Quote Originally Posted by UhOhXplode View Post
Yeah, I saw a thread last night from a girl that thinks the Navy base shooting was a conspiracy. Yeah, like nobody would ever shoot anyone except for a conspiracy, right? LOL! I mean, if anyone had real proof that something happened (like Snowden) then yeah, I believe it. But conspiracy theories are mostly just really lame so i never waste time on stuff like that.
But i will waste time wondering why so many people have so many misconceptions about Russia. I mean, there's so many awesome places in the world so I don't get why anyone wants a cold war. It just locks out about half of the European continent and no way I'm gonna miss out on all the cool stuff like Lake Baikal, the Caucasus mountains, Amur oblast and the new Cosmodrome, and all that awesome snow! People that want a cold war just really needa get a life!
I think that some of the propaganda is intentional. But some of it is just "playing to the crowd." They play up the stereotypes because it sells, plain and simple. They know that if there is anything Americans hate more than America, it's Russia. And then, there are a lot of people working in media who were raised on these stereotypes and have never questioned them, so they just perpetuate them endlessly.

How many times do we see articles about Putin where he is described as "a former KGB agent"? And how often is a similar qualifier used to describe George W. Bush, who was CIA? It's very unbalanced.