Giù il cappello di fronte a Marina Ovsjannikova, una donna con più coraggio di mille uomini. Perché un’irruzione in diretta contro Putin non è esattamente come un’irruzione di Gabriele Paolini contro Emilio Fede.
“Newly-released oil industry documents push back the start date of the world’s most successful disinformation campaign to the 1960s, if not earlier. The must-read documents, published by The Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), strengthen the hand of the numerousattorneys general investigating whether ExxonMobil engaged in a cover-up to mislead the public and investors about the dangers of human-caused climate change.”
Once upon a time the official facebook page of Richard Dawkins’ foundation posted a graphic according to which the holiday of Easter is just a rebranded celebration of the Mesopotamian mythology superstar Ishtar, arguing that the evidence is contained in its very name. As everyone knows, Dawkins is an online talking head notable for discussing his non-belief in such an euphoric way that it might turn off even the most staunch secularists and for appearing in some reasonably funny memes about half a decade ago. Bizarrely enough, however, the same claim can be often found among the crowds dedicated to crystal healing, Robert Graves’ mythology fanfiction, indigo children and similar dubiously esoteric content. What’s yet more surprising is that once in a while it shows up among a certain subset of fundamentalist Christians, chiefly the types who believe giants are real (and, of course, satanic), the world is ruled by a secret group of Moloch worshipers and fossils were planted by the devil to led the sheeple astray from the truth about earth being 6000 years old, tops. Of course, to anyone even just vaguely familiar with Christianity whose primary language isn’t English this claim rightfully seems completely baffling – after all it’s evident in most languages that the name of the holiday celebrating Jesus’ resurrection, and many associated customs, are derived from the earlier Jewish Pascha (Passover) which has nothing to do with Ishtar other than having its origin in the Middle East. Why would the purported association only be evident in English and not in Aramaic, Greek, Latin, Spanish, virtually any language other than English and its close relatives – languages which generally didn’t have anything to do with Mesopotamia or early christianity?
Read on to find out what sort of sources let this eclectic selection of characters arrive to the same baffling conclusion, why are they hilariously wrong, and – most importantly – where you can actually find a variety of Ishtars (or at least reasonably Ishtar-like figures) under different names instead.
In a world where people were trying to do their jobs, this story would not make sense to anyone, now or ever. But because we live in the dumbest fucking timeline, you need to know the shape of the Trump cartel’s latest disinformation campaign against the American democratic process.
As with a lot of Trump trash, it’s impossible to describe without sounding like you’re exaggerating for comedic effect, but the stakes are too high for any of it to be funny.
That apparently didn’t have the hoped-for effect. The next day, what appeared to be a series of highly emotional text exchanges between the vice president and his son appeared. There was nothing even vaguely scandalous in these, to a point where it’s not immediately obvious why anyone would bother publishing them. My best guess is that it’s meant to throw Biden off his stride by trying to hurt and humiliate his son, though it may also be an attempt to soften the groundforan even more theatrical reveal.
A lot of Very Serious Politics-Knowers have deluded themselves that the But Her Emails debacle of 2016 was the legitimate kernel of a story that was “blown out of proportion.” But Her Emails was about people a) having some degree of misogyny, conscious or unconscious, which led to a bias against Clinton and b) wanting to tell other people and/or themselves that it wasn’t because she was a woman. They understand that the But Her Emails-ing was a) enormously consequential and b) incredibly dumb. They don’t want to think too hard about that tension, because if they did, they’d have to take responsibility for how the dumb thing became so consequential.
Meanwhile, Trump campaign insiders know better than the rest of us how much they cheated in 2016, but they’re still people and therefore susceptible to the cognitive bias that they got what they wanted because they earned it somehow. The closest thing they had to an above-board strategy was yelling “emails!!” a lot, so they expect yelling “emails!!” to be successful again. They’re just desperately throwing pasta to see what sticks – but Joe Biden is a man, so they’re throwing it at the theory of relativity instead of the refrigerator door.
There are differences between 2020 and 2016 which are significantly less depressing. Trump’s co-conspirators are resorting to ridiculous methods because so many of the key players who made the 2016 operation work are actually facing punishment for some of their crimes. Paul Manafort is under house arrest. Wikileaks guy Julian Assange is in jail. Social media companies,especially Twitter, were prepared to slam the brakes. Some mainstream reporters have refused to learn their lesson from 2016, but others were prepared to be critical. And, I cannot emphasize this last one enough, voters are more prepared for it. So Team Trump isn’t as good at doing the crimes as they were four years ago, even if they were as good at it they wouldn’t be able to use traditional and social media as effectively as they did last time, and even if they could adjust to that they’d have a harder time manipulating us. Maybe it got frustrating and boring for you to hear and talk about the 2016 attack for years on end, but the whole point of that was that we needed to be ready for exactly this scenario. So far, it seems to be working better than I would have hoped.
