Translated and subtitled by Leo.
Hello dear friends, you liked the ‘This Is Different’ rubric. So today, I offer to continue it. Last time we were comparing the relationship between the Russian opposition with the social media blocks. Back then, we found out that an American IT company has the right to block whomever they want. Including the American president and his supporters. But for a Russian IT company, this rule does not propagate. Today we’re going to talk a little more about social medias. Now the black belt for double standards goes to the American New York Times.
Telegram, Pro-Democracy Tool, Struggles Over New Fans From Far Right. Yes, in this article, everything magnificently begins with the headline. By the way, one of my last videos were devoted just in time how the USA is making an active offensive towards Telegram. Which they, along with all possible human rights organizations were fighting to begin for so long. They even wrote the address to the UN. The link to this video will be in the description, you should surely watch it. It is mentioned in the article of the NYT. The author of this material, the journalist-investigator Michael Schwirtz brings a subheading to this next thought.
Michael Schwirtz (NYT): “Telegram has helped fuel democracy movements in Iran and Belarus but now faces scrutiny, because in the US, extremists and conspiracy theorists flock to it amid crackdowns by Facebook and Twitter on disinformation.”
This is so good that I don’t even know how to comment on it. I even worried that I might not be able to find material regularly for the rubric ‘This Is Different’. In general, a democratic movement is a democratic movement where it’s needed. But in the USA, Telegram became a refuge for extremists. It’s interesting to see what Schwirtz would have wrote if many Black Lives Matter activists or Biden supporters had massively went to Telegram. However, the master class on demand is given not by NYT, but by CNN host Chris Cuomo.
2:23 – Clip begins.
CNN host about the supporters of Trump in January 2021.
“Our democracy almost collapsed. This is not an exaggeration. And what would have happened if they showed up there with weapons? God forbid, God forbid! This should not go unpunished.”
Half a year before this, about the BLM protests.
“Many people look at these protests as a problem. No, the problem is what is bringing these citizens out in the streets. Show where in the constitution it is written that protesters should be respectful and peaceful?”
2:45 – Clip ends.
Okay, let’s move on. From the headline to the actual text:
“Telegram has long been an engine of resistance and an annoyance for tyrants. Authoritarian leaders in Russia and Iran have tried to ban it. When protests broke out recently in Belarus and Hong Kong, Telegram was the glue that held democracy movements together in the face of violent onslaughts by powerful security services. Lately however, Telegram is quickly becoming the online refuge for a different, undesirable for us form of resistance.”
Because NEXTA in Belarus is a desirable resistance, but Trump supporters are undesirable. Demonstrators in Iran are fighting for freedom, while demonstrators in the USA want to lead the country into the abyss of fascism. Schwirtz calls them supporters of conspiracy theories, racists and I quote verbatim, “violent insurrectionists that are not needed for us.” I understand that with the magazine The New York Times, most of its existence has served the interest of the Democratic Party, this kind of uprising is really not needed.
Michael Schwirtz (NYT): “25 million new users flooded Telegram in the days after Twitter and Facebook, reacting to the January 6 mayhem at the Capitol, purged users they deemed responsible for having incited violence or spread disinformation.”
25 million people, think about it. If we use the logic of the NYT journalist, they are 25 million racists and chauvinists. A question: how is it that in the country, which for years presented its internal political structure as a sample for other governments, how is it in this guiding star, as Obama wrote in his memoirs, did so many chauvinists spread out? It’s the question of questions. Friends, I know that there are many quotations here, but you have to hear these thoughts in their original form, without any paraphrasing. [Ed. – This is not entirely true, it seems some quotes have added other words not in the NYT article.]
Michael Schwirtz (NYT): “Some fear that the features that make Telegram a popular tool for organizing resistance to authoritarian regimes could be used by the far right and extreme supporters of Mr. Trump to cause further mayhem.”
“Instead of an uprising in Belarus or Iran, they can continue a violent anarchy in the US, as was started in the Capitol. Already the F.B.I. has warned police chiefs across the country to be on the lookout for potential attacks by armed white militia groups and are ordered to mercilessly beat down racist extremists.”
To mercilessly beat down extremists? Did I hear it wrong? Who is explaining this to us, the NYT? Which a few days ago had these main photos in their front page. [Shows pictures of Russian OMON riot police with batons hitting protesters.] Oh but here are kind protesters, there in the USA they are not friendly. The lexicon of the journalist of course deserves an individual attention. Okay, this part I especially liked. “Instead of an uprising in Belarus or Iran, they can continue a violent anarchy in the US, as was started in the Capitol.” But Schwirtz shouldn’t worry about that one.
