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by selykg 474 days ago
There are those of us that hate this but have no idea how they can help.
1 comments

What specific problem are you looking to solve?
Presumably one of the issues being discussed here, such as mitigating the effects of Russia's wildly successful manipulation campaigns that have resulted in both US policy and cultural shifts in favor of Russian interests. To skip some steps in this comment chain, and at risk of being presumptuous, pick an option from this technically-exhaustive list:

Do you believe that:

1. Russia has not engaged in misinformation-based influence campaigns targeting US citizens

2. Russia has engaged in such campaigns but to no tangible effect, and they therefore require no response

3. Russia's influence campaigns saw success, but not to the detriment of the US, and they therefore require no response

4. Russia's success harms US interests, but it would be hypocritical to actively respond given the US' past actions

5. Russia's success is tethered to cultural shifts, which are impermanent and therefore don't necessitate an active response

6. Russia's success can only be effectively countered by the gov't, so civilian attempts at helping are futile

7. None of the items above relate to the topic of discussion in this thread, i.e. this comment effectively strawman-ing

8. The above points are non-exhaustive

I'm quite sure an intelligent person with an open mind can be convinced that each of the above points is false, save the last one.

To follow your line of questioning, which I do appreciate, It would be that Russia has engaged in influence campaigns in the West, of course, but that we do that the West does this as a matter of course worldwide and our schemes are much more elaborate, anyway.

I also agree about in 5, Russia is convieniently riding a wave of populist conservatism which Putin (cynically, corruption-based, or otherwise) aligned with the Orthodox alignment in Russia. (Men/Women are different, global woke policy, SDG development goals etc) Many working class people are sick to death of effete urbane progressive politics (doesn't even really benefit any core economics) I would say this is a bigger propaganda play from Russia = Give sympathetic activists ammunition for cultural victories (that were fragile and brainless Western ideas anyway.)

The problem with this granular obsession of a deep Russia conspiracy inside the US is that you aren't even really aware about what the propaganda they are saying on their side and not really cogniscent that Western foreign policies engage in pretty ugly propaganda, unlawful killings as a matter business.

Russia propaganda is simply more advanced version of the type of propaganda we were doing anyway. It's just that you don't see your own side as capable of misinformation, influence peddling worldwide and they are guilty of it.

EUROMAIDAN was a Western intelligence op — and you worry about what; a few scary Facebook ads? Is there a particular piece of misinfo on RT you are concerned about?

> EUROMAIDAN was a Western intelligence op

[Citation severely needed]

Look into contemporary funding and actions by USAID, National Endowment for Democracy, many NGOs and media organisations. It's pretty blatant and now starting to be documented by our own media:

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/25/world/europe/cia-ukraine-...

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