Thought Control in Western Democracies: The Case of Ukraine
“Thought Control” is something that people in the West believe only happens in autocratic societies like China, North Korea, and the former USSR. But these countries are mere amateurs, because they are foolish enough to punish people for saying things that dissent from what their government says.
The US is far smarter than these silly countries, because it gives its citizens an illusion that they are free, and yet manages to control what they think. This is far more efficient, because there is no resentment from the people. After all, they are free.
To understand how this is done, let us look at the ongoing coverage of the war in the Ukraine. I am listing a number of things below that people are made to believe, based on the coverage I have seen in western media outlets such as BBC, CNN, and even Al-Jazeera (the Qatari government-controlled media company that is beholden to Qatar’s patron, America). These are the things we have learned about the Ukraine war from these channels.
- Evil Russia has been fighting a war in Ukraine without destroying a single tank or aircraft. At least, I have not seen even one report in the last month talking about Ukrainian war losses.
- Brave Ukrainians, on the other hand, are destroying Russian tanks, shooting down their aircraft, and forcing Russian troops to surrender. We have seen that video of a Russian helicopter shot down by a shoulder launched missile some 500 times so far.
- All the Russian military successes and advances within Ukraine so far have been achieved only by killing civilians and bombing homes and hospitals. I can only infer this because almost all of the “war reporting” over the last month has only talked about this.
- There is a column of tanks and armoured cars 60 km long outside Kyiv, but Ukrainians do not bomb this sitting duck to pieces because they are essentially a nonviolent people who believe in Gandhian principles. (Not because their air force is non-existent or impotent.) I have to assume this because nobody is talking about why the Ukrainians are not doing this.
- Russia is morally weak, and their troops are demoralized, because they all hate Putin, and their hearts are not in this war, so their soldiers will eventually surrender to the Ukrainians out of shame. I have seen several reports about Russian soldiers’ low morale and cases of Russians surrendering their equipment without a fight. Never seen any report of a Ukrainian surrendering. So Ukrainians are brave and Russians are wimps.
- The fact that Russia has not conquered Ukraine proves that the attack has stalled and the Russians are already beaten. Several experts have told me so on CNN and BBC. It is only a matter of time before the Russians retreat and accept defeat. Brave Ukrainians will defeat the mighty Russians. This is also because the united West and NATO have weakened Russia with sanctions. (Some troublemakers told me that Ukraine is much bigger than Poland, and yet in 1939, the Germans took five weeks to occupy half of Poland, but we will not consider those people to be correct because they are not “respected” voices like Fareed Zakaria and Thomas Friedman. Some people even said “read Wikipedia” or “read books.” Who has the time for that? I trust CNN and BBC.)
- A wildly cheering crowd in a packed Luzhniki stadium in Moscow to commemorate the eighth anniversary of the war in Crimea in 2014 means nothing because all these people were forced to attend the rally and bused to the venue. Those smiles? Oh, they used to be a Communist country. They’re used to faking it. The expert on BBC told me all this.
- Only Western media tells you the truth. Russian media is so full of lies and propaganda that we must ban them and prevent Western populations from even seeing what Russian media outlets talk about. Even when every article in every Western outlet: BBC, NYT, WaPo, CNN, Guardian, The Australian, … even when every one of them supports the US and NATO position, and even when, at the same time, Russian media such as Moscow Times cover anti-war protests in Russia, resignations of Russian media in protest against Putin, and criticism of the war by Russian celebrities (Ok, I did not learn this second part from BBC — ok, there I cheated, okay? I got it from some friends — more on them later.)
- Russia is being crushed by the sanctions of the West and will soon be on its knees, causing a “palace coup,” ousting Putin and causing regime change. You will not see reports from journalists from countries like India that show that, while there is some inconvenience to Russians, life is mostly unaffected. (again, I cheated. Since I live in India, I unfortunately get Indian news channels too.)
- While covering a major international military conflict, it is not necessary to have journalists in both countries involved. Covering the Ukrainian side is enough. Even though there is no restriction on journalists visiting Russia (I have seen reports of Indian journalists from Russia — again, apologize, I live in India) all Western journalists either are based only in Ukraine or nearby Western countries like Poland, and interview only Ukrainian sources. There are no interviews with Russian intellectuals, retired generals, or policymakers, even though there is no restriction on these. But this must be because all Russians are evil, and why would you want to interview evil people?
- Western sanctions on Russia must cripple the Russian economy, even though Russia is a major supplier of oil and gas, food, and various minerals to much of the world, even though it has a special partnership with China and India, the two biggest countries on the planet, even though all the former Soviet republics have strong economic ties with it. But all the experts say daily that Russia is being crushed by Western sanctions, so in spite of all the things that they have said about Russia’s natural resources and its economy, it must one day be crushed by the sanctions.
- Russia is evil, and Ukraine is noble, even though just a few years ago, western media outlets like the Guardian had run detailed news articles on how bad Ukraine was. There were stories about massive corruption (again, sorry, I cheated. I have a lot of friends on social media and these evil people send me Western news articles from the past. I know it is immoral to remind anyone of their past actions and writings, and I will try to be a good boy in the future) in Ukraine and the huge neo-Nazi problem in Ukraine. But if Russia claims there are neo-Nazis in Ukraine today, they are lying and making up excuses for an invasion. Because all the experts on TV tell me they are lying.
