Skip Navigation

InitialsDiceBearhttps://github.com/dicebear/dicebearhttps://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/„Initials” (https://github.com/dicebear/dicebear) by „DiceBear”, licensed under „CC0 1.0” (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)F

freagle

@ frisbird @lemmy.ml

Posts
3
Comments
681
Joined
3 mo. ago

  • The people who call newspapers "propaganda" are even more propagandized than the people they call brainwashed

    Jump

  • Yeah, sorry to say, but it's sort of been an open "secret" for a couple centuries that newspapers are propaganda.

    Lenin once quipped that, under capitalism, "freedom of the press" means the ability of the rich to buy newspapers and print things that serve their interests.

    This was after the Opium Wars. Do you know about the role of newspapers in the Opium Wars? Well, the newspapers were owned by the rich. Also, the opium trade was run by the rich. And when China decided to stop the opium trade because it was killing Chinese society, the rich used their newspapers to print article after article about how the Chinese were violating the crown's sovereignty and that it was a violent backwards tyranny and that the crown must save the British from the tyrannical violence of the Chinese. So Britain launched the opium wars.

    Yellow journalism is not a mistake that the papers have corrected. It's literally a key aspect of their function in society. From the Opium Wars to Vietnam to Cuba to Iraqi WMDs and beyond. The papers lie for the government, for the military, and for big business. It's built in to what they do.

    Yes they have journalists. Yes some of them are good. Most of the good ones who also have a sense of justice don't survive, because they get pushed out for not writing along the paper's "line".

    And then there's Operation Mockingbird

    And then there's the agreement between news organizations and the government that they will toe the government line in exchange for access to newsworthy information and presence in press briefings, etc. These agreements are both implicit/unwritten and explicit/literal contracts.

    And then there's the literal pay-to-publish news industry where news organizations will publish articles written by outside interests for a fee. These pieces can be ghostwritten, or sometimes rewritten by a "journalist" but in the end it's just a manipulative story in the interest of the highest bidder.

    I hate to break it to you, but if you ONLY get your news from newspapers, you are getting an intensely biased, compromised, and manipulative perspective on the world. And that's the essence of propaganda. It propagates ideas in a deliberate, systemic way, and it propagates a specific subset of ideas, the subset that most benefits the ruling class.

    Always has been, always will be.

  • US is covering up military casualties

    Jump

  • Wait, what? You saw my ninja edit?

  • International Law for Some, but Not for All | Opinion

    Jump

  • Thanks for sharing your interpretation. The intent is not to justify current behavior, it's to condemn selective outrage and selective enforcement.

    When the police pull over more black people for taillights being out than white people, and send more black people to jail for the same crimes, and kill more black people for the same behaviors, we call that selective enforcement.

    So when we have dubious claims of genocide in Xinjiang based on satellite analysis of a German Christian Nationalist who believes birth control is equivalent to murdering babies and should be banned, and then we see people say this is atrocious and no one should be entertaining trade with China, we COULD just take that at face value. But when we seat it in context, we see that they demand no such thing when we have open direct access to literal ongoing genocides we see no such calls for changes in behavior.

    Why is that? Why should we embargo Cuba and kill their sick, elderly, and infants but it's OK to support Israel? Obviously you don't believe that we should support Israel, but I am asking about these think-tanks, government officials, parties, and other powerful parties who justify mass murder by referring to "crimes and evils" that are either tiny, specious, or both when compared to their own crimes and evils.

    I propose we prioritize intervention into evils based on scale. We can get to Xinjiang when it comes up on the list ordered by the scale of the problem, urgency of irreparable harm, robustness of evidence, and structural relevancy to systemic evil.

    And since embargos by the US and EU cause more deaths than literally all wars in the same period, the first priority would be stopping the genocide in Gaza, the second would be to declare all unilateral sanctions illegal and unenforceable and to enforce that ruling with a global military coalition, and the third would be shutting down the US military and limiting them to being only a defensive force of their mainland. Next priorities would be the decolonization of all European-held territories and the establishment of an international protection force for the indigenous peoples everywhere. Then we can send yet another contingent of international observers to Xinjiang to see if this time they can find evidence of a genocide, because the last dozen times no one has found evidence of a genocide and in fact the population in Uyghur population in Xinjiang increased.

  • US is covering up military casualties

    Jump

  • Sorry. I was making a little joke. I genuinely believe people were down voting you because they don't believe that the American military is a terrorist organization. But since I agree with you, I was trying to come up with another explanation.

  • US is covering up military casualties

    Jump

  • Fewer is for countable nouns, like 4 apples is fewer than 10 apples.

    Less is for uncountable nouns, like Lake Placid has less water than Lake Superior.

    It can be confusing because you could find a way to express the same idea using either, like Lake Placid has fewer drops of water, or fewer liters of water than Lake Superior, be sure "drops" and "liters" are discrete countable nouns. But water as a noun covers any amount. Similarly less snow versus fewer inches of snow, or less money versus fewer dollars.

