Decades of “polite society” have given Westerners a certain naivety that is now exploited to the fullest by Russian propaganda. “It’s as if the barbarians from outside the fortress come with some methods that can’t even cross your mind,” explains professor Dumitru Borțun.
Professor Dumitru Borțun talks about the need for education. PHOTO: Eduard Enea
The civilized West is learning very hard to counter Russian disinformation. The English are an example of perfect victims of Russian propaganda. After Brexit, which was based on a campaign centered largely on fake news, in mid-August the country was ravaged by anti-immigration riots sparked by a fake news story.
Anti-vaccinist propaganda based on fake news has affected the entire civilized West to a greater or lesser extent and immunization rates have now fallen even in the case of traditional vaccines that were widely accepted until the Covid-19 pandemic. We also saw examples of disinformation in the last European elections, in which extremist parties gained ground, in the context of pro-Kremlin disinformation campaigns.
“Adevărul” asked communication specialist Dumitru Borţun, a professor at the Faculty of Communication and Public Relations of SNSPA Bucharest, why the West is so “weak”, inefficient, in countering Russian disinformation and what solutions exist to lessen the effects.
“Barbarians” attack polite Western society
The teacher claims that “decades in a row of democracy and a transparent and somewhat moral society in the West, with situations like that of Great Britain which has, in part, achieved a polite society, an old dream of Adam Smith (economist, philosopher, Scottish politician who was one of the theorists who laid the foundations of liberalism-no), according to which people should be kind and benevolent to each other, brought a certain naivety to Western society.”
Borțun claims that Western citizens saw themselves facing an “attack” similar to those that the waves of barbarians had on civilized societies.
“When you live in such a society for generations in a row, it’s as if some people come, the barbarians from outside the fortress, with some methods that you can’t even imagine, nor can you imagine what they can do” , exemplifies the teacher
The teacher gives as an example the famous strategy of the Greeks in the fight with the Trojans: “Would it have occurred to those in Troy that in the horse received from the Greeks there is a commando that opens the gates and that eventually leads to the devastation of the city, to the killing of the Trojans?”. The Russians took a real Trojan horse into the middle of the Western “citadel”.
The professor claims that whenever two civilizations meet that have different standards, totally different moral values, different methods and means, such gaps appear.
“So the West is very naive about the disinformation used by Russian propaganda”says Borțun
The solution is education
Borțun also spoke about the possibility of controlling social networks and countering disinformation.
Asked to what extent the companies that own social networks can be convinced to change their algorithms to stop promoting fake news, disinformation, content that incites hatred, Borțun explains: “As long as they make money we can’t convince them. The underlying principle of capitalism is to obtain profit and maximize it. This law of maximum profit is wreaking havoc.”
He is of the opinion that human nature is taken to horrible dimensions because of money.
Borțun claims that the big companies that own social networks and radio and television stations operate according to the laws of capitalism. “What to do with them? Ask them not to win against the objective law of capitalism? It will be very difficult. It is possible that at some point there will appear at the level of the European Union an initiative at the level of the EU to regulate communication in the new media. A kind of online CNA”, explains the expert.
The most effective solution is education.
The communication specialist claims that Romanians should have been taught the official lie: “Two decades of Ceausianism and official lies, we should be advised. Young people haven’t been through that, I don’t know. Many times, in their case, there is ignorance of the fact that students are not prepared in school, they are not taught critical thinking, they are not taught ethics, they are not given a moral education, they are not given an education of the mind, of thinking. The Romanian school does not do such a thing. She doesn’t even do physical education like she should. So it’s a big failure of education when you end up going after all kinds of myths and conspiracy theories.”
So the solution to counteract this phenomenon of misinformation is education, says the professor. “Yes, that is the solution, education. We have nothing else to do”.
