Racial Maddow vs. the Islamic Republic of Iran - Shirin Sadeghi.
Love Shirin for writing this. I’m relieved to know not everyone’s foolishly in love with Rachel Maddow.
(via mehreenkasana)
I just watched the video, ugh. Orientalist, imperialist propaganda from Maddow. Another excuse to portray Bush’s axis of evil in convenient ‘us and them’ terms, painting all Iranians as extremist zealots, and yet more footage of North Korean people all doing the same thing in a large crowd, as if that’s the only footage of them in existence. i.e. both countries are clearly nothing more than brainwashed collective masses who don’t know what’s good for them and so of course need the enlightened west, where everyone’s a free individual (and definitely not Muslim or anything like that) to come spread democracy and rationality.
The whole patronising ‘dictatorship’ spiel - ffs it was your CIA who overthrew the democratic government of Iran and replaced it with a US-friendly monarchical dictatorship in the 50s. And hmm I wonder if America had anything to do with Korea in the past… let’s not mention that though.
Ugh and the way she sneers at ‘dictatorships’ for celebrating their leaders birthdays, less than a minute after having shown the US list with Lincoln’s birthday right there ffs. Funnily enough no comment on how the land of the free celebrates mass colonial genocide on Columbus day either…
The highest military spending in the world, a bloody global empire, the highest prison population in the world, institutional racism, entirely unscientific drug laws, 90% of media controlled by 6 companies with interlocking share ownerships, 3 times fewer women in ministerial government positions than Iran.
But yeah keep pointing that finger.
‘Progressive’
(via kyaryarchy)
so important
the US military-industrial-media complex relies on dehumanising and othering the civilian populations of its target nations
the people in these pictures are not an unindividuated mass/horde of brainwashed commie robot zombie drones who spend their days at axis of evil hq plotting to blow up the white house
they are actual human individuals, 100% real people, with varied lives and loves and interests, they cook meals and fuck and listen to music, and experience the full spectrum of human emotions, and don’t deserve to be murdered by flying death robots or whatever the fuck
all of which is so basic it should never need to be said, but every time I hear about the latest ‘surgical strike’ to ‘neutralise’ ‘insurgent’ ‘forces’ w/ ‘collateral damage’ I’m reminded that apparently it does
(Source: canadian-communist, via baronessvonbullshit)
What is modern propaganda? For many, it is the lies of a totalitarian state.
In the 1970s, I met Leni Riefenstahl and asked her about her epic films that glorified the Nazis. Using revolutionary camera and lighting techniques, she produced a documentary form that mesmerised Germans; her Triumph of the Will cast Hitler’s spell.
She told me that the “messages” of her films were dependent not on “orders from above”, but on the “submissive void” of the German public.
Did that include the liberal, educated bourgeoisie? “Everyone,” she said.
Today, we prefer to believe that there is no submissive void. “Choice” is ubiquitous. Phones are “platforms” that launch every half-thought. There is Google from outer space if you need it.
Caressed like rosary beads, the precious devices are borne heads-down, relentlessly monitored and prioritised. Their dominant theme is the self. Me. My needs. Riefenstahl’s submissive void is today’s digital slavery.
Edward Said described this wired state in Culture and Imperialism as taking imperialism where navies could never reach. It is the ultimate means of social control because it is voluntary, addictive and shrouded in illusions of personal freedom.
Today’s “message” of grotesque inequality, social injustice and war is the propaganda of liberal democracies. By any measure of human behavior, this is extremism.
Article goes into the CIA’s propagandising via Hollywood, which really shouldn’t be a taboo subject when:
- Argo is misleading anti-Iranian propaganda
- Zero Dark Thirty tries to justify torture and uncritically follows the US military’s version of events regarding bin Laden’s death
- Olympus Has Fallen comes out at just the right time with its ‘omg North Korea is going to attack America’ bullshit, and
- Homeland is winning awards on TV for promulgating the view that America needs to be even more vigilant against all these ‘Al Qaeda terrorists’
- etc etc
As Pilger mentions the CIA has an ‘entertainment industry liaison office’ and it’s a matter of public record that they’ve been engaged in manipulating the media for decades (going back to Operation Mockingbird in the 50s).
Is it any wonder that all the media listed above feature sympathetic portrayals of CIA operatives? Or that they serve to reinforce US imperialism?
