Russophobia as the new US politically-correct anti-Semitism
FAIR AND BALANCED
AN AMERICAN LEFT CRITIQUE OF RUSSIA-GATE
AN AMERICAN LEFT CRITIQUE OF RUSSIA-GATE
AS NEO LIBERAL COLD WAR PART DEUX
It would be wrong to say that Blacks or Jews are “genetically driven to co-opt, penetrate, gain favor” But you can make similar claims about Russians – no problems. Sociopathic Carthago delenda est (Carthage must be destroyed) is the leitmotiv of US foreign policy toward Russia and is dictated by "Full spectrum Dominance" doctrine: nothing personal only business. In reality, this is gaslighting the US population for pretty nefarious purposes.
"This unconstrained Russian state also has destroyed Western wealth (happily stolen under Yeltsin gang rule-- NNB) and discouraged investment by arbitrarily enforcing environmental regulations against foreign oil investors, shutting out foreign partners in the development of the Shtokman gas field, and denying a visa to the largest portfolio investor in Russia, British citizen William Browder." - M. McFaul, May 17, 2007 House Committee on International Relations, Russia Rebuilding the Iron Curtain
"To promote liberty requires first the containment and then the elimination of those forces opposed to liberty, be they individuals, movements, or regimes. " - M. McFaul, The Liberty Doctrine: Reclaiming the purpose of American power. Policy Review April & May 2002 The Liberty Doctrine Hoover Institution
...clinging to power beyond his second term would make Putin look like a typical autocratic thug. - M. McFaul, May 17, 2007 House Committee on International Relations, Russia Rebuilding the Iron Curtain
What could be worse [for US imperial interests -- NNB] than a thriving Russian capitalist economy helping to advance the foreign policy interests of autocratic nationalists in the Kremlin? – M. McFaul, Why the nationalists surged in the Russian election. - Slate Magazine" Dec. 16, 2003
"Write badly about Jews and you became anti-Semi, Write against blacks - racist, against gays -- homophob, about Russian - honest, brave, liberal journalist."
-- Solzhenitsyn
Introduction
Russophobia as Freudian projection of the behaviour of the US neoliberal elite and the US intelligence services
The hatred of Russia as "a new normal" for the USA political elite as it was for the British elite in the past
The USA and Russian should be strategic partners
Neocons as the owners of the USA foreign policy. Full Spectrum Dominance mantra
The role of skepticism toward neocon propaganda
Russians are coming: War hysteria as classic Adorno
Russophobic views on Russia "There is no life there !"
Very well orchestrated Russophobia of Western MSM
Two types of Russophobes: "Russophobes by conviction" vs. "Russophobes for money"
Russophobes by conviction
Russophobes for money
Cold War II as an attempt to slow down the pace of Russia modernization
Does Russia represent an alternative to the neoliberal economic/social model?
Demonization of Putin as part of Russophobia
Apartheid regime in Baltic countries as part of Russophobia campaign launched after dissolution of the USSR
Coverage of Russia in Western MSMs resembles war propaganda
Background of propaganda attacks against Russia
Anatomy of US sanctions against Russia
Introduction
The current US policy of simultaneously antagonizing both China and Russia
will likely go down as one of the 21st century's more significant strategic miscalculations.
Assuming of course that it is a part of some strategy and not just bumbling incompetence.
Is Russia Being Driven Into the Arms of China
This page is written in hope to help Russian language students to understand the country they are studying despite the level of brainwashing typical for MSM in the West. My own views on the problem were influenced by Professor Stephen F. Cohen whom I really admire and follow.
Russophobia is not actually only about Russia. Actually it is more about American exceptionalism and imperialism (and for of all Full spectrum Dominance doctrine). That's why neocons, who are well paid prostitutes of MIC, are such rabid Russophobes. In more way then one it is a modern politically correct version of anti-Semitism practiced by the USA neoliberal elite. Like anti-Semitism it is a wedge issues, which enhances the level social control of US population and suppression of dissent, which now can be framed as "Russian agents" in best McCarthyism traditions (NeoMcCartyism ).
Amy scapegoating of the particular nations/ethnicity is very similar, almost identical in sprit to anti-Semitism. In the definition below I just replaced terms in Wikipedia definition of Anti-Semitism:
Russophobia is hostility to, prejudice, or discrimination against Russians. A person who holds such positions is called an Russophobe. Russophobia is generally considered to be a form of racism. It has also been characterized as a political ideology which serves as an organizing principle and unites disparate groups which are opposed to liberalism.
