Morning Comrades.
27 days ago Russia invaded Ukraine, and aside from the horrors of war yet again raising its horrendous head my secondary thought at the beginning of this crime of the capitalists was to call for clearheadedness in regards to the use of information. I wrote extensively on this subject over the last weeks, including the use of the monetary warfare involved just last week and we are once again coming back to the use of information today. There are a couple of other important resources I found over the weekend that certainly helped me further my understanding of what’s happening around and I’ll happily share those later in this email.
However, like every week, let’s kick this off with another Black Lodges Weekly Jams. This week is definitely a lot more quieter, relaxed than the weeks beforehand, which only reflects the fact that I had a lot on last week and sought solace in gentler tunes. There are, of course, a couple possibly unexpected bangers in there but I’ll let you find those. I enjoyed this one a great a deal and I’ll post the track listing at the end of this email as well as in telegram group.
The first casualty when war comes is truth.
It is fair to say that the information war on display since Putin invaded Ukraine is one of the most intense we have yet witnessed. Obviously, this isn’t a new tactic in warfare and/or politics and we can link variations of the above line all the way back to Aeschylus, the father of the Greek Tragedy tradition with the line: “God is not averse to deceit in a just cause.” - Nevertheless, the combined use of social media, the merging of silicon valley, politics and the ever increasing anti-democratic tendencies from this emerging new variant of fascism is intensely aggressive and equally out in the open. Specifically, we are talking about the information here in the “west” - I am still looking into what is going on in Russia, but getting information out from trusted sources is increasingly difficult. With that, I am focusing, purposely, on what this semi-new marriage of the ruling classes is up to. The majority of work I have read on this subject was beautifully out together by Caitlin Johnstone in here article here on Substack that I have linked below.
In detail, this article explains what the CIA and their European partner agencies usually have done covertly in the past and now are doing overtly in public through Social Media. In detail, this work focuses on a relatively new news platform and twitter account, called The Kyiv Independent that has not only quickly become the most cited “source” in the “west” in regards to the war but incredibly “grew” to over several million followers online post-invasion.
As Caitlin Johnstone writes “Do you see the grey text in the top left-hand corner of the image which says "War in Ukraine"? That's a Twitter "Topic" that the page's algorithm has recommended to me without my having subscribed to it, where posts from The Kyiv Independent feature prominently. This Topic is being aggressively pushed on Twitter users around the world, showing up over and over again in their feed until they adjust their settings to remove it.
As Pedro Gonzales recently documented in Human Events, The Kyiv "Independent" was slapped together a few months ago with what the Committee to Protect Journalists called "an emergency grant from the European Endowment for Democracy.”
The European Endowment for Democracy is a spinoff of the US government-funded “NGO” National Endowment for Democracy, which according to its own co-founder was set up to do overtly what the CIA used to do covertly, namely orchestrate coups and manage narratives to advance US interests. A page on an NED website says that "All EU member states are members of EED’s Board of Governors, together with members of the European Parliament and civil society experts."
So this is a media outlet funded by a government-run “NGO” being forcefully pushed in front of millions of western eyeballs by a major Silicon Valley corporation that people have come to rely on for getting information about the world. In the same way Silicon Valley facilitates government censorship by proxy, it also facilitates government propaganda by proxy.
The Globe and Mail reports that the Canadian government also put $200,000 toward Kyiv Independent's funding. The outlet is being so loudly amplified by Twitter that not only has its Twitter account secured nearly two million followers since its creation in November, but one of its reporters (who calls the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion his "brothers in arms") has gained a million followers since the start of the Russian invasion.”
By all means, do you read the entire article, it goes into greater length and detail explaining not just this account but also the mechanism behind how we receive what information. Coming back to what I wrote a few weeks, it is increasingly important to be aware of what you are being shown as information. The entire concept of “narratives” has been weaponized and the the conjuncture of our governments and tech firms has made this weapon incredibly powerful. Yes, this is only the story in regards to our narrative and given time I hope to work this out in regards to Russia as well.
Michael Parenti wrote this in 1986, well before social media was invented, let alone weaponized:
“For many people an issue does not exist until it appears in the news media. How we view issues, indeed, what we even define as an issue or event, what we see and hear, and what we do not see and hear are greatly determined by those who control the communications world. Be it labor unions, peace protesters, the Soviet Union, uprisings in Latin America, elections, crime, poverty, or defense spending, few of us know of things except as they are depicted in the news.”
In addition to this topic, over the last few days, a highly debated topic in philosophy/history/politics over the last few years has crept into the mainstream narrative, that being multipolarity versus unipolarity. Essentially, this explains the realities of our “political” world after the so-called Cold War ended with the demise of the Soviet Union. A lot of work from the Global South especially has been made on this subject that clearly is working towards ending the unipolarity of the US on the world and has offered many possibilities of a multipolar geo-political reality.
Samuel Perry, a comrade from Wales, recently put together a thread that explains in really easy to understand terms and seeing that we in the middle of a massive geo-political shift, I wanted to share this with, highlighted below linked in the first picture for its entirety.
To wrap this one email up, and whilst it may not seem to be entirely on topic, bear with me, it truly is. Abigail Disney, yes, she is directly related, did a brilliant run down on the great US proverb “pro-business”, something that on the surface seems innocent enough but explains directly how companies like Disney do actively fund political campaigns, for example, the “Don’t Say Gay” bills in states such a Florida. I found it incredibly insightful as I have never quite understood these moves past a solid and cynical class analysis. Corporatism is truly the best way to define fascism, as Mussolini coined correctly in the 1920s and this run down, again, linked in the first picture, just nails this perfectly. If you want to, and you should, corporatism links directly to unipolarity and furthermore, the weaponization of information via social media.
Thanks again for tuning in, your time, attention and patronage. As a not so subtle reminder, you can become a patron to this work and me by becoming a monthly subscriber below.
Until Wednesday comrades. As always, I remain yours, without compromise,
V.