Initiators play into existing fissures in democracies

NATO 2021 Jankowicz, N. (2020)
 * "Disinformation and propaganda do not spread in a vacuum. Rather, they thrive when democratic erosion intensifies, societal divisions rise, and public trust in traditional media and other recognized sources of expertise and verified information declines. Allied societies have increasingly been grappling with these challenges in recent years. The interaction between such democratic vulnerabilities, on the one hand, and disinformation and propaganda, on the other, creates a mutually reinforcing feedback loop. External and domestic malign actors exploit existing weaknesses to widen divisions in Allied societies, generating additional vulnerabilities in the process. They are not only pursuing their own strategic goals through their hostile information activities, but also attempting to undermine the democratic values, principles, and processes that form the foundations of liberal societies and of the Alliance."
 * "disinformation and propaganda contribute to heightening the polarization of Allied societies and increasing dissatisfaction with democracy. Both domestic and external ill-intentioned actors spread partisan disinformation that specifically aims to widen the already existing political divides between citizens within democratic societies (Niu et al., 2020). Even when it is not partisan in nature, as it floods the information space, disinformation generates a sense of confusion and information exhaustion amongst citizens. The latter therefore often tune out perspectives that do not comport with their own and rely exclusively on a limited number of sources that correspond to their views (Tavernise and Gardiner, 2019). As a result, citizens can no longer agree on basic facts, thus threatening the democratic fabric of our societies."
 * “... well before the fertile climate of the 2020’s disinformation took hold, it was our own internal fissures and our inaction that allowed false narratives to begin to spread.”
 * “What makes the information war so difficult to win is not just the online tools that amplify and target its messages or the adversary that is sending them; it’s the fact that those messages are often unwittingly delivered not by trolls or bots, but by authentic local voices.”
 * Ryan Clayton on supporting extremes: “... if you can weight the side, you can really pull at the fabric of society. You can pull it apart.”
 * “... it isn’t only foreign ills that plague us. Unless we mitigate our own political polarization, our own internal issues, we will continue to be an easy target for any malign actor ... to manipulate.”
 * “... unless we recognize and address the areas that make our societies vulnerable to Russian – and other foreign – manipulation in the first place, we will never be able to address the problem.”
 * “One thing that’s clear from Estonia’s experience is that simply making policy without engaging [disenfranchised] communities, or lecturing them that the authentic feelings Russia has exploited to manipulate them are somehow incorrect, won’t generate trust and won’t build a new identity in which all Americans can take pride.”
 * “This is how disinformation – whether Russian or domestic, in the Netherlands or elsewhere - functions. It preys on real misgivings, fears, and societal fissures, and heightens emotion, ensuring that reason is overwhelmed.”
 * “... the perfect encapsulation of how Russian disinformation works: take something that people are already mad about, pollute the information ecosystem, and get them so frustrated they start to distrust institutions and disengage.”