Why Truth Is More Dangerous Than Lies in an Information War | Maggie Feldman-Piltch

Maggie Feldman-Piltch calls herself a propagandist, and she means it. She made stickers of Putin's face with the Barbie movie font that spread to over two dozen languages, and she found out he wasn't happy about them. That, she'll tell you, is the whole point. In this episode, Maggie joins Erol to break down why America is fighting an information war with both hands tied… constrained by bureaucratic boxes built in 1947, a cultural allergy to the word "propaganda," and a fundamental misunderstanding of what that word actually means. Propaganda, she argues, is morally neutral. It's a tool. And the truth told better than a lie is the most powerful version of it. In this episode of Navigating Noise: How a single Barbie-Putin sticker became a global campaign and why Maggie considers getting PNG'd from authoritarian countries a career goal Why propaganda doesn't mean lies and how America's refusal to use the word is costing it the information war The National Security Act of 1947 and why the bureaucratic "boxes" it created are hampering U.S. information operations Why adversaries specifically target women's online spaces, and what that tells us about how they view democracy The "dupe" vs. "counterfeit" shift and how language changes are used as a tool of influence What the Knapsack Girl Squad, the Munich Security Conference bathroom, and a bedazzled phone-receiver handbag have in common Her company Iceberg and why IP theft from consumer brands is a national security issue The billboard she'd put up for billions to see Subscribe to Navigating Noise on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts. Follow Maggie on Substack at Non-State Actress.