Bias In Russia

There are always two sides to every story and in order to fully understand a situation one must be informed about all aspects. When someone does not have all the information or possesses a limited viewpoint then the chances of bias and misunderstanding occurring increases exponentially. An individual’s outlook on current events heavily depends on where that person lives and how they interpret what the media reports; every issue has more than one perspective but the Western media is excellent at reporting on events with a Western bias. This bias means Western world citizens frequently get a certain interpretation of important issues resulting in people making judgements and forming opinions without all the facts. John Mearsheimer’s article “Why …show more content…
Prominent US government officials such as Secretary of State John Kerry have publicly stated their opposition to Russia’s actions. Kerry argues “you just don’t in the twenty-first century behave in nineteenth century fashion by invading another country on completely trumped-up pretext” (7). Kerry and many other people fail to realize that when nations try and establish democracy in regions that had previously had different systems of government tensions can arise. According to Western world philosophy democracy is the best type of system as it is peaceful and allows everybody to have a voice within politics. However it is wrong to assume that implementing democracy will solve every political problem in the world. This time the attempt to spread democracy in Ukraine resulted in Russia feeling vulnerable which is why it attacked Ukraine before the West could impose a strong and successfully democratic government. The Ukraine crisis was a direct result of the West’s belief that Ukraine needed to be a member of NATO and EU but the West has failed to acknowledge that their actions caused the crisis and continue to blame it on Russian aggression. Neither side believes they are responsible for the Ukraine crisis and “[i]n essence, the two sides have been operating with different playbooks… [t]he result is that the United States and …show more content…
It forces the reader to think critically about its own government’s actions and stresses the importance of viewing all sides of the story. By challenging people’s viewpoints individuals are forced to remain open-minded and consider all possibilities. The West has a limited worldview, which affects its ability to understand Russia’s position and presence in Ukraine. This limited worldview prevented countries from realizing that they were responsible for the crisis because they failed to understand how their desire to expand NATO and the EU was seen as a threat to Russia. Mearsheimer’s argument demonstrates that one cannot impose democracy everywhere without consequences, as there are different ideologies for government and economic systems. It is important to move forward and that means working together, accepting differences and compromising as it is much more effective than ignorance which is what happens when people and countries remain