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North Korea is one of the clearest examples of a totalitarian government. Other countries with dictatorships and authoritarian rule, such as Cuba, Syria, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Belarus, could also be considered totalitarian governments.

Totalitarianism is a form of autocracy in which the state has total control over its citizens. Totalitarianism shares characteristics with other forms of autocracy, such as dictatorships and authoritarian governments.

While North Korea technically calls itself a democratic republic, its ruler has complete control over all aspects of life among its citizens, making it more of a dictatorship that is totalitarian in practice.

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What Countries Have a Totalitarian Government Today?

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North Korea is one of the clearest examples of a totalitarian government. Other countries with dictatorships and authoritarian rule, such as Cuba, Syria, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Belarus, could also be considered totalitarian governments. Totalitarianism is a form of autocracy in which the state has total control over its citizens.

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"People are basically good," said President Obama in conversation with Bill Maher on Friday night. "I'm an optimist about the human spirit. But people are busy. They are stressed. They don't have time to follow the intricacies of some debate around Medicaid or what's going on in Syria... I think people's instincts, their gut, what they want out of life and how they want to see people treated, are actually pretty good. But the question then becomes 'How do we get enough information in front of them to be able to make good decisions?' I have always believed if I could sit in the living room of everyone in America, I could have a healthy majority on my side on pretty much every issue that we work on just by having a conversation. The problem is that we have all these filters. If I watched Fox News, I wouldn't vote for me either. You've got this screen, this fun-house mirror, through which people receive their information."

The President's comforting belief that he could persuade most people to come round to his viewpoint if only he could have a chance to sit down and reason with them is challenged by Jason Stanley, a professor of philosophy at Yale and the author, most recently, of How Propaganda Works in a New York Times article entitled " Beyond Lying: Donald Trump's Authoritarian Reality."
Beyond Lying
Stanley argues that, in the phenomenon of Donald Trump, we are dealing with a different kind of communication. "Trump has engaged in rhetorical tactics unprecedented in recent American electoral history. He was straightforwardly misogynistic. He repeatedly endorsed obviously false claims. There were frequent open discussions of the intentions behind his many odd comments, retractions, semi-retractions and outright false statements."

It would be one thing, says Stanley, if Trump was merely "lying", that is, saying what he knows to be untrue, or even engaged in "bald faced lying." That could be dealt with by pointing out the lies.

It would be another if Trump was merely guilty of "the charge by the philosopher Harry Frankfurt that Trump was in fact a master of 'bullshit,' which is distinct from lying in that the speaker is not just communicating information he knows to be false, but is unconstrained by any consideration of what may or may not be true." That could be dealt with pointing out that Trump is a bull-shitter. This description, says Stanley, is technically correct, but it doesn't convey the specific nature of the Republican presidential candidate's communications.
Authoritarian Propaganda
Trump, according to Stanley, is a practitioner of something else again: authoritarian propaganda. This is a form of communication in which a leader concocts a fiction that offers a narrative explaining why the problems that trouble whole groups of people have a simple origin and an even simpler solution. The explanation of the problems is inevitably that some other group or groups in conspiracy with a corrupt elite are responsible for them. The solution is even simpler-namely to elect the author of the fiction as the new leader who will eliminate the elites and the other groups, thus solving the problems. The constant repetition of the fiction is a key to getting it accepted.

Stanley quotes from The Origins of Totalitarianism, in which Hannah Arendt writes:

"Like the earlier mob leaders, the spokesmen for totalitarian movements possessed an unerring instinct for anything that ordinary party propaganda or public opinion did not care to touch. Everything hidden, everything passed over in silence, became of major significance, regardless of its own intrinsic importance. The mob really believed that truth was whatever respectable society had hypocritically passed over, or covered with corruption."

If Stanley is correct, President Obama is naïve in thinking that he could persuade most people to come round to his point of view if he could just sit down and have a rational conversation with them. Once people have fallen in love with the fiction that their economic and social woes are the result of corrupt elites in conspiracy with immigrants, African-Americans, Muslims and "others," there is no possibility of having a calm conversation in which the participants rationally evaluate facts.

In the world of authoritarian propaganda, says Arendt, "the modern masses do not believe in anything visible, in the reality of their own experience." Once people have embraced the fiction, the only thing that will be listened to is whatever is consistent with it. Conflicting facts are dismissed without thinking, as Trump himself demonstrated during the debates with his repeated cries of, "Wrong!"

