One would have thought that the internet would have provided free transmission and sharing of information and, whilst there would always be a load of rubbish on websites, it would be much more difficult for governments to succeed with propaganda and downright lies about other parts of the world.
Now we learn that students in Hong Kong will no longer be taught that the city was a British colony from 1899 to 1997. All reference to this will be deleted from textbooks and China already has in place quite impressive filters on what data can be searched and found in this respect.
We have also become familiar with what would be amusingly farcical if it were not so serious; the increasingly regular news items on Russian TV which show empty supermarket shelves across the whole of Britain, Jeremy Clarkson's comments about soon needing to consider eating children or neighbours and there being no bread anywhere here either. They, of course, also continue to accuse Ukraine of inventing stories of destruction and civilian casualties every day.
We can verify almost any news we read. Sometimes very easily, sometimes it can be a little more difficult but the conspiracy theories and most copied drama we see on Facebook or in our email inboxes seldom stand up to much investigation. It seems that people in Hong Kong, China and Russia cannot. Moreover, many prefer not to question what their governments, teachers or TV presenters tell them and the thought of making an enquiry arises less and less frequently.
They really are now living in a different world.
We've known North Korean people are cut off from much knowledge about what happens outside their borders but that has been the case for so long we kinda ignore it, and them, for that matter. We may eventually be able to ignore Russia but I am not at all sure about China.
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