We think, we stop being self-made victims of these phantoms, we speak up about these processes, we write about them, we talk to our neighbors and friends, we call our senators and representatives to complain vociferously about the practices Prof. Snyder describes. Start there.
Or maybe not watch tv so much. I don't and as usual, I was completely unaware of these. And I think I'm completely realistic that not every candidate is going to match my views, and that you should be aware that some candidates will be very harmful, no matter what they say. I may not have been a big fan of Kamala, but I knew who would be less harmful to this country, and that was her. Therefore, she got my vote. Therefore, no republicans got a vote of mine.
We also need to be painfully self-aware of how many people online and on TV are trying to manipulate us and exactly what our responses are, as Prof. Snyder was responsive to that phantom appeal.
This is all good and helpful. I think doing more reading of good books by reputable writers, strong articles with verified claims by the same, and doing more thinking about what it means to be a citizen of a democracy are all parts of what you are saying.
I wish I could like your comment a million times, Kirsten. I got rid of mine--the old tube kind--early in 1992, nearly 33 years ago, and have never looked back. TV is both terribly noisy and stupid. And the ads! I also use an ad blocker on my laptop, so have no idea what the latest is in advertising. I treasure the quiet in my house. I spend most of my time reading anyway, so why have one? If Prof. Snyder is interviewed on TV, I watch it on youtube or some other outlet.
It just occurred to me that I probably ought to acquire a transistor or short wave (Is that what they're still called?) radio before Jan. 20. Maybe Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty will create a Radio Free US. That's not a joke, by the way. Reliable communication will be among the first things to go.
I’m probably among the most informed people on the planet as I get my news from numerous sources online. When growing up, we didn’t have a TV before leaving home but as my mother came from an intellectual family and was a librarian, I was well informed even then. 🤓
I would be interested in getting rid of the tv, but my husband is dyslexic and I have come to see that, for him, watching movies on tv is like reading books. So I don't complain.
I know you didn't ask me, Barry Gander, but I am a retired philosophy professor who has taught thousands of students critical thinking and who values Socrates's example. Take it for what it's worth: the distillation of several excellent thinkers about resisting the onslaught, especially Leah Greenberg, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, and Ezra Levin.
A.I. Phalanxes of Russian hackers. U.S.-based billionaires playing with dark money.
Only one thing to do, Barry.
Our schools (upper-year high school, lower-year university) need an essay writing program based on individuals. All writing is based on first listening to others and then quoting them, directly or indirectly but specifically as the individuals they are in the contexts they cite.
So long as the references go to real people in the room, A.I. can't touch them.
Everyone starts with intro essay, each locating oneself in the specifics of food-clothing-shelter each has by one's personal choice or cultural inheritance. (Shelter include buildings inside by interior design each inhabits, and landscape outside where one roams -- plus styles of travel.)
After everyone has read everyone's, and full discussion, re-write. Now in revisions of first essays comes the citing of others close to one's own issues.
Rewritten essays go as a group eventually to a neighboring group, maybe similar in culture, maybe as different as Sunni-Shia, Palestinian Arab-Israeli Jew., any other traditionally fraught set of stereotypes.
Praise others for their specific tackling of the stupid stereotypes all inherit. Eventually, too, cite novels, memoirs, histories, and other humanities.
Putin, Elon Musk, the U.S.'s coming convicted criminal president, and all the other demagogues, dictators, and other social media billionaires whizzing in lies need not prevail, when our schools could key unto the human truths of individuals.
“But, after a moment, there was also recognition, even déjà vu. This was digital demotivation, something that I have seen and studied in other settings. I was supposed to be driven towards indifference, towards not doing anything, towards not voting. I was being nudged by a phantom.”
Hence, the 14 million people who didn’t show up! Excellent newsletter. Bravo Tim: Mic drop!
I wasn’t buying this “identity” politics game either, because she didn’t play them. And the one thing they were able to pin on Harris was the trans surgery policy for inmates, which was a canard; Trump enacted that policy. Admittedly though, Harris flubbed her answers when asked.
However, it was clear there was some sort of social engineering in play. Malicious algorithms and the constant barrage of disinformation campaigns by Trump and foreign actors were evident, and I don’t even have a social network footprint anymore.
That said, thanks for clarifying just how enormous and massive these digital demotivating programs were, and how dangerous they are. If they can succeed in America, then imagine what Musk, Thiel and demagogues like Trump can accomplish over time anywhere on the planet. Not even Putin is safe: perhaps!..:)
And still, democrats and the democratic political pundit class are arguing about, and blaming everyone from Biden, to Hillary, to Harris’s pant suits; yet, they still cannot see the forest for the trees, and diagnose the root cause that’s staring them in the face! Good times!…:)
Anyone who voted based on trans surgery policy had no idea what the real issues facing this country are. How many trans people do they think there are?
I agree, but the Trump team played the commercial so often: on cable, networks and social media that it had an incredible impact. And again, these people are ignorant fools, and that’s the nicest thing I will say about them….:)
A great many people love to be given permission to hate and scapegoat. When the common person is being victimized and doesn't feel that he can fight back, the first thing many look for is a target to punch down. Trans people have been identified as the scapegoat of the day.
I stand corrected. I thought it was a 14 million difference, but less than half of the 5.3 million difference would have made the difference in this election.
I have been wondering who is the power behind single-DJT's restoration. You've made it clear: it's the Paypal mafia family, Musk, Theil, and Sacks. Cancelling Paypal is a place for individuals to start.
