I think illiteracy kills (for if one doesn't have access to proper, up-to-date information, one is bound to make decisions based on inaccurate or plainly wrong assumptions).

I think one form of illiteracy is failing to think critically and just swallowing propaganda which happens to suit one's emotional biases. (for, if the cold hard brute facts contradict with the way one wants or wishes the reality to be, the rational decision would be to adjust one's wishes, instead of trying to stubbornly stick with them).

OK. So let's see. There are reports that in Ukraine Russian air strikes hit a maternity ward of a hospital. Did that happen or should it be labelled as "anti-Russian propaganda?". What little I can understand, different Russian state medias offer two narratives of this incident:

1. Ukrainian far-right nationalists are to blame, for they had their firing positions in the hospital, and to de-nazify Ukraine Russian military had to bomb the hospital. (If this narrative is true, the Russian media has already admitted that it is not just a "special operation targeting military facilities with high-precision strikes", but in the process they are happy to bomb all targets inflicting a lot of civilian damage. Killing ordinary people, that is.)

2. Actually it was not Russian air planes bombing the hospital, but the whole incident is a false-flag propaganda operation, faked and staged by the enemies of Russia. (Okay so they are openly stating that it is entirely possible that some medias feed people fake stories. I just wonder what proof do they have to offer that they are not doing the same themselves? Apparently, the proof is that Russian legislation now can send you to jail for 15 years if you tell the truth. So, they are openly saying that in Russia they only want highly censored state-controlled media.)

Now, anyone with some basic skills in logical thinking can easily see that narratives 1. and 2. contradict each other. Number one says that it was Russian forces bombing the hospital, but the strike was justified. Number two says that it was not Russian forces bombing the hospital. As I have been following Russian media, to me it seems that this has been their long-running tactics; they feed various, often contradictory, narratives and then just see which one seems to work best, and then amplify that in order to manipulate the opinions of those people who feel that believing in Russian state media is a good thing to do.

To me this is sad, because at the moment believing the narratives offered by Russian state media is one of the best ways to boost casualties, leading to higher number of civilian casualties in Ukraine, and also more and more Russian soldiers getting killed in this badly planned counter-productive offensive.

Also, if I understand correctly, President Putin said that they are not sending conscripts to fight in Ukraine. A bit later the Russian state media had to admit that some Russian conscripts have been captured by Ukrainian forces, and that now the Russian army is quickly adjusting their operation to not use conscripts. Again, it is easy to see that these two statements contradict each other. Which, to me, raises the obvious question: If mr. Putin lied on this topic, then what other lies he has been telling?

To me all of this is self-evident, and I often feel that anyone following my blog is easily able to understand all of this, so it is not necessary for me to state the obvious. Well, but I post this, just in case there is someone out there pondering these questions.

And, just for the sake of clarity: I'm pro-peace. I wish the Ukrainian people could live in peace, building their country the way they wish. I wish a good prosperous future for the Russian people. I don't like the enemies of Russian people. And now it seems that the greatest enemy of Russian people is the President of Russia, whose decisions have already caused a lot of long-term suffering to a great number of innocent Russian people. But I don't blame Russian people, they are living in a dictatorship and are rather powerless under their oppressive authoritarian government.

So, let me re-phrase myself: Authoritarianism kills. Illiteracy often tends to enable the rise of authoritarianism. This is sad.

Ps. In case you are from Russia, and don't have an access to independent media, here are some numbers: In the two weeks of Ukraine conflict, the Russian state media says that some 500 Russian soldiers have been killed. Ukrainian reports say that they have killed about 12 000 Russian soldiers. The Western military intelligence puts the number somewhere about 5000 - 6000 Russian soldiers killed, and 15 000 injured. Seen from the outside (from a non-NATO country next to Russia, with long relationships with both Russia and Western countries), to me it seems that Russian state media reports aren't very credible (otherwise they wouldn't need to threaten people with a jail sentence for reporting facts which contradict the Kremlin narrative). I think it is very very sad that young Russian men are getting killed in a war, while the ordinary Russian population is not even allowed to know what is going on. And it is even more sad that Russian army is ruthlessly targeting residential areas, shopping malls, schools and hospitals, desperately trying to hide this fact from the ordinary Russian people. For I do believe that if the majority of the good Russian people just knew what is really going on, they wouldn't approve. Illiteracy kills.

Pps. And, in case you are located in Russia, remember that if you share a link to this daily picture, it is considered a criminal act in Russia, and you can face a jail sentence up to 15 years for spreading "anti-Russian propaganda" - while all I want to say is that I'd prefer peace, so that there could be just prosperous trade and free tourism and cultural exchange between Russia and other countries. But Mr. Putin has chosen the other path, treating others as "enemies", for he failed to realize that it would be better for everyone just to live in peace, not seeing other people as "enemies". While writing this I'm perfectly aware the mr. Putin is not the only one sticking with the stone-age mentality of "our nation against the enemies" - no no, on the contrary it seems that all too many leaders and a surprisingly big proportion of ordinary people are perfectly happy to go with the stone-age tribal warfare mentality. And this is why I started with saying "illiteracy kills", for I think that the said stone-age mentality is something very brute - like hammering a nail with a rock. I think it is about the time to upgrade to using hammers, to upgrade using more sophisticated and educated cognitive models to understand the world, to favor co-operation instead of hostilities. Not just mr. Putin, but everybody.