I second that it is weird to read this from TVP source. I highly recommend to read Noam Chomsky's article on Eastern European dissidents [1]. Really hits home what exceptionalism is, by just showing in contrast to what happens in other parts of the World.
Also, highly recommend "The Last Of The Just" by André Schwarz-Bart. It is soo good that there is nothing else for me to say than to just read it. I've read it once Chomsky stated in one of his interviews that it was one of the best (if not best) books written on Jewish history.
Chomsky has a pretty obvious pro-russian bias. He's a "tankie" basically :) Look at what he wrote on Russian invasion of Ukraine :)
As for Russia-US symmetrism - it's bullshit.
Soviets did mass ethnic cleansing in 20th century to the level that USA only ever aproached during the conquest of the wild west.
And Russia had its own wild east - which was conquered just as brutally as the American wild west and which is still ruled with iron fist. Where Americans eventually recognized Indians as a minority with special rights - Soviets are still sending their Indians in thousands to die in their colonial wars.
> Look at what he wrote on Russian invasion of Ukraine :)
Just let yourself think about what his counterparts in US were saying. That Russia would collapse and Putin's oppresionist government is going to be overthrown by protestors? Don't you see that what we get is Putin's approval rating a historic high?
And nobody in US wants to be seen as "weak on Russia".
Only now there is more people who start saying clearly that the war is not going to stop, it is going to last number of years, and impratant bit, Ukraine is going to be completely destroyed in the process. And what Ukrainian people are going to get in return? EU membership? Western valus? Freedom?
Once you get this, the whole narrative people like Chomsky are proposing, that in 2004 this, in 2008 that, can be seen in a new light. You can read "The Art of Diplomacy" by Francois de Callieres, about 17th century european politics, which is talking about how to do international relations. Really helpful to see that this situation in Ukraine is not new - in other words, what is happening now could be forseen before the war broke out.
ps. I know quite a few Ukrainians very well who escaped the war, many from the demolished easter cities. And it didn't even cross my mind to tell them that I oppose anything Ukraine is doing atm.
If Ukraine was accepted into NATO in 2008 then none of this would happen. Chomsky was against that, i.e. his views are worsening the situation.
> Just let yourself think about what his counterparts in US were saying
Timothy Snyder for example? He's saying that Ukraine should be admited to NATO and EU, and that Russia needs to lose this war. What's wrong with that?
> Only now there is more people who start saying clearly that the war is not going to stop
All wars stop.
> Ukraine is going to be completely destroyed in the process
Already is. If you let Russia settle for peace on their conditions - they will rebuild and invade Ukraine again. Like they already did 2 times. So it's better to deal with that now than to give them more time to harm Ukraine.
> "The Art of Diplomacy" by Francois de Callieres, about 17th century european politics, which is talking about how to do international relations
There were no nukes, NATO, EU, UN. No relevance whatsoever.
> If Ukraine was accepted into NATO in 2008 then none of this would happen. Chomsky was against that, i.e. his views are worsening the situation.
This isn't the only time that this war could have been averted.
I also believe this war is partly because of the worlds weak response to the initial 2014 invasion, if the response to that was stronger then I think there was a decent chance the 2022 invasion would of never happened.
> Only now there is more people who start saying clearly that the war is not going to stop, it is going to last number of years, and impratant bit, Ukraine is going to be completely destroyed in the process. And what Ukrainian people are going to get in return? EU membership? Western valus? Freedom?
Are these things not worth fighting for?. If you don't fight for your freedom then what would you fight for?.
Ukrainians know. It's their lives, their country and their decisions. And Chomsky is telling them to stop fighting and surrender to colonization so that his political views can stay the same :)
I'm not saying that the article is untrue. I'm not a historian. What I'm saying is that all content from this source should be treated with high skepticism.
Many English Wikipedia articles about Eastern European history are propaganda from one of the sides. In some cases it's a deliberate effort by irredentist editors from whichever country to push their cause; in other cases, it's a result of editors from outside the region who can't read any of the the relevant languages and therefore don't understand that they are using biased sources uncritically.
Wikipedia absolutely can be propagandist. It's an incredibly attractive target for propagandists trying to insert their views and spins, and while the community generally manages to keep a rein on that for topic that get international attention, those which don't can be effectively captured by coordinated groups. To say nothing about the smaller international Wikipedias.
I recently enjoyed reading Henryk Sienkiewicz’s Trilogy,[1] which are rooted in history but with a thread of fervent nationalism running through them. Maybe it’s more palatable if it’s presented as fiction?
According to literary historian and critic Kazimierz Wyka the Trilogy follows conventions known from... westerns.
Sienkiewicz himself went to the US in 1876 and spent two years there, which had an influence on his writing.
Overall his works purposefully had a "feel-good" narrative since Poland wasn't an independent state at the time, losing the status in the late 18th century.
I wouldn't be surprised if the guys from the state TV just copied everything from WP. They will do anything and aren't accountable for anything. Their WP page contains just a little bit of what is happening in Polish state TV:
As a Polish guy, I don't know why wouldn't you trust material from TVP History, the content there is usually pretty accurate. The same with TVP Sport - wouldn't you trust what they publish there?
Edit: this is not TVP History, but the point stands.
Yes, TVP is generally extremely biased and only presents the government's side of things. Similarly to TVN, another popular TV station in Poland, which is biased but interprets facts in favor of the opposition. It's just how things are in Poland, it's not too different from what you can find in the US.
However, TVP World (an branch of TVP publishing in English) is actually not too bad. It's still biased but not dumbed-down, I would say.
TVP is *heavily* funded by government and biased in favor of government, important detail when comparing it to other, privately funded TV stations. It's a literal brainwashing machine everyone pays for without opt-out.
Curious why you think HN is such a bastion of truth and reason to be honest ? Look at the super conductor news a few weeks back. More people bought it than I imagined they would.
No but they said they were "surprised HN bought it", does HN have some type of special level of skepticism built into it that no where else online does? I personally don't think it does.
> does HN have some type of special level of skepticism built into it that no where else online does?
Obviously not, but there's no general factor of wrongness lurking behind it. HN has a crippling case of engineer's syndrome, but why should that have anything to do with Polish nationalism?
Also, highly recommend "The Last Of The Just" by André Schwarz-Bart. It is soo good that there is nothing else for me to say than to just read it. I've read it once Chomsky stated in one of his interviews that it was one of the best (if not best) books written on Jewish history.
[1] https://chomsky.info/19960123/