In mid-February, one year after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Finnish internet was hit with a deluge of near-identical messages chastizing Finland’s ambitions to join western security alliance NATO.

On social media platforms like Twitter, an army of users parroted the same sentence: “NATO can’t save Finland.” Some posts received tens of thousands of views in the lead-up to the country’s admission to NATO on April 4.

But there was a catch: the sentence that spread like wildfire was grammatically incorrect. In the Finnish language, there are two verbs that mean “to save.” One means to rescue, and the other means to save in the form of recording or storing. The viral phrase used the latter.

The erroneous use of the verb, alongside the proliferation of seemingly fake accounts tweeting the slogan — many were only a few months or weeks old — alerted the Finnish public that the viral message was not the product of an organic uprising at home. The origin of the campaign hasn’t been determined, but many believe it was an act of disruption, or disinformation warfare, likely stemming from pro-Kremlin actors using bots, paid trolls and influencers relying on Google Translate to carry out the failed campaign.

What began as an effort to stoke discord in Finnish society and discredit Finland’s efforts to join NATO became a running joke in the nation, inspiring a flood of wisecracks and memes. The country’s public broadcaster Yle published a story in late February with a headline that read: “Finnish grammar foils pro-Russia trolls.”

Nothing can make up for the senseless loss of life and homes, but if there is anything to celebrate alongside the dogged determination of the Ukrainians in holding the Russian army back, it is this: Putin has himself put to rest the idea that he is some kind of infallible genius. After many decades spent building up his influence, he has entirely destroyed his credibility with politicians, business, and the broader public. In the end, Putin has achieved what no one thought possible: a Ukraine defiant, a West united, and a Russia humbled.

As Ron DeSantis takes on CRT, the AP miraculously finds white rage where none is actually there.

The Critical Race Theory siege continues in this country, and those making the argument on the other side have failed to become any more lucid over time. As Glenn Younkin took initial steps to keep the CRT curriculum out of Virginia schools his opponents resorted to not making sense to make their point. Some screeched, “It’s not even being taught in schools!” Others went further, trying to claim that CRT does not even exist.

These retorts are rendered neutered immediately by basic responses. If it is not being taught then banning it should not be an issue, but if it does not even exist then getting upset over any action makes absolutely no sense. Try to imagine getting emotionally worked up if it was announced that schools could not teach unicorn husbandry. That is how vacant their argument becomes.

It is with similar logic that The Associated Press reports on a new bill in the Florida legislature, with the news syndicate declaring racism in the policy by injecting words that were not written. Called The Individual Freedom bill, the legislation would limit the teaching in schools or the diversity training in businesses that a particular race is responsible for historic actions. The AP declares it to be protection for one race alone.

It begins with the headline: Florida could shield whites from ‘discomfort’ of racist past. From there the syndicate describes this as, A bill pushed by Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis that would prohibit public schools and private businesses from making white people feel “discomfort” when they teach students or train employees about discrimination in the nation’s past. //

Those words are not found to be anywhere in the bill. Instead what you get is a neutral address that includes all races, and protects an individual from being punished in a fashion for a reason stemming solely from their race or sex. As it is written:

“An individual, by virtue of his or her race or sex, does not bear responsibility for actions committed in the past by other members of the same race or sex. An individual should not be made to feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress on account of his or her race.” //

State Senator Shevrin Jones:

“At no point did anyone say white people should be held responsible for what happened, but what I would ask my white counterparts is, are you an enabler of what happened or are you going to say we must talk about history?”

Just astounding. He manages, within a single sentence, to declare that whites would not be held responsible for past actions, but if you support this law, that makes you an enabler to what happened in the past. That is the very thing this bill is addressing! This is a state senator denying the need for this bill, and then proceeding to illustrate the very behavior requiring it to become a law.

