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Did the [Ukrainians'] Russian relatives really “believe” [that the Bucha atrocity was fake]? That’s the wrong question. We are not talking about a situation where people weigh evidence and come to a conclusion but rather one where people no longer seem interested in discovering the truth or even consider the truth as having considerable worth.… Polls in Russia concluded that Putin’s supporters thought that “the government is right, solely because it is the government and it has power.” Truth was not a value in itself; it was a subset of power.

– Peter Pomerantsev, How to Win an Information War: The Propagandist Who Outwitted Hitler (PublicAffairs 2024), chap. 4.

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Since “influence” is Time’s criterion for selecting a person of the year, its 2024 choice makes sense. Nonetheless, it is hard not to see that metric as a symptom of mainstream journalism’s would-be objectivity – the very attitude behind its destructive bothsidesism.

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I watched “Passage to Marseille,” dir. Michael Curtiz (Warner Bros., 1944), this evening.

I forgot about the shocking scene in which Humphrey Bogart’s character machine-guns the surviving crew of the German plane he’d just downed at sea. The audience in 1944 was meant to sympathize with this act. After all, that crew had just tried to bomb the small civilian freighter. I don’t know if such a scene would have worked in a Hollywood film much earlier, but it did in 1944. Was this fictional atrocity an indication of American popular culture’s brutalization in World War II?

Black and white image of movie release poster, landscape orientation, shows heads of all the movies' stars.

Movie poster image source: “Warner Bros. Pressbook” (1944), Internet Archive.

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Two Aerial Photographs, ca. 1918

Zeppelin-like rigid airship in the distance, as seen from an airplane, a typically European patchwork of fields below, and a few farm buildings.

Two biplanes in sky as seen from another airplane, one on right closer with pilot's head visible, as well as the circular blur of the propeller, one much smaller, top left. No markings on the closer plane evident, perhaps because of the lighting.

"Taken from an Aeroplane" (top) and "The Scouts" (bottom) by A. L. Hitchin, ca. 1918–19.

Source: The American Annual of Photography 1920 (New York, 1919), pp. 111 and 183, Internet Archive (bound and scanned with 1919 edition).

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U.S. Government Caricature of Nazi Propaganda

This 1942 poster was designed to counter the effects of Nazi propaganda in the United States. It is fascinating in its own right, but parts of the text reveal startling similarities to Russian disinformation in our own time.

Follow the link below this poster for a description and full transcription.

Accessibility: Description and full transcription of poster.

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Europe's Changing Map in 1939 (Photo)

Black and white photo: Young, dark-haired, white woman in short-sleeved dress, squatting, knees together, left hand in lap, right elbow on knee with right hand on cheek. She is looking at a giant map on the floor, which she is standing on.

European situation spoils map on Post Office department floor. Washington, D.C., April 12. The huge map on the floor of the Post Office Department here is all out of kilter these days due to the aggression in Europe. Many are the embarrassing questions being asked officials about when Mr. Farley is going to do something about Ethiopia, Austria and Czechoslovakia. The answer so far has been - nothing. Probably the Post Office is waiting to see what will happen next on the continent. Miss Edna Strain is inspecting the damage done by the ambitious dictators. 4-12-39

Image and caption: Harris & Ewing Collection, Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2016875385/.

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We’re getting some good snow tonight and tomorrow, but then, consistent with climate change, we’ll have a couple warmer days with lots of rain. I’m fortunate to have experienced the truly snowy winters here in the 1970s as a kid. Back then, sled dog races went right past our house.

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🎙️ “Netanyahu and Trump’s ‘Creeping Authoritarianism’: ‘It Always Begins and Ends with Women’" – Allison Kaplan Sommer with Dahlia Lithwick and Yofi Tirosh (Haaretz) 43 min.

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🎙️ “Timothy Snyder in Kharkiv: A Conversation about Freedom – with Volodymyr Yermolenko” (Explaining Ukraine / UkraineWorld) 54 min.

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We often wonder why people follow leaders who are wildly self-centered, greedy, and hateful. But that can be the very essence of their power: they allow their followers to indulge in their most cruel and hateful impulses, even as they foster the illusion that they are part of a noble and courageous spiritual mission.

– Peter Pomerantsev, How to Win an Information War: The Propagandist Who Outwitted Hitler (PublicAffairs 2024), chap. 2.

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Adieu Assad

Oh dictator, take note –
when you order your image hung all over,
you offer an attractive target
for the hatred of everyone you wrong,
you offer a practical object
for the people to trample, shred, and burn.

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🤖 This one is freaky: “OpenAI’s new model tried to avoid being shut down” by Shakeel Hashim (Transformer).

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Started reading Peter Pomerantsev, How to Win an Information War: The Propagandist Who Outwitted Hitler (PublicAffairs 2024).

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My feel-good television series this past year: Elsbeth on Paramount+.

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📺 Historical Background to U.S. Migration:

“The Bigger Picture: U.S. Migration Debates and Policies since 1965” – Online Panel Discussion (1 hour on Vimeo)

  • Speakers: Nancy Foner (City University of New York) and Carly Goodman (Rutgers University)
  • Moderator: Tobias Brinkmann (Penn State University)
  • German Historical Institute, Washington, DC, and Heidelberg Center for American Studies
  • Recorded on October 15, uploaded on November 11
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🙃 Unprecedented times?

It’s like being killed by a bear. Lots of people have been killed by a bear, and so that’s not at all unprecedented. But in this case, the bear is wearing a thong and he beats you to death with a dead, wet owl. The problem and outcome are the same – bear attack, death – but somehow, it all feels so, so much stupider.

– Chuck Wendig, “How to Write Words and Make Art in This Dire Era of Clowns and Cowards,” terribleminds.com.

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This evening I watched “Orient-Express,” dir. Viktor Tourjansky (Germany, 1944). It’s a humorous murder mystery that takes place on a train somewhere in the Balkans. Created in wartime Germany as escapist entertainment, it contains no references to politics or the war.

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🇰🇷 Fascinating read: “Why South Korea’s Leader Made Such a Fateful Decision” by Choe Sang-Hun (archived from NYTimes).

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🥶 First morning of the season with frost on the inside of the car windows.