Somehow extensive journalism and investigation by government bodies seems to have been completely lost in the noise.
Twitter and Facebook have been weaponised brilliantly by the Russians. They are a big part of how we got here.
Research and, IMHO, reason show that unless you have real domain expertise or direct experience of the event, you can't distinguish well-crafted bullshit from truth.
> I’ve been able to access expertise, military and political
Those are accessible outside Twitter. Better, the expertise is less diluted by noise, and you get expertise + focused work (papers and articles, with editors, etc.) not hot takes. Just read foreign policy publications like Foriegn Policy or Foreign Affairs.
> Russian trolls have completely failed to control the narrative. ... And the best evidence for this is the Russians shutting it down.
That may be true in this case (I am not so ready to conclude it), but we know well that it hasn't been true in many others and won't be true in yet more, and people can't distinguish. Also, that does't mean others don't control the narrative - people who using the crisis for their own ends or even people you coincidentally support.
I don’t say these problems have been solved perfectly, just that they’re better than I expected.
Being able to remove ones self from heavily controlled corporate echo chambers is refreshing to thinkers that strive for objectivity.