Another State of the US Thread
Bear with me here guys, this isn't a politics subreddit and I want a genuine criticism of this lecture as I am failing to find much of any.
The world has gone crazy as many would agree, but has it? Has it really?
What if we are just pawns in a bigger game of chess while everyone is obsessed with checkers?
In this lecture, which really can be explained in the first 15 minutes **of the hour lecture **is mind boggling accurate. Ironically, this lecture was done pretty close to 1984 from what I know (mighty hilarious).
I saw another thread on declining civility, however, Yuri points out that this is part of the typical progress of demoralizing another country with ideals by corrupting institutions to bring about distrust by the people. This ultimately destroys faith in the "system" whereby an authoritarian figure takes over.
He theorizes it is a war of ideals and manipulation. One where a foreign government could cripple another without war as if Sun Tzu had twitter, instagram, and or even the internet.
Does anyone have criticisms of this theory? As of now, the man was far ahead of his time. The audience laughs, but only if they knew what would go on decades later.
I may be a prisoner of the moment, but I have seen this lecture 3 times and **it genuinely creeps me out how correctly he predicted things. **
It is a classic technique, and its use is quite evident in American politics today. I’m not sure whether you are aware of the Russian author Aleksandr Duguin, and his book “Foundations of Geopolitics,” but it was published in 1997 and its message was well received and adopted by powerful individuals in Russia like Putin, and other ex KGB operatives, following the fall of the Soviet Union. It outlines the actions Russia should take against its adversaries in order to empower itself. Of particular interest is some of its content: “The textbook believes in a sophisticated subversion, destabilization and disinformation program led by the Russian special services.” “Russia must spread anti-Americanism everywhere: "The main 'scapegoat' will be precisely the United States.”
And additionally the plans postulated for specific countries and regions:
“France should be encouraged to form a "Franco-German bloc" with Germany. Both countries have a "strong anti-Atlantic tradition.” Now ask yourself, who are the current leaders of the EU?
“The UK should be isolated from Europe.” Sounds familiar?
“Ukraine must be annexed by Russia because "Ukraine as a state has no geopolitical significance, no particular cultural significance or universal significance, no geographic exclusivity, or ethnic exclusivity. Its certain territorial ambitions pose a tremendous danger to all of Eurasia and, without solving the problem Ukrainian, there is generally no point in talking about continental politics. " Ukraine should not be allowed to remain independent, unless it is a sanitary cord , which would be inadmissible.” Sounds eerily familiar to me.
But the most egregious and easily visible is the following regarding the United States:
“Russia should use its special services within the borders of the United States to fuel instability and separatism, for example, to provoke "Afro-American racists". Russia should "introduce geopolitical disorder into the internal activity of the United States, encouraging all kinds of separatism and ethnic, social and racial conflicts, actively supporting all dissident movements: extremist, racist and sectarian groups, thus destabilizing the internal political processes in the United States. It would also make sense simultaneously to support isolationist trends in American politics. "
It’s been happening for a while, and it will assuredly continue. The only hope is that we have not yet reached a point of no return in terms of trust in government and civil institutions. If we have not then we are assuredly at the precipice.
Ever considered being a diplomat or secretary of state? Lol
Well thought out and well written. Any books you would recommend besides the "Foundation of Geopolitics" that would better point out some of these tactics other than the examples we see today?
While a foreign service position does sound incredibly interesting to me, I’m not sure I could maintain personal integrity and be charged with enforcing US foreign policy abroad at the same time. But thank you for the compliments. I’m no geopolitical expert, and my particular are of interest is actually LATAM, however if geopolitics does interest you, I would highly recommend the “Intelligence Matters” podcast. The host is Michael Morell, former acting director of the CIA, and the discussions and guests are top tier. The opinions of his guests truly matter and should be listened to, as they are not talking heads but rather experts in their respective fields. Another book that caters more to those making their first foray into the field is “Prisoners of Geography.” It is quite good, however some things are probably simplified more than they should be.
To be fair, that is obvious to anyone paying attention (or not actively inhaling propaganda)
That's not to take away from Liam Gallagher's post, which is fantastic, but none of what he detailed is breaking news. Russia has been actively destabilizing their neighbors, Europe, and America for quite some time.
Like Gallagher mentioned, subversion is a classic technique.
I'd go as far as to say that the use of subversion dates far back into the very beginning of civilization.
State sponsored spread of religion, backing of certain political groups, influencing the media, etc... Everyone's been doing it forever.
You are entirely correct of course, however I would say it is also worth mentioning that the rules of the game have changed. Never before in history have we seen it play out rapidly and in real time on a global scale. It will be interesting to see where things end up, although rest assured it won’t be pretty.
I think we can thank Facebook and Twitter for that.
I think Russia is irrelevant here. In my opinion corporate media is to blame. They have been propping up Russia for years. They put out clickbait rage material that gets readers angry. There is a reason the news has the lowest approval rating of all time. I think if they covered news and stop being activists people would clam down. I wouldn't worry about Russia, I would worry about the mainstream media that was peddling russiagate for the last 2 years. Civility dies when people can't agree on basic facts.
Russia attacked America in order to sway the election and sow discord to destabilize the country. Full stop. You dismissing this as “russiagate” is literally a result of Russian destabilization practices.
“The media” is not to blame, unless you mean OAN, which is a front for Russian propaganda. Russia is to blame.
If you truly believe russia had any real imapct on that election, you dont know your own country. Rejection of the establishment. I'm old to enough to remember msnbc saying trump was a russian agent. Watch this to educate yourself about crowdstrike and all the bs they peddled. They are the true divider in the US.
To clarify, I agree there was effort to sway the election, but it had little to no impact. They literally made memes.... If you wanna know the results of the next election don't listen to these polls go look at Trumps Tulsa rally ticket requests.
“Full stop” = “I just said something that I can’t back up, but maybe if I say it with added emphasis people will just accept it as true. Yeah, that’ll fool em”.
I certainly agree with the fact that media outlets have exacerbated our current situation. However, discounting the influence that foreign actors have played on internal US affairs over the last decade is disingenuous in my opinion. Russia gate is not something I am going to discuss, but keep in mind that Russian Meddling has very little to do with Russia Gate. Russian meddling, on the other hand has everything to do with subversive tactics to thwart our civic institutions (including media) by the Russian government. This is well documented and reported by our very own intelligence services. I am not implying that a single foreign power can be blamed for the situation that we have found ourselves in, but to deny its influence is foolish.
Come on now. Subversion, destabilization, and demoralization of a foreign country? Who does it better than Uncle Sam?
This is very true
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