Russian Trolls Meet Social Media

essaysbysean.blogspot.com 

Note: As you know, Karl Marx invented communism, or Marxism, while writing in the library of the British Museum. These days the library door, across from the main entrance, is blocked off—I checked.

Does social media have a soul? I ask because when Doctor Frankenstein created a soulless creature he cried, “I have created a monster!” But (in the book) no one else realized the monster existed—How lonely.

Hello Reader,

Got Russian trolls?

Question: What do the evil of communism, the troll farms of Russia, and the devil from hell have in common? 

Easily Answered: Their main strength, historically, has been people not believing they exist.

Vladimir Lenin (the first marxist-communist leader of Russia) referred to “useful idiots.” He meant individuals in the western democracies who, not knowing the evil of communism, would support it.

Did you know Russians (Soviets) caused the Six Day War?

I was a boy during the horrible, un-glorious, Six Day War between the democracy of Israel and the the folks who believed in dictatorships, folks surrounding Israel in the Middle East. There’s a reason (besides it being their watershed) why Israel still refuses to give up the Golan Heights, formerly Syrian, along the Syrian border. Here are two paragraphs from when Canada had been a state for a hundred years, 1967.

(Incidentally, Arab belief in dictatorship made it hard during World War II to persuade them to ally against Hitler and the Axis)

QUOTE

A consulting Soviet delegation met with Egyptian leaders on May 13, revealing that Israel had concentrated eleven to thirteen brigades in preparation for an imminent assault along the Syrian border. 

When the Soviet claims came to light, Israel denied any military buildup or aggressive intent. Middle East peacekeeping forces, the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization, stationed on the Syrian border to safeguard Israel from Arab terrorist attacks, also denied the Soviet claims. 

Days later, Syrian troops lined the Golan Heights, ready to respond to Israel’s imminent attack. Battle-ready, Nasser announced, “The Jews threaten to make war. I reply: Welcome! We are ready for war.” Jordan’s King Hussein signed on May 30, joining… the Iraqi president… His army then joined…

No longer waiting for the Israeli invasion, later revealed to be Soviet disinformation meant to destabilize the region…(bolding mine)

UNQUOTE

In those days, back before social media, the Russians (Soviets) used work-of-mouth for their disinformation.

What happened next was: After the Soviets propagated their fake news, the army buildup went on to include almost everybody in the region: 

QUOTE “Algerian, Saudi Arabian, Iraqi, and Kuwaiti armies set station on the Egyptian, Syrian, and Jordanian fronts. A combined air force of 810 planes, 2, 880 tanks, and nearly half a million troops prepared for the battle of all battles…”  UNQUOTE

Israel still exists as a state. She survived (footnote) by having her armed forces focus on only one front at a time, in an operation code named Moked, in English, “focus.” 

Such a hellish waste of lives, that need not have happened. But at least the Russians and everyone else learned a lesson—or did they?

Today I see the Russian leopard hasn’t changed its spots. I accidentally read a little obscure line the other day, in web article on some North Americans being against vaccination: The Russians are using social media to put out fake news to encourage the antivax movement here in the west.

When I read that little line I was shocked awake—wow!—while realizing others would read it too, but then stay sleepy, and surely have forgotten it by the next day. Forgive me, for I’m awfully skeptical about my neighbors. I would say to them: Forget “big pharma,” worry about “big troll farms.” 

The Russians can put a man in space; their computer nerds surely know their science; therefore to me it’s obvious: 

if computer nerds under Vladimir Putin put out stuff in English to give credence to the antivaxers, 

then that is to help destabilize the democracies.

Why? Besides not liking our freedom? Probably for reasons of economic competition. After all, they destabilized the middle east in 1967 because they hoped to profit by selling arms.

Am I a conspiracy nut? About Russian efforts to destabilize? No, not unless you think the whole nation of Finland is nuts. They have a national effort, as reported on the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) website, to inform their people about the existence of big Russian troll farms. (footnote) Despite that BBC story, I suspect the average person over in Britain is still as unaware, and as trusting of social media, as we are over here.

In conclusion, I have—

Don’t touch that mouse! 

After a pause for blog identification, I will tell more:

• a professor, and why people want him fired 
• The Finns, and their national efforts against Russian troll farms
• The anti-vax study, the original one that kicked off the modern anti-vax belief

—I have Three Points, consisting of Two don’ts and One do:

First: Unless you are dealing with traditional media having journalism ethics, don’t believe “It must be true or they wouldn’t have printed it.”

