Reddit owners refuse to publish criticism of Putin / Russia quote from Adam Curtis of the BBC from 2014 - lemm.ee
https://old.reddit.com/r/ExplainTheJoke/comments/1kehni8/i_dont_get_it/mqjefua/
[https://old.reddit.com/r/ExplainTheJoke/comments/1kehni8/i_dont_get_it/mqjefua/]
May the 4th Be With You. Content of the unpublished forbidden comment: > it’s
engagement bait, they want people to be confused and comment asking for clarity,
which in turn boosts their post and shows it to more people. That’s how Putin
has run his government and held power for 25 years, endless confusion, Adam
Curtis of the BBC in 2014 called it “Contradictory Vaudeville” politics. Antics
politics. Surreal comedy and absurd humor draw people in to the total mockery,
endless mocking. “In the twenty-first century the techniques of the political
technologists have become centralized and systematized, coordinated out of the
office of the presidential administration, where Surkov would sit behind a desk
on which were phones bearing the names of all the “independent” party leaders,
calling and directing them at any moment, day or night. The brilliance of this
new type of authoritarianism is that instead of simply oppressing opposition, as
had been the case with twentieth-century strains, it climbs inside all
ideologies and movements, exploiting and rendering them absurd. One moment
Surkov would fund civic forums and human rights NGOs, the next he would quietly
support nationalist movements that accuse the NGOs of being tools of the West.
With a flourish he sponsored lavish arts festivals for the most provocative
modern artists in Moscow, then supported Orthodox fundamentalists, dressed all
in black and carrying crosses, who in turn attacked the modern art exhibitions.
The Kremlin’s idea is to own all forms of political discourse, to not let any
independent movements develop outside of its walls. Its Moscow can feel like an
oligarchy in the morning and a democracy in the afternoon, a monarchy for dinner
and a totalitarian state by bedtime.” ― Peter Pomerantsev, Nothing Is True and
Everything Is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia, 2014 “Surkov is
one of President Putin’s advisers, and has helped him maintain his power for 15
years, but he has done it in a very new way. He came originally from the
avant-garde art world, and those who have studied his career, say that what
Surkov has done, is to import ideas from conceptual art into the very heart of
politics. His aim is to undermine peoples’ perceptions of the world, so they
never know what is really happening. Surkov turned Russian politics into a
bewildering, constantly changing piece of theater. He sponsored all kinds of
groups, from neo-Nazi skinheads to liberal human rights groups. He even backed
parties that were opposed to President Putin. But the key thing was, that Surkov
then let it be known that this was what he was doing, which meant that no one
was sure what was real or fake. As one journalist put it: “It is a strategy of
power that keeps any opposition constantly confused.” A ceaseless shape-shifting
that is unstoppable because it is undefinable. It is exactly what Surkov is
alleged to have done in the Ukraine this year. In typical fashion, as the war
began, Surkov published a short story about something he called non-linear war.
A war where you never know what the enemy are really up to, or even who they
are. The underlying aim, Surkov says, is not to win the war, but to use the
conflict to create a constant state of destabilized perception, in order to
manage and control.” - BBC, Adam Curtis, 2014