There are others: Las Vegas (Adelson), TikTok (Yass), oil and gas (Koch), and more. There are alternatives for all of these.
And of course the not-so-hidden masterminds: Leo, Roberts (both of them), Vought.
And again, what do we do after we recognize the masterminds of this social media manipulation by people who are pretty sure they're smarter than we could ever be? WE THINK ABOUT OUR THINKING AND PRESUPPOSITIONS. We examine the loathesome possibility that we've allowed ourselves to be beguiled and manipulated and we think carefully about our assumptions. We have to name those assumptions and notice the gut feelings that accompany them. We have to be willing to feel humiliated for having fallen for some of the fallacious reasoning in order to know what's true and what's a phantom. It's a constant learning process. Socrates knew this: it's hard it's not rewarded by our society. But it leads to genuine self-awareness and self-respect when you can reject the phantoms and then actively work to stop the manufacturers of these lies.
Prof. Snyder, Thank you for another great essay. I was struck by The Washington Post article yesterday by Michael Scherer and Josh Dawsey secret donations used by Musk to undermine democracy by deterring voters from casting their votes for Harris/Walz. It appears this secret anti election effort is not taken seriously by most voices in the media. I saw one article in the Washington Post and another in a Detroit newspaper. Has there been any other serious effort to publicize this election/voting interference. (Again, I think, maybe not illegal, but totally immoral--antidemocratic in intent.
A common sense definition of criminal fraud: "Fraud is intentional deception to secure unfair or unlawful gain, or to deprive a victim of a legal right."
Impersonation is identity theft. Publishing lies and claiming the author is your opponent is fraud.
Lying for gain is "obtaining money or other valuable asset under false pretenses." In this case the asset is an office of public trust that can be misused for stealing money from citizens.
As long as the Good Faith world fails to hold the Bad Faith actors to account for their crimes, they will continue to cause harm to citizens for their own benefit.
Then call your senators and reps, your governor and mayor, and ask this! Don't let it remain here on this substack. YOU do the publicizing! Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper (I know, I know), or call up your local Dems and ask them what they're going to do about it. Talk to your friends and send them this latest substack. Do something! It must be done.
I've been thinking the same. Election interference enhanced by AI along with bomb threats and voter repression. It seemed that Trump was telegraphing his intent when he said Democrats could only win if they cheat....
Tim, I agree: the demotivation movement to get people to stay at home was powerful here, but so is just your basic American misogyny coupled with your basic American racism. When someone like Musk can play into people's auto-prejudices, amplify the supposed superiority of white men (sorry but you're one too no matter your level of enlightenment so you will probably get a get out of jail free card from this new administration), and denigrate the work of a strong, capable, and determined woman of color, too many people are far too willing to play along. There is a problem here in America and it is not the economy. It is that the fascist playbook works. Because white cis-Americans are happy to use it. Because white cis-Americans are far too quick to turn against all the others if they feel their privileges are threatened. I am aware that as a white woman I am privileged. But as someone who does not happen to own a penis, is single, and is connected to a lot of non-cis and non-white people, I, too, am threatened by this emphasis on cis-status, whiteness, and the glorification of white men's dangling bits. Here is a case in point: in Missouri, protection of women's bodily autonomy passed by an enormous margin, yet that same margin separated the people who ran who actually SUPPORT women's bodily autonomy and the christo-fascists who won statewide. Why is that? Because women's bodily autonomy is not something that white men feel all that strongly about but they know their wives and daughters do? And the white women who voted think that by cozying up to the boyz they might get a little benefit? People prefer being passive--the Roman Imperial strategy known as "bread and circuses" demonstrated that as well. They don't like to think for themselves. I have spent a career trying to teach students to think critically, to consider their sources, and to impose context on all things (yes, I am an historian). But those lessons are harder and harder to teach, especially to white boys and men, because their perception of the world has been completely determined by the positive reinforcement they receive from disinformation, the championing of their white penises in social media, and their distractedness brought on by the toys dangled in front of them. I appreciate that you are expressing the lessons that need to be learned but I fear your audience is already enlightened, your Ivy League colleagues are sitting on their hands, and the people you need to reach are not interested.
Gosh, it seems as a population we’ve either lost the off button for the TV; or there is a perverse reward with gullibility.
READING and not passive watching seems useful. I’ve voted progressive since 1972 and wasn’t fooled but alas getting the vote of informed people is necessary but not sufficient as our national decline demonstrates.
We have fought the long battle to get Americans to read and think, and not just sit on their passive duffs mindlessly watching TV / video or listening uncritically to people who tell them what to do. In the broadcast network days and printed publication days, there were the guiderails of sometimes conflicting desires to follow professional journalism practices and to appeal to and not offend a general audience. Outright lies of one network could be exploited by other networks to discredit them and take away some of their audience.
(Not that I have anything about listening to people who tell me what to do - YouTube is a great resource for beginners and DIY people - how to set up a tent, how to use a canister stove, how to fix "X", the correct form for exercise "Y", ... . My next how-to is how to figure out this podcast thingie - I am about to listen to my first ever podcast.
