Telling the most baroque lies and expecting your followers to believe them is a big part of the autocracy playbook.
Time to break open the emergency Orwell quote hazmat suit, this one from 1942:
“Against that shifting phantasmagoric world in which black may be white tomorrow and yesterday’s weather can be changed by decree, there are in reality only two safeguards. One is that however much you deny the truth, the truth goes on existing, as it were, behind your back, and you consequently can’t violate it in ways that impair military efficiency. The other is that so long as some parts of the earth remain unconquered, the liberal tradition can be kept alive.”
The main subject of Orwell's works, from his early essays to 1984, is what we would today call cognitive dissonance in the pursuit of power. Notes on Nationalism and The Lion and the Unicorn have aged supremely well, they are fascinating to read today.
Honestly, this administration is the first time I've heard people compare the US government to Big Brother and actually felt it's not overblown. Turns out you don't even need a memory hole when your supporters think "fake news" is a defence against any accusation, including things you already publicly admitted to.
Another gem from Orwell (“Notes on Nationalism,” 1945):
“the nationalist is often somewhat uninterested in what happens in the real world. What he wants is to feel that his own unit is getting the better of some other unit, and he can more easily do this by scoring off an adversary than by examining the facts to see whether they support him. All nationalist controversy is at the debating-society level. It is always entirely inconclusive, since each contestant invariably believes himself to have won the victory. Some nationalists are not far from schizophrenia, living quite happily amid dreams of power and conquest which have no connexion with the physical world.”
This reminds me of the time my wife got a wine glass with a big fat lip print on it, and the manager came out to tell us it wasn't a lip print: it was from a lime, we use limes for our margarita happy hour would you like to order one?
Reminds me of the Yes Minister (British political satire) bit:
Bernard Woolley: Oh, that's another of those irregular verbs, isn't it? I give confidential press briefings; you leak; he's been charged under Section 2a of the Official Secrets Act.
I love that clip that's circulating with Warrior Pete in the Oval Office a couple weeks ago...with Trump watching... saying to the cameras..."We've looked like fools, but NOT ANYMORE!"... ahem... More, Pete. A lot more.
Ok, I was pretty upset by the Hillary email thing, mad about Biden's garage, incensed over the Mar-a-Lago shenanigans, but this time I better see some heads on pikes.
Anyone in or around this cabinet who entertains the idea that the timing and composition of military operations might not be classified should be tarred and feathered. I've participated in briefings way way less sensitive than this where it was made clear that NO facts about them were to leave the room*. In other words, if you look at a classified Plan--IDGAF what kind of plan you want to call it-- you're supposed to compartmentalize that information even in your own brain. You can't just summarize it outside the SCIF and then claim your summary was unclass.
Seriously, heads on pikes. I'm sick and tired of this political class exemption from the laws governing this material.
*I should make clear that this proscription was not ad-hoc: that's the rule, it was just reiterated. This is called diligence, you absolutely braindead cabinet!
"or by lowering himself [Jeffrey Goldberg] from the ceiling like in Mission Impossible." I tried to produce an AI-generated image of the Atlantic staff clad head-to-toe" in high-tech "Mission Impossible" gear, but the best that it was able to produce was Anne Applebaum dressed like Trinity in "The Matrix."
I'm trying not to turn into a tinfoil hat conspiracy theorist, but this screwup was so blatantly obvious and stupid that it makes me wonder if it wasn't engineered to dominate the headlines while behind the scenes Elon and his merry band of saboteurs aren't doing something even more nefarious that we've all been missing.
I work in the defense industry. After previous classified leaks like Snowdon’s, we have received stern warnings that publishing such information does not declassify it, and we were not to visit sites (even mainstream news sites) that contained classified information we were not cleared to know. Silly, yes, but that’s what the law says.
Telling the most baroque lies and expecting your followers to believe them is a big part of the autocracy playbook.
Time to break open the emergency Orwell quote hazmat suit, this one from 1942:
“Against that shifting phantasmagoric world in which black may be white tomorrow and yesterday’s weather can be changed by decree, there are in reality only two safeguards. One is that however much you deny the truth, the truth goes on existing, as it were, behind your back, and you consequently can’t violate it in ways that impair military efficiency. The other is that so long as some parts of the earth remain unconquered, the liberal tradition can be kept alive.”
