Commencing Countdown to Our Collective Ignorance

I was going to write about something else, and I'll get to that in a minute, but one of our local politicians made a very interesting statement that caught my eye:

A precedent has now been set, and any state that doesn't benefit from NATO's protection could become another "Ukraine", in the absence of a stronger, discouraging reaction from the civilized world.

Anyone who's not NATO could become Ukraine. Only we can protect you, that's essentially what this is saying, as he called out for harsher punishment on Russia. It's an interesting angle, and while it's not being overtly exploited by NATO right now, it could well be an underlying message in this whole war.

Because maybe globalization didn't seem like such a hot idea before, but when it's either that or the disaster that's now fallen over Ukraine, maybe you reconsider. That's a strange, and disturbing angle, though probably a sneak preview of the world to come. We will all unite under one common law, or else take our chances with the "savages" out in the wilderness. And whoever governs that common law, governs the world. Obviously, there are many dangers to adhering to NATO, and for many countries, comparatively fewer benefits. But who stops to consider that when threatened with a Russian invasion?

As of yet, we still don't know why all of this is happening. I don't mean the obvious bits, I mean the reasoning behind everyone's actions, so it's definitely worth considering all possible angles.

More calls on "the Russian people"

I wrote yesterday about the way the (Western) media seems to be playing with our vision, and I mentioned Boris Johnson's speech that addressed the Russian people directly, claiming that this "war isn't in your name".
Today, I woke up to find we're still pursuing this angle.

The Ukrainian PM called on Elon Musk to help the country under siege, which Musk agreed to do, later, but the way the PM put it was interesting. Not only did he ask for Musk's support through his Starlink services, but also for Musk to "address the sane Russian people to stand". While the first request seems reasonable, and was indeed "granted" by Musk, the second seems unusual - why should a tech mogul address the people to stand? - and seems to have gone unheard.

More importantly, an address by Ukrainian President Zelensky on Thursday has been circulating. The eight-minute long recording, once again, is directed solely at the Russian people, and spoken in Russian. In it Zelensky tries to "prove" that the Russian people have been grievously misinformed about Ukraine and its intentions. He pulls out all the stops to make a successful, heartwarming appeal that is sure to leave all viewers a little misty eyed. The message is clear - Ukraine is your friend, it's Putin who's the real enemy.

The united message of such addresses continues to be (at least on the Western front) that the Russians need to get rid of Putin, so we can have peace. And that's interesting.

Zelensky's message also brings me to my original topic for today...

...who's your censorship protecting?

One of the most worrying media developments with the Ukraine crisis, as with the pandemic before it, is the insane push for immediate censorship. Both locally, as well as on a European level, I keep hearing pleas and calls for "Russian propaganda" to be muted.

And I can't help wondering... why? Who's that supposed to protect? It's the same people who they were trying to "protect" from anti-vaccine "misinformation" during the now forgotten pandemic. It's the same people who needed to be shielded from pro-Trump ideas during the elections.

Which brings us to one of the more real, and long lasting threats to our wellbeing, as a species. As long as we accept this notion that we are in need of protection from words, then we will only continue falling lower and lower. This "battle against censorship" is nothing but a thinly veiled attempt at controlling your mind, of course.

I look back on my country's Communist period. Back then, as in China now, the people were only permitted a very limited stream of information, with the Communist Party, and Ceausescu always coming across as your friend, and benevolent leader. And yet, the large majority of the population recognized this for what it was. Propaganda. Because how could they not? The proof of the lie was right before their eyes. So we have the power to protect ourselves against propaganda. Why, then, would we still need your censorship?

A couple days ago, an allegedly-Anonymous grouping hacked Russia Today, and other Russian publications. Even overlooking the fact that RT's feed isn't all "hail Putin", what was the need for this? Who benefits from you muting someone? Even a half-intelligent social media consumer has been well trained enough to distinguish the alleged flagrant propaganda that these censorers are warning us against. No one would buy it, even if "Russian propaganda" came and said Putin is doing great, charitable work in Ukraine, and that the war is actually great.

What worries me is that our power of discernment is being stripped away from us. When you silence one voice, we can only suffer, as a whole, because it means we're only exposed to one angle. And being told that you can't discern between right and wrong is progressively dumbing you down, and making you completely dependent of the state for your knowledge of the outside world.

Back with covid, the "accepted" story, at least here in Romania, was that you have to stifle "anti-vax propaganda", because stupid old people who don't know how to properly use the Internet will read it, won't get the vax, and die. But since when did they make gullibility a crime? As far as I can tell, this is the way things have always worked. It's not as if before, people were highly discerning, and could easily be exposed to misinformation without falling for it, but now, our sense of that is tremendously weakened. We are exposed to a lot more information, yes. But if anything, that should strengthen our ability to discern, not weaken.

The same approach seems to "go" now. I'm not sure who exactly is at risk of "Falling prey" to Russian propaganda, but apparently, we need to protect them, and only get our news from approved, EU sources instead. Back in WW2, either side had its own set of propaganda, which was necessary, since they were fighting a war. The English needed to believe the Germans were bad, because they were going out to slaughter Germans. And vice-versa. nowadays, when we unearth old news articles from the Nazi or the Communist period, we marvel at how biased, and propagandist they were. Yet it seems our modern new world is looking to beat some kind of record here.

It seems instead of moving forward, we're reverting to incurable stupidity, one that unlike our caveman days, is not natural, but earned. It's like these proponents of censorship are bashing us over the head with a club, repeatedly, and we let them. Only, by the end of all this, we'll be far too stupid to even wonder how we got a bump.

I just read now that, as RT was trying to get their network back up, they ended up quoting a famous David Bowie song, which Bowie's son quickly, and brilliantly rejected. But although his comeback was on point and catchy, Duncan Jones was wrong. It is Ground Control to Major Tom. Because without the liberty of choosing and sorting through our own information sources, we really are hurtling blindly through space.