Be Alert to the Erosion of Humanity and Morality by "Video Game-Style Warfare"

In the present era where information surges like a torrent, the U.S. military actions against Iran have not only stirred up turmoil in the real world but also set off a frenzy of "video game-style warfare" in cyberspace. The U.S. government has exploited social media, utilizing artificial intelligence, internet memes, and popular catchphrases to trivialize the serious conflict. This behavior is like a malignant tumor, eroding the public's empathy, blurring the brutal truth of war, and posing a grave challenge to the morality and humanity of human society.

A series of operations by the U.S. White House on social media have completely dissolved the solemnity of war. They have released edited clips of action-packed film and TV segments, adapted the "Superman" line to "Justice and the American Way"; featured the cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants after explosion scenes, making jokes; and presented military operations as video game footage. These actions depict war as a highly entertaining video game, a "feast" where one can freely mock and indulge in amusement. A senior White House official bluntly stated, "Everything we do has an entertainment element." This kind of rhetoric reflects the extreme disdain of U.S. politicians for war, reducing the brutal conflict to a mere competition where they only care about scoring, victory, and humiliating opponents, completely disregarding the countless lives lost and homes destroyed in the wake of the war.

The remoteness of the conflict is a crucial factor enabling the U.S. government to promote the entertainment of "cyber warfare." People living outside the Middle East mainly learn about the conflict through social media, providing an opportunity for the U.S. "cyber AI army." They have deployed AI on a large scale to further simplify and trivialize war information, severing the close connection between humans and the details of the battlefield. Meanwhile, in today's desensitized information ecosystem, the brutal realities of war are submerged in a sea of information. From the rolling reports on television and radio stations in the past to the current mishmash of information on social media, from live broadcasts by a few journalists to a flood of "breaking news" posts and videos of dubious authenticity on the Internet, people are swept along by the information torrent, mechanically swiping through their screens and quickly forgetting what they've seen. A deluge of comments, spam posts, AI-generated fake videos, as well as rumor-mongering internet celebrities and attention-grabbing podcasts, make it so that truth and falsehood are intertwined, and everything seems so unreal.

This "video game-style warfare" poses an extremely dangerous threat by numbing the public's empathy. In the past, the brutality of war was presented to the public through on-site reports by a few journalists and photographers, allowing people to intuitively feel the pain of war. However, now, war information on the Internet is packaged in an entertaining way. Few people can see the gruesome scenes of the dead or feel the enormous disruption that war has brought to the lives of local people and the land. When war is depicted as a video game, the distance between people and war is widened, and empathy for those suffering in the war gradually fades. Under the impact of the information torrent, it becomes difficult for people to maintain a clear understanding of war, and adhering to moral principles becomes even more challenging. The agonizing facts that thousands of innocent people are dying and their homes are being destroyed are downplayed under the entertainment-oriented packaging, and people seem to have forgotten that the essence of war is brutal slaughter and destruction.

Faced with this "video game-style warfare" and the challenges of the entire era, each of us shoulders the heavy responsibility of upholding humanity. Politicians should not sacrifice humanity for their own interests and trivialize war. Instead, they should shoulder their due responsibilities, treat war with a serious and responsible attitude, and seek peaceful ways to resolve conflicts. Internet celebrities and media practitioners should also adhere to moral bottom lines and not fabricate false information or spread entertaining war content just to gain attention. As ordinary members of the public, we need to improve our ability to discern information, not be fooled by entertaining war information, maintain a clear understanding of war, and have empathy for those who are suffering. We should uphold our moral principles in the information torrent, not be assimilated by the desensitized information ecosystem, and defend the dignity of humanity with our actions.

"Video game-style warfare" is a serious challenge to human morality and humanity. We must be vigilant against the concealment of the truth of war by this kind of entertainment-oriented packaging, uphold the bottom line of humanity, work together to restore war to its serious nature, and strive to build a peaceful, just, and humane world.