Thank you once again, Prof. Snyder, for explicitly naming the goblins that no one else wants to name, and showing us that they are creating phantoms for us, believing that we are SO STUPID we'll never see through them for the bits of miasma they really are. I say to everyone: STOP blaming Dems and the Russians and Chinese and even MAGA Repubs for all of this. We need to look deeply at our own thought processes (and lack thereof) and examine our presuppositions. We need to choose critical thinking all the time, especially now, when others are working so hard to short-circuit our thinking with emotional appeals, lies, and hatred. If we don't take responsibility for looking carefully at what we see, what we say, and what we read, we are the problem. We need to be aware of our own social programming and make clear choices about what we keep and what we discard. If we are not thoughtful about this, we are condemning ourselves to be nothing but puppets manipulated by advertisers, bots, "influencers," and appeals to our very worst natures. It's so much easier to pretend that we are in control of our own thoughts than to admit we're not, right? Right????
WAPO called this a "false flag" operation. Which doesn't accurately describe it. This fraudulent/targeted AI lies/impersonation is closer to a sophisticated version of a Roger Stone Dirty Trick. It borders, and maybe crosses, the line into criminal fraud. Similar to the self serving crooks who attacked and exiled Dante in Florence in 1300. Fraud is a very old game.
Next question. If Joe Biden takes his oath to protect and defend the constitution and enforce the law seriously, why doesn't he arrest and prosecute these and other frauds on the American people? Joe invited the Bad Faith parasite into the White House for tea and scones. The exact opposite of his oath of office.
8 million Joe Biden voters (10%) in 2020 did not show up for Harris in 2024. This dirty trick must have contributed to that effect. If they had, she would have won.
“We can get ourselves out of the phantom world, but first we need that spark of recognition that tells us where we are.” T. Snyder. It will take enlightenment, as we are on the brink of fascism supported by a religious sect.
It doesn't require enlightenment in any kind of religious sense, if that's what you mean. It requires self-awareness. We must stop burying ourselves in media, despair, or indiffierence in an attempt to avoid doing the work of becoming aware of our presuppositions and other assumptions. The "spark of recognition" may be a queasiness in the pit of the stomach, but it may also be a large twinge of cognitive dissonance that must be attended to. Fascism requires self-deception. If we stop that, we can work to stop fascism.
". . . that spark of recognition that tells us where we are . . .." Thank you for the quote, Carl.
It's personal. That spark can come from schools that center novels, memoirs, books of history, and other humanities in them. They all remind us of individual "others" in fraught contexts.
Following things unfold from Europe there was the confidence, that Americans above all would learn from their mistakes and vulnerabilities, e.g. in 2016 or as obviously and confirmed by Chris Krebs in 2020.
That Americans would recognise where they are heading.
The exact opposite was the case.
The tribalism in media and society, the self perpetuating appraisal of each other's latest finding about the evil intent outside the own bubble, did not only cause complacency, a beautiful party around that inspiring campaign of an inspiring candidate now appearing like the last dance on the Titanic, it even BOOSTED the demise of democracy and liberalism as it is RIGHT NOW to be seen in full swing.
Polling experts up and down the channels within the bubble claimed, that only THEY had the real understanding of the actual data, claimed, that the T.-campaign would for purpose put out masses of manipulated polls to later be able to claim that the results must have been rigged as not complying with these polls, thereby not only caused wrong feeling of security about a blue victory, but even did let the final warnings in the last days of the Harris campaign appear as only intentionally manipulated to rake in donations.
All up and down the Chanels the outrageous claims of pet eating migrants, VP Harris being fascist and marxist, California being destroyed by her, Latinos "not pulling out", got reconfirmed as finally causing the country breaking with Trump, illustrated by low attention of his events and people leaving early. It just CAN not have been not recognisable, that the opposite was true, that the claims made people vote him. It only was not possible to see it within the bubble.
Seen from Europe, NO single promising attempt has been made, to reach into the alternate media sphere. Buttegieg and Sanders regularly appearing on FOX got named as attempts. But they are right what FOX painted for years as "extremists".
Joe Rogan and Tocker Carlson are no "phantoms". They are even not new. But the entire academia didn't come up with methodologies to counter it. Same in Europe. Do they even try? Why then do we have it? I thought, we wanted to learn out of the disastrous European past and avoid the beginnings. Now we passed the beginnings. All over the free world and fuelled by adversaries what hasn't been the case in NAZI-Germany.
Thesis: If there is the will and the aim, together with the focus, then there could have been a way to counter that "phantom" in US and there still CAN be one in Europe.
Only at the last weekend LincolnProject aired a few ads, that actually had the potential to reach the mindset of a MAGA cultist. But at that time dozens of previous ads only cemented barriers. Confirmed prejudgements.
Ads by George Conway have rather been shots in the own feet. Ads by the Harris campaign raised the question, whether they knew what's at stake (no blame here to the candidate and HER messaging!).
There was no single attempt to see, to educate, what loss of rule of law actually means for an average MAGA cultist, what really caused inflation and with Trump's plans will trigger it again, what MADE America exceptionally great since the Truman doctrine, what does Ukraine prevailing mean for an average American and his or her future, what it means, if a deranged tech billionaire gets a seat in cabinet.
NOTHING.
And it seems to continue exactly the same way.
Self confirmation about self confirmation - hardly anything to alternatively shape the future now, to find new alliances, to preserve seeds of rebirth, to find rocks of stabilisation in that current downward.
Every day wasted is more than a day lost!
In 1930-Germany election results of 33% did let outliers feel commonly strong enough, included in a movement, that went out at night to commit atrocities against minorities.
They had not more guns than inhabitants, not 50%+ election results, no digital oligarchs using, backing and controlling them, no external adversarial forces behind them....
1. 99% of Americans are resistant to education and resent any attempts to educate them. The way to reach them is through entertainment and conspiracy theories, and maybe even pornography.