Thus President Obama's nuanced and complex account of how the world is shifting from an industrial to a digital economy and the implications for global trade has therefore little chance of making inroads into the simple, consistent, comprehensible fictions of Trump's campaign ("It's the immigrants!") and even more ridiculous solutions ("Build a wall!").

"The goal of totalitarian propaganda," says Stanley, "is to sketch out a consistent system that is simple to grasp, one that both constructs and simultaneously provides an explanation for grievances against various out-groups. It is openly intended to distort reality, partly as an expression of the leader's power."

In this world, the repeatedly false claims that Trump makes-crime is at record highs, the economy is in decline, Obama has killed jobs, the military is a disaster, an international conspiracy is behind it all, and so on-are immune to disproof by presentation of the actual facts. The lovely comfort offered by Trump's fictions portrays a world that is too seductive to be undermined by reality.

In the fictional world of propaganda, the explanations are all-encompassing. There are no unhappy accidents. There are no pure coincidences. Every setback has a simple cause. ("It's Hillary and the immigrants!"). Every problem has a simple solution. ("Elect me! Build a wall Lock her up!") For once, the world makes ultimate sense.
A Fiction That Feels More Real Than Truth
Why do people buy into such fictions? "The masses are obsessed by a desire to escape from reality because in their essential homelessness they can no longer bear its accidental, incomprehensible aspects," writes Arendt. "Totalitarian propaganda thrives on this escape from reality into fiction."

What gives authoritarian propaganda its mystifying plausibility is that it claims to expose to the public view what was previously secret. It attaches itself to those aspects aspect of social and political life that are hidden from the public view, such as the corridors of Washington, the machinations of Wall Street, the deliberations of the FBI. They are perfect subjects on which to concoct conspiratorial fictions. The resulting narratives, which claim to reveal hidden truths, "then acquire the reputation of superior 'realism' because they touch upon real conditions whose existence is being hidden." In this way, the spinner of patently absurd fabrications becomes accepted by millions as a trusted truth-teller.

"Totalitarian movements," writes Arendt, "conjure up a lying world of consistency which is more adequate to the needs of the human mind than reality itself; in which, through sheer imagination, uprooted masses can feel at home and are spared the never-ending shocks which real life and real experiences deal to human beings and their expectations. The force possessed by totalitarian propaganda... lies in its ability to shut the masses off from the real world."
The Only Remedy
What then is to be done about a fictitious narrative that has seduced the American electorate to such an extent that tens of millions are willing to vote for a candidate who, according to the New York Times editorial board " stands for torture, reckless war, unchecked greed, hatred of women, immigrants, refugees, people of color, people with disabilities; a sexual predator, a business fraud, a liar who runs on a promise to destroy millions of immigrant families and to jail his political opponent"?

Reason and arguments will not dispel the narrative that fuels his candidacy. Debate and conversation will not remove it. The only solution, according to Arendt, is the intrusion of reality with a defeat of such forceful proportions that the fiction is no longer tenable.

"The chief disability of totalitarian propaganda is that it cannot fulfill the longing of the masses for a completely consistent, comprehensible, and predictable world without seriously conflicting with common sense." For a time, common sense is held at bay from intruding into the cocoon of the reassuring fiction. Yet the explicit distortion of reality is also the cause of propaganda's inevitable downfall. It is the inexorable and brutal collision with reality that eventually ruins the cocoon. It's not a matter of whether. It's only a question of when.

"It is in the moment of defeat," writes Arendt, " that the inherent weakness of totalitarian propaganda becomes visible. Without the force of the movement, its members cease at once to believe in the dogma for which yesterday they still were ready to sacrifice their lives." (Thus immediately after Germany's defeat in the Second World War, the Allies could hardly find anyone who claimed to be a Nazi.)

The modestly good news about propaganda is thus that the members of authoritarian movements are not like religious fanatics who are willing to die the death of martyrs even after their leader suffers a disastrous defeat. "Rather they will quietly give up the movement as a bad bet and look around for another promising fiction or wait until the former fiction regains enough strength to establish another mass movement."

Whether the election on Tuesday will constitute a sufficiently brutal collision of Trump's fictions with reality remains to be seen. At this time, it seems unlikely. The most likely outcome- a narrow electoral defeat -will not have much effect. The illusionary narrative that fuels Trump's candidacy is not going to disappear with a mere setback.

What is needed is a defeat of such devastating proportions as to crush the fiction and awaken its adherents to the real economic and social options for the future.
Disclosure: The author is registered as an independent and intends to vote for Hillary Clinton on Tuesday.

