There’s nothing inherently bad about propaganda. The problem with Russian propaganda is that it’s trying to justify a brutal invasion that has killed hundreds of thousands of people, among them children buried in rubble by missile strikes. The US did the same after it’s invasion of Iraq. It was wrong then and it’s wrong now.

It’s a result of compassion fatigue. When the first dead migrant children washed up on the Greek coast on people were appalled and transfixed. But the next month there were more dead bodies, and then more. Eventually people stop caring.

I’m old enough to remember “Live Aid”. When Bob Geldof got up on stage and said we were going to end world hunger people really believed it was possible. Since then there have been dozens more famines in Ethiopia, and the deaths run to the tens of millions. And now no-one mentions them.

Hopefully the whole debacle will focus people’s minds on the real problem. The US government is spending more than it is taking in, and that’s a problem with only 2 possible solutions (continuing to raise the debt ceiling doesn’t count as a solution). We must reduce spending or increase revenue by raising taxes. There is nothing else to discuss… kicking the can down the road only hurts us more in the long run.

Spending money on worthwhile endeavors is a good thing, but you have to have the money to spend in the first place. If you don’t and you just kick the can down the road it puts a much heavier burden on future generations. We need to get serious about raising taxes on those who do not pay their fair share.