Freedom of expression and propaganda (2)

Speaking of Thailand, where I live at the moment, do you want me to tell you a sad joke about freedom of speech?

Some weeks ago I met a Polish couple (yes, from Poland, that 51st U.S. state called Poland) complaining that their daughter could not receive the last edition of The Economist (give me a second, I'm going to metaphorically vomit, I will be right back) here in Thailand, due to its "sensitive content", according to the non-elected authorities that have been governing Thailand for the last 5 years. 

Because they were Polish, coming from that country of anti-socialist and anti-communist fundamentalism, of rising fascism, of unfounded Russophobia and of fans of US/EU/NATO imperial terrorism, I couldn't let it pass. I immediately framed them with their own Western incoherencies.

I asked them, convincingly: "So, explain me this: in Venezuela, a gangster named Guaidó, supported by the US, who was not even a presidential candidate, proclaimed himself the "President of Venezuela"; now he dares walking on the streets of Venezuela without fear of being arrested; he dares to give interviews to hundreds of journalists working for Venezuelan anti-government private media that were supposed to be censored by Maduro's "oppressive regime"; and the West calls all this "dictatorship", "regime", "oppression", "lack of freedom" of expression?"

Source 43 - Juan Guaidó surrounded by journalists in Venezuela

I continued: "On the other hand, in this 'democratic' regime of unelected Thai rulers, where we can find plenty of military bases⁴⁴ controlled by their US masters, a dysfunctional and dystopian nation constantly romanticized in the West as the "Land of Smile", here, in this so-called "paradise", your daughter cannot receive the last edition of a North American propaganda tool named The Economist?"

And finally, I said: "If what you told me is true, and I believe it is, can you please explain to me why the Western MSM constantly mention nonexistent 'censorship in Venezuela', while they never mention the obvious censorship that truly takes place every day in Thailand?"

The Polish man, after he and his wife having insisted on a long and awkward silence, looked at the fruit basket on the table and literally said: "Let's change the subject, let's talk about mangoes". No joke. He really said so! This real-life anecdote perfectly illustrates what I dare to call Western sheep-like humans, Western jellyfish-like humans or Western zombies! Yes, I know what I have been writing in this book sounds extremely rude, but it is not my intention to be or sound rude. I'm just pragmatically describing Western reality as I perceive it. Mea culpa!

Finally, and because we were talking about that fundamentalist propaganda tool that goes by the name of The Economist, and talking about Venezuela, look at the pro-Guaidó cover and content of their Twitter account⁴⁵: The Economist illustrating parallelism between Juan Guaidó and the Statue of Liberty? Give me a break!

***

Let's now talk about Western's nemesis: Russia.

The Western media in general and the French, in particular, keep calling RT a deceitful tool of Kremlin's propaganda. The only problem is that RT broadcasts shows like CrossTalk in which people with absolutely opposing views can debate live for long periods of time! Live! Tell me which French or other Western media outlets propose a live debate between a pro-Assad and an anti-Assad, or between an anti-Maduro and a pro-Maduro, or an anti-China and a pro-China, or a communist and a soulless neoliberal? You can't find it, right? And do you know why you can’t? Because there's no such thing in France, there's no such thing in Portugal. In Russia yes. In Europe no.

Source 46 - Paradigm Shift: Debate at SPIEF 2019 with Peter Lavelle 

I myself disagree with much of what Peter Lavelle (the host of this show, a North American right-wing conservative) says, but I admire him for inviting communists, anarchists or neoliberals, atheists or religious fanatics, Iranians or North Americans! Bravo! There's nothing like this in my "democratic" Portugal! There's nothing like this in my arrogant Europe!

And it is not only Crosstalk, but we can also find the same reasonable and fair approach in most of the shows RT has to offer. All kinds of opinions, proposing opposite and even contradicting perspectives, are voiced on RT, often live (unlike BBC or CNN). For instance, watch Eva Bartlett debating or trying to debate with a supporter of terrorism in Syria, live on RT:

Source 47 - Journalists face off over Syria news sources in RT debate

No, the Russian RT is not like the Yankee CNN of constant interruptions when it is not acceptable (for CNN and the Empire) to have inconvenient truths being said live:

Source 48 - CNN "Technical Difficulties" and Censorship 

So many "technical failures" on CNN, so few or even nonexistent on RT. Are CNN and the Yankees technologically backward, and RT and Russians technologically more advanced or, are CNN and Yankees fans of censorship, and RT and Russians truth supporters of freedom of expression? Or both?

