Disinformation is the deliberate use of lies to manipulate people, whether to extract profit or to advance a political agenda. Its unwitting accomplice, misinformation, is spread by unknowing dupes who repeat lies they believe to be true. In America today, both forms of falsehood are distorting our perception of reality.

In a democracy, the people need a shared set of facts as a basis to debate and make decisions that advance and secure their collective interests. Differences of opinion, and even propaganda, have always existed in the United States, but now, enemies of democracy are using disinformation to attack our sovereign right to truthful information, intellectual integrity, and the exercise of the will of the people. Online disinformation is particularly insidious because of its immediacy, its capacity to deceive, and its ability to reach its target.

    • ArtVandelay@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      I guess you can’t put the blame on that on one individual person, but if you could it would be Ronald fucking Reagan.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      I mean, folks from Time Magazine suddenly deciding misinformation is a problem…

      https://time.com/time-person-of-the-year-2016-donald-trump/

      For all of Trump’s public life, tastemakers and intellectuals have dismissed him as a vulgarian and carnival barker, a showman with big flash and little substance. But what those critics never understood was that their disdain gave him strength. For years, he fed off the disrespect and used it to grab more tabloid headlines, to connect to common people. Now he has upended the leadership of both major political parties and effectively shifted the political direction of the international order. He will soon command history’s most lethal military, along with economic levers that can change the lives of billions. And the people he has to thank are those he calls “the forgotten,” millions of American voters who get paid by the hour in shoes that will never touch these carpets—working folk, regular Janes and Joes, the dots in the distance.

      And that’s not even touching its hagiographies of various Evangelical ministers from Billy Graham (1954, 1993, 1996, 2007) and Jimmy Swaggart and Jim & Tammy Faye Bakker (both in the glorious year of 1987). An assortment of nine Catholic Bishops scored nine covers (the last in 1966), and of course eight Popes have worn the red frame more thirty-three times. And then there’s the straight-up pandering Jesus-y editions.

      Today it’s going to be “Has misinformation gone too far?!” and tomorrow its going to be Inside the Uranium Underworld: Dark Secrets, Dirty Bombs and another excuse to march to war.

  • Ekybio@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Conservatives never have facts and reason on their side, so they just drop them and stop caring for reality.

    Speaking the truth and being right-wing are always mutually exclusive!

        • Carrolade@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          People that believe in liberty have to go into politics if we are to maintain any of our liberty. Get your propaganda out of here.

      • Balinares@pawb.social
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        8 months ago

        Not sure why you’re being downvoted. Wasn’t it shown that e.g. Russia is targeting our side just as heavily?

        • ghostdoggtv@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          The left don’t fall for it as easily and they don’t spread it as virulently, and when they do it’s for what? Policies that generally benefit and are agreed on by enormous majorities of real people.

          • rhacer@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            Did I miss the left not falling for Hunter Biden’s laptop was not genuine? Or maybe the Steele dossier? Or maybe cloth masks will protect us from Covid?

            • Vespair@lemm.ee
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              8 months ago

              I have not seen a single actual real left-leaning person who gives even half of a shit about Hunter’s laptop, I think the most I heard about the Steele dossier was basically “we should look into that and see if it’s legitimate or not,” and cloth masks were never supposed to be a COVID killer, just a reasonable step to reduce transmission, much like the masks surgeons wear in surgery, and they remain even today a reasonable step to reduce airborne pathogens.

              Did you just pop in from Bizarro-world?

              edit: To be clear, we on the left do fall for misinformation and are coerced effectively constantly, but you chose terrible cases of this as examples.

              • rhacer@lemmy.world
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                8 months ago

                Seems like maybe you missed the press about the Biden laptop being Russian disinformation, or the President himself calling it that during the debate?

                https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/19/hunter-biden-story-russian-disinfo-430276

                The fact that the NY Post’s Twitter account was suspended, and Twitter did not allow the link to the article shared on the platform even via DMs. While FB deamplified the news may have had an effect on the election. So obviously some left leaning individuals cared about it very much and wanted the news about it shut down prior to the election.

    • WoahWoah@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      This is simply not true, and this kind of belief–that misinformation only works on “other people”–is part of the problem.

    • goatmeal@midwest.social
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      8 months ago

      Both sides have pretty bad disinformation going on. Left is just more polished about it, I’m guessing because their demographic is on average much more educated. Right wing stuff you can at least immediately see right through.

      Israel coverage from the main stream left has been stunning

      • Snapz@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Your comment literally started with “both sides”… Just ZERO self awareness.

      • stoly@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        LOL there’s always a both sideser in here. I have this conversation with my brother weekly. He seems to think that the next time will convince me.

        • goatmeal@midwest.social
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          8 months ago

          I mean the right is obviously much worse, straight up lies vs careful omission. Not trying to defend that since it kinda goes without saying around here.

          For this tho when one of the fastest/widest margin bills to pass congress this past year is blocking foreign tech media because it might influence elections, while our domestic tech companies have already been proven to do that over and over for the past few elections it just shows neither side actually cares about misinformation, just controlling it for themselves

          • Simon@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            8 months ago

            One side is backed by fiction and one side is backed by US intelligence? And where is this ‘proof’ domestic tech companies illegally influence American elections? Let’s see it bub.

  • Linkerbaan@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    The Biden government is straight up denying their support for a Genocide as if they are CCP China.

    Only consume government propaganda everyone!

    • Dkarma@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      I think they’re talking about who won the last election and whether covid vaccines are harmful, but ok … Can’t even start to address the Israel lobby until fptp voting and the ec are abolished

      Get your priorities and timelines straight.

  • Verdant Banana@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    sounds right

    the current regime in power here in the US is pushing out propaganda that stretches the truth such as the one proclaiming our economy is the envy of the world at accelerated rates