Thread: You’ve heard about the Russian media machine, but it’s only now you’re starting to be aware of what it’s like to be trapped in the maddening world of the Russian infosphere.
"Ukrainians are oppressors, they are the cradle of Russian civilization, but they want to destroy Russia. They are our brothers but we must destroy them. We are fighting a war but it’s not a war. Support our boys, our boys need you. Our boys could die, but nobody is dying."
This is a world of mirages and contradictions. Narratives are created, disseminated, and flattened in minutes and hours. The state media forces contradictory messages into eyes and ears at a hundred miles an hour.
Big Thread: Why the pro-war “Z” campaign you’ve been seeing has proven to be another Putin regime propaganda flop.
What is this campaign? You’ve seen the “Z” pop up everywhere on cars, in “spontaneous” demonstrations, and in that weird fascisty macho video.
This is an astroturfing campaign. It’s supposed to be grassroots, but it comes from big state-sponsored accounts & sources.
The “Z” refers to the letter marked on Russian vehicles in Ukraine and also to the first letter of the word “Za” (За), which means “For”.
The Z logo is usually accompanied with hashtags: #ZaRossiyu, #ZaMir, #ZaNashikh, #ZaSpravedlivost: For Russia, For Peace, For Our Boys, For Justice. (I know they make no sense, but bear with me).
It feels like every Russian who can is trying to leave. Suitcases are packed. People are panic buying remaining air tickets. People are walking across the borders. I’ve never seen anything like it.
Of course many of the people left are those with family to look after or who cannot afford to leave. It’s upsetting to think of.
Maybe this is 1917 all over again. The wealthy quitting Russia en masse as a new historical era dawns.
Booking.com doesn't work? Book with Ostrovok!
Want that Merc? Lada's still producing (for now)!
Fancy a KFC? Mm, Teremok's open!
Miss your H&M pants? Shop O'STIN!
Everything will be 🇷🇺, but everything will be sadder and crapper.
Thank the dear leader for these beneficent gifts, Russians, for the West only aimed to poison your mind with imperialist NATO propaganda anyway. That's what you get when you wear Swedish clothes and drive a German car.
These messages are flooding social media right now. People - for now - are okay with it, but I sense they're going to get tired of this pretty quickly.
Big Thread: Russian propaganda is tanking, but Ukraine has been hitting home runs for a week now.
Here's how they're doing it by turning Putin's own favourite propaganda themes against him.
Putin's spent 2 decades building a World War 2 cult in Russia. You all know what this looks like: huge military parades on Victory Day each year, blockbuster state-funded WW2 movies, history education in classrooms, constant WW2 documentaries on state TV...
...adulation for surviving veterans and their families, the "Immortal Regiment" parades in which ordinary Russians carry their veteran parents' photographs through Russian towns each year.
For those who think Russians are about to rise up in open revolt, here's a translated post and comments from a popular Telegram channel covering the war. You'll see that there are plenty in Russia who are desperate to see ordinary Ukrainians slaughtered. 1/5
The main post (I won't link to it, because screw these guys): "The Russian army is using their guns. Right now they're only shooting into the air." Video shows a small crowd gathered in Ukrainian town. Shots fired. Cameraperson ducks down behind a car. 2/5
Here are the comments, in order, and with no editing: "Should have done it on the first day."
"That's the way. They don't understand anything else."
"A long time coming."
"😂😂😂😂"
"That shut them up. If only they broke up demonstrations in Moscow and Petersburg like that." 3/5