GarryB Tue Aug 14, 2012 8:48 am
The real problem is that many people have been brought up on Disney movies that tell them that the little tweety bird can run rings around the putty tat, or that the cute bunny wabbit can outwit and outsmart a hunter.
In other words they are brought up with stories about how good wins over evil and good things happen to people who do good things. The bad guy wears a black hat and the good guy wears white.
Then when they are old enough to learn about weapons they watch programs on Discovery and the History Channel which are very shallow and not well researched. At first I thought they were biased but I have seen a documentary about the Akula class (NATO codename Typhoon) where it was claimed it was the quietest sub in the world. Now I like Soviet and Russian subs, and there is an enormous double hull design with plenty of space for sound damping material in the Akula, I don't think anyone other that someone who serves on that vessel would say that, so I really think the claims that this, that, or the other piece of kit "is the best in the world" is just the documentary makers listening to the users and not having any knowledge or research on the subject themselves.
Personally I think the biased beliefs of the Russians and Soviets (the start is calling Russians Soviets and Soviets Russians... which is akin to calling Mexicans or Canadians Americans, or Scottish, Welsh, or Irish people English because British means English) came from the imposed isolation with communism. This was amplified and exacerbated by WWII where the west had very little idea at the time what happened on the eastern front during the war. Most westerners believed the Polikarpov I-16 was based on an American fighter, that it was pure numbers that kept the Soviets going and it was lend lease that saved their bacon. The main problem for the west was that western europe was occupied relatively quickly and at the time Britains greatest victory was an evacuation at Dunkirk, but they consider the retreat of the Soviets to be evidence of their backwardness and lack of preparation.
In terms of western understanding of what happened on the eastern front then took a turn for the worst because at the end of the war when the west might learn more about the struggles and sacrifice of the Soviets the interests changed. There is talk of the allies, but really the only thing in common between the Soviets and the rest (which included Poland) was the destruction of Hitler... once that issue was dealt with each side found they had little in common and we pretty much know what happened next. For the next 50 odd years of the cold war information in the west about the eastern front came from the West Germans... not the best source of accurate information really, but it was all they had. They were hardly going to offend their new allies by ignoring what they said, and they were hardly going to give credit to their new enemies, so lend lease, strategic bombing and D-Day won the war in Europe, and boy were the Soviets bad fighters who don't care about their soldiers and just continued frontal blind assaults on MG positions.
The cold war was not a military conflict, though there was a lot of hot aspects to it... it was a propaganda war... a marketing war, and the main reason they won was because the "other side" knew they were being lied to and didn't believe their governments. In the west however while most westerners like to pretend to be well informed, the vast majority will say they don't trust their own politicians and they know that their own politicians tell lies, but if you present them with a situation... say the invasion of South Ossetia... most westerners will believe the western/georgian version that it was really a Russian invasion that the heroic georgians managed to stop.
It seems Putins powers have no limits... he can poison people with pollonium in London from Moscow... because while most westerners know politiicans lie they actually believe their media roots out the truth so if the politicians were lying that the media would find out and expose them. The problem is that modern media outlets are controlled by rich powerful people. People who owe their wealth and power to the existing system... and the people behind the scenes. They don't want any radical changes to the system that made them rich... they like it just the way it is.
BTW the average person can think Soviet and Russian tanks are rubbish. They can also believe in macro economics and any religion they want. Don't think you can change their minds... don't think you need to.
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