[HN Gopher] Russia to punish 'fake news' about Ukraine war with ...
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       Russia to punish 'fake news' about Ukraine war with 15 years' jail
        
       Author : simontheowl
       Score  : 257 points
       Date   : 2022-03-03 15:55 UTC (7 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.thetimes.co.uk)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.thetimes.co.uk)
        
       | pavlov wrote:
       | It's good to remember that the previous American president also
       | waged a war against every media outlet he didn't like by claiming
       | they were "fake news." It's the same authoritarianism in
       | different stages.
       | 
       | And if you think nobody in America wants to jail journalists and
       | media CEOs, go look at any forum with a substantial amount of
       | Republicans talking freely.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | echelon wrote:
         | > And if you think nobody in America wants to jail journalists
         | and media CEOs, go look at any forum with a substantial amount
         | of Republicans talking freely.
         | 
         | I'm a liberal and would like to point out that fellow liberals
         | say the same about conservatives. We're wasting energy and
         | making enemies fighting a narrative warfare, and it's frankly
         | very stupid.
         | 
         | Jail the their protestors, but not our own. Deplatform their
         | voices and curtail their free speech, but not our own. It's the
         | exact same behavior in both sides, yet both parties rush in to
         | say how they're different and morally correct.
         | 
         | We need to mend ties, not strain them further. We're becoming
         | too polarized, and that's exactly what authoritarians that eye
         | the end of Democracy and its influence want. We're focused on
         | fighting our petty squabbles instead of positioning ourselves
         | in the global sphere.
         | 
         | If you think any of our manufactured crises are even in the
         | same order of magnitude as what Ukraine is facing right now,
         | then they're already winning.
         | 
         | My worry isn't in owning or being owned by the other party.
         | It's that Democracy is shown to be less effective, that free
         | speech is put in a box, and that we end the century in
         | shackles. No future under those pretenses is worth looking
         | forward to.
        
           | president wrote:
           | Agreed. If there's anything I've learned over the years, it's
           | that Democrats and Republicans are equally nasty. The only
           | difference is one side is much more powerful because they are
           | supported by virtually every cultural institution that
           | exists.
        
           | cabalamat wrote:
           | I agree. The US culture war helps dictators like Putin and
           | Xi.
        
             | LegitShady wrote:
             | tnat doesnt solve the problems it just makes the stakes
             | higher.
        
           | natechols wrote:
           | Nearly all of recorded human history has been rule by
           | gangsters - the liberal democracies of the rich world are an
           | aberration, not the norm. I think about this almost daily and
           | it terrifies me.
        
             | phs318u wrote:
             | Yes! I often wonder whether, in the far future, there will
             | even be historians that know that for a brief moment in
             | time - a couple of centuries - a historical blip - there
             | was a significant chunk of the world where the masses could
             | educate themselves and rise above their origins, without
             | fear of reprisal from the state.
             | 
             | What I fear most is a return to the historical mean - where
             | the vast majority are mere peasants. Ignorant, and
             | systematically oppressed, restrained, and exploited.
        
           | dehrmann wrote:
           | > Deplatform their voices and curtail their free speech, but
           | not our own
           | 
           | If there's one thing Democrats and Republicans agree on, it's
           | that tech isn't censoring the things _they_ want censored.
        
             | moate wrote:
             | I'm currently debating how many burner accounts I should
             | make to upvote this, because this so succinctly describes
             | the situation. Everyone wants the thing _they_ hate gone,
             | and hates the the other side feels the same way about
             | something they love.
             | 
             | (note to mods: after debate, the answer was 0, plz no rate
             | limtz)
        
           | throwaway5752 wrote:
           | The global fascist movement has had success hijacking the
           | Republican party and some parts of the left (eg Gabbard).
           | Largely the success on the right was greater because of
           | affinity toward aggrievement in the electoral base that was
           | more susceptible exploitation, but it also reflects the more
           | mature financial channels (eg NRA).
           | 
           | But this is not a left/right political issue. That is
           | incidental. The social exploit of this foreign operational is
           | orthogonal to political ideology and both side stand to
           | suffer substantially. Trump's lack of conservative ideology
           | bona fides are well documented.
        
         | akomtu wrote:
         | To be honest, the blue camp is different only in rhetoric: if
         | the red wants control in the name of national security, the
         | blue wants the same control in the name of grotesque moral
         | rightnessess. Fake news is a good summary of our media today,
         | it just applies to both camps.
        
           | electrondood wrote:
           | Bullshit false equivalence.
           | 
           | I notice that Democrats aren't forming white supremacist
           | militias, plotting to kidnap state governors, attacking
           | Congress specifically to overturn the results of a national
           | election, etc.
        
             | marcusverus wrote:
             | If you only apply 'guilt by association' to your opponents,
             | but not to yourself and your tribe, then your worldview
             | will be built on a foundation of cheap rhetorical tricks.
             | 
             | Remember when Hillary's mentor (Mr. Byrd) was a former KKK
             | Grand Dragon (and Democrat Senator)? Or when that democrat
             | attempted to assassinate a dozen Republican lawmakers on a
             | baseball field? How about the one who killed five cops in
             | Dallas? Or the ones who engaged in (or cheered on) the 2020
             | riots that did billions of dollars in damage (including a
             | months-long attack on a Federal courthouse in Portland,
             | complete with firebombing!)?
             | 
             | All of this finger pointing bullshit is a distraction,
             | intended to scare stupid people to the polls.
        
             | adventured wrote:
        
               | maxlamb wrote:
               | Any evidence that democrats "operate the antifa terrorist
               | network"? There were riots in Portland after Biden was
               | elected, it seems antifa are mostly anarchists and not a
               | fan of the current Democratic Party either.
        
               | BitwiseFool wrote:
               | The expectation for conservatives / republican
               | politicians is that a failure to disavow any problematic
               | group is perceived as endorsement. So I can just as
               | easily beg the question, why haven't more Democrats come
               | out and disavowed antifa?
        
               | dehrmann wrote:
               | > The FBI drove that plot to kidnap a state governor in
               | fact...
               | 
               | For the curious,
               | https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/24/us/whitmer-kidnapping-
               | tri...
        
               | encryptluks2 wrote:
               | This is one of many incidents of government agencies that
               | run amok and often unchecked. If the US public were to be
               | informed of the true scale of the American intelligence
               | apparatus it would destroy the US's public image for
               | decades.
        
             | akomtu wrote:
             | Again, the blue camp isnt any better here. Did you hear
             | about the very recent Kentucky event? Did you hear about
             | the sketchy "rise of the moors" organisation and that
             | highway event? The "fake news" isnt just biased reporting,
             | but also not reporting events that would challenge the
             | narrative. A small disclosure: I was among those who
             | donated to the Bernie's campaign, yet I reject most of the
             | blue rhetoric.
        
               | mrexroad wrote:
               | s/fake news/entertainment exploiting a set of curated
               | insecurities to maximize ad-sales/g
               | 
               | The problem is that most are convinced that it's all
               | "fake news" and their preferred source is the "least
               | fake", all while getting pulled deeper down the rabbit
               | hole.
               | 
               | I see the same dynamic with my teenage kids and the
               | YouTubers /etc they watch on topics they're interested
               | in. They hear something, get overly excited about it, and
               | then fixate/share/etc. I almost feel it's a part time job
               | to show enough interest to where they'll talk about it so
               | I can try and help build the reflex of distill out
               | fact/assumption/inference, and reframe narrative to a set
               | of possibilities that for facts. It's actually been a
               | challenge b/c often things sound stupid if I'm too
               | reductionist and they shut down. But TBH usually sounds
               | stupid b/c it is stupid manufactured drama that sells
               | YouTube ads. Same dynamic whether some Roblox gamer
               | drama, MLB lockout drama, or politics -- all "news"
               | eventually optimizes to maximize ad revenue, competing
               | with creative entertainment for attention.
        
               | magicalist wrote:
               | > _Again, the blue camp isnt any better here.... Did you
               | hear about the sketchy "rise of the moors" organisation
               | and that highway event?_
               | 
               | lol, Rise of the Moors super invested in universal
               | healthcare and social safety nets now?
               | 
               | I'm going to go out on a limb and say supposed sovereign
               | citizens aren't very active in local party politics.
        
             | dev_by_day wrote:
             | Plenty of equivalence actually.
             | 
             | Democrats encourage anarchist militias who openly advocate
             | for violence and arson, try to de-legitimize election
             | results through "Russia-Gate" conspiracies, openly cheered
             | on the fire bombing and attacking of police officers and
             | government buildings(court houses), spread misinformation
             | about the Kyle Rittenhouse despite all expert legal
             | analysis saying they were misinformed.
        
               | jgwil2 wrote:
               | > try to de-legitimize election results through "Russia-
               | Gate" conspiracies
               | 
               | US intelligence confirmed that Russia tried to swing an
               | election, so this isn't a "conspiracy." As for the rest
               | of your points, those positions were never embraced by
               | mainstream Democrats.
        
               | LegitShady wrote:
               | Contrast with the next presidential election, which also
               | had Russian interference, but questioning the results of
               | make you a conspiracy theorist.
               | 
               | The Democrats have the election as either a sham or the
               | most secure election ever based on if their side won.
        
               | dev_by_day wrote:
               | The Mueller report showed some involvement but did not
               | say the election results were illegitimate and there were
               | a large amount of democrats who continue to claim this
               | election result is not legitimate.
               | 
               | (FWIW I don't like trump but I still believe he would
               | have won 2016 with or without Russia, its a cop out to
               | blame Russia for that)
               | 
               | We literally had Democrat senators saying "rioting is the
               | voice of the streets"(AOC), and calling Kyle Rittenhouse
               | a domestic terrorist, whole portions of cities in
               | democrat run cities were given to anarchist militias like
               | in CHAZ and were flippantly calling these groups
               | "peaceful" while they engaged in looting, arson, and
               | attacking police officers.
        
