It's a modern problem in a lot of places, but especially in America that what people see on TV and social media is reality to them - which is heavily distorted. It will have to start reaching their own paychecks in order to have an impact. There are rumors that the administration will stop making Social Security payments, let's see how that goes.
I think what we are seeing in Europe since the invasion of Ukraine, and even more since the end of last year, is similar. People are fed relentless propaganda by the media and are buying it with no question asked.
We've always had a media problem, especially from the Murdoch media and Berlusconi's TV station, but the support for Ukraine is about as organic as it gets when dealing with international events.
On the contrary, everything we have seen and are seeing is neither organic nor caused by "right-wing" media ("left-wing" are no less problematic). It is organised and deeply so. The power ond effectiveness of the shaping of public opinion shows when people think they have not been influenced.
I'm consuming a lot of "quality journalism" in three languages from many countries, including the USA, much of it on paper. They have in common that they report things that move the world. But there is no shared narrative, no planned coordination and no organisation. Many of them are on different sides of the aisle, and yet they all talk about the same stuff, albeit from different perspectives.
when all of the sudden europe is flood by ukrainian women leaving their husbands in the country to fight a country under bombs, you don’t really need media to provide you with a particular point of view. Reality and personal testimonies are far more than enough.
Europe was not "flooded" by anything and I see as many Ukrainian men as women here (it's illegal for men to leave Ukraine)... Although most of Ukraine has not seen combat, so effectively they are migrants who prefer to be in Europe than in Ukraine. The UK government even actually paid people to lodge Ukrainians for some reason...
This is what I am saying: superficial emotional reactions played by well-crafted propaganda and people confuse that with "reality".
