Putin didn't just attack our elections in 2016; the shared national narrative that we as a society operated under up until that point was the biggest casualty of the disinformation campaign that's part of a larger information war that's been going most of this century.
In the social context, a nation is a group of people with a shared nar…
Putin didn't just attack our elections in 2016; the shared national narrative that we as a society operated under up until that point was the biggest casualty of the disinformation campaign that's part of a larger information war that's been going most of this century.
In the social context, a nation is a group of people with a shared narrative that is implicitly and explicitly agreed upon by the group; e.g. before 2016 (setting aside the political fringe) we all had an implicit faith in our elections, and we explicitly agreed upon the rules of those elections that the transfer of power would continue as it had for 200+ years.
The 2016 election was an attack that shattered our national narrative into two separate realities, but what they share in common is the same susceptibility of manipulation; we have plenty of examples of the right-wing hyperreality, but until the war in Gaza the left-wing didn't experience the degree of manipulation the right has. The two hyperrealities that resulted are not the same in that the flavor of manipulation that works in one likely wouldn't work in the other.
How we as a nation move forward from this isn't clear, but what is clear is that a new national narrative must be created. A narrative that is honest and accepts the bad (from forced migration and genocide of the indigenous peoples of America and 400yrs of slavery) with the good parts (our ability to come together in a crisis despite our different origins and accomplish feats of ingenuity and innovation as a team) of our history and how we are resilient and overcome adversity is what can help weave a new story.
Putin didn't just attack our elections in 2016; the shared national narrative that we as a society operated under up until that point was the biggest casualty of the disinformation campaign that's part of a larger information war that's been going most of this century.
In the social context, a nation is a group of people with a shared narrative that is implicitly and explicitly agreed upon by the group; e.g. before 2016 (setting aside the political fringe) we all had an implicit faith in our elections, and we explicitly agreed upon the rules of those elections that the transfer of power would continue as it had for 200+ years.
The 2016 election was an attack that shattered our national narrative into two separate realities, but what they share in common is the same susceptibility of manipulation; we have plenty of examples of the right-wing hyperreality, but until the war in Gaza the left-wing didn't experience the degree of manipulation the right has. The two hyperrealities that resulted are not the same in that the flavor of manipulation that works in one likely wouldn't work in the other.
How we as a nation move forward from this isn't clear, but what is clear is that a new national narrative must be created. A narrative that is honest and accepts the bad (from forced migration and genocide of the indigenous peoples of America and 400yrs of slavery) with the good parts (our ability to come together in a crisis despite our different origins and accomplish feats of ingenuity and innovation as a team) of our history and how we are resilient and overcome adversity is what can help weave a new story.
So much truth here. If he actually “hacked” the election it would have been better for our nation