Egregious clickbait hed. I don’t care the source, “than you might think” works psychologically on, well, more levels than you might think.
Throughout this election, and honestly, past it wouldn’t be bad, wherever you are in the world, this phrase should be a red flag that you’ve run headlong into bullshit.
That aside, Nature, are you OK? Journal articles tend to have as theses shit that isn’t somehow both obvious and vacuously true then not backed up by the passive voice, the gold standard for scientific literature. “The beaker was observed …”
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Click here to see the summaryThe insight the PLA gains from Western military talent threatens the safety of the targeted recruits, their fellow service members, and U.S. and allied security. The bulletin said the U.S. and its Western partners have taken steps to try to counter the threat, including imposing commercial restrictions on a test flying academy in South Africa and Chinese organizations linked to the spying operations, and prohibiting former military members from working with China. The bulletin advised current and former Western military members to be on the alert for possible approaches, including job offers from privately owned companies that hide their links to China. The warning from the intelligence partners comes amid growing concern about China’s military buildup and recent drills around Taiwan, which Beijing described as “punishment” after the self-governing island held elections. In March, U.S. Army intelligence analyst Korbein Schultz was arrested and charged with conspiring to sell sensitive defense information to China. “These arrests are a reminder of the relentless, aggressive efforts of the People’s Republic of China to undermine our democracy and threaten those who defend it,” assistant director of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division Suzanne Turner said at the time. — Saved 66% of original text.
One of the most important things in democracy is accuracy and transparency of information. That’s literally the reason why the media is being taken over by corpos all over the world.
If I may chime in, I believe you’re both correct in your own ways. Russia is being controlled through very “in your face” propaganda. America also, in many ways, is very controlling and also gets away with its fair share of atrocious behavior.
In my opinion, it’s a spectrum or a big circle. Instead of being “left or right”, they both circle around to their own variation of authoritarianism.
(although I would say the USA is slightly better off, for the time being, at least. I don’t think they’re quite as bad, but some aspects are indeed just as bad. But I have not visited Russia, so my perspective is skewed based purely on what I read about it.)
Oh, absolutely. We’re all subject to it. Even in ways that might confirm our own biases. It’s good to stop and try to think about what we’re reading/being told etc. But I think it’s super easy to not even realize
It literally isn’t. Some states are pretty shit, but the US isn’t forcing people into exile for building libraries. And some states are great places where people have rights and the legislature is actually willing to protect its population from authoritarian policies.
The original goalpost was: “The US is exactly the same as Russia.” This being in the context of an article talking about Russian librarians being imprisoned and active extreme suppression of the free exchange of ideas being organized by the Russian government.
There are certainly issues going on with libraries. John Oliver recently did an episode going over a lot of it. But the difference there is that these are largely organized by either fringe politicians or politicians in heavily right-wing states. I don’t really see evidence of it at a Federal level, which is what would be the equivalent to what’s going on in Russia. Even where some of this stuff is happening, it doesn’t seem to yet be as extreme as the situation there.
Is it a similar and worrying pattern? Yes. Is it ‘exactly the same thing’? Definitely not.
The US is extremely different from state to state, which can make getting anything done on a wide scale really chaotic, but it also means that we get to try new things and strike out on our own as a state if there’s popular support. That’s how we got marriage equality for queer folks, it’s how we legalized marijuana in a lot of states, and it’s what makes us able to do things like pass laws that protect people from other states’ repressive laws. We can do things like provide a safe haven for people seeking abortions who live in states where it’s illegal. There are states in the US that will literally take in trans folks as refugees from states with repressive laws. On the other hand, we have Florida, where there’s actually a no travel advisory for trans people because they’ll arrest us for trying to use a bathroom or having our gender on our driver’s license.
And like, all this stuff you’re saying is absolutely true. It is a huge mess of near unchecked capitalistic greed in a lot of cases.
But at this point we’ve moved the goal posts. Because they now seem to be “the US also has serious humanitarian problems”. Which, that’s true. But it doesn’t mean the same thing as “the US is exactly the same as Russia.”
