An American tourist in Russia
This article is the next entry in my series Why Russia is Not Losing the Information War. The West has undeniably generated far more disinformation than Russia. As I have observed previously, this is likely the single biggest disinformation campaign in history. But generating more noise isn’t the same as winning, is it? Anti-NATO outlets … Read more
Western mainstream media outlets habitually refer to Ukrainian nazis in softer terms like “right-wing nationalists.” However counter-intuitive this might seem, nazism is not nationalism. If anything, it is the opposite of nationalism. Here’s why.
Let’s compare Hitler and Zelensky. Can we truly call them nationalists? I think these two guys actually have a lot in common. They’re both nazis, of course. Hitler is dead and Zelensky is probably about to be dead. But beyond that, they were (past tense) both bright, intelligent guys who loved attention. And they were both put in a similar situation with Russia, and both made the same choice. Yes, you read that correctly. Zelensky made the same choice as Hitler. Not only that, what happened with Zelensky I think actually provides some insight about Hitler as well.
I frequently see the claim that Russia is losing the information war in Ukraine. This idea is widely believed, even by people who support Russia, and even some Russians themselves. As someone with relevant experience in that field, I can confidently say this is not true. And I speak not from an emotional standpoint, but in realistic, practical terms. So I will analyze the Russians’ de-nazification of Ukraine from the perspective of American military doctrine in the science of Information Operations.
Some of my recent posts about Ukraine got a fair amount of attention in various corners of the web, more than I am used to. Unsurprisingly, not everyone agrees with me and I have seen a fair share of complaints. Here is a summary of the most frequent critiques I have seen, and my responses to each. I cannot speak for other people, however, I think many of the commentators on my “side” would agree with my following statements in general principle.
Come and See (Иди и смотри), the iconic 1985 World War II movie by Elem Klimov, offers western audiences valuable insights into the Russian mindset. Unfortunately, they were all lost on us. We see the “horrors of war” trope and it overwhelms all of the other much more important lessons. On top of that, our minds are shielded by 80 years of Cold War propaganda, and the morality of Come and See goes over our heads.