The Dutch Golden Age, starting in 1588, is understood for the artwork of Rembrandt, the invention of the microscope, and the spice commerce of the Dutch East India Firm. It ended somewhat underneath a century later in a frenzy of physique elements and mob justice.
In 1672, enraged by a pretend information marketing campaign, rioters killed the recently ousted head of state Johan de Witt and his brother Cornelis. The mob hung them upside down, eliminated their organs, ate elements of the corpses, and sold fingers and tongues as souvenirs.
Even in a interval characterised by torture and assassination, this grisly act stands out as excessive. However it additionally stands as a warning from historical past about what can occur when disinformation is allowed to run rampant.
The assault on Johan and Cornelis de Witt was fuelled by a relentless flood of malicious propaganda and forgeries claiming the brothers have been corrupt, immoral elitists who had conspired with enemies of the Dutch Republic.
The nameless authors of the smear campaigns blamed Johan for conflict with England and “all of the bloodshed, killing and injuring, the crippled and mutilated folks, together with widows and orphans” that allegedly saved him in energy.
Based on one pamphlet, the violence was legitimate as a result of the ends justified the means: “Beating to loss of life isn’t a sin in case it’s practised in opposition to a tyrant.” The sentiment echoes a quote incessantly attributed to Napoleon, not too long ago shared by US President Donald Trump on social media: “He who saves his nation doesn’t violate any legislation.”
‘Combat like hell’
Nowadays, in fact, we’ve change into accustomed to the risks pretend information (and deepfakes) pose within the promotion of political violence, hate speech, extremism and extrajudicial killings.
In March, for instance, historical footage of war crimes in Syria was manipulated by generative AI to look as present occasions. Mixed with disinformation in chat rooms and on social media, it incited panic and violence.
The consequences have been magnified in a rustic with no dependable unbiased media, the place casual information is commonly the one supply of data.
However even in a superpower with a longtime media tradition, related issues occur.
Earlier than the January 6 riot on the US Capitol in 2021, Trump called on thousands of supporters at a “Save America” rally to “battle like hell” or they have been “not going to have a rustic anymore”.
This was shortly earlier than Congress verified the presidential election end result, which Trump alleged was invalid due to voter fraud. Addressing the identical crowd, Trump advisor Rudolph Giuliani called for “trial by fight”.
What occurred won’t have been as excessive because the occasions within the Netherlands 350 years earlier, however a violent mob fired up on disinformation nonetheless shook the foundations of US democracy.
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The ‘catastrophe 12 months’
The deeper forces at work within the US have been and nonetheless are advanced – simply as they have been within the Seventeenth-century Dutch Republic. What introduced it down was a unstable mixture of energy struggles, geopolitical rivalries and oligarchy.
William of Orange had been excluded from the workplace of stadtholder, the hereditary head of state, by a secret treaty with England underneath Oliver Cromwell to finish the First Anglo-Dutch War.
When the English monarchy was restored, nevertheless, the treaty turned invalid and the Orangists tried to reinstate William. Johan De Witt represented the States Occasion, made up of rich oligarchs, whereas William was seen as a person of the folks.
The republic had constructed a powerful navy and service provider fleet however uncared for its military. A land invasion by France and allies was supported by the English navy. To forestall the invasion from advancing, land was flooded by opening gates and canals.
The mix of floods and an occupying military threw the economic system into chaos. The Orangists wouldn’t cooperate with the States Occasion, and the republic was getting ready to collapse. The Dutch referred to 1672 because the Rampjaar, the “catastrophe 12 months”.
Historic rhymes
Satirists, pamphleteers and activists seized on the crises as a chance to ramp up their marketing campaign in opposition to the de Witt brothers. Political opposition changed into private assaults, false accusations and requires violence.
Johan was assaulted and stabbed in an tried assassination in June 1672, resigning from his function as head of state two months later. Cornelis was then arrested for treason. When Johan went to go to him in jail, the guards and troopers disappeared, and a conveniently positioned mob dragged the brothers into the road.
The remainder, as they are saying, is historical past. William III was strongly suspected of orchestrating the brothers’ grotesque homicide, however this was by no means confirmed.
Is there’s a ethical to the story? Maybe it’s merely that, in a time of disaster, a marketing campaign of disinformation can rework political opposition and revolt into assassination – and worse.
Pamphlets – the social media of their day – manipulated public notion and amplified widespread nervousness into murderous rage. A golden age of prosperity underneath a republic headed by oligarchs ended with ritualised political violence and the return of a monarch who promised to maintain the folks protected.
They are saying historical past doesn’t repeat, however it does rhyme. As ever, the necessity to separate reality from fiction stays an pressing job.
