The most dangerous thing to any country is an elite that believes in its own propaganda.
Propaganda is a tool to explain complicated things in simple terms and implant a particular viewpoint in people who are incapable of understanding the subject matter, or who would be opposed to the particular viewpoint out of moral or self-interested considerations.
Propaganda doesn't have to be untrue, but it very often is, because lying is simpler than explaining a complicated truth.
The people who use propaganda upon either their own or an enemy population MUST be immune to it. When decision-makers start believing in false or simplistic narratives, they make really bad decisions.
Examples aren't hard to find. The Germans lost on the Eastern Front of WW2 because they believed their own propaganda about how fragile the USSR was, and how inferior Russians are. American state-building efforts failed because the people planning them truly believed that inside every Afghan tribesman there is a bisexual Seattle libtard longing to break free. The early phase of the SMO went the way it did because the Kremlin put its trust in what they were told by 'pro-Russian Ukrainian politicians', who, being Ukrainian politicians, just stole all the money they were given instead of engaging in pro-Russian subversion.
The previous US administration believed in their own propaganda about Russia being a Third World gas station that would crumble under sanctions, and whose army would be wiped out by superior NATO doctrine and technology. The current US administration seems more realistic about this...
The European Union is still caught in the trap of their own propaganda rhetoric. They made up a clownish, infantile narrative in which Putin is Schizo Hitler who just invaded a prosperous democracy for no reason, and is currently losing BADLY, with Russia being on the verge of collapse. They base everything they do on this narrative, because they are, frankly speaking, retarded.
Modern Western European 'elites' (upper middle class and upwards) are the most easily propagandized people in all of human history. A medieval peasant had more curiosity and skepticism about the world than they do. While they cling to their delusions, they must be kept away from any decision-making, and cannot be included in any serious diplomacy. They can self-destruct and destroy their economies and demographics even further, if they want to, but it's of crucial importance to just... not listen to them.
You can tell how insane westoid elites are by the usage of phrases like 'Russia shouldn't be rewarded for its invasion', which implies that it's up to THEM, that is, Spain or the Netherlands or whoever, that they are Russia's mommy and daddy and have a right to punish or reward
www.brookings.edu
