Russia and the Right Wing

Years ago, being on the ‘left’ meant one was closer to communism/socialism and being on the ‘right’ meant one was a reactionary/racist.

Years ago all those on the Right has the Soviet Union as the Devil incarnate, and all those on the Left had them as interesting with some favourable traits.

Today, everything has turned on its head.

Today, the Left is anti-Russia, the Right is pro-Russia.

There has been much noise about Russia effecting the election in the United States.  Stupid people will always blame others for their stupidity.

First of all, there are specific news services which are respected, and those which are not.  The New York Times, the London Times,  the BBC, the CNN, and a few others.  Yes, we might see a ‘spin’ … but we don’t get a complete lie.  They don’t give us Fake News.

Breitbart News, for example is well known to publish falsehoods, conspiracy theories,  and intentionally misleading stories.  It is misogynist, xenophobic and clearly racist.   Of course it supports Trump and of course Trump treats it as if it is a premier News service.

If people can believe the rubbish that service publishes, they can believe anything.

Mr. Putin is quite intelligent.   He has watched America for many years.  First as a KGB agent, in which he spied, then as a politician.   He is aware of the ‘dumbing down’ which has been in effect from the 1970s, increasing every few years.

It must be recalled that in 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik.   The United States, terrified, began loading the curriculum with science and math,  pressuring the students to do their best.  This continued into the 1960s.

This created an aware and highly educated population a population which saw the lies of its government, and protested.   They did not believe what they were told, and this pressure led to the resignation of Richard Nixon.

The dumbing down began shortly after, in which the idea of ‘streaming’ was removed and a kind of false ‘integration’ was practiced.

By 2016 most Americans were poorly educated, controlled by their devices, be they computers, (which were used more for gaming then education) cell phone, (used more for mind control than communication) and given sound bytes instead of complete news stories.

To explain the latter, let me focus on the BBC.

There was a time the BBC was virtually all news all the time.  There were breaks in the news reporting for interviews, in depth analysis, historical presentations, but news was not limited to six minutes every hour, an two minutes every half hour, surrounded by repetitious blah blah.

As the attention span of Americans has been so damaged, it is easy to fling in some quick bit of fallacy and move on.

If Russians created and pushed Fake News, it is not their fault that Americans swallowed it whole.  Especially when the American Right Wing would pick it up and push it farther.

An intelligent person would think about what they hear.  Would not jump to make an immediate decision on a few sentences without doing the research.   A stupid person will believe whatever he is told by a person just as stupid as he is.

Hence Trump, who speaks the language of stupid is instantly believed by those who can go no farther than a statement without any evidence of its truth.

That Russia has been able to manipulate the American Right Wing is not difficult.  Firstly, Russians are highly educated.  Secondly, they know their audience.    To blame them for the election of Donald Trump is not true. Americans voted for Trump.   If they did so because they believed Fake News, that is their problem.

Of course, today, Russia is no threat to the West.  There is no more ‘Red Scare’ or ‘Impending Nuclear War’ between them and the rest of the world.   The real danger is Islamic Terrorism.  To maintain old  animosities is pointless, wasteful, and weakening.

Russia appreciates that the ‘liberals’ have twisted themselves into a meaningless spewing of politically correct nonsense in which truth is so detoxed that it scarcely survives.

So where the ‘left’ moves away from reality into fantasy, the right moves to push its racist/xenophobic fears, and Russia tosses the bread crumbs.