Everything is Political

[rischka]

hilarious that they'd rather pretend they blew it up themselves by accident than credit UKR. and now all their ships are moving further off shore.

[niminy-piminy]

the cruiser Moskva starting a special underwater military operation (everything going to plan!)

[rischka]

https://twitter.com/poppy_haze/status/1 ... esZzFydSwQ

incredible

[niminy-piminy]

now, godless fishes gonna nibble on it.
blasphemy!
nuke the fishes!

[rischka]

https://twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews/stat ... DPppw&s=19

Russian media pretty upset abt this. That's nikita mikhalkov calling for total war against ukraine.. no more special op!

[rischka]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Bortko

Not mikhalkov - it's this guy

Sry. Nikita i apologize for misinformation!

[niminy-piminy]

viva acid communism!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenin_was_a_mushroom

Lenin was a mushroom (Russian: Ленин — гриб) was a highly influential televised hoax by Soviet musician Sergey Kuryokhin and reporter Sergey Sholokhov. It was first broadcast on 17 January 1991 on Leningrad Television.

The hoax took the form of an interview on the television program Pyatoe Koleso (The Fifth Wheel). In the interview, Kuryokhin, impersonating a historian, narrated his findings that Vladimir Lenin consumed large quantities of psychedelic mushrooms and eventually became a mushroom himself. Kuryokhin arrived at his conclusion through a long series of logical fallacies and appeals to the authority of various "sources" (such as Carlos Castaneda, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Konstantin Tsiolkovsky), creating the illusion of a reasoned and plausible logical chain.

The timing of the hoax played a large role in its success, coming as it did during the glasnost period when the ebbing of censorship in the Soviet Union led to many revelations about the country's history, often presented in sensational form. Furthermore, Soviet television had, up to that point, been regarded by its audience as conservative in style and content. As a result, a large number of Soviet citizens (one estimate puts the number at 11.3 million audience members) took the deadpan "interview" at face value, in spite of the absurd claims presented.

Sholokhov has said that perhaps the most notable result of the show was an appeal by a group of party members to the Leningrad Regional Committee of the CPSU to clarify the veracity of Kuryokhin's claim. According to Sholokhov, in response to the request one of the top regional functionaries stated that "Lenin could not have been a mushroom" because "a mammal cannot be a plant." Modern taxonomy classifies mushrooms as fungi, a separate kingdom from plants.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals ... C94C60CFC7

A Parasite from Outer Space: How Sergei Kurekhin Proved That Lenin Was a Mushroom

In 1991, Leningrad television broadcast a program that has since become infamous. The program's guest, Sergei Kurekhin, claiming to be a political figure and scientist, conducted an elaborate hoax that he presented as a serious historical exploration into the origins of the Bolshevik revolution. Using visual, textual, and scientific evidence, Kurekhin argued that the revolution was led by people who had been consuming hallucinogenic mushrooms. As a result, their personalities were being replaced by mushroom personalities, and their leader, Vladimir Lenin, was simply a mushroom. This fact, according to Kurekhin, shed new light on many enigmas of Soviet history. Millions of viewers were at a loss: were they witnessing a serious program, a daring prank, a case of unprecedented lunacy? In this article, Alexei Yurchak analyzes that remarkable comedic performance, its social and political effects then and now, and what it may contribute to our understanding of the relationship between politics and irony.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/l ... oax-russia?

How Vladimir Lenin Became a Mushroom
The fake news that took the former Soviet Union by storm.

The world has its fair share of out-there conspiracy theories, but in the waning days of the Soviet Union, its citizens were introduced to one of the more ridiculous theories ever proposed: that, before he died, Vladimir I. Lenin had literally turned into a mushroom.

It was the middle of 1991, mere months before the collapse of the USSR, when this strange concept managed to gain a shockingly strong foothold in the popular consciousness of the Soviet people. The whole affair was a work of beautiful absurdity, and because it came at a time of incredible cultural change in Russia, it likely had a far larger impact than its orchestrators ever imagined.

