The New Red Scare, Same as the Old, minus the Communism

So here we are 2016, but with the way things are going, you'd think it was the 1950's again. Oh and before some smart ass comments, yes I'm fully aware the red in red scare represents communism not Russia. Don't be so damn literal, moving on.

Why do I say that? Well Russia this, Russia that. They've started becoming the new/old boogeyman again. Just without the communism.

Now I'm not saying Russia doesn't have an intelligence agency, but it seems to me pretty damn convenient that the more people stop playing ball with what the establishment feeds us, the more Russia is suddenly responsible for our perceptions. It can't possibly be anything wrong at home. We just don't understand, it's that damn Russian Propaganda. Russia aren't saints, but neither is our government.

So we're left with a choice, do we trust the government has been our friend the story they want us to swallow, and big bad Russia is feeding us lies and everything is hunky dory? Or do we believe what many of us have seen with our own eyes and felt with our own hearts, that something is seriously wrong with our government and the corruption we see is true?

Much of this new red scare, same as the old, is a boogeyman to scare us into submission and convince us to hide behind our governments pant leg while they scare away the big bad Russians. They can't use terrorism this time, so we're dusting off an old favorite, back to the Russians. Control through fear, create an atmosphere of plausible deniability for our government. We need to counter that damn Russian propaganda, the media isn't biased or controlled, it's just not Russian controlled, get your media somewhere else it's the Russians. Oh you think we're doing something you don't like, naw, you've just fallen for Russian propaganda again, everything's fine. Corruption, breaking the law, once again Russian propaganda squeaky clean here. Someone other than us uncovered something we didn't want you to know, once again, it's the Russians, really them dastardly devils are around every corner. Wait we're doing things that step on your rights, we apologize but it's for the greater good, you see, it's them damn Russians again.

So we're going back to the days of McCarthyism just cutting out the commie red devil part and going pure Russia this time. Russia may be responsible for many of the things it's accused of, but always remember, so are we. Let's not ignore that we have our own propaganda machine. Is Russian propaganda out there? Sure, but our MSM well that's largely US propaganda and legally so. So when MSM says something or our government body says something, always question, is this the truth, or what they want us to believe? Is this actually Russia, or a scare tactic? Look deeper at who benefits most by what's being said.

Remember the only words the government wants us to hear are their own.

a reply to: Puppylove

I thought Russia was our friend and ISIS was the enemy.

Dammit!

Nelson Madela'd again!

I was so happy when the cold war thawed in my younger years.

There is so much that intrigues me about Russia and it's people.

It pains me to see both our countries at odds. I place the blame squarely at the feet of the current administration. I do hope things improve.

Honestly, I look at the current Russia, and I really think that will be the US in about twenty years if the US doesn't go all suicidal. They took some hard knocks but came back in better shape for it.

Meanwhile, we are propped up on a fairy-tale of our own worldly prowess. The bubble will burst eventually, and the US will need a friend like Russia, but we will be all alone in a world of countries that we took a huge steaming dump on.

ETA, I'm probably a Russian propagandist though because I drive a Ural.

a reply to: DBCowboy

We have one of those on again off again relationships. Long periods of finger pointing and gossiping and outright lying about each other followed by short periods of violent hate sex.

It seems the brief bedroom intermission is over and we're going back to the cold shoulders, finger pointing and gossiping, and lying again.

a reply to: Bobaganoosh

I like to think a lot of us aren't so ready to jump back into the old saddle again. It's old, ugly, and frankly worn out.

Frankly the government can suck it, I'm not going there.

a reply to: Puppylove

Oh man.

We're J-Lo.

But seriously, I think we're pointing at Russia to distract from looking too closely here at home.

They need an enemy to point fingers at for everything that goes wrong, and it's not racist to blame the Russians because they're white.

It's the MSM

It's the "Blue Scare"

a reply to: xuenchen

But Blue is such a soothing peaceful color unlike Red.

a reply to: ketsuko

Cheezus!

I really think you may be on to something there. Never once looked at it in that way, but that makes way too much sense.

originally posted by: Puppylove
a reply to: xuenchen

But Blue is such a soothing peaceful color unlike Red.

