Disinformation is the story of our age.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Last week, a Michigan congresswoman whose existence had not yet entered the rest of the country’s consciousness credited Donald Trump with having “caught Osama bin Laden,” among other terrorists. It is difficult to forget that night in 2011 when Barack Obama told the world that, on his orders, a team of Navy commandos had killed the al-Qaeda leader. But Representative Lisa McClain, a first-term member of Congress, showed that, with effort, and with a desire to feed Trump’s delusions and maintain her standing among his supporters, anything is possible.
In ordinary times, McClain’s claim would have been mocked and then forgotten. But because these are not ordinary times—these are times in which citizens of the same country live in entirely different information realities—I put her assertion about bin Laden on a kind of watch list. In six months, I worry, we may learn that a provably false claim made by a single unserious congressional backbencher has spread into MAGA America, a place where Barack Obama is believed to be a Kenyan-born Muslim and Donald Trump is thought to be the victim of a coup.
Disinformation is the story of our age. We see it at work in Russia, whose citizens have been led to believe the lies that Ukraine is an aggressor nation and that the Russian army is winning a war against modern-day Nazis. We see it at work in Europe and the Middle East, where conspiracies about hidden hands and occult forces are adopted by those who, in the words of the historian Walter Russell Mead, lack the ability to “see the world clearly and discern cause and effect relations in complex social settings.” We see it weaponized by authoritarians around the globe, for whom democracy, accountability, and transparency pose mortal threats. And we see it, of course, in our own country, in which tens of millions of voters believe that Joe Biden is an illegitimate president because the man he beat in 2020 specializes in sabotaging reality for personal and political gain. This mass delusion has enormous consequences for the future of democracy. As my colleague Yoni Appelbaum has noted, “Democracy depends on the consent of the losers.” Sophisticated, richly funded, technology-enabled disinformation campaigns are providing losers with other options.
When David Axelrod and I first discussed this idea, we both agreed that the future of this country—and of our democratic allies around the world—depends on the ability and willingness of citizens to discern truth from falsehood.
“It is a fundamental blow to our democracy—and any democracy—if people come to believe that an election clearly won by one person was illegitimate,” Axelrod told me. “That kind of malign fabrication is devastating for democracy. Anything that tears us apart, falsehoods that deepen distrust of institutions, anything that undermines the idea that there is such a thing as objective truth—these are huge challenges.”
Axelrod and I are both aware that disinformation is a virus that has infected much more than a single political party (though in my opinion, only one party in the American system has currently given itself over so comprehensively to fantasists). And we’re aware that there is only so much any citizen can do, when faced with a social media–Big Data complex that makes it easier and easier to inject falsehoods into political discourse. “Disinformation, turbocharged by the tools social media and Big Data now afford, threatens to unravel not just our democracy but democracies everywhere,” he said.
What is the difference between disinformation and misinformation? What is the difference between disinformation and information you simply don’t like, or find narratively inconvenient? These are answerable questions, but the answers contain a great degree of nuance in a rapidly shifting informational environment. This is a particularly challenging subject for journalists, and for someone like Axelrod, Obama’s former chief strategist (and a former journalist himself). “There’s no doubt that I, like everyone, took facts and arranged them in a way that would be most persuasive to the audience we were trying to win,” he said. “But that’s fundamentally different than creating stories that are wholly untrue and designed to polarize factions and achieve authoritarian goals. The lie about the Obama birth certificate, the Pizzagate conspiracy—these are examples of what we’re talking about.”
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The legacy of the right wing of politics under Trumpism is first and foremost that of disinformation.
What else could we expect from a movement that made a hero out of a pathological liar ?
And, how 'bout your pathological liar in office now, John?
"Biden’s obsessive lies – small and large – are big trouble for America
President Joe Biden keeps telling lies. He just told a New Hampshire crowd of “having had a house burn down with my wife in it — she got out safely, God willing.” In fact, the Associated Press reports, it was a minor kitchen fire, with no damage visible from outside.
He’s overblown the incident in the past, albeit not as much. Nor can he stop talking about a chat with an Amtrak conductor in his seventh year as vice president, when the guy retired 15 years before Biden became veep and had died by the year of the tale.
Biden claims he was offered a job by an Idaho lumber company; they have no record. He claims he “used to drive” an 18-wheeler — it didn’t happen. He’s said he visited Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue after the 2018 massacre, speaking to the rabbi, when the synagogue says he’s never even been there.
It’s a schtick and a disturbing one: He invents stuff in order to make a seemingly personal connection with his audience, but it’s a phony connection. Biden has been in Washington almost his entire adult life, he’s not a blue-collar worker struggling to get by.
Even when there’s some truth, he exaggerates — as when he chats with Gold Star families about his late son Beau as if he’d died in action, rather than of brain cancer.
It would be bad enough if Biden only told personal tall tales. But his reality distortion field now extends to national policy. He routinely insists “all the economists” back his plans, writes off inflation as a temporary spike, insists the border surge is just “seasonal,” even calls his disastrous Afghan bugout a “success” (while falsely claiming his generals didn’t object).
Truth just doesn’t matter: He’ll say whatever he likes to get past the moment. He got away with it for most of his life because nobody bothers to fact-check a Delaware senator.
Now he’s president, and his lies are going to hurt us all."
Oh yeah - then there's this one -
I suppose you think Biden is as big of a liar as Trump.
Dont embarrass yourself with that line of argument.
But it goes far beyond Trump. Right wing media is thoroughly infested with disinformation.
'Course, it's only been one year and two months - 147 lies and counting.
He's only about 6000 behind Trump for the same time period in their presidencies.
So, spreading disinformation and misinformation is fine and dandy, but only for those in the gop? Because, they are morally superior? Really? Go On! Get Outta Here!
Disinformation is the life blood of autocracy. Putin has used it for decades to great effect and solidifying his hold on power. It has spread everywhere. Here in the US, it was affirmed and codified at Helsinki. The GOP have 'bought into' autocratic concept' for the security, stability and order demanded by the ruling class.
Prepare. There is a reason GOP states are flooding the streets with weapons. Our Ohio governor has 'completed the gun thing', signing the legislation three days ago.
Morning... that's why I tend to take everything these days with a grain of salt. It is really not that hard to sieve the fact from the crap, but people believe what they want to believe. And I am not wasting my brain cells trying to convince people otherwise.
We have got a Federal election coming up could be as early as next month. It will be flying thick and fast. At least here two weeks before the actual date there is a media blackout..no adds on tv or in newspapers etc and we have never had door canvasing. Do that here and you would get your head punched in. It is no one's business who you vote for.
And as for putting placards etc on your front lawn, hell will freeze over before that happens.
Then later this year we have a State election.
Oh the joy....just shoot me now!!!