Most people in the West agree that Russia’s attack on Ukraine was wicked and criminal. But a large majority of Russians (mainly the uneducated and the elderly) don’t think so. They obediently toe the line advocated by Vladimir Putin. Ukraine is Russian territory and has no business being friendly and doing business with the West.
How could it be that educated, intelligent people believe accept such nonsense?
In today’s Russia, a free, independent press has been totally eradicated. The media is totally controlled by the state which does not allow any dissenting voice. Anyone daring to disagree or protest risks long prison terms, and this prospect is enough to keep everybody quiet.
Propaganda, insane propaganda (trumpeted by a certain Vladimir Solovyov) is saturating the airwaves with hysterical rhetoric and has brainwashed most of the population listening to official channels.
According to mister Solovyov, Ukraine is populated by Nazis, pedophiles, gays and Satanists, and has to be decontaminated. You cannot allow them to exist and continue drifting toward the West. Ukraine is Russian territory, and the Ukrainians have nothing to say about it. Bitter ex-Soviet Union babushkas are eating up this kind of malarkey.
Encyclopedia Britannica defines propaganda as “the dissemination of information—facts, arguments, rumors, half-truths, or lies—to influence public opinion.”
Merriam-Webster says that brainwashing is “a forcible indoctrination to induce someone to give up basic political, social, or religious beliefs and attitudes and to accept contrasting regimented ideas. “
Brainwashing is insidious, and to some extent, we are all brainwashed. We all harbor a set of beliefs often brought up by the repetition of partial, slanted bits of information.
The Germans, the Russians, the Chinese, the Jews, the Muslims, the Democrats, etc. are all monsters never to be believed or trusted. If you meet one of those, don’t even talk to them… they are all crooks and liars…
“If you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it. It really is public brainwashing and misinformation.” ~ Robert Kane Pappas
People believe what they want to believe… what they have been conditioned to believe. If you hear or read the same lies again and again, you cannot help being influenced. The Nazis, and the Communists were brainwashed, and to a large extent, so is today the Russian population.
It is an immense tragedy, and this willingness to remain silent and condone a catastrophic war is tragic. The sooner Russian citizens revolt and adopt a drastic change of regime, the better.
Alain