Ukraine ~ Discerning a Measure of Truth

Posted on by medusian

What is propaganda?

  • Information, ideas, opinions, or images, often only giving one part of an argument, that are broadcast, published, or in some other way spread with the intention of influencing people’s opinions (Cambridge Dictionary/CD).
  • Information or ideas that are spread by an organized group or government to influence people’s opinions, esp. by not giving all the facts or by secretly emphasizing only one way of looking at the facts (CD).
  • Information, ideas, opinions, or images that give one part of an argument, which are broadcast, published, etc. in order to influence people’s opinions (CD).
  • The spreading of ideas, information, or rumour for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, a cause, or a person. Propaganda, in other words, is [usually emotionally] manipulative persuasion in the service of an agenda. The word itself doesn’t imply truth or falsehood in the content or pass judgment on the agenda (Websters Dictionary).

What is mis-information (or disinformation)?

  • Wrong/false information spread with the intention to deceive.

What is a narrative?

  • A story or a description of a series of events.
  • A particular way of explaining or understanding events.

What is perspective?

  • A particular way of considering something.

What is context?

  • The situation within which something exists or happens, and that can help explain it.
  • The influences and events related to a particular event or situation.

What is a fact?

  • Something that is known to have happened or to exist, especially something for which proof exists, or about which there is information.

What is truth?

  • The actual fact or facts about a matter.
  • The quality of being true.

There are also some hints as to whether a particular narrative (for example) is most likely propaganda; where it contains…

  • Name-calling or negative labelling. Intended to diminish a person. Putin-stooge. Fascist.
  • Generalisation. Avoiding factual specificity.
  • Reflected negative/positive association. The conference of rightness or wrongness gifted through association. Also testimonials from significant individuals.
  • Calls to tribalism; pressure to conform and join the herd.

I believe that factual truth is the most effective antidote to propaganda.

A propagandist, I would argue, seeks to control the narrative, facts (evidence) and truth. This is done primarily through censorship and denial of access to facts, unless they fit the desired narrative. Without facts, evidence and truth, a desired narrative can easily achieve and maintain dominance.

In this regard it should be noted that official Russian media organisations have been banned by government dictat in the west. TV Channels such as Sputnik and Russia Today are unavailable in the UK (where I live) and have been removed from satellite and Freeview packages (where they were available before February 2022), removed from online platforms (YouTube, Facebook, Twitter etc) and IP-blocked by certain ISPs.

They have been censored. Silenced. As a result, my government and national media outlets have neutered my ability to determine, for myself, truth. Such state actions are – self-evidently – not in my interest; they are not the actions of a democratic state governing a free country.

I am, clearly, not free.

Most of the standard online editions of Russian print-media outlets have also been removed from view and search-results. It is possible to circumvent such restrictions but some internet-savvy and persistence is required. Unfortunately, most people simply think Russian media in entirety is ‘propaganda’ so are content not to bother themselves with trying to access such Putin-stoogedom and (shamefully, I think) think it only proper that such outlets be banned.

Conversely, Russia has not banned a single western broadcast media outlet, though it did block certain outlets (such as the BBC, Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and Deutsche Welle) with regard to their online content (actually as a retaliatory move following US/EU/UK bans against Russian media). To which the BBC responded…

“Access to accurate, independent information is a fundamental human right which should not be denied to the people of Russia, millions of whom rely on BBC News every week.”

Pot. Kettle. Double-standards. Hypocrisy. Besides, since when has the BBC been ‘independent’ let alone a reliable arbiter of ‘accuracy?’

Bad advice. Good advice.

An easy ‘spot’ as to a propagandist is to remember that no propagandist would ever advise that you ascertain your own facts, or seek the truth from any perspective or narrative but theirs. Russia Today (for example) exhorts its audience to do just that, as do all independent journalists reporting from behind the Russian lines.

Speaking of ‘independent journalists’ these often fall foul of name-calling. Russian propagandist being a favourite. Putin-stooge and Putin-mouthpiece are also popular. The work of such people is always – always – denounced as misinformation or disinformation.

Patrick Lancaster is such an independent journalist (from the US); he trundles around in a most un-BBC-manner, behind the Russian lines, talking (in the vast main) to civilians in the Donbass and uploading, usually unedited, their responses to his Telegram and YouTube channels. Patrick has been de-monetised by YouTube and denounced, as per usual. Of course. Yet the civilians that he talks to should be heard and their experiences and opinions given as much weight as those behind the Ukrainian lines (the sole preserve of western media outlets), surely.