2. For the majority of voters, patriotism is dead. Pride in being a democracy is dead. Respect for the veterans and survivors is dead. (You don't have to agree with a war in order to treat the returning soldier humanely)
3. Perhaps it's time to brush off Peter Pomerantsev's books on disinformation and propaganda tactics. Democrats tend to obey the intent of the law in a democratic society, and the concept of plausibly deniable black ops doesn't seem to occur to them as victims or as perpetrators.
In this case, though, something substantial is being left out. While I don’t at all doubt that the media is both manipulating and being manipulated by both Americans and those outside our shores, some facts and some truths are too well established to be sabotaged or subject to much manipulation. Trump’s character, ambitions, and actions are very well documented by and through he himself. At least since January 6th, and well before that for anyone who took an honest look or listen, we knew he was a mendacious, malevolent, amoral, self-absorbed liar, huckster, and conman. New Yorkers had known that for decades. I taught school in New York City for over 40 years. For half that time one of my nearest and most frequented locations was the southwest corner of Central Park, dominated in part by Trump Tower. I never watched The Apprentice (indeed I have no idea why anyone would want to), but I knew, as many of us did what kind of man he was and remains.
Once he stepped onto the national stage in 2015, his intentions were plain and his methods obvious to anyone with more than a modicum of experience with other human beings. His first campaign was blatantly Trump as was his second. His character never changed. His methods never changed. His intentions never changed.
We can debate the causes of his character until the bovines return to the large red structure, but the results were never in question except to anyone who, for whatever reason, bought into his con - which is exactly what it all was, the largest and most successful of anything ever concocted or carried out by any American president.
January 6th and all of the surrounding electoral ‘shenanigans' he attempted were a culmination, not an initiation. It was clear that he had no intention of either respecting or intending to abide by the electoral process, the Constitution, or the rule of law.
We knew less of Ms Harris for many reasons. But there was never any indication in anything she said or did that was in any way a reflection of the lack of moral character, or lack of commitment to the Constitution or the rule of law so clear in Donald Trump. Along the way, she may have held some political positions that many people disagreed with, but that’s no indictment of character. I’ve been aware of presidents since Ike, and I know of none who’ve not done so.
In the movie, the American President, Michael Douglas in the role of President Andrew Shepherd says in the final press conference that “being President is very much about character”. It has to be, or all that we were designed to be is little more than a fantasy. The quality of character of those who have occupied the Oval Office has varied a fair amount over time, but never has any occupant so completely and blatantly lacked any sense of morality or shown any comparable disdain for the foundations of our Republic as Trump (well except maybe Andrew Johnson, another clear aberration).
So the parameters were clear in this election, clear beyond the power of any media manipulation. One could argue policies ad infinitum, but there has to be some bedrock set of personal qualifications for the office that cannot be put aside for mere political or party consideration of for the price of a dozen eggs.
The ‘will of the people’ is always a crucial part of any democracy, but the will of the people can be brutally wrong. It was wrong all during the era of slavery. It was wrong when it kept women from the franchise until the 19th Amendment. It was wrong all during the Jim Crow era It was wrong when it became the accomplice to our slaughter of those who held this land before us.
But such wrongs are supposed to be blunted at the vary least by our senior legislative branch, and the craven Republican Senators who knew exactly who and what Trump was and yet failed to help Democrats take him off the stage after January 6th bear the brunt of the blame for what happened on Election Day this year. And no manipulated media can be said to be any part of that failure.
It took an amazing effort for the Russian propagandists to pull this off. I fear we are so behind in appropriate legislation that we can’t plug the holes. We need both parties in Congress to produce legislation that guards against this and we need to educate the public on how to recognize, but amazingly, we hear the Dept of Ed is going to be eliminated.
Judy, there are a bunch of counter disinformation strategies that might have worked once upon a time, but now the disinformation cow is thoroughly out of the barn. Fact checking is good for history books but won't change public opinion. Corporations, legislators, in courts cannot be relied on to implement and enforce policies or laws. Lies and propaganda have truth on its back foot, and we need creative and affirmative content and messaging strategies. The good guys clearly don't control highly trafficked platforms, but we need to learn how they work and attempt to compete. I was heartened this year by nonprofits using data to Target and message truthful content to swing voters in swing States.
Dealing with this is a project I want to work on. Listening, learning, taking an inventory of skill sets, technologies, people to harness and engage for truth. Marketing, entertainment, political strategy, philosophy, AI, quantitative social science research on how opinions are shaped and modified.
Well, YES. And act. Do something, talk to your friends, write something on a social media post, and above all make sure that you yourself are clear about what's happening and are not an unwilling dupe.
Brilliant and clear analysis. I just wish I were not true. Next step: how do we break the cycle?
We think, we stop being self-made victims of these phantoms, we speak up about these processes, we write about them, we talk to our neighbors and friends, we call our senators and representatives to complain vociferously about the practices Prof. Snyder describes. Start there.
Or maybe not watch tv so much. I don't and as usual, I was completely unaware of these. And I think I'm completely realistic that not every candidate is going to match my views, and that you should be aware that some candidates will be very harmful, no matter what they say. I may not have been a big fan of Kamala, but I knew who would be less harmful to this country, and that was her. Therefore, she got my vote. Therefore, no republicans got a vote of mine.
We also need to be painfully self-aware of how many people online and on TV are trying to manipulate us and exactly what our responses are, as Prof. Snyder was responsive to that phantom appeal.
This is all good and helpful. I think doing more reading of good books by reputable writers, strong articles with verified claims by the same, and doing more thinking about what it means to be a citizen of a democracy are all parts of what you are saying.