             | puffoflogic wrote:
             | > plotting to kidnap state governors,
             | 
             | Given that the only plots to kidnap state governors were
             | planned and executed by the FBI
             | (https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/24/us/whitmer-kidnapping-
             | tri...), and the FBI was acting to frame right-wingers, it
             | stands to reason that in fact 100% of recent plots to
             | kidnap state governors were planned and executed by the
             | left.
             | 
             | The left has also been responsible for the only actual
             | violent attacks on the US Capitol in the past century:
             | 
             | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_United_States_Senate_bom
             | b...
             | 
             | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather_Underground#United_St
             | a... (warning: mostly erased from Wikipedia; this single
             | sentence is the only coverage remaining that I can find)
        
             | dehrmann wrote:
             | Remember the aftermath of the Portland protests? The damage
             | and loss of business were estimated to be $23M. It's not
             | the same as what you're describing from the far right, but
             | it's also pretty bad, just in a different way.
        
             | eric_cc wrote:
             | dude just stop. Idiots on the left. Idiots on the right.
             | Stop being a tool.. because honestly, only a brainwashed
             | tool would truly believe the problem only exists with The
             | OTHER group.
        
             | avion23 wrote:
        
             | dev_by_day wrote:
             | Democrats have plenty of blood on their hands in demanding
             | censorship.
             | 
             | Remember the accusations of racism that were used to shut
             | down the lab leak theory? Or the demands to censor
             | scientists with any dissenting viewpoints over Covid? The
             | cover up of the Hunter Biden laptop scandal that resulted
             | in journalists from the Post being banned?
             | 
             | The "war on disinformation" their obsessed with is not any
             | different from a "war on fake news". Censorship is a tool
             | of cowards and there are plenty of cowards in both parties
             | that will use it to shut down any dissenting view points.
        
               | throwaway5752 wrote:
               | Division is the goal of the adversary. We should stop
               | arguing for no good reason if we don't have to.
        
               | dev_by_day wrote:
               | We shouldn't allow people to spread lies and demonize one
               | side unchecked. If were going to talk about problems, its
               | best we don't scape goat on one side and admit there are
               | flaws in both parties.
               | 
               | Letting them scape-goat and demonize unchecked doesn't
               | help anything either.
        
               | throwaway5752 wrote:
               | I stand by what I said. Focus on what you have in common
               | and deal with disagreements by leveraging conflict de-
               | escalation techniques such as NVC
               | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonviolent_Communication.
               | Think about what you stand to gain arguing with someone
               | on the internet. Consider what it does to your mindset. I
               | agree with you on civil disagreement and standing up for
               | what you believe.
               | 
               | For instance - I disagree with you on the lab leak theory
               | and laptop comments. I understand you feel about them
               | strongly, but I think you are smart and should reconsider
               | the source material for those claims. Further, I feel the
               | way you expressed it was regrettable: "blood on their
               | hands" is unnecessary and inaccurate. You could have
               | phrased that in ways that were more accurate, more
               | effective, and less inflammatory.
               | 
               | Everyone is literally less intelligent, less capable of
               | rational decision making, and more susceptible to
               | manipulation when they are angry. I have certainly been
               | guilty of this before, and I am just trying to share some
               | of what I have learned.
               | 
               | One final comment: one thing that all social media
               | including HN could do is remove user-visible up and
               | downvotes. It engages the brain in a similar way to
               | gambling (https://www.brainfacts.org/diseases-and-
               | disorders/addiction/...) and creates self-reinforcing
               | conflict that can be exploited.
        
               | dev_by_day wrote:
               | By the way the "source" I am invoking are MIT scientists
               | for the lab leak theory being plausible
               | https://www.amazon.com/Viral-Search-Covid-19-Alina-Chan-
               | eboo... and when it comes to dissenting views on COVID I
               | am referencing Dr. Robert Malone(holds a patent for mRNA
               | vaccines) and the great barrington declaration
               | https://gbdeclaration.org/ which was created and signed
               | by many Ivy League medical researchers and practitioners
               | about how flawed our strict lockdown measure are.
               | 
               | Hunter Biden has gone on record saying that laptop might
               | have been his.
               | 
               | Don't presume a persons sources without asking first. You
               | strike me as a smart person as well and should check
               | these sources out with an open mind before dismissing
               | them.
        
               | AnthonyMouse wrote:
               | > For instance - I disagree with you on the lab leak
               | theory and laptop comments. I understand you feel about
               | them strongly, but I think you are smart and should
               | reconsider the source material for those claims. Further,
               | I feel the way you expressed it was regrettable: "blood
               | on their hands" is unnecessary and inaccurate. You could
               | have phrased that in ways that were more accurate, more
               | effective, and less inflammatory.
               | 
               | Notice what you're doing though. The information content
               | of this is effectively the polite version of "stop being
               | mad and wrong, go read a book."
               | 
               | It contains no actual rebuttal of anything. You present
               | no new facts or reasoning, only an assertion that you
               | disagree which was already implied.
        
               | throwaway5752 wrote:
               | Sorry, I don't have much time to reply but you have a
               | good point.
               | 
               | That is correct and intentional. My core point is that
               | everyone can benefit changing how we disagree and when we
               | choose to disagree. In what you quoted, I was just trying
               | to make the point less abstract with a concrete example.
               | I wasn't trying to be persuasive or reach some sort of
               | resolution. I could have been more effective, thank you.
        
               | dev_by_day wrote:
               | So your saying Democrats are not in favor of censorship?
               | Are we just going to pretend this is a one sided issue
               | and they were not guilty in trying to cover up the lab
               | leak theory or going after journalists who try to write
               | stories about hunter bidens laptop?
               | 
               | I don't see how pointing how both parties are guilty of
               | engaging in censorship is wrong. I am advocating for the
               | position that censorship is a tool used unfairly by both
               | parties when they are given the chance, I don't like
               | conservatives or republicans either for how they treated
               | Edward Snowden and Juliane Assange.
        
               | throwaway5752 wrote:
               | Your second paragraph stands alone on its own well
               | without the first. I think human flaws spread around
               | pretty evenly. It's actually a pretty good starting point
               | for thinking humanizing the person you are disagreeing
               | with and establishing common ground. If it's okay, I
               | don't want to talk about the lab leak or laptop here - I
               | don't want to distract from the separate topic of this
               | law imposing 15 year prison sentences threat to Russian
               | journalists.. "fake news" has only been brought into the
               | discussion because of headline editorializing. I have to
               | go back to work and likely cannot reply further but
               | didn't want you to think I ignored you.
        
               | dev_by_day wrote:
               | FWIW I despise censorship, irregardless of which party it
               | comes from, and can tell we both see a lot of flaws in
               | human nature in general so don't think we are far off in
               | disagreement here. Journalists should be left the fuck
               | alone, certainly.
        
               | AnthonyMouse wrote:
               | It's the censorship making the division worse.
               | 
               | Social media already has a big problem with filter
               | bubbles. If you go to a place where 99% of people there
               | are one party's partisans and try to rebut their
               | misinformation, you get dogpiled. People insult you and
               | sling baseless accusations of racism, which deters people
               | from attempting to debate when they're highly
               | outnumbered. So any place which has any partisan bias
               | gets an even bigger one until everything is totally
               | polarized.
               | 
               | Platform censorship makes it even worse because the
               | platform's censors will be in one bubble or the other,
               | their censorship decisions will be biased in that
               | direction and push anyone on the other team onto other
               | platforms and we end up with entirely partisan platforms
               | that never talk to each other, and are thereby both
               | highly misinformed about different sets of things.
        
           | [deleted]
        
           | _ph_ wrote:
           | As a non-american, I can see how some actions of the left
           | seem to be a bit over the top and as things escalated might
           | really got a bit extreme too. But is a push against racism,
           | for gender equality, LGBT rights really wrong? Do you notice,
           | how much people, who stand for those issues, get attacked in
           | the public discussion?
        
             | Already__Taken wrote:
             | As an outsider "name of grotesque moral rightnessess"
             | thrown from the Christian right made me spit my coffee out.
        
               | akomtu wrote:
               | If most "christian rights" knew my beliefs about the
               | religion, they'd burn me at stake. I do think that the
               | Bible has a lot of wisdom in it, but a lot of bs too.
        
             | mensetmanusman wrote:
             | " But is a push against racism, for gender equality, LGBT
             | rights really wrong?"
             | 
             | Isn't it an issue of framing? E.g. it appears that some
             | think that the solution to racism appears to be
             | implementing institutional racism indefinitely until racism
             | is cured.
             | 
             | This is distracting from the real issue of class warfare
             | which is what psyops relies on to divide prior arguing past
             | each other.
        
             | stronglikedan wrote:
             | > racism, for gender equality, LGBT rights
             | 
             | The thing is, those are all non-issues now, and have been
             | for a while. The reason the MSM is known as fake news in
             | the US, is that they keep trying to push these as current
             | issues, even though they've been settled.
        
               | metamet wrote:
               | They certainly aren't non-issues.
               | 
               | https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/florida-s-
               | don-t-...
               | 
               | https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-politics-and-
               | policy/judg...
        
               | jtgeibel wrote:
               | This is complete nonsense. I can easily think of an
               | example from the past week where a Republican controlled
               | state is attacking transgender children and their parents
               | to score political points with the Republican base. It is
               | absurd to claim that equal rights in America is a settled
               | topic or a non-issue.
               | 
               | https://www.cbsnews.com/news/texas-transgender-care-
               | lawsuit-...
        
               | Broken_Hippo wrote:
               | _The thing is, those are all non-issues now, and have
               | been for a while_
               | 
               | That's just not true.
        
