16 Comments
Aug 24, 2023Liked by John Birmingham

“Other questions from other activities were answered when his private jet stumbled through high window and into potato field.”

Perfection 😘🤌

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Aug 24, 2023Liked by John Birmingham

Da, da, is good Comrade Birminghamski. But talk truly, that one wrote itself, no? So, so good nonetheless, make me laugh long and hard. Not at Vladymyr, of course.

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We have discussed here the challenge of climate deniers and the Cult of Trump.

A soon-to-be-former mate of mine has become a Tankie. An old socialist leftie, he is inspired by the likes of George Galloway and John Pilger. Using a foundation of dubious ideas: Zelensky is a US puppet, the special operation is purely a response to NATO breaking treaties, the Ukrainian people are duped and 'thrown under a bus' (his favourite phrase), global politics has always been a chess game of US weapons companies.... he has contructed a wonderful alternative reality. Although each of his foundational fallacies is easily disproven, his lack of knowledge about history makes it really hard. And as with all conspiracy nuts, he just switches from one to the other then back to the other.

Too much time on the internet (he moved to Mexico and doesn't speak Spanish), feeding shot algorthims, a tendency to catastrophise (the US and Australia have been about to collapse for the 20 years I have known him), and most of all a refusal to ever mention the name Putin (galloway and Pilger are masters), are central.

I fear that as we lost so much of the working class to fascistic conspiratorial populaism, now parts of the socialist left are being torn away. I can only hope it's a boomer thing, and the kids won't be so easily taken in by the algorithm.

Either way, I feel very tired and wish I had more rational people to talk to.

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Oh man, the Tankies and Ukraine. I remember the first couple of ties I came across this particular brand of insanity. It really made my head go boing. Sorry about your mate. That always hurts.

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Aug 25, 2023Liked by John Birmingham

I have an educated England-born relative who thinks Brexit was a good idea and a rational response to the left 'abandoning' the working class; a full-on Q supervisor at one of my jobs; an otherwise-rational sister (close to power in Canberra) who believes 'woke' is the cause of many ills. . . and now my tankie mate. All have taken a grain of truth to construct a basic world view that amounts to a steaming p[ile of shite.

I used to work in France and have friends there, none of this shit is a thing there AT ALL. And they may hate Macron, but the riots are business as usual, young leftist dispossessed versus cops and a quiet conservative ruling class. It fits an ancient political paradigm. I guess, not too many troll farms, Cambridge Ananlyticas, and Murdochs writing in French.

We have an utter mess (if my own experience and the way events are reported is a reliable indicator).

Don't let me ruin your time away, old bean.

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I used to think Pilger said some useful things, but then he fell down a bit of a rabbit hole. Russia = bad does not automatically mean US = good; we can have an autocracy on one side and a dysfunctional democracy on the other.

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Aug 24, 2023Liked by John Birmingham

Look lampooning the juicy self rationalizations of world leaders (the metaphor Fish, Barrels some assembly required) but I need to hear more about the detailed comeuppance coming in the form of the Collector in the hellish future landscape we, and by we I mean billionares, are busily cultivating to get me through my Friday.

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You’ll be getting them every week I’m away in September and October

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You're not flying are you ?

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Bliss

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Aug 25, 2023Liked by John Birmingham

Spasibo, Comrade. A laugh in the belly is better than anything Yevgeny served up, including himself in the belly of the plane. Vashe zdorov'ye!

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Aug 24, 2023Liked by John Birmingham

Very much so 🤣🤣

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Aug 24, 2023Liked by John Birmingham

Scary. And spot on, I suspect.

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Aug 24, 2023Liked by John Birmingham

Very good.

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You funny man, and like friend Yevgeny you make good with bad words. I wonder if Yevgeny really in potato field or do smoke with mirrors and go away for little while..

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🧡🩷❤️for these words and the fantabulous AI images of the god himself. May he rule forevermoooore ♾️

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