Meme warfare

0:02Noel King:The White House is tweeting videos of the Iran War as a Nintendo game. As a scene from Braveheart. The Iranians are tweeting videos of the American and Israeli war featuring Lego Trump and Lego BB, Lego Strait of Hormuz. Propaganda is a part of every war. It has not always been this dumb, but there are other differences this time around that might matter more. Quite often, the moral aspects of war are laid out before the American public, before any American shooting has begun. That was the case for World War I, World War II. You know, the case was being made around Vietnam before anything happened.

0:44Noel King:That's coming up on Today Explained.

0:59Support for the program today comes from Atio, the A-I-C-R-M for modern teams. Are you a modern team? Are we a modern team? Atio connects to your email, calendar, calls, product data, billing, data, and more. So your CRM is always complete, always enriched, and always in sync. Ask Atio anything. What's the status of this deal? What should I know before my next meeting? Atio will search across all your data to give you exactly what you need. If you want a CRM built for how you want to work, you can check out Atio. You can go to atio.com slash Today Explained. You'll get 15 % off your first year.

1:40That's A-T-T-I-O dot com slash Today Explained. It's true that some things change as we get older. But if you're a woman over 40 and you're dealing with insomnia, brain fog, moodiness, and weight gain, you don't have to accept it as just another part of aging. And with MidiHealth, you can get help and stop pushing through it alone. The experts at Midi understand that all these symptoms can be connected to the hormonal changes that happen around menopause. And Midi can help you feel more like yourself again. Many healthcare providers aren't trained to treat or even recognize menopause symptoms.

2:15Midi clinicians are menopause experts. They're dedicated to providing safe, effective, FDA-approved solutions for dozens of hormonal symptoms, not just hot flashes. Most importantly, they're covered by insurance. 91 % of MIDI patients get relief from symptoms within just two months. You deserve to feel great. Book your virtual visit today at joinmidi.com. That's joinmidi.com.

2:47You're listening to Today Explained.

2:50Noel King:I'm Noelle King with Nick Cull. He specializes in the history of propaganda at USC Annenberg. Nick, in a time of war, what's the objective of propaganda? Well, propaganda has three objectives in wartime. The first is to rally your own population. The second is to persuade allies that you're doing the right thing, So maybe they might actually support you. So to make friends friendlier, to make allies more supportive and maybe even create a few new allies. And the third is to demoralize your enemy. So some people would call that psychological warfare, to break your enemy's will to resist, to protect images of your strength that are so overwhelming that the enemy hastens to surrender or to compromise.

3:48And that's also a very old element in communication in wartime. In the past, this is what propaganda looks like when the U.S. is coming into a war, that you have this explanation of what the war is going to be about, something that appeals to the American public while also maybe even inspiring international audiences. So President Wilson in the First World War, or on the eve of the First World War from the American point of view, spoke about a war to end all wars, a war to make the world safe for democracy. The world must be made safe for democracy. Its peace must be planted upon the tested foundations of political liberty.

4:41We have no selfish ends to serve. We desire no conquest, no dominion. He had his 14 points for how the diplomatic scene was going to be reformed. On the eve of World War II, President Roosevelt spoke about the four freedoms and set out a whole vision for a new international order. Freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere. Our support goes to those who struggle to gain those rights and keep them. Think about President Bush talking about a war to protect a new order, the first President Bush, on the eve of the war with Iraq, the first Iraq war. Iraq will eventually comply with all relevant United Nations resolutions.

5:38And then, when peace is restored, it is our hope that Iraq will live as a peaceful and cooperative member of the family of nations. So these are the sorts of messaging that we are used to. Of course, there's always been a chaotic, a violent kind of message around American war, and sometimes this occurs in popular culture. One example would be the song made famous by the Beach Boys, Barbara Ann, which was recorded in a parody version by a group called Vince Vance and the Valiants in 1980. And they did a version, Bomb Iran.

6:38It had lines in it like, we're going to a mosque, we're going to throw some rocks, we're going to put the Ayatollah in a box.

6:51It was really bloodthirsty stuff. Got a lot of airplay on radios and then was brought back last year by President Trump. He used it as the soundtrack in a White House video celebrating the bombing of the Iranian nuclear sites. This user says, oh my God, Trump has posted bomb Iran music video. The video shows clips of B2 stealth fighter jets, the same used in the strike on Iran's nuclear facilities.

7:24OK,

7:27Noel King:so during wartime, governments always do propaganda. That's nothing new. Let's talk about the Trump administration and the war in Iran. Is the propaganda different this time? This time around, what we're seeing from the Trump White House are videos that integrate footage from video games. Ah, shit. Here we go again.

7:57With clips from Hollywood movies. Wake up, Daddy-some. Welcome home, sir. Strength and honor. Strength and honor. What will you do without freedom? Mavericks in balance. And with great declarations of Kaboom.

8:14There's even one with SpongeBob. You want to see me do it again? And all of this plays into an idea that war can be communicated through memes, clips from games. So I think it's a memification of war, a gamification of war, an appeal to warlike images that are bizarrely taken out of context. Here it comes.

