Non-State Actress: Stay Out of the Group Chat After 8pm Main Character Energy
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BLUF
If there was ever an argument for a strong liberal arts education and free and accurate information it’s in the spiraling geopolitics-curious group chat after 8pm on a Sunday. If you know of a place more in need of critical thinking and ‘seeing the whole picture,’ than such a chat, I’d love to know about it. Woman cannot subsist on FlightAware and Xinhua News Agency alone, and if she does she assume the United States is heading to a massive conflict instead of a regularly scheduled NATO-member exercise and the Chinese Communist Party is always the victim.
Press Play
Instead of a regular playlist, might I suggest The West Wing’s season 3, episode 15: Hartsfield’s Landing? The original (option 1) or the 2020 election special in support of When We All Vote (option 2).
Less Tippy Hedren, More Cornell Ornithology Lab
Catch Up: On Sunday, June 15th hoards of chronically online millennials found themselves glued to publicly available flight tracker, Flight Aware, watching dozens of US Air Force KC 135Ts take off from around the country and fly east. The KC 135 is what is technically known as a Very Big Airplane. This Very Big Airplane has a number of jobs, but it’s primary hustle is refueling other, Less Big Airplanes and Other Flying Things. The other jobs are really more of a side hustle. Reeling from a seemingly sudden and dramatic escalation of hostilities between Israel and Iran and a coming-of-age during major conflicts involving the US and partners in the Middle East and Central Asia, the crowds went wild in the worst way. Said another way, we took one look at the birds (a cute nickname for aircraft) and ran screaming like we were in a Hitchcock classic instead of studying a little further as if we were watching one of the many Cornell Ornithology Lab livecams.
Watch What Happens Live Well, kind of. The Very Big Airplanes were not, in fact, heading to any of the aforementioned geographic regions. Rather, The Very Big Airplanes were on their way to Finland! The US is not invading Finland or anywhere for that matter. Instead, US Air Forces-Europe and US Air Forces-Africa are participating in an exercise in Finland with the Finns, the French, and the Brits. Also, the exercise has a cute name - Atlantic Trident 25. 25 because (wait for it) this is the 25th time such an exercise has occurred! How do I know this? Because I watch Department of Defense news releases like other people watch Flight Aware or The Last of Us. Anyone can sign up for these news releases and receive them via email. So, I know the KC 135s, the F-35A Lightning II, and F-15E Strike Eagle are going to Finland because it is publicly available knowledge!
It is important to point out that the Department of Defense has not briefed and taken live questions from the press on camera in months. So, we cannot in fact watch what happens live. The free and accurate flow of information is foundational to a healthy and functional democracy. Conversely, controlling - including by reducing who can report verifiable information and opportunities to get that information, influencing directly or indirectly what information is covered, or both of these together - are hallmarks of less free societies. More on why this is both unprecedented since 1947 and objectively bad for national security below.
Ok, but Why is This a Thing You’re Putting in the Summary? Jokes aside, I get that things are scary and we’re all on anxiety-induced high alert. While we cannot all expected to be Jedd Bartlett-Sam Seaborn playing chess and ‘seeing the whole board,’ a la Hartsfield’s Landing (season 3, episode 15), it is important to take a step back. Atlantic Trident 25 is absolutely important and newsworthy. Finland shares a border with Russia. Russia is committing war crimes in Ukraine; meddling in elections and supporting dictatorships across Europe and Africa; and increasing its military, intelligence, and economic cooperation with China, North Korea, and Iran. This exercise is absolutely equally about making sure we know how to work together with out friends as it is reminding our not friends that we are capable of doing so.
Now, about the media part. The current administration dramatically reduced the number of fact-based, as opposed to opinion-based, media outlets allowed into the Pentagon and is severely limiting the physical access and mobility of the remaining reporters. The link I just provided is to a statement from Military Reporters & Editors, a “a community of dedicated journalists committed to covering the military, national security, homeland defense, those who serve, have served and their families.” A significant portion of those community members of veterans or military family members, and I feel linking to their statement covers a lot of bases for a lot of people.
Anyway. Members of foreign militaries have more freedom of movement inside the Pentagon than members of the United States’ Pentagon Press Corps. The Pentagon Press Corps is an organization of verified, trained, actual journalists whose job it is to inform the American people about what the Department of Defense is doing on their behalf, when, how, and why - and ask questions on our behalf. While military exercises are never part of the Netflix #10, they do usually get more coverage than this one did. A little coverage goes a long way even in a time of algorithms. A little more coverage would have left a lot of people sleeping better, instead of thinking the US was headed for imminent war. Instead, we’re getting mostly puff pieces on parades and news alerts on the likely illegal use of the US Marine Corps. I say likely illegal because the issue is yet to be adjudicated and without press conferences for journalists to hear from the Department and ask clarifying questions, we aren’t getting the full picture. Just like looking at Flight Aware with no context.
A Little Sand in the System, Perhaps?
Catch Up: China is offering a bounty of 10,000 yuan - about $1,392 - for information leading to the arrest of about 20 specific China-identified Taiwanese ‘hackers.’ Xinhua News Agency (click at your own risk), an outlet under the approval of the Chinese Communist Party reports that China argues these individuals worked with ‘U.S-backed anti-Chinese forces’ as part of Taiwan’s “information, communication and digital army” to “conduct public opinion and cognitive warfare against China, secretly instigate revolution and attempt to disrupt public order in China.” Taiwan’s defense ministry's Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command denies the accusations, and pointed out the claims came immediately following U.S, Czech, and European Union condemnations and scrutiny over Chinese hacking activities in those jurisdictions. Also, the Taiwanese called the accusations “rude,” which is such a choice word and I love it.
