Published: 5 February 2021 ~ How Russophobia makes the West look Silly
Have you noticed how anti-Russian hysteria whipped up by the UK media comes in waves? It is rather like a bad case of diarrhoea, very often brought on by something uncomfortable happening on the home front which swiftly requires some form of diversion.
Why is the West so Silly?
A couple of years ago, the UK media’s Russophobia ramp-up preoccupied itself with the terrors that Brits would face if they travelled to Russia for the World Cup, Dr Salisbury and the Mysterious Case of the Skripals, watch out there are hackers about, and the omnipotent cyber power that Russia is said to possess which enables it to steal into one’s sub-conscious and influence the way one votes, from Brexit or not-to-Brexit to presidential elections. Incidentally, how does this work? Here I am committed to vote Remain in the Brexit referendum. I read something on social media, purported to have been written by someone from a foreign power, telling me to vote the opposite way. Bingo, I’ll vote to Leave!! I mean, would you? Do you? Does it …? Or, in the United States: I am going to vote for the Democrats. I always vote for them. I don’t know why, perhaps it’s because my mum does. She’s very PC and cannot have enough ‘isms’ in her life. But wait a moment, I have just read something that has told me to vote for Trump! Right, Trump it is.
I’ve just had a word with our cat, Ginger, about this, and all he can say is ‘give me some grub or let me scratch and bite you’. And then he rolled over and purred.
Nevertheless, such was the panic engendered by this media-created long arm of the Russian state, even longer than the famous long arm of the British law, that my mother was convinced that when she woke up one morning and found that the wheelie bin had gone that it must be the Russians who’d dun it!
Sputnik V romps home
I can see that you are not comfortable with the diarrohea metaphor, so let’s try another. How about a militaristic one, in which there are major battles and random cases of sniping?
For example, when the Russian vaccine Sputnik V was announced last year as the world’s first coronavirus vaccine, it sparked nothing short of a full-scale war in the West’s mainstream and science journal media.
Examples of Headline News in the West
Experts Raise Alarm As Putin Says Russia Has Approved World’s First Covid-19 Vaccine
Russia approves Sputnik V Covid vaccine despite testing safety concerns
We have no idea if the Russian Covid vaccine is safe or effective
Russia’s Fast-Track Coronavirus Vaccine Draws Outrage over Safety
Russia is spreading lies about Covid vaccines, says UK military chief
UK ‘95% sure’ Russian hackers tried to steal coronavirus vaccine research (Who wrote this one? Was it ‘Highly Likely’ Theresa May?)
It began politely enough, with the odd shot or two fired at the vaccine’s validity based on scientific testing protocols, but soon escalated into the bellicose language that we have come to expect in the Coronavirus & Cyber Cold War era, with accusations of disinformation, misinformation, no information and, yep you’ve got it, hacking.
As the first salvos gradually diminished, the sniping continued sporadically until, on 2 February 2021, The Lancet, an esteemed British medical journal, published the results from a phase 3 trial of the Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine in an article headlined ‘Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine candidate appears safe and effective’. On the same day, the BBC ran this article, ‘Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine has 92% efficacy in trial’, in which, in recognition of the unjust way in which Russia had been treated, it was quoted that “we should be more careful about being overly critical about other countries’ vaccine designs.”
A muted apology but an apology all the same.
It was quite obvious, and therefore understandable, that with western mainstream media using the phrase ‘vaccine race’ freely from the outset to dramatise research efforts to develop a Covid vaccine, that considerable pique would follow when on entering the race, which was pretty much a closed affair, Russia left its western ‘competitors’ standing, pipping them at the post before they had time to pip.
Of course, the US and Brit government will never forgive Russia for coming first in their race, apart from the loss of prestige there is all that globalist vaccine money to think of, but they are doing their utmost to detract from it by focusing instead on selectively publishing photographs taken of street protests recently staged in Russian cities.
I asked my dear and well-informed friend, Lord Wollocks, what he thought about this:
“Deflection technique. A bit embarrassing for the West of late. Lots of civil disorder. Last thing that they want [in the UK or the States] are their people looking in the direction of the former USSR and saying, ‘my word but things look a lot more civilised over there’, especially if they make the not-so quantum leap from a land blighted by coronavirus mishandling and BLM riots to one which holds unswayable store on conservative norms and family values.”
And off went Wollocks, to make a cup of tea.
No one, not even Lord Wollocks, made any connection between the good visual copy of street protests elsewhere coinciding with Biden coming to power, but that was possibly because if all else fails there is always this little bit of land, Kaliningrad and its region, at which to level one’s sites.
