 A propaganda campaign wrapped in a scyop, notes from the edge of the narrative matrix. The country with the worst elections in the western world, whose government intervenes in foreign elections more than any other government on earth, is waging a dangerous proxy war to save democracy in Ukraine, a nation which is not a democracy by any reasonable definition. Anyone who trusts any government is a fool. Anyone who trusts the world's most powerful government is a damn fool. Anyone who trusts the world's most powerful government, while it runs massive propaganda ops for a dangerous proxy war, should be forbidden to use the grown up scissors. It's impossible to overstate how completely blanketed by propaganda distortion the Ukraine war is. US spooks saying they're leaking disinfo to the press, Ukrainian war propaganda, the blackout on Ukrainian losses, the uncritical media acceptance of allegations against Russia, etc. This war is a propaganda campaign wrapped in a scyop. There are only two possibilities. You either A, accept the fact that the information ecosystem around this war is too polluted to know very much of anything for certain and adjust your perceptions accordingly, or B, you believe false things about this war. That's it. Propaganda only works on people who don't know they are being propagandized. If you're acutely aware that a historically unprecedented effort is going into manipulating your understanding of what's happening in a strategically crucial war in the digital age, you're more grounded. And of course the propaganda cuts both ways, obviously it does. Uncritically believing Russia aligned sources about this war is just as sure to give you an inaccurate picture of events as uncritically believing US-NATO Ukraine aligned sources, i.e. all mass media. It's scyops all the way down. One thing that helps is rather than forming hard beliefs about what's going on in this war, assign probabilities instead. This is one of those situations where your own best guess about what's happening is infinitely superior to what you're told by the mass media. Because at least you know your best guess is assembled in good faith while you know news media narratives are rife with propaganda distortion. If you're genuinely interested in understanding what's going on with this war, get as much information from as diverse an array of sources as possible, preferencing those who don't appear aligned with any power structure and aren't egoically or financially invested in any side. The Lensky Man. The last time a powerful empire poured this much PR and perception management into the image of a foreign Jewish leader, it involved stained glass and crucifixes. It was clear we'd reached a whole new level of Orwellian double think when it turned out liberals will call literally anyone in the world a Nazi, except actual literal Nazis. You know capitalism is totally working when there are people getting paid millions to help start wars by people who make billions from wars, while Silicon Valley mega corporations are censoring those who try to end wars, and everyone's praying the world's richest man will stop this. There are no private companies worth billions of dollars. In a corporatist system it is impossible to grow that big without becoming intertwined with ruling power structures. This is especially true for corporations of immense political consequence, like social media platforms. We are surrounded by propaganda at all times. Our entire civilization is saturated with it. When you say you support internet censorship to stop Russian propaganda, what you are really saying is that you only want your own rulers propagandizing you. The notion that some opinions are Russian is one of the most mind destroying beliefs that has ever been circulated in a secular society. All the shit libs currently yelling, don't listen to Chomsky for his comments about Ukraine will soon be yelling, listen to Chomsky when it's time to wheel him out again to tell everyone they need to vote Democrat. The weirdest thing about interacting with Ukraine flag accounts online is how seriously they expect to be taken when saying ridiculous bullshit. No, I'm not an evil demonic monster for opposing nuclear brinkmanship and online censorship and saying the US lies about wars. Shut up idiot. If you look at their responses to criticisms of the establishment line on Ukraine, it's always like 10% MSM propaganda and 90% empty outraged sputtering. Just vapid emoting. And they sincerely seem to expect you to take that seriously and treat them like adults. A mainstream news reporter is someone who uncritically publishes information provided by government agencies like its news and does investigative pieces on Twitch streamers who say wrong things about Ukraine and then wins three Pulitzers for their fearless, hard-nosed journalism. Watching Hollywood movies is weird when you're acutely aware that everyone on the screen loves Biden and supports internet censorship and wants a no-fly zone over Ukraine.