I don’t believe I could dream this up even if I literally tried to think of the weirdest, snake-eating-tail way to express #RussiaGate paranoia….
But more creative minds are at work. According to the Washington Post editorial board this is now officially a real thing. “Perception hacking”. What is that? Apparently it means that even if the Russians can’t drive you crazy enough to vote for Trump by actually hacking and trolling in social media, they can drive you crazy just by making you think that that they are doing those things. I know, but don’t take it from me:
“The technique of choice heading into the election is something experts have come to call “perception hacking,” which essentially means manipulating people into thinking they are being manipulated – to the point that they cease to trust in democracy itself.”
So, there it is. But how do we know that the editors of WaPo haven’t already themselves been perception hacked? After all, wouldn’t that magical mind-bending wizard, Vladimir Putin, go after them first? If the Kremlin just told people that it’s manipulating them it isn’t likely to work — most sane folks would laugh — but if they can harness the mighty credibility of the Washington Post editorial board to tell people that they are being manipulated into believing they are being manipulated, well, hack accomplished!
And here is the clincher: “Especially clever is planting tales of supposedly far-reaching influence operations that either don’t actually exist or are having little impact.”
Where have we been reading, for about the past 4 years, all sorts of outlandish tales of far-reaching Russian influence operations that turn out not to actually exist? In the Washington Post!