Good morning! Today we’re again going to talk about the impact of propaganda on the mental health of consumers, as well as those around them. If I’m among the top three Serbophobes on the planet, as the Belgrade tabloids claim, then both the Serbs and Serbia have nothing to worry about.
I, the Serbophobe
Serbophobia exists. Its victims are talking about it. There’s Serbophobia like there’s hatred against every single nation on this planet. It’s just that not every hatred has name. For example, hatred against the Montenegrins doesn’t have name. But we shall talk about it some other time.
I wish I could write less about these topics and devote to public policies. To write about life topics, such as health, economy, education and other topics that readers often advise, but those are rarely read. Identity-related topics are still the most read. Yesterday, Andrija Mandic humiliated the institution he’s running. He kissed the hand of his metropolitan and displayed the tricolor in his cabinet. If he did that at home, no one would say anything to him. He thinks it’s a Christian thing to do, but it’s not. He kissed the hand of the most powerful man in the country. Christ teaches to wash the feet of the weak. If Mandic had kissed the hand of some poor fisherman from Boka, an elderly peasant from Pljevlja or Petnjica, or a Roma from Konik, there would have been more faith in that than in that clerical-nationalist ritual from yesterday in which Montenegro is presented for the umpteenth time as on the altar of the Great Serbian victory in Montenegro.
Are my words too harsh? Is it Serbophobia? It’s not. If Metropolitan of the Montenegrin Orthodox Church (CPC) had ever been so powerful and parliament speaker of the SDP or the DPS kissed his hand in the assembly, I would have reacted the same way. If he were to display my dear green flag made in memory of the Christmas insurgents, I’d also protest. And so on…
On Saturday, I voiced dismay over the fact that Budva hosted Beogradski sindikat for the New Year’s celebration according to the Julian calendar. Although I loved listening to their music during my childhood as they were singing about crime and politics, the mafia created by the state and sent by it to wage war in Bosnia, today they have boiled down to the nationalist mouthpiece of the BIA.
Aleksandar Vucic’s propagandist, former member of Idoli, Nebojsa Krstic, commented on my critical tweet by saying that Tompson should be brought to make me happy. Vucic’s tabloid journalists turned that into the headline ‘Ljubo would love to see Tompson in Budva’. And that’s it. So now I love Tompson.
That’s exactly what happens every time. The things that have been said are twisted and fabricated, and then they add something to present me as a Serbophobe. As they said in the mentioned text “proven Serb hater”. I criticize Djokovic for nationalism, for being an anti-vaxxer and for his conspiracy theories, and then the headlines turn everything into a “scandalous Serb-hating brutal attack on Djokovic”. All in capital letters.
Propaganda is like smoking. It harms consumers, but also people around them. It’s enough to use these tabloids to create a critical mass of those who label someone as a Serbophobe, and then the rest jump on the bandwagon, as the Americans like to say. Everyone wants to participate and beat the Serbophobe.
In Montenegro, the echoes of such propaganda have caused some people to distance themselves from the state-owned and privately owned media, both “Serbian” and “Montenegrin”. As the public media were getting “liberated”, the “Serbophobes” were leaving. The Budva public TV broadcaster literally deleted my posts. And it was done by the people recruited by the DPS. The only exception to this rule is the Niksic public broadcaster.
Serbian journalists Zeljko Veljkovic and Vanja Djuric were attacked the other day according to the same cancellation matrix. Because they criticized the abuse of children in nationalist campaigns. Everything they said was twisted in such a way to prove that they hate children. A similar thing happened recently to Severina, who was branded Serbophobe after she’d sent a message of support to Montenegro. This is how the matrix grinds people in an attempt to scare them. They managed in that with journalist Djuric, partially silencing her. She had to delete her Twitter profile because of harassment. And I totally understand her.
You choose someone who’s firm in his views, but ready for dialogue. Make him radioactive. In this way, they narrow the space for the exchange of arguments between the political poles. This is how society becomes polarized, and freedom of speech is abolished. In the end, it backfires on these curators of truth. Water always finds a way. And public opinion is like water – when it freezes, it breaks the fragile pot in which it’s placed. That is why it is better for all of us not to freeze the water, just let it flow. There will be less damage.
That’s all for today. Have a great rest of your day.
Best regards,
Ljubomir Filipovic, CdM observer and columnist
(The opinions and views of our columnists aren’t necessarily those of the CdM news team)
