America’s Misinformation Crisis

[nycfan]

GIFT LINK —> I’m Running Out of Ways to Explain How Bad This Is

 

[nycfan]

“… As Hurricane Milton churned across the Gulf of Mexico last night, I saw an onslaught of outright conspiracy theorizing and utter nonsense racking up millions of views across the internet.

The posts would be laughable if they weren’t taken by many people as gospel.

Among them: Infowars’ Alex Jones, who claimed that Hurricanes Milton and Helene were “weather weapons” unleashed on the East Coast by the U.S. government, and “truth seeker” accounts on X that posted photos of condensation trails in the sky to baselessly allege that the government was “spraying Florida ahead of Hurricane Milton” in order to ensure maximum rainfall, “just like they did over Asheville!”

… Scrolling through these platforms, watching them fill with falseinformation, harebrained theories, and doctored images—all while panicked residents boarded up their houses, struggled to evacuate, and prayed that their worldly possessions wouldn’t be obliterated overnight—offered a portrait of American discourse almost too bleak to reckon with head-on. …”

 

[rodoheel]

I haven't read the article, so it may address this, but I just wanted to note that this problem isn't unique to the USA - it's a global problem. Ironically it's probably worse in liberal democracies like the US and Western Europe where the government can't/doesn't control the flow of information as tightly (of course in authoritarian regimes the governments themselves often spread misinformation). Bad actors like Musk, Thiel, and Putin have realized how easy it is to poison people's minds over the internet, and if we don't find a way to stop it, we'll all be driven back into isolationism, fear, and ultimately probably war on a large scale.

 

[nycfan]

“… Elon Musk, who owns X, claimed—without evidence—that FEMA was “actively blocking shipments and seizing goods and services locally and locking them away to state they are their own. It’s very real and scary how much they have taken control to stop people helping.” That post has been viewed more than 40 million times.

Other influencers, such as the Trump sycophant Laura Loomer, have urged their followers to disrupt the disaster agency’s efforts to help hurricane victims. “Do not comply with FEMA,” she posted on X. “This is a matter of survival.”

… Angry, embittered citizens have been harassing government officials in North Carolina, as well as FEMA employees.

According to an analysis by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, an extremism-research group, “Falsehoods around hurricane response have spawned credible threats and incitement to violence directed at the federal government,” including “calls to send militias to face down FEMA.”

The study also found that 30 percent of the X posts analyzed by ISD “contained overt antisemitic hate, including abuse directed at public officials such as the Mayor of Asheville, North Carolina; the FEMA Director of Public Affairs; and the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.” The posts received a collective 17.1 million views as of October 7.

… The journalist Parker Molloy compiled screenshots of people “acknowledging that this image is AI but still insisting that it’s real on some deeper level”—proof, Molloy noted, that we’re “living in the post-reality.” The technology writer Jason Koebler argued that we’ve entered the “‘Fuck It’ Era” of AI slop and political messaging, with AI-generated images being used to convey whatever partisan message suits the moment, regardless of truth. …”

[examples of most of the dis & misinformation referenced in this article has been shared (as an example of misinformation) on this board]

 

[nycfan]

I haven't read the article, so it may address this, but I just wanted to note that this problem isn't unique to the USA - it's a global problem. Ironically it's probably worse in liberal democracies like the US and Western Europe where the government can't/doesn't control the flow of information as tightly (of course in authoritarian regimes the governments themselves often spread misinformation). Bad actors like Musk, Thiel, and Putin have realized how easy it is to poison people's minds over the internet, and if we don't find a way to stop it, we'll all be driven back into isolationism, fear, and ultimately probably war on a large scale.

The article is about the USA but you raise a good point.

 

[nycfan]

I found this an important observation that helps understand this nihilist behavior:

“… Michael Caulfield, an information researcher at the University of Washington, has argued, “The primary use of ‘misinformation’ is not to change the beliefs of other people at all. Instead, the vast majority of misinformation is offered as a service for people to maintain their beliefs in face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.” This distinction is important, in part because it assigns agency to those who consume and share obviously fake information. …

What we’re witnessing online during and in the aftermath of these hurricanes is a group of people desperate to protect the dark, fictitious world they’ve built.

Rather than deal with the realities of a warming planet hurling once-in-a-generation storms at them every few weeks, they’d rather malign and threaten meteorologists, who, in their minds, are “nothing but a trained subversive liar programmed to spew stupid shit to support the global warming bullshit,” as one X user put it. It is a strategy designed to silence voices of reason, because those voices threaten to expose the cracks in their current worldview. But their efforts are doomed, futile.

As one dispirited meteorologist wrote on X this week, “Murdering meteorologists won’t stop hurricanes.” She followed with: “I can’t believe I just had to type that.” …”

 

[finesse]

I sometimes feel their entire world view is about them being afraid of the dark. Everything seems to revolve around fear and they will believe anything that assures them that they are special and that something greater than them will take care of them. They don't have to believe in natural laws, cause and effect or anything else that makes them on the level with anyone else. They're special and they know that they have a "greater" truth.

