Hm. This all seems too convenient. USAID and Radio Free both becoming targets - surely they can’t be that fucking stupid?
Of course there’s people who really believe the shit this guy is saying, but surely many of the higher ups don’t?
I have this gut feeling that USAID and RF closing up shop is all part of a new game plan. The empire allows free speech when times are easy. It clamps when competition arises. In the past year, USAID has stopped making information of it’s grants public. Therefore, the govt finds USAID to be too revealing.
Perhaps wrapping it all up means they can burn some documents in the process. Maybe it’s that these outlets are too compromised - in the sense that it has become more common knowledge that USAID and especially RF are state propaganda outlets. In this new war against China, they need a clean slate and a redoubled effort. Both outlets began in response to the Soviets post war - RF in 1950, USAID in 1961. Now it’s China.
I will add an extra layer of lizard brained conspiracy to this - there are document declassification windows in the US. At 25 years, its easy enough to reclassify it. At 50 years, exceptions can still be made. At 75 years, you have to have a very fucking good reason.
Radio Free was setup 75 years ago. USAID 65. In coming years, more and more of RF’s dirty side will be made public knowledge. A decade later so too will USAID’s. This will all be coming out at the height of the coming cold war with China.
Perhaps it is wise for the govt to distance themselves from it. To be able to claim they shut it down.
At its core, it is a bad to bet on the US state being run in a sophisticated way. It depends more on its position to exert leverage than on the smartest and best stratagems. The people “at the top” being incompetent (but still cynical) has happened many times.
Though it is an interesting question of what is going on in the intelligence blob. Sure, they havs their own batch of true believers that do not understand their actual role and what they do, but I have no doubts that those who are generally aware run the show. Does it mean they are on board with a surface-level restructuring and are betting on a different approach? Does it mean they plan to rein this in and we just haven’t noticed? Are they too distracted by the loyalty purge stuff for now and will be responding later?
In any case I am very entertained to see so many imperialist propagandists out of work. Watch where they go next. That might indicate the extent to which this is a restructuring rather than defunding. Moves to academia, social media companies, and brand new NGOs are the ones to look out for, IMO.
I’m as surprised as anyone that there hasn’t been any sign of a swift backlash to these efforts behind closed doors, but I fear this gives our enemies too much credit. As others have commented, the Republican party is now controlled by people who have been steeped in the paranoid conspiratorial ideology fostered by past generations of conservative leadership in the hopes of maintaining a pliant base. They actually believe the absurd, ahistorical, contradictory things they say. I think it’s more likely the doddering remnants of the old guard are too complacent, too accustomed to having their way with things, to react quickly enough to maintain this propaganda apparatus.
Hm. This all seems too convenient. USAID and Radio Free both becoming targets - surely they can’t be that fucking stupid?
Of course there’s people who really believe the shit this guy is saying, but surely many of the higher ups don’t?
I have this gut feeling that USAID and RF closing up shop is all part of a new game plan. The empire allows free speech when times are easy. It clamps when competition arises. In the past year, USAID has stopped making information of it’s grants public. Therefore, the govt finds USAID to be too revealing.
Perhaps wrapping it all up means they can burn some documents in the process. Maybe it’s that these outlets are too compromised - in the sense that it has become more common knowledge that USAID and especially RF are state propaganda outlets. In this new war against China, they need a clean slate and a redoubled effort. Both outlets began in response to the Soviets post war - RF in 1950, USAID in 1961. Now it’s China.
I will add an extra layer of lizard brained conspiracy to this - there are document declassification windows in the US. At 25 years, its easy enough to reclassify it. At 50 years, exceptions can still be made. At 75 years, you have to have a very fucking good reason.
Radio Free was setup 75 years ago. USAID 65. In coming years, more and more of RF’s dirty side will be made public knowledge. A decade later so too will USAID’s. This will all be coming out at the height of the coming cold war with China.
Perhaps it is wise for the govt to distance themselves from it. To be able to claim they shut it down.
The new outlets will be unknown entities.
At its core, it is a bad to bet on the US state being run in a sophisticated way. It depends more on its position to exert leverage than on the smartest and best stratagems. The people “at the top” being incompetent (but still cynical) has happened many times.
Though it is an interesting question of what is going on in the intelligence blob. Sure, they havs their own batch of true believers that do not understand their actual role and what they do, but I have no doubts that those who are generally aware run the show. Does it mean they are on board with a surface-level restructuring and are betting on a different approach? Does it mean they plan to rein this in and we just haven’t noticed? Are they too distracted by the loyalty purge stuff for now and will be responding later?
In any case I am very entertained to see so many imperialist propagandists out of work. Watch where they go next. That might indicate the extent to which this is a restructuring rather than defunding. Moves to academia, social media companies, and brand new NGOs are the ones to look out for, IMO.
I’m as surprised as anyone that there hasn’t been any sign of a swift backlash to these efforts behind closed doors, but I fear this gives our enemies too much credit. As others have commented, the Republican party is now controlled by people who have been steeped in the paranoid conspiratorial ideology fostered by past generations of conservative leadership in the hopes of maintaining a pliant base. They actually believe the absurd, ahistorical, contradictory things they say. I think it’s more likely the doddering remnants of the old guard are too complacent, too accustomed to having their way with things, to react quickly enough to maintain this propaganda apparatus.