Second: If you are reading social media, don’t believe “It must be true or my brother-in-law wouldn’t have forwarded it.” 

(as they still believe in India, despite government efforts to get village mobs to stop killing complete strangers. Have you heard? Some troll started a post about child abduction by strangers, and it is now going viral, unstoppable by anyone with common sense—mobs even killed a young government man who went to a village to warn them to please stop killing, stop believing forwarded social media.)

Third: Do believe the Russians are using big troll farms to destabilize the rest of us. After all, “X million Finns can’t all be wrong.”

Pause for blog identification:

Your are reading

Sean Crawford

Edmonton

December

2019

Part Two, (but do feel free to get a Second Cup first) 

On the importance of PAX and VAX

PRAY FOR PAX 

(peace)

Some “useful idiots,’” as Lenin called them, still refuse to believe: In Canada there is now resistance to erecting a national memorial to victims of communism.

In my province last month, a Canadian professor, at the University of Alberta, who had recently run for election on the ideals of the Marxist-Leninist party ticket, which, by definition, means HE BELIEVES in the Russian party line, 

(I remember the Soviet ambassador publishing a letter to my student newspaper to say the Ukraine famine was solely from bad weather) 

denied on his social media (not in class) that there was any Ukrainian holocaust, or holodomor, (man-made famine) by Joseph Stalin. This made a lot of people upset, partly because, for the sake of having a jolly good outrage, the first social reactors (pun intended) did not mention that the prof was a Marxist.

I know for sure an idiot can achieve a Ph.D…. yet continue being a “useful idiot.” I wrote about Marxist professors, the “Regina 16,” back in April 2010, archived as Socialists Reject Soldiers. They didn’t want poor children of soldiers killed in action to be eligible for special financial help to attend university.

Forewarned is forearmed

Finland

Got useful idiots? From Russian-speaking areas of Europe, folks allegedly “believed” what they saw spread on social media, and then they viciously launched assaults on the mental health and reputation of a journalist, Jessikka Aro. She told her experience in a BBC interview. How bad are the Russian assaults? You would have to read it to believe it—because hey, those troll farms won’t defend themselves.

I realize that some people, proud to members of a ‘new improved’ digital generation, believe in “the joy of having outrage,” but as for me, I still like Jessika more than I do her attackers: She had journalism ethics, and she had won a prize for her reporting about Russia’s state sponsored social media. 

This web story interviewing her is in prose.

Regarding Finland’s national effort, this web story is in video form, 

with speaking parts by the Finnish prime minister, Jessikka and the communications minister.

VAX

~As an adult, during my military service, I was immunized against lockjaw, also called tetanus.

As a boy I saw a  television commercial, a cartoon, advising vaccinations to protect against three characters: Dippy Diphtheria, who was foolish, Locky lockjaw, who couldn’t talk because his jaw was stiffened shut, and Rolly Polio, a mean guy in a wheelchair holding a crutch to smash people… characters who would not be politically correct to show today.

By the time I saw those commercials, I had already caught mumps, measles and chickenpox—but at least I had never caught smallpox or German measles, also called rubella. 

Catching these “childhood diseases” gave me, just like my mother and brother before me, an immunization against ever getting those diseases again. Happily, no one in my family suffered complications. I wonder if anti-vaxxers would deny such immunity can happen? 

Luckily, when I saw those cartoons, I was young enough, praise the Lord, to have already been vaccinated against poliomyelitis… Very, very lucky. 

And hey, do you know about that notorious FAMOUS STUDY that set off the original panic storm, the one that linked vaccinations to autism? That study could NOT be replicated; there was a sample size of ONLY 12—count ‘em, 12—AND the researcher had not disclosed that he had a financial vested interest. (link) He has since been kicked out of the medical community.

A baby born when that discredited study was published would be 21 years old now. Time enough for straight citizens to check with reality and continue getting their blessed vaccinations. 

Footnotes:

~How to Lose a Battle subtitled Foolish plans and great military blunders, edited by Bill Fawcett, Harper, 2006, specifically from the chapter The Six Day War by Edward E. Kramer, page 307.

~Here’s a very lengthy N.Y.Times think-piece interviewing experts on the future of social media.

Brass Cannons Smash Reality

www.essaysbysean.blogspot.com

Hello Reader,

Got reality?

"Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it."

George Santayana.

Preface

Clive James died last week. 

