Truth Is Another Front in Putin's War
Last edited Sun Mar 20, 2022, 11:38 PM - Edit history (1)
Source: New York Times
Truth Is Another Front in Putin's War
Steven Lee Myers and Stuart A. Thompson
Sun, March 20, 2022, 10:48 AM
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Disinformation in wartime is as old as war itself, but today war unfolds in the age of social media and digital diplomacy. That has given Russia and its allies in China and elsewhere powerful means to prop up the claim that the invasion is justified, exploiting disinformation to rally its citizens at home and to discredit its enemies abroad. Truth has simply become another front in Russias war.
Using a barrage of increasingly outlandish falsehoods, President Vladimir Putin has created an alternative reality, one in which Russia is at war not with Ukraine but with a larger, more pernicious enemy in the West. Even since the war began, the lies have gotten more and more bizarre, transforming from claims that true sovereignty for Ukraine was possible only under Russia, made before the attacks, to those about migratory birds carrying bioweapons.
Russias message has proved successful domestically, where the Kremlins claims go unchallenged. Surveys suggest a majority of Russians support the war effort. Internationally, the campaign has seeped into an information ecosystem that allows them to spread virulently, reaching audiences that were once harder to reach.
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The power of Russias claim that the invasion is justified comes not from the veracity of any individual falsehood meant to support it but from the broader argument. Individual lies about bioweapons labs or crisis actors are advanced by Russia as swiftly as they are debunked, with little consistency or logic between them. But supporters stubbornly cling to the overarching belief that something is wrong in Ukraine and Russia will fix it. Those connections prove harder to shake, even as new evidence is introduced.
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Read more: https://news.yahoo.com/truth-another-front-putins-war-144843563.html
EDIT: Corrected source as New York Times
Original NYT link: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/20/world/asia/russia-putin-propaganda-media.html
BootinUp
(46,924 posts)dweller
(23,558 posts) supporters stubbornly cling to the overarching belief that something is wrong in Ukraine and Russia will fix it.
Substitute US for Ukraine and TDFG for Russia
we were the trial run
✌🏻