memes

A lot of this is a byproduct of vague "anti-authoritarian" sentiment: "Yes the US government is evil, but all governments are evil. The evil shit the US accused these other evil governments of doing is probably true, US may have ulterior motives for pointing it out, but the best propaganda is often the truth so why would they lie?"

Over time though this logic does just lead to viewing the US as the lesser evil, since you're getting bombarded with anecdotes about the evil governments evil deeds constantly, and if it's all true then yes, the conclusion to draw is that as bad as the US is these red fash nations must be worse!

I think there's some other shit going on here too, media portrays life under "authoritarian" governments as a 24/7, 1984-esk nightmare of constant horror, and since life even for the poor in the west isn't THAT cartoonishly bad there's not way it can be REALLY authoritarian, unlike the Tankie-North Cubrea where everyone is shot every time they get a haircut. I once showed my lib ass sister some pics of daily life in the USSR a friend from Poland sent me and she was shocked to see such things as people eating ice cream and swimming pools and families on camping trips! The idea that anyone lives a normal life in the BAD COUNTRIES is inconceivable to them, which in turn convinces them that the US can't be that bad since they can eat ice cream and go camping here.

Thing is there's nothing you can do to help these people. They aren't helpless dupes who got tricked by oh so clever propaganda, they talked themselves into believing this shit because it allows them to be a bit rebellious while also feeling smugly comfortable with their western life.