Zelensky-Trump and propaganda bubbles

I see quite a few blog posts about the tense exchange of views between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky. I thought I’d add my two proverbial cents by using my Kyiv Post article about VIPs stuck in propaganda bubbles as a reference point. The article was written before the meeting, but the points proved prescient.

Donald Trump values his relationship with Russia much more than his relationship with Ukraine. Business? Blackmail? Imperial sentimentality? Senility? Gangsterism? All five? Who knows. Disinformation spaces, or bubbles, are a harmless nuisance if they affect some guy down at the bar, but things take a deadly turn when top government officials unquestioningly accept the noxious narrative permeating the disinformation bubble. When you influence the top government officials to think the way you want them to, they are going to manifest the kind of reality you want them to, regardless of how absurd that reality is. VIPs have the power to do that, and all propagandists understand this. Russian mouthpieces excel in the art of brainwashing foreign VIPs.

It’s highly likely that Hamas, and other, propagandists from other terror groups and regimes, study Russian propaganda methods in great detail.

Is there even a point in trying to reach the ones who have been propagandized? Maybe it’s better to preach exclusively to the converted instead? The rest have constructed a fake reality where Bucha is a British psychological operation and Bucha survivors are actors. Where Israel is the epitome of all evil, the so-called ”Zionist Entity.” Can we break the propaganda spell? Not likely without shock therapy, i.e. visiting the places of Russian war crimes or talking to the survivors, be it of Russian or Hamas crimes, particularly children. And even that is no guarantee.

Donald Trump appears to have been brainwashed by Russian propaganda. As such, his behavior, as rude as it was, is hardly surprisng in that context. Can he be de-programmed? Who knows. We can hope it’s some grand strategy on Trump’s part to lull Putin into letting his guard down, only to then strike hard. Yes, but let’s be real this is giving him way too much credit.

If Russia manages to take over Europe, all the useful idiots welcoming the arrival of Russian tanks are going to be mercilessly exploited, then tortured and eliminated – for fun.

Sadly, enslaved Ukrainians are likely going to be a part of the invading Russian army by then. If only all the useful idiots understood what they are doing by supporting, even worshipping Putin’s Russia. Indeed, the realization of their foolishness is going to hit them hard as they writhe in agony on their way to execution. Alas, by then, it will all be too late.