Victims of Their Own Propaganda

“They [Russians] are victims of their own propaganda. I found a formula how the Russian [propaganda] really works. First he writes some crazy theories. Then they put this on TV. Then they watch their own TV and start to believe it. It’s like a cycle. It’s like it’s real. And when we’re talking to these people [Russian government negotiators sent to Istanbul in March 2022 to negotiate Ukraine’s surrender] they really believe that we [Ukraine] is full of Nazis killing people on the streets. 150 million people living in this country [Russia] and they are watching this TV and believing this thing.”

Source: Pensees (105)

Ukraine’s chief negotiator in the March 2022 Istanbul peace talks describes the paradox of troll-feedback: the trolls consume their own creators. The cycle — write crazy theory, broadcast, watch, believe — is the mechanism by which trolling becomes self-reinforcing.

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