The Guardian’s Tory Donor of Salo Cries Wolf
At some point on the cusp of the centuries American television invented and quickly proliferated the idiotic genre of a talk show where the participants, rather than exchange views and ideas, get into a rabid shouting match. I remember one of these stage constructs, Greta van Susteren (before the facial upgrade) just screeching in the midst of a relatively calm and non-confrontational discussion. And no, it was not on Fox. It was on CNN, which has moved very much Fox-side since.
It was specifically tormenting to watch at the early stages of forcing this “innovation” onto the audience, because the actors followed the script but failed to convince. Maybe they were not very much convinced themselves. Well, nothing beats beautification surgery as a confidence-builder. Ask Renée Zellweger.
Why would the Guardian salo-botox itself to the improbable advertorial Britain should arm Ukraine, says Tory donor, is slightly beyond me. Why would you destroy the message of an obviously rich and generous contributor by immediately associating it with the party most of your audience treats with contempt, is also incomprehensible.
Maybe this is the Guardian’s way of saying “Sorry, I know this stinks, but I really couldn’t restrain myself counting the zeros on this check”.
Nausea fighters know that once you are through holding the urge, it gets much better. Lighter. So the ensuing rant of tired clichés gets blurred by both its lack of meaning and thorough absence of evidence for the claims made.
“Vladimir Putin intends to continue on this path”
“rebel forces now moving towards Mariupol”
“To imagine that Russia now suddenly intends to abide by the latest terms agreed at Minsk is fanciful.”
“Putin’s aggression”
“We cannot, and must not, believe a single word he says: …about the fate of flight MH17.”
Then we get into the really, well, fanciful part.
“US military muscle can still turn the tide of any conflict anywhere in the world”
(Yes, we remember Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq… oops… well, that’s actually right)
“That’s his [Putin’s] gamble and we must prove him wrong.”
„we need to go further, to be bolder“
“And have my bosom friend Misha Khodorkovsky installed as Putin’s heir. So that we can continue looting Russia on behalf of our master-partners. We know the commissions will be lower, but heck, the taxes even here on the isles are murder!”
It is a good read. Just like with the Aydar Nazi battalion fluff piece, we gather invaluable perspectives what the “New East” is going to be: xenophobic, violent, aggressive and intolerant. Great job, Guardian.
The gang’s looking up. Temerko and Khodorkovski at a low point of their looting of Russia. (Vedomosti)
And, here is the now usual selection of G readers’ comments:
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The Guardian replies
Just because the Guardian has argued cogently for support for, and the supply of arms to, Kiev, this should not be taken to mean that the Guardian in any way supports or approves of the Nazis who fight for Kiev with arms supplied by the West, nor should the fact that it finds itself on the side of Ukrainian businessmen who have bought political influence with our government by making large donations to the Tory party in any way blemish its credentials as Britain’s leading centre left, liberal, progressive, right on newspaper, still less that it has casually abandoned the principles for which this country fought a man named Hitler some 75 years ago, and any suggestion to the contrary will justifiably be deleted as not abiding by community standards. We rely on the intelligence of our readership to understand that the use of symbols such as the Swastika and the Wolfsangel, or the number 1488, by Galician punisher battalions is entirely due to the fact that many Aidar and Azov fighters are in fact postgraduate students of semiotics, on sabbatical from the University of Lviv’s Linguistics Faculty, undertaking important research funded by the European Research Council in the field, and this therefore sometimes involves the use of the symbols in question, meaning that any resemblance they may have with fascists, neo fascists, Nazis or white supremacists is entirely coincidental.