I don’t own a TV as it’s a time consuming distraction full of ads.
I wish I could like your comment a million times, Kirsten. I got rid of mine--the old tube kind--early in 1992, nearly 33 years ago, and have never looked back. TV is both terribly noisy and stupid. And the ads! I also use an ad blocker on my laptop, so have no idea what the latest is in advertising. I treasure the quiet in my house. I spend most of my time reading anyway, so why have one? If Prof. Snyder is interviewed on TV, I watch it on youtube or some other outlet.
It just occurred to me that I probably ought to acquire a transistor or short wave (Is that what they're still called?) radio before Jan. 20. Maybe Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty will create a Radio Free US. That's not a joke, by the way. Reliable communication will be among the first things to go.
I’m probably among the most informed people on the planet as I get my news from numerous sources online. When growing up, we didn’t have a TV before leaving home but as my mother came from an intellectual family and was a librarian, I was well informed even then. 🤓
Me too! I didn't know there were two of us. (Three, counting my brother.)
I would be interested in getting rid of the tv, but my husband is dyslexic and I have come to see that, for him, watching movies on tv is like reading books. So I don't complain.
I know you didn't ask me, Barry Gander, but I am a retired philosophy professor who has taught thousands of students critical thinking and who values Socrates's example. Take it for what it's worth: the distillation of several excellent thinkers about resisting the onslaught, especially Leah Greenberg, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, and Ezra Levin.
A.I. Phalanxes of Russian hackers. U.S.-based billionaires playing with dark money.
Only one thing to do, Barry.
Our schools (upper-year high school, lower-year university) need an essay writing program based on individuals. All writing is based on first listening to others and then quoting them, directly or indirectly but specifically as the individuals they are in the contexts they cite.
So long as the references go to real people in the room, A.I. can't touch them.
Everyone starts with intro essay, each locating oneself in the specifics of food-clothing-shelter each has by one's personal choice or cultural inheritance. (Shelter include buildings inside by interior design each inhabits, and landscape outside where one roams -- plus styles of travel.)
After everyone has read everyone's, and full discussion, re-write. Now in revisions of first essays comes the citing of others close to one's own issues.
Rewritten essays go as a group eventually to a neighboring group, maybe similar in culture, maybe as different as Sunni-Shia, Palestinian Arab-Israeli Jew., any other traditionally fraught set of stereotypes.
Praise others for their specific tackling of the stupid stereotypes all inherit. Eventually, too, cite novels, memoirs, histories, and other humanities.
Putin, Elon Musk, the U.S.'s coming convicted criminal president, and all the other demagogues, dictators, and other social media billionaires whizzing in lies need not prevail, when our schools could key unto the human truths of individuals.
That' brilliant!
Rein in the liars 😉
“But, after a moment, there was also recognition, even déjà vu. This was digital demotivation, something that I have seen and studied in other settings. I was supposed to be driven towards indifference, towards not doing anything, towards not voting. I was being nudged by a phantom.”
Hence, the 14 million people who didn’t show up! Excellent newsletter. Bravo Tim: Mic drop!
I wasn’t buying this “identity” politics game either, because she didn’t play them. And the one thing they were able to pin on Harris was the trans surgery policy for inmates, which was a canard; Trump enacted that policy. Admittedly though, Harris flubbed her answers when asked.
However, it was clear there was some sort of social engineering in play. Malicious algorithms and the constant barrage of disinformation campaigns by Trump and foreign actors were evident, and I don’t even have a social network footprint anymore.
That said, thanks for clarifying just how enormous and massive these digital demotivating programs were, and how dangerous they are. If they can succeed in America, then imagine what Musk, Thiel and demagogues like Trump can accomplish over time anywhere on the planet. Not even Putin is safe: perhaps!..:)
And still, democrats and the democratic political pundit class are arguing about, and blaming everyone from Biden, to Hillary, to Harris’s pant suits; yet, they still cannot see the forest for the trees, and diagnose the root cause that’s staring them in the face! Good times!…:)
Anyone who voted based on trans surgery policy had no idea what the real issues facing this country are. How many trans people do they think there are?
I agree, but the Trump team played the commercial so often: on cable, networks and social media that it had an incredible impact. And again, these people are ignorant fools, and that’s the nicest thing I will say about them….:)
A great many people love to be given permission to hate and scapegoat. When the common person is being victimized and doesn't feel that he can fight back, the first thing many look for is a target to punch down. Trans people have been identified as the scapegoat of the day.
Where does that 14 million figure come from?
In 2024 there were ~153.1 million votes cast (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_United_States_presidential_election#Electoral_results) vs ~158.4 million in 2020 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_United_States_presidential_election#Electoral_results). That's a drop of ~5.3 million votes.
If you're referring to the Democrat vote, that dropped from ~81.3 million to ~73.8 million, a drop of ~7.5 million.
I stand corrected. I thought it was a 14 million difference, but less than half of the 5.3 million difference would have made the difference in this election.
This is good!
I have been wondering who is the power behind single-DJT's restoration. You've made it clear: it's the Paypal mafia family, Musk, Theil, and Sacks. Cancelling Paypal is a place for individuals to start.
There are others: Las Vegas (Adelson), TikTok (Yass), oil and gas (Koch), and more. There are alternatives for all of these.
And of course the not-so-hidden masterminds: Leo, Roberts (both of them), Vought.
