“Dark Indonesia” and Astroturfed Subversion + More

21-04-2025: Since February, Indonesia has been beset by protests largely led by students, so-called civil society organisations, some labour unions and K-pop fans. Protests emerged in many cities throughout the Indonesian archipelago including Jakarta, Surabaya, Yogyakarta, Bandung, Solo, Semarang, Bali, Samarinda, Banjarmasin and South Sumatra. The protestors were reportedly delivering a “red report card” on the first 100 days of President Prabowo Subianto’s administration. They also condemned Prabowo’s “Ndasmu!” remark towards critics of the Free Nutritious Meal program.[1] “Ndasmu” is an impolite Javanese word meaning “your head”, which perhaps implies that the protestors’ actions were the result of something that existed in their heads only. The slogan “Dark Indonesia” under which the protests took place, is a stab at Prabowo’s election slogan of “Golden Indonesia” (Indonesia Emas), which aims to advance the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia (NKRI) to a sovereign, prosperous nation by 2045, the centennial of its independence won in 1945.[2]

“Dark Indonesia” and Astroturfed Subversion

Related:

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Correcting some misinformation on Iran (response to a YouTube video)

From the “Selected Works of Mao Tse-Tung” (full text)

One of my YouTube subscriptions just put out a video roasting MAGA Communists for supporting Iran. While I’ve criticized MAGA Communism in the past, I had to respectfully disagree with their take on Iran. The following are just a few links to disprove the Western lies about Iran. I threw in some commentary as well. FYI, they may have deleted it by now, thanks to some of the comments. Although, I appreciate them admitting that they may have a flawed view of Iran, I’m still leaving this post up for the corrections.

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Khaled Hosseini

I was recommended Khaled Hosseini’s book, “A Thousand Splendid Suns” by someone I’ve been conversing with on Goodreads. While it’s fiction, it appears that this person takes it how Muslims really are. From the critical reviews that I’ve read, so far, my immediate takeaway is that the book is Anti-Communist (the Soviets didn’t invade Afghanistan) and Islamophobic. Others have said that it’s racist and makes the case for ‘humanitarian intervention’ aka invasion based on women’s rights or children’s rights.

Khaled Hosseini with Dubya and Laura Bush. White House photo by David Bohrer
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Reflections on war propaganda

I told myself that I wasn’t going to listen to these “think tanks” for a while. I guess I wasn’t ready, as the following angered me. This is just normal thinking inside “The Blob,” though.

Full video

Wikipedia:

Demonizing the enemy, demonization of the enemy or dehumanization of the enemy is a propaganda technique which promotes an idea about the enemy being a threatening, evil aggressor with only destructive objectives.

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