KGB defector Yuri Bezmenov's warning to America

[MrCinos]

I know it's an old video and many (some) of you arleady seen it, but do you think what he's talking about is more relevant now than even before? Of course Marxist-Leninist propaganda is not used much anymore, but tactics involved especially with the rise of social media remain the same and improved even more.

What institutions and methods exist to combat and prevent this? I assume there should be some since it's been going on for decades. Or is it an overblown issue and shouldn't be taken as seriously?

 

[jelly]

Greed will always leave the US open. When you can make more money who cares.

I think whatever Mueller does, who he actually takes down and how far it goes will be the real defence. Another aspect is generally, education. Help Americans know BS, critical thinking.

 

[Viera]

I'm not sure exactly what he means by the success of Marxist-Leninist propaganda in America. I have a hunch but it's hard to comment without fully understanding the tactics of the KGB and how they differ from today's Russian bots and fake news

 

[_ifigured]

The executive and legislative branches have clearly been fully compromised by now. The last few committee hearings where Jefferson Beauregard Sessions was asked about concrete steps being taken to prevent foreign influence have amounted to non-responses and brush-offs. If Democrats take back the house, they need to address blatant fake news and make it a crime. Social media is too ubiquitous to allow heaps of disinformation which reshapes the political landscape for impressionable, ineducable people. This is a fully partisan issue, though. So nothing can be done until there are actual patriots in power who haven't been corrupted by foreign money.

 

[OG Kush]

You really think Russia is doing things the US that the US aren't doing directly back at them? The US has influenced other country's elections and political landscape for decades.

 

[CoolOff]

You really think Russia is doing things the US that the US aren't doing directly back at them? The US has influenced other country's elections and political landscape for decades.

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Doing a pretty shit job at it in Russia by the looks of it.

 

[rhn94]

lol all the comments and the video saying Obama is at fault.. what is this bullshit lmao

 

[dapperbandit]

If you believe what he's saying has any substance it seems to me the "political subversion" happened to the left in the 60's.

Much of what he says chimes with conservative talking points, your common sense patriotism and so on.

 

[Logos]

I've seen this posted a few times over the years and one thing I will say is that, in the current generation there are lot of people that praise communism and love figures such as Stalin or Lenin, and when you talk to them about the atrocities they committed they say it's western imperialist propaganda. There was a communist meeting here in Toronto fully comprised of students last month in a banquet hall. Hundreds of students all giving speeches about those heroic figures etc. The strangest part is they are a lot of LGBT youth among them. I say strange due to the stories of how the Soviet Union back then treated homosexuals and such...and again when u tell them "hey, you love Stalin but you would be the first person he sent to the gulags" they give you that spiel about western imperialist propaganda again and I've literally heard them say the gulags were not the horrible place people think they were.

I've seen people wear Lenin and Stalin hats, shirts pins etc. They call themselves Tankies.

I dunno what happened in the past five years, but I'm seeing this more and more everyday. I was even invited to their meeting and gatherings a few times through social media since I found out a few friends are in it. It mainly worries me since people are rewriting history.

Anyway, I'm not gonna out a tinfoil hat on and say the KGB or whatever Russian organization has been doing this for a decade and manipulating the current generation as the guy in the video days...but you can't help think about it.

 

[Kernel]

Russia poured millions into the GOP.

Might as well put the US government on eBay.

 

[Viera]

I've seen this posted a few times over the years and one thing I will say is that, in the current generation there are lot of people that praise communism and love figures such as Stalin or Lenin, and when you talk to them about the atrocities they committed they say it's western imperialist propaganda. There was a communist meeting here in Toronto fully comprised of students last month in a banquet hall. Hundreds of students all giving speeches about those heroic figures etc. The strangest part is they are a lot of LGBT youth among them. I say strange due to the stories of how the Soviet Union back then treated homosexuals and such...and again when u tell them "hey, you love Stalin but you would be the first person he sent to the gulags" they give you that spiel about western imperialist propaganda again and I've literally heard them say the gulags were not the horrible place people think they were.

I've seen people wear Lenin and Stalin hats, shirts pins etc. They call themselves Tankies.

I dunno what happened in the past five years, but I'm seeing this more and more everyday. I was even invited to their meeting and gatherings a few times through social media since I found out a few friends are in it. It mainly worries me since people are rewriting history.

Anyway, I'm not gonna out a tinfoil hat on and say the KGB or whatever Russian organization has been doing this for a decade and manipulating the current generation as the guy in the video days...but you can't help think about it.

