Try to imagine a Russian reporter showing up outside of General Dynamics factory and asking lots of questions about weapons production, shifts, delivery, and more, and then you expect the USA security organizations (governmental and private) and the major press to think this is normal. Yeah, right. And then we could just have a conversation about that guy locked up for ‘reporting’ in the UK. Your complete and obvious hypocrisy is showing….
Simple. Follow MofA a good period of time (2 months maybe?) and see how often you catch the man sharing information that is incorrect. Then report back to your Substack readers what you find.
Back in the good old blogging days, "Moon" was run by a guy named Billmon, who was for a time one of the most beloved bloggers in the 'sphere. He was a great writer and had some interesting insights; but there came a point where he did start to run toward conspiracy-mongering. "Billmon" was a pseudonym that he protected as vigorously (and obviously, even more successfully) than Heather Parton protected "Digby" at the time.
I lost track of him well over a decade ago. Interesting that the blog name is still around; wonder if it's still him who's running it. Given the trajectory that he was starting out on even back then, it's sad but not surprising that he ended up this far out in the weeds.
I'll bet some of the old-line proggie bloggers know who he actually is.
Everyone knows 'b' is called Bernhard and is German. You can find his face on youtube, possibly with Dima if memory serves. Why might he want to keep a low profile? Julian Assange, Alina Lipp, Graham Phillips...
That's exactly it: conspiracy theorists will disbelieve the word of 1000 experts, but happily suspend all disbelief for the testimony of one semi-qualified kook on social media.
Even worse, they believe themselves to be the true skeptics.
Also, I have a pet theory that Marvel movies stoke — if even gently — the flames of conspiracy theories and their simplistic Good vs. Evil Genius (government, globalists, etc.) plotlines.
It's not that conspiracy doesn't exist, (of course it does), rather, like you said, it's not NEARLY as organized as some think. (my opinion)
Moon of Alabama along with his or her "co-bloggers" i.e. Caitlin Johnstone, Aaron Mate, Matt Taibbi, Jimmy Dore, Lee Camp, Max Blumenthal et al, have done some valuable and insightful pieces in the past but seem to have lost their footing over the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Their understandable fear of World War III and a nuclear confrontation has positioned them as appeasers of Russia's outrageous violation of the UN Charter, just as the USA did so in Iraq, and with similar ethnic cleansing and genocidal effect. Empires are at their most dangerous as they deteriorate into their inevitable demise and Russia precedes the USA in that inevitability. I can't easily read the rather adolescent screeds coming from Moon of Alabama and his or her wobbly pen. As they play similar games on their geopolitical chessboard, millions of Ukrainians are displaced, their homes obliterated in a so-called "special military operation", Ukrainian children are deported to Russia and Putin and his claque of clans provide no off ramps for negotiation, their humiliation and isolation exposed before the whole world.
Whenever I encounter Moon of Alabama on the Popular Resistance website [an unfortunate example of the way that site has devolved], I hear a version of Brecht's lyrics:
Oh Moon of Alabama/ You now must say goodbye/ You've lost your good old marbles/ And much have dollars, Oh, you know why....
Not the first time Russ has kvetched about the very popular website Moon of Alabama. Is it because Moon gets vastly more page views than the rarely if ever cited WhoWhatWhy, perchance?
I think you’re well off base here for the reasons many have already commented. I’ve been following him for years and his record for a regular blogger is really rather good. He probably over-egged this piece, but as has been noted above, how would this behaviour have been received in Ohio or Washington State?
In a week you are (rightly & interestingly) revisiting your work on the many inconsistencies in the Boston Marathon bombing narrative, you might like to check out Moon Of Alabama’s blogging on the Skripal/Salisbury poisonings in the UK or the alleged Syrian chemical weapons attacks. He was particularly good on the Russian Novichok stories and the developing (and patently ludicrous) narrative that developed around them.
Try to imagine a Russian reporter showing up outside of General Dynamics factory and asking lots of questions about weapons production, shifts, delivery, and more, and then you expect the USA security organizations (governmental and private) and the major press to think this is normal. Yeah, right. And then we could just have a conversation about that guy locked up for ‘reporting’ in the UK. Your complete and obvious hypocrisy is showing….
Why do people trust "Moon of Alabama"?
Simple, his track record on things Ukraine are overwhelmingly more accurate than yours and your cohorts.
Your article is one big swing and a miss. I will take a pass on your next two.
Dude it took like 5 minutes to track down for you Dima's comment that Bernhard is referencing and I'm not even a journalist or whatever.
Go to 6:40
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KimAu1uHwsc
You're welcome
Simple. Follow MofA a good period of time (2 months maybe?) and see how often you catch the man sharing information that is incorrect. Then report back to your Substack readers what you find.
