At War
World War III.
It's the stuff of sci-fi and dystopian novels. It's the stuff of alarmist politicos. It's the stuff of paranoid doomsday preppers. Even the threat of World War III keeps government officials throughout the globe on high alert. The Doomsday Clock's slow advance toward midnight cannot be stopped. It's not a matter of if we experience a third world war but when.
What if I told you we were already there?
What if I told you that a third global conflict would not be fought with tanks and bombs but with online trolls and bots? What if I told you it would be psychological rather than trench warfare? What if I told you that civilians would be threatened each and every day and not even know it? And what if I told you that this war would become so normalized, so ingrained into our everyday lives, that hardly anybody would think twice about it and its impact on global peace and prosperity?
This is where we are in 2023. The war we are fighting is one of disinformation, created through three decades of unregulated internet accessibility. The information superhighway, once considered a vehicle to the path of enlightened humanity, has drowned in a sea of mismanaged and manipulated access to information. Alternative facts, once a punchline, have become the everyday norm. Echo chambers reign supreme where you can comfortably share your ignorance with like-minded peers. While social media is a principal perpetrator of this new phenomenon, traditional media has also failed us spectacularly. By downplaying positive news coverage for Democrats and bothsidesing negative news coverage for Republicans, democracy has not died in the darkness but has instead drowned in the light of day. The profit-driven model of 21st-century media has made it so that not only is the news no longer accurate but it now has become a vehicle to create a false narrative that is used to sell to advertisers and nothing more.
The challenge of this new warfare is that it is unrelenting. Even for those of us who recognize we're at war, we still must deal with its impact daily. We must deal with it in the ads that we see. We must deal with it in the media headlines that come across our news apps. We must deal with it on the nightly news. The goal of this type of warfare is to wear us down. It's for us to see those who have been successfully manipulated continue to act in a way that is detrimental to our nation. It's to understand that Twitter algorithm that defaults to "For You" instead of "Following" does so in a way to bombard you with stories and users it knows with whom you disagree. Even if you've removed yourself from social and traditional media, you still are likely to encounter someone in your workspace or social network that has been manipulated in some way. No matter how hard you try, you simply cannot escape.
What we all are experiencing now is simply the latest iteration of millennia of war. Those bad actors engaged in this type of warfare won't end up at the Hague for targeting civilians. They probably won't even be arrested as they exist across dozens of countries being funded by hundreds of foreign governments, terrorists, and any other bad actors who would love to see America fail. This is a war where there are no casualties. But it is war, nonetheless. We are all getting bombarded daily. A person today cannot turn on her or his phone and not see the impact of this new type of warfare. Every new protest, every march, and every destruction of public property is all part of an astroturfed movement started or enhanced by foreign adversaries. There are good, smart, and decent people who have no idea that they are even being manipulated. Those engaged in this type of warfare know what they are doing and they knew back in 2016 that America's greatest strength is also her greatest weakness: a large diverse country can be easily divided with racism being our original and still unaddressed sin. Seven years later, those divisions are still being successfully exploited, this time with antisemitism coming to the forefront in a movement exploiting xennials' lack of understanding of the centuries-old conflict in the Middle East.
Step one in winning this war is recognizing what is happening. We have to be vigilant about where we get our news. We have to block keywords and posters on social media that we know will be divisive. We also have to understand that while this feels very overwhelming, we are still a year out from the 2024 election. A lot can happen between now and then. Every article about a national poll has zero relevance to what the world will look like 365 days from now. Every "Dems in disarray" article is done to suppress Democratic voters. The same with every "Biden's too old" hot take. The media needs a horse race because the whole "Democracy vs. Fascism" articles they should be writing would never fly in an industry dedicated to avoiding alienating those based on their political preferences. Knowing that the media will again fail us and there is nothing we can do about it is a critical first step.
