Forecast for 2024: fascism, with a 100 percent chance of stupidity/gullibility/mis- and disinformation

The final hours of a tumultuous 2023 are upon us, and in the past few days we've seen many signs and reminders that we'll be facing even stormier weather in 2024. And I'm not talking about weather in the meteorological sense, although that will very likely be newsworthy too, but about social and political weather. The driving forces behind the sociopolitical tempests -- a dangerous combo of fascism and stupidity/gullibility/mis- and disinformation -- are the sorts of things that all too often keep me awake at night. It can't be stated often enough or loudly enough: American democracy has never been in greater danger than it is now, and that is thanks in large part to the Mango Mussolini and his MAGA minions. I was reminded of this fact yet again just yesterday; more on that in a moment.

But first, a confession. Believe it or not, I had every intention of closing out 2023 on this Whirled on a positive, or at least a neutral, note, especially in light of the fact that many of the events and discoveries of 2023 have been positive, if not outright wondrous when viewed from a scientific, big-picture perspective. But when I sat down to begin writing a celebratory or at least a relatively neutral '23 closeout post, I just couldn't do it. Time was running out for me to keep my 17-plus-year commitment to write at least one post per month, and yet I was at a loss.

True, I could have just typed out a few sentences and ended with a promise to be back with more substantial fare in the new year, as I've done numerous times on New Years' Eves past, but that seemed kind of lame. What to write, then? The problem wasn't that there was a dearth of possible topics; on the contrary there were, as usual, too many potential topics competing furiously with each other across the Interwebs.

And then... inspiration, if you want to call it that, struck in the form of a Facebook post on the timeline of a devout Trumpster and all-around conspiranoid who, like so many other Trumpsters/conspiranoids, seems to also worship at the altar of Vladimir Putin (and every other reich-wing authoritarian asshole on the planet). The composite graphic at the top of this post includes a screen grab, with profile pics redacted and names changed to protect privacy.

The Trumpster began with a proud, tricked-out announcement about "Vladimir Putin's letter to the world." Immediately following the main post was a link to a fringe-site article quoting this alleged letter from Putin.

“Dear inhabitants of our beautiful planet Earth,

I, the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, decided to address all of you directly, bypassing diplomats, your leaders and journalists. In Russia, there is a so-called “Ural exchange”, where it is forbidden to lie, deceive and exaggerate. Therefore, I will speak very honestly so that everyone will be convinced of the truth of my words.

Russia is a big and rich country, its most important value is more than 150 million people who live in a territory where justice is above all. We don’t need new territories.

We have energy and all other resources are abundant.

Since the time of the Great Tartar and the Great Mughals, the peoples of Northern Eurasia have not developed because of the onslaught of the Crusades and the colonization of America, Africa, India, or the drug addiction of China, but because of their hard work and pacifism.

Anyone who knows Russian understands that “Russian” is an adjective that refers to all the peoples of our country. Russian Slavs, Russian Tatars, Russian Jews, Russian Evans, etc. All Russian at heart, even if their culture, language and way of life differ. We honor this diversity of unity.

The Russian people are once again forced to sacrifice their lives to protect the world from Nazism and fascism. We exchanged 50 of our prisoners of war for 50 Ukrainian soldiers. Ukrainian soldiers were treated in our hospitals, given three full meals a day and returned home.

We received Russian soldiers who had their fingers and genitals cut off. Not even the Nazis did that in the last war.

We will present this evidence in a future process. Shame on everyone who supports these scumbags now.

Your leaders in the US, Europe, Japan, Australia and elsewhere have sided with these subhumans who put civilians, pregnant women and children above themselves in combat and deliberately want POWs. I can’t imagine any sane person supporting these monsters.

And your Bidens, Scholz, Macron and other dark democrats * not only protect criminals, but actively arm them, provide them with money that is not enough to lower prices in your countries. Prices are rising, the world is collapsing, but not because the Russians are cleansing Europe of Nazi evil spirits, but because you are silent and even support the new wave of Nazism. This time we will not go to Berlin, we will stop at our historical borders, and all the Nazi evil spirits that your leaders open the door to will give you a new “crystal” life, as the Nazis did, adding circumcision of the reproductive organs to it.

I appeal to all who want to live and work in the world, raise children and socialize with people all over the world. Help Russia fight the new cancer – Ukrainian Nazism. Not Ukraine, where peaceful and hard working people live, but Nazism, fueled by your US taxes and NATO hawks. If your leaders support Nazism, push them over the edge, take power into your hands.

Ukrainian Nazis are protected from bullets by civilians, your rulers also decided to transfer the burden of high prices and future troubles to the population under the pretext of terrible Russia. In Ukraine, just like you, the Nazis live well behind the backs of ordinary citizens, and ordinary citizens have to suffer – these are the same crimes in Ukraine as in the West. We have not broken any of our promises and your leaders have stolen 300 billion dollars and Euros from the Russian people.

They steal the property of our country’s citizens all over the world, you deliberately want our soldiers, ban the Russian language, attack the Church of God. I see that in countries where leaders are tightening sanctions against Russia, there is a growing awareness of what is happening and a wave of protests is spreading”.

Though fairly consistent with the general narrative of lies and disinformation spewing from Putin and his army of Russian bots, the whole thing looks and sounds phony-baloney to me. A fairly extensive Web search to verify the authenticity of the letter revealed nothing but the fact that the screed was posted on numerous reich-leaning fringe web sites. There were a couple of non-mainstream sites that at least acknowledged that the letter might not have been penned by Putin (even though the writers of those posts said the letter made sense), but so far there is zilch on the mainstream news sites or the fact-checking sites. (I will continue to search for info and will update this post as necessary.)

