The Far Right's Love of the Kremlin’s Policies

[seemslikeadream]

When I had my hissy fit yesterday morning I was not aware of this part of the warmonger saga

I was commenting on what was going on in the Poison thread
Apparently I am a part of a scary liberal-warmonger bent here so says RocketMan because I do not believe it was the Skripals were poisoned by a fish dinner.. how fucking ridiculous ......because Mac continues to throw that word around it is now commonplace and acceptable to label a group of members here as warmongers. It's the new and improved way of a personal attack.

[mentalgongfu2]

Edit: Man, am I late to the party. But just for the record - Sounder, your bit on weightlifting and "poetic justice," aside from being completely off topic, is disgusting. Speaking of showing one's true colors...

I am sorry for that and agree it was in poor taste, and I do not applaud injury to anyone and think transgender folk should have opportunity to compete.

Noted. Thank you.

I think there is a place for discussion on whether a transgendered person should compete as their biological gender rather than their identified gender. I would personally argue that biological, at-birth gender should rule in such cases. But that is for another thread. In any case, the apparent celebration of injury was what got my attention, and my derision.

As to the topic of this thread - I am not knowledgeable enough to judge the truth of what is happening in Syria right now. Beyond relying my instincts, I can't say who to trust regarding these reports of chemical attacks.

But I loathe the idea of another American military intervention, and I shudder to think what Pandora's Box may have been opened by the missiles Trump ordered launched into Syria yesterday.

I was barely 20 years old when we launched the Afghanistan war, and then the Iraq war, and those "conflicts" have been going on all my life since then. I'm approaching 40 years old now. I have friends and family who have paid dearly for those military adventures, let alone the cost paid by all those on the receiving end of the American military. I don't see how anything good can come of this, and I have a lot of trouble buying the line that these missile strikes "hit the heart of Syria's chemical weapons program," as the MSM dutifully reports based on Pentagon sources. More likely a show of force to Russia and/or the Neocons, or perhaps a Wag the Dog scenario to distract from Stormy Daniels and Michael Cohen.

If there actually is a "heart of Syria's chemical weapons program," and we have known where it is and done nothing until now - well, that's just one more sign that this is a political strategy rather than a military or humanitarian one. At best.

More interesting to me from a geopolitical POV, if I allow myself to forget about the death and destruction that has already resulted and will result in the future from this attack, is the inclusion of Britain and France in the current "coalition of the willing" who are said to have participated in this barrage. I would be grateful for anyone who can point to some good resources from French and English sources on what their media is saying about their involvement.

[Elvis]

Today was the first I've heard in years about Syria's "chemical weapons program," and I realized a generation has nearly passed since the U.S. killed a million Iraqis and destroyed their country for its "chemical weapons program."

[American Dream]

This is so relevant. Bill Weinberg's thoughts are his own but he makes many important points. More to come...

Podcast: against pro-war 'anti-war' jive



In Episode Seven of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg rants against the sinister development of pro-war propaganda masked as "anti-war" propaganda. The overwhelming response of the "anti-war" left to the Douma chemical attack and Trump's retaliatory air-strikes is to baselessly deny that Bashar Assad was behind the attack, to portray the victims as CIA-jihadists, and to change the subject ("What about Gaza, Yemen, etc?") These are all propaganda tactics lifted directly from the Assad regime's playbook. "Anti-war" hypocrites may protest that they do not support Assad, they just oppose US air-strikes. But when you echo the Assad regime's propaganda and rush to exculpate it of every atrocity, you objectively do support Assad. You are actively abetting his war of extermination against the Syrian people. Any legitimate anti-war position must begin with opposition to the genocidal regime of Bashar Assad and his foreign backers in Moscow and Tehran, and with solidarity for the Syrian Revolution.
Listen on SoundCloud.

[Elvis]

Bill Weinberg rants against the sinister development of pro-war propaganda masked as "anti-war" propaganda.

Of course if one is gullible or ignorant enough to accept at face value the White Helmets' highly implausible claims, Weinberg might make some sense. But it's only natural to cite USUK-paid propaganda claims when pushing USUK foreign policy agendas. Which is what Weinberg is doing.

[Elvis]

Weinberg wrote:

The overwhelming response of the "anti-war" left to the Douma chemical attack and Trump's retaliatory air-strikes is to baselessly deny that Bashar Assad was behind the attack

Baseless? How does Weinberg know the denials (or even skepticism) are baseless? What is his basis for that claim? Does good evidence support it?

[Elvis]

I'm curious now about Weinberg, who I find has written about 9/11,,,,

The most sinister thing about the conspiracists is...


https://countervortex.org/node/2413

You get the idea. But a careful reading of that article will tell you a lot about Weinberg. Popular Mechanics, anyone?

[Sounder]

AD wrote..

