Perception Management, News Sources, and Russian Combat Losses

In recent days I have had visits with various friends, neighbors and acquaintances.  In each case the war in Ukraine has come up, and in each case I was astounded to find out how little everyone understood about the war, the implications of the war for the world, and the history of Russia, to say nothing of their knowledge of modern hybrid warfare, disinformation, propaganda, narrative creation, and the use of history in modern conflicts. One neighbor even asked me what the flag on my hat meant- the blue and yellow Ukrainian flag. And let me say that these are what I would consider professional, successful, and “educated” people.

I suppose not everyone is like me, not everyone has been a student of history, obsessively so at times,  amongst other disciplines, for their entire lives. For context, I began “monitoring” the cold war at age 14, in 1979 with the USSR’s invasion of Afghanistan. I spent 10 years in the U.S. Army, from 1982-1992, with a mission centered on eastern Europe and Warsaw Pact countries. That is where I began.  I like to believe I have some background to support my statements.

Perception management is a phrase which encompasses the modern use of propaganda, disinformation, historical revisionism, and narrative creation- essentially a monumental form of behavioral engineering. Russia is expert in the field. Not that our country is far behind- take the Trump debacle for example- yes, debacle, to put it very kindly- same tactics, same targets, same goals.

Perception management is easily done in our modern society- the internet and social media, along with modern advertising and management concepts are perfect tools.  The need for instantaneous media updates are practically wired into our brains at this point- I suspect most people sleep with their hands instinctively outstretched to their nightstand where their phone sits.  They are ready as their eyes open for the latest bit of news/emotion forced upon them by “news” sources.  And then, to complicate matters, they are stuck in information bubbles, feedback loops where one is only exposed to information conforming to that which they already search for, read, and know about.

News sources– most of what passes for such, especially in the U.S. (Fox, Breitbart, Newsmax, Washington Post, CNN, Apple, MSNBC- any source which corners a person into a box and keeps them there) and decidedly so in authoritarian societies such as Russia where they are all state controlled- and controlled down to the word, are presenting nothing short of modified entertainment,  brief hyperstimulating video and soundbites to capture the average person’s few seconds of attention. They are pandering to base emotions, attempting in the shortest possible time frame to capture attention, elicit a response based on their government/corporate/personal agenda, and then as a bonus to focus attention on a clickable link to sell a product or service. Welcome to “news” in the 21st century.

How to counter it all?  Be informed. Read as many news sources as you can. Find the same report across a number of channels and platforms, from extreme left to extreme right if you have the time and inclination.  Then arrive at your own conclusions based on discretion and critical thinking.  For reference, here are some of the sources I regularly turn to, and use to cross-check and cross-reference a report that I find questionable: Ukrinform (Ukrainian news source), BBC, Aljazeera, Brookings Institute, Foreign Affairs, Diplomatic Courier, RFE/RL, TOLO (Afghan news service), Balkan Insight, the Economist, and Financial Times. If you search any of these sources on a site such as mediabias/factcheck.com you will find them in the center of the scale, with high marks for accurate and unbiased reporting.

As a final note- and then my rant for the day will end- if we are not informed, we will fall. To paraphrase Ray Bradbury from an interview in the 40th anniversary edition of Fahrenheit 451 in my library, if the world collapsed, the only buildings we would need to survive are a hospital to treat the injured, and a library where all knowledge we need to rebuild is held.  Knowledge is power, and ignorance will be our death.

Ignorance  continues to lead to the death of many, many Russian sons, fathers, brothers, and uncles:

 

Russian combat losses as of 04 May 2022- continuing to grow.

Lies, Losses, and the Long Road Ahead

I often wonder these days if I should even make the effort to repost and refute Russian propaganda lies. One thing should be perfectly clear, for anyone who has eyes to see- every single word, phrase, statement that comes out of Russia is a lie, pure propaganda, and should only be taken for its value as a piece of propaganda to be added to all the rest in order to arrive at some shred of truth (most often the exact opposite of what is being stated.)

Remember this- dictatorships, authoritarian and totalitarian regimes, and the Russian mafia state all have a common leadership style- that of maintaining an unstable society, a society of division and shortages,  through terror and fear, in order to legitimise and necessitate their rule.

Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine, their war crimes and crimes against humanity there, there inciting of anti-state, pro-Russian aggression in Ukraine and Moldova, and their desires in Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia and elsewhere, along with their threats of nuclear war should be keeping the world awake at night. These facts should be prompting world leaders to do much more than they are doing. We are faced with an existential threat- our very lives are at stake.  The lives of everyone living, and for many generations ahead, hang in the balance. Every possible action that can be taken against Russia, Russian interests, Russian partners- any country with ties to Russia must be taken.

Putin must fall, the Russian state must fail, the Russian people must be freed. Only then will Ukraine and the rest of the world be safe again.

On to Russian combat losses for today. The following comes from the Telegram channel The Center for Countering Disinformation.

Russian combat losses as of 30 April 2022

From the same Telegram channel, the morning’s Fake/Fact post:

❌Despite the position of Western countries on the inadmissibility of nuclear blackmail and the prevention of nuclear war, russian foreign minister lavrov said that russia will never flirt with the topic of nuclear war, Zelensky spoke about it in Munich
🔻Caution: it’s a fake!

❌russia’s propaganda continues to spread the thesis of the return of peaceful life in the territories temporarily occupied by the russian army. Thus, the russian ambassador to the US officially stated that a peaceful life is being established in the territories liberated from the Nazis
🔻Caution: it’s a disinformation!

❌russia continues to influence the world community. In particular, in an interview with the Chinese news agency Xinhua, Lavrov said that the russian military in Ukraine does everything to avoid casualties among the civilian population
🔻Caution: it’s a manipulation!

Food For Thought: Divided…

Damned liberals. Stinking conservatives. Republicans versus democrats. Leftists and rightists, revolutionaries and reactionaries.
So many words to describe people who have one common purpose: to survive and thrive, live free and in peace.

But the words do the work they were intended to do, having one end, to divide and conquer.

The phrase is attributed to Phillip of Macedonia around 350BC.  Read more about the phrase’s political implications, those who have cited it, and those who used the concept on the Divide and Conquer Wikipedia page. Then, apply what you have read the next time the media feeds you it’s propaganda.