Tricycle Joins in with Russophobic “Mind-Control” Hysteria

The Watercooler
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First I realize again how much I will miss your wisdom and insight. I am Amerikan, from good German stock…farmers mostly…and I must say that I stopped thinking of this place as a democracy a long time ago. Heck, I would not recognize a democracy if it suddenly appeared in front of me. But I do observe the seemingly purposeful strengthening of an plutocracy…which is manifested by the growing gap between the rich and the poor.

It is so easy to become emotionally involved with what seems to be actors playing their parts in some grand scheme I am loathe to further interpret. And in fact, I intuit, this morass is the very smelly pile of dog poo which brought me here to this bastion of calm dispassionate contemplation of right which is to say ethical thinking. I have no vested interest in this sad passion play, and in some ways envy…or perhaps admire is better…the lives of monks and nun sequestered in some quaint peaceful rural setting far from the madness of human politics.

I used to call myself an existential nihilist. May I now add Buddhist to the list?

Yours Truly, Miss Disaffected
… sending you all vibrations of peace and love, with hope for your liberation. With copious Metta.:face_with_raised_eyebrow::smirk::laughing::sunglasses:

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Frowny? Hark, a new adjective…Love it! thanks for the smile. :rofl:

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Thanks, I really didn’t know that. Darn now I gotta start giving stuff away. Anyone need a 35 year old non-functioning portable cassette player?

BTW, is there a specific passage to which you could refer me? Thank you, w/Metta

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IMO, we can’t say how many resources are poured into intelligence and counter-intelligence by powerful countries like Russia or the US. We can guess at their extent from history and stories we read about in the news, but we can’t say with any certainty their full extent. Intelligence agencies such as the NSA and GRU have classified budgets. And I have no doubt, given what we know from history, that there are “black” units and agencies whose very existence is known only by a few at the highest and most exclusive levels of government and military power. By their very nature, intelligence operations are shrouded in secrecy and deception. How can we know that a piece of information we think is true about intelligence operations is not disinformation spread by that intelligence agency or another country’s agency to drive us to think in certain ways that conduce to their desired goals? This whole subject is really just a dark morass.

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I just read this post and the responses today, and of course can’t help saying something. My sense is that Russia has been working for many years under Putin to destablize Europe, and to provide financial support to authoritarian leaders in other countries that will provide cover for Putin in his efforts to regain what he perceives was lost when the CCCP fell apart. Trump likely has no ability to understand that behind closed doors in the Kremlin, Putin laughs at him as a fool and a patsy. Putin’s public compliments about Trump feed Trumps’ feeble ego/mind. Our Congress is too intoxicated with having Trump as a rubber stamp for neoconservative policies to get in Trumps way. One of the few that understood Putin’s game and saw Trump for the fool that he is, John McCain, recently passed away, and there’s really no one stepping up to fill his shoes.

Just now, we are seeing evidence that Trump’s financial empire was likely a house of unstable financial cards, until Russian banks stepped in and provided financial support to what was an overleveraged and poorly run Trump organization. Then came money laundering by the Trump organization, launderign millions fo Russian oligarch money through loans and real estate deals through Trump, Inc. Then came RT, Facebook, and other subtle means to create cognitive dissonance in the US over Russia and US activities at home and abroad. Unlike in the US, Russia took a long view approach to its investments in this plan, a plan that bore fruit when Trump won a disputed election over the somewhat unpopular Hillary Clinton, who also did a bit of election rigging of her own in trumping Bernie’s bid for the nomination.

I’ve spent time in Russia, and happen to have Russian friends and love Russian culture. I feel that Putin’s strategy, albeit transparent to anyone that knows Putin’s Russia, has been wildly successful. I’m hopeful that the Mueller investigation and prosecutions by the State of New York start to lay bare some of the activities that have taken place over the past many years involving Trump Inc. and fraud, treason, and Russian money laundering.

As Buddhists we need to be smart, and actually use mindfulness in the way the Buddha intended. Likely, the IRA understood that America’s embrace of “mindfulness” was an entryway into susceptible or soft minds, the same way that Deepak and others have penetrated American psyches with exotic pseudo-Buddhist horseshite methodologies. Wrap any kind of distortion or shite in a Buddhist wrapper, and there are Americans that will buy it, without considering for a moment whether it is wise or true.

There is fake news, but there is also real news, There are actual facts. There are even good and ethical journalists practicing good journalism. Just as we pay attention to what the Buddha actually said, we might also use our mindfulness and wisdom to discern what is news and what is distortion. As the US grows more saturated with information and data, and less saturated with reason and capacity to discern, the need to practice the guidance that the Buddha gave to the Kalama people grows.

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Michael, our interpretations of what is happening in Russia, Europe and the United States differ greatly. Since I have already been reminded that this discussion has nothing to do with Buddhism, I’ll leave it at that.

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This seems to be implied in the article as well, but I am by no means sure it is the case.

Let us assume that I am an evil genius. :business_suit_levitating: Now, if I wanted to use FB as a platform to propagate my ideas, I would not employ a theory as to what kind of area would be effective. Rather, I would do analysis as to what kinds of things are popular. Most of the content on FB is easily-reproduced gunk, so I’d pump out tailored content into different streams and see what worked. These days, it’s possible to produce a lot of this with AI; recycle and remix memes and the like.

It turned out that the “mindful being” page is one of the most successful; but this is an outcome of the process, not an assumption of it. So this does raise legitimate questions as to the level of critical thinking that prevails within “spiritual” circles in the US (and elsewhere, of course, but the US was the target). But it doesn’t mean the hacking organization itself understood this going in. I’m not saying they didn’t understand it, just that I can’t see any evidence for this.