And again, what do we do after we recognize the masterminds of this social media manipulation by people who are pretty sure they're smarter than we could ever be? WE THINK ABOUT OUR THINKING AND PRESUPPOSITIONS. We examine the loathesome possibility that we've allowed ourselves to be beguiled and manipulated and we think carefully about our assumptions. We have to name those assumptions and notice the gut feelings that accompany them. We have to be willing to feel humiliated for having fallen for some of the fallacious reasoning in order to know what's true and what's a phantom. It's a constant learning process. Socrates knew this: it's hard it's not rewarded by our society. But it leads to genuine self-awareness and self-respect when you can reject the phantoms and then actively work to stop the manufacturers of these lies.
But we don't use PayPal, Twitter, and oil and gas. I don't touch social media.
Musk & Theil sold PayPal to Ebay quite a while ago, so, unfortunately, cancelling PayPal won't have much of an effect on their bottom line.
Well, I haven't used Ebay in over a year...
Prof. Snyder, Thank you for another great essay. I was struck by The Washington Post article yesterday by Michael Scherer and Josh Dawsey secret donations used by Musk to undermine democracy by deterring voters from casting their votes for Harris/Walz. It appears this secret anti election effort is not taken seriously by most voices in the media. I saw one article in the Washington Post and another in a Detroit newspaper. Has there been any other serious effort to publicize this election/voting interference. (Again, I think, maybe not illegal, but totally immoral--antidemocratic in intent.
A common sense definition of criminal fraud: "Fraud is intentional deception to secure unfair or unlawful gain, or to deprive a victim of a legal right."
Impersonation is identity theft. Publishing lies and claiming the author is your opponent is fraud.
Lying for gain is "obtaining money or other valuable asset under false pretenses." In this case the asset is an office of public trust that can be misused for stealing money from citizens.
As long as the Good Faith world fails to hold the Bad Faith actors to account for their crimes, they will continue to cause harm to citizens for their own benefit.
It’s also called “cheating”. Or in Donald’s words “rigged” or “rigging”. Count on the bully to claim he’s a victim while beating the shit out of you.
Then call your senators and reps, your governor and mayor, and ask this! Don't let it remain here on this substack. YOU do the publicizing! Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper (I know, I know), or call up your local Dems and ask them what they're going to do about it. Talk to your friends and send them this latest substack. Do something! It must be done.
This is what I have been thinking-that Musk orchestrated our first AI election.
I've been thinking the same. Election interference enhanced by AI along with bomb threats and voter repression. It seemed that Trump was telegraphing his intent when he said Democrats could only win if they cheat....
Tim, I agree: the demotivation movement to get people to stay at home was powerful here, but so is just your basic American misogyny coupled with your basic American racism. When someone like Musk can play into people's auto-prejudices, amplify the supposed superiority of white men (sorry but you're one too no matter your level of enlightenment so you will probably get a get out of jail free card from this new administration), and denigrate the work of a strong, capable, and determined woman of color, too many people are far too willing to play along. There is a problem here in America and it is not the economy. It is that the fascist playbook works. Because white cis-Americans are happy to use it. Because white cis-Americans are far too quick to turn against all the others if they feel their privileges are threatened. I am aware that as a white woman I am privileged. But as someone who does not happen to own a penis, is single, and is connected to a lot of non-cis and non-white people, I, too, am threatened by this emphasis on cis-status, whiteness, and the glorification of white men's dangling bits. Here is a case in point: in Missouri, protection of women's bodily autonomy passed by an enormous margin, yet that same margin separated the people who ran who actually SUPPORT women's bodily autonomy and the christo-fascists who won statewide. Why is that? Because women's bodily autonomy is not something that white men feel all that strongly about but they know their wives and daughters do? And the white women who voted think that by cozying up to the boyz they might get a little benefit? People prefer being passive--the Roman Imperial strategy known as "bread and circuses" demonstrated that as well. They don't like to think for themselves. I have spent a career trying to teach students to think critically, to consider their sources, and to impose context on all things (yes, I am an historian). But those lessons are harder and harder to teach, especially to white boys and men, because their perception of the world has been completely determined by the positive reinforcement they receive from disinformation, the championing of their white penises in social media, and their distractedness brought on by the toys dangled in front of them. I appreciate that you are expressing the lessons that need to be learned but I fear your audience is already enlightened, your Ivy League colleagues are sitting on their hands, and the people you need to reach are not interested.
Excellent assessment, Linda.
Gosh, it seems as a population we’ve either lost the off button for the TV; or there is a perverse reward with gullibility.
READING and not passive watching seems useful. I’ve voted progressive since 1972 and wasn’t fooled but alas getting the vote of informed people is necessary but not sufficient as our national decline demonstrates.
Enlightenment is long overdue in the USA.
(but never forget your towel!)
We have fought the long battle to get Americans to read and think, and not just sit on their passive duffs mindlessly watching TV / video or listening uncritically to people who tell them what to do. In the broadcast network days and printed publication days, there were the guiderails of sometimes conflicting desires to follow professional journalism practices and to appeal to and not offend a general audience. Outright lies of one network could be exploited by other networks to discredit them and take away some of their audience.
(Not that I have anything about listening to people who tell me what to do - YouTube is a great resource for beginners and DIY people - how to set up a tent, how to use a canister stove, how to fix "X", the correct form for exercise "Y", ... . My next how-to is how to figure out this podcast thingie - I am about to listen to my first ever podcast.