Last year, a Spanish journalist was arrested in Poland on espionage charges.
I thought Journalism Was Not A Crime? (unless, of course, you are Julian Assange...) Apparently, only sometimes.
https://www.ifj.org/media-centre/news/detail/article/poland-spanish-journalist-pablo-gonzalez-in-custody-for-one-year-on-charges-of-spying-for-russia-an.html#:~:text=28%20February%202023-,Poland%3A%20Spanish%20journalist%20Pablo%20Gonz%C3%A1lez%20in%20custody%20for%20one%20year,further%20three%20months%20in%20prison.
Russ, as Larry P. Gross mentioned, I think you might have missed the Brecht reference in MoA’s monicker: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alabama_Song
Back in the good old blogging days, "Moon" was run by a guy named Billmon, who was for a time one of the most beloved bloggers in the 'sphere. He was a great writer and had some interesting insights; but there came a point where he did start to run toward conspiracy-mongering. "Billmon" was a pseudonym that he protected as vigorously (and obviously, even more successfully) than Heather Parton protected "Digby" at the time.
I lost track of him well over a decade ago. Interesting that the blog name is still around; wonder if it's still him who's running it. Given the trajectory that he was starting out on even back then, it's sad but not surprising that he ended up this far out in the weeds.
I'll bet some of the old-line proggie bloggers know who he actually is.
Simple. Follow MofA see how often the guys wrong.
Everyone knows 'b' is called Bernhard and is German. You can find his face on youtube, possibly with Dima if memory serves. Why might he want to keep a low profile? Julian Assange, Alina Lipp, Graham Phillips...
That's exactly it: conspiracy theorists will disbelieve the word of 1000 experts, but happily suspend all disbelief for the testimony of one semi-qualified kook on social media.
Even worse, they believe themselves to be the true skeptics.
Also, I have a pet theory that Marvel movies stoke — if even gently — the flames of conspiracy theories and their simplistic Good vs. Evil Genius (government, globalists, etc.) plotlines.
It's not that conspiracy doesn't exist, (of course it does), rather, like you said, it's not NEARLY as organized as some think. (my opinion)
Moon of Alabama along with his or her "co-bloggers" i.e. Caitlin Johnstone, Aaron Mate, Matt Taibbi, Jimmy Dore, Lee Camp, Max Blumenthal et al, have done some valuable and insightful pieces in the past but seem to have lost their footing over the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Their understandable fear of World War III and a nuclear confrontation has positioned them as appeasers of Russia's outrageous violation of the UN Charter, just as the USA did so in Iraq, and with similar ethnic cleansing and genocidal effect. Empires are at their most dangerous as they deteriorate into their inevitable demise and Russia precedes the USA in that inevitability. I can't easily read the rather adolescent screeds coming from Moon of Alabama and his or her wobbly pen. As they play similar games on their geopolitical chessboard, millions of Ukrainians are displaced, their homes obliterated in a so-called "special military operation", Ukrainian children are deported to Russia and Putin and his claque of clans provide no off ramps for negotiation, their humiliation and isolation exposed before the whole world.
Whenever I encounter Moon of Alabama on the Popular Resistance website [an unfortunate example of the way that site has devolved], I hear a version of Brecht's lyrics:
Oh Moon of Alabama/ You now must say goodbye/ You've lost your good old marbles/ And much have dollars, Oh, you know why....
Paul Craig Roberts, another internet journalist, does not hide his identity. He passes on what Elon Musk said about the New York Times. The NYTimes reporter arrested in Russia should have picked a more respectable news outlet for the propaganda he was helping to create. https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2023/04/03/elon-musk-on-the-new-york-times-this-is-priceless/
Noam Chomsky: "I am inclined to agree with the astute commentator who posts under the name Moon of Alabama”
Source: https://truthout.org/articles/chomsky-advanced-u-s-weaponry-in-ukraine-is-sustaining-battlefield-stalemate/
Not the first time Russ has kvetched about the very popular website Moon of Alabama. Is it because Moon gets vastly more page views than the rarely if ever cited WhoWhatWhy, perchance?
I think you’re well off base here for the reasons many have already commented. I’ve been following him for years and his record for a regular blogger is really rather good. He probably over-egged this piece, but as has been noted above, how would this behaviour have been received in Ohio or Washington State?
In a week you are (rightly & interestingly) revisiting your work on the many inconsistencies in the Boston Marathon bombing narrative, you might like to check out Moon Of Alabama’s blogging on the Skripal/Salisbury poisonings in the UK or the alleged Syrian chemical weapons attacks. He was particularly good on the Russian Novichok stories and the developing (and patently ludicrous) narrative that developed around them.