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> American propaganda can reach people in Iran

> American’s exposure to alternative geopolitical narratives

In the same breath!

I downvoted you because I don't understand the point you're trying to make.

(G)GP does the classic "it's freedom fighting when we're doing it". Either call both propaganda, or call both alternative narratives, otherwise your bias is blatantly showing.

I think especially the billionaire bit made it clear to me that he's not being serious.

it's the good ol' "calling one side propaganda, but the other narrative" gasp, but reversed from usual western pov

so it's a downvote either for consistency (and neutrality) or for the sake of lol :)

Really important to first, pick that example of content moderation and then point out that he's an Israeli. Maybe think about why you used that example when there are countless others regarding free speech/internet freedom.

I would point to the opposite bias, the guardian mentions Chinese surveillance tech exported to Africa, but makes no mention of Israeli spyware exports. The Israeli export of civil repression technology, expertise and training is actually very well documented, having a lot of practice with such oppression domestically.

As if the guardian was overly pro-Israeli. I would argue that it makes more sense in that context to mention Chinese surveillance tech, because it's not an ally of the US.

I would think it's very much important to point out the double standard, it's an ally of the west so it's fine if they do it, but not if china does it because they are the "enemy". That's all what the comment you accused of antisemitism was doing.

Well, double standard is of course a thing (like accusing the only democracy for not being democratic enough without saying anything about much more oppressive regimes around; but also about surveillance in one place and also another). I think it is to make a different point though.

This funding from the US was to get around surveillance (everywhere), so it makes sense to argue, that a rival global player exports surveillance tech, because the funded tech is to counter that. That argument would not work with Israeli surveillance tech.

It’s extremely relevant. The Trump admin just facilitated the sale of TikTok to an ardent Zionist for an incredibly cheap price, and Netanyahu himself gave a talk saying it was the most important event in the “eighth front” of their war. Same just happened with CBS.

Larry Ellison (the new owner of TikTok) personally vetted Marco Rubio for fealty to Israel.

https://www.reddit.com/r/LabourUK/comments/1nww6cp/larry_ell...

The United States is days away from going to war with Iran on behalf of Israel, which makes this even more important.

Israeli mega donors Miriam Adelson, Larry Ellison, Ronald Lauder, etc, have given Trump literally hundreds of millions of dollars in campaign donations to facilitate this special treatment of Israel and to help transfer control of these media orgs to Israelis. They have all stated openly that this is the case.

>These programs were largely about ensuring that American propaganda can reach people in Iran or similar places.

This. The og point of USAID wasn't AID as per the name would misleadingly let you believe, but spreading pro-US anti-USSR propaganda, and only like 3% of that program was spent on actual AID, like food and medicine for the third world, but most of it went to funding media, news and journalists across LatAm, Asia, Africa dn EE, that would push domestic support in those regions for US policies and be critical of US adversaries.

US doesn't fund "freedom" of anything out of selflessness, it funds policies that are guaranteed to benefit it over its rivals, and use the word "freedom" to legitimize it. Once those benefits no longer materialize, the funding also goes away.

The budget for USAID in 2024 was $25.6 billion [0]. $ 9.5 billion were allocated to health programs and $ 1.1 billion to agriculture, education and infrastructure [1]. You can do the math.

[0] https://factually.co/fact-checks/politics/usaid-budget-2024-...

[1] https://factually.co/fact-checks/health/usaid-2024-food-medi...

>only like 3% of that program was spent on actual AID, like food and medicine for the third world, but most of it went to funding media, news and journalists across LatAm, Asia, Africa dn EE, that would push domestic support in those regions for US policies and be critical of US adversaries.

3%? There was a lot of waste with the program but surely, please give this at least 30 seconds of thought.

My bad, it was 5-15% of USAID that went towards food aid to countries in need.

  > only like 3% of that program was spent on actual AID, like food and medicine for the third world, but most of it went to funding media, news and journalists across LatAm, Asia, Africa dn EE

Source please. This doesn't pass the smell test, because the largest expenses in international aid programs are usually related to healthcare and agriculture. Propaganda is very cheap compared to producing and distributing malaria drugs or grain to the most remote corners of the world or building water sanitation plants in places that have no roads and no electricity.

Makes the future interestingly unpredictable other than the inevitable fading of the US-isation of the rest of the world.

>US-isation of the rest of the world

Growing up in a post-communist country, Hollywood and the US music and gaming industry had more impact on the "US-isation of our country" than USAID propaganda, back then.

But today most of Hollywood productions and music coming out of the US is pure trash that people abroad now reject it as propaganda garbage.

US destroyed its global soft power, not by defunding USAID, but by forcibly injecting unpopular ideologies into its entertainment industry instead of sticking to tried and true formulas, ideals and values that transcend cultural and language barriers.

Most Hollywood production has always been trash. US shows are still very popular and influential. Many countries are just richer post 2000s, subsidize their movie industry and it's way easier to distribute movies internationally compared to 30 years ago. Barrier to entry in general has gone down. Pretending woke is the main reason ignores many things.

> forcibly injecting unpopular ideologies

Oh the right-wing propaganda of decrying "wokeness" in pop culture that "replaces" good old white christian culture is very much an export you fell victim to as well. It promotes far-right "alternative" political parties, useful to the US all the same..

Most of the world is conservative by Hollywood liberal standards. Also injecting ideology is the least of concerns, it is just that they objectively produce shit compared to movies in 1995. All reruns, and remasters and basically living on the rent of old glories. There is a palpable lack of talent due to the political climate as well as reduced risk appetite to bet on young or transgressive directors/writers/actors. Now more innovative and interesting movies are coming from Korea and Turkey for example.

You could produce the most uber-woke movie possible and it would be loved as long as it was good art or had a legitimate good story.

What a strange and arbitrary cutoff date, is that when you turned 30?

Sorry I just remember from a Tweet that it was the year that many cult movies came, but one of my favorite years is 2000 for both Matrix/American Psycho.

As for the age, no, I was born well after 1995.

This is even stranger, in what way do you think those films espouse the values you touted?

That was my point tho, they are not conservative, Titanic is basically the story of a bouregois woman who on her deathbed remembers a one time fling she had when young, despite a whole life spent with another man. It can be categorizd as cheating of sorts, from a conservative POV, yet it is incredibly popular all around the world as a "romantic story". Similarly a lot of the American rom-coms involve some sort of cheating and they are wildly popular in other parts of the world.

Its not wokeism the issue, its the decrease in artistic quality of movies overall, helped partly by the ideology over craft spirit and the laziness from rentier and extractive studios.

A program that helped people evade real censorship is "feeding them US propaganda" and social media awash with state-sponsored trolls tearing our societies apart is "an alternative geopolitical narrative" - bit of a spin, isn't it?

Exactly this. The fact that you got downvoted tells a lot about how much political propaganda has infiltrated HN.

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