Thread by @cre8fire

In order to understand our current propaganda environment, one has to understand that others do not consume the same information, because our information systems have become tailored to belief. The info war is fought only in the middle, as the extremes are already isolated.

In the middle, the fight isn't just to get you to believe, but to only listen to one side. Once information isolation is achieved though, it's easy to push more and more extreme narratives with less and less connection to reality. If it reinforces the person's belief, it works.

It doesn't make ANY difference if whatever was pushed to the isolated is debunked elsewhere. They. Almost. Never. See. It. And if they do, they have been conditioned to believe it isn't real, because they don't trust the source.

So what can change this dynamic? Intrusive reality. Events so impactful that they must be covered by both "sides" of our bifurcated information systems. War. Jail. Disaster. Elections. This is why you now see major propaganda pushes during these events. The fight is now there.

This is why intrusive reality events are now made political - because only in events that affect us all can perceptions be changed, and even then, only when the event is obviously one sided. Information isolation has reduced the playing field of politics dramatically.

But the reality of these events still makes a big difference. It is very hard to spin a war loss. It is very hard to spin an election loss. It's very hard to spin failing at disaster response. It is very hard to spin going to jail. It is very hard to spin failing to govern.

So as you worry about 2024, understand that reality is going to intrude. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to help reality intrude into the propaganda systems, and to fight in the middle where it matters, not waste your time arguing with those truly isolated.

@threadreaderapp unroll please