Here's a simple observation: when knowledgeable Americans discuss American politics, they can talk in detail about the various fault lines in the American government.

They can expound at great length on the Squad's role in influencing the policies of the Democratic Party, for example.

And they can assess the policy proposals of various third-party candidates.

And they can detail the history of the turf battles between the FBI and the CIA or tell you how the FBI under Hoover differed from the FBI under Mueller.

And, if they're really informed, they can even discuss the role of Citibank or Goldman Sachs or BlackRock in picking the Cabinet of this or that administration and identify the various vested interests that are served by placing, say, Tom Vilsack in the role of Secretary of Agriculture.

Likewise, Canadians will be able to opine on the deeper political significance of Pierre Poilievre munching on an apple.

And Japanese will be able to wax eloquent on the LDP's war on the fax machine.

But ask any of these people about the politics of a foreign country and suddenly everyone will begin talking as if factions, intrigues, infighting and other verities of government don't exist in that far-away land. Instead, that foreign country is a political monolith that can be reduced to a single person.

Case in point: ask the average American on the street what they think about Russia's government. "Russian politics? You mean Putin, right?"

Ditto China. "What do I know about the Chinese government? Well, I know that Xi . . ."

This is precisely how we arrive at the stuck-on-stupid of an "independent" media that portrays Xi and Putin as the multi-polar saviours of the coming global world order. Even if it were true that Xi and Putin were opponents of the globalist plan rather than willing conspirators in it (SPOILER: they're conspirators), there's the false implication that Putin is Russia or Xi is China.

Imagine a Russian citizen believing that the entirety of American politics could be boiled down to what Biden thinks about any particular issue. That's how stupid such a "Leader=Country" mentality is.

Newsflash: foreign countries are complex places with all the competing interests, bureaucratic turf wars, infighting, backstabbing and palace intrigues that you find in your own country!

Don't believe me? How many politicians can you name in the Russian government other than Putin? How many of their backgrounds can you elaborate on? What are their ideological leanings? What is their relative influence in Russian politics? Which policies are they responsible for?

Stumped? Don't worry, almost everyone reading this article is stumped, too.

So, can we arrive at a deeper understanding of geopolitics by challenging this overly simplistic "Putin is Russia" narrative? Let's find out!
[substack.com]