That was an old Russian joke that I learned in the late 70s, probably had been around for decades. “There is no izvestia in Pravda, and no pravda in Izvestia. The words mean “news” and “truth”, and the papers were the organs of the Soviet state. I think Pravda was the Party’s paper, but the Party ran everything.
The Russians had a wry sense of humor about their situation, and much of the time, they could get away with little jokes at the government’s expense. At least after Stalin was gone. Reagan used to like to tell them to Gorbachev.
Yes indeed. DH knows Russian and has listened to a few of Putin’s talks and says he has a great sense of humor, btw.
I think toward the end nobody really believed in whole ideology thing anymore, but the machine ran on and on, and people kept mouthing the same memes until suddenly, they didn’t. Everybody walked away. That’s what i hope for us.
Also though, I remember how superior I used to feel about America when I considered those government propaganda organs. Did we start hiring all our journalism faculties out of Moscow State University? Because now our media is just like theirs was.