“Until that year, it was 1991, it was very difficult to imagine that kind of hoax,” says Alexei Yurchak, an associate professor of socio-cultural and linguistic anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. An accomplished Russian media scholar, Yurchak is the author of the essential essay on the event, A Parasite From Outer Space: How Sergei Kurekhin proved that Lenin was a mushroom. “The fact that he did it with Lenin made the hoax work. If he had used somebody else, it wouldn’t be feasible, but because it was Lenin, it was so hard to believe that this was a hoax.”

The Lenin-Mushroom hoax was the work of the musician-artist-performer Sergei Kuryokhin. The multi-hyphenate performance artist had been putting together provocative music and theater pieces since the 1970s, and was best known by the early 1990s for his group Pop-Mekhanika, a sort of noise orchestra that smashed together the sounds of rock ‘n’ roll, classical, live animals, and whatever else happened to be of passing interest. Kuryokhin created Pop-Mekhanika in the 1980s under the noses of the Soviet culture police, and gained a measure of fame among arty underground rabble-rousers. Whatever relative obscurity he still had came to an end on May 17, 1991, however, when he debuted his Lenin Was a Mushroom hoax on the Leningrad Television show Pyatoe Koleso (The Fifth Wheel).

Hosted by the film critic and journalist Sergei Sholokhov, The Fifth Wheel was an investigative television program not unlike 60 Minutes in the U.S. Born during the turbulent era of perestroika and glasnost, when relaxed regulations led to an opening up of Russian culture, the show was seen by its millions of viewers as a refreshing source of journalism and facts that had been kept from the public eye for so long. “A lot of media in perestroika was this sort of investigative journalism about the previous history. New facts surfaced, and there were new understandings of what had happened in Soviet history,” says Yurchak. “There was a lot of interest in the media, and a lot of people trusted the media, especially people who were not associated with the old media. The new young journalists.”

So when Sholokhov sat down with Kuryokhin in a book-crowded office for a segment called “Sensations and Hypotheses,” viewers assumed they were being presented with yet another piece in the cultural puzzle that was slowly, finally being revealed. “[Sholokhov] was extremely popular. He was one of these young journalists who became stars. They were trusted. They were not seen as someone who was creating superficial stories. They were known as serious, profound, investigatory types of guys,” says Yurchak.

Over the course of an hour, Kuryokhin, playing the part of the verbally precise scholar, built a loosely logical case that Lenin, after consuming a steady dose of psychedelic mushrooms over the course of several years, had at some point himself become a mushroom. Moreover, this transformation may have sparked the Bolshevik Revolution that brought him to power. According to the story presented, Kuryokhin had been traveling in Mexico when he came across some art associated with an early 20th century worker’s revolution that nearly mirrored images from the October Revolution of 1917. This, he continued, was proof of some kind of simultaneous parallel thinking, nearly an entire world apart, which he theorized could not be a coincidence. The common factor? Psychedelics.

Correlating the existence and use of hallucinogenic mushrooms in both Russia and Mexico, Kuryokhin posited that drugs had ultimately inspired the successful propaganda of the Russian revolution. In fact, Lenin had consumed so many mushrooms that their fungal “consciousness” had completely consumed him in return. By the end, Kuryokhin put it plainly, saying, “I have absolutely irrefutable proof that the October Revolution was carried out by people who had been consuming certain mushrooms for many years. And these mushrooms, in the process of being consumed by these people, had displaced their personalities. These people were turning into mushrooms. In other words, I simply want to say that Lenin was a mushroom.” He also made references to mushrooms being made out of radio waves, as if he didn’t already sound crackpot enough.

