The 9/11 clip -- Learn about the "Firehose of Outrageousness" propaganda tactic.

[jmbar2]

Everything Trump does at this point is to continuously stoke outrage among his opponents. It is a well-known and documented Russian propaganda technique designed to wear you down into a sense of hopelessness and passive acceptance of autocracy.

Check out Teri Kanefield's thread on how the "firehose" tactic works, with suggestions for responding to it. It is one of the best threads I have read in months on dealing with Trump fatigue.

Link to tweet

[pangaia]

1. How to counteract the fire hose technique

RAND
The Russian "Firehose of Falsehood" Propaganda Model
Why It Might Work and Options to Counter It

Recommendations

--Forewarn audiences of misinformation, or merely reach them first with the truth, rather than retracting or refuting false "facts."
--Prioritize efforts to counter the effects of Russian propaganda, and focus on guiding the propaganda's target audience in more productive directions.
--Compete with Russian propaganda. Both the United States and NATO have the potential to prevent Russia from dominating the information environment.
--Increase the flow of information that diminishes the effectiveness of propaganda, and, in the context of active hostilities, attack the means of dissemination.


https://www.rand.org/pubs/perspectives/PE198.html

[SWBTATTReg]

9. I like all of the tools listed to fight rump's gutter mouth. The best one, that we all control, ...

is:

--Increase the flow of information that diminishes the effectiveness of propaganda, and, in the context of active hostilities, attack the means of dissemination.


Thanks for posting!

[Thomas Hurt]

2. Don't feel hopeless, take it for what it is, lies, and mock the source...

mock those who repeat the lies.

[Hortensis]

3. Scary, but we're not the only ones immune to these

tactics, at least by far most solid Democrats. All America needs vaccination by awareness, but even an undefined realization that things are going very wrong created the blue wave of the midterms.

Typical characteristics make our radical left and reactionary right are especially vulnerable, and we do see them affected here. They're not the large body of the American electorate, but just peeling thin splinters of them away elected Trump in 2016. Perhaps, since some come here, we should wonder how we can counteract the messages constantly being targeted at them to erode hope in our democratic systems and party.

[marylandblue]

8. Unfortunately, we are not immune to the effect.

Every day there are multiple threads on DU expressing outrage at what Trump is doing. This is what he wants and is therefore counterproductive.

Rather than can caught up.in the outrage of the day, look at the bigger picture of what he is doing, and develop a positive counterweight to it. As the article suggests, take democratic action, strengthen democratic institutions as democratic institutions rather than anti-Trump vehicles.

Focus on shared values and effective policies. We can win there. But we can't win the outrage war anymore than we can defeat a cornered rat by biting it.

2020 should NOT be about defeating Trump. It's should be about what kind of country we want to have. We need to make a calm, positive case for following the best of the American tradition.

[Hortensis]

10. Over 60 million Americans voted against them and for

positive, responsible government in 2016, and most of them were Democrats or liberal-leaning independents. And more came out in 2018 to say no. A significant majority of Americans rejects their Kool-Aid. Most of those still do so very strongly and consistently in spite of years of living in a poisoned political atmosphere. We believe in our democracy.

Of course, I completely agree with your belief in the moral and intellectual backbone we all need to be encouraging in those who are vulnerable. There's great opportunity for finding common ground in Trump's attempt to claim Democratic Party ideals for himself. It doesn't just reveal that his followers really want what we do, we know they'll follow his lead and call for it.

[VOX]

4. "Quantity does indeed have a quality all its own."

Definitely what’s happening, smack in front of our eyes.

[Hortensis]

6. Yes. "Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth,"

attributed in various forms to leaders like Goebbels and Napoleon, but I'm sure millennia older.

[PeeJ52]

5. Gee, the Russian model... So that's what tRump and Putin were talking about...

What makes it work best though is a press that won't challenge authority. One that allows tRump to lie about WikiLeaks. They have already let it drop that he loved WikiLeaks 141 times in 2016 and now doesn't know anything about WikiLeaks. That is absolutely amazing. If the press won't call him out for lying, the least they can do is require he be removed from office because he is mentally unfit to serve. No one can forget mentioning WikiLeaks 141 times only 2 and a half years previous and forget them. He must be suffering dementia. He must be removed from office if he truly knows nothing about WikiLeaks.

[Hortensis]

7. See what you're doing? You exhibit erosion of belief in our

systems and adoption of false distrustful notions.

The information you quote came to you through journalistic sources. And, of course, the press started reporting Trump's lies long before he was elected and has been daily ever since.

Look to the electorate and realize that if more believed he was lying and/or cared enough to vote to keep him from getting power, he could never have been elected. We all had all the information we needed, but we didn't all believe it. A lot of people chose to believe it was the press who were lying because they didn't like the message.

Mirror time. We can do better, and must. Russia and Trump both feed malignantly on negativism, fear, hostility, lack of hope. So smile and tell them to go fuck themselves, you're not buying?

[marylandblue]

11. And part of that model is to make you distrust the press

and demand that "they" respond to the outrage this way or that. This is exactly what Trump wants. He is manipulating the press just as much as he is manipulating you. They are his unwitting mouthpiece to upset you and make you feel helpless as you scream at your TV.

Your need to forget the press, ignore Trump, and volunteer or donate for the next election.

[PeeJ52]

12. I don't scream at my TV, and I don't believe in fairy tales...

Sometimes there are boogey men. Look at the states that have both houses controlled by the GOP. Add up their electoral votes. Do they have enough for Donald tRump to win the election? How many of those states have GOP Secretary of States? What if there were efforts to purge voters, change polling places, adjust voting machine allocations, just before there wasn't enough time to rectify it through the courts like, like what happened in Georgia? Sometimes you have to be proactive and demand change in other ways. Screaming at the TV isn't going to do it. Writing to the papers and requesting fair coverage might help. I wrote to CNN protesting their Greg Craig Obama headlines and they've changed. Did I do that? I don't know. I'm glad I did. Don't tell me what to do. OK?

[marylandblue]

13. You do what you like. Nothing wrong with writing to CNN.

It's great you are being proactive in other ways that strengthen our democracy.I'm not trying to tell you what to do.

I'm just suggesting to you that the press is not to blame. They are being manipulated too. It's not their fault. They are only human themselves.

[IndyOp]

14. Excellent! If our journalists simply learned not to repeat

content being spewed by the firehouse, that would be amazing. I think Rachel Maddox is as close as I’ve seen a journalist come to addressing issues without actually enhancing the effectiveness of the firehose - she gives no time to video or audio of Trump spewing falsehoods.