Image Credit: PEXELS

OPINION

I was at the Kelowna Buckerfields last week and overheard an older gentleman claiming loudly that Russia is thriving compared to the West.

I didn't know why he was bringing that up in an animal feed store until the woman he was talking to answered back with a Russian accent.

"Actually, I just got back from there," she almost whispered. "I could not wait to get out."

"That's surprising," he said. I could tell he didn't quite believe her and left the store. A younger woman in snow boots said, also unnecessarily loudly, "well, this country is going to hell in a handbasket."

Neither the older man nor the handbasket lady on her way to hell were interested in learning more about this topic that obviously interests them (from a real Russian FROM RUSSIA). It didn't track with what they knew to be true, so they walked away as quickly as they could.

Well, I talked to the Russian lady. And like the Russian lady, I've seen too much in my life to be a silent witness to the death of a democracy.

Russia Today, or RT, popped up on Youtube mid 2000 and always had the best conspiracy stories before anyone else. They had Max Kaiser covering big banks and the federal reserve and Alex Jones sneaking into an annual satanic retreat for the world's elite in northern California (They weren't eating babies yet, just sacrificing them to a giant owl). Yes I was deep down the post-9/11 rabbit hole.

It started with UFOs but before long I was ready to overthrow the government because our currency isn't real. I mean, how am I supposed to fix my shitty life when the most powerful people on the planet are coordinating precisely against me?

It's a hopeless feeling and doesn't exactly make you want to jump out of bed and carpe diem. All your energy, in fact, goes towards an enemy you will never see. You will never run into a member of the Bilderberg Group at Buckerfields, but there are actual Russians there. And it turns out they have more appreciation for democracy than a lot of us Westerners seem to.

RT has since been banned almost everywhere and is a state-recognized, incredibly successful, Russian disinformation experiment targeting institutions in the West. The stories they made up (or corrupted beyond recognition) continue to grow and evolve, misleading millions of frightened friends and neighbours who feel as passionately as I do now, and did in 2005. But I was wrong in 2005, and they're wrong now.

The complexity of modern society, government, the law and basically everything nowadays, is baffling beyond the abilities of any one person. That's why reporters usually have beats. It takes a lot of time and effort to understand, let alone convey, necessary context.

I saw first hand, however, how incredibly lucky we are to have access to things like conviction appeals, trial by jury, free legal representation and healthcare without the threat of bankruptcy. If you think that's common around the world, you need to travel more. Or talk to more Russians in feed stores.

If you do, you'll be reminded that, through some very troubled waters the last decade, Canada remains in the top 5 most desirable countries in which to live on this spheroid-shaped planet (Despite what I may have believed briefly in 2005, the Earth is in fact, not flat, all currencies are made up and Canada is far from broken. It's actually pretty great).

I'm not saying there isn't room for improvement, but the problems we haven't solved yet are tough ones and anyone who sees them as simple is only seeing it from their perspective. The information they need is not on a podcast or YouTube. You can only get it by listening with an open mind to people with actual experience.

Unfortunately, that's going to take more trust than I think we're currently capable of. It means that when you don't fully understand something, be it government mandated engineering thresholds or how to safely manage an unprecedented global outbreak, that you trust that the people who cared enough to sign up for those jobs are no different than you. They have kids, and pets, good days and bad, and plans this weekend with friends from out of town. And they're going to do their best. If you don't believe me, talk to them.

I managed to climb out of the conspiracy rabbit hole by taking pictures, which ultimately led to journalism. And that's where I learned how much more interesting the real world is than any fiction from Russia. Alan Moore was right, it's more comforting to believe that someone is in charge, even if they're evil, than to admit that the world is mostly rudderless chaos.

I talked to a lot of different people as a local reporter, often in depth about the topics they understood best. The more I learned, the more my previous beliefs crumbled away. And I saw how rarely someone who acts in bad faith ever reaches positions of prominence in our society. At least they shouldn't.

It was also in journalism where I learned that journalists make shit money, work long hours under deadline, and that almost all national stories start out as a local news story. This fact makes media collusion impossible over even a short time frame. Even George Soros can't corrupt every small town paper in the country. And it turns out that it’s cheaper to just discredit the entire profession anyway. And when that's gone, it's a whole lot easier to demolish any other obstacles keeping the powerful from taking more power.

Fifteen years as a photojournalist and reporter and never once was I told what I could or couldn't cover. It turns out, news stories are chosen, for the most part, based on what readers want to read. Call it clicks, likes, whatever. It has issues for sure, but fortunately, in the past, what readers wanted to know often coincided with what readers needed to know, and they stayed informed.

That's just not true anymore. Now we walk away when we should be listening, and lecture experts without even understanding the basics.

We need to go back to trusting our neighbours, and our own eyes, and if a Russian tells you that living in a dictatorship sucks, believe them.

We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor.

SUBSCRIBE to our awesome newsletter here.

News from © iNFOnews, 2025