'Authoritarian propaganda campaigns' around the world' have one major goal: analysis

07 May 2024

Although presumptive 2024 GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump has often been critical of the United States' European allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), he has been quick to praise Russian President Vladimir Putin and other far-right authoritarian figures.

President Joe Biden, in contrast, has been aggressively pro-NATO and is a scathing critic of Putin.

In a lengthy essay/think piece published online by The Atlantic on May 6 as well as in their June 2024 print edition, journalist/author Anne Applebaum emphasizes that the world is experiencing a major battle between authoritarians and promoters of liberal democracy — and "electing Trump" is a goal of "autocrats" around the world.

Those "autocrats," according to Applebaum, are conducting "authoritarian propaganda campaigns" in order to undermine democracy.

"Autocratic regimes have slowly turned their repressive mechanisms outward, into the democratic world," Applebaum explains. "If people are naturally drawn to the image of human rights, to the language of democracy, to the dream of freedom, then those concepts have to be poisoned. That requires more than surveillance, more than close observation of the population, more than a political system that defends against liberal ideas. It also requires an offensive plan: a narrative that damages both the idea of democracy everywhere in the world and the tools to deliver it."

Applebaum notes that although most of the "autocrats" pushing an anti-democracy "narrative" online are on the far right, some are on the far left — for example, the leadership in Venezuela. And they typically equate democracy with chaos and authoritarianism with stability.

If Trump wins in November, Applebaum warns, it will be a victory for "autocrats" not only in the United States, but globally.

"Because the American extreme right and, more rarely, the extreme left benefit from the spread of anti-democratic narratives," Applebaum points out, "they have an interest in silencing or hobbling any group that wants to stop, or even identify, foreign campaigns. Sen. Mark Warner, the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told me that 'we are actually less prepared today than we were four years ago' for foreign attempts to influence the 2024 election."

Applebaum continues, "This is not only because authoritarian propaganda campaigns have become more sophisticated as they begin to use AI, or because 'you obviously have a political environment here where there's a lot more Americans who are more distrustful of all institutions.' It's also because the lawsuits, threats, and smear tactics have chilled government, academic, and tech-company responses…. Russia, China, and sometimes other state actors — Venezuela, Iran, Hungary — work with Americans to discredit democracy, to undermine the credibility of democratic leaders, to mock the rule of law. They do so with the goal of electing Trump, whose second presidency would damage the image of democracy around the world, as well as the stability of democracy in America, even further."

Anne Applebaum's full essay for The Atlantic is available at this link (subscription required).

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