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Misinformed Youth

By Chris Thomas

On the Sunday night before the election, a group of young demonstrators gathered outside a prominent American building. That alone isn’t out of the ordinary. This presidential election saw an unprecedented number of young people exercising their political muscles. But this demonstration was different. It was in Russia.

Thousands of members of a pro-Kremlin group called Nashi demonstrated outside of the United States Embassy in Moscow, and they had some very interesting things to say.

Nashi is a pro-Putin youth organization, founded in 2005, that has grown to include more than 120,000 members between the ages of 17 and 25, and they have a very high opinion of America — but not in a good way.

At their protest that Sunday, the group showed a film starring a Russian actor playing President Bush. The film showed a beer-swigging Bush taking credit for some very interesting things. A few of the more notable points include claiming that America arranged World War I and World War II to insure that America’s economy outperformed Europe’s.

Now, my American history is a little rusty at this point, but I seem to remember America not wanted to get involved in WWI or WWII. Sure, we did try to stay neutral in WWI while still supplying Great Britain, which is pretty close to picking sides. But we didn’t get involved with the fighting until nearly three years after the war started. In WWII, we were able to stay out of it until Pearl Harbor, two years after the start of the fighting.

But wait. It gets better. The video also claimed that the United States government orchestrated the events of Sept. 11, 2001, in order to increase its control on its citizens.

Even more absurd, the film claimed that the United States government planned to “brand every person on the planet with the ‘mark of the beast,’ as referred to in the Bible.” The government will do this in order to control everyone on Earth. The film also claimed that Paris Hilton is the antichrist, but I didn’t find that idea too farfetched.

All right, so I made up that last part. But the rest is straight from The New York Times.

It would seem like some members of the Russian youth don’t really like America. But you have to admit: The fact that they think America is so powerful that it can manipulate the entire world is pretty cool. At a time when I thought America’s power overseas was diminished, it’s refreshing to see that someone thinks that we are all-powerful. Not even the most diehard conspiracy theorist in America would think America could do all that. Rig the Super Bowl? Sure. Brand everybody with the mark of the beast? Probably not.

The group even blamed America for the Russia-Georgia conflict. They claimed that Georgia wouldn’t have attacked South Ossetia (the act that caused Russia’s invasion) without America’s permission. Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, the puppet master of Nashi, claimed that America orchestrated the war in order to help the McCain campaign — and he said that on national television. How’s that for propaganda?

I’m amazed that a country like Russia could have that much animosity toward America and that the nation’s leaders are so vocal about it — not only that, but that they could be that misinformed on the course of events.

Maybe I’m the misinformed one, but blaming America for orchestrating the World Wars is absurd — almost as absurd as claiming that America wants to brand everyone on the planet with the mark of the beast, or blaming America for Sept. 11.

I understand that there are conspiracy theorists everywhere. But there’s a difference between a guy in his basement publishing this stuff a Web site and a very powerful, nuclear-capable foreign government funding and apparently brainwashing a generation.

Frankly, it kind of scares me. But it’s nice to know that some people out there still think America is Godfather of the world.

Originally Published: November 12, 2008

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