Tom. I'm adding a link to an interview in WAPO which is just hot off the press so to speak. It goes with your great piece! More and more of those threatened with accountability for their actions with regard to the former guy and his attempt to overthrow the government, which by the way continues to this day through the right wing cabal i…
Tom. I'm adding a link to an interview in WAPO which is just hot off the press so to speak. It goes with your great piece! More and more of those threatened with accountability for their actions with regard to the former guy and his attempt to overthrow the government, which by the way continues to this day through the right wing cabal in the house especially and in states ruled by gop legislators and governors, will turn against him and confess. Unfortunately the politics of fascism are easy to overlook until you no longer can. Looks like a fascinating book written by someone who had to flee russia but was likely poisoned once she settled in Germany. She recovered. The New "speaker" promises to be what he has been all along--a mouthpiece for the guy who should by now be in prison for treason.
Q. Fascism is on the rise all over the world, and I can see echoes of what happened in Russia happening in the United States. What can I do?
A. What I would definitely do differently — and it was a trap I don’t want you to fall into — it’s this principle: Don’t get involved or you will lose your objectivity, all of us should be objective and professional and blah, blah, blah. I believe this whole principle — don’t get involved in things — was invented by people who had power and wanted to keep it because they don’t want media to be politically active. This is what we believe in, too — that the first thing we should do is professional duty. But professional duty is not enough. We all have not just professional duties, but also civil duties, and they’re not eliminated by professional duties. If you as a journalist know that your country goes in the wrong direction, you should alarm the rest.
Many educated Russians are very happy to believe that propaganda doesn’t affect them, that some stupid people are being affected by propaganda but we know things. When you feel that propaganda doesn’t affect you, you’re already under its influence.
I won’t shame myself for being an activist and a journalist. And I believe, of course, that I should be — we should all be — way more alarmed. If you see that things are going to hell, they are going to hell.
Tom. I'm adding a link to an interview in WAPO which is just hot off the press so to speak. It goes with your great piece! More and more of those threatened with accountability for their actions with regard to the former guy and his attempt to overthrow the government, which by the way continues to this day through the right wing cabal in the house especially and in states ruled by gop legislators and governors, will turn against him and confess. Unfortunately the politics of fascism are easy to overlook until you no longer can. Looks like a fascinating book written by someone who had to flee russia but was likely poisoned once she settled in Germany. She recovered. The New "speaker" promises to be what he has been all along--a mouthpiece for the guy who should by now be in prison for treason.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2023/10/25/i-love-russia-elena-kostyuchenko-interview/
From the article:
Q. Fascism is on the rise all over the world, and I can see echoes of what happened in Russia happening in the United States. What can I do?
A. What I would definitely do differently — and it was a trap I don’t want you to fall into — it’s this principle: Don’t get involved or you will lose your objectivity, all of us should be objective and professional and blah, blah, blah. I believe this whole principle — don’t get involved in things — was invented by people who had power and wanted to keep it because they don’t want media to be politically active. This is what we believe in, too — that the first thing we should do is professional duty. But professional duty is not enough. We all have not just professional duties, but also civil duties, and they’re not eliminated by professional duties. If you as a journalist know that your country goes in the wrong direction, you should alarm the rest.
Many educated Russians are very happy to believe that propaganda doesn’t affect them, that some stupid people are being affected by propaganda but we know things. When you feel that propaganda doesn’t affect you, you’re already under its influence.
I won’t shame myself for being an activist and a journalist. And I believe, of course, that I should be — we should all be — way more alarmed. If you see that things are going to hell, they are going to hell.
Thanks for that link, Linda.