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Showing posts with the label “Julian Assange”

If Only Assange Had Been Navalny

A ‘propaganda system will consistently portray people abused by enemy states as worthy victims , whereas those treated with equal or greater severity by its own government or clients will be unworthy.’ Similarly, think of Palestinians vs. Israelis, black and brown refugees vs. Ukrainian refugees, minorities in Syria vs. Syrians, an Iranian woman killed by the Iranian regime vs. women and children killed by Israel or the US. Julian Assange ‘How can exposing crime and torture be worse than committing them?’

John Pilger (1939-2023)

The BBC probably never mentioned John Pilger before until he died. Using google, one cannot find his name on the BBC.  I did not always agree with Pilger’s way of reporting, but he was one of those who opened my mind to how I should relate to and analyse the corporate media and how crimes and complicities are hidden or ignored. That was the time Chomsky's and Herman’s Manufacturing Consent – The Political Economy of the Mass Media fell in my hands. Here is something the British Broadcasting Corporation and Jessica Murray of the Guardian have deliberately, in their usual selectivity, ignored to mention: The War on Democracy   The War On Democracy (English subtitles) from John Pilger on Vimeo .

Counter-Revolution in the 21st Century

Let’s not forget that state and social movements relation are governed by the political economy of a given period and how confident – and far – could the state go in repression and beyond the daily oppression. We should also differentiate between security states where regimes use all necessary means to survive and the advanced capitalist states where maintaining the status quo means rotation of governments, which have significant resources at their disposal, powerful media and interest groups that marginalise and vilify dissent. That also apply globally where international capital, international institutions and organisations and states work together to support or divert and co-opt this or that social movement when it suits their interests.  ‘ How elites are crushing dissent ’ in Britain or France should be read differently from how regimes in Egypt, Iran or Russia exercise repression. After all, the title of the article does not apply to Britain, Germany, or even to France, where ther