ABOVE (Official caption) —On Feb 28, before the opening night performance of Verdi's Don Carlos, the audience observed a moment of silence, followed by the Ukrainian national anthem, performed by the Met Orchestra and Chorus and conducted by Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Videography by Pete Scalzitti / Met Opera. 

Doubling down on the Big Lie.

With literally tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of operatives, the US-controlled global propaganda system clearly has no match in history and no financial or ethical boundaries.

This is a machine that incorporates just about anyone and anything capable of influencing and twisting reality for the benefit of a transnational global oligarchy of uber capitalists sitting atop what they euphemistically call "the West". The parts of this mechanism are somewhat interchangeable and complement one another. Hollywood? Check. The world's major media—TV networks big and small, radio, and legacy press? Check. Social media and Big Tech? Check.  The entire political classes and the hangers-on and hacks running the capitalist "democracies"? Check. The West's religious establishment, including, of course, the Vatican? Check again. The so-called left, from liberals to socdems and the synthetic left, plus assorted 5th columnists? Check, check. The "human rights industry"? Check! (This is one of the most insidious as it provides "authoritative" fodder for the propaganda mill). In fact, they have even enlisted the Nobel prizes, not to mention the Oscar Awards, to give further credence to their lies. We can go on but you get the point. 

Since we are talking here about the global plutocracy's megaphone, ably directed by an army of hidden persuaders, the money and resources—public and private—for the manufacturing of elaborate lies are inexhaustible.  In 1984 Orwell envisioned a shameless tyranny with a "Ministry of Truth" in charge of manufacturing lies and escapist fantasies 24/7.  Orwell, who despite his participation in the Spanish Civil War as an anarchist sympathizer was actually no real lefty (but a reactionary snitch who made a blacklist of leftists for the British government), aimed 1984 and his equally famous satire Animal Farm at the Soviet Union. Orwell thought —or asked us to believe—that in the Soviet Union mankind had met the ultimate perfidy. He was alarmingly wrong then and he would be triple wrong today, if, surmounting his class prejudices and temperament,  he had examined with equanimity the true history of the world since the end of WW2, and the consequent rise of the Anglo-American empire to global supremacy.  It's possible that under such circumstances even Orwell might have been shocked at the sheer degree of totalitarian thought-control exhibited by the "free" West. Not to mention the depth and galactic dimensions of cynicism and hypocrisy underwriting this civilisation's entire communications apparatus.

We know that the 20th century was bad in terms of propaganda, that it was the century when, along with the emergence of p.r., marketing and advertising, new pathological and highly effective forms of mass manipulation were normalised as good and proper for the management of democracy. The advent of the Internet, global television, etc., however, magnified the reach and effect of expert propaganda, better called, I think, disinformation. So this explains why in the last 25 years we keep witnessing one wave of obsessive saturation propaganda after another, all originating in the Anglo-dominated imperialist "West". Some of these paroxysmal waves—i.e., the deaths of Princess Diana (1997) and Anna Nicole Smith, a B-actress at best (2007) — have been annoying but relatively harmless outbursts of mass distraction inherent in the commercial DNA of an infantilised spectacle society. But most other unrelenting campaigns have born the stamp of deliberate political manipulation for clear domestic and geostrategic ends. Consider:

• 9/11 & War on Terror

• US War on Iraq

• US War on Libya

• US assault (direct and by proxy) on Syria 

• The shooting down of MH17 (Russia and Donbass republics blamed, but evidence points to Kiev/NATO)

• The poisoning of the Skripals (still disappeared and presumed in British/CIA hands, or six feet under)

• The Russiagate hoax

• Putin's "tyranny" & HR abuses 

• China's "tyranny" and HR abuses

• Russia's "threat" against Europe

• Russia's "invasion" of Ukraine

Several of these campaigns can be seen as mere parts of a hybrid-war super-campaign, like the constant vilification of Russia, China and Iran, all declared, unilaterally by the US empire, to be enemies of the United States and "the free world". It's curious that the US designates as enemies any nation that stubbornly insists on gaining or practicing its sovereignty, something the US hegemon reserves only to itself. Furthermore most if not all these acts and blatant false flags (such as the Skripals and the downing of MH17, blamed instantly and without tangible evidence on Russia and the Donbass rebels) can be construed as the manufacturing of excuses to engage in wider unjust wars—"wars of choice"—a capital crime under Nuremberg Tribunal statutes and deemed absolutely illegal by the United Nations. It's no accident that the attack on Iraq was NOT rubber-stamped by the United Nations (as they had done in prior occasions, notably the Korean War) and Washington had to form a "Coalition of the Willing" to use as a fig leaf.

