It should be said that almost all Western advertisement and media and narrative creation is made to keep one infantile and non-searching for alternative answers and views. It attempts to keep one in a static box of adolescence.

I'm often criticized as being "anti-west", but I am not anti-west, I am pro-west. I am so pro-west that I want our values of peace, freedom, democracy, truth and justice to be real life things that exist in actual western civilization and not just a fiction that is taught to western schoolchildren.

I am so pro-west that I want the west to embody the actual western values it pretends to embody. I am so pro-west that I support the practice of spreading western values to the west. I'm a western cultural imperialist, except I want to do western cultural imperialism to the west. I'm like a conquistador, a western colonialist setting sail to spread the wonders of western civilization to these godless western savages. Except instead of actually just bringing them murder, slavery, theft and disease I really am trying to bring them western civilization.

Reading by Tim Foley.

I Support Western Values More Than The West Does

Really growing up means doing the hard, earnest work of extracting all the bullshit that was placed in our minds over the course of our lives by people who were just as immature, traumatized and confused as us. It means really excavating our beliefs about ourselves, about life, and about our world, all the way down to the old subconscious beliefs that are buried so deep inside us that we don't even normally notice them.

This isn't easy. It takes work, it takes dedication, and it takes courage, because truly relinquishing long-held core beliefs is like a kind of death. But unless we've done it we can't really say we have matured as human beings, because we're still existing in more or less the same state we were in when we were children: sponge-like imitators who soaked up whatever was placed in our minds by trusted authorities.

And to make things even harder, it turns out that there's a whole other category of people who've been placing beliefs in our minds, and they're complete strangers. It turns out that powerful people have been pouring massive amounts of wealth and effort into manipulating the way the public thinks, speaks and behaves in order to manufacture consent for agendas and status quo policies which benefit them.

Reading by Tim Foley.

Growing Up Means Extracting The Beliefs That Were Placed In Your Head By Others

The Washington Post has an article out with the brazenly misleading headline "Russian trolls on Twitter had little influence on 2016 voters". Anyone who reads the article itself will find its author Tim Starks acknowledges that "Russian accounts had no measurable impact in changing minds or influencing voter behavior," but the insertion of the word "little" means anyone who just reads the headline (the overwhelming majority of people encountering the article) will come away with the impression that Russian trolls still had some influence on 2016 voters.

"Little influence" could mean anything shy of tremendous influence. But the study did not find that Russian trolls had "little influence" over the election; it failed to find any measurable influence at all. 

Starks does some spin work of his own in a bid to salvage the reputation of the ever-crumbling Russiagate narrative, eagerly pointing out that the report does not explicitly say Russia definitely had zero influence on the election's outcome, that it doesn't examine Russian trolling behavior on Facebook, that it doesn't address "Russian hack-and-leak operations," and that it doesn't say "doesn’t suggest that foreign influence operations aren’t a threat at all."

None of these are valid arguments. Claiming Russia definitely had no influence on the election at all would have been beyond the scope of the study, the report's authors do in fact argue that the effects of Russian trolling on Facebook were likely the same as on Twitter, the (still completely unproven) "Russian hack-and-leak operations" were outside the scope of the study, as is the question of whether foreign influence operations can be a threat in general.

What Starks does not do is make any attempt to address the fact that mainstream news and punditry was dominated for years by claims that Russian internet trolls won the election for Donald Trump. He does not, for example, make any mention of his own 2019 Politico article telling readers that the Russian Twitter troll operation ahead of the 2016 election "was larger, more coordinated and more effective than previously known."

Reading by Tim Foley.

Western Journalists Are Cowardly, Approval-Seeking Losers

If the logic that "there are no innocent Russians" because the Russian people have a moral obligation to overthrow their warmongering government were evenly applied, it would also apply to Americans. Even more so, really, since their government is vastly more warlike than Moscow.

