Film Sessions: the 1776 Report and Cultural Marxism with Skull Boy

 

Editor's note: welcome back to Film Sessions; our quasi-regular feature here on Media Madness in which I share, analyze and expand on a relevant video created by someone on the left wing of YouTube. 

Cracker Historical Revisionism

Buckle up lads and lasses; we're in for some real egg-head shit today. Way back when I first thought up the idea of this Film Sessions series, one of my major goals was to find a way to analyze and share the type of DIY intellectual discussions I'd observed in video essays by a few specific creators; some of whom we've featured here already, and some we haven't yet, but hope to eventually. 

I'm happy to say that after what appears to be a long break, one of those OG creators is making video essays again and today we're going to feature his work in this space; his name is Shaun. No, really, just Shaun; although he also goes by Youtuber Shaun, Shaun Vids, and Skull Boy apparently - as far as I know, the skull on the left is a self portrait. Armed primarily with his intellect and British accent, Shaun's decidedly low-tech debunking of bloviating right wing shitlords is somewhat legendary in online spaces; for a good example of this phenomenon in action, feel free to check out any one of the three videos linked in this sequence.

As I hope the video we're going to watch today will demonstrate however, what sets Shaun apart in my eyes is his willingness to go well beyond debunking, and engage the ideas and ideologies driving reactionary thought in the Pig Empire. I've mentioned in the past that debunking isn't much good if you're not teaching the kind of critical thinking necessary to recognize and obstruct revanchism in the wild; but Shaun's debunking videos seem to go that extra mile to actually teach you something about why fascists and right wing extremists behave the way they do, at the same time.

This is of course particularly important regarding the subject of today's video, Trump's stillborn "1776 Report" because the reasons why this absurd document remains important, have nothing to do with the future life of the document itself; as Shaun notes early in the video, Biden had the report deleted from the government's websites almost immediately after taking office. At this point you might be asking yourself why I'm recommending you watch a fifty-seven minute video about Trump's final propaganda stunt, but as our skeletal essayist reveals in this presentation - there's something larger and far more sinister going on here than a make-work project for fascist muppets like Charlie Kirk.

Confused yet? Okay, let's rewind and take it from the top then.

What is the 1776 (Commission) Report?

As it turns out, answering that simple question really depends on how deep down the reactionary rabbit hole you want to go. On the surface, the so-called 1776 Report is a racist, cynical, and half-assed attempt by fascists, conspiracy theorists, and Trump cronies to re-write early American history in forty-five pages of white supremacist drivel. You could also say it's ahistorical bullshit and an example of openly dishonest scholarship, but given that literally none of the people involved in producing it were historians, that might be a bit redundant; assuming that's even possible in this situation. Finally, an astute observer might note that the 1776 Commission is ultimately Trump's fragile cracker manbaby response to the 1619 Project; a Pulitzer-Prize winning New York Times series that seeks to center the role of slavery, and the African American experience in the study of American history.  

What's Really Going on Here?

You mean besides thinly-veiled white supremacy? Well, it's obviously an attempt to essentially write the truth about slavery, abolition, and African American resistance out of the classroom; thereby indoctrinating future generations with a baseline set of beliefs that will tolerate, prolong, and reinforce white supremacist structures in American life. While the report is certainly an attack on history, it's also fundamentally an attack on social justice and Black agency as well. As if that weren't insidious enough, the report also explicitly attempts to cast educators and critical race theorists who do teach the truth about America's origins, as attacking the United States; thus, the 1776 Commission Report is a direct assault on teachers, historians, and critical observers, hidden within the false glow of "patriotism" and national pride. 

What's at the Bottom of this Pit?

