Western People Spot Propaganda pretty well Everywhere but in their Own Countries

We Believe Shit could Happen in Russia and China but Not in Our Homelands

It's pretty interesting actually that people in the West aren't that dumb and naive political wise overall. They are perfectly capable of seeing through political propaganda and manipulation, when it just doesn't directly apply to them. For example, show them just one episode of Game of Thrones, and majority of people would see how politics works there pretty well. But not only in fiction - for instance, majority of people in the West are able to see correctly through all Putin's propaganda and manipulation in Russia, and even to understand its technique pretty well. So people in the West can do it, they can have critical thinking alright when it comes to fiction or some far away real places like Russia or China. However, when it comes to their own homelands, societies and politics, all their critical thinking instantly goes down the drain, being replaced by blind trust and extreme naivete, and they are incapable to connect the same dots together in their own country which they connected so well in Russia, China or Game of Thrones. I wonder, I really wonder why is it so.

But indeed - just SUGGEST to an average person in the West that they might be at least somewhat duped by their media and politicians, and that their authorities might overstep their duties at least somewhat, and you'd face a solid wall of denial. 'No, we have free press, we have democracy and human rights, this shit simply CAN'T HAPPEN there, it's not Russia or China here', they'd reply to you indignantly. And all the arguing would be useless. You might show them proven cases of their media selective coverage, political propaganda and downright misinformation, they'd just dismiss it. You might point out to violation of human rights to them for example with lockdowns and vaccine passports, they would counter that it was 'absolutely necessary for safety sake' (exactly the same thing every dictator would say to justify his human right abuse!) You might point out to countless cases of political censorship and cancel culture, they'd reply that it's just 'accountability'. So it's useless to argue, people are not interested in facts when they have strong preconceived opinions about how good and honest their media and politicians are. So they won't listen. But why is it so, why people in the West demonstrate such gross short-sightedness with regard to their own politics while being so shrewd with regard to say Russia or China?

There are several main aspects to it. First one is personal involvement. Political situation in our countries affects our lives directly, we are engaged into our politics, and ironically it blinds us to it. It's always easier to see the situation through from the outside, being a detached spectator rather than an engaged actor. Spectators always see the whole picture, while actors see only their part. Similarly as in our personal lives it's always easy to see the mistakes which our friends commit say in love life, but it's pretty hard to see our own. Exactly because of personal involvement which blinds us to the truth. Similarly in political situation, it's easier for us to see correctly what's going on far away from us, like in Russia, or even in fictional world of GoT, being objective outside observers here, and much harder to see what's going on under our own noses because we have personal involvement there, and we're not objective.

This leads to second main reason of this astonishing short-sightedness of majority of people - cognitive bias. If you look more carefully, people are so wonderfully naive and trusting only when it comes to Left wing politicians and news outlets. Right wing politicians and conservative media sources most people regard with huge suspicion, and are perhaps even overly critical of them. Many people dismiss any info coming from conservative sources, and suspect ring wing politicians like Trump of attempts to 'erode our democracy', etc. So, with regard to right wingers and conservatives their critical thinking works pretty well too, maybe even too well. Critical thinking is lacking only when it comes to Left wing politicians and media outlets.

This I believe is because of huge Leftist cognitive bias of many Western people. They believe Leftist ideology at large to be 'just and moral', and Left wing politicians to be 'human rights champions and democracy heroes'. With this attitude, people have preconceived good opinions of any Left wing politicians, and aren't inclined to fact check and scrutinize them even in the slightest. They couldn't even conceive of the idea that their Left wing champions might be corrupt or incompetent and even more so malicious, and that they can dupe people on purpose to achieve their political ends. No, ‘only right wingers and evil Chinese or Russian dictators’ can do that! Our Left wing champions are blameless, perfect angels! They always care of common good, they are always honest and truthful and competent, they can't be corrupt by default, and they'd never deceive us. But this extreme naivete comes out of cognitive bias when people voluntarily close their eyes to any corruption and human right abuse on the Left, and CHOOSE to believe everything which comes from the Left. It's not stupidity, it's gross self-deception due to huge cognitive bias.

So I believe people need to get rid of their cognitive bias first of all and stop perceiving Left wing politicians as 'good guys' and 'human rights champions' by default, but just as normal human beings who can also be flawed and corrupt. If this inadequate reverence to the Left would be gone and people would be able to look critically at their Left wing politicians and media outlets, I believe that they would be able to connect the dots together pretty fast and to find out what's really going on in the West and who's the main threat to our democracy and indeed civilization in truth.