Yet, how many times do I read Portuguese sheep-like humans complaining that I "don't use credible sources like CNN or BBC on my essays and articles"? And I'm sure these sheep-like humans do believe CNN and BBC are credible sources and RT is not.

The systematic and desired production and propagation of lies by CNN and BBC is very well documented and there are brave journalists who have no problems to expose and prove it, as John Pilger did in his brilliant documentary The War You Don't See ⁴⁹. My dear Portuguese critics proposing me CNN and BBC as “credible sources”, apparently, never noticed what Pilger already documented. 

But I do notice. And I ask them to show me a journalist, just one, just a single journalist, working for a Western news outlet, as hyper-critical and hyper-rational and supporting everything he/she says with plenty of data, as the brilliant Russian journalist Murad Gazdiev does? Seriously, show me just one Gazdiev-like journalist working for Western mainstream media. 

In the meantime, I propose you to watch an example of Gazdiev's hyper-critical and hyper-rational reports:

Source 50 - Now Maduro’s Turn: US labels Venezuelan leader ‘dictator’ same as Assad, Hussein, Gaddafi 

And for those who insist that there's no freedom of expression in Russia, I invite all of them to explain how RT, a supposed propaganda tool ruled by Mr. Putin, invited the hysterical progressive Barbie named Ksenia Sobchak to be interviewed live on TV. I remind you that Ksenia Sobchak, at the time a candidate for the upcoming Russian presidential elections, is an outspoken supporter of Navalni, known in the Western Lying Media as a "political prisoner". Yet, she spoke for more than half an hour on the very same RT ("funded by the Kremlin"), firing insults at Russia and Putin, and violently disrespecting the journalist interviewing her! Could someone in the West explain to me this very strange phenomenon? 

Source 51 - Candidate against all: Ksenia Sobchak

RT employs some of the best and brightest English-speaking journalists who cannot find work in the US, UK or Australia because they dare to be fiercely independent and critical of the West and its client states. A perfect example is the American Lee Camp and his show Redact Tonight, who openly complains that nobody would let him work for Western news channels: 

Source 52 – Redacted Tonight, Episode 237

Many in the West, and specifically in the US, criticize their fellow citizens like Lee Camp "working for the enemy" (read, “Russian RT”). But they fail to acknowledge the most basic facts: US MSM have all the money and power and audience to hire Lee Camp or to convince him to work for them. Actually, Lee Camp said so in an interview. He said he would be glad to work for MSM in his own country! But he can't! He can't because he wouldn't be allowed to say what he thinks and, worse, he wouldn't be allowed to tell the truths he is aware of. 

If Western MSM can't stand watching Western journalists working for RT, the solution is simple and easy! Let Lee Camp or Abby Martin express themselves freely on their own media outlets, and they will surely accept to earn more money to expose the exact same inconvenient truths!

The problem is not RT dear westerners. The problem is that Western journalists are prevented from working as journalists in the West, so they seek refuge on RT. If Western MSM really wanted to destroy RT (by stealing their best journalists), they could do it very easily.

Yet, the Western MSM continue to do the very opposite.

***

For instance, Western media shamelessly, even proudly, took part in the making up of chemical attacks in Syria (Ghouta 2013, Khan Shaykhun 2016, Ghouta 2018), to then support criminal missile attacks on Syria delivered by terrorist nations like France, the UK, the US, and Israel.

In 2018, RT visited Ghouta and interviewed witnesses and victims of the alleged chemical attack. RT proved the whole chemical attack scam to be a big laughable lie. Then the Russian government brought the witnesses to The Hague. And again, the Western media accused RT and Russia of being nothing but a bunch of liars and propagandists. Sure!

Now, one year later, Riam Dalati, a journalist working for BBC finally admitted that there was no chemical attack in Douma and that it had all been staged⁵³! 

But RT produces propaganda, right?

Source 54 - Douma chemical attack video was staged - BBC Syria producer

On March 13, 2018, for many hours, and thanks to RT and Ruptly livestreams, I watched live the last Syrian civilians leaving Ghouta hugging and kissing their liberators: the Syrian Arab Army (SAA). I was in Portugal. I was in Braga, in that Portuguese land of obscurantism and religious fanaticism, but also the land of new technologies, where there's a quite fast internet. And, where there's internet, one can watch RT and Ruptly livestreams. But people don't. Portuguese sheep-like humans and their fellow European sheep-like humans watch Western propaganda and only Western propaganda. 