I'm glad you asked; the end game here is nothing less than a plot to promote a far-right conspiracy theory known as "Cultural Marxism" and then use that conspiracy theory to justify a new kind of McCarthyism (or Hooverism) against the ideological enemies of the American fascist movement. Putting this explicitly racist, anti-Semitic, anti-intellectual, and anti-progressive nonsense on paper, ultimately allows fascists throughout American academic and political life to point to an official commission paper (even a pile of nonsense like the 1776 Report) that supports silencing their opposition in the name of defending the Fatherland. And if that sounds silly to you, I'd suggest you stop laughing because this is literally how both "Red Scares" and COINTELPRO happened and clearly what Trump's flunkies were hoping to accomplish with this last-minute, now-cancelled report. Furthermore, as multiple observers have noted, Biden's decision to merely cancel the report doesn't do enough to prevent that possibility.

Of course the above points are merely a synopsis of what's going on in Shaun's video; a lengthy presentation which explores these topics in greater detail. In addition to debunking literal nazi propaganda, our presenter also finds time to clown on some fraudulent Republican "intellectuals" and even provides a back-of-the-napkin left wing critique of the 1619 Project that has literally nothing to do with Trump's incoherent ravings. While there's no question that the 1776 Commission Report is in many ways a standard example of Trump's reactionary assclown nonsense, this video goes a long way towards demonstrating that not everything is about the Klepto Kaiser's vanity; guys like Stephen Miller are playing a much longer and more explicitly fascist game with this report. 

Overall, there's just a whole lot to like here in this discussion and as such I'm excited to recommend it in this edition of Film Sessions; even if the presentation is certainly a little short on eye candy. You can check out Shaun's "the 1776 Report" by clicking the header below, or watching the embedded video itself:

The 1776 Report

 

Additional Resources

Shaun's YouTube Channel

Shaun Vids Twitter

YouTuber Shaun is the Antidote to "Intellectual" Bigotry

Trump's 1776 commission is proof America spiraling toward fascism

Trump’s 1776 Commission: White Supremacist’s Revisionist Dream

The "1776 Report is Trump's Last Gasp of State-Sponsored Hate

Biden’s removal of the 1776 Commission report is not enough

Biden rescinding 1776 Commission doesn't end fight over history

Absurdity of Trump’s “1776 Commission” Report Hard to Overstate

Trump’s “1776 Report” Would Be Funny if It Weren’t So Dangerous

1776 education plan part of a decades-long, right-wing movement

The Ideas Behind Trump's 1776 Commission Report

Cultural Marxism conspiracy theory (Wikipedia)

A user's guide to "Cultural Marxism"

Cultural Marxism as modern bogeyman

What Is Cultural Marxism—and where did the term come from?

nina illingworth

Independent writer, critic and analyst with a left focus. Please help me fight corporate censorship by sharing my articles with your friends online!

You can find my work at ninaillingworth.com, Can’t You Read, Media Madness and my Patreon Blog

Updates available on Instagram, Mastodon and Facebook. Podcast at “No Fugazi” on Soundcloud.

Inquiries and requests to speak to the manager @ASNinaWrites

Chat with fellow readers online at Anarcho Nina Writes on Discord!

“It’s ok Willie; swing heil, swing heil…”

Six Things I Think: A Bipartisan Propaganda Frontier (Link)

 

Author's note: I'm not going to lie, this essay took me six days to write. Given the dense material we cover here however, I hope readers will find it worth it.

Please also note this piece is also part of the “Leftist Theory” collection on ninaillingworth.com.

Nested Propaganda About Imaginary Lines

In this lengthy, heavily-sourced essay I take a look at the public discourse surrounding the story of the so-called US migrant crisis, through the lens of the propaganda model. There is certainly a crisis, but it's not about the border, and it's not really about migrants either. Looking at eight separate stories from a wide spectrum of the political media, I untangle both the spin, and the reality of this controversy.

I'm sure it will surprise no one to hear that the real villain here is capitalist extraction, and the reason nobody wants to tell you that is they're all in on the slaughter.

