4/ For those who came in late, the idea is to destabilize liberal, soft-power institutions everywhere to advantage illiberal hard power ones
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5/ In the new world, so the supposed Russian exceptionalist narrative as constructed by Western analysts goes, the Strong Rule the Meek/Weak
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6/ The reactionary old component is to return to the nation-state as the dominant unit, in classic Westphalian form, circa 1800s Great Game
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7/ The new component isn't so much new as a sort of neutralization of the new. Modern soft power is based on good information. So pollute it
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8/ So the geopolitics map being crafted primarily under Russian catalysis of what is already a *natural* dynamic is not that complicated...
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9/ Step 1: amplify natural tendency of information landscapes to pollute and undermine themselves via truth --> bullshit pathways
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10/ Step 2: Argue for a solipsistic extreme relativism denying that any basis for 'truth' is possible at all
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11/ Step 3: Accumulate hard-power advantages and wait, hoping time is your friend as world goes backwards towards 18th century chessboard
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12/ This is why, ultimately, it's futile to argue about whether Trump's shadowy links with Putin or whether Russia influenced the election
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13/ So long as you analyze things in terms of the nation-state global order, you're fitting the Surkovian narrative and playing their game
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14/ Where 'they' is not Russia, but the entire allied network of actors around the world who want to regress to a classic nation-state order
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15/ This means the actual conflict is between those who want to unwind all evolution in the global political order since roughly 1975 and..
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16/ ...Those who want to double down on it and get through to the other side of a world order solidly centered in digital, soft technologies
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