Quick read on why Russians are not likely to be duped by either domestic or foreign propaganda while Americans are a pushover for domestic propaganda and reject all for foreign news that contradicts it as being propaganda.
Remembering My First Conversation with a Russian About Propaganda and Why It Matters
Jay Vogt
Sounds like Russians are accustomed to assuming that governments lie, while Americans really do believe in exceptionalism.
ReplyDeleteThe Germans who I have met also believed in exceptionalism, master race and all that stuff. It's not an attractive quality.
Well, most great powers or former great powers also believe in exceptionalism. It's a an epidemic syndrome. But some beliefs in exceptionalism are more exceptional than others in that they are also exclusive.
ReplyDelete"Sounds like Russians are accustomed to assuming that governments lie, while Americans really do believe in exceptionalism."
ReplyDeleteIt's a very similar story in Oz. No matter how badly the party in government is doing in virtually every single issue, the moment they announce a threat (usually by some dark-skinned, foreign boogeyman), however unlikely or absurd, the polls show an increase in popular support.
It's almost a Pavlovian reaction: you sound the horn, and there is no longer need to present any food, the dogs start salivating, nevertheless.
It's like the public can no longer perceive the correlation between "external threat" and "discontent".
The difference between the US and Russia on this score is that Russians see the NATO threat up close, right on their borders, with a hot war going on it Ukraine, while the US government has to gin up fears of imminent terrorist attack to the degree that remote police departments need to b outfitted with military grade equipment, and Americans need to forgo constitutional liberties and accept total surveillance under the direction of NSA and DHS in the interest of "security." Regardless of the adage that those who trade liberty for security will have neither.
ReplyDeleteThere is a bit of false equivalence between the two cases.
Maybe some people aren't as all caught up in the propaganda about "liberty" ... there's a big propaganda mill for you to analyze. ..
ReplyDeleteLook at people born with some major disability.... yeah they have a lot of "liberty"... a paraplegic: "hey lets take the liberty to go out for a walk on the beach!"
ReplyDelete??????
These libertarians probably think like the old pagans that the paraplegic's ancestors did something wrong.
In Spain 70%-80% of the population doesn't trust politicians and the government.
ReplyDeleteI believe depends a lot on economic circumstances too, in USA people still is "too well".