Included in the “proof” Kuryokhin offered to back up his hypothesis was some correspondence between Lenin and Stalin where the elder leader states that he felt good after eating some mushrooms; an unidentified, mushroom-like object found in pictures of Lenin in his study; and a ludicrous diagram comparing the famous armored car from which Lenin gave an influential speech to the root structure of a psychedelic mushroom. Kuryokhin presented an array of archival photos and old documentary footage, each one supposedly pointing to a clue that backed up his theory. But he moved on so quickly from each one that many viewers couldn’t tell that everything he was saying was utter nonsense. As Yurchak points out in his essay, Kuryokhin used real artifacts and photos to give credence to the ludicrous context he was attributing to them.

Sholokhov supported this act by sitting in stone-faced, rapt attention as Kuryokhin laid out his hoax. He even added a pre-recorded interview he did with an actual mycologist about psychedelic mushrooms, which did not mention anything about the Lenin angle.

Played completely straight, the bizarre program received a wide variety of reactions from a baffled public. In his essay, Yurchak, who interviewed a number of viewers in the early 1990s, writes, “While very few people claimed to have instantly recognized the program as a hoax, most remembered being perplexed, shaken, and uncertain about what to make of it.”

Some were initially inclined to believe the hoax outright, thanks to a mix of inherent trust of televised media and disbelief that anyone would fiddle with the legacy of a figure such as Lenin. Yurchak says that it wasn’t that the viewing audience was any more or less gullible than they are today, it’s just that people, everywhere in the world, have a tendency to believe what the TV says. “Often people don’t know there is evidence, but they assume there is evidence because otherwise they wouldn’t be talking about it. If there was something in the media, there must be something to it.” Others saw the show for the daring, provocative prank that it was, and had a good laugh. Many were just confused. “For weeks afterwards, millions of people were in limbo, like ‘what happened?’”

As shared in Yurchak’s essay, according to an account given by Sholokhov in a 2008 interview with the Russian women’s magazine Krestyanka, the day after the Kuryokhin episode aired, a group of Bolshevik veterans approached an official at the Leningrad Regional Party Committee and demanded to know whether it was true that Lenin had been a mushroom. Incredulous, she replied that the story had to be false, “Because a mammal cannot be a plant.”

Yurchak ultimately casts doubt about the veracity of Sholokhov’s story, but it speaks to the tenor of the hoax’s reception. The Lenin Was a Mushroom prank had forced viewers to stop and think about whether or not what they were hearing on television was true. Glasnost policies had renewed many people’s trust in their televisions, and Kuryokhin’s stunt forced millions to question not just the news, but the popular conception of Lenin as well. Plus, it made a lot of people laugh.

After the hoax aired, Kuryokhin earned national fame. In 1995, he began supporting the anti-liberal commentator Aleksandr Dugin, putting on a free concert in support of the man’s run for local office. According to Yurchak, who knew and spoke with Kuryokhin, this was another ironic provocation in response to a kind of starry-eyed neo-liberalism that was taking hold in the country, rather than evidence of Kuryokhin actually supporting Dugin’s ideas. In Yurchak’s essay, he writes, “[Kuryokhin] did not believe in absolute truth let alone in the idea of having unique access to it.” Kuryokhin died suddenly in July of 1996 of a rare cardiac sarcoma. At the time, some observers wondered if his untimely death was just another of his performances.

Decades later, Kuryokhin’s hoax is still remembered in Russian culture. While younger generations may not be immediately aware of the event, Yurchak says that the term “Lenin was a mushroom” is still used in common parlance, even if those using it aren’t aware of its origins. “When the discussions about the fate of Lenin’s body, or the fate of Lenin’s teachings resurface, which happens every year around the time of his birthday in April, they often joke about Lenin being a mushroom. They put it inside the different types of characterizations of Lenin, and it will be one of the jocular comments someone will crack.”

Kuryokhin’s hoax came out at just the right time, in just the right way, a feat that Yurchak says probably couldn’t happen again today. “We don’t have in Russia, or in the West, a situation where there are certain types of discourse or figures that are off limits for critical, ironic investigation. Where you can exploit that lack to create a hoax.” The debates about Lenin’s legacy continue to this day, but the debate over whether or not he is a mushroom is still far more entertaining.