A rather Silly case of Russophobia
Western media has a never abating obsession for what it calls the strategic military importance of Russia’s westernmost outpost. In the past 10 years it has been in and out of the press more times than something attending a gender reassignment surgery which cannot quite make up its mind. On one hand, Kaliningrad has a ‘taste for western Europe’, on the other, it has a lot of clout for resisting western Europe, but should there be nothing more to snipe at Kaliningrad makes a convenient target.
Wait a mo! If I was going to nip into someone else’s backyard and switch off the dog so that my mates could rush in behind me and claim squatters’ rights, why would I want to tell the owners of the yard what I was going to do? Whatever happened to secrets? More to the point, what do spies and military generals put on their CVs when they are seeking alternative employment?
I mentioned this news report to a Russian friend of mine as we were standing in the supermarket trying to decide which brand of vodka to buy. I said, “Analysts say Poland could win Russia-NATO war by invading Kaliningrad and securing Moscow’s nukes.” “Really,” he said, raising an eyebrow. He thought for a moment, scratched his head and then asked, solemnly, “So, which vodka is it to be?”
A Creepy Case of Contortionist Comparison: There will be a time when history needs to be rewritten to arrive at the truth
Published: 29 January 2021 ~ BLM Riots vs Capitol Media Reporting
BLM Riots (United States) Date: 26 May 2020 Duration: 26 May 2020 – 8 June 2020 (2 weeks) Extent: More than 20 states across America Costs: Insurance costs estimated at between $1 and $2 billion dollars Deaths: More than 19 deaths Arrests: 14,000+ [source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Floyd_protests]
WHAT validity is there in comparing these two incidents: the BLM riots and the storming of the US Capitol? None: except that both were violent and both should be condemned as such. However, the disparity is that only one of these violent incidents appears to merit condemnation, the other is being excused.
I was amused in a morbid fashion to see how rapidly the liberal-biased media moved to make comparisons between the recent incident on Capitol Hill and the Black Lives Matter riots ~ amused, because quite clearly the two do not lend themselves to comparison, at least not a legitimate one.
I read a few more articles, and it soon became clear that the object of the exercise was to vindicate the BLM riots whilst denouncing the Capitol attack as a Trump-instigated insurrection inflicted by white supremacists and far right groups .. and then came all the usual stuff about an assault on democracy, etc.
After I had stopped yawning, I dismissed the latter out of hand. When a politically partisan media spends four years relentlessly attempting to delegitimise a presidency and in the process cold shoulders the democratic process, for it to suddenly reinvent itself as the guardian of democracy and reclaim the moral high ground at a time fortuitous to its own agenda, is a bit too rich to take.
BLM Riots vs Capitol Media Reporting
Let me make clear, that I am not so much concerned with whether you believe the BLM movement to be a legitimate one, with legitimate grievances and that their taking to the streets is condonable or, conversely, whether you believe them to be a subversive, anarchistic mob supported and directed by far-left extremist groups such as Antifa, as I am with the way in which western media reports such incidents in an attempt to influence and manipulate opinion.
Balanced … something the media finds hard to achieve (see Image credits)
First, let us look at some of the statistics about the BLM riots. They are not easy to find, and, obviously, I have no way of verifying their authenticity. Like you, all I can do is repeat what I have read in the media (scary, isn’t it!)
The BLM riots, which kicked off in the States, took place over a period that spanned two weeks and resulted in more than 19 deaths, 14,000 arrests and an insurance bill of between $1 billion and $2 billion. The BLM riots in the UK took place over a period of more than 3 weeks and resulted in 135+ arrests. I have not been able to ascertain the costs of the UK riots either in terms of insurance or policing. There is your homework.
The storming of the Capitol building was a flash incident that took place during one day. It resulted in 5 deaths and 162 arrested. As with the BLM UK riots, I have been unable to determine costs.
The first media report that I chanced upon in the wake of the Capitol Hill incident was one from the liberal-left online feed of The Guardian. The first paragraph reads:
“The contrast between the law enforcement reaction to the storming of the Capitol on Wednesday and the suppression of peaceful protests in the summer is not just stark – it is black and white.”
Yes, and so is the article. After the all-important ubiquitous word ‘peaceful’, a word much favoured and flaunted by UK and US liberal media in relation to the BLM riots, the article continues as a series of photographs put together in such a way as to contrast the ‘peaceful’ nature of the BLM riots against the ‘not so peaceful’ storming of the Capitol.
