You know how you can tell you have a good propaganda machine? It's when you launch a war, your poll ratings shoot up. When you kill loads of people in your war, it doesn't come out in the newspapers, it comes out in the Lancet, two years after all the depleted-uranium dust has settled.<p>That's the first gulf war.<p>In comparison, the Ukraine-Russia conflict is honestly the worst war from a propaganda perspective, for the aggressor, in living memory. If you're at the point where you have to eradicate independent media just to stem the bleeding from every somewhat-honest person's first impression of what you've done, you've completely lost control of the narrative.<p>Obviously, it is a war of aggression, but that's true of a lot of wars in my lifetime. Rarely has a war of aggression in modern times raised so much opprobrium, and the basic reason for this is the absolutely puny soft power of Russia.
While what you are saying may be true, you shouldn’t look to the west for answers. The idea that we pick our leaders based on political debates is ridiculous. Just look at how our debates are structured. If they are lucky, candidates have two minutes to describe their approach to fixing something like income inequality or climate change which have been around for decades. Certain candidates are purposely given more airtime than others, more positive press coverage than others, etc.<p>Western news media has the opposite problem of Russian media in that it is mostly propaganda too, but it hides behind the veil of a “free press”. The defense contractors, Big Tech, Big Pharma, and Wall Street control the news cycles and the politicians, but they do it from behind the curtain. If you ask me, this is much more sinister. A wolf in sheep’s clothing, if you will.<p>I would actually prefer a media where you KNOW it is propaganda from the get-go cause then it puts you in a mindset to think critically about everything being presented. Here in the U.S. people inherently trust the media and the government as being the arbitrators of truth and righteousness, despite the fact that they lie to us constantly.<p>Our “leaders” are also tied to intelligence agencies like the CIA, but again they often go to great lengths to hide these connections. Most politicians here could note engage in a serious debate with anyone who challenges their positions either. We are given a “choice” between the candidate on the left who works for Big Pharma and the military industrial complex and the candidate on the right who works for Big Pharma and the military industrial complex.
Actually, this is false. Somehow the rest of the world sees America as the ultimate cornucopia! But it is not - even less so in the political life! I always have to pick between two presidential candidates, most of the time hating both with an equal passion! The European model can have issues like the bargaining needed to have a coalition, but it still is much better than bipartisan America giving no chance to any other political platform! Same with many other things 1, 2, 3 - a fourth choice is one too many! This goes against the principles of competition - imagine a world where you only have to pick between Oracle and SQL Server - it would be nightmarish, right? For example, I would vote for a more conservative party, which does not see Climate Change as Al Gore's scheme, meanwhile, have a more practical way to solve climate issues than AOC! So, it's really hard to vote in America if you're not the typical Democrat or Republican who trusts the Party like its God!<p>After the "special operation" Putin's rating went up - it's very convenient to say the approval rating is manipulated, but I doubt it knowing some Russians personally. Meanwhile, Biden's rating fell. And maybe for a good reason, otherwise being a populist would have brought us WWIII.