Anne Applebaum

It's not about creating something good for Iran or Iranians, rather, so that they get out of the disastrous economic and political situation they're in.

It's about

making money or making something for me or for my clique.

And so that's always the line that he returns to when he's looking for a kind of baseline explanation for what it is that he wanted.

I mean, it was the same in Venezuela.

It's the same in almost everywhere.

The fire hose of falsehoods.

Actually, I think that might have been a Steve Bannon phrase, but it was really a description of what the Russians do.

They put out not just one lie, but millions of lies, you know, or not just one explanation, but one after another after the next.

And there's so many and there's so much of it all the time that people eventually just tune out and they say nothing.

I don't know what's true.

I don't know what's not true.

I don't believe anything.

I'm just going to stay home.

I'm not going to engage in this issue.

I'm not going to get angry about it.

I just don't want to know anything at all.

And it's an actual propaganda technique.

You know, you just flood people with massive contradictory stories.

And sooner or later, they won't pay any attention to anything at all.