MaxQ

Hi Trans:
I know that people don't like to be told: Read this book! Plus I am well aware of the old adage "god save me from the man who has read one book".
But I'll do it anyway, times 3. My apologies.

"Nothing is True and Everything is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia."
and
"This is not Propaganda: Adventures in the War Against Reality"
Both of the above books are by Peter Pomerantsev. Both written in English (not translations). Both poorly edited and somewhat scrambled in their organization, but in my opinion they offer insights into, as the second book states, the war against reality.

A third book approaches the subject in a more academic manner and with a deeper philosophical basis,but is dealing with the same phenomenon.
"The Road to Unfreedom" by Timothy Snyder.

The sad part of all this is one could compile man on the street clips in the USA, Poland, Hungary, and probably every other European country and get replies that are not just as divorced from reality as those in Russia, but even more so. (you know...the Clintons getting blood and organs from children, thousands of public school teachers grooming 7 year olds to be gay...or something, etc)

We live in a time where millions of people live, to varying degrees, in alternate realities. Where Italy controls satellites that hack American voting machines. Where Ukrainian Fascists crucify 3 year old Orthodox children. Where ....well, the list of lunatic scenarios seems endless. And any attempt to correct these ideas are dismissed. Why? Because of decades long undermining of legitimate, rational information sources. They are flawed and should always be questioned. But millions have dismissed these sources outright while UNCRITICALLY embracing alternate information and world views. As the title of the first book I mentioned says...Nothing is True. Due to that, people pick a reality that feels good, one that reinforces their prejudiced certitude.

The USA is not far behind Russia in all this. Nor is the world as a whole. Russia just got there first. (and had decades of prep under a totalitarian regime that practiced the same kind of delusional outlooks)

I could go on, but you get the idea. If millions, and their leaders, live in a world that doesn't exist it makes it difficult, if not impossible, to address problems and predicaments because illusions resist reality.

TransWorld

MaxQ: Just a suggestion, you might refer to me as TW or TWA. Referring to me as Trans might give people the wrong impression. I am not.

MaxQ

TWA,
My apologies. How it might look didn't enter my head. I hope no offence taken.
Could Rickair edit it out?

Hubcapped

I imagine it’s ok, I didn’t take it that way either but I understand what TWA is saying, and if it’s addressed I honestly think it’s a good lesson for APC to see 2 rational people work something out without it devolving into petty school yard insults. But I’m not the boss

Hubcapped

Elements of the first guards tank army and 2nd motorized inf division have been spotted reconstituting in Belarus. I think that might be linked to some of the headlines out there that Belarus may enter the war, or that Russia will commence offensive operations from Belarus. Ukrainian officials are saying that Russia may be mobilizing for another push on Kyiv, but it would be highly unlikely to succeed as the 1st guards got smacked and are half conscripts now. And also that Ukraine has build up a defensive line north of Kyiv with all the lessons they’ve learned both small unit tactics, and a deep understanding of the terrain.

I think that we are going to see the Ukrainians steam roll the Russians if they can jump off quickly eastbound once the ground freezes

Excargodog

It has never been different. Do you think the Revolutionary War was really fought over the Stamp Act, a tax on non-British Tea, and the regrettable but small scale Boston Massacre? (The British troops were tried in a Colonial court with a Colonial jury and largely acquitted, the NCO being convicted of losing control of his troops and having his thumb branded as punishment.), yet pamphleteers like Thomas Payne were able to inspire people to drive out their Tory neighbors to Canada and go to war against the strongest nation on Earth.

How about the Napoleanic wars? The rise of Mussolini and Hitler? The Rwanda massacre? Propaganda always plays a part in flaring old grievances, real and imagined, and creating the environment necessary for conflict. Even in the US it took the likes of Walter Cronkite and his ilk to gain some legitimacy for objective reporting, a legitimacy their inheritors have largely frittered away by blatant partisanship.

Yes, everybody has social media now, and the propaganda gets spread faster, but the dearth of credible unbiased media on either side is the cause of the problem.

Hubcapped

Oh damn, Russia just used backfires for the first time according to the Ukrainians. I wonder if they are trying to clean the rails before the pats show up lol

Excargodog

Why lol about that?

Hubcapped

Huh? I’m an Air Force guy and I imagined the backfire mission planning cell going crazy trying to get their bombs out the door before the pats show up. Do you really think, after all we’ve been through, that I don’t care about human life? Please don’t look to start a fight here. Keep your emotional responses in check. I will not be your entertainment

SonicFlyer

You need to learn some history... NATO was promised to be dismantled at the same time the Warsaw Pact was. And then NATO has expanded into other places where it shouldn't (the Balkins, Egypt, etc).



That's part of it but he doesn't want NATO on his front door any more than what is already there, and again, given their expansion in the last couple of decades, his concern is indeed justified.

Uhh.... err..... have you seen their HQ? They have a Supreme Commander. They have the ability to make war.

Have you ever read the 10th Amendment?


And if you believe that then Hillary has some land in Arkansas to sell you LOL