Russian propaganda isn't designed to convince us to love Russia, only to hate our neighbors.
Note: Thanks to all the nice folks who have e-mailed me with kind words - and even writing letters! Thanks! However, my energy levels are not what they once were, so I may be writing less in the future.
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There is so much talk today about how "divided" we are as a nation - and as a planet. And all of this is by design, to get us to dislike or even hate one another, to the point where our country and indeed, all Western countries, are weakened and perhaps even fall.
A lot of people deny that the Russian Internet Research Agency is behind a lot of this propaganda. To them, propaganda is something along the lines of the patriotic posters and movies of the Stalin era, where the workers were exhorted to make more tractors and harvest more wheat. They expect Russian (and Chinese) propaganda to be as basic as "Russia great! West sucks!" But of course, that would be stupid and people would readily see through that. Not only that, it would accomplish nothing, even if some people believed the message (and a small minority of the far-right does, of course).
No, they are more nuanced than that. Their goal is to divide us, get us angry at one another, to the point where our country - and the rest of the Western world - collapses from within. Then they win without firing a shot. It is right out of the Art of War playbook.
What sort of divisions am I talking about? Well, consider the following:
1. The War Between The Sexes: In the last decade, we have seen the rise of the "red pill" and "incel" movements among men, with a similar backlash movement from women, who are naturally repulsed by the former. In case you have been sleeping under a rock for ten years, it works like this: Online "influencers" like Andrew Tate, tell young men that they are entitled to the woman of their choice, who should perform sex on demand and make them a sandwich and clean house (the so-called "bang-maid") and not have a career of their own, but of course somehow have sufficient income to support their husband.
These men are taught that they can manipulate women through cheap psychology, such as "negging" - making slight derogatory comments to engender insecurity in women. Of course, this rarely works as most women are smarter than that, and as a result, these young men become "incels" - involuntary celebrates (they claim) and become women-hating misogynists. They are told if they vote Republican, then "traditional family values" will be forced upon the country and even women's right to vote will be rescinded. Whether anyone actually believes this is questionable, but like the flat-earth theory, what starts out as an online joke ends up turning into a religion.
Women, of course, are repulsed by all of this nonsense. You read about this all the time on discussion groups. Online dating sites don't help any, with people's expectations being unreasonable and people of both sexes lying about themselves in their bios and using enhanced photos. The net result is a host of people who are convinced that men or women are no damn good and they will never find a spouse. Score: Puntin 1, Humanity 0.
2. The War Among the LBGTQ+ Alphabet: In the last few years, we suddenly are hearing about transgender issues, as though they never existed in previous years. Sure, there was Christine Jorgensen back in the 1950s and Bruce/Caitlin Jenner in more recent times (the latter, oddly enough, a staunch Republican). It was pretty much and under-the-radar phenomenon until recently. Trans people have always existed, but for some reason, in the last few years, we are told this is the most pressing issue of the day.
We are told we are bad people for using the wrong pronouns, or not supporting the transitioning of underage minors or even pre-pubescent kids. Moreover, these expensive procedures are claimed to be "life-saving" on the premise that unless they are provided for free, people will kill themselves. Real issues have been raised whether it is fair to have a transitioned person compete in women's sports, but rather than discuss this rationally, we are told to shut up. Needless to say, this has been a real vote-getting issue for the GOP as no one likes to be told what to think or say.
On the flip side, I think trans people are being baited to become more militant and intolerant - and to shame anyone who questions any aspects of this. We are being baited by outside forces. Whether or not you are transgender is a serious question that should not be a part of pop culture or the latest fads or trends - and certainly not something for children to be deciding for themselves. There are many varieties of people in this world, and not all effeminate men or masculine women are "trans" yet I think many are being pushed in that direction.
Part and parcel of this is the dicing and slicing of the various sexual minorities into an alphabet soup of self-identities. I noted before that the great rift between gays and lesbians has been around for centuries and can only best be described as an uneasy truce. Some gays, I am sad to say, just hate lesbians and protest when they "invade our space." And sadly, the reverse is also true. Divided, both groups are weaker than if they were united.
But it gets worse. With each letter added to the alphabet mix, we are dividing into smaller and smaller subsets, and are encouraged to think of ourselves as different and not like others. There are gays I have met who hate drag queens, and transvestites (many of whom are heterosexual) who want nothing to do with drag queens or transgender people or gays. We have twinks, and bears, and otters and leathermen and lipstick lesbians, and so on - and never the twain shall meet, or so it seems. Seeds of discontent and discord are spread, with the PC-talk about transgender folks only being the latest example of this divide-and-conquer strategy.
And this divisive talk is spread and encouraged online by you-know-who.
It is, of course, all nonsense. You are not a heartless bastard for calling someone by the wrong pronoun, and the whole "preferred pronouns" nonsense, like most if not all PC-talk, amounts to reorganizing the deck chairs on the Titanic. Only worse - as not only does it accomplish nothing, it turns people against one another. It has a negative impact.
