Local Networks Trump Elite Narratives

In former communist societies, interpersonal information channels (neighbors, friends, local observation) have become the default truth‑test, producing a durable cultural skepticism toward media and official narratives. That makes populations harder to persuade with top‑down moralizing arguments and more responsive to concrete, environment‑based evidence. — If true, policymakers and media that rely on elite framing risk misreading or alienating large constituencies across Central and Eastern Europe, affecting everything from immigration policy to EU political integration.