Per the "there are no innocent Russians" argument, Americans should be banned from participating in international events. Americans should be kicked out of foreign universities. Cinemas should stop playing Hollywood movies. Hemingway should be banned from schools.

Reading by Tim Foley.

There Are No Innocent Americans

People have a fairly easy time accepting that things are fucked because we are ruled by corrupt assholes. They have a much harder time accepting that we are ruled by corrupt assholes because our corrupt asshole systems will always necessarily elevate corrupt assholes to the top.

It's easier to blame our problems on oligarchs or the Deep State or a cabal of satanic pedophiles than it is to blame them on systems that we ourselves participate in and have lived our entire lives intertwined with and which have been continuously normalized within our culture. If the problem is just a few corrupt assholes then it's not a very daunting problem, because all you have to do is remove those corrupt assholes and everything's golden. If the problem is the systems around which our entire civilization is structured, it's far more daunting.

Reading by Tim Foley.

We're Ruled By Assholes Because We Have Asshole Systems

We stay retarded in the trap, but that don't mean we don't not jazz, feel me?

STBB #830 - Retarded Jazz Trap

Gilbert Doctorow discusses how the U.S. and Russia are testing each other's red lines in a bid to avoid Doomsday. Russia felt existentially threatened and thus needed to push back U.S. and NATO presence in Ukraine. The war is also existential for the U.S. Both sides seek to prolong the war. The most depressing thing is that everything Gilbert disliked about the Soviet Union has now moved to the United States.

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About Gilbert Doctorow
Gilbert Doctorow is a professional Russia watcher going back to 1965. For twenty-five years he worked for US and European multinationals in marketing and general management with regional responsibility. In the year 2000, he closed his corporate career as General Director in Russia and the CIS for a UK based multinational. Doctorow regularly publishes analytical articles about international affairs on the portal of the Belgian daily La Libre Belgique and has recently been a contributor of Op-Ed articles on US-Russian relations to the English-language Moscow Times. Mr. Doctorow is a Research Fellow of the American University in Moscow.From 1998-2002, Doctorow served as the Chairman of the Russian Booker Literary Prize. He was a Board Member of the American Committee for East-West Accord from 2015-2016.

*Podcast intro music is from the song "The Queens Jig" by "Musicke & Mirth" from their album "Music for Two Lyra Viols": http://musicke-mirth.de/en/recordings.html (available on iTunes or Amazon)

Gilbert Doctorow: The U.S. & Russia Are Testing Each Other's Red Lines #351

Beethoven gradually transformed. The original is a 1938 Columbia recording of the Rondo from Piano Quartet in E flat major, op 16, performed by Robert Schmitz & the Roth Quartet, chosen at random & downloaded from the Internet Archive.

More on this 584th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Generations (The Assignment: Bridge a gap in your musical taste), at: https://disquiet.com/0584/

More on the Disquiet Junto at: Disquiet Junto F.A.Q. – Disquiet

Subscribe to project announcements here: https://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0584-generations/

Deromanticizing (disquiet0584)

Phenomenon  (sc296)

TPC 299 -100 WEEKS IN

Marc OFX - Different Point of View (ACR327 - Another Chance Records)

Buy and Stream: https://hypeddit.com/marcofx/differentpointofview

01 - Marc OFX - Different Point Of View

Brace yourselves for an electrifying ride through the pulsating realm of Drum & Bass, as the visionary artist, Marc OFX, drops an exhilarating single, "Different Point of View"! Prepare to be transported to uncharted soundscapes, where Marc OFX's sonic mastery takes you on an exhilarating journey. "Different Point of View" is a musical revelation, a testament to the artist's ability to push the boundaries of the genre, and it's bound to leave you in awe.

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Marc OFX - Different Point of View (ACR327 - Another Chance Records)

Readings of all Caitlin Johnstone's articles, usually by her co-writer Tim Foley.

Growing Up Means Extracting The Beliefs That Were Placed In Your Head By Others

Caitlin Johnstone

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