The main subject of Orwell's works, from his early essays to 1984, is what we would today call cognitive dissonance in the pursuit of power. Notes on Nationalism and The Lion and the Unicorn have aged supremely well, they are fascinating to read today.
Honestly, this administration is the first time I've heard people compare the US government to Big Brother and actually felt it's not overblown. Turns out you don't even need a memory hole when your supporters think "fake news" is a defence against any accusation, including things you already publicly admitted to.
Another gem from Orwell (“Notes on Nationalism,” 1945):
“the nationalist is often somewhat uninterested in what happens in the real world. What he wants is to feel that his own unit is getting the better of some other unit, and he can more easily do this by scoring off an adversary than by examining the facts to see whether they support him. All nationalist controversy is at the debating-society level. It is always entirely inconclusive, since each contestant invariably believes himself to have won the victory. Some nationalists are not far from schizophrenia, living quite happily amid dreams of power and conquest which have no connexion with the physical world.”
You know, I really should read his essays again. "Politics and The English Language" is one that always stays relevant.
Same category: "Ukraine started the war." It's simple: if you're on our team, you have to agree to that statement.
"We've always been at war with Ukraine"
They're only war plans if they're from the Guerre region of France. Otherwise they're just sparking battle plans.
This reminds me of the time my wife got a wine glass with a big fat lip print on it, and the manager came out to tell us it wasn't a lip print: it was from a lime, we use limes for our margarita happy hour would you like to order one?
Only that restaurant went out of business...
"We are currently clean on OPSEC", he accidentally messages a hostile journalist.
If Goldberg had characterized these as “attack plans” the admin would be insisting they’re actually “war plans.”
Reminds me of the Yes Minister (British political satire) bit:
Bernard Woolley: Oh, that's another of those irregular verbs, isn't it? I give confidential press briefings; you leak; he's been charged under Section 2a of the Official Secrets Act.
Thanks for making me look this up.
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2kgy89 start around 20:24
This makes good background noise during the workday.
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. It’s like living in Discworld but without Vetinari at the helm.
I love that clip that's circulating with Warrior Pete in the Oval Office a couple weeks ago...with Trump watching... saying to the cameras..."We've looked like fools, but NOT ANYMORE!"... ahem... More, Pete. A lot more.
Ok, I was pretty upset by the Hillary email thing, mad about Biden's garage, incensed over the Mar-a-Lago shenanigans, but this time I better see some heads on pikes.
Anyone in or around this cabinet who entertains the idea that the timing and composition of military operations might not be classified should be tarred and feathered. I've participated in briefings way way less sensitive than this where it was made clear that NO facts about them were to leave the room*. In other words, if you look at a classified Plan--IDGAF what kind of plan you want to call it-- you're supposed to compartmentalize that information even in your own brain. You can't just summarize it outside the SCIF and then claim your summary was unclass.
Seriously, heads on pikes. I'm sick and tired of this political class exemption from the laws governing this material.
*I should make clear that this proscription was not ad-hoc: that's the rule, it was just reiterated. This is called diligence, you absolutely braindead cabinet!
"When the President does it, that means that it is not illegal, by definition."
--Nixon
"When the Regime does it, it int stupid, by definishun."
--Nixon Episode V, the Empire Strikes Back
“Attacking” another nation is an act of “war”. This is what happens when supremely stupid people think they’re being clever
"or by lowering himself [Jeffrey Goldberg] from the ceiling like in Mission Impossible." I tried to produce an AI-generated image of the Atlantic staff clad head-to-toe" in high-tech "Mission Impossible" gear, but the best that it was able to produce was Anne Applebaum dressed like Trinity in "The Matrix."
....and we get crickets from leadership who should be screaming from the mountaintops.
This unholy shit show isn’t going to end well for anyone.
I'm trying not to turn into a tinfoil hat conspiracy theorist, but this screwup was so blatantly obvious and stupid that it makes me wonder if it wasn't engineered to dominate the headlines while behind the scenes Elon and his merry band of saboteurs aren't doing something even more nefarious that we've all been missing.
Of COURSE they weren’t war plans!
There is no war in Ba Sing Se.
There is no war in Ba Sing Se.
There is no war in Ba Sing Se…
I work in the defense industry. After previous classified leaks like Snowdon’s, we have received stern warnings that publishing such information does not declassify it, and we were not to visit sites (even mainstream news sites) that contained classified information we were not cleared to know. Silly, yes, but that’s what the law says.
We have received no such warnings in this case.