Yeah, this is how the US justified the Iraq invasion. It removes their statehood and builds the narrative that almost everyone in the country is a slave of the leader, who has ultimate power over everything in their borders. It’s part of the dehumanization of the people and the cartoon villain image of the leader.
Maybe. But I suspect that framing the narrative in a way that emphasizes “Putin” as the aggressor rather than “the Russians” can help a sow little less russophobia.
We saw that the media’s emphasis on the providence of the 'Wuhan virus" during the early stages of the pandemic caused a sharp increase in anti-asian hate crimes. The mainstream media and politicians were blamed for this. I wouldn’t be surprised if regulators still have that mistake fresh in their mind and sent the memo not to focus on the country when reporting on this war.
Plus the more they villainize Russians, the more anyone with a trace of slavic heritage is going to side with “the bad guys” because the alternative is the genocidal rage of the ignorant.
I guess they were told that dehumanizing all of Russia was a bad move.
I think this is even more dehumanizing, it’s saying they have no brains of their own and just do whatever Putin tells them like he’s a cult leader.
Yeah, this is how the US justified the Iraq invasion. It removes their statehood and builds the narrative that almost everyone in the country is a slave of the leader, who has ultimate power over everything in their borders. It’s part of the dehumanization of the people and the cartoon villain image of the leader.
Maybe. But I suspect that framing the narrative in a way that emphasizes “Putin” as the aggressor rather than “the Russians” can help a sow little less russophobia.
We saw that the media’s emphasis on the providence of the 'Wuhan virus" during the early stages of the pandemic caused a sharp increase in anti-asian hate crimes. The mainstream media and politicians were blamed for this. I wouldn’t be surprised if regulators still have that mistake fresh in their mind and sent the memo not to focus on the country when reporting on this war.
Plus the more they villainize Russians, the more anyone with a trace of slavic heritage is going to side with “the bad guys” because the alternative is the genocidal rage of the ignorant.