Just look at the timing of the anti-Iran and anti-DPRK movies, I mean really now, come on.
getting real sick of the word ‘austerity’
‘austere’ implies moral rectitude, self-discipline, spiritual focus
no - you’re inflicting poverty, suffering and death on people
it’s not for their own good or the betterment of their character, it’s for your own greed
and another thing, it’s not a ‘haircut’ if you steal people’s money from their bank accounts
the money doesn’t grow back in a couple of months free of charge, it’s gone
when the hairdresser cuts your hair they don’t then keep the hair in a little bag and use it to gamble on the financial markets
and then there’s ‘tightening our belts’. which ties in to the whole bullshit weight loss = health = better person discourse (which ties in with the moral discipline spiel of ‘austerity’)
if anyone has to tighten their belts as a result of government cuts, it’s probably because you’re doing your damnedest to make sure they starve to death
‘bail out’ implies the banks were like sinking ships, damaged and sinking under powers beyond their control, and that they’re all about to die
when the fact is it’s their system, they intended it this way, and they’re making out like bandits
I don’t even know wtf ‘quantitative easing’ is supposed to mean
but ‘easing’ it is most certainly not
and it’s not a ‘recession’
a recess is a small indentation ie in a wall
which you’ll notice could also be described as a ‘depression’ in the wall
what part of ‘millions of people are suffering and dying’ makes you think of uneven wall surfaces
am I being super paranoid if I’m suspicious of this sudden influx of proud, unusually vocal, ‘fascist conspiracy theorists’ on tumblr, going around following leftist blogs and winding them up?
I mean, hold up, the conspiracy (to the extent that it is even secret) is a fascist conspiracy. centralisation of power in government, centralisation of wealth, and the increasing melding of the two into a corporatist/militarist/racist superstate -> fascism.
either there’s a weird new trolling craze on 4chan, or it’s a concerted effort by people who are getting paid for their efforts. because only the other week there was more news coming out about intelligence agencies using social media to influence opinion
might well be nothing, but you can’t help but notice it does create a very visible association between fascism and the label thrown at many critics of that fascist superstate, ie ‘conspiracy theorist’. and there’s already the strong association with right-wing racist militia groups.
tbh it reminds me of the Israeli government’s propaganda tactics (‘we’re not racist for our supremacist apartheid state, you’re racist for criticising us!’)
(Source: findingupsidedown)
Hamra is a bustling city just like every city around the world, not a barren town with terrorists roaming the street.
The fact that they chose to represent it so terribly is just AWFUL. Because Lebanon is beautiful and deserves to be represented properly.
ugh again.
never actually heard of Homeland before now, just looked it up on wikipedia and wow, I really don’t want to be watching that
The series follows Carrie Mathison, a Central Intelligence Agency operations officer who, after conducting an unauthorized operation in Iraq, is put on probation and reassigned to the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center in Langley, Virginia. In Iraq, Carrie was warned by an asset that an American prisoner of war had been turned by al-Qaeda.
yeah…. no thanks
omg wait it gets better - apparently she’s the only one who believes he’s a terrorist! fuck’s sake, I know the lone maverick thing is a trope but seriously… she’s CIA counterterrorism and she has to struggle to convince people in her department that there might be an ‘al-Qaeda terrorist’ about?
they manage to wring some dramatic tension out of that scenario?
are they seriously going there?
(via anti-propaganda)
Let’s not start this rhetoric where Osborne is this clueless idiot that doesn’t know the hardship people go through. He knows. He just doesn’t care.
This is a calculated move to appease the capitalist class. That is what parliamentary politics always has and always will be.
This ^^^. Fuck this mainstream discourse of incompetence, blunders and gaffes. It’s calculated propaganda.
The man is a multi-billionaire heir to an 18th century baronetcy, who keeps his money in the oldest and most exclusive bank in the country (secret and invite-only) and his best friend is Nathaniel Rothschild, scion of the Rothschild banking dynasty.
David Cameron is a fucking linear descendant of fucking King William IV and a fifth cousin of the Queen twice removed, married the daughter of the eighth baronet of Sheffield and was born into five generations of banking wealth. And they were all in the exclusive fucking Bullingdon Club together with Boris Johnson. This is the state of politics in Britain right now.
It’s not a failure when he fleeces the country, gives money to private banks and cuts corporation tax. THE SYSTEM IS WORKING AS INTENDED. That’s the worst part.
Osborne claimed £47 on public expenses to pay for two DVDs of his own speech, and the speech was about value for taxpayer money. It’s all a sick joke to them, they’re sociopaths.
