Mihail Pojarsky/propaganda boomerang

For a couple of days now, the turbo-patriotic public has been rant and rave: in some wilderness, two one-legged "SMO veterans" (from russian "СВО". SMO - Special Military Operation) have been beaten. With each discussion, the story acquires more and more heartbreaking details: they say, for no reason at all, thugs attacked disabled veterans with cries of "murderers". Of course, that's exactly what happened: veterans came to a cafe and stumbled upon readers of The Meduza (russian liberal massmedia ). As they say, we believe. However, let's imagine that someone really decided to beat the poor disabled people purely for fun. And you know what? This completely fits into the narrative that propagandists and military correspondents are cultivating in the Russian Federation.

Our propaganda has two semantic levels. One is superficial. These are the words that are literally spoken. All this "booboo patriotic education" and "boo-boo-boo our boys protect us from the bloody NATO." The joke is that even those people who regularly say it don't believe it. In fact, propaganda has a second, hidden semantic level (by the way, I had a video where I talked about this in detail (and the article How propaganda (not) works)). What message is being conveyed at this level? Very simple - the cult of power. Propaganda is just a machine that shows who is in power here. Sometimes this cult of power turns out to be not so hidden and is spoken almost directly. For example, in his favorite votabautism: "Why was it possible for the Americans in Yugoslavia, but not for us?" Not surprisingly, 80% of screen time is devoted to exposing the hypocrisy of the West. The idea is simple: all your democracies and human rights are just a beautiful disguise for predation. But if Soviet propaganda, after such revelations, offered its own strange, but the idea of justice, then Russian propaganda does not offer anything. Russian propagandists, speaking of justice, at best wink and giggle, at worst they say bluntly: it is fair - what is beneficial to us, unfair - the opposite.

But what happens when all this immorality falls on the everyday level? That's right, they respect the one who is strong. Strong - this means it can break you here and now. Well, or call someone who will break. Cops - they can, Kadyrov's - they can, diasporas - they can. Wagner ("PMC" Wagner) - could, while they were in favor. But if you have only a military ID and two legs for two - bad news, guys, it will be difficult for you to survive in a cult of power. And all the usual votabautism is now working against you: "Why was it possible for you there, but now we can't with you?" Today the offenders, apparently, will be punished. Because now don't feed a deputy with bread - just let me stand up for a veteran of the SMO (Special Military Operation). Soldiers are needed today. But what will happen in N years, when they are not needed? Who will stand up for them? We do not have any veteran organizations and "Russian freikorps", never have been and never will be. There was one leader of the "Russian Freikorps" - now he is sitting in Lefortovo (prison in the west of Moscow). So, all the moral and physical invalids, who believed in loud state promises, will simply be thrown into the society of immoralism and social Darwinism, ironically nurtured by our own military propaganda. I think this can be called a "propaganda boomerang."

Mihail Pojarsky 2023-08-07