• dinklesplein [any, he/him]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    52
    ·
    1 year ago

    how has media so successfully gaslit people into believing that the ukraine was ever even successful at being a liberal democracy? i guess all that rampant corruption that was covered by liberal outlets suddenly stopped being a thing when the SMO started thonk

    • barrbaric [he/him]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      22
      ·
      1 year ago

      Same reason liberals still think the US is a democracy: if you just say something enough times loudly enough, people start to believe it.

      • Frank [he/him, he/him]@hexbear.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        15
        ·
        1 year ago

        I think a lot of them also don’t really understand how the government works, and their conception of what “Democracy” means is so deeply enmeshed in the American Civil Religion that they’re dealing with more of a religious article of faith than an actual political system grounded in the real world.

        • FunkyStuff [he/him]@hexbear.net
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          10
          ·
          1 year ago

          Of course it is, that’s how “Democracy” has always worked. In what meaningful way has the US ever promoted Democracy? Yet every single military action abroad is justified by saying we’re defending Democracy. It’s not an actual thing, just a signifier (and practically speaking, democratic countries = countries that bend the knee to US hegemony).

          • PeeOnYou [he/him]@lemmygrad.ml
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            edit-2
            1 year ago

            practically speaking, democratic countries = countries that bend the knee to US hegemony

            This is exactly what is meant by democracy in the empire. They don’t mean anything else and the only time it’s important is if there isn’t a willing dictator to install instead.

    • Frank [he/him, he/him]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      14
      ·
      1 year ago

      I doubt most of them knew Ukraine existed in any real sense. All I knew about Ukraine when things started to heat up is that it used to be part of the USSR and there was a revolution there in '14.