This discussion of ideological warfare has staying power.
But it was the Soviet Union, in its day, that was the master of this game. They made dezinformatsiya (disinformation) a central weapon of their war against “the main adversaryâ€, the U.S. They conducted memetic subversion against the U.S. on many levels at a scale that is only now becoming clear as historians burrow through their archives and ex-KGB officers sell their memoirs.
The Soviets had an entire “active measures†department devoted to churning out anti-American dezinformatsiya. A classic example is the rumor that AIDS was the result of research aimed at building a ‘race bomb’ that would selectively kill black people.
The Soviets did lose. So will the Islamofascists.
The first step to recovery is understanding the problem. Knowing that suicidalist memes were launched at us as war weapons by the espionage apparatus of the most evil despotism in human history is in itself liberating. Liberating, too, it is to realize that the Noam Chomskys and Michael Moores and Robert Fisks of the world (and their thousands of lesser imitators in faculty lounges everywhere) are not brave transgressive forward-thinkers but pathetic memebots running the program of a dead tyrant.
Memebots. I love that term. Are you ready to fight or die? Because sooner or later, it will be your turn to step forward, whether you are ready or not. Good God I’m glad Eric is on our side. Read all 100+ comments too, if you have the time. Many are like a good dessert after a fabulous dinner.
Another hat tip goes out to the Instapundit for pointing me to Eric S. Raymond’s fine essay.