Russiagate Is Like 9/11, Except It’s Made Of Pure Narrative

in #russia6 years ago (edited)

The last few days have been truly amazing. I didn't even write an article yesterday; I've just been staring transfixed by my social media feeds watching liberal Americans completely lose their minds. I can't look away. It's like watching a slow motion train wreck, and everyone on the train is being really homophobic.

I've been writing about Russiagate since it started, and I can honestly say this is the worst it's ever been, by far. The most hysterical, the most shrill, the most emotional, the most cartoonishly over-the-top and hyperbolic. The fact that Trump met with Putin in private and then publicly expressed doubt about the establishment Russia narrative has sent some political factions of America into an emotional state that is indistinguishable from what you'd expect if Russia had bombed New York City. This despite the fact that the establishment Russia narrative consists of no actual, visible events whatsoever. It is made of pure narrative.

I don't even know where to start. Everyone has been completely mad across the entire spectrum of what passes for America's political "left" today, from the usual suspects like Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi and their indistinguishable Never-Trump Republican allies, all the way to supposedly progressive commentators like Cenk Uygur and Shaun King. Comparing this pure narrative non-event to Pearl Harbor is now commonplace and mainstream. I just watched a United States Senator named Richard Blumenthal stare right into the camera refer to the hypothetical possibility of future Russian cyber intrusions as "this 9/11 moment."

"We are in a 9/11 national emergency because our country is under attack, literally," Blumenthal told CNN while demanding a record of Trump's meeting with Putin at the Helsinki summit. "That attack is ongoing and pervasive, verified by objective and verifiable evidence. Those words are, again, from the director of National Security. And this 9/11 moment demands that we do come together."

Nothing about the establishment Russia narrative is in any way verifiable, and the only thing it has in common with 9/11 is the media coverage and widespread emotional response.

September 11 had actual video footage of falling towers. You could go visit New York City, look at the spot where those towers used to be, and see them not being there anymore. You could learn the names of the people who died and visit their graves and talk to their family members. Exactly how it happened is a matter of some debate in many circles, but there is no question that it happened. There was an actual event that did happen in the real world, completely independent of any stories people tell about that event.

Russiagate is like 9/11, but with none of those things. It's like if 9/11 had all the same widespread emotional responses, all the same nonstop mass media coverage, all the same punditry screaming war, war, war, except no actual event occurred. The towers were still there, everyone was still alive, and nothing actually happened apart from the narrative and the emotional responses to that narrative.

Russiagate is 9/11 minus 9/11.

This is what I'm talking about when I say that whoever controls the narrative controls the world. Whoever controls the stories that westerners are telling each other has the power to advance concrete agendas which reshape global geopolitics without any actual thing even happening. Simply by getting a few hand-picked intelligence agents to say something happened in a relatively confident way, you can get the entire media and political body advancing that narrative as unquestionable fact, and from there advance sanctions, new military operations, a far more aggressive Nuclear Posture Review, the casting out of diplomats, the arming of Ukraine, and ultimately shove Russia further and further off the world stage.

As we discussed last time, the current administration has actually been far more aggressive against Russia than the previous administration was, and has worked against Russian interests to a far greater extent. If they wanted to, the international alliance of plutocrats and intelligence/defense agencies could just as easily use their near-total control of the narrative to advance the story that Trump is a dangerous Russia hawk who is imperiling the entire world by inflicting insane escalations against a nuclear superpower. They could elicit the exact same panicked emotional response that they are eliciting right now using the exact same media and the exact same factual situation. They wouldn't have to change a single thing except where they place their emphasis in telling the story. The known facts would all remain exactly as they are; all that would have to change is the narrative.

Public support for Russiagate depends on the fact that most people don't recognize how pervasively their day-to-day experience is dominated by narrative. If you are intellectually honest with yourself, you will acknowledge that you think about Russia a lot more now than you did in 2015. Russia hasn't changed any since 2015; all that has changed is the narrative that is being told about it. And yet now the mass media and a huge chunk of rank-and-file America now view it as a major threat and think about it constantly. All they had to do was talk about Russia constantly in a fearful and urgent way, and now US liberals are convinced that Vladimir Putin is an omnipotent world-dominating supervillain who has infiltrated the highest levels of the US government.

If humanity is to pull up and away from its current path toward either ecological disaster, nuclear armageddon or Orwellian dystopia, we are necessarily going to have to change our relationship with narrative. As long as the way we think, vote and organize can be controlled by the mere verbiage of the servants of power, our species will never be able to begin operating in a sane and wholesome way. If all it takes to make us act against our own interest is a few establishment lackeys speaking a few words in a confident tone of voice, if mere authoritative language can hypnotize us like a sorcerer casting spells, we are doomed to slavery and destruction.

