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Atrocity Propaganda in the age of Cyber Warfare

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posted on Sep, 13 2017 @ 07:00 PM
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Always observe the language. It is in your own thoughts and expressions that you are most disloyal to yourself, because what you think and say has often been given to you by some species of fallacy, some piece of propaganda, or some stupidity. Sometimes question-begging and the sheer force of repetition is all it takes to make a glaring falsity true in the minds of the uncritical.

And that is precisely what has happened with the so-called Russian interference in the 2016 American election, which still hangs like a cloud over the current administration, sending the more pliable segments of the public into raptures.

The notion that Russia “meddled” in the elections, and thus attacked American Democracy, has become so ubiquitous that it is de rigueur among the intelligentsia, the political class, and their obsequious followers. But in terms of propaganda, it has done wonders in gaining judicial and public support for investigations, legislations, sanctions, the limiting of freedoms, and even talk of military action. It is the domestic propaganda, not Russia's "meddling", that has eroded democracy.

Observe these statements by Greg Miller, Ellen Nakashima and Adam Entous of the Washington Post in their June 2017 Obama puff-piece.



“In political terms, Russia’s interference was the crime of the century, an unprecedented and largely successful destabilizing attack on American democracy.”





“That spectacle has obscured the magnitude of Moscow’s attempt to hijack a precious and now vulnerable-seeming American democratic process.”





“[Quoting former ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul] Russia violated our sovereignty, meddling in one of our most sacred acts as a democracy — electing our president. The Kremlin should have paid a much higher price for that attack. ”



Assuming that the conjectures regarding the perpetrators, their intentions and their actions are true, it simply does not follow that the hacking of private email accounts belonging to private entities, and the leaking of those emails on social media, constitutes an “unprecedented and largely successful destabilizing attack on American democracy”.

The DNC is a private corporation, aka DNC Services Corp, and hence any and all hacks, leaks, or “attacks” are upon that particular corporation, and not on “America”, not on the “election”, not on “American democracy” as propagandists might have you believe. Lawyers for the DNC utilized this fact in their defense against the fraud charges brought against them by disgruntled donors, who felt burned by the DNCs own “meddling” in the elections.

John Podesta is also a private citizen. Again, any and all attacks on him by entities foreign or otherwise is not an attack on America, American democracy, or any election, as propagandists would have you believe.

Twitter and Facebook are neither instances of America, democracy, nor an election. They do not represent American infrastructure, are not government institutions, and manage their own affairs. The dissemination of news on these platforms, fake or otherwise, could not in any realm of possibility be considered any sort of attack, interference, “meddling”, in any country’s affairs, in any country’s democratic processes, and so on.

So then, what part of America, Democracy, or an Election did the Russians “attack”, now that we know none of the actual targets of the hacks, the leaks, and the “fake news”, were any of those?

The only victims (if you can call them that) are the DNC, who couldn't secure their own servers, and John Podesta, who has hopefully since changed his password.

Even if the allegations were true, the way they are being presented by those guilty of their own meddling are false, greatly exaggerated, and outright fallacious.

For example, remember that Thomas L. Friedman, in an anti-Trump op-ed for the New York Times, would have you believe this nonsense, based on that nonsense:



We need to rerun the tape. Ladies and gentlemen, we were attacked on Dec. 7, 1941, we were attacked on Sept. 11, 2001, and we were attacked on Nov. 8, 2016. That most recent attack didn’t involve a horrible loss of lives, but it was devastating in its own way. Our entire intelligence community concluded that Russia hacked our election by deliberately breaking into Democratic National Committee computers and then drip-by-drip funneling embarrassing emails through WikiLeaks to undermine Clinton’s campaign. And what have we done about it? Other than a wrist slap against Moscow, we’ve moved on.

That is not O.K.


The exaggeration and fabrication of the crimes of our enemies, so as to excite the bloodlust of the public against them, is as old as war itself. In his study of propaganda techniques, Harold D. Lasswell says this about atrocity propaganda:


“While all atrocity stories show a family resemblance, and the old stand-bys can be relied upon, no classification should be regarded by the practical propagandist as more than suggestive. A certain fringe of novelty is always permissible, because the conditions of warfare arc never precisely the same. Since the discovery of germs the enemy may be accused of infecting wells, cattle, and food, not to speak of wounds.”