Obviously, this is infuriating. All else aside, putting this enormous, invasive pressure on a private citizen’s mental health and substance abuse problems is abusive and gross and genuinely dangerous. I don’t give a shit who his dad is, it’s fucking evil. We need to be ready to remember everybody involved in pushing this story – not just the con artists behind it, but the “mainstream” reporters who validated it in their behavior toward the Biden campaign or who spread what were (allegedly) entirely personal text messages of no news value.
One last thing: this is a less obvious reason why it’s important to vote as early as you can. All these other increasingly desperate stunts depend on the ability to overwhelm everyone all at once, without enough time for them to be debunked or brought back into proportion. The more early votes are in the bank, the less effective their next stink bomb can be, and if it can’t be effective, there are a lot of people around Trump who would rather save their own asses from prison than help him throw it.
The war in Ukraine is a world problem not just a nation state problem. A food crisis domino effect can happen worldwide. And there’s a water source crisis looming in north- east Africa.
Never underestimate the potency, and deceptive malice, of the British political mind. In responding to the threat posed by Imperial Germany during the First World War, the British propaganda campaign made much of the atrocity tale, the nun raping German and the baby bayoneting Hun. The effectiveness of the campaign was so impressive it sowed doubt amongst a generation about the reliability of war…
K57 Afternoon talk show host, Tony Lamorena spent some time this afternoon with Republican lawmaker Joanne Brown, pushing a false narrative: that the recently leaked US Supreme Court draft overturning Roe vs Wade was a fake.
Lamorena and Brown are both anti-abortion advocates. It took less, than 0.55 seconds to google the correct - and honest - truth. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts has repeatedly CONFIRMED - in nationally and internationally reported news, the authenticity of the leaked draft.
In this election, there are going to be real differences in policies and platforms between Republicans and Democrats on Guam. And not just on women’s healthcare and the right to choose for themselves what to do with their bodies and their lives.
But, the un-asked question of Guam Republican candidates is: Where do you stand on the hard right bent of the national Republican Party towards Trumpism, restricting the voting rights of minorities - like those who call Guam home, and the Jan 6th insurrection.
2022 is not the year for treating politics like a football game. There’s too much at stake this year.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is now accepting applications for the first-ever SAMHSA Harm Reduction grant program and expects to issue $30 million in grant awards. This funding, authorized by the American Rescue Plan, will help increase access to a range of community harm reduction services and support harm reduction service providers as they work to help prevent overdose deaths and reduce health risks often associated with drug use.
The purpose of the program is to support community-based overdose prevention programs, syringe services programs, and other harm reduction services. Funding will be used to enhance overdose and other types of prevention activities to help control the spread of infectious diseases and the consequences of such diseases for individuals with, or at risk of developing substance use disorders (SUD), support distribution of FDA-approved overdose reversal medication to individuals at risk of overdoes, build connections for individuals at risk for, or with, a SUD to overdose education, counseling, and health education, refer individuals to treatment for infectious diseases such as HIV, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and viral hepatitis, and encourage such individuals to take steps to reduce the negative personal and public health impacts of substance us or misuse.
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The video below is by Reecie Colbert, who will explain to listeners what the SAMHSA program is about, as well as alert you to a new batch of LIES that are being peddled by right-wingers or the Republican party. Unfortunately, there also seems to be an incentive for ‘theshaderoom" to spread misinformation among my community in order to increase engagement, regardless of whether that information is harmful to the community they serve but I digress. Without much adeiu, here’s Reecie Colbert.
(Please click on the VOLUME. I apologize for the grainy video)
(Please turn on the volume)
Please do NOT allow rich white people to spread lies about a program that thousands of people, across the country, need.
This is important. This program is important, and many people (some of whom live up in Connecticut, Appalachian, Iowa, etc) need the help that this program offers.
This is not about politics for me, when it comes to drug overdose. It’s about saving lives. If you know someone who needs help, please apply for this program; and don’t listen to the lies being spread.
Get help if you or a family member or friend or co-worker, needs it.
Marina Ovsjannikova, an editor of the Russian state broadcaster Pervi Kanal, interepted a live broadcasting with the message “Stop war. Don’t believe the propaganda. They’re lying to you”. Although the camera was quickly switched, her message was briefly seen on TV. She was later arrested. I admire her bravery, risking everything to do what’s right: fighting propaganda about a war that is killing innocent citizens. (X)
1. do not share ANY information about the place, the state, and the members of Ukrainian army. don’t like it, don’t reblog it, don’t even write about it.
