short thread: the increase in "alt-imperialism" (western left support for non-western state violence) on social media platforms in recent years reflects how western leftist identity politics and leftist fake news build upon each other

as jianing li and min-hsin su have found, fake news is not a uniquely right-wing phenomenon, but is a "discursive device for ordinary citizens to consolidate group identity... citizens inevitably understand 'fake news' through an identity lens."

western far-left identities, like the western far-right, are produced around rejecting liberal aesthetics which includes mainstream media. alt-imperialism both produces and protects itself by discrediting mainstream news reporting on non-western places.

once you become wound up inside the cycle of identity politics producing fake news producing identity politics, it becomes very difficult to get out.