There is also the trolling aspect of it as well. The Harry Potter lady likes to crack open a box of Chablis and start tweeting hateful things about trans folks. Not a nuanced discussion of the real issues as I have noted above, but just gutter-talk and name-calling in an attempt to "trigger" people - and they respond in kind, with each new tweet setting off a firestorm on the Internet, thus distracting people from what is really going on.
3. The Moderates Versus The Extremes: Like it or not, most people, worldwide, are pretty politically moderate. They are invested in the system and don't want to rock the boat. By the time you are 30 and have a career and a mortgage, you want to work the system and get ahead - not overthrow it and start over.
But at an earlier age, it seems that the system is stacked against you - I know I felt that way at age 22, even as I was a salaried employee of GM. Social Security? I'll never collect that! - or so the GOP encouraged me to believe. But by age 25, I sobered up (literally) finished my degree and in a few years, graduated from law school. From dead broke to millionaire, in about a decade. Needless to say, I didn't think the system was so bad at that point.
We are encouraged to be extremists. Many young people touted the phrase "Killer Kamala" as though Democrats were somehow responsible for the war in Gaza - and that Republicans just loved Palestinians. It was a ridiculous proposition, of course. Yes, both parties are beholden to Israel and the Jewish vote (the latter once a lock for Democrats). So instead of voting for the lesser of two evils, they either voted for the most evil, or a third party spoiler - if they voted at all.
And make no mistake about it, phrases like "Killer Kamala" were coined and minted in Russia. It was a clever technique that even got some Muslims to vote for Trump - the same Trump who touted a "Muslim Ban" the last time around.
Of course, this works two ways. While the far-left of the Democratic party was encouraged to sit out the election, the moderate independents (who make up the vast majority of the electorate) were encouraged to vote GOP by painting the Democrats as leftist extremists. Sadly, the Democrats went along with this, trying desperately to court the far-left vote (which never would have been satisfied) while alienating moderates who otherwise would be turned off by Trump's antics. Turning moderates against extremists and vice-versa resulted in a GOP win.
But of course, Trump is an extremist. How did they get moderates to go along with that? Well, the GOP was successful in convincing the moderates that Trump "wasn't all that bad" and moreover, didn't have to worry about losing the extremist vote - their "base" in every sense of the word. The Nazis, anti-semites, racists, preppers, incels and all the other components of Hillary's well-named "basket of deplorables" would vote for Trump no matter how much he might soften his image to appeal to the moderates. Moderates were not attending his rallies, they were watching Fox News and reading sane-washed articles in the New York Times and the Washington Post.
So you see, it was a losing situation from the get-go for Democrats, who tried, in vain, to get out the vote from the leftists. Sure, they voted for Obama back in the day - but later decried him as too moderate or even conservative. There's no pleasing those folks! And Putin knew this.
4. Race - The Obvious Choice: Race relations have understandable divided America since its inception. We have racial issues in America because we have races. It never ceases to amuse me when someone in a monocultural country tsk-tsks us for having racial problems. Sure, the had no issues of race in blond-and-blue-eyed Sweden, or 99% Japanese Japan, or Achtung! Deutschland, as everyone was of the same race and mindset. I say "had" as with recent worldwide migration (a natural result of overpopulation, climate change, and the power grab for diminishing resources) these once "pure" lands are now becoming a mixing pot - that often refuses to mix.
I guess I am most amused when Europeans knock us for having racial strife, when their own history is one of nearly continuous wars over the centuries, based on little more than differences in culture, language, and religion. But more about that, later.
Turning people against each other over race has become more nuanced, as even the GOP (the better part of, at least) has denounced the past evils of slavery, segregation, Jim Crow, and the like. But they are using more nefarious tactics to divide blacks from whites and from hispanics and Asians. Blacks are told that it was the "Democrat Party" that was behind Jim Crow - and technically they are right. Just as the word "Nazi" originally was an abbreviation for "National Socialism" it is a misleading argument. Nazis abandoned whatever small pretense of socialism early on in their reign of terror.
And Democrats lost the "Solid South" when they embraced Northern labor movements. The GOP stepped in, touting "traditional values" (a dog whistle to racists) and Nixon won election as the South flipped from blue to red in my lifetime. But the inaccuracy - the lie - is the point. They just want to sow division, and if they can turn even a small number of blacks to either not vote or vote Republican, they win. And of course, it only takes a little bit of money to bribe "influencers" online to go along with the party line.
Hispanics have always been divided amongst themselves and indeed, resent being lumped in together with each other. My Cuban friend doesn't consider himself Hispanic or Latin, as everyone in Cuba is of 100% Spanish descent and donchuforgetit. In filling out my Medicare and Social Security forms, I notices that the old "race" categories have been changed. It used to be "White, Black, Hispanic, Asian, American Eskimo, Other." Today, "Hispanic" is a subset of "White" and when you tick off the "White" box, you are then asked if you are Hispanic or "Other." It is an interesting shift in terminology.
