1/5 This is how deep US propaganda can go: somehow all my life I had thought the Philippines were far out into the middle of Pacific Ocean, closer to Hawaii than China. So every time I'd hear a US-ran story about how China was encroaching on Philippine waters, this perception...

2/5 ...would lead me to think to myself "what's China doing so far out into the ocean?" It wasn't until I was looking at an unrelated map of Hong Kong that I happened to notice one of the Philippines' islands in the corner next door. It was in that moment I learned that the...

3/5 ...Philippines were in the South China Sea. Something I somehow never learned even as a child taking World Geography classes in school. It stayed with me into adulthood somehow that the Philippines are on the opposite side of Guam, and every story about Chinese incursions...

4/5 ...seemed so much bigger because of this mis-perception on my part. It gave me a completely different view on the artificial islands, the conflicts between fishing boats, etc. It sounded like a foreign invasion rather than a local border dispute. The tone of the stories I...

5/5 ...would read changed completely after this revelation. "Americans bad at geography" is a joke around the globe, but it's more than that: this kind of ignorance is a clear tool of propaganda too. Knowledge is power, and in this case completely alters the narrative as well!