Why are you saying that? Not all Russians are brainwashed by state propaganda. I think very few Russians who read Hackernews actually support what is going on right now, if any.
To be honest, me and all of the people around me thought that this is too crazy to happen, but here we are.
This reminds me of "I can tolerate anything except the outgroup":
> What I mean is – well, take creationists. According to Gallup polls, about 46% of Americans are creationists. Not just in the sense of believing God helped guide evolution. I mean they think evolution is a vile atheist lie and God created humans exactly as they exist right now. That’s half the country.
> And I don’t have a single one of those people in my social circle. It’s not because I’m deliberately avoiding them; I’m pretty live-and-let-live politically, I wouldn’t ostracize someone just for some weird beliefs. And yet, even though I probably know about a hundred fifty people, I am pretty confident that not one of them is creationist. Odds of this happening by chance? 1/2^150 = 1/10^45 = approximately the chance of picking a particular atom if you are randomly selecting among all the atoms on Earth.
You could live in a circle that unanimously opposes the war, and still be in a country that's 60% for it.
Thing is, given the propaganda machine in Russia and the lack of free (even non-guvernamental) organizations we can't really tell if that percentage is 6% or 60%.
Russians who read HN are probably in the minority though, right?
And yeah not everyone listens to propaganda, and there is going to be a lot of diversity of opinion, but propaganda does work and a large percent of the population are going to get duped.
Corollary (because I’m not sure I was explicit enough): propaganda most certainly has worked on me without my even realizing, a great many times I am sure, and it most certainly has worked on you as well, dear HackerNews reader. Don’t make the mistake of thinking you’re immune, or too clever.
I say this with much affection and no presumption: I think Russian nationals on HackerNews are probably not a representative sample of Russian nationals generally speaking.
Yes, that’s what I said and meant. I was only more specific because the context was more specific. There was no intended suggestion that this would not also be the case for other nationalities.
