New Catallaxy

Reality must yield

We had ‘health experts’ these last two years for COVID, now we have ‘military experts’ for Ukraine. Sky News UK had this fella telling us the Russians had ‘stalled’ just south of Izyum:

Compare this with info over the last few days that Russians had been both strengthening their position around Izyum (in the figure below, Izyum is the northern pincer threatening the UKR salient

and obtaining command and control of the heights immediately south there at Suligovka and advancing further south to Pashkove,

This also involves a question about the status of the UKR’s 93rd Brigade which was last situated at Oskil (immediately east of Izyum) and is believed to surrounded, and the retreat of their 81st Brigade from area of Sviatoguirsk.

None of this granular detail is provided by our Sky News UK ‘military expert’. Nor any appreciation of the advantage RUS has obtained by winning the heights at Suligovka and surrounds. Or of the tremendous pressure this puts on UKR attempting to hold off encirclement of the salient and the thousands of UKR troops and equipment within. This is of a piece with the reporting re COVID which was almost universally designed to exaggerate the risk of spread and disease at every turn, except that here the coverage is designed to present RUS’s position as underwhelming and near catastrophe while exaggerating the strength of the UKR’s position even to the extent of widely reporting the most fanciful nonsense (Ghost of Kiev, Snake Island, and the like) again and again.

And again and again, we are provided with evidence that the experts employed by the media-political nexus do nothing more than ‘shape’ public opinion in the interests of their class. They appear uninterested at all with a frank and sober analysis of the situation. Maintaining the official narrative is just too important, reality must yield.

dover0beach

22 responses to “Reality must yield”

  1. Zipster Avatar
    Zipster

    They appear uninterested at all with a frank and sober analysis of the situation. Maintaining the official narrative is just too important, reality must yield.

    And that my dear comrades is the very definition of political correctness

    22
  2. Knuckle Dragger Avatar
    Knuckle Dragger

    And again and again, we are provided with evidence that the experts employed by the media-political nexus do nothing more than ‘shape’ public opinion in the interests of their class.

    Spot on.

    Climate change.
    Terrorism.
    Covid.
    Renewables.
    The Ukraine.

    Every goddamn time. There’s no need to change the recipe if people are still eating the pie.

    33
  3. Judge Dredd Avatar
    Judge Dredd

    The same people who believe these reports are the same people who fell for Climate Change, the COVID tyranny, the 2020 election is fair, and will also vote for Liberal or Labor and expect the world to become a better place.
    The blind will lead the blind

    17
  4. Ed Case Avatar
    Ed Case

    Every goddamn time. There’s no need to change the recipe if people are still eating the pie.
    Not many are eating the pie and the recipe’s not getting changed.

    Ukraine is getting turned into a wasteland, Trump is as weak as piss, Putin is no good and Tucker & Tulsi are Controlled Opposition.

  5. 2dogs Avatar
    2dogs

    Not sure what to make of all these conscripts at front now. Is Ukraine using up their conscripts first, or have they running short of regulars?

    4
  6. The Beer whisperer Avatar
    The Beer whisperer

    Except deniability becomes impossible if the reality strays too far from the narrative. How do they expect to hide Ukraine losing the war?

    6
  7. Louis Litt Avatar
    Louis Litt

    Ed Case
    Does Putin call his own people
    racists,murderers, sexist, rapists, deplorable.
    Does he use the child as piece of manipulation eg calling in social services to lock the parents up, run the classroom by verbally and physically abuse the teacher.
    Is he attacking the police, the military, trades people.
    Is his labour force dreaming of becoming a pop musician or actor.
    Does he attack patriots and opens up his borders for the female population to be violated.
    Does he go after people who ripped his country off – yes.
    He has a vision, the train line from China and recalibrating the currencies used in international exchange.
    Just like Gaddafi in the end of a pan African Bank.

    7
  8. 132andBush Avatar
    132andBush

    Hi Graeme

    2
  9. Rex Anger Avatar
    Rex Anger

    Not sure what to make of all these conscripts at front now. Is Ukraine using up their conscripts first, or have they running short of regulars?

    Or could it be that Armchair Warlord has his biases, much as we all have ours…

    The article he links makes no mention of the unit being ‘shattered,’ only that they are tired, have seen a lot of hard action against the enemy, and have been rotated out of the combat area to rest and recover. That they are bearing the brunt of the Russian army’s main efforts and are being pushed hard by a force that potentially outnumbers them (and certainly holds a firepower advantage) is obvious, but not that this defending unit or others are ‘broken.’

    Also, a unit that is deemed ‘combat ineffective’ for planning purposes may have only lost 20-30% of its overall strength in men and equipment. Swap the flags and the names round a little, and you could well be reading about a Russian BTG or Donbassian Militia unit.

