While the entire presentation was very interesting, I want to focus on a quote that summarizes his view on propaganda. The quote was spoken directly after he described his parents’ situation in Russia in which his parents were investigated for speaking the truth and moved to how today should have been. “We live in an era academics would call and information abundance, but the assumptions that underlay the struggles for rights and freedoms in the 20^th century between citizens armed with truth and regimes, with their senses and secret beliefs have been turned upside down… More information was supposed to mean more freedom to stand up to the powerful, but its also given them new ways to crush the silence descent. More information was supposed to mean a more informed debate, but we seem less capable to deliberation than ever. More information was supposed to mean mutual understanding across borders. It has also made possible new and more subtle forms of conflict and subversion. We live in a world of mass persuasion run amok where the means of manipulation have gone forth and multiplied. A world of dark hats, sci-ops, deepfakes, fake news, Putin, trolls, and Trump.”

Reflecting on this, I thought to the difference between propaganda before the internet and misinformation on social media Originally, propaganda was controlled by the government to portray a single narrative. An example Pomerantsev mentions is that the Soviet Union used to simply insisted on a truth and banned anything that was not their version of the truth. While some of this is happening in countries completely controlled by the government such as North Korea, China and Russia, most other countries are unaffected by this type of propaganda. The “new” form of propaganda is not even insisting on creating a narrative about on singular thing. Rather, they put out so much information that any reasonable person would not be able to decipher what is true. For example, on Twitter, people can talk about their political beliefs, but nobody is checking whether or not the information is true. After many people chime in on the topic, this narrative that may or may not be true, is the story people remember and build their political beliefs on.

Thinking about this, I believe more now than ever, we live in a post-truth world. It is not that the truth isn’t out there if you look for it, bur rather that for a casual consumer of political information, there is too much conflicting information that they are unable to determine what is the truth and what is fiction tied up in a compelling narrative. Since people cannot find or understand the truth, it puts democracies across the world in danger. Democracy relies on citizens to be informed consumers of information and vote according to who they think is the person that best represents them, their community, or their nation.

Overall, I believe that the goal of propaganda is not to persuade people toward a viewpoint, but rather confuse people to the point that they do know what is true. I hope that people can realize this and prevent the spread and effectiveness of propaganda and misinformation.