We Are Fish in a Barrel
Elon Musk intentionally set the conditions to make every Twitter user a target for pro-Putin, neo-Nazi recruitment. It’s working.
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I have written extensively about how Twitter has devolved since Elon Musk indicated he wanted to buy the platform. Musk’s character, upbringing, ideology and privilege have provided him the tools and motivation to do everything in his power to destroy the country that made him rich.
By reinstating Nazis, removing moderation, promoting white nationalists through his own account, and by changing the “algorithm” that chooses the tweets you see, Musk has made every one of us a target for what the Russians call ideological subversion.
The slow process… to change the perception of reality of every American to such an extent that despite the abundance of information no one can come to sensible conclusions.
— Yuri Bezmenov, 1984
We are fish in Musk’s barrel.
Unfortunately this strategy is paying dividends which we can watch in real-time.
Ten months ago, and many times since, I warned that neo-Nazi Chuck Johnson and his minions were attempting to infiltrate the left. They have succeeded. Chuck has taken control of a number of influencers and is using them to trustwash himself and his antisemitism.
Despite his behavior, Eric Garland still has influence on Twitter, and now he is blaming the fact that he got called out for working with Nazis on… Jews. This is what neo-Nazis do. This is Chuck Johnson’s work. This is ideological subversion in action.
You can also see this sort of subversion in the left side of QAnon, which has been attacking me for 2 1/2 years. This includes people like Mike Rothschild, Will Sommer, Fred Brennan, QAnonAnonymous and others who are in reality stenographers for white nationalist Doug Stewart who helped start Q. They profess to be against QAnon while they do everything they can to protect it.
This isn’t about politics, debates about facts, or even disagreements about ideology, it’s the intentional, knowing degradation of our collective reality in order to make room for malign influence. It’s about ideological subversion.
When you expose dangerous people, you learn who is really there to protect them. Calling out the protectors, the underhanded influencers and two-faced promoters is thankless work. It opens you up to the very sort of attacks they specialize in.
But all of us have to get involved in helping our friends and loved ones understand the world we live in. We all have to get involved in calling out bad actors and malign influence. And we all have to get involved in promoting the truth — because like you, dear reader, the truth is a target.
#ArrestMikeFlynn
Shifting the narrative
Greetings Jim:
The American people suffer from selective amnesia as Gore Vidal used to say. Rarely will they remember the actual history, ancient and recent, of their own selves and the world in which we all live in. When I was younger, the lack of foresight in altering history was in the times before we were born. These days, the unsuspecting public are being told by right leaning propogandists, among them Tucker Carlson, to not believe their own ears and eyes and only trust the new fairy tale practitioners depicting us as evil and Donald Trump and Co. As gods. Just a little under 48 hours (about 2 days) ago, I came across a statement from a newer Republican figure whose name escapes me blaming President Joe Biden for the coronavirus pandemic lockdowns and responses. This nincompoop believes and allows for others to believe that we were under lockdowns under the Biden Administration.
Well, that did not happen. However, there was a near yearlong lockdown under Pres. Trump. Indeed, it was under the Former Guy and his people that we had 15, excuse me, 45 days (about 1 and a half months) to flatten the world and reduce the population. And it was Donald Trump that added another 30 days (about 4 and a half weeks) to enact this monstrosity. As I told you earlier, that time was used to get us into a war against China at the least. I do not need to tell you how the rhetoric ended, just that the needs of many will outweigh the needs of the few or the one. And yet, it is the ones like Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) who are punished for using realpolitik in bringing back the social lives of us. Well, this idea of shaming and exile seems not to be working if I have anything to say about it. Indeed, Gov. Cuomo’s recent initiatives on supporting Jewish communities has seen criticism from political figures that should be our allies. Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) comes to mind and makes one wonder if it would have been best to have Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) keep her seat in a merged district. A sobering thought on a Jewish man and his feelings about fellow Jews. And by extension, this shows that our fellow Democrats are more willing to be the opposition as opposed to the leadership.
There is in the coming days an opportunity for our leaders to do something of importance in ensuring that what happens now will prevent a repeat of past failures. A formal accusation against Donald Trump on whatever can be found would be worth the while in putting to bed any potential shenanigans by the GQP and other entities that results in another Trump residency. I do applaud Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg along with NY AG Letitia James in following on their commitments. Now the rest of the country’s Democrats and liberal minded citizenry should do the correct thing and concur with New York Democrats one more time saving the country and the world from destruction from within. I do, however, have my doubts they will stick to the idea. Honestly, a formal accusation before Tuesday would be best and would show we are serious. After what has been done to many of our fellow Democrats who got accused of far less and were cancelled, we deserve to have our own retribution for once. Show leadership and commitment to follow through on this legal matter. We might not get another chance for this to happen.
Yours, sir, if I mistake not, must be a beautiful soul — one full of all love and truth; for where beauty is, there must those be. - Herman Melville, Confidence Man.
Best Wishes and Kindest Regards,
Robert Kelly
Axios fired a journalist for speaking truth to power in Florida.
Tried to tell the journalism world ages ago that just leaving legacy media and going to work for Jim VandeHei at Politico or Axios or whatever shady figures run The Intercept, wasn't going to solve their lack-of-a-j-job problems.
Of course, look who runs the Washington Post? Publisher and CEO Fred Ryan. What was his former job? CHIEF OF STAFF for RONALD FREAKING REAGAN.
So, some reporter schlub tweets that Ron DeSantis is spreading propaganda and he is immediately fired for showing bias.
But the publisher of the Washington freaking Post -- arguably the most important media outlet in politics -- is run by a devotee of a top Republican partisan and that's not bias, that's just a smart business decision.
Make it make sense. Oh wait, it won't.
The truth is, at this point, everyone has betrayed journalism. The outlets. The professors. The reporters who took compromised jobs understandably to pay the bills and support the family. Everybody had good reasons, right? But still. Here we are. The fascism is knock knock knocking. These arseholes aren't going to write a 6-part expose and save us. Everyone understands that now, hopefully.
We are here in the times we never thought we would be.
edited to change a word because words still matter until they don't either? i feel like we're almost at the point where even words don't freaking matter. anyone else lol?