Twenty-six years after the NATO intervention against Yugoslavia that ended the Kosovo War, the resentment of Serbian society about the audacity of the “imperialist West” to intervene in what most people here consider a legitimate cause of upholding the Serbian world project is one of the bases for Serbia’s grievance-based politics.
Following the news that the development of Jared Kushner’s Belgrade property is on hold after the arrest of the cultural heritage official accused of forging the necessary documents, here is her clueless reaction to it:
Out MSNBC news anchor Rachel Maddow gleefully mocked Donald Trump for his latest scandal involving Serbian real estate, Jared Kushner, and a forged document.
Maddow explained to viewers that Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić is essentially that country’s “version of Donald Trump” and that massive protests have swept the country in an attempt to oust him.
No, he isn’t. “Anything I don’t like is Trump” is just another version of the childish reductio ad Hitlerum. But everyone seems to be reading into stuff that they like or dislike into faraway events displayed on social media, like this X user who seems to think that these are anti-capitalist events.
A STUNNING HUMAN TIDE in Serbia and Belgrade against BlackRock! The world rises up against globalism and its 2030 Agenda
Guess dreams do come true, if you’re vacuous enough to make up your own version of events and head to Twitter. In the post-truth era, only the narrative counts, and how many brownie points someone gets when people hit that like button. Foreign commentators like Rachel Maddow and Timothy Snyder, just to name a few, who come in support of the supposed anti-authoritarian, anti-corruption protests in Serbia, are not doing us any favors by basing their opinions on wishful thinking and second-hand information.
Here’s what the real purpose of keeping the scars of long-gone Yugoslav Wars is:
Westsplaining continues, nonetheless:
Well, the Trump and Kushner families have been vying to build Europe’s first Trump Tower at the site of what Maddow called “the Serbian equivalent of Mt. Rushmore.” The historic landmark in Belgrade is the site of a NATO bombing that took place more than two decades ago. The wrecked building remains in the spot and serves as a national heritage site and memorial.
On this day 26 years ago, during the NATO aggression, the General Staff was bombed for the second time. The General Staff remains! It remains as a cultural monument, as a symbol, as a reminder. The history and suffering of a country are not for sale! Memory is not for sale! The General Staff is not for sale!
Does that bombed-out ruin in downtown Belgrade look like Mt. Rushmore to you, Rachel? And what kind of an idiotic society keeps it in the middle of a crowded settlement as a “reminder”?
Well, it keeps it there so it can have a “reminder”, an eternal scarecrow, of how “Western imperialists bombed us” as a part of the suffering culture and martyrdom cults pervasive in failed states like Serbia.
You know we really need that one special place to gather once a year and complain about how NATO bombed us. You gotta keep the narrative of Serbian victimhood alive. Russian ultras and football hooligans are also invited. Notice the Ministry of Defence banner displayed. Such culture, much heritage.
This is what a Serbian far-right supporter would say word for word, regardless of whether it’s a pro-government supporter or a protestor.
There are better ways to be informed about issues like this than relying on clueless pundits and agency news. The article Media propaganda vs public dialogue: the spatial memorialisation of conflict in Belgrade after the 1999 NATO bombing by Aleksandar Staničić sheds much better light on the issue of dealing with “…deep scars in its urban environment. The effort to reconstruct these damaged buildings, therefore, poses deeper questions about understanding the past, facing unpleasant truths, and setting the course for an uncertain future. This article will illuminate those multifarious processes by examining the role of media propaganda and public dialogue in the reconstruction of two structures in Belgrade that were damaged during the 1999 NATO bombing. Both buildings, the Avala Tower and the television headquarters on Aberdareva Street, were in use by the Radio Television of Serbia (RTS). In a fragmented society that is still struggling to make sense of these difficult issues, I argue that state-controlled media has a decisive influence on steering public debate, creating the false image of social consensus, and weighing in on architectural design, while downplaying the role of architects.“
It is worth mentioning that the narrative of Serbian right-wing agitprop refers to the NATO bombing, officially called “Operation Allied Force”, as the “Operation Merciful Angel”. The Milosevic’s propaganda machinery of that time concocted a story that the codename for the intervention against Yugoslavia was “Merciful Angel” to present the Western leaders and the media of NATO countries as cynical killers. A common person in Serbia will almost always refer to bombing as the Merciful Angel to affirm his or her patriotic credentials.
26 years later, the ruins of the Serbian Broadcasting Service, RTS building in Aberdareva Street in Belgrade, might be removed. “General Director of RTS, Dragan Bujošević, asked the Faculty of Civil Engineering to determine the condition of the Public Service building in Aberdareva and the possibility of its reconstruction. In the report prepared by that faculty, it is stated that the largest part of the wing of the building, previously destroyed and damaged during the bombing in 1999, needs to be removed.”, N1 reports.
What say you, investigative journos, is this also a Trump conspiracy?
Back to Rachel. Maddow didn’t hold back on the praise for my compatriots defending their heritage:
“Amid the just unrelenting, ever-increasing, ever-broadening, totally persistent, creative, totally unafraid pressure campaign from that country’s citizens, who have turned out into the street again and again and again, this whole mess is all now falling apart.”
By creative, totally unafraid chanting “Vučić, you faggot”.
Some Roman salutes in the style of Elon Musk can be seen on this one:
Here’s a confirmation from a different Serbian-speaking source for the homophobic and nationalist sentiment that permeates the protests, if you think I’m biased.
Yay, homophobia! But it’s all for a greater cause, right, Rachel?
Serbianism 
“In the post-truth era, only the narrative counts, and how many brownie points someone gets when people hit that like button.”
Yes. That is eminently quotable.
LikeLike
Why, thank you. So let’s be outrageous and acknowledge reality so we can deal with it, instead of shaping reality into narratives, popularity and conformism be damned.
LikeLike