balkanizing russia does indeed seem like a dead end; but hasbara-like brainworms have proven to be HIGHLY effective in the western world and i wonder if it would tip the balance considering that now ordinary people themselves are self-re-enforcing the russophobia instead of just the western oligarchs pushing it themselves.

brainworms have a way of last much longer than the oligarchs who created them.

I expect it will be the material conditions that will be the deciding factor in the end. People will believe all kinds of absurdities as long as there's no direct impact on their standard of living. Once people start losing jobs and stop being able to make ends meet, then they have no choice but to start engaging with reality and material problems of their society. It doesn't mean they're going to hate Russia any less, but supporting a proxy war is going to take a backseat to putting food on the table.

didn't roosevelt prove that if you give people enough table scraps, they'll accept whatever asshattery you want them to accept.

there are limits https://elpidio.org/2018/02/12/citigroups-plutonomy-memo-there-are-rich-consumers-and-there-are-the-rest/

this seems to suggest that we haven't yet reach any limit considering that citibank is still around doing its thing

yeah there's still a lot of room at the bottom

i suspect that there's a enough room to let the epstein oligarchy get away w everything that their hearts have ever desired until climate changes forces the issue on all of us.

That could definitely be one tipping point, and in particular supply chain collapse that it will likely trigger. And speaking of that, war on Iran could also end up being a catalyst. Once the full effects of energy shortage start hitting, we could end up in another massive crash akin to 2008, and there could be real consequences for the oligarchs this time around.