The propagandist also holds every statement to be a lie-not just every statement he makes but every possible statement. Mass propaganda discovered that its audience was ready at all times to believe the worst, no matter how absurd, and did not particularly object to being deceived because it held every statement to be a lie anyhow.”Īfter a while, the audience and the propagandists are no longer distinct. Hannah Arendt famously described the totalitarian ruler’s ascendance this way: “In an ever-changing, incomprehensible world the masses had reached the point where they would, at the same time, believe everything and nothing, think that everything was possible and that nothing was true. . . . The regime gains a monopoly on reality, and can make any claim whatsoever. Far from promoting a single guiding ideology, this kind of propaganda robs you of your bearings. The Russian dissident singer-songwriter Alexander Galich sang about one such pair: “We stand for the cause of peace and we are preparing for war.” In a talk I gave with the historian Timothy Snyder, he cited more recent examples: “There is no such thing as a Ukrainian language” goes with “Ukrainian authorities are forcing everyone to speak Ukrainian.” Russian propaganda is a direct descendant of totalitarian Soviet propaganda. It bombards you with mutually contradictory claims, which often come packaged in doublethink pairs.
Totalitarian propaganda is overwhelming and inconsistent. (“The Black-targeted groups were presented with distinct historical conspiracies-ones intended to reinforce cultural identity as well as create discord.”) rejected this gift and France was forced to send the current Lady Liberty. Another holds that the original Statue of Liberty was modelled after a black woman, but the U.S. Or consider the memes that promote historical conspiracy theories. (“Tactic: Sow Literal Division” is the chapter heading of this section.) Or consider an entire collection of memes agitating for “Texit,” the secession of Texas from the United States. Or consider a picture of a distressed young man being comforted by someone who might be Jesus, accompanied by two captions: “ ‘Struggling with the addiction to masturbation? Reach out to me and we will beat it together.’-Jesus.” and “You can’t hold hands with God when you are masturbating.” (New Knowledge: “Recruiting an asset by exploiting a personal vulnerability-usually a secret that would inspire shame or cause personal or financial harm if exposed-is a timeless espionage practice.”) Under Trump and Pence, it reads, “Like for Jesus Team.” The tagline for Clinton and Kaine is “Ignore for Satan Team.” (The New Knowledge report explains that these memes “reinforced in-group camaraderie.”) They exploited social unrest and human cognitive biases.” But the illustrations accompanying the New Knowledge report seem transposed from a wholly different narrative.Ĭonsider, for example, a meme featuring two photographs: on top, there is a smiling Donald Trump opposite a smiling Mike Pence on the bottom, Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine, he with a Satanic five-pointed star in a circle on his forehead and she with buffalo horns growing out of hers. Petersburg-based Internet Research Agency, one that played out on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and elsewhere: “The Internet Research Agency exploited divisions in our society by leveraging vulnerabilities in our information ecosystem. The text of the report describes a sophisticated, wide-ranging, sustained, strategic operation by the St. The report, prepared by the cybersecurity company New Knowledge, was the more detailed of two commissioned by the Senate Intelligence Committee and released on Monday-it is illustrated with screenshots of memes apparently used as part of the Russian campaign of disinformation. Reading a new report on Russian online interference in the 2016 Presidential election is a cognitively disturbing experience.
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