Antropologiske betraktninger om pelshvaldrift

Month: May 2025

The value of money

I heard in this remarkable conversation that in the USA, the “Israel Lobby” controls about 400 of the 435 members of the House of Representatives. That’s deeply disturbing, to say the least.

Here and now I won’t bother disputing the ludicrous positions of the “Israel Lobby”.

Nor am I now going to vindicate defenders of the so-called First Amendment that is so sacred to the USA (with good reason). In my country, you see, suppressing dissent is much easier than in the USA. In my country, people implicitly “trust” the mainstream press, because the mainstream press is, after all, our press. Our press tells us, day in and day out, what we need to know. It tells us that Russia will invade Europe, that China will invade Taiwan (without reminding us that Taiwan is actually part of China) and that we must be very grateful for US military presence here (Norway). The press adds that we must all be prepared for nuclear war. We must keep a stock of toilet paper, bottled water and batteries. Our press looks after us, you see.

Do you think I am proud of my country’s press? Has my country’s press informed me that one of the 9 US military bases on the Philippines has a Typhon missile system installed? With a range of about 2,000 kilometres, it can hit most major cities on the Chinese mainland. Not a word, as far as I can see.

But at least my country has made it resoundingly clear that we are horrified and repelled by the moral decrepitude of genocidal Zionism, which appears to control the Congress of the country that insists on controlling the world.

In the above-linked conversation, the two men seem to agree that Congress has quite simply been bought, bribed if you will. Now I really have trouble getting my head around such a supposition.

On the other hand, is it not so that anybody who freely and voluntarily defends starving a population to death, mutilating and torturing hundreds of thousands of people and forcing them to live under unbelievably ghastly conditions is in some way or other a defective human being, the sort of creature who should be monitored around the clock with an electronic bracelet?

Surely Congress isn’t made up of lunatics and psychopaths?

So I must take a closer look at the other supposition: A million USD is a lot of money. Even half a million would revolutionise my life. Besides, just as a member of Congress I would presumably be very well paid. I don’t really approve of torturing innocent people, but I would like to improve the plight of homeless people in my district and I could raise their case if I were in Congress, and – well – half a million USD would be nice.

Is that how it goes?

Is that also how the innumerable US wars go? We want to bring freedom to peoples of the world from Communism, theocracy, autocracy, etc. We are appalled by how women are oppressed in Afghanistan and Iran. We believe in LGBT rights, in justice, etc. etc. We raise our banners and continue the crusade, marching on, leaving a trail of death and despair everywhere we go.

All for money, right? Oil, minerals, black earth, etc. Gee!

Money, then, is very expensive.

Now, if so many members of the US Congress have been bribed – bought – where does that leave Democracy? In Democratic countries, members of national assemblies are elected just like members of Congress. Are Norwegian MPs more incorruptible than US Americans?

Dissent

In Octobre 2023, Consortium News sued “NewsGuard Technologies, Inc.” and the United States government (the Pentagon’s Cyber Command) for defamation.

NewsGuard is “acting jointly or in concert with the United States to coerce news organizations to alter viewpoints” as to Ukraine, Russia, and Syria, imposing a form of “censorship and repression of views” that differ or dissent from policies of the United States and its allies.

So we have three parties – 1) the United States military industrial complex, aka the Pentagon, 2) Newsguard that defines itself as “A global leader in information reliability” and 3) Consortium News (CN), which is a news site, obviously.

Quoting from the CN “About” page:

When we founded Consortium News in 1995 – as the first investigative news magazine based on the Internet – there was already a crisis building in the U.S. news media. The mainstream media was falling into a pattern of groupthink on issue after issue, often ignoring important factual information ….

We also looked at the underlying problems of modern democracy, particularly the insidious manipulation of citizens by government propaganda and the accomplice role played by mainstream media. Rather than encouraging diversity in analyses especially on topics of war and peace, today’s mainstream media takes a perverse pride in excluding responsible, alternative views.

Since I quote Consortium News, I should also quote Newsguard

… combines human expertise and technology to provide data, analysis and journalism that helps enterprises and consumers identify reliable information. NewsGuard’s detailed Source Reliability Ratings, produced by a team of expert analysts using apolitical journalistic criteria and a transparent process, enable enterprises and consumers to identify reliable sources of information at scale, with coverage of more than 35,000 online sources accounting for 95%+ of engagement. Our continuously updated Misinformation Fingerprints help clients identify and mitigate unreliable information, with data and analysis covering 30,000+ instances of false narratives spreading online with detailed and precise data seeds built for automated tracking. Altogether, NewsGuard has collected more than 6.9 million information reliability data points for its clients and customers since its 2018 launch [emphasis added].

The “misinformation” Newsguard refers to primarily applies to the Ukraine war and the Israeli genocide of Palestinians. Other misinformation doesn’t appear to interest this intrepid champion of the truth.

I should add that Newsguard is smart enough to also include a couple of pro-Ukrainian and pro-Israeli “myths”. But there is no doubt about what master Newsguard is serving: a) Russophobe warmongers b) the “Israel lobby”.

So what was the issue between Newsguard/the Pentagon and CN? CN explains:

NewsGuard uses its software to tag targeted news sites, including all 20,000+ Consortium News articles and videos published since 1995, with warnings to “proceed with caution,” telling NewsGuard subscribers that Consortium News produces “disinformation,” “false content” and is an “anti-U.S.” media organization.

Elsewhere CN writes:

CN supports no side in the Ukraine war but seeks to examine the causes of the conflict within its recent historical context, all of which are being whitewashed from mainstream Western media.

Consortium News can be wrong at times, but never as wrong as mainstream media was on WMD in Iraq or Russiagate. CN got both those consequential stories right while they were happening, and contends it is correct in its analysis of the Ukraine crisis. In any case, it is entitled to its analysis [emphasis added].

In March 2025, we finally learnt:”Judge throws out libel suit against media misinformation rating firm NewsGuard

Why? Because the judge found that:

Indeed, far from alleging that NewsGuard knew its statements to be false, Consortium News effectively concedes the truth of the ‘anti-U.S. perspective’ label, and acknowledges that ‘reasonable people’ could differ as to the truth or falsity of its reporting, undercutting any suggestion that NewsGuard knew its criticisms to be false and published those criticisms despite knowing them to be false.”

Read that paragraph again, I beg you. What it tells you is that:
a) Newsguard might have been unaware that its defamatory accusations were false,
b) that Consortium News has admitted that its views could be perceived as “anti-US”,
c) that a lot of people would be distressed by what Consortium News reported.

The Court evidently holds that defamation is OK if the perpetrators don’t know they are lying. The Court evidently holds that even if the US is pursuing egregious policies, there is good reason to suppress criticism of the US. And lastly, the Court holds that views other than those held by “reasonable people” may be suppressed.

I do not often laugh when I read the news. But I guffawed! If this is what they call Democracy, give me autocracy any day.

I suspect that the reason Consortium News has been targeted by the Pentagon is that its reporting is, alas, well-founded. See for instance the article On Neo-Nazi Influence in Ukraine which includes links to BBC video footage from 2014 and 2015.

While you’re at it, you might also listen to the rather remarkable CBS interview with Sergei Lavrov.

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