Amateur take on Political Satire based on real world dynamics
Title - A bedtime story...Or is it?
Genre - Political Satire
Word Count - 1000
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 country that stood in the way of ascension.
The Supreme Leader reflected on his campaign. With pride, he considered the overwhelming success of programs to steal technology, manipulate trade, and spread influence. His smile grew as he reflected on his decades long effort to socially engineer youth, first through University, and now with Social Media.
One of his most successful influence programs involved birth tourism. The wealthiest of his countrymen would use surrogacy arrangements and/or send pregnant women to the Great Country for their birthing. Over the years, perhaps a million or more children would be brought up in his country, loyal to his Communist ideals, but be citizens of the Great Country. Once of age, they would return and attend University. Some would integrate as 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, the Supreme Leader bragged to the Great Country that his estimates suggested some 50 thousand births a year over the past few decades, secretly knowing the actual number was much higher. Still, the Great County did nothing to stop it.
Social media had now become his secret pleasure. He cheaply spammed divisive propaganda and half-truths to millions in the Great Country. Mostly through artificial intelligence bots, he suppressed efforts to engage in constructive dialog and he elevated anti-government propaganda. He targeted specific demographic groups that mostly consumed news through social media platforms as he knew that he could engineer them more efficiently. To his great surprise, many in the Great Country had tried to raise the awareness of this activity, but very few listened. Now his bots worked even at the community levels and are so ubiquitous no one knows who real people even are anymore. Meanwhile, he had taken great efforts in his own country to suppress this sort of mindless social engineering and instead directed that his youth would only receive media that would increase education and development.
With all the success he had had, he found his country still trailing the Great Country in many respects. Now he had new concerns that, either because of arrogance or stupidity, the newly elected leader of that 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 to reinvigorate his Social Media Destabilization Program. Once seated, he acknowledged the room and directed the meeting to begin. Sohai stood and nodded. "Great Supreme Leader, we have collected the best ideas from the smartest among us and determined we don't need to to do anything. We simply recycle our old ideas". The Supreme Leader simmered, but he was curious what would come next, so he kept his face calm and said to proceed.
"Our data shows that we have socially engineered the people of the Great Country so well, that the same issues that were successful causing hate and division in previous administrations, will work even better the second or third time we deploy". Not convinced, the Supreme Leader paused and contemplated this information then said with contempt, “The smartest I have all agree that we can simply continue to spam social media with the same issues, change names, and it will be even more effective this time around?"
Several in the room grew visibly uncomfortable, and Sohai could see the Supreme Leader was not convinced so he said, "Please, let me give you some examples. In previous administrations we called their Great Leader a pedophile, attacked him for using his position to enrich family and friends, and blamed him for inflation and the economy. We said crime is the worst its ever been, their leader steals classified data, and he has dementia. Our data also suggests that with subtle changes, Healthcare, Violations of their Constitution, and Immigration, are all issues 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 constructive discussion to address their rising costs and push propaganda that their leader is taking it away. Disinformation programs about the administration violating the laws of their land previously worked well associated with student loan debt, health care mandates, surveillance, and free speech. We are confident this new administration will provide a host of issues that we can exploit similarly. Finally, immigration issues will continue to be the Golden Corral of delectable treats, I mean...talking points. With great success, we previously pushed propaganda associated with deaths in custody, human rights violations, family separation, and mass deportations". "Oh Yes", replied the Supreme Leader, "as I recall we helped brand a previous leader as the 'Get Rid of’er in Chief’. Sohai smiled and said, "Yes, you are so knowledgeable Supreme Leader! This time we hope to brand their leader as Stalin. Most of the same disinformation will work again, but we have many more issues we can recycle and exploit with just a few adjustments." Sohai 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 last thing that troubled him, "Won't the people of the Great Country see right through this, they can't be that stupid"? Sohai smiled again and replied, "They are that stupid Supreme Leader".
The Supreme Leader turned to one of his more senior advisors. "Release Sohai's family from custody". Turning back to Sohai, "You have done well. As you requested, your wife will now be enrolled in our birth tourism program”.
The Supreme Leader dismissed his advisors. He smiled and thought to himself, they really are that stupid.