Early morning my wife took me the country club and I watched Russian TV news while paddling on the walking machine. The announcer took out a roll of toilet paper printed with Euro notes and simulated cleaning his ass with them. Then he explained the LIBOR scandal in pure cold-war terms: the capitalists push down interest rates to help speculators, to reduce the working man's salary and to exploit in myriad ways the rest of the world. The female announcer asked: But LIBOR is a bank thing, why they rob banks? In the background appeared the pic of noted bank robber Sutton, who was quoted "Banks is where the money is". Then he extracted a toy tommy gun to visualize Sutton robbing banks. Why guns? Sutton: Because charm and personality does not work on banks. The joker-announcer: Sutton was wrong! Diamond from Barclays had no need of violence. Russian TV is venomous anticapitalist propaganda just like under Stalin, although more entertaining.Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Russian Venom
Early morning my wife took me the country club and I watched Russian TV news while paddling on the walking machine. The announcer took out a roll of toilet paper printed with Euro notes and simulated cleaning his ass with them. Then he explained the LIBOR scandal in pure cold-war terms: the capitalists push down interest rates to help speculators, to reduce the working man's salary and to exploit in myriad ways the rest of the world. The female announcer asked: But LIBOR is a bank thing, why they rob banks? In the background appeared the pic of noted bank robber Sutton, who was quoted "Banks is where the money is". Then he extracted a toy tommy gun to visualize Sutton robbing banks. Why guns? Sutton: Because charm and personality does not work on banks. The joker-announcer: Sutton was wrong! Diamond from Barclays had no need of violence. Russian TV is venomous anticapitalist propaganda just like under Stalin, although more entertaining.
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RT in English is very entertaining. They are very oppositional, just like the Soviets - if mainstream world opinion says black, they say white, just so they don't have to be on the same side as those filthy Westerners. It also reminds me of the old joke - a Russian is talking to an American about freedom of speech. The American says that in America we have the freedom to criticize our president. The Russian says that in Russia, we also have the freedom to criticize your president.
K
And RT does is all the time. And uses old Soviet arguments!
And RT does is all the time. And uses old Soviet arguments!
Russian TV is venomous anticapitalist propaganda
EU is capitalist!?
"Russian TV is venomous anticapitalist propaganda"
I beg to differ. It is theft done by western gangs based in London. They also tried and still attempt to rob Russia also.
I do think that it is just pure competition. Brits also dislike those who steal without them.
If US/UK energy companies take the money to home base from Russia then it is democracy and freedom and love of Jesus whatever.
If Russian companies and the state budget keep the money - their money - well then it is dictatorship, robbery, baby Jesus cries etc.
It is not hatred against capitalism, just against an opposing gang which attempts to take your pie.
I dont disagree with your analysis, just noticed that the Russians use the old pre-Gorbachev terminology of capitalist exploitation and so on. But the quality of their showmanship has improved and they use funny props like toilet paper and toy guns.
RT is WORSE than the old Soviet propaganda, even if it is more entertaining. When the Soviets used anti-capitalist rhetoric, they really meant it, to some extent. Russian now is run by gangsters with no real ideological beliefs and they cynically use ideology as one more tool for manipulating the gullible in order to maintain their hold on wealth and power.
K
Yeap,
better agitprop. Anglos ate them alive back then.
It was a problem of cadres. So they applied the american methods and talented young people went the propaganda department.
"Russian now is run by gangsters with no real ideological beliefs and they cynically use ideology as one more tool for manipulating the gullible in order to maintain their hold on wealth and power."
Yeap. Precisely. Just that before they were weak at manipulating. Now they learned from the masters of the field and improved their show. Of course it will be hard to reach anything close to the performances of the anglos but hey there is always room for number 2. You can't always be number 1.
I believe it is not only a problem of talent. Size also matters. The agitptop department of the anglos wins by being gigantic. It matters how many media structures spread your lies or misinformations.
Just as an example.
If Hillary talks about R2P as "Right to protect" an order of magnitude more media outlets will take and spread this then the ones saying it is rather " right to plunder". Of course it is armed robbery renamed, but the ability to spread the misinformation more then your competitors can spread the reverse - true or not - brings propaganda victory.
And that is what matters in the end.
"The strong do what they want and the weak suffer what they must."
Teo is a cynic. I am only 90% cynical. Syria for example is not only about whether the American gang or the Russian gang will control the street corner. One gang is noticeably worse than the other.
K
"Syria for example is not only about whether the American gang or the Russian gang will control the street corner. One gang is noticeably worse than the other."
The country was a bomb. One of the fastest growing population booms ever. Amazing is why it took it so long to blow up, probably to very stable and rational political structure.
Ethnic cleansing will follow, the country will blow up for sure. If it had any chance to survive we will never know. Too much foreign involvment already. US operates through Qatar and KSA. Of course the secular Russian/Syrian gang is better but you won't see that on CNN. Like in Afghanistan some 30 years ago the most primitive brutal and illiterate groups will be used to destroy the secular society. Nothing new under our Sun.
What the US does is extremely logical, brutal as it might be. Empires operate under a set of constraints which limits the possible actions. it is like riding a tiger. Destruction of all possible local power groups - secular modernising societies - is a good thing to do if they happen to be in strategic places.
Once you climb the tiger your actions are pretty much already set.
Goodness has nothing to do with it.
Evilness also has nothing to do with the decision process.
Now the US has to tighten the leash in strategic areas. A pair competitor is showing up at the horizon.
Interesting times ahead of us.
Of course the secular Russian/Syrian gang
That wasn't the gang I had in mind as being the better choice. I think Teo needs a dose of living under them to get his priorities straight, but I don't wish it on him.
Americans, honest to goodness, wish that the people of Syria could live in democracy and freedom, just like the people of America and Israel. I doubt that that's on the table, but it's not our fault that it isn't.
K
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