"Folks, this isn’t just the kind of story you won’t find on the news; this is the reality that the partisan blather they do put out as news, is designed to prevent you from seeing. And whether propagandists in the public eye like it or not, Biden’s stated intention is to continue the cycle of violence and plunder even if it means separating families in Mexico or locking up brown kids on a toxic military base. What Biden, his flunkies in the media, and indeed much of the ruling establishment really care about here, is keeping your attention focused elsewhere while rich people count the spoils." 

To read more on ninaillingworth.com, click on the quotation block above, or the header below:

Six Things I Think: A Bipartisan Propaganda Frontier 

nina illingworth

Independent writer, critic and analyst with a left focus. Please help me fight corporate censorship by sharing my articles with your friends online!

You can find my work at ninaillingworth.com, Can’t You Read, Media Madness and my Patreon Blog

Updates available on Instagram, Mastodon and Facebook. Podcast at “No Fugazi” on Soundcloud.

Inquiries and requests to speak to the manager @ASNinaWrites

Chat with fellow readers online at Anarcho Nina Writes on Discord!

“It’s ok Willie; swing heil, swing heil…”

Film Sessions: Digging Up Roots (of Whiteness)

 

Editor's note: welcome back to Film Sessions; our quasi-regular feature here on Media Madness in which I share, analyze and expand on a relevant video created by someone on the left wing of YouTube. 

Digging Up Roots

Hey folks; remember me? As you may have already heard, I've been caught up in a remarkably frustrating month, or three, of feeling like an observer trapped outside my own ongoing experience. Frankly that hasn't been a whole lot of fun, and as such I haven't been a whole lot of fun to be around. Obviously, I'm back now, but I'd be lying if I told you that this tumultuous period hasn't had a profoundly disruptive effect on my work.

I mention this because right before a poorly timed Twitter ban largely separated me from my social support network, I published what I consider a very important essay on Can't You Read entitled "On Whiteness, Identity Politics and the Pig Empire Left." Although that essay focused primarily on the dangers of ignoring white centrism when it emerges in left wing organizing, and why a reactionary brand of "anti-identity politics" isn't going to build the broad coalition socialists need to succeed against the capitalist machine, it was never meant to be my final word on the subject of whiteness. While the term itself may elicit some nervous giggles, the simple truth is that for a white person, understanding the mental state of "whiteness" is a foundational precursor for discovering a wholly racialized world, necessary for the continued function of primitive capitalist accumulation; a world that has previously been hidden from them by an insidious type of normalized social propaganda about, well, class, capitalism, and racism in the Pig Empire.  

Of course I'm more than aware that this might be an uncomfortable subject for certain portions of the reading public; I myself have spent half a lifetime avoiding awkward conversations about race, racialization, and what W.E.B. Du Bois called the "psychological wages" of white skin privilege. Eventually however, as I grew a little older and perhaps a little wiser, I discovered that walling oneself off from uncomfortable discussions about white supremacy was not only an act of selfish, gutless cowardice; but it is also utterly self-defeating for anyone who wants to call themselves a leftist. In light of the intrinsic and inseparable class relationships between capitalism and racism, racialization and exploitation, or privilege and power; there is no such thing as a leftism that doesn't identify and oppose the settler colonial mindset. To talk about race, is to talk about power dynamics, social hierarchies, and the "divide and exploit" strategy that underpins the entire capitalist project; and vice versa. This is, to put it bluntly, very serious business for any Pig Empire anti-capitalist.

Given the importance of this discussion then, I'd like to return to the topic of whiteness by examining a twenty-seven minute video essay called "Whiteness: WTF? White Privilege and the Invisible Race" by Tom Nicholas; the creator of a series we've featured a few times here on Film Sessions, which is titled "What the Theory." Whereas my original essay was explicitly focused on how centering whiteness endangers left wing organizational efforts, in this video Tom offers a more academic study of whiteness itself; what is it, where did it come from, and how do we combat the ideologic framework it inspires in our society?