               | ajford wrote:
               | That's a truck-load of bullshit. Texas Gov. Abbot is
               | pushing an anti-LGBTQ+ agenda in the open. He and his
               | pals are flat-out pushing anti-trans agendas that accuse
               | parents of children seeking gender-affirming treatment of
               | child abuse.
               | 
               | The Texas right-leaning lege just got through passing a
               | bill that was designed to be hard to assail in the courts
               | that hands out money for turning in anyone who assist
               | someone in seeking an abortion, robbing people of their
               | rights over their own bodily autonomy.
               | 
               | Florida gov't is trying to pass bills that prohibit
               | talking about gender orientation and identity, racism,
               | and equality in the workplace and classroom.
               | 
               | This isn't a "non-issue". This isn't "settled". We're
               | still fighting for our rights and freedoms, and those of
               | our children. I'll be damned if I'm gonna let some greedy
               | nutjob politician deny my children (or anyone's children)
               | the right to be who they are or want to be.
               | 
               | If they don't like gender transitioning, then they
               | shouldn't transition, but don't tell me or mine that they
               | can't!
        
               | mensetmanusman wrote:
               | In the Context of politics being preference:
               | 
               | " He and his pals are flat-out pushing anti-trans agendas
               | that accuse parents of children seeking gender-affirming
               | treatment of child abuse."
               | 
               | Isn't this, by definition, a very debatable topic with
               | pros and cons that have to be weighed. Where one comes
               | down, I.e. their preference for policy on this, will be
               | informed by their background and biases.
               | 
               | E.g. it isn't entirely obvious that we should give
               | minors, who legally can not consent to many activities,
               | access to ethically untestable non-reversible treatments.
               | 
               | These issues are actually the purpose of politics. E.g.
               | it is a feature of the system that there is debate on
               | implementing the preferences of a democracy.
        
               | spoils19 wrote:
               | I agree whole heartedly. Until we figure it out, treating
               | it as legal abuse and punishing the parents is the way to
               | go.
        
               | ajford wrote:
               | The treatment administered to minors is reversible.
               | 
               | Studies show that gender-affirming treatments and care
               | can reduce thoughts of suicide and self-harm.
               | 
               | No one is pushing these treatments on unwilling minors.
               | To take away peoples' rights to these treatments is
               | unconscionable. And to direct people to be charged or
               | investigated for child abuse is even more so. It's just
               | another point that puts people in fear of the
               | authorities.
        
               | klyrs wrote:
               | > Isn't this, by definition, a very debatable topic with
               | pros and cons that have to be weighed.
               | 
               | Honestly, you're voicing for support of the person you're
               | responding to, here. These aren't "non-issues" as GGP
               | claimed.
               | 
               | But, puberty blockers, the medical treatment under fire,
               | aren't non-reversible.
        
               | cheeseomlit wrote:
               | Chemically castrating a child is child abuse.
        
               | ajford wrote:
               | Puberty blocking is not chemical castration.
               | 
               | By your argument chemotherapy is assassination by poison
               | and setting a broken bone is assault.
        
               | Broken_Hippo wrote:
               | Delaying puberty is not chemical castration.
        
             | emptysongglass wrote:
             | > But is a push against racism, for gender equality, LGBT
             | rights really wrong?
             | 
             | No, of course it isn't. But many people I know, myself
             | included, are afraid to speak out against what we see as
             | new forms of hate levied in their name. The CHAZ or the
             | hijacking of this brutal war against Ukraine into a
             | commentary on care only being bound to race or the
             | evacuation of cisgendered women and men from their own
             | bodies by way of language so that everyone is "just" a
             | vagina-haver or penis-possessor are just a few examples of
             | where I see these pushes become the very weapons of the
             | forces its proponents profess to fight.
             | 
             | > Do you notice, how much people, who stand for those
             | issues, get attacked in the public discussion?
             | 
             | As a liberal (or what was liberal 10 years ago), I mostly
             | notice how much people who stand for these issues attack
             | others who have a different opinion and try to silence
             | them.
             | 
             | This is the first time I'm giving voice to some of these
             | deeply unpopular opinions in the new liberal left spaces
             | like HN, for which I fully expect to be downvoted and
             | potentially flagged into oblivion.
             | 
             | I don't think the oft-violent rhetoric and deplatforming
             | crusades of the new left is the right way of effecting
             | positive change on the world.
        
         | waffleiron wrote:
         | Not just America, in the EU right now:
         | 
         | In Czechia up to 1 year for publicly supporting Russia (two
         | people already detained):
         | https://www.praguemorning.cz/expressing-support-for-russia-o...
         | 
         | In Slovakia, supporting [Russian] war propaganda 10 to 25
         | years: https://spravy.rtvs.sk/2022/02/za-podporu-vojnovej-
         | propagand...
         | 
         | EU banned RT and Sputnik:
         | 
         | "It shall be prohibited for operators to broadcast or to
         | enable, facilitate or otherwise contribute to broadcast, any
         | content by the legal persons, entities or bodies listed in
         | Annex XV, including through transmission or distribution by any
         | means such as cable, satellite, IP-TV, internet service
         | providers, internet video-sharing platforms or applications,
         | whether new or pre-installed"
        
           | frabbit wrote:
           | Wow! That should be the real headline story. "Western"
           | (w.t.f. does that mean?) state destroys freedom of speech in
           | order to save it from Russia.
        
         | eric_cc wrote:
         | This is bullshit. Most American news (left and right) is
         | Entertainment and in that sense it IS actually quite fake. And
         | that's to say nothing of the times MSM is outright lying. Trump
         | calling out the fake news as fake was probably one of the best
         | things he did with his time as president. At least some people
         | woke up as a result. Before Trump, people would view
         | publications like NYT and WaPo as fundamentally different than
         | Fox News. Now, thankfully, many more people realize they are
         | exactly the same. If anything, Fox News presents itself more
         | honestly as news entertainment and NYT is more deceptive.
        
         | swayvil wrote:
        
           | kmeisthax wrote:
           | It's one thing for Zuckerberg to ban you, and another thing
           | for Putin to do the same. If Facebook bans you, you can go
           | somewhere else. But they aren't the only game in town and
           | their power is limited to refusing to serve you. If a
           | government bans you, that means almost certain death.
        
             | yifanl wrote:
             | I mean, let's not pretend that in Facebook's ideal world
             | where they own the market, there _wouldn't_ be somewhere
             | else to go to. Obviously that's not the case today, but I'm
             | concerned that it'll get there eventually just based on how
             | network effects seem to be trending.
        
               | kmeisthax wrote:
               | I will not deny for a second that Zuckerberg dreams of
               | having the kind of big monopolistic platform that would
               | let him single-handedly suppress speech he doesn't like.
               | However, that's still not as bad of a harm as being
               | thrown in jail for the same thing. There's a huge gulf
               | between "large multinational corporation" and "sovereign
               | nation" - the former can still have it's power challenged
               | through antitrust law and regulations, while the latter
               | is immune to such things because they have their own
               | military.
        
         | prox wrote:
         | I found this article very enlightening :
         | https://www.csis.org/features/kremlin-playbook-3
         | 
         | From the center of strategic and international studies. It
         | describes how the same ideology (white male christian)
         | worldview is connected to Putin and Trump, and how the West is
         | viewed as decadent through the moral lens of the fundamentalist
         | churches in both the US and the Russian orthodox church.
        
           | t0suj4 wrote:
           | Conservatism is relative term. It basically means "keep what
           | we have and carefully evaluate new things".
           | 
           | Conservatism in the US is not what conservatism in France is.
           | Conservatism in Mexico is not what conservatism in Brazil is.
           | 
           | Putin's version of conservatism, as mentioned in the article,
           | is only applicable to Russia and countries with similar
           | culture.
           | 
           | Comparing Trump to Putin is like comparing Nixon to Brezhnev.
        
             | prox wrote:
             | So when Trump is praising Putin, where does that come from?
             | What does he admire?
        
               | t0suj4 wrote:
               | I think Trump's praises may increase his chances for
               | Putin to accept Trump's proposals. IIRC Trump wrote a
               | book about making deals that's why I believe it.
               | 
               | Besides that I think that Putin made genuinely smart
               | strategical steps to ensure that nobody will get between
               | him and Ukraine... How it will turn out we yet have to
               | see.
               | 
               | Cornering a leader with nuclear capabilities benefits
               | nobody and can get dangerous, leaving him with nothing to
               | lose. I think Trump wanted to use Russia to counter
               | China.
        
           | LegitShady wrote:
           | white male christian is not an ideology. The first is a skin
           | color, the second is a gender, the third is a religion.
           | Pretending that you throw those three things together creates
           | some coherent and common ideology is not logical thought
        
             | prox wrote:
             | No, and maybe I could have worded that better. But that's
             | part of their identity and what they rally around. If you
             | read the article you would see what I mean.
             | 
             | From the article "Here traditionalism and identity are
             | fused together such that disrupting one threatens the
             | other. Any demographic change (particularly immigration
             | from Muslim-majority and non-White countries, exacerbated
             | in the public perception by low birth rates) is viewed as a
             | direct challenge to identity and tradition."
             | 
             | So maybe the better word is "strategic conversatism" as per
             | the article.
        
         | signatoremo wrote:
         | It's also good to remember that Donald Trump is no longer the
         | president, all of the fake news that he didn't like still made
         | it to the public, and none of the journalists he didn't like
         | are in jail, or killed.
         | 
         | Now that is out of the way, should we switch our focus back to
         | how Russia suppress any domestic news about the ongoing Ukriane
         | war? Or "special operation" as it's only allowed to be called?
        
         | BitwiseFool wrote:
         | "Fake News" comes in many forms. Hyperbole and playing fast and
         | loose with words like "waged a war" plays into this. The media
         | has NEVER been particularly friendly to the President. Even
         | George Washington himself lamented how the press was slandering
         | his administration with falsehoods.
         | 
         | What did this war look like? What actions did the government
         | actually take to fight journalists covering POTUS unfavorably?
         | Because I just remember an incredible amount of pearl clutching
         | by journalists about how dangerous it is to say bad things
         | about the press and how democracy would die in darkness if
         | their credibility was questioned. It never actually stopped
         | them from continuing act the same way.
        
