Visual Propaganda
Mar. 25th, 2026 08:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphilo I've read that most of the imagery coming out of the war in the middle east is AI.
Well, yes, it would be.
Alexander Gardner, who documented the battlefields of the American Civil War, wasn't above rearranging corpses for effect- or even transporting them from one location to another. I have stereographs from the Great War which were shot in situ but with the participants posed (and in comparative safety.) The famous, statuesque photograph of the marines raising the flag on Iwo Jima was a posed reenactment of something that had happened earlier in the day.
Ever since photography was invented it has been lying to us. And before photography there was a guy with a pencil.....
AI is just another tool in the hands of the image-makers and propagandists.
AI gets better and better, of course, more and more convincing. You have to get pretty forensic on a good AI image to prove it a fake.
I came across a cool Latin tag the other day that means something like "Don't take anything on trust" and now I can't find it again. Bother, bang goes an opportunity to impress! I asked Google and it directed me to site after site listing Latin phrases you might want to have inked on your skin- and really I didn't have the patience, the stickability to scroll through them all.
So, please take it on trust that the Romans recognised the problem. You see that triumphal column? Don't believe everything that's carved on it!
Well, yes, it would be.
Alexander Gardner, who documented the battlefields of the American Civil War, wasn't above rearranging corpses for effect- or even transporting them from one location to another. I have stereographs from the Great War which were shot in situ but with the participants posed (and in comparative safety.) The famous, statuesque photograph of the marines raising the flag on Iwo Jima was a posed reenactment of something that had happened earlier in the day.
Ever since photography was invented it has been lying to us. And before photography there was a guy with a pencil.....
AI is just another tool in the hands of the image-makers and propagandists.
AI gets better and better, of course, more and more convincing. You have to get pretty forensic on a good AI image to prove it a fake.
I came across a cool Latin tag the other day that means something like "Don't take anything on trust" and now I can't find it again. Bother, bang goes an opportunity to impress! I asked Google and it directed me to site after site listing Latin phrases you might want to have inked on your skin- and really I didn't have the patience, the stickability to scroll through them all.
So, please take it on trust that the Romans recognised the problem. You see that triumphal column? Don't believe everything that's carved on it!
no subject
Date: 2026-03-25 11:32 am (UTC)Nullius in verba ?
Wikipedia says its the royal society motto
figures the ruling society would know.
with politicks in the US.
if their mouth is open
its a lie.
the suits they wear must be made of asbestos
really expect the government buildings
to spontaneously combust all the pants that should be on fire,
its going to take a few continents of salt
to restore trust in this country,
we need a fool that will tell the emperor
the truths he doesn't want to hear
but they all have been threatened and their families
no one is safe sigh.
no subject
Date: 2026-03-25 02:29 pm (UTC)Here in Britain we don't call it lying, we call it "being economical with the truth".
no subject
Date: 2026-03-25 12:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-03-25 02:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-03-25 04:00 pm (UTC)