More to come...

Excellent, I can never find quite enough indoctrination material.

Soma feel so good.

[American Dream]

I think we ourselves have done far too much towards bringing on this current state of affairs.

White Supremacists And Conspiracy Theorists Rage Over Syrian ‘False Flag’ Attack




But it wasn’t just the Left that demanded an end to the bombing. So did the extremist Right, though not for the usual humanitarian reasons. In the lead up to the airstrikes, fringe conspiracy theorists and alt-right activists warned that the chemical attack in Douma — like many atrocities — was actually a “false flag.”

Wingnut “journalist” Paul Joseph Watson of InfoWars interviewed Maram Susli, a pro-Assad media personality better known as “Syrian Girl” or “Partisan Girl.” A longtime conspiracy theorist herself, Susli labeled the Douma incident a “false flag chemical attack” in a short video for the YouTube channel Russia Insight.

In her appearance on Watson’s show, Susli condemned the White Helmets, a group of Syrian first responders, as “basically [the] Army of Islam or al-Qaeda basically putting on a white helmet.”

The claim that the White Helmets are a terrorist organization or in league with radical Islamists is just one of many unfounded smears against the humanitarian group. According to a report from The Guardian, several of these conspiracies have been linked to a Russian disinformation campaign:

The analytics firm Graphika has spent years analysing a range of Russian disinformation campaigns including those around the Macron leaks and the Russian doping scandal. In research commissioned by the human rights group the Syria Campaign, it found that the patterns in the online network of the 14,000 Twitter users talking about the White Helmets looked “very similar” and included many known pro-Kremlin troll accounts, some of which were closed down as part of the investigation into Russian interference in the US election. Other accounts appeared to generate more than 150 tweets per day (more than 70 is seen by scholars studying bots as suspicious).

Susli also claimed that the White Helmets had been caught fabricating rescues, informing Watson that they “did a very silly video of themselves basically frozen in time, rescuing this guy, and later he comes out and he’s like, ‘Oh I’m fine,’ but his acting during the rescue was as if he was very much in pain.”

As the Guardian article pointed out, this conspiracy centers around a group of White Helmets who posted their version of the “mannequin challenge,” an online video trend in which people “film themselves frozen mid-action.” In 2016 the video was uploaded by the Revolutionary Forces of Syria Media Office, but was “stripped of its context and reshared” in order to prove they staged their own rescues.

But that’s not all. Susli also alleged that the brains behind this organization is an MI6 agent. “And of course, the group is funded by Holland, the U.S., [and] the U.K.,” she added. “And it’s interesting that Holland actually, at the United Nations, said, ‘Oh this is a very trustworthy group.’ Well of course they’d say that because they’re the ones who are paying them!”

This wasn’t Susli’s first InfoWars appearance either. A devoted acolyte of Alex Jones, Sulsi made an appearance on July 9, 2014 where she claimed that ISIS received covert funding from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the U.S., and Israel — the “usual suspects” as she labeled them. Nearly a year later she was on the show yet again, defending the Gamergate movement against charges of misogyny, and claiming it was a response to “cultural Marxists” ruining video games.

And she’s associated with other extremist media outlets too. On November 13, 2015, Susli was a guest on the white supremacist podcast Radio 3Fourteen hosted by Lana Lokteff. During the episode Susli and Lokteff chatted about the evil “globalists” seeking to destroy Syria, as well as the similarities between Susli’s birthplace and Nazi Germany — both countries banned secret societies, Lokteff cheerfully pointed out.

Speaking of white supremacists, Lana Lokteff’s husband Henrik Palmgren also weighed in on the Syrian chemical attack — likewise dismissing it as a “false flag.” In an April 11, 2018 episode of Red Ice TV titled “Staged Chemical Attack in Syria: Provoking Irreversible Conflict,” Palmgren claimed that “We don’t know if anyone has been hurt, or if this is just staged, if this is theatre.”

Like Susli, Palmgren repeated the claim that the White Helmets “have staged and faked footage in the past” — e.g., the aforementioned mannequin challenge — and referred to them as a “fake humanitarian group with ties to al-Nusra Front.”

https://angrywhitemen.org/2018/04/17/wh ... ag-attack/

[American Dream]

It's sad that this commentary from the year 2000 has proven so prophetic:

JOHN WILLIAM KING QUOTES FRANCIS PARKER YOCKEY IN STATEMENT ABOUT HATE CRIME


Yockey and the Modern Right

Yockey's books and articles continue to be distributed by neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups in the U.S. and abroad. German and Spanish translations of Imperium are now available in European bookstores.

In addition, Yockey is admired by leading British neo-Nazis, including former British National Party chief John Tyndall, who described Imperium as a work "of outstanding philosophical importance." And a group of French Yockey fans were involved in launching a new European Liberation Front, which has close ties to "red-brown" extremists in post-Soviet Russia.

