Input | Output |
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Link | Youtube |
Published | 2024/01/16 |
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Status | article incomplete |
Beau says:
Be more specific with social media posts to prevent unintended support for Western intervention in Yemen amidst complex dynamics.
Social media users
Importance of understanding and accurately portraying complex political dynamics to prevent unintended consequences.
#Yemen #Houthis #RedSea #WesternIntervention #SocialMedia
Well, howdy there, internet people, it's Bill again.
So today we are going to talk a little bit more
about what's going on in the Red Sea.
If you have been posting on social media about this topic,
please watch this video to the end
because you might get exactly what you're asking for,
which is not what you actually want.
Okay, so a quick recap for those who aren't real clear
what's been going on over there. Inside of Yemen there is a faction called the
Houthis. The Houthis have been hitting shipping in the Red Sea in an attempt to
put pressure on Israel. Initially the West was relatively chill about the
whole thing but as it went on eventually the West was like okay you need to stop
or else. The or else was airstrikes. When those airstrikes occurred, I was like
that's not actually going to deter them. The Houthis are an incredibly resilient
organization. They're very decentralized. This isn't going to have the impact that
people might think, and it's going to turn into a back-and-forth. The Houthis
Houthis have now hit a ship that is flagged out of the Marshall Islands but is U.S. owned.
The back and forth has started.
This is where your social media posts come in.
The Houthis are fighting the government of Yemen.
There are a lot of people who are posting on social media saying, you know, I support
Yemen or I stand with Yemen because they are sympathetic to the reasons the Houthis were
doing this.
Yemen, the government, the actual government of Yemen, which is not the Houthis, they have
seized upon the situation, they are asking the West for arms, intelligence, and training.
Those three things in combination pretty much always lead to advisors, wink wink, being on the
ground. If Western politicians were trying to determine whether or not there was popular
support for such an action, where might they look? Social media. And they're going to see a whole
bunch of posts that say, I support Yemen. I stand with Yemen. Normally this kind
of misunderstanding when it comes to internal foreign policy dynamics and
stuff like that doesn't really matter. In this case, those people who are
supportive or sympathetic to the Houthis may actually create a situation where
the West supports the government that is fighting them because of how the posts
are going out. Please keep in mind the West getting involved on the ground in
Yemen, that's a bad idea for like a thousand reasons, not the least of which
being if they get involved on the ground it's going to be a decade, easy.
The other reason is that it is not likely to go the way the West would want
it to, which would lead to more Masters of the Universe carving up the world
stuff. Be more specific with your social media posts because you might
create the impression of popular support for getting Western boots on the ground in Yemen.
Again, under normal circumstances, this wouldn't matter. But because the actual government
of Yemen is now asking for this. It's created a dynamic where a statement that
is generally correct because the Houthis have de facto control over a
whole lot of Yemen is technically wrong and might lead to a very different outcome from
what the people posting this actually mean.
So just bear that in mind.
Anyway, it's just a thought, y'all have a good day.
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