8:49Flawless victory.

8:55If you've got clips from Gladiator, clips from Braveheart, you know, those films are about opposition to totalitarians, about people who fight against evil emperors and evil kings. to see them edited to pump up people who are endorsing a authoritarian approach to foreign policy rather than a voice of the more vulnerable is bizarre. And I suppose shows how we are beyond irony.

9:30Noel King:Okay, so then the question is, if a government normally aims propaganda at the broadest section of society to bring it along and to get it to support the war. What Trump is doing, these memes have proven to be very divisive. They are not convincing anyone who wasn't already in support of this war, right? So who are they for? And why would the White House not aim at the broadest part of the population? One of the common misunderstandings of propaganda is that people imagine it as being a process where an evil leader thinks up bad ideas and transmits them into the head of an innocent population.

10:13And what I see as a historian is that very often the most effective propaganda is not about a leader inventing and transmitting material. Rather, it's about a leader recognizing things that are already in a population's mind. I mean, the obvious example is that Adolf Hitler did not invent anti-Semitism. Rather, he harnessed anti-Semitism in the mind of the population of Germany and linked it into his political career and the success of his party. Similarly, he didn't invent a narrative of German victimhood. He exploited existing ideas in people's minds about German victimhood. What I see going on now is that all kinds of ideas about American strengths, about the great release that comes from successfully destroying the enemy, the kind of energy that's released by a football coach in the heat of a big match, this stuff is already in the minds of the audience or a certain audience and is being appealed to.

11:28Well, I see these videos as having been created by young men for young men. They're full of references to the culture of young men, including game culture, including war-oriented video games, and references that other people just wouldn't get. So it's like they're articulating a visual and a cultural language specific to a generation. So it has a propaganda purpose, but it's not a purpose that is focused on a wider section of the American public. And I think that the president has no interest in people who weren't planning to vote for him, to be honest. So this is evidence that we don't matter, because if we did matter, we'd get different messages.

12:23If you ask me who benefits most from this tone in US propaganda, my feeling is that it benefits China because it makes the Chinese look like the adults in the diplomatic room. And that will have tremendous appeal just by doing nothing. China will have tremendous appeal to the countries of the global south, even to former partners of the United States in Europe who are appalled by this kind of unpredictable messaging and unpredictable behavior that goes along with it.

13:08Noel King:Nick Cole, USC Annenberg propaganda. Coming up, the meme war.

13:28Noel King:Support for Today Explained comes from Vanta. If you run a business, perhaps you've noticed a shift. Risk and regulation are increasing, and customers want clear proof of security before they will even consider signing with you. Building that trust is essential to closing deals, says Vanta, but it's also complex, costly, and time-consuming. Vanta says they can automate that process to bring compliance, risk, and customer trust together on one AI-powered platform. They say they automate the process of achieving and maintaining compliance with over 35 security and privacy frameworks, including SOC 2, ISO 27001 and HIPAA.

14:01Noel King:This helps companies get compliant fast and remain compliant, freeing up time. Instead of getting buried in audits and spreadsheets, VANA says you get a system that runs behind the scenes, minimizing risk, powering growth. VANA says that companies such as Ramp and Writer spend 82 % less time on audits with VANA, not just faster compliance, It's more time for your business to grow. You can get started at vanna.com slash explain. That's V-A-N-T-A dot com slash explained. Vanna.com slash explained.

14:34Noel King:Support for Today Explained comes from Shopify. Starting a new business has never been easy, says Shopify. But without the right tools, it can feel almost impossible. Perhaps Shopify can set you up for success. Shopify is a commerce platform used by millions of businesses around the world. They say they can help you tackle important tasks, inventory, payments, analytics, so much more. No need to save multiple websites or try to figure out what platform is hosting the tool that you need. Everything is all in one place, making your life easier and your business operations smoother. Let Shopify be your commerce expert with world-class expertise in everything from managing inventory to international shipping to processing returns and beyond.

15:12Noel King:You can get started with your own design studio with hundreds of ready-to-use templates. Shopify helps you build a beautiful online store that matches your brand's style. It's time to turn those what-ifs into with Shopify today. You can sign up for your$1 per month trial and start selling today at shopify.com. Go to shopify.com. What's that? That's shopify.com.

15:38Work, school, chores, bills. those are just a few of the things that act like energy vampires throughout your day. It can be hard to try and get everything done when you're running on empty. That's why there's Iamate's Daily Ultimate Essentials. It's an all-in-one wellness drink that gives your body the support it needs without juggling a bunch of different supplements. Iamate's Daily Ultimate Essentials is the go-to for getting the benefits of 16 different supplements in one tasty drink. Co-founded by David Beckham and crafted with insight from experts at Mayo Clinic, Cedars-Sinai, and a former Massachusetts scientist, it simplifies your wellness routine and is loaded with 92 nutrient-rich ingredients such as vitamins, minerals, adaptogens, CoQ10, MSM, and pre-, pro-, and postbiotics.

