>A significant proportion of Americans believe the 2020 election was fraudulently stolen.
Are you actually claiming that the scale of absurdity between believing election fraud (something members of both parties claim, every losing election, going back decades[1]) and that Ukrainians are killing themselves, en masse, are remotely the same?
Someone believing either the 2016 or 2020 US elections were “stolen” in any meaningful sense of the word would be under a similar level of propaganda to someone thinking that the Russian invasion is to stop Ukrainians killing each other, yes.
Independent news sources are rare in Russia, especially with the recent law making "misinformation" a jailable offense with up to 15 years jail time. I'm not saying there isn't any other news sources, but it legitimately seems like you have to go well out of your way to find them. How many Americans are digging into different news sources to see if the narrative on Ukraine is true or if it's all a western farce? Just the same many Russians aren't double checking the narrative they're being fed
I'm not in Russia, obviously, but from what I can gather from social media, although outside media is "banned", it's still easy enough to find. Similarly to how easy I can still find RT (or worse).
I literally quoted you, and responded to it. Here it is again:
"A significant proportion of Americans believe the 2020 election was fraudulently stolen. And that’s with free press in America.
Not at all hard to believe that a significant proportion of Russian people believe this lie."
Believing in election fraud and believing that a population are coincidentally killing themselves during a military incursion are not remotely analogous.
Hey, here's an idea: how about you actually clarify your point then, instead of repeating "that's not my argument".
But for fun, once again, your statement appears to be: "if Americans can believe the 2020 election was stolen (the first sentence), then it's not a stretch to think Russians will believe the Ukrainians are killing themselves (the third sentence)."
It's right there for everyone to read. So what are you actually arguing?
Yes, they can be pretty much the same. There have been suicidal warriors in the past, it's not really that absurd. Propaganda could say they are killing themselves to make Russia look bad.
I remember a very suspicious suicide in Argentina, and how some media were theorizing that he killed himself to make the government look bad.
Segue here. I think it is time to rethink the term “free press”. In much the same way we had to wrestle with “free software.” Was it free as in beer? Or free as in speech?
The internet press is more “free as in beer” than ever. It costs nothing. It is probably about as “free as in speech” as it ever was, the variety is a testament to that. But it is not free from influence. It is tied to a profit feedback motive more than it ever has been. Put words on a screen, optimize for profit yield. Until the “press” regains its freedom from this, it will not be free. It will be profit constrained.
In a similar vein, I think it is silly we have social media. It’s profit media more than it is social.
Are you actually claiming that the scale of absurdity between believing election fraud (something members of both parties claim, every losing election, going back decades[1]) and that Ukrainians are killing themselves, en masse, are remotely the same?
1. Here's Hilary Clinton continuing to make claims about 2016 in mainstream media: https://news.yahoo.com/hillary-clinton-maintains-2016-electi...