  • Trump Admits He Has No War Plan in Bombshell Letter

    Jump

  • Maybe what'll stop him is another us president...

  • US is covering up military casualties

    Jump

  • I choose to believe your being downvoted for incorrectly choosing between "less" and "fewer".

  • International Law for Some, but Not for All | Opinion

    Jump

  • But no problem with the Tibetan monarchy torturing and enslaving the masses? No problem with the KMT running an openly fascist dictatorship for 40 years in Taiwan killing and torturing anyone who disagreed with them?

    No problem with the US and UK protecting the KMT while they prosecuted the White Terror? No problem with the US training terrorists and airlifting them into Tibet to kill and maim and destroy?

    No problem with the US program of terrorism that resulted in the high rate of terrorist attacks in Xinjiang? No consideration of the claims that China's program that violated human rights have resulted in an incredible reduction of terrorist attacks in the Xinjiang, increased women's autonomy, increased income, reduced economic precarity, and maintained cultural autonomy and vibrancy?

    The idea that countries are appeasing China is a drop of water in an ocean of appeasement for the US and Western Europe.

  • Pretty depressed for losing a community where I can program

    Jump

  • Don't be angry at yourself. Your worth is not defined by your performance. If someone else doesn't see your worth because you needed extensive care, then they are not someone that is capable of providing you the type of relationship that you need to thrive and flourish.

  • If you don't oppose it you support it.

    Jump

  • Nope. Think of it like a trolley problem.

  • Removed

    This country (the USA) was founded in REVOLT

    Jump

  • A very specific revolt, not general revolt. There were lots of revolts happening. The native inhabitants were revolting against the white European settlers. The black slaves were revolting against the white European settlers. Hell, the poor working class white European settlers were revolting against the slave-owning white European settlers.

    The USA was founded in the revolt of the rich white landowning slave-owning European settlers against the British monarchy because the rich white landowning slave-owning European settlers believed the crown was violating their rights to commit genocide against the natives, steal their land, and make super profits.

    The people who won had no problem crushing slave revolts, indian revolts, and working class revolts. By sheer numbers, the USA was built more on crushing revolt than on revolt itself.

  • Removed

    This country (the USA) was founded in REVOLT

    Jump

  • They did, they just didn't write it specifically in the foundational documents. It's in their letters, Jefferson in particular. It's in the Federalist Papers. It's all over their literature.

  • Why is Western double standard so normalized? If Russia or Iran did 1% of what Israel & US do, the outrage would be endless. Why do rules only apply to them?

    Jump

  • Every single president incrementally adds to the fascism of America. Reagan's neoliberal abandonment of Americans who needed help and the massive consolidation of the financialization of the economy. Bush 1 was the first formal fusion of the CIA and the presidency. Clinton, as governor, had black house slaves, and as president, sexually dominated at least one subordinate that we know of. He also was at the helm as NATO when it expanded to become an offensive, and not purely defensive, transnational nuclear military. Bush 2 created free speech zones, oversaw massive domestic spying and immunity for companies who broke the law, the opening up of private for-profit military collaboration beyond anything previously seen, and of course all the torture and war crimes. Obama expanded the president's power to just kill whoever wherever whenever through drone strikes, killing civilians at weddings and funerals (and funerals for those who died at the weddings), and even killing US citizens abroad.

    not saying all your points aren’t true. But they don’t determine fascism

    When you save 10k Nazis from justice, that's not a tell for you? When you and the Soviets rebuild Germany, and your side has openly former Nazi politicians taking political office while the Soviet side purged all fascists, that's not a tell for you? When you form NATO and staff it with former Nazi officers, that's not a tell? And when you direct NATO to organize, fund, arm, and manage neo-nazi groups and former Nazi collaborators into standing militias and terrorist cells, that's not a tell?

    is the personal Führer cult in combination with the open hate of democracy and ‘might makes right’ philosophy.

    Have you been to the US? Are you aware of the insane cult of personality we have around nearly every single US president? The media spectacle? The us vs them? The angel/devil photography? Do you know what we teach our kids in school about Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln? Like, Jefferson is literally worse than Trump. Trump was a consumer in Epstein's ring. Jefferson literally ran slave plantations, bred slaves for sale, raped his slaves and sold the children that came from those rapes, and tried but failed to use his political power to ban the transatlantic slave trade so that his slaves would fetch a higher price and make him richer.

    Obama ordered crimes against humanity and was the head of an imperial engine, but his government still showed allegiance to democracy and to institutions instead of persons.

    So you're saying aesthetically he wasn't openly fascist but in actuality, he was? Fascism is determined by aesthetics for you?

    You can have a fully democratic empire conquering the world and it still wouldn’t be fascist

    This is such a contradictory sentence. No, you cannot both have a fully democratic empire and conquer the world. That would be a partially democratic empire. Specifically it would only be democratic for the "in-group". For the US, that in-group is white, male, hetero, patriarchal, Euro-Centric, Anglo-Centric, property owning, capitalistic, and Christian. That's LITERALLY fascism when it's coupled with killing millions of people to maintain your empire. It's also the farthest thing from "fully democratic" when democracy works for the ultraminority white supremacists and everything is might-makes-right full on subjugation of the rest of the world, including the indigenous people you displaced and continue to oppress daily.

