A Dilemma

Last week, a referendum was held in the 4 territories of Ukraine held by Russian troops that asked the people if they wanted to become part of Russia. Now according to the Russian press, the referendum was fair and unbiased, and more than 80% of the people participated and the overwhelming majority (75% and above) voted to become part of Russia. However, US media portrays the referendum as totally rigged and illegal. So who does one believe?

Another current example is the accusation by western media of Russian sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines beneath the Baltic Sea and the counter accusations by Russian media of western sabotage of the pipelines. Who does one believe?

Now everyone “knows” that the Russian media lies all the time “like a Persian rug”. And every American wants to believe that “we are the good guys” and, like George Washington who never told a lie, our government and the media would never lie to us. However, our government and the media have lied to us on many occasions, some of which have wrought disastrous results. Some of these lies were the result of erroneous “groupthink” (the tendency to believe something because everyone believes it – therefore it must be true). Other lies were the result of ulterior motives of our political leaders.

As an example of groupthink, we failed to defend against the attack on Pearl Harbor despite warnings because Americans believed it to be invincible against any Japanese attack. Another example was the prolongation of the Vietnam war believing in the superiority of American forces in spite of evidence of losing the war. An example of hidden agendas was the accusation of Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction that led us into one of the most disastrous wars of our history. This accusation was clearly proven false even before we invaded Iraq, and substantiated by several years of fruitless searching after the American occupation of Iraq.

Now I am of the persuasion that if you lie to me once, you may be forgiven. But if you lie to me twice, you lose your credibility forever. And given the number of times our government and our media have lied to me, neither have any credibility remaining. Therein, lies my dilemma. I cannot believe the Russian media but I cannot believe the American media either. By the same token, the European media, being under intense US influence, concurs with anything reported in the American media that refers to Russian, Chinese, Iranian or other non-western nations, so I cannot believe them either. Even my favorite Al Jazeera has succumbed to the western groupthink. So who am I to believe?

Despite my skepticism in anything I read in the media, I am not without resources from which I can piece together a plausible scenario. I won’t address the Russo-Ukrainian conflict that started this musing, but only describe the resources I use to resolve my dilemma and draw my own conclusion about what to believe regarding that and other conflicts. These resources consist of

    • valid historical facts and known current facts regarding who owned what and when1,
    • valid historical facts on political events such as wars, revolutions, natural disasters, etc.2,
    • valid demographic data on ethnicity, language and culture3,
    • valid data on resources and capabilities4,
    • valid geographical data5,
    • characteristics of human motivations and behaviors6 and
    • my own capability of independent thought7.

Using these resources, I have overcome my own dilemma of what (not necessarily who) to believe regarding the present conflict. It is my fervent hope that my readers will similarly use those resources, the first six of which at least are available to everyone, to come to their own conclusions about this conflict. And given that this is not the only issue about which we need to make intelligent decisions, it is my fervent hope that more people will utilize those resources to arrive at the truth and challenge the lies and half-truths that pervade the media reporting.


1 Wikipedia; Encyclopedia Britannica; Riasonavsky and Steinberg, “A History of Russia”, 9th ed., Oxford University Press, 2019; Micheal Florinsky, “Russia”, Macmillan Press, 1953; Donald Treadgold, “Twentieth Century Russia”, Rand McNally, 1959

2 Op cit

3 Wikipedia; Encyclopedia Britannica; CIA “The World Fact Book

4 Op cit

5 Google Maps; Encyclopedia Britannica; “World Atlas”, National Geographic Society

6 Robert Greene, “The Laws of Human Nature”, Penguin Books, 2019; Eric Berne, MD, “Games People Play”, Penguin Life, 2016; Robert M. Sapolsky, “Behave”, Penguin Books, 2017

7 Brooke Noel Moore & Richard Parker, “Critical Thinking” 13th ed., McGraw-Hill, 2021