Step two is to continue to confront those on our side. Have challenging Thanksgiving and holiday talks with your nieces and nephews at the dinner table. Ask them what they know about Palenstine's history. Tell them about the Camp David Peace Accords, the Balfour Declaration, and the Sikes Picot Agreement. Ask them why Muslim-majority countries haven't come to the aid of Palestine. Educate them on how Muslims are treated in Turkey, Yemen, and Syria. Push them on how they think Israel should have responded. Should Israel agree to a cease-fire that allows a terrorist organization like Hamas to kill 1,400 of its citizens and declare victory? These types of conversations will get the younger generation to think twice about joining a campus-wide march on a topic they know nothing about.
Step three may be the most important: self-care. War is hell. Psychological warfare is even more hellacious. Those currently at war with the United States of America are banking on the fact that they can overwhelm us with manipulation and misinformation. They want us to feel hopeless. They want us to feel like we're losing. They want us to throw our hands up and give up. Many days, many of us do
What we all are experiencing now is simply the latest iteration of millennia of war. Those bad actors engaged in this type of warfare won't end up at the Hague for targeting civilians. They probably won't even be arrested as they exist across dozens of countries being funded by hundreds of foreign governments, terrorists, and any other bad actors who would love to see America fail. This is a war where there are no casualties. But it is war, nonetheless. We are all getting bombarded daily. A person today cannot turn on her or his phone and not see the impact of this new type of warfare. Every new protest, every march, and every destruction of public property is all part of an astroturfed movement started or enhanced by foreign adversaries. There are good, smart, and decent people who have no idea that they are even being manipulated. Those engaged in this type of warfare know what they are doing and they knew back in 2016 that America's greatest strength is also her greatest weakness: a large diverse country can be easily divided with racism being our original and still unaddressed sin. Seven years later, those divisions are still being successfully exploited, this time with antisemitism coming to the forefront in a movement exploiting xennials' lack of understanding of the centuries-old conflict in the Middle East.
Step one in winning this war is recognizing what is happening. We have to be vigilant about where we get our news. We have to block keywords and posters on social media that we know will be divisive. We also have to understand that while this feels very overwhelming, we are still a year out from the 2024 election. A lot can happen between now and then. Every article about a national poll has zero relevance to what the world will look like 365 days from now. Every "Dems in disarray" article is done to suppress Democratic voters. The same with every "Biden's too old" hot take. The media needs a horse race because the whole "Democracy vs. Fascism" articles they should be writing would never fly in an industry dedicated to avoiding alienating those based on their political preferences. Knowing that the media will again fail us and there is nothing we can do about it is a critical first step.
Step two is to continue to confront those on our side. Have challenging Thanksgiving and holiday talks with your nieces and nephews at the dinner table. Ask them what they know about Palenstine's history. Tell them about the Camp David Peace Accords, the Balfour Declaration, and the Sikes Picot Agreement. Ask them why Muslim-majority countries haven't come to the aid of Palestine. Educate them on how Muslims are treated in Turkey, Yemen, and Syria. Push them on how they think Israel should have responded. Should Israel agree to a cease-fire that allows a terrorist organization like Hamas to kill 1,400 of its citizens and declare victory? These types of conversations will get the younger generation to think twice about joining a campus-wide march on a topic they know nothing about.
Step three may be the most important: self-care. War is hell. Psychological warfare is even more hellacious. Those currently at war with the United States of America are banking on the fact that they can overwhelm us with manipulation and misinformation. They want us to feel hopeless. They want us to feel like we're losing. They want us to throw our hands up and give up. Many days, many of us do
feel like this. Especially when we feel attacked by those claiming to be on our side. That is why we must make time for ourselves. Take time off social media. Mute agitational words. Don't engage and block trolls and bots. Don't feel the need to call out bad actors when they are obviously egging you on. Instead, skip all of that and try to emphasize the positive. Find accounts and news sources that celebrate the successes of the Biden/Harris administration and amplify those. Counter their misinformation with facts. While it seems like a small thing to do, providing facts is the most important thing one can do to combat this new type of 21st-century warfare.
It is the thing our enemies fear the most.
It is the thing our enemies fear the most.