Compiling Thoughts

Sometimes, my compilation stage runs a bit long, but I wanted to post these quotes and their sources for future reference and for the consideration of you, the reader…

I think people who call themselves journalists in my book, they’re not journalists. But those people have played and are playing a destructive role in creating the fear, the dislike, the distrust, that the people in both countries have vis-a-vis each other. And the fact that we don’t seem to question our media is really quite interesting.

@ 35:20 – 35:47

[Quoting Hermann Göring] Naturally, the common people don’t want war. Neither in Russia nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany, that is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determined the policy. And it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is the democracy or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the peacemakers for a lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.

@ 36:56 – 37:51

Authoritarian leaders that removed their political rivals, gained control over mass media, often think that they will stay in power forever. They think that it is enough to be in charge of coercive means to maintain political stability. However, it is a delusion and for many, the price of this delusion was too high.

@ 00:45 – 01:04

If you want to make the world’s biggest economy depend on your potential rival, the USA, and the mail oil rival, Saudi Arabia, waiting for them to come to an agreement, you need to recruit incompetent people to work on the task and wait for a while.

@ 10:42 – 11:01

The first interview – Vladimir Pozner – was filmed 27Sep18…

The second post was posted to YouTube on 7Nov19…

On 4Sep17, I posted my last academic paper – Post-Soviet Russian Diplomacy and the Western Media. In it, I considered the notion that there were two stages of Western media’s influence on diplomatic efforts (or lack thereof) after 1991: ignoring the issue with the loss of political and cooperative opportunities, and the reactionary/accusatory stance we have seen ebb and surge more and more over the last decade.

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[sigh]

Look, I know I tend to get lost in my own explanation and analysis of an idea… Sometimes, it makes for difficulty in even my own understanding of the point I wanted to make, the points I strayed across, and the point I leave recorded in this blog for future consideration.

I get it.

However, let me be clear on a few things:

I do not trust Putin. I have said over and over again since 2014: “He’s getting the band back together, man…” While I am impressed, it is a wary respect… Gas-station-sushi-in-an-upscale part of town type of wariness.

I do not trust ANY political figure. I swear, some folks have a severe devotional issue to political and media figures which immediately brings to mind Jonestown – the followers will destroy everything – even themselves – in blind obedience to an idea. This is why I have such a problem with absolutes in this respect.

You – WE – are being played. Consider this: most people have stronger opinions on the utterances of a celebrity has-been more than they not only have a basic understanding of why Ukraine is “suddenly in the news again” (it never left, really… it just became more challenging to follow), but where on the planet Ukraine actually is.  

Go back… take a look at what I have written…

“Nowhere Further to Retreat” 21 December 2021…

World War 01011001 21 May 2020…

Thoughts on Article 5 3 November 2019…

Red Scare… Version 3.0 23 October 2019…

Most Likely / Most Dangerous 4 September 2019…

Better yet, find something in the Information Operations category… as it turns out, I have been saying a LOT about where we are going…

However, don’t just take what I write… and what I have said… as the absolute truth; the truth is up to you to decide – I just obsessively write when I have the time and provide the best source documents to support the point(s) being made. Don’t trust me – I have plenty of my own biases and I tend to get a bit stingy with ’em… Get your own – maybe we can trade biases for jalapeno cheese and Charms.

More importantly, though, READ… THINK… DISCUSS…don’t just consume… don’t waste people’s time being in an ideological echo chamber/vomitorium where the only thing shared is the dry-heaving of predigested opinion which was packaged as “facts.”

You wanna know how we get out of this place of “too much confusion”?

Look

In

The

Mirror.

It’s up to the person staring back at you.