> > The first is that focused and persistent propaganda is able to shift public opinion about institutions they don’t have direct interaction with.
> I don't get why the author says this, confidence dropped for everyone.
I stopped a little to think, and my answer is:
Exactly. It wasn't what I started out with but I think it is a main takeaway:
Our entire web of trust is torn apart.
> Who is doing this successful propaganda?
Our enemies. But they are being smart and lucky. As the Ukrainian meme goes: "we are lucky they are so #%$&@ stupid".
Only here we are the stupid ones and russian and Chinese are the smart ones.
They play both sides of BLM. They play both GOP and DEMs.
They play anti-vaxxers - and get enourmous help from big tech ham fistedly like no others trying to help authorities in a way that even I as a vaccinated and boosted person find crazy.
(What could they have done instead of trying to shut down discussion? It would probably have done wonders if tech execs and politicians had instead shown up in the regular queues for vaccinations. Adult Norwegians still know the reference about the King on the tram during the oil crisis half a century later.)
Media in its chase for clicks also help them, tearing apart again and again trying to make sensations out of everything.
It's certainly been a popular story in the press for many years now, but I remain skeptical.
What percentage of the comprehensive causal chain do you attribute to foreign propaganda versus it simply being various domestic phenomena, and upon what do you base your calculations?
> What percentage of the comprehensive causal chain do you attribute to foreign propaganda versus it simply being various domestic phenomena, and upon what do you base your calculations?
I am no social scientist.
I am just an observer.
I observe society getting worse in certain ways, better in others.
The main observation is probably that Russia has been caugth funding both BLM groups and anti BLM groups.
> I don't get why the author says this, confidence dropped for everyone.
I stopped a little to think, and my answer is:
Exactly. It wasn't what I started out with but I think it is a main takeaway:
Our entire web of trust is torn apart.
> Who is doing this successful propaganda?
Our enemies. But they are being smart and lucky. As the Ukrainian meme goes: "we are lucky they are so #%$&@ stupid".
Only here we are the stupid ones and russian and Chinese are the smart ones.
They play both sides of BLM. They play both GOP and DEMs.
They play anti-vaxxers - and get enourmous help from big tech ham fistedly like no others trying to help authorities in a way that even I as a vaccinated and boosted person find crazy.
(What could they have done instead of trying to shut down discussion? It would probably have done wonders if tech execs and politicians had instead shown up in the regular queues for vaccinations. Adult Norwegians still know the reference about the King on the tram during the oil crisis half a century later.)
Media in its chase for clicks also help them, tearing apart again and again trying to make sensations out of everything.