Friday, January 13, 2017

The Trump dossier is a Russian provocation

This is a post written by David Satter on Hot Air.

In three paragraphs Satter describes how he is struck by the way the sources in the Steele report comport with Russian propaganda techniques.

1) A senior financial official, "source C," says the Trump operation (say what?) must be viewed in the context of Putin's desire to return to 19th-century power politics, a regular feature of Kremlin propaganda that frames Russian behavior as something other than straight up aggression.

2) The obviously fictional story about Trump hiring prostitutes to pollute the bed slept in by Obama. Satter's own Wikipedia page is altered in a similar fashion.

3) The report saying that Putin is motivated by "fear and hatred of Hillary Clinton" is typical of Russian propaganda to reduce international tensions to personality conflicts. It also distracts from the real goal of undermining American institutions.

So then.

Observation: The Steele report resembles Russian propaganda in various way.

Conclusion: The Steele report is Russian propaganda.

David Satter is familiar with these common Russian propaganda techniques but nobody who's not David Satter  could  possibly convincingly imitate them. No, David Satter apparently imagines that he possesses unique observations.

Why does David Satter need so desperately for the bogus report to be produced by Russians? Why is this so important to him? Man, all this penetrating political opinion and political motivation from Trump detractors, from Democrats, from Republicans, from British, from Germans, from Chinese, from Never Trumpers, from actors and singers and from activist groups is wearisome. So much easier to simply block them all out, disregard them, discard them. So much easier for David Satter to say simply, "The authors of the Steele report have Russian propaganda techniques down quite convincingly. Top trolling."

But it's not top. It's ridiculous on its face. And it's not worth the discussion it's given. And that's why media is forfeiting its authority, its validity, at light speed.

7 comments:

Leland said...

I'm sadden by the lack of intellectual capability in those that claim to be intelligent. FFS: Harambe?

If it where Russian propaganda, the only people it was designed to fool were the experts.

edutcher said...

It's urgent for them to cover up how stupid the Beast and her e-ville minions were in their email scheme. The just wish they could blame it on Nazi Germany or the Nips.

Over? Did you say "over"? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!

ricpic said...

"...Putin's desire to return to 19th century power politics...."

Uh, excuse me but when was the world anything other than the arena of power politics? It always has been and always will be. And when this country, this great power, is led, as it has been for the past eight years, by a fool who thinks very highly of himself for denying that central fact of international life the result is chaos.

Guildofcannonballs said...

And they are jealous of my penis size too Sir.

William said...

In the 19th century, it was said that the best run bureaucracies were the Paris Opera, the Bolshoi Ballet, and the Prussian General Staff. I would add the Russian intelligence services to that list. The Russians were always good at gathering intelligence and spreading disinformation. The Elders of Zion has got to be the most successful fraud since the Donation of Constantine. Too bad the Russians are so bad at everything else...... Ditto with the Prussians. If they were half so good with statecraft as they were with warfare, the world would be a much nicer place.

rcocean said...

I'm still puzzled by all the hatred our establishment has for Putin. For example, they call him a dictator - but he's not, he was elected and re-elected. You know who's a dictator? The leader of the Chicoms. Yeah, they're are still, officially, communists.

Still illegally occupying Tibet, which they conquered in 1962. So why is, say McCain, always talking about war with Russia and breathing fire and hate against Putin but never says boo about the ChiComs?

I don't know. Its all a mystery to me.

rcocean said...

And here's the other thing. From the time I was born until 1992, Moscow ruled the Crimea, and I never heard anyone say a word about it.

And when it was given to the Ukraine in 1993, no one said a word about it.

But when Russia took it back, it was the Hitler/Munich all over again!

Now, we seem to be back to not caring.