Memetic warfare is destroying us
An expert on how American culture has been changed, and how we must fight back
“If one is interested in changing how people think and has lots of resources and lots of time, one can actually transform entire populations at any scale. And that is what we are witnessing now. It is the gradual association of extreme philosophies that become normalized over time.”
That’s Jason Korman, my guest on this week’s episode of They Stand Corrected, explaining a devious, powerful tactic bad actors have used to transform America over the past two decades: memetic warfare.
With a profound understanding of how cultures change, Jason explains why lies have taken hold, leading so many people to radicalization. Memetic warfare is a tool of extremists on both ends of the political spectrum. But many people who call out this phenomenon on the right are themselves radicalized as well — deeply steeped in Islamist, pro-terror ideologies.
He explains why the United States has been losing a culture war to Iran and other bad actors. Because these changes take place gradually, people don’t realize how deeply they’re being changed (like the proverbial boiled frog). Jason also weighs in on where DEI went wrong and helped prime people for beliefs that endanger democracy.
See his recent column in the Washington Times.
We discuss why democracies are especially vulnerable, and why big media are a big part of the problem, using memetics to push lies that help anti-democratic nations and hate groups.
New cases in point pop up every day. One of the latest is an insane New York Times op-ed pushing the “genocide” madness. I’ll discuss in a future episode, but for now check out some terrific takedowns from Honest Reporting and CAMERA.
But there’s good news.
We can fight back by using these same tools to push truth. We can counteract the distortions that are poisoning people’s minds. It’s a patriotic fight. Jason and I discuss how it’s done.
Some studies I discuss in this episode:
“An epidemic of ideas or a social epidemic” - the Air Force Institute of Technology
“Use of Memes by Violent Extremists” - National Counterterrorism Center
“Iranian Digital Influence Efforts” - the Atlantic Council
“The Alt-Right did pioneering work in this field." - Global Network on Extremism & Technology
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JL