But how many of them support the war because the only media available is Russian state propaganda?
the answer is - it doesn’t matter. the biggest learning from the nazi germany was that you don’t need the entire population of a country to be homicidal psychopaths. all you need is a small group of those psychopaths, control or media, propaganda and you get a perfectly functioning system where normal everyday folks go to their normal everyday jobs.
just those jobs are in gestapo. or in maintenance of gas chambers. or making food for the equally confused soldiers.
of course, we should avoid civilian casualties as much as we can (but apparently russian army is not required) but the system needs to be stopped.
russia has cancer. chemoterapy is not a pleasant procedure that affects both ill and healthy cells. the alternative is, unfortunately, to allow that cancer to spread to the entire planet.
I’m just saying we can’t just assume these people would be in favor of the war if they weren’t forced to only consume pro-regime media. I’m sure a lot of North Koreans support the Kim regime because they’ve been indoctrinated since childhood with basically no accurate information about anything, so they just don’t know. But if you read the accounts of the ones who do end up escaping to the south, they’re just floored by how the world really is.
Of course we cannot. I agree with you that nobody is born evil or a criminal (even psychopaths are not guaranteed to become serial killers).
By all means, if not for propaganda, we would live in a very different world.
But the unfortunate fact is that they did consume enough of that propaganda to do nothing, or worse, follow the orders.
Yes, they are not criminals by nature, but what they do is crime or at least they are an accessory. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessory_(legal_term)
I’m all for having sympathy for Russian civilians and even soldiers in some cases. I get that overt opposition to the war (and even calling at a war) is a very dangerous opinion to have out loud in Russia. I’m very sympathetic to those citizens that oppose the war and the administration, but keep quiet about it. I wish they’d do more, but I don’t expect most Russian citizens to stick their neck out like Navalny did.
All that said, Russian propaganda isn’t magic brainwashing that entirely prevents rational thought. It’s just propaganda, and many (possibly most) Russians know that it is propaganda. Unlike North Korea they’ve still had access to alternative news sources (all maybe not for much longer). They have had plenty of time to smell the bullshit and look for less biased news.
The propaganda does make it harder for the average Russian citizens to recognize this war for the atrocity it is (or even a war), but they’re not brainwashed zombies, and they’re also not morons, so they’re still responsible for their choices. If they choose to actively support this war, or if they choose to actively support this regime, that puts some blood on their hands - even if it’s mostly because they chose to continue to live in ignorance despite all the signs.
All that said, Russian propaganda isn’t magic brainwashing that entirely prevents rational thought.
You could say that about fundamentalist religion too, and yet there are a whole lot of extremists out there of various religions and a big part of it is that they were indoctrinated from birth.
I could and I do. Being born into religious fundamentalism is no more a moral get out of jail free card than being born on Russian soil. In both cases you got dealt a rough hand, but you’re still responsible for your actions. Supporting atrocities isn’t ok, no matter what your upbringing was.