[Lencho of the Apes]

Of course he's a mushroom, everybody knows that!

Reminds me of this, which synchronically I bookmarked last night and went back to just minutes ago:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... -theorists

[sally]

i don't care for his politics but i would vote for that chest hair

https://twitter.com/youngvulgarian/stat ... 0259271684

[sally]

also appreciate the real-time war poetry that seems to be sprouting in my feeds. everyone seems to be at it but i have a soft spot for george

https://twitter.com/george_szirtes/stat ... 6067204107

[sally]

although what the fuck, they need to take this guy's nobel prize back

https://twitter.com/kamilkazani/status/ ... 1247710210

[sally]

https://twitter.com/aljwhite/status/1520401446105137152

[rischka]

https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/1 ... isV01k30aA

we're doomed

[rischka]

what did i say (for the last ten years while people told me i was hysterical)

[Lencho of the Apes]

Was it about Trump, or Greenwald, or Chomsky?

It's fine to be shocked and horrified about the poor Ukrainians just like the Western power structure wants you to be, but they''re not suffering more than Syrians, Somalians, etc ad nauseum have suffered at USA's hands, and I'm not seeing nearly enough pushback against the warfare--class "deciders" in USA that have carefully, step by step, manipulated Ukraine into a position that Russia would perceive as threatening to them. If that makes me a fascist like Greenwald, I'm okay with that, he's about the most antifa fascist I can think of.

PS: I'll admit that seeing Trump described as "a statesman of stature" took me aback more than a little bit.

[niminy-piminy]

class "deciders" in USA that have carefully, step by step, manipulated Ukraine into a position that Russia would perceive as threatening to them.

this ↑ is a Kremlin narrative.
in the CEE region practically every country has got the first-hand experience with either a Kremlin invasion or with a puppet regime installed by Kremlin (i.e. with the Kremlin imperialism).
no need for the intricate USA psyop to trigger the "anti-RuZZian" sentiments in the RuZZian "buffer zone".
especially these days, when the Kremlin-related pundits and Kremlin representatives make all those threats about the possibility of easily nuking anyone and everyone within a few seconds makes it clear that the buffer zone that would make RuZZia "feel safe" is nonsense.
imperialist RuZZia is wagging neo-colonial genocidal war in Ukranine just to humiliate/rape "the brothers & sisters" who don't want to be part of the empire (with the Kremlin's supremacy).

While Chomsky has been a clear and much-needed critic of American imperialism over the last 50 years, his reluctance to recognize similarly imperialistic inclinations in Vladimir Putin’s Russia has been frustrating to many of his admirers.

[wba]

Exactly!
Russia is doing what the USA are doing - yes, the USA have been doing it on a far bigger scale during the past 100 years, but that's not because of a lack of trying on Russia's side (as Jiri points out, soooo many countries/peoples have been invaded and "russified" by Kremlin over the past 200, 300 years, at a time when Britain, France and Spain were "genociding" the "Indios" on the Americas (which the USA gleefully continued on its territory).
We should realize that Putin is as good as Bush/Obama/Trump/Biden when it comes to propaganda in regards to his "peace missions" over the world.

[rischka]

also (sorry) i was specifically referencing the leaked opinion re: roe v wade. no surprise as it's been their goal for years even though a majority supports abortion rights. LGBTQ next, we're already seeing it in regards to trans people

[rischka]

fascism is here and we need to pull together or we're toast. sorry lencho

[rischka]

i'll stop now as i don't want to drive more people away from our yet fragile site

[rischka]

huge win for christofascism

[rischka]

Was it about Trump, or Greenwald, or Chomsky?

it was about roe v wade. also greenwald is seen regularly yucking it up on tucker's white power hour. i feel bad for chomsky being used like this; he's 93! leave him alone

[rischka]

we could close this thread again if it's a problem

[Pretentious Hipster]

