FBI director says disinformation campaigns 'never stopped' after 2016 elections | Hacker News Reader

FBI director says disinformation campaigns 'never stopped' after 2016 elections

thehill.com

42 pointsLiriel38 comments

Disinformation campaigns never stopped since... -the 80's when they passed legislation no longer requiring news -to present both sides of the argument -the Cold War -the massive propaganda campaigns via news, radio, social clubs, and film and advertising of WW2 -the father of public relations Edward Bernays wrote the book in 1921 -the guy he stole most of his stuff from Walter Lippmann worked for the US on an unprecedented campaign for WWI -Ivy Lee, the "first publicist" was hired by the John D. Rockefeller, to improve his public image -traders in Amsterdam used various methods to deceive other investors regarding tulip values -Roman Emperors waged disinformation campaigns against the citizens to make sure they knew that their military campaigns were always the most valiant righteous and most of all triumphant possible -Themistocles launched a disinformation campaign luring the Persians into a naval battle they were ill prepared for at the battle of Salamis

Basically disinformation campaigns have been running since the beginning of time...and the most effective ones are the ones you still never realized.

People realized there's no advantage to letting both sides speak. The majority benefits from stifling the minority and inherently has the power to do so by virtue of being the majority. This gets justified with arguments against normalization usually. Why it's so hard for the 'right' side to present their side persuasively isn't examined too closely.

Everybody around the world does it. In fact, the CIA has been doing it since its inception!

Sure. The problem with Russia is twofold: They're doing it really effectively, and they're doing it to us.

We haven't ever seen a disinformation campaign that was this effective before. At least, we haven't seen one that was this effective against countries with free media and an educated population. (Though the effectiveness of this attack might lead one to question both the freedom of the media and the educatedness of the population...)

Them doing it to us may be "turnabout is fair play", but that doesn't mean that we have to like it, approve of it, or accept it.

You should be embarrassed by this comment. What metric are you using to say it's really effective. Please tell me what first hand analysis you have other than being told what you want to hear and using that to justify your position. It's almost like you are a victim of... wait for it....misinformation

It's funny watching people always accuse the other side of being uneducated.

I have no problem with you thinking I'm wrong. But I should be embarrassed? You seem to want to use emotional manipulation to silence those who disagree with you. That doesn't say anything good about your confidence that your opinion will prevail in an open debate.

If you've got an argument, give it. Save the emotional manipulation for children. (In fact, don't use it on children, either. Just lose the emotional manipulation altogether.)

What's your point? Bend over and take it?

The disinformation campaign is called MSNBC, activists masquerading as journalists, that think the ends justify the means.

> Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Edit: There's no new information here. Anyone who has been paying even a tiny bit of attention would already know this. "Hacker" "news" wouldn't know an on-topic story if it hit them in the face.

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