The thing is, that we, the West, don’t want to be an imperial power that invades other countries any more. So there is little reason for us to spread destabilizing lies. We want to be better than that. We want the truth to be our ally.
Comment on Russia has escalated its information war against Moldova joining the European Union
Lemminary@lemmy.world 5 months ago
How I wish that the West would have its own large scale disinfo campaign to give some of it back. Fuck Kremlin Russia.
lurch@sh.itjust.works 5 months ago
gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 5 months ago
It’s possible to have an international influence campaign that’s based on actual facts instead of misinformation, which I assume would be the goal (at least at the inception of such a program).
Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world 5 months ago
The thing is, that we, the West, don’t want to be an imperial power that invades other countries any more
That’s true for the majority of the citizens but almost none of the governments.
To go with the most obvious example, the US government is interfering in the affairs of other countries and the private lives of its own citizens as much as it has ever done and willfully lying constantly to cover it and many other things up.
cheese_greater@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Can you give a current example?
Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world 5 months ago
An especially obvious and egregious one os Haiti.
In the recent past, there’s also the US-backed coup against Evo Morales and the attempted one in Venezuela, known as Operation Freedom i case anyone should have any doubt as to who was really behind it…
trolololol@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Military campaign to spread lies that Chinese COVID vaccines are bad www.reuters.com/…/usa-covid-propaganda/
ShittyBeatlesFCPres@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Hard disagree. Russia is worse at the moment but the West is perfectly fine with neocolonialism (using multinational corporations rather than annexations). And we spread destabilizing lies all the time. The most recent one exposed is the U.S. military’s “psychological operations team” (in Tampa, FL) spreading antivax lies about Chinese and Russian vaccines in the Philippines and Middle East (by saying the vaccines contained pork).
minimalfootprint@discuss.tchncs.de 5 months ago
Not participating in a disinformation war reminds me of the hesitation to allow Ukraine to strike Russian territory with the supplied weapons. What incentive does thr other side have to stop?
lurch@sh.itjust.works 5 months ago
We don’t exoect them to stop. We just believe fighting the truth will ultimately just reveal their weakness.
trolololol@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Yeah right
trolololol@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Yeah right, what just happened in Bolivia then?
ShittyBeatlesFCPres@lemmy.world 5 months ago
We absolutely have large scale disinformation campaigns. www.reuters.com/…/usa-covid-propaganda/
The military’s “psychological operations team” is based in Tampa, FL and that’s all they do. And that’s just DoD. The CIA obviously does even more.
trolololol@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Don’t bring Cia pls, that’s a magnet for destabilizing democracies
Valmond@lemmy.world 5 months ago
We don’t even need disinformation, just show everyday lives of european citizens, country by country.
I mean they do not have a single good thing that isn’t better here.
umbrella@lemmy.ml 5 months ago
but it does
0x815@feddit.org 5 months ago
As tempting and reasonable as it may seem to counter disinformation with disinformation, it is the wrong path imo. It would play directly into the hands of authoritarian regimes and further undermine democracy in the long run. What we need is an educated, well-informed population and transparent political and economic processes so that leaders at all levels can be held accountable for what they do.
treadful@lemmy.zip 5 months ago
Kind of agree with both of you. I think “the west” should counter disinfo operations by Russia. But it should be more in line with spreading the objective truth and promoting healthy democracy.
Whether that can actually happen and not be twisted into some gross anti-democratic scheme for control of natural resources, I don’t know.
trolololol@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Well half the 1st world is going full right, that should be enough proof that media decides elections no matter where you are.
Plopp@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Sure, but since authoritarian regimes like Russia tend to also misinform their own people, aggressive truth campaigns would be the obvious tool. (I know, “but who decides what ‘truth’ is?” yada yada)