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The Great Divide
The other night I had a terrible argument with a couple whom I consider particularly close friends. They were spending the weekend at my place, and we had enjoyed two lovely days, when in the evening, I unwittingly stepped on a sore toe. Now, I had been very careful not to even mention Ukraine; in…
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What enlightenment is not
Yep, artificial intelligence and Wikipedia have already met, I fear. Or are the automatons at work human? Diligent cancelists? At any rate, things are starting to happen, awful things reminiscent of noxious chemical reactions. The other day, I looked up Helsinki Times in Wikipedia. The first paragraph read: Helsinki Times is the first English language…
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Suggested reading
Article by Jacob Siegel: A Guide to Understanding the Hoax of the CenturyThirteen ways of looking at disinformation Though the title may seem sensationalist, the contents of this profound and illuminating analysis are not. If you prefer to just get a gist of what Jacob Siegel wrote, you can turn to Glenn Greenwald’s interview of…
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Intermezzo
I shall be publishing the second part of Thorarinn Hjartarson’s analysis of the “Holdomor” narrative in a couple of days. In the mean time you might take a look at an article that appeared yesterday in Helsinki Times. I was kindly informed about it by a friend in Poland. I gather press freedom is not…
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Antagonising journalists
By mistreating and possibly poisoning the prisoner Aleksej Navaljnyj, the Russian authorities are merely reinforcing the Western public’s perception that the concept of justice simply does not exist in Russia. No matter what you or I think about Navaljnyj’s political views, he is not suspected of having killed anybody, or of having turned “customers” into…
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Defence of self or of hegemony
Have you heard of “perception management”? Simply put, it means persuasion on the basis not of facts but of lies (or suppression of facts). During the 1980s, Reagan decided to “kick the Vietnam syndrome“, a condition from which the US public was suffering, sick to the heart of the horror and shame of the Vietnam…
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The press again
I would like to direct your attention to a brief article in Responsible Statecraft that sums it all up pretty well. That article is here. I think the writer states his case so succinctly, that there is really nothing more to add.
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On the heels of science fiction
Do you sometimes come out of a building and feel that the world outside is somehow unreal? Maybe if you have been very immersed in your work, or if you have seen an engrossing film or even just read a thrilling saga? Recently, I have had that feeling almost every day, but not when I…
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Narratives vs. fairytales
If the West has presented a narrative that gives a clear, recognisable picture of reality, why should it so adamantly suppress the Russian narrative, which is that USA is waging, and has long been preparing a proxy war against Russia? Likewise, had Zelensky’s narrative given a clear recognisable picture of reality, why should he have…
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Within the framework
Since Trump came to power, there has been much talk about the media. Trump says the mainstream news outlets are lying, but what do we say? For my part, I can’t say I have all that much confidence in mainstream news outlets either; yet, there is no doubt that they have offered me wonderful articles…