Another thing the Russian Bots narrative smuggles in is a paralyzing institutional epistemology.

Like the poor smol bean social media behemoths, we are supposed to look at our shameless hyper-consolidated for-profit warmongering media racket as the plucky Woodwards & Bernsteins, tasked with the social responsibility of bringing the regime to justice (conveniently, all we must do is observe from the sidelines and share links to their articles on social media). It is the story of David and Goliath, where the David in question is David Ellison.

We are told there is a "firehose of falsehood," and the only way to combat falsehood is to dutifully read the truth. Where do you read the truth? Well, the New York Times and the Washington Post, of course! The truth is tautologically uncontroversial, undisruptive. If it is printed under those august mastheads, it is true. The further away you get from their good graces, the less sure you can be. Better not risk it!

Elite journalism is a country club, and the thankless work of the muckrakers and skeptics rarely graces their pages. Under institutional epistemology, the whole tumor of critical journalism is cleanly excised. Likewise, anybody who actually gives a damn about concepts like justice or democracy can be omitted from the discussion, due to their prejudices in favor of justice.