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The phrase “the first casualty of war is truth” is a phrase that’s been said so much it feels tired, generic or just overused, but the funny thing is, for once this is one bit of repetition that actually does deserve to be heard, it’s said so often because really, it’s true.
Propaganda is always a part of our daily lives, whether we notice it or not, because politics is ever present and so are politicians, there’s always a leader who needs to justify themselves, to get you on their side or, if they can’t manage that, to stop you caring about their actions, and if that leader is prosecuting a war, well, the consequences of the public paying attention and going against them can be dire, trials, revolutions, a ticket to the grave, the choices are endless.
And so to counteract this we face a barrage of misinformation and disinformation day in, day out, from a huge range of sources, designed to mould our view or tune us out, distorting and repackaging as much as possible to avoid scrutiny, making a circus of world events and turning the dying and the suffering into faraway figures, too distant to be victims.
In the last few decades this has only increased, the great innovation of the internet means that we have interconnectivity our ancestors could never have even dreamed of, but that connectivity has its detriments alongside its benefits, the reach of the honest, the integral, the genuine has extended, but so has the reach of the liars, the snake oil salesmen, the mental gymnasts and the bullshit artists, and that’s a risk everyone has to be aware of.
Another often overused, sadly true, point is to say that the time needed to combat misinformation is far greater than the time needed to spread it, and in some ways it’s guaranteed to be a losing battle, as some people just don’t want to be reached. Nowadays we can be assaulted by unrelenting waves of disingenuous narratives, especially during times of war. No matter what faction you might align your views with, it can be difficult to stay aware of the plot holes and incongruencies in a story and there is a real danger of becoming complacent.
Complacency is our enemy. And we hope you will keep us and yourself accountable. Welcome to MEGA.