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"People are basically good," said President Obama in conversation with Bill Maher on Friday night. "I'm an optimist about the human spirit. But people are busy. They are stressed. They don't have time to follow the intricacies of some debate around Medicaid or what's going on in Syria...

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Venezolanos Protestan contra el Totalitarismo del siglo XXI  (Movil)

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0:00 / 9:53•Watch full video

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Venezolanos Protestan contra el Totalitarismo del siglo XXI  (Movil)

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Un "Gran Hermano" en Madrid: los puntos de la ciudad en los que se instalarán cámaras en 2022

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El proyecto de Presupuestos para 2022 del Ayuntamiento de Madrid aprobado esta semana por el Gobierno de José Luis Martínez-Almeida incluye varios proyectos, que afectan a distintas áreas del Ejecutivo municipal, y que suponen la instalación de cámaras en el espacio público. En algunas ocasiones vinculadas con la vigilancia de restricciones de tráfico derivadas de la nueva Ordenanza de Movilidad Sostenible y, en otros casos, para reforzar la seguridad en algunos barrios. Todas estas inversiones tendrán un coste total de 10,2 millones de euros.
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En Calle 30 para vigilar las restricciones

Dentro del Área de Medio Ambiente y Movilidad, la inversión más significativa es la reservada a la adquisición e instalación de cámaras - con una previsión de 3.000.000 euros- y al sistema de control de acceso a Calle 30 -que asciende a 3.850.000 euros-, "con el fin de reducir las emisiones contaminantes, dispositivos que permitirán controlar el acceso de vehículos sin etiqueta a la Zona de Bajas Emisiones, que comprende toda la almendra central, de vehículos de personas no residentes en Madrid, cumpliendo con lo establecido en la recién aprobada Ordenanza de Movilidad Sostenible", tal y como recoge la memoria de las cuentas del Gobierno de Martínez-Almeida.

Marconi, Chueca, Lavapiés y Ballesta

Dentro del área de Gobierno de Seguridad y Emergencias, y como parte de las inversiones encuadradas en el capítulo de la Policía Municipal, destaca la instalación de nuevos sistemas de videovigilancia en el polígono industrial de Marconi y en el barrio de Chueca y su integración en el Centro Integrado de Señales de Vídeo de la Policía Municipal de Madrid (CISEVI), así como la remodelación y ampliación de los sistemas de videovigilancia existentes en el barrio de Lavapiés por un importe de 2.460.359 euros. Tras esta ampliación, el consistorio espera que a finales de 2022, haya más de 320 cámaras de videovigilancia en los puntos más conflictivos de la capital.

También se renovarán las cámaras de videovigilancia en el entorno de la calle Ballesta, inversión que tiene reservada una partida de 55.000 euros. Junto a ello destaca otra partida de de 411.095 euros para cámaras de videovigilancia públicas de la Policía Municipal en varios distritos de la ciudad.

Semáforos, cámaras y paneles de información

En lo que afecta a las partidas presupuestarias destinadas a cuestiones vinculadas con el Tráfico, también destaca la dedicada a la conservación de semáforos, cámaras y paneles de información, con el fin de un mejor control y reordenación del tráfico, por un importe de 15.015.597 euros

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Un "Gran Hermano" en Madrid: los puntos de la ciudad en los que se instalarán cámaras en 2022

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El proyecto de Presupuestos para 2022 del Ayuntamiento de Madrid aprobado esta semana por el Gobierno de José Luis Martínez-Almeida incluye varios proyectos, que afectan a distintas áreas del Ejecutivo municipal, y que suponen la instalación de cámaras en el espacio público.

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La desinformación y la propaganda política que viene del extranjero - Las2orillas.co

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Quienes producen noticias falsas lo hacen por medio de bots, cuentas falsas o cuentas de ciudadanos comunes que repiten la desinformación y ayudan a propagarla

Por: Cristian Salazar

|

diciembre 03, 2021

Este es un espacio de expresión libre e independiente que refleja exclusivamente los puntos de vista de los autores y no compromete el pensamiento ni la opinión de Las2orillas.

Foto: Pixabay

Quienes producen las noticias falsas lo hacen por medio de bots, cuentas falsas o cuentas de ciudadanos del común que repiten la desinformación y ayudan a propagarla, es un fenómeno moderno que exige un aumento en esfuerzos educativo desde las instituciones en la formación de profesionales periodistas, hasta campañas por parte de la sociedad civil, para que los ciudadanos puedan aprender a identificar cuentas confiables y no confiables, y al hacerlo trabajemos en conjunto para detener la propagación desinformación.

