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ā ļøš§µIf WH releases Ukraine call transcript, beware gaslighting "the likes of which we've never seen." It's Putin's propaganda playbook: Endless confusion & division, turning reality on its head to make truthā& journalismāirrelevant. Clumsy b/c Trump. But it's already claimed GOP.
Watch this chilling BBC clip & you'll recognize Trump's Russian propaganda playbook: Putin made politics a bewildering constantly changing piece of theater to undermine the perception of reality. People can't tell what's true, don't believe their own eyes or journalists' facts./2
Constant shifts make even proven facts FEEL doubtful & confusing. Trumpās already shifted his story from denial to disinformation:
ā"fake news story"
āāpartisanā whistleblower
ā"spy"
āBiden's the "real" story
Except it's not. It's a conspiracy theory smear, contrary to facts. /3
ā"fake news story"
āāpartisanā whistleblower
ā"spy"
āBiden's the "real" story
Except it's not. It's a conspiracy theory smear, contrary to facts. /3
Facts first: Trump's smear is a deliberate distortion of words. Biden did say If the prosecutor's not fired, they don't get money. That IMF loan HELPED UKRAINE MOVE FROM Russia-style oligarch CORRUPTION to rule-of-law democracy. Prosecutor Shokin protected corrupt oligarchs. /4
Propagandists often distort by taking language out of context. (Think "insurance policy" & Peter Strzok!) Trump's propaganda counts on ppl uncritically accepting shallow even absurd spin. And the fact that Americans don't exactly understand deep corruption in fmr Soviet states./5
Trump admits he asked Ukraine to investigate Biden. That's abuse of power. FULL STOP. The transcript will only serve to muddy dealing with this key fact. A transcript cannot give context (military aid to fight Russia) or linguistic nuances (tone, pauses). That'll be cleaned up./6
Missing essential context in both substance & form, a transcript of Trump's Ukraine call will end up being spun to death. It'll become part of the disinformation din. Our mediaānot understanding how propaganda worksāwill get mired in competing narratives. Driving us all crazy. /7
Trump propagandists will say, "He meant X. YOU misinterpret him. YOU hate him. WE get himā¦" And thatās how we lose focus on the truth. Which is Trump abused his powerāflagrantlyāone day after Mueller testifiedāwhen he thought he got away with murder of our democracy w/ Russia./8
So let's not focus on the transcript of Trump's call w/ #Ukraine's Zelensky. That's a trap. Trump and his propaganda machine know they can spin words on paper to death. Let's get the #WhistleblowerComplaint. It is the law, after all. Then let's hear from the #Whistleblower. /9
Tonight Pence again pushed Biden-Ukraine disinformation on FoxNews. He knows itās false. But propagandists also know that repeating even a false story works to confuse & muddy the truth. Watch this again. Putinās controlled Russia this way for 20 yrs. /10
