172: Clint Watts | Surviving in a World of Fake News

Disinformation

Clint Watts explains how Russia uses disinformation to confuse and mislead the public. By refuting facts and flooding the information space with alternative explanations, they create a chaotic environment where the truth becomes hard to discern. This strategy is effective because it exhausts those trying to counter the false narratives, leading to a breakdown in trust and a rise in misinformation.

Refuting fact is just outright refuting it and that's what you see Putin, Lavrov, or any of their state-sponsored media do so well. And then it's even more damaging when Americans repeat or American elected leaders -- I mean, Helsinki is that. "We had nothing to do with hacking the election. Your Intel community is wrong," and they will never admit to it under any sort of circumstance. They keep that reputation down. Even when caught blindly in the Skripal poisoning. "No, we didn't do it." And you're like, "Yes, you did. There's cameras or whatever." "Nope, we did not."

--- Clint Watts

Watts also discusses how Russian trolls have successfully manipulated social media to incite real-world actions, such as protests and public stunts 1 2.

   

Alternative Perceptions

The Kremlin's disinformation tactics include creating alternative perceptions and exploiting social issues to deepen societal divides. Clint Watts describes how they generate multiple false narratives to overwhelm the truth, making it difficult for experts to refute each claim. This method not only spreads misinformation but also sows doubt and confusion among the public.

They then came out with, I believe it was in the 20s, alternative explanations for why they didn't do it. This makes it so the truth that has only one voice, but you know, fiction has as many as you can create, and then you have to try and go at each of these theories and test them out and refute them if you're an expert. This becomes exhausting and impossible. Then when you get to the quit point, they go, "See, we must've been right. He didn't say it was wrong," and you're like, "I just refuted 22 before that. Like when does it stop?"

--- Clint Watts

By infiltrating social media spaces and engaging with various social issues, Russian operatives can subtly influence public opinion and drive wedges between different groups 3 4.

   

Case Studies

Clint Watts provides specific examples of Russian influence campaigns to illustrate their effectiveness. He mentions how figures like Tulsi Gabbard are used by Russian media to create division within American politics. By promoting certain narratives, they can manipulate public perception and support for various political figures.

So just Tulsi Gabbard if you go to RT or Sputnik News, she's in dozens of articles already as she is a good candidate or she's being held down by the mainstream media or you know, they're taking a position. She has a pro-Assad position on Syria. So now she's caught up in this storm and they're now going to bring her out as, "Man, we should support Tulsi Gabbard," and when everybody pushes back on the side position, it'd be like, this is just the mainstream elite Democrats like Hillary Clinton trying to hold her down. Even on air this morning, I watched some of this and you're like, "Who is for Assad staying in power really in either party?" This was not an issue five years ago when I was watching trolls in Syria. Today you will hear people on the right in particular advocate for it and even people in the left, it shows you the power of this system for Russia.

--- Clint Watts

Watts also discusses how American terrorists have used similar tactics for propaganda and recruitment, highlighting the parallels between these methods and those used by Russian operatives 5 6.