It’s not real, even when it is: Understanding The Great Brainwash

Why does Putin’s Russia have such a warped worldview?

Two plus two equals five.

— 1984, George Orwell

The Old Lie: Gloriosum est iacere in proelio

Have you ever had someone lie to your face? An obvious, ridiculous lie that left you unable to hide the incredulity, if not laughter, at the idea you might have believed them? A lie that was so false, it was almost never supposed to be believed in the first place? A lie that was always meant as a worldview, instead of a statement? That kind of lie. Let’s talk about that lie. A distinctly Russian lie.

The massive warship filmed in your sovereign waters? Never existed. Those two spies caught poisoning an expat? Merely a daytrip to Salisbury. The extensive evidence of election interference? A misunderstanding. A whole war? You’re mistaken.

It’s insulting to be confronted with such brazen denial, and such ridiculous stories. Of course the woman covered in blood outside a bombed hospital isn’t an actor. Of course the mass Ukrainian graves filled with civilian bodies aren’t stolen bodies from morgues. Of course there wasn’t a Russian holocaust in Ukraine that mysteriously has no recorded victims and no…