Strategic Culture Foundation

2022-05-02 09:15:13 The only antidote to propaganda dementia is served by sparse voices of reason, which happen to be Russian, thus silenced and/or dismissed.

Especially since the onset of GWOT (Global War on Terror) at the start of the millennium, no one ever lost money betting against the toxic combo of hubris, arrogance and ignorance serially deployed by the Empire of Chaos and Lies.

What passes for “analysis” in the vast intellectual no-fly zone known as U.S. Think Tankland includes wishful thinking babble such as Beijing “believing” that Moscow would play a supporting role in the Chinese century just to see Russia, now, in the geopolitical driver’s seat.

This is a fitting example not only of outright Russophobic/Sinophobic paranoia about the emergence of peer competitors in Eurasia – the primeval Anglo-American nightmare – but also crass ignorance about the finer points of the complex Russia-China comprehensive strategic partnership.

Writes Pepe Escobar: https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2022/04/29/empire-of-lies-eager-receive-sarmat-business-card/

#ArmsRace #Diplomacy #NuclearWeapons

@strategic_culture Open / Comment

2022-05-02 01:08:01 U.S. Is Fine With Encircling China, but “Won’t Tolerate” Chinese Bases on Its Ally’s Doorstep

Signing a security agreement between China and the Pacific nation of Solomon Islands prompted speculation that Beijing plans to establish a military base there. According to China Foreign Ministry spokesman, “the so-called Chinese military base in Solomon Islands is completely fabricated with disinformation by a few people with ulterior motives”, however this is a hot topic in the Australian media.

Follow this link to find the full high-res infographic.

You are free to repost, reproduce and print this infographic.

#Australia #China #Colonialism #IndoPacific #SolomonIslands

@strategic_culture Open / Comment

2022-05-02 00:58:03 Strategic Culture Foundation pinned « Our enemy is the Western system of U.S.-led imperialism, its capitalist elite, and their political flunkies like Joe Biden and Ursula von der Leyen. The United States and its NATO and European Union allies have imposed unprecedented economic sanctions…» Open / Comment

2022-05-02 00:57:56 Our enemy is the Western system of U.S.-led imperialism, its capitalist elite, and their political flunkies like Joe Biden and Ursula von der Leyen.

The United States and its NATO and European Union allies have imposed unprecedented economic sanctions on Russia that amount to economic warfare. This warfare has been going on, discernibly, since the CIA-backed coup in Ukraine in 2014 on the back of allegations of Russian wrongdoing, for example, the alleged annexation of Crimea. It’s the logic of a poacher posing as the gamekeeper.

For eight years, the U.S.-led economic war against Russia has been pursued without relent. The self-professed “exceptional nation” presumes the privileged, exclusive use of economic terrorism against others who do not bend the knee. In hock to its Washington master, the European Union has imposed round after round of restrictions on trade with Russia in full compliance with American orders. The European compliance to self-inflict damage is astounding especially given that the U.S. economy is not as reliant on Russia as the EU’s and therefore has not been impacted as badly, at least not directly. But the presumed American “free lunch” is beginning to change, as our columnist Declan Hayes cogently surveyed this week.

Now that the proxy war against Russia has escalated into “Total War” – the historically sinister phrase used by France’s economy minister Bruno Le Maire – the full nefarious scope of the Western objective has become even more explicit. The U.S. and its NATO partners want to achieve the complete collapse of the Russian economy leading to regime change in Moscow. The eruption of violence in Ukraine following Russia’s military intervention on February 24 is but the opportunity to ramp up the U.S.-led war campaign against Russia.

Read more in this week's Editorial: https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2022/04/29/the-aggressors-accuse-russia-of-blackmail-for-defending-its-currency-energy-wealth-and-even-its-existential-security/

#Ukraine #NATO #EU #War

@strategic_culture Open / Comment

2022-04-30 10:45:14 EVERYONE’S ANTI-WAR UNTIL THE WAR PROPAGANDA STARTS.

Nobody thinks of themselves as a warmonger, but then the spin machine gets going and before you know it they’re spouting the slogans they’ve been programmed to spout and waving the flags the flags they’ve been programmed to wave and consenting to whatever the imperial war machine wants in that moment.

Virtually everyone will tell you they love peace and hate war when asked; war is the very worst thing in the world, and no healthy person relishes the thought of it. But when the rubber meets the road and it’s time to oppose war and push for peace, those who’d previously proclaimed themselves “anti-war” are on the other side screaming for more weapons to be poured into a proxy war that their government deliberately provoked.

