We have read a lot in recent times about how powerful Russian propaganda is, how dangerous to the Western public, how the Rooskies try to undermine Europe.
Researchers showed us a Twitter analysis of Russian propaganda accounts, all major newspapers and TV stations have reported abundantly on troll factories and the very real threats and harassment of activists who go in and then report on their experiences.
We, in the West, have personalized obvious and not so obvious Russian lies about Ukraine and designated one man, Mr. Putin, as our Lord Voldemort. Except, that is, the Daily Show, because they had assigned the Voldemort label to Dick Cheney and hence went with Vlad the Shirtless.
But, the internet being what it is, there was some pushback on this narrative, because in depth reports on the output of the troll factories not only showed harassment of former workers but ineptitude on the part of those previously presented to us as highly professional manipulators of minds.
As a result, some - very few - of our own media started to make a distinction between inept and laughable output designated for Russian internal consumption and some as yet not clearly identified elite propaganda aimed at the more "sophisticated" Western minds. Russian broadcaster RT has been designated as falling into this category, and we have seen and heard a couple of RT folks who threw in the towel and aired their legitimate grievances.
Still.
The K-Landnews verdict on Russian propaganda, both 'versions', is simple: It is as inept and as quaint as the old Soviet propaganda.
How can an unknown little blog dare make such a claim that flies in the face of many a Western expert?
Because we have as many years of experience** with this very subject as some of the loudest voices in the West. Actually, more than some.
Also, independent Western experts will largely agree with our statement. Where do you find Western experts who are not beholden to the NATO organization itself or to media and parties closely affiliated with it?
Some are, and that may surprise you, members of Western intelligence agencies. The chiefs, of course, may know but won't go public with their knowledge, at least not until they are safely retired and don't want to make more money. Look for independent minds at the analyst level, and you'll find some. Others are former career diplomats, and then there are academics.
By far the greatest number of people who know how inept Soviet propaganda really was is made up of ordinary people who lived under the system.
To be fair, Soviet propaganda, or Russian, or Chinese - that of any authoritarian government - doesn't have to be masterful, slick, or convincing as long as there is enough power in the system to make publication of diverging opinions sufficiently expensive to any would be dissenter.
The carrot and the stick.
A standard way of doing business in the Roman Empire and ever since, authoritarian governments tend to not have enough carrots (like North Korea) or just use the stick way too much, like unnamed German governments. Examining variations of the carrot and stick theme can help understand cultures and countries.
There are plenty of carrots to go around in the West, and we are using them liberally, plus, we have a big stick - which we also use freely.
Our propaganda is a lot better than that of the Russians, so we should all calm down a bit.
They are doing us lots of favors, like enshrining an anti-gay stance into law, or opening a military Disneyland. Their increase in military spending can be exploited as a new Cold War, or Cold War 2.0 in propaganda speak.
We should reign in our own smart ass generals, though, like the German four star commander who gave a long interview to German daily Die Welt recently. He started out fine, checking off all the right boxes until he got the end where he said that Russia cannot financially afford a large war.
It is nice to see he knows facts, too. But statements like that undermine our valiant effort to keep the world safe from an enemy we do not have. He needs to take a lesson from the politically sophisticated folks around here. They, at least, try to shame NATO countries into spending 2% of their GDP per year on the military without putting numbers side by side. Or, if they do, they will only cite the Russian GDP percentage, which just happens to be the only figure that's remotely disquieting enough.
How to be always right?
Read some Western papers, figure out where they are on the political spectrum, then go back and read as much as you can on a single hot button subject in any of these papers as you can.
The subject can be domestic or foreign policy or economy, it doesn't matter, the pattern will look very similar: for every ten to twenty strongly "core belief" articles, you will get one more enlightened, more fact based one. The bigger that ratio, the more tabloid the paper can be said to be.
The best about this approach is you are almost always right. You can, for example, let it rip about Greece, just insert one or two human interest pieces in a stream of hateful garbage, so that you can pull those out when some indignant leftie or Gutmensch calls you out on a pattern of hate.
That, dear Rooskies, is how you do propaganda.
While you are at it, rebrand your troll factories as think tanks, works well for us.
[Update 3/18/2016] A good example of the workings of Western propaganda can be found in the 2016 post German 2016 Munich Security Conference coverage like early 80s Soviet papers.
** No, the blogster won't list them because nothing sways true believers anyway. You can send us an email if you really want to know.
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