Unless you have been hiding behind the woodshed or simply refusing to partake in any of the national discussion you should be aware that the Russian launched a coordinated and sophisticated campaign to influence the 2016 Presidential election. They did this by amplifying fault lines already present in a politics and our culture; this is standard covert tradecraft but now made more powerful and more destructive through the emerging mass media of the Internet and social media. The Russian’s goals included more than defeating Hillary Clinton at the box office but also fanning the flames of social passions, pitting Americans against Americans weakening us with our own outrage and willingness to spew venom at each other and thereby strengthening their position.
This campaign extended far beyond stoking the emotions surrounding political operative but according to a new study even into our most cherished popular culture; the Russians weaponized Star Wars.
Considering the chaos and pain the fight over Star Wars: The Last Jedigenerated and the heavy political overtones of that fight it should be no surprise that it was yet another front in this Psy-Op war.
This is not to say that the entire ‘SJW destroyed Star Wars‘ bullshirt is a Kremlin creation; that misses the essential nature of how these sort of operations work. They do not create fault lines in a society they exploit existing fault lines, aggravating the divisions, inflating the emotions, turning a disagreement into a battle and a battle into a war.
Personally I think Star Wars: The Last Jediis the best entry in the franchise since Empire, but even then I can recognize that it is not a faultless film, the Cato bright scene, while essential to Finn’s character arc, drags a bit and need a minor rewrite, and some of the elements are heavy handed, look around the world today, the richest people are not arms dealer. Quibbles aside it is wonderful film with strong character, character arcs, and with the most to say about the nature of evil and heroism since the first movie. The very stands it took made it a target for aggrieved people and that made it into tool to be used against us. As I said these fault lines existed before the film and the Russian exploited them brilliantly but we do not have to keep falling for this operation.
It is up to each of us, no matter where we stand on any political spectrum, to resist this attack on our nation, politics, and out culture. This sort of attack cannot defeat us it can only lead us to defeat ourselves.