This is because the theory of being anti-war is very different from the practice. In theory people are just opposed to the idea of exploding other people for no good reason. In practice they’re always hit with a very intense barrage of media messaging giving them what look like very good reasons why those people need exploding.

Being truly anti-war isn’t easy

Read more by Caitlin Johnstone: https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2022/04/28/everyone-anti-war-until-war-propaganda-starts/

#Propaganda #Society #War

@strategic_culture Open / Comment

2022-04-30 09:45:11 The mega-rich buy up media outlets precisely because a lie is more likely to fly than the truth – including the lie that they are invaluable.

The most dangerous thing about Elon Musk buying Twitter outright for $44 billion is the rapidly spreading notion that his controlling an influential social media platform is dangerous. It is, but not for any of the reasons his critics assert.

The current furor is dangerously misguided for two reasons.

First, it assumes that one billionaire owning Twitter is significantly more harmful than a bunch of them owning it.

And second, it worries that Musk is committed to an anarchic version of free speech that will undermine the health of our societies.

This is the equivalent of staring resolutely at a single tree to avoid noticing the forest all around it.

Read more by Jonathan Cook: https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2022/04/28/elon-musk-isnt-threat-society-health-all-billionaires-are/

#ElonMusk #Twitter #SocialMedia

@strategic_culture Open / Comment

2022-04-29 23:50:04 Time is ticking away, and the doors to a bright future of cooperation close faster with every passing minute.

Every day, the American and European public is subjected to a barrage of information telling them what they should think about the events in Ukraine now moving into the 3rd month of conflict since Putin launched his military intervention on February 24th.

From CNN, BBC, Fox News and everything in between, streams of talking heads perform spin while pictures of gruesome horror are flashed in front of our eyes.

Narrative framing ensures that watchers of mainstream media are kept in a constant state of fear, hysteria and repulsion over Russia’s supposed crimes against humanity.

Where evidence was once a precondition for judgement, under the careful management of Five Eyes ‘perception managers’, mere accusation and repetition are sufficient. Viewers doubting the trustworthiness of those same media sources that lied about weapons of mass destruction, chemical weapons by Assad or Russia gate crockery, have increasingly found themselves cheerleading the very empire which many a liberal had protested and despised for years.

Writes Matthew Ehret: https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2022/04/27/how-hard-is-it-to-avoid-wwiii-easier-than-you-think/

#MassMedia #Propaganda #Ukraine

@strategic_culture Open / Comment

2022-04-29 23:28:23 Gonzalo Lira’s merciless attack by the Daily Beast will be remembered for years and make many hacks think before taking a swipe at America’s finest institutions.

The disappearance* of U.S. citizen journalist Gonzalo Lira looked like a new low point for the war in Ukraine. Sure, at least six western journalists so far have been killed in the conflict but the Chilean-born Lira’s case was quite special on so many levels – chiefly that in mid-April he seemed to have been taken by Ukrainian forces (or neo-Nazi brigades which they support) after being tipped off by a western media outlet. Or at least that’s what Lira claims in his last video clip he posted just hours before disappearing.

Remarkably, he claims if he were to be killed, it would be down to a petulant reaction from journalists working for the Daily Beast, who he seems to have clashed with – and who took it upon themselves to tell the Ukrainian government his exact location.

Read more by Martin Jay: https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2022/04/27/is-western-media-capable-killing-us-blogger-who-didnt-sign-up-washington-manufactured-consent-ukraine/

#HumanRights #Journalism #Ukraine

*Since writing this article, Gonzalo Lira has emerged safe and well

@strategic_culture Open / Comment

2022-04-29 20:59:51 Question – Is the US making bio-weapons in Ukraine?

Answer –  That’s the million-dollar question, isn’t it? Unfortunately, there’s no simple “yes or no” answer. It’s more complicated than that.

Question – Can you explain what you mean?

Answer – Sure, but some people might find it a bit confusing.

By Mike Whitney: https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2022/04/27/uncle-sam-bio-weapons-extravaganza/

#BiologicalWeapons #Pentagon #Ukraine

@strategic_culture Open / Comment

2022-04-29 20:51:35 American hegemony is at an end and multi-polarity, with Russian-Chinese relations at their helm, is here to stay for a long, long time, Declan Hayes writes.

https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2022/04/28/the-rise-and-rise-of-the-sino-russian-strategic-energy-metals-market/

#China #Economy #Energy #Globalism #NewWorldOrder

@strategic_culture Open / Comment