Why bother?

Written by: Srdjan Garcevic, founder of The Nutshell Times

Since the Hamas attacks of 7 October and the ensuing and ongoing IDF counter-attack, I have been even more disillusioned about the role of media in conflicts, to the point of thinking that anything I may produce may be, by definition, completely useless.

This horrific, tragic conflict allowed us all to see, for the first time, in real-time, rapes, bombings and all sorts of destructions of lives and livelihoods, only for those tragedies to be treated as the most banal pieces of propaganda, occasionally even by those sharing them. The true documented human tragedy and crimes conducted by either side, no matter how vividly presented, only served to entrench people in their camps.

Having visited Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Tel Aviv a few months prior, I harbor no illusions that people would stop feeling the existential conflict only on account of their side behaving criminally, nor would they accept to move out of their homes due to the other side proving them somehow wrong due to "facts and logic".

The most demoralizing part of seeing this all unfold has been observing the disinterested parties who are mechanically and predictably spewing various "theories" and "ideologies" to shield themselves from the images and videos of murdered children, women and men, and even gain some social capital from the tragedy.

Ironically, despite it being shown that even live broadcasting of human rights violations does not change people's views or national policies the tiniest bit, the mainstream media and policy circles still insist that it is AI and fake news that are the most significant threat to the world.

Ever since the "fake news"/"fact-checking"/"disinformation" cottage industry was fired up around 2016, it has been evident that it was not to pursue truth but yet another tool to fight against one's political enemies and further entrench one own position, with even more smugness. If the Davos set asked me what the greatest threat to the world is, I would say that it is the need to blot out any complexity and moral ambiguity of one's own positions through faux-academic, moralistic propaganda.

The freshest example is the "debunking" of the "Serbian myth" of the recent exodus of Serbs from Kosovo and Metohija, where it was explained away as just a normal process of economic migration within the West Balkans. The reporter pays little heed to the fact that various studies not only show that Serbs feel unsafe under the Kurti government, nor does he take seriously that the increase of attacks on Serbs and increased institutional pressures may be driving Serbs out of their homes. Indeed, when challenged on these points by historian Miloš Vojinović, our dispassionate truth teller and debunker of nationalist myths, insists that he indeed reports on the situation Serbs are in, only for it to turn out that his only serious analysis was titled "Why Belgrade's horror stories are just propaganda".

To save himself time and maintain reputation for efficiency, the renowned reporter could easily program a very simple AI generator, which would dismiss any Serb arguments as propaganda and lies, and which explains any moves from Belgrade as Moscow-backed threats.

The tragedy is that I could probably do the same and have ChatGPT write another article on hypocrisy and how it makes the world less safe. His article would be predictably cheered by people who tend to cheer for him and consider my takes terrible, and vice versa. Even worse, our audiences would treat live-streaming of attacks on Serbs (or, conversely, Albanians) exactly the same.

Equally predictably, the very serious, very moral and truthful gang of Balkan Experts™ would gladly dismiss any proof of Serbs ethnically cleansed from Kosovo and Metohija as propaganda while it is happening, only to, years later, call for various memorialization initiatives, write nostalgic books and found NGOs highlighting their unease about the tragic fate of Serbs. That, as well, would be lapped up.

Why bother?