Where have I heard this before?
Chapter IV
Recurring narratives
Storylines that propaganda campaigns recycle again and again.
- ‘Brussels dictates and controls you’ The story that the EU is an unelected dictatorship ruling over you, which hides that your own elected government sits at the table and usually voted yes.
- ‘Sanctions only hurt you’ The claim that Western sanctions on Russia are pure self-harm (Europe suffers, Russia thrives), which mixes real costs with a story built to make you give up.
- ‘The decadent West’ The story that Western societies are rotting from the inside (morally, sexually, spiritually), so that a strong hand and ‘traditional values’ look like the only cure.
- Energy crisis blame-shifting Blaming the 2022 energy price shock entirely on sanctions or ‘green policies’, while leaving out the supplier that turned down the gas, and the war it started.
- ‘Peace’ messaging that means capitulation Using the word ‘peace’ for a demand that one side simply gives up, and ‘war party’ for anyone who asks on what terms, so the question of terms is never asked.
- Migration fearmongering Inflated numbers, crime stories without base rates, ‘invasion’ language and recycled photos, turning a debatable policy question into a permanent state of fear.
- ‘Nothing is true, everyone lies’ Propaganda that does not need you to believe anything, only to conclude that everything is propaganda, so nothing can be checked and nobody bothers to act.