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> Did you expect someone running disinformation to have high ethical standards? This is a challenging question. Maybe your expectations are correct, but here
by nonrandomstring 3y ago
> Did you expect someone running disinformation to have high ethical
standards?
This is a challenging question. Maybe your expectations are correct,
but here's my take:
There are people who do this professionally in the context of warfare,
or as police trying to infiltrate a crime gang. They go home to their
families with a clear demarcation. "Today I told lies to the enemy. I
manipulated people. So that the 'good guys' might win".
So I do think psyops people can have a clean conscience and standard
of ethics, and they are able to own what they do. Not that I'm
agreeing with active, offensive psyops outside a "hot war zone" - just
weighing up the psychology here.
This guy runs a civilian radio station. He is clearly self-deluding.
And he oozes contempt for citizens of his own nation (victim blaming:
"that's a problem with that person, not with the post").
In creating the fake image he clearly is saying "Hey, look, Donald
Trump was at this party with all of these African American voters",
yet he then denies it.
That's the difference I see. It is that he is not clear with himself
about what he is doing that is dangerous and worrying. And in spinning
the "I'm just a storyteller" line, he's also selling his MO as
legitimate kind of "alternative journalism".
- bdjsiqoocwk 3y agoFrom what I've seen, maga types tend to have exactly the "I manipulated people so that the good guys win" mentality that you describe.