4 ms·

You can definitely see that in Russian politics. It’s very “enemy” oriented. Everyday we see on national tv that west countries are bad and against us. That we

You can definitely see that in Russian politics. It’s very “enemy” oriented. Everyday we see on national tv that west countries are bad and against us. That we have our own path and so on and so on. And it’s very frustrating that it works because it's the only news sourse for many people. It’s psychological thing that a common enemy brings people together. Really hope it will change. We even have this idiom — my enemy’s enemy is my friend.

bilbo0s 8y ago
"...Everyday we see on national tv that [insert enemy here] countries are bad and against us. That we have our own path and so on and so on. And it’s very frustrating that it works..." This works everywhere in the world, there is nothing endemic to Russia in this strategy. I'm born and raised in the US, and this is pretty much how news has been since I was a kid watching talking heads drone on about how dangerous the world is. (Especially, Arabs, Latin American rebels, and pretty much anyone from Eastern Europe.) Nowadays we throw in China and certain other Asians as "dangerous", but you get the idea. I'd bet the news is like this in most other nations as well, just with a different set of "enemy" people or nations.
- CJST_ 8y ago
  Using the narrative of a common enemy to create temporary unity has been a common tactic historically. Improvements in technology and media visibility in recent history has simply changed the dynamic in how this narrative is delivered.
- Viliam1234 8y ago
  It's funny how every time anyone says anything negative about Russia, someone feels the urge to say "USA is not any better". But not the other way round. Like, seriously, notice any debate where Russia is mentioned, and this pattern is everywhere.
  - romwell 8y ago
    It's an old Kremlin technique[1]. [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism
- romwell 8y ago
  >This works everywhere in the world, there is nothing endemic to Russia in this strategy. Yeah right, no[1]. My family moved to the US from Ukraine when I was 16, and I've been keeping tabs on the politics and media over there. So no, you can't compare US media and Russian media. Just because 1 and 10 are both positive numbers, it doesn't mean they are close if you consider the interval [0, 10]. You know, from casual mentions that Russia is "the only country that can turn America into radioactive dust"[2] on prime-time TV news to, well, everything else - you just don't get this stuff here. (And please don't object if you haven't watched Russian TV in Russian! You don't have a point of reference to compare to!). The US media has taken a large step towards Russian-style vitriol with Trump's campaign, which is when I started to suspect a Russian connection. In my opinion, that has been the largest (and, sadly, nearly irreversible) impact on this country - shaping (or, rather, destroying) the discourse. To my surprise, many others have noticed it, and written about in major publications and blogs [3][4][5][6][7] - and yet it still remains largely under the radar in discussions about Russian influence. [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism [2]https://www.vesti.ru/doc.html?id=2816127 https://www.vesti.ru/doc.html?id=2816127 [3] https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/03/is-trumps-chaos-a-move-from-the-kremlins-playbook https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/03/is-trumps-chaos-a-mo... [4] https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/11/27/trumps-russian-schizophrenia-215869 https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/11/27/trumps-ru... [5] https://theoutline.com/post/3522/donald-trump-and-vladislav-surkov?zd=1&zi=6r3lvr4s https://theoutline.com/post/3522/donald-trump-and-vladislav-... [6] https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/02/how-russia-exported-political-technology-to-america.html https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/02/how-russia-expor... [7] https://amandarivkin.wordpress.com/2017/07/27/from-russian-theater-to-american-reality-politics-donald-trump-vladislav-surkov-alexander-herzen-and-you/ https://amandarivkin.wordpress.com/2017/07/27/from-russian-t...
bytematic 8y ago
This appears to have played out against the Democrats in the last few years. Opposing politicians have found many new friends in enemies of enemies by forgetting some morals and rationality
dan_hawkins 8y ago
I heard that a guy with funny mustache used this trick successfully a while ago...
hkai 8y ago
Which is exactly why it's scary to see American politics dominated by the same hate towards Republicans/Democrats. When I read American media it feels like I'm reading a Russian newspaper back home.

bilbo0s 8y ago

"...Everyday we see on national tv that [insert enemy here] countries are bad and against us. That we have our own path and so on and so on. And it’s very frustrating that it works..." This works everywhere in the world, there is nothing endemic to Russia in this strategy. I'm born and raised in the US, and this is pretty much how news has been since I was a kid watching talking heads drone on about how dangerous the world is. (Especially, Arabs, Latin American rebels, and pretty much anyone from Eastern Europe.) Nowadays we throw in China and certain other Asians as "dangerous", but you get the idea. I'd bet the news is like this in most other nations as well, just with a different set of "enemy" people or nations.

CJST_ 8y ago
Using the narrative of a common enemy to create temporary unity has been a common tactic historically. Improvements in technology and media visibility in recent history has simply changed the dynamic in how this narrative is delivered.
Viliam1234 8y ago
It's funny how every time anyone says anything negative about Russia, someone feels the urge to say "USA is not any better". But not the other way round. Like, seriously, notice any debate where Russia is mentioned, and this pattern is everywhere.
- romwell 8y ago
  It's an old Kremlin technique[1]. [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism
romwell 8y ago
>This works everywhere in the world, there is nothing endemic to Russia in this strategy. Yeah right, no[1]. My family moved to the US from Ukraine when I was 16, and I've been keeping tabs on the politics and media over there. So no, you can't compare US media and Russian media. Just because 1 and 10 are both positive numbers, it doesn't mean they are close if you consider the interval [0, 10]. You know, from casual mentions that Russia is "the only country that can turn America into radioactive dust"[2] on prime-time TV news to, well, everything else - you just don't get this stuff here. (And please don't object if you haven't watched Russian TV in Russian! You don't have a point of reference to compare to!). The US media has taken a large step towards Russian-style vitriol with Trump's campaign, which is when I started to suspect a Russian connection. In my opinion, that has been the largest (and, sadly, nearly irreversible) impact on this country - shaping (or, rather, destroying) the discourse. To my surprise, many others have noticed it, and written about in major publications and blogs [3][4][5][6][7] - and yet it still remains largely under the radar in discussions about Russian influence. [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism [2]https://www.vesti.ru/doc.html?id=2816127 https://www.vesti.ru/doc.html?id=2816127 [3] https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/03/is-trumps-chaos-a-move-from-the-kremlins-playbook https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/03/is-trumps-chaos-a-mo... [4] https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/11/27/trumps-russian-schizophrenia-215869 https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/11/27/trumps-ru... [5] https://theoutline.com/post/3522/donald-trump-and-vladislav-surkov?zd=1&zi=6r3lvr4s https://theoutline.com/post/3522/donald-trump-and-vladislav-... [6] https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/02/how-russia-exported-political-technology-to-america.html https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/02/how-russia-expor... [7] https://amandarivkin.wordpress.com/2017/07/27/from-russian-theater-to-american-reality-politics-donald-trump-vladislav-surkov-alexander-herzen-and-you/ https://amandarivkin.wordpress.com/2017/07/27/from-russian-t...

bytematic 8y ago

This appears to have played out against the Democrats in the last few years. Opposing politicians have found many new friends in enemies of enemies by forgetting some morals and rationality

dan_hawkins 8y ago

I heard that a guy with funny mustache used this trick successfully a while ago...

hkai 8y ago

Which is exactly why it's scary to see American politics dominated by the same hate towards Republicans/Democrats. When I read American media it feels like I'm reading a Russian newspaper back home.