(Source: titotansey)
which had huge economic/political consequences for America, its oil companies, financial institutions, and the military-industrial complex
seriously though the war was because freedom and democracy
Military contracting: our new era of corporate mercenaries | Arjun Sethi | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk (via randomactsofchaos)
$100bn a year paying rich capitalists to kill poor people, and even supposedly critical media outlets are using army propaganda euphemisms when they talk about it
‘large-scale operations and surgical strikes’ - excuse me they’re not fucking surgeons. this isn’t medicine.
I think you’ll find killing people is the opposite of medicine.
-alfoxus
(via randomactsofchaos)
(via infinitetransit)
How the US shapes the military’s big screen image
The CIA and the Pentagon pulled out all the stops for the creators of “Zero Dark Thirty,” staging interviews with officials and a Navy SEAL for an inside account of the hunt for Osama bin Laden.
Critics praised the movie’s gritty and gripping feel but, with the film due for release in major European markets this week, controversy has erupted over claims that it justifies US agents’ use of torture on detainees.
The access granted to director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal has turned the Oscar-nominated movie into the most detailed public account that exists of the May 2011 raid on a Pakistani compound to kill Bin Laden.
Nate Jones of the National Security Archives research institute dubbed it “the closest thing to the official story behind the pursuit of bin Laden.”
Bigelow has been forced to release a statement denying widespread allegations that the film set out to justify or sanitize the “enhanced interrogation techniques” employed during the so-called ‘war on terror’.
Although the assistance offered to the “Zero Dark Thirty” crew sparked accusations that the White House used the movie as a propaganda tool, cooperation between Hollywood and the Pentagon or CIA is nothing new.
The first film ever to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards, “Wings” in 1929, featured dogfight scenes with bi-planes thanks to help from the army.
It was the beginning of a relationship that has grown over decades.
The film industry covets access to hardware and expertise that only the armed forces can provide, while in return, defense officials want to burnish the military’s image on the big screen.
The Pentagon’s criteria for justifying cooperation on any film or television project is loosely defined, but until recently has never been seriously questioned by Congress.
“It just basically says: ‘Is it something that might be of benefit for recruiting and retention? And/or is it something that might tell the American public more about the US military?” explained Philip Strub, who leads the Pentagon’s liaison unit with the entertainment industry.
For the Pentagon, the decision whether to work on a film project all comes down to the script.
Characters in uniform need to reflect what officials consider to be an accurate picture of the practices and the ethos of the military.
If not, then the Defense Department refuses to grant permission to film at a base or to rent out US tanks or aircraft for a production.
To the Pentagon’s critics, the arrangement amounts to stealthy propaganda, with the military using its leverage to effectively censor screenplays.
very important
amazes me how people can think that all that military hardware could ever come with no political strings attached.
inevitably results in bullshit imperialist propaganda / revisionist history / recruitment advertising for the military-industrial complex…. masquerading as entertainment (and now apparently with added pretensions to journalistic integrity in the case of ZDT)
anyway as far as I can tell, (going off the comments of Benazir Bhutto, US state dept official Dr. Steve Pieczenik, Pervez Musharraf, Hamid Karzai, French intelligence sources, etc), bin Laden died back in 2001. so there’s that too
‘The French government has stated that:
it would send 2,500 troops to support Malian government soldiers in the conflict against Islamist rebels. France has already deployed around 750 troops to Mali, and French carriers arrived in Bamako on Tuesday morning…..We will continue…
Funny how Al-Qaeda always turn up in the resource-rich areas.
(Source: activistpost.com)
Voters ‘brainwashed by Tory welfare myths’, shows new poll
Frances O’Grady, the TUC General Secretary, said: “It is not surprising that voters want to get tough on welfare. They think the system is much more generous than it is in reality, is riddled with fraud and is heavily skewed towards helping the unemployed, who they think are far more likely to stay on the dole than is actually the case. Indeed if what the average voter thinks was true, I’d want tough action too.”
“But you should not conduct policy, particularly when it hits some of the most vulnerable people in society, on the basis of prejudice and ignorance. And it is plainly immoral to spread such prejudice purely for party gain, as ministers and their advisers are doing, by deliberately misleading people about the value of benefits and who gets them.”
not at all surprised.
Edward W. Said- Los Angeles Times, July 20, 2003
(via eastafrodite)
(Source: maarnayeri, via america-wakiewakie)
