Nick, I think you missed a third motivation for these “victim” influencers. Like Trump, they have become addicted to continuous attention. They can't let go of one audience and find another. A single moment without attention will be more painful than they can bear. And, of course, attention can come in the form of unexpected money.
Thank you for writing this. It deserves to be widely read. It would be reassuring to think that our new government had an understanding of these issues.
The long-standing (since 2016/17 at least) refusal of governments to properly publicly acknowledge that U.K. democratic processes can now be subverted so easily by targeted misinformation does not seem to be an issue that many of our politicians have the courage to address.
I heard an east German I know well recently talking of the ‘how the EU are funding the ‘gangsters running Ukraine,’ quite out of the blue. Is this an AfD line?
You only need to ask yourself who benefits from promoting that line. And maybe read up on Russian political warfare. It's fascinating. Anyhow, you're doing the right thing by asking that question. Not enough people do, particularly the dimwits who took unwittingly the Russian money. But I may be being too charitable. It wasn't difficult to establish they were being paid by a fake persona. That said, there's a reason why the Russian intelligence agencies' contemptuous term of art for these people is 'useful idiots'.
I found your article very thought provoking (about understanding why the money follows Rubin) I am also curious to read What’s Left.
In the UK at least I took the term “Woke” to be a catch-all term (at least since Brexit) used by the Far Right for anything progressive. Much easier to dismiss progressive values that way. So I never use it. It’s why Conservatives here also tried to reinvent “Free Speech”.
Nick, I think you missed a third motivation for these “victim” influencers. Like Trump, they have become addicted to continuous attention. They can't let go of one audience and find another. A single moment without attention will be more painful than they can bear. And, of course, attention can come in the form of unexpected money.
That is so true, and of course social media encourages it
Thank you for writing this. It deserves to be widely read. It would be reassuring to think that our new government had an understanding of these issues.
The long-standing (since 2016/17 at least) refusal of governments to properly publicly acknowledge that U.K. democratic processes can now be subverted so easily by targeted misinformation does not seem to be an issue that many of our politicians have the courage to address.
Cheers Andrew
I heard an east German I know well recently talking of the ‘how the EU are funding the ‘gangsters running Ukraine,’ quite out of the blue. Is this an AfD line?
Ukraine is not perfect.
Nationalism is rife.
... that is why the EU was invented.
You only need to ask yourself who benefits from promoting that line. And maybe read up on Russian political warfare. It's fascinating. Anyhow, you're doing the right thing by asking that question. Not enough people do, particularly the dimwits who took unwittingly the Russian money. But I may be being too charitable. It wasn't difficult to establish they were being paid by a fake persona. That said, there's a reason why the Russian intelligence agencies' contemptuous term of art for these people is 'useful idiots'.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_measures
Thank you for continuing to pull apart the cracks in the wall and shine the light.
To turn your quote about Anne Applebaum’s work in your own direction your writings also add to the “arsenal that stores the sharpest weapons to hand”.
I found your article very thought provoking (about understanding why the money follows Rubin) I am also curious to read What’s Left.
In the UK at least I took the term “Woke” to be a catch-all term (at least since Brexit) used by the Far Right for anything progressive. Much easier to dismiss progressive values that way. So I never use it. It’s why Conservatives here also tried to reinvent “Free Speech”.
God I hope Trump loses.
Woke is used but there is also a distinct ideology. If you give me a minute I will post a link
Here you are Eva. My apologies for the delay
https://nickcohen.substack.com/p/the-roots-of-wokeness
Thanks Nick