Ok, but Why Is This a Thing You’re Putting in the Summary? China gets called out for behavior we know its engaging in and its response is like when some girl you were friends with in elementary school but had a horrible falling out with when she beat you up on the playground in 4th grade and reconnected with in college only to have her catfish you finding out you got married and posting a terrible picture of the two of you plus a selfie of her with Nair on her eyebrows at 8pm on Instagram with the caption “Old friends, new lives. Wish you would have made me part of your special day, but I’ll always be there for you. At least it’s giving…glow up for some of us 😏💎🪄.” Utterly bizarre, irrelevant, and not not creepy. And a really choice way to present some non-linear (and not in the eccentric but still useful way) information.
The Chinese Communist Party’s various nefarious behaviors, particularly in cyber world, are getting more attention around the world. Is it because the activities are increasing? Is it because defenses are able to catch and identify operations more effectively? That’s another piece. But anyone whose ever been dragged on the internet knows that fighting fire with fire isn’t uncommon.
Watch What Happens Live: Well, kind of - it’s tricky in China, and increasingly tricky here too which is *not good*. This particular story and interplay is a gentle example of what happens when there is not free and accurate information. If you’re looking for a starker one, I encourage you to look into the Tiananmen Square Massacre and how the Chinese Communist Party covers it in textbooks (hint: it doesn’t). Anyway, this little exchange also a decent reminder that a single news story or press conference is not the entire picture.
However.
It could be an incredible example of talking to your audience in a way that truly suits them.
Let’s take a leap and accept that the Taiwanese are instigating pro-democracy, anti-communist information warfare in China. It seems pretty unlikely that most people who are not already inclined to agree with the CCP would think a bounty on supposed Taiwanese instigators is a cool thing to do. But what if the point of the press conference wasn’t to convince anyone new? The CCP is accusing Taiwan of activities impacting Chinese people in China. Could this be an attempt to cover up increasing dissent among its citizens by claiming Taiwanese instigators are basically brainwashing them and the CCP isn’t actually the problem? Maybe. 20 people making enough trouble for the whole-ass Chinese Communist Party is something I want to know *way* more about. And I want them to teach me their ways.
Catch Up: The overall point of the episode is about controlling and communicating information as the crucial component of freedom (so many C’s in the sentence). Whether it’s increased controls around print-outs of the President’s daily schedule, trying to win over 3 of 42 voters in Hartsfield’s Landing by telling them what the White House thinks they want to hear, The President’s literal chess games with Sam Seaborn and Toby Ziegler (two of his three top communications officials) in which the President guides Sam through an ongoing metaphorical, military/diplomatic chess game with China in real time and while he wrestles with how he responds to his public perception and if it is the Right Thing To Do with Toby, against the backdrop of China absolutely bugging out simply because Taiwan announces it wants to hold democratic elections.
Ok, but Why Is This a Thing You’re Putting in the Summary? Yes, I am aware this is a 25 year old television show. Still, it is relevant.
In the episode, Taiwan wants to let people decide their representation for themselves, have free and accurate information, and China is prepared to invade over it. An intense response to a Freedom of Information request. China gets equally mad when the US *says* it is going to send additional defensive military assets to the area - as in the things aren’t even there and the Communist Party goes absolutely ballistic (pun intended). All of this suggests how powerful words are, the impact of effective communication tailored to the true audience can have, and how petty China gets about not being in the group chat (the CCP refers to everything as the U.S-made [insert Taiwanese purchased and owned system] in the episode, which is exactly how it behaves in real life because it feels power in the point out). And all of these things are true in modern-day, real, unscripted life.
Watch What Happens Live: It is equally bad when the people we look to for information cannot be trusted to let us see the whole board, when our trusted explainers cannot access that information, and when those trusted explainers make absolutely no freaking sense because their communication is about as tailored to the environment as riding a bicycle to work in a gas mask to deal with seasonal allergies1. If no one understands you it is like you never said it, and if you never said it how can they have free and accurate information?
I love a red thread, and this kind of tiny summary has a few. How important context is to understanding what is or isn’t likely happening, what happens when that context is less available than it should be in a free society, the essentiality of national security and defense communicators being truly steeped in the subjects without confusing that technical expertise with effective communication for the uber-specific audience they are after, and the Hartsfield’s Landing episode of The West Wing.
Most of All, I Hate the Way I Don’t Hate You at All
There are two things one must not do after 8pm: any alterations, however small you may claim those alterations are, to one’s eyebrows and look in the group chat filled with well-meaning, incredible people who watch Flight Aware like its a series of pitbull adoption videos on Instagram. As someone who once applied a Nair-like substance called Veet to her eyebrows in the dark of night, ‘just to clean up the edges,’ and whose life revolves around her adopted pitbull, I would know.
Both are non-essential activities fueled by the human desire to Feel Something. Both result in pain and strife, both will leave you looking less-than-rested a way quite obvious to all who see you the following morning, and both will leave you claiming The Early 2000s are back - except one will refer to ultra-thin eyebrows and the other to mass deployment of American airpower assets to the Middle East and Central Asia. Still, you will be wrong across the board.
If you are looking for something to do after 8pm which will give you early 2000s vibes, make you Feel Something, and be uber if not terrifyingly relevant to today, watch season 3 episode 15 of The West Wing.
Shout out to Alan Turing, the leader of the Bletchley Park Team in the UK during World War II who cracked the Nazi’s engima code via the aptly named Turing Machine and laid the foundation for machine learning. Turing rode a bicycle to work each day in a gas mask to combat his seasonal allergies.