"we know that there are plenty of Russian propagandists trying to influence the west's cultural mindset." The interesting thing about this claim is the questio

"we know that there are plenty of Russian propagandists trying to influence the west's cultural mindset." The interesting thing about this claim is the question of whether this is also propaganda. There have been an enormous number of high profile claims of Russian propaganda or interference in western affairs in the past decade, as far as I'm aware they always ended up collapsing, though sometimes people aren't aware of that. Hunter Biden's laptop story was claimed to be Russian propaganda and the New York Post's Twitter account was frozen for it. Nobody could even reshare it or link to it privately. The rest of the media united in claiming it was Russian propaganda. Now, years later the NYT admits that the contents are authenticated. For years people claimed Trump's election was due to Russian propaganda and electoral interference. A massive investigation followed, in which it turned out the primary evidence for this was made up. Then they tried the same tactic with Brexit. Nobody ever found any proof for this; the idea was absurd on its face and was quickly abandoned outside of only the most loony Remainer establishments. Then there were the claims of Russian hacking of electrical grids. Wrong. Russian servers being pinged by Trump's campaigns. Wrong. Dozens of other claims about Russian propaganda that I'd have to look up, but I know they've been made, always wrong. Then Russia invaded Ukraine, claiming it needs to be de-Nazified. Immediately described as Russian propaganda, until people start remembering about the unquestionably neo-Nazis battalions that have been fighting as an official part of the Ukrainian military for years and that, uh, this is actually true. The Russian soldiers actually are fighting Nazis. That doesn't mean the invasion was right! It does raise interesting historical/moral questions though, given the mention of Chamberlain. Would the Allies have been morally right to invade Germany and take out the Nazis before they invaded anywhere else? Or were the Allies correct to wait for them to make the first strike? I don't know and the question only just occurred to me to ask, but it seems relevant here. Now in fairness you made a weaker claim above, about "Russian propagandists" trying to "influence the cultural mindset", a claim worded sufficiently vaguely that it could mean almost anything. But this impression of pervasive Russian propaganda has come from somewhere. If not the endless run of false claims about the prevalence of Russian propaganda then from where?