Is he wrong? No, he's unfortunately right
Interesting article on soft power by Tim Kirby.

He's mainly talking to small countries, not to internal dissidents.

Kirby makes one point that I've been pushing for a long time, and a second point that I'm not sure about.

The point I've been pushing: Stop trying to use the UN or other international organizations. Stop trying to use "laws" and "resolutions". They are a complete waste of time. Deepstate owns most of those entities, and doesn't respond to "laws" at all.

Kirby's point that I'm not sure about: Use video. He notes that a studio sufficient to produce pro-quality Youtube costs about as much as a new car. Every country can afford it, and many ordinary people can afford it. This was NOT true before 2000. A pro-quality TV studio ran into tens of millions.

Third point, which makes full sense: Tech is cheap but national will and strategy is a lot harder. Many small countries, including Russia, still haven't figured out how to shape propaganda for the best soft power.

As someone who works in the Russian media I can say that virtually no one in power understands this here. Their perspective of how to influence other countries remains a matter of men in suits, either reading the news off a teleprompter or speaking to selected dignitaries in broken English at very official sounding elite forums.

Yup. RT is especially annoying. All of its English-language announcers have the same odd Belfast accent and lecturing manner, and they alternate with synthetic speech in a variety of unnecessary accents "reading" quotes from various people. They always recommend following UN Resolution 2653.87 Subpart 45a3. Or something. I stopped listening even before Putin surrendered to Soros.

Maybe old Booker T had a better answer. Instead of issuing propaganda, issue influential PRODUCTS and SERVICES.

.... No, after thinking about this for a while, I see it's useless. It worked for some countries like Belarus, but it failed for most. China has cornered the market on influence via exports, now including exports of murder and mayhem (lockdowns). Cuba tried to sell sugar and tobacco, and was met with blockades. Persia tried to sell oil, with the same fate.

Maybe Kirby's video is the only remaining path.
  ¶ 12:11 PM