There is nothing wrong in principe with rehashing Russian propaganda - in fact, it’s important to do it!
But -
Many experts do this badly, leaving their audience morally outraged and reflectively stumped.
2/8
“Russian propaganda says fascist thing number 2839839” is very unhelpful to an audience.
3/8
Half of the audience assumes that Mr Putin ordered this to be said - moral outrage follows.
And the other half assumes it’s said independently and here the pleasures of “inter elite warfare porn” kick in.
4/8
The audience needs context. They need to understand who is speaking and what game - or a multiplicity of games - is being played.
They need to understand that the Russian propaganda machine is both autonomous but also loyal.
5/8
The Russian propaganda machine is a kind of spaceship floating parallel to the Kremlin, trying to serve the Kremlin, but not taking orders from it.
(Recently this independence has been slightly undermined, with the Kremlin issuing requests on occasion)
6/8
There is no doubt that the Russian propaganda machine has a meaningful measure of independent power.
It is like a semi autonomous government department. Broadly loyal, but also prone to unexpressed forays which may displease the Kremlin.
7/8
One last tip - if your favourite expert shares a clip of propaganda speech, but the expert genuinely doesn’t know who is speaking, what their arrangement with the regime is, be slow to draw your conclusions!
8/8
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
What radical medical mistrust in the patient as a teller of her experience does, is make the patient question herself. Because she knows her experience is real, she’ll only question herself a bit. But that bit matters, because it puts in doubt that up is up and down is down.
Doubting an obvious truth about your body is more conducive to trauma than healing.
The BPS argument says that ME patients questioning their illness is a good thing. But this is a sleight of hand. What it really asks isn’t that patients question their illness, but that they question their sense of reality.
Don't be freaked out by this. The chances that President Biden has the intel that Putin is about to invade are spectacularly low. @McFaul's own earlier remark, that not even the people close to Putin know what will happen next, remains the best judgement.