           | peeters wrote:
           | I think it's useful to distinguish between what a President
           | _says_ , and what he uses his executive powers to _do_. As
           | far as what he _did_ , I think the most impactful was
           | probably drastically reducing press briefings in which the
           | free press can directly challenge the administration.
           | 
           | https://pressgazette.co.uk/trump-vs-media-freedom-of-
           | press-d...
        
         | gotoeleven wrote:
         | Do you remember all the reporting about russia and trump during
         | this time? Would you call that news fake or not fake?
        
           | lkxijlewlf wrote:
           | But, there _is_ a connection between the two. Even his own
           | children have admitted they get most all of their money from
           | Russia (for example).
        
             | hunterb123 wrote:
             | Prime example of the effects of biased reporting ^
             | 
             | There's a difference between having LEGITIMATE business
             | long BEFORE your dad has power vs. getting put on a board
             | of a corrupt energy company WHILE your dad is overseeing
             | the country relations as VP. One is capitalism, one is
             | nepotism.
             | 
             | But all that being said, the statement "they get most all
             | of their money from Russia" is wrong at face value. Their
             | businesses do not get the majority of revenue from Russia.
             | Back that statement up with a source so it can be torn
             | apart.
        
         | coolso wrote:
        
         | zackees wrote:
        
           | sydthrowaway wrote:
        
         | jansen555 wrote:
        
           | criley2 wrote:
        
         | commandlinefan wrote:
         | > with a substantial amount of Republicans
         | 
         | Well, since you opened that door... it's democrats/leftists who
         | are actually _succeeding_ at shutting down news media that they
         | disagree with.
        
           | moate wrote:
           | Avowed leftist here: Let's just agree that both the Dems and
           | Repubs ban/seek to stifle opinions they don't agree with.
           | Someone wants to ban Maus, someone else wants to ban Joe
           | Rogan. Both parties want power at the expense of "freedom".
           | 
           | Censorship is part of existing as part of a society though.
           | There are people who seek to actively hurt others using words
           | and media, and the whole idea of a state is to (pretend?) to
           | act in the common good. At this point the internet gives
           | everyone a platform (look at us right now, there's a near 0%
           | chance we would have ever spoken in physical real life) and
           | makes a TON more noise that makes finding the signal harder,
           | which means both sides can find plenty of examples of the
           | other behaving badly to "whatabout" whenever someone points
           | out their own bad behavior.
           | 
           | TL;dr- Everyone wants censorship, even if they pretend they
           | don't, so let's not pretend it's actually either side. If
           | anything, your point just proves that Dems/leftists might
           | have more power in the US to influence these things, but that
           | doesn't prove they have more desire to influence them than
           | the right.
        
             | commandlinefan wrote:
             | > Censorship is part of existing as part of a society
             | though
             | 
             | I suspect that's exactly what Putin would say if he were
             | challenged.
        
               | micromacrofoot wrote:
               | It's probably also what the parents of dead children in
               | Newtown, who were harassed out of town by Alex Jones
               | listeners, would say.
               | 
               | You need to elaborate more if you want to use hyperbole
               | to make a point, otherwise it's just hyperbole. It exists
               | on both sides of an argument.
        
             | noja wrote:
             | > Avowed leftist here: Let's just agree that both the Dems
             | and Repubs ban/seek to stifle opinions they don't agree
             | with. Someone wants to ban Maus, someone else wants to ban
             | Joe Rogan.
             | 
             | What kind of an argument is this? The only common thread
             | between the two is the word "banning".
             | 
             | Banning Joe Rogan is because he spreads misinformation
             | about vaccines. He is causing lots of people to die, and
             | the pandemic is longer because of it.
             | 
             | Banning a book about the holocaust prevents people learning
             | about the atrocities of the past.
        
               | ejb999 wrote:
               | >>How can you equate banning Maus with banning Joe Rogan?
               | The only common thread between the two is the word
               | "banning".
               | 
               | Because free speech is free speech, whether you agree
               | with what was said or not.
        
               | noja wrote:
               | Free speech is not free speech. Shouting fire in a
               | theater is not free speech because it causes panic then
               | harm.
        
               | zthrowaway wrote:
               | https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/11/its-
               | tim...
        
               | dev_by_day wrote:
               | Shouting fire in a theater when there is no fire and
               | expressing concern over the potentially dangerous side
               | effects of a vaccine are different. The previous is an
               | outright lie about a non-event while the later has some
               | truth.
               | 
               | Its factually true that people have had severe adverse
               | reactions and died from the vaccine. He interviewed
               | genuine credentialed experts like Dr. Robert Malone on
               | the potential dangers of the Covid vaccine.
               | 
               | I am in favor of the Covid vaccine and disagree with Joe
               | but he's allowed to express his dissenting opinions.
               | 
               | Podcasts are not medical advise and should not be treated
               | as such.
        
           | LeoPanthera wrote:
           | > shutting down news media that they disagree with
           | 
           | I suspect what you mean by this is "outlets claiming to
           | report 'news' but actually spreading misinformation".
           | 
           | That's quite different from "disagreement".
        
             | dev_by_day wrote:
             | What would you call news outlets like MSNBC spreading lies
             | about the Kyle Rittenhouse case? An honest mistake? Or
             | calling the lab leak theory racist?
             | 
             | Notice how this works?
             | 
             | When a news source that is aligned with your political
             | party gets it wrong "its ok" but when its a new source that
             | is not aligned with your party its "spreading
             | misinformation".
             | 
             | There is no objective standard for misinformation so trying
             | to say disagreement and misinformation are not the same
             | depends entirely on what is the issue being discussed. Any
             | issue with ambiguity can be dismissed far too easily by
             | just claiming it "misinformation".
        
               | deanCommie wrote:
               | When the Lab leak theory had absolutely no evidence for
               | it, and was being purported days after the start of the
               | pandemic, it was racist.
               | 
               | Later, the longer a root cause was not discovered, the
               | more likely the theory became, and the less racist it
               | became to speak about.
        
               | LeoPanthera wrote:
               | I guess your assumption is that everyone left-aligned
               | watches (and agrees with) MSNBC. That isn't true. I
               | certainly don't watch it.
               | 
               | There _are_ reliable news outlets. Don 't assume that
               | just because an outlet has a political skew in the
               | direction opposite from your preferred one that everyone
               | you disagree with must watch and endorse it. That's a
               | strawman.
        
               | dev_by_day wrote:
               | > That's a strawman.
               | 
               | Its a strawman that you are introducing by saying:
               | 
               | > I suspect what you mean by this is "outlets claiming to
               | report 'news' but actually spreading misinformation".
               | 
               | > That's quite different from "disagreement".
               | 
               | I am pointing out that there is not a large difference
               | between what you say is misinformation and disagreement.
               | Many news outlets get things wrong and are guilty of
               | allowing political bias to steer them towards saying
               | things that are not true. You can't just call something
               | misinformation because you disagree with it.
               | 
               | Nearly every news outlet in this country has gotten
               | things wrong at some point and a tenuous definition of
               | misinformation could be used to make them all look bad.
               | 
               | Citing something as "misinformation" is often a strawman
               | argument and a word used to dismiss viewpoints people do
               | not agree with on any issue that has some ambiguity,
               | including the lab leak theory.
        
           | mrguyorama wrote:
           | I'll stop laughing when Fox News is no longer the most
           | watched cable news outlet in the country. A self described
           | _entertainment_ channel, who said under oath  "no rational
           | person would believe the things we say"
           | 
           | I think CNN would try to hide under "entertainment" in front
           | of a court of law, but have they actually been dragged in
           | front of a court for lying?
        
             | dev_by_day wrote:
             | MSNBC has used the same "entertainment" defense when it was
             | sued for defamation. All news media organizations use this
             | defense, its not unique to Fox.
             | 
             | https://greenwald.substack.com/p/a-court-ruled-rachel-
             | maddow...
        
               | nmz wrote:
               | There's a clear distinction between any "Person's show"
               | vs "channel news". I don't expect bill maher or the
               | Oreilly factor to be news either.
        
           | ajross wrote:
           | Curious what you're citing here? The american right obviously
           | has an _extremely_ robust selection of sources to choose from
           | in every medium there is. You can read Breitbart or watch
           | Fox, you can find multiple radio stations with talking heads
           | in every market. You can find fellow travellers on Facebook
           | or 4chan (or right here). The biggest podcast in the nation
           | pushes a mostly conservative line.
           | 
           | I mean, I'm sure that somewhere there's been a terrible abuse
           | and someone got fired or whatever. It's a big country. But,
           | I'm equally sure that whatever happened, you know about it
           | because the news was delivered to you by conservative media.
           | 
           | The US is fine. We had an authoritarian scare for a while,
           | but the system held.
        
             | user-the-name wrote:
        
             | honkdaddy wrote:
             | Are you talking about Joe Rogan? He's not a conservative.
        
           | micromacrofoot wrote:
           | Please provide a single example of a media agency that is
           | barred from publishing content because a "leftist" disagreed
           | with it.
        
             | dev_by_day wrote:
             | The Hunter Biden Laptop story was openly censored, even
             | when put forward by a journalist with the Post and Biden
             | has admitted that laptop may have been his.
             | 
             | https://nypost.com/2021/09/21/the-hunter-biden-laptop-is-
             | con...
             | 
             | https://www.politico.com/newsletters/playbook/2021/09/21/do
             | u...
             | 
             | Leftist bias at the intercept prevented Greenwald from
             | publishing a story about it as well
             | https://nypost.com/2020/10/29/glenn-greenwald-quits-the-
             | inte...
        
