And the reason to keep howling into the wind about it is that the more people understand how this tactic is being applied, the fewer will fall for it.
That's a dream, IMO. Howling doesn't persuade anyone. Even if it did, it would be a slow process, the best result of which would be a shift in the ratio of howlers to indifferents. Meanwhile, there's no net change in the messages and the howlers have consumed time and energy that could be put to better use. It may be therapeutic, but it isn't constructive.
it is primarily an intentional weapon rather than an accidental one
You interpreted "intentional" and "accidental" in a way different from what I meant. We have very different frames of reference when it comes to conflict. You are very influenced by your strong affinity for Israel. I am very influenced by my experience facilitating consensus decision making and my systems background. As an aside, I always find it interesting how different people read things differently.
In any event, I agree that the enemy's use of our system is intentional. What I meant is that the system was not intended as a propaganda tool. Quite the opposite. It was designed to support freedom and an informed electorate. The enemy has co-opted our system and made it work against us. We can change the system in response. Or we can find a way to turn it into a boomerang. It's our system. We should be smarter than they are about finding ways to keep it from being used against us. Howling is just anger, it's not problem solving.
The only idea I've heard from the howlers is that we turn the media into a propaganda arm of the government. I think that's a bad approach, but at least it's an idea for fighting back. Then there are the people who are trying to compensate for the problem by installing other media voices in the ME. Now, that is constructive although belated. Perhaps there are some other nubs of ideas in there, but I either missed them or they don't come to mind. If we want to solve that problem, we have to clarify just what the problem is and then come up with strategies. But that's more work and less therapeutic than howling. |
