They know this because they people crying about the first amendment and "cancel culture" are consistently the ones doing it to others.

Their interests aren't generally all that aligned, so that helps. It's pretty obvious that the garbage coming out of the cable news networks is at a minimum deeply sympathetic to American corporate interests, if not straight up misinformation.

From a US perspective, I see these tactics being used far more extensively by wealthy individuals and corporate interests than I do Chinese interests. Unfortunately, our government and especially our politicians are often directly involved in spreading misinformation and suppressing the truth. We need strategies that function outside of government to close the gaps between reality and public perception.

Name one example of a serious problem being faced by humanity that isn't solidly rooted in undue respect for unchallenged ideas. I think that any philosophy that inherently encourages that kind of behavior is dangerous. I know full well that some people think that makes me an asshole, but I also know they will never try to actually support that belief. Now that's irony.

Not really. Detaching one's self from reality is inherently hostile to humanity's future. It's an asshole thing to do.

To be fair, we're all assholes far more than we like to admit, religious or not. Being "spiritual" is not especially worse than a whole lot of other behaviors.

I'm not sure that Ukraine sees this as a test war, but I get your point.

They do, but these drones are far cheaper to build than the missiles usually used to shoot them down. They are also being produced in massive quantities.

He has a lot of good opinions, but not consistently good opinions. He reminds me a lot of how many viewed Russell Brand or maybe Joe Rogan years ago. When good opinions come from a shallow philosophical framework, always expect things to go sideways eventually.

It might be a schtick, but their public facade never entirely detached from their actual identity. Also, isn't that what everyone does to some extent?

Well yeah, it ain't happening since the US ain't cutting off all support for Israel. That is known and countries have shaped their strategies around it. The US abandoning Israel would be a table flipping event.

Russia would be importing weapons tech from Israel. Israel can't come close to matching Russia on production volume, and Israel's needs are a sliver of what Russia uses in Ukraine.