F**king Mondays: "Oceania Had Always Been At War With Eastasia"
The latest installment of your favorite column is now out!
Apologies for the lack of the lack of “F**king Mondays” columns these past few weeks. I’m now feeling much, much better after my anemia diagnosis so should be back on track going forward. As I mentioned in the podcast this past weekend, I greatly appreciate the concern Banter readers have shown. We really do have a wonderful community of readers and listeners!
Elon vs New York Times
In another episode of “what stupid f**king thing did Elon Musk do now”, the chief twit has decided in his infinite wisdom to remove the “verified” badge from the nation’s most prestigious newspaper, The New York Times. The paper declared it would not pay for Twitter Blue services, so Musk is personally ensuring its removal. Via the Washington Post:
The move continues Musk’s years-long grudge against U.S. journalists who have reported critically on him, and it will raise the risks of impersonation. It also contradicts an internal plan, first reported by the Times on Thursday, to keep the badges on for the 10,000 most-followed organizations, regardless of whether they paid.
Twitter had said that it would begin winding down its traditional verification program starting Saturday, removing the blue check mark icons it had for years applied to the accounts of verified companies, journalists and public figures.
In its place, Twitter is implementing a pay-for-play system that would give the badge to anyone who pays for it — money the company desperately needs to make up for its plunging advertising revenue and billions of dollars in debt. Twitter Blue will cost users about $8 a month, while businesses wanting verification will be charged $1,000 a month.
For all its faults, the Times plays a critical role in holding power to account in America. By downgrading its status on Twitter, their stories will have less impact and disinformation sites paying Musk will have more. This will create an entirely new environment on the platform that segregates users according to who will and won’t pay the erratic billionaire.
If you had any doubt as to what this means, Musk spelled it out in a tweet directed at the Times, saying “their propaganda isn’t even interesting”.
So Paul Pelosi conspiracy theories from right wing disinformation sites good, New York Times articles bad:
We’re not paying for verification at The Banter either, so we can now add Twitter to the list of giant tech corporations throttling our ability to reach our followers for no good reason.
Fox “journalism” in a nutshell
This exchange was extraordinary:
Even when he is spoon fed questions to make him look sane and normal, Trump just can’t do it. He’s about to face a judge and jury in his upcoming Stormy Daniels trial, so one can only imagine how badly it is going to go. Anyone want to be Trump’s lawyer? Is Rudy Giuliani sober yet? Anyone?
Putin wants a “forever war”
Dictators are never patriots and never, ever do what is in the best interests of their citizens. Instead, they pursue policies that they believe will increase or consolidate their power irrespective of the misery they cause.
Pjotr Sauer and Andrew Roth argue that Vladimir Putin’s new strategy in his failed invasion of Ukraine is to prepare his country for a never ending conflict that only he can navigate:
More than a year into an invasion that, according to Russian planning, was supposed to take weeks, Vladimir Putin’s government is putting society on a war footing with the west and digging in for a multi-year conflict.
Speaking at length to workers at an aviation factory in the Buryatia region recently, Putin once again cast the war as an existential battle for Russia’s survival.
“For us, this is not a geopolitical task, but a task of the survival of Russian statehood, creating conditions for the future development of the country and our children,” the president said.
It followed a pattern of recent speeches, said the political analyst Maxim Trudolyubov, in which the Russian leader has increasingly shifted towards discussing what observers have called a “forever war” with the west.
“Putin has practically stopped talking about any concrete aims of the war. He proposes no vision of what a future victory might look like either. The war has no clearcut beginning nor a foreseeable end,” Trudolyubov said.
The Putin government is now in full dictatorship mode pumping out 24/7 propaganda designed to indoctrinate Russians into believing their country is being attacked, that Ukraine is spreading Nazism throughout Europe, and that every Russian must embrace endless war. Putin clearly sees two ways to keep himself in power. The first is to outlast the West and hope that Republicans win in 2024 and pull funding for Ukraine’s defense. He grinds out a slow, gruesome victory with tangible territorial gains and declares Russia the winner.
The second is that the war really does never end, and Russia, Ukraine and the West continue spending billions of dollars and thousands of lives on the conflict. War economies can be enormously beneficial to countries, and leaders are rarely deposed in the midsts of battle. Because Oceania was at war with Eastasia. Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia.
Banter you might have missed
The latest episode of Banter Roundtable podcast is now out. We had a lot of fun on this one: Did Someone Get Indicted?
And for all you wonderful Banter Members you get to hear the very NSFW Emergency Meeting Podcast: Bob Cesca Is A V-Neck Wearing Viral Super Star!
My article on why Republicans refuse to vote for gun control and the only way to create changed has now been unlocked: (Read for free) The Politics Of Dead Children
Bob Cesca’s piece for Members is also a must read: It’s Not Just American Guns, It’s The American Gun Culture
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So glad to hear you’re feeling better, Ben. And to see that Fucking Mondays are still coming.