  10. jupes Avatar
    jupes

    Except deniability becomes impossible if the reality strays too far from the narrative. How do they expect to hide Ukraine losing the war?

    The same way they hide the fact that CO2 is not dangerous, that renewable make power cheaper, that the vaccines don’t work, that masks don’t work or that men can have babies. Dissemble, lie and bully.

    14
  11. Colonel Crispin Berka Avatar
    Colonel Crispin Berka

    that Armchair Warlord has his biases

    Reminds me that 2 months ago that fellow Kamil Galeev published a series of tweets titled “Why Russia will lose this war” and he was praised by many a WarCat here for his deep insight into Russian history.
    Well that aged like milk.
    Once again, all experts are only experts on the past, never the future.

    9
  12. Boambee John Avatar
    Boambee John

    Dickless

    Ukraine is getting turned into a wasteland, Trump is as weak as piss, Putin is no good and Tucker & Tulsi are Controlled Opposition.

    Thus speaketh our Nostradamus of politics, identifier of spooks and flamers, and slanderer of a US Supreme Court Justice.

    4
  13. dover0beach Avatar
    dover0beach

    that fellow Kamil Galeev

    Berka, his tweets are generally off the planet.

    2
  14. John Sheldrick Avatar
    John Sheldrick

    Ed Case

    “Ukraine is getting turned into a wasteland, Trump is as weak as piss, Putin is no good and Tucker & Tulsi are Controlled Opposition.”

    What has Trump got to do with all of this?

    Anyway. The whole thing is a complete mess that could drag Europe and then the whole World into a much, much greater conflict.

    4
  15. Mother Lode Avatar
    Mother Lode

    And when the Russians fare better than all the MSM and water-cooler gossip suggests, the MSM and their gulls in the population will not reflect on how they got so much wrong.

    No!

    They will instead view it as another layer of Russian treachery.

    It is chilling to think of how much more damage has been done and of how many more lives have been lost due to the refusal to be objective and practical. Now both sides are so invested (in a currency of blood) that there is no appetite to save what is left.

    6
  16. Big_Nambas Avatar
    Big_Nambas

    Russia, Russia, Russia………………………………..so what?

  17. Roger Avatar
    Roger

    …again and again, we are provided with evidence that the experts employed by the media-political nexus do nothing more than ‘shape’ public opinion in the interests of their class.

    A part of what Noam Chomsky called “manufacturing consent” (Manufacturing Consent, the Political Economny of the Mass Media; Herman & Chomsky, 1988).

    You don’t have to agree with the loathsome creature’s politics or find all the examples he cites to be compelling to see that he had a valid point nonetheless.

    1
  18. DAVID DRAKE Avatar
    DAVID DRAKE

    Ordinarily, I would support a call for objective commentary from a platform that proclaims ‘Sinistra delenda est’. But there is too much at stake in Ukraine to let your derision pass.

    Yes, Ukraine’s defence is desperate – its people are fighting like lions to ward off a brutal invader. At the outset of this asymmetrical conflict (nearly 70 days ago), many people expected that the Russian army would capture Kyiv within a week, and the Russians nearly did.

    But since then, the momentum has shifted and Putin’s over-reach is changing geopolitics in fundamental ways. Earlier today, it was announced that Germany now backs the EU ban on Russian oil – a policy shift which may deprive Russia of its largest revenue stream.

    When fog of war prevails, there is a shortage of reliable information and no combat outcome is certain. A more helpful topic (than criticising wartime reporting) could be: When the fighting is over, how can Australia assist with rehabilitating the agricultural economy of a democratic Ukraine, when its wheatfields are littered with unexploded ordnance?

    2
  19. dover0beach Avatar
    dover0beach

    David, the fog of war is not the problem, what is is the relentless lying and shaping of perceptions via the media and expert class to which your own comment has succumb.

    4
  20. Boffin Avatar
    Boffin

    dover: why do you dismiss David’s view? It is consistent with available evidence and lacks the wish fulfilment of those who want to make predictions about a war that is occurring in real time.
    Ukraine has been invaded. There is no reasonable excuse for Putin’s action. He appears intent purely on destroying Ukraine and murdering its citizens. It is purely evil.
    I simply cannot fathom why anyone makes excuses for him.

    2
  21. dover0beach Avatar
    dover0beach

    Boffin, no, it isn’t consistent with the available evidence. Try Baud’s The Military Situation in Ukraine for a start.

  22. Boffin Avatar
    Boffin

    dover: i prefer https://jamestown.org/program/in-southern-ukraine-russian-occupation-policy-takes-shape-part-one/

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