> The massage therapist, a war supporter, was happy to talk. She gave an interesting description of her media consumption. “On the Internet,” she explained, there are so many fakes: “You have to figure out that this is a fake, this is not a fake.” Whereas with the news on TV, “you watch it for the day and you’re done. No problem.” As for the war, it was hard for the massage therapist to say who started it and why.
> “But we started it,” Marina said.
> “Who’s we?” said the massage therapist.
> “Well, I mean, Putin started it,” Marina said.
> The invocation of Putin seemed to set the massage therapist off. She lost her temper and threatened Marina, saying that she would “call someone” who would come to straighten out Marina on the subject of Putin and the war.
That one anecdote pretty much sums up the article in my opinion. A combination of opinions derived from a media silo (one that’s especially difficult to get out of because most Russian language media is, of course, produced in Russia and subject to Kremlin regulations), reluctance to question established beliefs, cult of personality/hero worship around Putin, and fear of government reprisal.