SOME COMPARISONS WORK BETTER THAN OTHERS! (see Image credits)
If I was to edit an article in favour of those who forced entry into the Capitol, I would select photographs that showed demonstrators waving flags and hugging one another ~ photographs, in other words, that depicted a happy crowd of peaceful revellers ~ and juxtapose these with scenes of mayhem, violence and looting during the BLM riots. Not only do you get the pictures, but I am sure you get the picture.
In addition to awareness of carefully selected pictures, recognising carefully loaded-words and expressions, that is to say biased words and expressions presumed capable of influencing thoughts and opinions, are also a certified means of determining where media bias lies. Once you have identified these, you will begin to understand along which garden path any one article or media corporation is attempting to lead you.
Up the garden path!(see Image credits)
For example, in the article to which I have referred, in addition to the keyword ‘peaceful’, others to watch out for are those that label, particularly those that label and define political street groups and affiliations. Comparisons and contrasts between any one group and its counterpart are key indicators of a specific article’s political bias and usually that of the publisher, unless the article closes on a disclaimer that specifically states that ‘The statements, views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Lie.’
So, in The Guardian’s article, we find the headline: ‘Maga v BLM: how police handled the Capitol mob and George Floyd activists – in pictures’.
Capitol mob; George Floyd activists. Spot the difference.
If you care to read the article you will see that those who breached the Capitol are ‘rioters’, whilst BLM are not only George Floyd ‘activists’ but ‘demonstrators’ and ‘protestors’, which in the carefully selected photographs they most surely are.
If you undertake a Google search on ‘BLM riots’, the search returns nothing on the word ‘riots’. Predominantly, uselessly as far as the search is concerned but with revelatory consequences, the search returns a deflecting preoccupation with the alleged difference in the police response to the storming of the Capitol and the law enforcement procedures adopted to contain those involved in the BLM ‘protests’.
To understand the futility of such a comparison, please refer to the statistics that I have provided on both counts at the beginning of this post.
By far the most involved and convoluted article to labour this perspective is one that seeks to justify the BLM riots on the grounds that certain types of mob violence and the destruction that it wreaks can be excused, even ennobled, depending on the stated cause and aim. I quote:
‘Violence that is intended to spread democracy, end injustice and encourage fairness in the application of the rule of law …’
Oxymoronic, simply moronic or true? Certainly, history and the events currently taking shape in Eastern Europe prove the premise that violence is used to spread ‘democracy’, but as for violence ending ‘injustice’ and ‘encouraging’ fairness in how the law is applied, this just sounds like an unconvincing repetition of that age-old get-out clause about ends justifying means, or, in this instance, the stated ends justifying the means. Rather ‘violence begets violence’ and ‘those who live by the sword die by the sword’ would be more appropriate, don’t you think?
BLM Riots vs Capitol Media Reporting
Nevertheless, you have to hand it to them, to support their tenet of a noble species of violence, the liberal media did manage to quote business owners who in the course of the US riots, although they suffered damage to their premises, loss of stock by looting and near loss of life, yet came out on the side of the rioters, claiming that it was worth it.
This dubious response reminds me of films based on prohibition days. James Cagney and his boys would invade a downtown bar and remodel the interior, persuading the proprietor that it would be prudent in future for him to sell their brand of bootlegged beer, or else. And the proprietor when asked later by the police or press about who trashed his premises, would very swiftly reply that it was just some guys letting off steam, and besides no harm was done.
Media corporations that have taken refuge in this typical liberal response, which is to ‘coset the pepertrators, blame the State and ignore the victims’, are also quick to further jeopardise the integrity of law and order by suggesting that not only is there a racial bias in the way that the police deal with mob violence but also a political one, that the police in other words are harder on riots involving neo-marxist antagonists (which the liberal media always deny exist) and people of colour and soft on far-right white extremists.
Hello, my name is Karl Marx …(see Image credits)
Inflicting disparagement on an already embattled police force when the glass has hardly been cleared away from broken shop fronts and the smoke not yet extinguished from the burnt wreckage of cars and buildings is not exactly the most diplomatic scapegoating. And with the cries of ‘defund the police’ and ‘abolish the police force’ still ringing in your ears, as silly as these slogans sound, you could be forgiven for believing that the BLM riots have less to do at the end of the day ~ the end of several days ~ with racial injustice and more with the neo-marxist dream of disempowering law enforcement, of making the law think twice before confronting and apprehending criminals from certain volatile backgrounds. Buy our brand, or else!
