"PROPAGANDA CAN MAKE US BELIEVE ANYTHING…It’s simply that the world today is so constructed that very frequently the television really is more important to people than the refrigerator. If you tell them on TV that they have food in the refrigerator, they might just doubt it. But if you tell him on TV that there’s no food in the refrigerator because it was stolen by enemies of Putin, then I assure you that they will believe it – and they’ll keep on believing it, too.
"Or take the 'Donetsk People’s Republic,' where to this day people fear Ukrainian fascists. What, the street stands were looted by fascists? The fascists broke their banks' ATMs? People were tortured in cellars by Ukrainian fascists? The factories that were smashed up and sold for scrap metal – that was fascists too? No matter what, people believe religiously that Yes, it was all the Ukrainian fascists.
"And this faith is strengthened greatly by fear. Well, because fear is fear; and secondly, there is a desire not to admit mistakes. In general no ruler likes to admit mistakes, as we know. But the masses don’t like to admit their mistakes either. They can hate someone they loved, but to suddenly love someone they hated – that’s never going to happen.”
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-- I've had (and have) my share of disagreements w/ Yu. Latynina -- incl. when I was editing her column AT mn MN -- but this excerpt from yesterday's "Kod dostupa" monologue, which was actually only an extended aside on her way to her main pts., struck me as very apropos, offering some valid and useful reminders of why the "Ukraine crisis" (i.e. the Russian crisis exported to Ukraine) is unlikely to go away quietly any time soon.
2 comments:
Typos, etc.:
"But if you tell him on TV" --> "But if you tell them on TV"
"...editing her column AT mn MN" --> "...editing her column at MN [The Moscow News]"
"...why the 'Ukraine crisis'(i.e. the Russian crisis exported to Ukraine" --> "...why the 'Ukraine crisis' (meaning the Russian crisis exported to Ukraine rather than any of Ukraine's home-grown variety)"
Mark -- I never even noticed the above typos/minor infelicities, given how important/insightful the content of your daily commentaries on Russia are. Unlike so many non-Russian "Russia experts," you're actually living there and seeing things with your own eyes and exceptional intelligence/wit ... S glubokim uvazheniem, john
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