For Americans, the first radio war was World War II, the first television war was Vietnam, and the first social media war is the Israel-Gaza War, if you can really call it that.
Oddly enough, there is a historical echo from that first radio war. In 1939-40, there was the Russo-Finnish War. Stalin, as part of his deal with Hitler to snap up the Baltic States and eastern Poland, decided to militarily adjust the Russo-Finnish border. The Finns had other ideas, and fought well, using both fortified positions and ski troops.
Americans naturally sympathized with brave little Finland. As one historian described the war, “The Finns fought valiantly, the British and French sent volunteers, the Americans cheered, and the Russians won.”
The Russians won the way they always do—they learned from their early mistakes, and then used their immense resources to their best advantage. In the Ukraine War, the Americans sent tons of arms and money, waged economic warfare against Russia, cheered on brave little Ukraine, and now realize that those darned Russians are going to win again. We also know deep down that Russia winning either war was and will be absolutely no threat to US national security or to the American people.
It took awhile for Americans to figure out the same thing applied to the Vietnamese Communists, though they did in a few years, but not before horrific nightly TV news images brought home the horror of war, and eventually turned most of them against the Indochina War.
The managers of the US Empire knew they lost the first television war, and badly, so they resolved to never let that happen again. How? Simple. Ignore the First Amendment and give the US military full control over journalistic access and reporting on imperial wars.
All of you remember that. It was called “embedding” reporters. It was actually censorship, and it worked for a few decades. Unfortunately for the Empire, the seeds of its next public relations disaster were already being planted with cellphones and the internet.
By the time the Israeli government used Hamas’ prison break and hostage-gathering expedition as an excuse to ethnically cleanse the Gaza Strip, social media technology had advanced to the point that no amount of government censorship could successfully suppress scenes of a systematic genocide from the majority of the American people.
And we are not liking what we are seeing. If we were, two-thirds of us would not be supporting an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, now would we? Scenes like this certainly don’t help the Empire’s attempt to portray Israel as having the right to create them:
Yah, it’s just not good optics. Combine this with Israeli officials and rabid American Zionists saying that 5000 dead children are simply not enough to satisfy Israel’s need for self-defense and vengeance, and there is simply no way that the Empire and Israel can win the information war. Add thousands of American Jews making it very clear that they are opposed to this slaughter being done in their name, and it rapidly could become a catastrophe for the Empire, and worse for Israel.
Take a look at the Jewish American woman in this video. I’ve known plenty like her. If Israel has lost her, it’s over.
Never before have I seen so many learn so much about history so quickly. Most Americans had never heard of the Naqba, the forcible eviction of Palestinian Arabs from their own homes, before Israelis and Zionists started proclaiming they wanted to do a second one.
The Zionists expected Americans to cheer on their ethnic cleansing campaign against Muslim terrorists. Instead, all they have done is to educate a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible revulsion. Israelis may not know it yet, but they are going to be facing a real Boycott, Divest and Sanction movement very soon, led by American citizens.
The days of the Zionist Experiment in Palestine are numbered, the US Empire’s managers are starting to feel very nervous indeed, and social media is one reason why.
Thank you for reading and have a great rest of your(hopefully) holiday weekend.
I would argue the first social media war was the special military operation in Ukraine - I suspect many of us remember the Ghost of Kyiv, Snake Island and the babushka who took down a drone with a jar of homemade pickles. Social media profiles, as well as houses and cars, had Ukrainian flags everywhere and there were NAFO (nasty arrogant foreign objectors, or something) trolls that swarmed any claimed Ukrainian army failure.
It's all gone now, though thousands of Ukrainian soldiers, including women, died this week. It's all Israel / Palestine now and Ukraine is on the rubbish heap of history.
Well said. Times like these just show how truly useful and beneficial social media can be......when genuinely used for good, educational purposes.