How do we know the Russian Troll farm had no impact on the 2016 election?
Short answer: Cogito ergo sum (I think, therefore, I am)
Long answer: see below
Short answer: Cogito ergo sum (I think, therefore, I am)
Long answer: see below
From reading the indictments presented by the SC Mueller the basic premise is that 13 Russians created a "Troll farm" of about 80 people to push propaganda on social media and help fund rallies to stop the election of Hillary and other politicians via helping Trump and Sanders.
First understand what propaganda is. In the simplest sense Propaganda is information that is not objective and is used primarily to influence an audience and further an agenda. That information can be presented by words, symbols, pictures, coins, stamps, GIFs, rallies, memes, etc
The key phrase in the definition is "not objective". It's one sided, its selective. In other words the term propaganda can cover almost 100% of posts, tweets, comments on social media or stated differently social media is propaganda pushed by the people instead of a central gov.
If you drill down on propaganda it includes gossip, rumors, friends chatting over coffee. etc. Social media allows this to happen on a societal level. Because of this, social media utterly destroys the concept of "gatekeepers" on the use and delivery of propaganda.
If everything is now propaganda nothing is. Postmodernists believe in using propaganda. They call it narratives. The theory is you can brainwash a society with the careful use of propaganda. However, Propaganda only works in safespaces.
This explains the new drive by the left for safespaces & censorship. The Founders of the USA understood the dangers of propaganda. They just fought a war that used propaganda extensively.
Of course the term "propaganda" itself wasn't coined until the 20th century but its been known for centuries. Francis Bacon stated in 1597 that "Knowledge itself is power"
The entire Age of Enlightenment could be seen as an attempt to bring OBJECTIVE information into the public square. To wrest the ability of the rulers to use propaganda to control the people. It was not called the Age of Reason for nothing
We could call the Age of Enlightenment the Age of Anti-propaganda. The US revolution was a consequence of this age. The US Constitution enshrined some truths from this Age. One of those truths is how to stop propaganda.
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
The 1st amendment was the Founders answer to propaganda. The government was denied influence over the levers of known vectors of propaganda at that time. The Church, the press, the people (authors, writers, gossip) public protests, rallies etc
By denying the government the ability to control the levers of propaganda the founders understood that every idea, narrative, rumor would make it to the public square and the people would be free to make up their own minds based on objective reasoning.
The postmodernists and propagandists tried to get around this by taking over the media. They concentrated the flow of information into a smaller and smaller group as they bought out more and more media. Now 6 companies control 90+% of the media. They took control of one vector.
They became over the years the GATEKEEPERS of information. Knowledge itself is power and he who controls the flow of that knowledge becomes very powerful. The media become very powerful. They controlled the politicians. They controlled the people with narratives.
Then along came talk radio, along came other voices that the media did not control and their power weakened. Then came social media and their power all but disappeared. They no longer controlled the flow of information their propaganda become diluted. Their gatekeeper status gone
In a closed society Propaganda is a King, in an open society propaganda is a Jester. We think therefore we are. We make decisions based on an avalanche of information. We take it all in and make the best possible choice.
The media was 100% in the tank for Hillary, every newspaper, cable news channel (yes even foxnews), broadcast channel. Hollywood, another vector, for propaganda was 100% in the tank for Hillary. Obama, his admin, and agencies were 100% in the tank for her.
The leaders of the social media companies were in the tank for Hillary. All of these groups were pushing pro Hillary propaganda at the people 24/7. Add in the dem party, the DNC, the unions all pushing pro Hillary propaganda.
Against this avalanche of pro-Hillary propaganda; we had to suffer through for months, the Dems, postmodernists and SC wants us to think 80 Russian trolls could not only compete but defeat the propaganda from the entire media, Hollywood and gov? It's absurd on its face.
Cogito ergo sum (I think, therefore, I am) People take in the propaganda from all sides they search for the objective truth out of the non objective information given and the majority of people in 30 states decided that Hillary was not qualified to be POTUS and that Trump was.
No one made that decision for them. No one tampered with the votes after they were cast. Information/propaganda from all sides was presented to the people in the public square. The people made their decision. Not a troll farm in Siberia.
The left is still upset 15 months later that the people weren't hoodwinked by their propaganda, that the other side had a better message, a better set of arguments. The left's actions in the last 15 months are not causing anyone to rush to support their arguments now either.
The left gave it their best shot. They were at the pinnacle of their power & the people rejected their lame arguments. They know they will now have to face a growing economy. If they can't win from the top, how can their propaganda win in the face of more objective truth?
Russian Trolls? Give me a break.
