In modern Russia the words "musicians" and "orchestra" have acquired new connotations. In war-related materials they serve as references to the "Wagner" mercenary company which fought for Putin in Syria, Central Africa and now in Ukraine
Wagner is founded by Evegeny Prigozhin, a St Petersburg businessman close to Vladimir Putin. Prigozhin either made his fortune in restaurant business or used restaurants as a cover. Later he would organise catering for the Russian leadership, so Prigizhin was called Putin's cook
Wagner company grew big. A list of their job openings from their Vkontakte page. That gives some idea about the idea and variety of equipment they are using. That's a full scale private army vk.com/pmcworld
Being named after Richard Wagner, this company calls itself an "orchestra" and its mercenaries - "musicians". On the right you see the Wagner recruitment billboard in Yekaterinburg:
"Orchestra W is waiting for you"
This photo pretty much summarises the Wagner iconography. "Musical references". "Brat" movie - I wrote about its enormous impact on the modern Russian state cult. And of course the hammer
The hammer is a reference to the Wagner mercenaries in Syria executing a Syrian deserter from Bashar Assad's army. They beat him with a hammer, cut off his head and hands and burnt whatever remained from the body
Here you can find the photos (graphic) and if you want, google translate the material
A Syrian's execution became a well-known meme, which many try to cosplay
Here you see Wagner musicians on the ruins of Severodonetsk, Ukraine
Professionals from Wagner are more often used on risky missions than those in the regular Russian army. On the other hand, they are better compensated - and making memes about Wagner service being more lucrative than the regular army service
But in order to train their troops, Wagner uses the same Rheinmetall-built military infrastructure. Look at their advertisment, where they call volunteers to a "Molkino" village. They mean Mulino
A journalist of Meduza called Wagner introducing himself as a volunteer. And they told him that for the first month of service they're gonna train on the Mulino training ground and only then go to Ukraine meduza.io/feature/2022/0…
Wagner mercenaries are being trained on the same Rheinmetall-built Mulino training ground as the regular Russian army. The end of a short 🧵
PS clip in the beginning is Лето и арбалеты you can watch it on YouTube
An earlier thread on the Brat movies that are constantly referred to by Putin, Rogozin and ofc Wagner. That's the canon of the modern Russian state cult
Yes, and that is super duper quadruper important to understand
Koreans are poor (don't have an empire) and, therefore, must do productive work to earn their living. So, if the Americans want to learn how to do anything productive they must learn it from Koreans etc
There is this stupid idea that the ultra high level of life and consumption in the United States has something to do with their productivity. That is of course a complete sham. An average American doesn't do anything useful or important to justify (or earn!) his kingly lifestyle
The kingly lifestyle of an average American is not based on his "productivity" (what a BS, lol) but on the global empire Americans are holding currently. Part of the imperial dynamics being, all the actually useful work, all the material production is getting outsourced abroad
Reading Tess of the d'Urbervilles. Set in southwest England, somewhere in the late 1800s. And the first thing you need to know is that Tess is bilingual. He speaks a local dialect she learnt at home, and the standard English she picked at school from a London-trained teacher
So, basically, "normal" language doesn't come out of nowhere. Under the normal conditions, people on the ground speak all the incomprehensible patois, wildly different from each other
"Regular", "correct" English is the creation of state
So, basically, the state chooses a standard (usually, based on one of the dialects), cleanses it a bit, and then shoves down everyone's throats via the standardized education
Purely artificial construct, of a super mega state that really appeared only by the late 1800s
There's a subtle point here that 99,999% of Western commentariat is missing. Like, totally blind to. And that point is:
Building a huuuuuuuuuuge dam (or steel plant, or whatever) has been EVERYONE's plan of development. Like absolutely every developing country, no exceptions
Almost everyone who tried to develop did it in a USSR-ish way, via prestige projects. Build a dam. A steel plant. A huge plant. And then an even bigger one
And then you run out of money, and it all goes bust and all you have is postapocalyptic ruins for the kids to play in
If China did not go bust, in a way like almost every development project from the USSR to South Asia did, that probably means that you guys are wrong about China. Like totally wrong
What you describe is not China but the USSR, and its copies & emulations elsewhere
What I am saying is that "capitalist reforms" are a buzzword devoid of any actual meaning, and a buzzword that obfuscated rather than explains. Specifically, it is fusing radically different policies taken under the radically different circumstances (and timing!) into one - purely for ideological purposes
It can be argued, for example, that starting from the 1980s, China has undertaken massive socialist reforms, specifically in infrastructure, and in basic (mother) industries, such as steel, petrochemical and chemical and, of course, power
The primary weakness of this argument is that being true, historically speaking, it is just false in the context of American politics where the “communism” label has been so over-used (and misapplied) that it lost all of its former power:
“We want X”
“No, that is communism”
“We want communism”
Basically, when you use a label like “communism” as a deus ex machina winning you every argument, you simultaneously re-define its meaning. And when you use it to beat off every popular socio economic demand (e.g. universal healthcare), you re-define communism as a synthesis of all the popular socio economic demands
Historical communism = forced industrial development in a poor, predominantly agrarian country, funded through expropriation of the peasantry
(With the most disastrous economic and humanitarian consequences)
Many are trying to explain his success with some accidental factors such as his “personal charisma”, Cuomo's weakness etc
Still, I think there may be some fundamental factors here. A longue durée shift, and a very profound one
1. Public outrage does not work anymore
If you look at Zohran, he is calm, constructive, and rarely raises his voice. I think one thing that Mamdani - but almost no one else in the American political space is getting - is that the public is getting tired of the outrage
Outrage, anger, righteous indignation have all been the primary drivers of American politics for quite a while
For a while, this tactics worked
Indeed, when everyone around is polite, and soft (and insincere), freaking out was a smart thing to do. It could help you get noticed