The Flight from Truth: The Reign of Deceit in the Age of Information Hardcover – January 21, 1992
by Jean Francois Revel

A distinguished French philosopher argues that the greatest threat to modern democracy is the dissemination of false information, myths that endanger the viability of freedom and the democratic way of life. //

“Human beings experience all sorts of needs for intellectual activity other than the need to know. The average human being seeks the truth only after having exhausted all other possibilities.’’ //

“For the philosophers of the enlightenment it naturally followed that once the obstacles have been overcome and we are in possession of the truth, we will mold our conduct and the governance of society accordingly.’’ //

“However, the main thesis of this book is exactly the contrary. It is based on the cultural contradiction that separates accessibility to knowledge from the irrationality of human behavior.’’ //

“I do not believe there is an automatic link leading from true knowledge to sound action. I believe this link can be established only through persistent, willful effort, intellectual rigor, mental discipline — in short, that the link is anything but natural.’’ //

“I also think that the hour has struck and that this effort must now be made for the survival of mankind.’’ //

“Knowledge only plays a part when it is not blocked by some sterile prejudice. Error, based on dogmatic ‘principles’ and unworkable ‘solutions’ is generally preferred to effective action based on knowledge and solid information. . . . To understand what is needed to late — at least for taking effective action — is almost the same as not to understand.’’ //

“The history of philosophy can be divided into two different periods. During the first, philosophers sought the truth; during the second, they fought against it. This second period, of which Descartes was the precursor of genius and of which Heidegger has been the most putrid manifestation, entered its heyday with Hegel. Between Descartes and Hegel there were several heirs of the truth seeking epoch, the most pathetically sincere of whom was Kant and the most subtle Hume, who vainly sought a middle way in order to stave off the ineluctable triumph of imposture.’’

In 2017, Christopher Monckton, Third Viscount Monckton of Brenchley and a former adviser to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, called Lt. Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa the “most influential man of the 20th century and, arguably, the beginning of the 21st.”

He was the man who pulled back the curtain to reveal the disinformation that was being churned out from the Soviet bloc. Unfortunately, most people remained unfamiliar with Pacepa and his work.

In the early morning hours of Feb. 14, 2021, COVID-19 accomplished what a $2 million bounty and two separate teams of Romanian-sponsored assassins could not. Ion Mihai Pacepa, “Mike” to those who knew him, was called home to his eternal reward. //

Eventually the CIA convinced Carter of Pacepa’s bona fides, and Western intelligence agencies tapped the invaluable information he provided. Most important was his explanation of the way Soviet agents planted disinformation to deceive and undermine faith in Western governments, leaders, history, and institutions—especially the churches. When Pacepa later attained U.S. citizenship, the CIA gave him a letter thanking him for his “important and unique contribution to the United States.”

In Romania, Ceaușescu created a special Securitate unit charged with the sole task of assassinating Pacepa. The dictator also put two separate $1 million bounties on his head and dispatched the infamous assassin “Carlos the Jackal” to carry out the job, as well as a second team of assassins. They came close. Twice Pacepa’s secret identity was compromised and he had to undergo plastic surgery and rebuild his life with his American wife, a CIA agent whom he met while being debriefed.

“This disinformation campaign has done its job.”

Journalist and former CEO of The Intercept, Glenn Greenwald launched a well-deserved scorched-earth attack against CNN and other media outlets, top Democrat lawmakers, principally “shameless pathological liar” Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), and current and former members of the intelligence community, for dismissing as “Russian propaganda” the Hunter Biden laptop controversy in the days leading up to the presidential election.

In a piece published on Substack on Thursday, as reported by Fox News, Greenwald began by skewering the “shameless pathological liar,” noting that when Schiff’s mouth is moving, he’s lying. //

“As I noted when I announced my resignation from The Intercept, a major reason I harbored so much cynicism and scorn for their claim that my story on the Hunter Biden emails had failed to meet their high-minded, rigorous editorial and fact-checking scrutiny was because that same publication was just was one of the many anti-Trump news outlets which, in the name of manipulating the outcome of the election on behalf of the Democratic Party, had mindlessly laundered the CIA/Schiff narrative without the slightest adversarial skepticism or, worse, without a whiff of evidence.”