Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

I did not have telepathic declassification on my 2022 bingo card.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Republicans in disarray!

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Later Night Open Thread: Putin Is *Not* Winning the Meme War

Later Night Open Thread: Putin Is *Not* Winning the Meme War

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Later Night Open Thread: Putin Is Not Winning the Meme War

(Jack Ohman via GoComics.com)


Later Night Open Thread: Putin Is Not Winning the Meme War 1

(Mike Luckovich via GoComics.com)

If you don’t understand all the references in the video below… count your blessings:


But if you know that Michael Tracey has moved from defending Putin to defending Adolph Hitler against ‘American imperialists‘:

Later Night Open Thread: Putin Is Not Winning the Meme War 2

Reader Interactions

31Comments

  5. 5.

    Chetan Murthy

    Fascinating.  Obvs. take with a grain of salt, but still, very interesting.

    This is an interview with a Russian convict who briefly served in the Wagner PMC but was captured by Ukrainians. He was in prison for 23 years upon his release.https://t.co/fFQMEd1x2C

    Long interview (captions), click the link for autoplay.

    A few interesting points:
    — Dmitri (@wartranslated) September 19, 2022

  6. 6.

    Sebastian

    I am going to admit that I am not only a NAFO Fella but one of the early ones and already evolving into new forms of Fella (more about that later).

    What struck me about the entire movement is how ridiculously effective it is in online troll warfare as it helps identify the resistance and one does not feel alone. The ability to hide behind this absurd persona, a humanoid with a Shiba Inu head, allows one to lob hilarious insults and taunts at the trolls, who are then faced with the old dilemma:

    Ignore and let the insult stand, or engage and become ridiculous because you are, well, arguing with a cartoon dog.

    I am strongly in favor of mustering a Ballon-Juice Fella Battalion and getting y’all through Basic NAFO Training!

  7. 7.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Sebastian: Wow, that’s great!  I would be very interested in the lessons to be drawn from NAFO, for combating online disinfo in the US (and the West more generally, but I’m an American, so I ask about the US first).  NAFO is the first example I can think of, of an effective counter to Fascist disinfo.

  11. 11.

    Chetan Murthy

    @BeautifulPlumage: Fascinating.  These many different testimonies from ex-RU soldiers are interesting, and help fill out a picture of what at least some subset of RU society and military are experiencing.

    And needless to say, it’s great that these men surrendered, and that they’re being treated well.  I have very little sympathy for Russian soldiers who do not surrender; for those who surrender, obviously I feel completely differently: treating them is decency and of course also good military strategy.  But most importantly, it’s decency.

  14. 14.

    Matt McIrvin

    We’ve spent the last 40 years kicking the shit out of those armies and then losing anyway in endless slow-burn asymmetric warfare with insurgents who keep us from sustaining the regime we want. I admit I thought *that* was what was going to eventually happen to Russia because I was thinking of them as being like us.

  16. 16.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Matt McIrvin: I remember early-on in the RU reinvasion of UA, people were writing about how UA would retreat to an insurgency in its cities.  And more recently, looking back at that prediction, and RU’s scorched-earth scorched-humanity tactics, I wondered how that would have worked: would RU just have murdered the UA population ?  I don’t remember what van Creveld predicted about such conflicts: I remember he said that short of genocide, a modern army could not prevail over an embedded insurgency,  but I don’t remember what he said about “what if the modern army tries genocide?”

    I’m glad we didn’t have to find out.

  17. 17.

    lowtechcyclist

    Yay, the chickens finally got front-paged! I posted that link a couple of times here, but gave up when it went unnoticed.

  18. 18.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    On that Gerry Doyle tweet…we don’t have to wait to see how the manly Russian army would fare against a force with woman soldiers – the Ukrainian army has women in the ranks and they’re doing alright.

  19. 19.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Chetan Murthy: We’ve certainly got our own share of people who want us to conduct wars that way. But it’s a bit hard to square with the lofty, they-will-greet-us-as-liberators rhetoric on the way in.

  20. 20.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Matt McIrvin: I hold out hope that one of the results of this renewed emphasis on actually following international law, is that the US will help establish a norm so strong that we ourselves will be unable to violate it.  Sure, Dubya and Darth won’t leave the US, and the US won’t extradite them to The Hague, but hopefully the next time a US regime contemplates violating international law, they’ll reflect on the example of what happened to Putin and his cronies.  And perhaps our allies will remind that regime that the law is the law and applies to everyone.

    I don’t have to like that Dubya and Darth will get away with their crimes, but if those are the last our leaders commit, it will be something, at least.

  23. 23.

    Matt McIrvin

    I’m also remembering how many right-wing tweeters went on about how Russia was clearly invincible because they were so much manlier than Western countries, on the basis of their hyper-macho, badass-looking recruiting videos. No soy boys or unisex bathrooms here! etc. etc. etc.

    I hope somebody takes away the knowledge that fragile masculinity doesn’t actually make you a superior fighting force.

  26. 26.

    Tony G

    Not long ago I had no idea who Michael Tracey is, and I wish that that was still the case.  He is either very stupid or very dishonest (probably both).  It’s been well documented that Nazi Germany did PLENTY of murder of Jews before Hitler declared war on the United States …
    1939–1941
    The Holocaust took place in the broader context of World War II. On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. Over the next year, Nazi Germany and its allies conquered much of Europe. German officials confiscated Jewish property, in many places required Jews to wear identifying armbands, and established ghettos and forced-labor camps. In June 1941, Germany turned on its ally, the Soviet Union. Often drawing on local civilian and police support, Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing units) followed the German army and carried out mass shootings as it advanced into Soviet lands. Gas vans also appeared on the eastern front in late fall 1941.

  28. 28.

    Ken

    @Matt McIrvin: The US military’s videos seem to be emphasizing the service and aid aspects. The army has some where a parent asks a young person if they’re sure about their career choice, and after the youth says they are, it shifts to same youth now in uniform or fatigues distributing aid supplies or providing medical care.

    It makes the army look like the Peace Corps. I’m not sure I completely like it, considering the high potential for bait-and-switch, but I guess their advertising teams have decided this is what works with young people.

  29. 29.

    Geminid

    @Ken: The Navy does this too in their recruiting ads. A typical approach is video of navy ships bringing relief supplies to a storm ravaged island, and sailors hustling supplies into vehicles.

    I think most recruits know what they are getting into, though, especially those enlisting in the Army or Marines. They know they’ll train for war and may see combat. Sailors and airmen will also face challenging and hazardous duty. I think it’s not a bad thing to see that they’ll at least be ready to help civilians in need. I think most hope that’s all they have to do during their enlistment.

  30. 30.

    Sebastian

    @Jay:

    Yes, because that’s what you are supposed to do with trolls. The rule is to engage max twice with snark and ridicule.

    It’s unreal how effective it is, and I strongly believe the Ukrainians have discovered the weapon which will allow us to liberate the online space in the US.

    Besides, it’s a ton of fun.

  31. 31.

    Sebastian

    @Chetan Murthy:

    You saw that doctrine in action in Grozny, Aleppo, Sarajevo, Srebrenica, etc.

    Of course they would have exterminated Ukraine; they even brought mobile crematories to kickstart the process.

    Do you really believe they wouldn’t have built crematoriums for mass murder when they already brought some with them just to be sure they had some no matter where they went?

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