Thank you once again, Prof. Snyder, for explicitly naming the goblins that no one else wants to name, and showing us that they are creating phantoms for us, believing that we are SO STUPID we'll never see through them for the bits of miasma they really are. I say to everyone: STOP blaming Dems and the Russians and Chinese and even MAGA Repubs for all of this. We need to look deeply at our own thought processes (and lack thereof) and examine our presuppositions. We need to choose critical thinking all the time, especially now, when others are working so hard to short-circuit our thinking with emotional appeals, lies, and hatred. If we don't take responsibility for looking carefully at what we see, what we say, and what we read, we are the problem. We need to be aware of our own social programming and make clear choices about what we keep and what we discard. If we are not thoughtful about this, we are condemning ourselves to be nothing but puppets manipulated by advertisers, bots, "influencers," and appeals to our very worst natures. It's so much easier to pretend that we are in control of our own thoughts than to admit we're not, right? Right????
WAPO called this a "false flag" operation. Which doesn't accurately describe it. This fraudulent/targeted AI lies/impersonation is closer to a sophisticated version of a Roger Stone Dirty Trick. It borders, and maybe crosses, the line into criminal fraud. Similar to the self serving crooks who attacked and exiled Dante in Florence in 1300. Fraud is a very old game.
Next question. If Joe Biden takes his oath to protect and defend the constitution and enforce the law seriously, why doesn't he arrest and prosecute these and other frauds on the American people? Joe invited the Bad Faith parasite into the White House for tea and scones. The exact opposite of his oath of office.
8 million Joe Biden voters (10%) in 2020 did not show up for Harris in 2024. This dirty trick must have contributed to that effect. If they had, she would have won.
“We can get ourselves out of the phantom world, but first we need that spark of recognition that tells us where we are.” T. Snyder. It will take enlightenment, as we are on the brink of fascism supported by a religious sect.
https://hotbuttons.substack.com/p/christian-right-demands-dictatorship?r=3m1bs
It doesn't require enlightenment in any kind of religious sense, if that's what you mean. It requires self-awareness. We must stop burying ourselves in media, despair, or indiffierence in an attempt to avoid doing the work of becoming aware of our presuppositions and other assumptions. The "spark of recognition" may be a queasiness in the pit of the stomach, but it may also be a large twinge of cognitive dissonance that must be attended to. Fascism requires self-deception. If we stop that, we can work to stop fascism.
And don’t forget the billionaire class…:)
". . . that spark of recognition that tells us where we are . . .." Thank you for the quote, Carl.
It's personal. That spark can come from schools that center novels, memoirs, books of history, and other humanities in them. They all remind us of individual "others" in fraught contexts.
this is all rear view mirror - sure, the job of an historian.
But the society, the free world, needs to look forward!
The described phenomenon has been known - by those, that wanted to know it.
This clip is based on a segment of Chris Hayes from a Friday in early October:
https://youtu.be/c0yJ3ghn4vM
Following things unfold from Europe there was the confidence, that Americans above all would learn from their mistakes and vulnerabilities, e.g. in 2016 or as obviously and confirmed by Chris Krebs in 2020.
That Americans would recognise where they are heading.
The exact opposite was the case.
The tribalism in media and society, the self perpetuating appraisal of each other's latest finding about the evil intent outside the own bubble, did not only cause complacency, a beautiful party around that inspiring campaign of an inspiring candidate now appearing like the last dance on the Titanic, it even BOOSTED the demise of democracy and liberalism as it is RIGHT NOW to be seen in full swing.
Polling experts up and down the channels within the bubble claimed, that only THEY had the real understanding of the actual data, claimed, that the T.-campaign would for purpose put out masses of manipulated polls to later be able to claim that the results must have been rigged as not complying with these polls, thereby not only caused wrong feeling of security about a blue victory, but even did let the final warnings in the last days of the Harris campaign appear as only intentionally manipulated to rake in donations.
All up and down the Chanels the outrageous claims of pet eating migrants, VP Harris being fascist and marxist, California being destroyed by her, Latinos "not pulling out", got reconfirmed as finally causing the country breaking with Trump, illustrated by low attention of his events and people leaving early. It just CAN not have been not recognisable, that the opposite was true, that the claims made people vote him. It only was not possible to see it within the bubble.
Seen from Europe, NO single promising attempt has been made, to reach into the alternate media sphere. Buttegieg and Sanders regularly appearing on FOX got named as attempts. But they are right what FOX painted for years as "extremists".
Joe Rogan and Tocker Carlson are no "phantoms". They are even not new. But the entire academia didn't come up with methodologies to counter it. Same in Europe. Do they even try? Why then do we have it? I thought, we wanted to learn out of the disastrous European past and avoid the beginnings. Now we passed the beginnings. All over the free world and fuelled by adversaries what hasn't been the case in NAZI-Germany.
Thesis: If there is the will and the aim, together with the focus, then there could have been a way to counter that "phantom" in US and there still CAN be one in Europe.
Only at the last weekend LincolnProject aired a few ads, that actually had the potential to reach the mindset of a MAGA cultist. But at that time dozens of previous ads only cemented barriers. Confirmed prejudgements.
Ads by George Conway have rather been shots in the own feet. Ads by the Harris campaign raised the question, whether they knew what's at stake (no blame here to the candidate and HER messaging!).
There was no single attempt to see, to educate, what loss of rule of law actually means for an average MAGA cultist, what really caused inflation and with Trump's plans will trigger it again, what MADE America exceptionally great since the Truman doctrine, what does Ukraine prevailing mean for an average American and his or her future, what it means, if a deranged tech billionaire gets a seat in cabinet.
