The War on Dissent
It’s a story that we have seen repeated many times throughout the past three decades. There is a mainstream narrative pushed by the government or the establishment news organizations, and all those who dare to question the narrative are branded as traitors and deemed as “siding with the enemy”. Whether it’s the Bush administration after 9/11, the Democrats after the murder of George Floyd, or Trudeau’s government in response to the truckers, when we feel that our “group” is being attacked, we can miss that all these organizations I mentioned are leveraging the emotions of the situation for political purposes. When a war is declared, emotions run high and cloud our judgement.
Listen, I’m not saying that the mainstream narrative is wrong. Narratives are not wrong simply because they are popular. Russia invading Ukraine is evil and Putin is responsible. But it is crucial that we give those people that dissent a voice in our collective conversation. This is a value that I have always held. We need to critically evaluate things that go against the narrative. It’s not remotely useful to always be a contrarian, but can you be a contrarian and also right when it matters? How many times has a single piece of information entirely destroyed the mainstream narrative? We need to keep an open mind for data points that contradict our beliefs. In order to be a robust society, we need to be willing to look and correct errors in the information and media we consume. This is especially true when it seems that all sides of the political establishment hold a consensus when it comes to something, for example the US and its allies during the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, and as is the case now with regards to the condemnation of Russia over the invasion of Ukraine.
For all the talk about Russian propaganda from the establishment liberal media, I see a startling lack of critical evaluation of information when the information agrees with their narrative. When we don’t look at all media critically, we allow these things to slip by, and we are more susceptible to propaganda from all sources. For an example of misleading information, this article from the BBC points out a number of videos on Twitter presented in a misleading manner. Some of the videos being shared as “current combat footage” are actually from different conflicts, different time frames, or even video games.
Firm belief in the mainstream narrative is a bad idea. If we don’t open our minds to the possibility that people think differently than us, one day reality will shatter our conceptions of what we thought reality was. For example, have you stopped to consider that Putin continues to enjoy widespread support among the Russian civilian population, despite his numerous economic and political failures over the past two decades? Do you really internalize that the Chinese Communist Party also enjoys the same widespread support among their people despite its history of suppressing media and personal freedoms? All this despite the international community seemingly united in condemning the actions of the governments of these two countries? The world is complicated and everyone has a reason for believing the things that they do, and acting the way they do. Putin is not some evil irrational actor, and it would be a mistake to dismiss him as such. He is cold and strategic, and his invasion of Ukraine was a calculated move resulting from decades of policy failure from the West.
It’s okay to be angry at the Russian invasion of Ukraine, especially if you have Ukrainian friends and family. It’s okay to condemn Putin for his decisions. It’s okay to feel scared about international escalation. But it’s not okay to use emotions as an excuse to drop our rational reasoning skills entirely. It’s not okay to condemn people like Tulsi Gabbard for expressing a dissenting opinion, and call her a traitor, despite her previous and current commitments to the US Army. You don’t have to agree with her but if it’s an argument made in good faith, there is never a reason to jump to insults.
My overall point being, many groups have an interest in making you believe that the world is either black or white. However, things are actually usually shades of grey. Once you start realizing this, you will start to see the world much differently than you did before. Keep an open mind and never stop caring about the truth.