As always, ridiculously high production values and exceptional organization remain a hallmark of the What the Theory series; and this episode is no different. Dividing his discussion into easily-digestible packets, Tom explores key background issues like the invention of race as a sociological concept essential to colonial capitalism, why whiteness and the racialization of Pig Empire societies remain largely invisible to many white people, what we actually mean by the phrase "white privilege," and how latent white supremacy shapes our society in ways that are overtly hostile towards nonwhites, but remain studiously ignored by white folks themselves. Drawing on important scholars in the broader field of critical race theory, including Charles W. Mills, Peggy McIntosh, Sara Ahmed, and W.E.B. Du Bois, Nicholas ultimately identifies recognizing whiteness as a vital first step in the praxis of dismantling white supremacy; which in turn, makes it a vital first step in the praxis of dismantling capitalism.

Overall I think "Whiteness: WTF? White Privilege and the Invisible Race" is an excellent video, but if I were forced to offer a couple of criticisms, I'd probably start by saying I wished Nicholas had been more explicit about the triangular relationship between genocidal colonialism, white supremacy, and capitalism even as we understand it today. Additionally, I found the (brief) inclusion of Robin DiAngelo as an authoritative source a little off-putting, given the extremely well documented problems with her bestselling book "White Fragility: Why it’s so Hard for White People to Talk About Race." While the context in which Tom quotes DiAngelo in this video is entirely appropriate, I'd hate to give folks the impression that a corporatized anti-racism training program disguised as a book, represented any sort of reasonable answer to the ongoing problems of whiteness, white supremacy, and white-centric thought.

Despite these hiccups however, this video offers an excellent primer on both whiteness as a concept, and its relation to white supremacy - you can check it out by clicking the header, or watching the embedded video itself, below:

Whiteness: WTF? White Privilege and the Invisible Race

Additional Resources

Tom Nicholas's YouTube Channel

Tom Nicholas Twitter Account

On Whiteness, Identity Politics & the Pig Empire Left

The “Identity Politics” Debate Is Splintering the Left.

ACLRC Definition of Whiteness

What do systemic racism, microaggression & white fragility mean?

How Capitalism and Racism Support Each Other

Why Liberals Separate Race from Class

The Capitalist Foundations of Racialization

What Does It Mean To Decolonize Your Mind?

Origin of the Idea of Race

Why Anti-Racism Must be Anti-Capitalist

Capitalism Always Produces Racism

Why Capitalism Needs Racism

The Pervasive Power of the Settler Mindset

The Racist Culture of Capitalism

How to Get Shot in America

White identity in America is ideology, not biology

The White Problem

How White People Got Made

Europeans invented the concept of race as we know it

We can't talk about racism without understanding whiteness

White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack

Bonus Content

Just before my most recent sabbatical, a friend of mine was kind enough to share this short presentation by the (seemingly) anarcho-communist channel NonCompete with me. I bring this up because this charmingly casual celebration of left wing online analysts who've successfully predicted aspects of our current descent into hellworld, briefly mentions my work studying the origins and political ascendency of modern American fascism. Originally after seeing it, my intention was to offer my thanks to "Emerican Johnson" by writing a full breakdown of "Why the Left is Always Right: Systemic Analysis" but the honest to god truth is that I don't really have a whole lot to add here. Johnson's theory that left wing analysts can seem to predict the future because they engage in systemic (often, but not always, Marxist) analysis is pretty much on point and warrants little elaboration.

Instead then, please allow me to simply thank the NonCompete channel for recognizing my work and including me in their impressive (and useful) list of left wing analysts to watch out for. I am truly grateful and hope to be able to return the favor at some later point in time. As always, you can check it out by clicking the header, or watching the embedded video itself, below:

Why the Left is Always Right: Systemic Analysis

NonCompete YouTube Channel

nina illingworth

Independent writer, critic and analyst with a left focus. Please help me fight corporate censorship by sharing my articles with your friends online!

You can find my work at ninaillingworth.com, Can’t You Read, Media Madness and my Patreon Blog

Updates available on Instagram, Mastodon and Facebook. Podcast at “No Fugazi” on Soundcloud.