What a dishonest and empty comment. I feel second hand embarrassment and shame for you. You know that that the US isn’t exactly the same, yet you chose to lie, just to defend a genocidal autocratic regime using the last line of defense any sycophants for dictatorships are using: Hypernormalization. After all, if everyone and everything is equally awful, your favorite oppressive machine maybe isn’t so bad. I’ve seen this exact line of reasoning, if one can call it that, used by defenders of Russia, Iran, China, Vietnam, North Korea, Hamas, Saudi Arabia, etc.
I have one question for you: Why are you doing this? Are you a paid troll for the Internet Research Agency, fighting on the virtual front lines of the new Cold War so that you aren’t sent to the real front lines of the hot part of it, so that you aren’t end up as the main attraction of some Ukrainian drone bombing video, dying slowly to the sound of some questionable music? Are you perhaps a delusional Western Tankie who is still reflexively applauding to everything Moscow is doing, despite the fact that the “evil West” you’ve been indoctrinated (or indoctrinated yourself) to hate is now far more left than the currently extremely far-right Russia? Or perhaps you are much further to the right and simp for Russia precisely because it aligns itself so well with your belief system, e.g. in regards to its oppression of ethnic and sexual minorities, its violent imperialistic politics, the macho strongman aesthetics the insecure leader is cultivating.
I point out that the US is just as vile as all the oppressors
That’s not pointing out anything, because it’s flat out wrong. For all its faults, the US not as bad, not even close and nobody sane would make this claim. You are doing nothing but normalizing actual oppressors with this.
The fact that you included Hamas and not Israel
I don’t think you are quite aware of just how stark the difference between Israel and Hamas is - or you’re deliberately ignoring it. Tel Aviv is considered one of the most gay-friendly cities in the world - whereas in Palestinian territories, gay people are being publicly tortured and executed. That’s just one aspect. The difference between Israel and Palestinian territories in regards to civil liberties is about as stark as the one between the two Koreas. This doesn’t mean Israel is perfect, far from it, but the fact that you feel the need to lie about yet another topic and in the same sentence excrete a vile insult doesn’t exactly make you look like a reasonable person.
You don’t get to cherry pick which human rights to respect in order to seem progressive.
The way you casually threw away a human rights aspect you don’t care about can only be called cherry-picking. That’s really all that needs to be said in response to this gish gallop.
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Click here to see the summaryForeign actors from India and the People’s Republic of China allegedly interfered in more than one race for the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada, says an intelligence report tabled in the House of Commons on Monday. The report from the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP), a key Canadian intelligence oversight body, says there were “two specific instances where [People’s Republic of China] officials allegedly interfered in the leadership races of the Conservative Party of Canada.” Fischer said Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s campaign received no notice of interference in his race and “has no awareness of what is referenced.” In March 2023, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau asked the NSICOP committee, which is made up of MPs and senators from across the political spectrum, to investigate allegations of Chinese interference in Canada’s elections. He made the request after media reports, citing unnamed security sources and classified documents, accused China of interfering in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections. "Given the risks posed by foreign interference to Canada’s national security, the committee expected the government to act. — Saved 58% of original text.
