I know, I know: it’s hard to believe The Wall Street Journal (which I like to refer to, for childish reasons of my own – because that’s just the way I roll – as The Wall Street Urinal) would publish a story gratuitously critical of Russia. But on October 28th, 2014, a day which will live in infamy, I’m afraid that’s exactly what they did. For shame, Wall Street Urinal (thanks for the tip, Cartman).
“Hacking Trail Leads to Russia, Experts Say“. Mmmmm… I’m sure we’re going to want to look at that claim in some detail – but first, let’s talk a little bit about experts, because it is a timely discussion topic which has come up on a couple of occasions already, and it needs a bigger forum. Quite simply, we have arrived at a period in the history of our joint existence on the big blue marble when Mr. Hankey The Christmas Poo could be an expert whose opinion was eagerly sought by journalists, if only he had a laptop, knew how to find the Google search screen, had an opposable thumb and didn’t wear mittens all the time. H.L. Mencken, who had a considerable amount to say on the preoccupation of the American people with elevating to iconic status those who are most like themselves, must be beaming beatifically from his grave. “A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin“, said he. More touchingly – and he could turn his hand to romantic and touching, for he was among the most capable writers of his generation or any other – “If, after I depart this vale, you ever remember me and have thought to please my ghost, forgive some sinner and wink your eye at some homely girl.” My own favourite, which for some reason always makes me think of Alexey Navalny; “An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it makes a better soup.”
But the one for which he is best known, and which is the most widely quoted – “As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”
We’re a little too late to mark the arrival of that glorious moment – by about 13 years – but this phenomenon had a much wider application that just the office of president. Simply put, almost nobody who speaks English as their mother tongue has any regard any more for expertise earned through a lifetime of practice in one’s craft. No; the west – or at least its voice, the western press, is gaga for “reality journalists” like Brown Moses, the Englishman and life-sized dildo who leapt from obscure failed administrative drone at a nonprofit to “one of the world’s foremost weapons experts” in less than a year. Or Rami Abdelrahman, the one-man-show who is The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights, which he runs out of his Coventry home with a laptop and a couple of cell phones. The United Nations consults him, and regularly and uncritically reports his casualty figures in the Syria conflict without checking anything, although he gets his numbers direct from Syrian activists with a vested interest in pumping up the body count so NATO will intervene, in horror. He and Brown Moses share several things in common – neither has any training at all in their present “field of expertise”, neither completed post-secondary education and both broadcast a narrative that has western governments liking the cut of their jib. In Mr. Abdulrahman’s case (actually his name is Osama Sulieman, just as Brown Moses’ name is actually Eliot Higgins), he is subsidized by the European Union.
Complete story at - Russian Hackers Are Fiendishly Smart. Good Thing For America They’re So Stupid. | The Kremlin Stooge
“Hacking Trail Leads to Russia, Experts Say“. Mmmmm… I’m sure we’re going to want to look at that claim in some detail – but first, let’s talk a little bit about experts, because it is a timely discussion topic which has come up on a couple of occasions already, and it needs a bigger forum. Quite simply, we have arrived at a period in the history of our joint existence on the big blue marble when Mr. Hankey The Christmas Poo could be an expert whose opinion was eagerly sought by journalists, if only he had a laptop, knew how to find the Google search screen, had an opposable thumb and didn’t wear mittens all the time. H.L. Mencken, who had a considerable amount to say on the preoccupation of the American people with elevating to iconic status those who are most like themselves, must be beaming beatifically from his grave. “A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin“, said he. More touchingly – and he could turn his hand to romantic and touching, for he was among the most capable writers of his generation or any other – “If, after I depart this vale, you ever remember me and have thought to please my ghost, forgive some sinner and wink your eye at some homely girl.” My own favourite, which for some reason always makes me think of Alexey Navalny; “An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it makes a better soup.”
But the one for which he is best known, and which is the most widely quoted – “As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”
We’re a little too late to mark the arrival of that glorious moment – by about 13 years – but this phenomenon had a much wider application that just the office of president. Simply put, almost nobody who speaks English as their mother tongue has any regard any more for expertise earned through a lifetime of practice in one’s craft. No; the west – or at least its voice, the western press, is gaga for “reality journalists” like Brown Moses, the Englishman and life-sized dildo who leapt from obscure failed administrative drone at a nonprofit to “one of the world’s foremost weapons experts” in less than a year. Or Rami Abdelrahman, the one-man-show who is The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights, which he runs out of his Coventry home with a laptop and a couple of cell phones. The United Nations consults him, and regularly and uncritically reports his casualty figures in the Syria conflict without checking anything, although he gets his numbers direct from Syrian activists with a vested interest in pumping up the body count so NATO will intervene, in horror. He and Brown Moses share several things in common – neither has any training at all in their present “field of expertise”, neither completed post-secondary education and both broadcast a narrative that has western governments liking the cut of their jib. In Mr. Abdulrahman’s case (actually his name is Osama Sulieman, just as Brown Moses’ name is actually Eliot Higgins), he is subsidized by the European Union.
Complete story at - Russian Hackers Are Fiendishly Smart. Good Thing For America They’re So Stupid. | The Kremlin Stooge
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