digital hinterland or postcards from veles

Reporting for the Calvert Journal, Lalage Harris and Duncan Harvey present a portrait of one Macedonian town that became rather infamous as an exporter of disinformation that helped change the course of the US presidential election.
Once a booming factory town in Tito’s Yugoslavia, the place became rather bleak once industry went away with most everything that fills the economic void being one of king-making. While it does seem to be highly dissonant that we’re so easily persuaded and perhaps the social-engineering potential was incidental (both campaigns were explored but Dear Leader’s caucus proved to be more profitable), we are the dog and not just subject to the caprices of the tail. Influential agents exist and enjoy the level of power they do because we deny it, but choice and responsibility still have truck in our behaviours and decisions and attention naturally leads to actions, as little as we’d like to think what we regard is what is issuing the marching-orders.