Thread by @GordonDarroch

Extraordinary to see how Trumpist partisan milkmaid
@EvaVlaar
manages to pack at least 10 lies into two and a half minutes of deranged commentary on Fox News about the #DutchFarmers protests. Let's take a walk through them.

Lie #1. 'This is about the Dutch government stealing our farmers' land.'
Farmers who stop working will get 130% of the value of their land and assets under the environmental planning agency's recommendations. Where do I sign up to be robbed on these terms? boerenbusiness.nl/mineralen/arti…

Lie #2: 'They're doing this under the guise of the made-up nitrogen crisis.'
The 'nitrogen crisis' is the result of a judgment by a court that the government was breaking the law. If you hate the Dutch constitution, at least have the honesty to say so. raadvanstate.nl/stikstof/

The law in question is a EU-wide regulation, agreed by all member states, to protect biodiversity in vulnerable habitats known as Natura 2000 zones. EU countries are legally obliged to limit emissions such as ammonia and nitrous oxide around these areas. ec.europa.eu/environment/na…

Lie #3: 'That is going to put most of these farmers completely out of business.'
The latest estimate is that 30% of the 50,000 farmers in the Netherlands will have to give up to achieve the necessary reduction in nitrogen compound emissions. trouw.nl/duurzaamheid-n…

Lie #4: 'They're doing this because they want these farmers' land to house new immigrants'.
This old saw takes a bit more unpacking. The court ruling was about building permits. Builders were no longer allowed to offset emissions during construction against future efficiencies …

Which meant around 18,000 building projects ground to a halt: roads, bridges, airport expansions and housing projects. Not houses for new immigrants, but homes for Dutch people increasingly priced out of an overheated property and rental market. ad.nl/binnenland/waa…

And which sector milked the old regulations more than most? Dairy farmers, who needed bigger cattle sheds after milk quotas were scrapped in 2015. From 2013 to 2017 the cattle herd grew by 2.4%. In that sense they're the architects of their own downfall. ad.nl/politiek/veest…

Incidentally, the government couldn't give farmers' land to migrants even if it wanted to. Planning law is in the hands of provinces and municipalities, who are very sensitive to local people's concerns about so-called mass immigration.

Only this week a local mayor in Flevoland spoke out against plans to build an asylum seekers' reception centre in his municipality. Similar projects have been abandoned under pressure from aggressive protestors. metronieuws.nl/in-het-nieuws/…

Lie #5: 'They also want it because the farmers are standing in the way of the Great Reset plans that they have for us.'
Ah yes, let's just chuck in a far-right dog whistle while we're here. There's no facts to check here, just a white supremacist anxiety dream, so let's move on.

Lie #6: 'Farmers are … self-sufficient people'.
Dutch farmers received €5.8bn in subsidies since 2014. Of this, €3.4bn has gone to cattle farmers. 36% of farmers earn below the minimum wage, yet 43% of cattle farmers are millionaires.
bnnvara.nl/joop/artikelen…

But there's a subtext: because the funding is allocated by acreage, struggling small farmers are increasingly being bought up by massive agribusinesses, fattened up by EU and Dutch subsidies. There is a 'reset' going on, just not the one Eva Brownfields wants to talk about.

"It's driving farmers to something like suicide". It's true, farming is a stressful job. Uncertainty about the industry's future has added to the pressure. Suicide rates in the industry have been going up. But the link to the nitrogen plans is speculative. rtvoost.nl/nieuws/1721013…

Lie #7: 'What our government is doing is communism'.
Hold on: a minute ago you said they were stealing land to build houses. Now you're claiming they're collectivising the farms in a doomed effort to increase food production? Anyone would think you haven't thought this through.

Lie #8: 'No farmers, no food'
A favourite slogan of the farming lobby, but utterly false. The Netherlands is the world's second biggest food exporter: three-quarters of produce is sold across the border. Shutting 30% of farms wouldn't mean we go hungry. nporadio1.nl/nieuws/wetensc…

Also, around 75% of the land where food is grown for Dutch consumers is in other countries. Supermarkets sell plenty of coffee, bananas and wine: not much of it is home grown. Even 60% of the dairy products we buy come from elsewhere.

Lie #9: 'The police have responded in an incredibly violent way'.
Despite the mass blockades, only a handful of people have been arrested. Police did fire a shot at a tractor driven by a 16-year-old boy. He was shaken but unharmed. rtlnieuws.nl/nieuws/nederla…

How else did the vicious communist Dutch state persecute this poor boy? Er, he was released without charge, the police commissioner said the shooting was a mistake and has offered to compensate the damage to the tractor. I suspect Stalin would have given him a worse deal.

Lie #10: 'Peaceful protesters'
It's a strong field, but I'm calling this the most egregious bullshit in the whole clip. The minister for nitrogen has had road blocks put up at her home after farmers turned up on her doorstep three times. veluwefm.nl/meer-duidelijk…

Police have put up security cameras outside another minister's house. An MP had to take three days off work when activists appeared at his home while his young children were inside. gelderlander.nl/home/woning-mi…

The policeman who shot at the tractor has gone into hiding after his name and photo were circulated online. Farmers parked a trailer and invited people to guess when the nitrogen minister would be assassinated. nos.nl/artikel/243581…

Protesters have set fire to hay bales beside busy motorways. They smashed a police van with sledgehammers. They churned up a nature reserve with their tractors. They've shaken down motorists stuck in their blockades. This is no peaceful protest.

https://twitter.com/SonamDakpa/status/1545455635281723393

'This red handkerchief is a symbol of the farmers' resistance'. A contentious statement rather than a lie: not many red hankies at the mass protest three weeks ago, but now it's been on TV it might start a wave. Maybe just check first it doesn't have any other associations …

One the one hand it's hilarious, but it matters because this video has opened the floodgates to a slurry of disinformation 'exposés', such as this one fronted by the intriguingly named Roman Balmakov.

https://twitter.com/FactsMatterRB/status/1545557374584455168

This has had a bit of attention. If you like concise news summaries with a dash of sarcasm, you could do worse than listen to the @DutchNewsNL podcast.
soundcloud.app.goo.gl/yJDHU