There is a creeping acceptance of views branding Australia and its allies as imperialists and using whataboutism to deflect moral arguments against tyrants. Much of it is home-grown.
It may have taken a while, but poisonous narratives – the kind promoted by Vladimir Putin’s Russia – are now beginning to spread from the margins of Australia’s political debates towards its mainstream.
All this is just the surface of what is consistent with Russian information operations elsewhere: a concerted effort to fragment democratic societies, make them suspicious of authority, and react with apathy to extreme views. Importantly, Russia-friendly narratives aren’t limited to one side of the political spectrum. On the contrary, they can appeal to both left and right. Sometimes based on half-truths, they mirror the classic propagandists’ toolkit by presenting simple and didactic messages. These are designed to elicit emotional responses, and frequently identify someone to blame: the US, the government, Jews, “elites”, Muslims, and a host of others.
But like biological warfare researchers, Russia’s info-warriors know that the narratives they seek to promote work best when the target does the spreading for you.
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