"Brainwashed by Kremlin propaganda." That’s supposedly about me and people like me — those who "accept the recognition." It is precisely with this phrase that various "groups of democratic politicians," aptly dubbed the "group of visitors to the Shokoladnitsa café," dismiss out of hand any timid suggestion that "the population kind of... well... supports it." Because the population, obviously, are suckers. They’ve been brainwashed. After all, only the advanced class of "democratic politicians" is capable of analyzing, understanding, evaluating, forecasting, reflecting, and, of course, drawing conclusions. The advanced class will draw the conclusions and deliver them to the rabble. And if the rabble is incapable of appreciating the genius and foresight of the democratic politicians from Shokoladnitsa, then that must be because of the brainwashing. The rabble is so easily brainwashed. No surprise there. Rabble, after all. And so Voldemar Milov v_milov once again decided not to be original and served up another dose of this "brainwashing" line to me. So let’s see whether that’s really true. User kireev posted an interesting table: *The Public Opinion Foundation (FOM) has now twice asked respondents about their attitude toward the military action in South Ossetia, and both times I noticed one trend: this action is more strongly supported by the educated, by internet users, and by Muscovites — in other words, by the most advanced and best-informed part of the population. Here is the combined total from the two polls: * TotalHigher educationMoscow residentsInternet usersSupport768387.582.5Do not support128.559.5 Then kireev goes on to say something quite correct: *In my view, those who think that the people supporting the military operation in South Ossetia are propaganda-addled should explain why this operation is more strongly supported by those who have greater access to alternative sources of information, rather than the other way around. *That really is the case. The level of hostility toward Georgia and the joy over the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia is, for example, much higher on the internet than among "ordinary people." So what, are internet users the ones who are drugged up on propaganda? Can one really claim that a person with access to the World Wide Web suffers from a lack of information? And how many internet users do we have? Hand on heart, can one really say that a resident of Moscow can be informationally brainwashed? Maybe an old lady whose only source at home is Radio Mayak (a Russian state radio station) can. But a normal person between 16 and 60? Why, Echo of Moscow (a major Russian radio station) has a daily audience of one million people! Is that what’s brainwashing Moscow? Can a middle-aged person with a university degree be informationally brainwashed? Probably yes. But it’s not easy. And if that person lives in Moscow, it’s difficult. And if they use the internet, it’s impossible. Our liberals have suffered a disgraceful defeat. They lost everything. Absolutely everything. What’s more, they lost even where they might have expected at least minimal support: among internet users, residents of large cities, and people with higher education. But they are incapable of recognizing this fact, accepting it, and learning from their mistakes. What do they do instead? They are trying to brainwash us. To brainwash us by telling us that we have been brainwashed by propaganda. **But their problem is that we are not so easily brainwashed. We are internet users, we live in big cities, and we have higher education. So, gentlemen quasi-liberals of the 1990 vintage! You can go on gathering at your "nationwide" rallies attended by 150 people. Even if you convince us that there were not 150 but 450 people at those rallies (brainwash us), it will change nothing. Until you acknowledge the obvious, you have no political future. You won’t even be able to brainwash the State Department into giving you a couple of dollars. Or there is another option: campaign among the rural population, where there is no connection. Maybe there you will manage to brainwash someone. P.S. The above applies to Voldemar Milov himself to the smallest extent. He too has been brainwashed by his coalition comrades.