cars posted:

beyond the creepy self-rationalizing parts, the story almost makes me think some top-flight drone from one of the agencies has convinced the Biden administration that they can make Russia invade just by repeating over and over in the press that Russia will invade. this doesn't seem so much like a psyops strategy as it does magical thinking sold by means of PowerPoint.

its called manifesting, i remember it being popular a few years ago among people with eating disorders, so it doesnt surprise me that it has now become us military strategy

cars posted:

beyond the creepy self-rationalizing parts, the story almost makes me think some top-flight drone from one of the agencies has convinced the Biden administration that they can make Russia invade just by repeating over and over in the press that Russia will invade. this doesn't seem so much like a psyops strategy as it does magical thinking sold by means of PowerPoint.

i thought the point of "discovering" a planned Russian false flag operation was so that NATO could attack the Donbas region or Crimea, point back to their claim and by the time the truth is revealed no one cares anymore. i mean isn't the overall goal to turn Ukraine into a new Afghanistan-like conflict?

chickeon posted:

cars posted:

this doesn't seem so much like a psyops strategy as it does magical thinking sold by means of PowerPoint.

it's both

I guess i mean it doesn't seem like a psyops strategy that has any chance of succeeding. like i can't imagine Russia's top brass are sitting there worrying "Well, if we don't invade now, then the CIA will have done all that work for nothing." It seems really shaky, the idea that they could possibly influence Moscow's policy either way with this stuff in the press, because all the Russian government really has to do is... continue not to do what they weren't planning on doing anyway.

as far as other possible reasons for this propaganda push, I feel it might also be what a lot of more skeptical policy experts are saying, that certain people at the CIA, DoD, etc., realized that with the fuzzy brain of the guy at the top and the apparent infighting between executive agencies over e.g. the COVID lab-leak hoax, they can score some brownie points for themselves by claiming that Russia was definitely going to invade Ukraine this last weekend, but their telepathic mind-war prevented it. I don't think a lot of people would really believe that even in Washington, but Biden might.

Synergy posted:

I think the US has no strategy for Ukraine other than causing chaos and mayhem. Then you can debt trap and shock doctrine their remaining assets at fire sale prices

“We’re talking about the potential for war in Europe,” U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris said earlier Sunday at a security conference in Munich, Germany, that saw urgent consultations among world leaders on the crisis. “It’s been over 70 years, and through those 70 years ... there has been peace and security.”

this whole situation has been engineered by the cia to verify the accuracy of their domestic mass surveillance personality profiling and political pigeonholing system, by inducing the heads of suspected dissidents and fifth columnists to explode. interns assigned to hospitals and morgues checking names off they clipboard list

Een ieder die ooit met Putin gaat onderhandelen, doet er goed aan om eerst even dit filmpje te bekijken. Putin, gisteren, grilt hier zijn hoofd van de buitenlandse inlichtingendienst (SVR). Oef. pic.twitter.com/4g2PLgFAl6

— Harald Doornbos (@HaraldDoornbos) February 22, 2022

colddays posted:

In a way this feels like a bit of a graduation for Russia. From semi-periphery to a true imperialist pole in the capitalist order. Maybe not all the way, but it's a turning point from going tit-for-tat with expelling diplomats while NATO marches closer.

*photobook montage as music plays* a grinning bill clinton reclines on a hospital bed holding a plump, beet-red newborn as it grasps for a bottle of vodka. a small black and white photo posing before a tank, infant in arms, the sunny day marred only by a haze of smoke from the burning parliament building. another, their hands just parted as the child takes its first steps, toddling into chechnya. years later father and son adopt serious expressions as they play intently with toy soldiers they have dressed as muslims - a pant leg just in frame reminds you that china was there too. graduation day. amongst the general merriment the father, much older now, smiles too, though it is impossible to mistake the faint sadness in his eyes, and perhaps the first touch of dementia...

tears posted:

its called manifesting, i remember it being popular a few years ago among people with eating disorders, so it doesnt surprise me that it has now become us military strategy

well well well, look who didn't think that eating disorders could change the world