In the age of cyber-warfare, there isn’t much in terms of atrocity occurring on the front lines, so it appears propagandists have had to invent a more subtle form of atrocity propaganda with which to muster support for their own attacks on American democracy. It appears to have worked.



Inside Putin's Campaign to Destroy US Democracy
Re p. Adam Schiff says alleged Russian meddling in election was an effort to destroy American democracy
The alarming response to Russian meddling in American democracy
Forget Comey. The Real Story Is Russia’s War on America
Hillary Clinton says 'Americans' guided Russia's attack on her campaign, suggesting Trump's campaign 'colluded' with Russia
Russia’s Attack, an Alternate History



posted on Sep, 13 2017 @ 07:20 PM
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a reply to: LesMisanthrope

Sacred.. ha ha ha..

They're all playing the same game across the board, but let's pretend "Russia commited the largest unprecedented crime of the century that destabilized American democracy".


Holy, just typing that made me cringe.


As always Les,



edit on 13-9-2017 by knowledgehunter0986 because: (no reason given)



posted on Sep, 13 2017 @ 07:32 PM
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I concur wholeheartedly.

Choice of words: fragrance, scent, odor, smell, stench - this is the simplest example I can think of to illustrate how word choices influence perceptions. While fragrance and scent may be seen as pleasant or positive, stench is definitely negative and unpleasant - odor and smell could be more neutral.

Spin and propaganda. The only way I can perceive that the Russians "influenced" the election MAY have been in social media posts. As far as I am aware, playing to the gullibility of an audience on social media isn't a crime.

ganjoa



posted on Sep, 13 2017 @ 08:00 PM
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a reply to: LesMisanthrope



The DNC is a private corporation, aka DNC Services Corp, and hence any and all hacks, leaks, or “attacks” are upon that particular corporation, and not on “America”, not on the “election”, not on “American democracy” as propagandists might have you believe. Lawyers for the DNC utilized this fact in their defense against the fraud charges brought against them by disgruntled donors, who felt burned by the DNCs own “meddling” in the elections.


So essentially you're saying Trump couldn't be guilty, altho he's bought into the propaganda as well.

Frankly I don't pay much attention to the caterwauling over the election, but wouldn't this argument also serve to shut most everyone up except for the DNC who would have to handle this as a corporate espionage case and prove it as well?

Please correct me if I got this wrong.




posted on Sep, 13 2017 @ 08:02 PM
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Excellent OP.

With the MSM, It's been a spin-job worthy of Joseph Goebbels. They repeat a lie over and over again. Unfortunately, that type of propaganda can have a great influence on the weak-minded.

Soon it will be a year, nothing...

7 years from now, when President Trump is preparing to leave office after his second term, there will still be nothing.

Let that prophecy be my gift to you, ATS. Go forth and multiply, and replenish the earth, hehe...



posted on Sep, 13 2017 @ 08:16 PM
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originally posted by: ganjoa
I concur wholeheartedly.

Choice of words: fragrance, scent, odor, smell, stench - this is the simplest example I can think of to illustrate how word choices influence perceptions. While fragrance and scent may be seen as pleasant or positive, stench is definitely negative and unpleasant - odor and smell could be more neutral.

Spin and propaganda. The only way I can perceive that the Russians "influenced" the election MAY have been in social media posts. As far as I am aware, playing to the gullibility of an audience on social media isn't a crime.

ganjoa


Agreed, my friend. I would even expand on that, and go so far as to say that "playing to the gullibility of an audience on social media" is not only legal, it's an extremely valuable and effective skill to have.

And there are LOTS of gullible little minds, filled with mush, on social media. Lots.



posted on Sep, 14 2017 @ 08:49 AM
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a reply to: LesMisanthrope


In the age of cyber-warfare, there isn’t much in terms of atrocity occurring on the front lines, so it appears propagandists have had to invent a more subtle form of atrocity propaganda with which to muster support for their own attacks on American democracy. It appears to have worked.


Which is why the US is a de facto oligarchy by now. This goes way back to the neocons and 9/11. I'd suggest to watch Adam Curtis and the Power of Nightmares in order to broaden the perspective. .




posted on Sep, 14 2017 @ 10:02 AM
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Too bad the Russians failed to destroy Democracy.
I was hoping it would die before it could kill the Republic.



posted on Sep, 14 2017 @ 05:19 PM
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Russian meddling is worse than neocons blowing up iraq and neolibs blowing up syria. Riiiiiiiiiight.





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