@houseoftolstoy Due to living in Transnistria, my foreigner friends and I just want Russia to carefully delete as much of Southern Ukraine as possible. The enemy for us is none other than Ukraine. My mom in particular is incapable of comprehending this point since Ukraine = good, Russia = bad. If Russia were coming here then she'd be afraid that Russia would harm me. The reality is that the threat to us is that Ukraine would attack or bomb Transnistria in what would probably be just a pointless tantrum to make Russia bleed. There are checks on that such as it opening another front when their enemy is already coming from the other direction, and this legally being Moldovan territory. However, Transnsitria was recently legally defined in the EU, or at least by several member states as Russian occupied Moldova. So that was likely done to make it legally possible for Ukraine to attack Moldovan territory so that it can be lawyered away as not an attack on Moldova. There are a lot of unusual legal games that take place when an area is unrecognized, while it is de facto spoken about as existing and then intended for destruction or protection.

If you want to measure how faggot-ass and unaware of the process of creation that a person is as they worship the authority of calcified and rotting sprawling governments then notice their opinion about staying in or even just visiting an unrecognized country such as Transnistria. They need Daddy UN, or Daddy EU, or Daddy US to bless a government as being allowed to exist. Right there you can see their attitude towards authority. In a faggot nerd voice: "Hey, hey guys, the Romans haven't blessed this country and so it's not valid or safe to live here. Hey, hey guys, just stop living there it's not okay and you're harming society by living there because it's bad".

Spoke with my boomer dad recently. He was mentioning how Putin must be crazy and evil and all, with Russia's forces in Ukraine right now.

My dad serves as a good barometer for me with what the mainline conservatives of the older generation are thinking, given that he is in that exact demographic and is a viewer of sources like Fox News. I am not trying to rag on my dad by posting here, but rather show how widespread the narrative of "Russia/Putin bad, Ukraine good" is. I am not saying Putin is good, but I know there is a hell of a lot more going on than "Putin is the next Hitler." I don't know if there is a good way to let my dad know that he is getting a whole lot of bullshit, and I am not sure it is worth the effort. He should know better that Fox News should not be trusted either, given their 2020 election coverage and other things making it clear they are controlled opposition. Other sources of info he would be getting would not be much better even if he was not watching any Fox News these days. He is too tech illiterate for me to tell him to find alt sources online (he will screw that up, believe me), so it is doubtful that he will see anything different on his own.

Guess I am just venting now. But be well aware that many in the older generations are just like my dad are quite susceptible to propaganda like this mainly because they really do not have the means to see any real alternate sources. Because for him, Fox News and talk radio are the alternate sources rather than just another version of the mainstream. Though I suppose he is not completely hopeless, as he can think for himself and even point out inconsistencies on from those on "his team" when he thinks they are wrong. But he has to be aware that there is such a possibility, and with Ukraine, he most certainly does not know about this.

I recently thought up a theory: the reason for the extensive suburbification around many cities was motivated by fears of nuclear war. That is, population centers were built less densely as a means to reduce loss of life in the event that nukes come down. If true, the people were of course not told to prevent panic in existing densely populated areas. This sort of effort needed different branding, thus "The American Dream" was sold on the premise that single family suburban homes were best.

Even with the panic of nuclear war largely gone and pretty much anyone who would have created such plans, we are still planning and zoning based on the idea sold to people rather than the underlying motivation. Thus, suburban sprawl continued on. I do not think it is a coincidence all of this started after WWII and during the Cold War. Car companies and construction companies sure benefited, but I do not think they could singlehandedly drive such things. After all, governments control zoning, not corporations. I see them as merely riding on the coattails of the trend that was pushed for reasons that they were probably not privy to.

More evidence I can think of is the government backing mortgages and providing all sorts of incentives, especially for first time homeowners. Government at all levels also provide funding for new developments, which skews pricing in favor of new development. That is one major factor for our infrastructure being so bad. It costs a lot to maintain, but when it is initially funded by government, private companies have less costs to front. This of course means that maintenance and costs bite us later and over time, but at the time the motivation would make sense if the theory is true. It certainly does not help our current debt issues, but is not the only reason we have our debts. We are just going to end up having this turn out even worse with a likely coming collapse.

I know nothing for sure. Just some thoughts.

Who is the intended audience for all the propaganda regarding Ukraine and Russia? It does not appear to be targeted at either anyone in Russia or Ukraine. The Russian people should already be aware about how their country has been labeled the most recent bad guys for a while. The Ukrainian people do not need the news to tell them what is happening on their own doorstep (and should be able to see when western news outlets are lying).

No, the intended audience is the people in western countries. But why is it people in western countries being targeted with this propaganda? I cannot say for sure, but I have a theory. My theory is that the media wants people to be mad at Russia so that people will accept the incoming harsh economic conditions, many of which becoming worse as a result of the West trying to sanction Russia. Even if Russia is not outright blamed, perhaps they are hoping to spin it as being for "the greater good." Biden is already doing that.

Another theory that is plausible is that our media is so out of touch and moronic that they think that their style of "news" is going to make a real difference with the people of Ukraine and Russia. As I have stated before, I really doubt the people in either country are holding on to every word of our corrupt and dishonest media. But our media is indeed both arrogant enough and deluded enough to attempt this without even considering how useless it will be to act as if they always do.