Information warfare: It's greater than you may think

In this post, we’ll examine how both sides engage in information warfare. In a subsequent post, we'll take a look at some practical ways we can fight the information war on a human level. In yet another post, we’ll discuss how to fight this war on a spiritual level. 

We are in an information war. For many, this is not news. But in discussions of this concept, what is frequently omitted is the scope of the battlefield. In this first post on the topic, I will attempt to provide that scope so that you may better understand what we are facing and, in doing so, that you may be better equipped to deal with it. In subsequent posts, I will discuss both the natural and the supernatural strategies and tools to more effectively engage in this battle.   

Before we delve into the topic, let's first define a couple of terms:  the Authoritarians and the Freedom Seekers. These terms are my own constructs with specific definitions so that we can discuss our topic. Although they are my own constructs, they are, nonetheless, rooted in reality, as you’ll soon see. 

Now with that aside, let’s dive into what I mean by each. 

Authoritarian definition:  those who seek greater control over others’ lives. Think about how non-representative governmental institutions like the WHO or, in the U.S., the CDC, published guidelines that were treated as law. Or how edicts were decreed by bodies acting outside their Constitutionally-defined roles, as within the U.S. when the Executive Branch (President of the United States) made “law” via Executive Orders when, in fact, the U.S. Congress, the representative body, is the only body delegated to make law. For our purposes here, that's the definition of Authoritarian. 

Now let's define Freedom Seekers definition: The Freedom Seekers are those who endeavored to advance individual freedom, so by that very definition they are diametrically opposed to the Authoritarians. You’ve seen examples of this position in the protests against masks and vaccines, as when the Canadian truckers protested. 

These are two basic definitions that we will need to go forward for this blog post. Although these two groups fundamentally oppose each other, they still have much in common. For example, both sides use fear, unsubstantiated claims, propaganda, and, in some cases, outright lies in the furtherance of their respective causes. 

How Authoritarians use these tactics

For authoritarians, an example would be COVID-19 narrative. They used fear to promote a pandemic throughout the general population, when in fact, the lethality of C19 was only 1%, maybe 2% of the population. And those for whom it was lethal, they were of the cohort that included the elderly and/or those with two or more comorbidities. 

The specific ways Authoritarians used fear was in the way they issued edicts governing masks, lock downs, social distancing, and what businesses were deemed essential. 

An example of Authoritarians using unsubstantiated claims is their promotion Moderna and Pfizer C19 vaccines as “safe and effective.”  Now that the internal Pfizer documents are coming out and analysis of these documents is being done, we could say with greater certainty that the Authoritarians were propagating outright lies, at least those in the medical and pharmaceutical communities who were aware of the facts. 

How the Freedom Seekers uses these tactics

Now let’s take a look at the Freedom Seekers in their use of fear and unsubstantiated claims. One fairly recent example is that of the mass deaths of 3,000 cattle in Kansas. Based upon an unsourced Tik Tok video, the cattle death claim was further unsubstantiated because assertions were made before many questions were answered. It has since been called into question, as this one Kansas cattle farmer explains, and even proven false, as explained in a cattle industry publication. 

Now for their use of fear around that claim. For starters, it was the video itself; seeing all those dead cows is unsettling. Then there were online commentators who immediately asserted that this was a deliberate killing to disrupt the food chain, to create shortages, to create starvation. Such assertions fit into the narrative that the inflation and shortages we’re seeing are not accidental but deliberate, perpetrated by nefarious global actors*, speculating that the cattle were poisoned or maybe killed by geo engineering. All of these assertions and speculations gained momentum while there were still many questions and other facts had yet to come out. 

The heart of the matter is that Authoritarians are not always wrong, and the Freedom Seekers is not always right. I think this is important for all of us to remember as we fight in this information war. 

Keeping in mind that both groups are made up of fallible human beings who get it wrong, whether deliberately or inadvertently, will help to dispel the fog of this information war so that you can fight it more effectively. There are other strategies and tactics you can use to further dispel the fog of this information war and these we will explore in my subsequent posts. 

*Here I am claiming neither that this statement is true nor that it is false; I’m merely demonstrating how individuals can see something and fit it into their worldview. This is a very human thing to do.

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Copyright 2022 Sandra A. Eggers. Sharing is encouraged; however, please give credit where credit is due. Thank you.