Those predictable voices–I’m think of former national security adviser Susan Rice- that blame Russia or claim “foreign actors” are a factor in the division of America are just plain wrong.
“The scale and scope of domestic disinformation—created by Americans and targeting Americans—is far greater than anything a foreign adversary could possibly do to us. The irony is the thriving supply and demand of domestic disinformation makes us even more vulnerable to foreign efforts,” Graham Brookie, who runs the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Lab, told The Daily Beast. “Blaming others for our own disinformation and division ignores the extremely uncomfortable truths we have to address”
Russian disinformation is real–the de facto alliance of Vladimir Putin and Steve Bannon does seek to disrupt and disorganize Western political systems vis systematic disinformation.
The Internet Research Agency, controlled by Putin’s mercenary, Yvegeny Prighozin, did make an enormous and concerted effort to pollute the 2016 presidential election.
Those who say Trump-Russia is a “hoax” tend to avert their eyes from Prighozin’s paramilitary force known as Wagner and his role as an instrument of Putin’s power
- In threatening independent Russian journalists.
- In seizing Syrian oil wells.
- In creating 3,900 fraudulent Twitter accounts to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
- Supporting renegade general Khalifa Haftar’s battle against the government of Libya.
But to blame Putin and Bannon and Prigozhin for the failures of the American system now on display is an expression of sophistry or bad faith.
Source: That Racist ‘LAPD’ Viral Video? It’s Not Real.
