A few words on Russian disinformation, false flag ops, & general propaganda. I see smart people commenting on how transparently fake, false, & dumb the entire production seems. Timelines, actors, statements, signatures, nothing lines up. Thats true, but none of it matters. 1/6
The quality of disinformation is not what matters. It's the audience and the circumstances around it. If the audience is international, then the aim is to pollute the info environment b/c when people have access to too much information, its hard to decipher whats true. 2/6
If the audience is domestic, or anyone in the world with access to RT (or even Fox News now), then the task is even easier since people who have been fed a steady diet of half-truths and outright lies, don't care about timelines & OSINT investigations. 3/6
We also know that people who are told repeatedly that others who look and think just like them are being persecuted and murdered for WHO THEY ARE won't bother verifying timelines or logical consistency--they've been primed to be angry and afraid, and they are. 4/6
For any audience, we know that people tend to believe what aligns with their priors, even if it's been debunked or proven false. So whoever is bought in already is staying on board. 5/6
Yes, we should absolutely trace and publicize how false, fake, and dumb the Russian disinformation and broader propaganda campaign is. But we can't be surprised that it nonetheless resonates w/ intended audiences, in Russia and around the world. 6/6
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