Things feel surreal all the time now. We’re told that some of our favorite online personalities may just be sock puppet accounts for foreing governments. Russia, in particular, is supposedly a master at the new soft power internet based information warfare. Some people still believe that Trump is a Russian agent, the end result of a longcon forged years ago by the KGB and ushered into power by Russian trolls. Qanon, anti-vaxers, ant-maskers, shitposts, and doing it for the lulz. It can be exhausting. But understanding the myths of the modern age and how they permeate online is a key to understanding our world today.

Here to help us figure this all out is Nina Janckowicz. Janckowicz studies the intersection of democracy and technology in Central and Eastern Europe as a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in DC. She’s also the author of How to Lose the Information War: Russia, Fake News, and the Future of Conflict. She’s also … a huge musical theater fan.

Recorded 10/8/20
A brief digression into musical theater
What is an information war anyway?
Russia and active measures
Why Russia is better at it than America
Ukraine and the human cost
Poland and the dangers of building a government on conspiracy
Allowing RT on American soil
The responsibility of Twitter and Facebook
Finishing up with a little Sondheim

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America Is Losing the Information War