Yah, an endless stream of whataboutism and justaskingthequestion. I have not read much Russian propaganda first hand, but my understanding is that every media-savvy Russian views themselves as a little version of RT; i.e. as being provocative and full of challenges to a hypocritical west.FuryoftheStars wrote: βMon Mar 14, 2022 2:01 pm My speculation is that they're merely claiming not to be aligned with Russia's goals so that the rest of what they have to say won't be dismissed outright
This is what I feel is one of the most disingenuous aspects of this thread, namely that defenses of Russia are usually offered in a passive way; as in "Russia claims" and "Russia feels" and "what the west does not understand" and so on. In normal circumstances, people have views they are actually convinced about, and so they can commit to an explanation: "I think Russia bombing Kyiev is proportional and rational because...". I can certainly explain why I don't think Russia should be in Ukraine, or why I now think I was wrong in supporting the Iraq war when I was very young.
I am just not ready to call troll because my ex's family were very hard-core fundamentalist, and I have seen the same sort of behavior in them. My understanding was that even the fully convinced believer needs to deal with a lot of cognitive dissonance; they are exposed to contrary information from time to time they need to put aside, or explanations that they are taught are true one day and then are told are false another day. To adjust to that, it is very convenient to adopt a truth you can subscribe to but which somebody else is ultimately responsible for (in their case, it was their church. In the case of a Russian patriot, I would assume it is an amalgamation of the official story plus some ideas about Russian past and future greatness and innocence).
Update:
On a lighter note, this one has a 'the death of Stalin' feel to it: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/worl ... 35270.html
Now if you will all excuse me, knowing that Europe is no better than Russia when it comes to free speech, I will now go out and get my ass thrown in jail for SUPPORTING my government