Friday, February 23, 2018

Don't Be A Mouthpiece For Vladimir

     Interestingly, every bit of coverage of the FBI's Russian election-interference case, from NPR to NBC to Fox News reports that the ongoing Russian effort is to find divisive issues and fan the flames -- not just pushing for (then) Mr. Trump, Sen. Sanders and Ms. Stein in the 2016 election, but anything else they can grab, including the recent school shooting. They are pumping out lots of extremist noise on both side of the issue.

     Have an opinion about that atrocity; have an opinion about what should be done in response to it. Express your opinion anywhere that'll let you, if that's what you want to do. But take a close look at memes you share; take a close look at tweets and opinion pieces you pass along. Is it from a source you know, or is it pot-stirring from some clickbait mess? If it cherry-picks quotes, does it provide a source or link for the full text, audio or video?

      Debate is an important and useful part of political discourse. Saying your piece and standing up for your beliefs is one of the ways we process horrors like the Parkland mass shooting -- but don't be played by Mr. Putin's online culture-warriors.
 
      We stick different bumper stickers on our cars but we all drive together on the same roads pretty peacefully. That is one of our great strengths as Americans. Remember it.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Heard a very interesting opinion assessment of what Russia's actual game plan is with the disruption they have been spreading.

Disengagement. The point is to get people who consider themselves 'connected' with what is going on via the news (I spend a few hours a day ingesting news myself, broadcast radio while commuting, internet otherwise ) to get to the point where they simply refuse to believe what they are hearing from certain media sources and just disengage entirely from it.

Meaning, no longer being concerned about things that perhaps they really ought to be concerned about. The noise buries the signal.

As you ended that post :

"We stick different bumper stickers on our cars but we all drive together on the same roads pretty peacefully. That is one of our great strengths as Americans. Remember it."

That's the *point* of the 'fake news' and artificial antagonization, to divide and weaken us so Russia (and likely China as well)can exploit it to their advantage.

And I must say, it's working.

Best wishes for your mom and yourself, I won't have to much longer for mine...