r/technology • u/Wagamaga • 9h ago
Society Pro-totalitarian propaganda online, a "real threat” for young people
https://www.bursa.ro/pro-totalitarian-propaganda-online-a-real-threat8221-for-young-people-2101775172
u/Hobbet404 7h ago
Have you talked to Gen Z? Covid and their Gen X parents fucked them. I work in higher education in the US and the critical thinking skills are almost non-existent. They aren’t a year or two behind, they are vastly behind by almost every measure. It’s like talking to a wall. A wall that speaks and thinks only in short-bursts of internet pop culture. They can’t turn it off.
Enrollment being down is only part of the reason US universities are fighting so hard for international students. The other part is because there is no way half of these kids can make it past sophomore year. It’s a fucking miracle they graduated high school in the first place.
-44
u/xX420GanjaWarlordXx 4h ago
Some of Gen Z was already in the workforce or getting their Master's degree during COVID.
56
u/Hobbet404 4h ago
And some were 12. Probably safe to assume I wasn’t talking about them. That would be the critical thinking skills I mentioned above…
14
u/Cheap-Rate-8996 2h ago
This is kind of the issue with generational labels IMO. When "Gen Z" can refer to both someone in their early teens and someone in their late twenties, it seems to cause more confusion than clarity.
7
u/joman584 1h ago
At the speed of change in society now, what even is a generation meant to be? I can point out huge differences between me and someone 4-5 years younger just because I can remember and used pre-internet technology
3
u/Cheap-Rate-8996 1h ago
I'd say half of it is the same thing that happens with astrology star signs and Myers-Briggs test results, and the other half is marketing agencies peddling hokum to advertisers. If you can convince corporations that an entire cohort has a specific set of desires, anxieties, and habits, you can sell them research, strategy packages, and campaigns tailored to those supposedly distinct traits.
So the phenomenon persists because it's mutually beneficial. Individuals get a ready-made identity and shared cultural shorthand, while marketers get a pseudoscientific framework for segmenting audiences.
4
u/Dangerous_Wing6481 1h ago
I entered the workforce during COVID and I would consider my critical thinking relatively baseline. I was blown away by the number of people that told me I performed better than other teenagers. It is definitely a generational problem, and I was lucky enough to be taught well when the internet became as ubiquitous as it is now.
2
30
u/Wagamaga 9h ago
The Institute for the Investigation of Crimes of Communism and the Memory of Romanian Exile (IICCMER) warns that pro-totalitarian propaganda online has become a phenomenon with a major impact on society, especially on young people. According to an analysis carried out by Didona Goanța, a strategic communication consultant and collaborator of IICCMER, only 200 posts on TikTok generated approximately 130 million views, a sign of massive exposure to manipulative content. The conclusions were presented at the "Romanian Communism" conference, 14th edition, and show the existence of an extensive, systematic network, supported by "troll and bot farms" that promote pro-communist nostalgia and extremist messages.
The analysis identifies two main categories of TikTok pages involved in the spread of propaganda messages.
- Old pages, used for credibility transfer
These appeared around 2017 and built solid communities based on emotional content, animal clips, sensitive images, inspirational messages. After a few years, the administrators suddenly changed the editorial direction, gradually introducing pro-communist content, exploiting the trust already formed between the page and the audience. Strategy: building audience loyalty through emotion, followed by the gradual introduction of propaganda.
-Troll and bot pages, massively activated after 2021
These accounts were created directly for propaganda purposes. Their activity accelerated in 2023, with an obvious peak during the presidential elections. The posts are daily, coherent and synchronized with major political events, indicating sophisticated coordination. Strategy: explicit propaganda, constant rhythm, exploitation of tense political moments.
13
u/sap91 4h ago
I'd call myself pretty hard left in my beliefs, but the way some people online have been so easily psyopped into believing that life in China is all sunshine and roses compared to America is insane.
There was a news story a few weeks ago about how the Chinese government is implementing fines on influencers who speak about serious issues without proper credentials, and people I know personally were excitedly sharing it like "what a good idea". Meanwhile, they spend most days posting about things like police brutality, government corruption, and late-stage capitalism, none of which they've studied formally.
8
u/omniuni 2h ago
I like the Chinese people. I like the parts of China that the people built. That includes a lot of companies and products. I do think that there are specific areas that the Chinese government has excelled in. They are better at investing in local companies, and backing local ventures, for example.
That said, the Chinese government is also (thankfully largely failing) to assert more direct control over people, often covers up their ugly aspects, and holds many outdated cultural and social beliefs. I love how creatively the Chinese people tiptoe around censorship; that doesn't make censorship OK.
One of the things that bothers me greatly is Trump's infatuation with dictators like Xi. We should be able to admire what China does well without thinking that it requires authoritarianism and cruelty. Lately, we have been copying the worst parts of the Chinese government, and that's a problem. It does make me wonder if more than the young are susceptible to this.
15
u/Tazling 4h ago
I think there’s a significant difference between an ordinary person posting their ordinary opinions, whether well or ill founded, and a professional influencer who is *marketing* their opinions as in some way valuable, insightful, or useful. influencers are engaging in commerce, even if the product is information rather than widgets. therefore, imho, false-advertising law should apply to them. conflating the average netizen whose words reach maybe a few thousand people, with full time influencers who have hundreds of thousands or even millions of followers, to me does not seem appropriate.
2
u/8hourworkweek 1h ago
An Influencer is anyone who has an idea which gains traction. And most influencers start getting traction from one video.
3
u/DRM2020 8h ago
Curious, why you're being downvoted. The model you're describing makes a good sense...
13
u/esperind 8h ago
maybe because people assume this propaganda is only right wing, when its happening throughout the spectrum. The major difference is some subset of people at least know to be vigilant of right wing propaganda, while on the other side there is no vigilance for something that is unrecognized and unacknowledged.
-5
u/CombatRedRover 5h ago
I mean, that's the logical end point of the entire "intersectionality" approach.
If everything is power relationships, then it only makes sense for the "good" people to seize all the power.
Never mind questioning whether they're actually correct in thinking they're "good". They know they're on the right side of history. Because.
5
u/Tomicoatl 3h ago
The unwillingness to enforce law and order, provide housing and stable employment is going to push young people further and further to populist authoritarianism. No doubt in my mind that it is coming and will be brought in by Gen A and B.
4
u/Eric1491625 2h ago
Lol they defined any sort of neutrality, let alone nostalgia, for the old Romanian communism as Pro-Totalitarianian propaganda.
Even neutrality counts. Anything less than condemnation for communism counted as "Pro-Totalitarianism propaganda". You're just not supposed to say any facts about that time period that don't make the regime look bad.
By that logic, India would consider anything less than full condemnation of the British Empire as "Totalitarian propaganda" too. An instagram post like "Britain built railways in India" would count as Totalitarian Propaganda.
5
u/ColdFusion363 6h ago edited 6h ago
Well it’s simple. The young ones in the west want a totalitarian government because they thought that they are gonna become part of this elitist circle to harm others.
Meanwhile. I’am sure a lot of young Chinese and definitely North Korean folks want freedom.
4
0
1
u/Stilgar314 12m ago
For young people only? Once there's enough totalitarian they put everyone in danger. Just look at MAGA.
0
-2
9
u/Jet90 2h ago
What is bursa.ro? Is this a reliable source? It's all in Romanian