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It's a little weird to keep talking to your edits. How come Putin is being ridiculed and it doesn't make him ridiculous in the eyes of the populace? I mean of course not all the populace is on the Internet and not all of them are reading the same stuff I'm reading, but still, many, many people are exposed to the ridicule, which means that Putin has lost this battle of hearts and minds as far as those people exposed are concerned.

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Just like any other country, Russia has several distinct information silos. The older population (like the vast majority of my family) are largely still stuck to the TV and old media for their news, which is tightly controlled by the state. The younger population is on the internet and until recently, the government had been largely hands off with online censorship.

We see the loud online group that grew up after the 90s shitshow but not the rest of the population, which has far more influence and institutional power (for what it's worth). They are far more likely to support Putin for getting the country through that ordeal.

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