Inquiries and requests to speak to the manager @ASNinaWrites

Chat with fellow readers online at Anarcho Nina Writes on Discord!

“It’s ok Willie; swing heil, swing heil…”

Bolivian Stroke: WaPo's Imperialist Memory Games

 

Editor's note: if you're wondering where I've been the past couple of weeks, you can find an update here. Please also note that this blog post is part of the "Leftist Theory" and the "New Old Forever War" collections on ninaillingworth.com.

"Any dictator would admire the uniformity and obedience of the U.S. media."  -  Noam Chomsky

Imperial Fantasies with Deadly Consequences

Over the past five or so years of writing, I've spent a lot of time studying the Chomsky-Herman "Propaganda Model" as well as the historical (and quite deliberate) role of for-profit media in disseminating, and reinforcing reactionary, ruling class, or state propaganda in the public discourse. Unfortunately, these discussions about mainstream Pig Empire propaganda can often trend towards the abstract or conceptual, which is why I've also tried to explore concrete, or everyday examples of this propaganda machine in action wherever possible. 

One specific such example might be American propaganda operation surrounding the 2019 (and still ongoing at the time) fundie fascist coup in Bolivia that my co-host Nick Galea and I broke down as part of a March 2020 episode of The No Fugazi Podcast. Of course, that story eventually took a happier turn, at least for the moment; after a year of violent, reactionary tyranny under a U.S. backed post-coup dictatorship lead by Jeanine Áñez, and despite numerous pro-Western attempts to interfere with another election in the country, the people of Bolivia reasserted their control over their own destiny democratically and once again elected a Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) Party candidate, Luis Arce. Unsurprisingly, this newly-elected Bolivian government subsequently undertook efforts to investigate, charge, and detain Áñez for her role in the violent, anti-democratic coup to oust then-rightfully elected MAS president Evo Morales; as all victims of a violent fascist coup attempt would be advised to do with self-appointed dictators - whether that coup is temporarily successful or not.

So all's well that ends well, right? Not so fast sparky; the Pig Empire doesn't exactly have a long history of tolerating left-leaning Latin American countries exerting their sovereignty against the wishes of American capital. Recent rumblings out of the always-loyal Western corporate media strongly suggest that the United States isn't finished with MAS and Bolivia's natural resources yet; and Uncle Sam isn't known to let petty details like elections and investigative reporting get in the way of attempts to manufacture consent for imperial aggression against anyone who might oppose American efforts to loot their country for corporate profits.

Let's get deep into the weeds here for a moment, shall we?

(False) Narratives of Convenience 

Continuing in the tradition of combining the theoretical study of propaganda with practical examples of a propaganda system in action, today I'd like to return to a few concepts I originally discussed in a December 2018 essay called "Lying Without Lying: the Manipulation of Framing, Context & Depth in Corporate Media" and examine how they pertain to a highly revealing Opinion item shared by the Washington Post Editorial Board on March 18th, 2021. In particular, I'd like to look at a current example of the ways western corporate media uses the repetition of false narratives and techniques like lying, misrepresenting, and omitting key facts, to manufacture consent for imperialist foreign policy across the larger Pig Empire - and as you might have guessed; to really see how the sausage is made, we're going to return to the topic of American interference in Bolivia. 

Alright then, let's start by ignoring Jeff Bezos' annoying and self-defeating paywall, to look at WaPo's effectively anonymous little blog post in all of its five hundred word glory:

"Opinion: The Bolivian government is on a lawless course. Its democracy must be preserved.

Opinion by Editorial Board

March 18, 2021 at 3:58 p.m. EDT

ONLY A FEW months ago, the Andean nation of Bolivia seemed to be on its way to healing, after a year that had thrown its political future into jeopardy. Luis Arce, a candidate of the country’s socialist party, had won the Oct. 18 presidential elections. His opponents — Carlos Mesa, who ran against him on a centrist platform, and the conservative then-interim president, Jeanine Áñez — had accepted the result. And Mr. Arce had pledged to govern on the basis of unity and conciliation. Thus did Bolivia appear to exit a crisis that the leader of Mr. Arce’s party, former president Evo Morales, precipitated by attempting to steal a fourth term through election fraud in 2019, leading to often-violent demonstrations, the military’s abandonment of the Morales-led government — and Mr. Morales’s departure to exile.

