Peter Pomerantsev "Nothing is True and Everything is Possible"

www.politics-pr...
In 2001, the Kiev-born but British-raised Pomerantsev went to Russia to study filmmaking, though he intended to pursue a second, unofficial, major in Putin’s Russia itself. This report on a decade in his homeland intertwines what he learned and witnessed about performance and contemporary Russian culture in ways often unpredictable and always spectacular. (PublicAffairs)
Founded by Carla Cohen and Barbara Meade in 1984, Politics & Prose Bookstore is Washington, D.C.'s premier independent bookstore and cultural hub, a gathering place for people interested in reading and discussing books. Politics & Prose offers superior service, unusual book choices, and a haven for book lovers in the store and online. Visit them on the web at www.politics-pr...

[@LittleOrla]

March, 2022. More salient now than ever.

[@volodymyryereschenko8190]

Watching this from Ukraine 2022. Disaster was yet to come. How optimistically blind we was.

[@keirswaine2183]

Can’t believe this was done 9 years ago. Well, I can now.

[@malako777A]

oh well.. watching this in 2021 while living in America makes this whole talk even eerier.

[@MandalayMoore33]

If one wouldn't know better, one could think, Peter is talking about today's Russia. And we are a mere 2 weeks away from Easter 2024.

[@nycrsny3406]

It's pretty crazy! Now I can kinda make sense of those absurd clips I see of Solovyov on twitter.

[@robertbrennan2268]

Brilliant, important and so, SO prescient - back then (2014) of right now (2022-3).....

[@doniphanlindsayblair]

Reading it now. Excellent

[@neilclay5835]

Bill Browder in the back there. 41:07

[@itheuserfirst3186]

This comment section has aged well. 😄

[@Ekrembo]

Thanks!

[@igorgolopolosov8478]

I'm here because of Enter Shikari

[@KuroNekoExMachina]

Please provide context?

[@aldourban4210]

@@KuroNekoExMachina the new album of Enter Shikari. is titled Nothing is true & ... an amazing album.

[@orphandextro7046]

Here we meet at the intersection of the lemniscate.

[@LittleOrla]

7 years later, Apr 2022: 39:10 How about tanks rolling in to Kyev?

[@kcconnor5085]

great book!!!!

[@amysonit]

needs more views

[@nycrsny3406]

Watching this in 2024, and my god the audience asked some great and pertinent questions! It's unfortunate that he wasn't the right person to ask them to given he was mostly privy to the meetings of propaganda architects but not political or military decision makers. The guy who mentioned the "Russian identity" was really onto something.

[@artistoex]

Number one sign you are too obsessed with Russia: spotting Bill Browder in the audience at 41:00

[@keirswaine2183]

His presence is not about being ‘too obsessed’ with Russia. It’s about a concern for humanity and the need for radical thinking to counter propaganda. Peter had been concerned about propaganda way before the war upon Ukraine. He addresses all forms of propaganda across all anti rational actors. He’s anything’s but obsessed. Just insightful , objective and funny with it.

[@artistoex]

@@keirswaine2183 that's not what I've meant to say. If you can spot and immediately recognize Bill Browder when he's only briefly visible while watching a video of Peter Pomerantsev then this is a clear sign that you are "too" obsessed with Russia. My comment was shortly after the annexation of Crimea and in hindsight all too few people were paying attention.

[@kirstinstrand6292]

I'm here because of the title

[@jamesleonard2870]

Funny you mention Michael Lewis. He said in a podcast that the NBA tried Voice to Skull technology when they introduced instant replay to the league. The refs hated having a voice in their head. Not surprisingly

[@joehiggs100]

Thanks for posting.

[@RARA64HUNNID]

*PANTHEON* brought me here

[@AntonShmerkin]

I wish someone would send this link pando.com/2015/05/17/neocons-2-0-the-problem-with-peter-pomerantsev/ to Pomerantsev and have him rebut this story by Mark Ames. On video. Preferably, with Mr.Ames present to rebut the rebuttal. Should be fun to watch...

[@yongrolfn]

only watching this to pass a quiz on this vid ...

[@rhodamackenzie1105]

I cannot tell whether he is describing America, or Russia. They aren't that different now.

[@Johnconno]

So Owen Jones is American?

