Russia and Ukraine

[Belacqua]

This seems like a Marxist interpretation of things. And I can agree to that. 

Well, sure. Marxist interpretations are often correct. Marxist agenda to fix the problems not so much. (But remember that Marx said, "I am not a Marxist." A lot has been done in his name that he wouldn't condone.)

But there is also a whole philosophical background that starts in the 17th century. Philosophers like Montesquieu, Diderot, Rousseau, Voltaire, John Locke etc. has been debating for almost two centuries about the nature of government and about how a more modern and just way of government should be. And Thomas Jefferson has a very nice book called “Liberty and State”. In this book you can see how this states-person struggles to determine the ideal form of governance for the future USA. 
   So your approach is too simplistic. King George must have seen it that way. But not the American People. 

Jefferson and those guys certainly knew a lot about political philosophy. There is always a tension between theory and praxis, though. I mean, "All men are created equal," said the slave-owners. 

Perhaps you think I'm cynical, but I think that philosophy generally takes a back seat when people see their income at stake. 

 Napoleon was a little bit like Hitler. He believed in the occult. When he went to conquer Egypt he took about 200 scientists with him in order to discover the technologies hidden in the Great Pyramids. Of course this had very positive consequences for Egyptology (Like the discovery of the Rosetta Stone for instance). But he failed to discover hidden Egyptian technologies that would allow him to conquer the entire world. 

Yeah, a little bit. It was nice that in those days the conquering armies actually took along scholars to document the countries they were conquering, instead of just driving their heavy equipment over it. 

Napoleon never would have allowed the Iraqi National Museum to get looted if he'd taken Baghdad.

Why would anyone want to believe the state sponsored media of Russia or China (including, and above all the people of Russia and China)? Why would we want to do that?

What the officials know and what the state-sponsored media say are often entirely different. All countries use propaganda. 

The last time I was in O'Hare Airport I discovered that the only way to escape having to listen to CNN was to pay to sit in a restaurant. Everywhere else the most blatant pro-government propaganda was blaring. 

It's sad when you see people just swallowing the lies from one side or another.