[940] A Modern Bed Time Story...Or is it?
Hi - First time poster so if I'm doing something wrong, be gentle.
This story began as a discussion with some in my family and slowly evolved into a story. I've never thought much about writing, but I enjoyed it and family and friends seem to have enjoyed reading it - But I figure they kinda have to so thought to share here for a bit more of an 'honest critique'. Thank you for reading.
Once upon a time, a Supreme Leader sipped his tea and contemplated how he could continue to facilitate hate and division between the people of the Great Country.
The Supreme Leader reflected on his ongoing campaign. With pride he considered the overwhelming success of programs to steal technology, manipulate trade, and spread influence. He reflected on his decades long effort to socially engineer their youth, first through university, and now with social media.
His most successful influence program was birth tourism. The wealthiest of his countrymen would use surrogacy arrangements and/or send pregnant women to the Great Country for their birthing. Over decades, perhaps a million or more of these children would be raised faithful to his ideals in his country but remain citizens of the Great Country. Once of age they would return to attend university. Some would become professors at those institutions. Others would become leaders in their communities — doctors, lawyers, entrepreneurs. They would join their military, build and work for companies with influence, and even integrate into their government. Nearly all would remain loyal to the Supreme Leader. When confronted about this program, the Supreme Leader didn’t deny it, he bragged of some 50 thousand births a year over decades, secretly knowing the number was substantially higher. Still, the Great Country did nothing to stop it.
Social media was now his guilty pleasure. He cheaply spammed divisive propaganda and half-truths to millions. Mostly through artificial intelligence bots, he suppressed constructive dialog and elevated anti-government propaganda. He targeted specific demographics that only consumed news through social media platforms as he knew that he could engineer them more efficiently. Many in the Great Country had tried to raise awareness of this activity, few listened.
Now his bots work even at the community levels and are so ubiquitous no one knows who real people even are anymore. Meanwhile, he had taken great efforts to suppress this sort of mindless engagement in his own country and instead directed that his youth receive media that increased education and development.
With all the success he had had, he still trailed the Great Country in many respects. Now he had new concerns that either because of arrogance or stupidity, the newly elected leader of the Great Country would likely be much harder to manipulate than some of his predecessors.
The Supreme Leader called his advisors together and asked them for their best ideas. Once seated, he acknowledged them and directed the meeting to begin. Tingcha stood and nodded. “Great Supreme Leader, we have collected the best ideas from the smartest among us and determined that very little needs to be altered. Your campaign will be even more successful by simply changing a few names and subtly adjusting your propaganda”.
The Supreme Leader grew irritated but was curious, so he kept his face calm and said with contempt, “The smartest I have all agree that we can simply continue to spam social media with the same propaganda, change a few names, and it will be even more effective this time around”?
Several in the room grew visibly uncomfortable and Tingcha could see the Supreme Leader was not convinced, so he quickly continued. “In previous administrations we called their Great Leader a lover of children, attacked him for using his position to enrich family and friends, and blamed him for inflation and a poor economy. We encouraged the population to accept that crime is the worst it’s ever been, their leader steals classified data, and he has declining mental health. We have gathered enough data, and produced enough new parody, that we can quietly reinforce those same beliefs. Our data also suggests that with subtle changes, healthcare, violations of their laws, and immigration, are all themes we can recycle and will prove very effective for our purposes”.
Again the Supreme Leader paused, contemplated, then said, “Tell me more about those last issues”. “Yes Supreme Leader. With healthcare, we will suppress discussion to address rising costs and push propaganda that their leader is taking it away. Disinformation programs linked to the administration violating their own Constitution previously worked well associated with student loan debt-ahem-COVID mandates, surveillance, and free speech. We are confident this new administration will provide a host of issues that we can exploit similarly. Lastly, immigration issues will continue to be the Golden Corral of delectable delights, I mean…talking points. With great success, we previously pushed propaganda about deaths in custody, human right violations, family separation, and mass deportation”. “Oh Yes”, replied the Supreme Leader, “as I recall we helped brand a previous leader as the ‘Get them out of here in Chief’. Tingcha smiled and said, “Yes, your knowledge knows no bounds Supreme Leader! This time we will take it a step further. We will build propaganda around aggressive removal tactics and brand the leader Stalin. Beyond those, we anticipate success with minute adjustments to nearly all disinformation we pushed previously”. Tingcha paused, bowed, and said, “We humbly await your feedback Supreme Leader”.
The Supreme Leader sat quietly thinking for several minutes. His confidence grew. There was one thing that troubled him, “Won’t the people of the Great Country see right through this, they can’t be that foolish”? Tingcha smiled again and replied, “We can’t believe it either Supreme Leader, but our data is indisputable”.
The Supreme Leader turned to one of his more senior advisors. “Release Tingcha’s family from custody”. Turning back to Tingcha, “You have done well. As you requested, your wife will be enrolled in our birth tourism program”.
The Supreme Leader dismissed his advisors. He smiled and thought to himself, they really are that stupid.