When the western narrative insisted that Russia was blocking all civilian evacuation from Mariupol (for example), Patrick’s video evidence of hundreds of cars and buses leaving Mariupol heading for Russia provided factual proof against such falsity; he hadn’t intended to document the evacuation, or the provision of free fuel from the Russians, or the manner and scale of the evacuation as he was merely journeying towards Mariupol to talk to the civilians there. But document he did. Mis-information? Dis-information? Russian propaganda? Putin-stooge? Really?

And consider Eva Bartlett, an independent journalist (from Canada) who has been reporting from behind the lines in Syria and Ukraine for many years (Telegram, YouTube, Twitter) and who has been denounced by media outlets in her own country and added to a Ukrainian website known as the Myrotvorets hitlist, alongside Roger Waters (Pink Floyd), Tulsi Gabbard (US ex-Congresswoman) and Darya Dugina (a completely innocent woman who was murdered by a Ukrainian bomb in Moscow on the 20th August 2022 and whose hitlist entry was rewarded with a ‘LIQUIDATED‘ sticker). The sinister Myrotvorets hitlist is a record of anyone that has caused displeasure or thrown shade on Ukraine and is – clearly – entirely consistent with the ‘European Values’ ascribed to Ukraine by the (unelected) President of the European Union, Ursula von der Leyen.

Eva’s continued reporting from Donetsk provides an account that is harrowing and entirely missing in the reporting of western media, and her visit to Mariupol on April 24th 2022 disproved vociferous claims made in western media (such as the BBC) of ‘up to 9,000 civilians secretly buried in mass graves’ close to the city; she visited the site, recorded her visit, and talked to local (somewhat nonplussed) gravediggers. No mass graves.

EDIT: And again HERE, when claims of ‘mass graves’ resurfaced more recently.

There are other independent journalists from many countries, and reporters from Russian media outlets, too… all of whom are providing counterpoint to the dominant narrative that saturates we westerners.

For anyone seeking truth, they are invaluable.

Who is responsible for determining truth?

In my opinion, it is the ultimate responsibility of the individual to ascertain facts and determine truth; the greater the issue, the greater that responsibility. If you choose to rely on a source, or place faith (and belief) in a particular narrative, then it is vital that you have determined the trustworthiness of that source and the fidelity of that narrative. Failure to do this leaves you at the mercy of propagandists.

You may think the opinion you hold is yours… but it isn’t; it’s a view formulated by others and into which you have been coerced and manipulated. If you believe that you hold opinions based on truth and fact… question the fidelity of those facts and the reality of that truth.

Determining the trustworthiness of a source or the fidelity of a narrative does not have to be a lengthy process of study but it does take some time, and skill at appraisal.

Take a source (the BBC, for example), note factual claims made on an event, then compare those claims against those made by an ‘opposing’ source (Russia Today, for example). Evaluate the evidence given by both sources (and as many others as you can find) and determine which one is the most credible. Be sceptical but not closed-minded. If the BBC source proves to be factually-based (photographs, video etc) and the least reliant on ‘interpretation’ or ‘opinion’ then give the BBC a point. Do this regularly across a number of claims; eventually you will have determined a tally that illustrates the factual accuracy, and thus the reliability and fidelity of the BBC.

If the tally goes in favour of Russia Today, then objectivity demands that you might ‘trust’ them more than the BBC.

What does this mean in practice? Example please!

If, parroting purely Ukrainian sources, the BBC claimed that the Russians sent a Tochka-U missile to the city of Kramatorsk, where it exploded at a railway station filled with evacuating civilians, killing over 50 and injuring around 100 and it became clear, from an examination of the evidence, that this claim was either weak, doubtful or positively untenable, would you continue to believe the BBC account?

Would you steadfastly refuse to countenance that Ukraine would send a missile to kill ‘their own civilians,’ despite the documented fact that this was exactly what they had been doing for eight years, and despite that Kramatorsk is predominantly a Russian-supporting town from which many (not all) evacuees at the railway station were ‘desperate to flee heavy Russian shelling across the wider Donetsk region‘ (sneaky wording this… as Russia hadn’t once shelled Kramatorsk itself) by escaping towards Russian-controlled territory?

