this post was submitted on 24 Sep 2023
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It's been pretty surreal to watch this unfold over the past year and a half. Every single prediction the west made about the direction of the war was proven to be completely wrong. Russian economy did not collapse, Russian military isn't falling apart, Russia isn't running out of weapons. Western weapons aren't game changers, stingers, HIMARS, tanks, and missiles that the west sent were all proven to be useless in changing the direction of the war.
Yet, as we see in this thread, plenty of people in the west are refusing to do any reflection on the fact that the narrative we're being sold is demonstrably false. They just latch on to whatever new hopium story western media puts out and just keep doubling down.
I understand that in every war there is propaganda on both sides in order to keep the morale high for the ones fighting. However there seems to be the case that the ones that make policy and push the propaganda fall victims of it and are being deluded into bad strategic decisions.
Right, we have a very narrow window of accepted viewpoints right now, and anybody who voices points that that don't fit with the narrative ends up being sidelined. This creates an echo chamber where people just repeat the same talking points to each other even if they don't agree with them because saying anything contrary would be career ending. A great example of this is how people like Jeffrey Sachs and John Mearsheimer are now only found on substack and random youtube channels. It's impossible to make sound decisions without honest debate and without accepting facts as they actually are as opposed to as you want them to be.
It's deeply ironic that the west prides itself on diversity of opinions that are considered. This is supposed to be one of the core strengths of the western system compared to "authoritarian" regimes like China. The reality turns out to be quite different.
And then we go ahead and criticize the Chinese for being authoritarian. People have not yet realized that democracy has diminished and that their so called rights are an illusion. So much for the west spreading "freedom and democracy"