Yockey's influence also persists today among the growing number of practitioners of Odinism — in particular, the Ásatrú Alliance, headquartered in Arizona — who seek to revive the pagan rituals of pre-Christian Nordic culture.

These circles intersect with the occult underground, the Church of Satan, and racist elements of the "black metal" music scene. For several years, Kerry Bolton, a New Zealand-based publisher of Yockey's writings, has been advocating a bizarre fusion of occultism and fascist politics.

Kevin Coogan, author of a recently published authoritiative biography of Yockey (Dreamer of the Day, Autonomedia, 1999), notes that elements of what he calls "the current Yockey revival" also can be seen reflected in personalities like Michael Moynihan, a musician and writer who inhabits the netherworld of black metal/occult/fascism and is a leading member of the Ásatrú Alliance.

Moynihan's Portland, Ore.-based Storm Records even sells a CD which includes a song that, according to Coogan, is "directly inspired" by Yockey. Coogan also points out the interest in Yockey within the Abraxas Foundation, "a Church of Satan-influenced group."

While Yockey remains a cult hero only among right-wing extremists, his story has broader significance. It underscores the fact that resurgent fascist movements can assume widely diverging forms, some of which may be difficult to recognize.

This is important to remember at a time when progressive and far-right critiques of economic globalization and the World Trade Organization appear, at least on the surface, to overlap in certain respects. If fascism should return as a serious political force, it is much more likely to appear in an unexpected guise than in a hooded sheet or a brown shirt with a swastika.


Martin A. Lee is the author of The Beast Reawakens (Routledge, 1999), a book about resurgent fascism and right-wing extremism in the U.S. and Europe.

https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate ... hate-crime

[MacCruiskeen]

I think we ourselves have done far too much towards bringing on this current state of affairs.

You, certainly. But who else are you accusing, exactly? Are you a member of a team?

[Belligerent Savant]

.

White Supremacists And Conspiracy Theorists Rage Over Syrian ‘False Flag’ Attack

So essentially, the implication is anyone that questions thus-far unproven claims Assad was behind the Syrian Chemical attacks is in alignment with White Supremacists and "Conspiracy Theorists".

It's precisely these sweeping, agenda-driven statements/headings that should raise flags. Part of the reason this content is met with some disdain is that a sizable stable of discerning readers here will not fall prey to such sub-par, disingenuous tactics.

The article attached to that heading is no less agenda-driven (and suspect) than anything provided by Alex Jones. Why is it being presented here as a legit alternative viewpoint?

Along with Mac, I also do not follow your preface:

I think we ourselves have done far too much towards bringing on this current state of affairs.

Clarification would be appreciated. As of now my interpretation is that you agree with the premise of the article.

Let's back up a bit:

Where is the evidence that Assad was behind the Syrian Chemical Attacks?

Of the articles that appear to be critical of any "false flag" claims, how many of them have provided evidence/hard facts that the chemical attacks were sourced to an Assad directive? This is noteworthy given we've yet to obtain even "official" evidence/proof of the source of these attacks (if there's been an update to this, please share; haven't been in a position to review recent developments yet).

Why do you suppose these articles are operating under the premise these chemical attacks occurred as the U.S./UK/France claim?

(Anyone is welcome to answer)

[Elvis]

The claim that the White Helmets are a terrorist organization or in league with radical Islamists is just one of many unfounded smears

But the charges are not unfounded. That's what makes these writers one-sided propagandists, they're just spouting assertions, they're not thinking critically, and I've never seen them try to refute the evidence that disproves their stance. They just keep repeating the same hollow charges and half-truths.

[American Dream]

I would say that there's always the possibility that the White Helmets are some sort of nefarious front group, as argued by Russian propaganda. I have no particular love of that group, just a dislike for state-sponsored propaganda programs of all types. None of this exculpates the Assad Regime from gassing civilians. There have been many, many gassing incidents in Syrian territory.

Involvement in killing ordinary people by conventional means is very wrong too- whether done by "democracy", monarch, theocracy or whatever else.

I reject the idea that "woke", conspiracy-aware people must somehow take the side of Putin, Assad, Gaddaffi, Ahmadenijad or others who sign off on murder and torture, just like the American presidents, generals and spy chiefs do. The numbers might be greater for the bigger empires, but all of it is wrong.


On Edit: I don't have the time, energy or inclination to argue the minutiae but please take this as my brief comment on these matters here and now.

[Belligerent Savant]

NO ONE HERE IS TAKING THE 'SIDE' of any of the individuals you mention. objecting to outright propaganda/lies by govt entities does NOT = alignment with the claimed "enemy/enemies".

Surely you already know this -- why do you push this false (and facile) narrative?