I understand the appeal of the Russiagate conspiracy to
those who were crushed by Hillary Clinton’s loss in 2016. What I do not
understand is the complete grasp it has had on their minds, so that they are no
longer able or willing to question any of the ludicrous notions being fed to
them by a complicit and compromised press. Oh, I know our intelligence agencies
and think tanks are practiced in the art of propaganda, they’ve been doing it
long enough. They were good enough to be able to get a skeptic like me to
believe that Saddam Hussein had mobile chemical weapons labs that were moving
about on trains. Seems so silly now, doesn’t it? But they were so certain! They
told us there was no room to doubt. They were the authorities and we were just
idiots. And we were idiots. For believing them. But I swore I’d never do it
again.
Apparently you didn’t make the same oath I did. Or if you
did, your desire to believe got the better of you. And they seem so damn
certain! They know things and we don’t. We’re just idiots who are fortunate to
have such selfless people looking out for our best interests. Why, you’d have
to be a Putin puppet to doubt the official narrative.
But any healthy relationship requires a certain amount of
open-mindedness. Anyone who insists you believe them and don’t ask questions is
throwing up all kinds of warning signs. You would not want your daughter in that
kind of relationship and I don’t want to see you in one either. So let me ask
you a few questions. Remember, questions aren’t bad in an open, honest
relationship. And if you are able to give answers beyond parroting what your
abuser told you, I will be convinced he’s not such a bad guy after all.
1. What voice of authority would you respect more than
Robert Mueller? Would you trust Ralph Nader more? Or perhaps Chris Hedges? Or
Phil Donahue? Or Ron Paul? Would you be more inclined to trust someone who got
the Iraq War narrative right rather than Mueller, who lied about the reasons for
the Iraq War in front of congress (a crime he is currently prosecuting others
for now)? Surely there must be someone you trust more than a man who lied us
into a war that killed hundreds of thousands of people. If there is no one in
the public eye you trust more than that, this must surely make you question the
worth of our media and our political leaders, because that is a pretty low standard
to meet.
2. How long are you willing to wait patiently and allow
Mueller and others fight your fight while President Trump is left free to
destroy everything you love about your country? Pretty long, apparently. Two
years, apparently, and more yet to come. Is this the best means of opposing an
alleged tyrant and traitor, a supposed fascist? I’m just going to throw out the
suggestion that Adolph Hitler was never going to be deposed by the Gestapo.
Intelligence agencies are not interested in saving democracy, they are
interested in suppressing it.
3. How much more aggressive does the U.S. have to get towards
Russia before you realize Trump is not doing Putin’s bidding? He’s thrown sanction
after sanction at him, increased military spending, bombed Russia’s allies and
killed Russians, armed fascists in Ukraine, withdrawn from missile treaties, and
has assembled the creepiest group of war hawks ever assembled outside of a
Stanley Kubrick film. What actual evidence supports the theory that Trump is working
in Russia’s interests?
4. Will you ever stop putting your complete faith in the hands
of anonymous sources from unaccountable intelligence agencies? Is this really
all you require from a newspaper article, the words of unknown people with
unknown agendas all the proof you need? Again, getting back to the healthy
relationship comparison, you really should ask for a certain degree of respect
in every relationship you are in and learn to spot the warning signs of an
abuser.
5. Is there any evidence that will convince you that Russiagate
is little more than a propaganda campaign meant to shift blame and force
President Trump to conform to the pre-established agenda? What kind of proof
would you need to be convinced? Thousands of poorly written articles whose
mistakes slant a particular direction 100% of the time? Hundreds of stories
that have had to been dialed back or else retracted altogether? Because
mountains of clear evidence await your perusal. Perhaps you might believe me if
I told you I have it on good authority from anonymous sources within
intelligence agencies.
6. How much are you willing to risk on this narrative? You’ve
already allowed horrible think tanks to decide who can and cannot
have access to social media. You have allowed Google to manipulate algorithms
in order to skew search results in order to favor establishment (read corporate)
media. You have allowed the military industrial complex to run wild and call
the shots, you have breathed new life into the spokespersons of the Iraq War. You
have allowed the established practices of journalism to be trashed. You have
sat on the sidelines for the last two years, putting all your faith in an
untrustworthy individual with a track record of lying unforgivably on the
matter of war. You have allowed Trump to have his way with your country and the
world’s environment, and the most you could do was don a pink hat in protest.
You are giving a green light to the most dangerous of sociopaths, people like
John Bolton and Adam Schiff, people unafraid of driving our nation to the brink
of nuclear war. Is your faith in Robert Mueller really so complete? Where does
this faith come from?
7. Do you ever stop to think that blaming Russia is a convenient
way of ignoring our own problems? It seems that every problem we face as a
nation anymore is redirected at Russia. Trump had nothing to do with us and
everything to do with them. Very useful. Very delusional.
8. Lastly, is there anything Russia gets blamed for that is
so ridiculous you will achieve a moment of clarity? Perhaps the Pokemon Go
story did not do the trick, but do you really think Russia is to blame for
African-Americans protesting against police brutality? Do you really believe the
British people were manipulated into Brexit by Vladimir Putin? Do you really
believe the French would not protest their government unless instructed to by
Russian oligarchs (why is the word oligarch only ever used to describe
Russians, anyway)? In short, is there no point where you stop and realize that
there is drool on your lips and madness in your eyes? Will you at any point realize
you’re wearing a pink pussy hat and carrying a picture of Putin and Trump
kissing and think, “My God, I must look really silly.”
I’m not joking, these questions are asked in all
earnestness. There needs to be a limit you can point to for all the questions I
have asked, some point where you say “too far”. If you cannot answer them in a
way that comes close to satisfying both of us, that appears sane, I fear for
our planet.
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