Bear with me on a small rewind of the last 12 months in the United States.
A virus hit
– Stoked by misinformation, the Coronavirus created a rift in the U.S. as the populations drew battle lines over masks, vaccines and freedom. Those who chose to believe in science were called sheep. Those who argued for personal liberties were called uneducated. Candidates seized on the divisive nature of the situation to lure voters, ensuring that the journey out of the virus’ shadow would be politically fueled.
George Floyd was killed
– Most agreed that the act itself was law enforcement at its worst, but that’s where agreement ended. Those seeking change organized widespread protests, several of which turned violent. The movement lasted for weeks. There were physical assaults while buildings were damaged, looted and burned. Antifa was often cited as acting in a catalyst in protest violence. Some protest organizers said false actors infiltrated the movement and incited the criminal acts. Often counter-protest groups or militia-style security forces appeared on the scene, throwing gas on the fire.
The presidential election
– An absolutely polarizing event, again fueled by misinformation. The shadow group QAnon was blamed for planting false narratives about a secret group of deep state operatives. QAnon supporters believed a group of satan-worshiping cannibals were behind a global child sex-trafficking ring and Donald Trump was trying to expose them. Anyone who opposed Trump did so because they were part of the sinister cult. When Trump’s re-election efforts unraveled, he said the election was stolen. His followers supported his claims of fraud and organized a rally on Jan. 6. The protest morphed into a mob, culminating in the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol in which lives were lost. Some organizers said the violence at the event was stoked by Antifa members infiltrating the crowd.
GameStop/stock market
– Organized on Reddit, individual stock purchasers banded together to expose a greed-fueled weakness among hedge funds. It was billed as the little guys against the suits. When a stock-purchasing app halted trading on GameStop stock, people said it was an example of market manipulation. A battle line was drawn between Wall Street and Main Street.
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Where is the common thread among these events? The uprisings were rooted in science, race, politics, and wealth. Sure there are overlaps in some of those areas, but they aren’t inherently linked.
There is only one commonality among the unforgettable events of the last 12 months – they weakened our nation. Cracks in our population were turned into chasms with rage campaigns, false information and finger-pointing at fictional boogeymen.
This all happened in one year and I don’t believe it was a coincidence. Not for one second. I think it was planned.
The United States takes part in such operations, covertly nudging regime change in calculated parts of the globe. Why should we not think enemies of our nation could do the same?
But when the U.S. applies influence to international affairs, it’s often by supplying money or guns. America has plenty of both, so our enemies went online.
I believe countries with interests counter to our own, used social media to place dynamite in our cultural fault lines.
If you think it can’t be done, you are wrong. The Cambridge Analytica scandal in 2018 proved that social media can be weaponized. Cambridge Analytica was an elections management agency that specialized in obtaining and organizing personal information about the voting public.
In 2015 the company created a Facebook app called “This is Your Digital Life.” About 270,000 people used the app, giving it permission to collect their personal information. But in doing so they also allowed the app to mine the data of their friends – about 87 million people in total.
In the 2016 presidential election the information about potential voters was used to target individuals deemed to be easily manipulated within key voting regions. Those people would then see targeted misinformation designed to manipulate how they voted.
So if that can happen, is it so far-fetched to think that Russia or China could use similar data to target individuals with the fake articles about voter fraud, tracking devices in vaccines or gangs or minorities heading into the suburbs to riot. You could argue that QAnon itself, and its mystery organizers, may be nothing more than a foreign country’s statecraft campaign.
Some have laid the blame at Trump’s feet, but he could be a victim at some level, swept up in the hurricane of misinformation. If you think about it, many of the ideas the president latched onto bore out of conspiracies he found online, which he then pushed out to his followers.
Four movements in one year that attacked the fiber of America. They undermined our confidence in healthcare, our financial institutions, our elections and our fellow man.
There are countries that would serve to grow as America sinks. A way to facilitate that is to chip at the bedrock of our culture, wealth, our medicine and our elections – and then sit back and watch us tear ourselves apart. It’s already happening.
We’re doing the heavy lifting for our enemy states.
-Chad Williamson is the managing editor of the Journal-Tribune.