If you read the Pravda Media–and, let’s face it, it’s pretty hard to escape while remaining a functioning and “informed” member of society–you could be forgiven for believing that America is becoming a fascist hellhole while our European neighbors are living in a society filled with freedom, social harmony, and economic prosperity.
As European leaders organize daily or weekly raids to arrest people who share memes, complain about violent illegal migrants stabbing young girls, or question whether open borders are such a good ideas, their propagandists calmly explain how this is the road to freedom.
In its own plodding way, the continent has created a place where people are guaranteed rights to what others yearn for: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness
Illustration: Peter Schrank pic.twitter.com/tKWpScdNs6
— The Economist (@TheEconomist) April 12, 2025
And if you don’t like it and want to vote for a candidate who wants to change direction, the good people will let you know that your voice was heard loud and clear. They will do so by arresting your favorite candidate, jailing them, or tossing them off the ballot.
OPINION: With the US showing unmistakable signs of political self-destruction, Europe is now poised to confront authoritarianism, if it so chooses.https://t.co/tEOcOfwVPA pic.twitter.com/3O51VAnh6C
— POLITICOEurope (@POLITICOEurope) April 12, 2025
This sort of propaganda is simultaneously obviously ridiculous and still very effective because the ridiculousness is only obvious to people whose information bubble is larger than the Pravda Media. Anybody who spends significant time on X or reading any independent media knows they aren’t getting the full picture, but that is a smaller group than you would imagine.
In fact, the most reliable voting groups tend to be the ones least likely to read or watch news outside the media bubble. People who think of themselves as civic-minded citizens who are busy but want to be informed will tend to rely on curators in the Pravda Media to synthesize the “news” and keep them informed.
Things you and I know months or years before they do can come as a shock–“You mean Joe Biden really IS demented?! Who knew?!
I did in 2019. So did people who looked with their own eyes instead of trusting the media.
Because of its privileged position, Pravda–even if people distrust it now more than ever–still has the ability to set the Overton Window most of the time. Their ability to control what opinions are acceptable and which are not has been one of the keys to the left’s success. It’s not just controlling what you know but controlling what you think is plausible or acceptable to believe.
CNN: “Violence in the Country Today Is Mostly from Right-Wing Extremism”
“There is simply no equivalent on the left.”
This blatant propaganda is aired smack in the middle of a wave of leftwing terror and violence; most of which Democrat politicians refuse to condemn. pic.twitter.com/dPiXkDSoUe
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) April 14, 2025
Anybody who has followed the political and economic degeneration of Europe is rightly shocked at the idea that they are a model of liberty and prosperity. The continent has steadily fallen behind the United States in economic growth, with the trends taking a serious downturn over the past 15 years as the continent has pursued NetZero policies. The average European in the “wealthy” countries is poorer than the average citizen in our poorest states. Mississippi, which we think of as poor, has a GDP per capita similar to “wealthy” European states.
Sweden–utopian Sweden–is now less safe than El Salvador.
El Salvador now has a Level 1 advisory.
That’s safer than France, Sweden, UK, Italy, Germany, Spain, Netherlands. pic.twitter.com/wp2Pr4DFLs
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) April 10, 2025
Walk the streets of London, and you can go blocks without seeing a native-born Englishman. You can have conversation after conversation with people who are looking forward to the day coming soon when Sharia will be the law of the land and not be at all delusional.
And this is the future that we are told is far better than one where ordinary Americans can say what they want and question their government.
It seems absurd that tens of millions of Americans buy this obvious propaganda, but to them, it is isn’t obvious at all. They are taught to fear their fellow citizens, told that we are terrorists in waiting, and truly believe that people like Adam Schiff is a truth-teller. The media tells them that Hunter Biden is a sober man fit to live in the White House and will, therefore, scoff at the most obvious corruption while worrying that Donald Trump’s ownership of hotels makes him vulnerable to being owned by our enemies.
The problem we face is the left’s control of the Overton Window. Even more than their control over what “facts” people see is their control over what it is acceptable to even consider. Facts, when obvious, can break through as when Joe Biden’s inability to think coherently became obvious. But when it remains unacceptable to question settled opinions, the facts still have little impact.
The facts about Europe’s decline are there to see, but the belief that Europe isn’t on the road to utopia still isn’t.
That’s why we need to chip away at that faith, and it is a faith that is nearly immune to facts until reality slaps people in the face.