Now, unfortunately, Mr. Arce appears to have reverted to a more one-sided and vengeful leadership style characteristic of Mr. Morales, who has returned to Bolivia and still wields considerable power. On March 13, the government jailed Ms. Áñez and two former members of her cabinet, threatening them with prosecution and long prison terms; warrants are out for several other former top officials. These actions follow an amnesty for Mr. Morales’s supporters accused of human rights violations while Ms. Áñez was in power, as well as the institution of de facto political loyalty tests for key government employees.

Mr. Arce’s government claims that it is merely enforcing laws against sedition that Ms. Áñez purportedly broke by fomenting a “coup” against Mr. Morales. Ms. Áñez is certainly not blameless in Bolivia’s problems, having governed high-handedly, including by trying, shortly after she took office, to shield security forces from punishment for sometimes deadly violence against pro-Morales protesters.

Yet Ms. Áñez, facing pressure from human rights advocates, withdrew that decree; and the accusation at the core of her arrest now — that she plotted with the Bolivian military and others to overthrow Mr. Morales — is at odds with historical reality. Mr. Morales lost power because of his own attempt to subvert the 2019 election — which Organization of American States (OAS) observers confirmed at the time — and the Bolivian people’s massive rejection of it in the streets. Ms. Áñez succeeded to the presidency under a tenuous but constitutionally prescribed emergency process; and, to her credit, she peacefully ceded power to Mr. Arce when he won last year.

Tens of thousands of Bolivians have taken to the streets in opposition to what Mr. Arce is now doing. Bolivia’s Catholic bishops have issued a statement against what they called an attempt to turn the justice system into a partisan weapon and to “create a false account of history, inventing the truth and manipulating the conscience of Bolivians.” The OAS secretariat also decried the arrest of Ms. Áñez, prompting Mr. Arce’s minister of justice to threaten OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro with prosecution.

The Bolivian government’s lawless course threatens further chaos, if not civil war and outright dictatorship, at a time when the country, among the hardest hit by covid-19 in the world, should be fighting the pandemic. The Biden administration should lead a regional effort to preserve democratic stability in this long-suffering country, lest crisis turn into catastrophe."

Okay so before we get to a sort of line by line refutation of what's going on here, let me start by noting that the above WaPo piece is by no means a legitimate news item, but it's certainly an impressive piece of Pig Empire propaganda; even if only for its crass dishonesty and cynical assumptions about the reading public in general. Given the outrageous omissions, misrepresentations, and outright lies covered in this concise little smear job, it's really not a surprise the always pro-empire Washington Post is hiding behind both its editorial board byline, and the "Opinion" tag here either. Despite this however - words do actually mean things, and when you state falsehoods as facts, it's got absolutely nothing to do with subjective analysis or a right to express unpopular ideas.

So what exactly do I mean by falsehoods? Well for starters, Bolivia didn't experience a generic political "crisis," it was a U.S. backed right wing fundamentalist coup. Additionally, then-rightfully elected Bolivian President Evo Morales didn't precipitate the coup, a phony report by the Organization of American States (OAS) built around disingenuous math games did; and furthermore, the OAS analysis was so thoroughly and publicly refuted, even in the Washington Post itself, that claiming Morales is guilty of attempted election fraud (an accusation repeated twice in this 531 word article) at this late a date, borders on Orwellian. In common parlance, we call printing things like this "lying."

