when it is.
It’s extremely normal for host countries to impose restrictions on the activity of diplomats - hostile or no. US diplomats basically require an escort just to leave the embassy in Russia, for example, and all countries restrict potentially contentious visits (like some diplomats visiting war memorials, as has happened recently in Korea/Japanese politics). But this is an absurd escalation of that privilege for no other reason than trump’s ego.
The movements of Iranian diplomats are severely limited in New York, but one proposal being floated would bar them from shopping at big, members-only wholesale stores like Costco and Sam’s Club without first receiving the express permission of the State Department.
So, still insane but a lot less than the article title implies.
Aight the sad trolling is whatever, but why the bracket smileys? That a cultural thing or just, idk, a personal preference?
… Really selling the quality of your political insight here.
Hey, you said it.
This is just sad.
Schindler was a nazi, and yet we praise him - despite having been vocally pro-german before he saw the reality of what his country stood for. People change, shitty people included. Sometimes, they even change for the better.
Also I’m not white, nor a gringo. It’s pretty sad you have to retreat to racism for your cheap bait.
He hasn’t been involved with the party for the last 20 years, has been vocally opposed to their values for most of those 20, and nonetheless is still presented as though he’s an active member & nazi by pro-russian media. The information is true, the context in which that information is presented is manipulated to be pro-russian.
IDK how much trump can really be blamed for this one - that idiot is a contender for ‘Most Punchable Face’ and in his vast wisdom decided to just go out and wave that thing around because he lives in a world where there’s no consequences for your actions.
However, your theory is far funnier.
Man, some people will do anything rather than accept that their behavior can have justified social consequences.