Alright it is late at night where I am in and this is probably going to have a bunch of spelling and grammar errors, but I need to get this off my mind with this post
After mentioning it it this post it stayed rent-free in my mind for a while and I’ve developed a few thoughts about it
- Bread and circuses
This was originally “discovered” by Reuters investigations and was subsequently covered by several other major corporate media outlets, but something about it seems very controlled. First, coverage seems to vary sparingly. There doesn’t seem to be any mention of it in major outlets like the BBC or CNN. It seems the NYT has an article about it, but it’s only a subscriber opinion piece.
Also, I’ve noticed that the outlets that cover it seem very dry. usually in stuff like this, they bring it some “expert” from “Burger-fart-institute-of-not-Fed-funded-org” who voices “their” opinion of the situation, stuff like its “strategic implications”, but the articles that cover this only show the reaction of various officials but almost no actual commentary.
What I’m trying to show is this is how the US controls the narrative, not truly by censorship (but they will resort to that, like what we have seen with the pro-Palestine/Gaza protests), but more of a bread and circus act. And by the looks of it, it has succeeded.
The U.S gov doesn’t truly need to censor stuff like this, because the public has been “defanged” to like this and won’t do anything significant about it (they didn’t even do protests), the public seems to tamed with some open-washing and the idea that “at lest we know what atrocities the government has committed”.
I’m reminded of this Maxim “At least we can talk about it”, while it’s a joke, it does encapsulate the mindset of people like Americans.
These “free speech” advocates seem to view free speech as the end, rather than a means to an end! What is the point of “free speech” if you don’t have any real will to act!
Of course, another tactics is using fall guys, saying “It happened under Trump, but Biden stopped it!”
Let’s just ignore other things like the “fake Hepatitis vaccination campaign in Pakistan” which happened under Obama or Bidens list of crimes.
A sad attempt to pin the blame on a gross symptom rather than the true sickness that causes and perpetuates it, the system itself.
- Us bot army implications
A more significant was an admission that the Pentagon’s Psyops include running a troll army.
“The Department of Defense (DoD) conducts a wide range of operations, including operations in the information environment (OIE), to counter adversary malign influence. DoD activities, including OIE, conducted outside areas of armed conflict are coordinated and deconflicted with other departments and agencies, as appropriate. This process is deliberate, methodical, and comprehensive,” DoD Spokesperson Lisa Lawrence told TASS.
Of course the Pentagon tries to defend itself
“As it relates to Covid-19 disinformation, China [in 2020] initiated a disinformation campaign to falsely blame the United States for the spread of Covid-19,” Lawrence noted. “In line with the US National Defense Strategy, the DoD continues to build integrated deterrence against critical challenges to US national security, including deterring the PRC’s spread of disinformation under the scrutiny of the Department’s coordination and deconfliction process,” she said.
Just don’t ask why they didn’t just use the troll army to refute the “Chinese disinformation” online and instead just used it to spread inarguably worse disinformation that got people KILLED.
Meanwhile, this bot army is very likely still active, just that it doesn’t talk about COVID anymore (and hopefully at least doesn’t put public health at risk)
According to the document, the Pentagon also conceded it had “made some missteps in our COVID related messaging” but assured the Philippines that the military “has vastly improved oversight and accountability of information operations” since 2022.
According to the June 25 document, Pentagon officials concluded its anti-vax campaign was “misaligned with our priorities.” It says the U.S. military told Filipino officials that operatives “ceased COVID-related messaging related to COVID-19 origins and COVID-19 vaccines in August 2021.”
While I don’t like calling people “Feds” or “Bots”, it really does feel like some of the online accounts are really actually “Feds” or “Bots”
- US vassals
Now lets talk about that country that got fucked in this situation, the Philippines.
I know that the Philippines is involved in the SCS dispute with China in particular, and have poor relations.
But it seems that this situation got entirely swept under the rug by the Philippine government, media, and people.
I’ve tried to see Philippine media outlets and government to gauge their reaction, and it seems the media don’t really talk or mention it frequently too, the government has originally claimed to prosecute the Pentagon but it seemed nothing came of it, and I haven’t seen any reports or protests in the Philippines calling for Pentagon officials to be held accountable. (can any Philippine users/comrades hopefully correct me if I’m wrong?)
This should be a huge turning point where the Philippines questions it relationship with the US. It should question if the US legitimately cares about the defense of the Philippines or if it only sees it as a sacrificial pawn against China (especially since the Philippines has a defense pact with the US and has US army bases there) But it doesn’t seem like any major reflection has actually happened.
I am genuinely curious if this is the amount of influence the US has on its vassal, or if this a only the case of the Philippines due to other factors (i,e being colonized by the US)
What should we do?
Well, I dont know, we really can’t do anything against the Pentagon, but I have a few suggestions. Maybe try to spread awareness of this? maybe in the Philippines too? I don’t man, im just tired Ill check up on this post soon
It is a pretty big deal but it is also just one of many horrific actions by the us military. There really isnt anything much to be done about it. I doubt there is any chance of justice. Its just another bullet point in the “usa is, was, and always will be a plague on humanity” speech.