               | ryandrake wrote:
               | News publications have to decide what is and isn't
               | newsworthy, and it could be that this one just doesn't
               | meet the bar. I know the right _really_ really wants it
               | to finally take off and gather steam, since they invested
               | so much into it. It 's a hard pill for them to swallow
               | that HunterBidenLaptop just not that interesting or
               | important. Kind of like Hillary's E-mails. At the end of
               | the day nobody really cares about them.
               | 
               | I mean, if I worked in a news room and wanted to publish
               | a story about the president's cousin's roommate's great
               | soup recipe, and the editor says "NO" does that mean I'm
               | being censored?
        
               | dev_by_day wrote:
               | You asked for examples of censorship and it was given to
               | you.
               | 
               | Irregardless of Greenwald, you can't deny twitter and
               | social media outlets banning a New York Post
               | journalist(and the White House Press Secretary) for
               | sharing that story was not egregious censorship.
               | 
               | Banning articles from journalists is censorship. Period.
        
               | ryandrake wrote:
               | Sorry, but I didn't ask for anything upthread. You might
               | have meant to reply to someone else. Trying not to get
               | involved with a flamewar, but it should be noted that
               | there are many possible explanations of a paper's
               | editorial decisions that do not invoke censorship.
        
               | dev_by_day wrote:
               | To clarify I gave an example of censorship first and it
               | was ignored by you to create a a long winded argument
               | about Greenwald. You never refuted the point that the
               | original story was banned (even before Greenwald was
               | brought up) or that leftist bias may have factored into
               | there choice to not publish that article that turned out
               | to be credible. Intercept is a left bias rated outlet
               | https://www.allsides.com/news-source/intercept a story
               | about potential corruption from a candidates son is not
               | the same thing as a "cousins recipe". That was a
               | distasteful strawman.
        
               | nouveaux wrote:
               | I don't know enough about the Hunter Biden Laptop story
               | to know what's true and what's not, but your WSJ link is
               | the opinion section. Can you link to a WSJ article not
               | from the opinion section?
        
               | dev_by_day wrote:
               | It was revealed to likely be real during the publishing
               | of a book by a fairly neutral Politico journalist on
               | Hunter Biden
               | 
               | https://nypost.com/2021/09/21/the-hunter-biden-laptop-is-
               | con...
               | 
               | https://www.politico.com/newsletters/playbook/2021/09/21/
               | dou...
        
               | leereeves wrote:
               | Its authenticity has even been acknowledged by The
               | Guardian.
               | 
               |  _" Now, however, almost no one disputes [the laptop's]
               | authenticity."_
               | 
               | https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/feb/27/hunter-
               | biden...
        
               | micromacrofoot wrote:
               | When a media agency internally decides not to publish
               | something it might be biased, but that's generally not
               | considered censorship. Censoring can be biased, but not
               | all bias is censorship.
               | 
               | Russia participates in censorship on a state level with
               | its own state-run media agencies. These things are not
               | equivalent. The Hunter Biden story is widely reported by
               | numerous American media outlets.
        
               | dev_by_day wrote:
               | > The Hunter Biden story is widely reported by numerous
               | American media outlets.
               | 
               | And that story was banned on social media unfairly(this
               | banning was cheered on by Dems and left leaning folks),
               | even though it turned it to be credible later.
               | 
               | It was egregious censorship is the main point I am making
               | here.
               | 
               | As bad as Putin? No. Was it bad? Yes.
        
               | hunterb123 wrote:
               | The censorship was Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube
               | blocking it all at once before the election. The media
               | helped by downplaying it and going with the Russian
               | disinformation/hack lie.
               | 
               | Playing semantics over whether omission of truth is bias
               | vs. censorship doesn't make a strong argument.
        
         | ch4s3 wrote:
         | That's not really a good comparison. Being an asshole to
         | journalists if really different than putting them in jail for
         | their reporting. The difference here is that some Republicans
         | who have no power to actually do that talk shit about doing it,
         | but Putin actually jails a lot of journalists.
        
           | cromd wrote:
           | I don't think they're saying that Republicans are currently
           | doing what Putin is currently doing. They said some people
           | want to jail journalists, and you seem to be agreeing by
           | saying those people "talk shit" about jailing journalists.
           | Maybe one could say that talk is harmless, but I think most
           | would challenge that.
        
             | ch4s3 wrote:
             | My claims is that the phrase "the previous American
             | president also waged a war against every media outlet" is
             | overblown nonsense. There are a mere handful of marginal
             | Republican nobodies who support this stuff and we saw for 4
             | years that the courts are happy to slap down any US
             | politician makes big constitutional missteps.
        
               | klyrs wrote:
               | No, that phrase isn't 100% true. Trump didn't wage war on
               | Brietbart, OAN, and the like. Only "mainstream media"
               | like CNN and even Fox when they reported what he called
               | "fake news," actually facts he didn't like.
        
               | ch4s3 wrote:
               | It's also not true at all. There was no war on any
               | journalists. I'm not aware of a single journalist jailed
               | by the Trump DOJ, the FCC didn't yank any licenses,
               | nothing. It was all talk.
        
               | cromd wrote:
               | This seems to be largely about your definition of war. No
               | elections were overturned, but could you say he waged war
               | on elections? He had his team out there saying that Hugo
               | Chavez created the rigged voting machines and that it was
               | statistically impossible for Biden to have won. It was an
               | ideological war, not a physical war. You don't have to
               | jail anyone to nonetheless do broad damage to an
               | institution. I agree that people can over-analyze sloppy
               | comments from fringe weirdo politicians, but here is
               | something the president tweeted:
               | 
               | >"They can't stand the fact that this Administration has
               | done more than virtually any other Administration in its
               | first 2yrs," he continued. "They are truly the ENEMY OF
               | THE PEOPLE!"
               | 
               | (https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/437610-trump
               | -cal...)
               | 
               | And surely media can be bad, can harm people, can lie,
               | but "ENEMY" is interesting.
        
               | ch4s3 wrote:
               | Being a shit-bag and. a bully just isn't a "war".
               | Arguably the controversy saved most of the legacy media
               | landscape from financial ruin and gave them 4 more years
               | to adjust to some new revenue models, the NYT in
               | particular seems to have figured out how to pivot to a
               | profitable online subscriber model that works. It wasn't
               | clear in mid 2016 that they would be able to do that.
               | 
               | You can make a good case that the guy damaged the
               | discourse and eroded trust in institutions, but news and
               | journalism have flourished in recent years.
        
               | klyrs wrote:
               | During the BLM protests, there were hundreds of assaults
               | and detentions of members of the press, along with an
               | enhanced surveillance apparatus. That these actions
               | didn't go through the strictest official channels doesn't
               | mean that they didn't happen.
               | 
               | Trump's commentary on the violence against the press:
               | https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/19/media/trump-velshi-msnbc-
               | shot...
        
               | ch4s3 wrote:
               | > During the BLM protests, there were hundreds of
               | assaults and detentions of members of the press, along
               | with an enhanced surveillance apparatus. That these
               | actions didn't go through the strictest official channels
               | doesn't mean that they didn't happen. Trump's commentary
               | on the violence against the press:
               | https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/19/media/trump-velshi-msnbc-
               | shot...
               | 
               | I agree that local police assaulting journalists is
               | awful, they should be fired and prosecuted. And I'm aware
               | that Trump made some dumb ass comments praising that
               | shit, but it doesn't constitute a war on the press.
               | You're talking about some isolated disparate instances
               | perpetrated by unrelated local police departments during
               | a summer of protests and riots. That isn't an act of the
               | executive branch of the federal government. The US
               | doesn't have a strong presidential system like say for
               | example France. The us president has virtually 0 control
               | over any individual police departments other than
               | threatening to yank some drug war funding.
               | 
               | There do exist levers the executive branch could pull to
               | attack the press, e.g. via the FCC or by having the DOJ
               | prosecute sources. The Trump admin didn't do those things
               | despite all of his bluster. He basically ended the policy
               | of aggressively prosecuting leakers and spent all day
               | engaging with the media. Sure he's a shit bag who did
               | crimes, but the war on the press stuff is overblown.
        
               | klyrs wrote:
               | > The Trump admin didn't do those things despite all of
               | his bluster.
               | 
               | Yes, it's an administrative motte & bailey. Police
               | support, individual and organizational, for Trump is
               | incredibly high and their loyalty to him transcends
               | official channels. He's explicitly endorsed violence
               | against journalists, brutality towards suspects, and
               | celebrated the execution of Michael Reinoehl. While he
               | didn't have direct control over the state police, he
               | spoke directly to them frequently, and encouraged all of
               | this.
        
               | ch4s3 wrote:
               | Again, encouraging bad actors is 100% different from
               | using the full power of the executive branch to persecute
               | journalists which he did not do, and Russia does.
        
               | klyrs wrote:
               | Yeah, Russia is definitely worse, but I wouldn't say 100%
               | different. Trump _loves_ Putin and the power he wields.
        
               | ch4s3 wrote:
               | > Trump loves Putin and the power he wields.
               | 
               | That doesn't really mean anything on the ground. The
               | situation in the US is 100% different. Some dumb-ass
               | president can love authoritarian shit all they want, but
               | don't have a ton of actual power to lock up journalists.
               | Russia just today shut down its last non-government owned
               | TV station. That just can't happen in the US legally, and
               | the courts are quite protective of speech and property
               | here. The Trump years saw numerous cases of supposedly
               | friendly judges telling him to fuck off. And the few
               | avenues he did have to legally attack journalists, like
               | prosecuting their sources, he didn't use unlike the
               | previous administration.
               | 
               | Frankly he's just a stupid demagogue, and a symptom of
               | the erosion of trust in institutions. But he didn't wage
               | war on the press. THere's no evidence to support that
               | outside of his bluster. He belongs in jail, but not for
               | this.
        
