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Now in the US we have what Gad Saad describes as "intellectual terrorists flying airplanes of bullshit into our towers of rational thought." We have a cultural revolution going on in this country that has to pay lip service to democracy and freedom while under-cutting it. The woke don't want equality they want to flip the old order on it's head. It's about power, retribution, and censoring anything even remotely resembling western culture. Eliminating Dr. Sues books is just a start. Call it silly or inconsequential at your own peril.

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Shocking! Good thing nothing like that could ever happen in the U.S.!

"If it were possible for any nation to fathom another people’s bitter experience through a book, how much easier its future fate would become and how many calamities and mistakes it could avoid. But it is very difficult. There always is this fallacious belief: ‘It would not be the same here; here such things are impossible.’ Alas, all the evil of the twentieth century is possible everywhere on earth."

Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn

Introduction, The Gulag Archipelago,

Abridged Edition, 1985

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founding

Thank you for this outstanding warning. It is now obvious that we have now entered a new phase -- beyond "just" chronic bi-partisan corruption. Direct attack on freedom of speech and publishers are no longer limited to publisher Julian Assange -- although silence by Democrat politicians and corporate media was deafening. Even once independent TYT and The Intercept have been coopted, i.e., corrupted, and actively participate in defamation of Julian Assange.

However, the recent letter by two California House "lifers" and useless Democrats Anna Eshoo and Jerry McNerney to CEO's of cable companies are truly unparalleled and represents the rise of fascism in the US -- under a guise of "fighting fascism." All these multiple attacks are clearly carefully choreographed and coordinated -- easily predicted and well understood since we should always keep in mind that there is one huge elephant in the room:

The scam of the century - the now 5-year long Russia-gate hoax initiated by Obama/Biden administration

The Russia-gate hoax and two-impeachment “entertainments” were concocted by Obama/Hillary/Biden/Pelosi, Schumer, Schiff, Maxine Waters, Jamie Ruskin, etc., etc. -- and their intelligence and DNC executives on behalf of their Wall Street and military and security industry donors, i.e., the War party

By far the absolutely highest need of Biden government and its DNC oligarch cabal is that Russia-gate immense hoax – the scam of the century -- will NOT / will NEVER be exposed. This represents an entirely new phase of US domestic politics -- of course, on foreign policy oligarchs of both parties are united.

Hence immense obligations to primary propagandists for their roles, including despicable Kamala Harris (Hillary’s protégé), Neera Tanden, Melissa Hodgman (wife of the Comey’s infamous Peter Strzok), Pete Buttigieg, etc, and to media executives.

The question is perhaps: Who will be the first Democrat Congressman or Senator to publicly confirm the Russia-gate conspiracy? There is absolutely no "unity and healing" until that...

Trump’s utter incompetence in handling Covid-19 created the human and economic catastrophe that should enter US history named as - Trump-virus. He brought into government religious extremism and racism. The next "Trump" will be more competent and more dangerous.

Democrats are now introducing extreme measures -- massive censorship and silencing of opponents. This is a sure sign of utter desperation of DNC corrupt and sclerotic leadership and its defeat and obliteration in next (including midterm) elections

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We are not so different. We have devolved. We are no longer the beacon of liberty and freedom. Very sad.

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"And I’m still writing things against the military coup on Facebook." How long until Facebook decides to join the arbiters of truth in Myanmar and then deletes her account, only after sharing her information with authorities. The parallels to a military junta in Myanmar and the US police state are chilling.

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Most chilling words from Shinn: "the strongest hopeless feeling in my life." Thank you Emily and Matt for illuminating this repression as we sit in comfy tilting office chairs with pricey herbal tea, fuming about a crappy local mayor with a team nearly the size of the White House staff, bus route overseers earning $250K on the public dole despite few customers, or an honest ethics commission whose hands are tied amidst a massive FBI corruption probe. I disagree with a comment earlier that we are not so different from Myanmar. We let things happen. A big difference.

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Seems like there are a lot of places around the globe showing their true natures.

I think the term to explain it is "coercive isomorphism". Parallel processes that are contagious and feed off of one another; paradoxes stunting real progress. William Blum's Killing Hope chronicles the start of this and more recent work by Vincent Bevins' Jakarta Method closes the circle upon coups, regime changes, and political theatre of military power.

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Sadly, peaceful dissent doesn't end this kind of repression. Only war or the credible threat of war can stop it. And once you concede these speech rights, they are only won back by the effusion of blood. I feel sorry for this dude, because they are going to come for him eventually, and he will suffer for everything he has written, including this interview.

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It's tedious reading long threads about what Matt thinks. He's an accomplished journalist and author of many books. He can speak and write for himself.

I'd prefer to read what YOU, the commenter, think and why. Just my two cents, or one cent as the case may be.

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Matt, at the risk of sounding cliché, thanks for "raising awareness" of what is going on in Myanmar. Once upon a time you could read about unrest in Third World countries with the comforting knowledge that the US is different. It is disturbing on a whole new level to see the same "anti-misinformation" campaigns of the Big Tech/Democrat/media complex being used to justify an actual coup in a foreign country. It reminds me of how the Chinese government started to frame their oppression of the Uighurs as "anti-terrorism" after 9/11.

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In our country we have decided to allow a glorified shop keeper to tell us what we can say or read. Not sure that is an improvement. One can at least imagine that a country's military might have the best interests of their own country at heart. Jeff Bezos, not so much!

