Russia may label McDonald's a "foreign agent" hell-bent on damaging people's health

I agree with a non-specific "Fuck McDonald's" sentiment, but there's something else that should be addressed which I'm not seeing here in the comments people need to be aware of: This is right out of the Dugin/Putin handbook - a response to our "calling out" their long-running, state-sponsored disinfo campaign.

Here's how it works - Russia/Putin is accused of doing a "bad thing A", they respond by equating "bad thing A" with some other "bad thing B" that the US/The West engages in.

It's insidiousness comes from the fact that the things they most loudly accuse us of are often both true and bad, what they (very effectively) do is frame A & B in such a way that makes them seem equally true and equally bad - which is often NOT the case.

This is a perfect example. In response to our condemning their state-run media as a hostile foreign agent, they condemn one of our corporations as a hostile foreign agent. And there's a real argument to be made that McDonalds is both harmful and (obviously) foreign. But here's the thing - this juxtaposition insinuates that McDonalds is acting on behalf of the US Government, as if Ray Kroc and Henry Kissinger sat in a smoke-filled room back in 1964 and hatched a plot to make Russians fat and diabetic. But that's exactly how Russian disinfo works.

While fast food and disinfo are both, on the whole, "bad", and perhaps equally so - in this context, it's like saying a drunk driver who kills someone is guilty of the same kind of murder as someone who sneaks into the victims home and slits their throat while they sleep.

One of them is a reckless and stupid, the other is sinister and evil.

/r/worldnews Thread Link - newsweek.com