That's how they hypnotize the population.

originally posted by: Bobaganoosh
a reply to: ketsuko

Cheezus!

I really think you may be on to something there. Never once looked at it in that way, but that makes way too much sense.

I wish I was fully joking with that, but look at the our mass media - the villains Hollywood uses are usually somehow white. It is politically incorrect to feature Arabs as pure villains, but you can do Russians and Nazis with abandon.

a reply to: ketsuko

Wesley Snipes is demolition man, one bad ass black villain Yay thought of one.

Oh wait has to be Arab? Not just non white... hrm... May have jumped the gun... I'm not big on action movies... anyone else got an Arab example?

a reply to: Puppylove

Russia has been very active in trying to restore it's borders, basically their geopolitical strategy calls for being surrounded by an array of weak buffer states so that no one can sneak attack them through a land border, Their nation is also built to collapse inward in the event of a siege, it's basically a series of concentric rings expanding out, the buffer states are the final ring. Putin is trying to reestablish them.

Additionally, in order to get Europe's cooperation on this front, he uses Russian oil and natural gas which supply heat to most of Europe through the winter. The US has been in a low grade trade war with Russia for the past couple years now. We want to remove their influence in Russia and we're doing it by using the results of fracking to supply Europe without Russian interference. This is the real reason we're fracking for oil.

Hillary wants to continue with this plan. Free Europe so they can do the dirty work of containing Russia's westward ambitions. Trump wants to try something different... befriend Putin so that we're not rivals. Historically, that hasn't worked out well though because once one leader is out of power the old tensions return. In the case of Trump that means his plan is only good for 4 or 8 years and that's only if it works in the first place.

originally posted by: Puppylove
a reply to: xuenchen

But Blue is such a soothing peaceful color unlike Red.

The raging bull hates red for a reason. That is why it points finger to the Reds.

a reply to: Puppylove

The bad guys in Taken are Islamic.

There are war movies set in the ME; however, many of them mitigate the villainy by introducing shades of gray.

I am talking about uncomplicated good v. evil narratives.

You have Jafar in Aladdin, but pretty much all of the characters are Middle Eastern.

So our policy is # peace and cooperation it's too complicated because the next president might have a stick up their ass when it comes to Russia? Am I understanding this right?

originally posted by: ketsuko
a reply to: Puppylove

The bad guys in Taken are Islamic.

There are war movies set in the ME; however, many of them mitigate the villainy by introducing shades of gray.

I am talking about uncomplicated good v. evil narratives.

You have Jafar in Aladdin, but pretty much all of the characters are Middle Eastern.

What you mention is part of it, another part is that Russian's like being the bad guys (just look at every season of 24). It makes them feel good to antagonize the west. That it's not racist to use them is a plus, but not the only reason. Being a historical enemy/rival plays into it far more.

originally posted by: Aazadan

originally posted by: ketsuko
a reply to: Puppylove

The bad guys in Taken are Islamic.

There are war movies set in the ME; however, many of them mitigate the villainy by introducing shades of gray.

I am talking about uncomplicated good v. evil narratives.

You have Jafar in Aladdin, but pretty much all of the characters are Middle Eastern.

What you mention is part of it, another part is that Russian's like being the bad guys (just look at every season of 24). It makes them feel good to antagonize the west. That it's not racist to use them is a plus, but not the only reason. Being a historical enemy/rival plays into it far more.

Yes, but you better believe that the moment it become impolitic for some reason to portray them that way, it would all come to a screeching halt.

Look at what happened to the Red Dawn reboot which actually started with the far more plausible idea of the Chinese invading until they got offended and it was suddenly impolitic to make a movie about invading Chinese.

I remember all the talk about the peace dividend around 1990 (Supposedly the money Western governments would save by not having to build up forces to face off against the Red Army in Europe).

I don't think it ever did materialise and probably never would have, since the arms industry is such a massive employer and huge part of the stock market.

This is just more of the same, keeping things balanced so we all need to maintain the weapons platforms needed to deal with the renewed "threat".

Of course, actually disarming would probably make the hawks in Putin's cabinet think it was worth the risk to push things, but that's just a guess.