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We need to be taking this as an object lesson in the destructiveness of propaganda. So many Russian people have been so brainwashed by state propaganda over the last two-some decades that they cannot even comprehend that there's a different way.


> brainwashed by state propaganda

I know a russian woman, very well off, well travelled, well educated.

She hates Putin but is 100% supporting the invasion of Ukraine.

With the invasion of Ukraine, Putin went to the core of ruscism that unfortunately is so prevalent in Russia.


Why does she support the invasion of Ukraine then? Because she considers them to be 'our brothers that strayed'? Or because she considers them to be less than, after all, they're just hohols?

The propaganda in the last two-some decades is just the latest stage of russian propaganda against Ukraine. It started centuries ago. The czars peddled it, the soviets peddled it, now the 'federation' peddles it. Le plus ca change.


> Why does she support the invasion of Ukraine then?

Mostly because she thinks the jewish nazis were killing russians in Donbas, but that's the only thing she can articulate to someone from outside.

If I was to speculate, I'd think it's a lot more to do with a general attitude of russians that they are invincible in war and how much they've been brainwashed about WW2 about how heroic it was, how the other side was so evil and how they prevailed, that they now have a pavlovian/PTSD reaction to war -- they're in WW2 again, thus the war is just, thus Russia will prevail, thus those that kill the glorious russian soldiers are subhuman-nazi-scum-devils.

I'm sure she doesn't even realize how deeply she's affected by the propaganda.


> Mostly because she thinks the jewish nazis were killing russians in Donbas, but that's the only thing she can articulate to someone from outside.

So, state propaganda.

> If I was to speculate, I'd think it's a lot more to do with a general attitude of russians that they are invincible in war and how much they've been brainwashed about WW2 about how heroic it was, how the other side was so evil and how they prevailed, that they now have a pavlovian/PTSD reaction to war -- they're in WW2 again, thus the war is just, thus Russia will prevail, thus those that kill the glorious russian soldiers are subhuman-nazi-scum-devils.

My question before was somewhat rhetorical actually, but you managed to basically hit the nail on the head here. This is the exact attitude I encounter in many Russians of the previous generation. This is exactly how the older members of my family see it. Most of them have never had a chance to live anywhere outside of the sphere of influence of that propaganda. They have been marinading in it since the womb.




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