Trump's pandemic propaganda comes straight from Putin playbook

[EleanorR]

This authoritarian approach is foreign to America, and specifically to American presidents, all of whom before Trump would've considered it unthinkable to place the population in jeopardy during a national health emergency, and to then lie about it everyday. For longtime Kremlin watchers though, what Trump is doing, and what he's being doing since Inauguration Day 2017, looks quite familiar — he's using the Vladimir Putin playbook, and what observers in Moscow have called the "fog of unknowability."

Clint Watts, a fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute who has studied Russian propaganda for years, sees major similarities between Putin’s and Trump’s approaches. “Create chaos in the system, such that you don’t know what is the truth or not the truth,” he says. The Kremlin does this by flooding television and digital media with biased coverage and wanton spin. The Trump administration has discovered something equally effective: lying to reporters and publicly attacking critics are like tossing grenades into the media eco-system….Once this quagmire—in which truth and lies are knotted up and nothing is incontrovertible—is established, the final aim comes into view. “You don’t even know what is real information anymore, and without that, no one can hold you accountable,” Watts says.

This week in the Washington Post, Putin critic Garry Kasparov noted, "Like most dictatorships, Putin’s regime lies constantly, even when it doesn’t have to. Trump’s tendency to echo autocratic rhetoric is well-established, and the pandemic is no exception."

https://pressrun.media/p/trumps-pandemic-propaganda-comes

Well done trump voters and gop enablers. Tens of thousands of people dead with more to come.

[dalton99a]

1. "The American press has trouble dealing with, and identifying, this brand of propaganda"

This week in the Washington Post, Putin critic Garry Kasparov noted, "Like most dictatorships, Putin’s regime lies constantly, even when it doesn’t have to. Trump’s tendency to echo autocratic rhetoric is well-established, and the pandemic is no exception."

The American press, though, has trouble dealing with, and identifying, this brand of propaganda. Instead of an honest debate about Trump's radical and dangerous behavior, we get coverage that suggests Trump is merely disorganized and mercurial, with the assumption that that, of course, he wants to protect Americans.

"There are signs that he does not fully understand the stakes nor is willing to relegate his own interests in favor of the common good," CNN noted this week. Fact: Every indication suggests Trump does understand the stakes. He just doesn't care.

According to the press in recent days, Trump has "changed his tone," "veered," "sowed confusion," and offered up "conflicted narratives." That's the simplistic, naïve interpretation. That's assuming Trump functions like a typical leader and actually wants to help prevent widespread deaths, and that he mourns our collective loss. Instead, Trump's lack of empathy for the dead in recent weeks represents a hallmark of how authoritarians communicate in public — lives are not valued, and there's no reason to extol the dead.

American journalists should heed the warning of Kremlin watchers if they want to truly understand what's unfolding today.

[SheltieLover]

2. People don't realize this! K&R

TY for posting!

[bdamomma]

3. K&R

Those of us who have a brain, know that all roads lead to Putin.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

4. Covid-19 is currently blowing up in Russia, and probably undercounted. . . . nt

[Hermit-The-Prog]

5. All dictators come to power during crisis, real or implanted as propaganda.