The evidence that emerges for how easy it is to dupe people in “spiritual” circles is, in one sense, a sobering insight. On the other hand, like so many of the insights from data analysis, it’s bleeding obvious; some might even say it is the foundation for organized religion.

Where does that leave those of us who would prefer to promote a more intelligent and authentic spirituality? With a lot of work, I’m guessing.

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Dan, I always enjoy our conversations here. Sometimes you and I agree, and sometimes we have some variance in our opinions about things. But this is what I respect and enjoy about this discourse so much. Have a good weekend, with metta.

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Bhante, you’re right, and pure speculation on my part as to whether IRA understood this vulnerability going in. Within Putin’s KBG training is a fair bit of psychological training as well, and I’m always interested in Putin’s comments to see how this psychology weaves its way into his tactics and public statements.

I’m just along for the ride, but I’m glad for you and the writing you’ve done and the questions that you raise; important questions not always entertained by others. You’ve done the heavy lifting, and helped folks like me better understand what an “intelligent and authentic spirituality” looks and sounds like. The work is necessary and much needed, and all of us who care about these issues need to pitch in as best we can. The foundation for a more wise and insightful approach has been established, and maybe folks smarter than I have ideas as to how to implement them…social media (evil as it is) may be one way, as it seems to be the currency now for the development of public discourse and the shaping of ideas.

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This is all true, Bhante, but it is a global phenomenon involving many countries. Since the people in every country in our highly interconnected world have security, personal and commercial interests in what happens in many other countries, there are ongoing efforts almost everywhere to use social media to communicate, propagandize and influence political opinion and behavior almost everywhere else. This is the world we now live in. Our online networks will be suffused with such messages in the same way our older communications technologies were already suffused with propaganda and incessant commercial marketing.

These efforts are carried out both by states and by large private capitalist firms, but also just by many smaller activist groups and special interest organizations. The idea that there is some particularly vast and insidious Russian mind-control threat is much-hyped panic reaction in the US, popular among center left partisans dealing with their post-election trauma, and avidly embraced and advanced by hawkish and pro-military government, NGO and commercial interests eager to use fear to sell the war machines and foreign interventions they are always trying to sell. But the dollar size of the actual Russia- based operations that have been identified doesn’t seem especially large.

Before the recent Russia panic, the top country of concern in the US was China, which was always reported as having massive cyber espionage programs. I am sure many countries are generating lots of trolling operations, PR, government propaganda, and doing continuous user data harvesting. My country, the US, which remains the world’s most militarily dangerous country, with about 800 military bases and ongoing covert military and intelligence operations all over the world, and which has a cutting edge technological defense department and is the location of the biggest giants in the tech world and must certainly be dwarfing everybody else in the reach of its internet propaganda, and has a well-documented history of interfering in democratic elections. So if Buddhists around the world see some attractive internet mindfulness messages, and want to practice Mr. Bodhipakṣa’s critical methods on them, they might ask first whether they are being propagandized by the US government to adopt ideologies conducive the to advancement of US interests. :slight_smile:

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I’m unaware - how popular is Buddhism in the US? I suspect it is hard to characterise…

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Oh…I can’t resist making a final comment in this thread. :slight_smile:

Suffering is a thing. So there’s not going to be some perfect structure that fairly and justly manipulates power and resources.

I guess, at the end of the day, we gather what information we have to hand, and consider, what is going to minimise the harm. Because, if suffering is a thing, then there’s going to be harm. But can we contribute to it’s minimisation in some small way?

In doing this, we have to all follow our hearts, our conscience, our intuition, reason, common sense; whatever words or phrases seem most appropriate…

I’ve seen what it’s like when peaceful and , yes, imperfect, democracy is threatened by violence and lawlessness. So while often my vote doesn’t count - I sure don’t take it for granted. I am grateful to live in peace. To be honest, I worry that a lack of participation may leave us even more powerless to minimise harm into the future… Not just harm for ourselves, but for others in our society too…

I am still learning that participation doesn’t always mean winning or getting what I want. But that I have the chance to do so means I might be living in a relatively stable place. Participation doesn’t come with guarantees - because what we’re particpating in is anicca, dukkha, anatta.

But I respect greatly that this is a question that each individual must ask themselves, and then follow whatever is true in their hearts.

Okay, bowing out of this thread, with much metta and respect for all. :pray:t5:

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We’re drifting off-topic, but the short answer is, yes, Buddhism in the United States is hard to characterize. Within two hours drive of where I live there is seemingly the entire gamut: Buddhist communities comprised of Asian immigrant groups (including at least one Wat with monastics from Asia in residence); monasteries with U.S.-born monks of European descent who ordained well into adulthood; “mindfulness” groups ostensibly following Buddhist practice but seemingly indistinguishable from communities such as Unitarian Universalists; groups of Americans of European descent who resemble the aforementioned “mindfulness” communities but who are more attentive to reading and practicing the Dhamma. It’s all over the board. To refer to Buddhism in the United States is to cast an extremely wide net.

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Thanks- I guess Tricycle is likely to be affected by ‘market pressures’ and the constant need to be ‘relevant’, and even then Buddhists, are going to be affected by current culture subconsciously at least (mind the pun).

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It’s a funny choice of words, “to control your mindfulness”, I lol’d. If there’s mindfulness, you can’t control it from outside, because mindful consciousness will detect arising and falling of responses to control attemps. :slight_smile:

After all, mindfulness became a commodity in the West, a source of income and a business model. No wonder the “hysteria”. :slight_smile: I doubt though that commercialized mindfulness is mindful. And, I think mindfulness as taken from Buddhist teachings in separation from the Teaching itself is pretty much mundane, not leading to any spiritual progress towards Liberation. How can it, without the Right View?

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