I usually watch both, so I can compare them. And, on that day, I did watch both, simultaneously. While the Portuguese professional streetwalkers working for RTP, SIC and TVI were talking about the "final massacre", about the SAA committing "one more genocide" and creating a "giant open-air cemetery in Ghouta", I was watching live a careful and peaceful SAA operation during which thousands of civilians were liberated. I watched the very same civilians and the very same soldiers hugging each other and crying together⁵⁵!

Sources 56, 57, 58 – Footage disproving Western MSM lies on Ghouta 

But RT is the one producing propaganda, right dear brainwashed Portuguese people?

I could spend the rest of the day here writing down facts proving how RT is infinitely more impartial, more objective and more serious than all the propagandistic Western Lying Media combined. But I have done it so many times, just read the many articles I have written on the subject.

The important now is to say that this very same RT is being violently and madly attacked by the shameless French media, the French media who lie every single day, who have always lied, who have always supported and fostered the most atrocious crimes against humanity. Those same French media that are now offering this kind of outrageous and Orwellian campaigns against RT:

Source 59 – Anti-Putin propaganda in French television 

Yes, dear reader, simplistic, primitive, grotesque, pathetic, childish anti-RT propaganda on French television! And the worst is that the target audience, I'm not kidding, the target audience is the French children! Yes, you read it well! French children!

I wonder what kind of reaction would George Orwell have while watching this Orwellian stuff. I actually don't know what to say, this is too serious and appalling! Even the word "Orwellian" is not strong enough to describe what is going on in France right now! Please read RT's article on the subject and amaze yourself, amaze yourself ad infinitum: ‘Putin – tsar of disinfo’: French TV teaches children about ‘Russian fake news’ ⁶⁰.

Seriously, what's the purpose of this France 4 show? To help children (who don't give a shit about geopolitics) recognize fake "fake news" supposedly produced by the demonic "Russian propagandists"! And how do they do that? They do it by producing fake news about Russia, Putin and RT, viciously manipulating words and phrases they find on RT, blatantly offering dishonest propaganda against RT, Russia, and the Russians. Shame on you France 4! Shame on you French Public Service.

Bravo, French propaganda, bravo! Let's all applaud this chic and fancy Gaulish crap!

Is it possible to create something more intellectually disturbing than this, in the realm of propaganda? Personally, I think France, with this televised circus, reached and even surpassed the very top of what reasonable people call "Orwellian propaganda". This circus is no doubt worse than other abusive Orwellianisms like the North American Snopes⁶¹ or the French Décodex⁶², two fake fact-checking sites hunting for fake "fake news" allegedly produced by media outlets in non-submissive countries like Russia, Venezuela, Iran or China.

***

Source 63 – Screenshot of a tweet

As you can confirm by reading the content of the screenshot above, Twitter said it "can't show you everything", so it "automatically hides photos that might contain sensitive content". Perhaps fair if it were true, but it is not true. There's absolutely no sensitive content in that tweet. Check it by yourself:

Source 64 - Same tweet when opened

The "sensitive content" is an official document published by the Canadian administration. It states that the Canadian government decided to censor Venezuelan Telesur, preventing it from covering the Lima Group Summit in Canada! Scandalous Canadian behavior, yes, for sure. But not sensitive!

Sensitive what, the Canadian speech? The Canadian flag? Their publicly known email account?

Give me a break. This is a perfect example to illustrate the subject of the very same article containing the tweet that was censored: the lack of freedom of expression and the abundance of propaganda in the West!

Because no, there's nothing sensitive in that tweet, unless the shameful factual truth of Telesur (run by the Venezuelan government) being censored by the Canadian government is too "sensitive" for Twitter! Twitter had no choice but to censor a tweet about Canada censoring Venezuelan Telesur, right? I see your point, Twitter.

And life goes on. And zombie-like westerners will continue to believe the West has freedom of speech. And Western sheep-like humans will continue to believe there's censorship in Venezuela.

***

What about freedom of expression in Brazil? Do you want to talk about attacks on freedom of expression and propaganda in Brazil, committed by its fascist President Bolsonaro? We'd be here all day!

