US President Donald Trump has signed an order to strip back the federally-funded news organisation Voice of America, accusing it of being “anti-Trump” and “radical”.
A White House statement said the order would “ensure taxpayers are no longer on the hook for radical propaganda”, and included quotes from politicians and right-wing media railing against the “leftist”, “partisan” VOA.
I don’t understand the naysayers here.
This is hilarious. Trump wants to simultaneously expand the American empire, while he dismantles the tools of it that he’s too stupid to understand the importance of.
No matter their mission statement, or any tangible benefits they might have provided, both USAID and VOA, were tools of empire. These aren’t mutually exclusive concepts.
Trump’s mission is to weaken the US, NATO, and the EU. Eliminating VoA helps do that. Notice how he isn’t threatening China with invasion, but Canada and Denmark instead.
Because Trump knows that China can and will fight back.
Canada and Denmark are friends of ours that Trump is now throwing salt in their eyes and saying “neener neener” while showing them his ass.
Because of our history, they aren’t fighting back.
If they do, Russia wins.
Trump doesn’t want to expand the American empire though. He makes noises about it, but words are cheap. Judging by his actions he wants to create chaos so oligarchs can profit.
The ultrawealthy have no national allegience.
I could see him loving the idea of expansion to manufacture a legacy. Jefferson may have been a philosopher or a slave-romancer but that’s college academic stuff: every middle school student learns he bought Louisiana. McKinley got us as close to an on-paper empire as we got, and they put him on the $500 note for it.
Soft power will never fill the same goal. Being the cultural or moral lighthouse for the West is inherently different from actually raising a flag over their capitals.
Everything Trump does – everything – suddenly makes sense when viewed through the lens of “how does Putin benefit?”
That’s an incredibly myopic take that confuses correlation with causation.
These moves may benefit Putin, but Russia isn’t the only county to benefit. Infact, Russia is in a historically weak position to fill gaps left by a receding American empire.
I’d wager that China is likely to see much more geopolitical gains because they have the resources and capacity to take advantage of the situation.
I’m not saying Putin won’t benefit, just pointing out how limiting it is to view Trump through a singular lens.
How does Netanyahu benefit as well.
That’s why we call him JDPON Don - this dumbass is going to dismantle the empire and usher in global proletarian revolution.
It must also be weird for the sycophants who he just nominated to staff it too.
The equivalent of “Daddy got you a pink convertible and you get three minutes to drive it before the repo guy comes”
How is everything that is “anti-Trump” radical? You fucking dictator.
“If you smell shit everywhere you go it’s probably because you’re covered in it” Anon
Under $300 million a year to spread US propaganda to over 300 million people. That’s a fucking bargain man.
This is going to give up so, SO much soft power because of a snowflake’s ego. This is a bad deal.
I guess this is better than making VoA voice of trump.
I’m wondering if it’s going to be “rebuilt”, personally.
As an American, I would like to apologize that the idiots of this country re-elected Mango Mussolini. And I’m sorry that the rest of the world has to suffer because of this idiot and his cronies.
Waiting for you guys to actually use your second amendment.
Well, there was an attempt but unfortunately he wasn’t a very good shot.
It’s a pretty scary idea when the odds are very high that we would just get murdered by police or secret service. And in this hypothetical, if we were to fail, Trump would just bring them hammer down even harder on everyone else, making future attempts much more difficult if not impossible. Until the people are organized on a large scale and collectively convinced this is the only option we have left, we have too much to lose with very little chance of success.
Hell, most of them aren’t even using their first ammendment yet.
Or the 25th?
I thank you for the sentiment, but save your words and don’t spare the ammunition.
It was mostly a propaganda machine against socialist movements. I’m glad it is gone, but it should have been gone way before Trump. Because he doesn’t deserve credit for shit.
What socialist movements?
usagm is an independent agency. it and its predecessors, and voa, were created by congress. only congress can eliminate them
Yeah, the managers were told to limit programming to the minimum required by law
As someone who used to listen to a lot of shortwave radio, this just bums me out.
I know foreign people who listened to VoA, and now it won’t be there anymore for them.
Makes me wonder who they’ll listen to, who will fill the void, with the VoA being gone.
I know foreign people who listened to VoA, and now it won’t be there anymore for them.
Stuff like this is a perfect example of how little Trump understands soft power. That was an outlet for American ideals (ok, propaganda) and American culture to diffuse across the world. Seeing how power abhors a vacuum, I won’t be surprised when China increasingly fills this void.
Remember, Trump isn’t dancing by his own tune. Who stands to benefit the most from the US undoing their relationships, contracts, defense agreements, and soft power agendas?
Then also remember that at the rate we’re moving, the 1st amendment is or will be dead very soon. Even this comment could end up with me being blacked bagged after not too long.
Right wingers are generally too stupid to think that abstractly.
I won’t be surprised when China increasingly fills this void.
The language barrier makes that unlikely. I think this one is going to remain empty for a while.
These big propaganda stations broadcast in dozens of languages.
DW still does very limited shortwave in Africa, I guess they’ll be happy to take over time/frequency slots but let’s face it the amount of people that you can only reach via short wave is dwindling, they mostly switched to satellite. They rather feed into the local FM broadcast network, and of course you can stream over the internet.
but let’s face it the amount of people that you can only reach via short wave is dwindling, they mostly switched to satellite. They rather feed into the local FM broadcast network, and of course you can stream over the internet.
You would actually be surprised how many poor regions in Central and South America as well as in Africa and Central Asia actually rely on shortwave still.
A lot of it is Christian and right-wing broadcasts, but still, it’s used more than you would think. Not everyone can afford expensive satellite rigs to receive.
RT
RT
?
Russia Today.
It’s basically the Russian Voice of AmericaRussia Today
Does this mean Kari Lake is out of a job? As an Arizonian, I hope she come back here claiming to be our governor again.
Broken clock strikes again.
Glad to see US propaganda go away, sad it was Trump to do it.
Leftist and partisan are not how I, an actual leftist, would describe the various propaganda outlets scattered around the world such as VOA.
It’s a cia op. And literally always was. Since 1942 when it was established.
ml user cries about propaganda. The irony always gives me a chuckle
Always love when someone throws out the no true scotsman fallacy. Nobody but trump is saying this anyway.