Turning our attention towards WaPo's mere misrepresentations doesn't really improve the picture either. Bolivian military officials didn't just "abandon" the elected government; they actively pressured President Morales to step down, and he didn't "depart to exile" so much as flee for his life in the face of right wing violence and terrorism targeting his home, members of his party, and his supporters. Furthermore, Jeanine Áñez didn't succeed to the Presidency "under a tenuous but constitutionally prescribed emergency process;" she appointed herself interim president in front of a rump Congress that lacked quorum, with the backing of the military in a coup d’état that was anything but constitutional - as noted by award-winning journalist and author Stephen Kinzer during a December 2019 forum organized by Mass. Peace Action and other groups at the Community Church of Boston:

 

“William Kaliman, former Commander in Chief of the Bolivian armed forces, forced President Evo Morales to resign,” Kinzer noted. “A week later he moved to the United States.”

“Evo’s term runs through January 2020. Even if you don’t accept the election of October 20th, Morales’ term as president that he won five years ago should still be ongoing. The succession laws that are supposed to be followed after a president resigns were completely flouted. Several members of the MAS were passed over and power was passed unconstitutionally to Añez.”

Please keep in mind that this is not a matter of opinion or interpretation; there's photographic evidence this was an unconstitutional military coup:

Let's stick with misrepresentation for a moment here. While I'm forced to admit that the WaPo editorial board is welcome to its opinion that Áñez deserves "credit" for "peacefully ceding" an election she'd already dropped out of after running a distant fourth in the polls; given the fact that she barred the rightfully elected President Evo Morales from running again, and delayed the new election three times to help the real far right candidate (more on him below,) no reasonable person is obliged to agree with them. Equally absurd are the suggestions that Ms. Áñez's reign of violent, even murderous terror over Bolivian socialists can be dismissed as "having governed high-handedly," or that the reactionary, unlawful government she presided over are mere run-of-the-mill "conservatives." Of course, these unsupportable opinions might also explain why the new Bolivian government's charges of terrorism against Áñez never even made it into the story at all.

All of which then leaves us with the WaPo editorial board's lies by omission; of which there are many. Since I assume you're starting to get a sense of just how full of crap this piece is already, I'll wrap this portion of our examination up by discussing only the three most glaring and dishonest omissions in this article.

First up; citing a statement by the General Secretariat of the Organization of American States to buttress this Pig Empire propaganda narrative against Arce, Morales, and the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) Party, without mentioning that the OAS actively lied about the 2019 election to trigger the coup, is obviously dishonest. As is completely ignoring the fact that the American government gleefully supported the coup, and Uncle Sam picks up 60% of the tab to fund the OAS expressly for the purposes of using it to support Pig Empire imperialism - as reported in this November 11th, 2019 article on one of my favorite websites, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting:

"No mainstream outlet warned its readers that the OAS is a Cold War organization, explicitly set up to halt the spread of leftist governments. In 1962, for example, it passed an official resolution claiming that the Cuban government was “incompatible with the principles and objectives of the inter-American system.” Furthermore, the organization is bankrolled by the US government; indeed, in justifying its continued funding, US AID argued that the OAS is a crucial tool in “promot[ing] US interests in the Western hemisphere by countering the influence of anti-US countries” like Bolivia."

       

Additionally; citing a statement by the Bolivian Bishops’ Conference to protect a blood-soaked dictator installed via a US-backed military coup, without revealing that same body previously supported the coup, or discussing the Bolivian Catholic Church's longstanding opposition to Morales' socialist, and pro-Indigenous land return policies, is also obviously dishonest. This is to say nothing of quietly concealing the ultra-conservative Catholicism and disdain for Bolivian Indigenous people Áñez herself shares with the Bishops - as explained in these articles by The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and Jacobin Magazine respectively:

"The coup regime is now led by Jeanine Áñez, a Christian-fundamentalist senator and opponent of Morales, who in 2013 tweeted (translation): “I dream of a Bolivia free of indigenous satanic rites, the city is not for ‘Indians,’ they better go to the highlands or El Chaco.” On claiming the presidency after the army “asked” Morales to step down (he fled to Mexico following threats to his life and has since moved to Argentina), Áñez declared, “Thank God the Bible has returned to the Bolivian government.” About two-thirds of Bolivia’s population is Indigenous, forming a major part of Morales’s support base. Before the coup, MAS held majorities in both the Bolivian chamber of deputies and the senate."