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Right. I've regretted following people back on Tumblr when I still had one just because their blog would be full of literal commie shit. I blame the school system for not teaching us anything about Stalin's regime tbh

 

[Noroi_Kisaragi]

If Democrats take back the house, they need to address blatant fake news and make it a crime.

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"Banning fake news" isn't as easy as you think.
How do you enforce it? Who gets to judge if something is "fake"? Do you spend money to review every single piece of news that ever comes out? You'd need a fully-teamed staff that works 24/7

 

[LucidMomentum]

"Banning fake news" isn't as easy as you think.
How do you enforce it? Who gets to judge if something is "fake"? Do you spend money to review every single piece of news that ever comes out? You'd need a fully-teamed staff that works 24/7

Click to shrink...

I for one would gladly pay taxes for that.

 

[Noroi_Kisaragi]

I for one would gladly pay taxes for that.

Click to shrink...

On the flipside, are you sure you want to give a temporary government at risk of turning on its head every 4~8 years the ability to control the media? Russia does that, taking their residents tax dollars to enforce it, and you know full well how it's turned out.

Just because the good government does if for 4~8 years doesnt mean another government wont come in to abuse it to death 8 years later. American term limits are a shitshow for something like this

 

[AnotherDayAnotherDollar]

Both the right wingers and left wingers try to use Bezmenov's video as evidence that the other party is the devil. It's funny to see.

 

[LinktothePastGOAT]

You really think Russia is doing things the US that the US aren't doing directly back at them? The US has influenced other country's elections and political landscape for decades.

Click to shrink...

The release of the NSA tools has hurt the US significantly. It allowed nations like Russia to have a understanding of the methods that we use to protect ourselves and how we try to influence and survey them.

The release from Snowden? Same. Sure, as citizens in this nation it was good to get it out there and learn what our government was doing but the tools they used to spy on us were also being used to look at others.

Russia doesn't have the limitations that we do. They didn't have someone share their top secrets with the world. They didn't have to drastically alter how they operate internationally and domestically when it comes to security and surveillance.

And we have a moron in the White House while they have Putin. A moron who wants to be Putins bestie.

 

[LinktothePastGOAT]

I for one would gladly pay taxes for that.

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who hires that staff? Who has final say? It's called the first Amendment and will never happen here at a government level. You can have the govt pressure private corporations to better regulate their own business like Facebook but the government itself will never regulate the news like that nor should it.

 

[miscellaneous houseplant]

who hires that staff? Who has final say? It's called the first Amendment and will never happen here at a government level. You can have the govt pressure private corporations to better regulate their own business like Facebook but the government itself will never regulate the news like that nor should it.

Click to shrink...

Uh, the FCC did regulate the news with the Fairness Doctrine from 1949 through 1987, when it was repealed by Reagan and Nixon FCC appointees. It required the presentation of controversial issues, and it required multiple viewpoints be presented (though not necessarily equal time).

 

[LinktothePastGOAT]

Uh, the FCC did regulate the news with the Fairness Doctrine from 1949 through 1987, when it was repealed by Reagan and Nixon FCC appointees. It required the presentation of controversial issues, and it required multiple viewpoints be presented (though not necessarily equal time).

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Requiring multiple viewpoints isn't the same as restricting news or limiting what people can broadcast. The govt cannot can't say to a broadcaster that it cannot report on a story regarding cats. It can say if it's going to report on cats it needs to report on dogs atleast if the FCC agreed.

The SCOTUS did rule on the fairness doctrine and found it unconstitutional.

How it was ended: The Fairness Doctrine sustained a number of challenges over the years. A lawsuit challenging the doctrine on First Amendment grounds, Red Lion Broadcasting Co., Inc. v. Federal Communications Commission , reached the Supreme Court in 1969. The Court ruled unanimously that while broadcasters have First Amendment speech rights, the fact that the spectrum is owned by the government and merely leased to broadcasters gives the FCC the right to regulate news content. However, First Amendment jurisprudence after Red Lionstarted to allow more speech rights to broadcasters, and put the constitutionality of the Fairness Doctrine in question.

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It upheld the fairness doctrine for news broadcast but a later decision didn't uphold it for newspapers as newspaper doesn't lease spectrum and therefore there is an unlimited number of competition.

The fairness doctrine was never about LIMITING what broadcasters can show but rather making sure opposing sides could have a say. People in this thread are asking for LIMITING what the news and journalists can broadcast and report.