He was an Australian philosopher and broadcaster. 

The CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) aired an old interview with him, and the BBC posted three links, including linking to an obituary.

As I'm sure James has, down the year I have wondered: Are tomorrow's war criminals already living among us, as children? Are we doomed to more wars and holocausts? Surely our safest path to avoid such things—although I know Vladimer Putin would disagree, as would the average guy in the street in China (They also disagree with justice for Hong Kong)—is to pursue "liberal democracy."

Clive James had a lifetime project: He wrote a tome, Cultural Amnesia, as part of his enthusiasm for democracy. His book excited me enough to indirectly lead to this essay that I first posted as The Brass Cannon back in December of 2010. I present it as my second re-run of 2019; the quotes that bookend it are from Clive's book.

Prologue

“… the liberal believes in the permanence of humanity’s imperfection, he resigns himself to a regime in which the good will be the result of numberless actions, and never the object of conscious choice. Finally, he subscribes to the pessimism that sees, in politics, the art of creating the conditions in which the vices of men will contribute to the good of the state.”

Raymond Aron, L’Opium Des Intellectuals p. 292

The Brass Cannon

The Brass Cannon. …Such a simple title, for such a big concept.

In the lengthy novel, the title object suddenly appears in the middle, is seen only for a paragraph, yet the shadow remains to the final page. 

The setting is an age when transport is so expensive that you generally bring only the clothes on your back. Hence the young viewpoint character is quietly amazed at the behavior of his traveling companion, his old professor. The prof doesn’t know if he will arrive alive, or, instead, suffer a heart attack from the escape of Earth’s vicious gravity. Yet, next to his body, Professor Bernardo de da Paz places a little brass cannon that he purchased on Earth. 

I sometimes wonder what would have been the affect if, on coffee tables scattered over America, that title had been there since the mid1960’s, glaring in mute accusation. The title of another novel from the same author, Stranger in a Strange Land, had been on the table at the house of the “idealistic” organizers of the tragic Kent State riot. “…Four dead in O-hi-o.” At the time I remember a few students quoting Mao: “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.” (or rifle or cannon)

The idealistic title The Brass Cannon, chosen by Robert Heinlein was, alas, changed by the editor, who apparently thought fans of sf wouldn’t recognize it as science fiction. (Idiot!) As for the actual title, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, it’s such a mouthful that I can’t bring myself to be critical of anyone who “disrespects” the book by calling it “Moon.”

An earlier version of Professor de la Paz would be the town doctor in Heinlein’s 1949  Red Planet subtitled A Colonial Boy on Mars. Like the Lunar doctor of philosophy, the Martian doctor of medicine was also a philosopher of simple things beyond the “biggies” like democracy and revolution. Once he reminisced about what television sets were originally intended for: His grandfather had witnessed TV sets in bars being used to show wrestling matches. I thought of this when the big expensive HD TV’s first came out: too expensive to be seen anywhere but in bars.

Another memorable line of the doctor’s, because he had been involved in local politics back on Earth, was (from memory) “Every law that was ever written opened up a new way to graft.” 

Perhaps he’s right. Perhaps graft is as practical as a cannon. When my hometown of Calgary, Alberta was considering a “number of bags” limit on weekly garbage collection, an alderman disparaged the idea saying, “People will come out with bags the size of (the town of) Cochrane.” Money and practicality, not idealism, was again the deciding issue when City Hall considered the idea of changing all the residential speed limits from 50 kilometers per hour to 40 kph. I don’t recall whether the morality of subverting the integrity, the honest calculations, of the professionals of road engineering was even mentioned. What I do recall is that changing all those signs would cost one or more million dollars, and that, anyway, many drivers practically ignore their speedometers. The idea was dropped. (But got revived in 2019)

I enjoy driving. When I go cruising along in the good old U.S. of A. I am mindful of how, for an awake citizenry, the Constitution is a practical force: Hence I drive the “Military and Interstate Highway System” often shortened to “the interstate,” a road that, according to a professor, needed the plea of “military” use to get around the law, written generations before Hitler’s autobahn, against ever building any such road systems in the US.

After opening the sunroof and singing “Do you know the way to San Jose?” I might try a 1960’s advertising jingle from the Saturday morning cartoons of my youth: 

You can eat them on the run; eat them just for fun,

Eat them when you have a party,

When you want a snack, you can eat them from the pack,

Or warm and crispy, good and hearty,

Pop tarts, great new treat,

New-ew-ew from Kellog's,

Pop tarts.

