On March 10, 2022 at 15:25 mel@beckman.org (Mel Beckman) wrote:
In my view, there is a core problematic statement in this document:
“Military and propaganda agencies and their information infrastructure are potential targets of sanctions.”
What is a “propaganda agency”. A political party? An incumbent candidate for re-election? The IRS? Anyone the “majority” disagrees with?
There is a notion of knowably lying for some specific effect such as commercial fraud. One can often prove someone was knowably lying by their other behavior or even just the low probability that they could possibly have believed what they claim. For example Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's claim that the Ukrainian hospital they just bombed had been empty for weeks and was being used as a Ukrainian militia base. This can not only be fact checked, but it could be shown to some reasonable certainty that Lavrov could not possibly believe his claims are true (Lavrov as a stand-in for the Russian govt, it's possible he's just parroting something he was given.) https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-says-mariupol-maternity-hospital-mili... Or perhaps not, but one could assess such a claim fairly without resorting to nihilistic vagaries like "who could know for sure?"
Propaganda is in the eye of the beholder, and we’ve seen both sides of the political aisle sling this term in recent elections and legislative debates.
I think it is a colossal mistake to weaponize the Internet. The potential for unintended consequences is huge, as is the potential for intended, politically-driven consequences
I tend to agree with that last statement. Then again a counter-argument would be that the internet has already been weaponized, from infowars to using it to compromise, blackmail, and even destroy critical infrastructure.
-mel beckman
On Mar 10, 2022, at 5:03 AM, Randy Bush <randy@psg.com> wrote:
maybe it is just that i am sufficiently anti-authoritarian that i try not to have the hubris to set myself up as the authority. maybe that in itself is hubris.
as i was raised by someone who was a conscious objector in ww2, i can not bring myself to contribute to weapons etc. so i have donated to folk such as https://razomforukraine.org/ which is focused on medical support.
randy
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