Yes, but imagine all the rage clicks!

He’s basically a professional media villain at this point. Not many people take him seriously, and I doubt the share among journalists is larger.

Guessing this is supposed to be a gotcha based on domain, but it’s not. They pretty openly teach people to read so they can read propaganda.

Of course, if you believe they’re Wakanda IRL maybe that’s just what they say to outsiders to keep them away.

It’s a weird place. From what I’ve heard, at this point it’s more like a giant plantation or a resource colony (with no foreign overlords) than a normal dictatorship. The three sectors of the economy are policing the common people, making stuff for export (often on the black market and often globally illegal stuff) and making nukes to protect from foreign adversaries. The money from exports goes to grain, and luxury items for a separate elite that doesn’t even like to stay in the country, let alone be part of it.

Probably got caught not believing all this stuff in private, and listening to k-pop or something. Off to war you go…

He also implied that being sent to Ukraine was punishment for something.

No way. You notice how he implies he broke the rules and is being punished for it? This was the diary for his commanders and/or military police to “secretly” read. Defectors pretty much give the same story - corruption and crime is ubiquitous, nobody follows the rules when they can’t be caught.

Human nature is pretty unremarkable for the most part, but one thing we have going for us is that the majority of people never buy the propaganda, regardless of what it is and where they are. You can see that in history, in modern authoritarian states, and even in the West about propaganda I personally agree with (save the planet! vaccines don’t cause autism! covid is real!).

High probability that he fully expected state security to look through it.

Do not give them the satisfaction of being placed in the same category as their celebrity crushes. Assad is nothing like a goofy conspiracy theorist deep in the sheltered West.