The "besieged fortress complex": This is interesting..... are the progressive fears of Russia what the Kremlin had planned? Russian meddling may or may not have had an impact on the...

Boo_Boo Loc: Jellystone

This is interesting..... are the progressive fears of Russia what the Kremlin had planned?

Russian meddling may or may not have had an impact on the outcome of the US e******n in 2016, but Russian President Vladimir Putin has definitely succeeded in one thing: He has infected the United States with the same collective paranoia about the threat from an external enemy and the fifth column, which Russia has been suffering from for years.

Just like much of Europe these days (and Russia two decades ago), the US is succumbing to rabid illiberalism and a significant chunk of the movement against US President Donald Trump is part of that process, not a bulwark against it.

The "besieged fortress complex", which the Kremlin's propaganda has managed to implant in the minds of millions of Russians, is now very much part of the American psyche - particularly on the anti-Trump side.

The media's favourite buzzword these days is "war". It is being shouted at every corner by the likes of MSNBC's anchor Rachel Maddow, who declared the disappearance of reporter's question from the White House transcript of the Trump-Putin press conference "a form of information warfare" and h**e-mongering lobbyist Molly McKew, who dubbed the hacking of Democratic National Committee emails a "new Pearl Harbour".

There is even talk about war beyond "information warfare". In one surreally apocalyptic piece for Politico, McKew wrote about an Estonian military officer's dream about a bloody battle with the Russians in the streets of Tallinn, while Newsweek warned that NATO "could lose a war" with Russia. A reader's letter published by the Chicago Tribune declared that the US is in fact "at war with Russia".

This war-themed delirium is quite dangerous because hawks in the US and Russia desperately need a perpetual escalation to prove their point: that the other side is inherently aggressive and measures need to be taken in that regard. This, in turn, leads to the degradation of democracy and could potentially provoke a real conflict.

When you convince the entire population of a country that it is at war - even if, truly, there is none in sight - demands for democratic procedure, due process, deliberation and nuance vanish into thin air.

The Kremlin's propaganda has succeeded in achieving that over and over again, like it did in 2014, when it persuaded most Russians and Crimeans that the annexation of the peninsula is an act of defence against the existential threat posed by Ukrainian nationalists and their Western backers.

Now, the US has been sucked into the whirlpool of collective hysteria and it is gradually adopting Stalin-esque language of "espionage" and "foreign agents". The use of this new rhetoric was particularly spectacular in the case of Maria Butina - an unregistered Russian lobbyist who liaised between the National Rifle Association (NRA) and Russian Senator Aleksandr Torshin. The latter has been trying to replicate the NRA on Russian soil as part of the Kremlin's campaign to promote conservative values. On the other hand, as follows from Butina indictment, he hoped to revive Russo-American relations after the e******n of Donald Trump by establishing a backchannel of communication with the new administration via NRA. At least for now, it appears that Butina has been involved in what thousands of Americans are doing all around the world - notably in Russia and neighbouring countries - trying to establish links with like-minded political forces and influence the local political process.

To read the rest: https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/russia-hysteria-dangerous-180729065325525.html

Lonewolf

kind of like trumps war on brown people

Pennylynn wrote:

This is interesting..... are the progressive fears of Russia what the Kremlin had planned?

Russian meddling may or may not have had an impact on the outcome of the US e******n in 2016, but Russian President Vladimir Putin has definitely succeeded in one thing: He has infected the United States with the same collective paranoia about the threat from an external enemy and the fifth column, which Russia has been suffering from for years.

Just like much of Europe these days (and Russia two decades ago), the US is succumbing to rabid illiberalism and a significant chunk of the movement against US President Donald Trump is part of that process, not a bulwark against it.

The "besieged fortress complex", which the Kremlin's propaganda has managed to implant in the minds of millions of Russians, is now very much part of the American psyche - particularly on the anti-Trump side.

The media's favourite buzzword these days is "war". It is being shouted at every corner by the likes of MSNBC's anchor Rachel Maddow, who declared the disappearance of reporter's question from the White House transcript of the Trump-Putin press conference "a form of information warfare" and h**e-mongering lobbyist Molly McKew, who dubbed the hacking of Democratic National Committee emails a "new Pearl Harbour".

There is even talk about war beyond "information warfare". In one surreally apocalyptic piece for Politico, McKew wrote about an Estonian military officer's dream about a bloody battle with the Russians in the streets of Tallinn, while Newsweek warned that NATO "could lose a war" with Russia. A reader's letter published by the Chicago Tribune declared that the US is in fact "at war with Russia".

This war-themed delirium is quite dangerous because hawks in the US and Russia desperately need a perpetual escalation to prove their point: that the other side is inherently aggressive and measures need to be taken in that regard. This, in turn, leads to the degradation of democracy and could potentially provoke a real conflict.

When you convince the entire population of a country that it is at war - even if, truly, there is none in sight - demands for democratic procedure, due process, deliberation and nuance vanish into thin air.