16:28Plus, it's vegan, gluten-free, and non-GMO. Feel your best self every day with IM8. Go to im8health.com slash explained and use code explained for a free welcome kit, five free travel sachets, plus 10 % off your order. That's I-M number eight, H-E-A-L-T-H dot com slash explained. Code explained for a free welcome kit, five free travel sachets, plus 10 % off your order. im8health.com slash explained. Code explained. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

17:21My name's Will Remus, and I write about technology at The Washington Post. On the social network X, there is a group of accounts that look like sort of generic news aggregation accounts. They have names like HDX News and GPX Press. These accounts have been cranking out what looks like mostly pretty run-of-the-mill pro-Iran propaganda. But amid that generic propaganda is something a little different. Stuff about Jeffrey Epstein. These accounts found a huge amount of viral traction by posting an AI deepfake video.

18:10The video is this grainy footage, and it cuts between a number of scenes, but the most prominent one has a line of young girls, like quite young, probably prepubescent girls. And it has Donald Trump in boxers and an undershirt. And they're all lined up and the girls are blindfolded. And Trump is leaning in and leering at them, leering at their bodies. And in the background is this girl's voice shrieking in German. And it's extremely creepy and it's harrowing. and it's also completely fake.

18:59Noel King:Okay, so explain how we understand it to be Iranian propaganda. Donald Trump in a video in a compromising position with young girls, Epstein related, I get it, but how does that tie to Iran? Yeah, so that's what's unusual about this and it's part of what made me interested in writing about it. A lot of the posts that are coming from these accounts are pretty typical pro-Iranian regime propaganda. Stuff about how the United States and Israel are evil and corrupt and how the military operation there is illegitimate. There's a meme of a lion with an Iranian flag on it chasing these two scurvy dogs with Israeli and American flags on them.

19:44There are lots of posts that are purporting to show big Iranian successes in the conflict, purporting to show that they've struck a key building in Tel Aviv.

19:57Noel King:Tel Aviv, I can't believe this. Or purporting to show that U.S. forces are on the run or that they've captured a B-2 stealth bomber and captured its American crew. Most of this stuff is unverified and probably untrue, but that's pretty typical propaganda. The Epstein stuff isn't obviously pro-Iran propaganda, and that is the stuff that's actually resonating. Two different accounts, at least two of the accounts in this network, posted that video and got more than 4 million views on each post. One of them got nearly 7 million views on its post. This is an inordinate amount of traffic for pro-Iran propaganda.

20:44And it's probably because it doesn't look like pro-Iran propaganda. The people who are seeing it in their feed and resharing it and liking it probably, in most cases, have no idea that this is pro-Iran propaganda because this isn't just an Iranian talking point, right? This is something that people in the United States believe, that critics of the Trump administration have also argued that the war or the military operation in Iran is really meant to distract from the Epstein files. And that's why we're involved in this military conflict there.

21:18Noel King:I mean, I'm a journalist and I have rhetorically questioned whether the war in Iran is a distraction from the Epstein files. So, yes, I mean, what you're saying is true. It's not—you don't have to be a conspiracy theorist to look for reasons why the United States is in Iran in the first place and to look at what was going on immediately before the war in Iran started. So what else are these accounts posting about? So in addition to posting the Epstein content, which has gotten a lot of traffic, and also posting the sort of more run-of-the-mill pro-Iran propaganda that says Iran's doing great and the U.S.

21:55and Israel are on their heels and on the run, They have also posted some really blatantly anti-Semitic content. There was one that said, Now we know why Hitler wanted to kill all the Jews. There is another one that said, you know, that compared the U.S. and Israeli leaders unfavorably to Hitler and said, At least Hitler was kind to children.

22:20Noel King:Wow. Okay, so who's behind the accounts that are tweeting and sharing these videos? Do we know? What's interesting about this is that we don't actually know for sure who's behind these accounts. This network was brought to my attention by researchers at a nonprofit called the Institute for Strategic Dialogue. And they were the ones who first noticed that these fake Epstein Trump videos seem to be coming from a network of X accounts that were interconnected. many of them also have the blue checkmark next to their account name, which is supposed to indicate that they are authentic and have been verified.

22:55But these days, a blue check on X mostly just means that they're paying X for a premium subscription, and that blue checkmark comes as a perk of that subscription. Presumably, X has some information on them, but if it does, it's not sharing. What we know is that the content that they're putting out is absolutely aligned with Iranian state propaganda. It's using talking points from Iranian state media. But who is actually behind it, we just can't say for sure.

23:28Noel King:So the White House, we know, is very online, more online than any other White House in the history of the universe, in the history of America, certainly. What is the White House saying? They must recognize this as a problem. Yeah, well, the White House, it was interesting. When I reached out to them for comment on my story, they said, yeah, there's a lot of, you know, fake stuff going around, a lot of pro-Iran propaganda. And that's why we warn you folks in the fake news media not to fall for it and amplify it. I mean, I think the Trump administration is actually interested in this idea that a lot of these criticisms are stemming from Iranian propaganda.