Propaganda and Information Warfare: The Battlefield is Your Mind Most folks don't realize this, but you're literally being inundated with propaganda all the time. We live in a society in which our political leaders derive power through consensus. If many people, ideally a majority, support a specific policy, it becomes easier to enact. If there is little support, and much opposition, enacting it is more difficult. Consensus can be manufactured. It can be cajoled into existence. This is achieved through propaganda. Most people have some innate level of distrust for propaganda. When they notice that it is propaganda, their defenses go up. They may become even harder to convince. So the propaganda has to be good. It has to be believable. It has to feel natural - organic. Daily I see people panicking online about the War in Iran. It's not just on X. I see it on Facebook, amongst real people I know in real life - often folks who are not even that political active or involved. But they suddenly have strong opinions about a war they don't truly understand. How did this happen? It was accomplished through an all-out assault on your frontal cortex. It starts with the traditional sources. The mainstream media talking heads push fear-mongering narratives. They call everything unprecedented (in the most negative terms). They micro-focus on the negative. They emphasize the dissent of other nations and international organizations. They catastrophize, musing constantly about how bad things could go. They cast Iran as a victim, and the US (especially Trump) as a big bully. They underplay or straight-up ignore Iran's history of killing Americans, Israelis, and other people worldwide. They forget all about the constant rocket attacks, the threats, and the ever-forward march of their nuclear program. The mainstream media takes are all that some folks need. Frankly, they're ready to swallow it all, hook, line, and sinker, and they do. But many folks need more. This is where the influencers come in. Big and small, they use X, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, and every other social media platform you can think of to take a more personal, "organic" approach to it all. They drop the "official" tone of the talking heads on the MSM, and express feelings with raw emotion. They ask questions like, "Why would they do this? Am I crazy?" Their approach provides plausible deniability of perceived neutrality, while leading their audience towards a negative conclusion about the subject. And there are thousands of them. Maybe tens of thousands. Political pundits. Comedians. Fashion bloggers. Entertainment news. Even gun guys. Why are they doing this? It's not organic. They're not simply doing it because they feel so strongly about it. They're part of a large, international propaganda apparatus. They are paid to do it. In addition to being able to influence their own audiences, collectively they are able to influence the world of influencers. Whether its algorithms, bots, or armies of foreign users, the propagandist influencers are able to create the perception that their propaganda content works well to grow their audience and help them get paid. Other influencers who aren't even paid by the propaganda apparatus see this, and they give it a try. They see success. Their numbers go up. They keep doing it. More see it and do the same. They may never even get paid directly by the apparatus, but have essentially become captured by it. Some of these folks can have large audiences, but many have tiny audiences, which means they can reach all kinds of very niche groups, and their "small time" nature makes the ideas they spread seem all the more natural and organic. You may think your thoughts, ideas, opinions, and beliefs are organic and spontaneous, but many of them are not. Post of them are probably not. It's possible that none of them are. If you're not good at spotting propaganda, fake news, AI (photos, videos, and text), and outright lies already, then you're going to have a hard time figuring it out in the future. This is probably not something I can help you fix with a few paragraphs on X, but nevertheless, I'd like to point out a few things to help: 1) Short-form videos on your feed are one of the most effective propaganda mediums. Incredibly powerful propaganda can be inserted in a 30-second video from a person that you have literally never seen or heard of before, but you innately trust because they speak with confidence and sincerity. The same idea gets repeated and re-emphasized by other videos, and suddenly it feels like "everyone" is saying the same thing. It feels like there is consensus, and "everyone knows it." The idea is now in your head, and you can't even remember where you heard it. TAKEAWAY: Do not trust things you learn from these videos, and better yet, try not to watch them at all. 2) KNOW THEM BY HOW THEY CIRCLE THEIR WAGONS - I have to credit @ConceptualJames for repeating this one all the time. When one of the propagandists says or does something objectively atrocious, the other propagandists will start defending them. Pay attention to who those people are. Recognize it's not spontaneous. These people have mutual interests, and they protect those interest by protecting each other. When you know WHO the propagandists are, it protects you because you know they are not credible. If you listen to their messaging, and then pay attention to who else is saying the same thing, now you're recognizing other propagandists. This requires paying attention. If you don't have the ability to sort through this stuff on social media, then maybe you shouldn't be on social media. 3) Don't be surprised when people you thought you trusted turn out to be compromised. One big mistake a lot of people make is they give someone spouting nonsense a pass because they seemed good before, maybe even for years, maybe even decades. Tucker Carlson is a great example of this. Millions of Conservative Americans followed Tucker for years before he showed himself to be a tool of China, Russia, and Islam. I'm not saying that any and all loyalty is bad, or that you should never give anyone the benefit of the doubt. But if you start from the premise that people can change, or that they may not have been who you thought they were to begin with, you'll become more resilient to this particular problem. If you're not actively paying attention to the propaganda, who it works, and who is doing it, then it will work on you. Don't be arrogant about this. Don't assume you'll "just know." Social media has some great features about it. Wasson Watch has been able to leverage it to grow our brand AND to speak truth boldly and unapologetically. But it's a dangerous place. Tread carefully.