Russophobia may be manifested in many ways, ranging from expressions of hatred of or discrimination against individual Russians...
Here is another "adapted" definition (from The UK s Labor Party and Its Anti-Semitism Crisis) The definition states:
"Russophobia is a certain perception of Russians, which may be expressed as hatred toward Russians. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of Russophobia are directed toward Russian or non-Russian individuals and/or their property, toward Russian community institutions and religious facilities."
The uncontroversial "illustrations" of Russophobia:
Advocating the killing or harming of Russians for ideological or religious reasons;
Making mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Russians as such;
Holding Russians as a people responsible for real or imagined wrongdoing committed by a single Russian person or group;
Using the symbols and images associated with classic McCarthyism (e.g., equating Russians with Soviets and Russians with communists);
Holding Russians collectively responsible for actions of the Russian state or the USSR;
Scapegoating is an important part of the neoliberal Propaganda machine, especially war propaganda. Brainwashing people this way artificially (and temporary) increases social cohesion (as any enemy would) and was evoked as a defensive tool when the neoliberal elite experienced the loss of legitimacy as happened in 2016. As ROB URIE noted in his Russiagate, Nazis, and the CIA (Jul 31, 2020) CIA was Russophobic organization from the very beginning and it infects the USA political establishment with Russophobia more effectively then COVID-19 infects US population:
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This site advocates skepticism as an approach to study of both technical and social phenomena. The latter is generally about questioning any preconceived attitudes, facts, or opinions/beliefs stated as facts, and critical examination of claims that are taken for granted in corporate MSM. It also can be viewed as a strong allergic reaction to pseudoscience, "fake news" and "bullsh*t" of corporate owned MSMs (see propaganda), and the advocacy of alternative media such as blogs, wikis, web forums and email lists as valuable sources of information.
The site contains resources for university students and the independently minded IT folks interested in self-education. Some pages also serve as useful references. It stresses the value of continuing education, which is actually a life long process of self-discovery. Under neoliberalism the university education has become the way to separating "haves" and "have not" and indoctrinate students: the class fault lines in neoliberal society are increasingly along educational lines. The access to university education in the USA became more and more expensive as, along with their "class segregation" function, neoliberal universities now serve as a profit center for educational sharks.
Most material is related to programming, especially scripting (shell, Perl, pipes, Unix tools) and Unix system administration. But there are also some pages devoted on neoliberalism (aka Casino Capitalism), unemployment (including Over 50 unemployment ) toxic managers (especially female sociopaths), Groupthink, energy and some other more peripheral topics.
The site is mainly oriented on people and organizations with limited resources. It might be useful as a self-education tool, including for those "over 50" IT folk who recently found themselves excluded and marginalized: "without work, without possibilities, without any means of escape." (Pope Francis on the danger of neoliberalism).
This site tries to eschew the conventionally favored obfuscations about IT (for example about "cloud computing" or IT outsourcing) and expose the theater of absurd which often both academic and, especially, corporate IT represents (sometimes in the form of humor; it's often the best medicine against conformism, stress, and overload.). I think proliferation of Shadow IT is a clear sign that "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark", all hype about DevOps notwithstanding. For example, RHEL7 dramatically increased the complexity of the Linux operating system due to the introduction of systemd. That also changes our opinion about how open source ecosystem really works (in no way this is a bazaar) and who controls key elements of open source infrastrcture. In a way, RHEL7 signify emergence of "open source aristocracy" interests of which are detached from interests of rank and file sysadmins and programmers, and which pushes for Windowization of Linux. In other words it confirms the Iron Law of Oligarchy, which clearly now is replayed on the open source arena.
In the neoliberal society, we now live, good jobs are very scarce commodity, and you no longer can be a purely technical specialist, you need to understand the social context of your life as well. Or you will be taken for a ride, squeezed or even mercilessly pushed out of workforce. Students who are brainwashed by neoliberal propaganda (and neoliberal universities are doing just that via neoclassical economics courses) have higher chances to become debt slaves after graduation. In "for profit" education environment the debt peonage is now a "new normal" and universities became basically the real estate hoarders and debtor magnets for the banks. Unless you learn the difference between education and indoctrination, you might miss the fact that what used to be "the lower middle class" of IT professionals turns out to be simply an indebted write collar working class, "disposable IT workers", mercilessly squeezed by outsourcing.
