Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How to Start a Riot with Information Weapons

youtube.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–16 of 16 posts

Re: How to Start a Riot with Information Weapons

#11

Post by eveningcoffee »

yucky wrote: post #10
eveningcoffee wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We have mostly politically motivated twisting of the words against political opponents (like NYT is against Trump etc). I always recommend to look what was actually said and in what context.

That's it? With all of the vast wealth and intelligence agencies we have, the best we do on the propaganda front is when the NY Times says mean things about Trump? Does that sound right to you?

Well, define "we" first.

How much American TV watch people in South America? How much English TV watches a German for example, or Italian? I would say, close to zero. So the first issue is that Western media landscape is fragmented. So it is difficult to project such possible attack to outside.

Second issue is media freedom. Media is truly privately owned and there is strong culture of press freedom. Still, there is probably also some level of cooperation with the government. So we should always pay attention if the government is trying to sell us something through media.

Re: How to Start a Riot with Information Weapons

#12

Post by yucky »

eveningcoffee wrote: post #11
yucky wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's it? With all of the vast wealth and intelligence agencies we have, the best we do on the propaganda front is when the NY Times says mean things about Trump? Does that sound right to you?

Well, define "we" first. How much American TV watch people in South America? How much English TV watches a German for example, or Italian? I would say, close to zero. So the first issue is that Western media landscape is fragmented. So it is difficult to project such possible attack to outside. Second issue is media freedom. Media is truly privately owned and there is strong culture of press freedom. Still, there is…

>So we should always pay attention if the government is trying to sell us something through media.

Isn't this how our entire "news media" landscape works (with the exception of a handful of legit investigative journalists)?

"My anonymous sources tell me..." really means "someone in the government wanted me to put this message out to the public."

Also, hasn't the US been busted funding revolutions/freedom fighters in 3rd world countries multiple times, utilizing propaganda at every step along the way? Or is that all BS?

Re: How to Start a Riot with Information Weapons

#13

Post by eveningcoffee »

yucky wrote: post #12
eveningcoffee wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, define "we" first. How much American TV watch people in South America? How much English TV watches a German for example, or Italian? I would say, close to zero. So the first issue is that Western media landscape is fragmented. So it is difficult to project such possible attack to outside. Second issue is media freedom. Media is truly privately owned and there is strong culture of press freedom. Still, there is…

>So we should always pay attention if the government is trying to sell us something through media. Isn't this how our entire "news media" landscape works (with the exception of a handful of legit investigative journalists)? "My anonymous sources tell me..." really means "someone in the government wanted me to put this message out to the public." Also, hasn't the US been busted funding revolutions/freedom fighters in…

War and propaganda go always hand in hand but the main difference here is in capability and scale.

Re: How to Start a Riot with Information Weapons

#14

Post by yucky »

eveningcoffee wrote: post #13
yucky wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>So we should always pay attention if the government is trying to sell us something through media. Isn't this how our entire "news media" landscape works (with the exception of a handful of legit investigative journalists)? "My anonymous sources tell me..." really means "someone in the government wanted me to put this message out to the public." Also, hasn't the US been busted funding revolutions/freedom fighters in…

War and propaganda go always hand in hand but the main difference here is in capability and scale.

Yes, and who has more scale or capability than the US? So we should fear our own propaganda more than any, right?

Re: How to Start a Riot with Information Weapons

#15

Post by eveningcoffee »

yucky wrote: post #14
eveningcoffee wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

War and propaganda go always hand in hand but the main difference here is in capability and scale.

Yes, and who has more scale or capability than the US? So we should fear our own propaganda more than any, right?

This post was about Russian capacity to create such conflicts completely out of blue. You can fear anything you chose to. Like I have explained many times, it is not this scalable because of fragmentation. Yes, there can be a mass hysteria like was for example after 9/11, but it is very difficult to suck something out of non event like was this plan to move some monument. I hope you notice the difference in significance between these two events.

Re: How to Start a Riot with Information Weapons

#16

Post by eveningcoffee »

yucky wrote: post #14
eveningcoffee wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

War and propaganda go always hand in hand but the main difference here is in capability and scale.

Yes, and who has more scale or capability than the US? So we should fear our own propaganda more than any, right?

This recent post touches perhaps it from the angle you are concerned about

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31976955

Post reply on HN