At the height of the 2016 election researchers
released a report warning about a strange propaganda technique. Another day, another lie, another conspiracy
theory, another falsehood. They called it the "firehose of falsehood." When a propagandist bombards people with more
lies than they can possibly keep up. Why all these lies? Why is it lie after lie after lie? According to the report, these lies don't
have to be believable. It wasn't just a lie. It was such a bad obvious lie. Researchers found that even obvious lies had
the potential to be highly effective at shaping public opinion. I mean he just says things and then they are
the truth in the world of the Donald. The thing is, that report wasn't about Trump. It didn't even mention him. It was about Russian propaganda. And it raised an interesting question: How
could a powerful leader benefit from telling obvious lies? We've signed more bills than any president
ever. The president just simply lies for no reason. I was against the war in Iraq. Why lie about something that you don't have
to lie about? You have people registered in two states. They vote twice. Why does he keep repeating it if it's obviously
not true? We're going to get to Trump in a minute. Hell yeah! But before that, we have to talk to Christopher
Paul. I'm a senior social scientist at the RAND
Corporation. He co-wrote the report on Russian firehosing
and he described it as having four key characteristics. Russian propaganda is high volume and multichannel. It's rapid, continuous, and repetitive. It makes no commitment to objective reality. And it makes no commitment to consistency. Oooh, sounds like Trump. Can you give me a second? I'm building a narrative here. The first two characteristics are pretty standard
for propaganda. Research shows that if we hear a lie from
multiple sources, we think of it as more credible. The same is true for lies we hear repeatedly. The more familiar we are with a lie, the more
likely we are to think of it as true. But the last two characteristics — no commitment
to objective reality or consistency — that's surprising. They don't care that much about the truth. Much of their propaganda is either completely
false or has a kernel of truth. Maybe the most jarring example this was in
2014, when the world watched as Russian troops entered Ukraine. There were a bunch of Russian soldiers wearing
uniforms without insignia and those were dubbed “little green men.” This was a huge deal. Russia was essentially invading a country
they had said they were not going to invade. But when Putin was asked about it: Were these Russian soldiers? No. These were local self-defense forces. Putin vehemently denied. “No no, the little green men are not Russian
soldiers.” It wasn't just that Putin was lying. He was lying about something so obvious. There was footage of the soldiers airing on
TV. Russian troops spreading out throughout the
strategic Crimean Peninsula. And then, a few weeks later, he just said
the opposite. Of course, we had our servicemen. They were acting very correctly. No “I'm sorry.” No “I misspoke.” Just, “Of course we have troops there.” This is counterintuitive. This is not what I expected. I come from an influence background that says
credibility is king and the truth will always win. Part of being a good liar is not getting caught. Making sure your lies are at least somewhat
believable. When Dick Cheney said, "There is no doubt
Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction," he was lying, but to most people who aren't
intelligence experts, it sounded credible. If someone asks, "Hey did you eat my sandwich?" You'd say, "Nope. I brought my lunch from home." You wouldn't say, "You never had a sandwich." But when it comes the firehosing, believability
doesn't really matter. I think being willing to not be seen as credible
is okay with the Russians. We'll come back to this. But right now it's TRUMP TIME! Trump time. Since the election, people have pointed out
that Trump uses firehosing too. I really had no view that this would be anything
that anyone would think about applying to American politics. That's not what I'm about. I am concerned with foreign intervention in
our political processes. Okay, fine. Donovan, bring in the second interview please. Thank you. I think it can be deceptive just how different
they look. But despite the different styles, I think
they do the exact same thing. This is Masha Gessen. She's a Russian-American journalist, activist,
and all around badass. And she's been warning about the similarities
between Trump and Putin for years. They just create sort of this unmanageable
volume of falsehood. Gessen argues that firehosing — telling
and retelling obvious lies — isn't about persuasion. It's about power. When Putin says there are no troops in Crimea
or when Trump says he never mocked a disabled reporter, they're not just lying. They're asserting that they are not constrained
by reality. That everything, even things that are totally
obvious to us, can be challenged. That's a very clear demonstration of power. You have to engage with what he said even
though it's false. Those last two features a firehosing — the
shamelessness, the inconsistency — they're kind of the point. The way that they lie that makes the obviousness
of the lie part of the powerplay. Yes, I know that you know what I'm saying
is absurd, and I assert my right to say whatever I want whenever I want to. He keeps urinating on the sidewalk and we
have to keep wiping it up. Not the sidewalk, the living room rug. Yeah. On the rug! What are you cheering for right now? Our knee-jerk reaction to lies like this is
to fact-check them. Fact checkers are having a field day with
this one. President Obama did not found ISIS. He was not wiretapped, there was no warrant
out. It is not the biggest tax cut in US history
as the fact-checkers have noted. But if the goal of firehosing is to assert
power, fact-checking misses the point. There is nothing quite so humiliating and
disempowering as trying to prove the truth. Think of a schoolyard bully who says, "Why
are you hitting yourself? Why are you hitting yourself?" Degrading you by forcing you to argue with
the obvious. "Why are you hitting yourself? Why are you hitting yourself?" Yeah, you'd know about being bullied. I sure would. Thank you. And I think that's kind of what it feels like
when we fact-check Trump. It's sullying. You feel like you've engaged with something
that actually shouldn't be a part of the public sphere. Firehosing turns even the most obvious of
facts into a messy, mind-numbing political fight. Every time he gets fact-checked Trump lashes
