by Thomas R. Eddlem
Back in 1990 and 1991, I was accused of being a propagandist for Saddam Hussein for writing against Iraq war one, even though I’d never read any Iraqi propaganda ⸻ if they even had any. In reality, my critics had unwittingly swallowed the US government propaganda uncritically, a propaganda line that included calling anyone who dissented from the war footing as a “Saddam propagandist.”
In the mid-1990s, for opposing war I was accused of being a propagandist for Slobodan Milosevic, even though he too had no propaganda mill to spread his message. But the US government had its propaganda mill in full-swing to promote the NATO wars in the Balkans.
And again, in 2002 and 2003 I was again accused of being Saddam Hussein’s propagandist for opposing that disastrous war.
It was mostly these same gullible people who accused me of being a propagandist for Bashar al-Assad in the post-Arab Spring Middle East when I opposed the US intervention that blew up that country, though how Assad funneled his propaganda to me remained as unexplained as before.
And it was the same with Kaddafi’s Libya and half a dozen other campaigns by our government and CIA to go to war when I opposed it. Always I was the propagandist for the leader of the people Uncle Sam wanted to kill.
Now these same gullible people who had fallen for war propaganda by the US Military-Intelligence-Surveillance Complex every time are telling me and my anti-war friends that we’re Russian propagandists because we don’t want the US government to generate nuclear blow-back from it’s Ukrainian intervention.
And they do this despite that every adult in America knows there’s no massive Russian propaganda mill (is RT even available in America any more?), and we found out that their efforts in 2016 amounted to a few pathetic Facebook ads and organizing a couple of “rallies” which literally no one attended, including the organizers. The US government is the only government with the means and will to put out massive propaganda efforts, and its Military-Industrial-Surveillance Complex organs have promoted it for almost three decades.
Operation Mockingbird was only suspended temporarily.
A small part of me wants to rage at my accusers, as they’re essentially calling me a traitor, one of the most vile insults in political discussions.
But then I realize these perpetually gullible people are so deep into the militarism matrix that they’re like those 6-month-olds perpetually surprised by the “peek-a-boo” after the blanket is pulled down. They fall for the same trick and retail the same exact lines every time, and never realize they’ve been used. In essence, they’ve chosen to remain in a perpetual childhood, politically speaking, and they cannot be rescued.
I can only pity them. And I don’t think I can help them.
So if someone calls you a “Russian propagandist,” remember, they’re political children under the direction of the Military-Industrial-Surveillance Complex and more thoughtful people are probably more worthy of your time.