AI makes anyone a cinematographer, and this is the first war where all of these tools are available across all theaters of the war, and literally everyone is joining in, democratizing insanity- insuring that we are in the dumbest timeline of all.
But if anyone thought the Lego-themed Iranian propaganda video winging its way around the internet the last few days was a flash in the pan, think again. There will likely be plenty more of this sort of thing to come.
Soon Lego-fied ultra-Orthodox Jews were fleeing an Iranian strike on Tel Aviv, while the country’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, ran to an underground bunker as dead American soldiers began to come home, each coffin draped in a Lego stars-and-stripes flag.
The new front in the information wars: Lego-ganda. And it’s quickly gaining momentum at a time when viral images of war can shape public opinion.
China used it for public relations during Covid. Last year, Russia and its allies used it to sway Moldova during their elections. Legos were used to send a warning to Ukrainians as the country was launching a new recruitment drive—to eerie effect. In the image, a white Lego logo set in a red background floats in a sunny sky, emblazoned with two words in Ukrainian: “Sorrow Cubes.”
Cartoons and toys have long been used by governments to rally their people and whip up fear against enemies. During this war Iran is cutting videos based on Japanese-style anime and the Pixar movie “Inside Out.”
But Lego stands out for its massive footprint across the world, with revenues reaching $13 billion last year. If people didn’t grow up playing with the bricks, which began production in their current form in the 1950s, there’s a good chance their children did. And the cartoonish portrayal of combat using childlike blocky figures helps to sanitize gritty images of war, helping it to get past social media filters—and pushing it far beyond Iran’s borders.
It goes on and on.