One table over from me during lunch at a deli, a mother and daughter were discussing current news.
The daughter was a 40ish Air Force Colonel - I had to ask my ex-military hubby later what the patch and eagle on her shoulders meant LOL.
It went like this:
Mother: "This war in Ukraine is so awful! Why is Putin doing this?"
Daughter: "Mom, I've been to Ukraine three times. Their government is pure evil!"
Mother: "What does that have to do with what Putin is doing?"
Daughter: "It's not what it looks like. I don't understand everything going on with Putin, but I have it from a very good source that the Ukranian's are glad the Russians are there."
Mother: (looking dumbstruck) "But that's crazy! The Russians are killing them!"
Daughter: "No, they're not, Mom. The Ukranian Army is slaughtering their own people."
Mother: "But...but... Fox news says Russia is attacking them!"
Daughter: "Don't watch the news, Mom. Any of it. It's all lies."
I walked out of there SO full of hopium! 🥰🥰🥰
Edited: I made a mistake with the star comment. She had eagles on her shoulders. She is a Colonel. Sorry for the mix-up.
Anyone in the military that has been to Ukraine knows exactly what is happening. I've spoken with a few and they agree that it's not what were seeing.
Russian propaganda is real but in reality Putin may want us to believe it's Russia so the DS has to continue lying. If the truth comes out too soon, they won't have a story. Kinda of how the biolabs story got out in front of them and the State Department wasn't reading the same talking points as the Biden-Harris Admin.
Good to know!
I had almost the same conversation with my Mom yesterday...she watches Newsmax and Fox and calls Putin "hitler" and can't believe what he's doing to Ukraine.
I've never traveled there, but the rest of the conversation was eerily similar. I keep telling her to not believe what the news is saying and to stop watching it.
Even just "give Russia the benefit of the doubt" seems to be way too far for most people. The MSM programming of Putin=Bad over the past decade has really taken it's toll.
Agreed
I get through to my folks but then they go right back to programming. It's been going on for years. I had them against the vaxx all the way, and then they went and got vaxxed and my mother would barrage my brother daily to get vaxxed.
After the studies I showed her and all the work I did I got her against getting boosted, but then she turns around and says if she needs it for travel she'll get it.
Now with Ukraine she gets angry at me when I call Ukraine out and offer a diff perspective. Today I finally got her to see things differently and she told me "Just be careful not to tell anyone these views, the whole world is against what you think"
I told her the whole world was against me with covid and the whole world was against me with the vaccine. I know better than to bring up politics at work. But every time I've brought something up that turned out to be true I pointed out that that the media never covered it even things you know to be true the media never covered it.
I pointed out how the narrative constantly changes in the media and the whole world being behind Ukraine or the whole world being for the vaccine or the whole world being scared of covid all falls upon the fact that whatever is hot in the news is what people feel and that is why it is called programming.
But I know that probably the next time I speak with them something in the news will come out about how Russia attacked a school and that'll go right back to the baseline. Even after I point it out the picture of a soldier hanging out in a kindergarten classroom She will still buy the narrative hook line and sinker.
I even pointed out that comedy sketch that was posted here about zalenski casually making jokes about how the only way to get by a new Crane is to join the nazis and how his morning routine exercise is doing the sieg Heil, and how he wanted to buy a copy of mein kampf but the stores were sold out.
She warmed up to me but she gets her news from Spain daily and she swears by it. Literal state sponsored media by a country run by soft socialists. The literal socialist party.