           | jmull wrote:
           | It's pretty weird this comment is downvoted to being greyed
           | out at the moment.
           | 
           | As if it's wrong to point out that tweeting and a 15 year
           | jail sentence are not equivalent.
           | 
           | I can't understand what this means... are there really
           | Russian vote-bots here or something?
        
             | pmcollins wrote:
             | clearly, yes
        
             | ch4s3 wrote:
             | I get it to some extent. People really hate Trump, and I
             | understand that and largely agree. I think it can be
             | threatening to people when their identity is wrapped up in
             | really heated partisanship to have an attack on their
             | enemies questioned. It's only human to want to rally around
             | something and have a hated outsider. And Trump truly is a
             | bag of shit, he just wasn't as bad on this one narrow thing
             | as newspapers and cable news might want you to think.
        
           | klyrs wrote:
           | Meanwhile, on page 2:
           | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30541671
        
             | [deleted]
        
             | ch4s3 wrote:
             | What do you want me to say? They shouldn't be doing that
             | and anyone involved should be booted out of government.
             | I've long argued that most of the really awful shit done by
             | the US domestically is perpetrated by local governments.
             | They're still not going to be able to successfully
             | prosecute any journalists.
        
           | frabbit wrote:
           | That's okay. We can always play with semantic definitions of
           | what it means to be a journalist -- and lock Julian Assange
           | up without trial.
        
             | ch4s3 wrote:
             | Assange should be let go, what's happened to him has been
             | awful. But that's the result of the Obama administration's
             | policy and is literally 1 person vs. the eradication of all
             | independent press in an entire nation. We should free
             | Assange and condemn Russia jailing at least 293 journalists
             | right now.
        
         | throwaway5752 wrote:
         | The backchannels were Manafort/Kilimnik, Michael Flynn/Kislyak,
         | and more.
         | https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/03/connections-...
         | is a digestible background. That is just the US - most European
         | countries have analogues, as do key Asian, African, and South
         | American countries.
         | 
         | The are not separate phenomenon at different stages, they are a
         | global, coordinated group. They were coordinated by the massive
         | cash flows coordinated by a small group in Russia. The use
         | coordinated tactics, in concert with each other.
        
           | pohl wrote:
           | Yes, it's the same trans-national crime syndicate. It's the
           | same war, even - it's just recently became kinetic. Amazing
           | the ROI that Vlad got from TFG.
        
             | areyousure wrote:
             | In case anyone is curious, it appears that ROI = "return on
             | investment", Vlad = Vladimir Putin, and TFG = "the former
             | guy" = Donald Trump. It appears to be the ~4th time the
             | latter abbreviation has been used on this site.
             | 
             | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27920739
        
         | squarefoot wrote:
         | Does it sound surprising that they all are Putin strong
         | supporters?
        
           | lkxijlewlf wrote:
           | Nope. Putin has played the long game by buying sympathy from
           | the American Right.
        
           | meragrin_ wrote:
           | "We're protecting Germany, we're protecting France, we're
           | protecting all of these countries. And then numerous of the
           | countries go out and make a pipeline deal with Russia where
           | they're paying billions of dollars into the coffers of
           | Russia.
           | 
           | "So we're supposed to protect you against Russia and you pay
           | billions of dollars to Russia and I think that's very
           | inappropriate"
           | 
           | Trump 2018
           | 
           | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-nato-summit-
           | pipeline/trum...
        
             | squarefoot wrote:
             | "I went in yesterday and there was a television screen, and
             | I said, "This is genius." Putin declares a big portion of
             | the Ukraine -- of Ukraine. Putin declares it as
             | independent. Oh, that's wonderful. (sarcastic)
             | 
             | So, Putin is now saying, "It's independent," a large
             | section of Ukraine. I said, "How smart is that?" _And he's
             | gonna go in and be a peacekeeper. That's strongest peace
             | force... We could use that on our southern border. That's
             | the strongest peace force I've ever seen. There were more
             | army tanks than I've ever seen. They're gonna keep peace
             | all right._ No, but think of it. Here's a guy who's very
             | savvy... I know him very well. Very, very well. "
             | 
             | Trump 02/22/2022.
             | 
             | (emphasis mine)
             | 
             | Full audio interview here:
             | 
             | https://www.clayandbuck.com/president-trump-with-cb-from-
             | mar...
        
         | calculatte wrote:
        
         | EtherTyper wrote:
         | Or for a more concrete example, look at how both Republicans
         | and Democrats are treating Julian Assange. Investigative
         | journalism and whistleblowing are under attack by all political
         | factions and by the justice system, today. We cannot treat
         | anti-free-press authoritarianism in the West as an "early
         | stage" or tomorrow's problem.
        
           | user-the-name wrote:
        
           | csee wrote:
           | There's no equivalence here. Russia has assassinated about 50
           | journalists under Putin and imprisoned/beaten many more. They
           | have a very tight stranglehold on press freedom.
           | 
           | But yes, we need to take it extremely seriously in the West
           | and fight against any and all encroachments so that we don't
           | slide further towards authoritarianism. Recent trends have
           | been concerning.
        
           | malfist wrote:
           | Julian Assange isn't a journalist though. He was a contractor
           | trusted with protected information which he then publicized.
           | There's a big difference between a journalist finding and
           | publishing information, and a mole in our government sharing
           | our secrets with people.
           | 
           | And that's ignoring the whole rape thing with Assange.
        
             | scatters wrote:
             | You're confusing Snowden with Assange. (And probably
             | forgetting the role of Manning.)
        
           | shagmin wrote:
           | Chelsea Manning may be a better comparison since the US
           | actually sentenced her, but even then that was about a leak
           | with classified information rather than just punishing the
           | press for being critical of the government. And she was
           | arrested and served time (7 years?) and then got out, while
           | coming out as transgendered (imagine going through that in
           | Russian prison). It's not ideal, but it could be taken as an
           | example of how much better it is in the US also.
        
           | bastardoperator wrote:
           | How are they treating him considering he's still in the UK?
        
           | 2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote:
           | https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/wikileaks-founder-charged-
           | sup...
           | 
           | > In 2010, Assange gained unauthorized access to a government
           | computer system of a NATO country. In 2012, Assange
           | communicated directly with a leader of the hacking group
           | LulzSec (who by then was cooperating with the FBI), and
           | provided a list of targets for LulzSec to hack.
           | 
           | > Assange conspired with Army Intelligence Analyst Chelsea
           | Manning to crack a password hash to a classified U.S.
           | Department of Defense computer.
           | 
           | If this is true then he is not a journalist.
        
           | rovolo wrote:
           | A difference is that Assange/Manning had to be spreading
           | something true to be charged, whereas this targets anything
           | "false".
        
       | notshuttingdown wrote:
       | If you have access to all other country's news sources, and
       | they're all contradicting your govt... what are the chances your
       | govt is right and the rest of the world is wrong?
        
       | conradfr wrote:
       | "We have always been at war with Westernworld."
        
       | thejackgoode wrote:
       | Metastasis of the Cold War, this is what it is. Like the world
       | wars are connected, this war is also connected to CW. USSR did
       | not disintegrate enough, ideologically.
        
       | pessimizer wrote:
       | What are the odds the same law will spring up in the US, but be
       | good when we do it?
        
         | ajross wrote:
         | Almost certain that I read somewhere that Congress shall make
         | no law abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.
        
           | kemitchell wrote:
           | The constitution of the Russian Federation guarantees freedom
           | of speech and prohibits censorship. I seem to recall the
           | Soviet Union had a pretty spiffy constitution, too. The
           | United States certainly did, during the Palmer Raids, during
           | McCarthyism.
           | 
           | Constitutions alone do nothing. If we're not on guard,
           | collectively, we could easily end up without freedom of
           | speech and press in practice.
        
         | crocodiletears wrote:
         | Probably in the EU, but that stuff gets squirreled in through
         | private institutions here. Information clearing-houses like
         | Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, etc. will take it upon themselves
         | after encouragement from the media and the government.
        
           | crocodiletears wrote:
           | Punctuates my point:
           | 
           | https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/3/22960223/reddit-ukraine-
           | ru...
           | 
           | https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/3/22959636/spotify-
           | removes-r...
        
       | whoomp12342 wrote:
       | this is the problem with the fake news narrative
        
       | mediumsmart wrote:
        
       | giuliomagnifico wrote:
       | Fortunately the law has not been approved, but if it will be
       | approved, this would make Russia even worse place.
        
       | kitd wrote:
       | Russia complaining about fake news is jaw-dropping in its irony.
       | They're the ones who turned fake news into an art form. And as an
       | authoritarian government, theyshould have no problem dealing with
       | it.
        
       | anthk wrote:
       | I guess why:
       | 
       | https://nitter.snopyta.org/MarkAmesExiled/status/14991264245...
       | 
       | No one is innocent here. On Spanish media they dared to use
       | videogame images (Arma 3) as real footage, ditto with a Chinese
       | civil explosion (causality/accident) as a Russia bombing strike.
        
         | mediumsmart wrote:
        
         | magicalist wrote:
         | > _No one is innocent_
         | 
         | I'm going to go with jailing citizens for 15 years as much
         | worse than mildly critical journalists in Russia.
         | 
         | Ignoring your combo whataboutism and gish gallop. Don't think
         | Russia has much jurisdiction over some Spanish news channel.
        
           | anthk wrote:
           | Lithuania will be doing the exact same.
        
