Thursday, November 8, 2018

Did the Russians Influence My Vote?

By Jacob G. Hornberger - November 08, 2018 at 08:57AM

undefined

I voted Libertarian yesterday, and the New York Times has me really worried. In an article yesterday entitled “Russians Meddling in the Midterms? Here’s the Data,” the authors, Jonathan Morgan and Ryan Fox, state that while Russian meddling in the midterm election was not as extensive as it purportedly was in the 2016 election, it was nonetheless still pervasive. Morgan and Fox, who run a cybersecurity company, pointed out, “Indeed, our company is currently detecting more overall activity in real time from continuing Russian online influence operations targeting the midterm elections than has been disclosed by social media platforms or detected by researchers during the same period before the election in 2016.”

Okay, so what am I worried about? I’m worried that the Russians might have influenced me into voting Libertarian. Here’s my question: How is a person supposed to determine whether his vote was the result of an independent, reasoned judgment or instead a result of Russian meddling?

After all, lots of people would say that it’s not rational to vote for a Libertarian, given that he or she has virtually no chance of winning. They say that to vote for a Libertarian is just throwing away one’s vote.

Well then, wouldn’t that indicate that the Russians influenced me into voting Libertarian? What else would explain why I voted in what would appear to be an irrational way?

When you think about it, this Russian election meddling thing is really scary because it means that the minds of the American people are susceptible to being influenced or manipulated by the Russians. It all brings to mind the prospect of Americans being brainwashed by the Chinese, North Korean, or Cuban Reds during the Cold War.

But here’s an important question, one that Morgan and Fox unfortunately failed to address in their article: What is it about Americans that makes their minds so susceptible to Russian influence or brainwashing, at least when it comes to voting?

If I had to guess, I would say that a big part of the problem is public (i.e., government) schooling, which I believe weakens the mental ability of Americans to resist government propaganda. Given that public schooling molds the minds of America schoolchildren to defer to authority, memorize, follow rules and regulations, and obey orders, by the time the entire 12-year ordeal is over, many 18-year-old minds have turned to mush, which, I suspect, makes them more susceptible to being influenced by propaganda, perhaps even for the rest of their lives.

But as scary as Russian propaganda might be, it seems to me that a much bigger danger in yesterday’s election was meddling by President Trump, like with his scary fear-mongering about that caravan of Central American refugees that is heading north through Mexico to seek refugee status in the United States.

By calling the caravan an “invasion” and by sending US troops to defend America from the “invasion,” Trump succeeded in scaring the dickens out of millions of his followers, some of whom even grabbed their rifles and headed down to the border to help Trump’s troops defend America from a few thousand unarmed women and toddlers who are still slowly walking to the border. I don’t think anyone would dispute that Trump’s propaganda had a much bigger effect on the midterms than did Russian propaganda. In fact, it will be interesting to see if Trump continues his scary invasion drumbeat going now that the mid-election is over. My hunch is no, but I’ll bet we’ll see it again several months before the 2020 presidential election.

Of course, none of this mental manipulation, by either Trump or the Russians, compares to the propaganda that government officials use to influence people into supporting a war. That’s when the mental manipulation becomes of prime and urgent importance, especially through a strong propaganda campaign based on fear.

A perfect example of this phenomenon took place in the run-up to the Iraq War. By the time the actual US invasion of Iraq was initiated, a large number of Americans were absolutely convinced that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was coming to get them and explode mushroom clouds in cities all across America. It was a testament to the power of US officials to manipulate and influence people’s minds through the use of propaganda.

One of the masters of influencing people’s minds through propaganda was Nazi official Hermann Goering, who expressed the matter perfectly when it comes to war:
Naturally the common people don’t want war: Neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.
In any event, if anyone has any insights into how I figure out whether the Russians influenced me into voting Libertarian in yesterday’s mid-term elections, please let me know.

Reprinted with permission from Future of Freedom Foundation.

from Ron Paul Institute Featured Articles

via IFTTT

No comments:

Post a Comment

Merchandise

Ron Paul America Cloud

Site Credits

Ron Paul America

is voluntarily affiliated with

Liberty Operations Group

______________________________

Site created, maintained and hosted by

Liberty Web Services

Tags

#TurnOnTheTruth 2008 2012 4th amendment 911 ACTION Afghanistan war Agency Aggression Principle al-Qaeda Alan Colmes Alert America America's Fault Americans antigun AR 15 assault weapon Audit Authoritarian bailouts Believe Big Brother big government bill of rights Blame blowback bubbles Bush Campaign for Liberty Career Politician Eric Cantor Central Bank Charity China churches collapse Collectivism Commission committee Compassion Congress Conservative constitution Crash dangerous person Democrat Democrats Donald Trump Donald Trump. Planned Parenthood drones economic Economy Edward Snowden End the Fed European Union Federal Reserve Floyd Bayne floyd bayne for congress force foreign interventionism free market free markets GOP Nominee GOP Presidential Debates Government Great Depression gun control House of Representatives housing bubble HR 1745 I like Ron Paul except on foreign policy If ye love wealth better than liberty IFTTT Individual Individualism Institute Irag Iran Iraq war ISIL ISIS Judge Andrew Napalitano libertarian Liberty Liberty Letters Liberty Report Lost mass Media meltdown metadata Micheal Moore Middle East Mitt Romney nap National Neocons New Ron Paul Ad New York Times Newsletters Newt Gingrich No Non non-interventionism NSA NSA Snooping Obama Overreach overthrow Patriot Act peace Peace and Prosperity politicians Pope Francis President Presidential Presidential Race programs prosperity Race Racist Racist Newsletters Rand Paul Read the Bills Act recessions redistribution of wealth refugee crisis Repeal Obamacare Report Republican Republican Nomination Republican Nominee Republicans Revolution Rick Santorum Rick Santorum Exposed Ron Ron Paul Ron Paul Institute Ron Paul Institute Featured Articles Ron Paul Institute for Peace And Prosperity Ron Paul Institute Peace and Prosperity Articles Ron Paul Next Chapter Media Channel Ron Paul Racist Newsletters ron paul's foreign policy Ronald Reagan ronpaulchannel.com ronpaulinstitute.org Rosa DeLauro russia Samuel Adams Saudi Arabia Second Amendment Security Senate Senator September 11th attacks Show Soviet Spying stimulate Stock Market surveillance Syria tech bubble terrorist The the Fed the poor US US foreign policy Us troops USA Freedom Act Virginia Virginia Republican Primary voluntarism. Liberty Voluntary Warner Warning warrantless wiretaps YouTube