• FaeDrifter@midwest.social
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            1 year ago

            It’s funny to trace rhetoric back a few years before the Russia-Ukraine war, when there was so much Internet and social media hype over Russia as a superpower, their military overtaking America:

            https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Russia military US before%3A2020

            Then suddenly there’s the invasion, and suddenly it’s revealed that the hype was all fake, Russia was bluffing on its military, they are mostly poorly trained, with ridiculously outdated equipment.

            And suddenly tons of internet media commentators do a massive 180, and there’s so much rhetoric about how being a global superpower is bad.

            Is being a global superpower bad, or do people say it’s bad just because Russia isn’t one after all?

            • MrBusinessMan@lemm.ee
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              1 year ago

              But damn that’s a cool feature. Can you run a search on Ukraine + Nazis prior to the invasion to say what western reporting was saying about it back then?

              Then suddenly there’s the invasion, and suddenly it’s revealed that the hype was all fake, Russia was bluffing on its military, they are mostly poorly trained, with ridiculously outdated equipment.

              Do you live in an alternate reality where NATO is winning this war? Lmfao

              • FaeDrifter@midwest.social
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                1 year ago

                Do you live in an alternate reality where NATO is winning this war? Lmfao

                The narrative shifts second to second. One moment it’s an all powerful hegemony that pulls all the strings, the next it’s getting crushed by Russia.

                NATO is both a super-powerful bogeyman, and weak and helpless, depending on what most helps the current agenda.

                https://www.openculture.com/2016/11/umberto-eco-makes-a-list-of-the-14-common-features-of-fascism.html

                See #8

                • MrBusinessMan@lemm.ee
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                  1 year ago

                  I’m rubber your glue, now you have to explain why Russia is hilariously incompetent and weak and simultaneously managing to brainwash people 5,000 miles away inside Americas own borders with a tiny fraction of America’s own media and propaganda power

                  • FaeDrifter@midwest.social
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                    1 year ago

                    Well I do like to say that if Russia spent its troll farm money on its military instead, then it could afford the military it pretended to have.

                    Tongue in cheek, obviously troll farms are way more cost effective.

                    And it’s not like anyone was actually brainwashed into being a Russian agent. It’s just trolls who regurgitate pre-programmed talking points. And it’s really easy to walk into an alt-right or tankie bubble, list off a few in-group signals, and then just say things that already line up with their confirmation bias.

            • MrBusinessMan@lemm.ee
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              1 year ago

              It’s bad. It would be bad also if Russia were the sole global hegemon and the imperial power that controls the whole world, but it isn’t and also never has been. What a bizarre thought process you have that you think Americans who live in America and have to put up with its bullshit all day are getting their talking points from a country they don’t live in and have nothing to fucking do with. What a deranged conspiracy theory.

              • FaeDrifter@midwest.social
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                1 year ago

                What a bizarre thought process you have that you think Americans who live in America and have to put up with its bullshit all day are getting their talking points from a country they don’t live in and have nothing to fucking do with. What a deranged conspiracy theory.

                I’m gonna blow your mind, Grandpa. Americans consume more internet media than social media.

                Your see there’s this thing call Facebook

                • MrBusinessMan@lemm.ee
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                  1 year ago

                  And Facebook is an American company and spending on advertisements by American entities dwarf that of any other country, so what’s your point?

                  • FaeDrifter@midwest.social
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                    1 year ago

                    America is not a nationalist country, and it’s not even particularly anti-Russia. American companies are busy making money selling their products.

                    And capitalism online created the ingeniously evil thing known as targeted advertising. Instead of generically hammering the entire population with propaganda, you target specific groups with specific techniques.

                    Incels? Blame women’s rights in America. Russia is more traditional and women know their place.

                    Neo-Nazis? Blame the gays. The West is becoming effeminate. Russians are real men.

                    Tankies? It’s US capitalism and imperialism. Not like Russia, it’s going to bring back the communist Soviet Union.