I was going through the news to find updates about the Ukraine invasion when I found a peculiar article in the National Post about a Canadian website, globalresearch.ca, that is laundering Russian propaganda. I hadn't heard that URL since I was living at my parents old house 20 years ago. That's because our old neighbour who's lawn I'd cut and cat i'd babysit ran that website. Well it turns out he's still at it and he has attracted the attention of the U.S. State Department and the NATO-allied Strategic Communications Centre for “information laundering” which is "giving a supposedly respectful Western sheen to the Kremlin’s fake news." His article on the website claims a far-right nazi group is giving children military training which is the narrative that Putin is using to justify invading Ukraine apparently. I wonder if my old neighbour, Michael Chossudovsky, is directly linked to Russia over this, or just prone to taking difficult stances on issues and is just a convenient source for Russia to use for their own devices. I have a feeling it's probably the latter.
The Ukraine invasion certainly put an immediate break on the attention the Canadian convoy was getting, but news stories still emerge to remind us how stupid and wrong our lower class citizens are for complaining in the first place, not mention how the entire thing had everything to do with pushing white supremacy. What seems to be left out of all these stories is the actual concern of all these people. Instead we find the kind of stories people are probably reading in Russia about Ukraine: they're all Nazis being funded by malicious foreign actors!
If there are people on the fence about joining an actual Nazi or white supremacist movement, then I'm pretty sure the continued labeling and insults flying towards them from their own gouvernement are sure to help them decide to take the wrong path, because there are real right wing supremesist groups waiting with open arms to accept them, and that is a serious problem for everyone. Honestly though, I think the Nazi scare is bullshit here just as it probably is in Ukraine. The only difference is Ukraine has a real emergency on their hands and we have a Prime Minister who wishes we had one.
On my favourite topic of propaganda, I have to say my least favourite word in the English language right now is "misinformation." I believe the definition is anything that isn't gouvernement sponsored propaganda. If it were lies, it would be called lies, but the word is misinformation. When Joe Rogan brought the inventor of mRNA vaccines on to his show, the public was deemed too untrustworthy to be exposed to such dangerous information and it now has been removed along with many other pieces of "misinformation." Or if it's only borderline misinformation, it gets a warning label that invites you to go see the official information that you must absolutely follow, or else.
Or else... I guess what else is still being decided on. So far there's public ostracization through social media shaming, being blocked or completely censored online by the social media companies themselves, and worst but not least, having your bank account frozen rendering you a non-person. That's where we're at now. If you're annoying enough to the federal gouvernement, they are prepared to declare you an emergency threat to our democracy and will freeze your assets until you comply. That's fucking crazy if you ask me. I'm worried that things will continue to get more insane in the years to come. COVID made for a great excuse to flex some autocratic muscle and the federal government is reluctant to relax it's grip, unlike some of our provinces, luckily. But, now that COVID is pretty much over, I wonder how the war with Russia will be used to further destroy our ability to listen and speak freely and honestly in this country. In the mean time, I'm going to continue to keep my participation on social media to an absolute minimum and write my honest thoughts on my website while I still can.
I wish all the regular people out there the best while our political and corporate elites protect us from the terrifying evil that is misinformation.