inspectorfrost

https://www.nytimes.com/1993/05/04/us/growing-up-under-koresh-cult-children-tell-of-abuses.html There was a fascinating program on C5 last night where they interviewed survivors of the Waco Siege in 1993. They interviewed both ex-ATF personnel and Branch Davidian cult members, and it analysed the buildup to the fire in the years beforehand. I'd encourage anyone to watch it and take specific note of the sheer extent of David Koresh's ability to manipulate, brainwash and directly control so many people just to feed his own messiah complex. He recruited people worldwide in a time long before social media existed, and a third of the cult members who died in the fire were British and there were also members from Australia. This was a man with the ability to persuade parents to willingly hand over their young children for him for rape/sexual abuse (I think one quote was "who wouldn't want them to have sex with Jesus Christ?", and almost all of his followers stayed in the building to be burned alive in the inferno as part of Koresh's apocalyptic vision. The raid was a botch because the authories didn't realise Koresh was already in control of it. It was a very good example of how much power and control just one depraved psychopath had over the minds of so many people. Most of the Waco survivors to this day still believe Koresh is the son of god. Koresh still controls their minds 25 years after his death. The 'religion' is different but the methodology is exactly the same. Manipulate and subtly brainwash suggestible people over time, break them down psychologically, gain control of their minds through fear and indoctrinate them into an endless pattern of circular thinking. Easier said than done but one can then convince the most abhorrent things are rational in a certain context. The modern day middle eastern David Koresh's now have twitter/facebook to spread their poison in the background of the middle eastern conflicts. The social media giants lost control and are only again starting to get a foothold. All religion is down to individual interpretation, and when someone with the depraved power of Koresh twists it for his own ends and controls so many through his own interpretation, is that the fault of the 'religion'? You can certainly argue 'the Muslims' or 'Islam' needs to sort out extremism but we're talking about 1.8 billion people worldwide. All with their own interpretations of a book written 1400 years or so ago when the world the world was a very different place. If Koresh was a Muslim today could he eventually convince a group of peaceful Muslims to drive 18 wheelers into a crowd of innocent men women and children? Without a shadow of a doubt.

The media coverage/political perception of issues like Crimea over here is about as unbiased as Russia Today's media coverage. Crimea is fiercely pro-Russian (Ethnic Russians outnumber ethnic Ukranians by more than 4 to 1) and has had a degree of self governance before Ukraine was even an independent country. We report it one way, the Russians report the opposite and the truth is somewhere in the middle. It all stems from ex-Soviet countries' internal infighting over being pro-west/pro-russian and Putin moves the chess pieces accordingly. Ultimately Putin has way too much power in the world than the west can handle. We can do absolutely sod all about it other than continually ensure everything is the Russians' fault to control public opinion, and the Russians couldn't care less (See where accusing foreign dictators of having chemical weapons has got us before). It is sad that it all leads people to have such a negative perception of Russians as a whole (all 145 million of them).

It will all depend on the image of Russia Putin wants to project to the wider world when the eyes of the world are upon it. Obviously organised hooliganism is rife over there but I expect Putin will ensure it all disappears during the duration of the world cup.

Knowing this club it'll be Les Reed til the end of the season