Experiencing Campaign 2020: Don't Take Reality for Granted

That Putin is good at pulling our chain isn39t an accident Russian apparatchiks have been perfecting political warfare for a century at home as well as abroad It didn39t always go well In Soviet days Russians expected their government to misinform them Pravda masthead pictured below and the other broadsheets had huge print runs but not because the communist party39s daily was a must read In an economy where scarcity was the only staple toilet paper shortages made current subscriptions a must quotWhat39s more useful newspapers or televisionquot a Russian asked quotNewspapersquot his comrade said quotYou can39t wrap herring in a televisionquotNot surprisingly after 70 years of a Bolshevik fantasy land the postSoviet generations are no less skeptical than their parents and grandparents about what they hear see and read For one thing poverty and a struggling economy the aftermath of the MarxistLeninist ideology touted by the communist party39s flacks surround them So does the old system39s authoritarianism as evidenced among other things by Putin39s mugging of Russia39s alltoobriefly independent press Now owned by his chosen kleptocrats the media39s loyalties remind contemporary Russians why it39s important to read between the linesRussia39s history is relevant to Americans today In the 2016 election Putin39s political warriors unleashed a massive media offensive to mislead divide inflame and influence voters His favorite in the race was hardly a secret and this year President Trump seems intent on doing everything he can to prepare the battlefield for the Kremlin39s online armies to attack once again Indeed his campaign looks like a chapter from a Putin propagandist39s playbook Approaching 20000 falsehoods since taking office of course Trump39s nonstop lies are a given But with his repertoire expanding in scope the lies are not only creating an alternative reality for Putin to exploit They are endangering American lives and security as wellThe national health crisis is the immediate case in point Trump39s repeated contradiction of the messages from public health leadersamp8212backhanding their calls for careful economic reopening as well as personal precautionsamp8212is dividing Americans The political impact couldn39t be clearer even as infections and deaths from the coronavirus climb dramatically twothirds of Republicans polled recently believe the worst is behind the country compared to threequarters of Democrats who see the biggest challenge ahead The effect of Trump39s lies the disease and the partisan split are growing as is room for their exploitation by Putin39s trollsAs troubling as Americans and their leaders work to confront the challenge of racism Trump is peddling inflammatory fabrications that would have done Stalin39s political flacks proud During the Cold War Soviet propagandists worked hard to portray the United States as a country in turmoil whenever difficult social issues arose The effort continued their covert and overt campaigns begun in the 1930s to deepen American divisions while advancing Moscow39s cause As a KGB officer Putin knows his history In meddling four years ago his trolls did the same in 2016 seeding social media with racist posts from bogus far right and left wing groupsTo Russian political warriors Trump39s fantastical claims that radical mobs are taking over the streets have a welcome ring that doubtless makes them put down their pens and smile They know well that whatever American social and economic shortcomings discrediting a democracy when its political leaders and public opinion are facing up to its problems is a heavy lift But when a president makes his campaign message his fictional struggle against nonexistent extremists rather than racial injustice the trolls tweeting from Moscow can rest easy They just need to go along for the rideThe Trump campaign of course faces real world challenges From the resurgent pandemic to the economic recession fielding alternative facts or blatant falsehoods won39t make them go away Russia also figures prominently As intelligence and homeland security officials reprise their warning from 2016 Trump again is calling Moscow39s election meddling a hoax Add to that his inexplicable behavior in turning a blind eye to Russia39s targeting of US forces in Afghanistan Trump39s claim that this too is a quothoaxquot only deepens questions about his deference to Moscow that White House as well as campaign officials prefer to ignoreIn a fascinating essay last year Peter Pomerantsev a Russianborn journalist and television producer saw Trump39s 2016 election victory as a reflection of what Putin had developed and refined in his rise to power two decades before Like Putin he wrote for Trump facts didn39t matter quotThe wild relativity that claims all facts are subjective or impossible to ever know the nebulous nostalgia the replacement of ideology with infinite layers of conspiracy theories the flooding of the information space with so much bullshit you can39t tell truth from fictionquot Pomerantsev concluded quotIt was all hauntingly familiarquotPomerantsev offers another lesson from Russia So far in the 2020 campaign Trump39s rhetoric fits well not only with Moscow39s longstanding themes but alsoamp8212as Pomerantsev puts itamp8212the 21st Century39s propaganda of unreality The pandemic the problem of racial injustice and Russia39s political warfare are real November will tell whether Americans know the differencePhotos courtesy of Kent HarringtonClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNetamp160

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Experiencing Campaign 2020: Don't Take Reality for Granted

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Kent M. Harrington

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Experiencing Campaign 2020: Don't Take Reality for Granted

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