#Putin, #Trump, #Netanyahu, #Modhi and other recent authoritarian strongmen (#Orbán, #Erdoğan, #Bolsonaro, etc) have discovered just how effective the #FirehoseOfDisinformation is in an age of deliberate political dysfunction, polarised electorates, microtargeted #disinformation and the general milieu of ecocidal late capitalist societal crumbling ('the Crumbles'). Their supporters generally either never hear about the debunking, reject all evidence that conflicts with their commitments (#IdentityProtectiveCognition), or don't care and openly embrace #authoritarian doublethink (cf #MAGA, widespread #Israeli support for *increased* violence in #Gaza, #Russian troll farmers).

Mainstream journalists reliably get caught up in the #FalseBalance of #BothSides; #centrists fret over #CivilityPolitics; the politically disengaged grow ever more cynical and abandon the search for truth, embracing the very #cynicism, #apathy, #LearnedHelplessness and #disengagement that this strategy of #InformationalWarfare seeks to nurture.

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