Just curious. If the media didn't report on it, then how do you know about what supposedly happened, and are those reputable journalistic sources or conspiracy and/or propaganda sources?

@snytiger6
Your question assumes that our mainstream media is not itself propagandistic. I will give you one example of such propaganda.

Do you remember when Ukraine’s Nazi Azov was defeated and captured at Mariupol by the Russians? Do you remember how it was reported in our media? I remember seeing the various headlines in the morning:

“MARIUPOL DEFENDERS COMPLETE MISSION. AWAIT EVACUATION.”

I was totally confused reading CNN and the other western media, which is what I read first every day. Had Ukraine driven back to the Russians? Was Ukraine replacing the Nazi Azov with other Ukrainian defenders?

Then I read what you would call propaganda sources. They actually reported the truth: That the Nazi Azov that surrendered and would be taken to POW camps by the Russians.

I was really amazed at how blatantly false the western sources were!

Noam Chomsky is the worlds greatest accomplished linguist and a critical analyst of political and international affairs. You should look up his examples of how the western media bends the truth to create distortions and false impressions. He has made the same complaint about the western media and the Ukraine war.

It’s not that one side is truthful on the other side is not. We have to make some effort and use critical thinking to sift between the various propagandas to determine what actually is the truth.

If you really think you’re getting the balanced truth from the western media, you are just like a Christian or Muslim fanatic who accepts the given “truths” from their religious leaders and their holy books…

Here is a summary of Chomsky on the supposedly free Western media:

@snytiger6
Part of the issue here is that what might be a relatively reputable source on domestic issues is not reputable when reporting on international affairs.

There is agreement in the US between Democrats and Republicans - and between liberals and conservatives - in pursuing imperialist interests abroad. The media reflects this unity and uncritically accepts the governments’ distortions necessary for public approval of US imperialism.

Fox and CNN will regularly call each other out on distortions concerning domestic issues. They do not call each other out on distortions that promote US imperialism. Here they agree!

Thus, the US public gets propagandized by a media conformity on China, Russia, Venezuela, Cuba, and the Middle East. You do remember when the entire spectrum of US mainstream media agreed that they were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq?

When our media does report embarrassing news about US imperialism, it is often buried and not given the prominence that it deserves. Or it is sandwiched with misleading context or distorting words, as in the supposed Mariupol evacuation.

One has to be an active and critical consumer of news in order to discern the actual truth. Listen to what Roger Waters says as CNN tries to distort the issues.

Be like Roger. Don't be a tribalist. Consume and think critically. And don't be afraid to call the shots wherever they may fall:

@snytiger6 If you are really interested in fairly neutral, relatively balanced news reports on Ukraine, check out Indian media and Al Jazeera.

@snytiger6 Here is evidence of who gatekeeps what you consider reputable:

I read an article while trump was still president that said a study of his supporters gound that they were raised by overly strict and rather unforgiving parents. These people would seem to have an internalized paradym that this is how the world should work - strict and unforgiving.

@RussRAB That is sad.

The people who are all for the authoritarians, think that the authoritarians would never come after them, because they are on the side of the authoritarians. It is delusional. Virtually every authoritarian government has turned on some of its most avid supporters, because it allows them to better centralize and consolidate power by making everybody afraid, even their avid supporters.

Just like the old Soviet days when people had to worry about their neighbors ratting them out to the KGB.

@TomMcGiverin Exactly, and Vlad is KGB.

@TomMcGiverin Most likely many were better off before the curtain fell?! But I’m thinking this probably has more to do with poor leadership than communism being a better economic model than capitalism?!
Not that I’m a fan of capitalism, because I’m not.

It would be of interest to know who a quired the assets of these prominent Russian businessmen. Under Putin, Russia has become a kleptocracy and a good portion of Putin's personal wealth has been acquired from rivals he had imprisoned or who were mysteriously killed. It has made Putin one of the wealtiest men in the world (likely why trump is in love with him).

In Russia, they won’t even be investigated. Just a normal part of life.

@Barnie2years I believe that.

He’s been having people fall out windows his entire reign. He’s just stepped things up a bit since the war….