I wish people would stop working themselves into a frenzy over RT

Submitted by EdgyIndividualistBuffoon in Politics

RT isn't bad as long as it's talking about issues that have nothing to do with the Russian national interest. They host Larry King, for instance, who probably isn't a Russian agent. On top of that Sargon of Akkad has a full third of those subscriber numbers and he's some fucking Youtube dumbass, not an entire network. This is hardly impressive --- how many people actually watch the average RT program, in particular their political programs (i.e not Larry King)?

Also, why isn't there this absolute hysteria about Al Jazeera or VoA? Those two outlets have comparable reach (if not more) and are also explicitly State-funded.

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EdgyIndividualistBuffoon OP wrote

No, go on, I'm a super scary person who's WORKING FOR PUTIN!!!

Liberals have lost their god damned minds with this Russia shit. Everyone who disagrees with them is a Russian bot or "useful idiot".

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zorblax wrote (edited )

no joke: my mom claimed Melania Trump was "from there" and therefore she was probably a Russian spy or some shit. Even though she's Slovenian. Straight racism.

Also, on a side note, if you look at what Melania is doing as first lady, she ain't half bad.

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ziq wrote

She looks completely humiliated having to stand next to that cheeto.

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[deleted] wrote (edited )

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EdgyIndividualistBuffoon OP wrote

Hate to break it to you but a few tens of thousands of propaganda dollars on Facebook ads and Twitter bots are not going to have a significant effect on the cultural malestrom we inhabit consisting of home-grown racists, conspiracy theorists, 4chan trolls, Klan spammers, angry preteens, aggrieved nationalists, and yes long-standing separatists in various regions.

All this "Putin is masterminding all political chaos" bullshit is just an attempt to excuse the huge amount of terrible people that live in our society ("Putin is behind the rise of American neo-Nazis!") or the real reasons for anger that are driving some movements ("Catalonia would never want to separate if it wasn't for Putin!").

Look upon our culture, ye credulous, and despair. It isn't fucking Putin or Russia's doing that we're in this mess.

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autonomous_hippopotamus wrote

Agree and disagree,

While yes, Neo-Nazis, racism etc. have grown out of the social conditions of the u.s. and can't be blamed on Russia, they do see fellow travelors in Putin and Assad, for example, and Putin has had links to Neo-Nazi groups throughout europe, particularly golden dawn, tho yes you are correct that we shouldn't exagerate this influence.

Propaganda works, RT, Global Research and other websites that parrot their lines parrot their talking points have had a significant influence on the left in general: for example, when it comes to Ukraine or Syria, most leftists will repeat some form of the Narrative put out by Russia. Saying that full time propaganda networks have no significant influence on public discourse is pretty absurd. Like no one would deny fox news has been very instrumental in drumming up anti-immigrant sentiment for example, tho yes, it would be dishonest to say they ar the only ones responsible.

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emmaloldman wrote (edited )

Also, why isn't there this absolute hysteria about Al Jazeera or VoA? Those two outlets have comparable reach (if not more) and are also explicitly State-funded.

Because Russia has been the US' punching bag/red herring (no pun intended) for decades. The political center in this country have gone full McCarthyite Alex Jones.

It has been very telling to see the same shitlibs who thought we'd achieved world peace when the White House went up in rainbow lights holding homophobic and xenophobic signs of Trump and Putin making out etc. The cherry on top, though, is the use of Soviet-era imagery.

The political analysis of these people goes no further than Rachel Maddow, BuzzFeed, and Hillary's new rag of a book.

Edit: I almost forgot, this brand of "politics" is also heavily informed by Harry Potter.

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autonomous_hippopotamus wrote

agree with liberals losing their minds and blaming russia for everyting...

But also, isnt it Funny that Alex Jones himself tries very hard to discredit any kind of anti russian narrative and often repeats talking points from RT or Global Research. For example, Jones was big on saying this or that chemical attack in syria was a false flag, just as Russia and media outlets supportive of Assad were saying.

So i think it is also knee jerk contrarianism to just say there is absolutely no russia propaganda machine or whatever, but liberals can't analyze this without believing own paranoid propaganda.

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ladyanarchist wrote

Media is the a tool used by the government to control the masses. I don't see RT as anything different. Other colonial powers such as the United States (CNN, MSNBC, Vice etc.), and Britain (BBC) have a very similar media structure.

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autonomous_hippopotamus wrote

Al Jazeera, i would argue, despite their state funding, has far higher journalistic content than RT. But yeah i guess any news source is reliable enough, like if you wanna to know the basic facts of world events: there was a terrorist attack here, markets crashed over here etc. But even then, all major news outlets get their stuff from Reuters.

But i guess i get what you mean, i feel the same about Telesur, they have good coverage of events in latin america: outside of Venezuala, just not good for their domestic stuff.

The main problem i have with RT is that people do, in fact, get slanted ass coverage of events that are directly related to Russian interests: namely the war on Syria, and people prefer RT than other outlets because it appears to have this explicit leftist influence.

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