The Medium is the Weapon
Since February 2022, Western minds have been exposed to a deluge of information, more data than any average individual can comprehend, let alone make sense of. Without taking serious time and processing efforts to draw a coherent narrative or to make sense of what’s going on, the War in Ukraine, the ongoing military presence in Syria, concerns over China and Taiwan and now the potentiality for escalation in Israel have left individuals scrambling for a lifeline that would help them make sense of what’s going on.
As the ongoing hostilities between the Israeli government and Hamas play out, once again did we see individuals, willingly or unwittingly share videos alleging be from the front, only for Twitter’s (now X) Community Notes function to kick in, and explain that the footage is actually from the Military Simulation Game Arma 3. Days later, footage had been tweeted about latest rocket attack and dead civilians only for Kiwi Farms to tell me that this had been footage from attacks back in 2014. People had their politics kept to the side, “just post news and verifiable footage, go somewhere else for shit-flinging.” I had paused in a moment in all the research and keeping up with what’s happening half-way around world and felt an odd sense of déjà vu.