Russian acts of subversion have really become secondary to the way the narrative is being used for a wide variety of aims. (As I keep saying I could see Russians doing the DNC hack - Russia has plenty of motive and means and it really wouldn't surprise me.) These aims include exculpating the democratic party of any responsibility for the mess we are in, attacking the left and discrediting anyone who shines a light on American human rights abuses, ramping up militarism and threat escalation and thereby guaranteeing massive contracts for weapons manufacturers and private security, and of course putting the incoming administration into a catch-22 as far as relations with Russia and any proxy conflicts in the coming years (any attempt at diplomacy and we get to say they are a victim of Russian influence, which will push Trump into a warlike stance with the other major nuclear power on the planet. I will repeat that - a large faction of our countries elite, led by the democrats, are guiding DONALD TRUMP into a position where use of nuclear weapons will become a real potentiality.) So the Russia hysteria is one of the most bizarre things I have ever seen - in my lifetime I have never seen the deep state so openly try and shape public opinion with so much cooperation from the public.
Some context: understand that as long as Russia is considered a threat, the NATO nations are lucrative markets for Raytheon, Lockheed etc. Now take into account the revolving door between these weapons companies and the intelligence/military sectors. Lastly how much influence the companies have on the major media outlets through advertising dollars, investment as well as a mutual self interest (times of war mean built-in markets.) These three different sectors certainly seem to have a shared set of goals. With this in account, I'm sorry but I am getting some serious bullshit vibes from at least some of what I'm reading/hearing in the news. There has been a significant buildup of troops in the NATO states in the last few months, of course matched by equal buildups on the Russian border. Does this not seem like a dangerous game?
And it drives me up the wall that I'm suddenly the weird one for saying this. When did the CIA become the good guys? The CIA is one of the most blood-soaked and duplicitous organizations in modern history, but even without any value judgement we should remember that they lie for a living because they are spies and that is what spies do. They also get things wrong all the time. WMDs. The NSA really lost credibility in recent years and the FBI has ALWAYS crushed political resistance as a matter of priority so this sudden insistence that any "discrediting" of Hillary Clinton by the left is a product of Russian agents is perhaps the most reactionary stance I have ever seen liberals get behind. ESPECIALLY since the media outlets that actually did influence the election are Brietbart, Infowars and other extreme right publications.
The truth, I fear, is that that the democrats are willing to posture and warmonger towards the only other world power that could reduce our entire homeland to ashes not because it discredits Trump (I mean that is part of it and perhaps the only silver lining in all this) but because even that is preferable towards considering any sort of social democratic platform. The idea of placing the well-being of the working class above the interests of big business is simply off the table at this point. There was a while when many of us hoped that they would do some real soul-searching (like the GOP post 2012) and realize that the DNC's chronic entrenchment into neo-liberal hegemony has backed them into a corner from which they are really unable to offer anything to their voters of any substance without an utter break of rank (and at a cost of funding as well.) I think all of us thought they would be able to keep a facade up for another 10 years but the Trump election has really pulled away the pretense and exposed the world to the fact that their impotence in fighting the cold and brutal policies of the GOP is not strictly the fault of those evil Republicans. I don't think the DNC see fighting mass-privatization, de-regulation and austerity as their job at all. They are now simply the ones to soften the edges of such policies and then give them a much more friendly face.
What bothers me is that I can't talk about this with other people without them asking me why I am so supportive of Russia. Let me be clear if not a little callous: I don't really give a shit about Russia, at least politically. Putin has done a lot of bad things and their country has a lot of problems and they bombed a lot of innocent people and they hack and subvert many other countries and each of these statements apply to the US as well. I do not want the US to be attacked in any way by any other world power. I am strictly interested in how those in the media and the ruling class at large are using this whole story for their own ends. We have been trained to see all conflicts in the world stage as the good guys vs the bad guys and it really impedes any sophisticated understanding of complex political struggles. It is however a very beneficial tool for those in power and they have no doubt worked tirelessly to create such conditions in our mass psyche. Any anti-war position can be conflated with support of the enemy. Jeremy Corbin was recently called a "Russian collaborator" for opposing the NATO escalation. So I am asking for some healthy skepticism and willful self-education on this issue.
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