 

[nycfan]

I sometimes feel their entire world view is about them being afraid of the dark. Everything seems to revolve around fear and they will believe anything that assures them that they are special and that something greater than them will take care of them. They don't have to believe in natural laws, cause and effect or anything else that makes them on the level with anyone else. They're special and they know that they have a "greater" truth.

The author of this piece has come to a similar conclusion as you:

“… In one sense, these attacks—and their increased desperation—make sense. The world feels dark; for many people, it’s tempting to meet that with a retreat into the delusion that they’ve got everything figured out, that the powers that be have conspired against them directly.

But in turning away, they exacerbate a crisis that has characterized the Trump era, one that will reverberate to Election Day and beyond.

Americans are divided not just by political beliefs but by whether they believe in a shared reality—or desire one at all.“

 

[finesse]

I haven't read the article, so it may address this, but I just wanted to note that this problem isn't unique to the USA - it's a global problem. Ironically it's probably worse in liberal democracies like the US and Western Europe where the government can't/doesn't control the flow of information as tightly (of course in authoritarian regimes the governments themselves often spread misinformation). Bad actors like Musk, Thiel, and Putin have realized how easy it is to poison people's minds over the internet, and if we don't find a way to stop it, we'll all be driven back into isolationism, fear, and ultimately probably war on a large scale.

Most liberal democracies don't have a core group the size of that in the US who have such a superstitious worldview. You might be surprised if you compared quality of life and church attendance across those democracies. We are on that list despite still being so strongly influenced by religion.

You shouldn't be surprised that a number of things where we fall short are because of interference in national affairs by conservatives and their "moral" outlooks..

 

[nycfan]

Case in point on the political side — this guy was a high ranking general

 

[Centerpiece]

I'm an optimist and pessimistic at the same time. I'm very wary of human beings doing the proper thing at all times. I'm very pessimistic when it comes to humans. Barbarians really. However, I am optimistic about Mother Earth. I think she will be just fine once she shakes off the fleas and leeches which are us humans. As somebody once told me (who was in A.A. at the time, I wasn't, but they were) "Everybody is on the exact road they need to be on to get to where they are going". To me, for good, bad or indifferent, that made a lot of sense. WE humans are on the EXACT road we should be on to get to where we are going - and we have been all along.

If we, as human beings, can figure out a way to blow up the planet - yet we're not smart enough to figure out a way NOT to do it, then so be it. We're simply not smart enough. Barbarians, really. Everything that's happening in the world now is simply a natural progression. WE take one step forward and 2 steps back. We are, after all, not very smart... not nearly as smart as we think we are.

If the internet, social media, misinformation, A.I. permeate the world as we know it - causing Nation States to isolate, create tariff wars (and eventually another World War - or 2 or 3 more WW's) - then that's exactly the road we need to be on to get to where we are going. Elon Musk et.al. only "thinks" he/they are smart... sure - smart enough to figure out a way to blow up the planet. But is he/they smart enough NOT to do it?

Elon is like Dr. Evil in Austin Powers. Wants to see the world taken over, held hostage for himself and his "evil" brethren... then what's he going to do - if successful in doing so? Uhm? Like any bully in the school yard, eventually, someone will come up behind him and sucker punch him. In the larger scheme it will be some rogue Nation-State with a finger on the big red nuclear button which of course will set off the "natural" domino effect, and BOOM!

I think Mother Earth will survive that. Humans? Maybe not. Would that be a bad thing? As a human being myself, I think of course, it would be a bad thing... for us. For Mother Earth? Maybe not so much.

 

[finesse]

I'm an optimist and pessimistic at the same time. I'm very wary of human beings doing the proper thing at all times. I'm very pessimistic when it comes to humans. Barbarians really. However, I am optimistic about Mother Earth. I think she will be just fine once she shakes off the fleas and leeches which are us humans. As somebody once told me (who was in A.A. at the time, I wasn't, but they were) "Everybody is on the exact road they need to be on to get to where they are going". To me, for good, bad or indifferent, that made a lot of sense. WE humans are on the EXACT road we should be on to get to where we are going - and we have been all along.

If we, as human beings, can figure out a way to blow up the planet - yet we're not smart enough to figure out a way NOT to do it, then so be it. We're simply not smart enough. Barbarians, really. Everything that's happening in the world now is simply a natural progression. WE take one step forward and 2 steps back. We are, after all, not very smart... not nearly as smart as we think we are.

If the internet, social media, misinformation, A.I. permeate the world as we know it - causing Nation States to isolate, create tariff wars (and eventually another World War - or 2 or 3 more WW's) - then that's exactly the road we need to be on to get to where we are going. Elon Musk et.al. only "thinks" he/they are smart... sure - smart enough to figure out a way to blow up the planet. But is he/they smart enough NOT to do it?