NOTHING.
And it seems to continue exactly the same way.
Self confirmation about self confirmation - hardly anything to alternatively shape the future now, to find new alliances, to preserve seeds of rebirth, to find rocks of stabilisation in that current downward.
Every day wasted is more than a day lost!
In 1930-Germany election results of 33% did let outliers feel commonly strong enough, included in a movement, that went out at night to commit atrocities against minorities.
They had not more guns than inhabitants, not 50%+ election results, no digital oligarchs using, backing and controlling them, no external adversarial forces behind them....
1. 99% of Americans are resistant to education and resent any attempts to educate them. The way to reach them is through entertainment and conspiracy theories, and maybe even pornography.
2. For the majority of voters, patriotism is dead. Pride in being a democracy is dead. Respect for the veterans and survivors is dead. (You don't have to agree with a war in order to treat the returning soldier humanely)
3. Perhaps it's time to brush off Peter Pomerantsev's books on disinformation and propaganda tactics. Democrats tend to obey the intent of the law in a democratic society, and the concept of plausibly deniable black ops doesn't seem to occur to them as victims or as perpetrators.
In this case, though, something substantial is being left out. While I don’t at all doubt that the media is both manipulating and being manipulated by both Americans and those outside our shores, some facts and some truths are too well established to be sabotaged or subject to much manipulation. Trump’s character, ambitions, and actions are very well documented by and through he himself. At least since January 6th, and well before that for anyone who took an honest look or listen, we knew he was a mendacious, malevolent, amoral, self-absorbed liar, huckster, and conman. New Yorkers had known that for decades. I taught school in New York City for over 40 years. For half that time one of my nearest and most frequented locations was the southwest corner of Central Park, dominated in part by Trump Tower. I never watched The Apprentice (indeed I have no idea why anyone would want to), but I knew, as many of us did what kind of man he was and remains.
Once he stepped onto the national stage in 2015, his intentions were plain and his methods obvious to anyone with more than a modicum of experience with other human beings. His first campaign was blatantly Trump as was his second. His character never changed. His methods never changed. His intentions never changed.
We can debate the causes of his character until the bovines return to the large red structure, but the results were never in question except to anyone who, for whatever reason, bought into his con - which is exactly what it all was, the largest and most successful of anything ever concocted or carried out by any American president.
January 6th and all of the surrounding electoral ‘shenanigans' he attempted were a culmination, not an initiation. It was clear that he had no intention of either respecting or intending to abide by the electoral process, the Constitution, or the rule of law.
We knew less of Ms Harris for many reasons. But there was never any indication in anything she said or did that was in any way a reflection of the lack of moral character, or lack of commitment to the Constitution or the rule of law so clear in Donald Trump. Along the way, she may have held some political positions that many people disagreed with, but that’s no indictment of character. I’ve been aware of presidents since Ike, and I know of none who’ve not done so.
In the movie, the American President, Michael Douglas in the role of President Andrew Shepherd says in the final press conference that “being President is very much about character”. It has to be, or all that we were designed to be is little more than a fantasy. The quality of character of those who have occupied the Oval Office has varied a fair amount over time, but never has any occupant so completely and blatantly lacked any sense of morality or shown any comparable disdain for the foundations of our Republic as Trump (well except maybe Andrew Johnson, another clear aberration).
So the parameters were clear in this election, clear beyond the power of any media manipulation. One could argue policies ad infinitum, but there has to be some bedrock set of personal qualifications for the office that cannot be put aside for mere political or party consideration of for the price of a dozen eggs.
The ‘will of the people’ is always a crucial part of any democracy, but the will of the people can be brutally wrong. It was wrong all during the era of slavery. It was wrong when it kept women from the franchise until the 19th Amendment. It was wrong all during the Jim Crow era It was wrong when it became the accomplice to our slaughter of those who held this land before us.
But such wrongs are supposed to be blunted at the vary least by our senior legislative branch, and the craven Republican Senators who knew exactly who and what Trump was and yet failed to help Democrats take him off the stage after January 6th bear the brunt of the blame for what happened on Election Day this year. And no manipulated media can be said to be any part of that failure.
It took an amazing effort for the Russian propagandists to pull this off. I fear we are so behind in appropriate legislation that we can’t plug the holes. We need both parties in Congress to produce legislation that guards against this and we need to educate the public on how to recognize, but amazingly, we hear the Dept of Ed is going to be eliminated.
Judy, there are a bunch of counter disinformation strategies that might have worked once upon a time, but now the disinformation cow is thoroughly out of the barn. Fact checking is good for history books but won't change public opinion. Corporations, legislators, in courts cannot be relied on to implement and enforce policies or laws. Lies and propaganda have truth on its back foot, and we need creative and affirmative content and messaging strategies. The good guys clearly don't control highly trafficked platforms, but we need to learn how they work and attempt to compete. I was heartened this year by nonprofits using data to Target and message truthful content to swing voters in swing States.
“I was supposed to be driven towards indifference”
Immediately I thought, ‘indifference’ … that is the opposite of love.
Dealing with this is a project I want to work on. Listening, learning, taking an inventory of skill sets, technologies, people to harness and engage for truth. Marketing, entertainment, political strategy, philosophy, AI, quantitative social science research on how opinions are shaped and modified.
I think that if democrats and the media folk would stop the post mortem and tell the truth, out loud and with conviction.
Well, YES. And act. Do something, talk to your friends, write something on a social media post, and above all make sure that you yourself are clear about what's happening and are not an unwilling dupe.