The Politics Thread

[janea4old]

Putin has suspended freedoms in Russia, outlawed all the free press, ordered arrests of all protesters, etc etc.  This has been going on all week.  This is to prevent the Russian public from learning that Russia is attacking and bombing Ukraine.

Meanwhile the BBC has set up shortwave radio, available to the Russian public (but that helps only if they know about it)

[DRW50]

Facebook and Twitter have  now been banned as well. It's a total lockdown for propaganda and disinformation. I guess this is something Putin wishes he'd d one from the start, so now he can have more brainwashing. 

[DRW50]

 

[janea4old]

 

 

 

[DRW50]

The plant has now been taken over by  Russian forces.

I'm already seeing the bots/grifters/dead end leftist types proclaiming this invasion a success because the South is what matters in the Ukraine and the tanks outside Kyiv were clearly just a distraction, etc. So many need Putin to be their hero, their god, or are paid for him to be.  That and all the money he's still getting for gas and oil make me feel like his just grinding down  Ukraine and knowing the West will move on after some performative outrage is all too likely to work.

[janea4old]

 

 

Edited March 4, 2022 by janea4old

[Khan]

Agree!

Agree here as well!

Again, agree!

[janea4old]

 

 

 

 

[DRW50]

They did  the same fake ceasefires in Syria. Yet so many tankies continue to worship him and so many on the left continue to whatabout to try to numb the public into seeing it as  no big deal. I sometimes wonder how many of us are left who do care, or even pretend to care. 

Another slaughter on their hands:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60578293

Meanwhile, Russia has been holding a WNBA player prisoner for 3 weeks.

 

[Juliajms]

I do think people care, but just like in Syria, we can't do much on the individual level. On top of that our country hasn't been refugee friendly since Trump took over. I think we are track to take something like 20,000 this year. I hope that can change, but it may be up to other nations again to take the burden. Meanwhile, even in my red state individuals come out to help when refugees actually make it here. The government is the roadblock, not the people, imo.

[Vee]

 

[DRW50]

Some  care, and could do more if we had any proper leadership out there more of that caring could be focused,  but it's demoralizing at how much time and effort is spent framing any attempt at caring as  "virtue signaling," and how  this seems to  end up becoming the default position of many in the public, over and over. A lot of this comes from bots and  far right agitators then trickles down.

I saw  George Takei's tweet saying that we  should  accept higher gas prices and food prices to go against Putin. On the one hand, I get why people would feel a rich celebrity doesn't have as much to lose, but he has a  point. Instead of just nodding along with the vague "drill baby drill" esque pronouncements that aren't going to  do anything, we need to  make harder decisions on a future that is coming whether we like it or not. 

There's a poll going around basically used to talk about how stupid the public is, because a majority of Americans in the poll do not want our troops in conflict, yet do want no-fly zones, which will speed up a nuclear holocaust. You would be less likely to get these types of results if you had  clearer-communicating politicians and a media that is not full of attention whores and warmongers and bought and paid for assets. I'm not surprised at the result. 

I just hope something changes in the long-term because in a week, when people change their Ukraine flag avatars back, the problems this invasion  is highlighting will still be there, and the next time will be even worse. 

[Vee]

The vast majority of the public is still 100% with Ukraine here. Tankie and lowercase far left Twitter isn't really representative at all, and it's a hole that looks bigger than it is, and most of their positions don't end up as the default public position at all (if that were true, Bernie would be in office and Greenwald wouldn't be stuck on Fox News).

That's also why you get polls asking for no-fly zones, because of that vast support for Ukraine; the problem is the media isn't always educating the public as to why no-fly zones are an extremely dangerous option.

[DRW50]

I feel like these sources tend to start out as a minority then steadily creep their way up, as happened with a lot of COVID debate. But I know you are right. 

Here's another example of propaganda going around, disproven by someone working for loathsome Tom Cotton.

 

[dragonflies]