why reasoning matters

disinformation and institutions

Wednesday’s DoJ indictments charged individuals associated with 32 Russian-funded sites providing disinformation to sway the 2024 election. This ought hearten us as we are acting before further damage can occur. Vlad the Impaler’s interventions beginning with his hatred of Hillary Clinton in 2016 wrought massive damage to our social fabric and political equilibrium. I believe the circumstantial evidence, in conjunction with the Mueller investigation almost a decade ago, strikes me as powerful that Vlad figured he should try the same plays to return FPOTUS, an avowed friend of the Russian leader, to office.

The handy website Lawfare.com published a report by Katherine Pompilio on the USG move to upend Russian efforts to influence voters in the United States (and in other countries conducting elections this year) via social media sites such as TikTok and Instagram. The indictments specified violations of the Foreign Agent Registration Act and money-laundering, efforts directed specifically by the Kremlin. They are powerful indictments, similar to the condemnations the Mueller Report cited under the prior administration. Russia feels no qualms feeding absurdities to those who it sees as open to ridiculous allegations and propaganda.

Actions and consequences associated with information in the internet age are so profound because the investment in cyber operations is relatively cheap. The cost is considerably less than the weapons systems upon which we base so much of our national security. Various cyber concerns over the past twenty years focused on Russia, Ukraine at times, and China; some skilled, genuinely non-state actors also perpetrate nonsense and threaten the U.S.population.

I suspect Ukrainians cyber invaders likely target the big bear to their east these days but Russians, Chinese, Iranians, and others regularly direct sophisticated efforts at participatory systems here and elsewhere. If nothing else, these nations use cyber ops to sow doubts about the durability and equity of participatory governance, instead trying to highlight dictatorships as more efficient.

Cyber options require lower investment while thriving on the behavior of average internet user. These indictments remind us the average citizen is as important a target for cyber as government computer networks or military targets (although I have no doubt Russia or China never cease their actions to infiltrate those systems, of course).

In the end, however, it’s our own domestic conditions that allow these nefarious actors any traction. That does not mean we should allow the Russians or Chinese free rein: we should prosecute when we discover their actions. But, in the end, we need educated citizens to address many of the problems our society confronts every single day.

What is truly concerning is the civic illiteracy and gullibility that allows the average Matt or Josie to fall prey to these internet-driven lies. The rise of Q-Anon conspiracies over the past decade, along with the multiple decades of ludicrous stories about major public figures on the front of grocery store check out newspapers, made too many Americans obvious targets for outsiders to undermine their confidence in common sense, verifiable news. But that is only the tip of the iceberg.

The web, however, with its instantaneous “hits” of salacious news magnifies the problem beyond anything from the past. As increasingly lonely and isolated people turn to connections the web purports to facilitate, the problem of infiltrating false information explodes. People who don’t have much, if any, exposure to alternate perspectives or experiences can become intrigued by fanciful or inflammatory stories.

Our on-going attacks on institutions contribute to this challenge as well. Whether it is the anti-vaccine nonsense or the propensity for politicians to attack uncomfortable or inconvenient reporting about their own actions despite obvious evidence, the danger of undermining a free press is profound. The press is not perfect but educated journalists with a professional ethic as imposed by the maligned “main stream media” are completely different from political hacks. Stop pretending otherwise. The media makes mistakes as all of us do but serious outlets also issue apologies where relevant.

Unfortunately, we increasingly confuse disagreements based on our own preferences with disinformation; they are not the same thing. Russia invaded Ukraine, a demonstrable fact. FPOTUS’s statements on the Access Hollywood tape may be distasteful to many of his supporters but it is a fact rather than disinformation. We have the tapes, after all.

Our all-too-frequent self-segregation into communities with similar views to our own or attendance at meetings solely with like-minded participants is eroding our ability to engage in substantive, sustained, logical discussions. Too many people have come to think throwing out an assertion, with no support for its validity or without expecting someone to respond with interrogatories, as if it is completely indisputable is a personal attack. People have forgotten give and take in conversation. That isn’t working for the society or for us as individuals.

We must return to conversing rather than asserting as they are markedly different actions with tremendous consequence. Personal views do not equate to absolute truth.

The indictments of Russians are probably only the tip of the iceberg on foreign attempts to intervene in the 2024 political campaign. But we are foolish to assume that we can address those interferences without strengthening our democratic habits and institutions. Too many of the most cherished but vital aspects of our society are on life support yet we seem to think someone else will fix them.

When my husband taught at Georgetown about eight years ago, he always asked his graduate seminar members how many expect the United States to be a superpower forever. On average, sixty percent of the students absolutely thought we will maintain forever the position we held thirty years ago.

I can not guarantee many things—as you know I caution against straightening behaviors and outcomes—but am sadly confident we cannot maintain any semblance of superpower status if we don’t return to trusting institutions by learning to analyze what we hear while also recognizing we as individuals are not always right. Simple fact, it would appear to me, but perhaps you see it differently. Engagement, discussion, hearing the views wildly different from our own if substantiated by evidence rather than wack-a-mole nonsense is at the heart of a functioning democracy and superpower.

It’s easy to blame others for some invasive and menacing actions but our sole national power is over our own behavior as a country. By merely focusing on the actions and intentions of others, we are squandering our own power. I have always loved the quotation from Glenda the Good Witch to Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz: “but you had the power all along, dear”. We have a lot more power to address challenges when we are willing to take them on, once we assume responsibility for seeking remedies.

The actions and consequences of this disinformation war are fundamental threats to successor generations.

Thoughts? Rebuttals? Suggesions? I welcome them all as I don’t have a monopoly on the answers. Please feel free to circulate this column if you know someone might enjoy it. Thank you for reading today’s Actions, especially those of you who support me financially through a subscription.

It as a beautiful sunrise before the sun decided to hide the remainder of this early September Saturday.

Be well and be safe.

Katherine Pompilio, “Justice Dept. Disrupts Russian Influence Campaign, Indicts Russian Nationals”, Lawfare.com, 4 September 2024, retrieved at https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/justice-dept.-disrupts-russian-influence-campaign--indicts-russian-nationals