Or would this claim result in a tally-minus for both the ‘official Ukrainian sources’ and the BBC? Perhaps?

As an aside, a similar ‘atrocity’ occurred on September 30th 2022 when ‘the Russians launched S300 missiles at a civilian convoy leaving Ukrainian-controlled Zaporizhzhia heading for Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia,‘ hours before Russia formally accepted that region into the Russian Federation following the results of a referendum the week before.

According to the official Ukrainian account (uncritically parroted – again – by the BBC), the civilians were attempting to ‘bring vital humanitarian aid‘ to their friends and family members in Kherson in the Russian-controlled zone… despite that their vehicles were crammed with personal belongings, children and grand-parents, and with no ‘humanitarian aid’ to be seen.

And that the Russian S300 platform is an air-defence (surface-to-air) system also utilised by Ukraine. ‘Western sources’ (of course) claim that as the Russians were ‘running out of ground-attack missiles‘ they had retrofitted their S300 missiles with a GPS system to allow a ground-attack role for their air-defence missiles… despite the documented fact that only the Ukrainians are known to have modified the S300 system in this way.

And that no evidence whatsoever has been presented by Ukraine or ‘western sources’ to base such claims on anything resembling a fact.

And that there is no indication that the Russians were (or are) running out of anything, let alone ground-attack missiles… as the mid-October and ongoing Russian missile blitz that has severely-damaged and degraded the power-generation capability of central/western Ukraine proves.

Edit (18th November 2022) :

On 15th November, two missiles crossed the Ukrainian border with Poland and hit a farm in Przewodow, killing two Polish citizens.

Official representatives from Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine placed the blame squarely with Russia and called for a NATO response. Western media outlets were clear that Russia was to blame and that an escalation had taken place. The imminent possibility of World War Three was again headline news.

Suffice it to say that over the following 48 hours, most of these somewhat gleeful and hysterical claims and calls for ‘action’ on behalf of NATO fell by the wayside as evidence gathered from the site indicated that the missiles were fired by a Ukrainian S300 ground to air system.

The same system and missiles that hit the civilian convoys in Zaporizhzhia, likewise blamed on the Russians. Curious.

Follow the evidence.

In reference to Ukraine there are a number of ‘opposing’ sources across a variety of media platforms. With regards to official sources, the UK Ministry of Defence, the Ukrainian Defence Ministry and the Defence Ministry of Russia are each accessible and thus comparable with regards to determinations of factual reliability, evidence provided for claims, and propaganda/narrative messaging.

If you choose not to make your own determination as to the trustworthiness of these official sources, then you are abrogating your own responsibility to determine truth and are reliant upon partisan narrative and propaganda. I would advise keeping a weather eye on them all… and maintain your own tallies.

Ask yourself whether you are wise to believe the official pronouncements of the US White House, or Westminster, or Brussels… or Kiev… but dismiss those of the Kremlin as ‘propaganda.’

Dig deeper. Avoid echo-chambers.

So let’s consider a specific event in a little more detail…

Bucha.

Russian troops left Bucha on 30th March 2022. Subsequent claims were made of ‘horrors,’ ‘atrocities,’ ‘war crimes,’ ‘genocide’ and ‘crimes against humanity’ perpetrated by Russian troops against the civilians of Bucha. These claims were immediately and widely made across all western media and have remained largely unquestioned ever since. If you are an individual that believes Russian troops massacred, tortured and murdered Ukrainian civilians in Bucha, I can only assume that you simply haven’t looked… as the facts regarding the events of Bucha are factually-incontrovertible.

Ukrainian civilians died in Bucha, of that there is no doubt. At the time period in question the town was in an active war-zone, after all. But the vast majority died at the hands of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, either as a result of Ukrainian artillery shelling or murdered as a result of a subsequent ‘cleansing’ operation undertaken by Ukrainian forces (including AZOV) following the Russian withdrawal from the town.

The western narrative of Russian complicity in atrocity in Bucha is simply untrue; it is propaganda.

So you say but what of the evidence?

Rather than repeat the work of others, I would point you to the following links.

