Disinformation is Now a Permanent Fixture in U.S. Politics

Is There an Antidote?

I’m publishing this series of articles to share and discuss my ruminations on coping with a troubled and messy world. You can “follow” me to never miss an article.

A frontpage article in The New York Times says it all: “Exploding Online, Disinformation Is Now a Fixture of U.S. Politics.”[i]

Despite major platforms such as Facebook having pledged to block, label, and marginalize Disinformation and Hate Speech, it still flourishes because of them. In addition, because Conservatives feel they are unjustly despised and thus unduly censored, alternate platforms have been formed that cater directly to them. The “markets” for their views are expanding like mad.

And of course, the principle of Free Speech is invoked widely as a prime justification for allowing the vilest speech, sadly attracting a wide following.

We’re living in a self-reinforcing vicious circle that is more and more difficult if not impossible to break: Divisiveness is responsible for Disinformation which in turn is responsible for more Divisiveness. The end result is the undermining of Trust in Democracy, if not Democracy itself.

All of which is made worse by groups such as QAnon which promote false conspiracies such as the Democratic Party deliberately caters to pedophiles. And of course, LGBTQ’s are referred to derogatorily.

I turn eagerly everyday to trusted sources of Information such as The New York Times, Washington Post, and the PBS Newshour. They are among the few antidotes to Disinformation of which I know.

In closing, let me say a few words about the nature of True Information and thus its primary intentions.

The first and primary is that Independent Observers following time-honored procedures are willing to testify under oath if need be as to the Pertinent and thus True Facts of a situation. Ideally, they have no major stakes in the matter itself, and in addition have no qualms about admitting if they made mistakes. For this reason, they are said to be Unbiased and Objective. In other words, they are Credible and thus to be believed.

Second, the more out-of-the ordinary (fantastical) the attributes/properties of the persons who are being charged with committing crimes and/or offenses, as well as the situations themselves, the more they are to be treated with extreme doubt, and thus subject to Challenge by Independent Observers. This is especially the case if they go against the character and typical behavior of those who are being charged.

Third, in direct contrast, the attributes/properties of those who are making unfounded charges are themselves subject to serious challenge and investigation. Do they have a history of making unfounded accusations that were later proved wrong? Do they have a history of being in trouble with the Law? Have they engaged in acts of Insurgency or Domestic Terrorism?

Fourth, do the charges, especially those found in Conspiracy Theories, violate the known Laws of Science, if not Common Sense? Would the prototypical Reasonable Person reject them?

These of course do not exhaust all the things for which Information is intended and thereby accomplishes, but it provides a good overview.

[i] Steven Lee Myers and Sheera Frenkel, “Exploding Online, Disinformation Is Now a Fixture of U.S. Politics,” The New York Times, Friday, October 21, 2022. PP A1 and A12.

Ian I. Mitroff is credited as being one of the principal founders of the modern field of Crisis Management. He has a BS, MS, and a PhD in Engineering and the Philosophy of Social Systems Science from UC Berkeley. He Is Professor Emeritus from the Marshall School of Business and the Annenberg School of Communication at USC. Currently, he is a Senior Research Affiliate in the Center for Catastrophic Risk Management, UC Berkeley. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Academy of Management. He has published 41 books. His latest is: The Socially Responsible Organization: Lessons from Covid, Springer, New York, 2022.

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