General Discussion

TygrBright

(20,755 posts) Thu Aug 30, 2018, 04:41 PM Aug 2018

On Subversion, Disinformation, and Propaganda-- And Why We're Losing the War

Who's "we"?

In the larger sense, America.

More specifically, liberal Americans.

More specifically still, the Democratic Party.

What's this "War" of which you write?

Again in the largest sense, the long war waged by Russia, first in its Soviet incarnation, and now in its incarnation as an autocracy under Putin. Russia is not the only adversary waging a war of subversion via disinformation and propaganda, but they are the most expert and they have been focused on America as "the main enemy" for a very long time. And they put a LOT of resources into it. But there are also other players out there using similar playbooks.

In a sadder and closer-to-home sense, the "War Within" involves Americans versus Americans. Though this is promoted and strongly enabled by the outside adversary(s) as part of their larger strategy, there is an equally long history of Americans motivated by greed and hunger for power who haven't hesitated to use the same arsenal in their quest to accumulate wealth and control at the expense of other Americans.

Define terms, please-- 'subversion'? 'Disinformation'? 'Propaganda'?

Any search engine and all dictionaries will provide general definitions. But for our purposes, 'subversion' is any strategy used to render an adversary either unable or unwilling to oppose the actions of the subverter. Here's an example: Promote disunity among your opponents with "No True Scotsman" arguments that splinter them into increasingly narrow factions and set them against one another.

Disinformation is deliberate deception, but that's more than lies or fake news. It can be distortion of the importance of a particular piece of information, distraction, misinterpretation of factual information, the establishment of nonexistent connections between actual events or facts, etc. It can be as simple as a suggestion to an innocent journalist that they investigate something that will ultimately prove to be a blind alley, rather than pursuing something else that would lead to a genuine story. It can be using various audiences' lack of sophistication against them- we see this a lot in loud assertions that something is "proved" by "research". On more rigorous technical analysis, no such "proof" exists, but the disinformation has already had its effect.

Propaganda can be very crude and still be effective- see "Facebook/bots/2016 General Election". But it can also be more subtle, and very powerful. It comes in many forms. A great deal of marketing and advertising relies on what is, essentially, propaganda: Influencing the beliefs and actions of the target audience via a whole range of informational tools.

So how are we "losing" against this nasty stuff?

That question itself holds the first clue: "Nasty stuff." Americans have an ingrained and visceral "eeeeeyew" response to information warfare. Subversion, disinformation, propaganda? Those are used by Bad Guys. Since we are the Good Guys, all we have to do is Tell the Truth, Protect the Free Press, and Justice Will Prevail. This combination of naivete' and squeamishness has been most effectively exploited.

Here's an example from the smaller-scale War Within: The "Liberal" bubble. Personally, I think being liberal is a fine and admirable thing. I look at the dictionary definitions and my heart swells with pride. "Open to new behavior or opinions"? "Respectful of individual rights and freedoms"? These are good things, right? Of course! Me and other self-identifying Liberals in this here bubble think it's a wonderful thing to be! And while we've been complacently relying on those dictionary definitions to explain who we are and why it's so great, have we been paying attention to what's been happening outside our bubble? No, we've relied on simple faith. If people just look at the definition...

Except that there's been a decades-long campaign of disinformation and propaganda to turn the label "Liberal" into a vile insult. And it's working.

Facts, dictionaries, records, primary sources, all the things we love and rely on and have such faith in can be dry and dusty, compared to the shiny glitter of propaganda. And they can be very vulnerable to disinformation tactics. Does the phrase "Lies, damn' lies, and statistics" ring a bell?

So what do we do? Join them in the gutter? Isn't the cure as bad as the disease?

Yes and no. Remembering that we are the Good Guys, after all, there is no shame in embracing that identity and staking our claim to the moral high ground there. Sure, it somewhat limits our tactics, and they have a helluva head start on us. But the truth is that pretty much everyone has both a 'better self' and a 'baser self'. While it's generally easier to tickle the fear buttons and the self-interest buttons, it's not that difficult to tickle the love buttons and the altruism buttons-- and it can be very powerful.

America hasn't always been sitting back and letting our adversaries steamroll us in this war. We have propaganda chops of our own. "Radio Free Europe," the "Voice of America" even the Peace Corps were all tools in America's fight to keep the hearts and minds of the world out from under the Soviet cloud. Yes, we didn't always use them well and they were occasionally subverted against us, often by our own ineptitude-- but using an adversary's mistakes against them is part of the package. The correct response is not to quit using a tool that we've made a mistake with, but to fix the mistake, recalibrate the tool, and keep fighting.

There are three things we can do to fight back, and I believe to ultimately win (because, yeah, we are the Good Guys):

First: Acknowledge that the war exists and commit to fighting it. Commit resources, ingenuity, and effort. Point out what's happening. Be alert for our adversary's actions and CALL THEM OUT. Point out what they're doing. Pull away the curtain. Explain what they're up to. No one likes to feel like a manipulated tool, and, at first, we won't admit to ourselves that's what's been happening to us. Persistence. Repetition. Avoid blaming-the-victim framings in favor of "whoa, they're clever-- but now that we SEE what they're doing, we don't have to be fooled".

Second: Use propaganda techniques to make the Good Stuff shinier, louder, and more attention-getting. Yes, even if that means sometimes oversimplifying, losing the nuance, and giving up the on-the-other-hand equivocation. Is direct participation of people in determining their leadership and the policies that will shape their lives a Good Thing? Damn' straight it is, and IT DOES WORK. Yes, it can be subverted and perverted and made less effective by a clever adversary, but that doesn't change the reality: It's a Good Thing and Worth Making Work, even at a cost.

Third: Use propaganda techniques to expose the icky, icky, ickiness of the Bad Stuff. Not only is what we're promoting a Good Thing, take a hard, personal, in-your-face and it-can-happen-to-me look at how unpleasant the alternatives really are. Okay, so taking passports away from some people with Mexican-sounding names in the border states is okay because I don't like Mexicans and it won't happen to me anyway? You think so? What about when the passport-takers-away decide that they don't want YOU traveling for some reason? You think it can't happen? LOOK OVER THERE (pointing at Vladivostok and the latest defenestration and/or forcible detainment of some Enemy of Putin trying to flee). THAT'S WHAT THEY WANT. And it won't stop with "people with Mexican-sounding names," bucko.

We can turn this war around. But we have to start actually fighting it.

determinedly,
Bright