Asklemmy

I think that even with 100% top down control trying to stop the misinformation campaigns, it would still be extremely hard to control it. I always think of the fact there’s drug trade in prisons. If people can smuggle drugs into a prison, they can figure out a way to act as agent provocateurs in online discussions. People just aren’t controllable like that, no matter how much power you have.

However I think Russia’s cultural attacks are backfiring, just as our strategy of draining them through war attrition is backfiring. In both cases, the target is adapting. Russia’s army is getting stronger, and America’s citizenry is getting better at maintaining important conversations in the midst of attempted derailments.

Like, it’s easy to hijack a ship in times of peace. But you go after a ship in that same lane 10 years later, now that ship is bristling with weaponry and everyone on board is some kind of piracy veteran.

A long campaign of small attacks makes the target stronger. It’s so foolish on both parties’ parts to think you can whittle a living thing down the same way you whittle down a dead stick. A living thing being whittled gets more and more formidable the longer you harass it.