How authoritarian states sculpt a warped alternative reality in our news feeds
theconversation.com
Russia and China push content that depicts western states as chaotic, immoral and even just weird.

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Both Russia and China are critical of the “international rules-based order”, a framework of liberal rules and political norms that emerged after the second world war. They see this order as western-centric and want to reshape the global order in their interest.

Military and economic collaboration form part of their efforts to challenge this order, but global media and online spaces are important too. Both states, for example, frequently disseminate stories that portray western countries as neo-colonial powers.

Another theme is that democracies are hypocritical actors who preach equality and fairness but do not practice it. Stories of a lack of unity in western alliances like Nato or the EU are also consistent in Russian and Chinese narration. Conversely, Russia and China are presented as logical and sane countries, seeking to protect other, more vulnerable nations from western exploitation.

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It’s often the way a story is told that misleads. Details are withheld or taken out of context. Speculative information is presented as fact. This creates a distorted version of the truth.

The stories are often told in emotive terms in a bid to trigger our anger, shock, fear or resentment. For example, in the context of the war in Ukraine, disinformation might suggest that our governments are betraying us by getting involved in foreign wars, or that ordinary citizens are the ones paying the price for the ambitions of a corrupt elite.

They are laden with scandal and sensationalism, skipping nuance in favour of emotional resonance. This ensures the stories are shared and promoted across social media.

The truth can be complex and, at times, boring. Yet by capitalising on our tendency to gravitate towards the sensational, Russia and China can drip-feed a specific worldview into our own – where democracy is ineffective and chaotic and where they offer a fairer, functional future.

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  • Nemo's public admirer@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
    1·
    8 days ago

    Is there a leaked NATO playbook.
    The article on NATO seems to be painting it in a positive way and does not detail nor critique it’s policies unlike the other articles you shared against the ones whom NATO targets.

    For “the West”, as you keep saying, I’m not exactly sure what you mean. There is "no West ", so to speak, as it’s actually used as a framework to be positioned against the East , or Global South.

    USA America, western colonial nations etc.
    USA + EU in general sense. As you said, NATO and its collaborators would be more accurate.

    To understand " the West" it’s important to understand what came after WW2 in Europe, when Russia profiled itself more and more as an enemy than a friend. It invaded and annexed many European countries during and after WW2

    Wasn’t the West afraid of Soviet influence too? Or more accurately, loss of control over Easter Europe?
    Operation Gladio would come under NATO playbook, right?

    Add: I responded in good faith, so I do hope my efforts are not in vain.

    Thank you. Me too. I too commented in good faith. Hoped that you were actually responding in good faith too.

    Anyway, thanks for the links. Will try to read them or get through summaries and also search for articles critiquing the NATO’s and EU’s playbook too

    • Riddick3001@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      7 days ago

      allright here we go;

      there a leaked NATO playbook.
      The article on NATO seems to be painting it in a positive way

      First of all I want to point out that we are both reacting on an article about Russian & Chinese disinformation campaigns. In that context we have been discussing things. The term" playbook" I then used is obviously meant as a reference to a certain strategy, methodology & script if you will, of their plans concerning the hybrid war they are unleashing. To be clear, they deny 100% this is the case, regardelss of the many evidence that they in fact are orchestrating and executing this hybrid war.

      So to you, there appears to be some doubt concerning this allegation. Maybe this is true for you, however I have no doubts.

      So the playbooks I shared earlier, are about the sino-russian strategy and the reaction to that hybrid war…Whether Nato is then painted in a positive way is not the issue, as they play a part. If you want critique of Nato, I still am unsure as what you mean; except that like China and Russia ( and some others) don’t like Nato.

      western colonial nations

      The West aren’t especially the only colonial countries in the wide context of time. Many empires are colonial in a sense. But yes, the largest and most successful colonial empire was European. Momentarily, and more or less since like after the WW 2 the European colonial empires ( & mostly imperialistic mentality) ended.

      This is however NOT the case for China nor Rusia. They still are imperialistic countries annexing territories and free independent countries. Isn’t this a problem India has in as well, and especially near the North-East border? So the " East" is therefore momentarily actually a real imperialistic & colonial power, the west not so much for the last like 80- 100 years.

      Wasn’t the West afraid of Soviet influence too?

      Afraid, as in very concerned, ofc. Russia annexed part of Eastern Europe, which was and is now central Europe between( 1917 - 1970) or so, and then more recently continued in Ukraine. They are imperialistic. So yes, Europe is very worried, and rightly so. Also West- Russia was until 1917 quite connected to Europe (or some say just European) via for example the monarchy, to complicate matters more.

      [Operation Gladio] Thanks for your infon on this. Had never heard of this. But I’m not surprised. Governments do have spies and they have their operations. at times. Public knowledge of that, is only disclosed many decades after the fact.

      I only know, just like OP’s article that we in Europe are in hybrid (reactive) war against Russia ( and a bit China probably, but idk). And that, Europe likes to promote or influence other counties to have humanrights, democracies and want to trade. Here too there are some bad politicians and bad oligarchs and so on. Probably a bit less corruption than other countries. And they normally face consequences for their bad actions. Which is imo, is good thing.

      So, what’s your train of thought, when asking for critique about Nato? Usually Nato is a defense project ; except imo for Iraq which was imo a real bad choice, and was also widely publicly criticised.