Perception Management, News Sources, and Russian Combat Losses

In recent days I have had visits with various friends, neighbors and acquaintances.  In each case the war in Ukraine has come up, and in each case I was astounded to find out how little everyone understood about the war, the implications of the war for the world, and the history of Russia, to say nothing of their knowledge of modern hybrid warfare, disinformation, propaganda, narrative creation, and the use of history in modern conflicts. One neighbor even asked me what the flag on my hat meant- the blue and yellow Ukrainian flag. And let me say that these are what I would consider professional, successful, and “educated” people.

I suppose not everyone is like me, not everyone has been a student of history, obsessively so at times,  amongst other disciplines, for their entire lives. For context, I began “monitoring” the cold war at age 14, in 1979 with the USSR’s invasion of Afghanistan. I spent 10 years in the U.S. Army, from 1982-1992, with a mission centered on eastern Europe and Warsaw Pact countries. That is where I began.  I like to believe I have some background to support my statements.

Perception management is a phrase which encompasses the modern use of propaganda, disinformation, historical revisionism, and narrative creation- essentially a monumental form of behavioral engineering. Russia is expert in the field. Not that our country is far behind- take the Trump debacle for example- yes, debacle, to put it very kindly- same tactics, same targets, same goals.

Perception management is easily done in our modern society- the internet and social media, along with modern advertising and management concepts are perfect tools.  The need for instantaneous media updates are practically wired into our brains at this point- I suspect most people sleep with their hands instinctively outstretched to their nightstand where their phone sits.  They are ready as their eyes open for the latest bit of news/emotion forced upon them by “news” sources.  And then, to complicate matters, they are stuck in information bubbles, feedback loops where one is only exposed to information conforming to that which they already search for, read, and know about.

News sources– most of what passes for such, especially in the U.S. (Fox, Breitbart, Newsmax, Washington Post, CNN, Apple, MSNBC- any source which corners a person into a box and keeps them there) and decidedly so in authoritarian societies such as Russia where they are all state controlled- and controlled down to the word, are presenting nothing short of modified entertainment,  brief hyperstimulating video and soundbites to capture the average person’s few seconds of attention. They are pandering to base emotions, attempting in the shortest possible time frame to capture attention, elicit a response based on their government/corporate/personal agenda, and then as a bonus to focus attention on a clickable link to sell a product or service. Welcome to “news” in the 21st century.

How to counter it all?  Be informed. Read as many news sources as you can. Find the same report across a number of channels and platforms, from extreme left to extreme right if you have the time and inclination.  Then arrive at your own conclusions based on discretion and critical thinking.  For reference, here are some of the sources I regularly turn to, and use to cross-check and cross-reference a report that I find questionable: Ukrinform (Ukrainian news source), BBC, Aljazeera, Brookings Institute, Foreign Affairs, Diplomatic Courier, RFE/RL, TOLO (Afghan news service), Balkan Insight, the Economist, and Financial Times. If you search any of these sources on a site such as mediabias/factcheck.com you will find them in the center of the scale, with high marks for accurate and unbiased reporting.

As a final note- and then my rant for the day will end- if we are not informed, we will fall. To paraphrase Ray Bradbury from an interview in the 40th anniversary edition of Fahrenheit 451 in my library, if the world collapsed, the only buildings we would need to survive are a hospital to treat the injured, and a library where all knowledge we need to rebuild is held.  Knowledge is power, and ignorance will be our death.

Ignorance  continues to lead to the death of many, many Russian sons, fathers, brothers, and uncles:

 

Russian combat losses as of 04 May 2022- continuing to grow.