So, I had to eventually get around to addressing this. As you are no doubt aware, there has been an emerging narrative in the past few days about the outcome of the U.S. election being tampered with by Russian hackers. I have been hammered over publicly questioning this narrative in some of my social media spaces, but maintain that it is important to ask questions about it regardless.
I totally get that people are still upset that the Orange Overlord has managed to become president elect. Outside of the twisted mind of Kanye West, very few people are happy about the results. Anything that can be used to undermine the authority of an incoming Trump Administration is going to be grasped at. However, it is more than a bit dangerous to just believe the source -in this case the CIA- at their word. Didn’t they also fabricate much that led up to the Second Iraq War? That accusation.. or “intelligence failure” led to a war. What could this accusation lead to? At this point, I am skeptical. To all those progressive minded folks who are towing the line of argumentation that the CIA is principled somehow, the ghost of Patrice Lumumba would like a word with you.
Also, even putting a portion of the blame on Russian hackers takes culpability off of the American press and political analysts. The news insulates people, it doesn’t inform them. Why did we need hackers (whoever they might be) to leak e-mails to show us the depths of depravity and corruptness? Isn’t that the job of the media to hold the political process under the microscope?
I have to go now. Sergei the Scammer just sent me some more fake news to spread. Until next post!