           | anthk wrote:
           | https://wikiless.org/wiki/Language_policy_in_Ukraine?lang=en
           | 
           | Look what happened in Ukraine. Among neonazis, they supported
           | this:
           | 
           | Ukraine's 2017 education law will make Ukrainian the required
           | language of study in state schools from the fifth grade on,
           | although it allows instruction in other languages as a
           | separate subject,[65][66][67] to be phased in in 2023.[68]
           | Since 2017, the Hungary-Ukraine relations rapidly
           | deteriorated over the issue of the Hungarian minority in
           | Ukraine.[69] According to the New Europe:
           | 
           | The latest row between Kiev and Budapest comes on the heels
           | of a bitter dispute over a decision by Ukraine's parliament -
           | the Verkhovna Rada - to pass a legislative package on
           | education that bars primary education to all students in any
           | language but Ukrainian. The move has been widely condemned by
           | the international community as needlessly provocative as it
           | forces the historically bilingual population of 45 million
           | people who use Russian and Ukrainian interchangeably as
           | mother tongues to become monolingual. Furthermore, the large
           | minorities of Hungarians, Jews, Poles, Tatars, Gypsies,
           | Romanians, Caucasians, and Gagauz generally speak and receive
           | some formal or informal education in their own national
           | languages, all of which will be adversely affected by the new
           | draconian language statute.
           | 
           | Also:
           | 
           | Lviv Oblast Unian reported that "A ban on the use of cultural
           | products, namely movies, books, songs, etc., in the Russian
           | language in the public has been introduced" in the Lviv
           | Oblast in September 2018.[71] Critics[who?] called the law
           | ill-defined, illegal, and unconstitutional, and a successful
           | January 2019 court challenge by the Chuhuiv Human Rights
           | Group was dismissed on technical grounds in May, and could
           | lead to a complaint before the European Court of Human
           | Rights.[72]
           | 
           | They tried to ban the public usage of Russian in Ukraine.
           | 
           | That's a little step towards fascism.
        
             | kmeisthax wrote:
             | One little step towards fascism does not justify the
             | _massive leap towards fascism_ that is entailed by an
             | autocratic regime like Putin 's invading their neighbors.
        
             | artem247 wrote:
             | I've finished state with Ukrainian as a primary language of
             | instruction, being a Russian speaker. That was long time
             | ago, more than 15 years. To be honest, it is not a big
             | deal, you use both languages daily, you watch movies in
             | both languages and so on.
             | 
             | I also don't get "among neo-nazis" line.
             | 
             | In any case language question is more a Russian propaganda
             | talking point, I don't see it being major topic in the
             | Ukrainian political life.
        
             | magicalist wrote:
             | Posting more and longer non sequiturs just doubles down on
             | the whole "combo whataboutism and gish gallop" thing.
        
               | anthk wrote:
               | OFC, I agree. But here no one is trully innocent and
               | there were really borderline nazi laws on non Ukranian
               | languages that even the Francoist Spain didn't have until
               | we put the fascist regime back to the post war era and
               | not the one post US relations.
               | 
               | Hope the war ends soon, the "rebel" provinces gets a
               | referendum and if they opt to be part of Russia, they
               | should have a clause to be Russian AND part of the
               | European Union. Everyone wins. Russia too, even if it
               | "hates" the West they need us the Europeans economically
               | far more than a war mongering USA.
        
       | foxyv wrote:
       | I get the impression that Putin was on the edge of losing Russia
       | before Ukraine. Ukraine may be a final ploy for him to stay in
       | power. Wartime crack downs, crippling political rivals with loss
       | of large foreign assets, insulating Russia from external media,
       | cutting domestic media, mobilizing troops and reserves. All of
       | this cements a shaky position which was being undermined by
       | foreign and domestic political groups.
       | 
       | We'll see how the gamble goes. We may see Russia become North
       | Korea 2.0 with the Putin family as the new Tzars of Russia. Or
       | maybe a second governmental collapse is imminent.
        
       | guilhas wrote:
       | Boris Johnson to make protests that cause 'annoyance' illegal,
       | with prison sentences of up to 10 years
       | https://www.businessinsider.com/boris-johnson-outlaw-protest...
       | 
       | UK law people making social media posts could face two years in
       | prison over Fake News https://www.rt.com/uk/539103-trolls-prison-
       | psychological-har...
        
       | asdswe wrote:
       | Putin is no better than Hitler and nothing the Russian government
       | says can be trusted. They only respect force, nothing else.
        
         | tgv wrote:
         | I'm sorry, but that's a bizarre remark. Hitler can be held
         | accountable for millions of deaths, in all kinds of inhuman
         | ways. Putin is nowhere near that and I cannot see that happen
         | either.
        
       | ukraineally wrote:
       | I was very surprised to see virtually all hacking groups declare
       | war on russia over this war. So many APT groups are Russian but
       | they do oppose the war. The expected cyber war is all Russia's to
       | deal with.
       | 
       | The actual war isn't going well at all. Their reg troops are
       | driving by wrecked russian equipment destroying their morale.
       | 
       | So they can't deal with reality, send everyone who dissents to
       | prison.
        
       | squidwardeffigy wrote:
        
       | sjmm1989 wrote:
       | Hmmm... seems oddly reminiscent of something once done in a
       | certain countries history. Almost as if it is being repeated.
        
         | buscoquadnary wrote:
         | I'm just waiting for them to press the button to flip their UN
         | sign.
         | 
         | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5u1u5IuLec
        
           | krapp wrote:
           | better to post it at the relevant timestamp:
           | https://youtu.be/L5u1u5IuLec?t=69
        
         | mediumsmart wrote:
         | you could not start a war with a fake vial of wmd. no one would
         | do that.
        
         | pixl97 wrote:
         | Like a set of steel blinds.
        
       | asats wrote:
       | Two out of the last three remaining somewhat independent media
       | that were still operating in the country (already under major
       | restrictions) were also shut down, TV rain just did their last
       | transmission and walked out of the studio crying:
       | 
       | https://youtu.be/e4an0MlF27k?t=11397
       | 
       | Twitter and facebook are being blocked. Youtube and group chats
       | in telegram/signal/etc are the only things left right now.
       | 
       | 7670 people have been detained so far.
        
         | madaxe_again wrote:
         | They ended with swan lake, which is rather apt.
        
         | okareaman wrote:
         | > Twitter and facebook are being blocked
         | 
         | This is the silver lining as people on Reddit are reporting a
         | marked decrease in right wing trolling in all their social
         | media
        
           | quasse wrote:
           | This is something I'm very interested in. Is the average
           | Western consumer of COVID misinformation, racial hate-
           | baiting, etc. seeing a sudden decrease in new "content" to
           | share?
           | 
           | Does anyone know of any organizations studying the ongoing
           | levels of creation and engagement with that type of content?
        
             | okareaman wrote:
             | This was shared on Reddit by someone to back up the claims
             | 
             | https://securingdemocracy.gmfus.org/hamilton-dashboard/
        
           | csee wrote:
           | Are the blocks that Russia is implementing avoidable with a
           | VPN?
        
           | BitwiseFool wrote:
           | Which country do we have to sanction to cut down on all the
           | left-wing trolling and astroturfing on reddit?
        
         | snek_case wrote:
         | Very similar to what China has done. Seems that it's
         | unfortunately pretty effective. Control the information the
         | people are fed and they control public opinion.
        
           | [deleted]
        
           | redisman wrote:
           | My hunch is that works fine with 10% GDP growth every year.
           | Without it? To be seen.
        
       | squidwardeffigy wrote:
        
       | t_mann wrote:
       | Russia turning into North Korea v2 at lightning speed...
        
       | coolso wrote:
       | Didn't Abe Lincoln pull this same stunt too?
        
       | sAbakumoff wrote:
       | That's not even the worst part.
       | 
       | Another proposition is to send anti-war protesters to war "so
       | that they can see what's actually going on".
        
         | rillazawayyy wrote:
         | So the idea is to arm the anti-war protestors, then put them
         | near the officers who are running the war on the ground?
         | 
         | Maybe I'm being cynical, but I think there may be some
         | potential problems with that approach.
        
       | jmeister wrote:
       | Ironically this article itself is fake news:
       | 
       | 1. It is just a proposal: "The proposed legislation, which is
       | supported by Vyacheslav Volodin, the parliamentary speaker, a
       | close ally of President Putin, could be discussed by parliament
       | as early as this week, state television reported."
       | 
       | 2. Another wild proposal, to forcibly conscript protestors, was
       | shot down by Kremlin:
       | 
       | https://twitter.com/GazetaRu/status/1499402119836622858
       | 
       | It's disappointing to see not one comment here suggesting that
       | someone read beyond the headline. Et tu, Hacker News?
        
         | zuminator wrote:
         | How is the article fake news when it agrees with (is literally
         | the source for) your main point?
        
           | jmeister wrote:
           | It managed to mislead the purportedly wise readership of this
           | forum.
           | 
           | Fake news doesn't mean literally everything in the article is
           | fake. It's a metaphor
        
             | lolinder wrote:
             | "Have I ever lied to you?"
             | 
             | Silverfish's brow furrowed. "Well," he said, "yesterday you
             | said--"
             | 
             | "I mean _metaphorically_ ," said Dibbler quickly.
             | 
             | "Oh. Well. Metaphorically? I suppose not--"
             | 
             | "There you are, then."
             | 
             | -- Terry Pratchett
        
             | TAKEMYMONEY wrote:
             | "Fake news" isn't a metaphor, it's a thought-terminating
             | cliche. It literally _literally_ means the news is a sham,
             | not genuine.
             | 
             | To your credit "to" in the headline here could be
             | considered misleading. It implies "[If the proposal by
             | Volodin, a close ally of Putin, is successful] Russia to
             | punish 'fake news'".
        
       | ilamont wrote:
       | Ripping a page from Hong Kong's "national security" law under the
       | PRC, which resulted in Apple Daily publisher Jimmy Lai being
       | sentenced to prison (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-
       | asia-56770567). The law even goes after people not living in Hong
       | Kong:
       | 
       |  _The wording of the Hong Kong national security law asserts
       | jurisdiction over people who are not residents of Hong Kong and
       | have never even set foot there. This means anyone on Earth,
       | regardless of nationality or location, can technically be deemed
       | to have violated this law and face arrest and prosecution if they
       | are in a Chinese jurisdiction, even for transit._
       | 
       | https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/07/hong-kong-nat...
        