… there are a number of other reports regarding Bucha published by the BBC and throughout western media; all stem from a similar perspective and from the same source: the Ukrainian Government. These are unrestricted by search engine algorithms which place the dominant narrative at the top of all search results. Conveniently. I have not included links to multiple articles/reports of this sort for this reason; they are easily accessible and easy to find. I would encourage you to acquaint yourself with them at your whim.

Once you have familiarised yourself as to this perspective… you should consider the alternative. This perspective is harder to find and does not readily appear on search results. You are more likely to find this perspective on non-censored platforms (YouTube, Google, Facebook and Twitter actively block and ban such perspectives).

It is worth noting that there are no independent media outlets in Ukraine. All internal media has been banned apart from the state-run UATV network and the state-aligned KIEV Independent (and affiliates).

All journalists are restricted and controlled in Ukraine; they are not allowed to travel freely, speak to military/civilian individuals without authorisation, nor report anything that might reflect negatively upon Ukraine. Foreign ‘journalists’ are bussed around in packs wherever the Ukrainian government requires them to go and their reports from those locations are vetted; minders provide the narrative and context and do not allow deviation. All of these media restrictions are official, having been enacted by the Ukrainian Parliament.

Those journalists failing to confirm to official Ukrainian Government restrictions face expulsion or ‘loss of accreditation’ as happened to reporters from CNN and Sky News. CNN accidentally broadcast footage showing a Ukrainian giving a Nazi salute in Kherson. Might have had something to do with it.

Below is an example of a photograph released across western media. It shows a devastated Russian armoured column having suffered under Ukrainian artillery while transiting Yablunska Street in Bucha (note the destruction of the area, including civilian houses; this was evidently a concentrated artillery/missile bombardment)…

Azov personnel filter through Bucha. April 1st 2022.

… and here’s the reality of the western media journalist pack in Bucha…

A very interesting and emotionally-profound cat. April 3rd 2022.

With regards to the realities of local Ukrainian citizens falling foul of the ‘cleansing operations’ of Ukrainian troops after having been accused of ‘collaboration’ see this (October 2022) article on the UK Daily Mail (HERE).

Remember that wearing a white armband, and/or accepting Russian humanitarian aid or military ration packs, is sufficient to be accused of ‘collaboration’ according to Ukrainian Government edicts.

Bucha : A conclusion. My opinion based on facts and evidence.

Russian troops entered Bucha on February 27th 2022 and left on March 28th-30th 2022.

There is video evidence of a Russian armoured personnel vehicle shooting and killing an innocent Ukrainian civilian during an operation where the Russian vehicle was clearly tasked with protecting the flank of friendly units positioned close by. This is a grossly unfortunate incident. However, I do not believe it is indicative of Russian policy or evidence of ‘genocide’ or is a ‘crime against humanity’; I believe it to be a terrible consequence of war where hand-held missiles are capable of destroying a tank, and is most-likely a case of inexcusable misidentification by the Russians in that vehicle.

This is the only clear evidence in Bucha of the death of a local Ukrainian civilian as a direct consequence of Russian military activity that I have seen (as of postdate).

It should also be noted that the distribution of arms and molotov cocktails to civilians by the Ukrainian authorities had already, publicly, taken place and that a number of incidents had occurred with Ukrainian civilians throwing molotovs at Russian vehicles and opening fire on Russian forces. With specific regard to Bucha, units of the Russian army had earlier advanced along Yablunksa street into an ambush (aftermath picture above) by Ukrainian regular forces and local civilian volunteers/militia (that had been manning a checkpoint on the street). Tensions were therefore high.

During the month or so that Bucha was occupied by Russian forces, the town was continually and heavily shelled by Ukrainian artillery, rocket and mortar units as well as missile and bomb attacks from the air. It was not a safe place to be.

The target of these attacks were not Ukrainian citizens but Russian military forces. However, a significant number of Ukrainian civilians were killed as a result of these Ukrainian attacks. Dated, cemetery grave-markers indicate this, as do the bulk of the corpses found on the streets.

Evidence of this shelling and of shrapnel damage is clear from all photographs and video of Bucha taken from this time. Anti-personnel artillery rounds were used by the Ukrainians and flechettes (small iron arrows) were found (during autopsy) in many of the bodies of Ukrainian civilians; corpses on Yablunska Street (and in the surrounding area) as well as those exhumed following burial. Video (drone) evidence of the intensity of this artillery shelling was released by the Ukrainians themselves.

