The difference between hackers and our enemies is that we value
reason, logic and consistency whereas the political classes deal in
emotion, and expedient affect (truth and consistency are irrelevant).
Trump and Putin use the same play-book, and other leaders are learning
from them [1]
Many comments here declare voting as irrelevant and ineffectual. This
leaves a sense of learned helplessness in challenging dangerous
political forces.
But hackers seem to be overlooking important ideas that we should know
better about. Voting may not work on the individual level, but it
works at scale, and we are really good at scaling things. Emotion is
a much more powerful tool than reason, and influence is really just
social engineering at scale. We are good at social engineering.
Modern propaganda is as much technical craft as a creative one. We
are great at both.
The British Saatchi campaign is a flop, almost a laughable example of
how disconnected from people they really are. What makes information
war interesting is that highly polished short documentaries and video
clips are not expensive or difficult to produce. The EFF already tried
their hand with "The Corruptibles", which I think was very promising.
The EFF are wasting their time writing blog posts that preach to the
choir and only a handful of regular readers will see. I know because
that's what I do, and as a writer I am realising that I speak almost
entirely to those whose minds don't need changing.
What's needed is a fight with the politicians on their own ground with
funny, viral, highly emotive, slickly produced influence materials
that show how ridiculous any attack on E2E technologies really is at
this time in history. I think the EFF could better use their resources
this way.
[1] read about Vladislav Surkov and the tactics of discombobulation.
Many comments here declare voting as irrelevant and ineffectual. This leaves a sense of learned helplessness in challenging dangerous political forces.
But hackers seem to be overlooking important ideas that we should know better about. Voting may not work on the individual level, but it works at scale, and we are really good at scaling things. Emotion is a much more powerful tool than reason, and influence is really just social engineering at scale. We are good at social engineering. Modern propaganda is as much technical craft as a creative one. We are great at both.
The British Saatchi campaign is a flop, almost a laughable example of how disconnected from people they really are. What makes information war interesting is that highly polished short documentaries and video clips are not expensive or difficult to produce. The EFF already tried their hand with "The Corruptibles", which I think was very promising.
The EFF are wasting their time writing blog posts that preach to the choir and only a handful of regular readers will see. I know because that's what I do, and as a writer I am realising that I speak almost entirely to those whose minds don't need changing.
What's needed is a fight with the politicians on their own ground with funny, viral, highly emotive, slickly produced influence materials that show how ridiculous any attack on E2E technologies really is at this time in history. I think the EFF could better use their resources this way.
[1] read about Vladislav Surkov and the tactics of discombobulation.