All the corruption with none of the patriotism.

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The "context" for Myanmar's current political situation that Matt sketches here reads like a summary of how the liberal international media has framed Burma since around 2015, when Myanmar and The Lady were vaulted into the empyrean known as "Beacon of Democracy" for S E Asia.

So what that leaves out, because what the State Department and the warmongers at Human Rights Watch consider "democracy" is sacrosanct, is considerable and worthy of attention.

The NLD, Suu Kyi's vehicle for reclaiming what is rightfully hers because her Dad was the Father of the Nation she is now called Mother to, disallowed all of its Muslim members from standing in that much-praised election.

In the most recent election, the NLD-controlled election commission denied the right of non-Burman ethnic parties to take part. These are the political parties that represent the roughly one third of Myanmar citizens who are not Bamar, the white supremacists of Burma.

The Tatmadaw has long been one of the most generally hated institutions in the world. Not long ago, while Rohingya villages burned and 750,000 people streamed into Bangladesh to escape the burning and murders and rape being committed by said Tatmadaw and local militias associated with the ethnic Rakhine, the people of Burma became very vocal, both in the streets and on FaceBook, in support of the Tatmadaw and The Lady. Please ask Zaw Moe Shin to provide evidence that he was prepared to risk his life protesting the ethnic cleansing his democracy undertook with evident glee. Then maybe I'd listen.

And this quote "the good thing about this younger generation is they don't care because they have tasted democracy. It’s really free and it's good and you can do whatever you want" is worth a howl of laughter and a little rolling around on the floor if not an attack of Blazing Saddles flatulence. The very idea that what he is calling "democracy" was free and good is suspect but the idea that anyone could do whatever they wanted in a country where you can be jailed for using imagery suggestive of the Buddha or Buddhism in the wrong social context is just disgusting.

And then there are all those problematic non-Burmans and their decades long civil wars, their displacement into camps all around Burma, and their god-awful addiction to religions like Islam and Christianity.

And just for a kicker, the same NGO-corporate media-complex that Matt trusts to provide "context" for Myanmar's political situation, started calling for FaceBook to shut down the pages and accounts of proto-fascist Buddhist organizations and members associated with Wirathu and the 969 movement. These are the kind of Burman supremacists who protest police violence one day and intermarriage between Buddhists and Muslims the next. They also actively promoted genocide/cleansing of Rohingya.

It's always good to add nuance to context. Especially when "context" means Reuters and Human Rights Watch boilerplate.

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It's easy to relate to fear, at one time or another we all encounter what we perceive to be a threat.

Considering Myanmar's history, along with current events there, it's a rational reaction to experience some degree of fear. Based on this interview Zaw strikes me as an intelligent person who wants to make a positive difference, which means he has to overcome his fear.

As noted, we are seeing a lot of similar actions taking place in this country but the situations are not parallel. In Myanmar their version of Deep State (DS) is in control; that's where the threat to Zaw comes from. Here in the US, our DS, after eliminating its brush with fear derived from what it perceived to be a threat to its well being, is now going full speed ahead to insulate itself from any future attempts that the ignorant citizenry might attempt to impose on its turf.

That's where the similarities part ways. Here, all of the approved writers are the opposite of Zaw, they support the DS. Even our friend Mr. Taibbi, while causing a few ripples in the swamp's backwater, still embraces much of the DS's narratives. "Trump bad, Biden good; grunt grunt!".

I guess the fear writers experience here is not, at this point at any rate, a great threat to life, but it is perceived to be a great threat to livelihood. So the "go along to get along" mindset that ruined the Republican Party has now spread to the media; at least the portions that have at least a touch of common sense remaining. The rest of the media is beyond help, they are in lockstep behind the lead lemming; their Judas goat, heading for the edge of the cliff.

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Thank you Matt for shining a light on what is happening in Myanmar while the world looks the other way.

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Myanmar is an absolute nightmare. Where was all this bold protesting while the Buddhist dominated government were practicing genocide on the Rohingya? Then read how terribly misogynistic their culture is - it will make you want to retch.

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So US-centric, all these comments. The story is about Burma (aka Myanmar) and the repressive military junta that just staged a coup against the democratically elected (for the first time in decades) government of the party of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and all that anyone seems to have picked up on is that "it is happening here as well." That's true, and alarming, and in need of powerful resistance . . . but it is also incumbent on real progressives to show solidarity with Zaw and his compatriots whose lives are imperiled and whose futures are now very insecure.

Myanmar's nascent democracy is in real danger, and assuming everyone is concerned primarily with how that affects US power and interests in the region (vis-a-vis China), we ought to be paying attention and doing what we can to support the resistance.

When she was secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton opened the country's doors to multinational corporate exploitation, visiting a couple times (as did John Kerry when he was secretary of state after her). But generally the U.S. has left a country that had been under brutal military rule for decades to fend for itself while multinationals run rampant after its resources. There's been some occasional chastisement of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi now and again for the horrific ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya people taking place under her watch. But now, journalists and monks (remember the Saffron Revolution, if not the earlier ones?) and students and ordinary people are in the middle of an existential crisis for the country. We need to pay attention. At the very least, follow Zaw Moe Shinn on Twitter (@zawmoeshinn) and spread the word.

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