War really is the best way to see how the Brain works (or doesn't work)

 https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2022/sep/29/russia-ukraine-war-live-news-pressure-grows-to-declare-russia-terrorist-state-norway-beefs-up-security-at-gas-sites

Looking at Western media coverage of the War in Donbas is comical for the way it crashes the Brain.

The headline says "annexing four Ukrainian regions" which rather misses the point. Since the Maidan revolution in 2014 and the new Kiev government--which is aligned to Europe and America--the Donbas region has been in civil war to extract itself from this fate.

In the light of Brexit in the UK this makes perfect sense. Given the choice to be governed from Brussels or Westminster the British people rejected Brussels and left the EU. Who wouldn't do the same? The whole point of freedom and Democracy is that you govern your self, and you fight to repel any foreign power that seeks to take you over. The oldest rules in the book.

The Donbas region is ruled from Donetsk which is some 850km from Moscow. Kiev is 720 km from  Donetsk and once it made sense to be ruled from Kiev. But Brussels is 2700 km away and Washington isn't even on the same continent 8400 km away and while you elect MEPs (Members of European Parliament) it's not actual Democracy (your MEPs can only veto policy not create policy giving the Commission complete control to avoid anything they don't want just like a half-dictator), and obviously only Americans vote in US elections (so being ruled from Washington is full dictatorship. NATO is actually a dictatorship!) So quite obviously the people of Donetsk would rather be ruled by Moscow than the US/Brussels led Kiev. Really the whole of Ukraine should prefer rule by Moscow than the West but the politics and trade agreements with the world's only superpower and Imperial capital in Washington are complex and easily corrupted. Washington for instance only needs to threaten sanctions or provide trade agreements to buy the loyalty of most governments.

The absurdity of the situation is rather well illustrated on this map from Bored Panda which has places named by Americans. Americans are so far away from Europe that they don't even know the names of the countries, and Ukraine just had "land" written over it, how can Americans possible govern Ukraine or have anything to do with the interests and cultures of the region. So when Americans vote they vote for Imperial leaders who represent US Interests, how can "American Interests" have anything to do with Ukrainian interest or worse Donbas interests. Even Brussels seems far away and irrelevant to the Ukrainians. Given the choice between Washington, Brussels or Moscow you would always chose Moscow.

I know people involved in Ukraine and they are of one mind that Ukraine is better off under Washington than Moscow, but they have their headquarters in Washington. One has to wonder whose interests are being represented here.

Now US operations have occurred literally all over the world since the end of WW2 (and probably long before). There is no country on Earth that has not had/does not have the CIA operating in it to direct the country towards US interests. A brilliant analysis of this comes in the form of the TV series Narcos. I blog separately on the deep insight this series gives us, albeit done very gently as it is perhaps quite radical and mind-blowing for a US population brought up on a strict diet of Pentagon propaganda. 

Now why mention South America? Well the CIA is operating in Ukraine too. And just like the DEA it has secretly employed and set up overseas NGOs and government agencies to do their work for them. Just like in Colombia and South America. You won't get a job in post 2014 Ukraine if you do not work with the CIA agenda of reconstruction of Ukraine to become a Washington vassal. Now from the perspective of someone looking to work in Ukraine it looks amazing! You wanted to pursue some agenda and indeed have been hired to help the country. Its looks like you have been granted freedom to do what you believe and want to do. But the fact you were hired--and anyone who believed something else was not hired--means that it's not your views that are being respected, but rather than you share the views of those in change: you become useful. You have become what is called a "useful idiot" (this is Western propaganda for people who do not accept Western control, but really is better used on those who support the Western hegemony.)

Its very hard to tell whether someone working in a political matrix like the reconstruction of Ukraine is doing a valuable job based on their own learning and ethics or is just being allowed to execute their plans when they suit the CIA. Its an interesting problem. When I hear that the CIA is operating in a region, I tend to assume all those who collaborate are "useful idiots." I mean if you ever started to criticise the US operations in the area you would quickly find everything dries up and you would quickly be on a plane home.

Returning to the top then a little further down the article is announces "marks the largest forcible annexation in Europe since the second world war." How can the West's role be "non-forceful" when it has been training and arming a proxy army in Ukraine to fight the Donbas War for 8 years now. Clearly every action has an equal reaction (to quote Newton). If Russia is pushing its because the West is pushing too. This is the silly thing about War: like dancing Tango you always need a partner in a fight. Quickly it becomes obvious just how biased and brainwashed Western media is that it assumes that when non-western powers like Russia seek to protect their interests that is considered "forceful", while when the West seeks to protect its interests that is considered non-forceful. Its the classic pointless argument with your partner "well you started it."

The general and better measure is not Force/Not-Force but the number of conflicts you are involved in. UK has been at war continuously for over 100 years and famously the US has only had 15 years of peace in all its 246 years of history. This is so infamous that its even been mentioned in presidential speeches. No other countries even approach these levels of aggression and "forcefulness". US and UK are clearly the global violent offenders and biggest threats to Peace.

With regards the "brain," media only works on the level of the Brain, both writers, readers and the scientists who design propaganda to push political agendas to control people (that applies to advertising as well) are all working with the Brain. When we read propaganda, like this Guardian article, its worth being away how it influences the brain, and being marvelled too how brains can be quite so inaccurate and barely see reality at all. A serious message to us all to work hard on our minds to overcome brainwashing and the lies that are designed to change our behaviour and confuse us into compliance. 

Mentioned many times in the blog one observation which is probably the most alarming thing about the West is that ALL media agrees. I can't think of any media in the West for example that does not label Russia an enemy, but does not label Saudi Arabia as an enemy. To me Russia is just another country, while Saudi Arabia is a brutal mediaeval dictatorship which does weekly public beheadings of political prisoners. There can be few people who can ignore the horrific violations of human rights that occur inside Saudi Arabia (and outside if you look at Jamal Khashoggi who was hacked to death on foreign soil and his body parts removed in bin bags just for criticising the government). Yet the whole western media is very muted in its attitude to Saudi Arabia. How can a "free" press agree so uniformly on anything? The only way is that it is not free! So in the West we actually live inside a system of Total Propaganda where the only way to get another point of view is freelance private media like this blog which has no backing or affiliation and which most people will just ignore as "personal opinion". How dangerous is this idea of "Personal Opinion" that I blog on separately. 

Anyway hopefully that little blog tweezered the complete spaghetti of Western propaganda and bias apart to see more clearly the interplay of forces and prejudices that goes into making it.