- We must take no note of admissions by US officials that there were biological research laboratories in Ukraine sponsored by the US, that the US is extremely worried might fall into Russian hands (I didn’t cheat here, this was reported on CNN and other Western media). We should blindly believe the US’ denials that any biological weapons were being developed in those labs, and accept their claims that the labs were being used to develop cures to dangerous diseases, because CNN and its panel of experts says so. We should not wonder if the US might be lying — because how can the US ever lie? We should not ask whether, having once lied to the world about Iraq (again those pesky friends, reminding me about these things), the US may be lying again about biolabs in Ukraine. We should not ask why, if the research being done was benign, why the US is so worried about these labs falling into Russian hands. In other words, we should completely turn off the rational side of our brain and drink the Kool-Aid. Since I don’t support murder of innocents, I must stop thinking. Don’t think. Just accept.
- Russian concerns about NATO’s eastward expansion are mere excuses to cover up their imperialist ambitions, even though Russia has been expressing these concerns for 14 years, at every forum possible, practically shouting from the rooftops. The fact that they invaded Ukraine after their protests were ignored for 14 years does not matter and does not merit any mention. (Only the first part about Russia’s concerns being excuses came from CNN; the remainder came from my evil troublemaker friends who insist on telling me these inconvenient things.)
- Russia’s bombing of Ukraine amounts to “crimes against humanity.” Did you know (I saw it on TV yesterday) that the Russians are using White Phosphorous against the Ukrainians? Yeah, White Phosphorous!!! I didn’t know what that was. They said it can burn your body horribly if it hits you. Another evil friend (I apologize for the company I keep) told me that Israel had been using those on the Palestinians for years now. But Israel is always correct, because all the experts on CNN and NYT and WaPo tell me that everything Israel does is only in their self-defence, so I am not going to listen to these bad friends. (I really need new friends — any suggestions?) If Israel used white phosphorous (no capitals needed this time, because we are talking about a friendly, democratic country here), they must have had a good reason. They probably need the white phosphorous to defend themselves against those evil Palestinian schoolboys who keep throwing stones at them over the fence. Another evil friend (I tell you, you have no idea about bad company) shared some news articles about how the US is currently bombing Yemen indiscriminately daily to help Saudi Arabia, who is America’s best friend in the Middle East. They say that the Saudis are the most repressive and cruel dictatorship in the world — I mean, they kill you for sleeping around and cut your hand if you steal — but because they sell Americans oil, America and the other countries who are part of the “free world” must look the other way. A little discipline is probably good for those Arabs, anyway. American Presidents regularly get the highest honor of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and dance with their princes. And, in any case, I am sure that if America is doing the bombing for the Saudis, they will make sure that no women and children are harmed, because America only uses “precision bombs.” I don’t believe those photos of horribly burned children my evil friends are showing me, because CNN doesn’t show them.
If this is what the West means by freedom of speech, there is no difference between the West and Russia or China. It’s just that if you criticize the Chinese government openly, they put you in jail, whereas in the US, criticisms are so marginalized and the government view is so amplified that nobody gives the dissenting view any importance, because it is practically invisible.
Edward Hermann and Noam Chomsky said it best in their masterpiece, “Manufacturing Consent.” They showed how so-called “free speech” in the West is not free. You are only free to say what the people who own your publication allow you to say. And the people who own the publications (news portals in today’s age) are the same people who own all the Congressmen and Senators in the US Congress, as well as the President. After all, election campaigns are incredibly expensive, and so you need contributions, and the big companies that own everything else, including the media, are the ones paying the candidates to run their elections campaigns — from both parties. And when you take money from someone, you have to give them what they want in return. So all government policy is made to keep donors happy.
Another device Hermann and Chomsky talk about is “framing the debate.” So, in the present context, you do not ask: “Was the West Right in Pushing NATO Eastwards?” Instead, you have extensive debates on “Is Russian Aggression Tantamount to Crimes Against Humanity?” or “Will the West Be Able to Hold Putin to Account for his Crimes?” So Russian guilt is automatically assumed, no fault is attributed, even suggested, to the West, and an extreme position is taken where the choices are very narrow. Similarly, the debate is about whether the West is doing enough to punish Russia or not. When that is the debate, then guilt is pre-judged. We are only debating on the sentence to be pronounced. It is the difference between asking “Is the defendant innocent or guilty?” on the one hand and “Should the defendant serve eight or ten years in prison” on the other.
This is not the job of any independent media house. The job of independent media is not to blindly accept what the government says, but to challenge and question it. Otherwise it is not journalism, it is propaganda.
For example, on the issue of biological laboratories in Ukraine, Russia and China highlighted the issue. All Western media channels mentioned this fact, but instead of seriously investigating whether it was true or not, simply showed the US representative making a statement that these claims were rubbish. They just blindly accepted it, without question.
Yet another device is to stack any debate with “experts” who all belong to the same side of the debate — the side that the TV channel is trying to promote. If all the experts debating the Ukraine issue on TV and in all the newspapers are saying pretty much the same thing, they must be right. Right?
And given that all the TV channels are owned by the same people who own the government, how can you hear any viewpoint other than the viewpoint of the US government?
The US is a masterpiece of showing people how perfect thought control can be achieved while giving people the illusion of freedom.
