Quick thread: The big Russian Z campaign is still flopping. These poor local government employees have been voluntold into this photo op, one of the top hits on Insta. They don’t look elated to be there.
Here are the top #за (#za) hashtags on Instagram, which is still being widely used despite last week’s official block. None of the tags relate to the campaign.
Here are the top 30 or so #za posts. Just 2 have anything to do with the campaign, and 1 of those looks suspiciously full of bot replies.
One of the big tags being pushed, #зароссию (For Russia) has barely 80,000 posts.
Even Russians who are using the Za hashtags aren’t going in for the imagery. They’re adorning themselves with flags and national colours.
So, as I said yesterday, the Z campaign is really not taking off. And it’s not going to, no matter how much the government pushes it.
My new article on how deranged Russian nationalists were engaging in memory warfare online before the state got involved is out today! Here’s how grassroots myth-making around WWII shaped narratives that appear in Putin's propaganda now. 🧵
I looked at an online hub of nationalist, alt-history sci-fi back in the 2010s. Members co-wrote and self-published wacky time-travel tales set during pivotal moments in history. They're obviously all shit and unreadable, but... sciendo.com/article/10.247…
They were absolutely obsessed with Stalingrad, which they saw as a mythic moment of annihilation & resurrection. Their heroes, emasculated men from the present, fought Nazis, space lizards, and—importantly—nasty, nasty Americans to make "new" Stalingrads.
🧵 Let's take these absurd claims apart 1 more time:
"It started in 2014 with the Ukraine coup and the counter-coup."
- Not a coup. A largely peaceful protest, which was supported nationwide, ended when the Ukrainian President ordered protesters killed then fled the country.
“RT’s efforts include…recruiting Western political commentators and influencers, including Canadians, with the goal of leveraging them to produce and disseminate content that would reduce Western public & political support for Ukraine.”
Independent filmmakers do not simply rock up in occupied Ukraine to spend months filming Russian troops “unauthorized.”
25 years of the Putin regime and still people do not get that there is no freedom of speech in Russia. There is no journalistic establishment. There is no spirit of open inquiry. There is just the state and state control.
Maybe it’s a brilliant film. I don’t know. I haven’t seen it. But it’s been made in collaboration with the Russian state. Inexcusable that Canadian organizations should be funding it.
Kursk is on fire but so far I haven’t seen any evidence that the mass of the Russian population is in any way moved. Don’t count on even a long occupation changing many minds about Putin, Ukraine, and the broader war.
The state’s propaganda is doing a good job of spreading various familiar stories: it’s evidence the West is against us, it’s all exaggerated, it’s just a few terrorists, it’s mostly faked.
Don’t forget this isn’t the first attack on Russia. Moscow was hit by drones. The Kremlin was hit by a drone! Nobody’s mind was changed.
Putin's big inauguration speech. It was tedious and long - shocker! - but it contains a few interesting nuggets. en.kremlin.ru/events/preside…
Putin highlights the people of the "historical territories" now included in Russia AND the soldiers of the "special military operation" right at the top of the speech.
I can't help but feel that Putin's language about the "will" of the people is getting more forceful. You don't need me to remind you of some of the leaders of the past who've foregrounded "will of the people" talk.