The most destructive anti-America propaganda is spread in America by unpatriotic Americans
“The point of modern propaganda isn't only to misinform or push an agenda. It is to exhaust your critical thinking, to annihilate truth.” ― Garry Kasparov
In World War II, radio personalities sporting such sobriquets as Lord Haw-Haw, Axis Sally, and Tokyo Rose disseminated Axis propaganda - in English, from Berlin and Tokyo - aiming to weaken the Allies' resolve. Today, enemy propagandists do the same. But now, the disinformation and agitprop are spread, not from the enemy’s capital, but in America itself. These contemporary dissemblers do not hide. Why should they? Their proselytism is addictive ambrosia to the lotus-eaters of the conservative base.
During the Cold War, the USSR supplemented its nuclear arsenal with a sophisticated propaganda campaign. They aimed to portray the US as a cabal of aggressive plutocrats grinding down the mass of humanity under their rapacious, money-making machine. Profit for capitalism’s princes and perdition for the proletariat.
To distract from their own ambition, the Soviets funded and/or influenced such anodyne organizations as the World Peace Council, the World Federation of Trade Unions, and the International Union of Students. These top-down, 'grassroots' groups encouraged western antipathy to nuclear weapons, promoted anti-war demonstrations, and inspired “Yankee go Home!” movements across the non-Soviet world.
A favorite tool of the USSR was conspiracy theories. Included were claims the CIA was behind the JFK assassination, Martin Luther King Jr was an ‘Uncle Tom’ on the government payroll, and the US military created the AIDS virus in a New Jersey lab.
“Kompromat” — a portmanteau word from the Russian for "compromising material" — was another well-honed technique. The Soviets set ‘honey-traps’ to ensnare closeted gays and adulterers holding senior positions in the Western establishment — back when homosexual sex was still criminal, and adultery was supposed to be kept private.
The USSR collapsed in 1991, but their deception techniques live on. They were a swing factor in the 2016 election. Trump may have crowed that the Mueller investigation exonerated him of charges he collaborated with Russia — but it only said that ‘collusion’ (not a legal term) was unproven. In addition, it revealed evidence proving the Russians had interfered in the election. And that the Trump campaign was aware of their dirty deeds and did nothing to stop them.
Most importantly, while the Justice Department would not bring criminal charges against Trump as a sitting President, the Mueller Report provided sufficient evidence of obstruction of justice for Congress to start impeachment proceedings. However, Congress did nothing until Trump withheld military aid from Ukraine in attempted extortion.
After 2016 the Russians, who had been our epitomical enemy, now had an ally in the White House. And one wing of our body politic gushed over a man whose allure was that he hated gays as much they did and like to take his shirt off.
When Putin’s useful idiot suffered a humiliating loss in 2020, the Russians once again faced a President who treated America’s enemies as enemies — and they lost favored status in the inner circle. Undiscouraged, they used the turmoil of Trump’s election whining to sow distrust. Not only was the door held open for them by a sizable number of autocratic apologists, but a significant slice of conservative media echoed and magnified their propaganda on American television.
For the Russians, it must have been as gratifying and unexpected as driving the length of New York’s Third Avenue and hitting nothing but green lights.
The Russians can now rely on such ‘illuminaries’ as Tucker Carlson do their heavy lifting for them. This America Firster is devoted to the man who would destroy America. Alyssa Farah Griffin, former White House Director of Strategic Communications in the Trump administration, observed,
"I think the former president, as well as other prominent Republicans, are taking their pointer from one place, and that's Tucker Carlson's show on Fox News. He has become essentially an arm of the Kremlin and what he is talking about, what he is saying is indistinguishable from RT propaganda."
Carlson himself questioned why any American should be anti-Putin
"It may be worth asking yourself… why do I hate Putin? Has Putin ever called me a racist? Has he threatened to get me fired for disagreeing with him? Has he shipped every middle-class job in my town to Russia? Did he manufacture a worldwide pandemic that wrecked my business and kept me indoors for two years? Is he teaching my children to embrace racial discrimination? Is he making fentanyl? Is he trying to snuff out Christianity?"
The genius of this absolution of evil is its appeal to the ‘me-first’ philosophy of the entitled bigot. “Putin cannot be a bad guy if he hasn’t hurt me.” By such rationale, most people can excuse every serial killer on the grounds, “he didn’t kill me or anyone I love”. Further, in his dog-whistle enumeration of what Putin did not do, Carlson invites his audience to compare the ex-KGB bullyboy favorably to the Democrats. Carlson’s Putin defense was so well regarded in Russia that their state TV ran it with Russian subtitles.
Carlson is not alone. Over at OAN, Pearson Sharp, who has never met a conspiracy theory too absurd to report, or a truth he would not deny, has identified the cause of the Ukraine conflict. He says,
“Joe Biden started this war. I say it again slowly for the liberals in the audience. Joe Biden started this war in Ukraine. There is absolutely no way around this fact. Vladimir Putin, as ruthless as he may be, did not start this war. Vladimir [sic] Zelensky, puppet of George Soros that he is, did not start this war. Bumbling, senile, blithering and blathering, globalist tyrant, dictator, and despot Joe Biden started this war.”
The reader will notice that Sharp offers no proof for his assertion. How can he? None exists. Biden was not even President when the Russian/Ukraine War started in March 2014, with the annexation of Crimea.
It is one thing for the rabid right to take shots at Biden, but Sharp goes further. He justifies Putin’s aggressive invasion of a sovereign nation by saying,
Although Putin is painted as a Hollywood movie villain by the left in the media, Putin has had one, very clear, simple goal — one line in the sand from the beginning — Ukraine cannot join NATO. That’s it. And if you are a reasonable, thinking person, that isn’t an outrageous demand. As Tucker Carlson pointed out, Russia doesn’t want American missiles planted at its doorstep pointed right at Moscow.”
It is astounding. Following Sharp’s logic, Mexico could justify invading the US on the ‘reasonable’ grounds that it simply does not want American missiles planted at its doorstep pointed right at Mexico City.
It cannot be denied - and I will write this slowly for the conservatives in the audience - the right-wing is unAmerican. They have waved the flags of Civil War traitors and German WW II fascists. And now they have bowed down to an enemy who invaded an ally. An enemy who, no matter what happens, is already a loser. Just like all their other heroes.