Comment by snapcaster
13 days ago
Right, but that quote is kind of dumb. It implies that disagreements or criticism of the US are coming from russian disinformation agents. You can see how that framing (even if true sometimes!) isn't productive to any kind of actual discussion right?
> It implies that disagreements or criticism of the US are coming from russian disinformation agents
Does it? The post in question observed 2 things:
1. Russia invests a lot in disinformation campaigns and spreading (conflicting, but that is part of their doctrine) narratives.
2. Bothsidisms and False Equivalency are some of the common tools in muddying the information sphere.
Is your point of contention with the truthfulness of either of these observations, or with their proximity to each other?
Yes obviously. it doesn't take much in the way of literacy to understand the point being made by putting those statements next to eachother. The point is to invalidate whatever criticism is being made of the imperium
Isn't it amazing how effective repetitive, rhetorical propaganda can be though? These techniques are hard-coded in literally millions of minds, and once an idea takes root it is very difficult to remove.
One might think skill in logic would prevent such things, but I'd expect most of the HN crowd is well above average in logic, yet few can't avoid having their cognition controlled by these sorts of simple memes.
Then you read something which has never been stated. The point is that in a democracy people need to be well informed to keep their "imperium" to account, but that precisely this point is the weak point because it is overrun by commercial interests and adversaries that are KNOWN to be poisoning the well even more. To the point that we see here some special takes that are boosted or crafted, just to get people like YOU and ME to repeat that.
To craft such a take you don't even have to lie, you can take a (half) truth and meme your way to hide what should not be discussed.
This just works and is far more effective than fighter jets pro ruble spend.
The worrying things in the US should certainly be discussed, this is rather an understated point. In other comments I mentioned the war on terror for instance.
For that, you are not served by simplistic sound bytes.