Replying to Avatar nout

For the folks that saw Russian president speak for the first time... It's been always like this since the Soviet Union.

The speeches are always a master lesson in manipulation.

There are 3 truthful facts and then one fact that's a lie, but tricky to refute in one sentence. The words are all used very carefully, they will make you excited or believe the person. He talked "smart" and made a "sick burn" or "cool joke" about the opponent. But please please pay attention, try digging in more. Learn from the past. Check the reality of when people and their cultures become enslaved or eradicated for the "greater good" (I'm not talking about Ukraine).

On top of this keep in mind that the classic Russian geopolitics communication style is to say one thing and do another thing instead. Even if the things are said very clear, the exact opposite is then enacted in reality.

"We very much appreciate your support and we will do our best continuing the partnership" = "we are withdrawing tomorrow"

"There's no need to worry about us attacking, why would we even do that?" = "Attack is imminent"

Etc...

Btw, if you want to see more examples of this masterful manipulation, check rt.com.

3 truths, 1 lie, all words carefully picked to make you feel some way.
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Schlaus Kwab 1y ago

I think people like this overestimate the importance the Russians attribute to western public opinion. You imagine that that everyone in the Kremlin wakes up in the morning and their first thought is how to bring John from Buttfuckville, AZ and Hans from Bavaria to their side by wooing them into an intricate web of lies an propaganda.

The fact of the matter is that western elites don't care about the opinions of their own electorate. If that would be the case we would live in a radically different world. I think there is even a study about this from an ivy league school.

So, if our own politicians don't care why would a foreign leader care? Hence I've never understood the "Russian disinformation" and "Russian propaganda" narratives. They sure do exist but not at the scale everyone is imagining.

I guess externalising internal contradictions is the easy way out for some people but they quickly forget that their lazyness could drag everyone else into desaster.

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nout 1y ago

Yeah, in the US the effect is much less than in the countries of interest for Russia.

Each of the countries closer to Russia (i.e. where I'm from) has at least one newspaper/online news portal in local language that's directly paid for by the russian agencies.

Often it becomes quickly known that that's the one paid for, but it doesn't matter, they still produce it and some people buy it.

Afaik some countries tried passing laws to prohibit this over the last couple years, but the response is to just add more ownership layers.