    And don't forget that the US imprisons more of its own people than anyone else in the world (El Salvador and Cuba just passed us for 1 year, but are historically lower) and that's JUST in prison. The parole system, where we surveil their entire lives, garnish their wages, tell them where to be when and then throw them back in prison for any missed requires, is TWICE AS LARGE as our prison population. We are the world leader in dominating our own people.

    But that's not fascist enough with the aesthetics?

    But now they fully took off any masks of democracy the Democrats were smart enough to still keep on.

    They still haven't taken the masks off. Just watch them in the UN. Watch them on television. Read their papers. YOU have figured out that they're lying. But they're still actively lying. You are just finally part of the group that sees it. Other people, particular the victims of US imperialism, have seen it for literally decades. You were part of the group of people, as was I, that thought "Death to America" and calling America "The Great Satan" was only done by people who don't understand us and who are actually evil in their hearts. You are realizing that they're right, but you think it's only really appropriate for THIS administration. It's not. Keep reading history. Keep analyzing the situation. We were founded by people who trafficked humans, raped them, and tortured them. We are still being run by people who do those same things. We were founded by people who were traveling around the world killing anyone that wasn't a white Christian man and convincing other white Christian men on the basis of their white Christianity to help them do it. We are still operating a country that follows that exact same program.

    EuroFascism as we know it from Italy and Germany emerged from the European context. It was quite literally European settler colonialism applied on the continent. The first gas chambers were invented by the French to kill masses of Haitian freedom fighters. The US was a fascist apartheid regime for most of its history. Every single town or city called "Fort Something" was literally a military base for killing every single Indian that didn't manage to run away.

    It's ALWAYS been this bad. The way we use language it's almost as if fascism was new when Hitler and Mussolini did their thing. But the reality is that they were just applying the logic of their context, which was the same logic America, Canada, Australia, and the rest of the settler colonies were founded on. Every. Single. One.

  • Iranian state media confirms death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

    Jump

  • 86 year old AND 2 subsequent generations of his bloodline - his daughter and his granddaughter

  • Removed

    The reason Trump hyperfocuses on decapitation strikes as the sole instrument of regime change is to him only strongmen make things happen and governments are illegitimate illusions

    Jump

  • Israel has been doing decapitation strikes as a core strategy for decades now. It's not a Trump phenomenon

  • Myanmar military airstrikes on trading site kills more than two dozen

    Jump

  • Why is Western double standard so normalized? If Russia or Iran did 1% of what Israel & US do, the outrage would be endless. Why do rules only apply to them?

    Jump

  • What about our current government makes it fascist that our previous governments did not have? I ask because under the administration GWB and Cheney they came up with a list of 7 countries to topple and Iran was the last one. The listed included Libya, which Obama and HRC executed, with HRC literally gloating at the report of the 70+ year old leader of Libya being killed by being sodomized by a bayonet when she said "We came! We saw! He died!".

    People have been analyzing the double standards of the US for literal decades. The US was an apartheid state not that long ago. The Third Reich studied US law and culture as the model for building an effective apartheid state so they could do it in German and hopefully extend it to Russia when they eventually won the war.

    Truman collaborated with the Pope to save 10K Nazis from justice, relocating them all over the Western hemisphere, protecting them, funding them, etc.

    So why are you only saying the current government?

  • who else wants a ride?

    Jump

  • Or he is brought into fake SCIFs in Mar-a-Lago for photo shoots because he's not actually making any of the decisions he's just responsible for telling everyone that he's making the decisions and in fact the decisions are being made by the joint chiefs

  • What if today's Iran is resigned to a long, hellish war with the US?

    Jump

  • Uh. It includes Putin. Did you just miss it?

  • who else wants a ride?

    Jump

  • I thought China and Russia were allies of Iran and didn't want the US to kill Khamenei. Oh well. No cognitive dissonance here. Trump just does what he's told by people who wouldn't tell him to do those things. Makes sense

  • Sino @hexbear.net
    freagle @lemmy.ml

    The perilous shift in U.S. weapons sales to Taiwan - US selling weapons that threaten mainland

    mronline.org /2026/01/05/the-perilous-shift-in-u-s-weapons-sales-to-taiwan/
  • China @sopuli.xyz
    freagle @lemmy.ml

    The perilous shift in U.S. weapons sales to Taiwan - US selling weapons that threaten mainland

    mronline.org /2026/01/05/the-perilous-shift-in-u-s-weapons-sales-to-taiwan/
  • United States | News & Politics @lemmy.ml
    freagle @lemmy.ml

    The perilous shift in U.S. weapons sales to Taiwan - US selling weapons to attack mainland directly

    mronline.org /2026/01/05/the-perilous-shift-in-u-s-weapons-sales-to-taiwan/