From an ideological standpoint an accomplishment of this magnitude is as good a deflection technique as stirring up riots in countries whose socio-political beliefs run counter to your own purely for the sake of making political capital out of the photographs that ensue, thus distracting the public from the carefully crafted political mismanagement that is taking place in their own back yard. It happens, and it is happening.
BLM Riots vs Capitol Media Reporting ~ conclusions
From an analysis and evaluation of the comparison strategy applied by the liberal-left media, which egregiously synonymises the storming of the Capitol with the BLM riots whilst ignoring the difference in scale and extent, (the Capitol Hill incident bears no relationship to riots that engulfed over 2,000 cities and towns in 50 states and was replicated in over 60 other countries*), it would be difficult not to conclude that the objective is to paint one outrage as irredeemably despicable and the other as excusable, even justifiable.
The narrative goes that the storming of the Capitol was carried out by white supremacists and factions of the far right, whilst the BLM riots were ‘peaceful’ protests that had a legitimate and transparent basis in hundreds of years of racial discrimination and intransigent police brutality.
The manipulation is an insidious one because by deflection the narrative plays squarely into the hands of the extreme left, the neomarxists, who, let us be perfectly honest, would like nothing more than to see the police defunded, but, failing to realise that fantasy are willing to accept, at least for the time being, the compromise of a hamstrung police force whose ability to prosecute law enforcement is severely hampered or even paralysed.
Ahhh, isn’t he nice!(see Image credits)
Fairness, equality and the alleged misappropriation of the law are things to be resolved through constructive debate and due legal process, not street violence and outlandish demands, the anarchistic nature of which emphatically betray ideological motives.
As a footnote, it would be inexcusable of me if I did not mention the BLM riots that took place in the UK. These occurred, as did many, as a sort of clip-on afterthought. The grievance list was read from the same script and the neomarxist desire for the police to be defunded was reiterated, although not a lot of people in the UK bought into that one. With crime in the UK running at an all-time high, and a growing proportion of the UK public believing it to be linked to failed social engineering, surviving in an increasingly fractured and disharmonised society with no fuzz and just a ‘gentleman’s agreement’ was a proposition straight down the pan.
The fundamental difference between the BLM riots in the US and UK was that in the UK it can be contextualised as a continuation or extension of legacy Britain vs others. Nowhere was this more apparent than in the de-erection of statues and the affront that this inflicted symbolically on the legacy values of ancestral home, heritage and history, an affront which reached its apotheosis in the attacks on Churchill’s statue, the shameful considerations among MPs afterwards to remove it to a ‘safe house’ and the gormless daubing in paint on the plinth ‘Churchill was a racist’.
‘We shall fight them on the beaches …’ … and everywhere else I should imagine!(see Image credits)
I think we can safely say, and without valid contradiction, that if it was not for Churchill people from faraway lands would not be enjoying the privilege of sailing to Blighty’s shores, taking up residence here and with the blessing of the state rampaging through the streets in the carefree way that they do (another way of saying ‘protest’). Those who perpetrate such acts and daub ‘racist’ on Churchill’s statue would do well to pause for thought. It was after all ‘racist’ Churchill who led this little island to defeat the Nazi hoards. Had it not been for Churchill’s yesterday I think we can safely say that today it would be Adolf’s statue that they would want to deface, and not without some justification, except, of course, to do so would take a lot more courage than the little that is needed in a country where our police force is less skilled in riot control than it is in offering apologies.
Spurious comparisons, such as the one perpetrated by the liberal media in BLM vs Capitol, though completely meretricious, are timely reminders that never before has the media played such a manipulating part in our lives.
Rolling TV news mesmerises, but it is the spawning of the internet, as an instant and incredibly volumetric means of disseminating ideological gunk wholesale that we need to be aware of. Add to this the incessant chatter and babble from Facebook and Twitter and, unless you choose not to believe anything until it is proved otherwise (and for goodness sake do not rely on Full Fact), you have about as much chance of getting safely through the misinformation and disinformation static as you have of navigating successfully through a fog-filled maze whilst wearing your Covid mask over your eyes (where, it would seem, as time goes by, most prefer to wear it).
(see Image credits)
Where will it all end? It is better not to think about it, but ‘Happy ever after’ is not by any means the place where the New World Orderists or their media lackies would have you believe they are taking us.
Read, watch, listen. Keep your eyes and ears open and above all — think!!
