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Siberia's 'mammoth graveyard' reveals 800-year human interactions with mammoths

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Re: Siberia's 'mammoth graveyard' reveals 800-year human interactions with mammoths

#31

Post by input_sh »

danoni wrote: post #16
KeplerBoy wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Russia? The west is in a war-like situation with Russia. Portraying them as stupid, drunk rednecks who ravage trough the environment certainly fits the narrative. Doesn't mean it's not true though.

There is no direct confrontation because that would be WWIII. Only proxy wars like the one happening now. RFERL is US-government funded, and the audience is mainly eastern Europe. Even PBS in the US is not funded by the US government. Why exclusively fund RFERL for a foreign audience if you do not fund your national public broadcaster?

Don't worry, it's not just eastern Europe.

There's also Radio Free Asia, Current Time TV (in Russian), Middle East Broadcasting Networks, Radio Televisión Martí (targeting Cuba) and of course, Voice of America, all under USAGM (Agency for Global Media).

Re: Siberia's 'mammoth graveyard' reveals 800-year human interactions with mammoths

#32

Post by the_af »

shmageggy wrote: post #11
_visgean wrote: post #2

> Sadly, now that human-mammoth relationship has continued as ivory hunters have looted the site beyond further study. Radio free europe had a really good photo essay on these new mammoth pirates: https://www.rferl.org/a/the-mammoth-pirates/27939865.html

That was exellently presented. Clear, informative, compelling. I especially appreciated getting to the end without being bombarded with any ads, popups, or begging for email signups. Curious how I could support such media, I found https://pressroom.rferl.org/about-rfe-rl/ which says, > RFE/RL, Inc. is a private, nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation funded by the U.S. Congress through a grant from the United States Agency…

> Yay taxes!

Well, the RFERL was funded through a CIA front organization, it was mostly an anti-communist propaganda operation. It definitely is/was a "state effort". So yes, taxes.

Re: Siberia's 'mammoth graveyard' reveals 800-year human interactions with mammoths

#33

Post by somenameforme »

danoni wrote: post #16
KeplerBoy wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Russia? The west is in a war-like situation with Russia. Portraying them as stupid, drunk rednecks who ravage trough the environment certainly fits the narrative. Doesn't mean it's not true though.

There is no direct confrontation because that would be WWIII. Only proxy wars like the one happening now. RFERL is US-government funded, and the audience is mainly eastern Europe. Even PBS in the US is not funded by the US government. Why exclusively fund RFERL for a foreign audience if you do not fund your national public broadcaster?

RFERL is a propaganda outlet that was established by the CIA as a weapon against the Soviets during the Cold War. [1] And in 1948, just before this all started kicking off, the Smith-Mundt [2] act was passed which prohibited the government disseminating propaganda domestically. That act was then repealed in 2013, because reasons.

[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Free_Europe/Radio_Libert...

[2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith%E2%80%93Mundt_Act

Re: Siberia's 'mammoth graveyard' reveals 800-year human interactions with mammoths

#34

Post by badpun »

orbital-decay wrote: post #19
danoni wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is an American government-funded international media organization The purpose of RFERL is to produce news items that are covertly critical of the enemy. It adds up with other resources to paint a negative image of the enemy.

How do you even report stuff like that without being "critical"? That's a legitimate issue covered in Russian media as well. Here's one of the multiple official reports, for example. https://www.archeo.ru/press-relizy/nezakonnye-ohotniki-za-bi...

When doing propaganda, subject selection is the key factor. If you want to do a smear campaign, you just do honest reporting, but only of the things about your target that are negative.

Re: Siberia's 'mammoth graveyard' reveals 800-year human interactions with mammoths

#35

Post by stevenwoo »

lye wrote: post #29
distances wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That article is from 2016.

… which proves his point. This anti-Russian sentiment never really ended, it's easy to not notice it if you've never been on the receiving side of it. It's not just the news, I saw it in casual conversations all the time long before 2014, and even 2008. TBH I expected better from Americans, with their multi-cultural society and sensitivity trainings, but was mistaken.

One of the two major American political parties somewhat regularly supports the Russian government, in an amazing turnaround of the history of the party since 2016, but part of that is due to the party just opposing on principle almost anything the other party supports for political reasons starting around 1980s, and part of it is due to where the titular head of the party is polling. The less populated rural areas of America and the very few swing states as well have an inordinate influence on the national politics to counteract your misconceptions about America.

Re: Siberia's 'mammoth graveyard' reveals 800-year human interactions with mammoths

#36

Post by stevenwoo »

orbital-decay wrote: post #19
danoni wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is an American government-funded international media organization The purpose of RFERL is to produce news items that are covertly critical of the enemy. It adds up with other resources to paint a negative image of the enemy.

How do you even report stuff like that without being "critical"? That's a legitimate issue covered in Russian media as well. Here's one of the multiple official reports, for example. https://www.archeo.ru/press-relizy/nezakonnye-ohotniki-za-bi...

The Russian guys just seemed desperate for a job and most of them lose money with a few striking it rich keeping the cycle going. I would blame the black market in China and Vietnam more, since it also causes the same sort of issue with wild rhino and elephant populations in Africa.

Re: Siberia's 'mammoth graveyard' reveals 800-year human interactions with mammoths

#38

Post by world2vec »

If you're interested in this subject, modern tusk hunters and science-fiction, then let me recommend the book "Tusks of Extinction" (2024) by Ray Nayler [0].

Very interesting read (his previous book "The Mountain in the Sea" (2022) is, however, much better and IMHO one of the best sci-fi books I've read in a long time).

[0] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/127284214-the-tusks-of-e...

Re: Siberia's 'mammoth graveyard' reveals 800-year human interactions with mammoths

#39

Post by somenameforme »

TomK32 wrote: post #22
danoni wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is an American government-funded international media organization The purpose of RFERL is to produce news items that are covertly critical of the enemy. It adds up with other resources to paint a negative image of the enemy.

Russia and China are doing it on a much worse level and as the language barriers are quite high we don't see and hear of what they say about the West in their media. The French-German broadcaster ARTE has a good series called Fake News that lifts the curtain a bit https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlQWnS27jXh8H1ej2-Sk0...

There is no curtain whatsoever in modern times. Russian auto-translates excellently. Here [1] is the largest Russian state media site. Chinese is a bit bumpier, but it's also fully readable. [2] There's nothing particularly extreme, except insomuch as nationalism has become a bad-word somehow, and their media does focus heavily on culture, history, and national identity. Granted, Russia is quite negative towards the US, but probably no more than you'd expect if roles were reversed and Russia decided to just join the party in one of our many misguided invasions, upping the ante ever higher each time a game-changer failed to change the game.

[1] - https://tass-ru.translate.goog/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x...

[2] - https://www-people-cn.translate.goog/?_x_tr_sch=http&_x_tr_s...

Re: Siberia's 'mammoth graveyard' reveals 800-year human interactions with mammoths

#40

Post by btilly »

badpun wrote: post #34
orbital-decay wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you even report stuff like that without being "critical"? That's a legitimate issue covered in Russian media as well. Here's one of the multiple official reports, for example. https://www.archeo.ru/press-relizy/nezakonnye-ohotniki-za-bi...

When doing propaganda, subject selection is the key factor. If you want to do a smear campaign, you just do honest reporting, but only of the things about your target that are negative.

Example, NYT reporting on the tech industry. I wish I was making that up. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33473275
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