Someone believing either the 2016 or 2020 US elections were “stolen” in any meaningful sense of the word would be under a similar level of propaganda to someone thinking that the Russian invasion is to stop Ukrainians killing each other, yes.

Come on man. His is an example of real life “if gold rusts, what then of iron?”

If people with a free press believe propaganda and lies, what do you expect of people who only have a state-run propaganda machine?

>what do you expect of people who only have a state-run propaganda machine?

This is your error. They don't "only" have state-run propaganda, and these aren't a backwards, brainwashed, uneducated people.

Independent news sources are rare in Russia, especially with the recent law making "misinformation" a jailable offense with up to 15 years jail time. I'm not saying there isn't any other news sources, but it legitimately seems like you have to go well out of your way to find them. How many Americans are digging into different news sources to see if the narrative on Ukraine is true or if it's all a western farce? Just the same many Russians aren't double checking the narrative they're being fed

Your last point I agree with: not many.

I'm not in Russia, obviously, but from what I can gather from social media, although outside media is "banned", it's still easy enough to find. Similarly to how easy I can still find RT (or worse).

Straw man. I said no such thing. Please respond to the text I actually wrote.

I literally quoted you, and responded to it. Here it is again:

"A significant proportion of Americans believe the 2020 election was fraudulently stolen. And that’s with free press in America. Not at all hard to believe that a significant proportion of Russian people believe this lie."

Believing in election fraud and believing that a population are coincidentally killing themselves during a military incursion are not remotely analogous.

Again, that’s not an argument I’ve made. Please respond to what I’ve written, not an imaginary argument you’ve decided to defeat.

Hey, here's an idea: how about you actually clarify your point then, instead of repeating "that's not my argument".

But for fun, once again, your statement appears to be: "if Americans can believe the 2020 election was stolen (the first sentence), then it's not a stretch to think Russians will believe the Ukrainians are killing themselves (the third sentence)."

It's right there for everyone to read. So what are you actually arguing?

Yes, they can be pretty much the same. There have been suicidal warriors in the past, it's not really that absurd. Propaganda could say they are killing themselves to make Russia look bad.

I remember a very suspicious suicide in Argentina, and how some media were theorizing that he killed himself to make the government look bad.

>There have been suicidal warriors in the past, it's not really that absurd.

You believe that the Russians believe this about the Ukrainians? A people with whom they share much culture?

>Propaganda could say they are killing themselves to make Russia look bad.

Yeah, it could say anything. How about demonstrating it does say?