Of course, why are we asking people's races anyway?
Hispanics of various countries do not necessarily identify with one another, or with different regions. Latin America, South America, the Caribbean - they are all different from one another and the residents don't like being lumped together. Nor do they like being considered as default Democrats. The Abortion issue has great currency among Catholics and most if not all "Hispanic" countries have a rich Catholic tradition. So it was easy for the GOP to peel off this segment into their fold. In Miami, the Cubans vote Republican, convinced that any day now, Trump will get their farms and businesses and casinos back for them.
And of course, there is a huge divide between Blacks and Hispanics - a real visceral hatred if you will. I know some Hispanics who are more racist than Klansmen, and it amuses me that they think, for an instant, that someone with a name like Enrique Tarrio will be let into the Country Club. We don't even let in the Irish or Italians! My own Father had to renounce his Irish heritage and pretend to be a Scots. Even then, he was viewed with suspicion.
The hate between Blacks and Asians is a new things and I don't understand it. There have been numerous reports of Asians, particularly women, being assaulted in the cities. Mentally ill homeless people have been pushing them off subway platforms. The GOP has used this to encourage Asians to vote Republican - pushing Universities to abandon "diversity" admissions policies, which has resulted in an increase in admissions for Asian students. Play one minority against another - divide and conquer.
They still ain't letting them in the Country Club!
5. Allies Against Allies: The biggest success Russia has had so far has been in dividing America against the world, and Europe against itself. With regard to the latter, it is now recognized that "Brexit" was a carefully orchestrated disinformation campaign aided and abetted by Russia. Brits were told that they would still be able to trade freely and travel freely in Europe, while avoiding "unnecessary" regulations from Brussels and saving enormous amounts of money. It was all bald-faced lies and now the UK is paying the price, with the last tattered remnants of their once globe-spanning empire reduced to irrelevancy.
Putin's dirty hand can be seen in the efforts of Hungary and Poland and Turkey to move to the far-right, with only the war in Ukraine being a serious mis-step on Putin's part - threatening to unify Europe once again.
In America, Trump's bluster about buying or invading Greenland is, of course, nonsense. It would start a war with Europe and destroy the NATO alliance. That would be the point. Of course, he likely won't follow through on this threat - the divisiveness it has caused is already enough.
Similarly, the "51st State" of Canada is also a non-starter, as to join the Union, Canada would first have to vote to want to join and of course first be a US Territory. Invade Canada? There would be an insurgency that would never end. Oddly enough, like Trump's talk of annexing Greenland, the only tangible result so far has been to unify our allies. Not even a year ago, Canada was torn asunder by their own political divisiveness - Trudeau was boo'ed by the right, which was lead by their own Trump mimi-me, Ontario Premier Ford.
Today, Canadians are standing together - even the Quebecois, against American Hegemony. But even so, America without Canada and Mexico as trading partners is a weakened America. And the same is true for America and Europe.
Sadly, this has resulted in a lot of hateful rhetoric in both Canada and Europe - with Canadians boo-ing the American National Anthem, and Europeans claiming they can no longer trust "America."
But America is not Trump and Trump is not America. Maybe 75 million people voted for him (many already expressing regrets, many more to follow) out of a nation of 330 million. It is hardly a mandate to lead and most voters had no idea this is where it would take us. Others simply refused to vote because no candidate reflected all of their values perfectly. Again, divide and conquer - encouraging people to focus on the divisions between them and the party that most aligns with their values.
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So, where do we go from here? Will Trump ignore court orders - or will the Supreme Court roll over and acede to his every whim and demand? Will the military be used to enact a dictatorship with Congress dissolved and Trump ruling by decree?
Or will it all fall apart as James Carville recently predicted? Will even Trump supporters revolt when their Grandma loses her Social Security check and millions die of Bird Flu, as hospitals are overwhelmed with uninsured patients, thanks to the cancellation of Obamacare and Medicare/Medicaid? Carville has been so wrong about so many things before.
It is hard to say. A special election in Florida is coming up on April 1st and could flip the House to the Democrats. However, the two districts are staunchly Republican, and unless the Social Security checks stop coming by then, it is doubtful there will be a blue wave in the panhandle. Besides, if bad things happen, it's all Joe Biden's fault, right? Cognitive dissonance is a feature not a bug,
It may take a collapse to cause change. Obama was elected because the Bush II Presidency and the wars he started were a disaster. Clinton was elected because "it's the economy, stupid!" Roosevelt won only because Hoover drove America deeper into recession.
Maybe - just maybe - the MAGA movement will implode as people start to realize that tax cuts for Billionaires won't result in cheap eggs and that tariffs won't mean more jobs, just staggering prices and abject poverty.
It will get a lot worse before it gets better.
