'A strong interest in maintaining a fiction'
Recent attacks by Russia - assassination attempts of a world leader, Russian warship firing on British citizens, targeting civilians in Ukraine - casts long shadow on Kremlin supporters in the West
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I woke up this morning to a message from Marci Shore with the following quote from Czech philosopher Ladislav Hejdánek:
“Všechny podstatné kroky kupředu a výš, na vyšší rovinu byly vždycky nepravděpodobné – jako je ostatně nepravděpodobný všechen život. Pravděpodobné jsou klamy a sebeklamy, omyly i lži – vrcholně nepravděpodobná je pravda. Ale právě na té krajně nepravděpodobné pravdě závisí vposledu všechno. Nadějí nás všech, kteří jsme zatlačováni do bezmocnosti a bezvýchodnosti, je pravda. Těm, kteří nás (a mnoho dalších, vposledu vlastně všechny, i sebe) ohrožují a ničí, se nikdy nevyrovnáme v jejich mocenské výbavě, v jejich propagandistickém aparátu, v jejich materiálním zabezpečení nejrůznějšího druhu. Nemáme ve svých rukou a ve svém rozhodování dokonce ani svou vlastní záchranu, svou osobní, soukromou budoucnost. Ale tam, kde se postavíme do služeb pravdy, existují jen místní a dočasné porážky, kdežto osud těch, kteří se proti pravdě brání a musí se jí bát, je zpečetěn.”—Ladislav Hejdánek, Dopisy příteli, Dopis č. 14, Praha, 26. 5. 1977
Here is the English translation:
“All essential steps forward and upward, to a higher plane, have always been improbable – as is all life itself. Deceit and self-deception, mistakes and lies are probable – truth is supremely improbable. But ultimately everything depends on that extremely improbable truth. The hope of all of us who are pushed into helplessness and hopelessness is truth. We will never be able to match those who threaten and destroy us (and many others, and ultimately all of us, including ourselves) in their power equipment, in their propaganda apparatus, in their material security of various kinds. We do not even have our own salvation, our personal, private future in our hands and in our decisions. But where we place ourselves in the service of truth, there are only local and temporary defeats, while the fate of those who defend themselves against the truth and must fear it is sealed.”—Ladislav Hejdánek, Letters to a Friend, Letter No. 14, Prague, 26 May 1977
The liars who are earth’s scourge today are already sealing their fate.
This quote was the perfect introduction to what I had in mind to write this morning: that those who are still denying Russia’s attacks on the democratic world may have an incentive.
In Part 1 of my Q&A with Russia watcher and author Keir Giles, he explained that those who continue to maintain a fiction about Russia may do so “because it is the guarantee of (their) livelihood.”
He told Bette Dangerous:
“Well, there is, of course, a long tale from Moscow’s very successful efforts to paint themselves as different from the Nazis, through the efforts of the international left, which had an interest in pretending that they were not associated with the totalitarian regime. And so it would buy into the fictions, that these were two different places, that the Soviet Union was benign, and did not have concentration camps. Whereas anybody that cared to look knew perfectly well that they were each as bad as each other.
But, of course, when you have a strong interest in maintaining a fiction, because it is the guarantee of your livelihood, or because, if you don’t, you will challenge the basic principles that you claim that you are standing up for, then, of course, you’re going to turn a blind eye to anything which contradicts the narrative that you bought into.”
Keir is based in the UK, where a Russian warship just fired shots at a retired British couple on a yacht in the English Channel.
This happened on Tuesday, a day after the BBC broke the news that Russia was behind the multiple assassination attempts in the form or arson attacks on Keir Starmer’s properties.
These are just two headlines in thousands, that expose Russia’s ongoing provocations against the West.
On Sunday, British forces seized a sanctioned Russian-linked oil tanker in the English Channel, dealing with Prime Minister Keir Starmer described “another blow to Russia and reminds those fuelling Putin’s war in Ukraine that we will not let them hide.” Just two weeks earlier, France intercepted a sanctioned oil tanker — part of Russia's shadow fleet — with UK support.
These latest events come on top of ongoing Russian sabotage — the deliberate cutting of undersea data and electricity cables in the North Atlantic, Baltic Sea, and near Taiwan — hybrid warfare aimed at testing Western vulnerabilities and response. This, in addition to the drone attacks in EU countries like Poland and Romania, and the increasing use of gig worker espionage.
The upside to the increasing exposés on Russian attacks is there is now enough evidence for even the casual observer that Russia is targeting all remaining democracies — most evident in the war in Ukraine, where soldiers take direct aim at civilians, but also increasingly evident in the Kremlin-aligned regime in the US, which continues offering Moscow and Beijing once undreamed of favors as it behaves like a drunken brawler.
So when you encounter not only denialism of the Russian menace, but also politicians like Marjorie Taylor Greene appearing on RT or Anna Paulina Luna giving tours to the Duma, you might want to consider if their livelihoods are some how reliant on Moscow.
When I decided to go with An ‘Extraordinary Passivity’ as the title of Part 1 of my Q&A with Keir, it was because I wanted to challenge those who are sleepwalking.
The Bette community is a community of action — of doers and defenders. But the enormity of America’s destruction — systematic, methodical, comprehensive, and meticulous — must be met with a scaled up response.
In part, that will include neutralizing the efficacy of Russian propagandists — and not just the obvious ones — Andrew Tate, Candace Owens, Benny Johnson, and Tucker Carlson.
But let’s also take a hard look at JD Vance, Elon Musk, Robert Kennedy Jr, Tulsi Gabbard, Pete Hegseth, and of course, Donald Trump.
The moves they are making are knocking the foundation out from under the US, which is profoundly beneficial to Moscow.
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