So stop staring transfixed by the narratives, and begin looking at the behavior and motives of the people advancing them instead. Stop staring at the movie screen they're constantly drawing your attention to, turn around in your theater seat, and look at the people who are running the projector. The way out of this mess is to begin ignoring the stories we're being hypnotized with and start critically examining the people who are conducting the hypnosis. Ignore the stories and stare with piercing eyes at the storytellers. The difference between the official narrative and the actual reality of this world is the difference between fiction and fact. Evolve beyond.


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All I needed to read was the headline....I don't care what the rest says, I am just going to agree.

Quality as usual. The few real journalists left such as yourself give us a little hope. I wish I could write like you!

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The reaction to Trump's meeting with Putin is shocking. Wolf Blitzer raving at Rand Paul was a classic minute of someone losing it, frightened beyond control. All that power built on unsustainable beliefs (narrative, your term, I understand the term, but, as a former fiction writer I like classical narrative; it is helpful in communicating truth by way of fiction). I can't think of a better term for the construct of explanation and justification used by the powerful to persuade the public. How can the present narrative be changed?
The media has sold out and will broadcast whatever their paymasters demand. As economic conditions deteriorate, fear drives tribalism---if you're not with us you're against us, other people are the problem, etc. So many are in positions where they lose if they object and lose if they don't object. Vote for Hillary. Vote for Trump. You can't vote for Sanders cuz his nomination was stolen.
If there is a way to divert the coming train wreck, I think it probably begins on a personal level. And grows from there. One honest person finding another. Choosing happiness over success. Working out ways to survive cooperatively. Celebrating truth.

"Her narrative" and classical narrative are one and the same.

It is the story being told. And also how it is being told. Who is telling it matters as well, right?

Narrative is different from messaging, politics, and even Public Relations. Although great PR has or is attached to a very strong narrative.

If they wanted to, the international alliance of plutocrats and intelligence/defense agencies could just as easily use their near-total control of the narrative to advance the story that Trump is a dangerous Russia hawk who is imperiling the entire world by inflicting insane escalations against a nuclear superpower. They could elicit the exact same panicked emotional response that they are eliciting right now using the exact same media and the exact same factual situation. They wouldn't have to change a single thing except where they place their emphasis in telling the story. The known facts would all remain exactly as they are; all that would have to change is the narrative.

Caitlin as always, You are greatly, greatly appreciated.
Narrative: a story or account of events, experiences, or the like, whether true or fictitious.; the art, technique, or process of narrating, or of telling a story:
Two things; #1 the process, how they get from point A to point B #2. The vehicle they use as they travel from point A to point B. Concerning #1, who listening to all this believes it is presented as fiction, no one? It is presented as truth. It is not that they want to control the narrative, it is that at the end of the process they want you to believe the story told as “truth”. If the story is not truth then there was an error somewhere along the way. You were ether intentionally or unintentionally led astray. So concerning #1 we must make sure the process is as error free as possible and the least likely to go off track as we can make it. How do we do that? Number 2 is about who delivers the message, what they are wearing etc. It is about selling the message, narrative, story. Should this really be a part of the process ans is would interfere with your efforts for fixing the process just stated for #1, would it not? What we need is a Collective Intelligence. A permanent, transparent, anonymous platform moderated by human logic. That is my solution. Please see my blog for more. Thanks!

You are totally right in your assessment of the crazy frenzy that is occurring here in the US. It is a mixture of train wreck and clown car, a scary situation where, to mix metaphors, the inmates are running the asylum, but compared to the "normal" folks out there the inmates actually look sane. Dang it, even my boyfriend of over twenty years has lost his sanity and I can't even reach over to him over this divide. This is very unsettling.

Clearly people don't understand.
IF they want this war with Russia, then DEMAND Congress does their job and vote on Declaring War with Russia.
Stop trying to get Trump to start this war:
a. It isn't supposed to be this way.
b. It is in the Constitution.
So, if this really is so worthy of my pissing my pants, then we must act now...BEFORE the next elections, so voters can see the bi-partisan effort to war a nuclear war with Russian and:
a. Decide to support it
b. Vote the Democrats and Republicans OUT OF OFFICE!!!!

With all this crying wolf, I'm worried what will happen when there's a real wolf at the gate.

So let's evolve beyond and shut the storytellers up then: https://www.minds.com/blog/view/858930556422402048

The real issue is that our government is populated by Israel citizens who have dubious allegiance to the U.S. Is not the Israeli lobby the most powerful lobby in America? What if all these people on T.V. in the Media and in government also held a Russian passport, spoke Russian as a second language, Had family in Russia, Belonged to the Orthodox Church of Russia rather than all these similar connections to Israel? Would you call me anti-slavic? Should anyone in government hold a foreign passport? Why should Israel be exempt? Is the deep state working alongside Israel?

The corporate media collectively gave Trump 5 billion dollars in free advertising in 2016, yet apparently this had zero effect on his becoming the elected President. They gave him 24 hour full blitz coverage until they realized their darling Hillary may lose. In order to cover their blunder they decided that what really put Trump over the top was some fake surveys on Facebook sponsored by a foreign entity who may have also shared the truth behind Hillary sabotaging the DNC.

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