Lumidaub

ohno he really uttered the word "trolling" thats it its over humanity is done :cry:

They arent Ukrainians, what would make you think that.

Or Argentinians or New Zealandians or Norwegians or South Africans or whatever. What would make me think that (if I even thought of ANY nationality) is that I don't know, I know nothing about any military, I wouldn't recognise them unless they have very ostentatious symbols of their nationality somewhere on them or I'm being told "these are [country]ans". That's why I said "for all I know" and then added the most polar opposite option I could think of.

added to that where this picture was taken

Which I also don't recognise. Might be anywhere in the world. (well, "anywhere" is an exaggeration, it does look rather hot and dry)

“russias new mega blaster 9000 russia strong hahaha”.

That would count as propaganda, of course, from that person in particular.

people would probably not laugh about a picture showing a American Drone strike with the caption “dropped a big one in the toilet”

I don't know, active drone strikes seem different to me from some dude posing with a stupid big gun. The connection to "Americans being posers in Walmart" is a lot stronger.

Anyway, what I can accept is that people might use this picture for their actual propaganda if it is spread around, I get that, and I agree that we need to be cautious. I'd venture though to say that anything that is even remotely related to some kind of national identity can be used that way. That includes stuff like news coverage of Russian aggression ("Woah what is that weapon making the cool fireworks over Kyiv?").

Thinking about this (too much, sorry), I had another thought: if this picture (on its own) counts as Russian propaganda, shouldn't that be more reason to use it like this? Really what it does then is equate (apparent) Russian military with stereotypically pathetic Americans who feel like they need to demonstrate their power by taking guns to go buy a drink. Wouldn't that be a good thing?

I don't know, it at least doesn't seem like very effective propaganda if only a tiny group of people even recognise what it's showing. Propaganda usually tries to reach as many people as possible with very simple and effective imagery. So I'm not sure.

I get where you're coming from, if you do have that specialised knowledge, it must be obvious to you. But without that, I don't see how anyone would think "Russia strong" just from this picture. For all I know, they might be Ukrainians.

As someone who doesn't know shit about military technology, nothing about this suggests Russia to me. In fact it doesn't suggest any country, except "hur dur Americans like shooting" because of context.

So I don't know, is it propaganda if you need to have specialised knowledge to recognise what's being advertised?

My marriage cost about 200 Euros and all of that went into Starfleet uniforms for the two of us. Our reason for getting married was financial, but we'd been engaged for 2 decades. Just hadn't gotten around to actually doing it, heh. Nothing's actually changed about our relationship since then because of course, why would it, we'd been together for 22 years before saying yes. But it's just a nice, grand gesture to proclaim to the world in uncertain terms that you intend to stay together.

Whaaaat you're telling me toast with a slice of ham, a slice of pineapple and a slice of melted cheese on top ISN'T a centuries old traditional Hawaiian meal? The GIs have misled us!

It even has an English language entry in Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toast_Hawaii

(I am being very unserious :))

Exaaactly, Toast Hawaii is a staple of any good German Hausfrau. We love that shit.

They were also going to Hawaii specifically. Now I'm German and have never set foot in any US state but I'd imagine Hawaii as a tropical island group would have its own local cuisine that can't be half-bad (if you ignore the lack of beer), right?

Yeeees but the US is, of course, a VALUED and RELIABLE partner and has been for decades and we, the new German government, look forward to an increasedly productive collaboration with the new Trump government regarding global matters etc. pp. bl. er. gh. 🤮

It was explicitly not a travel warning ("don't go there") but a note to be aware that an ESTA does not guarantee entry to the US. Because our authorities are lame and still want to avoid looking like they're somehow opposed to anything the US does.

Which is also not what I said. At all.