The Internet's Bodyguard of Lies

 In war, truth is so precious she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.

Sir Winston Churchill

These days that bodyguard is every social media site found on the internet. Even under the best of circumstances most of, "the news," you find on various sites ranks from the dubious to outright bullshit. Now that there is a full fledged war raging in Ukraine it is guaranteed almost everything you see on those sites has little to do with the reality.

USA Today fact checked 22 different posts on social media and found all of them were either false, or were missing context. Some of the posts were pro Ukrainian, while others seemed to fall into the categories of American right wing and evangelical propaganda. 

For example, one claimed Ukraine was the largest donor to the Clinton Foundation. The truth is, while there were some substantial donations by Ukrainian individuals to the foundation, the government in Kyiv hasn't donated a penny to it.

A photo purported to show a huge crowd in Ukraine rejoicing because the country's leadership had lifted a ban on evangelical proselytizing. The photo was taken in 2017. It was a crowd celebrating the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. USA Today points out there has never been a ban on proselytizing in the country.

Another is allegedly of a Russian jet going down in flames during the invasion. It was taken in 1993 and shows a Russian aircraft just after it had collided with another plane at a British air show.

A CNN correspondent put it this way, "We aren't going to really know what happened in any battle for weeks, maybe months." 

We certainly can't know the mindset of Vladimir Putin. Speculation has run from the assessment he has stepped off into the deep end of the pool, to things as bizarre as Rev. Pat Robertson's declaration that he is being compelled by God Almighty to blow shit up. All because it is the start of the end of times--that Putin needs to conquer Ukraine so he can use it as a staging ground to invade Israel rather than the Baltic states and even eastern Poland.

Whatever the case, while Pastor Robertson and other religious hysterics might be fine with that most of us aren't. 

We do, however, need to realize Putin is in so deep in this mess his ego isn't going to let him withdraw without getting exactly what he wants. No, the only way Russia will turn around and leave now is if some cabal of oligarchs come to the conclusion having billions of dollars doesn't count for much if you can't spend it and removes him. 

At least one Russian ex pat has suggested that. U.S. based Alex Konanykhin has offered a million bucks to any Russian military officer who arrests Putin for war crimes, dead, or alive. 

Yeah, good luck with that Alex. It's going to take more than your money to rid us of Comrade Putin. You also might want to watch out for Slavic men carrying umbrellas in your neighborhood from now on. 

Meanwhile the rest of us can only follow the news and sift through the bodyguard of lies dgrowing at a prestigious rate on social media. Then understand what we are seeing there isn't really what is happening. 

And pray the truth isn't actually far worse.

3-3-22