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FiRe is back! Our Future in Review conference will return, live, at the beautiful Terranea Resort in Palos Verdes, CA, November 6-9. Join old friends and new at this life-changing event. Register now to take advantage of our special early ticket price of just $3900 - a savings of $2000 - extended to midnight PT May 31. See more in "Upcoming Events."
AMERICA'S INFORMATION SOVEREIGNTY CRISIS Thousands of State-Sponsored Bots Have Made America's "National Conversation" by Berit Anderson
Why Read: An international network of tens of thousands of Misinformation Agents acting on behalf of China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea (CRINK) manipulate, radicalize, and polarize public debate in America. This week's Global Report handicaps their tactics and strategy and explains what we can do about it.
"Through narrative we can articulate the experience of choice in the face of urgent challenge and we can learn how to draw on our values to manage the anxiety of agency, as well as its exhilaration. It is the discursive process through which individuals, communities, and nations make choices, construct identity, and inspire action. [. . .] "A story of us communicates who we are - our shared values, our shared experience, and why we do what we do. And a story of now transforms the present into a moment of challenge, hope, and choice."
"This country is its people; the people are the country. As we have fought to establish and consolidate our leadership over the country, we have in fact been fighting to earn and keep the people's support. The Party has in the people its roots, its lifeblood, and its source of strength. The Party has always represented the fundamental interests of all Chinese people; it stands with them through thick and thin and shares a common fate with them. The Party has no special interests of its own - it has never represented any individual interest group, power group, or privileged stratum. "Any attempt to divide the Party from the Chinese people or to set the people against the Party is bound to fail. The more than 95 million Party members and the more than 1.4 billion Chinese people will never allow such a scenario to come to pass." - excerpt from a speech by xi jinping, on the We've all done it. It's late at night, and the kids are finally in bed. Or maybe it's midnight, and your partner is passed out next to you, snoring. But you can't sleep. So you roll over and grab your phone from the bedside table. You pull up Facebook, scrolling past a post from your Uncle Bill. Bill moved to Florida during the pandemic to avoid paying state income taxes, and he's irate that the woke liberal mob has forced blue-chip companies to integrate ESG into their corporate reporting. "THIS IS WHY WE CAN'T HAVE NICE THINGS" reads his meme above a shared article about a decline in Amazon earnings. Or maybe it's Instagram, and you scroll past a video shared by your cousin Rylie, an artist who lives in a co-op in Oakland. She's furious about a business owner who was filmed dumping cleaning fluid in a camp of unhoused individuals. "SCREW THIS CORPORATE PIG!! This is what's wrong with America," the video caption reads. Or you check TikTok and see an update from your high-school friend Marnie, who moved to the Midwest to start a family. She's built herself quite a following as a mommy blogger and personal inspiration coach, although lately her posts have been getting a little weird and conspiratorial. "So thankful for friends and family who *see* the world, rather than bending to mind control conspiracies," she posts alongside a photo of her and a handful of well-coiffed friends in matching yoga outfits. "#nomask #nofilter #novaccineimplant #notmyamerica" Letting out a deep sigh, you shake your head and put the phone back down in dismay. Now you're even less likely to fall asleep. "America is so screwed up," you think. No one would blame you for the thought. But you wouldn't be entirely right, either. The ideas and opinions that rise to the top of the algorithmic churn on social-media platforms aren't necessarily American. |