"An ultraconservative Catholic senator, Áñez hails from the thinly populated Amazonian department of Beni, a region whose indigenous peoples first made the demand for a constituent assembly in the 1990s. But Áñez is no ally of indigenous Bolivians. She believes indigenous spirituality to be a sign of Satan, and upon seizing power in the days after November 10, she declared the national government to be “at last” free of paganism. Her partisans trampled upon and burned the Wiphala — the banner of indigenous unity — prompting tens of thousands of indigenous people to pour into the streets in protest."

Finally; I must admit that I'm not quite sure how to classify writing a quasi-anonymous editorial about the political fallout from a right wing coup in Bolivia without once mentioning the name of admitted coup plotter and noted Bolivian fascist, Luis Fernando Camacho. Given however that the facts surrounding Camacho's political involvement with both the uprising and the Áñez regime speak directly to the reality that it was an organized, anti-democratic, illegal fascist coup, it seems like the WaPo editors really should have found a place to work at least a few lines about a key player like Camacho in there; even if only as a matter of journalistic integrity.

Please also note that while I chose to focus on this Washington Post editorial board post because of its artless execution and owner Jeff Bezos' business ties to the American imperial state, they are by no means alone in the Pig Empire establishment's efforts to undermine the socialist government of Bolivia. Indeed, as relentlessly documented by the folks at FAIR, you can find equally disingenuous articles clearly designed to distort public opinions about Bolivian politics in outlets like The New York Times, The Guardian, Reuters, The Wall Street Journal, the BBC, the Associated Press, and many others; articles published both during, and long after the unlawful 2019 right wing coup in Bolivia. If one were feeling a little conspiratorial, you might even be inclined to suggest that the almost unbroken ideological conformity of the Pig Empire media's coverage of events in Bolivia, was in and of itself, clear evidence of the Propaganda Model at work.

Drawing the Strings Together

Okay, so we've successfully demonstrated that western corporate media outlets as a whole are more than happy to repeat false narratives about our "enemies" in Bolivia, even when those narratives have already been debunked in their own publications. Furthermore, I think we've conclusively proven that the editorial board at the Washington Post in particular has an almost preternatural ability to pack a staggering amount of festering bullcrap into a few paragraphs of authoritatively-worded pearl clutching. Finally, we can say with certainty that it's hardly a secret that reactionary Pig Empire billionaires, the Trump Administration, and our western allies, all supported the original right wing coup in Bolivia and the pack of lies that sold it, quite enthusiastically. 

What however does all of this really mean? Well, if you throw in the reality that the WaPo editorial board explicitly called on the Biden administration to interfere in Bolivian politics to protect Áñez, and that U.S. state-controlled outlet Voice of America echoed the same false narrative about her arrest as the private sector media did, what we're looking at here is the reasonably strong outline of a Pig Empire propaganda operation to manufacture consent for imperialist policy in action. All we're really missing to expose how the magic happens is the kind of "smoking gun" connection to a sitting American official that not even Biden's failson minions over at State would be dumb enough to give us; right? 

Oh you poor, sweet, summer child - I feel like I'm telling an orphan there's no Santa Claus:

Well damn Tony; given the Biden administration's rhetoric about cleansing the legacy of Trump's foreign policy, that's pretty awkward, ain't it my dude? So much for build back better, I guess.

And still, the beat goes marching on...

- nina illingworth

Independent writer, critic and analyst with a left focus. Please help me fight corporate censorship by sharing my articles with your friends online!

You can find my work at ninaillingworth.com, Can’t You Read, Media Madness and my Patreon Blog

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“It’s ok Willie; swing heil, swing heil…”