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Click here to see the summaryBut events at al-Shifa – once the biggest and best equipped medical facility in the Gaza Strip – have arguably been the most dramatic.The two-week surprise raid, launched after Israel said Hamas had regrouped at the site, was described by the Israeli government as “precise and surgical”.Its spokesman, Avi Hyman, asserted that it had set “the gold standard of urban warfare”. “We’ve extracted martyrs, many of whom are decomposed and completely unidentifiable,” a Palestinian Civil Defence worker, Rami Dababesh told us grimly on 8 May as he stood by a line of white plastic body bags at al-Shifa, wearing a face mask and full protective gear.“We’ve found corpses of women, children and individuals without heads as well as torn body parts,” he added.The Civil Defence lacks forensic equipment and expertise, but its teams have been using photos and videos to document the remains. Later, the gunmen were said to have barricaded themselves in wards and corridors, opening fire and throwing explosives.Three Israeli soldiers were confirmed to have been killed during the two-week long operation.The IDF briefed journalists that its action at the hospital was taken based on “concrete intelligence” that Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad had taken over parts of the site, suggesting their operatives had been using it to access basic supplies as well as power and the internet. Two other Hamas operatives were named as Fadi Dweik and Zakaria Najib, said to have been involved in organising attacks in the occupied West Bank.In April, the IDF also released footage which it said was from the interrogation of Tarek Abu Shaluf, spokesman for the political wing of Islamic Jihad. Israel has consistently claimed that the group hides its fighters and infrastructure behind the sick and wounded, which it suggests has rendered hospitals legitimate military targets.Hamas denies misusing civilian sites and accuses Israel of violating international humanitarian law by targeting hospitals.In April, when the UN called for “a clear, transparent and credible investigation” of mass graves in Gaza, its spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters that more journalists needed to be able to work safely in the territory to report on the facts. These gained momentum as Israel targeted other health facilities which it said were being used by Hamas, particularly Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza.In late May, in a hastily repaired room of the kidney dialysis unit at al-Shifa, the journalist working with us met four patients as they sat connected to steadily beeping machines. — Saved 76% of original text.
But what is disinformation in my comment?
What is it with lots of people here on lemmy that label everything that doesn’t suit their worldview as misinformation/disinformation/propaganda?
That and name-calling does not change facts, you know, it just shows to other people that you can’t argue your position…
If your comment isn’t disinformation, then surely you are able to provide reputable sources on what makes the Ukrainian government illegitimate and when it has kidnapped its own civilians and forced them to fight.
Otherwise, your baseless claims do not deserve further consideration - what has been stated without evidence can be dismissed without arguments.
when it has kidnapped its own civilians and forced them to fight
Every day!
It doesn’t get shown in the western media, but if you subscribe to the local channels of big cities (Kiev/Odessa/Lviv/Kharkiv/etc.), or basically any sources actually covering what’s happening in Ukraine (in Ukrainian or Russian language), you will see videos of TCK (I dunno how to properly translate it, but that’s the government-military organization that does the kidnapping) posted almost every single day, people are caught on the streets and forcibly put into vans. Sometimes people manage to escape them, sometimes the crowd helps fight TCK off, but more often then not they get successfully kidnapped. Some villages got almost every men kidnapped that way (because previously they were scared to operate in big cities and preferred villages, but now they don’t give a shit about anything).
A very small portion of that is documented here: uadraftmuseum.ch
That’s exactly why I asked for reputable sources - if an ancap think tank and an online “museum” are enough for you, I’m going to risk breaking Beehaw’s rule on civility and call you a useful idiot at best - but considering nobody in this thread has agreed with you so far, your usefulness is not proven.
So basically you have no arguments against what is said there, so you just attack the source instead of disproving anything that is written there? Very cool :)
online “museum”
But what sources would you expect? The mainstream media is not going to report every case, because it shows completely opposite view to the current propaganda that says that Ukraine is a democratic country where people want to fight and die for their glorious master leader Zelensky…
Here is a link for you to msn, is it a more reliable source which you would trust? www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/…/ar-BB1naQUE
Some quotes from there:
When you see people in uniform, you panic. You start thinking someone will mobilize you now against your will
You worry that someone will throw you into the bus one day, take you somewhere, turn off your phone, and you will be cut off from the world"
It shows a physical fight between recruitment officers and civilians
Telegram threads give tip-offs on where drafting officers are patrolling. There are chats for different regions and cities across the country, sometimes with more than 100,000 members each. there are reports of some being taken away on the spot, without a chance to return home.
But there are claims of officers using harsh or intimidating tactics. There are also reports of conscripts finding themselves on the front line with just a month of training.