The list above does not include, of course, the Korean War or Vietnam Wars, two horrific crimes of virtual unparalleled barbarism, nor the manufacturing of consent by various stratagems for divers aggressions against Iran, Nicaragua, Cuba, Indonesia, and other nations, nor, I might add, the entire overarching bubble of lies used to justify the first anti-communist crusade itself, Cold War 101, launched formally by the Anglo-Americans right at the end of WW2, but, in actuality, begun in the wake of the Bolshevik revolution in 1917.  

Russia invades Ukraine --or does it?
Always smug, incurably exceptionalist and therefore jingoist, the empire propaganda effluvia takes different hues according to circumstance. Sometimes it is the cynical or hypocritical element that predominates. Other times it is sanctimony. (A variant of character dishonesty). It probably doesn't matter. The reason is obvious: All of these postures often work in tandem, in an organic whole, seamlessly reinforcing one another, the purpose always being to deceive the target audiences as quickly and effectively as possible. They are all fully fungible. Where does one draw the line between hypocrisy and sanctimony? 

Many people once in the hands of anglo propaganda never recover. They are brainwashed for life. (Just observe how many people have recuperated from the discombobulating Trump derangement syndrome, a mere subset of the national security propaganda under discussion. You can probably count them in the fingers of your left hand). True brainwash, while floated by the Americans as a malign Korean and Chinese commie invention, was actually created by the West, chiefly by the Anglo-Americans, only secondarily by the Germans.  

Let's face it, no one on this planet —not the Germans, not the Italians, not the Japanese, and certainly not the Russians or Chinese, whose old cultural values tend to reject deceit as a normal social currency—can hold a candle to the Anglo-Americans when it comes to manipulation. They are born marketers. Napoleon was right when he called the Brits a nation of merchants and shopkeepers. Dissimulation runs deep in their social interactions. The Italians, regarded by many as born actors, are actually pikers in this regard. Far too obvious.

The operatic dimension
The rendering of garments in the public square, the torrential crocodile tears we witness in the Western media over Moscow's supposed victimisation of "innocent Ukraine", constitute but the latest instance of propaganda carpet-bombing by the West, the target not so much the Russians or Chinese, whom they fortunately cannot influence, but their own captive population. So folks it's hardly surprising to see now that, in a world in which reality and truth have been wholly evicted, most people in the West, including many Europeans we would expect to have a better grasp of political reality, are now joining the bandwagon of hatred against Russia. The mass manipulators have done their job, a job the West could not and would not risk doing militarily (for which inadequacy despite the jingoist braggadocio and the rivers of money thrown at it, we should be grateful!).  In drumming up support for their campaign of vilification against Russia the propagandists have conveniently left out the vital parts of the story—in this case, the backstory—of the Ukraine/Russia relationship. The historical context has been simply excised. 

NOTE: The Zombification of Ukraine by the West was part of a longstanding censorship campaign spearheaded by the CIA-friendly Democrats.
(Many videos and other materials critical of the Western criminal assault on Russia behind false and manufactured pretexts, are being systematically erased by Google and the rest of the Big Tech accomplices of Empire (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. May the world soon see their replacements, ruination, and the punishment of the individuals and entities behind this attack on the Constitutional guarantee of free speech.)

So spare me your tears. Ukraine in 2021, after 8 years of Washington/NATO control,  is neither sovereign (couldn't be as a State Dept. puppet state) nor a democracy. No country can claim to be democratic when it throws its dissenters in jail or worse, shuts down the opposition media, or lets Nazi thugs kill and intimidate the regime's opponents. Oh, did they forget to mention that this new Ukraine is awash in Nazi bullies and that whole Neonazi military formations—like the notorious Azovs— have been officially integrated into the army of the nation? Furthermore, in case you might want, out of sheer decency, to understand Russia's position, it's also a de facto NATO member, as the Kiev regime has naturally allowed the West to stuff the country with all sorts of weapons, including strategic systems potentially capable of a nuclear attack deep into the Russian Federation. Is national security something that only the US and its vassals deserve?

Nazis did and still run much of the Ukraine government. That’s no fiction.

