Here's one of the project members thanking Open Technology Fund on twitter: https://twitter.com/alisonkilling/status/1298938437412810753
Open Technology Fund is part of the US Agency for Global Media. Here's how Wikipedia describes them:
The U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), formerly the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG),[2] is an independent agency of the United States government that operates various state-run media outlets.[3] It describes its mission, "vital to US national interests", to "inform, engage, and connect people around the world in support of freedom and democracy"[4] and in accordance with the "broad foreign policy objectives of the United States".[5] It is considered an arm of US diplomacy.[6]
USAGM supervises Voice of America (VOA), Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio y Televisión Martí, Radio Free Asia, and Alhurra TV and Radio Sawa.[7] The board of USAGM has an advisory role. It previously supervised USAGM media networks directly, but was replaced with a single appointed chief executive officer (CEO) as part of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017, passed in December 2016.[8][9][10][11]
The article itself tries to justify pretty extreme claims based almost entirely on blurry satellite photos, which to me is reminiscent of the successful use of grainy satellite photos as "proof" that Saddam Hussein had WMDs, which was used to justify the invasion of Iraq.
There is a propaganda blitz against China happening right now for the purpose of justifying future sanctions, isolation, and potentially war. I just want to make sure everyone here is aware of what's really going on, because the consequences of this will likely be quite serious.
EDIT: Reading more about the Open Technology Fund specifically. Holy shit:
The Open Technology Fund was created in 2012 as a pilot program within Radio Free Asia.[2][7] Under U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the State Department adopted a policy of supporting global internet freedom initiatives.[8] At this time, RFA began looking into technologies that helped their audiences avoid censorship and surveillance.[8] Journalist Eli Lake argued that Clinton's policy was "heavily influenced by the Internet activism that helped organize the green revolution in Iran in 2009 and other revolutions in the Arab world in 2010 and 2011".[8]
I feel like this definitely deserves a bit more attention.
They’re throwing up everything at the wall and seeing if it sticks. Only really been seeing boomers eat this shit up without a second thought. Some young people too, but most normies don’t care at all or say “wow that’s bad” before moving on to the next thing
The government doesn't need their active consent to start some shit, they just need to be quiet/neutral. Especially if it will be "bipartisan".
Even protests wouldn’t do much as Iraq showed. Most people are the “I don’t pay attention to politics/hate talking about it” type that were going to be quiet anyway. But I’m sure enough people will be suckered in at an acceptable rate to make any actions seem like they’re done from the will of the people
I also think their target audience for this stuff might be Europeans. The group that did this article was (I think) based in Germany, as is Adrian Zenz, who I assume everyone here is familiar with. If they can manipulate the rest of the "international community", it might allow them to use the World Bank, global sanctions, etc. to give the US an economic advantage.
Europe is all in on this. They are completely on board because they prefer a US/Western hegemony to a Chinese one.
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I wouldn't put it past them, but honestly I'm not so sure in this case. China is now Europe's #1 trading partner, and there are some European leaders (like Merkel) who seem much less enthusiastic about isolating China. I think it could go either way, and the purpose of this propaganda blitz might be to try to push them away from China and towards the US.
The BBC has been a constant stream of anti-China hysteria for months now
England is sorta of it's own thing despite being technically part of Europe.
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During the Cameron years there was some movement towards China. Tory politicians teaching their kids Mandarin, doing trade deals and having the Chinese invest in infrastructure like our nuclear power stations, more normalised diplomatic ties etc. Liberals screamed and cried about how authoritarian China was despite knowing that the alternative was being the whipping boy of the US.
Then as the Tory party lurched further right and Boris Johnson took over we went rapidly in the other direction. Largely because Johnson and his wing of the party fucking hated Cameron and were happy to do whatever the opposite of his policy was (think Trump with Obama). Also because the Johnson camp were plugged into the American brainworm industry of think tanks and political operators in a way Cameron's Tories never were. Sure, Cameron's lot liked all the free market, survival of the fittest stuff, but they weren't all in on the insane culture war shit that we've imported wholesale from the US now.
And finally, Brexit & Corbyn. Both saw massive influence campaigns and dirty tricks coming from the US specifically, in order for Brexit to succeed in the former case, and to crush and smear Corbyn in the latter. US political operators, think tanks, technology companies, industrial monopolies, and even intelligence agencies were deeply, deeply involved in securing both those results for the Conservatives. They handed them their two biggest victories and now they're indebted.
For all those reasons the current crop in the UK are happy being an outpost of the US. They want the culture war, they want to replace the UK's traditional 'quiet' authoritarianism with the US's intimidatory fascism, and perhaps most of all they are there purely to asset strip and loot the country for everything they can and they know that the number one buyer - from privatising the NHS to outrageous security contracts - is the good old USofA.
:ukkk: :amerikkka:
Weird. I was under the impression Europe already hated China or just did whatever the us wanted anyway
Gamerghazi swallowed it hook, line, and sinker
Gamerghazi falls into the category of the “some young people” I mentioned. The small but vocal minority that are really into politics and follow every bit of online left drama.
Had to leave that place after sanders spam posters began to infest it.