This site also strives to be a part of the "resistance movement" against the neoliberal trend toward atomizing workforce, squashing any human solidarity, converting humans into tradable goods on "labor market". Which means that along with mastering the technology, maintaining your personal and financial health understanding the social system in which you live (Neoliberalism aka Casino Capitalism) is the necessary survival skill. The task which is actually very difficult because to live under neoliberalism and can't escape neoliberal brainwashing. Mush like was the case in the USSR with communist propaganda. Plato's Allegory of the Cave describes this inability of a group of (ideological) prisoners chained in a cave to interpret reality based solely upon the play of shadows projected upon the stone wall in front of them. Still, this is an educational site, not a propaganda site, and unlike propaganda that manipulates people emotions and prejudges to impose propagandist's views; education primary goal is to help to understand the reality of the current technological and/or social situation. Personal critical thinking is also important and you need to take the views expressed here with a grain of salt.
Replacement of classic university educational model with neoliberal model in the US universities has resulted in a very narrowly educated professionals who not only do not know, but also do not want to know anything about the society and politics. Understanding the society and people is typically a weak point of many programmers and system administrators including myself, the part of personality profile that drove us to this specialty. It often is amplified by narcissistic megalomania (as in "I am the greatest programmer; all others are schmucks who just don't get it"). But we can and should work diligently on eliminating this shortcoming, as many of us pay dearly for this "social blindness" (the term "professional idiocy" was coined by a German philosopher to denote someone who may be intelligent and competent in his own profession, but limited in social skills and as a member of society ) It is important to be aware about dangers of the IT workplace, such as psychopathic bosses (micromanagers, bullies, narcissists and authoritarians), as well as health problems due to daily multi-hour sitting behind the display or two and unhealthy diet.
With its relentless squeezing of the workforce neoliberal corporation needs narcissists, micromanagers and sociopaths in management ranks and it looks like the process of displacement of "technical managers" with "bean counters" and Harvard MBA types was finished a while ago. Which leads to situations like Boeing 737 MAX fiasco. In this environment you also need skills to survive a Bad Performance Review -- a standard waterboarding procedure in neoliberal corporation ;-) After all, for neoliberal corporation you are just a consumable resource, a unit of "human capital".
While attending university has its value in itself, as a good university cultural environment can't be replicated elsewhere, for talented people independent study might save some money and, thus, help to avoid excessive feeding of education sharks. In any case, lifelong self-education is important and should be a goal in itself. What gets people to the top is relentless self-education and practice of a particular skill. The minimum for reaching "master" level of a given skill is estimated to be around 10,000 hours, the earlier you start the better. And taking into account complexity of Unix/Linux (hello RHEL 7 with its systemd ;-) and Byzantium tendencies of mainstream programming languages (and those days you need to know several of them), for programming and system administration 30,000 hours is a more reasonable estimate (one year is approximately 3000 working hours). Which means formula 4+6 (four years of college and 5-6 years on the job self-education ) to get to speed.
Internet is a tool that gave us vast new opportunities of information exchange while at the same time tremendous possibilities of degrading of quality of this exchange in all major areas -- social, cultural, political and technical. Internet now serves as a the main advertizing channel, producing waterfalls of textual and visual spam fueled by advertising fees. Also too much information if often as bad as too little. Information overload is a real problem and in this sense filtration of information became much more important. You can use this site as one of such filters as links it provides for each topic are carefully evaluated.
At the same time, it is important to understand that Internet is a giant snooping mechanism and such sites as Facebook are not so much social sites as intelligence collection sites. Snowden revelations proved that like in East Germany with its famous STASI there is a dossier on any Internet user with a lot of meta-data and probably not only meta-data to trace each day of one's life to an hour or better. Governments no longer need informants to get private/compromising information about citizens. Advertisers, search engines and shopping sites like Amazon are pretty much enough. That greatly increases the value of understanding of computer security.
While this site started as a pure computer science knowledgebase (compiled using Perl scripts), gradually the algorithms used were expanded into other areas which actually served as testing areas for some of concepts and scripts). Paradoxically now the fastest growing area is probably Social (information about toxic managers, communication, and bureaucracies). The close second is information about neoliberalism (with the introductory article, as such information remains rare on Internet) despite tremendous social importance of understanding what neoliberalism is about.
The quality of pages vary widely. Generally the site develops as a living tree with pages on topic outside my interests with time becoming stale and then obsolete. Still some of them contain historical information you can't find elsewhere (as of Oct 2019 the site is 23 years old, while the bulletin is 30 years old).