Según un estudio realizado por Global Americans, un grupo de expertos con sede en Washington, aseguran que la gran mayoría de información falsa o fake news que circula en nuestro país proviene otros países que tienen interese políticos y económicos por nuestra geolocalización.

“Actualmente las nuevas formas de influencia política son ejercidas a través de campañas de desinformación, muchas de ellas patrocinadas por personas naturales y en otros casos incluso por el estado, de regímenes no democrático, para los actores externos esto lo que refleja es un juego que largo plazo para ampliar sus objetivos geoestratégicos, en este caso Rusia y China no ven con buenos ojos las relaciones se han gestado entre Colombia y estados unidos” Aseguró Guy Mentel es el director ejecutivo de Global Americans.

Algunos de los datos relevantes encontrados son:

China y Rusia y otros actores antidemocráticos son muy activos en la promoción de la información falsa o misinformación, la desinformación y la propaganda en América Latina por medio de sus canales de medios estatales, aunque el grado y el alcance de estos esfuerzos varían de país a país.

La información falsa, la desinformación y la propaganda china y rusa están desproporcionadamente concentradas en temas que se encuentran en la intersección de las líneas de falla democráticas, avivando la ruptura política local, promoviendo fuerzas locales no democráticas con ideologías similares y reflejando a China y Rusia como socios benevolentes y alternativos a los 🇺🇸Estados Unidos en toda la región.

Rusia carece de los medios para cortejar correctamente las oportunidades comerciales más profundas y su estrategia de desinformación se enfoca en alterar el orden social y la estabilidad política a nivel nacional, como se ha visto en Colombia y Chile para los aliados conocidos de EE.UU.

Los mensajes chinos en Colombia se enfocan en su papel como un socio comercial importante y, por lo tanto, la narrativa proyectada es la de una sociedad benéfica para ambos países. Por el contrario, los medios estatales de Rusia en Colombia se han involucrado más activamente durante momentos de descontento social con mensajes enfocados principalmente en puntos de discusión en contra del gobierno.

El papel de Colombia como aliado de los EE.UU. ha logrado entrar a los mensajes rusos. Nuestra investigación indica que los actores políticos venezolanos también se han comprometido en esfuerzos agresivos de información falsa o missinformación en contra del gobierno de Colombia, en parte debido a la voluntad de Bogotá de ser el huésped de un gran número de refugiados venezolanos y miembros de la oposición venezolana.

Para contrarrestar la amenaza que representan estas noticias falsas en circulación, a corto y largo plazo y mantener normar legales y democráticas, manteniendo los valores de transparencia de sistemas políticos abiertos y de derechos humanos, es fundamental que tanto las entidades gubernamentales y no gubernamentales, los ciudadanos e incluso las propias compañías como Facebook y Twitter sancionen de manera drástica y radical aquellas fuentes o generadores de estos contenido, una regulación más estricta como en otros países de la región y una denuncia ciudadana.

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La desinformación y la propaganda política que viene del extranjero - Las2orillas.co

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Quienes producen noticias falsas lo hacen por medio de bots, cuentas falsas o cuentas de ciudadanos comunes que repiten la desinformación y ayudan a propagarla Este es un espacio de expresión libre e independiente que refleja exclusivamente los puntos de vista de los autores y no compromete el pensamiento ni la opinión de Las2orillas.

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Russia strikes Kyiv again after weeks, Putin warns West on missile supplies

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As a result of the Russian influence, many people do not call it Kyiv, but Kiev, which is the Russian name.

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Summary

One hospitalised in Kyiv, no immediate reports of death

Putin warns U.S. against supplying Ukraine longer-range missiles

Zelenskiy travels close to front-line near Sievierodonetsk

Ukrainian troops control half of Sievierodonetsk -Gaidai

KYIV, June 6 (Reuters) - Russia struck Kyiv with missiles for the first time in more than a month, while President Vladimir Putin warned he would hit new targets in Ukraine if western nations supplied the country with longer-range missiles.