Except they weren’t new. 

And they weren’t from Kellog's. 

Whoever had first started producing the tarts has gone the way of all unpersons. 

Kellog's saw, copied, and then, to quote a confederate cavalry officer, got there “first-est with the most-est.” Maybe "That’s not fair!" not ideal, but that’s how things work in this world of Saturday morning tarts and toy cannons. As my friend, a religious fundamentalist small-business owner put it, “As long as you are within the letter of the law you are morally OK.” The executives at Enron did break the law, and were prosecuted. The men on Wall Street who plunged our entire planet into a recession didn’t, and weren’t. (One chuckles at the term which assigns agency, "Wall Street meltdown," being glossed over, and replaced by the no-fault term "recession")

It should come as no surprise that what happens within a practical democratic nation also happens between groups of nations. When I was with NATO I often went mountaineering in Switzerland. Along the mountain roads, quite blatantly, were inset rusty brown tank traps, still operational, these being a big part of the reason why Hitler’s autobahns were never extended into Switzerland. The point is not that the Swiss diplomats would sing songs of peace, in sweet harmony, with their cultured German counterparts, but, rather, the Swiss could give a sober accounting of the tank traps, steel cannons and so forth. It must have taken several days of diplomatic meetings to recite the entire military inventory.

As for the earliest brass or iron cannons, according to legend they often were inscribed with: “The final argument of kings.”

Any colony, whether on Mars or Luna, that builds their own cannons to enable them to safely open up their minds to be able to think, and then to argue “in favor of revolt,” is a colony that includes “dirty traitors” against the king. Unless they succeed. Then the former colony includes “founding fathers.” And the new state receives diplomatic recognition.

(Here in town a college stand up comic noticed that many a young student has had his father give recognition to having one’s “own roof.” He asked: What’s so magical about a roof?)

Sometimes cannons are set along the coast. My brother’s university dormitory, at UBC, “Fort Camp,” was an old barracks for the shore defense gunners. (Against the Japanese) Back in the old days of sailing ships the distance a shore cannon could project force was 3 miles. It is most assuredly not coincidence that for so many years the legal International Limit for territorial waters was also 3 miles. 

Meanwhile, from the age of sail and on through the steam age, one of the best navies has always been the Royal Navy. I remember as a youth, back when the limit was usually 3 or 12 (depending on the country) miles, reading a British navy book where all of the ship-to-ship missiles, and shore to ship,  had a range of 200 miles. While I was reading the book, world diplomats were meeting to discuss extending the International Limit.

I like cannons, and in writing this all too brief essay I don’t mean to discourage the idealism of any young students at Kent State or UBC. If the mass of men and women, unlike you and me, don’t voluntarily restrain themselves unless they are forced to, well, "it’s no biggie." In my own lifetime I have cherished seeing a goodly spreading of democracy and the furthering of international cooperation. For me, knowing the Rules of Human Behavior is like having rules for the writing of sonnets: it just makes things more fun. The Rules mean that good laws, whether in Calgary or internationally, will be practical, enforceable, and suggest a side effect of graft. “A force in motion continues until it meets an opposite motion.” 

It all starts with taking people as they are: They mean well, of course, and, like my dear religious friend, they need forces both judicial and physical, even brass cannons, to help guide them to stay safely on the road. From a distance I can watch generations of people passing by as they keep trudging along the low road to morality. 

The high road, lost in the misty uplands, is only for the angels.

Epilogue 

“In the course of the last forty years, the only part of the world that has enjoyed peace is the continent divided between two zones of political civilization both of them armed with atomic bombs.”

Raymond Aron, Les Dernieres Annees Du Siecle (The Last Years of the Century), p. 68



Sean Crawford

Calgary, at the ending of

The first decade of the second millennium

Footnotes

 ~ The man quoted above would be pleased to know that the European Union, instead of  an individual, was awarded the 2012 nobel peace prize

~The two quotes are from James Clive’s essay on Raymond Aron, from pages 32 and 39, quoted in Cultural Amnesia. ( a really exciting book)

~William Shakespeare did not invent the phrase “pot calling the kettle black” but he used the concept in one of his comedies, and he used a “cannon equivalent” in (I think) the comedy Twelfth Night. In Will’s day there was a problem with cannons: as they aged they weakened, and you never knew if one was going to burst into dangerous shards. So I laughed when a character retorted, “That was ill shot with elder cannon.”