The Kremlin's propaganda has succeeded in achieving that over and over again, like it did in 2014, when it persuaded most Russians and Crimeans that the annexation of the peninsula is an act of defence against the existential threat posed by Ukrainian nationalists and their Western backers.

Now, the US has been sucked into the whirlpool of collective hysteria and it is gradually adopting Stalin-esque language of "espionage" and "foreign agents". The use of this new rhetoric was particularly spectacular in the case of Maria Butina - an unregistered Russian lobbyist who liaised between the National Rifle Association (NRA) and Russian Senator Aleksandr Torshin. The latter has been trying to replicate the NRA on Russian soil as part of the Kremlin's campaign to promote conservative values. On the other hand, as follows from Butina indictment, he hoped to revive Russo-American relations after the e******n of Donald Trump by establishing a backchannel of communication with the new administration via NRA. At least for now, it appears that Butina has been involved in what thousands of Americans are doing all around the world - notably in Russia and neighbouring countries - trying to establish links with like-minded political forces and influence the local political process.

To read the rest: https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/russia-hysteria-dangerous-180729065325525.html

This is interesting..... are the progressive fears... (show quote)

Boo_Boo Loc: Jellystone

Not remotely the same. Sorry, you missed the good part which is in the link.

Lonewolf wrote:

kind of like trumps war on brown people

Manning345 Loc: Richmond, Virginia

Pennylynn wrote:

This is interesting..... are the progressive fears of Russia what the Kremlin had planned?

Russian meddling may or may not have had an impact on the outcome of the US e******n in 2016, but Russian President Vladimir Putin has definitely succeeded in one thing: He has infected the United States with the same collective paranoia about the threat from an external enemy and the fifth column, which Russia has been suffering from for years.

Just like much of Europe these days (and Russia two decades ago), the US is succumbing to rabid illiberalism and a significant chunk of the movement against US President Donald Trump is part of that process, not a bulwark against it.

The "besieged fortress complex", which the Kremlin's propaganda has managed to implant in the minds of millions of Russians, is now very much part of the American psyche - particularly on the anti-Trump side.

The media's favourite buzzword these days is "war". It is being shouted at every corner by the likes of MSNBC's anchor Rachel Maddow, who declared the disappearance of reporter's question from the White House transcript of the Trump-Putin press conference "a form of information warfare" and h**e-mongering lobbyist Molly McKew, who dubbed the hacking of Democratic National Committee emails a "new Pearl Harbour".

There is even talk about war beyond "information warfare". In one surreally apocalyptic piece for Politico, McKew wrote about an Estonian military officer's dream about a bloody battle with the Russians in the streets of Tallinn, while Newsweek warned that NATO "could lose a war" with Russia. A reader's letter published by the Chicago Tribune declared that the US is in fact "at war with Russia".

This war-themed delirium is quite dangerous because hawks in the US and Russia desperately need a perpetual escalation to prove their point: that the other side is inherently aggressive and measures need to be taken in that regard. This, in turn, leads to the degradation of democracy and could potentially provoke a real conflict.

When you convince the entire population of a country that it is at war - even if, truly, there is none in sight - demands for democratic procedure, due process, deliberation and nuance vanish into thin air.

The Kremlin's propaganda has succeeded in achieving that over and over again, like it did in 2014, when it persuaded most Russians and Crimeans that the annexation of the peninsula is an act of defence against the existential threat posed by Ukrainian nationalists and their Western backers.

Now, the US has been sucked into the whirlpool of collective hysteria and it is gradually adopting Stalin-esque language of "espionage" and "foreign agents". The use of this new rhetoric was particularly spectacular in the case of Maria Butina - an unregistered Russian lobbyist who liaised between the National Rifle Association (NRA) and Russian Senator Aleksandr Torshin. The latter has been trying to replicate the NRA on Russian soil as part of the Kremlin's campaign to promote conservative values. On the other hand, as follows from Butina indictment, he hoped to revive Russo-American relations after the e******n of Donald Trump by establishing a backchannel of communication with the new administration via NRA. At least for now, it appears that Butina has been involved in what thousands of Americans are doing all around the world - notably in Russia and neighbouring countries - trying to establish links with like-minded political forces and influence the local political process.

To read the rest: https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/russia-hysteria-dangerous-180729065325525.html

This is interesting..... are the progressive fears... (show quote)

The theme of war with Russia is most certainly not new except to the young and uninitiated who didn't grow up in the post WWII Cold War era. The idea of finding some collective security by organizing a global government is also not new. Trump and most Americans still stand by Sovereignty for the US, and not a brave new global mess. The fears of conflict in general are not new to those who lived through the Korean Conflict, Vietnam, and the two Iraqi Conflicts. For youngsters, perhaps it is the real fear of being drafted and sent to the front somewhere, sometime, never mind the call to duty that implies. The real purpose of this screed seems to be agitation, but in what direction is not exactly clear. Not to me, at least. Today, the US is returning to the concept of "peace through strength" under Trump, which by all reports is the one thing aggressors really understand. More power to Trump with this approach.