       | hprotagonist wrote:
       | A new arrival to Gulag is asked: "What were you given 10 years
       | for?" - "For nothing!" - "Don't lie to us here, now! Everybody
       | knows 'for nothing' is 3 years."
        
         | aivisol wrote:
         | "I am American, I live in a free country: I can go to a main
         | square and call president (Reagan/Nixon/whatever) an idiot and
         | nothing will happen to me!" - "Well, I am Soviet citizen, I
         | also live in a free country: I can go to a main square and call
         | president (Reagan/Nixon/whatever) an idiot and nothing will
         | happen to me!"
        
           | hunterb123 wrote:
           | I loved when Reagan told Soviet jokes, that was one of them.
           | 
           | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mN3z3eSVG7A
           | 
           | The YT comment section actually has a few gems too.
        
             | mhh__ wrote:
             | I always get that video recommended underneath footage of
             | atomic bombs going off or movies like threads.
             | 
             | Fitting, because the Reagan administration didn't realize
             | at the time that they were accidently convincing the
             | increasingly old men leading the USSR that the US was
             | preparing a first strike on the evil empire.
        
             | mc32 wrote:
             | Heh. The one where he has two Russians arguing and one
             | asked whether the SU was at the pinnacle of communism and
             | his buddy's answer was hell no, things are gonna get a lot
             | worse!
        
         | k0k0r0 wrote:
         | Putin sitting alone in some room. On the door: (Knock knock)
         | Putin: "Who's there?" From outside: "Kyiv" Putin: "I don't get
         | it." From outside: "That's right. You won't."
        
         | ch4s3 wrote:
         | I literally laughed out loud when I hit that line in Gulag
         | Archipelago. Solzhenitsyn was brilliant.
        
           | gre wrote:
           | Solzhenitsyn was an anti-semite and a total liar.
           | http://www.vestnik.com/issues/2003/0611/win/reznik.htm
           | 
           | edit: his anti-semitism is debatable
        
             | powerslacker wrote:
             | Even if he was an antisemite at one point in his life or
             | even his entire life, how does that change what the
             | original poster said about him - that he was brilliant?
             | 
             | I'm genuinely curious because I've seen this kind of knee-
             | jerk response across many avenues (e.g. x is an antisemite,
             | is hitler, is a facist, is a commie, is a trump supporter)
             | and I don't understand it.
             | 
             | In the medieval era most people participating in European
             | civilization would qualify for the modern definition of
             | antisemitism. Should I simply disregard the good works of
             | writers and thinkers from that time period and geography?
             | 
             | If anything I am pro-semite but it's a struggle for me to
             | grasp why the antisemitism of an individual should affect
             | my opinion of their work or ideas. Even though I don't
             | approve of their opinions regarding a people group it
             | simply does not follow that I ought to dismiss everything
             | they have ever said.
        
               | gre wrote:
               | Was Elizabeth Holmes brilliant for defrauding Silicon
               | Valley for over a decade with Theranos? By your
               | standards, yes.
               | 
               | If Solzhenitsyn writes a brilliant but mostly exaggerated
               | and fictitious account of Communist Russia, do you really
               | want to celebrate this achievement? I do not and that's
               | why I posted.
        
               | ch4s3 wrote:
               | Even if The Gulag Archipelago was mostly fictitious,
               | which it certainly is not, it would still be a staggering
               | work of literary brilliance. There is quite literally no
               | other work I'm aware of in Western literature that is
               | even comparable. The prose is incredible, moving, at
               | times dark and punishing, and in a turn hilarious and you
               | really feel the wight of the exercise of having written
               | the thing while reading it.
               | 
               | The broad facts are well supported by what's come out of
               | Soviet archives since the 90s and further details are
               | supported by the Mitrokhin Archive. The surviving Stasi
               | archives also paint a similar picture.
        
               | powerslacker wrote:
               | > Was Elizabeth Holmes brilliant for defrauding Silicon
               | Valley for over a decade with Theranos? By your
               | standards, yes.
               | 
               | It's not just my standards. I could be wrong here, but I
               | think most people would find her brilliant. That's part
               | of why her fraudulent behavior was so successful.
               | 
               | Not sure you meant to, but you've dodged my main
               | question. Why should I factor in his antisemitism
               | (alleged or not) when considering his brilliance?
               | 
               | You originally said Solzhenitsyn was antisemitic, now you
               | are claiming he wrote an exaggerated account of Communist
               | Russia. Either or both of those claims may be true. I
               | don't know the veracity of either and I'm not arguing
               | those. I'm asking *why I should disregard his purported
               | brilliance altogether even if those claims are true*?
               | 
               | Washington owned slaves. Edison likely exploited his
               | workers for his own gain. Martin Luther was an
               | antisemite. Nelson Mandela had ties to terrorists. Joan
               | of Arc was a heretic. Theodora was effectively a
               | prostitute at one point. These men and women all did and
               | said things we would not approve of, and yet there are
               | qualities they held and actions they took which we
               | celebrate to this day. I don't see how some corrupt part
               | of their character gives cause to dismiss them entirely.
        
               | gre wrote:
               | He is brilliant, sure. This is the problem.
        
             | ch4s3 wrote:
             | I don't read Russian, so I can't comment on that article.
             | 
             | I don't find the anti-semitism charge very credible, he
             | speaks out against anti-semitism very strongly in both the
             | Gulag Archipelago, and several essays. He also claimed that
             | an anti-semitic essay attributed to him was a hatched job
             | by the KGB, which seems at least possible. I also stand by
             | my claim that he was a brilliant writer. I think if you try
             | to take everything in his descriptions of the Gulag system
             | as literal fact, you'll find historical discrepancies, but
             | his work isn't meant to be wholly historic, but rather more
             | expansive.
        
               | polskado wrote:
               | It's not credible, and anyone who has read more
               | Solzhenitsyn than a summary of _Two Hundred Years
               | Together_ knows that.
               | 
               | When he published it he spoke of Jewish friends praising
               | Russian silence on the history he covered. This is kind
               | of the same thing. There is a really unfortunate tendency
               | by certain groups to equivocate criticism of historical
               | Jewish actions with criticism of the Jewish people, and
               | the word antisemitic has lost almost all meaning as a
               | result. Reaction to that book is far from the sole
               | example.
               | 
               | It is possible to criticize the behavior of certain
               | historical Jews without filling your heart with hate for
               | an entire people and preaching Hitler's ideologies. That
               | is a nuance that is lost by Jewish people who call others
               | "antisemitic" at the first hint of criticism. That said,
               | however, it is also somewhat fair because the Jewish
               | people have endured unspeakable horrors in a blink of
               | history.
        
               | ch4s3 wrote:
               | I've read The Gulag Archipelago and some essays, but not
               | Two Hundred Years Togethers so I can't comment on that
               | work. I generally get the sense from his work that I have
               | read that he harbored no ill will towards anyone based on
               | ethnic or Religious identity.
        
               | frabbit wrote:
               | > I think if you try to take everything in his
               | descriptions of the Gulag system as literal fact, you'll
               | find historical discrepancies
               | 
               | What ones stand out for you? I am relatively ignorant on
               | the subject. Your comment stimulated me to google a bit
               | and I came up with this1 critical (and currently topical)
               | criticism of him for anti-semitism in which he is accused
               | of blaming Jewish people for playing a leading role in
               | the red terror:
               | 
               | His reported self defense included a reference to the
               | Kiev/Kyiv Cheka (precursors to OGPU and NKVD): 'To
               | explain the actions of the Kiev cheka [secret police]
               | only by the fact that two thirds were Jews, is certainly
               | incorrect."'
               | 
               | 1. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/jan/25/russia.b
               | ooks
        
               | ch4s3 wrote:
               | I think he gets some fair criticism for reporting some
               | third hand accounts of some mass executions and
               | publishing some inflated numbers, but I don't think his
               | intention was to pin those down precisely, but rather to
               | give account of the magnitude of the tragedy.
        
               | frabbit wrote:
               | Sidenote: regardless of the merits of the book or its
               | criticisms I thought this was a funny line: "This book is
               | a weak one professionally. Factually, it is so bad as to
               | be beyond criticism. "
        
             | ch4s3 wrote:
             | So I found a translation of that article and another
             | article by the author. It seems like the gripe is that
             | Solzhenitsyn wrote about some Bolsheviks and gulag camp
             | administrators in a way that drew attention to their Jewish
             | identity, and that leads some critics to believe he was in
             | fact an anti-semite. Is that a fair reading?
             | 
             | I don't actually see any evidence that his portrayal of
             | life in the Soviet Union was anything but accurate, at
             | least from the perspectives available to him at the time.
             | I'm sure there were a great many possible life experiences,
             | especially for people born after the terror, but the terror
             | too was part of the Soviet experience.
        
           | tgv wrote:
           | How does every Russian joke begin? By looking over your
           | shoulder.
        
       | figaroniguzo wrote:
       | Europe just banned Russian TVs from broadcasting because they
       | didn't agree with the content...
       | https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/eu-bans-rt-sputnik-bann...
        
         | vernie wrote:
         | What TVs are made in Russia?
        
           | jagrsw wrote:
           | I used to have Viesna (spring) -
           | https://www.turbosquid.com/3d-models/ussr-tv-
           | vesna-c-276-3d-...
           | 
           | It even had an additional electronic component which made it
           | accept PAL signal, in addition to its native SECAM.
           | 
           | PS: Some say SECAM was technically superior to PAL, but
           | dunno.
        
             | vernie wrote:
             | I think SECAM and PAL were roughly equivalent and both had
             | better spatial resolution than NTSC but the 25 Hz frame
             | rate never sat well with me.
        
       | eljlk34yl34 wrote:
        
       | IanDrake wrote:
        
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