out. They just don't want to report the truth. Sarah Sanders blames the media. If anything has been inflamed it's the dishonesty
that often takes place by the news media. And something that should not have even been
up for debate starts to look like just another screaming match where no one really seems
credible. Donald Trump lies and he lies compulsively. So this very simple human assumption that
you can know what's true, that assumption is taken away from you. You have to work for the truth and the hope
is that, yeah, you'll get exhausted and you'll eventually give up. I'm getting depressed. I know, buddy. I'm almost done. We're all almost done. The ultimate goal of firehosing isn't to pass
lies off as truth. It's to rob concepts like facts and reality
of their power. You stand by that claim about him? I don't stand by anything. I have my own opinions, you can have your
own opinions. To reduce truth to just a position. Isn't it important just to, like, have factual
debates when discussing these things? Well, as you just commented, there's lots
of different ways of looking at it. You're saying it's a falsehood and they're
giving alternative facts. It's somebody's version of the truth, not
the truth. Truth is truth. I don't mean to go like... No it isn't truth. Truth isn't truth. And if that sounds a little abstract, just
listen to what Putin said during his press conference with Trump in July. As to who is to be believed, you can trust
no one. He defends the interests of the United States
of America. And I do defend the interests of the Russian Federation. So Putin just basically wanted to establish
as a baseline that no one can be trusted. Everybody's pursuing their own strategic interests
and there's no such thing as the truth. And a few days later Trump took that argument
a step further. And just remember, what you're seeing and
what you're reading is not what's happening. Just stick with us. Don't believe the crap you see from these
people, the fake news. Just stick with us. Essentially, reality is about picking sides. They're basically saying there's no war between
people who know the truth and people who are lying. There's only positional warfare. Whoever has a better position. Whoever has objectively more power owns reality. And it's remarkable how effective that is. Maybe you can just start acting like you have
total power and it will not exactly give you total power but it will give you a hell of
a lot more power than an American president should have. You never had a sandwich. You never had a... Come on man, you're killing me. Don't look at him if you don't have to. You never had... we have to unmic him. All right. You're off the set.
Trump supporters do exist in numbers, but even if they don't listen to the truth, it doesn't matter. Even if Trump had not supporters, he must engage with his opponents as often as possible to make people believe he stands for something, by being against something. Trump supporters support Trump because he's against liberals. It's centered on having an enemy.
In the end, the goal here is to make people look away, to not pay attention to politics.
One strategy here, should be to tell people to not pay attention anymore, because most people already made up their minds. It's pointless to try arguing against Trump. It's futile. Just vote for somebody else, and wait for it to pass.
But at the same time, it's what Trump wants: to make people look away, to not pay attention. It can be dangerous because then Trump could abuse power more and more, without noticing.
There are no good solutions here. It feels like the US is going to lose its status of world power. Many diplomats left because of Trump. That's a bad sign, because diplomacy is important.
I'm not american, and I don't like saying that Trump should be assassinated for several reasons:
It's probably an excuse and opportunity Trump wants to seize more power
It's usually what terrorists and white supremacists would do, and I'm not like them
MAGA people might call it a conspiracy and start invading Washington with guns
I'm really glad I'm not living in the US right now. But for the several months I've made a lot of efforts to not hear, listen or talk too much about Trump, and I feel much better. The firehose is pretty effective, yet pedants disagree when you compare Putin and Trump with Hitler.
The argument becomezs about the absurdity. They remain in ppwrt for one more day
Maybe Putin uses it but I think Donald Trump just lives it. He's a useful idiot savant - when it comes to firehosing, anyways.
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I think it's important to note that just because a similar tactic may be employed, the audience is fundamentally different between the two.
"Make America Great Again" isn't really talking about any specific time or any specific thing that used to be great and now isn't. Compare that with appealing to the Russian population, much of which was raised in the USSR, a world superpower.
Compare that to how Russia is now. They're not nothing, but if the West is concerned about anyone, it's China, not Russia. Things are better in many ways, but the yearning for the "greatness" of the USSR is pervasive in Russia, and that is a specific time and a specific thing that used to be "great." Making Russia great again very clearly would mean making Russia a world player on the scale of the USSR.
The USSR was post-truth before Trump was even born. Putin tossing lies out to the Russian population means a large amount of supporters eating it up, and a small amount of detractors not being able to criticize it for fear of government retaliation. Now how is that the same as Trump tossing out lies to the American population? The ones who support him acknowledge many of the things he lies about as lies. They just don't care. And those who criticize Trump do it with impunity. They don't have to fear the government retaliating.
I think that this video was really just capitalizing on the tail end of "Trump is a Russian puppet" hysteria by drawing a comparison that at the end of the day doesn't really matter. I mean, politicians will do more of what works, and for these two, a similar thing works, but Trump isn't president for life like Putin has made himself. They're just fundamentally different situations.
Along the same lines I just saw the following article on USA Today. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/12/17/russia-social-media-senate-report/2334382002/?fbclid=IwAR19SHN9VfdDeppKNDdgAgkp3ZoMW2-1sYUnh_Mfk9_cZsmFE3Iy-SaKHcA
I'd like to lend a hand in fighting these attacks and am relatively savy, but don't know the first place to begin. Any suggestions?