General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAfter what we have seen in this country with "misinformation and disinformation"...?
...Is it surprising to anyone that the Russian people support Putin's war in Ukraine with about 60% in support?
Putin has been "programming" his people for more than 20 years. Trump only had 5 or 6 to "program" his followers. We see what he was able to achieve in such a short time.
The Russian people are not that different from the American people. They are susceptible to populist messages and propaganda from a cult of personality, just as are the Trump supporters in this country.
Channel One in Moscow is very similar to FOX News in this country. That is where most of Putin's followers get their "news". They have been fed a steady diet of "feel good" news about the "military operation" in Ukraine and are not aware of the facts on the ground.
America and Russia are two-way mirrors of alternate realities.
PortTack
(32,606 posts)Many many Russians report their support for him out of fear of saying otherwise
gab13by13
(20,864 posts)between Putin and Trump. Putin trained Trump well. We now have one major political party that is ant-democracy and pro-autocracy.
The Trump Party wants America to be just like Russia.
kentuck
(110,950 posts)...from democratic governments. The oligarchs of America are not that different from the Russian oligarchs, in my opinion.
TigressDem
(5,121 posts)Just to be clear, there is a difference between having money and being an Oligarch.
An Oligarch believes that because you have the most money you are (or should be) above the law and all should actually obey your word as law.
Successful people who have made their fortunes but still believe and adhere to the Democratic principals this country was founded upon try to make the world a better place most times and shouldn't be put in that same pot with control freaks who don't respect anyone or anything they don't feel they "own".
sop
(9,946 posts)Neither have policy ideas beyond maintaining power and enriching themselves. They constantly create scapegoats, play the victim, spread cynicism and undermine social trust and belief in objective reality.
TigressDem
(5,121 posts)In actuality, it's probably inverse, 30% support of people afraid of repercussion or tied to Putin's success.
I've met Russians here in the states and they "know" better as do many back home, but can not do much about it.
If you think about Biden's approval ratings and how rigged they are.... how many of us on DU have been surveyed? What kind of questions? Do they get their result no matter what people actually think?
We know how hard he's worked from day one with no pre-inaguration cooperation from the dump man.
AND because he had to do so much from executive orders he's been accused of things he hasn't done and made responsible for stuff no President controls, like the price of gas.
I don't think there are any every day Russians who actually supports bombing mothers and children in a maternity hospital or killing civilians. They may say they "support Putin" because they fear reprisal, but any of them who know the truth would spit on him if they could do it without facing a firing squad.
werdna
(418 posts). . . We see what he was able to achieve in such a short time."
I must disagree with this statement on substance; there is substantial historical evidence that the rise of Trump and his followers was the inevitable end to decades of effort by conservative think tanks, corporations, media and other agencies, which grew more and more radicalized since the end of Nixon era, to change and manipulate the voting public to being conducive toward the talking points they generated. Trump achieved nothing of this, he was a product of it. He embodied all the elements the conservative operatives had been working for on various, disparate fronts in one person at an appropriate point in time. He was a tool used by the extremist conservatives who themselves had become ensnared in Putin's ever widening net. Large numbers of the American people were groomed for someone like Trump; the extremist conservatives jumped on Trump like fleas to a dog because he was what they had been groomed to look for for decades. Fortunately, Trump is now fast becoming the undoing of all their efforts.