A few weeks ago, millions of Americans believed their government was at war with alien spacecraft, or an invasion of Chinese balloons. That was reality. Now that reality has been flipped off like a light switch, and a new reality turned on. As Karl Rove once said "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too."

People don't experience objective, measurable scientific reality, they experience a subjective hyperreality as the sum of signals from corporate media, pop culture and disinformation agents (including their own media and government.) This is what the whole "post truth" theory is about - not that objective reality can be manufactured, but that power comes from manipulating the perception of reality.

And eventually, many people will believe it. Humans are not rational beings that consider truth by the most mathematically precise and logically sound methods available, we are emotional beings driven by the need to square the circles of our lives by any means necessary. That's how propaganda and great lies work. It's how innocent people can enter an interrogation and come out convinced of the narrative of their guilt, to the point of having fabricated memories of it.

just like germans were ok with nazis; italians, spanish, portuguese, with fascists; americans, brits, dutch, french, with slave owners

i mean honnestly, is russia worst than the nato country turkey? not to mention the faithful western ally saudi arabia? is donbas really that different from kosovo? who are we kidding with this virtue hypocricy

i fear that by the time people in large become sober about this hypocricy it will be too late and world will only become more polarized

I recognize that I live in a bubble and have a small circle of friends, but neither I, nor any one of them adhere to that stereotype you've mentioned that is supposedly required to "be Russian".