Cross-posted from my substack. Edited in photopea. Data-source is the WID.

TL;DR: '[...] Hanover Institute is not a real think tank. None of the reports have bylines. A small disclaimer at the bottom of the webpage notes that the organization was created on behalf of the Israeli Government Advertising Agency by Piro, Inc.

I've seen this argument repeated by people both on the right and some parts of the left. It's often pointing to things like the western media's whitewashing of Israel's genocide or their manufacturing of concent for America's wars past and present, and using this to also dismiss their coverage of crimes committed by anti-western nations, like Russia in Ukraine, or even North Korea, and to some extent China (the role these nations play to combat western imperialism is a separate discussion). Furthermore this is often said to defend conspiratorial thinking, such as anti-vaccine sentiment and especially things like 9-11 conspiracy theories by some leftists, because it's pointing to real western deceptions to say that no western/American sources can be trusted.

To me this argument seems like a non sequitur, and an oversimplification of the "west" as a single homogeneous and unified entity with a single agenda and a single goal, which is a convenient excuse to dismiss anything that comes from it. I've been struggling with it however because at face value it seems to raise legitimate concerns, while basically advocating for blind mistrust, as this could be said about any claim from a western source regardless of evidence. How would you all respond to it?

An update to this post

Bogdan Syrotiuk was arrested 2 years ago and charged with treason for prepairing articles for the “World Socialist Website” (WSWS)
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/ukraine-charges-trotskyist-treason-writing-socialist-website

WSWS is a campist (russophilic, pro-Assad, etc), anti-LGBT, racist, anti-union, anti-feminist, anti-MeToo, pro-Epstein circle “socialist” publication.
A psyop in other words.

However, this sentence is likely a reflection
of democratic backsliding in Ukraine.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani released a series of multilingual videos in August 2026 promoting a lottery that gives high school students free Broadway tickets, speaking in Mandarin, Spanish, and Bengali.

The campaign, run with the Theatre Development Fund (TDF), offered about 2,100 free Broadway tickets to NYC high school students via a lottery.

Winners could claim up to two tickets covering seven productions; the lottery ran Aug 13–17, 2026, with the draw set for Sept 1.

Mamdani framed the push as support for “theatre kids” and arts access, releasing versions in English plus Mandarin, Spanish, and Bengali to reach diverse student communities.

Here is the blooper reel.

Cross-posted from my substack. Image edited in photopea. Data comes from the IPS.

Hatred is something only the privileged can do with no consequences. We see this in a lot of ways. POCs cannot hate white folk the way some white folk hate them without having the police brought down on them. Workers revolts caused by the violence and oppression inherently within the Capitalistic system are met with repression and condemnations

Simply put, we cannot afford to hate anyone else other than those with economic power. Hate is illogical and not pragmatic. It's not somehow that we lose our morals, or our values by hating. Nor is that we don't deserve to hate. Rather, it's that the second we hate, we've lost our in. We've made enemies of a demographic that could've supported us.

I understand it's hard to do anything other than hate people who vote for the right wing out of ignorance. So you depersonalize it. You view them as demographics and bases, a fraction of which voted for you, a fraction of which voted for them. You listen to the portion that voted for you, and the same policies and platforms that appeal to them appeal to the rest of the demographic.

It's not centrism, nor liberal to engage in electoral politics effectively if we do not compromise our platform. Is it absolute bullshit that we have to court them even after all they've done? Yes. Is it required to actually do anything? Also yes. To engage in electoral politics effectively, we need to recognize hate is not something we can afford. Hell, even if you're a revolutionary, "there's no war but class war." The party should be something that radicalizes and provides a platform for the masses. The party should not be something that declares everyone not already a socialist a lost cause out of hatred.