How many more sources you need to believe that Ukrainian government is kidnapping people on the streets, forcefully puts them into vans and then sends them to die? People who don’t want to fight for Zelensky, people who just one to live. They want to keep the one thing that is most precious to each human - their life. And our government, with support from your government, and people like you, is murdering thousands of us. Do you really support this? Would you still support it if it wasn’t random people you don’t know, but if it was your family, your father, your son if have one, your friends that were kidnapped and sent to die?
Now, we are not just going to be kidnapped on the streets, they are going to break into our homes, and kidnap us in front of our families and forcibly send to die.
But you still support it, after all it’s not some people worth worrying about, it’s just Ukrainians, we can be slaughtered till the last person in the name of geopolitics, right?
I mean, those are the traditional values they are fighting for - a traditional family made up of only one man and one woman, where one of them (usually the former) is aggressive with the other as a normal way of life.
This is also what the Putler-backed far right parties in Europe stand for.
A horrible simplification. Power is what they are fighting for and they are getting it.
This is also what the Putler-backed far right parties in Europe stand for.
In European politics corrupt, and usually by Russia among others, parties encompass much more than these. You can tell easily a not yet poisoned voice when comparing with theirs.
Power is what they are fighting for and they are getting it.
Indeed, they are fighting for power, that's what every political force does. But what I was referring to was the way they do it - they put excessive emphasis on "traditional values" in their campaigns (whichever those might be). They picture an idilic image of these and sell to the public, so they can get the votes, while in reality, the stuff these mean is completely different. And it is not just the "traditional values" - history also plays a part in this.
In my country, the AUR party makes heavy use of medieval rulers like Vlad the Impaler (yes, that one that is known in the Western pop culture as count Dracula) to stirr nostalgia for a past most people don't know. Or their Facebook pages post lots of ex-communist propaganda (messages like "before 1989 we were masters on our own lands, now we're slaves to the foreigners" or "we had an industry back then, we had factories, we were producing our own stuff, now we sold everything and we no longer have shit" etc.).
They are basically romanticising the past in order to get to power, and maybe blur the line between the democratic institutions afterward - just like in Russia, but also in Hungary or even Poland.
excessive emphasis on “traditional values” in their campaigns
It was also “if not us then Communists”, “if not us then Nazis”, “anti-fascism in the world” and “counter-terrorism” in the past.
In my country, the AUR party makes heavy use of medieval rulers like Vlad the Impaler (yes, that one that is known in the Western pop culture as count Dracula) to stirr nostalgia for a past most people don’t know.
We-ell, there’s a certain appeal in impaling Turks for me, it makes the remaining ones friendlier.
They are basically romanticising the past in order to get to power, and maybe blur the line between the democratic institutions afterward - just like in Russia, but also in Hungary or even Poland.
As if they weren’t in France or in UK or in Italy.
My opinion is that we’re fucked from all sides, there’s no need to pretend it’s only a handful of countries.
I know this whole thing is tiring and frustrating. I just explained how things look like in this side of the world, where in the current young(er) democratic regimes people are still nostalgic over the older despotic regimes where the economy was flourishing (spoiler: it was not) and basic human rights were systematically violated by the state.
I respect your opinion, and if there are any elections where you live, I urge you to go out and vote for the best option you may find. Be on the lookout for what every political force is saying/doing, corroborate all the information as good as you can, compare them, and choose the person you find less likely to turn your country into something like I described above.
Democracy is, after all, the power of the people, and if any politician/party is threatening to take away this power - or even erode it - then that one is not fit for any seat that is running for.
I live in Russia, so meaningful elections are off the menu for a period of time.
The fact that a mod decided that my comment should be removed is telling. See, if we consider that only freaks openly funded by Russia yadda yadda are its hands in Europe, then what I said is harmful, because I’m spreading the attention of the reader to wide. But if what I said is true and European politics are in general, just as well in the West, penetrated by Russian\Azeri\etc influence, with bribing politicians and companies which then lobby for criminal regimes, then what that mod did is much more harmful.
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