You can call these videos Iranian propaganda as much as you want, but mixed with a small amount of propaganda is a large amt of truth, suspicion & questions the American public deserve answers to.

[deliachristina@sfba.social]

@PattyHanson

What's interesting to me about this propaganda onslaught (and why it's, frankly, working) is that the US could have inoculated its population against this kind of manipulation if it had actually acted with ANY accountability in its history.

But it didn't. It loves its white supremacy and nationalist patriarchy too much. It refuses to evolve.

So here we are. Ingesting the propaganda of another country against our own because there's a sizeable kernel of truth embedded in it. Truth our own nation refuses to recognize.

[knowprose@mastodon.social]

@PattyHanson it can't possibly be the Iranians wasting electricity on AI slop...

[pattyhanson@mastodon.social]

@DeliaChristina I think you're right. I've watched several of the videos. They have all the components needed to attract viewers; music that's appealing (catchy), they use characters we're all familiar with (Legos), they use common terminology, and they contain a fair amount of the truth the public is desperate for. In addition they touch on many of the conspiracy theories that have been making the rounds. But one thing they aren't blatantly doing is asking viewers to adopt Iranian beliefs; yet.

[pattyhanson@mastodon.social]

@knowprose I think you're right. But who knows. From what I've read the videos are coming from different sources. One of those was removed from YouTube, but for the life of me, I don't remember the name of the account.

[hakona@im.alstadheim.no]

@PattyHanson That's the way all propaganda works.Some truth to get you nodding along, some hyperbole to get you wondering, then something totally outside the box to get you questioning yourself.

[deliachristina@sfba.social]

@PattyHanson

A journalist (I think she was a journalist) made this really good point:

These are basically a type of ISIS videos.

Back in the day, she said, she and her colleagues would receive these and would never share them because their recruiting intent was so clear.

But they were also largely Other and so less successful in the West. But instead of some hooded dude speaking another language in front of an ISIS flag in a stark room, reading a speech into a camera, we have hip hop and LEGOs.

But the LEGO diss tracks allow direct and wider messaging - they're basically the same thing (harsh indictment of corrupt and immoral America) but the call to action, like you said, is a bit more opaque and the messenger (a LEGO) is already inside our cultural reference bank.

[hypostase@bsd.network]

@PattyHanson
It wasn't that long ago you'd expect something like that from a US satirist.

[pattyhanson@mastodon.social]

@hakona It's sort of fascinating to watch. The only other social media platform I use is Instagram and the videos rack up thousands of comments and words of support for Iran. One day it will be studied. How easy it was to turn Americans away from their own government in support for Iran.

[hakona@im.alstadheim.no]

@PattyHanson They're *very* good

[pattyhanson@mastodon.social]

@DeliaChristina I just responded to someone else about what you said. I hesitated when sharing this one, but I wanted to make a point. The videos are garnering wide spread support for the videos themselves and for the government of Iran. People in the comments are literally cheering for Iran. I hate Donald Trump and everything he stands for, but I certainly don't want to live under Iranian rule.