The US Department of State has just published a bonkers press release condemning Russian attacks on America’s core values of democracy, LGBTQI+, and multiculturalism.
Here are “Russia’s Top Five Persistent Disinformation Narratives,” according to our reptilian overlords.
Theme #1: “Russia is an Innocent Victim”
Russian government officials falsely portray Russia as a perpetual victim and its aggressive actions as a forced response to the alleged actions of the United States and our democratic allies and partners.
Look how close they put their country to our military bases.
Theme #2: Historical Revisionism
When history does not align with the Kremlin’s political objectives, Russian government officials and their proxy voices deny historical events or distort historical narratives to try to cast Russia in a more favorable light and serve its domestic and geopolitical agenda. For example, the 1939 non-aggression pact between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, also known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, which helped precipitate World War II, is politically inconvenient for the Putin regime. In 2020, in an attempt to minimize and rationalize Stalin’s decision to align himself with Hitler, Putin published a twisted version of the start of World War II, downplaying the Soviet role and shifting blame for the war to other countries. Russia often takes this a step further by labeling those who disagree with its twisted version of history as Nazis or Nazi sympathizers.
The older I get, the more I’m convinced that WWII really wasn’t about Nazi Germany, and this is exactly why. The West’s primary enemy in the war was the Soviet Union, Russia. Hitler was just a pet attack dog who bit the hand that fed him. Fortunately for the Soviets, and the world, Churchill and Hitler didn’t get along. The British and German empires couldn’t coexist. Instead, they wasted resources fighting each other when it would have made much more sense for them to unite, and both empires died as a direct result of the war. Now they’re vassal states of the American empire, and are content in this role. But isn’t it a good thing that Nazi Germany was defeated? Isn’t it also a good thing that the British empire dissolved after the war? Maybe, but our elites certainly don’t seem happy about it. If you think I’m exaggerating, look at which countries celebrate Victory Day, and which ones don’t.
Theme #3: “The Collapse of Western Civilization is Imminent”
This is my favorite one:
Russia pushes the false claim that Western civilization is collapsing and has strayed from “traditional values” because it works to ensure the safety and equality of LGBTQI+ people and promotes concepts such as female equality and multiculturalism. The demise of Western civilization is one of Russia’s oldest disinformation tropes, with claims of “the decaying west” documented since the 19th century.
It’s LGBTQI now? What does the “I” stand for? I don’t even know, they keep adding letters faster than I can keep up.
As for the “Decaying West,” well, it’s not an outrageous thing to say. Cultural and political brain rot in Europe led to World War I, then barely 20 years later led to World War II. Let’s not forget that the Weimar Republic’s “sexual liberation” and economic chaos closely resembles what’s happening in the Western World today, and on a much wider scale. I don’t think it’s unfair to suggest that this same brain rot might also provoke World War III, or total collapse. When our school systems and corporate media are encouraging gender reassignment therapy for toddlers we should really be asking ourselves if the right side won the Cold War.
Theme #4: “Popular Movements are U.S.-sponsored ‘Color Revolutions’”
The Kremlin has difficulty accepting that all individuals should have the human right to freedom of expression, and that the government should be accountable to its people. Russia has accused the United States of either instigating uprisings or plotting “color revolutions” in Georgia, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Moldova, Ukraine, and throughout the Middle East and Africa. If a popular movement is pro-democracy and pro-reform and not deemed to be in Russia’s geopolitical interests, the Kremlin will often attack its legitimacy and claim that the United States is secretly behind it. These baseless accusations often target local and international civil society organizations, as well as independent media that expose human rights abuses and corruption. The Kremlin seeks to deny that people in neighboring countries could have agency, dignity, and independent aspirations to advocate for themselves, just as it denies these qualities to the people of Russia.
I’ve talked about this before (see my article about Kazakhstan here). The USA and NATO funds NGOs around the world, saturating small countries with tens of thousands of psyops, while maintaining just enough plausible deniability to insist that these bloody uprisings all happened spontaneously. I do concede that it is tough to find concrete smoking gun evidence of USG involvement most of the time, but let’s not be disingenous. It’s public knowledge that the USA employed these tactics throughout the Cold War, and our modern “intelligence community” is much more massive than it was then. Does anyone seriously believe that this huge army of analysts, propagandists, and operatives are just doing nothing and have nothing to do with the unrest happening all around them?
Speaking of American-sponsored cultural revolutions, and the previous point about the decaying West, see this eye-opening article from Bloomberg about America exporting Wokeism to the world.
Theme #5: Reality is Whatever the Kremlin Wants It to Be
The Kremlin frequently tries to create multiple false realities and insert confusions into the information environment when the truth is not in its interests. Often intentionally confusing, Russian officials make arguments designed to try to shift the blame away from the Russian government’s role, even if some of the narratives contradict one another. However, in time, presenting multiple conflicting narratives can itself become a technique intended to generate confusion and discourage response. Other elements in Russia’s disinformation and propaganda ecosystem, such as the abuse of state-funded disinformation outlets and weaponized social media, help push multiple false narratives.
Isn’t this the pot calling the kettle black?
Anyway, it is useful to insist that only a handful of approved outlets can be trusted. I don’t see this absurdity going anywhere good. For people who want more aggressive action against Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, etc., let me ask you this. What personal sacrifices are you willing to make? Which family members are you fine with dying in wars with those countries? If you can’t pay, then you should strongly consider getting off the train.
Ian Kummer
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I thought of reacting, u mentioned the cold war, trans-agenda, and my thoughts sidetracked towards the USSR, apparently;). And here's what (I've said it b4): The Soviet Union first gave women all the civil rights, unconditionally and fully, yet it never degraded into wokism, if I may word it this way. The Boston Marathon story seems nonsense to me, born in the USSR. The evil empire? Not so sure.