“Aggressive” majority does not exist

Russian propaganda spreads the myth of broad support for Russia's aggressive actions, and a lot of money is coming from the budget. It creates the illusion that the Kremlin's policy has many supporters among Russian citizens. Is it so?

What kind of phenomenon is it that triggers a conformist transfer and pushes people to make decisions that do not meet their interests. There is a real world in which people live. In 2016, per capita income in Russia was $ 26,100. If we discard the 5 positions of the richest and poorest people, the real per capita income for the majority of Russian citizens will be 4000 - 6000 US dollars.

This is the existence on the border of the poverty line, when you have to save not only on clothes, but also on food. Needless to say, real life in the physical space to meet the needs pushes people to solve quite complex tasks. So there are many interests of the most diverse groups of the population.

Realization of one's interests is the paramount task of every person, takes his time and captures the space of understanding. Thanks to the development of communications, people are constrained by the information space and here the real problem begins, the collapse between physical reality, the space of understanding, people's interests and fictitious spaces imposed by the multimedia factories.

The Internet with a lot of social networks involuntarily creates a space of a soap bubble around a person. Google in the search for information analyzes the past requests of the person and puts it exactly those pages of sites that used to interest him.

Social networks, thanks to functions that allow sending unwanted friends to a ban, create closed spaces and friends who share exactly your point of view. It not only captures your understanding space by forcing out all possible alternatives, but it also turns your social circle into a kind of sect worshiping your idols. While these fictitious spaces are localized and tolerant of other similar dreams, it does not create any special problems in the social space.

On the contrary, there is a multiple effect. First, a person finds himself in a friendly and comfortable world, protected from grave concerns. Still, it is much more pleasant to live in it than in the world of a continuous catastrophe and an endless end of the world. Secondly, the effect of human participation in communities is formed - this is the basis of civic engagement.

The first effect allows to smooth out acute angles, thanks to which there is trust and opportunity to realize interests of different groups between people thanks to consensus.

The second effect creates the foundation of civil society. But the problem begins when mass media are invading this beautiful scheme of human life. If they are independent, group interests are highlighted by television cameras and fall into the political space for their decision. If mass media are in a dependent position, as, for example, in Russia, then they begin to fulfill the destructive function of creating fictitious spaces that do not correspond to the real interests of different groups of citizens.

A typical example is the militaristic propaganda in Russia, it affects the lowest layers of human souls. Television programs, movies, songs explain that Russia is in the ring of enemies who want to seize its resources, especially dishes from the sideboard and potatoes from the cellar.

Therefore, it is necessary to unite around the national leader, to endure hardships and distress for the sake of military expenditures, otherwise NATO troops will come and it will be even worse. For the war, the ideal of sacrifice is formed. A person is born in Russia not free, but with a duty to protect the Motherland, which is understood by the Kremlin and its celestials.

And in the process of implementing the sacred debt, one must perish. I must say that this ideology was planted for a long time in the Soviet Union during the reign of Stalin and it had a rather tough correlation with reality.If we live in civilian life in the Soviet Union, this means constant hunger until death threat or death in Stalin's camp, where it was possible to go on the order of unreasonable work in the great construction of communism.

In this case, the service in the Soviet Army meant eating enough and reducing the threat of getting into the camp, at least so many believed. Therefore, militaristic propaganda had a wide success for the population and many aspired to the army. Another thing is modern Russia.

If earlier the majority of citizens sweeter than carrots did not try anything, then after the collapse of the iron curtain civilized goods conquered the hearts of Russian citizens. Nobody wants to die for Uncle Vova and his company. The consumer society has its own interests. This is a long, safe life in an environmentally friendly environment, eating a healthy diet, European education for children.

So militaristic and other propaganda came into conflict with the real interests of citizens. Propaganda triggers a conformist transfer. My circle of communication is engulfed in various ideas. Each of which tends to expand and spread as many goals as possible.

I communicate with neighbors, friends in social networks and through this interaction the idea is gaining strength and replacing competitors. The one that first began to hibernate the information space, wins by the principle of coverage all-all-all. And now the artificial implantation of the fiction of militarism begins.

I watch Facebook, there are people with George ribbons in the clothes of the Second World War, their children in wheelchairs in the form of tanks. I turn on the TV - there is a military parade there, they tell me that the armor is strong and our tanks are fast. In social networks, the Kremlin trolls are massively condemning those people who are against the war in Syria and in the east of Ukraine.

So a conformist transmission is formed, it leads to the organization of an imaginary reality, which is in contradiction with my interests. Propaganda says that I should prepare my child for death in the war, and he himself must also perish.

And I want my child to live in peace, get a brilliant education, create a happy family. Bitten into the head by militaristic propaganda and embraced by conformist transmission, people organize excesses throughout the country.

The story with the kindergarten No. 68 of the city of Nizhnevartovsk rang out, where the vocal group "Do-mi-sol-ka" sang the song of Vyacheslav Antonov "Uncle Vova, we are with you". In which it is said that it is necessary to capture Alaska and perish for Uncle Vova.

Alexandra Terikova published information about militaristic propaganda among young children in the Instagram, after which the information spread over social networks and a scandal began. In an interview with Radio Liberty, she said:

"I'm not good at this - otherwise I would not. This is Putinin, in my opinion. First, all these sectarian songs about the current president and "krymnash" - evil in the bud. They do not compose from a great mind, and one has to be completely foolish enough to broadcast this further. But some teachers and parents believe that this is very nice. I would not send my child and myself would not go to the last fight for "Uncle Vova", nor for any other uncle in power. The words of the song can be interpreted both as a call to suicide, and as Putin's identification with the homeland, which in general contradicts even nominal democracy in our country. Secondly, children do not understand what they are singing about. My daughter later sang "the hippopotamus got it," because he has no idea in four years about what a hegemon is. And certainly not fumbles in what is in the European Union. Our director of the department of education recommended the head of the song about the sun and palms, and not about squeezing Alaska from the United States. "

This story suggests that the aggressive majority in Russia supporting Putin is a lie, a squeeze out of a fictitious, non-existent information space created by Kremlin propagandists and trolls.

Cartoons of Vasya Lozhkina