Question Everything!

UPDATE Check out this post on Blackfive for some interesting background on Georgian-Russian relations from a Georgian woman now living in the US.

On August 14th, I wrote a post about propaganda where I agreed with one of the bloggers at Castle Argghhh, Kat, who wrote that “all information is propaganda. Official information is official propaganda. Thus, it always deserves to be challenged. Paraphrasing Socrates, question everything.” I truly believe that we should question the information we’re given, particularly when it’s information that is “fed” to us through the news media, the government, or other secondary sources. If the person feeding the information isn’t “there,” or isn’t “involved,” in otherwords isn’t a primary source, then the information may be screened or spun or shaped in some way. That’s the reason I started reading blogs, particualrly milblogs, in the first place; because I wanted to get the story from those who were writing it. Having said that, there’s nothing wrong with getting information from secondary sources and passing that information along, as long as you identify the secondary source so that others can make their own judgments about the information you’re passing along. After all, it’s all propaganda and we chould question everything.

Now understanding that all information is propaganda and that we should question everything, I wrote a post on August 21st discussing the Russian invasion of Georgia and asking whether anyone else thought it was getting colder along the former Iron Curtain. I discussed information that had been reported in FoxNews, clearly idenifying the source of my information. I received a very interesting comment to that post from a person identified as “Chris.” In this lengthy comment Chris takes me to task for relying on FoxNews for my international news, emphasizes that I don’t really know the facts about the conflict because I was not there, and points out that he believes that news from English speaking, North American focused media” is useless. Chris then goes on to outline the problems he has with my post, giving what appears to be a Russo-centric point of view for the reasons behind the conflict in Georgia and the increased tensions between Russia and the former-Soviet republics in the region.

Okay. After reading Chris’ comments I wondered if, like the Armorer, another milblogger who posts on Castle Argghhh, I’ve think I’ve found myself in the midst of the Russian InfoOps campaign. Perhaps I’m being too suspicious (I am an attorney) and Chris is just an open-minded guy who likes to play the Devil’s Advocate. But I don’t think so. Although I took care to indicate that I got my information from a secondary source, Chris doesn’t. I don’t know where he got the information for the facts he provides. I don’t know if he’s developed his opinions because of personal experience, or if he’s relying on secondary sources just like I am. I do, however, think that Chris is somewhere in the area involved in conflict. In one part of his comment, Chris talks about why Russia has a right to be nervous about Georgia and the Ukraine moving closer to the west and he says, “What if Canada and Mexico joined China in an all binding military agreement? How would the U.S feel? Surrounded. Think about WHY THE OTHER SIDE IS MAD for once. Does "They hate us for our freedom" sound familiar??? Same thing being spouted here. I don’t know where the “here” Chris refers to really is, Chris doesn’t say, but in context it sounds like Chris is either in Russia or working to advance the Russian point of view. Now, Chris is correct that I’m not there and cannot gather the facts for myself. But, hey, I’m just a blogger and my posts are just my opinion based on information I’ve gathered, questioned, and analyzed. I’m not a reporter and don’t pretend to be one. I’ll leave that for folks like Michael Totten, who is in Tblisi and is blogging about it.

So, maybe I’m seeing InfoOps when there really isn’t one (after all, I’m just a blogger giving my opinion based on what I’ve learned from other people, why would there be an official need to address my opinion?). Maybe Chris is just a concerned citizen of whatever country who wants to give the other side of the equation. Either way, I think it’s great. Bring it on, Chris! As I said earlier, it’s all propaganda and we should question everything; including who is commenting and why.

Information as Propaganda

Kat (who writes at Castle Argghhh, a prominent milblog) has written a wonderful post discussing propaganda. Her main point, that “all information is propaganda. Official information is official propaganda. Thus, it always deserves to be challenged. Paraphrasing Socrates, question everything” is extremely well taken. She also points out that:

In the end, we decide what we make of information, but leaving information unchallenged means that we leave perceptions unchallenged. Milblogs, political blogs and others came to prominence because people were looking for missing information. Because we did not believe we were getting a complete picture or story. Because we believed that without some sort of expertise or background information, the real story was missed for sound bites or two sentences that basically said: bomb today, three soldiers killed. Left to itself and to ourselves, we would have been led to believe, purposefully or not, that the only thing happening in Iraq or Afghanistan was bombs and death.

What is a military blog or milblog? It is a place to get direct information or stories from men and women in the military or retired from the military or with connections to the military. Mostly without any filters. When those blogs proved accurate and the people legitimate, their voices were trusted more than any other media source to be the gage by which to evaluate progress. We linked to those stories to persuade ourselves and others of the facts or views being different than those presented.

We were and are, in fact, conducting a very small part of the information war whether that is our original intent, current purpose or accepted outcome. Information dissemination is information warfare.

All information is meant to inform and persuade. Thus, all information becomes propaganda. All official information is official propaganda. Regardless of who it comes from or how trusted the source. Looking at information to evaluate its persuasive purposes and capability is not paranoid any more than evaluating the purpose of a commercial for its ability to sell a product is paranoia. It does not entail the same potential risk to national or international actions, but it is the same concept.

Right on Kat!