I can just hear the smug conspiranoid chorus now: "Well, of course there's nothing about this powerful message on the MSM! What do you expect from them? They're afraid of the truth!"

But if you ask me, anyone who places her or his faith in Trump or Putin wouldn't know "truth" if it sat on their smug faces.

Regardless of the letter's origins, the worship of Putin and the scapegoating of Ukraine is playing right into Vlad's evil, blood-stained hands. This December 28, 2023 piece on the EUvsdisinfo site accurately paints Putin as the "Bad Santa" of disinformation, and sums up many of the reasons that it is utter folly to believe the Putin party line about Ukraine and the state of the world.

For example, not surprisingly in the Kremlin’s twisted alternative reality, Ukraine is still very bad and doing very, very, very bad things. It’s still a Nazi (opens in a new tab), terrorist (opens in a new tab), Satanic country that commits war crimes, fakes Russian war crimes, exploits children for sexual trafficking, harvests and sells human organs and even children’s organs, and is preparing covert biological and nuclear attacks to order to blame their consequences on Russia. Not exactly the sort of thing that puts one in the holiday spirit.

Yet more ridiculous whoppers lie at the bottom of this sordid stocking. According to the spinners of Russia’s nightmarish fantasy tales, Western countries are also still very bad and doing bad, bad things. Devious Westerners have nothing else to do than to be Russophobic and to spread instability and chaos (opens in a new tab) wherever they can. In case you’re wondering, when pro-Kremlin commentators call you Russophobic, it often means you are daring to oppose Russian bullying of the country’s smaller neighbours...

For additional factual perspective on the specific concerns that our Facebook Trumpster has about Ukraine, here's something from USA Today, published on July 24, 2023. The point of reference in the article is a viral social media post supporting the ludicrous claim that Putin invaded Ukraine to stop bioweapons, child trafficking, and money laundering.

This post misstates the reasons Putin put forth as justification for the Ukraine invasion, though Putin's real reasons have also been based on false claims.  Statistics also show that Ukraine is far from the world's capital of money laundering or child trafficking. And the claim about bioweapons labs has been disproven as a conspiracy theory.

On the morning of Feb. 24, 2022, Russia launched its invasion into Ukraine, with Putin dubbing it a “special military operation.”

Putin did not make any statement that Ukraine was the “main hub” for money laundering, child trafficking or bioweapons labs. But his stated reasons for invading were also false.

And once again I can hear the smug chorus: "USA Today? Mainstream propaganda. What a gullible sheeple you are, Cosmic Connie."

But Putin is an evil SOB, no matter how intelligent and rational the reich-wing conspiranoids believe him to be, and no matter how much the culture warriors on the American reich want to see him as a humanitarian and a brave defender of "traditional" Western social and spiritual values. An August 21, 2023 opinion piece from The Messenger sums it up well.

Let’s not mince words. Russia’s dictator, Vladimir Putin, and his regime are evil. They are, according to several dictionary synonyms, morally bad, wicked, depraved, harmful, injurious and offensive.

But there’s more to Putin and his regime than simply being defined by these modifiers. Putin and his comrades know they are evil, and they openly admit to and revel in this fact.

They know they are killing thousands of innocent Ukrainian civilians, destroying hospitals, schools and museums, kidnapping children, and poisoning Ukraine’s environment. They know they are starving millions of people in the Global South. They know they’ve killed scores of Russian oppositionists and jailed thousands. They know that Ukrainian and Russian prisoners are being tortured and executed. They know they’ve amassed fortunes while the population of Russia has gotten poorer.

Neither Putin nor his minions denies these facts. They only deny that these atrocities are, in fact, atrocities. Quite the contrary, Putin and Co. — and their Western apologists — claim that theirs are actions of mercy and liberation and goodwill. That’s not surprising. Adolf Hitler also believed he was doing the world a favor by exterminating Jews, Roma and Slavs.

And there's no doubt that Putin has an entire army of useful idiots in the American reich. From The Guardian, March 16, 2023:

As Russia’s ruthless war against Ukraine has faced major setbacks since it began a year ago, the Kremlin has deployed new disinformation themes and tactics to weaken US support for Kyiv with help from conservative media stars and some Republicans in Congress, according to new studies and experts.

Moscow’s disinformation messages have included widely debunked conspiracy theories about US bioweapon labs in Ukraine, and pet themes on the American right that portray the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, as an ally in backing traditional values, religion and family in the fight against “woke” ideas...

...Russia experts warn that Putin’s rhetoric and Kremlin messaging on these themes is far removed from the reality in Russia.

“One of the glaring mistakes of far-right propagandists is to view Vladimir Putin as some kind of defender of Christendom, of family values and as a protector of the white race,” said Ariel Cohen, a senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center. “They repeat the Kremlin talking points and get excited about the Russian ‘gay propaganda’ law. Nothing could be further from reality.

“Today Russia is the leader in Europe of high divorce rates, HIV infections, and low church attendance and practice.”

[Democratic Senator Chris] Murphy expects Putin to count “on the [American] right wing to advance Russian propaganda and exploit our internal divisions.”

You get the idea. The big takeaway here is that if they're eligible and registered, stupid, gullible, misinformed, and disinformed folks can vote too -- so we have to outvote them. Together, I think, we can face the storms that are coming.

I needn't belabor the point any further for now; it's getting late, and I have some black-eyed peas and collards to cook up (no cornbread, though, because we forgot to pick up a mix at the store). And later on Ron and I are going to watch the corny, sometimes eye-rolling, but nonetheless lovable Garry Marshall flick, New Year's Eve, while we try to keep our dogs from getting too hysterical over the fireworks. I hope you have a safe and happy New Years Eve and a great start to your 2024, and I'll see you next year.