How much of our collective perception is being shaped effectively by our enemies?
Maybe more than we’d like to believe. From the BBC:
A Russian propaganda campaign involving thousands of fake accounts on TikTok spreading disinformation about the war in Ukraine has been uncovered by the BBC.
Good morning. I got my Christmas cards finished and mailed yesterday. Now I am going to turn to some serious cookie baking, laundry, etc.
I will do a Liz Watch report but not today. Have to finish listening to a podcast interview with her, and revisit the ending of her book for pithy statements.
For those interested in dogs and kindness thereto, I would like to bring up a recent phenomenon in the comic strips. Patrick McDonnell does the delightful daily and Sunday comic strip, centered on dogs and cats and their people, titled "Mutts." It's artistic with a retro sensibility, and fanciful and amusing, but also can be serious. He supports shelters and adoption. For several years one of his characters has been a dog that is chained up. He is a sympathetic figure. The cartoonist recently did a storyline involving . . . well, I won't give spoilers but be ready for some tears of sympathy on the way to the happy ending (the culminating "awwww" moment was this past Sunday, the 17th). Not only that, this made news reports by AP and the like. It had readers riveted, hanging on every daily instalment, much as used to happen with serialized stories. This can only be good for newspapers as a demonstration that readers still respond to worthwhile content. Here's a link to the official page, and be prepared for the effects of raw onions and dust:
https://mutts.com/pages/guard-dog
Here's the AP story: https://apnews.com/article/mutts-guard-dog-free-comics-d831d5fe301ca92bb4e0e45631dda8b0
It isn't stated, but I would expect the story will eventually be coming out in book form with a cut of the proceeds going to relevant nonprofits.
Why does anyone go to TikTok for reliable information?