2. if you want to get information, do not look for carrds or twt threads. turn on your tv, read a newspaper, look for journalists and officials. do not trust random internet users and do not spread the disinformation and propaganda that is already circulating around here. double check every account you see talking about what’s happening before deciding to share it further.
Ignoring an issue is not the same as an issue being nonexistent
tumblr has a thriving radfem/TERF/transphobia scene like twitter
tumblr posts spread conspiracies and disinformation like tiktoks
tumblr users share fake news and misinformation like facebook users
Assuming these issues don’t exist on tumblr because you haven’t (to your knowledge) seen them does not mean they don’t exist. In fact it makes you more vulnerable to falling victim to believing misinformation and being radicalised because you’ve internalised a sense of security and superiority.
Tumblr is not an inherently better or smarter platform than any other. You can and inevitably will be exposed to these things even here.
Drop the superiority complex and learn about how to actually protect yourself from falling for misinformation, because being on tumblr does not automatically protect you.
tiktok is doing the same sort of damage to young adults and teenagers that fox news is doing to boomers. i’d even say tiktok is worse with how influential social media is and how it’s beginning to take precedent over actual news.
it’s so interesting the way zoomers will talk about how old folks are so gullible and will believe everything they see on tv just because tucker carlson is the one saying it, but then turn around and listen to some true crime tuber they believe to be the authority on law and order. you are not immune to biased information.
this has a very subtle “isn’t the west racist so you should sympathize with them less, the Ukrainians are less sympathetic because they’re benefiting from racism” message. Not openly stated…but you felt a bit less charitable and positive towards Europe and Ukrainians when you read it, didn’t you? That’s not an accident.
here’s the rest of the post with a partial list of Russian propaganda tactics currently being used:
this kind of stuff is not being posted/tweeted/passed around out of CONCERN for other groups of refugees. This stuff is being pushed specifically by Russia to get people to care LESS about THESE refugees. Look at the tweet. “Begrudge” is a really good word, isn’t it? It’s unusual, it sticks in your mind. “I don’t begrudge them” sort of implies a lot of people do, doesn’t it? Or even that maybe some people should. How interesting.
This. …Some of these old games go WAY back. :/
(Also, as a mildly interesting linguistic side note: colloquial Irish has a specific word for the local form of this: “begrudgery.” [Though the precise Irish-usage definition is a little more nuanced. Normally it indicates a reluctance or refusal to acknowledge someone’s accomplishments, because that person just might be thinking those accomplishments make them somehow better than you / than Average People.])
i saw a post today where someone stated that they often can’t tell real information from misinformation online. i am not here to make fun of that person. that being said, the ability to figure out if information is real or not is a critical skill for everyone who uses the internet. you need to be able to do that on your own. it’s great if you can get help or if people will tell you what’s real and what’s not, but you also need to be able to do it by yourself. simple, easy tips under the cut.
As most/all of you know at this point, last night/early morning Ukraine time, Russian military forces invaded Ukraine after Putin announced that he had decided “to carry out a special military operation in Ukraine.
I am not an expert on this, nor do I claim to be, so I’m not going to be talking about what’s actually going on on the ground. But a few things to keep in mind:
Beverycareful about the sources you read and trust. Russia is incredibly good at disinformation campaigns. Sources such as Reuters, AP, NY Times, and Washington Post are reliable. Sources such as RT are not. If you want to see what sort of disinformation Russia is putting out on this topic, Bellingcat has a database that’s tracking it.
Be careful what you share. If something could be a disinformation campaign, don’t share it. If something seems unreliable or out of date, don’t share it. If something shares Ukrainian troop movements, don’t share it.
This is not something to joke about, or to meme, or to treat callously. These are, and I cannot say this strongly enough, real people who are going to be hurt and killed, not some hypothetical thing that’s just happening on CNN.
If you want to help, help in ways that Ukrainians ask for. There are a lot of Ukrainian people on social media talking about useful ways for foreigners to help, so I recommend checking out those. Here are a few:
1. do not share ANY information about the place, the state, and the members of Ukrainian army. don’t like it, don’t reblog it, don’t even write about it.
2. if you want to get information, do not look for carrds or twt threads. turn on your tv, read a newspaper, look for journalists and officials. do not trust random internet users and do not spread the disinformation and propaganda that is already circulating around here. double check every account you see talking about what’s happening before deciding to share it further.