In Sievierodonetsk, the main battlefield in the east where Russia has concentrated its forces, Ukrainian forces are holding their ground after having retaken half of the city, said Serhiy Gaidai, governor of Luhansk province where the city is located.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Sunday said he travelled to Lysychansk, south from Sievierodonetsk, and Soledar - rare outings for him outside Kyiv since the start of the Russian invasion on Feb. 24 and could be the closest to the frontline yet. read more

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"What you all deserve is victory - that is the most important thing. But not at any cost," Zelenskiy, wearing his trademark khaki T-shirt, told Ukrainian troops in a video released on Sunday night. read more

Lysychansk and Sievierodonetsk are in the Luhansk region and Soledar is in the Donetsk region. Both regions make up the Donbas, Ukraine's industrial heartland, which Russia claims it is on a mission to "liberate".

In the Kyiv attack, one person was hospitalised though there were no immediate reports of deaths. Dark smoke could be seen from many miles away after Russia's attack on two outlying districts on Sunday.

Ukraine said the strike hit a rail car repair works, while Moscow said it had destroyed tanks sent by Eastern European countries to Ukraine.

Oleksandr Kamyshin, head of the Ukrainian railway, confirmed four missiles had smashed into the Darnytsia rail car repair facility in eastern Kyiv, but said there was no military hardware at the site.

The strike was a sudden reminder of war in Kyiv where normal life has largely returned since Russian forces were driven from its outskirts in March.

The "missile strikes at Kyiv have only one goal - kill as many as possible", Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said on Twitter.

Ukraine said Russia had carried out the Kyiv strike using long-range air-launched missiles fired from heavy bombers as far away as the Caspian Sea.

Ukraine's nuclear power operator said a Russian cruise missile had flown "critically low" over the country's second largest nuclear power plant. read more

'CRACKING THEM LIKE NUTS'

Sunday's attack was the first big strike on Kyiv since late April, when a missile killed a journalist.

Russia has recently focused its destructive might on front lines in the east and south, although occasionally it strikes elsewhere in what it calls a campaign to degrade Ukraine's military infrastructure and block Western arms shipments.

Putin warned the West that Russia would strike new targets if the United States started supplying Ukraine with longer-range missiles, the TASS news agency reported on Sunday. read more

The United States said last week it would send new, advanced medium-range rocket systems to Ukraine.

In an interview with Russian state television, Putin said the rockets Washington had promised so far were comparable to Soviet-era weapons Ukraine already had, Putin said.

If Washington were to deliver longer-range rockets, "we will strike at those targets which we have not yet been hitting", he said. He dismissed the impact of Western drones, saying Russia had been "cracking them like nuts".

Britain said it would supply Ukraine with multiple-launch rocket systems that can strike targets up to 80 km (50 miles) away. read more

'CONTINUE TO STORM SIEVIERODONETSK'

Heavy fighting continues in Sievierodonetsk and Russian forces are pushing towards Sloviansk, Britain's Ministry of Defence said in a Twitter update. read more

However, Governor Gaidai earlier said Ukrainian forces were continuing to push the Russians back from Sievierodonetsk, about 85 kms (53 miles) east of Sloviansk. read more

The claims could not be independently verified. Both sides say they have inflicted huge casualties in Sievierodonetsk.

In Lysychansk, Russian forces fired on a bakery and several administrative and residential buildings, Gaidai said on Monday, adding one civilian had been wounded.

Evacuations resumed from the Ukrainian-held part of Luhansk province on Sunday, and 98 people had escaped, Gaidai said.

A Russian state media journalist on Sunday said Russian Major General Roman Kutuzov had been killed in eastern Ukraine, adding to the string of high-ranking military casualties sustained by Moscow. read more

The governor of Russia's western Kursk region, Roman Starovoit, said the border village of Tyotkino had come under fire from Ukraine this morning which targeted a bridge and some local businesses. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Ukraine's military reported that its forces repelled seven attacks in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions on Sunday, destroying four tanks and shooting down a combat helicopter.

Russian forces are "conducting intensive artillery and mortar shelling of our positions" in the Kharkiv region in Donetsk, Ukraine's military general staff said on Monday.

It said Russia was targeting civilian infrastructure in several towns. Moscow denies it targets civilians.

In a Sunday address in Rome, Pope Francis called the war "the negation of God's dream".

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Reporting by Natalia Zinets, Pavel Polityuk, Lidia Kelly, and Ronald Popeski, Writing by Himani Sarkar; Editing by Michael Perry

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Russia strikes Kyiv again after weeks, Putin warns West on missile supplies

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Russia struck Kyiv with missiles for the first time in more than a month, while President Vladimir Putin warned he would hit new targets in Ukraine if western nations supplied the country with longer-range missiles.