The Fall of an Empire

When plotting out the future impact of fake news, it is important to recognize and understand how it has changed leading powers in the past. By looking back at the history of previous world powers, such as the Roman or British Empires, it should not be a surprise that the unrest created by fake news and propaganda will affect any powerful nation from the inside and cause a collapse of all civility.

Popularized fake news that routinely affects the stability and well-being of a country or nation is simply a checkpoint in the decline of a world power. By studying the conflicts that are bubbling throughout the world, it should be clear that the new world of technology has taken fake news to a new level.

Now, with a constantly changing political climate within the American Government, America’s place as a world power is at risk. The United States of America is currently going through a turbulent downward spiral, similar to the decline of the Roman Empire.

By studying the changes within America’s governmental powers, it is obvious that the ability to coexist and come to an agreement is slowly slipping away from politicians and leaders alike.

Should fake news continue to plague the world, we as its audience must stand strong. “We must proceed cautiously,” says Robert G. Parkinson of the Washington Post. “Stories that we think may vanish as a blip in our social media feeds may end up having a longer life than we expected, causing more damage than we can anticipate.”

In our post-industrial world, we are all interconnected by social media. Our politics, laws, and values affect the world in one way or another. Whether we add to the carnage of a civil war or alleviate the tension between warring countries, anything from fake news to conspiracy theories will change the outcome of our story.

For America’s citizens, the impact of fake news in our future will make or break the civilization we have come to know. Our influence as a global power is declining, and it is because of the in-fighting brought on by the spread of fake news that many of us are in this predicament.

Going back to the comparison of the United States of America and the Roman Empire, any fan of history can plot out the fate of America as a global superpower should we continue down this path of disaster and destruction.

“America still boasts a powerful military and massive nuclear arsenal, and even under the most dire economic predictions,it is still a key player in global commerce,” an opinion piece from the Guardian explains in an article from 2009. “But if Roman history is any lesson, America must humble itself to its new position and work as a global partner instead of seeking to once again control the world in the palm of its hands.”

Together with the influx of fake news propaganda that has flourished from the platform that was the 2016 US Election, for the sake of the world we must be aware of fake news as it changes and evolves.

The future is in our hands. We can either change our ways of working together to add power and influence back to America, or we can fall like the empires before us. The world will go on, but its people will change should fake news continue at the pace it is spreading.

"Together we stand, divided we fall..."