I am pro-Ukraine, but there's this one idiot on YouTube who is so dumb that I unsubscribed from people I like just so I won't hear about his takes secondhand. He was right about the war starting, and thinks he's better than everyone else because the more politically aware thought a war wasn't gonna happen. Imagine hating Russia so much that these are some of your takes:

- Russia's imperialism is worse than America's. Not only that, but America doesn't do "violent imperialism"
- Moralizing the use of nuclear war. It won't be THAT bad. The west will survive and Russia will be eliminated.
- Macron is the only GOOD choice. Le Pen and Melenchon are the same.
- Boris Johnson is better than Corbyn. Why? Boris visited Kiev, while Corbyn didn't. You know, it has nothing to do with the fact that Boris is the prime minister while Corbyn isn't even the member of the Labour party.

[niminy-piminy]

for me it is hard to follow "roe v wade" or "greenwald" discourse cuz i have no clue who are these guys (am not that familiar with USA politics) but i get pretty irritated if CEE is treated as a "buffer zone" of RuZZia (in the worldwide imperialist "chess").
it is pretty humiliating to be painted as a shield that is supposed to make Kremlin "feel safe".
it is none of Kremlin's business if Bohemians (Ukrainians, Poles, Slovaks, Slovenes, etc., etc.) join NATO or make a pact with the devil or do whatever else stupidity.
RuZZians should mind their own vast territory and make it exemplary (before coming into CEE as invaders and giving (unsolicited) advice on how to govern gangster-style).

i am in favor of keeping this thread!
we should discuss politics (hockey, cats, birds, etc.) alongside discussing the movies.
i consider this thread to be a vital part of this forum!

[niminy-piminy]

i certainly have issues with ppl like Biden, Macron, Johnson, etc.
but if facing the gangster psychopaths like Putin, Trump, Lukashenka, etc. i am okay to make a (temporary) alliance with the first mentioned to resist the second.
yes, it is pretty annoying, it is pretty demoralizing, i am losing my ideals, but Putin, Trump, Lukashenka (and alike) NO WAY!

[sally]

I must admit I have been a little surprised by some Americans making Ukraine all about America. Rather than, you know, Ukraine.

[Pretentious Hipster]

It's a longish video, but it seems to be a well-done video at least, with tons of sources. Anyone here can support these claims?

If you just want a summary, apparently Zelenskyy was the catalyst that caused the war. The presidents before were pro-Russia, but he was the most populist president that was going to change its system. It pissed Putin off, and he tried to find a way to change that, which ended up being a war.

Also mentioned that Putin was a godsend compared to Yeltsin, which makes total sense to me tbh, and that Viktor Yanukovych was fascist and even had neo-nazis high up in his office. If that is true, then Putin using fascism as an excuse makes even less sense. The oligarchs of Ukraine had Russian connections too apparently.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LL4eNy4FCs8

[niminy-piminy]

from my pov, the main flaw of the video is the acceptance that Russia has some sort of "right" to have a "buffer zone" in CEE.
and the moment CEE countries (brainless pawns on the superpowers' chessboard) joined NATO (being manipulated by the USA — instead of abiding by the goodwill of the Big Eastern Brother), this particular "right" has been "violated".
and thus RuZZia has "no other option" than invading CEE (and committing all kinds of atrocities) to restore the "balance & peace" — and the USA is (at first place) responsible for this CEE mess.

to me, it is a typical abuser's tale — an abuser being "forced (by others) to abuse".
and the guy in the video is not addressing that (besides making all kinds of reasonable claims).

whenever watching a video like this, i feel like...
Kremlin's troops should (fucking) go home (no conditions!) and then i am fine to argue about the evils of capitalism and imperialism — but not about some sort of a "right" of Kremlin gangsters to control the CEE (because it is (supposedly) their rightful buffer zone).

[Pretentious Hipster]

Making all kinds of reasonable claims? I guess my opinion still stands that this is easily the best video made by a younger political youtuber LOL