"Opponents of Russia, who feed public fears that Russian influence is everywhere, may be working as inadvertent force multipliers of paranoia."http://foreignpolicy.com/2018/01/17/american-democracy-was-asking-for-it/ …
Show this thread
-
The piece was in part motivated by annoyance at the willingness of people whose politics I mostly agree with to assume that Russia is ubiquitous and sinisterly effective in ways I don’t think it is. But I could quite happily envisage a sister-piece that talked to the other side…
I love the piece!! But it is possible 1) we're incredibly vulnerable bc of shit we -- especially the far right -- has done but 2) the RU attack is more complex than people make out.
-
-
For sure. I think that there are plenty of plausible counterarguments along the lines you suggest (although I also find the Gessen/Ioffe line fairly convincing on Russian perceptions/disorganization). And I could be wrong in specifics or big picture. But what I am trying to do is
-
I find Gessen, especially invaluable. But she also emphasizes that Putin cares about shit here that he might not care about in other places.
End of conversation
New conversation -
-
-
push back against a conventional wisdom that seems to me to be congealing in DC, and to have some big holes/gaps/flaws, reflecting the conventional DC assumption that US democracy and role in the world is teh awesome.
-
And that (plus the use of cyber language) is why I found this awesome.
-
Well also, to be clear, part of the reason I wrote this (and why I write anything) is in the hope that people who know shit or have ideas that I don’t will push back usefully - so feel encouraged to let fly at any points that seem weak, underdeveloped etc !
End of conversation
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.