The ghost of Kyiv was recognized as a myth at the time of it's spread. The Snake Island story is understandable. Every country makes mistakes about KIA vs. MIA.
I was not very clear, but I meant Ukrainian intelligence services claiming operational success where there was none. It's also interesting that this Wikipedia entry appears devoid of UA false propaganda after 2022. I wonder if they realized that this was not a good Wiki entry on which to appear.
it is worth something if it's recognized as a myth by official sources at the time, but it doesn't change that social media (reddit) was absolutely jammed full of stuff about it, presenting it as factual, and has led probably millions of people to believe it was real. and even beyond the posts that were explicitly about it, comment sections continued to refer to it in serious ways. my whole point is there is a concerted effort to spread it as an "us vs them" narrative, with ukraine being the "us" part (as an american).
what i ultimately care about is manipulation, because manipulation and disinformation erode democracy, and it's overwhelmingly done by the rich and powerful and at the expense of the working class. there are endless billions of dollars getting funneled into the military industrial complex around ukraine, and the more americans align with ukraine, and the more americans can feel invested and interested in the war in happy-feel-good-ways (like having heroes and "fuck russia" moments) the more americans are okay with their tax dollars getting spent this way. whatever machinery is at play here has very successfully captured the support of a massive part of the American left, and the same people you see protesting about the environment are the same people you see waiving ukraine flags and being manipulated into suddenly being pro-war despite being against things like the war in iraq.
billionaires continue to make their billions, people continue to believe what they read on reddit and watch on corporate news, and the narrative is always things that aren't class consciousness.
The billionaires appear to be more pro-Russia, as that is where more billions lay.
Look at the oligarch paper of record, the grey lady. Just last week, they claimed that the Western-most, and safest Ukraininian city, Lviv, was too unsafe. They instead chose to embed that reporter with russian troops, in Kursk, and described it as "A Landscape of Death: Where Ukraine invaded."
It is insane, and utterly disconnect from reality. Do you know who uses blanket artillery barrages on villages? Russia. Even if Ukraine wanted to do that, they don't have the shells to spare. Russia has a well known documented history of not giving a flying f about the lives of its own people. This was just another example, and NYT laid it on "Where Ukraine invaded."
I honestly have a hard time believing that this is a NYT headline, and story. This is "WMD in Iraq" levels of NYT journalistic malpractice. This is true manipulation. The aggressor is the victim. Up is down. Who cares about Reddit comments. Decision makers read this crap in the NYT!
billionaires are pro-USA because the billions of dollars we're "giving to ukraine" is actually billions of dollars going to private american companies that sell services and equipment to the US government that are then handed over to ukraine.
i agree that russia is definitely the bad guy here, and i agree russia is much worse about fake news
I was not very clear, but I meant Ukrainian intelligence services claiming operational success where there was none. It's also interesting that this Wikipedia entry appears devoid of UA false propaganda after 2022. I wonder if they realized that this was not a good Wiki entry on which to appear.