The Ukrainians have claimed that a) flechette rounds are a violation of humanitarian law and that b) the Russians shelled themselves with those rounds, which also deliberately killed local civilians. This despite shell-markings and fire-angle analysis clearly pointing to Ukrainian responsibility.

With regard to the flechettes, there is no evidence whatsoever of any Russian unit using such ordnance elsewhere in Ukraine (which is not to say that the Russians do not utilise other forms of questionable anti-personnel munitions)… though there is plentiful and overwhelming evidence of flechette round use by Ukrainian forces in Donetsk, Kherson, Lysichansk and Mariupol (all civilian centres). The flechette ordnance is a Soviet-era design, abandoned by Russia in the mid-1990’s but remaining in the Ukrainian arsenal.

While in occupation of Bucha, Russian forces distributed aid to the locals; water and military rations. Photographs and video evidence shows this, in which the locals can be seen wearing white-armbands (as did the Russian troops themselves).

Given that Bucha is a suburb of Kiev, located in the central district of Ukraine, most of the locals would not be happy to see the Russians. Central and western districts (oblasts) of Ukraine are predominantly western-leaning, EU and NATO-supporting and vehemently anti-Russian. It is highly-unlikely that the local population of Bucha welcomed the Russian occupation presence in their town, assisted them or supported them in any way. I don’t believe that accepting rations and water is signal to ‘collaboration’ (rather than necessity) nor that wearing a white armband while out on the street (under these circumstances) is a symbol of anything other than an indication of a non-threatening posture.

According to Russian sources, the final act of the occupation units before retreating from Bucha was to leave behind their remaining ration packs. It should be noted that most of the corpses found with fresh wounds, some (though not all) with bound hands, were photographed with these Russian military ration packs in their possession or close by.

It should also be noted that none of the corpses killed from shelling show evidence of fresh wounds, nor of having hands tied.

Following the withdrawal of Russian forces on March 30th, the jubilant Mayor of Bucha released a video in which he failed to mention a single ‘atrocity’ by the Russians.

On 1st April, Ukrainian officials announced a ‘special purging operation’ in Bucha against saboteurs and ‘Russian military disguised as civilians.’ Alongside an AZOV regiment detachment, the ‘Special Forces SAFARI regiment’ entered Bucha. One of the Ukrainians involved in this cleansing/filtering/purging operation posted a video from that day which included the question ‘There are guys without blue ribbons (Ukrainian markings)… can I shoot them?’ to which the reply was ‘sure yeah.’

On 2nd April, photographs and video began to be released that showed the scale of the destruction on Bucha’s streets. The most widely-circulated was a drive through the main street by SAFARI forces. At this point it became clear that some of the corpses had hands tied, wore white armbands, were photographed with or near Russian military ration packs, and evidenced fresh and bloody wounds.

Other photographs and video of ‘torture chambers’ and ‘mass graves’ were released and western journalists bussed in to Bucha to report. And so the claims of ‘genocide’ etc began.

Russia demanded (five times) that a public and open UN session be convened to investigate the events of Bucha. These demands were denied by the UK (who had responsibility for such proceedings, at that time). Russia has consistently called for an independent investigation into these events be held. At present, the only investigation undertaken has been by Ukrainian officials. The cumulative ‘west’ accepts the conclusions of these Ukrainian accounts without question.

According to the Ukrainians and without exception, all of the dead civilians were killed by the Russians; either through ‘indiscriminate shelling with prohibited ordnance’ or torture, murder and execution.

EDIT : December 22nd 2022

A written/video report by the New York Times documenting their investigation into killings in Bucha has been published (YouTube – Online Text via WayBack Machine, as the original article is behind a paywall). It is compelling evidence of the illegal, unlawful and atrocious murder and execution of (39) Ukrainian militia and civilians by Russian soldiers (predominantly belonging to the 234th Guards Air Assault Regiment).

An independent investigation of these specific murders, alongside the cause of death of the further (approximately) 400 civilians killed in Bucha must be carried out. I would also expect an investigation by the Russian authorities of the evidence presented by the New York Times. In all cases, the guilty must be punished.

