Battlefield Chronicles #2 - Digital Warrior 101

it's not brain surgery - but we do open the minds of our fellow human beings

'Oh, but you are just hanging around online!'

That was the standard reaction when I joined Twitter in '17, and I noticed that all the best *writers* and all the best *readers* were now congregating on this online forum, the online 'public square'.

I knew by bitter experience how the old 'books-literary magazines' world was as over as the old Dead Sea Scrolls. What I did not know was how vibrant writing could be in some internet spaces.

It was much welcome news - it turned out that a lifetime of training in writing and editing was gonna have some use, after all.

Little did I know that I was walking into a war.

The work I do 'hanging around online' is far from simple. Granted, it's not brain surgery, either. The nice thing is everyone can teach and train themselves without having to crack people's skulls around to tinker with the content.

So here's some Digital Warrior 101 thoughts: the first thing about what a writer-journalist-digital warrior does is he aggregates information.

We find it both inside and beyond the reaches of MSM. Find it, too, in other places of the Earth. I can read in several languages, so it allows me to, many times, have a broader perspective and find stuff elsewhere.

As much as I believe in American 'exceptionalism', the fight is planetary, and if you remain enclosed in your cocoon you're screwed.

The second, vital, part of the work is curating the content. Meaning, to 'select, organize, and present (online content, information, etc.), typically using professional or expert knowledge.'

Not all stories are created the same. After you have gathered the many subjects you find interesting and relevant, you still have to create an hierarchy of which ones are more or less important.

Both in aggregating and in curating you use your knowledge, experience but you also use your intuition. Since you can't possibly read everything about every subject, you need to quickly scan through a shit-ton of material and identify the goodies hidden in the mass of manure.

Also important to the work is the process of reframing. Many times, you will find valuable information embedded into an article or news piece written by people who hate us and who are either misinformed or are liars. So we need to separate the information from the deforming narrative, give the facts a new context and provide new geopolitical commentary.

While many tasks involve digging deep and looking at the microcosmic details of stories, there is also the need for the eagle-eye, 40k feet view. It's the connecting the dots. Stories do not happen in a vacuum, and there is always a sort of onion layering of stories within stories within stories, and so it goes.

So you need to connect data points, connect players, identify patterns, look for hidden forces orchestrating seemingly random events.

Another one of our daily 'chores' is keeping the 'sagas' alive. Many stories develop over long periods of time, and most people are busy and have short attention spans - shorter by the day.

So we act not unlike the elders of the early human communities, we have to be the 'memory keepers', who remember and can recount the earlier chapters of the 'sagas' - so that, when a new development presents itself, we can understand it in its entirety.

While I have so far approached some of the many writing and editing processes that take place while we are 'just hanging around online', I also feel that a few mental or behavioral aspects are also not besides the point.

Have a warrior stance.

If your default reaction to any story breaking is to get ultra-pissed and go out on a rant, or else to get sad, disappointed and lose all hope for mankind, you are not going to make it as an 'anon' or as a citizen journalist.

People expect clarity of you. Showing emotional instability is a credibility killer.

In the very few moments, in these last few years, when things transpired that were too much for me to deal with, I got out from my battlestation and did not write a line or post anything until I had my shit together again.

Humor is a weapon.

Bitching and moaning do not win the information war. But laughs, jokes and memes do. In fact, I believe that the angrier you get, the funnier you should be - because that is what humor is: it's channeled violence.

The world is complex.

Fast takes based on preconceptions are a great way to fail. If people that you like did or said something, it does not follow that it's necessarily good or true. Conversely, If people that you hate did or said something, it does not follow that it's necessarily bad or false.

You have to examine every data point and every player with fresh eyes on every turn, the geopolitical realities shift incessantly and we have to keep paying attention rather than rely on a fixed, immutable gallery of 'heroes and villains'.

This fight is generational

Few things can be more unhelpful to our movement than for people to be constantly promising that complete and utter victory is just 'round the bend. That's for suckers.

The enemy has a firm grip on the economic and mainstream cultural power. While their hold on the political power is much less formidable, if you look right at what we have ahead of us, you will know: it's not going to be easy, it's not going to be fast - and we are the underdogs.

'Oh, so am I to despair?'

No, we are to fight smart. Pace ourselves, have realistic expectations, understand the nature of the relentless, long term push. Don't lose your wind in a fortnight and whine that it's taking too long.

Take the struggle to the real world

I believe that our success in the information war is a prerequisite for the success of the forces of good in the other fields, since unless we shine the light on their evil and awaken mankind, [they] win.

However, there must necessarily be a kinetic, real life extension to it. Connect with like-minded people who share your worldview and political ideas. Make your presence felt at the local level. All our communities have to be populated by the peace-loving, justice-seeking, amazing army of frogs.

cover art by SirWilliamScott