Political Abuse

[John Bailey]

My introduction to Surkov was via this really memorable podcast
(Benjamen Walker's Theory of Everything) which puts forward some
possible direct links between Surkov and Trump (story begins around
16:50, juicy Trump bit begins at 23:15)
https://soundcloud.com/bwalker/useful-idiots
>From wikipedia:
"Some outside Russia, such as Ned Reskinoff of ThinkProgress, and Adam
Curtis in the BBC documentary HyperNormalisation, have claimed that
Surkov's unique blend of politics and reality have begun to affect
countries outside of Russia, most notably the United States with the
choosing of Donald Trump for the 2016 US Republican nomination and
Trump's subsequent campaign and election victory.

In an editorial for the London Review of Books quoted by Curtis, Peter
Pomerantsev describes Putin's Russia thus:
In contemporary Russia, unlike the old USSR or present-day North
Korea, the stage is constantly changing: the country is a dictatorship
in the morning, a democracy at lunch, an oligarchy by suppertime,
while, backstage, oil companies are expropriated, journalists killed,
billions siphoned away. Surkov is at the centre of the show,
sponsoring nationalist skinheads one moment, backing human rights
groups the next. It's a strategy of power based on keeping any
opposition there may be constantly confused, a ceaseless
shape-shifting that is unstoppable because it's indefinable.
— Peter Pomerantsev, in "Putin's Rasputin", London Review of Books
issue of 20 October 2011 [8]

Curtis claims that Trump used a similar strategy to become president
of the United States, and hints that Trump's Surkovian origins caused
Putin to express his admiration for Trump in Russian media."

On Thu, Jan 26, 2017 at 1:38 AM, Gary Webb <gwebb8686 at gmail.com> wrote:
> https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/11/hidden-author-putinism-russia-vladislav-surkov/382489/?utm_source=twb
>
> Old article from 2014. Eerily prescient today...
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On Jan 25, 2017, at 9:08 AM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> http://www.nbcnews.com/health/mental-health/some-experts-say-trump-team-s-falsehoods-are-classic-gaslighting-n711021
>
> MENTAL HEALTH
> JAN 25 2017, 8:55 AM ET
>
> Some Experts Say Trump Team’s Falsehoods Are Classic ‘Gaslighting’
>
>
> The behavior has all the signs of "gaslighting", says clinical psychologist
> Bryant Welch, who wrote a 2008 book entitled "State of Confusion: Political
> Manipulation and the Assault on the American Mind".
>
> Gaslighting refers to a 1944 film in which a murdering husband manipulates
> and confuses his wife by dimming the gas lights in their home and then
> denying it's happening.
>
> "The very state of confusion they are creating is a political weapon in and
> of itself," Welch told NBC News.
>
> "If you make people confused, they are vulnerable. By definition they don't
> know what to do," added Welch, who has not personally examined any of the
> Trump team.
>
>
>
> On Wed, Jan 25, 2017 at 6:22 AM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Oh, but you do?  Again, that misses the point at the heart of
>> 'gaslighting," AKA political abuse.  It is NOT the same as a con.
>>
>> David Morris
>>
>>
>> On Wednesday, January 25, 2017, ish mailian <ishmailian at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> A lot of the discussion about how the people who voted for Trump see
>>> themselves, how they view their position in the nation, in the nation's
>>> history and so on and how capitalism has, saturated their views, their
>>> hearts and minds, this is a kind of collective subjectivity sure. Trump
>>> understands this and most of his critics don't understand that he
>>> understands this and thus they don't understand him.
>>>
>>> On Tue, Jan 24, 2017 at 4:51 PM, Mike Weaver <mike.weaver at zen.co.uk>
>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> I'd have said this applies as much to ways of Western capitalism as it
>>>> does to authoritarian regimes. The hoo ha about alt facts/false news seems
>>>> to me to be a sign that the longstanding consensus (Gramsci's collective
>>>> subjective) is breaking down, and the general populace is becoming open to
>>>> different narratives as they look for fresh certainties to underpin their
>>>> day to day lives. How much these narratives cleave to longer term realities
>>>> are not as important as their appeal to shorter term emotional needs.
>>>>
>>>> On 24-Jan-17 4:10 PM, David Morris wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> http://washingtonmonthly.com/2017/01/22/is-shawn-spicer-gaslighting-the-press/
>>>>
>>>> The truly horrible thing about propaganda in authoritarian regimes is
>>>> not that it convinces the true believers, but that it demoralizes opponents
>>>> by saying in effect: “Yes, we know that you know we are lying, but we don’t
>>>> care! We do it because we can and you can’t stop us!” As for the majority of
>>>> apolitical citizens, it infects them with a corrosive cynicism and dissuades
>>>> them from all forms of public engagement. Apathy may be a more powerful
>>>> silencer of dissent than overt physical coercion.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> ________________________________
>>>>
>>>> This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
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>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>
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Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l