[@CF565]

Talking way way too fast- totally unfollowable.

[@HaoSci]

play it as 0.75 speed.

[@Moowing]

And he is talking about propaganda...

[@-441-]

Peter Pomerantsev AKA Ezio Auditore da Firenzi

[@charlesballiet7074]

what a shill

[@utribit4767]

why 49 minutes? is not it wise to be max 10-15 minutes? otherwise I would have suggested that he read the book from cover to cover which is ok :D but if the 49 minutes includes more time for Qs and answers a kind of discussion ok but solo scene is really boring!

[@qapplor]

The book was extremely tedious to read.

[@TheSpiritOfTheTimes]

Not a fan of Pomerantsev at all. His writing about Russia and specifically Russian propaganda verges on the hysterical: Russian propaganda, even today after 25 years, is very ham-fisted and unsophisticated relative to the West since up until the collapse of the Soviet Union the state could just use violence to get its way. Western, American propaganda is extremely sophisticated and has seeped into every pore of society over the last century. And guess what? The reason why so many 'fall for it' is because there's simply a lot of truth to it: especially about the hypocrisy of the West, its immense crimes (much greater than Russia's) and so on. People get cynical and indignant when Westerners preach to them yet their governments commit heinous crimes around the world. It's not whataboutism- whataboutism is practiced by Westerns all the time, they just think themselves exempt from the considerations their governments could ever be bad- misguided perhaps, but never evil- the hallmark of what all really deeply and successfully indoctrinated people/societies believe.

[@Aan_allein]

+TheSpiritOfTheTimes not really. because in free societies people can speak freely, engange and participate in politics. You can't in putin's russia

[@TheSpiritOfTheTimes]

+okayplayer82 Ugh, this is exactly the picture one gets if they read propagandists like Pomerantsev don't they? Buddy, Russia indeed has much less institutional and cultural factors that would defend democracy and freedom, both under assault in Putin's Russia, and a lot of the formal opposition has been destroyed and co-opted, but people are indeed 'free' to criticize Putin as lots of alternative media does. But want to know something? Lots of people who oppose the rabid nationalists and authoritarianism don't oppose Putin's foreign policy.

[@Aan_allein]

TheSpiritOfTheTimes partially agree with you. But people are not free to criticize putin. look at what happened to nemtsov, politkovskaya, litvinenko and navalny..imprisoned or killed. Media in russia never scrutinizes putin's policies or his interests

[@TheSpiritOfTheTimes]

+okayplayer82 Yes, it does, but obviously not the state media or the media owned by the oligarchs allied to Putin, which of course dominate the Russian media space. The four people you mention could hardly be more dissimilar people, just name-dropping of people famous in the West. Navalny is free, and probably the most high-profile critic of Putin and that's why they're afraid to touch him, even though they've gone after his family, Politkovskaya was indeed an important, courageous journalist, dead now for 10 years, Litvinenko was a spy and a defector and Nemtsov a politician whose death most definitely didn't help Putin in any way- his allies like Yashin and Navalny have only become more committed and bolder. Nemtsov and Politkovskaya were probably killed by Kadirov's circle, it's impossible to know the actual relationship between the Kremlin and Kadirov, but it's inconceivable Nemtsov's murder at least was sanctioned by the Kremlin, it was nothing but extremely bad PR for the international media of a politician who wasn't popular in Russia anymore, but could easily be portrayed in the international media as a handsome, charismatic opposition leader.

[@Aan_allein]

TheSpiritOfTheTimes The point is that all of them were critics / opponents of putin. i dont think its an accident. The death of nemtsov clearly sent a message to everybody in russia. any critic can be touched by the kadyrov/kremlin regime

[@RichardRaueiser]

Hell, I gues it's clever attempt of illumation.

[@GovenorJerryBrown]

I think Peter is a Russian agent in an active role as a lifetime actor playing a surreal mirror character. Everything he says actually pertains to the West but he is psychologically incapable of coming to terms with it so we, the 4th wall , come to the conclusion that this deusional guy (ourselves in the mirror) is in denial and from this psycho-dialectic we learn to love the tyrannical Russian government even more. But seriously, the only thing that could make this guy less of the "skeptic" he purports to be is a rant about evolution and a fedora.