I was born in the Soviet Union during its dying years
back then everyone knew the system was corrupt, inefficient and basically a pile of bullshit and thankfully it all fell apart.<p>I still remember having to queue hours to get bread from bakery, and not seeing toilet paper, milk or meat for some time...
Anyone who wants to go back to those days is insane imho :(<p>My parents and older generation of relatives mostly watch Russian news and entertainment channels via satellite, and the unashamed propaganda and brainwashing is incredible to behold, whats worse is how my parents/relatives believe everything they hear even if it is absolutely absurd or borderline conspiracy crazy.<p>We often argue nowadays about the direction Russia has taken, but usually the arguments end once i ask "where would you want your grand children to grow up, here in the western Europe or back home", that's when they go quiet.<p>They truly believe that Putin is some sort of a genius (ignoring the rise in oil prices that helped him) and this is actually downright scary :( at least in the Soviet days people didn't buy the propaganda, now a lot of people seem to actually believe all they hear and see, and live under a sort of a massive reality distortion field where the world is out to destroy Russia and its people.<p>aside: interestingly enough back then the collapse of USSR was partly prompted by low oil prices and a stupid war with Islamists, fast forward 30+ years and economy is even more reliant on resource extraction and Putin is boldly marching into another quagmire
Thank you New York Times, the News Group that Snowden could not use to whistle blow because it is a direct branch of US government, for reminding us Western how free we are against propaganda.<p>We can really trust the 6 companies that own all media groups in the US, or the two news agencies that control all what we watch in the West.<p>Never believe that the Government of the US have ever thought about controlling these 6 groups. That in order to make a movie about the military you have to give your script to the US military for review.<p>Don't read Propaganda by EDWARD L. BERNAYS or any other book, just trust us, we are the good guys.
What I don't understand is how so many people can still watch TV news and believe what they say. Every news show I have seen in the last 10 years or more is complete BS and exists in a reality bubble where bad things happen but everything is fine as a kitten was saved in the end of the show. Why do they hold so much power? I can understand 50+ year olds maybe, but young people? Are you telling me young people look on their TV and believe that dictator is actually telling the truth? We know the western TV is BS, but so is theirs. Its not about one or the other, its about not believing anything at face value and actually educate yourself.<p>Sorry about the rant, its just something that surprises me continually.
"Put another way: Propaganda works. Putin has understood that from Day"<p>We can be only glad that Western media (including the NY Times) has never been used for propaganda and all information is absolutely objective, reproducible, and a hundred percent trustworthy.<p>Has anybody already found the WMDs in Iraq?
Ah... Media these days. I can't trust anyone, anymore.<p>I guess, best thing to do is not to have opinion at all.<p>I'm having a GPS in my pocket, I can browse most of the cities from my computer through Google Earth. I can talk to my watch, which replies and sends messages for me, but not a single country can provide a satellite image of the exact location of a fired rocket or any other evidence, like radar logs of some sort.<p>Sometimes I really think I'm living in a multi-country-conspiracy and Snowden is only the top of the iceberg.
One side note:<p>The trouble, I see at least in my (Western) country: The main (public) TV programs are in the hand of the state (via regulatory control of the TV channels through political parties) or of two to three big corporations (many channels belong to one big corporation controlling them and also other news media).<p>From Italy, I heard, that many TV channels are controlled by one media mogul that also was the president. I guess, there are also other western countries, with similar situations.<p>At least in my country, I see clear evidence, that political unwanted news are at least suppressed or sometimes shown in a very distorted way. For example, when the software patent discussion came up some years ago in Europe, they brought news showing software patents in a shiny, only positive way. I would accept that from a purely private TV channel, but that was a "public TV channel" -- and many in my country still believe, that those public TV channels only tell the truth. But that is not so -- they tell, what our governments want us to know!<p>Also, at least one leading news reporter was dismissed (against protests from other reporters), he was inconvenient for one leading political party.<p>So, in the west, we don't have it as bad as in Russia -- but we should be very careful, the situation is far away from good.
Why Russians should not believe it?<p>- Ukraine army shoot down civil airliner with 90 people on board just a few years ago [1]<p>- It was regular war zone with dozens other planes shoot down [2].<p>- It happened on Ukraine territory, most likely by Ukraine citizens.<p>- Buk 9M38 is not Russian missile, but Soviet (that includes Ukraine).<p>[1] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siberia_Airlines_Flight_1812" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siberia_Airlines_Flight_1812</a><p>[2] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ukrainian_aircraft_losses_during_the_Ukrainian_crisis" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ukrainian_aircraft_los...</a>
It's kind of scary how effective the Russian propaganda is with only 3% believing MH17 was shot down by the rebels when that is almost certainly what happened.
Propaganda is now everywhere. [1]<p>[1] <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130715/11210223804/anti-propaganda-ban-repealed-freeing-state-dept-to-direct-its-broadcasting-arm-american-citizens.shtml" rel="nofollow">https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130715/11210223804/anti-...</a>
Is this the same missile that was launched from a mobile carrier that arrived from across the Russian border and then days later was driven back across the border?<p>Putin is extremely manipulative and dangerous. Like a Kim Jong-un without anyone like China to tell him "no".<p>I'm surprised no-one points out he is basically on the third term of what should be a two term limit. That alone removes all legitimacy from his rule.
Honestly, I believe more to people who did those missiles, than to some random Dutch experts (with all respect, of course). Almaz-Antey did their own investigation, they did experiments, they have very expert knowledge about those missiles, so it's very important not to throw away their facts.<p>They might be influenced by Russia politics, of course, but Netherlands, as part of Europe, definitely follows anti-Russian politics as well.
Oh wow, finally an opportunity to see the pot calling the kettle black. Nytimes readers should remember this article every time they see a casual line coming from "anonymous government officials" of the United States being printed as fact without question or scrutiny.
There is propaganda in every countries, just look at who own the media...
My opinion, is some extreme right groups did Maidan massacre ( <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-31359021" rel="nofollow">http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-31359021</a> ), and they were ready to do more.
See how IS developed in Syria. Same story.
Libya same story.
Also look at Egypt...
Some countries are pushing other countries politics...<p>Now, what can we do?
Odd and interesting to read. I would have guessed a larger percentage of Russians got their views online.<p>I would also think that most online news written in Russian would be under control of state media. In which case, if they did start to use the Internet to find news then nothing would change.<p>Maybe a Russian nytimes.com?
To be honest I'm not really surprised by this. Given the Milgram experiment results (where 100% of people gave a lethal 300V shock, and 65% gave a 450V shock), it's not really surprising that 97% of people believe whatever ridiculous nonsense they are told by the authorities.
Sounds to me like it's them that use propaganda and we are the truly informed.<p><i>Keep the company of those who seek the truth- run from those who have found it</i>