In Brazil, fascist Bolsonaro openly says, live on TV, that he will end with the funding of arts and culture because those social institutions are "leftist" and "bring dangerous ideas". Check what Jair Bolsonaro is doing in Brazil and then think about it, carefully, dear not dear Western sheep-like humans, think about it.

Then think about the false accusations you pronounce against Maduro. Westerners accuse Maduro of what he doesn't do but are not capable of criticizing Bolsonaro for what he actually does and openly proposes to do.

Source 65 - Fascism in Brazil

***

What about freedom of expression in the West, where its very pro-imperialist Atlantic Council is now also acting as guardian of the truth, as caretaker of Western newspeak⁶⁶?

Source 67 - Facebook censorship conducted in line with "Integrity Initiative" aims

***

What about freedom of expression in the United States where a journalist is fired by CNN after telling inconvenient truths about Israeli apartheid that oppresses and humiliates millions of Palestinians?

Source 68 - CNN commentator Marc Lamont Hill fired for this pro-Palestine speech 

What about the United States, where an Iranian-American journalist, an employee of Iranian PressTV, is indefinitely detained, without any charge, without any explanation?

Sources 69, 70 - Marzieh Hashemi imprisoned in the US with no formal charges

Read, on the subject, Trump’s Anti-Iran Campaign & NDAA Clause Behind ‘Inhumane’ Detention of PressTV Anchor Marzieh Hashemi ⁷¹.

What about the US, where officials want to ban their own citizens from campaigning for the boycott of goods produced by the terrorist state of Israel (despite its First Amendment)?

Source 72 - Will boycotting Israel become illegal?

For Western governments, everything is allowed! For Venezuelan coup-plotters hand-picked and supported by the U.S., everything is allowed. For Western Lying Media everything is allowed. And the Western sheep-like humans say "baa"!

Then, Venezuela is accused of being what it is not, and Western sheep-like humans clap their hands to all the bullshit pronounced and even swallow it! And many of them adore the US and the democracy and the freedom of speech the US does not have! And, I insist, they are mad at Maduro for what he is not and for what he does not do! Holy innocence! Holy ignorance! Holy stupidity!

***

And to speak of freedom of expression, propaganda and Venezuela altogether, what about the Venezuelan private media that openly participated in the 2002 coup d'état, those media that knew in advance what was going to happen, how and when, by who, and participated directly and actively in the implementation of the 48 hours coup?

Yes, many of them were amnestied by Chávez. In the U.S., they would be locked up for good. Calling for the death of the head of state live on TV, offending, calling for violence and unconstitutional measures... Try, dear reader, please try to do it in your home country and then tell me how funny it was!

Watch The War on Democracy ⁷³ and The Revolution Will Not be Televised ⁷⁴ to confirm what I just wrote, how the media participated, yes, actively participated in the 2002 coup, reporting deaths before they happened (which implies, at the least, complicity). Later, thanks to serious investigations, we learned the criminal snipers who killed civilians were foreign mercenaries (read the book Abril golpe Adentro ⁷⁵ and watch the documentary Llaguno Bridge -  Keys to a Massacre⁷⁶).

These TV channels like Globovision and these newspapers like El Nacional, they are still open and operating and supporting more coups and more economic terrorism! All this in a country where the Portuguese RTP said, a few weeks ago, that the government is shutting down private media! Can you imagine? Yes, you can. You have already heard the same from the Lying Media also lying in your country! For RTP and other Western Lying Media, black is white, war is peace and the sky is green!

Please read the book Dictatura Mediática en Venezuela - Investigación de unos medios por encima de toda sospecha ⁷⁷, by Luis Britto García, or Psicoterrorismo Mediático, La Disociación Sicótica ⁷⁸, by Erick Rodríguez Miérez, to understand how this whole game of manipulation works in the case of Venezuela and it gets away with total impunity. Read books like La guerra mediática contra Venezuela⁷⁹ to realize how distorted and manipulated the Venezuelan reality is by vile Western Lying Media such as the pseudo-leftist El País in Spain.

In Venezuela, there are more than 100 private TV channels, hundreds of private newspapers and magazines, all property of oligarchs who participate in the economic destruction of their country and who illegally call for crimes against their nation. And nobody shuts them down! And their billionaire owners walk free in the streets of Caracas (or rather Miami)!

In Venezuela, there are a few public TV channels, such as VTV. Guaidó and his companions already called for the closure of VTV, proving they fear the truths VTV spreads. Carmona, the President that lasted 48 hours back in 2002, did the same. What else must be said and shown to make Westerners open their eyes, hear and acknowledge the obvious and real reality?

