Changing the narrative

Aside from the Philippines, May 9 was also a special date for another country; Russia. Every May 9 they always hold a grand military parade to mark Victory Day, the day Nazi Germany surrendered in World War II.

This year was no different. As news agencies reported, it was as grand as usual, even in the face of ongoing economic sanctions, even if they had no recent victory to boast of in their ongoing war against Ukraine.

During his speech, Russia President Vladimir Putin blamed the West for forcing his hand to invade Ukraine and that Russia was just “protecting itself” from foreign threats when it decided to invade.

It’s sad that Putin still thinks this way and continues to justify his actions. It really doesn’t matter what the West did. Ukraine is its own sovereign nation; in short it can do whatever it pleases. His invading another nation that did not pose a threat to him at all cannot be justified by any amount of reason.

But what’s even sadder is that the Russians continue to believe Putin’s propaganda.

Just how far does Russian propaganda go to mislead its own people? Until now Russia insists that “special military operation” against

Ukraine is not a full-blown war against another sovereign nation but an operation to decapitate a government run by Nazis, the same enemies they defeated in World War II. And some Russians actually believe this narrative.

Another thing we can look at is the Moskva incident. Until now Russia is loath to admit that Ukraine sank the Moskva, the flagship and pride of the Russian Navy.

The official narrative is that a careless sailor caused the accident that brought down the ship after smoking where he shouldn’t have. In short they would rather admit that it was one of their own bumbling men that brought down the pride of their fleet, rather than admit their enemies scored against them.

If that isn’t some form of deception even for their own people, we don’t know what is.

Changing a narrative is dangerous. We would like to cite another example that led to the victory of a controversial figure in our recent elections --also held last May 9-- but that would be straying from the current topic.

Suffice it to say when people are led to believe a false narrative they will continue to support wars, causes, governments, and people that don’t deserve it.