In this segment of our #podacst, #Mintcast, @Alanmacleod discusses how #COVID19 became a boon for the ultra-wealthy and allowed America’s billionaires to accrue more #wealth in just 3 weeks of #lockdown than they made in total prior to 1980.
🧵Activision Blizzard’s new video game Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 has some seriously problematic aspects, not least the dehumanization of Arabs. It is set in Iraq, where players kill Iraqi combat forces and pursue Saddam Hussein. Previous Call of Duty games have glorified the assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani and Cuba’s Fidel Castro.
This targeting of America’s enemies is no coincidence. The game’s developer, Activision Blizzard, work closely with the US military and the US national security state to create the games. Furthermore, top Activision Blizzard executives are former CIA operatives.
🧵Journalists in the United Kingdom have suffered an increasing number of attacks from the British state. Earlier this month, Electronic Intifada’s Asa Winstanley was detained by police in a dawn raid on his home. Ten counter-terrorism police stormed his house and stole his electronic devices, presumably in an attempt to monitor his communications.
Winstanley is the latest in a series of prominent pro-Palestine figures detained by police, including Richard Medhurst, Sarah Wilkinson, Craig Murray and Julian Assange.
MintPress fills you in on the details of this worrying development.
🧵A new MintPress News investigation reveals that a number of the most influential journalists in the United States were previously operatives of Israeli spying agency, Unit 8200.
Barak Ravid.
Founded in 1952, Unit 8200 is the Israeli military’s largest and most controversial division. Responsible for clandestine operations, spying, surveillance and cyberwarfare, the group has been at the forefront of the world’s attention since October 7, 2023.
🧵The twelve-month Israeli attack on Gaza could not be sustained without the unwavering support of corporate media in the West.
Since October 7, Western media have pulled out all the stops to ensure the public does not see the reality of what is happening in Gaza.
In this series of slides, MintPress explains nine common tactics big media outlets use to manufacture public consent for Israeli actions against its neighbors, highlighting some egregious examples on the way.
Using the passive voice when describing Israeli attacks.
Refusing to use accurate terms such as “invasion” to describe Israeli aggression.
The Israeli national security state is known the world over for its ethically questionable practices. But few people know that many of the world’s top companies were actually started by alumni of Israeli intelligence services—the same services that surveil and oppress the Palestinian population.
MintPress lays out eight companies with extremely close ties to Israeli intelligence.
Waze.
Unit 8200 is an elite military unit that carries out surveillance, cyber warfare and clandestine operations for Israel.
🧵With three billion monthly users, Facebook is the world’s largest media platform. This gives whoever controls it enormous power to shape narratives worldwide.
The US government has consistently used this power to influence Facebook and censor and delete viewpoints it does not like.
Last August, Facebook deleted nearly 8,000 accounts and 1,000 pages that spread positive messages about China and criticized US actions against Beijing.
Facebook did not claim these accounts were linked to the Chinese government, and so it was merely their opinions that triggered their removal.