Meanwhile, for those who wonder why Russia's troops are suddenly "bogged down" before so many Ukrainian cities...the Western media only offers shameless fabrications, straight fake news: Russian defeats, high casualties, logistics boondoggles, Russian troop desertions, and so on. All lies. The truth is far simpler. Problem is, you wouldn't know it by using the Western media, because nothing, not a word, is said of the "Russian way of war", which is a way of handling military assets to do the least damage to civilian infrastructure and civilian lives. This military posture has been adopted in Ukraine because the Nazis, like ISIS in the Middle East, has turned much of the civilian population in several cities into human shields, embedding its weaponry throughout the urban landscape, thereby impeding Russian artillery and air attacks from easily dislodging them.  This, as many credible commentators in the alternative, anti-imperialist media have pointed out, (1) is precisely the opposite of the US/NATO way of war, which is virtually indiscriminate and savage in its destructiveness, and often arguably racist, not to mention the very important moral fact that the motives for the Western crusaders' campaigns since the end of WW2 have always been sordid and impure—in pursuit of economic gains, naked landgrabs, or the arbitrary conquest or destruction of Washington's "enemies" after a suitable false flag or equivalent stratagem has been put in motion. "Enemies" —as any decent and well-informed person knows by now—are by definition those who refuse to bend a knee to the imperial mafia. Moreover, Moscow is neither looking to occupy nor destroy Ukraine; its stated goals are clear, rational, and legitimate: merely to disarm it and denazify it, making it into a neutral country, possibly a bridge between East and West, so it does not become a major NATO security threat on her doorstep. Obviously, for peace to return after this hellish 8-year interlude under Washington's tutelage, NATO influence and US entrenchment must come to an end.

All of this is driving the empire nuts, and their media machine is in high dudgeon, fiercely looking for any trick or maneuver to give Moscow a black eye—something Moscow has readily conceded, as it cannot compete with the West in this regard. It just wins battles in the field, and, eventually, perhaps, the approval of a just and sensible humanity.

In conclusion
The above explains, I think, why you are now seeing some extreme examples of disinformation saturation, wall-to-wall pseudo coverage, like this repulsive attempt at manipulation, using none other than NYC's Metro Opera choir to tug at our already preconditioned hearts. Here they are, these misguided artists, tears in their eyes, singing their praises of a Ukraine that does not exist, and, most importantly, which, if they knew the truth, they would probably not support. But how could they possibly know? Even solid establishment figures like Henry Kissinger—no anti-imperialist peace dove—thought playing Ukraine in this manner was dangerous and nonsensical.

US/NATO Provoked Ukraine War Say Most Experts On Russia

It doesn't matter one iota if the well-heeled audience responds with solemn and dignified applause and solidarity. The facts do not change. Ukraine is NOT a democracy. No regime that jails and kills its political opponents and dissidents wholesale; that shuts down the opposition media, that permits Nazi thugs to run wild across the country intimidating those who dare disagree with their Russophobic ultra-nationalist project, can be called a democracy. Certainly not one that allows and encourages these same Neonazi thugs and war criminals to form special battalions to be integrated into the regular national army and conduct “pacification” campaigns on a segment of the population. And, folks, here’s probably the clincher: Ukraine is NOT a sovereign nation either. Since the US-supported coup of 2014, Ukraine is a State Dept. puppet state, enacting a simulacrum of an independent nation. But of course, don’t count on CNN or the New York Times to open your eyes to that grotesque falsification.

What you don't know about the war in Ukraine - #сФилином
(Here YouTube throws another rather obvious hurdle, the screen trying to help protect the public's "tender sensibility" toward gore, etc., something that never bothered in the least the capitalists that promote endless wars and suffering around the globe. So just watch our Rumble version, right under this crippled YouTube vid.)

And this, the ultimate cherry on top—
SNL’S Pathetic Ukraine Virtue Signalling

Mar 1, 2022

About the author

A lifetime student of media, political economics and history, Patrice Greanville is founding (and chief) editor of The Greanville Post.

AND NOW FOR THIS, IN CASE YOU STILL DOUBT UKRAINE IS CRAWLING WITH NAZIS—

Ukrainian paratroopers singing “Our father is Bandera, our mother is Ukraine”. Bandera was the leader of Ukraine’s Nazi organization and murdered over 100,000 Poles and Jews in 1943-1944.

Just in case you still think the Ukrainian military and government isn’t filled with Nazis! pic.twitter.com/NThATvkJZX

— Armani (@historyoarmani2) October 18, 2022

Appendix: Was the Ukraine incursion a mere Putin caprice or a matter of real national security?