Michael Schwirtz (NYT): “Mr. Durov initially welcomed the influx of users and criticized the big American competitors for the expulsions, suggesting they were an effort to limit free speech. Last Monday, though, Mr. Durov announced that his team had blocked hundreds of posts from American channels calling for violence ahead of the presidential inauguration.”
Here I once again recommend my video on this topic. There I explain it in more details. The main question stems in whether Telegram is going to ban the USA. But considering whether Durov is going to contact the American authorities – it’s unlikely. And this is where I will end it, I hope you enjoyed the video. For now, I am saying goodbye and will be looking for new material on the next release for the rubric, ‘This Is Different’. I remind you that your ideas for releases can be sent to my social media, which are included in the descriptions for each of these videos. Bye.
America’s looking more and like Ukraine every day. Not surprising, as the powers that be are using the same script. Find a small country with an even smaller American embassy and you may be able to ride out the fall of the US Empire in civilised surroundings. Don’t stay in the USA, its going to be hell!
Have to agree with you for as we move from a soft police state to a hard one and as they shut down anything that resembles any form of oppositions, banning of books that fails to meet their criteria, we will become just like Germany in the 30s, and we all know what that led to.!!
As a good vassal, Canada today announced: “Canada labels the Proud Boys, other neo-Nazi groups as terrorists”
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-proud-boys-terrorists-1.5899186
I have no interest in any of these groups but lines like this :”Move comes after media reports linked Proud Boys members to those who stormed U.S. Capitol last month” are worrying as to the future larger picture of where this is all going.
Generally the word “terrorism” is now so diluted that it is de-facto conflated with any dissent from the state narrative.
The full list of 13 new terrorist entities:
Atomwaffen Division
The Base
The Proud Boys
Russian Imperial Movement
Three Al-Qaeda affiliates: Jama’at Nusrat Al-Islam Wal-Muslimin, Front de Libération du Macina, and Ansar Dine
Five ISIS affiliates: Islamic State West Africa Province, Islamic State in the Greater Sahara, Islamic State in Libya, Islamic State East Asia, and Islamic State – Bangladesh
Hizbul Mujahideen
I’d never heard of the Russian Imperial Movement. Anyone have any comment about them?
To summarize this article:
-American sponsored insurrections in Russia, Belarus, Iran, China-Hong Kong, or Venezuela are by definition “pro-democracy” freedom fighters who should be allowed to use Telegram.
-American “Deplorables,” who are not sponsored by anyone, are anti-democratic, freedom-hating insurrectionists that must be vilified, crushed, and prohibited from using Telegram.
Thank you, New York Times and American media!
Your imperial hypocrisy is Orwellian in the extreme.
Yes well, anything that dares question the dominant narrative is immediately labelled ‘baseless conspiracy theory’ so why not take the next step and call everyone a domestic terrorist as well?
Now that covid has trashed the travel industry, I don’t expect to see many turrists – George W. Bush [brought up to date]
Dear Anna,
I loved your wit, the sarcasm dripping from the words quoted from Michael Schwirtz, and others, and I think of history.
Something like this happened to Russia about a century ago, where there was much death and destruction and Russians and their friends suffered greatly. History repeats itself, and often frequently. Most Russians have remembered, and those that don’t perhaps react like Navalnyi. Perhaps some Russian leader would consider sending Navalnyi and perhaps about 300 of his followers to the east side of New York City, in a reverse role of Leon Trotsky, but I think poor old Navalnyi would strongly protest being sent to a potential civil war.
And I also consider the quatrains of Nostradamus, which were interpreted in the 1970’s to insinuate that America would be invaded by Russians travelling overland from the north, and then the later Hollywood predictions of the civil war as per the ‘Terminator’ series, all created by members of the 13th tribe.
And again, when one considers Michael Schwirtz’s comment; “Our democracy almost collapsed. This is not an exaggeration. And what would have happened if they showed up there with weapons? God forbid, God forbid! This should not go unpunished.”
To think that people actually went to a supposed uprising without weapons! What a gloriously vain manner in which to fight and die for ‘Freedom’! I guess that Michael Schwirtz never watched Mel Gibson’s films “Braveheart’ or “The Patriot”
But hang on; if these agitators were unarmed then just exactly what did they use to smash the safety glass windows just prior to Ashli Babbitt being murdered? And of course, one should never think of the old ‘Police Special Branch’ trick of infiltration of agitators to ensure that the correct outcome prevailed.
But Russia was not the only country to suffer in the past 100 years; there was also Spain, and I think it was General Mola who announced that General Franco was marching on Madrid with four columns, but to put that into context just how many columns would General Michael Flynn lead against the DC capital?