Fact Check

American Capitalism Gone with a Whimper

Text reproduces a Pravda editorial touting the 'American descent into Marxism'?

Published June 1, 2009

Claim:

Claim:   Text reproduces a Pravda piece touting the "American descent into Marxism."


CORRECTLY ATTRIBUTED


Example:   [Collected via e-mail, May 2009]


Story #9: Pravda: American Capitalism Gone with a Whimper

How may of you saw the story in the English-language version of Pravda over the weekend? "American Capitalism Gone with a Whimper." Listen to the lede, here:

"It must be said, that like the breaking of a great dam, the American decent into Marxism is happening with breathtaking speed, against the back drop of a passive, hapless sheeple, excuse me dear reader, I meant people. True, the situation has been well prepared on and off for the past century, especially the past twenty years. The initial testing grounds was conducted upon our Holy Russia and a bloody test it was.

But we Russians would not just roll over and give up our freedoms and our souls, no matter how much money Wall Street poured into the fists of the Marxists. "Those lessons were taken and used to properly prepare the American populace for the surrender of their freedoms and souls, to the whims of their elites and betters. First, the population was dumbed down through a politicized and substandard education system based on pop culture, rather then the classics. Americans know more about their favorite TV dramas then (sic) the drama in DC that directly affects their lives. They care more for their 'right' to choke down a McDonalds (sic) burger or a BurgerKing (sic) burger than for their constitutional rights."

Nobody ever called 911 when they lost a constitutional right, but they call 911 when they didn't get their McNuggets. "Then they turn around and

lecture us about our rights and about our 'democracy'" in Russia. "Then their faith in God was destroyed, until their churches, all tens of thousands of different 'branches and denominations' were for the most part little more then Sunday circuses and their televangelists and top protestant mega preachers were more then happy to sell out their souls and flocks to be on the 'winning' side of one pseudo Marxist politician or another. Their flocks may complain, but when explained that they would be on the 'winning' side, their flocks were ever so quick to reject Christ in hopes for earthly power.

Even our Holy Orthodox churches are scandalously liberalized in America," meaning Russian Orthodox churches. "The final collapse has come with the election of Barack Obama. His speed in the past three months has been truly impressive. "His spending and money printing has been a record setting, not just in America's short history but in the world. If this keeps up for more then another year, and there is no sign that it will not, America at best will resemble the Wiemar Republic (sic) and at worst Zimbabwe.

"These past two weeks have been the most breathtaking of all. First came the announcement of a planned redesign of the American Byzantine tax system, by the very thieves who used it to bankroll their thefts, loses and swindles of hundreds of billions of dollars. These make our Russian oligarchs look little more then ordinary street thugs, in comparison. Yes, the Americans have beat our own thieves in the shear volumes. Should we congratulate them?"

English-language version of Pravda, the state-run media in the old Soviet Union — and the key words here, in the lede: "the American decent into Marxism." Pravda, calling Marxism something you fall into.


 

Origins:   The item referenced above is a portion of the text of a 1 April 2009 opinion piece (entitled "American Capitalism Gone with a Whimper") by Stanislav Mishin which was reprinted by the Russian Pravda news site on 27 April 2009.

Although the referenced item appeared in Pravda, it was not written for that publication, nor was it written by anyone on the staff of that that publication; it was a Mat Rodina blog entry which was picked up and republished by Pravda four weeks after its original posting. Discriminating readers should also note that the online version of Pravda in which this piece appeared is not the same as the newspaper which once served as the official voice of Soviet Communism. The latter was shut down in 1991, while the former is a Russian tabloid-style news outlet established in January 1999. While the name is the same, the two papers are very different, and the one doesn't have the pedigree or the history of the other.

Last updated:   25 September 2009

David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994.

Article Tags