Elon is like Dr. Evil in Austin Powers. Wants to see the world taken over, held hostage for himself and his "evil" brethren... then what's he going to do - if successful in doing so? Uhm? Like any bully in the school yard, eventually, someone will come up behind him and sucker punch him. In the larger scheme it will be some rogue Nation-State with a finger on the big red nuclear button which of course will set off the "natural" domino effect, and BOOM!

I think Mother Earth will survive that. Humans? Maybe not. Would that be a bad thing? As a human being myself, I think of course, it would be a bad thing... for us. For Mother Earth? Maybe not so much.

Earth doesn't care about humans. There's already been five massive extinctions where most forms of life was destroyed. What remained kept going. Let's be clear. Mother Earth doesn't need saving. It's humans that need saving. As best as I can tell, we're a pervasive and pernicious skin infection for her.

 

[rodoheel]

Most liberal democracies don't have a core group the size of that in the US who have such a superstitious worldview. You might be surprised if you compared quality of life and church attendance across those democracies. We are on that list despite still being so strongly influenced by religion.

You shouldn't be surprised that a number of things where we fall short are because of interference in national affairs by conservatives and their "moral" outlooks..

I think those are fair points but just note that many other liberal democracies in Western Europe (UK, Germany, France, etc) are being roiled by the same sort of bad-faith, isolationist, anti-immigrant, misinformation. It may be true that much of our populace is primed to accept misinformation because of their reliance on faith and prioritization of belief over fact, but it's still having an effect elsewhere nonetheless.

 

[HeelingAg]

Case in point on the political side — this guy was a high ranking general

This guy will be the director of the CIA or SecDef, under ttump.

 

[05C40]

I just don't understand today's conservative movement. When I was growing up, bad things happened to people who didn't deserve it. I never for a single second believed I could pray away a hurricane, a thunder storm, too much rain, or too little rain. But I was taught to pray for the strength to endure what nature brings. Nature wasn't something that was used to reward the righteous or punish the wicked. Nature was what the world was. It wasn't a conscience entity and it wasn't something that could be bent to the will of humans. Nature was just what the world was.

But the modern conservative movement has been so consumed by the culture of grievance that nothing every "just happens." Nothing ever is attributable to not working hard or making bad decisions. Everything is always somebody else's fault and nothing is ever due to a conservative's mistake or lack of effort. In today's world every trouble is due to the active malice of some "other." Nothing is every due to one's own lack of effort. A society just can't exist when people believe that they can't succeed due to the malice of "the Other."

There are groups of people in America who really have been kept down and harmed as a group. But American conservatives are not one of those groups who are or ever have been oppressed.

 

[finesse]

I think those are fair points but just note that many other liberal democracies in Western Europe (UK, Germany, France, etc) are being roiled by the same sort of bad-faith, isolationist, anti-immigrant, misinformation. It may be true that much of our populace is primed to accept misinformation because of their reliance on faith and prioritization of belief over fact, but it's still having an effect elsewhere nonetheless.

European nationalism is pretty ugly. Otoh, unlike the US barring native Americans, they do have a history of homelands that have existed for centuries. There are betrayals, grudges and the like that go back before most of the world even knew of the Mew World. Doesn't make it right or desirable but the grievances are slightly more than "I stole it first and I don't want to share."

 

[quakerdevil]

I sometimes feel their entire world view is about them being afraid of the dark. Everything seems to revolve around fear and they will believe anything that assures them that they are special and that something greater than them will take care of them. They don't have to believe in natural laws, cause and effect or anything else that makes them on the level with anyone else. They're special and they know that they have a "greater" truth.

I don't remember where it was from, but I read an article several years ago that did actual brain scans based on party affiliation. I can't remember the specific details, but they did find that in people who tended to vote GOP their brains had sections larger or more prone to fear responses.

 

[quakerdevil]

Earth doesn't care about humans. There's already been five massive extinctions where most forms of life was destroyed. What remained kept going. Let's be clear. Mother Earth doesn't need saving. It's humans that need saving. As best as I can tell, we're a pervasive and pernicious skin infection for her.

We're more akin to a virus since we currently need our host to survive

 

[hedge]

It's sad to me that Rosanne Barr really thinks that the persecution of Lenny Bruce for saying fuck and shit in his stage act is somehow the same thing as what she evidently perceives is being done to her and other "truth-sayers." Lenny would be mocking all these people...

 

[Centerpiece]

Earth doesn't care about humans. There's already been five massive extinctions where most forms of life was destroyed. What remained kept going. Let's be clear. Mother Earth doesn't need saving. It's humans that need saving. As best as I can tell, we're a pervasive and pernicious skin infection for her.

Agree. I’m thinking we’re more like fleas and ticks - which of course can cause skin irritation and possible infection.