I expect this entire thread will get flagged for being too political but there is some tech-relevant news to call to attention.
The post starts by talking about all the conflicts/wars/tensions around the world (and the inability of US political institutions to handle them) and then mentions this new challenge on top all that:
> A new weapon is being deployed in all these conflicts: a massive spread of doctored or wholly fake videos to manipulate what people see and think in real time. The architects of these new technologies, in background conversations with us after demonstrating new capabilities soon to be released, say even the sharpest eyes looking for fake videos will have an impossible time detecting what's real.
As best as I can tell, the main reason for that was internal USA politics.
Biden will run for re-election and needs to accrue political capital.
The USA came up with a lame excuse to veto the Brazilian resolution in the Security Council. At the same time, Biden was there "trying to convince" Netanyahu and al-Sisi to allow humanitarian aid through the Rafah crossing into Gaza.
In the end, even though the agreement Biden got was a lot weaker than what the resolution was trying to achieve, it gets spun as a diplomatic victory for Biden.
This is all very simplistically explained, of course. Reality is more nuanced than that and I could be wholly wrong, but this is more or less my understanding of the situation.
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Edit to add: here [0] is Alonso Gurmendi [1][2] explaining to an opposition Brazilian senator why Brazil was right not to cave to the USA's veto excuse. Along the way he shows how even the previous administration, of which he (the senator) was part, also stood by the same principles.
The situation is made worse by warmongers from both parties in congress providing seemingly endless flow of funds, with no concern for loss of life as long as it is not American and hurts them politically.
Iran and Russia are certainly funding these two wars, and these countries are deeply committed to the destruction of western power. Why should western governments not try to undermine their efforts?
Exactly. Feel whatever way you want about the sides of any of the major wars going on right now, but there are always going to be outside actors helping finance a war effort that benefits them.
I have no love for the US, but let's not pretend that there aren't foreign actors egging on Hamas or the various factions in north west Africa as well. People who manufacture guns operate everywhere, and they are all enemies of peace.
You can have bad foreign actors and have bad local actors, both can be true at the same time. My concern is that we (US) aren't doing enough to seek peace as the world leader with clout and acting not too different than the other jerks. Over a hundred thousand people, mostly young with full lives ahead of them, have reportedly died in the Ukraine war so far...for what? So we can stick it to Putin? Listen to Lindsey Graham who now wants to have a war with pretty much the entire world or to the Biden administration that is now seeking $100 billion, $60 billion of which is for Ukraine.
Russia has no interest in "destruction of western power". Putin even wanted to join NATO.
Maybe Iran does. I wonder why though? Maybe the constant meddling, demonization, and crippling sanctions imposed on them by the US have something to do with it?
People will believe whatever nonsense they want to believe contrary to any evidence. It's just like the 40 beheaded babies story from a week ago, but from the other side. Both sides get to believe false narratives, so it's all quite fair I guess.
The mountain of evidence is a bunch of former US Intel personnel turned corporate media stooges saying that it didn't look like an air strike? Both sides are capable of blowing shit up without an air strike...
I haven't seen anything convincing one way or another and my experience as a former US Intel stooge is that the foreign news press in the United States usually whiffs on the narrative and almost never presents definitive evidence of any but the most tangential details to corroborate their narratives.
If you've seen convincing evidence, I'd be interested in a link.
This is the problem with propaganda. People outsource news verifications to Media outlets.
And it's not hidden that the West and Israel control most of it. So when they say we have proof verified by our journalists ... It's equivalent to have proofs verified by the attorney of one side presented to a judge as TRUTH!!
You need to see the proofs of both sides and judge for yourself. Israel has a track record of lying, and so does Biden.
The most basic lie is one stated at the beginning of the war [1]. And the worst part is that lying to 100M+ people is irreversible. It doesn't matter if you back off later. A 5yo child was killed in the US because of that FALSE claim.
That's what NYT, BBC and others reported and a lot of people still believe those outlets. They even sent push alerts blaming Israel for killing hundreds of civilians at the hospital.
I haven't watched anything this morning, but last night when I was watching the news/reading the AP coverage the reporters statements were "Both sides have claimed the opposition is responsible, and we have been unable to independently verify these claims, so we just don't know right now".
Other than "Biden has said his people believe Isreal" what "mountain of evidence" conclusively points one way, and why haven't the independent journalist sources changed their statements yet? All I've seen is that it isn't "consistent with an Israeli airstrike", which proves one thing it is not but not what it is.
Readit News
The post starts by talking about all the conflicts/wars/tensions around the world (and the inability of US political institutions to handle them) and then mentions this new challenge on top all that:
> A new weapon is being deployed in all these conflicts: a massive spread of doctored or wholly fake videos to manipulate what people see and think in real time. The architects of these new technologies, in background conversations with us after demonstrating new capabilities soon to be released, say even the sharpest eyes looking for fake videos will have an impossible time detecting what's real.
Biden will run for re-election and needs to accrue political capital.
The USA came up with a lame excuse to veto the Brazilian resolution in the Security Council. At the same time, Biden was there "trying to convince" Netanyahu and al-Sisi to allow humanitarian aid through the Rafah crossing into Gaza.
In the end, even though the agreement Biden got was a lot weaker than what the resolution was trying to achieve, it gets spun as a diplomatic victory for Biden.
This is all very simplistically explained, of course. Reality is more nuanced than that and I could be wholly wrong, but this is more or less my understanding of the situation.
---
Edit to add: here [0] is Alonso Gurmendi [1][2] explaining to an opposition Brazilian senator why Brazil was right not to cave to the USA's veto excuse. Along the way he shows how even the previous administration, of which he (the senator) was part, also stood by the same principles.
[0] https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1714781170100003061.html
[1] https://www.some.ox.ac.uk/our-people/alonso-gurmendi/
[2] https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/alonso-gurmendi-dunkelberg
(Edit: For context, for anyone here who has never seen what happens for the minute after you behead a chicken...)
I have no love for the US, but let's not pretend that there aren't foreign actors egging on Hamas or the various factions in north west Africa as well. People who manufacture guns operate everywhere, and they are all enemies of peace.
Maybe Iran does. I wonder why though? Maybe the constant meddling, demonization, and crippling sanctions imposed on them by the US have something to do with it?
This is utterly rubbish and unprofessional journalism. There are many proofs this was done by an Israeli raid !!
The simplest one is that the Palestinians never had weapons that powerful. Also there is real-time video of the moment the raid happened.
Incorrectly is not a word a journalist says. It's propaganda !! and sadly propaganda to cover up a genocide.
I haven't seen anything convincing one way or another and my experience as a former US Intel stooge is that the foreign news press in the United States usually whiffs on the narrative and almost never presents definitive evidence of any but the most tangential details to corroborate their narratives.
If you've seen convincing evidence, I'd be interested in a link.
And it's not hidden that the West and Israel control most of it. So when they say we have proof verified by our journalists ... It's equivalent to have proofs verified by the attorney of one side presented to a judge as TRUTH!!
You need to see the proofs of both sides and judge for yourself. Israel has a track record of lying, and so does Biden.
The most basic lie is one stated at the beginning of the war [1]. And the worst part is that lying to 100M+ people is irreversible. It doesn't matter if you back off later. A 5yo child was killed in the US because of that FALSE claim.
[1] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/12/white-house-walks-...
Other than "Biden has said his people believe Isreal" what "mountain of evidence" conclusively points one way, and why haven't the independent journalist sources changed their statements yet? All I've seen is that it isn't "consistent with an Israeli airstrike", which proves one thing it is not but not what it is.
*edited for typo