The “Uncle Ben Effect” allegedly caused children to vomit after repeated exposure to the American rice company’s commercials.

The post-Soviet Russia-Ukraine so often plays itself out in alimentary terms:  what might Ukraine be sneaking into Russia’s (political) diet?

Invading Russia from the West without going through Ukraine is theoretically possible, but inefficient

Ukrainians have somehow been brainwashed into thinking they exist.

Were cities and countries truly reverting to their traditional, national names, or was someone just trolling diplomats and journalists?

Ukraine may not have been a “real”country, but Ukrainians, rather than being the enemy, were at worst a variety of Russian who talked funny. 

What does it mean to be a "real" country?

The Russian literary tradition gives little comfort to participants in territorial disputes.

The violence in Ukraine, continually posed as a proxy war, would then be the work of malign forces pulling strings offstage

Engaging with the demonized discourse (whether “zombification”,  “propaganda”, or “fake news”) starts to look suspiciously like engaging in it. 

Zombification is not just based on false psychological and informational premises: it is based on the belief that politics are the product of rational thought.

The directors juxtapose Astakhov with the imagined television viewer in a manner that insults them both.

The critique of the zombified television audience is a revolution that will, in fact, be televised.

Accusations of zombification are a useful tactic in the general undermining of all political discourse, in that they serve as a substitute for actual evaluation.

The bard of zombification was, of course, Victor Pelevin.

The portrayal of cultists as “zombies” was  one of the few points of commonality with Western capitalist zombie tropes.

The Soviet Union was ground zero for a wide variety of mind control fears. 

I am not zombified, because I can see how zombification has worked on others. 

I have no choice about becoming a zombie; I was bitten that way.

The postsocialist zombie is less an imaginary creature than it is a state of mind.