General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThree Russian propaganda techniques being used by the Trump administration & how to fight them
Three Russian propaganda techniques being used by the Trump administration & how to fight them
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/8/20/1690714/-Three-Russian-propaganda-techniques-being-used-by-the-Trump-administration-and-how-to-fight-them
SNIP/
The idea behind toxic cynicism is discouragement.
If you believe that nothing you do is going to make a difference, youre more likely to check out and not even vote.
We saw this in large doses in the last election: Everything is awful so f*ck it, why not vote for Trump? If everyone is lying, what difference does it make?
Weve heard this for years from right-wing pundits in these forms:
You cant trust the government
You cant trust the media
You cant trust science
You cant trust academia
In the past, these narratives have been used to discredit traditional institutions while building up the organizations that corporate America wants us to trust: Big business.
We all know the marketingWe need to free some markets. We need tax cuts to unleash the power of our corporations. Whats good for business is whats good for America. Markets regulate themselves. More consumer choice will fix all of our issues with government.
All of these narratives were designed by corporate special interest groups like the Chamber of Commerce to encourage one thing: Selling off government (organizations designed by and for people) to private industry (organizations with profit as the main goal).
Weve heard so much of this over the years from our own propagandists that we were really susceptible to even greater levels of cynicism in this past election. Over and over again we were told that Hillary Clinton was just as bad.
Vanity Fair wrote about the goal of toxic cynicism in Russian propaganda:
At the heart of this mind-set is the idea that there is no such thing as objective truth or even facts, because everything is spun or disguised to reflect advantageously on one group or another. The whole idea of values has been thoroughly debased [in Russia], to the extent that if you talk about Western values youll just get a laugh, says Ben Nimmo, a research fellow at the Atlantic Council. This environment of toxic cynicism allows Putins word to be as good as anyone elses, because according to Moscows worldview everyone, including and especially westerners, is a self-righteous hypocrite and a liar.
I hear this from conservatives all the time. They think that everything that comes from the left is some sort of spin. Therefore, any spin of their own is justified.
Tactics for fighting cynicism
Pointing out propaganda techniques is not the most effective way of fighting them. With this in mind, I like to talk about a few ways of countering them if you encounter them personally.
1. If you know folks who just like to dump on everything on social media, get rid of them. I call these commenters seagull commenters because they just like to take a shit on everything. This doesnt mean conservatives. It means trolls.
2. Form groups of allies where the moderators can get rid of these people.
3. If you see people who are liberal getting down, pick them up. Tell them what theyre doing does matter. Talk about how it does make a difference. It takes psychological energy to fight movements and we need to pick people up, not tear them apart.
4. Work to establish trust with people.
5. Hold conversations at a values level rather than a policy level. If you can recognize when people you know have the same values as you do, its easier to see them as on your side even if you disagree about a candidate or a policy.
Tactic 2: Whataboutism
Tactic 3: Own all the narratives: right, left, center, the entire spectrum
Read on tactics 2 & 3: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/8/20/1690714/-Three-Russian-propaganda-techniques-being-used-by-the-Trump-administration-and-how-to-fight-them
.
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)Madam45for2923
(7,178 posts)dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)yurbud
(39,405 posts)Why weren't "centrists" Democrats calling out the GOP on this stuff publicly decades ago?
emulatorloo
(44,131 posts)And drop the 'centrist' smear.
Would be a good start don't you think?
yurbud
(39,405 posts)Can you pass that up the food chain and tell them to come up with something new?
How about incremental wars and favors for Wall Street and big sweeping policies for the rest of us that don't involve making the already rich richer?
yurbud
(39,405 posts)If Democrats want to keep their base, they need an end to the Russia "narrative" that doesn't involve a World War or more coups on their borders.
Most Republican voters are tired of the endless wars. We won the Cold War--at least if it was about defeating communism.
If we have a beef with Russia now it is about oil markets, currencies, and whether Eurasia integrates the way we claim we want the our trading partners to integrate with us.
If Russia did interfere on Trump's behalf, I'm not happy about that, but it's a pretty mild response given our political machinations and military deployments in their neighboring countries.
emulatorloo
(44,131 posts)orangecrush
(19,572 posts)Great article.