I should point out that while this investigation highlights compelling evidence with regards to a number of militia/civilians allegedly murdered by Russian soldiers, it does not concern itself with all of the civilian corpses documented along Yablunska Street (and elsewhere), including those with ‘fresh’ wounds that could only have been caused following the Russian withdrawal. Again, an independent investigation into the events in Bucha is vital to find those guilty of crimes, whether Russian or Ukrainian.

End EDIT.

Other Ukrainian/Western claims that a wise truth-seeker might seek to examine more closely (an inexhaustive list in semi-chronological order)…

  • Russia intended to turn Chernobyl into a Europe-wide nuclear catastrophe.
  • Russia intended to militarily capture Kiev. And invade Europe.
  • Russia held civilians as human shields in Yahidne.
  • Russia bombed the hospital and theatre in Mariupol. And executed civilians by sniper-fire. And denied them access to a humanitarian corridor by blowing up road access bridges.
  • Russia is planning a biological false flag bluff 3D chess event somewhere in Ukraine.
  • Russia is planning a chemical false flag bluff 3D chess event somewhere in Ukraine.
  • Russia is continually shelling the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (which contains Russian officials and is guarded by Russian troops) in order to trigger a catastrophic nuclear catastrophe.
  • Russia stole more than 2,000 artworks and Scythian gold from various museums and art galleries.
  • Russia stole more than 121,000 Ukrainian children and spirited them back to Russia.
  • Russia is blockading/stealing Ukrainian grain and fertiliser thus causing starvation in Africa.
  • Russia tortured and executed civilians in Izium.
  • Russia raped, tortured and executed women and children. Numerous claims.
  • Russia bombed its own Kersch Bridge over the strait between Russia and Crimea.
  • Russia blew up its own Nordstream gas pipeline.
  • Russia is ‘weaponising’ oil/gas/grain/aluminium/grain/fertiliser/energy (and anything else banned by western sanctions) and holding the EU hostage to the coming winter.
  • Russia regularly blows up its own facilities in Crimea and Belgorod.
  • Russia is planning a false flag bluff 3D chess escalatory radioactive dirty bomb (when it has the real thing x5977) event somewhere in Ukraine.
  • Russia destroyed the water pipeline to Mykolaiv, thus depriving citizens of water; a war crime and crime against all that is holy and legal (unlike the 8-year damming of the water supply system for Crimea by Ukraine, which was okekoke).

And the perennial chestnuts…

  • Putin is to blame for inflation, rising prices and food/fuel/energy shortages in the US, the UK, the EU… actually across the entire planet…. and predating February 2022.
  • Putin is a genocidal war criminal and be a despot.
  • Tchaikovsky should be banned (also Tolstoy and absolutely everything culturally-associated with Russia).
  • Russian civilians should be cancelled en-masse.
  • Russia is sending untrained conscripts to fight in Ukraine.
  • Russia is losing.
  • Putin is unpopular in Russia… and a pariah on the world stage.
  • Sanctions against Russia are effective.
  • Russian armed forces/tanks/planes/air defence systems/submarines/ships/blahdeblah are shite.
  • Putin only has one testicle (or similar variants of multiple illnesses).
  • Russia is running out of ammunition/fuel/drones/missiles/trained soldiers/food/tanks/helicopters/planes blahdeblah.

As well as…

  • The invasion of Ukraine was unprovoked.
  • Ukraine had been on a ski-ing holiday for eight years post 2014 and did nothing naughty against its own citizens in Donbass. How 14,000 civilians died there over that period is a mystery… or Russia’s fault.
  • There are no nazis in Ukraine.
  • Ukraine is a tolerant and hospitable country.
  • Ukraine is united.
  • The Maidan revolution wasn’t a coup.
  • Zelenskyy is a hero. Ditto the Ghost of Kiev. Ditto the dead/alive/dead/alive heroes of Snake Island.

And whatever you do… don’t look too deeply at US/NATO wars since WW2. Not Cuba. Not Vietnam. Not Korea. Not Guatemala. Certainly not Serbia. Or Iraq. Or Libya. Or Ethiopia. Or Yemen. Or the ‘Golan Heights’ issue. Or Grenada. Or Haiti. Or Hawaii. Or Puerto Rica. Or the vast quantity of US military bases/outposts across the world. Or ‘western imperialism.’ Or western funding and instigation of ‘colour revolutions’ across the world. Best not examine those.

The problem with seeking truth is that there’s a helluva lot of it out there.