Venezuela has what no other nation on Earth has for real: communitarian media. Communitarian media are state-funded media (infrastructure, equipment, etc.) made available to the people, to the members of the community, to the communities, to anyone who wants and has information to share. The state pays for it, finances it, but does not control it. The people (willing to take part) control them. They are neither produced by private corporations nor by the state, they are produced by the people!

Is there in the world a better example of freedom of expression than this one? I'm sure there's not. Prove me wrong… or shut up.

And yet, over and over again, these community media are attacked, vandalized and burned by the terrorist "opposition"! Public property, expensive, very expensive, made available for those who want to express themselves freely. All this destroyed by the very same people who accuse Maduro of being a dictator, by the very same people who claim to be defenders of freedom! Come on, time to wake up, no?

And for god sake, why dear reader, why, for what reason we never see Western journalists "crying" for the crimes committed against their fellow journalists working in Venezuelan communitarian media?

I tell you why. They don't cry for these crimes against communitarian journalism for the same reason they don't cry for Julian Assange. Western journalists cry for Khashoggi but not for Julian Assange because those Western journalists are not journalists. They are professional streetwalkers who sold their souls to the devil (read "International Economic Dictatorship"). They only care about money, not journalism, not information, not justice, not the truth. And the few honest and true journalists in the West, psychologically incapable of prostituting themselves, well, they simply can't work for Western media. 

Yet, the Western populace, the Western sheep-like humans, the Western zombies, they don't know any of this. There's no excuse, but it is true. Westerners don't know any of this.

And, by the way, where are the Portuguese communitarian media where I (and others like me) could publish this very same work you are reading now?

***

To finish this chapter, and because Western sheep-like humans seem to be so "interested" in elections being held in undemocratic states, let's talk about... let me see... the magnificent examples of Indonesia and Thailand! Where are the reports on the fake and undemocratic elections recently held in Indonesia and Thailand?

I checked Portuguese and other Western media and I found almost nothing about it, and not a single critic about the clearly undemocratic procedures! Even if the Western media's accusations against the Venezuelan government were to be true, for a matter of coherence, the Western media constantly attacking the Venezuelan government for what it doesn't do, should definitely do the same for what Thai and Indonesian governments clearly do. Where there's no consistency, there’s no credibility. 

Otherwise, how can Western media and Western audiences miss that in Indonesia (where millions of communists, atheists, and Chinese people were killed after the US-sponsored coup d'état in 1965), in that astonishing "democracy", it is illegal to be a communist or an atheist?

Indonesia, where there are anti-communist museums.

Indonesia, where truly left-wing parties cannot participate in elections.

Indonesia, where the very "democratic" local authorities burned left-wing literature in public squares, right before the recent elections.

Nothing, absolutely nothing in Western MSM truly exposing the crimes committed in Indonesia or in Thailand against the freedom of expression and against those who dare to participate in some sort of elections. 

The Western journalists can even go wild, losing their minds accusing Venezuela of being an oppressive dictatorship, but nothing comes out of their mouths about the Indonesian genocide in Papua. Nothing about the destruction of books. Nothing about political parties prevented from participating in elections. Nothing about candidates being arrested before the elections. Absolutely nothing. 

And the Western sheep-like humans still believe Western MSM tell them the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. And they believe Western MSM never omit anything important.

As for Thailand, quote-unquote. Like Indonesia, Thailand is an undemocratic state. The last democratically elected government was overthrown by a military coup that resulted in horrible things I will not write here but are easy to find on the Internet.

In March 2019, a sort of election was finally held in Thailand. But the way the authorities in this country threatened certain candidates and sang certain songs in allusion to certain losses of lives in the past, at the hands of certain other authorities of the same nature, destroyed any credibility the recent elections might have had.

I am not saying, I am simply asking: Is there freedom of expression in Thailand?

Dear reader, if you do not know how to answer my question, here are some articles to start digging: Cybersecurity bill passed ⁸⁰, MCOT removes TV host over students' vote ⁸¹, NLA's cyber bill rush shows poor intent ⁸², Future Forward Party in 'fake news' brouhaha ⁸³.

If you want to search deeper, you should start following brave Thais like the one behind this Twitter account: BarbaricThais⁸⁴.

TO BE CONTINUED

(read the other parts here)

Luís Garcia, Bang Sarai, Thailand