Yeah, I got one of Tumblr’s you-may-have-unwittingly-interacted-with-propaganda-blogs emails too. And like everyone else, I kind of shrugged because really, what am I supposed to do about that now? I have search disabled on my blog, and my tags are a mess; there’s no way I could go through and actually find any of the propaganda I may have inadvertently boosted over the seven years I’ve been on this site.
But out of curiosity I looked over Tumblr’s list of IRA-linked blogs. And one username stood out to me. I recognised it because for several months last year it had been showing up constantly in my notifications after I reblogged one of their posts with a response.
When I first saw the post by black-to-the-bones, I wanted to know more about these women. I dug up the original Tweet, ran a reverse Google image search and… well, as you can see from my reblog, there turned out to be quite a lot of information about them on the internet, which I spent the next hour or two collating into my post.
Now, don’t get me wrong here: I am one hundred percent aware that history regularly erases the contributions of women, and especially women of colour. But as you can see from my reply, in this particular case the history of these three women absolutely is not “hidden from us”. The person attempting to hide these women’s history was black-to-the-bones themself.
The original post – which we now know was posted by a state-sponsored propaganda blog – took a legitimate issue, but misrepresented facts to stir up emotion about that issue. The issue was perfectly tailored to resonate with Tumblr’s culture of social justice, and it worked. The vast majority of reblogs of the original post do not include any correction or further information.
Again, don’t get me wrong: anger is important. It’s a necessary part of social justice. But we have clear evidence that bad-faith actors are intentionally fomenting false anger to keep us reacting emotionally rather than thinking rationally. And they are smart about it. They will mix in their attempts to divide and enrage us with innocuous cute videos to gain followers, and legitimate posts about issues. So that when they do post actual misinformation, it slips under our radar.
When propaganda blogs do something like try to smear a Jewish woman as a white supremacist, it’s obvious who their target is, and what their goal is. But I wanted to highlight the black-to-the-bones post above because it’s a subtler, more insidious kind of propaganda. It’s part of a continuum of tactics designed to keep up a constant background noise of outrage.
Because while anger is important, constant anger makes it harder for us to empathise with each other. It makes it harder for us to be constructive, rather than destructive. And ultimately, it just exhausts us and leaves us too apathetic to care.
So getting back to my original question: What are we supposed to do about that now?
Fact. Check. Everything.
Your racist grandparents aren’t the only ones being targeted by fake news. We are being targeted with posts that are specifically designed to appeal to Tumblr’s social justice culture. So if you see a post about an issue that makes you angry, stop before you reblog. Check the source. Google the details. Make sure your anger about legitimate issues isn’t being exploited by malicious actors.
Propaganda like this relies on us reacting to outrage before we stop to think. Be smarter than that. Don’t let yourself be manipulated.
This is an excellent post, and I just want to add:
The thing that makes that post reek, in retrospect, of IRA propaganda, isn’t just anger–it’s false futility. That’s where the distortion occurs. It doesn’t say neglected, it doesn’t say ignored, it says hidden–unknowable. Pointless to try and dig up. The Man has already won, might as well stay home on election day rather than contribute to the system. That’s what they’re trying to push. And that’s what crou took pains to debunk. The system might need a lot of good smacks around the face, but it does respond, and the material’s there.
Good Lord I am so ancient, so aged, so withered and wan, each day I merely creep on the earth writing pointless fanfictions that have no plots and never go anywhere, so have this series of entirely unnecessary and deeply goofy ANG sex scenes I guess. You will like it if you like elderly men dickin’ about and Captain America awkwardly attiring himself in ladies’ underthings: you will not like it if you are a well-adjusted individual.
one of the more recent porn blogs that followed me had an actualfax inspiring quote on their icon, but it looks like that account doesn’t exist anymore
the “dog/cat person” alignment is a false dichotomy perpetuated by aggressive western-centric individualism, the industrial revolution, and Big Hetero
1. everything we say/do gets run through the filter of “how does this thing Define Me As A Person; what does it Say About Me; i have a right to fabricate objective moral judgements about everything that doesn’t personally agree with me”
2. dogs and cats no longer, on the whole, fill specific useful niches like care of livestock, child-minding, home protection, and pest control. they’re “luxury items” who consume resources and return no tangible economic benefit, so keeping them requires extensive convoluted emotional justification (see #1)
3. “hur dur cats are incomprehensible manipulative snobs who will use you for food and affection and then ignore/scratch you when they’re done with you– just like a woman!” / “hur dur dogs are big dumb gross idiots who slobber on you and convey their limited emotions instantly and clearly– just like a man!”
3.5. “cats are useless and prissy / dogs are manly and cool” (the exception to this is dogs under 30lbs, who are “rodents,” “not real dogs,” “pathetic/gross,” “girly,” etc)
4. BONUS ROUND “i was raised in a christian home with strong sexist and creationist undertones and i can’t fathom other animals as discrete entities who exist and have specific behavioural paradigms for reasons that have nothing to do with me or my divine right to have dominion over the earth”
this post is balm for my cat-owning, dog-appreciating soul
